4. Or That Time Nicole Thought She Made Some Progress
Nicole received a transmission two hours later. She had nearly managed to doze off, even in the uncomfortable cockpit chair, but the blipping of the alarm on the holoscreen jolted her awake. She sat up a little straighter, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Her ghost was beside her, looking for all the world as kicked-puppy as a ghost could managed.
She tilted her head in confusion but didn't pose the question just yet. She wanted to know who was trying to contact her. When she saw it was being broadcasted from the Tower, she could swear she felt her face turn a few shades whiter than it already was. It felt like her stomach dropped out of her. She swallowed hard. Had the vanguard found out she had lost him? Were they calling her home to berate her?
She activated the message with bated breath, ready to receive her reprimand. But it was text only, the white printed words illuminating the cockpit a little brighter than the earth-light did.
"Hurry back to the Tower, love. I can't cash this bounty without you. -your favorite warlock friend"
She made a noise, somewhere between a growl and an almost yell but all that it managed to actually sound like was a strangled wheeze of air. She actually hit the control panel this time, the lights flickering under the force of her fist slamming into the glass.
For several long moments the only sound in the cockpit was the gentle rumble of the engines and her own heavy breathing. This… This… WARLOCK! Her mind was screaming in rage. How dare he humiliate her like this! That whole wild goose chase, the taunting, and now this? How did he even get back to the Tower already?
She glowered at the ghost, who seemed to shrink away from her, his little light shining in the darkness of the underpanel he was attempting to hide beneath. Why didn't you tell me he was moving?
"I-I didn't know. His ghost became trackable moments before that message arrived." He shrunk away from her further, his voice becoming tinier and tinier until he was practically squeaking.
Nicole sat back in her chair, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath. Getting mad at the ghost was not going to help. Her rage and humiliation at the warlock roiled just beneath her skin, but for the moment she managed to contain it. Yes, she wanted to scream, out loud where it would possibly get lost in space, but she knew that she couldn't waste her time doing something so pointless.
She piloted the ship. Mostly because she needed to do something beside stew over her own rage. She needed to be calm when she spoke to the warlock, otherwise she couldn't imagine it would go all that well. So she spent the entire flight home coming up with what to say, running scenarios in her head, pinpointing the right questions and how to pose them so that he might be inclined to answer them.
Of course the moment she emerged from the hangar bay and saw his smug grinning face from where he leaned casually against the Tower railing, all of that planning went out the window. She wanted to push him off the balcony. She practically launched herself at him, storming across the pavilion on a warpath.
The smug grin seemed to melt off his face when he noticed the murderous rage. He took several steps away from her, putting his hands up in surrender. "Now now, no fighting in the Tower. Vanguard rules." He laughed, a big cheeky grin plastered to his stupid face instantly.
Nicole slapped him, hard. The sound of it echoed and turned a few heads. Rest reeled away from the blow, rolling with it better than Nicole had hoped he would. She went in for another but he was backpedaling like a real professional, swatting at her hands as they came for his face.
"Man, if I known you would be such a sore loser, I would have never invited you to play my game." His laugh was more strained this time, and his smile was all but replaced by a very petulant pout that made Nicole want to shove him over the railing even more.
"You think this a game?!" Her ghost screeched, forming his body as he spoke. He got right up in the warlock's face, so close that Rest ducked backward like the ghost would hit him too.
"Well, of course. Isn't everything a game if you can't die?"
She was sure he was trying to get off being all philosophical but she honestly couldn't care less. He had humiliated her, broke direct orders, and had the gall to openly taunt her. Not to mention all the suspicion being pinned on him and he didn't seem to care at all. He wasn't taking any of this seriously at all, and that was a fantastic way to get himself killed. The City needed good, competent soldiers, not dead dumb ones like he was going to end up if he didn't get with the program.
You can die, you big idiot! Everyone can die!
Her ghost was too caught up in his own fit of rage to have heard her, but it was just as well. She decided that she didn't want that relayed a couple seconds after she formed the thought in her head.
"You want to play games, traitor boy. Alright, then. Rumble, tomorrow, 3pm bracket. We'll show you who's the better guardian!"
Whoa whoa, back up a second…
"C-crucible?" Rest squeaked, for a second something unreadable flashing across his face. "I don't think you understand me." He opened his mouth to say more but he suddenly shut it again with a click of his jaw.
His ghost appeared in between them, getting up in her face and blocking her line of sight with Rest, so she couldn't see his face anymore. "We accept your challenge and look forward to it." It turned back the warlock. "Let's go, Aydin. We've done enough."
Nicole almost missed the look he gave the ghost, somewhere between utter disgust and downright terror. It was almost pleading for help, and it lasted less than a second before he was infuriatingly unreadable again. He turned away, his eyes still glued to the ghost, and walked away stiffly.
Nicole stood there for a long moment, watching him go, her hand outstretched as if she were trying to call him back. That… was not how she wanted that to go. Her ghost was floating high above her head, spinning his shell in irritation. He felt her gaze, turning to look back at her, then promptly shrunk away from the glare he received.
Crucible? Really?
"I-what? It seemed like a good idea at the time."
A few years ago, Nicole would have been all aboard for a romp in Rumble, especially if it meant showing that dumb warlock a thing or two. But now the thought of even stepping foot in an arena brought a chill over her that banished the anger. She'd seen too much, watched too many people die for the last time to ever want to play a game like that. She couldn't bring herself to actually lift a weapon against a fellow guardian, even if it was all for the sake of practice or even friendly competition.
She wanted to go after him, tell him that her ghost was dumb. Rescind the challenge at the very least, but he was already gone. She would have to get him later. Just as well. She wanted time to think. The flight down from orbit had not calmed her nearly as much as she hoped it would have. She had still been blindly furious at him. But the threat of crucible was enough to make her willing to swallow it. From his reaction, it didn't seem he was a real fan of crucible either, which would work to her benefit.
She shook her head at her ghost, calling him dumb a few more times as she motioned for him to follow. She was ready to lay down for a while. She would find the warlock later, even if it meant crashing his apartment.
"He's in the Tower pavilion. His ghost sure is a little ass. Every time I ping them, they shoot back this really annoying burst of static."
Nicole rolled over, dragging the blanket with her and looking over at the orb resting on the bedside table. How many times have you pinged them since earlier?
The ghost was quiet for a few moments. "Only a few…" He glanced at her guiltily, his shell scrunching tighter around his optic.
Uh huh.
She laid in her bed for a little while longer before finally throwing the blanket off and sitting up. She didn't bother putting on any armor. She was old enough that she felt no qualms in walking around the pavilion in just civilian clothes. She knew that it was a big deal to younger guardians. You always wanted to put on your best gear. But Nicole honestly couldn't bring herself to care. She was beyond trying to impress anyone.
Her ghost floated up from where he had been resting, spinning his shell into motion after sitting still for so long. Nicole put her hand up and shook her head. No, you stay here. I want to talk to him without you getting overly emotional.
The ghost made an indignant noise. "Overly emotional? What?" She gave him a look, but didn't have to say anything else. He grumbled but flew away, poking himself a cave in the discarded blanket. "Fine, whatever. I'll just be here then. Alone."
She rolled her eyes and pulled on some shoes. She found an old holopad she could use to write with, and was pleased to find that even the battery was still alive. She waved goodbye to the burrowed ghost but he was making a point of ignoring her.
Nicole found the warlock in the Tower pavilion fifteen minutes later, sitting on one of the outer balconies overlooking the City and the Traveler in the distance. He seemed to be carrying on a conversation with someone, she assumed his ghost, out loud, much to her amusement. As she got closer she began to realize it was a half spoken conversation, some words thrown in, mostly mindspoken. She just couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to end up being painfully young and it was starting to really bug her.
She pulled a dagger from her belt and tapped it lightly on the metal railing. Rest spun to look at her, looking far more alarmed than necessary. She gave him a surrender sign and he seemed to relax a little.
"I thought you were someone else," he said softly as she approached. He sounded like he was sulking when he let his gaze slide away from her and back down to the golden lights of the City beneath the Traveller. It lasted less than a second, and when he looked back at her he was sporting that stupid smug little shit-eating grin again. "Couldn't get enough of the warlock love, and came back out for more, eh?"
She rolled her eyes at him and wrote on the board. I just want to talk. She tapped it for emphasis, showing him until she was sure he had read it.
"What, no little translator tonight?"
He got a little out of hand today, and I'm sorry for that.
He frowned at her, finally for a moment that stupid grin going away. "Don't apologize. It doesn't suit you. Besides, what would your ghost think of you apologizing to a traitor." He turned away to glare out at the City again. He seemed to curl in closer to himself, bringing his knees in and wrapping his arms around them.
She tilted her head and frowned. So that comment earlier had hurt him. She had wondered but he hadn't reacted at the time, so she wasn't sure. She erased most of the previous message until all that was left was, I'm sorry.
She tapped the board with the hilt of the knife to get his attention, but he didn't look at her. She sighed quietly. So yes, the warlock was capable of showing feelings besides smug arrogance. Good to know. Him sulking was not helping, however. She hopped over the rail and came to sit down next to him, holding the board out in front of them both so he had to look at it. She didn't pull it away until she was sure she saw his eyes glance down to it.
It was only being this close that she noticed his ghost, sitting nestled in the unbuttoned crevice of his collar. It was staring at her, again. For some reason she waved at it. Mostly because she hadn't expected it to be there, but also because she still naked beneath its searching eye. It blinked in response, and finally took its gaze from her and back to the city down below.
They didn't say anything for a long time. The warlock was silent, refusing to look at her. The ghost too had started to ignore her. Nicole would have considered it a small victory if she could only shake the feeling she was intruding on something. It wasn't uncommon for ghosts to seek personal closeness with their guardians. Especially young guardians. She remembered her early days when her ghost would sleep on the pillow beside her, simply to be near.
After a few minutes, she decided she couldn't take the awkward silence anymore and started writing on the board again. I'm rescinding the crucible challenge. She put the board in his line of sight and tapped on it with the hilt to get his attention.
He glanced at it, then at her sidelong, untrusting. "Why? Afraid you'll lose?" The smirk was back, much to Nicole's chagrin.
No, I don't like crucible. And if her instincts were right, neither did he.
"Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night. But I would have won anyway. I always win."
Uh huh, right. Dumb annoying warlock. Why did you break orders today. You could be in a lot of trouble if I told the vanguard what happened.
He shrugged. "Why ruin the game just because Ikora is a nosey little toad. She just wants in on my business because I don't work directly for the main warlock order anymore. She doesn't like what she can't control." The amount of derisive irritation in his voice was enough to tip her off that Nicole was not the target of his foul play, she just happened to be the messenger.
So, you play this 'game' to mess with the vanguard?
"To put it simply."
If you're so against the vanguard, why are you still living in the Tower?
He gave her a look that bordered between confusion and irritation. "You think… No, you don't understand." He looked off at the City. "I'm not against the vanguard. I don't like the City politics. The Consensus, the internal struggles, the sheer bureaucracy. I feel like our resources should be put toward- should be directed outward. Finding allies out there, instead of alienating everyone in here."
Out where?
He looked up at her from the board, his eyes lighting up in excitement. He turned to toward her, his whole body language opening up to her. He opened his mouth to speak but his ghost interrupted. "Aydin." That was all it said, and whatever was left unsaid swallowed all the friendliness from the warlock's demeanor.
He frowned and turned away again, sitting back in his curled position, overlooking the City. "I'm still a guardian," he said before she could ask anything else. "I still want to protect this City. It's still my home, and those people down there are still- they still need my protection. All of our protection. I'm not betraying anyone."
I don't really think you're a traitor. And it was the truth. This warlock was too vapid at any given time to be harboring any kind of secret that could of any real danger to the City. It had to be a simple mistake. Between him just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and his general distaste for the City politics, it would be simple for paranoid minds to see him doing wrong by someone.
He looked at her, honest shock on his face. He started to turn toward her again, much to Nicole's relief. She wanted him to open up to her. It would make him much easier to work with if he trusted her.
"Really?"
She nodded, smiling.
"Well," he smiled back. It was a bit frail, but it wasn't that stupid smug smirk anymore. So far, it was the best expression she'd seen yet. "That's good to know. Thanks, I guess." They were quiet for a moment. His ghost was watching her again, but it was less of a glare now than it had ever been. "So, you're going to give the vanguard a good report, then?"
I will tell them the truth.
He didn't reply right away, instead he seemed to chew on that response for a moment. After a while of silence, he finally uncurled, long legs stretching out in front of him, his arms behind him so that they supported his weight when he leaned back. He wasn't in his armor, she realized. The long coat had fooled her for a while, but now looking at him spread out beside her she realized it was civilian clothes. Maybe he wasn't that young after all.
"Can I trust you with a secret?"
She'd been so caught up in his clothes for a moment (warlocks and their damn coats) that she was caught off guard by question (it was a damn fine coat now that she was looking at it and she wanted to know where he got it because she wanted one). Sure.
His ghost was looking at him instead of her for once. "Aydin," it said again. Nicole realized, much to her vexation, that it was a warning.
"I'll show you what I'm hiding in the deadzone. It's kinda cool. But you can't tell anyone. But that way you can tell the truth, y'know."
"Aydin, what are you doing?"
"It's okay, Verz."
There was that quick back and forth exchange that should have been mindspoken but wasn't for some reason and Nicole finally had to ask. How old are you?
"That's a random question," he commented. "Well, let's see. I met those hunters in the first few weeks, then Dak not that long-"
"Aydin!"
"That was, what would you say Verz, two months ago?"
The ghost was looking visibly agitated, floating up out of his collar to look at both guardians. "Three."
"Wow, has it been that long? So that's what? Four?" The ghost made an approximation of a nod. "Four months then. I've only been with my order for maybe a month and a half now. But that when all that trouble with the vanguard started."
She just stared at him for long time. Four months? She couldn't even remember when she had been four months old. She was closing in on eight years herself. He was practically a newborn.
"What? Why are you staring?"
She shook her head. She supposed she was expecting that. Perhaps not quite that young. Six months maybe. But not four. What kind of secret that I can't tell anyone?
The change of subject seemed to perplex him for a second but he recovered instantly. "Nothing bad. Just that I don't want treasure hunters nosing around in my stuff." He shrugged, climbing to his feet. "We'll do that instead of crucible, okay?"
She nodded, offering him another smile.
He returned it, much to her pleasure. "Good. I'll meet you here tomorrow around three then." He waved her goodnight and left her sitting on the balcony in the quiet of the midnight Tower.
She looked out over the City, enjoying the view for a long time. This was good progress. Amazing what a little talking could do. She had finally managed to wipe that goddamn smirk off his face. And he gave her some honestly pleasant reactions to boot. So she had to be a little more personable with him than she would normally but it was worth it if it meant his cooperation. Hopefully this assignment would go quicker now and she could get on with her life without having a warlock strapped to her at any given time.
She wasn't worried about that secret of his. From the sound of it, he had just found a salvage spot he didn't want to share. But when you were young and constantly short on glimmer like he no doubt was, you were allowed to be a little selfish with your treasure hunting. She knew she wasn't innocent of hoarding things herself.
She returned to her apartment shortly afterward, in a much better mood then when she left it. She found the ghost still hiding in her blanket sulking, and curled him in the crook of her neck as apology. He seemed happy there so she fell asleep with him cuddled next to her.
He was out in the Tower at three when she came looking for him. She had spent the morning and early afternoon patrolling Venus. She had asked him if he wanted to come but he told her he was content to "work on this damn report", as he had put it. Just as well. It had given her time to relax and recoup from the day before. And she could visit her favorite places without having to drag a warlock around with her.
"We should take my ship," he said as she approached him. He was leaning casually against the railing, wearing a brownish red armor shader today. Nicole had gone with blues and yellows for today's look and immediately felt good about the decision. While he didn't look half bad, the color the shader turned his chest piece was not quite the same shade of red it had turned his arm braces. It wasn't complimentary and Nicole knew she looked much better than him again. Much to her instant disappointment, he didn't seem to notice. Or really even care, for that matter.
"What, that piece of-" Nicole knew what her ghost was going to blurt out and shot out her hands to cup him out of the air, cutting off what he was going to say.
Rest had started to turn away but he stopped when her ghost had spoken, turning to look at them both with very obvious indignation written on his face. "What?"
She shook her head and waved for him to lead on.
"No, no, what were you going to say about my ship?"
Verz appeared at the warlock's shoulder as he spoke, spinning its shell in what Nicole could only guess was amusement. "We built that ship," it said, half laughing, but the challenge in its voice was obvious.
That would explain the cloaking technology. And also the hodgepodge look it had to it. It didn't have the professional touch Holiday managed to instill on most of the ships she made. Nicole nodded, smiling encouragingly, and waved for him to lead again.
The flight out to the North American Deadzone was surprisingly smooth. Despite its broken down nature, the ship did run fairly smoothly. She only a little impressed, and it was because she was kind of expecting it to fall apart at any moment. That's what it looked like from the outside, but it ran like he knew what he was doing, so she gave him that one. A warlock with technical expertise was rare. And at so young, he could really grow into someone impressive.
He lowered the ship over the water, and that's when she realized why he wanted to bring his own ship. Most guardian ships weren't equipped for water landings. Sure, they could float, but they weren't meant to stay there for so long. It was for emergencies. But he was perfectly confident setting the ship down in the water, and when it crashed into the low waves, it bobbed and rose back up. They emerged from the cockpit, Nicole pushing out first to look at the floaties that were being used as landing gear. She kind of wanted to laugh. It was a little brilliant. The only problem was that they were surrounded on all sides by a rather expansive bit of water. The ocean spread out to the east, and the shore was at least a mile west of them.
Rest seemed in no way troubled by this, climbing out of the ship behind her and dropping down the landing gear. She expected him to dive into the water below them but when he landed, it was on something shallow, only knee high.
"Low tide," he explained. "This place is covered in buildings from centuries ago. During low tide, you can stand on them."
She leapt down to him, the water sloshing around her legs. "Will the ship be okay here? It's a bit out in the open don't you think?" Her ghost appeared at her shoulder to ask for them both.
"Why not," the warlock shrugged. "Fallen can't swim."
"Really?"
It was kind of an odd thing, but now that she thought about it, she had never actually seen a Fallen swim.
"Well, they can, but their basic armor isn't suited for the pressure. Their masks decompress real fast and ether is highly soluble. So, y'know. Pop goes the fallen. On top of all of that, they have a tendency to sink like stones. Ever seen a Fallen in a space suit though? 'Cause those bastards can swim." He pointed toward a beached tanker less than a mile north of them. "That's where we're headed by the way." Without much further ado, he pulled his sparrow and launched off toward it.
The sparrows did fine over the water, but Nicole knew that. She followed him closely, keeping her sparrow in a lower gear so he stayed ahead. His was still the sparrow that the vanguard equipped all newborns. Her's was much nicer, one she had won herself in the last SRL tournament. It had been years ago, but the blue accents and purple black lights made this sparrow her favorite.
He got off on the shore a bit aways from the ship itself, motioning for her to get off too. "We should walk from here. You'll see why when we get there."
They walked for a few minutes before Rest started that babbling thing again. Nicole was almost annoyed by it, but she actually made an effort to pay attention this time. Simply because she was trying to make him trust her. To be honest, she wasn't actually sure how accountable for all that talking she was supposed to be. How much was she supposed to remember? Should she respond or did he just talk to fill silence?
"I met this fallen guy out here, I call him Harpoon Guy, 'cause when I met him he had a harpoon gun that he tried to spear me with. Sucker was the guy who I saw swimming. He scared me 'cause I thought, oh man, Fallen can swim, but no, this guy he had a special suit on and this nasty portable harpoon gun. Caught him drilling into a ship. I opened a hatch from the inside, fought against the current to get outside and see where I was when I was scavenging once, and I turned my head, and there he was. Just standing on the bottom of the bloody ocean looking at me through a weird helmet. Of course he immediately tried to kill me. My weapons can't even scratch his armor so I fled back inside the tanker I was exploring and he tried to follow me in. Thankfully he was too big for that little hatch and I got away from him. But he still hangs around here, and I see him occasionally spying on me from a distance. If I get too close to that big old ketch crashed in the east he comes after me, but I think he's found some kind of weird joy in this cat and mouse game we play, because sometimes I think he just wants to scare me. Like he'll pop up real close to me sometimes and then just disappear like 'eeeehheeeheee, i scared the little sha- shite.'" He laughed at his own impression.
"How big is pretty big? What house was he from?" her ghost asked for her.
Rest looked back at them, looking a little surprised. "Oh, you were listening. Eh, I would say he was decent sized. Bigger than your average captain, anyway. And I don't really think he's part of any house. I think he just lives out here. I got this theory that his house was destroyed in one conflict or another and he's the last one alive and he just kind of hangs out by himself."
Whatever she was going to ask next was forgotten in an instant. They passed under something she couldn't see, but she felt it, like an electrical discharge across her skin, under her armor. She shuddered and turned around to look behind her at the way they had come. It was a well trodden path they were following, but Nicole couldn't see what had tripped her off.
The warlock chuckled and she turned again to look at him. She tilted her head in utter confusion, but the warlock was already formulating an answer for her. He picked up a worn beach stone from the sand beside the path, tossing it up in his hand before chucking it past her. It hit a barrier, bouncing off with an electric thump. The barrier itself shimmered honeycomb patterns of light out from the point of impact, up until it was lost in the morning sunlight.
"You have a forcefield? Where did you get the tech?"
"I found it, fixed it up. Put it here to protect myself from- well, from Harpoon Guy." He shrugged, nonchalantly as if this kind of technology wasn't one of the most sought after relics.
"You realize that you could sell that generator for soooo much glimmer," her ghost commented, swiveling his eye to look at him.
"Yeah, I know, but it's more valuable to me being used at the moment. I used to do more salvaging, and before the vanguard got on my case, I would spend nights out here too. Having that shield up to at the very least give enemies pause before coming to kill me made me feel safe out here. So I kept it instead of selling it." He waved for her to follow him. "Come on, I want to show some of the stuff I've found."
The ship itself was half sunk in the sediment. She could only guess that half of the ship was completely buried. The bow itself stuck upwards at a slant like a beached behemoth. Rest approached a door that was once on a subdeck but now seemed like the perfect entrance.
Well, it would have been perfect if it wasn't pitch black beyond the rounded door frame. Nicole stopped, catching his arm before he got too far ahead of her. It was so dark it swallowed the morning sunshine, even where it shone off the snow piled around the door.
She swallowed hard. No, this was bad. No dark tunnels, no cramped places where people could vanish in a scream, be ripped from your side even when you held their hand for dear life. No dark tunnels. Not again.
Rest turned back to look at her again, confusion written on his face. She looked at him in time to watch him glance down at where she had grabbed his arm brace like it offended him. She let him go immediately, realizing with some embarrassment that she had been holding on so tight the armor had begun to creak from the strain.
"What's wrong?"
She shook her head, taking several steps away from the door. She wasn't going in there, and she wasn't about to watch him disappear in there either. She had seen enough. This was a salvage spot, that much was obvious. He had made that clear that that was all it was and he had done enough to prove it. There was nothing suspicious or wrong with this place. She was satisfied and she was ready to leave.
"Do you just want to- we can go up to the deck. We don't have to go through the ship or anything."
It was like he read her mind and she had never quite been so grateful for that. He glided his way up a path he had obviously taken before, leading her up the outside of the ship. She followed him happily, breathing easy only when they had both hopped over the rail on the top deck.
He pulled off his helmet and glanced over at her. "Not a fan of tight spaces, I'm guessing."
She shook her head. Tight spaces, dark tunnels. It was all the same. She refused to go down there. The warlock shrugged in response, but didn't say anything else. Instead he spread his arms wide as if to demonstrate. Nicole finally looked around for real; not just on the deck, but at the view around them. From this high off the ground, she could see the Ketch in the far distance again. It was a few miles away and could easily be mistaken for a hill if she didn't know what she was looking at. Snow covered everything in a blanket of white, interlaced with black patches of earth and trees. The deck of the ship was covered in a fair share of snow as well.
While she had given the area a look around, the warlock had started brushing the snow off of crates and barrels around the edges of the deck. She came over to him, looking down into a crate full of mechanical parts. Most hunters could hold their own in a talk about mechanics, and Nicole could identify a few of the shapes in the pile, but many of the weirder shaped pieces were beyond her knowledge.
She dug around in the crate while the warlock walked off to another. Some of the pieces in this one crate alone was worth quite a bit of glimmer. She glances around the deck again, counting at least a dozen more crates that she had to guess were similarly filled with salvage.
This would explain why the vanguard was scared for him. This wasn't just him disappearing a few times. This much stuff, that he had apparently accumulated by himself in less than four months? He had to have been spending a lot of time out here. Like, gone for days at a time, consistently. But it was so harmless, really. Hoarding salvage wasn't unheard of. It was a little ridiculous the sheer amount of stuff here, but he was a warlock. They could get a little carried away if left unchecked.
Has he ever had a fireteam?
Her ghost relayed the question, but the warlock didn't react to her. He stood up suddenly from where he had been crouched by a small box, swatting the air like a bug had flown in front of his nose. He looked over at her all of a sudden, irritation mixing with an odd little pained grimace. "What? No, why?"
"You haven't been able to keep one, or just haven't looked?"
"I haven't looked," he snapped, defensive.
She tilted her head in confusion. Why the sudden change in attitude? Was this a sore subject?
"Are you sure you don't want to go down and see the dig? If you help me for a bit, I'll let you take something valuable with you."
She didn't have time to be put off by the thought of tunnels. Something else caught her attention. Rest was standing on the prow of the ship, the shore line behind him, and on it Nicole caught movement of something white and black. She moved close to him, pulling her sniper and aiming down the scope at the camouflaged thing prowling along a ridge less than half a mile from the ship.
It was a Fallen, a giant one at that. Bigger than your average captain. It wore white and black in an obvious attempt at camouflage but was walking in very obvious plain sight, as if it had no fear of being shot down. Dumb beast was going learn to fear guardians.
She lined up her shot, but was stopped from firing by the warlock, grabbing the barrel of the gun and pulling it off target. "Don't shoot. The forcefield will bounce the bullet off. You're more likely to kill one of us than Harpoon Guy down there."
Wait. That's the Fallen you were talking about?
He read the question on her face again and answered before her ghost could relay the message. "Yes, that's him. He's fine. He can't get in here, I doubt he would actually attack if he could. He just like to mess with me for shits and giggles."
"That's a bit strange."
The warlock shrugged, his arms high above his head in a sign of his own frustrated confusion. "I don't know why. He's just weird. He just likes- he just messes with me sometimes. He knows I can't hardly scratch his armor, so he toys with me. But I think as long as I keep his game fun, he won't actually try to kill me or anything."
"Nicole can kill him. Why don't we go hunt him down? It will make salvaging out here easier for you. You said he was the only one?"
"What? No! Don't- I mean, why? He's not doing anything. He's just here."
The warlock looked so uncomfortable at the prospect of a hunt that Nicole backed off the proposal. There was something he didn't like about it, and she was curious to pinpoint the exact reason, but he had respected her wishes about the tunnel, so she would respect him on this.
"Alright, we won't. But one more question about it."
The warlock fidgeted and looked down at his feet. "Yeah, alright, sure."
"Why are you uncomfortable?"
The warlock made a little pained noise, scuffing his feet. "There's no reason to. Kill him, I mean. He's just- It's a waste of time." It was a pitiful response and obviously not the truth, but his face was slowly turning a deep shade of red that Nicole decided that relenting might be a good idea before he caught himself on fire with his own embarrassment.
The thought that he was protecting it did cross her mind briefly, but that didn't really match up with the embarrassment. That would be guilt possibly, or maybe fear. But he was acting like he had just been pants'd in the Tower, not like he was committing treasonous acts two feet from her. So maybe he wanted to kill it when he got more powerful. This was a goal that he had been working toward and her just tromping in and doing it for him would ruin it all for him. That seemed more likely, so she assumed that was it.
She touched his shoulder to get him to look at her. His face was still the color of a beet but he seemed to be cooling off now.
"No worries, Rest. We get it."
He grunted, trying to act tough but it only made him seem a little childish. "Yeah, whatever. Anyway, pick something out and you can have it. Y'know, as thanks for telling the vanguard the truth."
Like that had ever been a question? She sighed and shook her head. He must have been hanging out with the wrong guardians. She hoped he got himself a good fireteam after this. By the Traveler, this kid needed friends.
Afterword: Longer chapter to make up for how short last week's was. Much happened. We introduced Harpoon Guy. He's a dick that likes to mess with people. We'll see him again. Aydin is a child. A brat child. I love him. Nicole is still a badass. She's a very good mentor. I love her too. Harpoon Guy is a troll. He's cool I guess.
Special thanks to Forrestfire21, MaybeALittleBroken (which I hope was a good "*dies*". Don't actually know, but thank you anyway), and spacedolphin3 (fantastic name, btw) for the reviews they left. They are always very much appreciated, so thank you guys so very much. Also thank you to everyone you subbed and favorited! I hope you guys are enjoying the story. :D
