Chrono Storm
Karina: So… this is where you were?
Jing: You got here before us?
Harley could only nod… she was still looking at Thorn in her hands now… she feared it, yet didn't want to lose it after working so hard to claim it, yet she knew what it could and would do if she kept it… but what would it do to her if she destroyed it? Weapons like these had long terrified their guardians…
Jing: Well before we do anything… that thing… was never a weapon of the light… I was curious and let you hit me with a Void weapon which you somehow needed for it to work… but now we're at the end of a road that proves it's a lot more trouble than it's worth…
Karina: But weapons like that… they have some pact with the darkness and their users…
Jing: She's not the original who made that gun or twisted it into the horrible flesh eating stake spitter… I was there when she found the shell of the damn thing and started shooting Hive for re-empowering it…
Harley merely nodded… but simply handed it out, expecting it to be taken away… the emotional sum total of everything was catching up to her… and right now she was about to part with a prized possession… didn't register with her… no, it was no longer prized… it was the conduit of all her current painful memories and regrets… she couldn't bear to be with it any longer… indeed it was a curse upon existence…
Jing: Well, she knows what must be done with it then, and if she won't or can't…
Karina stood up, towering over her beloved again… she nodded again and put her Spektar helmet back over her head… Jing threw the hand cannon 10 feet away and flared with radiance, throwing fusion grenades repeatedly onto the gun, which stubbornly stayed in shape but was beginning to superheat to a bright orange… as it was jostled around the Vex dimension by the blasts…
Harley: Gggghhhh…
As Jing's radiance wore off, he pelted it with a sleeper simulant shot… the thing finally cracked and glowed green no more… Karina activated her hammer of Sol… and picked up the husk of a gun and tossed it a little in front of her then performed a suncharge into the weapon, disintegrating Dregen Yor's damning legacy into solar particles and ether…
Harley screamed and collapsed as it happened… Jing and Karina rushed to her side… her ghost came out…
H Ghost: Don't worry, she'll be fine… but when she'll wake up I cannot say… the psychic backlash from the gun's destruction won't kill her…
Jing: Well, what now? How did things here happen so that…
H Ghost: I have everything Harley watched… felt or experienced in this place… I can give it to your ghost… and maybe you can find a solution for us… guide the kid home where we failed…
Jing: Do your thing…
J Ghost: I'm on it boss…
K Ghost: Shall I…?
Karina: Yeah, might be a clue or information to help her back up…
The ghosts shared a data beam for a moment…
Karina: I'll tend to Harley for now… see what I can do, you're the most intelligent of us here beloved, I know you'll find the way…
Jing: I will…
His ghost returned to him…
Jing: You have it?
[J Ghost]: Part of me wishes I didn't… this is gritty, gory material… but the gist of it is… you're gonna be operating out of a kid's body… that blue and purple striped one at that… but at least light seems to affect the kid…
Jing: Alright, let me see some of that… and… let's do this.
Jing looked at the little skylight available from above through the kid's eyes… he leapt up as the kid and began to glide…
Jing: Wow, the kid… or the kid's body could be a guardian… it's almost as if I am moving my own… disturbing prospect of mind controlling a child without knowing or wanting to aside… Even if I don't kill anyone… how will they recover from this?
[J-Ghost]: You could show them how to be good or better… testing anything else?
Jing: Voidlock, pull some blinks out… I've reviewed Harley's first sojourn through here… I don't think anything here really deserved to die… but I don't blame her either… when we go out there, nearly everything alive is shooting at us… probably residue reflex…
Jing leapt and did some blinks as a Voidwalker… the kid's body worked just as well… granting the limits of a child's body.
[J-Ghost]: Least you got rid of the darkest conduit here…
Jing: That a bit pre-emptive Jeanie… who's to say our reforged swords won't turn on us or be used similarly? Oryx is probably still alive since we have confirmation this is the past… and the Edges and Exotic swords… their true power lies in willbreaker's heart… Sword Logic even… and… do we really want Oryx or the darkness to find out we'll make or take these in the future? Can they somehow?
He contemplated Bolt Caster for a moment… but the blade surged with light despite still bearing the Sword Logic… perhaps there was no danger… or there was and he was ignorant… even with Harley's video feed and logs… information was incomplete.
[J-Ghost]: I see, you've really been thinking a lot…
Jing: Perks of helmets that add processing power to the brain… ready to meet the flower Jeanie?
[J-Ghost]: Yeah… what are you planning to do?
Jing: I think the flower… Flowey… at that… is a scared traumatized kid deep down… trying to make meaning or reason of everything… but… they'll be shocked into behaving when they see true evil or somebody powerful enough… something he spat out of his own mouth there…
He switched himself to a Storm Caller and practiced another glide… Theosyion Vibrissae's tendrils moved with the air flow…
[J-Ghost]: Kill or be killed?
Jing: Yes… and I'll do my best to understand and navigate this place, and maybe decipher what the Vex want from us or here… and like all we worked so hard for back home… the way we did it is simple to sum up in three words…
[J-Ghost]: Peace through power… ironic you're with dead orbit then… they want the power to run away.
Jing: Indeed… but power isn't just expressed by killing… you have to use it through refinement and precision… and observation of the situation… A big fleet to powerful warships will be nothing but good for the city… and knowing when to imply threat here… can be as good as actually doing it, I'm sure… we'll have to be situationally alert and observant… use anything or any clue or sign… and hopefully make quick decisions that we don't end up regretting…
He switched back to a Sun singer…
[J-Ghost]: You want to wear those Sunbreakers Xur sold which are tier 12 quality instead?
Jing: No… you remember that time me and Karina went to the Echo Chamber Strike with that jerk who flunked out on us and ditched us…
[J-Ghost]: You mean…
Jing: Yes… there's something connecting this incident and that… plus with what just happened on Mars…I'd say these things are going to be a lot more important and useful in ways we don't even know yet…
He stopped focusing on the child for a moment and looked behind him as Karina and her ghost tended to Harley in the dimension Atheon had sent them into… then the fallen human child's body began to walk off the patch of Buttercups and through the door leading to the underground.