A spark in the dark, Part 7

A high-pitched, steady sound vibrated through her eardrums, traveled along her inner ear and up to her brain. Titillated by the stimulus, it sent a flood of information, with weak electrical currents flowing to her farthest extremities. Her heart rate accelerated, and her eyelids slowly opened.

A bright light attacked her retina. She squinted her eyes for a few moments, letting them accommodate. Her other senses awakened. A light fabric covered her skin. She was lying on a cushioned surface. Something was pressing against her thigh. A metallic taste filled her mouth. A smell of disinfectant was wafting in the air.

She raised her head, her muscles stretching like after a long effort. She blinked several times, inspected her surroundings. She was on a bed, loaded with machines. The high-pitched noise came from a sensor, beating at the same rhythm as her heart. Several electrodes on her forehead and temples recorded her brain activity. She was dressed in a simple hospital gown. Someone had carefully tucked her in under a white blanket, letting her arms stick out.

She recognized the walls of the Tower's med bay. The incessant rumor of the comings and goings of the Guardians and jumpships passages filtered lightly through the isolated walls. A small window overlooked the blue, orange-tinted sky.

Zara looked down and discovered what was pressuring her leg: a woman with disheveled brown hair was sleeping, her head resting on the edge of the bed. Her face was turned toward her. It looked peaceful.

"Willow? "She whispered that word involuntarily, as in a dream.

She reached out her hand and brushed aside a strand of loose hair to make sure what she was seeing. How could this be possible? How did they get there?

"Please tell me this is not a vision."

The Hunter shuddered and woke up. She rubbed her eyes, slowly grasping the pale hand of the Warlock. "Zara!"

Her friend threw herself on her neck, embraced her with all her strength. The sore muscles of the Guardian groaned in protest, but she said nothing, and simply responded to the embrace.

"Don't EVER do that to me again, you hear me?" Willow's breath caressed her back. Something wet and salty landed on her gown.

Zara wanted to reassure her, to prolong this soft contact over and over again, but she was completely disoriented.

"What happened? How did we get here?"

The Hunter withdrew and wiped her tears. "Koryl sent us your coordinates as soon as I cut off the line. When Jayden and I arrived on site, we discovered you both under the ice. You had fallen unconscious. Koryl did everything he could to heal you, but you didn't wake up. You were going to get hypothermia, so we took you back to the Tower. You..." Her voice choked, and she swallowed before resuming: "You've been asleep for almost a month."

Zara widened her eyes, and her breath quickened. The images followed one another in her memory. She died when she fell into the cave, she remembered! Then Koryl reanimated her, and... Not that much time had passed!

"Was there anything else? Besides Koryl and me."

Willow shrugged. "An old Awoken vessel crushed at the bottom of a chasm, that's all."

"Nothing else?"

"Nope. When your Ghost told us why you went to Antarctica, we did some scans of the area. Nothing out of the ordinary, just ice and bedrock. Why this question?"

Zara did not answer. There was only one way to know for sure: she opened one hand in front of her, and a sphere of Arc Light appeared. Naturally, almost effortlessly. She let the crackling energy evaporate and closed her eyes.

She visualized the heat waves that surrounded her, emanating from her body, from Willow's, from the machines, from the walls warmed by the Sun, and tried to absorb them. She concentrated on the atoms suspended above her palm and commanded them to stop, to empty themselves of all energy.

Nothing happened. The Hunter raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

"Are you planning to tell me what happened to you in that cave?"

"Why don't you tell me, too?" asked a synthesized voice.

"Jayden!" Zara tried to get up to embrace the Titan in armor who just entered the chamber but was held back by the sensors that connected her to the medical instruments.

"Stay down," the Exo said, gently placing his hand on the Warlock's chest. She squeezed it, reassured by the cold and firm contact of his metallic muscles. "It's good to see you again, hothead. You've come a long way."

"You have no idea..."

A small shiny object suddenly crossed the room and curled up under her neck. Overflowing with joy and relief, Koryl was trembling, releasing glowing sparks from his shell.

"Zara, I was so afraid of losing you..."

The Guardian could not hold back her tears and hugged her Ghost tightly, her shoulders shaken with laughter and sobs.

"Me too, Little Light."

The hours that followed were not easy. Zara was called in front of Ikora and Aunor to report what she had been through in the last few days before she lost consciousness. Despite her reluctance, her fireteam insisted on being present. She could not bring herself to look them in the face when she had to transcribe what she had seen under the ice.

Aunor clarified that Sola, the renegade Guardian who attacked them in the EDZ, had been captured by her Order. However, the number of Guardians affected by the Darkness continued to increase. The Praxic Warlock questioned Zara at length, seeking to determine whether she posed a threat to the City. Eventually she left the room, ordering her not to leave the Wall enclosure until her sentence was pronounced.

Ikora did not say a word during the whole meeting. When Aunor was gone, Willow and Jayden stood up, but did not approach Zara. She was unable to decipher their expressions. Were they skeptical? Were they angry?

"Please leave us alone for a moment," Ikora asked.

Koryl and the two Guardians complied and went behind her back. Before leaving, Willow gave her a pat on the shoulder. It was painful, but in a way, it was a relief.

"I'm ready to go back to the Vanguard operations as soon as Aunor lets me go."

"I know." Ikora invited her to come and sit in front of the large window.

Night had fallen, and the lights of the City stretched across the white, shattered surface that floated effortlessly in the sky.

"The Darkness advocates eradication."

It was not a question, but a simple observation. Zara nodded slowly. "For them, our very existence is a wrong to be corrected."

"They could have done it when you were at their mercy. Eliminate you from their equation. Tell me, why didn't that happen?"

The Guardian hesitated. "Maybe they see the Guardians as a threat. They would rather convert us to their logic than fight us head-on."

"What do you conclude from this?" Ikora stood up and encompassed the City with her gaze. "Do you consider all of this as wrong to be corrected?"

"Of course not! What I did in that Pyramid..." Zara shivered as the memories of her companions lying in the depths came back to her. "I hated myself for that. This was not me."

"The Light has left us no choice in bringing us back to life. Now the Darkness wants to control our fate at a time when we are most vulnerable."

The Warlock fell silent, respecting the peaceful calm of the night. Zara listened for a few minutes. The murmurs that assailed her had disappeared, but she felt the heavy presence of the Pyramids, a shear in the corner of her mind.

"The City seems so small in the dark."

A slight smile formed on Ikora's lips.

"It only takes a spark to set off a blaze."