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Vanguard
Chapter 2:
Distortion
A/n:
Happy new year all, this is sort my way of kicking it off for me.
"Huh…" Said a slightly mechanical voice.
"What?" Was deep, masculine response.
"I just thought the gate was, you know, above ground." The first voice commented
Something worth commenting, seeing as how the three were now standingl in a massive cavern underground. Before them stood several ruins, shaped like basic building blocks fashioned from stone. Upon closer inspection, the blocks were too perfectly cut to be made by any human hand. Each shape too perfectly geometric to be natural. Beyond all this lay something decidedly unnatural.
A large ring, of sorts, lay half buried in the ground. It was made of a dark bronze metal, and while perfectly circular in it's basic shape, all sorts of prongs, rods, and antennae stuck out of it. In fact, it seemed to be two rings, one outside of the other, connected by said prongs. The Ring was emitting some kind of energy, some kind of feeling of…displacement. As if everything you did was…off…by a few seconds.
To most, it would have been disconcerting.
To these three, it was the telltale sign of a Vex gate.
"I have to admit, I would have thought it would have been above ground as well." Ikora, the lone female, and human, of the group added. She wore a helmet, this time, instead of leaving her face bare. It was a dark helm, smooth and oval shaped to fit her head. There was no elaborate design nor external protrusions on it. Only darkness. Darkness so black it seemed to both absorb and reflect the light around it. It was an infamous helm, known only as the Obsidian Mind.
"It's in the same place it was before, it's just that in this timeline it's still buried under a mountain." Zavala, the Awoken Titan of the group explained. Upon his head he wore a helmet composed of segmented silver panels. Each was opaque, and while seemingly fragile, were in reality fashioned from some of the hardest materials known to the tower. It was famously renowned for titans that inspired others as the Glasshouse.
"I feel like I would have noticed a mountain range in my time here." Cayde, the single inorganic hunter of the trio noted. He head was hooded, as opposed to the other two. His cloak coming up to cover his head. Even still, it wasn't enough to hide the three glowing lights of the Mask of the Third Man.
"You would have." Zavala agreed,
"If the Cabal hadn't leveled it."
"Ah…that does sound like them." Cayde nodded thoughtfully.
"So I'm guessing that the Cabal leveled the mountain range to get to the Vex tech underneath." Ikora guessed.
"Correct. Otherwise the citizens of Freehold would have noticed the large Vex gate just outside the city." Zavala explained.
"You know, I've always wondered about that. I mean, they found vex on Venus, but never mentioned anything about mars. Guess that's why." Cayde commented.
"There doesn't seem to be anything here, yet." Ikora noted, turning to the Titan.
"That's because I killed the ones defending the gate already. It's what's on the other side that has me worried." He answered.
And without another word, he walked forward, marching toward the gate. Sparing a glance and a shrug at each other, Ikora and Cayde followed suite. Before them, the gate began to light up. A blue pixilated light shone from the ring, and the world before them stretched and distorted. It was only years of experience with all manner of unorthodox travel, ranging from FTL jump drive to simple Blink, that prevented them from becoming ill from the transit.
"That's always going to feel weird, isn't it?" Cayde quipped.
"At least you don't have a stomach to get sick with." Ikora shot back.
"Focus." Zavala intoned, his impatience leaking through his voice.
Ending their verbal spar with a short glance, the two looked forward once more. What they received was an unsettling sight.
Empty.
The ruins of the Black Garden were empty. It still had the hard geometric cut edges. The moss and overgrowth creeping heavily on every surface. The bronze metal substructure peaking out from underneath here and there, lights filtering across their surfaces as a sign of life.
But it was empty.
"Uh, Zavala, were are all the Vex?" Cayde asked.
"Awake"
"Zavala, these walls were lined with dormant Vex, you're telling me that they're all awake?" Ikora asked incredulously.
"Yes." He said gruffly. "It seems this time they've truly pulled out all the stops. Their numbers have grown since I last gave you an update."
"By how much?" She asked.
"They now have 6 ultras and 72 majors. The other foot soldiers are at approximately 60,000 "
"Well…that sounds like fun." Cayde commented sardonically.
Zavala gave Cayde a silent glare with his faceless helm, before turning to march forward.
As they marched through the Black Garden, the two late comers couldn't help but feel unnerved. They could feel the darkness around them, so thick and powerful, almost choking them. But at the same time, they couldn't see it. They knew the Vex were there, but they never showed. The Black Garden should have been teeming with Vex, and yet none were to be found.
That was, until they reached the cliff.
Rounding a corner they stopped at the edge of a cliff the faced the rest of the Garden. Looking out they could see why it was called a garden in the first place. Before them stood the miles and miles of Vex ruins, all it's fractured geometry, all it's unnatural lines. But upon these titanic monoliths of darkness, lay fields upon fields of life.
Black trees, green grass, and red roses filled the fields for as far as the eye could see. In the center of the massive cavern was a titanic rock climbing high. Looking higher they could see that they were still, in fact, underground. The ceiling simply lay hundreds of meters, if not kilometers, above them.
"Hard to believe such beauty exists in such a dark place." Ikora mused outload.
"Funny how the robots are the ones with a green thumb." Cayde quipped.
"There is our target." Zavala said, pointing out a canyon that lay buried within the fields.
"The Black Heart."
"And there…" Zavala said, shifting his aim, "Is our obstacle."
At first glance, it just appeared to be another field of flowers. Then a massive shadow passed over them, one with a single red flower on it. It was here they realized it was not a field of flowers, but an army of Vex. The shadow none other than the massive floating form of a Vex Hydra.
Cayde, left all but speechless, could only say "Well….shit."
"I've never seen so many Vex in one spot." Ikora said in worried wonder.
"It's just the first legion." Zavala explained.
"First?" Cayde questioned.
Zavala nodded, "There are six. Each one is lead by it's own Axis mind, acting as a type of general"
"That seems to be putting an awful lot of resources in one spot. Lots of micromanaging for the Vex." Ikora commented.
"But it's also extremely effective. The First Legion by itself nearly caught me. With this much processing power in one spot, they can easily strategize as well and as quickly as any human commander ever born as if they commanded a platoon, not a Legion." He further explained.
"…Are we sure this is a good idea?" Cayde asked, "Cause that seems like an awful lot of fire power for us to take down."
"I already have a plan for this, actually. I just needed help carrying it out." Zavala responded.
"...Its not 'fight, die, repeat,' is it? 'Cause you know I hate that plan." Cayde joked.
Zavala only sighed before crouching down on the mossy rock, pulling out his ghost which began to display a map. "So here's the plan."
In the Halls of Olympus
"Have you seen Apollo anywhere?" Asked a voice, calm, measured, but with an underlying layer of annoyance not even centuries of experience could hide.
"Don't tell me you miss you brother?" A woman in white smirked. She had long, flowing, blonde hair, stormy grey eyes, and wore a shield upon her left bracer.
"No." Her opposite in silver staunchly denied.
"It's just that on the Winter Solstice meeting he usually shows up to bug me the first chance he gets. But he hasn't appeared. It has me…worried." She reluctantly admitted.
"Artemis, are you actually showing concern for your brother?" The Woman teased.
"I'm worried he has some big prank planned." The younger woman glared flatly.
"That does sound like him." The older admitted.
"He better not be trying to seduce one of my girls again." Artemis said with narrowed eyes, righteous fury burning with restrained force within them.
"I think he might have learned his lesson by know." Athena chided.
"Athena, you don't know Apollo. He is a shameless flirt, and would do it for the sole reason of riling me up." Artemis seethed.
"You don't even know if he's doing it, and you're already riled up."
"That's how good he is!" Artemis growled through grit teeth, her posture rigid with anger.
"You know what, I think you need more Ambrosia." Athena said with a strained smile, leading the shorter goddess to the banquet table.
After getting the goddess of the hunt properly filled with the golden drink, Athena thought she could breath a sigh of relief.
"Athena, you haven't seen Hades yet, have you?"
Athena restrained an angry sigh at the query, instead settling to make a face of hidden fury at the fates, before turning to greet the man with a pleasant and welcoming face.
"What?" She said, playing dumb, hoping he would leave her alone.
"Hades. He hasn't shown up yet. I mean, usually he's late, showing up all theatrically, but…I don't know, I have a bad feeling." Said the man before her.
Now, unlike several of the gods currently standing in Olympus, this one had decided to remain in his mortal attire. Apparently he had grown in love with it.
Then again, Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt did seem to suit his lazy personality.
"Posiden," She began tiredly, "I have no idea where your brother is. Why not ask someone else."
"Well…" He began
"Zeus would probably laugh it off and say something like, "Good riddance", Ares…wouldn't really care. Aphrodite would probably turn into some kind of gossip scandal. Hephaestus would go, "huh". Hera would just kind of scowl at me. Hermes would-" he listed off with his fingers.
"Okay!" Athena interrupted, tired of him listing them off.
"It just so happens that Artemis was looking for her brother too, so I guess I can look for him too." Athena explained.
"Wait, they're both missing?" He questioned.
"Yes." She said flatly, not seeing the relevance.
"You don't suppose, "he began before taking a cautionary look
Taking a step closer, he whispered to something.
"You don't suppose this has anything to do with the Prophecy, do you?" He conspired.
She recoiled in confusion, "Why would it?"
"Well, Hades has to deal with the Fates, while Apollo deals with the Oracles. The two entities that would be related to this." He pointed out.
Athena thought it over for a moment, no more, whilst giving the god a flat look, "I'm pretty sure it's just coincidence."
"Why would you even jump to that? It feels like a stretch." She commented.
"Oh, no reason." He said evasively and unconvincingly.
"Right…" She drawled, not believing that for a moment.
"Well I'm going to go look for them." She announced, turning to leave.
"Good luck." He waved cheekily, only serving to further ruin her already poor mood.
I hate family, she thought with a sour frown as she walked away.
After what felt like hours of trying to avoid her "family" for fear of more requests, finally Zeus announced it was time to begin the meeting. When they all gathered, it was then that Athena noticed the rather conspicuous absence of Apollo and Hades.
Alright She confessed internally, now I'm worried.
"Well, it seems we have some missing attendees." Zeus chuckled. "Oh well, the less doom and gloom we get the better."
"But isn't Apollo usually the life of the party?" Poseidon remarked casually.
Zeus frowned in his thrown, rubbing his dark beard with his free hind whilst the other held his infamous bolt.
"You make a good point." He admitted, "I suppose this balance at work. Lose some darkness, lose some sunshine."
"Regardless, we should get on with the meeting." He brushed it off.
Suppressing a sigh at his relaxed state, she moved on. I suppose this is what happens after millennia of knowing each other. A year or two of missing each other doesn't mean too much.
Seeing no objections, either through actual observance or bull-headed arrogance, Zeus decided to continue. "So, I would like to announce-"
WHOOSH
Suddenly a large vortex of darkness appeared in the center of the room, silencing and word out of Zeus's mouth. It whirled and roared for a moment, before dying down and dissipating.
In it's wake, stood two very familiar figures.
"YOU!" A…slightly…inebriated Goddess of the Hunt roared, jolting up from her throne.
"Hey sis." Responded her brother with a bright, carefree smile.
In the middle of the room stood two very different men. One wore a red tee shirt, sneakers, and a pair of sunglasses. His short blonde hair seemed to shine with some kind of ethereal light, and his skin held a healthy tanned radiance.
By contrast, the man by his side was shrouded in a black cloak, with only obsidian gauntlets and boots peeking out from the edges of it to hint at what he wore beneath. His hair was long and black, while his skin was a deathly pale. His face was grim and showed not patience for nonsense at the moment.
"Apollo, Hades…what is the meaning of this?" Zeus glowered.
"Right…" Apollo cringed, remember his place.
"We were late, weren't we?" He whispered to Hades.
"You say that like I should care." Hades responded icily.
Apollo shrugged it off, instead saying, "You know what, I could grow to like being fashionably late. Makes me kinda the star of the show."
"WELL!" Zeus bellowed, losing his patience at them.
If Athena knew anything about Zeus, and she liked to think she did, she would bet that Zeus was angrier at being interrupted than because they were late. If they had interrupted Poseidon, for example, he would have been far more jovial.
"Right, we should probably get on with it." Apollo cringed.
Then he pulled a book from behind him some kind of portable computer.
Right, a laptop. Athena reminded herself. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up these mortal inventions. Just a few decades ago they had computers the size of rooms. Now they are hundreds of times more powerful, and can fit on your lap.
What will they think of next?
"So, me and Hade here have an announcement to make." Apollo said.
"Can it wait?" Zeus questioned with an annoyed tone.
"No." Hades answered evenly.
Zeus sighed almost despondently before waving them on to continue. "Very well"
"Why don't you start it?" Apollo said, looking up at the comparatively towering form of Hades.
Hades spared the sun god a glance, before looking out to the audience they had gathered.
"You are all probably wondering why the two of us are here together." He began, his deep voice rumbling out through the gilded marble halls. "It is because we have discovered a problem."
"A problem with fate."
Everyone in attendance blinked in surprise, not comprehending or not wanting to comprehend what that meant.
"Four years ago, there was an incident with the Fates in the underworld. At first I thought it to be a small problem easily resolved." He continued. "It was not."
"Imagine my surprise when three years ago Apollo comes to me, saying he has a problem with his Oracles."
"What was the problem?" Zeus asked, not thoroughly intrigued, and quite possibly even worried.
"The Fates…have lost control." He answered.
"Of what?" Zeus narrowed his eyes.
"Of everything."
The eyes of Zeus slowly widened, as did the eyes of all gods in attendance.
The Fates were supposed to control time, fate, the future, the destinies of every man woman and child on the planet. Even the gods themselves were, to a degree, bound by them. For them to have lost control…
"That's not entirely correct, Hades." Apollo chided as he messed around with his laptop.
Hades sighed, but conceded the point. "The Fates have lost control of the future. They can neither see it with certainty, nor control it. The present, past, and near future, however, is much more certain to them, and they can still change it to a degree."
"That's still extremely bad." Poseidon pointed out.
"How did this happen?" Athena asked
"Apparently it started when several new threads entered the Yarn. Not entirely unusual at first, so they shrugged it off. However, the threads grew bright, too bright to read. Then they grew and multiplied, infecting every other thread and string in their weave of fate. Before long, they had lost control." Hades explained.
"What does that mean?" Aphrodite asked.
"It could mean a lot of things, but what it probably means is that several new souls were introduced. They could have been born, but the Fates seem to think of them as being foreign or wrong, so I'm willing to bet they aren't native to our time in some way." He began. "These souls were special in some way, something shielded them from the power of the Fates, and as such they were outside their control."
"While the Fates could read everyone else, they couldn't read these small variables, and these new souls had apparently started making a large impact on the world around them. Without being able to see these very important variables, soon everything spiraled out of control. Everything they touched caused a chain reaction, changing what was supposed to happen. Before long hundreds of thousands of changes had been made, each one unknowable, and millions of billions had yet to occur." He finished.
"And…how does Apollo play into this? Zeus asked, almost worried about the answer.
"Because…" he began distractedly, still typing on his laptop, "My oracles began to have many many visions and prophecies."
Looking up from his laptop, he actually looked Zeus in the eye with a face that brokered no argument as he spoke his next words. "They had hundreds of thousands of visions, and each one had another to counter it. Each prophecy had another prophecy that directly contradicted it, and another contradicting that one."
"So what we're saying is…" Hades began.
"…We've decided that every single prophecy that is in effect right now is completely null and void." Apollo finished.
"Every Prophecy?" Zeus stressed.
"If it hasn't been finished and still lies waiting in the future, it is completely invalidated." He answered.
"Even the big prophecy?" Poseidon asked, a thin layer of hope in his voice.
"Especially the big one. There are half a million variations on that one alone." Apollo stressed.
"And counting." Hades noted.
"Right." Apollo noted. "I've tried stopping the visions from coming through, but it's turning out to be a lot harder than I thought."
"Do we know why this is happening? What's caused this?" Zeus questioned.
"Is there anything similar running between the prophecies? Any patterns or similar themes?" Athena asked.
"Is it some kind of threat? A new enemy?" Ares asked, a measure of excitement in his voice.
"Ok, holdup." Apollo said, holding his hand up.
"To answer your question…" he trailed off, glancing up at Hades.
Hades looked down at the man, his shoulders seeming to sag in defeat, before nodding.
"Right, well, we have noticed a few patterns." He began.
"Now…" He began, browsing through the laptop, "There are repeated mentions of several…characters…for lack of a better word, as well as several themes."
"1,078 prophecies speak of some kind of Hunt. 2,037 mention Ishtar." He listed.
"Ishtar…" Athena pondered, "I wasn't sure she was still around. I had thought she had long since faded."
"Well apparently she's back." Zeus muttered.
"5,958 mention either Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter."
"What!" Aphrodite gasped.
"Why would the Romans be involved?" Zeus wondered.
Apollo shrugged helplessly, "If it helps, they might be talking about the planets, considering how often they mention the "great void", over 12,349 times."
"Speaking of which, here we get into the big ones." He mentioned. "A "great Darkness" is mentioned 20,797 times, with a great Light or dawning mentioned 20,908 times."
"Ares'll like this." Apollo muttered, "War is mentioned 135,735 times, in a lot of different contexts."
At that, Ares couldn't help but grin like man promised his day of glory.
"Conflict in general, is mentioned 587,239 times. This includes 349,672 times where conflict is implied, but not explained."
"Apollo, I believe these people have been waiting enough. Let them hear of the players involved in this play." Hades interrupted.
Apollo glared up at him with what could be called almost be called a pout, before sighing in defeat and turning back to his audience.
"What does he mean, Apollo?" Zeus commanded.
"Hades is reminding me of the multitude of characters involved." He replied, browsing through his laptop again.
"Lets start with… The Vex"
The Black Garden
The ground trembled and shook under their power. Lose dirt and rocks bounced in the air as the energy violently trembled underneath. Then they came.
Bronze armored forms. Basic humanoid shape. Two arms, two legs, a head, and a central body. The core of the Vex armies, the Goblin. In the center of it's chest was a glowing white oval, cocooned in slender and organic bronze armor. The head was conically fan-shaped, starting narrow at the front, before expanding out wide at the back. In the center of the "face" was a single red eye, burning with the cold hatred of a thousand minds working as one.
And there were hundreds of them, walking in unison. Every step, every movement was made in concert.
But it was not these that were the ones to be worried about. They were the bulk, but they were neither the eye nor the sword, simply the distraction.
In the cliffs, solitary red eyes waited and watched for the right moment to strike with lethal precision.
In the shadows, massive forms moved silently ahead, searching for targets to eliminate with brutal aggression.
In the air, bronze beings floated with a solitary red eye surrounded by a trilateral pyramid with three sets of two whip like tails trailing behind them, watching for targets.
And above them all, was the titanic colossus that towered over the ridges of the cliffs, levitating over the ground with the greatest of ease. It resembled an upside down segmented pyramid with guns affixed to the sides, and a great glowing red head in the center. Surrounding it was a rotating blue wall hovering in the air.
It had sentries everywhere. Soldiers waiting for the slightest sign of attack. Assassins ready to strike. All it need do was express patience. Something that the Vex were intimately familiar with.
Olympus
"What can you tell us of these…Vex?" Asked Athena, curious of this new player.
"What we have we're piecing together from what the oracles have said, and what little the fates have managed to see." Apollo explained as he pressed several keys on his computer.
"The Vex are mentioned many times with the 'Great Darkness'" Hades said.
"Are they this darkness?" Zeus asked.
"No, but they do seem to be allied with it. There are numerous mentions of them as 'Servants of the Darkness'" Apollo explained. "They're also mentioned as being 'clad in bronze, obsidian, and crystalline shells.'"
"'Legions of them march tirelessly under one mind. Their steps trembling the ground beneath their very feet.'" Hades quoted. "'Their eyes burn bright with the fires of hate'"
"'Harnessing the power of the great void, they twist and turn the rivers of time.'" Apollo added.
"Time?" Poseidon questioned
"Yes, time is referenced a lot with these guys. They're described as 'timeless', 'ageless', etc etc." Apollo answered. "There are even several times when they are either called, 'gods of time' or serving 'Time's Conflux'"
"I don't like the sound of these…'Time Gods'…" Zeus scowled.
"Kind of reminds you of dear old dad, doesn't it?" Poseidon commented with a quirked brow and a grim look.
"So are these the enemy? They sound like what caused this whole thing." Ares pointed out.
"We're not too terribly sure. From some visions, it sort of sounds like they might have done it, or at least had a hand in it. In others, it seems like they're having the same problems our Fates are having." Hades explained
"Wait, are you saying they have power on the order of the Fates?" Athena brought up, concern running through her at the thought of another entity not bound by their rules with powers on the order of magnitude as the beings that controlled fate itself.
"Possibly. It's not clear. There are references to a 'Vault of Glass' guarded by the covers of Venus." Apollo answered.
"So we should ask Venus?" Aphrodite nervously asked.
"Again, might be talking about the planet. Not sure why Venus would have anything to do with these Vex." Apollo pointed out.
With those words, the Goddess of Beauty breathed out a breath of relief, but only for a moment.
"You said that the Vex were having a similar problem to the Fates." Athena began, her mind working through the problem as it came to her.
"Does that mean there is another party responsible? This 'Light' to counter the Darkness?"
"Ah yes…the Light." Apollo cringed.
"Are they some kind of champions that will save the world from darkness or something?" Hermes asked casually, finding the typical setup boring.
"Well…given how a large number of the visions go, the Light is here to save the world." Apollo began
"…From us."
And with those words, the typical low clamor of the room dropped to a dead silence. Everyone and everything stopped. Even Hestia, normally working tirelessly in the background, froze at the implications of that.
"…Care to say that again?" Zeus said in a restrained tone, the quiet crackle of furious lightning heard just behind his voice.
"It's not a certain thing!" Apollo hastily backtracked.
"It's only mentioned in 12,493 out of the 1,234,349 that mention the Guardians of Light!" He exclaimed "And, I mean, there's a roughly equal number of mentions for them saving us from the darkness, saving us from the apocalypse, or even saving us from ourselves."
That's…barely even 1% Athena noted surprisingly, But I still feel that over 12,000 mentions is too much for us to ignore.
"Who are these Guardians of Light? You haven't mentioned them before, and over a million mentions feels like something we should know about." She said instead.
"Well, they aren't called the Guardians of Light that many times, there's only about 10,000 mentions of them as that, but by pouring over everything we had, we connected the 100 or so names that they had been referred to as." Apollo explained.
"And the titles…well, some are pretty disturbing." He admitted as he nervously rubbed the back of his head.
"Like?" Ares asked, more excited at the prospect of a challenge than worried.
"…Guardians, Immortals of Light, the Reborn, the Undying, the Timeless Warriors, the Guardians of Humanity, the Shepherds, the Usurpers, the Revolutionaries, the Outsiders, the Followers of the Traveler, the Heralds…" He listed, before he paused.
He knew full well the reaction that some of these later titles would have, and he knew he wouldn't like it. But he also knew that they had a right to know. So, with a breath of courage, he spoke them.
"King-slayer, War-bringer, Ruin-walker, Death-maker, Slayer-of-Kells, Conquerors of Luna, Lords of Iron, Fatebreakers, Forgers-of-Destiny, Empire-Breakers, Apocalypse-bringers," He listed,
"…God-Slayers" He finished.
"…God-Slayers…" Zeus muttered, tasting the word in mouth.
"Yes, God-Slayers. That one is mentioned several times. Slayers of Oryx, Slayers of Crota, Conquerors of Times-Conflux, Champions of the Traveler." Apollo elaborated, "And the way the Traveler is referred to, it sounds like some other god, a powerful and ancient one."
"And Crota and Oryx?" Poseidon asked
"Also Gods, and also very powerful and ancient, but they aren't referred to much, only 173 times." Apollo answered.
"But the other thing to note is that there seems to be three of them," Hades announced.
"Three guardians? That's all?" Ares complained.
"Three is more than enough to cause problems, if they have the strength," Zeus noted.
"All these titles are well and good, but what can you actually tell us about these guardians? Right now we have nothing to go by other than that they are dangerous." Athena pointed out.
"Alright, fair enough." Apollo conceded.
"First, we have the Hunter."
And with that, all eyes flickered to Artemis.
Black Garden
While the eyes of the Axis Mind were spread far and wide, they could not see everything.
They couldn't see the distortion of light pass quickly through the shadows, guided by the feet of being with a little over 200 years of experience tracking the most dangerous prey in the System.
So the Hunter watched and waited, getting into the perfect spot. He knew what to do, he knew how to aim, and he knew where to shoot. As a Hunter he knew he would only get one shot, and he knew just how to make it count.
And as the legion of Vex rounded a corner in the canyon, he knew what to do.
The instant the lumbering form of the Hydra turned around the bend, a line of purple light shot out from the shadows, arcing through the air before slamming into the base of the Hydra's chassis. Upon contact it exploded into a ball of light, before collapsing upon itself into a small tight orb of swirling violet energy.
The ball churned and roiled angrily, creating a massive gravity field around, it, making all those in the area feel 20 times heavier. Then, several purple lines of light shot out, tethering the Axis Mind, and 5 Vex standing near it.
Once tagged, they became trapped, unable to move, unable to talk, unable to act.
Helpless.
Olympus
"Why are you all looking at me?" Artemis scowled.
"Well, he did just mention a Hunter." Hermes pointed out.
"Yes, hunter, male, as in having nothing to do with me!" She angrily shouted, feeling offended at the idea they would all assume she would have something to do with a male simply because he was called hunter.
"Technically, it doesn't specify the hunter as male, but you are the only one among us who could really judge a hunter." Apollo mentioned.
"'Sides…" He smirked, "Maybe he'll be the man who finally takes your heart."
"You pig!" She roared in defiance, standing from her throne in anger at her teasing brother.
"On a more important note," Hades interrupted, steering the conversation back on topic while Aphrodite calmed the goddess of the Hunt. "The Hunter is often called 'Time's Seeker', or the 'Raider of the Vault'. Even the 'Keeper' on occasions, primarily of arms."
"An odd item for a Hunter to carry, sounds like the job of an armorer or warrior." Hephaestus muttered.
"So do the Oracles imply that this Hunter is comparative to Artemis's Huntresses, or even herself?" Athena asked, curious about he could actually do.
"Actually, the Hunter's referred to as the 'The Nightstalker, 'the Bladedancer', and 'the Gunslinger', oddly enough." He answered.
"Gunslinger? You mean he uses guns?" Ares said, surprised that anything related to the gods used guns, other than him of course.
"That's what it sounds like." Apollo agreed,
"It's far from impossible to make bullets from celestial bronze." Hephaestus noted, "I'd do it myself if it weren't so time-consuming to make a sizeable number and there was a greater demand for it."
"But that is only one of the three. The next, is called the Warlock."
Black Garden
From out over the edges of the cliff shot three enormous balls of purple light. The arced across the sky, screaming silent death, before finally impacting in the formation of an equilateral triangle, with the Axis Mind in the center of the barrage.
Upon contact with the Vex, each orb violently ruptured, releasing the explosive power contained within the Nova Bomb. Void light filled each Vex drone in the radius, causing it in turn, to detonate violently in purple light. A massive cascade of secondary explosions chained out from the central three blasts, creating a wave of devastation traveling outwards.
In the aftermath, three swirling vortexes of the Void were left in the craters of the initial blast. Everything that was left was sucked into and torn apart by its furious hunger.
And at the center of it all, hovered the Axis Mind itself.
Its hull, fashioned from ancient celestial metals capable of withstanding the force of small meteoroid impacts. Under the force of four micro-artificial singularities, three surrounding it and one placed upon its base, it's celestial plating was torn asunder. Ripped and shredded from their bearings, holes and scars were upon it as it was literally ripped apart in the nexus of a storm of Void light.
Even still, it resisted.
It managed to turn, ever so slightly, and face the cliff that was the source of these attacks. It managed to calculate the right spot, the perfect angle, and the right timing to hit it's hidden target with surety.
Finally, it let loose a barrage from it's dual heavy torch hammers, massive starship-grade cannons that fired explosive blasts of disintegrating void capable of leveling a mountain.
Olympus
"Isn't that just another word for a wizard?" Hermes asked
"Yes, it is." Athena answered, narrowing her eyes as suspicion took hold, "Which makes me think that Hecate would have something to do with this."
"Just like Artemis?" Poseidon commented snidely.
At a harsh glare from the Goddess, Athena decided to remand her position, "perhaps she could provide us with useful information about this…'Warlock'."
"And I'm assuming that there are various titles for this one as well?" Zeus inquired.
"'Conqueror of the Crucible', 'Master of the Hidden', 'The Challenger', to name a few." Apollo answered, "But just like the Hunter, three stood out."
"'The Warlock is the Voidwalker, the Sunsinger, and the Stormcaller." He announced.
Zeus shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Stormcaller?"
"If you're wondering, yes, I think they might be talking about lightning storms. There was more than one reference to lightning." Apollo responded, only serving to further upset Zeus.
Scowling darkly, he looked down upon the tow and said, "I already don't like them."
"How do you think I feel? Apparently, he's called Sunsinger, that my job!" Apollo exclaimed, only half joking.
"He?" Artemis inquired with a raised brow.
"Well, Warlock is supposed to mean male mage, like Wizard. Otherwise, it would have said mage or witch. It was surprisingly very clear about Warlock. Relatively speaking, of course." Apollo explained.
"You said there were three." Ares interrupted.
Apollo swallowed nervously, something he had felt he had been doing far too much recently. Sure, he liked being the center of attention, but not when that meant he had to be the bearer of an unending torrent of bad news.
"Right…the last one…" Apollo trailed off.
"Has my dear brother forgotten?" Artemis teased.
Artemis, Athena decided, should probably not get drunk again. Truth be told, it was a lesson she had learned a long time ago. She had simply willed herself to forget that horrible night.
Those that forget their history are doomed to repeat it She woefully quoted.
"No, it's just…" Apollo tried to say, but was stymied by his reluctance and fear of what would happen when he did.
Fortunately, he wasn't alone.
"The last of the Guardians is quite possibly the most dangerous." Hades stepped in. "For it is called one title above all others."
"The Titan"
Black Garden
Each blast made the cliffs tremble beneath them. Dust was thrown high into the air, and the ancient stone was turned into nothing but ashes. Beneath this, however, the Vex Machinery remained strong. Both being of the same mind, each was safe from the other, a failsafe to allow for the Vex to guard their strongholds without holding back for fear of destroying that which they sought to protect.
So as the dust rose, it seemed all was gone, the intruders annihilated. This Axis mind, which had never encountered anything like the Guardians, knew no better.
So it was when a shining violet light stood upon the bronze cliff, like a beacon in the darkness, that it had to reprocess what it knew.
A purple dome stood fast above it, standing upon the Vex machinery impervious to friendly harm. The perfectly spherical dome hummed with the power of Void Light, resolutely defending against anything that would dare break through. Through the transparent shell, the Axis Mind could see the forms of three Guardians inside the bubble, all completely unharmed.
Within the dome, the Guardians looked down upon their prey, now damaged and alone. It would be some time before the rest of its 10,000 member strong Legion would get here, considering all the trap Cayde had placed.
They felt invigorated by the power of the bubble's protective light filling them. It empowered them. Their armor, their weapons. All boosted with the strength of the Titan's will. So they stepped forth from the protective bubble, enshrouded in a blue light of power, and raised their weapons.
The Axis Mind tried to launch a second barrage, but it was too late, it'sits time had already come.
Dozens of shots rang out in moments, thunderous bangs boosted with the power of their Light. Each round from Hand Cannon, Assault Rifle, and Scout Rifle flew forward, colliding with the titanic bronze being before them.
The Light infused rounds hit with a force they had no right to carry. They carved holes through the already damaged plating, stripping it of its protection. The Axis Mind tried to resist, but it was too much. It was too damaged, and their fire was too fierce.
With one final shot from the Ace of Spades, one last bullet spun from the barrel. It hammered home, passing through the holes left by its brethren and smashing through the fragile plating left, before finally ending its mark in the central core of the Hydra.
With that last round, the Hydra stopped. The hulking mass dropped to the ground, crushing it's shredded body under its own weight. The Guardians looked on at the collapsed wreck, knowing it was not the end.
Soon enough, a glow and a whine were emitted from the metallic corpse. They grew and grew, and the Guardians casually took a step back to their protective bubble. Finally, the beast ruptured.
A blinding white light exploded from the wreck, preventing the Guardians from seeing what was happening. But despite that, they knew what was happening. The core of the Hydra, powered by the heart of stars, had lost containment.
The ensuing explosion was devastating, and often fatal, if temporarily, to those Guardians who were too close to it or locked sufficient protection.
When the light died down, the Zavala saw fit to finally disperse the bubble. Stepping back over the cliff, they looked down to see the new terrain of the Black Garden. Everything in the immediate area had been stripped of its cover, leaving nothing but the skeletal bronze Vex Machinery underneath.
"Well," Cayde began with a surprised and triumphant sound, "That's one out of six."
Olympus
"A TITAN!" Zeus bellowed, finally
After Hades spoke the word, the room had gone dead silently. Everyone stopping to wonder, Had I really heard that?
But it seemed that the mind of Zeus had finally rebooted.
And it was not happy.
Getting up from his throne, lightning crackling in his eyes, he slowly walked over to the two in the center of the room.
"Are you telling me, a TITAN is one of the Guardians?" He challenged, his voice filled with fury.
This was what Apollo was afraid of. The sight of an enraged Zeus, while not uncommon, was always unpleasant and unwelcome. It was something that caused most gods to shake, or at the very least, second guess their life choices that lead to this moment.
"Potentially," Hades said neutrally.
Hades was not one of these gods. And it was because of this fact, that Apollo was infinitely glad that he had gone to the god of the Underworld with this. Having one of the Big Three on your side was always a good thing.
"Explain." Zeus seethed, trying to loom over and intimidate his brother.
"Once again, nothing is certain in these things. Every prophecy and fate is invalidated. All that is left is possibilities." Hades began "Does it say a Titan? Yes."
"But does it mean a Titan?" He asked rhetorically.
"I think," Athena spoke up, getting the attention of the room, "That until proven otherwise, we should assume the worst and think of it as one of the Titans"
"I feel like that's a bit rash," Poseidon argued.
"I like it," Ares spoke up.
"As do I," Zeus said in a tense voice.
"…It couldn't hurt to be prepared for the worst." Hephaestus admitted.
"But we don't know it's actually one of the Titans, right? It could just be, like, some kind of big guy. Or mean something else." Aphrodite countered, "And if we treat them as an enemy from the beginning, that could turn them into an enemy we might not have otherwise had."
"I agree with that, actually," Hermes said, nodding in assent.
"I…think we should prepare for the worst," Artemis said.
The other gods made their comments and arguments, but at the end of the talk, one thing was brought up.
"What Titan is it talking about?" Athena asked.
"To be honest, we aren't completely sure. Nothing says definitely one way or another. This could mean that it's talking about any of the Titans, it's being cryptic about one specific Titan, or it's not actually talking about the Titans, and is referring to something else entirely." Hades answered.
"But." He interjected, "If I had to take a guess…"
"I'd say Atlas."
"Atlas?" Zeus said, surprised, "Why him?"
"With titles like, 'The Wolf Commander, The Iron Lord, the Unbroken, the Hero of the Twilight' it certainly sounds like someone along the lines of Atlas." Hades explained.
"You haven't told him the worst part," Apollo whispered to him.
"There's worse?" Zeus said incredulously.
"The Titan is also called 'The Striker, the Defender', and most relevant, 'The Sunbreaker'," Hades responded.
"That sounds about the same as the others," Zeus commented.
"That's easy for you to say, you're not the one that's being broken." Apollo cringed.
"Well, I believe that you two have given much to think about," Zeus stated, beginning to pace in the room.
"We need to think about how to respond to these Guardians." Athena supplied.
"To be honest, it's not even a sure thing that they'll be relevant to us," Apollo noted.
"What do you mean?" Zeus questioned.
"All the things I just mentioned? They're only spoken of in a total of 5,973,134 visions and prophecies." Apollo began
"But we got over 500 million."
"500…" Poseidon whispered in shock
"Million?" Zeus finished incredulously.
"Yeah, that's why we said we're not sure of anything. I mean, half of all those prophecies about the Guardians say they're here to help. A lot say they won't even have anything to do with us. Only a few call them enemies." Apollo explained. "Most of the rest just seem to be a mess of prophecies we already had, along with a large number of irrelevant and just plain dumb ones."
"But I believe the biggest is the fact that the future has changed." Hades supplied.
"Because out of all 500 million prophesies, 300 million spoke of a Great Change."
Black Garden
The three Guardians shielded themselves from the dying blast of the most recent Axis Mind.
"Well, that's three out of six. Halfway there." Cayde remarked.
"Yes, but if your trackers are anything to go by, the rest are converging at the entrance to the Black Heart, creating a last stand." Ikora pointed out grimly.
"It doesn't matter. We've succeeded in our initial objective, crippling their ability to lead and control the field." Zavala noted.
"With this, we can move about the Black Garden with impunity, positioning ourselves for the right time and place to strike. When we strike, we'll strike with a fire and fury that will wipe out their leadership. With the Axis Minds gone, the rest of the Vex will become the drones they normally are. It will become a simple horde of simple soldiers." He explained.
"That can still be dangerous," Ikora warned.
"Maybe to a new Guardian, but come on." The hunter dismissed, "We're the Vanguard. We can take'em'."
"I have to admit that I agree with Cayde. As long as we don't let ourselves be bogged down by their numbers, once their leadership is out of the way, the legions shouldn't be too much of an issue." Zavala admitted grudgingly.
"Exactly." Cayde nodded.
"Now all we need is enough firepower to take down three of the most powerful Vex in one of the most well-defended locations they have." He summarized.
"Simple."
A/n
Well, this was a chapter.
Hot damn, I did not expect it to go for this long.
I didn't even get to the end of the Black Garden.
Ah well, I'll get it done in the next one. Probably, anyway.
in any case, we finally got to see the gods.
And man, was that weird to write. It feels weird writing godly characters as being so...human. It'd be like me writing Voldemort as being a cuddler. I could do it, wouldn't be too hard, but it would feel really fucking weird.
And kinda wrong.
But hopefully, I was accurate in my portrayal of them. To be honest, I didn't like the scene too much because of how many people were in there. I prefer to work with smaller situations. If there's any more than, say, 6 people involved in the conversation, it feels weird cause I have to try to manage all of them. Make sure no one's dead, and everyone's contributing something. Making sure the proper people are taking the lead, etc etc.
But onto the practical side of the godly side was saying. Basically, canon's fucked. Throw that shit out the window, cause it ain't happening.
Probably.
I've never really liked prophecies or fate. Especially when they're taken too seriously. When it's vague and all, "There's legends of a MacGuffin that could save the world," I'm more or less ok with that. What I don't like is, "According to this prophecy, you're the chosen one. Or evil. Either way, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure this does or does not happen." Because that always makes it happen.
So yeah, step one, break fate. Fuck fate. It's gone, outta here, dead in a fire.
I'll also be tweaking time a bit, since I don't want to have to have this story take place over a decade ago. As was implicated, however, Poseidon has already met Sally. Percy isn't born yet, but he is already thinking about that possibility. Its why he asked about the big prophecy in particular.
Now, the fallout of that should be coming in the next chapter, but I make no promises.
As for the Guardian side, they're about to take out the Black Garden, which is much harder here than in the game.
In the game, the mission to kill the Black Heart is a joke. One mediocre Guardian can do it by themselves. So I buffed it to somewhere between strike and raid difficulty.
Which brings me to another point. Most Destiny crossovers are about one Guardian getting thrown to a place.
One.
I feel this undermines things, because the game is about teamwork. On top of that, everything in the game become exponentially easier with even just one friend to help you. With a full fire team, or god forbid, a well-oiled raid team? Well, you're all but unstoppable. So I decided to go with what could possibly be the strongest of teams, the Vanguard. If anyone's OP, it'd be them. Plus they have leadership skills, so they're more than people with guns. So more than just murdering the shit out of everything, they're going to be planning and setting up for the future.
As for exotics, they'll have some, but not all of them. I considered just giving them each one, but then I found that Cayde apparently had a stash of Exotics for when he finally got out of the Tower. I felt I could use that to give me some room to move, so to speak, but again, they'll only have a handful. Maybe 9 weapons and 9 armor pieces. Each one gets 3. Probably what I'll do, in any event.
And finally, in the last chapter WW1990WW left an interesting review. So to answer some of his questions, I'm sure as hell not bringing the Judeo-Christian God into this, for, like, all of the reasons. And I honestly don't know enough about the Hindu gods at this point to say either way, but we'll see.
What I meant earlier when I said that this is mostly the same timeline as the one they came from, is that at some point the darkness comes and curb-stomps everyone. Even the gods. The only thing that pushed the darkness back was the Traveler. Not a unification of all gods on earth, not earth magic, nothing. It was the light of the Traveler that saved the day. Which means the traveler, and by extension, the darkness, is stronger than all the pantheons on earth combined. Now, you don't fight the darkness itself, just it's minions, but the Hive are the closest thing to that. So through that process, I'm going to say that the servants of darkness can, at the very least, pose a viable threat to the "magical world" as a whole. Everything from wizards to gods. Which means that the Guardians, in turn, are a major threat.
I am going to clarify something, however, the Guardians aren't going to be picking a fight with the gods, or the magical world as a whole. If they see a threat to humanity, they'll take care of it. If they're attacked, they'll deal with it. But if there's a Pantheon that's just chillin and being cool dudes, the Vanguard aren't going to pick a fight with them. That being said, considering how the Greeks seem to act, i wouldn't be surprised if one or more them took offense to the Guardian's very existence, and the threat they could be, and decided to try to kill them early.
So, will the Vanguard have gods on their side?
Sorta.
I mean, theyll work with anyone willing to work with them that they approve of. Aliies and all that. But I'm probably not going to unilaterally have one whole pantheon join up with them.
But that's about it for now. You enjoy the rest of the new year, and I'll see you again soon with chapter 3.
