[url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/91625542]Catch up on Part Five![/url] [b]"Darkness."[/b] [i]"Ya know, I get things at the worst times. I know what I'm doing. Obviously. But sometimes I don't [b]get[/b] it yet. Yaknow? Then something'll happen, and it all gets real clear real fast. I knew they were pissed off. The whole team, not just Eagle and Bishop and Fault. I hadn't told them enough. I'd kept things from them. I tend to go around saying I'm doing the right thing, but not explaining how or why. If I didn't have something to hide, I would be more transparent. Right? Right. Of course they're right. I spend a lot of my time wondering about that. I can't be the good guy here, doing the shit I do. Knowing the shit that I know. I can't be the good guy. We, we can't be the good guys. We'll just as quickly leave someone we don't need to die. We're not fighting the good fight. We're not what the good guys look like. The Light is a weapon, and a way to try and figure out what the -blam!-'s really going on here. I didn't get my answers this time. But I will. And that's really why we're doing this. Maybe they know, sort of. Maybe they don't. Can I still be the good guy if I don't care? No. But I looked into that chasm, and I understood something. Something about all of this doesn't make sense. What does make sense, to me, is avoiding annhialation. We'd been there before. I don't know how, or when, but I know. I've never been the good guy. We've never been the heroes. We never will be. What I understood, when looking down at complete iradication, at an enemy who just wants to see us cease to exist and will swallow our power and absorb our knowledge through any means... I understood that it doesn't matter. What matters is survival. All of your heroes are [b]dead[/b]. We were dead too, but we didn't stay that way. What wins is what matters. Simple as that." ~ Ricochet[/i] *********************************************************************************** "We jumping?" Bishop sounded eager. "I'm game." Wally replied simply. Ricochet saw him shrug. "We need to keep ahead of...whoever shows up on the surface to respond to that beacon. Right?" Doss, taking a step forward across the rubble. "We haven't got much time. Ogres are never alone." Fox added. "They know we're here. They roared after we killed it." "Why aren't we swimming in Thrall yet, then?" Bishop. He was still looking out at the chasm. He hadn't turned away, even once. Ricochet had been watching all of them. Silently, trying to form a decision which made sense. Or trying to form reasoning behind the decision he'd already made. "Probably on their way. Though if they're spawning them deep enough that it's taking this long---" Doss began, Fault cut him off. "Then that's a really -blam!-in' deep hole. Great." He sighed. "And I mean, they did their best Grand Canyon impression down here, so there's no telling if what we're after is still where it was supposed to be." "...the heck's the Grand Canyon?" Wally muttered. No one responded. "Ric. We've gotta make a call. I'm up for jumping. Doss'll jump. Fault'll jump. Wally'll jump. Fox'll melt things either way. You're up, Big Guy." Bishop did his best to keep his tone light. Ricochet turned his head to look at him, and vaguely appreciated the gesture. No hard feelings---at least, not that they had the time to deal with now. "Back to the surface." He heard himself speaking as though he were outside of his own body. Months of searching. Of lying, and outright scheming. Months of gambles and chances. Dangerous choices, and keeping it from the people he needed in order to make it work. Finally close to an answer and... something had gotten there first. Something bigger than he was. Looking around at the team, he understood that this shouldn't have been a surprise. [i]If I could have done it on my own, I would have. I've always needed them.[/i] It was such a familiar feeling, but when he tried to remember why it made his head spin. It made him long to know what answers were hidden in that pit. Maybe it would get him closer. Was that what happened before? Did he make the same decision once, or twice, before? Sent them in, because knowing and dying was better than living and wondering? [i]We died, last time. I still don't know how I know, but I know. We died. Did I get my answer? Or is that my answer.[/i] "Wait, what?" Fault sounded angry, now. "We---all this? No. No, you're not bitching out now. We're jumping. You got us all out here---" Fox interrupted him. "Relax. There's no way we can---" Bishop interrupted her. "---you knew too, you were keeping shit from us, and now we want to know. Can't trust you two to tell us anything. We're a damn team, and he apparently picked the sociopath, pyromaniac space-blueberry he's banging over---" Wally interrupted Bishop. "Ey. Don't be racist. Everything else you said is fine. But she can't help the fact that she's blue." "I didn't want anything to do with you lot, [i]he[/i] insisted." Fox shot back. "Call me a blueberry one more time." "He [b]does[/b] tend to insist." Doss added. "But we need to calm down." He let them argue. He needed to think. It appealed to his pride, his sense of honor, his curiosity. His strange longing for a worthwhile fight. He had every reason to decide to jump into that chasm. They wanted to go. They knew the risks. They were precisely where he wanted them to be, willing to do precisely what he wanted them to do. Their reasons didn't matter. [i]"But what if,"[/i] he heard his Ghost speak up---Narrative Dissonance didn't say much. She usually watched. Looking around at the others, still bickering, he realized that they couldn't hear her this time. She was talking directly to him--- [i]"...jumping into the darkness looking for Light is just plain stupid?"[/i] He furrowed his eyebrows. Switched his comm. channel so that he didn't transmit to the others. Turned his helmet speakers off. "Come again?" [i]"You want to know." [/i]She began again.[i] "I understand that wanting. I want to understand quite a few things myself. So I'm going to help you here. Something you didn't understand last time; you can't know anything if you're dead. Let us say, for the sake of metaphor that... Knowledge is the Light. That terrifying unknowing, that is the Darkness. Throwing those few with Light into the Dark, where their Light is swallowed and lost and eventually fades out, is sheer stupidity. I cannot afford you making this mistake, Darion. I've been looking for you for a long time. All of you. Keep them alive, soldier. Keep them alive. Survive this, and I promise that you will get your answers."[/i] "But not now." He responded in a deadpan. "We don't get answers now. So what do we do?" [i]"Run. And then fight. And then win. The City needs heroes. Living legends to give them hope. Something to counteract the true stories of the impending peril. Take the prestige from this victory. Work with Zavala. Collect more of these brilliant lights. So intense that they nearly blind one another..."[/i] They were still arguing. He could hear them, but it was like background noise. [i]"Focus them. Lead. Win."[/i] He was speaking before he knew what he would say. And it was the first time he'd addressed them all and it felt right. "You kids done, or do we need time outs?" Five helmeted heads turned his way. He spoke over all of them at once. "We're going back to the surface. Yeah, I -blam!-in' lied to you. All of you. But that---" he pointed toward the chasm. "Is an invasion. Say it with me. In-vayz-jin. Of Earth. And they probably have what we---I---was here looking for. So we're going back to the surface. We're calling for help, and we're warning the City. If you wanna die, jump in the damn hole now and save us some time. If not? Guns up, shut the -blam!- up, and lets move." Silence all around. And then the collective clatter of weapons checks. "Diss. Can you guide us back to the surface?" Doss asked. [i]"Of course,"[/i] The Ghost responded flippantly.[i] "Flashlight, door opener, and now map. I'm really diversifying, don't you think?"[/i] "Door opener's my job." Doss muttered. They set off through the tunnels again. Back the way they came. Over head, the unmistakable sounds of a pitched battle. Other Guardians were other arriving. "Ricochet." Bishop's voice, as they neared the surface. Private channel. "What is it?" He responded. Shortly, and aware that he didn't really have any other tone of voice. "Just wanted to say..." [spoiler]The series finale. [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/92720321]HERE![/url][/spoiler]