Oncoming Storm

Erek ducked behind the low wall of stone, a stream of bullets knocking chunks off just above his head. The machine gun tearing its way through hard rock just to reach him echoed off the walls but Erek could barely hear. He's barely been able to hear anything these last few matches. The noise in his head drowned out all others until all he could think of was the fight. This one, then the next one, then the next. On and on for nearly a full twenty-four hours, no stop to sleep or eat. Even Shaxx was showing concern. Erek would always blow off his questioning. He simply demanded to know where the next fight would be and Shaxx would tell him, albeit begrudgingly.

The bullet storm stopped, the wielder needing to reload. Two more signals on Erek's radar. Two more Guardians closing in to smoke him out and not a single teammate of his own to be found.

Preferable, if he was being honest. No one else to worry about. Nobody to get in his way.

Erek bolted from cover, darting towards the closest and where he went, lightning followed and his blade cut through armor, flesh, and bone like a hot knife through butter. The Guardian was vaporized completely in the aftershock and Erek's feet touched the ground for only a heartbeat before he sprung forward again, towards the next. Another Hunter, one with more experience and faster reflexes than her friend. Neither were enough. Erek brought her down just in time to hear a small, quiet click.

He let the Arc lightning carry him just before the stream of bullets resumed, not away but towards his opponent, pulsating red surrounding his vision until he could see nothing else but the target in front of him.

His hand tightened around the hilt of his blade to the point of pain. The machine gun aimed at him was screaming, the Light crackling out of his body was screaming, he might have even been screaming. But the closer he got, the less any of it he heard or felt.

The knife sunk in deep and Erek discharged the remainder of his Light. The sudden force sent him flying backwards, reducing his enemy to dust on the wind so quickly, Erek doubted there was any pain. He felt no pain himself. And then he did.

His legs quivered underneath him as soon as he got them there and he immediately fell to his knees, struggling for air. Erek's head rolled downward on a limp neck. He had but a second to see his armor, eyeing the tiny, ragged holes riddling his body. The red of his vision turned black and all he could feel was himself falling forward.

The sun was gone by the time he could breathe again. Low light met his vision as he jerked back to wakefulness. "Eren?" He croaked, "Eren!"

He heard her voice above him. "Match's over. We're back on the ship. You died."

Erek pushed up to his knees before tearing his helmet off and letting it clatter across the deck, taking in as much air as he could unhindered. "Start finding the next match. I only need a minute."

"Shaxx has banned us from the Crucible."

"...What?"

His Ghost was at the controls, turned away from him. "Shaxx says you're taking a break."

"And you agreed to it?!" Erek was sure he sounded a lot stronger than he felt. Just pulling one leg underneath himself was difficult enough. Then the second one before pushing up to his full height.

She turned on him. "You're not thinking, Erek. At all. You ran through a storm of bullets!"

"I dodged-" He paused to shake out the ringing in his ears, "I dodged most of them."

"Not enough. It killed you." She turned back around, towards the window. "The other team was up by one and your stunt won them the fight."

Erek opened his mouth to speak, but only aggravated his dry throat and started a fit of coughing. Eren turned slightly, now more concerned than annoyed. Still, she quietly said, "You would have known that had you been thinking."

Hand to the wall, Erek struggled forward until he felt strong enough to walk unassisted. He dropped down into the pilot's chair, staring out the window at the Earth below.

"You're thinking about her."

Erek's grip tightened on the seat arm. "I'm always thinking about her."

Undeterred by his dismissiveness, she said, "You're thinking about him too."

Erek's shimmering blue eyes remained on the Earth. His body was stone-still, even as his fingers dug harder and harder into the arms of his chair and the tips of them began to burn.

"Erek?"

His eyes swiveled over to her, her own unchanging one filled with concern, somehow. "I've...received a message."

Erek forced himself to relax, the tension slipping out with a stream of air through his nose. "From who?"

"Petra Venj."

The tension returned and Erek went still. Then he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, forcing himself to try and relax again. "Well? Petra isn't messaging me for fun. What does my sister want?" Whatever it was, it was important enough to force Mara to reach out. He already had his suspicions.

"I'm...reading the message now." Eren's eye swiveled back and forth, as if the words were written before her. "It's very strange but I feel like I recognize it." She looked at him. "Or you do."

"Alright." Erek leaned back in his seat. "Read it aloud."

"Portia, Rior, and Illyn have intercepted details on-" A silent command told her to stop. Erek was sitting up again, eyes focused on nothing. "The message doesn't make any sense. But it does to you," she said.

Erek jumped to his feet and started rummaging around the ship. "The beginning of the message, it says 'Rior'? Not 'Kamala Rior' or 'Paladin Rior'?"

He ducked out of her sight. "Yeah, just 'Rior'."

When he returned, a pencil was held in one hand and a crumpled sheet of paper in the other. "It's a code. One I haven't heard in a while." He wrote down the first name. "Don't trust myself anymore to do it right in my head. Read it out." In most cases, he wouldn't have written it down at all but in his ship, he was safe. Before every departure, he had Eren check for wires or bugs, anything that may record him without his knowledge or permission. Kayla's and Daniel's as well. Old habits died harder than Guardians.

Eren looked between him and the sheet. Then she started again. "'Portia, Rior and Illyn have intercepted details on an attempted Divalian incursion.'" She turned to him again, " 'Divalian?' Like the-" She looked down at his writing. Four names. The first letter circled on all of them.

Veins were raised on his hand with how tightly he held the pencil. "Yes, the Mists. Keep going."

" 'Captain Ester, under orders of Techeun Sedia and Paladin Eld will work with Captain Endrin while Techeun Kalli assists Sedia in reinforcement and concealment. Paladin Hallam suggests contacting Prince Erek-'" Erek rolled his eyes, "'and the Guardians to silence any and all conspirators. Paladin Abra, Paladin Rior and Crow Till will serve as points of contact.' "

He hadn't heard some of these names in such a long time, since his departure. Nearly all brought back rather agitating memories, though not as agitating as what he read now.

Eren floated closer. "PRIDE SEEKS HEART." Her eyes returned to him, "Pride…"

Erek was holding the pencil to the point of shaking. He shoved the thing aside and grabbed hold of the paper. The old thing burst into flames, dust and then nothing a second after. He began to wake up the drifting ship, starting the ignition sequence and turning off autopilot. "How long has Shaxx 'banned' me from his Crucible?"

"Just the week but Erek? Erek, look at me." She flew into his sight, "If we're gonna do this, if we're gonna face him, you need to focus."

He pushed her out of his face. "This isn't the Crucible, Erek," she admonished sharply, "You can't just run into a hail of gunfire and expect everything to work out. Lust is not some random newly risen, he was one of the most talented Guardians we had and that was before Pride empowered him."

Erek remained silent. His eyes were wide and clear with loathing; both boundless and barely restrained. "The only solace I ever received for Eren's death was that Dredgen Yor was also dead. Dead and rotting in the dirt like the worm he was, only even less wanted," he spat out. He laughed bitterly, "But I couldn't even have that, could I? I've had to wake up every single day for the last three years knowing he was still here. He wasn't in the ground where he belonged, no, he was still breathing."

A shaky sigh violently escaped his mouth. "I can't live while he does. I can't," he rasped, "I need to kill him. I need to. I need to."

Eren could almost feel it and not in some intangible, metaphorical way. No, she could feel the hatred in his Light and in her own. She was his Ghost, she lived inside his head. When he slept, he dreamt and she saw Dredgen Yor through his eyes, grabbed at him with hands she did not have, hurt him with a bloodlust that wasn't hers'. In his dreams, they killed him every night. There was an edge and with every fight, with every dream, Erek moved closer and closer. He was going to fall soon and she wasn't sure she'd be strong enough to bring him back.

Their ship shot forward, down towards the planet. Erek took on the brunt of the piloting, freeing Eren up to contact the Vanguard. The channel was opened, the proper codes pushed through and Eren began to speak, only to be stopped by another signal; one that was incoming.

"Well, good of the Queen to actually remember us," Cayde said, "Conveniently when she needs us but hey, we take what we can get."

Ikora was slowly pacing the length of the Vanguard's main table. They had ordered the hall cleared and locked down, with only the Will of Light present. "I still struggle to believe that she didn't already know something about the Heralds. But we can only guess so much at her motives."

"And now this." Zavala pointed at the glowing map before them, an image of Venus with a particular set of coordinates highlighted. "A message from Asura's...friend."

"And you're sure we can trust this?" Ikora asked, speaking now to Asura. "Trust her?"

His response was immediate. "I don't trust her. Not necessarily," he affirmed, "But I do trust that she wants the Heralds dead."

"And we're her best chance. I understand." The look in Ikora's eyes said as much, even if any real trust was far away, "That doesn't tell us what she wants us walking into."

"Only one way to find out," Cayde told them, as if they needed reminding, "The riskiest. The dumbest and in any other situation, the most fun. But it's the only way."

Zavala crossed his arms, eyes running back and forth across the map, mentally examining their options and finding nothing sufficient. "Fireteams Aro and Katrina will go to Venus. Meet their friend."

"Since we can't…" Cayde quipped, "I get it. She's shy, we're pretty…"

"The others will prepare their things," Zavala turned on the Guardians, silent in the back of the hall. His eyes quickly landed on Erek before moving away. "There will be another trip to the Reef."

Zavala took in Erek in particular, his brow tight and his mouth a hard, thin line. He sighed before saying, "Daniel, Kayla...Erek. It's on you."

"We understand, sir." Daniel stood, prompting all the others to do the same. With the Commander's permission, the Guardians began to leave. Ikora watched them filter out until only one remained. Aro didn't even realize he was being watched. Dark eyes remained focused and unblinking on the map still lighting up the dim room.

"Aashir?" she called, still watching him.

Footsteps leaving stopped and turned, quickly coming up behind her. "Ma'am?" Ikora began to approach Aro, who only turned his head when she had gotten close enough. "It's just like your dreams," she said, "Your's and Maya's"

Aro's face tightened in an expression of pain. It was true. Red eyes in the darkness. A thundering heartbeat in their ears.

"Whenever I went to...wherever I went, Pride noticed me," he murmured, "It felt too real to have been a vision. Pride saw me." He tore his eyes away from the map. "What if he's just leading us along?"

"Even if he was, could we afford to ignore it?" Aashir pointed out, "If the Awoken's Queen has bothered to alert us, Pride is doing something we can't ignore."

"Agreed." Ikora returned her eyes to the map, hands clasped behind her back. "Go. Prepare."

The Vault of Glass stared him down, even as Aro attempted to do the same in return. A massive circle of hammered brass embedded into a Vex-made tower. Their teams had landed on the coast right before it, as far away as they could manage. The others were talking, some laughing while they did so, all of it so uneasy. The fight was a moment in time long past and the memories tortured them in its place.

Sora, quiet as she always was, stepped up to his side. "I feel like if I can stare down the entrance," he explained, "I can make myself less afraid of the place."

"Is it working?"

Silently, he shook his head. A gateway to the abyss, to hell, sealed probably forever and still, he was afraid.

Aro's sparrow appeared before him. He mounted and situated himself while the others moved to follow. "It's almost time, Aro." Through his Ghost's words, he could feel the apprehension or maybe just his own doubling back.

He took off down the path, leaving the Vault behind. The coordinates for the rendezvous led them to the Ishtar Academy. Known amongst the Guardians who regularly visited the Sink as the place with the statue, one of a winged woman, a god of an age that was ancient and nearly mythic by the time of the Traveler's arrival. Aro would only remember it as the place Wrath(K) ran off with Asura. But no one needed reminding.

"What are the odds your friend is already at the meeting point?" Jessie asked, raising her voice to be heard over the engines.

It was Crona who answered. "I doubt it," she said, "Diana doesn't appear unless she needs to and she never stays for long."

"Asura, you said you don't trust her," Jessie recalled.

"I don't."

"But you trust that she wants the Heralds dead."

"I do."

"Right." They reached the tunnel that would take them to the Academy. "Does that include you?"

The Hunter dismounted. "I'd be surprised if it didn't." Letting Jessie take point and Katrina on the rear, the team made their way through the tunnel; old, swampy water coming halfway up to their knees. The tunnel was devoid of Fallen and the first thought in Aro's mind was that they had been cleared out. Either way, they reached the end with little incidence. The tunnel opened up into the Ishtar Academy, the titular idol greeting them in the dimly lit room.

Katrina immediately began to move for high ground, one well out of sight. Sora moved off to the side, out of the largest area where any battle would most likely take place and Jessie remained on the central ground with Crona, Aro, and Asura. They began to wander, spreading out just a bit. Asura, eyes on the statue of Ishtar, started walking towards it. The area had been deeply tampered with, lots of Guardians and Fallen running back and forth through it since the last time they were here. The evidence of what had happened here was gone but the memory would never leave him. Watching Wrath(A) use his arm to take his gun and put one of his bullets through his friend's head while he was helpless to stop it.

His gloved fingers twitched and rose, extending towards the base of the statue and running gently against the cold stone. Without warning and before his mind can even process what was happening, his fingers freeze up, twitching against the stone. As soon as his mind can catch on, realization dawns. His eyes shift upward, finding between them the barrel of a gun.

"Who am I speaking to?" Diana readjusted her grip on the pistol.

"Me," he says, not even daring to move his hand, "Asura."

Diana doesn't waver. A distant and sharp whistle is what breaks the silence. The gun doesn't move but Diana looks up towards the entrance. Her bright blue eyes narrow at Katrina, holding a sniper aimed right at her. "Don't miss," they could both hear her murmur. A loud distinct cocking. "I won't."

"Diana." Aro's voice rang out. One hand outstretched towards her, the other towards Katrina. "You invited us to talk. Let us talk. Just...talk."

Blue eyes shifted between him and Katrina. Then to Asura, she asked, "They know Wrath(A) is the dominant ego?"

"Yes," Asura answered.

"And they've decided to keep you around? Why?"

Finally, Asura's arm returned to his side. "I wish I knew."

Finally, the gun lowered. Katrina lowered her own as well though her hands remained positioned to raise and fire. Asura could still remember the shot she hip-fired through a Warlock's forehead. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

Diana spoke again. "So the people of your city call you Vaultbreakers now," she said.

"Mostly against our will," Crona replied.

"Regardless, it was not the only thing you broke," she told them, "Wrath(K) was valuable not just for his power but for his influence. Through him, Pride controlled the Vex of Venus. His death ended that."

All remained silent. "You don't seem pleased," Diana muttered.

"With all due respect, Diana, you wouldn't have called us here if it was about good news," Aro said, "At the same time you sent us the message, one of our own received another. It was about Pride." He sighed, filling the air with his weariness. "There's more," he said, "There's always more."

Diana grunted. "You're learning," she said roughly. She began to round the statue, slender fingers running quietly around the base. She then told them, "Pride's connection to the Vex was mostly severed. Not entirely and not permanently."

She took her hand back and locked eyes with Aro. "Have you heard of the Black Garden?"

It was Sora who answered. "Only the legends," she replied.

"It is no legend, Lightbearer. It is the birthplace of the Vex, a dimension of its own locked outside of our space and time. What Pride seeks, what he can still use to control them, lies there."

"Scouting reports speak of a massive construct appearing from a Vex gate in Meridian Bay. Is that it?" Jessie asked.

Diana was already shaking her head. "Pride doesn't seek the construct. He seeks what controls it," she responded, "A piece of the Darkness, sealed within a long time ago. The Vex from within that gate are connected to it in a way that sets them apart from any other Vex."

"He gets it, he retakes control of a small section of Vex." Katrina had relaxed her arms and lowered the sniper even further from the ready. "What difference does it make?"

"This is more than a way to control Vex." She stepped closer to them, seemingly past her initial distrust. "This piece of the Darkness has been draining the Traveler's power since it was put in place. Like Gluttony's shard, only on a grander scale and with no other function save draining."

"This piece of the Darkness. It's vital to the Garden?" Aro asked.

"It is its heart, Guardian." If she or anyone noticed the way Aro's fist suddenly clenched and opened, no one said as much. "Get rid of it and not only will the Traveler begin to heal but Pride will be kept from a dangerous source of power, "she explained, "If Pride gets ahold of it, your clan won't be able to stop him, the Awoken won't be able to stop him and even if all the Fallen Houses banded together, it still wouldn't be enough to stop him."

Diana's head lowered, her eyes closed. She opened them again. "I need you all to understand. We are reaching the climax." Without warning, her body began to glow and fracture. She was leaving. "Find the Garden, rip out its heart, Guardians," she said, "There is no time to delay."

Diana had said what she needed to say and as she always did, she left right after, fading away in a flash of dim light. As she did, Aro was overcome with the need to ask her if she knew who Pride was. Who he actually was. Maybe it was pointless. Maybe she did. But the more Aro wanted to ask, the more he realized how little it mattered and the realization didn't help in the slightest.

Katrina jumping down from her perch woke him up and sent a million other things running through his head. The Hidden's reports from the Valley of the Kings, how the Awoken were involved, where they would even begin entering this Garden. He found himself in agreement with Diana. There was a storm coming and there was no time to delay.

No matter how much it terrified him to see what came after.