Vault of Glass Part VIII

Aegis of the Light


There was no sound.

Explosions were rocking the world around her, all but shaking it apart but all Crona could hear was a faint ringing and the sound of her own ragged breathing.

Aro. Daniel. Gone. Really gone.

This wasn't real. It couldn't have been.

This was a bad dream. This whole thing was a bad dream. Any moment, Crona would wake up and all would be fine. She'd be in bed, no one would be dead and-

A Void energy blast landed at her feet. Crona felt herself lift off her feet and go flying backwards, slamming into one of the pillars. She groaned weakly as she slid to a sitting position on the ground.

This was real. Try as she might to deny it, to wish otherwise, this was real.

It was inevitable, she supposed. They knew what they risked coming in here and still they came.

She could still feel Aro's force push against her chest and Daniel's weight brushing her shoulder as he took three bullets for her without hesitation.

So like them to waste their last moments saving her life.

The same thing happened on the Moon. In the half second before Gluttony's massive arm could drop on top of them, Aro pushed her and Kayla out of harm's way. The fact that he came back after was nothing short of a miracle.

Lucky, Ikora had called it. They were lucky to leave the Moon in one piece, much less victorious.

They pushed that luck by coming in here and they were all paying for it now.

Still against the wall, Crona looked up to see purple light filling her vision, to the point of blindness. She felt her entire body go start to go slack.

Then something hit her from the side, hard and fast. It moved her out of the path of Wrath(K)'s attack, which smashed against the stone wall, toppling it over.

Erek rolled with her and shoved her forward, roaring commands and insults for her in tandem. It was pure instinct that had her running for the nearest cover from fire. She dropped down behind a wall, Erek sliding in after her.

"Crona." Erek's breathing was halting and ragged. Like before, after he came face to face with one of the Gorgons; the man was mere moments away from another panic attack. "Crona, what do we do? We-" He yelled when a blast hit too close, "Crona, we need to get out of here!"

Crona's voice came out as a croak. "How?" She let out shuddering breath, "The Vault's sealed. We can't leave. We can't…"

"What do you mean 'we can't'?! There has to be something, Crona, anything!"

"Damn it, there is nothing!" she screamed. She clutched her head in her hands. "There is nothing. There's…" she let out a weak sob, "All we can do…"

"Crona,"

Her Ghost. Another she's failed. "Sol. I'm…I'm sorry. I-I tried. I-"

"So you're giving up? After everything?" The hurt in his voice shattered what was left of her heart.

"Sol, there's nothing we can-"

"Crona, I don't want to die in here," he said, "Ever since I first met you, we've come so far. This cannot be where everything ends. We can't give up. We're stronger than this! You're stronger than this, you know that!"

"Sol, without Daniel or Aro-"

"We didn't come in here for Aro!" Her Ghost burst out angrily, overshadowing the explosions, "We didn't come in here for him. He gave us chance after chance to drop out of this, no questions asked and each time you considered, you decided not to. And it was never for him."

The Ghost's voice dropped down, barely above a whisper. "If we have to die in here today, then so be it. But we haven't accomplished what we risked everything and came in here to do. That sunburst mark on your shoulder." Crona clutched her left shoulder on instinct, "It means we stand until the last man. We keep fighting until things become better. I'm not ready to give up, Crona. And I know for a fact that neither are you."

His words rang within. Past the pain and the grief, they resonated deep.

"No," she gasped, barely realizing she was talking out loud now, "I'm not."

Crona suddenly slammed her fist on the ground, cracking the stone. "I did not lie to my father, my brother, my mother, my entire family for it to end here. I did not suffer the Templar and the Gorgons just to roll over and die!" She jumped to her feet, shoved Erek behind her and hastily threw up a Ward of Dawn, narrowly blocking Wrath(K)'s attack.

The Void dome cracked on impact. Erek ran up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and yanked backwards, Blinking out of the dome before the second attack could shatter it.

The force of the crash and Erek's momentum sent them rolling, both skidding to a stop. Crona groaned as she rolled onto her stomach and got to her feet again.

Kayla came running in from the side, leaping and gliding while Wrath(K)'s blasts slammed against the structures around her. She fell to the ground and rolled into cover with them.

"Do you both remember what we talked about? What we'll do when we get out of here?" Crona asked, her voice soft but unwaveringly strong.

One of the blasts hit close. Erek flinched. "I seem to recall you wanted a bath," he intoned. He sounded so tired.

"I'm not dying here." Crona peeked over their cover to see Wrath(K) taking slow, stomping steps closer. "If I'm to die, it won't be here. I'm going home. I'm going to have that bath and run up your sister's water bill. She'll have to charge me by the time I'm finished." Erek snorted out a laugh. Crona found herself doing the same.

"I'm going to go home. I'm gonna get yelled at by my father." Tears started to well in her eyes, "Then I'm going to hug him and tell him that I'm sorry but I had to do this. We had to." She let out a shuddering breath, "And we're not done. Not yet. Aro and Daniel or not, I'm going home with Asura and I dare even Pride to stop me."

Wrath(K) appeared over them and brought one monstrous foot down on their heads. Crona threw her hand up and activated the Aegis, it's shimmering dome spreading out around them and stopping them from being utterly crushed.

"I'm going to go for Wrath(A)!" Crona announced through clenched teeth. The Exo had climbed to the top of one of the shorter pillars, coldly regarding the battle before him from above. "Can you two keep the big Wrath off me?"

"We'll be spread thin," Kayla pointed out, "Without Daniel…" her voice cracked, "Or Aro…"

"They brought us this far," Crona said, somber, "They'd want us to take it the rest of the way. For their sakes."

She turned to look back at the gate, mind far away now"What if I could reopen the gate? Get them back?"

The shield wavered. Crona just barely reestablished her concentration before Wrath(K) could break through. "Kayla, this isn't some Fallen comms tool or Golden Age tech, this is Vex! Vault of Glass Vex!"

"I'm a Warmind!"

"You said it yourself, we're spread thin as it is!" Wrath(K) slammed down on the barrier again. Crona fell to her knees, feeling a warm drop of fluid slither down from her nose, "Kayla, I know this is hard to accept but-"

"We didn't accept it when Asura was dragged in here!" Kayla burst out before seeming to remember herself. Her voice came out softer when she spoke again. "Look what we've been through. If there's a chance, Crona, any chance, shouldn't we take it?"

Kayla was right. Crona was prepared, steeling herself to let them go that she hadn't even considered the possibility. Just thinking it felt like false hope, like she would just be setting herself up for further heartbreak.

On the Moon, the horror and grief she felt when Gluttony swallowed him and even the Ghosts couldn't track his Light haunted her for days. But when his Light came back, when he burst from Gluttony's mouth, as bright and as powerful as a star, when Varik's "Dragon" made its first appearance, the relief and hope she experienced remained with her even longer.

Ikora was right when she said they were lucky to survive that fight. It was nothing short of a miracle that brought Aro back and saved them all.

When she had spoken to him about it, long after the nightmares stopped, he had talked about Gluttony. The man, Toland, not the monster. It was him who helped bring him back from the brink.

Kayla was right. A small a chance was still a chance that should be taken. Miracles can happen. But sometimes they require a slight push.

And she'd be damned if she wasn't going to push.

Crona turned to Erek, who had been silent throughout the exchange . "I know it's asking a lot. But Erek, can you hold Wrath(K) on your own?" she asked. Wrath(K) brought his arms down on the shield. The light shuttered at the impact.

The Hunter silently stood and drew his knife. A humming edge of Arc Light extended from the blade point, nearly touching the ground. "Crona, you get us out of this, I will draw that bath for you myself."

Despite her exertion and fatigue at keeping the barrier up, Crona smiled, "I like salts with my bath."

"You like purple?"

Her last moments with Z and Akira flashed in her mind. Her smile grew wider, "I love purple."

"Then I'm going to need cover," he ordered, switching the knife to a backhand position. "I'm ready when you are!"

Wrath(K) raised his arms again. In that second, Crona dropped the barrier, pushed her Light into the Aegis and fired off an attack. Wrath(K) recoiled on impact and without giving him time to recover, she slammed a lightning filled fist to the ground. The blast caused the massive Herald to stagger backwards and more importantly, throw up a cloud of dust, shielding the Guardians from view.

Kayla moved behind Crona and put her hand to her shoulder. "All you, Erek. Good luck."

Kayla and Crona disappeared. Wasting no time on frayed nerves, Erek jumped out of the cloud, blade raised high over his head. He landed on Wrath(K)'s arm swinging past, buried his knife within the metal and held on for dear life.

Wrath(K) could see him. The Herald brought his arm up high, intending to slam it and Erek back onto the ground. But at the height of the swing, over the enormous head, Erek ripped his blade out and let himself fall. Wrath(K)'s other arm started to move up but was too slow. Erek landed on his head with his blade sinking to the hilt.

Wrath(K)'s furious roar shook the entire Vault and Erek grinned.


"If it was anyone else but them, their tenacity would be inspiring," Wrath(A) mumbled to Asura, reclining atop the pillar and watching the fight unfold. The Awoken, Erek, has gotten himself up to Wrath(A)'s face and managed to land a serious blow. All in all, he was impressed as well as irritated.

"A shame Aro and Daniel had to wait out this fight," Asura shot back, "But I guess the fight needed to be fair in someway right?" After all that had just occurred, how he managed to be as smug as he was was just as impressive and infinitely as irritating.

They had been warned. They knew the risk and now they were paying the price. Aro would have to live with the fact that he led these fools to their deaths for the rest of his days.

But still they fought. Even without their leaders, they did not remain on the defensive in the face of Wrath(K)'s onslaught; they took the fight to him. And they were doing it for…

Wrath(A) quickly crushed any emotions the thought had caused to well up in his chest. If Asura or Spirit noticed, they shockingly made no comment.

Kayla came back into view, after spending the last minute out of sight. She gunned for the portal in the far back; the one Aro and Daniel had been thrown through. Sliding to a stop, she let out her Ghost, who immediately began to interact with it. "What is she doing?" He muttered aloud, standing up.

"If I'm guessing correctly," Spirit spoke this time, the Ghost taking on her Guardian's arrogance, "She means to reopen the portal and bring Aro and Daniel back."

Wrath(A) brought his hand cannon up and carefully took aim, one red eye shut. "Not if I have anything to say about it." He trained his sights on the Ghost, rather than the Guardian and slowly began to press his fingers down.

"She shouldn't be your main focus right now." Spirit's sudden voice interrupted his concentration.

"What?"

Asura was almost beside himself with glee when he spoke again. "Incoming."

A line of bullets ran up the pillar he was standing on. Wrath(A) abandoned his shot, jumped before they could make contact, descending and landing hard on the ground.

Crona stopped firing, the large red and white machine gun smoking in her hands before disappearing. The mysterious Light shield reappeared on her arm. Wrath(A) spread his arms out, "Here to fight? Never seen anyone so eagerly attend their own beating."

Crona wasn't having it. Her shoulders were tight coils, evident even under her heavy armor. "I'm not here to play games with you, Wrath. I'm here to take you back to Earth."

"And ah, how do you plan to do that?" Wrath(A) asked, enjoying the way her shoulders tightened even more, "You're not Aro. You realize that, right?"

Crona's shoulders relaxed. Her tone took on a softness that it hadn't possessed before. "You're right. You're right, I'm not Aro."

He looked her up and down, trying to guess her game. "Then you know you have no chance against-"

He didn't get to finish. Crona flew at him. No running start, no jump; she shot forward like a ballistic missile taking flight, Aegis arm drawn back and crackling with thunderous Arc lightning. Wrath(A) barely managed to duck in time, tucking and rolling out of her way. He flinched and when she slammed into the pillar he had been on top of, causing it to fall over.

"You're right. I'm not Aro," she said again. Her voice was now low and dangerous. Every bit as forceful and threatening and as commanding as her father. "Unlike him, I have no interest in bringing you back peacefully. You've proven yourself beyond that."

Wrath(A)'s gaping eyes narrowed into a scowl. Something panged in his core.

She brought up her shield arm, pointing the tip at him. "I came into this Traveler forsaken Vault, I lied to everyone I cared about to get my friend back and that is exactly what I am going to do!" She roared over the thundering of her own Arc Light, "You're coming with me, Wrath! And it'll be in pieces if that's what it takes!"


Short chapter, trying to jump start Crona's main characterization. I like her as the bulwark against the Darkness for her team, the one who pulls herself and others through even when everything else seems hopeless

She'll need to next book