CHAPTER 3

WIDOW'S COURT

EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE, EARTH

Joseph slowly walked along the side of the crumbling cobblestone church. He was sure he heard someone moving over there, but he couldn't see anyone. Not even on his tracker.

"Saint?" Joseph whispered.

"Here," Joseph's Ghost responded.

"Scan the area."

He heard another voice, but it was coming over communications.

"That's cheating, Joe," said the voice. It was his brother Jack.

Damnit, Joseph thought, I left my comms on.

"Nevermind," Joseph told Saint.

"Just for that," Jack said in a malicious tone, "you get this."

"What?"

Joseph heard a sound behind him and turned around to see a giant purple ball of void energy slowly approaching him.

"Oh shit!" he shouted at the top of his lungs before he began sprinting as fast as he could.

The second Joseph turned the church's corner he was shot in the head with a shotgun. The last thing he saw before dying was the faceplate of Jack's helmet.

Joseph was revived and his body was brought to the other side of the arena.

"Damn you Jack," Joseph cursed over comms.

"Not my fault something's got you down," Jack said, "if you would just tell me what's going on maybe I won't go so hard on you."

Joseph heard Jack's footsteps approaching him and he frantically looked around for him. Suddenly he saw Jack come around a corner.

Joseph slung his rifle on his back and a giant hammer made completely out of flame appeared in his hands. Jack immediately turned around and ran away, but Joseph was too fast. He slammed the hammer into Jack's back, killing him instantly.

The hammer dissipated and Joseph grabbed his rifle off his back.

"You know that hammer is bullshit," Jack said over comms when he was revived.

"So is your damn nova bomb," Joseph retorted.

"Well I didn't kill you with it did I?"

"No, but you killed me with a shotgun while I was running away from the nova bomb."

Joseph ran and slid up to an old rusty car. Another voice joined their communications.

"Five minutes remaining," said the voice. It was one of Shaxx's redjacks monitoring the battle while Shaxx himself oversaw a larger Crucible match.

Joseph decided that he was waiting to long and hopped over the car only to immediately get shot in the head by a sniper rifle.

"Damnit," Joseph cursed as he was revived once more.

Communications opened once more, but it wasn't Jack or the redjack.

"Mind if I join?" said the voice. It was their third fireteam member, an Awoken Hunter named Steven.

"Go away," said Joseph.

"No, get in here and make Joseph mad," Jack said.

Joseph facepalmed with his helmet on and loaded his shotgun. He ran back through the buildings and came up to a staircase across from the church. He peeked around the corner but then he heard a voice behind him.

"Hi Joe," it was Steven.

Joseph didn't even have a chance to turn around before Steven sunk a knife into his neck, killing him instantly.

When he was revived he heard a few more gunshots and then an explosion. A few seconds later Jack came on the comm line.

"Motherfucker!" Jackson yelled.

"I told you not to let him in," Joseph said.

"Nope, no, it's fine."

Joseph ran down an alley only to get shot by Steven's shotgun, but it didn't kill him. Joseph flew back, and saw Steven throw a knife into Jackson's head. Steven then drew a hand cannon and finished Joseph off.

"Alright, I'm done," Joseph said.

"Come on I just got here!" Steven complained.

"Yeah I was finally getting a challenge," Jackson said.

"I'm not in the mood," Joseph responded.

He called his ship in and left the arena. He thought Jack and Steven would continue fighting each other, but he saw that they also left in their own ships and were following him. Jack transmatted over to Joseph's ship while he left his own ship on autopilot.

"Seriously Joe," Jack said, "what's got you down?"

"Just because we're brothers doesn't mean I have to tell you everything," Joseph said, not standing up from his chair.

"No, you don't have to tell me everything. You don't anyways. But I care about you, and I'm worried."

Joseph had Saint pilot the ship and he turned around to face Jack and stood up.

"It's Seja," Joseph said quietly.

"Oh of course it is," Jack said, not sounding surprised, "why wouldn't you be completely tied up and worried about some girl who left you."

"She didn't leave me! This is why I don't tell you anything, because this is how you act every time. You say you care about me and are worried, but at the same time you are yelling at me because I am worried about someone that I genuinely love. You just don't know what love feels like, so no, why should you care?"

Jack had a look in his eyes. He seemed scared, he wasn't used to Joseph yelling at him.

"Just go," Joseph said, sitting back down and turning around.

Jack left without saying anything. Joseph turned the ship away from Earth, he needed to think. He couldn't get Seja out of his head. Suddenly he got a call from an old friend. John. He hadn't talked to John in almost a year, he wondered what he was doing calling him.

"Yes?" Joseph answered the call.

"Joseph?" John asked.

"Yes, that's who your calling. Why wouldn't it be me?"

"Right, anyway come to my location. Rian and I picked up a new friend that could use some people to help with something, you're the first person I thought of, other than Seja who is obviously busy."

"Please... don't mention Seja," Joseph sighed.

"Uh, okay. Whatever you say buddy."

Saint appeared next to Joseph and zapped the coordinates that John transmitted into the navicomputer. Then the ship took off.

THE DERELICT

TITAN, SATURN ORBIT

John and Rian were waiting aboard the Derelict for Joseph, and hopefully Jack. The Derelict was Drifter's ship. It wasn't huge, but it was bigger than a jumpship, and it was hauling a massive rock behind it that Drifter never wanted to talk about when asked.

John turned around when he heard approaching footsteps and saw Joseph enter the room.

"Hey Joseph!" John shouted and waved at him, "haven't seen you in a long time."

"A year," Joseph said flatly, not returning the wave.

"Oh, well I'm doing good too," John crossed his arms. He didn't know what Joseph's problem was.

John looked at Rian who gave him a thumbs up. He had no idea where Drifter went, but John turned Joseph around.

"What's wrong buddy?" John whispered, wanting to know what was going on with his old friend.

"I'm worried about Seja," Joseph whispered back, "she always runs off for missions or for whatever else Corsairs do. And every time I try to contact her she either doesn't respond or there's too much interference. Usually it's fine, but I heard there is a massive battle happening in the Prison of Elders and she isn't responding."

"Listen I've known Seja for far longer than you, and there's no chance that she's in trouble. Even when our light was taken away, she did not give up on anything. Don't get yourself caught up in worrying about her if there's no point in it."

Joseph backed away and slowly nodded.

"Alright... Alright. Okay, thanks man," Joseph said, slightly reassured.

John looked up at his face. He wasn't the best at reading Exos, but he could tell that he feeling better.

"Now you ready for some Gambit?" John asked.

"W-what?"

Before anyone else could say anything they were teleported into a room. There was another random Guardian with them, and another team of four across from them. There was an almost invisible wall dividing the two teams. In the middle of the transmat room was a platform, and the Drifter was walking up to it with that green coin in his hand.

PRISON OF ELDERS

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

"The hell was that?" Shur exclaimed.

"I can't get word to Petra," Seja said after attempting to contact her.

"This is fine," Ira said nervously.

The three turned around to get back to the door, but more Vex started appearing in front of them. Three Goblins were at the front with a Minotaur and three Harpies behind them.

"Great," Seja sighed before taking cover behind a metal crate.

Ira and Shur dodged the crimson lasers that flew towards them and took cover across from Seja. The two Corsairs peeked around their respective sides of the crate and opened fire at the Goblins in the lead. The only lasers that were shot at them hit the crate.

Seja looked over her crate and fired at the Minotaur with her pulse rifle as the other two Awoken killed the Goblins. A few bursts brought the Minotaur's shields down, and it stumbled back for a second before regaining its balance.

The big red Minotaur aimed its torch hammer directly at Seja's crate and fired. The giant purple ball of burning void energy sailed through the air and hit the crate, vaporizing it and bringing Seja's shields down.

Seja flew back and looked up at the Vex. Ira and Shur just finished off the Harpies. The Minotaur fired at Seja again, hitting her directly in the stomach and vaporizing her body in a cloud of void energy.

"Seja!" Ira screamed. She knew Seja was a Guardian, but it still wasn't a good sight to see her die.

Green appeared over where her body once was and floated over to the two Corsairs.

"Take that Minotaur down and I can get her back up!" Green shouted.

The two obliged and both got up from behind the crate. They fired their weapons as fast as they could and sheared the Minotaur's body to pieces.

Green made a motion that looked like a nod and turned into a blue ball. A few seconds later, Seja appeared in front of him. Green went back into his normal form and then disappeared.

Ira and Shur stared at Seja. There wasn't a scratch on her body and she moved like normal. Despite working with her for over a year they still weren't used to seeing her get resurrected.

"Well, let's get out of here," Seja said, running up to the door.

The door slid open on approach and the three went through.

"Not going to stay to clean up the Vex?" Shur asked.

"I think there are a bit more pressing matters right now," Seja said.

With security offline and communications down, the three had to find Petra to know what to do next. The door sealed behind them, and the hallways that were once loud with gunfire and explosions were quiet.

"Think we won?" Ira asked.

"That's one possibility," Seja replied, lowering her voice as she looked around.

"Or we're the last ones left in here," Shur added.

"Yeah great that makes me feel better," Ira sighed.

They walked down the empty hallway, the only sound they heard was their footsteps and the electric bursts of broken machinery.

"Everyone stop," Seja ordered once she heard something else.

The three stopped, but they could still hear footsteps. Suddenly one of the walls in front of them burst open, and a Scorn Ravager clumsily stepped into the hallway.

"The Scorn?" Shur asked, shocked.

The Ravager's headless body turned towards the Awoken. It spun the flame censer in its hands and sprinted toward the three, only for all of them to gun it down.

The three heard more footsteps around them, and the growls of Scorn. Through the hole in the wall they saw a bright yellow glow as the footsteps grew closer, and the growls grew louder.