Hey everyone, new story time!
So yeah, Final Shape has taken over my life and the desire for Destiny lore. Don't know if you've seen My name is Byf's 10-hour video on the full story leading up to Final Shape but it's good!
Any who, I spent like 3 weeks story boarding the first arc for this as well as getting some help from my close friend and fellow FF author Solthrin (you should totally check his stories out they're pretty good) as well as writing on and off for, like, 2 weeks straight. Don't have much of a backlog built up but I'm working on it.
Hope you enjoy!
Also, in case you didn't read it in the synopsis: THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL SHAPE STORY AND WHAT COMES AFTER! BE WARNED!
Saya, Awoken Warlock of The Last City, let out a content sigh as she looked out of her jump ship, an Arrowhawk, as she cruised above and away from the Traveler; it's magenta aurora radiating outwards over the Earth and into space. Even here, beyond the one hundred kilometer exclusion zone, the view was breathtaking.
She was there amongst the twelve Guardians, including The Young Wolf, at the final battle.
And what a battle it was.
Sure at the time she was incredibly nervous and knew it was the fight to determine the fate of the universe but now, looking back on it in hindsight once she had time to process everything, it filled her heart with a giddiness and pride she had never felt before. Everyone had come together: Humanity, Awoken, Eliksni, Cabal, and even Hive. United they had done it; they had beaten the Witness.
Now all that was left was helping the Traveler heal and to prepare for whatever fights lay ahead. Because although she had hope for the future, she had done this enough times to know that there was always a fight ahead. There was a power vacuum in the Witnesses wake, and there would be many who would try and fill it. That wasn't even counting the foes still in system: Savathun and her Lucent Hive, the remains of the Witness' forces, the Scorn and Taken.
They were going to need even more Guardians for the fights yet to come and so she had devoted herself to helping Micah-10 find the Ghosts that were lost inside the Traveler and helping them recover. She had managed to find and help three so far, and now she was heading back out from the Last City after a quick resupply to help them find their Guardians.
"Alright you three," said a voice which she had once jokingly referred to as "snarky posh", "we need to head out. Are you ready?"
A small construct, no bigger than a balled fist consisting of a spherical core with a single glowing "eye" which was surrounded by a shell of eight roughly tetrahedral segments colored white with orange highlights, flew over her right shoulder and floated head level. The front half of his shell occasionally rotated freely around the central sphere. This was Edelweiss, or simply "Weiss" or "E" as she called him. And he was her Ghost.
"I'm sad to have to leave, but I know that I can't give up on my Guardian. They're out there somewhere." The voice was female and melodic, and belonged to a ghost with a matte gold shell with red highlights surrounding its eye along with four small "spines" sticking out the back. This was Athena, the de-facto leader of the group of three unpartnered Ghosts.
Saya turned and looked towards Athena from the opposite side of the cabin and saw she was accompanied by two more ghosts: one with a brown shell with yellow-orange highlights in diagonal stripes and the other a more flowery shell design with red and white.
"Yeah." The second ghost spoke, his voice a deep and soothing timbre.
The flower shelled ghost spoke up next, her voice high and chirpy. "What Aster means to say is that we're ready to go."
"Yeah."
The third ghost let out an amused sigh.
Saya couldn't help but let out a giggle. "Don't worry about it Eve, I've learned by now that he's a ghost of remarkably few words."
"If only others could learn from his example. Maybe then dealing with them would be a much more tolerable experience." Remarked Edelweiss dryly.
"Oh, c'mon Weiss," Saya said, "The only person you don't actively dislike in the tower is Banshee." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Actually, come to think of it, he doesn't really talk much either."
"And now you begin to see the pattern."
The warlock rolled her eyes, long used to the byplay between them. "Well then you'll be happy to know that we're gonna be away for some time."
Athena let out a small giggle. "And we really can't ever thank you enough for helping us. We've been looking for so long, but looking back at all that happened, and after my experience inside the heart of the Traveler, I can't help but feel hopeful."
Saya beamed. "Of course! And that's why I'm helping. The architect of our first collapse is gone, and for once we don't have this giant threat looming over us and we can start to hope again. I want to help carry that hope for as long as I can, to wherever I can." Turning back to her console she began inputting the coordinates for their next destination. "So, we've checked everything close by, and so now I'm thinking we should head farther afield."
"Where did you have in mind?" Athena asked as she floated up next her with Aster and Eve just behind.
"I was thinking either Nessus or Europa. I'm sure there's someone from the Exodus Black or the Clovis Bray facility who might be worthy of the Light."
Athena bobbed in agreement. "I haven't really been too far out from the Reef myself, and after the Witness took Mars and the other places, many of us unpartnered decided to play it safe and stick close to Earth and the City."
"Well then hopefully your Guardian is out there somewhere." Saya smiled.
"All checks complete, coordinates locked, and NLS drive showing green. Ready when you are." Edelweiss turned to her and nodded his shell in acknowledgement.
"Copy that." She replied. "Engaging NLS in three...two...one..."
Just as she engaged the drive and the familiar hum began to build a warning blared out across the cockpit and red lights flashed.
Eve looked around in a panic. "What's happening? What is it?!"
"Contact!" Saya yelled. "Unknown signature approaching at near-relativistic speeds! It's-It's coming from the Traveler!"
"Look at those energy readings!" Remarked Athena. "I'm seeing Light AND Dark!"
Just then the anomalous object sped past them, a corona of rainbow light trailing in its wake that washed over the jump ship causing a whole new suite of lights and alarms to sound and flash.
"Problem!" Aster said, his tone actually sounding worried as opposed to his normal calm one.
Saya glanced over at the screen showing the ship's internal readings and paled. "Whatever that energy that washed over us was, it's overloaded the drive!"
"Can't you shut if off?!" asked Eve.
"We can't!" Replied Edelweiss. "It's somehow absorbed and built up to much paracausal energy. If we just shut the drive off without venting it or shunting it somewhere it could destroy the ship and us with it!"
"There's only one choice," Saya cut in, " we need to finish engaging the drive and let it burn through the energy."
"But who knows where that will send us." Replied her Ghost. "We could get shot straight out of Sol."
"Yeah, but at least we'd be alive to still make the trip back."
He let out a small sigh. "Very well."
Saya looked back out the front of the ship and steeled herself. "Engaging NLS drive. Everyone...BRACE!"
They all yelled as time and space warped around them. To the Guardian and four Ghosts inside, despite their panic and screaming they would notice that the normal tunnel of NLS travel was replaced with a tunnel of prismatic light similar to the portal that lead into the Traveler's Pale Heart.
To an outside observer, however, the Arrowhead would look as if it shot forward suddenly, leaving a trail of similar prismatic light in its wake.
/-/
She saw as the world turned, and from the large dragon-shaped landmass a dark shadow spread forth.
She saw as four pillars rose up, spread out all across the world. One in the west, one in the east, one in the center, and one to the north; a light atop each.
She saw as darkness snuffed out the central and eastern lights.
She saw the northern light glow bright in defiance of the dark. In its center were eight stars, each a different color. A city, bright and shining, sitting on a floating landmass was assaulted by the shadows. Large tendrils of dark snaked up from the ground and grabbed it, dragging it down to the ground. As more of the corruption spread, the city roared in opposition and began to rise higher despite the grip the darkness had on it. But then the foundations crumbled and the defiant city fell in on itself where it was smothered by the wave of darkness.
She saw a lamp, a staff, a sword, and a crown sitting on the ground. She saw the tendrils of dark ooze make their way and slowly claim them.
She saw the three ghosts she was escorting, each floating and staring.
She saw a tattered and burnt red sash, a staff with a white and red crystal on each end laying in a pile of brown and orange leaves, and a shattered, bone-white mask.
She saw the darkness. It writhed and bubbled and in it she could see a pale face from which burned two bright, red, baleful orbs.
She saw another face; young, and hopeful. Silver eyes from which shined a light -not of the Traveler but which burned bright all the same- which pushed back the darkness. It faltered, and then nearly failed. Until three New Lights shone. Each imbued with the Light of the Traveler. They burned with Void, Arc and Solar; all lead by a beacon of prismatic light.
She saw as the world turned, and the shadows had nearly claimed it.
/-/
"...-ian!"
Saya's heart pounded in her chest as a roaring sound filled her ears.
"...-uardian!"
Her eyes blinked slowly, her vision blurry.
"EYES UP GUARDIAN!"
Edelweiss' shouts in her ear finally snapped her to wakefulness; decades of experience helping her in assessing the situation quickly. First thing? She noticed was that she was wearing her helmet. Probably why she could hear him so clearly.
The second thing was that she was falling down towards some kind of forested area and that it was dark. Probably night time. Oh, and that sound of something roaring? That was the sound of air rushing past her.
And thirdly she could see the ground coming up to meet her. Quite fast actually, and if she didn't do anything to arrest her fall she'd be a splatter on the ground. It wouldn't be the first time -Guardians falling off the tower were a common occurrence after all- but it still hurt.
She righted herself midair and managed to get her feet under her just as the tops of the taller trees brushed past her; unfortunately her foot caught on one of the branches. She flipped forward end-over-end smacking branches as she went down. Most broke against her, but then she hit a thicker one, doubling over it in a wheeze as the air was driven from her lungs and her shields were broken. Disoriented, out of breath, and with depleted shields she flailed as she fell the rest of the way down towards the ground.
Traveler, this is gonna a hurt. She thought as she watched the dark ground come up to meet her and world became nothing.
...
A flash of light and suddenly she was breathing again. She sat up quickly, bending at her waist, and looked around, trying to make anything out in the dark forest she was currently in. She looked up but couldn't see much past the canopy besides a few moon-rays peeking through.
"Glad to have you back amongst the living." She turned to look at Edelweiss, one eye constantly on her radar.
"You make it seem like that was in doubt. You are the one who revives me."
"I could not, you know."
She snorted in response. "Yeah sure, okay. You love me too much."
"Ah, so that's what is slowly slipping away every time I have to return you from a smear on the ground. Unfortunate." He sighed, but the fond exasperation in his voice let her know he didn't mean it.
After getting up and dusting herself off she pulled out her shotgun while scanning her surroundings. "Sooooooo," she began while glancing to her Ghost, " what the heck happened? How did I go from being in my cockpit to being a paracausal splatter on the ground?"
Edelweiss shook his shell back and forth. "Jumpships were only ever made for in-system jumps. Even during the Golden Age, before the Collapse, humanity had never left Sol. They were getting ready to, hence the Exodus project, but all records indicate that NLS technology wasn't designed for long jumps in mind. It's my theory that, while the energy from the anomalous object overloaded our systems, it was the excessively long jump that pushed them over the edge."
"So, we overtaxed the systems?"
Her Ghost nodded. "Exactly. Once we came out of the jump, I and the other three Ghosts were the first to wake up. We tried to rouse you but you were unresponsive, and almost immediately after we began getting a series of cascading failures." He looked to her. "One of said failing systems was the Transmat system."
"Ah." Saya nodded. It was starting to become clear what had happened. "So the ship just dumped me in-atmo and I began falling?"
"Yes, myself and the other three entered your backpack and tried to wake you but, well...you know what happened."
In response Saya just whistled a falling sound before ending with a "Splat."
"Well...not quite splat. You had the whole tumble through the trees. Quite entertaining by the way."
Saya narrowed her eyes at him behind her helmet. Oh, he was gonna tease her about that for a loooooong time, she could tell. Deciding she needed to change the subject before he could get going on said teasing she looked around again. "Speaking of our three companions, any idea where they are?"
Edelweiss looked around with her. "They said they were going to scout the area to try and ascertain our general location while I worked on reviving you."
Shrugging, Saya activated her comms suite. "Athena, Aster, Eve you guys there?" It took a moment before she got a response.
"Oh Guardian! Good to hear from you!" Came Athena's voice. "I take it Edelweiss got you back up and on your feet?"
Saya started nodding before mentally palming her face when she realized they couldn't see her. "Yes."
"Good to hear!" Saya could hear the smile in her voice.
"Not that it should have been in doubt." Grumbled Edelweiss privately.
Saya deadpanned at the statement.
Her Ghost purposefully didn't look her way.
"We're just north of where you landed."
For a certain definition of "landed", she thought.
"We started picking up some weak signals and tried to trace them before you contacted us."
"I got you. We're on our way." She looked to her ghost and they both gave each other a nod before he disappeared in a shower of light and she set off on a brisk run towards the other Ghosts' signals.
About two-thirds of the way to their beacon her radio crackled again.
This time Athena sounded panicked. "Guardian, you may want to hurry."
"What's the matter?"
"We've got some strange readings closing in on us. And fast!"
Not needing any more incentive she poured on speed, even using her Light-assisted glide to help boost her forwards periodically.
/-/
Athena and her two Ghost companions floated back to back in the center of the small clearing they found themselves in, each facing out in a different direction towards the surrounding woods. The sound of rustling leaves and snapping branches echoed all around. Which could only mean one thing: they were surrounded. They could always fly up, but who knows what was out there and whether it could give chase. They just had to hope and wait for the Guardian to arrive.
Normally they wouldn't even be worried. They were Ghosts, physical manifestations of the Traveler's Light in mechanical form. They were paracausal by nature and thusly couldn't even be harmed by normal means except in extreme cases.
Except this wasn't a normal case. She was getting some strange readings. They almost seemed paracausal to her, but also not. Either way it was enough to make her, Aster, and Eve nervous. They didn't know if it meant they could be a danger to Ghosts, but they didn't want to risk it.
A growl caused her to swivel and look into the dark between the trees where she could just make out two orange-red orbs staring back at her. Then a second pair appeared, then another, and another until they were surrounded by a chorus of growls and red eyes.
"What are these things." Whispered Eve.
"Don't know." Replied Aster. "Lets find out."
"No wait-" Athena didn't get to finish as Aster decided to shine his Light out into the Darkness revealing bony faces and sharp teeth attached to some kind of Humanoid-Lupine form covered in dark black fur. Not to mention the razor-sharp looking claws at the ends of their feet and arms.
The light seemed to have agitated them because the one Aster had directly lit up howled with its head reared back and its companions all did the same. The first one charged forward and Athena couldn't help but scream.
The sound of gunfire erupted into the clearing and the creature flopped and fell dead in front of her before dissolving into black flakes. A figure landed next to them, Warlock cloak flapping behind them. Wasting no time Athena and the others dematerialized into her backpack and out of danger.
"Looks like I arrived just in time."
Athena couldn't help but let out a laugh tinged with relief. "Yes, you did. I don't know what these things are but they're giving off slight paracausal readings Guardian. Also they reacted violently to the Light."
"Yeah I caught that. Looks like I'm gonna have to give these puppers the Old Yeller treatment." She quipped while racking her shotgun. In response the beasts howled again and this time they all charged at once.
Saya fired at the nearest one, its head exploding and its momentum carrying its body past her as she twirled out of the away. Her shotgun barked again, this time hitting one center mass and blowing it back towards two of its companions bowling them over even as it dissipated. With those taken care of for now she turned her attention behind her where two more were charging at her. She smirked as a staff of blue crystalline ice formed in her hand; two blue orbs spiraling out the tip as she thrust it forwards and as they hit they caused the first one to freeze. A spray of twelve-gauge buckshot shattered it; the corona of entropic energy slowing its partner down, and giving her enough time to fire her last shell.
Without missing a beat her shotgun disappeared and in her hands was her trusty hand cannon. A quick assessment of her situation showed she was still outnumbered by quite a bit, and she was all alone. She needed some backup.
"Time to even the odds a bit."
Power coalesced into her hand before she tossed it out. The energy solidified, taking the shape of a small eye-shaped turret made of the same blue ice as the staff. Immediately it began turning and firing at the enemies all around her. Its wispy blue projectiles homing in on the black werewolf looking creatures. As they hit the entropic energy of Stasis sapped their energy and slowed them down. Any that were hit again found themselves encased in freezing paracausal ice.; it was these that she aimed for. Her hand cannon barked as enemies where shattered. The resulting energy release either slowing or freezing the others around them in a continuous cascade.
A ping on her radar had her turning just in time to see one of the few remaining creatures lung at her, claws outstretched and maw open ready to rend and tear her to pieces. In a split second decision, instead of trying to move out of the way, she instead let herself fall backwards with its attack. Her shields took most of the strain as she tumbled backwards; the creature unable to stay on top of her. As she did she pointed her gun at its belly and fanned the hammer firing one, two, three, four, five shots point blank into its underside before it tumbled off of her. She rolled with it, using the momentum to roll over her head and back onto her feet.
"Ow." She winced. "I think I strained something. Think I'll leave the dodge rolling to the Hunters."
"Yes," Edelweiss drawled, "not quite as graceful."
It was then she noticed the sudden dearth of black fur, claws and howling. Looking around she could see the last of the creatures dissipating into nothing. Her little Stasis turret-buddy faithfully on the lookout now that there we no longer any targets around.
She stumbled back as Athena rematerialized and began quickly scanning her turret. "What're you-" she was interrupted as the Ghost turned around and began scanning her instead. "Athena what're you doing?"
"Scanning the Darkness you utilize while using Stasis."
Saya leaned back as Athena rose to be eye level with and blinked the spots out of her eyes as she scanned her. "Okaaaaayy, but why?"
Athena floated forwards and stayed there, facing away from her for a bit before finally turning around and looking at her. "Those creatures were giving off slightly paracausal readings."
"You mentioned that, yeah."
"Right, well, I noticed that it seemed similar to Darkness but not quite so. However, at the time I was more worried about our survival." She shook her shell. "Anyways, after comparing it to the Darkness utilized by you I've come to the conclusion that while it is a type of Darkness it's not our Darkness."
Eve materialized followed by Aster. "What do you mean?" She asked.
"It's hard to explain, especially since I don't fully understand yet but, it's like this Darkness and our Darkness are...distantly related? They serve the same function in that they're the opposite side of the coin to Light but without a comparison of that Light and our Light I won't be able to say for certain."
Everyone went silent at that, each processing what they were just told.
"Well, if we're not sure then anything we come up will simply be conjecture." Edelweiss piped in. "I suggest we table the matter for later. We do have more pressing issues at the current moment."
"Weiss is right!" Saya exclaimed while clapping her hands together, "We need to figure out where we are and how to get home. Speaking of," she looked to her Ghost, " what's the status of the Arrowhawk?"
"Not good I'm afraid. I'm getting status reports and there's a lot of internal damage."
"Oof. What're we looking like?"
"Well as you know the transmat system is on the fritz, the anti-grav is barely functioning enough to keep it in a stable orbit, and one of the engines is damaged."
"What about the onboard vault?"
"That is a spot of good news luckily enough. Our Glimmer stores are still at their previous levels as well as all onboard armor and weaponry is in storage, unfortunately without the transmat system we can't access it."
"Hmmmm." Saya hummed in thought for a moment before accessing a part of her HUD. "Looks like we have a decent amount of Glimmer on us at the moment and I have a veritable armory on me already. I could probably arm , like, four or five other guardians in terms of weapons."
"Then we'll have to make due until the ship's automated repair system can stabilize it enough to at least bring it down safely. From there we can affect some real repairs using our personal cache of Glimmer."
"Right. Well in that case we should probably focus on getting out of here and heading towards that signal you guys detected."
All the Ghosts nodded and dematerialized in flashes of blue sparks.
"So where was that signal?"
"Due west Guardian." Athena answered.
/-/
Despite the previous kerfuffle, the rest of the trip out of the forest was actually quite uneventful. She encountered a few more of those werewolf creatures but never in the numbers that had ambushed the Ghosts. She had also encountered some kind of bear version but it was alone and went down easily enough. Eventually she reached a point where she could see the edge of the tree line and then she was out.
"What the heck am I looking at?"
Saya stared out over a small overlook that led down to some ruins, at the center of which was a massive tower jutting up into the sky.
"I don't know..." Eve's voice sounded in her ears, and she could hear the sadness in it. "But whatever this is...something terrible must have happened. There's nothing but those creatures roaming around down there."
Scanning in between the various building the Awoken woman could see the dark monsters skulking about, and in way more varieties than just the wolf and bear types she had already encountered. She could see some kind of boar, some weird two-legged lizard thing, giant avians, and even some that looked like wooly-mammoths! But what really caught her attention was what was at the top of the tower
"Now, I'm not an architect by any means but, I don't think giant dragon statues are something that people hang off of towers like that."
No response.
"Guys?"
"Do you feel that?" came Athena's hushed voice in her ear.
"Feel what?"
"At the top of that tower. That giant statue is giving off serious Darkness readings."
"Oh?" Saya looked around again. "If that's the case then it's probably what's drawing all these things here."
"Probably. But more than that there's another signature up there. It feels like Light. It's faint...very faint. But it's definitely up there."
"Well then I guess we know where to head next." Saya pulled out a sniper rifle and looked through the scope to the buildings down below. She could probably make her way along the rooftops, and then once she got close to the tower she'd have to find a way inside. Due to the lack of active illumination she doubted it still had power, and even if it did the elevators probably weren't in working order given the state of the thing.
"But then again..." she mumbled to herself.
"Whatcha thinkin Guardian?" Eve's curious probing broke her out of her musing.
"I was thinking of running along the rooftops, but there's no guarantee that those werewolf things can't climb, plus the mammoths are big enough to just ram the buildings, not to mention I'd probably be harassed nonstop by the giant birds."
"Seems needlessly complicated." Added Edelweiss.
"Yeah, so I figure we have two options. Option One: We run along the rooftops fighting off the birds and trying not to fall down to the hordes of dark beasts below. Or Option Two: I do what Guardians do best and let my Light shine." After a pause she continued, "Only problem is that you said they're paracausal and Darkness based. Will they be a major threat to us?"
"Not really," Athena clarified, "I've gone over the readings some more and while they're made from Darkness that's the extent of it. From what I've gathered-and I'm very confident in this assessment- they can't utilize the Darkness. The Darkness gives them form but that's it; they're not like the Taken or Hive that can drain or actively feed on Light. They may be drawn to it like the Taken though."
"That's probably how they found you."
"And why they reacted so poorly to Aster's Light."
"But they haven't noticed us yet."
"That's probably because you're using Stasis and are attuned to Darkness. I bet if you were to swap to a Light based element, you'd light up to their senses...no pun intended."
Saya snorted at that but then refocused. "Well to be honest I really would rather not have to deal with them once we come back down from that tower, and if they're no major threat to us then that just makes this all the more easier."
She focused in on herself and pushed away the desire for dominance and control. Instead she focused on her Light. More specifically she focused on the stars above; on their dual nature as both a roiling ball of superheated plasma as well as their life giving warmth and light. She felt as a spark was ignited within her and grew into a roaring inferno. She opened her eyes, held out her palm and watched with a smile as a miniature sun formed from nothing.
She then watched as-almost like a switch was flipped- all of the dark creatures went on alert. The wolf and bear creatures lifted their heads up and began sniffing the air, the avians began cawing and took flight into searching patterns and the mammoth ones trumpeted out and began herding together, forming a small stampede.
Edelweiss let out a small, dry chuckle. "Eyes up, Guardian."
"Yeah, yeah I see 'em." Saya rolled her eyes in response. "Just wish I had better light than just...the...moon...Oh you've got to be kidding me."
"Huh. Well that explains a lot."
Saya stared up at the shattered moon as the Ghosts began discussing in her ear. It made sense when she thought about it: An FTL jump far longer than what was normal, dark creatures of shadow that they'd never seen before, no Vanguard signals that they could detect. She knew they were probably on another world already going by those facts alone, but seeing the shattered moon overhead just really forced her to come to terms with the fact that yeah, they were on another world really really far from home.
A small shock through her armor brought her out of her thinking as Edelweiss spoke up. "I don't know why you're getting worked up. It's not like we can do anything about this. Besides, look at it this way:" she could hear the smirk in his voice as he spoke the rest, "you've beaten the Hunters at discovering something new."
Chuckling to herself, Saya pulled out her hand cannon and began her run into the ruins. Good ol' Weiss; he always knew what to say to get her out of a funk. Was it any wonder why he's her Ghost?
The creatures turned to face her, almost as if they could sense her location and charged at her. She wasted no time, aiming down her sights and firing into the oncoming horde. Even with being at the extreme of her weapon's effective range, with how many there were she didn't have to worry about aiming, let alone missing. For every creature she put down into crumbling dust, two more filled it's place.
A cry drew her attention skywards and she watched as three of the smaller avians dove down towards her with their talons extended. She waited until they were closer and in range before she held out her hand and snapped causing five burning sparks to fan out and explode in their faces. The accumulated solar energy scorched them before the finally died in fiery explosions, the force of whom caused the ones below them to stumble while also scorching them as well.
Taking advantage of this opening she jumped and them immediately forced her Light beneath her causing her to glide over the group in front if her; as she flew she continued to fire at any more dark birds in her vicinity. At the zenith of her flight she looked around and saw that she was only about half way to the base of the tower. Spotting an opening she kept up her glide a little longer before she went down in a Phoenix Dive, landing in a crouching position and sending out a wave of light that scorched any enemies around her. As she stood up a small orb of fire shimmered into existence near her, and her new solar buddy wasted no time lobbing flaming mortars of Solar energy at the group around her. Each impact sent creatures flying while also scorching and igniting them, clearing out swathes of enemies.
She then took the energy she normally would have used for her grenade and drew it into herself, wreathing her form in burning flames which superheated the air around her. She took to the air again, but this time she flew higher, further and faster than before, and she lingered for far longer; the superheated air acting as a rising force that pushed her higher and closer to her objective.
And all throughout this she never once stopped firing.
/-/
The continuous ticking of the clock on her bookshelf echoed throughout the study and, not for the first time, Glynda Goodwitch wanted to chuck it across the room with her Semblance. The sound reminded her far too much of Ozpin's office. Of when the worst she needed to worry about was giving reckless students detention and grading papers and spars. Of far simpler and happier times. But the office was gone; destroyed by the Grimm Wyvern that now sat perched atop it, forever petrified by the power of the Silver Eyes and standing as a beacon to all the Grimm.
How ironic that Beacon tower, which was meant to shine bright as a symbol of hope to the city of Vale and Remnant beyond, was now perverted in its purpose. She would almost laugh if it wasn't for it being so depressing and for her steely will. Worse than that however was that is stood as a testament to their failure.
Her failure.
She failed to see the signs for what they were: the Dust thefts, the infiltration of the CCT, the Breach. She failed to help Amber, and instead had joined James and Ozpin in writing her off for dead; trying to foist her power and responsibility -or what was left of it anyways- onto Pyrrha Nikos, another young woman who now lay dead, ashes in the wind, because of that accursed power. Not mention all the casualties and injuries amongst the students and staff during the attack, including Miss Xiao-Long.
They were supposed to be the most powerful Huntsmen, united under the goal of stopping Salem and preserving Human and Faunus kind. And they had failed utterly.
The sound of Port's boisterous laughter drew her from her downward spiral. She could hear him and Oobleck conversing rather loudly, interrupted periodically with more laughter. She shook her depressing thoughts from her head and allowed herself a small smile. At least not all was lost. There were some silver linings she supposed, not least of which was team CRDL. The team went from being the laughing stock of the Freshman year to being one of Vale's most stalwart defenders. It seems that whatever happened during the attack, it lit a fire under Mister Winchester's behind and kicked him into high gear. Qrow had called as well, not too long ago, and informed her that he, Miss Rose and the remnants of Team JNPR were heading to Haven Academy in Mistral to try and get answers from Lionheart.
With that small spark of hope rekindled she turned her attention back to her terminal. Even if she wasn't Deputy Headmistress anymore, she was still the only one who really knew how to do paperwork and the gaps in the Anti-Grimm Patrols for next week still needed to be filled in.
She reached across her desk to her teapot and poured herself another cup before turning back and stopping; a small alert was flashing in the center of her screen. She opened it, and that small spark of hope died and her heart sank to her feet. It was the monitoring system they had installed in the ruins of Beacon to keep track of all the Grimm drawn to the Wyvern's petrified corpse, and it was alerting her to the potential of a horde descending upon Vale.
As she scanned the incoming data her ears perked to the sound of footsteps rushing down the hall. It seem that Peter and Bart had received the alert as well. Sure enough, the door to her study burst open as both Huntsmen barged in with Oobleck at the front, eyes firmly glued to the large scroll in his hands, and Port right behind him, his bushy eyebrows and mustache scrunched down into a frown.
"Glynda," Oobleck began without even looking up, "have you seen the-"
"Alert? Yes, yes I have Bart."
He finally looked up at her, adjusting his glasses causing the light to reflect off of them. "We need to recall all Huntsmen teams and alert the Council for possible evacuation."
She nodded in agreement and stood up from her chair with her hands planted firmly on her desk. "Agreed, we'll also need to alert the pilots. We're going to need every Bullhead available if we're to-"
"Hold on just a second." Port spoke up. He was stroking his mustache while looking down at the display in his friend's hands.
"Peter we don't have time to-"
Glynda's retort was cutoff with a raised hand as the boisterous man looked at her with one of his eyes cracked open. "Glynda, Bartholomew, look at their movements."
"Their movements?" They answered in unison before both looking down at their displays.
Sure enough, they saw that while the Grimm were indeed moving en masse, they weren't heading towards Vale or even towards the borders of Beacon's grounds. They were instead heading into the center of the campus itself.
Glynda looked back up to her two colleagues. "What does this mean?"
Port, still stroking his mustache pointed at the largest grouping. "They're gathering around something. And notice how large swathes of their numbers are disappearing before filling in again." He traced their path with his finger some more. "And notice how they're constantly moving along, almost like they're chasing something."
Oobleck eyes widened in realization. "Or someone."
"Impossible!" Glynda ground out. "All paths to and from Beacon are guarded by both Huntsmen teams and Valean Militia, as well as all air traffic being monitored and prohibited from coming anywhere near Beacon for fear of riling up the horde."
Port shrugged. "Well that's the only explanation my dear. They're chasing after someone and that someone is killing them in droves!" He let out a hearty laugh. "Why, that reminds me of one time in my younger days, back when I was known as Port the Fort. A title I earned for being a veritable wall against whom the Grimm broke."
"Well then that someone is either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish." Sighed Oobleck. "And if I were a betting man I'd say both."
"Regardless," Glynda said as she walked around her desk, "that doesn't mean they should die because of it. We need to get there as soon as possible. Port," her calling out his name snapped him out of his reverie and he looked at her, eyebrow raised, "I need to you go and prepare a Bullhead for immediate departure. I'm going to inform the on-duty militia that something has riled up the Grimm but that we have it handled."
"Glynda, it's past normal operating hours."
She looked to the clock and sure enough, despite having just looked at it, she failed to realize that it was nearly midnight. Just how long had she been working? Mentally she sighed, vowing to one day finally take a vacation.
She pressed on anyways. "Let them know its an emergency." After a moment she added, "And that they will be well compensated."
Port nodded and turned on his heel out of the room, hand already reaching into his breast pocket for his scroll. Oobleck, for his part, simply nodded to her and followed after his friend, both to help coordinate with the pilot and to give Glynda the room so she could make her call to the militia headquarters.
Once the door closed Glynda allowed herself to physically sigh out of frustration before gathering herself and reaching for her scroll. She was going to save whoever this idiot was. Even if she had to do it by dragging them back with her telekinesis kicking and screaming.
Hope you all liked it! Please feel free to leave constructive feedback as I strive to constantly improve my writing in order to ensure the best possible reading experience.
See you all next chapter!