I never found Osiris, but I've killed enough Vex to end a war. And they, in turn, struck a fatal blow: they completed a Mind with the sole function to drain the Light from me. It worked very well.
Don't worry (not that you worry much). It took them centuries to build, keyed to the unique frequency of my Light. And I sit atop its shattered husk. I mourn that I will never reach the heights you have. To me, you represent everything a Guardian can become. Yours is a thriving City. So different from mine. My whole fourteenth life I fought to make my City yours. I never finished.
All I have left is this weapon. The Cryptarchs say you crafted it yourself, built it out of scraps and Light and sheer will, inside the Infinite Forge. I'll make sure it finds its way back to you. When you gave it to me, I swore I would make it my duty to follow your example.
I'm still trying.
—Saint-14
Lore entry for the Perfect Paradox
A legendary Titan entered the Infinite Forest to find his dear friend Osiris, several centuries ago. It had been a strenuous search, and his resolve to find him would not waver. It never did.
Unfortunately, it was all for naught, as the Titan would not find his Warlock colleague, nor would he ever find a way out from this Vex prison. He was trapped inside a maze of countless realities, where the Vex would simulate quadrillions of possibilities of the future, where they would be the final form, the last ones standing, in the universe, one without Light, nor Darkness. They were a cunning and powerful foe, dealing only in mathematical formulas and sheer computational strength, which proved both to be his advantage, and his downfall.
The Perfect Paradox shotgun is mag-locked onto his back, its ammunition having been depleted long ago. He doesn't mind now, nor did he mind when all the Vex surrounding him were alive. His greatest weapon was his own body, and he would rather use it than conventional weaponry.
He takes a moment to retract that statement because it felt wrong to say. The Perfect Paradox was given to him by the Guardian he wishes to be, one that continues, time and time again to inspire him to continue fighting, to be like them. He remembers what she looked like. A small Hunter that glided through the battlefield with her Arc-infused fists. He doesn't remember any specific details, but that is to be expected. Perhaps her affinity with her hands is what makes him like The Guardian, he cannot choose between her resolve and that.
He learned from Osiris, a few centuries ago, that the human mind is never exact, and that the brain goes off of general points of the event, and that it would reconstruct based off of those points. The small piece of information has stuck with him ever since, and it proves itself true, as he doesn't remember what Osiris exactly said, but the content of it.
Although he is an Exo, it still applies to him, he still has the mind and tendencies of a human.
He is getting off-track.
The Perfect Paradox: He wishes to return it to its rightful owner. But how? he doesn't have much time to think, he can feel the artificial adrenaline wearing off, and his tiredness growing by the second. Darkness seeps into the corners of his vision, and his body starts failing him. Perhaps he would keep it on his body, for The Guardian to find later on.
Time stops. He is frozen. It rewinds.
He doesn't know that time is moving per se, but his gut feels it going backward. Something is wrong. Life is coming back to him! His Light is returning!
This is odd, he is supposed to die here, is he not?
Then, a flash of light. A muffled voice calls out to him.
He turns to its source. It's The Guardian! How fitting of her to show up when he is thinking about returning Perfect Paradox! Perhaps she wants it back? Of course, she does, it's a fantastic piece of weaponry that she built herself, and he doesn't have any more use for it, or at least, shouldn't.
She is banging on a transparent Vex-constructed wall, yelling something to him.
"Saint! Hey, you hear me?" she says, giving a few more hits to the wall that separates two realities. "You're alive, oh thank the Traveler, you're alive!"
"So, I am…" he says, his voice a low rumble that barely escapes the vent port of his helm. "That's not possible, I remember dying already. You were supposed to take this from me." He takes Perfect Paradox in one hand, reaching it out to her, as an offering. It's battered and bruised, sporting a few marks on the slide and various dents all over the frame. It still fires true, although the slide could be a bit smoother in his personal opinion.
"Now's not the time to talk about the shotgun, you are in an unstable conflux of time, just walk through this barrier!" She turns to a person in a familiar Warlock's cloak and a face-mask reconfiguring the orientation of four cubes with various glowing inscriptions on it. "Osiris, how are we doing over there!?"
"I am working the best I can! The Vex are pulling him into a reality that I don't believe exists!"
"And what would that be!?" She looks angry. Her fist slams on the clear wall again.
Saint-14 attempts to hand her Perfect Paradox, and it pierces through the wall, the barrel appearing on the other side.
"Go, take it," he says. "Please, it's my only gift to you, God-slayer. Take care of the City." He feels himself being pulled into another reality. The weapon has to return in her hands, and if he dies, so be it, he has lived the life of a thousand Guardians.
"Hey, hey! Don't worry about that! We'll figure something out after you're safe!" She looks towards Osiris again. "Come on, tell me something good!"
A Psion Flayer appears floating above Osiris.
"Osiris!" Saint says, pointing towards the Cabal beast.
The Warlock looks up and is blasted away by a charge of Void energy.
There is a flash.
Menagerie, Remnant
Saint-14 finds himself on his back, his shining grey armor still on him, and the Perfect Paradox still in his hand.
He shuts his eyes and exhales, or the closest approximation an Exo can do. All is quiet, the only sound being the blowing of wind and sand particles slapping his helmet, then flying away.
Did the Vex really send him back to Mercury? His sensors are alluding to it.
With a groan, he lifts his back and assumes a sitting position. The hand holding his shotgun lets it fall into the sand for a moment, while he takes a deep breath.
He doesn't "breathe" per se, but the sensation in his chest when he does the action relaxes him, calms him. He remembers Osiris saying that oxygen only goes into two empty containers, and is expelled without any changes, maybe adding a few metal ions.
He does miss Osiris' random trivia, no matter how condescending it may sound sometimes.
Now, about his current situation. His head swivels side-to-side and he gathers a clearer image of his surroundings. Desert, and dunes. He sees a little scaly critter pitter-patter into a little hole in the ground.
"This is new," he mumbles, pushing himself to stand and scooping up the Perfect Paradox.
"Our journey doesn't end yet, friend," he says to the weapon. His Ghost died with the Vex mind, but yet, he still feels the Light coursing through his body. He makes another visual sweep of the area and manages to make out a few trees in the distance. "Perhaps I should make my way there. This temperature is scorching, not like the Infinite Forest."
He looks at his gloved palm and closes it into a fist. A charge of Light pulses and he smiles. He feels his helmet and finds the dent in it, from when he headbutted the Fallen House of Devils' Kell, sending the damned thing to its rightful and deserved death.
He should start moving now. He mag-locks the Perfect Paradox to his back and starts his journey.
/
Chameleon-Faunus Ilia Amitola unveils herself, overtop an elevated pile of sand and rock as she observes the mysterious stranger in massive, bulking and very medieval-like armor start lumbering towards Menagerie. They look like a time capsule from the Great War, and the massive shotgun that is easily half her size doesn't make her have any good feelings about them.
Is it an Atlesian battle mech? Are they planning to invade Menagerie, and this is the first sign? Ilia squints as they very slowly disappear from vision, going downwards into a dune of sand. She also sees a Deathstalker approaching the person, yet they don't pay the beasts much attention. Does this person have a death wish or something?
She camouflages herself with the sand, and hops over to another hill, observing the titanic knight. They stop, say something that is just a low rumble to her ears, and pull out the shotgun on their back.
He is obviously a man, judging from the pitch of his voice. He says something she can't quite describe and leans forward, taking a step back.
The Death Stalker screeches and charges, its two pincers ready and its stinger primed to pounce onto its victim. The man stays put and instead of shooting, he re-holsters his weapon.
"Are you insane!?" Ilia whispers to herself.
The Death Stalker continues advancing, and the man summons a purple shield from nothing.
What? She thinks, her mouth opening a bit in shock.
The man readies the shield and it casts a wider range, almost equaling the width of the Deathstalker. The Grimm attacks with its stinger and it simply bounces off. The man only moves maybe an inch backward. He throws the shield like a frisbee, towards the stinger and another one materializes in his hands.
"Come on!" The man cries out as the stinger is quickly cut from the Grimm's body. "Is that all you have!?" It screeches once more in pain and the stalk that connects to the limb curls inwards. It lashes out with one pincer and starts backing away. The man simply deflects it by pushing his shield forward, leaning his entire body into the strike and then throws another shield to cut that part off too, plus a few legs.
Ilia was too focused on the purple shield that she hadn't seen that he was also entirely purple too, and only just noticed when his weapon disappears, returning him to his regular form.
The Deathstalker by now is a limping mess.
"Your size betrays your strength!" he bellows, putting his boot on its head and pressing his shotgun to the bone carapace. There is a single blast and the beast is put down, turning into a black mist that wisps away into black smoke
Ilia's eyes widen at the thought of a Huntsman with such power at their disposal. She has to warn the White Fang chapter at Menagerie, and quick. She prepares to depart but stops, keeping her gaze fixed on the stranger.
Perhaps she can convince him to join them?
Not yet, she has to gather information on the person first, which means she'll follow him and observe his actions.
She camouflages herself and starts tailing the man.
/
The encounter with the black scorpion beast disappoints Saint-14. He had hoped for a better brawl, judging from its massive size.
His photoreceptors squint as he sees a small hint of movement on the top of the hills that surround him, and momentarily notices small footsteps in the sand that are quickly swept away by the wind.
He shrugs and continues making his way to the trees in the distance.
The trees are massive, of surreal proportions that Saint had never seen before. The tallest trees he had ever laid his eyes on were on Mercury when it was still a garden world, but those were yellow, unlike the pure, natural green here.
A small, four-legged critter climbs up his armor, choosing to stay on his massive shoulder. It squeaks a bit, a high-pitched affair. Its tail looks like the swirl of a brown cinnamon bun. He turns his head towards it and observes with interest as it drops something from its puffed-up cheeks and starts nibbling on them. On closer inspection, they seem to be a variety of nuts.
Saint wants to stand still, to let the little thing enjoy its meal, but he has to move, and find civilization. He knows that he is far away from the Last City if he is still on Earth in the first place. Osiris mentioned something about him being pulled into a reality that doesn't exist. He hopes for the former, but his intuition is telling him otherwise.
Another odd thing is that he can access his inventory, despite his Ghost being nowhere to be seen. He still has some weapons from his original expedition to Mercury and some odd new ones.
What is The Recluse? The SMG looks way too small for his hands, and he figures that he would struggle more with fitting his finger inside the trigger guard rather than shooting it.
The Valakadyn sets off a bit of anger as he remembers falling for the VEIST advertisement and ordering two, one for him and one for Osiris.
Osiris didn't accept it, and so he sold it at a loss, which was easy enough since it was an in-demand weapon.
Brushing aside the bitter memory, he equips the weapon alongside the Perfect Paradox and trudges along, through the thick shrubbery that impedes him slightly, but he crushes them beneath his weight.
Something snaps somewhere above him. A branch falls unceremoniously, thumping against the soft dirt.
Saint looks upwards, into the trees.
"If someone is following me, reveal yourself. I mean no harm," he says. "I am simply lost."
A pair of grey eyes meet his gaze. He squints to try and distinguish more of their body to no avail, they're camouflaged with the trees.
"I see you up there," Saint says. "Please, just reveal yourself, I do not want to fight."
The eyes squint, before disappearing. Saint sighs and his shoulders slump a bit.
Something pricks the back of his neck.
"Hands up," the woman behind him says. "Now."
"Lady, I am peaceful," Saint says. "May I turn around?"
"No. Tell me where you're from first and we'll go from there." The woman's voice is icy, suspicious. He can understand why.
"My name is Saint-Fourteen," he says, moving forward one step. "I serve to protect others, but if you wish to harm me, then you will meet your end."
The weapon poking him falters a bit. "Turn around."
Saint turns around. The woman in front of him is easily half his size, but he can tell she has strength in her, despite her slimness and miniature form. The top half of her face is covered by a white bone mask with red streaks as eyebrows and two horns on the sides of the forehead. She keeps her weapon drawn, and the tip pointed at his chest.
"Now you're gonna tell me what you're doing in Menagerie and maybe, we can be friends."
He sighs. "Is that what this place is called? Menagerie?" He pauses. "I'll remember it."
"Yeah, what does that have to do-" There is a growl from between the trees. "Shit, Grimm."
"…What?"
"Yes, Grimm, big whoop," she says quite sarcastically.
"…Okay."
"That shield you used earlier, bring it out again."
"You've been following me?"
"Now is not the time to be arguing about who was following who!"
"Are they surrounding us?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Then I have something better."
Saint channels the Void Light in him and reaches his arms out to the sides. A purple half-dome appears on both him and the stranger. A wolf-like being with a mask of bone and red eyes is pushed away mid-lunged by the Ward of Dawn. He feels his fist charged with power.
"Okay…what is this?" The stranger says, looking around apprehensively. "Are you just going to keep me in here until they go away?"
""No. We are fighting them."
Saint-XIV steps outside of the purple barrier and throws a single punch to a dark wolf, sending it to its death as it slams into a tree and fades into black mist.
"So that's your plan? Punch them all to death?" The woman asks, incredibly sarcastically.
"That is my plan. What you do with the Light is none of my concern."
She takes a tentative step outside the bubble and strikes a Grimm with her whip, killing it in one blow.
"What the fuck?" She says to herself. "How?"
"Talk less, and fight!" Saint says as he grabs another wolf by the neck and slams it down.
They fight for what feels like an eternity, with no pauses in between waves of wolves. Saint feels the Ward of Dawn starting to run out.
"Be ready, the Ward is running out," he says, smashing two wolves together and smushing their heads into one. He drops the bodies and kicks another to Ilia, who cuts it down into halves with a deft slice of her weapon.
"Got it!" The woman's whip turns into a sword and she uses it to slash at the Grimm, effectively taking them down in one or two swipes.
The Ward of Dawn disappears, and the Grimm are unfortunately still attacking.
They're persistent like the Vex, Saint thinks. All that really matters to him about an enemy is how hard he has to punch to bring it down.
"Ah, damn it." Saint takes out Perfect Paradox and bashes once with its stock, shooting once for good measure. Another comes at him from behind and his fist punches through its underside. He throws the corpse down and continues firing at any Grimm wolves that would get close to either of them.
"Behind you!" He calls out to the woman, and she turns around but is hit in the back by a claw. She goes down with a pained cry. Saint takes down the wolf with a single shot blast. "Damn! Are you okay!?"
He stares at the cut in her armor, and the crimson red claw-mark piercing her skin.
Behind all the rabid and vicious animals, he can hear footsteps, and then long barrages of gunfire.
"Go, fan out! Someone find Ilia!" A man's voice says, followed by two bursts of a weapon. A man wearing a grey vest without sleeves and a helmet that covers the eyes come out from between the trees and they both meet eyes for a second. He raises his weapon.
"I-Identify yourself! What are you doing with her!?" The man says, uncomfortable shifting as he shakily holds his small assault rifle.
"Calm yourself, I'm her ally," Saint says. "She was injured by these…Grimm."
"You're White Fang too?"
"We will discuss my affiliation later."
More gunfire, and then more men surround Saint-14.
"Hands up! We have you surrounded fifteen-to-one! Let Ilia go!" A woman says as fourteen more soldiers in the same white-and-grey uniforms emerge from the forestry with their weapons all pointed at him.
"G-Guys-"
"I think those odds still favor me if you desire to fight," Saint muses, shouldering his shotgun. They all tense, and he can see some grip their weapon tighter. "A joke. She is injured, we must get her medical attention."
The woman who addressed Saint steps back, and only then he notices the antlers coming from her head. He is surprised but manages to not show it.
"G-guys…he's friendly…" Ilia mumbles, just barely audible enough for everyone to hear. "And he's right about the odds…"
"W-What!?" The woman says, surprised. "Whatever, come on, let's get out of this dump!"
Saint looks down to Ilia, and scoops her up, carrying him over his shoulder.
"Ilia, is it?" He asks.
"Yeah…" She whispers back, her voice pained.
"I will remember it. I would also need a list of names of the people that rescued us."
"Rescued me, you mean."
Happy Season of Dawn, people! Seeing Saint-XIV in that trailer, alongside my rising interest in RWBY pushed me to make this.
Edit: Fixed up some sentence issues, implemented some feedback to the chapter.