Gale and Haxx landed in the hanger. Gale marched to the Hall of Guardians with Haxx tailing behind. She slammed the doors open to the Vanguard leaders studying the fight from a holo-map. "We need to gather Guardians to assault the Fallen in Venus!" shouted Gale. "Easy, darling. I personally taught Edward, he can hold his own." Cayde held up his hands trying to calm Gale. Gale slapped his hands out of the way. "You better d*** well hope he can handle himself! Like you said, this is your training he is using!" "Cayde! Focus, more activity reported!" barked Zavala. Cayde threw on his headset. "What do we got?!" Gale watched the holo-map. It showed the ship turn to flames. Gale cupped her face as Haxx patted her shoulder. "C.P. says that is where the shield generator lies... It's Edward." Gale continued to watch as another explosion came from the engines. After the engines exploded, the ship tilted to the planet. "Oh, God, please help him..." Gale's face turned red. "Dear, those explosions were strategic. Edward must have a plan of escape." Ikora tried to comfort Gale. "Gale, I must ask you to leave." Zavala looked to Gale and Haxx. The two Guardians walked up the stairs into the courtyard. Gale was drenched in tears as Haxx patted her shoulder. "Holy s***!!" cried a woman looking to the sky. Gale and Haxx looked up. A bright light trekked the sky, smoke revealing it's trajectory. It crashed just outside of the wall. The Guardians took sparrows and traveled to the crash site. "It's a Fallen escape pod! It's Ed!" Gale ran to the pod. "Drake, crack it open! Hurry!" Drake scanned the lock and swung the door open. "Where's... Ed?" Gale looked around the pod, it was dark, silent, and a foul smell filled the room. Drake held up a chain. "Gale?... Dear?..." Gale snatched the chain from Drake. "It's his dog tags..." Fire crackling woke Edward. His vision was blurry and a ringing filled his ears. Edward could not focus on one thing, he constantly looked around. Finally he could make out the details of the environment around him. The ketch was broke in half, the forward half was the burning debris and fires spreading in the trees. The other half was... somewhere. Edward tried to sit up, but shearing pain halted his movement. Edward started to cry from the pain. Edward leaned back against the tree that he had awoken on. "...F***..." A weird sensation caused Edward to look at his stomach. A large, poisonous, Venus spider was crawling on him! "Oh s***!!" Edward slapped it off. Edward noticed how torn his armor was: his visor was shattered with the glass all around him, and several gashes covered his stomach. Blood stained his white armor paint. Edward looked around for anything he could scavenge. Two objects caught Edward's attention. He slowly stood up and walked over to his scout rifle, and by fate, Kelly's shell. "Oh, Kelly. I'm sorry..." Edward picked up the shell and put it in his backpack. Edward continued to look around after placing his hand on a cut. He ripped off several pieces of cloth from a Fallen's cloak and covered his many wounds. "This will be one h*** of an adventure..." Edward looked towards the direction of a howl. "...If we survive." Edward moved brush out of the way, trying to find a way out of the jungle. About a mile north from where he woke up, Edward found the other half of the ketch. "Do you think we can find some goods in there?" Edward looked over his right shoulder, he sighed at the sight of nothing. Edward approached the fiery structure slowly, placing careful steps. Just before Edward reached a sufficient place to hide, Fallen walked out of one of the exposed hallways! Edward bolted behind a tree. The Fallen heard a twig snap and looked intently in Edward's direction. Edward checked the clip in his scout rifle, empty. He pulled out his only knife and kissed it. He ran around the tree and threw the knife. It stuck in the Fallen's chest, dropping it. Edward stepped on the Fallen's body and pulled out the knife. He about walked away, but he glanced back at the Fallen. "Exile? How? The Exiles..... [i]weren't[/i] on the ketch. Braxis was!" Edward knelt down by the Fallen. "Why were you not on your own ship? Did Braxis steal it from you? No, you would have no way to be here. You had to have had control of the ship until you got to Venus, which is when the House of Winter betrayed you... Why were you working with the House of Winter in the first place?" Edward continued to walk north, at least, he was hoping he was walking north. Night after night, he would form a makeshift tent with branches and leaves. Like all hunters did, Edward carried flint and steel for easy fire starting. One night, Edward just sat down and stared into the fire. "Hunters are trained to survive what others couldn't, it's basically in our genes. One of my friends back at the academy didn't need training, he just loved the wilderness too much. What about ghosts? Are you just programmed to accompany their Guardians?" Edward looked around hoping to see Kelly. He took a rock and threw it as far as he could in anger, it echoed through the jungle as it hit leaves and branches. Three months later, Edward wasn't who he once was. The life of solitude and the struggle to survive changed his psychology, broke his mind. Permanent or temporary would be unknown. "Have I been forgotten? Have I.. been abandoned?! I trusted that d***ed orb in the sky and what has it done for me?! There some thoughts blocked from us when we are connected to the Light, Kelly, but when the connection is broken, our thoughts are free! But to free our thoughts, our source of faith must be broken... Is such a cost worth it? Or must it be better to not know and follow blindly as many generations has? What do you think Kelly?" Weeks to follow, Edward took electrical tape and taped his knife to the barrel of his scout rifle. The weapon already had burns from the wreckage and the peeling paint, now it looked like it had been through hell and back, just as Edward did. With his new monstrosity in on his back, Edward climbed a tree. He silently slid across a branch and looked down below. "They're still after us, Kelly." Edward whispered to himself. He jumped down impaling a vandal with his scout rifle. The knife went between it's head and shoulder. Edward pulled the blade out and held his scout rifle like a javelin, ready to throw it at anyone willing to approach him. One vandal walked up to Edward. She placed her weapons on the ground and pointed to her cloak... House of Exile. Edward realized that the House of Exile wouldn't take kindly to Braxis' Betrayal. "An enemy of my enemy, is my friend..." Edward laid his weapon down.