A/N: Little idea I've had for a bit, hope you enjoy. This is like the fourth reupload due to formatting errors, grammatical errors, and general malaise.

Beta'd by maxaro

Rhyddid

It is said that the final thing you see upon death is a light at the end of a tunnel. This is categorically untrue, for multiple reasons. The first in which is that any light seen upon dying while your eyes are closed is almost certainly a result of oxygen deprivation and not an actual physical light. The second reason is more of a capitalization issue than anything else, really. You see, there aren't many people that can claim to have faced death and won. There are even fewer that can claim to have faced death and lost. These people are either deranged, some form of zombie, or Lightbearers. That is not to say a combination of the aforementioned labels is not possible, as anyone who has met Toland the Shattered can attest that he is all three. Regardless, the point of the matter is that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Lightbearers would be the first to say that there is no light at the end of a tunnel. Now, if one were to ask if there was Light at the end of the said tunnel? Well, that is almost certainly another question entirely. To Lightbearers, the Light is the tunnel. To Lightbearers, the Light is also the earth surrounding the tunnel, the air in the tunnel, and the planet the tunnel is in. It is the protons and the neutrons and the electrons and the quarks and every last little piece of the universe. To Lightbearers, the Light is everything.

Cayde-6 did not remember much about life before the Collapse. The fact that he remembered anything at all made him unique among Exos, most of whom were content to forget their past lives and move on. The Deep Stone Crypt cared not for your history or your previous life. The Deep Stone Crypt took all and left none. The few memories he had were bittersweet. Fleeting echoes of a wife and son foremost, and a career as a soldier. These recollections were transient, and it was only through the liberal use of writing his thoughts down in a journal that he even recalled them to this day. Sometimes he felt he imagined everything, unsure if his family was even real.

Far more vivid, were his memories of a life lost to gambling and debt, selling himself to the Bray Exo program to clear his dues. Memories of a cold moon, and a sarcophagus of ice and iron. Stone towers rung round with glaciers, rooted deep within a heart of stone. The Deep Stone Crypt took everything, and while he came as a machine of blood and bone, he left as a being of oil and metal. When he laid to rest, rebooted, there was no light. Only a crypt of stone, deep within a cold moon.

Cayde was dying. This was an unequivocal truth. His ghost, Sundance, his loyal companion who had been with him since the beginning, destroyed by a rifle shot from a hidden Fallen. His revolver, the Ace of Spades, turned on its owner by Uldren Sov, the man about to kill him. His knives used up, and his Light spent, Cayde knew this was the end of the line. He would not be dying alone, having slaughtered a veritable army of the four-armed bastards before the destruction of Sundance. With his last words, a taunt about the dead sister of the man in front of him, Cayde knew he was dead. A shot rang out, and Cayde knew no more.

Thus, when he awoke in a forest surrounded by dense vegetation, Cayde was immensely surprised to be feeling anything at all. Possibilities of the events being a dream were dismissed upon careful inspection of his chest cavity, of which there appeared to be a hole. A rather large hole, the caliber of which could only have been fired from his own gun. His musings on the nature of his death and subsequent unexpected revival were cut short by a bestial howl. A glance around his surroundings revealed a scene one might expect from Earth, and until he looked up, he was relatively sure that Earth was indeed where he was, but it changed when he saw the moon.

Or what was left of it.

Now, Cayde-6 did not consider himself much of an authority on celestial bodies, but he was pretty sure moons weren't supposed to be shattered, with pieces of lunar debris somehow staying close to the celestial body while not even remotely attached to the moon in question.

His train of thought was broken when a louder howl echoed all around him, bringing his attention to the noise and away from the disturbing violation of physics.

Quadrupedal and dark, with glowing red eyes and a peculiar exoskeleton, the creature in front of him looked almost like a combination between a wolf, a Taken, and a deranged Festival of the Lost costume(although not the most deranged Festival of the Lost costume he had seen—that honor belonged to a rather unhinged Warlock who decided to dress up as a more… provocative Eris Morn).

"Well aren't you an ugly thing," Cayde commented, groaning and reaching for Ace. He paused, however, when he found nothing but air, patting himself down as he searched for his revolver. Upon realizing that his hand cannon was nowhere on his person, he sighed and reached for one of his knives instead, coming up empty-handed once more. Weaponless, he stared at the wolf-Taken-thing.

The wolf-Taken-thing stared back

Cayde blinked. "Hey, uh… look, I'm just passing through… I don't suppose we can, I dunno… not try to kill each other? I've had a really, really long day and I am just not in the mood, like at all."

The wolf Taken thing growled, and Cayde suddenly became aware of several dozen, glowing red dots, partially hidden in the nearby foliage. He blinked again as the wolf creature became many wolf creatures. Many, angry, growling wolf creatures.

With no other options, he reached for the Light, and empty hands grasped a flaming gun.

"I did warn you."

His words were immediately cut off by the firing of the ethereal pistol. The first shot eradicated several of the strange animals, blasting through them and revealing black ichor that mixed with ashes before evaporating. The surviving wolves advanced on him, baying even louder, but he paid little attention to the commotion, so focused was he on the second shot.

Now, one might think that the ability to summon a gun composed entirely of Light and Will would be incredibly strong, and one would be correct, were it not for the fact that this gun could only fire three bullets before dissipating. With Hunters, this is very Bad. Why the capital B, one might ask? Well, there are few things a Hunter enjoys more than long durations away from civilized society, and one of said things is the subtle art of wasting an entire magazine of ammunition in about the amount of time it would take for the average human to blink. When the only thing between you and certain death (or resurrection, as is the case most of the time for a Risen) are three measly bullets (albeit ones that travel through bodies like paper, immolating every target they pass through) this ammunition runs out fast.

"This day is just not getting any better, is it?" Forcing Light to his legs, Cayde moved, becoming but a blur as he repositioned to get as many of the approaching creatures in a line as possible.

This is another thing Hunters like to do. By sending Light to certain limbs, they can boost the output of power in their body by incredible amounts, which often results in some rather impressive acrobatics and absolutely bullshit displays of speed. Despite the prevalent use of this ability among Hunters—read, literally any time they can find an excuse to use it—information about the actual usage is not common among other Risen. Mostly due to the secretive nature of Hunters, who generally explain away their abilities with an unrepentant grin and a response of 'get good'.

With over two-thirds of their number dead within barely more than a second, bestial intelligence warned the wolves that something was very, very wrong. Unfortunately for the animals, this would prove to be their last thought, as with a final bullet of fire lancing through half of those remaining, Cayde materialized several knives and let loose, blades hitting their mark and disintegrating the final wolves.

This was yet another Hunter ability. Through a similar process of creating the gun, their Will forms into knives of fire that do impressive amounts of damage to the bodies of the targets they enter. Unsurprisingly, these knives—like the Hunters who wield them—are gaudy things; bright and blazing and painful to look at for a prolonged period of time. Not that they stay materialized for long, as they tended to explode rather violently upon contact with any solid target.

Cayde looked around, checking for any more of the strange things. Finding none, he allowed himself to fall onto a knee, panting heavily. He looked at the sky. "Can I just catch a break? Please? Pretty please?"

The sky did not respond, apparently having had better things to do than answer the rhetorical questions of frustrated Hunters in their time of psychological crisis.

It should be noted that in humans, there are two main chemicals for stress. The first of which is cortisol, which increases glucose in the bloodstream and helps to repair tissue. The second chemical needs no introduction but will be given one anyway. It's adrenaline, which increases the heart rate and blood pressure, while also giving you more access to your energy supplies.

Exos do not have these chemicals, but they do have very similar processes in order to better integrate their brain into operating on a remotely human level. Stress is a part of being human, just like any other essential process, and is emulated in Exos through little subroutines that give them more access to their servos and motors along with boosting the amount of strength that they would normally be able to use.

Cayde-6 was a frequent user of these subroutines—not that he was, you know, actually consciously aware of the existence of said subroutines, of course—and this situation, like most others Cayde found himself in, triggered these programs the moment he subliminally acknowledged a threat.

When these subroutines were canceled or had run their course, just like in humans where the drop in blood sugar could make one feel tired and weak, these same conditions were forced upon the Exo. Mostly to keep from overheating, overexertion, and other over-things that could be detrimental to the overall goal of living.

Thus, with the threat dealt with, and Light recovering, Cayde fully collapsed onto the ground. The Exo equivalent of adrenaline finally wore off, leaving a deep-set feeling of exhaustion that did not appear to be going away. As he looked up at the fractured moon, drowsiness slowly claiming him, his final thought before sleep was a hope against all hope there was at least a noodle shop on this godforsaken rock.