[spoiler] Disclaimer: This post is Fanficiton, which is allowed in #Lore as declared by dmg04, link here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/249545832?sort=0&page=0&path=1. You are well within your rights to instantly downvote, but there are a few things I would like to state first: 1) If you wish to no longer see any of my posts, please block the tags #Fanfiction or #ringer7. By doing so you will never again see any Fanfiction from me in the future. You can also simply mute my profile if that’s prefered although I am #lore Titan Vanguard so you may miss some lore. 2) Downvotes, based on friends' and my observations over the last few weeks, actually help keep a post in trending as they count as engagement. Cheers! [/spoiler] Did I know? That's a good question. And one I've been asking myself lately. You may not know this, but I knew Shadow before the Hunt for that rabid dog. Back then she was focused, a fully devoted Guardian. Now don't misconstrue those words there. I never said she isn't one now, only difference is that then, in those days, she had one priority, Humanity. Now days I like to think she has two... I'm going to be honest, never was good at lying anyway. No. I did not know. Not the way you mean when you ask that question. Call me a fool, or blind, I don't really care. I had grown close to both of them, Shadow and Variks, as friends. I saw in Variks nobility, a drive to protect his people's future above all else. I never blamed him for this. I still don't. In that regard we have a very clear understanding of each other: We both know what comes first. Shadow though. She had a different calling I would say. At first I didn't get it. After all, she had always been such a staunch defender of the City. She would spend her time at Vestian Outpost more likely than not. I could never understand why she spent so much time there, oh I could understand the draw. I used to visit just to see friends and go to Prison. Maybe, in a way, I did know. Maybe I just didn't understand what it meant was all. I suppose I didn't believe it was possible for a long time, I didn't think it could be real, what I seemed to be picking up on. Of course today I stand here in the City and deny any knowledge of it. The Vanguard can't know, because they can't understand. I don't claim to either...to understand. But they're my friends. And more than that, I understand [i]them[/i]. Duty to people, to one's heart. Now I may not have a heart, and I may not have a "people" per se, but my City is my love. And Shadow and Variks are something special, something precious. Maybe the only thing outside these walls I helped build that I could truly call...family. So yes, I knew, I didn't know I knew, but I did. And on the day that the ignorant come to take the Kell and his Shadow's life, the day they want to "punish" them for the death of a man they called Cayde, I will be there, as I always am, a Wall. Many don't comprehend what they have or what they want to rebuild. I do. Because it is what I am trying to rebuild. A people, hearts, and a better way to live, without fear. --Ringer-7, while at camp on Mt. Everest.