Cohesion

"Yield."

She was on Shino's back, trying not to think too hard about his gross sweat slicking her clothing. Her teammate was pinned onto his stomach, struggling to breathe with the small but muscled pair of arms tightening around his airway. They had been in this position often enough that Mira couldn't understand why Shino thought today would end any differently. His boundless optimism was something to be admired.

"Yield," Mira ordered again.

Shino spit and croaked, "Go to hell." He yelped in pain when her arms tightened even further.

"We've done this time and time again," she said through tight teeth, "Do you want to learn the lesson on your own or am I going to have to break your neck again?"

Shino went silent and Mira scoffed. The fool was considering it; the only thing more boundless than his optimism was his stubbornness. In typical Titan fashion, keep ramming one's head into an unmovable wall, wait for Ghost regeneration of brain damage or cracks in the skull cap then get right back to ramming. Maybe the wall will eventually get bored with him and just move itself.

Mira was not proud to admit that it's worked before. That she's thrown a match because for what the Awoken man lacked in technique, he made up for in raw strength and endurance. Only Jessie seemed to keep up with him and she was an Exo.

By the grace of the Traveler, Shino had no patience for it today. His hand hit the mat twice and he took in one loud, wheezing breath when Mira released her hold on his windpipe. She rolled off and bounded to her feet, raising her arms triumphantly to a rather pathetic smattering of applause to Guardians simply passing through.

A cough took her attention. "Best two out of three?" Shino wheezed, still face down on the mat.

Mira bent down to grab a towel. "I'm not getting roped into that with you again."

"Coward."

"Shut up, loser." She leaned against the railing, watching May far off to the side. She was barely paying them attention, her eyes glued to a book, her mouth a hard line. It took Mira several calls and almost getting out of the ring to get her attention. "Where's Katrina and her team?" she asked.

"Forgotten Shore," Was all May gave them.

"Doing…"

May looked up from her book again with a short flick of her eyes. "I don't know?"

"Swimming?" Shino called out, still in the same position flat on the ground. May dignified his response with a roll of her eyes and nothing more.

"Probably doing their own training." Mira lowered herself through the ropes and hopped down, climbing up the bleachers to where her things were, next to May. The Warlock took one sniff of the air and sidled over and away on the bench. Mira just moved closer. "As we should be doing."

May heard something in her tone. "What? I'm here."

"With a book."

"I trained earlier."

"And not with us." It was May's favorite go-to. That she trained earlier. She wasn't lying but if there was any time they should be putting more emphasis on acting as a unit, it was now. "May." Calling her name earned Mira nothing more than a sideways glance. "Together, next time," she said and then after feeling that it sounded too much like an order, she added, "Alright?"

"Fine."

Satisfied, Mira left her alone, as she so clearly wanted. She continued in her reading as Mira and Shino, finally up off his stomach, talked. She almost never spoke in the meanwhile except when spoken to. Mira worried but knew better than to put her on the spot. Only if it stretches on will she pry. With luck, it will resolve before the Iron Banner begins in earnest.

"You get fitted for the gala?" Shino had gotten to his feet and was leaning on the ropes of the training ring, his white hair tied back in a messy ponytail.

"May and I went a few days ago."

"Ah. I've got tomorrow."

Mira leaned back on the bench. "Is this the part where you ask one of us to accompany you?" She could see May's eyes shift slightly away from her book, an eyebrow raised, almost daring Shino to do so.

But Shino shook his head. "Nah, Christine will be up here. She's been hoping to get me in a suit for years."

"Oh, now I might show up."

Shino scoffed. "Just to watch her squee over me?"

"And to watch you preen for her, yes."

"I don't-"

"And then watch you deny it after, yes." False outrage gave way to indignant sputtering. He stood straighter and spoke clearer whenever the woman was around. Amusing to watch, like a boy with his very first crush rather than a grown man interacting with someone he had been dating for a while.

"They're still doing the gala? After what happened?" May's voice came as a bit of a surprise to the others, her tone deadpan, the question rhetorical.

"The factions are pretty keen on meeting us."

"That isn't a good thing."

"Let me enjoy the attention." Mira stretched out her legs with a long, obnoxious groan. She watched as what few people remained in the training room left for the night before she spoke again. She still lowered her voice. "I've noticed Aro spending more time with Ikora and the Speaker lately."

Shino's face darkened. May's did nothing at all. "When did he get back into their good graces?" he scoffed.

Mira's eyes flicked over to May. Now her face was doing something. "He does spend the most time around them," Mira pointed out, keeping her tone light and easy. "I also heard he went off world some time ago. Left in the morning, didn't return until the next and told nobody."

"Nobody?" Shino asked, "Not even his team? Or Daniel?"

"He went to Meridian Bay." May had her eyes in her book again.

"So he told you…" he gestured to her, "But no one else. Not his team or his boyfriend?" He scoffed again, "When did you two get so chummy? Should Daniel be concerned?"

May's eyes went from small and focused to wide and disbelieving and Mira knew whatever argument she had been trying to keep from bubbling up was raring to happen anyway. "He told me because I asked him when he returned." There was bite in her tone, much more than before.

Shino waved her response off. "Probably disappearing for the same reason he's spending so much time with Ikora again; that damn brother of his."

He practically spits when he says it. They all knew who Pride was. There was no way he could be anyone else. It was only Shino who mainly seemed to refer to him as Aro's brother. Some times, even in Aro's presence. It...wasn't fair. And Mira occasionally spoke up to defend him but her heart was never truly in it.

"Pride has a name, Shino." May had turned her datapad off.

"So? Doesn't deserve the respect of me saying it?"

"But Aro deserves the disrespect of having it constantly rubbed in his face?" she demanded of him, shaking off Mira's hand when she reached out, hoping to bring her back down. May closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She got to her feet with her bag and without a look back at either of them, left the room. Mira supposed she should feel grateful that the argument didn't go further, even if she wanted to call her back.

Shino ducked under the ropes of the ring and dropped to the ground, muttering to himself. "It's like she doesn't even remember the Moon."

"We all remember the Moon, Shino," Mira said. He took the shirt she held out to him, "And Marie."

"But not like us, Mira! We trained with her for months! Fought with her, died with her." His tone, rising with each point given suddenly dropped. "Pushed her to respond to the call. She was our friend, Mira," he spat, "And that red-eyed piece of shit killed her."

"Shino." Mira got to her feet. Even with the height of the bleachers, she still just barely came up to his chin. "Marie died for her. For all of us, so that we could escape. May was alive for not even up to a day when it happened and trust me, Shino, when you've been dead for so long, you remember the first things you see for the rest of your life."

Kayla had been revived within the deep recesses of a Warmind facility in Kenya. Asura remembered the Clovis Bray lab in India, with Sora hailing from a different part of the subcontinent. Jessie and Aashir, Ishtar facilities on Venus. Katrina still talked about her first weeks attempting to escape the Tangled Shore and Aro, the Fallen and the Cosmodrome. He still kept the gun, even if the old thing so rarely left his Vault.

Khan had found Mira in northeastern North America, among the ruins of a city once so massive, she found herself slightly surprised at how much smaller this City was in scale. Their journeys to the City had their varying levels of hardship but among them, May stood on a level of her own. The Guardian of a brave Ghost who risked the Hellmouth to find her. Whose first few hours were filled with mortal terror and the constant threat of a second death scrabbling at her back. Then loss; stomach wrenching grief for a Guardian she did not know and the found family that young Guardian left behind.

"Do not tell me you actually believe that May has forgotten about that. Because I promise you, she can't. She might wish she could but she can't."

"Then why does she act like it?" He waved his hand to the door. "Why does she insist on defending him?"

"She never defends Pride, Shino. She defends Aro." He rolled his eyes and turned away.

Aro's face still hurts to think about. Back on the Reef, after their brush with death, emotions were running wild and they said things they never should have. Mira struggled internally for months, attempting to find out just why she had repressed memories of that day, of that face. How could the trauma and grief be so pervasive that not even her Ghost could recognize Aro from Pride?

Pride's face wasn't the trigger. By extension, neither was Aro's. It was the feeling he gave off, the waves of nausea, hopelessness and dread that only such a sheer concentration of the Darkness could exude that took her back to that day on the Moon, even as she was mere seconds away from dying on Venus. But now she remembers. Now she remembers being trapped, locked out of transmat. Now she remembers Marie running into a stampede of Hive for the last time while the rest of them escaped the Hellmouth.

Now she remembers Aro's face, surrounding one solitary red eye, floating over the horde that took her friend. Shino remembered too and while she admonished him for his crassness on the matter, deep down, in her heart, she could not bring herself to fully condemn him.

"I'm going to get a drink," she heard him grumble, more to himself than her.

"You went yesterday."

He was already walking to the exit. "And now I'm going again today," he shot back, "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Al-" The door shut and sealed before she could finish, leaving her alone in the training rooms with some time before the frames came in to begin cleaning for the night.

Mira dropped back down with a sigh. "Of all the times, Khan…"

The Ghost appeared. "This won't be the only Iron Banner, Mira. There'll be others."

"I wanted to win this one, Khan. Or at the very least, place." She started throwing things into her bag. "This could not have happened at a worse time."

The Ghost just watched as she did, transmitted a hair tie when asked and kept close to her shoulder as she began to exit. "There's a lot more going on in your head than the Banner, Mira."

"May's right," she sighed, "Aro doesn't deserve how he's been treated." The door slid open as soon she got to it. She politely nodded her greeting and let the cleaning frame pass before walking on. "But that face, Khan. Sometimes I look at him and I think I see red."

"Your heart rate has spiked a number of times."

"Then you know what I'm talking about." She took notice of how her feet were dragging along the ground. How just even thinking too much about these things seemed to give her a headache. "And I don't feel like discussing it further right now, so I'm just gonna go…" she trailed off with a yawn, heading in the direction of her quarters.

"You should eat," Khan told her, disappearing.

"Don't feel like cooking."

"You sure? That ramen place that just opened up still has their sale-" Her feet had already made the turn. "Thought you didn't feel like eating?"

"Cooking. I can always eat."

"Of course."

"Target down." Katrina let the air leave her lungs and pulled away from the scope. "What's the score-"

"We're both trailing you. You know this. Why do you keep asking?" Jessie lay propped up against a boulder, long legs spread out before her and nearly touching Katrina even from the distance she was sitting.

"Would you believe that I love reminding you?"

"No, not at all," Jessie drawled, matching sarcasm for what it was. A friendly game to double as training, Katrina had suggested. Sniping competition; whoever bags the most Hive heads wins. The situation her teammates were in, Jessie in second place with Sora dead last was their own fault for accepting. Katrina was damn near unmatched as a sniper, the two of them were just asking for an ass-kicking. They only ever agreed to her games because next time, it would be one of their turns and Jessie would get a kick out of throwing her around in the training ring.

With the game all but finished in Katrina's favor, she remained at the sniper position. Jessie could hear her murmuring to herself, just barely making out her words. Her sights were trained on an Acolyte, taking cover behind moss-covered boulders. "Come on, sweetie. Stick that pretty little head out for me, girl, I swear I'm gentle."

"A bit scandalous for polite conversation, don't you think?"

"I asked her to stick her head out, not anything really lewd like her ankle. Get your mind out of the gutter, Jessie," Katrina scolded with false seriousness, "This is a team of class. We're all classy ladies here." Her helmet disappeared and she pulled away from the scope to hack and spit into the water below, the helmet returning immediately after.

"How do you know the Acolyte's a girl?"

"I...huh. I just guessed." She pulled away again, "Sora, be a dear."

The Warlock took the rifle Katrina held out and peered through the scope. Jessie noticed her arms wavering slightly and put her hand underneath the weapon's barrel to stabilize her. "Male," she announced, "But seems to be making the metamorphosis into a Wizard, which requires taking on a Mother morph."

"So I'm sort of right." Sora held the sniper back but Katrina shook her head. She pushed the rifle back towards Sora and use her hand to stabilize the barrel when Jessie pulled her own back. "Aim a little lower to adjust for the kick. Just like that," she advised quietly, pushing Sora into a state of concentration. "Be ready...be ready... "

The sound of Sora's breathing stopped. The silence that passed remained for only a few seconds before it was broken by a loud bang. The Acolyte exploded into a shower of ash. Katrina whooped.

"A promising career terrorizing Guardians ended. Well done," Jessie said.

Sora looked as if she was trying not to appear too proud of herself. She handed the gun back to Katrina. "Thanks but it was probably just a fluke."

"Does it matter? The thing's dead."

"Yeah, well, Katrina is still our sniper."

Katrina's helmet disappeared again, brilliant white hair flowing down to her shoulders. "It's true, I love my sniping," she agreed, making a show of nuzzling the weapon. "Takes significantly more skill than being a shotgun ape."

"Somewhere in the Tower," Jessie said, "Shino just sneezed."

The laughter was raucous. If the Hive didn't know where they were before, they did now. When they finally came down and the silence returned, Jessie had just noticed how dark it was getting. The sun had yet to set entirely but the Moon was already full and bright over the Old Russian lake beneath them. "We should really do this more often," she said, "Without the pretense of training."

"Between the Banner and the Heralds," Sora pointed out, "Training is the only reason why we're able to get out."

Katrina dropped down flat onto her back with a groan. "You guys ever think about how still, we're only here on accident?

"Sometimes," Jessie answered. Sora only hummed in agreement, her face already contorting into that guilty look she wore whenever they talked about it. Even if it was her idea that put them in the wrong place at the worst time, none of them blamed her except for herself.

Katrina sighed, her eyes trained on the clear sky and the full moon. "Feels like things are speeding up, you know? Even if they've been silent for a while. They wanted to keep to the shadows but now that they can't, it seems the sensible thing to do."

Above all, they all felt for Aro. What a horrible way to find out that you were never as alone as you once thought.

With everything that's happened, how everything started only compounds. Katrina was the most vocal about what they were all feeling; they'd hate to die for this mess. They'd hate to lose each other even more.

"Think we should start heading back?" Jessie pulled herself to her feet.

"Yeah. Nothing left for us-" A beam of Void energy tore through the chunk of stone shielding them from below, cutting off Katrina's yawning. "Really? Really?! That was just r-" Another blast cut her off again and she ducked with a high pitched yelp. It seemed that the Hive had grown tired of their antics, deploying an Ogre in the hopes of snuffing them out.

Jessie ducked behind what remained of their cover just as a Shredder shot darted over her head. "Start bringing the ships within-Katrina, what are you doing?"

The Hunter had her helmet back on and her hood up, two hand cannons brandished in each hand. "Going to pay them back!"

Sora flinched when another blast tore through their cover. "We did kind of start it."

"Now we're about to end it."

"Can we at least talk-" Katrina had already thrown herself over cover, felling Hive shot by shot. "Can you believe her?"

"I can't believe you still need to ask." Sora propped herself up on the row of stone, and put MIDA to her sight, firing on any Hive that attempted to flank Katrina down below.

Jessie's gaped, mouth opening and closing before she sighed. "Yeah, neither can I."

The Hive's attention was taken by the booming roar of thunder. The Ogre, having managed to pin Katrina behind cover for it to bear down upon turned towards the source of the noise. Jessie's lightning sheathed frame rammed into the side of the monster's head so forcefully, it's upper body was forced to twist around.

It's gaze turned back onto the Lightbearer it had been hunting before and before it could take focus and fire, a burning spear of Solar Light shot through its eye, it's own outraged screams drowned out by the ear-piercing crack of two more blasts of golden fire being shot off and the shredding pain of them spearing through its body.