[url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/90582747]Catch up on Part three here![/url] [b]"The exposition."[/b] [i]"Spoiler alert. That wasn't even the battle. Neither is this. But you need to know." ~ Fault[/i] ************************************************************************************************************** "Alright stop." Fault breathed out the sentence as a sigh. He was already bracing for what was coming. He'd realized a few hundred yards ago, as they carefully picked their way through a maze of tunnels and ancient sewers, that he was dreading speaking up more than he was dreading running into more Hive. This was going to be a confrontation, of the worst kind. The sort he couldn't dodge. His way about things had always been evasion. The moment he learned about the power of the Warlocks, he knew he had to have it---he knew that the only way out of this whole mess they've been resurrected into was through, and knowledge was the key. He could blink in and out of existence now, and drop the force of an exploding star on something's head to dissuade any notions of running him down. Survival meant everything. They were dead when Narrative Dissonance---their ghost---found them. As he'd learned about the universe, the Light, tech and this new war, he'd learned about himself. He wouldn't have gotten them killed. Ricochet's form loomed at the front of the group. Diss was with him, floating over his left shoulder and shining a light out ahead of him. The tunnel was oppressively dark. They sometimes had to go single file. More than once, Ricochet had punched or smashed his way through something too narrow to allow him through. He was always faced forward, his weapon shouldered, marching on. At one point, Fault had fallen behind---he'd heard movement, and mentioned it. Ricochet just kept right on going. [i]I wouldn't have gotten us killed.[/i] "What?" Ricochet's rumble of a voice from the front. "We're getting close. No time to stop." Faulted stopped moving anyway. Fox bumped into his back. "Make time. I want to know what the -blam!- we're doing. And you're going to answer me." "Finally. Man, if one more person uses time as an excuse not to---" Bishop began, but Fox cut him off. "Shut up, Bishop. We've got a job to d---" Wally cut her off. No one ever really cut Fox off. She had a certain... untouchable, exalted rank among the group. Even Ricochet, the closest thing they had to a 'leader' was mostly open to being questioned. Nobody crossed Fox, though. It had something to do with her relationship with Ricochet, something to do with her relationship with the rest of the universe. Fox tended to torch things that disagreed with her. "He's right. I'm done with fighting blind. I mean I like fighting, don't get me wrong. Just when there's a reason. We're not even fighting here, we... the fight's back [i]that way[/i] man. What was that beacon you spiked? I don't get what's going on here. Doesn't seem right, and I don't really like the notion that you're expecting us all to just go along. Thought we were better than that. You said the Lance was about mutual respect, but I've gotta tell you, I don't want to be the one to say, but you've been leading us along by the nose for months now and it's complete bullshit! This is bullshit!" Fault could hear the anger rising in Wally's voice. The young Titan was often glib, flippant, dedicated to delivering a good punch line almost to a fault. He didn't often show a serious side. When he did, it vastly altered the tone. Ricochet had kept walking a few more yards, out into the tunnel. He drew himself up to full height, lowered his weapon. Turned to face the team. Where he was standing was a bit more open than the passage way they'd been squeezing through, so Fault pushed ahead to give everyone room to step out into the open with him. [i]If he'd completely lost it, he'd have tossed a grenade and Warded us inside. So there's that.[/i] "You got a problem, Titan?" Ricochet asked when they were all out of the passage. "Speak your mind." "Actually, I was the one who called for a stop. Same reasons. Don't try and bully him, big guy." Faulted put in, crossing his arms over his chest. "This isn't adding up." "I don't try and bully anyone, Emil." Ricochet's voice took on a nearly threatening rumble, like a distant thunder or repressed growl. Contradicting his statement by tone. "Emil?" Wally half whispered, confused. "...who the heck is Emil?" Fault felt eyes on him. Doss, Fox, Wally. Bishop seemed like he wasn't even paying attention, staying to the back and looking at one of the slick, curved walls. "Later." Fault shook his head, trying not to allow the point to be lost here. "I---we---want to know what we're doing here. Doss just died for this shit. Think we're at the honesty point, when people start honestly gettin' murked." "I'm fine." Doss put in with a short shrug. "What's the point of having a Ghost if we're not going to be cannon fodder." It was the closest thing Fault had ever heard from Doss to being an aggressive comment. This trip was high risk, low reward, and little explanation. "We came to get you, Doss." Ricochet replied. "I'm the only one who can open the door to get you where you're trying to go. And I do know where you're trying to go. I also know what that beacon was. Not my place to say. I don't have a problem with it. Being lied to doesn't really mean much when I know the truth anyway." Doss shrugged again. "You told them." Ricochet, turning his helmeted head toward Fox. Her right hand went to her hip. Her weight shifted to that leg. "For the one holding all the cards, you sure don't trust anyone else with a secret." "That's how you keep them." Ricochet noted offhandedly. [i]Always about the win with you, isn't it.[/i] "You'll recall," Narra broke in, floating away from Ricochet's shoulder. Casting her cone of light around the area, which with greater illumination showed to be a hub of sorts of many tunnels linking together. "That this area of Earth is where you were discovered. Approximately. Bishop, Eagle, Fault, Ricochet. All of you found, together. It would stand to reason that there may be something else here worth having." "Maybe what the Fallen are trying to salvage? Or the Hive are trying to recover? Or," Doss, stepping forward slightly now. "What Ricochet popped that beacon for on the way into the tunnels. To draw other Guardians here. As a distraction. Something worth coming all this way without Zavala's consent." "Woah, you said this was a paid job!" Wally burst in. "He didn't lie, precisely." Fox quipped. "He's made a good amount trading in salvage. Enough to pay everyone here for the trouble. If we live through it, anyway." "Paid by [i]Zavala[/i]. The Vanguard. We work for the [b]Vanguard[/b]." Wally pressed. "That's why Eagle didn't come, isn't it." Bishop muttered. "Would you rather the -blam!-in' Hive or Fallen get it? Or would you rather we did what we do, get in there, get this do---" It might have been the start of a rousing speech. Wally wasn't having it. "Get in where? Get what done? What do you even [i]mean[/i] Ricochet?" The young Titan was on the verge of shouting. "We do. What's. Necessary." Ricochet fired back at him. "I don't, I don't even know what what means! What do you even mea---" "You're welcome." Ricochet nodded sagely as though he'd actually answered the question, Wally threw up his hands turned away. Doss sighed, Fault started a sentence and then--- "Alright enough! Enough." Fox had reached her limit. She took a step away from the rest of the group, toward Ricochet, and then turned to face them all. Fault wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or join in the frustrated arguing at this point. "Our friendly neighborhood overly secretive Titan figured something out. Something I'd figured out too, digging through old Clovis Bray archives. Remember when you 'helped' me out on Mars? And I left the New Monarchy? Yeah, about that. I found something that---basically... Look. Before the Collapse, before whatever happened, people were experimenting with things. There's a reason why the Titans were the first. There was a reason we were sorta-kinda ready, even though we apparently got our asses kicked by nobody-really-knows-what. You guys? You were found together because you're possibly results of some of those programs. Genetic alteration, training... I don't know exactly. But if we're right? Almost everyone like you is useful to a Ghost. Maybe even more than one of you to a single Ghost. That could change the war." Her outburst fell to silence. Fault stared straight ahead as he put things together mentally. "If we had some way to find likely locations of new Guardians..." Doss began quietly. "But if someone else has them, they can use that too. We have to stop them." Ricochet added. "Why's this worth keeping from us though?" Faulted tried to ignore the hollow sound of his own voice. He was angry about something, but he couldn't quite remember what. "...what did you... what did you do? How did we die, last time?" [url=http://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/91625542]Part five![/url]