Chapter 12

Adjusting to this new, old world was difficult for Edward. This world was so strange, so foreign, and yet, felt so familiar. He had seen and done things in the past 6 months that he had only seen in old holo-photos or heard stories of. The only thing that bothered him, is that people tended to steer clear of him, apparently scared of his more rugged appearance and intimidated by the gun he had on his back. He had slowly come to love this world that he lived in, but he knew, that someday soon, The Traveller would come, and the end of the world would follow soon enough. Well, at least then he'd have his Ghost back.

Back in the Future

Of course. She could never get a break. She just had to run straight into the middle of an entire damned fleet of Fallen on her way to Earth. Bad enough that she'd run into Hive and Cabal and Taken all at once in the past 6 months. No, scratch that, it was 2 full fleets of Fallen. Always gotta be her. Sandra sighs as the tractor beam grabs hold of her ship and starts dragging it towards the hangar. She growls in irritation at the sudden pains wracking her body, which seem to pass fairly quickly. She wastes no time at all in putting on her armor, grabbing her sword, and waiting in her ship. One thing kept bothering her though, and it took her a moment to figure it out. She didn't recognize the Fallen Insignia at all. She knew all of them by heart, yet she'd never seen or heard of this one. So now, even more cautious than before, she readied herself for a vicious fight, and waited for her ship to be docked.

The very moment her ship was docked, she transmats out of the ship, bladel ready, but stops when she sees a massive figure right in front of her. She slowly looks up to stare into the eyes of a massive female Guardian, obviously a Titan. The blue-eyed Titan stares down at the wide-eyed warrior child.

Shannon narrows her eyes down at the armed child, brushes her scarlet hair from her eyes, and speaks quietly, a soft growl obvious in her voice.

"Well hello there. What do you think you're doing in my ship? I don't remember giving you radio clearance to emerge." Sandra takes several steps back before responding, slowly activating her sword blade.

"Well, my radio doesn't really work anymore. 3 months on a Hive ship kinda fried it. So if you could just tell those snipers to put away they're useless weapons." Sandra slowly shifts into a fighting stance, ready for the worst. "Now, who are you and why did you randomly tractor beam my ship. I was on my way to Earth." The moment after she finishes speaking, a loud boom rings through the ship followed by blaring alarms going off. Sandra whips around to stare out the hangar bay door, and watches as an entire Hive war fleet(30 times the size of this fleet of Fallen) emerges from hyperspace. "Man, these Hive just won't leave me alone."

"Uhm, short version, I'm Shannon. This is a Fallen Fleet who are enemies off all the other Fallen and now our Friends. And, we're currently under attack." Shannon grabs her gun, then turns to watch the girl transmat back into her ship and take off.

Sandra takes off from the Hangar, puts on her helmet, and sets her ship on a collision course with the back Hangar of the largest ship. With a crackle and a small snap, the Titan woman appears on Sandra's ship. No words are spoken, but it's understood that Shannon was not going to let her fight alone.

Right before the ship would have crashed into the closed Hangar doors, Sandra fires all her ships weapons straight into the door, creating a weak-point that causes the doors to explode inward on impact. At the moment of Impact, Sandra transmats from her ship and drops into the hangar, right onto the head of a Knight and burying her sword in it's body. Shannon follows almost immediately, dropping onto an Ogre and putting her fist through it's head.

A complete and utter blood bath follows, with the 2 Guardians wiping out Hive after Hive. For a moment, the room stands empty of living Hive, hundreds of thousand Hive bodies littering the ground around the 2 Guardians. A large door opens, and more Hive begin to pour in.

"Shannon, I think I've gathered enough energy. Do me a favor, take that ship and get out of here. I'm going to blow this ship to smithereens." Sandra sheathes her sword, winks at Shannon, and then vanishes, as if she were never there. Shannon wastes no time in transmating into the Fallen ship waiting for her.

Sandra stands in the core of the ship, struggling to access her light amid the suffocating darkness. The pains she had been suffering earlier are ever present now, and she can feel her body changing and adapting.

As she struggles to reach in her power and pull out her light, she finds something else. With desperation, she grabs hold, and she pulls on this new power. With a sudden rush of energy, the suffocating pressure of the darkness vanishes, and Sandra can feel her power growing, the darkness mixing with the light. With a loud roar of power, Sandra releases all her energy into a massive shockwave of pure destruction, which feeds off the matter and darkness it encounters, feeding itself to get bigger. Right before the explosion, she attempts to Warp herself back to Shannon, passing out immediately after starting the warp, potentially missing her target.

On a planet halfway across the galaxy, a recently born Guardian stops and looks up at the sky as a loud boom sounds in the air. He watches as something falls down to the planet, leaving a fiery trail, and impacts the ground with a boom. Shaking his head, he takes off towards the impact site, ignoring his Ghost's warnings.

The Guardian arrives at the edge of the crater, pausing as he feels a massive dark presence that he can't quite identify. A movement in the center of the crater draws his attention. In the center of the crater, lies the source of the dark energy, a teenage girl, who appears to be leaking Hive magic. The Guardian carefully approaches her, and checks to see if she is still alive. After a brief argument with his Ghost, he picks the girl up, and begins jogging back to his little cave.

Ana hits the mat with a loud and painful smack, stunning her for a moment. Shaxx stands over her, shaking his head at her.

"Stop. You keep using your mind and ignoring your heart. You have to wield both at once if you want to get better. I've been training you for six months and you still haven't improved. Let go of your pride, get up, and kick my ass." Shaxx snarls at Ana, considerably irritating her further. She struggles to her feet, glaring at Shaxx with some newfound hatred. In the past 6 months, Shaxx had beat her black and blue every single day, with no breaks or much rest. He physically and verbally abused her every day, and none of her outbursts had helped her. She knew she would never beat Shaxx with her power locked away, but she knew these savage beatings weren't designed to strengthen her body, it was designed to strengthen her mind and will. Shaxx shakes his head again and shoves Ana from the small ring of mats. "Go shower and rest. We're changing your training starting tomorrow. The abuse is going to get so much worse." With a huff, Ana limps away, taking off the restriction bracelet as she goes. She was not looking forward to these next few days at all.

"I'll just go ask Edward to…." Ana's heart breaks again, nearly reducing her to tears at the reminder of the loss of her only friend. She sits in the shower, her back to the wall, and finally, after 6 months, she breaks. She begins to sob, broken and lost without him. He was her backbone, the real light of her life. And now, he was gone. She didn't know what to do anymore. Unknown to her, she was about to receive the best surprise of her life.

He was almost there, just a few more hours and he'd be reunited with the love of his life. He put a little more speed into his ship, and the two companion Guardian ships sped up with him. He wanted to get there as quickly as he could, as the terror built in his chest. See, things were just going really really well, and he knew, that that meant bad things were going to happen. And unbeknownst to him, he had absolutely no clue how right he was.

Several more hours passed before it happened. He felt it, long before he saw it, and once it was in his sight, his joy turned to despair.

Ryan stared out the window of his ship at the massive red and black Cabal warship that had just captured his team with a Tractor beam. There are 2 bright flashes of light from the Cabal ship, and both his friend's ships explode, killing the Guardians within instantly. Ryan sees a massive blast coming towards his ship, and moments before impact, something tears him and his ghost from his ship and onto the Cabal warship. He hits the floor of the massive room with a solid thud, and moments later, his ghost yells as something snatches it from the air. Ryan looks up to find himself face to face with the Guardian traitors that had destroyed the outer district, and killed so many people. Ryan slowly stands up, and looks to his left to see a massive brute of a Titan with Ryan's ghost in his fist. His Ghost makes several odd squeaking noises, before the Titan's grip becomes too much for the poor Ghost, and the Titan crushes it in his hand. Ryan gasps as he feels his light drain away from him, but the darkness within him only grows stronger because of it. For the first time in a long time, he lets go, and allows the Darkness to take control. He goes into his full Knight-Guardian Hybrid form and charges the Titan, slamming into him and sending him flying. The other 5 Traitors jump to help their Titan friend, slamming into Ryan without bothering him much. He turns and lashes out, sending them tumbling backwards. He quickly grabs hold of the Hunter nearest him, and proceeds to sink his razor sharp teeth into her throat, biting straight through and then tearing her head off. He tosses her corpse to the side, and doesn't seem to notice when her body vanishes, and her corrupted Ghost quickly revives her.

Ryan fights these 6 traitors, killing them again and again and again, but they just kept on coming back to life, and slowly, Ryan began to tire. He knew that he could last much longer, and did the only thing he could to save himself. Using his Hive magic, he reached out until he found The Taken King, Oryx, and grasped at his power. Oryx responded immediately, overpowering Ryan, and dragging him away, and off of the ship. The loud boom echoed throughout the entire ship, and now, Ryan's transformation was complete. No Longer was he human, no longer did he have any connection to the Light. Ryan, was Oryx's newest Taken General.

The small explorer team of four Guardians paused as they entered the massive underground chamber. They had discovered a strange hidden building underneath a very old wargrounds. As they entered the pitch black chamber, they turned on their flashlights, and began slowly sweeping the room. The room was completely empty, but the strange decorations, and their Ghosts analysis, indicated that this place had existed long before the Traveler's appearance., except for a single golden throne in the very back, where a strange statue like figure sat, unmoving, and covered in a thick layer of dust. As the Guardians approached, a small humming began, originating from the center of the room. With a sudden boom of gears starting up, the entire room was lit up by two massive overhead lights, still managing to leave the Throne in shadow. The Guardians turned back to the Throne as they heard a small sound, and took several steps back as the Stone being on the Throne slowly began to move. Several lights lit up along the figure, and what appeared to be the glowing lights of a helmet visor activated, as the being slowly stood, the thin layer of stone and dust falling from its being. The Guardians took several more steps back as the being looked down at them, and slowly began to descend down the stairs leading up to the throne, the red glow of his armor and visor making the Guardians terrified. The being slowly reached up, and pulled a massive glowing sword from his back, obviously not very friendly.

"Who are you, and why have you disturbed my peace. I am the Guardian of the Ishtan Horde, and any who wish to loot its contents must go through me." The Being snarled at them all, it's deep growly voice terrifying them fully.

"We… we are Guardians, sent here by Cayde, to explore this area." The female Guardian in the lead slowly said, trembling in her armor. The being slowly straightened up, and the blade of the sword slowly vanished, the plasma being allowed to burn out. He slowly reaches up and removes his old helmet, dropping it to the ground.

"It has been many years since I have heard that name spoken to me. I was once a Guardian, a Hunter, who served under Cayde. I was sent back in time in a freak accident, and have waited here for many many hundreds of years, waiting to be discovered by Guardians such as yourselves. I am the Last Guardian of the Sangen Fortress and the Ishtan Horde. I now hold the key, to the true Downfall of the Vex. I am the first, and last, Guardian. My name, is Edward Faust, and I have returned from my death."

I'm so sorry it took me so long to release this chapter. It would have been out a long time ago been I've been dealing with College, and most recently, a very aggravating Hacker who had managed to get into my email. I had it locked down, and have been fighting to get it reopened now that I had secured it. It was reopened yesterday, and I ended up rewriting this chapter, so here ya go.