Europa was anything but exciting. It was a barren wasteland. Arizona dropped from a few feet off the ground once she was fully reassembled thanks to the transmat. She was so close to the ziggurat's steps, and now she realized just how massive the Pyramids really were. The Pyramid itself was still at a distance, but it looked larger than the moon she stood on! Her ship had flown down low, but it was…louder than she remembered it being. When she turned around she saw one more ship just as hers launched itself back into orbit. The ship itself was smaller than hers, its wings coming out bulged slightly as if they could fire rockets. Her stomach dropped.
"Shit," Arizona sighed. A transmat sequenced, and slowly rebuilt the Guardian it held. She held her breath. Could Zavala have found out? But then why wouldn't he have stopped her at the Tower or sooner?
The thinner face, however, made her breathe a sigh of relief. It was Argonaut. "Ta-da!" He sang.
"Why did you follow me?"
He shrugged. "I saw you sneaking out of the hangar." He looked to his left toward the ziggurat and took a deep breath. "Haven't been here in a while." He put on his helmet. "Our first mission was on Europa, you know? Fae and I were the first Guardians to wield Stasis."
Arizona stared at him.
He snapped his fingers and held out his hand. "Which reminds me," a helmet formed in his hands from a bright light of the transmat. "I saw Banshee making this and thought it might suit you for now since I broke your first helmet."
"Right. You during our first mission, huh? Guess you're replacing it now." Arizona took the helmet from him. Its visor was a dark navy, but the metal was gold and on either side it looked like golden wings formed. "You're not here to stop me?"
"No, why would I?"
She fashioned the helmet on and shrugged. "I don't know, I mean…" Her words were lost to her. Why would she think he would stop her? Maybe he didn't know what she was here for.
"Look, Fae and I found it unfair that Zavala was using you to prove a point. Darkness isn't going away. We both decided that we would help if you decided to go through with it. I didn't know what you were up to until we were actually here. Now, it's up to you. Do you want to venture into the Pyramid and unlock its secrets? Or are the steps as far as we go?"
Arizona stared at the Ziggurat. The wind picked up, bringing her closer toward the structure, and carrying with it a thousand whispers. She followed the wind up the obsidian steps that the snow didn't seem to want to touch, and it glowed almost brighter than the snow and ice that engulfed the large moon.
Behind the structure was the pyramid, glowing brightly in the light. Still, she heard whispers. When she turned around she saw that Argonaut was still at the step's edge, watching her. The longer she looked, the louder the whispers became, trapping her in time until she finally broke away and stared at the crux, which there only stood one. It didn't gleam or glow like the rest of the ziggurat. It seemed to reject all forms of light.
Slowly, she reached out her hand, and touched the object. First with the tips of her fingers. It was cold. Despite the armor protecting her from the freezing winds she somehow still felt the bite of the object underneath her fingertips. She pressed her palm on the surface. Her whole hand now became frozen.
It felt like she was being dragged down into the depths of the darkest and coldest oceans. "We knew you would come." The voice sounded almost musical. She followed it, wading through what felt like dark waters until a picture finally appeared.
Some humanoid shape with large eyes, an elongated head that seemed to disappear into a cloud of smog, which in turn took the shape of a thousand vague faces. It wore a dark cloak that slowly faded to gold dust as it hit the ground and even as the figure moved it seemed to leave trails of the movement, which slowly disappeared, as if leaving behind trails in time and space.
"We have seen enough." It sounded like a thousand voices, both familiar and unfamiliar. The voice was both the deeper baritone of a man's voice, and yet also a deeper woman's voice, and the whispering of a child that followed a few seconds after it spoke. "The children of Sol cry out for Salvation." It moved toward a room with what seemed like a thousand planets that slowly moved as the figure got closer and a huge window, and Arizona could do nothing but follow, although she didn't remember wanting to move in the first place. The "window", she realized, moved like a thick, black water, and as the planets moved there formed a bright white sphere-The Traveler.
"You promised them life but deliver only death. As you have for so many before." The planets seemed to move around the humanoid as it stepped closer and closer to the watery window. "Enough. Enough death." Slowly, it opened its arms and the watery substance opened like a curtain. "Enough life." Thousands-maybe millions-of Pyramids were within reach. "You have to pieces left to place." It folded its hands in front of it again. "The game is over."
"The Witness?" Arizona whispered.
As if she had called him, The Witness turned around, half of its face covered by a collar from its cloak. "Do not be afraid."
Her stomach flipped painfully. He…he couldn't have seen her right? And yet it seemed like he looked right at her.
"Your pale heart holds the key. This time…there is no escape."
She felt herself being pulled back up. It felt like she broke the surface of the ocean. She inhaled sharply.
"Arizona," Ghost came closer to her, alarmed.
She still held the crux, or more the crux held her since she leaned against it, but it felt like she had frozen to its side. She felt cold inside and out.
"I'm going to get Argonaut." Ghost turned to hurry down the Ziggurat but she caught him by one of his panels before he could get away.
"I'm fine."
Slowly, he turned. "Do…do you realized what happened?"
She stared at him. "I touched the crux and I…" her voice trailed away, watching his panels whir with anxiety.
"You were frozen in ice!" He yelled, his voice being carried by the wind.
"But…Ghost, I saw the Witness."
"You…what?"
Arizona nodded. "I saw The Witness. Savathun was telling the truth, The Witness plans on coming after The Traveler." Slowly she started to walk down the steps, but stopped briefly. She could hear the voice in her head still, "We knew you would come." Was that the Witness speaking? No. She shook her head of the thought and walked faster down the steps
"Well?" Argonaut said. "How did it go?"
"Fine, I think. Ghost said I got encased in ice, though."
Argonaut snickered, "That's pretty normal. For the most part summoning Stasis is like summoning any Light ability. It'll take some time to get used to switching."
Arizona looked at Ghost. "Did Drifter ever give you those coordinates."
"Yeah."
"Wait, wait, coordinates for what?" Argonaut folded his arms.
"The deal with Drifter was that if he kept us under the radar for a while then we would help him retrieve something." Arizona explained.
"Retrieve what?"
She shrugged. "Where's Fae? You two have been glued to each other since we got back from Savathun's Throne World."
"Oh, she's on a mission. Caiatl's daddy's ship is hovering over the Moon aaaand something about Nightmares and I didn't want to be apart of that. Dealt with that whole mess once and I don't ever need to relive it."
Arizona laughed. "Fair enough. Ghost, can you summon the Sparrow so we can get going?"
Ghost summoned her Sparrow. The Sparrow itself was small, made special for Maria and given to her. "It'll just go to waste if you don't take it." Amanda had reasoned with her. "Plus, Argonaut and Fae helped me paint it in a style that more suits you. The only trace of Maria left is the fact that I made it smaller for her to control better." The Sparrow was white with golden wings that came from the arms that jutted from the bottom. She got on. Sparrows were oddly uncomfortable to her since she had to lean forward and trust her own weight to keep it from tilting too much.
"Want me to come with you?" Argonaut asked.
She shrugged. "If you want. I don't anticipate any trouble."
Ooh was she wrong about there not being any trouble. Eliksni from a House that had long since fallen flocked to the coordinates that the Drifter had given them. "Drifter, you failed to tell us some important information." Ghost scowled.
"Well, I mean…" He could swear he could hear the Drifter shrug. "Look, I don't blame House Salvation for skimming a little cream off the trade routes. Couldn't have been easy when their leader was turned into a popsicle but I didn't think they'd have the guts to do something like this."
"Something like what?" Arizona asked.
"Once we get my cargo back you'll see what I mean."
Arizona rolled her eyes. "I'll go in first, okay? You come on in after."
Argonaut agreed and they ran in together.