Destiny
Chapter 1
Lissy sighed as she was transmatted from her ship into the hangar of the Tower. She immediately began making her way towards the hall where her mentors, the Vanguards, stayed for most of the day. She planned to report her findings on her patrols and then bug Cayde, the Hunter Vanguard and one of her closest friends, to go to the Ramen shop in the tower with her.
“Ah, Lissy, made it back alive I see.” Cayde said teasingly and she raised her brow as she entered. Her helmet was held under one arm and her hood was pushed off her head for once.
“You either didn’t have the confidence that I’d make it back or you didn’t want me to make it back. Which was it?” She asked with a smirk as she placed her helmet on the table and released her hair, the black dreads tumbling down her back.
“Well, if you really want to know…” He began jokingly and she shoved his arm, ignoring the relieved air about him.
It had been months since the raid that she took on with her fireteam and three others to kill Crota. One from her own fireteam, Ulysses, didn’t make it and the other fireteam lost one as well, hell, she herself barely made it out alive. When they returned, Cayde swore he’d never make her do anything like that again, obviously concerned for her state of mind after such an experience.
She didn’t have much time to mourn the loss of her close friend though. Only weeks later the tower was being contacted by the Reef. It was the Queen asking for their help in defeating Skolas. Despite Cayde’s protests, Zavala and Ikora sent her off, along with Kora, a beautiful human warlock, and their new fireteam member, Ronnie, a sarcastic female Titan with enough strength to make even the cockiest men run with their tails between their legs. Lissy had made a promise to the Queen to answer her call for help, whenever, wherever, in return for helping her fireteam find the Black Garden.
She had, admittedly, felt better since the raid. The distraction of finding and capturing Skolas for the Queen proved to be a useful and distracting task. There were times where she would be reminded of her time spent in the utter darkness, her mind forcing her to relive the horror she and her friends went through. Or places in the tower that would remind her of quiet moments with Ulysses, making her smile and cry as she thought of his laughter and the smile that he would only show to her. But she had somehow managed to push through all of that and give a smile to her Hunter Mentor whenever he needed it.
“What have you got for us, Lissy?” Zavala asked when he was sure that the two were done teasing each other. Lissy gave the Titan Vanguard a quick smile before explaining what she had found in the Cosmodrome. They had caught Skolas only a week ago and the Vanguard had her checking area’s known for high concentrations of Fallen since then. They wanted to be certain there wasn’t going to be anymore “Skolas, Kell Of Kells” popping up anytime soon.
“It was a simple clean up job in the Cosmodrome mostly, there were some areas that were questionable, but I don’t really think anything will come of them.” She said as she pointed out the places on Cayde’s map with a nimble, tan finger as her full lips pursed in thought. “Nothing a regular scout can’t handle every once in a while.”
“Excellent, thank you.” Zavala said with a small pat on her back, effectively dismissing her. She gave the tall Awoken another smile and his bright blue eyed seemed to glow even brighter when he returned it.
“C’mon Cayde.” She said as she turned to leave and the Exo raised his hands.
“Whoa now, I can’t just leave the table I’m chained to.” He said before leaning both hands against said table. “I do have Vanguard duties, yah know?”
“Yeah, I know, duties you never do.” She said with a roll of her eyes. “Come get some ramen with me, old man.”
“You’re not helping your case.” He said with a huff of mock irritation before a smirk grew on his face. She gave him a wary look when she saw his face alight with mischief. “Besides, I got a scout to meet in a bit.”
“Shiro-4?” Ikora asked curiously and Cayde gave her a nod.
“Whatever, just make him come along with us to the Ramen shop, I don’t really care.” Lissy insisted impatiently, she was starving and she didn’t want to wait any longer than she had to. It didn’t help that she had been dealing with annoying, flighty, little Fallen all day
“That is a good idea.” Zavala jumped in and all three looked at him in surprise, if Lissy was being honest she didn’t even think the Commander had even been listening. “You can have Shiro start scouting in the Cosmodrome again and Lissy can give him the details.”
“Fine,” Cayde said but the look on his face suggested that he was rather pleased about the whole thing. “Well, go on, get cleaned up and meet me at the Ramen shop. Some people say first impressions are everything.”
“Alright, whatever, see you.” She said after letting out a long suffering sigh, refusing to take the bait. She rolled her eyes again at the Exo Hunter’s antics, seeing him give her a wink before swiveling around to return to her apartment.
…
Lissy nearly let out a moan of delight at the delicious smell as she entered the Ramen shop. Her long dreads were tied back in a ponytail again and she wore a standard Vanguard tank along with a pair of jeans and sneakers. She bit her slightly chapped light pink lips in thought as she noticed the ink of the tattoos on her arms was starting to look dull. She shook the thought away and narrowed her hazel eyes as she searched for Cayde.
“There you are, Lissy, come on already, I’m starving.” He said and she let out a huff, crossing her arms as she headed over to their table. Her head tilted slightly in curiosity as she finally noticed the person sitting next to Cayde. She assumed that the person must have been the Vanguard’s scout, Shiro. His back was facing her so all she could see was the yellow cloak he wore and her eyebrows lifted in surprise as she realized that the cloak consisted of various House of Kings emblems stitched together.
“You know, if you would have just came with me to begin with we wouldn’t be having this problem.” She nearly snapped and her stomach almost seemed to rumble in response to her words.
“Oh hush, you’re just hungry, now sit your ass down.” Cayde said and she rolled her eyes before dropping down into the seat next to him with a tired sigh. He patted her shoulder, the metal plates of his jaw and cheeks somehow making a placating grin on his face. “I even ordered for you, to make up for making you wait.”
“And?” She asked testily, trying to hide the grin on her own face. She wasn’t mad at him, not really, but if anyone thought she wasn’t going milk this than they were crazy.
“Alright, alright, you got me, I’ll pay for it too.” He said with a nonchalant wink and she finally let the grin grow on her face.
“Thank you, Cayde, you’re best Vanguard ever.” She said sweetly and he sighed though she knew he loved it even if he would never admit to it.
“Yeah, yeah, take your damn puppy eyes somewhere else.” He grumbled and she let out a quiet chuckle as she knocked shoulders with him.
“Cayde paying for someone else? You must have him wrapped around your finger.” The Exo across from them finally spoke up with his own chuckle and Lissy gave him a cheeky wink.
“What can I say? She’s my favorite hunter.” Cayde said, leaning back in his chair with a shrug, his arm wrapping around the back of her chair, and she turned to Exo Vanguard.
“And lemme guess, this Exo is your favorite hunter too?” She said, not missing the grin that seemed to form on Shiro’s face.
“Maybe once a long time ago, I’m not so sure anymore though.” The Exo scout said with a laugh.
“Of course not, you’ve accomplished too much, it makes me look bad.” Cayde said with a scoff and Lissy lightly smacked his arm.
“Don’t be rude, it’s not his fault you’re lazy.” She said and Cayde narrowed his eyes at her.
“It’s not my fault the other two chain me to the tower.” He fired back and she grinned, amused at the hole he was digging for himself.
“And it’s not their fault you became a Vanguard because of a bet.” She said and Cayde’s jaw dropped, feigning indignation.
“Hey, I’m a good Vanguard…most of the time.” He said and she could have sworn he was pouting.
“Alright, yes Cayde, you’re an excellent Vanguard.” She placated and he beamed, almost literally, when she gave his arm an affectionate squeeze.
“See? This is why she’s my favorite hunter.” Cayde said and the other Exo let out a laugh.
“Uh huh, sure.” He said to Cayde before finally turning to Lissy. “You must be Lissy, then? Cayde told me about Skolas, I’m impressed.” He said as he held out his hand and she shook it before pulling away again, her cheeks turning a light pink that was barely visible on her tan skin.
“It was nothing really, just paying back a favor for the Queen.” Lissy said with a shrug and Shiro tilted his head slightly when Cayde frowned.
“You shouldn’t have had to do that to begin with.” He said with a small huff and Lissy kicked his foot when she saw Shiro looking at the pair of them with curiosity.
“Didn’t you have something to tell Shiro? I mean I am giving up my sacred noodle time for this after all.” She said, a light scolding tone in her voice as she sent him a glare.
“It’s my precious noodle time too!” Cayde protested and Lissy crossed her arms.
“You weren’t even originally going to come with me.” She argued and Cayde rolled his eyes, or well, as best as he could.
“So not the point, Lissy.” He said with groan as he leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. Lissy sent Shiro a secretive grin before poking Cayde’s side.
“Well, go on, do your Vanguardy business already before the food comes, I prefer not to work while I eat ramen, you know.” She pushed and Cayde groaned again before righting himself in his chair.
“Fine, fine, fine.” He said before he began explaining the situation to Shiro. It didn’t take long for Lissy to zone out when Cayde and Shiro started to get lost in conversation.
She sighed as she glanced at the table in the far corner to her left. Before she started coming here with Cayde, more often than not, it was Ulysses that she would come here with. She remembered all the times they spent here after a long mission, giggling and drinking, trying to forget whatever horror they were forced to face that day. She quickly looked down at the table as she felt tears gather in her eyes and she shut them tightly when she began to hear whispering. Inevitably, whenever she thought of Ulysses, her time in Crota’s lair would also come back to her. It angered her to have her memories of him be so tainted. He was thoughtful and kind, he was also quite intelligent despite what others said about Titans.
Lissy bent over, placing her hands on her knees as she drew in ragged breaths. They had reached the final lantern, the bright light already starting to grow to a point where it was about to explode. Behind her she could hear the dozens of thrall still surrounding them and in front of her she could see the bright light of the hallway that meant freedom from the first torturous challenge of this hellhole Crota called home.
“They’re everywhere!” Cerek, the other fire team’s hunter, panted out as he paused next to Lissy. “Lissy, if we don’t think of something quick, we’ll be overrun before we reach the hallway.”
“An ogre has found us.” Ulysses said calmly, his jaw tight, as he raised his auto rifle to shoot down a few thrall that had lunged at them. Lissy stood as the other three quickly ran up behind Ulysses.
“Kora, give me something, anything.” Lissy said as she looked at the worn out Warlock. Kora winced as she took in a deep breath, taking a step to hide behind Ulysses when a thrall jumped at her.
“I…can’t.” Kora breathed out and frowned as she looked down at her dirty, torn up gloves. “I’m so…tired already, Lissy, I don’t know if I can hold them back much longer.”
“We have to find a way to distract them then.” Lissy said with a nod, squeezing her friend’s shoulder before giving her a weak smile. Kora nodded in gratitude and moved closer to the gigantic lantern despite its ever growing heat.
“What are we gonna do, Lissy?” Ulysses asked quietly as they both watched Aamani, Cerek, and Callie fight off the thrall for as long as they could.
“Go.” Callie said suddenly and everyone turned to her with wide eyes.
“What?” Cerek asked as Aamani grabbed her arm.
“Kora has spent much more energy than myself holding the thrall back and we can’t hold them back while running, at least not alone. The only option is that I stay and distract them for as long as I can.” She said with a sigh as she looked at everyone, ignoring when Cerek began to shake his head.
“Callie, that’s fucking crazy! We’re not leaving you here!” Aamani shouted and Callie looked to Lissy with desperation in her eyes.
“Please, if this means killing Crota than it’s worth it. If one of us doesn’t make this sacrifice than we all die.” She tried to reason and Lissy bit her lip as she looked away. How could she condemn someone to lie forever in this dark pit?
“I…” Lissy began, her voice trailing off, and Ulysses shook his head. He grabbed his fellow Titan by the arm and gave her a look.
“We don’t have time, Aamani, we have to make the decision now and Callie is volunteering.” He said with a grim expression and Aamani glared at him.
“It’s easy for you to say! It’s not your fucking fireteam sacrificing themselves.” She spat and Ulysses sighed as he dropped his hand.
“Aamani, please, it has to be done.” Callie said with a somber expression and Aamani shook her head.
“Aamani.” Cerek finally said despondently and despair grew on the Titan’s face.
“Lissy?” She finally asked weakly and Lissy clenched her fists as she tried to keep the tears from leaking out of her eyes.
“I’m sorry.” Was all she said and Aamani looked to the ground. When she looked back up, her expression was stone and she turned to give Callie a tight hug before turning away.
“Good luck, Mani.” Was all she was able to say but the Titan made no notion that she heard the other woman. Everyone else quickly said their goodbyes to Callie before they turned to begin their race to the hallway.
“Don’t look back.” Ulysses said, his tone grim, but a worried expression was on his face as he looked down at Lissy. She nodded once before taking off, her arc energy crackling around her to help her speed.
The first of her tears fell in that black hole as she ran from one of her own, from one of her friends. She didn’t dare look back, fear of not making it to the hallway driving her forward, but that didn’t stop the wince that shudder through her body at the sound of Callie’s first scream. A sob tore through her throat as her Warlock friend’s screams of pain echoed throughout the cavern behind them.
The silly Warlock was the first to fall…The voice whispered in the back of her mind and Lissy squeezed her eyes shut even tighter. She tried to push the voice out of her head as she had tried so hard many other times. What a waste of talent, she could have embraced the darkness, could have been so much more. Lissy glared at the table below her as a tear finally slid down her cheek. You think you are safe…The deathly whisper chuckled before falling silent for a moment. First your Warlock, then your precious Titan, who will be next? None of you are safe, he is coming, he will avenge him. He will avenge his son.
“Lissy?” Lissy jumped at the sudden hand on her shoulder and her head shot up. She looked at Cayde with wide eyes and saw the concern on his metal features. “Are you good?” He asked when she didn’t reply and she quickly shook her head.
“I, um, yeah, I’m fine.” She said as she suddenly stood up and quickly wiped the tear off her cheek.
“Lissy,” Cayde began with a sigh and she gave him a weak smile.
“You can have my ramen, can never let a noodle go to waste, yah know?” She joked with a wavering voice before glancing over at Shiro who also had a concerned expression on his face.
“Wait, Lissy.” Cayde began to stand and she shook her head again.
“I have to go.” Was all she managed to get out before bolting out of the shop, ignoring the eyes of, what felt like, all the customer’s in the shop.
…
Lissy sat in her bed as she stared blankly at the wall in front of her. Her apartment was dark by now and she refused when Attis, her little Ghost, offered to turn the lights on. I belong in the dark, I let Callie and Ulysses sacrifice themselves, I made it when they didn’t. She sniffled as Ulysses’s smile drifted through her mind, her cheeks stiff from the tears that had dried on them.
The whispers came to the forefront of her thoughts and she shut her eyes. Was she going insane? She had to have been, who hears dark whispers in their mind about their friend’s death? Crazy people do.
“Lissy, perhaps we should…” Attis began quietly, but trailed off when they heard the sound of a door shutting.
“Attis, it’s just us.” A gentle voice said and Lissy nearly winced at the glowing orb that was the Ghost that had just floated in. It was obvious that it was Nellie, Cayde’s Ghost, by the kind, intelligent female voice.
“I’ll…leave her to Cayde then.” Attis said after a moment and floated off with Nellie. Lissy gave no reaction that she heard Nellie and waited patiently as it sounded like bags were placed on her kitchen table.
She continued to stare at the wall when she saw Cayde’s form in her doorway. She wrapped her arms around her knees even tighter, not caring in the slightest that she was only in her tank top and a pair of underwear. She felt her bed sink down on the right side as he sat down on it and she rested her head on her knees, refusing to look at him.
He didn’t say anything, just merely wrapped his arm around her shoulders and sat in the dark with her. Contrary to belief, he could be patient when he wanted to be and since she had returned from killing Crota it was one of the many things she learned about the Exo that she had never knew.
He was the only one that she had actually ever told what happened down in that dark, hive infested hole, in detail at least. Of course, she had to tell Ikora and Zavala what had happened, but she had told them the bare minimum, only what they had needed to know. But Cayde was different story, at first she didn’t want to tell anyone about what she saw down there, what she had to experience. He was so patient, though, and waited until she trusted him more.
They had a bit of a rocky start when she had stepped out of her newly acquired ship, well, it was broken as hell, but it was new for her. At first, she thought that he was an ass, cracking jokes and jabbering about nothing as she limped around trying to figure out where the hell she was supposed to go. But soon enough she had learned that he was her Vanguard and started to talk to the amusing Exo more, if only to get the information she needed. It didn’t take long for one of his, quite frankly, cheesy jokes to break through her hard shell and he had her grinning all the way to the infirmary to fix her leg.
“Lissy.” He said quietly and her body tensed as she tried not to jump at the sudden noise. She said nothing at first, waiting for him to start talking again, but when he said nothing she let out a sigh.
“Will you tell Shiro I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to leave like that, it was pretty rude, wasn’t it?” She murmured, her head tilted in his direction so he could hear her better, but she kept her face hidden as best as she could. She didn’t want him to see her red eyes and puffy cheeks. Her bottom lip was swollen as well from her constantly biting it.
“Don’t worry about that, honestly, he was probably more concerned that he did something wrong than anything else. Too much of a gentleman if you ask me.” He tsked and Lissy let out a small chuckle as she pushed herself closer to his comforting warmth.
“You seemed rather pleased to introduce me to him, any reason why?” She asked as she finally looked over at him and he paused for a moment before shaking his head.
“Of course not, why would I wanna introduce you to that stick in the mud?” He asked with a scoff and she raised her eyebrow, clearly not believing a word he said. “Besides, I think he seemed to get the impression that we were, erm, together.”
“Well, you’re not exactly helping the idea with the predicament you put us in.” She said with a laugh as she looked down at their bodies huddled together.
It was true, there were a few times that he had joined her in her bed for more than just a shoulder to lean on, but it had never been anything more than that. She had to admit, after the first time, there were more than a few times that she had craved his touch, or well, more specifically the touch of an Exo. At first, she was worried about it, pushing away any of those kind of thoughts when he was around until she talked to her Warlock friend. Kora had an Exo lover of her own and she immediately urged Lissy to try it, telling her it would probably be one of the best experiences of her life. Well, she certainly wasn’t wrong.
She looked up at him again, a mischievous smile on her face from her thoughts, when she realized that he hadn’t spoken yet. She gave him a questioning glance when he continued to stare at her and nearly felt a shiver run down her spine when he pushed her hair behind her ear.
“What is it?” She asked quietly, nearly squinting from his bright optics in the darkness and it seemed that he was considering his response.
“I’m just glad to hear you laughing again, I mean who else going to laugh at my jokes if you don’t.” He teased and she rolled her eyes, smacking him lightly on the arm.
“You know, it’s okay to admit every once in a while that you’re worried about someone.” She chided and the Exo shrugged nonchalantly before he laid back on the bed.
“Would you want me to?” He asked and she sighed, knowing that he had a point. She didn’t like it when people worried about her, she didn’t deserve it and they didn’t need to anyhow.
“No, I suppose not.” She murmured as she laid down with him. She laid down on her stomach so that she could rest her head on his chest and look up at him.
“You know, you probably shouldn’t do that unless you’re looking for trouble.” Cayde said as he looked down at her, amusement in his tone, and the mischievous grin returned to her face.
“And what kind of trouble would I be looking for?” She asked as she leaned up, her forearms pushing against the hard planes of his chest. She placed a few kisses against the metal plates that made up his jaw, enjoying the artificial puff of breath he let out just for her. “Like this maybe?”
“Yeah, something like that.” He replied, his tone a bit deeper now as a small grin grew on her face, the things they could do in robotics these days was quite amazing really. She continued her exploration of his jaw and neck as her own reply until he grabbed her shoulders to grab her attention.
“Is something wrong?” She asked curiously as she pulled away and looked up at him.
“No,” He said immediately, almost nervously, and she merely stared at him, not quite sure she could ever remember a time when Cayde was nervous while she tried to seduce him. “Well, yes, not something wrong per say, but then again…” She cut him off by placing a finger over his mouth and giving him a look.
“What is it, Cayde?” She asked and he sighed.
“Look, I know we normally don’t talk about this stuff.” She immediately sat up with a wary expression and he sighed again.
“What stuff?” She asked cautiously as she pulled her hands away from him.
“I know I don’t normally push you about this either.” He said and she gave him a look, knowing where this was going.
“No.” Was all she said before she began to stand, wanting to avoid the conversation entirely.
“Wait, Lissy, please.” He said quickly and grabbed her arm. She paused at the worried, perhaps even upset, tone of his voice and looked back at him. “Please, I know I don’t say it…but I am worried about you, more so than usual.”
“What do you want to know?” She finally asked with sigh, her shoulders sagging slightly as she relented to her closest friend since Ulysses died. She silently reminded herself that he only wanted to help her and to trust him.
“I’m worried about these episodes of zoning out.” He said awkwardly, unsure of how to word what he had seen. Lissy bit her lip and slowly followed when she felt his hand tugging at her arm. She crawled back over to where he was so that she could lay down with him again. “That wasn’t the first time it’s happened and it seems like they’re getting worse and more frequent. I’m worried it’ll happen while you’re out in the field when you’re fighting something dangerous.”
“It won’t.” She replied immediately and he looked down at her. Even if he couldn’t exactly show skepticism on his face, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that’s what he meant when he looked down at her. “It’s only happened when I have nothing to do. When I have time to sit and get lost in my own thoughts.” She admitted quietly as she played with a loose thread on his shirt.
“And you zoned out while I was talking to Shiro?” He asked, assuming, but wanting to be sure. She felt his fingers run through her hair in a comforting gesture when she nodded and she bit her lip again.
“I saw the table I used to sit at with Ulysses and whenever I think of him I…” She trailed off as she felt the tears well up in her eyes again and her hand gripped his shirt, her only anchor to keep her dark thoughts away. She felt his arms wrap around her tightly as she began to cry, her face pushed into his chest.
“It’s alright, Lissy.” He murmured as his hand ran soothing circles up and down her back.
“It makes me so angry that I can’t think of him without remembering that…hellhole. He didn’t deserve that, we couldn’t even go back for him.” She gasped out as best as she could, her tears taking her breath away.
“I know, sweetheart, I know.” He said as he continued to try and soothe her. After a few minutes her tears finally began to slow and she started idly tracing patterns on his chest, her eyes feeling drowsy.
“I think I’m going crazy, Cayde.” She murmured sleepily as her hand stopped its movements. She felt him pause for a moment before continuing to rub her back.
“What do you mean?” He finally asked after a moment of silence.
“I was…remembering when we first went down there.” She began with a deep breath, images of Callie’s smile and her laughter drifting through her mind. She hadn’t told him about it yet, it was something she felt extremely guilty about. It was the first time she was forced to make a decision like that and she hoped she’d never have to do it again. “It was pitch black…no, darker than that.”
“You don’t have to tell me, Lissy.” He reassured her, but she slowly shook her head. She needed to tell someone this, her fear of the whispered words in her mind greater than her need to hide her shame.
“There was one large lantern where we landed after we jumped down the hole. It was…gigantic, really, and everything was silent. That was until we started moving. A few of us took out our Ghosts to see better and that was when we heard the clicking, the whining. There were thrall everywhere, hundreds of them and we were surrounded.” She felt his arms tighten around her protectively at the thought. No matter how good your Ghost was at resurrecting you, when there were that many thrall around there was no going back if you fell.
“We didn’t quite know what to do, we couldn’t go back the way we came and it was so dark we could only see a few feet ahead of ourselves. We had managed to stay quiet and not disturb them until we saw another large lantern just ahead of us. Suddenly, it was like they just knew we were there. One of them screeched and we knew that we had to run. We had made it to the lantern, but there were so many of them and they were all pushing and shoving at one another. The light didn’t scare them in the slightest and so we didn’t have much chance to rest at the lantern which was probably a good thing seeing as later on we discovered that they would eventually explode if on for too long. I don’t know how long we ran for, it felt like forever. Kora stayed in the back and I manned the front as we tried our best to keep them away from the rest of our team. Eventually, we made it to the last lantern and we could see a giant hallway just ahead, a light shining brightly in it. The only problem was that by then we had managed to wake up the entire horde of thrall, hell, even an ogre was thrown in there.” She said with a chuckle, but it was without humor, sad and self deprecating.
“Kora and Callie were the distraction we needed as we ran. They could keep the horde from pushing too close to us until we reached the hall. The only problem was that Kora has used too much energy while we were running from them, she couldn’t use her abilities again yet, not to that extent at least. We were at a loss at what to do until…” She paused as her eyes fell shut, her heart pulsed with pain and her stomach tightened with nausea as she remembered what they had done.
“Jesus.” Cayde breathed out when it clicked in his mind. Lissy had told all three of the Vanguards that Callie had died in that dark hall by the thrall, but she had never told them any more than that.
“Callie had volunteered to stay behind.” Lissy croaked out, her voice tight with tears. “At first we didn’t want to accept it, I knew from the moment she had said it that was our only option, that someone had to stay behind, but I didn’t want to admit…” She shook her head, the tears falling down her face as Cayde pulled her closer. “Aamani didn’t want to let her stay, I was almost afraid that she would get violent. In the end, she relented, we all did, knowing it was the only way. Callie said it was worth it if it meant killing Crota, I’m glad at least her death wasn’t in vain.”
“You don’t have to keep going.” Cayde said quietly and Lissy slowly shook her head again, she needed to tell him.
“When I’m…forced to remember, it’s better to let it play out and deal with the aftermath. It’s too much to try and push it away while it’s happening.” She hesitated for a moment, biting her lip as she hoped Cayde wouldn’t call her a loon when she was done talking. “After the memory finished, though, I…”
“What is it, Lissy?” He asked cautiously and her hands tightened on his shirt.
“Ever since that raid, I’ve been…hearing whispers.” She admitted reluctantly as she focused once more on the loose string of his shirt. “At first, I thought it was just my mind coping, but it never went away and today…it told me something strange, something terrifying if I’m being honest.” The last part came out as a whisper and she felt Cayde’s arms tighten around her once more.
“What did it tell you?” He finally asked after a silence long enough to make her nervous.
“It said that Callie and Ulysses were only the beginning, that the rest of us weren’t safe. That Aamani, Cerek, Kora, and myself were in danger. It said that he would come, he would come and avenge his son.” She said before biting her lip as Cayde didn’t say a word.
“His son?” Cayde finally asked and Lissy felt a small bit of relief when she heard that his tone was serious.
“Yes, I can only assume it meant Crota, so Crota’s father.” She said and shuddered at the thought of having to fight off something even worse than Crota.
“Oryx.” He whispered and she nodded slowly, her face resting against his chest as her eyes fell closed.
“What if I have to fight him? What if I have to protect everyone from him too?” She asked sleepily as her fatigue returned to her and she felt Cayde start running his fingers through her hair again.
“Don’t worry about that now, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” He said, his voice tight, and she knew what he was thinking.
“You’ll have to let me do it, fight him I mean, you’ll have to let me go.” She said, but he said nothing in return and soon she fell asleep.