You wouldn't believe the amount of editing and re-editing I had to do for this entire story. Character arcs, story elements and other such nonsense. But here we are and I have to say, I am very excited
The opening to book 4 is Period by Chemistry
A Promise Kept
"NO! NO, LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"
Aro's heart is screaming in his chest. His skin was on fire, his body was on fire, the whole world was set ablaze from a distance and yet, all he could think to do was run to it. Run into the flames, run and retrieve something. Something important, something needed, something he knew, just knew he could not live without. Hands on his arms, on his shoulder, pulling at him. Dragging him back, begging him not to go. Not to leave.
Suddenly, the light exploded; a shower of sparks and flames and Aro's screaming only grew loud enough to drown it all out.
Aro bolted upright, heart still racing, trembling hands beating the embers from his skin. His mind takes seconds to register and even then, Kain had to guide it along. He was in his room, in bed. At the Tower, the City. He was home. He was safe.
He didn't feel safe.
"Kain?" he called hoarsely. The Ghost came whizzing closer, it's one blue eye blinking in concern. "Do you see it?" Aro simply asked.
"Yeah, I see it. Another memory?"
Aro coughed. "Maybe." He slipped from beneath the covers, getting his feet on the carpeted floor, letting the sunlight flowing in warm him up and chase the thoughts away. A few seconds into basking and he noticed he was alone. "Daniel's gone?" he asked, turning back towards the empty spot on the bed.
"Left rather early," Kain answered, "He didn't say anything about where he was going."
Aro sighed. "He usually tells me."
"Maybe he thought you needed the rest," Kain offered. Aro wanted to believe it. Instead, he began to look around, check the bed, his things, Daniel's things. Ensure nothing had burst into flames or dissolved into the void while was in the clutches of his nightmares.
He pushed himself to stand and prepared himself for the day, little time for idleness or dwelling. In all honesty, it should have been him who was up and about early. Normally, he would chastise his Ghost for not waking him but of all the times Kain decided that Aro would benefit from further sleep, Aro had yet to name a case where he had been wrong.
Nevertheless, he had somewhere to be. Commander Zavala, after a year, had finally lifted the restrictions Aro and his clan had been saddled with after their incursion into the Vault of Glass. For a year, they went where they were told, did whatever they were told wherever they had been sent and then returned to the City, no detours, no explorations.
Reactions were varied across the clan but only the Titans lacked a consensus between them. The Warlocks, Aro included and Sora especially enjoyed the extra time they could dedicate to other, more academic interests. For the Hunters, it was hell on earth. Nothing was worse for the likes of them to be cooped up within the City and Cayde was all too happy to revel in their complaining, even if he did sympathize. Misery always did love its company.
Kain contacted Amanda, had her prep their ship while Aro left his dorm and went to find something to eat. The mess hall was relatively empty, the morning rush over and done with. Aro managed to find a table off to a corner to be alone with his thoughts and avoid what occurred pretty much any time he showed his face in public.
The battle with the Heralds at the entrance to the Vault was far from quiet. On the contrary, they had been witnessed opening the Vault door. All anyone knew is that a team of Guardians had managed to get into the Vault and that they all shared a clan, the Will of Light. News spread quickly and now people, civilians and Guardians alike, all whom he had never met, were greeting him by name; badly pronounced for the most part.
And it wasn't just him. Daniel's brother told them that people asked about Daniel at the foundry. Crona's brother said their names had come up in Consensus meetings more than once, much to Zavala's irritation. Asura and Erek had even been accosted for autographs, much to their supposed and smug delight. It was slow going but over the course of a year, their clan had gone on to become a well-known name across the City and with Aro as its leader, it placed directly at the center of all the attention.
The exact opposite reason their clan was formed.
Spread news of the Heralds, former Guardians turned to and twisted by the Darkness they had been tasked with giving humanity over, had the potential to would rip the City apart. The Gate they seek, one that would allow the Darkness to return to Earth in a fraction of the time had been sealed inside of Aro long ago, by actions of his own that he could not remember. Its first opening brought on the Collapse. The Heralds would see it happen again. The Will of Light was a clan of specific Guardians brought together by circumstance, to fight a war in the shadows. Being a household name was not helping and neither were the stares Aro still received while he tried to eat.
They hadn't heard from the Heralds in a while. After significant confrontations such as with the Devil Servitor and Gluttony's death, they always went back into hiding, kept a low profile. Aro dreamed about them. The dead ones, the still living. His brother, the first Herald and Aro's only equal in responsibility for the Collapse especially.
Visions, he reminded himself. They were visions. They were not dreams, nonsensical and forgettable. The realization that they may have never been dreams but visions of the world beyond what could readily be seen and even some of the future scared the hell out of him. He still remembered his very first visions. Floating in pitch blackness, monsters tearing him limb from limbs, seven pairs of horrible red eyes watching as they did. Barely alive for more than a day and he could already feel the Heralds' presence from what must have been entire planets away.
Then there was Wrath(A), the reason they had to break into the Vault in the first place. Aro had seen it too, predicting his betrayal. Visions of what was and what may come were not uncommon amongst Warlocks during intensive meditation sessions, especially the experienced and powerful such as Ikora Rey and Ulan-Tan. But Aro was not experienced nor did he require effort. They just came to him, brute forced their way into his mind and regularly denied him his peace.
Ikora confided in him that Osiris had suffered the same. His "Lost Prophecies" as his zealous sycophants called them were just some of the visions he received. More and more often was he was being compared to that and now Aro was beginning to find himself vehemently disliking a man he had never met, but only because their comparisons frightened him.
"You're thinking about it," Kain suddenly said, breaking their silence.
Aro took in the last spoonfuls of food. "Don't know if you noticed but you're not the only one in my head." He stood with his plates, ignoring the eyes on him. He made their conversation internal. "I'm just frustrated, Kain. I run everything through my mind again and again and all I get is more questions than answers, if any answers at all."
He trudged out of the mess hall towards the Hangar. "And what's worse is that I know just how I can get answers. About my past, what I am, why everything that has happened actually happened." Arinze and Evelyn. His father and mother, told to him by Pride, his brother. It was all he would divulge, Aro still did not know his surname, where he had been born or grew up. Bait to draw him in.
Kain understood. "It has to be a trap. It would be ridiculous to let you walk away once he's gotten you. If he's that arrogant…"
"Or confident."
"Then he's not as much as a threat as he claims to be."
"And yet, he is."
Aro quickly found his ship, prepped with the engines humming, though Amanda was nowhere to be found. Kain summoned his armor to his person, replacing his regular clothing as he entered and closed the door behind him. "Setting coordinates."
"Meridian Bay, Mars," Aro said, "You know the place."
"Locked in." The engines rose in volume and power. The ship's entire frame began to tremble until they were slowly floating towards the open bay doors. "Do you want to call the others? Tell them where you're headed?"
"No." Aro waved the suggestion off, "Let them go about their business."
"And Daniel?" he asked, knowing that Aro was already thinking about him.
"If Daniel or anyone asks, I'm away. Nothing more."
"As you say. Launching…"
Aro had missed Mars, which was strange for a few reasons. For one, he had been here multiple times, even after the restrictions had been implemented. Disrupting Cabal supply lines, assassinating enemy leaders, gathering materials for the gunsmiths and Cryptarchs. Secondly, there was little objective difference between this planet and the rest; all lost in the Collapse to hostile invaders, all needing to be reclaimed.
But unlike the other planets, there were no terrible events in his life that he could associate with this place. Earth, Venus, Luna, all held bad memories; Venus, the most recent. Even after a year, he still did his level best to avoid the entirety of the planet. The entire clan did.
So through elimination, Mars had become his favorite. Feeling the red sand crunch beneath his boots, scaling the mountains and hills, staring out the massive spires that had once belonged to humanity, this place had become special to him. And because no one knew how special, it became even more so. In regards to the clan, out of the entire system, Mars felt like it was his place; a planet he could come to get away from it all, even if there were still other Guardians running around.
A trio of them was here now, waving in greeting as they sped past on their Sparrows. Aro watched them move on, saw one Titan nearly and probably intentionally ram himself into a Cabal Legionnaire from a nearby firebase and disappear past the rising dunes. Only then did he continue on his business.
He sought out a certain formation of rocks away from the transmat point of the Scablands, two upright slabs of stone with a third lying over them, leaving a small entrance way from him to drop and crawl through.
Kain appeared, opening up to illuminate the small cave. Aro moved to sit before the wall its back. Against it was a small grey stone, stark against the constant red. Toland's Ghost had loved the Moon as well as Mars. So, in respect, the exiled Warlock had marked his burial on Mars with a simple lunar stone.
Aro had taken to calling him Toland more and more often, instead of the name Pride had given him. Gluttony, the Voidwalker; twisted and corrupted by his pursuit of knowledge, a pursuit that drove away every person he had loved and who had loved him. A cautionary tale to all Warlocks.
The man had saved his life back in the Summoning Pits. Aro will never understand how it happened, how he was able to connect with Toland after being killed by the monster that he had become but he did. Toland helped Aro break the safeguards on his full powers, allowing him to pull himself and his Ghost back from the brink of death. His last request to Aro before he was finally put down was to ask the younger Warlock to make a visit to the grave of his Ghost; his first, closest and most steadfast friend. So much had happened since then but Aro never forgot his promise, even when he could not keep it.
Aro sat before it in silence, though his mind was never as quiet as he himself could be. He knew that Toland and Vell had been involved though what details he learned had come from Toland's journal. They had been happy, at the start. Eriana-3 would tease Toland incessantly with Vell receiving the same treatment from his own family, his older brother being the worst culprit. They were very, very much in love.
Then everything went downhill. Toland began delving deeper and deeper into Hive arcana, performing dangerous experiments, putting the integrity of himself and his fellow Guardians at risk until the Speaker and the Vanguard were forced to intervene. Every single one of his relationships was left in tatters and no one could be blamed but himself.
To make matters worse, his exile drove Vell further and further down. Turned the upstanding Titan into a man who would go on to make a deal with the worst devil Aro knew and suffer for it. He wondered, wherever the Heralds remained, if Toland would ever just look at Vell, now called Greed, at his sickly pallor, his cold red eyes, the look of brokenness he always held and know that he had a hand in the man's downfall. This man he supposedly loved suffered before and suffered now because of his past actions.
Aro respected Toland. He was grateful to the man for saving his life and would keep his promise to visit his Ghost as much as he could but he absolutely hated being compared to him, even to the point of preferring the comparisons to Osiris. He looked at how Toland loved Vell, how they had started and progressed. How they were very slowly pushed apart by the Toland's actions and Aro saw too many similarities to himself and Daniel to be comfortable with it. He wanted to be better. For Daniel, for both of them but something drove Toland to the lengths that it did and judging by what he witnessed in that dark future, Aro was far from immune. If anything, he was susceptible.
Kain suddenly disappeared. "Aro, we have company."
Aro had kept his helmet on, he could see the red crawling up on his radar. He gave the small grave a few more seconds of regard before crawling back through the opening and out into the sun again. A contingent of Sand Eaters advanced on his position, still enough of a distance away to not have seen where he had been. How they had found him in the first place was anyone's guess and he wasn't interested in thinking further on it. He just wanted them gone.
"You have no business here, Cabal," he said, knowing full well that they either could not understand or would not care, "Walk away now or rot in the sand."
One Cabal at the front, armor more ornate than the others stomped his foot angrily. He lifted his gun up to his throat and dragged it across, a very human gesture and Aro took it for what it was. He understood what Aro was saying and that he had made his decision.
Aro reached behind him and detached Hawkmoon, the silver glint in the sun a blindingly clear final warning. The Cabal began to circle him, growling and threatening in that guttural language of theirs. Dogs before a slaughter.
What were dogs to a wolf?
The Cabal charged. Aro aimed and blew off the helmet of the closest Legionnaire in a shower of metal and sludge. The choking Cabal pitched forward into Aro, who ran up before it fell and propped its heavy frame up, using the newly made corpse as a body shield while he took down the two on its flank.
He Blinked backwards, letting the Legionnaire's dead body hit the ground and just barely avoiding a Phalanx's shield bash. Fire at the feet, fire at the head. Then twist around to avoid the one who thought it could take him from the side and pump two shots into its spine.
One by one, they fell. Each one that did only served to increase the ferocity and desperation of those they left behind. Not that it served them any better, it only ensured they made more fatal mistakes. Aro stepped to the side to let yet another corpse fall onto the group, Solar Light blackening and melting its armor when he suddenly found himself rocked, a heavy weight barreling into him, knocking him off his feet and rolling into the hot sand.
The last of the Cabal, their leader, delivered a thunderous kick to his side, reducing half his ribcage to pieces and sending him hurtling through the air to make a hard landing on the ground. Aro coughed, feeling warmth dripping down his lips as he forced himself to his hands and knees. The bones of his ribs writhed beneath his skin, his Ghost pushing them all back into place.
The Cabal's stomping sounded from a distance, growing closer and closer. Aro kept his position, a palm to his assisted side to feel for when Kain had finished and to hide his hand. The Cabal leader thought nothing of it, too wrapped in rage and shame for caution.
Fatal mistakes. As soon as the creature was over him, the hand at Aro's side was suddenly thrown outward, a shotgun wrapped within. With a resounding boom and an agonized, enraged wail, the Cabal leader dropped to the ground, its knee in tatters.
Aro got back to his feet, attaching the shotgun to his back and retrieving Hawkmoon. He lifted and fired the pistol into the other leg, earning another scream. The Cabal still lived, even as pieces of its kneecaps littered the ground around it. Aro watched him writhe in agony and found himself filled with nothing but apathy and contempt. When he spoke, his voice sounded so different. "Why did you come here?"
The Cabals only response was to turn its eyes onto him, recognizing his voice, his question. Aro took off his helmet and let it fall to the ground, spitting out a globule of blood before continuing. "The Fallen are driven by desperation," he said, "The Vex by directive. The Hive, zealotry. But you Cabal have no true reason, do you? You're just murderous warmongers, barreling through all in your path simply because it amuses you."
He squat down before it. "Is that what you hoped when you marched here? That you'd trample over me like you trample over lives, over worlds? Kill a Guardian, win yourself glory and renown among your ranks. What did it get you, Cabal? Nothing but a dead squad. A dead squad and three bullets." Aro fired his weapon a third time, this time into the Cabal's chest, creating a fountain a black oil from punctured metal. The Cabal barely made a sound, its mind already shutting down. Aro leaned closer, he wanted it to hear him. "What happens next doesn't matter in the slightest, as far as you're concerned." The Cabal's trembling hand reached out for him and he knocked it away. "No matter what happens, none of you survive. None at all. And believe me when I say, I will take comfort in that when it happens. One way or another."
He rose to his full height and held out his palm. He called the Light forward, focusing on the world behind the world. He could feel wisps of the void dripping from his eyes, into the air. The Cabal had gone completely quiet and still, its laboring chest the only sign that it was still alive. "Until that day comes," he said, "I'll just have to settle for enjoying this." The Void sphere in his hand expanded, blinding the both of them.
The explosion kicked sand into the air, maybe high enough to be seen for miles. Kain appeared over his shoulder when the dust had settled and looked over the remains. "Yeesh."
"Don't be ridiculous. He didn't feel a thing." Aro shook his head, trying to clear the fog and the developing headache. He was feeling more like himself again though he had barely felt any change in the first place. Just more unsolvable mysteries to keep him awake at night.
"The nearby Cabal base must have seen that," Kain said, "I'll bring the ship into range, we can stay there." Aro felt no reason to argue. When the ship came into view, he left behind a gruesome scene; Cabal corpses slowly burrowing into the ground and a spot of hardened sand, stained black and still smoking.
The sun was rising on a new day when Aro returned to the Tower. Still too early for most people to be walking around aside from Aro's fellow restless. Normally, he'd check in on his clan, knowing that some would be up and about; Mira in the gyms, Aashir in the labs. Then there was the myriad of other things that required his attention. But at the moment, he was in no mood for the looks he would get from them, whether they be intentional or deliberate.
Wariness, on occasion. Pity was a constant. If he was really lucky, Aro would get a look of startled confusion before the person reminded themselves that it was in fact, not Pride, Herald of the Night, checking up on their wellbeing. In Shino's case, it was coldness at best and outright distrust or disdain at worst. Nothing between them had improved in the year since the revelation. The big Titan would laugh and smile and joke around with literally every other member of the team then do a complete 180 when talking to Aro. It got to the point where Aro would have Kain just send him messages rather than speak to him just so he wouldn't have to deal with that frosty glare.
Aro was still struggling to adjust. He had never lost a friend like that before. He held out hope that, maybe, things between them could improve but part of him felt that he was just setting himself up for disappointment.
Daniel, he would search out though. The man did indeed attempt to contact him, as did Asura and Crona. Aro made his way through the plaza, ignoring the whispers and the stares until he reached the bounty board and saw that they had opened the back part of the Tower. From where he stood, he could see a Hunter speaking to another Guardian, a Titan in shimmering, ornate golden armor and a dark cape flowing from considerable shoulders. Dark skin, dark hair with slight bits of gray that caught in the morning sunlight. The Guardian he was speaking to nodded her thanks and strode off. Then the Titan spoke, loud enough for Aro to hear but still with a sense of effortlessness. "Warlock. Approach."
After looking around to see if there was anyone else the man could have been talking to, Aro climbed the short staircase and stopped before him. "Lord Saladin," he greeted, "An honor."
Lord Saladin looked him up and down, measuring him up. Then he responded, "Vaultbreaker. Likewise."
Shaxx had taken to calling him that. Aro shouldn't have been surprised to know that it would spread. "Don't look so surprised, Arochukwu. News spreads fast, even as far away as I am."
"Did Commander Zavala tell you? Or Ikora?"
The man shook his head. "Shaxx. But only so that he could take credit for training you." His hands clasped together before him. "What you did was extraordinarily risky, Arochukwu as well as disrespectful to your Vanguard. But still, your reasons were honorable. I can't help but think I would have done the same for one of my own."
"You know our reasons?" Aro asked.
"I know everything." Saladin leaned slightly closer and brought his voice down, "There's a reason I was able to recognize you so easily."
Aro's hands clenched involuntarily. Either not noticing or ignoring his stunned state, Saladin continued, "The likeness between you and...him is uncanny. But up close, I can see the differences that set you and your brother apart. Pride or Kain, he looks weathered. Older, a little haunted, a man who's been shell-shocked long enough to be completely immune to it. Not even in that old." he said, "You? You just look sleep deprived."
That earned Saladin a small laugh and some measure of relaxation from Aro. "If you're interested in competing, Arochukwu, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint. Regardless of your accomplishments, regardless of this raw power both Ikora and Shaxx speak highly of, the Iron Banner tournament is for the top tier of Guardians. Those who have achieved rank IV."
"Ikora and Shaxx speak about me? What do they say?"
"Plenty of comparisons to Osiris for one." Aro's face instinctively twisted into a frown, "I, for one, find it strange. I personally already hold you in higher regard than I hold him. You've yet to run off and abandon your duties in pursuit of your own selfish interests."
"My interest is my duty. Stopping Pride and the Heralds."
A small smile graced his otherwise hard face. "Lucky us." He turned his gaze to a trio of Guardians approaching. "Will you be taking the Trials soon?"
"We don't feel very prepared yet."
"Take the time you need." He waved Aro off, "We will speak when you are ready."
I'm currently in the process of revamping Books 1 and 2 to make the writing style more streamlined. They were the very first stories I've ever written and I feel like I've changed a lot as a writer since then. I plan to finish each book in its entirety before I upload them