Most of this chapter is focussed on the game's story mission, Last Rites. If for some unknown reason you've never done this mission, go do it before you read!
She woke up in her own room of the Exile apartments many hours later. She sat bolt upright, the afternoon sun beating down through the open windows.
It was all coming back to her now.
Storm.
"Ah, god damn it." she muttered as she stood up, more than a little sore from her adventures with the Titan.
"Are you alright?" Dinkle beeped at her from his spot on the shelf.
"Don't pretend like you don't know, Dinkle."
"I'm just a robot, Guardian. I possess no ability to judge."
"Aren't I lucky." she said sarcastically, pulling on one of her Bones of Eao boots. "We need to go to the Vanguard."
"You're going to take the mission?" Dinkle asked as she pulled on the other boot and fastened it.
"I have no choice. Lord knows why I'm always the one who has to do these stupid things. But if I have to, I have to."
She stood upright and fastened her Dead Orbit chest piece. "Come on."
"Lucy! I wasn't expecting to see you." Ikora looked shocked to see the Hunter coming into the room.
"Yeah, well. I heard you needed someone to go steal a soul and for whatever reason you thought it'd be a great idea to make the one person who suffered the most at his hand go and get it."
Her sarcasm stung everyone in the room, and even Cayde felt bad.
"I know it's a lot to ask." He stepped forward and put an arm around his Hunter. "But it's the only way to get to Oryx."
"Yeah, whatever. Let's just get it over with." she pulled out of his grasp and trudged out of the room. "Have my team at my ship at first light tomorrow." she called over her shoulder.
She hardly slept that night. Her dreams were fraught with memories of her old fireteam, Crota, and now Storm, and Alex.
Alex.
Poor fricking Alex.
She had feelings for him, undoubtedly, maybe moreso than Storm. She had a chance to stop Storm, to say no, but she didn't.
Alex did not deserve that. Neither had he deserved her running out on him.
It wasn't that she didn't want him to kiss her.
It was the fact that she was standing a foot from Brucie's grave that got to her.
She didn't want to love anyone else. Nobody else could even love her like he had.
But it would be a lie if she said that the loneliness of late hadn't gotten to her. And unfortunately, both of them had picked the exact same time to make their move.
Could have at least waited more than 24 hours to get involved with both of them, she pondered, silently scolding herself. Storm hadn't been a mistake, rather just a case of bad timing. The problem now was the inevitable choice she had to make.
Though right now, she had to focus on the job at hand. And hope like hell that neither Guardian found out that she'd been involved with them both.
At first light, she was on her ship and ready to head back to the pit. Dinkle and the other ghosts had been updated with special cloaking technology to help them sneak through Crota's old chambers, which were still filled with Hive. The brief was straight forward - sneak up to Crota's coffin, drink the soul, run away. Easy.
She let a large sigh out as she heard the familiar stomping of the Titan coming up the ramp.
"Hey, Lucy." the Titan said uncertainly as he stepped inside the ship.
"Morning, Storm." she avoided eye contact with him but attempted to sound cheerful.
"Lucy, glad you're alright. After you ran off earlier I..." Alex began as he walked inside.
Lucy leapt to her feet and cut him off before he could continue.
"Let's just get going, eh?" she pushed the Hunter to his seat.
"Wait...what happened?" Storm questioned, his brow furrowing.
"Nothing, Storm. Let's just focus on the mission." She stabbed at a few buttons and put Dinkle at the controls.
"We're going to talk about this later..." Storm grumbled.
"Probably not." her words sliced the awkwardness mounting in the air.
"Alright, Guardians. Let's hope this works. Cloaking."
A moment later, all three were invisible.
"I can't see you. Can you see me?"
"Shush, Dinkle. Let's go." Lucy whispered.
"Keep your distance. They can't see you, but they can still smell you. We can replace Eris's ship, but we can't replace you." Cayde's voice came through Dinkle.
"Cross the chasm. Enter their world." Eris was saying dramatically as the three crept forward, slowly, quietly, hardly daring to breathe.
"A tomb husk. I'll grab it." Lucy carefully reached for the ball, and waited for the large Ogre to stomp past her.
"Careful. I hope they can't see this thing." Dinkle beeped.
"Now." Lucy commanded.
The three crept forward and she placed the husk in the slot. The bridge began to form.
They crept past the remaining Hive.
"You think they heard that?"
"Dinkle, would you shut the hell up!" Lucy hissed.
"The Deathsingers! They are preparing Crota's soul for the next realm. Follow their cry." Eris's dramatic voice broke the silence as they ran down a long hallway.
Things were starting to look very familiar to Lucy once again, and her heart started beating harder and harder. Her breath caught in her throat.
"You okay?" Storm looked over to her.
"Y...yeah.." she managed to stutter. "We have to jump down here." she commented as they approached a large hole.
The two boys jumped down, and Lucy followed, landing softly behind them.
"Look ahead." Alex murmured.
"There are a lot of tombs here. How do we find Crota's?" Dinkle inquired of Eris.
"You'll know it when you see it."
"Well, it's gotta be that one." Lucy said sarcastically, pointing to the one in the center of the platform.
"I think we've found it." Dinkle whispered as Lucy crept up slowly, avoiding the swordbearers walking around. She'd encountered them before, and knew better than to trifle with them again.
"Now drink deep from Crota's death essence." Eris commanded.
"How much do we need?"
"Just a taste."
"I've got it." Lucy whispered as she backed away. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than her cloaking deactivated. Horrified, she looked over at Alex and Storm, who had also lost their cloaking.
"Something's wrong. We're exposed!" Dinkle yelled suddenly, alarm apparent in his little robotic voice.
"Lock for transmat! Get out of there!" Cayde yelled.
"We must have Crota's soul!"
"I've got it Eris! It's fine!" Lucy was suddenly swarmed by taken thrall on either side of the platform.
"They've got enough! Lock for transmat, Ghost!" Cayde yelled again. His voice sounded distorted, and Lucy began to panic. She shot wildly at the thrall, but their teleporting was causing her to miss.
"I can't! Everything is corrupted!" Dinkle's voice sounded distorted too, frightening Lucy even more. "I can't connect! Stay alive, guardians. We've got to make it back!"
Lucy was still relentlessly fighting the Thrall, and Storm and Alex were trying to help, though they were a little more preoccupied with the Taken Hobgoblins firing at them. In the middle of the fray a Thrall hit out at her, knocking her weapon from her hands. She screamed in distress.
"Lucy, JUMP!" Storm yelled at the top of his lungs, and without hesitation she obeyed. In an instant a truth rocket flew under her feet, eliminating the Thrall that had been swarming her moments before. She landed a second later, and scrambled to pick up her weapon, tears streaming down her face under her helmet. She could barely see where she was going, but somehow she made it over to the safety of Storm and Alex. She leaned up against the wall and slid down, uncontrollably sobbing and shaking. Alex ran over to her while Storm kept shooting at their attackers.
"Lucy, Lucy, I need you to hold it together!" Alex held her face in his hands.
"I... I can't! I can't!" she whimpered, clutching onto his arms. He pulled her back to her feet.
"We can do this. We have to. We have to make it out of here!" He let go of her and ran to the door to fire off a tether, just as an Ogre and a Centurion appeared.
"We're screwed." Hellstorm yelled, firing a truth rocket in the Ogre's direction.
Suddenly, Eris's voice chanted loudly. "Guardians, come with me."
"What's happening?" Alex yelled as he pushed Lucy back behind him to defend her from a charging invisible Minotaur.
"Come...with...me..." Eris continued to chant.
And suddenly, the three of them were teleported away, back to where they'd originally started.
"What just happened?" Storm spun around, confused and disoriented.
"It was the best I could do with so little time." Eris's voice came clearly through Dinkle.
"You pulled us out." Dinkle said incredulously.
"One of Toland's tricks. There is nothing I fear more than the Dark, but I will not lose another Guardian."
Lucy collapsed to the ground, shocked and relieved. Storm and Alex knelt down beside her.
"You've imprisoned the last whisper of Crota's soul. It is left to you now. Find Oryx on the Dreadnaught. Destroy him." and with that, Eris signed off.
"Let's get home, Otto." Storm commanded his Ghost.
Alex helped her to her bunk when they boarded the ship, and she closed the sliding door to her bunk immediately. The boys moved to their quarters on the other side of the ship to give her space.
"Think she's okay?" Alex asked, shutting the door.
"No, Alex. She's definitely not okay." Storm snapped as he took off his armour.
"No need to bite." Alex retaliated defensively.
"Sorry. Stressful day." He lay down on the bed, relieved to finally be out of that nightmare.
"What did you mean when you said earlier that Lucy ran off earlier?"Storm broke the long, awkward silence as he heard Alex shuffle in the bunk above him.
"Oh, uh, I found her. On Venus. The same place I found her when we first met."
"What?" Storm said in disbelief. "You found her and you didn't tell me?" Storm sat upright.
He heard Alex climb down from his bunk as the ship bumped to a stop, indicating the end of their journey.
"I um..." Alex hesitated. "I kissed her, and...and she ran off, and then I felt guilty for preying on her in her vulnerable state, and... I didn't know what to do." The Hunter looked at the Titan with woeful eyes, and Storm would have felt pity if he wasn't so angry.
"You did what?" His voice rose.
"It...it was nothing, honestly. I was wrong." the Hunter headed for the door, but when he reached the docks he felt a rough push from behind. In a split second Storm had him slammed up against a wall.
"Don't fucking touch her again." He seethed, locking eyes with Alex.
"What in the hell is your problem, Storm?" Alex wrenched free from his grip, and shoved him backwards.
"My problem is you, getting involved with MY girl." he growled.
"YOUR girl?" Alex laughed. "Since when?"
"Since now. Back off, or there's gonna be trouble."
"You don't get to call the shots here, brother." All the rage built up in the small Hunter was starting to boil over now.
He only just managed to dodge the first swing Storm took, but the second got him square in the jaw.
"Oh hell no..." he muttered, charging at the Titan.
Before long, they were engaged in a full on fist fight in the middle of the Tower docks. Swing after swing was thrown, and they had started quite the commotion. Amanda Holliday ended up paging the Vanguard, fearing for the safety of the dock workers.
"What in the HELL is going on?"
The two men suddenly stopped mid fight, Storm holding Alex by the collar, and Alex about to take his best swing yet.
"Put him down, Storm." Lucy's tone was not kidding around. He hesitated and obeyed, before pushing Alex backwards. Alex took offense to this, and charged at the Titan again.
Lucy ran down between the two and forced them apart, almost getting a fist to the head in the process.
"I said, STOP!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
"Now. What the hell has gotten into you guys? You're best friends, for crying out loud!" she looked at both of them, but neither offered a response.
"Really? You're both going to just stand there?"
"What the hell is going on here?" Lucy was interrupted by a loud, booming voice above her. She knew without looking that it was Zavala, and she cringed.
"Lucy, why is it that whenever there's a scene, you're right in the middle of it?" Zavala sure did sound angry, but she didn't move.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Zavala." she answered.
"Get to your quarters, the three of you. You are all on lockdown until further notice." he yelled. "Now, everyone get back to your duties. There's nothing to see here!"
Without hesitation, the three of them quickly dispersed. Lucy headed up to her old apartment, rather than going back to the Exile suite. She had a suspicion that the fist fight had something to do with her, though she hoped she was wrong.
Cayde was waiting for her outside her door.
"Why the long face, babygirl?" He asked quietly.
She sighed as the Exo pulled her into a hug.
"I don't know, Cayde. Today was awful. We would have died without Eris. And...and I don't know what's going on with Storm and Alex that they would fight like that..."
She felt like crying, but tried to avoid it.
"I know your world is a mess right now. But you did an incredible thing today." he started rubbing her back with one hand.
"I just... I don't know how much more of this I can take." she whimpered, trying ever so hard not to cry.
"You know I'm not going to judge you for crying, little one." he soothed.
"Crying is for the weak." she muttered.
"You know that isn't true. I cry all the time. Usually when Eris says mean things to me." Cayde joked, and laughed as he felt her giggle on his shoulder.
"You always know how to make me feel better. I'm lucky to have you as my mentor." Lucy smiled as she pulled out of his grasp.
"Now, go inside, get some sleep, and in the morning, I'll get Zavala to lift your ban."
"Thank you, Cayde."