Chapter 1: Scourge of Winter

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Right After The Gatelord Event

"So, this Kell you say, he leads a rouge Fallen house?" I ask.
"Yeah," Athena replies, loading and cocking her weapons. "Mara had them in control as a peace treaty. But now they- I mean the Kell, Skolas, managed to break from his chains and reunited the House of Wolves."

"And how are we going to catch them?" I ask, leaning on the crate next to me. She walked towards me and patted my shoulder, telling me to move from the crate. I walk back and look back at the Reef. "This place got attacked. Hard," I examined.
"Yup, but the clean up crew can get it good as new," she says, rummaging through the crate. I look at the crate.
"What are you digging up?" I asked.
She pulls something out. "This baby," she answered, holding out a weapon that look just about exactly like my Last Word.
"Wait a minute. This looks exactly like the weapon that I have... that you took from me!" I exclaimed.
"What do you mean?!" She asks shocked.
I pull out the Last Word and stare at her, ready to correct her. She takes a good look at it and finally hits her.
"Oh you're right! Sorry!" She says in a laughing tone. "You know, I was thinking about a weapon to forge and when I had your weapon the other day, I couldn't stop thinking about it. So I just crafted the shape of it!"
I narrow my eyes at her.
She looks away in shame, as she does I start to realize her hair is... unique. Pretty much her hair is one sided and red, curving towards her left side. Almost covering her left eye. She's Awoken, like me, which explains the hairdo. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just sayin that Awoken have some pretty unique hairstyles. I may be awoken as well, but I keep my hair formal and mostly straight.

So, besides that, I learned little bit from Athena; Daughter of Petra Venj. Her mother is the Queen's Emissary, used to be Corsair (A pirate pretty much). Athena told me that Petra has been through some things, but the Queen kept her from sorrow from what she lost. Athena didn't go into details, but I can respect that. I know what that's like. My mother can be... inclined to do certain things sometimes. Making deals or trades are her specialty, I heard. And my father was caught up in the whirlwind of trouble with his fireteam and her.

I'm here because of the Queen. I need to get to the Black Garden. Athena and I hop aboard her ship and prepared for our mission.
"First we have to cripple the Winter's house," she said
"Well, I did kill a Winter Archon Priest, isn't that enough?" I asked.
She shrugged as she pilots her ship at the front with a curved colorful dashboard. "Archons are overrated, we hunting something bigger."

"What, like a Prime?" I asked.

"A Kell," she replied.

Kells are the top of the Fallen leadership. They control a whole house, if we take one out, that can cause Houses to turn against each other.
"Ah, I see now," I say. "Where are we going to find this Kell?"

"The Cinders in Venus, they have a Ketch there and I'll bet my Glimmer that a Kell is bound to be there," she answered.

"Wait, a Ketch as in, the giant Fallen ship?" I direct my attention.

She turns to me and asks, "Yeah, why?"

I narrow my eyes and look to the side. "That's the one who ran from me in that one Strike," I mutter.

"Hey wait, I didn't catch your name," she said.

I snap out of my thoughts and drew my attention to her once more.
"Crimson," I introduced.

"Crimson," she repeated. "Crimson... Like the color?"

"Uh, I uh- sure, I guess," I stammer.

"Well, makes sense since you're wearing that Crimson Colored Devils' Cloak," she pointed out.

I look behind to stare at it.
"Well, to (wish to) be a Kell, you gotta know what the Fallen like and respect; Violence and big Capes. I'm really violent, and I found this cape," I smirk.

When we land on Venus, Athena lead the way since this is the Mara's fight. Following her sparrow trail with mine, we drive the other path on the left where I went to kill the Archon Priest. I'm going to get my revenge on him, I really will. Athena exited her sparrow and blasted her way through the Winter house. She's a Hunter, but I don't know her subclass. I observe her battle, firing away swiftly. When the last Fallen was dead, we ran ahead quickly.

"What's the hurry?" I ask, keeping pace with her.

"We can't let Skolas negotiate with Draksis. If he does, he will turn the Winter house, to Wolf house," she said.

Assuming Draksis is the Winter Kell, I think slicing the head off a house would make them more vulnerable. Or it could rampage them and cause anarchy. Either way, I think Skolas is getting his part one way or another.

Making it to the Cinders, Athena and I lay on the top of a rock to get a full scouting view of the Ketch and Fallen. I use my built-in binoculars from my helmet and zooms in on the enemies.

"Moderate Winter pack. One Servitor, and squads of Fallen," I list.

"Any Kell guards?" She asks.

"Kell guards?" I ask confused.

"Look for a Vandal(s) with white armor, they're majors."

I look around and found what she described. "There's five of them," I said.

"Let's take'em out," she suggests.

We sniped all five of them. We moved up and walked aboard the Ketch. Athena secures the area as I look around. My footsteps are louder on the Ketch floor. The sound of the high-heel boots they make sounds like walking in empty lonely hallway to a dance. I sit down and ponder.
"Pretty soon, this will be all over," I say.

"Once the Black Garden is destroyed, the Traveler will heal, and we can rest," said Nolan.
"How do we know when it's really over?"

"We'll know because..." I took a moment to breathe. "We'll know because our purpose will no longer be needed."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

I looked down, taking off my helmet. "You know that everyone is not immortal. We all die eventually."

"Yeah but, that's why I'm here, to revive you," he implied, in an optimistic tone.

"Nolan, there's going to be a time and a place where I'll be in danger, and you're not going to be able to revive me. There will be a point where the Traveler's Light can't reach us."

There was silence. I stared out, into the distance.

"I don't want to sound so down, negative, or doubtful, I'm just thinking the worst of the worst, and we have to be ready for it. It can happen to anyone; Athena, Felix, Indigo, Tracey, Violet, Carolina, Marcus." My breathing becomes shuddered a bit. "And me," I said. "Or even you to be honest."

My vision get blurry because of the tears I try to hold back. "But at this time, it not likely to happen. I just-" my voice breaks a little. "I just wanted to let you know that. We're too young, so we shouldn't grieve just yet, we haven't lost anyone yet. And we should be thankful for that and we should savor that."

I wipe the tears away and stand up. Nolan was silent. I respect his silence. We all have to understand that. Not worry, but to prepare ourselves. If there's one thing I learned from my mother, is what she told me. "Strength is gained by braving the fears you embrace."

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