Eyes Up, Guardian

Chapter 21

     Tessa had never been afraid of her enemies before. At least, not before she had faced them. She had fought monsters from other worlds, so foreign to her she could not even begin to understand them. But the fear had always come after. It had torn her from her bed and sent her crashing to the floor, her throat so tight it was as though their hands were wrapped around her throat. She had never learned how to shake them, sometimes the horrors seemed to never leave her mind, but sometimes they seemed as faint as the scars from her first life. 

     She had never been afraid of them the way she was afraid of Oryx. As exhausted as she was, she lay awake knowing what faced her the next day. Oryx was stronger than anything she had ever fought, anything anyone had ever fought. Even with Damian by her side, she didn't know that they would make it alive. It was a hard fact to face. Even with all her experience, the thought made her cower and tremble. It made her want to weep for her life, to rush and hide. She was young, she'd hardly had a boyfriend except for one jerk titan. She had never had sex, never been to college or gotten a degree, and yet she had seen more in her years than any normal human could hope to see in a lifetime. She had traveled the solar system multiple times over, and had fought enemies few could even imagine.     

     She had died more times than she could remember, the mass of memories fading to a few, and a number she kept in the back of her brain. And yet, she was afraid of death. She already knew Oryx could take her light. He could make her die her final death. She only wished if it were to come to that, the others would be spared. Damian and Kylie and Echo, they could make more change in the world than she ever could. They could save more lives than she could ever hope to, it had to be them.

     She felt bad for yelling at Damian, even if he needed to hear it. If they were about to die, she didn't want it to be his last thought of her, not when he mattered so much to her. She had never met someone that could drive the darkness away from her so completely. She wasn't about to let him slip away, not after everything they had been through already. From fallen threats, to practical jokes, to stressful hospital visits, to foreign courts, to taken armies, they had been through more than she could have ever imagined, and she wasn't about to let it end for them just yet. Not with so much to figure out between them. 

     Tessa wasn't sure what time it was when she finally drifted off, but she was glad she did, because when she woke, Echo was nudging her awake, informing her it was just about time to get moving. The sun was streaming through the gaps in the curtains, a heavy contrast to what they were about to face. 

     Tessa dressed carefully, she checked every inch of her armor, everything had to be functioning perfectly for their mission. She carefully planned out a mix of armor that gave her freedom of movement while being strong enough to hold against the taken. Once she had picked everything out, she shaded it with a dark shader, allowing her to blend in a bit more to the shadows. She then called Damian, and the two met at his ship, loading on more ammo crates than they could ever need, and buying as many ammo syntheses as they they could afford. By the time they headed out, it was midday. This time, Tessa didn't stop at the Vanguard leader's table before they left. She didn't want it to seem like a goodbye.

     Tessa settled into the copilot's seat as they took off, peering out the window as they left the city, and then Earth, launching into warp speed.

     "Alright, Guardians. Let's run down the checklist, shall we?" Cayde's voice came in over the radio. "Hive crystal with Crota's soul?"

     "Check." Echo said. Damian had picked it up from Ikora on his way to the hangar.

     "Creepy sidekick-" Cayde continued, to which Eris grumbled something they couldn't make out. "Check." He finished. "Rogueish commander, check. The spectators- Ikora and Zavala, check and check. The consultant, Estella-3, check-"