The Guardian sat back in her light construct chair as she watched Ana and Zavala discuss their plan openly, almost as if she wasn't here. Of course, they knew she was here, but were so engrossed in their morality session to bother asking for her input.
Wicht, to be honest, was her own damn fault for not speaking up. Ever. Even going as far as to rely on her Ghost to do the talking for her.
'Zavala makes a good point, can we trust Rasputin to pull the trigger?' Nolan asked in her head.
The unnamed Hunter snorted as she waved her hand derisively.
' If I can trust you to revive me every time I die, I'm pretty sure we can trust a millennia-old AI to at least fire a gun.' She thought to her Ghost.
'that's a good point, maybe you should tell them that.' Her Ghost supplied only to earn another snort from his Guardian.
'Sure like big ol' Voo Voo Zala and the legendary Ana Bray are gonna give two glimmers to hear what a six-year-old guardian has to say about morality.' The Guardian surmised bitterly.,' Oh, if only Ikora came here, this would actually be an interesting debate.'
'True, they are bland at defending their arguments.' Nolan reluctantly conceded.
'He's a Titan, and she's got her head in the stars. It's like seeing a soldier and a painter bicker over the use of toilet paper.' To the Guardian's surprise, her normally stoic companion actually laughed.
Turning to her left, she saw her Ghost buzzing out of control as what could amount to a ghost laughing could be heard emanating from the floating shell. The sudden disturbance broke Zavala and Ana Bray away from their high school melodrama and take in the laughing Ghost, whose Guardian only shrugged from her comfy chair of light.
"Is something wrong with your ghost guardian?" Zavala asked.
Only for Ana to follow up his question with, "So what's the Joke?"
Nolan seemed to calm down between fits of laughter enough to answer Ana, "It involves, a painter, a soldier,*chuckle* and some toilet paper."
Zavala turned an eyebrow over at the Guardian in front of him, for a moment, he forgot who she was. Before his eyes glanced down towards her gun. The Ace of spades. He sighed dejectedly, 'Of course, it's her.'
"Was the joke so Important that it should interrupt our conversation?" the Titan Vanguard asked.
"More importantly, what was it about?" Ana joked as a smirk etched into her face.
By now, Nolan had calmed down and realized he'd messed up. "I'm sorry, I couldn't keep it in. She made the joke inside her head, I should have kept it private."
Zavala turned his head towards the Guardian, "Is this true?"
The Guardian nodded her head.
"What was the joke then, was it good?" Ana smiled towards the fellow gunslinger.
The Vanguard crossed his arms, curious to hear what brought the GhostGhost to break out into such outrageous laughter.
Said Guardian shrugged and made a 'so-so' gesture.
"So, it wasn't a perfect one?" Ana translated.
The Hunter nodded.
"So, what made it so funny?" Ana asked.
At this, the Guardian cocked her head to the left in thought, before guesting over to her Ghost.
"Very well, what's so funny about her joke ghost?" Ana asked the now skittish Ghost.
Nolan glared at his Guardian, who only shrugged in response.
"Well?" asked the impatient Zavala.
"Err, well... Her inner voice...made it funny?" Nolan lied unconvincingly.
Ana put her hands on her hips and gave a disbelieving smirk to Nolan, while Zavala crossed his arms disapprovingly.
"it's true, she has this beautiful- I mean ridiculously, err-Fine you know what, she was making fun of your Debate!" Nolan sold out his Guardian, who, in turn, sat right up and blinked innocently. Which would have worked, if not for the mask obscuring her face?
Zavala pinched the bridge of his nose, "What did I think that it was anything else?"
Ana frowned in thought as she put the pieces of the puzzle together in her head.
"Well, I'll be pulling the switch, if you three don't need any more of me?" Nolan pressed to the three heroes.
'I'll need the trigger for the almighty Nolan, it's about time I told them my plan.' The Guardian outstretched her palm to her GhostGhost.
'Ill patch it through the Warsat Network for you.' Nolan transmitted it into her palm.
'Thanks, Nolan.' The Hunter pocketed it into her suit.
"What was that?" Ana inquired, raising her eyebrow.
Instead of answering her, the Guardian chose to stand up from her comfy light construct chair.
Zavala coughed as he eyed the dissipating chair. "Where'd you learn that?"
The Guardian raised a finger to her helmet.
"Right, so what is it you just pocketed?" Ana changed the conversation.
"Not important " came the raspy voice of the Guardian.
Ana put a hand on her hip, "You don't talk much, do you?"
The god slayer shook her head and coughed. "That obvious, huh?"
The voice of Rasputin only smirked.
"so, back to it. What is your input on this matter? Since you seem to think yourself above such...petty disputes." Zavala asked the now talking Guardian.
Ana chuckled to herself only to earn a glare from the commander.
"Something funny, Bray?"
"Just finding it kinda funny that you think she's arrogant. If she were arrogant; she'd talk more." As if to demonstrate Bray's point, said Guardian stayed silent.
'Here we go again,' Thought the Guardian rolling her eyes.' I swear the way they bicker is more inefficient than the Cabal.'
'By my measurements, the likelihood they'll agree on anything is if you have them attend a five-hour seminar hosted by Brother Vance.'
The Guardian shuddered in her boots at the thought of that creep. Before an idea struck her cerebral cortex with the force of a velociraptor that hadn't eaten in weeks.' Say, think you can get Razzy to comedically interrupt them?'
'Got it, boss,' her GhostGhost replied in her head.
Turning her attention to the bickering guardians, the avenger of Cayde found herself in the middle of a tug of war match between the two opposing guardians. And surprisingly, Ana was holding her ground against the Titan.
"No, she stays right here. Rasputin needs her help in stopping the almighty from crashing."
"And I'm telling you if we have to find another way, we will find another way. Leave that traitorous-"
"Traitorous? It was the Iron lords who decided to raid his bunker, I'm sorry if he woke up a little grouchy."
"And what about Siva, was that meant to help us?"
"The Iron lords sure seemed to think so!"
Tuning back out of that verbal slugfest, Saladins young wolf eyed her Ghost as he pulled the switch that connected Rasputin to this bunker. All of a sudden, a Frankenstein of different orchestral pieces played as the lights began to shift into random colors.
"You connected him to the bunker!" Ana cheered as she wrapped her arms around her sister hunter.
"Umm, maybe you should thank me for that." Nolan interrupted her embrace by transmating himself in between the two hunters.
"Oh, well, thank you, ghost." She corrected herself as she gently cupped the tiny ghosts shell with her hand.
"It's Nolan, but-Erm, your welcome, guardian." the Ghost welcomed the hand with a tinge of red in his spark.
"Should I be jealous, Nolan?" asked his own Guardian who affectionately brushed the top of his shell, much to his further embarrassment.
From behind an annoyed Zavala's head, his Ghost transmated itself and let out a very feminine giggle at the embarrassment of her fellow Ghost.
The titan commander turned his head only for his Ghost to disappear again without a word. His face scrunched in confusion momentarily before he turned back to the little game the two hunters were playing with the poor little light.
"Gah, enough this tomfoolery. We have more important matters to discuss," Zavala ranted, pulling the two gunslingers from their almost pink victim. Zaval turned towards the hero of the red war, "Guardian, do you think It will help us now or not?"
The Guardian relapsed into her silent vigil once more, as her Ghost whizzed back over her shoulder, although he seemed to have a noticeable pink hue to his spark.
Ana huffed as she recovered from Zavala's rude intrusion from her 'tomfoolery.' She jabbed an accusing finger into the Titan's chest, "Listen here you big ol' blueberry, Rasputin has done more for our cause already then you have since the Guardian killed the heart of darkness! You've been-"
Ana was interrupted from her tirade as the Guardian loudly coughed to gain their attention. "Nolan, have you linked it to the network?"
Nolan wobbled mid-air slightly before responding. "Yes, but the line was taken over by Rasputin for twelve milliseconds before the transmitters were cut off."
The Guardian nodded, only to gain curious looks from the other two guardians.
"Did he say, No?" asked Ana surreptitiously.
"Did the Warmind reject the bunker?" Zavala asked, eying the still flashing multicolored lights.
"No, in fact, from what I read, he's preparing to clean and upgrade it," Nolan explained with ease.
"Now hold on, what did you mean by he cut off the transmitters?" Ana inquired further.
"It means he probably-" Nolan trailed off, looking back down at his Guardian. "Maybe it would be better received if Zorya told you."
The Guardian stepped forward to speak but stopped as if something held her back. She cocked her head sideways and shared a short look with her Ghost.
"Guardian, is something the matter?" Zavala obliviously hounded, ignoring the dawning look of revelation appearing on Ana's face.
"Zorya, is that your name? Zorya?" Anastasia Bray repeated, not believing that the name of the unnamed Guardian had been just released in such a matter. "When did you get a name?"
Zavala blinked as the realization that the Guardian's unspoken name had been spoken. On the one hand, it's nice that he had a name to call the famed godslayer of the tower. On the other, it was another distraction from the more pressing matter of one giant elephant in the room. "What did Rasputin do with your transmitters guardian?"
Zorya, eager to break away from the awkward tension that had filled the air between them, answered Zavala candidly. "Blown up, I suppose, not that there was any other way they were going to go anyways."
Ana blinked, her mind going from Zorya's new name to the direct response she gave Zavala. Rasputin was not an outwardly aggressive person, blowing up someone's transmitters, just for connecting to the Warsat network. It must have been a hazardous connection if Rasputin had felt the need to blow up a transmitter. Which prompted the question, "Why would he blow them up?"
"To destroy the Almighty, I might think, much better then what you guys were probably planning anyways." Came the care-free response from the lone masked Guardian.
"How does blowing up Transmitters destroy the almighty?" Zavala barked, stepping forward only to be held off with one hand by Ana.
"Those transmitters wouldn't have happened to be attached to explosives, would they?" Questioned Any Bray with a smirk.
"Ten glimmer says you can't guess what I used," smirked Zorya back.
"A hundred glimmer says its cabal fuel'" Ana bet with a swag of her chin.
Zorya gave an exaggerated wince as she shook her head, "Ooh, two more tries."
Ana knitted her brow in thought, as her Exo eyes flickered to life with all the possible explosives she could have used. "Ah, gotchya! It's stolen fallen explosive barrels!"
Zaval creased his brow in concern as he observed the interaction between the two. 'The Almighty-Gone? When did she have the time to-oh? I should pay more attention to Ikora one of these days.'
"Okay, it had to be enhancement cores. Small, volatile, easily combustible, easily deadly." Ana exclaimed, only to be turned down with a shake of the unbroken Guardian.
"Nope, it was Vex explosive cubes," Zorya explained, chuckling. "It's okay, I'm not even sure Osiris had thought of my use for them when he gave them to me."
"They're explosive cubes, what did he think you were going to do with them?" Nolan cut into their dialogue.
Zorya conceded Nolan's point with a nod.
Zavala stepped in as well, "Well, if the Almighty is no longer a threat, we should go back to business as usual," he turned to Ana Bray, "Though it's nice to know we didn't have to gamble with your...pet."
"'Pet'? He's not my pet. He's his own being if anyone here is the pet it's Zavala who ... has...to...to," Ana trailed off at the glare that emanated from the Titan vanguard. She sighed in defeat, "I'll stop right there."
Zaval scoffed and headed up the stairs to the exit, leaving behind the two gunslingers to stand around awkwardly.
"So'" Ana began scratching the back of her head, "That was a thing. Certainly, I didn't expect you to prepare something like that in advance. Didn't seem like your style."
Ana walked around Zorya and went over to lean on a computer rack near where she had been working. "Say, think you could teach me that chair thing? Would make this so much more comfortable right now."
Zorya tilted her hooded helmet to the side, "I could."
Ana rested an arm over the computer rack and smirked slyly. "I'd make it worth your time."
Zorya turned to look at Nolan, who nodded in agreement. Turning back, she asked, "A free noodle cup on the house?"
Ana blinked; that certainly wasn't what she had in mind. "No, no, no, that's not what I meant. I mean sure I could do that but," Ana blushed slightly, "I was going to offer you some advanced weaponry."
"I get fancy weapons all the time, yet I still go back to the basics. At best, I dismantle the newer weapons to find the parts I need to upgrade my current ones." She slid the Ace of Spades out of his holster to show Ana. "I'm kinda sentimental with the guns I use. I even have the guns I killed Ghaul with, in my armory at the tower."
Ana snapped as an idea came to mind, " Maybe I could upgrade them for you?"
"Sounds great, though I would kill for some noodles right about now," Zorya confessed as she outstretched her hand.
"And now I see why you were Cayde's favorite." Ana laughed as she shook her hand. "Now, are you gonna show me that light trick, or am I gonna have to drag you to the crucible to figure things out?"
"Oh, come on, don't drag me there. Shaxx has been begging me to do a magazine cover for the Last city for years now." The unbroken Guardian whined Jovially.
"You know, Zorya, we should hang out more often," Ana said once they got close to reaching the exit.
"It was nice talking to another hunter again, yes. Anyways, I expect to see you at the tower more often, me and Shiro can't be expected to buy out the noodle stand every Friday night." Zorya informed as she began walking up the incline toward the exit to the mouth of the bunker.
"What, no hands-on training?" Ana jested at Zorya.
"Not my thing, I prefer letting people learn themselves. I'm not a warlock, you know."
"Oh, I know, Zorya, I know," Ana smirked as her eyes roamed over Zorya's armor.
"Oh, and one more thing," Zorya held up a finger as she stopped at the edge of the EDZ bunker, turning she leveled a long look at Ana Bray. "Don't ever tell anyone my name. I've told Zavala and Ikora this before, that should he ever find my name. It's not to be used in any documents."
"Why? Don't you want it to be known?" Ana asked, puzzled, her experience with her own name coming to the forefront of her mind.
"I have my reasons." Came the vague response from the Guardian before she transmated out of sight. Leaving Ana all alone in front of the EDZ bunker.
She observed the earth around her, a battlefield that had seen better days. A fallen skiff was turned over, its hull a hollow husk of what it must have been. Turning upwards, she took in the top point of the giant shard, which, despite her being so close to the cliff, could just barely be seen from that angle.
An introspective calm took over her, as she saw stood still waiting for the sun's last rays to leave the shard of the traveler. Blinking, she remembered something she had forgotten to do.
"Jinju, start a log for me, will ya'?"
(Bartholemeow) And that's it, a simple one-shot on how my guardian would have handled the almighty. If your new to my fanfictions and enjoy Destiny, please check out hope for the Future, my main series which will have an update soon.
Good luck everyone 0/.