Chapter 1
Mia
It wasn't even a year ago when Ikora met Mia, the Huntress, it was on Nessus after Ghaul had been defeated. She recalled it was another rather warm day on that once lifeless rock of a planet, the Vex steadily transforming the very terrain to fit their agenda for whatever it was they had planned. Guardians ran to and fro all around the planet, mowing down any Cabal, Vex or Fallen that they came across, as was now the usual to assure none of them got too steady of a hold on the planet. In fact, she remembered quite clearly a Minotaur, his left arm shredded from a Badlander shotgun from a titan and merely seconds from defeat.
She remembered it because it had attempted to strike her. A mistake didn't get the chance to make again. With a quick glance up to the core of the mechanical giant, Ikora lowered her hand and focused on The Light that surged through her body. Gathering the mystical energy that surrounded all Guardians and harnessed its destructive side for herself. With one strike, she slammed the palm of her hand into the liquid energy core of the Minotaur, releasing the sudden rush of Void energy she had gathered and sent the mechanical time-traveler falling back with a loud explosion as the light quickly absorbed any energy left in the construct and returned to the Warlock, filling her with just a small amount of power and healing the damage the brute had done to her. How she loved to devour her enemies at times.
After checking on the Guardian that was dealing with the Vex and assuring everything was under control, Ikora continued to move on and continue her patrol over Nessus, eyes looking over every turn and corner to assure that things were under control. A Vex Goblin here, a Cabal Captain there and one annoying Fallen Shank that seemed to enjoy a hit and run tactic a bit too much for her liking, and she had almost completed her entire patrol. That was, however, until she made it to the ruins of the Exodus Black colony ship. There, she saw rows after rows of Fallen helmets laid out on the shore, neatly put in a specific pattern. No Guardians were visible from where she stood, having come from the West of the Exodus' crash site through a cave system.
"Ah, Ikora. So good to have another Guardian here." The Warlock heard the cheerful chime of the Exodus Black's AI speak through her communications line. The strange wiring sound that quickly followed had a deeper, more depressed tone as it added: "I mean, at least you'll talk to us." Talk to them? What did that mean? After a moment of thought on what Failsafe had just said, Ikora assumed that another Guardian was here, and it was they're doing that these Fallen helmets were so neatly put out in a pattern. Though what the pattern was supposed to mean was beyond her. It might require a better vantage point than being on the ground.
"Failsafe, you said there was another Guardian, Correct? Where are they?" Ikora asked, looking around for any sign of conflict that would warrant so many dead Fallen. But it was strange; the entire area was quiet and lacked any sign of life. Once swarming with Fallen trying to scavenge whatever they can and gather Ether or Vex trying to construct their pylons for additional power, there was always something happening. But at this point, there was nothing but the quiet breeze of Nessus. As she waited for Exodus Black's AI to respond, the Voidwalker slowly began to climb up the mountain, steadily and slowly working her way higher and higher up the side to try and see what the fallen helmets made out in the way they were laid out.
A chime notified her that Failsafe had her response, but a hiss from a Fallen Vandal quickly drew her attention towards the entrance of the wrecked colony ship and just as fast as she turned around to glance at it, the Vandal's helmet flew off in sync with the sound of a firearm going off and a trail of Arc energy coming from higher up on the mountain. "A Guardian has been using a Borealis to take out any Fallen or Vex that appears, rather effectively too, might I add." The similar glitchy, wiring noise that signaled a quick change of tone and a more serious statement followed. "But they have been super weird. When we think they are in one place, they suddenly end up in another. It's like...They aren't even real."
Not even real? Nonsense, Ikora thought. One of the things Voidwalkers could do was blink from one location to another with relative ease, making it nearly impossible for any sensors to detect them for that short period of time. But that shot was from a Borealis Sniper Rifle, no doubt about it. They have a very distinct sound to them and the trail they leave behind makes it easy to detect the energy, a trait mainly used to identify the exotic firearm. Hunters normally use that type of weapon and Cayde-6 did often brag about how Night stalkers could go invisible for short periods of time. She, personally, has rarely ever seen it happen first hand, but one would assume that was the point. Nonetheless, Ikora quickened her climb up the mountain, now with a determination to see what laid near where the sniper fired from.
Once she had managed to arrive at the highest point of the mountain, Ikora scanned the ground and around the cliff to see if she could spot any movement, only to see nothing but what the helmets made. The way they were laid out now showed big letters, and not just of Fallen helmets, she could see Vex heads among the rows as well, all spelling out one word.
Asher Mir
This sent a chill down her spine at the realization. Was this a threat? Had a Guardian gone rogue and laid down a calling card for Asher, to threaten the grumpy scientist? This was far worse than what she had prepared to find. It had only taken her a moment, but as she gained control of her senses, a presence behind her made itself known to her. How did they get behind her? There was no one up here when she got here, she was certain of that.
After taking a moment to calm herself, Ikora gauged the situation as best as she could and mentally prepared for the worst possibility; She fell for a rogue Guardian's trap and said Guardian has their weapon trained on her and ready to fire. With eyes closed and a silent prayer to the Traveler, the Warlock slowly counted in her head. One...Two...THREE! She quickly changed focus, eyes zipping over to the open ledge next to her and projecting her light in that direction. A bright purple energy surrounded the Voidwalker and consumed her entirely before the energy quickly moved and disbursed to once again reveal the dark-skinned beauty as she leveled the Living Memory hand cannon on the Guardian, finger on the trigger ready to begin this Guardian versus Guardian brawl.
That was when she saw her, a Hunter with the Borealis in her hands, not pointing to where she was, but in fact down and away as Guardians are trained to do. She seemed to wear a brown and grey hooded cloak, making it easier for her to naturally blend into her current surroundings without relying on the Traveler's Light. Her face was covered in a black mask with a series of eight holes around where the mouth should be to allow her to breathe. The rest of her outfit was not very interesting, to the point that you wouldn't even bother to think it was a Guardian's outfit. The Huntress' shoulders were lowered and her back slightly slouched in a somewhat relaxed posture.
Ikor took notice of how the Guardian didn't react at all to her Blink, not shocked, or confused, angry or even amused. Her body language was just...lacking, almost like an Exo just being freshly rest. With a hint of hesitation, the Warlock slowly took a step forward, lowering her firearm and asking "What are you doing here, Guardian?"
Weather than answer with words, the Huntress, rose her rifle, exchanged a magazine to switch the energy type to void, which made the orange and silver rifle's energy color change from blue to violet, steadied her weapon down towards the ground and just as Ikora's eyes focused on a simple Vex Hobgoblin walking around in search of more organic material to convert into energy for its fellow constructs, the Borealis fired, the Void bullet soaring through the air and piercing directly into the center of the Hobgoblin, causing the "Vex Milk" to explode forth and splatter the shallow water near the Exodus in it's ionized milkiness as the robot-like being fell back, the red light in the center of its head slowly dimming. "Well, I see that, but why are you making out-" The Voidwalker was asking before she looked over to where the Huntress was only to realize she was no longer there.
Quickly looking around, the dark-skinned Guardian eventually found her eyes looking down at where the Vex was, only to see the Night Stalker was already down there, ripping the head from the body with her knife as quickly as she could. It almost looked like a madman trying to dig his way out of a prison with a plastic spoon the way she slashed and sliced at the Hobgoblin's throat. After a few minutes of effort, she finally managed to slowly pull the head of the Vex off and slowly carried it over to make the I in Mir cleaner, if only slightly more so. What was this guardian doing? Why did they write Asher's name in the remains of her victims? More and more questions began to pop up in her head as she glanced over to her ghost and ordered: "Send Zavala a message that we have unusual Guardian activity on Nessus."
"It's not nice to call people unusual." A cold, feminine voice spoke in a monotone fashion from Ikora's left, the person who the voice belonged to being far too close for comfort. She quickly tried to jump away to create more room from the sudden appearance of the Guardian, only to remember that she was on the edge of the cliff. Quickly losing her footing, Ikora began to fall back and towards the next cliff, where she would surely suffer several more falls while bouncing off of each cliff, only to finally end on the ground. However, that fate was avoided when the Huntress quickly reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, swiftly pulling her back onto the cliff to avoid such a horrendous death.
Now safe from falling, the dark-skinned adviser of the Tower looked to the unknown Night Stalker, only to quickly clear her throat and say "Thank you, Guardian. Now, onto what I was going to ask you before." She started, slowly turning around and looking down at the name written in heads on the floor near the Exodus Black's remains. "Why did you write Asher's name with the heads of Vex and Fallen Helmets?" This earned the very first actual reaction out of the Huntress since she met. And Ikora greatly regretted even asking the question, even to this day.
Letting out a sudden, erratic moan, the Huntress dropped her Exotic weapon and slowly reached up to her helmet, slowly removing it and revealing her pale blue skin, the waves of energy flowing through her skin emphasizing her glowing magenta eyes. Her expression was one of pleasure, pride and sick perversion as she looked upon her work, her hands dropping her helmet to quickly wrap her arms around her own body in a tight embrace in front of an ever more growing uncomfortable Ikora. "Oh, Asher Mir. I admire him so much-No! I love him!" She corrected herself quickly, hands pulling down her hood as she stepped forward, tips of her boots hanging off the edge of the cliff as she spread her arms out wide.
"I love Asher! He's smart, confident, cool, determined and certain! He faced the Genesis Mind on Io and lived! He has written so many brilliant and revolutionary theories on the Vex that not even the next hundred Generations will match his brilliance and there will never be a man like the great Asher Mir! I want to join him in his studies, be by his side every moment of every day! I want to hear him say my name; Mia!" The Night Stalker exclaimed to the heavens, laughing loudly as her admiration for once scientist sent chills down Ikora's spine as she arched a brow. This Guardian, She thought, might have been a bit too zealous.
It was at this moment, where Ikora's Ghost chimed in with a radio frequency from Cayde-6. "Umm...Ikora." The Exo Hunter started, though it was incredibly difficult to hear him over all of the loud explosions and screams she could hear in the background. "We...Umm...Might have a tiny problem." As the Warlock let out a heavy sigh, the sound of an overly energetic female Exo screamed in a high pitch voice "Warcliff!" Followed by the very familiar sound of a Warcliff Coil firing off its eight tracking orbs of lightning and exploding shortly after, followed by the screams of Cabal.
This seemed to get Mia's attention as she heard the Exo from her Ghost and turned to her, quickly returning to the relaxed and rather bored posture she once had. Slowly lowering her hand to pick up her helmet again and reaching back to flip up her hood, the Huntress asked in her monotone, an emotionless and flat way "I hear Sam-7. You don't want to be near her right now." This only made Ikora's eyes grow wide as Cayde continued to scream, yelp and grunt over the communications.
"Is Sam an incredibly curvy orange Exo with a hole in the side of her head and has an unhealthy love of her Warcliff Coil-Hey, hey! Watch it there!" Cayde asked, the sounds of the Coil's homing rounds landing a bit too close to him and sending vibrations even through his ghost. Mia nodded in confirmation as she slid her foot under her Borealis, quickly kicked it up and showed amazing handling of her weapon as she spun the sniper rifle around rapidly, a few times over her shoulder before holstering it under her cloak on her back. "Okay, yeah, then this is Sam. One question though; Why is she only saying War, Cliff, and Coil? Also, WHY IS SHE SHOOTING ME!?"
"That's two questions." Mia countered, only to begin walking over to Ikora, seemingly staring the Warlock in the eye through her helmet as she added "The answer to your first one question is, I don't know. But the answer to your second question is, I don't know." Cayde-6 attempted to voice the lack of helpfulness this new information was, only to be cut off by more explosions. "I'll go get Sam-7. Otherwise, she might use Cayde as ammo if she runs out."
This earned a pause from the usually mouthy Hunter on the other side of the radio, only for Ikora to state what he was thinking. "She can't use him for ammo...Can she?" To this, Mia simply walked past Ikora, jumped down to the next cliff and remained silent until she made it to the edge of the next cliff, where she stopped for a moment, slowly turned her head to look up at the Warlock and then look away to pull out her Ghost. After a long, tense pause, both Ikora and Cayde waiting for a response, Mia finally answered her question before she teleported onto her ship and flying off. Her answer made Ikora's heart fall into her stomach and realize that constantly reviving had a negative effect on the minds of some beings.
"I know she'll try her hardest."