Scene 12 (Warpriest pt. 2) Sanders cursed vehemently, lunging for Atlas's ghost. He grabbed it and quickly stowed it. "A-Atlas..." Jason muttered. "H-He'll be ok, right?" Sanders fired into a crowd of hive, dodging the Warpriest's cannon shots as he did. "Yeah, I grabbed his ghost. Just watch out for that cannon, ok?" A flicker of white shone briefly into his vision, and he looked upwards to see the runes on the right obelisk fading back to just engravings. "Anyone else see that?" He shouted over the comms, pulling out his sniper and sending a bullet through a knight's head. The others confirmed, one by one, and Sanders had an idea. "Jason, get behind those obelisks!" he commanded, and he saw Jason skate over and look up. "Guys! There's a pattern!" Jason said over the comms. Ayria groaned. "What? Ahhhh, Oryx and his freaking puzzles, the son of a bitch!" "Umm, I think I have this figured out, so let's give it a shot. Ok, Zeus, step on the right circle!" Jason yelled, and Zeus did. "Left!" "Middle!" Sanders was aware of a fuzzy feeling and a red glow, and he felt..... powerful. "Sanders, you have what is known as the Aura of the Initiate. If your teammates stand near you, they would appear to gain the same effect." His ghost observed. Sanders nodded curtly. "Everyone on me!" He shouted and soon the other four were also encased in the red glow. "KILL IT!" He screamed, knowing that they would be able to hurt the Warpriest, just [i]knowing,[/i] and a stream of gunfire followed. Jason popped a weapons of light bubble, and Sanders formed a hammer in his hand and threw it at the Warpriest. "Warpriest health at 60%. Aura at 70%. Take em' down, guardian!" Jon said to Sanders, who gritted his teeth. Battle cries filled the hallway, and the Warpriest roared in pain. "Health at 40%." "20%" "5%" Suddenly, a large ball of darkness twisted into form above the Warpriest, and Sanders reflexively covered his eyes. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" Ayria screamed, and Sanders turned to see the titan evaporating into white light. [i]The obelisk, she wasn't behind the obelisk.[/i] "Shi-it..." gasped Ayria, before she faded away into energy. Jason managed to grab her ghost. Sanders sniffled, as a single tear crawled toward the bottom of his helmet. Sadness, anger, and grief, as well as fear, churned inside him. [i]You led these people to die. They're all going to die. Because you are a [b]failure[/b] as a leader. You've already killed two.[/i] Sanders let his gun drop to his side. [i]"How are you not sad?" Sanders asked Zara, who was presently reviving him. It was at Twilight Gap, and his entire squadron had just been slaughtered, ghosts broken. "I've seen a lot of death in my life. I guess I'm used to it. And when emotions do get to me," She said, throwing a knife into a vandal. "I use them as fuel for my next actions." [/i] "Jason," Sanders began, pumping lead with renewed confidence into a knight. "Get behind those obelisks again. We are going to send this thing to [i]hell.[/i]" Jason dashed off to the obelisks. "You two," Sanders said, pointing toward Ralph and Zeus. "Electrocute every -blam!-ing that you see. I mean everything!" "What are you going to do, captain?" Jason asked quietly through the comms, and Sanders gave a wry smile. "Me? I'm going to dome his -blam!-ing skull in." And with that, he turned and shot a few unlucky acolytes, Hawkmoon beginning to glow pink with heat. Jason; "Ok, glyph sequence started. Middle." He called out, and Ralph touched the middle plate. "Left." He called out, and Sanders touched the left plate. "Right!" He yelled out, and Zeus touched the right plate and the warlock began to glow with a red aura. "Gather round Zeus!" Sanders shouted, lunging forward. He pivoted on the plate and summoned his hammers once more. "This time," he growled, staring the Warpriest in the eyes. "You will burn." [i]The Warpriest watched as the hammer arced, end over end, all flame and fury, toward itself. Why don't I move, it thought. Am I... am I paralyzed... by fear?[/i] There was only silence, no shouting, no nothing except for the maddened buzzing of bullets. And silence was all there was, even as the Warpriest collapsed into the cold arms of death. ____________________________ Atlas dropped to the ground. "Sorry guys." He muttered. "I-I nearly got you all killed." Sanders shook his head. "Don't apologize. You saved my ass back there." He said, holding out his hand. Atlas shook it with a bit of relief. ____________________________ Ayria also dropped to the ground, and collapsed to her knees immediately. She was shaking. "You ok?" Jason asked, holding out his hand to Ayria. "Y-yeah, j-j-j-just never died i-in a l-long time." She stammered, standing up unsteadily. She tilted her head slightly, gazing past them at something. "What's that?" She asked, pointing to the floating ball of black light. Chapter Index----------> https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/157266003