Two voices carried over the Martian landscape and down the hill. Arizona looked at the other two Guardians. "Is that Zavala?" They all exchanged glances, and then they rushed up the hill. Sure enough, Zavala and Ikora argued.
"I can't fill you in on every minute detail!" Ikora yelled.
"When it comes to Savathun, no detail is too small. You know that better than anyone."
Ikora stepped forward. "Which is why I made some judgment calls without you…as you do without me."
Zavala took a step forward, until they seemed so close that the air was sucked out around all of them. Only the wind kicking up the red dust reminded Arizona that it wasn't the case. Still, even the dust seemed to kick up and wrap the dust around Zavala and Ikora. "Not on a matter like this!"
"Should we come back when you two are done?" Fae interjected when no one else would. Arizona folded her arms as Zavala turned to them.
"We can discuss this more later. My point, Ikora, is that we're meant to be a team. You can't rely on your instincts alone."
"Perhaps," Ikora snapped, "I can't rely on them at all. The way this investigation is going, it's clear my judgement has been compromised." She turned away from Zavala. "I should step back. Let you and Eris handle this. As a team." With a deep breath, she walked away and disappeared.
"With all due respect, Commander, it's because of Ikora's instincts that we've come so far in accessing Savathun's memories." The words were ripped from Arizona's chest, but Zavala's intense stare made her wish she hadn't spoken.
Eris stepped up, "The Guardian is right, Zavala."
Zavala nodded, "You and this fireteam follow up. Keep me posted." Zavala disappeared.
Arizona sighed, she barely heard Eris's orders.
Throughout the mission she couldn't shake off something. A feeling she had in the pit of her stomach, like something bad was going to happen to one of them.
Fae stopped and looked at Arizona. "Hey, are you ignoring Fynch?"
"What?" She turned to Ghost. "Fynch has been trying to get ahold of me?"
"YES!" Fynch half screamed. "The other Hive are noticing my absence. I need you to just…do some things that look like my Risen has done it."
"Well, we can't have them noticing our inside source has gone AWOL." Arizona said.
Fae nodded, "I think for now it's best we split up this job, especially with how distracted you are."
Arizona nodded, "Right, okay. I'll join you as soon as you're finished."
She watched until Fae and Argonaut were no longer in sight.
"Alright, Fynch, what do I do?"
"Okay, according to Ghost's location, you're near a beacon. Do you see one?"
Arizona nodded. There was one right underneath a replica of an old pagoda. Ghost scanned it, but she heard nothing but static from Ghost. "Fynch, it's garbled."
"Okay, okay, hold on. With the decryption code in these, I can splice you right into the Hive Ghost network. Okay….done."
Soon a deep voice came through from Ghost, "Attention all Lucent Hive. Immaru here with your marching orders."
"Immaru? Fynch, who's Immaru?"
"Ah, him, he's Savathun's Ghost."
"Wait, that voice sounds familiar! Yeah…I know him, but he wasn't going by Immaru when he was bullying young Ghosts…yeah…" There was something more on Ghost's mind, he periodically kept saying 'yeah' while she carried out the order, killing some hordes of Scorn, and picking up their loot to give to Fynch.
"What are you remembering, Ghost?" He scanned another patrol unit.
"Okay my little glowbugs. Daddy Immaru needs you all to pay close attention."
Arizona laughed, "I'm sorry, what?" She put her hand to her helmet, as if she could somehow cover her mouth. Even Ghost began to chuckle before the message was even finished. "I really hope Fynch had to call him Daddy Immaru." She continued to laugh throughout her next killing spree.
As she reloaded her weapon and they went after more patrols, she looked at Ghost, "You remembered something about Maria, didn't you?"
He didn't answer. He didn't even look at her.
"Ghost, it's okay to talk to me about this. I know she was…an important part of your life. I don't want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me."
"How do you know that?" He challenged.
"I can't explain it, but since the day I was Risen I've been able to feel you like we're connected somehow. It's faint, I have to concentrate really hard on the feelings, and a pattern has emerged as well with how you react to her name. I can just tell you were close…and I can feel that you still mourn her."
He seemed less hesitant now, but he still seemed unsure. "Shortly after I was found by Maria, and started to go a lot of places with her, she also found Immaru. He was bullying younger ghosts. Maria stepped up, and tried to take him along with her as well, promising that they would find his Risen as well…a lot of insults later, and…she smiled like she always had done, and said 'I won't force you to come with me, but the offer will always be there.' And we left him there…I'm afraid part of it was my idea to leave him. 'He doesn't deserve a Guardian' I told her, and we left him. Now I'm wondering if I hadn't insisted we leave him…would he have turned on humanity?"
Arizona smiled warmly, and said, "I'm sure that isn't it at all, Ghost. I'm sure that she would've left him there if he was as resistant toward her help as you say he was."
"I know you're eavesdropping, Neon Nerd." It sounded like Immaru coming from Ghost.
Arizona looked down at her armor. "Is it neon?"
"It glows," Ghost answered.
She muttered, "That doesn't mean it's neon. Kinda rude to say."
"Nothing brings folks together like a common enemy and you've got lots of enemies. Watch yer butts."
"I don't think we're going to get much more patrolling taken care of, Fynch." Arizona sighed.
"That's okay, I think you were able to throw them off my scent. In the meantime, I've been in contact with your friends, Fae and Argonaut, and they got the next relic. They're headed to the Altar of Reflections. They want you to meet them there."
The Altar of Reflections never changed, but this time it was Fae who put the relic on the altar. Arizona closely watched the shadow of Savathun, but her attention was then immediately put into focus on the altar as it did something that it had never done before, it was as if it played a movie.
Ghost could feel her panic, her pupils were dilated, but he came so close to her that he touched her head, and she calmed, but the calm didn't last long. "Arizona?"