Back in the Mausoleum, the Shadows used their downtime to take stock. They called in reserve ammo drops from their jump ships, serviced their rifles, plucked chitin from their armor, anything to ready themselves for the next fight, which they were sure was just around the corner; to be heralded by the return of their founders. And although the noises of their weapons and equipment echoed throughout the chamber, the Dreadnaught's Ambient hum still loomed in the distance, reminding them starkly that this was not a place they wanted to remain in for too long.
Some time passed. Trickles of starlight beamed through Dreadnaught's open Hull and seeped into the chamber. No one would say it, nor would they show it in their actions, but they were unsettled.
They were here, aboard the single most famous Ship in the Hive's long and storied history, in search of a menagerie of Vex-Hive abominations with the power to distort time and reanimate the dead. Here, where their Foe's head, the so-called 'Forgotten King', had brought that famous, deadly ship - whose super weapon was operational - to the Awoken's Dreaming City where a three-way proxy war raged. And what's more, The King has done that in an alarmingly short amount of time. If Bahren Seth and the Forgotten could do what Oryx's entourage could not, then there was no telling what else they might be capable of. Each second Primus Umbra waited was another second they could have spent towards the goal of rescuing Cletus and ending this war. But they could not make a move without their full might, they needed Hades.
The Warlock was, without question, the team's most lethal Guardian. His light was formidable and his gun skill was unmatched amongst the clan, but those things did not make him the warrior he was. Instead, it was his heart and mind that made the Warlock so formidable. He was considerate of everyone, praising each of his comrades on their kills and accomplishments whenever he could, be it in the crucible or on mission. In the field, he commanded the team to an expert level. From a distance, he made good use of their strengths and covered their weaknesses as best he could. And when they were in a pinch, he was first to throw himself at their enemies to ensure his allies survival, at the cost of his own safety.
Hades was always the first one into a fight, and last one off the battlefield. And, in the time between missions, he always revered his fellow Shadows as brothers. He uplifted them, praised them. He offered the advice of a brother when it was needed. Though he was technically the second youngest in the clan as far as resurrection years went, he never liked to acknowledge it but the rest of the group saw him as something of a leader. Which would make it all the more tragic if he were corrupted by Hive magic...
Removed from the others, Shade shuffled his feet along the Dreadnaught's corridors. The Titan had been thinking about Hades and the abomination he allowed to adorn his gun. It alarmed him that the man would take up something so dark and yet, it also didn't surprise him. He could recall the Warlock mentioning that he'd wielded a replica Thorn in his past. The weapon was purified of Hive Arcana, but it was no weapon of light either. The Weapon of Sorrow relished in not only killing one's enemies, but rending them, which was always concerning to Shade. Hades' replica Thorn was lost in the Red War, but recently the Warlock had forged and wielded a new Dark weapon, a Hand Cannon called Malfeasance'. It was no weapon of sorrow, but to obtain it one had to let darkness touch their light.
Hades had always had something of a competitive streak, but recently his actions had seemed to go a little further than just competition. He dueled in Shaxx's Competitive division, relishing - it seemed - at triumphing over Guardians of renown. He could also be frequently found galivanting in the Drifter's Gambit, a battle that put him in direct contact with Darkness. And, as of late, he'd even accepted the Drifter's name of 'Dredgen'. The same kind of Dredgen that the infamous Dredgen Yor had branded himself. All of this and whispers of a man with a Golden Gun Hunting those who took on Yor's name made Shade even more uneasy.
"Damn it!" Shade grumbled, the suddenness of his voice startled his Ghost, Saber as he realized where all of this began. "This is because of the Drifter…" He concluded.
"Hmm?" The Ghost asked. She could read his mind, but it was flustered with emotions and confusion. "This had all started with the Drifter and his Gambit, that's when Hades had started to really enjoy fighting Guardians. What did that man show him?" Shade wondered aloud.
Saber floated alongside him, she knew he was upset, she knew 'why' he was upset. Seeds of doubt had been planted within his mind for a while now. And being the passionately caring person that he is, Saber knew he'd fight tooth and nail to keep his friend safe. So, how would she get through to him? Would she tell him not to worry? That the Warlock was strong, and any temptations of the Darkness would be fought off? That'd be lying…Rezzyl Azzir was among the strongest guardians who ever lived, highest one of all. It was so very easy to fall when you were at the top.
"Shade..." She began to speak, her sweet nurturing voice hitting Shade's Audio receptors like the most blissful tune. "He'll be ok, he always is. Right now, focus on the others, on yourself. We need everyone at their best in this fight and that includes you."
The Titan sighed. "You're right." He admitted to his Ghost as he pat her shell. "You're always right."
With Saber's help, Shade knew that this was not the time to fracture his mind with worries, they needed to be unified if they were to see this war through. "Thank you, little light, though I can't promise that my worries will totally disappear. I'll hold them until after this war is done."
Saber lacks a mouth, but her eye smiles in response to her Guardian's words. The two left the corridor and headed back into the Mausoleum where the rest of the team awaited them. Saber folded away in a flash of light as Shade approached the others.
"There you are." Ryan started. "How's our Warlock?"
Shade hesitated a moment. "He's…fine, just recovering now."
Pyro chimed in, a little impatient. "Any idea how long it takes? I'm becoming uneasy sitting here for so long."
"No idea. It could be minutes, or it could be hours."
"In that case, let's go wait on the ship. We can always just transmat back in."
Shade looked up at the hole in the ceiling, leading out into space and pointed at the debris floating by.
"Hate to burst your bubble Pyro, but…"
Everyone looked out through the hole and saw half of the Warship floating through space.
"Ahh! What happened?!" Pyro cried out.
Wolf spoke up. "You guys didn't notice? We were pulled through the portal, a lot of debris and part of Saturn's ring came with us. But when the portal closed, it closed on half of the ship."
"Well, there goes our home away from home…" Ace said a little disappointed.
"Cheer up guys." Shade started, taking a seat. "We'll always have the Tower."
"Yeah, until its reduced to rubble again." Pyro grumbled.
Before anyone could refute the Hunter's pessimism, the air of the ship began to howl and a tear rippled open in the space before them.
The Guardians jolted to their feet. "Taken?!" Shade Shouted. Having been resurrected at the height of the Taken war, he'd grown too accustomed to the transdimensional space zombies over the years and could usually call out their arrival with high accuracy. This time though, he could not have been more wrong.
From the portal now rippling in the air before them, the Forgotten Confidant; Mahren-Seth, made her presence known.
"You!" Ryan growled.
The Wizard shot a glance at the Titan, the flesh at the edge of her teeth rippled upwards into a disgusting smirk. "Hello, dear." She jested as she tore at reality and broke it off into shards of glass.
"Ryan! Ward!" Shade commanded and the former Sunbreaker wasted absolutely no time in expelling his light into a Ward of Dawn.
Mahren fired the shards of splintered reality down at the Guardians; they wasted no time in taking shelter beneath Ryan's ward of Dawn. When her barrage ended, the Wizard followed up not with another attack, but with a lighthearted chuckle.
"My, that light of yours is so resilient!" She chortled.
"You like that? You should come closer, let me show you what it can really do!" Ryan all but roared.
The Confidant flared her cartilage-less nostrils. "Pass." She scoffed. Her eyes swept across the Guardians, she counted 5. "It appears your 6th member is absent." She said rather matter-of-factly. "A shame, I was looking to pay him back for what he did to my eye. 'Suppose that's a good thing, though. If he's using the backdoor I implanted on his psyche, then retribution isn't too far."
"You wont live long enough to see him!" Ryan roared out, igniting himself aflame and summoning the Burning Maul. "You're gonna die here, in the dark, with me!"
"Not, before you accept the gift I have for you." The Wizard said, confidently.
The Guardians were dumbfounded. "What gift?" Shade asked.
Mahren opened her palm and in it an emerald portal formed. Out of it's green flames emerged Cletus, the Clan's Guardian-less ghost and the focus of their crusade.
"Hello!" Cletus exclaimed with glee upon seeing his family again.
"Cletus!" Ace exclaimed
"You're alive!" Shade added.
Cletus was overcome with joy, "Hey everybody!" He said with every scrap of his little heart, only to then be silenced.
CRACK
The brief happiness brought on by their reunion turned into pure horror as Mahren Seth closed her palm, constricting Cletus's Shell, choking the light within him.
"Cletus!" Shade exclaimed so loudly that his voice nearly cracked.
"By order of the King, I return this to you." Mahren-Seth let a sinister smile crack across her face as she dropped the Ghost to Primus Umbra's feet. Shade lunged at Cletus' lifeless body, gently picking him up in his hands. Pieces of his shell cracked and broke off, falling to the floor, exposing a crushed up core.
"Cletus! Cletus, speak to me!" Shade pleaded.
Cletus' eye twitched as it turned to look at Shade.
"H-h-hi-i-i f-fri-friend!..." Cletus barely let out, his eyes still full of happiness, but his light was faint.
That was the absolute last straw for Ryan.
"THATS IT!" He leapt off after Mahren, enraged. Mahren tore reality back and threw it at them all, only for Ryan to swing his burning axe and knock it away.
"Oh, so you've got some new toys, do you? Come share them with me…" She grabbed more pieces of reality. "...Let's play!" She exclaimed as she let the pieces fly into the ground, the guardians scattered and opened fire, Ryan rushed in to engage Mahren while Ace cast his Fist of Havoc and backed him up.
While the Shadows fought Mahren, Shade landed off to the side of the Mausoleum and set down with Cletus's shell. Saber appeared beside him to inspect the damage.
"Can we save him?" Shade asked.
"Yes, but not here." Shade answered. "We need to get him back to the tower."
"Transmat him up to the ship."
"We shouldn't do that."
"Why not?"
"Transmatting turns an object into digitized matter and back. Since his form is compromised, it may damage him further."
Shade looked around and found a platform way off into the distance. "Ramparts, please" He requested, and Saber made the necessary switches, trading his current gear out for a set that could accommodate the Lion Ramparts.
With the extra lift power embedded in his boots, Shade flew into the air and landed on the platform off in the distance. There, he set Cletus down, took off his mark and covered the Ghost in it.
"I'm sorry buddy…I won't lie, I don't know if we can save you…"
"I-it's…ok." Cletus responded, straining himself. "you-you're Primus Umbra, you can do anything, I know it!"
His words broke Shade's heart.
"Yeah…yeah, you're right. We can."
"Now…g-go beat that bad lady's ass!"
Shade nodded to the Ghost, obliging him. "I promise you, we will."
Shade turned around and flew off, Saber transmatting in his armor. "Let loose." Saber commanded. "Make her pay."
Shade didn't need to be told twice. He exploded with arc energy, more than he'd ever burned in his entire life, and rocketed off towards Mahren and the Guardians. "MAHREN SETH!" He roared out in a voice rivaling Thunder as he charged the Forgotten Wizard down; the other Shadows of Primus Umbra followed behind and joined him.
As the Guardians faced off against the Forgotten's Confidant in the Mausoleum, Hades faced off against their King in the Forgotten's Nexus. And he was losing. Badly.
"Gah!" He shouted in pain, falling to his hands and knees, panting, desperately trying to catch his breath upon a piece of what used to be the dreadnaught.
He and The King now stood in simulated Starlight. The World around them wasn't real, but nevertheless, the blows Hades felt were. The place they were was tearing his mind apart, and as a result his real life body was being affected. He was already almost at his limit, but the King was just getting warmed up.
"I've simulated trillions of worlds since landing on this ship." He started, floating towards a worn out Hades. "You managed to dodge a few, and for that, I commend you." He reached the Guardian and lifted him into the air, crushing his chest armor and helmet.
"GAHHHHH!" Hades screamed.
The King punched Hades away, then simulated himself behind the flailing Warlock and punched him again. And again, and again and again, before finally grabbing Hades and forcefully driving his massive sword through the Warlock's torso. Hades struggled to lift himself off of the blade, then he was stabbed once more, this time by one of the King's copies. And again, by another copy, and again and again, until there wasn't enough mass left to impale.
The King and his copies tore their Temporal blades from the Warlock's simulant bodies and let him drift. "Be forgotten." The King decreed; and it was so.
Hades drifted away into a nothingness between ones and zeroes. The pain the Warlock felt was indescribable. Unfortunately, he wasn't dead. He'd instead been left to feel the psyche bending agony the king had left for him…But…why? Why was he still alive? Why had this king gone through such lengths of throwing simulated worlds at Hades, only to leave him alive?
Hades looked into the sky and paid closer attention to the worlds. He realized that they bore familiar images and locations, all of which Hades had seen before in declassified Raid reports and post-op Hidden excursions. A chamber with stores of light, a room with an oculus, guarded by a set of totems, a final lair overlooking Saturn in all its magnificence. These weren't just random worlds, they were Oryx's Throne World replicated an incalculable amount of times. But why? He wondered if they were being used to power the Dreadnaught's weapon now that the Taken King had been deposed. But, if that was the case, only one should have done the job, why was the Forgotten King rendering so many? And, most importantly, if the King could create to that degree…why didn't he just delete the Warlock from the space and be done with it?
Hades looked upon the King's chest, and saw the Hydra's eyes were glowing bright red. Then it hit him.
'Oh my.' he thought as the realization washed over him. 'That's not armor he's wearing, the Hydra on his chest, it's still alive; that's what's simulating Oryx's throne, not the King.'
The Warlock's eyes widened. "If it's not the king…" He said aloud. "Then those worlds aren't being made with a comprehension on paracausality. Which means, just like the Vex, you can't simulate Light."
Upon realizing this, Hades' light began to shine, his wounds began to heal and he started to lift himself up, regaining posture. He now knew exactly what he had to do. His body split itself apart. His skin, muscles, bone, armor, they all shredded away, and he stood as a being of pure light. Bahren Seth and all copies of himself turned to face the Warlock, glowing brighter and brighter.
"What? Still here?" The King asked with mild annoyance.
Before he could React, Hades was suddenly upon the Forgotten King, he burned away the copies with ease, only leaving himself and the King before the Warlock blasted the King's being with his light.
Bahren Seth snarled. "I was stockpiling these, but no matter! I can always create more!" Bahren retaliated, sending another volley of simulated worlds at the Warlock. Hades let the worlds hit him World after world, the size of small moons, struck against him. But he felt no pain. In fact, they didn't even phase him. Now that he knew he was a variable the King and his ornamental Think machine could not account for, Hades of the First Shadow would make his own fate.
When the barrage of simulated thrones had ended, the King watched in shock and a twinge of curiosity at the continued existence of the Warlock. "What…is this?" Bahren asked. In all his time amongst the Vex network, he'd only ever seen Echoes of a Human with comparable strength. Face Hades was an entirely new experience for him.
"You really need to quit throwing shit." In this realm, he wasn't as potentially powerful as the King, not even close. But as a being of Light, Bahren could not cause him lasting agony, because half of what Bahren Seth could not understand him. They were stalemated. Both in a state of 'check' in a simulated battle of chess.
Bahren, a Hive Knight at heart, raised his temporal power to face the Warlock down again. To his further Surprise, the Warlock held a hand out. "Wait!...wait…" He pleaded. "This is getting us nowhere. You can't be rid of me, and I can't overpower you. And it would take you several Vex Lifetimes to build an algorithm capable of dealing with my light and…well, I'm not gonna stand here and let you do that. We'll have been at this for all eternity, and not gained any ground over the other."
"You would subject yourself to an eternity of war?" The King asked. "Pain and suffering in place of finality?"
"For everyone else? Without question."
There was a pause between the two Warriors. Bahren Seth's eyes seemed to flicker and waver. Hades could tell he was having some sort of an epiphany behind those beady, glowing emerald eyes. The Warlock had never known the Hive to hesitate at the idea of ruthlessly slaughtering their foes, such was the way of their Sword Logic after all. That Bahren Seth not only hesitated, but seemed to ponder on their predicament gave Hades a twinge of hope. IF he could give the Knight-Transform pause, then perhaps he could take it a step further. Maybe he could even reason with the Conglomerate being.
"There's no easy way to get rid of me…and I think your sister wanted it this way." Hades said, having chosen his words with a degree of measurement.
The mention of Mahren Seth made Bahren squint his eyes. "If we are not to do battle, then are we to trade words?" The King asked.
"Preferably." Hades answered. "I've never been apart of a lasting conflict that couldn't be solved with words."
"And so the Light-spawn seeks to add the title of negotiator to it's repertoire." Bahren chuckled, somewhat mockingly. The King lowered his blade, and the two remained in the VEx Network. "Verywell then, warrior. Let us trade words. What brings you to the mind of the Savior of the Hive?"
Hades took a breath. He'd gotten the Knight-Hybrid to halt his attack, now he needed to get information. But, as with all things, his approach needed to be measured, lest the King regress to a more barbaric means of confrontation.
"Forgotten King, Bahren-Seth…" The Warlock began. "My name is Hades of Primus Umbra…" The Warlock paused. He and his cohorts had come to genocide the Forgotten and steal their Ghost back. But, as their War had drawn on and things were revealed, different questions were raised. The Warlock sought to bring up the most pressing of them now. "...I want to know what you're doing in Awoken space."
Bahren's eyes widened. "Oh?"
Hades doubled down. "Why have you taken the Taken King's Dreadnaught to the Dreaming City?"
The King stood at attention. Sword at his side, ready to fight again. He didn't owe the Light-spawn any explanation, but he was also taken aback by the directness of the Lightbearer's question. Here The Male Seth stood with the ability to commit agony upon a soul who could bear it eternally. Others might have cowered in their approach, that the Light-spawn did not was admirable. Respectable even.
"Hmm…" The King pondered for a moment, then he set his blade down; stabbing it into the floor between himself and the Warlock. "To know why I've come to the City of Dreams, you need to understand how I came to be." He said. "You need to know what it is to be Forgotten."
Hades clenched his fists and took a breath. The Warlock could not afford to drop his guard, but he could not bear to show weakness either. Bahren may have had a Vex Hydra fused to his sternum, but he was still very much Hive. Weakness was unworthiness and in order to learn about their enemy, Hades needed to be Worthy. And thus, Warlock's response came calm through an appearance of unwavering resolution.
"I'm all ears." Hades said. "Teach me."
End of Chapter 16