~I don't own Mass Effect or Destiny, all copyrighted content goes to their respective owners~

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." – Albert Einstein


Arc II - Chapter 11

Well Met By Firefight

Cocking her head from one side to the other, Jane squinted as she used a pair of tweezers to slowly pull out a small piece of tech from her Echo 33 Pulse Rifle.

With a sigh of relief, she leaned back in her chair as she dropped the small circuit board in a small metal bowl on the side of her worktop. The small piece of circuitry she had just removed from her rifle was responsible for getting the bullets from a magazine to the rifles chamber, and helped to prevent jams by managing how fast the system could work reliably.

Of course, with the new parts she had acquired for the rifle, the pulse rifle could now fire bursts almost as fast as she could pull the trigger, and Jane just needed to replace the circuit board with a new one that allowed her to do so.

With a brief movement of her hand, Jane pushed away the LED lamp she had fixed to the side of her desk. The lamp was currently the only source of light in the room, as Jane found the room's main lighting tended to cast shadows over whatever she was working on.

Putting the tweezers down, Jane looked over to the far right end of her desk, where Fubar had situated himself, his singular eye closed as he slept. Or hibernated, as he apparently called it.

Leaning back in her chair and taking a moment, Jane looked around the small space she had turned into her workshop. The box shaped room was one of four that made up her apartment, which comprised of a serviceable bedroom, a small but compact kitchen, a living room which she mostly used as extra storage space and her workshop, where she kept all her equipment and tools.

Off to her left, she had fixed a small wireframe gun rack to the wall, where Jane kept her Wire Rifle, fixed in an upright position. Below the secured sniper rifle, both her Searcher Mk.37 and her Regulator Mk.56 Handcannons were held in horizontal grips.

She wasn't usually one for sentimentality, but the Searcher was the Handcannon she had picked up before she had met Saint, and even after she had gotten the Regulator, a far more powerful pistol, she had decided to keep the old one. If for no other reason than just to fill up the currently empty spaces on the gun rack.

Further back towards the far left corner of the room, a small chest and armour stand were kept. Along with Jane's current set of armour, which was held up on a stand that displayed it as if someone was wearing it, the chest kept the old set of makeshift armour she had worn back in Russia.

At the very far back of the room, the flag for the Fallen House of Devils was displayed fully on the far wall. The dark red flag with the white design was lightly splattered with the white/blue blood of Solkis, the Kell of Devils, which Jane hadn't bothered to wash off. It was another memento she had found interesting enough to be worth keeping.

And then piled in the far right corner of the room was her supply of that strange metal she had been found with. The broken and twisted metal was proving excellent at improving the durability of whatever she used it on, including her newest set of armour.

Of course, she only had a limited supply, but thankfully Fubar had seen fit to take as much as he could reasonably carry, which had turned out to be quite a bit.

Blinking, Jane rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands as she tried to refocus. Checking the digital clock fixed to the wall above her desk, it revealed that it was getting close to midnight, and Jane huffed as she turned back to her pulse rifle.

These days she tried to avoid sleep until she absolutely needed it, her Light once again proving useful by reducing the amount of hours she needed to sleep each night, allowing her to forestall the nightmares.

She was getting them more often these days, especially since she had started fighting in the Crucible. Even though she could never remember what the nightmares themselves were about, they still managed to leave her feeling just as exhausted, if not more so, than when she first went to sleep.

Fubar had managed to warn her off foregoing sleep altogether, though that was mainly because according to her Ghost, other Guardians had attempted to do so before her, and the results had left them with some serious mental problems.

Shaking her head, Jane got back to work, picking her tweezers back up and using them to grab the new circuit board for her rifle. She had a Crucible match first thing in morning, her first team based game, and she would need her pulse rifle tested and ready to go.


The Next Day…

The rapid clanging of footsteps had Jane snapping her pulse rifle up just in time for the Titan to come around the corner, his body posture indicating his surprise at seeing her before she opened fire, putting several fast bursts into him before he could backtrack behind cover.

"Contact, left flank. Single Titan." Fubar stated over her teams short range comms. They had quickly found it to be easier for her Ghost to do the talking, while Jane was busy fighting.

Not giving him the chance to recover, Jane advanced aggressively. Pursuing her prey and continuing to fire as she came around after him, his return fire from his auto rifle making her want to instinctively duck and back away.

Instead, she forced herself to continue forward, ignoring her instincts for once. Instead of getting riddled with holes, the Titan's rounds began reflecting off of her new purple tinged barriers, and leaving her entirely unharmed as she continued to advance.

As she fired off her last burst, the Titan's barriers finally broke, unable to take the continuous rain of fire. Instead of pausing to reload, Jane let go of her rifle with her right hand and reached down to her belt, drawing her handcannon with one smooth motion.

Twisting her torso to minimalize her profile, Jane kept a hold on her pulse rifle via the gun's forward grip, and she used her other hand to bring up her handcannon.

Aiming down her pistol's sights with only one hand, the moment the reticle on her helmets HUD changed from white to red, Jane didn't hesitate to fire twice. The first heavy round breaking the visor of the Titan's helmet, with the second punching through the broken armour-glass and killing him.

"Titan down."

Even as the Guardian's body hit the ground, Jane wasn't given the time to relax, with two more Guardians, one another Titan and the other a Warlock, appearing around a set of old machinery, opening fire the moment they saw her.

"Two more! Titan and Warlock, requesting backup!" Fubar called out, sounding alarmed.

Ducking through an open doorway, Jane found herself back outside. The green and white of the open mountain range surrounded the backdrop of the Last City, with the floating sphere of the Traveller hovering above.

Jane's momentary appreciation of the rather impressive scenery was interrupted by gunfire, coming back from inside the building she had just vacated.

"Able-12 and Agis Vallen are engaging." Fubar reported.

Taking a breath, Jane turned away from the door. "Then let's see if we can't find another way in to flank them." Jane replied, Fubar relaying her intentions to her team.

About to set off, Jane grunted as one of her shoulder strike plates didn't move properly and pinched her skin, despite the padded under-armour she wore underneath.

Checking it, Jane realised that the plate was cracked, though she didn't know when it had happened. She guessed it must have happened in one of her earlier engagements and she just hadn't noticed until now.

Without a word needed, Fubar momentarily materialised to fix it. A small beam of blue light streaming out from his eye and seemingly welding the cracked plate back together, leaving behind a thin white mark.

Jane was starting to learn that she was gaining a reputation in the Crucible. Guardians were now seeming to be either avoiding her or actively seeking her out, most likely in the hopes of claiming glory in defeating her. As a result, her armour was becoming increasingly dented, scratched and even burnt in places from her multiple matches.

Fubar could fix most of the damage, since it was usually just cracks in her armour's strike plating or bullet holes that appeared in her new cloak. But he couldn't do much about the details, the paint becoming faded and broken in places from where she kept incurring damage.

Still, it wasn't something a quick trip to one of the City's armours couldn't fix, and Jane was thinking about getting a new pain job anyway, now that she was officially a part of the City's Hunters. And it wasn't like she was short for money, or Glimmer, as the City called it, since Cayde had started giving her a cut of the underground betting that was taking place on her televised matches.

Once Fubar was finished, she began moving around the edge of the building, keeping herself quiet as the roar of gunfire inside grew even louder. From what she could hear, someone with a machine gun had evidently decided to show up.

"Adam has joined them." Fubar supplied, Jane grunting as she remembered seeing the Awoken Titan and his massive machinegun before the start of the match. Turning a corner, Jane had only managed a brief sweep for hostiles before the crack of a sniper rifle rang out, a heavy round hitting her in the chest and instantly breaking her barriers.

Reeling in pain from the feedback the destruction of her barriers caused, it was pure luck that her instinctive movements allowed the second, killing shot, to just barely miss her. Instead, the round zipped under her arm and punched a hole in the grating behind her, further motivating her to backpedal as fast as she could.

With a grunt of pain, Jane managed to get herself back around the corner before the sniper could regain their bead on her. One final round punching through the corner of the wall, missing her entirely, as they apparently tried to predict where she had moved after getting behind cover.

Instead, Jane was forced to divert her attention as her motion scanner detected movement behind her, and she turned around in time to see a male Warlock, who was wearing the most glaring orange plated armour she had ever seen, and a female Hunter in bright blue stumble around the corner. The two Guardians were tripping up over themselves, coming around the corner that led back the way Jane herself had originally come from.

Following after the walking neon sign and his equally glaring partner was another female Hunter, this one wearing more sensible clothing. Fubar helpfully updating Jane's HUD with a friendly marker, identifying her as one of her teammates.

With a flourish Jane was becoming used to seeing in her fellow Hunters, the woman lit up with arc energy. A bright blue staff of lightning formed in her hands as she struck out, moving with incredible speed, the unfortunate enemy Warlock not even seeing her coming.

With a twirl of her staff, the Hunter swept the Warlock off of his feet with one end and then rotated to slam him down to the ground with the other, the Warlock dissolving into nothing a moment later.

The enemy Hunter barely managed to recover her balance before she too suffered a similar fate, getting whacked over the head to break her barriers before getting stabbed in the heart. Her brief screams of pain fading into nothing as her body was consumed in electrical energy.

Inside her helmet, Jane grimaced. She much preferred to kill her enemies quickly, instantly if she could help it. She really didn't like some of the Guardians she had come across in her time at the Crucible, a lot of them seemingly indifferent to the pain and suffering they casually inflicted on others. The rest seemed to treat it like some sort of game.

Before she could dwell on it further, the Arcstrider turned and twirled her staff behind her back, before she let it fizzle out as her voice sounded out through the comms.

"You'll want to keep your wits about you Guardian," She called out as she moved to stand in front of her. "These two were looking to ambush you."

Jane just grunted in annoyance, "Ugh, I've had whole Fireteams trying to kill me." She complained, "I'd be more annoyed about it, but Cayde's been giving me a cut of the betting pools."

Coming to a stop in front of her, the Hunter offered her hand. "Eris Morn, Arcstrider. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Smiling behind her helmet, Jane reciprocated the gesture. "Jane, Nightstalker. The pleasure is mine."

"Oh I know who you are," Eris stated. Her grip strong as they shook hands, "You've been the talk of the Towers ever since you arrived."

Jane blinked in surprise at the admission. "Really?"

"Of course, you arrived on board Saint-14's ship. Not to mention that bar fight you had with Ikora's Hidden barely hours later." The Arcstrider claimed. "You've been the center of gossip about the City in general, especially since you started fighting in the Crucible."

Their moment of calm was nice but short lived, an explosion going off inside drawing them back into the present. Jane looking to where she had tried to turn the corner, the bullet hole punched into the side of it reminding her of the issue at hand.

Apparently spotting the hole as well, Eris moved to stand closer to the wall. "Sniper?"

"Yeah," Jane confirmed. "Hang on a moment, I'll deal with it."

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, Jane focused. Reaching into the depths of her memory and bringing one of the few solid memories she had about her previous life to the forefront of her mind.

The sudden flow of rage made her grit her teeth, images of death and destruction flashing through her mind's eye as she struggled to contain the urge to break something. Purple light began to tint her vision, and Jane struggled to breathe normally as she felt the Void encase her hands.

The flashes of her memory continued to progress, moving past what Jane had started calling The Rage and into The Calm. The memory progressing into an image of her holding an old fashioned bow and arrow, standing somewhere in a densely wooded area.

Opening her eyes, Jane looked at her hands, finding both of them to be entirely covered in the purple energy of the Void. The energy continuing to accumulate even as Jane began to go through the new, yet strangely familiar motions.

Taking another deep breath, Jane eyed the ground and ran a few ran a few calculations in her head. The angle from the bullet hole gave her a rough idea of where the sniper was, so taking a few steps back, Jane sprinted forwards as fast as she could.

Dropping back into a slide the moment before she left the cover of the building, Jane took full advantage of her armour's knee and leg guards to slide along the rough ground.

The sniper apparently hadn't expected her to appear so low and fast, as his first shot ended up missing entirely, the round whizzed over the top of her head and pinging off of something metallic.

Briefly touching each of her palms together in front of her, Jane extended her left arm forwards, while simultaneously drawing her right hand back towards her ear. The mnemonic causing the Void energy to form into that of a flickering purple and black bow, an arrow of Void energy appearing the moment her right hand touched her ear.

Pulling the arrow back as far as she could, Jane continued her slide as she took aim at the sniper. The Hunter was standing on an elevated platform several roughly fifty meters away. The moron was even standing upright and out of cover, allowing her to watch as he fired a second time, the round being absorbed by her barriers.

Not letting him fire a third time, Jane released her arrow, the void energy practically leaping from her hands and streaking across the distance to her target in the blink of an eye.

With a flash and bang of purple energy, Jane's aim proved true, with the arrow striking the sniping Hunter in the chest. The force of the arrow launching the man back against the wall behind him.

Jane watched as his body crumpled to the ground, before being consumed by the Void. Breathing deeply, she allowed the Void energy still surrounding her to dissipate, the purple tint fading from her vision.

Just as she was about to start moving again, several loud monotone beeps sounded out in a sequence, the chime seemingly coming from everywhere at once.

It was a signal Jane was becoming familiar with, the chime meaning that the match was over. A holographic interface appearing before them, detailing their individual performances and revealing that their team had won.

Coming to stand next to her, Eris pulled back her hood and removed her helmet, revealing a narrow yet pretty face with short dark hair.

"Impressive." She commented. While the woman's words were spoken with a bland tone, the small curve at one side of her mouth told Jane more. "While I cannot stand Cayde, I must admit that for once he wasn't exaggerating when he claimed you were powerful."

In response, Jane removed her own helmet and grinned. Her hair gently blowing in the artificial breeze. She had a feeling this would be the start of a new friendship.


Authors Note:

Started back a Uni last week, so as you can imagine things have been a little busy for me. In order to keep things going smoothly on all ends, I'll be looking to update this story every Wednesday.

I've also finally made a rough plan for where I want this story to go. As this story originally starting out as a whim, with very little in the way of forethought, I've had to take some time to reorganise and plan things our.

So there will be multiple stories, each looking to be around 15-20 chapters long. Obviously I've still got some planning to do, but I've got Undying Light mostly planned out now. So the final arc is mainly going to set up where the following story goes on to next.


Thank you for your continual support everyone, and thank you to those who Review. Please do read and review, criticism is welcome, though 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