"Ooh, so who's the new boyfriend?" Fae playfully asked as soon as they were far enough away from the watchtower.
Arizona could feel the heat rise to her face. "I-wait-okay, are you still mad at me or not because a few minutes ago you guys were really mad that I lied."
"Two things can be true." Argonaut said, walking on the other side of Fae.
"You guys are on an open channel." Nimbus's voice was nearly a relief, and at the same time Arizona's heart skipped a few beats whenever she heard it.
"Sorry." Fae and Argonaut said in unison.
Nimbus chuckled. "We haven't even talked about it."
"Nimbus, if Rohan doesn't kill you, I will."
Nimbus roared with laughter in the comms. She thought she'd have to take off her helmet to make it stop.
"You guys are getting distracted!" Osiris snapped.
"Like you and Saint didn't do the same thing!" Arizona yelled.
Fae stopped at a mural Arizona had passed by many times herself. There were many faces of CloudStriders, but Arizona doubted this was all of the CloudStriders. "What's this?"
"A mural of the CloudStriders of the past." She stopped next to Fae, and Argonaut joined them, flanking Arizona as she pointed. "You see, the CloudStriders are the only protectors of Neomuna. There's only 2 at a time because they don't…" Her hand came down to her side, and her stomach sank. 10 years was such a short time for Nimbus to really live. He'd never grow old, although she never would either. She would have to watch him die in such a short time. A poke to her arm made her snap out of her misery. "I don't know all of them yet. The local historian taught me a few of them, though, like Maelstrom and Bluejay. I'm not sure who exactly is depicted here, though."
"Distraction!" Osiris screamed.
"Can you please not scream in my ear, Osiris?" Arizona led the way down the road. The road was definitely not made for walking through. It was a street for fast moving vehicles. Even avatars didn't venture a stroll through the roads, though they could.
Nimbus' voice startled her out of her thoughts, "You guys are gonna run into some trouble soon. Nothing too bad, just some barriers but I've found a keycode for the barrier. There might be more but you can start there. I'll give Ghost the coordinates."
In Zephyr's Concourse there were already Shadow Legion waiting for them. "Thanks, Nimbus." A shotgun appeared in her hand. Fae already had her auto rifle in her hands and, of course, Argonaut had the sword. Argonaut, in typical Argonaut fashion, ran at the Shadow Legion head on, yelling nonsense as he went.
"We should go after him." Fae said, resting her auto rifle on her shoulder.
"We could…ooor we could go after the key card." Arizona shrugged. "Just sayin'. I think he'll be okay on his own." Something that looked like a laser pierced his body and he slumped to the ground with only two Shadow Legion dead. "Ooh…that looked like it hurt." Arizona followed the line that the laser came from, and her shotgun was replaced with a sniper rifle.
"You sure we should leave him?" Fae asked.
He gasped and leapt to his feet and Juggernaut barely had any time to escape the torment. "Yeah, I'm sure." Arizona took careful aim. It only took one shot. "Got it. Come on. Key card's this way." She ran ahead, ducking under swords and hiding behind pillars to stay safe from the firefight until she could identify the biggest brute. "Got you." She took aim carefully. Fae kept the smaller ones busy. She fired at the head. All it did was stagger back.
"Damn." She whispered and reloaded quickly. She took aim again and fired. It only staggered back, and fired fire at Fae. It took several shots of Fae's rifle to finally bring it down. "Got it!" She held the code in her hand.
"Argonaut! She's got the code!" Arizona yelled and followed Fae.
By the time Argonaut arrived Nymph was hacking the terminal that kept the barrier up. "How is the Pyramid tech so complex?" He huffed.
Nimbus said, "Here, let me just take a quick look."
Nymph snapped, "I got it!"
Arizona got the feeling that Fae shot him a dirty look from under her helm.
"It's no big deal. It's a complex system." In the background, it sounded like Nimbus was tapping on something that clicked in response.
The barrier finally came down. Nymph floated in Fae's hand. "I'm fine. I just feel a little off." He reassured.
Arizona walked ahead. The room was a hallway that didn't appear to be used for much of anything except to store extra servers. The walls were white sheets of metal. There were small sets of stairs and what looked like another toll booth. Neon lights formed palm trees of all sorts of colors, and there were a few places where people could've sat down while they waited for…something. The white walls abruptly changed to yellow, and neon yellow lights decorated the ceiling.
"We'll be lucky if the Witness doesn't have the Veil in its possession already!" Osiris complained.
"Is he aways this much fun?" Nimbus mocked.
Arizona bit her lip to hide her giggle.
"Fun is not my concern right now."
"With the amount of power the Veil has, I think it can hold its own for a little longer."
Arizona took the next set of stairs by two and stopped short of the top step. Something inside her was wrong. Looking at Ghost, he floated much lower than normal. "Ghost, you should hide yourself."
"I…Yeah…yeah you're right." Still, he didn't move.
Fae stopped next to her.
Arizona bit her lip. "Ghost, what is it? Can you…not…?"
Ghost's bright blue eye stared at her. He looked…tired. But how was that possible? Did ghosts even feel exhaustion like their Guardians do? "The closer we get…the more I feel…strange."
"Nymph feels it too." Fae explained.
"I feel drained like…like some of our powers are gone." Ghost's voice began to sound sluggish, almost like he was drunk.
Arizona put her hands around him. "Hey, hey, you and I…we'll be fine. We're in this together. Come on."
She took the last step up and ran forward. A device emitted a pulse. It looked like it should've emulated the Pyramids. A light decorated it with a symbol that reminded Arizona of a tree without its leaves, and coming from the top of it looked like an antenna that should've emulated the tree-like shape the light formed.
Fae shot at it with her pulse rifle, but nothing happened.
"This has to be it. This device." Through the comms in her helmet, Nymph sounded like Ghost: sluggish and almost drunk.
"Nimbus, what is this?" Arizona asked. Argonaut punched it but nothing happened beyond Argonaut yowling in pain and shaking his hand in the air, as if the air could somehow heal his hand.
Osiris answered instead, "It appears to be some sort of paracasual disruptor. I should research it more to find a weakness, but for now carry on." As Osiris finished, red beacons lit the ground around them.
"Of course. A welcoming party!" Arizona shook her head and looked at Ghost. "If you can't get into the backpack then you need to hide, Ghost."
"If you die, I can't bring you back." Ghost stared at her with uncertainty.
"Don't worry, I got us." Argonaut brought up a large barrier. "Go, hide."
Arizona took a deep breath. Would Ghost be okay? No, he had to be! They had to be okay. She looked at Argonaut. "Ready?"
Argonaut nodded, "Always." The pods surrounded them.
Ghost didn't like the thought of leaving Arizona, but he had to. He had no choice if they both wanted to survive. Still, panic ran through his mind. Worst case scenarios. He already lost Maria, he couldn't lose Arizona too! He couldn't lose his only Risen!
He had no choice but to listen to the fight. Someone took several shots head on. They sounded like they were surrounded. Perhaps he could peek just around the corner-no, what if he was shot? He looked around. He felt tired. If he could, he would've slept right there in the hall.
The fighting subsided. Was it over? Now, he dared to peek around the corner. Arizona turned around and waved him over. "Come on, we still have to get to the Veil!" She said.
Ghost suddenly felt lighter! He couldn't get to her fast enough. They ran to the other side of the building, up 4 stairs, and stopped at the edge of the building. Cabal Harvesters and Threshers were surrounding a building, dropping low and dropping troops to the ground below.
"We're too late. They've got the Veil." Fae sighed.
Ghost felt himself drop. He caught himself just before hitting Arizona's outstretched hands. He could still feel her emotion somewhere in the back of his mind. "This doesn't feel right." He answered her before she could question him.
"The Veil?" Arizona asked gently.
"It…it's worse than before-ugh!" A shock went throughout his body, like lightening, and then he couldn't control his own body. It was like he was watching a movie, but he had no control over his own actions anymore.
"Ghost?" Arizona could feel her heart drop as much as Ghost dropped, and then it was like something pulled him up. "Ghost?" She whispered again, but he didn't answer.
Argonaut elbowed her shoulder and pointed at the area in front of them. The air in front of them shattered, and slowly a huge Cabal came into the picture. "Who is that?" Arizona whispered.
"My witness!" The Cabal greeted with a bow.
"Progress?" She heard the Witness's voice, and her heart stopped beating for a few seconds. It had been so long since she heard the Witness's voice, but I still sounded the same: uncaring and like a million people were talking at once, always with a whispering trail at the end.
"That's Calus," Fae answered. "Empress Caiatl's father."
"We have captured the Veil. Well, the area around the Veil. It is entombed, so it will take some time to break through and link the relay." Calus wore a royal purple-blue armor with a helm that covered most of his face. "Add to that, the enemy presence-"
Arizona looked at Ghost. His bright blue eye stared unblinking.
"Yes. We know they are here." The Witness' voice sounded like it came from…Ghost! "A few of Sol's protectors cannot prevent fate. You will link the Radial Mast and see the Veil destroyed."
"Wait, destroyed?" Arizona shook her head. "I thought they wanted to use the Veil, not destroy it."
The Witness continued, "The final shape rests upon it."
"Indeed, my Witness."
Ghost dropped from the air again. Arizona almost didn't catch him in time, but his eye finally blinked. He was finally back. "I feel…sick. Like I shouldn't be here." He said weakly.
Arizona let go of the breath she didn't realize she held in. "We're in this together, Ghost."
"Osiris and Nimbus need to hear about this." Argonaut told them.
Arizona nodded. "Agreed. Let's get going and tell them."