A/N: I should write longer stories. Alas, the academe leaves me little time to play, much less write.

LOG EXCERPTS TAKEN FROM JOURNAL OF WARLOCK KIARA PROEL.

PERSONAL LOG ENTRY 1152.

We're being stalled.

Or, maybe more accurately, we're stalling ourselves for time.

It's only been an hour since we liberated Kalli from her Taken form, and we've already had to pause a half-dozen times. Gerun-3 keeps talking about whispers he says only he can hear – whispers about power beyond imagination at the heart of the city.

Normally, I'd ignore it – we ARE being sent to kill "an immense creature" – but I noticed that he's managed to unnerve even Lorim and Rhylan (Yeah, I can tell when he gets unnerved now). I swear, put those three geezers in a place filled with mystery and they'd be unnerved right away.

It's probably nothing.

PERSONAL LOG ENTRY 1153.

It wasn't nothing after all.

We've been sitting a good hundred meters away from the Ascendant Portal for close to an hour now, because Gerun goes mad every time he steps near it. We were all suspicious at first, but then Rhylan started clutching his head as if in pain, and Lorim has been stealing glances at every which way. We couldn't fight like this, so I called for us to stop here and wait until whatever this is passes.

Rhylan agreed right away. Maybe I could get used to this fireteam leader thing after all.

I wish I could.

PERSONAL LOG ENTRY 1156.

The whispers turned to screams.

Gerun couldn't handle the noise so he shot himself after expressly forbidding his Ghost rom rez-ing him. I did, anyway. Rhylan and Illum – another Titan – had to pin the Hunter down so he couldn't reach for his gun and start spraying bullets everywhere.

He wailed like a mad man – strange sight, for an Exo to do that – while Lorim and Relena struggled to remove his bone-like gauntlets and tossed them to me for "safekeeping."

Lorim came up with the idea that he, Rhylan and Gerun were probably the only ones who could even hear the whispers because they took part in the Great Hunt centuries ago. Something about a connection with the Ahamkara they never even knew existed. Rhylan told me that until things "settle down," I'll have to help him with leading the team. I couldn't wish for anything else, I said.

PERSONAL LOG ENTRY 1160.

We've just gotten past the Vault's lock mechanisms. I can tell that everyone's running ragged – including our fearless Titan leader.

Yes

If Lorim and I are right, then the next fight will probably be the hardest one.

Riven.

Closer

Rhylan pulled me aside while we marched deeper into the City. "I'm counting on you," he said to me.

As I acknowledged him, I could hear a small, nagging voice at the back of my head telling me that he really didn't. I didn't listen to that voice; I was just glad that, after all this time, he trusted me enough to be at his side near the end.

-ake his plac-

I couldn't wish for anything else.

…-earer mine.

PERSONAL LOG ENTRY 1165.

We killed her. We killed Riven.

But I almost killed Rhylan.

When we convened with the Techeuns, I pulled out my gun as if in a trance and shot at him. His armor deflected the bullet meant for his head, and before I could take another shot at him he was already rushing me, an Arc overshield forming around him as he sprinted.

Behind my mask, I had already closed my eyes and resigned to my fate. That death never came.

I felt Rhylan's hand reaching for me, but instead of channeling Arc energy through me he reached for the Ahamkara bones dangling at my belt. Snatching them so violently that I fell backwards, he threw the bones in the air. Pointing his shotgun upwards, he squeezed the trigger and destroyed the last fragments of a now-dead species.

I felt naked, lying on the floor. I felt like I was stripped of everything but my shame at what I just did. A moment of silence passed before he reached out to me with his hand. I felt like I didn't deserve it. I knew I couldn't take it.

I did anyway.

His hand was warm.

A/N: I honestly had no idea what I was going for with this. Joys of inebriation, I guess.

As always, do feel free to drop a line about my writing style, the content I write, and whatever story suggestions you might have for ol' me. Next one is gonna be longer, I think.