Kyrine cracked her eyes open, wind rushing past her, her soft white hair tossed in the soundless movement.
Today is today, tomorrow is yesterday, I am here now.
She got up, slowly and rubbed her eyes. Her eyes looked to the wall of windows, that showed her the Last City. It was already busy. People already up, going to work, eating breakfast. Normal lives.
Normal...
She stood from her place on the floor. Why was it windy in here? Looking across the room she saw windows open, and crisp winds blew around. Sniffing, her nose clogged up, she frowned.
"Why was I on the floor?" She softly said, and looked at her pajama attire. Deep blue shorts and an over-sized Star Wars shirt. "Must've been ready to sleep.."
Walking up to the wall of windows, she opened them, letting all the wind into her loft. Her long blue hair flew back and chill bumps appeared on her bare legs and arms, her bangs pressed against her forehead. And for a moment, everything was gone. The Hive, Cabal, Fallen...
Blank bliss.
The shill ring interrupted her thoughts, and she sighed, opening her eyes. She rubbed her face, the white war paint falling onto the black carpet. Kyrine walked to the kitchen unit to see her Ghost floating and ringing.
"Miss, I think you have a call." It said, and she sighed and slid into one of the bar stools.
"Who?"
"Miss Erin."
She closed one eye, "Answer it, then turn off these lights and open all the windows."
"Yes, Miss." The Ghost beeped, and the ringing stopped, replaced with Erin's bubbly face.
"'Rine!" She shrilled, the hologram produced static at her scream. Kyrine leaned back and crossed her arms, looking at the projection and then at her Ghost as the lights went off and the windows let in more soft wind. She breathed in through her mouth and sighed, feeling relaxed.
"Erin." Her bluex eyes opened.
"Why didn't you answer my calls last night? Me and Justin were worried sick! Nate said that you had went home, so-" Her brown eyes were narrowed in worry, and her nose scrunched up, her thin lips accusing.
"Shush," The Awoken drew out the s, like she was scolding a child. "I am fine, I can't even remember what happened last night, to be honest." Her voice was heavy, and she was lying. Her body ached and her insides felt odd and hollow.
And for a second. She felt as if she wasn't supposed to be here, that she was completely hollow without purpose. Kyrine felt out of place, out of plane.
"Well you look rough," Her image cut in and out. "Your war paint is chipped and your hair is down, and messy..did you dress yourself?"
Biting her lip, she hissed has her lip was bleeding from an unknown wound. Now that she thought about, she didn't dress herself.
"Uh." She coughed. "No, I didn't."
Erin's plump face contorted and her mouth quirked downwards. "Can I come over?"
"Ghost, what time is it?" Kyrine said, looking past her friends hologram.
"10:38, Miss." It said.
She looked back at an impatient Erin. "Yeah." Don't really have that much else to do.
"Good," She snorted. "because I'm already here." And with that, the call was ended and her door swung open, and a angry short woman stomped in.
"Y-You were at the door?" Kyrine stuttered as she stumbled out of the stool and into her friend, who braced her shoulders, looking into her friends eyes intently, zeroing in on the purple circles that blotched beneath her eyes.
"Yes, and I'm glad I was. What happened to you?" Erin was tan, with thin lips and a big nose and almond shaped eyes.
"I-I don't know." Erin led her to her bedroom unit, holding her by her arm.
"You should know." The brunette mumbled irritably. Kyrine huffed, eyelids growing heavy suddenly.
Erin snapped her fingers in front of the Guardians face, and shoved her on the bed. "Stay here."
Kyrine looked wide eyed now at her human friend. She didn't know what happened last night, and she didn't want to know either. For starters, her legs were bruised and so where her arms. And her lip was swollen and bleeding.
I woke up on the floor.
And she didn't dress herself. Numbness crawled up her stomach.
"You have bruises everywhere, and your lip is swollen." She walked back to the spacious kitchen, and started rummaging around in the fridge. "Ghost, give me and Kyrine a recall of last night, will you?" She called from the kitchen, placing two bags of ice and a fruit bar on the counter.
"Miss?" The Ghost looked at its master for conformation.
Kyrine looked out the window from her loft apartment, thinking. "Yes, please." She didn't want know, anticipation built up, and she began to feel lightheaded.
Erin looked over into the bedroom, and furrowed her eyebrows to herself. Concern grew as she heard her friends distorted voice, that wasn't usual. After getting a cool cup of water, she grabbed the ice and fruit bar.
The Awoken pawed at the nightstand, and it hurt to move, but she grabbed her glasses and pushed them up her nose, and took the fruit bar Erin handed to her.
The Ghost's kind voice echoed through the loft as Erin put ice on her friend's legs and lip, "Last night, Miss came home from the Tower, with Nathaniel." Erin scowled at the name. "We had gone to Phobos to check a Cabal distress signal..."
Erin interrupted, "Cabal?"
Blinking, Kyrine started to remember, she tore open the bar and bit a small piece. "Yes...the Cabal."
Erin, not being a Guardian, had only heard of the fierce war aliens that currently inhabited Mars, and Phobos. "Continue." She covered Kyrine with the fuzzy burgundy duvet.
As the Ghost explained to Erin what had happened, Kyrine remembered everything. The shock, Zavala's voice in her helmet, Nate's calming words to sooth the shock. Dark matter plastered throughout the Cabal ship, the machine-aliens being sucked up by a void. Looking into universal matter, hearing whispers call out to her and her partner.
Oryx.
The Taken.
Screams of the Cabal, of the Taken. Her own screams.
Her lip throbbed, and she reached up to feel it, but her finger passed through it. Leaning up painfully, she looked into the mirror on her nightstand.
Black matter, like on Phobos, had begun dripping from her lip and staining her lips black, the throbbing stopped, and numbness took hold. Her lip was infested with Darkness. She took off her red glasses, putting them back on the nightstand.
Oh no. No, no.
"..She must have passed out, she had shut me down. I do not know who dressed her. But I suspect, judging by my pain sensors, that the bruises and wounds must have come from the Taken."
"The Taken?" Erin's voice sounded, and she looked down at her friend. Her eyes were no longer blue. Her pupils were dilated, dazed. Remembering.
" Oryx's..minions of...Darkness." Kyrine's voice sounded, her breathing labored, her chest felt numbed and she couldn't feel her pulse.
"Kyrine, are you alright?"
"Miss?"
Pain welled, bloomed everywhere. Dots danced in her vision. Her head hurt. It reminded her of the universal matter that had called to her.
Erin panicked as her looked down at her friend, black spots appeared on the duvet, but it was not blood.
"Ghost, what's happening?" Erin yelled. The Ghost was silent. The last of her screams echoed throughout the loft as the door opened.
"Erin? Why is there screaming?" A deep voice yelled.
"K-Kyrine! She's gone! Nate, she's gone! Her Ghost is powered down!"
Nate ran to the bed, her blue hair was a mess, black ooze pouring from her bleeding lip, and black matter stained to covers. War paint was chipped and broken away and her bangs had been plastered to her fore head. And her glowing skin was fading out to a matte blue-gray. Her blue-white eyes were open.
His heart shuddered. But she wasn't dead. She couldn't be.
"Min, check her vitals. We have to get her to the Tower. Erin. Get Sean and Sarah, meet us at the Tower." He picked her up, his shirt straining against his muscles as he hefted her into his arms. Erin set the little white Ghost on her chest.
Min, Nate's ghost, spoke.
"Her light is there, master. She is not alive, but not dead either. She hovers between planes of existence. We must take her to Eris Morn."
"Transport us to the Tower, Min."
He looked at Erin, her eyes were puffy and she was silently sobbing. "S-She was fine this morning! She just seemed tired, but not sick or about to die. You can't let her die, you can't, you can't, you can't!"
Nate scowled, sweat beading on his dark skin. "I won't, meet us at the tower."
She tried to nod, but sobs wracked her body as Nate and Kyrine materialized out of the loft.
Erin looked around, and slid to her knees. She pulled back to covers, and saw nothing. Nothing of the dark matter the Ghost spoke of. Black ooze on the covers wasn't there either. Her hands gripped the covers and she screamed. She had heard stories about when Guardians die. They weren't supposed to die. They're immortal until killed.
Kyrine couldn't be killed. No.
She laid her head down on her friend's pillow.
Her hands fumbled for her phone, the thin, sleek device was cold in her hands.
She put it to her ear, clamping her hand over her mouth.
"Erin? Hello?"
"Justin, we have to get to the Tower, n-now." She hiccuped through her hand, sniffling.
"Erin, what happened?"
She sputtered. "Kyrine, and N-Nate, Cabal, Taken..Tower." The words poured out of her.
"Hang on, I am coming." The line went dead and Erin shook.
A new enemy. Oryx.
Nate gripped his friend in his arms. She felt so frail and thin, like as her Light diminished, she did physically as well.
"Her Light is dying, Master. We must hurry."
He ignored his Ghost, and sprinted once they landed at the Tower. Kyrine was getting lighter by the minute, he ignored it as he pushed himself to go faster, looks were thrown at him as he flew down the steps.
"Eris!" He bellowed as he turned the corner.
"Titan." She said somberly. Her mouth had been in a straight line, now he felt terror roll off her in waves. "Oh no. Not again." She touched Kyrine's skin, and recoiled like she was burnt.
"The Taken-" He started, but she had already begun down the hall, to the Vanguard.
"Bring her, now."
Nate stepped past the threshold of the Vanguard's headroom. "Oryx, the whispers. Ikora, her Light."
The dark skinned Warlock stepped forward, worry etched into her features. "Zavala, what happened with the Cabal?"
Nate spoke up when Ikora Rey's hands drifted over the diminishing Awoken. "That is not the problem at hand right now. She is becoming Dark, her existence drifting away from this plane. Eris, you have to do something!" His voice rising.
She looked up to the angry Titan. "Guardian. Put her on the table."
Nate looked down upon her serene face, and his eyes narrowed when he saw black matter spreading from her lips to her cheek, swallowing her being. Taking her away.
No.
Her eyes, wide open, yet empty. Paralyzed, being tugged through the planes. Black matter swallowed her eyeball, and her eyelid hung grotesquely.
Nate snapped out of his daze, realizing he was loosing her more by the second. And he placed her on the long table.
"Nathaniel! We're here!" Erin's voice slammed through the doors and echoed throughout the room.
Her eyes were still puffy, her hair fell in a frenzy around her shoulders. Jo, Sarah, Sean, and Justin were behind her, Jo had confusion plastered to her face, while Sarah had a look of determination.
Sean was in disbelief. He had gotten the call from Justin, explaining, or trying to, what happened to Kyrine. Sarah had been with him at the time, and had been frozen in her spot for a second before she reassured the man that Kyrine was going to live.
Now, Sarah looked upon her friend on the table, Darkness eating at her face. And wasn't so sure she would.
Eris' somber voice was directed at Erin. "The cryptarch apprentice." Then to Sarah. "And the bookworm. I remember you. We need to get to work."
Zavala had a hand on Kyrine face, on the half that wasn't eaten away. "It seems to be a disease of some sort. Ikora?"
The Vanguard Warlock was still distressed. "It isn't infectious to touch, we need to do something and quick. We cannot afford to loose more Guardians."
Cayde looked over to Eris. "It is Oryx, right?"
"I do not know. But by the minute, she grows fainter. We need to do something. Or she will belong to the cosmos. Let me see her." Eris sounded tentative, and almost worried. Scared.
She pulled back Kyrine's shirt, and reeled back. Her ribs protruded, and dark matter stained her lower abdomen and legs, eating away skin. No blood, only Darkness.
"In all my years of being in the Dark, I have never seen this. She will not live."
Nate yelled, roaring. "No! She will NOT! There has to be SOMETHING, you can't let her die, Morn. You can't and you won't."
Sarah walked down the steps, as the others were frozen in place. "There is something." Eris looked to her. "But I do not wield the power to do it."
"As the Light drains, and soul is being pulled to Darkness. She is not going to reside on either plane, Eris. She will belong to Oryx. His minion. That is what is happening, this is what they witnessed on Mars. The beginning of an army." Eris whispered to herself. "I felt it when they returned. The whispers. The Hunter had been injured by what we know now, as the Taken. It is a virus, thrust forward by Oryx."
She looked to the faces, varied emotions in the room.
"And we must stop it. With light."
Zavala yelled to group on the stairs. "Get the speaker. And hurry, she will be lost soon."
Sarah leaned toward Nate. "She'll be fine."
He looked back at her, his dark eyes searching. "What was that 'something' you were talking about. Can it save her?"
The blonde looked down, and ringed her hands. "Possibly. Eris knows of what I speak. While we have not seen this before, we realize it as Darkness. A property not understood fully, an abyss that will suck you up, in a sense. But all Darkness can be burned with light, right? I low, kindled flame, to bring back bits and pieces of what was. To bring Krine," She gestured to the woman on the table. "back."
He grunted, realization blinked his brain. "And who better to wield light then the Speaker, the Voice of the Traveler?"
Eris rested a hand on Sarah. "Yes, my Guardian. You understand well." Sarah smiled at Eris.
"I heard the Voice was needed." A low voice spread through the room. Jo stood behind the Speaker, her being the one who brought him. His arms were in his sleeves, and his voice was calm.
"Speaker," Cayde spoke up. "We need your Light, as one of our Guardians has been infected with spreading Darkness." He sighed. "Now I'm starting to sound like Eris."
She cocked her head. "Not a bad thing. Speaker, lay out your Light on this Guardian, save her from the Dark."
The sound of him breathing in unnerved Nate. "We are going to loose her, please, help us." He pleaded, for the first time he could remember. He pleaded for help.
The Speaker walked down the steps, and turned to the distraught Titan. "Of course, for the Traveler does not want to loose it's Guardians to Darkness."
Erin spoke up, "Thank you." She was now staring at her friend, who was becoming more grotesque and more inhuman by the second, her fingers touched her hair, which had turned brittle and no longer soft.
As the figure, clothed in white, stepped up to the table, and placed his hands on the woman. Light spread through his hands, and into the almost consumed girl.
The room filled with screeches and shrieks, whispers echoed. Ghastly cries, inhuman filled the corner of every corner, touching all ears. Scarring all minds.
"No! No! Please, no!"
Whispers surrounded everyone, a scratchy voice scraped against all of them, and a loud screech deafened all.
Kyrine was shaking, her eye now open and her half eaten mouth opened and shrieked. Her back arched, and her ribs, the white bones stuck out of her, red caked them and Darkness bathed them, Light pushed, her screams matched the whispers, like nails on chalkboard.
The voice that came out of her, was not hers.
Her remaining eye was swallowed by pure whiteness, a dull milky white.
'She is mine! Fear Oryx, father of Crota! For you have slain my son! The Guardian is MINE! You all are fools. Sacrifice, to save yourselves!'
Her black lips moved with every word Oryx had spoken through her, and the whispers only go louder. Nate and Sarah stared in shock, and fear rooted them. Erin was sobbing her hands clawing, trying to reach her friend, Justin held her back while Sean gaped and Jo's nails dug into the hard table as she looked up. Kyrine's lips stopped moving, as the Speaker ignored the frightening threat and poured more Light into her.
"Sean, look up." Jo said gravely. He looked up, his eyes narrowed at Oryx's face. Everyone looked up to the apparition, staring as he looked down upon them. Kyrine screamed, a human scream of pain as she was pulled back from the Dark. From pain, the suffering.
Her yells and pleas teared through the people standing in the room.
'Your Light, will not burn the Dark!'
Erin had covered her ears, though her mouth moved no sound came out, the whispers clawed at her ears, filled her brain with scratching noises. Chanting rose above the whispers and screams of the Guardian on the table, Eris's voice rose above Oryx's, and his minions haunting shrills.
Foreign words reached around the room, and slowly, the minions of Darkness slunk back with Oryx, till the only sound in the room was the human screams of pain.
Green light emitted from Eris, a pure form of the Dark, her hat fell away and black hair wreathed her head. Her eyes glowed, looking at Oryx.
One last chant emitted from her mouth, and Oryx's apparition faded from view.
Eris looked up, her three green eyes staring holes into the Guardians.
Kyrine had stopped the wails, as the light bathed her warmly. Mending her, burning away the Dark. Warmth was all she felt as her eyelids fluttered shut, and the only sounds that were heard, were Erin's soft sobs.
"We shall now watch was we burn them, as they have burned us. Now. We have a new enemy-"
Her eyes looked to everyone. Zavala was speechless, Ikora, for once not having knowledge of what occurred, was rooted to her spot, and scared. Cayde maintained a steady eye over his Hunter on the table. Nate's mouth was agape, looking into Eris. Jo and Sean grasped each others hands, while Justin held a crying Erin.
"-Oryx, will come for us all."
"Today..is today. Tomorrow is..yesterday. I, am here..Now."
-
Prologue, end. Finished- 1/2/16