A spark in the dark, Part 4

The three ships flew over the Sludge and the fireteam materialized near the transmat beacon. Zara took the lead, followed by two dubious Guardians.

"So," Willow said as she caught up with her, "in short, the Pyramid of Luna did all this to you to... show you the Shard of the Traveler?"

"I know what I saw."

"I don't pretend otherwise. But if I didn't know you, I’d have already reported you for mental illness."

"That's why I asked you to come with me. I know I can trust you."

"I wish the feeling was mutual," Jayden replied. "You should have told us from the beginning."

"What difference would it have made? I wasn't going to add to your concerns when there was nothing you could do about it... "

Zara climbed the scree that led to the Blackened Forest. She was still sleep-deprived, and her senses were diminished. Halfway up, her foot slipped, and she hit her elbow on the wet stone. As she choked a curse and resumed her ascent, the Titan grabbed her arm firmly and forced her to face him.

"I've been telling you this for centuries, but I'll keep going until it comes in: we're a fireteam. Your problems are our problems, and vice versa. You won't solve them better by staying away from your friends."

"All right, all right," the Warlock surrendered. "I'll think about it the next time a cosmic entity tries to drive me crazy."

They sank into the forest, and the bright green foliage of the EDZ gave way to dead trees covered with sparse grey moss. The brightness dropped as they entered the shadow of the Shard, and the ground became covered with small fungal growths, giving off a pale, morbid light.

"I'd forgotten how lovely this place was," Willow observed.

They drew their weapons and kept walking, watching for the Fallen infesting the area. However, hours went by without encountering a single scavenger.

"Where did everyone go?" the Hunter asked. "There are always a few desperate crews hanging around..."

"Stay on your guard," Jayden replied. "Zara, where did your vision lead?"

The Warlock closed her eyes and recalled the images shown by the Pyramid. A simple alabaster splinter lost in the middle of the infected soil. She inspected the surroundings and chose a direction by instinct: "This way."

The tangle of dead branches opened over a large, partly flooded clearing, which Zara recognized immediately. However, something differed from her vision:

"Taken!"

The Guardians took cover behind a boulder overlooking the area. The monsters must have been attracted by the emanations of Light. They were gathered in a semicircle around the solitary fragment, adopting a veneration posture – unless they were devouring the shreds of energy scattered in the ground. This may explain the absence of Fallen in the forest. Zara nicked an arrow and prepared to attack.

"Wait," Willow whispered. "Something's off. There's someone in front of the fragment."

A humanoid silhouette stood, a female form dressed in a full Trials of Osiris armor, dirty and worn. She was undoubtedly a Warlock. A strange shimmer covered the Guardian, distorting the air around her. She joined her hands, and an orb of Void Light grew between her palms.

Zara realized that the Taken were not looking at the Fragment, but at her. "There are too many of them. Let's go help her!"

Jayden nodded and the fireteam emerged from behind its cover, encountering the first lines of tortured creatures. The unknown Warlock freed an intense Nova Warp and took along a score of enemies in the Void. Zara noticed then that her Light had a strange aspect: it appeared deformed, rolled up on itself like the gnarled roots of the dead trees.

A Taken Knight spat a rain of liquid fire on her position. She invoked a Rift and silenced the monster with a few bursts of Breachlight. Jayden joined her in the well of Light and raised a Rally Barricade, dropping salvo after salvo on the horde of discordant creatures. Willow landed on a high branch and covered them with sharp shots.

When the dust settled, there were no dead to be revived. The Guardian's Void Light dissipated, but her silhouette still shimmered slightly. She had hardly moved from her position at the foot of the fragment.

The fireteam gathered around her. "Warlock," Jayden said as he removed his helmet. "Is everything all right?"

"I was on my own." Her voice was not that of an Exo.

"I have no doubt about that. But these days, it's better not to take risks."

"What are you doing here?"

Zara stepped forward. The rippling air around the Guardian reminded her of something, but she could not put her finger on it. "We are looking for answers."

"What a happy coincidence." The Warlock raised a fusion rifle decorated with a golden eye. "So do I."

Without warning, she raised her gun to the side and shot Willow. The Arc projectiles passed through the Hunter and reduced her to a crackling cloud. Surprised, Zara and Jayden were too slow to react.

Malformed Void Light erupted from the Warlock's body, forming a shock wave that threw the two Guardians into the air. Zara activated her glide and for a second contemplated the strange Void swirling around their assailant.

"Lysis!" She could not see Willow's Ghost, but she knew she could hear her. "Stay hidden, don't try anything, that's an order!" Then, lower, "That goes for you too, Koryl."

"What does she want?" asked the panicked Ghost.

"I have no idea. But it's not a question that can be answered with words."

Still high above the ground, she exchanged glances with Jayden. The Titan nodded and moved into firing position behind a collapsed trunk. The Warlock was levitating above the luminescent water and suddenly disappeared, swallowed up by a hole in space.

Zara recognized this technique. The air opened behind her, and the characteristic noise of a Nova was heard. By reflex, she realized an Ionic Blink, turning for a moment into lightning to reappear a few meters farther. She did not have time to draw a weapon, so she stretched her palm and threw a Ball Lightning towards her opponent.

The collision between Arc and Void caused a violent shock wave, making the Warlock swirl. Zara managed to maintain her glide, but the other Light Bearer lost her balance and fell into the pond surrounding the fragment.

Immediately, Jayden fired several rounds of assault rifle in her direction. Several projectiles hit her, breaking her armor in several places. The Warlock replied by invoking a Nova Bomb at an incredible speed. But the Titan was used to the Crucible. He erected Ward of Dawn on which came to crash the concentrated whirlwind of Void. But the perverted Light twisted the shield like a prism dividing a ray of sunlight and passed through it. A cataclysmic explosion ravaged the earth and toppled dead trees, releasing strands of abyssal energy into the clearing.

Zara wasted no time in calling Jayden and notched an arrow as soon as her feet touched the surface of the water. When her fingers dropped the rope, the projectile flew off at full speed, but stopped barely a meter away, stopped by an invisible force. The Guardian suddenly felt gravity become overwhelming.

The air tainted with purple around her. She tried to resist the power that was crushing her, but her muscles soon failed her. Zara was compressed against the ground, half immersed in the luminescent water. She struggled to free herself but could not move an inch.

The other Warlock approached calmly; her silhouette still bathed in twisted air. She knelt and held out her hand, palm towards the sky. The force of gravity faded, but the effort had exhausted the Guardian too much to give her time to defend herself.

"You want answers? Well, let's find them together.

A vortex of Void formed between her fingers. She turned her hand over and plunged the grenade into Zara's chest, breaking her armor and devouring her flesh.

The Guardian screamed as indescribable pain seized her body and paralyzed her. The Void evaporated the dermis, shattered the ribs, and sank deep inside her. The power-soaked hand probed her flesh, searching for her Light. The water turned red.

Zara screamed until her vocal cords burned out. But the torture continued. Behind the helmet, she could sense the smile of the Warlock, slowly and voraciously extirpating her essence and Light.

"Stop it!" she begged. "Have mercy, kill me!"

"I will give you no mercy. Only those capable of taking are heard."

She plunged her hand deeper and Zara screamed again. She probed the boiling blood, the steaming muscles, the broken bones. Light was gushing out of her body like a dying geyser, blending with the gnarled energy of her torturer. Then the flow dried up, and the hand seized an umbral core. The Warlock lowered her head, her shoulders shaken by an insane laugh.

"You have it too." She withdrew her hand, but the purple filaments remained in her, devouring her flesh. "You are all blind."

"Not enough to miss you, bastard!"

The blazing shot of the Golden Gun hit the Warlock in the head, and she evaporated in a whirlwind of incandescent sparks.

Zara's vision was blurry. Her breathing was irregular, each gasp gurgling the blood that covered the bottom of her throat. She recognized a hooded figure moving closer to her, and a more massive one.

"Where is her Ghost?" Willow asked.

"To hell with her Ghost!" Jayden spat. The Titan leaned over Zara and cursed. "She's still alive."

"That crazy bastard... Koryl, where are you?"

"I'm here," replied the little drone in a trembling voice. "I wanted to intervene, but she told me to stay hidden, and..."

"You've done well. Who knows what she would have done if she had found you?"

"I'm going to heal her."

"Wait." The Titan shook his head and drew his shotgun. "Given her state, it's better to finish her off. Will you be able to revive her?"

Koryl nodded gently and looked away. Zara saw the shiny barrel of the rifle coming closer to her face and heard a sharp blow.

Then she saw something. A place, fixed in ice, where she found death, centuries ago.