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It was happening again. Cayde-6 was back at his worst moment. The Witness had taken control of his vision, his communion with the Traveller and corrupted it. Did he see his death? Did he experience that agony again? No. He saw hers. Sundance.
He, once again, was not fast enough. He was with her; he had just held her, and she was speaking to him. He drew his gun too late as she was hit by Pirrha’s bullet.
Devotion, Bravery, Sacrifice... Death.
He watches Sundance shatter again. The warmth she held, which he ached for, hits him in a wave for only a second before it is gone, replaced by visceral cold. “No… no! No.”
The sound was ripped from his throat. His eyes sharply focus on his cupped hands holding the memory of her. Staggering back, he saw the light she came from glowing in the fissure below but not her. Without her, the world was dull even inside the Traveler, a being of pure light.
Crow’s voice cuts through the ringing in his ears, “Cayde, what happened? What did you see?”
Cayde felt Crow’s hand touch his arm and jerked back with enough urgency to cause Crow to quickly back away. “Don’t touch me!”
His voice broke. “Don’t. Don’t touch me. Don’t. No.”
He transmated away from his fireteam to a secluded area of the Traveler. Alone and shaking, Cayde-6 sank to the floor and held his head in his hands.
Only days ago, he was dead, which was not great, partly his fault, but he would give anything to be back there. Back to that peaceful nothing where she was part of him, or he was part of her. He had felt whole then. Now he felt incomplete. A piece of him was missing and it felt different. Sure, pieces of him have separated before, he’d lost an arm a time or two but this… this was excruciating.
He hadn’t had the time to grieve Sundance before. Their enemies had surrounded him, and he took a fiery mace to the face. He had joined her so quickly. Perhaps it was a blessing that he had. He now had the time to feel the true weight of her loss. They were the best of friends and oh so similar. She was witty, just like him. He liked to think she saw the humour in his antics despite being the one always picking him up after a fall. She liked to pester him about his dumb decisions; however, she never left his side. He turned to see the empty space above his shoulder. A loneliness engulfed him in his solitude. Maybe they were too similar. Like himself, Sundance was bold and daring, often popping out in the open to check on him or the environment. He would remind her to stay cloaked, hidden away in battle, but their warnings to each other were frequently unheeded and forgotten in the heat of the excitement.
Oh, they had fun. The rush of adrenaline he felt when fighting, knowing she was at his side, the happiness they shared and the comfort he got from his companion; that was true Light. Light that had now been extinguished. He remembered her laugh and could swear he could hear it in the wind. How cruel. Curling in on himself, he could only stare out at the Traveler and pretend he wasn’t going crazy.
His heart had shattered when she had. His little light. His Ghost. His Sundance.
What he wouldn’t give to be with her again.