a/n - the formatting is intentional, that's all i'll say about the matter.
A dream? A memory? Or both of things to come that have happened in this world? The past of Humanity, but the future of the Savior. He dreams deeply and suddenly and fails to remember clearly.
A voice in the wind of the teal-tinged air, faint and heavy, drawing him forward. Faint whispers that draw back and then push forward before folding in on themselves, voting to become one.
"I never believed in divine saviors," it echoes suddenly, ringing around and around before retreating back into the infinite expanse.
He trudges across sludge after it, thick water dipping into the sand, sucking at his legs. It's tiring and he wonders what would happen if he were to lay down and give up and then wonders where he's had this thought before.
"I never believed you were one," the voice returns, echoing far more harshly as the sand dips down and away from the water into a pit. It swirls and swirls, draining from the strange world he wanders aimlessly before a tomb rises from the vortex of sand, dripping in ichor. The water continues above, unperturbed.
He slides down the forever falling sand, through the water into the dry expanse, half expecting for the dream to pull him away from the tomb when he lands lightly on the platform that forms beneath his feet, but as he approaches, he realizes that it is a different tomb from before.
"I don't know what I believe anymore," the voice continues, almost distorted by the tens of echoes that emanate from the tomb, "but I do believe that you will come back to us. That is something Saint and I can agree on."
A purple crystal glimmers in the folded hands of the warrior laid to rest, and he murmurs in surprise when he recognizes the golden horn that curves away from the helm, "Shaxx?"
he screams when he wakes alone in a shimmering jungle, his screech of new life echoing and startling the wildlife as the trees and underbrush rustle further away from him. his chest heaves in mock breath, surveying the area around the exo-made clearing hurriedly.
the warrior is not with him. they had separated during the fall - revelation felt the brush of the sun and knew it was wrong.
this is not earth.
but it's green like earth, teeming with life like earth, and scarred like earth.
the humans believe this is earth so perhaps it is earth in this way.
"revelation," comes a soft whisper from within. he holds his hand out gently to allow his old friend to appear, a purple-shelled ghost with a gentle orange optic that blinks languidly, "they are looking for something that is ours."
"THE HUMANS?" he returns in a loud whisper, raspy and flanged as always.
"they do not know what they are searching for yet."
he thinks he knows what the aliens search for and there is brief sorrow for his dream.
"SHAXX."
if the ghost is surprised at the sureness of his conclusion, it does not show it, bobbing gently in an unfelt wind before disappearing with a thoughtful twirl.
he gets up and walks blindly as his lower hands rest on his shotguns in tense readiness. the aliens would not attack him now that he is no longer with the human warrior, but he doesn't doubt that without the human warrior, the humans themselves will attack him on sight. he does not necessarily blame them for that behavior, should it happen.
"revelation," the ghost says softly from within, "listen."
the radio opens and a soft song fills the air. it is familiar, he supposes, an old tune that makes his light warble in desperation.
"OURS." he walks where the song pulls him as though he follows a thread of old light and he feels his heart ache as he thinks of the tomb.
so lost in thought, he nearly runs right into a camp full of the aliens, but stops before he breaks into the clearing. it looks to be a small home, long since crumbled and decayed, reclaimed by the jungle around them. he thinks he recognizes the architecture.
revelation kneels behind the brush, peering through the leaves as he watches the black-and-red armor shove around a human. behind, in the crumbled home, revelation can see several other humans trapped behind a plasma field and he growls.
his attention is drawn back to the still-free human when the man gets up from the ground and immediately punches the black-and-red in the chest - it's a futile attempt, but revelation admires the man's bravery, recognizing that fierce glint in his eyes even as he's shoved into the decayed home.
the song is louder in this direction. perhaps he can earn the humans' trust by saving them. perhaps they know about the song.
when he enters the clearing, the small aliens gasp while the armored apes stare in awe before kneeling respectfully. the black-and-red armor approaches him carefully, head bowed as it grumbles, "My Lord, it is an honor to be graced by your presence-"
it chokes suddenly, a hand tucked carefully underneath its helm to grasp its neck tightly. it claws at the strong arm but revelation lets fire course through his veins, beginning to singe the fur and stain the air with the stench of burnt meat.
"LEAVE," he demands.
"Your Grace-" is all a gold armor can say before another hand reaches out and a flaming hammer reduces the alien to ash.
"YOU ARE NOT HONOR. YOU ARE NOT GRACE. THE LIGHT DOES NOT BLESS YOU. YOU WILL LEAVE AND THAT IS ALL I WILL GIVE." his grip tightens, accentuated with a crack, and he lets the black-and-red armor fall to the ground gracelessly. it will decay there and the armor will rust. the jungle will feed and its life will be satisfied with the sacrifice, continuing unabated.
the others flee easily and the song strengthens at the lack of bodies to block its passage to revelation.
when he enters the decayed home and releases the humans, he understands the brave man.
"I take it yer the big ol' alien buddy the Chief was talkin' about," the man says when revelation kneels in front of him. a gentle hand takes a bead of blood welling from a scratch on the man's cheek, and the helmet lifts slightly to allow the blood to touch metal lips.
he tastes LIGHT and FURY and HONOR.
"YOU ARE THE CRUCIBLE-DESCENDANT," revelation answers before standing and leaving the crumbled home. the humans whisper behind him and he feels a strange gaze on his back but he ignores it, straining to hear the song. it has faded when he rescued the humans and he stares at the ground, knowing that the song was behind the crumbling home but... perhaps it is not time.
"Hey," the crucible-descendant approaches him. an arm nudges his lower one, "Chief'll wanna know yer alive."
revelation looks over the descendant's head, eyeing the other humans that form up behind him. they are different kinds of descendants - he does smell light in them, but they are descendants of earth, regardless. not this earth. the real earth.
they need the real earth.
"LEAD, CRUCIBLE-DESCENDANT. THE SONG FADES FOR NOW."
Revelation's presence is preceded by whispers, the Master Chief notes. A torrent, a wave, a violent wind that upsets the air and settles wrongly in his chest before Revelation breaks through a boulder with an angry roar and a flaming warhammer, turning the whispers to shrieks of metal against metal as a Brute Chieftain is crushed and its blood evaporates underneath the burning hammer.
Johnson and his squad follow behind the alien, providing covering fire at Grunts and Jackals while Revelation continues his rampage across the clearing toward the Spartan.
It's a controlled rage, the Chief notices. He had assumed, initially, that Revelation fought with a blinded rage, but he had treated the Chief... kindly, the Spartan supposes he can say. Had stayed by his side when they fought through High Charity, was careful where he was visceral.
But there's something true to that rage there.
THIS IS NOT EARTH.
The anguished cry echoes in his mind as he shoots down a Brute and its companions. It was wrought with betrayal and grief - toward the Master Chief? Or toward the planet itself?
How does Revelation know about Earth?
"Johnson," Commander Keyes breathes a sigh of relief through the comms. network, "it's good to see you alive."
"Good to be alive, ma'am," Johnson replies gruffly while he kicks a fleeing Grunt to the side, ignoring as it flies into a tree trunk and dies on impact. "Chief's buddy here found us. Got the Covenant squad who captured us to turn tail just by starin' at 'em."
The sergeant scans the area to make sure the place was clear before lowering his weapon and facing the Chief as Revelation wanders off toward the ruined buildings. "Did he call ya any weird names when you two met?"
The Master Chief shakes his head in negative, raising a curious brow beneath his helmet that Johnson seems to pick up on.
"He called me the Crucible Descendant." Johnson fishes out his cigar from his front pocket, taking the stub into his mouth and chewing it thoughtfully. "Won't call me anythin' but that even after I told him my rank. Sayin' somethin' about a song or some other."
"He asked if I was Human," the Spartan decides to supply, knowing that Keyes is listening as well. "We were on the Forerunner ship when... he said that this isn't Earth."
He can't help but sigh inwardly, silently wishing Cortana hadn't stayed behind on High Charity - she would be three-quarters of the way through piecing together whatever Revelation is, what he keeps saying.
"This is our Earth," Keyes says emphatically, "and whatever is on this Earth, the Covenant want. There's something in these ruins - we caught them in the middle of setting up a base. Something is underground based on the seal in the center, but we can't figure out how to open it. Deep scans tell us that there's something down there worth digging for, and whatever it is, it's blocking us and the Covenant from figuring it out from up here."
The Master Chief looks around at the crumbled architecture, a mixture of mystical crystals, strange metals, and smooth stones, and sees Revelation climbing around as though he knows the place. The Spartan hesitates before mentioning, "I think our new friend might know."
Taking a more detailed look, the Chief comes to the conclusion that this place had to have been some kind of temple. Crumbled pillars and alcoves circle around an intricate seal on the ground, overgrown statues staring down at them ominously to which Revelation seems to understand a hidden kind of puzzle there.
"We could just blow it," a Marine suggests and earns a terrifying screech from Revelation in response.
"NO!" They look up to see the alien peering over the shoulder of the bulkiest statue, glaring down at the offending Marine who shrinks back apologetically.
The Master Chief shakes his head somewhat before turning back to Revelation who seems to be clawing at the back of the statue.
The statue itself is of a bulky armored man, dressed in a style reminiscent of Revelation's armor, though the statue has two arms which are crossed over a heavy axe wrapped in chains. The statue may have been colored once, but is now a smooth white like quartz, veined with black.
Revelation grunts suddenly and nearly falls off the statue as he leans back in surprise, but has something clutched in his lower arms that he appears to have taken from the statue's head. He climbs down, revealing a giant medallion with the crest of a tree and two wolves facing toward its thin trunk - by its green appearance, the Spartan supposes it was gold at one point. Handing the Spartan the medallion - which is notably heavier than it looks, Revelation points at a row of three short pillars standing in front of the ground seal before turning to climb up the middle statue.
By the time the Master Chief slots the medallion into the right pillar, Johnson is walking over with a faded red medallion emblazoned with a two-headed phoenix carrying two swords in its talons and slotting it in the left pillar.
When Revelation finds the last medallion, he takes a moment to stare at it. A stray hand traces the emblem, its colors long rusted away, and the alien seems to mumble something before walking over and placing it into the middle pillar. The Chief notes that the symbol is simpler than its siblings, a long V with a triangle inserted into it and a forward slash in front of it surrounded by a hexagon, but it seems important to Revelation regardless.
As soon as the medallion is inserted into the pillar, the statues spring to life, startling the Marines into raising their weapons, but lowering them uncertainly as only the top half of the statues seem to move. It's surprisingly lifelike, their movement, as they reach down and lift the ground seal as though it were a manhole, revealing a spiral staircase lit by the round crystals.
"Commander, we've found a way in," the Chief reports simply. He activates the internal zoom to see if he can spot the bottom before adding, "We may be able to maintain contact, doesn't look too far down."
"Roger that, Chief. Head down there, see if you can find anything useful, or whatever the Covenant was looking for," Keyes responds. "We have eyes in the sky, we'll tell you if there's trouble coming down. Keyes out."
At that, the Master Chief turns to Revelation who's still staring down at the cavern incredulously before looking at the Spartan. "Lead the way."
the song did not lead here. it had not come back. but revelation recognized saladin, shaxx, and zavala in an instant when he entered the temple ruins. they left this here on purpose. perhaps the song will come back once he explores underneath.
the humans look to him for guidance but he merely jumps down the center, activating his lift just several feet shy of breaking his ankles, and lands gently at the bottom while the humans begin their descent down the spiral staircase.
amethyst statues line the quartz hall and revelation wonders who dared to steal from the reef to build such intricate structures. he wonders absently if there is still a reef or an earth or a city.
perhaps this is earth after all...
"revelation," comes the soft sudden whisper from within, "there is another ghost."
"ALIVE?" revelation rasps aloud, listening to his voice echo further down the quartz hall.
"no," the whisper mourns, "but i believe we are meant to find it."
revelation feels he would have been more surprised if the ghost were alive with another guardian.
the hall begins to widen when the humans catch up to revelation, having been inspecting the nearby statuettes, to which the titan pats one of an astral cat and leaves a bowl of leftover catnip he still had in his banks.
the new room arches into a dome and sparkles with the jagged form of amethyst crystals that bend down from the ceiling. small alcoves of statuettes of guardians holding artifacts are backlit by a rainbow of lights before a set of torches in the middle spark to life in purple flames.
"the ghost..." a whisper of reminding.
revelation steps forward as the glow of the flames lights the center, and his light clenches in sudden remorse and agony as he stares.
"NO..." comes the loud whisper, short of cracking into a wail. "IT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE YOU."
he kneels before the tomb of shiro-4, placing his hands along the carved form of the hunter's body. there is no song from his tomb.
"YOU ARE TOO FAR FROM HOME!" revelation wails, voice crackling as he wills his light forward. but whoever built shiro's tomb seemed to understand what revelation would attempt, and the light bounces back and ignites revelation's grief even more.
"his ghost..." another reminder that breaks through his grief and he pulls himself toward shiro's hands where it curls around the shell of his long dead ghost.
her eye is dark, her shell is immaculate, she is untouched.
perhaps he had passed away in peace.
revelation gathers the ghost in his hands gently, cradling her carefully as though she would crumble to dust if he breathed on her wrong, and he turns to the sage soldier and the crucible-descendant, saying softly, remorsefully for having to take a dead ghost from her dead guardian, "THIS IS IT."
they guide revelation back to the surface as he stares at the ghost. a cold numbness settles over him as he looks around the temple ruins - had he gone so far forward in time that the time of guardians has ended? that earth has changed so terribly?
the song... the song had been leading him somewhere, however. not the temple. elsewhere.
"I'M SORRY," he whispers to the ghost.
on the surface, a prefabricated base had been set down in front of the temple ruins, and revelation wants to scream at how easily they have desecrated his future-past, but only manages half a shrill wail before he's ushered inside.
there are other humans waiting for them inside - a smaller human woman with a look that reminds him of ana bray, a neatly dressed man who reminds him of zavala, and several of the hunched aliens that he had fought on the floating city. they are passive, however, despite their looks of awe and reverent acknowledgement toward him when he passes by.
"When you said you had found one of the Gods, I scarcely believed it," a silver-armored one with orange eyes says softly before he bows slightly toward revelation. "It is an honor, Your Grace."
"NO," revelation repeats, strained. "I AM NO ONE'S GOD. NO ONE'S SAVIOR. NOT AGAIN."
he gently places the ghost on the table they stand around and the woman raises a brow at it, "A dead AI?"
"HANAKO." revelation runs a hand over her shell, mournful. "HANAKO, WITH THE LIGHT I GIVE IN THE LAST OF YOUR LIFE, PLEASE."
with a burst of light, the ghost shudders and her optic flickers as she lifts shakily into the air before bursting into flakes of dying light.
the flakes tumble and twirl for a moment before lifting and swirling around the room while a smooth rich voice echoes around.
It's day...
Ah, forget days...
It's been three hundred years since the Cataclysm. We lost contact with the Sol system fifty years ago and we're running out of Shards of Light.
We got just about every civilian from the Last City out before the final battle anyways, so I don't... I don't know.
Zavala and Shaxx said that we have to let the mortals go on their own now. We'll be removing our descendants from the pocket dimension next month - there's no more Ghosts. No more Light to sustain us out here. No more Guardians being born.
But... we'll stay for as long as we can. This dimension is the only access we've got to the Ascendant Realm to keep anything in there at bay, and to defend your Throneworld.
Shaxx found you there when we first landed on Gaia. Immediately dived into the Ascendant Realm and found that Throneworld of Light that Eris always talked about, and found you. We can't wake you up, we don't know how. Shaxx gave all of his Light to you, but you haven't even stirred.
I remember Saint saying something about you returning to us one day, to finally kill what killed you.
I don't know if I can believe that will happen anymore.
I don't know what I believe anymore anyways.
But, if you are out there. If you're lost, if you can't find your body, your Throneworld, then maybe you can find us, find Earth again, and fix what the Cataclysm destroyed.
The Light will be gone by the time you find what remains of us, but we'll leave enough so you can find your way home.
Look for Shaxx, he has the first piece of the map and it'll lead you where you need to go.
Hopefully, Humanity will regain its footing in the meantime, and be able to finally live without the Darkness or the Cabal or Vex or whatever wanted to kill us breathing down their necks.
Please, Revelation.
We need you.