A Few Months Later
He recalled the events that transpired vividly in his head, how he felt when he saw her, and how weird he still felt since then. He was lost in thought in the warm summer breeze of early July under a tall oak tree, bathing in the shade. He heard the crinkle of leaves to his right and looked over to see Wilhelmina standing there, watching him quietly. "How long have you've been there?" she walked up to him and crouched to his level, "Enough to know somethings up. What's wrong?" Lynx had thought of telling her, then vowed against it. If word had gotten around the tower, he'd be considered a freak, and with the friends, he had gained he could not bear the thought of losing them. He looked up to her and shook his head, "What do you mean? Nothings wrong." he said while keeping a calm attitude. She smiled, "Lynx. You haven't been doing strikes or anything really." she grabbed his shoulder and he once again looked up at her, her tall frame overshadowing him. "I just haven't been feeling up to it. That's all." He turned and looked out towards the city, watching the traveler loom over it. She sighed, "All right. Have it your way." Lynx still kept his attention on the traveler,
there has to be a reason it brought me back.
He thought, while still attentively listening to Wilhelmina. She saw that his attention was drawn to the traveler, and she sprang a question on him. "What does the traveler even do? It just... Floats there." Her ghost popped out, "A lot. Actually" the ghost's name was Luck. "Oh yeah? Tell me one time where the traveler did something!" the ghost sputtered "Were you not there for the red war? The Traveler. Killed Ghaul." Luck was baffled, remembering how Wilhelmina had to fight for her life without any light. "Oh yeah, guess I forgot about that" she laid her hands to her thighs and chuckled. Luck just scoffed and disappeared, Wilhelmina stood up, "Well, everyone is going to hang out at the tower, to relax a bit. You coming?" Lynx directed his attention to her and nodded, "Yeah." Lynx then turned back to the traveler, for one second Wilhelmina thought she could get to him, guess not. She scoffed and walked off.
Luna waited for her to walk off to appear, "You aren't going to tell her?" Lynx looked at Luna and watched the way the shell floated, its outer shell rotating and twisting, he stretched his arms. "I'm not going to tell anyone." Luna floated back, her shell not moving as rapidly anymore. "Why not?" she spoke sincerely, genuinely wanting to help him. Lynx took his helmet off and put his hand on it, "Why do you think? These people..." he took a second to carefully pick each word and form his sentence, ".. They're my family. If they find out about this, they'll become distant. They wouldn't want to associate with a freak like me." Luna stopped and floated there, eyeing him down she then hovered to where he was looking back and made eye contact, "You said it yourself. They're your family, and family helps each other out. They could help you with this Lynx, just tell them. I'm sure they'll understand." Lynx wanted to, he truly did. But he didn't the confidence to do so, funny. He was the leader, yet he couldn't bring himself to say something when he needed to. He nodded, not wanting to continue the conversation he slid his helmet over his head and called for transmat. Luna reluctantly teleported both of them to the ship.
He arrived in the courtyard and met up with everyone, he was pressured to by Luna after he kept not showing up, Desmond greeted him with a very heavy slap on the back, almost sending him flying forward. "How's it going buddy? It's been a long-ass while." Lynx put his hands to his sides, trying to relax. "Yeah... Sorry about that." Desmond smiled, "What's important is that you're here man." Lynx smiled at the gesture, even after all that he was still treated like an equal. Something he felt would not happen was he to tell people his secret. "Now." Tre spoke up, looking around at everyone "What planet are we going to hang out at?" Marjolein spoke up, "I believe it's Titan." Desmond groaned, "The worst f... fine... fine." Desmond hated Titan incredibly, and would never touch it. Partly due to his fear of deep-sea creatures, the myth of the leviathan that exists under the deep methane oceans is just enough to never want to set foot on that planet. "Then it's settled then, let's head to Titan." everyone broke off and left to the hangar. Lynx has left to himself again as he trudged through the tower. He hated it.
When they touched down on Titan, they landed far off from Sloane and the main area where all the guardians populate. They wanted to be left alone, they did bring guns although they had no intentions of using them, they set up camp inside one of the archeology centers. It was pitch black so Lynx and Desmond were sent out to find the power source. As they were walking through the twisted hallways, their footsteps echoing. Lynx looked over to Desmond, "Why'd you pick the name Desmond?" he looked at Lynx, then down to the ground, at the moss clumps that formed on the walls and ceilings. He then let out a chuckle, "I remember now, it was because of a corpse I found. His nametag read Desmond... Something. I decided to use his name, mainly because I liked the name. My ghost did as well, what about you?" Lynx took a deep breath, he tucked one hand to the inside of his bicep and motioned with his other hand. "It was written on my head. With a sharpie, I think..." Desmond let out a light chuckle, "Did you run into trouble? Double cross someone?" Lynx shook his head, "I'm not sure." he put his right head onto his chin as he thought for a few seconds, "I don't remember anything about my past. What about you?" Desmond looked around the room, keeping the power at the back of his mind. "Not much. I had these journals, not sure why I just. Had them. I wrote something about these black... things appearing in the sky. Probably just a story I made up." Lynx chuckled, "Yeah probably." Lynx looked up, there was a ledge with a considerable amount of moss and vegetation. What he saw on it though, was that same damn fallen captain.
Was she... Following me..?
Both he and the captain stared attentively at each other until the captain turned around and disappeared. Lynx continued to stare, lost in his thoughts. He hated this, he hated her. He wished he had never left the campsite, he just wanted to be a normal guardian. Desmond rushed over and shook him. "You alright man?" his face looked worried, Lynx's looked lost.
After a few more minutes of searching, they found it and flipped the switch. Watching as the place wake up, something else too. As the echoes of a hive wizard scream could be heard from where Lynx and Desmond were at. They looked at each other and pulled their guns out, running down the corridors.
When they arrived they saw no one there, panic quickly set in for the both of them as they heard gunshots firing in the distance. Lynx pointed towards a hallway and quickly yelled, "They're coming from this direction!" Desmond nodded as the both of them opened the door, hearing the metal doors scraping the floor, they gave it a last push and it opened completely, letting the two of them continue onward. They entered into a large arena, where Tre, Marjolein, Wilhelmina, and Jess all engaged in gunfire. They all hid behind a barricade Marjolein built, they had thrown everything they had at the hive wizards, killing 1. Lynx and Desmond eager to join the fight leaped in and started to fire, it was like a light show with all the multicolored bullets. They held their own, Lynx leaped in the air and cast his dawn blade, wings forming on his back, and a solar sword to smite his enemies with. He cast fire down upon the wizards, leaving them with burns that damaged them incredibly. Only one more wizard was left standing, and it was persistent, as it continued to cast spells that damaged all of them. They were as well, as they continued to pelt the wizard with their bullets. Lynx pulled out a linear fusion rifle and aimed at the wizard, charging the weapon as it started to warm up. He held the trigger down, and a void bullet pierced the skull of the wizard, killing it.
"Nice shot Lynx" Desmond said, turning to him. Lynx let go of the trigger and held the gun in his hands, "But I didn't..." he said softly, under his breath. He looked around to see that the fallen captain was the one who shot the wizard,
Okay, it is now following me
He slung the weapon across his back and made sure everyone was ok, they were. They had also confirmed that once the lights were turned on, a few hive wizards had attacked them, but they were able to send them running, they perused it into this room, and that is when Lynx and Desmond showed up. Lynx nodded, pulling his helmet off. "Glad to hear that you guys are ok." He looked back to the spot he saw the captain, and she had disappeared. Intriguing, "You guys carry on without me, I'll be right back." He slid his helmet back on and walked off. Desmond watched as he ran deeper into the archology. He leaned to Wilhelmina, "Should we follow him? He's running in all by himself..." Wilhelmina pulled out her sidearm and loaded the magazine, "Yes. Let's."
Lynx walked in the dark, the only light was his ghost. It didn't allow him to see everything, but it at least let him see something. His footsteps echoing loudly in the abandoned, decrepit building. Until... he could hear the vents above him creak loudly, something is up there. He slowly pulled out his gun and knife, he tried to limit the number of movements as possible. As that would create more noise, and cause the fallen captain to learn where he was.
He watched as the vent shaft opened up and the captain jumped out, Luna yelled "Watch out!" Lynx kept the gun trained on them, waiting for any aggression. The light shined on them, revealing the same female captain that he first saw in the forest. "You are... Odd." the captain spoke, her voice was calm, but her accent was thick. She stepped forward. Lynx stuck his hand out to keep her from getting any closer, his mind was thinking of what to respond with. As she took another step closer, he noticed how tall she was. She could easily win in a fight if he chose to, Lynx stepped forward, lowering his gun. He could hear Luna yell at him through the comms, he slid the gun onto his back, hearing it click. "You... Didn't kill me when you first saw me, did you?" Lynx immediately knew what she meant, as he had that vivid thought trapped in his mind. He nodded, "Y-yes." he responded. Despite him being an Exo he couldn't quite control his emotions, which felt new to him. "Why's that..?" she questioned, as they both stepped forward, they then started to circle one another, they continued to make eye contact, she was trying to get a read on him through his helmet. So was he, both deciding if each other was a friend or foe. He stepped forward with a great amount of confidence, "You didn't appear to be an immediate threat to our operations" she spun around, back to him, a bold move. "Ah, your operation. The one that destroyed all my brothers and sisters into rubble, you reckless guardians, always destroying things." Lynx watched, his eyes looking at anything that could raise suspicion, his hand near the gun. He took another step forward, "What's the point here...?" she chuckled lightly as she looked out the glass panels. Lynx saw her expression change in her reflection, her head twisted to look at him, Lynx took another step closer, he's now within arms reach. He couldn't make out her expression before she leaped at him and pinned him down, holding both his arms and legs down. "What's the real reason? I would be an immediate threat to you..." Lynx tried to reach, or kick, or anything, but her grip was too strong. He looked at her, "I'll talk if you let me go." she smiled, her eyes narrowing. "You'll just shoot me." she tightened her grip on him, causing him to yell out in pain. Each word he spoke held a soft layer of panic, "Fine... Fine! I... Found you.." Dear god, this is going to be awkward. He thought, in between each word. "Appealing to the eyes..." She paused for a moment, her face being expressionless, then quickly released him and ran off. Quicker than he could pull his gun out, he held it in the air. The gun feeling weightless in his hands, he heard Desmond and Wilhelmina quickly turning the corner, their boots echoing loudly.
"We heard you cry out, is everything alright?" Wilhelmina went to check on Lynx while Desmond kept his gun pointed, his ghost beaming light. Lynx felt his wrist, still reeling from the pain. "Yeah, I'm fine..." he looked down the dark corridor, reflecting himself.
He lied on the floor of his ship, throwing a ball at the ceiling and catching it when it would bounce back. "You nailed that first impression" Luna spoke up, floating near him, he kept his eyes focused on the ball. "Yeah, I sure did," he said sarcastically, he caught the ball and threw it up. It hit the side corner and went bouncing far right, away from where he was, it rolled into a slit. Unreachable, he cursed himself silently. "Just like your chances with her." Luna snarkily spoke, her mocking tone even more obvious. Lynx looked up at Luna and frowned he sat up and turned his head to her. "What do you want?" he said aggressively, "I'm just making observations... That's all." Luna spoke, looking around avoiding eye contact. Lynx stood up and pushed her away as he walked to the controls of the ship, plotting a course to the tower. He took off one of his gloves, looking at one of his dented wrists, running his fingers through the grooves.
When we meet again, I'll be sure to keep this in mind.
