A/N: Enjoy Chapter!
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Zavala moved through the archway, boots heavy with urgency
He entered the Vanguard Quarters. Inside, Ikorra stood at the central table, flanked by a floating array of holo projectors. Across from her, Cayde leaned casually against the console, spinning a golden Ace of Spades around his finger.
"Already heard?" Zavala asked, folding his arms.
"Hard not to," Cayde replied, tossing a round into the air and catching it with a smirk. "Fifty-plus Guardians, coordinated strikes, one fallen walker down, and a bunch of Devils crying home to mama."
"Shi*, it's practically plastered all over the open channel. Even the awoken heard of it." Cayde chuckled.
Ikorra didn't respond immediately. Her brows furrowed, and the holo-feed in front of her cycled through stills of the battle: Guardians rushing the Rocketyard, skiffs overhead, a walker mid-detonation.
"This wasn't sanctioned," Zavala said, tone clipped. "Someone directed them."
"Yeah," Cayde chimed in. "And whoever it was deserves a commendation. The new Lights were organized. Heck, tactical. Even had field revives and flanks. Big blue, do you even know how hard it is to get new hunters to not test out a golden gun on each other?"
"It's also dangerous," Zavala snapped. "They're still recruits."
Ikorra's gaze didn't leave the screen. Her mind moved faster than the projections. "They were too focused," she said softly. "Like they had a leader."
Cayde tilted his head. "You think one of ours did this?"
Ikorra exhaled, and her voice dropped. "No. Not one of ours. Well, you'll see what I mean."
She brought up a clip—grainy, but clear enough. A lone figure weaving through Fallen squads, dropping a rocket barrage, coordinating the battlefield without a word. His movements were precise, almost surgical.
Ikorra tapped the table. "I had the Hidden on alert in the Cosmodrome to help out the New Lights. One of them managed to capture this."
Cayde narrowed his eyes as he leaned in to the projection, "I'll be damned, its Void again."
"Are you sure?" Zavala asked, looking at the grainy image.
As if summoned by thought alone, Ikorra's Ghost blinked, projecting a message from Void.
"Fallen Networks Jammed. The new ones are quite vicious."
She showed it to Zavala. His shoulders relaxed—only slightly.
"I got this a while ago. Looks like they enjoyed themselves."
"At least it's him," Zavala muttered.
"Still doesn't mean we're in control," Ikorra replied.
"Control?" Cayde laughed. "These kids are learning from a guy who became a war hero, threatened the entire city, turned himself into a rogue and made a hobby out of pissing of the House of Devils. What could go wrong?"
"Right." Zavala planted a hand on his face.
The room fell into brief silence.
Then, with a shrug, Cayde flicked open his comms. "I'll ping Tevis. We did see the Nightstalkers show up, so he probably knows the details."
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[Lunar Base, SkyWatch]
"YOU DID WHAT!" Tevis barked, cursing up and down with Levi, Bandit and Cory standing before him.
"Like I said, I thought it was Vanguard sanctioned, I mean how else did he gather all those guardians?" Levi replied innocently.
"So you didn't send me a message before jumping in?" Tevis grabbed his forehead, "Do you even know what the Vanguard's probably thinking?"
"Oh the NIghtstalkers were there, Tevis must be in on it." He mimed Cayde, then Tevis paused and fell silent.
The next moment, his comms pinged, and as he saw the message, Tevis cursed again.
"Look at this shi*" Tevis projected the message in the room, "You see this? This is your fault. All of you are full of shi*'
Bandit cleared his throat, and leaned closer to the table, "Captain." He spoke with a low voice, "I know it was unsanctioned, but we still secured a major network relay for the city. And we jammed Fallen nodes in the Cosmodrome. With no major casualties, we should be thanked not accosted."
Levi glanced at him, a hint of compassion bloomed in his eyes.
Then he continued, with a sombre tone "But the important part here Captain. Is that at the end of the day, I was just following Levi's lead." Bandit nodded and scuttled back into place.
"I too, was following his lead." Cory instantly chimed in.
"You sons of bitc-" Levi glared at them like a rabid dog.
"Is that so?" Tevis shot Levi a glare, "Guess you were missing your old buddy Void huh? What, so you went for a little reunion? Living out the old days? Is this what we pay you for?"
Levi stopped himself and turned towards Tevis, "But captain, I don't even get paid...."
Tevis clicked his tongue, "Just get the f*ck out", he shooed them away and tapped on his wrist, preparing to reply to Cayde.
Naturally, the trio didn't waste a single second and vanished.
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[Cosmodrome]
The line clicked open with a soft digital chirp.
"Long time no see captain" Void replied, his voice calm as always. "Trying to untangle Devil chatter from the comms. Keep it short."
Tevis sighed. "You hijacked the whole comms grid?"
"Yeah. Was just me. Walked in, blew up the guards, spliced the relay." Void answered, patrolling the across Skywatch.
"You and thirty-seven other guardians?"
Void chuckled. "They followed me. Wasn't my idea. I don't even think they knew what I was doing until halfway through the fight."
Tevis pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath. "You realize how risky that was, right? They're still green. Most of them have no real combat rotations. Some haven't even seen done a strike yet."
"Green?" Void laughed. "You're not watching the same feed I am, old man. These new ones… they don't fight like recruits. They learn fast, and they're brutal."
Tevis rolled his eyes. "Oh good. So they're lucky and overconfident. That's worked out great in history."
Void's voice shifted into a teasing grin. "You're just grumpy because you're centuries old and still babysitting rooftops."
"I'm grumpy because someone started a full-scale counter attack without even clearing it with the Vanguard," Tevis snapped. "You can't keep lighting fires and hoping the Tower doesn't come knocking."
"They already did," Void replied. "Ikorra knows. She didn't stop me."
"Right. I don't think sending a message after the attack counts as her clearing it." Tevis sighed again.
There was a long pause. The wind whistled through Tevis's comms.
Finally, he chuckled. "You always did like bending the line without breaking it."
"I prefer redrawing the line."
"Yeah, well…" Tevis continued, "Just don't get these kids killed. Some of them are still figuring out how to fire a gun."
Void's tone softened. "I'll keep 'em in check. You have my word."
"Good." Tevis nodded. "Because if you don't, I'm telling Cayde it was your idea. And I'm gonna redirect any message I get to your comms frequency."
Void laughed. "Anything but that. I don't think I can handle your chats with him."
With a final chuckle, Tevis ended the call, and the channel went dead.
-
[Devil's Lair, Cosmodrome]
Devil's Lair was a cold place, dimly lit by the sickly blue glow of ether-processing tubes lining the walls. The place reeked of rot and ozone, and the rhythmic thrum of repurposed Golden Age machinery echoed off jagged steel.
At the center of the room, mounted high upon a pillar of tangled wires and fused servos, stood Aksis—The new archon of the House of Devils. His mechanical limbs twitched with quiet menace beneath his cloak of crimson plating. His optics flickered, watching the data streams pulse across the consoles embedded into the walls.
A Captain knelt before him, armor scorched and battered, servos whining with each movement. One of his arms was freshly replaced—crude, metallic, and barely functioning.
"Rocketyard... we failed," the Captain rasped in broken Eliksni, switching briefly to mangled Human speech. "Interference… heavy Guardian resistance. Skiffs downed. Walker lost."
Aksis did not move, his claws tightened on the rail beside him. "And?"
The Captain hesitated. "The Guardians overwhelmed our defenses. They fought like they'd seen the plan unfold before it began. Coordinated. Focused. Like a pack."
Aksis's voice crackled like an overloaded circuit. "The Vanguard does not move so quickly. Not without reason."
"They didn't," the Captain replied. "It wasn't Vanguard orders. We intercepted no transmissions from the Tower. But we believe—no, we're certain—it was him."
Aksis's gaze narrowed. "Say it."
"…The Prince-killer," the Captain finally said, mandibles twitching. "The one who slew Fikrul. The Shadow… the one they call Void."
Aksis was silent for a moment. Then, he gave a low, electronic chitter—amused, not afraid.
"So… the shade returns," he muttered, his voice distorted and deep. "Even headless serpents still bite, it seems."
The name hung in the air like poison.
The Archon's frame jerked as he leaned forward. "That one is no ordinary Guardian. He was forged in the dark. We hunted him day and night, but we failed. Now he returns, playing games in our shadows."
He stood, cables pulling taut from the throne as he moved forward. His optics glowed a deeper red now, pulsing with Ether-rage.
The Captain nodded. "What should we do?"
"Nothing," Aksis answered flatly. "Let the wretch hunt and prowl."
Aksis growled. "We are not yet ready."
He stepped down from his perch, the floor rumbling under his augmented weight. The Captain stood still, watching with uneasy silence.
"We have located the Warmind's old vaults," Aksis said, his voice steady but laced with hunger. "Buried deep beneath the Cosmodrome. Abandoned systems. Defenses shattered. A god, slumbering beneath rust."
He turned, motioning to a large holographic projection of the Cosmodrome—multiple zones blinking red, others marked with scavenger sigils. One sector pulsed brighter than the rest: a vault buried beneath the ruins, locked by codes none had cracked since the Collapse.
Aksis turned to face him. "If we take the vaults, the Warmind's systems will answer to us. Its weapons. Its satellites. Its wrath."
"And Void?" the Captain asked.
"Let him scurry. Let him bark and draw their new-borns into his little crusade," Aksis said, flexing one cybernetic limb. "When the Warmind belongs to us, we will hunt him down, like the dog he is."
The Captain lowered his head. "Understood."
"Send out scavenger teams. Every hallway. Every bunker. Strip the bones of the Golden Age clean. And do it fast. Before the Warmind wakes up and remembers who it used to be."
The Captain nodded and turned to leave.
Above them, the Devil's lair roared to life. Engines ignited. Skiffs lifted from their moorings and scattered into the night sky, carrying scavengers toward the ruins of the Cosmodrome.
Void had made the first move.
Aksis was ready to answer.
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