Yolzek

She held tightly to the camera, as if her life depended on it. A small trinket of a bygone age, of a design not her own. It was precious to her, one of the firsts things she found on Earth after emerging from the Darkness and brought back to the light. Its surface meant for human hands, was dinged and scratched by her talons, but it was hers. The apperatius was raised, being aimed by one of her four eyes, glowing by transluent energies of her kind, her clicking slowed, to the metronome of her heart.

Three. Two. One.

The button was pressed, and the camera's shutter spang to life, the flash was turned off, no need to disturb the dead. She kept her position, hunched, and hiding as the sight before her played out. The only illumination other than her eyes, was the ominous green glow, and the only noise louder than the clicking, was the song of death by the horrible witches before her.

The cave systems of Earth were massive, no more so after the surface was seeded by the spawn of Crota. And only slowed to a halt after the Guardians put a final end to the monster. Six entered the Hellmouth on the Lunar surface, and only one left. She met Eris only briefly, and she had her curious thoughts quelled by her sight. By her words, of what true death the Hive brought. They scared her. They always scared her, ever since that day so many years ago. But time was stuck, a frozen constant for Guardians, the unending angels of Humanity, and she was one of them.

The lower talons of her body lifted up from their position just above her hip, silently removing the film that developed, and shook it a few times to let the image stick. Guardians often left their legacy behind in some manner. Saint-14 left behind a technique for the Titans to be as strong as the First Pillars. Osiris, for all his faults, showed that the mind was not the only strength of the Warlock, and Cayde-6? Well, he knew how to shoot straight. Maybe in her own way, she wanted these to be her legacy, to be the artifacts she left behind, to show her story, should everything they worked for fail, and her light be stripped away. She already knew that feeling, and her fervor to prove her worth only became stronger after the Light returned to her.

But the time to sit and think upon philosopy was not now. The camera was lowered and moved back to its pouch on her armor, her keepsake always within claw's reach, and this allowed her other talons to be free. But she did take a brief moment to look upon the image embedded to film, of the sight before her, a lost Fireteam of Guardians, trapped in green flame, trapped in a ritual only hushed in rumors, planning on removing their Light, and worse.  It was quickly deposited in another pouch close to her camera, and the small Eliksni paused no longer.

Energy danced around her body, light bending after the flow to camaflouge her body and allowed her to skitter out from her hiding spot among the crevicies of the chitin pillars. She moved carefully and soundless, talons gripping to move her down to ground level, and kept her body lowered to the ground. The Witches weren't the only thing there, where rituals took place, there was always Acolytes and Knights to watch and worship in horrific silence. She had to move between them, careful not to stumble in their line of sight, her cloak only worked so well, and the dancing warp of invisibility might startle the beasts.

Three bridges connected the rest of the area to the central pillar where the ritual took place, the green light fuming upwards to prepare transfer of the Traveler's light to nefarious purposes. Only the Witches, and a few select Knights stood among the platform to which the pillar was holding up, with a wicked and spiked pedastal keeping the three captured Guardians silently fearing and plotting. The Fallen worked quickly, skittering along the underside of the bridge, planting an improvised explosive device under the first two bridges. She was pressed for time, she had to work quickly.

After the second one was placed, she began her climb towards the central pillar, one against thousands, the odds were clearly not in her favor. But, she could try, she had to try. Her position saw her climbing up to the ritual platform, half of her body dangling off the edge, one of the Guardians must of spotted her, the helmet of the Hunter catching wind of a strange dancing of refracted light. But even if he knew what she was, he remained silent. The dark energies in the hands of the Witches' claws grew brighter. Her talons pulled her up to crouch, the other Guardians, a Titan and a Warlock finally caught what the Hunter was looking at. This caught the attention of a Knight, who had began to turn his massive skull to look at their sight, but it was far too late.

Lower talons clicked the detonator, and there was a low hum before a flash of blue light erupted and tore two of the three bridges asunder. It shook the very core of the Hive's have, rumble raining down that was simply waiting for a force like this to occur. The Witches' ritual was paused, and the Knight stumbled towards the dancing cloak, raising its sword to smash the Eliksni to paste. But this was not her first encounter with the Hellish monsters, nor was it to be her last. Light beamed her body away from the impact point, her body appearing and swords forming to life from nothing, as the Arc energy amplified her strikes. The horrific silence was now a groteque uproar. Two slices to the underside of the Knight's knees brought it down, and a hard kick saw it meeting the Abyss of the cavern below. The Witches turned and hissed at the Fallen, but swords were quickly replaced with shock pistols, bolts of light bouncing against their mist-like shields before they hovered away. But, their ritual was now broken, and the silent Ghosts of the Guarians fell to the floor as the flames dispursed.

"Wha-" The Titan spoke, but was quickly silenced as the Eliksni took no time to explain. Standing before them, she aimed and fired, shattering the shell-like shackles that bound them to the platform and released them. Concern grew as their Ghosts were taken into her lower claws, but now more confusion was put in its place as the Eliksni supplied temporary weapons. A Line Rifle for the Hunter, a shock rifle for the Warlock, and a Shrapnel Cannon for the Titan.

"I will aid the awakening of your Ghosts. You must fend them off." Her squeaky voice shrilled out behind her helmet, and it was clear now of her actions. But they decided the approaching hordes of Hive were more important than the one Fallen that held their Ghosts. Their light was limited, their powers weakened, but, when Ghaul stole their powers, they were now familiar with it. They wasted little time now.

The Titan jumped forward, raising the cannon into her sight, the rudimentry sights of the cannon would work to blast away the Hive that were attempting to cross the remaining bridge. The Warlock and Hunter took to defending the other two avenues. Had the Eliksni not taken out the two other bridges, they may of been overwhelmed in moments, but those Hive that didn't make the gap were plunged down to the dark below, while the Titan stood as tall as the Pillars of the City against the bottlenecked horde rushing across the bridge.

One ritual was replaced with the other, the talons setting the slumbering Ghosts before her, and a flash of light materalized her own ghost. "Work fast, little light," she whispered among the screams, its eye blinking before looking down at the Guardian's ghosts. It knew its purpose, and it gave her a beep of approval, before expanding its shell outwards, and let its collected light travel into the others. From there, she went to work, standing back up and taking a small moment of pause. Time stood still in her mind, collecting, preparing. Beasts of Darkness we no longer are. We are one with the Light. And nothing will stop us now.

Even with the destroyed bridges, those Hive firing their wicked weapons across the bridge caused the Guardians to keep their heads down. The Hunter pressed against one of the spines that stuck out from the pillar, removing the dead cell from the Line Rifle, only to be met with the gurgling hiss of a Thrall that managed to leap the gap. He rose his arms defensively, but was rained on by chitin. The Eliksni had warped from her place and thrust her blade into the Thrall's head, letting it crumble to dust. The Hunter perked up, and her second sword was tossed to him. They had reached the platform, the range was useless.

In tandem the Fallen moved with the Guardians, the Warlock keeping the eerie homing bolts of arc flying to impact the legions of thrall at back, the explosions of the Shrapnel Cannon littering the remaining bridge with chunks of dead hive, being pushed off the edge with the incoming wave. "We're running out of room!" The Titan shouted, the group looking to see that Acolytes and Knights were shoved aside by the approaching Ogre. There was a collective stomach drop, the Guardians banding together to prepare for an impossible fight. But that's when the Eliksni charged head first, the Warlock reaching in vain in an attempt to stop her, but her Ghost saw what she was planning and floated towards her as the eyes of the other Ghosts began to flicker to life.

She tossed her other sword aside, baring only her talons as licks of arc energy began to float between her digits and splay freely like a plasma ball. It was only until her Ghost floated above her, and released a burst of light did her power click to life. She was drenched in power, her figure shimmering the familiar blue glow of power from Bladedancers and Arcstriders. But no weapon was formed, only her claws were needed, resonating the Traveler's power to a fine tip. Her leap was cut short as her body disappeared in a glorious roar of thunder, exploding back into existance before the approaching horde and began to cleave away. Claws swept away anything that approached, their corpses flying away into shards of disentigrating dust. The Ogre was soon upon her, its massive, hidden eye glowing and firing the beam of purple death, but she was far too swift for it to keep a consistant beat on her, she zipped between the cracks, like the wild path lightning leaves in the sky, before her claws were upon it. They sliced through the hardened mass of chitin and flesh upon its legs, causing it to topple over, fists attempting to smash the bug, but this only served a springboard, launching herself into the air, the little ball of lightning plummetting with a harsh spin that burrowed its way through the beast, and left it to crumple and plummet to its doom.

She landed with a skid against the smooth stone of the bridge, her power fading as her light was expended. She twisted, gripping her swords as they formed from the light, to slice away at a few Thrall that followed behind, but she was unprepared against the approaching Knight, she didn't see it until its sword was raised, and she prepared for her body to be split. However, the sound of metal clanging rang throughout the open space, and the hot explosion that followed heated her body, and she opened her eyes to see the Titan standing before her, having destroyed the Knight with her flaming hammer. Their light had returned after the brief period of absence. And the Titan's helmet twisted back to look at the Eliksni, and nod. She returned it, and the footfalls of the other Guardians rushing to leave this place followed. "Eyes up, Guardians!" The Hunter shouted, using the Titan to leap himself into the air, and took aim with his arm. The Void formed in his hand, the other gripping the drawstring that followed soon, and the purple streak of light made impact at the horde attempting to bottleneck onto the bridge. The bubble of Void was created, its dark embrace lashing out and gripping upon unsuspecting Hive to halt their advance, and the Warlock stormed forward with the Titan. The sounds of thunderfall soon were to follow, as the Warlock's own body began to shine like the Eliksni's did. Hovering just above the ground, the Guardians advanced, the Hunter staying behind with the Eliksni to let fire and lightning tear the Hive apart.

And when the light fell, and they were across the bridge, their own arsenals were returned. Metal flew, bullet casings cascading along the ground, but the four moved through the Horde, following the Eliksni to the exit of the Cave. It was soon that the light from the sun was upon them, calling to them to exit from the darkness, a Horde of Monsters right on their coattails. The Eliksni emerged first, bursting forward into the snow, the soft crunch below her feet before the other three followed. They all turned to face the cave, weapons ready, but the planned explosives were noted around the cave of the mouth, and in a detonated sequence, brought the entrace to cave-in upon itself, and give a barrier between themselves.

The Guardians lowered their weapons, heavy breathing between two of them, the Warlock simply lowering her weapon as they stood to look at the rubble, while the Eliksni tossed aside her detonator. The Titan removed her helmet, letting the cold air calm her boiling blood, and the hunter fell back into the snow, ass-first and let out a long sigh. The Warlock simply let her weapons disappear, and put her hands behind her back. "Well...that could of been worse." The Hunter was the first to chime, as the blonde hair of the Titan whipped to glare daggers at his helmet. He rose his arms up in defense, but the Warlock was silent at the time. The Hunter stood up, and all three turned around before being bombarded by a sudden flash of light, being blinded and flinching in awkward positions.

The Eliksni held the camera like her life depended on it, standing much like a child would with a camera, and other than the awkward silence that hung in the air, the camera slowly spat out the taken picture. Defenses were lowered, and the Eliksni's foot inched back, as if to fear retaliation. "What are you?" The Titan spoke, holding her helmet under her arm, but the Eliksni was silent for a moment, fidgetting with her lower talons, before removing the film and shaking it.

"You know, you could say, 'Thank you'?" The quip from the Hunter was accompanied by a dramatic throw of his arms, stepping towards the Eliksni as if to put her on display, to which she seemed to curl up sheepishly.

The Titan squinted, but said nothing as the Warlock began to approach. Her hand came out from behind her back, and pushed away the Hunter by palming his helmet and gently shoving. Two steps back were taken, clunching the camera and film closer to her chest, her clicking noises becoming louder, more nervous in tempo. But the Warlock stopped, and gently bowed her torso. "Thank you." The robotic tone rang out, standing back up and proper to look down at her. She noted things, the Eliksni's armor, it was that of a Captain's, and yet she stood no taller than a Dreg. Besides typical ramshackle armor, she bore a color that was not from the notable Houses. "Who are you?"

She was silent, eyes on her as the other two approached, and after a moment, she perked her head up. "I am Captain Yolzek, of House Redemption." There was a look between the three. Redemption? That was a name none of them knew, even the Hunter gave a shrug to showcase this. It was at that moment, her Ghost flashed to life, turning and facing the other three, and only created more questions. The Hunter reached out and poked it, as if to see if it was real, but the loud beeping of annoyance made him recoil like it was rat. "Guys, this is big..." He said, stepping between them and Yolzek, whose Ghost floated over his shoulder, examining him. "If she has a Ghost, then the Light doesn't choose just us. It changes everything."

"I then question what other monsters have Ghosts." The Titan spoke, seeming unconvinced it was truly her ghost. Her words stabbed Yolzek, her head lowering as her talons moved the camera back into her pouch. "Would a monster have attempted to save us?" The Warlock spoke up, not necessarily defending the Eliksni's actions, but pulling logic into the mix. "Yeah, Ameile, we were almost Thrall food." Of course the Hunter needed the last word, but the Titan rolled her eyes, and kept that stoic look on her face. "Then it did it because it wants something."

The other two had nothing to say right away, but the Hunter twisted and squated down slightly, eye to eyes with Yolzek, who turned her gaze to him, his helmed head tilting slightly. "Well, what do you want?" Blood for Blood, Light for Light. She was silent again, pulling her cloak in around her body, before nodding softly, "I want to go to the City. Your leaders, the Vanguard, I seek their help." This seemed to have left them all quiet again, but the Titan's was the loudest. "Out of th-" She stepped forward, but the Hunter held his hand up to stop her, adjusting his squat, to make more of a barrier between Amelie and Yolzek. "Why?"

Yolzek knew it was farfetched to even ponder that idea, but her head perked up from him to the other two, standing as tall as she could. "To save our House. My Kell is in danger. And we are running out of options. I did not save you because I wished to use you. I saved you...because its what a Guardian would do. Please." The three were taken back, the thought of friendly Fallen was not foriegn to them, but this, this was a Guardian. Amelie put her helmet back on, turning and beginning to walk away to call for her ship, but just as the Warlock was about to do the same, they paused. "I'll do it." The Hunter said, a wiggle of his arms and a shrug left a chuckle. "The way I see it, you'll be surrounded by Guardians, and if you do something stupid, they'll kill you dead."

"Don't you dare," The Titan growled, turning and stomping towards him, but he turned to look at her, "Amelie, this is something. Twilight Gap wasn't great for any of us. But time moves. The Future keeps coming, but the Past is left behind. If you keep clinging to that Iron Banner of yours, then are you really better than them?"

She was flabbergasted to say the least, her pointed finger falling to her side, looking between him and the Fallen, before standing back up straight and staring. The roar of an ship flew overhead, the Titan's ship coming in from orbit and hovering above the area, and she simply turned and walked away as she disappeared into motes into her ship. The remaining three watched her leave, the Warlock simply keeping her hands behind her back, before turning to her ghost and speaking to it. The Hunter? He turned back to Yolzek, offering his hand out to shake. "Well, it seems democracy wins again. What do you say, Guardian?"

Yolzek stared at his hand, before looking up to him, clicking softly. What he said was true, but she also feared being attacked regardless. But, she needed to. She had to. Her claw reached up after ridding herself of hesitation, and a firm shake was given. "Alright. You can ride with me. I've got plenty of room." He wandered off to go bug the Warlock, who seemed oh so thrilled about it, leaving little Yolzek to stand and look down at the picture she had been clutching the entire time. Three Guardians, standing in an awkward pose in the snow before a destroyed cave. She let her eyes graze the film, before patting herself and pulling out a marker, and turned it around to write upon it.

'Fireteam Zeta'. She overheard it from the Warlock calling back to the Tower, seeing as Ameile did not, before writing her name in Eliksni as a signature in the corner. She then put that picture away, and lifted her head to look at the cave. She looked longingly, as if expecting another person to emerge, it was an unseen look of sadness, something that surely made her more skittish. "Yolzek!" The shout made her jump, and turn to look as the other two ships flew in, and the Hunter leaned against a crate. "Think you can fit?" She clicked at the idea, but after one last look to the cave, she nodded, and sprinted off towards them.

And so she sat in the crate, the rumbling lulling her to a rest, her eyes flickering as her lids blinked and fluttered to try and stay open. But it would be no use, she was used to cramped spaces, and rumbling. And in her claws, the camera sat, the curled up Fallen waiting for her arrival to the City. She didn't know what reaction she would get, nor did she expect a warm welcome. But her House was in danger, and she needed to find help. She needed to do what was best for her House, exposing them or not. She needed to sacrifice herself. Just like a Guardian would.