A/N: CrowWingedWolf- Hey there! Last we saw our Guardians, they had both attacked Omnigul with their supers at the same time, and been blasted into the walls! Omnigul returned to the moon, while James and Sam were left to their fate.
She wasn't really the first to wake up. Not if you counted the Ghost currently circling her throbbing head and calling her name. She sat up so her knees were pulled up to her chest, resting her head on them and trying to make the spinning, nauseous feeling go away. Something next to her right eye sparked. Good thing she was going to replace her helmet when she got back to the Tower, it seemed this one was busted.
Tower. Right. She had to go back to the Tower. But first, she needed to find her Titan. She pushed herself up, her Ghost saying something about being careful she didn't really listen to, and stumbled over to a broken pillar. Despite her decent amount of armor, it seemed nothing could prepare her for that unplanned flight. Or the abrupt stop thanks to that wall. "Ghost, where is James?"
"Where is who?" The metallic ball of light asked, floating around to her face. "Sam, I really think you should-"
"Where is my Titan, Little Light?" She growled, the silvery iris on her Ghost narrowing in a semblance of irritation.
"I'll scan for him." It turned, sending a blue survey blast out, then turning back. "Other side of the room, buried under some rubble."
"Lovely." She breathed, straightening up and picking her way across the room. She had grabbed her blade from its sheathe more as a comfort to herself than protection. The room was rather quiet now that Omnigul had left. Once she reached the pile of rocks, she sheathed the blade again and began digging the stones off of the closest arm, then head, and finally back she could reach. Some of the larger rocks were a bit too much for her in her state. But he could get them if he was awake. "Come on, wake up." She said, gently patting him on the back of the helmet and neck. She looked up as his Ghost appeared.
"He has a bad concussion, but should wake up shortly." It told her.
"Ah. Any other injuries?"
"Negative."
She nodded, then rounded on her own Ghost. "And what is my current condition?"
"As I stated before, you have a minor concussion and a broken rib."
"First I heard of it." She muttered as James made a pained grunt. "Are you awake?"
"Yes."
"Awesome. Let's get the rest of the rubble off of you, I want to get out of here." She said, pushing more rocks off of him. Once he was free, she lead them to a clear part of the floor where they could evacuate to their ships and fly back to the Tower, and safety.
It took everything in her not to crash as her sight still wavered occasionally, but the duo managed to arrive safely, and touch down on solid ground. She tugged her helmet off quickly, happy to have that sparking wire away from her face. Once she saw the crumpled right side, she knew why it was sparking.
The bright sunlight reflecting off of the assorted windows and smooth walls she usually found pretty, instantly made her head hurt again. She squeezed her eyes nearly shut, but even that gave her no reprieve from the piercing white.
"You can uh… turn in the mission. I'm gonna sit down." She mumbled to James, trying to pat him on the shoulder but missing and swiping at the air in front of him.
"No, you can come with. Cayde-6 might want you." He chuckled, catching her flailing arm and leading her down the stairs. She tried to voice her displeasure, but as soon as they hit the shadows at the bottom of the stairs, her headache started dissolving and she could see straight again.
"Maybe I will." She sighed, relenting to the strong hand on her bicep guiding her towards the large room with their respective Vanguards around it.
The two Guardians held each other up to show face to the Vanguards, three of the most powerful Guardians, and mentors to future Guardians. "How did it go Guardians?" asked Ikora. The wise Warlock bowed slightly to Sam and James as they leaned on the table for support. "You guys look like hell. I didn't know that a Fallen Captain could do that to a Guardian." Cayde-6 chuckled to himself in the joking manner that he was known for.
"Sam and I did what needed to be done. Draxis is officially dead. Inform the Queen." Placing his hand on his Hunters hand he smiled and basked at the praise received by their mentors. The congratulations were interrupted by the Hunters Ghost as it came to the center of the table and showed the Vanguards an image that shook them to their very core. The picture was of Omnigul and her praying hands.
"This can't be, why would she leave the safety of the moon?" Ikora exclaimed breaking the silence. Zevala looked at Cayde and ordered him to summon Eris Morn.
James saw his FireTeam member shaking and interrupted the meeting. "With all due respects Sirs, I need to take my partner to rest. I myself took a beating and we need to rest." The three Vanguards nodded and dismissed them. They would be summoned again when more was learned from Eris. James and Sam turned and began to walk to their quarters. Making sure to not move too quickly, James made sure Sam was not too disoriented.
Guardians can take a beating, he thought to himself, they would be fine by morning. Leaving her in her bed, he left the room and stood against the wall in the hallway. "Guardian, my sensor says you will pass out soon. You must get to your quarters." his Ghost whispered, concerned for the first time in since he started his Guardian training.
"Yeah, working on it." James groaned and walked slowly to his room. Floating besides him, his Ghost turned to look at the Hunters room. It sensed heat radiating from the room that would not usually be present. Shaking it off he followed James to his room.
She couldn't get her armor off fast enough. Her room shouldn't be that hot, the heater in the corner wasn't on, and none of her remaining armor was sparking. As she pulled the chest plate off, she realized she had to amend that last thought. MOST of her remaining armor wasn't sparking. Still, after changing into lighter clothing, she was still overheating. She decided to just nap with none of her usual covers.
She collapsed to the bed heavily, barely even realizing her head had hit her pillow until her Ghost was hovering in her face, calling her name.
Did she mention she hates light?
She squinted at the Ghost, grabbing it and pushing it away from her face. "Leave me be." She groaned, turning over.
"I really think you should wake up now, Sam."
"You woke me up once already with no explanation, I'm not letting you do it again." She growled.
"Well, in that case, Cayde-6 is requesting your attendance in a debriefing."
Sam twisted around to glare at the Ghost, weighing her options. She could either go down, or ignore the summons and continue sleeping. And the sleeping sounded really tempting. "Fine." She sighed. "You win, Nightlight."
"I'm not a-"
She grabbed him again, but unintentionally as she toppled over with a pained yell. Leave it to her to step on her discarded armpiece she couldn't see in the darkness and twist her ankle. "I'm a Hunter! I AM the night!" She moaned into the thin carpet, then lifted her face to look at the Ghost still clutched in her fingers. "You okay?"
"I will be when you let go."
"Perfect." She sighed, releasing him and pushing herself up. "Get the lights." She changed quickly, tightening the piece around her sore right ankle, then proceeded out of her room. She looked both ways, then turned to her Ghost. "Is James going too?"
"Unknown. But if he is, he should be there by now."
"Ah. Get your butt down there. Got it." She started at a brisk pace, making her way down to the large room and the Vanguards as quick as she could. She was greeted by Ikora, Cayde, and Zevala huddled around one end of the table, with James pointing at things on what she could only guess was a map. Sam tried to look casual coming into the room late, but her ankle decided to flare up right then and make her stumble a bit. She still managed to get to the table, earning a sideways glance from Cayde-6.
"Spend a little extra time cleaning the rifles?"
"She-"
Sam snatched her Ghost from the air, whipping it behind her back before gently releasing her grip on it so it could float out of her hand. "I needed to switch out my broken armor. A few pieces got destroyed. What are we discussing?"
"Omnigul." A female voice behind them stated. Some of them turned to give Eris Morn a nod or a greeting. The elder Hunter slowly walked into the room, looking at each of them. Though her eyes were bandaged and bled darkness, she could see better than any Guardian in the tower. "Omnigul is a threat like none we have ever faced. She is the will of Crota. She exists for one reason only, to awaken her Master and offer him our light. She must be stopped at all costs."
"We need to get a strike team together immediately, hunt her down where she lays and destroy her. I can have a Fireteam ready within the day." Zevala slammed his fist on the table, determined to get this over as quickly as possible.
"Always rushing and never planning, Old Friend. What we need is a Warlock on the moon's surface to study her movements and see how many hive she commands." Ikora looked at the map on the table, already planning where she would send her Warlocks.
"That's the problem with you both. One wants to rush in and destroy everything, the other wants to study so much that the battle would be over before a warlock even arrived at the moon. We called Eris here, she is the only one who knows what the next step should be, listen to her and then we can send a Hunter to take care of it." Cayde announced as he used his knife to sharpen his nails.
"There is but one thing that needs to be done. Omnigul must be destroyed as soon as possible. Since these two Guardians were the ones who she chose to fight, it is only fitting that they be the ones to lead a team to finish her. As it stands right now, she will return to the moon within two days time. Rest, Guardians. What you will face in the next few days will test everything that you know and believe." With that, Eris turned and mournfully walked back to her sector of the tower.
"So, it is decided. Rest, Guardians, and in two days time we will have a plan for your victory against this monster." Zevala dismissed the two and went back to his work.
James and Sam walked away from the Hall of the Vanguards and toward the outdoor courtyard. Sam noticed that James's armor had many gashes in it and some of his flesh was exposed and burned. A strange glow emanated from the knife James kept on his chest. It was almost as if she could feel Arc energy flowing through it. She stopped him in his tracks and pulled the knife from its sheath. To their surprise his knife sparked and glowed white with Arc energy. James's Ghost appeared and scanned the knife. "That can't be right. That knife is glowing and sparking. That's more your department, Guardian." the Ghost turned to Sam and looked at her quizzingly.
"How the hell is it doing that?" James whispered as he took the knife from her and felt it's energy pulsing through him. He shook the knife and the glow faded. "We should … we should get going." James said in confusion as they walked to the living quarters. They could finally begin to rest and recover.
After her nap, she couldn't sleep well, so she stayed up for a long while cleaning and oiling her guns, especially the sniper rifle. She wasn't sure if James would want to join, but she couldn't sit idle for a day. Not without at least sitting idle behind a scope. The patrols could always use a good crack shot, and the Fallen could always use a separation of body and… well, there wasn't much left of the head when she was done.
"Shouldn't you be asleep, Guardian?" Her Ghost broke her from her thoughts.
"Shouldn't you be charging?" She replied.
"What is with your hostility towards me?"
"Why didn't you ever tell me why you woke me up? You said you would." She said calmly as she looked up from her delicate cleaning of the worn bolt on the right side of her rifle. The Ghost was silent. "Exactly." She whispered. "Go charge or something, I'm gonna sleep in a few."
The next morning brought Sam to James' door, her fist raised hesitantly. She steeled her nerves, then knocked softly, straightening up when the door opened. "Hi." She smiled a little too widely.
"Hi." The Titan chuckled. "Why are you all suited up? We have a day off."
"Yeah. I don't do the sit still thing." He raised his eyebrow at her. "Not without a rifle in my hands. I'm gonna go on patrol for a few hours on Earth. I have some spare sniper rounds I want to use."
"We're supposed to be resting."
"I am. I'm resting on my stomach." She retorted. "Come on, it's not like we're taking Omnigul or Crota. It's just a few low level Fallen."
"All right, all right. Let me get suited up."
"You won't regret it." She grinned, skipping down the hallway and towards the hangers. The trip down to Earth was short, and Sam was off of her ship before James, hopping on and off of her sparrow as she zig zagged across the scorched land in search of a good sniping spot. As soon as she had one, she hunkered down with a grin, stretching her cloak out nicely across her back and inching closer to the edge of the cliff until she had her spot pinned down. James watched in amusement as she settled the rather large sized rifle in front of her, then faded from view.
She began humming that lost tune again, twitching her feet in time to the song, despite being unseen.
"What are you humming?" He asked, looking over at where she should have been.
"I dunno. Something about falling."
"You're singing about the Fallen?"
"No." She laughed, pulling away from her scope and shimmering back into vision again. "Falling. Something falling. I don't know what it was."
The Titan grunted, looking out at the field again. "Why are we here if we're not killing Fallen?"
"We will be. They just haven't come yet." She sighed as she settled behind her scope again and out of sight. He pulled his knife out and started chipping away at the stone beside him, the sharp noise unnerving her. "Can you stop?" She growled, James shooting a look at her.
"No."
"Ugh. Go find something to punch. I can clearly see you want to punch something."
"There's nothing down there."
"Only to your eyes…" He could hear the smirk in her voice. "Cover your ears if you want to hear tomorrow." She growled as she pulled the trigger, a deafening thud making James twitch. As she slid the bolt back to chamber a second bullet, the clearing below them came alive with Fallen trying to figure out where that shot had come from.
"Sniper on the-" BOOM.
"Yup." She snickered. "Oh, duck. One of them saw you." She said as her gun went off again. "Okay, he can't see you anymore, but duck anyway."
"Hell no, I'm gonna go punch them."
"No Super!" She called after him. "This is just for fun, no Super!" He tossed some sort of sign over his shoulder, Sam sighing to herself. "He's gonna use his Super."
"I don't need my Super for this." James laughed, shouldering a Fallen out of the way and planting his blade in the neck of a second. As he went for a large grouping, a bullet tore through one of them, making them scatter. He sighed in frustration, grabbing the nearest grunt and mashing him head first into another Dreg.
With a growl of anticipation the Titan ran toward a group of Fallen. Pulling his pistol from its holster he aimed it at a Dreg. It's head exploded and splattered blood on its squad mate. It was a beautiful shot, made by the Hunter and not the Titan. "That's four, she needs to reload, Guardian. Now is your time!" His Ghost informed him excitedly. Cocking his pistol and firing three bullets at the closest Vandal, James got his first kill. The next Vandal had the misfortune of meeting his fist. It's jaw dislocated and unable to scream it received three more hard strikes of the Titans fist, each hit landing like a freight train. The last strike was a blade across its throat.
As she reloaded, Sam's Ghost scanned the battleground and focused on the Titan. "It's funny how you can frustrate him to no end. I can tell he's trying to beat you." She focused her vision down her scope again and took her breath. Aiming for the Captain that James was about to shoulder charge, she waited for him to take the Fallens shield off.
That's when it all became strange. For years their strategy was the same. James would shoulder charge the Captains or Knights, Sam would get the killing blow. It was a strategy that yielded the best results. Today was different. As the Titan charged at the Captain, the glow of momentum enveloped him. All he needed to do was dig his shoulder into the chest of the beast and all that momentum would be transferred and the fallen Captain would be completely devastated and disorient it. Today, the Titan dug his shoulder into the growling beast and bounced off of it like a child trying to attack an adult.
James fell to the ground and lost his breath, his eyes wide in his helmet as he tried to make sense of what just happened. He didn't have much time to think as the Fallen soldier grabbed him with all four of its arms and held James over its head. "Shit!" Exclaimed James. "Guardian! Use your Super ability!" responded his Ghost. Twisting his body, he released himself from the grip of the Captain. Raising his palm to the heavens, the Titan screamed in anger, summoning his Super. He felt the light inside him being focused to his hands. He was summoning his Hammer of Sol. A war hammer infused with the Solar power of the sun itself.
With a flash of light, the Titan stood and pointed his hammer at his enemy. Time and time again this would intimidate any enemy of the Guardians. They knew what would happen next. "Guard … Guardian … Your hand." James' Ghost had a worried tone in her voice. What was to be a mighty hammer was instead a flaming revolver. Cocking his head to the side, the Titan could not comprehend what was happening. His enemy attempted to attack, which caused James to jump back and activate his jetpack. Floating away, he pulled the trigger of his pistol and sent one slug screaming toward the Captain. The slug hit the animal in its chest and disintegrated it immediately. As quickly as it was summoned the pistol disappeared. He landed and looked at his hand in confusion. He turned to the ridge he knew where his Hunter was, hoping she had seen what had just happened.
