Wildcard

Chapter 2—Conundrums and Rebirth

Disclaimer: I don't own "Destiny" or its characters. They belong to Bungie and Activision. I'm only taking them for a spin.

Mac thought coming to the Reef was a terrible idea. Digging around the Prison of Elders was even worse. The place was silent, under lockdown after the incident from a few months back. Automated security was doing its job, he guessed, considering he'd gotten in. And the armed frames didn't even flinch when they saw him.

Not much left to salvage, and Mac was surprised there wasn't a Vanguard presence already. However, their attention was on the Dreaming City, not the Tangled Shore and the Reef. He'd always been curious about the place, and decided to take a look around before heading back to Earth, and Adam.

Gods, how he missed his husband, but it was partly Adam's fault he was in the Reef. Rumors reached them, even so far from the City, and Adam always wanted to be forewarned about any threat that could affect them.

So that was how Mac found himself in the Reef, in the lowest levels of the Prison of Elders, trying to wake the Exo he'd discovered in a modified cryo tank covered with Hive glyphs. Yes, this was even worse than he could possibly imagine, because the Exo was in terrible shape, yet still somehow alive. Yet he wouldn't call what the Exo was "alive."

The left side of the Exo's face was a ruin. The eye was shattered by a bullet hole, and another was above it. The left side of the jaw was unhinged. And it wasn't even the worst part. The Exo's chest was cracked open below a bullet hole the size of Mac's fist.

Mac wasn't a Guardian, but he'd been around long enough to recognize an attempt to siphon light. The Exo didn't have much life left, and the spark he retained was not enough to wake him. It was, enough, however, for Mac to sense him, and it was what lead Mac to find the man.

Except he couldn't wrest the Exo's dead wight from the tank. And now he was hearing a faint voice yelling for help. Mac left the cryo storage room, and saw a ghost floating in the window of the room next door.

"Hey, get me out!" Gwynn yelled.

Mac broke the glass out with the butt of his rifle, and the ghost floated through, scanning him.

"You're not a Guardian," Gwynn said. "But I thank you for your help."

"Are there others with you?"

"Only two alive, but they won't come. I already tried," Gwynn replied.

"What's your name?" Mac asked.

"Gwynn ap Nudd," the ghost replied.

"The king of the wild hunt," Mac said, approving. "Well, Gwynn, I could use your help."

"Who are you?" Gwynn asked.

"Call me Mac."

He beckoned the ghost to follow, and Gwynn, ever curious, did go with him.

And when the ghost saw the unconscious Exo, he sped over, scanning him.

"A Guardian! I can heal him, but if he dies, I can't resurrect him," Gwynn said. "What happened to him? He had a neural symbiosis with a ghost, but the connection was severed. That must've hurt, and it's probably the reason why he's dead? But he's not really dead. He has a spark of Light, but it feels. . .wrong. . ."

"Do what you must," Mac said. "We need to get out of here."

The ghost turned his attention to the Exo, and concentrated forming a new neural symbiosis, then worked on on closing the bullet hole in his chest and repairing the rest of the man's damaged body.

Within seconds, the body twitched, and he sat up.

"What the hell?" he gasped, eyes settling on the other man in the room. "Andal?" he whispered, standing on shaky legs, reaching out, and falling flat on his face.

Mac turned his concerned gaze on the ghost.

Gwynn looked down at his fallen Guardian. "He'll be fine. I think," the ghost answered.

"You think? Anything else?" Mac said. "Can you transmat?"

"No. I'm too weak from healing him, repairing the damage from the severed bond and making my own," Gwynn said.

Mac sighed. Of course.

88888

Solstice night. The Dawning was in full swing, and Zavala wanted no part of the festivities. Ikora insisted he needed to make an appearance, but he'd begged off, hoping Saladin and Shaxx would pick up the slack for him. He hoped no one would bother him in his quarters. Holing up was a good way to get through his work, along with the added benefit of not having to deal with anyone. But he wasn't prepared for the fact Saladin let himself in like he owned the place.

"You need to change your access code," Saladin said, earning a glare from Zavala, and an even darker look when the Iron Lord's two wolves, Balor and Alusia followed him in. Balor made for the bedroom, hopping up on the bed and Alusia climbed into Zavala's lap, licking his face.

Zavala set aside his reports with a sigh.

"They miss you," Saladin said. "Besides, they know could use a friend."

"What I could use is time alone to go over these field reports," Zavala said, absentmindedly carding his fingers through the wolf's fur.

"Of course. After we talk," Saladin said. "I've heard some disturbing news of late."

"What is it?" Zavala said, now concerned.

"I've heard you and Shaxx have been spending a lot of time together. More than just the bender from a few months back," Saladin said. "Are you out of your mind?"

Zavala sighed. "No. Possibly. Shaxx has made it a personal responsibility to check up on me at least once a day," he said.

"So Ikora put him up to it?" Saladin said.

"Guilted him into it? I don't care. We've been civil to one another. As long as we don't bring up the past, the time spent together is pleasant," Zavala said. "Although yesterday he did make one of Ikora's students cry after a training match."

"He's a loud-mouthed brute," Saladin said.

"Who you trained," Zavala countered.

"I trained you, too, and look how you turned out," Saladin said.

"Get over the fact we were wrong and Shaxx was right," Zavala said.

"He was insubordinate," Saladin said.

"How long are you going to hold that grudge? Don't let it evolve into something you'll regret," Zavala said. "Because I know how that feels."

"What are you talking about?" Saladin asked.

"You told us the story of Lady Jolder, and how you never acted on your feelings for her, and how it's one of your biggest regrets," Zavala said. "Don't let your pride get in the way of salvaging your friendship with Shaxx."

"Why do I get the feeling we're not talking about Shaxx and I?" Saladin said.

"I'm only suggesting attempting a reconciliation because one day you may come to regret never mending your relationship with Shaxx. At least we're working on it," Zavala said. "I've already dealt with more regret in the past few months than I ever thought was possible."

"Cayde. This is about Cayde," Saladin said, sitting down in the chair across from his former student. "What regret could you possibly have about him? You were good friends."

Zavala closed his eyes, leaning back into the couch. "I regret never telling him how much I appreciated him, and his friendship," he said. "And so much more."

Saladin blinked in rapid succession in surprise at that revelation. Better for both of them than letting his mouth hang open.

"Why didn't you tell him you harbored feelings for him?" he finally asked.

"Because I didn't want to ruin a good friendship," Zavala said. "But that's not my only regret. Why didn't he come to me about the problem in the Reef? That Petra Venj had approached him for help? If I'd known. . ."

"Perhaps she didn't want the full-scale involvement of the Vanguard, and approached the Guardian she knew would help? Cayde made his choice, irrevocable as it was," Saladin said.

"Accepting it doesn't make it any easier," Zavala snapped, causing Alusia to whine. With another sigh, he petted the wolf, helping calm her.

"The heart of the matter is I failed him. Why didn't he trust me?"

"I don't have an answer," Saladin said.

88888

OK. Awake. Something he wasn't expecting. Comfortable bed. Way more than his bed in the Tower, probably the most comfortable he'd been in since forever. He sat up, taking stock of the fact he was naked and most definitely in unfamiliar surroundings.

Running his hands over his face and chest, the damage done in the Prison of Elders was gone. So he was alive. Probably not the afterlife? Yeah. He could work with being alive.

"Oh good, you're awake," an unfamiliar voice said somewhere in the direction of his right shoulder.

Cayde turned, taking a startled swing at whoever it was.

A battered Ghost disappeared with a frightened squeak, leaving the Exo alone for a moment. He stood on shaky legs, grabbing the quilt off the bed, wrapping it around his shoulders. He tried taking a step, but he fell.

A man came running into the room, and he knelt by Cayde. "You shouldn't be up," he said.

"Who the hell are you and where am I?" Cayde asked.

"I'm Adam," the man replied, hauling the Exo to his feet, and helped sit him on the edge of the bed.

"How long have I been out?" Cayde said.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"That little awoken bastard Uldren Son shooting me with my own gun," Cayde said. "Who the hell are you anyway? How'd I get here?"

"My home, and my husband Mac retrieved you from a cryo pod in the prison of elders," Adam replied.

Caydees jaw dropped.

"What's the date?"

"December 30, year 759 post-collapse, or in your case, year 692 of the city age," Adam said. "Mac found you nine days ago. You awoke three days after in a panic and we had to put you out. You've been down since."

"Ok. where's my gear?" Cayde asked.

"Gear?" Adam said.

"Yeah. My gear. Armor and kit," Cayde said, eyeing the other man like he was stupid.

"All that's left of your gear are your pants, gloves and a knife," Adam said.

"Then find me something i can use because i have to get back to the city," Cayde said.

"That's inadvisable, as there would be questions," Adam said. "Look, i need to explain a few things. What's your name? Your ghost wasn't exactly forthcoming with any information."

"Cayde-6."

Adam blinked in surprise.

"And ghost? What ghost? My ghost, Sundance died. I should be dead, too," Cayde said. "Actually, I think I was. . ."

A ghost rezzed a few feet away. "I'm your ghost now," it said. "My name is Gwynn. You had no ghost when I found you. You were suffering from the severance of a neural symbiosis and you'd been shot several times. But you had a small spark of light left. It's how I was able to save you."

"I think you two need to talk," Adam said, leaving Ghost and Guardian alone.

A few hours later, Cayde was back in bed, propped up on pillows, still wrapped in the quilt. Gwynn was at the room's lone window, looking outside, watching it snow. Cayde was feeling dazed. Like it all wasn't real somehow. He was alive, when he shouldn't be.

"I know what you're thinking," Gwynn said, floating over, facing him. "You're wondering why you're alive. But does it really matter? We survived, you and I. They experimented on us. I downloaded all their data. They used a small shard of the traveler to bring you back. And they drained my light. I'm the only ghost who survived. And I finally found my Guardian, except we're both broken, aren't we?"

Gwynn set himself down in Cayde's hands, the Ghost obviously at some peace with himself, his Guardian and the situation. Lightless. Mostly Lightless. Some small spark of light still existed, enough to help establish the bond between himself and Gwynn.

Cayde's head wasn't empty and he could feel the presence of the Ghost, but it was different than Sundance, now he was calm enough to feel the bond between them. He guessed he should be grateful the little construct had saved him, but what were they going to do now?

Wrapped in a quilt. Gwynn tucked in the juncture of shoulder and neck. He had a glass of whiskey.

"Cayde-6. Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6?"

"That's me."

"Well, this complicates things.