.
- Hull of Crows
Prince Uldren: Look at it from the House of Kings' perspective. Their power is matched only by their cleverness. They rule the Devils from the shadows and came too close to toppling the City not once, but twice. We don't know much about them, but we know this: the Kings want the Traveler. So why would they give it all up just because some outsystem Wolf runs in calling himself Kell of Kells? The answer is: they wouldn't.
Petra Venj: But what if Skolas could somehow prove to them that he's the prophesied leader? Some artifact, or trick?
Yasmin Eld: Perhaps a new power, even.
Prince Uldren: No. Short of the Traveler itself calling Skolas by name, the Kings would not just roll over for anyone, no matter what. They're too ambitious.
Petra Venj: You sound like you admire them.
Prince Uldren: Power cleverly deployed is always worth admiring.
Yasmin Eld: So why send the King Barons?
Prince Uldren: Of the Kell of Kings, we know nothing. Wherever, whoever it is, it remains hidden, even when the so-called Kell of Kells comes to its borders. Instead, it sends just two Barons: Paskin and Vekis.
Yasmin Eld: What do we have on them?
Petra Venj: Should I issue bounties on them?
Prince Uldren: No, you do not see. Perhaps if we wait, Paskin and Vekis will do our work for us.
Yasmin Eld: You believe Paskin and Vekis are not ambassadors?
Prince Uldren: I am sure of it.
Shuro Chi: Be certain, my prince, that your assessment is free of personal bias.
Prince Uldren: What are you suggesting, Shuro?
—X—
One thing that people never seemed to appreciate for all its worth, was sleep.
It gives the mind reprieve, a chance to replenish its endurance for the next day, when it will be put to work once more. Yet, children often complained about curfews in place, and then found themselves on the opposite side of a double edged sword when they tried to lengthen their stay in dreamland come morning.
Sleep was something to be cherished, to be celebrated.
So when a transmission came from that Kell-obsessed Awoken bitch who dared to interrupt her precious rest time, Aria was not happy.
"H-hello?"
"Guardian, it's Petra. We've caught wind of something that Skolas has set in motion. Are you ready?"
Aria narrowed her eyes at Echo, who was playing the transmission. "It is very late out right now, Petra." Three in the morning, in fact. Though probably not in Reef time.
"I'm glad you see the tactical advantage as well; oh, I love field work! Contact me again once you are en route to the coordinates I'm sending to your Ghost."
The transmission ended, and Aria's eyes remained narrowed. She knew she hadn't meant to think of Petra as a bitch earlier, but she certainly was playing dumb like one. She sighed, and began to look around her room for her gear.
Echo hovered next to her. "Are you serious? At this hour, without backup or anyone knowing where you are?"
She looked at him with a defeated look on her face. "Would you like to tell the Queen that we're not finding Skolas because we didn't get enough beauty-rest?"
The Ghost seemed to ponder that for a moment. "Point taken. But next time there's some kind of crisis that needs to be averted, you and I are going on vacation."
—X—
"Variks intercepted an encrypted message between the Wolves and Kings, and immediately relayed it to Prince Uldren and I; apparently, Skolas has sent one of his Barons to broker an alliance between the two Houses. The Kings have sent two Barons as well."
Aria listened to everything she said as the Javelin flew above the clouds towards their destination, as to avoid detection. She had no idea who Variks was, but apparently they were good at their job. "So, I'm guessing that our job is to break up negotiations and keep them from banding together?"
"Not exactly."
Aria detected the faintest echo of smugness in Petra's voice. "Is there something I'm not getting?"
"The Prince believes that the King Barons have been sent as assassins rather than ambassadors; he thinks they'll kill the Wolf Baron as a message to Skolas that they will not be a part of his uprising."
Aria shook her head. The Fallen were definitely crafty, but painfully stubborn at times. Between the Houses of Kings, Devils, Winter, Exile, and Wolves, they would make a ridiculously large force. The last time they'd worked together had been at the battle for the Traveler, when the Kings and Devils had come out of the woodwork and fought as one. The only problem was that they almost spent more time killing themselves than Guardians.
"So my job is just to make sure that's the case, and everyone ends up dead?"
"Precisely."
Aria exhaled. She could do that.
"Understood."
"Good luck, Guardian."
—X—
She cried silently as he held her, his arms keeping her close to him in a warm embrace.
She could feel it coming. It had been growing stronger these last few weeks, her body couldn't take this kind of torment. It rejected that which was all around it, fighting constantly against a force which could not be fought.
BEEP.
The small beeps of her heart-beat monitor continued to beat, though slowly; each beat was a new staccato in the sheet of music that was her death rattle. If she listened carefully, she could detect larger and larger gaps between each beat.
She felt a small shake in the body next to her, and she looked to see tears falling from his face as well. He knew just as well as she did that tonight was the night.
The last night.
BEEP.
She reached out, and held his face gently with her hand.
"Hey," she whispered, "it's gonna be alright."
He said nothing, did nothing. They both knew it was a lie, spoken only for his comfort. He would have returned the favor if he could, but there was nothing he could do besides hold her close and wait for the end. So there they laid, the two of them in that hospital bed, waiting for the dreadful moment when the monitor would cease to make noise.
BEEP.
"I hate that thing," he whispered angrily. "I hate the Traveler, for what it's done."
She shook her head, a tear leaking from her eye. They had both cursed that white orb hanging in the sky; for with all its gifts had come a curse as well. A death sentence for her.
But she didn't want to think about that right now.
"Please don't be angry during our last moments."
BEEP.
He looked like he was thinking, while his lower lip trembled. Suddenly, a very faint smile came on his face, and he brushed her short black hair out of her eyes.
"You remember that carnival? The one where you paid that guy for his cotton candy because the line was too long?"
She searched her memory for a moment, and then recalled what he was referring to, and gave a wet laugh.
"Yes, I remember."
Funny, she thought drowsily. The monitor should have-
BEEP.
He spoke again, trying to get her attention, to keep her awake. "You always had a problem with being patient. But now I'm the one who's gonna have to wait for death before I can see you again."
Her breath caught in her throat. "Don't say that, you… you're going to live a good life, and-"
His lip kept trembling. "It's not any kind of life without you."
She couldn't tell him of the plan, no matter how much she wanted to. In a few years, he'd see what she meant. He'd see that she'd never given up hope for them…
Everything was starting to fade. Where was the beep of the monitor? It wasn't… it wasn't…
She looked at him as tears streamed down both of their faces. She remembered that day at the carnival, determined to have a happy memory as her last.
She managed to smile as she looked at him.
"I love you."
His mouth moved, but she couldn't hear any words come out. Just a ringing in her ears. Was that the monitor? It sounded different, like how silence would if it made noise…
She had once been a little girl, impatient in life for the things she wanted.
Now, she had no time in the world, as well as all the time in the world.
Yet, it would no longer be her waiting, but him.
—X—
Aria crouched through the halls of the dilapidated structure, as to avoid making noise. Echo hovered closely by her side, illuminating her path forward.
She turned to him. "Where are we, exactly?"
The Ghost looked around. "I believe this is known as 'Kings' Watch'. It's where a sect of the Kings are known to reside in. Usually, I would advise against sneaking into their lair in the dead of night, especially when a large number of them will be convening for negotiations with a Wolf Baron, but I don't get to make any decisions around here."
She nodded, trying to keep a lid on conversation as they approached closer to the heart of Kings' Watch. She could hear the faint rumbles and chitters of Fallen growing louder as they got closer.
"I think that's the Kings. They don't sound too happy." He flew over to a vent in the side of the wall. "The noise is coming through here. I suggest you hop to it."
"What? Into the vents?"
He tilted his points up. "You wanna get this mission done faster?"
She sighed before moving over to the grate cover of the vent, and prying it off. Carefully, she entered. There wasn't much room for her besides crawling on her stomach, hands, and knees, so she tried to avoid making noise as much as possible.
She crawled through the vent a ways as it went in all directions, up and down. The noises of growling Fallen grew louder until she reached a section of vent with a grate under it. Looking through the grate, she saw several Fallen below. Nowhere near as many as there had been in the cave on Venus, but enough. There was some kind of circular table upon which three in particular stood at opposite ends; two in gold robes closest to what looked like a broken-out window, and one in dark blue robes closer to an entryway deeper into the halls.
The two gold ones continued to roar at the blue one, intimidating them. The blue one was calmer, though showed signs of frustration. While all three had their upper arms resting on the table, they also kept their lower ones near their weapons. As she watched, the two Kings looked like they were already halfway to drawing their shock-blades. But something caught her eye. Standing behind them, just out of sight, were two large shimmers in the air. Shimmers that were usually indicative of a cloaked individual…
"Hey, Petra?" she whispered. "I've got two large Fallen cloaked and ready to strike down the Kings."
"Assassins? But… oh no, it's likely the Silent Fang!"
Oh great, she was playing the pronoun game again. "What is the Silent Fang?"
"They were an elite group of Fallen hitmen, assassins who killed many of our leaders in the Reef wars. If they're here, it means that perhaps the Wolves had the same idea as the Kings!"
"Isn't that good? Doesn't that mean that they'll all just kill each other?"
Petra sounded frustrated. "No; if the Wolves kill these Barons, then the other Kings may leave the service of their Kell, to respect the show of power that Skolas displayed. I would love to see the Kings disbanded, but I would hate for Skolas to gain any more influence among the Houses. We cannot permit it, Aria."
She was surprised to hear the Awoken guard use her proper name rather than just 'Guardian'. Maybe this was more serious than she was letting on. "Alright, I'll think of something."
In fact, she was in the midst of suggesting a plan to Echo when she heard a small creak underneath her. It was at that moment that she realized that centuries-old ventilation shafts were likely not completely up to the task of supporting the weight of a gear-laden Guardian crawling about in them.
The bottom of it fell out, and Aria felt herself falling through the air amidst debris and metal. She slammed hard into the table below as the grate made a metallic thud next to her. She slowly lifted her head with a grunt, seeing all the Fallen staring at her and wondering what had just happened.
She figured that she had about two seconds before they all regained their senses, and she felt a scatter grenade materialize in her hand at will. Aiming behind the Kings, she threw it and watched as miniature explosions erupted around the cloaked Fallen. The void short-circuited the cloaking, and the Silent Fang was revealed. The Kings howled in fury as they realized that the Wolf Baron had been attempting to double cross them.
Ignoring Aria for the moment, one fully drew their shock blade and threw it at the Fang. It embedded itself deep within the other Fallen's chest, and hardly a second went by before it fell to the ground, dead. The other Fang roared in anger at its partner's death, and charged him while the second King withdrew a shock pistol instead, and began opening fire at the Wolf Baron.
The blue-robed Fallen was a quick thinker, and ducked. With arc bolts lancing overhead, Aria decided that the best course of action was to roll off the table and avoid getting shot for the moment. She crouched behind the edge of the table, and watched as Echo materialized in front of her.
"This could be going better!" he chastised.
"You think?!" she hissed back.
Dregs and Vandals of both Houses entered battle with one another. Arms were ripped from sockets, flesh was burned; Kings' Watch had been turned into a war-zone in seconds.
She looked to see the King Baron with a pistol turn as the other Baron's body slid off the blade of the Silent Fang. They turned rapidly from the Fang to the Wolf Baron on the opposite side of the table. Then it caught the eye of Aria, and gave a brief growl. She couldn't understand it linguistically, but she somehow knew exactly what it was saying.
This was her one opportunity for a truce between them against the Wolves.
She leapt up and placed herself between the King and the remaining Silent Fang. In turn, the King rotated and faced the Wolf Baron. Both Wolves seemed surprised, but ready to adjust to the situation.
The Fang charged her like he'd done to the other King Baron, but she was smarter. Raising her hands up, she made a void-shield with her arms that the point of the blade hit and was knocked away from. Once the sword wasn't an issue, she kicked him backwards and reached for her weapon.
It wasn't there.
"Oh shit."
"Please don't tell me you forgot your rifle."
She narrowed her eyes as the Ghost spoke to her condescendingly in her own head. "It was three in the morning! I am tired, okay?!"
She ducked as the Fang came back for another swipe, and thus received another kick for his efforts. She looked to where the King was fighting for control of the shock pistol with the Wolf. With a brutal smack from the Wolf, the pistol slid several feet away on the ground, and the King stumbled backwards holding its face.
Making a split-second choice, she dove on the ground for it, and fumbled for the trigger. Spinning around on the ground, she took aim and fired at the Fang who was charging her again. Her first shot was lucky and managed to catch it in a weak spot of its helmet. A hole was burned through both metal and flesh, and the Fang fell forward, dead like its partner.
She grabbed the sword, and tossed it over to the recovering King who looked at her oddly when he caught it. But she had more pressing matters, like the Wolf Baron who was now walking with fury in his steps towards the Guardian who had ruined his plans.
She fired the pistol again, but the Wolf dodged and swiped it out of her hands. Chucking it away with one of his arms, he used another to pick her up by the throat. She couldn't breathe, his grip was crushing her windpipe even through the neck seal that kept her helmet in place.
He drew back one of his fists to pummel her to death, but the blow never came. He looked in shock to see that his arm had been grabbed by the King Baron, and prevented from moving. With another arm, the King grabbed the Wolf's neck, and dragged him back, forcing him to relinquish his grip on Aria. She fell to the floor, retching.
Bending the Wolf's torso over his knee, the King took the shock blade that she'd thrown to him and shoved it forcefully up through the stomach and out the neck of the Wolf. With a triumphant roar, the King kicked the carcass away, victory having been claimed.
With their Baron dead, the rest of the Wolves made a decision of self-preservation and began to retreat. They flooded the exit, or at least the survivors did.
She knelt there on the ground, still trying to recover from the strong grip of the Wolf Baron. She noticed a familiar electrified humming next to her, and saw a King Vandal standing next to her, with its head tilted curiously. Apparently, curiosity wasn't enough to save her, because it yowled and raised one of its shock blades in the air to swing at her. She instinctively shied away from the blow.
A roar cut across her thoughts. She looked to see that the King Baron was berating the Vandal for acting on his own accord. The Vandal lowered the sword, and backed away.
The Baron looked at her with a strange look. It then walked forward intimidatingly, and towered over her. She wondered whether he wanted the glory of the kill for himself. She prepared to hurl a Nova Bomb as a means of escape.
Clang.
She looked down to see that the Baron had dropped the Fang's shock blade, the one she'd thrown to him and was still covered in blood, before her. She looked up, and he stared right back at her. She understood the gesture.
This is a token of an alliance.
Gingerly grasping it, she let Echo store it for later, and then began to slowly stand up, and back away from the scene towards the halls that the Wolves had departed into. The Kings did not follow, and the Baron simply watched her leave.
When she thought she had reached a safe distance, she turned and ran. Eventually, she found her way outside to the snow and wintery air. The sun's glow was just barely beginning to break the horizon. She inhaled deeply, forcing the biting cold air into her lungs, and contacted Petra.
"Aria?"
"Yeah, it's me. Mission accomplished."
"You stopped the Wolves from banding together with the Kings?"
She grinned. "Yeah, you could say that."
Two things had just been accomplished; Skolas had not gotten control of the House of Kings, and she may have just gained a potential connection to the Kings for later.
All in all, it had been a pretty good night.
—X—
Rook heard Scorch get up from her room for the fourth time that night, and pace towards the kitchen.
"Can't sleep, huh?"
She seemed shocked that he was awake as well. "What are you still doing up?"
"I'm an Exo. I don't need sleep like humans do; yeah, I need to rest, but that doesn't mean I can't stay awake if I choose."
She sighed, and made her way over to the couch; his temporary sleeping arrangement. "Yeah, I can't sleep."
"You really do care about your friends."
She looked at him oddly. He snickered. "What, you didn't think it was obvious that you're worried about that Exo friend of yours? The look on your face when you saw her arm, it was more than apparent."
She rolled her eyes. "From what Matt said, it sounded like she had a panic attack or something. She started flipping out on Mars, having spasms and screaming at him. Apparently it started after she heard about some 'Bray' person."
His purple eyes narrowed, and she noticed. "What are you thinking?"
He paused for a moment. "How much do you know about Exos?"
She shrugged. "Not a lot. You know that."
"Right. Well, here's a basic rundown; we don't really know either."
She raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I'm serious. To be honest, if that friend of yours is really from before the Golden Age like you said he was, he probably knows more about us than we do. We know a few things, and one of them is about Clovis Bray."
She rested her chin on her hands, listening intently.
"See, we have a good idea that this 'Bray' individual is heavily involved with our origin. There are research facilities on Mars, and references to a rival science group in the Ishtar archives on Venus. Why do we know so little? Well, it's a bit tricky to explain."
He tilted his head. "You know how I'm Rook-4, not just Rook? That 4 indicates how many memory wipes I've undergone."
Her mouth dropped, and he chuckled.
"Not total wipes, just chunks. See, Exos were created in exponentially increasing numbers in the Golden Age. Many of them of were destroyed completely, some were revived many years later, and some of us have just managed to survive for all the centuries since the Golden Age. Now, one mind is not really built to hold every memory, every second of every day, and every instant experience for centuries on end. You'd go insane. Human minds forget over time, but Exo minds can't. So we manually wipe a large part of our memories when it becomes too much."
He shrugged. "We try to retain onto all relevant information, everything that we need to keep going into our next iteration. But after nearly, what, like over a thousand years since the Golden Age? We're bound to lose some info over time. We know that Clovis Bray is involved, but that's it. Not our origins, not a lot of our past incarnations, nothing."
Scorch thought about the tower gunsmith, Banshee-44. She grimaced at what kind of shit the poor bastard must have seen to willingly wipe 44 times. "But what about Ash? Why would she freak out about Clovis Bray?"
"Well think about this; you said she had amnesia, right? She woke up with her Ghost who had replaced her memory banks when he revived her?"
She nodded.
"Well, that's a problem. See, that's not a wipe; that was more like placing a bunch of memories under lock and key. Rather than erasing them, they were just hidden from her mind. She couldn't have accessed them if she'd wanted to. But just like PTSD, memories can be brought back in amnesia victims through sensitive triggers…"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that what happened is that she's probably one of the original Exos, one that worked closely with Clovis Bray. And about a thousand years worth of memory just came flooding back to her as soon as she heard that name. It probably triggered some kind of episode, a mass release. And experiencing a thousand years of every moment, every moment of joy and pain, sorrow, torment, and life in general all at once is enough to make anyone go crazy."
"Wow."
"Yeah. Now the real question comes when you look at nature vs nurture. If she really is a different person than she used to be, which you've told me is the Warrior, that would be because of nurture. She lost her memory, and therefore her personality, and made a new one based off her experiences upon revival. But if she were to receive all of those memories and keep them, she would be back to her nature. Would she still be Ash anymore? Or someone else?"