Chapter II: A Dark Secret Uncovered

Absolution Arc


The Tower, Earth

0612 Hours, December 4, 2714

The small group of ships exited the jumpspace tunnel and found themselves en route to the Tower, the four ships going as fast as they can without making another jump. Lightning's Draught of Nectar was at the head of the pack, followed by Rez's Kondratyuk's Escape and Silver's The Road Unraveled at its sides and Reaper's Devil's Due BKR at the rear. They broke through the atmosphere, and Lightning's HUD counted down how many miles they had until they were within the City's range.

Her brother was in the loading bay with Cloud, Leon and Aqua, resting on one of the benches. His breathing was shallow, almost nonexistent. Fortunately, Aqua was by his side while Lightning was at the pilot's seat, doing her best to keep him alive with the little medical attention she knew. Artemis hovered over her partner's shoulder, checking readouts on her ship and acting as a form of heart monitor for the Sunbreaker. Her throttle-holding hands had her knuckles turn ghostly white under her gauntlets.

How did this happen?! The sequence of events in the Hanging Crypts still boggled her mind. In her entire life, she knew about how Nero had resisted the power of his bloodline. He fought it for a long time, and devoted himself to fighting like a Guardian. Only a few minutes ago did she find him, now embracing the one thing he hated and shunned. It just didn't add up. A number of possible outcomes flooded her mind, but the most prominent one out of them was that during his torture he snapped. If he wanted to live, he had no other choice but to accept it.


"Lightning, what the hell was that just now?!" asked Silver angrily over the comms channel once the team of seven returned to their ships.

"Silver, whatever you do and if we ever do get in trouble, do not say anything about what you saw!"

"Quit beating around the bush, for the Traveler's sake!"

Rez's helmeted face showed up alongside Silver's face on the video comms. "I'll have to agree with Silver here! What's going on?!"

"It has to be Taken… It has to!"

"I doubt it. If it was the Taken that gave Spectre those tendrils, then we would have been too late to rescue him."

Lightning slumped in her pilot's seat. She thought it would be easier to convince them that it was something else entirely. But they're smarter than that. She cut the video feed on her side and grabbed her forehead, her thumb and index fingers rubbing the sides of her temples. Artemis was right. And her brother as well. One of these days, there will be no choice but to spill the truth when their backs were against the wall. And if there was one thing the twins would agree on, it would be that they would turn renegade on the Cyphers once that happens.

This won't end well. She thought.


If there was any form of defiance between her and her brother when it came to their own bloodline, it was obviously him. Spectre heard of the stories of their father. And not only did he hate his heritage's power, but of the mistake Trionus made. When they were younger, she would always hear him go one about saying how he would change their clan's mistake. And, in a way, it worked. Through being a spearhead to the Absolution Directive.

Soon enough, she came in view of the Last City, and she tugged on the throttle. Her ship slowed down as she piloted the craft towards the Tower. Her eyes glanced over at a video feed on one of her controls, keeping an eye on her brother. Most of his Titan's armor plating was gone, and the remaining parts are shattered or appeared to be burnt off. The Honor of Cormorant was torn up beyond recognition, and some of his blood was splattered over it. His rubber armor was the prominent armor, with some areas exposing his flesh and pelted in dried blood. Occasionally, he started twitching like an electrocuted body and prompting Aqua to hold him down.

"C'mon, just a little further…!" Lightning lowered the speed once more as the four ships were within proximity to the Tower, bringing it to a complete slow. She jumped out of her seat and let the autopilot take over, running to the loading bay.

She removed her helmet and let it fall onto the bench before swinging Nero's arm over her shoulder and lifted him off the bench. "C'mon, help me out!" Aqua pitched in and rushed to his side, repeating the Sunstriker's actions and the both of them carried him out. Cloud and Leon didn't do much to help, but they helped regardless by checking his vitals. He's close to death, Cloud told the twin of Spectre. Not only is it starting to scare Lightning, but she was further running the risk of revealing their allegiance. The ship's rear hatch opened, and the dim light of morning rushed into their eyes.

The Draught of Nectar hovered over the grass area of the plaza of the Tower much like her first entrance, but angled to ensure that the female members of the kazoku don't trip once they reach the hatch. Her ship's pylons disengaged and attached themselves to hold the tilted ship in place until Lightning and Aqua got off the platform with him. Not a lot of Guardians were up as of now, and all she could do was hope that their entrance didn't wake up more of them. Lightning didn't want a widespread ruckus that could result in the worst case scenario. At the corners of her eyes, she saw her brother's Fireteam and Reaper emerge from the Hangar.

Once again, Lightning saw the Guardians having their weapons out and aimed at her ship, but immediately lowered them since they saw their greatest Titan. Many began to approach the three, only for Cloud and Leon to emerge from the loading bay and yelling at them to back off. Of course, the ones trying to help didn't understand Cloud one bit, but Leon was enough to relay his message. And with Cloud drawing out his sword and blocking the Guardians, they got the idea. Leon drew out Lionheart and pointed the edge of the blade at them, further reinforcing Cloud's motive.

Spectre's body twitched at the worst of times, this time violent than before. His twitching caused both Titaness and Warlock to lose their grip on him, and he collapsed on the front of the staircase. Lightning rushed to his side, the heart monitor Artemis has enabled slowly reaching the flat line.

Not now! C'mon, Nero! Don't go now! Amongst the crowd of Guardians watching on, she caught the glimpse of a Fireteam of six. She knew the leader of the Fireteam well. She trained him, after all. "Dmitri!" screamed Lightning.

Dmitri and the team's medic, 20/20, rushed over towards them. The Exo knelt down next to the leader of Nero Bianco, his Ghost analyzing the body. Beams of light scanned the body at all angles, and 20 pulled out an emergency first aid kit. Dmitri stood next to Lightning, tempted to slap his mentor in the face. Instead, he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

"What the hell were you thinking, going on your own to the Dreadnaught?!"

"I'm not leaving Spectre there to die!"

"You're insane! You could've went to us for backing you up!"

Lightning shoved Dmitri off her shoulders, putting up a fist to deck Dmitri but restrained herself. "But there are things that Guardians like you shouldn't know!"

"Well what shouldn't we know!?"

The Exo already started on checking his pulse. Definitely close to death's door. He's running out of time. Just as he lifted the Titan's wrist, he saw a black substance. "What the…?" he put his fingers on it and scanned it with his optics. It's definitely not Taken like Silver had on him that day, but the substance alone just sent chills down his spine. He thought it was just a harmless substance and took out a pair of defibrillators from the medical kit. 20 charged up the defibrillators and placed them on Spectre's chest.

"Stand back!"

Everyone stood back from the medic. However, Lightning remained in close proximity to her brother, ignoring the Exo's warning. Dmitri held Lightning back, but was barely keeping her at bay since their strength parallels one another. And it was now that the shadow under his body started to writhe and snake. It began to pool towards Spectre's own shadow. The Exo didn't notice, despite being subtle. Her blue eyes widened. "20, don't do it!"

But it was too late.

A shadow tendril emerged from behind 20/20, wrapping itself around his torso and lifting him from the ground. He dropped the defibrillators and was thrown into one of the vault's towers, smashing a part of it in upon impact. However, the tendril thought it wasn't enough and slammed him into the ground, then back into the vault tower over and over again until the part of the vault came crashing down and destroying Rahool's tent he set up. Eventually, the tendril had enough and let go of the Exo Titan, dissolving back into the shadows. The rest of Fireteam Dragon rushed over to their medic's side, helping him up at his feet again. He stumbled on something and fell back down, but not before they all caught him before he hit the ground.

Aqua slid over to Nero's body and picked up the defibrillators that 20 dropped, charging them up with Arc energy. It's been a while since I last used these… Don't die on me, Spectre! "Clear!" she pressed the buttons on the defibrillators and the shock dispersed into Spectre's body. The shock made his body move slightly, but the heart monitor showed a little increase in his fading heart rate. Aqua raised the voltage and channeled it into the medical tools.

However, unbeknownst to the Guardians, Aqua protruded a small syringe from her gauntlet and injected Spectre with a substance. A substance that can suppress the shadow tendril from coming back and attacking again.

"What the hell was that!?" Dmitri turned to face his former mentor, angered at the events that have unfolded just now. Cerberus had picked up a concentration of the Darkness the moment the tendril had showed up, and already did it cause a bit of a panic in him. Has the Darkness somehow infiltrated the Last City?! He felt the rise of fear and panic within the bystanders as well.

"This is exactly what I told you that Guardians like you shouldn't know!"

"What's going on here, Lightning?!"

"I told you that you don't need to know that!"

"What are you and your brother hiding, dammit!?"

"Enough, Dmitri!"

Dmitri turned to see the group of Guardians moving aside and saw Commander Zavala standing at the front of the stairway leading to the Hall of Guardians. Ikora and Cayde were there at his sides, Ikora with her arms crossed at the scene. Zavala's stern face had been replaced with one that can clearly say 'someone is in trouble' all over it. Of course, his arms were behind his back as usual.

"Lightning, Nero Bianco, and Reaper. Report to the Hall of Guardians immediately."

Lightning stepped up from her place, brushing past the leader of Fireteam Dragon. "But Zavala, Spectre needs medical attention!"

"Now!" roared Zavala.

Lightning froze and so did everyone else involved in seeing Spectre enter a berserk state, excluding the rest of the kazoku. Aqua was focused on using the defibrillators to try and revive Nero. Her fist tightened, and unintentionally ignited her Arcburn Strike.

"I'm not leaving my brother here to die of all places!"

"Don't worry about him," 20/20 approached the Ancient Vanguard leader's twin sister, resting a hand on her shoulder. "I'll get back to it. Hopefully that…thing won't emerge again. Trust me, when Zavala wants to see someone immediately, he means it."

Lightning looked down at her brother. His chest was slowly rising and falling, and a pang of guilt shot through her heart. Not from leaving her brother here, but of the incoming harsh words of Zavala. Rez and Silver walked away from a separate Fireteam she assumed to take her brother's Fireteam's place in leading the Ancient Vanguard while the founders were on a mission and towards the Hall of Guardians. Tightening her fist, Lightning bit into her cheek. The metallic taste of her own blood reached her tongue, and she couldn't care less about it. I'm sorry Nero. Our secret, our lineage, our people… A people that have been out surviving in the wilderness of our home…will be exposed. Forgive me.


"Do you have any idea what you have caused?!" Zavala slammed his gauntleted fist into the table. "All those Guardians could've been killed by that stunt you pulled!"

"I had no involvement with that tendril!"

"He is your brother, Lightning. I assume you know something about it," pried Ikora. Her suspicions about the Titaness were starting to catch on, and Ikora wanted to confirm them.

"I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"Zavala, with all due respect, Lightning speaks the truth!" Silver stepped up from standing next to the side of Spectre's sister. "Cayde, you gotta help us here!"

Cayde-6 looked at the group of four, and his optics showed regret. "Sorry Silver, but I have no idea what's going on. As much as I would like to help, I'm afraid that I'll have to side with Zavala and Ikora this time."

"But, Cayde! It's technically your fault for sending us off on your stupid missions!" said Rez.

"Spectre isn't hiding anything!" added Lightning. "And I swear I don't know anything about that attack!"

"I don't care if you had some involvement or not!" yelled Zavala, and Silver winced upon hearing him yell but not Lightning. "Not only are we facing off with the Taken and Oryx, but now this?!" he faced his protégé's sister. "What's going on, Lightning? Is your brother Taken or not!?"

Even though she was supposed to be lying about all of this, she felt the anger rising up in her. She thought she could last long enough to not have the Vanguard breathing down her neck. But instead, Lightning felt as though the Cyphers planned all of this, from Nero's capture to the situation she's in now. She didn't know which boiled her blood, the Cyphers or the Vanguard.

A darkness wrapped itself around her heart. She faced the floor, avoiding the Vanguards' gaze and her face darkened. I don't want to…! The temptations that took over her people and caused their exile were starting to tempt her. It wanted her to kill the Vanguards, and maybe even prove what they feared. As so, it whispered in her ears, repeating its request over and over. She wanted to ignore it. She wanted to ensure that all of that training to surpass their father's power didn't go to waste. But the temptation kept going, and slowly did she start to lose her resistance.

"Well? What do you have to say, Lightning?" asked Ikora, arms crossed and staring at the Titaness.

"…Shut up."

As if the words out of Lightning's mouth stung, Ikora unfolded her arms. "What did you say?"

"I said, 'shut up'!"

In the blink of an eye, Ikora had inched her head away but still stood at her place. Zavala and Cayde reached for their weapons, but didn't draw them. They wanted to draw their weapons, but it was as if they were stopped before they could. Zavala's face clearly showed shock and anger, but Cayde's had surprise written all over it. Their hands were on their respective copies of Fabian Strategy and Ace of Spades. Even Rez, Silver and Reaper had their hands on their weapons, but didn't draw them out.

Standing in between Ikora and Lightning was the blade of a sword. Instead of Lightning's Infinite Edge, it was a completely different sword. The blade was completely black and curved like a katana despite being double-edged. Red etchings ran along the blade, some of the symbols completely unknown while Ikora recognized some of them. And the finishing detail to her new sword? Black smoke emerged from the blade, making it look like it was just forged.

Not only did her new sword appear, but the rest of Nero Bianco and Reaper were shocked as a menacing red glow appeared in the room. Lightning had a spirit looming over her shoulders like her brother, but it was not a dragon. It was a wolf's head. There were no tendrils protruding from her back, but a pair of golden eyes dominated her blue ones. The wolf spirit snarled at the Vanguards, but didn't attack.

"You Guardians of the Light don't understand, do you?! You have no idea what consequences your actions have on others, including amongst yourselves!" Lightning had snapped, and she's proving her point by putting the edge of the blade right at her neck. Her voice even sounded like she was possessed by a spirit. "Do you even know how it felt when you exiled us seventy-three years ago?! Because of a stupid mistake?! You don't deserve to be under the Traveler's protection if you're always this weak!"

"Who are you really, Lightning?" asked Ikora calmly, despite the blade at her neck.

"A long forgotten ally from a dark time, Master Rey." The Vanguards and the ones in trouble turned around to look at the entrance of the Hall of Guardians. Standing there was a figure in white robes and a black hood with a mask on. Hands behind his back, he started to step into the Hall of Guardians. Lightning knew who it was and had another sword out pointed at him, sharing the same design as her previous one but a double-edged sword instead of a katana.

"Speaker, don't come any closer!" warned Zavala.

The Speaker raised a hand in a 'be quiet' motive. Immediately, the Titan Vanguard understood and stood down. Rez, Silver and Reaper backed away from the enraged Lightning and they breathed a sigh of relief that the wolf over her shoulders didn't notice and lash out at them. Lightning lowered her katana-wielding blade, but kept her other one pointed as the Speaker approached the table.

"I felt something was amiss since your arrival, Lightning. And your brother as well when he arrived at the Tower a year ago," he gently pushed the sword down so that the edge was pointed at the ground. The two traded looks, and Lightning felt the concern in his gaze. As such, the ghostly wolf over her shoulders faded away, and the aura coming from her swords ceased. "The balance has recently tipped in the Darkness's favor. Not because of Oryx, but of another. And even though we have triumphed over the Black Garden and Crota, the presence of the Disgraced One still looms over us all."

"So you know what my brother and I are."

"I would never forget what happened that day. After all, your name still rings clear in my memory and the archives. Even if it has been seventy-three years." Rez, Silver and Reaper traded each other confused looks, and so did their Ghosts. "You and your people are still angry of your exile…" he paused, looking at the most prominent symbol on the swords near the hilt. Memories of that day flooded the Speaker's mind, and he knew of their eventual return. And so did Eris. He had her keep an eye on Spectre, after all.

"…Aren't you, Tenno?"


Prophet: Well, look's who's back! Me!

Me: I thought you were in stasis since IX!

Prophet: No, I wasn't. You couldn't let me on the banters lately!

Me: Sorry Prophet, I wanted to make things interesting.

Prophet: It's fine, Link. So, concerning the transmission you had me decipher, I dug a little deeper and find some interesting things in the Archive.

Me: Does it involve what happened here in II-II?

Prophet: Yep.

Me: Well, looks like we now know what the Cyphers are─or rather, a small hint at it─, but we do know that Spectre and Lightning aren't actually Titans. Wait, they're actually Tenno?

Prophet: What are the Tenno?

Me: Well, we'll have to wait next chapter to have an idea. Besides, the Speaker insisted on telling us the next chapter. So in the meantime, have patience little grasshopper. Our answers will be here. As always, we'll see you in the next chapter!

Keep on fighting the good fight, Guardians!