A mother was crying. Tears dripped down her cheeks onto her hand she was using to cover her mouth. Stark approached his mother and hugged her tightly. “I have to do this mom… I need this.” Their pearlescent surroundings quickly turned dark. Stark stared out at a distant lone tower hiding within the black. He stared at it for what felt like an eternity for him, clinging tighter to his mother as he did. “Stark,” another female voice broke through the dark,” Stark, the sky will be light within a couple of hours. We need to get a move on.” Stark woke to the voice of his ghost. He was lying on an old mattress inside a dried out sewage pipe. He moved his hand up towards his face, brushing his fingers against it gently. “Still metal.” He said quietly to himself before getting up out of the pipe and stretching. “We’ve got a long walk ahead of us, Stark. We need to cover a lot of distance while it’s still dark to avoid roving Fallen patrols.” Ghost gave Stark a slight nudge as he stretch. “Let’s get a moving now.” The two set off just before dawn to the small abandoned city they had camped near. The two hope to find a ship in working condition that they can use to get to their ideal destinations. Ghost was insistent that they head towards the Traveler, stating that many were journeying to a settlement being built right under it. The Traveler was a long way off, however. Traveling there without ship was not feasible. Though he agrees with Ghost on going to this settlement, he has other matters he feels he needs to settle first, namely learning of the past he has forgotten. The streets of the city were silent. No enemies were appearing on radar; nothing was. “This place is more vacant than I anticipated.” Stark commented. “When you said ‘abandoned’, I thought maybe Fallen might be rummaging around here, but nope, no life but the plants.” “As nice as it would be to see some people out here for once, I’m okay with this. No Fallen to deal with is just as nice.” Ghost responded. “Remember why we’re here though, Stark: Shippity ship ship ship!” “Right right, but this town, it’s kind of small. You think there’s a ship here?” Stark questioned. “Won’t know until we go look, right?” Ghost said in an unusually chipper tone. “I swear, your optimistic attitude is gonna get us both killed one of these days.” The two spent the next few hours scouring the town, searching for signs of a port, to no avail. They eventually realized that they needed to try and utilize other vehicles. They began making their way into houses and garages to find working automobiles. One vehicle showed promise. Ghost examined it to see if they could get it in working condition. Stark was uninterested, however, and began to wander through the house. “You know Stark, if we can manage to recharge this thing, at the very least we’ll have a car that can get us through to the next few cities where we can look for a ship.” Ghost turned to find that Stark was nowhere in sight. “Stark?” She hunted after him, eventually finding him in what appeared to be a child’s bedroom. In it were the remains of a bunk bed. The top bunk had collapsed and fallen onto the bottom one. Stark was sitting on the ground, legs crossed and looking at the bunk bed. “.... Stark?” “Did I ever tell you I had a brother, Ghost?” Stark finally spoke. “N-no, you never did.” Ghost said to him. “Did you read that in your journal?” “Yeah, I did. Apparently sometime after I turned, I met him again and didn’t recognize him. Heh, course he didn’t immediately recognize me. Broke his heart though, me having no recollection of him.” The two were silent for a minute before Stark broke it. “You know, according to mom, Lucas was always strong willed, being the big brother and all. But something about me having no memory of him, well it really struck him, she said. It showed too. Whenever I stopped by during family occasions, he would shy away… I don’t think he could face it.” “I’m... I’m sorry to hear that, Stark.” Ghost said in an attempt to comfort him. “Eh, what’ll ya do?” Stark got back onto his feet and dusted off his legs. “They’re all gone now. I don’t know if I have any family alive today. It is what it is.” Stark exited the room and went back downstairs, leaving Ghost behind in the room to her thoughts. Learning about his past was very important to him. Ghost knew this well, despite how much she urged him to seek out the Traveler rather than his past. Hearing what he said about his brother though, it was starting to make her reconsider. Obviously, they still needed to get to the safety of the Traveler and the civilization being created under it, but Stark’s past was equally important to him, if not more important. Maybe she could see it the same way too. Ghost floated down to the first level to rejoin Stark. “Stark, I want to tell you some-” She was interrupted by Stark shushing her as he hid under the kitchen table. Ghost then quickly noted Vandals prowling the outside. Gunshots sounded off from a distance, probably a few blocks down. The Vandal that appeared to be the leader commanded one to search the house. The other three went off in the direction of the gunshots. The Vandel entered through the kitchen but didn’t see Stark as it passed by and went through the doorway to the living room. Ghost hid above the doorway out of the Vandal’s sight and quickly flew to Stark.The two moved to the doorway and hid beside it. They listened as the Vandal made its way upstairs. “Why did your sensors not pick them up? What’s going on?” Stark asked. He was clearly stressed but trying to be as quiet as possible. “I don’t know! I didn’t detect them at all.” Ghost whispered back. The stairs creaked as the Vandal walked back down. It did one last scan of the living room before heading into the kitchen once more. Stark was quick to tackle it.It struggled under him and began to shriek. Gripping onto the Vandal’s horns, Stark quickly twisted its head and broke its neck. The Vandal’s body collapsed, lifeless. Stark stood and pointed down at the Vandal’s cape. “House of King, the sigil.” He next used his foot to tip the Vandal onto its back. He kneeled down next to it for examination. “It’s armor is unusual for Fallen. We never saw armor like this in the past, not from Kings.’ Ghost began to scan the Vandal’s body, particularly the armor. “Their armor is modified for anti-detection. That’s why we didn’t pick them up. This is Spector technology, golden age.” “Looks like the Kings have been playing with some new toys.” Stark remarked. “Nope, these are very very old toys. Hand-me-downs would be more accurate.” Ghost corrected him. “That’s very bad though. We have no idea how many Fallen this town is infested with. It’s best we get out of here, quickly.” “Can’t do, Ghost.” Stark said, pulling out his handcannon. “What? Why not?” She questioned. Stark checked to ensure his handcannon was fully loaded. Didn’t want to jump into a combat situation unprepared. “Well, we know of three other Fallen. They went off in search of the source of those gunshots we heard earlier. Those weren’t from Fallen weaponry either.” He stood up and looked at his ghost. “We’re not alone in this town. It’s possible there’s another light-bearer here or someone, and they encountered a different party of Fallen. Whoever they are, they’ve surely attracted the likes of the other Fallen in this town.” “And so now we have to go give them back-up.” Ghost grumbled. It was the right thing, but she hated having to get into combat, especially with unpredictable foes. “Bingo.”