Note: Happy late Dawning! Have some angst.
In Which Azra Masters the Golden Gun
I can't contain the pain I feel
But if it doesn't hurt it isn't real
Living in the world ablaze
The hunt is over, I'm in chains
Requiem for a Hunter – Aviators
October 19, 2950; Southern Aphrodite Terra, Venus
The mission wasn't supposed to be very difficult. This was a two-Guardian affair, maybe three. Not super complicated.
Yet Azra found herself in a fireteam of four. Instead of Shiro at her side, she had two fresh-off-the-presses Hunters and one young Titan stuck so far in her comfort zone she was still calling Azra 'sir' after the fifth time the Arcstrider reminded her she held no official rank.
Azra hated Kinderguardian duty. This wasn't the first time she'd drawn the short straw with the schedules. The Arcstrider didn't really mind the company, or the endless questions, or the dumb salutes and rigid doctrine. She hated the babysitting. It was an endless tug of war between her impulse to protect the bumbling newbies and the knowledge that some failure would teach them lessons. She had a healthy respect for Andal's lot in life now, watching the Nightstalker Nadir stand smack in the middle of sight lines to reload, or having to haul Brigid's butt out of trouble again and again when she kept charging into fights above her paygrade. It was very stress-inducing.
But it was routine at this point. A standard search-and-destroy op. Straightforward, even though Azra had to keep much of her attention focused on the Kinderguardians so they didn't lag behind or get killed for real. She'd abandoned any stealth plans thirty seconds after their first briefing, but that made things simple, in a way.
Simple, until the moment Cayde got on the comms. They had eliminated the target (Draviks, King Baron) and were looting his Ketch when the Hunter Vanguard entered the channel. Lucky Azra already had the sound turned down. Cayde gave no warning or fanfare before he started yelling.
"You guys gotta get out of there. Now! Clear the ship!" Scared. Worried. Very un-Cayde.
Normally, the Hunter Vanguard was sly and easygoing during missions. Even when things got a little out of hand, he just got sarcastic. It was calming, in a way, that he never got serious. He wasn't exactly as... helpful as Andal had been, but it at least kept morale up.
Except when he yelled. The other to Hunters were already wide-eyed and tense. The Titan was frowning. Azra shook her head, gathered her things, and motioned for her three tag-alongs to form up. "What's up?"
Cayde's voice had the slightest bit of static to it- the Fallen systems were interfering with their earpieces. "Head south, as fast as you can, take the first exit you find. Your ships are inbound. This is above your pay grade."
Azra hated it when people were cagey with the intel. Surely there was no better way to motivate her than to tell her what she was up against?
The cageyness turned out to be ineffective anyway; they were only halfway out when Spark got a ping on the radar. A familiar ping, to his surprise. "It's… Taniks the Scarred? But he's dead!"
"He's bigger than I thought he'd be," Azra said, eyeing the figure with some skepticism. She'd expect the houseless outcasts to be Ether-starved, but it looked like this one was getting three square meals a day and then some.
Cayde tugged at her cape. "Hush, get down. You can't do anything, alright? It'd mess up the Dare something awful if you got the kill. Any kills."
"Then why am I here, Cayde?"
"You're the witness. And insurance."
"Yeah, well not anymore," Cayde growled. "Move your butts."
She rolled her eyes but shooed the greenhorns on anyway. Cayde wasn't one to overreact like this. Overreact in general? Yes. But he was not the type to err on the side of caution.
"You sure it's Taniks? I was there when you shot him, Cayde. That ain't exactly the kind of thing you walk away from." The events of that day were well-remembered and smooth in her head, like worn fidget beads. Taniks' death had a large impact on her life.
Spark was still perplexed. He shuffled through files, trying to find an explanation. "He's been up and down five times, so the city archives claim. But half of the articles on him are locked. What did this guy do?"
"Just get your butts out of there." Cayde had his fretful voice on now, clipped words and soft consonants.
Azra hated being the only experienced one on missions. The Kinderguardians didn't know Ketch ships like she did, and if Cayde was to be believed, a fast exit would be necessary. Yet her leading left no-one competent guarding the rear. The vulnerability of it itched her, but there was little she could do but move fast and hope nothing caught up with them.
Despite her worry, they cleared the ship just fine. The emergency exits were clearly marked in Eliksni, if you knew how to read it. Just a few problems: Their ships were still minutes away, and it wouldn't be that long before the Fallen still in the ship organized themselves. Inside the ship was a very bad place to be. But Tanik's crew had already set up positions near the front of the Ketch, so outside the ship was also a bad place to be. The fireteam of four ended up pinned down behind a reasonably-sized boulder just past the door. The empty field between them and the Fallen provided very little else for cover.
"Wonder if I've still got Fallen bounties on my head," Azra mused as she took stock of the situation. Nadir and Ram-15 were panicking, as newbies tended to do. At least the Titan Brigid still had her wits about.
Azra cleared her throat to get their attention. "Alright folks, keep your Ghosts close. This guy's a meanie. We'll leapfrog this. Three of us lay covering fire while the other goes ahead. Save your smoke bomb, Nadir, unless you need it." She peeked over the boulder to try and get a read. A wire rifle shot chipped the stone next to her head. She ducked back. Maybe a helmet would be a good idea.
"And really try not to die," she said as an afterthought, "that'd make things... complicated. Let's take this steady, alright? Brigid first. Then Nadir, then Ram." The Striker was the most likely to stay cool and find good cover. "I'll stay last, once you're all clear I can go invisible."
"You can turn invisible?" Nadir asked with some wonder.
Azra winked. "Old Nightstalker trick. Maybe I'll show you sometime." She slid on her helmet and booted the HUD. The radar was filled with red.
She turned the Vanguard feed to just her comms. No distractions for the Kinderguardians. Cayde was giving orders now. "I want you guys out of there before Taniks gets your position. You very much do have Fallen bounties on your head."
"Cayde, I get you're still freaked out about my newly not-dead status, but chill. I'm pretty sure I can hold off Taniks just fine."
"You don't know what this guy's been up to. And you're in a pretty bad position." Truth, and truth. Azra's estimations still put her up, though. Not even a Kell could get her and all her fireteam in the little time it would take their transport to get here.
Brigid went, running crouched-over for a dip in the ground behind them. Azra unloaded her Machine Gun across the field, with the two others following suit. The Titan made it alright. Azra could see the path she'd picked out. There was an upturned chunk of ground a dozen more meters back, and then they'd have only a short gauntlet to round the rear end of the ship.
"Azra…" Spark began. Private channel, he whispered in her mind. She slapped Nadir on the back in encouragement and sent her on her way. Spark continued. "The locks on Taniks aren't all-exclusive like Rezyl or Osiris. They're specific. Someone thought a few people, maybe even just us, shouldn't know about Taniks. And… I found a reference in the Archives."
"Get on with it," she growled.
"It's a footnote, really. But Taniks has a bounty on him. For killing the Hunter Vanguard."
"Kauko Swiftriver?" Azra guessed. Ram-15 had collected himself and was waiting for her signal. Azra nodded once Brigid was safely in her new cover. The Fallen were recovering from their surprise, they'd have to be fast.
"No. Not Kauko. The next one."
He meant Andal.
Oh.
Well, it made sense both why Cayde wanted her clear so badly, and why he didn't want to tell her why. The fact that Azra didn't get to enact any revenge on whatever killed Andal was still a sore point between them.
All the secrecy was probably a good decision, really. Her anger still burned, undulled by time. The already-dry ground singed beneath her hands. Hatred welled in her throat like poisonous bile.
This wasn't just any murderer they were talking about. This was Andal's murderer. The sweet, silly Light that was the leader of her Pack. His groundedness, his support, all his dumb bets and crazy plans and unreasonable love of the letter 'a'-
-But don't sell yourself short, Jax." He took the compact square and tossed it into the banked coals before them. It smoldered and browned for a second before bursting into flames. Azra watched as the words turned to ash.
"…Okay," she agreed. Andal slung a warm arm around her shoulders. With his other hand, he flipped back the page and continued scrawling his notes.
Every warm night, every thrilling day, dead. Gone. Snuffed by that creature across the field.
Oh, how she wanted Taniks dead. The grievous wound in her life demanded nothing less. How could she say no to her rage, when she still wore a red stripe on her cloak? When she still had a folder of dumb jokes she'd saved up but never sent him? When every day was spent dancing around that sudden gap in her life?
But she took a mental step back from the edge. Azra was responsible now, and her (lack of) time in the Vault taught her patience. She knew the responsible thing to do would be to stick to the plan, high-tail it out of there, and hunt Taniks down on a later occasion.
And she probably would have done just that, if Taniks hadn't teleported smack-dab in the middle of the battlefield and aimed his scorch cannon at Nadir. The young Nightstalker fumbled in surprise and tripped. Taniks cackled. Azra knew death when she saw it.
Every part of her rejected the moment she knew was coming. No. Just, no. She was not sitting and watching the mercenary that killed Andal kill one of the Kinderguardians under her care.
Azra stepped out of cover. Her shout echoed off of rocks and smooth ship walls. Shouting wasn't smart, but she wanted to see his face. Bullets whizzed through the air around her, but none found their mark.
And then there he was: Taniks the Scarred. Murderer, defiler, six times living and five times dead. She'd make that score even.
Azra didn't have time or mind to say more words. The heat was insistent. The heat of her anger, of her loss. The wound was fresh, like it had happened yesterday, instead of five months ago (instead of eight years ago (instead of a cold, damp eternity ago)). She reached out and made a gun from her heart, like Andal had taught her. The fire burned through her senses, and she could feel nothing but the flames, smell nothing but the acrid smoke of hatred, see nothing but Taniks as he stood.
She fired, then again. And again. And again. Each shot was like a punch in the gut, a knife in the heart. Andal, Andal, the gun sang. My leader, my friend, my brother. She shot her anger, and when she ran out of that, her sorrow. Too soon, her sorrow ran dry, and she made bullets from bitterness and fire and sent them screaming across the broken ground to burn him. Each time, the gun kicked up. Each time, she brought it back to the blurred outline of a slumped Fallen Captain that was the only thing she could make out.
She counted in her head as the shots rang out, as her vision dimmed and her breath hitched. Her lungs burned. She couldn't feel her hands. And still she shot. Nine. Ten. Eleven. There was a hot bit of metal sunk into her heart, raw and persistent, where Andal should have been. Twelve. Thirteen. Four-
"Enough!" That was Spark. The gun outright shattered in Azra's hands, flecks of unused power winking in and out like lost fireflies. Thirteen, then. The number seemed fitting somehow. Unlucky. Was thirteen enough?
Her knees were numb as she dropped to them. There was muffled shouting, somewhere. Azra struggled to draw breath around the knot of nothingness in her ribcage where the fire used to be. It was all-consuming, like a black hole. She couldn't feel the sun above her or the rubble bits digging into her shoulder. She hadn't the strength left to kneel.
There were hands on her, under her arms, dragging her away. She couldn't even put up a weak protest. Ship engines whined overhead. Guardian or Fallen?
The question was answered when Spark transmatted them into the passenger hold of a Jumpship. Familiar. It was her passenger hold, her Jumpship. Azra curled into a ball against the cool leather of her seat, more numb than anything else. She supposed someone was at the controls, because the ship pulled a rib-crushing turn and accelerated away.
"What was that?" someone asked in amazement. Azra was too tired to sort out who it was. Their voice was muted by the helmet and the pounding in her ears.
Someone else was laughing, high and jittery. It rode the line between nervous and giddy. "I thought I was a goner for sure! Then bam-bam-bam! How many was that? Ten? Never heard of anything like that before!"
Azra pulled her hood down further, closed her eyes, and tried not to throw up. The adrenaline high was fading to an insistent throbbing pain in the base of her skull. Her tongue felt dry and about twice as large as it was supposed to be. The palms of her hands burned. And still her chest hurt, heart like a sore fingertip.
Andal was still dead, after all. No Golden Gun could solve that now.
"Plotting a course to the Last City," the third person said. Azra could raise no voice in protest.
TYPE: GUARDIAN CUSTOMS PROJECT
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Cayde-6 [c6]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Azra Jax [aj]
ASSOCIATIONS: Brask, Andal; Cayde-6; Fallen; Jax, Azra; Malphur, Shin; Taniks the Scarred; Vault of Glass [Venus]; Vex;
CUSTOMS ASSOCIATIONS: Dare [Vanguard]; Death, Final; Gunslinger [Hunters]; Justice; Murder; Pack [Hunters]; Revenge
/AUDIO UNAVAILABLE/
/TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS.../
[c6:01]: That was stupid.
[aj:01]: I didn't care.
[c6:02]: Well, do you care now?
[aj:02]: Doesn't matter, does it? Taniks is dead.
[c6:03]: That's what I thought last time, and the time before that, and the time before that. Bastard always seems to find a way back.
[aj:03]: I wonder if that's how the Fallen feel about us. They keep trying to kill us, but we keep coming back.
[c6:04]: There are quite a few Guardians who aren't coming back, because of him.
[aj:04]: Why do you think I did it? He killed Andal. I would've burned my soul just for revenge.
[c6:05]: Still, it was stupid. I myself have put more than a few bullets in him for Andal, and even I think what you did was stupid. We had his position; it'd have been easy enough to tail him and wait for more reinforcements.
[beat]
[c6:06]: Y'know, instead of going all Shin Malphur on his ass while you and your fireteam are supposed to be running for it.
[aj:05]: He was gunning for one of the rookies. And it got the job done.
[c6:07]: And nearly killed you too, in the process. I lost one pack-mate to that son of a bitch. That's enough.
[silence]
[c6:08]: Still, I gotta say that was impressive. Probably set some sorta record.
[silence]
[c6:09]: Y'know, it's hard to tell what you're thinking these days.
[aj:06]: I wasn't there.
[silence]
[c6:11]: None of us were.
[aj:07]: I should have been. I would have been.
[c6:12]: Can't say that for sure. Can't say that we wouldn't have just lost the both of you.
[aj:08]: The Vex messed with a lot of things, rewrote some futures and some pasts. I feel like I should've been there, instead of stuck in a Vault with a bunch of Light-forsaken, cursed, fucking toaster hivemind pox on the universe.
[c6:13]: Come on, tell me how you really feel.
[aj:09]: [laughter]
[silence]
[aj:10]: It's a bit calmer, up here away from it all.
[c6:14]: The view tends to grow on ya.
[aj:11]: …I'm sorry. I was just so angry. And scared. I was going to retreat, I swear, but then…
[c6:15]: I understand. I think you out of everyone has a right to be angry. Just try and remember you've got more pack to fight for, now.
[aj:12]: Nice try, still not gonna take the Dare.
[c6:16]: Damn.
