Just a little diddy I've written about Saint-14. This is my first time writing anything about Destiny, do people even read Destiny fics? Some things in this one-shot may stray from the canon lore.
If anyone is interested, I listened to Moving Mountains by Thrice while writing this.
Please review. If people seem to enjoy this, I have some ideas for other Destiny one-shots.
I do not own any character's mentioned other than my own. All characters, canonical events, and places belong to Bungie.
The hunter shot a glance at the titan beside her. She couldn't see his face beneath that infamous helmet of his, but she knew he was intent on taking in as much of the view in front of him as he could.
"It's taken some time, but we're finally really recovering from the Red War." The hunter said quietly, slowing down as she approached the Last City and the new Tower.
"I…" The exo's vocal processors cut with static but he continued on. "I'm only sad that I was not here to help protect my home."
"No one blames you, Saint." The hunter assured him quietly as her Ghost warned them to prepare for transmat.
The titan turned his head to her and despite the helmet, she could feel his eyes boring into hers. It sent shivers down her spine that she fought hard to suppress.
"Thank you, guardian." The titan finally replied, lifting his hand to rest heavily on her shoulder as he hung his head. "You've been a good friend to me."
There was the familiar tingle and swooping in her stomach that she always hated and then they were transmatted into the hangar of the Tower. The weight of Saint-14's hand was still warm on her shoulder and she turned her glowing amber gaze on him, resting a hand on top of his before he could remove it.
"Aurora, please. Call me Aurora."
"Thank you, Aurora." The titan repeated, and the hunter let her hand drop from his.
She watched as he walked away, trailed by his Ghost. She knew it would take time for him to settle in, to reconcile with the fact that quite a few of the friends he had had here in the past were now dead. She wished him the best.
Her own Ghost cleared his throat noisily from behind her and she turned to face him. The awoken woman was sure that if he had eyebrows they would be wiggling suggestively. She rolled her eyes and lightly shoved him away.
"Shut up, before I shove you into a pink shell." She grumbled, turning her back on the hangar to enter the Tower proper.
"You wouldn't." The little bot admonished, bobbing along behind her.
"Guardian down!"
She was instantly revived by Ghost, only to be overtaken by the screeching swarm of Taken thralls again, and again, and again. And then there he was. Oryx. The horrid, righteous king, intent on revenge for his son. He swung and sent her flying, she was dead before she hit the ground.
Ghost revived her again. She was alone, flying blind on the other side of a Rift. Separated from her fireteam and her comms were silent. Stuck in a never ending loop of death and she could feel the light fading. The darkness was pressing in on her from all sides, clouding her mind and dulling her senses until she felt like she couldn't breathe. She clawed at her chest, aching for relief as Ghost called to her. Begging her to find cover.
"Guardian! Guardian! AURORA!"
She sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air as sweat ran down her face. Ghost floatied in front of her face, looking as concerned as any tiny construct of the Traveler could. The hunter pushed him away, hanging her head over the side of the bed as she dry heaved, her stomach rolling over on itself again and again.
She drug herself out of bed after untangling her legs from the sheets. A shower. She needed a shower to wash the darkness away. She stumbled across the dark bedroom into the bathroom. Twenty minutes later found her huddled in a ball in the corner of the shower stall, steam billowing around her. Her light lavender skin was tinged pink from scrubbing and the heat of the water. No matter how hard she tried, she could never get rid of the oppressive weight of the memory of the darkness that haunted her. Crota. Taniks. Oryx. Ghaul. Cayde's body, draped in Andal's cloak, his Ghost Sundance dark and battered on his chest. They all haunted her. It had been nearly two months since she had returned from Mercury with Saint-14 and still she dreamt about the day she had discovered him long dead and decaying in that Vex tomb.
Sighing, Aurora staggered to her feet and turned off the water before stumbling back to her bedroom to get dressed in her armor. Her Ghost watched silently, floating overhead.
"Where are you going?" He asked once she had pulled her boots on and swung her cloak around her shoulders.
"I can't stay here." The Awoken woman answered quietly as she left her apartment.
The tower was quiet, most everyone was asleep with the exception of a few other Guardians that either had just transmatted in, or like her, couldn't face the darkness of the night in solitude. As she passed through the main courtyard of the tower, she heard Master Rahool muttering to himself as he sorted through glowing engrams.
If it was earlier in the night, she would seek out Shaxx. The giant Crucible handler was always more than happy to accommodate her when she needed to blow off some steam. But glancing over towards his station, she only saw the frame Arcite 99-40 cleaning reward weapons. The hunter considered reorganizing her vault but the task was mind numbing in the worst way and would provide her too much opportunity to dwell on the memories that plagued her mind.
Saint-14 cooed at the pigeons that surrounded him. One fluttered up to land on his pauldron and his face plates shifted into a smile underneath his helmet. The simplicity of the life these gentle creatures lived brought him peace and helped him reconcile the time he had lost in the Infinite Forest. He still found himself mourning from time to time, but the Exo had learned very long ago that it did no good to dwell on the mistakes of the past, and now was no exception.
"Saint." His Ghost, Geppetto, quietly caught his attention before bobbing in the direction of the hangar entrance, spines twirling.
Turning his head he saw the Awoken hunter wandering down the steps into the hangar, her Ghost trailing behind her in his bright orange shell. Her lavender skin seemed to glow in the dim light as she stopped to observe a couple of frames working on repairing a jump ship. Her pink hair was normally styled into a flamboyant mohawk but tonight it was damp and hung limply around her face. The titan wondered what had her up so late.
Geppetto harrumphed from beside him before transmatting something soft into his hand. Looking down he saw that it was one of his accolades, the old ribbon was a bit worse for wear but the color still matched her skin almost perfectly. He chuckled to himself before playfully glaring at his Ghost. The little imp had been listening in on his thoughts again. He tucked the ribbon into his waistband, near his mark before hailing the guardian on the other side of the hangar.
She tilted her head towards him and slowly raised her hand to him in greeting. He watched in amusement as her Ghost nudged her along in his direction. As she got closer, the titan observed that her usually glowing amber eyes seemed dull, almost emotionless. Despite that she still mustered up a smirk when she reached him.
"Making friends?" She asked, gesturing to the quietly cooing birds that surrounded them.
"Yes." He responded bluntly, bringing up a finger to stroke the head of the pigeon that still sat on his pauldron. "I know that many consider them pests, but to me they are my simple friends. They are the last birds here in the Last City that I know of, and they remind me what we fight to protect."
The two guardians stared at each other for a moment, before the Exo cleared his throat a bit awkwardly.
"Would you like to walk with me?"
He thought she was going to decline his offer. She dropped her eyes to her boots and scuffed a toe on the metal floor.
"I-" The was interrupted by her Ghost bumping into the side of her head rather hard, and the Exo had to fight back a chuckle. "Sure, that sounds nice." She finally replied, rubbing her head and glaring at her Ghost, who quickly disappeared in a flash of light along with Geppetto.
The Awoken and Exo walked quietly together across the makeshift soccer pitch that had been marked out on the landing zone of the hangar. The hunter snuck glances at the titan next to her out of the corner of her eye, wondering if he was going to talk or just remain silent.
Curiously, she found that the oppressive weight in her chest seemed lighter since she entered the hangar. The creeping tendrils of the dark memories were still there in the back of her mind. But she was thinking more clearly, and her heart no longer felt like it was being clenched in a vice grip.
"Do you need to talk about anything?" Saint suddenly prompted from beside her in that heavy and slow Russian accent of his.
"What?" She replied dumbly, mentally kicking herself before the word had even fully left her mouth.
"I find that our problems have a harder time keeping us up at night when we share them with friends." The Exo explained, kicking out his foot to send an abandoned soccer ball flying into the goal at the end of the hangar.
Aurora was momentarily mesmerized by the colorful flashes of fireworks in front of them. Whatever warlock had come up with that deserved some sort of reward. They reached the end of the hangar and the hunter sighed, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes until tiny bursts of light erupted behind her eyelids.
"I have these…dreams." She admitted, letting her hands dropped as she looked out over the Last City sprawling out from the base of the Tower. "Sometimes they're about Crota or Oryx. Sometimes it's Taniks. Lately it's been Cayde, mostly."
Saint-14 stood just a bit behind her and stayed silent. He knew what she wasn't saying. They weren't simple dreams. They were living nightmares. The biggest problem with living so long was having to live with the guilt of your mistakes and the loss of your battle buddies. More than one Guardian had been driven mad by it, haunted by ghosts and guilt. And the Awoken hunter that stood before him had seen more than most.
"Sometimes-" She broke off, unsure if she should continue with that next thought.
"Yes?"
"Sometimes I dream about you. Finding you in that tomb." She whispered, and Saint had to strain his audio receptors to hear her. "I dream about all of those alternate timelines where I didn't get to you in time."
Aurora turned to looked over her shoulder and was taken aback when she saw that the titan had removed his helmet, his optics shining brightly at her from behind metal lids. That famous helm was tucked under one arm as he regarded her.
She saw the vocal lights behind his lip plates flicker before he even started speaking.
"Do not dwell on the past. Learn from it, but don't stew in it. I learned that lesson long ago. I've seen stronger guardians than myself be driven mad by it." He paused, regarding her sternly for a moment before continuing. "I never doubted that you would succeed, Aurora. You found me, you opened the gate for me. You achieved what Osiris could not. Osiris. Who so many have revered since the beginning of all of this. Whatever shortcomings you may feel you have, they are far outweighed by your achievements." The titan assured her quietly.
The hunter remained silent, drinking in Saint's praise. She felt a knew, warmer kind of pressure in her chest. One that she was unfamiliar with, but was altogether much more pleasant than the weight of the darkness that she was fighting earlier in the night.
Saint knelt down to place his helmet at his feet and sighed as he stood back up, pulling a piece of fabric from his waistband as he did so.
"I have been meaning to give this to you." He informed her, pulling the purple ribbon through his fingers before taking Aurora's hand and placing the fabric into her palm and closing his hands over top of hers. "It was one of the most important accolades I collected. From one of the first of many times I saved Cayde-6 from a final death." He explained, letting his hands drop and instantly missing the warmth of her skin beneath his own synthetics. "It was once the hem of the cloak that Cayde wore, before we lost Andal Brask."
The hunter sucked in a shaky breath and examined the frayed ribbon with glistening eyes. Suddenly, she shook her head and held her hand back out to the Exo.
"I don't-I can't. I wasn't able to save him." She bit out, desperately holding back tears.
Saint shook his head, closing his hands around hers once more and pushing her hand back towards her chest.
"You saved me." He reminded her, squeezing her hand gently. "He would want you to have it. I understand that you two were close."
She gave a watery chuckle and shook her head before wiping at her eyes quickly with the back of her free hand.
"I hated him at first, right after I woke up. I thought he was stupid and arrogant." She chuckled again, pulling her hand out of Saint's to stroke the ribbon. "I guess he was, actually. But he wasn't just my Vanguard. He was my mentor, and my closest friend." She sniffled, trying to hide the fact that a few tears had slipped out as she attached the ribbon to her chest plate in a similar way that Saint wore his own. "I was supposed to go with him to The Prison of Elders that day. But my ship was being repaired and Amanda had already loaned out all of her extras. If he had just waited!" She ended on a wail and then suddenly the Awoken woman was sobbing.
Saint didn't hesitate to wrap her in his arms and pull her gently to his chest. He didn't shush her, or chastise her for being upset and blaming herself for something out of her control. He simply stood as a pillar of support for her as she finally mourned the loss of her mentor and friend. His metal and silicon hands ghosted up and down her spine soothingly. Neither titan nor hunter was sure how long they stood there, but eventually Aurora's sobs subsided and she pulled away. Saint let his arms drop without complaint.
"Thank you." She whispered, thankful that the purple hue of her skin was enough to cover the embarrassed flush on her cheeks. "And sorry. I, uh- I'm usually not so emotional." She added, ducking her chin to avoid the bright optics of the Exo in front of her.
Almost immediately, cool metal and silicon fingers gripped her chin lightly and tilted her face up. The hunter was shocked but didn't pull away. Saint moved his hand to cup her cheek instead and gently brushed away some of the wetness on her skin.
"Never apologize for feeling." He chastised her quietly.
The Awoken quirked her lip at him and nodded, amber eyes glowing brightly. Seemingly without thinking, she let her hands drift up and land on his upper arms. His thumb was still stroking her cheek and he brought his free hand up to rest in the crook where her shoulder met her neck and still she did not pull away. The titan took a step closer to her, until he was so close that their chests were almost touching and began to tilt her face up to meet his when Aurora suddenly gave her head a slight shake before taking a step back, dropping her hands quickly as if his armor had burned her.
"No. No." She nearly whimpered, taking another step away. "I'm sorry, Saint. I can't." She managed to choke out, her tone pleading, and before she could turn to leave he saw the tears welling up in her eyes again.
"Aurora!" The titan called after her, hand raised half heartedly to try to stop her but she was already gone, running up the steps into the Tower proper with her Ghost trailing after her once more.
He sighed and stooped down to pick up his helmet. When he righted himself, Geppetto was there, bumping gently against his forehead.
"I'm sorry, Saint." She sighed sadly.
The titan simply gave her a gentle tap before putting his helmet back on. On his way back to his post, he threw one last sad look over towards the hangar entrance. But the stairs remained empty.
"Are you ever going to even look at him again?" Ghost pestered as he flew along behind his Guardian.
She had taken to wearing her helmet around the tower, in hopes that it would make it more difficult to be spotted. But at the same time, she refused to remove the accolade that Saint had gifted her. And as only one other Guardian in the Tower sported tattered purple ribbons on their armor, she wasn't hard to spot.
Ghost sighed when Aurora just ignored him and kept plowing through the crowd near the food kiosks in the Tower. It had been over a month since the night the Awoken hunter had wandered into the hangar and broken down in front of Saint-14. A month since she had walked away from him and spent days isolating herself in her Tower apartment. When she had finally found the courage to leave her apartment again, she had done everything in her power to avoid the hangar where the Exo had taken up residence. Even going so far as to only communicate with Amanda Holliday via data pad, and having Ghost transmat her directly to her apartment after patrols.
"I just don't understand why you can't at leas-" Ghost was cut off when Aurora clamped a hand around his shell and dragged him into an abandoned service corridor.
"What do you want from me, Ghost?" The hunter demanded angrily. "Admit to him how I feel?"
"Well," Ghost started, glancing down to the end of the corridor, where fluttering red and white banners could be seen, as well as floating red flower petals. "It is Crimson Days. No better time than the present, right?"
The hunter shook her head, removing her helmet with a huff. Ghost helpfully transmatted it away to her vault as she brought her hands up to press the heels of her palms into her eyes.
"Ghost, Saint is… he's a legend. He is the greatest titan ever. I'm just a hunter that seems to have a weird streak of good luck." Aurora sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "There's no way he could ever-"
"Ever what?" Ghost prompted quickly. "Ever want to be with you? Unless I'm misremembering, he tried to kiss you."
Aurora crossed her arms, quirking a brow and smirking at her Ghost.
"I thought you said you were in shut down?" She probed, holding back a chuckle.
"I lied." The small construct admitted unabashedly.
Saint turned quickly when he heard someone clearing their throat behind him. He was about to greet the hunter enthusiastically until he noticed the purple ribbon hanging from their armor. He turned back around just as quickly. When she cleared her throat again, he sighed and hung his head. He had spent the last month trying to forget about the time he had spent with the Awoken that night in the hangar.
When he didn't say anything, she cleared her throat one more time before speaking.
"Can we… Saint, can we talk?" The hunter asked timidly.
The titan finally turned to face her and shrugged indifferently, crossing his arms across his broad chest.
"Speak, then."
"Um, I… Somewhere private, maybe?"
A rough, mechanical sigh escaped the Exo and he nodded curtly, waving a hand indicating for her to follow him. He lead her around a corner and out of sight from the other Guardians and workers in the hangar.
"Well?" He prompted sharply, arms crossed and waiting impatiently while the hunter just stared at him.
Eventually she removed her helmet, and Saint wanted to look away but those bright amber eyes held him pinned in place, the same as they had the first time he had met her. In the Infinite Forest, he had simply thought it was a trick of the light, just like everything else had been. But then he stepped through that gate after waiting all those years, all those years of those golden eyes haunting him. And they were that same color in the sunlight of Mercury as they had been in the Forest. They still burned into him, a testament to her spirit, and her stubborn streak.
Now she was chewing nervously on her bottom lip, as if she had any reason to be nervous about standing here in front of him. When it was her that had saved him. He could handle the hero worship from anyone other than her. If anything, he should be raising her on a pedestal, not the other way around.
"Guardian, if you're not going to talk, I need to get-"
"Aurora. I told you before, call me Aurora."
"Aurora." He whispered hoarsely. "Talk to me, please." And the titan was fighting to keep the hint of pleading out of his voice.
He watched as she reached up with shaking hands and carefully removed the accolade ribbon from her armor. She clutched it tightly in her hand and started down at it for a moment, as if contemplating her actions. He was already refusing her as she stretched her hand out to him.
"No. You keep it. A gift, between friends." The words tasted sour in his mouth, but he would rather have her as a friend in his second chance at life than not at all.
Aurora scoffed and rolled her eyes before grabbing his hand and pulling it towards her. He didn't fight her as she pried his metal and silicon fingers open and placed the tattered ribbon in his palm. But the titan was startled when she turned on her heel and walked back around the corner, seemingly intent on leaving her alone with a simple satin memento to remember her by.
"Aurora!" The Exo yelled, his vocal mechanics crackling with the force of his exclamation.
The Exo raced after her. By the time he rounded the corner, she was halfway across the hangar. Her Ghost was putting up a valiant effort to stop her, bashing himself against her forehead despite her efforts to swat him away.
"Aurora, do not walk away from me like this." Saint demanded as he ran after her.
He stopped a few feet away from her when she spun around to face him, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. Those amber eyes we blazing and he struggled to think what he could have done to upset her so horribly.
"Like what, Saint?" Her voice came out quiet and shaky.
"Don't walk away from me like you don't feel this too." This time he didn't care if it sounded like he was pleading.
"Of course I do. But what-" She cut herself off and looked like she was biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself.
She dipped her chin and dug her palms into her eyes again. He watched her shoulders rise and fall and heard her suck in a shuddering breath. When she looked back up at him she was blinking back tears.
"I'm not enough. Do you know who you are? What you mean to people?" She demanded sadly.
People were watching, including an entire fireteam that were frozen mid soccer match just ten feet from the pair, but neither of them cared. It didn't matter, they were talking about this now or not at all.
"None of that matters to me. It shouldn't matter to you, either." He admonished. "If anything it is me that is not enough. Or have you forgotten that you saved me? I am literally lost without you." The last part came out as a whisper choked by static, but he knew she heard it.
"Saint, I-"
But the Exo brought her up short when he strode towards her, his long legs closing the distance between them quickly. He took off his helmet and dropped it uncaringly as he approached her. The helmet clanged loudly against the metal floor, and anyone that wasn't watching before was certainly watching now.
"No more excuses." He ground out, wrapping his hands gently around her wrists.
Aurora's heart was pounding in her chest, as if she had just tried to outrun a Fallen walker. The Exo's bright optics seemed nearly blinding to her as he looked down at her. Then he wrapped her in his arms and she couldn't see his face anymore so she just rested her head on his chest.
Saint pulled back and peered down at her once more, and he was so much taller than her that she had to crane her neck to look up and see his face. His hands were a comfortable weight on her shoulders.
"Aurora." Her name left him like a whispered prayer and she was mesmerized by the flickering of his vocal mechanics.
She didn't resist him when his hands shifted, one gently gripping the hair at the nape of her neck and tilting her head up and the other falling to encircle her waist and pull her flush against him. She let one of her own hands cup the metal plates of his face and the other came to rest on his chest. She didn't resist when he lifted her up slowly so that she was standing on her toes while he brought his own head down closer to hers. Cool metal and silicon met warm flesh and skin. Neither could tell how long they stood there, neither wanted to be the first to move away and neither wanted to let go of the other. Finally, Aurora had to pull away to take a breath, but she pressed her forehead against Saint's just to enjoy being close to the titan.
The hand at the back of her neck fell away and moved to cover the one on his chest. Using his nimble fingers, he turned her hand over and placed the accolade ribbon in her palm, closing her fingers around it before lifting her hand up and brushing his mouth plates across her knuckles.
"Don't take it off again." Saint requested, and a chuckle rumbled in his chest when he saw Aurora smile.