Hello Lovelies! Long time, no see. I am doing my best, but life is busy. Most of you have probably figured this out already, but I broke IitU up into two parts. I always intended for this to be a series, but I never quite knew how I wanted to break it up until now. However, if you are here for the first time, this is part two of The Unknown Series and you should probably read part 1 (Indulging in the Unknown) first. Anyways, enjoy this newest chapter!

Chapter 15 – Too Many Surprises

Tyriks took two large steps to the end of his worktable, pivoted quickly, and lunged at the creature. He'd only had a moment to react, but a moment was all he needed. His pedicels had told him everything he needed to know about his surroundings, their effective range amplified by his helm fin's receptor plates. He knew the exact distance the creature was from him, the exact number of steps he needed to take to reach it. He picked up its unusual scent and the heat that radiated from its body, warmer than any Fallen had ever been.

His blades came down in an effortless swing, his timing and positioning perfect; one would take it through the waist and the other neck and shoulder. A moment before he would have connected, their eyes met although he could understand nothing of the other's expression, and then his blades caught nothing but air. The creature was gone.

He scanned the room before he had even finished the movement but found nothing. He widened his search and figured out only a moment later where it had gone. Turning around, he found it there on the other side of the worktop where he had been just a moment before. Tyriks lunged at it again, this time across the worktop, but once again he landed without making contact. Even with instinct riding him, he had moments to wonder how its teleportation worked. He picked up no nuur, no transitions or frequencies.

Tyriks faced the Vandals again knowing where he would find the other. Indeed, the creature had returned to its original position, but strangely it had made no other movements. In fact, neither had the Vandals. He growled lowly at the incompetence. "Activate the warning beacons. The lair is compromised," he ordered forcefully, not bothering to take his eyes off their enemy.

As strange as it was that neither of them had moved, it caught him off guard when they both hesitated. He could see it in the rogue arms flicks, their reluctance was so obviously displayed, and the pheromones that poured into the area were rank, anxiety-ridden. "Captain—" started the lesser Vandal, but Tyriks cut him off with an enraged trill. How dare they both defy him?! "Captain, this is the female," he finally said rushing through the words.

"What do you mean?" he growled out while still glaring at the immobile creature.

"Captain," said the reaver, "this is the female. You agreed to evaluate."

Tyriks straightened abruptly. He had never allowed a lesser Fallen to see him in a state other than perfectly prim and refined, he was a baron after all, but he could not contain the surprise in his posture and voice when he realized what the Vandals meant. "You… have mated this creature?" he asked finally risking a quick glance at the lesser Vandal. He didn't want to think about the action, but he had to confirm this.

"Yes."

Tyriks hissed in disgust, another act well below his station. He could not believe this Vandal had touched this creature, this nuur'khu. It was wrong, an affront to their kind. What had he been thinking? Tyriks quickly moved from surprised to completely infuriated. Not only was it disgusting, it was treachery interacting with a nuur'khu in this manner. His claws clenched tighter around his shock blades and more than anything in that moment he wanted to destroy these Vandals, but he restrained himself, with effort. He had always been one to think before acting; there was an appropriate moment to let one's instinct take over, and this was not it, not yet.

"Why was it brought here?" he asked, barely able to keep that fury out of his voice.

"We did not. The female must have followed."

"Incompetent, letting yourselves be followed. You have compromised the lair." How foolish and incompetent these Vandals had been; they had put the entire crew at risk, not only of destruction, but humiliation even if they managed to survive. Simple destruction did not seem fitting punishment enough. He would make them suffer for this, make an example of them. Although he cared not for it, Tyriks was not above torture if it served a purpose.

However, he had more important things to consider. There was a nuur'khu in his lair, which, if nothing else, fortuitously seemed to have snuck in since no other Fallen had been alerted to its presence. The thought that perhaps none had been alerted because it had destroyed them all crossed his mind, but it seemed unlikely. Nevertheless, he quickly commed his guard privately. He answered, which was a good sign, so Tyriks made up a random task for him to go do. If anything was amiss, he would know in a matter of moments.

In the interim, how to handle this situation? The thing that gave him pause most was the nuur'khu itself. By the Vandal's own account, it had been interacting with him for many moments. Now, it had snuck into their lair. What was it trying to accomplish with these unexpected and seemingly drastic maneuvers? He could only imagine what intel it had gleaned from the Vandals.

Interestingly, the creature still hadn't moved. He had obviously expected an attack, but it stood in the same spot, very close to the lesser Vandal, who did not seem to mind its presence, which perturbed him. He recalled even during its teleportation that its body had never actually moved. The expression was the same, the posture, the arms and claws, all the same. It occurred to him that it seemed to be trying to appear innocuous. How strange. Most nuur'khu would not have bothered. They desired to threaten, to fight and kill; it was what they did.

Tyriks looked at it more closely. It was not garbed as he would have expected, neither wearing armor nor even fully covered, which pointed either to a lack of resources or much more likely, a disgusting level of arrogance. It did not fear bodily harm, even here inside their lair. What was this nuur'khu to be so bold?

He had seen hu'ins before and awoken; this creature shared many of their characteristics, but there were differences. The first he noted were the eyes. Although it had only two like the hu'ins, they looked so strangely similar to his own. Even the color was the same. The other difference was it flesh. He had seen like tones and patterns from Awoken, but this nuur'khu seem… illuminated somehow. The flesh glittered as though it were frozen, but he knew the creature's body radiated heat, so this was not the case. Was there another species rising as nuur'khu? Did the Fallen now have another enemy to contend with for this planet?

Tyriks intended to ask, but his guard commed him. He simply stated he had completed his task, no urgency or report of destroyed Fallen throughout the caves, which meant the nuur'khu had indeed snuck in. He sent an acknowledgment and returned his attention to his previous thoughts. "This nuur'khu is what species?"

"We know not."

"You are what species?" he asked addressing it for the first time, but it did not answer.

"Female is incapable of speech," interrupted the reaver. "She pairs a nuur'az. It speaks for her," there was a slight pause and then he added, "They insist she is not nuur'khu."

Not nuur'khu. "This has no logic," he scoffed, "It has nuur'az, then it is nuur'khu."

"They insist not. They state they care not for this planet, this Last City."

Tyriks meant to reply, well to admonish them for believing such poorly crafted untruths, but something else much more important occurred to him. "Nuur'az is here?"

His question was left unanswered, although he should have expected that. The Vandals apparently did not know and the nuur'khu was incapable of telling him. Did it even understand him? He gestured at the nuur'khu and gave voice to his query, "It understands?"

"Yes, nuur'az claims."

Tyriks' arm flicked slightly in acknowledgement, although this time he managed to keep his surprise to himself. How had this nuur'khu learned E'lik? He knew there had been an effort by the nuur'khu to intercept and translate Fallen chatter, but he also knew their grasp of the Fallen language was rudimentary at best. Most of that knowledge was contained within the nuur'az as well, not the nuur'khu. He was curious if it did really understand him or if it was another untruth the nuur'az had fed the Vandals. "Nuur'az is here?" he repeated this time addressing the nuur'khu directly with his question. Any Fallen would understand his tone; it demanded a response and the threat evident if he didn't get one, but this creature was not Fallen. It stared at him for many moments, not a single movement to be seen, until finally its head cocked to the side.

Very slowly, the nuur'khu backed away from them all. After a few steps, it turned and walked to the furthest corner of his lab. Tyriks watched it wearily as it knelt in the corner and extended its claws. He didn't see the creature grab anything, but after only a few moments it stood again and returned to them hands still outstretched as though it carried something. He thought to demand an explanation for this behavior, but just before, he noticed the shimmer. That small refraction meant only one thing and sure enough, the nuur'az decloaked. It was pressed into the creature's claws, its small plates clicking together as it trembled, obviously afraid.

This was unexpected; nuur'az did not show themselves, ever. They hid, always, and yet, here one was. He had a living nuur'az in his lair. His mind went immediately to the prestige he could gain from capturing and delivering such a prize to his house leaders. To be able to study it, dissect it and learn its inner workings could greatly aid them in understanding how to defeat the nuur'khu.

Tyriks knew he had not made a single movement and yet it was as if the nuur'khu knew what he was thinking. It drew its claws inward tighter to its body, further from their reach, and its expression had changed somehow although he could not identify exactly what was different.

Before he could think further on his unexpected good fortune and how to capitalize on it, the nuur'az spoke. "The Vandals are correct," it said so quietly he could barely make it out.

"Speak up, Nuur'az," he growled.

"The Vandals are correct," it repeated only slightly louder than the first time. It continued hurriedly, the words coming out strung together, "The female understands your speech, she is not a nuur'khu, and she does not know what species she is."

His next words rumbled out, the irritation with these untruths causing the stridulation, "This has no logic."

The nuur'az trembling increased with his vocalizations. It was trying to speak, but it was completely incomprehensible, which only increased his irritation. Fortunately for him, the nuur'khu intervened. It backed up a few steps and turned away from him. Small vocalizations from the nuur'az seemed to indicate they were having a conversation although he heard nothing from the nuur'khu, which made sense given what the Vandals had told him. Although that did leave him to question how their communication functioned, but that was a consideration for another moment.

When the nuur'khu turned back, the nuur'az was noticeably calmer. It no longer trembled and as he watched, it rose just a fraction higher out of the creature's claws. In clearly discernable E'lik, it finally spoke, "The female says we are willing to discuss many things; however, we require an agreement that we will not be harmed for the duration of our discussion."

He had surmised this before given how they had manipulated the Vandals, but this pair were clever indeed to ask such a thing. It was disadvantageous for him and Tyriks did not desire to make such an agreement for he did mean them harm. The only way he saw this situation concluding favorably for his crew was for all those in this room besides himself to never leave it again.

"You agreed to evaluate the female," the nuur'az reminded him although he did not need it.

"The Vandals failed to disclose, female is not Fallen," he replied.

"True, but that fact doesn't really change anything; it can just be another factor that you consider. This discussion can be the beginning of your evaluation, or the totality of it if you do not like what we have to say."

Something had changed. He did not know what the nuur'khu had communicated, but like the creature itself, the nuur'az had grown bold. They were confident and he did not like that. However, despite his anger at this entire situation, the nuur'az was right, he had agreed to evaluate the female and he would honor that. None of that changed the fact that after this discussion had concluded, he had every intention of destroying them all. He would also use the conversation to understand these enemies further. They had to have a weakness he could exploit, and he needed to find it because the creature's ability to evade him was… impressive although he was loath to admit it.

Now, it seemed he had one viable option. Tyriks put away his shock blades and returned to his seat in front of the worktop. The pair were not the only confident ones; he had been a baron for more moments than could be counted and for good reason. His intelligence and ability to strategize were not to be trifled with, a fact these creatures would soon learn all too well.

"I accept this agreement. Now speak."

Oh shit. I'm so excited for what comes next. Anybody got any guesses?

So, some of you may have caught on that I said Tyriks has "pedicels". To me, the Fallen have always seemed similar to our insects, arachnids, or just invertebrates in general. Most of which, have some sort of antenna or analogous sensory organs. With the dregs in the game, we see that they have hair(?) or whatever its supposed to be. I headcanon that these are like antennae and are very sensitive to a Fallen's surroundings. Given that they are a very advanced species, I also headcanon that the Fallen have developed a way to boost their effectiveness using their helms. The helms were designed to interface with the bunch of pedicels of their heads giving them complete control over their armor and its technology. It also allows them to communicate without speaking (same concept as telepathy but by utilizing technology, not natural ability), which is how Tyriks can have a private conversation with his guard without anyone knowing.

Fallen Language. Listed in order of appearance:

Nuur'khu – literally means lightbearers. (Just an FYI, since Bungie decided to officially call guardians 'lightbearers', I've updated my previous definition of 'lightwielders' to match. I haven't fixed all the previous chapters, but I will eventually.)

Nuur'az-literally means tool of light. This is what Fallen call ghosts.