Part 1 can be found here: [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/129520632/0/0[/url]
I couldn't believe what I just heard! I'd have laughed in his face & walked out of the bar, in retrospect perhaps I should have done exactly that, but there was something in his haunted expression. He seemed so earnest there was no doubt in my mind he believed what he was saying. I let the words sink in for a minute: Rahool is a serial killer!
"I don't understand... a serial killer? Do you have proof?"
"Not proof, not really. I did an investigation a few months back based on something Tyrell, one of Amanda Holiday's chief engineers, told me. He was talking to Tess Everis at a bar in the city, not far from the base of the Tower where she lives. He made some offhand comment about not trusting Rahool. At the mention of his name Tess visibly blanched. Quite an achievement for a woman whose natural skin colour is blue. 'You don't know the half of it!' she told him."
"Tess Everis? The one who runs the Special Acquisitions stand?" I asked.
"That's her! Well she said that one night when the Tower spawning system had been shut down for repairs & the Guardians were being temporarily redirected to the city below, she was up late taking inventory. She'd seen that cleaning frame Savini-83 pottering around doing his cleaning duties. Earlier in the day one of those erratic red Ghost shells malfunctioned. It slammed into the side of her shack & knocked one of the big rivets in the wall clean out. The hole it left behind was big enough to see through without being seen. So when she heard a commotion she peered through the hole in the direction it was coming from. The frame was standing near Rahool's stall. The big iron trapdoor on the floor next to his shack was half open & light was spilling out. The sound Tess had heard was the frame dropping it's broom. When she looked it was peering through the gap in the trapdoor & then it suddenly rushed off saying something along the lines of 'Oh dear! Oh my! I must tell Commander Zavala immediately!'"
"What happened then?" I asked captivated by the unfolding mystery & a rapidly growing sense of unease.
"Well according to Tess she didn't see the frame for a few days after that. The next time she saw it the thing was sporting a new paint job & it was in the corridor that leads from the Tower's main Plaza to the Hanger Bay. It was completely unresponsive & just kept sweeping the same area. They didn't change the name plate though, it still reads Savini-83. It's been there ever since, slowly wearing a hole in the floor with it's constant sweeping."
"That frame? Yeah, I've passed it dozens of times on my way to see Amanda about having a new ship built or looking for Xur."
"Well here's where it gets really weird." He leaned across the table toward me & continued even more quietly "Tyrell decided to do some snooping of his own. He reprogrammed a frame to replace Savini-83 while he tried to find out what was wrong. After a brief examination of it's cranial section he noticed its primary memory CPU was damaged & there was a dent in the corner of the left eye between the socket & the optical sensor. He said it looked as if someone had deliberately sabotaged the unit with a screwdriver, jabbed the thing into it's eye & half pried the CPU from the daughterboard!"
"Like a crude lobotomy?" I asked.
"Exactly... thing is... Tyrell removed the CPU & ran some tests. It was very badly damaged but he managed to isolate three video files, Savini-83's last remaining memories. The first one was from the night Tess mentioned. He was sweeping near Rahool's stall when he noticed the gap in the open trapdoor. There was a flight of steps & at the bottom there were tables covered in chains, pre-collapse bondage gear & Hive torture implements."
"EW! Okay so he's a bit fruity. No surprise there."
"SHHH! It gets worse!" he whispered insistently. "There was blood, lots of it! It was on the table, the floor... the impliments were all stained with it... but worst of all were the shelves... Rahool's collection of Golden Age pickling jars. The contents were barely recognisable but... the Ghosts... he'd butchered their Ghosts so they couldn't move, couldn't speak much less cry out & he was using them to keep the contents of the jars... alive! In a permanent state of consciousness... a living hell with no hope of escape! It dropped it's broom & then there was just static"
"What about the other recordings?" I asked weakly feeling a wave of nausea wash over me.
"The second recording was Savini-83 reaching the Vanguard Ward Room. There was no sign of Ikora Rey or Cayde-6, just Commander Zavala alone reading. Savini told Zavala what it had witnessed. Zavala didn't seem surprised, he calmly thanked the frame & sent it on it's way after ordering it not to mention this to anyone else & assuring it he would take this matter into his own hands. As it left the room the recording degraded into more static"
"And the last recording? What was Savini's final memory?" I asked not certain I wanted to know the answer.
"It was cleaning again in the empty Hangar area. Before it knew what was happening it was struck heavily from behind & knocked to the floor by a large purple ball. Then Rahool was upon it, kneeling on it's chest to stop it from getting up. A familiar voice from the shadows hissed 'Do you have any idea how lucky we are that it found me first? If I have to wipe Cayde's memory one more time because he saw or heard something he wasn't supposed to I'm certain his primary CPU will burn out! That was sloppy Rahool, I'm beginning to wonder if you're the right man for this job.' he said as he crossed to Amanda's tool cabinet & picked out a screwdriver.
'I have just as much to lose as you do, Sir. We are doing an invaluable service. We can't have cheating in the Crucible. This manipulation of reality has to stop! I still haven't worked out how they do it, they just seem to become briefly invulnerable, walk into a wall for a few moments & the next thing you know the opposing team just appear to suddenly die for no discernible reason. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, as long as you & Shaxx continue to identify the ones causing this problem, I'll continue to punish them & use my Cryptograpy business to redistribute their belongings.'
'I'm just warning you, one more slip up like this & I'll see to it you find out what it feels like to see the world from the inside of a pickling jar! We don't want anyone snooping around asking questions about all the missing Guardians, if they find out about this where will it stop? Next they'll be wondering why there are no children in the Tower or the city below or even why the Speaker never removes his helmet.'
'Indeed' replied Rahool 'imagine the outcry if it ever got out that the Speaker isn't who or what they think he is, not to mention that if anything happened to him you-know-who would likely order an all out attack on the City.'
'I'm more concerned how The Nine would react.' he said as he handed Rahool the screwdriver 'You know what to do.'
Rahool took the screwdriver in one hand, holding the frame's cranial unit steady he brought it in toward it's eye, there was a cracking noise, a crunch & a burst of static... and that was it."
I downed the last of my drink & sat silently for a moment trying to process what I'd just been told. Braykipac leaned across the table one more time & whispered to me.
"What's really creepy is that sometimes, if you're in the Tower late at night when the full moon is in alignment with the Traveller, if you stand close to that misfortunate frame & listen very carefully you can hear him whisper Commander Zavala's name over & over again on an infinite loop."
And with that he stood, thanked me for my help & the drinks, insisted once more on my discretion regarding our topic of conversation & left. I considered ordering something a lot stronger than ale from the bar but dismissed the thought, deciding I'd had quite enough to drink for one night & that all the alcohol in the Reef wouldn't help alleviate the chill I felt deep inside.
Needless to say I try to avoid the Tower now myself & whenever I see a frame performing some menial task I wonder if it has some hidden story we may never know about.
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Just moved this story to the community area & noticed that the banner for the community section is a birds eye view of the Main Plaza in The Tower & you can clearly see the cellar doors to the right of Rahool's stall.
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For more proof of Rahools wickedness go to the cave in Skywatch just below the building where the Fallen arrive and disturb the remains.
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