Annnd we're back to a normal updating... I think.
As always big thanks to my Beta Qrow and to everyone who to the like to review!
...
Prepare to cry...that is all.
DROH
Entry Log 92 - 01:37:11
It's late. One doesn't even need to look at the clock in the upper corner of the feed as it turns on to know that. The Vanguard room is all but empty, side lights are turned off or on low and through the huge back windows the moon looks huge in the sky, just passed half a waxing cycle. Everyone is gone, even the Frames, leaving the three lone leaders to stand in utter silence around the table, the open comms channel buzzing with stadic.
Ikora and Zavala share a look, worry and dread passing between them as they look to their sharpshooter. Cayde doesn't move, simply staring at the small comms device on the table as it buzzes, hands planted hard around it to keep himself upright. He's clearly waiting for something to happen, but from the look on the other's faces, he's been doing that for quite a while now.
Another long minute passes on the clock before with agonizingly slow movements, the Exo lifts one hand and shuts off the open channel, leaving the room in stark, haunting silence that almost makes it seem too loud. This room is never quiet, except now, but it remains that way for a long while as the timer ticks up.
"Maybe it's just a bad area," Ikora begins, but Cayde shakes his head to stop her, drawing his hands back to stand straight, his bright eyes dimmed slightly.
"There hasn't been word for hours Ikora. Not from either of them." He drags a hand over the top of his hood like one might through their hair and curses. "I shouldn't have let her go. She was exhausted, probably not thinking that straight."
"She agreed to go, knew well enough what she was doing," Zavala stated in argument, drawing Cayde's focus. "Tevis is a friend to both of you, she would have gone even if you'd refused to let her." He had a point and the hunter snorts softly at that, agreeing.
"You guys don't have to stay," he murmurs, heaving a sigh. "I won't be able to sleep if I tried right now, but that shouldn't stop you." The way he says it neither of his friends seem to be able to tell whether or not he wishes to be alone. Maybe it's both, conflicted with wanting space and the comfort of a friend when he fears he has lost two. An old friend and someone more than just a friend, it's a truth they all seem to know, but don't talk about. Ikora takes the few steps around the table needed to reach him silently and rest her hand on his slumped shoulder.
"It wouldn't be the first time we went without sleep. I doubt it will be the last." She catches his eyes and gives a small, comforting smile and he nods his head, glancing back at the comm as if it would click on by itself once again.
The minutes tick on in silence, nearly twenty since it had started before anything happens again. Soft, almost unheard footstep sound from the front of the corridor where Shaxx normally is, and that has all three leaders perking up from their statue still poses. Ikora's hand slips numbly off Cayde's shoulder when the person enters the room, and it can be no other that Skylar due to her new torso armor even with her helmet still on. Shock dampens the air as she stops at the three steps down into the room, stance military, Sterling hovering just behind her left shoulder. Her armor is coated in mud and the unmistakable brown red of dried blood, a large smear of it over her helmet's visor.
No one seems to know what to say and while Cayde just stares at her, Ikora looks behind her as if expecting - hoping someone else will appear. No one does and Skylar is the first to finally break the tension she could surely cut with her knife.
"May I… Speak with Cayde a moment," she asks, voice even but strained as if she's trying to keep it as such. Ikora stops looking for anyone else to show up, and Zavala's understanding in those simply words is shown on his tired, ageless face.
"Of course Guardian, we were just heading out anyway. We're glad to see you back." There should be more to his words. He has questions, they all do, but he nor Ikora can ask them now. All they can do is give one of the City's heroes this small request. Ikora waits till he is passing her to fall in step with the titan. She sends a fleeting glance at both Cayde and Skylar, but neither respond and as they pass the redhead while her Ghost disappears.
Neither of the hunters moved until the sounds of the other two Vanguard leaders are gone and even then they wait another minute. Slowly, Skylar takes the three steps down one at a time as if each movement is painful and indeed she does appear to be limping a bit. That seems to snap Cayde from his spot next to the table, and he hurries over to her just in time as she stumbles over her own feet, clearly tired, and catches her by the shoulders. Skylar lets out a low sigh, sagging slightly against him, head angled down and Cayde shifts, righting her, but doesn't remove his hands. The video feed moves to show them both from the side, and the lights of her armour along with Cayde's own system lights are the brightest things in the shadowed room.
"Are you hurt?" Cayde tries and she shakes her head, expression hidden behind her blood splattered helmet. She never wears her helmet unless she's on mission, which means something really is wrong and the look on the Exo's face seems all too clear that he already knows. "You're limping," he points out.
"Sprained something I think..." she murmurs lowly, shifting her weight off of her right leg. "It's okay… I'm..." she trails off and shakes her head again, hands clenching into her cloak at her sides. She seems to try and get words out twice, choking on them before finally forcing them out. "Cayde I… I-"
"He's gone, isn't he?" the Exo cuts in suddenly, voice even and quiet, eyes searching her visor. They stare at each other for a long, five seconds on the clock before a sharp, keening sound slips out of the hunteress followed by a low dragging one. A sob. Something Cayde's not used to hearing as it's only shown up twice before, but somehow this is different. Wetter. More heart breaking. His eyes dim at that, jaw tilting into a frown as he swallows. Moving a hand from her shoulder to the side of her helmet he pushes the hood away, gloved fingers finding the compression release on the neck latch. "Let's get this off," he whispers, knowing just how suffocating a helmet can feel when everything else feels wrong already.
It ends up on the ground with a 'thunk', rolling a few inches before simply staying put and rocking back and forth. The camera focusing on their faces, catching the glittering water crawling down Skylar's face. Her eyes are rimmed a purple color due to her blue markings, the rest of her skin flush and tear stained as she lets out a shaky breath. Cayde seems taken aback by the display, as he's never seen the woman outright cry. She'd always been too proud to do that, even at her worst, but now? Now she doesn't seem to care and that seems to strike a nerve in the Exo's mind, expression shifting to one of raw pain as he uses the same hand as before to cup her jaw and wipe at a traveling tear with his thumb. It's his next words that make her close her eyes, sending more water from them.
"What happened?" His question is expected, his tone saddened but still strong. For her. Eyelids twitch but she doesn't open her eyes when she finally speaks.
"I… I found Marvin just inside the Vex gate. He was...Smashed, dead," she murmurs, referring to Tevis' Ghost and the feed jerks slightly for a moment as if Sundance has flinched along with Cayde. Skylar sniffs, swallowing down another sob. "Tevis was a lot farther in. The Vex were going nuts, I don't know what caused it, but they weren't even coming after him when I found him, maybe they knew it was… pointless. Hobo had hit him in the back he couldn't move his legs." Opening her eyes slightly, she blinked, more tears trailing down her cheek, some catching on Cayde's still present thumb. Wet, blazing orange gold eyes met Cayde's then, pained and grieving. "He was covered in blood and I tried to move him, tried to get him out of there but he wouldn't… he wouldn't let m-e-" a sob ended her words with a crack, and she looked down, wincing.
That explained all the blood at least. If Skylar had tried to carry him, more than likely the blood had gotten everywhere. Cayde searched her face, the woman who had, until recently, been his rookie, but was so much more than that. "If he couldn't move his legs and his Ghost was gone Sky, Tevis knew he was a goner. Probably didn't want you risking everything for a soon to be corpse," he explained quietly, blinking a few times as his golden light flickered even between his words. Skylar sniffed again smiling sadly, no humor within it.
"Yeah...that's what he said too," she agreed. "I was so helpless… All I could do was sit there and I-" her breath hitched as she looked at him, tears in her eyes. "Cayde I'm so sorry." She'd failed, he'd trusted her to get their friend out alive and in the end she couldn't even bring back his body. Her eyes closed again, head pulling away from his hand but he isn't having any of that, brow plate lowering.
"This isn't your fault," he said firmly, the hum of his vocals sharp, his hand moving to grip her jaw and force it up again, her eyes snapping open in surprise. "Skylar this isn't your fault. Hell, he was probably glad you were there. He wasn't alone in the end." Cayde let out a nearly forced single laugh. "Wish the guy could have at least paid me back though..."
The words sound wrong, twisted and fake. a facade seen through instantly, even though he tries to pull it off because this is Cayde, the carefree, smart ass sharpshooter. It doesn't work, and Skylar gives him a hard look that's half drowned in tears before she shakes her head and then launches herself at him, tearing away from both his hand instantly. She crashes against him hard enough that he is forced to take a step back, bumping into the table behind him as her arms latch around his neck, hand clenching into his cloak. He's stunned again, arms at his sides for a moment as he blinks and she speaks again.
"It's okay," she whispers, face near his neck, ear pressed against the warm humming technology. "You don't have to be strong right now. No one else is here, it's just me Cayde." Her words are a whisper, barely picked up on the mic, but it seems to be what the Exo needs to hear as his eyes shift around the room as if to check to make sure that's really true. Then his shoulders tilt down and his arms move, tangling around her waist and pulling her closer as he tilts his head and lets it rest on the crown of her own.
He doesn't say thank you, nor does he say anything at all after that. Words don't really express the pain they are both feeling for the chunk that had been torn out at the loss of their friend. Exos can't cry like humans and Cayde wasn't one to lose his cool, but he looked devastated in those moments. Shutting his eyes to the world the light in his throat flickered as a shudder ran through his frame. Skylar sniffs again, a quiet sob, echoing in the room and his arms tightened around her and she didn't protest at all.
Later, when the pain is less raw, they will speak more about what happened. About the faint purple glow that flickers over Skylar's left arm, and about how she got a limp. Later they'll get drinks and share memories, but right now they don't speak. They barely move. It's a pleasant enough silence, a safe place to hide wrapped tight against each other, something only ever found in another living soul's touch.
The camera records another fifteen minutes of this before Sundance seems to realise nothing is going to change for a while and let's the feed click off.
I was always kind of annoyed that it was pretty clear Cayde and Tevis were friends but that our lovely Exo tried to act like loosing him was nothing, thus this came about.
This chapteer kind of killed me for a bit. I fell in love with writing Tevis and I was sad to let him go... ah well.
Be sure to let me know what you think!
