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Robin looked over the landscape, taking in the normal smell of petrichor and other earthly substances he could not name. It had been so long since he felt grounded and in the moment. Flashes of battles that were high stakes messed with him for a bit, but he managed to push them away before his Ghost, Neptune, would materialize next to him.
So much fighting in the reef and the Dreaming City had initially brought him to his senses. He mulled over everything he had seen. There was the keeping Crow away from the crystal. The crystal spoke and pulled him in. Then, Crow touched the chrysalis that Savathûn had been encased in. Then the nightmares with all that farming and killing them over and over again. Jumping around the ship while having golden age music play in his helmet was all he really remembered. Robin's memory was spotty. It always had been for the most part.
"Guardian?" Crow's familiar timid voice whispered his name. What was he doing away from the H.E.L.M.?
Robin turned around from where he was on The Farm and blinked a few times. "Crow? What are you doing all the way out here?"
"Looking for you," Crow responded with a chuckle and nervously smiled before continuing, "you normally return to the Helm every Tuesday, but you haven't visited all week. Is something troubling you?"
"A lot is, actually," Robin bluntly responded. "All that past life stuff that every other Guardian wants to find out. Like what my name was.. what I did. But no I have to also have remembering disorder!" Robin threw his hands up frustratingly. He looked at Crow and kept his hands in the air with a line mouth.
"Well," Crow lowered Robin's arms himself and shook his head. He paused and stood next to Robin. "I personally believe in staying more in the moment and trying to move on from your past life. It isn't as glamorous as one might hope." He put his hands on his hips.
Robin stayed silent. He struggled to formulate the words in his head. He just wanted to spill his obsession with everything around him at that moment. He wanted to tell Crow that he was awesome and amazing, but he also knew that he told the hunter that every week when stopping by. At the same time, he wanted to spill about the battles. The lore. Every single page in his journals. Everything from the first ever boss he fought up until now. All the secrets within Mara Sov's Throne World to the caves at the Cosmodrome that housed his first ever rocket launcher.
"You know, Rhulk would have begged for mercy if he wasn't so full of himself in that pyramid," Robin blurted out instead. "It's the same thing over and over. Overconfident and then slain. I've slain GODS, yet I can't even remember what I eat every day."
"That's because you don't eat," Crow responded. He knew this same dance and rant. He was bound to be used to it and know what to say. He stood there and put his hand on Robin's shoulder, carefully brushing his messy hair out of his face. He tried his best to fix the strawberry blond hair back into the usual style of being in that weird style with the two bumps on the back yet still hanging down to the shoulders.
"Ughhhh. I still can't get over what Winston did, too!" Robin vaguely gestured with frustration towards the trees.
Crow froze, trying to recall where he heard that name before. "..who is Winston?"
"Oh, I never told you? The guy that messed up at least 200 timelines all at once?" Robin spoke so casually about something he supposedly feels anger and resentment for. "A guy that would join my Sherpa runs for the Vault of Glass. Since, y'know, Atheon likes to return every other hour or something. Stupid Vex. But basically he got angry at me because I wouldn't let him teach when he had not fought that guy for like... Years!"
"Mmhm?" Crow finished fixing the warlock's hair. Upon releasing his hair, the guardian began to pace back and forth. "Sounds like a tough guy."
"It gets better!" Robin shouted to the wind, not noticing his volume. He felt the wind pick up, and he felt badass for a moment. He could revel in how cool that was later. He needed to focus. "So.. I was on a run with Crimson-8 and.. Yesenia, and Lokela. And uhh... Wei and Winston! Yesenia was our noob. Of course, there must have been a comical display of evilness because Winston was on that Stasis shit when we specifically wanted SOLAR, because Solar was AWESOME and did all that exploding stuff for a bit where it would go back and forth."
"I remember that. You showed me on a Nightfall," Crow nodded along.
"Yeah, so he wasn't listening. He was using Queenbreaker most of the time, so he was messing up and charging up all the time. Sleeper would have been nicer, but whatever. Then, at the end, Yesenia got her Mythoclast, and it was all well and good. I was happy for her. Still am, but I guess Winston had some beef with me. He walked up to me all like 'Hrrrgh I hate you! Always teaching people and being such a goody-two shoes!' and I just brushed him off. I guess that set him off because he..." Robin paused. He picked up a convenient rock on the ground and turned to Crow. "See this rock?"
"Yes. My vision works."
"Awesome sauce. So this rock is me, and I'm Winston. He picked me up," Robin turned back around and chucked the rock into the forest, "and threw me like that into the Glass Throne. Went right through that sucker. I heard Lokela pull out a Nova on Winston and try to kill him, but Winston left. Just like that!"
Crow walked up to stand next to Robin again. "Did you ever see him again?"
"Nope. I just know he kills people now. Went rogue. I hope his Ghost chooses not to revive him."
"Hm," Crow said contemplatively. "I find it really interesting that you bring up the Vault of Glass, actually," he mumbled. "You want to know about your past life a little, right?"
"Yeah. Not as much as I want to explore your body," Robin said once again without thinking.
"I'm well aware of how attractive you think I am," Crow said with a blush dusting his cheeks. "But.. back on topic. There is.. some stuff about you in my memories, actually. Not when you killed Uldren, but when he saw you die."
Robin's eyes went wide. "No way..." he whispered with the urge to ask him every single question in the world about this. "..what was my name?"
Crow looked away. "How about I tell you about him first? You can guess. I know how much you read, so I'm sure you know him by now."
"Oooo trivia."
Crow looked out at the stormy clouds headed towards The Farm. "He was a scholar. A writer. He was one of the few entrusted males other than Uldren under Queen Mara's upper entourage. Looking back, I'm pretty sure he was just heavily into everything about lore, and she wanted to keep him busy and out of her way, heh. He spent hours writing up books for her and figuring out the math behind a lot of things she explained away with magic. He even wrote a whole book about magic mechanics and how they interact with quantum physics." Crow nervously brushed his fingers through his hair. "Your stare is scaring me."
"Sorry," Robin sputtered out and looked at the ground. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. At least Crow didn't look in pain talking about the past lives.
"..thank you." Crow thought about it further. "And he was close friends with Uldren Sov. He would convince Uldren to let him take a ship and head to Mara or Venus or someplace else. He documented his adventures with a guardian named uhh... Favor-8..?" He looked at Robin to see if the poor guy had figured it out.
Robin, in all his Awoken wisdom, kept thinking of the wrong names. He had the name on the tip of his tongue, but the names were so complicated at times. Then he got it. "WRENQUIN?!" Robin was flabbergasted and his eyes were back to being wide open. "You're kidding."
"I'm not kidding," Crow chuckled. "But stay seated. Because the Vault of Glass comes up now."
"I'm not sitting."
"So.. Favor led Wrenquin to the Vault of Glass. He knew the ins and outs of the place. He scraped by undetected a lot of the times. They destroyed a lot of hydras in those accounts. But one thing.. stood out... And Uldren decided to see what the hell they were doing down there for so long. He followed the destruction of the Vex and made it to the Glass Throne... And he saw..." Crow's voice trailed. "There's a reason why Uldren was so adamant on killing... err.. him. Not Cayde.. but.. Uldren made it to the throne and was just in time to see..." he paused again. What would Robin think of this? Well, only one way to find out. "Crimson-8.. killed Wrenquin aka you."
Robin blinked a couple times before holding up his hand and allowing Neptune to materialize in his palm. "I need to go talk to him."
Glint appeared and looked at the familiar Wayfinder Shell and quietly spoke to Neptune.
"Guardian," Neptune spoke and floated out of his hand, "you're going to do something brash. I cannot in good conscience transmat you to your ship and allow you to go to the Tower."
"I'm just gonna talk to him," Robin insisted.
"You're going to make it to his room and break down sobbing, asking how he can have the audacity to continue a line of revenge when he's the one that started it and allowed it to continue," Neptune chirped in return and disappeared before reappearing on his guardian's shoulder. "Breathe. 3-4-3."
Crow felt awful. He felt the urge to apologize, but he knew Robin well enough to know that he would be told not to apologize since the warlock had asked with the knowledge of it potentially being an awful realization. He knew Crimson-8 was Robin's best friend, and there was a big reason why he changed his name to Crimson. Whether it was to match the blood on his hands while acknowledging his own past lives or to go undercover, he did not know.
If it was guilt, Crow understood yet again why someone would hide behind a new mask. "How about I talk to him?"
"Crow. He killed both of our past selves. And you want to just go and talk to him?" Robin incredulously questioned despite insisting that he would go and talk to the guy.
"We should stay out here and enjoy the rain," Crow fidgeted with his fingers. "It can be our first date. You know, to just be around each other."
"That sounds perfect," Robin smiled.
They would be fine.