Author's Note: I apologize for the amount of time that went without uploading a chapter, I have had some serious personal issues involving the death of a beloved friend's cousin and that friend falling into a serious depression, that, along with the holidays, school work, and track and field, it has been a bit difficult to write. Now that I'm on vacation though, expect chapters more frequently, I have a goal to make it to chapter six or seven by the time school starts back up again. Thank you and enjoy the chapter.

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My burning feet carried me up the stairs and into the courtyard. Behind me, the familiar whirring of the mechanical doors sliding shut behind me; entrance into those training rooms was only accessible if you had the permission of the Vanguard, or if one of them was actually with you. That I understood. It was probably the most advanced technology in this place, and they couldn't just have anyone using it... Right?

Something didn't feel right though. Not just about the training rooms, but about the entire operation. The Traveler. The Ghosts. The Guardians. Even the Speaker. I couldn't place it, but I'd felt this before... Felt this feeling of constant tension and terror.

Leaning against the railing that separated Guardians from falling to their doom to the Last City, I peered over it. Up here, life didn't seem half bad, but it only made me feel guilty as my eyes passed over the state of the houses below.

From what I could tell not many Guardians went into the Last City, for what little time they were here, they were either in the Tower and soon to leave, or Titans guarding the wall day and night. Even I didn't know what happened down there, my Ghost had brought me right to the Tower's ship hangar. I shuddered as I halfmindedly traced the wound's location on my calf.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A British toned voice shook me from my thoughts, and as I whirled to face it, my eyes settled upon the form of the Speaker. He chuckled, sending chills down my spine, "I apologize Guardian, I did not mean to frighten you."

I only nodded, before turning back to the City below, "In the world I grew up in, there were too many people in the world. Now there's hardly any left..." I found my hand clenching itself into a fist on the railing, and immediately relaxed the muscles in it. Anger surged through me...

"Ah, so you're starting to remember then?" He questioned coming along to stand beside me.

"Bits and pieces here and there. The basic things, my first name, what I did..." I trailed off, not keen to share what other information that could be used against me.

I almost laughed. Cayde had been right about Hunters. To us, trust was not in our vocabulary.

"Well, even if that is all you remember Guardian, I ask that you remember this: if you dwell too long in the past, you may just lost the present." With a comforting pat on my shoulder, he turned and started for the Iron Banner which blocked off a smaller courtyard from the one I know stood in.

I'd only ever seen Cayde, Ikora, Zavala, the Speaker, and the a City Consensus in there, along with whatever brainless Titans who had signed up to be guards. There were never any everyday Guardians. Call me crazy, but this entire operation was starting to feel like those dictatorships that we'd always learned about in school. And the Speaker was the dictator. What he said went without question. Whatever missions he wanted done, went before any other priority, yet Guardians were never told why it was so important...

Sighing in both physical, and mental, exhaustion, I turned away from the City, and headed for the dorms, where my less than pleasant roommate awaited my arrival. The jerkoff. My feet found their way to Hall H7, Room B208. Home sweet home. If every roommate were as welcoming as mine, I understood why Guardians never stayed in the Tower...

Ghost apparated to my right, looking me up and down, but saying nothing. If there was one thing he had that I didn't, it was a social filter. Those words never did fit together right in my head. Smirking to myself slightly, I opened the door to a woman with light blue skin and hair like starlight. Her mark lay to the right of her next to a shotgun and an auto rifle. The opposite of my ideal load out. The opposite of myself.

"Aw, hey bitch, thought you died, I was about to jerk off on your bed."

"Go screw yourself Kalec, what other friends would you have? How would you even think without me?" My tone was jesting, but not the like of which that would be used amongst friends.

"And since when do Hunters think at all?" She snapped back beginning to stand up.

"Since Titans couldn't hold their F'ing guns without shooting themselves."

Kalec snorted, unable to figure out a comeback, and stayed silent. Her red and yellow Ghost fixed mine with a judging, blue gaze, and then turned back to the shotgun it had been repairing. My Ghost scoffed, and hovered by my shoulder as I set my weapons down on my bed. Cayde, insisting that a Hand Cannon would function more smoothly with Golden Gun, had replaced my pulse rifle with said weapon, he'd also supplied me with a sniper rifle...and let me tell you, I was born to use one of those.

Smiling to myself, I hopped onto my bed, folding my knees beneath me and pulling the rifle to my lap. The light outside waning with the hours that passed as I cleaned my weapons, thoughts swirling in my head like a hurricane. I remembered...something...

Humankind had been advancing on a manned mission to Mars, something about the appearance of an unidentified object being caught on the radar, and strange sightings on the red planet from the satellites. I almost wanted to slap myself. Of course... It had been the Traveler.

But how had I died?

My head throbbed, and isn't a shaky sigh I set my rifle aside and laid back on my bed. I didn't care if I fell asleep in my armor right now, more important manners were on my mind.

It was there, lying on my bed, in which I made the promise: I would survive. No matter what this galaxy had to throw at me, I would walk, crawl, or limp out still breathing.

I have tried so hard to ignore the nagging voice at the back of my head, so in a desperate attempt to erase it I write its message here:

Like all promises humanity has made over its eons of survival on the planet Earth, all have been broken. This code, still applies to those alive now. The Awoken. The Humans. The EXOs.

Every promise must be broken.