The opening for this book is "Bluebird" by Ikimono Gakari. This takes place around 1 year after House of Devils. Enjoy!


The Semblance of Normalcy

The Devil Walker's cannon fired; barely missing the tall Guardian's head and blackening the back wall of the Divide. The Warlock leapt backwards and glided toward the shed behind him, dropping behind cover where his teammate was also stationed.

"Fuck! That one blew out my ear!" Aro cursed as Kain, his Ghost, fixed any damage to his eardrums.

The Hunter, Asura, laughed, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Not recently." he answered, taking his friend's bait.

The expected teasing tone entered his voice, "What about Daniel? Ya kiss him?"

Aro shoved the Exo Hunter off the building. He hit the ground on his feet and immediately bounced back up, laughing.

"THIS IS NOT THE TIME!" Crona roared over the comms, causing the two to flinch. She had stationed herself on the other side of the Divide, a large expansive space that separated the Docks and the Refinery of the Cosmodrome on Earth. And a popular gathering site for Fallen. They had been sent there to run errands for the Tower and a Fallen Walker was unexpectedly dropped on them.

"There go the eardrums again." Aro groaned, still under cover. He popped up from cover to shoot at the leg of the Walker, it's usual weak spot, and ducking when the giant machine responded in kind. Despite also being called a "Spider Tank", the mech only had 6 legs and a large abdomen filled with small fighter drones called Shanks. It had a small Arc powered turret gun on its mouth and a larger version mounted on its back. But it's most powerful weapon by far was its long heavy cannon mounted at the top of its back. Two of its legs were already highly damaged and the machine was on the verge of dropping but for now, it was still standing and still fighting.

"Quit whining. What's the plan? It's almost down. Neither mine nor Asura's Super abilities are fully charged after the last time we used them."

"That's because you missed…" Asura said.

"Be quiet!"

"How the hell do you miss with a Fist of Havoc?!"

"Will you shut up?!"

Answer me woman!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!"

"You're gonna have to make me." he challenged. Asura suddenly fell backwards, something ricocheted off his shoulder.

"Hey! She shot me." He said, disbelieving. "You shot me!"

"Did I?" came the faux innocent reply.

"You shot me in the shoulder!"

"That's because I missed your head! Now stand still…" He quickly ducked, not hoping to test if she was serious."

"This was a bad idea…" Asura's Ghost, Spirit, mumbled.

"What? Choosing a trigger happy maniac as a teammate?" Asura said, still hiding from both the Walker and Crona.

"No. Taking a bunch of superhuman, near godlike trigger happy maniacs with no fear of death and even less regard for their own semi-mortality and GIVING…THEM…GUNS!"

Laughing at the Ghost's outburst, Aro leapt off the building just as the Walker fired its cannon again;flying clear over the blast. Feeling the power boil up inside him, he became illuminated in violet light. He mustered all the energy he could into the palm of one hand and shaped it into a sphere. The Voidwalker spiked the Nova Bomb directly at the Devil Walker's side. Despite being several tons in weight, the machine was knocked back by the force of the impact. The Nova Bomb's explosion left a contained, swirling black hole that slowly broke down its victims to a near molecular level. The Walker desperately tried to stand itself back up after the attack but it's legs gave out and collapsed with a mighty crash, the mechanical beast was dead.

Asura leaped off the building and Aro slowly floated to the ground. Crona joined them, "You've had that in you this whole time? What were you waiting for?" the Titan asked, "Dramatic effect?"

Aro pointedly looked away without answering.

Laughing at his friend's response, Asura jumped up and planted himself on top of the still burning carcass of the dead Walker. Stomping on its head, he asked, "Remember the first time we faced one of these?"

"Yes actually. The nightmares lasted for about a week." Crona said, knocking caked mud off her armored shoulder, "Can we leave now?" she asked Aro.

"One second…" he assured, punching through the metal husk of a downed Shank and ripping out a dirty Shock Core, "This is the last one. Now we can go."

"Great…because they just sent reinforcements."

As if on cue, two Fallen Skiffs rapidly descended from the sky. Without another word, Crona and Sol, her Ghost, returned to orbit. Asura waved at the Fallen ships and returned his own as well. With only one target left, the ships' weapons aimed themselves at Aro.

"Uh Kain? Anytime…"

The weapon fired. Aro's Ghost teleported him out of the Cosmodrome and back into orbit as the attack struck the spot where the Warlock used to be.


Dropping into his ship, Aro was greeted with brightly lit computers and a dark starry sky.

"That was a close call. What the heck were you waiting for?" Aro demanded of his Ghost.

"Dramatic effect."

"BAHAHAHA-" Aro cut off the comms, silencing Asura's obnoxious laugh. The Earth rotated beneath them. Behind and in front of him were Crona and Asura respectively, waiting for him to set off. He sat down in the chair at the front, took off his helmet and just stared out the window silently as Kain input the coordinates and set off. As the ship silently sped through the atmosphere, he picked up his helmet again and observed his reflection. Dark skin, even darker brown eyes constantly mistaken for black and kinky, sparse hairs matching his shaved head growing on his face.

"I should probably shave soon."

"Maya thinks you should grow it out." his Ghost said.

"Not really looking to take grooming advice from a 10 year old girl but tell her thanks anyway."

"Well we finished early so you can tell her yourself."

The City came into view barely a hours later and it was active as usual. At the center was the Tower, where he worked and lived. None compared to the massive white sphere that floated above the City. No matter how many times he saw it, it was always eye catching. The Traveler was the source of power for the Ghosts and their Guardians. It appeared suddenly several centuries ago and pushed humanity into the Golden Age of exploration and technological advancement. It's long pursuer quickly and suddenly caught up to it. The Darkness and its armies ravaged humanity, pushing them from the edge of the Solar System to one City on Earth. It's been several hundred years and humanity is still fighting to reclaim their history.

The ships docked and Aro exited his own, his uniform, consisting a black cargo pants, boots, a grey shirt and black jacket with the insignia and elemental symbols for the Warlock Order on the back, replacing his armor. Amanda Holliday, the Shipwright for the Guardians and a good friend of the team waved him over.

"Just wanted to say thanks for the Shock Cores. Really appreciate it."

"It was no problem at all. We were happy to help." he replied with a small smile.

"Well thanks again. Oh and before you leave, the Vanguard had some news for you and your team. They should be getting it to you by tomorrow so be on the look out."

"Will do. I'll see you later."

The three walked out of the Hangar on the top floor of the Tower. It was busy as usual but nothing Aro had never seen. Entering their dorm, Asura planted himself in front of the television and Aro went into his bedroom; their usual spots.

"We finished early but we promised we'd help Kayla in the lab later." Kain said as Aro entered his room. He peeled off his shirt, dropped onto the bed and realized he had forgotten something. He unwrapped the tattered piece of cloth tied to a belt loop and placed it on his desk. It was the cloth Kain had found on him when they had first met. He had made a habit of keeping it on him when he was sent out on missions. Kain had incorporated it into his armor so it would repair along with the armor should it get destroyed. It provided him with a goal in life; find out who put it there and why. But with everything else that had happened last year since he was raised from the dead, it went much deeper than he originally believed. After a few more minutes, he redressed and left his apartment for the lab Kayla told him she would be in.

He knocked on the open door. "Kayla? You in here?" The navy blue Exo with a neon orange 7 on her face turned around at her name and waved him in. She was hunched over and working on a small device and moving back and forth to a computer monitor behind her. "You guys are back early."

"Yeah we encountered a Fallen Devil Walker."

"Again?!"

"Yep. Brought a lot of Shanks with it. Sooooo what is this?"

Kayla picked it up. Kain hovered in closer. "You remember Rasputin right?"

"He's hard to forget."

"Well believe it or not, he still talks to me. And he's been telling me that he needs help with buffing up his connections to Mars. He's been trying for a while now and decided I can help him speed it up."

"Just Mars? Why not Venus and the Moon?"

"The Vex Minds have Venus on lockdown. The Hive and the Fallen House of Exiles have done the same with the Moon. If we can reduce their presence there, then it would become a possibility but for now, Mars seems to be our best option. As strong as the Cabal are, they aren't even at our level technologically."

He moved in closer to the device, "And this would strengthen his connection to Mars?"

"Hopefully. I've been building it to his specifications."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Random things. You're my errand boy for the rest of the day."

"I haven't even eaten yet!"

She had her Ghost, Sixx, pass him some Glimmer, "Go buy yourself something nice."

"You're so good to me." he said dryly before walking out of the lab to find a meal.

After he got back, he did whatever she requested of him. Whether it was fetching a part or a tool from another part of the Tower or monitoring the device's activity on the computer when it was hooked up until about nightfall, when they took a break.

"So when are you and Daniel going to happen?" She questioned.

Are sighed, "Why does everyone keep asking me that? I don't know alright?"

"Everyone is asking because everyone knows you like each other. You're both terrible at hiding it. You can feel the sexual tension in the air." she said, grabbing at the empty space.

Knocking her hands away, Aro leaned back on his chair, "I've been thinking about talking to him…"

"For a year?"

"Shut up. And yes."

She laughed, "Don't worry, he feels the same."

"Should you be telling me this?"

"Mmmm no not really. So…" her tone went from joking to somber, "How is Asura?"

"You talked to him before we left."

"By Asura, I mean Wrath-A."

"That's what we're calling it now?" he asked, disbelieving.

"Well there are two Wraths and that's what the Vanguard calls it."

"Well he seems fine. But he's shown to be good at hiding it so I can't tell."

"Any sign of the others?"

It may have been a year but the Heralds were still fresh in his mind. Gluttony, Wrath and Lust, known in life as Toland, Kabr and Dredgen Yor. Guardians who had been declared dead, pledging their loyalty to the Darkness and their efforts to humanity's extinction. And they need him to do it, so they were tasked with keeping him alive until the time was right.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they simply keep out of sight but no, I haven't seen them."

"The Vanguard has been keeping you off the most dangerous missions to minimize their presence. I doubt that'll work for long."

"Same."

Kayla went quiet for a minute and then asked, "How do you plan to fight them should they show up and try to take you?"

"…I don't know honestly. I'm not even worried about myself as much as anyone else who runs into them. They only need to keep me alive…"

"So what's to stop them from killing anyone who gets in their way? Kill Crona and Asura then drag you far away from them and the tether would snap. They'd be lost forever." she finished for him.

"I know. I know. I just…" he groaned, "I'm just confused."

"Everyone is. You're not alone."

He chuckled, "Thanks."

They continued working well into the night until both left for home. Aro returned to his room, took a bath and dropped onto his bed. He hadn't had a nightmare in a long time, despite everything that was going on and he still didn't know why. After the fight against Sepiks Prime and meeting the Heralds for the first time, they just seemed to stop suddenly.

For now, life was good, things were calm. Normal. At least a Guardian's version of normal. He just hoped it would stay that way a bit longe