Chapter 15
The darkness was suffocating, smothering, but at least she had her Light back. She had the strength to keep going, to carry her unconscious lover upon her back. Her only mission, survival. She didn't know if she could continue to manifest her light like this much longer, it was already a strain and the Darkness was crushing. She regretted her decision to call in her favor while in such a panic, but she'd had no other choice while on the brink of death as she was, but she know understood Xur's warning to her.
Flashback: 1 year prior
"You're lucky I'm a nice person, but this doesn't mean I trust you." Shannon glared down at Xur as he slowly struggled to his feet, healing astoundingly quickly even after being assaulted by a half-dozen Cabal.
"I appreciate your assistance, Guardian, in saving me. But, The Nine appreciate your assistance more. The Cabal were after an artifact I was to deliver to the Nine. They owe you a debt of gratitude, but know this. The Nine do not like owing Debts, so be careful what you wish from them. Whatever it may be, make sure to be very, VERY, specific."
Back to present
At the time, Shannon had not known what he'd really meant, but now, she knew. The Nine had cured Ryan of the Darkness, but now, they were still trapped, and they were lost. All hope was lost, and she knew that eventually, she'd have to make a final stand.
"This is it. This is the spot." Shannon said this as she finally set Ryan down, hiding him away in a crevice in the rocks of the wall, preparing for hell. The massive chamber room began to rumble, the walls and floor shaking, dust raining from the ceiling far overhead, as a massive black form appeared in the center of the room. The Shadow of Oryx slowly pivoted to face Shannon, rage evident on it's features.
"YOU HAVE DEFILED MY SHIP! STOLEN MY MOST POWERFUL GENERAL! AND NOW, YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO STAND THERE, AND CHALLENGE ME!? I SHALL SHOW YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF DESPAIR!"
A ground shaking boom echoed through the hall as rift upon rift began to open, Taken pouring out of them in waves, and the echoing laugh of Oryx as the Shadow faded away. Shannon steeled herself for her final stand, finally pulling out her own last last resort. With a bit of a heavy heart, Shannon broke the end of her Raze-Lighter and extracted the Shard within, and smashed it on the ground. As Light burst from the shard, Shannon summoned her Hammer of Sol, and the light from the Shard began to pour into her, calming her, and filling her with warmth and power.
Shannon took a closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she gave in, letting her own mind slip away, replaced by that which had ruled her so long ago, The mindless engine of destruction, comparable to only the Warlock's Stormtrance, lovingly inspiring the name Suntrance.
The first wave of Taken were not prepared for what was to hit them. The mindless engine of Destruction far surpassed anything they had faced before. The wounded and beaten Guardian now stood at a towering height of eight feet tall, a being of Light and Fire. As the first few reached the towering Guardian, a massive Warhammer appeared within her hands, and she swung it up and slammed it into the ground, creating a massive wave of fire and death in front of her, flowing almost twenty feet. Suddenly cautious, the Taken just watched as the Guardian slowly walked forward, hefting the Warhammer up onto her shoulder with ease. The massive General in the lead, a Taken Knight rushed towards the Guardian, intending to take her out with his sword. The Guardian dropped her hammer to the ground, easily sidestepped the sword, and delivered an Uppercut into the Knight's jaw, the hit creating a shockwave of pure force, and blowing the Knight to smithereens.
Oryx slammed his fist into the arm of his throne in rage. For the first time since he became the Taken King, they Taken were disobeying orders. This Guardian had some kind of power that the Taken feared, and it pissed Oryx off considerably. He knew, however, that he would be no match for this Beast in this world… leaving him with only one option.
The massive boom of a portal opening shook the ship, and a strange energy consumed the room they were in. The Taken vanished as the energy poured through the room, and even in this mindless state, Shannon knew what had happened. As the walls melted away to reveal a massive open arena surrounded by Darkness, the Suntranced Shannon smiled. With a massive roar of Flames and an eruption of Light, Shannon reached out to the Traveller through the remains of the Shard and drew as much as physically possible into herself before the portal shut, cutting her off.
Shannon tripled her Height mere seconds before Oryx came from nowhere, swinging his sword for her neck. She blocked the sword with her hammer, a vicious smile spreading across her face. She shoves Oryx back, a booming laugh escaping from her. For the first time ever, she is able to speak within this form, and her voice echoes as if she were speaking with hundreds of voices.
"You. Big, Bad, Oryx. The Taken King. I can smell your fear. You brought us here, to your throne world. You know you cannot beat me… while I am connected, to the Traveller." Oryx simply growls in response, and he charged in again, and the fight truly began.
Sandra sat next to her unconscious Father's form, sighing somewhat irritated by both him and the Vex. The Titan, who called himself Thor, sat not too far away, caring for the injured woman who'd been with her father. Sandra knew her secrets, and could feel the Hive within her. However, she knew she could not say anything about it, as it was not her place, and Thor would most likely try to kill her. A soft noise outside drew a loud sigh from Sandra, and she stood, grabbing her new handcannon and going to the door.
"I'll be right back, Thor. If they wake, be nice." Thor grumbles at Sandra from within his helmet, and Sandra opens the door, walking outside and calmly loading rounds into her hand cannon as the Vex advance. "Well well, looks like it's time for our next show." Sandra chuckles to herself as she loads the last round, and snaps the barrel shut.
"Lights!" The repaired spotlights on the worn building snap on, illuminating the courtyard.
"Camera!" The Vex's eyes light up, the glowing red like the recording light on Cameras.
"Action!" The First of the Vex Fanatics rush her, and she cackles as she begins unloading rounds from her gun, fanning the hammer and still hitting with damn near perfect accuracy. Due to her illegal modifications, she was able to fire off twenty-two rounds before the Hand cannon clicked empty. In one smooth motion, she holstered the weapon in the Holster she definitely hadn't had Cayde special make for her the last time she saw him. She activated her sword blade and dove into the Vex horde as the mechanisms in the Holster set to work on reloading her gun for her. One after another, the Vex fell to her blade, Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Minotaurs. A soft click sounded in her earpiece as she dove back out of the Vex hordes, and she turned to watch in sudden despair as the Hive came pouring out of a nearby Cave. She knew not why, as they had never come out during the daytime before, but that became clear a moment later, when the door to the old building boomed open, and the previously injured woman stormed out, Hive magic flowing all around her.
With less than zero fucks given, Zara had blasted the door open, and came storming out onto the current battlefield. She was completely fed up with the Vex at this point, and now that there were Hive within her call range, she was ready to fuck up some Vex. She let go of her only deception spell, and rose into the air as she took her true form as the Daughter of Oryx, Zara, Mistress of Deception. With a single screech from her throat, the Hive surged forward, flowing around and ignoring Sandra, and fell upon the Vex, who began trying to flee from the destructive force, but to no avail. Almost immediately, a massive Vex Minotaur appeared, surrounded by some strange energy barrier. It was clear to them that this was the Mind behind this all, and Zara did the only thing she knew to do.
Zeph awoke as Darkness surged through him, empowering him and healing him. Deep within, he felt the pull, the Beast being summoned by the Offspring of Darkness. The strange titan fell back to the ground in Terror as Zeph stood, Taken energy covering and bleeding off his body as he arose and slowly exited the building, his Taken form manifesting from within. A single clawed strike from the massive scaled beast that Zeph had become, much like the old tales of Dragons, shattered the Mind's shields, and it attempted to flee in terror, but fell into the clutches of the only other power given to Zeph by Oryx. Taken energy started from the Mind's chest, and with a loud roar, it was consumed, absorbed by the Darkness, and it was Taken.
Oryx staggered back and fell to one knee, the strike to the chest from this Beasts incredible punch knocking the wind from him. Oryx attempted to reach out, looking for any means of escape, and found nothing. He had thrown everything he had, everyone of his generals and all the power he could, at this beast, and nothing had phased it. Now here he was, on one knee, his sword shattered, defeated. He looked up at the Beast as it walked up to him, hefting the huge hammer up onto it's shoulder.
"You… may have… defeated me… but you shall… regret your… poor choices… when the Dreams of my Sister… become reality." Oryx's scratchy voice still boomed through his Throne world, even though he was defeated, he could still do that much. The Beast gave a slight pause, then hefted the hammer up, and brought it down with a mighty swing. With his last breath, his final move, was to reach out to where he kept the secrets of the Sword Logic, and to abolish the entire area, force detonating the hidden explosives, so his Sister would never lay her hands upon it. After that, the Hammer struck with a resounding boom, and Oryx knew no more.
As Shannon continued to fall deeper and deeper into Suntrance, the Light and Fire consuming her conscious mind, she watched as Oryx's throne world faded away, returning her to the Ship and reconnecting her to the Traveller… but… something was… wrong…
Shannon gasped as she was torn from Suntrance, her light vanishing, the shell of Light and Solar fire vanishing from around her. She regained full consciousness instantly, but just before it had happened… she'd seen it all. The Light… was gone.
A few minutes prior…
Edward sat upon a hard wooden crate, glaring out of the Hangar doors at the storm of lightning and strange radioactivity that was the reason Zavala hadn't cleared them for their mission. In the background, he could still hear Ana arguing with Amanda, demanding to be allowed to leave anyway. He could hear as Amanda laid down the final word, and stormed off back to whatever she was doing in the other Hangar section, and Ana came over to see what Edward was so focused on.
"Hey Love, what's…" Edward cut Ana off quickly shushing her and staring out into the storm. Ana squinted out as well, and shook her head slightly in surprise when she thought she saw movement, but it was hard to tell in the darkness beyond. With an ear-splitting crack, a bolt of lightning light up the sky, revealing a fleet of hundreds of Cabal ships, heading straight for the Tower. Ana and Edward had barely registered Zavala's shout of "BATTLE STATIONS!" over the comms, when the first rockets struck, one going right over their hands and hitting a ship behind them. The resulting explosion and shockwave launched them both from the bay doors, and Edward turned in the air a few times, and saw a strange machine appear above them, slowly moving towards the Traveller. Then he hit the ground with a solid crack, and he lost consciousness.
Not 100% certain if I ever mentioned this, but this isn't going to follow Destiny Canon storyline super closely(And yes I'm totally skipping Siva. I honestly hated that whole DLC). Anyways, here we are. Halloween chapter as promised… sorta. It's still the 30th for me, but, whatever I guess. I got done early and didn't want to wait.
Anyways, I'm finally done with Oryx and his bullshit, and IT'S FINALLY TIME TO DEAL WITH GARY(Ghaul)!
