Chapter Two
"YOU BECOME SOLAR"
It is not every day you gain the opportunity to bond with another being in a world like this. In fact, it's never. Never do you truly get to bond, to truly fall in love, to truly feel something other than pure adrenaline. Not unless it is with your fireteam, and those never last long. Not unless it is on a mission or strike with complete strangers that you will momentarily converse with and never see again once the objective is completed. Not unless it is a night at the bar, where you enjoy a few drinks and run away with a haphazard Guardian for a one night stand. As a guardian, it is considered selfish to focus on such sensations over The City and Traveler. It is not your job. And we all have jobs to do.
I just used the word "we". Guess I keep forgetting I'm not a Guardian anymore.
As evening converted to night, the screams and blasts from the Red Legion take over hushed, which was not a good sign. For so long, I despised the City, it's people, and overall morals. I would watch from a distance in my exile, in rage and in sadness, hating the place I once called home. Hating those who did me wrong and allowing the Nighthawk to conquer my mind, unleashing its fury onto me, and plotting the demise of those I once loved and called "friend".
But in this moment I failed to perceive my past. With my conscience free of the bird's rage and the manipulation of the stars above, I felt my legs move. Before my brain could even recognize what was occurring, I was moving, exploding through the air towards the walls and towards the Tower. My legs were weak from the loss of light, but my body pushed on, fighting the distance, feeling as the Nighthawks mask dangled against my thigh, for I attached it to the chain of my waist. Ghost was also attached. With all the pain the exotic has brought into my life, it has helped me fight back the darkness, aided me when my back was against the wall, saving me time and time again. With such a past, I'd consider it an old friend. And you don't leave friends behind.
Upon reaching the walls, I pulled out my pair of knives, a hunter's infamous weapon. Leaping up, I stabbed the knife through the rusted metal with all the force within me, then again with the other, grasping hold of the different bars, and pulling myself up the wall. One by one, ascending up until I did reach the top.
And I would pause, standing at the top of the walls I've avoided for years, staring at the tower that was attached to the very wall I stood on. Not even a mile away. I watched as I could now individually see Cabal bodies guarding and patrolling the fallen Tower, proving that humanity lost. The legion would fly through with airstrikes to penetrate the City, but other than that, it was silent. No gunfire, no screams. The atmosphere, the environment, even the air tasted like death.
And I had half a mind to proceed, staring down the wall to admire the height and then sliding down with said knife jabbed into it; sliding into the very place I was forbidden to come back to.
From a distance, the air was frigid to my lightless flesh, giving me the feeling of coldness for the first time since I've discovered my Gunslinger aptitudes. The Solar radiation engulfs you always. YOU. BECOME. SOLAR. But now that I was within the red-zone, it felt as if such light never left my body, the heat from the onward flames extinguished any hint of winter and even made me produce a sweat. All body reactions given that indirectly told me not to proceed were ignored, and I felt myself continue to sprint forward for a solid few minutes, body hugging the wall to avoid detection until I reached the bottom of the tower. Thus, where I slipped myself into an elevator of which surprisingly still worked. The building shook with the evident message of imminent collapse, the red warning lights within the elevator flashed as I arise to the "Traveler's Walk" area of the Tower. Upon successfully reaching the top, I immediately sprinted behind a nearby pillar. The opening of the elevator doors gained the attention of a pair of Legionaries, so when they walked towards it, and turned their backs to me, I swiftly made the move to quietly assassinate the two from behind using only my knives. After that, I turned and made my way towards the doorway that led to the Tower Watch, but it was blocked by debris. I approached the obstacle and used all my power to pull the shattered concrete out of place to create a doorway. And I would, pulling out a rock that made a hole of which was the perfect size for my frame and therefore I crawled through. What I saw after making it out, though, made me halt at a stand still, mouth gaping in absolute astonishment.
The Cabal had some type of device attached to the Traveler, draining it of it's life, therefore explaining the loss and Celestial's death. Countless Guardian bodies laid limp around the Watch. The Vaults have been destroyed to nothing but rubble. The Cryptarch's tent and Gunsmith's booth was crushed by debris, Eververse and Postmaster offices were demolished. Blood intoxicated the concrete. Ash vanquished the air and my senses, causing my eyebrows to furrow and eyes to water. It was a horror scene. No humanity in sight.
Eventually, my eyes would lurk to the ground and what I saw gave me a brief sense of hope.
Orbs of light, a pair, just lying there for anyone to take. So, I would immediately react, grabbing the shell of my ghost in one hand and in the other an Orb, bringing the two together, ultimately reviving my dead Ghost. Barely.
His lights would flicker, shell moving, before the light would eventually stay and the Ghost would weakly rise in the air. And make eye contact with me.
"Guardian..." It spoke softly as it struggled to stay in air. "Where... are w—" My eyes shifted away from my ghost, back to the Traveler, and his vision would follow mine, cutting his inquiry off upon seeing what had happened. "The Traveler..."
In that moment, nothing that had happened in the past mattered more than the Traveler and the state that it was in. I was literally built off the Traveler's light, so to see it conquered resulted in nothing but pure sadness and distress from me. No matter my strength, nothing can hide how this made me feel. It was as if I was a child discovering my deceased parent.
Ghost looked around at all the fallen Guardians, just as astonished as I was. Such mechanisms of light can not physically show emotion, but his silence said everything. "They're all... everything is... gone." He looked back to me, "How did you...?" Without a word, I again explained everything with my vision, looking to the ground at the last remaining Orb of light, the last one I might ever see. "The Orb of light... A guardian lives!" There was obvious excitement in his tone, no matter how hushed and weak it is. He flies closer to it, to use whatever light he received to analyze the mote. "It... belonged to a wielder of Void... a... Titan Defender... It belonged to..." Ghost suddenly looked up and back towards me, silence taking over our aura. I weakly looked back, awaiting him to finish. "It belonged to... Commander Zavala." My eyes would unintentionally widen upon hearing that. "Which means he's—"
"He is alive," I cut ghost off. A part of me was happy upon discovering this. Another, not so much. Not so much that my eyes would squint and fists to slightly clench, but that would end as Ghost spoke again.
"Guardian... take the last orb... It will heal your asthenia... You need it more than I do... After all, if you are to get in conflict... I can not resurrect you... You need your strength..."
Removing my cloak hood, I took one last glance at the Traveler, then back at ghost who looked at me in astonishment. I tilted my head in confusion.
"It's been a while since I have seen your face, but, Guardian, your..." He paused himself, so I would look to the ground at a nearby puddle to study my reflection. It has been years since I had the luxury of owning a mirror when I was an inhabitant of the tower. But that was 24 years ago. My eyes again widened upon seeing myself. I had aged and lost a lot of support in my exile. My face was sunken in, the light that typically emits from an awoken beings skin was nowhere to be seen. I lacked any nourishment required to be deemed healthy. The loss of light doesn't help anything either. But the one thing that caught my focus was my eyes. Burns and welted skin surrounded my orbitals, where the fury of the Celestial rubbed off on my flesh to forever scar. My age was beginning to show. I was no longer a juvenile fresh from first resurrection, but a veteran that has lived through it all and deserved a place in the Vanguard Hall. A Vanguard that most likely no longer exists.
"For so long," I began to speak, my body falling to the knees as I stared at the remaining mote, "I have waited for something like this to happen... for the City and its people to get what they deserve for casting me out... but now..." Something else caught my eye then, shreds of a pale cloth that I would reach towards and pick up within my grasp, shreds of Zavala's Titan mark that I somehow still knew too well. I studied it, caressed it, and frowned. "But now I feel nothing but despondency and forlornness for this place." I looked back up at Ghost. "The anger remains, but with the Celestial gone, my mind has been set free and I realize now the vengeance I have for the people is nothing but child's play. This was my home once. No matter if that was taken from me."
"So, what are you going to do?" Ghost questioned. I looked back to the ground.
Dropping the cloth, my hand reached to grasp hold of the orb of light, standing afterwards and studying it. "Can't be exiled from a City that has fallen." Bringing the orb to make contact with my chest, I felt as my body shivered but eventually strengthened upon recognizing the anecdote. My weakened legs were healed, porcelain light returned to my flesh and my fatigue was cured. But that was it. Just a brief healing. That is all a mere orb can do. Afterwards, I stood up straight, again pulling my hood over my head, grasping my knife in hand, and turning towards ghost.
"It's time I come home."
"You've chose to isolate yourself and avoid others for quite some time now, Ren. Perhaps it's time you come home."
My body leaned against the Tower balcony, a favorite hidden spot of mine on the Watch located to the right of the doorway that led to the Hanger. My light cerulean eyes surveyed the flying by ships, civilians and construction workers on the ground carrying out their business to rebuild the City. It was dark now. Late. A time where most Guardians and proletarians settle down for slumber. But not me. I was a voyager of the night, seeking silence and art across the galaxy when minions of the darkness did not stand in my way. A sightseer. A searcher. I had the curse of an active curiosity and imagination that drove me to seek adventure no matter where it may be. But occasionally there is a blockade in my search for peace. And that blockade now was that of a voice that belonged to the one person I wished not to encounter.
"Home is where a story begins," I exhaled as I responded to the interruption, turning around to notice Lord Zavala standing in the "doorway" of my secret spot. "Sometimes you have to run away to advance its plot."
"Are you insinuating that you are running? From what exactly?"
I was quick to cut him off. "Why so inquisitive, Greenhorn? Don't you have a Remembrance Proceeding to plan?"
He closed his eyes momentarily and sighed. I could sense a hidden eye roll there for a second. "We do, indeed." I blinked at him and shifted my concentration back forward, but he was persistent and approached to also lean on the railing beside me, staring out at the city as well. "Beautiful, is it not?"
My eyes looked over at him for a moment, watching at he gazed at the city with such passion and admiration, slowly then shifting my concentration back forward. "Yes, it is..."
A long silence passed through us until eventually he looked over towards me. "You have such a strange complexion," He scrutinized, I looked over at him unusually, "An albino awoken... I've never seen anything like it." He noticed the way I was looking at him and he expressed his regret. "My apologizes, you are just very intriguing."
All my life I had been looked at differently for who I was, and just as my kind became more common and were accepted into humanity, my own begins to see me different as well. I am aware my flesh is different from that of your average awoken. Most have blue, pink or other bright colored complexions, while mine harnessed that of nothing. No color, but only white with hair that closely matched. One would look at me and tell me I resembled an Albinism human without the pink eyes. My eyes had to be the only normal physical characteristic about me.
I ignored his statements of which I didn't know whether to perceive as insults or compliments, "What do you want?" I questioned bluntly soon after. "I had my Ghost send yours a notification that we shall begin tomorrow, so please enthuse me on why you are here making irrelevant small talk with me?"
He sighed at my stubbornness. "I was retreating to my chambers when I caught eye of you here. With both of our insomnia getting the best of us, I thought I would come to converse with you momentarily, seeing as how we will be seeing each other a lot more often from now own."
"From now on?" I snickered. "I'll give it a few days. After the ceremony has concluded, I will be departing the Tower for a few weeks, maybe even months, to catch up on bounties."
"But you do not have to."
I almost glared at him then, "But I do." It's almost as if he doesn't acknowledge the shortage of guardians as of right now. I understand the friendly gesture he was trying to put off. Shaxx always speaks to me in annoyance about his peer Zavala, how nice he is and how annoying such cordiality can be. I now comprehend where he is coming from.
The air between us again went mute as my eyes trailed to the stars above. A sky full of them, as if the god's painted such a canvas just to catch our eyes in that moment. Zavala followed my eyes.
And we just stood there. For more than a few minutes, with nothing but the stars and eachother to keep us company.
My eyes unlocked to the stars, and I made such eye contact with them that shivers would rove up my frame. For a moment, it was almost as if they were speaking to me—, they had to of been; The celestial's were calling to me, shedding their hope on my mind, but I was already too frail, and too vanquished, that my sorrow would act as a shield, and bounced that promise right off me. I looked away, surprised to see the Iron Lord apprentice still standing beside me. My eyes met his, as if he was looking at me before. I looked forward again, and then down in woe. "I am drawn to them." I never knew why I said that to him. My guard was abandoned there and expressing such vehemence was a sign of weakness. The strong prey on the weak. And that's what I was in that moment, prey, weak. I spoke proudly when it came to Twilight Gap, put up a facade of a brave soldier, but if I was being honest, I was afraid and anxious. My mind was made of glass with too many cracks. One more hit and I would disintegrate. Perhaps it is why I've been clinging to humanity and the Tower ever since the battle's conclusion. You never see Hunter's at the Tower, not unless they are obtaining bounties, chatting up with Brask, the Hunter Vanguard, or are returning engrams to the Cryptarch. And then after they are done, they immediately return to the battlefield. That's how I was. But Twilight Gap left a scar on my mind, I'd be lying if I said it didn't. It's why I accepted the opportunity to plan the ceremony, so I could have more time at the Tower. It's why I was so afraid to go back out there. But I was a Guardian. It was my job.
I don't get to be afraid. I don't get to show weakness, so when I said such a statement and let my guard break, I felt nothing but absolute hatred towards myself. Common people and children look at Guardians with such admiration, but words can not express much I look at them with that same envy. It is hard being a Guardian. You live a life of war, no emotion allowed, no being able to fall in love, no having a family. You don't get a normal life, at least as normal as it can get in such a world.
And it made me angry. But I couldn't rant about it, not to Zavala, not to Shaxx, not even my teacher Brask, who I legitimately considered a good friend. As I said, it expressed weakness. And the weak are looked down upon.
I was Ren, the infamous Gunslinger veteran of Six Fronts and now Twilight Gap. I'll keep up the act for as long as I live.
"I was revived not long before the Collapse," Suddenly Zavala spoke, causing my head to abruptly shift to him, honestly surprised he as well put down his guard. Look at that. The great Lord Zavala, showing weakness. I suppose that makes us more alike than I'd wish to admit. He, though, continued to stare into the sky like this didn't bother him. "There were moments in my initial solitude where I suspected I was the only living entity of humanity. Just my Ghost and I against the world." My eyes never left his. "Upon arriving to the Last City — well, it was not much of a "city" then, meager tents and houses; a sanctuary for survivors and Guardians before the walls, I'm sure you remember." He paused, finally meeting my eyes, even a minuscule smile was on his face. I nodded, the pictures coming back to me. "Upon arriving, I was in awe and my quantity of hope augmented as high as the walls we now perch on." His vision again bounced forward to scan the city and all the movement taking place. So much emotion was being shown, I was astonished, and envious. "The Speaker, he spoke of a secure oasis, of walls that would reach the sky beneath the Traveler's providence... I would dream of such a thing... I would behold into space as we presently are at stars like these... The atmosphere is always so thronged and the celestial's behind are always so hidden by veils of unlit clouds that moments like this become precious. It is as if the Traveler creates moments such as this to remind us it isn't the end." He spoke with so much wisdom and poetry, and somehow I understood every little thing that was coming out of his mouth. "All those years ago, I was you, staring at these same stars in search of reassurance; Not even a week later, a plan was assembled and we initiated construction of the walls. I suppose that teaches us to not take life for granted."
I finally looked away from him to follow the walls as he concluded. The more I contemplated, the more I realize how alike the two of us are. We have only first met today, but it's as if I knew him a lifetime. Never have I related to someone as much as I do now. "It feels like so long ago." I said eventually. And he wouldn't respond, but in my heart I knew he agreed. Eyes forward, bodies against railing, hearts and minds attached.
We would spend the night like that. No more talking, but it wasn't silent, not by any means. Our love for the City and the Earth rambled on for hours, through gaze and admiration. And when it finally reached morning, we would depart from our spot, and I would retreat to my Tower chambers, where I would bed down and, for once, get a full night's rest. With a reassured mind, all tension was set free, and I could sleep without fear of nightmare.
This morning, I met Zavala with a mindset of hatred and indignation. Tonight, I rest, with his words of solace at peace with my mind, along with the knowledge of a new companion.
AUTHORS NOTE:
I adore the idea of switching back and forth from past and present, gives the reader two different scenarios to contemplate, but I also hope it doesn't get too confusing. For the most part it is relatively common sense with the borders, as well as the tone and mood of the writing and speaking. After all, this is all in Ren's point of view, though there will be occasions where I might change said point of view, I will always clarify when this happens. Borders may also be a transition into the next day, but remains in the past/present situation, but I also will clarify these things.
As for chapter two, I'm excited about this one. This time, it is more intense in the present time, while in the past Zavala and Ren begin to bond. Won't be as easy as expressed in this Chapter, especially when the Nighthawk comes into the picture. You guys are in for a ride!
I hope you enjoyed!
Stay tuned for Chapter Three.