Tormented

The Archon

"Ianos' Ghost's statements hold true, includin' us, he has been at least through twelve Fireteams." A few clicks passed through the Hunter's helmet, "The ones that are on record anyway."

Glancing at Ianos and Carina in front of him, Angel nodded his head behind his helmet, signaling to Hope to continue as he followed the Warlock and the Titan through the Cosmodrome. It has taken the female Ghost a few hours during Angel's watch during the night to access the database, to the point where by the time she had finally gone through, it was time to move on. Nonetheless, the few hours that it had taken them to traverse through the grassy terrain, Hope had found Ianos' file and both Ghost and Guardian were surprised to see a substantial amount of information, all of which traced back to when the Awoken Warlock first encountered the Vanguard. Although, at first, disappointed about not accessing information that goes back farther, the human Hunter was satisfied enough to at least access the older Guardian's data, especially when Hope found the information on the teams that Ianos had previously worked with.

"Many of the Fireteams only consisted of Ianos and two others." The Ghost continued, Angel hearing her let out a few clicks as she skimmed through information, "out of the twelve, includin' us, there were nine. The other three were teams of six."

"How many were in the Fireteam prior to us?"

"Uh, hold on," The human Hunter heard Hope let out small hum before she finally responded, "There were three, includin' Ianos, on the previous Fireteam." Not long after she answered her Guardian's question, she let out a few tuts, "However, they didn't last long. Apparently, they insulted Ianos somehow and he forced them off the Tower."

"He what?"

"Don't worry, they lived," Angel still couldn't help but let the sense of unease linger in the back of his mind, "although afterwards, they immediately disbanded. Didn't even get to pick out a name for themselves, let alone a single mission."

"How about the ones before that team?"

"There were six includin' Ianos," Angel heard Hope let out a hum once more, "Two Hunters, two Titans, and a Warlock."

"Anything on them?"

"H'mm, well." The Hunter heard her let out a few clicks as she remarked, "Let's start off with - oh god damn it."

"What's wrong?"

"Someone cut me off from the system." There was a pause as Angel heard beeps and white noise flow through his helmet, "and I can't seem to reconnect."

"And that would be because of me."

Silence permeated between the Guardian and Ghost, the former letting out a nervous smile as the familiar voice of the Exo Hunter echoed through Angel's helmet.

"Come on kid, don't act so shocked," Angel could hear the Vanguard Hunter chuckle through the coms, "I was the one who taught you to hack these systems. Think a trick like that would pass these eyes?"

"I - uh," The Human Hunter stumbled over his words, his green eyes glancing over at his teammates once more, ensuring their eyes were in front before the human responded, "I - I just.... I can explain."

"Yeah, explain why your Ghost is hacking Vanguard systems behind our backs. Again." Cayde snickered, "and looking up information on other Guardians. Again."

"Well... I..."

"Yeah, I thought so," Angel then heard Cayde heave out a quiet sigh, "Look kid, as much as I understand your curiosity on the guy, getting to know him 'this way' is not the right way to do it. Trust me."

"But I know nothing about him," Angel retorted, frowning behind his helmet as he whispered, "and he refuses to give anything besides his name."

"Well everyone keeps secrets, kid," The Exo Hunter stated, causing the human to go silent in his helmet, "especially someone as old as Ianos. If you live as long as he did, you will have plenty of secrets to keep."