A/N: So this takes place after the Last Wish raid. Forsaken is a weird patch of time for these OCs.

Check out Dragon Ball Z: The Space Train for my other work alongside my lovely coauthor Feraligreater.

Prompt 14: INVESTIGATE

"I need you to state your name for the record."

Her eyes ached under the bright fluorescent lights. "River Valikai."

The Warlock across from her tried to make eye contact before giving up and going ahead. "Miss Valikai, you seem like the type that would prefer a straightforward approach, so I won't beat around the bush. What do you recall from the night that you disappeared?"

"We were going after one of Cayde's old caches," she managed, voice still hoarse. "Down under Titan. I had a headache all morning. Still. Felt like the only thing we could do to honor Cayde."

River paused, pressing the heel of her hand firmly against her forehead. Her brain still ached, pulsing firmly as she recalled. "We hit a Darkness zone. And all of a sudden it was just so painful, and I felt like someone pushed me backwards out of my body. Like I was watching it from far away."

"And then?" her interviewer - interrogator - asked, taking notes on her every word.

She deliberated her phrasing. "I didn't move, but my body did. I fought, or at least I tried. But it was like watching a movie play out. He begged me not to kill his Ghost-"

That was where her voice broke. She had to stop again, take a steadying breath to regain her composure. The interviewer stopped writing. She continued, and so did he. "That was the only thing that I remember having any control over. My hand jerked, the gun fell. I took Sunshot, and I left without Clementine. And I don't remember much after that."

"Clementine being your Ghost," he noted. "And you maintain this was entirely against your will?"

"I was not in control of my body. Something else was."

The Warlock leaned forward in his chair, voice grave as he said, "But you have to realize this action is consistent with your prior history."

River froze. "What?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

"You destroyed a Ghost and severely injured its Risen approximately three months after being resurrected." The investigator crossed his arms on the table. "Daniels-2 submitted a copy of his Ghost's memory bank as part of the investigation. We saw it all."

River could see it in front of her - the way the gun leaped into her hand for the first time, killing the man, killing his Ghost, burning his eyes out. She could feel her chest heaving as she remembered his desperate fumbling, trying to hurt her. The relief when he was left unable to hurt anyone else.

Almost worse, as she mulled it over, was the idea anyone else had seen that footage. It was almost more violating than what had actually happened to her.

"I will never," she began, voice quiet and hot and fervent, "feel any shame for what I did that day. That man tried to violate me, and I will not feel shame for whatever happened to him. Daniels has never, ever hurt me. I love him. What happened to me, and to him, was not a result of what I did. I will never stop feeling guilty for it, though. I will never unsee it. I will never sleep again. But it wasn't.." She broke again, couldn't hold it in, hot tears tracking down her face. "It wasn't my fault."

Again, quietly, wetly, she repeated, "It wasn't my fault."

The interviewer watched her quietly cry for a moment, the way she scrubbed back tears in an attempt to keep the dam from breaking further. He sighed, leaned back in his chair. "This interview is completed. You may go."