Echos Of A Soul

An Old Friend

A lone hunter sat alone near the bazaar. He was hidden quite well and out of sight from anyone passing by. In his hand was a book that belonged to the missing warlock. Rythe-1 was aware of her disappearance and recalled that two of her fireteam members went to search for her. It seems as if they didn't have any luck.

"Maybe we should go check in on her team?" It was his ghost, Captain. "I can tell you're no longer focused on the book." The hunter red looked up at his ghost, his signature red eyes glowing. He closed the book in his hand, marking the page he was on.

He silently stood up and hopped down from his hiding spot. As he made his way down to the annex he felt something, it was like he was being led to a certain place. He stopped in front of the warlock's hideaway. Confusion took over the exo hunter, but he entered her home. As he walked into her lounge room, he saw war beast Loki resting soundly. He always thought it was interesting how she tamed the beast.

"Hello old friend, how are you?" He whipped around at the sound of the voice to see the warlock standing in front of him. She noticed the book in his hand, it was one of hers. "Are you enjoying that one?" A small smile made its way to her lips. Something was wrong however, he could see through her.

"You're not really here, are you?" He asked her, tilting his head slightly to the side, examining her condition. He noticed how tired she was and was able to see the worry hidden in her eyes. A small laugh escaped her lips.

"You are right, I am not here." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Listen, I don't have much strength left, I will make this as quick as I can." His red eyes flickered slightly, concern filling his system.

"Go to Drifter's bar, Storm is there." She gave Rythe-1 her signature closed eye smile. "She'll answer any questions you have, Orion is there as well so someone from your fireteam will be there. I still need to find one more person. " He turned on his heel to leave but she called out to him once more.

"Wait, take this." She handed her exo friend a small amethyst crystal. He gazed at the crystal that lay in his palm. His eyes flickered with confusion.

"What is this for?" He examined the small stone feeling some type of energy course through it.

"Keep it with you at all times." She closed his hand around the crystal. "It allows me to keep this connection with you, it strengthens my link to your mind if that makes sense." He thought about it for a moment.

"So as long as I have this, you can appear like this?" The warlock smiled and nodded.

"Hurry now, head to the bar. They're waiting for you." She disappeared once more into thin air. Rythe-1 held out his palm and summoned his ghost.

"Let's hurry and get to the others." He quickly turned on his and left her hideaway, making his way towards Drifter's bar. His footsteps echoed through the hallway. His eyes trailed back down to the crystal she had given him.

While lost in his thoughts he bumped into another person causing him and the other person to stumble slightly.

"Sorry!" He quickly apologized and reached out a hand to help the other one up. He paused once he saw who it was. "Storm?"  Her blue eyes looked up and locked with his red eyes.

"Oh hey, how's it going?" She seemed to be in a hurry to head somewhere. Her eyes trailed down to the crystal lying in his hand. "Where'd you get that?" She asked him.

"This?" He held up the piece of amethyst, "Echo just gave it to me, she actually told me to come find you." Storm's blue eyes widened and she grabbed his cool metal hand.

"Come with me, hurry." Storm led him down to the bar. Once they entered all eyes were on them. Rythe-1 didn't like the attention on him. He tried to hide himself in the shadows so he would be seen.

"Hey guys, relax a bit yeah?" The exo hunter relaxed at the sound of a familiar voice, Orion-13, a member of his fireteam. Rythe-1's red eyes locked with Orion's purple eyes, Bastion was in control. Izaria smiled softly and made her way over to the hunter.

"So she came to you as well?" She asked as she placed her hand on Rythe-1's shoulder. He nodded in response.

"She seemed to be worried." He sighed, red eyes gazing down at the piece of amethyst. "She said she was losing strength, she looked panicked." Captain floated up beside Rythe-1.

"It was strange. We could see through her body." Captain piped up. All of them paused for a moment once they heard that. Evior thought for a moment before he came to a realization.

"Shit…" he cursed and walked towards the exo hunter. "What else did she say? Did anything seem off?" Evior was trying to gauge the situation.

"She told us to hurry, she said she needed to find one more person." Rythe-1's red eyes locked on to Evior's form, deep in thought.

"She's out of strength. She's relying on the pieces her soul is attached to."  Rythe-1 was able to figure out the rest of the warlock’s situation.

"She's out of time, she needs us." His red eyes scanned the room, there were only 5 of them. "She still needs one more, but who?" Storm's blue eyes widened. She knew who it was, but knew his emotions could take over. 

"Someone who has the strongest link to her soul." Storm turned to the group, "Their souls are bonded, after all, his link to her is the strongest. He was seeing her before all of us did." 

The whole team knew who it was. It was the one who was thought to be letting his agony consume him. It was none other than the Drifter.