#solidifies that they should have been teamates

[dulcetmclaren]

this is a crazy ass look i’m never shutting up about this

[lavendernight67]

Legends Never Die - Chapter Four

A/N: Okay. Here goes. *deep breath*. Try not to kill me, ok?

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

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"Gaurdian."

a computerish bleeping noise.

"Gaurdian."

a second, then "Kalara, please, wake up."

Her eyes opened slowly. Her vision blurry, fogged. It felt like a great weight was holding her down. She struggled to move. She could see it, now. Her Ghost. Hovering unsteadily in front of her. It hovered closer, it's tone urgent.

"Please, you have to get up."

Kalara shook off the exhaustion, got on her feet. She cleared her head, then looked into the room, memories of what had happened coming back. Those blurry figures.

She scanned the room for any signs of Fallen, but the entire area was silent. Not even a single Thrall remained. Whatever evil had manifested itself in this room had achieved it's goal, and left for better targets. She glanced to the right and looked twice.

There were her teammates, laying only a few feet from one another. Kalara tried to steady her breathing, forced the image of their Ghosts being crushed from her mind. Maybe it had been a dream. A hallucination conjured by the Taken when she died.

She felt her gut twist, forcing herself not to panic. She had to keep calm. "Look for their Ghosts." She told herself.

Where were their Ghosts? Why were they not ressurecting them? she looked around quickly for them. Maybe they were hiding? Maybe they were-

Her foot hit something. She looked down.

Their Ghosts had been crushed, shattered into white pointy peices of shell, scattered around an orb of twisted metal. Kalara sank to her knees, shaking. She reached out and picked up the twisted hunk of metal. That had once been the core of the Ghost.

It's eye was dark, it's light destroyed forever.

Kalara screamed.

The Warlock scrambled on hands and knees to the other one, a light grey mass of broken bits. Wiring and microcircuitry spilled from one broken finial, still resting beside the broken core. As though still hanging on to the bitter end.

She fell forward, half-cradling the broken peices as she folded over on herself. Part of her screamed that this was just a dream. A Fallen Hallucination. That she hadn't been resurrected yet, and the tears spilling across her face were just as unreal.

She willed herself to focus. She had to move. She couldn't stay here for all eternity, bemoaning the lost of her Teammates' Ghosts.

-Her Teamates!

She forced herself to upright. To focus. Just because their Ghosts were gone didn't mean her teammates were dead. they could have been knocked unconcious. Part of her sharply reminded her how unlikely that was. But she shook her head, steadied her breathing, and rose to her feet.

In the ship below her something roared.

She ran to them. She skidded to a halt near Gavin, nearly fallng forward onto the bloodied flooring around him. She stared, ice creeping into her veins. She knew, but didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be. It had to be wrong. She didn't WANT it to be true.

Gavin was on his side. She rolled him over and gasped. A deep gash across his throat angled down into one shoulder. Another had ripped his chest armor to shreds. She froze, horror slammed into her.

His eyes were wide open, staring down whatever dark horror had hit them.

She shut her eyes, choking back a sob. Then went to Jarin. He was facedown, a huge hole in his gut. It was like that monster had tried to rip him in half.

Kalara turned away and gagged.

Her Ghost hovered closer. "We have t[static]...go."

It's tone was urgent, frigtened even. It turned to look different directions, as though watching for something.

"Whatev[static] here, it is s[static]ill here."

It looked back, floating unsteadily back and forth. Trying to stay airborne. It was frantically scanning the room.

"The darkness, it's still h[static]re we have to g[static] It hovered closer. "Now!"

As the Fallen spectre, the will of Crota, as it had called itself, roared as it began to appear out of the fog.

Kalara stared as the air around her thickened, choking her. The darkness they had felt before was returning. And with it, whatever horror had materialised from it.

Shatever had murdered her team.

Her lungs felt like they were on fire. Kalara felt herself choke. The smoke began to take shape and the creature roared as it began to solidify. She turned and ran, grabbing her Ghost out of the air as she went.

She jumped back down the lift, and didn't stop until she reached the balcony they had fought the fallen Phalanyx on previously.

She slowed her pace, tried to control her breathing. But she couldn't stop the rush of emotions that came crashing over her. She let out a sob, remembering Gavin's smile, and the way he teased, but allways was there for the team.

And Jarin could allways make her laugh. No matter how many badguys they had to wade though, or how many messups they'd had (or rookie moments), Jarin allways seemed to have a smart-aleck retort for everything.'

She punched the wall in anger. Not just over events, but her own cowardace. She should have done more. To try to defend them. She should have been fighting alongside them when they went down.

Yes, she knew it might have meant her own death, but did that even matter? not really. her team, her SQUAD had died, and yet here she was, alive and well. She put her back to the wall, leaned against it. She felt so exhausted. She slid down it to sit, let her head fall into her arms and just let go, wailing.

Some time later, after nightfall, she awoke to the sound of her Ghost, telling her in a gentle tone "We should go."

She paused, looking back at the open door to her right. She stared for a minute, even taking a step forward. Then she looked back at her Ghost.

"There is nothing we can do for them" It stated, regret in it's voice. "Their Ghosts... They are dead." Her Ghost floated in front of the gaurdian, "We must tell the Vangaurd about this newest development." her Ghost transmatted her back to the ship.

"If the Hive have a weapon that can kill Ghosts upon first contact." her Ghost paused and made that clicking bleep again. "This is something I have never seen before. It would mean an new, unpecedented even, level of threat to the Vangaurd." Her Ghost took the ship into hyperspace. "We need to report this."

Kalara stared out the window, not even sure if she was still dreaming or if ths was real. Staring out at the entertwining streaks of light, Kalara felt herself getting drowsy. As she drifted off, she vaguely remembered grabbing the peices of the Ghosts she could find before hers started detecting the darkness.

exhaustion finally got the better of her, and she drifted into sleep.

The ship shuddered then jerked forward as it exited transwarp. "We are here." her Ghost informed her. The ship eased down towards the Last City. Kalara took a few of the peices out of her pocket, hoping one of them contained the data crystals from the fallen Ghosts. After a moment, she put them away.

When she transmatted down. Kalara took a deep breath. Then two. Then started walking. Down the steps, around the wall, down another set of steps and past Eris Morn. She REALLY didn't want to hear anything about the Hive OR the Taken right now.

She silently crossed the room past the crucible stands, tuning out an invitation from the crucible handler. If they were still here, that's probably exactly what Gavin and Jarin would be doing.

She stopped, forcing back another pang of emotion. She just hoped she could make herself speak when she had to say what happened. It would be like reliving it. Every light-forsaken second of it.

She waited for the other Gaurdians to leave the room, composing herself. After the last one had passed, she walked in.

Past Ikora Rey, to the center where she had stood not even a day ago. She willed herself not to think about it.

"What happened?" Ikora spoke first. Kalara tried to think of just how to start explaining. Instead, she reached into her pocket silently, and brought out the shards, dropping them onto the table. All three leaders looked suprised. Zavala spoke first. "How could this have happened?"

Kalara looked down at the shards, trying NOT to remember what had happened. "The Hive." she started. "The Hive have a weapon that can seemingly focus dark energy." she closed her eyes, trying to think of how to explain it.

"We were loooking around the room. Had our Ghosts out scanning the area."

She swallowed, took a breath, and continued. "A Taken Wizard appeared out of nowhere. We tried to regroup away from it but our Ghosts..." she had to mentally backtrack. "Our Ghosts had been warning us that something was off, as soon as we got up the lift into that room."

She picked up a peice, then set it back down. "They were acting funny. Like they were tired." She looked from one end of the table to the other. "Well, that Wizard thing appeared and...It sent this wierd bolt of purple and black energy right at us. Only.." she looked down at one broken bit of metal. "It wasn't aimed at us. It hit Gavin and Jarin's Ghosts."

She looked at her mentor and leader, Ikora. "They just shuddered, fell." her voice was shaking slightly now. She looked to the Vangaurd commander. "The Hive have a weapon that can kill Ghosts." She looked back at the table. "Then this huge thing appeared, came out of the black fog. like it WAS the dark fog. Growled something I couldn't make out, something about Oryx. It came straight down, crushed both of them, then..."

he couldn't stop the emotion, stifled another sob. A couple of deep breaths. she didn't want to say it, couldn't say it. Because that would make it really real. And she didn't want that. Ikora broke her line of thought, quietly saying. "We are sorry for your loss."

Silence hung in the air, and Kalara carefully gathered up the peices of the broken Ghosts, placing them back in her pocket.

The silence was broken by Cayde, however.

"Soooo, I'm guessing you didn't get my stealth drive, then."

"Cayde!" Zavala was using that warning tone.

Kalara's head snapped up, eyes narrowing. Rage curled itself around her, like a hissing Python. The Gaurdian snarled and launched herself forward. The scrape of chair legs sounded a split second before a pair of hands caught her by the arms, yanking her back from the table.

Luckily, Zavala had seen it coming, and had caught Kalara before she could jump across the table.

Kalara locked eyes with Cayde, fury dancing in her eyes. Then she glanced downward. Cayde had his hand cannon out, aimed directly at her chest. Without breaking eye contact, the Hunter Vangaurd leader said evenly "If you want to go there, Gaurdian, I can go there. But I promise you won't like it."

Zavala barked "That's enough! Both of you!"

Kalara backed of a little, but hissed "You were the one that sent us on that mission." she backed away, still glaring daggers.

Cayde pulled his chair back up, sat down, and set his hand cannon on the table in front of him. He regaurded her silently.

Kalara glanced over to her right. Zavala had let go, but didn't go far. From her left, Ikora said "Take the rest of this day for yourself. Go home. Get your thoughts together. We can meet back here tomorrow morning."

Zavala added "It would be best to keep the details of your mission to yourself. We don't want to start a panic among the other Gaurdians."

As though reading her thoughts, Ikora added "We will review your mission data and investigate this further." Kalara thought for a second, nodded as though deep in thought, then turned to leave. She glanced at Cayde with another glare. She couldn't read his expression, though.

As she left the room, she overheard Ikora say "That was REALLY rude, Cayde."

"What? I was trying to ask nicely."

She jogged away with another angry noise, not hearing the rest.

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End Notes:

WOOOOOOOOw. I *never* thought that chapter was going to be that wild. I just wish I could have put a little more descriptiveness into some of the scenes.

The ones AFTER the first scene.

I was trying to get past that as quickly as possible.

So yeah, if you like, review.

And PLEASE don't kill me, I KNOW Cayde isn't a total jerk like you may think I wrote him to be. He was trying to ask nicely about the tech.

And he was just defending himself, too. Kalara was literally going across that table at him. He's not someone to threaten, he *will* let his weapon do the talking.

Anyway, main part done, on to the real story: What is this mysterious new weapon, and can the Vangaurd stop it before real tragedy strikes.

More to come!