Aria laughed at the joke Matt had just told. Of course he'd had to change it a bit to fit in with the times, as it had been mostly meant for a twenty-first century audience, but with the proper modifications, she'd understood it just fine. Ash too chuckled in enjoyment of the humor. They sat in the same booth at the bar they'd visited before, as they hadn't really bothered to find a different restaurant. This one had been great the first time, so why bother trying to fix what wasn't broken?
She raised the bottle of beer she had in her hand to her lips, and drank deeply from it. "Man, where has this stuff been all my life? I really needed this." Matt and Ash laughed at Aria's admission of liking alcohol, and indeed she could feel the tension and stress she'd carried with her for the last few weeks slowly ebbing away with every sip.
Suddenly, Echo appeared in front of her. "Aria, you've got an urgent transmission coming in. Somewhere… oh my." She waved him away. "Can't it wait? We're all relaxing here."
In an instant, Seraph and Whip materialized as well. "We're getting that too," said Seraph, her body pulsing with blue light as it did when some kind of function was being used. "Whatever it is, it's not the Vanguards, and it's on a private frequency. I suggest you three answer it." The three Guardians looked around the restaurant, now serious as the situation had slowly escalated. "Alright, let's step outside here for a moment, guys." Nodding, the other two followed him out of their seats, and walked casually out of the restaurant. None watched them as they silently made their exit.
Once outside, they found a somewhat isolated alley near the side of the restaurant. They entered, and allowed their Ghosts to materialize. "Alright, let's hear it," said Matt.
The Ghosts each expanded into their spherical mode, allowing the radio signal to become stronger. It was a moment before they heard a feminine voice begin to speak;
"I've watched you for a while now, Guardians. I've seen what you've accomplished, from your journey into the hive, to your fight with the machine-god. But there are enemies out here much worse than them, enemies that you would not believe." It sounded genuine enough, and Aria wondered who could possibly be contacting them. It wasn't anyone they knew, that was for sure. "When you can, come find me. We have items of interest that we must discuss."
The Ghosts pulsed, trying to keep the signal strong, and finally they snapped back into place. Echo turned to look at Aria. "We've got some broken coordinates. Venus, northern hemisphere. Ishtar region." Both Whip and Seraph nodded to confirm what Echo had said. Matt's face had a pondering look to it. "Alright, well we're in no condition to leave right now." He was right, the thrip wore plainclothes in place of their armor, just regular clothes in the form of pants and a sweatshirt for Matt, her blue coat and comfortable shorts for Aria, and a light jacket and boots for Ash that she wore over her black undersuit. "Let's finish eating first, and then we can discuss what to do back at the tower."
"Alright, sounds like a plan." All in agreement, they exited the alleyway and walked back into the restaurant to finish their meal, and think about the strange voice and its message.
-X-
"Alright, so what's the plan?" Ash looked at Matt with an expectant face, his position as leader of their team having finally been established between the three of them. They sat on Matt's bed, discussing what to do about the stranger's request. Matt held his chin thoughtfully. "Well, so far she appears to be on our side, whoever it is. It could be a ruse, though." He looked at his companions. "I'd suggest that we keep this between us. No need to get the Vanguards or other Guardians involved in this if it does turn out to be a trap. That way, we only put ourselves at risk." Aria and Ash both nodded. It sounded like a good plan.
"I'll have Echo tell Amanda Holliday to have the Javelin ready to depart early tomorrow morning in the hangar," said Aria, and she stood up from the bed to go, and walked to the exit of the room.
"I should leave as well, get my gear set up and all that," said Ash. She too stood up, and began to walk towards the door.
"Oh alright. Night Aria," said Matt from the bed. She nodded and opened the door. He turned his gaze to Ash and said, "And you too Ash. Sleep well." Ash gave a small smile, and waved back at Matt before following Aria into the hallway.
Once the door was closed, Aria rounded on Ash. "What the hell was that?" The Exo looked at her in surprise at the outburst. "What was what?" Ash's face appeared to be confused, but Aria could tell she was masking what Aria had thought she'd been trying to hide. "That! You two keep dancing around the other like magnets pushing against each other, taking one step forward and then immediately taking two steps back!" The Exo's face lost all expression at Aria's accusation, and she muttered, "It's complicated. Good night." Without another word, the Titan entered her own room and closed the door.
Aria shook her head. Both Ash and Matt were older than her by a few years, but they kept acting like children, avoiding discussion of anything to do with the touchy subject of feelings and affection, despite the obvious existence of such feelings on the sides of both parties. Echo appeared in front of her.
"Do you think they'll ever do anything about it? I mean, it's pretty clear that they've shown interest in each other." Aria entered her room, once again shaking her head. "I sure hope so Echo, but the way they keep shutting their mouths about it makes me think they might not just because they're too shy to discuss it." She started to undress, preparing for a good night's rest. "And they still thought that nobody had noticed yet?"
Aria nodded. "Apparently so. Which is ridiculous because of how touchy they get when they're out on dangerous missions, and then as soon as we're back here where they have ample opportunity to progress with their feelings, they just ignore it!" She gave a big huff of annoyance, frustrated that her friends were keeping themselves from being happy. She laid down on her bed, and tried to turn her mind to other things, like the stranger's request. Enemies they wouldn't believe, she'd said. Had she been talking about the Vex, the machine species that Zavala had spoken of with such obvious contempt? If she had been, then the Vex were starting to sound like the pure embodiment of evil from everything she'd heard so far.
Echo flew through off, presumably to talk to Amanda Holliday. She closed her eyes, shutting out her thoughts and distracting imaginations that kept her awake, and slept in preparation for the next day.
-X-
The Javelin slowly moved toward the opening of the hangar. A traffic control agent waved green lights in their direction, showing them that the way was clear. Pushing forward on the accelerator, the ship began to pick up speed and rushed through the exit, arcing up into the sky and away into space.
Ash began to input navigational data into the ship's onboard stellar maps. The destination appeared as a spot on Venus, approximately in the area of where the Ghosts had said the signal had originated from. Once she'd selected it, she sat back in her seat as the Javelin began to enter warp-space. Aria watched Ash turn to face her and Matt. "Alright, trip looks like its going to take about twenty minutes. That gives us some time to talk."
Aria wanted to smack her across the Exo's jaw, hoping to knock some sense into her and force her to talk about the potential between her and Matt. But she kept her frustration under lock and key, and instead asked, "Do you think it could be the Diplomat, or the Messenger contacting us? Whatever you want to call them." Matt shook his head. "No, I don't think so. By now, I'm sure that whoever the Messenger is, they know that we're looking for them. Why give us a perfect opportunity to take them out? This has got to be related to something else." Aria thought that Matt's reasoning made sense to a degree, but it still didn't keep her from being uneasy about a potential ambush.
"Maybe whoever this person is, they'll give us some new info about the Messenger anyway. They could be on our side, after all." Ash looked at Aria and Matt, awaiting their responses. Aria judged hers carefully. "Well, considering that we directly asked the Fallen about them, it's not a huge leap to imagine that our quest has gone unheard, like Matt said. You could be right." Ash nodded in appreciation of Aria's reply, as did Matt to show that he agreed with her.
The rest of the journey passed with them discussing all the potential possibilities that could happen during their meeting with the mysterious stranger, until a light began to blink on the console, and Ash moved to look at the map. "We're here," she said, and tapped a few commands into the ship's drive, taking them out of warp-space. Venus appeared on the viewport, slightly smaller than Earth and greenish yellow. Ash took the controls, and the Javelin began it's descent into the atmosphere of the planet, now in enemy territory.
-X-
Aria waded through the thigh-deep water. The space underneath the Ishtar Academy's collapsed building was flooded with water, and the ground felt marshy. Occasionally, patches of dirt rose above the surface, with the glowing blue lights of the native spirit bloom plant sometimes growing from the soil. Matt and Aria walked ahead of her, each of them attempting to wade through the building to reach the courtyard of the entrance to the academy. Inside was the origin of the transmission, and they were looking forward to finally getting some answers for why they'd been dragged out here. What did the stranger want them to see? Why did they even care about the trio's mission? These questions danced around Aria's mind as she tried to make sense of it all.
Finally, the reached a crumbling incline, a section of the building that had fallen down. Climbing it, they found themselves in what appeared to be a deteriorating combination of dormitory and library. On the second floor levels to the left stood shelves of books, lined against the wall. On the right were rooms that presumably led deeper into the academy. In front of them and up on one of the levels of stairs that they began to ascend was a large statue of the Goddess Venus. The obvious mascot for the planet was not very subtle, thought Aria, and she giggled slightly at the thought of Venus representing Venus.
A white spire-like structure stood near the statue, composed of glowing lines and dots. "A conflux!" Aria heard Whip exclaim from in front of her. "Let me see if I can access it, it may give us some new data!" Ash turned to her Ghost and asked, "What the hell is a conflux?"
"Just because you don't remember a decade ago, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. Confluxes were stations of the Vex, usually used for storing information or anchoring a teleportation point." Matt looked at Ash and nodded, and with a gesture of her hand, Whip flew over to analyze the conflux.
He scanned it as the three Guardians stood behind him a few feet, watching his progress. Suddenly, he stopped. "Well, that's weird. I'm not getting any data or records from the conflux at all. The only reason that could be is because-"
"It's a teleportation anchor," finished Aria, and clouds of dust and smoke began to appear all around them, lights flashing out from the shadows as robotic beings began to appear.
"No, no, no! Find some cover!" yelled Whip, and the trio scattered. Aria concentrated on propelling herself through the air, and hovered up to the second level balcony. Once there, she pulled herself over the railing, and ducked behind a table as red beams of light shot after her retreating form. The fire ceased, and began to focus on a different area, presumably at one of her friends. She took the opportunity to look out from cover, and get a thorough view of the Vex.
They were mostly one type of form, with an overlarge head that almost looked like a shield, and a white center in their abdomens. They each had a singular glowing red pupil, which gave them a malevolent appearance, forever scowling at their enemies with hatred in their eyes. Some of the other ones had horn-like protrusions, and a tail that whipped behind from a cable, giving them a devil-like cosmetic feel. She could hear Whip through the comm chatter saying, "The normal looking ones are called Goblins, and the ones with horns are Hobgoblins! Make sure to take out those Hobgoblins in a few shots, or they'll enter a stasis mode where you can't damage them!"
Aria pulled out her pulse rifle, and began firing at the enemies below. She managed to knock one's head off, but it continued to fire as it ran around without visual sensors, looking much like a headless chicken spraying blood everywhere as it ran around the yard. On a whim, she fired into the white center of its torso, and within two squeezes of the trigger, the Vex fell.
"Aim for their centers, it's a weak spot!" she yelled, hoping her team members could hear her. Apparently they could, and she watched as several rounds from both Matt and Ash's weapons found their targets, punching through the Vex's internal systems and crushing their wiring inside. Some of the Hobgoblins entered the stasis mode that Whip had talked about, but they were quickly dispatched once their protection lifted.
Even as some of the many enemies fell victim to the three Guardian's concentrated fire, more smoky lights began to flash, and two monstrous fifteen foot tall machines appeared in the center of the cloud. "Minotaurs!" Whip cried out, and Aria could tell from his tone of voice that these guys were bad news. As she watched, she saw them begin to make their way towards the back of the room, cornering Matt and Ash. Knowing she had to defend her friends, she hurled herself over the railing and landed on the ground below, standing her ground against the two gigantic robots.
"Get out of there Aria!" she heard Ash yell from behind her, but there was no turning back from her course of action now. She began to fire off rounds at their bodies, but the bullets simply clanged against the metal and ricocheted off. Trying for a different approach, she began to summon her light, and threw solidified shards of void energy. The void projectiles definitely dealt more damage, but it wasn't enough. She could feel her energy draining from her, and she didn't think she could last much longer as the Minotaurs continued to advance upon her position.
Suddenly, she felt her strength returning to her, and saw that instead of purple void projectiles, she was now hurling miniature fire-balls at the Minotaurs. She stopped launching them, and stared at her hands, now emitting a soft orange glow, as heat radiated from them. But she didn't have long to understand what that meant.
She heard the squeals and screeches of the metal monstrosities right above her. She looked upward just in time to see the closer one swing its leg back, and bring it forward to deliver a kick which caught her directly in the chest, with its foot hooking her between her legs. It shattered every bone in Aria's body, turning her organs and brains to mush. She had but only a second to see it coming before the flash of pain registered, and darkness closed in around her, taking her to oblivion.
…
Or was it?
She couldn't see anything, but she could definitely use her mind and thought processes as normal. The pain had disappeared as fast as it had come. In fact, she could not feel her body at all, and she began to panic. Just what the hell was happening? She needed to get back to her friends, back to defending them from the Vex-
A spark ignited, in the darkness, visible for a second before disappearing. What was that? It had appeared once she'd thought of returning to Matt and Aria-
Another spark, this one a little bit stronger than the first. Realizing what she needed to do, she began to concentrate on going back to the world of the living, and more sparks began to appear. Suddenly they ignited into a flame, a burning light that shined in the darkness. Then she realized, that there was no flame, she was the flame, and she looked down to see her body once again, engulfed in warm, powerful fire. She stood exactly where she'd been killed, just a moment before. Turning, she saw the Minotaurs were nearly upon Matt and Ash, and her friends had stopped firing in their own defense to stare at Aria, their mouths agape. Wasting no time, Aria sprinted towards the towering machines, and began to shoot jets of fire out from her hands. The Minotaurs realized too late that they were burning, and as they turned to face Aria, their internal functions began to fail, with glass protectors melting from the temperature, and their wiring incinerating with every passing second. Within just a few seconds, the machines of death fell to the ground, their bodies swallowed up by flame, and their joints smoking.
The fire surrounding Aria disappeared, as did the feeling of immortality that she'd experienced. Her exhaustion and pain in her body returned to her, and she nearly collapsed from the shocking transition. But it felt good. Pain meant she wasn't dead, and that was one outcome that she would prefer to avoid at all costs.
Matt and Ash ran up to her and grabbed her shoulders, to make sure she was real. "How- how are you here? We saw you die!" Ash's voice sounded high pitched and choking, as though she were holding back tears. "We thought we'd lost you," said Matt, echoing Ash's sentiments. "Hell, I saw you take that punch, and your body flew across the room, snapping against the wall. I knew you hadn't survived, and yet, I still held out hope." He too sounded as though he were pushing past a lump in his throat. Aria began to explain.
"Sunsingers. I guess I managed to unlock my ability as a Sunsinger, as well as a Voidwalker. We have the power as Warlocks to revive ourselves, to raise ourselves from the dead, like our Ghosts can." She pointed at Whip. "It just takes a bit more out of us than it does for them," she said with a slight laugh. Matt and Ash laughed too, but not out of humor; they did it out of relief that their friend wasn't dead, and that they'd all managed to come through the Vex's attack.
"Indeed. You fought well, young one." All three Guardians ceased their small celebration, and turned to see their unannounced guest walk up the stairs. "You!" accused Matt. "You nearly got us killed!"
"That was never my intention," she said in reply, and she turned to face Aria. "I only wanted to expose you to the Vex. Luckily, you all are made of sterner stuff than even I'd thought, and you managed to overcome them, even through death. Well done." Recognition clicked in Aria's mind, and she knew who the stranger was.
"You're that Exo from the moon. The one that gave us the dead Ghost." The stranger's white metallic face nodded, confirming Aria's statement. "Back then, I had no idea that your paths would intersect with mine." She turned to the group at large. "Yet, here we are."
"Why did you give us that Ghost? You could have taken it, and nobody would be the wiser. Why help us?" The Exo stranger turned to Matt, and said, "You mistake me for being an ally of the Darkness. I meant no harm, and once someone who had use for it came along, I entrusted you with it, believing it would be in good hands. My instincts were proven right, apparently. I dug that Ghost out of the clutches of the Hive. I'd watched its Guardian die protecting it, and I made sure that the Ghost would not be left to rot in the pits of the Hellmouth." She finished and put her hands on her hips. "Now, we have more urgent matters to discuss."
Crossing their arms, each of the three Guardians waited for what the mysterious Hunter-dressed stranger had to say. "As I understand it Guardians, you three seek to defend the Traveler and the last remnants of humanity from the Darkness, even at the expense of your own lives. It's a brave notion, but without being properly informed of what's truly happening, your efforts are in vain." She gave her speech with a tone of educating an ignorant child. "The Traveler is not simply dormant, it is dying."
"The Darkness is cunning, and though the City itself may not have yet noticed, the Traveler exists only in a vegetative state, and not as a sentient being. At least, no longer. Toward the end of the Collapse, the Traveler's Spark, its heart which gives it life and is the origin of all its light, was stolen from it. Without it, the Traveler cannot produce light, only supply it to Guardians from its initial stored amount from when the Spark was stolen. It's been nearly two centuries since the Collapse's end, and the Traveler's light is nearly gone." All three Guardians listened in silence, as they absorbed this wealth of information. She continued in her exposition. "The Traveler's Spark was hidden away by the Vex, and now lies in the center of one of their vast machine prisons, located on Mercury. It is guarded by thousands of the vile abominations, and any attempt to retrieve the Spark would almost certainly mean death."
"In addition to that, there is another ritual taking place that carries out the second stage of the Darkness's scheme. Do you know of the Black Garden?" Aria had no idea what that was, but Whip piped up and said, "We've heard the legends. What about it?" The Exo walked away a few feet, and gazed at the smoking corpses of the Minotaurs. "One of the greatest threats to the Traveler lies there, where a ritual performed inside it drains the traveler of what little light it has left. Soon, not only will your Traveler not be able to produce any light, but it will have no light left at all, if the ritual in the Black Garden is allowed to continue." She turned back to face them again. "Then, the third stage of the Darkness's plan will fall into place."
"And that is?" Aria found herself asking. The Exo looked directly at her, and spoke her next words with an urgency in her tone; "Once the Traveler's light is drained, and it is vulnerable, then the armies of the Darkness will converge on your City, burning anything that stands in their way, until they reach the Traveler and destroy it from the inside, preventing it from ever spreading its light again." She knew that the Exo wasn't messing around, and that for whatever reason, she'd decided to trust their team of Guardians with this precious information.
Ash tried a question as well. "Do you know about the Messenger? Or the Diplomat?"
The Exo's gaze lingered over Ash a moment before saying, "I am indeed aware of a certain individual who speaks for the Darkness, giving out commands to its armies. To some, like the Hive, he is the Messenger. To the Cabal, he is known as an Ambassador. The Vex have no name, as they see him not as a separate entity, but as an extension of the Darkness itself. I'm sure that in due time, if you wait long enough, he will find you before you find him. One thing is certain, he must be eliminated." Aria made note of the 'he' pronoun, before Matt asked her for yet another confusing answer.
"Why don't you just tell this all to the Vanguards, Hunter? Why lead us this wild chase to find you?" Matt's question hung in the air for a moment, before the stranger replied; "One doesn't have to be forged in light to use the same abilities that the Traveler possesses. There are other sources, other…" She paused. "Other sides."
"You're not a Guardian? Why wear that Hunter armor then?" "While I may not be a Guardian, I still have the same abilities as yourself, Hunter. I simply came about my path in a different beginning. Perhaps I fought for a side too long before realizing I was on the wrong one." At this, she glanced over at Ash, who was listening closely.
Something flickered in the stranger's face when she looked at Ash. What was it that Aria saw? Was it recognition, familiarity?
In a flash, the flicker had passed, and the Exo's features returned to normal. "In any matter, your first priority should now be to find the Black Garden. Rip out its heart, and only then will your Traveler's light cease to drain. It will not replenish itself, however, until the Spark has been freed from its prison and returned to the Traveler. Hurry, lest you run out of time before the Darkness's armies take advantage of the City's small defenses, and invade." She began to walk away, before turning around and asking a question to Ash; "What is your name, Titan?"
"Me? My name is Ash," she replied, confused at the sudden interview. Aria now knew something was up, and asked, "Why? Do you know her?"
The stranger hesitated only a moment, before replying, "Do I know Ash? No, I don't know her." She placed more weight on Ash's name, as though she specifically spoke in reference to the person associated with that name, and that name alone.
Then she walked down the steps as blue lights danced around her retreating form, signaling a transmat. Within a moment, she was gone.
Aria turned to her friends. "Did you guys pick up on that? The 'Ash' emphasis?" Matt nodded. "Yeah, it's like she was speaking about Ash, but in an odd way, like she was two different people." He turned to the Titan next to him. "Do you think she knows you from before your memory loss?"
Ash pondered only a moment before saying, "It doesn't matter. Like she said, our goal should be to find, and destroy the Black Garden's heart. That's the immediate threat. Once everything is said and done, we can worry about my past." Aria thought it was brave of Ash to possibly forego a potential lead on her previous life in order to protect the Traveler and the City. It was an admirable sacrifice that the female Exo was paying.
Matt began to count their objectives; "Alright, one; we need to find and destroy the Black Garden. Two, we need to defend the Traveler and the City from the possible invasion of the Darkness. And if at all possible, we need to somehow get the Spark of the Traveler back." Whip turned to face him. "If we're going to find the Black Garden, we need to see the Awoken. They keep track of nearly everything going on in the inner planets. It's one of the ways they've managed to survive for so long by themselves, making sure that they know what their potential enemies are up to." The Hunter nodded, and turned to Aria.
"I know that the Reef-born Awoken are suspicious of all outsiders, including Earth-born Awoken. But they'll still be more likely to talk to you then someone not even of their race, like me or Ash. Could you perhaps act as a middle ground for us? It'd be a lot safer of a bet then us all going together." Though Aria knew that he was right, the thought of being alone among her cousins who wouldn't hesitate to kill her should she give them an opportunity, was frightening. But someone had to do it, and she was best suited to fulfill that duty. "Of course."
He turned to Ash, and said, "We'll have to hang back on the Javelin as she and Echo talk to them. We can come in and support her if things get hairy." Ash acknowledged the plan, and Matt looked at both of them, speaking as a group. "I'd say that we need to get this done as fast as possible. No time to head back to the tower and relax, our new Exo friend was pretty clear that this is all happening soon. The Messenger, or whoever he is, is about to try and wipe humanity from existence unless we stop him. We need to start ending this chain of events now." The trio of friends was silent a moment, as they all began to accept their current course of action. Matt gave the team one last look around their faces.
"Alright, let's go have a chat with the Awoken."