Kei gasped in pain as he worked, carefully using a fiery hand to melt the solid ice that coated the wires entangling his broken leg. He worked slowly, expending as little energy as physically possible in order to make it last as long as it could. He knew it was inevitable, but he kept the thought of freezing to death alone out of his mind.

crack...

The ice cracked and splintered, floating off of the wire and into space. The Warlocked reached out and tried to grab as many of the precious icy shards as he could.

Ice was water.

Water was air.

Air he could breathe.

With the cable now free of its casing, he carefully unwound the twisted appendage. He winced in pain as the splintered bones were disturbed, once again shooting pain into his body. He was fortunate that he was wearing Samsara I's, the tough material prevented his leg from being bent too out of shape. "Gotta be calm", Kei remembered the many lessons with Ikora and other Warlocks. "A true Warlock is focused. Their attention is always on the task at hand."

He gritted his teeth, "first thing I'm gonna have to do… Is try and heal my leg…" The Guardian then gathered up his strength, taking several deep breaths before focusing his solar energy into his hands as well as the broken limb. The bones shifted and began to slowly realign themselves with each other. He screamed in agony, not able to keep his pain contained any longer.

If sound could travel through space…

Kei's painful recovery would've been heard for miles around…

A few hours later and Kei was panting in exhaustion. His leg was slowly cooling as the heat of his sunsinger power began to leap back to his core in the Warlock's last ditch effort to conserve his power. Weakly, he reached for and took hold of the cord that had snagged him to begin with. He shakily tied it around his midsection, doing his best to ensure he wouldn't float off while he rested.


Trinity and Xor quickly made their way along the surface of Triton, their sparrows creating long trails of icy dust along the moon's grey surface. Neither one of them said a word until they reached the landing site.

Nothing had changed in the crater, much to Xor's delight. The ships, albeit a bit dusty and cold, were still intact and functioned well when started up.

Trinity turned to Kei's Ether Eater, she raised her hand and summoned her ghost, ordering it to fly the ship to the tower and inform the Vanguard of their whereabouts. The small angular being nodded and phased into the hull of the green and orange ship. Moments later, it shuttered and began to lift off. The two guardians watched as its main engines roared to life and it shot away into the stars, bound for home in the tower.

"Ok then…", Xor said after the ship had disappeared from view, "Where do we start?"

The Exo walked over to his own ship. He lifted himself into the pilot seat and began flipping switches as the cockpit began to close around him, sighing as he recalled the familiarity of the controls and realized the reason he needed to use them again.

"I believe you saw more than I did, I was unconscious almost moments after I got my helmet on from lack of oxygen.", Trinity replied softly, her usual tone of confidence dulled a bit by the current circumstances. "You saw which direction the Skiff drifted in right?"

Xor only shook his head, "I was kind of preoccupied with not dying at the moment… I didn't see him either." The hunter's ship rumbled as it began to warm its engines.

The comm system crackled for a moment as it was switched from their helmets to their ships.

"That complicates things…", Trinity said, her voice on the comms was laced with the sound of her flipping switches while the machinery around her booted up along with Xor's.

For the first time in a long time, Xor was able to crack a smile, however sarcastic it may have been, "I think we should just go with our guts. For example, I think he drifted about forty five degrees off the Ketch's position."

Trinity's voice sounded almost astounded, "But if you have no solid evidence, how do you know he went that way?"

Xor chuckled softly to himself as he responded, "I don't… But it's better than sitting and trying to find something solid while our man drifts towards the edge of the known universe now isn't it?"

"I guess you're right. Forty five degrees from the crash sight it is then." Trinity's voice held a spark of amusement in it. "We fly in search of a friend whom has been lost to us. We will not return until he has been retrieved."

Xor laughed, "Alright then…"

"Hold on buddy… We're comin' for ya."


Kei's eyes opened to a squint.

Xor?

They closed again as the Warlock thought to himself, "Can't waste any energy… Got to rest…"

He let himself go limp as he drifted alongside the wreckage, tethered to it by a lifeline of alien copper and spinmetal.