"Transmatting in 3...2...1.." Sera's voice ringed in Archangel's ears as they left their ship and appeared in the tower plaza. "Welcome back, guardian." The arrival droid greeted them with its usual monotonous voice. Archangel wondered how many times that it had to say those three words. His thoughts were interrupted by Sera materializing over his shoulder. "The Vanguard want to see you." "The Vanguard always want to see me. They forget, I don't bow to their every whim." Archangel replied gruffly, jogging to the Postmaster. He grabbed a few rare engrams and walked over to the Cryptarch. "Greetings Archangel, pleasant trip I hope?" The Cryptarch smiled at him, as if he had not a care in the world. Archangel stared at him for a few seconds, then shrugged and presented the engrams. "As pleasant as the Hive can be. I trust that you've been enjoying yourself with the peacefulness of the tower?" The Cryptarch replied as he decoded the engrams, producing two rare auto rifles and a strange coin. "As much as the Guardians allow. Do you know, last night an awoken warlock tried to scorch me? All because her legendary heavy weapon engram happened to decode into two ascendant energy." He showed a look of surprise and shrugged. "But I guess, that happens more than I'd like to admit." Archangel grinned and agreed as he turned to the vault. "I bet it does." He scrapped the auto rifles and dropped the strange coin into the vault, adding to the forty-seven he had stored. He muttered to himself "I hope Xur has something decent when he returns." As he replaced a few exotics, an intimidating titan walked up behind him. "Archangel, the Vanguard have summoned you. Follow me, now." Grunted the titan, and as Archangel turned he noticed that it was William, an emissary of Zavala. The two had met only briefly, and on rather bad terms. At least, that's how Archangel had looked at it. About a week prior to this, he had gotten into a fight with a hunter who liked to boast . William had the unfortunate luck of being the one to break the two up. The titan had caught Archangel's left hook when he tried to step between two hunters, and was never given an apology. Archangel's pride wouldn't allow it. He looked at William and sighed, then crossed his arms. "You know, the Vanguard don't give me orders. They have no authority over me." Archangel replied defiantly, and stared crossly at William. The titan took a step closer and leaned towards him a bit. "Don't make me drag you to them. It won't look proper." He grinned. "You may try, but you won't get far." Archangel dropped a hand to his waist, where one of his many knives sat sheathed. "That puny little blade won't do anything to me." William replied as he stepped forward and threw a punch. In one fluid motion, Archangel ducked and spun, pulled the knife from its' sheathe, and sent it in an arc towards the titan's neck. William drew his hand back and elbowed Archangel's forearm mid-swing, forcing the knife to drop. He sent his other fist flying towards Archangel's face but it was stopped abruptly. The two looked over to see Commander Zavala and Cayde-6. Zavala had caught William's fist, while Cayde had deflected Archangel's blade. William looked down to realize that Archangel had caught the falling knife with his free hand. If the fight hadn't been stopped, that knife would have been hilt deep in his chest. "That's enough!" Barked Cayde, who then pulled Archangel away and pushed him towards the vanguard room. Zavala began to lecture his emissary on the use of excessive force, though William ignored him and shouted curses at Archangel. "Keep talking!" He yelled back at William. "Next time I'll show you what my right hook feels like!" [i]"That was our first actual scuffle, though it would be far from our last."[/i] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/117289948/0/0]Chapter 2 (Part II): The Doubtful[/url] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/117534117/0/0/1]Chapter 2 (Part III): An Unlikely Alliance[/url] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/116694748/0/0]Echoes [Appendix][/url]