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"To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little." - Criss Jami


Arc III – Chapter 13

Questions Raised

With a muffled groan of abject misery, Jane slowly awoke to blurry and unfamiliar surroundings.

She was lying on her stomach, something she almost never did whilst sleeping, and she was still wearing her full set of armour. Attempting to bring her arm up to her face, Jane discovered that it had somehow gotten tangled up in her new black and purple cloak. Making a feeble effort to untangle it, Jane gave up and groaned as her head tried to split itself open.

"There you are!"

The sudden and loud noise made Jane want to throw up. The sound of footsteps approaching her position sounding like gunshots going off inside her skull. Twisting her head in an attempt to face the floor, Jane faintly noted that she wasn't wearing her helmet when her nose scraped against concreate, and after the urge to hurl returned, she figured that that was probably for the best.

"Jeez, no wonder we couldn't find you last night. That new paint job really makes you blend into the shadows."

Blinking her eyes in an attempt to get them to focus, Jane looked up to find someone crouching down over her.

Despite her dodgy vision, Jane managed to identify a feminine figure in blue clothes. The short blonde hair and electric blue eyes helped to identify the figure as Hawk, her friend standing over her with a tired yet faintly amused look on her face.

As her vision continued to improve, Jane also began to notice the dark rings under her friend's eyes and the unkempt look of her hair, indicating that Jane wasn't the only one who'd had a long night fuelled by alcohol.

It took Jane's brain longer than it should have to realise that they were in some sort of dark alleyway, the graffiti on the walls and the overflowing trash bins indicating they weren't in the good part of the City either.

As Jane attempted to twist herself onto her back, memories slowly started to trickle back in. With flashes of Hawk and other members of her Host revealing them in what looked to be a Bar, multiple flashes of herself downing drinks of various colours, and the blurry memory of her punching some guy with a tattoo on his face.

"Ugh, why did you let me drink so much?"

Watching Hawk for her reaction, Jane blinked in surprise as her friend went from faintly amused yet exhausted to incredibly sad. Her highly dehydrated mind struggling to recall much of what happened the other night, before the knowledge slammed into her like a ton of bricks.

Shit.

"Shit."

Hawk sighed, "Yeah." Before offering a hand.

Taking it, Jane let her incredibly strong friend haul her to her unsteady feet, the world doing a full three hundred and sixty along the way that made Jane want to hurl the contents from her stomach. Another set of hands reached out and gripped her arm, steadying her before she tipped over from the vertigo.

Looking up, Jane only now realised that someone else was with them, her severely hungover mind taking a minute to identify him as Question, one of Hawk's teammates. She knew him, and he knew her, but they only really talked to each other through Hawk.

"Thanks, Q."

"No problem," The large man shrugged. "Although, I am curious as to how you managed to get here when the bar we were at is two and a half blocks away."

With both Hawk and Q propping her up, Jane managed to find the vestiges of her balance. "I'll let you know when the world stops spinning… and when I remember even half of what I did last night."

Taking a breath, Jane grimaced as reality refused to remain unacknowledged. "He's really gone, isn't he?"

The three of them stood silently for a few moments, before Hawk sighed. "Yeah," She confirmed. "The Vanguard made an announcement earlier this morning, the Speaker's called for a day of mourning."

Shit.

"Shit."

"You've said that already." A sarcastic voice broke in.

Looking up, Jane found herself smiling as Fubar appeared, her Ghost materialising from the storage compartment in her armour.

"There you are, I was beginning to wonder where you'd gotten off to." Jane teased, taking the opportunity to distract herself.

Her floating companion made a digital sound that she interpreted as a huff of derision. "Oh please. I've been here all night, who do you think called Hawk to come pick you up?"

Smiling, Jane continued to bicker with her Ghost while Hawk and Question helped her to start walking, the two Titans managing to assist her on walking out of the alley and across the road beyond. The three of them plus Fubar all piling into a waiting transport shuttle.

The small VTOL waited only a few moments before taking off, the shuttle quickly gaining altitude to avoid buildings as Hawk punched in a destination. Jane had little doubt they were flying back to the Tower, and to her apartment, where she could sleep off the rest of her hangover in peace.

The flight in total barely took ten minutes, and before Jane knew it, they were touching down at the base of the Alpha-Tower, and from there it was only a brief walk across a stone courtyard to the main elevators.

By the time they made it to the right floor, Jane had recovered enough to feel confident in standing on her own two feet, coming out of the elevator and into the hallway at a slow but steady walk.

Reaching her door, Jane let Fubar unlock it as she turned back to face her two companions.

"Thanks for dragging me out of that alley." Jane said, rubbing the back of her neck subconsciously.

"Ah, don't sweat it." Hawk waved off, "We were partly responsible anyway. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who was challenging you to shots."

With a quiet beep, Fubar unlocked the door, and with one final goodbye, Jane turned around and heaved the door open. The lights for the corridor of her apartment turning on automatically, illuminating the freshly painted white walls and cardboard boxes of stuff she hadn't yet had the time to unpack.

Shutting the door behind her, Jane found herself to be too exhausted to bother putting her armour back in its stand. Instead choosing to shed it off as she moved towards her bedroom, leaving a trail of strike plates and underclothing in her wake.

Hitting her bed with a tired sigh, Jane didn't even bother getting under the covers. Falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.


Jane was an expert hand-to-hand fighter, and while she had no memories of how such skills were taught to her, she still knew the difference between fighting smart and fighting angry.

Right now, standing in her living room turned workout space, Jane wasn't bothering with anything complicated or smart. No, she was standing in the middle of the room and beating the shit out of her punching bag.

Off to the side, two metal crates were sitting next to her coffee table, with Fubar resting on top of them. Lyssa had come round earlier to drop them off, with the Warlock staying for a short while to chat, before giving her a tight hug and heading off.

The boxes themselves were nothing special to look at, just standard storage crates, but inside they contained several pieces of tech, strange looking artefacts and even several weapons of various builds and calibres.

According to Lyssa, Saint had apparently chosen to update his Will before he had left, and the items in the boxes were the things he had chosen to leave to her. Just the thought of that made her hit the punching bag a little harder.

She still hadn't gone through the second one yet, but just from what she had seen in the first one, it looked as if the majority of it was old pieces of equipment, tech and weapons Saint had come to collect in his time as a Guardian of the City.

The heavy punching bag was taking a serious beating, with Jane not holding back in the slightest as she wailed on the reinforced leather with everything she had, both her fists and her vision tinted in the purple energy of the Void as she let herself go full out.

She was sweating like crazy and her breathing was a mess, yet she didn't let up for even a second. Clad in her workout clothes, a form fitting black tank top and pants, with her hair done up in a messy pony tail, she was determined to keep hitting the bag until she didn't have the energy to stand upright.

Workout music was blaring from the speakers she had managed to fix to her living room walls, rather effectively drowning out the majority of her thoughts, and allowing her to time her strikes to the heavy beats of each song.

She had just switched back from punches to kicks again when she faintly heard someone ringing her doorbell, Jane barely managing to hear the soft chime over the sound of heavy metal.

With a sharp gesture to Fubar, her Ghost shut off the sound system, plunging the apartment into a piercing silence.

Taking a moment to grab a hand towel before heading for the door, she didn't even bother looking to see who it was before she unlocked the door and pulled it aside.

"Finally!" Cayde exclaimed. "I've been standing out here for like, ten minutes now."

"Cayde?" Jane asked, still breathing hard from her workout. "What'd you want?"

The Exo seemed surprised at her state, "Err, are you alright? You look as if you've been in a fist fight with a legion of Cabal."

Something inside of her snapped. "The first person I ever considered a friend since waking up in this godforsaken place, the only one who took the time out of his day to help me adjust, who let me find my place here, just died." Jane pointed a finger at Cayde, "So no, I'm not okay. I'm angry, frustrated and hungover, what of it?"

"Nothing!" Cayde shifted awkwardly, suddenly unable to look her in the eye. "Absolutely nothing!"

Calming down slightly, Jane let her hand drop as she wrangled her emotions back under her control, her hands coiling into fists. She was angry at a great many things, but Cayde wasn't one of them.

Sighing, Jane relaxed her muscles and instead reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, letting out a huff of air as she did so.

"I'm sorry, Cayde." She apologised. "Saint was my first real friend and mentor. I didn't know him all that long, but he was a good friend to me, and I'm pissed that I can't do anything about it."

Cayde seemed to almost sag in response, the Vanguard Hunter sighing as well, before he reached up to scratch the underside of his chin.

"Yeah… Though if it's any consolation, the Scouts reported that it looked like he went down swinging."

Jane felt herself stiffen slightly, and she struggled to keep her eyes from narrowing in suspicion.

She'd spent enough time around both Cayde and Tevis, usually inside of a bar or some underground casino, to know when the Exo in front of her was lying. The fact that he had reached up to scratch his chin was one of his more obvious tells.

Cayde had just lied to her.

But before she could think to question him on it, the Exo rather bluntly shifted topics.

"Besides, how are you hungover? It's four in the afternoon!"

Jane felt her blood pressure spike slightly. "In case you haven't herd, I spent most of yesterday afternoon getting black out drunk with the majority of Jagi's Host. I then got lost in the City streets and passed out in some dark alleyway. I only got back around four hours ago."

Wanting to test her suspicions without making it obvious, Jane followed her gut and added. "Someone I cared about just died Cayde, what'd you expect?"

Again that guilty look appeared, "Alright, fair point." Cayde acceded.

Realising that whatever was making Cayde feel guilty was something to do with Saint, Jane attempted to apply some pressure.

"I can't imagine how the Speaker feels. I didn't know Saint long, but from what I've been able to learn, the two of them had something of a father-son thing going on."

Again Cayde seemed to almost squirm, the Exo cleared his throat.

"Yeah, he was pretty quiet when our scouts returned from Mercury."

Mercury huh?

Jane didn't think the Hunter noticed his little slip up, and Jane wasn't about to call him out on it. But before Jane could ask any more questions, Cayde visibly straightening himself out and adopted a more professional posture. "Anyway, there's a reason why I'm here."

And like that her chances were gone. Cayde having slipped into his 'serious persona' to avoid any more of her questions.

"Really? And here I thought you were here for the company." Jane found herself stating sarcastically. Leaning back against her doorway and crossing her arms under her chest, Jane waited to see what Cayde had in store for her.

The Exo seemed to ignore her sarcasm, instead he began to gesture with his hands in a rather animated fashion. "The Vanguard is calling a briefing for this big operation. Lots of Hosts and Fireteams are getting called in, plus a bunch of our lone wolves." Quietening down to a whisper, Cayde continued. "It's all very hush hush stuff, but I'd like to bring you in on it."

Taking a moment to think it through, Jane found herself suspicious of the timing. But ultimately she found no reason not to accept the invitation that wouldn't reflect badly on her. "Alright, fine. I'll be there. When and where?"

"Excellent!" Cayde exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Alpha-Tower, the main briefing room."

Jane grunted. "And the time?" She asked.

"Five o'clock sharp." Taking another glance at her, Cayde gestured back into her apartment. "You might want to take a quick shower before you head up."

Jane glared at him.

"And I've got some… other… stuff, to do."

Backing away, Cayde brought his hands up in surrender before turning around and striding away at a remarkably fast pace.

Watching him go, Jane let her mind race.

Cayde had lied to her about the circumstances of Saint's death. And now that she thought about it, the Vanguard had been rather cagey with the details of Saint's mission in general, Jane hadn't even known there was a Scout Report.

After a few moments of silence, Fubar appeared at her shoulder, her Ghost practically radiating curiosity across their bond.

"Was that Cayde?" He asked.

"Yep."

"What did he want?"

"We've got ourselves a new mission. No details yet, but there's a briefing in an hour."

They were both quiet for a few more moments.

"He was rather skittish whenever I brought up any mention of Saint."

"Oh?"

Jane hummed a confirmation as she turned around and headed back inside, sliding the door shut behind her and making her way back towards the living room.

It didn't take her long to fill Fubar in on what Cayde had said, along with her own suspicions.

"That is rather odd of him."

Jane remained quiet, contemplating.

"Fubar?"

"Yeah?"

"Cayde mentioned a Field Report. Those scouts that went to Mercury found something, and I want to know what."

There was a slight pause, which didn't go unnoticed.

"There a problem?"

"Err, yeah. Those kind of documents are classified by the Vanguard, usually on a need to know basis only. They don't just hand out top secret information to anyone who asks, no matter how scary their glare is."

Said glare made an appearance, but unfortunately Fubar had started developing an immunity to it recently.

"You know what I'm thinking."

Her Ghost sighed, "You want to do something stupidly reckless. Get into trouble, and then force me to get you out of it."

"Fubar."

"Yes?"

"I want that Field Report."

"I'll see what I can do."


Authors Note:

Wow, this chapter took waaaay longer to write than it should have. I'm incredibly sorry about the delay. The amount of changes in both plot, scenes and dialog was ridiculous. Not to mention RL is getting rather stressful for me right now.

On a completely unrelated note, I just recently got a hold of a new copy of Destiny 1 for the Xbox One. (Legacy didn't have rise of iron) And for some reason, once I imported my characters over, I cant access the Tower, the loading screen just goes black and I cant access my inventory. If anyone knows how to solve this, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know.

The next chapter will hopefully come out on time next week. But quite frankly I have no idea anymore. We'll see how things go…


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