This was wrong. Very wrong. He shouldn't even be here. Sunsingers aren't supposed to end up in this place. The very idea that he found himself in the frozen world was utterly and wholly wrong.

Yet here he was. In the Other Side.

He got to his feet uncertainly. Okay. This wasn't his mind, it wasn't familiar and it wasn't safe, that much he knew. The land, if it could even be called that, appeared to be a series of floating stone cubes not unlike the Vault of Glass. They were connected by ghostly white bridges of light, and he stepped across them hesitantly.

Guardians could be revived by finding their ghosts. He was a sunsinger, and though he felt his powers wane too much to revive himself on his own, maybe if he found his Ghost they could escape together.

At least, that's what he told himself, refusing to believe that he'd be stuck here for eternity.

He entered a hurried crouch-walk, not daring to move too quickly in case it might disturb the Other Side somehow.

...

The Warlock had just finished passing over the fourteenth floating cube when the next one transformed into a Vex Gate. Throwing a glance behind him, he saw the outlines of the other platforms fade away until they became nothing. There was no way out but forward.

Even by the Other Side's standards, nothing here was right. Grass that should have been a verdant green was an odd shade of chrome that seemed to change color depending on what angle he looked at it. Vines covered the gate, but they were orderly. Not like the actual vault where they were unkempt and dead for who knew how long, but lively and trimmed. They too were an unnatural color, looking more like gold and platinum.

And at the center of the gate sat a lovely flower. A gladiolus, his subconscious told him. Its pistils glowed a soft cerulean, just like his Ghost.

Like the rest of the foliage in this place, it wasn't quite right. It still held a soft pink tinge on the edge of its petals, but the rest of it was a solid black and white series of hexagons. All striated and symmetrical. Still, it was the only thing here that didn't reek of stuff that wasn't him. So the Guardian moved forward and touched the flower, hoping it would provide a way out, somehow.

"Ghost? You there?" he tried, voice echoing but sounding so small in this cavernous place.

Not a sound. He grabbed the flower by the stem and uprooted it swiftly.

Just like that, the Vex Gate sputtered to life, but something was wrong, something was very, very wrong.

Ordinarily there would be a burst of Light itself and the rushing feeling of coming back to life. At least, that's what happened when he revived himself through Radiance.

The gate glowed an ominous red black and gold, and the Guardian, no, Glatisant, that was his name, fell to his knees. His mouth opened in shock but no sound would come out, and he began to feel the Gate work its terrible magic upon him.

He tried to fight. Summon his weapons, throw a punch, anything. Nothing would work, and as his arms weakly embraced the ground in a vain attempt to stop his fall, he felt his eyelids grow heavier than ever. Voices whispered in his head, and in his last moments of consciousness, he wasn't even sure if it was from the Other Side or somewhere else.

"...Form of daemon..."

"Guardians make their own Fate."

"...Further study...heresy..."

"My name's Lucifer, I didn't expect to see another new Guardian here too!"

"...Assets are to be taken to Aurelia for disposal..."

"Fight the Darkness with your blinding Light," a voice as pure as the Light that he came from encouraged.

Mercifully, the voices left him and sleep joined him.

For the longest time, Glatisant slept. A slumber so deep it stole nearly everything from him. His memories, his life, his home... But there were two things it couldn't take; his Ghost, and his Light.

He dreamt of a garden full of gladiolus flowers, and for a while everything was peaceful.

The Sunsinger felt the familiar sensation of all his senses returning to him at once as he returned to life, and immediately regretted it as a cacophony of gunfire and his Ghost's voice assaulted his ears and mind.

Guardian? Guardian! His otherwise calm Ghost shouted uncharacteristically. Mentally probing back an acknowledgement, he heard the AI's equivalent of a relieved sigh. He wasn't alone and the thought was comforting, even in this cramped, dark space.

Thank the Traveler, you're alive. Your neural network is a little scrambled at the moment but I'm working on getting it online. Just hang on.

His senses had come back for the most part, but it didn't come with control over his limbs. He couldn't even crack open his eyes. Had spending so much time in the neural network worn down his very nervous system?

Ghost? he tried.

Relax, came the response. Your mind's been dormant for so long, it isn't used to suddenly being so active.

Ouch, right in my self-esteem, Glatisant said, pleased that his thoughts weren't as sluggish as his body.

Well, we know your sarcasm matrices are fully operational, at least, Ghost retorted. I'm restoring control to your armor and respiratory system, you should be able to breathe again before you, you know, suffocate to death and we do this again.

Honestly, I had almost forgotten.

Suddenly acutely aware of how he hadn't taken a breath since waking up and how the growing dark corners of his vision were from oxygen loss, Glatisant could only feel relief as precious oxygen and nitrogen came through his helmet's filter.

And for the first time in many millennia, Warlock Guardian Glatisant breathed in the cold recycled air into lungs that had been dormant for so long.

He took a moment to bask in the feeling of just being alive, so much better than the double-limbo state of being forced asleep in an afterlife world. The feeling of quiet happiness only grew when his HUD came back to life, the armor systems not perturbed in the slightest by the long sleep.

They didn't reveal much, just that he was staring at a dust-covered glass surface not half a foot in front of him and fully encasing himself.

So, he tried, what do we do now?

Behind the glass, the sound of gunfire picked up momentarily before it became muted with the whoosh of a door closing.

A/N: K boys and girls, here we go.

I would like to start off by thanking pizza for allowing me to write this. The food as a concept is what kept me going throughout my darkest days.

And special thanks to user Romans-154, author of Through the Timestream. For allowing me to incorporate elements of his story that the game Destiny itself failed to explain. So thank you very much for that! This story would not have happened without you, and to anyone who hasn't read it and has even the slightest interest in Halo/Destiny/good things in life, give it a read!

As a Human Sunsinger Warlock, Glatisant wears all Legendary Unity Clade gear save for the chestplate which is the Exotic Purifier Robes and the helmet which is Legendary Talion Grace. Uses The Nowhere shader and the Death of Fate Warlock Bond.

Fun fact: Glatisant is the name of a monster from King Arthur mythology.

It is also the name of a level in the Playstation 2 game Ace Combat: Zero. The one where you have to fly through the stormy weather and assault five castles before the timer runs out. Just throwin' that out there in case anyone has played that game and was gonna ask but didn't get up the nerve. Your prayers have been answered.