Delta B1 Ch15: The Speaker

Delta became suddenly nervous as he approached the Speaker’s observatory. He had never once thought to visit the wise leader when he was resurrected. Most guardians did, but he had other things on his mind. The exo found it all a bit ironic. He had become the very thing he was built to destroy. All this time he had been connected to the fate of the Speaker, and arguably the Last City itself, and he had no idea. Delta stopped in the massive doorway. Before him, the Vitalis spun through itself in an endless sequence of loops. He would have stopped to admire it, were his mind not so consumed with his past. Fragments of distant memories plagued him when he wasn’t careful, faces he didn’t recognize frequented his thoughts, but from all the mental chaos, a single voice rose above it all. The Speaker’s voice. Delta wasn’t sure how he knew it was the Speaker, but in his mind there was no doubt. There was so much for him to think about. He finally knew what happened to him. Where he came from. Why he was built. The Defense was still fresh in his mind. He craved justice for their transgressions. Vengeance… for Alex. The exo shook his head. He had to focus on one thing at a time. He could not be distracted while he confronted the Speaker. There was no telling what he would do or say, or if he would even recognize him. Their last meeting was centuries ago, after all. Determined to keep his head cleared, Delta adjusted the belt that constrained his Warlock robes and focused on the flight of stairs to his left. He steadily made his way up, wondering what he should say. He found nothing, so he decided to just let the Speaker begin the conversation. He reached the peak of the stairs in no time, and faced a small balcony overlooking the rotating Vitalis. Upon the balcony rested a small desk that was cluttered with various materials and books. The Speaker himself was deeply consumed in an old text, his hands resting upon the desk’s edges as he continued to read, oblivious to Delta’s presence. It was the Speaker’s ghost that noticed him first. Its singular eye seemed to widen at the guardian’s intrusion. It quickly flew over to the Speaker, and gave him a slight nudge on his forearm. The white-robed guardian calmly closed the cover of the old book, and turned to find out why his ghost disturbed him. “Ah. Delta. I wondered when you would finally walk through my door.” Delta’s faceplates contorted in surprise. “You’ve been expecting me?” The Speaker folded his hands behind his back. “Oh yes. I had hoped we would meet again some day. Imagine my surprise when I discovered you had been chosen by a ghost, resurrected from a scientist’s prison. I am curious, how much of your previous life do you remember?” Delta recalled the flashes of images that haunted his dreams, and the story told to him by Echo. “I do not remember much, but I was told what had happened. What I tried to do.” The Speaker held up his hand, suggesting an incorrection. “You tried nothing, my friend. I am not shocked to find your mind was wiped, but I feel for your confusion. It is no accident you are a Warlock, Delta. Your countless questions in need of answers drive your quest for information, and that quest has finally led you here.” Delta nodded. “I will not… no, I cannot rest until I have achieved clarity. I must know what happened that night, centuries ago.” The Speaker dipped his head and looked towards the Vitalis. For a short moment he watched the contraption move in its eternal pattern of rotations. Then he sighed, and turned back to Delta. “There is no point hiding anything from you now. I’ve kept a close eye on you, Delta. Not because of what happened all those years ago, but because from the very beginning you have shown incredible potential as a guardian. I will quench your thirst for knowledge, but I hope that one day you will be able to let go of the past.” Delta squinted with the suspicion that the Speaker did not approve of his goals, but he didn’t dwell on it. His desire to know the details of his defining moment was too great. “Please, tell me.” The Speaker nodded slowly, then looked to the great sphere that hung in the distant sky as he recalled his account of that fateful night. “Humanity’s effort to rebuild their legacy started right there, under the Traveler. I was gifted with visions, and… feelings. I made these things known to my colleagues, then to the public, and it wasn’t long before they started calling me the Speaker.” He continued on, reminiscing on those difficult times. “I used the gift I was given to motivate our scattered people, and unite them under our savior. It was here that the beginnings of the Last City as we know it took root. In those days, the danger was great. We were always watching for alien threats, but no one ever imagined that the real danger would come from fellow survivors.” The Speaker turned back to Delta, the exo’s relevance becoming clear. “I suppose it is no surprise that there were some people that blamed the Traveler for the Collapse. The Defense just happened to be more organized, and deadly, than most. You were the one they sent, along with three others.” Images flashed in Delta’s mind of the highly trained soldiers that followed him into the camp. There was a bystander between him and the objective. He heard the quick expulsion of air from a silenced rifle. The figure dropped to the ground, instantly killed from the headshot. Delta looked down, and realized the weapon of origin rested firmly in his hands. Overwhelming guilt consumed him. The exo shook his head furiously, hiding his face in his hands. The Speaker calmly walked over and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You remember.” “Only pieces…” the exo said, distressed. “I… I killed people. Innocent people.” The Speaker remained silent for a moment, then carefully led Delta to the steps where he gestured for the exo to take a seat. He obeyed, and the Speaker sat next to him, thinking hard about what to say next. At last, he found the words he was looking for. “Delta, we have all done things we are not proud of. We make mistakes. Costly ones, in fact. But, in the end, I believe it is the actions you take to rectify those mistakes that define you. I will never forget the moment you came crashing through my chamber doors. You did not want to be there, and you did not want to kill.” Delta flinched as more memories invaded his mind. He now stood before the Speaker, who was surprised, but unmoving. The chamber was hastily built, and the masked man wore only a simple cloak. He said something, but the words jumbled together, incoherent to Delta. “You… spoke. You talked me down. What did you say?” “I gave you the truth,” the Speaker said simply. “I’ve always been good with words, but in that moment, you did not need motivation, or a voice of reason. What you needed was a simple reminder. In my exact words, if I recall: You are not what others make of you. The choices you make are yours alone, and you are not anyone’s puppet. It is time to be something more. It is time to discover your true purpose.” [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/1371758/229612551/0/0]Part 2[/url] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/224417569?page=0&sort=0&showBanned=0&path=1]The Hub[/url]