1 day later

"I'm sorry about your guardian." Cayde's ghost said respectfully.

Twitch turned his attention from Arken's repaired yet lifeless body, back to his fellow ghost in the sick bay. He didn't know how to respond of course, his mind was too jumbled to come up with anything worth saying.

Cayde sat in the corner of the room, brooding in his own thoughts as well. All of the stages of grief expressing themselves as time flickered by. His hood was down... which was strange because of how different he looked. He was still very handsome and charming, the ghost just wasn't used to seeing him that way.

At first he sat still, unmoving. The only exception were his hands which tapped the side of the chair in unsteady rhythms, as if it could ever take his mind off of what happened.

Then he grumbled something to himself in anger, hating V9, and also hating himself especially for an unknown reason. Twitch couldn't understand why.

Then came bargaining by begging the ghosts to try things to bring back his boyfriend, things that weren't even attempted because they all knew it wouldn't work.

But acceptance never presented itself.

The vanguard sat, his optics tired from the overwhelming amount of tears.

And once again his expression was obviously heartbroken, but there was definitely something out of the usual once more.

This time it was much easier to pinpoint the exact emotion, and when Twitch did it startled him.

Cayde felt guilty.

"Cayde-6?" A random hunter requested from the door. She bared no armour so she obviously wasn't a guardian at all. Probably someone of authority though.

The vanguard didn't even turn his head.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" He said bitterly, words tinged with strain and exhaustion.

"Zavala requested you." She said, not showing any signs of being intimidated at all.

It was that statement that made Cayde's head turn.

"He said it's urgent, and if you ask me. I think you're in trouble." She frowned, which didn't match the sentence well. Usually when those in the tower talked about Cayde being in trouble, it seemed like such a normal thing that they were pretty much joking and laughing about it. 'Oh there he goes again' they would say. 'stirred up some more drama. Gotta love him for it.'

The blue and white hunter pulled his hood over his head, wiped the tears from his eyes, and followed the girl out of the room.

Leaving just Twitch and his ghost.

"So..." The ghost said, trying to make conversation. If he could have blushed it would be enveloping his face completely.

"He's guilty." CG (Cayde's ghost for long) said, more to himself then Twitch.

"I'm sorry?"

CG hesitated a little, the gears running wildly in his thoughts.

"Cayde, he's the reason that Arken's like this. He... he had to make a choice but now I think it's gone wrong."

Twitch didn't understand.

"What?!.... W-Why?!" He asked, ticking wildly, a malfunction that had grown common for him as the time had passed.

"There's an EXO, a warlock with a red pattern on his face. He forced Cayde to choose either Arken or himself. He chose himself for the sake of his hunters. But he didn't respect the deal, he went to save your guardian." CG ranted, panicking more and more.

Twitch felt he panic coming over himself now.

"V9. He... he saw us... he saw Arken in Cayde's arms."

"Crackerflood..." He whispered.

"oh traveller... Cayde's going to be exiled."

From that word all of the mysteries in the room seem to clear themselves. V9 had seen Cayde not respect the deal. Therefore the video would be put online for all guardians to see. And if Zavalla saw it, Cayde would be out of the tower the next morning, and both Arken and Cayde would be dead.

"It's not fair." CG went on. "He was only trying to make a sacrifice for the greater good. No offence of course Twitch."

Twitch was only half listening to the other ghost's panicked rant. But there was something he picked up out of it.

A sacrifice for the greater good.

He hovered over to Arken's lifeless body lying on the bed, all pieces now reattached and looking good as new.

"We've already tried healing him, there's no light left." The other ghost protested, following him to the warlock's corpse.

Twitch closed his optic and began to concentrate. A sacrifice, a sacrifice had to be made, and it was better him than anyone else. He knew what he was doing, if Arken was out of light, he were to give him his. He was the guardian's ghost, it was his one job.

Cayde's ghost picked up on this.

"Twitch... y-you can't! You're not meant to, the traveller wouldn't let you!"

"Cayde needs him. He needs him more than I do." The ghost responded calmly.

He was beginning to feel the light slowly drain out of him and siphon into Arken. His mind grew dimmer and dimmer as each second passed by.

It was working.

There was one last thing that was worth saying, it was either now or never.

Twitch turned to face CG, his body drooping slightly, getting tired.

"Oh and ghost?" He began.

"Yes Twitch?" CG simply responded frantically before the ghost would lose it's light fully.

Twitch tried to speak, couldn't, and then tried again.

"I wish that we could have been together, like our Guardians, I would have loved it." He said awkwardly, not twitching at all as he said it which was a very rare occurrence.

Cayde's ghost felt it's emotions spiking up out of control inside of itself.

"I would have loved it too..." He said before his mouth could stop him. But he didn't want it to.

"Heh, really? That's awes-... that's... that's awesome." The ghost made out, his words becoming more and more slurred until he lost consciousness and hit the floor with a metallic thud.

Arken's lungs breathed a breath of stale, salty air.

The end,

Of the beginning...