Wow, I can't get over the traffic this story is getting. I think destiny 2 may have restarted the Cayde banwagon? Keep up the love guys! Thanks!

On a Side note, i finally finished this stroy's cover Logo. Wow~

DROH


Entry Log 53 - 00:29:54

The first thing worth of note when the video flickers on is the ICU had become quiet at this point. The feed shows a wild view of the main waiting room, which is almost empty now except for two people. Winter is curled up in one of the small sofas off to the side, a blanket draped over her. The only other soul in the room is Cayde and that's who the camera focuses to, slowly zooming in as his Ghost moves closer.

The Exo is staring into one of the rooms through its single wide window, his forearm resting on the glass above his head as if to hold him up. His face is set in a blank typical 'exo face', eyes unmoving and jaw set. Slowly, the camera pans to view inside the window, where a room is softly lit. It's a typical hospital room, stark white and furnished with a medical bed and a small two person table with chairs. There were three different humming and beeping machines in the room as well, the brightly lit lights being the only color in the room besides Skylar's bright hair. Cayde's rookie is tucked under the blankets neatly, arms above them at her sides to unhinder the wires and tubes shoved into wrist and elbow crooks. There's a tube shoved up her nose, running over her cheekbones and diving too pale skin from her blue guardian marking.

A nurse is in the room with her, checking vitals and writing down numbers on a clipboard. Carefully, the Awoken female checks the breathing tube and then in a kind gesture, combs back amber locks from closed eyes. It is the other woman in the room that seems to have Cayde's attention and as the nurse steps back, Eris Morn leaves her spot near the door and glides over to the bed. The ex-hunter says something that can't be heard through the soundproof glass and the nurse nods, pulling back the covers carefully till they are around Skylar's hips.

She wasn't wearing much, just the typical cloth and leather undergarments. Her midriff was bare and clear of blood, but you could see the large gouges that had been left by thrawl talons slicing into fair skin. From the glass you could count seven stitched up wounds and while they were no longer bleeding, they still oozed black fog-like energy that drifted over the curve of her form and puffed out when it hit the bed. The nurse took a few steps back and slowly the witch raises a hand, holding her green glowing orb above the wound. She starts chatting something, and the orb pulses brighter.

Heavy footsteps sound behind Cayde and Sundance, but neither move till the owner of those steps spoke. "Cayde?" Zavala's voice was unmistakable, calm and strong as it always was. Cayde still didn't move, but his partner did, turning around and floating up until both vanguard leaders are in the frame. The titan's arms are crossed, his face stony like always as he waits for his teammate to say something. Finally, after a whole minute ticks by on the time clock, the Exo sighs.

"If you're here to berate me for my actions from earlier get on with it," Cayde's voice was unusually flat, lacking the natural humor in it and edged in a bone - or wire in his case - deep fatigue. When the commander said nothing the hunter sighs again and slowly removes his arm from the glass and turns to face him. He took to leaning on the glass with his back and mirrors the awoken by crossing his arms. "Okay fine, I'm listening."

Zavala seems to search his longtime friend over carefully, reading him with the knowledge one can only gain with time and familiarity. "I can't condone what you did to Corvan," he states frowning. "It was brash and you let your emotions control your actions." He pauses, watching as Cayde nods his head slightly, expecting those words. Then, after a moment, he went on. "But, I see no point in punishing you, not that there is much I could really do anyway. While your actions were wrong, your reason for doing so wasn't. What happened could have been avoided and Corvan will be dealt with accordingly."

Surprise lights Cayde's face at the man's words. Clearly, he had expected something else. "Going soft on me are you?" he muses, tone lightening just a bit. Zavala shook his head.

"Your Ghost stopped you before any real damage was done and as you are their leader, punishment, and rewards due to hunters are your right, but you could have handled it better." A small smile cracks the big man's face at that. "Just try to remember how your actions reflect on the rest of us would you?"

Cayde snorts. "Right. I got ya," he agrees and he turns slightly to look back in the window. Zavala let the smile fall and he walks closer, standing beside the exo.

"How is she doing? I heard the other two have been moved to normal rooms."

"Well thankfully Exos can lose limbs and parts without any major setbacks. You just install new ones and then watch them to make sure they work well with the body. Will-6 is going to need to get fitted for some new front chest platting and shoulder gear, Haar-2 needs a new arm and side plating, but that's the worst of it. Humans aren't so lucky though, as you know."

The camera zooms back in, coming to a rest between the two men, about a foot behind them. In the room you can now see that whatever Eris is doing seems to be working, the orb somehow sucking up the black ooze that is the energy of the Darkness. Zavala shifts slightly, resting a hand on the window's lower tracking and sill.

"It appears that Eris' offer was one to accept."

"If anyone knows about the Darkness and the Hive, it's that woman," Cayde agreed quietly. "We can only hope that it makes Sky's condition improve." Neither of them seems to have anything to add to that comment and so they go silent for a while, nearly ten minutes passing on the timer with nothing but Eris moving about and working. Then, Cayde takes in a slow breath and lets it out. "You know… she never wanted to be some famous hero," he states. "She told me that once. She just wanted to make a difference in her own way and didn't mind if the others got the glory. I can't help but feel… like this is partly my fault, for telling her stories about the Vault of Glass, for making her want to be on that raid team." It's an unexpected train of thought from the teasing, duty dodging Exo, but Zavala shakes his head all the same.

"We all saw that raw potential she had within weeks of her being brought back by her Ghost. It's why you took her under your wing," he held up a hand as Cayde turned his head and opened his mouth to say something, stopping him. "Don't tell me it was just so you had an excuse to get out of the tower more. I know you saw a spark that needed to catch fire in her, and you did just that. She's one of the best at what she does Cayde, talent like that isn't something to keep on low end missions." The tall man gave a small sigh. "Sometimes, we don't get what we want in our lives, sometimes it simply becomes what the many need. Do you really believe she would hold anything that has happened against us? That she regrets where she is now?"

Cayde just kept his gaze on his friend, jaw working into a frown as the minutes tick by. After about five, he shakes his head and turns to look back into the room. "No, she wouldn't," he admits. "It's because of those missions that she has a fireteam like she does, friends she can trust." A smirk breaks away his frown for a moment. "Plus, all that private training with me, who could ask for more?"

Despite himself, the titan let out a deep chuckle and shook his head.

Back inside the room, the energy that Eris had been collecting was beginning to taper off, a trickle instead of a constant pour. Then, all at once, it stops and Eris recalls the orb to her hands and clutches it there. The wounds stay clear while she waits a few moments before she nods her head and turns from the bed. The nurse takes the cue and quickly pulls the blankets back up over Skylar's body. She then goes back to the charts on the clipboard and starts checking things over again for any changes. Guessing from how much she was writing, there was something different than before.

"The Darkness is gone," Eris' voice called to the two men and the Ghost from across the way causing the camera to pan to her. She must have left the room quickly to have already rounded the two corners that lead to the door. She had that ever present frown on her face, the dripping veil of her own pain staining what might have once been pretty. "She is lucky, not all of her Light was consumed yet, thus she will remain what she has always been." The unspoken words 'she will not be like me' seemed to hang in the air around them, and Cayde gave a small nod, but it was Zavala that spoke first.

"Thank you for your help Eris." He took a step forward, as if to clasp her forearm, but then soon remembered her distaste for touch and stops himself. "I'm sure she will be just as grateful." What was to be a positive note only seemed to make the witch frown more, which in turn made both Vanguard leads do the same.

"I would not be so quick to assume. There is a poison in her now that will be hard to stamp out."

"What?" Cayde nearly snaps, bristling. Zavala puts a hand on his friend's shoulder to stop him, but the Exo still spoke. "I thought you said the Darkness was gone?"

"It is," Eris agrees with one sharp nod of her head. "But what it had left behind cannot be fixed with magic. Only time."

"Do you speak of her wounds?" Zavala asks, inquisitive but weary. "Do you believe she will not survive them?" His words seem to make Cayde even more agitated, but the iron grip on his shoulder keeps him in place as Eris tilts her head down to look into her orb.

"That is to be seen, but it is the poison in her mind that I speak of," she clarifies. "To come so close to the Darkness and to death - a final death, it will surely riddle her with unseen damage that she will have to overcome, else it breaks her." She looks to the window for a moment but the camera doesn't and after a few seconds Eris simply bows her head slightly and glides off before either man can think of a reply. Once she is gone, they look at each other for a long hard moment, both knowing what she spoke of seen easily in their expressions, and then Cayde turns back to the window once more.

"I'm guessing you'll get Winter back to her room?" he asks the commander after a moment, but doesn't look at him. "She refused to leave before but she really shouldn't stay here all night."

There is a lapse of twenty seconds on the timer before Zavala replies. "Neither should you." The concern in his voice makes Cayde shift on his feet but he just shakes his head slowly.

"I'll leave later..." It's the way he let the sentence hang there that makes it clear to everyone that even as the video slowly ends, that he is saying it out of habit and not because it is true.