The Queen of Hearts

Chapter 12: Freeing Starlight

An explosion rocked the arena as the ogre's beam tore through the sand just to Cayde's left. He deftly leaped over a rock and smirked. He was close enough now to do some real damage. He generated a grenade in his hand and tossed it so it stuck to the side of the beast's head. Sensing a foe, the contraption detonated, engulfing the ogre's head in fire. This caused it to stagger and the beam to fizzle out. "Now's your chance!"

Shiro raised his arc staff, crackling with energy, and flung it like a javelin. It buried itself in the ogre's chest, dealing massive damage and paralyzing the creature in place. "All you old-timer!"

Daydra, who had been circling the arena outside the ogre's line of sight, sprung into action, sprinting up behind the beast and vaulting up the chitin on its backside. Standing atop its shoulders now, he called upon all the remaining Light within him. The eyes of his Celestial Nighthawk glowed furiously as his entire body became engulfed in solar energy. The helmet coalesced all the Golden Gun shots into one powerful bullet, and the weapon formed in Daydra's hand. He grabbed hold of the ogre's head, jammed the barrel of his super into one of its eye sockets, and pulled the trigger. The shot burrowed through the creature in an instant, igniting the very blood in its veins. Daydra hopped off just as a chain reaction triggered within his foe. First the arms exploded, then the back blew out, until finally fire erupted from its face and it fell to the earth with a crash of sand and rock; vanquished.

Daydra shuffled over to Cayde and Shiro, exhausted. They clapped him on the back.

"Well done," said Shiro. "I think we gave them the fight they wanted, don't you?"

Cayde looked about the arena nervously. "Uh, guys? They don't look too happy."

They followed his gaze and found thousands of Fallen staring back at them; a mixture of shock and anger. Daydra glanced up at Talsiks, who was expressionless as he watched from his balcony. "He's calculating," said the veteran. "We were supposed to die in this fight. Now he's deciding what to do with us."

The crowd quickly became unruly, demanding their deaths and spitting insults. It became a roar that enveloped the arena.

Suddenly Talsiks stepped up to the balcony and held up a hand. The noise died down as his voice boomed across the area. "You guardians… live up to your name. It is no wonder we lost the assault on your City."

The crowd seemed confused at his words, as if they were blasphemy. Cayde suspected the loss may have wounded their collective honor, and avoided addressing their shortcomings until now.

"But," Talsiks continued, "we have learned from the experience. Now we have technology and weapons that surpass your own." He gestured to the crowd. "What do you say we give them a real challenge?!"

The Fallen erupted in cheers and shouts of the affirmative nature.

"Very well." Talsiks turned to an attendant Vandal and gave an inaudible order. The minion punched something into a datapad and a loud humming came from the sky. A dropship was deployed from the ketch above, and it lowered through the open ceiling of the arena. Attached to its belly was a spider tank with yellow painted stripes, and a generator on its back.

Seeing where this was going, Daydra growled. "What the hell are we going to do about that?!"

"I was going to ask you," said Cayde.

Daydra glared at him.

Shiro sighed. "Well gentlemen, if we don't make it out of this… I must say it's been an honor working with you both. Especially you sir," he said, nodded to Daydra.

"Hey!" said Cayde.

"I have a better idea."

All three guardians froze as a new voice crackled to life on their comms.

Daydra breathed in relief. "Torres, is that you?"

"Yes sir. I found the comms array. Our normal lines of communication are no longer jammed. I'm still trying to locate the power source for the EMP dome though, so we can't contact the outside yet."

The spider tank peeled off the belly of the drop ship and landed in the sand before them with a crash and a wave of sand.

"It's a start!" said Cayde. "Please tell me you have a way out for us, buddy."

"The hatch that Hive monster came through is connected to their systems. I can open it for you in ten seconds."

The spider tank began to unfold, and the generator on its back activated, enveloping it in a white energy shield.

"Hey Torres, let's make that five seconds."

"Opening now."

The hatch cranked back, revealing the hole in the ground that the ogre had come through previously. Daydra leapt into action, skirting around the tank's feet. "Quickly, get inside!"

The other two followed him just as the tank's legs centered and it began to rotate, trying to follow them with its cannon. One after the other, the guardians dove into the hole. The tank fired on it, causing a huge explosion, but they were already gone. The crowd was in an uproar, and Talsiks was gripping the railing on his balcony in anger and confusion. He barked orders for a lockdown in Eliksni, but the vandal near him responded with concern and fear. Their control center was not responding. Talsiks growled. "So, someone is meddling with things they shouldn't. Rally the troops. We put a stop to this now."

Deep under the arena, the guardians landed in the service tunnels and dodged out of the way as debris from the explosion above rained down upon them. They regrouped at the edge of the loading chamber and rushed into the nearest tunnel.

"Make a left at the fork up ahead," said Torres on the comms. "Then make two rights and go straight until you reach a stairwell."

"You can see us?" said Shiro.

"Not anymore. Enemies were closing on my position. Had to abandon the control center, but we wreaked havoc on their systems and downloaded schematics for navigation."

"We?" Cayde asked.

"I have the ghosts."

"Oh thank the Traveler!"

"Talia's is… surprisingly terrifying. And keeps wanting to go off on his own to look for her."

They reached the stairs that Torres had mentioned and began to climb.

"I'll help him!" said Cayde. "What is your position?"

"Here." The door at the top of the staircase burst open and Torres was there with a stolen shock rifle in his hands and five ghosts surrounding him.

Cayde whistled. "Lookin' good. I'm impressed."

Torres rolled his eyes. "I never want to do something like this again," he said as he led them out into a side hallway.

Suddenly Reeki was in Cayde's face. "W-w-we have to help her! She's f-f-fading!"

Cayde's heart raced in his chest. "Where is she, little buddy?"

"This way!" The ghost exclaimed, suddenly shooting off in the other direction. Cayde sprinted after him without hesitation.

Torres stopped. "Cayde, wait!"

He paused, running in place. "I need to go! She needs my help!"

"I know." He reached into his bag and threw something at Cayde.

The hunter caught the stock and expertly flipped it around on his finger. "Ace?" he breathed. "But how?"

"Ran through the armory on the way here. Found all our weapons stashed away in there. Here, for when you find her." He threw a bow and a quiver full of arrows at him too.

Cayde caught them and smirked, storing them in his armor matrices. "You're alright, kid. I'll be back with Talia!"

Daydra nodded. "Go get her, slugger. We'll see what we can do about the EMP dome."

Cayde nodded in return, twirled his hand cannon, and sprinted after Reeki.

Talia's ghost was surprisingly quick, zooming around corners and spiraling around obstacles. Cayde had to slide on tight turns and nearly ran face first into a few Fallen along the way. He quickly dispatched them with headshots from his trusty Ace. Pulling the trigger just felt right and he twirled the weapon before reloading its magazine. Upon loading the new bullets, the magazine lit up with a fiery white light. "Atta boy."

As the duo hurried through the complex, an alarm suddenly began to blare, and many of the white lights overhead turned red.

"I guess they finally retook the control room. We're running out of time!"

Reeki nearly crashed into a set of sealed doors leading into the science wing and he twirled in frustration. "She's through h-h-here!"

"Stand back!" Cayde raised his burning Ace and fired his Memento Mori shot. It tore through the door, melting a wide hole in the center. Using that as leverage, Cayde pried the doors open and slipped through with Reeki in tow.

"O-o-over here!" Reeki exclaimed, jetting towards a large, dark lab.

Suddenly, a side door opened and a group of ten Fallen rushed out. They seemed like vandals, but were hunched over with spears in their hands.

"Reeki, get behind me!"

Reeki made a wide arc in the air and zoomed back to hide behind Cayde.

The exo smiled. "Been a while since I've seen some Wretches. You guys get stuck with guard duty while everyone else gets to have fun?"

The Fallen growled and thrust with their spears in defense.

Cayde twirled the Ace of Spades and cocked the hammer. "I'm afraid I'll have to make your bad day even worse."

The Fallen rushed him, and he sprinted to meet them. He raised his weapon and fired three shots in quick succession. Each one found its mark in a Fallen skull, causing their heads to explode with either. Their bodies fell, tripping some of the attackers. Right before they clashed, Cayde dropped and slid under the thrust of a spear, then fired the Ace through the culprit's head. Another rush of ether. Another body down. Two of them closed in with their spears at once. He responded with a light-boosted jump over their heads. In the air, he kicked one in the face and buried a bullet in the other. As he landed on the ground again, he emptied his last round into the other's chest. The force of the shot sends the Wretch reeling back into the others.

Cayde took that chance to eject the spent magazine and load another from his belt. As the new bullets were loaded, again the Ace ignited with a white fire, and it made a loud click as he flipped it up again. "Ah, this never gets old." As the remaining Fallen regrouped and charged again, he raised the barrel of his Ace, aiming for the center of the pack. Then he fired. His victim exploded, burning all the others around it. As the last of his foes fell, Cayde blew on the barrel, holstered his trusty weapon, and sprinted for the lab with Reeki close behind.

Reeki went to hack the door terminal, but Cayde wasn't going to wait. He crashed through the door with his shoulder, sending shards of glass everywhere. Inside, it was too dark to see. "Talia?!" Talia, where are you?!"

"...Cayde?"

He looked about frantically. "Reeki! The lights!"

Reeki scanned a nearby panel. A second later, the overhead lights came on, and Cayde gasped in shock. Before him, a table was titled up like a display, and Talia was shackled to its surface. She looked terrible; covered in blood from a variety of terrible wounds. Her left arm was missing, and the place where it was cut had been seared closed. Despite that, she seemed to be suffering from heavy blood loss. It took everything she had to lift her head, and open her eyes. The pupils were dead, like her very soul had been sucked out of them.

"Cayde…" she rasped.

Cayde dashed to her side, ripping away the shackles. As her limbs were freed, they went limp and she fell forward. He caught her and lowered her to the ground gently. "It's okay Starlight, I'm here!" he said. "By the Traveler, what have they done to you?"

She groaned, trying to speak, but her throat was too dry and the pain caused her to convulse.

"Hush now Starlight. We'll get you fixed up. Reeki, hurry! She's suffering!"

Her ghost was already there, expanding into an enormous ball of light. The power of the Traveler washed over her and immediately began to heal her injuries. The cuts and wounds disappeared almost immediately, and bones cracked as they returned to where they were supposed to be. The arm took longer to regenerate, and Reeki seemed to strain as he worked on that part. Cayde suspected the past twenty four hours had taken a toll on him as well.

Talia gasped as her body began to return to normal and she was freed from the pain. Cayde just held her there on the floor as she returned to her senses. She looked up at him and touched his face with her other hand, as if not sure he was real. But as she felt his smooth metallic cheek, she realized this was not a dream, and she was safe in his arms. She began to cry.

"Oh Starlight," he said, pulling her closer into his chest. "There, there. It's alright, I'm here now."

For a minute she just cried, and as her arm became completely regenerated, she reached up and clawed at his back, just glad that he was there.

"There you go, that's alright. You're okay now," said Cayde. Though the fireteam's situation was dire, he dared not rush her now. He could not imagine what kind of trauma she had endured, and she needed this moment to release her emotions and recover enough to fight on her own.

Having finished his work, Reeki hovered low over her head. His eye glitched and he emitted a warm glow; his own way of comforting her.

After another minute or two, Talia finally managed to calm down and recompose herself. She leaned back and looked into Cayde's eyes. "You…came for me."

He smiled and wiped away some of her tears. "Of course. You think I'd leave without you?"

She laughed weakly, but something seemed to bother her. "What about the mission?"

"The others are taking care of it. Don't worry about that now. We need to get you back on your feet."

She breathed heavily. "Okay."

She tried to lift herself up, but she was still regaining her strength and stumbled. He held onto her the entire time, supporting her until they were both on their feet again. Once she was able to stand, the blood began to flow normally and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she held out her hand, inviting Reeki to come to her. He did, and she took him into both hands, hugging him against her chest. "Thank you Reeki. I could feel you out there, trying to find me. You must have had such a hard time. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

He twirled against her, eye glitching. "I-I-I got help. I could n-n-not let you fade away. I am glad you are safe."

"Me too," she said. She let him go and he dematerialized into her armor matrices. Then she turned to Cayde. "Okay, I think I can move on my own."

"You sure?"

She nodded, and he reluctantly let her go. She made a few wobbly steps, but each one after that became progressively steadier, and she seemed to have regained control by the time she reached the shattered door. Cayde was right behind her the whole time just in case, but he was thankful to see her quick recovery, no doubt thanks to the Light's aid.

She poked her head into the hallway and saw the carnage Cayde had left behind. "This your doing?"

"Me and my Ace," he said.

"I don't suppose you have a weapon for me?"

"As a matter of fact-" he reached out with his hand in front of her. A transmat initiated from his armor matrices and her bow and arrows appeared there.

She grinned and snatched up her weapon, securing the arrows and testing the string. "How did you find our weapons?"

"It was Torres actually. He's a lot more badass than we give him credit for."

She nodded. "I knew he had it in him."

Cayde watched her prep for battle, and something nagged at him. "Are you sure you're good to fight? You endured a lot of-"

She held up a hand to stop him. "Cayde, now is not the time. I don't want to talk about that. What I want to do is make Talsiks pay for it. Are we clear?"

He nodded slowly. "Sure, Starlight."

The pet name made her pause for a moment and she reached out to touch his arm. "Maybe… we'll talk later. If we make it out alive, when there's time. I just… can't right now."

He returned the touch and smiled. "I understand. Come on, let's catch up with the others. If we're lucky, we'll do some real damage to their operation on the way out."

She knocked an arrow and allowed void energy to flow through her freely once more. Her eyes glowed and power filled her. "That's exactly what I intend to do."