I read her thoughts, her memories. I don't consider it an intrusion, regarding the very nature of our relationship after all.
That trek back to the City, all the while that Ghost- Whip, his name was- constantly put forth suggestions for her new identity.
Finally, he suggests Phoenix. She laughs it off, regarding it as a ridiculous name, though it does lead her to find the one she would use henceforth.
Ash.
I disagree with her assertion of its ludicrousness. A phoenix is a beautiful creature, a spectacle for others to find themselves amazed by. When it dies, it turns to ash and waits to be reborn out of the dust where it will then live its life out once more.
It seems that, much like the bird, everything has become a cycle. What does it mean? Does it mean anything at all?
The Hunter fell as a man, only to rise as a Guardian.
The Messenger wasted away in abandonment, and found himself alive in servitude.
And even now, after countless repetitions and iterations of the light's extinction, salvation draws near at last.
It would appear that every thought, every process, every conceivable reality is in truth nothing more than a cycle, an unending sequence where the results are only as unique as the individuals they encompass.
Even me.
A phoenix may rise from its ashes, but the ash holds no beauty. It is nothing but that which unjustly ends the phoenix's reign, and brings it back into the world. It is just one unfortunate, but necessary step in its life cycle. Without it, the phoenix could not be immortal as it is.
I would gladly take the title that she rejected, recognizing its significance. The identity she chose is an apt one; she is nothing more than the foundation for which the phoenix will rise above once more.
I am the paragon, the phoenix. She is the ash.
And the cycle is about to begin anew.
As the red light died down and faded away, Matt was finally able to properly apply some context to their new surroundings.
Now, he knelt upon a platform of Vex stone, cubic and geometrical as though it had been designed to physically mirror an equation. The aforementioned platform floated high in the clouds, granting one a spectacular view of the horizon far off in the distance.
"Venus has always been one of the greatest mysteries to humanity," the Messenger muttered quietly. "Scientists and researchers struggled for centuries to comprehend the nature of the Vex ruins here, some of them predating mankind's origin. Yet, how had they never noticed such monuments and structures if they had truly been here all along? It was almost as if they-"
The Exo placed a fist in front of his face and opened it to mimic an explosion, "-popped into existence."
He groaned in response, still clutching his mangled hand with his other arm, shaking from the wound it had sustained earlier. It was tough to think through the pain, but he made the effort anyway; what was the Messenger getting at? He didn't think it'd be a long wait to get an answer.
"The fact of the matter is that, as startling as it is to think about, that's exactly what they did. In a sense, anyway." He gestured around at their location, indicating the many Vex structures protruding into the atmosphere. "Look around you; we stand at the top of the Citadel, only one of many such locations around Venus. Do you know how long it takes to convert a planet into machinery?"
Matt tried to recall any information about the Vex's method of conquest. "They're … they're supposed to be able to transform a planet in days-"
"That's what it seems like, right?" agreed the Messenger animatedly. It was odd to hear the servant of Darkness speak in such an excited manner. "But the truth is that it's impossible to do so much in such little time. Fortunately, time is an infinite resource- if you're a Vex, that is."
The Messenger waved a hand around, and clouds of black and red began to appear. Materializing from god-knows-where, hordes of normal and SIVA-fied Vex stood at the ready. The Perfected Guardians stood nearby as well, watching the Messenger perform his final boast.
Grabbing the back of the Hunter's cowl, the Messenger dragged him forward as the minions looked on. "The problem with the Vex is that they're not really greedy, and they're not exactly evil either. At the end of the day, they're just trying to survive the end of the universe at all costs. The issue with that is that they haven't quite figured it out yet, and so they do what they always do- head back to the beginning and try again. It's the same way they're able to convert these planets; spend a few million, maybe a few billion years performing the process, and then just transport it all back through time to a few days after they started. Ingenious, really."
Finally reaching wherever he wanted to be, the Exo threw him down to the ground and stepped away as Matt tried to raise himself off the ground without working arms. Looking up, he saw a sight that he knew all too well.
"Back to the matter at hand, however; like I said, they don't really think beyond anything other than that; they're not ambitious, they're just survivors. They don't think about all the possibilities they have at at their fingertips with such power. Me, on the other hand …" He gave a loud cackle. "Well, I'm a bit more creative than they are."
In front of them were several time-portals, machinations of the Vex's that truly showcased just how formidable an enemy they could truly become if they desired. However, these portals weren't the standard circular gates that he was accustomed to seeing; instead, it seemed as though their design had been drastically altered, no longer retaining the top section of their ring and instead stretching two intricate prongs into the air where they waited patiently for … something.
And then there was obvious enhancement of SIVA that had been applied to them.
"What is … what is it doing?" he grunted, the fear of such a combination very prevalent in his mind.
"There's not much else it can do, those portals are practically the pinnacle of technological marvels; but there were a few minor tweaks that I've been able to add," the Exo explained. "See, now the portals aren't just connected to the Vex, but to every single individual who's been … perfected. Including myself and the Guardians you call your family."
At the mention of them, Matt glanced at them again as they stood idly by, waiting for the Messenger's next command. Were they aware of what they were doing? Were they already dead? Or were they just trapped inside the confines of their own mind, kept barely alive without any control?
"It's easier to show you the next bit rather than trying to explain it," the Messenger said, and gestured for him to watch them in action.
Cohesively, each set of prongs on the portals began to glow and charge up with temporal energy. Arcs of lightning and cloudy vapor began to materialize in the air above them, swirling together slowly but quickly gaining speed until a spherical orb of light began to form. The power from each gate was taken and channeled into the massive singularity, spinning insanely fast and now crackling with all of the energy it had acquired until it pulsed with one final burst and stabilized in the air.
Matt closed his eyes to shield them from the pulse, opening them cautiously to see what exactly had happened. Now, the large orb hung above them and the gates in the air, receiving a constant feed of energy from the portals and the SIVA-enhanced prongs attached to them. The many surrounding Vex stared at it, waiting for the Messenger to carry out the next part of his plan.
"Go ahead," he called to the Hunter, "gaze into it and see the fate that awaits you!"
With little other choice, he obeyed.
No longer was the orb made purely of light, or maybe it was; he couldn't describe exactly what he was seeing, just that its surface was more wispy than its core and it began to take shape into something that startled him considerably so.
"That's the City," breathed Seraph.
She was right; the orb acted almost like a window through space, allowing them to see the City from above, its inhabitants initially unaware of their new observers; but then civilians began to point out the anomaly in the sky above them, stopping to stare at the unknown entity.
"It was, as of a few minutes ago," the Messenger drawled, "or as it is at this moment, it's up to you how to interpret it really. So many timelines, so many realities … when you're a Vex, or at least someone with their technology in your hands, then all of time and space happen at once, converging on a single point with which you can choose whenever and wherever. Everything that's ever happened or will happen is happening now."
He indicated the singularity again. "I like to do this a few minutes in the past; close enough for you to feel the weight of your loss, but also just enough to be too late for you to help."
As they continued to watch, something else began to take place over the city; the army of SIVA-fied Fallen, Vex, Hive, and Cabal descended upon the City through their connection to the singularity. They appeared in the streets, in the sky, and-
"The Tower!" Seraph cried, as Matt was unable to work up enough of a voice to do so.
The view shifted to the courtyard, once again the target of an attack; but this time, there was no firefight or resistance. It was a straightforward massacre as Guardians were caught unaware and slaughtered by the enhanced enemy. SIVA particles snaked throughout the area, converting any host it could find, living or dead. These new perfected Guardians rose up, and helped to destroy the ones that had not yet fallen.
He cried out as the perspective shifted yet again, showing the Hall of Guardians as it was raided by the perfected. There was no warning, and there was no mercy.
Ikora, Cayde, Zavala, Shaxx … all dead.
He turned away, unwilling to watch the next phase as they were converted into mindless tools of SIVA. He was unable to block out the sound however, their gargled chokes becoming ever more guttural as the red plague took hold.
"Oh, you thought that was bad?" remarked the Messenger at Matt's torment, "Just look at this."
Against his better judgement, he looked back at the orb to see the rest of the City again, another aerial view. But unlike before … it was silent. There were still screams that rang out every so often, quickly cut off- but for the most part, not a sound escaped it.
On the ground stood hundreds, thousands of converted humans alongside the armies that had brought it in the first place. Nodes of SIVA erupted in the ground, growing roots and stretching them throughout the rest of the City to spread as efficiently as possible.
It was over. In just a few short minutes, the Darkness had won.
"Technically, that all happened a few minutes ago," said the Messenger with a twisted smile. "It was too late before you even knew it was too late."
He'd failed. There was no more humanity to save; only SIVA remained.
He was all that was left.
—X—
She watched through the eyes of the Vex as everything came to an end. He was broken, still unaware of the final card the Messenger had to play.
Exercising control over the parts of her that had spread throughout SIVA's connection, she directed all of her pieces into the gates that generated the singularity. She'd have to work quickly, before the cycle continued and she was sent back to the beginning to relive this hell.
It was almost in her grasp now; just a little bit farther and she'd touch the light-
Her mental fingertips scraping it, she felt herself get absorbed into its energy and grow. She'd done it! No longer did she feel confined by the pressure of SIVA all around her, in fact she'd never felt so free before-
Wait. She wasn't alone.
Two balls of light hovered in front of her in the void. One red …
… and one blue.
She recognized it as the same orb that she'd seen in her dreams, up on that mountain with the one who had called himself the Last Hunter. The same orb that had helped her find a way to defeat the SIVA that encased her mind. And the same orb that had revealed it held untold plans for her.
As she watched, the blue began to tear apart the red, ripping it to shreds and letting the ribbons fade into nothingness until only the blue was left, now with total control of the singularity instead.
Ash found that she was unable to do anything that she'd thought she would, that the orb had shown her she'd be able to. She was simply here, helpless as the light moved towards her and into her chest.
As it made contact, her thoughts blossomed into understanding.
Images flashed in her eyes as her mind touched infinity. Memories that weren't hers, and yet were. Memories that were hers but were now being taken back. Untold centuries spent searching for purpose finally brought to an end as her efforts came to fruition.
All of time and space in the palm of her hand, resurrecting her consciousness from beyond the depths of realms unknown. No longer was she a memory, but an entity.
…
Goodbye, Ash.
I have no use for you anymore; you played your part perfectly.
Now, it's time to play mine.
A/N:
; )