The needlepoint wove its way through the gaping hole in Bree’s cheek. Bree stitched up her face with an emergency kit that she always had tucked away for a rainy day, or when she had one foot in the grave, this was a case of the latter. Her helmet sat perched on a rock and, Bree, sat in front of it, using the face shield as a mirror. With each tug, she grimaced, the thread stung her skin as she pulled tight, closing up the hole made by Brayden’s knife. She cleaned her face as best as she could with a little alcoholic scrub, then, gently blotted it dry with a small white towel no bigger than her hand. After she finished up her repairs, she slowly turned to look at where her brother’s body still lay. The last piece of the key to unlock the treasure that awaited them, rested on the ground next to her feet. Once they destroyed the last crystal, everything vanished, and now, they all sat together on the stones, but yet, they all sat alone. The Hell they’ve all been through was insurmountable, and yet, they managed to push through, they continued to fight forward, and it didn’t matter how bleak or desolate their chances of survival was; they managed to find a way to survive. So is the definition of valor, but it doesn’t do justice to, Bree, and her team. Clawing and scratching every inch, standing defiant in the face of death in the endless twisting corridors of lies and deceit. Bree finished the last stitch, her eyes looking at the new wound that was reluctantly added to her ever growing collection of ugliness. But it wasn’t just the Trials of Mar that demanded such an extreme amount of resiliency, Bree had been facing struggles all her life that were worse than any abomination she would ever face in these caves, her nightmare was born of a different beast. Bree’s incubus was self-hatred and loathing. It seethed out of her pores, bubbling up out of her like a volcanic eruption until she would explode without any control, it was a constant battle between herself, her brother, and their fellow Guardians. And Bree was sick of it. Mar had opened her eyes, given her a faint flickering beacon of hope, that, one day, she would rid herself of the anger, the hate, and the fear...and finally, that day arrived. Bree stared at the reflection in the face shield of her helmet, a monster, a demon, and an outcast. The face of a beaten and broken soul, but all she needed was to find the pieces and put them back together. Bree slowly rose to her feet, picking up her helmet, she looked around the deserted cave that played host to one of the most chaotic comic strips of death and destruction she had ever witnessed, and then gradually walked over to Brayden’s body. The four Vandals were sitting down together, and Bree couldn’t tell if they were recuperating, resting, or dieing, and given the chance, they always huddled together. Bree watched them for a bit until she got to her brother’s, once more, lifeless body. Kneeling down, she set her helmet down as her hands moved slowly to release the locks on his own. Impassively, Bree, worked the helmet off of him and carefully placed it next to hers. The face shield was completely gone, the bullet from her Fatebringer cut through the protective plastic like a warm knife through butter. The round dug in through his forehead and exited cleanly out the back of his skull, causing the inside of his helmet to be covered in light pink brain matter. The bullet ripped through the back of his helmet, leaving yet another yawning hole. “So, is this how you saw the whole thing going down? You running ahead of the rest of us like a crazy person killing everything in sight like some kamikaze commando ? You’re a hero when it works, but when it doesn’t, you end up just as dead as anybody else, and here we are.” Bree sat down on her knees, her tormented blue eyes staring down at his scarred and mangled face. “Ever since I first met you, Brayden, it was always, ‘Don’t worry about a thing, Bree, trust me, I got this,’ and I would always tell you that it would catch up with you one day and when that day comes, I wouldn’t be there to save you,” Bree spoke in a subtle tone. “Well, when that day came, I was there, but I couldn’t...I...I didn’t even know how to...what could I have done?” Bree bit her lip, continuing to look down at him. “I tried, I warned you, I told you to fall back, but you didn’t. Remember when you made your promise to me? That you would always come back for me? And you didn’t, did you? You just left me there, and then you got yourself killed, and now look at what you made me do.” Bree’s eyes drifted over to her brother’s helmet which the front face shield was completely gone from the bullet of her Fatebringer. “I didn’t have a choice, Brayden, don’t you see? I’ve come too far to give up now.” Bree looked over at the Vandals, whom all of a sudden, seemed quite interested in what she was doing. “I must say, they are some of the fiercest fighters I’ve ever seen. I can only thank whatever Gods exist that I have them, they were the ones who came back for me after I got shot while you ignored my cries. They came back and they carried me to safety, and where were you? Getting yourself killed.” Bree looked down at him once again, her eyes looking over his face. “I’ve always followed you, Brayden. Every day, no matter what it was, I was right behind you, supporting you, listening to you, but it didn’t matter. ‘We must make them see the truth, we must help them find the real Light’ is what you would always say, but did you ever think, that maybe, just maybe, the ones who turned us into the creatures we are today were the ones that were lying? Think about it, Brayden, what better way to rip apart the Vanguard, than from the inside out? That’s all we were, Brayden, we were just brainwashed sleeper cells.” Her eyes started to show signs of moisture in them. “Tricked into believing that what those Vex minds were telling us was the truth. Look at what they did to us, they turned us into horrible monstrosities both on the outside and the inside and we just went right along with it. We ran around thinking that we were nothing but slaves to a system of lies and corruption, trying to save resurrected corpses from a fate that they didn’t choose, trying to save them from a war they didn’t choose to fight, and all for what? Just to die here in some forsaken pit of misery?” Bree fell silent for a time and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe she was waiting for, Brayden, to respond, maybe she was trying to cope with the bitter reality that she was now alone in the world. All alone in a world where she was hated and unwanted… “Casted out of the Guardian society, spit on, kicked, insulted, and finally disregarded from a place where we didn’t belong. Want to know something, Brayden? I’m tired of being unwanted, I’m tired of being hated, I don’t want this anymore. Mar told me some things that made no sense, at first, but after awhile, I started to think about his words, and more and more, it all started to become clear.” Bree lifted her helmet into her arms as she stood up, still looking down at him. “It’s time that I leave this all behind and walk my own path. I can’t live the rest of my life in the shadow of yours. I died with you, Brayden, but in the wake of our death, I’ve been reborn. I’m going to finish what we started, and after that, who knows? There is a universe full of endless possibilities out there that are just waiting to be taken. And it’s finally going to be my turn to chase what I’ve always wanted, deep down in the pit of my stomach...to be accepted.” Bree gave her brother one last meaningful look. Slowly, a hint of sorrow crept up the back of her throat, but she just swallowed hard, and said, “I am a puppet no more…” [i]Thank you one and all for your support! Feedback, comments, and likes are appreciated![/i] [i]Trials of a Guardian: Fight to the End (Chapter 10)[/i]: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/121176362 [i]Trials of a Guardian: ALL Chapters (Appendix)[/i]: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/105589170/0/0