Author note: I'm sorry I've gotten so behind on this story. Truth be told, I got busy with life, and then due to medication issues I stopped writing bc I was so sick, and then I got burnt out on Destiny, and then I started writing the Naruto fic I've always wanted to write, yada yada; there's a million excuses and the end result is the same for each of them. I haven't even started playing the new season yet, but I plan to begin this week. I've also been hesitant to write more because once I start I won't stop until there's literally fuck all to write about. It's just the way my brain works, I maniacally pump and dump ideas, and I'm horrible at spacing out chapters once they are written. I'm all like, forget the wait- let's post all 5 today! Which is great, until this happens. So, I'll try to update it more consistently but less often going forward. Hopefully this will prevent me from having content droughts as severe as the one Bungie is currently having, lol. Anyways, if you've stuck with it this far- I appreciate you, and I hope you glean some entertainment from my words.
Amon sat up straight, arching her back and rolling her tense shoulders to try and relieve some of the cramping. The wooden chair she had been provided with wasn't exactly helping with her physical discomfort. A droplet of sweat began to roll down the side of her face and she wiped it away with the back of her hand, only just then realizing how hot the room had become. Or maybe it was just her. She transmatted her chest armor away so that only her black under suit covered her torso, instantly relieving some of the heat. A canteen of water was placed down in front of her and she chugged it greedily while a pair of strong hands found their way to her shoulders and began to work on the knots in her muscles.
When the canteen was empty she sat it down, letting out a refreshed 'ahh' and lolled her head backward to look up at her masseuse. "Thank you," she sighed.
Crow's amber eyes gazed back at her. "Of course. How's the cipher coming along?"
Pulling herself forward, she tried to sit up and examine the maze displayed on the screens in front of her, but Crow stopped her movement and eased her back. "Stop. You can rest for a few minutes. When was the last time you slept?"
She sighed. When was the last time she slept? Maybe it was two days ago...or three. Ghost had, not without protest, been keeping her artificially rested. Although, that only lasted so long. A week at most, and that was pushing it.
"I'm fine," she said, giving him a half-assed grin.
She had been working tirelessly for the last week, ever since Osiris had first received a series of strange coded messages from his obelisks. They ended up, as Amon had discovered, revealing a pathway through the Infinite Forest that leads to a room with a small grave in the center. She had first tried to approach the grave, only to be teleported back to the room's entrance. However, she happened to glance down during her third attempt to reach the coffin and discovered a large hexagonal structure displaying groupings of the same symbols Osiris had received from the Obelisks. On a hunch, she retraced her steps with Crow in tow and discovered that the pattern shown to him was different than the one she saw.
After that Epiphany, Ikora Rey had helped her recruit as many fireteams as were willing to follow that same path and record their individual symbols to send back to Ikora and a team of Warlocks working to decipher the mystery. Amon was not usually one for puzzle solving, but had been dragged into the fray since, according to everyone else, she had a personal history of "being instrumental in these sorts of things." It was moments like that when she truly hated being the Guardian and wondered why she had been chosen, why she couldn't have just been a normal, non-essential player in whatever cosmic game of chess existence had become. Alas, that was not her reality, and so she had sat in front of those monitors day-in and day-out organizing all the pieces into what she now believed to be some sort of maze or map.
The flow of data had been nearly endless ever since they realized that the symbols were changing on the hour. Thankfully word about the great mystery had spread like wildfire, inspiring new and old guardians alike to venture into the forest and provide their own pieces of the puzzle. Amon, Ikora, and the rest of the group had fallen into a semi-efficient pattern, working as an assembly line to catalog, sort through, organize, and compile all of the different maps so that Amon could work on fitting them into the bigger picture. She still wasn't quite sure how or why she had been given such an important role but gave it her all anyway.
"Oh, yeah. It's all coming together. I think. Unless I'm looking at all of this wrong." She pinched her eyes together as the weight of her responsibility hit her once again. What if she did all this work, only to find that she had screwed up or went about it the completely wrong way?
"I don't think you would have made it this far if you weren't solving it correctly," Crow said, leaning down to plant a kiss on her shoulder. "You're doing a great job," he mumbled into the hair tucked behind her ear.
"But what is the point? I feel like I've just dragged everyone into my weird obsession with whatever is in that casket. I don't even know why I have to know."
"Well, isn't that the nature of any mystery?"
Amon leaned her head into his. He had made a valid point, but she still couldn't get over the fear of whatever lie at the end of all this. Worse yet, the lack of anything that they might find. She would just have to continue working and hope for the best. Crow stood up and removed his hands from her shoulders as Ikora entered the office and approached them.
"We've started running into more duplicates than unique codes. I believe we are nearing the end of all this," Ikora said, pausing to once-over the exhausted hunter. Her eyes filled with concern. "How is your progress? I can handle things for a while if you need to rest."
Sitting up straight, Amon beckoned Ikora over to look at the maze she had put together. She pointed out numerous gaps in the rectangular formation. "These are the only pieces missing data. Once those are filled in, I can start trying to map out a route."
Ikora nodded in approval, proud and once again blown away by Amon's ability to adapt to every obstacle they faced. Whenever Ikora heard Saint-14 rambling on about how the Guardian was surely a divine entity, a small part of her wanted to agree with him. Instances like the present one made it even more difficult not to believe in Saint's enticing and grandiose postulation.
"Excellent. I've just sent Lord Shaxx and Commander Zavala on a mission to collect sustenance for us all- I will make sure he brings enough for you as well.
Amon raised her eyebrows at the warlock. "You seriously convinced Zavala to play errand-boy?"
"There are only two things Zavala is afraid of. I am one of them." Ikora chuckled to herself, turning to go check on the other warlocks, and Amon called after her curiously.
"What's the second thing?"
Ikora paused, unsure if she should reveal the Commander's private fears or not. She looked straight forward when she answered, facing away from the Guardian.
"You."
Frowning, Amon asked herself if she had heard Ikora correctly. If so, she wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Why would Zavala be afraid of her instead of, say, the literal fucking Darkness?
"Smart man," Crow mumbled from behind her. Amon spun around in her chair to gape at him.
"Am I really that scary? Geez."
He looked down at his feet. "Well, your influence certainly is. If we didn't have you standing between us and the Darkness…" he trailed off, shuddering. "Who would have defeated Crota if not you, Amon?"
She didn't have an answer and was perturbed by that fact, as well as the fact that the entire weight of the solar system and of human existence was seemingly on her shoulders. Shaking her head slightly, she decided to lose sleep over that notion some other time.
"I should get back to work," she said. "You can stay if you want, but I do need to focus." Amon almost felt bad for dismissing him, but she was beyond ready to have the mystery solved and done with, and knew she would not be able to concentrate properly if his presence was tempting her. To her chagrin, he made himself comfortable on top of a short file cabinet in the corner of the room. She was contemplating telling him to leave when Kajika, one of the Warlocks she had been working with, entered the room.
"Waya," she exclaimed, "we've been matching dupes for the past hour. I've just sent the last of the unique pieces to you. We'll keep checking, of course, but that should be it." Kajika was moving her arms about manically as she talked, her eyes flitting over to the figure in the corner once she stopped. "Ah, hello goh-gun."*
*Waya(wahya)- wolf, Go-gun(go-gv)- crow; Cherokee(Tsalagi)
Crow returned the greeting, and they engaged in light conversation for several minutes while Amon pulled the data Kajika had sent her. As the two intruders argued about sniper-rifle perks, she began quickly connecting the remaining pieces together. Amon only needed two more areas on the map filled. She bit her tongue as the last piece fit into place. Now was the real task- mapping a route through this thousand-piece maze.
"Kajika, Crow," she called out. The pair stopped arguing and looked over at her. "I need you to be quiet. I'm almost done."
"No way!" Kajika exclaimed, moving behind Amon to watch as she began tracing a path. Crow joined her, placing a hand on Amon's shoulder and watching intently. It did not take long to find the route, and Amon began frantically transcribing each symbol the line passed through.
Clover, diamond, snake, clover, plus, plus, hex, hex, hex, plus, diamond, plus, snake, diamond, clover, snake, plus, plus, snake, snake, hex, diamond, clover, plus, diamond, hex, hex, diamond, plus, diamond.
"Holy shit," they all said at once. Amon sat back and rubbed her temples, stalled by shock as she contemplated her next move. The room was silent as she stood and transmatted her armor back onto her person.
"Ghost, get the ship ready."
"Guardian, shouldn't we alert Ikora?" Ghost responded.
Crow grabbed her arm as she began to leave the room. "Hold on a minute, I'm coming with you," he said, darting back to the corner where he had left his rifle.
"Wait, I want to come too!" Kajika said, chasing after Amon and her poor Ghost who was muttering indecisively to himself.
Amon threw open the door and ran right into Ikora, nearly sending them both onto the floor. Unfortunately, the sack of food Ikora was carrying was not so lucky, the smell of tomatoes filling the room as orange soup burst into a puddle on the floor. "Shit, sorry," she muttered.
"What's going on? Have you finished the map?" Ikora asked, ignoring the mess.
"Yes, and we're going-" Crow started, before being cut off by Amon.
"I'm going first. Alone."
"Guardian," Ikora began, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
"We don't know what is at the end of this thing. It could be a trap. What if something inconceivable is waiting? It's too risky. I have to go alone."
"That's precisely why you can't go alone, Amon. You could die." Crow said.
She turned to face him. "If there is something dangerous in there...well, you said it yourself. If I can't kill it, then who? We're doomed anyways, if that's the case."
Ikora looked between the two in confusion while Kajika pouted and went to fetch a sweeper-bot to clean up the spilled soup.
"Crow, she does have a point…" Pulled Pork said, surprising them all. "Man, Ghost is so brave!" Crow sighed in exasperation as the two women snorted.
"Ghost, brave...that's a new one." Amon chuckled. Ghost glared at her with his one eye.
"Hmph. A little appreciation would be nice," he said.
"Shh, little light," Amon replied, adding to his annoyance by using his least-favorite pet name. "Let's go." She shoved past Ikora, leaving her and Crow behind.
"Guardian, wait!" Ikora started to go after her but stopped, cursing to herself. "Be careful!" She called out.
Crow, determined not to be left behind, chased after her, finally catching up to Amon as they entered the hangar. Saint watched the pair from afar, unaware of the situation.
"Come on, babe, I can't let you do this alone."
Amon felt a flutter in her chest at the use of the pet name. She wanted to question him about his sudden usage of the word, but that would have to wait. Flustered, she placed her hand on his chest and pushed against him gently, not forcing him away yet.
"Yes, you can. If something happens…" she trailed off, suddenly aware of her growing anxiety. "I can't lose you. Especially not over whatever this is."
Understanding, Crow placed his hand over hers and squeezed it. "Ok. Just keep your comms open, please." He barely fought the urge to follow her as she walked away from him, remembering the last time she had left him behind and feeling depressed.
When Amon's ship departed, Saint walked over to comfort the distraught hunter and to ask him what was going on.
I made it.
Amon entered the timelost vault and approached the tomb warily, waiting for some Vex abomination to jump out of the white abyss. Gripping her Ace tightly, she inched closer to the center of the room, finally getting a good look at it. A shiver ran down her spine as she scanned over the ghost shell lying at the hilt of the sword that had been laid on top of the stone coffin.
"Guardian, that's...that's my old shell." Ghost whispered, hovering close to her ear.
She stumbled back, cocking her gun as a voice boomed at them, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Amon swiveled around frantically with her gun trying to find the source as the voice began to speak.
"Thank you for coming. We've gathered here today to celebrate the life of my mentor. My inspiration," the voice echoed.
"That voice," Ghost started, "it belongs to Saint!"
Saint- well, a voice that sounded exactly like Saint- continued. "They called her Crota's End. The Hivebane. Kingslayer. The Young Wolf. The woman who avenged Cayde-6. She had a hundred titles I cannot recall."
"Guardian, he's talking about you…" Ghost trailed off, confused, and Amon lowered her weapon. She listened intently.
"And she died doing what she does best. Defending the Last City of humanity," Saint said, his voice full of grief and admiration. Amon's heart began to race, her breath coming in increasingly shorter gasps.
"Ages ago," he continued, "she saved my life. And then inspired me to save myself. I am glad that she did. Because, Traveler help us, she is gone. And there is no one to save us now." He paused, and Amon felt as if the silence was trying to consume her, to snuff out her light.
"On the day we met, I decided I would follow her example. I'm still trying. I've marked this grave with one of her favorite weapons, shattered in that final confrontation." Her eyes darted to the grave, and then to the hand cannon caught in the death grip of her palm.
One of my favorite weapons?
"It used to be mine. All who find what we've left here – please leave it be. Unless…unless you're still out there somewhere. You've performed miracles before. In which case, take it. And come back to us. And we'll kill what killed you. Or die trying." Saint's voice echoed before finally fading back into nothing.
Dropping to her knees, Ace clattered to the ground as Amon clutched at her chest. Sharp, stabbing pain followed each wild beat of her heart, and she breathed with such ferocious labor that she feared a scream might tear its way out of her lungs. The room spun, blurring into the infinite, as the ringing in her ears rendered all thought into incoherent drivel. Amon gasped for air as every nerve-ending in her body set ablaze, falling forward onto her hands. Her arms shook wildly, spine repeatedly bending and snapping straight like a bow as she struggled to take in oxygen.
I'm going to die.
"Guardian, I think you're having a panic attack," Ghost said as he scanned her body. "I need you to count your breath. Four in, four out."
One, two, three, what did me in?
Amon coughed violently as she choked on the air.
One, two, three, four, one, two, what about everyone else, who died, who did I fail, who did I fail, I failed, I'm going to fail
"Guardian, please, focus on the numbers!" Ghost wailed as she collapsed. He couldn't 'heal' a panic attack- it was something she would have to ride out on her own. As if faced with the biggest door in the galaxy, Ghost felt utterly useless as he watched Amon come apart at the seams. At least if she asphyxiated herself or had a heart attack he could revive her.
I'm going to fail, two, I can't save them, four, I'm afraid, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four-
Finally she pushed through the intrusive thoughts and began counting her inhales and exhales. After a minute, the sharp pains began to subside, as did the fire coursing through her nervous system.
I don't want to die.
Amon rolled onto her back, hands placed on her stomach as she closed her eyes and faced the truth. She was afraid of death. If she died, there would be no one else to save them from the darkness.
"Amon. You mustn't think so little of everyone else. Not everything is up to you, you can't keep thinking like this!" Ghost spoke quietly, trying to mask his anger towards her.
She pulled herself to her feet and faced the tomb without saying anything.
"Guardian-"
Ghost was cut off by a scream Amon gathered solar light into one fist and punched the tomb, obliterating the stone lid. He watched in awe and terror as the explosion sent chunks of its remains tumbling into the base and out onto the floor.
"You shouldn't be able to do that," he said, referring to her impromptu use of mortar blast. A titan class ability that took quite some time to learn.
Amon replied through gritted teeth. "We just heard Saint-14 give my fucking eulogy, and you're more concerned about me using a titan ability?" She spat out the words, kicking the rubble.
As the gravel shifted, a shimmering, purple, spherical contraption rolled out of the area she had assaulted. The central sphere pulsed with void light, and concentric silver rings spun around it as it moved. Amon reached down and picked it up, wordlessly holding it out so that Ghost could analyze.
"I'm sorry, Amon. I don't have the luxury of limbs, or any way to vent out emotion other than by word. I learned that it's much easier if I just don't react too much to things...things like what we just heard." Ghost sounded genuinely hurt as he scanned the item.
"It's okay, Ghost. I shouldn't have snapped at you. I'm sorry." She paused, tilting her head to the side. "C'mere."
Ghost hesitated a moment before stopping his scan to nuzzle softly into the crook of her neck. It was their way of hugging. Amon let out a sigh as he let out a purr-like buzz.
"So, what is this thing?" She asked.
"I'm not exactly sure. Some kind of weapon core. I think we should bring it to Saint."
Amon's stomach turned. She couldn't tell the other's what they had heard. What if they began to doubt her?
"I think you're right," she responded, closing her hand around the core and sifting through the rubble to find Ace. Finding the hand cannon, she picked it up and dusted it off against her thigh before holstering the weapon.
"Let's get out of here."
