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“Crow, I think they saw us.” Glint says facing the way they had come, straight at the smattering of guardians starting to walk in their general direction.
“But I didn’t even have it off that long.” He says exasperated, placing the mask back on as he looks around anxiously starting to pick up his pace. So much for seeing all the decorations while having a nice cup of hot cocoa.
“Well it was long enough apparently. Let’s head for that road, it seems more crowded- hopefully that will dissuade them from trying something for a bit. Well. At least until we can call someone for help.” Crow followed Glint’s lead, and managed to get to the road just fine. People nodded to him as they would any Guardian of the City, and paid him no mind otherwise. Risking a glance backwards he grimaced at the amount of guardians waiting in the shadows. Aaannnnd that one on the roof makes five.
Sighing, Crow walks towards a small vendor’s stall and turns to Glint, “Do we know if anyone is even here at the moment? Last I checked with the Cabal being as active as they are Saint and Osiris are doing…...something, I refuse to bother Zavala about something like this with how busy he already is, and Ikora is off checking something on Io.” The more people he lists off, the more Crow’s shoulders sag in sad resignation.
“Hold on…..” Glint says, seemingly getting an idea. “To what?” Crow asks, looking around, and starts to get worried about the dwindling amount of people, then proceeds to grimace at something. “Alright, someone is on their way- now to just…..to find….somewhere... safe.” Glint turns to see what Crow is staring at, and with a pause and shift in his shell he zooms away in hope of leading his guardian to safety “Time to go!”
Crow takes off in a sprint, following the zigging path his ghost leads him on with a growing sense of dread as he hears the clicking of or readying guns, and the unsheathing of blades. Then a *thwump*- beside his head embedded in the wall is a gnarly looking blade. He continues to run.
“Well luckily their aim isn’t anything spectacular.” He says “Really?! Is now the time for sarcasm?” Glint cries with disbelief before making a sharp turn into an alley.
Crow tries to make the turn, but just slams into the wall with a grunt. “As good a time as any.” Just as he begins to move again, he feels something hit his leg. For the first couple of steps he’s able to brush it off, but then it starts burning . He hisses, and looks down to see an arrow protruding out. “Shit.” The more he runs on the leg, the more he feels the pain spread out and up, almost as if it was to consume him whole. The sound of footsteps grows louder, and louder.
“Come on Crow, we’re almost there! Then we can-” Glint spins around and his shell opens and closes in surprise before rushing to where he sees Crow had stopped.
“That’s your last step Uldren!” The closest guardian- a female Hunter- armed with an intricate looking bow shouts.
Crow kneels, takes a breath, then pulls out the arrow with a grunt. Looking up at the guardians surrounding him, and the rest of the barren road, he exhales, and lets his head hang.
“Not so high and mighty, now that you’re the one being hunted huh?” Another guardian, this time a male Warlock taunts.
“And is that what you are doing? Hunting?” A familiar, timbre voice calls out from behind Crow. Looking behind him, standing at the other entrance of the alley is Zavala, arms at his side glare heavy on his face.
Turning back to Glint “I told you not to get Zavala involved!”
Zavala turned his attention towards Crow, glare softening ever so slightly with an eyebrow raise. “ You didn’t.” Zavala turns his body to look at something out of view to the rest of those in the dingy alley.
Jogging to stand beside Zavala is his savior. Zavala nods in greeting, “Guardian.” In full gleaming Titan armor sans her helmet, short cropped hair hair slightly wild from running, she is a sight. Her emerald eyes shining in the dark, glancing over to him, before setting her sights on the group behind him. Her face becomes seeped in rage as she takes it all in. Which hoo boy, said it once will say it again, do NOT get on her bad side.
“Crow we will talk more later about this, but for now….” He pauses, and looks back towards their mutual friend. “Get him home, Guardian.” She looks like she wants to say something, glares back to the crowd before approaching. With every step her gaze gets softer, and by the time she gets to him and kneels, there’s an expression he hasn’t seen before on her face. “Alright Crow, we’ve got you.” Her ghost, Styx, says as she grabs his arm to wrap around her neck as she moves to stand up. Wrapping her other hand around his waist to make sure he won’t topple over, they begin walking out of the alley. Just before getting out of ear shot they heard Zavala speak, “Now pray tell were you hoping to accomplish by pulling this stunt in the midst of civilians?” Then, they were on the street.
They walked two more minutes before Crow stopped, “Glint.”
“Don’t worry, I’m already on it- it’s just taking a bit longer because it seems like that arrow had poison on it.” Glint replied buzzing towards his injured leg, then up towards his head, and down again. The grip on his waist tightened briefly before loosening. Slowly, the pain vanished, and with every step he could put more and more weight on it, before finally, as they approached the base of the tower, he could have walked on his own. Now if I wanted to stay in this beaut’s arms, and bask in the feeling of safety for a bit longer then that can just stay between me and the Traveler. They walked in silence towards the H.E.L.M. Only to walk right past it towards the barracks.
“Uhhh, we missed the turn there.” He threw a glance back towards the door in lieu of pointing. She paused her trek, gave a thoughtful look to the heavy doors, readjusted her grip on him, and continued on her way.
Styx just gave a slight shake and a chuckle before floating gently ahead towards her room door, while saying in a slight singing voice, “You’re in trouuuubllle.”
Crow gave a slight grimace to his own, before sighing. Upon entry it looked like what he would imagine most Tower domiciles would look like. Small kitchen, lounge, a bathroom, and three bedrooms. However, as she gently placed him on the couch, he noticed how there were barely any signs of life. No décor or art, no trophies, not even a rug. Three doors were closed, and what he could glimpse into the other wasn’t much before his attention turned towards the other guardian who had begun to pace in front of him.
“Guardian?” He asks cautiously. She stops, looks towards the closed doors, closes her eyes, and turns towards him.
“Why?” she asks, quietly. Her voice is slightly raspy, but gentle. Crow looks back confused.
“Why what?” He tilts his head a bit trying to puzzle out what she was really asking.
“Why didn’t you ask for help sooner?! Why did it seem like you weren’t even going to fight back? Why did it seem like the only reason you even got help was because Glint asked for you? WHY!” By the end of her tirade, the temperature in the room was starting to rise, the color of her eyes started to shift to a yellow green as embers started rising from her. Like she was quite literally about to combust.
Holding his hands in an easing motion, he stood up, and looked into her eyes. It’s funny, she is only an inch shorter than him, but simply her aura makes her feel bigger and taller than she really is. Of course this isn’t funny now , because now he has to face it full force.
“Look. It’s okay. This isn’t the first time it happened, I’ll survive. Just like I always do.” He says as he gives a mournful half smile. Which quickly falls away as he realizes that was probably the wrong thing to say as the temperature spikes suddenly and little flames start licking at her shoulders and in the corners of her eyes, which were becoming a more encompassing golden yellow by the second.
“That doesn’t make it okay! In what world is a guardian killing another okay? In what world is killing anyone , regardless of being able to come back, okay?”
“Crow, we need to work on your de-escalation skills when it comes to talking to women.” Glint says unapologetically.
“Glint, Styx, bedroom. Now.” She says as she glares at Crow.
“Don’t have to tell us twice.” Styx responds, as he gently nudges the other ghost towards the open door, where after a minute it slides closed. Traitors. Facing the inferno in front of him, he hesitantly places a hand on her shoulder. Which is shockingly not hot. In fact it’s only slightly warm, which is weird since he can tell that she is legitimately on fire with her own light. God, to have that much control over your own light even when in a heightened sense of emotion. Is there anything you can’t do?
“Admittedly, that did come out badly, but...what else was I supposed to do? If I fought, then the thought that I really am this…” He pauses, face twisting up in disgust, “Uldren is all but confirmed in their minds. As for asking for help…..part of me did want to. Truly. As there is also a part that refuses to ask because I want to be strong enough to not need it. But there’s a bigger part of me that had been scorned, and ridiculed, and flat out ignored when I did….that there is only so many times I will ask before giving up.” He looks forlornly into her eyes as the embers fade, and in their wake is a wide eyed look of such concern and guilt.
He shakes his head a bit, startled by the sudden change in emotion, before reacting.
“Guardian?” He uses his other hand to cup the back of her neck. She breathes a little laugh, before reaching up run a hand over her face.
“You keep calling me Guardian is a little ridiculous. Especially seeing as YOU are also a guardian.” She says with a small smile.
Crow smirks before replying, “Well, it’s not like you ever gave me your name.”
She looks surprised, brushing a hand through her short indigo locks, seemingly trying to remember their time spent while hunting down the Wrathborns.
He watches the energy swirl beneath her pale lavender skin while he waits for her response, mesmerized.
“Piper.” She says after a while.
“What?” He shakes his head a bit, refocusing.
She chuckles, and puts a hand on her hip. “You can call me Piper.”
“Well then.” He gives a charming smirk, and raises a hand for her to grasp.
“Nice to finally meet you,” He gives a wink, “Piper.”
She raises an eyebrow, grasps his hand and releases it. Then starts removing the bulkier pieces of her armor as she says ,”Don’t think this conversation is over- we are going to talk about your martyr complex.”
As they say out of the fire and into the inferno.