Log 133 - 00:32:51

The hanger is a frenzy of movement. Frames and mechanics, shipyard workers buzzing about as if it were a hive and they were the bees. Cayde is leaning on the railing that overlooks the large docking bay reserved for ships due to launch. The feed is over his shoulder, barely catching the rim of his hood and the glow of his eyes. It's focused on the six ships and seven guardians below. Everyone is in gear except one hunter, one with amber lit hair, her black and teal cloak fluttering slightly as a breeze blows through.

The rest of them are identifiable too, despite half of them having already sealed their helmets in place. Noble and Will-7 are speaking with Amanda, while Corvus stands with Skylar, Z, Haar-2, and Winter. Whatever they're saying is lost in the distance, but the reassuring hand Z puts on Skylar's shoulder says enough.

"This isn't easy for her," the strong voice behind them draws the feed's attention as well as Cayde's and they both turn to see Zavala walking up to them. He takes his place near the hunter, arms locked behind his back, their demeanors as different as night and day. The awoken gazes down at the carefully selected team and Cayde hums in agreement, but changes the subject instantly.

"Come to see Winter off? Been a while since she was on a mission of this scale." True enough as the warlock spends most of her time doing missions for the Hidden. Zavala shook his head.

"I have already spoken with her. To do more would make her question my faith in her." The smallest of smirks turns his lips up as he looks at the Exo. "You are avoiding my statement, Does this bother her so much?" his pestering gets a huff from his teammate and Cayde looks down at the team again.

"Of course it does. She's watching her entire family go off on a deadly mission and she's not going with them. It wasn't easy for her to realize she's just not up for it." His eyes dim as he speaks, frowning as he thinks on past events. "She won't admit it, but she was terrified when everything went wrong on her mission to get that stuff from Crota's lair. I don't think she let herself realize that until her team took down Oryx's physical form." He trapped a gloved finger on the railing. "She said she didn't want to be a liability."

"Even without that we could hardly ask her to do more. Despite what happen to her with Crota she helped in this battle far more than any of us expected," the commander pointed out. "We owe her an even greater deal, more than we did before, and whatever doubts we might have had she's more than managed to erase that. Perhaps more so with this decision. One must always know where their limits are."

"Well, she really likes her new sword so you can put that towards her bill," Cayde muses, shifting his weight. "And I never doubted her, I worried about her - those are two very different things."

Zavala just chuckled at that. "And I stand by my earlier statement: she's good for you, but perhaps, it is the other way around as well."

"Well I did teach her everything she knows."

"That is not what I speak of and you know it Cayde."

The Exo made a sound of somewhat agreement, blinking as he stared out over the bay again. "I know," he murmured. It was true, both hunters had changed over time and it could be easily said that it was because of the other that certain things had happened. Skylar had said as much once. "Looks like they're heading out."

The feed pans away from the Vanguard members back to the guardians below. Indeed it would appear they are saying their final words. Skylar fist bumps Z and Haar and hugs Winter, the motion is somehow longer than intended and the scrunch of the hunter's eyebrows are a telling tale of worry and regret. Still, she let's go and exchanges words with Corvus before he turns and his Ghost transports him into his ship. The others do the same and Skylar is forced to take a few steps back as engines roar and hum into action. Then, in sequence, each star cruiser shoots off into the sky, leaving one member behind.

The docking bay seems oddly quiet with their departure as people go back to normal jobs. Amanda walks over to Skylar and says something before nodding towards the feed. The bladedancer turns around and then smiles weakly before presumably saying goodbye to the mechanic before flickering out of view. The feed pans again, catching her as she lands from her blink jump on the other side of Cayde. Sundance changes views to show all three of them, floating back. Skylar nods to Zavala first.

"Commander," she greets with a trying smile. Anxiety and worry eat at her features, weighing them down. The titian nods back, face plain and still. A poker face Cayde could never quite crack.

"Agent Phantom," he replies, glancing back at the empty space below. "It appears now all we can do it wait."

"Yes," she agreed, smiling wider when Cayde side steps over to lazily grab her hand, interlocking fingers. It's a silent gesture now, one for both of them that simply means: I'm here if you need me. "They'll be fine," she states evenly. "I've given them a way through the door, now they just have to make a grand entrance."

"Might be kinda hard with only two hunters," Cayde interjects and she snorts, eyes darting to his for a moment. Shaking her head she stares out the open mouth of the bay for a few seconds before answering.

"I think they'll mange."

"Indeed," Zavala agrees before nodding to the hunters and swiftly making his exit. Once he's gone, the two hunters simply look off into the opening of the landing bay. A few minutes tick by on the clock with nothing but the sounds of the people around them, Skylar's hair being ruffled in the slight breeze. Then, she silently shifts her weight and leans into the Exo beside her, arching her neck as she rests her head on his shoulder and lets out a long sigh. It looks as if she might say something that's hard to swallow for a moment, and surely Cayde is waiting for that, but when she finally says something it's joined but a teasing smirk instead.

"Well, I guess I know how you feel now at least."

"Oh, hardy har." The Exo chuckles slightly releasing her hand so he can shift his arm to around her shoulder in a one armed hug. Skylar just closes her eyes and takes the comfort for what it is and while she could easily continue on with the banter, she doesn't. Instead she uses her newly free hand and brushes fingers carefully over the falcon feathers of her arm guard. A purple glow thrums out over her arm and hand, a power she hardly uses but seems to bring her comfort somehow.

"You know, when I call up his power, I'm always afraid someday it will be the last time I'll see it," she admits almost randomly but Cayde doesn't seem startled, just curious. She calls it 'his power' not her own because while it was a gift, she's never claimed it as anything more. "Every time I aim an arrow it's almost like I can feel him there, guiding my shot just like the first time, but it's only a memory..." They never really talked about his death, not after that first night. Cayde had never pointed out her Vermillion stripes that she still wore nor had he told her about the last things the Nightstalker had said to him in his home. In many ways his death had brought them closer to each other - had that been his plan in someway?

"Maybe," the Exo agrees, brushing his hand up and down the side of her shoulder once. "But maybe there's more to it than that. They say that every guardian's light is different, even if the elements and the way we use them are not. It's born within us, like it's part of our soul." He looks at her, their eyes meeting in sideways glances and he smiles when she lifts her head a bit from his shoulder. "If that's true, maybe when he gave you what was left of his Light, he also gave you a part of his soul, and maybe it is there, watching out for you like he did in life." Cayde chuckles slightly. "I wouldn't put it past the guy, always had to have the last word, always had to have his way."

"He did," Skylar agreed with a small smile, her eyes back on the shimmering void Light she'd called upon. It seemed to sparkle on the edges of the feathers she wore and she hummed, eyes telling of memories still cherished. "If that's true, do you think he's watching us? Do you think he's… satisfied with how things ended up?" Do you think he'd be proud? She doesn't say it, her words imply it enough and Cayde shifts, thinking on that for a few minutes as they stand there, the feed ticking on. Finally he shrugged.

"Who knows? Tevis was always kind of skeptical about our roles, much like the both of us I think but more vocal. I think maybe he'd be happy to not have the weight we carry on his shoulders anymore." He taps his free hand on the rails in thought for a moment before moving to press his forehead to the side of her head, horn cresting her temple. "I like to think he's watching over us, over you, and waiting to tell us 'I told you so' when we meet again."

Skylar laughed quietly and leaned into his touch, her hand flexing for but a moment before she let the void Light dissipate into nothing once more. She doesn't say 'sounds like him' or anything else that one might expect. Instead she looks to the opening where her friends disappeared and closes her eyes, murmuring a few words in a way that it almost sounds like a prayer.

"Please watch over them Tevis..."

Her words are nearly nonexistent on the feed's mic and while Cayde hears them, he knows they aren't for commenting on, that they probably weren't meant to be heard at all. It's a prayer, wish of sorts, and you aren't supposed to talk about wishes else they don't come true. So he closes his eyes as well and holds her tighter as the wind sweeps through the hanger once more.


I always wanted to touch more on the fact that of all the Destiny character's Tevis seems to one of the only ones that really questions what a guardain is out right, which you can in turn read about in his Exotic Helmet: 'You know what I'd call "dark," in the sense of "grim," in the sense of "cosmically upsetting"? A universe full of weaponized puppets, enacting a genocidal war against the servants of a rival god.' That quiet litter gave me the chills the first time I read it.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!