(Two of the new characters in this book are from my friend BrightShiningWolf. Thank you, buddy!)

A woman pressed the large keypad to enter the tower training facility. She hasn't been able to see since she was a child however she knew where everything was in the Tower. She had, after all, lived here for her entire life with her mother and father. Well, that is until her mother died three months ago. The young woman's name is Nova Storme, the blind guardian. Well, she wasn't a guardian yet, but she wanted to be more than anything. Nova walked up to the control panel for the training facility feeling around on the buttons until she found the largest one.

"Initializing scenario code name Twilight." The computer stated to her.

Nova readied herself, taking out a sword and getting into a ready stance. "This time." She thought to herself. "Scenario begin." The computer stated. The holographic fallen and fallen walkers then began to formulate, as well as the hard light constructs of other guardians and other environmental pieces. She started the scenario running immediately to the right ducking behind a rock as a tank shell impacted ahead of her. She could hear the tank having to reload its massive cannon and ran over the rock she was hiding behind.

The footsteps of Fallen soldiers were evident to her. "One meter left." She thought to herself plunging her blade into one of the Fallen constructs. She looked over to her right when she heard a tank priming to fire its weapon. She then clambered up to the top of one of the holographic trees. The tank fired, and she ran back into the battlefield cleaving the constructs left and right. Then a sharp sting hit her in the back of her head. A sniper on the top of one of the holographic buildings. "Simulation terminated, survival time: 2:30." Nova let out a deep sigh of frustration.

Ikora then walked into the training room to see her having difficulty. "You need to slow down Nova; this is the ninth time you've tried this scenario today." She stated to her.

"I can't Mrs. Rey. I need to keep trying."

"You need to understand that this scenario was designed by the survivors of the battle. They made it nearly impossible to complete."

"I would have fig-wait, you said nearly impossible."

"I did."

"Who beat this scenario and where can I find them?"

"The person who had bested the scenario the fastest was James-17." She replied typing her results into a datapad.

"An exo. Figures."

"Is that a problem?"

"It's just that he can see, and he knows where everything is."

"Actually James erased a portion of his memory each time he had failed. He just kept trying until he had the scenario down to a science. Now when I see him run the scenario, he could beat it in thirty seconds."

"THIRTY SECONDS?!" Nova exclaimed. The very prospect of him beating the scenario was absurd, but thirty seconds was borderline insanity. "HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!"

"To this day I still don't know. Lord Shaxx has told me time and time again that that scenario is unbeatable, until the day that it wasn't."

"What class does James belong to?" She asked intently.

"He's a Warlock, like your father."

"Don't talk to me about him."

"He's merely concerned about your well being Nova; he hasn't seen you in three months."

"Well, he wasn't worried about my mom when he basically sentenced her to die," Nova replied. The anger was apparent in her voice. She still hadn't forgiven her father for his mistake. She couldn't talk to him right now, not yet. He's apologized, begged and pleaded for her to come home but she didn't listen.

Ikora decided to end her conversation with her here; she knew that she couldn't get a response out of her to forgive her father. At least not now, it was still too soon. Ikora left the training chamber to see Charon waiting outside. He looked at her with eager eyes. Ikora just gave him a disheartened nod. Charon lowered his head and gave her a glance before walking away. Three months ago he had a beautiful girlfriend and daughter. Now he had nobody. No friends to talk to, no family to care for. He was completely and utterly alone. With nothing to do he walked down to the library to read, it was all he could do at this point.

He took a book off the shelf and started reading it. It was a book about the artists of the golden age. He believes that he had read this book at least more than once. "You know, there are better books out there to find right?"

"Excuse me?" He asked looking up from the pages.

He glanced over to his right to see an Exo wearing a jacket with a 76 label on the back. His head was white with some stripes and components of his face being blue. "Here, read this." He said handing him a book. "It's from my personal library, but I figured that I could let you borrow it."

Charon took the book from the Exo and looked at the cover. "War of the Worlds?" He asked looking up at the Exo.

"Yeah, it's a classic pre-golden age science fiction novel." The Exo replied.

"Pre-golden age? How on earth did you get this?"

"When I go out on patrols I don't do work for the vanguard all the time; sometimes I do work specifically for Ikora. And sometimes I get a couple for myself. That one I found in a bookstore in New York."

"New York?" He said to himself. He couldn't help but start tearing up. Charon then put his head in his hands.

"Hey, you okay buddy?" The Exo asked him.

"Sorry, I just. I lost someone close to me in that city."

"Oh. I'm sorry." The Exo said sitting down next to him.

He just couldn't help himself. The guilt of the loss of his wife was eating him from the inside out. Then something happened that the warlock didn't expect. "Do you want to talk about it?" The Exo asked him.

"I, uh, what?"

"Do you want to talk about the person you lost?" The Exo replied. Charon just gave him a weird look. "I know it may be hard, but talking will make you feel better." He said reassuringly.

"Do you really mean that?"

"Yes."

"Oh, um, okay. Well, Kronah, my girlfriend, we met in the city of New York. I was just out on patrol, and she was fighting off some of the Cabal that were stationed there. She appeared to be getting overwhelmed, and I stepped in to help her out. Our relationship kind of blossomed from there." He said to the Exo. "We knew each other for so many years. We had a child; her name is Nova. She was born blind, but we managed to work around that. I remember when she was about nine years old I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She replied with I want to be a hero like you dad." He said with tears beginning to form on his face.

"What happened?"

"Three months ago, I finally decided that I wanted to propose to her. I bought a ring, and I knew exactly the place. The place where we had first met. I took her into the empire state building, but when I finally pulled out the ring, she was shot. Her ghost wasn't with her that day; I wanted this to be personal. The last thing she'd said to me before she died was "yes.". Then something happened. I was so furious at the world that storms formed in the skies above, lightning came down destroying entire buildings. Eventually destroying the one that I stood in. I came out of the rubble a changed man. My hair was standing up on its ends; my eyes were a bright white with blue edges, I could feel electricity coursing through my veins. I've used stormtrance before, but this was something new. Since then Nova has lived by herself. She can't forgive me for what I did, and I can't blame her." He replied with some tears going down his cheeks dropping onto the floor.

"Wow. Have you not talked to anyone about this?" The Exo asked him.

"No," Charon replied sheepishly.

"Sounds like you were really close."

"We were about as close as you could get without being obsessed with one another."

"Well, I can tell you one thing, that power you felt when she died is something new."

"What do you mean?"

"Much like ball lightning, it's not around for too long for it to be studied. However, I do have a theory. Every guardian, regardless of class or race, has a stronger connection to one form of elemental light over the others."

Charon stopped crying to look over to the Exo. He found it kind of odd that he knew enough about this mysterious power to form a theory about it or if he was just making wild guesses. Either way, he was fascinated.

"When a guardian is in severe emotional pain, that connection reaches critical mass. Changing the guardian to make them nigh superhuman. The transformation is typically incredibly violent. In your case, you destroyed a good portion of New York. When I went to visit when I found that little treasure, there were craters where twelve buildings once stood. Thus far only the Arc form has ever seen and documented. I have taken to calling the form Invictus."

"Why do you call it that?"

"It's Latin for unconquerable or undefeated."

"How powerful is it?"

"As I previously stated it hasn't been around for long enough to be studied. A limit on the form can't be detected until it can be achieved more than once. Thus far it seems like the form is just like a flame going without oxygen. It can last but not for long without fuel. Once the emotional energy is gone, then the form subsides. I'm hoping that I can find a way to make it more like a light switch, being able to be turned on and off at a moments notice."

"In any case, thank you for talking with me. It really means a lot to get all those emotions out finally."

"Anytime friend." The Exo said standing up out of his chair.

"By the way, I never got your name."

"Funny, I didn't get yours either."

"Charon Storme." He said holding out his hand to shake the Exo's

"James-17." He replied shaking his hand.

"You're a guardian right?" Charon asked him.

"Yep. Here's the number for my personal comms channel, if you ever need to talk don't hesitate to ask." The Exo said handing him a small piece of paper.

"Thank you, James. I won't forget this, how can I make it up to you?" He asked the Exo.

James then walked over to the door. "You don't owe me anything." He replied.

"Come on, there has to be something that you want," Charon replied tempting the other warlock.

"Again, there's literally nothing that I want."

"How about your memories?"

James stopped for a second and his eyes widened. James then slowly turned around to face him. "I'm listening."

"I know you might not believe me from my appearance, but I was at one point in another life an Exo. I can't explain how my entire life story works, but every time I get brought back to life from my final death, I retain some brief memories. From one of those I was able to understand how I liberated my corrupted memories as an Exo."

James gave him a skeptical look. "I remain unconvinced."

"I'm serious James, what do you have to lose?" He asked him happily.

"Okay, but I'm bringing my girlfriend with us."

"You have a girlfriend? What's her name?"

"Her name's Cameron, when do you want to leave?"

"We'll leave in an hour."

"Sounds good I'll see you then!" James exclaimed running out of the library back to his apartment.

"Cameron?" He asked opening the door.

"Yes, James?" She asked him looking up from a book she borrowed from his shelf.

"I have fantastic news. I just met someone who told me that there's a way to get my memories back!"

"Really?! That's great!" She said with a smile. James then pulled her into a kiss. After a minute he let her go.

"When do we get moving?" She asked putting her armor on and picking up her assault rifle. The weapon belonged to a friend of theirs named Jack. Jack was the same person who wore the same jacket James now wears, he, however, went by the name Soldier 76 in public. The rifle he used was a twenty-five round assault rifle that contained a unique feature. Under the barrel was a rocket launcher that fired three micro missiles. Cameron calls the weapon The Patriot.

"We get moving in about an hour." He said to her.

"Well, why don't we head down to the city in the meantime. Go get some stuff to make dinner?" She asked him. James was the one who usually cooked in their relationship. He learned a couple of things about relationships from Vintagi, and Cayde. One thing that they both told him was that women don't like to cook all the time and that if you do most of it, then they will offer to help you. All in all, they will be happier if you help out as much as you can.

"Sure." He replied.