[b]Chapter 17. The Confrontation [/b] Jack jumped out of the Queen and stormed out of the hangar, Amanda watching with confusion as she watched her leave. She looked over at Cayde, who had a look of anger on his face.   "Cayde, what happened?" Amanda asked with genuine concern.   "Not now," Cayde snapped.  Cayde made his way to Zavala's office, his synthetic blood boiling as he reached the door to his office. The door parted, and Zavala turned to see who had entered, his brow raising as he saw Cayde.   "Cayde, you're back? I take it the strike went well?"   "More like the opposite," he hissed, "Jack nearly died trying to fight Sepiks!"   Zavala frowned, "I'm sure the Titans would've-"   "The Titans weren't there!"   "What?"   "Yeah, your titans weren't there," Cayde hissed.   Zavala shook his head, "My apologies, Cayde," he looked back up at him, "So, Sepiks isn't dead?"   Cayde scoffed; he couldn’t believe that was all Zavala was concerned with. They almost lost another Guardian! "Of course not; you really think she could kill that thing herself? Not even you can kill him alone!"   Zavala rested his hands on his desk as he sighed, "We'll try again."   "Not with her, you won't."   "Cayde…" he growled in a warning tone.   "No, that thing almost killed her; I'm not having her go through that again!"   "Cayde, she is a guardian!" Zavala snapped, "We must fight and protect humanity and the Traveler, and sometimes people die in the process," he lowered his voice. "Now, I'm sorry that the titans didn't show up, but you can't keep her from doing strikes and training," Zavala stared at Cayde as the Exo stared at the ground, still obviously annoyed, "…She needs to train with actual enemies if you want her to get better. She can't keep stalking animals and Shaxx. I understand why you don't want her to attend the Crucible, and I support that decision. I know other Guardians can be… rough, to say the least. But she has to learn how to handle herself among real threats."  Cayde sighed; he knew the Awoken was right; he hated when he was right, "Yeah… I know."  Zavala studied him for a moment, "You have become very close with the girl; it's impacting your decisions."  Cayde was a little taken aback, "What, no! I just don't want her to get killed, Sheldon-"  "Is different," Zavala nodded, "I understand that, but you are becoming very protective of her."  "She's a good kid," Cayde explained, "She's also one of my Hunters. I'd act the same way to any of my Hunters if they had a defective Ghost."  Zavala remained silent, his emotion unchanging as he stared at Cayde, "I want her to go again and kill Sepiks this time."   Cayde narrowed his brow, "No, I'm not-"  "This is not up for discussion, Cayde," Zavala growled, "She is going to finish this mission."  "Then I'm going with her."  The Titan stared with surprise, "No, you're needed at the tower-"  "Look, call it an 'I owe you for having your Titans screwed up so royally," Cayde sneered, "I'll take her when we're supposed to be training; that way, it won't affect my origami- I mean, my super important work."  Zavala continued to stare at Cayde; he knew there was nothing he could do to make the Hunter stay. If anything, anything he said would just make Cayde want to go more. So, with a defeated sigh, he said, "Very well, now, if you excuse me, I have business to attend to."  Cayde nodded and turned to leave, the doors to Zavala's office sliding closed as he exited. While he was still annoyed with Zavala's Titans, he felt better knowing he'd be accompanying Jack next time. Though something still bugged him, Zavala said he was being overprotective. He wasn't! He was just looking out for one of his Hunters! Ikora was the same way when Winter was shattered, yet he didn't say anything then!  "Cayde, there you are."