A/N: This is inspired by something I read in the Destiny Grimoire, as well as a fanfic on the Destiny forum. I don't remember who the author was or the name of it, but it brought a certan weapon and a corrupted gaurdian to my attention.
Also, I realised Ikora Rey really is a badaft. She was one of the fiercest competitors in the crucible when she was still a gaurdian. Relentless and merciless. I've been reading up on destiny lore and double-checking it against the Grimoire. There's a lot of really interesting stuff in there.
Also a warning for more canon-divergence. I was looking at a gaurdian banner one day, and noticed it has four parts. There are three classes. That made me wonder.
Kalara laughed as she ran and slid under a low barrier, rounding another pillar. Behind her, her team tried to catch up. "run faster!"
Zanthyr, their team's Titan, launched himself into the air. Kalara ducked sideways as he came down with a fist strike she chuckled "Come on, guys, we're supposed to be in a free-for all." She turned and fired, catching Zanthyr in the shoulder.
Saniya was waiting around the next pillar. Kalara rounded it and caught a faceful of palm-strike.
She reappeared in the crucible starting zome. She shook her head at them, waited.
Pretty soon, Zanthyr reappeared. She smacked him across the back of the helmet. He whirled and she grinned. He took off his helmet. So did She. "Hey you." She smiled. He put one arm around her, and she leaned in.
her helmet fell to the ground as their lips met.
"Really." a voice sounded from next to them.
they looked over, and Saniya was leaning on the wall, legs crossed. Zanthyr asked "How long have you been standing there?"
Saniya just chuckled and walked away. "Long enough."
Zanthyr started after her but Kalara called "Hey wait!" He turned, she held out his helmet to him. He chuckled and took it. "Yeah, heh, might need that."
She smirked as she put her own helmet on and jogged out after him.
It had been two days since what the Gaurdians referred to as "The Incident". The Vangaurd leaders had been in meetings almost constantly, she guessed to discuss the recent events and develop a countermeasure to use against the new hive weapon.
She looked around, no sign of her teammates. She jumped straight up and perched on a narrow steel pipe sticking out of the ancient structure. Saniya was running out towards a set of buildings, but Zanthyr was nowhere to be found. "Hmm." she scanned the immediate area. No flashes of venusian sunlight on armor. She jumped down. Up the low steps she went and around the pillar.
BLAM!
A hard steel fist caught her in the ribs.
She felt herself choking.
She glared.
She pointed.
Zanthyr froze "Uhh..."
BLAM!" her hand cannon had aimed better. It caught him in the chest. He looked suprised for a whole half a second before collapsing.
She snickered before realising this was going to take a *really* long time before she respawned. She sighed and aimed her hand cannon at her head.
BLAM!
They appeared almost simultaneously at the starting area.
Kalara shook her head. "Well, that was fun-sort of." she tilted her head at him, giving him a look. Zanthyr cringed a little. "I'm sorry... I... got a little... excited?"
he said it so slowly, Kalara couldn't help but smile at his reaction. "It's the crucible. We're supposed to train our skills. And, this *is* a free-for-all match." She shrugged. "It was fun, but I think I'd rather go kill something non-gaurdian." He nodded. "Okay."
she hit her comm. "Hey Saniya, you almost done?"
Meanwhile, the warlock-class was chasing down a hunter class, a human male who had taunted her rather rudely before trying to make a break for it. She currently had the rookie pinned in a dead-end run.
"Hang on a minute, almost done." she launched herself into a smooth glide and threw an energy bolt from above. It hit the ground just behind him, catching him in the legs. She landed, walking up. He was trying to get away, but it was apparent his legs had been broken.
she stood there a second. "Now, should I send you back to start, or should I let someone else?"
The hunter folded his arms. "Too much talk gets you shot." she ducked and whirled. the hunter's titan teammate had been behind her with a rocket launcher. It went right over her head as she ducked, slamming into the hunter.
She jumped up, activated her supercharge, and launched a huge bolt of solar energy into him, laughing the entire time.
The Titan went flying back into a stone wall. Saniya sauntered past, transmitted over the comm "I'll be right there."
They transmatted in, and Zanthyr suggested "I guess we should go get our next mission." Saniya looked back towards the 'transmat zone' at the front of the the tower. Kalara knew how she felt. Like their lost teammates would teleport in any second.
But what if the others DID come back? what would happen to them? Would their old teams reunite? The speaker himself had put their team together, and the speaker never made mistakes.
She knew she was just deluding herself, they were gone, and both she and Saniya had to accept it sometime.
Down the steps they went, past Eris Morn, who was still muttering about hearing voices.
"Gaurdians." Ikora greeted. Kalara ducked her head in greeting as she passed.
"Hey boss." she stopped across the table from Cayde-6. Funny, not even four days ago she had been in this same spot, and they had nearly had a fight.
Now, he was her mentor, the hunter vangaurd leader.
The speaker had some sense of humor.
"Hey, what can I do for ya."
"We were wondering if you guys might have another mission for us."
"I think Ikora has something in mind. You should go talk to her."
The trio wandered over to where Ikora was studying an ancient text, or something, on an aged and yellowing peice of paper.
Kalara leaned in, noticing the sketch of a sword.
"It is the Sword of Crota." she straigtened. "A ledgendary weapon, once wielded by the dark lord. It has been kept hidden in a hive fortress somewhere on the moon." she explained. "Now, we have discovered it's location. We need you to go find it and destroy it, so that it may never be wielded again."
The three nodded and turned to leave.
Kalara gasped, utter shock across her face.
There stood Gavin.
Slowly he descended the steps and crossed the room. He seemed tired, worn. Kalara noticed he was limping slightly.
Kalara ran to meet him a few steps from Ikora, and wrapped her arms around him. He winced.
"You're alive!"
He chuckled softly.
She pulled away, and looked at him "How are you alive? what happened? did Jarin make it back, too?" so many questions raced through her mind.
He walked past her, towards the leaders. Kalara followed, confused. "What's wrong?" She got in front of him, looking at him to try to figure out why he was acting so funny. He looked to the leaders.
"Jarin is alive." Kalara's face lit up.
Gavin shook his head, face grim. "He's been corrupted. Seduced by the darkness." He looked at Kalara. "I'm sorry."
"Wait, what does that mean?" Kalara looked around for an explanation.
Ikora answered "It means that a gaurdian's light can be corrupted and twisted by the darkness. They become a part of it." she paused, glanced at Gavin, then added "If this is true, then the gaurdian you knew no longer exists." she shook her head "He is no longer the Gaurdian you knew. He belongs to the darkness now."
Zanthyr looked at Gavin and blurted out "So how come you're not evil?" Kalara and saniya both gasped.
Kalara started to say something to him, but Gavin interrupted "Jarin brought me back because he thought I would help him. He wanted me to join his little crusade." he shook his head. "when I refused, he tried to kill me." Kalara suddenly noticed he had his hand on his midsection.
Zavala said "Tampering with a ghost's programming is strictly forbidden. We must find him and stop whatever he has planned."
Gavin nodded. He took a step forward, wobbled, and grabbed onto the table as he hit his knees.
"Gavin!" Kalara gasped, and knelt, looking at his hand. A deep gash was bandaged, but still leaking. He looked dizzily at her. "I had to get back, to tell you." he looked ready to pass out. Kalara summoned her ghost, completely ignoring what Zavala had just said, and motioned it towards him. It looked back at her.
"Just do it."
Her ghost made a noise, then circled him, scanning. A beam shot out, then another at his upper arm. Her ghost noted "At least it wasn't your left arm that was broken. then I wouldn't be able to help you."
It floated back to hover over Kalara's shoulder. She rose, pulling him to his feet. She realised what just happened.
Cayde-6 commented "Didn't you just hear what he said." he motioned toward Zavala.
Kalara ignored Zavala's cross look and replied "I was in denial." she motioned with her hands as she spoke. "I was trying to find a way to bring them back. I came across Jarin's reasearch and..." she stopped mid-sentence.
"Jaren's research!" she turned to his team. "He was planning this all along!" she declared. "Okay, he had research on his computer on how to augment a ghost's programming so it could hold three" she glanced at Gavin "sets of gaurdian data." she looked at the leaders. "He wasn't trying to kill us, it was a practice run!"
"But for what?" Gavin asked.
"I don't know." Kalara said "But I saw both your ghosts destroyed. How can he be alive?"
Gavin shook his head. "That wasn't his ghost." He added "He stole it from someone, and threatened to hand it over to the hive if it didn't stay quiet and cooperate."
Kalara shook her head, still not quite understanding what was going on.
An echoing laugh sounded, resonating throughout the room, as though everywhere at once.
As though appearing out of thin air, Jarin appeared. "My dear Kalara. you *are* so smart, aren't you. He paced back and forth across the room from them as he spoke. "And here I though you were just a dumb little rookie." His grin became malicious. "I just thought I'd, you know, stop in, say hello." Her eyes went to his gun. Just like the one the wizard had.
"Hello, leader mine." He aimed straight at the Hunter vangaurd leader and fired. jumped sideways into the path of it, both hands brought up producing a blinding white light.
Jarin held his hand on the trigger. Purple and black dark energy blazed from his weapon. Her answering light got brighter.
"Such light." she heard Jarin say, "This weapon hasn't tasted such light since-
From the doorway, "The Last Word" rang out.
Once
Twice
three times
Jarin's gun dropped to his side. At the doorway, Cayde stood, hand cannon still smoking.
Jarin fell.
Kalara looked behind her then over at him and blinked in suprise. She straightened, looking back at Jarin just in time to see the ghost, no, something else, hovering next to him as Jarin reappeared.
"Don't you know you can't kill me? I'm immortal." He made an 'it's obvious' motion with his hands.
His wraith hovered next to him, it's light now a sickly red. It's shell had been twisted and marred. smokelike whisps of darkness trailed from the ends of it's appendages.
Ikora muttered "You're insane."
"No, I'm pretty sure you're the insane ones. You want to kill me just because I have more power than you do now."
He aimed at Kalara's group. Kalara ran straight at him, blinked, and reappeared behind him, punched him in the back of the helmet. The insane hunter flew forward, dissapearing. Kalara waited, still aiming where she thought he would reappear. Instead, he reappeared to her right, and hit her with an open-palmed strike. She reappeared next to her group, hurling a nova bomb towards him.
"You know we'll just keep waiting for you to come back." she declared.
Ikora was out of her seat, looking around. "Stop this madness, let us help you!"
"Help me?" the voice echoed. "You'd better be worried about yourselves."
Gavin called out "This isn't you. Don't do this."
"Don't worry about me, Gavin." Jarin reappeared right behind him. "I'll be fine."
Jarin landed an open-palmed strike, sending him stumbling backwards, then took a step, raising his weapon.
Gavin instinctively ducked as he fired, reaching up to wrestle the insane hunter's gun away. He pointed it right back at him.
"surrender now, and we can get you the help you need."
Jarin smirked "I have so much work left to do" his wraith appeared.
A beam shot out of it and the gun dissapeared.
"I'll be around."
He teleported away.
The group looked around, then Kalara went over the Gavin, summoning her ghost.
"That lookes like it hurt." it said, circling his head.
"Yep, a broken nose usually does."
"I don't have one, I wouldn't know."
Gavin laughed.
The ghost adminished "stay still!" as it scanned him then the beam widened and brightened slightly. The ghost flated back and Gavin rubbed a hand over his face, still grinning. "You have quite the sense of humor." he told it. It simply floated away and dissapeared.
Ikora walked back to her spot, and started to straighten her papers. Cayde-6 walked past her "Well that was fun, sort of."
Kalara looked to him, then Zavala, who had been mostly silent. She asked "So now what?"
He thought for a second before replying "We have to find out where he is going. There must be some way to track him. Cayde, don't you keep trackers on all your hunters."
"Umm, hang on." Cayde typed a bit, then said "Nope. He broke it."
Zanthyr started pacing. "Dangit, there has to be a way to stop this guy."
Saniya nodded "we don't need a repeat of "The Incident." Kalara frowned.
Ikora cleared her throat to get their attention, then started to talk.
"I have seen that weapon before. It was owned by a legendary Gaurdian named Rezzyl Azir. It was a time before the city's walls had even been built, when the factions fought for control of the tower." she looked at them. "It was a time before gaurdians."
"wow." Saniya breathed.
"In fact, Azir was the one who gave the gaurdians their name. But after the faction wars and peace had returned to the city, Azir was forgotten.
One day, he travelled to the moon, in search of the hive witch Xyor. He defeated the Witch's profane knight, taking a peice of bone from the hive Knight's chestplate as a trophy. He adorned his hand cannon with it. That weapon was called the Rose.
Nobody knows exactly how or why Azir succumed to the darkness, but he abandoned his name, taking instead the name of Dredgen Yor. He used his weapon, which he renamed Thorn, to murder innocents and consume their light. He was hunted down and eventually killed, but his weapon is still out there somehwere."
"So" Saniya said "Do you think Jarin might have found that weapon?"
"It was a very long time ago."
"Jarin was exploring here on Earth a while back." Gavin put in.
Kalara shifted her weight "Was I the only one that saw the power punch AND the palm strike?"
"no" Zanthyr turned "I saw that too. Wait, is that even possible?"
Ikora said "It was a time before the classes. The titans were the first Risen, and the ones who founded the city." she looked over at the other vangaurd leaders "The hunters were founded after, then the Warlock orders came into being." then looked back at them . "It is possible there were those who could hone skills not specific to a single class."
Kalara looked at her, then her friends. Behind her, Zavala said "Transcendents."
"Wha?"
"Those who have skills not belonging to any single class. They can move from one class to another. It is forbidden, except on the extremely rare occasion that the speaker allows it."
Ikora noted "There has not been such a gaurdian in hundreds of years. Dredgen yor was the last."
Kalara looked back at her, then at Zavala, then back at Ikora "Wait-so"
She paused, cayde put in "Now you're getting it."
Kalara made a suprised sound. Ikora smiled slightly. "And you are one of them."
Saniya asked "So, why haven't we heard about this before?"
Zavala told her "no one is permitted even to speak of it. They are considered dangerous and generally unstable at best."
Kalara deflated a little.
Cayde waved a hand "don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine."
Garin grinned at Kalara. "We got this."
Kalara took a breath, then asked "So, where is the most likely place we could find him right now?"
Ikora thought for a second, then "The hive have several bases on the moon. If he has succumbed to the darkness, you will likely find him there."
She nodded. "Then let's go."
They turned to leave, but Zavala said "Gavin, you no longer have your ghost. It would be best if you stayed here in the tower."
He nodded, looked at the ground.
"Hey," kalara put a hand on his shoulder. "Want to walk us out?"
"Sure."
They got up to the courtyard, and Kalara smiled. "You can come with us anyway."
"What? but Zavala said..."
Kalara waved a hand, then summoned her ghost. "It has your data, too."
Her ghost argued "But I don't have Gavin's full data."
Kalara pulled out the ghost fragment. "Actually, we do. It's the last peice. I found it when we went back there.
Let's hit Jarin's workshop and see what we can do." Gavin looked at the others, then they followed Kalara. Her ghost muttered "I don't like this."