Naoko bowed her head as she entered the folds of the tent, her helmet clasped underarm and breathing deeply in the fresh air with it removed. She closed her eye for one breath and let Mushi take the helmet, dematerialising it into their inventory. “The storm’s lightening up, coast looks clear all the way to Singapore.”
Rohan looked up as she entered, then nodded at the news. They beckoned Naoko over to kneel with the rest of the team around Estë’s holographic model of the city.
“We were just discussing how to get to the bunker,” Rohan explained. “Judging from what Vanir encountered with Yuenu’s backup bunker in Hong Kong, it shouldn’t prove difficult to get inside once we get there.
“The difference this time is that the Fallen don’t seem to have noticed its existence; they don’t know we’re coming, so we have the chance to sneak in with a small force.”
Zatrix sat cross-legged like a monk at Rohan’s side, Red Death resting across his lap. His hood was still damp from the rain, but he left it pulled over his head. Naoko twisted her fingers together, trying not to look at his unreadable expression and the cold glow of his eye. Helina spoke up instead.
“We thought if we can sneak inside the city border undetected we could avoid any Fallen patrols all the way to the harbour. The entire mission could go without bloodshed.”
Naoko pursed her lips and examined the projected skyline of Singapore. “It’s not our original plan,” she said, looking up at Rohan.
Rohan nodded. “You’re right, it’s not. But we can pull it off with the five of us.”
“Vanir?” Naoko asked, turning to her fellow Titan. “You went to the Hong Kong bunker, what do you think?”
Vanir shrugged. “Hong Kong was different. The House of Kings was entrenched like termites there. Here it’s just a skeleton crew of Devils… it’s up to you.”
Naoko knelt softly before the hologram, joining the others on the floor. The cover they had taken – a half formed tent attached to the collapsed form of a crashed Skiff for cover from the elements – left them without any furniture or proper room.
“What about the Wolves?” she asked. “Skolas may be dead but the rest of the House has scattered. Are we sure there aren’t any that fled here and joined the Devils?”
“If they have,” Zatrix said, and Naoko almost jumped at the sudden grinding voice, “they wont be welcomed openly. If anything they would be distracting the Devils further.”
Naoko swallowed. “Okay then, lets go with your plan then, Rohan.”
Rohan nodded. “Naoko, you’ll lead the Exos through the City on the ground while I provide sniper cover from the rooftops. I’ll find pathways for you, and we’ll work our way to the harbour entrance. With luck, the Fallen wont even catch a whisper of us being there.”
Zatrix was the first to hit the ground, and he moved like a flowing river of shadow. Naoko couldn’t tell where his arc and shadow ended and his body began, but he slid to the ground in smoke and rolled back into form with a puff and an eerie hollow sound. He didn’t leave a trace.
Helina floated in just as softly, drifting on the contrails of Zatrix’s smoke, and the tendrils of dissipating Void she left behind brushed over Naoko’s shoulders when she launched down in a missile of Light.
Vanir had taught her the technique, before her… accident. They hit the ground together with full force that dissipated into the ground around them on a sheet of void.
It was a lot louder than Zatrix. The ground tore and cracked from the blast, and Naoko’s armour vented hot air from its silver plating as she stood in the small crater of their arrival.
“Subtle.” Helina tilted her helmet with a sly dig, checking her rifle’s safety quickly as they settled into formation.
“Start moving.” Rohan’s voice crackled through their radios. “The faster you get away from that landing the less chance there is of it giving you away.”
Naoko scanned the nearby rooftops. She could barely see in the darkness of the night and the rain, even as her night-vision filter gradually came into effect. Rohan’s cloaked ship hummed and shifted, coursing back across the black water and out of sight and sound. “Where are you?” Naoko asked.
“Eleven o’clock,” came Rohan’s reply. Naoko caught the red glint as the Hunter signalled to them. “Now get moving, I’ll be your eyes.”
Naoko nodded and focused, orienting herself within the city quickly. She motioned to the team to follow her, and set out quickly. They darted through the streets, their feet a quiet tapping beneath the sound of the rain as they rushed from cover to cover amidst wrecks of cars and slabs of shattered concrete from broken buildings.
At each intersection, Naoko paused and looked to the sky. Subtle flashes of purple marked Rohan tearing portals between rooftops each time and they waited with bated breath for the word of where to go.
“West,” Rohan whispered at the third intersection, changing their direction. Naoko waved Zatrix to lead, and he drifted through puffs of smoke around the corner and down the street.
“Hold position,” he hissed.
Rohan raised their voice slightly. “Patrol is closing in from the North, there’s no time to hold.”
“There’s something out there…”
“I’m not seeing anything,” Rohan said, and Naoko watched, mechanical heart hammering in her chest as Rohan scouted down the street with their rifle. Lightning flashed behind them, and the thunder crackled in a deep, long rumble. “Are you sure? West is the only clear way unless you retreat.”
“I’m telling you Rohan, there’s something out there!” Zatrix hissed again, and Naoko could swear there was fear in his voice.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know, but we need to go north.”
“The Fallen are north!”
Naoko’s grip tightened on her rifle, steadying it on a concrete block and aiming to the northern road.
“Rohan… Tamara’s telling me we have to go north.” Zatrix’s voice was scarcely a whisper. Naoko looked at Vanir and Helina. She could not see their eyes, but in the tightness of their hands and the shrugging shoulders, Naoko could tell then were as tense and uncertain as she.
Lightning struck in the distance again, and the thunder rumbled deep, closer. It crackled twice, and Naoko felt it in the earth. “Rohan?” she whispered hurriedly as it subsided, “where are we going?”
There was a moment, and Naoko felt like her heart had stopped.
“North. I’ll cover you.”
Zatrix’s smoke billowed across the intersection as he moved, and Naoko dashed after him. Vanir’s footsteps pounded beside her, and she heard her cocking a shotgun, ready for combat.
Mushi’s voice came through her helmet. “Everything’s charged. I’m ready for a fight if you are.”
Naoko nodded and breathed deeply, following Zatrix’s smoke trail towards a small nook hidden from most of the street. Vanir slid in before her, and Helina paused at her side, grabbing her arm nervously.
“Who’s Tamara?” Helina asked. Naoko didn’t know.
But the whites of Fallen eyes glinted in the darkness. She grabbed Helina and pulled her down into the hollow. They practically fell on one another, and Naoko flushed bright red beneath her armour as Helina’s steadying hand touched her chest. She adjusted quickly, and they both prepared their weapons.
Fallen voices called in the darkness, their guttural language haunting in the rumbling of the building storm.
“They know you’re here,” Rohan said over the radio. “They’re combing the street.”
Vanir rose slightly at Naoko’s side, one fist crackling with lightning. “We can take them.”
“No!” Rohan whispered. “Stay there.”
Naoko obeyed, and pressed Vanir back with one hand. She heard the rippling tear of one of Rohan’s portals echo slightly. Fallen snarls grew louder, closer, and she heard the low whine of wire rifles heating up.
Then one fired. A wire rifle crackled through the air, and the white arc trail of its bolt lit the air as it fired the way the team had come.
A voice boomed in the sky, enhanced mechanically to be heard through the street. “Vash nar ruul! Sarga thuun!”
The Fallen echoed the yell to one another, rushing through the street. Naoko pushed back into the hollow, keeping the rest of her team behind her, as she felt was her responsibility, as the Fallen dashed by.
A Captain paused, sniffing at the air, but a second shot of superheated arc from the rooftop into the distance prompted him to move.
Naoko breathed again, and a sudden rippling cut through the air before them.
Rohan emerged from the void before Naoko’s eyes, purple fireflies dancing about their shoulders. They dropped the wire rifle at their feet and it clattered rough on the asphalt. “That wont fool them for long. We have to move.”
They spared not a second for the team to breathe, and sprinted down the street, heading for the harbour. Vanir was the first one after them, while Naoko shook the adrenaline from her system and stood from their corner.
Once Naoko started running, she didn’t stop to look back until they reached the harbour.
By then they knew the Fallen locals would be on alert, hunting for Guardians or Wolves or something hostile. But the Warmind bunker was supposedly undiscovered. Once they were inside, they could hide there as long as they needed.
Assuming they could get inside.
The coordinates they had pulled from Yuenu’s backup shelter in Hong Kong had been vague, and coordinates alone weren’t enough to locate something as well hidden as a Warmind bunker. It took them nearly two hours of searching before they found anything.
The storm had lifted to a light drizzle, though the dead of night still hung and the dark would last a few hours more.
Naoko stood on the edge of the harbour, staring out across the water. In the distance she could see the islands on the other side of the Singapore straight. She tugged her helmet off again, and Mushi took it as they had with her weapons. The rain was warmer than Naoko expected; the kind of lukewarm rains of a summer monsoon. They made her shiver, thinking back to a typhoon that she had weathered as a child, huddled in the dark of a basement with cold arms around her…
A gloved hand slipped into hers and squeezed. “Hey,” Helina whispered, resting her head on Naoko’s shoulder.
Naoko pressed her lips to Helina’s forehead. “Hey,” she mumbled.
They stood in silence for a time, resting their heads together. Naoko’s thumb brushed back and forth across Helina’s fingertips. The rain pattered against them, soft pats on Helina’s robes and tinkling on Naoko’s armour.
Zatrix popped in through a cloud of smoke several feet away from them – enough not to scare them, and waved for their attention. Naoko looked up. “Come on,” he said, beckoning. “Rohan found the bunker. We need your help getting in.”
Naoko pushed her shoulders back and walked tall through the halls of the hospital. She took a deep breath, pinched her nose softly, and rubbed her eyes. Mushi floated beside her shoulder, and at her whisper, they sent a tiny spark through her – a tiny boost to her systems to push her that final bit further alert.
Her mechanical heart raced for a moment like a fight-or-flight response and the rush left Naoko feeling rejuvenated and sharp with awareness. The world was crisp and clean around her.
“The room’s here,” Valko called over his shoulder, gesturing to their right at the window-covered wall. The other side was obscured by medical curtains, so Naoko couldn’t see anything. Valko waited at the door.
Naoko blinked, brushed a hair that had fallen from her bun away from her eye, and then stepped past her assistant into the operating theatre.
Several medical staff rushed around the room, checking monitors and preparing equipment and stations for use. One rushed in front of Naoko, a piece of shattered armour carried carefully in her hands, and laid it on another table in the corner of the room with the majority of a Titan suit.
A junior nurse carried a sheet, placing it over the operating table now that the armour had been removed. She obscured the table from Naoko’s view as she came in, but a man approached her immediately.
He was around the same height as her, and dressed in the same pale blue scrubs, though he looked to have been awake for a week. He bore a tidy black beard and tired eyes, and a Ghost hovered at his elbow. Three other Ghosts in red and white casings floated over the operating table behind him, their Light softly bathing the patient.
The patient. Naoko bit back a rising concern with the thought as she looked at the table. She had never seen an Exo in a condition like this, but still alive, and knowing Vanir personally didn’t make it easier for a second.
“You’re the Exo doctor?” the man asked. He clasped a datapad cluttered with analysis of all of Vanir’s signals and systems in his hand.
Naoko cocked an eyebrow. “Yes,” she said. “We call ourselves engineers.”
The man pursed his lips with grim amusement. His gaze flicked to the identity badge clipped to her chest. “Sorry,” he said, bowing his head slightly. He handed the datapad to her and led her to the side of the operating table. “We’ve been keeping her supplied with Light to keep her in a stasis until you arrived, Doctor Takahashi.
“All we’ve done is remove her armour and prepare her for surgery. But…” the man looked down at Vanir with a grim expression. “Her Ghost is drained of Light, and if something doesn’t change soon, well…”
Naoko nodded along, staring at the dozens of outputs on the datapad. She summoned Yomi in her hand with a specific gesture, and made sure they scanned it fully.
“You’re responsible for these healing Ghosts?” Naoko asked, gesturing to the three gliding Ghosts that wove soft lights across the patient…
Vanir. Vanir, she reminded herself. It’s not just ‘the patient’; it’s Vanir.
The man nodded. “I didn’t catch your name,” Naoko said without looking up. She handed the datapad to Valko and snapped her fingers away from the table, indicating with the sound for him to clear her space.
“Doctor Joubert,” he said. Naoko nodded, not bothering to waste time shaking hands.
She leaned over the table, her nerves steeled to inspect the damage. Even so, it was tough to look at.
Vanir’s abdomen had been ripped open by a great blow – a Scorch Cannon, by Rohan’s briefing as she was rushed to the hospital – and Naoko ran a gloved finger around the edges of the shattered metal cavity. Her armour and undersuit had both been stripped and placed aside, and the nurse had laid a sheet over her from the waist down for decency.
Embers danced from Vanir’s chest cavity, drifting up from soft fires of Solar Light. Her core glowed orange from the flames.
Naoko turned to the suspension field beside the table. Dozens of medical and electrical tools sat in a stasis field, held aloft by the gravity-defying cage like a curtain of Void Light.
She took a pair of instruments, and with them, carefully inspected deeper into Vanir’s wound.
Yomi hovered at Naoko’s side, scanning Vanir for three-dimensional imaging.
Naoko made mental notes of each of the major injuries – subsystems that had been ruptured, torn nerve networks and shatters in her structural skeleton, not to mention the gaping hole itself – and as she gently lifted pieces of broken metal out of the wound and placed them on trays Valko had prepared, she found the central issue.
Naoko found a small sphere in the centre of Vanir’s core. It burned with her flaming light, hovering gently, and its eye was closed. “Fuse…” Naoko muttered under her breath as she identified the Ghost’s core. She left it in place for the moment, investigating every aspect of the wound before making any moves beyond some shrapnel removal.
After several minutes of investigating, Naoko set her tools down softly on the tray at her side. She breathed heavily, quickly organising everything in her mind. Mushi hovered beside her left ear.
“Okay.” Naoko breathed, looking down at Vanir. She breathed in and out, looking at the wound, in through the nose, and softly out through her mouth.
She snatched up the datapad, swiping aside the signal analysis and making a series of quick preliminary notes.
“Yomi, can you bring up a projection of the patient?” she asked, stepping away from the table and into the more open space of the room. The surgical staff – minus the nurses that had been there only for preparation – gathered around her as Yomi projected a three-dimensional hologram from their eye.
“Her power core is ruptured.” Naoko stepped into the hologram, making a specific gesture for Yomi to enhance the size slightly. “The greatest risk currently is here, where she sustained the most damage. There is a rupture in her core’s containment cell and across the surrounding systems, which means that the containment cell needs to be replaced as soon as possible to stabilise her before we can begin any form of reconstruction.
“With Fuse drained of Light, he can’t bring her back, and the only thing keeping her going right now is the misfired Radiance’s Solar Light.” Naoko hovered her finger over Fuse’s nest in Vanir’s broken chest in the hologram. “Her Ghost needs to be recharged in the Traveller’s Light, but…” She paused, taking a soft breath through her nose and drawing her shoulders back. “We have to make her stable enough to survive without him before he can be removed.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t do more than remove her armour before I got here,” Naoko said to Doctor Joubert. “Removing Fuse might have stopped her Radiance.”
Naoko took slow, measured breaths, outlining the procedure’s details with a series of messy kanji on the datapad. She drummed her fingers on the side of it, running through everything in her mind quickly.
“Before we can exchange the core’s containment,” she said, turning to look back at Vanir. Embers and flickers of flame still rose softly from her chest, glowing orange and smokeless. “We need to remove all the shrapnel in her chest cavity from the damage from the Scorch Cannon. We will need to keep an eye out for any form of Vex presence – even so much as fragments of their stone – and remove them. Once that has all been cleared, Doctor Joubert is going to need to bring Vanir’s Ghost, Fuse, back online.
“Fuse’s assistance will be necessary in keeping Vanir’s core stable and intact while we replace its containment. Once that is complete, Vanir will be out of the worst of it.”
She looked at Valko and Doctor Joubert, who were listening to her briefing intently. “Even then, she’ll still be more than critical.”
Naoko sighed as the door clicked shut and she leaned against it. Her gloves made a snapping sound as she tore them off, and she ran her hands across her face. Her head drifted back and thumped softly against the door and she groaned into her fingertips.
She sighed a heavy, weary breath and pushed off the door, walking slowly from the observation room out into the hall.
Helina was waiting for her outside, and the sight of her girlfriend brought a soft smile to Naoko’s face.
She held out a take-out coffee cup. Naoko took it gratefully, chugging a massive gulp and ignoring the fact that it had gone almost stone cold waiting for her. She walked along the hall with Helina, simply pacing to keep herself active and alert.
Helina’s hand slipped into hers and she gave Naoko’s fingers a small squeeze. “I thought you’d be out a bit sooner, sorry the coffee’s gone cold… You’ve been in there for seven hours. How’s the operation going?”
Helina’s voice was soft and kind, and she moved her hand around Naoko’s waist – half as a gesture of affection and half to keep her on her feet. Naoko leaned against her girlfriend heavily, letting her cheek rest on Helina’s smooth forehead.
“Slow,” Naoko said through a sigh. “We’re not even close to finished. Vanir’s barely stable for now. We have to fix her main power core next…”
She stopped by the door to the operation’s observation room and went in. They sat down on a pair of chairs in the small room near the window. Naoko sipped her coffee again as Helina sat beside her. Her hand rested on top of Naoko’s.
“It’s the most dangerous part of the operation,” Naoko explained. “We’re essentially performing heart surgery – her core is what powers her and who she is – so I guess it’s brain surgery at the same time… It’s taking three Ghosts just to keep her pumping while we prepare.”
She leaned her head back and stared up at the ceiling. She took another long sip, ignoring the way the temperature made her coffee doubly bitter. “There’s no room for error,” she muttered, still staring at the ceiling. “And even after we have her core fixed and stable, we’re a long way from out of the woods. There’s still an incredible amount of structural damage to repair. We’re going to have to practically reconstruct half her structure and exoskeleton.”
Naoko sighed and leaned forward with her elbows on her thighs. “It’s going to take some changes to her,” Naoko sighed, staring through the window.
Helina squeezed her hand fondly.
“You’re doing everything you can for her,” Helina said, the light of her eyes soft and hopeful as ever. She leaned closer, and Naoko accepted the kiss with a subtle squeeze of her fingers. Helina’s free hand brushed her jaw, and the warmth of her spark flowed through Naoko, giving her a burst of wakefulness and helping to shake her tired thoughts back into shape. “You’re fighting hard,” Helina said, patting Naoko’s cheek.
Naoko bit her lip. “Not as hard as she is,” she said, turning to gaze through the window at Vanir. She seemed so peaceful, almost serene as she lay there with embers still floating slowly from her chest, her eyes closed in sleep. “Not nearly as hard as she’s going to need to fight…”
“Are you ready to do this, Fuse?” Naoko asked, watching the Ghost carefully. He rose and fell as if riding a rough sea; his eye’s light was barely a dim orange as he looked back at her.
He tried to speak and it came out as a series of grinding whizzes and distorted beeps. Naoko met his gaze, and his casing slid low over his eye like an angry glare. He floated low over Vanir, and pulled his casing in tight. It reminded Naoko of a hand clenching into a fist.
His voice came through laced with distortion and as a recording of another’s speech. “I’m ready to do this,” he said in his borrowed speech.
“You need to hold her core – everything she is – you need to hold it and keep it safe, while-“
“I said I am ready to do what needs to be done.” Fuse glared at her, switching between speakers for his sentences. Whoever it was he had chosen to use, it sounded like a heroic speech. “We are not here to waste time with idle words. We are here to do what must be done. Nothing more.”
Naoko nodded. Beside her, Valko stood ready to assist.
“I’m gonna pretend he didn’t sound like such an asshole,” he aid with his usual sly attitude.
“Pretending doesn’t change the way the world is,” Fuse said with a completely new voice, lowering to his position. His hovering was erratic and wavering, but once he floated before Vanir’s core, he stood perfectly still, solidified in his position.
Naoko gave Valko a subtle glance, a look that said ‘behave’, as she slid her gloves on. He just shrugged.
“Yomi, keep a constant monitor on all of Vanir’s readouts. Anything changes at all, you let us know. Mushi, you’re keeping Fuse supplied with Light, okay?”
The Ghosts acknowledged her commands, and glided into their places.
“Okay,” Naoko said, gathering her breath. She nodded softly for a moment, preparing herself. “Okay.” The word was solid as she steeled herself, and picked up her tools.
She leaned over Vanir’s chest – they had removed much of her plating even beyond the damaged areas, opening her up completely to make the operation as unimpeded as possible. Naoko’s hands were as steady as any Exo’s, unwavering as she moved in around Vanir’s core.
The cell glowed bright, still licking with unburning flames. The fires flicked around Naoko’s fingers as she worked, wafting over her hands. They were warm, but that was all, there was no aggression or searing touch to them, just soft, flickering warmth.
Naoko worked slowly and carefully, her movements delicate as she began the process of disengaging Vanir’s core containment cell.
Through Mushi, she could feel some degree of Fuse’s state, like a subconscious monitor of his Light, and he never wavered.
The room was ushered into pure silence. Naoko’s hands moved slow and precise segmenting the systemic attachments to Vanir’s core and shifting them one by one to the auxiliary power supplies Valko prepared. She passed him tools, whispering the names of what she needed and letting him keep them organised and switching fluidly from the stasis field at her side.
Naoko could feel her own heart beating, the mechanical thump and the pulse through the side of her throat. She could hear the smooth in and out of her breathing, keeping calm and controlled as she worked with absolute delicacy.
Her voice was a whisper when she spoke, as if raising her voice above a breath might disturb the operation. “Disengaging core containment now,” she whispered, gently unbolting the final fastenings on the containment cell. “Fuse. Do you have her?”
“I do.”
“Say the words please.”
Fuse’s voice was warm and concrete. “I have her,” he said solemnly, and Naoko curled her hand a little tighter.
She felt Mushi’s Light stir slightly. Naoko drew in a breath, and willed her heart to still for but a moment. Light gently kept her blood moving while she eliminated the chance for tremors in her hands, and, with agonising slowness, Naoko separated the cell that held Vanir’s core.
The core itself was bright and warm, like her fires. It almost hurt to look at, such a bright blue it was almost white, and Naoko could see the tiny shimmer of Fuse’s Light holding it in stasis.
Naoko took the cell and passed it to Valko, feeling her heart return to life and giving a sigh of breath with the feeling. Valko took the cell aside. Naoko’s breath felt like dropping a warhammer after the perfect stillness of removing the cell, but a tiny touch of Mushi’s Light returned her body’s focus in an instant.
“Vanir’s vitals are dropping. Cognitive processes slowing.” Yomi’s voice was soft and steady, but not alarmed. Naoko placed aside her sullied tools, dropping them into the small cleaning tub on Valko’s tray and retrieving sanitised versions. She brushed one lock of hair behind her head, and Valko held out the new containment cell for her.
“How fast?” Naoko asked, still calm and still as a stone.
“The speed of decline is not cause for alarm,” Yomi assured her, “but she is slipping deeper into unconsciousness.”
“Okay.”
Naoko breathed slowly, the way she once did to keep her core steady during her boxing training. It steeled her nerves and steadied her hands, and as she slipped her hands with the new containment cell into Vanir’s chest, she could feel the flow of Light from both Mushi and Fuse to the glow of the core.
She moved at a crawl, gently fitting the components of the cell into place.
“Vitals beginning to drop faster,” Yoni warned her.
Naoko exhaled a slow and steady breath, warm like the flickering fires in Vanir’s chest. They wrapped around the core with soft light, letting embers drift up towards the ceiling. “Keep her steady,” Naoko whispered, though she wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to Fuse.
The fires were beginning to fade with Fuse’s focus away from helping them, but they would hold.
Naoko fitted the cell into place around Vanir’s core. “Okay,” she breathed, “over to you, Fuse. Establish the connection.”
The Ghost glowed bright, and the field around Vanir’s core shimmered with a flash of orange, fiery light. The cell lifted and the core slipped into place, glowing steadily.
Fuse beeped softly, just once. Naoko stilled her fingers, and secured the core containment cell fully into place.
As the final fastening stilled in place, and the core was restored, Naoko breathed. Fuse fell a centimetre, and Mushi’s Light caught him, guiding him beside Vanir’s head. He lay on the operating table, and slowly closed his eye in silence.
“Vitals still dropping, Naoko,” Yomi said. “We need to get her other systems connected.”
Naoko nodded. “Mushi, give Vanir’s core a boost, bump up her power.”
She felt Mushi follow her command, and held out a hand to her side, asking for new tools from Valko before she began reconnecting Vanir’s subsystems to her core.
She passed each spent auxiliary power cell to Valko as she disconnected them, and heard the blipping of Vanir’s monitors change with her signals strengthening.
“Main systems stabilising,” Yomi said as Naoko finished reconnecting Vanir’s systems. She stood back, breathing deeply and dropping her tools somewhat roughly onto Valko’s tray. She sighed.
Vanir’s core had been restored. The hardest part was over.
But there was still so much work to be done.
She patted Valko on the shoulder. “Fetch Doctor Joubert, he’ll need to monitor Vanir’s Light closely.”
“Um, thanks Valko, good job buddy,” Valko said, imitating Naoko in the least effective voice. “Gee no problem boss, hey could you fetch Doctor Whoblidoo for me please Valko dearest?”
Naoko glared at Valko.
“Yeah I’ll go get him,” he sighed, snapping his fingers just once to image the room with sound as he walked to the door.
Naoko sat down on the floor, leaning her head back against the wall and breathing slowly, in through the nose, and out through the mouth. She sat there for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of Vanir’s fires crackling and the glide of her own breath.
“Naoko.” Her eyes snapped open and she looked at Yomi, quickly climbing to her feet. “I’m detecting a large surge in neurological activity.”
Naoko looked up at Yomi, her eyebrows furrowing. “What is it?” she asked, walking over to Vanir. “Is she waking up?”
“No.” Naoko looked back over her shoulder, and stepped around the Yomi’s monitors. She watched the waves quickly scrawling across its surface.
“It would appear,” Yomi said at her shoulder, “that she is dreaming.”
Naoko stepped past the monitor and stood beside Vanir again. She looked down at her face, at the shattered plating across her cheeks that left her bare and with one eye exposed. Her eyes were closed, the tiny ring of orange light around her iris only a faint glow. She reached down, brushing her hand across Vanir’s forehead, as if pushing hair from her face. She felt warm.
“Hang in there Vanir,” Naoko whispered. “Hang in there…”
Vanir stumbled through a flash of white and fell to her knees. The world spun around her, ears ringing and bright echoes of lights burning at her eyes. The ground beneath her hands was metal, ridged for the grip of shoes, and Vanir ran her hand across it as the faint spots of light dissipated and her senses returned to normal.
Her hand was gloved in thin black material, like the undersuit of her armour. Her knuckles and forearm were capped with simple ceramic armour plating. As she climbed to her feet, Vanir looked down at the rest of her armour. She didn’t recognise it, but it felt familiar. The armour was black, sleek and simple, mostly padding across the chest, and a uniform-like suit underneath.
Vanir staggered as she stood up, and slumped against something large and solid. She regained her balance and looked at it. It was a server of some kind, rusted and faded and coated in thick browning vines.
She did not remember coming here.
A voice echoed beside her, and Vanir looked up. A Chinese woman stood beside her in a similar uniform, though unarmoured. Vanir felt like she knew her, but she found nothing – no name, no relation – to match the face. The woman didn’t seem to see her and stared blankly past her.
Vanir looked around the room – first where the woman was looking, to a closed blast door. She knew the room. Properly knew it too. It was a Seraphim Vault, like the one where she had helped defend Rasputin’s core from the assault of Crota’s forces over a year ago. But this one was different.
There was no seeping rust along the walls, no dust coating the consoles and servers around the vault. It was pristine and swelling with lights and the hum of activity. And there were people. Technicians in blue jumpsuits with goggles around their necks hurried around the vault, and a series of black-armoured soldiers shuffled through the guillotine-like blast doors.
Their armour was the same as what Vanir wore, the sleek black vests and uniforms…
And Vanir led them.
Vanir stared, her mouth again and glowing wordlessly as she watched herself walk through the vault door from memories she had lost. She saw herself, Vanir-2, unscarred by the Gorgon’s lash, with two antennae and a smooth white face untouched by orange paint. Vanir found one hand drifting to her cheek, tentatively touching where her paint lay. Her plating was shattered and cutting beneath her fingertip.
Vanir-2 walked with purpose, striding forward in the same sleek black armour and carrying a hauntingly familiar weapon. On one arm, where Vanir had her garden’s coordinates tattooed, Vanir-2’s sleeve held a single Chinese character to denote her rank.
The black painted lines on her arm suddenly felt heavy, and she raised a hand to touch the tattooed coordinates through her sleeve. It was the precise location where Fuse had found her, the first clue to who she was, burned into her memory and tattooed across her plating. Now, it was the location of her garden.
Vanir stepped towards her echoing memory, the ghost of her past self, and she saw the rust and ruin at her feet spread.
It seemed to follow her, the dying vines and decay retreating behind her and spreading before as she walked, as if she stepped through another time in the vault.
A technician moved by Vanir, and she held a hand out to touch them, but as Vanir grew close they vanished from existence.
“Good.” The word jolted Vanir’s senses and she turned sharply to the Chinese officer who had been standing beside her. The woman now addressed Vanir-2 and her following soldiers.
Vanir-2 stepped forward, Hard Light held carefully in her hands, and her soldiers stayed at the door. She looked to the woman, but said nothing.
“The Lady has been asking for you, Commander…” the woman said. “By name.”
No sooner had the words left her lips than the memory faded in a flash, and Vanir felt a throbbing pressure in her head. Her vision pulsed bright and her ears rang, until she collapsed into the nothingness between dreams.
“You look like shit.” Novella’s voice was warm but firm, almost motherly, though Naoko would never say that. She slumped back into the visitor’s chair while Novella stood, still fitted head-to-toe in armour.
Naoko ran her hand over her face and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yeah,” she said through a wry laugh, “eighteen hours of surgery will do that to you.”
Helina’s hand grasped one of hers as she spoke, giving her a soft squeeze of encouragement. Naoko looked up at Novella.
Her face had lost its usual sharp confidence. Her white razor teeth weren’t bared in a sly smirk with sarcasm rolling from her tongue. Her shoulders were slumped, her eyes soft and gazing at the curtained window through to Vanir’s room.
“How is she?” Novella asked softly, not looking away from the curtains.
“Stable,” Naoko said. Novella flicked her gaze to her and Naoko tried to give her a reassuring smile. “She’s made it through the worst of it, but she’s a long way from being out of the woods.”
Novella folded her arms and fidgeted, looking back at the window and tapping her foot as if she needed to pace. She lifted one hand and chewed the tip of her thumb. Helina stood up and placed a gentle hand on Novella’s shoulder.
Naoko could see the tiniest hint of purpling light warp around Helina’s fingers, suppressing Novella’s nerves ever so slightly.
“Can I… can I see her?” Novella asked.
Naoko stood beside Novella, feeling like an intruder as she looked at Vanir. Novella gently held Vanir’s hand, her thumb running slowly back and forth over the scorched knuckles.
Naoko folded her arms to keep her hands from fidgeting. Across the bed, Troy pressed his palms against tired eyes, and slid a datapad of monitoring information back into the slot on the side of the bed. “Vanir’s doing well since you fixed her core,” he said to Naoko, speaking softly so as not to disturb Novella. “Signals are stable, and there’s a Light-nurse on call just in case. I’m clocking out.” He set a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Naoko nodded, and Troy left the room. The door clicked shut behind him.
“Has anyone told Anya?” she asked.
Novella nodded slowly. “She’s not taking it well… She stays in bed all day, refuses to go out or talk to anyone, just stays at home with their dogs…” She sighed, laying Vanir’s hand down softly and turning to Naoko. “I’m going to check on her, make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid.
“But I’m heading out tomorrow; we’re going after Skolas. I’ve been picked to be in the hunting party and someone else needs to keep an eye on Anya while I’m gone.”
“I could check in on her for you,” Helina offered. Novella pursed her lips.
She sighed again, shaking her head. “I don’t know if seeing an Exo would be the best thing for her right now… I’ll ask her family. I think a more human touch might help.”
Novella moved to go to the door, but paused at the nightstand of Vanir’s bed. There were flowers in a small glass vase, brought by the Speaker-to-be that morning, and Novella picked something up from beside it.
She held a small silver ring in her hand, tiny Chinese characters etched into the inside. “Who left this here?” Novell asked.
Naoko shrugged. “It was here when I arrived this morning,” she admitted. “I thought it was just one of Vanir’s belongings.”
Novella set the ring back and gave a wry smile as the turned to the door. “Well, at least she’s checking in on her,” she muttered.
She reached the door, pushed it open, and paused. “I’ll check in again before I go,” she said. Naoko nodded, and Novella left.
“Okay,” Naoko sighed, turning back to Vanir’s bed.
Helina’s hand curled into hers. “Hey,” Helina whispered, resting her head on Naoko’s shoulder. “I’m going to make sure Anya’s okay. You get some rest, don’t overdo yourself.”
Naoko smirked. “Don’t worry, I used to work thirty hour days back at Clovis sometimes,”
“Against the rules,” Helina glared knowingly. “Valko’s told me plenty of stories. Make sure you get rest when you need it.” She jabbed a finger at Naoko’s chest with the warning.
Naoko smiled. “I’ll be fine.”
Helina reached up on the tip of her toes and pressed her lips to Naoko’s. A spark danced across Naoko’s lower lip and she felt a flow of strength tingling through her. Helina rested her head on Naoko’s shoulder after the kiss. “I love you,” she said.
Naoko kissed Helina’s forehead. “My name is Naoko Takahashi,” she whispered.
Helina gave her a gentle slap on the shoulder and a glare that was ruined by the brightness of her blushing lights, then turned and headed after Novella.
Once the door clicked shut, Naoko stretched her hands overhead. She heard her back click in two places, and sighed.
“Yomi!” she called, waking the AI Ghost from their sleep. “I need you to dig up a file for me. One from a couple months back that Vanir and I worked on together, coded Android.
“Prepare it for me, and contact Valko. Get him to bring me something I can use to make minor modifications to it. We’ve got a lot of preparations to do before the morning.”
For the remainder of the night, Naoko poured over the designs for an android form. She had made them together with Vanir months ago; they had built her body, designed her face, taken weeks to perfect it, picked tones and shapes and mapped out the subtle shaping that would transform her body.
There was no other time for this. No other time when it could be done, done perfectly, and done completely.
Any other time, the nature of Vanir’s rebirth from Fuse would render an android transformation ineffectual. A single resurrection would reverse all their work.
But here… now… when Vanir awoke, she would be changed, rebuilt, no matter how, she would be different. This was the perfect time, the only time when Naoko could make the change.
Fuse waited beside Vanir. He refused to move despite his waning Light. This wasn’t a resurrection, it was different, and it gave Naoko her opportunity.
When morning came, Naoko was ready and rested.
Wind howled around Vanir, and then it was still.
She opened her eyes to a flaming sky, a burning orange sunset that carved hanzi through the clouds. She read the words and they hung over the jagged skyline of a broken city. She blinked, and the characters had changed; they were meaningless alone and together, keyphrases and random nouns, but some sent shivers down her spine and she did not know why.
Grass tickled her feet and Vanir looked down. She stood in Beijing amidst her garden home, and her golden skin was bathed in the light of the setting sun.
She grass shifted beneath her feet, but Vanir stared at her arm. Smooth, tan skin covered her where metallic plates had always been. She reached over and brushed the fingers of one hand across her other arm. It felt smooth and warm and both hard and soft at the same time.
With shaking fingers, Vanir lifted the sleeve of her left arm. The black lines of her coordinates still lay there; painted smooth and sharp by her own hands but now on golden skin. Small seams – the slightly darker lines of grooves – ran between joints in her skin along lines where her plating was.
Gently, nervously, Vanir ran her fingers across her face, feeling the shape of cheekbones and jaw, sharp eyes and smooth skin… a face she knew well, one she designed herself…
A rush of wind had Vanir turning her eyes to the sky, stepping back from the edge of the rooftop on which she stood. Her foot met the familiar warmth of polished wood floorboards.
The skyline burned with its orange hanzi in the clouds, cutting and jarring against the black silhouetted buildings. One building was different.
The Deep Stone Crypt rose from Beijing’s skyline as a black tower, jutting up through the blinding surface of the sun.
Vanir’s hands curled into fists.
Vanir had dreamed of the Deep Stone Crypt – that shared dream every Exo knew – only a half dozen times in her life.
The first time she had wandered the dream of the Deep Stone Crypt had been after they returned from the Vault of Glass. It took Vanir three days after coming home because she slept, whether it was the fear that kept her from it, or the exhaustion that finally made her succumb….
That first time, Vanir had fought an army of unfamiliar human faces. She had fought through the valley at sunset, as the stories of the dream had always gone. She had heard the tales from other Exos, how they came to the valley and walked to the tower in war or in peace, how most never made it to the tower in the dream. But it did nothing prepared her for the dream.
It took her a long time to tell anyone about it.
She told Anya after the second dream – when they returned from the Vault for the second time.
Since then, she had dreamed of the Deep Stone Crypt a few times, and every time it was the same – the black field in a black valley, fighting armed and armoured through an army of forgotten faces to a tower lit by the setting sun, until she fell and woke before she reached it.
The seventh time she walked in peace through the golden field. Vanir felt as if she was still there, as if she stood in the same flowing and changing dream. How long had she been dreaming…
She looked at the Deep Stone Crypt, and felt a burning in her chest.
As she glared at it in the distance, the sun flared behind it. It pulsed, wavering smaller for a second and then bursting with light and fury as it grew. It expanded across the skyline in a blaze of power like the bubbling Oversoul in Crota’s realm, and Vanir saw in the corners of her eye how it burned away the world before her.
Only she and the Deep Stone Crypt were left alone, unburned by the fury of Sol. But the star grew too bright for Vanir to look at. She closed her eyes tight, shielding herself with an arm as heat buffeted her like a great wind, until the world fell still again.
When she opened her eyes, Vanir stood on a nightmare landscape.
The world was nothing but Vex stone, swathed in fire from a too-large sun that hung eternal in the sky with rippling orange fires. The Deep Stone Crypt stood amidst the Vex towers across Mercury’s surface, barely distinguishable from their shifting forms.
Vanir took a step forward, and stone shifted around her. A wall parted, and she saw armour and weapons standing in lines, Golden Age weapons and armour untouched by time and calling to her with hazy memories. She looked towards the towers on the horizon.
Vanir saw the shadows of an army standing across the burning fields between her and the tower.
Their shapes were Vex, Human, and Exo. They stood in ranks and lines as regimented as a factory production, eyes staring up at her, and she watched as the shadows of men and women warped, white lights ripping through their torsos and their eyes turning a hateful red.
But she let her fists unfurl as a voice whispered by her cheek, and rather than march to war, she smiled softly. Vanir lowered, crossing her legs like a meditating monk, and sat upon the sun-warmed surface of the stone. She placed her hands in her lap and stared out across the unmoving army.
Words burned in the sky with jagged shapes, taunting her with trawling shapes of memories, and they seemed to scream at her.
A hand rested gently on Vanir’s shoulder.
She reached up without looking, and laid her hand on top of theirs. She felt a familiar warmth in those fingers, and Vanir let out a sigh as she heard Anya’s voice.
“Vane’ka…” she turned, looking back at Anya.
She stood in shadow – pure darkness – with tendrils curling around her body, and the room seemed to press down upon her. Her face was filthy, smeared with old makeup and dirt and two smeared channels ran down her cheeks. Her eyes were red and raw and rubbed dry.
The shadow cracked behind her with vicious hanzi, words flashing angrily behind her. Traitor. Murderer. Vanir ignored them, and stood slowly.
Anya held out her hands, her bottom lip trembling just slightly, as if she carried words she was too scared to say in her mouth.
Vanir reached out and took Anya’s hand…
Vanir’s hand curled slightly around hers.
Vanir’s chest rose beneath her robe and sheets as if with an indrawn breath, and when she released, a lick of fire drifted from her lips. A tiny flow of embers floated from her mouth, and for the first time in one hundred and forty two hours…
Vanir opened her eyes.
She blinked, her soft orange pupil flitting in and out without eyelids, and she turned her eyes slowly to her side. Vanir looked at her. Her lips moved, a single final ember floating out like a late firefly and drifting through the air to dance on current-less winds.
“Hey,” Yùtù whispered, brushing her thumb across Vanir’s fingers. She felt them squeeze just slightly in response.
“Hey you,” Vanir breathed with a smile. She blinked, her lips curling up in a smile and her mouth glowing with a warm orange. “Where’ve you been?” Vanir seemed half in a daze, her words whispers through a sleepy smile like a girl waking up from sedation.
“Here,” Yùtù whispered again. She felt as if speaking above a whisper might break the spell. “With you.”
Vanir hummed, closing her eyes for a moment and wriggling slightly. “Hospital,” she mumbled, half-question half-statement.
Yùtù nodded. “You’ve been here nearly a week. A lot changed…”
Vanir gave her a wide grin, and her hand slipped from Yùtù’s to brush her cheek. Vanir looked at her own fingers incredulously, and Yùtù reached up to curl her own around Vanir’s hand. She held her hand softly, and Vanir traced her other hand across her forearm, staring and smiling at her golden tan arm.
“You’re an android now,” Yùtù said with a sly smile as she watched Vanir grinning at her hands.
Vanir coughed just once. “Cool…” she mumbled. She looked up at Yùtù.
“I’m gonna pass out again now,” Vanir mumbled, “if that’s okay…”
Yùtù ran her thumb along Vanir’s fingers fondly. She brushed her free hand over Vanir’s forehead. “Okay,” she whispered, “I’ll be here.”
talizzorah was feeling down and I wanted to cheer her up so I wrote the start of some fluffy lovey-dovey stuff...
“You first.”
The pair of purple lights blinked, then tilted, one rising and the other falling so she could tell Helina’s head was cocked. “I thought you said that was unfair.”
She snorted. “I did. You first.”
One of Helina’s eye-lights narrowed to a sliver in place of a dot. “You keep changing the rules.”
“That’s how it works,” Naoko shrugged. She knew Helina couldn’t see it, but she did anyway. “Humans change the rules all the time.”
“But you don’t have to,” Helina said. Naoko heard the rustle of robes, and the lights before her bobbed softly like buoys on a distant wave.
Naoko laughed. It echoed slightly around the darkness, and she shook her head with a soft smile. “Now you’re the one avoiding the question.”
Helina fell silent. The strip of violet light that glowed whenever she spoke fell dim, and her eyes – which now seemed so fragile amidst the sea of black – cast downward.
Naoko went to pick her nail absently, and her gloves rubbed quietly. She swallowed dryly.
“I think so…” Helina muttered, still looking down, as if staring at Naoko’s boots in the darkness.
“You think so?” Naoko asked. “C’mon Helina, that’s not a real answer.”
“I don’t know,” Helina’s eyes flicked up and perfectly met with Naoko’s gaze. Naoko felt a lump in her throat; the motion gave her the sudden feeling she was the only one sitting in such complete darkness, as though the whole world could see but she was blind, until Helina’s gaze drifted slightly, reassuring her that Helina could not see either.
She realised that shouldn’t have been a reassurance.
“I don’t know,” Helina said again, “everything is so… jumbled. Sometimes I feel like a remember things but-“ she shook her head. “They never last.”
Naoko looked down at nothing. She wet her lips. “Well,” she said, her voice softer than it had been, “what makes you think you have?”
“When I woke up, there was a woman.”
“Jada?” Naoko asked.
The purple dots bobbed up and down.
“Well, you did say ‘I love you’ a lot right after that,” Naoko teased. She felt a hand shove against her shoulder – to most it would have felt a little hard, but titan training made it a gentle breeze by comparison.
“Shut up!” Helina’s voice jittered with her complaint, and the lights from her mouth brightened with embarrassment.
“My name-“ Naoko began, imitating a robotic voice, but another shove on her shoulder stopped her. She laughed, and Helina’s cheeks glowed with light seeping through the seams.
“Sorry,” Naoko mumbled, “I didn’t mean to, y’know… Sore subject?”
The purple dots bobbed up and down, slower.
Distant clanking and the sifting of sand falling in little rivers caught Naoko’s ear, and a faint white light cut columns through the wrecked metal around them. She could make out the silhouette of her own body, and Helina’s robes spilling about the floor as she hugged her knees to her chest.
Naoko snorted when she heard a distant clank and muffled mutter of Mushi cursing that followed. She shifted, carefully getting to her feet in the dim light. Her boot scraped on the metal when she slipped slightly, but a quick hand kept her balanced.
“What about you?” Helina’s voice was soft, and Naoko glanced back at her. The brightness had faded from Helina’s mouth, and though Mushi’s light broke through the darkness, Helina’s eyes were still the brightest light to her. “Have you ever been in love?”
Naoko tapped the side of her nose knowingly. “Mushi’s back, time to go.”
“Hey!” Helina said as Naoko started carefully picking her way through the wreckage that had caged them in, “you can’t get me to tell you and then not answer yourself, that’s cheating!”
“That’s human!” Naoko called back. She felt a pulse of void shove her forward and laughed, ducking under a beam towards Mushi’s light and picking up the pace as Helina started chasing her. She laughed, ducking another gust of void-induced wind and quickly vaulting her way up through a section of the sinkhole that Mushi had illuminated for them to escape through.
Helina’s ghost hovered at Mushi’s side, and Naoko noticed them exchange a confused glance at one another at the sight of their Guardians giggling and hopping their way up through the treacherous collapsed building like some deadly game of tag.
Mushi’s casing imitated a sigh at the sight, but they simply floated on, guiding them along the escape path.
As Helina’s pulses of playful void died down, Naoko slowed to a walk and let her friend catch up.
They walked in the silence and slowly brightening light of their Ghosts as they readjusted to the presence of light through back rooms of the compound in a strange, maze-like pattern.
“Must’ve taken a while for you to find a path we could fit through?” Naoko raised an eyebrow at Mushi.
The Ghost glared at her. “You were there just as long as we were searching.”
She raised a hand, letting the subject slide, and followed Mushi through the chaotic mess of collapsed rooms until they emerged into the light of a starry sky.
Countless specks and sweepings of colour and light blinked ahead through the blurring of the atmosphere, and Naoko smiled up at the sky as she walked towards Rohan, Vanir, and Zatrix at their makeshift encampment.
Vanir gave them a bright smile and a wave as they walked over. Rohan’s expression remained characteristically untelling as they glanced up, then waved Naoko closer. Helina darted to Naoko’s side.
She glanced at the Warlock. Even with all the stars twinkling without a hint of a cloud, the two purple dots seemed the brightest to Naoko.
“You didn’t answer the question,” Helina whispered, jabbing a finger at Naoko’s ribs.
Naoko smirked and grabbed Helina’s hand as she tugged it away from her poking. “Maybe someday,” she muttered, then leaned in and kissed Helina’s forehead, and immediately darted away to the group.
