Darek, Zach, and Kana were waiting in the Tower's hangar for Kirk and the others. All of them were wearing full armor except for helmets. Zach's was made of metal fibers woven together into a chestplate, pants, boots, gauntlets, and what was essentially a longer poncho. Darek wore armor made of the same materials but also had small pieces of armor plating in the chest, stomach, forearms, shins, and back. Kana wore glittering silver armor that reflected her surroundings. The edges of the plates that made up the armor ended in curves. Her armor was engraved with designs that just added to the over the top effect.   When Kirk, Kryn, and Lynn came into view of them Zach waved. When they had reached them Kryn dropped the folder into Zach's hands. Her hair looked like she had been on top of a ship launching for space.   "What's with the hair?"   "Our escape involved jumping off the Tower," she glared at Kirk who grinned under his helmet.   "Kirk seems to have gotten a kick out of it."   "Well good for him."   "You're the first person to discover his sense of humor." Zach gestured at Kirk, "you want me to jump off a building too?"   Kirk just stood there grinning.   "So either there's something funny to him about you specifically jumping off a building, or he's in a good mood."   Kryn looked down, "it's probably cause I went down screaming. Lynn pushed me."   Lynn started smiling and miming Kryn screaming.   Kryn looked at Lynn and said a series of not too nice words to her. Lynn kept smiling but stopped miming Kryn.   "Either way you got the file, let's see what's inside."   Zach opened the folder and flipped through a couple pages. Then he abruptly closed it and made a gagging sound. "Silas, I see why you wouldn't tell me what Akûn did." He opened the folder again and carefully skipped the page describing Silas's fireteams hunt for Akûn.   "Alright. Last intel before us was centuries ago. It talks about Akûn leading an attack against a settlement in London. He completely destroyed it and-"   Zach looked at Darek as he clearly fought the urge to throw the folder on the ground. "Um, let's just say he killed them. In a very not great way. Kirk? How about you read this."   Kirk took the folder and read over the part Zach had read. Even his face darkened when reading it.   "This folder shouldn't just be in deep storage. It should be in the Red Vault."   Darek's head snapped toward Kirk, "what's the Red Vault?"   Kirk looked Darek in the eye as he spoke, "the Red Vault is where the Vanguard puts files that entail descriptions of events so terrifying they shouldn't be read unless absolutely necessary. Nothing short of an invasion of the City would make the open the Red Vault."   "And I suppose you've been in the Red Vault?"   Kirk nodded, "once, to save the files from the Cabal when they invaded the City. Before we took back the City the Vanguard had me read files on some of the Red Legions premier Cabal. I also read some of the others."   With the last statement his voice grew sad and he put the folder back in Zach's hands.   Zach asked the next question, "who were the folders on?"   "Dredgen Mala, one that emerged shortly before the Red War but was never seen again."   "I know you well enough to know it wasn't pure curiosity that drove you to read those."   "Let's sit down." --------------------------------------------------------------- "Dredgen Mala was one of my few failed assignments. She was too skilled for me to take out at the time. Now I we would be an even match. I was on assignment with the one person I actually had what you could call friendship with at the time. This was before I painted a skull on my face and became who I am now. We headed out to London where she was camped in the ruins of a Hive ship. Of course I had no idea the Hive had been there before hand. We found Mala because of the laughing. At that moment we knew she was insane, she was looking at something we couldn't see and laughing incessantly. There was a man there staring at the same thing she was, he showed no emotions on his face. He was Dredgen Fear. She was distracted so we took our time setting up our shots. Right as we were about to fire at them she noticed us. I shot Dredgen Fear while Mala ran, then I made sure he wasn't going to be revived. Now I know his ghost left him years prior. Mala's hadn't, for whatever reason her ghost was still with her. We chased her through London until we couldn't see her. Then we stopped to see if she had left tracks. I took the left side of the square we were in, my friend took the right. As I was searching for tracks I heard a scream. Then I saw her, Mala had sprung a trap on my friend. Drained the light from her ghost, and then killed her. Mala laughed the entire time, maniacally. I killed her thirty-one times, then she ran. It was then I realized she had let me kill her that many times. I fell for the full extent of her trap. She turned me into what I am now. Normally inside every guardian there's some shred of mercy or love. She tore them out of me, and then let me loose on the Tower. For a while I did nothing but fight other guardians. Then I figured if I was going to be an emotionless killing machine, I may as well direct towards the bad guys."   Kryn fixed Kirk with a piercing gaze, "so this entire time, you viewed yourself as an emotionless machine. A slave to past terrors."   Kirk nodded. "Well that's fake. Clearly your emotions are still there. You've been showing signs of it everywhere. It's just suppressed because you're afraid that if you let it run its course, you'll be overwhelmed by the terror. And you fear there'll be nothing left afterwards. You've been living with the terror that freak left you with. Every day, without letting it out. You've been slowly killing yourself for years Kirk, everyone could tell. You just made it hard to help."   Kirk remained silent, and for once he didn't look like he was a murderer. He just looked tired.   Silas stepped forward, "we can't all go to London. We found one of Dredgen Truth's projectors in the hallway to the vault. We've been monitored the whole time."   Darek's hand suddenly became engulfed in void energy and he punched a five inch hole into a wall. "I'll kill Teren!"   Darek started running towards the rehabilitation center before Kryn caught up to him. She flipped him over her shoulder and he landed hard on the ground.   "We don't know that it's Teren yet. This could be any other person he would have entrusted with the technology."   "Fine."   Silas continued talking, "as I was saying, we need a team to stay here and figure out who's doing this."   Darek instantly responded, "I'll stay, I'm going to figure this out and if it's Teren again. He's not going to have the best next couple of centuries."   Silas nodded, "Fine. Who else will stay and help Darek?"   Kirk started to step forward but Silas stopped him. "If this is Dredgen Mala you're better off going to London. You shouldn't try to find her until you're sure you won't have a breakdown."   Kirk simply nodded. Kana stepped forward, "now I'm not to fond of Darek but I'll go with him. We'll hunt down whoever this is and end it."   Darek looked around at everyone. "The rest of you can go to London. I have another friend who can help me."   "Alright, that settles it. All those who are going to London follow me. Good luck to you Darek, Kana."   The others boarded their ship and headed off for London. Kana and Darek watched their ship fly off into the night sky. Then a voice sounded from behind them.   "I heard you talking about hunting Dredgens. Which ones?"   "Probably Dredgen Mala, or Dredgen Truth. Maybe both."   "Maybe I can help, I consider myself a Dredgen too."