...Cayde was twitching. A dark aura had taken over him. He was no longer in Blade Dance, or any other Guardian Ability. He leered as the ogres were destroyed by their own attacks, exploding into slime and guts all over the walls. The light emanated from their beams ceased, and the eerie darkness returned. Sylvie could only watch, weakened to complete exhaustion from Cayde's Hungering Blade strike, as he faced down the thousands of enemies left around them. The older foes, the Captains, Knights, and Wizards; seemed to understand that battling Cayde in this state was suicide. They began to retreat back into their tunnels. The younger, wild, unstable foes, - - the dregs, vandals, thralls, and acolytes, began to charge Cayde in a full-on assault. Cayde did not falter or back down. He cast aside his weapons, and burst forth, faster than Sylvie could even keep up with. He was using his bare body to kill them. He chased down the thralls, as if teleporting from one to the next, ripping their limbs off, and murdering them with their own parts. He then turned his attention to the dregs, tackling them to the ground, disarming them of their weapons, and punching directly threw their skulls, breaking directly into the ground beneath them. - He'd switch between that and the vandals, kicking them threw their stomachs, and then ripping their hearts out. The acolytes, at this point, began to flee; but Cayde blocked them off with blinding speed, grabbing their heads, and simply crushing them with his Exo strength. For nearly a half an hour, he slaughtered them, taking damage himself, bleeding out into the dirt, but never slowing down. Sylvie began to crawl towards him, hoarse, and raspy for air. "...Cayde...stop..." she mumbled as she inched toward him, and he immediately whipped his eyes to her. "...Stop?" he growled, in a voice deeper, darker, cruel; unlike his own, "How could I possibly stop when there are more enemies over there?" He bolted towards some frightened thralls, and blasted holes threw their torsos with his fists. "...I was wrong, Cayde...I always knew I was wrong. I just couldn't stop. I felt like I needed this, ... but this ... this is all wrong..." He grimaced at her. "...But we've won! We've nearly destroyed them all. They are on the run, kid. We can finish this right here. Hell, I'll do it myself. You see this blood? This is the price we pay to move forward, and the price they pay to perish. An entire lifetime littered in blood and ash and anguish. This is true life." Sylvie began to gasp. She could feel the tears coming, but she had to get through to him. "...Cayde, I just wanted to beat the feeling inside me, the empty feeling that I couldn't replace. I wanted to move on, but the only thing that changed was living with an emptiness filled with rage, to an emptiness filled with nothing...I would have rather it been filled with rage again, but ... It just doesn't work anymore. I can't go back, I can't stay here, I didn't know what to do...Please, STOP!!" He was covered in blood and guts from head to toe. Different shades of alien, and himself as well. Sludge filled every part of his armor, warping him from an Honorable Hunter to an indescribable form. He dropped the enemy in his hand, and stormed over to Sylvie, grasping her by her armor plate, and lifting her into the air. "Is this the Monster you seek?" he growled into her eyes, watering with pain, "Is this the power that you covet so closely? Do I look Godly to you? Do you fear me? Am I not Death?" Her chest was heaving. She really felt like she was going to die. "-Cayde!" came Ghosts's soft voice, nearly defeated, "You are getting too close to the Darkness, if you sink any further, you'll become a Minion." "If this is what we need to defeat the Darkness, this is the person I need to be," he defied, gripping Sylvie even tighter around the collar, "Don't you agree? Is this the answer?" Sylvie was so weak. She could feel herself slipping... "...It's not," she confessed, and Cayde shook her hard. "Why!?" he yelled, "Why is it not the answer!?" Sylvie was trying with all her might just to stay conscious. "...Because if you fight your Darkness with greater Darkness, you're left with more shade when you're finished, than when you started. Regardless of the outcome...Cayde, please...Come back..." He dropped her to his feet. Their foes were scattered, and they were nearly alone. "...Have you found your true answer?" he asked her, eyeing her with his dark orbs. "...Yes," Sylvie spoke softly, "I have found something bright to fill my emptiness. I have found something new, something different, something positive and wonderful. Something that can erase the darkness completely, so that I don't have to compete with it anymore." Cayde didn't speak a word. He merely nodded, and dropped a blade at her side. "...Good," he barked, "Then end it." Sylvie began to panic, something terrible was happening. She needed to stop it. "...I don't...understand...Cayde, what is this for?" "...If you've found your answer, if you really think you can find peace, I won't let you lose it. This place will be the grave of your grievance, and I will be the Monster you slay." Sylvie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She turned to Ghost for help, but he had gone into standby involuntarily. She could barely move, how could she possibly do anything at this point? "Cayde. Please, let's go home. We can-" "It's too late for that. As much as I want to help you, I have my own reasons for being here. My own demons to fight, my own wars to rage. We're partners, from the beginning, to the end. I will free you, I will save you. And I will end the Darkness in our hearts." She could tell he cared, that there was something left inside; but it seemed like madness. Cayde picked up the knife, and put it into Sylvie's hand. "Finish it." "...I won't," Sylvie began to cry, and she threw the knife down, but Cayde just picked it back up, and put it in her hand again. "You will," he growled, and began to force her hand, and the blade, threw his armor and into his chest. "CAYDE!! NO!!" Sylvie screamed, and she tried with all her might to stop him, but he was so powerful, so dark, so determined. He began to bleed out into her hand, his blood streaming down her arm. "...Cayde...Cayde...please...I can't...stop it..." Cayde laughed, and sported a familiar smile. She wasn't sure if Exos could cry, but it looked like he shed a tear. "...It's alright, Sylvie. It doesn't need to stop." At that moment, something took over Sylvie, raw emotion, a hijack of her heart. Her armor burst to pieces, her helmet behind her, her gauntlets, her boots, and finally her breast plate. Blinding auras of light pierced through the darkness, scattering the old guardian protection to dust. "...Kaori..." Sylvie cried softly as the hunter leggings that were so dear to her vanished from her reality, but she didn't have time to think, as the light wove around her like a hurricane, and plunged directly into her body, sending a final burst of strength forth. Glowing with a white aura, counter to Cayde's black one, she pulled the blade back, knocked Cayde's hand away, and kicked him as hard as she could, sending him crashing into the wall behind them. Sylvie was radiating with massive waves of energy, enough to lift particles of the ground into the air. She looked over to Cayde, who genuinely seemed shocked. "...You can't leave like this. I blocked the entire world out, thinking it wasn't enough to bring back what I lost," Sylvie spoke, her voice still weak, "I thought the opportunity I was given was to make right what was wrong. And it might have been, for a while, but Kaori, Faye, and Storm; they didn't die for the world. They died for us. She died for me, Cayde. I understand why I've been empty. And I know how to fill that emptiness. I don't know what you're carrying, but let me help you!! Please, Cayde, this is killing me." The lone wolf starred down his prey, but then looked upon himself. He really thought she had finally sorted it out. Perhaps he had finally saved someone, really saved her. But hurting her, was the one thing he refused to do. He burst into a dark Arc Blade, lifted his knife, and thrust it across his neck. ..It was so fast, she couldn't even process as the blood shot out across the ground. He fell, finally leaving behind the dark aura. Leaving behind the world. "CAYDE!!! NOO!!! I NEED YOU!!!" - - - [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/196773208/0/0] The Last City Chronicles : Master Page [/url]