"What happened to your ghost?" Amar asked, the tremor in his voice gone, allowing the bass of it to be felt almost more than heard. "It died. Not enough light in me to sustain it. Too much time away from the Traveler." Varin replied casually, placing the food he had just offered in his mouth. "HERETIC!" Amar shouted and lunged, knocking the heating element aside. It deactivated as it struck the floor. His legs flailed beneath him. The room went dark and Varin vanished under the assault, a shadow in a room now made dark. Amar landed hard on the frozen concrete, his head against his helmet, and his legs waking to the pin-prick sensation of numbness giving way to sensation. "Amar, have I not shown you the definition of hospitality?" the hunter’s voice seemed to come from every angle, as if the origin was the space that bore it. "Where is my Ghost? My weapons? WHERE ARE YOU?" Amar shouted into the dark, attempting to stand and failing. "I've not left you. I will not leave you, not until you are self-sufficient." Varin’s voice pressed from every direction, pulled against itself as though he were coming and going through a hallway inside the frozen room. Amar rolled onto his back and slid his helmet on, the fractured HUD lit up, but revealed nothing more than he had already observed. "My Ghost? What have you done with it?" he called into the dark. "Dead I'm afraid. I'd have kept it, but honestly the poor thing was in pieces, shattered in the crash." his voice had no origin path. The phonic detection of the Titan’s helmet gave no explanation. The dark air around him simply shook and generated the sound. He tried moving his legs, slowly and with protest he bent them then extended them. "You are a creature of darkness. You are no Guardian." "I suppose so, yes. I was a Guardian once, more importantly I was-" Amar cut off the nebulous string of words. "RUN! When I find you I will burn the darkness out of you with my bare hands, you foul imposter!" Silence followed for several minutes. Then: "When you can walk follow the hallway and take the first right. I'll be waiting, Guardian." Varin’s voice was cold now, each word seemed spat as though it left a bitter taste in his mouth. The word Guardian seemed more a taunt than a validation. =============== In a pressing darkness, on shaking legs, Amar found his way through the cold hallways. Ice gave way to concrete and metal, the halls became a series of large rooms. Slowly the darkness lit with a hint of soft blue light. It wasn't much, but it was enough to allow him the opportunity to read his environment. Long tables and chairs sat defiant against decay in the cold dark. Several flipped on their sides as makeshift barricades. Old machines lay dormant against walls or at the ends of tables organized into columns. Doorways with no locks and sometimes no doors seemed to guide him with a shimmering, twisting purple/blue light trail and a low hum more sensation than sound. The light of his surroundings seemed to appear in corners but have no source; some walls simply generated it as near as he could tell. Briefly he searched for a weapon of some kind but found none so he moved on. The rooms and their linkage began stretching to small but wide halls lined with doors, all locked. He felt the sensation of moving downward, descending on a slow incline when his ethereal trail brought him to stairs. Looking down there was more dark but also an odd shimmer at its base. With some apprehension he descended, feeling the darkness pull at him and take his strength. It occurred to him as he descended the long stairwell that he may not survive his encounter with this abomination. The darkness of this place had crippled him on his trek. Finally at the end of the stairs there was one door with a single window. Through it he could see another large room with an abundance of white/blue light on one side and darkness on the other. There were large tanks of what looked like water in a grated metal floor; and at the far end he saw Varin waiting near an old computer console on a raised concrete floor, arms behind his back, facing the door. He raised his chin in a half nod, signaling to Amar that he had been seen. Slowly the Titan entered the room and took in his surroundings. A charge of energy filled him as he walked and gradually, whether intentionally or not, moved toward the light side of the room. The weakness left his extremities and where his steps had been plodding and difficult before, they now became effortless and powerful. He clenched his hands into fists and felt lightening creep up his arms. He stopped four paces from the hunter. "Do you know where we are, Vanguard scout Amar?" Varin said in a formal tone. "Your tomb, monster." Amar replied in a hate-filled tone.