Chapter 4
Zepheron awoke in a cell 3 hours after he had arrived. He didn't know how he knew it had only been 3 hours but he knew it had been 3 hours. Zeph thought he heard whispering but wasn't sure, so he quieted his breathing and made his way closer to the bars until he could barely make out the words, "Sweet mother, sweet mother, send your child unto me for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." Zeph shook his head when he recognized the voice, it was the voice of an old teammate of his who had been trapped in the hellmouth for a few weeks, went completely insane, and hadn't stopped mumbling that chant since she'd been found.
Zeph moved back in the near pitch black cell until he had his back to the wall and sighed.
"I'm surprised there was an empty cell to through me in with all the people Zavala sends down here." Zeph chuckled aloud. Zeph heard a rustling to his left and he say something sit up.
"There wasn't an empty cell moron, you got thrown in here with me." The form growled as it stood and moved towards him.
"Who might you be?" Zeph asked, genuinely curious.
"My name is Nissa Jareel." Nissa said as she walked into the only bit of light in the cell and sat down next to Zeph, "I think I've been in here for 3 or 4 days, I lost count after a few naps."
"Why are you in here?" Zeph asked, intrigued.
"I was appropriating items for my client." Nissa said defensively.
"So you were stealing. Who were you stealing from to get yourself thrown in the deepest darkest layer of the dungeons?" Zeph said, unsurprised.
"Eris Morn." Nissa sighed, feeling a little dumb know.
"That was your first mistake. Who was your client?" Zeph asked, trying to gauge her trustworthiness.
"Me." Zeph jumped when he heard the deep baritone voice outside the cell. Zeph climbed to his feet and used the one ability Oryx had given him that he knew how to use already, he summoned his Ghost from its containment cell and summoned his desolate armor so that he was wearing it the minute it was summoned. Then Zeph held out his hand and summoned a Taken hive knight sword.
"Took you long enough." Zeph's ghost grumbled. Zeph's ghost turned and looked at the figure outside the cell. "Good evening Xur, what are you doing down here?" His Ghost said politely.
"I came to release the Hunter. I'm not done with her yet." Xur growled.
"Could I interest you in freeing me and working with me?" Zeph inquired.
"How would I benefit from this?" Xur pried.
"I can cause a significant amount of chaos that will allow the Hunter to get what you want, get it to you, and you can be gone before they know that stuff is gone." Zeph said, silently hoping Xur would take his offer.
"Deal." Xur said and unlocked the cage, releasing the 2 Guardians.
….
Edward was sitting at the table in the meeting room(Ana was sitting in his lap with her head on his shoulder) waiting for Ryan to show up, when he heard gunshots outside the door. Ana jumped up and readied her Auto rifle, keeping it pointed at the door. Edward jumped to his feet and readied his Her Memory when something slammed into the double doors. The left door was thrown open and they saw Ryan, backing into the room while firing at something out of view. Ryan dashed back just as a Taken Thrall jumped at him. Ryan put a single shot into it's head and slammed the left door and put his back to it as the Thrall disintegrated.
Ana walked over to Ryan, grabbed his shoulder and shook him a little before kindly asking, "What's going on Ryan? How did Taken get to the Tower?" Ryan pulled himself away from Ana and began moving to open the door. Ana grabbed his arm and leaned a little closer to him, "What is going on?" Ana demanded again, the kindness gone from her voice. Ryan looked at her and took a deep breath before speaking.
"The warlock that went to go fight Oryx alone came back Ikora put him in the dungeon and he just showed up in the main hub and started summoning Taken." Ryan said without taking a breath, "I have to go back out there, Shannon is still out there."
"Who is Shannon?" Ana asked seriously.
"She's my fiance." Ryan answered. Ryan saw the confused look and sighed, "She's the Titan you knocked out a few days ago. Please let me go back to her."
"We'll all go together." Ana said, sounding very pissed, "I'm not letting the Taken kill that bitch, the only one who's gonna kill her is me." Ana growled and readied her weapon as Edward walked up behind her and to her left side. Ryan took up a position behind and to the right of Ana. Edward and Ryan reached out grabbed the handles to both doors.
"On three." Edward said, "One"
"Two" Ryan breathed.
"THREE" Ana shouted, surprising Edward and Ryan into throwing open the doors. The three of them started firing into the mass of Taken that were swarming a small group of three Guardians who were standing back to back in a triangle in the middle of the hoard, slowly losing ground and tightening the triangle. Edward recognized 2 of the Guardians in the group, Jace and Baris-7. Edward assumed that the Titan was Shannon and almost paid dearly for being distracted as a Taken Thrall jumped out from his left and he had to draw his Dreg's Promise Sidearm to kill it before it slashed him open. Edward stumbled as he took a shot from a Taken Dreg to his chest and nearly took another to the head but Ana turned and shot the Dreg. The second Ana killed the Dreg, a Taken Knight fired a shot into her back, knocking her several feet forward and throwing her from her feet into a wall. Ana hit the wall with a ringing crack and slumped to the ground unmoving. Enraged, Edward sprang to his feet and fired a shadowshot bolt into the Knight that shot Ana, tethering several more. Ryan took the hint and began firing his own shadowshot bolts into the Taken. In the middle of the hoard, Edward heard the sound of lightning and watched in astonishment as Jace activated Stormtrance and whipped out the rest of the hoard. The 4 standing Guardians looked around, expecting there to be more Taken but saw nothing. All of them looked in the direction of the hanger when they heard a ship coming from the hanger. Edward instantly recognized the Ship to be Zeph's by the taken energy swirling around it. Zeph's ship flew out of range before making a jump, vanishing from sight. Edward heard a groan from behind him and remembered Ana. Edward spun around pulled of his helmet and ran to Ana, just as she pulled of her own helmet.
Edward kneeled down by Ana and went to ask if she was alright, but she put a finger to his lips, quieting him. Ana pulled him a little closer and whispered, "Is Lord Shaxx okay?" Edward burst into laughter, glad that Ana was okay enough to be worrying about the man she was in love with. Edward helped Ana to her feet and inspected her back. Edward could clearly see where she'd been shot, the burned armor was the indication, but he could see that the shot had not harmed her. Edward walked in front of Ana and pulled out a penlight and shined it in her eyes like the doctor's did. Edward saw the telltale signs in her reaction that she had a pretty bad concussion but that seemed to be it. Edward took Ana's right hand in his own and realized he was wrong as Ana cried out in pain. A little more carefully, Edward inspected her arm and saw the her wrist was broken and a few of her fingers were also clearly broken.
Edward turned around and saw that Ryan and Shannon had removed their helmets and were fussing over each other, making sure they were alright. Edward then realized that there were only 5 Guardians around. Ana's right here, Ryan and Shannon are right there, Jace is over there…
"Where is Baris?" Jace and Edward asked simultaneously.
"He was right next to me when I activated Stormtrance." Jace said, confused.
"I have a proposition for you 5." A voice said from the direction of the ledge overlooking the city. The 5 of them turned towards the voice to see Zeph standing right at the ledge, holding an unconscious Baris-7 up over the edge with a hand around his throat. "I'll give you 2 options, join me and your friend lives, refuse and you all die."
Ana cleared her voice and asked the only question she had, "Where are the Vanguard?"
"I locked them in their rooms. They are unharmed. I just wanted to get you six out here." Zeph replied truthfully. "Who will step forward and accept my offer?"
"I will. Under one condition though." Ana said as she stepped forward, "No harm shall ever come to Lord Shaxx by you or any of your allies." Zeph nodded in agreement and looked at the rest of the group.
"Wherever Ana goes, I will follow. I swore that when we were joined into the same Fireteam." Edward said, stepping forward to stand beside Ana. Shannon and Ryan spit at Zeph's feet and said in unison, "Fuck you." Zeph looked at Jace and cocked his head to the side a little, questioning him.
Jace sighed and stepped forward before saying, "Fine, but Baris is joining too."
"Good." Zeph said before snapping his fingers, summoning a large black portal. "This leads to the deck of my ship, get moving. Oh, you might feel a little sick when exiting."
Ana walked up to the portal, took a deep breath and passed through, followed immediately by Edward, Jace, and Zeph(who was still holding Baris). Zeph was meet by an amusing sight when he got to the other side, the guardians were trying to wipe the Taken energy from their armor to no avail.
"It doesn't come off you know." Zeph chuckled, "If it did do you think I'd still be wearing the stuff?" Ana looked at Zeph and narrowed her eyes.
"Would you have actually killed us if we'd refused?" She asked curiously.
"No." Zeph responded truthfully, "I don't actually want you dead. I'm currently under Oryx's thumb and I'd like to get out from under it without losing my abilities. You guys should have acquired the same abilities I have now, the portal you went through was actually a more voluntary version of the way Oryx Takes other beings. So I sorta have control over you know."
"What do you mean, control over us?" Ana demanded, narrowing her eyes. Zeph shrugged and pointed at a box.
"Ana, shoot that box with your shotgun." Zeph ordered. Ana tried to tell him to piss of, but instead she pulled out her shotgun and shot the box with it against her will. "All of you, sit down where you are." Zeph ordered. Once again, no matter how much they tried to disobey all the Guardians that he had brought with him instantly sat down.
Nissa skipped into the room and froze when she saw the Guardians Zeph had brought with him. "We have almost reached our destination." Nissa said haltingly, "Xur was transported to his ship about 5 minutes after we came out of our first jump." Zeph nodded and waved Nissa, who was covered in the same Taken energy the rest of them were, away. Nissa scuttled back into the cockpit.
"Why did you try to kill us with those Taken?" Jace asked as he helped Baris-7(who was just waking up) to his feet.
"I summoned them, waited for you all to get out there, but when I tried t banish them I found that I could not. Oryx must have found a way to remove his taken from me. Sorry about that." At that moment, Zeph's ghost floated into the room and made a noise at Zeph, then floated back into the cockpit. "Alright guys, prepare to be transmatted, you're going to meet my ally."
Before any of them could comment, they were transmatted off Zeph's ship. The 5 of them landed on a planet that was unfamiliar to all but Zeph. Zeph lead them into a small building where a hooded figure sat in a chair. "Guys, meet my ally." Zeph said. The hooded figure stood, turned towards the group and removed her hood.
"Off all the people you could ally yourself with, why would you Ally yourself with HER?" Ana demanded.
I know that no one likes cliffhangers, but there are going to be a LOT of them throughout this story. It makes the story more interesting. There will be a considerable amount of Fighting in the next few chapters.
