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“You show that shape it ain’t final!” Cayde’s voice calls over comms, causing Ash to let out a reluctant chuckle. This was it, the final battle against the Witness, the entity responsible for the Humanity’s collapse was on its last leg. They’d almost killed it, but the damned thing had put up some kind of field preventing Sabre’s attacks from landing.
“What was made can be unmade…” Dragonfly muttered to himself before perking up. “I know what we need to do!” he shouted as he appeared in front of Ash. “If we can blast that field with a concentrated attack of the Traveler’s light, we can punch through.” As she looked around, Ash could see the rest of the Detachment’s ghosts had appeared to their guardians as well, doing their best approximation of a nod at Dragonfly’s idea.
Ash didn’t like it, the Witness had hit him the hardest during Sabre’s entire campaign within the Pale Heart as they hunted it. His shell was cracked and light seeped through the gaps in his shell. His posture only further relayed his state, he hung a bit closer to Ash’s hand whenever she summoned him, insisted he and Ash remain in the FOB during many of the Detachment’s operations to push the forces of Darkness back prior to their infiltration of the Monolith. Dragonfly was on the cusp of dying, and Ash was afraid.
“Are-” Before Ash could properly object, she felt Veil’s hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look toward her partner.
“We’ll help and share the burden, try and mitigate the strain on him. We don’t have a choice either way.” Veil’s ghost, Tron hovered in front of Veil, his single eye trained on the Witness.
“We don’t have time to argue, it’ll recover soon if we don’t get that shield down.” He shouted.
Ash closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Alright. Don’t you dare hurt yourself more, okay?”
Dragonfly only let out a weak laugh, lessening Ash’s fear a bit. “We’ve probably survived worse than this, right?”
Ash let out an amused breath. “Probably.”
The feeling of the light surging through her body and into Dragonfly was like nothing she’s ever experienced. She felt like her body was splitting apart, her eyes and mouth filled with a taste she couldn’t describe beyond power and pain. The light passed through her fingers and into Dragonfly, manifesting a beam of pure energy that hammered the shield relentlessly. The sound of her ghost’s screams pierced Ash’s ears, she wanted nothing more than to stop this, let the others take over and get her ghost out of danger something terrible happened, but they were almost there. The field had been destroyed and the beams began to blast the Witness itself, punching holes into the body of the entity.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the beams began to fizzle as the Witness faded away into nothing. The platform the Detachment was standing on began to lower and then change into a patch of grass. The members of Sabre stood for a moment before beginning to cheer and celebrate the defeat of their most powerful adversary yet.
Ash, however, was silent. Dragonfly’s shell looked worse than every, actually beginning to split apart into segments only held together by the light within him. His eye flickered the same way it did seven years ago in the Red War, when he had almost died. The sound of her teammates’ celebrations faded into the background as a ringing began in her ears. She did this to him, she killed him. He was her best friend and she let him rip himself apart for her sake. Why did he think bringing her back was a good idea when she was willing to let this happen.
She was knocked out of her thoughts by the feeling of Veil wrapping her arms around her and resting her head against Ash’s. A small amount of warmness filled her chest as her attention turned to her lover, but was quickly quashed by the dead ghost in her hands.
“We did it, we actually pulled it off. The Witness is dead.”
“Dragonfly’s dead.” The words simply came out, she couldn’t help her monotone, feelings didn’t work right now. All she could feel was the emptiness of the light’s absence. “I knew he couldn't handle the strain but I still let myself believe everything would be fine.”
Veil’s arms left Ash, who shivered at the loss of comforting contact, before being greeted by an embrace from the front. Her eyes were finally pulled away from the corpse of her best friend and to the woman holding her.
“It's not your fault. It was Dragonfly’s plan. He's never been one to hang back when he has an opportunity to help, anyway. Even if you tried to stop him, he'd have figured out a way to do it without you.” Ash knew what Veil was saying was true, but that wouldn't stop her from blaming herself. Veil released her embrace and rested a hand over Dragonfly's shell.
“C’mon, the Cabal and Eliksni are working on clearing out the stragglers and the others have been talking about finally resting and celebrating the Witness’ defeat. At the very least, we should get out of here.”
Ash didn't say anything but nodded as she rose to her feet and transmatted out to the Royal Skiff to fly back to the Lost City with her team, Dragonfly's ghost gently placed to rest on the table in the middle of the room.
The party didn't take much time to get into full swing, the entire detachment enjoying drinks and guitar music being played by a very enthusiastic Eliksni. However, despite the jovial mood, one member of the detachment was notably absent. The entire group had elected to give Ash time to grieve before they forced her to watch Ethan and Morgan tiptoe around their feelings harder than they'd ever done before or watch as the various titans struggled to not destroy the venue as they downed more and more alcohol.
Ash had retreated to the Speaker's chamber, close enough to hear the comforting sounds of those she called friends and comrades while being far enough as to not sour the mood.
Unfortunately for her, an old friend had not only noticed her absence, but was dedicated enough to seek her out to rectify that.
“What are you doing all the way out here?” Cayde asked as he rounded the corner to see Ash leaving against the railing, watching the Witness’ crumbling Monolith. Dragonfly's shell resting on a small table beside her.
Ash sighed as she continued watching the tower. “Needed some some time to myself. Besides, I didn't want to bring down the mood when everyone's trying to enjoy their victory.”
“Nope! Not just their victory. You were there too! You're probably the one with the greatest claim to that win. Which…” He approached and picked up Dragonfly's shell in one hand, grabbing Ash’s hands with the other to make her hold her ghost's shell. “is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Ash was confused, but Cayde began speaking before she could ask any questions.
"What comes from the Light, returns to the Light." My gal Sundance told me that…” As he spoke, the area around them seemed to fade away into a white void. “ She also said that we're all connected. Guardians, Ghosts, the Traveler…” He looked Ash directly in the eyes as slivers of light began to appear on his face, his form slowly beginning to form into pure light that was then being channeled into Dragonfly.
Ash realized what was happening immediately. She wanted to stop Cayde, to keep herself from being responsible for another death, but Cayde interrupted her before she could say anything.
“Don't you dare. This is my choice, my light. Nobody makes my fate but me.” Cayde smiled, quickly continuing to fade before Ash's eyes. “Take this chance to raise more hell, would you?” With those as his parting words, Cayde was gone, and Ash was alone again.
At least, that's what she thought, but she was quickly corrected by the sound of Dragonfly groaning like he was waking up from an eternal nap. “Ash, where's everyone else?”
It took several moments for Ash to fully process what had happened. Cayde had sacrificed himself for Dragonfly. For her. To give her the light back. She couldn’t do anything but hold her ghost close to her chest and cry. She’d lost a friend, only to get him back at the cost of another.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” Was all she could say between sobs. Cayde seemed truly happy to give himself up for her, so why did it feel like she’d killed him?
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I told you what to do. I knew I probably wouldn’t survive, but it would have been worth it to give you some kind of peace after years of fighting. You might have even been recognized as the hero I know you are for once!”
“It wouldn’t have been worth it if it meant losing you.”
“Dramatic. Now where is everyone? They didn’t leave you did they?”
“They’re all in the main courtyard celebrating. I needed some time alone after everything that happened.”
“Well that won’t do!” Dragonfly slipped from her grasp to lightly bump against her forehead before spinning around and zipping away towards the main courtyard, leaving her a command to stay put.
Moments later, Ash could hear a familiar voice shouting after Dragonfly to slow down.
“Dragonfly told me what- Whoa!” Veil was interrupted by the other woman tackling her to the ground in a hug, smothering her in kisses. Ash had essentially pinned Veil to the ground, their ghosts flying away to give them some privacy.
The rest of the detachment noted their absence for the rest of the night and didn't ask any questions when they once again took out some time alone the next morning.