You've Got Time ( a Destiny Story)

You Left

Shadows settle on the place that you left
Our minds are troubled by the emptiness
Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time
From the perfect start to the finish line

Daughter – Youth

-

May 11, 2950, 16:56; Rocky Mountains, Earth

Io, then Ganymede, then Mercury, and then Azra had wanted to go to Mars, but Cayde insisted Freehold was still a hotzone. The Cabal sure were stubborn (and 'you've been fighting for six decades' wouldn't mean anything to the Virgo Prohibition).

So Azra returned to Earth. To be honest, her haul was discouraging. All of her Io caches had been ransacked. She'd scavenged a few from Ganymede, but the shifting ice had entombed the rest. Mercury had been her most profitable excursion, but even then...

Her cloak was red, bright red, to stand out against the golden sands and Radiolaria. It had been a gift from a Sunbreaker. It didn't suit Earth's wilds, but that's why she'd left it on Mercury. Still, it was hers. She'd look like a flashy fool, but she wouldn't be mistaken for a Kinderguardian.

She kicked around the Rockies for a few hours. The Fallen never had an established presence there, beyond the parties sent to kill refugees and harass Guardians. They were thieves and pirates, obsessed with technology and supplies, not pristine wilderness. She had left several caches here (it was close to an old campsite), but in truth she was just burning time. Time until Shiro got back, or Cayde finally went to sleep, or... something.

It was funny how after so long alone in the Vault, and the weeks afterwards working tirelessly to get back, how desperately she craved privacy now. She'd struggled very hard to get back to Cayde, but just a day afterwards, his near-constant presence on the comms was grating. She wanted time to process alone. Loneliness was what she was used to now; her packmate's watchfulness made her feel paranoid.

It wasn't a pleasant thought, but it was true.

"Just... five friggin' minutes," she bargained. It had rained earlier in the day here, but the sky was clearing now. Everything was still damp. She stopped at the bank of a mountain stream, looking up through the break in the trees. Turkey vultures pinwheeled in the sky above, a clear sign that no Fallen were in the area. "Radar's clear. The Light's good. I've got four whole guns now." Her fingers itched to fight, to do something.

Cayde still would have none of it. "You agreed to stay on the comms. I'm not-"

"If I can't handle myself in an empty forest for five minutes, you've got other things to worry about."

"You never know what's out there."

Azra threw up her hands. Her patience had run thin hours ago. "Christ! If a Fallen comes out of nowhere and shanks me, Spark can give me a rez! Or I'll just shoot it, with my guns!"

"I don't-"

Yeah, this wasn't happening. Cut the feed, Azra commanded. Spark did. Silence reigned, though Azra could barely hear the wind in the trees over her own ragged breathing. Anger only continued to build in her chest. Andal had told her once that anger was a good motivator, that it drove you to correct injustice and avenge wrongdoing.

She was angry now, but what was there to do with it? There was nothing she could hurt or kill to make any of this better.

Golden-orange flames flickered over her skin. It sought an outlet. She forced the fire to her hand, brandishing the Gun to the sky above. She fired it once in the air, then again. The rush was gripping and dazzling, just like it should have been. The fire wielded her as much as she wielded it. Pulling the trigger hurt, but it was a clean pain, a simple one. Things like guilt and regret could muddle a person, but anger cut through everything. It burned all complications to the ground.