Eyes up Guardian…

I joke with Cayde and Zavala about it all the time…

Your most powerful weapon is knowledge…

The voices swirled through Kei's mind as he drifted through the darkness.

He saw nothing.

He felt nothing.

He was nothing…

Memories of his life as a warlock flew past him like moving holograms, images of people he knew.

Memories of the Tower.

The Vanguard.

The Traveler…

Then they... changed

The flood of memories suddenly confused him.

Are these my memories?

Where am I?

Who am I?


Xor's head began to spin as he walked farther and farther into the base. The bright beam from his flashlight illuminated the remains of the once familiar walls. His boots crunched on frosty crystals as he took cautious steps down the corridors.

Trinity's voice echoed when she called out to him, "Xor. What happened here?" The titan was peering down the barrel of her rifle, using the light it projected to keep track of Xor in the cold air of the base.

For a while Xor didn't respond, too lost in memory to quite hear her words as she spoke.

Trinity was about to repeat her question when Xor finally responded, "You saw outside right? It's kinda obvious that over time-"

"No Xor. I didn't mean the ice."

The Exo sighed, "Follow me…" He began to walk a little faster down the hall, turning a corner and stopping at one of the many doors that lined the hall.

As Trinity turned the corner to follow him, Xor's hand found its way to the barrel of her rifle. He pushed it down gently, "If you're gonna come into this room. I need for that to be put away, don't want you shooting anything…"

Trinity slowly lowered the long firearm and slung the strap over her shoulder, nodding to indicate she understood.

Xor pressed a button and the door began to slide upwards, motors whirred until the door stopped with a scraping noise that permitted no questions to the mechanisms condition. Xor huffed before ducking inside, disappearing under the door and leaving Trinity to follow.

The first thing Trinity noticed were the bodies…

Bodies of twisted metal lay scattered around the floor of the room, it only took a second to recognize the all too familiar features of the vex.

And there were dozens of them…

Every corner, every few feet was a new body. All were covered in a thin layer of ice, their dead eyes stared, dark and aimless, into the air around them.

Xor stood stock still as he stared around the room taking in the scene with a kind of cold understanding. His eyes scanned the room before falling over a frozen bundle at the far end, "Just had to play the hero didn't ya…"

He began to move towards the dark pile, stepping over the metal alien bodies as he got closer. Meanwhile Trinity had stopped to examine the robotic corpses, finding the explanation for the Vex's death in the many bullet holes that burrowed deep into their shattered midsections.

She looked up to find Xor crouched over another body on the far side of the room, "Xor these Vex didn't freeze-"

"They were mowed down by an idiot with a machine gun…", the Exo interrupted her, finishing the Titan's sentence in melancholy tone of voice. "I told you I was here to see old friends…" He rotated in place to turn his gaze to hers, "He was one of my best…"

Trinity stood and walked quickly over to Xor's place on the far wall.

It was…

"A Titan?", her voice was filled with confusion as she stared at the frozen dome of a helmet. Around the fallen soldier's neck was a thick band of probably once extremely warm fur. Xor brushed some of the frost away from the corpse's chest to reveal an innumerable amount of cracks and scorch marks. The chest plate was so blackened by the damage that Trinity had a hard time counting them all, "How many shots did he take…"

"...All of them…", Xor's reply seemed to drop the already frozen room several degrees more. He turned to the many bodies around the room, "They began firing and didn't stop until they were dead."

He stood and silently made his way out of the room, saying nothing as he ducked through the jammed door at the entrance. Trinity remained crouched by the fallen Titan, looking the body up and down.

Then something caught her eye, a long steel-grey object clutched in the dead man's frozen hand. She reached behind her, drawing a small knife from her belt to begin chipping away at the layer of ice to reach whatever had been buried with the corpse.

At last she was able to touch cold metal, she pulled off what remaining chunks of ice she could before hefting a rather large machine gun in her arms. From what she could tell, the weapon was ancient. A relic from long, long ago. Her head darted from the weapon to the door that Xor had exited through only moments before.

What was Golden Age tech doing in the hands of a Guardian…


Xor walked briskly across the landing pad towards his ship, his mind racing as he realized what must have happened on that day. A loud bang suddenly resounded through the air as he plunged a fist into the side of his ship, it's impact left a small dent from the force he had put into it.

Just had to play the hero didn't you?

He tore off his helmet and chucked it as hard as he could in the direction of the base, it hit the metal doors with a crack and fell to the icy ground.

How could you do that to us?

How could you do that to her?

"Xor?", The Exo turned at the sound of Trinity's voice. She was standing only a few feet away, her arm was extended, holding his helmet out so he could take it. Silence filled the landing pad until Trinity let out an impatient, "If you don't take it, it's going back where I found it."

Xor sighed and nodded, taking the helmet and placing it back over his head, hearing the seals hiss as it pressurized. He turned back to the Titan, opening his mouth to mutter a 'thank you'.

"Where did you get that…", Trinity tilted her head in confusion. He raised an arm and pointed to the new weapon clutched in her left hand.

The Titan lifted the weapon and held it out to him, "I could ask you the same thing." She shoved the weapon at the Hunter, who took it and turned it over, examining it like one would greet a long lost friend. "Xor, that's Golden Age technology. I will admit that isn't an original model, but whoever modified this weapon knew what they were doing." The Exo didn't respond, only continuing to stare at the weapon with shaking hands. Trinity took a step closer and placed a firm hand on the Hunter's shoulder, "What kind of Guardian has friends with extensive knowledge of Golden Age technology?"

Xor slowly looked up at her, his visor doing little to block the sadness in his voice.

"I… We… Weren't Guardians…"


Hello People!

Sorry for the wait, I had writer's block for awhile but through the magic of the soundtrack from Ori and the Blind Forest, I was about to continue trying to pull at your heartstrings about stuff from Xor's past and the possible loss of Kei.

But all is well as I am not 100% heartless...

And if someone died right now it would be hard to continue the story.

Anyways!

Please be sure to fav, follow, and don't forget that reviews always help!

See ya!