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The EXO stranger's cloak rippled in the frozen Europan wind as she offered up the splinter.
"It's time, again, to attune yourself with the darkness. You must turn your heart to temptation, and be strong enough to resist."
Helena and Decima put their hands forward
to touch the object; Warbird-64, however, inspected the fragment in her reddened gaze...
... and stepped back.
"No, thanks," she said, a simple dismission that left no room for wheedling. "I'm out."
While her fireteam members didn't think anything of the refusal-- they directed to her no blame, shame, or lessening of respect-- the Stranger tucked her chin.
"I'm disappointed."
Bird's head twitched, just a minute, almost imperceptible movement of her cranium. Her eyes took on a deeper crimson glow. "Yeah?" She asked, and something in her throat clicked, like the pin of a grenade. "Try finding the person that set you on this life altering, all consuming, save-the-fucking-world course after they up and disappeared for years only to have them tell you 'Actually, we were wrong, the bad guys were right, and everything you've done thus far has been for nothing."
The Stranger's eyes narrowed. "That's not what the message is--"
"Really?" Bird barked, a tone so harsh her vocal processors had to reset with a cough of static. "Because it sure sounds like it to me." She let her optics dim in the EXO version of a blink; the mechanical workings in her visible neck and face shifted with a light grinding sound. "Look, I love, and trust, my fireteam. With my life. But they both have a history of questionable decisions-- like when Decima abandoned the Light to go run a space pirate-slash-smuggling enterprise--"
"I prefer the term 'empire'," the Warlock corrected.
"--or when Helena abandoned the Light to go-- start a farm, or whatever it was."
"It all worked out in the end," the Hunter mused, placid.
"The point is, Decima is insane and Helena never wanted to be a Guardian in the first place. So their viewpoints are a bit... skewed. So when it comes to deciding what's best, the only opinion I trust-- because I don't trust you, I don't trust Eris, and I definitely don't trust him--"
"That's prob'ly wise," the Drifter snorted.
"-- the only opinion I trust is the person who has been with me the whole time. Since Warbird-1. Since BEFORE 1." Bird's Ghost, Nemo, appeared over her shoulder in a cloud of blue. "And if he says we're out, we're out. End of discussion."
Nemo tipped his whole form in a resolute nod as Warbird turned to stomp away. Two steps in, she whirled, saying "And one more thing--"
"I don't think Warbird's said this many words at once in... ever?" Helena whispered to Decima over the Splinter they were both still touching.
"I've heard whispers Warbird-63 was a mouthy fuck and that's why there is a 64."
"I feel like I got majorly shafted in the whole Stasis department. Whatever Darkness being came up with these powers is a dumbass. Frozen scepter of power? Cool. Ice picks of doom? Awesome." The Titan held out her hand as deep blue crystals of ice sprouted down her forearm, culminating in a large, round orb in her palm; frozen vapors lifted into the air. "I get a ball that looks like a dingleberry on a dog's ass after they shit in winter." She let the power disperse in snow crystals which fluttered away in the wind. "I am not a big one for aesthetics, but maybe it's not a stretch to see why, between this and a giant flaming maul, I don't choose this."
"Wow," Helena murmured.
Decima was clapping. "Poignant and inspirational."
But Bird wasn't done. "On record, Elisabeth, I think you're extremely stupid, disrespectful, and careless. The Darkness corrupts everyone in your timeline and ultimately ends it and what's your plan? To jump to the next one and try the exact same thing again? You don't care what happens to us. You don't care if anything sticks-- you just want to save the world, doesn't matter which one, and damn the broken remnants of the ones you leave behind you." Bird's whole chassis rumbled with Solar light, and the snow beneath her feet was turning to water. "That doesn't really instill me with confidence, in you or your terrible advice. I'm going to keep doing my job-- that's saving the world, by the way, and not just jumping between them-- the same way I've been doing it: with fire, and strength, and by bashing my head against the problem until it goes away. I don't need any more power. I have enough on my own."
There was a silence save for the whistling of the whipping wind and the sizzling of the permafrost beneath Warbird-64's feet.
When no one spoke, Warbird donned her helmet and turned away for a final time. "If you need me, I'll be back with Variks."
She summoned her Sparrow with extreme prejudice and shot away over the frosted hillscape.