Chapter 8

I had no way to determine how long I fell, and no recollection of actually hitting the bottom. The death happened too quickly. I was falling, and then Elgan was resurrecting me. I'm pretty sure I might have bounced off something a few times on the way down, but it was all a bit of a blur. I got to my feet slowly, still feeling some of the effects of the fall.

"Ugh. Zillah? You alright?" No answer, either from nearby or over comms. "Zillah?"

There was no response.

I searched around, but found no sign of her. She must have landed on a ledge higher up or into a tunnel in the wall or something. I tried peering upward, but could see nothing in the dim illumination of Elgan's light.

I tried reaching out again. "Zillah?" No answer. "Elgan, can you reach Feivel?"

"No," my Ghost replied. "I'm not picking up any signals of any kind. There's… interference."

"Wonderful."

I had no idea how far down I was, if I was in an enclosed space or on a path that led somewhere. My daughter had been missing, and now, so was my wife. I needed to keep moving, that much was certain, and my best chance of solving any of my issues was to try to head back up and see if I could find any sign of Zillah. I stepped up to the wall. I couldn't see anything jutting out far enough for me to jump up to, so I sought out some hand holds, and began trying to climb.

There were several points where I could not find a place to grab, so I had to punch or kick the wall to make places for my hands and feet, which made for a slow ascent. Eventually, I was high enough that Elgan's light could no longer reach the bottom, and I felt like I was in a strange sort of limbo. That feeling didn't last too long, however, as a protrusion I was using to haul myself upward broke away, and I fell all the way back down.

I struck the ground hard, and felt a sharp pain as something broke. Elgan swept over me with a healing beam, and then I pushed myself back up to my hands and knees, punching the ground in frustration. I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't recognize the faint red glow that was filtering into the area around me until the voice spoke.

"Failing again, Kid?"

I looked up to see the form of my mentor, and the leader of my first fireteam, Donvan. He was wearing the same armor that he had when I had last seen him. In fact, it still bore the marks from being hacked through by a Hive Knight's sword. He was staring down at me, a look of contempt on his face.

He was also completely red. A phantom.

"Go away," I said, standing to my feet.

"Go away?" the thing pretending to be Donvan echoed.

"Yes. Go away." I stepped closer to the apparition and looked it in its soulless eyes. "You aren't Donvan, you're just another mirage. I've already seen what's going on around here."

"Are you sure?" the thing asked. "I died here. We all died here. Thanks to you. What makes you think we haven't been resurrected again, just by a different power this time?"

I ignored the thing and turned my mind back to the problem of getting back up to the higher level. The image of Donvan suddenly appeared directly in front of me, causing me to take a startled step backward.

"Don't turn your back on me!" it shouted. Donvan thrust his arms forward, knocking me back, and I fell down, caught off guard by the phantom's sudden solidity. "Pathetic. I can't believe I died saving you."

I scrambled back to my feet, glaring at the thing that wasn't Donvan. It still wore the look of cold contempt it had when I first saw it.

"Jaeger was a nice touch," I said, "but this? You think you're the first thing to come along and try tormenting me with memories of my fireteam? I mean, I've done it to myself often enough. Then there was that Taken Warlock during the Red War." I stepped right up to the phantom of Donvan. "You're just a disappointing sequel, lacking anything original."

There was another voice.

"Claney?"

I turned to find another phantom, this one in the form of Sarai, one of the Hunters from our team. "Is it really you? You're okay? Where's Orion?"

I winced at the question. Sarai and Orion had been a couple. When Sarai died on the Moon in The Great Disaster, Orion had not been able to live with it. A short time after our return, he had shot his Ghost and then himself.

The Darkness had to know this somehow, otherwise why try this approach?

"Orion's gone, Sarai. Just like you, and Donvan, and the others." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You're all gone, and there's nothing that can be done about it. But there are others who are still alive, who need me, and I'm going to go find them."

I turned back toward the wall I had tried climbing. The phantom of Donvan still stood between it and me. I stepped forward and walked through him, and began to climb. When I glanced back, they were gone.

I climbed on in silence after that for an unknown amount of time. Every so often, Elgan would zip up ahead, and eventually he spotted a tunnel cut through the rock. Muscles straining, I forced myself to keep going until I reached it. I hauled myself up and sat, taking a moment to catch my breath.

"Any idea where this goes?" I asked the Ghost.

"No, but it does seem to lead upward."

"Now that we've moved, can you pick up any trace of Zillah or Fievel? Or even Aasim or Kieron?"

"Still nothing," he said, giving the Ghost approximation of a head shake, the light he projected swinging side to side.

"Then let's keep going. If this goes up, maybe it will get us beyond whatever is interfering."

So I walked, climbed, and crawled through the dark Hive tunnel, all the while trying to reach out to Zillah without success, Elgan's beam of light bobbing around me. After an unknown amount of time, I noticed a change in the lighting. There was a faint red haze, and a barely visible shadow cast in front of me. One of the phantoms had shown up. I paused and considered ignoring it, but something compelled me to turn and see.

It was Celeste.

The sight of her floating there felt like a physical blow, a gut punch that knocked the wind out of me. My knees threatened to give out for a second before I regained my composure. Even so, I could do nothing but stand and stare. Elgan turned to see what had drawn my attention, and even he was still and silent.

"Dad?" the spectre asked, Celeste's voice, but echoed and distant. "Dad? Can you hear me? The Hive have us surrounded. There's something else down here too, something… dark. Dad? Where are you?"

"No," I managed to get out. "No. I do not accept this. She's not dead."

The phantom turned its head, unfocused eyes turned toward me. "How could you let this happen? Why did you put me in charge? I wasn't ready yet, you had to know that. How could you leave me behind?"

I had no response and stood there dumbstruck as guilt crashed over me in waves. Had I abandoned her? Was her disappearance my fault? She had been ready, I wouldn't have handed the team over if she wasn't. Had I made a mistake.

"Claney," Elgan's voice sounded in my head. "Snap out of it."

"It's my fault…" I muttered, as the phantom continued to hurl accusations.

"No, it's not," Elgan replied. "She's grown and is responsible for herself. Besides, we don't know that she's gone, this could all be a lie."

With great difficulty, I turned my eyes from the ghost of my daughter to the Ghost that had resurrected me. His shell twitched in agitation and he dipped his light so as not to shine it directly in my face.

"You need to keep moving," he said. "For your own sake, for Celeste, and for Zillah."

My "own sake" didn't matter to me much right then, but Celeste and Zillah did. I turned my back on the phantom and continued my journey through the tunnel, one step at a time. The thing followed me, continuing to batter me with words. I had Elgan begin pumping music into my helmet, but it was only partially effective in drowning it out, and did nothing for the doubts in my head. Eventually I reached the surface. The phantom had grown quiet, but its presence still loomed, a massive weight pressing me down.

"Elgan, try to reach Zillah again," I said once we were clear.

"I can't get through to them," he said, but I can detect them again, somewhere in the Keep."

"Mark it," I said, and a moment later, a marker appeared on my HUD. As I watched, it changed position. She was on the move as well. That seemed like a good sign.

I made my way toward the Keep. Despite my urge to hurry, I found I could only work up the energy to trudge forward, the presence of the Celeste-thing weighing me down. Around me, I could hear the sounds of gunfire, and the shriek of Hive. I tried to drown it out, to focus on that beacon and press onward, but that proved impossible.

Between me and the Keep, a large, red orb glowed. It reminded me of what I had seen right before the Jaeger phantom appeared. Near it, I could see other Guardians. They drew closer, and there was a sudden flash of light. Where the orb had been now stood a massive, red Ogre. Upon its appearance, it let out a ground-rumbling roar, and fired its death gaze toward the Guardians gathered near it, sending them running for cover.

The Guardians all opened fire, trying to take down the beast, but their weapons were proving ineffective. Just like with Jaeger. Gathering near the feet of the monster, I could see smaller Hive figures. Some of them were glowing.

Suddenly feeling my lethargy disappear, I rushed forward, and Elgan opened a channel to the other Guardians. "The red Acolytes. Shoot them first. You won't be able to hurt that ogre until you do."

I called on my Light, summoning a Void shield. I used it to swat away Thrall who had charged me, tossing them aside so I could get to the Acolytes. As soon as I struck one, the same red gunk splashed on me as before, and when I tried striking the Ogre, it flinched away from my Light.

More Thrall came screaming for me, and I hurled my shield. It struck one, disintegrating it, and bounced to hit another. The shield ping-ponged its way through four of them before it dissipated and reappeared on my arm. The Ogre brought its death stare to bear again, killing a few of the other Guardians instantly. I brought my shield up, deflecting some of the blast, then flung it at the monstrosity, striking it in the eye.

The Ogre staggered back and roared again, blinded by the Void. Weapons fire sounded all around me, and then the Ogre's head burst into flames. With a scream, it collapsed, then disintegrated. The last few remaining Hive were easy pickings for the others.

"Look whose Ghost is bragging around landing the final blow," Elgan commented privately. At the bottom of my HUD, I saw the ID tag of Silvan Nerisis. Silvan was a Warlock, and, despite her youthful appearance and attitude, someone I had known for a long time.

I'd first met Silvan back at the time of the Battle of Twilight Gap. She had been a child then, but gifted with the Light. A few other Guardians and I had been trying to return her and her father to the Tower when my ship was shot down. Silvan and I had been forced to survive with the entire Fallen army between us and the City walls. Meeting her was part of the reason why Celeste's resurrection had not shocked me nearly as much as it had her own Ghost.

Now that the firefight was over, I was suddenly very aware of the presence of the phantom behind me again. I needed a distraction, so I had Elgan open a line. "Hey, Silvan. It's Claney."

I spotted her and strode toward her, holding out my hand. She had three other Guardians with her. One I recognized as Madrid, a Hunter I'd met during the Red War. We exchanged nods of greeting. There were two Guardians I didn't recognize with her as well. One was a big Titan, and the other was another Warlock. Above and behind them, I thought I caught a glimpse of trailing phantoms.

"Oh, hey," she replied, shaking my hand. "Come to fight Hive?"

If only.

"Not exactly," I said, feeling the spectre looming. This was a mistake. "Celeste is missing. She and her team came up with a previous wave of Guardians, and no one has seen them since. You haven't heard from her by any chance?"

"No, sorry" Silvan replied, shaking her head. "We've been on our own mission. I didn't even know she was up here." Her visor was translucent, and I saw her look past me, noticing her eyes change the moment she registered the image behind me. "We'll keep an eye out, okay?"

There wasn't much to say after that. I nodded, patted her arm just below the shoulder, then turned to make my way back into the Keep.

The blip representing Zillah's position was still moving steadily. Elgan started marking passages that we had been through before that seemed to offer the quickest path to where she was. Unsurprisingly, that took us down deeper below the surface. Wherever she had ended up, it didn't seem like she'd been in an upward leading tunnel like I had.

"I'm picking up Kieron and Aasim-7 now as well," Elgan said, and two more markers appeared on my HUD, each a different color to mark a different target. "Kieron is the closest to us, and, as far as I can tell, only a short deviation from the path to Zillah."

I gritted my teeth. I wanted to find my wife, and did not want to deal with Kieron, but I couldn't very well just leave him there either. "Fine. Lead me to Kieron, and we'll go from there to Zillah."

The mark that had been hovering over one tunnel disappeared and reappeared to the left. I followed that path, hoping that I would find him quickly and be able to get back to the search for my wife. Thankfully, that turned out to be the case. I was not expecting to find him the way I did, however.

Kieron was sitting on the ground with his back against the wall, his knees pulled in close. His head was on his knees, and his arms were over his head as if warding off blows. I couldn't understand it at first, and then I saw his Nightmare.

A red vision of Astrid hovered above him. But it wasn't Astrid as she was today, it was Astrid as she had been before the Red War. As I watched, she seemed to be screaming something at him, and then manifested a flaming hammer, which she threw at him. I flinched, expecting to see an eruption of Solar Light, but the hammer just vanished. Regardless, Kieron flinched as if struck. This same sequence repeated itself several times.

Astrid was Kieron's nightmare? I thought again to the day that I had brought the young Titan to help train, how Kieron had questioned it, and I had let her use him for a demonstration to make a point. Had it really been that traumatic an experience for him? Is that why he hated me so much?

"Yes," not-Celeste whispered in my ear. "Now you see it. He hates you because you failed him as a teacher. Exactly how you failed me. You let him down. You damaged him. He is haunted because of you."

I shook my head, trying to ignore her. It was difficult with the truth staring me in the face, however.

Pushing that aside, I strode toward Kieran. On my approach, the Astrid spectre turned her attention to us. It gave a little wave, waggling its fingers at me, and then disappeared. I stopped when I reached Kieron, looking down at him. He stayed in that defensive position, not reacting to me.

"Kieron," I called out. He flinched. I tried again, "Kieron."

He froze, then slowly unfolded and looked up at me. I held out my hand. He stared at it for several long seconds, then reached up and took it. I pulled him up to his feet. A tense silence followed.

"I'm sorry," I said eventually. His shoulders tensed, and his hands clenched into fists. I expected him to hit me, but after several seconds passed, he relaxed. Whenever it became clear that nothing else was going to be done or said, I turned away, and Elgan marked a path to take to find Zillah. "I'm going to find the others, and then I'm going to find my daughter. You can come with me, or you can go. Your choice."

I started toward the tunnel opening.

Kieron followed.

…

AN

Silvan Nerisis belongs to NetRaptor and is used with permission. Silvan and Claney first met in Net's story "Father, Daughter, and Twilight Gap" which is referenced here. You can see her take on this meeting in her story "Keep of Nightmare and Shadow".