Fire and Ice Part 1

The jumpship shakes as they enter the atmosphere.

Why did I agree to this?, He thinks to himself as Elizabeth navigates her way down to Earth.

Aria materializes in front of him and looks at him quietly. Her shell which had a similar style to Sagira’s had lost a lot of it lustre through the years just like his favorite cloak. It was once a beautiful chromatic silver accented by thin lines of gold filigree.

The silver that once shined almost as brightly as the Light itself was now cold and metallic.

The gold had faded to an almost dull coppery tone.

Parts of her shell were also covered in permanent scarring and scorch marks from the damage she suffered so long ago.

She bounces and hops in front of Viper trying in futility to cheer him up for the millionth time.

She has so much she wants to say to her partner but she can’t. She no longer had a voice after the damage she took so long ago.

The sight of her fills him with regret that it was just as much his job to protect her as it was her job to protect him.

Memories start pouring in clearly of that day. It had been so long ago. But the images were still fresh and vivid.

It was like The Red War all over again but it was easily a hundred times worse.

The Bombardment they called it. Fitting name. Every front attacked at once in the blink of an eye by Eramis, Savathun, Eris, and so many others hands at once.

Viper was in the hangar that day.

He was going to do his usual routine of greeting Amanda, feeding the Colonel, and catching up on his adventures with Saint.

In the hangar he also encountered a few familiar faces like Vella and a couple other Guardians grouping up to Saint-14. Most of them looked like they were getting ready to participate in a round of Trails of Osiris.

As the Exo Hunter made his way up to Amanda. Suddenly, everything went…White…nothing but this blinding white light and a distinct ringing in his ears.

He was on the ground.

His body felt heavy.

There was screaming all around him and a voice calling out to him.

“V! V! Get up now!” It was Aria. She was healing her Guardian

“V! We need you! It’s the Hive! Their attacking the Tower!”

Viper quickly stood up and drew his Hand Cannon and checked his surroundings.

If he was human the color would’ve completely drained from his face in that moment.

The hangar was completely trashed and falling apart.

Fire’s everywhere as people were scrambling to put them out near anything potentially explosive.

Dead Orbit members were scrambling for their few remaining jumpships to try and escape while Arach Jalaal lay on the ground bleeding to death from a steel beam that had pierced his sternum.

Future War Cult’s HQ had been buried under the debris from the explosion. The few that weren’t inside before the explosion were screaming frantically to save Lakshmi and how they predicted this would happen and calling out everyone as non-believers.

Saint and Vella had barely managed to save themselves and the Guardians who were with them by unleashing the Ward of Dawn to shield everyone they could.

Bodies were laying everywhere. Some motionless, some struggling to move, some screaming for help, some crying and scared they were going to die.

But Viper realized everyone was accounted for...except one.

Quickly he turned around only for his eyes to widen in disbelief.

“No…” he choked out quietly.

He stumbled forward to her now destroyed workshop and fell to his knees dropping his gun on the ground beside him in a pool of blood.

He struggled to see her dirty blonde hair stained red, her eyes glazed over with no spark in them, her mouth hanging agape in a permanent state of shock, and her right arm was missing.

He slowly reached and pulled her in his arms and cradled her corpse. His mouth choking to release any kind of sound.

Aria looked at Viper, “V…” Viper was holding Amanda’s corpse in his arms.

The spunky mechanic of The Tower who was like a sister to him was gone and all he could do was scream.

He screamed so hard that time practically stopped for everyone to see his grief manifest in front of everyone.

Aria struggled with what she had to say next, “V…w-we gotta leave her. We need to stop the Hive from hurting anyone else.”

Viper nodded quietly and laid her gently on the ground.

The Hunter made his way to Vella and Saint. Both noticing he was covered in Amanda’s blood. Viper looks at them seriously and says, “We can mourn later.”

Vella nods, “You, Me, and Raven-13 will go on ahead to search for survivors and destroy these Hive.” Viper nods and looks to Saint, “Go my Comrades. I will maintain the line here and help the citizens evacuate with whatever Birds remain.”

The Guardians all give a nod to each other and move out.

Viper sits in the back of Elizabeth’s jumpship, on one of the benches that line the ramp. His elbows rest on his knees with his hands buried deep in his face as the memories continue to invade his mind.

Aria looks at Viper with concern. She knows what he’s thinking about. Ever since that day those memories have haunted him regularly.

The trauma he experienced that day were what shaped Viper into the merciless hunter he is today.

Viper unloads another magazine into the endless horde of Hive.

“Eris has overrun the northern region of the City!” Zavala’s voice crackles in his helmet, “Evacuate everyone to the south now!”

“Eramis has taken the eastern front, Zavala!” Ikora responds, “We’re only barely holding back the Cabal! We need to run!”

“To the south exit!” Raven bellows, disintegrating a Knight with a palm of Solar flame.

Vella cradles a small child to her as she shields him from a Hive Witch’s arcane blast.

Viper seeing the Titan defending the child in trouble spinning quickly, raises his hand cannon, and blasts a hole through its chest. It screams and writhes in agony as its consumed in hive soulfire and dissolves to dust.

Nearly two dozen survivors huddle together, the three Guardians forming a protective triangle around them.

Smoke rises from the City once again, but a new shadow looms over the Traveler.

Many shadows.

The obsidian monoliths hover just outside of the City walls, motionless.

Raven looks above with an eerie calm in his voice, “Oh no...”

The buildings around them crumble and Hive corruption already grows in its stead.

The survivors murmur in fear over the sight of The Last City falling apart. Some whisper if this is the end or the beginning of a second Collapse.

“—Don’t—” A familiar voice cuts through the interference.

“Saint?” Viper calls. “Saint, I can’t hear you!”

More static.

“—trust—Wolf—!”

Viper’s brow furrows. “What?”

No response.

“Saint?! Saint please respond!”

Silence.

The Tower above them explodes.

“Saint!” Viper screams. His free hand balling into a fist tightly you could hear the metal from his frame straining slightly.

The other Guardians and survivors raise their faces, their eyes wide with disbelief and hopelessness.

Viper shaked his hand

“Mourn later…” He mumbled quietly to himself like it was some mantra to help him go forward.

The Hunter looked at Vella and nodded at her to take the lead.

“Run, go!” Vella commands. “We need to get out of here!”

“Wait!” Raven commands as they begin to retreat down the street.

“Raven, we don’t have time—” Viper begins. Raven silences him with a hand.

“This isn’t like Eris,” He muses as Vella crushes a Thrall’s skull with a fist of Void Light, “She wouldn’t give us an opportunity to escape.”

Viper stopped in place at his fellow Exo’s comment. He was right. Eris was a Hunter like him and all Hunter’s plan for every possible contingency especially any escape routes. They may as well have been walking into a trap.

“We’re about to lose ours if we keep standing here!” Vella roars, throwing a grenade.

“Something’s not right!” Raven disagrees.

Viper quickly throws a knife at a Thrall that was coming for Raven from behind as he contemplated what was going on.

Vella stares down the street, completely still.

“Traveler save us.” She whispers. Viper and Raven turn.

A figure walks down the wide street toward them, an army of Hive and Dark Guardians at his back. Tombships float above him, blocking out the Sun. Soulfire and Stasis crawl across his robes as he strides toward the Guardians, arms spread.

Revenant-19’s boots raise from the ground as he floats forward, dark frost and black smoke drifting off of his thin form. His robes are tattered, and bones adorn his body like trophies.

Raven looked shocked at the sight of the legendary Warlock coming towards him. He was horrified to see how far he’d fallen. The dark energies pulsing from his body were almost suffocating from what he could feel just radiating towards him in passing.

Viper looks and shakes his head in disbelief at the sight before him. He stood still. Emotions overwhelming him. He thought Revenant had all but disappeared so long ago. But there he stood in front of him.

Vella screams with rage and a mighty clang echoes through the streets as she summons the Hammer of Sol.

Raven screams at her, “Vella! No!”

The Hive around them shrink away from her bright Light and she hurls the Hammer at Revenant. The Dark Warlock holds out his hand as it whistles through the air at full force.

He catches it in his hand, holding it harmlessly.

All seems still for a moment. Revenant looks at the hammer, then back at Vella.

The three guardians stare in disbelief.

The flaming hammer in his hand dulls and eventually freezes over, Dark ice encasing it. The Hammer shatters in his hand and an unseen link between the Hammer and Vella snaps. She stumbles backwards, and her Light flickers out.

Viper screams to his comrade, “Vella!”

Raven doesn’t waste a second and throws his hand upward, a miniature sun blooming in his palm.

The radiant Light bathes him and wings of blinding dawn erupt from his shoulders as the light coalesces into a sword of fire.

He leaps forward, Dawnblade in hand, his Radiance burning the eyeballs out of the Hive’s skulls.

Revenant holds out his hand, a strange, geometric pattern glowing within his fingers.

The air between the two Warlocks vibrates and thickens with a Stasis field. Raven’s light tries to clash with the dark energy of Stasis but it’s futile.

Raven’s movement slows, and soon ceases completely. He hovers in midair, frozen in time.

Viper continues to stare in disbelief over the sight of his long time friend attacking his fellow Guardians so viciously.

Aria quickly materializes and floats near Vella, who ushers the survivors to the side of the street, out of the Warlock’s sight.

Viper suddenly notices the Warlock make a small movement but he’s too slow to react in time to dodge.

“Shit!” He screams about to raise his arms to defend against the blast.

He suddenly sees Aria’s Light in front of him.

“Aria!” Viper screams in horror.

Revenant makes another small gesture with his hand.

Seething Soulfire envelopes Aria. She screams weakly, her shell shaking and quivering. The Ghost falls to the ground as small embers of soulfire perpetually burning her. She lies on the ground helpless.

Viper turns his attention back to Revenant. He’s walking again, striding toward Viper with unnatural grace.

The Hive and Guardians behind him pace anxiously, but don’t dare tempt the Warlock’s bounds.

Stasis swirls in his hand. He throws the writhing ball of Darkness at the alleyway Vella and the survivors hide in. A strange, jagged totem grows from the unfocused Stasis energy. It spews Darkness at the survivors, freezing them before they can scream.

"No!", Viper looks in horror at the innocents and Vella that stand frozen before his eyes and turns to face his former friend.

With a cry of rage and despair, Viper throws his hand cannon above his head. His Light erupts from within, spewing outward like daybreak. His flames drip from his body and gather in pools of pure Light at his feet.

Revenant cocks his head, intrigued.

Viper levels his hand cannon with Revenant.

Revenant continues to approach, his hands crossed behind his back.

A Dark Hunter behind him raises a kama, to which Revenant waves her away.

Viper’s hands shake. The artificial feeling of tears stream down the Exo’s face as the Warlock stops before him, his face inches away from the barrel of Viper’s flaming gun.

Revenant does nothing.

Viper’s hands shake harder. “Why?!” He screams at Revenant.

Revenant doesn’t say anything.

“Answer me!” He screams louder and demanding. His body continues to shake violently. It was too much. Amanda, Saint, The Tower, Raven, Vella, The Citizens. How could this happen? How could Revenant do this?

He can feel the Warlock’s scornful gaze from behind his helmet, as if he were watching a child throw a temper tantrum.

Viper’s heart gives out and he collapses to his knees, sobbing.

He couldn’t take it anymore. His world had just shattered before his eyes all at the hands of one person he was called Brother.

Revenant gazes down at the broken Hunter, amused. A staff of Stasis forms in his hand and he points it’s jagged crystal at Viper's face. The tip of the staff barely making contact but the hunter could feel the cold freezing his face.

“Weak.” Revenant speaks, his voice deep and dark. It seems to echo through the stars, reverberating between the spaces between particles. His staff glows brighter.

“Revenant.” A terrifyingly beautiful voice calls above the chaos of the falling City. Viper recognizes Eris Morn’s voice, but another lurks just beneath it. The Warlock raises his head. “I need you.”

Revenant turns his attention back to the Hunter at his feet.

Viper stares up at him with hatred and betrayal overwhelming his very being. His eyes burned with untamed flames of Solar Light slowly flickering as if he were trying to summon another Golden Gun but the fear was holding him back from acting fully.

The Shadebinder lowers the staff and turns from him.

Viper felt insulted and humiliated by this act. Revenant viewed him as worthless. Not even worth the effort to kill.He watches as the Dark Warlocks army parts for him as he retreats down the street, staff in hand.

Revenant stops.

As if he remembered a simple task he forgot, Revenant raises the staff and taps it’s butt against the ground.

Viper's eyes widened in fear.

A shockwave surges outward, throwing Viper off balance shattering everything that was frozen around him.

Viper watches in disbelief as Raven, Vella, and the two dozen survivors shatter like glass and scatter like dust in the wind.

“No!” Viper’s throat burns as he sobs, cradling Aria’s shell in his hands and kneels in the remains of his friends. He screams in anger all alone now. Anger over Revenant’s actions, anger over his weakness, and anger over the deaths of everyone he couldn’t protect.

The Hunter inspects his hand cannon while on Elizabeth's jumpship.

The nightmares of his past having had their fill of haunting him for today.

The Ace of Spades on the grip of his gun had faded, and the years of wear had begun to show.

He closes his eyes as he feels the many lives he took with it. All the friends he put in the ground because they turned fully to temptation. All of the men and women who he once viewed as warriors of the Light, now figures of Darkness.

Viper realizing now he stood atop a mountain of corpses of his own making and he couldn’t help but wonder if he was truly any different from him now.

He looked at Aria who had been floating their in concern this whole time and patted her gently with his free hand giving her a weak but obviously fake smile of comfort to his lifelong partner.

“We’re approaching.” Elsie calls from the cockpit. Viper holsters his hand cannon as he stands, preparing for transmat.

The slightly uncomfortable feeling of being deconstructed spreads up his legs, and soon he stands on another frozen field.

The cold winds blow causing his cloak to billow in the wind.

“Where are we?” He asks, turning around.

“Felwinter Peak.” Elsie responds.

TO BE CONTINUED