Eyes Up, Guardian

Chapter 34

Warning—homophobic slurs and language

Tessa sat, bent over in a chair at Damian's bedside. She'd woken early that afternoon and had met with their team, all now assembled at the temple. Edon had brought her some painkillers he and Estella had been able to get prescribed to her from the Tower hospital through a ghost scan of her injuries, and with them she'd thankfully been able to bear movement, enough that she'd been able to help out around the temple while they waited for Damian to wake up.

The team had been sent out to clear the plaguelands, leading the way for dozens of other Guardians that had come from the Tower to help out. As helpful as the crowd was, Tessa was quite sure that if Shiro had any hair, he would have been pulling it from his scalp as he tried to manage the dozens and dozens of Guardians calling in over the coms while she and Tyra instructed a small team of Hunters on setting up the patrol network. Thankfully, once they'd gotten the beacons up and running, Shiro was able to streamline the process, and as the sun began to drop below the horizon, he urged her to meet back up with the team and check on Damian.

Balendin had decided they wouldn't head out on their mission for another few days, or as long as it took for Damian and Tessa to get their light back. Once that was decided, they'd debriefed after their long day in the plaguelands and had all wearily returned to their quarters. When Tessa had arrived at her and Damian's room, she found he was somewhat awake and Tyra—who had insisted on checking in on the two of them—had already made sure he had plenty of hot soup to eat and water to drink.

Currently, they were on the coms with Ikora, Zavala, and Cayde, updating them as best they could with the situation in the plaguelands. Because both Kylie and Echo were still offline, they were using a data tablet to interface with the temple radios which were able to link them up with the Tower. The tablet sat on Damian's lap as he leaned back against a stack of pillows. He still looked sick, and she could hear in his voice that he likely didn't feel much better, but he was awake.

"Did you notice anything particularly draining during your battle?" Ikora was asking. Estella had informed her of Damian being in burnout the night before, and she seemed intrigued as well as concerned. "SIVA is not a form of darkness within itself, if the Fallen were able to infuse it with their darkness, we would be dealing with a much larger issue."

"No." Damian said, sounding exhausted, but not directed towards the leaders in any way.

"Their shields were difficult for us to take down." Tessa explained for him. "Our own weapons did little to impact them, so we had to rely on our light and the battleax from Felwinter."

Ikora hummed in understanding, but Damian spoke up before she could say anything.

"Before I went in, though," He started, opening his eyes and lifting his head as he took the tablet from his lap and held it weakly in his hands. "I felt like my Light was protesting. You told me my Light was likely still volatile, and I assumed that was all I was really feeling, just my Light being upset about leaving Tessa, but...." He trailed off, gathering his thoughts, his brows furrowed as his eyes slid closed again.

"But?" Zavala prompted after a few moments.

"But it was like it was fighting me. It didn't want to go in, it knew something would go wrong. I was terrified. It made me terrified." He finished.

Tessa's eyes flicked up to him, and she pushed back, moving her elbows off her knees to lean forward on her hands instead. She didn't know how many people would have openly admitted to fear as he had. She certainly wouldn't have. It was one of his many strengths.