She was afraid.
Where was she? She searched for an answer, but all she could see was red.
She could not move. Her body did not respond to her commands, not anymore. She tried to run, to flee from whatever awful place this was, but to no avail.
Where were the others, the other four taken alongside her? She could not look, but she could still … feel them.
She sent forth a few tentative touches, trying to probe where they might be. She recoiled when she saw that they were like her; trapped in this prison of red.
She could feel others, connected by a web of red tendrils and vines; the Fallen, though they did not view this as a prison. They remained in control, shared their body with this parasite rather than let it empty them of themselves.
And … others. Other allies of the Darkness, allowing themselves to be enhanced by this … this … red.
Was everything one and the same? Tied together by all the red?
She did not know; but she kept her discovery to herself, in the event that it would be necessary for her.
For now, she would wait, and hide, and pray that there was still a way out of this.
"Matt!"
He pushed through the throngs of Guardians running from place to place around the Tower. He'd notified the Vanguard immediately of the Messenger's return, and that they needed to alert the Ciy to a possible outbreak of whatever that red stuff was.
No one had expected him to be right, and now they were paying the price.
Ash and the others more than anyone else.
Ash …
He clenched his hands tightly. He'd lost Sara, unable to save her as her own body slowly killed her.
He wasn't going to lose Ash as well.
"Slow down- wait!"
Seraph hovered after him, trying to calm him down. She didn't get it, didn't understand that he-
"Plan this through, you're not thinking clearly-"
He spun around on his heel, and spoke in lowered tones to the Ghost. "I'm thinking as clearly as I can right now. The Messenger challenged me to find them, and that's what I'm going to do. Every second we spend arguing about this here is another second closer to losing them forever."
She had no real response for that, having seen the reasoning behind his rashness now. "Well … how are you going to find them?"
He turned around again, heading for the Hangar. "Access every database that we have, I don't care if it's encrypted or if I have the proper clearance or not; make it work. Once you're in, look for any mention of what the Messenger called it; Seeva or something."
Not waiting for her to reply, he made his way through the corridor that lead to Amanda's realm. Stepping into the hangar, he spotted the Javelin nearby and walked briskly towards it.
He didn't bother with waiting for the boarding ramp to appear, and let Seraph simply materialize him directly into the cockpit. A grid of blue surrounded him, and he felt himself make contact with the pilot's chair a moment before he reached forward and flicked on the engines and other systems.
"There are no official documents on whatever this thing is," Seraph finally revealed, having been scouring the databases for information. "But … there's an interesting note that maybe has to do with what we're looking for."
"What is it?"
She pulsed. "It's from Lord Saladin."
He remembered the man from many years back, during the battle for the Traveler. He, Ash, and Aria had been too late to save him as he was killed by none other than the Messenger, his soul consumed by the Darkness of the Thorn. Maybe, even in death, he'd be able to spare them from his own fate.
"Nothing about this 'Seeva' thing, but it reads as follows; 'If the red plague has been unleashed, then you will find your answers at Felwinter peak. It is up to you.'"
The Ghost glanced at him. "From the sound of it, Saladin was familiar with whatever this thing was and left behind a note in case he wasn't able to stop it himself. Seeing as he's been dead for a decade, I guess it's up to us."
His fingers tightened around the stick of the controls. "I guess it is."
—X—
"Felwinter peak?"
The Hunter nodded solemnly. "Yes, the same one you and I met on."
Her metallic mouth twisted itself into an 'o,' her surprise written all over her face.
"When Mathias found it, it wasn't the populated top of the world you saw the other day," he continued. "It had long since been abandoned, untouched since Saladin had passed. And it was there that he was able to piece together what exactly he was up against."
"What was he up against?" she asked quietly.
"An abomination," he growled, "something with the capabilities of building worlds that was being used for nothing other than to tear them down."
He titled his head up slightly at her. "SIVA."
—X—
The wind howled loudly as snow gusted over the edges of the peak. Now that he was on the ground, Matt could see that it was some kind of observatory; perhaps an astronomy research station or similar. Obviously, it had been repurposed in the centuries after its initial use; a symbol could be seen emblazoned on the massive door that allowed entry, one of two hands holding an axe over a shield. He could only assume that it held meaning to Saladin.
Pressing on, he found himself in an courtyard, stone stairs and paths cut into the mountain. Ahead of him was a rather large structure, what appeared to be a temple fashioned from the infrastructure of the observatory. It wasn't long before he found himself in front of its massive set of doors, and he hurriedly pushed them open.
Surprisingly, they swung open without much resistance in spite of their weight. Evidently, whoever had constructed them had done a good job.
As he walked into the temple, he couldn't help but notice how dark it was. No one had been here for years, and it showed; he detected stale air and a slight draft that must have been coming from a crack somewhere in the walls.
"Seraph?" he whispered, and waited for the Ghost to materialize. Once she did, she hovered into the center of the room and pulsed brightly, emitting a rather illuminating aura of light. Finally, he was able to see a fire pit, waiting for someone to ignite it. Obliging, he summoned a small bit of solar energy and reached his hand out to spark it.
The room was immediately bathed in light, and they were able to see properly. Next to the pit were two statues of wolves, positioned as though they were encircling him. Not menacingly; but obediently.
He drew a sharp intake of breath upon seeing the many large statues of Guardians along the back wall, all in statures of nobility and esteem. His attention was quickly diverted, however, when he saw several technological plaques that hung upon the pillars that segregated the statues. They seemed to tell a story of some kind.
Seraph flew up to the first one, illuminating them and trying to garner some understanding from them. "They're not just pictures, they have retrievable data … according to these, this was the temple of the Iron Lords; one of the first major groups of Guardian alliances."
He raised an eyebrow. "First? How long ago did they live?"
"A few centuries at least," Seraph answered, sounding almost absentminded. "The Traveler did lengthen life-spans after all, but … most tend to let themselves go after they've experienced enough."
That made sense to him, people coming to terms with how long they'd lived and giving in; there was a reason Exo's chose to wipe their minds, after all. Sometimes living too long was a punishment rather than a gift.
"It seems that they discovered something in their journey to save humanity from the brink of extinction," she muttered. "A technology long-since forgotten from the Golden Age, guarded by the Warmind Rasputin."
If it was technology related, he had no doubt that Clovis Bray was somehow behind it. That research corporation had damn near invented the future with how many ideas were pumped out of it, not to mention their most notable achievement being the Exos.
"It was called … SIVA."
Matt nodded. "That's what we're after. What does it do, and how do we counter it?"
Seraph continued reading the plaques, hoping to find answers to his questions. "When they tried to retrieve it, Rasputin intervened. He killed many of them, and only a small handful made it into the core. Apparently, they'd been hoping to use SIVA to construct starships, help form colonies and methods to take back humanity's worlds. The only limit was the user's imagination …"
She shuddered. "But instead, it corrupted them, twisted them. It began to infect them one by one, turning them against one another until drastic measures were taken. Saladin himself was forced to kill his former friends to end their suffering before he sealed the core for good."
He swallowed hard, suddenly imagining himself in that same situation. They had to find the others now. "Then how is it back?"
She hovered to the next placard. "The core was just a general facility for testing and final inspection. What they encountered was a small strain of SIVA that had remained relatively unchanged other than its newfound aggression."
She paused. "But there is one place Saladin dared not venture into; an inner sanctum buried beneath Russia, what was apparently a manufacturing site for it, its very birthplace. Wherever that is, it would presumably hold the rest of SIVA's resources, the last existing strain that has quite possibly mutated over the centuries into something … horrific."
His eyes widened. "That's it now, isn't it? It's not just building or infecting anymore; the Fallen found it, and now it's meshing with them, enhancing them … they're able to control it."
He turned away. "This isn't just revenge, even if the Messenger thinks it is; this is the final effort of the Darkness, its last push against the City. It can enhance its armies, give them another edge against us in the fight-"
Facing Seraph, he came to more startling realizations. "It won't need to destroy humanity if it can bend them to its will … what if it's going to set it loose against us? The war would be over in a day. Less than that."
The Ghost blinked worriedly at him. "Well, what can we do?"
Quickly, he gave her orders; "Tell the Vanguard to begin monitoring activity on Mars and Venus. Let them know to be aware of any unusual activity indicative of the Vex or Cabal amassing anywhere, I don't think we'll have to worry about the Hive too much. Other than that, they need to be watching the walls and making sure that nothing gets in that can possibly infect the population."
She pulsed blue, and looked back at him. "Done. And … us?"
"We're going to find the others and the Messenger. And when we do …"
He held the Hawkmoon out in his right hand, spinning the barrel with a satisfying click.
"I'm going to kill him."