A Young Wolf's Comfort
He stood on an open space deck made of chitin, the vastness of spaces stretching wide, the rings of Saturn taking up most of the view. The crumbling form of Oryx drifted into the distance. They had finally done it; they single-handedly stopped the Taken War. With an exhausted sigh, he dropped to the floor. Looking back to his raid team he could see Vendrick-5 and Tonitrus-9 high-fiving each other. Irena and Amara hugged each other in relief. The crazy warlock Indra stood off to the side in silent respite. Standing up, he attempted to celebrate with his team when suddenly a massive, clawed hand emerged from below the ship, landing on the deck with a THUD shaking the floor. Emerging from the eternal blackness of space was Oryx, completely unharmed.
"Fool. If only it was that simple," the Taken King bellowed. "Finish him."
Looking back, Flux looked on in horror as his teammates were now bathed in glowing, ethereal darkness, twitching uncontrollably. Yet Ven and Tony were nowhere to be seen. Paralyzed in fear, the now taken Indra stepped forward and hurled a massive ball of Darkness toward him, inky blackness filling his vision.
*Blink*
He now found himself on top of a massive warship. Looking behind, he saw the Last City on fire. He could hear the sounds of their final assault die out as Red Legion soldiers gunned down the last of the lightless guardians.
"You thought you could win," a deep baritone voice rumbled.
Looking back, he saw the large, armored form of Dominus Gaul cloaked in the Traveler's grace. Under his armored foot was Tonitrus, stripped of Light, robes tattered from battle; his arm stretched out weakly.
"But you were deceived. Now let me show you the consequences." With that, Gaul lifted his foot and brought it down on Tonitrus' head with a sickening CRUNCH.
He screamed. But no sound came out. He sank to his knees in despair, ignoring the whirr of a Cabal cannon coming online.
Gaul fired and his vision was engulfed in white.
*Blink*
He was on the moon, or at least he thought so, it was so hard to see. The chitin bridge seemed to extend infinitely into the darkness. The massive Pyramid was to his left, like a triangle shaped black hole that stood out against the sickly green void.
"Flux," a distorted voice called behind him.
Whirling around, he saw Vendrick, but he wasn't right. His stance was crooked, and his head was bowed; his body covered in a thick black substance that dripped to the floor.
His friend looked up at him with a lopsided grin and Flux gagged. His friend's soft blue optics were replaced with a fiery green, the same black substance oozed out of his mouth and eye sockets.
"You could've saved me," he said as he leveled that accursed hand cannon to Flux's head. "You could've prevented this."
He fired, feeling the massive thorn piercing through the other side of his head.
*Blink*
He stood before a massive, veiled statue; he was inside a Pyramid. Alien, circuit-like markings lined the walls and floor. An unnatural light illuminated the statue. The atmosphere felt wrong.
"Flux," his ghost called out weakly.
Looking to the floor, he saw Stasis overtaking his ghost.
"I'm sorry." He said before the crystals engulfed the shell.
He finally found his voice. "Gauss!" he cried. "Don't leave me alone!"
Taking a step toward his crystalized ghost, he could suddenly feel Stasis rapidly crawling up his body. He tried to break free, but he couldn't. He looked back up and saw the statue was now kneeling before him, its veiled face looking directly at him, peering into his soul. He desperately tried to punch the thing, but Stasis halted his attempt. With one last look, he could FEEL the statue smiling at him as blue crystals consumed his vision.
...
Flux jolted awake, breathing heavily. He quickly felt around his torso, his hands brushing against the metal plating and underlying synthetic muscle fibers. Stasis was nowhere to be seen on his body. With a sigh of relief, he flopped back onto his bed, his head softly impacting the pillow.
"You ok Flux?" Gauss asked as he popped into existence.
Grasping his ghost as gently as his shaking hands would allow, he held the small bot close to his chest.
"Yeah…more nightmares little buddy." He said softly.
They held that position for a while before he released the ghost.
"I need something to eat," he whispered to himself.
"Tonitrus went grocery shopping earlier, I saw he bought your favorite ice cream," Gauss said before disappearing.
Ice cream sounded good. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, Flux checked the time of his Exomind's HUD. It read 3:17 am. Tiptoeing through the apartment as best as a titan could, he made his way to the kitchen hoping not to wake either of his friends. Vendrick, being a hunter, was an incredibly light sleeper and Tonitrus would get cranky if he was woken up for any reason.
Reaching the kitchen, he flicked on the light and held back a shout of surprise as the aforementioned hunter sat at the table dressed in gray sweatpants and a black shirt that read 'Veist' in green font. A steaming cup of instant ramen was placed in front of him, noodles hanging from his mouth.
"Ven?! You almost gave me a heart attack! What are you doing up?" He whispered as loudly as he could.
He slurped up the noodles before responding. "I was about to ask you the same thing big guy," Vendrick whispered back.
"I couldn't sleep," Flux said faster than he intended. He opened the freezer and lo and behold there was a large tub of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sitting there. Grabbing the tub and a spoon, he sat down across from his friend.
"Why'd you have the lights off?" He asked, shoveling a large scoop of the frozen treat into his mouth.
Vendrick shrugged. "Tony left his door open, so I didn't want to wake him. Plus, it helps that our frames are equipped with night vision."
He kept forgetting they could do that. After their raid on the Deep Stone Crypt, they discovered that Clovis had hardwired a bunch of combat support features into their frames they were otherwise ignorant of, including said night vision.
"...I guess the darkness gives me a sort of weird comfort." He continued.
Flux cringed at the statement, the image of nightmare Vendrick flashing through his mind.
His friend paused, noodles inches from his mouth. "You had a nightmare about me, didn't you?"
"Mmhm." He mumbled, his mouth full of ice cream and cookie dough.
"I thought so, you had this look on your face with the darkness comment."
Flux swallowed. "Was it that obvious?"
Vendrick nodded. "Yeah…you want to talk about it?"
The titan paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "I saw…I saw Oryx. We slew him but he came back. Simply killing him in the ascendant plane wasn't enough. He had Taken our raid team…"
Vendrick made no effort for him to continue, simply listening and waiting until his friend was ready.
His breath grew shallow. "I…I saw Gaul. The City was on fire. I could hear the dying screams of civilians and guardians alike…our final assault failed. He…he c-crushed Tony's head under his foot…"
He paused again, trying to regain control of himself. He felt like he was going to break down any second.
"The stasis powers we got... I couldn't control it. Gauss was frozen, that…statue was smiling at me…you were corrupted…you k-killed me with Thorn-"
Before he knew it, Vendrick had crossed the table, pulled him up from his seat and threw his arms around his friend.
"Those are just dreams Flux, I would never do that to you."
Flux hugged the other Exo back tightly. He tried to speak but no words came out, only labored breaths which turned into uncontrollable sobs. While Exos couldn't really 'cry' persay, that didn't stop the years of pent-up stress from pouring out. They held their embrace for several minutes, Vendrick gently rubbing his friend's back as Flux cried into his shoulder.
Eventually, they broke the hug and Vendrick returned to his seat as Flux composed himself.
"How long have you been having these nightmares?" He asked.
Flux let out a shaky breath. "They… actually started shortly after I…after I destroyed the Black Heart."
Vendrick blanched. "That long!? Have you told anyone about them?"
He hesitated, "...no. They've actually been getting worse and more frequent. I've just been so busy that I haven't had time to address them. I thought I could power through them, pretend that they weren't bothering me…"
"That's not healthy." Vendrick commented.
"You're right it's not. But ever since I was resurrected eight years ago, there's this perception that I'm a silent, efficient warrior who's at the forefront of every major conflict in the system. I feel like I can't live up to my own reputation...like I don't have a chance to be myself."
Vendrick was suddenly aware of his friend's predicament. He was the image people thought of when they heard the word 'guardian'. No one else had racked up as many feats and accomplishments in such a short amount of time as he did and because of that, he didn't really have time to develop…well himself. Others didn't really see the personal side of him. Some even found it hard to interact with him, both veterans and new lights.
"Flux…I want to say that I understand. But you're coming from a place I can't relate to. I wish I could offer some guidance. Some kind of advice to help you feel better…"
Vendrick thought carefully about his next choice of words. "I've said this before, and I'll say it again; Tony and I are your family now. We don't care about your titles or achievements; we care about you.
Whatever happens, we'll remain at your side."
Flux smiled at him gratefully, "You're the best Ven."
Vendrick simply smiled in return as the two Exos resumed eating, a comfortable silence setting in. Flux was about halfway through the tub of ice cream when Vendrick got up to dispose of the Styrofoam cup, finished with his ramen. He was about to retire for the night when Flux decided to ask something he preferred not to answer.
"So why were you awake?"
