Eyes Up, Guardian

Chapter 22

    She was going to die, and so was he.

     It was the only thought occupying her mind as the pain finally tore through her body, with such force she felt herself releasing a bloodcurdling scream, loud enough to drown out the Vandguard leaders that had all begun to shout in her ears. She felt herself gasping as she clutched at her chest, where the damage had hit the deepest. Thank the traveler she had turned her head, or the blow Oryx had dealt would have taken off her head. And thank the traveler the blade had sliced into her right chest and not her left. 

     She was on her hands and knees on the balcony of the dreadnought, her entire body shaking as she sobbed and screamed with every shift in her body, the pain threatening to overwhelm her. But she had to stay awake. She had to. Damian lay crumpled against the pillar, so far away it felt like miles as she gasped for breath, knowing she had to get to him.

     "Tessa? Can you hear me?" She heard the words distantly in her helmet, and she vaguely recognized Estella's voice. 

     "Damian." She croaked instead, gasping as she moved, carefully sliding fer feet underneath her and pushing herself up from her hands and knees. "I have to help him." Tears and gasps choked her words as she stumbled over to Damian. Her heart was pounding, so hard she thought it might stop, that it would stumble and give up. "I have to-"

     "Tessa, listen to me. You need to call Damian's ship, okay?" Estella was telling her, "You should be able to call it through the tech in your armor. Use your helmet. It doesn't need your ghost to function." 

     She had made it to Damian, finally, and she collapsed in front of him, pulling him into her lap, retrieving Kylie where she lay beside him, and rising to her knees to reach Echo a bit away from them. Damian's helmet was broken, blood pouring from it at an alarming rate. She followed Estella's instructions as she held Damian, navigating the screen in her helmet with her eyes, drawing up a help menu and calling Damian's ship. She then pulled the helmet off her head and pulled off Damian's, swapping the two out so that her helmet could apply pressure to Damian's wound, while she slid on Damian's broken, bloody one in order to breathe.

     "The ship is landing just ahead of you." Estella told her, she could see the ship flying to meet her at the balcony, its ramp lowering  for her. Estella's voice was rough and garbled in Damian's helmet, but she could still hear her as she forced herself to stand, tucking the ghosts into her pockets and lifting Damian as well as she could.

     Behind her, she heard a roar of the hive, and she could hear them battering the door. The same door that had locked them in during their battle, now locked the hive out. Thank the traveler. 

     She half carried, half dragged Damian to the ramp of the ship, his lightless body limp as she carried him. She heard herself sobbing with the effort, as she finally reached the ramp and she dragged him up it, pressing the button to close it as she let go of Damian and went to the cockpit. The ramp had just closed when the hive opened the door, descending into the room in a mad fury. She slammed the controls, launching the ship towards earth and into warp speed. 

     She then rose from her seat again, throwing her helmet off and dropping it on the floor as she found a roll of duct tape in an open bin on the ship floor. Damian was going to die if she didn't get him back to the traveler soon, but she would didn't want to bleed out, either. Peeling back her broken breastplate, she saw the damage was bad, and the pain was so much worse. Her breast was practically sliced in two, and every breath sent new pain through her body. She found a shirt in Damian's room, tearing it and pressing it against the wound, she managed a sloppy bandage by taping it in place with the duct tape and replacing her battered breastplate to put pressure on the wound. Every move had her cursing and crying, in panic and pain as she forced her trembling hands to cooperate. Once she had finished, she knelt by Damian. The worst injury he possessed was the damage to his head, but she knew her helmet would already be slowing the bleeding. What would kill him was the loss of light.