“Hey! Need A Hand?”

Corinth is the Exomind of a 12 year old boy who died of a terminal disease. After being brought back as an Exo, he quickly realized something was off, but had no time to act on it as the Vex swarmed Europa.

"Hm?" Corinth looks up from the old, wrecked sparrow he'd been working on, oil and grease splattered across his face and hands. "Not much. Took it for a test ride and ran into some very angry Eliksni. Gotta fix it again."

“Uhm, honestly? I don’t really know. I mean, I know what everyone’s told me, but I feel like there’s more to it. But, I don’t know, I haven’t really gone looking for the answer.”

Corinth had sat down hard in one of the camp chairs by the flickering fire, looking out over the ridge towards the glowing monument in the distance.

“I just…I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right. Something about his eyes..they’re just. Not the same. He’s not the same.”

Phoebe floats nearby, her quicksilver shell condescending and expanding nervously. “I know, honey, I know. It..it’s going to be hard, adjusting to having him around again. And Traveler only knows if it’ll be..a permanent change or not.”

Continuing his thought as if he hadn’t heard his Ghost, Corinth puts his head in his hands. “It’s like he just looked right through me. I..I just. I know we have bigger things to deal with right now, but..”

Moving closer to her Guardian, Phoebe gently pushes against his hand, nuzzling it affectionately. “I’m sorry, Corinth. I know that’s not how you wanted it to go. I’m so sorry.”

The wound in her shell still oozed webs of darkness, but it had been stabilized, for now, with strands of a delicate, solid light. It would hold, for now, until they could find a permanent way to fix it.

“It’s okay, Be.” His hand turns to cup her shell, gently stroking the smooth metal with his thumb. “I just, I thought I’d be *happy*. Now I feel…numb.”

“It’s going to take some time and getting used to. It won’t be easy. But, we’ll do it together, alright? I promise.”

“Yeah..yeah. Together we can do anything, right?”

"Well were supposed to be on earth.." Spade a little red ghost said cautiously.

"Spade.. buddy... pal.........we're on Nessus..." @the-dealers-choice

“I hate to break it to you, but Nessus is a long way from Earth.”

Corinth had been resting in one of the huge, red leaved trees that littered Nessus, and upon hearing the argument had poked his down from the boughs.

Hanging upside down with his legs wrapped around a branch, the young Hunter flashes a thumbs up to show he’s friendly, before getting smacked in the face with his own Memory of Cayde cloak.

Cayde-Six, the Hunter Vanguard, laid dead on the floor. One limp hand was still cradling the other Guardian’s head, holding it in the darkness to the still chest.

Corinth didn’t look up as she approached, not even as she kneeled down next to him. He didn’t want to leave. If he left it would be admitting it was over, that Cayde was dead. That this wasn’t a nightmare.

Petra gently removed the dead hand from the young Guardian’s neck, laying it respectfully on the corpses’ chest. She looks for the familiar white and black gun, to place in the still hands, and she growls when she finds nothing. “He took the gun too.” Is all she says, feeling misery welling up in her chest, like water threatening to overtake a dam. No, she had to be strong. At least for a little while longer; there would be time to mourn later.

Corinth hadn’t moved an inch, his head still pressed to the gap between chin and chest, as if listening desperately for the hint of a spark, or a hiss of electricity through wires; praying for something to mask the horrible silence. Cayde was never silent, never. He couldn’t be now.

He couldn’t.

The young Hunter’s shoulders shake violently, a little eruption threatening total destruction.

She wished he hadn’t been here for this. Cayde had been insistent on the kid joining them, to give him some ‘real world experience’ and ‘get him out of the Tower’. And while she’d agreed, hell two Guardians were always better than one, she now felt a gut wrenching sense of guilt rising up from her stomach. If she’d just have said no..

Carefully, Petra unclips the cape dangling from her shoulders, gently wrapping it around those heaving shoulders. “It’s not your fault,” is all she can say for a moment, as the Exo throws himself into her arms, sparking tears running down his face; mask long since casted off. “Look at me, it’s not your fault, okay? You did better than I did. You did amazing. It’s not your fault.”

Her hands grasp the child-Exo’s shoulders, firmly pushing him away, to look her in the eye. “It’s not your fault, Corinth. It’s Uldren Sov’s fault. Don’t ever forget that.”

Her words were firm, but she lets the young Hunter fall against her again, patting his back. She could feel tears pricking at her own eye, and she blinks furiously to push them back.

“Let’s get you out of here. I’ll come back with some Corsairs to get..” her words break as she looks back at the body.

The Queen’s Wrath had seen many bodies in her time, and while all of them had been awful to see, there were only a few that hit as hard as seeing Cayde’s; of seeing the death of someone she had admired so much.

She stands slowly, offering Corinth her hands to steady himself, but he didn’t get up, unable to force his legs to move, to carry his heavy weight.

“I can’t.” He sobs, spark-tears threatening to ignite the remnants of ether clinging to his faceplates. “I can’t, Petra. I can’t leave him.”

“I know, I know. I’m so sorry.” She leans down, using her cape around his shoulders to wipe away the staining ether. “But we need to get out of here.”

The kid suddenly stood bolt upright, looking past the body, towards the shattered wall that Cayde had been flung through.

He runs then, as fast as his leadened legs could stumble him forward, through the gap, frantically looking for something on the ground.

“Corinth? What are- we need to go! Before the wall collapses!”

Corinth didn’t pay Petra’s words any heed, searching incessantly. Finally, he stoops down, picking several pieces from the ground. He steps out from the rubble, walking solemnly to Petra with the shattered remains of Sundance; Cayde’s faithful Ghost.