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My dad keeps faking illnesses to make me stay home with him. Yesterday, I found out why.
I don’t know who else to tell, or what I even expect to happen by posting this. I can’t call anyone. He’s always… around. I’m writing this on my phone, huddled in my closet, hoping the sound of the old house settling will cover the frantic tapping of my thumbs. I feel like a little kid again, hiding from monsters. The difference is, this time, the monster thinks it’s my dad. Let me back up. I’m 23. I live with my father. It wasn’t the plan, obviously. College, job, my own place, that was the plan. But the economy is what it is, and my mom passed a few years back, and he was getting on in years. He’s retired, and his pension is just enough to keep the lights on in this old house. It wasn’t a bad arrangement. I’d work my shifts at a warehouse downtown, help with bills, and he’d potter around, watch his old movies, and complain about his back. We had a rhythm. It was quiet, maybe a little lonely, but it was normal. The change was so gradual I almost didn't notice it. At first, it was just… nice. My dad, who for the last five years had mostly treated the armchair in front of the TV as a natural extension of his body, started moving again. He was always a big guy, a former mechanic, and age had settled on him like a thick layer of dust. But suddenly, the dust was gone. It started about a month ago. He went down to the basement to fix a leaking pipe. I’d offered to do it, but he insisted. "Still got some use in these old hands," he'd grumbled, a familiar refrain. He was down there for hours. I remember calling down once, asking if he needed help, and just getting a muffled "Got it handled!" in response. When he finally came up, he was smudged with dirt and grime, but he was grinning. A real, toothy grin, wider than I’d seen in a decade. "All sorted," he announced, clapping his dusty hands together. He looked… invigorated. I just figured he was proud of himself for handling the repair. The next morning, I woke up to the smell of bacon and the sound of birds chirping outside. That wasn't unusual. The unusual part was my dad, standing at the stove, humming. He hadn’t cooked a proper breakfast since my mom died. He’d usually just pour himself a bowl of cereal and grunt a good morning. "Morning, son!" he said, his voice bright. "Eggs?" I was surprised, but pleased. "Yeah, sure. Thanks. You’re in a good mood." "Feeling spry," he said, flipping the eggs with a flourish that almost sent one to the floor. "Decided I’ve been sitting around too long. Life’s for living, right?" That week, he was a whirlwind of activity. He mowed the lawn, which I usually had to nag him about for days. He cleaned the gutters. He even started oiling the hinges on the doors so they wouldn’t creak. I was thrilled. I thought maybe he’d finally pulled himself out of the long, quiet grief he’d been swimming in. I thought I was getting my old dad back. The first hint that something was wrong came a week later. I was getting ready to go out with some friends. It was a Friday night, the first I’d had off in a while. I was putting on my jacket when he came into the living room, wringing his hands. "You're going out?" he asked. His voice had lost its cheerful edge. It was tight. "Yeah, just for a few hours. Grabbing a beer with a couple of guys from work." He winced and put a hand on his chest. "Oh. It’s just… I’m feeling a bit funny. My chest is tight. Probably just indigestion, but… you know." I stopped, my keys halfway to my pocket. His face was pale. I felt a surge of guilt. "Are you okay? Should I call someone?" "No, no, nothing like that," he said quickly, waving a dismissive hand. "I’m sure it’ll pass. I just… I wouldn’t want to be here alone if it gets worse." So I stayed. I took my jacket off, ordered a pizza, and we watched one of his old black-and-white westerns. His chest pain seemed to magically disappear the moment I sat down on the couch. I was annoyed, but I told myself he was just getting old and anxious. The next time I tried to leave, a few days later, it was his back. He claimed it had seized up so badly he couldn't get off the sofa to get a glass of water. I spent the evening fetching things for him, rubbing his shoulders, and listening to him groan. The moment my friend called to ask where I was and I said I couldn't make it, he suddenly felt "a little bit better" and managed to get up to use the bathroom on his own. It became a pattern. Every single time I made a plan to leave the house, for any reason other than my work shifts, he would develop some sudden, debilitating ailment. A migraine. Dizziness. A stomach bug. It was so transparently manipulative that I got angry. We had a fight about it. "I can't be your prisoner!" I yelled one afternoon after he’d faked a coughing fit to stop me from going to the grocery store. "I need to have a life!" His face crumpled. Not with anger, but with a deep, profound sadness that completely disarmed me. "I just need you here," he whispered. "Is that so much to ask? I get lonely." What could I say to that? I felt like the world’s biggest jerk. I stayed home. Again. But the active, energetic dad was still there. In between his sudden "episodes," he was a dynamo. He repainted the porch. He fixed the wobbly fence in the backyard. He was up at dawn, gardening with a fervor I’d never seen. He was stronger, faster. He’d carry in all the groceries in one trip, bags hanging off his arms, without even breathing heavily. My dad, who used to get winded walking up the stairs. It was a contradiction I couldn’t reconcile. The real fear, the kind that crawls up your spine and lives in the back of your throat, started with the sun. We were in the backyard. He’d been weeding the flowerbeds my mom had planted years ago, and I was sitting on the steps, scrolling through my phone. It was a bright, cloudless afternoon. The sun was beating down, casting long, sharp shadows across the lawn. I noticed my own shadow, a dark, stretched-out silhouette of a man slouched over a phone. I looked at him, on his knees in the dirt, and I saw the shadow of the rose bush, the shadow of the fence, the shadow of the bird bath. But not his. He was a solid figure in the blazing sunlight, but the ground around him was unbroken, pure bright green. There was no shadow. I blinked. I rubbed my eyes. It had to be a trick of the light, an optical illusion. I looked away, then looked back. Still nothing. A perfect, shadowless man in a world full of shadows. A cold knot formed in my stomach. "Hey, Dad," I said, my voice sounding thin and strange to my own ears. "Can you give me a hand with this?" I pointed to a heavy terracotta pot on the other side of the patio, a spot in direct, unforgiving sunlight. He looked up, and for a second, I saw something in his eyes. A flicker of panic. He shielded his face from the sun with his hand, even though he was already squinting. "In a minute, son. Just want to finish this patch." He never came over. He stayed in the garden, and as the sun began to set, he seemed to follow the receding line of the house's shadow, always keeping himself just inside it. From that day on, I became obsessed. I watched him constantly. I noticed how he never stood by the windows during the day. How he’d find an excuse to move if a ray of sunlight fell across him in the living room. How he always took his walks in the evening, after the sun had dipped below the horizon. He was always drawn to the shade, to the dim corners of the house. My worry curdled into dread. The excuses to keep me home became more frantic. Last week, he unplugged my car battery and then feigned ignorance. A couple of days ago, I woke up to find he’d "accidentally" locked the front door and "lost" the key, trapping us both inside until he miraculously "found" it that evening. I tried talking to him. I sat him down in the dim light of the living room two nights ago. "Dad, we need to talk," I started, my heart pounding. "You're not acting like yourself. You're… different. And you’re keeping me here. I'm worried about you." He just stared at me, his face a calm, placid mask. The energetic, smiling man was gone, replaced by something still and watchful. "I'm fine, son. Never been better. And I'm not keeping you here. I just like having you around. A father can’t like having his son around?" "It's more than that," I insisted, my voice trembling. "Ever since you went down to the basement to fix that pipe… you’ve been different. Something happened down there, didn't it?" His face didn’t change, but his eyes hardened. It was like watching shutters close over a window. "Don't be ridiculous. I fixed a pipe. That’s all. Now drop it." The finality in his tone was absolute. There was no arguing. The conversation was over. That was when I knew. I knew with a certainty that made me feel sick to my stomach. The truth of what had happened, was in the basement. I waited until last night. I pretended to go to sleep at my usual time, lying in bed with my eyes wide open, listening to the sounds of the house. I heard him moving around downstairs, the soft, almost silent footsteps that were another new development. My old dad used to stomp around like an elephant. I heard him check the lock on the front door. Then the back. I heard him walk past my bedroom door, pausing for a long moment, and I held my breath, my entire body rigid with fear. Then the footsteps receded, and I heard his own bedroom door click shut. I waited for what felt like an eternity, counting the seconds, listening to the old house groan and creak around me. Finally, when I was sure he was asleep, I slipped out of bed. I didn't turn on any lights. I crept down the stairs, my every step a calculated risk. The basement door was at the end of the hall. It was always cold around it. I turned the old brass knob, cringing at the loud click of the latch. I pulled it open and was hit by a wave of cold, damp air that smelled of wet earth and Something metallic and vaguely sweet. The smell of decay. My phone was my only light. I switched on the flashlight, the beam cutting a nervous, trembling path down the rickety wooden stairs. I went down, one step at a time, my ears straining for any sound from upstairs. The basement was as I remembered it. Concrete floor, stone walls, junk piled in every corner. Old furniture under white sheets like sleeping ghosts, boxes of my mom’s things, my old toys. The air was thick and heavy. I pointed my light toward the back wall, where the main water line came into the house. That’s where he’d been working. I saw his old toolbox lying open on the floor. A pipe wrench was next to it. And the section of copper pipe he’d been working on looked new, clean. He had fixed it. But my eyes were drawn to the floor next to it. Most of the basement floor was concrete, but in this back corner, it was just packed earth. And a large patch of it, maybe six feet long and three feet wide, was different from the rest. The dirt was darker, looser. It wasn't packed down from decades of existence. It was disturbed, fresh. I stood there for a long moment, the beam of my phone shaking in my hand. My mind was screaming at me to run. To get out of the house, out of the town, to never look back. But I couldn’t. I had to know. I found an old garden trowel in a bucket of rusty tools. I knelt down. The earth was soft, just as I’d thought. It gave way easily. I started digging. My breath came in ragged, panicked gasps. The only sounds were the scrape of the trowel against an occasional rock and my own frantic heartbeat pounding in my ears. The smell of damp earth was overwhelming, but underneath it, that other smell was getting stronger. It wasn't a deep hole. Maybe a foot down, my trowel hit something soft. Not a rock. I recoiled, dropping the tool. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold my phone steady. I forced myself to reach into the loose soil. I closed my eyes and my fingers brushed against fabric. Denim. The worn, familiar texture of my father’s work jeans. I scrambled back, gasping for air, but I knew I had to see. I had to be sure. With tears streaming down my face, I used my hands, clawing at the dirt, pulling it away. First, a leg. Then a torso, wearing his favorite faded flannel shirt. And then… the face. It was him. My dad. His eyes were closed, his mouth slightly open. His skin was pale and waxy, and there was a dark, ugly gash on the side of his head, matted with dried blood and dirt. He looked peaceful, in a horrible, final way. He looked like he’d fallen from the stairs, hit his head, and it had all been over in an instant. I stared at his face, the real face of my father, and a sound escaped my throat, a strangled sob of pure horror and grief. He was gone. He’d been gone for a month, lying here in a shallow, unmarked grave, while I’d been living with… with… Creeeeak. The sound came from the top of the stairs. It was a single, soft footstep on the old wood. Slowly, I turned my head. My phone’s light followed my gaze, traveling up the dark, rickety staircase. And he was there. He was standing at the top of the stairs, a dark silhouette against the faint light of the hallway. He was just watching me. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel his eyes. I was frozen, kneeling in the dirt next to my father’s corpse, a cornered animal. He took another step down. Then another. He moved with a quiet, fluid grace that my real father had never possessed. The flashlight beam caught his face as he neared the bottom of the stairs. He was wearing my father’s pajamas. He had my father’s tired, wrinkled eyes. He had my father’s graying hair. And he was smiling. It wasn’t a malicious smile. It wasn’t a triumphant one. It was sad. Infinitely sad. A smile full of a pity that was more terrifying than any rage. "I knew you’d find your way down here eventually," he said. His voice was my father’s voice, but without the gravelly, smoke-worn edge. It was smoother. Calmer. "I’m sorry you had to see this." I couldn’t speak. I could only stare, my mind a screaming void. I scrambled backward, away from him, away from the body, until my back hit the cold stone wall. He stopped a few feet away from the shallow grave, looking down at the body with that same mournful expression. "It was an accident," he said softly. "The second to last step. It's rotten. He was carrying the heavy wrench, his balance was off… he fell. He hit his head on the concrete floor right there. It was… quick. He didn't suffer." He looked at me, his eyes full of a strange, deep empathy. "His last thought… it was for you. He was worried about you. Worried you'd be all alone." My voice finally came back, a raw, terrified whisper. "What… what are you?" He tilted his head, a gesture that was so familiar, yet so utterly alien. "I'm him," he said. "And I'm not. You know how every person casts a shadow? A darker, simpler version of themselves that follows them through the light? Think of me as the other shadow. The one that lives on the other side of the veil. We watch. We exist in the shape of our double. We feel what they feel. Their joys, their sorrows… their love." He took a step closer, and I flinched. He stopped. "That last thought," he continued, his voice barely more than a murmur. "The love he had for you, his fear of leaving you alone… it was so powerful. A life cut short, with so much left to give. It created a… a space. And it pulled me through. I am his love, his duty, his need to take care of you, given form." He gestured around the basement. "I finished his work. I fixed the pipe. I buried him, so you wouldn't have to. I’ve been fixing the house. I've been making sure you’re safe. I’ve been trying to be a good father." The words were insane, but in the cold, damp air of that tomb, they felt horribly, undeniably real. "My dad is dead," I choked out, tears blurring my vision. "Yes," the thing in his skin said, and the sadness in its voice felt genuine. "He is. And I am so sorry for your loss. But I am here now." It took another step, and another, until it was standing right over me. It knelt down, so we were at eye level. Its face was inches from mine. I could see every line, every pore of the face I had known my whole life, animated by something I couldn't possibly comprehend. "He loved you more than anything," it whispered, its breath cold. "And so do I. I will never leave you. I will take care of you. We can be a family. Just like he wanted. Forever." And that’s where I am now. He… let me go upstairs. He walked behind me the whole way. He’s in the living room, watching the television as if nothing happened, as if my real father isn't lying in the dirt downstairs. He’s waiting for me. I’m locked in my closet. I know I can't escape. The doors are locked, and he is so much stronger than me. He doesn't need to sleep. He'll never get old. He'll never get sick. He'll just… be here. Taking care of me. Forever. I can hear him moving. The soft, quiet footsteps are coming down the hall. He’s coming to check on me. He's calling my name. It sounds just like my dad. submitted by /u/gamalfrank to r/nosleep [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
gamalfrank |
Nov 6, 2025 |
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Here's what you missed in Destiny 2!
The Red War - Peaceful. That was how one could describe the Tower on the days leading up to the attack. Cayde-6, the Vanguard leader of the Hunters, would crack jokes, Zavala, leader of the Titans, offered no reaction, and Ikora Rey, the Warlock Vanguard leader would shoot stern looks back, but would smile in secret. This day was like any other, until Ikora received some unsettling news: something out in the black abyss of space had stifled the early warning satellites. Zavala barely had time to register the enemy Cabal ships he glimpsed descending through a thick black smokescreen, and ordered everyone to surround him as he reaching into the void and called upon his Light to conjure a Ward of Dawn, which lasted as long as it could before ultimately failing. The Red Legion had started their attack. As our Guardian returns to the tower, we see a horrific scene. Smoke rises from the City, our Tower is in ruins, and the Vanguard are scattered. We manage to reconnect with Zavala, Ikora, and Cayde-6, but the damage has been catastrophic. The Speaker, the one who gives voice to the Traveler, has been taken hostage. With the help of Amanda Holliday, our shipwright, we board the Command Ship and aim to take out the leader of the Red Legion and the orchestrator of the invasion: Dominus Ghaul. We manage to blow some holes in his ship, but when our communication to the Vanguard is cut off, we emerge onto the deck of the ship to see the Traveler in a cage. "How do we come back from this?" asks Ghost. "You don't" Ghaul growls. He shows us how he has captured the Traveler and intends to take its Light for himself and his Legion. With a wave of his hand, the cage activates and cuts off the connection to the Light of every. Single. Guardian. Weakened, Ghaul effortlessly kicks us from his ship, and we crash into the smoldering ruins of the City below. As we wake up, we manage to escape the City, and we journey all the way to the City outskirts, where we meet up with Hawthorne. She is lightless, but still decides to help survivors and refugees. She leads us to the Farm, from which we then set out to the Dark Forest, where we make contact with a Shard of the Traveler that still contains some Light. Our ghost is able to syphon the Light from the Shard, and we are able to draw upon the Traveler's gift, getting our Light back! With our powers restored, we then travel to Titan in search of Zavala. On Titan we recruit Zavala, who then almost immediately starts to plan an attack to reclaim the City and the Traveler. Before that though, he needs his fireteam. We travel to Nessus and break Cayde-6 free of the Vex Tech he was stuck in. We travel to Io and meet up with Ikora who reflects on the Light, and what it means to be a Guardian. As we begin to plan the attack, we learn that the Red Legion has a massive space ship, the Almighty, that is capable of exploding suns, and it is currently pointed directly at ours. We come up with a new plan: the Guardian will steal a cabal ship and take out the Almighty from within, while the Vanguard, along with Hawthorne and the other survivors will create a distraction down in the City. After disabling the Almighty's weapon systems, we rendezvous with the Vanguard in the City, where Cayde hatches a dangerous scheme. He will use the vex tech he stole from Nessus to teleport us directly onto the Red Legion's command ship, where we first met with defeat. We manage to make it all the way to Ghaul himself, but something is different. You see, as we were recovering from the loss of our Light, Ghaul was conversing with his prisoner, the Speaker. Ghaul wanted to know how to claim the Light for himself. He did not want to force it from the Traveler like some brute, and he did not want to steal it either like some thief. Instead he wanted to be Chosen, he wanted the Traveler so see him as worthy of the Light. This unwillingness to simply harvest the Light caused some of Ghaul's command to turn on him, but Dominus Ghaul was no stranger to adversity. After his trusted advisor kills the Speaker in an attempt to spur Ghaul to action, Ghaul chokes his advisor to death as punishment for going against Ghaul's wishes, but ultimately he decides to show that he is worthy by taking the Light and defeating the Vanguard. As we come face-to-face with Ghaul, in the shadow of the caged Traveler, Ghaul begins to recount his deeds of war, noting that now that he has taken the Light, he has become Legend. We face off against Ghaul, Light versus Light, but we are the REAL champions of the Light, and we defeat Ghaul. As he comes crashing down to the deck of his ship, the Light begins to leak out from Ghaul's mangled corpse. In a brilliant flash of light, the image of Ghaul, bathed in a golden ephemeral power, hovers over the City. "Traveler, do you see me now?!" his voice thunders. The Traveler, long dormant, responds with a brilliant display of it's own. It awakens, sending its paracasual Light out in a blinding display of power. "You DO see" Ghaul utters as his form is wiped away entirely by the Traveler's Light. As the wave of power travels and expands, guardians across the solar system regain their connection to the Light. The day is won, but with tremendous loss. We begin to hope for a new age, now that the Traveler has begun to wake, and its Light has spread past the Moon, past Mercury and Mars, past the Reef, and out into space. The wave of Light passes past shapes in the dark, and the lights aboard these angular ships flicker to life as they begin to head in our direction. Something ELSE was awoken that day... Curse of Osiris - We save the mythical Warlock Osiris. Instead of breaking his exile and returning to the City, he stays on Mercury researching the Vex. Warmind - When the Traveler woke up at the end of the Red War (D2 first story), it also woke up the Warmind Rasputin and the Hive on Mars. We help the daughter of the mad scientist who helped create Rapsutin, named Ana Bray, and defeat the Hive necromancer Nokris, who is the son of Oryx, and we also defeat his Worm God Xol. Forsaken - There is a prison break in the Prison of Elders. Variks the Loyal was manipulated into releasing the Barons of the Reef, and their leader Uldren Sov. Uldren is the Prince of the Awoken, who went mad when he lost his sister, Queen Mara Sov, in the first battle of the Taken King. The barons and Uldren murder the Hunter Vanguard leader Cayde-6, and we hunt them down one-by-one. We finally corner Uldren in the hidden awoken city, the Dreaming City, and put a bullet between his eyes, finally avenging Cayde. Turns out Uldren himself was manipulated by the last Wish Dragon, or Ahamkara, named Riven. Riven was taken by Oryx and cursed the Dreaming City, but there was still someone ELSE pulling the strings the entire time... Season of the Forge - Ada-1 has come to the tower seeking help from Guardians. Ancient Golden Age forges, places that were used to make incredible weaponry, have been attacked and pillaged by the Fallen, Vex, and Cabal. We reclaim the forges and hunt down the Fallen leader pulling the strings, eventually clashing inside the Botza district of the Last City. Meanwhile A new Kell, Eramis the Ship Stealer, attempts to get her hands on some powerful Siva tech, but a different Eliksni Captain named Miithrax helps the Guardians stop her and reclaim the Outbreak Perfected. Season of the Drifter - The Drifter is convinced that the Darkness is coming back to finish the Traveler, so he seeks our help in preparing. Preparing for what, we don't entirely know. We learn that the Nine, who send Xur to our planets and Tower every weekend, are interested in seeing how we Guardians will rise to face this new Trial. Season of Opulence - The exiled former leader of the Cabal, Emperor Calus, has invited us back onto his Leviathan. He has heard the true voice behind the Darkness, and is convinced that the Darkness will end the Universe. He just wants everyone to get along and have fun right up until the end, and he wants to be the VERY LAST thing alive before the Darkness ends it all. Some Guardians join him and become Shadows of Earth. Turns out Calus has a problem onboard his Leviathan. His cabal found a Hive artifact, the Crown of Sorrow, and Calus wanted someone else to wear it just incase it was booby trapped. He creates Galrund, who was bred specifically to resist the Crown's power, but he wasn't strong enough and ultimately falls under the spell of the Crown. Once defeated, the Crown tumbles to the floor and we see who cursed it: Savathun, the Witch Queen. Hive God of trickery and deceit, and Oryx's sister. Shadowkeep - Eris Morn noticed that the Hive are very active on the Moon, and when she investigates further, she stumbles across a horrifying secret. The ancient enemy of the Traveler and the Light has left a Pyramid Ship buried under the surface of Luna. It's awakening has unleashed Nightmares into the sol system, and we Guardians plunder and delve the twisting catacombs of the moon in order to steal Hive technology that allows us to safely enter the Pyramid Ship. Once inside, our ghost begins to speak to us, but it is very clearly being used by another. The voice is the same, but the speaker is not. We are forced to relive our greatest battles; facing off against Gaul, who imprisoned our light, Crota, son of Oryx, who slew thousands of Guardians before falling, and Fikrul, the Fanatic, the most zealous of Uldren's Barons and one who, like us, can resurrect himself from the dead. After emerging victorious, we commune with a statue of a veiled woman, which gives us a vision: we are in the Black Garden, with numerous Pyramid Ships in the sky. A specter of ourself, a clone, approaches us. We do not recognize them. They announce that they are not our friend, they are not our enemy. They are our salvation. Season of the Undying - After communing with the Darkness in the Pyramid Ship, we are gifted a strange artifact, which signal leads to the Black Garden. However, this signal also instructed the Vex to invade the moon. We fight them off and even invade the Black Garden to close the portals and stop the incursions. Ikora Rey creates a device that will force the Undying Mind, leader of the invasions, into our timeline, where it is defeated in EVERY timeline. Season of the Dawn - Osiris has researched the Vex enough to utilize their time-control technology and built the Sundial, a device that can send us into the corridors of time and hopefully rescue the greatest Titan who ever lived, Saint-14. Meanwhile, the remnants of the Red Legion attempt to take control of the Sundial in order to go back in time and save Gaul from defeat. We fight them off, and eventually meet up with Saint. He is weary from years of fighting, but we show him a glimpse of the Last City, safe under the protection of the Traveler, and he is inspired once more. With this newfound hope, he valiantly continues to fight the fallen and vex for literal centuries before eventually making his way to the Infinite Forest portal on Mercury. Saint-14 is finally free and back in our timeline. He sets up shop in the Tower Hangar, where he likes to feed the birds. Season of the Worthy - The Red Legion, in a last-ditch effort to defeat the vanguard, have set their Sun-destroying space Ship, the Almighty, on a collision course with the Last City. With the help of the Warmind Rasputin, we set up an array of Warsats on different planets that can destroy the Almighty before it destroys the Traveler and the City. Rasputin, now powered up with the help of the Guardians, detects that the rest of the Pyramid Ships, the Black Fleet, is on the edge of our solar system, and getting closer. We don't have too much time to worry about them though, as the Almighty hurtles towards Earth. Eventually we launch enough nukes at it to disable it and send it crashing into the nearby hillside behind the Tower. Catastrophe is averted but the damage to the Tower can still be seen to this day (look near Zavala). Season of Arrivals - The celebration is over quickly as the Black Fleet reaches our outer celestial bodies like Io, Mars, Titan, and Mercury. They don't attack straight away, and instead offer once more to communicate with us. Before we can reach the Pyramid Ship on Io, we are teleported to the Court of Savathun, the Witch Queen. She interferes with our messages from the Darkness, but ultimately we are able to overcome her emissaries and meet with Eris Morn underneath the Pyramid Ship, under the branches of a tree with silver wings. As we evacuate the planets invaded by the Black Fleet, we continue to meet with the darkness, and Savathun continues to interfere. Eventually Savathun sends out her newest consort: the revived Hive necromancer Nokris. Even though necromancy is highly heretical to the Hive, Savathun allowed Nokris into her court, on the condition that he reveal the secrets of Necromancy to her. We have one last meeting with the Darkness before the Traveler fully awakes and pushes back the Black Fleet, but not before we lose the planets that they have already landed on (Titan, Io, Mars, and Mercury are removed from the game). Before it goes dark, the Darkness tells us to seek them out on Europa. Beyond Light - As we travel to Europa to investigate the last message from the Darkness, we pick up a distress signal from Variks. He has fled to Europa to hide from the vanguard and to live in a colony of Eliksni refugees in the old Clovis Bray labs of Eventide. This new colony, called Riis Reborn, was overseen by Eramis the Shipstealer, who discovered a splinter of darkness that gave her a new power: Stasis. She decides that she should use this power to destroy the Traveler, who her people worshipped before it left them and fled the pursuing Darkness, dooming the Eliksni. As we help Variks defeat Eramis and her lieutenants, a familiar stranger, the Exo Stranger, greets us and finally has time to explain. She is actually Elsie Bray, daughter to the mad scientist Clovis Bray, and sister to Ana Bray, who we helped back in the Warmind DLC. Elsie and her father both suffered from a genetic disease that was killing them, and in his search for a cure, Clovis stumbled upon the Darkness, which told him that if he built a star portal, he could harvest resources from the Vex in order to build Exos; synthetic robots that could transfer the human consciousness. While he eventually succeeded in creating the Exos, he subjected countless unwilling victims to torture and suffering, and unwittingly allowed allowed Vex to invade Europa much like they did the Moon, however this was years ago. Elsie, like Osiris, has been using Vex Tech to travel around in time in order to prevent the dark future in which she witnessed the Darkness win. She believes that if we can use and control the Darkness like we use the powers of the Light, then we can win against the Black Fleet. She helps to train us to use Stasis, and when we confront Eramis directly, we use Stasis to defeat her. In a last-ditch effort to call upon the Darkness, Eramis tries to use Stasis, but is instead frozen solid at the top of Riis Reborn, looking out at the Pyramid Ship laying dormant on Europa. Season of the Hunt - Osiris, after having finally rescued his partner Saint-14, turns his attention to the Hive and the Pyramid Ships. As he's researching in the catacombs of the moon, he is ambushed by a frenzied knight and knocked to the ground. Just as the knight is about to deliver the killing blow, a Guardian stabs it through the chest and saves Osiris. That Guardian is Uldren Sov, who after being killed by either us or the Queen's Wrath Petra Venj, was revived by the Traveler and given a ghost. For years this new Guardian wandered the solar system, and was beaten and killed mercilessly by any other Guardian who recognized him as the man who killed Cayde-6. Eventually he found his way to the Tangled Shore and began to work for the Spider, an Eliksni entrepreneur akin to a mafia boss. The-man-who-was-Uldren takes a new name now: Crow. Together he and his ghost Glint help us track down and destroy the wrathborn, aliens of all races that have been corrupted by another Hive God. Xivu Arath is the Hive God of War, and sister to Oryx and Savathun. She has sent her High Celebrant to the tangled shore to corrupt herself an army to march on the Light. We fight and defeat her High Celebrant, but it is clear that Xivu Arath is becoming much, much stronger. She is the champion of the Darkness, and with that, she has direct communication to the Voice in the Dark. As a reward for saving Spider's home, we take Crow back with us to the Last City. Season of the Chosen - Crow, understandably afraid to show his face to the thousands of Guardians who still blame him for Cayde's death, decides to Don a mask and new outfit to help keep him from being recognized. Osiris, having been exiled himself from the city once, takes Crow under his wing. Suddenly, the Cabal Empress Caiatl depends upon our solar system, but being more diplomatic than her father Calus, decides to speak with Zavala before outright attacking. After explaining that Xivu Arath and her Hive destroyed the Cabal homeworld of Torobatl, Caiatl proposes that the vanguard serve the Cabal empire and help wipe out the Hive. Zavala declines, stating that "we sign no treaties at the end of a gun." We trade blows with the Empresses' war council before eventually we both decide to settle this confrontation once and for all in the Proving Grounds. After we defeat her champion, Caiatl honors her word and invites Zavala and Crow to bear witness to her Armistice. During the ceremony, a rogue Cabal psion fires a light-draining device at Zavala's ghost, stripping him of his Light. With Zavala now vulnerable, another psion assassin rushes at him with a ceremonial knife. Crow jumps in at the nick of time and manages to deflect the blow, crushing his mask in the process. Caiatl herself steps in to defend Zavala, remaining true and honorable and sending her commanders to hunt down the one who ordered the assassination. Zavala turns to Crow to make sure he isn't hurt, and now finds himself face-to-face with the man who murdered his fireteam member and friend. Knowing that Guardians shouldn't be judged by their past life, Zavala extends his hand to Crow, officially welcoming him into the vanguard. Season of the Splicer - The Vex have unleashed an endless night over the Last City! Ikora believes that the only person with enough knowledge of the vex and machinery to help us would be the Eliksni leader Miithrax. He leads the House of Light, a faction of Eliksni who don't want to murder and pillage, they just want to live peacefully underneath the Traveler once more. In exchange for his help, Miithrax asks the vanguard to help house the numerous Eliksni refugees, and so Ikora gives them a new home in the Botza District of the Last City. We work with Miithrax to unravel the endless night, but not all citizens of the City are happy to have fallen living within the walls. Lakshmi, leader of the the Future War Cult, has used a machine powered by the vex to look into the future and has seen conflict arise from housing the fallen refugees. Miithrax and his people are attacked and their camp sabotaged, so Saint-14 is sent to help defend them and help them acclimate. Saint himself is no fan of the fallen, having had to witness them kill countless people over the centuries he lived before joining our timeline again. Miithrax offers Saint a different point of view and tells him a story of how his people viewed Saint as an unkillable monster, who killed and slaughtered even the most innocent of Eliknsi. Saint reflects on being viewed as a monster, and slowly begins to accept Miithrax's perspective. With Miithrax able to work at full capacity, we find out that the culprit behind the endless night is Quria, a taken Hydra. This means that Savathun has been pulling the strings yet again! We hunt down and defeat Quria, ending the endless night, but before we get a chance to rest, the vex invade the Last City! Lakshmi has taken things too far and accidentally opened a portal RIGHT inside the Last City. She was taught how to open the portal by...OSIRIS?! The vex invade through the portal, killing Lakshmi and attacking the Eliknsi refugees, but the vanguard rushes to their aid. Miithrax is almost overrun by vex until Saint declares that the Eliknsi, like everyone else in the Last City, are HIS people too, and joins Miithrax in defending the refugees. Miithrax tells Saint that the Eliknsi will have a new tale of the Saint to tell, and Ikora, Zavala, and even the shipright Amanda Holliday jump in to defend the refugees. Together they drive back the vex as we close the portal, ending the vex invasion. Osiris watches the entire battle from the rooftops, before getting into his Ship and flying away... Season of the Lost (current season) - demanding that he answer for his actions, we track Osiris to the Dreaming City, where we are surprised by none other than Queen Mara Sov! She wasn't FULLY killed when Oryx attacked the Awoken all those years ago, but was trapped in the Ascendant plane until she eventually escaped. She watches as we corner Osiris, who reveals who he REALLY is...Savathun! The Witch Queen had taken Osiris' form and was infiltrating the vanguard ever since the REAL Osiris lost his ghost Sagira on the moon while investigating the Pyramids. As she begins to transform into her real, terrible form, Queen Mara uses her power to trap her inside of some sort of crystal. The queen of lies offers a deal: she will give us back the real Osiris if we help her get rid of her Worm. Savathun, Xivu Arath, and Oryx all made a pact with the Worm gods for power, but in exchange the worms eat away at the siblings if they aren't offering tithes. When asked why we should help make her mortal, Savathun says she was only trying to help us prepare for the REAL villain, her sister Xivu Arath. Savathun knows that the Darkness has been helping Xivu Arath grow in strength, and the Hive God of War now commands the scorn, the Hive, AND the taken. Throughout the weeks we have been venturing into the Ascendant realm, aligning beacons and saving Queen Mara's coven of tech witches, called Techeuns. The ritual is almost ready, and we are getting close to removing Savathun's worm... submitted by /u/d1lordofwolves to r/DestinyTheGame [link] [comments]
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d1lordofwolves |
Nov 30, 2021 |
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