Not this again... (A Cayde-6 love story)

The Showdown.

The loud hum of her sparrow echos across the shore as she speeds to her destination. The Barons' hideout.

The spider offered to send his men with her to help, but she refused. She was going to bring them down on her own, because she doesn't like when people underestimate her. The Barons think she's weak, not even as strong as Cayde was. Oh, how wrong they are.

Even Cayde knew how strong and skilled she is. There's a reason he never tried to anger her, and that wasn't just because he was deeply in love with every part of her. Hell, even Zavala is hesitant to stand in her way.

The Barons are about to get a taste of what she can actually do. And they're gonna regret it.

She hops off her sparrow and looks around, wondering why the codes led her to the middle of nowhere.

"There's an energy signal coming from that wreckage." Bob says to her, and she walks over so he can get a better reading. But before he can, screebs come crawling out of every direction.

Gwen works fast to clear them all, and as soon as they're gone, one of the Barons appears on top of a cliff in the distance. It's hard to tell which one, but this one seems cool and collected. You know, other than the 'no-trespassing-or-I'll-kill-ya' vibe.

"Do you really think you can defeat us? Pick up where he left off?" He scoffs. "Soon you'll be with your lover."

"Soon, you'll be with your soldiers." She mumbles to herself as he walks off, and more scorn come to fight her.

She expertly kills each with one shot, then runs off to the nearby cave entrance at full speed. No one talks about her or Cayde like that. No one.

As soon as more scorn try to impede her progress in the dark, eerie cave, she takes out her cannon and knife at the same time. Headshots for the ones out of reach, and a knife for those who dare get close enough.

As she clears through the cave, Baron after Baron appears and disappears, especially the Trickster and the Bomber. She gets a few shots in, but not enough. But that was okay, they'll meet their end when they run out of cave.

Finally, she runs into the last room. The back exit is blocked by a barrier, and the fanatic is standing there, raising a giant scorn. He's saying something about her not being good enough, but she's so blinded by rage she can't hear a thing. The Fanatic retreats behind the barrier before she can shoot, and his scorn servant lunges for her. She dodges out of its way, and pulls out her rocket launcher.

She gets far enough away, then quickly lines her sights up to the scorn's head, and fires. After three rockets, the scorn disappears into dust. She drops the launcher, and collapses to the ground. She slowly looks over to the barrier, and just stares.

"Come on... let's get back to Petra. She'll know what to do next.. and what he said about Cayde.. didn't need to be said." Bob says sadly.

"I- I didn't hear what he said... but you're right... we need to find out where they went." She stands slowly, and packs up her weapons. Her promise still stands.

The Barons will die.

It's just going to take longer than she thought...