Three Graves.
Disoriented and vulnerable, Klutz spills fast across the battlefield before coming to a sudden stop when he collides harshly with the wall of a ruined building. Ears ringing and vision spinning, he tries to find his bearings while laid out on his back. When he is finally able to make sense of his surroundings, he notices something is missing. The bow is gone. He realizes it fell out of his possession in the blast and now lays in the distance, crackling with power near the crumbling wall of the community hall. Klutz tries to support himself with his right arm so he can rise from the ground. The moment he puts weight on the arm, it buckles, shooting up a sharp pain. Falling once again to his back, Klutz holds up his arm and finds it to be badly broken at the wrist, loose and unresponsive. His head still pounds and he suffers from a dizziness he can't shake. He only finds a taste of peace when shuts his eyes.
"Stay calm, Klutz. I need to work fast."
The words bounce around his skull and fear eats at him from inside. "Spark?" He struggles to look at the Ghost above him.
"Don't speak." she orders. "You have multiple broken bones and a subdural hemorrhage."
Klutz looks past the Ghost at the Fallen Walker, only a short distance away.
The war machine still seems to be reorienting itself after the damage it sustained. Its large cannon cycles out spent munitions and it looks more alert with every second.
"Spark…"
"Quiet, Klutz… Please… let me work." Her shell is spread into individual segments and a blue aura shines out from within her.
Slowly but surely, Klutz feels his pain ease as he is bathed in the Ghosts Light. Now with more control of his faculties, more awareness of his surroundings, his fear grows unmanageable. "The Tank, Spark!" he belts as he sees the Waker take aim. Right before he hears the boom, the fire of Solar Light burns forth from him yet again. The pounding headache and disorientation disappears entirely, and his wrist heals instantly, mended by the Light as he reaches for his Ghost. He pulls her in against his luminous chest and turns to shield her.
The explosion hits very close to the radiant Guardian. Dirt and smoke fill the air.
The Guardian coughs behind the spider-webbed glass of his visor. He feels equal parts pain and numbness throughout his body as he struggles to remove the compromised helmet. His first attempt misses strangely before he realizes he can not feel the hand he is directing. Attempting again with his other hand, he unseals the head protection and tosses it to his side. Now free of his visual constraints, he takes a moment to see what's become of himself. He rests a few feet from the crater of the cannon's impact.
The Light seems to have largely protected him, judging by the fact that he is anything more than a red stain in the dirt. Despite the paracausal protection, he is far from fighting shape.
Looking down over his body, Klutz sees that his legs have been mutilated by the blast. He feels a sharp pain in his back and instinctively reaches with his unresponsive hand. When that fails, he holds the arm up and realizes everything past the elbow has been blown away. Addressing the pain in his back with his remaining hand, he pulls out a sharp piece of shrapnel from deep in his flesh, he recognizes it as a component from his once trusty rifle. With difficulty, he sits up and stares across the way at the Walker.
As if in a bloodlust, the machine has turned its focus to causing horrible damage around what is left of the village. The cannon totals most buildings and it crushes others under its weight. The orange glow of its exposed weak spot taunts the Guardian.
"Spark..? I need your help, buddy…" he calls out in a pained voice.
Spark appears above the crippled man and begins scanning her light over him. "You are in very bad shape…" She pauses her scan and observes the Walker for a short time. "If that Walker sees me again…"
"The tank has already smashed up most of the village. If I don't stop it, there will be nothing left… Everyone will be trapped underground…"
"Maybe we can wait it out? Wait until it is safe?" she says with shaken words.
"We don't know when it will be safe… Ifit will be safe. Fallen reinforcements could be on the way. If that happens, they could find the bunker… They could find Marin and I couldn't do anything to stop them." He struggles to speak, but he needs to convince her. "We've gotta try."
Spark looks down at the man with a doleful expression. "If the Walker sees what I'm doing again… it will kill us…"
"Part of the job… We're in this together." He looks at her with a pained smile.
A bright blue glow shines out as the Ghost opens up her shell.
The Walker crashes through a small building and turns its attention to the bright glow of the Ghost.
The man's pulse elevates, draining life from him faster, when he sees the tank approaching.
Spark recognizes the fear in his face and knows what is coming. She stays committed to her task.
While Klutz looks on in nervousness, he feels physical relief as his body is remade. He watches the tank aim its weapon and knows that in all likelihood, there will not be enough time. He is afraid. He looks up at his faithful companion and smiles. A gesture of trust and appreciation for all she has done for him. He looks back out toward the tank and is shaken to his foundation by a new found terror when he sees… her.
She peers out from the broken wall of the large building. She sees the Guardian, bloodied and battered, his Ghost working desperately to heal him. Both at the mercy of the Fallen Walker. She notices the intimidating machine's uncovered weakness as it moves into position, then she spots the surging bow nearby. The Guardian cries out her name. A call for help? A frightened warning? She knows the answer, she acts anyway. She leaps through the fractured wall and pays for her haste immediately. Pain surges through her when the first of the stitches rips, reopening the large puncture in her abdomen. Teeth bite down hard from the sharp pain in her side, the blood starts to soak through the bandages and stain her shirt. Adrenaline pumps around as her heart beats like a whirlwind. She bottles up her fear and doubt, thumps the front of her wound with a closed fist, and charges forward. Pain is put out of her mind as she leans down to swipe up the bow, and a bundle of arrows, mid stride.
The Walker has found its position and time is running low.
Ambushing from behind, she scales one of its legs with impressive agility. A quick bound over the tanks armored chassis gives her an eyeful of the vulnerable core. She kicks off the front and draws the sting back mid jump. The Fallen threaten to destroy someone she holds dear, she will not let that happen again. The electrified string releases with her breath, sending the charged arrows directly into the machine's fragile core. Arcs of devastating lightning surge through the machine, instantly setting off a chain reaction of critical failures all throughout the Fallen tank. Before the archer has even reached the ground, the Walker erupts into a violent explosion that sends fire and shrapnel in every direction. The force of the blast sends the woman soaring back a few feet, soon colliding with the dirt and rolling like a rag doll. She breathes deeply and takes pride in what she's done.
"Marin!" Klutz screams. The last of many cries he has yelled out while helplessly watching her heroics.
Spark finishes fixing the man's body and closes her shell as he rises quickly.
The restored Guardian almost falls over himself as he races to the woman's side. When he meets her, he falls to his knees and clasps her hand.
"Hey. You don't look too worse for wear… all things considered…" Her voice is gravely and quiet. "Can't say the same for me, huh?" Blood pours from her old wounds, reopened by her exertions. To make matters worse, debris from the explosion has caused many lacerations across her body. A sizable metal shard is stuck between her ribs, dripping fast with crimson.
"We'll get you help, Rin! The Fallen are gone… We'll get you help…" Tears build in the man's eyes as the reality of the situation crushes him.
"Don't think there's much you can do for me now." She coughs wet and painfully. Droplets of blood dot her cheek.
Klutz wipes the blood from her face with his newly remade hand. "Don't say that… Please." He holds her head from the dirt. She grunts from the pain and he feels the sticky blood in her hair.
"Listen, Klutz. It's alright… I told you… Everyone dies eventually." She smiles warmly. "What matters is what we make of the time we've got."
"I… I thought you were gonna stay down there… Stay safe." A tear falls onto his ruined robe.
"I lost so much already… Couldn't lose you too." Her voice grows weaker. "Tell Eyran… Tell him I'm sorry. I think he always knew something like this would happen."
Klutz feels the grasp of her hand start to go limp. "Hang on, Rin… Stay with me."
"I hung on long enough… Happy I made it this far… Happy… I met you." She struggles to lift the impossible weight of her numb arm. She places a cold hand on his cheek for as long as she can manage. "Happy I got to… feel like a Guardian… Just this once..."
"… I'm sorry," he whispers as he watches her eyes go glassy. He looks away when her body becomes limp and a gut wrenching rattle escapes her lips in place of an exhale. He lowers her to the ground when the blood stops pumping out of her with every heartbeat. Invisible weight presses down on him. The world seems to lack the brightness it once had. "Spark?" he calls out through a sob.
Spark floats near, but says nothing.
"You've gotta help her, Spark," he pleads quietly. Senselessly.
"It doesn't work that way, Klutz… She's gone," the Ghost answers regretfully.
Klutz stands after an extended period of silence, dries his eyes, and walks to a half totaled shed nearby. In the mess of scattered tools, he finds a shovel.
The hole is not very deep. Located away from most of the village, with the other monuments to the lost. He lays her grisly body down gently. He almost can't look at her. From the leather bag at her side, he finds the old hand cannon and places it in the loose hold of her ice cold fingers. Then he rests the amazing bow atop her chest. He looks down at her for a long time. The dark clouds above threaten to storm down, he knows he needs to work faster. Still he finds himself frozen as he gazes at her ashen skin. A pain digs deep in his chest as he gives his final goodbye. When the last scoop of soil fills the grave, he thrusts one of the three-pointed arrows into the earth, marking the spot of the hunter's final resting place.
Rain drops slowly at first, a taste of the great storm yet to come.
When the undertaker approaches the community hall, one of the few buildings left mostly intact, he takes another hit to the gut as he sees a concerned soul exit the front door.
The Awoken man's face is washed with despair as he passes the threshold. He immediately looks to the disordered man coming his way. "Guardian? You look dreadful…"
Klutz is well aware of how he looks. His clothes are torn and burned almost beyond recognition, his boots have been damaged enough that most of his toes are exposed, and dark red stains tell a painful story across his dirty robes. Despite the terrible damage to his gear, the pain in his face is the most telling feature.
Eyran takes a short look over his once peaceful village. Most homes have been destroyed entirely and Fallen corpses litter the ground. The remnants of the massive Walker sit in a shallow crater nearby. After taking in the horrific landscape, the elder turns his attention back on the Guardian with singular focus. "Where is Marin?" A warble in his voice reveals his worry.
The question hurts worse than any shot he has taken, any stab, any blast. He stands, paralyzed by the pain, unable to answer the man's simple question.
"Please, Guardian. Have you seen her?" Eyran walks closer, revealing more of the trouble in his face. "I lost track of her, not long after you left. I asked others, but I believe they may have covered for her so she could leave the safety of the armory without me knowing. I know you warned us to stay hidden, but it has been over an hour since we heard anything below, and I couldn't bear to sit on my hands any longer…" He stops very close to the silent Guardian. A knowing pain flashes in his eye. "Please, Guardian… Don't make me ask again…"
Klutz chokes back the pain and gives the unwelcome answer. "She saved me… Saved all of us… She… gave her life to do it…"
Eyran's knees go weak and he fights just to stand. His jaw shakes, he struggles to find words. "Oh, no, no, no… Please no…" He covers his face with an unsteady hand. "My little one…"
Klutz wants to offer some form of comfort for the grieving man. He wants to reach out and burden some of the hurt. He wants to express his own sorrow. He tries to come up with something to say, some way to ease the emotional toll on both of them. Instead he stands dumbstruck. Unable to do anything but hold back his own tears.
"Where is she?" Eyran asks with difficulty. "Where is her body?"
"I… I already buried her… With the other graves." Klutz swallows hard. "I'm sorry if it's not my place to do that… I just didn't want you to see her that way… No one should have to see her like that…"
There is a long silence between the men as the rain starts to pour down harder.
Eyran keeps his eyes shut as drops trickle down his face. "I understand, Guardian… I understand better than most." His words are subdued and cold. "The light in my life….my little girl… is dead…"