Chapter 7

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I stood there. Motionless. My breathing picked up and I managed to choke out a few words through the smoke. "Nemori?" I shook lightly. Then the pounding on the door pulled me back to reality. I walked over to the door and opened it for the pounding guards.
Two titans enters the room and immediately started coughing from all the smoke.
"Aero-" one started before he started coughing and the other picked up for him, "Ikora says that the smoke is only temporary, but otherwise you're cleared for duty after you get rearmed."  I grunted my reply and began to walk toward the door. I passed a mirror on my way out and paused to look at myself before I left. My glowing optics cut through the smoke that had come to fill the room. Except the were not the same color that they should have been. They were a much paler color of purple. Not quite pink but much closer to white.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice this because one of the Titans said, "there is an urgent message from the Reef." I quickly opened the door, smoke still pouring from my chest as I marched down the hallway of the medical bay. After a few minutes of walking I had entered the courtyard and the smoke seemed to be exchanged for a thick layer of fog. I peered through the fog trying to see if anyone was in the courtyard but I saw no movement.
That was very out of the ordinary, usually the shop keeps and cryptarch could be seen at their respective stations. But I couldn't make out any of them.
I slowly began to walk through the fog when I saw something or someone running through the fog out of the corner of my optic. I turned towards it and tried to get a better idea of what I had seen but it was already gone. Then I turned back towards what I thought was the vanguards chamber only to see two pairs of three glowing eyes. Knights. I instinctively reached for my hand cannon only to find that it wasn't there. The eyes slowly approached me and I saw their blades begin to glow.
Then the pain in my chest spiked, and my vision blurred and the Knights figure in the fog turned into the likes of a wizard. The piercing scream of the witch made my head ring and my chest burned all the more. I watched in horror as a blue orb appeared in the Wizards hand and the pain in my chest spiked again. I saw three flashes of light. Each was an image that appeared only for a split second. One image was a twisted visage of what I assumed was Oryx. His Echo laughed and boomed in my my mind, causing my head to ring. The next image was of the queens fleet, destroyed and ruined from its former glory. Awoken body's littered the sky and I felt the rage in me build up. The final image was that of a small awoken girl. She bore the queens mark on her brow and across her clothing.
Then the fog cleared. The pain in my chest subsided to the point where I didn't notice it. I marched past Lord Shaxx, paying him no attention as I moved towards the vanguards quarters.
Ikora saw me coming before I got there. "You need to to return to the reef now. I have already outfitted you with a new arsenal aboard fireteam hidden power's ship. I frowned and growled quietly, "They will only get in my way." I said, my voice boomed in the small chambers of the vanguard and I quickly attracted the attention of Cayde and Zavala. "Aero, they are merely the for your protec-" I never heard the end of her sentence. I simply tuned her our, ignoring her fully until she stopped moving her lips.
I quickly turned around and began to leave the room I heard Cayde say, "Are you sure he's cleared? Remember Toland?" I turned to stare into his glowing blue optics. "I am fully capable. Your doctors cleared me for duty. Regardless of how much I complained about my chest." I paused and looked to the the other two of them. "You ran scans in my chest. But according to you nothing is wrong!" I shouted and turned to leave. "Aero!" Zavala called. "The Oder of Osiris claimed you had a darkness about you. We took if off as simply being exposed to the dreadnought for too long and now we are prepared to-" I cut him off. "The reef needs me. The awoken of the reef will help me where you are blind!" I spat before marching into the courtyard again.
There was a new notification from my comm unit. I tapped it and let whoever was on the other end speak. "Aero this is fireteam Hidden Power, we're waiting for you in the hangar." I closed the channel and quickly mad me my way to the hangar. I saw Maya and Ivory waiting at the bottom of the same ship that had picked me up from the dreadnought. They waved me over and I was going to walk past them into the cabin but Maya grabbed my arm. "If you want weapons, you'd better not go in there yet."
After a short discussion we decided on a hand cannon, shotgun, and rocket launcher. All of them standard Vanguard issue. I heard Zero's voice from in the ship call, "We're all set up here, ready when you guys are." Ivory and Maya entered before me. I watched as Ivory kissed Zero on the cheek before she sat down beside him. I watched as Maya rolled her eyes and sat behind them. I remained behind all of them watching as Zero piloted the ship out of the hangar.
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"Wait here." I said as the ship touched down at the Awoken Reef. "Tensions are high and everyone is a little jumpy." I formed outside of the ship and walked towards the guards that guarded the main entrance. As I approached one of them stepped up to stop me.
Without thinking and with a sharp pain in my chest I grabbed her arm and quickly spun her around and threw her to the ground. The other guard aimed a shot at my head but I read the move before she could execute it and knocked her sidearm from her grasp. "Known your place." I said harshly as I walked past her.
The pain in my chest had subsided during the fight, and now that the fight had finished, I realized that it spiked again. But the thought never occurred to me that I had attacked two Awoken guards. I grimaced and walked towards Petra. "Aero! Thank the stars I am glad to see you." She said with a sigh is relief as I approached her. "The queen is well?" I asked. She nodded quietly and pulled me closer to her. "Vette and Nemori are with her. She just needs to remain in the shadows"
I nodded my agreement "But we have another mission for you." She spoke softly, "The queen's heir has been captured and his being held captive on Oryx's dreadnought. We need you to bring her back here." I remained silent as she continued to brief me. "Our reports show that Oryx took many Awoken prisoners. We unfortunately do not have the resources to rescue all of them at the moment. So, you are looking for-" I cut her off. "The awoken girl appears a few years younger than a teenager, she has short silver hair and matching eyes. Finally she has the Queen's mark on her right brow."
Petra was speechless. "How...?" She stuttered, and then composed herself, "How do you know that?" I looked at her and the burning pain in my chest grew. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I said as I clutched at my chest and coughed. She raised a brow and looked at me. "Here are the dreadnoughts last known coordinates." She turned to attend to her other matters. "Stay safe out there." She said waving me off.
Everything went black for a moment  as my optics rebooted. I noticed the pain spike as my vision had a green tint to it and a voice whispered,

"The time is soon my slave."

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