Destiny, Episode XX: The House of Winter

Previous Episode: Episode XIX, The Nexus Mind
Next Episode: Side Episode VIII, Hunter Vick and the Heart of a Kell

The Tower, the Last City, Earth

Day 045

It was at the crack of dawn when there was a knock at the door. Koga looked up from his book from where he had been sitting on the couch, surprised. He was the only one awake at the moment, though normally the others would be up within a few minutes. Frowning, the Warlock got to his feet and quickly looked down at his clothes, straightening them where he could. Kita hovered over his shoulder, glancing down at his Guardian.

Koga paced over to the door, and it slid open at his approach to reveal Cayde-6 on the other side, leaning impatiently against the doorframe. Koga blinked, caught off guard. “Cayde?” Kita spoke for him, voicing their collective surprise. The veteran Hunter pushed off the frame and slipped past Koga, walking into the middle of the room. “What are you doing here?”

“Are you the only one here?” Cayde asked, his voice unusually serious.

“Er, no.” Koga stammered, gathering his senses. “The others are asleep.” At that , Cayde suddenly whipped out his hand cannon and fired a round directly into the floor. The sound was deafening, and Koga clasped his hands over his ears, a ringing noise drowning out the world.

“What the hell was that?” Lisset shouted from her room, her voice more angry than it was confused. She was beaten out the door by Basilisk, who barged out of his room with his armor on and looking pissed.

“Who the-” Basilisk stopped cold when he saw Cayde standing in the living room, holstering his revolver with a flourish, a horrified Koga standing behind him. Before the Titan could say anything, Lisset’s door slid open to reveal a hastily-dressed Hunter, her fists balled and ready to punch the offender. Cayde spun to face her, only to recieve a haymaker to the face. The Exo stumbled back a pace, surprised, but it was Lisset who took the brunt of the impact, her hand smacking hard against reinforced alloys. She let out a howl of pain, cradling her injured hand as she glared at the Vanguard mentor.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She growled through gritted teeth as her Ghost attempted to heal the damage. Broken bones knitted together in seconds, strong as they had always been, but her entire arm still stung like it had been through a bee swarm.

“Good morning to you, too.” Cayde replied dryly. He looked over his shoulders in a conspiratorial manner before pacing closer to the others. “Sorry to wake you like that, but this is important.”

“It’d better be.” Lisset hissed, shaking her hand. Cayde stared directly at her, his eyes intense.

“It is.” The Hunter repeated. “An hour ago, I just got a message from a friend that she spotted the Kell of the House of Winter, Draksis. He’s on the planet’s surface with his Ketch and a good chunk of the House.” Cayde paused for a moment to let his words sink in. “This is the best shot the Vanguard has had at him in years, and I’m not going to let that bastard get away.”

“A Kell?” Koga asked, surprised. “Is it unusual for him to be planetside?”

“Yeah.” Cayde answered. “They like hiding on their ships and let their Barons do all the heavy lifting.” The veteran Hunter clenched and unclenched his fist. “Draksis has killed a lot of my friends, shot down a lot of our ships, and has murdered a lot of innocent people. I don’t know why he’s landed, and I don’t care. Normally I’d go, but Zavala would have my head if I left the Tower, which is why I’m coming to you.”

“You want us to kill Draksis.” Basilisk finished for him, understanding. “Is this a Strike, then?” Cayde shook his head.

“There’s no time to put a Strike together. We have maybe a matter of hours to get him before he leaves Venus again, which means I need people to go in fast and dirty. People I can rely on.” He stared at Lisset as he spoke. “People I can trust.” Lisset sighed and let her anger flow from here - there was a barely suppressed rage in Cayde that she had never seen before, a righteous fury directed at this Kell. This was perhaps the most serious she had ever seen him, and that was something that deserved her attention.

“We can get him.” Lisset said. “Just let us know where he is, and we’ll run him down.” Cayde nodded.

“The Ishtar Sink, in a place called the Cinders.” He replied. “I’ll have the data pushed to your Ghosts.” Cayde folded his arms over his chest. “I’m trust you guys to handle this. Get out there and get back safe, y’hear?” His face clouded as his eyes drifted to the distance. “I’ve had Draksis take enough.” Without another word, the Hunter did a quick two-finger salute, turned, and left through the door, leaving the three alone in their living room.

Koga looked at the others, concern etched on his face. “I wish he could tell us more than that.” He noted. “We have no idea how many Fallen are in our way.”

“A lot.” Lisset answered. “A Kell comes with his best troops, and a Ketch can carry hundreds of Fallen and their equipment. We’ll be fighting uphill.”

“Then we’d best be going.” Basilisk said, folding his gauntleted arms against his breastplate. The others nodded, and let their Ghosts ready them for war. Together, they hurried through the door Cayde had just walked through and headed for the elevator to take them to the Tower plaza. Kita made a quiet note to call for a maintenance frame to look into their new bullet-hole when they got back.

<><><><><><><>

The Paladins landed on Venus where they had the first time, at the edge of the road leading off to the Ishtar Collective’s ancient campus. The three had touched down with their Sparrows, already straddling their vehicles in preparation for the ride ahead. Their route had already been calculated by their Ghosts, who had been feeding them as much data as they could get their hands on the entire ride over to the volcanic world.

They knew the brass tacks, which was a polite way of saying “damned little.” Vanguard scouts like Shiro had made sorties every now and again into the Cinders, but they usually turned back before long, lest they become cut off by hordes of the aliens. To have someone get so far into the House’s territory to get eyes on a Ketch was a very extraordinary event indeed.

The plan was brutally simple, as most of Basilisk’s were: breach the Fallen perimeter and move through the Cinders as fast as possible, break through the Kell’s guard and board the Ketch, and eliminate the target before transmatting away. So long as nothing went catastrophically wrong - which was the biggest “if” in the whole equation - they would be in and out before the House of Winter could mobilize the bulk of their forces. It was the kind of plan that only a Titan could make, possessing all the subtlety and grace of an atom bomb.

“How much time do you think we have?” Lisset asked.

“I expect very little.” Koga answered. “The Fallen are capable of detecting incoming ships - they must know that we are coming.”

“No time to waste then.”

Lisset revved her Sparrow’s engine, and in a flash she was off, a faint red trail in her wake. Basilisk and Koga went off after her, their engines howling against the stark stone cliffs that flanked them. They followed her down through a tunnel, bored out by time and steady erosion. On the other side was more volcanic terrain, the ground steaming from cracks in the soil. Trails of blue magma streaked from them like blood from a wound.

Lisset pulled her Sparrow behind a large rock before dismounting, her ride transmatting away as her feet touched the ground. The others joined her a second later, they too preparing to walk from there. On the other side of the rock was a catwalk system, complete with ramps and walkways, all of it Fallen in design. Guarding the entrance were a half dozen Dregs and their Vandal overseer, who barked commands in his harsh tongue to warn his underlings at the Paladins’ approach.

“Let’s get to it!” Basilisk shouted, rounding the corner. His pulse rifle roared, and his first burst was true, instantly killing the Vandal. Without their leader, the Dregs were easy picking between the Titan and his two companions. They moved past the corpses, heading up the ramps and towards where the catwalk system seemed to end, the mouth of a dark cave.

More Fallen came to meet them, mainly Dregs, but a single Reaver Captain stood by the entrance, his shrapnel launcher spitting fire at the trespassing Guardians. The burning pellets splashed against the three’s shields as they advanced steadily towards the Captain. The Reaver realized the situation he was in, for he suddenly blinked away in a flash of blue light, reappearing inside the mouth of the cave.

“Cover!” Lisset shouted, the three dropping into a sprint. Their Light had taken a beating, and it had forced the Captain to backpedal, but trying the same thing again would only produce disaster. It was a grenade from the Warlock that finished the job, the Reaver’s shield broken from the brief engagement.

As the Captain burned away from the axion bolt’s blast, the Paladins quickly reloaded their weapons and readied for what lay ahead. In less than three minutes, they had taken the high ground and stood perched at the doorway to the House of Winter’s fortress.

“Everyone ready?” Basilisk asked. “It’s going to be close fighting through here.”

“Shotgun it is.” Lisset replied, her scout rifle vanishing in blue light as it was replaced by her heavy Impulse. The Titan had his out too, and pumped the fore-end to load the first shell into place.

“My revolver will suffice.” Koga spun the cylinder of his Hoss, listening to it click. “On we go.” He muttered, pulling back the hammer. Somewhere beyond, deeper into the cave, the hushed clicking of a hundred Fallen echoed.

<><><><><><><>

The first few chambers of the caverns were abandoned, but not empty. Pieces of Fallen equipment were strewn about, left by their owners in a hurry. Those who had maintained the pieces were rallying elsewhere, preparing for the Guardian incursion. Basilisk eyed it suspiciously as he moved, wary of any mines that the House of Winter may have stowed inside. Add to that the constant threat of a Vandal with a sniper rifle lining up on his head, and suddenly why the position of pointman not being a popular one made a good deal of sense.

“I still do not see what the Fallen hope to gain here.” Koga muttered, stepping over a rather large rock.

“How do you mean?” Lisset asked, her eyes never moving from where she had locked them.

“I mean, the House of Winter has dug out a little fortress here.” The Warlock replied. “They intend to make this a permanent camp, but it is right next to Vex territory. I cannot see them being capable of delivering a significant blow.”

“Maybe they’re not aiming to take Venus.”

“Then what are they trying to take?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Basilisk interrupted. “Keep your heads on a swivel - I don’t like this.”

It was surprisingly well-lit for a cave, the pale blue lights set up by the Fallen reflecting spectacularly off of the same kind of crystals that they had seen deep beneath the surface of the planet. Pools of liquid dotted the floor, very clearly not water. It was hard not to quietly respect the Fallen for trying to make some form of existence out here, despite how much it had changed with the coming of the Traveler centuries ago. Perhaps during the Golden Age it had been a jungle paradise, but today it was a hell of a different kind than the acidic deathworld it had once been. Not that any of them would take that version of the planet - it’s easier to fight an enemy that’s larger than a molecule.

Through one last narrow tunnel was a massive, multi-level chamber that looked like the vestige of an ancient lake. Almost the moment they walked into the arena, a hail of weapons fire was unleashed. From perches dug into the cave walls were a dozen Vandal snipers, all lined up and ready to kill. On the ground were hordes of Dregs, ready to overwhelm the Guardians through sheer weight of firepower. Behind them all stood three Captains, their armor unlike any before. Lisset’s eyes widened with recognition as she spotted them a half-second before she had to dive to cover. “The Kell’s Guard!” She shouted before crashing to the ground behind a stalagmite.

The Guard made no attempt to rush forward. They were a cut above the rest, far more elite than their Reaver cousins. They knew the threat a single Guardian posed, let alone three of them, and they were watching, waiting for a weakness to expose itself.

“Did Cayde ever say if his friend made it back?” Basilisk snarked over the din of the firefight.

There was little chance given for the Guardians to get a word in edgewise, but when there was an opening, they took it. Grenades were the weapon of the day, exploding violently in the tightly packed chamber, sending Dregs flying like discarded toys. For every one that fell, however, another took its place. For the first time, the Fallen seemed reminiscent of the Hive - their numbers seemed endless, and their hearts set on murder.

“We have to push through!” Koga shouted. “I can use a Nova Bomb if we can deal with those snipers!”

“Leave it to me!” Lisset yelled, readying her scout rifle. She waited until there was a pause long enough for her to whip her upper body out from around cover and bring her rifle’s scope to her eye. A single crack, and a Vandal fell from its perch. Another brought a second sniper to the ground. The remaining Vandals immediately fixated on her, and the Hunter had to pull back to safety to avoid being turned into an arc-charged pincushin.

Still the Dregs kept coming, relentless in their offensive, but none dared get too close to the fireteam. It was that fear for their lives that was what kept the three from being overrun - if they were against the Hive in the same situation, they would drown beneath a tide of Thrall that cared little for their own existence. The Kell’s Guards watched from afar all the same, unmoved by the plight of their subordinates.

Another pause gave Lisset the time she needed to continue whittling away at the snipers. The rest of them continued firing at the horde of Dregs, and little by little their numbers began to thin. The House of Winter had stopped sending reinforcements, and from the ledge where they watched, two of the four members of the Kell’s Guard turned and walked away, leaving their comrades behind.

“They know they’re losing!” Basilisk urged, his temper up. “Let’s smash them!”

A few cracks later, and suddenly the chamber was sniper-free. It was the opportunity that Koga had been waiting for. He jumped up and over his cover, gliding above the core of the enemy’s force, closed his eyes, and released the Nova Bomb with a violent exhale of air. The Light-powered explosive impacted with the ground in a milisecond, and suddenly the center of the Fallen’s line ceased to exist, gone as if it had never been there.

Basilisk was next, pushing beyond the Warlock as he touched the ground and letting his Light spark across his arm. The Titan jumped and brought the Fist of Havoc down on the routing survivors, and with a roar like thunder they were gone, burned away in a surge of pure power. Only the Kell’s Guard remained, and they readied their arc sabers for the battle.

The Guard rushed forward, hoping to cut the Guardians down while they recovered. Lisset moved to intercept them, her eyes narrow as she lunged forward at them, shouting as fierce a battlecry as she could muster. The two elite Fallen recognized the threat immediately and blinked away, making the Hunter’s wide swing of her knife cut nothing but air. Yet, neither of the aliens had gotten any clsoer to her comrades.

“Come!” She shouted, her voice echoing in the cavern. “You cannot escape - I am your death!” The bravado of her taunt made both Koga and Basilisk look at her in surprise. There was something different about her now, as if she was someone else entirely. To face the very best of her enemy had transformed her, and the confidence in her movements showed more than it ever had before.

Perhaps for the first time, the Paladins beholded Lisset, the Hunress.

The first Guard rushed her, hoping to cut her down from behind. Lisset blinked away as its arc saber cut through where she had been standing, only for her to reappear behind her prey. Her knife flicked forward lightning fast, and the Vandal barely managed to parry it.

Its comrade jumped into the fight, its saber aiming to decapitate her. Lisset jumped up, then again as her Light propelled her higher, her knee colliding with the skull of the first. She flipped over the recoiling alien before kicking it hard in the back so that it fell into the path of the other Vandal’s blade. It cut through with terrible efficiency before the second Guard realized what had happened. The alien recoiled in horror, only for it to be gunned down in a brutal fusialde as Koga and Basilisk opened up. Lisset turned to face the two of them, surprised.

“He was mine.” She said, sheating her knife.

“I didn’t see your name on it.” Basilisk retorted. “There’s plenty more where that one came from.” The Hunter shook her head, and gripped her scout rifle as it materialized in her hands. Basilisk grimaced under his heavy helm. “Thanks for the save, Set.”

“Don’t mention it.” She replied, her adrenaline flooding away from her. Back again was Lisset, the former Corsair. Basilisk nodded, and began to pace away, but before Lisset could take a step, Koga tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to face him, confused. “Something wrong, Koga?”

“I have never seen you do that before.” He noted. Lisset shrugged.

“It felt pretty natural to me.”

“Maybe so.” Koga looked back at the skewered Guard on the ground, lifeless and still. “I thank you - I would rather not be skewered.” Lisset flinched slightly, her left hand instinctually falling down to a small, specific spot, a location on her body burned into her memory.

“Not everyone gets a choice, Koga.” She replied, slowly. The memory faded, and she smiled at her friend. “C’mon, we’ve got to catch up with Bas.” Together, the two hurried after him, the Titan pacing steadily forward.

<><><><><><><>

The climb to the end of the cave was steep, but it was uncontested. Finally, the system ended at the edge of a cliff system. There, in a massive valley that seemed to stretch on forever, sat a massive vessel. Brown in color, and decorated with the pale blue of the House of Winter, Koga recognized its large bulbous engine and spear-like “nose” instantly. He had seen one of these before in the Cosmodrome, so very long ago, when he had made his escape.

“A Ketch!” He breathed, awestruck. “Traveler, is it big.”

“Draksis is inside.” Lisset said, pointing. “We have to find a way in.”

“There’s a service entrance open.” Dal noted. “Likely a cargo bay of some form.”

“It’ll be enough.” Lisset replied. “I can take point on this one, Bas.”

The Titan nodded, and got into position as the Hunter started to run forward, her feet kicking up thick Venusian dirt. The cliffside they were on was not a complete section of rock, but luckily the Fallen had done the hard work of constructing metal bridges that spanned their gaps. On their right, and below them by a few stories, was a plateau strewn with equipment and their defenders. Unlike inside the Cinders itself, there were few waiting for them below, and even they were beginning to draw back to the gangplank in the distance.

“They must be getting ready to move.” Basilisk growled. “We have to hurry!” The Titan looked down at the fairly sheer drop between him and the ground below, then suddenly jumped. Lisset didn’t realize that he had done it until Koga had hissed something in surprise, a language that she didn’t recognize.

“What the hell is he doing?” She exclaimed, hurrying to the edge.

The Titan skidded against the rock as he went down, using his armor as a way to retard his descent through the power of friction and a hell of a lot of scrambling. It wasn’t the maneuver that the Fallen expected, and their haste to leave only accelerated once Basilisk took off running the moment his feet hit something solid.

“Geronimo?” Koga said uncertain before jumping himself. Lisset shook her head before following suit. The two landed on the ground a few seconds later, but the Titan was far ahead of them of them both, his pulse rifle echoing in the open space like a rythmic jackhammer. He turned back to look at him, freeing his shooting arm and waving it forward with dramatic flourish.

“Come on, Paladins!” The Titan shouted. “Do you wanna live forever! Let’s take this damn thing!” He turned his attention back at the fleeing Fallen, his rifle swapped in an instant for his shotgun, and sprinted forward, barrelling at them like a cannonball with legs. Lisset and Koga exchanged a weary glance before hurrying after him.

There was a small jump between the plateau and the Ketch, but it was easily traversed, the three jumping across as they hurried to get aboard the House of Winter’s command ship. The entire vessel hummed with energy - they were planning to leave, and soon, even if it meant taking the Guardians with them.

“Hurry!” Kita urged. “They’ll be flight-ready in a few minutes!” To have an intact Ketch on the surface was a prize unlike any other, second only to Draksis himself. The Guardians pressed on as the remaining Fallen turned to fight, as did a single member of the Kell’s Guard. The Vandal roared his rage, and opened fire with a shrapnel launcher, spewing shards of red death in all directions.

Koga let his hand cannon do the talking for him, the heavy Hoss kicking hard as he put down one Dreg, another, a Vandal, and then put a shot through the core of a Servitor. The machine wasn’t destroyed, not yet, but that was easily remidied when Lisset’s grenade landed next to it, the miniature explosives tearing its purple hull apart.

Basilisk charged at the elite Vandal, his Light flickering as his target focused on the oncoming Titan. Too late did the alien realize what Basilisk planned, and by the time it tried to get out of the way, the Exo’s shoulder was cracking against its skull. There was a terrific crunch as several hundred pounds of battle armor and its robotic user collided with soft flesh and thin plating. There was a crack like lightning had struck as the blow connected, and the Guard was sent flying.

“Clear.” Koga reported, reloading his hand cannon. “Boudica, where do we go next?”

“Marking the next chamber.” Basilisk’s Ghost answered cordially enough. There was a muted pride in her voice, something she was trying to keep from the others - Basilisk’s fearless display certainly had given her something to be proud about. A diamond appeared on the Guardians’ HUDs, marking the way forward through a door above them connected via catwalk to the bottom of the bay.

“Up we go.” Lisset muttered, her scout rifle gone in favor of her shotgun. She kicked off the ground, and let her Light carry her up. The others followed close behind, and in a second they were there and moving through the doorway and deeper into the ship.

<><><><><><><>

The ship was surprisingly straightforward in layout despite its unorthodox hull design. Hallways led where one expected, and were far from labyrinthine, although part of the reason why it wasn’t the pathway into darkness that Koga had feared it would be was due to the data that their Ghosts held. This wasn’t the first Ketch that Guardians had boarded, but it was the first in recent memory at the very least that had been intact. Derelects, remnants of the Reef Wars that the Queen had decided against reclaiming, were a common enough sight for the exploring Guardian.

More Fallen moved to counter the Paladins’ assault, but strangely there were fewer of them in the way than there ought to have been. If Koga didn’t know better, he would have sworn that they were almost being let through. It was as if they were being tested, a trial by fire, but not pressured. It seemed that Draksis himself wanted to see the intruders himself.

His theory only seemed stronger and stronger as the Fallen opposition all but vanished as they pushed through yet another hallway. “Where are they?” Basilisk growled, his shotgun aimed at anything suspicious he could find.

“They’re waiting for us.” Lisset replied grimly.

“I think the same.” Koga added. “We have been tested. I believe we passed.” Lisset slowly nodded.

“This Ketch has been sitting here for a while, and they only started getting ready to leave a few minutes ago?” She shook her head. “No. Draksis wants another prize.”

“What do you know about him?” Basilisk asked, his eyes still aimed in the direction of his gun as he moved.

“Not much.” Lisset admitted. “Just what Cayde told us and some faint memories of him having a butcher’s reputation.”

“A dog is what he is.” The Warlock spoke, his voice low. “And we will put him down.”

“Well said.” Basilisk muttered as he approached one final door. “This must be it. Everyone ready?” The others nodded their ascent. Basilisk took one final deep breath, and approached the portal, which opened as he moved close. Through it was an ornately decorated room, pelts hanging from the ceiling and walls. Blue terminals scrolling with red arcane Fallen fonts took up the lower parts of the room, their circular design unusual but fascinating. What took all presedence was what sat behind it all.

Sitting on what could only be referred to as a throne, before a great glass-like window that showed the great valley below the ship and the slowly sinking sun in the distance, sat a Fallen far larger than any of them had seen before. Its size was comparible to the Archon that they had slew in the Cosmodrome on their very first mission, cloaked in animal furs and wearing a necklass strung with what was obviously the shells of dead Ghosts. The Guardians’ grips on their guns tightened.

The last Kell’s Guard stood before its master, arc saber in hand. Draksis, Kell of Winter looked down at his servant, and said something. The Vandal nodded, and suddenly transmatted away without another word.

“Where’d he go?” Lisset hissed, her eyes darting about.

“I’m detecting a transmat signal on an outbound Skiff.” Dal replied. “Destination is unknown.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Basilisk interrupted, lowering his shotgun to the side as he stepped forward. Draksis examined the Titan from his throne, though wheher or not he was amused or fascinated, Koga couldn’t say.

“Draksis!” Basilisk’s voice echoed in the room. He did not expect his words to be understood by the Kell before him, but they still had to be said. “In the name of the people of the City and the Traveller that watches over us all, your reign of terror will end!”

Draksis laughed.

The Kell of Winter stood from his throne, and retrieved his massive shrapnel launcher where he had left it, leaning against his great seat.

“Another Guardian.” Draksis’ voice was forced, unnatural - it was trying to speak in a manner completely alien to how its throat operated. “You come to meet your death! I am Draksis, Kell of Winter, Kell of Hate! I welcome your challenge - your body will look well on my wall!”

With that, the battle began. Draksis’ energy shotgun roared, spreading shards of red-hot metal in all directions as the three dived out of the way, firing every shot they could at the monstrous Kell. The alien ruler did not seem to notice or mind the damage being inflicted upon him - rather, he revelled in it. Draksis began to laugh again, his voice echoing in the throne room like he was legion.

“Pin him down!” Basilisk shouted, his shotgun roaring in his hands. “Force him into a corner!”

“On it!” Lisset shouted, her hand going to her knife. Her eyes closed, and suddenly she fell into the Bladedance, her body arcing with pure energy. She rushed forward like she was some kind of electric spirit. Draksis saw her approach, and raised his fist to crush her underneath, but she slid out of the way well before his attack could hit. Raising her knife in a upcut, the ground exploded in blue light as a wave of energy lanced out from her towards Draksis. The arc wall hit Draksis in the chest, and the Kell stumbled, staggered. He roared in pain as Light flowed through him, and again as nother wave of arc Light crashed against his form. Before a third, and Lisset’s last, could hit him, he blinked away, back towards his throne.

“Now, Koga!” Basilisk shouted, jumping back as Draksis rematerialized at his feet. The Warlock jumped high, brought back his arm, then thrust one final Nova Bomb forward. Draksis heard the whistle of the void Light as it approached, and stepped forward to face his doom, as a warrior would. He burned away as the Bomb exploded, the glass behind the throne shattering into a thousand pieces as it detonated.

When the light dimmed, Draksis was gone, the smoldering remains of his sharpnel launcher discarded where he once had stood. The Guardians panted, exhausted but triumphant, as they stood alone in the throne room. Lisset let out a tired war whoop, raising her fist in the air as she traipsed past the others and to the empty chair where Draksis had made war on humanity. She put her hand on the seat, and smiled.

“Cayde’s going to be happy to hear this.” She said, turning back to face the others.

“I’ll let him know.” Dal flashed into existence next to his Guardian, looking at her, then the rest of them. The other Ghosts appeared in kind, hovering in the throne room of a broken king. Lisset flashed a devilish grin underneath her armor.

“I wonder what it’s like to sit on a Kell’s throne?” She teased. Koga walked over to her, holstering his Hoss.

“There is only one way to find out.” He replied, a thin smile on his lips. For a moment, Lisset got ready to clamber on the too-large throne, but suddenly her smile died. In her mind’s eye, she was back in the the Reef, and on the throne sat Queen Sov, her eyes burning in oppressive darkness of her royal chambers. Lisset stepped back, away from the throne, her hands falling to her side. “Lisset?” Koga asked.

“I’m fine.” Lisset replied, folding her arms. “Just remembering something.” She turned to face Basilisk, who was busy examining what was left of te shrapnel launcher. “Can we go, Basilisk?” The Titan looked up, the shrapnel launcher flashing out of existence as it was transmatted away.

“Yeah, we’re done here.” The Titan sighed and put his hands to his hips, staring at the empty throne. “We did good today, Paladins.”

“Dramatic speeches not-withstanding.” Kita prodded, floating over the Titan’s head. Basilisk rolled his eyes and patted the Ghost away.

“Sometimes, things call for a bit of drama.” He replied, smiling as well as an Exo could. “Not very often you kill a King, right?”