Zahir sat calmly on his couch. It had been a few months since he had been in his apartment, the last time being the Dawning. The plants he hadn't attended to had completely withered into the soil of their pots. A bundle of seed packets were neatly stacked atop the windowsill the plants lay on, partially covered by wrapping paper. His kitchen was a mess of pots and plates.
"Might as well clean up, huh?" Crucius suggested, appearing by his side.
Zahir nodded, making his way to the plants. Within half an hour, he had replaced the soil in each pot and planted new seeds, taking care to make sure each plant had suitable lighting.
As he began to clean his kitchen, there was a knock on his door. The knocks continued as Zahir hesitantly made his way over.
"You don't need to knock so many times, Lacer!" Eltanin complained jokingly, standing behind the excited titan as Zahir opened the door in front of them.
"'Ey Zahir. I brought her, just like I promised!" Lacer stepped behind Eltanin and hastily pushed her through the door. "I've gotta get to recruiting for the team, so I gotta run." He shut the door, leaving Zahir and the ex-warlock behind.
"I'll fix you some coffee." Zahir broke the silence the instant it began, walking over to the kitchen.
"Oh, okay. Do you remember how I like it?"
Zahir stood still, a cup in his hand. He tried as hard as he could to think to himself.
"That's alright, three sugars." Eltanin raised three fingers, smiling.
As Zahir began brewing, Eltanin took a seat at the kitchen counter. She took a quick sweep of his apartment, noticing just how little it had been visited. The Hive boomer Zahir had stolen and the television it was hung above were covered in a layer of dust. The lights were dim, in need of replacement.
Zahir set a cup before Eltanin and sighed, his distraction gone. "I'm sorry I didn't visit you. The year after the war was… complicated. Though I don't know if that's a good enough excuse." Eltanin's focus was pulled back to him. His blue eyes glowed as dim as the lights in the living room. His arms were spread over the countertop in a display of weakness. He felt all of his regret spill out. "I should have been there for you. You must have been devastated without your light."
"No, Zahir. It's alright. You've changed a lot in a year, maybe for the worse, but I've gone through a lot too. What matters is that you're here now, back in the city." Eltanin assured, leaning forward. Zahir picked his drooped head back up to look Eltanin in her tearful green eyes. "Besides, I had Lacer to look after me."
"That's exactly the problem. I should have visited. Instead, I wasted away on Mars, doing practically nothing for anyone."
"No, really, it's alright. You made a mistake, but now you've owned up to it. You didn't owe me visits. Also, who says that I wanted you to see me like that? Bedridden and in a wheelchair? I looked stupid." She joked, tapping Zahir on the head. The two shared a laugh. Zahir calmed down, though his head still spun with regret.
"Anyway," Eltanin continued, "I have a favor to ask of you."
"Hm?"
"My home was destroyed during the attack, and I haven't been able to find a place to stay." She explained with her head down. "I found work at a library and research facility called the Red Dome, and it happens to be really close to your apartment."
Zahir felt a sense of dread as he realized what she was coming to.
"The short commute would really help my recovering legs out, and I wouldn't have to struggle looking for a place to live if I could stay here." Eltanin looked back up. "So would it be okay with you? I could use the guest room, and I'd help pay the bills and stuff, you know?" Her face was wrought with anticipation, staring at the stunned titan.
Zahir felt his chest shrink. He wasn't sure if he could mentally handle what housing Eltanin would entail. He was still recovering, and he needed time, but he felt trapped.
"Of course… that's fine with me." Zahir managed to say. He ended his internal struggle, going with the answer that his concern for his former student steered him to.
Eltanin's face lit up in joy. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" She hugged Zahir from over the counter. The exo was glad he couldn't cry. It took his all not to be overwhelmed by the emotions instilled on him by seeing his student again.
Crucius' eye cast an array of lights over the shock blade, shutting his scan off as he noticed something peculiar.
"Zahir, I found a string of cloth. It's orange. Was Saiph's cloak orange at all?"
"Orange? No, I don't believe it was."
"Hmm. Perhaps it's Tivik's?"
"It has to be."
Zahir stared the blade down before setting it back on his dimly lit desk.
"Run a search on orange Fallen. We may have our first clue."
Crucius floated still, his eye flashing as he surfed through the VanNet.
"Got it. Just a couple of peculiar reports on Fallen messing around the Tangled Shore. Seems like they were particularly interested in Hive.
"The Tangled Shore?"
"Right. There was a crisis in the Reef a couple of months ago. The Tangled Shore became much more active, and there's supposedly guardians running around in the awoken homeland."
"Ah, the prison break that killed Cayde got that bad? I really have been out of the loop." Zahir set his forehead on his palm.
"Sorry. We'll check it out tomorrow if you want to. We know just where to look. There's a crashed tombship in the area, which is where both sightings took place."
"Right. Tomorrow it is, then." Zahir began to stand up as he shut his desk light off, leaving only the distant moon to light up his room.
Crucius became excited. His guardian hadn't taken up any patrols or missions on his own, only being forced to do so by the mentoring of his new student, the titan Bronze. He felt that the investigation of Tivik was a new spark for Zahir's ambition.
Zahir knelt at the edge of a teetering asteroid, surrounded by the mysterious purple mists of the Reef. He carefully watched the Hive in the distance go about their business. They lumbered around their ship and poked at curious patches of grass on the ground. The occasional Fallen crew drove by, causing conflict, but only the purple clothed Fallen that had been a mainstay in the system for a while now. Zahir took his head away from his sniper rifle's scope, sighing. His joints creaked as he stretched. He didn't know how long he had been watching at this point. The Jetsam had been quiet since the last pike gang clash a few hours ago.
Zahir set his back against a rock and lay his jet black Haake rifle in the dusty pockets of the asteroid. He felt the familiar swing of the giant rock as it was slowly pulled aside by its tethers. Zahir secretly hoped he wouldn't have to spend too much time investigating here. He despised the Tangled Shore, because there was no solid ground below him, only the unrelenting maw of endless space. He thought back to Tivik, compiling all he knew of the Guardian Killer in his mind, and attempted to source a clue from his knowledge out of boredom.
The origins of the name "Guardian Killer" weren't certain, but the rumor was that one day, Tivik stumbled upon a struggling fireteam as a dreg in the House of Devils. After trapping and killing the three guardians, it is assumed the Fallen bestowed upon him the title of Guardian Killer, and that he soon broke off from the house and became a mercenary by the time of Zahir's encounter. Throughout his early career, however, Tivik had not lived up to his name, only killing a few light bearers and working as a common gun for hire for the Fallen until the Red War. Truly, Tivik had only gotten his title by chance, and faded into obscurity. What Tivik had learned that allowed him to go on a killing spree after the war was what Zahir aimed to know at all costs.
"Zahir! I see them! Orange Fallen! Crucius pinged a cave, startling Zahir. Zahir stumbled back to his sniper, aiming at Crucius' direction. Sure enough, two vandals in orange banners peered at the Hive from across the Jetsam, acknowledged each other, and headed back into their hideout. Zahir put his sniper rifle away, leaping off of his perch and onto the ground below.
"What's the plan?" His ghost asked, dissolving into hiding.
"Follow and catch them at all costs." Zahir went into a sprint, leaping up as his sparrow materialized under him. He sped toward the cave in hot pursuit of his enemy.
Tivik may have been operating under the radar, a mere rumor, but the unraveling of his methods began now.
