[i]We have reached Shadowkeep in the timeline of this story. I wrote this page a while ago but I will post the story in order anyways! [/i]
Guardians flood Luna in response to the recent hive disturbance.
Shadow's eyes flick back and forth nervously behind her mask. Cloaked, as always, to avoid them.
It's been a long time since she's set foot on the moon, and she navigates her surroundings anxiously.
Hand canon firing off in rapid succession, she makes her way into the dark below.
"These hive, they're not actually hive." Glitch floats closer to Shadow's ear, lighting the path ahead. "Their energy signature is entirely unfamiliar."
"I'm not surprised to hear you say that. Something doesn't feel right." Fear creeps up Shadow's spine. For whatever reason, she could not say.
"The source of our... disturbance... should be right around here."
The ghost has hardly finished his sentence before the hunter finds... it.
Breath catching in her throat, she stops short.
A long moment passes as she takes in the sight of the black pyramid, looming ominously across a seemingly endless chasm.
"What... is that?" The unnerved voice of her ghost only increases Shadow's discomfort.
"I... don't want to go near it." Unsteady with sudden terror, Shadow takes a step backward. Her own voice suddenly feels far too loud.
"It beckons us to come closer..."
Head whipping to face him, Shadow's brow furrows in confusion. "Glitch, what?"
Before he can answer, something is pulling the hunter in against her will. "What? No!" She can't even struggle— the force of... whatever it is... is too strong.
"No, I don't want to!" she cries out, breath coming in rapid gasps.
"Violence. Beauty. Truth. These things await inside," Glitch murmurs, but the voice is not from her ghost. "There's no turning back now."
And suddenly, Shadow's feet are touched down inside the pyramid.
A muted reverberation pierces her ears. Footsteps and breathing are muffled, like she's underwater.
"Welcome. We've been waiting."
On shaking knees, Shadow turns herself around, frantic. It's dark, the air is thick, stiflingly so.
[i]We have heard your cries for help.[/i]
Unsettling. The hair on the back of her neck stands up.
Then, her ears pop, and when she blinks wide amber eyes, she is no longer in the ship. Startled, the hunter has to steady herself again.
Now within the open expanse of the black garden, Shadow finds herself staring into her own eyes, diving headfirst into an inferno.
Finally finding her voice amidst her shock and horror, she asks, "Who are you?"
[i]You serve the light.[/i] Echoing, the voice scoffs. [i]You abandoned the city.[/i]
"The city is not the only way to serve the light," she replies hesitantly.
And suddenly, unbidden, the thought comes to her mind. "Im a Queen. Like Mara." Shadow blinks, taken aback by herself.
[i]No, not like the awoken queen,[/i] the Voice answers her. [i]You are hunted. They want you dead.[/i]
"I can serve the light from where I am."
[i]In darkness.[/i]
She opens her mouth to object.
[i]In shadow. It calls to you. Do you feel it?[/i]
She turns her face away, pressure building in her head.
[i]The city needs you[/i]. Zavala's powerful voice echos around her.
"I will return," she replies swiftly, despite knowing the commander is not present.
[i]You were a friend I thought I could trust.[/i]
"She never said that!" Distraught, Shadow rejects the voice of Ikora. "She can still trust me. I'll be back..."
[i]Shadow, Shadow! Come check this out.[/i]
Throat closing with grief, Shadow turns against her will to meet a ghostly apparition. "Cayde," she whispers, eyes glassing over with tears.
[i]If only he could see what a hero you are now... Look how well he trained you. What a true hunter. You left your city to crumble to ashes. For a fallen.[/i]
Shadow's trance is broken; cloak fluttering, she whirls to face the darkness. Herself.
"If Cayde taught me anything it was to follow my heart as a hunter. A true hunter doesn't wait idly by while the enemy creeps closer day by day."
It ignores her. [i]You do know who is responsible for Cayde's death, don't you? [/i]The figure comes closer.
A feral growl rises in her throat.
[i]Or should we go back to the start of it all? If you'd like to speak of standing idly by, your supposed lover is the epitome of cowardice.[/i]
"My supposed lover lost limbs for voicing his displeasure," she spits venomously, clenching her fists. Her fear begins to melt away like ice in sunlight.
[i]Children, women, guardians, slaughtered by the hands of the ones Variks served.[/i]
Teeth in flesh, the face of a child. Turning away, the hunter chokes back a gag at the vivid images. "Get that OUT of my head! Variks never—"
[i]Variks never lifted a finger,[/i] it finishes for her.
"Variks SAVED the awoken!" she snarls.
[i]Variks served the Kell who slaughtered the awoken[/i].
Shadow holds her tongue. Still as stone.
[i]Your vanguard lies six feet under because of the prophet quoting fool.[/i]
Her chest aches suddenly, deeply. Whispers crowd in around her. Suffocating, overwhelming.
Shadow's hands raise to cover her ears as the whispers pile onto eachother in a heap of sound.
Louder, louder, louder, until it's unbearable.
[i] "Stop it!" [/i]she screeches, desperate, afraid.
[i]It's okay.[/i]
Hunched over, Shadow raises her head at the sound of her own voice. She's looking at a mirror image, out of breath.
She smiles at herself. [i]He never loved you anyways.[/i]
Behind her now.
[i]You think you're really welcome? You're nothing but a tool, a weapon to him. When you have been nothing but [b]devoted[/b] to his cause.[/i]
"That's not true." Her voice falters with uncertainty.
[i]You have been so [b]brave[/b].[/i]
A phantom hand trails along her shoulder.
[i]You have [b]sacrificed[/b] so much for him... what would he ever sacrifice for you?[/i]
Her knees weaken.
[i]You would face [b]death[/b] for him...[/i]
She fights for breath.
[i]So far from home[/i]. The voice, at her ear. [i]You'll never hear their screams, [/i]it whispers.
Stumbling, she's forced to rest on one knee.
[b] W e a r e y o u r s a l v a t i o n.[/b]
Darkness crowds into the edges of her vision, swarming around her. Her hand hits grass beneath her. She heaves air into her lungs.
"No." Tremors course through Shadow's body, but she steadies herself.
Feet firm against the ground. Strength builds within her, forcing away the cries of the void.
Slowly, she begins to stand again. "I will NEVER bow to you." She raises irate eyes of smoldering flame to the darkness.
The powerful voice of Mara Sov wreathes around her, but this is not the dark. "Queens bow to no one."
With a pulsating power, her light begins to push the darkness away, phantom screams drifting on the air. It flickers around her fingertips, singes the edges of the black. Holes of shimmering light are struck through the veil.
Shadow takes one firm step foward, shaking reality. "My mother was starlight, and my father was the dark." Pulling her shoulders back, the awoken's voice rings out into the void with the strength of Mara's words.
She approaches the retreating darkness with a slow, burning power. Arc light flickers over her pale skin, races through her veins.
This is the dark, she knows it well. She has it in her blood, it boils beneath her skin. As an awoken, it has always been within her.
"I took it upon myself to aid the eliksni."
Her fists close around swells of flame. Fire dances across her eyes.
All the while the whispers flit around the edges of her mind. She crushes away the pain in her chest, holding her own.
Raising her chin, she calls out, strength pouring into her lungs. Sending oxygen to fuel the solar fire within her.
"When the darkness comes, we will face them alongside the city. The eliksni who have joined us will follow me."
Shadow's light burns away the last of the darkness, a shockwave through the night, washing the garden in brilliance.
Starlight streaks down to touch her pale face to silver. Ethereal golden eyes rise to the sky, and with a growing certainty, the hunter breathes life into her destiny.
[b] "I will be their Queen."[/b]
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