Necro: Hello dear readers! I'm back again! I'm gonna be trying to limit my notes from now on, so quick reminder that if you feel like it, you can buy me a hot chocolate through my ko-fi: ko-fi S6S49BLT. Just copy it into the address bar and remove the spaces! You can also find me on Tumblr by looking up my tag Necro's Writings!
MP: Hurry up, I'm sure they want to get to the story.
Necro: True true! Enjoy, my dear readers!
Escaping the City proved to be more difficult than entering it. The monstrous creatures, that Jaxon had been informed were called the Cabal, were everywhere. They patrolled the streets in small platoons, some accompanied by tanks. Since Jaxon was forging ahead, clearing a path for the refugees, he saw that the Cabal were not just patrolling. They were searching. Systemically sniffing out, rounding up, and executing any and all Guardians they could find. Jaxon was able to help a few, but the others...the others he would only think about later, when everyone was safe.
Eventually they did manage to escape, into the mountains and foothills surrounding the now burning city. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones to think of that. There were many waiting for survivors. Too many for Jaxon to fight alone. He held them off for a long while, but he was certain that death was hovering over him, waiting for that single slip up that was bound to come, sooner rather than later. And then he was surrounded, but not by the enemy. Instead, the very citizens he had been trying to protect were suddenly all around him, wielding weapons they had scavenged along the way. Even Shaxx was helping, managing to fire a massive gun that could only have come from a fallen Cabal, despite his weakened state. The fight ended quickly after that, with few losses on their side. And afterwards, the way was clear. The group pulled itself together after that and began on its way once more, hiking tiredly through the terrain until finally, thankfully, someone found them. Her name was Hawthorne and she led a rescue expedition. Jaxon didn't think he'd ever been so happy to see someone in his life and his happiness didn't compare to that of the others, who all gratefully stumbled into the ships the human woman had brought along. Many people collapsed wherever there was room. Jaxon chose to sit as close to the entrance of the ship as possible, attention turned outward. So few times in his life had he ever felt the need to protect something like he did this group. He was determined that they would be alright. Thankfully, his attention proved unnecessary and they arrived safely at a place Hawthorne referred to as 'The Farm'. The ships set down in an empty field near what appeared to be a hastily constructed, and still in progress, shantytown. It wasn't clean, it wasn't well made, but it was safe, and that was all anyone was asking for right now.
Jaxon helped usher everyone off the ships and find a temporary home among the metal and wood lean-tos. Once everyone was inside, he wandered off, numbly dragging Raze Lighter along as he tries to familiarize himself with this place. After a short while, he found himself in the middle of a set of buildings that made it clear why it was called the Farm. There was a large rundown barn, a silo, an old stone house that he was vaguely surprised was still standing. There was a waterwheel just a little off to the side. He could hear the river that passed by, but the wheel didn't seem to be turning. He walked over to it, not entirely sure of what he really intended, and ended up just sitting down in front of the building, Raze Lighter lying next to him.
"Hey, what are you doing over here?" It was the woman from before, Hawthorne. She must have seen him wander off and likely got concerned. He definitely would be if he saw someone acting like he was.
"I uh...I have no clue. I just wanted to get familiar with the Farm and...I dunno..." Jaxon trailed off. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He'd never felt this way before. Did he go too far today? Had he overexerted himself? His body felt unreasonably heavy.
"Maybe you should get back with the others."
"Maybe yeah..." He mumbled, standing slowly, leaning heavily on the borrowed sword. "Thank you, by the way. I doubt they would have made it much...further..." He stumbled and fell, consciousness fading.
Jaxon woke later in what he assumed was the house that he'd observed earlier. He didn't know how long it had been, but it had to have been quite some time. He sat up slowly, his body aching only in the way that a body can when it hasn't moved in a while. He still felt slow, but whatever it was that was causing this, it seemed to be letting up.
He stumbled over to door and attempted to open it, only to find it locked. He sighed and, rather than knock with his hand, Jaxon thumped his head against the door. When no one answered, he thumped his head again. After the fourth thump, he heard footsteps on the outside and the lock clicked moments later. He shifted to the side as the door opened and, before the person before him could say anything, he mumbled, "Bathroom. Please." There was a pause and then the other person stepped aside. "Thank you." He edged out of the room and shuffled down the hallway he now found himself in. "Inside or outside?"
"Inside. We have running water." The other person's voice was deep and gruff as he pointed to a door to Jaxon's left. "Once you're done, I have to take you to Shaxx." Jaxon was just barely able to register that the person's body didn't sound human. Perhaps he one of the aliens that sounded like a piece of flute music to him. What were they called?
"Thank you." He replied quietly, deciding to ask later when he felt...right again. After his business was done, he stepped out, shaking water from his hands and followed the other outside.
The other led Jaxon to the rundown and, honestly, falling apart barn just across the dirt path from the house. Shaxx was standing inside, overseeing the decoration of a small nook set off to the side. "Lord Shaxx, he's awake." Jaxon's guide said once he was within easy speaking distance. Shaxx turned, his helmeted face regarding Jaxon for a moment before he nodded at the Guardian, who nodded back and left.
"You seem much better." Jaxon said after his guide left. "But I don't feel your power anymore."
"You can feel the Light?"
"Light? A fitting name, I suppose." Jaxon shivered slightly as his senses and body began to return in full, albeit slowly. "But yes, I feel it. Everyone here carries a little spark inside them, but….you and your fellow...Guardians carry so much more. But now you are empty."
"Yes, but that will not stop us from fighting back. Light is not what makes a Guardian."
"No, I imagine it isn't." Jaxon moved to sit on a box, his body protesting slightly as it was forced to move again shift around until he was at least mildly comfortable. "If you're going to ask for my help, you don't need to bother. It's yours. If, because of what I did back there, you won't me to go, I will. I will somewhere else. I always do."
"Even though you wield the Darkness, you offer to help us?"
Jaxon smiled tiredly and nodded. "Humanity is my greatest love. And if they should choose to fight, I will fight with them."
"Excellent. Then first, you should rest, recover your strength. Then, the fight begins in earnest."
Following this conversation were several days of recovering, as well as getting used to a strange pressure that seemed to emanate from the mountains not too far from the Farm. During his recovery, another Guardian arrived. Well, many arrived, but this one was special. Something about them felt different. He couldn't quite figure it out though. Somehow, they never really crossed paths. They would always just miss each other, no matter how hard he tried. It didn't help that once he was recovered enough to stand without issue, he was being included in any and all strategy meetings that Shaxx held. They weren't much at first, since it was mostly just Shaxx attempting to encourage and organize the other Guardians.
However, things significantly picked up when Zavala, the commander of the military side of the Vanguard, returned. Accompanied by the Guardian, who had somehow regained their Light. It didn't take long for Zavala to access the situation and begin helping to build up their defenses. He sent the Guardian off to find the rest of the vanguard. Zavala planned to take back the City.
Strategy and intel meetings quickly became regular occurrences. Jaxon was often invited to them, though when he attended he would usually sit somewhere out of the way. Eventually Cayde-6 joined them and a woman by the name of Ikora appeared soon after, completing the vanguard once again. Then the meetings truly began.
"Asher has told me that the Almighty is connected directly to the Sun's core." Ikora started off this particular meeting by dropping the verbal equivalent of a nuclear bomb, which certainly made things more exciting.
"So if we blow up the big sun blower-upper we blow up the Sun anyway?" Cayde-6 asked, petting a chicken that had drawn some stares several meetings back, but was now commonplace.
"An excellent summary, Cayde." Jaxon commented from his usual perch toward the back of the room. He had been invited to this, even though it was only the vanguard at the moment. "But if destroying the Almighty takes your sun with it, what can you do?"
"We will have to disable it instead." Zavala replied. "Our Guardian is capable of quick, in-and-out strikes. They can also operate independently in case of a communication outage."
"And once they've taken out the Almighty?" Cayde-6 asked.
"Then we take back our City." Ikora said, her Ghost projecting a map of the City, walls included.
"Well, that's all well and good to say, but how would we even get inside the walls?" Cayde-6 asked, stepping forward to study the map, chicken still in his arms.
As the vanguard considered how to answer Cayde-6's question, Hawthorne slipped down from her perch on the roof, easily passing through one of the many holes in the barn, and sat down next to Jaxon. "You know, the City's walls are a lot like this barn," She began, the vanguard turning to face her with varying degrees of surprise and respect on the faces, "lot of places to slip in unseen."
"And while I trust you all to be rather stealthy, I can help provide a distraction." Jaxon added. He wanted them to succeed and if that meant pushing his own abilities, so be it.
"What sort of distraction?" Zavala asked him.
"A big one. But...I will need Guardians with me. Once I start, Cabal will be on me pretty quickly. I can understand if you can't spare anyway. I can fight without them."
"You would risk your life for our City?" Zavala asked and when Jaxon nodded, he nodded back and said, "Then you will have your Guardians."
"Two or three will be all I need." He said confidently. "And I will bring them back."
The vanguard accepted his offer for a distraction and promised to provide two Guardians. That done, they turned back to Hawthorne, who began to show them all the hidden ways into the walls she'd learned over the years. There were quite a few. Over time, with Hawthorne's and Jaxon's help, a plan formed. There was still every chance they would die. But it was the best plan they had.
Necro: Alrighty, stopping it here cause y'all waited long enough and it feels right! And don't worry, I plan on keeping up with this! Also you can find me on Archive Of Our Own as Necro_Floodwaters! This also goes up on there, but without my notes!
MP: He also plans on uploading original works on there soon and also has another story up that can't be uploaded here, so check that out.
Necro: And this will be the last chapter I plug my Ko-fi on. Just for personal reasons. Anyway, see you lovely readers next chapter!