Conversations and Preparations

EDZ, Earth

Ikora Rey stood five feet away from the Shard of the Traveler waiting for something. She inhaled and exhaled as she meditated before the shard. She has been waiting for several hours for something. That something being the shard restoring her Light. But it never did.

She meditated before it in numerous poses. From simply standing before it with her arms out and eyes closed. To sitting cross-legged on the ground before it. She even placed her hand on the shard, trying to feel something. Yet nothing happened.

She opened her eyes and found nothing. What is she doing wrong?

"Still nothing?" Asked a voice behind her.

She turned and saw her fellow Vanguard, Cayde-6 laying on a log with his hand cannon, Ace of Spades in his hand.

After returning from both Nessus and Io, Warlock and Hunter Vanguard had decided to journey together into the EDZ to see if they could get their Light back similar to how Summer and a few other Guardians did.

But no such luck.

"As you can clearly see." She said dryly as she turned back to the shard, using her extensive knowledge on how to solve this puzzle.

It didn't make any sort of sense. Summer Rose got her Light back not even two weeks ago, and all she did was approach the shard. Granted she was a Child of the Traveler, so it would make sense that she would get her Light back. But then not only her teammates; Lux Syphon and Prometheus-23, but a few dozen others as well. As of today, at least fifty guardians got their Light back. Yet herself and Cayde-6 didn't?

"You know, I may not be as smart as you or any of the other warlocks…" Cayde-6 said as he got off the log and walked to Ikora.

"Surprising no one." She quipped back with a small smile.

Cayde-6 chuckled before continuing. "But I do have an idea why you and me can't get our Light back…yet." He stopped and Ikora bade him to continue. "Because it's testing us."

"Testing us?" Ikora asked confused.

"Hear me out." Cayde-6 began as he paced between her and the shard. "You and me, we have faced many things before this. Killed Fallen mercenaries, you one-shot an unstoppable Ogre, Zavala did Zavala stuff. We've faced them and came up on top. And that is with our Light. And now here we are, powerless along with many other Guardians. A space-rhino took our Light. This whole thing is the Traveler testing us to see if we can fight our enemies and protect it without our abilities."

Ikora frowned. While Cayde's theory was sound, there were some loose ends.

"Alright, let's say this theory is sound. Answer this: why did the Traveler allow itself to be trapped? And why allow a small handful of Guardians their Light back?"

"For the latter question, Summer and the rest are a control group. A small percentage compared to the majority. As to why it let itself be captured…who can say? Only the Speaker can answer that and he's not here." He said sadly.

Ikora gave it some thought. His theory was certainly plausible and her other theories, compared to his were silly.

She shrugged her shoulders and walked back the way they came. They both looked back to the shard one more time before departing.

"So you came up with that theory on the spot?"

"Oh no, I came up with that two hours ago. The remaining time between then and back there, I've been planning on something big when we infiltrate the Last city and hit the red Legion where it hurts."

"And what is that?"

"All in due time Ikora, all in good time." He said as they walked back to their ship.

00000

Neo sat cross-legged on the ground of the base camp everyone was calling the Farm. And she wasn't alone!

She sat with at least five Eliksni hatchlings sharing a large bowl of neopolitian ice cream. The little ones took an instant liking to it after getting a small taste and she didn't mind sharing her bounty with them. she got said bounty from a vendor that made it out of the Last City during the evacuation. after doing a few odd jobs for him, the ice cream was payment.

She heard footsteps behind her and saw Hunter Vanguard cayde-6 approach.

"Mind if I sit here?" he said sitting down anyway as his Ghost Sundance transmatted a spoon and dug in as well. After watching the Exo Hunter, the Eliksni hatchlings continued eating.

"You remember that t-Rex you encountered some time back?" He asked.

Neo recalled it well. She was out in a large forest called the Amazon exploring when she stumbled upon a small group of Vex doing some sort of integration which resulted in a temporal portal. She managed to shut it down before the portal became too unstableand eliminate the Vex. but not before a T-Rex exited the portal and made its way into the jungle.

She gave a nod to the Exo.

"You wanna help me find it?" He asked with a mischievous grin.

A/N: Attention all readers, this is Dustiniz117 and we are now approaching the final chapters of Red War and they are going to be BIG! So be patient and look to a new chapter on October 31st!