Chapter Text
Somehow in the past few years Shin had started to think of the Tower as 'home'. It hadn't been for a long, long time. Technically. Shin never had felt like it was his home though. Not really. His home was the wilderness, the hidden places in the world, far away from the Tower and most everyone else. Or that's what he'd believed. But a point like a lighthouse kept him out of the wilderness, returning to the safer waters of the City.
He had some friends out in the wilds who always said lighthouses were romantic.
Shin thought they were a bit full of shit. Just like him.
This 'new Tower' was not the one he'd come to the City knowing. He wasn't the only old Guardian who said the Tower post Red War was like an itch in the back of their throat. Even before the City had Walls they'd had a tower. Not as big as the one they had now but guard towers, watch towers surrounding the City. But for now it would suffice, it'd have to. The architects and Titans were still busy building their old Tower back up, it was slow going. The Towers had been built centuries ago, refitting new work on old architecture took time.
While the City was awake all hours of the day the Tower slept. Even Zavala had to sleep, Shaxx had to rest his voice, and the lights in the new Tower dimmed and went out. The only people still up were the Hunters on the Walls keeping watch while everyone else slept, or Guardians with insomnia. Darkness and shadow shrouded the Tower and Wall as Hunter's Hour crept up on everyone. The shadows were long and the only light in the Tower was the reflection from the Traveler.
And the glow of the Vault terminals.
Shin had nightmares sometimes. Hunters had nightmares sometimes. It was hardly worth mentioning. So he was awake, getting out of his windowless cell of an apartment and into the cool fresh air of the top of the Wall-- the Tower. New Tower. So he saw the figure standing at the Vault, cycling through gear and weapons, a slowly growing pile of glimmer at their feet.
"Go away, Shin," Wolf said, not looking up from the screen she was using as he meandered over. "I don't got time."
"I didn't even say anything," he said.
"I know. Keep it that way."
He looked at her hard. She wasn't paying him any mind. Usually she at least pretended to listen. Not tonight. He hadn't seen her this focused in a long while. "What's the matter?" Because no one else was out she wasn't in any armor, not even a helmet. Not that anyone would recognize her as she was. She liked keeping her face to herself.
"Nothing. I said go away," she was dismantling guns and pulling out new ones almost as fast as her Ghost could turn them into glimmer. Looked like she was really sorting her vault out. Only keeping the things she absolutely needed and could transmat at a glance. He glanced down at the screen. It was half empty. For a hoarder like Wolf that was both impressive and concerning.
He didn't move. She could make him say things he didn't want to admit to and it went both ways. Wolf was just way more stone cold than him. But his presence was annoying and he knew it and Wolf would say something just to make him leave. So he just waited, quiet, watching her. The blue of the vault screen just made her Awoken blue skin even more blue, and cast her silver hair the color of the sky.
"Do you have to stand there?" Wolf's Ghost asked.
"It's a free Tower," he shrugged.
The Ghost did it's best impression of a frown but turned away from him. Shin's Ghost came up and spoke into his ear, "She doesn't seem happy you're here." He just shrugged.
He stood there for a while. Finally Wolf sighed widely. "Fine," she said. "If I tell you will you go away?"
"Maybe. Who knows?" Shin said, brushing some of his hair back out of his face.
"Pyramids have appeared across the system." Yes. He'd seen. Set his nerves to max just being within a hundred thousand miles of one. "And we've lost planets."
"Yeah, that's some weird shit," Shin said like it wasn't crazy Mercury and Mars weren't just gone. As in not in the heliodisc at all.
She frowned at him. "The Vanguard is worried that will happen to other bodies with Pyramids on them. So I'm going to investigate them."
"Like... go in them?" he asked.
"If I have to."
"Seems dangerous." She said nothing. "So perfect for you, huh?"
She looked away, mouth set in a firm line, "Not like anyone else can do it," she said, staring at the Vault screen. "Hopefully it will give us some insight on what's going on. What we're up against."
"Who you get to shoot," he said.
She gave him an unimpressed look. "Yes, that too."
"You like shooting things, I figured you'd be more excited" Shin said. Shin had seen Glitterbomb helmet VoDs but he also had up close experience of Wolf slaying aliens and other bad guys. Sure Drifter's enemies were simulated, mostly, but they still put up a fight.
"I've been in one already. Its empty. Zavala insists there must be something but I don't think so." She huffed. "But off I go, I guess."
"How long you going to be gone?"
"Why? Will you miss me?" she teased him.
He scoffed, "I like to win when I play Gambit-
"Just play with Savant-
"I am not doing that," he growled and was secretly pleased with himself when he made her laugh. "Guess I'll have to come out of Crucible retirement until you get back," he sighed dramatically.
"Yeah. Shaxx and Drifter will have to live with you just cleaning house without me," she didn't smile but she was amused.
"When are you leaving?"
"Dawn. Enough time to finish clearing out this junk-
"To make room for more," Shin said. He'd seen the state of her Vault, and heard her Ghost complain about the amount of engrams she had. Wolf singularly did not need another new gun or scarp of armor for the rest of her life.
"And I need to get my ship prepped and ready to go," Wolf continued, annoyed at him.
"And maybe some sleep?" he asked. But he knew sleeping was hard.
"Heh, yeah, I'll get right on that," she said sarcastically. Shin knew it was a big ask. Most Hunters had nightmares. He couldn't imagine what Wolf's were like.
"Doesn't hurt to say it out loud sometimes," Shin said. "Tower's safe," he added.
There was something in her eyes he couldn't quite place. Her purple eyes were haunted for a moment. "Yeah," she went back to the screen, ignoring him again. He watched her dismantle a dozen more guns and twice as many gloves and chest pieces of various makes. The pile of glimmer at her feet slowly grew into a mound past her ankles.
"I think that's everything," her Ghost said after a short time.
"Seems so," she said softly, turning off the Vault screen so the only points of light for a moment were her glowing purple eyes.
"Quite a clean out for going into a bunch of empty Pyramids," Shin said.
"You never know," she shrugged. "Now to go prep my ship. I'll see you later, Shin."
"You better. You die out there I'll find your Ghost, bring you back, and kill you myself," Shin threatened. Wolf giggled and gave him the friendly Hunter salute before leaving the Vault, he didn't follow her even though he did think about it.
His Ghost appeared and scooped up the left behind glimmer. "It's Wolf, she'll be fine," his Ghost said, sensing his unease. "And you should follow your own advice. Get some rest. The Tower's a safe place."
"Eh, maybe," and he also left the Vaults, not returning to the inner Wall but somewhere to look at the stars. His Ghost sighed and followed after him, not able to do much else.
--
Shin never did anything the Tower said unless he felt like it. He played nice so Shaxx would let him play Crucible and when he didn't he went and bothered Drifter for games of Gambit when Wolf was around to play. But otherwise he did what he wanted. Every Hunter Vanguard past the first had learned that. It was a lesson the old Vanguard Commander Osiris had never figured out.
Like he'd told Wolf he 'came out of retirement' to play Crucible. Shaxx was always delighted by his gunplay and always had the same advice, more grenades, more explosions, more Light! That wasn't really Shin's style so he respectfully ignored him. At least Drifter just made snide remarks about how he never used anything but a handcanon. Couldn't use the Last Word in Gambit, it'd give him away and he was playing the game incognito. Wouldn't be the first time Shin had crafted a whole persona and personality to fit a new group. Gave him an excuse to use the other handcanons in his collection at least.
He hadn't heard from Wolf in a while which was odd. Missions tended to not last weeks except for when he'd heard her out in the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City. Shin wouldn't call any of that 'mission' work exactly. Like Shin Wolf just did whatever she wanted at times. The Vanguard did their best to control her and she let them try.
He had his Ghost intercept an official Vanguard message out to Europa. It was just Zavala saying that the actions of Fireteam Glitterbomb were not sanctioned by the Vanguard. That this 'new power' was not to be used and they were to return to Earth immediately for the Vanguard to figure out what to do next. Shin had no idea what any of that meant. The response message had been even more worrying. Not from Wolf but from one of the Warlocks, Fox.
'Can't return. In too deep.'
Shin paced his room thinking about that. His Ghost just watched him. "Wearing a trough through your floor won't solve your mystery," his Ghost said.
"What if it's bad?" Shin asked, still pacing.
"That's not your problem."
"It is if Dark," he said, not meeting his Ghost's eye.
"I would remind you in this moment you hate being called a hypocrite-
"Don't lecture me," Shin growled.
"I would never," his Ghost said, staring at him.
"Have I mentioned how much you piss me off today?"
"Not today but I'm sure it's coming."
"Because you're doing a damn good job of it," Shin's eyes were narrowed.
"Give it up. This doesn't concern you. You said yourself you were too old for that stuff." Shin didn't respond to him, turning away. "It's probably nothing. Just more trouble than they're expecting," he said as Shin went back to pacing.
He put his hands together, fingers on his lips as he walked and thought. It did present a problem. There was a pyramid out there. And Wolf had told him the pyramid had spoken to her, with her voice and face, and through her Ghost. The Darkness had reached out to her numerous times. It made him uneasy. She was his friend. One of his only ones. The thought of real deathing her made his stomach churn.
He wasn't sure he could do it.
But she could also be fine! Wolf got in over her head all the time and came out just fine. Killed numerous Hive Gods and didn't stare back into the abyss when it came calling or get lost in the Ascendant Realms even when it was almost a third home. Looked into the eye of Aetheon and put a rocket into it and didn't go mad in revolving, endless time. Faced Riven endlessly, repeatedly, forever, in the Dreaming City, alway looking for a way to break the curse and never fell pray to the siren song of an Ahamkara's promises of wishes.
The longer he thought the more he convinced himself she was fine. She was fine. Whatever thing they'd gotten in too deep about had to do with something else, like Magpie said. Maybe some alien race had decided to set up shop there. And as everyone's favorite Guardian she had to stop it.
Then why hadn't Zavala sent other fireteams, other Guardians, to go help? If it was routine then he would have sent other Guardians to assist Glitterbomb. Instead he was telling them to pull out of Europa.
Couldn't. In too deep.
"Ghost," he called. It had a name. Jaren had given him one a long time ago but he'd never told Shin what it was, so Ghost he would be. His Ghost was looking at some things on his wall and turned to look at him. "Bring my ship out of the hanger. We're leaving."
"Maybe change your armor so she doesn't yell at you," Ghost said and he glared at it until it disappeared. But yeah. That sounded like Wolf.
--
He could feel the depth of the Pyramid even before his ship was in Jupiter's gravity well. He'd stayed away from the planets that had had Pyramids on them on purpose. But as they flew the orbits of Jupiter's moons there was no getting away from them. It wasn't just Europa either. He could feel it from Io, from Ganymede. They were on every moon the people of the Golden Age had colonized. It made a restless feeling inside him more restless, reacting to the closeness of the Dark Fleet. It made him start to second guess himself but he was already out here.
It was easy to find Glitterbomb once he got his ship to Europa. They were the only ships in orbit around Europa, noses pointed down at the moon like any moment they'd dive bomb the world. None of them hailed him. Usually Guardians did, if only to just say hello, welcome to the worst place in the system. Their comms were quiet too. No chatter between each ship.
That was worrying.
He joined the formation at the edges, back of his ship towards the frozen moon world, but not before he saw what all the ships were pointed at. At a distance it was small but distinct. A Pyramid. And beyond that, the remains of a Golden Age city and a huge dome or circular construction over part of it. So they had come out here.
Shin hailed Glitterbomb on local comms, "You guys still alive out here."
"Who is this?" Shin let out a soft breath he hadn't realized he held. He recognized the voice at least. It was Rat, Glitterbomb's Defender. "Europa is off limits to all Guardians by order of Commander Zavala. Take your ship and head back to the inner system."
"You're here," he said.
"Who is this?" Rat asked again, pointedly. She sounded more pissed off than usual which was out of character. Shin didn't know a lot about Rat but he knew she was usually a of higher spirits, liking to laugh or joke.
"Is there anyone else on the flotilla other than you, Rat?" Shin just asked.
"Maybe if you tell me who you are I'll tell you," Rat said getting more angry with him. Something was seriously wrong because he's never heard such a tone out of her and Shin wasn't immune to watching Glitterbomb VODs when they were released.
"Rat, that's enough," he didn't want to admit how relieved he was to hear Wolf's voice. "It's just Shin."
"Uhg. What's he doing here?"
"I don't know."
"Next time someone asks you to name yourself on a hostile world; do it," Rat sniped at Shin and Shin saw that connection severed. But not by Rat.
"Sorry about that," Wolf said quietly, tiredly. "She's been having a rough time." She took a deep breath like she had trouble doing it. "What are you doing out here, Shin?"
"Following a lead," he said.
"Heh. Okay. There's nothing out here but us. So unless you're here to kill us I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place." His heart rate sped up a little at the mention.
"I hadn't planned on it, no," he said slowly. What the fuck did that mean? It wasn't like his reputation was something he hid.
His legend was well established. A killer of dark Guardians. Someone who culled the flock when someone wandered too far from the Light. He left normal Guardians alone entirely but his mental list of problematic Guardians he kept an eye on or would get to eventually was not short. Wolf and her friends were also nowhere on it. Not even when they waded into the Deepest, Darkest, shit he never second guessed their connection to the Light.
Should he start?
He cleared his throat. "Unless there's something you wanna tell me?"
"Nope. Now you can leave. Glitterbomb has it under control."
"Why don't I believe you," he said slowly. "There's a Pyramid under you."
"Yeah."
"Want to elaborate?"
"Not really."
"You actually okay?"
"We're all fine. Just a little tired. Just ready for it to be over."
"What?" Fuck this. She was being vague and it was making him worry. He muted his comm. "Get me on her ship," he said to his Ghost who was still hiding in his hood.
"Eh, it's fine. Really. We'll be back soon," she answered him.
"Her transmat isn't available," his Ghost said.
Shin rolled his eyes. "Like that's ever stopped you before," he said. The Ghost said nothing. His Ghost loved to complain and lament Shin's activities of hunting and killing Guardians but at the end of the day he did facilitate Shin's behavior. Hacking a transmat to put Shin directly where his target was was not even the worst thing he'd let Shin do. He heard its shell click softly and then he went from sitting in the cockpit to standing in the cabin of Wolf's ship.
She had her Ghost in front of her, talking through him. As soon as he appeared she had a sidearm out, pointed right at his head. "Wha- Shin. What the fuck!" Wolf cried.
It was miserable in the ship. His HUD told him the temperature was in the nineties and almost a hundred humidity. He was glad he was still in a full suit that regulated his personal climate. Wolf had a wall mounted chaise lounge/day bed situation on her ship, no bed, and she was sitting on it in her thermal layer as well as wrapped herself in four blankets. She wasn't even sweating. If anything she looked freezing.
Then he really got a look at her. "What did you do?" Shin asked her quietly. Her Light was dim, he could feel it. Not with his own Light but with a restless gnawing in him. She was always so brimming with Light it was like standing next to a spotlight. Now it was a banked fire.
"What did I do? What are you doing? Who said you could transmat onto my ship?" Wolf demanded, she still had her sidearm aimed at his head.
He stepped forward and grabbed the gun. She was slow. Normally she'd be quick enough to stop him. Her purple eyes were sunken and dark like purpled bruises, her blue skin faded and ashen. Her lips seemed extra blue somehow. "What did you do?" Shin asked again.
"Get off. My ship," she glared at him.
"The Pyramids weren't exactly empty huh? You listening to the Dark?" he asked her, accused her really. That was bad. So bad. Of anyone Shin had ever known Wolf could not listen to the Dark.
She stood up and poked him hard in the chest. "You don't get to come onto my ship and lecture me, Shin Malphur," she hissed. Something dark and crystalline appeared in her eyes for a moment. "I am doing the right thing and that is all you need to know. If you came all the way out here to lecture me you can save it," she sat back down heavily, like her limbs were too heavy. "I'm miserable enough as it is, you don't need to make it worse," and she pulled one of the blankets around her.
"You don't look okay," Shin said, as close as he could get to admitting he was worried about her.
"It's all relative," she said. "You going to get off my ship or what?"
Somehow in this blazing heat and a blanket she was still cold. She wasn't shivering but he could see her fingers trembling, and she was so pale. Somehow in all this heat she couldn't get warm. Meaning the cold wasn't coming from outside, something inside her was freezing.
Shin hid a nervous swallow as he took a glove off. "You look real cold," he said.
"It'll pass-" she started when he reached over and put his hand gently on her cheek. Her skin was freezing, like touching ice. He was still flush with Solar Light from being on Earth. But there was something else beyond the heat. The heat masked the way the vacuous yearning in him started to consume the foreign power under her skin. The effect was that it seemed like his Solar Light was warming her through, and that wasn't untrue but it wasn't the whole truth. A horrible lie he swallowed down.
He was surprised when she leaned into his palm. Despite how pale she was her skin was still so soft and Shin immediately discarded the thought. Not the time.
"You sure it's nothing?" Shin asked her.
She looked up at him. "We have it under control," she said and reluctantly pulled away.
"You're sitting on a ship with the heat on full blast, shivering because you can't get warm. I think control is the last thing you have in the situation," Shin said sternly.
"It'll pass," she said. "Just part of the process."
"What process?"
Before she could answer him her Ghost expanded and a voice came out. He didn't recognize it. "Wolf? Wolf are you there?"
"I'm here," she said.
"You're needed down here. We found something."
"I'm coming," she got up.
"I'm sending coordinates to your Ghost."
"Thanks," and her Ghost transmatted her armor onto her. It was armor he'd never seen on her before. Not her usual set. It looked like old polar exploration gear. Gear for cold weather. He supposed Europa was an ice world. But how'd it do keeping up with cold on the inside? Her helmet appeared on her head, ending her and Shin's conversation officially. "Go home, Shin," she told him again. "Glitterbomb's got it under control."
"Why don't I believe you at all?"
"Doesn't matter if you do. It's the score. Don't let me find you back here," and then she disappeared in a lattice of transmat, leaving Shin and his Ghost alone.
"Shall I return us to our ship?" the Ghost asked.
"Absolutely not," Shin said. He went over to the lounge and picked up the blankets. They were the same type they gave to refugees to keep them warm when traveling during the winter and having to pass through the mountains to get to the City. They were for the worst cold weather. He folded them up and put them on a pile at the end of the lounge. "See if you can't turn the heat down in here. It ain't doing her any good anyway." His Ghost did nothing. "You hear me?"
"I did. I was just contemplating if I liked her or you more on what I should do," he said. Annoying ass Ghost.
"She's just burning through fuel probably faster than she'll be able to replace. What's her fuel at?" He went and checked. The gauge was at the middle. Not bad but for a ship like this, as good as one Wolf could afford anything less than maxed out was too low. She always kept it topped off if she could. Also the fuel should last weeks even with jumps. She'd burned through half of it in half the time, the heat pump keeping the icy chill of space at bay working overtime.
"What Wolf does is hardly our concern," his Ghost said.
"You're useless," and he turned the heat down manually. "Unless you want her to be stranded out here when this is over and she's got no fuel."
"She has her fireteam. They take care of each other. I know its a difficult concept for you to understand, but most Guardians rely on others."
Shin just picked his Ghost out of the air and shoved him into a hard pouch on his belt. He had some of that stuff Spider used to trap Ghosts sewn into the lining to keep him from escaping and also shut him up. He'd be fine in there and keep him out of Shin's way when he was doing something his Ghost didn't approve of; which was a lot of things.
All that was left to do was to wait. He didn't mind. He took his helmet off and sat on Wolf's lounge, pulling out his pockit, a glass and metal rectangular communicator. While Guardians did have their Ghosts for audio or projections they weren't great at accessing the VanNet. There were no VanNet pylons this far out but Shin had things loaded up on his pockit to occupy him. Mainly while outside of VanNet reach he used it to read. Foolishly he was reading something Savant had sent him about their Gambit team. Not that he'd ever admit it. Savant's head would explode in confetti if he knew Shin read his recommendations and Shin would never give him the satisfaction.
The ship had returned to a comfortable temperature before Wolf returned. Shin had read quite a bit but quickly tabbed away when Wolf transmatted back in with a shimmer of lattice. He'd rather die than let Wolf see what he was reading.
She was talking to her Ghost and didn't notice him at first. "We have to figure out how to-" pause to yank her helmet off, "get her alone. Otherwise it's just-- I told you to get off my ship," she had her sidearm pulled on him again.
"When do I ever listen to orders?" he asked her, hands out.
She made a wordless noise of annoyance. She went to the cockpit. "Did you turn the heat down?" she called back to him.
"It wasn't helping," Shin said.
"It was," he heard the engine turn over to run the heat up again.
He got up and went to the cockpit, turning it down. "It wasn't. I should know. I touched your skin. You were ice cold. It wasn't helping. Stop wasting your fuel on heat that's doing nothing." She scowled at him. "Trust me, it won't help."
"And how would you know?" Wolf demanded.
"It's literally my job to hunt down Guardians who turn away from the Light. You don't think I've seen these symptoms before?" Not these exact symptoms but there was always something.
"I haven't turned away from the Light," she said.
"Good, because I don't want to shoot you."
They stared at each other in silence for a long moment. "I'd kill you first," she said in deadly seriousness. "I got too much shit to do to let you real death me." She left the cockpit. "It's a tool, like anything else," her Ghost transmatted all the rest of her armor off her, leaving her in just the extra thick thermal layer.
"It's dangerous," he said, following her back into the cabin.
"Save me the lecture," she picked up one of the blankets. "Zavala is better at giving them and he's already chewed us out about it. That's why Europa is off limits." She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders like a cloak and sat on the lounge. "Now you going to get off my ship or what?"
"And leave you here like this? I'm not that much of an asshole," Shin finally let his Ghost out of the hard pouch. He glared at Shin, shell scrunching.
"Could have fooled me," she said and despite her bravado she was shivering now. Maybe the heat from the ship had kept her skin warm enough to stop her from shivering but at a normal temperature it wasn't nearly enough. He frowned at her.
"I'm worried about you," he said. Then, like ripping out his own tongue, he said, "You're my friend. I ain't got many of those."
"What's gotten into you?" she asked him, confused. Shin admitting he had connections with people was not something he did, or admitted lightly.
He swallowed a whole lot of bullshit and feelings. "What? Surprised? I figured you'd realize it by now."
"It's just a surprise," she said.
"I'm full of those. You sure you want me to leave?" and Shin just casually held a naked hand out. A quiet promise that whatever was in Wolf wouldn't keep hurting her if she took it.
She stared at his hand and hesitated before she reached out and grabbed it. It was like holding hands with an ice sculpture. Her skin was almost hard she was so cold. "Okay, you can stay a little while," she finally allowed.
"Okay," he said and pulled his hand away, he felt her try to hold on but her grip wasn't strong enough. How did they expect to fight whatever they were fighting out here if whatever they'd done was making them so weak? "Ghost, a lil help here?"
"Hmm," his Ghost wasn't impressed.
"At least help Wolf, if not me," Shin said. That got him though and his Ghost transmated all his gear off back onto his own ship so he was down to his own thermal underlayer. "Get up," he motioned and she stood up from the lounge, still holding onto the blanket, looking confused about what the fuck he was doing. He sat and got comfortable.
"You've got to be kidding?" Wolf stared at him.
"Nope," he said casually.
She looked real torn. Like she knew Shin would never let her live this down and if she wanted to deal with that, and wanting to be warm. Wanting to be warm won out. "Fine. Bastard," she muttered and sat down in his lap, hating every moment of having to do that.
"I won't even tell Glitterbomb," he teased her and put his arms around her. Even through the thermal clothes he could feel the cold radiating from her core.
"As if they'd even believe a word out of your mouth," she said as Shin turned up Light and also very carefully let that yearning power inside him eat away at the frozen power chilling Wolf to her core.
They sat in a comfortable quiet after that. He could feel the chill leaving her bones from being so close to the Light. Whatever power she'd taken on still didn't have a full root in her. "Feeling better?" Shin asked after a few minutes. Wolf didn't answer. He leaned around her shoulder and was surprised she'd fallen asleep. If you were too cold to sleep along with being a Hunter Shin guessed other than a few naps Wolf hadn't slept the entire time she was out here. At least if the shadows under her eyes was anything to go by. "Yeah, guess so." He pulled her closer so she could lean against his chest.
His Ghost stared at him, floating nearby. "What?" Shin asked him.
His Ghost looked over at Wolf's Ghost floating nearby but said nothing. He didn't talk around others. But when he looked back at Shin there was this judgmental cast to his gaze like he knew what Shin was doing. He always knew when Shin wasn't always using the Light. He looked away from his Ghost and eventually pulled his pockit from his underlayer to keep reading what he'd been earlier. His Ghost could fuck off. He was helping. That should have thrilled the damn thing.