Desert Storms
With a yell, Sora dropped from her sprint down to her knees. The momentum carried her further along, bringing her to a sliding stop behind a high wall.
A missile struck the spot she had been standing in moments before and as soon as she heard the detonation, she knew she hadn't gone far enough. The explosion shattered her shields. She could feel burning heat through her armor, enough for her skin to start blistering beneath.
Sora ground her teeth in frustration as Aya knit the damaged skin back together. Her attention, however, was less on her discomfort and more on the zone on the far side of the field. The last one her team owned though it appeared they wouldn't have it for much longer. It was the likely reason her assailant, a Titan, despite all his jeering and crowing, had yet to push on her position. His thrashing of her would count for more in just a few-
The zone cleared. On the feed in the corner of her eye, Sora could see that Katrina had gotten to it. Two heads sniped clean off and a hand cannon taken to the third. In all of their ears, Lord Saladin grumbled his approval.
She needed only a moment to turn her attention back to the Titan and only another of hearing his outraged cursing before she sprang into action. Focusing Solar Light in her palm, she lobbed a grenade around the corner. When it exploded, the yelling became a touch panicked and a lot more angry. Sora whipped around cover, rifle aimed at the Titan gliding backwards. His shields depleted by her fire, her bullets raked up his torso, punching holes into his armor with each click of the trigger. The last burst cracked through his helmet and his heavily armored frame fell limp from the sky, kicking up a thick cloud of dust when he hit the ground. Within the haze, Sora could just barely make out the shape of a Ghost, darting for cover.
Sora's throat finally unseized but her heart continued to pound in her ears. Her grip on her weapon was tight and trembling. She needed to relax. The fight was far from over.
She felt it before she heard it. A shift in the air, a snap of Light and then the crack of lightning. Eyes blown wide, Sora turned back to the still-roiling cloud to see another enemy Guardian, a Bladedancer, rushing her position, using the dust as cover.
Sora twisted and aimed but not soon enough. The Hunter was too close and even if he hadn't been, Sora's failure to reload would have seen to her death anyway. Her finger froze on the trigger. Her feet were stuck to the ground.
Another crackle of Arc. Thundering feet shook the ground and a voice yelled Sora's name, telling her to get down. Sora retained just enough of her faculties to obey.
Just over her head, so close, she could feel the hair on her neck stand up, Jessie shot past. The Titan collided with the Hunter and though the other Guardian had speed, Jessie was not a woman to be moved until she wished it. She caught the Hunter in his descent and kept up her momentum, ramming them both into a nearby grating so hard, the metal screeched and bent inwards. Another cloud was thrown into the air.
Sora had her belatedly-reloaded weapon aimed for it. When a dark shape appeared and blew through it, though she was startled, she had enough discipline not to fire. Jessie landed and jogged towards her. No new enemies were on radar. When Jessie indicated a path they could take to safety, Sora gladly followed.
"What happened?" The Exo's voice was demanding but gentle. When Sora didn't respond, she softened her voice even more. "I watched that Hunter walk right up to you, Sora."
"It's nothing." Sora found her voice much harsher than she had meant it to be and was immediately ashamed. Fortunately, Jessie was notoriously difficult to offend.
Katrina's name on the feed caught their attention. Dead by a Nova Bomb. Sora wasn't one to let a good diversion from an uncomfortable conversation go to waste so she pushed off the wall she had been resting on. "We should regroup with Katrina and finish this," she murmured. She didn't wait for an answer.
Jessie took the hint. She followed silently but her silence wasn't one of resignation but of acquiescence; this conversation was far from over.
Dim light from the hangar poured into the corner of the hall Sora had planted herself in. Upon their return, she didn't bother seeking out Jessie or attempting to make herself scarce. Her friend would find her.
And find her she did. Waiting had been only a matter of minutes before a broad frame cast Sora in shadow. Quietly, Jessie maneuvered herself into Sora's space, coming to sit on a ledge across from her. Her helmet shimmered away, exposing a dark purple face and shining white eyes.
After some silence and some staring, Jessie spoke first. "You didn't expect me to just let this go, did you?"
A small laugh. "Of course not."
Jessie spread her arms. "Then what are we waiting for? Sooner we talk, the sooner we can go home and pick bullet casings from our asses."
Sora sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'll admit…I haven't been having the most fun since we started the Iron Banner. I'm…not good at fighting like this. Or much at all."
"You've improved over the years."
"Hasn't made me like it anymore. I'm not Katrina or Mira or Shino or…you, for that matter," she said, gesturing.
Jessie leaned back against the metal wall. "I admit to enjoying the competition. But arena or field, my concern has always been protecting the team."
"With regular ten-kill streaks."
A shrug. "If that's what it takes."
Silence falls between them, filled only by the hum and movement of the world outside. Soon, Jessie rises to her feet. She moves to Sora's side and drops back down again, next to her this time. Her attempt at being companionable left Sora crushed between her and the pillar to their left. "What else?" the Titan asked.
Sora shrugs weakly. What else was there? "It's not just Katrina's talent that makes her stand out. It's her passion. Her enjoyment. She thrives in the Crucible. I thrive in the library. I do the opposite in the arenas."
"And yet you're at our side in every match, every fight. That's not nothing, Sora."
"I try my best." Jessie gave a small laugh at her tone. "Don't have much of a choice, do I? Given our current situation."
Nearly every confrontation they have had with the Heralds, their survival came down to two common factors: luck and Aro. If neither had been present, Gluttony would have destroyed the Hellmouth. If neither had been present, Asura would still be captive in the Vault of Glass. If neither had been present, Pride, who had Sora and her team's lives in the palm of his hand, would have done away with them without a second thought. If looks were to be believed, he only spared them to ingratiate himself to his brother. Killing half Aro's clan wouldn't have done him any favors, at least at that moment.
"We need all hands if we hope to survive what's coming, let alone succeed," Sora said, "My personal issues don't matter. But as much as I dislike it, I still wish I could do more. I…I don't like constantly having to be saved."
Sora's eyes turn to the hangar, to the Guardians and civilians shuffling about their day, even as she felt Jessie's eyes peering into the back of her head. When the Exo finally spoke up again, her tone was cautious. "You've never been this open about this before. Especially in front of Katrina."
Sora turns to catch her gaze for just a second. Then, she turns away again to avoid the pitying gleam in her eyes.
"You've known Katrina too long to believe she's the kind of person to give you grief over something like this."
Eyes still averted, Sora let out a bitter chuckle and shook her head. "I know. It's the opposite I'm concerned with. If I told her, she'd pull out of the Banner just for my sake, regardless of how well she's doing or how much she's been enjoying herself these past few months." Sora jerked her chin towards the hangar. Jessie's attention was drawn to a ship with scorch marks and torn metal on its underside, likely from Cabal antiaircraft weapons. "We know what's out there. The odds we're facing. If there's a chance for some kind of levity, it's important that we take it, right?"
Jessie blinked. Then slowly, she nodded.
"I don't want to force that kind of choice on her." As she said it, she turned to look back at Jessie, whose eyes were still on her.
Again, the Exo nodded. A silent promise to keep this between them. "If neither of us speaks up, it means you'll have to see this through to the end, you realize that?" Jessie stood.
Sora remained sitting. "I do. I'll do better next time. I won't weigh us down when it matters."
Jessie opened her mouth to speak but then closed it. It wasn't pity in her eyes this time, but concern. She nodded once more and with a rough pat on Sora's shoulder, Jessie left her to her solitude.
A few minutes passed before Sora began to leave herself and make for the hangar exit. Aya formed over her shoulder as she walked. "How are you feeling?"
"You're in my head, are you not?"
"That doesn't always make things clear. Would help us both if you verbalized it."
"Tired," she whispered, and her voice showed it. When they crossed together into the plaza, the sun was beginning its descent. "Would just like to be where it's quiet for a while." Her eyes on the City, she stopped walking when they landed on the Traveler, massive and silent with clouds drifting around it.
Aya darted between her eyes and the expanse before her. "Then how about I head to the library, check out a few things for us to read back in our room and you go to that new place downstairs and grab whatever you like for dinner?"
"Which new place? So many have opened in the Tower recently."
"The one where Shino and Josef won that promotional eating contest. Got that picture on their wall of them near-catatonic."
Sora coughed and put a hand to her mouth to hide the slipping laughter. "I remember now." She remembered specifically Daniel and Crona having to help carry Shino out of there. "That actually sounds perfect. You just said you couldn't always see what I was thinking."
"I did say that. That's how you know the idea was mine."
Another laugh. "Fair enough. Grab whatever you like." Her mind flashed back to the ship she saw in the hangar. "Also that one manual on Cabal military equipment. I think I'm onto something in that regard."
He was dreaming again and he knew it. He knew that the red sand crunching beneath his boots wasn't real. He knew the blurry sunlight streaking through the cloudy air wasn't real. With every dream he had, it was becoming easier and easier to tell them from reality. It never lessened the terror.
Aro was on Mars but not in Meridian Bay. It wasn't the Hellas Basin either, not enough ice. Sluggishly, he remembered that it had been months since he last visited the grave of Toland's Ghost. He promised himself he'd do so though he knew he would make the plans and then forget or disregard them, and that made him sad.
His helmet was missing. He rarely took it off on a planet like Mars, where the sand didn't need the additional help getting into his armor. But instead of sand, he felt cool water, dancing across his face and lips. Rain. "It was raining on Mars." The silent voice in his head repeated that same sentence over and over for reasons Aro couldn't guess. Mars was a desert region but even deserts rained every once in a while. This shouldn't have been much of a surprise to him but…
The dream was like any of the others, the ones that would have him waking in cold sweats or near paralyzed in his sleep with terror. But in this dream, he felt none of the dread that told him he was about to be shown something awful. Instead, he felt elation, wonder, awe, all lodged somewhere in his chest like a foreign object; a Hive Cleaver or a Fallen Shock Blade. As if it shouldn't be there. As if he shouldn't. As if he were here, on Mars, beneath a thunderstorm, just in another's eyes and head.
A strange sensation but Aro did not mind it. Whatever body he seemed to inhabit did not seem to reject his presence and when Aro's mind began to wake, it released him gladly.
He rose gently from his sleep for the first time in days and in the last dregs of it, he heard the beat of wings. He asked Kain about it later, not sure as to why a bird's wing beats would be in his dreams or why it would stay with him as much as everything else did.
Kain had no explanation nor reason. Only that it was in Aro's mind and that he had heard it too.
—-
"It's a page long," Kain said, "Are you sure you want to hear the whole thing?"
"Paraphrase, then. I'll trust you not to lie."
"Your fault if I do. Anyway, Executor Hideo says he's consulted his team regarding your request-"
"I doubt that."
"And they've ultimately declined to give the shard to Asura. He says the code New Monarchy lives by and fights for, it's you they feel best represents it. It's more about the message than the gift." Kain looked him in the eye for the last part. "They hope you will respect that."
"Damn." Aro leaned back in his desk chair and rubbed his eyes. "Fine. I'll keep the shard," he said, unable to even begin to think of what he could do with it.
"So that's it then? You're accepting it?"
Aro blinked. "I suppose I am."
"His letter sounded like he already assumed you would." Kain scoffed slightly. Then, his voice lowering, he asked, "How do you think the Vanguard will take it?"
"I can't even begin to guess," Aro answered wearily, " For right now, I need to find Xur."
"We've never actually 'found' Xur before, have we? He's only ever found us. And Asura's never met him at all," Kain pointed out, "Other Guardians have found him and his wares. I can ask around."
"Fine. But quietly." Aro lifted his right hand to the desk lamp. Gently, he made the fingers glow violet and hum with Void Light. Bringing up the other hand, the purple haze flowed from one set of fingers to the other.
"Do you want to talk about that dream?"
Aro brought his hand together and clasped them. The Light flowed inwards, towards the palms. When he opened them, a shimmering sphere of Void Light spun gently between. "Mars. Rain. Not much to talk about." Despite saying it, the memory made him smile, filling him with that same warmth that had woken him up. Even the Void sphere seemed to tremble a bit in happiness.
"Not that one. The one from before." When Aro said nothing, Kain added, "From the night before."
The Void sphere froze. Aro slowly brought his palms together, taking the Light back into his body. Opposites, the two dreams had been. Everything he had felt this morning, he had felt the stark inverse only the morning before. No images, only sounds. Voices with jumbled, nonsensical words. What he felt the most were emotions. He felt heart-pounding rage and gut-wrenching sadness. He felt adrenaline coursing through his veins and the steel-cold bite of panic and terror.
Then, his feet beat the ground. He was running. Blinding light suddenly fills his dark, blurry world. A moment later, against his skin, he felt searing heat, then vibrant, agonizing cold. Then a different kind of cold. Then nothing at all.
It was the 'nothing' that had woken him. When he did, he woke to an electric pain so stark, Kain had to convince him he hadn't died and been resurrected in his sleep. Even then, even now, Aro remained unsure.
All of his dreams, even the worst of them, ended before he could die. This…
"I'm going to speak to Pride. We can discuss it then. And after. Maybe. But not now," Aro said, "Let me have this morning. Getting through yesterday was hard enough."
How one little, lidless eye could convey so much emotion, Aro would never be able to figure out. But the conflict within Kain came and passed quickly. "Alright, I'll reserve a place for us. Where do you want to start?"
"Paperwork for the Commander. We've put it off long enough." He was already pulling out a datapad.
"I thought you wanted to enjoy the morning."
"If I wanted to enjoy it anymore, I would go back to bed," Aro said, "Don't see why you're complaining. You don't have to do it."
"No. I just have to sit here as you do."
"You want to help type?" Aro asked, "It'll keep you busy."
Kain simply turned away and said nothing. Aro scoffed. "Thought not."
The Ascendant Plane was the same as it always was. A black, smothering expanse with flashes of dim lightning that revealed towering, spiraling structures off in the unknowable distance.
Aro gave it none of his attention. The person he had come to see was already here.
"It's painful, isn't it? Not knowing things." Aro had found Pride strewn across the top of a stone pillar, appearing like a man who had chosen to spend his day off on the couch, vegetating in front of a video feed. At least he would, if it wasn't for his eyes piercing the darkness like two bloody wounds.
Pride was grinning, teeth so white, they too lit up the darkness. "So out with it," he said, "What questions are burning you up so much that you'd risk the loss of your team's trust just to have them answered?
Aro ground his teeth and refused to dignify that with a rebuttal. When he relaxed his jaw and found his voice again within a tight throat, he asked his question.
"Why are you taller than me?"
If there was ever a time Aro had seen Pride so taken aback and off-kilter, he could not recall. The sudden widening of his eyes, the bloom of confusion that washed over Pride's face nearly pulled a laugh out of Aro. He stopped himself before he could but his face still contorted into a small, amused grin.
Slowly, his eyes never leaving Aro, Pride straightened up. "Is that seriously-"
"Yes." Aro held his gaze.
Pride blinked once and stared. Then he blinked once more before letting out a sharp laugh, one that echoed across the expanse and rang uncomfortably in Aro's ear. His eyes flit quickly over to the distance and back, as if worried Pride would wake something ancient and angry in the far distance.
Finally, Pride answered. "I'm not," he said, clearly ready to start laughing again. "You just slouch a lot."
On instinct, Aro straightened his back and was surprised at his reaction. Still very much amused, Pride made a beckoning motion with his hands, silently indicating his preparation for Aro's next question.
Aro doesn't leave him waiting. "What was I like before I died?"
The smile on Pride's face disappeared. The tentative ease Aro had felt growing between them with his first question was killed by the second. "You made me sound like I was a vicious person. Cruel. Callous." Exactly the sort of man who would cause all of this.
But Pride was shaking his head. "Not vicious but…willful," Pride described. "Easy to annoy but slow to anger. Blunt but not cruel. You were fearless, even. I've never known you to be afraid of anything." Pride's gaze fell on that last sentence and he refused to look Aro in the eye. Aro was sure the incredibly slight shift he heard in Pride's tone was nothing more than him imagining things.
Pride's eyes come back up, this time with his brow furrowed, like he was angry. "That's why it's so hard to see you like…this. I mean…" he gestured to Aro's entire frame. "You're still slouching. Your shoulders are always overly tight. You're still afraid. Of me, even after all your time here. Of everything and everyone. Yourself, most of all. You used to revel in what you were capable of, brother. At the very least, you looked people in the eye."
No words passed between them for some time. No sounds but the Ascendant winds.
Pride broke the silence first. "You and your…lover. Daniel's his name, yes?" Aro's fist squeezed. "I can tell there is a rift growing between the two of you."
"That is none of your concern."
"Why are you with someone like that, Aro?" Pride asked anyway, "Why are you with someone who so clearly doesn't trust you?"
Aro stepped forward, his shoulders raised like hackles. "You don't know a damn-"
"Spare me, please. I could see through Wrath(K)'s eyes just fine and raging monster or no, he was perfectly coherent. He threw you into a Vex Gate for safekeeping while he attempted to dispose of your friends and the Suros boy fell in with you. And when you came back…" When Pride's lips curled into another half-smile, there was less amusement within it. More cruelty. "You both saw something, didn't you? I can guess but I'd appreciate the confirmation."
Aro kept quiet, knowing even then that Pride would get the answer he needed from that little anyway. His gaze was burning and he knew, if he had his powers right now, he'd feel redhot sunfire coursing beneath the surface of his skin.
"Or…" Pride put his hands up, "Maybe I'm grasping at straws on that front," he said. "Maybe it's simply like everyone else, he just can't tell the difference between me and you." Pride's arms lowered until they hung loosely at his side. "I wonder if he has to blink whenever he looks at you, just to make sure your eyes aren't the wrong color. I wonder if he's woken up to your visage in bed and had to do everything in his power to not reach for the nearest gun." Pride shook his head. "Or maybe it doesn't matter. You could look like an entirely different person from me. You're still as responsible for this as I am."
Aro's face burned with anger and more. His breathing was so shallow and ragged, he could barely bring himself to speak. And the worst of it was the small voice rearing in the back of his mind, reminding him that for all the effect Pride's words had on him, there was nothing he was saying that Aro hadn't already said to himself. That so many of the others must have believed, even if they never stated it outright.
"I am responsible." Aro's voice barely rose past a whisper. "If Daniel or any of the others want to hold that against me, that is their right. All of them have suffered because of our actions. Many of them more than others. For Traveler's sake, Pride, you're forcing him to fight his own uncle. The same uncle you forced to put a bullet in his brother's back."
"I needed a distraction." There wasn't the slightest hint of excuse or remorse in his tone. Pride was simply stating reality.
"Your 'distraction' was lucky to survive. Your distraction is now wheelchair-bound," Aro said, "Short of extensive surgery, Daniel's brother will never walk again. I have no right to tell him how or how not to feel. Not about you and not about me."
"And that's exactly what I mean, Aro." Pride waved an arm at him. "The old you, the one I grew up with, would have ended that relationship a long time ago."
"The man you grew up with is dead. I am not him." Aro spat, his words dripping venom, "You'd do well to remember that."
Pride didn't smile at that, as he so usually did at Aro's anger. His face remained a careful, neutral mask. After a brief period of silence, he asked, "Your other questions?"
"I had a dream. About rain on Mars." Aro's tone remained curt. He was ready for this talk to be over. "What is so special about that?"
"You're asking what's so special about rain on a desert planet?" Pride was smiling again.
"You're dodging. What does it have to do with me? With us? Why am I dreaming about it?" He aimed an accusatory finger at the Herald. "I know you know something."
Pride went quiet again, his jaw working, visible even in the shadows. Then he sighed. "You're right. I do know something," he replied, "And you're right. I am dodging. You want that answer? You come find me in person."
Aro's nostrils flared. "It is important, isn't it?"
"Incredibly." Pride's last smile was much smaller than the ones that came before and from that, Aro knew it was genuine. He began to back away.
Aro followed. "No. No! What are you hiding, Pride? Tell me!"
"A lot, brother." Even as the body disappeared, an echo of the voice remained. "I am hiding a lot."
Aro was left alone in the Ascendant Plane. The sudden burst of rage that coursed through him snapped him back to the real world so suddenly, his head began to ache. Eventually, the lights stopped being too bright and the hum of the cooling system stopped being too loud. Breathing hard, Aro said nothing to Kain, who was staring down at him. Nothing needed to be said. There was nothing that occurred that his Ghost did not hear.
He never even got to ask about the first dream, the one that ended with him dying though he was sure he knew Pride's answer on that front as well. Still silent, Aro got to his feet and stomped out of the meditation room. Hesitantly, Kain followed behind.
"Aro?"
Aro said nothing. Kain continued anyway. "Aro, I've just received a message. It's not necessarily a bad thing…" Kain paused.
Aro kept his arm over his eyes. "But?" He asked, knowing it was coming.
"You still might not like it."
"What is it?"
"A message," he said, "From…Maya."
Aro's lip curled. "I do not need this right now."
"I know, I know but…I've already read it and…" Aro heard his Ghost whir closer. "You really might want to hear this."
The arm over his face slid off, revealing scowling and tired eyes. They remained locked on the ceiling above. "Go ahead."
So Kain did. "'Hello, Aro. It's me. Again though I doubt you're going to respond to this one either." Kain paused there to look at him, as if he were expecting the bedding beneath Aro to start smoking. But Aro's face was a mask, his eyes locked on the same spot.
Kain went on. "I had another dream, like the one we talked about. With the red lights and the heartbeat. But this one was different. I felt sand beneath my feet. It was hazy and red. The sun was out too. I remembered enough from the stories Kayla told me to know that it sounded like Mars. The thing is, the sand was sludgy and it felt like it clung to my feet whenever I tried to move. On my face, I could feel water falling. Rain that first started as a drizzle but then it really began coming down. And thundering even. I had no idea it rained on Mars, especially that much! But feeling it come down, I felt so happy that I nearly cried. It was amazing."
So much warmth and wonder in her words. Aro only felt cold, deep in a twisting pit within his stomach.
"I know you're too busy to talk," Kain read, "Or visit. Or even reply."
Aro's hand squeezed. The same squeezing threatens to choke him, the way it swells in his throat.
"'But this dream was unlike any other I've ever had. I would really, really appreciate your thoughts on it. Please. I hope to hear from you soon.'"
Aro opened his mouth but Kain spoke first. "There's a bit more. 'P.S. I looked up some more after writing this. Apparently, it does rain on Mars though not very often. When I added "important" into the search, it led me to articles about the Ares One mission.'"
Aro knew it. It was the first manned mission to Mars in 2065; humanity's first contact with the Traveler. He and his brother would cause the Collapse four hundred years later. Aro died when it happened and Pride's body was stuck with the appearance of a young man. There was no way either of them could have been on Mars. Neither of them were part of the crew either. Arochukwu has always been his name and the crew members' names were…
Reading his thoughts, Kain filled in the gaps. "Ulysses Qiao from China, Maria Mihaylova from Russia and Jacob Hardy from the United States."
"Can you bring up pictures of them?" Aro sat up and wrapped his arms around his knees, holding them close to his body.
His Ghost did as he asked, forming the Light projecting from his eye into the shape of their faces.
Aro peered closer. "I…I know them." But he doesn't. But he does and it was making his head hurt again, the way the memory of their faces felt foreign to his mind. He waves his hand and Kain drops the images, bathing them in darkness once again.
"It's wrong," Kain said after a time, "It's wrong that she'd roped up in all of this."
"It is."
"And worst of all is that we can't tell how. We don't know how to separate her from it." He paused. His eye turned down. "And we've seen where it leads."
Aro pinched the bridge of his nose and then buried his face into his knees.
Kain's eye shot back up. "She just sent me another mes…" he stopped. Then, instead of starting up again, Kain simply projected the message out in front of Aro.
It was a picture of the same three faces. In the subject line, from Maya, it read, "I know these people…"
But she couldn't figure out how, he knew. Just as he couldn't.
Pride. He knew something. That thought alone made Aro's burn. He could have all the answers he wanted but the price for them, it was simply too steep. Not just putting himself in Pride's clutches but risking exposing Maya to him. There was no doubt in Aro's mind that if the two ever met, Pride's reaction would be catastrophic. She was a child. She was more but she was still just a child.
"Start a reply, Kain."
Kain looked at him for a long time. Aro knew what he was thinking. His failure to respond to her earlier messages weighed on the both of them but Aro had made a promise to Daniel.
Then Pride's words flashed through Aro's mind and in turn, Kain's. Both of them lingered on it.
"Why are you with someone who so clearly doesn't trust you?"
Aro pushed again for Kain to start a reply. He would deal with the consequences later. Maya deserved better.