Although the fireteam heard thralls screeching somewhere in the ship's halls, they encountered none on their way out. Then they summoned their sparrows and flew back to Spider.
Spider inspected the chitin fragment very carefully before agreeing to pay them the bounty. "Never know when it might be faked, eh? Hive chitin is easy to come by. But the House of Scorn mark is right here, so it's easy to guess who this belonged to. None of the other Barons wear Hive mess." He laughed and dug glimmer out of a chest, carefully counting the glowing cubes into their hands. "Glad you made it back, Madrid. If you didn't, I was hoping to add your ghost's shell to my collection. Such a pretty thing she is."
Madrid said nothing, but his movements turned slow and careful, as if he was working to hold himself back from punching the Eliksni in the face.
The sun was sinking rapidly as they returned to their ships for the night. As Madrid peeled off to go to his ship, he said, "Be ready at dawn tomorrow. We're after Fikrul, and Uldren won't be far behind."
"Are ... are you sure you'll be up to it?" Kari asked.
"I'm fine," Madrid snapped. "The healing circle fixed everything."
Jayesh, Kari, and Nell boarded Kari's ship in silence. It was a relief to pull off helmets and gloves and see each other's faces.
"He's not fine," Jayesh said.
"I know," Kari replied. "But what can we do? We're not his babysitters."
Nell threw herself onto a galley bench and began unfastening her boots. "Madrid hasn't been fine since Cayde died, you guys. And he probably won't be even after we kill Uldren."
"That's what I'm worried about," Kari muttered.
They ate cold rations and hot tea for dinner. As they did, Jayesh said, "Nell, where did you find that music?"
Nell blushed. "I was digging through the Golden Age records one night, looking for something good to listen to. And I found this new category the Cryptarchs had labeled 'speed metal'. It only had one album in it, and I loved it. I've been listening to it on loop. Hadrian keeps it loaded for when we're on boring solo missions."
Jayesh nodded with a grin. "Great idea, drowning out the deathsong. Don't we have to hear the song for it to work?"
"That's the theory," Kari said. "Nobody's ever survived a deathsong. Good thing we didn't let the Mindbender finish."
Jayesh and Kari gazed at each other, then Jayesh put an arm around her shoulders. "That was too close," he murmured.
"It was," she whispered. "I could have lost you the way I lost Rem." They gazed into each other's eyes.
Nell stood up abruptly. "Well, I guess I'll go ... place. Come on, Hadrian." She went off to her bunk, leaving the couple alone.
Jayesh kissed Kari's temple. "As missions go, it was pretty straightforward. Walk in, shoot a target, walk out. Just ... this time was more musical than normal."
Kari kissed him and ran her hands through his hair. "You would put it like that."
He smiled. "It was nothing compared to watching a representation of my soul and ghost be corrupted and devoured by a blight."
Kari hugged him. "Oh Jay ... we haven't even had a chance to talk about that. You used your new power, though."
"I did." He nodded pensively. "The seed made my Light beautiful. Even in the Ascendant Realm, where everything is hideous, my healing sword was amazing. I think it'll only get stronger."
"I haven't used mine yet," Kari murmured. "But I will."
Jayesh sat there for a moment, rubbing her shoulder and staring into space. "The Traveler ... uh ... I guess he gave me marriage advice."
Kari straightened and studied him. "It did me, too. What'd it tell you?"
Jayesh swallowed, embarrassed. "Well, it ... basically told me to defend you the way I defend my ghost. Because our Light is combined. And ... not to neglect our relationship, because it's our own Garden of Light."
For some reason, this brought tears to Kari's eyes. "That's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. It told me ... well, it wasn't as nice."
It was Jayesh's turn to sit up straighter. "What?"
Kari wiped her eyes and wished she didn't feel so stupidly angry at the Traveler. "It told me that ... if I want you to become a leader ... I have to stop leading you."
Jayesh frowned in confusion. "Like ... taking point in firefights?"
"No ... like making all the decisions in our marriage."
Jayesh sat there in silence for a long moment, considering this. "I don't really know what the Traveler meant. I don't mind you doing all the things you do. Managing our affairs and so on."
Kari folded her arms and sat back in the bench. "The Traveler's just a big computer, anyway. What's it know about human relationships?"
Jayesh gazed at her for a long moment, then sighed. "I wish I knew how much it knows. I do know that I'm going to do what it told me. Care for you the way I do Phoenix. Invest in our marriage. You're worth it to me."
And there he went, melting her heart again. Kari sat up and kissed him tenderly for a while. But inside, she chewed on the Traveler's instructions to her and what it might cost to obey.
After a while, they leaned back in the seat, cuddled together.
"Fikrul and Uldren," Jayesh groaned, leaning his head against the wall. "We'll take them out and be done with this revenge mission. Kari, I'm so tired of it. I'm a Guardian, not a hired gun. I want to go home."
"Me too," Kari said. "I know Uldren murdered Cayde. But like you said, Cayde was only the beginning. I keep thinking we're being played, but I don't know who's doing it. The Traveler?"
Jayesh thought about this. "The Traveler has done its best to equip us for what's coming. It keeps talking about the coming disaster and implying that we might not survive. If it's playing us, at least it's being honest. It's the other side I can't figure out. Is Uldren the ultimate evil we've been hunting?"
"I don't know," Kari said. "Mara Sov is dead, right? The Awoken Queen?"
Jayesh shrugged. "From what I've read, they never found a body ... but she may have been Taken with the rest."
"Uldren is her brother," Kari pointed out. "Maybe they're in this together, some evil scheme to ... I don't know. He stole a piece of the Traveler, which still makes no sense."
Jayesh rubbed his eyes. "I'm too tired to think."
Weariness was creeping up on her. "My brain won't work, either. Let's get some sleep."
They sought out their bunks and went to bed, clasping hands across the aisle for a while. Kari was nearly asleep when Jayesh's whimpering awoke her. Across the narrow aisle, he was tossing and thrashing in his sleep, in the throes of a nightmare.
She shook him awake, alarmed. He gazed up at her, panting.
"Dreaming about Taken?" she whispered.
He nodded.
Kari slid down to lie beside him in the cramped space, wrapping her arms around him. "I'm here. It's all right now."
He hugged her tightly against him and shuddered. "They were tearing the Light from your eyes. It won't happen. I won't let it."
Kari shivered a little, herself.
The two fell asleep in each other's arms, and slept that way the rest of the night, their mingled Light keeping the nightmares at bay.
Madrid paced up and down the main hall of his cruiser.
The Mindbender's song still echoed in his head, coaxing, creeping, weakening him. Knowing the alien was dead made no difference. The song was embedded in his neurons. Any time he tried to sleep, the song grew louder and clearer. He found himself curled in the fetal position, clutching his ears.
The evil music was made worse by the whispers. As if the music had opened a gateway, new voices whispered in his mind.
"There is no Light for you anymore." That was Jayesh.
Kari seemed to say, "What a great Hunter you were, Madrid. But all along, you served the Darkness. You're Awoken. It's inevitable."
He thought Rose, his ghost, said, "You really are a murderer. You enjoyed killing those Barons the way they enjoyed Cayde's death."
"No!" he roared, pounding his fists on the walls. "Shut up! I don't have to listen to you!"
The shadows in the corners of the ship seemed to darken, creeping toward him like crawling Taken. The control song in his mind strengthened.
Madrid drew his sidearm and aimed it at the shadows. "Stay the hell off my ship." He squeezed the trigger. The muzzle flash erased the shadows for an instant, then the small-caliber bullet ricocheted off a bulkhead and hit him in the hip. He grunted, the pain silencing the voices and music.
"Rose!"
She didn't appear.
He leaned against the wall, holding the hole in his hip as blood welled through his pants and fingers. "Rosie, come out. I need you."
She was nearby - he could feel her. But still, she remained hidden in phase.
A cruel voice, like one of the Scorn, whispered in his head, "Even your ghost has abandoned you. You are nothing - nothing. But together, we might have worth."
He snarled and clutched his head, digging bloodied fingers into his scalp. "Shut up! I don't want your cursed bargains! Leave me alone!"
He slid down the wall to sit on the floor, his leg threatening to give out. "Rose," he called hoarsely. "Please, come here."
Her voice - what he hoped was her voice - said in his head, "Love, you just attacked the wall and accidentally shot yourself while yelling at voices. You're still holding your sidearm. Are you going to shoot me?"
Madrid holstered his sidearm, wincing at the effort. "I'm hearing the Mindbender's song and it's making me crazy. I won't hurt you, love."
Rose phased into sight near the ceiling, partially hidden by a loop of cables. She peered around it at him.
His own ghost was afraid of him. Madrid's heart unexpectedly hurt.
They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Rose ventured out from behind the cables. "I can heal your wound. And ... I may be able to help your mind. But it won't be easy."
"Can you stop the music and the voices?" Madrid asked, feeling like a child begging a parent to make the monsters go away.
"I can try," Rose said. She flew down and shone a healing beam on his hip, mending the wound and coaxing his flesh to expel the bullet. Once he was healed, she scanned his face. He gazed into her beam, knowing she had to analyze his eyes.
"I may have to tamper with your brain," Rose said apologetically. "Normally, that's something we ghosts promise never to do."
"Will it stop the voices?"
She flew back and forth in front of him, scanning his head. Then she floated in front of him, uncertain. "I can't properly touch your spark. I think the corruption is coming from there, not your mind."
"My spark is corrupt?" Madrid said. "The voices keep saying that ..."
"No, it's not," Rose reassured him. "Your spark is fine ... for now. But you've cut me off from it. I could block the interference if you'd let me back in."
This confused him. "How could I possibly do that? You're bonded to my spark."
Rose started to speak, hesitated, and flew back and forth in the air in a worried sort of way.
"What?" Madrid asked.
"Well," Rose said slowly, "your quest for revenge has blocked me off. It's like a brick wall I can't get through."
Madrid turned his head and stared at the wall.
"See?" Rose said. "You're still cutting me off. I can't help you like this."
He thought of the light leaving Cayde's eyes, watching his beloved Vanguard dying of his wounds on a Light-forsaken prison floor. Madrid had not allowed himself to grieve. Revenge first, grief later. So he channeled his sadness into anger.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Rose said softly.
"No," Madrid said. "Just mess with my brain and make the music stop."
Hesitantly, Rose flew closer and scanned his forehead. Then she flew over him and scanned the top of his head. Madrid waited, wondering what it would feel like.
Suddenly Rose withdrew, shutting off her beam. "I can't do it, love. Your brain's not the problem, and I might cause cascading damage. Just ... take some sleeping pills or something." She disappeared in a swirl of particles.
"Rose!" he bellowed, scrambling to his feet. "Blast you, you good for nothing piece of junk!"
"You don't need her," the voices whispered. "What fellowship has Light with Darkness?"
"Get out of my mind!" he roared, running down the hall. He careened off the back wall, turned and ran the other way. The voices and shadows followed him.
"There is no hope for you, Awoken. You and your people will be consumed. But if you come to us first ... we may be willing to bargain."
Madrid flung open the ship's outer door, leaped out into the freezing cold night, and ran blind into the treacherous landscape of the Tangled Shore.
The next morning, Kari, Jayesh, and Nell went to Madrid's ship, as was their routine before setting off to talk to Spider. To their dismay, the outer door stood open, and there was no sign of Madrid or Rose.
Kari climbed into the ship and explored it, gun drawn. After a few minutes she returned to her team. "Completely empty. He wasn't hijacked by Scorn." She slid the door closed behind her.
Jayesh pulled out his ghost. "Can you detect Rose?"
Phoenix turned in a circle, scanning. Hadrian and Neko did the same.
"About a mile that way," Phoenix said, indicating the sunrise side. "But there's nothing out there. And Rose isn't talking."
Increasingly mystified, the team summoned their sparrows and flew after Madrid's signal. They slowed as they approached, because the ground was broken into treacherous cracks and gullies. At last they had to dismount and continue on foot.
They found Madrid in the bottom of one of these gullies, dead with his neck broken. Rose hovered above him, her core open, but she hadn't resurrected him.
The team gazed at this strange sight, alarmed and befuddled. There were no aliens nearby, no hazards, no hint as to how he had gotten there. Madrid was so professional and died so seldom, they could only think some foul play was afoot.
Kari jumped down into the gully and summoned Neko. "Rose, what happened?"
The ghost gazed at her, her single eye blinking from her tiny core in the midst of her Light. "Well, I was ... I was letting him sleep."
"By leaving him dead?" Nell exclaimed from the gully rim.
Neko opened his core, too, but stopped, looking first at Madrid, then at Rose. "What's happened to his spark?"
"I'm having trouble reaching it," Rose confessed.
Alarmed, Nell and Jayesh leaped down, too, summoning their ghosts. Now four ghosts hovered over Madrid's body, attempting to resurrect him.
"His spark is still there," Phoenix said. "But it's ... what is this thing encasing it?"
"I can't break through," Neko said, circling. "Rose, how long has he been like this?"
"Since Cayde died," she said.
The ghosts looked at their Guardians for a second.
Jayesh ventured, "Is he ... dead for good, then?"
Nobody answered. The ghosts resumed studying Madrid's spark.
Suddenly Hadrian exclaimed, "It's dark ether!"
"Around his spark?" Phoenix said.
"Yes!" Hadrian flew to Madrid's chest. "Rose, help me. We have to purge him before we can raise him."
Rose flew down and scanned her Guardian. "How are you able to detect that? It's like a millionth of a percentage. It could be clinging to his gear."
"I'm part Servitor," Hadrian said. "I know ether. And that dark ether bothers me worse than any of you. The Mindbender must have made him breathe some."
Neko and Phoenix flew closer, trying to pick up a reading.
"I don't detect anything," Phoenix said.
"Maybe I do?" Neko said. "It's extremely faint."
"All together, now," Hadrian said. "Pool your heal beams, head to foot. Go!"
All four ghosts poured healing Light into Madrid's corpse. The combined beams were so bright that their Guardians had to shield their eyes.
Madrid's neck straightened, his head moving in a creepily alive way. A trickle of purple smoke leaked out of his mouth and trailed onto the ground, where it disappeared. His spark lost some of the sheath around it, and the ghosts felt it.
"That didn't fix it," Hadrian said in disbelief. "Why didn't that fix it?"
"He's angry," Rose said. "He hasn't grieved properly."
The Guardians and ghosts gazed at their friend in sudden understanding.
"Let's get him up," Rose said.
The four ghosts poured Light into Madrid. Flickers of Light swirled through his blue skin, and his yellow eyes fluttered open. He lay there a moment, looking at the four ghosts floating above him. Then he sat up and surveyed his fireteam, rubbing his newly-healed neck.
"Did you breathe corrupted ether, by any chance?" Kari asked.
Madrid sat there for a long moment without answering. He folded his arms across his knees. "Yes, I think I might have." He held out a hand, and Rose flew to him. "It's gone quiet, love. What did you do?"
"Hadrian detected a tiny amount of ether interfering with your spark," Rose told him. "It took all of us to purge it."
Madrid sat there a moment longer, just looking at his ghost. Then he dismissed her and climbed to his feet. "Guess we'd better get to Spider's."
As he summoned his sparrow, Jayesh said, "How did you get out here? The door was open on your ship, even."
Madrid mounted the sparrow. "I had a bad night." Then he rocketed away without another word.
The rest of the team followed him, increasingly worried about his stability.
