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"A person's destiny is something you look back at afterwards, not something to be known in advance." – Haruki Murakami


Arc II - Chapter 9

The Crucible

Stepping around the corner of a stone pillar, Jane kept her aim steady as she swept her new pulse rifle from left to right, scanning the surrounding area for hostile movement. She was still getting used to the rifle, the design feeling foreign in her hands.

"Enemy Comms traffic just went quiet." Fubar whispered.

Jane froze mid step, before she swivelled around, immediately scanning her surroundings for possible hostiles. The surrounding area was littered with stone spires, columns and pillars, perfect to use as cover or hide behind. Her instincts were suddenly screaming at her for being far too exposed.

It was at this moment that six people wearing a mix of coloured clothes and armour emerged from behind pillars. Eyes widening, Jane turned and ran back the way she came as fast as she could, barely managing to scramble over a low wall before bullets started impacting the ground around her.

"Shit!"

Diving behind a low piece of cover, Jane grunted as a stray shot clipped her thigh. The pain momentarily managing to distract her, before she refocused herself and pushed the pain aside. Keeping low to the ground, she watched as Fubar momentarily materialised to heal her minor injury, before disappearing again almost as quickly as he had come.

"Could you refrain from getting shot? I don't like leaving your armour to heal you when you do."

Grunting as a heavier round broke off a piece of stone above her head, Jane focused on keeping her heartbeat steady and calm. Panicking would defiantly not help right now, and Fubar's comment proved a useful distraction.

"Oh don't you start," Jane groaned.

As the gunfire began to taper off, Jane started to shuffle to the far end of her cover.

"I'm getting enough comments from Shaxx as it is," Coming to the far end of her cover, Jane found herself on a ledge that dropped down rather significantly. Leaning over the edge, she found the drop led down to another area beneath her.

Without another thought, Jane kicked off with her feet, sliding her body over the edge and dropping down in a tight spin, making sure she landed with a roll to keep her momentum and take her under the overhang, out of sight from anyone back above.

From what she had learned, the majority of Vex architecture found on Venus was built this way, a confusing labyrinth of stone cubic structures infused with their strange technology. It was working more to her advantage than her pursuers, Jane had been spending the past half hour utilising the terrain to pick off her opponents one at a time.

Scrambling to her feet, Jane twisted around in search of new cover, finding it in a collection of stone pillars that were bunched together further in.

Ducking behind them, Jane shouldered her pulse rifle and aimed back the way she had come, just in time to catch one of her opponents off guard as he dropped down after her. The moment he hit the ground, she opened fire, putting multiple bursts into his barriers and managing to drop them before he managed to scramble into cover.

The moment he disappeared behind a column of stone, Jane primed and threw a grenade, letting it sail through the air and land just beyond her pursuers cover, his cry of surprise, followed by a muted explosion, was the last thing she heard before she turned and ran.

She didn't wait to see whether she killed him or not, his companions were already jumping down after him. Instead, Jane moved to find higher ground where she could effectively use her sniper rifle.

Trying to take these guys in a game of attrition was pointless, but utilising guerrilla style tactics, Jane was managing to survive.


From the Crucible Observatory, Saint-14 watched as Jane once again proved to be highly skilled in the art of non-linear combat. He was finding himself becoming more and more impressed as the days went by, and watching Ikora become more irritable as well.

Cayde was the only one other than him who seemed to take any joy out of Jane outsmarting and outdoing the Vanguard's best efforts to get her killed. While Zavala was proving to be his usual stoic self, occupying his time by reading and signing reports, only paying mild attention to the screens displaying the combat footage around them.

"This is the fourth Fireteam we've pitted against her," Ikora muttered, Saint turning to find the Warlock studying the analytics, or 'score board' as everyone else called it. "She doesn't even have her Light manifested yet."

"Which is part of the problem," Lord Shaxx stated from where he was seated, "She's winning. If we want her to manifest her Light, and reveal which of the Vanguard she will stand under, that will need to change."

That was the real crux of the issue, Saint knew. The Crucible was designed as a way for Guardians to practice their skills in combat, to test themselves against scenarios for which they may encounter in the field, and for newborn Guardians to die in until they manifested their Light.

The process in which newborn Guardians manifested their Light was an unpleasant one, but which Saint knew to be entirely necessary. The subjected Guardian had to be killed, repeatedly, over and over again, until the stress and pressure of such circumstance triggered something within the newborn Guardian that allowed them to call the Light forth.

"It doesn't help that she has high quality gear to compensate." Ikora stated, glaring at Saint from across the room.

Lifting his hands in surrender, Saint found himself repressing the urge to chuckle. "I assure you, the gear she wears is entirely standard. The Fallen Wire Rifle and her handcannon are things she picked up completely before she came to the City."

"And the Infiltration Shell her Ghost is using?" The Warlock Vanguard questioned, clearly growing aggravated. "That is hardly standard for newborn Guardians to possess!"

Turning to look back at the screens, Saint couldn't help but smile. "Her Ghost's original shell had been damaged rather severely, and required a replacement. I just so happened to know someone with a spare."

"That's a lie and you know it!" Shouted Ikora, "You could have easily acquired a standard Generalist Shell! Instead you brought her to the Ghost specialist and got her one of Lyssa's personal shells."

Taking a step back in surprise, Saint felt his own temper begin to rise as he replied. "I think I would like to know how-"

"Enough!"

Jerking in surprise, Saint turned around to look at the one person on the planet who wielded the authority to command everyone currently in the room. Ikora, Zavala, Lord Shaxx and even Cayde-6 giving the man in the doorway their undivided attention. The Speaker, his adopted father, was standing before them.

Walking away from the doorway and coming to stand between him and Ikora, Saint found himself straightening his back and squaring his shoulders, an unconscious yet familiar action to him.

"While my son may not be of the Vanguard, I trust his judgement implicitly. You will treat him with respect, and he in turn will refrain from meddling in your future affairs." The Speaker's words shutting the both of them down.

The tension that had been building in the room slowly beginning to ebb away in the presence of their singular leader. Saint found himself smiling self-deprecatingly, his father had always tried to impress upon him the importance of understanding the views of others.

He had always struggled with keeping things impersonal, finding far more enjoyment in life making emotional connections with others, Guardians or not.

"The issue still stands," Shaxx commented, his massive arms crossed over his chest. "Jane is still winning her fights."

The Crucible Manager brought up an excellent point, one which was driven home when the screens lit up, announcing that Jane had killed yet another Guardian meant to be hunting her.

"Not for much longer," The Speaker replied, "Zavala, if you would be so inclined."

Saint found himself and the rest of those in the room look to where the Titan Vanguard stood. The Awoken Guardian simply nodding his head and pressing something on the tablet he held in one hand.


Stopping behind some high cover, Jane paused to allow herself a few moments to breathe, unable to hear anything else over the sound of her own heavy breathing. Even as her new helmet did a remarkable job of keeping her visor from getting fogged up, Jane checked her pulse rifles ammo counter on her HUD, seeing she only had two more bursts left before she needed to reload.

Reaching down to her belt, Jane had just materialised a new magazine when a dark figure dropped down from above and behind her. The sudden appearance startled her enough that she jerked her rifle up on pure reflex, allowing Jane the chance to pull the trigger.

The first burst was deflected harmlessly off of the figure's barriers, and her pulse rifle was brushed aside with an almost casual ease that left her second burst to be harmlessly fired into the air.

Ducking, Jane just barely managed to dodge a punch her new opponent threw with their other hand. The fist missing her helmeted head by inches and colliding with the stone behind her, the rock shattering under the blow with a muted flash of blue light.

Eyes widening behind her helmet in horror, Jane tried to back away and gain some distance between them, her eyes scanning up and down her surprise attacker on reflex, taking in everything she could within the few moments of respite she had.

The figure of her attacker was female, the heavy looking black and blue armour doing little to hide the obvious curves on the breast plate, and the piece of cloth located at the woman's waist clearly marking her as a Titan.

Not wanting to find out what would happen if her head was on the receiving end of that punch, Jane continued to backpedal as fast as she could, even as she dropped her useless pulse rifle and reached for the handcannon attached to her waist.

The Titan didn't give her the chance, the armoured woman darting towards her at a startling speed, forcing Jane to dive to her left to avoid yet another Light enhanced punch. The female Titan not slowing down as she turned and followed after her, not letting Jane gain any useful distance.

Coming out of her roll, Jane barely managed to get her feet underneath herself before she was forced to deflect a jab, which was quickly followed with a series of sharp punches that she could barely dodge or deflect away from herself.

Continuously getting pushed backwards, Jane struggled to find an opening to counter, sharp pains accumulating in her shoulders, arms and hands as she continued to deflect the heavy blows coming her way. Her opponent was quickly proving to be some sort of expert in hand to hand combat.

Unable to stand her ground and apply any significant counterattack, it wasn't long before Jane felt hard stone pressing against her back, signalling that she had run out of room to retreat.

Ducking under a punch, Jane once again heard stone break under the force of the woman's fist, and in the momentary pause that followed, Jane lashed out with a jab of her own. Aiming for the Titan's armoured faceplate. Instead, her fist deflected off of the Guardian's barrier, but appeared to startle the woman somewhat, as she flinched back from the failed strike.

Taking advantage of the few seconds she had gained, Jane reached down and ripped her Searcher Mk.37 handcannon from its holster at her waist, before bringing it up in a compressed two handed grip and pointing it at her opponents head.

At such a small distance, aiming wasn't necessary. Pulling the trigger, Jane watched with satisfaction as the first round hit dead center of the Guardian's faceplate, jerking the woman's head back as her second round followed after, aimed at the Titan's exposed neck.

The Titan's barriers saved her, but Jane kept firing as fast as she could pull the revolver's trigger, the woman's barriers breaking after the fourth shot and saving her life, but leaving her entirely exposed.

Unfortunately, before Jane could fire the killing shot, the sound of a shotgun being ratcheted caught her ear, and she was once again forced to dive into a roll in order to avoid a shotgun blast that took a chunk out of the floor behind where she had been standing.

Coming out of her roll, Jane had enough time to identify her new opponent as a male Titan, before the man fired a second time, the shotgun blast booming out with a flash of what looked like lightning.

Jane barely had time to blink before she felt the round hit her in the chest with the force of a sledgehammer, sending her body tumbling backwards into a heap on the ground.

Coughing from the force of the impact, Jane clutched her stomach as she tried to force air back into her lungs, the impact having been largely taken by her armour, but knocking the air out of her and fracturing at least three of her ribs.

She was only vaguely aware of Fubar calling her name over their private comms, the pain in her chest making concentrating on anything else all but impossible.

"Not bad kid, you almost had me for a second there."

Looking up, Jane found herself staring into the barrel of a handcannon, the female Titan standing behind it. The last thing she witnessed was the flash of ignition, before everything went black.


Authors Note:

Apologies for the delay, my computer had a spat and had to be reset back to factory settings. Luckily for me, I got a 2TB external hardrive for Christmas, so I had everything on my computer completely backed up.

This chapter is just the opening to several, all of them will be focusing on Jane's time in the Crucible. The next two chapters will be Jane focusing on unlocking and then mastering the powers of a Guardian, (I've finally settled on which Class she'll be!) plus introducing a few new friends along the way.


Thank you for your continual support everyone, and thank you to those who Review, Please do read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not as much. Of course, reviews are my life blood as a writer on this site, and every time my email goes off it motivates me to write more.

~ JunkMail