Three years later
Flying back to the Tower after a long patrol would have been very boring to most Guardians, but to Adora? She honestly enjoyed the little quiet moments and freedom from flying around and just looking out into the horizon. After a very eventful three years with the Black Garden, Vault of Glass, Crota, House of Wolves, freaking Oryx, and the recent trouble with SIVA she could do for a little nothing but quite and air right now. She honestly felt like she was a Hunter with that little voice in her head telling her to have some me time but the rest of her was screaming that she need do something to help others. So the young Titan believed that this was quite a good compromise.
As she flew through the air, getting what was quite honestly her first real break in a while since her rebirth, she noticed that her Ghost was honestly a bit jumpy right now. Light Hope had always been a clam and collective Ghost with a sense of humor for as long a she can remember, which honestly isn't much but for guardians that's normal. So when Adora noticed that she was trying to call the Tower with no success she thought there must be something going on.
"Repeat, Tower Approach, this is City Hawk seven-two-three." Light Hope says with slight worry as no one answers.
"Anyone home...?" She asks with her only answer being static and begins to then try the emergency channels and still nothing.
"No response on any channels, even the emergency frequencies." She sighs in both frustration and fear, "What is going on back there?"
Adora looks back to Light Hope and says, "Hey I mean it could be the storm. First time I've really ever seen a strom of any sort in the City honestly. Maybe that's why it's dark?" she say trying to find a uplifting and hopeful answer to reassure her Ghost.
"No way. The City has had storms bigger than this. There is no way every channel I've tried to call would be down just from one storm." Light Hope says as she tries to figure out what's going on. The only reason all the channels should be down if the City was…
Light Hope spins towards Adora and says, "Remember when I told you that you fly to fast?"
Adora gives her a look that says no but I would love to hear you thoughts.
"Forget I said that. Fly fast!" Light Hope said with and urgency Adora had never heard before.
Gunning the engines, Adora made a b-line for the City. Flying through the ragging storm and narrowly avoiding the lightning was scary but if the City was in trouble the Young Wolf, savior of humanity, could deal with it. As she flew out of the storm she thought things would get easier. Oh how wrong she was.
In front of her were hundreds of warships she'd never seen before bombarding the City and reducing it to ash. The Tower looked like it got hit so hard it might fall over, thankfully it looked like it could still hold for a little while. These attacks however were not the only things these unknown invaders where doing. This giant ship had seemed to latch itself upon the Traveler. Their motives were clear, whoever these guys were they were trying to conquer her home.
Just as the realization had dawned on her the enemy ships had begun to fire on her as she made her way to the Tower! She evaded and dodged their attacks as best she could but a single shot got her wing and she spiraled out of control towards the Tower. Just as they were but a few feet away from the Tower, Light Hope transmatted the both of them to what used to be the Vanguard's operating room. Adora landed on her feet and held on to what was left of some scaffolding. She turned around and looked outside as her ship crashed straight to the ground with quite a big explosion. She made a mental not to steal one of these jerk's ship at some point.
She looked around and saw only fire and destruction, lost for words on what to do. Her home was being destroyed as she just stood there in this room afraid of what just happened and having no idea what to do next.
Sensing her guardian's stress Light Hope said, "Hey it's OK. We're here now! We can do stop these monsters. Let's get moving. We need to find Zavala, Ikora, and Cayde."
"Thanks Light Hope. Okay" she turns towards the door and cocks her Vanguard issued sidearm, "Let's do this."
Adora ran towards the door but the fire had seemed to collapse this part of the building. Thankfully she saw a few bits of debris that lead to another room. She was about to punch her way throught when an explosion passed her back a bit as her enemies now show themselves.
"Cabal!" Light Hope yelled. However in a very short time she noticed that these where not like any Cabal she had ever seen. They aimed their weapons at her. Good, she need to hit something right now.
With lightning fast reflexes she dodged the gun fire and shot at the Cabal in the back straight in the head. His comrade in shock and confusion, thinking she was aiming at him instead, used this to jump towards the large alien with her arm recalled back and pulsing with electricity. As soon as she hit him he was nothing more than sparks on the floor.
"This doesn't make sense. The Cabal conquer systems by blowing up planets."
"I think they want something in the City. Maybe our fears of our enemies wanting the Traveler is true." Adora replied.
"Whatever they want it must be here."
Just then Adora notices one of Shaxx's Redjacks fighting off the Cabal when all of the sudden a hidden blade in one of their arms impaled the poor frame. Whoever these Cabal where it's clear they have some tricks up there sleeves, literally. Aiming her sidearm she took them both down before they even had a chance to register her presence.
"This is Commander Zavala. Civilians: report to evac points. Guardians: rendezvous in the Plaza. Our city will not fall!" said the Commander over the coms with a sense of urgency Adora had never heard from the calm Awoken before.
Shooting at another Cabal that seemed to get hit by an explosion, she put it out of it's misery and made her way to a door the was open extremely fast due to the fact that a familiar Exo Hunter had just been thrown into it.
"CAYDE!" Both Adora and Light Hope yelled in surprise and joy from seeing one of their friends still alive.
"Hey you two! Gimme a sec."
Using his Light Cayde made his Golden Gun and fired on the remaining Cabal in the room, turning them into ash.
"What's going on?" Adora asked.
"Zavala's doing the hero act in the Plaza. Me? I've got a date with whoever's behind this. It'll be short date."
Transmatting to somewhere else in the Tower, Adora rushed to the stairs and saw the destroyed pot of Eris Morn. Adora really hopped she was okay, most people where afraid of her but Adora had always enjoyed her company and thought she was an alright person. Especially considering what she survived she could have turned out a whole lot worse and she was thankful Eris was one of the good guys. She also noticed that there were still some civilians here being guarded by Redjacks. She thanked the Traveler that Cayde was there to take out those remaining Cabal.
"Ah! Saladin's Young Wolf!"
The booming voice of Lord Shaxx definitely got Adora's attention. Even for a Titan Shaxx was big. Even now she is still a little scared of him, she knows he is a kind soul who will do all he can to get these civilians to safety, but that doesn't make him any less intimidating. She did however envy his muscles, hoping she would be as built as he is one day. She hopes she can live to see that day right now.
"My armory is open to you. Follow the path from there. It will lead you through the Hangar to the Plaza."
Without a moment of hesitation Lord Shaxx forced the sealed door open with his bare hands making an entry just big enough for Adora.
"Thanks Shaxx. I'll deal with the rest up top. See what you can do for the civilians."
"I'll take care of these people. If the Cabal want war, give them war."
As Shaxx released the door Adora wanted to marvel at all the guns in the room but time was of the essence. She quickly grabbed a standard Vanguard assault rifle and loaded up with as much ammo as she could. She then made her trek through what was left of the Hangar. She could almost hear Holliday's joyful laugh or other guardians playing around waiting to check up on their ships. As she made her way through she saw even more Cabal setting up shop in the Hangar, she was not having any of that.
After taking down the few Cabal in the Hangar she then saw a massive ship launching, what she assumed where rockets, at the Tower!
"Look at the size of that thing. It must be their command ship." Light Hope surmised from the giant symbol and scale of said ship.
Honestly if it weren't for that weird thing on the Traveler Adora would totally agree. She saw even more Cabal and narrowly avoided the shot from a new one hovering in the air. After a quick minute of punching and throwing a grenade or two she saw how the weird ship one the Traveler seemed to be… growing or at the very least expanding its reach on the Traveler. Shaking her head she focused on getting to the Plaza.
"OK. My Ghost keeps tagging these Cabal as Red Legion. Ikora, what do you got?"
"They're elite. Ruthless. And rumor is, they have never know defeat."
As she made her way through the rubble, Adora head all of this on the main guardian channel. So now she has a name to her enemy, the Red Legion. If they had never know defeat before they were in for a big unpleasant surprise today. Guardians do not go down easy and they did not take well to uninvited guests.
"Until today. Today, they face Guardians."
"But Zavala! They're attacking the Traveler!"
"The Traveler waits! We protect our people. At any cost."
As much as Adora thought whatever was happening with the Traveler was important, she agreed with Zavala. The safety of the people must come first. As she was about to attack a Red Legion Cabal focused on Zavala a knife flew towards it head. Gazing towards who threw the knife Adora smiled as big as she could right now, behind her helmet mind you but still.
"Hey Adora." Said Catra, Adora's Human Hunter girlfriend.
Catra wasn't alone here either. Adora could see Bow the Human Hunter with his girlfriend Glimmer the Human Warlock covering Zavala. Not only that she saw the Awoken Titan Scorpia throwing one Cabal into a bunch of others. Even the Exo Warlcok Entrapta-6 was there, though it looked like she might be a bit pre occupied trying to fix some of the broken frames as quickly as she could. Once Adora saw one Cabal try to attack her friend from behind she fired several shots into it as it fell to the ground. Once it did Entrapta-6 looked up to the new arrival and waved.
"Oh hi Adora! How are you doing?" Entrapta-6 asked innocently despite a literal warzone going on around them.
"Honestly could be better." She replied as she punched a nearby Cabal in the face.
"Well I mean hey, at least you can say we did something as a group today." Catra joked as she dodged enemy fire.
"That's the spirit Catra. Let's try and do our best today!" Scorpia practically yelled with excitement as she shoved of several Cabal that tried and failed miserably to pile on her.
"Anyone have any ideas how these guys just stormed in here practically unannounced?!?! I mean even if our satellites all fell we should have gotten some sort notice as soon as they did fall but nothing! What the shanks is going on here?!?!?" Glimmer yelled at the top of her lungs trying to understand how this whole situation could even happen.
"Let's try and figure that out later, right now we have to focus on staying alive and protecting the civilians." Bow said to try and get everyone to focus on the task at hand, which they thankfully do.
"Bow is correct. These Red Legion are well trained. But we are better. We will hold this line until the last civilian is safely away." Commander Zavala ordered, and the guardians happily followed.
Just then several drop pods flew down form the Red Legion command ship containing several Cabal. "Don't let them past the gate! The evac shuttles are back there!" Zavala said as he fired upon the Legion.
"You heard the man! Eyes up guardians!"
Adora shouted as she and her friends took out wave after wave of Red Legion. Bow and Glimmer practically danced together in the mayhem and still kicked butt. Adora and Catra had gone for a more subtler approach, meaning Catra jumped around and tried to confuse or disorient her targets while Adora just rushed head first into danger. That kept the likes of Scorpia and Entrapta-6 to deal with any Cabal that got past their friends. After a few minutes the battle showed little to no signs of stopping. All of a sudden they heard Ikora over the coms.
"Zavala, the last of the shuttles is away. But the Speaker-he never made it. I'm going to look for him."
"Of course mister chatty is late and we have to come save him. What else is new?" Catra sneered being one of the few guardians to not actually like the Speaker. She always did have a problem with authority figures who hold themselves a bit too highly above others. Especially since he never leaves the Tower and she's the one who has to constantly risk her ass. At least with the Vanguard she knows they'd go out and help when the situation was dire enough, like right now!
Zavala looked towards Adora, "We've got the Plaza. Go with Ikora. Find the Speaker!"
"On it!" she yelled as she ran towards the Speaker's chamber.
"Don't do anything stupid Adora!" catra shouted to her girlfriend.
"Hey it's me." Adora said confidently
"That's why I said it." Catra said as she was both serious and joking about Adora, knowing full well she would do something either very brave or very stupid.
Running through the halls, Adora made her way to the chamber but stopped at a big group of Red Legion Blocking her way. She was about to open fire when a Nova Bomb came out of nowhere and obliterated them. Looking for the sender, Adora saw it was no other than the Warlock Vanguard herself, Ikora Rey.
"Ikora! Are you okay?"
"The Speaker is gone." Ikora turns to an incoming ship, "Red Legion, you will take no more from us. And you will find no mercy in me!" she exclaimed as she jumped in the air and lainch a second Nova Bomb onto the ship riding it down to where ever it went.
"Zavala, Ikora just took down a ship but couldn't find the Speaker. What do we do?" Light Hope asked, begging for answers.
"We need to move on that command ship. Now head to the North Tower. I'm sending Amanda Holiday to pick you up."
Adora dashed through the Tower taking out scores of Red Legion trying to get to Amanda. If anyone could get her onto that floating fortress it would be her.
"Someone told me you need a ride." Amanda Holliday said over the coms
Once the ship was in position, Adora jumped onto the open hatch of the ship and Amanda gunned for the command ship. With her skill and expertise with ships she was able to get there safe and sound in only a few minutes. Unfortunately the ship had shields that protected the ship from attack but she noticed a small area that led into the ship that launched those drop pods.
"All right Guardian! Time to kick 'em where it hurts!"
Jumping out of the ship Adora made her way onto the ship, noticing the drop pods being fired right beside her, wondering just how the hell do the Red Legion even survive from being launched from these things?
"Let us know when the shields are down and we'll hit that ship with everything we got."
"You got it." Adora replied as she began taking out the Red Legion inside, trying to find her way to something important. She then heard the Vanguard talk over the coms and it was not sounding good. The fact the command ship or the storm was messing with the signal was not helping her at all. Once she got to what looked like surface of the ship she saw several Psion snipers and she remembered how much she hates snipes. Unless they where Catra, then she would be laughing at one of her jokes but she wasn't there right now so there was no joy to be found here.
After she took out some very big and powerful Cabal she found the ship's giant turbines. Giant pillars swung around with massive amounts of electricity shooting out. Even for a Titan she could tell that taking these out should do a lot to help.
"Alright. Destroy the turbines. The shields should fizzle." Light Hope said, conforming Adora's thoughts.
Jumping down into the turbines she avoided the swinging pillars and executed the age old guardian strategy with important machinery: shoot the important looking stuff and something good should happen. After shooting the last of the turbines important parts smoke and a nearby door opening up.
"Zavala! We did it! The shields are down!" Light Hope said to commander but only static was heard. "Zavala?"
Nothing but static was heard and seeing fire start to show up everywhere was Adora's sign to get the hell out of there now. As she ran she tried to call Amanda.
"Amanda! We're headed topside!" She hoped, prayed for a response but like Zavala no answer. "Amanda?!" Adora screamed as she made her escape. Once she got topside all she saw was destruction, death, and the Traveler still covered by the strange device. Light Hope joined her in this view and could only ask one question, the same one Adora thought.
"How do we come back from this?"
"You don't."
A booming voice said behind them and what they saw was a giant Cabal in white armor with golden accents and a red cape. His mere presence demanded respect, especially considering he actually showed his albino face. His dark red eyes piercing Adora's very soul.
"Welcome to a world without light."
The Cabal gestured to the Traveler and in a moment it looked like the weird ship had fully enveloped it causing a strange orange like energy over the the Traveler. In a single instance Adora felt like her very being had been ripped out of her. It became difficult to even stand.
"Guardian, something's wrong…" Light Hope said before falling straight to the floor, seemingly shutting down, with Aodra following immediately from her own body failing her. She had never felt like this before, even trying to lift her head was proving difficult. She saw the albino Cabal start to slowly walk towards them. She grabbed onto Light Hope with everything she had, believing that she could keep her Ghost safe. Once the footsteps had stopped she saw the Cabal loom over her expecting wrath but saw only pity and disgust.
"Do not look at me, creature!"
The Cabal then kicked her with so much force she flew a few feet, losing her gun in the process, but if she knew Cabal strength she could tell that whoever this guy was is holding back. Thinking that she wasn't worth his full might. That she was but a mere insect in his presence. She held onto Light Hope for dear life, praying that she could do something, anything!
"You are weak. Undisciplined. Cowering behind walls."
The Cabal shouted at Adora, demeaning her. She mustered as much strength as she could to just even stand. She tries as hard as she can but she could barley lift herself off the floor.
"You're not brave. You've merely forgotten the fear of death."
The Cabal loomed over her and had bent down just to get right into her face. Just as it seemed like she could stand her adversary continued.
"Allow me to reacquaint you."
With a single backhand from the giant Cabal, Adora flew across to the edge of the ship. When she stopped she noticed something missing from her hand, Light Hope was now gone. She looked over the edge and saw her Ghost's lifeless shell fall off the ship. She tried to grab her but it was obvious that Light Hope was too far out of reach to do anything. With newfound rage boiling inside her she tried her best to stand once more, one more chance at defiance, but all she could do was to stare on her knees at the Cabal who destroyed her home.
"You're kind never deserved the power you were given. I am Ghaul. And your Light is mine."
With what could only be called a lazy shove from the now named Ghaul, Adora fell countless feet into the City. Within seconds she hit the ground and the world turned black, with only one phrase going on through her head. She failed. She failed to save the City, to save her friends, to save herself. She failed.
Okay so it turns out that this story is not dead. After a good long while being busy with college, graduating, a global pandemic and now having a job I am able to find time in my life to continue this story. I will do my best to continue but do not expect weekly updates as I am still relatively new to writing my own stories. Also to answer some questions on what the guardians look like, go to vdh95 on Tumblr. His designs for the cast are what got me thinking that maybe I could try my hand at a She-ra Destiny fanfic and are the primary looks for our heroes. If the character you're looking for isn't there just imagine them with how they normally look with destiny armor in their primary colors. Until next time, stay vigilant guardians.