Leaving for Titan

That night, the four of us gathered in the church tower with Devrim, who brewed tea for all of us, and this time, he didn't drink all of it. "So," he began, sipping his earl grey tea, "I understand that you four had a row with Suraya."

"Yes," answered Mala, who was busy rocking Violet to sleep, "She blew off some steam in front of Shin."

"You mean 'exploded', right?" I sipped some of my own tea: green with a little honey.

"I'm afraid that's Hawthorne for right now. But she has a reason: she abused as a child, tried to run away from her parents, but Guardians always brought her back to her home, where she was abused again. Eventually, she decided to leave for good, so she took a messenger bag, a tall canteen filled with water, and left the City entirely, never looking back."

"So why does she shackle us?"

Devrim rebutted, "Possibly because Guardians shackled her in the past. She lost all hope in the City and found solace in the wilds," he drank more from his cup, then said, "She built the Farm as a safe haven for people who wanted nothing to do with the City or its bureaucratic laws. Just take a look at the Concordat and the Age of Triumph: bureaucratic and tyrannical leaders that pushed for oppressive laws and reduced the people down to mere slaves. In those cases, we are not so different from the Red Legion."

"But we are!" I exclaimed, "We can give hope to the people once more!"

"And how will you do that?"

"By rallying to Titan!"

"Suraya would say, 'Hope lies within the Farm, not the City.'" Devrim drank his tea down to the last drop, "But as for me, I wish to see humanity thrive again. How they do that is entirely up to them. We need to be their shield."

"I still say that we should go to Titan," I declared, gulping down my tea.

Graham shook his head, "Not me."

I rested the cup down on the floor, "Why not?"

"You heard Hawthorne: The Farm needs us!"

I stood up, "She wants us chained to her will, Devrim confirmed this!"

He stood to match my height, "If we go to Titan, we'll be facing more Red Legion and Fallen, not to mention the Hive, Vex, and Taken!"

Kaden rose and signed, "He's right, we could be risking our lives just by venturing outside of Earth..."

Graham said, "See!?"

The Titan continued, "...but it's worth a shot."

"WHAAAAAAT!?" shouted the Hunter, "ARE YOU CRAZY!?"

"Graham," Kaden signed as calmly as he could, "we need to give people hope. Hawthorne's plans are only short-term ones, and we need something that is longer in time. For right now, the Traveler is in danger, as are its people."

"The Farm can help them!" Graham drew out his words so that everyone can hear, "We lost the old City, so now it's time to build a new one!"

Mala stood, still gently rocking Violet in her arms, "We don't have that kind of time, Graham. We may be immortal, but the refugees are not. Some are still living inside the City, waiting for us to rescue them from the Red Legion's iron fist; others have escaped to the Farm, but they still live in fear for their relatives and friends. Either way, they lost hope, just like Hawthorne did."

I nodded, "And we're the only ones that can restore that hope. We have to try, at the very least."

Graham looked at all of us in shock, then shook his head and scoffed, "Whatever, go kill yourselves if you want. I'm staying on Earth, and if it means I'm removed from the fireteam, so be it!" He stormed off and proceeded to kill some Fallen surrounding the church.

The rest of us stared in shock as he left, Devrim looked down at Graham's untouched tea and said, "It's a shame, he had a nice cup of chai black tea, too."

I took the cup and drank it all, Cold, alas. Then I said to Mala and Kaden, "If you two want to back out..."

They shook their heads, "We walk with you, Shin."

I nodded, "Ok then," I turned to Devrim and asked, "Look after Graham for us, please?"

He replied, "I'll try, but he's bound to get in trouble at some point." Sure enough, he did, by robbing a couple of Fallen of their voice modulators and explosives, then used them to insult and aggravate the Red Legion into mobilizing at the top of the salt mines. Then we heard the sounds of gunshots coming from the top of the mines, followed by 10 different explosions. "Well, that was quick!"

"Yeah, Hunters will be Hunters," I joked.

Mala nudged me, "Hey! I'm a Hunter, and I rarely land in trouble!"

"You're a Sub-Mind, that's different."

The Sub-Mind eyed me for a while before joking, "Yeah, sometimes Warlocks can be power hungry."

I playfully nudged her, "Oi!"

"Only kidding, they're just annoying scholars." Devrim, Mala, and I had a good laugh while Kaden snorted humorously, and then we three Guardians teleported to our ships, sailing straight for Titan.


Variks sat on his throne, the ex-Kell of Kings stepped into the throne room, "Variks!" He called out in the Fallen Tongue, "Your scavenging missions are failing!"

The Judgement Kell stood, "Failing? Explain!"

"An untainted Shard of the Traveler has been claimed by 3 Guardians, your plans to scour the Dead Zone for machinery and jam humanity's last comms network have backfired, and your attempts to slay Shin, Mala, Kaden, and Graham have been foiled by their new powers!"

"Then we increase production of Shanks and Servitors! More machines would-"

The ex-Kell barked, "NO! Our people have spoken: you are a terrible leader! Stand aside, or I'll kill you myself!"

Variks stammered, "But-"

The Kell fired a warning shot, "NOW!" Before Variks could move, the Kell jumped up to the throne and threw Variks out of the room, closing the door behind him. The Kell now sat on the Throne and said, "From now on, we are to be called the House of Dusk! Send the fleets out to Titan and Nessus! And bring me the body of Uldren Sov!"