by starkissedvixen
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Of Starlight and Darkness
Into the stars
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Katherine presses her hand to the glass, feeling the coldness as the world around her stretches and bends. She stares into the nothingness, dropping her precious tools to the ground where they clatter and float without a pattern. A bright flash of light stretches towards the horizon, illuminating two figures floating in the nothingness before her. It sears her hand and she tears it away. Tears well in her eyes, the light saturating their pigment. Her entire being tells her to fight, but with what? The sound crescendos. She screams and punches the glass, shards entering her blood.
Nothing. Nothing but the void.
—
K A T H E R I N E. She holds on as starlight encapsulates. Darkness promising memory, the void promising rebirth.
They pull from end to end. K A T H R I N. Tear the end, rip the center, piece by piece until it collapses.
Seering light and frozen dark coalesce around the letters. K A T R I N. Cut the heart away. Make it conform.
Why me?
K A T R Y N. Bend it into the name. Slice it into its very being. Y? The ultimate question.
Pull it through the void. KATRYN. A child of the empty. A child of pure potential. Conform. Conform to me.
Gasping into the light, a face hiding the sky, eyes of fire. “Who are you?”
I had a name. What was it? I inspect my hand. Burning light and darkness cold. They dance beneath my skin. A rope extending out into the abyss. Hold on. Hold on to what?
“I am Katryn,”
CLASSIFIED
Looks like this data entry hasn't been decoded yet...
Expedition: Part 1
“You are one of the Queen's most trusted, one of my most trusted. And you would abandon us?”
Katryn dangled her feet over the precipice, feeling the gentle spray of water falling back down to the grounds of the Gardens of Esila. She knew the prince would not take well to the news, but her mind was resolute. She patted the ground beside her. With a huff, Uldren sat down and joined her, looking out over the scenery.
He broke the silence with a sigh, “I can’t change your mind, can I?”
She shook her head. The Traveller had long dwelt on her mind, and now that her people seemed safe in this place, she had to delve deeper. She pressed her thumb into her palm, still remembering the searing light, the figures strung out on the tether, but pushed the thought aside. She offered the prince a small smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll still report in,”
“Mara won’t be happy about this,”
“And what do you think?”
The prince leaned back on his hands, lifting his chin up to feel the breeze, “I think I’m going to miss our talks,”
She punches his arm playfully, “Oh, so now after all these lifetimes you get sentimental?”
He chuckles, “Of course not,” he teases, “you’re one of my best Crows, it’s hard to get good replacements around here,”
Katryn grinned, leaning back and mimicking the prince's pose. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, watching a lone hawk soar on the wind currents, circling something below. “What are you going to do with yourself? Got some grand adventure to tell me about when I get back?”
Uldren absentmindedly picks a flower from the grass beside him, twirling it in his fingers. “Something like that,”
“What is it?”
He holds the flower out in his fingers, offering it to her. “Can I tempt you for one last mission?"
She takes it gently and smiles, breathing it in. He tenderly takes it again and places it behind her ear, his fingers caressing the scar above her eye, watching the way it makes the redness in her cheeks even brighter.
“You don't even have to ask,”
CLASSIFIED
Looks like this data entry hasn't been decoded yet...
Expedition: Part 3
“Where are you? Just hold on, I'm coming,”
She tastes dirt in her mouth. Mixed with rust. It wasn't the Garden. It wasn't Mars. With a groan, she drags her hands under her, leaving long trails of blood in the earth. Her bones splinter and crack as she pushes herself up and raises her head to the sky for any hint of where she might be.
But there, above her, was It. The very thing she had been wanting with all her heart to see. She chuckled at the absurdity of it all. Here, now? Blood flooding her lungs where her own ribs betrayed her.
“What is it?” Static. Uldren feels his stomach flip as he whips his eyes to the monitor. Still nothing but audio. No location. No vitals. Just her voice. Far off, where he can't reach her. He blinks rapidly. “Katryn?...”
"...It's beautiful, Uldren…”
His voice catches in his throat, “Kat-”
“Promise me you'll see it one day?"
He grips the console, his fingers going white from the force, and squeezes his eyes shut, “I promise,”
She doesn't give a reply.
The Ghost
"Intruder bearing 127, you have passed into the realm of the awoken. State your business or be fired on my order of the queen"
"We are from Earth, we are here to seek the counsel of the awoken"
The voice that replied shook the wrath. She scolded her imagination, but gave pause when her instruments revealed signatures of light energy onboard the ship. Her breath caught in her throat. She swallowed it down. "Conform to my trajectory, any deviation will be taken as an act of aggression"
Turning her ship, she input the Queen's sequence into her console, her finger hovering over the confirm button. A hundred attempts at phrases to explain what she had heard came to mind, but none seemed appropriate. She clicked the button anyway and cleared her throat.
—
The creature who approached the throne was not her. It moved the same, looked the same, spoke the same way, but it wasn't her. Or so the prince kept telling myself, "So these are the trespassers demanding an audience"
"We didn't mean to trespass"
He drags his gaze over the ghost, wondering how fragile that shell is. "The queen herself judges who may or may not enter the realm. Me?... Hmph," He found himself lingering on the guardian's armor covering her neck to her toes. So foreign was the menagerie of Earth styles against her awoken skin. It was just like her, however, even down for the colour choices… "I see no reason she should be available for whatever washes up at the reef" He meets her eyes for the first time. He catches his expression before it falters. She’s missing the scar above her right eye, but it's undoubtedly her. "but here we are"
"We've come to ask for help"
He regards the dead thing for a moment, studying her eyes carefully, barely noticing the scurry of movement behind him.
"Fallen!"
At her ghost's cry, a familiar flash crosses her face. With unnatural speed, she unhoists the shotgun from her captor's belt, her eyes fixed on something over his shoulder. Uldren grabs her arm but his knife stops short, feeling the heat radiating from her throat. Luring him in. She stares at him in confusion, desperation, and then resolve, but his blood is frozen. It's her. It's not her. But it is.
"It is afraid of the fallen. It does not understand these ones are mine"
Mara's voice brings the prince back to the present, just in time to notice the guard aggressively retrieving their weapon. He slowly lowers my own, already thinking of ways to spin his lack of resolve into something intentional. A frown passes over the guardian's features, and it is only when the guardian jerks her arm out of his grasp that Uldren realises he was still holding on to her. He takes a step back and composes himself, "Apologies, your grace"
The queen watches on intently as the dead thing steps forward, "I am a guardian, from Earth. We're searching for the black garden"
His brow furrows at the thought of the guardians destroying that sacred place. Of her, destroying it. "Why?"
"We seek to destroy the darkness, at its heart"
Of course. A chuckle escapes his lips. So alike, these light bearers. "You want to turn it into a battleground. How unimaginative,"
"Do you know where it is?"
"Everyone knows where it is,” Even you, he thinks to himself. “The hard part is getting in,"
"Can you help us?"
There it is again, a flicker of her within this dead thing. A pang strikes his heart and he grits his teeth, "And why. Would we. Do that"
"The queen requests council with her brother"
His sister's voice clips his wings and he withdraws, kneeling at her throne. As he looks up, her eyes are full of cunning, her voice low in his ear, "If it wishes to find the Black Garden, let it earn its passage,"
The prince slowly gazes over his shoulder at the guardian. Thousands of years of experience turned to nothing at all. A newborn. A false copy. Even with her ghost, she's surely give up before she succeeds. "Hmph… Yes, that's good, that's good." He mutters, rising to his feet, "Why not? We'll make you a key, how's that? All we need is the head of a Vex Gate Lord"
Its ghost is taken back, abashed with fear, "A Gate Lord? Uh, we…"
But the guardian is resolute. "Why do you want a vex head?"
"Oh we don't, and I doubt we'll get one either. But it's your only hope of getting into the black garden,"
She remains unflinching, accepting the challenge without faltering. "We will return,"
"Or die in Venus, either way,"
As she turns and leaves the chambers, Uldren feels the smug facade leave his face. He can't help but clutch at the vision of her leaving.
—
Mara's attention shifts completely, the prince's words falling on deaf ears. "It is alive," she says, "and still has its ball"
Uldren glances over his shoulder to see the guardian approaching, relatively unharmed. They grace the floors with red dust, but no other evidence suggests they made it to Mars. Their eyes are tired, but they step with purpose.
"There is no shame in running away, guardian." He gloats before this dead thing. Katryn would have never backed down. It's not her. "Apart from the cowardice and failure of it, it is an excellent strategy "
But she cuts him off, "We didn't run"
The prince pauses to sweep his eyes over them, but it would be difficult to hide a trophy as big as a Gate Lord's head on their person. Mara gestures in his direction, "Was no Gate Lord slain, brother?"
"Oh we slayed a Gate Lord" the ghost pipes up, and the prince grimaces at its presumptuousness. With a nod from its guardian, it summons a transmat field in front of them. Their trophy materialises, crashing down at the foot of the throne.
The guardian raises her chin and flicks her eyes to Mara, "We need to find the Black Garden"
"Huh…" Uldren chuckles, bewildered at their ignorance, "they don't even know where it is,"
"Let us tell them," Mara declares, turning to him, "Search the Gate Lord for that which gains them entrance"
His anger betrays the prince, and he whips around to face his sister, "Why? If you wished them certain death just kill them here"
Her gaze sends a chill down his spine, "…Often when we guess at others' motives, we reveal only our own"
"My motive is simply loyalty… to a people, to a queen and a sister"
"Then please, take what is required"
He bitterly turns and descends the stairs to the remains. Unsheathing his knife, he cuts and tears into the scrap, with more aggression than required. As he holds up the severed eye, he can't help but give a small smile as the life sizzles out of it, "Dead, unfortunately," He turns to Mara with childish victory, "a wasted journey I’m afraid,"
"Perhaps, but I think this one's resourceful. We gift it, in sympathy for their Traveller."
Uldren turns away from Mara, studying the eye in his hand. It wasn't all that long ago we were here under different circumstances. What would Joly think of all this? He looks the guardian dead in the eye, "Mars, 84 north, 32 east, Meridian bay"
"I have shown you benevolence, guardian. Should the awoken ever need an ally I will call on you… and expect you to answer"
"She's saying you owe us, guardian"
The guardian flicks the prince an amused glance, and her ghost makes a movement not so dissimilar from raising an eyebrow. "I understand," She says, drawing her attention to Mara, "Your grace." Before she turns to leave, she looks back at the prince for a second, a hint of a grin on her face.
For a moment, he imagines recognition, but if it was there, it was only fleeting. "Good luck," He taunts through a facade hiding gritted teeth, before lowering his voice so only Mara might hear him, "getting through the exclusion zone,"
Ace in the hole
Requiem had been uncomfortable ever since their meeting with the Spider. But now with all the barons long dead, he feared for his guardian, “Petra is out for blood,”
Wes glanced over his shoulder, ensuring they weren’t being followed, “Yes,”
“Yes, she is,” Hawk nodded, checking around the upcoming corner.
“But we’re out for justice, right?”
The hunters were synchronised in their response, “No.” They glanced at each other for a moment, before continuing their approach.
Req moved in front of Hawk and stopped her for a moment, while Wes continued on ahead. “What are you going to do when you find him?” Hawk pushed past him in silence. “Hawk, you don’t have to do this…”
A wave of emotions passed over him from her. Lately, he couldn’t get a read on her at all, all the images and flashes never made any sense. But this time it was clear. She was resolute.
There was no other way.
—
Uldren chuckled as the hunters approached where he crawled on the floor. He groaned as he rolled to face them. Turning to Hawk, he looked past the barrel aimed directly between his eyes and sought her own, “Congratulations, you have my undivided attention,” Icor sputtered from his mouth and he wiped it away with a grimace, “Now where’s my sister?”
“She’s not here,” He turned and watched Petra emerge from the shadows. “and if she was, this would be a whole lot easier…”
“So…” He chuckled, “this is to be a reckoning,”
Wes nodded, steadying the weapon in his grasp.
Req sees Hawk’s trigger finger twitch, “Wait! Not like this.” She flicks her eyes to her ghost. “Look at him, he’s finished. Even with everything he’s done, we can’t just-”
“You have no idea what he’s done!” Petra snapped, causing even Wes to glance at her in surprise. “If Cayde was here, I know what he would do, Guardian” She turns to Hawk, her mouth drawn in a thin line, “Do you?”
The prince chuckles once again, and Hawk's attention shifts. “What would the notorious Cayde-6 do? You have his gun,” Uldren gestures towards Hawk, “Seems you get the last word,” Wes clenches his jaw. The prince can barely look him in the eye. Uldren flicks his attention to Petra, his tone darkening “Everything I did, I did for HER.”
Petra takes one hand off her weapon and stands a little taller, and the tension within the figure on the ground lessens.
“Funny.” The prince grins to himself, “The light between Light and Dark is so very thin.” but again he returns his attention to Hawk, “Do you know which side you’re on?”
The guardian falters, the ace in her hands lowering for a moment. Req senses the turmoil inside her once again, the starlight and dark in constant struggle. But even before Petra and Wes’ eyes meet her, she raises it once more, her mind resolute. She nods to the prince, and for a moment Req swears he saw the hint of a smile as he closed his eyes.
It had to be her.
Sirens in the Dark
The young guardian sat perched in the spaces between spaces, the gifted bow in hand feeling more kin than her own weapons. She leaped from decrepit pillar to ancient debris, darting past the shapes that danced in the curling tendrils of the ascendant plane. Swift as shadows, she loosed arrows into the darkness, decimating the unborn with cruel and precise grace.
Don’t you feel foolish coming down here? I would, if I were you…
The guardian did not falter and did not alter her pace. She was accustomed to the voices in her head. It was only when a small light flickered on the horizon, did her feet lack their luster. Drawn by sickening magnetism, she altered her course. Her weapons lowered, and the steel in her muscles eased ever so slightly. But it was ill-met.
“Why do you come here?” The light’s voice reverberated in her head. “Is it duty to your slavish orthodoxy? Fealty to an absent queen? Sympathy for your awoken friends?”
She turned her gaze away from the light, hawk like vision fixed on the object tucked into the ever collapsing structure. She raised her aim for confirmation, and loosed the arrow to its final resting place. The light flickered at the impact.
“Do you ever pause, dear listener, to consider who benefits from all this heroism you commit?”
The guardian froze but her veins denied the ice with their rivers of fire. She turned sharply to the light, which had slipped out of space and reappeared across the gap in front of her.
Hush now, o murderer mine. We will erase your pain. We will strike it from your memory.
She tightened her grip on the bow, but relaxed her breath, peering out into the darkness to discern the stepping stones that would surely present her next path. With tincture flooding her veins, she found it, and again danced with the abyss around her.
Invisible claws graced her neck, piquing her attention to the expanse to her left. Rubble slowly spun in the space, but it wasn’t all stone. She cocked her head and again raised her bow, eyes fixed on the oblong object. Her fingers flirted with the thread of her weapon, stretching the moments into centuries.
We have filled the world with teeth, you and I.
Her fingers loosed the arrow from its perch, sending the white line fleeing into the darkness.
See how they gleam…
It tore the egg into oblivion. She watched it with morbid curiosity. The veil caressed her form, mingling with the tatters of her cloak, but she did not acknowledge its presence. The light again called to her from across the darkness, and she answered by moving to meet it, but with more caution.
It observed her thoughtfully, and her it, before it broke the silence. “Some terrors you defeat. Some, you become”
The light faltered, and then sputtered out. The guardian turned her gaze downwards, a single toe toying with the abyss. The darkness called up to her.
“Follow the screams”
She stepped off the ledge.
Jokers Wild
Hawk felt the presence before she heard it. The pinprick of eyes on the back of her neck, the emptiness of the void. She whipped around, Malfeasance in hand, but faltered when she saw the familiar exo standing before her.
"The senses deceive us from time to time," Clarity-5 watched the hunter calculatingly, but Hawk remained silent, internally scolding herself for not covering her tracks better. Drifter had given her the heads up that the exo had tried to buy him off, but he sent her on a wild goose chase instead. Hawk glanced at the weapon in the exo's hand. Aunor had found a new informant.
The exo followed her gaze with amused interest, raising the weapon towards the hunter with almost cold automation, "It is prudent never to trust wholly…" Her voice crackled and distorted, sending chills down the hunter's spine, but still, she said nothing in return.
Hidden behind her helmet, the awoken's eyes flashed towards her exit routes. She knew all too well the lethality of the warlock and warned her ghost to stay out of sight. No matter what happened.
"...those who have deceived us…" As her voice cracked and shifted like an untuned radio, the warlock calculated the trajectory of their bullets with dull curiosity. She noted that the hunter wasn't even aiming her weapon properly. "...even once,"
Hawk lowered her weapon, in silent surrender. Her thoughts quietened.
"But yet," Clarity retracted her weapon and studied it with disinterest. Rolling her eyes, she stowed it abruptly, "I still come back,"
Two pinpricks of white light flashed up to meet the hunter as she flicked something towards her. Hawk snatched it from the air in shock. She slowly ungrasped her fingers from around the object, revealing a small coin imprinted with a pyramid.
"We have work to do,"
Bittersweet Biscotti
Tinkering away with the lure sitting on the bench, Crow's mind wandered as his ghost rambled about the Dawning. Glint was optimistic that this year would be different, now that his guardian had met Osiris and the Young Wolf, though he had admitted surprise that Hawk had taken a liking to them. He stuttered something incoherent and trailed off, but Crow was only half listening. He didn't understand why Hawk chose to keep helping him either. Every other guardian he had encountered had done the complete opposite. Perhaps she thought she owed him something after he saved Osiris, but it felt more than that. More than their current mission too. She kept so many secrets from him, he wistfully mused whether he’d ever know even a quarter of them. He was grateful for her companionship nonetheless.
The Crow was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice the hunter enter the room, not that that was unusual. He let out a sharp inhale as an arc of energy zapped his fingers.
“Ow, that looked painful,”
The Crow, still shaking his singed hand, jumped and looked over his shoulder at the cloaked figure softly chuckling. He quietly muttered his thanks as his ghost gently healed the wound, shrugging at the hunter in mild amusement.
She tossed something towards him and he caught it in surprise. “I… found,” she made a weird gesture, curling two fingers on each hand repeatedly, “some parts lying around the tower that might come in handy. Should at least stop the battery doing that again,” Crow noted he hadn't seen her use that sign with her ghost before when she thought he wasn't watching.
“You mean you stole,” chastised her ghost, but she just mischievously shrugged.
Crow eyed the component carefully and smiled, “Excellent, this will do it,” but before he could begin adding it to the contraption, his gaze fixed on her shuffling awkwardly.
“There’s ah… something else too, that I wanted to give you,” She answered his questioning look by revealing a small ornamental tin from under her arm, one of many tucked away out of sight in a large satchel.
Crow glances around the area furtively before accepting the guardian's offered gift, then stuffs it under his cloak without checking what it is. He soon notices the scent of almond and chocolate, halts suddenly in surprise, and slowly looks at Hawk with gratitude.
"Thank you," he says softly. "Truly."
The hunter shrugged and donned her helmet, but Crow could hear clearly the smile in her voice, "Happy Dawning, Crow,"
—
As Crow quietly munched on a biscuit, he thought about the hunter's gift and how he could repay her. He glanced around his hovel at the scrap metal and leftover Eliksni bread from his breakfast. Glint told him that the biscuits were somewhat of a tradition, but Crow didn’t have the slightest idea how to make them.
His eyes rested on the lure sitting on a bench ready for the next hunt, before picking up a small piece of metal. He inspected it carefully. There was something he could make.
—
The next time Hawk arrived, she took her helmet off slowly to reveal a raised eyebrow. The Crow had his hands behind his back and a lopsided grin on his face.
"Alright, what's got you so cheerful?” She cocked her head to the side, leaning to try to see behind him. “A new upgrade to the lure?” He turned his body to counter her.
"Not quite," he chuckled, "but I do have something for you,"
She smiled and gave up her attempts, resting her weight on one leg as she waited patiently. He flicked a worried glance to the entrance behind her but she shook her head, “He’s busy with a client, won't be back for a few hours,”
The spark returning to his face, he slowly pulled his arms out in front of him, holding something gently in his hands, “I wanted to thank you for the Dawning gift,” Hawk smiles and goes to wave him off but he cuts her off with a soft glance, “I mean it, truly. I can’t bake,” he admits, “but I thought you might appreciate this more,”
As if holding a baby bird, he slowly opened up his palms. Resting between his hands lay a small crudely made necklace, with a tiny silver feather curving like a blade. A dagger, she notes. Not like her own, but elegant and beautiful, like the traveler's light.
And for the first time in a long time, Hawk couldn't help but smile.
Songbird
"So you're telling me that Uldren Sov is back, and some idiot ghost decided to turn him into a guardian?"
Hawk's eyes peered over the top of her cards and she nodded, before flicking one towards the pile with a little more force than she meant, "Crow. His name is Crow,"
The Drifter eyed her in confusion, his vision not even passing over the table before placing his own card down. The last time he mentioned the awoken prince in front of her he regretted it. He hadn't brought it up since. But this time was different. No anger, or rage, just quiet acceptance. It set his teeth on edge, but he smiled falsely instead, "And why're you trusting ol drifter with this information,"
The hunter leaned back in her chair, and despite her helmet, the two had spent enough time dealing cards together that the Drifter could picture the look on her face, "If you tell Eris, I'll shoot you"
He chuckled and raised his hands in mock surrender, but his tone was sincere, "Don't you worry, sister, Moondust won't hear it from me," Today, they weren't playing for glimmer. One might call it a casual game between close friends. Drifter called it an exchange of information. He had a reputation to uphold. And the information Hawk had was always worth more than what was in her ghost's pockets.
She didn't immediately answer his question, but he knew good things come with time.
She shrugged, absentmindedly flicking another card across, "Figured you probably wouldn't try to immediately put him down for what Uldren did to Cayde,"
"Eh, you're not wrong," he nods to himself before flashing a look of concern, "Does Mara Sov know?"
The hunter gave a slow nod.
"And?"
"Thought it was best not to talk to her right now,"
The Drifter grunted. Probably a good call, he thought. "What about Petra?"
"She's aware. Wanted some time to think,"
He placed a card down carefully, "What about the kid… Crow, you said?"
Hawk shook her head.
"So, just Osiris, me, and a few awoken," The Drifter sighed and bit his lip, "You're walking a dangerous path, bird"
"When do I not?"
He glanced up. Hawk had her head lowered to her cards, but Drifter knew she had already stopped playing a few turns ago. To her surprise, he folded his cards on the table and stood up, "C'mon, got something to show you,"
She let her cards fall face up. Easily a winning hand, but she had more pressing things on her mind. He led her over to the console and brought up some feeds on the screen, "Was a pain to do but I planted those bugs like you asked. Check this out though,"
He clicked on the feed and dialed up the audio. Static crackled and popped through the speakers, "I set these up myself, they're fully functional, not a damn thing wrong with them," he fidgeted with a dial and moved the cursor along, "See here it's fine, just ambient room noise. You can even hear Saint in the background," Hawk could just make out the titan retelling a conversation he had with the Eliksni refugees. "But when we move to this section of time…" Static plays again.
Without a word, Hawk leaned over the console and the Drifter backed off to give her space to work. He grabbed a drink for himself and poured another for her, but it sat untouched. With maddening patience, she twisted the dials, looking for any clues, any slight hints, that would reveal the distortions secrets.
"Since we're getting everything out in the open" He again offered her the glass which she took this time, although she almost dropped it in her trance. "You wanna tell me why you're spying on Osiris' place?"
She placed her helmet on the bench beside her and took a sip, her eyes never leaving the screen. The drifter raised an eyebrow and, not for the first time, took note never to get on her bad side. Her focus was uncanny. "Gut feeling," she muttered, her lips drawn in a thin line.
"Gut feeling of what?"
For a split second, their ears twinged at a slight moment of clarity in the transmission. She froze, before slowly honing in on it. Hidden in the distortion was a series of notes that now hummed from the speakers.
The Drifter slowly approached the screen, "What the hell… I've heard that tune before,"
Hawk switched the recording off and silently withdrew from the screen. Shifting her weight to her hands on the console, she looked towards the hanger in thought. The Drifter eyed her with suspicion. Out of habit, his fingers itched towards the hand cannon resting on his belt, but he discreetly hid his reaction by moving them to rub his chin instead. This was Hawk, not some other vagabond looking to make a quick pile of glimmer. He glanced at the gun they had made sitting on her hip. Hell, he'd even trust her with his life, if it ever came to that.
After what seemed like an age to him, she looked back at him. If there was fear in her eyes, he didn't see it. She took a slow sip before her unearthly eyes rose to peer at him from beneath the strands of hair that fell in front of her face.
With that tone in her voice, it wasn't hard for him to believe that she'd killed a god or two.
"What do you know of the Witch Queen, Savathun?"
Just like old times
Jolyon aimed down his sights at the target in the distance, the guardian leaning against a railing watching carefully. The firing range was one of the few places she kept her helmet off, and her ghost gave her some privacy. It almost felt like old times.
“Watch that breeze coming in from the east,” He glanced in the direction she motioned to, seeing a slight movement beginning to stir the foliage. Sometimes he swore she could feel changes in the air before they even happened. He readjusted, let out his breath, and took the shot. It hit the target with a dull clang. Jolyon felt the admiration and approval of the hunter wash over him as he raised his face away from the scope.
He removed the firing pin from his rifle and propped himself up to let Hawk take his place. “Alright, Slayer of Oryx, you’re up”
The guardian smirked and lightly tossed her sniper into her arms, taking to lie flat against the ridge. He noticed how even right beside him her form seemed to blend into her surroundings. Jolyon gave her the wind conditions under courtesy, but he knew she didn’t need the data. She took the shot with the subtlest of movements, before turning her attention to the next target. But despite her speed, Jolyon was already distracted. A glint of silver flashed around her neck, and although small, he made out the single crude metal feather upon a silver chain. Her blue eyes glanced at him when he failed to brief her on the changing wind.
“Sorry, ah it’s due southeast now, about 15 kph,”
She frowned and returned to her scope. A flick of her finger sent the bullet into the target. She readjusted and exhaled deeply, “What’s on your mind?”
He shuffled uncomfortably, lowering his rangefinder, but she remained still. The shot was hers to take but she was waiting with a unique kind of patience that calmed him, sitting in the spaces between time. “What’s he like? Crow that is,”
She took the shot but he could tell she was only half focused. She put a hand on top of her scope and leaned to the side, looking out over the ravine. “I think you’d like him. I’d imagine he’s like Uldren if Uldren wasn’t… well…” He chuckled to himself. That would be something to see. “You should meet him, you know?”
“Hmph, I don’t think the queen would like that,”
“Screw the queen,” Jolyon raised his eyebrow and the guardian sighed, “He doesn’t want anything to do with her, or most of his past life,”
“Why would I be any different then?” She shrugged, but before she could reply he has a realisation, “Wait, why are you any different? Does he even know what you did?”
Her tone hardened, “He knows everything.”
“Everything?”
She nodded.
“Do you?”
She silently returned to her scope, but Jolyon saw her jaw clench. BANG BANG BANG. All three targets in quick succession. The air caught in his throat as he watched her exhale and sit in silence for a moment. She looked at him carefully, and deep down he realised she knew the truth in her heart. How could she not? Ever since Petra showed her the Dreaming City, there had been nothing but whispers as she roamed its halls. And Petra herself made no move to hide it.
He shook his head in disbelief, “What’s it like, not remembering?” He saw the Black Heart in his mind's eye and blinked it out of existence.
She studied him carefully and returned to her scope. “All I know is death and war,” she paused and looked up softly, “But this… this feels like home,”
Truth and Reconciliation
The nightmare of Uldren was not an unfamiliar presence to Hawk. For the past week, it had clung to Crow as persistently as his own shadow, slowly draining him of strength. She had watched helplessly as it taunted him relentlessly, day by day, sleepless night after sleepless night. But now, the memory drifted in the air before her, calm and alone. Crow was free, but she was not.
She approached it slowly, cautious but unafraid, although her heart leapt in her mouth regardless. This not-Uldren's eyes twinkled mischievously, but he observed her in calm silence before the hint of a grin betrayed him, "I wondered if you might grace me with your presence, Guardian," Hawk half expected him to mockingly bow, but he only nodded his head instead, "Why have you come?"
"I've come for answers,"
"Ah, of course," he chuckled, "but why not ask your dear friend, Crow? He has all the answers you seek,"
The hunter paused for a moment, her head tilting towards the stairs. She had considered asking him countless times, but lately their roles had been reversed. Now he was the one keeping secrets, but they weren't his tales to tell. She needed closure, something Crow couldn't give her, even if he wanted to tell her everything. Until a few hours ago, she didn't think she'd ever get it. "I need to hear it from you,"
"I see," his grin faded, and for a moment Hawk was caught off guard. Before her floated not the Uldren she was used to, nor some echo of Crow either. Someone else, someone younger, but so full of sorrow, "What is it you wish to know?"
"Everything you can tell me,"
"I don't have to tell you to be careful of what you wish for, Guardian,"
He peered down at the hunter, but she did not remove her helmet. She would not let him see her face, but no matter. He could sense her resolve. He sighed, and thought quietly for a moment.
"Take a seat, Katryn. We have a lot to talk about,"
And from where he skulked by the entrance, Crow felt his breath catch in his throat.
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—
“I’m glad we could fight side by side one last time,”
The memory of Uldren drifted down to stand before her with a soft smile on his face, but Hawk could sense him slowly fading away.
Footsteps from the hall caught her attention, and to her relief belonged to Eris, helping a wounded Zavala, and Crow holding up the rear. Bright crimson against the scales of his armor was the only hint of his anguish not minutes before. His face turned pale when his eyes met the sight of the hunter and the memory standing before her. Uldren gave Hawk one last warm look and turned to meet his successor. The smile that grew on his face was one she could never forget, and in its last fleeting moments, they were free. Crow stumbled forward a step, his eyes wide, but it was only after Uldren had faded into specks of dust and light that she turned to him. Time stretched into an eternity as he held her gaze from behind her mask.
Hawk broke the tension, tearing her gaze back to the remaining lights, a myriad of thoughts flashing through her tired mind. As Crow watched her silent figure, his aching heart came to a single conclusion: What once he saw as a curse, was instead a blessing. His throat clenched he watched her stillness, even after the others had moved away to leave this place of defeat. Eris offered a hand on his shoulder, looked back to where Hawk stood, and then too left them to their silence.
Forcing his legs to move, he slowly approached her. She stood with corpse-like stillness, and her ghost made no attempt to beseech her. “Hawk?” He began to reach out his hand, but hesitated when the visor of her helmet met his eyes. After a moment, he noticed the shaking of her hands, and forgot all notions of fear. He grabbed her hands, then the cheeks of her helmet, and held her there for the longest time. Cries wracked her body as she collapsed to her knees. His arms found solace wrapped around her, and with reverence, he bore witness to the first time her emotions had betrayed her in the longest time. She slowly removed her helmet to reveal the rivers of tears cascading down her face. He brushed his thumbs over them to stem the flow, but his gaze became ensnared by her eyes. They shone like newly birthed stars in her face, all the more brightly as they drowned. And within them he found confirmation of the truth. Within his, she longed for release, burdened with the loss of a life she couldn’t remember.
The Third Bar
The Crow and his ghost did not notice the figure hunched over the terminal when they entered the Ether Tank, but this was not unusual. Hawk was used to being invisible, even when she wasn’t trying to be. She glanced up as they passed, observing them with curiosity, before unhooking the modified splicer gauntlet and abandoning the task at hand. She leaned up against the door frame, barely stifling a laugh as Glint bombarded the Spider relentlessly, her own ghost watching on with a mixture of horror and amusement. She found her gaze dwelling on the raven-haired guardian almost a second too long, but broke her trance as he shifted his weight.
She slid back out into the cool night air and leaned against the wall, shaking her head as she waited for their retreat. Again, they were oblivious to her presence. She grinned and called out his name, causing him to trip and stumble at the abruptness of her materialisation. Disregarding any attempt now to smother her chuckles, she placed a hand on his shoulder and began walking with him. “Well I certainly wasn’t expecting that to happen tonight,”
“Neither was I,” he replied through a smirk, “Glint here had his own plans of retribution it seems,”
His ghost hovered bashfully, glad to be out in the open air now that his once confident heroism was waning. The Crow did not share his misgivings.
“It’s been a while since you’ve been around,” he smiled.
Hawk shrugged but even in the darkness he could see that her mind was far away, “There’s been a lot going on,”
“Anything you want to tell me?”
She stopped suddenly, and he followed suit, slowly turning to her. Worry had washed the smile from his face. Her eyes tilted up at him from under her cloak, and he drowned in their light, “How much time do you have?”
He flicked his amber eyes to his ghost, and then back to her, “As much as you need,”
She nodded to herself as if forcing the words to come out, “Alright,” she swallowed and slipped past him. The scent of shaved ice filled his lungs, and his eyes narrowed as he felt the darkness of the night linger on her skin. “Bring some wine, you’re not going to believe this,”
Empty Skies
Ikora’s words were still ringing in Hawk’s ears as she climbed the balustrade, hoisting herself up onto the rooftop where she had spotted a lone silhouette from below. A cool breeze announced she had reached the peak, and she stretched out her shoulders and shook the joints in her arms. The emptiness before her on the horizon left her jaw rigid. Her heart relentlessly fluttered in her chest, and she felt her hand once again seeking the comfort of her gun.
“-Hawk?”
The voice broke her trance so abruptly that it took a moment for her to realise her hand cannon was raised. She shook herself and hoisted it hastily, risking a glance back at where the Traveller had once been before bringing her full attention to the figure.
“Easy!” The Crow slowly moved his raised hands to lower his hood as the barrel moved from his sight, “Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” He cautiously stepped closer to the hunter, a flicker of doubt in his eyes. Once he was only inches away, his shoulders softened, “It’s strange, isn’t it. Looking up at the sky and seeing nothing,”
Hawk silently moved towards the edge of the rooftop, collapsing without a trace of her usual elegance, sitting with her legs hanging off the precipice, taunting the pavement far below. The Crow followed suit. He watched her fumble with the back of her helmet before pulling it over her head and resting it beside her. His mouth became a thin line at the hallowed face that revealed itself from the curtain of slick hair, the grime of battle still clinging to her skin.
The star-like glint of the space station orbiting above gained his attention once again, a sigh of gratitude escaping his lips as he let his head fall, “I’m glad you’re alive,”
Her gaunt expression faltered for a moment, her trail of thought broken. She allowed herself a small grin, a chuckle at the hopelessness of it all. And yet, here they were. Alive. She let her head fall onto his shoulder, his warmth steadying her heartbeat. “Would have been a cruel irony to die alone during Crimson Days,”
His chin left a firm pressure against her forehead as he turned to face her, but his concern softened into gentle nuzzling. When her eyes met his, he brushed his lips upon her forehead and wrapped his arms around her, resting them clasped at her waist. They clung to every second, but each second plagued her with restlessness. “Breathe,” he whispered into her ear, “just for tonight, nothing else matters but you and me,”
She couldn’t shake the fight from her bones. The Crows armour rustled gently as his arms fell back to allow her to abruptly stand. She glanced an apology downwards at him, but he returned an amused shrug. Standing against the darkening sky, as she looked out over the mountains now in full view over the horizon, Crow felt something shift. She was still jittery, he noticed the subtle movements she tried to hide, but now it was focused around her toes. After a moment, offered her hand, “Let’s get out of here,” she glanced back over her shoulder, “Go somewhere it’s less noticeable,”
A grin spread over his face, his hair flirting with gravity as he looked over the edge, surveying the ground far below. She shot him a questioning glance, but he replied with the ivory of his teeth. He grasped her hand firmly with a grin, “Lead the way,” He pulled her off the edge.
* * *
Far below, Ikora’s eyes peered away from the candlelight to watch the two silhouettes tumble from the roof. Only the faintest rustle hinted at the last second halt of their descent before their feet graced the ground. That, and the outburst of surprise met with hushed laughter and bickering in the distance. The chink of fine china flicked her eyes away from the sight. Zavala offered his condolences to the mishandling of her teacup.
She took no notice of it. “What do you suppose those two are up to?”
Zavala took a long sip before returning his cup with more care, “Nothing good,”
A soft chuckle tumbled out of her throat. “Of that, we can be certain,” She raised her cup to her lips, feeling the warmth wash over her nose. When she lowered it, so too did she lower her voice, “Do you think they’ll survive all this?”
“I think it would be a miracle if any of us survive this.” The depths of his tea stole his attention for a moment before he added, “But it wouldn’t be a first,”
“If we survived?”
Zavala took another sip before leaning back in his chair. The light of his eyes seemed to grow brighter as the light around them dimmed. Ikora found herself admiring his resolve, but it left her wanting. He placed the cup on her desk and rested his hand on her arm. She raised her hand to squeeze it, retiring her cup to her lap. The night was soft and young, and his gaze felt that it brought her time. Time that they desperately needed.
“If we had a miracle.”
Heart Fall
The click. The ignition. The impact. The fall. Then the routine resurrection before they had time to understand what was happening.
In their mind's eye they replayed the exchange between Amanda and Crow. They mentally marked each word, gesture, and facial expression that sent cold confusion down their spine and an ache for their friend who bore witness as well. Friend? Was that right? They used a lot of red in their markup.
They had observed Amanda and Crow's interactions for months while Hawk was off planet, but found nothing remarkable. It had happened coincidentally out of curiosity. Clarity-5 regarded keeping tabs on Hawk as one of their highest priorities. They had decided long ago that given her interest in the relatively new light, Crow would also be one to keep an eye on.
Their observations regarding Crow and Amanda raised concerns within their previous logic. Long gazes. A smile when he thought no one was watching. A touch on the hand or arm, though not requited, was regularly tested. The tally of these anomalies rose with each passing week, growing to a peak just before Amanda took to the sky's and became MIA. Clarity estimated the tally would now only increase with her safe return.
Their eyes shifted over the hunter's hand, running a quick calculation on whether her grip would shatter the glass. Hawk raised her helmet's faceplate slightly, shot the bitter liquid down her throat and poured another glass. Clarity-5 didn't have the heart to disapprove.
“Have you spoken to HiM?” Static twitched in their vocal cords.
The hunter drained the new glass in reply.
A low hum vibrated in their cords, cut short as the hunter's grip tightened.
They observed her quietly, watching the tension build and then slowly release, her head sinking with her shoulders.
“I am sOrrY,”
She stopped sinking, and uncertainly set the glass down as she turned to face the exo. Her head tilted slightly, but the exo felt a change in the air as the hunter's brows furrowed behind her visor. They shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, but the hunter stayed silent and waited for an answer.
“I fEeL… iT,” they began, clicking and popping in their lines as they searched for the words. How to describe what they were unfamiliar with? How to describe this thing twisting in their chest. “TiGhT,” they pointed to their breastplate, “Pain, eMpTy, but worse than any physical wound. It fEeLs… wRoNg,” they sighed. “This whole thing is wrong,”
Soft, slow taps echoed between them as the hunter stared past her glass, her fingers slow dancing along its side. They stopped with a quiet thud that stretched into a long sigh.
“Yeah,” was all she said.
* * *
The hunter had cornered him in a darkened passage of the tower, her tattered cloak making no sound as she descended. Colour drained from his face as one hand felt for the wall behind him, the other fumbling for a weapon. He had learned a lot in his new life as a guardian, but not enough.
But yet, she made no attempt to reach for a weapon. Glowing sky blue eyes pierced the shadows and bore holes into his. His breath escaped in fake relief, but his awkward chuckle trembled. “Hawk! Damn, you scared me there for a moment,”
Her eyes flicked down briefly before narrowing and returning to his. “Give me one good reason not to punch you right now,”
He swallowed, noting thankfully that he didn't see a weapon of sorrow equipped to her hip. He saw her usual weapon though, and realised that while Malfeasance wouldn't grant him a final death, it would hurt enough to make him wish for one. He shut his mouth and hung his head in shame.
Hawk exhaled sharply, glaring daggers at the wall beside her. She released another breath, her shoulders sagging. “We're you even going to tell me?”
“Of course I was going to…”
“Before or after I found out for myself?” She snapped back at him.
He opened his mouth to fumble an answer, but she shook her head.
“How long?” She asked quietly, “How long have you been pursuing her like that?”
Crow grimaced, scratching his head, “I'm not sure- not long,” he added quickly as her eyes blazed at him. “We've been friends for a while. I'm not sure when I started…” he grit his teeth, feeling the ugliness of his words. His actions. “flirting, with her,”
Her words slid through gritted teeth, “...She called you a murderer,”
He shrugged, “She changed her mind,”
The silence stretched on for what felt like hours. A thousand questions flooded her mind, and a thousand more answers entered his. She couldn't bring herself to ask a single one. So she uttered a statement instead. So quiet. So devoid of hope.
“I thought you loved me,”
It sliced through him deeper than any knife. Right to the heart of it all. Was it all just some echo of his past life? Was it love that drew him to her, or Uldren. So many memories tangled in his mind. He wasn't so sure anymore.
“I thought I did too… But what if this is just Uldren?”
Her eyes wavered in pained confusion, twinkling like stars. He felt another stab in his chest.
“I don't know what's mine or his anymore. I need to find my own path, not unknowingly walk in his footsteps. And that means…” he swallowed painfully. “That means I can't be around you right now. I need time,” but even as the words tumbled out, he knew he had done worse than that. He cut himself off from her completely. Cast her aside. And was actively trying to fill that void with another. Another who had rejected his advances time and time again. He squeezed his eyes shut and pinched his nose. All that, and his heart still couldn't escape her orbit.
“You're not Uldren, Crow” she muttered quietly. “As I'm not her,”
He shook his head sadly, feeling his resolve waver with every word. The dagger in his chest twisted deeper. He couldn't stop himself from tearing his heart apart. “How do I know if these feelings are mine or his?”
Her fingers quivered at her neck, a crude chain delicately pulled loose. A charm glinting quietly in the darkness. A feather, shaped like a curved dagger. Polished smooth from years of wear close to her chest. “Because of this,”
His breath caught in his throat. How long ago had it been since he huddled in Spiders chambers, spending feverish days refining the small chunk of metal? A time before Uldren, or Riven, or even a name that yet felt like his. When he was just The Crow. And she was just Hawk. He clenched his jaw and looked away.
A moment passed, then another, draining what was left of his shaky resolve. At last, a shuddering breath escaped his lips, and he surrendered.
“Hawk, I-”
But his words fell short, passing unheard through the empty space she had occupied just moments ago.
* * *
Crow placed his weight against the wall and slid down it. Guilt ate away at his insides like bubbling acid. “I deserve this,” he muttered to himself. Glint made no move to correct him.
“Did you read Osiris’s report?”
He jumped, scrambling for his gun. The exo's white eyes watched him with dull interest.
“Clarity?... What?”
“Osiris’s report on the events of Neomuna. Did you read it?”
He dragged himself to his feet, his frown growing deeper. It was one thing for Hawk to creep up on him, but Clarity-5? The strangeness of it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. “No, I… what is this about-” The holopad hit his chest with a thud as he caught it.
“Read it,”
He knew Clarity-5 was becoming more and more impatient with him, but he couldn't keep the look of bewilderment off his face. “Clarity, why the hell are you giving me a report in the middle of the night in a darkened alleyway?”
“I'm returning a favour for a… friend” Static entered their voice as they decided on the word.
He closed his eyes and turned them down to the holopad. He should have known. “What will I find?” He asked quietly.
Clarity-5 paused, calculating how much to give him in response. The distortion curled in their vocal cords. Whatever he was expecting, it wasn't this.
“We would have won, if she had shot her ghost,”
Their white hot eyes bore into him coldly. Arc light crackled around their exoskeleton, leaving blinding echoes in his vision. Shielding his eyes, he took a step back, only to inhale sharply as the heel of his boot met the wall behind him. His fingers instinctively reached for the hilt of his gun, but he let them fall. His mouth was drawn into a thin line, but went slack. His eyes fell open, searching Clarity’s.
“Req?” He began, “She almost lost Requiem?-” but their words cut his short.
“When she needed you most…”
The arc light whipped around them, not aiming to harm him, but the smell of singed hair and the heat of their rage made him grimace. He almost wished they'd lash out at him. Anything, even their white hot light, would feel better than the twisting ache inside his gut.
“YoU.
bRoKe.
HeR.
HEART."
CLASSIFIED
Looks like this data entry hasn't been decoded yet...
Resolute
Eris's apartment sat as she had left it: unkempt, chaotic, and somehow, welcoming. Despite the hive artifacts, ancient pages, and strange weaponry strewn about the rooms, the sunlight lazily drifting through dusty curtains draped the surrounds in a warm glow. Hawk noticed a tea set resting by a single chair, and felt a pang in her chest with the regret that she never gave Eris a reason to set out another. She brushed her fingers along the walls as she walked, coated in a fine layer of incense and dust, as if trying to discern memories from the reminisce. A small pile of pillows and blankets lay in a shaded corner, edged by bookshelves and drawers, scattered where Eris had left them just that morning. She felt gentle eyes following her around the room, and glanced up at a worm in a glass cage, blinking slowly at her. Frowning softly, she made a mental note to send someone to feed it, but then saw pellets beside it and instead sprinkled some in. It gurgled in excitement. Hawk wished she felt the same sentiment.
A strange artifact caught her eye as she moved through the apartment, but she left it for now and moved to the desk centred in the main room. An old radio sat there humming in the dust, and she turned it on. Eris's voice came out. With each word, each syllable, Hawk felt her weight shifting further into the floor, and the corners of her eyes twitching. She spoke of her friends, her triumphs, her life, wishing not for sadness, but for thankfulness. She made it sound so easy. Hawk had been here before, standing solemnly, listening to the words of a dead friend. It felt easier and worse all at once. Caydes' words all those years ago had given her peace, but she had already had time to mourn when she heard them. These words left her feeling unfinished, and with each name spoken, she felt the weight of another task adding to her shoulders. At Drifter's name, her lips trembled, but at her own, she felt resolve.
When she had left her ship and entered the city, drifter had called her killer, not hero. It had been a long time since she heard him use that name, but it never stopped being whispered from the mouths of others. It was the foundation of her self. A dead thing, made to kill. She hardened herself around this one thought, honing it into a dagger. A dead thing does not feel.
—
At the artifact, Sloane's words only strengthened her resolve, strengthened the walls she was building around herself. She did not need a moment, she needed vengeance. She needed violence. She needed anger.
She marched with determination out of the apartment, past the restaurants and shops that Eris must have frequented. Her strides held so much force and darkness, that the curious stares that greeted her arrival, now slunk back into the shadows in fear. It was with so much single mindedness, brute determination that she walked, that when she met Crow's eyes in the courtyard, she felt like she had slammed into the wall she had built.
That's all it took. Once glance.
He held her gaze solemnly, and she couldn't bring herself to pull away from it.
And like the walls in her mind, she too fell.
To the ground.
In tears.
In a moment, he was there, and she realised a moment wasn't enough. So in his arms she gave herself another, and another.
And another.
She did not stop for a very long time.