Vanguard Chapter 10

A/n: Whoops

"So...what do you want with me?"

Athena grinned from her lounging position on the opposite couch. She looked like a queen sitting in the lap of luxury before her servants.

Thalia supposed that wasn't too far from the truth.

"Did you not hear the offer I gave you? Or were you too enthralled by the chance for family and safety that you ignored all else?"

Thalia pouted, disliking Athena's condescending tone.

"You made it complicated."

Athena chuckled, "Complicated? My dear, it's all quite simple."

As she spoke, she pulled an apple from the fruit bowl on the coffee table between them.

"I have need of able bodied, potent, and resourceful individuals." She began, pulling a golden knife from seemingly nowhere.

"Exceptional individuals who are willing to aid me in my goals." She continued.

As she spoke, Athena's iron eyes danced with mirth. Her knife peeling the apple away.

"And you, my dear, are in quite the precarious position. You need allies. People you can trust. The more powerful the better."

"A-and why should I trust you?" Thalia pointed out.

"Well, when a goddess of my renown gives her word, I keep it." . With a shrug, she slipped a sliver of apple between her ruby red lips. "We even swore on the river Styx. 'Tis an unbreakable bond, unless the two of us decided to dissolve it together."

"So...y-you'll protect me from the monsters, and in return I'll...be your spy?" Thalia guessed.

Athena let out a soft snort, "Hardly. I don't expect you to be a spy. Not exactly."

"But you said you wanted me to be a secret agent." Thalia pouted.

"Not secret." Athena stopped her with her hand outstretched, knife held in a lose grip pointed straight between the girl's eyes. "At least, not specifically."

And with those words, she pulled the hand back. Instead having the knife weave intricate patterns through the air to accentuate her words. "To be frank, Zeus likely fathered you and your brother in a fit of lust for your mother. If not that, then he had plans to use your power for some other ends."

Athena tilted her head to the side lazily, "On the other hand, I somewhat doubt that my dearest creator has the refined cunning needed for such a thing. He's usually far more…"

"Direct," She punctuated by stabbing apple with the knife.

"Which…" She twirled the offending fruit with the knife, spinning it between her fingers with the greatest of ease. "Isn't always a bad thing. But, unfortunately, he can create as many problems as he solves."

"You, in particular," Athena says, pointing the apple at Thalia.

"M-me?" the girl stutters, taken off guard.

"Oh yes," Athena smiled, "You see, new forces have come into play. Entities that force our hand. As such, we had to rescind the Pact that once restricted our power in the interest of preserving the Balance. One aspect essentially gave Zeus a blank check to sire all the children he wants in the hope they are able to protect the world."

"Hera, as you can imagine, was most displeased with this."

"As such, she lashed out at you and your brother. Sick twisted bastard half-breeds as far as her elitist mind is concerned. She does not care for practicality or the reality we are faced with, only the purity and elitism she holds herself and all others by."

"So naturally, she wants you dead."

Thalia gulped. Very real fear pooling into her gut at the goddess's words.

"Now," Athena grinned, "I happen to believe that you have a fair chance at surviving. If not you, at least some of the demigods she holds a grudge against would."

"Either way, her actions make both waste and enemies. Should you die, we lose someone with incredible power and potential. Someone who could be invaluable, someone who could become a legend."

Thalia blushed at the praise, "Y-you really think I could?"

"But of course," Athena smiled, gesturing towards herself with the apple still impaled on the end of the knife, "Look at me, am I not kin of your kin? What of Hercules? The blood of Zeus is an assurance of great things, my dear. Of this, I have no doubt."

"O-okay," Thalia dipped her head.

"But, before I came, what was your opinion of your father? Of the gods in general?"

"Uh...low?" Thalia said carefully, not wanting to antagonize her.

Athena still chuckled good-naturedly. "No need to curtail your words. We abandoned you, Hera tries to kill you, and I've little doubt that Zeus is hunting for his next piece of meat to impregnate."

Athena's eyes slipped open, her iron eyes sliding a smoldering gaze simmering with the heat of a huntress over to the young girl who sat before her.

"You felt hate, my dear. Plain and simple."

A shiver went down Thalia's spine at Athena's look. The fire in the gaze, the underlying power barely hidden behind the thinnest of veils. Like a hurricane hidden by the film of a soap bubble.

Thalia felt like prey, like an ant before the sun, like someone who couldn't even begin to comprehend the power of the being before them.

But most of all, Thalia felt like a mouse before a cat. A cat that had her cornered and captured. A cat that was merely playing with her food. The conclusion was already decided. There was no chance, not anymore. Athena had her exactly where she wanted her. All Thalia could do was go along with the ride.

"S-so…?"

Athena laughed, actually laughed. Her head tipped back and a booming, echoing, sound like a chorus of horns rang out. "Oh, you don't understand, do you? Oh, you are quite naive, my dear."

"You, or others like you, would have had this hate fester inside you. The longer we abandoned you, the longer it would have festered. The longer you survived, the stronger it would have grown. And with that strength, you would have sought to have your revenge, to disrupt the Balance."

"B-but you're gods, right?" Thalia questioned, "W-what could we do to you?"

"Oh, you'd be surprised." Athena frowned ever so slightly, "but, either way, you are correct. An individual demigod is no real threat to us."

"But...with enough of them? With the right support in the right places? If they leveraged their power correctly? Well...with that, they could do quite a lot of damage."

The two were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. They glanced at the clock, noticing that the day had nearly turned over.

"I should probably be in bed." Thalia yawned.

Athena just shrugged.

The sound of Philip's boot steps pulled them from the last moments of their conversation. Athena gave Thalia a sharp look, telling her it wasn't over.

But rather than dwell on it, they turned towards the entrance of the dining room, waiting on the host of the house.

"Philip!" Athena called out, slipping into the persona known as Carol.

Not a moment later, the man passed through the archway, clad in a dripping wet black coat as he stepped into the dining room opposite them.

"H-hey." Thalia greeted him.

"Greetings," He managed to respond with a cordial grunt.

He drops a couple large brown bags and plates with utensils onto the wooden table with a clatter before he began to unbutton his jacket.

"S-so what t-took you so long?" Thalia wondered, drumming her fingers against the chair.

"You did leave several hours ago to get dinner." Athena chimed in.

Philip nods in agreement with a hum. He slips out of his jacket, draping it against the back of one of the chairs, revealing his damp white shirt. He gets to work setting up the plates with dinner.

"What'd you get?" Thalai chirped curiously.

"Stromboli from an Italian restaurant I'm fond of." He answers, setting down the last steaming hot roll.

"Now," He begins, turning around, "I apologize for being late. I was busy cleaning u-"

He was cut off by the sound of Thalia shrieking.

Philip visibly recoiled at the reaction, rocking back on his heels slightly at the sheer intensity of the shrill sound.

Athena, however, was too busy staring at the man, jaw agape and eyes wide.

It was, at that moment, that he realized that the front of his shirt was stained a bright crimson, his own form drenched in blood.

"...Damn."

Philip scowled at the bloody mess his clothes had become. He assumed that he missed it due to all the rain making already quite wet. A few liters of blood hardly added to it.

"A-a-are y-y-you?-I-i-it's s-s-so m-m-much…" Thalia stammered, her mind going into shock from the ocean of red.

Philip, in the meantime, put the plates back on the table.

"What the hell happened, Philip?" Athena inquire, genuine concern playing plain across her face.

Philip sighed angrily, "Don't worry," He began, going up the steps on the left side of the living room towards his room upstairs. As he left the stage, he called down to give them one final cold comfort.

"It's not mine."

"And this is mine."

"...really?"

"Don't ruin my fun, Zavala."

Zavala just sighed, realizing it's pointless to argue or even point out issues in logic. Not so much because he wouldn't win, but more so because the fight was worth it. Not over something so trivial.

"Ikora," He began, "I will barely tolerate, let alone understand, this fixation you and Cayde have over spoils of war."

"But please explain to me how a heart falls under that category."

"Oh Zavala," She sighed in that matronizing tone, "You are missing a very key part of this heart."

She grinned savagely, peaking at him from the corner of her eye as she held the bloody organ in her outstretch grip.

"It's still beating."

Zavala looked at the bloody fist-sized object, pulsating in her hand, and back to the tan woman holding it.

Then he just sighed.

"Are you going to collect all of them?"

It was a pertinent question, given the fact that they were in a warehouse surrounded by the cooling corpses of dozens of werewolves.

Ikora considered the question for a moment.

"Yes," She nodded.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

Zavala just groaned as he massaged the growing headache in his skull. .

Just as promised, the two of them had tracked down any sign of paranormal beings tracking Thalia's location. However, they had not expected to find such obvious signs so quickly.

No less than 3 pairs of werewolves were near Zavala's house. Each of them acting in a casual manner that would allow them to blend in almost seamlessly.

This well sculpted camouflage was ruined, of course, by the fact they all appeared as large furry humans to the Guardians.

It wasn't quite as simple as that, however.

"Do you have idea why they appeared so...oddly?" Zavala inquired. "They all appeared to be human, and yet...not."

"Not really," Ikora hummed, tearing out another still-beating heart and throwing it in her personal transmat storage with a shimmer or digital light. "I have some theories however,."

"I presume it's because this 'Veil' they spoke of. Judging by how they talked about it, it's supposed to confound mundane senses and minds." She began, "Being Guardians, the Light shielded us from it. Furthermore, our more...metaphysical senses, such as being able to detect and read souls, were able to translate to beings such as them in a different way."

"The reason this matters is because I believe that this 'Veil' is not always a mere illusion. In the werewolves case, it appears they actually have a physical transformation from human to bipedal-wolf. As a result of our soul-sense or what have you, as well as our Light Shielding us, our minds sought to process all the information given to it by our senses in a way that made sense."

"Put simply, our senses detected an individual that was both a man, and a wolf. Our mind just translated that raw information into a format we could understand."

"Right," Zavala nodded, "That explains why many of them had a kind of ghostly wolf following them, or their werewolf form hovering over them like a shadow."

"But that doesn't explain the people with wolven fur or ears. Or why there were differences at all."

Ikora shrugged, "Best guess? Individual differences in how they perceived their wolven selves. Those with ghostly wolves had more of a dissociation between their human and wolf halves, while those of the more furry variety saw the two as one in the same."

"It'll be interesting to see why."

"I'm guessing this has something to do with the still-beating hearts?"

"Indeed," Ikora smiled, an old one that Zavala and long learned not to question. "These organs seem nearly indestructible, and are filled with some kind of magic. While we've effectively killed them, their hearts still beat."

"From a cursory overview," She continued, "It's not even really beating."

Zavala opened his mouth to protest the obvious flaw in her logic, but stopped himself.

"...Is it like with their wolven forms?"

"That's my guess," She grinned, looking over the pulsing heart with eager eyes. "Physically? It's still as a rock. But on a spiritual level? Life still trickles through it."

"Maybe they're like the Hive?" Zavala ventured, "They never die. Not truly. Kill them and they just get recycled to their own dimension, or back into their race."

"They did remind me of more intelligent Thralls." Ikora considered, "Still, I thank you for alerting me to this fascinating new research opportunity."

"I figured you'd be interested in it, and many hands make for light work." Zavala nodded, "Your aid has made the clearing of this...infestation...much easier."

"And the others?" Ikora inquired, transmatting the last heart away, "You mentioned the presence of some snake-women."

"From what we could see, they're more vermin than commanders." He answered, "The Wolves were the ones with any real strategic acumen. Without their lead, the others will just attack like rats."

"So, for now you just have to deal with the mindless idiots giving you a frontal attack." Ikora continued his chain of reasoning, "As opposed to the Wolves, who might have actually come up with a halfway decent plan. These beasts you just have to kill."

"Exactly." Zavala nodded.

"So we'll deal with the others tomorrow?"

"Agreed."

"Well, onto a different topic of research."

"Oh?" He arched a brow.

Ikora could actually see it because the two hadn't thought it necessary to wear their full sets of armor. It turned out, any armor at all was a stretch. They could have slaughtered them all naked and it wouldn't have made a difference.

The Wolves, much like the other beasts the two had encountered, hadn't seemed to have kept up with the times, beyond merely keeping up appearances. They didn't take guns seriously, and had no real weapons of their own beyond claws.

But man had conquered the world for a reason, and their mastery of tools and strategies easily triumphed over any perceived physical advantage a beast had over them.

"Thalia."

At the word, Zavala immediately frowned, "Ikora, I'm not letting you use a child as a test subject."

"She isn't a test subject, Zavala." Ikora scoffed, "I have no control group."

"She's a research subject."

"Ikora," Zavala warned.

"It'll be harmless, I won't touch a hair on her head." she paused for a moment, "Maybe five."

"Physically, I'm sure she'll be fine." He scowled, "mentally? We both know the psyche is a fragile thing."

"I could wipe her memory."

"And her soul?"

Now it was Ikora's turn to frown.

"We both know that scars on the mind can scar the soul. Even the deepest memory wipe can't change that." He argued.

She bit her lip, "Touche."

Finally, she conceded his point with a sigh, "Very well, Zavala. She can have this 'normal life', you desire. But if this comes back to bite us…"

"As much as I would like her to have this so called 'normal life', it won't happen." Zavala sighed, "She has power. And power attracts attention."

"But just because she will not have it easy does not mean we have a blank check to make it hard." He warned with a hard tone.

"And I'm sure Cayde would agree with you on that." She sighed.

"Where is he, anyways?" He inquired.

"Looking for Osiris."

For a moment, Zavala's mind stumbled.

"I...what?"

"His apprentice, the Croft girl? Something odd happened to her." Ikora began to explain, "Now, I'm looking into it, but there's not much I can do beyond scan her and process the results. Cayde wasn't exactly fond of the idea of a vivisection."

"I wonder why."

"Shush." She chided him, "In any case, he decided to search for Osiris since he's supposed to be the Lord of the Underworld and Croft might have become undead."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"It's a long story" She waved it off.

"Does this...Osiris have to do with the one we know?"

"I don't know." Ikora shrugged, "I don't even know if Osiris is real here."

"But, well, considering the other signs we saw, we figured some mythological figures perceived as gods might have existed in one form of truth or another. At the very least having some basis in truth."

"Great," Zavala scowled. "Temperamental, abusive, judgemental, and arrogant gods. Just what we need to unite the world."

Ikora opened her mouth, but stopped as a flash of inspiration burst across her eyes.

"Actually…"

"What are you thinking?"

"Not sure…" She trailed off. "Not yet, anyways."

"But I have an idea…"

A/n:

Not dead.

Sorry about that.

Destiny 2 was slowly killing all my interest in Destiny. Warmind especially. I'm not getting Forsaken anytime soon because even if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, I'm not paying another 70 or so dollar to get that and the fancy seasonal dlc coming out this year when I know that I can just get that all rolled into one package next year with Destiny's next super fancy Legendary Collection thing that has all the DLC everyone else paid upwards of $150 for just $60.

Especially given that the friend I'd be playing it the most with is currently on deployment in Afghanistan.

So I can wait.

However, I'm still a fan of the game, just not so much the people making it, which is why I'm updating Vanguard at all.

Which, fun fact, should have happened a while ago. I was going to try and write up a chapter to post today, but I remembered I had a part of a chapter already written. Went looking for it, turned out it was this thing. This is like 2-3K of words right here. That's not really where I originally wanted to end it, but...

Well, that's good enough for today.

Now, I have no idea when I'm going to update this story next.

None.

Current plan? Update when I get a flash of inspiration. Whenever that'll be. I mean, I have an idea for what I can and want to do for the next, like, 6 or so chapters. I just need the motivation to actually write.

A lot easier said than done.

If anything, the new Tomb Raider game'll probably give me the jumpstart to do some of that.

But, in other news, remember that Destiny x FoZ fic I promised way back when? I'm posting chap 1 of that right about now-ish. It's very very short for the same reasons this is short.

Check it out if you want.

I'll see you...at some point.

Probably.