The Death of Hope: Shattered Past Book 6 (Destiny 2)

20: Io

Ikora walked around on the yellow-green moon with her hands in the pocket of her robes. She'd been on this world ever since Ghaul had invaded Earth, and took Hope away from them, she started to ask questions. What was she supposed to do now? What hope did they have of defeating the Red Legion without Light? As her mind wandered for the past several months thinking about those questions; she had a moment of clarity. She would have to resort to the power that the Darkness offered to them. If she had not been so desperate she would have rejected this idea altogether. But they were out of options, this was the only choice that they had left.

    She hadn't been roaming the Jovian moon aimlessly, she was looking for something. A small object the size of an apple. A stone that was hard and cold yet had a hardness that was so low that you could bite into it and take a piece off. It was Oryx's last remaining piece. After the detonation of the Dreadnought, it was assumed that James had killed Oryx in the blast along with himself. However, while he may have been immobile, his influence and power remained with that small heart. Once she consumed it, then the War would end, she and humanity would be the victor.

    Eventually, Ikora approached a large crater on Io's southern pole, this was where the surge of Taken energy was flowing from. And it was there at the center of this pit on the lunar surface where she saw it. A glowing bright stone lay in the middle of the crater that was about the size of her fist. Quickly she ran down to retrieve it, almost excitedly. Her heart started to race and sweat formed on her brow as she ran into the half a football field size hole in the ground. She slid down the rocky incline into the center to grab it. She looked at and reached out to the small object. However, as she did so, she heard the sound of a transmat right next to her, and the round cold edge of a gun barrel pressed against the right side of her head.

Ikora's face turned to a lighter shade of brown and the hairs on the back of her neck started to stand up.

"Don't...fucking..move.," The figure next to her said in a dark and cold tone. Slowly her head shifted and she looked to her right. There she saw a man in a soldier uniform with a metal exoskeleton on his back. And the gun he had in his hands was huge, a much larger than a typical hand cannon. The helmet he was wearing obscured his face through a painted skull mask, and his visor was dark.

"Who are you?" She asked. Slowly the figure tilted his head and took his helmet off and looked her in the eyes. Letting out a gasp she saw the face of her former student, but with an icy glare that made her blood go cold. His face looked battle damaged in many areas, with scrapes and cuts deep into his skin. His blue eyes glared into her hazel ones with something she'd never seen from him: hatred.

"James what ha-"

"What were you about to do?" He asked his tone increasing to new levels she never heard. At least, directed at her.

"I-I was going to take it, we-we're out of options. We have no-" She was about to say before James hit her across the face with his left hand sending her sprawling into the lunar rock.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE SAY WE HAVE NO CHOICE!" James shouted keeping his pistol trained on her.

"WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO WE HAVE?! THE TRAVELER ABANDONED US!" She shouted wiping her face. "WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD H-" She was going to say before James lifted her up by her neck and squeezed. Ikora could barely feel air coming into her lungs as his Exo strength beared down on her nape. She could feel herself sputter and gasp for air, but to no avail.

"What's the worst that could happen?" He asked with a bone-chilling tone. "Let me tell you, exactly, what happens after you eat that. One, Red Legion is gone, defeated by you. Good, right?" He asked almost expecting an answer. The Exo kept his grip around her tight but not tight enough so that she couldn't breathe at all. "But what happens after that, oh, that's right, you don't know. That doesn't matter. Well guess what? It does. Let me explain why. You gained a following, seeing that the old ways failed, New Monarchy split; between the New Monarchy and the New Regime.

The Regime gained supporters, and these supporters were in favor of tearing everything that we worked so hard to build. But what happened to you? The person who saved the world in my stead? Well," He said looking down at the ground with a slight smirk on his face and a slight chuckle. "You were subtly and slowly corrupted by the heart you ate all those years ago. You were not you, in everything but name. But what did that lead to? How about I tell you," He said to an Ikora whose eyes were bright with fear. It looked like James lost his sanity.

"You found your support group and started building weapons with the capability of bypassing a guardian's light. Making them unable to come back after they died. But what would you have to gain from that?" He asked. "Oh, right, killing the old world." He continued. "After your army was amassed and armed, you attacked the tower. And if my memory serves me right, you disintegrated Zavala, and blasted Cayde out of the glass of the Hall of Guardians. You thought you killed him, you were wrong. He lived, only to see the world he loved burn. You didn't stop there, you wanted everyone to know who's in charge. What happened next?"

It was after he said that when he tightened his grip around his former master. "YOU KILLED MY FAMILY, AND YOU KILLED MY PEOPLE!" He shouted throwing her to the lunar surface. Ikora sputtered and inhaled heavily, attempting to get oxygen back to her head. She planted her knees into the ground and placed her hands on the ground.

"No...I..I..I would never do that, I-I know I wouldn't."

"But you did," James replied. "I saw it, I lived it, I was only in the future for two years, and by the end, I killed you." He said slightly calmer now. "You understand why I want to kill you right?" He asked. Ikora didn't look at him and just stared blankly at the ground. How could she do all of those horrible things? There was no way that she did. But, James' account was too specific, she was at a diverging point, this was where the timelines split, and she was the Fulcrum.

"That wasn't a rhetorical question," James told her. "Do you understand?"

"Yes...I...I understand.." She replied in a soft voice barely above a whisper.

"Good. And you know now, this thing needs to be hidden, broken, destroyed, whatever we need to do to keep that from happening. If you couldn't control it, I don't think anyone can." James said picking the stone heart up and looking at it. "Anyway, we're getting everyone back together to get Hope back, in the meantime, I'll be safeguarding this," He said putting it in the small pocket in the back of his exoskeleton.

"J-James.....I...I'm sorry...I really am..." She said trying to get her act together but failing miserably. "I had the best of intentions I swear to you..."

"I believe you," The Exo replied with as much sincerity as he could. "But there's an opportunity for things to change for the better," He said reaching his hand out to her.

"If you hated me so much...why didn't you just kill me?" She asked looking over her shoulder at him.

"I have a bad habit of giving people second chances," He said pulling Ikora to her feet. "But, just so you know, if I even catch a glimpse of you turning, I will come down on you, like the Holy Ghost."

"Duly noted," She replied as his ship flew overhead and transmatted the two of them up. Ikora looked around the vessel and noticed how high tech it all was. "Where did you-"

"I'll explain later, right now we need to get you with the others. In the meantime, we need someone to disable that gun that's orbiting the Sun. And there's only one person I know who's got the level of expertise we need to do so." James said as the ship activated its jump sequence to get to Earth.

"James, you can't be talking about Upgrade are you?"

"Michael,"

"Excuse me?"

"Michael...his name, is Michael."