Barloc cursed to himself, as he wondered what signs could he have possibly missed. He was not reading his data regarding the frequency of Summer's puns, nor how Summer felt about said puns. He wasn't reading the headstrong behaviors that had happened on the few occasions they patrolled in their freetime. He wasn't even counting the times he blew up Summer himself.
What concerned him most at the moment, was how he missed the heat signatures.
Pyrrha looked to Barloc in concern as she drove the sparrow up to him. "What's wrong? The rumbles have stopped, but you still seem worried."
"Everything is still wrong Pyrrha!" Barloc let out in a panic. "This shouldn't have happened. These sorts of checks are usually felt or given a report by the guardian's ghost. For a spike of this size to occur- I-I don't even-"
"Barloc, what are you talking about?" Pyrrha said as she straightened him towards her. "What heat signatures did we miss?!"
Barloc grit his teeth. "Light and Darkness both emit passive heat. The latter is made of neutrino particles, while the other is simply just the Traveler's energy. These sort of heat auras are particularly easy to differentiate between the two." Barloc narrowed his eyes. "And they are not afflicted by mental health, unless that person is but a fool."
Pyrrha's eyes widened.
"Then do you think-"
"But it doesn't make any Traveler-damned sense!" Barloc threw the datapad away in frustration like it was but a grenade, cracking it. "The heat signature was the same as it was ever since the Thorn incident on Remnant! What in the solar system could possibly cause such a massive spike of energy to appear on her?! It's impossible! It just can't be her, yet-"
"What's impossible?"
The two looked up to see Frederick's ship, with Frederick standing at the hangar is it landed down. He was just as unhappy about the new turn of events, too. "One moment, I'm in the middle of some patrols and missions Archon's Keep, the next, I'm hearing about a museum sized servitor killing everyone." They could feel his light's intense heat as his voice boomed. "Barloc, Pyrrha, I'm sorry, but what the hell?!"
"We speak of it later!" Barloc cut sharply. "The energy readings emanating from the spike are strong, but it isn't strong enough to deal with the servitor! We must gather allies and engage in battle with this foe!"
As Barloc said that four Guardians wearing the same armor, but rather different colors came out of cover to the lightless Guardian, female huntsman in training, and rather livid titan.
"Frederick, we're here to help!" Said the one in orange and white. His rifle looking like it fired pure arc energy.
"I just thought of a plan, Boss, have Sev, Scorch, and Fixer get to your ship, we're going to need its fire power. You're with me brother!" Frederick ordered.
The four Guardians nodded.
"You heard him, move your butts!" The orange one named Boss ordered his fireteam to do.
The other three nodded and transmatted immediately. Frederick then turned to Barloc and Pyrrha.
"You two come with me, and get on the chain guns on the sides of my ship! Boss you take the 20mm cannon!"
All four ran into Frederick's ship, Frederick getting back into the pilots seat, ensuring his systems were all operational. Boss, the Orange Titan, ran up the ladder near the cockpit and into the cannon gunner's seat. Pyrrha nervously got into position as Barloc quickly taught her the controls. After that was done, Barloc and Pyrrha strapped themselves into the seats in front of the Terminals for the MMGs mounted on the sides.
00000
(Play - Mastermind - Mick Gordon)
How dare he? How dare he threaten to endanger what we had only just regained? To mock us as they hold what is ours?
Summer Rose was still burning with the wrath of Oryx's hellish darkness, as she stared down the servitor above her, having teleported out of the way just in time to avoid the tower from falling on her. It was a far greater teleport than her normal blink, mainly due to Oryx's power further enhancing the effect.
He is but a worm! AN INSIGNIFICANT INSECT PROCLAIMING HIMSELF TO BE ABOVE US!
But the first navigator was not pleased. In fact, he was enraged. The vandal had escaped his torment due to the tower falling down. It was the only reason why his power still coursed through her in unity with her light, which fought back, trying to bring Summer back to reason. But all she could hear was both Oryx's rage, and her own venomous thoughts towards Aksis. Both Rose and Navigator were plotting ways to put him in place.
Of course, they had to finish the job in front of them first. Sepiks Infinite, a servitor with all three elements of light at his disposal. The devastating heat of Solar energy circled around him like a powerful, smothering aura. The fiery ring occasionally lashed out, killing some unfortunate guardians that had been out in the open with a solar flare.
The all-encompassing cold of Void seemed to make Sepiks untouchable, as snow froze in place in the air. She could feel Earth's gravity becoming distorted, making her at times feeling like she's on the moon, to being in the very center of a black hole. Even some of her weapons were falling off from the lack of gravity, and slamming into the ground.
And Arc energy coursed throughout Sepiks' body and SIVA tendrils, the tendrils pulsing while the Arc danced mad on the Machine God. Lightning caused complete and utter chaos throughout systems everywhere, power normally strong enough to power the city for decades, coursing out without restraint as buildings were set on fire or exploded.
This was the Prime. The highest, and now, beyond perfection.
And all would fall before the power of the beast before them, lest they become little else but slaves.
But this was not a king or queen. This was nothing more than a hivemind, a would be leader that would bring his plague upon the universe.
The Splicers considered themselves gods, fit to rule the universe?
They would find themselves face to face with the monarch. They shall face US!
With a blur of motion, Thorn pulled itself out of its holster and into her grasp. The weapon was alight with hellish green flames, as it was once more unleashed in its full power. Except this time, it changed in Summer's grasp to a completely different weapon. The edges became even rougher, the barrel and frame of the gun changing to that of a SMG. No longer was the Thorn. But rather, the Alerpollen, who's barrel drooled with black and green acid.
Summer did not care for the change of weapon. She just fired, unleashing sickly bullets that went straight at Sepiks, piercing its carapace, the spines shaking before mutating into writhing buzzing forms. Mosquitoes that latch on, draining their prey of their life force while they're unaware.
But the damage was largely being mitigated by Sepiks' shielding, and she knew it would not be enough to simply shoot the servitor down.
Summer dodged the retaliatory projectiles by jumping into the air, the harsh red SIVA missiles passing by her entirely and hitting the ground as she zipped side to side, white and black petals left in her wake as she floated about like a warlock. Seeing as her attacks were ineffective, she swapped to Young Wolf's Howl, taken power coursing through it to emit ancient Hive and Iron Lord flames. She swung at the beast from afar like she was using Boltcaster, a disc of arc energy shooting out and burning its defenses.
They cower behind walls in hopes that one day they shall escape their fate! DISGUSTING!
SIVA tendrils rose from the ground like weeds, attempting to latch onto her or knock her aside. A quick motion from her free hand caused the offenders to be pulled out like they were nothing, squished, and thrown to the side, dark flames eating away at their very being. Those that tried to join in from then on out were shaped into spears for the enraged Rose to throw. The servitor seemed to take her a bit more seriously with her sheer power, as it retaliated back with miniature turrets on its frame to shoot down the projectiles.
"I must say Rose, I'm quite impressed." The servitor commented, Aksis' voice still coming through. "I didn't think you had the gall to bring back that pathetic excuse of a king. Or is it because you frail, weak humans-"
The corrupted Rose snarled in rage, and attempted to rush the servitor down. It seemed displeased at that, as it let out a void pulse wave from its body, swiftly sending Summer to the ground as her abilities were temporarily suppressed.
"You know, it's rather rude to interrupt someone as they're talking." The servitor said, as it charged up a ball of solar fire to finish her up.
"Like hell am I going to just listen to some stupid monologuing again." She growled as she attempted to get up, but was held back by a limp. She looked at her leg. Broken.
Not that something like that stopped her before, as she used her sword to stand, attempting to deflect the shot the size of a Prime Servitor at the last second, only to find herself covered in a dark green glow, tanking the shot with next to no damage to the sword or herself. Confused, she looked behind her.
The Taken joined the battle, corrupting the area around the Cosmodrome, as they rushed to Oryx's command, echoing his domineering will in destroying the machine god. Dozens, if not hundreds of various Taken foes had just arrived to the battle, all firing their own weapons at the servitor. And while they did little to truly damage it, it certainly seemed to irritate Sepiks, and Aksis, greatly.
At the head of it all, was Drei. He said nothing, but his intentions were clear. Wherever he looked, some Taken would turn their gaze, understanding what he wants. As of now, Drei was looking at her, with several goblins having kept their gaze on Summer to shield her from the blast.
"I just want to let you know," Drei said, as he came to quickly heal up the leg, a beam of light shooting out to heal the damage. "A certain somebody isn't going to be happy about you using this again, Summer."
"We'll worry about Shin later." Summer said curtly, as she stood up. "We need to destroy this thing."
The servitor seemed to be amused at the thought. "Ha Ba Bas. Such hubris you have… do you not know that ever since Oryx's coming, we have specifically prepared this to kill you, Rose?"
The servitor then grew spikes, crackling with SIVA energy, and charged down at the Taken like a meteorite, destroying dozens as it went into the industrial complex, and back into the air, barely even damaged by the attack.
"Honestly," The servitor laughed, as it kept firing at the Taken. "I find it amusing how a several millennia old god has managed to miss such a valuable opportunity to give us data. It would've been interesting to see what a corrupted Servitor core would do. Before we turned it with SIVA that is."
SILENCE HIM!
Without even a thought directing the motion, Summer blinked to the servitor while aiming to slash it. The result of such a powerful strike caused the shields to short circuit, and release a wave of pure elemental power that sent Summer flying back once more, however this time she maintained her spot in the air.
The servitor teleported backwards a whole mile, checking its shields as it floated over the Lord's Watch. "Ha e sloat." The servitor let out. With an angry machine whine, it continued to fire at the Taken from afar, while also leaving Summer unable to attack. "Regardless, this is a fruitless effort, Rose. There shall be no 'lights out' for my indestructible servitor."
Summer grit her teeth in frustration at the servitor. As much as she hated to admit it, she was outmatched, even with the extra help. Both her and the Taken couldn't play the ranged game, and even if she brought out Icebreaker, the battle would just be too long. The servitor would sooner leave than let her shoot it to death with a weapon like that.
But it also couldn't deal with her, either. Unlike the bloodlusting Taken, she could just regenerate and focus on attrition. It was a stalemate, and both sides knew it.
Yet the servitor pressed on, as it spoke from afar to her. "How about this, Summer Rose? If you go ahead and kill your ghost right here and now, I'll spare you and your family."
"Ha! Nice try Aksis. Nothing can break our bond!" Drei shot out, as it then turned to Summer. "Right guardian?!"
But Summer was silent, actually considering it as she looked at Drei out of the corner of her eye, her helmet concealing her emotions. True, it will protect Ruby. But should I-
If you actually kill your ghost, while I will find it immensely pleasing… I shall also be severely disappointed.
I was actually about to consider dressing him up in his 'ghost' costume, and performing an exorcism before Drei takes the costume off. Technically, that's how real ghosts get killed.
"...Guardian?" Drei couldn't help but become a bit worried at Summer's sudden silence.
It took Oryx a moment to process that, before he roared in agony at the horrible joke he just got played by. Summer just chuckled, a grin on her face as she focused back on the servitor. "You think you could put that white sheet for yourself again?" She idly said to Drei, while staring at the servitor.
"Why would you- oh." Drei then groaned at the guardian's idea.
"Oh come on, it'd be great!"
"I am not depreciating myself just so you could make a little joke Summer."
"Oh well," The servitor said halfheartedly. "I suppose I should just continue converting the local guardians here… and then your daughter." It then went about its rampage, trying to gather a guardian army to overwhelm Summer with later on, shooting down ships that were trying to evacuate guardians as it went. Summer was only able to stand there helplessly, unable to keep being close to the machine god as Oryx's surge of power lessened, the Hive god opting to save his power for the next chance to strike as the servitor's shields came back online.
Behind you.
Summer turned around to see what Oryx had sensed. Frederick's ship was flying in on their location, Barloc standing in the hangar and looking not very pleased about what she just pulled. He didn't say a single word, but fixed her with a steely look that promised both words and pain about her using the Darkness again.
"There's no space in the gun turrets this time around, I guess?" Summer couldn't help but ask, mournfully looking at the pre-occupied turrets.
"Activate the magnets on your boots and get on the roof of the ship, you goddamn kinderguardian." Barloc snapped in immense irritation, as he pointed upwards. "Besides, with the extra power you've got, you work better off of them."
Summer sighed at Barloc's behavior, as she got on top of the ship's roof. "You're awfully snippy for someone who's butt I've kicked easily."
Barloc simply rolled his eyes, "We're not done here, you owe me an explanation after this." With that, he went back inside after setting the hangar to close automatically. Summer quickly got on top of the ship's roof, aiming to finish the fight as the black flames came back in a rage once more, Oryx's sheer fury coursing through her once more as he commanded the remaining taken goblins to get inside the ship and sacrifice themselves to bolster its shielding.
The servitor once more turned its attention back to Summer, only to be surprised when a missile hit it right in its eye, causing it to flinch at the suddenness of the attack. It attempted to retaliate by firing a shot at the ship, of which the ship easily absorbed the hit. The servitor seemed to be annoyed, as the ship shot at the servitor from afar, only to then realize who the ship belonged to. "Demon! How are you and your band of idiots coming along? I've heard that you've sent your granddaughter to Remnant, too."
Frederick merely narrowed his eyes within the ship's cockpit, as he focused on dodging the servitor's attacks. "You won't get a single digit on her."
"On the contrary, I'm pretty close to her. Almost… connected with h-."
The Servitor was cut off mid Sentence by another missile blast.
"Just Fucking die already!" Frederick shouted as all the weapons on his ship opened fire.
The servitor gave a mock look of indignance. "How rude. Someone oughta teach you some manners, imp." There was a cracking sound as a myriad of SIVA tendrils broke out of the ground and shot towards the ship.
Bullets pelted at the Servitors shields. Frederick steered his ship to the side to avoid the lashing SIVA tendrils The sudden movement caused Summer to fall over on the roof, as the ship wove back and forth to avoid getting torn apart.
"Hey Freddie, mind keeping the ship still!?" Summer asked as she kept doubling over from the sudden movements. "I can't get an aim on him!"
"Oh I'm sorry that my attempts to make sure we don't DIE is such an inconvenience!" Frederick shot back on the comm line, firing the nose gun as he pulled the ship in a hard left to avoid a tendril. "But we're all in the same ship, Summer!"
"Keep our focus on staying alive!" Barloc announced over the radio comms. "If we keep it distracted, the Vanguard can bring in aerial strike forces to destroy this thing! It will find itself with no place to- what is that noise?"
Very faintly in the comms line, Pyrrha was faintly singing a song to herself as she focused on firing at the tentacles. "We all live in a yellow submarine…"
Barloc blinked owlishly. "A yellow submarine? Oh bother, Pyrrha's overloaded isn't she."
Pyrrha missed a shot due to the jolting. "N-no I'm not! I'm perfectly calm, I'm just singing a old-"
"A yellow submarine." Drei affirmed, while Summer's eyes glinted with a crazy, but ingenious idea in her head, having heard what Pyrrha is singing. "I think she's-"
"Freddie, connect us all to the ship's speakers!"
"Rose, what are you doing now?" Barloc asked in confusion.
"Heck's your plan, Summer?" Frederick couldn't help but ask as he connected everyone to the ship's speakers.
Summer cleared her throat, staring at Sepiks who only kept its assault up, as she played a pre-golden age song. "In the town; where I was born.. lived a man; who sailed to sea." She then mouthed to Drei, telling him to play the song's instrumentals.
"Guessing that's Beatles… yep, Beatles." Drei then played the instrumental version of the song.
The servitor couldn't help but pause a moment, confused by the song, causing its attacks to slow down. "What are you humans doing?"
While the rest of the crew remained confused, Barloc seemed to get the idea quickly. "Ah, a dark age tactic…" He then cleared his throat, as he continued his onslaught. "And he told; us of his life... In the land; of submarines."
Seeing that her guardian superiors were up with the idea, Pyrrha hesitated a moment before continuing, all while keeping focus on the battle in front of her. "So we sailed; up to the sun… Til we found; a sea of green."
Frederick didn't have any clue what in god's name they were doing. But sensing that he had to continue, he quickly came up with what he thought were the lyrics. "And we lived; beneath the waves… in our yellow; submarine."
If it wasn't due to the fact the machine didn't have a blinking function, it would've. "Are you all… singing right now?"
And in response to that, the entire crew of the ship began singing in unison, Summer dancing in tune to the song on top of the ship while missiles soared through the air like birds of prey, the gun turrets easily shooting down the tentacles that tried to idly smack the missiles out of the way, further damaging its shields.
"We all live in a yellow submarine; yellow submarine; yellow submarine."
"We all live in a yellow submarine; yellow submarine; yellow submarine."
"And our friends; are all aboard." Boss pitched in.
Scorch also added in, having just arrived in Boss's ship, which had fired its own weapons from behind Sepiks. "Many more of them; live next door."
"And the band begins to play." Summer said, as she paused on the cue, letting the music take over while she charged her sword, Frederick's ship getting just close enough for her to lunge at the servitor and break its shields, managing a decent sized cut on the servitor as well.
"AH!" The servitor stumbled back, before looking at the two ships, enraged enough to completely ignore the other guardians getting in their ships as it summoned forth skiffs. "Alright, enough of this noise! TIME TO-"
"We all live in a yellow submarine!" A suddenly joined chorus of 3 guardians rang out with the other two ships, with more jumpships getting off the ground and joining in. "A yellow submarine; a yellow submarine!"
Sepiks looked around at the increasing armada of ships, attempting to blast them out, but couldn't land a hit on them as the ships quickly moved out of the way, also allowing other ships to join in. "We all live in a yellow submarine; a yellow submarine; a yellow submarine!"
By the time that chorus was finished, the whole scene became complete aerial chaos. Guardians continued to sing the song while doing little tricks in the air, unintentionally dodging skiff shots as they fought back, shooting down skiffs like they weren't a threat while buzzing around the servitor like flies, doing whatever damage they could.
"As we live a life of ease." Pyrrha continued on with a smile, feeling content and safe with the many jumpships that had joined the battle.
"Everyone of us; has all we need." Summer sung jovially as she fired Gjallarhorn shots, with the guardians in the background echoing her words.
"Sky of blue; and sea of green." Frederick still had no clue what everyone was doing, but he wasn't going to lie and say that this song wasn't good. Even still, the guardians echoed his words.
"In our yellow; submarine." Barloc finished the lyrics, letting the guardians fly about in the air while repeating the lyrics that commonly played throughout the song.
He then opened up his scroll to put Summer, Pyrrha, and Frederick on a private chat. "Okay… this is not the result I expected, but is also typical of guardian culture. They should be able to handle things from here."
True to Barloc's word, not only had Vanguard reinforcements come in, confused at how many guardians were suddenly up and singing about the battlefield, they also brought to bear ships bearing faction colors and symbols, that all at once started unleashing all the payload they had on any ship that wasn't carrying a green IFF tag.
"Wait, you mean you guys tend to break out into song and dance every now and then?" Pyrrha couldn't help but question, now wondering what happened to everyone's professionalism there.
"Along with the teabags, yes, teabags are very typical in the Crucible." Barloc affirmed.
"What's a-" Summer began to ask, but was cut off by Frederick.
"Barloc… teabags fell out of fashion decades ago."
"WHAT?!" Barloc suddenly shouted in both disbelief and rage. "That cannot be! Everyone was doing it back in my last Crucible matches! Why, nothing is better to enrage your target than dragging saggy nuts over your foe's face!"
"Like the nuts chipmunks eat?" Summer said, the clear innocence and curiosity coming through her line loud and clear, while Pyrrha blushed heavily at the notion of what guardians would often did to each other.
"Barloc…" Frederick said with a sigh. "Let it go. You're becoming worse than Cayde."
Barloc sputtered in indignation, but reluctantly complied, finding no real need to talk about the meaning of the insult. He was already numb with the amount of times guardians tended to be rude back then.
"I think it's a blessing I'm not a guardian yet in all honesty." Pyrrha couldn't help but say, as she held her forehead with a hand. "You are all insane."
"Insanely powerful." Barloc added.
"I'm not sure if I should be worried about that…"
Frederick merely smiled at the antics Summer's team were already up to, as Barloc and Summer then proceeded to talk about the many times of how guardians danced to retrieve intel on Fallen, Hive and Cabal communication panels, with Barloc recounting the times Zavala danced, and how horribly he did in comparison to Cayde and Ikora. As he began to turn the ship away from the battlefield to give a mission report, and to talk with Summer and Barloc regarding the spike in darkness, they heard a familiar, enraged mechanical voice behind them, sounding damaged as it roared.
"I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU, DREGS!" The Aksis controlling Sepiks roared as it bolted after them, attempting to take the ship down.
Only to be hit by green laser beams, Several Rockets and two Plasma Nose turrets, destroying the Servitor's core and causing it to fall into the industrial complexes below.
"You boys are rather late to the Party." Boss deadpans under his T shaped visor helmet. "But the assist was well appreciated."
"Yeah, well I told you we should have parked near the Archon's Keep." Scorch took a jab at Boss' overprotectiveness of his ship. "Seriously, you treat it like it's your own kid. Parking it a whole 20 miles away?"
"I still think that the singing on the coms was retarded." Sev grunted, none too pleased about the singing in the air. "Why can't there be a day without somebody starting up a cheesy song?"
"Cheesy songs are a completely viable tactic to win a battle." Barloc defended Summer over the comms, as he and Pyrrha went to the lobby in the ship to talk in person with Summer.
"It's a dark age tactic! One that's made of cheese!" Summer added as well to further validate the argument, much to everyone's dismay as Barloc hit his head into a wall, while Pyrrha groaned in disappointment.
"Cut the chatter you two, that thing is getting back up!" Fixer said as he flew their ship over the target they just shot at, the Servitor's engines attempting to bring it back up into the air.
"Thanks for the heads up." Frederick chimed in, as he silently moved away, taking the shields offline as he didn't bother to finish Sepiks off. The Taken Goblins empowering the ship also disappeared, returning back to the Ascendant Plane at the will of their leader.
"Oh for the love of myself- what now?" The rather belted remains of Sepiks' stated as it slowly got up. "For the love of all things sane, why can't you all just DIE ALREADY!" the Servitor's remains shouted in anger, as it tried using its one last tendril.
Only for half of all of the guardian ships to pelt the Servitor back down with rockets and machine gun fire, as they kept forcing the Splicers' ships away from the Plaguelands, till it was literally just pieces leaving only the internal machine eye to fly out and into Frederick's ship, catching itself into a vent and rolling around in it until finally falling out and landing inside the main hold. The internal eye was the size of an overly large soccer ball, one akin to the mini servitors that guardians played with in the Reef. Summer nonchalantly just puts her foot against its rolling form to stop it and smiles as the eye lit up one last time.
Aksis roared out in rage, spouting curse after curse in Eliksni language, sounding extremely displeased with how his play didn't work out as he had hoped, having only managed to kill and/or convert a small amount of guardians at best. The team could hear Aksis tearing the metal floor apart in wherever he was now in a rage, the self-imposed machine god's wrath finding itself with no target to torment at this very moment. It almost sounded akin to an angry, immature german man, were it not for the fact the one in question was clearly alien.
"Lights out." said Summer smugly, as he brought her foot down on the eye, shattering it into pieces of metal and red ether.
Frederick heard the crash and immediately put the ship on auto pilot and got out to see what the noise was, just in time to see Summer smashing apart the last pieces of the eye.
"Was that safe to do, especially in MY ship?" Frederick asked.
Boss slid down, noticing the same thing. "That probably could've been a bomb servitor out of spite… or the servitor's AI in her defense."
"Don't worry, Freddie. It's pretty much dead." Summer smiled under her helmet, the dark flames just having died out, as her weapon began to revert.
Barloc and Pyrrha walked out of the gunner seats as the room became silent. Everyone was trying to avoid the pollen-like bullets from Thorn's SMG mode, as it slowly reverted back to its original hand canon form. Frederick then turned towards the Boss' and his crew, and nodded to them. Him and the other guardians took it as their cue to leave, with Barloc staying firmly in place and Pyrrha looking around confused.
Nobody had died here… so what's up? Was all Pyrrha could think in confusion.
"Summer. You know we could sense you from a mile away or more. What happened?" Frederick asked taking a seat on one of the troop seats.
"It's...nothing. Everything is fine." Summer replied albeit it was more to comfort herself more than an answer.
"Quit playing dumb." Barloc said flatly, staring at Summer with a disappointed gaze. "We received reports on a spike in neutrino energy… you decided to let Oryx work with you, didn't you? I could understand a small amount, but letting him in entirely to work in unison?"
"Your arm. NOW."
Summer sighed, as she knew if Frederick could sense it, everyone within the Cosmodrome had felt it. She transmatted her gauntlet and body glove piece, as Drei and Naomi came out and scanned Summer's scars. Instead of calm lines like before, they were sickly, thicker, and even glowed a small green light like that from the crystals from Oryx's ship. She looked away as the two ghosts scanned and scanned and ran tests.
"This is… disturbing." Naomi said aloud, floating back to Frederick's shoulder. "The darkness is stronger. And I have a feeling we all know where the Taken came from."
Drei said nothing, but everyone could tell he knew they were already blaming him for letting this happen. He himself was already blaming himself for what happened, for letting Summer unlock the sealed runes on Thorn in the first place.
The two guardians were rather silent as Frederick just stared at Summer, with Pyrrha looking worriedly at her, before departing, seeing as it'd just be awkward to be there at the moment. And her helm was not looking at his. Like that of a child who got caught doing what she wasn't supposed to do.
"Summer… what triggered your rage?"
"Sepiks… no-" Summer choked on the words and just shut her eyes, fearful visions of what Ruby would look like if she was fully infected with SIVA, with Penny standing by her side as she laughed in Aksis' voice. Images of Yang turning into another one of those monsters down in the Replication Chamber, as they ripped apart Qrow or Taiyang. "Aksis threatened to turn Ruby… by using Penny into...into-"
Frederick stepped closer.
"He threatened to turn your daughter into those things we fought on Mars." He finished her sentence rather devoid of emotion.
She nodded silently. Scared of what he might say. Many of the City think of her as a hero. But only few saw the Thorns of how cruel she could be. Letting Oryx coax her into channeling his own rage with hers, when she would have ran and got backup. She knew then and there that taking more power to fight that eye was just a horrible excuse to comfort herself with. She didn't know what to say or do. Her helmet transmatted into her storage, a silent request to Drei. She then looked at Frederick with tear-filled eyes.
And without a thought Frederick gave her a hug. Something she desperately needed right now from a friend or family. Her head rested against his cold chest plate. She could feel it on her skin. She looked at herself in Fred's blood red visor. Her eyes have changed as well. Within the Silver pools of sorrow for the power she used, she could see green pupils, no doubt due to Oryx's influence, burning with vengeance. Not against Frederick… but this blasted life, which had thrown disaster after disaster, death after death at her. She guessed she didn't realize it now but better late than never. She saw herself. She was really thinking and willing back then to kill her Ghost to save Ruby.
The green ember flames in her pupils left after a small bit of time. But she could still feel it in her heart. It was like a drug. The urge to use Oryx's power, to have such will over reality. Frederick with how spiritually sensitive he and many like him are. They can see it. But other Guardians would be in denial. The Darkness corrupting their "champions", their "paragons" from the inside out? Fred put a hand on her head like what a brother would do a crying wreck of a sister in need of comfort.
This was one of the reasons she never listened to the Speaker to avoid Frederick at all costs. He understood the power of the past. It is always inevitable, and without someone by one's side, legends would fall, giving way to the new. It was a twisted weapon to have in order to make many legends of hope. And whether or not he personally went through the same hell or not as she, he could empathize with her on things she would never go to the Speaker or Cayde about. Even some small personal things. This is what made them friends.
As they hugged, Frederick noticed a figure behind Summer. Seeing the figure behind her, he decided to make what was to come private, as he motioned for Barloc come in and say his peace, in which he did.
"I'm not going to say your exploration into the dark wasn't a good thing." Barloc said with crossed arms. "But your abuse of it isn't either. You need to be more careful from here on out to not be an idiot and get tempted."
Summer nodded in silence, and Barloc took it as his cue to continue.
"I understand what threats to one's kin do to the mind. But not staying in the middle between light and dark will bring your downfall." He then put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, but his tone was anything but. "Keep a clear mind from here on out. I can twist the story to make it just seem like a fluke, but Cayde is going to have to know about this."
Summer's eyes widened. "You can't-"
"Your surrogate, unofficial father deserves the right to know." Summer looked down in guilt, as Barloc continued. "He wouldn't want to be surprised by this. Sudden conversion to full on darkness hurts more than anything else. And I'd certainly hate to see a hunter with an actual brain go down like this. You lot are rarer than people like Ikora, and yes, I have data confirming this."
Summer couldn't help but giggle at the fact Barloc did that, causing him to speak again."BUT, it doesn't make you able to handle both light and darkness at the same time."
Summer nodded, and then nearly collapsed from the exhaustion of both light and darkness having coursed through her, but caught herself on a troop seat with the assistance of Barloc. The pressure she didn't know she was under was gone. And so was the glow from her arms marks.
"Summer."
She looked up to where Frederick was standing.
"Oryx's physical form may be gone, but he's not dead, nor are his ambitions. He, and others like him, will stop at nothing. They will invade your dreams, whisper into your ears until you give in. Don't give them that authority."
She nodded as her gauntlet returned. Covering her sin from that day so long ago. She held it as if she were in some sort of ghost pain. She looked back at Frederick who opened his Ships ramp door. He looked back at her. But then did something he rarely does. She saw his hands move to the sides of his helmet. With a twist and a his from the seal he removed the bulky thing from his head. His blue darkened tired eyes looked at her. But he had a smile.
"My door is always open if you ever want to talk." He said as he went to his room, Naomi turning around and nodding at Summer as she followed him. "We both are."
Drei silent, still in shame of what he did. But Summer smiled. She nodded to him.
"Thanks Freddie." Summer said from the bottom of her heart.
"You're welcome kiddo." He replied playfully.
"You need to live for at least a couple decades now, Summer." Barloc said firmly, as he went to find Pyrrha. "Don't muck it up, if not for humanity, for the family you have. Stay out of battle if you have to, but the last thing we need is a resurgence of the Hive god in you, or you going ahead and taking a risk you shouldn't have."
As Barloc left the ship, no one but himself heard the mutter he let out. "And knowing those damn emo kids looking for her on Remnant, they'll probably force it to happen anyhow."
00000
The Anime Guy: Hello everyone, we know you are waiting and it gets rather boring or frustrating to wait but do please be patient in chapters.
Now then, onto reviews.
Arines: Is anyone else having a kind of a hard time waiting for the story to get to Destiny 2 so Summer and Co can rescue saint-14? Also please let Cayde live
Anime Guy:That's still in progress but Rise of iron is our current focus atm
Diluation:The Red War events are going to be too important to simply gloss over, as a lot happens for the characters involved. We will be skipping stuff like Warmind though, as this series is mainly about Summer and Ruby, the latter of which you'll see more of. Soon.
Also, in regards to Cayde not dying, that'd mean either breaking a lot of canon, which goes against the whole point of fanfiction, or skipping Forsaken entirely. So I suppose today would be a good time to make a poll, and of course get his brother's opinion on this. First we'll do the latter though.
As for the pacing of this story, sorry, but I'd rather not bore/disappoint you guys with just the Rise of Iron campaign, and life isn't too keen about letting me do things on time at the moment, or letting me update more frequently. As some of you veteran Destiny players may have noticed, I took some liberties with SIVA. It is, in my opinion, one of the most underplayed elements of the franchise. The Aksis commentary and infected Hive aren't even from the original game, infected Hive having showed up twice with no uniqueness to them in the game, and Aksis was simply an addition to have some sort of prelude to the boss himself, like Omnigul's strike.
Aquilos: Omnigul didn't talk either, though?
Diluation:She did! Here, her dialogue is "AIEEEEEAAAA" and "AAARRRRRRRREEEEGGAAAA", along with mumbo-jumbo Hive noises!
Aquilos: That is scarily accurate, and I hate you for doing so.
Diluation:You're welcome
Dustiniz117: Just be patient my fellow readers, for as of now, we're in the beginning stages of creating a rough draft of both the sequel to Iron Rose and Red War itself, so please be patient.
Aquilos: We'll get to it. But timelines and plans have to be followed, not rushed.
doomforzombies:Ishtar collective and ffc podcast are good ways to keep up with the lore if you didn't already know of them.
Diluation:We have, and have been using them. But we're currently on Rise of Iron events, not Destiny 2 events.
And no, before anyone asks, we can't just skip to Shadowkeep or Season of Dawn. If we attempted to skip, we'd miss crucial events for characters that'd most obviously have their lives changed by. Say for example, the Warmind DLC. While we aren't covering Warmind, this event would be important for someone like Penny, as she'd get to know more of her newfound exo kin. Curse Of Osiris(which we're deciding to combine with Season Of Dawn), is also important, as… well, if we tried to talk about it, we'd enter spoiler territory. ;)
Sorry for delaying this by 5 days, but I had rather severe family issues that kept me from focusing on this pt2 of Road To Hell. I'll try to avoid this next chapter, and have it ready a little earlier than usual. We hope to see you guys there!
~ In memory of Ptabs0101 ~
Diluation edit:For some reason when we posted, they removed all formatting. Sorry about that!