.
- The Hunt for Skolas
Variks keeps a ragged piece of armor in his pod. It's human tech, Golden Age. Shattered in some ancient battle, pre-Collapse, and left to drift. He found it and he brought it to his quarters so he could sit on it. It's nothing like a throne. Variks doesn't want a throne.
He sits on his ancient shrapnel, unmasked, and whittles at an amethyst with the dead edge of a shock dagger. Music plays (something ancient, pre-Whirlwind, beautiful). The ether in the air is rich and it fills him up with strength. Skolas is hunted, mad Skolas who would ruin everything. Variks should be happy. He's not. With his little knife and his two arms and his stolen shining thing he feels like a Dreg. He feels ashamed.
He betrayed Skolas twice. At Cybele, and again, now. He will betray Skolas' dream ten times more. Variks will never be strong like Skolas, big like Skolas, a leader like Skolas. Variks will work for the Queen, oversee the Prisons, watch his fellow Fallen (they are Fallen, it's a good name now) fight and die as gladiators who want nothing except a chance to hurt Guardians. Even Skolas.
He's trying to use the Vex, word has it. He's trying to use their machines. Has that ever worked for anyone? Maybe one. Maybe a few: the Osiris cultists are Variks' favorite people. Maybe that's how you survive this alien star where dead gods slumber and dead heroes walk. You cozy up to powers you barely understand and make yourself useful, or at least inoffensive. You become a parasite, a scavenger, a servant.
That's dreg strength. That's the strength that keeps Variks alive. It's nothing to be ashamed of.
—X—
With the Javelin docked, Aria looked around the Vestian Outpost for Petra. She spotted her just a few meters from where she was usually standing, talking to…
A Fallen?
But this one looked different; it was a Vandal, but not a Wolf, with their signature blue robes. This one had green ones, and seemed to be answering mutually in Petra's conversation.
Her first instinct was to pull out a weapon and train her aim on it, but she remembered back to her first encounter with the Reef, when Prince Uldren had held a knife to her throat for doing exactly that. So she held back her impulse, and decided to see what was going on.
Petra was talking animatedly and excitedly with it, until she heard Aria's footsteps and turned to see the Warlock. "Aria! Good to see you made it out of there."
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm happy to see me make it out of there too." She nodded her head at the Fallen next to Petra. "And this would be?"
Petra jumped a little. "Oh, of course! You haven't met. Aria, this is Variks. Variks, this is the Guardian that's been helping us hunt Skolas." She looked back to Aria. "Variks helps out with tracking Fallen, as well as maintaining the Prison of Elders. It's his… well, arena of sorts."
Aria wasn't sure how to feel about that, but she waved at him anyway. "Nice to meet you, Variks."
The Fallen bowed deeply to her. "It is good to meet you as well, Guardian. I am Variks, scribe and last blood of House Judgement." He stressed the last syllable of each sentence, dragging them out for several seconds. Must be the way Fallen spoke english with their mouths. Upon further inspections, she saw that his upper two arms were not organic, but prosthetic. She wondered who had removed the originals. There was also some chain mail over his mouth-piece, giving him an almost knight-like appearance.
"We have some more information of where to find Skolas." Petra gestured at Variks, who took over.
"I have been tracking Wolves since they broke their leash. While you were infiltrating Kings' Watch, I detected comm signatures deep in the Vault of Glass."
Aria shuddered involuntarily. She remembered that place all too well.
Variks continued, "Wolves are no longer there, it would appear, but investigate, yes? Find out why Wolves were scavenging Vex territory."
Aria nodded. She understood a bit more now. "Alright, so you want me to see what exactly they were doing in there. Got it."
Petra nodded. "Glad to hear it. You better get going."
—X—
Of all the enemies that Aria had faced, the Vex interested her the most.
She also feared them the most.
To have an enemy that was so bent on the destruction of humanity coupled with the ability to alter time… it was more than a little unsettling. Although, recent theories had popped up that the Vex weren't necessarily bent on killing humanity, but were rather trying to survive something. What that 'something' was, she had no idea. But if it was enough to scare the Vex, she was sure that it was more than enough to frighten Guardians as well. Hopefully it wouldn't come soon.
Having been stuck in the Vault of Glass for what she later learned had been over five years, it was fair to say that she had a slight grudge towards them. And a lot more caution whenever anything related to them popped up.
So as she descended into the depths of the Vault, all she could think about was how wrong her instincts were screaming that this was.
Eventually, making it through the crumbling rock and Vex-stone architecture, she found herself at Templar's well. There was no sign of activity here, but she did see a few Fallen and Vex bodies lying around. Evidently, the Vex hadn't taken too kindly to the idea of the Wolves invading their lair.
"I'm here," she said over the comms, where Petra was listening.
"Good. See if you can find any particular reason why the Wolves are slinking around down there."
She took the emissary's advice, and hopped down to the main arena below. Over in a corner, she saw the rusting carcass of the Templar, destroyed only a little less than a year ago when Scorch and the Seekers had rescued them. The Heroes had been forced to fight it as well when they'd first entered the Vault; she supposed that every time it was destroyed, Atheon could summon it from the past beforehand and set it to work once more. Unfortunately for the Templar, Atheon was now dead and could no longer do any such thing.
Something caught the corner of her eye. Looking over a little bit, she noticed a Vex that had been torn open. She walked over and investigated the body.
"This is odd," she muttered.
"What?"
"This Vex has been torn open, like something was looking around in its innards. For what, I've no idea." She glanced around to see if her growing suspicion was right. "As a matter of fact, they all are."
"That's… disturbing. Variks, is there any reason why they'd do this? A trophy, a warning?"
Aria heard the raspy voice of the Fallen come onto the comms. "No. As a trophy, they would have taken the head. And Fallen do not leave warnings; prefer for their prey to be surprised. They were looking for something."
"Looking for something?" She pondered over that. "What the hell could they be looking for inside of a Vex?"
Suddenly, she heard an alarm-like notification over the comms. "What- oh, no. This is not good."
The worried tone in Petra's voice concerned her greatly. "What? What's wrong?"
"We just detected Wolf signatures moving around in the Citadel, invading more Vex territory. There's energy all around the site, and Skolas is with them! Whatever it si they're planning, they're obviously ready to put it into action. You have to stop them!"
Variks chimed in, "Go, Guardian! Stop Wolves from finishing their plan!"
She sighed. It was always one thing after another in this hunt.
—X—
As she raced towards the Citadel on her sparrow, Aria decided to ask a few things.
"Hey, Petra? Why do the other Houses dislike Skolas so much? The Kings refused to back him up, right?"
"They think he betrayed the Fallen at Twilight Gap; the Wolves were the only House to not appear. I know that we managed to stop a large number of their forces in the Reef, but to this day we have no idea why the other half of the army never appeared."
"To many, Skolas is not Kell of Kells; but rather a traitor." Variks sounded very pleased with the less than flattering title that had been applied to Skolas.
"Right." She was about to ask something else, but a large rumbling shook the ground, knocking any idea she had out of her mind. "What the hell was that?!"
"They're interfering with something that the Vex must have! Hurry Guardian!"
She didn't need to be told twice. Boosting the sparrow forward, she quickly arrived at the entrance to the Citadel and hopped off to sprint.
More rumbles continued to plague the ground. As she ran, she noticed Fallen and Vex bodies alike littering the ground. The Vex may be determined to keep the Wolves out, but it seemed that Skolas was equally determined to get in.
Finally, she came to a large chamber with a gravity lift. A helix of blue energy was constantly humming and pulsing in the shaft.
"Echo, is that safe to go up?"
The little Ghost appeared at her side. "Is anything the Vex do ever safe? No, but do we have any other options? Also no."
She hated when he made sense.
Taking a running leap, she threw herself into the gravity well and felt tingling sensation in her gut as she became weightless and moved against the power of gravity.
"To think that Skolas' reign will come to an end… it feels good, Guardian." Yeah, Variks was definitely not a fan of Skolas.
"Aria, you're going to have your hands full up there. We're too far away to provide support, and unless you have any other Guardians around to help, you're on your own."
She smirked. "That's alright. I work best under pressure."
Actually, she worked best with peace and quiet, preferably with a good book nearby to study. But without any hot-headed Hunters around, she figured that she needed some kind of one-liner to christen the mission before she went in guns blazing.
Finally, the gravity well spat her onto a pedestal of Vex-stone. She was too shocked to say anything for a few seconds, the scene before her was breathtaking. The top of the citadel was high above the clouds, the horizon visible off in the distance. There were more platforms of Vex architecture, but they were much too far to jump to. How was she supposed to-
What was that?
Looking into the open air, she noticed the most peculiar thing. At first, she thought it was a trap or trick; but it was so simple in appearance, and so harmless looking.
It was a little blue light.
It did nothing but hover in the air, as though beckoning to her. She tilted her head confusedly. "What is that?"
"What's what, Guardian?"
"Echo, patch my video feed to Petra." She pointed at the blue orb of light. "What is that?"
"I don't see anything but open air, Guardian. Speaking of which, how are you supposed to get across?"
She was about to reply that she didn't know either, but a massive platform appeared underneath the orb at that precise second. "Whoa!"
"That's Vex tech; the platforms must not be anchored to any timeline, they'll be jumping in and out of existence! Hurry!"
Without hesitation, she jumped onto the large structure. Looking around, she noticed that the orb was gone. She glanced further down the distance to the next large platform, and noticed the orb hovering in the air again. Knowing now what it was doing, she leapt into the air on faith.
"Guardian, what are you doing?!"
Petra's question was answered immediately as a platform appeared underneath Aria right before she landed. "How the hell did you know that was there, Aria?"
She looked ahead to where the blue light was hovering in the air once more. "That blue light; I'm not sure why you can't see it, but it's guiding me."
"I hope you know what you're doing."
It took a few more jumps, but she finally made it to the large area situated ever so precariously above the clouds. The blue light was now right in front of her. It seemed almost inviting. She stretched out her fingers to touch it…
Not yet. Soon. We will meet soon.
The blue light winked out of existence as Aria tried to find the source of the voice.
"Petra? Did you say that?"
"Say what?"
She shook her head, trying to figure out why that feminine voice had sounded familiar. "Never mind."
Obviously, there was something bigger at play here. She'd have to tell Matt and Ash when she got back; but for now, she was about to face off against a Wolf Kell by herself.
What could go wrong?
Suddenly, there was a blue flash. She looked around the structure to see that there were Vex time-gates everywhere, much like the one that had produced a Gate Lord so many years before. And they were active.
"Guardian, Vex signatures are all around the site. But they seem to not be normal, they're-"
Petra couldn't even finish her sentence before a Wolf Vandal walked out of one of the time-gates. It seemed momentarily surprised, but then spotted Aria. As it growled a challenge at her, more Wolves began to pour out from the time-gates.
Aria was finally putting the pieces of Skolas' plan together.
"Petra? I think I figured out where the other half of the Wolf army at Twilight Gap went."
"Oh my God, he's pulling the entire House of Wolves through time!"
She summoned a scatter grenade, and threw it forward, disintegrating the first wave of Fallen. "Any ideas?"
"I've studied the Vex before; for all the time-gates to be active, they need a central conflux, just like Atheon acted as one for the Vault of Glass. Skolas must have made himself an active conflux for all the Wolves!"
Aria nodded as she equipped her rifle and began to pump bullets into the rest of the Wolves. "So if I kill Skolas-"
"Then the gates will deactivate, and the Wolves will cease to exist!"
"Right. Easier said than done, but right."
She decided not to waste any more time on this time-gate, and instead ran past them as more poured out. She wanted to make it to the big guy, to the one behind all this-
And there he was.
Flanked by two Servitors, the Kell alone was an intimidating sight. He definitely didn't need the entire House of Wolves from the past to be frightening. Hearing her approach, he turned and looked at her. Upon facing his challenger, Skolas threw back his head and made that awful chuffing sound that was analogous to Fallen laughter. He began to speak.
Variks decided to translate. "He says, 'all Fallen shall kneel before Wolf banner. I, the Kell of Kells, have become the new conflux of time. And not even the-' well, it was an insult- 'can stop us.' "
She grinned. "Well, I've got a few choice words for him too. And almost all of them begin with 'bang'."
Whipping her rifle forward, she peppered him with rounds as he held up his arms to protect himself. The Servitors moved forward and began firing at her.
Stepping back, she turned to see that the other Wolves were coming now. Masses of them were flooding the time-gates now, there was no way she'd be able to hold them all off and kill Skolas too.
"Echo, any ideas here?!" she yelled. She bobbed and weaved through the crowd of Fallen, ducking to avoid a swipe from a shock-blade, and using void to drain any that came too close.
"You could try what the Messenger did with those projectiles of his!"
She knew exactly what he was talking about, and decided to give it a shot while adding a bit of spin to it. Crouching down, she extended her hands opposite of each other to form a 'T' shape, and then rotated in a circle. She formed solidified shards of void, and sent them flying from her hands. As she spun, they tore through the ranks of Fallen trying to get closer to her, and effectively helped with the crowd control.
"You need to focus on Skolas; I don't think he's gonna wait for you to finish with these guys before he moves on to you!"
She saw a shadow looming over her, and instantly agreed with Echo. Rolling to the side, she narrowly avoided the large fist of Skolas that he'd brought down to smash her with. She reached around for her rifle again, but found that it had skittered away a few feet when she had dove for safety. Skolas followed her gaze, and promptly brought a massive foot down on it, crushing it beneath his weight.
Echo spoke concernedly in her head, "Looks like you won't be using that anytime soon."
She shrugged. "Alright, Plan B then."
Matt wasn't the only one who knew how to blink.
She leapt up in the air towards Skolas, only to disappear before his eyes. He had less than a second to wonder where they hell she'd gone before she wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and held on tight.
"I'm thinking that these glowing tubes are kind of important!" she yelled, and reached a hand forward to grasp one of them, and yank it out of its connection. Orange liquid spilled everywhere, and Skolas screamed in pain. He desperately reached around to pull her off as she continued to tear the tubes from their sockets.
Finally, he managed to snag her by her robes, and threw her off of him as he fell to a knee. His hands reached up to his face as she lined up a shot…
Using her only opportunity as she flew threw the air, she hurled a Nova Bomb at him, and felt great satisfaction in watching it explode all over his front. He screamed again, and within seconds had been reduced to a melting carcass of Fallen by the void effects.
Nearly flying off the edge, she used her thrusters to give her one little burst of momentum in the opposite way, and it slowed her down just so that she was close enough to grab the edge of the platform as she fell over it. Hanging on for dear life, she pulled herself up shakily.
The time-gates began pulsing erratically with their conflux dead, and they begin to wilt in on themselves. The army of Wolves began to glow white, and cracks spread all across their form. They clawed at their bodies as though something were tearing its way out from inside them, and finally they shattered and disintegrated, becoming nothing but ethereal vapor in the air.
The entire House of Wolves had been erased from this timeline, and Skolas was nothing but a purple and orange puddle of sludge on the ground. Not bad for just a minute or two of fighting.
The comms crackled to life. "Well, that was… absolutely amazing."
Petra seemed to be in total shock of the event, and it sounded like she didn't know how to react to it. Aria laughed. "Well, saving the world has been my job several times before. It's not anything new."
"Sure as hell seems like it. Remind me to never get on your bad side."
She laughed again. Man, today was a good day.
—X—
She was up on the mountain again. Snow was drifting by just like last time. The view was the same. She turned to look at where they had been last time, the stranger sitting upon the mountaintop.
They were not here.
The Last Hunter. What a lonesome title.
She turned around to see a small blue orb of light hovering on the ledge with her. It pulsated with a rhythm like a heartbeat.
I would have called them the Last Guardian, or true Guardian, considering the abysmal state the rest of the others are in. Nothing more than selfish individuals who like to keep the title of Guardian to stroke their ego.
It felt familiar, but also intimidating. She felt cautious around it, as though it could strike her at any moment. "Who are you?"
You will find out soon. And you will not be happy.
The orb was both friend and foe; a benefactor, and someone pulling the strings.
All the pain they feel… it could be erased. I will not let this happen, I will not let you…
She felt like she was being probed, her soul being penetrated by this mysterious orb as it sought to look for weaknesses.
I have such plans for you.
Then the orb pulsed, everything faded to white, and she remembered no more.