Zavala paced behind his desk. Arizona, Fae, and Argonaut stood, Arizona was the only one with her head down. Ikora looked out the window, toward the Traveler. "So…what your telling me is Savathun was dead?" Nobody spoke. 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. Argonaut put a hand on her back. "She's…been shaken, Commander Zavala."
"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."
Arizona could faintly recall another flash. Argonaut's hand kept her steadied.
"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 it's 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. 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. "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.
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 put his hand on her cheek, something, Ghost was sure, that he wanted to do for a very long time.
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, not hesitating about hugging someone she really didn't know, and then she ran down the hall to meet Ikora on Mars.