Chapter 9: The Return

Showing the history of Chapter 9: The Return across 1 version
From 2020.11.10 (Beyond Light) to 2021.07.06 (Season of the Splicer)

Name

  • Chapter 9: The Return

Description

  • "What have you done?!" I scream as Mara Sov's body drops lifelessly to the ground.
  • "Elsie, listen to me. This was necessary. The Darkness cannot thrive while believers of the Light remain. There's a world beyond this conflict. Let's go there together," Ana pleads.
  • "This is not the way!" I cry and ready my Stasis.
  • "Elsie, please don't do this. You can still join us. Don't you want to be a family again?"
  • Not like this. Not through death and betrayal. Zavala was right about her… I remember the promise I made.
  • "I forgive you for all the years you kept me in the dark. I know you were trying to protect me. Forget the past. We can start over. Let me protect you now," she says with such sincerity that I know she's too far gone to reason with.
  • The look on Ana's face tells me she knows where I've landed. She's genuinely hurt, gritting her teeth to stop herself from crying. I try to raise my hand to blast her, but she's already on the move.
  • Ana attacks and stabs me in my side, disconnecting core components. My left arm goes limp. I look up to see Eris summoning a portal. The Vex come flooding through. Our army of Cabal and Fallen are being eviscerated. Vex Hydras swarm the Leviathan and open fire. If I could cry, I would. We lost. Again.
  • Suddenly, Eris stands above me with a twisted grin. "Do you see what the path of the self-righteous yields? You call it protection, but all Ana felt was abandonment. You left a void. Darkness filled it."
  • "You have bigger problems," I say, looking to the sky.
  • A piercing noise emanates from the Traveler. Its brilliance begins to swell. Worried and confused, Eris commands all her forces to focus on killing it with Dark energy.
  • "It didn't have to be this way," Ana cries as she drives the knife into me once more. "You could have been with me!"
  • I finally shatter my own binding, blasting her with Stasis. She flies back, locked in the air. I see her struggling. "Ana, she's corrupted you!"
  • "No… She gave me purpose!"
  • Damn it all. I know what I have to do.
  • I kiss her forehead as I turn her blade and thrust it into her. Her eyes go wide, and some semblance of my sister returns before she fades.
  • "Elsie…" she trails off into the void. My own sister… Eris will pay for this.
  • The Darkness energy Eris manipulates canvases the landscape and makes its way to the sky. I see the Traveler, getting brighter as the Darkness encapsulates it. I race toward Eris, but I'm too late.
  • In an enchanting explosion, the Traveler's Light enshrouds all in totality.
  • Then darkness. n
  • I'm awake.
  • I see a tower. THE Tower.
  • I'm in the Last City. It's… thriving. Bustling with life. Children laughing.
  • There's a small parade. I fight through the crowd to find Cayde-6 at the center of it. "I think I finally got him this time!" he shouts as a beardless Zavala greets him.
  • "Taniks has been dead before," Zavala says.
  • From behind him emerges Ikora Rey, like a vision. "Let the new Hunter Vanguard bask. He's earned it."
  • I'm so sick of this scene. Of hearing these words ever since the day I killed my sister. That was the first time. Now I've lost count.
  • No matter what I do, it always ends the same. Blood and betrayal. Then I'm back where I started. Right here.
  • I'm being taunted, punished. Forced to relive this loop.
  • There has to be a way out. I will find it.
  • I have to save my sister.