Another Kind of Magic

Albion wasn't part of the European Dead Zone.

According to Magus, there was some poetic justice in that. Long before the Fall, even the Golden Age, the island had often distanced itself from the larger continent. So while Europe proper was a dead wasteland, Albion was verdant and green. Abandoned by humans and subject to roving groups of Fallen, but far more peaceful when compared to other areas of Earth, let alone its sister planets.

"Huh. Full moon tonight."

And the moon, Alcyone reflected. She'd never been there, and after hearing of what Team Wolfpack had gone through recently, that might be for the best. Glancing over at Halcyon, leaning against one of the monoliths that surrounded them, she wondered if he felt the same.

"Figures," the Titan murmured. "Wolfpack gets all the fun, we're stuck down here."

Apparently not.

Leaning against another monolith, Alli glanced around. Magus was in prayer, Artemis was sharpening her blade with a whetstone, and Hal was being…well, Hal. The team's leader, but only willing to act like one when he felt like it. And then there was Alcyone herself – Titan cadet, taken out from the Last City for some in-field experience, and…well, whatever came. Including 'quality time,' with her mentor.

"I wouldn't complain you know," Alli said, walking over to the other Titan. Like her, he was still in his armour bar his helmet. "Last I heard the moon is the last place any of us want to be."

"Speak for yourself."

"I do," she said, sitting down beside her friend, glancing at the moon and at the fire in the centre of the stone circle. "I'm as eager to fight the fight as you are, but I'd like to keep alive when doing it."

Hal grunted. Alli fell silent. She glanced back at the fire, then at Magus and Artemis. Despite the former being a warlock, and the latter being an Awoken and consequently the only non-human on Hal's team, she felt like the outsider. Age, experience, whatever. Still shifting her gaze, she looked up at the monoliths. Magus had compared them to something out of a pre-Golden Age movie that included an AI, spaceships, and lots of music, but he hadn't elaborated.

"Stonehenge."

Alli glanced at Hal. "What?"

"Stonehenge. This used to be called Stonehenge. Before it was turned into this." Hal glanced at her. "Used to be just a pile of rocks you know. Back in the good 'ol days. Or before them. Your millage may vary on that."

The younger Titan glanced around, not sure what to make of things – that Hal was talking about something that didn't involve aliens, guns, or the combination of those two things, or that this circle of stones was once something different. The monoliths around her were sleek, tall, and black. Polished and unblemished. It seemed incomprehensible that it had ever looked any different.

"Why change it?" she asked eventually.

Hal shrugged. "Golden Age whackery. Raising Atlantis, reviving Teotihuacan, all manner of crazy shit." He gestured around the monoliths. "This was just part of it."

"Right," Alli said incredulously. "And where'd you read that?"

"I didn't. I heard it."

"Figures. Never took you as the reading type."

"Look kid when you're outside the Last City as much as me, you hear things," Hal snapped. "Not that I believe all of them – I mean, there was even tales of time travel, of bona fide non-Traveller magic. But in the wider scheme of things, making this place like something out of a sci-fi movie isn't too farfetched is it?"

Alli bit her lip. She expected Hal to burst out laughing and say "fooled you!" at any moment, but under the possibility that such a thing didn't happen, she felt compelled to consider the possibility that he was telling the truth. And all things considered, after seeing what warlocks could do with their magic, after seeing what human and alien technology was capable of, a circle of monoliths didn't seem that farfetched.

"Anyway," Hal said, patting her on the shoulder. "It still serves its original purpose of sorts. Or what might have been one."

"And that is?"

"Here," Hal said, lying down on the grass in such a manner that he was facing towards the centre of the stones, or rather the sky above me. "Lie down with me."

Alli blushed.

"Not like that you twit, just lie down."

Slowly, the younger Titan did so. She told herself that she wasn't doing anything wrong, that her armour wasn't about to lock down with an alarm yelling "fraternization!" As she lay down, the only thing she heard was the sound of crickets, and the only thing she felt was damp grass mixing with her hair.

"And there you go," Hal said. "Notice anything?"

Alli stared. And watched. The moon…from this angle, it was right in the centre of the monoliths. She was looking through a gap in-between two, to see it in the sky perfectly above the centre.

"Same applies for the sun," Hal said. "But I guess you'd get the same effect for any time of day or night depending where you looked from."

Alli just kept staring. The moon looked…larger, somehow. She knew it was a trick of her eyes, but in-between the monoliths, it was as if it was being magnified. If anything, it reminded her of the Traveller, how it had always hung in the sky of the Last City, how she'd always crawled out of her bed as a child when she couldn't sleep and just stare at it. Even now, that sense of wonder remained.

"Maybe going to the moon wouldn't be so bad," she whispered.

"What?"

"Nothing Hal," she said, taking his hand and giving it a soft squeeze. "Nothing to worry about."

A/N

There were two sources of inspiration for this. First was some "leaked" artwork for Titan that's almost certainly fake (though could be for World of Warcraft concievably, but that's another issue), but right now, I'll take what I can get. Especially since it was announced that Titan's release date has been postponed until at least 2016. What prompted Destiny in this is an idea I've seen floating around, that the delay was enforced by Activision so that the games would be released in different timeframes and so wouldn't compete against each other, or taking the theory even further, that Titan is a prequel to Destiny, and storywise, it's to be released beforehand. I really doubt that's the case given the games' development histories, and am skeptical that the release timetable is the reason either. Still, did get me to write this as a result.