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“What the hell is this thing?” Famous last words from a less then famous guardian. Well, Ran was pretty sure that Hunter had it in him to be famous someday .(And oh , how Hunter would hate it and Ran would get to tease him endlessly when he finally got around to doing his Legendary Deed.)
Just not like, right now.
When he was tapping at a glass weapon’s case and vanishing into an Ascendant portal, all before Ran could even take a step towards him.
This guy.
Seriously .
Ran loved Hunter, with all their mechanical fuel pump and coolant systems. But the guy was a walking, talking Taken magnet. Especially after his enforced stay in Mara’s corrupted throne world. If there was even a hint of Taken in a room, somehow, some way, it would find Hunter.
And they would all suffer for it.
Which was why Ran and he were here, on the Leviathan, in the frankly absurdly decked out Tribute Hall Calus had made for AJ. Ran figured it’d be the perfect destination for getting Hunter out and about the solar system. There wasn’t supposed to be an Ascendant rift here . The Leviathan tended to be void of anything Taken or Ascendant.
And yet.
Hunter was gone with only the distinct tang of ozone and Darkness in the air to say where he had gone. Ran sighed, shoulders slumping dramatically.
“Oh AJ is not going to like this.” They muttered, as Ziggy opened the team’s comm channel to send out the emergency signal.
Ran is absolutely correct.
AJ does not like it.
He thunders into the Tribute Hall like a one guardian army. (Which, to be fair, AJ kind of is .) His heavy purposeful footfalls echo off the gilded walls and ceiling of the hall. Ran is a little surprised the floor doesn’t shake with each stomp, such is the force that AJ emits as he storms through the gilded room and stops in front of Ran.
“What happened?” Ran can tell AJ’s mad because AJ tends to economize his words when upset. There’s a throaty, growly undercurrent to his voice too. Ran can sympathise, they are also annoyed and angry, they’ve just had more time while waiting to deal with those emotions.
“Looking at the statues,” Ran gestures to the holographic warbeasts. “Turned around for five seconds ,” They hold up a hand to emphasize the five with their fingers. “He fell into an Ascendant Portal.” The portal is still there, hovering over the glass weapon case, swirling black and static white. AJ tilted his head back, blank visage of his helmet studying the portal. Slowly he swung his gaze to Ran.
“He fell?” AJ asked, voice flat.“Did he fall up ?” AJ pointed at the portal, which hovered over the glass case.
“So he may have been...yanked.” Ran conceded. They’d been hoping to mitigate AJ’s worry. Trying to paint this incident as an honest mistake and not because the Ascendant Realm really had it out for Hunter. They’d also been hoping that if they lied enough to AJ about it, it’d become true. Ran didn’t want to face the truth, that Hunter’s stay in Mara’s throne world had changed something about him, had made him a better target for their enemies. It was looking like they didn’t have much choice in the matter though. Ran hadn’t been doing a very good job at convincing themselves or AJ.
AJ might be a titan but that didn’t mean he was stupid or unobservant.
AJ reached up into the portal. His hand merely passed through it, as though it was smoke. He waved his hand around, anger mounting as it became clear the portal wasn’t accepting anyone else. Ran wisely decided to hold their tongue about having tried that themselves already. AJ was certainly not in the mood. Whirling around, he stomped back into the opening chamber.
“Calus!” He roared, and kicked the golden statue of the emperor, right in the shin. Denting the statue perfectly in the shape of the foot of his boot. “You son of a bitch!”
“Guardian!” The statue's eyes glowed as Calus spoke through it. “What a delight seeing you again. In such fighting form as well.” Ran suppressed a shudder at the deeper octave Calus’ voice took in the second half. They joked that Calus was perhaps just a tad bit too interested in AJ, but honestly, that wasn’t far from the truth. They all knew the Cabal emperor was on a mission to get AJ to side with him. Become a Shadow of earth or something to that effect. It was a concern that Calus might try to use one of them to get to AJ, which was why they used the buddy system when visiting the Leviathan.
In all fairness, Ran and Hunter normally wouldn’t have even been on the Leviathan. Ran came with AJ from time to time, running the different trials that Calus set out for their fire-team as a way to test themselves. Grabbing anything shiny, of which there was a lot , to bring back. Hunter, on the other hand, hadn’t been out this far before. This was his first trip to the Cabal Emperor’s ship. Ran hadn’t expected anything out of the ordinary to happen. They weren’t even in any of the “active guardian” areas either! It was just the tribute hall. A practical safe space on the ship.
Normally Hunter and Ran would have been back on earth, doing their thing in the wilds. Except Hunter had wanted to try space travel again. Work on his deep seated fear of leaving Earth. So Ran had chosen the Tribute Hall as a nice, easy, stress and enemy free destination for them.
“Give my hunter back.” AJ snarled, pointing a finger threateningly at the statue.
“Ha ha !” The statue laughed, sounding absolutely delighted at the implied threat. “Your care for your tribe is admirable, I expected nothing less! Were it within my power, I would return him to you.” AJ pulled up short, his leg raised to deliver another gold denting kick to the statue.
“Were it within…? This wasn’t your fault?” He asked, incredulously.
“That is correct, my brilliant guardian!”
“Traveler dammit.” AJ swore under his breath. Ignoring the still glowing statue, he strode back into the Tribute chamber, stalking toward where Ran waited, watching him with their still new optics. AJ stopped with his hands on his hips, staring hard at the portal. Ran nervously drummed their fingers against their thigh. “ Why does this keep happening?”
Ran winced, it wasn’t AJ’s anger or obvious upset that bothered Ran. It wasn’t even AJ at all, except for the fact that AJ was voicing all the things out loud that Ran was keeping internal. Hunter was their partner. They looked after each other, had been doing it for literal decades at this point. It stung something fierce that they’d failed their partner twice in less then a year.
“Uh…” They began, wondering where to even start.
“No.” AJ cut them off with a head-shake. “That was rhetorical.” Which was almost even worse then AJ and them getting into it.
“We could call Asher.” Ran suggested, mind shifting from blame and guilt to problem solving. Beating themselves up over this could wait. First, focus on getting Hunter back. “He might have some ideas.” AJ rubbed a gloved hand over the vid of his helmet.
“Better then nothing.” He muttered, his ghost popping out to start up the calls. “Ikora could have some insight on this as well.”
It was maybe an hour of worrying and fretting and long distance comming between Ikora, Zavala, and Asher Mir before Hunter was returned. It was through no actual action on their part. Which did gall Ran, they’d hoped they could at least help get Hunter back, but they didn’t even get the chance.
The portal suddenly started swirling, sparks of Darkness and Light flickering at its edges. Little crackles of lightning playing at its edges and with a sudden flash, the portal spat Hunter out, vanishing with a sharp boom. Leaving Hunter in a tumbled, battered looking heap on the ground. Ran started forward, AJ on their heels, reaching out their hand to help Hunter up.
Hunter didn’t notice they were there, instead pushing himself to his feet, dusting himself off and making a low angry grumbling sound through his helmet mic the entire time. Which was a relief to Ran, it meant Hunter hadn’t needed to switch his affinity to Void. But it also meant that it wasn’t a good idea to touch Hunter or catch him unawares. He was bristled up like a cat and libel to take a swipe at whoever came too close, whether they were friends or not. Ran pulled back a few feet, and twitched their head to AJ, directing him to do the same.”
“Hunt.” Ran tried catching Hunter’s attention as though they were back in the city. “Buddy. That you in there?” Hunter’s helmet snapped to Ran and AJ. He straightened up. Ran knew it was Hunter, the question was more to startle Hunter’s thought process out of whatever rut he’d sunk into and bring his attention to the present.
“Yes.” Hunter answered sharply. He turned this way and that, restless on his feet, still on high alert.
Ran couldn’t help but notice that Hunter was holding a gun. A gun he hadn’t had when the portal had yanked him from the Tribute Hall and the Ran was sure he didn’t own. It was about the size and shape of a rifle, either auto or pulse. It was bright blue, with the skull and spine bones of a bird secured to it with lengths of leather wrapping.
“I need to talk to Ikora. It’s important .” Were the first words Hunter said once he’d brushed the speckles of Ascendant Realm off. AJ nodded, stepping back as Hunter summoned Gee over his palm and the long distance comms connected. “Ikora? This is Hunter.”
“Hunter?” Ran had to give it to Ikora, she didn’t sound confused even though she had to be. The last she’d heard Hunter was stuck in an ascendant realm. “How can I be of assistance, guardian?”
“I need to know how to punch Toland. Preferably in the face.” Hunter said as seriously as Ran had ever heard him. “You understand? In the goddamn face.” Also to Ikora’s credit she didn’t pause to think, she responded easily as though this wasn’t completely out of left field.
“He would need to have a corporal body for that.” Her tone was dry. Not the dry tone she used like she was considering how powerful a novabomb she should sling at your face, but the one that meant she was darkly amused by something. In this case, Hunter having it out for Toland.
“How do I get him a corporal body so I can break his face with my fist?” Hunter didn’t miss a beat either. “This is super important, Ikora.”
“When we figure that out, you’ll have to stand in line.” Hunter’s hand tightened around the grip of his new gun. “I believe Eris has first shot at him.”
“So long as I’m in the first five.” Hunter actually growled. Ran didn’t think it was possible for Hunter to sound so angry.
“I will reserve your spot personally .” Ikora promised right before she cut the transmission.
“There.” Gee spun his shell in Hunter’s hand. “Feel a little better?”
“Yes. Thanks.” Gee vanished in a small sparkle of multicolored sparks.
“You uh. You doing okay there, buddy?” Ran ventured hesitantly, AJ was observing Hunter with his arms crossed over his chest. Likely he didn’t quite know what to do with an actually angry Hunter. It wasn’t very often that Hunter got worked up enough to show positive emotions, let alone negative ones. Hunter’s head snapped toward Ran.
“Fucking fine.” He fairly spat.
“And that part about Toland?” AJ asked warily. He’d run into Toland a few times, they’d all met him at least once during their time spent in the Dreaming City. Hunter growled.
“He followed me around, talking at me.” Hunter complained. “The entire damn time. He thinks we’re, I dunno,” Hunter rolled his empty hand in the air. “ Friends or something.”
“Friends?” AJ cocked his head, less wary now that Hunter’s ire was confirmed to be entirely directed at someone else. “Why would he think that?” Hunter threw his hand up in the air.
“Fuck if I know!” Frustration gave his words a bite that normally wasn’t there. Ran moved closer, slowly, broadcasting every step they took. They reached out carefully and when Hunter didn’t react negatively, rested their hands on Hunter’s shoulders.
“Hey, it’s okay now,” Ran said gently. All the tension suddenly left Hunter, his shoulders slumping and his head dipping down. Ran didn’t realize until that moment how hair trigger Hunter had been holding himself. “C’mon.” Ran pulled Hunter into a hug.
“It sucked in there.” Hunter’s voice was muffled by his own helmet as he hugged Ran back just as fiercely. “Damn shriekers everywhere. Toland kept asking me about Mara’s throne world. And a fuck huge Taken kept trying to end me.”
“Hey, hey.” Ran chided. “It’s over now, you’re fine. Everything’s fine.” Hunter relaxed a little more at that. There were benefits to Hunter always believing them, this being one of them. Being able to calm Hunter down on the rare occasion he got himself worked up. Ran didn’t even feel like they were entirely lying about it either.
“I don’t want to be here any more.” Hunter grumbled in his helmet’s coms. Ran raised their head and peered at AJ over Hunter’s shoulder. AJ shifted under Ran’s attention.
“Let’s go home.” He agreed.
On their way out of the Hall, Ran nodded toward the blue gun Hunter was holding.
“Whatcha got there?” Hunter looked down at the gun, like he’d forgotten he even had it. Ran wasn’t sure how’d you forget you were holding what amounted to a gun decorated with bird bones on it. But Hunter tended to overlook a lot of things in life, so Ran didn’t judge.
Much.
“A gun.” Hunter said simply, with a hint of disgust.
“Wanna elaborate a bit?” Ran pushed. “We got all the time in the world right now.” Hunter rolled his shoulders like he was stretching, but Ran knew that was just a tic of Hunter’s. For when he was mulling something over in his head and balancing out a choice.
“Bad Juju.” He said finally.
“Oh hey.” Ran held their hands up. “Didn’ mean to pry.”
“No, that’s the name.” Hunter clarified. “Bad Juju. It’s a pulse rifle.” And then in true Hunter fashion he refused to say anything else about it.
Ran would say it was a bit of a surprise when Hunter wound up traveling back with them. Alone.
“Didn’t think AJ woulda let you outta his sight.” Ran remarked as they checked systems for flight. Not that Ran planned to let Hunter out of their sight for a bit. They’d been fully ready to shuttle both Hunter and AJ back, with AJ’s ship autopiloting behind them. Hunter shook his head, settling down in his seat.
“Think he’s worried about upsetting me more.” Which, fair . Hunter still had a rumbling growl to his speech. Ran couldn’t fault AJ for that. It took a lot to make Hunter angry enough to really show it. There wasn’t anything quite like seeing a truly angry Hunter. It just didn’t happen very often or for very long. And every time it did, it was like sticking the wrong end of a wire into a port.
Hunter busied himself with strapping in, his hands bunching into fists on his thighs and his back ramrod straight once he was done. He looked uncomfortable and unhappy. Par for the course though, he didn’t look any bit extra unhappy then normal.
There would never be enough words for how much Hunter despised space travel. Ran didn’t understand it, they loved space flight. But for how at home and familiar Ran felt in their ship, flying through the inky darkness, Hunter was miserable during flights.
Thankfully this wouldn’t be a long one, or at least not as long as it could have been. Also it was going back . Hunter was usually better about flights back to Earth then away from their home planet.
“I’m sorry.” Ran said after a few moments of quiet had descended on the ship.
“For what?” Hunter grunted, he sounded a little strained. His hand was gripping the arm rest tightly. The first fifteen minutes of space travel were always the worst for him. So Ran had elected to do this now, when it would serve the double purpose of distraction.
“Gettin’ you yanked into an ascendant realm.” They shook their head a little. Honestly, between the whole Gambit nonsense and the forges, Ran had hoped this little venture would be a nice distraction for both of them. “Honestly didn think anything would happen there.”
“It wasn’t your fault. Or like, anyone’s really.” Hunter said. Ran could tell he wasn’t lying or second speaking. They breathed a soft sigh of relief. “I’m just not leaving Earth for like the next month or so.” Hunter continued. “Fuck it, the next three months.”
“Hunt.” Ran spun around in their seat, and then just as quickly spun back when Hunter made a weird strangled squeak. They forgot Hunter adjusted better when it looked like someone was actually flying the ship, rather then leaving the AI to pilot. “This was a one off. Ascendant realms ain’t gonna just pop out at ya every time you leave the atmosphere.”
“So you say.” Hunter muttered darkly.
“It’s the truth!” Ran protested.
“You were fucking saying?” Hunter growled at him three months later as the two were pressed up against a cliff side in an Ascendant Realm.
“How was I supposed to know?” Ran wailed. “Five hundred years an’ this stuff just doesn’t happen!”