Gambit

"No. Absolutely not."

Titan Claney Beamard was seated on the couch in the common area of Fireteam Painted Truth's living quarters, staring daggers through his daughter, Hunter Celeste Etain. She was facing him, sitting on the small coffee table in front of the couch, doing her best to give the kind of look that had gotten her nearly everything she wanted when she was young. Currently, it was not working. Other members of the team were scattered around the room mind their own business, most definitely not eavesdropping on the conversation.

"Oh, come on, Old Man. What's the big deal?"

"The 'big deal' is that it involves playing around with Darkness. The 'big deal' is that I don't trust that man as far as I could throw him."

"That's actually a respectable distance," Titan Dallyce Lua chimed in. "I've seen you throw things."

Claney turned to the dark-haired woman and pointed at her, "Not helping." Then, back to his daughter, "Why is she here again?"

"With Baruch's death and you staying at the Farm, we were short of muscle. Dallyce worked well with the team during the Red War, so I asked her to join," Celeste answered. "Look, I don't trust the Stinky Cheese Man either, he's shadier than an Ahamkara's underbelly. But Gambit's a big deal right now. A lot of Guardians are playing. Think of it this way, if you don't go in, then you won't know if something dangerous is actually going on, right?"

"Maybe."

There it was, the tiniest crack in his resolve. That was as far as most people would get. However, Celeste pounced on it, having more practice than anyone at chipping away at those points. Outside, she kept her face neutral, but on the inside she was grinning, knowing that she had already won the argument.

"It's four people per team. We could run it with a team of you, me, and any combination of Dallyce, Kana, or Tanton; the other two are probably too green, and I don't want Astrid getting mixed up in that. With a whole team we watch each other's backs, and we'd be able to tell each other if something funky happened. You could even trade out someone for Zillah if she wanted to join us."

"I would describe using pieces of Darkness to summon Taken to attack fellow Guardians as more than 'something funky,'" the red-haired man grumbled.

"I'll concede that point, but let me make this one: I'm fireteam lead now. I can do this without you, and I will do this without you if I have to, but I want you by my side, Dad."

Claney leaned heavily against the back of the couch and crossed his arms over his chest. Celeste studied her father carefully, watching his eyes. She spotted the exact instant when he caved in moments before he opened his mouth.

"Fine," he said, and the Hunter stopped repressing her grin. "You and me, I'll let you pick the other two."

"Perfect," Celeste said, popping up onto her feet. "I'll go talk to Drifter, see when we can get in."

"Take someone with you."

Celeste adopted the voice of a whiny teenager being cruelly mistreated by a parent, "Yes, Dad."

The Hunter motioned for Kana-4 to join her. The Exo Titan dropped the empty cup she had been pretending to drink from into the sink and fell in behind her. On their way out the door, they heard Dallyce's voice, "Man, I can't believe you caved that easily." Laughing, they made their way upstairs to the courtyard of the new Tower.

The first shots of the Red War had been the Cabal unleashing against the old Tower, trying to cut off the Guardian's chain of command in one blow. It had nearly succeeded. The Tower was wrecked, the Speaker was kidnapped, the Vanguard split off in separate directions, the Traveler was caged, the Guardians all lost their Light, and then it had been a fight for survival. Eventually, the Guardians regrouped and retook their home, driving the Red Legion out. The final blow was struck by the Traveler itself, which awoke and vaporized Ghaul.

After came the rebuild. It was obvious that the Tower was going to take too long, and the Guardians still needed a base of operations. They claimed one of the other towers along the Wall and built a new courtyard which was actually located near the Speaker's old quarters. Underneath lay the new war room and some Guardian quarters.

Sometime after the rebuild, a man known as the Drifter had arrived. He was a rogue Lightbearer, and everything about him was mysterious. His name, where he came from, his ship and the massive orb that he towed behind it. Some of the older Guardians seemed to recognize him as someone who had left long ago, but no one had concrete information or even stories that matched up with each other.

He was old, though no one knew exactly how old, and his face bore many scars half hidden by his beard. He carried the Light, but his sense of fashion didn't fit with any of the Guardian classes. His outfit was seemingly cobbled together from different types of gear over the years, a coat reminiscent of something a Warlock would wear, a belt wrapped around his midsection that lined up with some Titan marks, studded and fur-covered armor on his shoulders and patchwork armor on his forearms held together with rope, all of it in various shades of green, brown, and blue with red highlights.

The Drifter had brought with him a new activity for Guardians to engage in. Gambit. It was a cross between participating in the Crucible and doing patrols as two teams battled enemies that the Drifter somehow brought into the match. These enemies would drop strange motes that the Guardians would then put in a bank. Eventually, this would summon a large Taken. At several points during the match, each team would earn the right to send over an invader, a Guardian who could attack the opposing team to slow their progress.

It had become a wildly popular underground activity. The Vanguard never fully sanctioned participation in it, but they didn't ban it either. Nor did they try to remove the Drifter from the Tower, despite the warnings and demands of the Praxic Order of Warlocks.

Celeste and Kana crossed the bridge that led between the two sections of the Tower, then downstairs and through the hallway to the second courtyard where Ikora Rey and Surya Hawthorne tended to set up. Around a corner there was a metal gate that had once been sealed shut, but now stood half open. To Celeste it looked like someone had forced it up and it had gotten stuck. The Drifter would be found behind here, tucked away in a little corner, surrounded by various bric-a-brac.

"Ugh," Kana muttered, "I feel dirty just thinking about going back there. You sure you want to do this?"

"Of course," Celeste replied. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

"If you say so."

The two Guardians ducked under the gate and came face to face with the Drifter.

"Hey, hotshots, how ya livin'?" the bearded man said by way of greeting as he turned to face them. "Don't reckon I've seen your faces in my neck of the woods before. What brings you to my dingy hallway?"

"We're here to talk to you about Gambit," Celeste replied.

"What she said," Kana added.

"Is that so?" Drifter gave her an appraising look. "I'm surprised your old man would let you come and talk to me, sister."

"My old man?" Celeste blinked in surprise at that. "First, I'm a Guardian, I do as I please. Second, how do you know him, or who I am?"

"Old Drifter knows lots of things, little lady, and lots of people. You don't survive as long as I have without learning a few things." He smiled at that, and not a comforting smile.

"Right." Celeste cleared her throat. "Anyway. Gambit. We want in."

Drifter eyed them for a moment before replying, "Then you've come to the right place. Just sign up right here, and then I'll let you know when and were. Old Drifter's about to go get a game going, actually, just needed to take care of a thing or two first."

Celeste picked up the datapad the man held out then, and registered. Kana did the same, then handed it back. Drifter took it back and glanced at the data.

"Looks like I'll be seeing you ladies tomorrow."

"Tomorrow"? Kana asked.

"Well, Gambit's a popular game, sister, and there's only one of me to run it. Didn't think I'd just drop everything and take you straight to a match, did ya? I ain't Shaxx just staring at monitors and yelling like a blamed fool. I oversee each match personally. Give you my undivided attention. Watch your every move." Drifter winked, then barked out a laugh.

"Right," Celeste said dryly. "Well, see you tomorrow, I guess."

The two women turned to leave. Before ducking back under the gate, Celeste cast a look back toward Drifter. He had completely dismissed their presence, turning back around to work on something in the back of the room. He was muttering something to himself as he worked, but she could not quite make it out. Shaking her head, the Hunter ducked under the gate and caught up with Kana.

"Is it weird that I feel nervous about this?" Kana asked.

"A little," Celeste replied, "but you're not the only one. There's something about that guy that just doesn't sit quite right with me."

"I mean, we've been on missions, and we go into the Crucible all the time. Fighting enemies and other Guardians in a game shouldn't be all that different, should it?" the Exo Titan continued.

"Don't worry," Celeste said. "Like I told Claney, we'll all watch out for each other. And we just won't mention anything to him about the rumor that one of Drifter's frequent players disappeared recently."

The two Guardians made their way back to the team quarters. Once there, they informed everyone that the match would be tomorrow, and that Drifter would send them the exact details. The rest of the evening was spent catching up and preparing, then first thing in the morning Celeste receiving a transmission from Drifter with the time of their match and the coordinates where they could rendezvous with his ship, the Derelict.

The Drifter's ship was a strange design, the front was partially star-shaped, while the rest of it was cylindrical. It almost reminded Celeste of a tube worm. The ship wasn't the main attraction, however. That was the thing being dragged behind the ship by a mass of cables, an anomaly known as the Haul. No one knew what it was, and the Drifter sure wasn't giving too many details. Just that he 'kit-bashed' it from tech he had found while bouncing around the system.

The four ships slowed, coming into orbit near the Derelict. There was no sign of the other team yet. Celeste stared at the Haul, struggling to make out its shape through the strange haze that surrounded it. She almost felt like she could sense something from it.

Her study of the Haul was disrupted by an incoming transmission from the Drifter.

"Hey there, sister, glad you could make it," the rogue Lightbearer said. "Sending transmat coordinates to your Ghost. See ya onboard."

"I have the coordinates," Whisper said after a few seconds.

"Take us over, then," Celeste told him. She had barely spoken the words when she was caught up in the familiar sensation of a transmat.

The team dropped onto a designated landing zone, a triangle beneath each of them that was glowing blue. Directly across from them was another section, the mirror image of theirs except those triangles were glowing red. To one side was a large ring, and on the other was a small raised platform, and on it stood the Drifter. Celeste shivered a little and told herself it was the unusual cold of the ship's interior and had nothing to do with him.

"Welcome aboard, hot shots," Drifter called out. "Looks like your team got here first. Hope you didn't scare the other team away already."

The four of them looked up at the bearded man. He was staring intently down at them, as he toyed with a green token of some sort in his hand. Celeste felt Claney stiffen up at the sight of him.

"Everything alright," she asked.

"Yeah, just fine," he replied, not looking away from the man who ran Gambit.

"You know, brother, I heard you were back on your nonsense," Drifter said. He leaned on the railing of his platform and looked directly at the Titan, his eyes cold. "Trying to save everybody all the time, acting all noble and heroic. Hmph. I thought you were a whole lot more interesting the other way."

"Sorry to disappoint," Claney replied, his voice flat.

"Well, I'm used to it by now," came the quiet reply. "Everybody always does." Drifter straightened up and addressed the team. "I'd go over the rules, but I hate repeatin' myself, so we'll just wait for the other guys to show up. Make yourselves comfy until then."

Celeste took the time to look around the ship now, trying to pick out details in the dim lighting. The cold was seeping through her suit and beginning to make her uncomfortable. If she'd known it was this cold in here, she would have worn something a little heavier. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long before the other team arrived, transmatting across from them. A barrier activated on both sides, locking the Guardians into their respective zones.

"Alright, alright, alright," Drifter said. "'Bout time you showed up. Keep in mind for next time, ol' Drifter doesn't like to be kept waiting.

"Welcome to Gambit. The game is simple, kill enemies and bank motes. Once you bank 25 motes, a portal opens and one person from your team can go across and disrupt the other team. Bank enough motes, and you'll summon a Primeval. But it down, win the game. Got it? Good.

"Now let's see what we've got today."

At that, Drifter flipped the green token he'd been playing with earlier. As it fell, he flicked out an elbow, knocking it back into the air. It tumbled down, and, just before it hit the ground, Drifter flicked out a foot and kicked it back up. It flipped a few more times before he caught it with one hand and slapped it against the other. He held up the token for everyone to see.

"Scorn approaching" he said. "Unlike the Fallen, the Scorn have given up on a better life."

"Scorn? Ugh, I hate those guys." Kana remarked.

"Transmat firing!" Drifter called out, and the team felt themselves caught up in the transmat effect again.

Celeste found herself standing inside a circular room in an unfamiliar location. There was only one way out of the room, so she stepped forward through the open archway. It opened to a larger room with multiple levels, a large column in the center. There were doors to either side that looked like they lead off to hallways, and others that seemed to lead outside, a panel of glass between them that showed a metal ring on the other side.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"It looks like the Dreaming City," Tanton answered.

"I thought that the Dreaming City had only been recently opened to Guardians," Kana said. "How does Drifter have a space set up here for his game?"

"He has his ways," Claney replied. "And don't bother asking him, you'll never get any answers."

"Well, let's get to it," Celeste said, and dashed forward.

"Kill those hostiles, bank the motes, and win the game," Drifter said. "Hostiles, incoming at the island!"

The team rushed outside. The radar on her HUD showed Celeste a large number of hostiles directly ahead. This being the Dreaming City, there was a large gap in the ground to leap over before making contact. There, just as Drifter had said, they came face-to-face with the Scorn.

The Scorn were Fallen, or Eliksni if you were feeling kind. Or, at least, they used to be. Tainted ether and strange magics had changed them, made them into something else, something more dangerous.

They had started out with a handful of Dregs who were outcast from the House of Exiles, rejected by the rejects of Fallen society, the lowest of the low. They decided to become something else. These "Scorned Barons" began to wage war against their own people, even managing to finish off the House of Wolves. They terrorized the Reef as well, weakened as it was by the seeming deaths of Queen Mara Sov and her brother Uldren.

Of course, Uldren would turn out to be far from dead.

Somehow, the details were still being uncovered, Uldren and these Scorned Barons began to work together, conquered the House of Kings, killed them, then raised them up as the undead creatures now known as the Scorn. They continued battling the other Eliksni, each dead Fallen becoming a new member of their twisted army.

Somehow Drifter had gotten his hands on some of them and now used them in his game, along with pretty much every other enemy of the City. How he had managed to do so was one of his many closely guarded secrets.

The not-Fallen saw the Guardians approaching, and began to scream out challenges and open fire. Celeste shot back, rounds from her hand cannon punching through flesh and the ramshackle armor of the Scorn. As each enemy died, they dropped something, a glowing triangular prism with a pitch black core showing through. Celeste scooped up the pyramid shape.

"You got a mote," Drifter commented. "Gather more and bank them to send blockers to the other side."

The Hunter continued to fight, taking out Scorn Stalkers and Raiders, picking up motes each time. Once she had gathered up ten, Drifter called to her again.

"You've got enough to send a medium blocker. Bank those motes, sister."

He wasn't lying when he said he'd be watching every move, Celeste thought to herself. She turned and sprinted back toward the area that the team had first exited the building. In front of it was an unusual contraption. Its cylindrical core contained some sort of glowing, swirling energy. Emerging from the center were four posts where Guardians could bank the motes they collected. Celeste approached the bank, stepped up to one of the posts and shoved her motes into it.

"You just dropped a Taken on the other side," Drifter said. "Hope you're proud."

Any misgivings that Celeste might have had at that were pushed aside by Drifter's announcement that more enemies were coming in at the caves. Red dots began appearing on Celeste's HUD and she began to move in that direction. She saw Claney and Tanton heading that way as well, approaching from the island and moving along the far wall. Kana was approaching from her right, heading toward the bank.

"Screebs!" Claney called out as something came skittering out of the cave toward him.

Screebs were some of the most twisted Scorn, mindless creatures that threw themselves at enemies and exploded in a shower of Dark Ether. Oddly enough, even though they would probably be seen as the lowest of the Scorn, they were some of the few who actually had all six limbs, an inversion of traditional Fallen culture. Those six limbs let them crawl remarkably fast over a variety of surfaces.

Celeste saw Claney summon a small, flaming hammer and throw it at a Screeb. The creature exploded, and the hammer bounced away. Claney picked it back up and flung it at another one. She still found it odd seeing the big man using Solar Light. He was primarily attuned to the Void, and sometimes used Arc, but had never been able to use Solar until the Traveler woke at the end of the Red War. It seemed he had been practicing with it some.

Tanton was using a scout rifle and set about picking off some of the Scorn from a distance, providing cover for Claney as he moved in to work up close, alternating between using the shotgun he carried and the burning hammer. A rush of Screebs forced him back, and he set a tripmine before triple jumping over a chasm. The creatures rushed past it, and the tripmine exploded, setting off a chain reaction through the pack.

Celeste turned that direction, avoiding pools of the tainted ether and gathered the motes they had left behind. Between Claney and Tanton, enough motes had fallen for Celeste to be able to bank for a large blocker. When she did, the metal ring between the open doorways suddenly flared to life.

"Large blocker outbound!" Drifter called, a note of glee in his voice. "And your portal's up. Go look 'em in the eyes."

"I'm going through," Celeste announced, then ran and jumped through the portal.

Everything twisted, and Celeste found herself standing on the other side of the map, in the drop zone of the other team. She had thought that it would not be anything out of the ordinary, just like facing Guardians in the Crucible. She was wrong. Guardians showed up as enemies on her motion tracker, which wasn't different. What was different was the fact that the Scorn read as friendlies.

Everything looked different, and she could feel some sort of energy writhing over her. Everytime she looked toward the Guardians from the other team, she felt some seething hatred burning inside her. Their Light. Their Light made her angry. And hungry.

"Feel that power? That's what the Taken feel," Drifter said, pleasure clear in his raspy voice. "Revel in it!"

Celeste did not want to revel. In fact, she wanted to be sick. It was all she could do not to throw up inside her helmet. She managed two halting steps before a member of the other team spotted her and a sniper round punched through her chest. Seconds later, she respawned back inside the circular room, gasping.

"Your teammate's back and scored zero kills," Drifter commented, a hint of disgust in his voice. "Do better."

"You alright, Kiddo?" Claney asked.

"I… I don't know," she answered, trying to shake her head clear. What had happened?

"I'm coming to you."

"No," she said. "I'm on my way back out. Keep playing."

They were still fighting Scorn in the cave. Celeste joined the team, arriving just in time to shoot a Ravager that had leaped at Kana, swinging it's burning cauldron. One of her shots stuck the cauldron, and flames erupted, engulfing the creature. Tanton and Kana ran to bank motes, and the portal opened again. Celeste made no move toward it.

"I'll go, my Light's charged," Tanton said and jumped through. He emerged a minute later.

"Tanton?" Celeste asked, but he didn't answer, just waving her off.

"Invader's back, and he scored three kills," Drifter announced.

The round continued. Guardians from the other team dropped blockers and invaded their side, and each time their portal opened up, Tanton jumped through. Eventually Painted Truth banked enough motes to summon their Primeval. The other team summoned theirs shortly after. It was a close battle, but Painted Truth managed to take theirs down first.

The second round went much the same way, and once again Painted Truth won. The margin of victory was larger this time, as Tanton denied the enemy team a large number of their motes with timely invasions. After the match, Drifter paid them their winnings, and they transmatted back to their own ships.

Celeste traveled back to the Tower in silence, even ignoring hailing attempts from Claney. She knew what he would ask her about. She couldn't explain why the feeling of invading had bothered her as much as it did, and she didn't want to have to try. Even after they returned to their quarters, she shut herself in her room for several hours, refusing to talk to anyone.

Whisper was not used to seeing his Guardian like this. He emerged and buzzed around her, scanning for injury or illness, but could find nothing.

"Would you stop that?" she asked him after his fifth pass around her.

"I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with you," he said, "but I can't find anything."

"Because there's nothing wrong with me," she replied. "Well, not physically, anyway. Up here," she indicated her head, "may be a different story, though. Something happened during…"

She was interrupted by a knock on the door and rolled her eyes. Sure it was Claney coming to check on her, she opened her mouth to tell him to go away when she heard a different voice.

"It's Tanton."

That surprised her. Getting off her bed, the red-headed Hunter strode to the door and opened it. The blonde man was standing on the other side, his expression unreadable as usual.

"May I?" he asked, gesturing toward the room.

"Sure," Celeste stepped aside and let him in.

Tanton entered the room and glanced around, choosing to sit in a chair she had in the corner of the room for whenever she wanted to sit and read or draw in silence. Celeste closed the door, then walked over to sit on the corner of her bed. They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a while before Celeste broke the quiet.

"You felt it too?" she asked. Tanton nodded in response. "Then why did you keep going back in?"

"Guess your dad is rubbing off on me a bit," he said. "Do it so that someone else doesn't have to."

"That's him in a nutshell," she said, shaking her head.

"The thing is," Tanton hesitated, then licked his lips, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. "After the first time… I started to enjoy it. It became a rush. I can see why some Guardians keep playing."

Celeste reached over and patted his hands, letting her hand rest on top of his. He glanced at her, then pulled away. He stood and made his way back to the door.

"Anyway. If we go again, don't worry. I'll handle the invasions," he said, and then left the room.

The next day, Celeste received an unusual message from a Warlock in the Praxic Order. She opened it and read the contents. Thinking about the game the previous day, about how she had felt going through the portal, and then her conversation she'd had with Tanton afterward, she did not hesitate to send her one word reply to their request.

"Yes."

…

AN

Thanks to dumbgumshoe for the author follow!

Been a while since I've updated here. I've actually been sitting on this story since around May because it spoiled the ending of "When the Sun Winds Down".