Disclaimer: I do not own Destiny, Bungie does (though I would probably do a better job at balancing). I only own my OCs. Inspired by the Logan movie trailer and it's epic opening lines.
A figure stood in a makeshift camp, a combination of an old jumpship and a mishmash of City Age and Fallen tech. Its cloak and helmet were discarded on the ground, a hand cannon in the figure's right hand. In front of it lay a body. Human. Male. Young. The figure's hands shook uncontrollably.
"Callum. What have you done?" A voice behind him asked. The voice belongs to the mountain of a man who had just entered the camp, dressed in armour that could only be described as that of a space age knight.
"Aries the world is not the same as it once was." The trembling figure responded, his voice raw. "Guardians. They're gone now."
The knight approached the forlorn figure, removing his own helmet and setting it on the forest floor, revealing himself as an Exo. His bright blue eyes, contrasting with his silver chassis, flashed as he put a hand on the figure's shoulder. "Not yet they aren't. We still have a purpose. The Star still needs people to become Wardens. People like us." The figure gave a hollow laugh at this, its body shaking even more.
"'People like us.' You mean people like you." It turned towards Aries now, revealing himself as a human male with flaming red hair, now streaked with gray. Though he only looked about 20, his eyes showed how much older he truly was. "Obedient soldiers who will shut up and do as their told. The Star doesn't want Guardians. We lost our purpose long ago, after we pushed the Darkness out of our solar system. They don't need heroes." Callum spat the last word out. "You Titans will always have work as glorified guardsman, 'protecting' the masses. The Warlocks used to be scholars, so the Star will keep them as long as they keep themselves hidden in the archives. That's all you Wardens are now. Artifacts. Kept because you have a diminishing purpose. We Hunters didn't even get that honor." He growled, anger burning in his eyes. "We were banished. Thrown out of the only home we've ever had, left to rot in the wasteland or hunted down like deranged beasts. That's what this one tried to do." He gestured to the body with his gun. "Little shit thought I was some kind of monster, and tried to attack me with daddy's rifle. You can see how that went."
Aries-11 now started to back away from the ranting wreck that was once his friend. "What happened to you Callum? What have you become?"
Callum laughed at this, his right eye twitching slightly. "What I was before the City." When he got no response, he rolled his eyes. "You've forgotten, haven't you? I was one of the original twenty. I was there when the Collapse happened. I watched the Traveler and the Darkness fighting above me as I ran through a burning city. For seven hundred years after that, I did whatever I had to do to survive." A glint entered his eye now. "Then the City came, and I was needed. I had a new purpose; to protect humanity. But now that the job is done, I've been tossed aside like an old, sick pet."
"Please-" Aries began to plead, but was cut off by the Hunter. "No. You at least get the luxury of remembrance. They love to glorify you Titans, not us Hunters, the ones who actually did most of the work. So I'm done. If humanity claims it no longer needs me, then I will disappear." He now walked away and began to pack the simple camp into his ship, the Ether Eater. "And I wish you luck when the next threat comes, then the Star may realize why we had Guardians." He said over his shoulder. Aries shook himself out of his stupor.
"Where do you plan to go?"
"Tibet," Callum responded, having finished loading the ship. "I hid an old Ketch there, after I reclaim it I'm leaving the solar system."
"You're doing what?!" Aries shouted, his processors struggling to understand.
"I'm leaving. Permanently. Maybe I can find something else worthwhile in the rest of the universe." Callum responded, throwing on his tattered black cape and slipping on the helmet he had claimed from the Vault of Glass, its circular orange eye glowing just as bright as the day he found it all those years ago.
"Please. Don't go. I can convince them, they can make an exception for you." Aries pleaded, not wanting to lose yet another friend.
"I'm sorry my friend, but I am a Hunter. The last Hunter. And the unknown calls out to me, stronger than it has in centuries, and I must follow it. It is in my blood." He stood on the ramp of the ship, turning back one last time. "We had a hell of a run together. I will never forget those moments. Farewell Aries-11, may you remember what it meant to be a Guardian." He finished, his voice now carrying a hint of sadness. He threw a small item to the Titan before entering his ship and plotting a course for Tibet.
Aries did not look up from the ground for a long time after Callum had left. Looking down at his hand, he saw what had been thrown at him. A simple dog tag bearing a name. Callum Jaahlin. As he turned it over, he saw a fresh engraving. A simple phrase from the long dead language of Latin. Carpe Noctem. Seize the Night.
