Ferral took his time about finishing his report. He didn't finish it until the following morning, and didn't submit it to the Vanguard server until that afternoon. Then he had to wait for a response.
The Vanguard leadership were out dealing with the Dreadnaught and the war in the Reef, so there was a huge backlog in the reviewing of reports. After a day of hearing nothing, Ferral checked in with the secretary who managed the Hunter Vanguard's paperwork.
She was a long-suffering Exo named Vera-8 who quietly cleaned up the messes left by her boss, Cayde-6. Cayde was absent, so she was handling all of the Hunter work herself.
"Has my report been reviewed, yet?" Ferral asked, trying not to appear too nervous.
Vera's eye-lights looked somehow even more put-upon. "Name, please."
Ferral told her, and waited while she looked it up.
"Hm," Vera said, "your report has been put on standby. Looks like someone thinks the commanders need to review it."
Ferral's mouth went dry.
"However," Vera went on, "they're still begging for more help at the Reef. I can ship you out tomorrow with a fire team."
"That sounds good," Ferral said at once. "I want to help fight."
It would get him out of the Tower, keep him too busy to worry about the uncertain fate hanging over his head. He didn't want to think about Lethia, either. She didn't need him moping around as she went through training. Warlocks and Hunters didn't mix much, anyway.
He signed on to a fire team that had an opening, then went back to his room to pack a few things. His favorite weapons had been lost on Mars, so he had to make do with a backup auto rifle and a couple of spare sidearms.
Banner floated beside him in silence. His ghost hadn't said much to him since Ferral had knifed Niki. But as Ferral packed, he said, "Banner, we need to talk."
"Yes?" Banner replied.
Ferral faced his ghost. "How long are you going to stay angry?"
Banner blinked at him from his new green shell. Then he looked away.
"Ban," Ferral said, "it was an accident. You saw it happen. I didn't target Niki on purpose."
"It's not that," Banner said, facing him again. "I've been trying to figure out how to explain it. You're my Guardian. We're partners. When the Taken almost killed me, you did everything in your power to keep me alive, and I'm grateful. But when you killed Niki ... I realized how delicate we ghosts are. That knife could have hit me. It ... broke my trust in you."
They gazed at each other for a long moment. Ferral processed this. Broken trust. His own ghost didn't trust him anymore. Grief crept through him in a cold wave.
"How do I fix that?" he blurted.
"I don't know," Banner said. "It'll take time, I guess."
Ferral held out both hands. For a moment Banner didn't move, and Ferral feared that his ghost was afraid to come near him. Then Banner flew up and nestled between his palms, blinking up at his Guardian.
"I'm sorry," Ferral whispered. "I'll never hurt you, I promise."
"And I'm sorry that I've grown afraid," Banner replied. "It'll be good to go back into combat. Less time to worry. We'll be a team again in no time."
Ferral hugged the ghost and gently released him. "Thanks for giving me a second chance."
"You're welcome," Banner replied. "I don't want to fear you. You're my Guardian, and my spark shines with yours." He emoted a smile. "I love you, you big lout."
Ferral grinned. "I love you too, little light."
It was the last time they'd have time to talk for a while. They shipped out the next day in a team led by a married couple named Kari and Rem. Experienced Guardians, experts in battle - and they'd be boarding the Dreadnaught, itself.
Lethia was welcomed into the Tower. The administration Guardians seemed despondent, and she had been there a week before she found out why. Many, many Guardians had died in the Reef and the Dreadnaught. There were standing orders to send more, even freshly raised newbies like Lethia.
She began warlock training with two others whose ghosts had recently found them. They had all had harrowing adventures trying to reach the Last City. But the other warlocks had been resurrected, and Lethia had not. And their ghosts had blue eyes.
Their trainer didn't quite know what to do with Lethia. Warlocks began training by exploring all three Light disciplines and settling on the one that suited them best. But Lethia had no link to Arc Light or Solar Light because her ghost was Void-locked. Her trainer finally registered her for lessons under Ikora Rey, Warlock Vanguard. Lethia went out for weapons training, instead.
Niki explained everything until she longed for him to stop talking. He gave her the history of the Last City and the Tower. He waxed eloquent about the Light. He talked her ear off about weapons, even while she was firing them and couldn't hear him.
One night, Lethia had collapsed in her bunk, exhausted and just wishing for sleep. Niki floated beside her. "After the Fallen destroyed our guns at the Twilight Gap, they pushed forward to the walls of the City, itself. I watched the whole thing from the mountains to the east. So many explosions. Then the Guardians destroyed the walkers and started pushing back - "
Lethia held up a hand. "Niki. Enough."
He stopped. "Oh."
She drew a deep breath, reminding herself to be kind. "Niki, I know you're trying to help. But sometimes it's just a bit ... much."
"Sorry," he said, the segments of his new shell drooping a little. Lethia had bought him a sunny yellow shell with red patterns. It complimented his purple eye. After a moment, he vanished.
"You don't have to impress me," she told him inside her head. "I already like you. Just be yourself."
"I'm trying." His voice was low and embarrassed. "I just ... worry that I'm not helping enough. And you won't like me anymore."
"Oh, Niki." Lethia flung one arm over her face and sighed. "I've forgiven you for making me a Guardian. It's all right."
"Have you?" Niki asked, still in that low voice. "You haven't told anyone about the Reef. Or your life there. But I feel your homesickness. And when food isn't right. And ... and how you're scared of the Traveler."
"No, I'm not!" Lethia exclaimed. It was her turn to be embarrassed. He had read her that closely? She'd thought she'd hidden her discontent so well.
"I do miss the Reef," she admitted after a moment. "I'm learning to fight so I can go back. Save my people from the Taken ... if there's anyone left."
Niki brightened. "I can help you do that! I explored all over the Reef before I found you."
Lethia smiled. "That'll be useful. I just hope the Vanguard will assign me there. From what I'm hearing, the Awoken disdaining Guardians isn't just one way."
"It's not all Awoken," Niki said. "It's Mara Sov. She didn't get along well with us."
"Us." Lethia thought about that. "I'm a Guardian. And I'm Reefborn Awoken. And we're Void-locked. Where do I belong, Niki?"
There was a long silence. Then Niki said, "I don't know. But I belong with you. I'm even ... half and half. Like you."
Half-Darkness, like no ghost should ever be. Ghosts were made of Light. Lethia's heart pained her. "Come here a minute."
Niki appeared above her in the bunk, his eye brightening the dim room. Lethia drew him down and kissed him lightly. "You do belong with me. And I'm so sorry I was ever mean to you. Just be yourself, all right? We'll find a place to belong. And if we can't find one, we'll make one."
His eye blushed pink again. When she let him go, he tottered in the air, then sank down to rest on the blanket. "Goodness, I barely know how to react to that."
Lethia stroked his shell with her fingertips. "Silly ghost. Anyway, we'll have to see what happens. And ... I hope Ferral makes it."
"No word from Banner," Niki said. "It's been weeks since they left. Shall I check the reports?"
Lethia quivered a little. "It has been weeks, hasn't it? I don't know if I want to know." She drew a deep breath. "Check the reports."
Niki sat there in silence, his eye gazing at nothing as his internal software crunched Vanguard data. Then he blinked and looked at her. "A fireteam crossed into the Ascendant Realm and killed the Hive god Oryx. Wow. I didn't know that was possible. That report came in ... let's see ... five hours ago. They're mopping up, now. But ... I'm seeing here that the fireteam was only a fraction of those who boarded the Dreadnaught. I don't know what happened to the others."
Lethia could barely make her mouth form the words. "Was Ferral ...?"
"This is a preliminary report," Niki said. "But it's from Kari, one of the team leads. So ... chances are, Ferral was with her."
Lethia clung to this fragile thread of hope. Although, if he survived the Dreadnaught, wouldn't he have to face a court-martial?
These dark fears followed Lethia for the next month. Winter gave way to a cold, rainy spring. Guardians straggled home from the Reef, tired and stressed.
Ferral didn't return.
He wasn't listed among the dead, but he had been marked Missing in Action. A lot of Guardians had. Some of them turned up on Mars, or Venus, or the other moons and planets. All of them were dealing with battle trauma. The Vanguard gradually collected them and treated hundreds of them for post-traumatic stress disorder. The battle against the Taken King had taken its toll.
Lethia trained under Ikora Rey, once the Warlock Vanguard returned to the Tower. Ikora was extremely interested in the Void-locking phenomenon, and asked a lot of questions about how it happened. Lethia had to admit that Niki had been fatally wounded by a shadow blade. Ikora went through the records and found Ferral's report. But since he was still MIA, there was nothing the Vanguard could do about him.
"I think," Ikora told Lethia, "your ghost could regain his connection with the Light. But you'll have to become adept at handling arc and solar from other sources, and you'll have to share it with him. Once he regains his Light, you, too, will have access to those disciplines. In the meantime, Void is powerful and extremely useful. I'll teach you combat and healing methods, as well as many small things to do in day to day life. As an Awoken, the Darkness will call to you through the Void Light. You must learn to recognize it and reject its call."
Lethia trained hard. Ikora was a strict teacher, and permitted Lethia to progress to the next level only when she had entirely mastered the first.
As summer warmed the lands around the Last City, Lethia graduated her training and entered full Vanguard service. The first thing she asked for was to be stationed at the Reef.
"It's my home," she explained to Zavala, Vanguard Commander. "I never died, sir. And I want to help my people, if there's any left. I saw what the Taken did to them."
Zavala was Awoken, too, although his place of birth was anyone's guess. He scowled at Lethia for a long moment, his Titan armor making him seem twice her size.
"The Reef does not welcome us," he said at last. "The Vanguard forbids the researching of a Guardian's past. But you never lost yours." He gazed at the maps on the command room's table. "Tell me, Guardian. Would your people welcome you home?"
"No," Lethia said. "But I understand the prejudice, sir. I'd like to help them rebuild, or heal, or do whatever I can. Maybe garnering goodwill would help the Vanguard in the future."
"Maybe." Zavala scrutinized her. "I'll give you eighteen Earth months. I want weekly reports on progress made. If, by the end of that time, the Awoken request that you leave, I will honor that request."
It was a fair condition. Lethia agreed. The next day, she departed Earth in a basic Vanguard jump ship.
"Ferral," Banner said. "You should go inside and get warm."
Ferral had been sitting on a rock in the wind for two hours, staring into space. They were deep in the Reef, in a remote area of the ring called the Reformation. Here a wild forest had been allowed to take over the rocky hills, disguising the skeletons of wrecked space ships. It was a misty, rainy, cold place, and not many Awoken lived there. Ferral had chosen it for this reason. He had settled in a little shack made of salvaged ship parts a day's walk from the nearest tiny town.
Banner gazed at his unresponsive Guardian. "Ferral," he said again. "Come along, now." He nudged Ferral's cheek with his shell.
Ferral jumped and looked at him. "Banner! What's wrong? Are they coming?" He leaped to his feet, drawing his sidearm and gripping it in both hands.
"Nobody's coming," Banner said gently. "You should go inside. The sun's going down, and you're freezing."
"Oh." Ferral relaxed, scanning the trees that bordered their clearing. Still carrying the pistol, he made his way into the shack, moving stiffly from cold.
The inside of the shack had a table, a tiny cot, and a pile of weapons and ammunition. Ferral crossed the room to the weapons and picked up each one, checking them and setting them down again. He did this whenever he entered the shack. Banner was certain by now that Ferral had no idea he was doing it.
"Are you hungry?" Banner asked.
Ferral gazed at his ghost a long moment. "Yes. I think I am." He went to a box in the corner, selected a ration pack with great care, even though they were all the same, and carried it to the table.
Banner watched in concerned silence. It had been six months since the Dreadnaught. Ferral had been part of the fireteam that had gotten lost inside the Hive flagship. He had watched his teammates be harvested, their Light stripped and stored in crystals, their ghosts murdered. Ferral had escaped in a stolen Hive fighter, but he carried with him trauma that no ghost could repair.
Banner saw to his Guardian's basic needs, making sure he ate, slept, and didn't die of exposure. But they had no more conversations, no more comfortable companionship. It was as if Ferral had switched into combat survival mode and couldn't switch back. Banner had scanned his Guardian's brain repeatedly. There was nothing wrong with the cell structure. Ferral's problem went far deeper than just his body. His very Light was stunted.
That night, as Ferral tossed and turned on his cot, Banner sent out a plea on the Light network all ghosts shared. "Are there any Guardians in the Reef? Please, my Guardian needs help. He's suffering from PTSD and I can't heal him."
A familiar ghost's voice replied. "Banner? Is that you? This is Niki."
"Niki?" Banner could barely believe it. "You're out here in the Reef?"
"Yes! Lethia has been dispatched here to aid the Awoken. Although, honestly, I think she's looking for you and Ferral."
Banner gazed at his Guardian, currently curled in a ball under a single blanket. "I'm afraid that she won't like what she finds. Ferral lost himself on the Dreadnaught and hasn't returned. I'm afraid he's insane." He hated to use the word. It seemed so harsh.
Niki was silent a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was so soft, Banner could barely hear him.
"I've told Lethia. She's devastated."
"Me too," Banner said simply.
Dismayed silence.
After a while, Niki said, "Lethia wants to see him. She thinks she can help. What are your coordinates?"
Banner sent them, relieved. Help would come. Lethia was a warlock, even if she was locked into Void. Just having a friendly Guardian around might help Ferral's mind.
"Bring food," he said. "And supplies. Ferral had been living on ration packs, and I'm constantly healing him of infections and viruses. He would die of sickness if I let him." He sent Niki a list of supplies he had been wishing for.
"We can bring these," Niki said, cheering up. "It'll be a few days, but I'll let you know when we're close."
Banner felt a little better after that.