Bree’s eyes rested on him now. The only other person in the entire universe that she felt safe with, felt that the world could burn to the ground, and it wouldn’t matter, so long as Brayden was by her side. Her two Fatebringers’ were nestled in their holsters on her hips, her right hand rested on the hilt of her throwing knife, her eyes scanning the densely forested area. Brayden was only a couple of yards from her, merely a few steps, and an outstretched arm’s length, but she felt as if he were light years away. She looked at the man who meant more to her than anything else in her life, no one understood her the way Brayden did, and no one understood Brayden the same as Bree. They would always have each others’ back, no matter what, they would always be there for the other, and they would give up everything for each other. “I just checked our locale on the map, we are a lot closer than I would have liked. We must have picked up a lot of interference when we transported down and it scrambled our drop point and placed us here,” Brayden spoke to Bree via their helmet comm, his scout rifle was locked and loaded, his hands gripping it tightly. “Be alert, we aren’t far from the canyon.” The torrential downpour of rain made the going slow. The lightning spread across the sky like dancing white fingers, and even if there was any light to be had, it would have been devoured by the thick, green vegetation that surrounded them. The four Vandals seemed to move a lot better than the two Guardians and were already ahead of them. The population of plants, trees, and flowers eventually began to decrease as they got closer to the river. It rushed and gushed heavy quantities of water as they approached the outer banks and it was hard to discern what water came from the river and what came from the sky. The thrashing wind that violently ripped at their defaced Vanguard Hunter cloaks and threatened to rip them from their backs wasn’t helping their progress. It was grueling moving along the muddy banks of the river, their boots sunk into the soiled muck of Venus. The fireteam of misfits finally came to the canyon. Traversing the rocky upward slope of the terrain actually went a lot better than trudging through the mud. The rocks and stone beneath their feet gave them a bit better traction, but the rain continued to assault them as they moved their way towards the gate that would lead them to the Trials. It was the Vandals who reached the clearing first, and it was the Vandals who were the first to open fire on what awaited them. “Vex! Come on! Let’s move!” Brayden's’ voice broke over the comm, in a burst of speed, they hauled ass up the rest of the slope in a blaze of speed. Bree withdrew the Fatebringers from their holster’s and checked one last time, making sure they were each fully loaded. Her HUD automatically synced with her weapons, showing her how much ammunition she had in reserve and how much was in each hand cannon. She was cocked, locked, and ready to rock, her hands tightened on the grips of her guns as she and Brayden emerged into the clearing at the same time. “Flower, activate my ATS!” Bree called out as the scene before them unfolded in an explosive eruption of chaos. “Command confirmed, advanced targeting system initiated,” Flower spoke back to Bree and two little red dots appeared on her HUD and immediately began scanning the area. It was swarmed with Vex Goblins and Hobgoblins, fortunately, they didn’t find anything bigger than that, and began sweeping the area. The Vandals had split up, two were far to the left of the wide area and the other two went far right, leaving Bree and Brayden to cover the middle. They charged like Olympians running the 100-meter dash, it was all open with no cover, so they had to keep moving. Brayden started firing first. The loud pop-pop-pop of his scout rifle rang out as he sent bullets hurtling through the air and smashing with deadly precision to their targets; the glowing white light of the Goblins’ middle. His finger pulled slightly on the trigger; pop-pop. More bullets, more downed Goblins. Bree dual-wielded her hand cannons. The auto aiming assist mechanism from her HUD made each shot she fired a killing blow. Her arms crossed over each other as each shot found their way home. Bree and Brayden fired hails of bullets, side by side until a slap grenade landed directly in-between them. Brayden saw it first, he forcefully shoved his sister as hard as he could, then he sent himself tumbling in the opposite direction. Bree tucked and rolled in the lush grass, landing on her stomach, she continued to propel herself as far away from the grenade as she could. The grenade detonated in a radiant shock explosive shock wave that both of them felt, but to a very minimal extent. Now, separated, they divided the middle section they were covering, in half. “Wait! Hobgoblins sniping from farther back! My Fatebringers’ won’t reach them from here! Fall back and I’ll cover you!” Bree commanded her brother as she rolled off of her stomach and onto her feet. She crouched down, giving the Goblins a smaller target to hit, and started moving more towards the middle of the area to give her brother some covering fire. Brayden dropped back, his feet moving quickly, he reloaded his rifle and brought it up to his helmet. The ACOG sight automatically zoomed in 15x, a slight trigger pull as he locked onto one of the Hobgoblins, the shot was perfect, it smashed into the sniper and before it could activate its solar shield, the second bullet landed in the exact same spot as the first. Without wasting a second, he swung his gun to the right, locked on, another quick double-tap and the second sniper went down. Between the Vandals, and the siblings, they cleared the area in less than 30 minutes. Once the last Vex fell, they regrouped in the middle, and it was only a few minutes of a walk before they approached two immense towers that loomed overhead. At one point in time, they were the pinnacle of structural bewilderment and wonder, now, they were nothing more than crumbling, rusted pieces of steel that, at any minute, could collapse. The group reloaded, took stock of their ammo, and pressed onward. “It’s just up ahead. Through the gate, past the towers. Call it five minutes,” Brayden radioed through the comm. They passed through a rusted archway, that once stood to serve as the gatekeeper for the twin towers, but now it was merely a ruined shrine in a never ending sea of decay. Brayden was watching the map on his HUD, a little blinking blip showed them their location and another blip showed him where they wanted to go. They entered into an infinite network of caves and crevices, cracking and crooked, no light came through the holes in the rocky ceiling, so they activated their high-powered LED flashlights attached to their shoulder pieces of their chest armor. The Vandals followed behind them now, Bree wasn’t sure if they could see in the dark, but she didn’t really care, she was feeling fatigued from their firefight with the Vex. She didn’t want to do this anymore, she didn’t want to go in, but it meant everything to her brother, so for him, she followed. “Come on! Almost there!” Brayden called as they moved through the dark, damp cavernous tunnels of rock and stone. The cave opened up, a large pond resting in the middle that was fed by a ludicrously large waterfall, the pond trickled off and would eventually lead to a river further into the cave, but they weren’t interested in where the river lead, they made it to the Trial platforms. A raised, large, square stone platform rested in the middle, it was encompassed by three smaller, circular platforms that served as crude leaping stones, that led to the center. “To the center!” Brayden led the wall, being mindful of his steps as jagged rocks and stones jutted from each platform they moved across. It didn't take long, Brayden reached the center square first, he waited impatiently for his sister and the four Vandals to catch up. He set his scout rifle against it’s magnetic holster to the back of his chest piece, as he looked around, the beam of his flashlight illuminated the rock. They all regrouped together, the Vandals weren't speaking, Bree looked around at the all too familiar entrance to Hell. “Are we ready?” Brayden asked over the comm, but before they stepped onto the pad that would take them to the Trial of Shadows, they came across something that wasn’t there before, something carved into the stone of the platform they were standing on. Brayden’s flashlight washed over it, so he was able to read it: “Stop traveler and cast an eye For the prize you seek, lies inside Be mindful as you pass by as you are now So once was I For if you fail, you will see That you will be buried, next to me.” After he read it aloud, nobody spoke. The words hung in the air, and without anything more to say, the doomed fireteam of six, moved onto the pad, and were transported to the Trial of Shadows. [i]Again, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it![/i] [i]Trials of a Guardian: Wake Up (Chapter 5)[/i]: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/110919395 [i]Trials of a Guardian: ALL Chapters (Appendix)[/i]: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/105589170/0/0