So, this started out as me listening to some sad instrumental to set the mood for the chapter of Siblings I was re-writing, but I ended up writing this instead. Hope you all enjoy! (I think my death-scene-loving roommate has started rubbing off on me a little).
Lil sat against the wall as the sounds of battle raged and echoed through the air. The siege had lasted about day, before the Fallen and the Taken had broken through their defenses, and by then, it had been too late for reinforcements from the Reef to do any good. Now, the Traveler had been destroyed, and the Guardians had been left powerless. Surprisingly, the Ghosts were still working; for now.
There was no telling when they might shut down, or when the Guardians that had been brought from the dead would drop to the ground once more in resumption of their previous states. The few Guardians that had been away from the city when the attack had been launched were constantly reporting the failure or disappearance of Golden Age technology.
The effects of the Traveler were reversing, slowly but surely.
And any moment now, her Ghost would be gone, and then she would be gone. She gripped her handgun tightly, and looked up at the floating orb. He twisted nervously, and seemed to nod at her as the sounds of battle came closer.
"It...was a good run while it lasted, wasn't it?" he said sadly. She smiled weakly at him.
"It sure was. Three months of inconceivable glory, more bad ideas than you can shake a stick at, and a whole lot of tripping over table corners." she listed with a wry chuckled. A strangled scream ripped through the air, closer than ever before. Lil closed her eyes tightly, trying not to cry. She wrung her hands on the handle of her gun.
Why does it have to end like this?
"It's been an honor to know you and...I can't ever be thankful enough to have been given a second chance. It's not something everybody gets, and I'm glad that I spent it with you. I can't imagine what death would have been like without these past few months. I think I'll be a little bit lonely if I survive the reversal." Lil told him.
If Ghosts could cry, it was for certain that he'd be gushing rivers right about now. Instead, his shell spun and twisted, and he made a kind of a choking sound, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to say it.
"I..."He settled for in, strained voice. "I feel the same. I spent centuries looking for you; I'm glad I found you before this happened. After so long, I don't care if we only had three months; I would have been content with just one day." he said. She felt a tear slip down her cheek. Why did it have to end so soon?
"Hold position! Fight for every inch! This battle is over when I say it's over; not them!" a voice yelled from somewhere down the hall. It was Uldren, who had been at the head of the Reef Reinforcements. But...if he had taken over command...did that mean Cayde was dead? It only could; the exo Hunter had been put in charge of this section of the Tower, and told them all that it broke rank to Uldren if he "tripped on a brick or something".
He had also specified, that if they both tripped over bricks, rank broke to no one, and that they should fight tot he last breath no matter who claimed to be in charge.
After that rousing speech, Zavala took a bullet to the brain from a Taken commander. The Warlock Vanguard was killed soon after as well. And now, it seemed, that the trigger-happy Hunter Vanguard had fallen as well.
He probably would have made a joke about it, or done an over-dramatic reenactment of his death(He had done this before...every Tuesday. She had rather gotten sick of his 'Oh, no, I've been crushed by a boulder' face). She took a deep breath, and her and her Ghost shared a nod before she stood up, and decided not to join Uldren's last defensive; if she remembered correctly, there was a way she could circle around and get at the Fallen from the side.
"Lets go." she said, turning around the bend.
"Right." her Ghost agreed, hovering after her.
The horrible ripping, screaming, and shouting of battle become closer with each second, and as she turned another corner, she saw Uldren heading a small congregation of her fellow Hunters, some of them donning knives or swords, others firing shots of from their hand cannons faster than she could ever dream of doing. That's when she noticed that some of them had gray streaks in their hair, or misty white locks, and that a few didn't even have armor on. In fact, from where she was, she couldn't see a single young face among them, Uldren being the only one who didn't look like he was past his prime.
That explained why these guardians were still alive; they were veterans, and some of the most elite of their class. They were good because they had lost the ability to wield light as a weapon as they aged; they were Guardians of pure skill alone, and much less lost than the younger ones that had already been killed.
But they were also too old to be fighting like this, and, even as she watched, several of them were too slow in their movements and got cut down by a stray Vandal before Uldren stabbed it in the face. The entrance to the courtyard was clogged with bodies, both living and dead, ally and enemy. If she was fast enough, she might be able to get out into the yard and kill a good deal of the Fallen before she died, and give Uldren and the others a bit of a break.
Staying low, she made her way over to the half-closed door as fast as she could, and slid up against it, gun in one hand, the other resting on a grenade. She looked at her Ghost, ho let out a few clicks and beeps of encouragement- or was it sympathy? Or did it mean 'Farewell'? She took another deep breath.
"Stay close to me, will you?" she said. He 'nodded', and floated over to rest on one of her shoulders.
She let her breath out.
It's time to finish my life for real this time.
"Cease fire!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, going around the door and throwing her grenade at the same time. As Uldren and the Hunters stopped shooting, dumbfounded, and many a Fallen were sent hurtling through the air by the explosion, she took out her back-up pistol and began firing both guns into the remaining crowd of enemies. She heard a shout, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Uldren fly backwards, a smoking hole in his gut.
Her guns let out identical clicking sounds, signaling that the rounds were gone, and she dropped them both to the ground.
"To your left!" her Ghost's voice warned, loud and clear from where he sat right next to her ear. As she unsheathed her blades, she stepped backwards, tripping the Vandal as he rushed at her, and stabbing one of her swords into it's throat.
"Five o'clock!" her ghost shouted again, and she spun around just in time to cleave the Dreg in two. At this point enemies were everywhere, and her fluid muscle-memory movements formed by Cayde's relentless training of new requits turned into a dance of discord, no longer guided by instruction, but by instinct.
As she danced the dance of death too soon, she saw a Wizard rise over the railing of the courtyard, and fire off several blasts. She caught a glimpse of it, and a glimpse of the Traveler breaking apart over the Last City, raining terror and fiery, falling metal from above as it's cleaved-in-two form slowly fell to the earth below.
She heard several screams as she stabbed another Vandal in the gut, screams that were undoubtedly that of the Hunters being killed by the Wizard. She spun around and rushed at it. Agony bolted through every inch of her as Fallen, Taken, and the occasional Cabal shot at her or tried to stab her as she passed. So many of them succeeded, she wondered why she was even still alive by the time she threw herself over the railing and impaled the wizard with both her blades.
"You did good, Lil! You did the best." her Ghost's voice murmured tiredly. She felt his light weigh fall from her shoulder as blackness began to engulf her vision.
Was that wind rushing past her, as the world became blurry? Was the sky growing lighter as reality collapsed, or was it just her dead, dead, dead, dying mind playing tricks on her? The horrible agony that pulsed through her began to fade and she began to feel oddly peaceful; a feeling she had only had once before, and only now did she miss.
You know what? I think I...actually missed being dead a little. Oh, well; at least I won't have to miss it for long...
Her body landed with a crunch.
The Last City had fallen.
Com'on folks; REVEIW!
Review Challenge(Jay started doing this, with hilarious results): How do you imagine the death of your Destiny character before his/her Ghost woke them up? How did they die, and why were they in Russia when they kicked the bucket?
Amberstar out!