.
- Grimoire of Petra Venj, Queen's Wrath
To My Lady Mara Sov, Queen of the Awoken
My letter is a plea, my lady. A simple one. Please let me come home.
It has been years now since my appointment as your Emissary. Once, I was proud to call myself a Corsair in your service. My sisters and I were the sharp edge of your will, cutting across the stars in protection of the Reef.
It was your service that kept me from sorrow after Amethyst was razed. The loss of my sisters, my whole life, as our station burned... it took something from me.
By your will, it was given back to me.
Promoting me to the Corsairs, allowing me to strike back at the Wolves. Letting my fury find purchase in defense, in support, and in glorious battle. I know, as I'm sure you did, that without focus my heart would have grown toxic.
It was my pride in my position that sustained me through the Hildean Campaign. That led me to victory in battle against Veliniks, the "Forgotten Kell", the last hope for the unchained Wolves. I know now that it was my willful pride that brought me low.
My lady, I offer again the only explanation I can: I did not know the Guardians would act as they did. All I had known, all I had ever known, were the ways of the Awoken. The Wolves were entrenched in that valley. The approaches were blocked, all sight lines covered. An assault on their position was madness. We would have spent precious Awoken lives. For nothing. I saw the Guardians, knew they were on the move, but I assumed they saw the situation as we did. That it was folly to call in the Crows.
Prince Uldren's fighter wing did a masterful job. The blast was pinpoint precise. The blasts tore apart the Wolves, and the Guardians, and their Ghosts. Three strike teams of Guardians, gone in an instant, on my order. The City's anger, the Speaker's condemnation—all earned. All fair.
But it has been years since the Reef Wars. The City, these— people. They are not like us. They do not understand their place in the world. And do not listen when I speak it.
Please, allow me to return home to my people.
To serve you once again.
—X—
Aria looked at her Ghost with a sigh, her transmission signal with Ash having been severed by the latter.
"What was that all about?"
She shrugged. "Hell if I know. She seemed jumpier than usual. Maybe she's still getting over that whole Crota experience." She stretched her arms, making satisfied grunts as her muscles received relief. "I mean, we did just kill a Hive prince the day before."
"No rest for you, huh?"
She shook her head. "Usually, I'd love to be kicking back and relaxing after such a draining mission; but there's no way that I'm gonna go back on my promise to help the Queen that I made those years ago. That'd be like playing with fire whilst doused in gasoline."
Both Aria and Echo were back aboard the Javelin, reviewing their interaction with Petra Venj. The Awoken had instructed them to travel to Venus, where Skolas was reportedly attempting to take control of the House of Winter. There was a space available for a new Kell; Aria remembered an old mission that she, Ash, and Matt had carried out in the years between Mercury and the Vault, one to kill the Kell of the House of Winter. Draksis, she thought his name was. She supposed that technically that power vacuum was their fault, and so felt a bit more responsible to put a stop to Skolas's plan.
She looked over at the Ghost with narrowed eyes. "Also, were you trying to get us killed back there? You need to know when to just shut up, sometimes."
He gave a little Ghost 'shrug', but tipping his side points up in the air slightly. "What can I say? Maybe I've gotten to used to you being able to protect me over the years."
She smiled, and looked away.
"Seriously though," he spoke, talking with a bit more of an urgent tone, "I know about this Petra person. There was some kind of mission that the Awoken were conducting on Earth, during the Reef wars. I believe that they were trying to hunt down the last of the free Wolves. In any matter, it was Petra Venj that called in a strike to team to bomb the Fallen entrenched in a valley… as well as killing nine Guardians and their Ghosts in the process."
Aria's eyebrows shot up. "Nine? And their Ghosts too?"
"Yes. No revivals, no hope for resurrection. Three fireteams destroyed. Relations between the Reef and the City were strained after that, hence why she was banished to the tower for a bit to act as the Queen's emissary and restore broken bridges. Metaphorically, of course. We don't have a lot of bridges in the city."
The Warlock bit her lip. She could see why Petra wouldn't have wanted to talk about any of that, especially with Aria being a Guardian herself. "Yeah, I can see why you would have been apprehensive."
Echo nodded. "Just looking out for you."
She waved him away. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. C'mon, we've got a Wolf Kell to catch."
She let Echo dematerialize, and a moment later the ship powered up. Within seconds, they were flying off to Venus for their first brush with the dangerous Fallen warrior.
—X—
Cayde looked over the diagram that his scout had given him. "Yeah, I see what you mean. Alright, I'll let Zavala know to send someone to strengthen up those defenses. Good work." The scout nodded and left, leaving Cayde to sigh, not for the first or last time that day, in boredom of his job. The celebration over Crota's death had been welcome; at least it got him out of this stuffy hall.
"Hey Shiro!"
He heard a voice call, and turned in time to see Matt acknowledging the passing scout who waved as well, then turn back to look at him.
"Hey, Cayde."
Cayde nodded. "How's it going?"
The Hunter shrugged. "Pretty well, all things considered. Listen, I came to ask you for approval for something."
Cayde slightly narrowed his optics out of curiosity. "Approval? That's a new one. But what for?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to take a bit of leave."
Cayde stood there waiting still. "…aaaaaand?"
He shook his head. "That's all."
Cayde's eyes widened for a second before letting out a loud guffaw. "Seriously, that's it? You wanted approval for that? After everything you guys have done in the last few weeks, I probably would have approved anything you'd asked for." He waved Matt away. "I wish you took breaks more often. Make sure to set aside time for the two of you to relax more once in a while."
Matt nodded gratefully, then froze for a second. He tried to recover. "You mean the six of us, right?"
"Nope. Definitely the two of you."
The Vanguard looked at him as Matt tried to look nonchalant.
"Look, I may be stuck in this tower, but that doesn't mean my skills of observation are any less sharp. And I'm not sure that anything short of winning the war would convince you to take a break from missions, normally." He shrugged. "So when you ask me if you can have some leave, it's not hard to put two and two together."
Matt raised a hand to further argue, then simply lowered it and accepted defeat. "You have a point. I'm just gonna go."
"Have a good one."
With that, Matt turned on his heel and walked out of the Hall without looking as awkward as he felt inside. Ash was waiting for him at the top of the stairs in the courtyard.
"So, you good?"
He tilted his head. "Yeah, uh, you could say that."
She nodded. "I already talked to Zavala this morning, so I've been approved as well." She looked away, and then back at him with a sly smile. "So… no missions for a bit. Whatever will Matt do?"
He pretended to think. "Gee, I wonder." He gave her a grin. "Well, just because we're not on any missions doesn't mean we have to stay here in the city. We could, say, explore around."
That sounded interesting enough to gauge her attention. "Where did you have in mind?"
He waved his hands around a bit, suggesting places off the top of his head. "Well, we could always go back to the Cosmodrome. It's still winter, and it's very pretty out this time of year."
She thought about it. "Tempting. Maybe have a snowball fight or something?"
He looked at her oddly. "Wow, of all the things I expected you to know about, snowball fights were not one of them." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Anyway; does the moon sound good?"
He immediately busted out laughing from the hard stare that she gave him, both of her electric-blue eyes glaring daggers at him.
"Okay, I get it." He chuckled a bit more. "Not sure how I feel about heading back to Venus, what with the Vault and all. Which leaves Mars."
She cocked her head. "What's interesting there? It's nothing but a desert."
He shrugged. "Even deserts can be pretty. Besides, there's plenty to do there. We could go take pot-shots at Cabal, race sparrows…"
She laughed. "That sounds great. To be honest, a lot of things become more bearable when you're around."
"Except my jokes, huh?"
"Yeah, except for those."
"Well you better get used to them; 'cause if we're gonna be together, you're gonna be Psion a lot more of them."
"I swear, I will 'Fist of Havoc' you."
—X—
"Guardian, I'm tracking Skolas to the Ember Caves, the den of the House of Winter! He must be working to convert them already!"
Aria would have replied back to her, but she figured with the wind whipping around her as she rode her Sparrow, that Petra wouldn't have heard anything but white noise.
Eventually, she came to the rather large open area that was the Ember Caves. Dismounting her vehicle, she looked up to a makeshift balcony constructed by the Fallen that led deeper into the mountainous cave system.
"Why couldn't he have just given his inauguration speech out here, huh? With the sun shining, and all that?" Echo grumbled. "Now, we have to trek deeper into their territory."
Aria held her hands out like she was demonstrating something to him. "Well, you see Echo, Skolas is what we call a bad guy. And bad guys tend not to do what we, the good guys, would want them to do."
The Ghost narrowed his eye at her. "You're a very sarcastic person sometimes, you know that right?"
"What?! I would never dream of being labelled as sarcastic! The nerve!" she exclaimed, mocking indignity. She laughed, and then used her jump thrusters to ascend upward, grab the railing of the balcony, and pull herself over. Echo flew forward a few meters to the entrance of the cave, and began to pulse.
"Yep, I'm definitely detecting a lot of heat signatures in there. Sounds to me like Skolas has already been working on his speech, and he's delivering it as we speak."
Petra's voice crackled back on over the comms, "Get in there, Guardian. Show him exactly who he's dealing with."
Aria liked the sound of that. Grinning, she sprinted her way into the den.
She stopped sprinting roughly a minute later when she realized the hard way that perhaps running all the way through the den was not the best idea when you wanted to have the element of surprise. Rounding a corner, she was suddenly very aware that this cave system was inhabited by Fallen; lots of Fallen. They were packed amongst each other along the walls, on the ground, and it made for a very bad day for Aria.
She heard a roar of anger, and turned her attention up to where it had come from. One Fallen in particular seemed to be the center of attention; he had massive horn-like adornments on his back, and tubes with some kind of glowing red liquid that ran through his mask and around his body. But there was one trait she immediately noticed before all else.
"Holy shit, he's massive!"
Echo looked at the large Fallen as well. "Yeah, uh, Petra? That's got to be the biggest Fallen we've ever seen."
"You've both taken on tougher challenges! Get him!"
Man, Petra was one aggressive Awoken. Aria had to admit that she had a point; though she'd at least had help before. Upon taking a step forward however, Skolas screeched orders to the rest of the Fallen, and suddenly vanished in the light of a transmat. Aria looked around wildly.
"Where the hell did he go?!" Hearing an odd noise, she looked up to a massive hole in the ceiling of the cave. Rumbling grew louder as a small Fallen ship flew overhead, and out of atmosphere.
Petra's voice came back over the comms. "Damn, that skiff has already broken orbit. He must have turned tail and ran."
Aria was about to suggest to Echo that he transmat the two of them out, until she heard the clicking of mandibles and realized that they were still very much in Fallen territory. Hundreds of beady eyes leered at them from every corner of the cave, locking onto them like a predator would its prey.
"Uhh, Aria?"
She sighed. "Yeah, I know Echo." Holding one hand open, she summoned a pulsing purple orb of void energy, and snickered. "Never a dull day, huh?"
The Fallen charged. But that was okay. She wasn't trapped in there with them.
They were trapped in there with her.
—X—
Ash's Sparrow flew past the relic iron outcrop, and she raised both hands in the air.
"Ha! I win again."
Matt's Sparrow came to a stop next to hers. Seraph materialized over his shoulder.
"Seems you're not as fast with your Sparrow as you are with your knife."
He shook his head in disbelief. "How are you so good at this?"
Ash shrugged. "I guess being our pilot helps out, considering I'm the one who flies us everywhere."
Matt had to admit that she had a point. Since Aria had the Javelin, Matt had suggested they 'borrow' Eager's ship. The Exo was still doing Task Force work, and so wouldn't be needing his space-faring vessel anytime soon. Matt still knew how to fly a ship, just much less efficiently than Ash did, and the flight here had made that more than apparent.
In any matter, they were now on the outskirts of Freehold, a long since forgotten city on Mars. They'd been Sparrow racing for the last half an hour, and Ash was exceptionally adept at it.
He sighed contentedly. She gave him a sidelong glance, her visor depolarizing. "So, is this the right order?"
He turned to her. "What?"
"What you were talking about this morning. Is this the right order for how relationships go?"
He depolarized his visor as well, and rubbed the bottom of his helmet as though it were his chin. "It depends on whether or not this would qualify as a date."
"Does it?"
He laughed. "Well, back when I was alive the first time, we tended to do much smaller feats; more like go out to eat dinner, watch a movie, that kind of thing. Hmm." He sounded puzzled. "Not sure if that's how it's still done anymore. Times might have changed a bit."
She waved dismissively at him. "Look, it's not like I remember anything about society's norms for dating, and we've seen how the city would treat people like us. I say we do it your way. Next… date, go ahead and surprise me. I think a night out at dinner sounds great."
He chuckled, and marveled at how far they had already come. He supposed that nothing had really changed between them; they'd always been this close, always been the best of friends. They'd even always loved each other; it had just taken Crota and the threat of death to convince them to admit it to each other.
He pointed towards a path of dunes leading to an area other Guardians referred to as, 'The Hollows'. "Rematch?"
"Oh, you're on." She immediately kicked her Sparrow into gear, and took off in a flurry of red sand and dust, Matt trailing close behind.
The half-buried buildings of the city came into view as their Sparrows tore across the desert terrain. Ash piloted her vehicle close to one dome-like structure with a hole blown in the side of it, and passed a glance towards it. It looked like the panels of the building's structure had fallen away over time, some of them having been forcibly removed via explosion, or something similar. There was something above the makeshift entryway, an emblem or logo of sorts.
NO!
She stopped immediately, and spun around to face Matt who was now coming up behind her. "What?"
He cocked his head confusedly at her. "I didn't say anything. What's up?"
"I thought I heard… never mind." She looked back at the logo. It seemed to be half of a ring with two different quarters of a circle, each of them with the flat side facing upward.
She pointed at it. "What is that? That marking?" It seemed very familiar to her. She couldn't tell whether she was meant to see it in a positive or negative light; it seemed very neutral at the moment.
Seraph materialized in front of Matt and looked at it as the Hunter did the same. "Records indicate that it's something from the Golden Age, some popular exoscience group that had an HQ here in Freehold. It's-"
"Hot damn," muttered Matt from behind the Ghost. Both Ash and Seraph turned to face him.
"What? Do you recognize it?"
He nodded at his Ghost. "Yeah. That's the Clovis Bray logo. It was a company named after a man of the same name. Once the Traveler arrived and terraformed Mars, it wasn't too hard to start building a colony here."
Ash hopped off her Sparrow, and kept staring at it as Matt continued speaking. "Remember how I said that the only things around when I was alive were the prototypes and ideas for Exos? Well, these guys decided to try and make it a reality. I guess when you're delving into shady science, a new world without a large population is perfect for it. Keeps too many people from being nosy and discovering anything, I would imagine."
He shrugged. "All I really remember is that they established a science facility here about 5 years or so before I died, I think I was around 15. They had all these ideas, the Exos being one of them; colony ships, true AI, limitless nanotechnology, you name it. I remember thinking about how incredible it was as a kid, all the new wondrous things that the Traveler had given us." He paused, then his voice returned a bit harder. "Well, I was just a stupid kid. Didn't realize it at the time."
"Realize what?"
He shook his head. "Never mind that. Anyway, I- Ash, are you alright?"
Ash held up her hand for her to see it better. It was shaking involuntarily. Something about this 'Clovis Bray', something wasn't right. She felt it was familiar, knew that… knew that…
"Ash?"
A flash of something. A room. Machines everywhere. She spun around spastically to see Matt looking at her oddly. He too flickered in and out of existence. "What's going on?"
She was inside somewhere. A different place, a lab. White lights contrasted against dark shadows. Her hand no longer had armor on it, just metal and frame. She was on the ground. Untold despair washed over her, but from what?
he's gone he's gone he's gone
A man approached her, and she scrabbled away. Lightning-fast images flashed through her mind's eye. The machine. She was a machine. She was not a machine. She was living. She was dead.
White orb. Blood. Green eyes. Not her eyes. Blue eyes. They were hers, but not hers. She hated them. A constant reminder [of what?]
all of it was for nothing
"Ms. Gray! Please, stay calm!"
"GET AWAY!" she screeched at the man. He wore [a robe of the reaper, it's his fault]. They flickered as though they weren't real, swapping between both reaper and stranger. The stranger was muffled.
"Everything's okay, you're safe! I'm- aware you're hurting, but please stay calm-"
"STAY BACK!" she yelled again, and curled into a fetal position.
The machine. It hurt. It stabbed at her, became her. Her very existence was pain.
She saw her arm in front of her as she tucked into herself. It was wicked, hard to the touch. Artificial. Then she watched as circuits turned to veins, as plating turned to tissue. Frame became bone, and suddenly it was all metal again. Then flesh. Metal. Flesh. This was torture, to know of that which she was, but no longer is.
She tore at her arm, determined to find the truth. Blood spilled onto the floor, spreading in every direction. It ceased to exist and was replaced by wires being ripped from their ports, metal cracking apart under pressure. Circuits fizzled and popped as connections were severed.
Blood. Sparks. Blood. Sparks. [two halves of the same whole]
Everything pain.
The man and stranger fought for her, to talk to her. Everything was blurry, she couldn't handle it. Too much input. Too fast. Everything began to fade to darkness.
i wish i could die [now i can't]
"Ms. Gray!"
"ASH!"
"Ms. Gray…"
"Ash, talk to me!"
"…Gray…"
…
…
…
"Ms. Gray, I have a proposition for you."
A/N: Man, I am going to enjoy breaking each and every one of your hearts.
Remember to favorite, follow, and PLEASE review! I would love to see some of your guys' reactions to what you just read, it would make my day.