James walked into the training bay to meet Ikora, she was sitting down on the floor with her legs crossed and her eyes closed. Curious, he stepped in to face her, and he sat down in front of her. "Master Ikora." He said astutely and carefully. Ikora opened her eyes to meet her former student, her hazel eyes locked with his own. 

"James. Nice to see you again." She said breaking the slight silence. "Do you remember when we first entered this room together, how you astonished me as a learner?" 

"How could I forget?" He replied just as genuinely as ever. Ikora snickered a little, just one light chuckle before she looked intently at James.

"It is time you learned the final element of your training." She said before standing up in front of him. James rose up with her; he stood at about the same height she did. James' mind started to tumble and turn in wonder. It had him thinking a lot about what this could possibly mean. He knew that there was Arc potential in Warlocks, as his friend had demonstrated to him earlier. Though he only ever witnessed his Invictus state, not what the power was for or how powerful it was. 

"You truly believe I'm ready?" James asked her. 

"James...you have no need to ask me that question," Ikora replied. James was taken aback by this. It was rare for her to say anything like that to anyone. It was common for him just to ask questions about light and its purpose, yet she never told him that there wasn't a need to ask questions. Much less one like that. 

"You've more than proven yourself as a guardian to all of us. In fact, there are things that I learned from you that I never thought were possible. If anyone is worthy of this, it's you." Ikora continued before stepping back for a moment. James paid attention, eagerly awaiting what his teacher would do next. He watched as Arc energy started flowing in and around her body, then with a crash of thunder a cloud formed above her head and a lightning bolt struck her body. James looked at her in wonder, she hovered ever so slightly off the ground, and her hands were surrounded by Arc energy. 

"What is that?" James asked her as she floated toward the holograms she put on the training room battlefield. With a crackle of lightning, she fired bolts of lightning from her fingertips, chaining from each hologram to another; disintegrating them. The electric aura dissipated and Ikora landed back on the ground. 

"That was Stormtrance. The most powerful ability a Stormcaller can muster." Ikora replied before turning around to face her student. "Now...care to learn?" She asked. James looked over to her eagerly the thought of new knowledge was incredibly enticing to him. 

"Yes! Absolutely!" He shouted clenching both his fists. 

"Excellent, now, what you need to is meditate outside in the forest. What happens from there, you will call down a bolt of lightning. However, what you see during your meditation is something that I cannot prepare you for." She told him sincerely. James paused at this, visions? He thought perplexed. 

"What did you see?" James asked her. Ikora shut her eyes and lowered her head for a moment before looking back up. 

"Truth is...to this day, I still don't know," Ikora replied. "Some things that I have seen in my lifetimes, I still do not understand. What I saw during that, is one of them." 

"Where am I to go?" He asked her. 

"Go to the Forests of Old Germany, begin your meditation in the mighty river that flows through it," Ikora told him. James nodded in reply and ran out toward the hangar door that was close by. He threw open that door and headed toward his ship as it came back in with Caesar in tow. Captain released the magnetic clamp that held him onto the ship, and the mech landed down in the center of the hangar. 

"Hey big guy," James said walking up to his friend. "Need some repairs?" 

"I think a tune up is all I need, maybe a new coat of paint? I've assessed my internal systems, I've sustained only damage in my weakest points in my armor. Even there it's minute. Pathetic machinery." He said walking over to his repair station. 

"You seem not to like their tanks that much," James said to his friend. 

"They're weak, poorly armed, poorly armored. It's disappointing really." The Valkyrie replied before shutting down for Amanda to make repairs. James transmatted up into his ship; he started flipping multiple dials and switches to make sure everything was in the right places. He'd noticed that there was a new weapon added to the front of the ship. A heavy Gatling gun mounted underneath the nose cone. James opened up the comms channel as he started taking off toward his destination. 

"Hey, Amanda? You install a new Gatling cannon on my ship?" James asked as he started flying out of the hangar.

"Uh...no, not to my knowledge," Amanda replied honestly. 

"Really? It seems like it got updated since the last time I flew the ship." He said aloud before the comms channel went dead. Captian made his holographic form apparent to his pilot for a moment looking over toward James as he flew. 

"I just did a little software overhaul, you know, improving the targeting computers a little." Captain said to his pilot. James smirked at the thought of his onboard AI fixing his ship. 

"How far away are we from the EDZ?" James asked him. 

"Eh, about twenty minutes give or take," Captain replied. The group flew for the timeframe in complete silence, eventually arriving at the place they were looking for. The European Dead Zone was a place that fascinated James immensely, a lot more than the Cosmodrome or the Japanese Dead Zone. Why exactly he never really understood, but on the ground beneath his feet when he would walk across the continent he could feel the history. Ancient battles fought eons ago by humanity's greatest empires and armies. Warfare evolving from swords to guns to giant armored tanks that walked. 

Then he and Captain approached the Rhine river, a mighty beast of water that ran through the western half of Germany. James couldn't begin to think of how many battles that this river was pivotal in. However, he was about to add something of his own to it's history. The Fury II let James down on the shore of the river, the Exo transmatted his armor and body glove off, to the point where all he was wearing was a pair of boxer shorts. He could feel the grass in between his toes as he walked toward the water. All was quiet, the only scent in the air was the nearby pine trees, and the only sound was the rushing river that was in front of him. 

James walked toward the cold river, stepping into the water with his right leg first. His antennae twitched at the coolness of the air and stepped into the water with the left foot. He walked deeper until he was about shin deep in the water. "Perhaps I need to get in deeper." He thought as he wandered deeper into the calm river. The Exo got up to his thighs in the water and dropped to his knees. He placed his hands on his knees and closed his eyes and cleared his mind of his thoughts.

As he began to meditate, he could start to feel himself drift away from his own body. His own soul started leaving himself as his brain emptied. He opened his eyes again to see himself, a fair distance away from where he was standing, he was on the Dreadnought by the looks of it. He could see a Nova Bomb in his hand and his Invictus form activated. He took off toward the figure in the background that looked like Oryx. A few moments later a bright flash of purple light appeared. Moments later after the flash ended, he was in Hope, watching some sort of funeral in front of a statue of someone, it looked a lot like him. It was massive, made out of marble and nearly ten stories tall. "What? Why would they build that? I hate that.." He thought as the floor beneath him cracked open. 

The world that he came to was one in flames, the Tower was blown to bits, and a fleet of ships was above Hope airspace. An object was about to latch onto the Traveler. The sky was rainy and dark the only light was coming from the flames in the city below. "What's going on?!" James thought as he flashed forward again. He watched and saw himself atop what looked like a large ship at the edge of it really. On his knees in front of a large white armored figure. "Your light...." The white figure said as flashes of his friends, from both past and present, were dead in front of his eyes again. "Is mine." He heard the figure say as he kicked James off the ship. 

James came to his senses with a shock and a crash of thunder. He looked at his hands and his body and noticed the electrical aura surrounding his body. He placed his hand outward, and with a zap, his hand sent out sparks in front of him. James wanted to smile but couldn't. What he saw not only confused him, but it worried him. Who was that figure who punted him off that ship? What was that thing around the Traveler? What was the purpose of all of this? 

"James?" Ghost asked him as he stood up from the water of the Rhine. 

"Yeah Ghost?" He asked looking over his shoulder to the white AI. 

"It's time; we need to get moving to find Toland." Ghost said to him. James nodded as he sprinted back toward his ship as his gear transmatted back to his body. He threw himself into the pilot's chair and buckled in, taking off into the starry skies above.