Zachary Alexander

Body:3.5

Agility:2

Mana:3

Magic:6

Milky Way Galaxy, The Reef

Flashes and noise flooded Zachary's mind as he struggled to take in the surroundings of his Jump Ship, his mind and body fully assimilating as his spirit fused to the new body.

Whether we like it or not, we've stepped into a War with the Cabal…

Can't we just stay here, with the murderous robots?

I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain...

Until it wakes and finds its voice, I am the one who speaks for the Traveler…

So… these are the trespassers who demanded an audience?

they are using SIVA in a way we never imagined…

"Alright there, pal?" Came a familiar voice, Cayde-6's voice cracked into Zachary's ears.

"Something strange is happening, it seems his Light has… dimmed?" Another familiar voice, though Zachary could not see it.

"Dimmed? What kind of timing do you call this?" Cayde complained, though it seemed more out of his own concern than any true gripe.

Zach righted himself, his mind snapping to attention at his command, he leant forward slightly and took a fortifying breath, this new body was about as absent as it could get, inhabiting a living corpse was one hell of a trip.

The Overseer's influence quickly began to spread and 'reactivate' a lot of the body's lost functions that came with being a Guardian, but still forced it to operate under the bounds of Malleable Form.

Leaning back Zach felt electricity dance just beneath his skin and it made him feel antsy, like he needed to move, "I'm fine, just zoned out."

"'Zoned out' Since when?" Cayde may have been questioning, but the laughter in his voice told Zach all he needed to know.

"Since now, don't worry I'm good." Zach assured, and as he did a little pale white ball appeared at his side, a Ghost.

His Ghost.

"Are you sure? Our connection seemed strained for a moment? Are you feeling alright?" It dithered around him, looming like a concerned mother.

Zachary smiled, though it was obscured by the helmet he wore, "I really am, trust me."

This seemed to almost embarrass his Ghost, "Of course I trust you, I was just worried is all."

"Your worry is noted, and appreciated. Relax, if you notice it happen again I'll get it checked or something. Ikora maybe? Though I shouldn't really bother her, I suppose." Zachary murmured aloud, shrugging as he did.

"Oh come on, Ikora would love to know if something weird was happening' to you, considering all you've done I'm more shocked something hasn't happened already." Cayde chimed in, over the radio.

"Oh look, we're approaching the prison. I guess we're gonna have to stop talking about this." Zachary said, and almost immediately thought about how little The Guardian was actually supposed to talk, and Cayde was definitely aware of that, and so was his Ghost.

Well, if nothing else it might make conversations in this universe more stimulating.

"Sure, sure." Was all Cayde said, their ships navigation systems synced as they swooped over the landing pad.

Transmat was an interesting experience, being turned into energy and then reconstructed elsewhere, Zachary frowned and smacked his lips a few times, steadying himself beside the Hunter Vanguard.

"My mouth tastes coppery." Observed the Titan, getting a strange look from the EXO.

Cayde was garbed in his typical affair, very little amour with a cape, his Ace of Spades held comfortably at his hip. Synthetic blue eyes scanned across Zachary's form and with him in visual range, Zachary could spot the real concern that the person he'd called 'Joke-Robot' on many occasions seemed to hold for him.

"Hey, are you really okay? I can do this solo if you're not feelin' so hot." Assured the Hunter, having spotted Petra Venj at the end of the catwalk but making no move to meet the woman.

Zachary shook his head, idly noting that neither Asterios nor Astolfo seemed present, which whilst there was no great call for concern, was odd.

Zach shook his head, "Nah, I really am fine I just… I dunno, can't really explain it. Bad feelin'?"

Cayde seemed struck for a moment, "Did you just shorten a word? Who are you and where have you been this whole time?"

"I'm not acting that strange." Zachary defended, waving the man and going to step forward, only to be immediately blocked by the Hunter.

"Take off your helmet." Cayde ordered, getting an odd look from his compatriot, "Come on, take off the helmet, if you're secretly someone else I'd rather get that out of the way, might involve an awkward call or two but that's not really important."

Having no other option, Zachary acquiesced, the seals on his helmet hissed for a brief moment as it was lifted from his head.

Cayde scanned the face, nothing out of the ordinary for sure, but the eyes were different, less clouded, like his friend had 'woken up'.

The EXO hummed and made a show of rubbing his chin, Zachary rolled his eyes and Cayde snapped his fingers, "Bam, you've never done that before!"

"Oh come on, you've never seen me roll my fuckin' eyes before?"

The Hunter hopped on his heels in place, exploding with excitement, "And you've never sworn before! This is amazing! Zavala is gonna lose his mind!"

Sighing, Zachary noted intense scrutiny of his Ghost as well as Cayde.

Where there would usually be panic, there was none, in its place Zachary was a serene lake of calm composure, "Maybe you just finally rubbed off on me?"

This seemed to delight Cayde, "Oh yeah? Think I'll finally be able to get you into capes?"

Zachary scoffed, "Capes need not be gotten into, you either like capes or you're a liar."

Cayde exploded with cheer, "Hahah! Yes! Finally I've turned you to the side of greatness, come my student, there are heads to pop!"

Whatever he was looking for, Cayde seemed to have found it as far as Zachary was concerned, and the black haired man made no move to correct whatever that was.

His Ghost blinked a few times before spinning its shell, "Well, I suppose being more… full of life is only a good thing?"

"Variety is the spice of life, or so they say." Zach commented, affixing his helmet once more and grabbing Sunshot from his hip, holding it loosely to get a feel for the weapon.

"Petra Venja, thanks for the invite? So what kinda party are we throwin'?" Cayde asked, as his compatriot came to stand beside him.

Petra was an Awoken woman, with light purple skin that had wiggling tendrils of light just beneath the surface, short dark red hair tied into a bun on the left side of her head, and a black eye-patch over her right eye.

Her armour appeared to be some kind of leather material, but Zachary had no idea what it's actual composition would be, probably some magic space leather from a magic space cow.

Anything was possible.

Petra shrugged at Cayde's questions, "Meh, the usual."

As she pulled her dagger free from its sheath on her right hip, Cayde tapped Zachary's shoulder, "Ooh, do the thing, trust me you'll love this!"

Petra smirked and the dagger floated above her palm a few times before she snatched it.

Cayde shivered, "Ooh, that'll never not be creepy… do it again!"

Zachary rolled his eyes, behind his helmet so none could judge his apparently odd behavior, "Cayde, be serious."

Petra smirked once more, "Later, maybe." Her face set itself into a school look of professionalism as she gave them a rundown, "Right now, gen-pop is running wild. Fortunately the main arena and the lower levels remain on lockdown. But if the security core were to fail… containment is going to be a problem."

Zachary crossed his arms as he thought, "I don't suppose you guys have airlocks, can you just open and clean the place out?"

Cayde almost immediately whined at the suggestion, "Oh come on, this is supposed to be a fun bonding experience, we can't just toss 'em all out the airlock!"

Petra ignored the petulant EXO and shook her head, "Not on the scale you may be thinking, only for garbage disposal. It's gonna have to be the hard way."

"So we split up, each take a section and like the glorious janitors before us, clean this place out." Cayde pulled the Ace of Spades from his hip and threw his hands up, "Let's go to prison!"

Without another word the lunatic dropped down a chute and the chorus of bullets began.

Petra shook her head, "Good luck, if we don't stop these killers, The Reef will suffer tremendously."

Zachary nodded, "Just more for the pile."

Prison Of Elders - The Cell Blocks

Bullets and fire spread across every surface they could, Fallen Vandals and Dregs warred with Cabal Legionaries and Centurions in some kind of horrid turf war where the reward for victory was whatever wasn't already destroyed.

Zachary lifted Sunshot with one hand, and pulled his gunwand from his inventory into the other, startling his Ghost, "Whoa! What's that?"

"Pure bullshit, my good Ghost. Pure bullshit." With his first pull of the trigger the Frostbolt shot off leaving a trail of cold, glittering air in its wake, followed quickly by the burning heat of the Sunshot.

A Dreg, a basic Elksni grunt with docking caps on its second set of arms, was the first poor victim of the hot-and-cold treatment.

As the frost round struck its chest it began to wheeze and hiss, only for its head to explode in a shower of fire and gore when the Sunshot round penetrated its skull.

The exotic effect of Sunshot is that on a precision kill, it creates an explosion of fire. This damage is not something Zachary could increase or decrease, the fixed damage however, was quite a bit stronger than anything he could pull out of his butt.

One thing that had always hindered Destiny was field of view, and speed.

Zach had always had excellent hand-eye coordination, and with ice in his veins he meticulously moved about the field, firing shots in cannon, first the Ice and then the Fire.

The Cabal and the Fallen did their best to face the guardian but they were mere red-bar enemies, and thus had no true power to muster.

A Dred tried to get at him with its shock knife, Zachary bent his body back to avoid the blow whilst expelling minimal energy, his fist lit up with Arc Light, the pale blue lightning began to howl as it came to bare.

His fist struck the Dreg and it evaporated into motes of Arc Light, a grin that felt like it split his face grew on Zach's face beneath his helmet, everything seemed to slow down and he felt like he sped up.

A vicious sensation began to spread into his chest, letting there be ultraviolence.

His weapons were taken away by his Ghost as he dropped them and set upon the Cabal and the Fallen like a demon from the hells.

Arc energy sporadically bounced across his armour as he leapt upon a Legionary, the stocky, black armoured Cabal warrior rose his slugger to eliminate the guardian but it was for naught as whilst several shots landed, none of them seemed to slow the monster.

Zach's knee was driven into the Cabal's skull, popping the helmet with a satisfying whoosh as the skull collapsed and a giant storm of lightning leapt from the strike.

The Cabal's contemporaries were caught in this shower of energy and roared in agony, the Fallen capitalised on this and fired down a hail of bullets against their foe, utilising the Guardian's assault.

This seemed to continue, throughout the prison, Zachary's onslaught was something that seemed unending, every time he felt pain pierce the red haze on his mind he would lash out with his fist and utilise the Reversal Arc Titan ability.

Upon empowered melee kill, it would immediately trigger Health Regeneration.

It was… a truly potent experience, to put it lightly.

Feeling the swell of energy course through his body like he was connected to a livewire and any sensation of pain immediately vanishing.

The rush of combat carried Zach for a good distance into the guts of the prison, whatever attempt at contact his Ghost tried to rally was lost on deaf ears.

Without even realising it he'd wound up watching Cayde ride giant flaming pile of soon-to-be scrapmetal directly down.

The haze metled away as the EXO saluted him with Ace of Spades and winked with that same cavalier attitude that would get him killed.

Panic flooded Zach, not a panic of his own but his entire body had lived the life of a Guardian for years now, and mixed with his foreknowledge it freaked out.

His confidant, his peer, his ally. Cayde-6 had no idea what was on the horizon.

Zachary did.

He awaited the explosion that followed, before approaching the edge.

His Ghost seemed confused, "What's the plan here, Guardian?"

Lightning began to crackle across Zach's body once more this time the density was enough to shroud him, leaving burning footsteps in his wake as the Arc Light melted the metal beneath his feet.

"Hero shit." Zach said, swallowing the lump in his throat and kicking off the railing, and leaping down the hole after Cayde.

"Are you crazy?!" Ghost screamed in his head, having quickly dissipated and joining him once more.

"This is more efficient than walking down, waiting for him to die."

Ghost seemed alarmed, "You think Cayde's in danger? This is just the Prison of Elders nothing we haven't seen before."

And indeed, without going to predetermined path, he'd theoretically be lost on the whole deal with the Scorn, alas metaknowledge removed his need for a tutorial.

As the wind passed him, Zach's electrified form exploded like a star, a great azure comet collapsing down like a vengeful event from the gods.

Terminal velocity was an interesting, if short-lived experience for Zach, the Super, Fist of Havoc surrounding him and bubbling beneath his skin, begging to be unleashed.

'Not yet.' He told himself, the rapidly approaching ground required timing to survive.

He wouldn't throw himself down just to have his Ghost sniped by a fucking scorn crossbow.

He saw the burning streaks of Cayde's golden gun as he tore apart the Scorn approaching him, twirling about the battlefield like a trained professional.

And thus descended the star.

Upon impact, an enormous wave of Arc Light filled the field of battle. Every minor scorn within the immediate radius of Cayde was utterly vaporized, the Barons, now scorched and scarred by the Light, began their assault.

Zachary, empowered by the Light, and flooded with temporary, supreme strength. Began doing as his body compelled, he made like a pinball and jumped and kicked off every surface he could to slam into every single one of the bastards.

First was the Rifleman, decided to do away with the biggest problem, Zachary leapt with all the force he could muster, the Fallen Baron was already climbing into position to snipe Cayde's ghost, so it was more than simple to trap him on his perch.

The Baron fired off a shot and struck with a keening bolt of energy from his weapon, it struck true but did little to deter the guardian's rapidly approaching fist.

The Rifleman's head was rapidly separating from his body and his corpse draped listlessly to the ground, landing atop the Mad Bomber, who screeched and detonated it's charges in panic.

Two down.

The Super energy left Zach's body as he came down to the ground once more, landing beside Cayde who seemed visibly relieved at his arrival.

"Hoo-boy, don't tell anyone but I was kinda worried there." The Exo said, firing off a few choice shots towards the Mindbender, a Scorn Baron that had someone managed to make connections to the Hive, though given he had yet to leave the prison, his abilities were muted at best.

The Fanatic screamed bloody murder and raised his enormous staff, dark ether crackling as he released a torrent of electricty at the Guardians.

Cayde leapt back like a cat whilst Zach heel-turned and sprinted to a particularly large chunk of debris for cover.

Zach popped his head over his cover to see the Fanatic approaching the corpses of his peers, if memory served, the Fanatic canonically came back to be a problem for each run of his strike, something about it happening weekly or monthly, he couldn't say.

"Which probably means he can res his buddies. Alright, we can deal with that." Zachary muttered to himself, getting a confused look from his Ghost.

"Cayde!" Zachary shouted, getting the Hunter's attention as he blindfired two shots at the Mindbender once more, to keep the fiend at bay, "If you've got something heavy, aim for the guy with the staff!"

Cradling his hand and summoning the light, as though he'd done so a thousand times, electricity violently began to condense as his Pulse Grenade formed, lobbing the grenade at the Fanatic it struck true and began release wave after wave of Arc Light, affixed to the Scorn's left arm.

The Fanatic howled in agony and fury, Cayde leaping about like a lunatic to collect the Orbs of Light that Zach's super had left behind, and with a flourish, was once again on with the sun as Solar Light burned like a beacon from Cayde.

He fanned his flaming hand cannon, six shots pouring into the Fanatic and reducing the creature to cinders.

"Why is cleanup taking so long?" Came the disinterested voice of Uldren Sov echoing from an open entrance to the arena that Cayde had made with his cowboy antics.

It was only when he truly saw, that any real expression of anger crossed his face, the Fanatic and the Mad Bomber, nowhere to be seen, the Mindbender, filled with bullet holes, and the Rifleman, missing a head.

The furious saffron yellow eyes of Uldren Sov, the Awoken Prince, began to bleed black into the sclera, unknown to him but known to Zach, Riven's possession was working its charm.

'Never really looked too deep into the whole situation mechanically for Uldren. Just know the dudes completely out of it.' Zachary thought as he watched the remaining Baron's flock to Uldren's side, the Scorn still relatively new creations and unable to understand or truly operate alone without their creator.

'Another thing I never really understood, or at least, didn't care to.' As he lined up his Sunshot and breathed out, Zachary fired a smoldering round towards Uldren, leaning out of the way, the Awoken easily avoided the shot.

"Guardian… it's been some time, always a pleasure." Uldren spoke, his voice even but his expression murderous.

"Hey, Uldren. How's life?" Zachary returned, conversationally.

"On the upswing." Was the detailed answer given back.

"Just to warn you, what you think you'll find in the Dreaming City isn't what you want. Mara isn't dead, but she's not the thing speaking to you." Deciding that disguises and immersion was pointless, Zachary leant on his cover and made a show of almost reclining against it.

Cayde's head swiveled towards the Titan, perplexed. What were they talking about?

Uldren seemed intrigued, "Oh? And may I ask, how you know this?"

"Because Riven, the Ahamkara your sister kept, is fucking with your head." Zachary said simply, "You can feel it surely? Awoken are supposed to be in tune with the balance of Dark and Light as far as I'm aware. Like there's a fog over your mind?"

Uldren seemed confused as he looked at the Titan, lounging against a large piece of debris, his mind going a thousand miles a minute, "You… You are not the same Guardian I knew of."

This seemed to get a reaction out of the lounging man, who stared directly at Uldren, his brow creased beneath his helmet, but he remained calm and composed, spinning bullshit was a skill he possessed but tried to avoid using.

"That's an odd thing to say." Sometimes, as he'd learnt in his youth, less was more.

Uldren's brow creased and he swayed on his feet for a moment, "Your light is… different!"

Cayde, more than done with the attempt at stalling, "He's got a cold, let's get back to shooting at each-other! You're currently breaking out of prison!"

"I'm a fan of that plan." Zachary said, leveling Sunshot and firing once more, rapidly followed up by a Frostbolt Round.

Uldren swayed again, avoiding the steak of hot death, only to be caught in the chest with the Frostbolt, seemingly horrified at what was before him, he recoiled, and all but threw himself to the ground, shivering and feverishly mumbling.

"Well he's out of commission." Was all Cayde said as he lobbed a throwing knife into the head of Elykris, the Machinist, who screeched in pain and rapidly began returning fire.

The lull of visceral combat took over once more, Zach retreated back behind cover once more and fired shot after shot at anything that looked like it crawled from the dirt recently.

A certain bounce in his step, Zachary leapt from cover and as soon as he hit the ground summoned his Barricade, deployable cover constructed from Light.

And why not add visual flair?

The Light, much like magic in general, could be shaped. There were dozens of examples but one that always stuck out to Zach was Lord Saladin's axe.

If the Saladman got an axe while Zach got hammers, his Barricade could at least have something to it.

As it was his first time really summoning it himself, the best he could do was make it arc blue, which was - even amidst the hail of gunfire and screaming Scorn - quite breathtaking.

Cayde landed beside his compatriot and chuckled, "So what, giant chunks of metal not good enough for ya?"

Zach leant against the Barricade, another Pulse Grenade forming in his palm and chuckled, "Nah, metal ya know? Unreliable."

Cayde scoffed, a cool stream of light began to burn from the barrel of his Ace of Spades, Memento Mori activating, "Oh yeah, super unreliable. I'd never want anything to do with metal."

Cayde did make a show of gesturing to himself which drew a snort from the Titan.

"Yeah, see? You get it dude." Zach pulled hi arm back and threw the Pulse Grenade, it struck Yaviks, the Rider.

Yaviks was not stoked about it.

Cayde whistled, somehow, "That's a mean throwing arm you got, how have I never noticed that?"

Zach shrugged, Sunshot slotting back into his hand as he fired at the electrified Baron, "I mean, how often do we go out and do stuff? We can play cricket when we get back to the tower, I'll show you a bloody throwin' arm."

This seemed to amuse Cayde, he popped out behind the Barricade and fired his augmented round at Yaviks, the Scorn dropping like a puppet without strings as the bullet tore through her armour.

"Cricket? Should we have some tea and crumpets as well, sir?" The EXO put on a faux English accent, it was not particularly good.

Zachary rolled his eyes and groaned, "You Americans, unable to find the difference between Australian and English accents."

Zach moved his attention to the few remaining Barons, only the Hanged Man and the Trickster remained, and given that Uldren seemed to be convulsing violently on the ground they seemed to realise the wind had changed.

Noticing the lack of fire on his Barricade, Zach immediately made a b-line for the hesitant Barons, Cayde following quickly and throwing a knife over his shoulder.

Zachary peripherally noticed the burning knife cresting over him, and grinned, rearing back his fist as it sparked to life.

The Hanged Man hissed and spun his flail, it out up like a miniature sun as the Titan struck him, he responded with flattening the dead-thing and burning it.

Zachary felt all the air leave his lungs as he was buried into the ground, a pitiful "Ow…" leaving him.

Cayde laughed, dodging and reloading his gun in one smooth movement to avoid shots from the Trickster, "I told you this would be fun!"

Rapidly Cayde emptied his magazine into the Trickster, sending it back to the grave.

Ghost chided his guardian from inside his head, "Running into danger recklessly has worked out so far, but it doesn't always work, Guardian."

Zach coughed into helmet as the Baron lifted a foot to stomp on him, he swiftly rolled out of the man sized hole he'd made to avoid it, "Striker sucks for everything but the super."

Ghost audibly rolled his eye, "Of course, that's the reason."

Continuing his rolls until he managed to get enough inertia to pull himself up, firing two shots at the Hanged Man who hissed in derision.

"How you slew my brother's, I'll never know." It said, a vicious satisfaction in it's voice.

Zach scoffed, "That'd be more intimidating if your Dad wasn't crying on the ground."

This seemed to anger the Hanged Man as he whipped his flail at the guardian once more, who summoned another Barricade in front of him to block the blow.

Ghost altered his guardian, "Super Charged, bring it home, partner."

Pulling at the Light within Zachary howled as a storm of lightning surrounding him once more, leaping through his Barricade and throwing his whole weight behind swing, "Lariat!"

There's always time to pay homage to the real ones.

Zachary's arm cleaved the head from the Hanged Man, it's body dropping pitifully to the ground.

Cayde threw his hands up, "Best vacation ever!"

Walking over the Uldren's prone form, still crackling with Arc Light, Zachary grabbed the man by his cloak, walking deeper into whatever hole he'd walked out of.

The area looked vaguely familiar, as Zach entered it.

'This is where Cayde was shot.' He thought idly, throwing Uldren onto the ground as the EXO rejoined him, arms crossed.

"So, what are we gonna do with him?" Nathan Fillian's voice asked, another slight surreal moment now that Zachary considered it.

Zachary touched his helmet, "Petra, the big boys are dealt with, Uldren is all that's left. I'll be honest, he looks like something weird and space-magicy is happening to him. I don't think he's all there."

Petra's voice filtered into his ears, "The Prince? I suppose I should thank you for your restraint… I'm almost there, I'll see for myself."

Uldren remained shivering on the ground, Zachary had enjoyed adventuring with Crow, but also was aware enough to not gun down a man who was clearly unstable.

It was just tasteless.

Zachary turned to Cayde and relayed Petra's words the EXO shrugged, "I'd say job done, well done partner, I knew we'd have fun today, thanks for comin'."

Quest Complete

Prison Break: The Prison of Elders is having some trouble with inmates, Cayde has requested your aid.

Paracausal Objective; Cayde Lives!

Bonus Objective; Super Cast 2/2

+2 Body

+2Agility

+2 Mana

Paracausal Objective

+2 Agility

Bonus Objective

+2 Mana

'Cayde's life is worth 2 points, rough as guts.' Zachary thought.

"You're welcome, I'm glad I came. I got a weird feeling about something going wrong. Which is why I followed you down… a shame Hunters can't defy physics with their supers." Zachary finally answered, after reading.

He felt a small smirk on his lips as he spoke, and had no small amount of satisfaction as he turned to the EXO.

Cayde waved him off, "Come o-on, this is me we're talking about! What situation have I been in I couldn't fix?"

Zachary tilted his head and held up his hand, lifting a finger for each oojt. He'd prepared, "Nexus, during the Red War, you got stuck in the Vex Network and I had to help you."

"And I appreciate your help, but I was-"

"Earth, again during the Red War, your leg was blown off near the transporter I used to get to Ghaul."

"That's not fair I didn't have my Light-"

"The Vanguard, I still remember when I'd hang around the office in the Tower a few years ago, you'd quietly beg me to get you out of there. 'Take me with you'. I believe."

"And I'll remind you! You never did! Just loomed quietly."

The Titan chuckled, "No I never did, sorry about that."

Cayde gave his own smirk, "Well you can make it up to me some time."

Zach nodded, "I certainly will."

Earth, The Tower Docking Bay

Zachary threw his helmet off as his ship landed, the piece of equipment turning into data as his Ghost sent it to whatever hammerspace guardians have.

Cayde appeared beside him, his ship having landed on the opposite end of the bay, Amanda Holliday greeted the two as they began walking from the bay to the central area of the Tower.

"How was it boys?" The southern drawl, straw blonde hair and bright blue eyes, it was all marvelous to the senses.

Amanda was one of the side-characters Zach and probably most of the community liked, in D1 she provided some goodies, and he was sure to someone starting fresh the blueberry ships and sparrows she sold would be great.

She stood aside a rather beaten looking sparrow filled with bullet holes and propped up on a jack.

Cayde cracked his knuckles, "Oh no big deal, just dealt with a problem before it could become one."

Zach nodded to the woman, "it went well enough, how's your day been?"

This seemed to actually surprise Holliday, the human mechanic doing a double take in shock, "Well golly, I can't say I've ever heard a peep outta you! Fulfil your vow of silence?"

Zachary smiled easily, "Something like that."

Amanda matched the smile, pleased as punch, "Well I'm glad for it, mah days been well. Tryin' to get this damn thing runnin' again, some real big fella tried it out and ran the damn thing into a Fallen Servitor."

Zach chuckled, "oh of course they did… did you need a hand? I'm not exactly savvy with the stuff but my Little Light should be able to have a gander."

Ghost appeared doing its best to frown, "I told you not to call me that."

Amanda laughed to herself, "Well sure, might give me a place to start."

Zach turned to Ghost, who remained staring at him, "Oh come on, it's not the worst nickname goin' 'round."

Ghost just huffed and scanned the sparrow, "Engine block is fried, there's a big gash in the fuel line as well… why didn't this guardian get their ghost to fix it?"

Amanda shrugged helplessly, "Apparently he 'liked my vibe' and wanted an 'artist's touch'."

Zach snorted, but didn't comment.

Cayde clapped his hands together, "Well with yet another solve under our belts, I'd say we've earned ourselves some lunch, ramen? My treat!"

Zachary blinked, he was 90% certain guardians didn't eat, but also had no way to directly confirm this with Cayde - an EXO Guardian - asking him.

Noting the lack of answer Cayde slumped a little, "C'moooon, it's real good!"

Amanda chuckled, "You've doomed yourself now, pal. Speakin' more? You'll just rile 'im up."

Zachary shrugged, "Such is my burden, I'm just too popular."

Amanda threw her head back and laughed, "And so humble!"

Trying to look imperious as possible, Zachary inspected his nails, only then did he even notice that one or his gloves was still his Boosted Gear.

'Fuck man, no amount of cosmic interference can get this memory in check.' lamented the Titan.

"Humility is one of my better traits, myes."

As Amanda snickered he turned to the huffy EXO, "Yes Cayde you've swept me off my feet, whisk me away to the noodleman, Cayde. Whisk me."

"See you later, Amanda." The mechanic face him a quick wave before getting back to work.

The Last Bowl - Ramen Stand

Zach had never had ramen, truth be told. Regardless of how many people around the world went gaga for it, it just hadn't crossed his path.

But everyone gets curious about food that looks good, and the smell was sensational.

They sat down, Cayde grabbing menus.

Looking it over for a moment Zach settled on whatever had the most amount of meat, as noodles didn't really have much substance to them, and he preferred heavier food.

He wasn't hungry, he wasn't thirsty, he felt no real desire to eat.

'Fuck, that is good.' was all he thought as he took his first bite.

Cayde having seen the expression cheered in his seat, "Great right?"

Zach nodded, licking his lips, "It really is, thanks man. I really appreciate this."

Cayde preened, "You, my good man. Are very welcome."

There was a quiet that settled, Zach enjoyed quiet. Even with all the hustle and bustle of people moving around, other Guardians coming and going every which way, or just normal people chatting.

Even with all of that 'noise' it didn't register to him, he'd long since learnt how to tune out background noise.

Working in a shopping centre was good for that, at least.

As he finished his bowl he looked at his hands, rubbing his thumb and index finger together for a moment, Rivelon did little for his sense of connectivity to reality.

But having a normal moment, in auspicious circumstances, was quite surreal.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Cayde asked.

Zach shrugged, "I just feel… more aware? Like I've been in a fog for a long time, and it's finally starting to clear."

Cayde hummed, leaning his elbows on the table they shared, "Might be why you're so much chattier, and personable."

The Titan considered this, he could use that assumption to create a firm veil around himself, hiding the truth of his existence easier.

He could also just not talk about it.

"As good an explanation as any." He said, shrugging, "So what's next, Cayde? I suppose you've got yourself a desk to get back to." There was a little grin on Zach's face as he said this, annoying the EXO.

"Come on, pal! I'm tryna enjoy my noodles here, not think about work."

Zach laughed, and felt an unnoticed weight on his shoulders lift. He felt comfortable, and had no real idea why.

End

Zachary Alexander

Body:5.5

Agility:6

Mana:7

Magic:6

Hope you enjoyed it comrades, I'll see you all next time.

Raxychaz