Between the waking world and the dream world, there laid twilight. An inbetween of thought and body, of mind and soul. Where one's form was laid bare and the nerves of their brain were left barren, mapped out like roads. To those who denied causality, it was a familiar place, and the forms, observable, the roads, walkable. To anyone else, it was babble, intersecting trains of thought that crashed into psychostimulating nonsense.
And, to the slumbering Guardian currently stowed away in some hidden broom closet upon the Tower, it was such a wonderful place. He was a human, built strong and packed with muscle; with a shadowy face and sharp, handsome features. He went by many names, had claimed many titles and proven himself time and time again, but one remained constant; to him and his Ghost, Eisheth.
"Ra," she said.
He stirred, clenching his eyes as he heard the whizz-click of her Frame above. Her weight gently shifted over him, and he sighed, deep, deeper into the dream world. And in that brief, split-second cacophony of hellish howls and roaring drums, a phrase shot through Ra's mind. The words were clear, so clear in his head that suddenly, Ra didn't feel like he was dreaming at all.
Invert.
T H E
sphere.
He snapped his eyes open, and craned his neck back on that small bedroll, lying face-down. His gaze met that of Eisheth's, and together they smiled, Ra blinking the sleep away from his eyes. He held a hand up, wrist twisting back as Eisheth's mechanical digits interlinked with his, and gently pulled her down atop him. Her body thrummed with a gentle vibration, and with a quick warble at his back, suddenly Ra felt two distinct nubs rubbing against him.
"Good morning, love," he greeted, laying a kiss to the Ghost's knuckles.
Eisheth scoffed. "Good afternoon to you too, Lord. And before you give me that doe-eyed, bedraggled, smouldering little look, we've been summoned by Zavala."
"Hm… Did he say it's urgent?" asked Ra, mumbling into her fingers.
Eisheth didn't say anything for a little bit, and instead let her gaze wander. And wander. "...No."
And so, Ra looked at her, turning his body. "I just figured I'd pay tribute to the being who brought me back from the dead," he said, kissing her hand again. "The being who saved my hide more than once," he continued, shifting himself up in a gargantuan effort, laying the smirking Frame down on the bedroll, belly-down. "And, well, the being who's been working so very hard lately…"
"...Oh, shut up," she snickered, throwing a pillow back at him, "and make it quick."
Ra took a moment to truly take her in again; as it was a hobby of his. He and Eisheth had found the Frame decommissioned in the same closet they called home, left alone for an age and a half. The Ghost took to it eagerly, and found herself able to modify the body. Namely, Eisheth found she could enhance certain assets by generating an elastic composite structure that, while not human-looking, roughly resembled skin in texture.
Ra had thought it an Exo, for all intents and purposes, though with the distinct lack of actual human brain (or nascent AI consciousness - they checked!) in the Frame. Eisheth would often expound upon the differences between the two models, but Ra would get lost in her single, glowing eye. She liked to take residence in the Frame's head, and covered herself in the public eye. It was in their tight space they revealed themselves to one another, and embraced the other.
Ra got odd stares from time to time, and other Ghosts tended to steer clear of Eisheth, but they'd fallen in love. They'd long since stopped questioning exactly how or when, instead simply adoring the other. Ra then thought to himself how long exactly he'd been staring at that fake-flesh rear or the subtle squish of Eisheth's chest against the bedroll, and slapped himself out of that fugue.
"Of course," he said, hand pawing at an asscheek and parting it, revealing the Ghost's glowing holes. "But first…"
He laid himself upon her, and took her hand, tightly. There they clutched it close, and Ra put their heads together, staring out into the just-open creak of the door.
"Ra," Eisheth insisted, grinding greedily against his groin, "c'mon…"
"Listen," he implored. "To the rain, to the steps outside, to the chatter… Someone's cooking something good out there…"
"...Can't sleep unless there's a racket, huh?" Eisheth chuckled, dimming the light on her head. "It's peaceful, in its own way. The City, too…"
"...I love you," Ra said to her, kissing her cheek, the ridge of her Ghost-head.
"...Love you, too."
He sunk into her, parting the fake-flesh-lips with his cock and thrusting gently, feeling his whole body tingle as her vibrations shook him well. The quiet, mechanical trill to her voice was hard to hear, but he stressed himself to pick it out whenever they laid together. The more he heard it, the more fun she was having, Ra thought. He chucked a hand under her as he prone-boned her jiggling frame, the slap of his crotch to her thighs eliciting such a keen wetness from them both.
"C-C'mon," she urged him, "h-h-hurry it up-mmph~!"
He kissed her; taking those pliable, Exo-lips into an embrace and hammering her pussy with glee, smiling all the while. Eisheth was rendered a mess soon, the Frame's feedback shooting back a wonder into her shell, her thoughts. The sensations were a translation away from real, but she loved them, loved when he dominated her, used her. It was made all the better at the climax - when he flooded her body with his seed and just rocked with her, gently.
He was kissing her, as she lowered the top awning of her shell, as if to stare at him with a half-lidded eye. There they stared, stopped, and just hummed with one another in that post-orgasmic bliss, until Ra stood.
"You are getting fucked raw tonight, Ei," he swore, flipping her on her back and giving her a hand, letting her stare at him for a little bit. "Come now, our duty awaits, as do our foes."
"Y-You're right," she chuckled, as they grinned back to each other. "Come now, Guardian!"
They cleaned themselves, washing briefly in a nearby shower block, Eisheth dismounting the Frame and leading just ahead of Ra. The sun broke a gentle rainfall, bathing the Tower and the City in a lustrous, golden-orange glow - one that welcomed a peaceful night. Mechanics and handypeople strode back and forth about their businesses, winding down as the Eliksni spread from their quarter, clicking all the while.
Ra thought, briefly, on Titans. On the drive to defend, to attack, to guard another at risk to yourself. All Guardians had that drive, sure, but there was something in him that called out to be the shield, the hammer, the sword all at once. It was the people, Mithrax and his daughter and the Eliksni, those Awoken who strayed from Mara Sov's territory, and the humans living their lives in a hard-fought peace.
Whenever Eisheth questioned it, whenever they thought, at their lowest - how can we go on? - that was their answer.
He stood proud, ready, and at full attention, clad in his red-golden armour. Zavala's stern face alerted him immediately that all was not well.
"Reporting for duty, Commander."
Zavala nodded towards Eisheth, sighing. "I'm sorry to impart another mission so quickly after your return from Savathun's Throne World, but since the Traveler's return…"
He paused. Shook his head.
"...Zavala? Is everything alright?" asked Eisheth. "Anything you need, we're ready."
"Ikora's Hidden have taken reports of strange fluctuations in the Traveler's… Aura. It matches no known signatures, but… It's inspired movement."
Ra tensed. Snapped his gaze behind Zavala, and focused; eyeing the scars of Ghaul's cage upon the sphere's surface, shifting.
"Guardian," Zavala intoned, gaining that determination back in his throat, "you touched the shard that fell from the Traveler after Ghaul launched his attack. Ikora has found you - and Eisheth - to be emanating those same fluctuations."
"I… I haven't been feeling any different - neither has Ei," Ra huffed, "we'll move to investigate immediately-"
"-Or talk to Ikora before heading out," Eisheth cautioned, hovering in between the Titans. "I… I didn't realise anything was wrong, I just thought…"
The Guardians let the Ghost breathe, get her bearings, before she stared back at the Traveler. It was a slow, marked rotation that usually meant worry which Ra saw. He held his hand out, and she hovered in sync with him, stabilising herself.
"...We were getting stronger," Ra finished for her, "as… Well, as we do."
"Report this to Ikora," Zavala ordered them. "For the safety of the Tower. There's no telling what Savathun wrought upon the Traveler, even if we are to believe her intentions."
Ra's head snapped upwards from a stray thought. "And her body-"
"-Sealed by Cabal Light-blockades and kept under constant surveillance by Primus Forge and ever-rotating cadre of Psions," Zavala assured Ra, holding a hand up. "She is dead, and her Ghost remains in hiding."
Eisheth nodded, as best she could. "Then we'll-"
"-Zavala!"
"Ikora?"
Anticipation filled the air. The hairs on Ra's body stood so straight and threatened to shake off, seeing Ikora move and hearing her yell. There was a shaken fear in the Warlock's eyes that couldn't quite be pinned down - was it horror, terror, or disgust?
"Cayde's body, it's-... I don't know who, nor do I know how or why in their sick heads they would defile his grave, but his body is gone. Zavala, it's leaving the same traces of the signature found on-"
Ikora's eyes snapped to the Young Wolf, and she straightened herself. "-On you. And Eisheth. Ophiuchus and I can't follow its trail beyond a few metres - but it wanders outside the City walls, we can tell that much. If I upload the wavelength of the fluctuation, can I ask you two to hunt it?"
"Immediately," Ra nodded, "we'll let you know if we need backup. Juno and Parvati-2, if they're available, and-"
"-I'll send them as soon as possible, keep in radio contact. Be careful, Guardian."
Ra nodded. And ran.
Cayde's body was retrieved from the Prison of Elders, and laid to rest in a tomb on the memorial walk, halfway between the city's floor and the tower's peak. No camera recording safeguarded the site; for no one would dare to defile it, or so they thought. It was as sacred as any final death; one that Ra had boiled over, infuriating himself at the sheer notion of the crime!
No, he thought to himself; it wouldn't help to bask in that rage, to return to the campaign against the Scorn Barons and Uldren… He had to keep a level head. This could've been a deception by Savathun; an early ploy by the Witness, or a trick of the Traveler. Yes, Savathun was as dead as dead could be - but Immaru wasn't. He was recalled, teleported away before he could complete the Witch Queen's resurrection again.
"Got the wavelength, and boy does Ikora have a good intuition," Eisheth sighed, looking at the tomb. "It's so clear, I just can't believe they weren't able to see this… Perhaps it has something to do with the sight - what we harnessed to look past the Throne World's outer layer."
"Except I haven't broken the veil - there's been no tether, no crack nor a flimsy sheen to see," Ra sang, growling deep in his throat, "look, at the glass."
It'd been spewn forth, tossed across the room. But Eisheth scanned it, rebuilt the trajectories of each piece, noting how the sarcophagus' lid had been opened, just enough for the body to slip past - not enough for someone else to get in there. The glass had exploded outwards.
"Oh," Ei said.
"...It has to be someone transmatting him," Ra huffed. "That's the only way this makes sense. They slipped in, got one piece of him, then…"
Eisheth knew the answer already. She just didn't want to voice it; for fear of giving it shape, for fear of the final-dead walking.
"Let's follow it."
It led into an access panel; that wavelength did. Light or sound or radiation, they couldn't tell exactly, but they could tell it smelt like the Traveler. Like all the time it had journeyed and all the space it had traversed was condensed into this little trail. Ra was expecting it to end, somewhere just outside the City's walls, but it didn't.
No one had transmatted Cayde's body out. They'd carried it.
Eisheth buzzed ahead of him; coming up to a crest of a hill, one which caught sight of Twilight Gap. Her gasp was all Ra needed to rush ahead, to survey his surroundings. It was nature unbound; rolling hills dwarfed by colossal mountains - trees strewn in a verdant pattern - all marked by a body on the horizon.
A body, with a Ghost.
Ra went to raise a weapon; but halted himself, calling Eisheth back into his pack; keeping her safe. He approached, until he could clearly see the - naked? - Exo body before him, standing in the afternoon's light, just looking around. But then it turned. And smiled. And Ra beheld a face long thought dead.
"Hey, buddy."
Eisheth instantly popped her head out, the chassis 'round her eye widening in disbelief.
"Cayde!?"
"Yeah, look, I-oof!"
Ra couldn't help himself. He hugged him; naked or not, breaking quickly and holding onto his shoulders, eyeing up for a sign of-
"-Sundance!?"
Cayde and Ra's Ghosts bumped heads, sharing information with each other faster than the Guardians could comprehend. They calmed themselves, and let their eyes wander to the world, just shaking their heads.
"What the fuck," Ra gasped. "No, seriously, what in the fucking hell-"
"-Long story short," Cayde hummed, "I haven't got a clue what happened. Don't ask. Actually, wait, I'll just tell ya…"
Cayde took a breath in; the filter on his voice crackling a bit.
"Last thing I remember is being at the business end of Sov's gun. I thought for sure that was the end, and that I'd black out and I'd just be powered down one last time, but… Poof," he said. "I'm here again. Pain. Lotta pain. But it was like being rezzed, and-"
"-Worst part was being pieced back together," Sundance interjected. "From… From what I felt, I swear, it was just like being… Being made again."
"Like when the Traveler first spawned you?" Eisheth asked.
Sundance nodded, slowly. "There were pieces. Little bits missing of me, I assume… I…"
"...Oh, yeah, major headache time - I have to play catchup. Also need clothes, but," Cayde cleared his throat, "what the hell happened with Uldren anyway? How's the Vanguard doing - is Ikora okay? Zavala, I know he says he'd be doing fine, but-"
"-Wow," Ra took grip of his own head, "a… Uh, a lot's happened. I killed…"
"...You got vengeance for me?" Cayde asked. "That's cool! Damn, I bet it was a fun ride - but in the end, did it all-"
"-Uldren Sov was resurrected by the Traveler, he goes by Crow now," Eisheth broke in, "I've just shared all the history with Sundance, and-"
"He's the new Hunter Vanguard, Cayde!" Sundance asked. "Like, I can't believe it and I know it's true! Cayde, the Dare-"
"-The Traveler helped fulfil the Vanguard Dare? No god-damn way! Oh, that's awesome, I-"
"-Wait," Ra piped up, "you don't care that… You know what, no, never mind. He's even said it himself - the paperwork is killing him... Crow's a good guy."
"Justice has never, and I can not stress this enough," Cayde sighed, "tasted sweeter. Speaking of which, I am just starving, and… Well, hell, we can keep catching up on the walk back, right?"
"Speaking of," said Eisheth, "why did you wander out here anyway?"
Cayde simply pointed towards a shadow on the ground, dragging his finger up to the setting sun, eclipsed by the Traveler.
"Call me sentimental," he crooned, losing the humour in his voice. "I needed to look at this thing to tell me I was real. I was waiting for the shadow to hit and the cold to strike before I felt… Y'know, like I was here."
Ra, Eisheth, and Sundance shared a look, that anxious knot dissipating in a grand flush.
"You're here. And naked. Ei, transmat a cloak and we'll head back. Hopefully we can break the news easily to Zavala, Ikora, and Holliday-"
"-Oh, oh, oh - how's she been doing?" Cayde asked, clapping his hands 'round the freshly-summoned poncho thrown his way. "Look, wait, no, get this - I bet fifty glimmer that I still won't get my damn tank when I'm back in an op with her. Even after coming back!"
Ra just laughed. The crinkle that came to his cheeks with that smile was impossibly wide; one Eisheth thought lost forever. It was a glorious thing to see; a sheer, unbelievable miracle that defied what they'd known about Ghosts and the Light. The Traveler, too. That beaming grin turned to a smirk as Ei and Ra looked at one another again.
"So far, you don't have any glimmer in your name… But sure. Don't throw yourself too quickly into the fire again, Cayde - enjoy that tank for us."
They kept him low and hidden; weaving past civilians who'd recognise him and Guardians who had venerated, worshipped him. Ra tucked him away as if he were stowing the poor man, umming and erring on deciding to be properly dressed first before seeing his friends again. All the while, Ra pinched himself - and Eisheth had to bump into him to ensure that no illusion had befallen them.
He could not fucking believe it, still. Even after they'd reached the top floor of the Tower, fully explaining the last, oh, half-decade since Cayde's passing. Even after entertaining and paying for his on-the-go ramen.
"Man, this place has… Barely changed. Wow. Were you throwing a party without me? I still see some streamers-"
"-Guardian Games," Ra cleared his throat, "Warlocks won. Hunters were busy dealing with some hiccups in their gear, and-"
"-Titans were too busy saving the world, as usual," Cayde jested, a sardonic tone to his voice. "Sounds rigged to me. Geez, with all this lack of progress it doesn't surprise me it took 'em five years to elect a new Hunter Vanguard. How long did it take you to find him in the first place?"
"Cayde!?"
Ra slapped himself in the head. They'd walked right past Ikora's place of meditation; she was no doubt keeping a feeling thread out for them. She sprinted to hug him as Ra had done; not letting go until she let those initial tears dry from her cheeks. Eisheth popped away to summon Zavala; and soon a crowd began to form around them - one that was quickly dispersed.
Ra stood, and watched on as the previous Vanguard caught up; as Crow arrived by his side, arms crossed and face drooped in an unbelieving gape.
"I can't-"
"-Yeah, it's a fucking mess," Ra interjected. "I'm sorry for swearing. I just… He's back. He'll still expect you to keep the job, though-"
"-You kidding?" Crow chuckled. "I wouldn't trade this for the world. Let him have his freedom… He'll need it."
"You okay?" Ra asked. "This must be extra weird for you."
"...It's not like the guilt's gone," Crow sighed. "I… I still killed Cayde-6. Him being back here, alive… It doesn't change that act. All it does is… Well, it takes some of the salt away from the wound. Just a little."
Ra smiled. "And he'll be throwing plenty of salt your way soon. Be safe, alright? Looks like they'll be here for another couple of hours."
"Try days," he giggled. "There's a lot to catch up on."
And so they talked. Sat down, as Cayde ate, explained that brief but interesting period of death after life. Zavala briefed him on the goings on, but couldn't hold back a smile the entire time; glowing with a faith that Ra had seen shaken recently. Ikora illuminated many things and theories about Cayde's return; keeping a hand on him almost subconsciously; afraid he would leave again.
And the more he spoke, the more he realised what had happened, and the more Cayde realised the true, undeniable weight of his situation, the more tears fell. Sad ones; at the loss of friends and contact with planets, but joyous ones, too. Not only had he returned from final death - some other poor schlub had been given Vanguard duty!
Of course he laughed with the duo, Zavala sorting accommodations in an instant, Ikora reinstating all of her Hidden statuses with him…
It was going to be hard to break to the public. The news was already out, and it would spread like wildfire, but one more legend to add to the fight against Darkness was always welcome. One more friend to welcome back from certain doom, now… That was something else. Something only the Guardian could do, as Ikora thought with Saint-14.
She stood, excusing herself, and gave Ra a hug.
"You know, all we had to do was find him," Ra chuckled, linking her arms around her too. "I'm sure anyone could've walked out there, and-"
"-No," she swore. "No, this feels like just another beginning. So, as much as I want you to be on guard, Ra, I… I wanted to thank you. Something tells me that without you, Cayde wouldn't be back with us. In many ways."
Eisheth clicked her frame, curiously. "How do you mean, Ikora?"
Before she could explain herself, as Zavala and Cayde rose from the table and went to join her, the air around them quaked with thunder. It filled every gap of every breath of wind, resounding in a terrible shake to the Tower. Immediately the facilities went on full alert; sounding alarms, but their threat-detection system buzzed up, linking quickly with Ophiuchus.
"The Traveler," he hummed. "It's stopped moving."
Not only that, it focused on something. A spark, at first, which crackled into little flicks of electricity, no, Arc energy. As the final vestiges of the sun met with the encroaching darkness of twilight, so did Solar and Void energies co-mingle with the spark, forming a beam of pure Light. It grew and grew until it left the Traveler, singing the same note it had done when it had banished Ghaul from existence.
A holy note. A joyous note. A note of victory.
Light. Striking him in the chest. Like the ancient god of a land long forgotten, Ra was bathed in Light and baptised before the Vanguard. It was so warm, so full and wholly full of understanding that tears erupted from his eyes before he could sense them, wipe them away.
Eisheth instantly dematerialised his helmet, looking him in the eye while scanning.
"Speak, Lord! You're b-bursting with Light, what's… How do you feel? Can you-oh… Oh my-"
"Ra!" Zavala yelled, rushing to his side as he collapsed. "Ikora, get-hnngh~!"
"-Don't touch him!" Cayde yelped, keeping a hand on Ikora to prevent her from reaching Zavala. "Whatever it is, it's spreading, and it doesn't look painless-woah~!"
"C-Cayde, a-a-ahn~!"
He blinked away those tears, only to have his eyes flooded by more, his body stretched to the limits of Light capacity. Ra couldn't move. His skin tingled, every single follicle erect with goosebumps, every digit of Zavala upon his chest igniting lust. A contagious one, at that! The Vanguard and their Ghosts were rendered immobile, collapsed at the knees and quivering with power.
The Traveler spoke in that holy note, and Ra was made to bear witness to it. It was a trillion voices coalesced into one; a rising choir of panic that eked out into calmness as that wave of purity struck him. The world seemed to slow as he snapped his gaze upwards, opened his eyes, and beheld the Light.
"Be not afraid," she said. She. A voice clarified in the swirling chaos of the many. "For I have chosen you."
"For what?" Ra found himself asking; realising that he didn't use his voice for the action. Merely a thought and the words were there, in conversation. "Why? After Savathun, you-"
"-Breed the Light. Share it. So that it may grow, with your love. It is the only way."
His armour flashed away, not by Eisheth's hand. Ra reached out for her, and when she touched him, he roared in climax. It was like being reduced to a cauldron of Light; all that he could pour from his pulsing prick was pure power, paralysing him in pleasure. It affected the Vanguard; and Ra recovered enough to just in time to witness their changes.
His cock; long enjoyed by Eisheth, now glowed with a blinding radiance. It dribbled, with luminous oodles of Light-semen. Disbelief all but cracked his skull upon the Tower pavement.
He tried to halt the changes, but found his body too hot, his cock too hard, and the desire to breed as commanded by the Traveler all too encompassing. Ra's eyes snapped to Ikora as she baulked at the sight before them all, clutching her chest and watching her robes disappear, too.
"W-What-oh fuck~!"
Hearing her curse was wonderful, Ra thought. Seeing her rapturously reel in climax was rousing, too, and in their haze, their lips met. He pawed at her breasts while Cayde and Zavala continued to writhe and moan, erupting in release themselves. Ikora's tits swelled as his hands kneaded into them, heat encompassing her body and rendering all higher thought null.
They stared at each other, with half-lidded eyes, and panted as their lips broke, gasping and panting at the sight of the Hunter and the Titan. Zip, flash went Cayde's poncho, Zavala's thick plate, revealing changed bodies beneath. Their cocks shrunk before Ra's eyes, and before Eisheth could begin to make sense of the pandemonium of the changes, they spoke.
"We need to contain this," Zavala moaned, his voice shifting higher in pitch, settling into a husky groove. "I can… I can feel it, Ra, y-your Light… It…"
She looked down at herself. She. Then she looked to Cayde, noticing even her Exo-flesh was moulding, expanding into a feminine form. Gone was her dick, now a synth-flesh nub cresting her pussy. It oozed with delight, as if drooling at the thought of Light-cock. Despite the haze in their heads, Cayde and Ikora gathered their act, breathing that heavy air and eyeing the gathering civilians.
"W-We need to quarantine you," Ikora huffed, barely controlling her own voice.
"Redjacks," Cayde hollered, looking down at her own body, feeling herself and just humming with delight. "Z-Zavala… Get Shaxx on call and get 'em to build a shelter. M-Meanwhile-"
"-A Ward of Dawn," Zavala nodded, purring deep in her own throat. She held her hands up, and with but a thought and a channel of Light, erected a glorious, shimmering purple dome around them all.
It cast their bodies in a beautiful light, enhancing their features in Ra's eyes. Even their faces, their very faces morphed - and they were handling the change surprisingly well. Ra had long thought on the issues with bodily rejection in Exos, and-
"-Mmph~!"
Cayde-6's lips were upon his. Soft things, with a curious little scar that he hadn't noticed before, etched into her bottom lip. While she sucked gently at him, tasting him, Ikora leapt at his cock, pinning him to the ground. Ra was overwhelmed, but found himself cruising that wave of ecstasy much easier than the Traveler's first blast.
The Exo's newly formed pussy lips ground gently against his girth. Ikora's lips and sheer adoration caressed his cock with a calamitous climax, aided by Zavala's slavering devotion to his testicles; their new wellspring of Light. Cayde broke from Ra's lips as she bit hers in anticipation, gyrating upon him with an anomalous dexterity.
"S-So you heard her too, right?" Ra groaned, blushing harshly at the beautiful bod atop him. "The Traveler, that b-breeding thing."
Cayde shook her head, her eyes lighting up. "No… But, if that's true then you've just elected yourself as the new Speaker, buddy!"
"You must fuck me, Guardian," Zavala mumbled into the sweating nuts of her Titan love, "it was not a message to me, not so clearly, but a d-directive. The… Traveler… She has blessed me with this body for a purpose."
"It has to be a catalyst," Ikora deduced, licking the dribbling Light-pre from her lips, "has to be connected with Cayde. I need this, so god-damn bad… I need cum. Yours. The Light in those balls needs to be shared, G-Guardian…"
"...Yeah… Wow, you'll need to fuck 'em real good to knock those thoughts out of their heads. I can see myself waking up a few hours from now regretting this new bod, but hey, give me a good ride and I might just forget all about it… How's that sound?"
He smiled. Couldn't help it. And he turned to his Ghost. "Ei?"
She hovered, shakily, to rest against Ra's head. "Y-Y-Yeah R-Ra?"
"...Just wanted to make sure you're okay, girl," he chuckled, kissing her frame. "I'll need your help."
Hours passed. The veneer of the void-dome was well-suited to blocking prying eyes, and keeping potential broodmares of Light at bay. For inside, as Redjacks toiled to build an emergency shelter, a note in Tower history was being written. Flesh was their paper and fluids were their ink, but the scribes and muses? They were perfectly-sculpted bodies rapt in that guardian orgy.
Zavala, true to her immovable nature, was like the warrior-princesses of old. Strength showed so fluidly in her form that the changes were hard to notice, at first. But Ra looked, appreciated, and appraised the form, worshipping her big breasts as she ballasted his balls before. Every weave of every Light-enhanced muscle had to be licked, tended to, and massaged, even as Ra came under assault by the remaining Vanguard's tongues.
Cayde reminded him of Ei, of Parvati. But he had never seen Exo-flesh so moulded, so privately before. Her curves betrayed her agility, and those wide, grippable hips were gifts, they realised. Whether breeding the Light meant being impregnated by the Young Wolf, or simply being filled to the brim with Light-cum, Cayde didn't seem to care. She rode, mounted the sheer fucking life from Ra with new body.
Ra suspected they would come to love the changes. He knew he did.
The shifts in Ikora were subtle, at first. Through his hands he could change her, and he found the same to be true for Cayde and Zavala. Phatter asses, bigger, more jiggling tits. Thicker thighs and more sensitive skin, tingling at his touch. Through pure carnal bliss he'd gifted her mammaries bigger than her head, dripping at the nipples with milk. It made that filthy concrete floor messier, watching her tits just quake with each thrust, spilling wildly.
They'd abandoned decency. And they didn't quite care.
"Zavala," Ra huffed, "let's get you filled."
They wrestled to the ground, and Ra pinned her, hiking her legs up as she tried to reverse the hold. He marvelled at her rippling abs, curving now with just a wondrous layer of fat, stomach rolled in a mating-press position. She shivered as he aligned himself with her nethers again, and thrust, bringing their heads close together.
She took a grip around his head and kissed him, gently, whimpering out quiet moans with every thrust of his hips. Ra caressed her cheek, feeling his own flush with a filthy heat.
"Y-You were the one who helped put my nightmares to rest," she admitted then, in the midst of their lovemaking. "It was you, Ra, who held me when I couldn't stand on my own…"
"...I-I… I'm always here for you, Zavala."
They kissed, shutting their eyes tight and cumming - liquid hot Light firing into the waiting womb of the Awoken warrior princess. Her legs wrapped tightly around him and held him in place; humping weakly as he continued to thrust. Paf, paf, he went, rigid still and serving in the Traveler's orders.
He slid from her, power pouring from the pounded pussy. Ikora and Cayde's prying eyes snapped to them, and immediately the Warlock was upon the Titan's cunt, leaving Cayde to ride Ra again. He laid on his back, propping his own feet up for a deeper penetration. Hip-to-hip they fucked, bucked, bounding balls to booty; a sight for the reclining Zavala.
"G-God," Cayde whimpered, "y-y'know, if the Traveler thinks you can put a baby in me… Sh-Shit, well, ya better not disappoint!"
"The idea of our own Cayde-6, all heavy with Ra's child!" Eisheth roared, "what a sight that would be! Fill her, fill her, Lord!"
Shit, he thought, that was all they had to say.
Ra bottomed out into the Exo-snatch, the artificial compress of that man-made minge milking him for all he was worth. His heart swelled with a wanting and a lust and a love at the thought of doing this to Elsie Bray; to Parvati… But that was quickly snapped, back to the bubbly, bouncing form of Cayde. She tilted her head back as he kept sawing, head-horn pointing upwards. His dick slickened with her juices and still frothing with that Light-jizz, Ra felt fatigue swiftly overtake him.
"God you're so fucking tight, Cayde," he moaned, throwing his own head back. "You're-oof!~"
She fell, then, letting his cock go and spurt it's super-seed across the ground. Cayde laid upon his chest and hugged him tight, groaning deep as Ikora attempted to shove her off.
"Ah… C'mon, Ikora-"
"-Off. Now."
And so she slid from Ra's body, hugging up to his side as Ikora mounted him. His hands were upon her tits the instant she straddled his thighs, grinding against that filthy prick before inserting it into herself again. Cum dribbled from her lips, sourced fresh, and it was clear in her eyes that it had inspired a flare of desire in her.
Ikora's very body cracked with Void Light, as if summoning the energies to stay conscious.
"Impregnate me," she commanded.
Ra took that as a challenge. The hours had passed with them being filled with his cum; and still she wasn't satisfied? Or had that scientific curiosity of hers not been sated? With but a flick of strength, he lifted her off him, standing tall and manhandling her. Ikora attempted to swap the hold, to re-engage the position with some Light trickery, but felt resistance melt as soon as his cock entered her.
They stood above Cayde, above Zavala, with Ra taking harsh grip of Ikora's hips. Her legs were lifted off the ground, feet floating above as he began to fuck her all over again.
"Zavala, on your feet. Cayde, up and at 'em," Ra barked. "Ikora wants to be a mother, so I say we make her feel like one now."
They took the command to mean suck. Grab one of those dark teats and suckle like their life depended on it. Mouths met mammaries as Ikora's brain turned hot with joy, sizzling submissively as all the power she could muster meant nothing in Ra's hands. She found herself babbling, ignoring the fact that Ophiuchus' voice changed, that Targe was now watching them in a stunned audience alongside Sundance and Eisheth.
They were made sluts, Lightbreeders before the Ghosts. Before the Light, and the Traveler. Sluts of Ra.
"I'm yours," she babbled, "I'm yours, G-Guardian, R-R-Ra! Ra, I'm yours! P-Put a baby in me, Ra~!"
She came. It was not the first time that evening, no, but it was her last. Ikora released everything she'd had pent up; all that Void energy warbling and warbling and being supercharged with Light-cum. They all were blasted back by a Nova bomb; gently tossed by the loving wave of Light.
There was silence, then. The only thing besides the hum of the Ward's wall Ra now rested upon, was their breathing. The shifts in their voices, the kind of horny energy he'd never seen from the old Vanguard. Cayde's playful tone was unmistakable, the harsh crackling of her speaker echoing a gurgle from her stomach.
"Fuck," Ra panted. "I-Ikora… Zavala… Cayde…"
Ikora was speechless, left motionless with a blinding, numbing tsunami of seed seeping from her lower lips. She tasted, felt, wanted nothing more now than to live and breathe Ra's cum. She could barely summon the energy to crane her head back, lying flat on her chest. Her ass jiggled slightly, and she came again, whining low and slow.
"Y-Yes… Ra?" Zavala acknowledged, sitting back with her legs spread so wide.
"Come," he ordered them, "s-suck the Light from my cock. W-When we all wake up tomorrow, I want the whole Tower to know who you belong to."
Cayde, with the last legs she had, crawled to him, obeying happily. Zavala was next, dragging Ikora behind her gently. They arrived at it, finally - the full-mast fuckstick of their new love. The Light-laden rod of Ra, blessed by the Traveler. Each of the old Vanguard looked back, briefly, to that ball in the sky, and knew that this would be their lives from now on.
Without a word, they began kissing at his cockhead, a hand each upon his balls and length, fondling and jerking him gently. Eisheth rested gently upon Ra's shoulder as she devoured the sight before her, recording it, in secret. Cayde's mouth glowed with an orange Solar flare, so fucking hot, it felt. Zavala's crackled with Arc bolts, each drop of saliva sending a jitter of electric bliss directly to Ra's head. And Ikora's lips, wrapped clean in a Void veneer, vibrated so violently against the tip of his dick.
Their Light combined made Ra explode. His hands were on Zavala, Cayde's asses, possessively - and his fingers dug into them as he erupted with that pure white Light. A deluge it was; clearing any and all impurity of self in it's presence. That blanketing white starscape of cum shot forth and forth until Ra was left screaming in raw pleasure, throat giving out halfway through.
In the minute of climax, the old Vanguard was buried. Marked. Drained of energy but filled and covered with Light-sperm, writhing and cumming themselves as the Traveler's gift went to work. And before they knew it, they were asleep. Darkness encroached as the Redjacks finished the hut around them, as their ghosts laid upon the luminous loads of Light.
They laid atop Ra, in his arms. Zavala, Ikora, and Cayde-6.
As sleep took him, as the duty of protection swept over him and he cradled them, he returned to twilight. Ra found whispers. Dreams. Visions. Wonderful futures and dark pasts, culminating in a gender-bent world of the Lightbrood, and their Lightbreeder.
Ra saw the Darkness. The Pyramid. Riis-Reborn. And the Throne World of Savathun. He wasn't in control of this, no, these were visions gifted to him again. The Traveler wanted him to see this all…
"...If you found yourself," she spoke, trillion-voices in one, "in the Pyramid of Luna, again…"
He was there. The Garden. A hint of things that would come to him, of trials and struggles. He saw himself; the Darkness posing as him, but… Not. She was him, he just… knew. And she was naked. Smiling. Smug, in her power of self. Of Salvation.
"...Would you fight her?"
Ra looked down at his body, even in the dream finding himself glowing at the cock.
"No," he replied. "I would show her the love she has forgotten. Me, from another time."
The world shifted. Europa. The cold blasted his skin and made him shiver, but it was gone quickly, leaving instead a swell of lust, seeing Eramis again. She was frozen, betrayed by the Darkness and left to suffer in the shadow of the Pyramid - reaching out as she once reached for the fleeing Traveler.
"...Would you kill her?"
"No," Ra answered. "I'd free her from the ice. Try and get her to see us how Mithrax sees us. Bring her into our family."
Another change. No answer from the voice. He was brought back, all too soon, to Savathun's heart. He found her facing away from him - looking up to the Traveler - set in a ponderous pose.
"...Would you crush Immaru?"
"...No," Ra answered. "I would bring her back. I would make Savathun spend the rest of her days righting her sins, serving the Traveler with the Light she had been gifted.
Another pause.
"I would bring them all back," Ra sighed. "All that we have lost. Even if it meant me sacrificing myself. Even if I had to fight for the rest of eternity to see them saved. Sagira. The First Crota Fireteam. Every single new light harvested by the Lucent Hive…"
There was a pause. A lull in the dream broken only by the grand view of that peaceful future.
"...Then you have much to do."