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Vanguard

Chapter 4:

Ripples

A/n:

Well...

That took longer than expected.

But hey, I'm back, and I'm not dead.

Yay


"You want to what?!"

"Zavala, relax." Cayde backed off, holding his hands up as he tried to get his comrade in arms to calm down.

It wasn't working.

"You want me to give up?! To let this all fall apart?!" the armored Awoken questioned furiously.

"Nothing so bold, Zavala, we simply think it would be best if you…took some personal time." Ikora said, acting as the voice of reason.

"You want me to take a vacation." The man spat so caustically that his companions almost felt as if they'd been assaulted with it.

Never before had the "vacation" been used with such raw hate.

"I think at that point it'd be more like a sabbatical." Cayde…helpfully…pointed out.

An action that earned him the burning and withering glare of one of the Heroes of Twilight Gap.

"Zavala," Ikora began, taking a different route. "When was the last time you took any time off?"

"Two weeks ago on a Thursday." He shot off immediately

"Exact-wait, really?" Cayde stumbled, surprised it had been so recent.

"Yes." Zavala nodded. "I stopped for a half an hour to read part of a book and enjoy a small meal."

"…but you don't need to eat?" The Exo said incredulously.

"I enjoy the ritual of dinning." Zavala calmly responded.

"You do?"

"Indeed, I take pleasure in the activity once a month."

"Once a…"Cayde trialed off, not being able to imagine only taking one hour of personal time a month.

"…Are you sure you're not the robot?"

"Cayde." Ikora chastised.

"I'm not going to waste my time on trivial matters when there's work to be done." Zavala frowned.

"What the hell have you been doing with your time that you can only spare an hour a month?" Cayde wondered.

"Scouting." The Veteran said simply.

"…Scouting?" he repeated skeptically.

"Yes, I've been scouting the terrain of the planet, seeing what areas the Vex are centered around and geological differences from our own Martian maps." Zavala explained.

"That's…actually not a bad idea." Ikora admitted.

"Ikora…" the Hunter said with a sharp look

"I'm still with you Cayde, but I will admit that we have certain responsibilities that we can't ignore." She placated.

"But" She interjected,

"Zavala…when was the last time you took more than a day off?" She asked seriously.

Zavala was about to answer, but paused, considering the question. He began to rub his chin in thought as he searched his mind for the answer.

"I…can't recall…" He admitted, "At least a century or two ago, probably further."

His fellow Vanguard both sighed loudly, each one exasperated by the both the admirable dedication, and workaholic nature they had come to expect from their comrade.

"This is why we want you to take a break." The Gunslinger explained

"I don't have time to waste on something like that." Zavala scowled.

"Actually." Ikora corrected him, "We do."

"Since we're in the past, we're mostly playing the long game. There isn't anything we have to do right this second. We still have a minimum of around two and a half decades before the Traveler arrives." She pointed out.

"And even then, we have about 600 years or so before the Darkness is supposed to come." Cayde added.

"We have more than enough time to relax and recollect ourselves." She continued.

"What about progress with the Ishtar Collective? We still have work to do on that." He pointed out.

"Nothing you would really be able to help with." Ikora pointed out, "We're ironing out the details of the treatment plan we currently have. It's actually about to go through official channels to get government approval."

"So the cure for cancer is about to hit the market?" Cayde asked.

"It's not a blanket cure, not yet. That'd be a bit too incredible of a jump. Instead it's a mostly effective treatment method that will all but eliminate the need for Chemotherapy." She explained. "The end goal, however, would prevent Cancer from even developing in the first place."

"But we're a long way away from that."

"Huh," Cayde nodded, "Neat"

"Suffice to say, Zavala, you wouldn't actually be much help working with that." Ikora said with a sympathetic smile.

But Zavala wasn't a man to give up without a fight, or without checking all his bases, "What about security?"

Ikora frowned at the comment. "Security is…not terribly much of an issue at the moment. Right now, we're nobodies. Most of the bigger companies don't honestly believe what we're making can pan out, in part because we haven't been trying to sell it to them. They think we're just a bunch of upstarts that might have a fancy trick or two, but that's it."

"I doubt they even think it'll work. They're probably just waiting for the right people to give it their seal of approval, then they'll move in and try to buy it from you." Cayde pointed out, "That way, if it's a bust, they don't lose anything."

"They can try to buy me out all they want, we all know I won't be selling it to anyone." She asserted easily, as if the hungry sharks of the corporate world were nothing more than desperate dregs clawing out in greed.

"And if they don't take no as an answer?" Cayde asked.

"We've had to deal with the politics of the City's council. I doubt that they can be much worse." She scoffed.

"I think you're underestimating them." Zavala frowned

"And I think you're overlooking the fact that they're more sharks in the water now. There's a whole world out there, not just one city." Cayde added.

"Irrelevant." Ikora dismissed, "If they send spies, I know how to deal with spies. If they try to use blackmail, I know how to handle that too."

"I created the hidden, I know how to deal with this." She stated firmly, brokering no room for argument.

Seeing her resolve on this matter, Zavala repressed a sigh, while Cayde let his be heard, but they both decided to drop it.

"What about the plan for the PMC?" Zavala brought up.

Part of their grand plan involved making a small mercenary group using severely downgraded Golden Age tech. It would still be a few decades ahead of current technology, perhaps more, but it be considered bottom of the barrel equipment in their own time, if that. There were several reasons for this.

Convincing the world militaries that their new and unused technologies were worth the price of change would be hard, and it would take time. Sure, give them a better tank, and they would jump all over themselves to get it. But give them something that pulled away from current military convention, such low level Artificial Intelligences, gravimetric sensors, and even dumbed down Nano-machines, and they'll be skeptical about its usefulness. A way to convince them would be to show them an effective military force putting them to good use.

It would also give them a certain level of control over it. Instead of just making the equipment and giving them out to other people to use, they would actually have a force of their own to make use of it. A force that they would be able to use in…unconventional ventures.

Cayde's discoveries of a "magical world" were a surprise, but also dangerous. Many of the things found there were things that the planet's current militaries were ill prepared to deal with.

The Vanguard wasn't going to go looking for a fight, but they wanted to be able to effectively protect humanity should the need arise.

"That isn't going to be feasible for at least a year, likely two." Ikora answered.

"And I doubt it's going to be needed immediately either." Cayde spoke up. "Right now things on the other side of things are relatively peaceful."

"While I do have a sneaking suspicion big things are happening, nobody is screaming for war right now. Gearing up for war? Maybe." He conceded, "But the word on the street is that things are good for now."

"Gearing up for war?" Zavala repeated, focusing on that.

Cayde sighed again, knowing they would pick that up. "Ok, call it a gut feeling, but while things are peaceful now, there's definitely a "calm before the storm" feeling going around."

"Don't know what the storm is, but given the signs I'd bet we have, at minimum, 10 years before anything really major even begins to happen." He explained.

"Five years." Ikora muttered "That'd give us enough time to set up a solid financial base and report, as well as letting us begin work on some of the more exotic projects."

"That sounds like all the more reason for me to keep working." The Awoken pointed out.

"No." Cayde said, pointing his finger firmly at the man, "You are not weaseling yourself out of this one."

"We don't want you to take a 10 year break, Zavala." Ikora said wryly

"And I said 10 years before things even start to get interesting. There'd be nothing for you to do in the meantime." The Exo added.

Zavala was…displeased by this, evident by his creased brow and the angry light dancing in his eyes. Unfortunately, he could also see what they were saying. Much as he didn't like it, they did have a point.

"…How long would this break be?" He asked tentatively

The pair looked at each other, before the woman said, "Five years"

The commander's fist clenched tightly, "One."

"Four years, and you have to actually have fun."

"One"

"Three years, you have to have fun, and you have talk to people"

"ONE"

They took one final glance at each other, before offering their final proposal.

"Two years." Ikora said.

"But you have to have a civilian hobby." Cayde added.

Zavala snarled, the thought of leaving the field for so long, for spending so much time doing…nothing…grating on his every nerves.

Seeing this, Ikora elbowed Cayde in the chest. Not that it actually hurt, but it sent the message she needed.

"…and I promise not to make you the center of anymore of my jokes for the next decade." Cayde groaned.

"Done." Zavala agreed without hesitation.

A decade of being free from Cayde's jokes was easily the best present he'd ever gotten.


This…is not a good sign

The woman wreathed in a silver cloak and black leather frowned as she kneeled down.

It resembled a lion, with a few minor, but significant differences. For one, its fur coat was more golden then brown, and actually had something resembling a metallic sheen. Second, its fangs were proportionally longer. Third, it was approximately three times the size of a normal adult lion.

And it was dead.

"My Lady," A voice started from behind her.

The woman turned, catching the eye of a younger girl behind her, approximately 16 in appearance.

"Zoe," the woman greeted briefly before turning back to the body in front of her, "Shouldn't you be with the rest of the girls?"

"…We were worried…" Zoe replied evasively.

"You mean curious." She corrected.

Zoe paused, carefully trying to pick her words and navigate through the minefield of her goddess.

"…We…are not ignorant, my Lady. You have trained us well." She began tentatively "Meaning it was readily apparent to all but the greenest of us what this was."

"And slaying a Nemean Lion is…quite the feat."

Artemis sighed, but nodded.

I suppose I can't blame them for being curious. They are young girls. She acknowledged.

Still

"There is a reason I told them to stay back." She frowned.

"With respect, My Lady, the signs are not fresh, at least two days old." Zoe pointed out.

"Hardly any time for a patient hunter." Artemis responded.

"I can handle myself." Zoe said, switching tracks.

"I know you can." Artemis sighed, looking into the eyes of the girl she considered her own

"You are a strong and capable huntress, Zoe, and I trust you." She admitted, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

While the girl held her face, the smallest twitch of her lips and the blush on her cheeks gave her away to the goddess.

"But that's also why I wanted you to look over the rest of the girls, because I trusted you to keep them safe." She elaborated.

The girl's face momentarily twitched into a frown, but Artemis caught it.

"But what about y-" She began

"I can take care of myself." Artemis interrupted her lieutenant with a smirk

"I am immortal, Zoe. You, are not." She pointed out.

Zoe appeared to remain calm and nod, taking her advice to heart without dwelling on it.

Artemis knew better.

Zoe was practically wilting, panicking internally about how she had embarrassed herself before her goddess. Acting like a foolish child instead of her goddess's most trusted lieutenant like she should have.

"My apologies, my Lady, I should have trusted you." She bowed.

It took effort for Artemis not to laugh at the girl. She wasn't mad at her. Annoyed, probably. Exasperated, most definitely.

"Well, since you're here…" Artemis sighed, the amusement dying down in her.

She gestured to the body of the Nemean Lion behind her. Instantly, Zoe's eyes went wide as she took in the scene.

They had gotten glimpses of it as they traveled near the site before their goddess had stopped them. Trees torn down, ripped up ground, gouges in the earth and bark. Debris and blood littered the area in copious and liberal amounts, something not uncommon in a fight with such a legendary monster.

But then there were the other marks.

Here and there, craters dotted the landscape. Holes burrowed into trees and dirt. Single slashes surrounded by burn marks.

It was obvious to the huntress's, a battle had gone on here. An epic fight worthy of stories and songs. And most notably of all, the Nemean was the creature dead, and not its hunter.

The Nemean Lion, a monster with an impenetrable hide.

Or at least it was.

Because as Zoe looked at the dead beast, she couldn't help but notice the innumerable holes riddling it's body. Most weren't too deep, only enough to draw blood, a scratch really. But others seemed to bore deep into its bodies, drawling out long lines of blood. It was even missing one of its eyes, the gelatinous ball little more than clumps of blood and nerve inside its socket.

But the most glaring wound on its whole body, was the massive hole on the top of its skull, towards the back.

On a closer look, it was an exit wound, not an entrance wound. She could see bits of blood, skull, and brain matter blasted out by whatever did this. Looking at the mouth of the lion to confirm her suspicions, she found what appeared to be a knife wound on its tongue.

Zoe couldn't help the shiver going down her spine as she connected the pieces, nor the flare of respect she felt for this warrior.

"…I Believe," Zoe began, "That whoever did this…"

As she spoke, she pulled out her own knife, imitating the scene.

"Began a protracted battle with the beast. To end it, they began by shooting the beast in the eye," She said, gesturing to the hole with her knife, "Stunning it."

"While the beast roared in rage and pain, they lept in, and used their knife as a wedge to force the beast's mouth open." She continued, place her knife on the wound. "They probably impaled the tongue with the knife as they forced the beast's mouth open"

"Then, somehow, they shot the roof of the beast's mouth, causing the projectile to penetrate their brain and fly out of the top of their skull."

"I'm just trying to figure out what they used to do it." She murmured, confused.

There wasn't enough room to move for it to be a bow, and it didn't look like any knife wound she had seen.

"Perhaps a crossbow?" She suggested

After a moment of thought, she nodded, "Probably some kind of hand-held crossbow."

"Likely fueled by powerful magics, or some kind of divine weapon. They probably took all the bolts they fired with them for reuse, or it shot some kind of immaterial or mystical bolts, like Zeus's bolts." She deduced.

"Good." Artemis's voice rang out, shaking Zoe from her analysis. "That's essentially what I gathered."

Zoe all but preened at the praise. She was, of course, confident in her own abilities. That didn't mean that she was numb to praise, however.

"Whatever weapon did this must have held either incredible power, or was selectively crafted to fight monsters of this nature." Artemis added. "It could be a crossbow, but it could also be some manner of spell craft."

"Either way, whoever did this must have been a powerful, and surely noble and wise warrior."


"Why are there so many of you?!" Cayde exclaimed, firing his hand cannon into the horde of monsters chasing after him.

"Give it back! GIVE IT BACK!" They roared at him in unison, a thousand voices chanting together in fury.

Beings that once resembled beautiful women now became twisted forms. Each one an unholy mix of some aquatic nightmare and the vestiges of a human woman. Gaping maws, scaled flesh, and pitch black eyes, they swarmed him. Hunting him down for the treasures he dared steal.

"You weren't using it anyway!" He shot back, sending a fresh light-infused round spinning toward each of their heads with unerring accuracy. Each one causing them to explode in a spark of bright firelight.

But despite this, the horde managed to enclose on him as he raced out of the dark dank tunnels in which they fought.

One got lucky, ambushing him at the next intersection of tunnels, and biting down on his arm.

"Owe! Dammit!" He said, crushing her skull in short order with a hard pistol whip.

Another managed to latch onto his leg. He kicked it in the chest stunning it, before slapping a trio objects that resembled trench maces onto its head, pulled from a burst of orange light, the spikes driving into its skull and holding it in place. With another sharp kick, and not wasting any time, he punted the injured creature into the horde racing down the tunnel. Just as she reached her many sisters, Cayde fired.

The trip mine exploded in a massive fireball, the massive force rocking the entire cave network. The tunnel before him collapsed, burying the horde that chased after him.

"Hah!" Cayde laughed in triumph, patting the jeweled box mag-locked to his belt happily.

His cheer was short lived as another roar echoed from a different tunnel of the intersection.

"Oh come on!" He groaned as his motion tracker lit up.

"GIVE IT BACK!" They chanted from all directions

"WHAT ARE YOU?!"


Why am I here?

Oh, that's right Athena thought with a bitter taste, shutting a book with more force than was necessary.

It's because I'm easily bored and I had a bright idea. She thought in self-depreciation as she wondered through the library at the University of California: San Diego.

After the great Winter Solstice meeting of the gods had all but fallen apart in fear, self-hatred, and tentative hope, they had once again gone their separate ways. For a few months, Athena had tried to parse through the various prophecies Apollo had given them, and try to find some kind of truth, some kind of pattern, inside them.

Unfortunately, it was exactly as fruitful as Apollo said it would be. Instead of finding anything concrete, all Athena found were trends. Trends that tended to conflict with each other, beyond the most general trend of "something's different".

It was maddening, to be frank. It's no wonder Apollo was so riled up. It was essentially his job to be able to figure these things out. He was the god of prophecies, after all. And yet, there was nothing to be done.

They didn't even have a solid timetable to work on. As he had said, many prophecys said they should all be dead by now. And most didn't actually say when they were all supposed to die, just that something would happen eventually that may or may not change everything.

So suffice to say, they were panicking.

We are not panicking She bristled, willing herself to remain calm. We have everything in hand.

They had nothing in hand.

As much as they tried to deny it, even to themselves, all were shaken by the revelations at the meet. Those least affected were Hades and Apollo, purely because those two already knew what they were in for, they had been working on this for years.

Aries was probably the second least affected, in that he was spoiling for a fight rather than panicking on the inside.

But he's always been a hothead who's seen the battle before him, and not the desolation behind. Athena frowned, her mood plummeting from its already sour disposition straight into a toxic mix of anger and suppressed terror.

And all this fear was due to something very simple.

The unknown.

They were all flying blind in more ways than one.

Namely, there was the fact that no longer could they rely on prophecies. Centuries, millennia even, of listening to prophecies, of their forefathers listening, of their entire culture listening, all ended by this event. It was as if…there were no assurances the sun would rise tomorrow.

In reality, there wasn't.

A couple prophecies spoke of the sun dying in some way shape or form. Others, a light being snuffed out.

All this time, their judgments had always been tempered by what the prophecies spoke. While it may not have been something constantly guiding their hand and strong-arming their judgment, they were always considered. It gave them warnings of threats, of boons, of change. For good or for ill, they were always there. A constant.

And now they were gone.

Worse than gone, they were fueling the fear.

If they had simply disappeared, that would have been one thing.

Instead, they were ranting on a million insane ravings that would make even the most paranoid person feel skeptical. It took all sense of certainty out of their life.

They weren't even sure if something would happen. Too many spoke of specifically nothing happening, and life just continuing on as is. But at the same time, too many spoke of the apocalypse happening tomorrow to just ignore.

It was something that was stressing all of them out. Whether or not they chose to admit that, however, was a different story entirely.

Athena stopped, took a breath, and put the book back down on the shelf.

And this is why I'm actually here She admitted, I need some stress relief before I end up turning a city into spiders or something.

Walking through the aisles she huffed, browsing through the sections, looking for something to catch her eye. She was wearing a mundane disguise, obviously, lest she draw undue attention to herself from all the mortal's exploding and bleeding from their eyes.

She was actually playing a teacher at the moment, educating students on sanitized ancient history, fit for mortal ears. She'd play this for a while, maybe a decade, maybe less, before moving on to something else. She had brown hair, her typical grey eyes, and wore khakis and maroon polo with a light thing that could be called a jacket.

A few students from her class greeted her, citing her as their favorite teacher, something that fed her pride.

There were a few students in her class she considered truly bright. Others were intimidated by her, and downplayed themselves to avoid the limelight. And then some just didn't care and made her wish she could turn them into rabbits without causing half the city to come down on them in a manhunt for the missing children.

Humans are so fussy these days She groaned internally. I remember the days when you could turn a couple dozen mortals into animals and nobody would care.

or they would panic and tremble before you, she considered, either way, good deal.

Now it's all "protect the children"

Athena cut her internal rant short as she spotted something in the lounging area.

A man.

While that, in itself, was not unusual, he was the nexus of several unusual factors that all came together to pique her interest.

First, he was massive. Easily over 6 ft tall, something readily apparent even while he was sitting down. He wasn't terribly lanky either, he had muscle on his bones, dark skin, and a closely shaved head. Not the over muscled roided out fools who had muscles the size of bowling balls either. It was significant, but it was from being used not from being trained.

It was a subtle difference in wording, but it made all the difference in effect.

Combined with his posture as he sat there, this was a man who worked as a man, rather than played as a boy.

Still, that wasn't exactly interesting all by itself, there were many people like that in the military, police, and even working in construction or as a firefighter. A hard working meathead was still a meathead.

The fact that he had a large array of works on ancient history, going from the ancient china, to Persia, Egypt, Rome, Greece, and other various countries across Eurasia. He held one book in hands that seemed to be about Alexander the Great's rise to power.

While interesting, it was the small book to his side, sitting on the arm of the chair, that drew her attention.

It was a small thing. Old and crumpled with a leather cover that had seen many years and lots of use. Unlike the others, it surely wasn't from the library. If she didn't know better, she'd say the book was older the building she was standing in.

No, this book was a personal copy. Something well-worn andwell-usedd. Something that spoke of his character as a person. Something told her that this book was endemic to who he was as a person.

Her lips twitched into a smirk for but a moment, before schooling her features and walking up to him.

Looks like I found something interesting.

"Hello," She began, greeting him with a bright smile as she adjusted her fake glasses.

The man looked up, not quite startled, but obviously not expecting her to interrupt his reading. His brown eyes glanced up at her own, before flicking over her body. It wasn't in a manner some did, where she almost felt like she was being stripped naked and admired with their eyes. This was…different.

It was something she'd seen before.

Something she'd done before.

His eyes spoke of someone judging her as an entity, judging whether she was a threat. The focused on her arms for a moment, looking over the muscle tone not hidden by her attire, before looking over her face, taking in every detail and committing it to memory.

And all done with the same placid almost-frown on his face, not even the faintest twitch into a smile.

In the end, he looked her straight in the eyes with not the slightest bit of hesitation. Most mortals felt at least an instinctual sense of her presence, of her place above them. They might be able to suppress it or overcome it easily, but it was always there for that first meeting.

He didn't even blink as she pushed it ever so slightly.

Instead, he just looked up at her patiently, but trickle of mild annoyance the back of his eyes. Eye that looked far too old for a man in his mid to late 30s.

Oh my She all but smirked, you are quite the interesting puzzle, aren't you?

"I couldn't help but see you over here with this selection of books." She continued, still wearing the smile, "You seem to have quite the collection of history here."

He grunted in affirmation, before looking down at his book. A burst of anger lit up inside Athena at the thought that a mortal would dare ignore her. How dare a mere mortal look over and cast her aside as is she was unimportant. He was nothing before her, she could tear him apart and cast his pieces into the ocean and no one would blink an eye. She could-

She stopped, took a breath, and took a different approach.

Quickly schooling her scowl into another bright smile, she said, "Any reason why?"

The man paused, before seemingly giving a sigh of resignation. He placed the book down on the table, not even bothering with a bookmark.

"I have something of an interest in history." He admitted plainly, his irritation hidden, but evident. His voice was deep and rumbled through the air, not unlike thunder or the roar of gunfire.

She suppressed an angry twitch.

"I can see that." She smiled instead, "but it looks like you're on quite the binge."

He paused again, seemingly choosing his words carefully.

"I've been on deployment for a while. It's been…quite some time since I was able to stop and read a book." He answered.

Looking over his face, she could tell he wasn't lying, but there was something he was hiding.

"Deployment, are you in the military?" She asked innocently, voicing her thoughts.

"Ex-Navy." He answered curtly, but not impolitely.

"Ah," she nodded in understanding, "We see a lot of sailors around here."

"It's kind of Navy town USA." She said, attempting to get him to open up his secrets with small talk.

Instead he hummed in agreement.

Calm thoughts, Athena, calm thoughts.

"Anyways, I was curious about what you were reading." She said, trying a different approach.

This time he just silently raised one brow questioningly.

And I've gone from people who talk too much, to a man who doesn't talk enough she gripped internally.

Great.

"You see, I'm a history teacher at the University. You're kind of reading my bread and butter, and it peaked my interest." She said, giving him the partial truth.

"Understanding the past is crucial to understanding the future." He began, "Besides, you could say I missed a formal education on this. This is my opportunity to catch up"

"The Navy doesn't think dwelling on the past too much is worth it?" She remarked, half in jest.

He shook his head. "Where I come from there isn't much left but ashes. Didn't have much time in the service to bother with it, either."

She hummed in thought, nodding in agreement. It seemed the man before him was a busy and dedicated man who came from a low place in life.

She could work with that.

"And that?" She said, pointing to the book on his chair.

At that, he actually grinned fondly, picking up the book in his hands as if it was his own personal bible, "Sun Tzu is a different matter."

"You show me an officer who hasn't read The Art of War, and I'll show you a bad officer." He remarked.

An officer, huh? She thought, intrigued

He wasn't wrong, but most officers didn't have the interest in history he seemed to. Then again, it sounded like he didn't have the best education before the service, but was working to make up for that.

Well, I can't fault ignorance if it's tempered by efforts to change that. She admitted.

"Carole Agathe." She greeted, holding out a hand.

He looked at the hand for a moment, his face twisting thoughtfully for a moment, as if honestly considering whether he should take it, before he seemed to steel himself. He took her hand in his large, meaty, and calloused fingers, and shook.

"Philip Zavala"


In the desert that lay between the glistening bright lights of California and the icy peaks of the Rockies, was a certain resort.

At this resort, only a handful of people ever seemed entire at one time, but it always seemed filled with people having fun at the slots or in the pool. Despite dozens of people entering each year, no one ever seemed to leave.

Time appeared to lose all meaning, guests enjoying their stay and wasting away enjoying themselves, but never really doing anything. It was a place stuck just outside of time. Just present enough to exist, enough to perceive and enjoy yourself, but never enough to actually do anything.

Always stuck in the past, always existing as now, but never reaching toward the future.

In this hotel, two children waited.

A girl, in her teenage years, and a boy still a pre-teen.

The brother and sister pair waited, wasting their time here. Both had a strong resemblance, deep black hair, black eyes, and tanned olive skin. The played with cards and miniatures, and the girl spent her time fretting over her brother, the only thing left of her old life.

Here, they were safe, but nothing ever seemed to really happen.

Time just seemed to pass them by without them ever noticing. Every day it was the same thing, the same "fun", the same stress, the same nothing existence. That's all they were doing right now, existing. Barely even that. It got to the point the girl began to have a thought in her head, a fear, growing and growing.

She was a smart girl, one more clever than her age let on.

She realized what she lived in, if it could even be called living. She slowly recognized that nothing seem to change, and their sense of time seemed to leak from them like water from a woven basket.

How long had they been there? Days? Months?

Years?

And despite that, it didn't feel like anything ever changed. It was always the same day in and day out. The girl began to fear that they would be trapped here, that nothing would ever change, that they would be stuck like a mosquito in amber, forever isolated in an ever constant and meaningless existence.

Until the day something happened.

It was an indescribable moment. The normally quite happy and sincere staff stopped, and shivered, a feeling coming over them. A fear pervaded through the room, instinctual and all powerful. Everyone, no matter how preoccupied or distracted, noticed.

It was like crashing down from a mountainous high. Everything suddenly felt so dark, filled with so much so crushing depression you would do anything to escape. Several, in that moment, took that instant of dark clarity to take their own life, lest they be stolen by the aura of pacifism of the place.

Only the brother seemed unaffected, still distracted by his toys. But the sister, she saw.

She observed the change taking over the place, and she shivered. For the first time, she considered if she actually wanted to face the real world again.

But she steeled herself. She made her decision long ago. It didn't matter if this place was nice, if it was soft, if it was safe. This wasn't living, this was barely even existing.

This was being little more than cattle.

And so she pulled her brother up, moving toward the exit.

Every other time she had only ever been spun around in endless circles, never able to reach that exit, that gateway to freedom, but this time, she knew, it would be different.

Finally the door was in sight. Golden and engraved with decadence, it called to her, promising her freedom.

Then a black object, seemingly blocking out all light and sucking out the very feeling of optimism and joy from the air, appeared in her way.

She startled, craning her neck up to see who stood in her way, to see the next obstacle to her freedom. It didn't matter who it was, she told herself. She was prepared to fight anything to save her brother, to get them to freedom, to escape this gilded cage.

She was not prepared for him.

"Bianca." His voice rumbled, sparking a long lost feeling in her chest.

Her brother looked up at the sound, pulled from his figures. "Who are you?" He said ignorantly and innocently.

Nico was far too young to remember the man. But Bianca remembered. It was distant, a far off memory, but it was there. The images of the tall man with long, deep black hair, that made mama smile so brightly. The man that had once made Bianca feel so safe inside his arms.

"Papa" she said breathlessly.

He smiled, a warm smile, a smile that made her fists clench in anger, but her eyes water in some feeling she tried to deny. "I've come to take you home."

"Princess"


A/n:

It's nice to be back.

I missed this story.

But yes, this is the last chapter of the Trial. Good news, though.

This story has done the incredible, and got to 100 follows in 3 chaps.

So it gets to live.

Hot damn, right?

But I'm in a weird position. See, it's tied with Silver Serpent. It's basically a dead tie, when all's said and done. So they both live. Weird, I know. How am I going to work that?

I...

Am not sure.

Either each one gets a month, they split months, I just post whenever the fuck I feel like it, etc etc.

Don't know

But

It's going to continue. And hopefully not die again.

But enough of that. let's actually go over what went on in the chap. Here we see the butterfly effects coming about more. Also, the C and I of the Vanguard make Zavala take a break, and we get a status check on the Ishtar Collective.

Oh!

Also, Trav, my advisor for this, pointed out that Zoe's supposed to speak with "thou's" and "thy's". At first, I was like, "Oh no, I've messed up."

Then I thought about it and was like, "Fuck that"

Zoe's from ancient Greece, why the fuck would she be speaking butchered Shakespearean English? Hell, it's like those time Weaboo's throw in a bunch of butchered Japanese in their sentences, oni-chan this or baka-san that.

Nobody actually talks like that unless they're pretending or acting or whatever. You ever read Shakespear? a solid 66% of it is just indecipherable early-modern English stuff that reads like gibberish. There literally is a translation on the other side just so we can actually understand what's happening.

But no, that wouldn't help, it needs to sound old but actually be understandable.

Plus, I mean, early modern English? Really? that's not even actually that old. It's that weird sweet spot of sounding old without actually being that old in the grand scheme of things.

Still, for the purposes of that passage, assume she was actually speaking ancient greek and the whole thing was just translated for your convenience. I don't honestly feel like researching ancient greek to the point of being 100% historically accurate.

Well, not now, maybe later. I'll probably sort out the particulars of Zoe's pattern of speech later, but I really doubt it's going to be that out of date. Just for fun, I might have it be like she's from the 20's .

That would honestly make more sense then butchered early modern English shoved into current English like peas in Mac and Cheese.

Getting off track.

Regardless, the point is, shit be changing

Oh, also, Destiny 2.

Honestly, the trailers for that inspired the little snippet with Cayde killing monsters. I am, however, unsure as to how to actually bring in any of that Destiny 2 stuff into here. I mean, the Cabal should be centuries away from the guardians. Plus, I don't actually like they Cabal that much. They seem far less interesting then the others.

Then again, it's a comparison between cool Space Pirates, a Kingdom of Ancient Space Necromancer Knights, and Ancient Time-Space-Warping Robots.

And they're just...a Space Empire.

Anyways, hopefully I'll be back sometime in april with another chap of this.

In the meantime, I'll be playing Age of Triumph and ME: Andromeda