Masterpost: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/253000143/0/0 Zahir groaned as he raised his head. Darkness surrounded his vision, only lightly pierced by the cracks in the ground above him. He had awoken in tunnels lightly broken up by the occasional presence of vex architecture. He looked around him to see Lacer and Auva. They too began to rise after him. “Jeez. What happened?” Lacer bumped his helmet back into place with his palm. “I dunno,” Auva rose up, looking around her feet, “all I remember is Wasp talking about all that crap, then Procyon shooting his chaos reach.” “That must have been it.” Zahir looked back up. “You mean it was so strong it split the ground open?” Lacer exclaimed, taking a step back. “No, he’s not THAT strong, idiot. He probably hit a soft spot in the ground. See all that space between these tunnels and the crack?” Auva picked her fusion rifle off of the ground and dusted it off. Lots of dirt from the surface had fallen on to them. “Speaking of Wasp… Lacer, what was that all about?” Zahir looked to his friend, who froze at the question. “Yeah. You, uh, were his inspiration or something?” Auva looked over as well. The titan stood still as he was confronted by those who put trust in him. He had to be careful in the manner that he answered this question. “Well… it’s true that I… I used to be a notorious mercenary,” Lacer looked cautiously at Zahir and Auva as he spoke, “and that I did some bad things for money.” “Like what?” Zahir crossed his arms, and Auva looked between the two titans worriedly. “Lied. Stole. Even killed. One day, I was left for dead and caught. Barely managed to escape. I bugged out to the city and decided to ditch my old identity.” “And what was your name? Your real name.” Zahir stared Lacer down from behind his helmet. The silence became unbearable. “I’ll tell you when we find the others and get out of here.” Lacer answered dismissively and looked behind him, at a dark pathway leading elsewhere. “He’s right, Zahir.” Auva agreed, continuing to look between the two. “Okay. That’s true. Let’s regroup and find Wasp.” Zahir sighed deeply and followed his teammates, who had already begun moving on. If Lacer had done everything he said, he had to pay for his crimes. Zahir wasn’t going to let a criminal run loose, even if they were one of his closest friends. Wasp struggled to escape the hunter and warlock attacking him. He was restricted by the tightness of the underground prison he had been cast into. Arc abilities crackled against the column he leaned against, and smoke crawled into his synthetic lungs. “Get back here, you creep!” Ascella lobbed a void filled grenade in front of her. Procyon fired at the pillar with his hand cannon, and the stone began to crack. “Listen, you imbeciles. Now’s not the time to be fighting each other! That mind is- ow!” Wasp yelped in pain as a bullet nicked his arm. “There we go! How does it feel to actually be shot? Move forward, Procyon!” Ascella unsheathed her sword and stepped toward Wasp’s position. “Listen to me! That mind is gonna kill us all if you don’t stop trying to kill me and hear me out! It’s… right next to you! Left! Watch out!” “Huh?” Ascella looked to her left and saw nothing. “Liar!” “Your other left!” Wasp stepped out of cover and hopped into the air. Swirls of solar energy wrapped around his body as he produced fans of knives in each hand. The last thing Ascella and Procyon saw were grids of blazing blades rocketing toward their faces. Procyon awoke to the chattering noise of Vex slap rifles multiplied tenfold. He opened his eyes as his body reformed from ash, and saw Wasp fending off hordes of Vex alongside Ascella. “You see now, warlock? You left Damocles alive, and now it wants to kill us!” Wasp dodged a line rifle bolt and fired back at the hobgoblin with his sniper rifle. His target exploded into a cloud of radiolaria and metal limbs. “As much as I hate to admit it,” Ascella swiped her sword sideways and cut clean through a minotaur’s torso, “we’ve gotta get rid of these Vex before doing anything else.” Procyon nodded and quickly joined the fight. He cast his chaos reach, but this time, it was not aimed at the hunter before him. In the city, decades ago, Lacer kicked at the rocks littering the alleyway. He ignored every look and comment he got from passing civilians. He couldn’t blame them. A fully armored homeless titan was not a common sight. “Seriously, Lacer. We should take a bounty or something soon. Just quit laying around here like some emo slug.” His ghost urged, appearing beside his hunched head. “Don’t have a ship...” He replied immediately, having had this conversation multiple times. “Catch a ride.” “That’d be humiliating.” His defeated voice sank low. “And this isn’t?!” Jolt practically yelled, to no effect on her guardian. “No.” Lacer thought to himself, “hitting rock bottom here is fine. It’s only when other guardians are involved that it’s just straight up depressing.” The noise of armor clanking beside him caused his heart to jump into his throat, and he fell off of his makeshift chair as a black and orange armored titan’s shadow towered over him. “I heard rumors of a guardian moving in here.” Said an exo’s gravelly voice from behind the helmet. “Y-yeah. You here to laugh at me? Got nothing b-better to do with your time?” Lacer pointed at his fellow titan with a shaky hand. He had been completely surprised by his presence, and Lacer didn’t have enough time to think of a defensible retort. At least, something better than the sad excuse he had just spouted. “No.” The orange armored titan extended an open hand. “I’m not here to make fun of you. I just want to help you. I’m Zahir-2.” “Bullshit.” Lacer smacked Zahir’s arm away. “You’re going to be just like the rest of them. You’re going to turn your back on me and spit on me.” Zahir thought for a moment, then reached out again. “If people were out to hurt you, they’d have done it already. I want to help you. I have a place for you. I’ve been recruiting guardians for a scout team I’m building, and I need members.” “And you’re gonna go with garbage like me?” “People have made guardians out of worse.” Zahir kept his hand extended, to Lacer’s surprise. Was he seriously still trying? “Well...” Lacer grabbed the exo’s hand and hauled himself up, dusting his greaves off. “Treat me to some grub and I’ll consider it. I’m starving.” Zahir nodded and let out a stiff chuckle. “I can assure you, I’ll do just that.”