The Last Flame

Burning Shadows

"G-an... Gu-r-ans? Guard-ns!?"

Christian waved his hand to clear the dust from the air in front of him, "We're here."

"Co- ag-in?"

"Repeat? Command, we're losing you."

"Guard-n?"

"Command, can you hear us?" Alex hit the side of his helmet.

The dust had finally settled.

"Command?" Alex spoke again.

"-e c-n he-r you," there was a pause, "Guardians?"

"We can hear you." Ryan said.

"Good, we've added m-re pow- to our tra-smitter, hopefully th--" the audio cut out again.

"Come again? We're losing you."

"We'll tr- gain bet- contact. Stay wh- -ou are."

"This is great," Christian complained.

"Guardians, can you read me?"

Christian responded, "Loud and clear."

"We don't have much t-me. I don't know how long we'll have a clear s-g-al. You have to get out of th-re."

Ryan looked through the hole at their feet, "The only way is down, our path back caved in."

"You m-st find --other -ay."

"There is no other way," Christian said, "The only way we have is through."

"Negat-ve guardians, there -ust be an-ther way."

"Commander Zavala, there is no other way," Alex's voice was unwavering, but Christian knew what he felt, what they all felt.

There was a pause, "Guard-ns, I cannot prepare y-- for -at you -re ab--t to face."

Christian looked at the dead guardian beside him, "I don't think anyone can."

"Looks like we'll have to wait on that Crucible match," Ryan said.

Christian laughed, "Probably for the best... for your sakes."

Alex smiled under his helmet, the fireteam knew this was quite possibly the last break in the tension that hung in the air for all of them before they ventured on. After a few moments of silence, Alex spoke, "Christian, smoke us once we land?"

The hunter pulled out his smoke bomb, "You got it."

"I want eyes up and fingers on triggers when we jump. We'll have only a few seconds to scan for enemies and cover," said Alex, "I don't want any shots fired if at all possible until we are either safe behind cover or out of time."

"G--d -uck guar-ia-s," Commander Zavala's tone was somber, yet held its usual steadfastness.

"Jump!" Alex ordered in a whisper-yell

The guardians jumped and fell. The wind whistling in their ears, each one using his jump ability in turn as they saw the floor approach below.

They all hit the ground at relatively the same time. "Smoke, go." Christian threw the smoke at the ground.

Christian was on the left, Alex on the right, and Ryan behind. The hole dropped into the corner of the room, leaving Ryan facing the wall, so he turned around and aimed over the shoulders of his two teammates as they adjusted their gaze towards the middle of the room.

"Corner behind us," alerted the warlock

"Roger that," Alex said.

Christian scanned the room. The room was shaped almost like a squared keyhole. One big area that they had fallen into and a sort of wide hallway where a small amount of light came from was adjacent to the corner they were in. At the other end of the room was what looked like a hive ritual area.

"I must be getting really bad deja Vu," Christian's ghost spoke again, "So much of this looks like I've seen it before."

"Not the time ghost."

At first glance, Christian could see hive acolytes and knights, wandering everywhere, "Area's hot. Anyone find a place to hide?"

"To the right!" Ryan started running.

Alex and Christian followed him towards a large rock near the hallway. The hive stared at the guardians, before they could hide behind the rock, Alex and Ryan's invisibility ran out. The hive started shooting and they shot back as they ran behind cover. Christian's invisibility finally ran out as he neared the rock and he slid to safety. The three guardians started returning fire. The hunter looked behind them. The hallway went not that far to a large archway, clearly crafted by the hive, and for something bigger than just simple thrall or even knights. It was a grand entryway, one that could fit ogres or wizards or both, Christian feared.

"Well there goes any hope we had of staying undetected," Ryan grimaced.

"I was getting bored of hiding anyways," Alex held down the trigger of his Sweet Business, tearing through acolytes and wearing through knights' armor.

Christian had drawn his Last Word and was fanning it with expert precision and speed at the approaching hive. After they had started whittling down on the hive in the room, he ran out from behind cover, still fanning his hand cannon, and started jumping, strafing and sliding around bullets as he made his way closer and closer to the action. He threw his void wall grenade, the wall of fire, killing dozens of hive and burning countless more.

Alex was standing on top of the rock now, "We can't let him have all the fun." He charged out into the battlefield with Ryan following behind him.

The fireteam dispatched the rest of the hive with ease. Christian motioned to his partners and they all slowly moved to the opposite end of the room. They stood in front of a giant hive shrine.There was one large circle in the middle and two circles out to the side, most likely where wizards stood to progress whatever rituals they performed. Christian was the first to notice the four chains that lay in the center circle, probably to bind the unwilling subject of a ritual.

Ikora spoke for the second time since the beginning of the mission, "What so-t of -ick ev-ls the hi-e m-lded here, I fear to im-gine."

"I -o not kn-w if one coul- --agine such th--gs," Eris spoke with disgust.

Suddenly, another scream echoed from the hallway and into the ritual room in which the guardians stood. It sounded closer and louder now than the first time. The guardians tried to cover their ears, but it had no effect on their hearing through their helmets. They all looked toward the hallway.

"Wh-t -as --at?" crackled Zavala through the guardian's helmets.

No one spoke. No one moved. It was the calm before what was inevitably going to be a deep plunge. Christian held his breath. Then through the doorway came not the hive ogre-wizard that they had seen before, although Christian immediately wished that it had been the ogre. It was a hive wizard who floated in, but only in part. It wasn't combined with an acolyte or a knight or even an ogre. This wizard had the torso of a guardian, a warlock. From the waist down he was a hive wizard again, his hive robe mocking that of the bottom half of a warlock's coat. Ryan froze, Alex took a step back, and Christian's grip tightened around his gun.

The final transmission the guardians received from the tower came through clear as day. It was a single word of pure shock from Eris, "Kazun..."

It let out another long screech, and the guardians tried to cover their ears again. Two more wizards came out from the entryway when Kazun finished, this time walking on legs. Both had the head of a wizard and the rest of their bodies were guardian, save the left arm of one and the torso of the other. The one with one wizard hand was a hunter. His hood was gone and only a few strands of his cape were left. In his human right hand, he held a revolver. Christian recognized it right away, it was a Thorn, but it seemed to brew with even more dark magic than any other that he had seen before. The other wizard was part titan. The once proud bastion of the light now broken by the dark. Ryan looked behind them, hoping to spot an escape, but all he saw was a guardian that he hadn't noticed before, dead.

The other two followed his gaze. Over to the side of the shrine lay a warlock, split in half at the waist and missing an arm.

It was Alex who spoke next, "They were nothing more than a failed science experiment to the hive."

The guardians looked back towards the hallway. Three strange wizards stood there, staring at the next science experiments, who had so kindly brought themselves to the operating table.