Hey hey hey everyone, guess whose back. It's a while, 2 years to be relatively exact. I hope you are all excited as I am to keep this story going. They may still be some grammatical errors in this chapter so sorry for that, but for now as always please rate, review and enjoy.

Chapter 8: Orders are Orders

Aaron breathed heavily as he climbed the face of the Cosmadromes wall. His thick armor did well at protecting him from rough wind and the bitter cold, however it didn't aid in trying to grip the slippery surface of the wall.

"So, now that we're halfway up this stupid thing, could you please tell me why we're up here Aaron?" Aaron found some footing and looked down below him at Jewel. The Hunter's cloak was flapping wildly in the wind and Aaron could tell by her body movements that she was getting tired.

"I already told you it's a surprise." The Titan said resuming him climb.

"Usually I like your surprises, but this. Fuck this."

"Come on it's not that bad. Besides we're almost there."

Aaron couldn't help but smile at the girls plight with the climb. Aaron and Jewel had been together officially for a few weeks now. At first his team was very supportive, before Aaron almost left them out to try a couple of times to spend time with Jewel. Now they've come to a compromise where fireteam assignments take precedence over love life. Aaron could respect that. Besides, Aaron never meant to push his team aside, they were still like family to him. Now things have seemed to find their balance and Aaron loved every day of his life more and more.

After about another 10 minutes of climbing Aaron pulled himself over the top of the wall and reached down to pull Jewel up the remained few feet of her ascent. Both Guardians looked around at the vast Russian landscape. Snow coated the ground and as the sun swiftly approached the horizon te harsh winds started to die off.

"Ok, we're here. Now what?" Jewel asked

Aaron remained silent as Rex appeared next to him. Aaron gave his ghost a nod and soon after a large thick blanket materialized on the ground in front of Aaron followed by a few lanterns to hold down the corners. Aaron knelt down at each lantern and with a snap of his fingers he used his solar energy to light the candles inside. With all four lanterns shining the sun dipped down on the other side of the horizon and night started to take over the land. Aaron looked back Jewel who just looked at him before snickering.

"You've got to be kidding me. Here? It's like -20 degrees up here."

"Come on Jewel just trust me." Aaron pleaded as he help out his hand to her." Jewel looked at the hand for a few moments before taking it and allowing Aaron to lead her onto the blanket. Once bother were seated amidst the lanterns Rex materialized another thick furry blanket which Aaron draped over both of them. The two of them sat there for a few minutes idly chatting. Aaron repeatedly refused to answer Jewels questions of why they he had brought her here. Finally Aaron checked the time and pulled the blanket off of him. Aaron quickly went to each lantern and blew out the candles enveloping both guardians in darkness. Aaron returned to his place beside Jewel under the blanket.

"It's time." Aaron said.

"For what?"

"Just look up and wait for it."

Jewel turned her gaze skyward. She saw the stars in full view. They were beautiful but nothing she hadn't seen before. She continued to looked for a few minutes before suddenly vibrant streams of blues, greens, and purples stretched across the sky. Jewels eyes widened as she stared at them in awe.

"Wow." Was all Jewel could say.

"The Northern Lights are beautiful from up here. I like coming up here this time of year just to look at it."

Jewel and Aaron sat in one anothers embrace embrace for what felt life hours until finally Jewel spoke again.

"What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't seem like yourself, you haven't all day you're too quiet. What's going on?" Aaron was silent as he turned his gaze from the lights of the ground they sat on.

"Is it me?" Jewel asked suddenly.

"What? No, god no. It's just, I have a new mission from the vanguard tomorrow."

"Well that's nothing new. You guys will do fine I'm sure you will."

"I'm not going with the team."

"Ok but still you should need to worry. What are you supposed to do?" Aaron was quiet again.

"I can't say, it's classified." Jewel suddenly looked at Aaron in surprise.

"Classified?" Aaron nodded

"Ok well we'll talk to the Vanguard before you leave, see if…."

"I already asked if someone could tag along and they denied it."

"Why?"

"I can't say, it's classified."

"Is it dangerous?" Jewel asked sorrowfully like she already knew the answer. "You're worried you won't come back." Jewel said quietly, almost silently.

Aaron reached around grabbed her in a hug and held her close as he heard her start to sniffle and quietly cry. Despite being clad in their armor Aaron held her as close as he could in an effort to comfort her.

"I'll be back. If I have to crawl on my hands and knees I promise you I will be back."

"How can you promise that?" Aaron pulled Jewels face toward his and looked her in the eye through her helmet.

"Because I have someone special to come back to."

Jewel threw herself at Aaron and hugged him as more tears streamed down her face. The two sat there until Aaron stood up and had rex get rid of everything they had laid out. The two returned to the tower and the next day Jewel walked with Aaron to the hanger early in the morning. He gave her a kiss and one last promise of return before boarding his ship and shooting off into orbit. Jewel watched as his ship flew further and further away. With his ship out of sight Opal appeared next to Jewel. "You have a bad feeling about this don't you?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"You have a bad feeling about this don't you?" Rex asked as Aaron's ship settled into orbit around Earth.

"Let's just get this done." Aaron said as he started to set up a comm channel with the Vanguard.

"This is Titan Aaron, service number 082197. Confirm and go for secure."

"Jeez titan, I knew you lived by the book of a while but damn." Cayde said which caused Aaron to smile a bit.

"Secure guardian." Zavala said with a hint of irritation in his voice. "Alright guardian I'm sure you're eager to get started so we'll get you briefed. The Tower has been monitoring an unusually large amount of fallen activity in the American Ruins on Earth."

Rex displayed a projection of a large warehouse with red dots moving in and out of it. Ikora spoke next.

"As you can see the Fallen are doing something. Many patrols from the House of Kings are moving about the area gathering parts and scrap metal and they are bringing it to the warehouse."

"Guardian your mission, should you choose accept it, is to recon the area and monitor the Fallen activity. Now that's the easy part. The hard part is that we also need you to infiltrate the warehouse and find out what the hell those things are up to. If you can stop them then do so. If not, retreat and return home. You got all that?" Cayde said.

"Affirmative. Recon the area, assess the situation, infiltrate and if possible terminate. Mission accepted."

"My goodness you people are so serious.. This is why I hate real mission briefings."

"Get to work guardian." Zavala said. "And good luck."

Aaron severed the comm link and let out a deep sigh. "Rex plot a course for the American Ruins. Land s about 10 miles from the warehouse, we can cover the rest of the ground with the sparrow."

"You still never answered my question." Rex said. Aaron sighed once again.

"Yes, I have a very bad feeling about this."