Chapter 13
1 Month later...
The massive Taken General cackled as it slammed into Shannon, sending her flying backwards and into a wall. Shannon bounced off the wall, rolling a bit and coming to a stop face up on the ground. The General walked over and stomped one foot down on Shannon's chest, cracking her chestplate. Something about this one, seemed so familiar to Shannon, but she couldn't quite figure it out. Nothing made sense anymore. SHannon struggled with all her might to push the massive Taken off of her, but without her light, she couldn't fight back. The General was too much for her. To her surprise, the General huffed, and removed his foot, taking several steps back and sheathing his weapon, and then, he spoke.
"How pathetic. A Guardian without her light, isn't even a Guardian anymore. You are weak, and powerless. I could do whatever I wanted to you, and you could never fight back against me. You see, this is why I abandoned the light. I have embraced the darkness, and you should too." The General's deep gravelly voice changed as he approached Shannon, who had struggled back to her feet. Shannon watched in horror as the General shrank and changed, allowing the Taken energy to burn away to reveal what he truly was.
Standing directly in front of her, was the man she'd thought she'd lost. The man who had made, and ruined, her days. He was also the man she was about to punch in the jaw. He was not expecting the swing, and took the full force of Shannon's brute strength to his jaw, causing him to stumble back a bit, a look of surprise crossing his face.
"You. You're supposed to be dead. And now, I discover, that you're just a filthy traitor. You've given yourself to Oryx, and he's taken everything from us. I will never betray my friends and family. Not even for you, Ryan."
Ryan just sighed in response, and slowly drew his sword, looking Shannon dead in the eye.
"So be it." And with those final words, Ryan drove his sword through the chest of the woman he loved more than anything else.
2 weeks earlier…
Zeph chuckled to himself, quite proud of what he'd accomplished. With the help of a lot of Hive magic, they had finally managed to capture several ships and had escaped the strange time-warped planet, leaving the Hive behind. Once they had left the planet, they bolted into Hyperspace, on a set path towards Earth. He was still proud, despite it having been nearly a week ago. Zara sat in a seat not too far from him, trying to decipher a comm message they had received only a couple minutes ago. From what they could tell, it was coming from a supposedly uninhabited planet, but it was being broadcast on a Guardian specific emergency channel.
"Got it!" Zara shouting made Zeph jump in surprise, pulled from his thoughts. He quickly rolls his chair over next to her, and the message begins to play. At first, it's only static, but it slowly forms into a grainy image of two Guardians, one of which Zeph immediately recognizes as his daughter, Sandra. From what was going on as Sandra was talking into the mic, which still only registered as static, the two of them were in need of help. Zeph immediately changed their course to be heading towards the planet, and once they had entered the planet's atmosphere, the message she was sending became clear.
"WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT ENTER THIS PLANET'S ATMOSPHERE! THE VEX ARE WAITING WITH AN AMBUSH SQUAD!" Sandra screamed this into the mic for the millionth time, but it was far too late for Zeph and the other survivors. Before they could even take in what she'd just said, Vex began to teleport onto the ship, shooting at anything that moved. A massive battle erupted on the ship as the Survivors fought the Vex, knowing that they could not escape, due to the Gravity well the Vex had trapped their ship in. Zeph grabbed Zara, and the two began to run, dipping and dodging through the halls of the ship, slaughtering any Vex that got in their way. It didn't take long for them to reach the only remaining escape pod. It had only 2 seats remaining, and they immediately took them. The doors to the pod shut, and Zeph, Zara, and 18 other survivors were launched away in their pod, plummeting towards the surface of the dead planet.
The edge of the Last city...
Edward sat atop the walls, staring out over them as the snow drifted down through the air, coating the entire area in a bright white blanket, obscuring everything from view. The Fallen and Hive and vanished into underground caves, not wanting anything to do with the freezing cold temperatures. He had been back from the dead, in a sense, for a little over two weeks now, yet had not dared to go anywhere near the Tower. He didn't know if he was ready to go back, and face the people who had thought him dead for so, so long. A small sound behind him caused him to slightly turn his head, and he spied a Warlock striding towards him. The Warlock slowly sat down next to Edward, and reached up to remove his helm. The Warlock had dark black hair, and extremely pale skin, with brilliant blue eyes.
"Edward. They know you're still alive. They know you're back. Why do you refuse to see them? They really miss you." The Warlock looks at Edward, who just shrugs and looks away. "Edward, do you even understand what you're missing out on here? You are in a position that I can only dream of. I would give everything, and anything, to have my partner back for just another day. Even if only to say goodbye. But I can't. Baris is dead. And I will never get to talk to, or see, my best friend, ever again." Edward sighs as he reaches up to remove his own helmet, then lightly turns to look the Warlock in the eye.
"Jace… It's not that I don't want to see them… It's that I don't know what to say or do when I see them. I have been separated from them for several hundred years. I am not the same person I used to be, and they definitely aren't the same people I used to know." Edward looks down after he finishes speaking, his emerald green eyes full of regret. Jace puts one hand on Edward's shoulder, and sighs lightly.
"Edward. It's 11am on Christmas day. Everyone is expecting you to show up. Today is a day for us to be together, and here you sit, all alone. Come back to the Tower with me, say hi to all your old friends." Edward slowly puts his helmet back on as Jace finishes speaking, and summons his Ghost. He transmat onto Jace's ship, immediately followed by Jace, and the two set off towards the Tower.
Ana sits perfectly still on a crate in the common room, watching very closely as everyone walks by, her dark orange eyes trailing any and all movement. She looks to see the only ship that had left in the past two days, slowly land in the middle of the common area, getting dirty lookers from several passerby. The loading bay door of the ship slowly opens, and two men walk out. The one in the lead stands at five foot six, and the man behind him is six foot five. It's the man in the back which catches her eye. Something about him, the way he moves, the confidence that quickly builds in his stride, the extremely pale skin, his blonde hair, and his wonderfully amazing, glittery emerald green eyes seems so familiar. It isn't until he stops a few feet away from her and speaks does her hopes finally come true.
"Ana." The deep gravelly voice, accompanied by thick German accent had only ever belonged to one man. Ana launched herself off the crate and into the arms of her partner, the Hunter, Edward Faust. Edward caught her easily, and held her close, and immediately, all his fears melted away. Ana did not look any different than she had the last time he'd seen her, nor did she seem to be acting any different.
"Alright alright, break it up love birds, we got work to do." Zavala strode through the area, not really paying attention to who it was as he turned to yell at Jace. "Get your ship out of the commons who…" Zavala was cut off by Ana, who had drawn her gun secretly and aimed it at Zavala's back. She shot him in the back, and due to his armor, he didn't get hurt, but it caused him to stagger. Edward just watched, amused, as she took off at a dead sprint for Zavala, a murderous look in her eyes. Zavala whipped around to yell at whoever had shot him, just in time to catch a bone shattering right hook to the Jaw from Ana. Zavala dropped like a rock, unconscious before he hit the ground, and Cayde, who was not too far off, just started laughing his ass off. Ana slowly stalked her way back to Edward, not even caring that several Guardians were giving Ana worried looks. Cayde slowly walked over to Ana and Edward, seeming to be in a fairly good mood.
"So. Finally decided to come back, huh? Took ya damn near long enough. Good to have you back, Eddy." Cayde said, immediately getting a small snicker from Ana and a groan from Edward. Cayde held a hand out to Edward, and Edward just stared for a second. Edward slowly took Cayde's hand, shook it once, then out of pure instinct pulled him into a quick hug, which got a laugh from Ikora as she slowly walked down the steps from her room. Zavala slowly woke up, and several guardians rushed over to help him. He slowly stood up with their help, not fully recovered from that punch yet. Ana glared over at Zavala, still not having spoken a word, just letting her current death glare do it for her. Edward took a moment to admire the woman he hadn't seen in over 500 years, from her beautiful cinnamon roll skin, to her short brown hair, and her beautiful and strange orange eyes. At the moment, she wore a simple outfit, a skin tight shirt black shirt which barely covered her stomach and a rather decently lengthed royal purple skirt with dark black, thigh high stockings and black combat boots. Edward's eyes slowly travelled over the perfect and delicious looking curves of her body, tracing her perfect hourglass figure with his eyes. She turns back to him, and his eyes immediately snap up from her ass to her eyes, and a look passes through her eyes, letting him know quite fully that she had noticed.
"Edward." Ana spoke softly, as if she were afraid that speaking any louder would make him vanish, and he chuckles lightly as he reaches one hand up to brush against her cheek. "You need to shave." Edward chokes on a laugh as Ana reaches a hand up to touch his black beard, a small look of disapproval on her face. "It doesn't fit you to look so shaggy. Come with me, as captain dick for brains said over there, we have a lot of work to do. Ana proceeded to drag Edward towards her room, not much caring about anyone that was watching. She didn't care, they could watch all they wanted to. Today was Christmas day, and she had just received the best present in the universe.
Edward stares in the mirror, almost four hours later, looking from side to side at his now perfectly shaven face. The scars on his face that were hidden before are fully visible now, and he just stares at them for a moment, before Ana opens the bathroom door and walks in, a brush and scissors in hand. He sighs as he sits down in the chair she'd put not far behind him, and leans his head back a little as she begins to brush his long unkempt hair.
"Edward. Why didn't you come back until today?" The question that Edward was dreading finally came from Ana's mouth and he sighed as she began to slowly cut his hair, intentionally going to give him the same slightly messed up self-cut that his blonde hair used to always be in. He sighed again, then thought for a moment before replying, telling her the truth.
"I was scared. Scared that you would be nothing like the woman I was forced to leave behind. Scared that you would have moved on, and forgotten me. Maybe it was an irrational fear, as to you, I haven't been gone anywhere near as long as it was for me. I had over 500 years in stasis to think about what I would say or do when I finally returned to you, or… if… I returned. Maybe, maybe I just let my fears get the better of me, cause as far as I can tell, you have changed even a little bit from the fearless and powerful woman I fell so deeply in love with." Ana giggles as she finishes cutting his hair, and spins the chair around to face her. He gets up, and without missing a beat, pulls her into a hug and kisses her. Somehow, the two of them end up in the bedroom, with Ana pressed up against the wall as Edward trails kisses across her collarbone. "I've missed you so much."
With that statement, the two of them began to undress each other as they flopped onto the bed, spending the rest of Christmas day, alone yet together, happier than they had ever been before.
And here you are. I finished this chapter at 12:20am on Christmas Morning, and I'm posting it at 12:25am. This is your long awaited present.
