Destcember: Shattered Hope
How did it go so wrong? How did it end up like this? Where did things fall apart? Questions race through Sarah’s head so fast she can’t find an answer to one before another hits her like a punch to the gut. Her throat clenches and air is suddenly so hard to find. Nikolai—who had been by her side since the beginning— lay shattered by her side, his once lit shell now dark as night and eerily lifeless and she chokes back a sob.
Her body feels too heavy to move, her limbs seem to have a mind of their own and no matter how much she willed herself, her muscles would not obey.
“This was supposed to be a simple mission…” her words drift along the frigid air of Europa, its icy tendrils seeping into her very bones. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this!” Her tears, hot with emotion freeze instantly, leaving her cheeks streaked with frost.
“Sarah we need to go,” a command echoes, but she doesn’t hear it. “Now.” A hand on her shoulder startles her back into reality and she stiffens, whipping around a breath later, rage shining in her eyes.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” Her words come out a hiss and she lashes out with her blade.
“Sarah, it’s me!” The strong voice says again, “it’s Aiden.”
Aiden. The name sounds familiar, and a face soon flashes through her head. Warm green eyes, a toothy grin and a head of dark soft hair that her fingers would itch to run themselves through.
“Aiden…” the name leaves her lips shaky and for the first time in what feels like an eternity, she pries her eyes away from the remnants of her ghost to meet pools of emerald shining with sorrow.
“Yeah babe,” his lips curve into a forced smile—and she knows he’s doing his best to be there for her— but it only made her anger burn that much hotter. “C’mon, we need to leave before I lose you too.” His arms wrap around her like a security blanket, and his warmth is enough to render her boneless as she collapses into him, another sob racking her body.
“He’s gone…” the words repeat in an agonized mantra as she feels him start to pull her away, and in that moment, time seems to stop only for them. The wind dies, the furious flurries of snow clear, and the chill that ran bone deep dissipates until all that remained was a burning so hot, she can see the steam surrounding them.
A simple recon mission, investigate a rouge guardian and report back. What could go wrong? She knew her target almost as well as she knew herself. She trained Lacie—taught the hunter everything she new—and how does she repay her, with a knife in her back.
The trap had been set, everything going to plan until Lacie’s mental instability took a turn even Sarah couldn’t foresee. It happened in a matter of seconds, the gun cocking, blackness, pain and grogginess, and then finally a soul shattering emptiness that filled her through and through. Lacie killed Nikolai just as Sarah had been revived, and when his shell exploded, she felt her world fall to pieces with it.
“She will pay for what she’s done Sarah, don’t worry. Zavala and Ikora know everything, and your ghost’s feed had a direct link to their command center.”
She knew all of this, but somehow his words eased the anxiety spiraling inside her.
“Gone.” Sarah repeats the word robotically. “ it’s gone.”
Everything was gone. Her trust, her friend, her ghost, all of it. Her future, dreams, love, all an impossible goal for her to reach now. She had nothing. No Nikolai, no revives, no life, only the blinding rage that ebbed and flowed within her like a tide. And just like her ghost, as she picked up the pieces— eyesight blurred by tears—her hope succumbed to the same fate.
