She was going to die, and so was he.
It was the only thought occupying her mind as the pain finally tore through her body, with such force she felt herself releasing a bloodcurdling scream, loud enough to drown out the Vandguard leaders that had all begun to shout in her ears. She felt herself gasping as she clutched at her chest, where the damage had hit the deepest. Thank the traveler she had turned her head, or the blow Oryx had dealt would have taken off her head. And thank the traveler the blade had sliced into her right chest and not her left.
She was on her hands and knees on the balcony of the dreadnought, her entire body shaking as she sobbed and screamed with every shift in her body, the pain threatening to overwhelm her. But she had to stay awake. She had to. Damian lay crumpled against the pillar, so far away it felt like miles as she gasped for breath, knowing she had to get to him.
"Tessa? Can you hear me?" She heard the words distantly in her helmet, and she vaguely recognized Estella's voice.
"Damian." She croaked instead, gasping as she moved, carefully sliding fer feet underneath her and pushing herself up from her hands and knees. "I have to help him." Tears and gasps choked her words as she stumbled over to Damian. Her heart was pounding, so hard she thought it might stop, that it would stumble and give up. "I have to-"
"Tessa, listen to me. You need to call Damian's ship, okay?" Estella was telling her, "You should be able to call it through the tech in your armor. Use your helmet. It doesn't need your ghost to function."
She had made it to Damian, finally, and she collapsed in front of him, pulling him into her lap, retrieving Kylie where she lay beside him, and rising to her knees to reach Echo a bit away from them. Damian's helmet was broken, blood pouring from it at an alarming rate. She followed Estella's instructions as she held Damian, navigating the screen in her helmet with her eyes, drawing up a help menu and calling Damian's ship. She then pulled the helmet off her head and pulled off Damian's, swapping the two out so that her helmet could apply pressure to Damian's wound, while she slid on Damian's broken, bloody one in order to breathe.
"The ship is landing just ahead of you." Estella told her, she could see the ship flying to meet her at the balcony, its ramp lowering for her. Estella's voice was rough and garbled in Damian's helmet, but she could still hear her as she forced herself to stand, tucking the ghosts into her pockets and lifting Damian as well as she could.
Behind her, she heard a roar of the hive, and she could hear them battering the door. The same door that had locked them in during their battle, now locked the hive out. Thank the traveler.
She half carried, half dragged Damian to the ramp of the ship, his lightless body limp as she carried him. She heard herself sobbing with the effort, as she finally reached the ramp and she dragged him up it, pressing the button to close it as she let go of Damian and went to the cockpit. The ramp had just closed when the hive opened the door, descending into the room in a mad fury. She slammed the controls, launching the ship towards earth and into warp speed.
She then rose from her seat again, throwing her helmet off and dropping it on the floor as she found a roll of duct tape in an open bin on the ship floor. Damian was going to die if she didn't get him back to the traveler soon, but she would didn't want to bleed out, either. Peeling back her broken breastplate, she saw the damage was bad, and the pain was so much worse. Her breast was practically sliced in two, and every breath sent new pain through her body. She found a shirt in Damian's room, tearing it and pressing it against the wound, she managed a sloppy bandage by taping it in place with the duct tape and replacing her battered breastplate to put pressure on the wound. Every move had her cursing and crying, in panic and pain as she forced her trembling hands to cooperate. Once she had finished, she knelt by Damian. The worst injury he possessed was the damage to his head, but she knew her helmet would already be slowing the bleeding. What would kill him was the loss of light.
The ship began to beep at her frantically, she had pushed it too fast, and she had to scramble back to the cockpit to get them out of warp speed before they collided with the earth. She fired the ship in reverse, slowing them down enough to make a landing approach. She wasn't sure how she remembered the way to the tower, but she didn't look down at the instruments the entire time she flew, her heart pounding in her chest as she begged, pleaded for the traveler to save them. To save Damian and Kylie and Echo, because she could not.
***
Tessa had never thought she'd want to see someone so badly, when they were a few mere feet from her. She'd flown nearly full-speed into the hanger, which had caused no small amount of havoc. Ikora and Cayde had already been waiting for her, a medical team practically charging her ship. Amanda Holiday looked like she was either going to cry, or rip Tessa's head off, but Tessa didn't care about that. All she wanted was to see Damian okay again. They'd rushed him to the hospital, he'd been bleeding from so many places she hadn't been able to even attempt counting. His skin was a pale gray, the blood bold and unnerving against his skin, against her hands.
Cayde had held her back form the operating room. She'd been shaking, her chest so tight she felt she could hardly breathe. He'd told her she'd seen enough, he'd pulled her into his arms when she'd protested, and he'd held her when she sobbed into his chest. She'd fought well, he'd said, she'd done everything she could, it was up to the traveler now. It didn't change anything, of course, Damian was dying, she knew that, and it didn't change the fact that there was nothing she could do about it. Cayde didn't think it was her fault, it was Oryx's fault, deep down they both knew that, but she couldn't shake that feeling, that suffocating feeling that she could have been quicker, she could have done more, she could have been smarter, defended him better.
She felt a pain she hadn't felt in a long time. The kind that shoved her head underwater while she screamed, and drew sobs from her until she could hardly move. This time, though, it wasn't the definite end. Cayde lifted her head from the stormy waters, gently telling her Damian was out of surgery and resting, and that he was doing well, all things considered.
She nearly sobbed when she saw him, from relief, mostly, but all the stitches and bandages still hit her like a slap to the face. Kylie was still out for the count, but it was up to Damian's health to get her back up again. She waited for him for hours. Cayde stayed with her for the first few, waiting until she was too exhausted to argue to bring in a nurse and doctors to patch up her injuries. She refused to move from her spot longer than a few short minutes.
The sight of her injuries had nearly sickened Cayde. The nurse had gently persuaded Tessa to lie down on a table beside Damian's bed, and she and the doctors had cut away her breastplate while he had watched. The slash was one of the worst he had ever seen, and the makeshift bandage she had made with a torn up shirt and duct tape had ignited a fire of anger within Cayde. Oryx had taken everything from the two guardians, he had taken their light, their ghosts, and the fact that Tessa had been forced to such methods simply not to bleed out? If Oryx truly was still alive, Cayde might just hunt him down and kill him himself.
The damage was enough that even the doctors could not help but voice their surprise. The cut along her torso spanned form her left hip, all the way to her left ear. Her entire front had been covered in blood, and that was before the doctors even removed the bandage from her breast. The damage was bad. Her breast had been cut practically in two, held together only by the makeshift bandage she had made. The doctors stitched it first, but Cayde knew the wound ran deep. It could only be fully healed by a ghost. He only prayed their ghosts would come back online for them.
The doctors had stitched her up, a process that had taken what felt like an eternity, but Tessa had refused to get an IV. She wasn't in a life threatening condition, but if she were to do anything at all, she would need more blood. Cayde promised the doctors he would get her to come around. They gave her enough painkillers to cancel out her gash- at least mostly, and left her with a change of clothes.
Once she had been patched up, he stayed for a little while longer, but eventually left her alone to wait for Damian, telling her he'd be back in a few hours to check up on her, and to have someone send word to her if she needed anything. It was quiet after that, the steady beep of Damian's heartbeat through the monitor slowly calmed her down a bit, especially when she felt his wrist and felt that it was a strong, steady beat. At some point a doctor entered and reexamined Damian and then her. The nurse brought her a pillow and blanket, and even offered to bring in another bed for her, but she politely refused, she doubted she'd be sleeping that night.
***
When Damian finally came to, she'd been somewhat curled up in her chair, her head resting against the pillow she'd pushed against the wall. Her legs were folded on her right, she held Echo on her left thigh, turned off because of the lack of light. She wore a thick long sleeved shirt, the material loose and warm against her frame. The doctors had taken off her boots and all of her remaining armor while they had patched her up and the nurse had given her new socks and pants to go with the warm shirt. The pants were soft, gray sweatpants, a bit of a cuff at the ankles so that they didn't drag. The socks were simple, white socks, soft, warm. The comfort was nice after the hard battle, but it didn't remove her stress.
She glanced up when Damian stirred, smiling as he let out a soft groan, rolling over onto his side.
"Hey." She said quietly, dropping her feet back onto the floor and moving to the edge of her chair.
"Hey." He said softly, smiling gently, though he was clearly in a great deal of pain. "I think I understand what you were feeling when you said you felt like you got run over by a tank."
She managed a distracted smile in return, but spoke up quickly, her heart starting to pound. "Damian, I-" She swallowed, formulating her thoughts, "I thought about what you said, and there's no one I'd rather be with than you." She said, the words she'd been waiting to voice since he'd told her how he felt. "I knew I felt the same way before you even told me, but I was so caught up in everything I couldn't think straight." She explained. "When I brought you back-" She forced a lump from her throat. "Everyone thought you were going to die, I thought so too, it was awful."
"Tess-" Damian stammered.
"I thought you were going to die before I could tell you how I felt," She said, "I never want to feel that way again."
Damian motioned for her to come to him, and she did, rising carefully and going to his bedside. He reached out for her hand, she gave to him and he took it bringing it to his lips and kissing it softly. "Lay with me?" He asked, sliding back, against the right bed rail to make space for her. She carefully fit into the space, once she'd settled on her side, they were so close their foreheads pressed against each other's. "Tell me again." He nearly whispered, closing his eyes. Up close, she could see his face was marred with bruises and scratches, but there was color in his skin again.
"What?" She asked, looking down as he found her hand again and gently laced their fingers.
"Tell me again." He repeated. "What you just said before."
"I want to be with you." She said softly, "I care about you more than I can hope to understand, but I know it's meant to be, and whatever it is, it's bigger than me."
There were tears in his eyes when he opened them again, but he looked her in the eyes and spoke up again. "Can I kiss you?" He asked quietly.
As an answer, she leaned forward, closing the small distance between them.
The kiss was soft, a gentle press of their lips. It was not hard or forced, not overly eager or desperate. The kiss was slow and kind, it was calm and loving, healing and promising. Even as it deepened, it was true and real, never rushed or false. Eventually, they parted, their foreheads pressed together again.
"Can you stay?" He asked her quietly, she nodded, finding tears in her eyes. Even with the two of them laying battered and bruised on a hospital bed, Tessa hadn't expected it to go so well between them, but Damian was alive, and they were together, on the same page, feeling the same way.
"I can stay as long as you want." She told him quietly, watching as he was already exhausted again, his eyes closed as he shook his head.
"You need help too, don't you?" He asked her.
"I got patched up." She told him, "Besides, it's nothing I can't handle."
Damian sighed, likely too exhausted to argue. "Fine," He breathed, "Rest now, but tomorrow, you're getting all the help you need."
"Deal." She said quietly, squeezing his hand still laced with hers.
It didn't take her very long to drop off to sleep. With Damian beside her, alive, she felt calm again, after forever spent worrying over what was going to happen. She was asleep when Cayde came back in to check on her, Ikora accompanying him.
Cayde was not surprised when he saw the couple, sleeping soundly, their foreheads pressed together, their fingers laced, hands held between them.
"I suppose we were right, Ikora." Cayde said, peering down at the pair. "Do you think they have a light bond?" His voice was soft, as to not wake the pair, while he gently fixed the crooked blankets covering them.
Looking down at their joined hands, he noticed how pale Tessa was. Damian's skin tone was darker than hers naturally, but Damian had also been receiving the blood he had lost through an IV. Tessa had refused to even leave the room to get stitches and bandages- it had been a hell of an effort, given that Oryx had made a cut spanning across her entire torso, a sweep that could very well have killed her had she not turned her head to the side. Cayde had no idea how she'd managed to bear the pain for so long, or how the blood loss hadn't seemed to affect her at all in the time before and after she'd been patched up.
"I don't know." Ikora answered him, "It is possible, and it would explain their loyalty." She said, moving to the other side of the bed. She slid off a glove as she spoke, reaching out to rest the back of her hand on Damian's head, then on Tessa's. "I've never seen a bond up close, never in my many lives. But perhaps Zavala might recognize something between them."
Cayde let out his breath in a heavy sigh. It had been a long, stressful day, for all of them. In the ops room, the vanguard leaders and their consultants had watched Tessa and Damian's mission, which had been stressful in itself before they had even caught sight of Oryx. As soon as the pair had stepped through the rupture, they had lost communications with them, regaining them while Tessa and Damian were busy fighting a taken Ogre and a taken Cabal commander. Then, the pair had moved through another rupture and found their way to Oryx. They had watched the fight in silence. At first, it had gone almost too well, the pair had come overly prepared, with enough heavy ammo syntheses to stock an army, they were armed to the teeth, and figured out how to dodge Oryx's attacks with minimum difficulty. Then, he started draining their light.
At first it had only been their supers, their ghosts had been able to redirect it there, to the added bonus they could fight without, then Oryx teleported them away. The next thing they knew, they were standing in a circular space, pillars lined the edge of the space, and just beyond that, fog blocked their visibility. Oryx had stayed in the fog, out of sight until he had started blasting them with large projectiles. One caught Damian in the shoulder and he'd stumbled, his ghost already moving to heal him. That was where everything went wrong.
Oryx took away everything, all of their light, until their ghosts fell limp on the ground and Damian had collapsed onto his hands and knees, only to be thrown into a pillar behind him by another blast of projectiles. Tessa had defended him valiantly. The syntheses didn't work without their ghosts, so she did what she could with the little ammo she had left. She took out the thrall that attacked her with her blades, keeping them well away from Damian. But it wasn't the thrall that attacked Damian when her back was turned. Oryx released a hoard of thrall on her, forcing her to draw her gun after they had backed her to the edge of the platform. Then, Oryx had swooped in on Damian. Somehow she'd made it back just in time, throwing herself in front of him, throwing Oryx of his stride. It earned her the enormous gash to her torso, but she fought on, until Oryx fell.
Cayde wasn't sure what had happened to Oryx, if he was dead or not, they weren't sure. Tessa had stood weakly between him and Damian, her sidearm raised in a shaking arm, her body trembling with pain and effort. She had watched as he took that taken energy he possessed, and vanished into nothing.
Then, Tessa had run. She grabbed the Ghosts and Damian and summoned the ship to them using the back-up tech in her armor. She heard the shrieks of the hive as they fought to reach her, she heard them clawing at the door that had locked them in during their battle with Oryx.
Cayde could still hear her screams in his ears. It had been enough to render the entire group speechless. Only Estella had the calmness and the brains to speak to Tessa, while the others could only listen in shock to Tessa's agony. He remembered she had tossed her helmet to the floor in Damian's ship, he remembered the sounds of her gasps and cries of pain as she had made her makeshift bandage. He remembered listening to her crying stream of curses as he had raced to the hospital to get a medical team ready, having taken a headset still hooked up to the comms.
He could only imagine her pain and fear, and if Oryx truly wasn't dead yet, he couldn't bear to be the one to tell them they would have to go back, to fight him again. But it didn't have to be right away, he had already agreed with Ikora and Zavala, Oryx was on his last leg because of them, they deserved as much time as it would take for them to recover. As much time as they could spare.
He and Ikora left the two guardians late that night, they deserved their privacy, and most importantly, their rest. They would wait for them to come when they were ready.
***
Tessa opened her eyes to Damian sitting up next to her. Her entire body hurt so badly she could hardly think, and she was glad to find the nurse already in the room, glad to see them. She gave them each plenty of painkillers, and Tessa finally accepted her offer for another bed, her heart warmed by the nurse's kind heart as she moved the beds to be pressed against one another. She gave Tessa an IV and more medication until she eventually fell asleep again.
The ghosts woke up late that day, but without the light to heal themselves, Damian and Tessa were bound to painkillers and bandages. Even still, they were allowed to leave the hospital, under the terms that they would receive a daily check up and they would not do anything more physically exerting than walking.
It was late afternoon when they returned to the hall of the guardians. They were dressed in their armor again, as the clothes the hospital had given them weren't exactly the things they wanted to wear outside. Besides, most of their armor was wearable, and what wasn't, the ghosts had mended without the use of the light. They had wanted to see the vanguard leaders before they returned to their apartments, to let them know they were okay, to calm the tense air.
Eris was not in her usual spot when they descended the stairs, hand in hand, but Damian suspected her to be with the leaders. Shaxx gave them a nod of respect as they passed, he had no doubt many people had heard about what they had done, especially after the nurse had told him of the chaos it had been when they returned to the Tower.
The leaders looked up from their table when they arrived, and even as they beheld the cuts and bruises on their faces, he saw their faces shift into smiles.
"If I had known you two bounced back to quickly, I wouldn't have been so worried." Cayde said with a grin.
"It's good to see you back, Guardians." Zavala said, offering a smile. Around the table, Zavala stood at the head, as usual, though Eris had taken a place on Ikora's right, in between the two. Estella-3 was there too, standing at Cayde's left. She offered a smile and a small nod when she saw their joined hands.
"As wonderful as it is to see you two," Ikora said, "It would be far better to see that you had gotten some rest."
"Oryx is not dead yet," Eris told them, "But he is weak. It will take him a while to gather his forces again."
"That's Eris's way of saying 'take a break, you earned it.'" Cayde told them, flashing a grin at Eris, who glared.
"And Damian," Estella spoke up from his right, "I'm already digging around for anything on Nokris. Don't loose any sleep on it. You need your strength." She told him. He nodded in thanks.
"We're already putting together a force capable of defeating Oryx. When you two are ready, he won't know what hit him." Cayde said with a grin.
"Get some rest." Ikora told them, "You're going to need it."
"We will." Tessa promised, she looked to Estella, meeting the Exo's light green eyes. "Thank you." She said. Estella had gotten her out of that fight alive. Without her, both she and Damian would likely be dead.
The Exo smiled gently. "Don't mention it." She said simply.
With that, the guardians turned to leave, mounting the stairs before they were stopped.
"Oh, and Guardians." Zavala called after them, to which they turned. "If I see either of you back in here before at least a week is up, I will personally send you back to your vacation." He told them. They both smiled at that.
"We'll keep it in mind," Damian promised with a grin, "Thank you, all of you." He said, "For everything."
***
The agreement was mutual when Damian and Tessa decided they didn't want to split up that night. The pair returned to Tessa's apartment after their brief meeting with the Vanguard leaders, glad to finally find calm after such a long time. But with calm brought up uncertainties, their light was already coming back to them, but how long would it take, and how were they going to kill Oryx?
Damian drew Tessa from her worried thoughts gently. "Hey," he said softly, "Stop worrying so much." He told her, reaching out to take her hand. "It's going to be okay, the vanguard leaders said they're putting together a group for us. It's going to be fine." He promised.
They were standing in the kitchen, Damian had taken both her hands and was holding them in his, squeezing them gently. She rose her gaze from the floor and nodded.
"Okay." She agreed. "So..." She said after a moments pause. "What are we going to do?" She asked gently.
"About what?" Damian asked, "About us?" She nodded. He shrugged with a smile, "I dunno, what do you want to do?" He asked her, causing her to flush pink.
"I don't know." She stammered.
"Well, are you thinking more long term, or more short term?" He asked her, "Because right now, all I want to do is kiss you." He had stepped closer to her, and her head was tilted back to see him, smiling down at her.
She smiled back up at him, her gaze flicking to his lips. "So do it." She said, to which he grinned, closing the distance between them and gently kissing her.
The kiss was different than before, his hands came up to cup her face while hers moved to rest on his chest as he pulled her gently against him. Now that they weren't so exhausted, Tessa could feel her heart pounding in her ears as Damian showed her that he was a great kisser. Even though it was more alive than the previous one had been, it was still gentle, as though Damian didn't want to overwhelm her. They broke away eventually, and when they did, Damian was grinning, and Tessa felt her entire face was flushed. She definitely was not used to this.
"I can't believe this is real." Damian said, smiling down at her.
"Why?" She asked him, peering up at him.
"Because you're the girl of my dreams. I always wanted to be as strong as you are, I've always wanted to fight by your side, and when I did, I realized it was so much more than that." He said, grinning at her, more so when her face reddened even more.
"Let's eat," He said as his stomach growled, "I'll make something, and then we can figure all this out." He promised, smiling at her.
They ended up eating whatever they could make the fastest, as they hadn't had a real meal all day. That turned out being microwaved meals of fried rice Tessa had in her freezer, topped off with generous amounts of soy sauce.
"So," Tessa said, once she had gotten at least halfway through her bowl of rice. "Have you ever had a girlfriend before?" She asked. She hoped she hadn't surprised him with the question, surly that was where they were going, wasn't it?
Damian nodded, seeming at ease with the question. "I've had one, she was a warlock. She was nice, and we were alright together, but I think we both figured out that we didn't really click. It wasn't a bad break." He told her. "I have had two boyfriends though," He said, eyeing her expression subtly, though she noticed and reached over to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. "I mean, one of them was a real boyfriend, the other one was more of a roommate that got a little too comfortable with himself when he found out I was questioning my sexuality."
Tessa frowned at that, "If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" She asked.
"It wasn't so horrible, I mean, at first I did actually like him, at first he went really slow with me and he was patient and gentle. At first it was just kissing and stuff like that, but I think he misinterpreted me and thought I was ready when I really wasn't. We had some bad sex and I guess he figured out I wasn't really comfortable with him and he broke things off." Damian explained. "My other boyfriend, I met after Kylie revived me, while the other guy had been with my previous Ghost. He was really nice guy." Damian said, "He was a titan, we met in the Cosmodrome, actually. We started dating and he showed me what it was like to be in a happy, healthy relationship, and it was great for a while. Then he met another guy and we figured out it wasn't meant to be." He smiled at her, "Now, I'm glad it wasn't."
The heat that rose to her cheeks that time wasn't as bad as before, she felt touched. She felt a bit bad for him it sounded like he had really been attached to the titan, but she was glad Damian believed in them. She was glad because she believed in them, too. It felt like the fabric of her very being wanted to be with Damian, every part of her wanted to be with him in a way she couldn't hope to explain.
"Have you ever had any other boyfriends?" He asked her, "Other than the one titan you told me about?"
She hesitated to answer, frowning as she considered how to explain it all to him.
"I was revived pretty young, for a guardian." She told him, "I was still a teenager, but I wanted to be a guardian, so I trained until I was a bit older then started going out on missions. I started climbing the ranks and taking more and more missions, by the time I was near the age of most other guardians I was already pretty high up. It was harder for me to find someone I liked because I got so busy. Then I met the titan, and after him I kind of just gave up, I guess." She felt rather pathetic as she explained it, looking down at her hands. "I mean, now that I think about it, everyone else I know has already done all that stuff, boyfriends, girlfriends, sex, college-" She felt her face heating as she looked back down at her hands, heaving a sigh.
"Tessa," Damian reached out, squeezing her hand over the table, "That's fine." He promised, "It's hard when you're a guardian, and, even if it wasn't, you never have to feel ashamed about that stuff." He promised. "And if you do want to go through with this-" He gestured between them, "I could never expect anything of you, and we don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."
She smiled at him, lacing their fingers over the table and pulling his hand up to her lips, kissing the back of his hand softly.
"Thank you." She said, "I would like to go through with this, with us. Just... slowly."
Damian smiled at her. "I'd love that." He told her quietly.
***
Tessa opened her eyes to darkness, and cold. Then, there was a roar, so loud her ears rang. When she could hear again, she heard the Deathsingers, their song haunting her, filling the air as she tried to figure out her surroundings. Everything around her was cold, everything, the ground the air, the wall behind her.
Another shriek rose above the Deathsingers, and she recognized the thrall, crying out just before they descended upon her. She was blind in the darkness, the thrall came at her from all sides, and she found she was not wearing armor, nothing to protect her from the claws of the thrall. She cried out as they tore at her, as they shredded through her clothes, her skin, then, she felt as though everything were shaking, and someone was calling her name.
"Tessa!" The shout jarred her from her dream and she bolted awake, her hands searching for her knives, for her guns, for anything-
Instead, they met cool sheets, and warm hands. Lights illuminated the darkness and she found Damian sitting beside her, holding her hands in his, letting out his breath as she finally calmed. She shut her eyes tight, breathing in deeply, telling herself it was just a dream, while Damian ran his thumb across her knuckles, it was just a dream.
Her shuddering breaths sparked pain in her torso, in her breast, and she winced, opening her eyes to peer down at herself.
"I'm sorry." She said to Damian, "Thank you for waking me up."
"It's alright." He said, "I wasn't sleeping too well either, not with everything that's happened." He told her, letting out his breath. "What were you dreaming about?"
"Do you remember when Oryx took away the light, and he sent a hoard of thrall on us?" She asked him. He nodded. "It was that. But, it was so dark I couldn't see the thrall, and the Deathsingers were there, screaming." She sighed, desperate to banish the dream from her mind.
"You don't think Oryx-" Damian began.
"No," She cut him off, "I don't think he sent it. I think it was just a nightmare." She said, dropping back against the pillow as she heaved a heavy sigh. "I just want to sleep without nightmares." She breathed.
"Me too." Damian agreed. Tessa found his hand in the space between them. She lay on her side, facing him as she laced their fingers, drifting off into silence as she held his hand.
***
They passed the week slowly. As nice as the rest was, it was hard to truly relax without Oryx dead. They spent most of the week together. Damian's light recovered faster than hers did, and soon enough he was all healed up, and even had enough light to keep the nightmares away from her. They still came for him, though. She woke up when he did, and she would chase his nightmares away as valiantly as she had defended him from the thrall. They couldn't do much about what came during the day, though. Door slams made them both jump, along with odd noises and sounds they didn't recognize. Tessa hated to face away from people, she hated having people moving around behind her. She nearly flung a knife into Estella's head when she came on the third day to check on them.
She was glad when the week was finally over. There had been good times with Damian, they had become more comfortable, a bit more intimate, but Tessa was practically aching to kill Oryx. Only Zavala's warning had kept her from acting as soon as Echo had healed her. Damian seemed just as eager to kill the king as well. He had asked her what had happened to her after Oryx had knocked him out, and instead of telling him, she had shown him, having the ghosts show him the recordings from the footage from their helmets. It had been an eye opening experience for all three of them. She had told them about the cut Oryx had given her, and how she had been forced to make a makeshift bandage from one of Damian's shirts and a roll of duct tape. Both Echo and Damian had fumed when they heard of the damage Oryx had done to her, but Tessa was just glad Echo could heal her injuries.
When they approached the hall of the Guardians, they were dressed in their armor again, different, stronger armor they'd picked up from engrams on the dreadnought. Both were eager to get out on the field again, their anger at Oryx burning stronger than their fear. Damian's light had come back stronger than ever before, and he was eager to push his new limits in the field before they fought Oryx. Cayde was the first to notice them, the vigilant hunter always on the lookout for Guardians.
"Well, you two are a sight for sore eyes." He remarked. "You both look well rested, I see you're already eager to get back out there." He said, grinning at them.
"And not a moment too soon." Zavala remarked, "No less than a week."
Tessa smiled at the titan. They had cut his requirement to the smallest it could be, as it was a week that day.
"Well, you did say a week." Damian replied smoothly. "What's the word on the Taken?"
"Straight to business, then." Ikora remarked, chuckling to herself.
"Well, I know we all wanted him to, but unfortunately Oryx did not stumble off to die in peace." Cayde told them, "He's gathering his forces on the dreadnought, waiting for you to come to him so he can finish you off once and for all. But we're not going to let him."
"You guardians are heroes of the light." Zavala told them, moving around the table to approach them, coming around Ikora's side. "You have blazed a path of glory into the stars, any darkness that does not fear you is foolish."
"But Oryx's forces cannot be defeated by two guardians, no matter how strong you two are, it cannot be done." Ikora said.
"So, we've put together a little team for you." Cayde said, grinning as the pair frowned in confusion. Cayde moved for the stairs, Ikora following him. Tessa glanced back at Zavala who had come to stand beside them. He gestured for them to follow Cayde and Ikora down the hall.
"I'd like to say it's nothing fancy, but that would be a lie." Cayde told them, turning to walk backwards, "We thought a lot about who we'd want on an Oryx wrecking team, and we all picked our strongest warriors."
"It is definitely on the smaller side when it comes to guardian teams, but given that the two of you were able to nearly kill Oryx on your own, this team should do quite nicely." Ikora told them. They reached the end of the hall and moved up the stairs on either side of Eris Morn. Tessa found herself eager to move ahead. Cayde reached the landing first and bounded up the final flight of stairs, turning to lead them up backwards.
There were four guardians waiting for them at the top of the steps. Two titans, a hunter and a warlock. It was a small team, Damian and Tessa made six, a common number for a team of guardians. Often, groups of six would assemble and raid enemy strongholds or partake in challenges a team of three could not take on. Tessa looked over the four Guardians. If the vanguard leaders had chosen them, they had to be good at what they did, strong and capable, though from the unfamiliarity of their stances, it was clear that the team had never been assembled before.
Tessa had never heard of the Vanguard assembling a small team like this. They were bound to break some new ground together, and as she looked over the group, she suspected they could tell it too.
Farthest on her left were two guardians, a girl and a boy, standing close together, both eyeing Tessa and Damian as if they were a puzzle to crack. The girl was a hunter, her helmet was off, revealing a face delicate by features but bold with expression. She had rich caramel skin and silky black hair that had been pulled away from her face in a sturdy braid. Sharp lines of eyeliner accented her eyes, making her look ever bolder as she locked eyes with Tessa.
The boy beside her was clearly her brother, maybe even her twin. He had the same caramel skin and silky black hair, but his features were slightly bolder, his jaw a little sharper. His hair was slightly curly, parted near his left temple and swept to the right. As a titan, his body type was leagues away from his sister's lean, lithe frame. He had broad shoulders that reminded Tessa of a swimmer, and even through his armor she could tell he had a heavily muscled chest and arms.
In the center of the semicircle, a bit further away from the twins, was another Titan. He had pale blue-gray skin and bright yellow eyes and an undercut, his light blonde hair swept over the top of his head to his right. His features were mostly gentle, besides the strong jaw typical of most titans. When he caught her eye, he actually smiled. On his face were a few lines of orange face paint, some awoken wore tattoos on their faces that could symbolize rank or status or family, but she could tell this wasn't nearly as permanent. There was a long line on his nose, and under each of his eyes, two short lines led diagonally out. There was also a line going down from his lower lip to his chin, and two short lines just above the inner edges of his eyebrows pointing straight up.
Furthest on the right, Tessa recognized Estella-3, Damian's warlock friend. Tessa saw her greet them with a small smile and a nod. Vaguely, Tessa realized she had never really seen Estella while she wasn't full of pain killers or sleep deprived, and she took a moment to study her features. She had a rose gold colored face, delicate features and a gentle expression. On the sides of her head were two antennas, silver at the tops, though the base matched the rose gold of her face. Her eyes were a light hue of green, and she could see from a gap where her jaw connected to her skull, her mouth color was the same. She also had two white lines running down the center of her face, in between her eyes, the smallest sliver of space between them.
"You are the best of the best," Zavala was saying, addressing the whole of the new team, "The pride and joy of the vanguard. You have slayed gods, and now, we ask you to just that."
"Effective immediately, the six of you will be our go to for major threats against the city and the light. You will answer to the vanguard and the orders of the vanguard will be your top priority. Your first mission, taking out Oryx, the Taken King." Ikora told them, clasping her hands behind her back again.
"Yep," Cayde continued, "That means you gotta know how to fight like a team, no shooting each other in the back or anything like that. You'll need to learn to move as one, to communicate without words, to defend each other before something goes wrong." He explained, "So go on, get outta here. You've got a lot of work to do, better start now."
Author's Note
I am literally surprising myself with how quick I'm coming out with these chapters. Summer is really doing wonders for this story, and I've only been out of school for five days. I wanted to get this chapter out quicker because the last one is such a cliff hanger, but I am holding it back a bit because I have lost track of time, and at this moment as I am typing this note, having just finished this chapter, I published chapter 21 seven hours ago and it has only two reads. XD
Imma hold onto this one a bit, I guess, not that it will really matter to you because you all won't know that I finished this so long before I published it until you read the chapter after I publish it. I feel like these notes are kinda just my little rant sessions, but if anyone does read these (I hope you do but I can never be sure) I just want to say it's a lot easier to gauge how many people are actually invested in this story if you vote on the chapters. But, I don't run your life, so do as you please.
I have to say I'm thrilled to introduce the new fireteam. Names and backgrounds for all the team should come later, one of which you might recognize if you've been reading all my little rants down here. As always, I hope you all are doing well, I hope you all are out of school for the summer because if you aren't you must either not start in August or you are just a poor soul.
Also, you have no idea how excited I was to write Damian and Tessa's little reunion at the beginning of this chapter. I actually started writing that scene in February, because I thought it was going to be the end of this book, then I had to go back and edit it because I changed it up a bit.
Art credit to @ ZackFinfrock on twitter.