Nico POV
"That was gun fire Nico." Xavier whispers as we hide behind a corner.
"I beat it's Reaper causing a problem for someone." I whisper as I try and look around the corner. "At least he is not causing problems for us."
A loud explosion cut us off from talking anymore. Xavier grabs my shoulder as I try and round the corner stopping me. I turn my head and glare at him, but he shakes his head as if tell me not to move. A second explosion shakes the ground as Xavier throws a wall up to protect us from the falling debris. As the debris falls around us my thought jump to Reaper who is most likely hurt.
As the last of the rocks hit the ground, I leap around the corner with my gun raised. Aiming down sights, I level my gun at the head one of the Scorn. I fire off a shot taking its head off, I shift my gun a little to the right. As I get the sights on the next scorn the head explodes as Xavier step around the corner after me. We continue to move slowly picking off one Scorn after another trying to clear up the area.
I hear the low rumble of engines as we move closer to the crater, but I am not able to look up to see the ship as a Scorn with a flail charging me. I throw my hand out sending a wave of void energy towards it. It stumbles as Xavier shots it in the head. I turn to thank him but throw my hand out again as a Scorn jump at Xavier. Just as my wave hits the Scorn it explodes in midair.
"Watch out for the ones with blue bubbles on their back they explode if they get to close." I tell Xavier as I reload my gun to be on the safe side. "How the hell did Reaper manage to fight off an ambush of all these enemies."
"I have to agree Nico" Xavier laughs trying to lighten the mood. "But this is Reaper we are talking about, and he is very skilled at what he does."
I let out a small laugh as we walk closer to the crater. The laugh dies on my lips as I see a huge body comes into view. On a closer look I can see that a large hole was blown into its stomach. I guess it was caused by a rocket or grenade launcher. I watch as Xavier walks close to the body and give it a kick as if checking to make sure it is dead.
I glance around the area and notice a dent in a wall. I walk over to the wall only to see a couple of dead Scorn laying around. As I walk closer, I see a small puddle next to the wall the color drain from my face.
"Xavier" I whisper as I see the blood.
"What is it Nico." Xavier starts but stop as he see the puddle. "Do you know whose blood this belongs to."
"I just finished scanning it" Sam tells us as she appears in front of me.
"SAM" I snap before she can go on.
"It's Reapers blood" Sam continues without stopping. "And from the looks of it Reaper is hurt badly. It seems like a small trail of blood is leading this way." Sam begins to float in the direction of the trail she told us about. We follow the ghost to a small cliff that seems to have something hit it extremely hard.
"Sam reach out to Xaxa and see where Reaper is" I demand from the ghost. I watch as the ghost move just a little bit to the side.
Before Sam can respond a shot hits the wall where she was. Xavier throws a wall up just as another shot aimed at Sam hits the wall. I step in-front of the ghost in case Xavier wall fails. A third shot hits the wall aimed at me. I try and track the shot back to where is cam from only to come up short. I continue to look around as the wall fades into nothingness. Thankfully no more shot come at us.
"Sam stay out of sight." I snap at the ghost as I continue to look around for the shooter. "Xavier make sure your ghost stay out of sight also. We are in the Rifleman area so we cannot risk one of you getting hit."
I see Xavier nod his head in responds but not say anything. So, I guess that he is telling his ghost to stay out of sight mentally. I tap Xavier shoulder to get his attention, I see his face turn slightly so he can see me. I point at the two of us and make a walking motion towards the building with the bent in it. I see him nod slightly and prepare to move. We leapfrog towards the building, hoping that it will provide some safety. We hear a small hissing noise causing us to jump and spin around as a door open.
Thankfully, nothing comes out of the door. I glance at Xavier and see him walk slowly towards the door. He leans into the build as if check to make sure it is clear. After he finishes checking the building, I see him step into the building. I follow him into the building and here the door hiss close surrounding us in darkness.
"Sam, I think it's safe for you and Xavier ghost to be seen." I tell the ghost who start to appear. "Plus, we could use the light in here." I hear a small laugh come from the ghosts as they light up the room.
"Light bulb as you just seen you need to stay out of sight." Xavier tells his ghost again as the ghost floats around the small building. "Stay away from the door also guys, we do not need it to open. That will just make you easy targets."
"I agree" I with a nod. "Sam did you get ahold of Xaxa to see where Reaper is."
"Yes, I did Nico" the ghost answers. "Xaxa sent a message to me so here it is. Nico, Reaper is safe for the time being and is currently healing on board his ship resting. He will make a full recovery after he rest for a couple of hours, but I plan to try to keep him out for a day at least. So, he can make a full recovery, I will not tell you where he is going because you need to get the fireteam that came with you under control before he lets any of you collaborate with him. All I can tell you is that he is fine, and I will do everything I can to keep him alive."
"Go head and stop the message Sam" I frown as I think about what the message said. "Xavier, we need to talk about what happened with Louis. I understand that he is or was a fireteam member of your, but the way he treated Reaper after I explained to them what we are doing and why we were leaving for the Tangle shore so soon after we just got back from a mission." Xavier raises a hand to stop me before I go on much more.
"Nico, I dealt with that problem" Xavier starts. "You were with me in the ship when I gave him a dressing down. I will deal with it again once we reach the tower and tell the Vanguard that he is not fit to be on a fireteam. We need to focus on the task before us instead of that. Right now, I am more focus on how to help Reaper with his problem. Which is going to be hard to deal with as it is because Reaper is in the wind right now and is not going to let us help. Because of what Louis did."
"Nico" Sam cut in. "We might be able to track Reaper now if he in his ship. Also, we might be able to see him if we tell Xaxa that its only you and Xavier looking for him."
"Do it Sam" I tell the ghost. "Xavier, can you promise to stay quiet if we are able to see Reaper. I do not need him running off again if we can avoid it. I already annoyed with him as it is, and it will be hard to not yell at him when I see him. So, if you do not mind, I would like to take the lead on having to deal with Reaper when he wake up."
I see him raise his hands and open his mouth too say something, but he gets cut off by the sound of an incoming ship. The sound seems to stop right over our heads and does not seem to be moving on. I aim my rifle at the door in case an enemies rush thought the door. Instead, I hear a voice from behind me.
"Hello Nico." I spin around pulling the trigger. Thankfully, I miss those shots as I see who scared us. "A little jumpy Nico."
"Xaxa, you scared us." I snap at the ghost with venom. "We almost shot you and then Reaper would be without his ghost. You should have told Sam that you were coming here and not just appear."
"Nico, I have come to get you and Xavier to see Reaper." The ghost laughs at what I said to him. "I have already sent the transmit location to your ghost so you can get on the ship." I watch Xaxa disappear again and wait for Sam to say something.
"Nico, I'm ready to warp you up to Reapers ship." Sam tells me as she float down in-front of me. "Xaxa told me to remind that Reaper will be asleep when you get on board." I hear someone warping from behind me, so I know the Xavier is heading towards Reaper.
"Okay Sam go ahead." I tell the ghost as I relax for the warp. My body begin to get lighter as the warp takes hold. I hear boots hitting metal before I take in the sight of the inside of Reaper ship. I slowly look around the inside of the ship looking for the person in question. i finally see Xavier standing next to an open hatch with his helmet off. I walk towards him to ask what he is doing but then I see his eyes seem to be looking at something. I follow his eyesight to the see a figure laying down on a rack.
"Reaper" I let out in a low whisper. I walk closer to the bed to make sure that what I am seeing is not a dream or hallucination. I careful place my hands on his chest afraid that I will breaks the spell of him sleeping. The dam holding back my tears finally break as my legs give out from under me. Thankfully, Xavier does not try to catch me as I sit next to the bed that Reaper is in.
"Nico" I hear from behind me, but I do not turn to face the voice. "Nico stay here with Reaper I will make sure the ship gets somewhere safe. I am sure that Reaper much rather see your face first instead of mine." I hear Xavier walk away from the room. I try to stop the tears, but it does not work.
"Xaxa" I sobbed out hoping the ghost can hear me, but I do not hear anything. "Xaxa" I try again. This time I hear a small noise from behind me.
"Yes Nico." Xaxa answers as he appears next to me.
"How bad is it." I try to demand from the ghost, but it does not work as more tears fall.
"With some rest he will be fine Nico." Xaxa starts before pausing as if thinking about what else to tell me. "I know it will not make you feel any better, but he refused to go down until the enemy was down. He just would not stay down no matter what I told him."
"That would be him" I laugh out. "He never listens to anyone when it comes to his safety. Would it help if I add my healing light?" I try and think of diverse ways to help him heal faster. I hope that I might be able to help.
"No Nico it will not help." Xaxa tells me as I start to build up light. "His body is already healed no he just needs rest so that he can recover. I know that he will not be happy with me for making him sleep but he need to rest."
I slowly look at Reapers body seeing all the bruises and the scars that he had gotten sense the last time I saw him. He has seemed to have gotten more sense the time I saw him on the Reef. I notice a few of his ribs are popped out of place and never set right by someone or his ghost. I let out a sigh as I think about the different times Reaper has come home looking worn out. I always tried to ask him about it, but he never wants to talk about what has happened.
I remember yelling at him once for coming home with his armor covered in blood. He just stood there taking the ass chewing but never said anything back. He just waited until I was done and told me that he was on a special mission for the Vanguard. After he told me that I went and talk to the Vanguard only to find out that he was on a mission. When I asked why I was not told about the mission when I'm the fireteam leader. They just said that they found Reaper in the tower one day.
Reaper normally spends sometime in the Tower helping other guardians or running errors. Every so often I would tag along to make sure he did not get into any trouble, but it never really worked he somehow always managed to slip away from me. The last time I found him, he was in a bar drinking alone until someone tried to fight him. I shake my head thinking about what happened so I can stay focused on what was going on in front of me.
"Xaxa, which Baron did Reaper go after" I ask the ghost.
"He was tracking down the Trickster" the ghost sighs before going on. "He got jumped by the Hangman and you see how that ended up."
"XAVIER" I yell cutting the ghost off. As the sound of steps get closer, I turn to face the door. I nod once I see him. "Xavier warn your fireteam about how dangers' the Barons are. What we saw down there and what happened to Reaper was caused by only one of them."
The look of shock covers his face before he nods and calls out his ghost to pass the message. I really hope that he manages to get the message to them before it is too late. I do not want to risk them getting hurt or worse. I let out a sigh finally thinking about what happened when me and Xavier were under attack. Someone or something is targeting the ghosts.
"Xavier" I let out before thinking. "Make sure they know that the ghosts need to stay out of sight. Let them know that Sam was a target when we were searching for Reaper."
"I told them to head back to my ship and left off. We will meet them in orbit and produce a better plan then what we have going." Xavier tells me, I nod my head as I return my focus back on Reaper.
I gather a small amount of light and focus on pushing it into reapers body trying to help heal anything that Xaxa might have missed. I know that Xaxa told me that he healed him already, but I want to make sure that Reaper will make it. I try not to think about how often Reaper and myself have been in a situation like this.
"Nico, you need to focus, or you are going to hurt Reaper more than help him." I hear Sam tell me as I begin to feel heat on my hands. I look down to see that the Light I had built up was starting to burn the cloth under his armor. I focus on the light and watch as it begin to deem little by little. I let out a sigh as I gain control over the energy and let it slowly enter Reaper's body.
The ship begins to shift a little as I stay focused on Reaper. I know that Xavier's team will be joining on us, I will have to stay in control to not yell at Louis. I know that Xavier will keep him in check this time so we will just have to wait and see what happens. As much as I enjoy being on the same fireteam with them I still have my own team I need to keep an eye on. No matter how annoying he can be. Plus, if someone does not keep an eye on Reaper he will just disappear again. That is not something I need right now especially after losing Cayde.
I hear a light thump against the haul of the ship and the hissing of the airlocks as the ships finish connecting. I let out a sigh as I hear a door open and hear a mutter from Xavier. I sure hope he is warning them not to mouth off about what happened to Reaper, or I going to blow my top on them. As one of the mutters grow into a loud voice, I close my eye and just try and focus on helping Reaper.
"Xavier are you sure about this." I hear but I cannot place the voice. "I understand that you want us to be careful, but do we really need to be that careful. There will be always at least two of us together. We might not be as good as Reaper, but we can make up for that with number. I mean if we really want to, we can have four people working together. Hell, even five of us if we can get Reaper to play along."
"I understand that" I hear Xavier answer. "But we really need to play this on close to the chest. Even Nico's ghost was shot at as we were searching for Reaper. So, this is a risk that I am not willing to take currently. So, we will play this how Nico or Reaper wants. I do not want any lip from you or Louis, I do not care what you think about Reaper, but you will listen. He is the only one who has taken out one of the Baron's so we will listen to what he says."
I let out a small chuckle as I listen to them go back and forth. I try not to lose focus on helping Reaper, but it does not happen. The smell of burning cloths reaches my nose so I stop focusing the light and just let it fade. I sigh as I stand from where I am kneeling next to Reaper and walk towards to group. They stop talking as I get closer to them and wait for me to join them.
"Nico, what do you think we should do" Xavier asks.
"We need to wait for Reaper to wake up before we make any plans. But we need to be in two separate groups for scouting the area." I begin to tell the group of Titans. "That way we can scout the area for the Barons and have numbers in our favor. I also think that if we run into any of the Barons we need to pause before we engage with them. That will give us time to gather all five of us together and take out the Baron as a group instead. That way we done run the risk of losing anyone if we are in a bigger group. We can see what happened to Reaper as proof of that. He only fought one and it almost killed him. So, taking them on in bigger group is a better plan then a small group of two or three people."
I see the three titans nod their heads in agreement to what I have told them. From the looks of it Louis still does not agree with what I said but is not going to say anything. I bite my tongue as I hold back the lashing, I want to give him. As much as I know they are here to help Reaper I know that they don't really want to. As much as I want to force them to help I can't it has to be up to them to help him. I know that no matter what happens I will help Reaper no matter what happens.