Clang.
"Hngh, umpf. Ungh..." Pained gasps left her mouth. Blood poured out from the gaping hole in her stomach, staining the earth red.
Her back was propped up against a rock, which was also stained red with her blood. It was clear that she was fated to die soon.
"...Ruby... Yang... I'm sorry..." Her eyes felt heavier by each moment, until she closed it, and...
Absolute nothingness. She was floating around in a dark void.
She tried to-
"Hey, Guardian?"
moved, only to find out that she was-
"Hey! Are you there? Helllooooo?"
-reamed, and struggled against-
"GUARDIAN!"
Symphony of a Young Rose
~A story of roses and blood~
Chapter 5: A New Chance
The Guardian flinched as she was broken out of her trance. She blinked her eyes, only to see that Ruby's- No, Red's face was merely inches away from her own.
She immediately pulled her face backwards in surprise, creating some distance between her and Red.
"Oh, finally! I was trying ask if you were going to eat or not. Your food's gonna get cold 'n all!" Red pointed at the plate that was placed on the table... Oh, that's right.
They were in a simple restaurant, and they had ordered whatever Red wanted to eat. Speaking of which, Red was seated right next to her.
The Guardian stared at her own food, which had grown cold, then shook her head. "You're not hungry?" A nod. "Have you had anything this morning?" A shake of her head. "Then you should at least eat a little bit! I know you're hungry." The Guardian never liked to eat with other people. It meant showing her face to everyone that looked at her.
'I'm not hungry. Sorry.' She signed in response, to which Red responded with a pout on her grumpy face. "Umpf. Are you really not going to eat..?"
'Nope.' Red seemed disappointed, telling from the way her head drooped. When Red's head rose again to look at her directly in the eye, the Guardian flinched.
"...Pleaaaasssseeee...?" The Guardian's eyes shakily stared into Red's beady and teary ones. She forced her head to turn away.
With Red staring at her so awkwardly, not even the Guardian could resist for long. Ungh, fine. She made a few simple gestures, before picking a fork up and picking the food a few times with it.
Red frowned at her, probably because the Guardian wasn't eating any food for herself. She gave a blank stare in return.
"You can't eat with your helmet on like that."
A shrug was all Red received in response. "...Is anything wrong?" Her lips curved downwards, Red asked with a worried gaze. Red was probably worried because she was zoning out just a few moments ago.
'I'm fine.' The Guardian signed reassuringly, her face hidden behind a mask she called a helmet. Red, on the other hand, wanted her to reveal her identity, it seemed.
But... Why? Red had everyone else in the Tower to socialize with. Why had she chosen her, out of everyone else she could have, despite her quiet and antisocial mood?
"It's because you're the first person to have helped her out, Guardian. She trusts you." Her Ghost whispered to her in their mutual mental connection. He had read what she was thinking. Why did he have to be so observant now of all times?
With a silent sigh escaping her mouth, she dropped the fork.
"Now's your chance to tell her, Guardian. I'm not forcing you, but... she's going to be a lot happier if you do, I think." Ghost urged her on. But...
Could Ruby accept the fact that everybody she knew, was in fact, now dead?
"..." The Guardian stayed silent for a brief moment, putting one hand against her chin. Red was staring at her expectantly.
'...Alright. I'll eat it later.' When the Guardian pointed at the door, Red hesitantly looked at the food, but nodded nonetheless. She probably wanted to actually see her eating it.
Before leaving, the Guardian picked the bowl up and smoothly walked over to the cashier, holding her other hand up.
"Oh! Asking for a takeout, are you? Okay..." The cashier quickly caught on, thankfully. The Guardian had her food packaged in utter moments.
'Let's leave now.' The Guardian pointed at the door with her other hand before leaving, Red quickly catching up and trailing her from not too far behind.
The Guardian hoped she would be able to think up a better plan to confront Red about the truth. She couldn't protect her forever.
Red wordlessly followed the Guardian through the empty roads and stairs, eventually ending up on the roof of a skyscraper. From there, she could see the buildings standing across the entire city, inside the safety of the walls surrounding it.
But she knew she couldn't stay silent forever. So, she opened her mouth and questioned the Guardian, who was leaning on the fence that was keeping her upright.
"Hey, Guardian? I know it's a really bad timing to ask this, but- But, can you tell me what's bothering you?" Red felt the Guardian's gaze dig through her skin as she turned her face to face Red.
After a long moment of silence passed, a voice, lower and more sad than anything she'd ever heard in her life, rang through the air. "It's nothing."
And soon after the words were processed in Red's brain, the Guardian shook her head and turned her back towards Red. "...It's late. You should go sleep."
"I shouldn't sleep when you're sad and alone. Please, just tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help!" Red kept pushing forward, closing the distance between the two and putting one hand on the Guardian's shoulders.
The Guardian immediately flinched, shaking the hand off as if she had been burned by it. If she didn't have her helmet covering her face, Red could've seen the tears welling up in her eyes. "Guardian?" Red whispered, almost fearfully.
No response was given to the question, and the next very moment, the Guardian was no longer there.
Red only realized where the Guardian had gone after seeing the glistening particles of light generated by a transmat flying off into the distance.
Red was broken by the fact that the Guardian, indeed, had left her. She was saddened more by the fact that she was unable to do anything in order to help the Guardian, not by the fact that the Guardian had left her.
She understood that everyone needed some lone time for themselves when they needed it, but she just wanted to know what's wrong!
So that's why she was sitting here, maybe sobbing a little and staring at the really big, white orb floating in the sky.
Rubrum was quick to react to her tears, flying in close to her face and panicking a small bit, even. "Hey. It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong..."
Her Ghost's whispers comforted her a little, but the small part of her heart that held the worry towards the Guardian sent out painful impulses through her heart.
"But she's so hurt! I just wanna know what's wrong..." Red mumbled out, covering her face with her hands as she tried and failed to brush the tears away. Why had the Guardian so suddenly leave her? She definitely knew that something was bothering her, but what?
She buried her face within her knees. Everything turned black for a moment, before she felt her Ghost brush her hair lightly.
"There, there. Give her some time. I'm sure she's going to open up one day." Rubrum whispered close to her ears, her voice in a soothing tone that relieved Red.
She once again, raised her head, and then looked at her Ghost. Her blue eye stared into Red's shaky silver ones.
"...A-Are you sure? It's the first ever person I met aside from.. w-well, you. I don't wanna mess it up." Red whispered, her hands close to her chest in a display of unsureness.
"Hey. I'm with you, what could go wrong, right? Come on, let's go lay down and sleep our troubles away." Rubrum chuckled before she flew off slowly, Red trailing her from not too far away.
"H-haha, yeah! I'm sure she'll be fine tomorrow."
"Guardian. We need to talk, please." A voice abruptly ended her desolation, while also slicing through the silence. It was her Ghost.
"...Leave me alone." She whispered back at him. She didn't deserve any of the kindness she'd received, she thought. And it was certainly true in her perspective.
"I can't. Not when you're acting this way." But her Ghost remained resolute. Why was he doing this? She was the one who pushed her daughter away. She was the one who hurt her daughter. She was the one who deserved... all this.
"...Leave me-"
"Summer." Ghost's tone was more bold and serious this time, as he cut her sentence off once more.
But that couldn't change her mind. "...I don't want to talk."
"So, that's just how you're going to deal with this? Just give up on fixing all of your problems? Run away?! Please, Guardian. I know you're sad, but you need to hear me out." Summer knew that Ghost was trying to persuade her. She almost shook, almost.
"I told you that I'd just fail her. I don't want her to—" Her Ghost, who was truly disappointed, easily cut through her words like a heated knife would cut through butter. "Don't want her to what, die? You look like you're about to leave her without anyone to rely on!"
Each word Ghost spoke tore through her heart like a spear with the jagged edge they held, and she couldn't help but flinch.
"...She has Rubrum."
"You know what the truth is going to do to her." Ghost's words yet again hid a sharpened blade beneath the soft of his voice. It dug through her heart like nothing else.
"She's better off without me." Regret and despair dripped from her voice, unlike her Ghost's.
"No, she isn't. Did you see how she reacted to you? Did you?" The Guardian nodded, and answered with honesty: "...She keeps trying to close the distance."
"I-... Ghost, I'm the one...- I'm the one who would hurt her. I deserve all of this... All of it. Don't you remember Cayde? I don't want the same to happen to her." Ghost seemed surprised by the words that followed up, and Summer was fine with that. As long as she was left alone, nobody would get hurt, right?
"You leave Cayde out of this! We both know you couldn't blame yourself. That burden is not entirely yours to carry. How many times do I have to tell you the same thing?" Ghost shot back with a tinge of aggressiveness in his voice. Summer, in response, flinched.
And awkward silence filled the moment between the partners.
After a long moment of silence, Ghost began to talk once more. She wasn't so sure if he was trying to lecture her, or comfort her. Or maybe, it was both. "...Hey, Guardian. Remember when you first told me your name, Summer?" She did.
It was a warm day, and she had decided to go out on a walk that day. They were resting on the small bench inside a park she had found out about, and Ghost was the first one the start a conversation.
"Hey, Guardian. I know people call you 'The Guardian' for a reason, but... could you tell me your name if you get the chance? I would appreciate it, really. You're MY Guardian! I don't want to have anyone else know you better than me." He was always the one who was eager to find out information about her. And she couldn't help but smile at him.
"...Summer." Ghost looked at her with a surprised eye. "That's your name? Summer?"
She frowned. Was it too simple of a name? Too generic?
"That's a wonderful name. Summer, huh? I like it!"
Ghost was very excited to find out about her name that day.
"Remember when you told me what you were going to do that day?"
"I want to save as many people as I can." Ghost tilted his shell at her after hearing the sentence leave her mouth.
"What do you mean?" The Guardian responded with a shake of her head. "I... I remember something I did. Real bad. I don't want it to happen again."
The Guardian spoke to herself with a quiet voice. "No mother should ever leave their children."
"Huh? What did you say?"
"It's nothing."
"You said you wanted to save as many as you can, right?" Ghost flew in close to her face, one blue eye staring into Summer's tired, sad, and broken eyes.
"Now's your chance to make it right. And I'm only trying to help you take it. Please, I don't want to see you like this, Guardian. All broken, sad and full of regret... I know it's hard. But you have to let me help you."
Summer, who was just so, so tired of it all, whispered. But she didn't know what to say. "I...I-I...I..." Her voice died down, disappearing as the harsh winds blew in close and fluttered her dark and red hair.
The light from the lamp placed on the railings of the roof she was standing on shone on her face, revealing droplets of tears that would leave wet marks on her face and floor alike.
"You don't need to keep blaming yourself, Guardian. Please, just listen to me. Just this once..." Ghost's words were the last thing that Summer needed to break down.
And oh, did she break down. Indeed, she had.
"I-I-I... AHHHHHHHHHH!"
The tears that kept flowing from her eyes began dropping on the floor, leaving dark spots on the roof. And slowly, her voice began leaving her mouth unintentionally.
She sobbed, she wailed and screamed. She leaned on the railing, putting her weight against it as she slid down into a sitting position. The cries filled with anger directed at herself and sadness would never stop leaving her mouth.
Ghost was next to her, comforting her simply by his mere existence. He whispered words of comfort, but it was clear that Summer was too busy crying to hear such words.
So, Ghost floated next to her face, then gently settled on her shoulder as she heaved and sobbed.
Only silence lasted between the two, but both of them knew that they were there for each other.
Summer wasn't exactly too sure how long she had cried for. But one thing was sure.
She didn't want to abandon her daughter or lose her again.
She wanted to watch her smile. She wanted to watch her laugh and run around again.
The Traveler had made such a cruel, yet thankful miracle possible. If this was her chance to see her dear daughter again, then...
Why was she letting the past stop her from taking this chance again?
Only then, she had realized that she was being such a fool.
Only then, she had decided what she would do.
She would protect her child, she would protect Ruby.
And when the time came, she'd tell her about the truth, no matter how hard it was.
The Guardian was finally able to rise to her feet and place her hands on the railings. After all the crying, she wanted a small break. But she knew she couldn't take a break yet.
As the sun peeked over the mountains and shone bright light over the City, Summer put her helmet on again and began walking.
She had a daughter to find.
"Ungh..." Red groaned and whimpered in pain as she stretched out her tired limbs. The sun was over her head now, and she wasn't able to sleep the entire night.
Rubrum floated close behind her, worryingly gazing at the young Lightbearer and mumbling things like: "You should've slept more." "I knew you should've slept longer..." "I told you, you need to sleep!"
Red groaned each time she heard complaints about her not sleeping from Rubrum, shaking her head slowly and walking forwards... Where was she headed to again?
...Wait, where was she?
Right, in the middle of a park, trying to clean these thoughts out of her head. She thought taking a small walk in the cold night air would clean up her head, but apparently, she was wrong.
"...I wonder what the Guardian is doing... Do you... Unnngh. Maybe think she's doing well?" Red Yawned in middle of her sentence. She couldn't focus too well.
"Oh, I'm sure she's doing well. What's more important is that you're not doing well, and you need to sleep!" Red flinched from the volume of Rubrum's voice. Or maybe she was just too sleepy to actually focus on her voice.
Red took another step forward as she rubbed her eyes, hoping to clear her darkening vision.
Step, and step, and step...
...Until she felt her shoulder ram into someone.
"Oh! Oh, Imsosorryareyouhurthereletme-" Red immediately perked up in surprise before she began blabbering the words hurriedly, unable to notice who she had run into.
She shrieked in surprise when a hand grabbed her shoulder, making Red slowly raise her eyes to meet the Guardian's helmet.
"Guardian! You're baaack!" Red immediately hugged her close, happiness dripping from her voice.
"You don't know how worried I was! I-I... I was so worried! Where were you?!" The Guardian let out a small chuckle, holding Red close with one hand and petting her head with the other.
"I-I... I was walking all over the place, and stuff... I couldn't sleep cause I was so worried..." Red stopped her happy blabbering and yawned. She blinked, and then closed her eyes for a longer period each time she blinked.
Until sleep finally claimed her. Red had let down her guard thanks to the relief of seeing the Guardian again.
"Ooh, she's asleep. Couldn't you have picked my Guardian up sooner? She's walked around all over the park throughout the entire night." Rubrum flew in close to the Guardian, staring into her helmet.
The Guardian made a small gesture in return. Sorry, I was... busy.
"Riiiight. At least she's happy now. Thanks for letting her do the, erm. Hug and all, by the way! I'm sure she appreciates it a lot, too." The Guardian let out a small chuckle at Rubrum's response before she made her own with one hand that was not holding Red.
I do, too.
Rubrum didn't ask her what the message meant, so the Guardian was more than sure that she had understood it.
Though she didn't linger in her thoughts for too long. There was a sleeping Lightbearer in her arms.
The Guardian held her daughter close to her before she felt her ship pick her up through transmat, leaving only small motes of light flailing around in the air behind.
She wanted a break, too. It had been a long night for the pair of Lightborns, after all.
After laying Red down on her personal bed, the Guardian slowly left her own room before she sat on a soft cushioned chair, and leaned all the way back. She sighed.
Summer felt the feeling that burdened her like a heavy object placed on her chest finally release her, even if it still lingered.
At the very least, she could be at peace for now.
She could hear Ghost and Rubrum talking to each other about their experiences overnight. Summer smiled beneath her helmet before yawning. She was starting to get tired.
She blinked her eyes a few times before falling into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
"Hey, don't you think we should wake her up?"
"...Meh, she's sleeping too well. And we don't have any assigned operations for today. We can take the day off."
"But... still! We could be doing so many more things than just sitting here and waiting for her to wake up..."
"Relax, Red. I'm sure she'll wake up soon."
The Guardian slowly woke up after hearing the voices. As a former friend of the Hunter Vanguard, she was never safe from any pranks, even while she was asleep.
The thought of Cayde still brought her pain whenever she thought about him, but she shook it off as her sights slowly cleared.
In fact, she could see Red excitedly pop into her view with a smile on her face. "Hey! Did you sleep well?"
With a groan, the Guardian raised her body from the chair she was sitting on. How long had she slept for?
"I'll, er, take that as a yes... A-anyways! Sorry about last night. I kinda fell asleep, and I was just so tired... I'll make it up to you, promise!" The Guardian tilted her head. Why was Red being so cautious and apologetic?
"Guardian, you might wanna, er, look at this." Ghost alerted her, flying close to her face and displaying a small hologram in the air for her to see.
And that hologram, in fact, displayed that she had several missed calls from Commander Zavala.
The Guardian immediately turned to face Ghost, her hands making a series of gestures so fast that it was almost unreadable. Why didn't you tell me?!
"Uh, yeah... about that... You were kinda sleeping it off too well. I didn't want to disturb you."
The Guardian hurriedly reached for a tablet used for simple communications placed on a desk, before Red perked up and asked a question. "Uhm, I'm sorry. what's all this about?"
Ghost was quick to respond. "The Vanguard detected some strange Hive activity on the moon. And a large crimson fortress appeared along with them, too. I think it's time we gave them a visit."
Red seemed to remain confused as ever, so Rubrum simplified it for her. "We're going on Earth's Moon and shooting space bugs."
"Oh! Oh! I get it now. I was kinda confused when you said things like, the Hive... and stuff, y'know." Rubrum shook her shell, however.
"Red, I know you're good. But you're gonna need some better equipment before we head there. I think we can let them go on one mission without us." Upon hearing Rubrum's words, Red immediately shrunk like a balloon with a hole.
"...Okay, but I wanna follow them when we're all ready!" Red felt the Guardian's hands tap her shoulder assuringly.
"Okay, fine. Whatever suits you. I just want to keep you all safe and sound." Rubrum gave a small sigh, and then looked at the pair of older Lightborn and her Ghost. "You two got this, right?"
The Guardian gave a thumbs-up, and Ghost also nodded in response. "We got this in the bag. We'll be back before you two know it!"
Rubrum and Red both giggled. "I hope so!"
None of them had any idea what they'd find on the desecrated moon.
Jesus, I took way too long to update this story.
Long story short, I went through a lot. One of my family members died, I got sick real bad, I had to go through an important exam...
It's been one hell of a year.
But definitely, I'll try to keep updating this story. I can't exactly tell you guys how long it would regularly take, due to my horrible time distribution.
And again, apologies for my late update.
If you have any criticism, or if you spot any errors in my story, please do point them out. I will do my best to correct them.
And as always, stay safe!
Next chapter, we're heading to Shadowkeep, woohoo...
Spoilers: It's going to hurt Summer. A lot.