Author's Note: So, this is where the real fun begins. There's a brief moment (you'll see it) where Ikora heals someone, another Guardian. The reason I chose this route instead of Ghosts doing all of the healing is because I like to believe Warlocks are far more attuned with manipulating Light than the other Classes, and are really good medics when push comes to shove. I also kind of shove a few bits around in the timeline of the lore, including a few events that happened before the game took place, cause come on, I couldn't resist. It's going to happen a lot, so I apologize if you're a stickler for that. Also, Vanguard deserve a chance to have some fun themselves yeah? (Oh, you'll see what I mean.) Enjoy!
A few weeks passed before Matthew was cleared with a clean bill of health. By then, Luna had found herself a job to keep busy; down in the meeting room, she actually ran errands for the Vanguard. It wasn't difficult, just involved a lot of running around, which she was far more used to than others. Luckily, Matthew ended up working for Eva Levante, the older woman happy to have a fresh pair of hands to help around the place.
Currently, she was standing at Cayde's side listening to him discuss orders with another Hunter. At the time she didn't realize why the Hunter's voice sounded familiar, until they chuckled and the air vibrated. It was Odin! "How bad is it?" Incoherent mumbling. "Right. Nothing you can't handle though. Get back in one piece, I'll ready your payment and have Ikora meet us there." Slightly louder mumbling. "Sorry, would you like me to have Bianca show up instead?" The resulting yell caused Cayde to pull back from his Ghost. "Ha! Fine, fine. I'll send the reward down there with Ikora."
He materialized a sniper rifle, jet-black with some kind of webbing around the receiver. "Here." Dumping it, with two pouches, one full of glimmer, the other some form of coins, into her arms. "Hey, Ikora, we have wounded incoming at the Hanger. Mind heading down there?" "Odin?" "Odin." She shook her head. "Come along Luna."
The Hanger was devoid of people; the usual were still here: Holliday, Dead Orbit's representative, and up in the room overlooking them was Future War Cult's representative. From the opening in the hangar came a ship that she recognized as Odin's, only because of the color scheme; it matched his armor. It landed near the staircase they were descending, and the two were met by the sight of Odin dropping from the ship with a gloved hand over his stomach.
Blood seeped from under it, along with multiple other wounds scattered over his arms, but still he stood tall. "Thanks for coming Ikora; the Fallen were far more active out in the Cosmodrome today. I took a few hits before cleaning them out. Hopefully now there'll be a little more space for transporting civilians into the City." Ikora placed a hand on his shoulder and Luna watched in awe as a light shone under them. Within seconds it was like the wounds had never existed. Odin rolled his shoulders and sighed. "So much better. Thank you. I'm going to wash my armor off. Hate blood on my armor."
Noticing Luna, he bent down to take the rifle and pouches from her. "Thank you kindly, Luna." Rustling her hair with his clean hand, he stepped past and vanished up the stairs. "One of these days, that fool is going to wind up in the medical wing." Ikora didn't know it at the time, but her words were true. Days later, Luna was taking a lunch break in the corner of the Vanguard meeting room when Zavala caught word of heavy Fallen activity. "Cayde, Odin was last in that area wasn't he? Can you get through to him and ask for a sitrep?" "Already on it, but the signal is poor. I'll put it on the table." An orb of light floated over the table, static playing back.
"Fallen are moving, and I mean fast, I think" some of his words were swallowed by the static, but they all caught the end of it. " Swarming the Gap!" Cursing, both Zavala and Cayde started calling for Guardians to get to the source of the transmission. Before orders could be followed, an explosion boomed off in the distance. "Shit. Zavala, hate me later, but I'm out!" Cayde sprinted for the stairs, barely getting in the courtyard before he transmatted himself into his awaiting ship.
Not even an hour later, Cayde was back, meeting Zavala's gaze. "A horde of Fallen moved into Twilight Gap. The Crucible wasn't active, so no trainees were harmed, but Odin took a hit. He ended up crashing their skiffs into each other and picked off the stragglers. Haven't seen him that angry in a while. Should have seen that Golden Gun in action!" Ikora placed both hands on the table. "Can you blame him? We all know what happened at the Gap." Luna's voice faintly reached their ears. "What's the Battle of the Gap?" All heads turned to her. "Ah, that's right. You weren't around for that. Ghost, cue it up."
A camera feed appeared on the table. It showed a massive army of Guardians, already battling an even larger army of Fallen. "We fought tooth and nail to hold back the Fallen from taking the Twilight Gap." Ikora looked to the feed with melancholy eyes. "Warlock fires burned bigger and brighter than ever before that night, yet we failed to keep the Light burning for our comrades." Cayde snorted. "The ammunition we spent covering everyone was so plentiful that even I lost count." Zavala's voice was surprisingly quiet. "For the first time in a long time, the wall of Titans fell to the Fallen. That night we saw Guardians become legends. And, we saw Guardians lose things far worse than their lives."
The camera feed panned out to show Luna the Guardians as the Vanguard pointed them out. "Saint-14" A Titan, bashing in the head of a Fallen Kell with his own head. "Osiris." A Warlock, flashing between battles at such speed, to Luna it was like Osiris had made doubles to fill the spaces. "And…" Zavala went silent. Ikora gazed at him, and Cayde finished his sentence. "Odin." The aforementioned Hunter was shown wielding a single hand cannon with another, smaller, Hunter at his side. The two gunned down Fallen left and right. "So many records are lost, including the names of his companions. He remembers them, I'm sure, but it's hard for us to remember every fallen comrade."
As if Cayde's voice had summoned them, a handful of Guardians took up positions with Odin and the Hunter. "What little we know, is that he went into battle with Bianca and four others; two Warlocks, the Hunter, and another Titan. When the retreat was sounded, Bianca showed up with Odin unconscious on her shoulder. She won't give the Speaker answers of what happened out there, and if Odin is asked, he gets real twitchy and his hands go for his guns. Not even their Ghosts will tell us anything. What we do know, is that at least one of them was made into a Gjallarhorn. We assume it to be the Titan. Last I saw, Bianca kept the weapon with her." The feed cut out. "Odin should be resting up in the medical wing. Why don't you go check up on him?"
Luna found him in the same room Matthew once occupied, laying in full armor on the exact same bed. Bianca stood at his side and gave her a smile. "Just carried him in here. It'll be a while before he wakes up." The Titan realized there was something bothering her when she sat down beside the bed without a word. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" "I want to know about the Battle of the Gap." Bianca's head jerked backwards. "The Battle of the Gap? Why would you want to…" Her eyes landed on Odin. "You were in the room when he called it in. The Vanguard told you about it?" "Some. A brief video of the combat, names here and there. I saw a few seconds of your Fireteam."
An overwhelming sadness swam in Bianca's eyes. " Our second Fireteam. The last time all of us stood together...Saw us in action and wanted to know what happened?" That familiar heat rose to her cheeks. "There's so little I know about the man that saved my brother." Moving a chair beside her, Bianca took a seat and held out her hand, palm up. "The audio and video is corrupted at points, so I apologize ahead of time. Cue up the Battle of the Gap." Again an orb revealed to her the sights, and sounds, of the battle. This time it was centered around Bianca, and by extension, Odin. "I need cover!" Static, in place of a name, "get to the center, launch a salvo of rockets!"
The voice was clearly Odin's, but she didn't know who he was ordering to attack. "We didn't have an official leader, but Odin was our de facto leader when shit hit the fan." Her next words got cut off by the sight of the second Hunter enveloping themselves in Light, fire radiating off their body. The hand cannon gripped so tightly in their hands fired once, twice, thrice. "Shit, everyone, fall back! The line just broke!" Panic was setting into Odin's voice now. Out of the sight of Bianca's Ghost came an explosion, static replacing the view. Sound on the other hand, was still going strong. "Salei, grab Ayela! Bianca, Oru! We'll provide covering fire!" The rapid staccato of gunfire overwhelmed his voice.
When the static cleared, Luna saw Bianca cradling the broken form of a Titan. "Oru was the only one whose body we recovered, but that was later." Odin's voice cut through, a hand clamping onto Bianca's wrist. "We have to move! Ayela is burning herself out to buy us time!" Looking up, Bianca's camera caught a Warlock, Ayela, shining as bright as the sun itself. "Ayela lit a fire that could be seen from orbit. The last fire to rage from her, for Salei." Right on cue. Salei's name came through the feed. "Salei, get down! SALEI!" The second Warlock dove behind cover, but only long enough to draw in their own Light. "Go. If she goes down, I go down."
Salei rose off the ground as lightning flew towards the enemy. The two Warlocks fell together, Arc and Solar mixing into one. "Bianca, take my Heavy Ammo, make a hole for us. W-" a burst of static trailed into silence. "That's all there is. The rest is corrupted. After Salei and Ayela fell in battle, the three of us pulled back in an attempt to evacuate. In the end it was only Odin and I, and only because I carried him out of the battle."
Bianca stood and ran both hands down her sides to smooth out her clothing. "Any other questions, before I get back to my work?" "What happened to the other Hunter?" Bianca's hands curled up into fists. "That's...That's something I can't answer right now." The Titan swept from the room, leaving a wake of grief behind her; clearly, the Battle of the Gap was still a touchy subject, though from bits and pieces of conversation, it had taken place countless years ago. For now, Luna turned to Odin's still form.
He jerked, sitting up like she had commanded him to just by eyeing him. "Damn. I didn't think they'd bring me here." Noticing Luna at his side, he spun to dangle his legs over the side of the bed. "Pardon the language." Luna smiled. "Don't worry about it, Johnathon's let loose worse than that before." "It's an old man thing. We slip up way too often." "We huh? Didn't know you were an old man." Odin's bones could be heard popping as he stretched. "Proof enough for ya?" "Wouldn't know it, the way you move." "Young body, old mind. I've been around for a while. Not quite as old as some Guardians."
A chuckle rolled from his throat. "Like someone I knew liked to say, I'm aged like a fine wine." A knock at the door announced Zavala's entrance, the large Titan twisting to fit through the door frame. "Good to see you up. If you're able, the Vanguard have a mission for you." "No offense, but why are you here instead of Cayde? Usually I only get my missions through him." "Because you'll be part of a Fireteam. Two of my Titans require a third, more experienced Guardian. You were the best option." "Fair enough. Where are we off to?" "The Hellmouth." There was an subtle wince from Odin. "Right. I'll meet them in Archer's Line. Luna, give Bianca my thanks." Throwing his scarf around his neck, Odin marched from the room.