Arizona's focus on her surroundings slipped away, and it felt as if she was transported. Her eyes widened, and her body shook, and although she couldn't see him she could feel Ghost's body tap her head. She couldn't move her hands to hold him.
Savathun limped through a rocky mountain, pulling out a shard of a crystalline knife from her side. Arizona's hand went to her own side, feeling a heat that shouldn't have been there, and she could feel a pain she knew shouldn't have been there.
"I saw the end before it happened," Savathun's voice said gently in her head.
The sun started to fall behind the Traveler, bathing it in an orange glow. The scene changed to a crystalline structure, and an Awoken, named Mara Sov.
"My own death. Brought on by the separation from my power." Surrounding the crystal structure was Saint-14…and…Arizona gasped. The scene changed again, back to the sunset. "And in these final moments, I looked to the sky." Savathun fell to her knees. "Hello, old friend. I've chased you for a long time. First as an enemy, then as a collector, and finally, now.. a supplicant " She slumped, as if she had already given up something. "What is it that Guardian said? Devotion inspires bravery. Bravery inspires sacrifice. Sacrifice inspires-" she coughed and gasped in air, cluching at her side.
Arizona's stomach flipped in a sickly manner. She clutched her side, feeling the same pain Savathun was in.
"Here we are." Her body slumped, but she still tried to sit up. "Wouldn't it be clever of you…if after everything, you simply let me die? Oh what a trick. Elegant." Her breathing became labored.
Arizona could hardly breathe in air herself.
"Is that it?" Savathun demanded without an answer. "If there is an answer, I don't hear it. Because now the world begins to fade…"
From the cliff's edge, a ghost came into view, scanning everything…and stopping on Savathun. It opened up to reveal the core.
"Arizona!"
The world began to fade, and she was back in the Throne World. Argonaut held her to her feet as she slumped over his hand, holding onto her side.
"Arizona, what's wrong?" Fae knelt in front of her.
Arizona gasped in air, her stomach still churning painfully. She looked at Ghost, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Ghost floated back, "What do you…?"
"I was there! I saw myself as Savathun was released from a crystal! I was there with…with an Awoken woman and…and a Vanguard Titan."
Fae shook her head, "Arizona, what do you mean?"
"I was there, Fae! I saw her being released from her Worm! I…I don't…I…."
"I'm sorry…Arizona…" Ghost whispered and disappeared.
Savathun's shadow moved over them, getting smaller and smaller, and then she appeared, flapping her moth-like wings. "Incredible that I could forget something like that, isn't it?" She looked to Arizona…looking into her soul, "That we could forget something like our own deaths. Such a storied life…erased." Arizona forced herself to be steadied on her feet. "The Light offers us a fresh start. But if we don't know where we came from, how will we know where to go, Maria?"
Maria, the name Arizona had heard time and time again. The girl she had seen in the memory.
Fae stood between them, her gun drawn and aimed at Savathun.
"I'm so grateful to you all for reminding me. For telling my story."
"What are you talking about?" Argonaut demanded.
"She remembers," Arizona whispered, "we helped her remember."
Savathun laughed, "Thanks for the memories, Guardians." There was a surge of power, and then a storm came from her.
"We have to go!" Fae turned and nodded, "through there!" She ran toward the portal. Then Argonaut, and Arizona was last, barely making it through. She rolled away from the portal as it barred itself. Panting, on her back, and refusing to get up until the nausea passed.
"Arizona?" Fae's head came into view, and Argonauts.
"…My name was Maria…before I was called to the Light. I'm Maria." Arizona whispered.
Zavala paced behind his desk. Arizona, Fae, and Argonaut stood in front of the desk. Arizona was the only one with her head down, still trying to process the memory they had seen, but also trying to forget it. Ikora looked out the window, toward the Traveler. "So…what you're telling me is Savathun was dead?" Silence answered him. Eris stood with her green ball, Lord Shaxx even came, standing beside a human woman Fae had greeted as Ana, and the same Titan from the vision was in the room…and a human man Argonaut greeted with great respect as Lord Saladin. "You're saying our most devious adversary-the one who nearly decimated the Last City from within…was dead. And the Traveler resurrected her?"
Everyone turned toward the three Guardians. Arizona still felt sick, still felt the wound in her side, still felt the life slipping from Maria and into Arizona. The flashes of the memory plagued her mind.
"I wouldn't have believed it either," Ghost spoke for them.
"But why would she need us to recover her memories if she never lost them in the first place?"
"Because she did lose them," Arizona whispered, never taking her eyes off the ground.
Zavala stepped forward. "Say that again, Guardian."
"She…she did lose them…but she also didn't…she used the three of us…to…" Her voice broke as her mind wandered. Savathun was Osiris once, and everyone knew Osiris. Ghost knew Maria well. How many other people knew her? How many other people struggled to find the girl that Arizona resembled? Was everyone hoping Maria would be revived? She thought and dreaded the answer to.
"Guardian." Zavala's calm voice snapped her mind back to the issue at hand.
She looked up, "She lost her memories, and she used us to get them back. She may not have known it, but this plan had been orchestrated long before we arrived on her ship and long before she was revived by the Light. Who knows how long she'd been planning this."
Zavala shook his head, "This has to be another trick. A lie to fool us into surrendering the Traveler without a fight."
Eris Morn stepped forward, "This has been the Traveler's approach from the beginning. The Books of Sorrow detail many civilizations it belled with the Light and then abandoned."
"Hive propaganda."
Arizona bit her lip to keep the words within herself before they were ripped out. "The Fallen tell the same story. When the Witness and its Black Fleet came to call, the Traveler moved on to our system-"
Zavala slammed his hand on the table, where the petrified worm lay, startling everyone. Arizona pursed her lips together to keep herself from blurting out anything more. "Where it sacrificed itself to save humanity from the same forces. Forces which included THE HIVE!"
Ikora turned to stare at Zavala as he punched the table. Arizona jumped again, and she could hear movement that stopped and settled back, but she refused to see who it was.
"After all that, why would the Traveler give our worst enemy…the Light?"
Nobody spoke for a long while. Finally, Ikora from her window said, "It doesn't matter." She turned around, her hands behind her back. "I don't know why the Traveler gave Savathun the Light. Maybe it has changed its mind about Guardians." She approached Zavala, "Maybe it's not as infallible as we once believed." The two exchanged looks that Arizona seemed to recognize, almost a friendly apology, or a friendly way to ask to go on. "I don't know," Ikora looked around the room, "and it doesn't matter. Because I'm here to protect humanity. And if Savathun takes the Traveler, we lose our Light along with any hope of surviving the Witness's return. So…whatever it takes to stop this heist, we will do." She turned to the worm.
Arizona looked at Fae, and then at Argonaut, both which held the same look…wait to tell her about the memory. Ikora took up the worm. "I'm not sure yet…" she looked at Arizona, and Arizona looked at the ground. "But I know where to find out." She walked toward the door, and as she passed the trio she said, "Arizona, you'll be with me. Meet me on Mars."
Everyone started to leave the room. Arizona hurried out; Ghost nearly had a hard time keeping up with her. She found the darkest corner she could, nearest the office, and her whole body began to shake again.
"Arizona…" He whispered. He could feel part of her emotions, but it was hard to say why they shared this connection. She worried over something, and it made her sick throughout the meeting. It made Ghost want to pace too. He wanted to comfort her, but how could he if he didn't truly know what was wrong? Did it have to do with the memory?
"Stop…Ghost, please, stop." She leaned against the wall, her eyes welling up with tears. She wrapped her arms around herself. Ghost cursed the Traveler for giving them such a small form. A form that couldn't comfort in the way she needed now.
Someone stopped near him, casting a long shadow over her. It was familiar, and he hoped it would bring the same comfort. It was a Titan. It was Saint. "Why do you hide yourself in the dark, Guardian?"
Arizona's body stopped shaking briefly, and Ghost could feel that her pulse stopped briefly. She wiped her face quickly. "I-it's nothing," she lied.
Saint put a large hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "It is obviously not…nothing." He said carefully. Ghost imagined that Saint wanted nothing more than to hug her, but he kept himself masterfully in check. Trying to treat her as a Guardian and a stranger, not a friend.
She turned suddenly on her heels and hugged him, and buried her face in his chest, and she began to cry. At first, Saint was taken aback, unsure if a hug was appropriate, but soon he wrapped his arms around her. As if switching back from Maria to Arizona, she jumped back without warning, and wiped her eyes. "I… I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for…Um…" she sniffed.
"Never apologize. Sometimes, we all need to release our burden. Tell me, what is yours?" He knelt to her eye level.
Arizona sniffed, "It's stupid."
"If it upsets you, it must be a burden."
She nodded, "I…was…on the Fireteam that retrieved the petrified worm…and I saw a memory with our last object we recovered. It seems…that before I was Risen I was a girl named Maria."
"You…you remember?" Saint grasped both of her arms. "You really remember?"
"No, but Savathun remembers you and Maria being there when she was released from her worm. I've come to know a little about her from rumors in the Tower…and from Ghost…I'm sorry, Saint, but I am not Maria."
Saint's grasp loosened, but he nodded, "Yes, I know, but there are some things we never lose, angel. This I believe." He wiped a tear from her cheek.
Arizona smiled and leaned her head against his hand. "Maybe when I come back…you and I can sit down and chat a little? You can…tell me what Maria was like."
"I would love nothing more."
She wrapped her arms around his neck once more, and then she ran down the hall to meet Ikora on Mars.