[b]Chapter 14. The Tags [/b] [i]The lights were blinding, the pain unbearable, but the debts had to be paid. There was no other choice. The feeling of being in that new body was terrifying, too much, too much. Reset, reset, reset, too many things forgotten. Write it down. Make yourself better. Be a better man. Ace, the Queen, where are they? The guilt, the heartbreak, never again. [/i] His optics turned on slowly, his systems rebooting, his back aching from his poor mattress. Cayde inhaled deeply as he ran his hands over his face; it had been a long time since he had a dream like this. It was nothing new; he had, had this dream since Sundance awoke him. He sat up and groaned; he rested his head in his hands as he sat on the edge of the bed. His light was still on, and the sun was still down. He looked over at his clock to see it was 3:28 AM. He sighed; he was still in his gear, so he must've fallen into bed out of exhaustion and fell asleep after dropping -blam!-. She had gotten a little tipsy from the drink, and Cayde decided to escort her home. Before they had left, Elizabeth managed to grab ahold of Cayde and drunkenly handed him Jack's dog tags. She slurred her words when she told him how she had forgotten to give them to him and that the piece of metal looked as good as new. Cayde reached down under his jacket and took ahold of Jack's dog tags, examining them in the dim light of his room. JACK ANDERSON D. 039-97-8032 A POS CHRISTAIN Jack D. Anderson... that couldn't be her name... Now Jacqueline D. Anderson, that made more sense, but Jack? He found it hard to believe the dog tags were hers, but there was only one way to find out. He groaned as he stood up, the gears in his knees squeaking as he stood up. As he left, he made his way out of his tiny room, ensuring that the Ace of Spades was still tucked in his holster. He went down the stairs and into the courtyard, guardians still roaming around. Some were coming home from missions, and others were still up from drinking and partying. The guardians greeted him as Cayde passed by, some asking questions like 'what are you doing up?' He would just answer with an 'Oh, you know how it is, all work and no play, or in this case sleep.' They would laugh and walk off. He made his way into the Hall of Guardians; Eris and Shaxx were gone as well as Ikora and Zavala. The only one there was Arcite 99-40, who was currently leaning on his desk, sleeping. Cayde just walked past to him and made his way over to one of the terminals used to store data they had uncovered before the collapse. "Alright, here we go," Cayde whispered as he put in his password and unlocked the terminal. He pulled the tags around his neck and held them tightly as he searched through the archives. "Sundance, got any ideas about where to look first?" He questioned, keeping in mind to keep his voice down. There were over thousands of files, most of them about the culture before the collapse. Religion, music, politics, movies, art, military strategies, you name it, it was there. [i] "I don't know," [/i]she hissed, [i]"Look under the population archives." [/i] He nodded and looked through them; there were over a million names. The list just kept going and going. He went down to the J's and was met with thousands of Jacks. Thousands of Jacks with the middle initial D and the last name Anderson. "Travelers sake," he breathed, "This'll be fun." It took him hours as he opened each one and compared the social security numbers. Each time he was getting increasingly frustrated that there, for some reason, wasn't a search function. "First thing I'm going to do when I see Zavala is, complain about the lack of a search bar." [i] "Focus, Cayde." [/i] It wasn't until he reached the thousands mark did he finally find the right Jack. When the numbers added up, he nearly squealed in delight. "Sundance, look, look, I found him, I found... Him?" He looked at the picture; it was of a middle-aged man with a thick beard and wavy brown locks. [i]"Name: Jack David Anderson, position: Special Forces?" [/i] "Special Forces," he breathed, "That's a part of the army. They were one of the first ones who were sent to fight the darkness back before we knew what it was," he shrugged, "That's at least what I read." [i]"Then who is the Jack we know?" [/i] Cayde continued to look through the document, "It says he was married, had two kids. Sheldon Mathew Anderson and Audrey Beth Anderson." [i]"Sheldon, Audrey? Go to Audrey's file!" [/i] "Way ahead of you," he frowned; thankfully, he could click on her name, and it took him to the girl's file. His mouth widened as he saw a picture of a younger Jack, the Jack he knew, the Jack that was his friend. "Her real name is Audrey..." [i]"Birthdate... Cayde, she would've been 23 when the collapse happened." [/i] "Then how old was her brother?" He questioned himself as he pressed on her brother's name. [i] "He would've been 17... He was so young." [/i] Cayde nodded, "Yeah, I know..."