#the final time travelars

[101010mayumi]

Thanks for the new video on YouTube, Yuzu

“All your memories will live on in me.”

Even if I grieve the sad outcome of your hurt.

The good and the not-so-good are also dear memories to me🥲💖

[searsage]

In the final days leading up to the pyramid's invasion of sol Zavala felt a profound change in the air, around the commander the world had become somehow slower, as if reality was trodden down by the weight of some insidious vaneer, day by still day time crept on slower like a broken record player.

The commander might have assumed it was just his own worries with the pyramid ships fastly encroaching on Io, Mars, Mercury and Titan taking root in his ever worrying mind, but soon his concerns were met in non other then Ikora.

The warlock vangaurd tells him the city was humming with an energy she could not begin to understand, and while the knowledge that he wasn't alone in his worries was anything if not a little reassuring, when he started noticing odd quirks in the people around him his apprehension only intensified..

Shaxx could hardly be heard, yet the titan was still stationed to the right of his post amongst his trophies of war and beneath the song of that wretched ahamkara's skull, the titan's voice low and pensive, his gaze scoured the tower like a hawk, awaiting the unseen shoe to drop.

Zavala could see the tension in locked in the titan's shoulders, ahead of him, he could hear the errant quips of the once joyous parcel maiden Kadi, Tess stood uncomfortably stiff her eyes stern and watching, across from her, their crytoarch Rahool watched the crowds with stoic detachment, hardly giving mind to the guardians and their potential engrams swarming around him.

It was like they were all lieing in Wait..but for what? Zavala hadn't a clue…

But it worried him nonetheless.

As days went one the feeling only intensified, the prickle underneath his pale skin, a yearning of restless provocation, the air was heavy and suffocating.

The streets were fuller as of late, flooding with many loitering guardians, more and more reluctant to leave their roost, and for once the titan Vanguard pardoned this insabordinance, the need to be close was a suffocating instinct once he didn't quite understand himself, yet it was strong enough to pull Ikora from her hiding and into the courtyard.

When the young wolf approached the Vanguard, he could feel them long before they left the counter of Tess's eververse stand to approach him, the insidious pale effigy strapped to their shoulders leered back at him much like the Optics's of the hunter vanguard had that night weeks ago.

The discovery of the inhabitants refusals to abandon their posts in the face of imminent disaster was a insurmountable defeat, the Titan found himself sick with grief, in the dark ages, together they built a world with the blood and backs of selfless heros, and much like the Saladin and Lady Efrideet, Zavala was beginning to wonder if they too would be extinct eventually?

Saint had just barely crawled back from his grave by the skin of Osiris's teeth but the circumstances of his revival were so fickle, where they celebrating too soon? Would they lose more? How long would they last within their pitiful fortress of wall under the travelar?

For every risen that rose, they arguably lost three.

Distress must have been evident on the Titan's face, because a small tap to his shoulder yanked Zavala from his internal downward spiral, The titan glaced up to see the young wolf, they had respectfully removed their exotic helmet stylized to mock the defiled son of Oryx, their bright yellow eyes held knowing sympathy, they patted his pauldron in a stiff and unpracriced attempt at a comforting gesture, by hands more skilled with taking life then consoling them…

They spoke words of comfort, what ifs' and 'maybes', optimisms that once lied in the mouths of those lost to this tireless and unending battle, unbeknownst to them, their false comforts fell on deaf ears, but the titan vanguard nods along dutifully, yet his thoughts are on the clearing around him.

How still it felt despite the rare clutter of life bustling on around them, it felt like eyes were peeling up the thinnest layer of his pale translucent skin, as if someone or something leered through him, not from the shadows but boldly in plain sight unafraid if the stars aligned and his eyes happened to meet theirs.

But they didn't, and the commander's weary gaze dragged on to find no answers that assuage his fears, only when the warlock in front of him abruptly leaned in, gloved hand gripping firm yet hesitantly at his shoulder, does he tear his eyes from the scene before him, instead his tired eyes drawn to the gauntlet clad hand touching his person, surprised at how long it's been since any one had dared touch him without invitation, but wordlessly forgiving the transgression upon seeing the Champion of light's face, it was itched with worry and apprehension.

Quietly the guardian asked if he felt it too, and the commander told them not to worry.

Everyone did.

He found Cayde hours later in the dead of night, purely by accident, the commander had taken a midnight stroll through the towers gardens, a meditative practice he had taken up to help elevate stress, it offered a meager yet necessary reprieve from his burden as commander and with the odd weight settled over the tower now was more then a good time for a moment's breath.

Surrounded by flowers under the soft light of the traveler the awoken pondered the future of the last city, so many what if clouded his mind, but not for before long a whimper caught his attention, it wasn't loud by any means but Zavala was nothing if not sharp and the smallest disturbance was all it took for the commander to start searching for it's source.

He found Cayde, the Exo squirreled away in the small storage room beneath the foyer, the moment he enters the small room he was hit with the pungent scent of stones and flora, the hunter vanguard has rearranged the filled storage boxes in a peculiar pattern with him sitting in the middle, in his hands his fiddled with the corners of a shattered ghost's shell, Zavala didn't need to look at it to know who's lifeless shell it was.

Cayde tells the commander that the Travelar dosen't want him there, that the light is eatting away at his joints, and trying to cleanse him away like filth, But just as quickly as the Exo complains he commends their diety for it's stubborn efforts to bleach out any stain on it's perfect and pristine pedostool.

His voice is grating, and filled with static, as if his throat were clogged by the peculiar flora that was sprouting from the floor around him, and Zavala can't help the anxiety rising along his skin as he stared down into the dim optics of his fellow vanguard devoid of light, yet not inanimate, but a puppet on strings of dark silk..

"How long can you stay?" Zavala's words betray his mouth, he watches the unnatural tenderals slinking inbetween the gaps in his chasis, the instinctive revulsion in his core as he feels his light coil away from the shadow of his old friend, and yet he ignores it, instead he reaches out and pulls the broken hunter from the shadows and into the light of the foyer.

When he has the Exo safely cornered in his room, he sits him down, he was a mess, his torn and tattered cape dusted with debris and dirt, it was as if he was thrown from his sparrow, it dredged up old memories of the hunter slinking off to the EDZ, but no longer garnered the commander's ire, instead his heart twists painfully as he studies the Exo staring back at him.

He looks just as lost as he did when he was trapped within the tower walls, like light attempting to be trapped between clasped fingers, again Zavala fills the hairs on the back of his neck rise, as the light within him recoils viscously.

Cayde tells him, he can't stay and its almost a plead, but Zavala ignores this and inquires again how long he can stay as he closed the window's shutters blotching out the rays of the traveler, Cayde's voice is careful, and for once his own, something the commander is rarely privy to, Zavala can feel his dim curious optics tracking his every movements.

Reluctantly the vanguard give him til 'Dawn'