Mathias and Shiro-4 tried to pry the doors of the elevator open, Seraph having only been able to channel enough power to get them near the top. When their combined strength wasn't enough to overcome the mechanism, the former decided it was time for desperate measures.
"Stand back," he ordered, holding open his hand and letting the worn grip of his Hawkmoon materialize within it. Holding it forward, he let out a single shot which was more than adequate to shatter the doors.
Shiro held his arms up to shield his face from the glass, waiting for it to plunk against the walls and floor before moving forward to join Matt on the other side.
"Which floor are we on?" the Exo asked him. He glanced around.
"I think we're a couple floors under the courtyard. Should be some stairs around here-"
A gunshot rang out, loud and somewhere above them. The two were instantly on alert, holding their respective hand-cannons out in front of them as Matt darted towards what he believed was where the stairwell was located. Their footsteps echoed throughout the hall, the only sound in the otherwise silent interior.
The situation didn't look good- the walls were riddled with bullets and adorned with the occasional splatters of blood. What was worse were the bodies slumped against the wall or lying on the floor, unmoving. Some of them were dressed in the signature black and white of task force armor, others were Guardians. Shiro stooped down to examine one, his own Ghost- one with a bronze and white patterned shell- floating forward to perform a scan.
"They're Guardians," he muttered, stating the obvious. "But … why haven't they been revived? Where are their Ghosts?"
Shiro was raising some good questions, and unfortunately Mathias didn't have any answers. After another second or two of pondering, he jerked his head towards their objective. "Come on, we won't find any answers down here."
Shiro sighed in agreement. "I know. But now, I'm starting to wonder if we should even look for them …"
The duo resumed their run down the corridor, finally reaching the stairwell. With no time to waste, they entered and began ascending three steps at a time. The smell of smoke became stronger the higher up they went until there was a visible cloud of ash that hung stagnant in the air, permeating their olfactory senses and smelling of death.
Neither said a word now, instead opting to keep their weapons close and move stealthily towards the courtyard. Matt passed by a door which he recognized as his old quarters back when he'd lived in the tower- it brought back much more pleasant memories of this place than he was going to have of it after this event.
Reaching the end of the hall, they made their way out onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard. There wasn't much to be seen anymore- no fighting, no gunshots- it was simply a scene of pure destruction.
The kiosks had been blown apart, their ruins lying in heaps on the ground. The Hall of Guardians entrance had almost completely caved in from the stairs left and right of it crumbling to pieces from a lack of stable foundation. And the bodies … scores of corpses littered the ground, some of them mangled beyond repair.
"What the hell is this?" Shiro murmured, his voice tight with tension. Matt could tell the other Hunter was on edge, not used to seeing this much bloodshed in one place- especially not without dead enemy forces alongside their own. The only surviving Guardians seemed just as lost as they were, trying to pick their way through to rubble to look for other survivors or simply waiting to be helped as they laid there, wounded.
This hadn't been a fight- it'd been a massacre.
"This was a mistake," Matt breathed, his throat constricting from a combination of the smoke and the terror snaking its way towards his heart.
In spite of his words, he couldn't just abandon his comrades. Leaping over the railing of the balcony, he landed on the ground and made his way over to a dying task force agent, seemingly a Titan, leaning against what was left of the postmaster's stand.
"What happened here?" he questioned sharply, knowing the man wouldn't last long in his state- but he needed answers fast. "Who did this?"
Slowly, they fixed him with a hollow stare, their helmet masking any expression they might be making underneath it.
"… Run … protect … Ghost …"
That was all they managed to eek out before their neck lost its strength, and they slumped into a position they'd never rise from again.
"That doesn't sound ominous at all," Shiro remarked dryly. Matt was about to ask him what he think the Titan meant by that-
"Guardians in the courtyard!"
The voice came from behind them, and the two quickly spun around to face the new threat. What they weren't expecting to see was a squad of task force agents moving in, guns leveled at them and the other survivors in the courtyard.
"Halt! You will be detained and summarily-"
Whatever they would have 'summarily' been, they didn't find out. The black and white clad group was unexpectedly disintegrated by the void energy of a nova bomb which sailed over Shiro and Matt's heads to detonate right in the middle of them.
Once again, the two Hunters performed a double take to look for their savior. Running up behind them were two others dressed in task force gear, only adding to the immense confusion they felt. One was a Warlock, the other a Titan. As they approached, they both removed their helmets.
"Are you alright?"
"Eager," Matt realized, elation rising in him, "Dawn! You two are okay?"
"Barely," she replied, pointing out the various marks and chinks in their armor. "It's a bloodbath up here."
Eager nodded, his electric eyes wide with stress. "It's the Star- they're killing off Guardians here and in the city. The task force is corrupt, it must've been infiltrated by them a while back- don't trust anyone, they gun down those who surrender to them."
"How is this happening?" Shiro questioned. "What about the Ghosts- where are they? Why aren't they reviving Guardians?"
Dawn shook her head slightly, her disbelief of the situation all too apparent on her face. "We've caught a glimpse of these figures- all dressed in white and blue- walking throughout the tower. Whoever they are, they're absurdly powerful- they've been executing Guardians left and right with almost no effort."
Eager shared her hollow expression. "We think they're destroying the Ghosts- systematically killing them to prevent any resurrections."
Matt's breath caught in his throat. No Ghosts meant they'd be back to having one life … a death sentence for a Guardian.
"We need to leave," he said, "now."
Dawn stared at him emptily. "L-Leave? What about looking for other survivors, the wounded? We can't just abandon them-"
"Look around you," he hissed. "This is what the Trinary Star has been waiting for all these years- all of us in the same place where they can kill us in one fell swoop."
Eager looked mortified. "My god, he's right. They have the city under their thumb, this is exactly what they've wanted from the start- we've got no chance against them."
"We can't help them," Matt iterated, his voice low. "The only thing we can do now is run."
"No- the choice to flee is no longer yours."
The quartet barely had enough time to face their adversary before an arc beam blasted their feet and sent them flying into the midst of the courtyard. They recovered quickly enough, rolling into defensive positions as the newcomer approached them.
Just as Dawn had said, they wore brilliantly shining white robes and garments which were decorated with highlights of blue on their armor and wrappings. They swirled their hands about, walking as they held an orb of energy between their fingertips.
"You cling to hope desperately," they drawled, stepping closer all the while. "You revere it as your salvation, your ally- but now you see that it has deserted you."
"So long as a Guardian still breathes, hope lives!" Dawn spat at them, her body surrounding itself with void energy as she conjured up a shield. Eager followed her example, as did Shiro; the Warlock's arms began to hum with electricity and Shiro's hand cannon began to give off heat as his body became engulfed in flames. Mathias drew his knife, its blade turning blue from the elemental arc coursing through his body and into it.
"Indeed. It's a truth that will soon be corrected," their opponent replied uncaringly.
Without warning, the orb shot another beam towards them. Dawn raised her shield, barely managing to lunge forward and take on most of the force as the others flanked around her to engage. Shiro had a clear shot, and fired his golden gun.
Its landed its mark perfectly on target- right into the waiting hand of their attacker. Channeling the solar energy of the shot into the orb, the arc energy assaulting Dawn suddenly became solar and it blew her backwards off her feet with the power behind it.
What the hell? It was almost like their enemy had redirected Shiro's golden gun blast into Dawn, using his own light against her.
There was no time to dwell on the fact as their foe gave them no quarter. Eager and Matt moved forward to engage, both fully charged with arc elemental energy. The Warlock unleashed the full power of his storm-trance into them as the Hunter came from behind and drove his arm forward in a clean swipe across their back.
Any other being would have been sliced in half from his blade, let alone charred beyond recognition from the electricity streaming into them. But seemingly without worry, they merely held their arms wide towards Eager, allowing his attack to flow into them, and then channeled it behind them in a precise pulse that launched Matt into the air until he came down with a resounding smack on his back.
The air was completely driven from his lungs- not just from the hard fall, but from the shockwave of Eager's attack being rerouted into him. He'd been right- somehow, their adversary was able to wield their own light as a weapon against them, tainting it with their own abilities. It was no longer purely light, but neither was it dark- instead, it seemed to be … both.
He watched as Eager lifted a hand and summoned a flaming dawnblade within it. Casting it down at the assailant from above, he was nonplussed as they waved their arms and dissipated the sword into an abstract wave of solar flame. Channeling it through them, they sent it back at Eager and engulfed him in a sphere of fire which shrank and elicited howls of pain from the Exo as his own light torched him.
It finally combusted, sending the Warlock backwards where he came to rest next to Dawn, his body scorched and smoking. He didn't move.
"Seraph," he whispered quietly, "I need you to do something."
Shiro was left alone to fend off the assassin now. "That all you got, tough guy? Come on-"
He was cut off in mid-sentence as an unseen projectile of focused void suddenly impaled him from behind. He looked down slowly, staring at the new orifice in his body almost nonchalantly, his mind too busy processing what had just happened to react properly yet.
Two other white figures had appeared behind the Hunter, walking forward until the three of them encircled him. Falling to his knees, Shiro held his chest as the blue gel of Exo blood began to seep through the cracks and drip to the ground.
"Do not fear death, Hunter," one said, their voice distinctly feminine. "Your extinction paves the way for humanity's future."
Shiro looked up slightly to see Matt drawing his gun, preparing to engage. Almost imperceptibly, he shook his head.
No.
He froze, realizing the other Hunter was prepared to give his life to save theirs. He was buying them time to escape. Clenching his fists tightly, he nodded in understanding to Shiro and darted towards Dawn and Eager instead.
Sliding into place next to them, he tried to shake them vigorously. "We have to go, we have to go now-"
Raising one hand, the third attacker seemed to be pulling something out of Shiro's very chest. The Hunter screamed in pain as they worked until something finally came free- and the assailant held Shiro's bronze and white Ghost securely in his hand, its eye darting about in fear.
"The natural state of the universe is shadow …" they declared, squeezing their hand tighter until cracks began to appear in the Ghost's shell-
In an explosion of raw light and energy, the Ghost shattered. Its pieces fell to the floor next to Shiro, where he stared at them in horror. He only had a second to do so before they kicked him to the ground, and placed their boot over his head.
"… and the light dies with the Guardians."
In a sickening crunch of metal and sparking circuits, they pressed their foot down. Shiro's head was obliterated, crushed completely beneath the weight of his killer. More blood began to spill from the tubes within his artificial brain, coating the stone beneath his corpse in a vibrant blue hue.
"What … w-what's-?" Dawn muttered, coming to as Eager struggled to push himself up with Matt's aid. She was next, only standing upright as he looped her shoulder over his neck and lifted her up from where she'd been lying upon the ground.
"Come on, you two aren't dying here-"
"A brave promise."
The three turned towards the other three, their white armor still glistening in an almost pristine condition- it clashed horribly with the scene of chaos and tragedy around them. "But none of you will leave here alive."
"There w-were others who tried t-to kill us before," Eager grunted, making a painful effort simply to stand on his own. "So f-far, we're still here."
"There are none like us," the first one boomed. "You've lived because we permitted it. You will die because we command it."
"You're not the Trinary Star," Matt muttered, realizing that there were far more pieces in play here than he'd realized.
"The Trinary Star is a tool to be used as an extension of our will," one spoke. "Their goals are aligned with ours, for the time being. They will be useful until they are not."
"Who are you?" Dawn asked, her voice barely audible over the sounds of the nearby flames still burning.
"We are eternal," the one on the left spoke, extending a hand and allowing a spark of void light to drift from it in front of them.
"We are order," the rightmost individual continued, following their companion's example and sending forth a spark of solar light to join it where the two merged.
Finally, the one in the center channeled a mote of arc light through their fingers into the growing orb- it shone brilliantly with white-hot energy which expanded and threatened to burn them away until they were nothing. The trio cried out in agony as they felt their very essence being ripped from them.
"We are the Nine."
A/N: Okay, I underestimated how long this flashback sequence would be, probably one more chapter of this