It seems that all my bridges have been burned
But, you say that's exactly how this grace thing works
It's not the long walk home
That will change this heart
But the welcome I receive with the restart
Roll Away Your Stone – Mumford and Sons
October 22, 2958, 15:32 (Tower Time); Fields of Glass, Mercury
It was nighttime on Mercury. Osiris remembered what it had been like once: grasses swaying softly in the breeze, the rustle of leaves overhead. All of that was dead and gone now, lifeless dust and sand, but the air was still cool and refreshing on his face.
They stepped through the threshold and Osiris stood on real ground for the first time in decades. There was something different about it, something that none of his senses could quite quantify. As far as his eyes could see and his feet could feel it was exactly the same as simulated ground, but some part of his brain still acknowledged the difference. Perhaps it only seemed odd because he expected it to be so.
Osiris did not have much time to muse upon the differences in actual and simulated reality. Their exit had caught the attention of several figures who had been conferring at the bottom of the steps. They nodded to each other and made their way up toward the Gate with varying levels of enthusiasm. A few jumpships flew by overhead, depositing more Guardians onto the flat gathering ground between the Lighthouse and the Gate.
Osiris was struck by a sense of déjà vu- it was exactly like Azra's simulated projection. There was Ikora on the left, composed and dignified but with a sense of pride about her. On the right, Cayde-6 abandoned decorum and stepped forward for a hug.
"Ah, haha-" Azra laughed nervously upon catching sight of her Vanguard. She rubbed the back of her head in a sheepish gesture, grimacing. "Shit." There was such a sense of apprehension in her voice that Osiris looked over her in worry. Her face in the light of the Gate was pale and taut.
Cayde-6 held his arms out and Azra leaned into them without another word. "This is the last time you go running off doing crazy shit on your own," the Exo began to scold.
Azra just swore again, holding onto Cayde much too tightly, fingers crushed into his cloak like she was literally holding on for her life. Her knees shook.
Ikora addressed Osiris, but he couldn't pay attention; his focus was riveted on the pair of Hunters. Cayde-6 was concerned now, muttering something inaudible in Azra's ear. It was odd. Osiris had seen her in battle. Even harried by all of the forces Panoptes had been able to muster, she hadn't been off-balanced. She'd slain Vex Minds. It seemed then, as she'd fought the will of the Collective, that she'd never be laid low. Yet the hands that had struck down Panotpes and Atheon and a dozen other gods now trembled like leaves in the autumn wind. It didn't seem right.
"People have different sides to them," Sagira said in response to his thoughts. It was true- he'd seen Azra strong and confident in the face of oblivion. But he'd also seen her lost and scared without her Ghost. Seeing her lost and scared now wasn't so new.
Perhaps it didn't seem fair. She'd killed Panoptes, after all. She'd saved Osiris three times in three different ways. And what had that gotten her?
Another Guardian bounded up the steps behind them, out of breath in her haste. She seemed somewhat familiar, though Osiris couldn't place a name- an Awoken woman with green eyes and purple robes. Osiris would swear he'd seen a simulation of her somewhere. She had no attention to give anyone but Azra, not even glancing at Osiris before she touched the Hunter's arm and asked a quiet question.
It appeared his guess about the lifespan of the Lantern's effect had been correct. Azra was so timesick she couldn't even communicate. "I believe a resurrection will do her well," Osiris offered.
The Warlock looked up at him, seeming to take him in for the first time. Her eyes became hard in an accusation. "What happened?" she asked, voice taut.
Normally, Osiris would consider it quite insulting to begin demanding answers from someone when you didn't even know their name. But it had been a very long, very odd day. It barely phased him. "The intricacies of controlling the Infinite Forest were beyond my first attempt at doing so. There were… consequences."
"You did this?" Cayde asked, incredulous anger in his voice.
"She made her own choices," Sagira answered. "She saved us. Osiris is grateful, even if he doesn't sound like it."
"Throw up," Azra muttered, voice muffled by Cayde-6's armored vest. "Did I throw up? Am… Am I going to throw up?"
"Will a resurrection work here, or does it need to be in the City?" Osiris directed his question to Ikora Rey. She'd been the one to suggest it, back in Azra's remembered past.
"I don't know." Ikora spoke smoothly, though there was alarm hidden behind her mask. "This has only happened once before."
"Well I ain't riskin' it," Cayde-6 said. "C'mon, there's a gun range with your name on it." He began to physically bundle Azra down the stairs. His fellow Hunter went without protest, not even turning to give Osiris a look goodbye. The green-eyed Warlock did cast him a glance, but was quick to follow the two others.
"It would be for the best if we left as well," Ikora said quietly. There were over a dozen Guardians now gathered before the steps to the Infinite Forest. Osiris didn't recognize any individuals, but their heraldry was hard to mistake. There were Vanguard sigils everywhere. More than a handful wore the trademark longcoats and blocky bonds of the Praxic Order. Those that weren't talking with each other or readying weapons were staring up at him.
"Yes," Osiris agreed. He had been often stared at, once upon a time. Hushed whispers had followed him when he walked the streets of the City- whispers of awe, of wonder. Later, near the end, they had been whispers of anger and accusation. By then it hadn't bothered him- he'd had more important things to focus his attention on. But in the Infinite Forest, under Panoptes, to be noticed was to be in danger. The world had moved on around him as he'd toiled away in the Forest, and it seemed that he, too, had changed. He did not know his battleground.
"Tea, perhaps?" he said, covering his anxiety with politeness. "I'm afraid I have no cookware with which to prepare it, or leaves for that matter-"
"Tea sounds wonderful," Ikora said. She flashed a smile- a real one, with a glimmer of light in her eyes and a glimpse of teeth. "Did you have some place in mind?"
?
Azra woke on the floor. She blinked dumbly up at the ceiling. The LEDs shone steadily behind their bulletproof shielding. Pockmarked concrete revealed itself under her fingertips. She was, she recognized, on the floor of a gun range. But the gun range was supposed to have fluorescent lights…
After a second, the anxious faces of Cayde and Veera peeked into view.
"Uhhh," was all Azra could manage to say. What had happened? Her short-term recall was a mess. What year was it?
"You feelin' alright?" Cayde asked.
"Yeah, yeah," Azra said quickly, sitting up before people could start shining lights in her eyes. And she was fine, just confused. "Jus' gimme a second."
She'd been… on Mars? No, no this was after that. Ikora had asked her- and then Brother Vance and the Lighthouse- and the Cultist hideout in the EDZ-
"I'm here," Spark said comfortingly. "Sagira's fine, too. Everything's fine."
"We won?" Azra asked. She didn't need the answer, she remembered winning. She'd held the Aegis again. She'd watched Panoptes fall apart with her own eyes.
"Now," Osiris said, "now I take control of the Forest. I end this threat, for good."
The ground shuddered underneath Azra's feet and she was struck with a sense of dread. Everything was about to fall apart, and Osiris-
She lunged forward. There wasn't another thought in her head- there was no time to think. Instinct ruled her, and instinct said protect.
Artifacts in reality were already breaking space around Osiris, but Azra was faster. She tackled him, wrapping her arms around his ribcage just as the stone they stood on vanished from existence.
"Oh," Azra said.
"Yeah, oh," Cayde echoed angrily.
Azra took in a deep, steadying breath. Now that she thought to feel for it, the Light sang with worry. Cayde's vexation cut through it all like she sharp bite of alcohol.
"Well, that was… fun?" Azra said in an attempted understatement. She felt on her belt, finding her sidearm and her knife where she expected them to be. Her armor was still in good repair-
"Azra," Cayde said. He really was angry. He was at a loss for words. He'd said if she died, he wouldn't forgive her, but she hadn't died, she'd just…
Well, she'd gotten herself pretty hurt, she supposed. But still. "What did you want me to do?" Azra said.
"Wait for backup?" Cayde half-asked, half-snapped. "You know, like I asked you to?"
"If I had, Sagira would be gone by now," Azra argued. "And this still would have happened." Like a few extra hands could have stopped the Forest from falling apart.
"You should have called me the moment things went wrong," Veera said. She was less angry than Cayde, but still visibly disturbed.
"You're the only Guardian I can trust with this," Ikora said. "Saint-14 went into the Infinite Forest decades ago, but we have had no contact with him since. The Forest is not to be underestimated. We need someone who can navigate it without becoming lost."
"You couldn't have prevented it, either," Azra said with a quiet tension. That was the whole point, why Ikora had called her in specifically, why she hadn't called in help at the beginning- this was a Vex thing, with Vexy threats. She was one of the only people around who could've begun to understand what went wrong, much less stop it before it reached the breaking point. "This was my problem to fix."
"I want to be there for you!" Veera exclaimed. "Perhaps I could not have stopped this, but someone could have been there for you."
"I had Osiris," Azra offered. She knew it was a weak argument.
"Osiris," Veera said flatly. "Osiris, who thought you were Vexspawn because you were an Arcstrider? Who was exiled from the City for abandoning his post on the Vanguard? That Osiris?"
Azra didn't have anything to say in retort.
"Azra, we're Pack," Cayde said. "You're on a Fireteam. I get it. Some jobs are best done solo. And you got all the personal space you want, but you're not meant to be alone. Not when the chips are down like that."
And all this admonishment was perhaps not something Azra was ready to deal with after the rollercoaster of a day she'd had. (Day? Two days? What time was it, even?) She had been alone- more alone than either Veera or Cayde had probably realized.
She was angry too, she found. Here she was the one who'd been suffering and Cayde wanted to throw a chewing out on top of it? "I know what I'm capable of," she bit. "I know- listen, I appreciate you wanna help me. But I made a judgement call in not asking for backup and I was right. Trying to drag more people around the Infinite Forest would've been harder."
"But you wouldn't have been alone," Cayde said.
"Well sometimes I'm gonna be alone!" Azra exclaimed. "You're cooped up here in the Tower and God knows everyone else is busy enough. God knows I'm busy enough. We got no Andal, we got no Tevis, half the people I used to run with are dead. Someone's not always gonna be there for me, Cayde. That's how it is now."
It was a bleak reality to face. Cayde's jaw worked but he had no more words to raise in his defense. Veera looked taken aback.
Azra took a breath and found, as always, her anger had burned out quickly. She sighed. "I'm sorry I got hurt. Nobody's more shaken by this than me." She'd been trying to ignore the trembling in her hands, but her unsteadiness haunted her. A few seconds was all it had taken before the stability she'd fought for had been thrown down the drain. "But things could have been worse. A whole lot worse. I'm not gonna apologize. And I'm not gonna say sorry for prioritizing the mission over my own personal comfort." She just wasn't that kind of person- Cayde knew it, Veera knew it. They both softened a little.
In reality, Azra had hit the ground running and had no choice but to keep moving forward. If she'd slowed down, she felt she would've fallen apart. Momentum had carried her through the ordeal- an admittedly stubborn focus on the next step she had to take at the cost of considering anything else. And she'd gotten through-
But she was tired.
"When have you eaten last?" Veera asked. And that was just like her, refusing to ignore everyone else's needs.
Azra didn't answer, and that was enough for Cayde. "Dinner," he decided. "Or Lunch. Whatever. We can sort this out later."
He held out a hand to help Azra stand up, but pulled her into an embrace when she was upright. "You scared me," he muttered in her ear.
"…I'm scared, too," Azra admitted quietly. "You think I'm not?"
"Food," Veera commanded. "And rest. No good decision is ever made on an empty stomach."
At the same time; Pariah's Refuge, Fields of Glass, Mercury
It was perhaps a bit odd of a place to be drinking tea.
Ikora had brought the tea set- and the small stove used to heat the water, and the water, and the tea leaves. Osiris's contribution to this occasion had been one of destruction, mostly. The plinth they sat at was surrounded with the scattered remains of Vex chasses. They would not be bothered.
Osiris drank deeply from his cup, savoring every subtle flavor in the tea. Vex simulations were incredibly faithful to reality- tea in the Infinite Forest tasted almost exactly like this. Though, he admitted to himself, there was some characteristic about real tea that could not be copied.
There was some characteristic about Ikora that could not be copied. She sat primly, legs folded, like she was at a fancy dinner table instead of in a Vex construction site filled with dead frames. There was something important about their interaction, as trivial as it had been so far. Osiris had spent the last decades surrounded by approximation and paper-thin facades. This was real.
"If Azra Jax does not remember our parting, I would like to have a word with her," he said suddenly, cutting though the placid waters of their previous conversation. "Actually, even if she does remember it, we would still need to speak."
Ikora hesitated. "I am not sure if she would want to speak to you," she said. "Whenever we have discussed you in the past, our conversations have not belied the most… forgiving of attitudes."
"I want to apologize to her," Osiris admitted. "I'm not sure how much she understood before." Even if she wanted nothing to do with him (as was her right), she deserved an apology. "It's important."
Ikora Rey tilted her head a few degrees. "You've changed," she remarked. The tone of her voice was one of approval.
"So have you," Osiris answered. Ikora was no longer the questioning student- she had grown into her confidence. She wore her strength with pride, a secret wisdom hidden in her eyes.
"I have had other teachers after you," Ikora said. "Time. Pain." She shifted, raising the teacup to her lips, a curious look on her face. "…A Guardian who makes the habit of the impossible." The joy she'd shown at the Gate had been just as much for Azra as it was for Osiris, he realized.
"You'd consider her a friend?" Osiris asked.
Ikora nodded, taking a sip of her tea. "And you?"
"…Someday, perhaps," Osiris said. "In that regard, I have much work to do."
"You could come back with me," Ikora offered, setting the teacup on her saucer with a quiet clack. "The City has changed much since you left." You could come home again, her tone said.
Osiris put up a polite hand in refusal. "No, my place is here now." He had a suspicion that he wouldn't be as welcome as Ikora hoped. He had made plenty of incorrect choices before his leaving. Choices that had hurt people. Only now, after decades of exile and some very, very close calls, could he admit that honestly to himself.
Besides, the Infinite Forest could not be left untended. Even without Panoptes driving existential threats, someone needed to keep watch over the simulations. "We stopped the Vex this time, but many equations lead to the same solution. If they were to ever find another…" He would find other ways of controlling the Forest. Or, at the very least, he would keep an eye out for more threatening simulations.
"We'll be there to help," Ikora promised.
"Of that, I have no doubt," Osiris said. "The pathway to the Forest will be open if you ever need to find me." He raised his cup to his lips, considering his options. "…Or if you want to talk," he added quietly. Perhaps his self-imposed isolation wasn't the right answer to his exile. Secretly, he'd been longing for company. For just one conversation held above tea, however inconsequential.
"I'd like that," Ikora said, smiling.
October 27, 2958; The Endless Steps, Ishtar Sink, Venus (the Infinite Forest, Fields of Glass, Mercury)
Osiris's Reflections did not warn him that there were Guardians in the Infinite Forest. He did not have enough manpower at his disposal to keep a lookout for them. It had only been five days since the fall of Panoptes- he was still gathering his resources. It was much easier now that he was the largest threat around. No more scrounging for scraps of power or places to sleep. Things were progressing much quicker than he could have hoped.
Still, it hadn't even been a week, and he hadn't bothered posting Reflections on the Gateway into the Forest. He had stable comms access, routed through the Lighthouse. If anyone was foolish enough to wander in without guidance and get lost, it wouldn't be his fault. The Infinite Forest was not a tourist destination.
So it surprised him. He had been clearing the Vex from a simulation of the Endless Steps, chewing through them with kinetic weapons fire while his Reflections worked to close the main Gate. It was arduous- every Vex he put down was replaced by another coming through the Gate. He measured his ground gained in feet, while his Reflections spent more time defending themselves than making progress on their end.
Suddenly and without warning, Solar fire shrieked above him. It splashed down in fury on the assorted Goblins and Minotaurs. Osiris peered up at the Sun-bright clouds, only to realize that the source of Light he'd originally identified was not the Sun. A Warlock soared overhead on wings of Flame, unleashing hell upon the Vex forces.
At first he thought it a simulation, guided by its routines to help a fellow Guardian. But this simulation took place much too early for that to be a Dawnblade. Solar Warlocks of this era stayed on the ground, drowning themselves in Radiance.
It clicked for him when the whir-snap of an Arc Staff echoed on the stone. Azra Jax sprang out of nowhere near the Gate, battering away the frames that were harassing his Reflections. Only moments later, the Gate closed and the stream of Vex cut off. It was short work between the three Guardians to mop up those remaining.
Osiris stepped out of cover and moved towards the Gate. He dismissed his Reflections off to other locations- with this simulation secure and other Guardians to help fight, there was little danger present.
The Solar Warlock landed gently next to Azra, shaking the fire out of her hands. Osiris recognized her from the confrontation by the Infinite Forest's Gateway- green eyes, purple robes. The Hunter had removed her helmet and was conferring with her Ghost. They stopped and both watched Osiris as he climbed the steps.
"You're back sooner than I'd thought," Osiris commented. Critically looking the Hunter over, he saw no indication that she wasn't back in shape- her stance was sure, her eyes clear and sharp. Her Warlock friend looked tense, perhaps, but Azra herself seemed easy enough.
"I haven't forgotten my promise," Azra said. She was all business, already hefting her Mythoclast in preparation of a further fight.
"Azra," her Ghost scolded, re-appearing above her shoulder. "Don't be rude."
"Oh," the Hunter said, sounding a bit surprised. "Right. Osiris, this is my Ghost, Spark. Really didn't have much time for introductions the last time we… yeah."
Osiris nodded at the Ghost politely. He supposed he had just as many apologies to make to the small machine as to his Guardian.
"And this is my partner, Veera," the Hunter continued, tilting her head at the vaguely-familiar Warlock. "Leader of Fireteam Dauntless, Crota's Bane, Kingslayer, Hero of the Red War, yadda yadda."
"Lord Saladin would be shamed to hear you dropping my honorific," the Warlock said. Was she… teasing? It was difficult to tell.
Azra just rolled her eyes. "Saladin can come fight me himself. They shoulda picked less pretentious titles if they wanted normal people to use them."
"It was a measure of respect demanded by the Warlords of old," Osiris pointed out. "For the Iron Lords to accept any less would be an admittance of shame."
"Well, until they start knocking on my door demanding their honor back, I don't care," Azra said. "Anyway, Lady Veera, meet Osiris. Previous Warlock Vanguard and Vanguard Commander, Hero of Six Fronts, and once upon a time, a major pain in the Speaker's butt."
"I have heard stories about you," Veera said, holding out a hand to shake. It was clear from her tone that most of those stories hadn't painted him a good light.
Osiris decided he wasn't going to notice. He took the Warlock's offered handshake. "I have seen simulations of you, in the Vault and elsewhere," he said. "Impressive work you do."
They seemed to be on track for a relatively boring conversation of congratulating each other on their mutual achievements, but Sagira intervened. "Okay, so nice to meet new people," she cut in. "Take a chance to catch up, make some small talk. Not like we were doing anything…"
"Rude," Spark commented.
"But practical," Azra added, eyebrows high in amusement and surprise.
Veera cleared her throat politely. "Business is pressing, from what I understand."
"Well, it's been waiting for a few decades, I doubt fifteen minutes is gonna make much of a dent in our chances," Azra drawled. Still, she shifted her gun again, also clearly wanting to be done with the trivialities.
"Chances of what?" Sagira asked.
"We are here to help you find Saint-14," Veera announced. "Was that not the deal?"
Osiris looked back to Azra. She shrugged easily. "I did promise. Remember that much, at least." So her memory had been affected- though she was looking at Osiris with some level of understanding on her face. "Figure we can do our catching up along the way?"
Osiris didn't hesitate. He nodded. "I would be glad to accept your help."
Note: And here we are, universe saved, everyone's friends again, isn't it great? Now nothing bad will happen, ever.
In completely unrelated news, the first chapter of the next installment, Curses, has been posted! Check there for future updates or, as always, follow me at poorlytunedukulele on tumblr!