I do not own Destiny or any of the characters.

Voluntold

Hunter groaned as he stood, his body still simulating near-agonizing pain in response to the lasting damage. He groaned, limping to his mirror and leaning against the frame of it, staring at himself. He was mostly recovered, but there were still two holes through his torso, one through his left thigh, and his right arm had a gash through the forearm deep enough to reach halfway through. He sighed, hanging his head. He hated being wounded. He took so long to heal. And this time, not only was his body still damaged, but his armor had been entirely ruined. Suddenly, his entire body began to tingle, the feeling rapidly intensifying until it burned horribly. Then, it focused, centering around his right forearm, left thigh, and the holes in his torso. His head snapped up, eyes going wide as he watched his body seem to turn into a glowing red liquid, like it was suddenly melting, but the red was wrong. It was too angry a red, as opposed to heated metal's bright orange. He watched as the glowing metal spread, filling in the damaged sections before darkening back to its usual black, his body suddenly completely restored. And then, his entire body, excluding his head, lit up, glowing even brighter and burning again. Then, it began to grow. His jaw fell open as he watched it inflate, forming into armor before the light faded. He stared at the armor in a mixture of confusion and appreciation as his Ghost appeared, scanning him and inspecting his new armor. It had gold diamonds in four columns running down the outside of the arms, thick black armor plates on the outsides and backs of his forearms with the backs of it extending, detached, up from the elbows. The armor had thick black pauldrons, a silver chest plate with gold along its edges and a triangle of black in the center of the front, reaching from the bottom to mid-chest. Inside of the black were three white rectangles, all three tilted to his left, leaning on one another. There were a pair of straps wrapping from the front of it on the bottom right and left to the back, then flexible black armor extending from under that to cover his abdomen. There were three small gold faux clasps on the abdomen, a pair of thin gold lines on the outside of his abdomen, making the illusion of the front opening, when coupled with the faux clasps. The fingers of the armor were gold, as were the knee guards and the belt buckle, though the belt itself was black with a pair of white lines running the length of it. The armor's pants were all black with a pair of gold lines running down the front of his thighs before looping inward just above his knees before running back up the backs of his thighs. On the top of his calves were gold plates, there were gold on the backs of his heels and the top of the foot, and the shoes were styled to have a section separating his toes between his big toe and the other four. On the right shin, there was a section of white on the front and the same three-rectangle symbols as on his chest was inside the white, this time with black rectangles. Along with the armor, it had grown a solid black cloak with a gold lattice wrapping around the back of the hood, and then across the back of the shoulders.

"Your SIVA," the Ghost said. "It...responded to your thoughts about armor and formed into armor for you, and healed your injuries. Were you thinking about Sovereign armor?"

"Not really," Hunter said. "But it looks good. I wonder..."

He narrowed his eyes, focusing and picturing his helmet, and suddenly his shoulders began to glow, SIVA flowing up from his shoulders to form his helmet around his head, forming into a Sovereign Helm with a black mask over his face and black visor in the eye slit, a pair of black oxygen filters on the bottom right and left of the face mask, then the rest of the helmet gold. He reached back, pulling the hood up over his helmet and stared at his reflection.

"This is so weird," Hunter said. "I thought SIVA was...I dunno...like a plague?"

"It was," the Ghost said. "Until a Guardian destroyed it."

"Then why is my body made of it?" Hunter asked. "Why is my body not a plague?"

"When I reactivated you, I realized what your body was made out of and took the time to fix them so that they were no longer dangerous, allowing your body to repair itself automatically," the Ghost said. "However, it seems you've learned to control your SIVA now. I scanned it, but it still doesn't seem to be dangerous. I'll keep an eye on it."

Hunter nodded. "Okay. Now that I'm not damaged anymore, let's go weapons shopping."

The Ghost nodded, or the floating ball equivalent, and vanished from sight before Hunter grabbed his Mos Ultima and left. He was mad he'd lost his Auto Rifle, after having spent that long upgrading and modding it to perfection, but he was glad he'd kept the Mos Ultima. He headed for Banshee-44 first, knowing he'd be the best chance to get good weapons cheaply. However, Banshee had nothing worth trading as much Glimmer as they cost, or worth the time to mod into something resembling usefulness. He sighed, heading back toward his ship, only to find Cayde waiting at the Courtyard. Cade walked over to him, holding out another Hand Cannon and an Auto Rifle. Hunter took both and raised an eyebrow. The Auto Rifle was a Galliard-42, specifically the XN7568 variant. It was a decent rifle, but not as good as the one he'd lost. The Hand Cannon, though, was the same model as the Warlock he'd worked with to take out the three normal-sized Hive Clusters on the moon had been using.

"The Hand Cannon is from a Warlock who said she owed you for keeping her alive," Cayde said, Hunter nodding in understanding. "As for the rifle, I made a few modifications after I bought it. It should be about how you like your Auto Rifles, now. Might need a little fine-tuning."

Hunter nodded, smiling. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Cayde said. "I love the new armor."

"Thanks," Hunter said, then hesitated. "I made it myself."

Cayde frowned in confusion before his eyes suddenly widened. "Oohh! And, uh..."

"They're still harmless, as far as I can tell," Hunter's Ghost reported.

"Oh, thank God!" Cayde sighed. "Well, the Vanguard needs to talk to you, so I was sent to fetch you."

Hunter nodded and followed him to the other two members of the Vanguard, who were staring at a holographic map of the section of the Pit of Heresy that Hunter had experienced. He frowned as he realized they had not, in fact, bombed it out of existence.

"There you are," Zavala said. "We need you to tell us what you saw in the Pit of Heresy."

"What did I see?" Hunter repeated incredulously. "What I saw was thirty Guardians being slaughtered like it was nothing. What I saw was an army of enhanced Hive rip apart a small army of Guardians like we were nothing but unprepared Dregs. An Ogre blasted a Guardian and in less than a second they'd erased them from existence. A Knight survived a full magazine from an Auto Rifle, Scout Rifle, Hand Cannon, a grenade, and a couple dozen shots from the most powerful machine gun I've ever seen. Please tell me you're not thinking of sending in more Guardians! You'll be sending them to their deaths!"

"We're not sending anyone," Zavala said. "The Vanguard will be dealing with it personally."

Hunter's eyes narrowed. "Well, I hope you've all chosen at least halfway-decent successors."

"I'm with you on the subject, Hunter," Cayde said. "I tried to make them understand that we need to bomb it out of existence, but Zavala refused to listen to reason and thinks we don't need to do anything that dradtic; meanwhile , kora says she wants to at least see what's there and judge for herself if we should bomb it."

"As I said, I hope you've chosen good successors," Hunter said.

"I had hoped you would show us the way in," Zavala said. "You're the only one who's been there."

"Which is why I'm not setting foot in that cave ever again," Hunter said. "I can show you the entrance, but if you're set on a heroic suicide, that's all you."

Zavala sighed. "Allow me to rephrase," Zavala said. "You will be going with us."

Hunter stared at him, beginning to tremble in rage, then took a deep breath before calming himself. "Fine. But I'll warn you, there were thirty of us before, not four, and we never made it past the first occupied chamber."

"We'll be fine," Zavala said.

"I'll admit, you don't need to worry about being hurt when you're dead," Hunter said. "If that's what you meant, you are correct. When do we leave?"

"Now," Zavala said. "We were just waiting for you."

And with that, he and Ikora warped to their ships. Hunter glared at Cayde, who sighed.

"I'll see you on the moon," Cayde said. "Whatever happens, keep yourself alive."

Hunter nodded, both warping to their ships and leaving the tower.

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