The Throne World felt different. It was glowing, brimming with Light. Fynch had been waiting for them. "Where have you been?" He yelled.
On the horizon, hovering over them was a large, white, marble-like sphere. "The Traveler!" Fae pointed.
"Yeah! That's why I've been trying to-hey, are you okay? Arizona?"
Arizona's eyes snapped to Fynch, and then up to Fae and Argonaut. "Will you be okay with…everything?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I have to be."
"What's going on?" Fynch turned to everyone.
Argonaut put his hand on her shoulder, "We're here with you. We'll keep you from falling."
She nodded again. "Right, let's set off before it's too late." Ghost called her Sparrow, and she threw her leg over, and she was the first to take off before the others could even get on their newly summoned sparrows.
"Ikora, the Traveler is already here! I think we're too late!" Ghost called out over the comms.
"We are in the domain of the god of cunning. Things are never what they seem."
Arizona could feel a spark within her chest, and a flash in her mind. She closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, felt the ground beneath her, felt Light pouring into her. "It's not too late," she yelled over the wind. In her flash she could see silvery glittering threads just barely take hold of the Traveler. "I can feel it."
"I don't understand, now that the Traveler sees what Savathun is doing, why won't it take the Light away from her?"
"I cannot stay," she could hear in her head a thought that wasn't quite hers. She could feel herself being pulled into her mind, and barely felt the Sparrow's movements.
She stood in front of the Traveler in her minds eye, "Why can't you stay? Why are you running?"
She barely had enough time to jump off her Sparrow before it crashed. "It doesn't matter why." She ran ahead, as Fae and Argonaut caught up. Arizona got on the back of Fae's sparrow, and she revved ahead of Argonaut.
"Humanity needs protectors…humanity needs hope…will you stand with me? Are you going to abandon me now like you did the Eliksni?"
"Scorn are flocking to the fortress because of the ritual, Guardians. The Hive are summoning heavy reinforcements from the portal. Hold them off as long as you can! I'm on my way!" Ikora snapped her back to reality.
They jumped off the sparrows, and a rocket launcher appeared in Arizona's hands. She took aim at the biggest enemy, and fired. Fae used her smoke bombs to disappear, and Argonaut took out a sword and began swinging. With each scorn they took out there were more than came to replace them, and the Hive Lightbearers were the same. It felt never ending, and periodically she could feel her mind being forced back to an abyss, in front of a glowing light.
"There is a danger coming…"
"The only danger I see is if you run away…our power to protect ourselves will be taken."
"Arizona!" Ghost yelled.
Arizona barely had enough time to scramble away from oncoming crossfire behind a statue. "I'm sorry, Ghost."
"I can't revive you here if you die. There's too much going on." Ghost reminded her sternly.
No one went down easily, but soon Ikora's ship flew overhead, and she floated into the air, and helped clear the way to the portal.
"Go, Guardians, into the portal. All that matters right now is the Traveler." Fae went in first, and then Argonaut. "Guardian!"
Arizona turned to Ikora.
"Whatever you hear, whatever you see, don't let it distract you from stopping the Ritual."
She nodded and followed them through the portal. They followed marbled hallways lined with red plants, and up marble-colored staircases. However, soon, it became dark.
"You're back, what a surprise." Savathun laughed as they were faced with many hallways, most that lead to nowhere. "Only joking. This throne world is indistinguishable from my own mind. Every step taken, every bullet fired, every thought whispered…"
Arizona thought she could hear whispers in her ears, like the ones at the pyramid, as she walked one of the long passageways.
"I keep and count them all. Remember that."
She found an opening, out of the sewer-like structure that she came up through. In front of her she faced a large building, with an even larger bell.
Bing!
The bell rang out in a deep tone.
Bing!
The bell rang out in a simple and slow rhythm.
Bing!
The bell looked like it would hit them all, but Argonaut easily made it without so much as ducking.
Bing!
They made it safely across.
"I am so glad you're here," Savathun turned, and looked at them all thoughtfully. Finally, her eyes fell on Arizona, as she backed slowly toward the water behind her. "How is our phoenix, Maria? Surely you must remember now who the Phoenix is. Who would've thought Ikora's favorite lightless would die with me."
Arizona held her weapon tightly. "You and I…You and Maria…you two died of the same wound, Savathun. Same place, different circumstances. You knew Maria, but you don't know a thing about me."
"Oh? Then tell me: Who are you?"
She took careful aim, "My name is Arizona." She fired the rocket launcher. "Maria died when you did! And I was born into the world," the rocket launcher was replaced with a shotgun. "And you were reborn…"
Savathun attacked with blades of fire, which Arizona didn't have time to move out of the way from. One struck her in the foot. Fae Argonaut brought up a low shield that he and Fae ducked behind and fired once the knives had passed over them. Arizona rolled behind a statue and waved her hand, and around her emitted a circle of warmth and soft light. She pulled the knife out quickly, and the fiery pain burned up her leg but quickly went away as well.
Argonaut and Fae nodded, and Fae shot a Mobius quiver, holding Savathun in place. Argonaut glowed a navy blue as he jumped high into the air and punched the ground by Savathun's feet, sending a rippling shockwave that knocked even Arizona onto her butt. She scrambled to get up and the shotgun was replaced with a sniper rifle. She took careful aim at Savathun, who was littered with icy crystals that emitted a beautifully dark color, and she shot. Savathun's body went limp into the water.
"Did we do it?" Argonaut asked.
Arizona went to the water's edge, and just as she approached Savathun's body a ghost appeared. "There's her ghost!" Ghost yelled.
"That's Immaru!" She yelled back toward her team, but she didn't hear any of them moving toward her. She couldn't even move to aim her gun at him! She watched helplessly as the arms of his shell twirled faster and faster, and Savathun appeared above him, and then they were gone in a quick flash.
She nearly fell into the water as she felt the spell release its grip. "Damn it!" Arizona yelled. "We had them! We HAD them, Ghost!"
"Fight, run, fight, run." Savathun's voice echoed around them. "The pattern is always the same for you. Don't you ever get tired of it? Don't you want to escape?"
In the distance, there looked to be an island that seemed familiar. The island from Savathun's home planet. Arizona realized.
A bridge slowly appeared from the waters in front of her, and she took off, not looking back to see if the others were behind her. She could hear their footsteps.
"Juggernaut, Nymph, you two were asked to accept the Darkness. Asked to turn against your cousins. Asked to defy the will of the Traveler. My ghosts make no concessions. We serve the Traveler's true interests."
"No concessions?" She heard Ghost yell out before the other two could. "How stupid do you think we are? You and your siblings have killed our friends!"
"I remember Oryx and the taken." Nymph's voice came over the radio, just as angry as Ghost.
"I remember what you did to the Awoken and the Dreaming city!" Juggernauts voice still somehow sounded kind and warm, but there was a poison to the tone as well. Her voice could never sound as angry as the other two ghosts, but she tried.
"I'll never forget what happened to Sagira. To Osiris!" Ghost yelled, his voice nearly choking at the memory.
The entire island was made of white marble and red plants, to emulate her now broken castle. It had statues and a small pond, and stairs that led to a bridge in the back of the island, which came just before a rising, unscalable mountain.
Savathun appeared, and before she could do anything Argonaut attacked first with a fusion rifle shot. It seemed to anger Savathun more than harm her. Arizona took cover behind a planter with Fae, expecting her flaming knives.
It felt like fire pierced through Arizona's hand. She threw herself to the ground, away from where she was being hit from. She scrambled up, still wincing as she ran toward the stairs and behind a wall. "Damn it!" She finally screamed. "Did Fae make it out okay?" she looked around, and finally around the corner of the wall. Fae was by Argonaut's side, her arm looking just as burnt. "She's too powerful to be just shooting at her recklessly, what do we do?"
After a moment of listening to the fight, Ghost finally answered her, "We have to reactivate that portal to access the memory altar. Showing her the truth might not stop her, but we have to try."
"How do you suppose we reactivate it? I'm not running around blindly shooting at every little thing!"
The sounds of battle stopped, and Savathun screeched. In front of Arizona looked like Savathun. Arizona ran up the stairs, and around the bridge, but stopped short. "Another Savathun?" She ran back the way she came just as lightening began to descend again, running into Fae, and both landed on their butt. "Fae, where's Argonaut?"
She nodded toward the wall, "On the other side of the garden is a Savathun."
"There's one behind me too. Ghost thinks we need to reactivate the portal. We're going to try to show Savathun the memory Ikora and I saw."
"I bet if we finish off these Savathun clones it'll open a portal."
Arizona nodded, and a shotgun appeared in her hand. "Good thinking. I'll get the one behind you, you get the one behind me."
She could've sworn she saw Fae smirk, it was impossible but she thought she could see the corner of her mouth tilting upward. Without a second word the two jumped past each other, and Arizona began to shoot, nearly wildly, at the Savathun clone. When she finally got hers down, the pool in the middle of the garden started to shine with a bright blue light. "Ready, Ghost?" Without waiting for an answer she jumped in.