Io was the last place the Traveler had touched before the collapse of the Golden Age, its interrupted terraforming process left the plant life in an unnatural stunted state after it was abandoned, making it difficult for voyagers to ever settle here. During the Guardians' rise to power, the moon became a pilgrimage site, many coming to visit the mountain overlooking a crater left behind by the Traveler. They came with the hope of finding answers to their many questions, though Frea wasn't sure if they found anything besides the annoying Vex that swarmed the moon.
The huntress looked up after she materialized out of her jumpship and landed in the dust. Ikora stood at the edge of the green mesa, her hands neatly folded behind her back. Her posture was proud and tall, but Frea could see the slightest shake in her shoulders.
"Of all the places I've been in all the years since my rebirth, this is where I return," the Warlock started, not even casting a glance at her new visitor's direction. "The last place the Traveler touched."
"Searching for those answers?" Frea inquired.
Ikora nodded slowly. "It's been days, and yet I still stand here with nothing."
"Commander Zavala is forming a resistance and he believes-"
"What good is a resistance when you are the only one who would survive?" She cut off the huntress, finally turning around with bitterness lined in her voice.
"If I could fight Ghaul alone...I would." Frea squared off her shoulders, standing taller. "But one Guardian isn't enough to take down an entire army, I need help. And the others, need you."
The Warlock Vanguard averted her eyes for a moment. "I believe this Ghaul creature must know the Traveler blessed this site. I believe he sent his Legion to find something they could possibly never understand. And I believe they will continue to desecrate all we hold sacred." She took a steadying breath, her features softening as she looked back at the huntress. "Frea...save this place, do not squander this second chance."
"Of course, whatever you need."
A roar of engines overhead made the two of them glance at the sky. Cabal Thresher ships soared over the horizon, all of them heading away from one direction as if they were trying to escape from something. Frea didn't have to ponder why for long as the sky suddenly erupted with pure white light, far brighter than the sun, the shockwave left her skin tingling.
"What...," Ikora's face dropped as she cupped her fingers over her mouth. "Energy...the Traveler's energy. What have they done?!" She sputtered. "This is my fault. I could have stopped this."
"Don't blame yourself, you may have died without your light," Frea softly said, reaching out to give the Warlock a reassuring pat.
"I am more than just my light! I should have at least tried," she snapped. "But...all these years dying, being reborn, dying again. The Traveler has left me with one life, and I am afraid to lose it."
The huntress froze, her hand still hovering, and then slowly retracted it. Ikora was a difficult woman to talk to, and even more impossible to read than Shaxx, soothing words felt empty at this point.
Thankfully, her Ghost appeared in the air next to her shoulder, cutting the awkward tension. "If we don't stop Ghaul, then that might happen anyway. He has a weapon that can blow up our sun."
That got Ikora's attention again. "What?! Why would he destroy what he's worked so hard to conquer?"
Frea shrugged. "Not even the Commander knows why."
"Hm..." Spinning away from the edge of the mesa, the Warlock Vanguard returned her focus to Frea. "There's a Red Legion base to the north of here. Get to it, then perhaps we will find answers there."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Thank you, Frea. I'll be in touch." When Ikora moved to walk past, Frea stepped in her path to stop her.
"Um...may I ask you one more thing?" She anxiously wrung her hands together.
"Certainly, what is it?"
"Is there any chance that Dex is with you? He and I split up near the Speaker's quarters during the attack on the Tower. No one has heard from him since."
Ikora's brows knitted together. "He found me and was a great help in getting many of the refugees out safely, but we got separated in the City after the Traveler's light vanished. I don't know where he is now. I'm sorry."
"I-I see," Frea stuttered, her gaze dropping to her feet. "Thank you anyway."
A weight touched her shoulder and she flinched, looking up again to meet the Warlock's eyes. "Dex is one of my best Voidwalkers. I have no doubts that he is still out there, surviving."
Shrugging off Ikora's comforting hand, the huntress turned away. "I'll contact you if I find anything new about the Red Legion here."
Without a glance back, she leapt off the mesa and plunged to the crater below.
"Guardian..." The Ghost drifted behind her, struggling to keep up with the fast pace. "You're being awfully quiet. I'm concerned." When the huntress didn't respond, it grew louder. "Frea!"
She stopped in her tracks and put up a hand, silencing the little bot. Following Ikora's orders, they entered the Cabal base only to find it empty inside. The Red Legion had cleared out some time ago, leaving their artificial tunnels and stripped supply crates behind. Desperate for clues, the huntress went deeper, and now she stared up at a massive drill hanging from the cavern ceiling. The machinery was dusty and broken, whatever they used it for was clearly too much for the equipment.
Frea pressed a finger to the comm built into her helmet. "Ikora, do you see this?"
"I do," the Warlock immediately replied. "Could they be mining the Traveler's energy? No, it's not light. It can't give the Traveler's blessing. Not to me, not to Ghaul-" She paused. "Or could it?"
"Only one way to find out," Frea sighed and continued her jog forward. Since she stepped into the base, the air around her felt off somehow, like it was heavier with the weight of darkness. But the Cabal didn't have that power, the only ones who could control it were the Hive, Vex, and...
"Watch out!" Her Ghost warned.
The huntress skidded to a halt just in time to avoid planting a boot into the black mass spread across the ground. She quickly backed away, shuddering from the coldness leaking out of the crevice. It looked like a nightmarish creature had taken a bite out of the world and in its wake left a window to the vast void of space. Only one thing could leave such a dreadful impact on the environment.
"Dimensional rifts," she murmured. "It's the Taken."
The Ghost worriedly bobbed in the air. "Taken? Here?"
The sound of footsteps echoing off the rock behind made her turn. A slim figure dashed out one of the tunnels and ran past her, not even giving Frea a second look as they hopped over the rift and disappeared back into the darkness.
"What the hell...hey! Wait up!" She yelled, following after the stranger. The tunnels soon changed into natural caves outlined with bioluminescent plant life the farther they went down. Frea could barely make out the shape of the figure she chased. He was lightly armored, carrying a fusion rifle across his back, and wore the telling sign of a Hunter. The last thing she expected was to find another Guardian down here. "Hold on." She tried to get his attention again, when he ignored her like last time, she grew annoyed. Bending down quickly to yank a knife out of her boot, she flung it just as the Hunter rounded a corner. It caught him by the cape and pinned the fabric, along with him, to the wall. The gargling noise that emitting from his throat when he got clotheslined by his own armor was almost laughable. Though, Frea felt a little bad for stopping him in such a way, messing with another Hunter's cloak was taboo.
He glared up at her from the ground when she approached him, his glowing eyes flickering with anger. "You could've broken my neck with that stunt, you know," he snorted.
"Sorry," Frea replied as she gripped her blade and pulled it out of the rock. "You wouldn't stop otherwise."
"I'm kinda in a hurry right now, so..."
"Xane!" A voice, loud enough for Frea to hear, blasted through the Guardian's comm. "Need I remind you that Io is about to implode! Get a move on!"
"Yes, Asher. I'm working on it," Xane answered with a grimace.
"Who's Asher?" Frea asked.
"Asher?" Ikora was the one to reply through the comm. "Asher Mir? Is that you?"
"Irrelevant! The Taken are sapping the moon's energy, I hypnotize that Io will be destroyed with us on it if somebody does not intervene!" Asher hollered.
"Guardian..." Ikora started.
"On it." She offered a helping hand to the Hunter still sitting in the dust. "We'll get this done faster with the two of us."
Xane stared up at her with a deep frown that wrinkled his blue tinted skin. He seemed young, even compared to Frea, and undisciplined. She wondered how long he had been a Guardian before the light was taken away. After a moment, he batted her fingers away with a loud huff and crawled back to his feet. "I don't need your help."
"Ah, in that case I could just stick your cape back to the wall and take care of the Taken myself then," she smirked, dangling the knife in her fingers.
His eyes widened slightly, but he quickly turned away and walked toward the direction he was originally heading to. "Fine, whatever. I don't care what you do."
Frea quietly followed after him as she sheathed her blade. "What a pleasant guy," her Ghost sarcastically commented in her head.
"Indeed."
The Taken always left a bad taste in Frea's mouth. The air around them brimmed with a suffocating darkness, the same sort of feeling she experienced with every death. Whatever gave them their power used it as a means of control, it took away all freedom and individuality, basically turning any species into a slave. She thought killing Oryx over a year ago would have ended the Taken, but it seems he was just a puppet for some unknown master as well.
The huntress ducked behind a low concrete wall to avoid fire from a cluster of Taken Psions watching the cave exit. "Where are we?" She asked the Guardian next to her.
"Terrabase Charon. One of the dig sites the Cabal abandoned," Xane replied, gripping a rifle to his chest. "Guess they didn't feel like dealing with the Taken."
"Hm..." Frea peeked over cover for a second, catching a glimpse of a large ball of darkness amassing in the center of the blasted rock. Three Wizards surrounded it, chanting in some strange gurgling language. One of the Taken noticed her and she went down again just as a bullet grazed her visor. "Looks like they're summoning a portal," she said.
"Stop them!" Asher cut into their comms. "Those mindless vermin intend to summon every last one of their spectral friends to devour this moon."
"Is he always so obnoxious?" The huntress glanced over at her new partner.
"He has his good moments."
"Really?"
"No," the Hunter deftly replied, his mocking tone flat.
Frea quietly sighed to herself. She didn't know what crawled up this guy's craw to make him treat her with such disregard, but she wasn't amused by it. Taking a slow breath, she turned back to the Guardian. "If you can keep the small fry occupied, I can kill the Wizards."
"Why do you get to go after the Wizards?" He shot back.
"Because I can revive," she said matter-of-factly.
Xane's face shifted as he finally met her eyes, the grip on his gun tightening. "You...have your light back?"
"Yes, help me here and we'll have a chance to return the light to everyone else."
She imagined he would be joyful, what kind of Guardian wouldn't be? But instead, his head swiveled back to peer at the cave where they had entered, his thoughts unreadable behind his blank expression. "Fine."
The huntress's gaze traveled to Xane's hands, noting the shaking in his fingers, and then moved back to the field ahead of her. A glint of red near one of the Cabal's mining drills caught her eye. "Actually," she placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back behind cover. "Just stay here. If anything comes near you, shoot it."
"Wha-wait!" He complained, but she was already too far away to hear him.
Staying low to avoid attracting unwanted attention, Frea ignored the Taken and promptly made her way over to the abandoned drill. The red she saw earlier came into focus as she neared it, hazard labels, painted over sealed barrels. Warning of the highly combustible and flammable materials locked away inside. She felt a small smirk ease over her lips. Perfect. A firm kick was enough to send the heavy barrel tumbling toward the Taken Wizards. One of them looked up, curious to see what was causing the racket as the drum rolled down the hill. The makeshift bomb exploded with a single bullet from her hand cannon, engulfing the Wizards entirely. The portal went down just as quick, not standing a chance against the fireball, and took the rest of the Taken along with it.
A silence came over the mining pit, quiet enough that Frea could hear the wind blow over the wide opening overhead. She carefully walked to where the dimensional portal had been and inspected the area. No sign of any stranglers, and even the chilling feeling the Taken always sent down her spine was gone. Strapping her gun back to her hip, she pulled off her helmet and took a deep breath of Io's moist air.
"Flashy," Xane grumbled as he joined her at the bottom of the pit.
"Go big or go home, yeah?" Frea chuckled and summoned her Ghost into her palm. "Ikora, the portal is closed and the Taken are gone."
"Excellent. Thank you, Frea." The Warlock Vanguard responded over the comm. "This place is important, but there's nothing here for me on Io. I have one life to give now, and will gladly do so to stop Ghaul. See you back on Earth."
The definite click of the radio signaled the closed transmission and her Ghost disappeared again. The huntress couldn't help but smile confidently to herself. All the Vanguard were now safe and accounted for, this plan for a counterattack might actually work after all. Her mood soaring, she turned back to her companion.
"So, Xane..." she started to say, but the thought caught in her throat. The Hunter was staring down at her strangely with a thin frown stretched across his lips. The way he looked at her made her hair stand on edge.
"Frea?" He finally said as he tilted his head slightly, his eyebrow inching higher. "As in the Hunter who took down the Black Garden singlehandly? The one who was part of the fireteam that killed Oryx and his followers?"
"Uh...yeah, guess you've heard of me huh." The huntress offered an awkward smile.
"Hard not to when the Vanguard are always singing praises about great Guardians," he practically spat out the words, the spite clear in his tone. "So I guess you're planning to be all heroic and restore the light?"
Her patience at its end, Frea stomped closer to the Hunter. "What the hell is your problem anyway? You've been nothing but rude to me since we've met."
If Xane was bothered by her retort, he didn't show it, instead his scowl deepened. "This war, this hell we live in now...none of it would have happened if the Traveler never entered our system. Let the Cabal take the light, then maybe we can live in peace for once."
"Peace? The Red Legion is going to blow up our sun once they have what they want."
"So? It's not like we don't have the technology to leave."
Anger blurred her vision and before she realized it, her hand flew up and slapped Xane directly across the face hard enough to stagger him back a step. "Light or not, we are Guardians and this is our home. As long as one of us stands...then we have a chance. Peace won't be achieved by running away."
"Then maybe no one should get that chance," he growled. Suddenly, he leapt up and tackled the huntress to the ground. One of his hands closed around her throat while the other grabbed the knife she kept sheathed to her forearm. The metal gleamed bright and unused, the blade Kannon had given her for good luck before the mission into the Dark Forest. She had planned to return it without ever removing the weapon from its hilt, but so much for that.
They landed hard on the concrete together, her arms pinned by his knees, and the sharp blade pressed against the exposed flesh of her neck. She gasped from his weight crushing the air out of her lungs. "Shhh," he hushed, adding more strength to his grip on the knife. Frea could feel the warm trickle of blood creep down into her armor. "This will be over soon."
"Stop...I'll just come back," she wheezed.
"You won't if I smash your Ghost before it revives you."
"Why? Don't you want your power back?"
"One week," he snapped. "I was a Guardian for one week before the attack on the Tower. I didn't choose it! I would've preferred to stay dead but no, the damn Vanguard insisted I fight...always telling us rookies about legends like you. Not everyone has that self-righteous desire to sacrifice for the greater good! Dying over and over again..." He looked away, his eyes darkening.
Xane might have been just a Hunter, but even so he was too heavy for Frea to simply knock off. Using her power would most likely kill him in the process...and she wasn't going to drop to his level and murder a fellow Guardian. She started to flex her fingers, making a small space between his armor and the rocky ground. All she needed to do was make sure he didn't notice.
"Why did you stay here after the light died?"
He returned his gaze back down to her. "Oh, I did try to run after they caged the Traveler...but I crash landed on this stupid moon and got roped in to helping Asher because I was a Guardian." The Hunter sneered. "With you gone, however, the Vanguard will have no hope of defeating the Red Legion. Then I can be free of all obligations and return to a normal life."
"Coward," Frea whispered.
The grin on his face vanished. "Excuse me?"
Taking a strained breath, the huntress put all the energy she could muster into her voice. "You're a naïve coward! Letting others die just because you don't want to be a Guardian. It's pathetic-" She coughed her last word as his hold on her windpipe tightened.
"I don't care what you think." He removed the knife from her neck and raised it high, poised to bring it down with deadly precision. Just before the attack reached her, Frea yanked a hand free and rolled to the side. The blade sank into the concrete where her head had been a second before and snapped cleanly into two. Continuing to twist, she grabbed a fistful of his hood and slammed his forehead against the stone.