Author's Note: I am still working on "Thunder and Lightning, but I wanted to post this in case anyone wants to jump forward in the series. The last part of TnL is basically the Taken King missions. Well, the last three. So it's going to take me a bit to finish it and get my charas out of trouble.

This takes place about a couple months or so after Thunder and Lightning.

Also this is #6 in the series because I have another fic planned that takes place before this one.

Kalara had just teleported in from her latest mission. Nothing great, just chaperoning a bunch of rookies around while they did patrols. she headed to the Cryptarch's booth to decode a couple of engrams she had picked up. The tower intercom came on "Attention, this is Cayde-6 of the Hunter Vangaurd. Would Kalara Baxtin please report in immediately." it switched off. She wondered how the boss knew she was back, and also wondered why he had paged her by name. She hurriedly finished, then ran for the stairs that led to the hall of the vangaurd.

As she passed, she heard Eris whisper something about "the whispers have finally ceased." she threw a glance, a smiling nod, before continuing on. She jogged past the crucible stands, speeding up a bit. She still owed Lord Shaxx for shutting down the crucible not once, but twice. She slowed as she reached the steps to the room where the Vangaurd leaders were, striding in to walk up to the table across from the Hunter Vangaurd leader. "Hey, boss. Why'd you page me?" she glanced around "And over the intercom. Is it serious? what's going on?"

He motioned for her to go around the table. She hurried around to where he was. "What's up? Another mission?"

He just regaurded her, amusement obvious. "You're so serious. What's wrong, Dreg give you a bad morning?"

Kalara huffed. "No." She folded her arms, noticing glances from the other two Vangaurd leaders and leaned forward slightly. "so what's going on?"

She could have sworn if he could smirk, he would have. "I have a challenge for you, Gaurdian. If you're up to it."

One eyebrow raised slightly. If the Hunter had one tell, you could tell she was interested with it. "Okay."

"A dare. Well, specifically, *the* dare."

"The what?"

Zavala answered. "The Vangaurd Dare. Only issued from a leader to their brightest student. And it seems that Cayde has chosen you."

she looked from him back to Cayde, suprised. "What?, why me?"

He gave her a look that said "Isn't it obvious."

She paused to think about it, then asked "what is this.. Dare?"

He shook his head slightly. "I can't tell you till we get there. Either you accept or you don't."

Kalara looked to her left, and Zavala answered "The Vangaurd Dare is a tradition upheld by the tower for centuries. It allows a Vangaurd leader to challenge their most promising Gaurdian to a mission that is uncomparable to any other they have ever been on. Should they succeed, they will have proven themselves worthy of a true Vangaurd reputation."

she thought about it for a moment, then asked Cayde "since it's a dare, is there a wager involved?"

"See, didn't I say, a Gaurdian who thinks just like I do." Ikora shook her head at him before adding "you should probably provide an explanation."

"Yeah." He looked over at Kalara. "There is a wager. But you have to win the bet to get what you want. and truth be told, it's not gonna be easy. But it will be fun. well, for me it will be. but... I'm sure you'll do just fine." Kalara blinked in suprise. He continued. "We can discuss the wager when we get there. So, are you in or out?"

Kalara thought quickly. "How dangerous is it?"

Cayde scoffed. "You took out the Taken King. How hard can this be compared to what you've allready done?" Kalara nodded. "Okay. So when do we do this?"

"Meet me here tomorrow afternoon. and pack your parka. It's gonna be cold."

"Oh, lovely."

He went back to studying his map, and Kalara walked out, wondering just what she'd gotten herself into.

The next morning, her alarm went of at ten am. She rolled over and smacked the alarm. Then she climbed out of bed. At ten-thirty, she was out at the plaza, listening to the birds and waiting for her comm to signal her. After a while, she walked over to Eververse, wondering if they had any new inventory.

After that, she wandered toward the vault access pillars. If she was going on any really difficult missions, she wanted to have her heavy ammo and special ammo synth ready to use.

Eleven rolled around and Kalara was just full of excitement. And dread. She wondered exactly what this would be. And where?

Noon came and went, and Kalara was pacing. she idly thought about comming zanthyr to see what he was doing, but knowing the Titan, he was either out on a mission, or still in bed.

At Twelve Thirty, Kalara wanted to go down to the hall of leaders to find out just what was going on. Or if someone had forgotten about the Dare. Or if that certain someone was still busy. Instead she headed to the Lounge to get something to eat.

It wasn't until One Thirty that her comm finally dinged. She lifted her head from the lounge table and muttered "thank goodness." and walked up the steps toward the hangar, heading for the hall that led to the Plaza.

"Hey, Kalara!" The shout came from down on the landing area. She stopped, wondering at first where the shout had come from, but saw the familiar figure down next to a parked ship on the platform. She made her way down and up to him. "Hey, boss; I was wondering when you were gonna comm me."

Cayde nodded "you ready to go?"

"Yeah, where are we going?"

"You'll find out, when we get there."

Kalara's eyebrows went up a little at the secretiveness, but she said "I'll go get my ship."

"You don't have to. You're riding with me."

Another look of confusion.

"Nobody knows where this place is, and that's the way it has to be. Two Gaurdians, one ship."

Kalara nodded, following him.

The ship went to warp, and Kalara wondered just what far-off distant star they were about to visit. She was pulled out of her thoughts when Cayde said "A few things you should know. One, this is a polar ice field, so watch yourself. Two, no solar weapons. Unless you want to become a guradiancicle. The ice re-freezes justabout as fast as it melts. So if you go down, there's probly no chance of you coming back up."

Kalara nodded. There was a pause, then she asked "Okay. So... where are we going?"

"..Let's just say, I call it 'the Playground'."

Kalara rolled her eyes at the evasiveness of his answer. "So, about this wager."

"Heh, thought you'd never ask." A pause, then. "Last Gaurdian I brought here got his own post out at one of the Vangaurd outposts. You thought about yours?"

Kalara shrugged "I don't know." She paused for a second, thinking. She had an idea, but wasn't sure of it. "What's this 'Dare' all about, anyway?"

Cayde looked over his right shoulder at her. "Kill the most Fallen, and die the least amount of times." Kalara felt a sudden chill creep up her spine. She had faced down the Taken King. How bad could this be, right?

They transmatted to the surface, a howling frozen plane of snow and ice. Kalara winced as the polar wind pushed against her armor, even thought she couldn't really feel it; Her armor was too heavily insulated. It nearly unbalanced her, but she kept her footing. Ahead of her, Cayde had allready dissapeared into the blizzard of snow.

She hurried to catch up, the gales of frozen particles subsiding as they crested the peak of a mountain. They edged down a narrow pathway just below the slope. Cayde stopped, crouching behind a mound of snow-covered ice. Kalara followed suit. His comm caught her slightly off-gaurd. "So, you think about what your wager is gonna be?"

She replied "I like my place in the tower. I've been training rookies and things like that, and I don't want some far-flung region of the universe. I just want a spot right next to you. Doing what I think I can do best. And, by the way, what's your end of this? what if I lose?"

"You mean what if I win, right?"

A pause, then Cayde responded "Well, if I win this, I guess it means you're not as good as I thought you are."

Kalara muttered "ouch."

"Just sayin'." He glanced over. His tone turned serious. "But if something really bad does happen, just promise you can get my Ghost back to the tower."

Kalara looked truly confused, until the clouds of snow below them passed, revealing over a hundred Fallen, milling around their base of operations below on the ice. Kalara commed "I'm not taking your job. Not in a million years! Either we both leave, or neither of us do."

A sigh "Again with the drama."

Kalara was dead-serious. "I have snuck off into the city. I've heard some of the stories the older folks tell." she waited a second, then continued. "I've heard the tales, I allready knew how you got your post. I'm not leaving here without you."

she wondered what kind of look he was giving her, then he tossed off "fine, be dramatic. Whatever." and moved away from her, looking toward the group below them.

Kalara almost argued she wasn't being dramatic, but instead let it go. She looked at the group through the scope of her sniper rifle, scanning the encampment. "Bet I could pick off at least three from up here before they see us." She loaded her weapon and pulled the loading pin back.

"Yeah, if you want to cause an avalanche."

Kalara looked behind her and up. They were just below the peak, and the snow above them didn't look too stable. She put it away and snuck over to where Cayde was, and asked "Then how do we do this?"

He glanced over and sounded amused "Like this." He jumped up and ran to the edge, slid down the mountain. Kalara stared for a second, then realised he'd gotten a head start. "Hey, wait up!"

"Come on, slowpoke, you're gonna miss out on all the fun!"

Kalara didn't even have time to think before following, doing a jump over a rock in her path, then went into a slide. She eyed the small army across the ice and muttered "This is rediculous. Over a hundred Fallen with possibly ice-melting energy weapons. Yeah, Let's just run up to a small army and start shooting. We are so gonna die."

"That's what our Ghosts are for!"

Kalara shook her head and kept following.

She could see him stop below and duck behind some rocks. She smirked and stopped to jump down a few more rocks. She headed right, half sliding, half walking. She switched to her auto-rifle, reaching for grenades. They were still far enough away, around the right side of the mountain that the Fallen wouldn't see them. Kalara reached the bottom and edged around the mountain, looking for any Fallen at the edges of their camp. No such luck.

Piles of crates littered the area, and several of what looked like square shipping containers were scattered near the center. A small building of some sort was at the center, but Kalara couldn't make it out exactly; Too many Fallen. She commed "No strategy, no plan. This is just crazy." Cayde appeared behind her startling her as he ran past "Who needs a plan when you have guns!?"

Kalara made an exasperated motion, not just for the comment, but for being startled as well. She switched to her rocket launch "Eh, the heck with it. If I'm gonna die, might as well take a few with me."

Cayde raced toward the horde, shooting three Dregs as he approached. "First three, you coming or what?"

He jumped sideways as a rocket screamed past, taking out five. "Who said I had to be nearby?" He looked over his shoulder and Kalara was a few meters away, rocket launcher still smoking as she ran toward them. "Behind you!"

Cayde ducked and fired, hitting two Vandals in the chest. He backed up as three more came in from the left, hand cannon deafening as it echoed around the ice. Kalara hurled a grenade into the first group. she could see at least twenty more behind those. She steeled herself, shaking her head. "And I thought being swarmed by Thrall was bad. But there were only twenty of them." She glanced over but Cayde was gone, further left, firing into the group. One by one, they fell. He was still counting, too. "..eleven, twelve...

Kalara groaned and leapt into the first group, blade flashing as she spun. An open-palmed strike, a powered punch. She grinned and punched the ice, sending four dregs and a Vandal flying. Stabbed another. "Thirteen, Fourteen." she laughed and backed up, switching back to her auto-rifle. "Fifteen..." she spotted a handful of Dregs to her right. "Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen..." suddenly a sharp pain to her chest. She looked down. "Damn." One of Fallen had managed to shoot her somehow. She looked up and found herself face-to-face with a Captain. It lunged out, slashing with it's dagger. As she fell, she fired at it's head.

The world turned sideways and faded to black. A second or two later, the world came back into focus and Kalara found herself on the ice, back around the bottom of the mountain where she had come down onto the ice. She jogged toward the horde, pulling out her rocket launcher again. "Heads up!" she fired into the crowd and her comm came on with a startled "Hey! watch where you're pointing that thing!"

Kalara laughed "sorry."

She could hear that hand cannon booming as she ran up to the roaring crowd. Suddenly, it stopped. Kalara halted, folding her arms. A few of the Fallen turned and roared at her, firing from where they were. She sidestepped, glancing downward at the orange energy bursts. Her eyes widened and she scooted to the left quickly. Where the blast had hit, the ice had melted in a two foot radius. Kalara suddenly felt a pang of fear. She didn't know why, but the idea of drowning (or being trapped in ice forever) felt terrifying.

She suddenly had an idea. She quickly rifled through her inventory for her *other* rocket launcher. It had less impact, but that didn't matter. It just happened to be a solar-type weapon. She found it and aimed at the center of the group. She fired. Six Fallen went flying, and those behind them pressed forward angrily before they knew what they were stepping into. "Ooh. twenty-five twenty-six... Thirty! Hah!"

Cayde raced past so fast she wondered if he was annoyed with her or just excited. The Hunter ran and slid, phasing as he went passing through another Captain, hitting it from behind as he went. There was a loud series of bangs and six more Fallen dropped to the ice. A cluster grenade. Kalara whirled as she slashed at more Dregs, blocking the dagger-strike of a Vandal and side-stepped to stab another before killing the first with a palm-strike.

The Fallen started to thin out and Kalara backed up to count them, throwing up a dome shield. It flickered. Kalara muttered "Oh come on." It dissapeared. Kalara ran left passing Cayde as he ran right. As they passed she called out "Careful, there's holes over there."

"Thanks for the heads-up."

Kalara shot the next two Dregs and looked beyond them. "Oh-" she hit her comm, sounding both scared and excited. "Fallen Walker Fallen Walker!"

The huge six-legged tank came lumbering out from behind one of their stockiple-and-transport-box constructs twenty meters away. Kalara ducked behind a pile of crates.

"Okay, you don't have to repeat yourself." Although his tone sounded somewhat teasing.

"Somebody sounds like they're not having fun. Is it because I'm winning?" Kalara echoed his tone.

As if to answer, the sound of a rocket exploding against tank armor echoed around the valley. Kalara grinned, running across to another pile. "So," she asked almost casually "How do we count this one? whoever fires the final shot? or do you just want this one all to yourself." The tank's returning fire shook the ice under her feet.

She glanced around the crates. "Boss?" no answer. Kalara shook her head and waited. Instead of a smart-aleck answer, Cayde actually sounded like he was encouraging her "You want this one, Gaurdian, go get it."

She smirked and fired her rocket launcher, running to the set of crates to the left. She pulled out her sniper, aimed at it's turret, and fired. It slowly turned to aim at her. She ran right, switching back to her rocket launcher. "Darn. No ammo." She searched her inventory and found her ammo synth. She pulled out the pre-programmed package and pressed the button to activate. A second later, she slid an ammo cartrige into the launcher. But she was a moment too late. The tank fired it's main energy weapon, and the crates behind her exploded, taking Kalara with them.

Kalara picked herself up off the ice and looked at the pile of snow she brought down with her when she came down onto the ice the first time. She brushed herself off, and jumped when a voice behind her suddenly said "If I jump out and yell boo, will you be startled?" she whirled and gave Cayde a glare, but it went unseen because of her helmet. He chuckled. "Guess that means yes." and walked past her. Kalara followed, shaking her head.

The two broke into a run, Cayde ducked left and Kalara jumped up, double jumping higher before starting to glide over the tank. She realised her glide wasn't working, and insteaad was coming down directly on top of it. She went for a supercharged fist instead, and came down directly on it's turret, landing a Fist of Fury that exploded into the weapon. It sparked and smoked, and Kalara jumped away before it exploded, going in the direction she had intended to glide. As she ran, she switched to her rocket launcher, whirled, and fired off two rockets before it could turn to face her.

Cayde appeared from her right, flaming gun in hand, moving fast and firing rapidly at the tank. Kalara wondered how the ice was staying frozen, but could see the melting footsteps behind him. "Risky," she thought. "But interesting." All three shots connected and the tank's legs wobbled. One gave out and it listed to one side, smoke pouring from somewhere she couldn't see. The tank shuddered, and metal shrieked as it tried to get up.

She moved in the opposite direction, reloading her rocket launcher. She tossed a grenade at the tank as she went. She paused to crouch behind a metal barrel and popped up, firing off a shot. The tank managed to get it's legs under it and was turning toward her. Her HUD said it was almost too damaged to function. A shot whizzed past and Kalara glanced at it. A pair of Shanks floated nearby. She ignored them and aimed...

It's laser beam landed on her. She raised her launcher and fired.
The round exploded into the tank's head and the shrill metal-on metal shriek got louder. Machinery ground to a halt and smoke billowed from the machine. It collapsed. Kalara did a little jump, then tossed a grenade at the shanks.

The last ten Fallen ran toward them, shooting and growling out insults. Two Vandals got closer, and she stabbed them. Cayde took out three more, each with a single shot from his hand cannon. Kalara glanced, over, impressed at his accuracy. Another dreg ran at her and she fired, three of her bullets missed, the next five connected. it dropped. They ran toward the final ones, and the dregs backed off, hiding on the other side of some crates, Kalara found two, He found the other two. The area was quiet. Kalara looked around. "Wow. That. Was. Epic."

"See, told you it would be fun."

Kalara hefted her auto-rifle and walked away, shaking her head.

"What? you had fun, right?"

She clipped her weapon to her back armor and leaned against a stack of crates and watched the sun set. "So, what now? do we go back? Is that it?"

"You kidding? we got fourty-eight hours. Besides, they'll be sending another skiff in a while."

Kalara glanced over her shoulder. "They will?"

"Yeah. They send in a skiff in the morning to drop off their guys and some supplies, and another one in the evening to replace them. It's like clockwork." Kalara nodded, understanding the archaic phrase.

"C'mon, I got a camp site nearby. I know they say Gaurdians don't sleep, but some of you do, right?"

Kalara nodded.

He headed across the ice from where they had come in, what Kalara would call the 'back' of the ice field. They hiked up an old trail behind the lower peaks of the glacier and up to a flat spot hidden behind a tall snow-covered ice mound. Kalara looked around it and could see the 'Playground' a couple hundred feet away to her right. She glanced left and Cayde had dissapeared. "Boss?"

He stepped out from what loked like a solid wall of snow-covered ice. "Right here. Come on." She looked at it then stepped through. They were in a short hallway carved into the side of the mountain. "Hold on." He went to one side and reached around a space in the ice. Something clicked and powered down. Kalara tilted her head in curiosity. "Scatter Field." he explained. "Keeps anyone from finding this place. Or from telling about it if they do."

As they walked in, Kalara looked around. It was a smallish unevenly-shaped room. Off to the right the room extended about six feet, angling further to the right with a stack of boxes against a wall. Beyond that next to it was a lamp atop another stack of boxes. That was about ten feet or so, she guessed. From that wall to the left was a little more, probably another ten feet, with a cot against the back wall. The left wall was empty.

Cayde sat on one stack of boxes across from her and Kalara sat on the cot. After a minute of awkward silence, Cayde asked "So, whattya think of the trip so far?"

Kalara shrugged. "It's been... interesting."

"Just interesting? that's it?"

"Well, no. I 'm just not sure how to describe it. I mean, we took out around a hundred Fallen, a Fallen Walker, and...I think it was pretty great, to tell you the truth." Another pause, then "Okay, not gonna lie. It was awesome." she grinned inside her helmet.

"Good. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Cause we get to go do it again tomorrow."

Kalara nodded. There was another pause, then she asked "Hey, does this planet have an atmosphere?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She summoned her Ghost and it transmatted her helmet away. She put her hood back and shook out her hair. "Much better." She noticed His helmet had dissapeared as well. She looked back to her ghost. "My bag, please." Her ghost transmatted it and Kalara reached down into it, pulled out the bottle of Vodka she and Lavender had been drinking. "Care for a drink?"
"I would but somebody has to keep watch in case any Fallen find this place"

Kalara shrugged "why not just turn on the scatter field?"

Cayde just looked at her for a second. "Ever tried to fight the Fallen with a hangover? You want to drink, go right ahead. I think I'll pass."

Kalara shrugged and retrieved a glass, setting it next to her, then a lump of something wrapped in a peice of cloth, she unfolded the cloth to reveal a pile of lumpy black-colored berries. Kalara popped one into her mouth, chewing as she deposited several more into her glass.

"what're those?"

"Wild berries. Lav and I found them on Earth."

"Are you sure they aren't poisonous?"

"Yep."

"Really. How can you tell?"

"Allready ate some."

"huh. Daring, yet sensible."

"Thank you." Kalara poured herself a glass of the stuff and ate three more berries as she took a swig, making a face. "Tastes awful, but it gets the job done." She heard a chuckle from the other side of the room.

After a second, Cayde stood. "Come on, I want to show you something." They walked out of the cave into the darkness. Down below the lights of the Fallen camp illuminated the valley. He led her around to the opposite side of the peak, where the light from the camp was blocked and looked up. Kalara followed his gaze, a look of amazement dawned on her face.

Up above in the sky, what looked like a curtain of color swept across the sky. Green, yellow, hues of blue on one end descending into red and purple toward the bottom of the other. Kalara stared, entranced. Next to her, Cayde said "The Aurora Borealis. Haven't seen it in years. It's still just as beautiful."

"It is." Kalara stared up into the sky. After a moment, she paused to take another sip of her drink. Cayde sat, putting his back to the glacier. Kalara joined him and they sat in silence, just staring up at the sky, enjoying the peacefull view.

A while later, Kalara was awakened by a gentle shake of her shoulder. "Hey."

She looked up, not realising she had dosed off. "Come on. It's bedtime for you, Gaurdian." kalara cursed inwardly at being caught off-gaurd like that, but followed Cayde back around the mountaintop to the cave. she grabbed the now-frozen berries and wrapped them up, setting them under the cot and grabbed her bag, scrunching it up for a pillow before curling up on the cot. "Night, boss."

"night, rookie."

she made a scoffing noise "stop calling me that."

"will when you stop acting like one." she could hear the sarcasm.

"Whatever." she rolled her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

End notes: The line about "If I jump out and yell boo..." comes from actual experience. I'm 5 foot 2 & 3/4 (not even 5'3") and where I work we have to go out to the dumpster area to smoke (yes, I smoke cigarettes). I allways go to the very back, where the dumpsters block anyone's view of me. I've unintentionally startled several co-workers, one of them at least three times. So I finally started telling my coworkers as soon as they walk in the opposite end (to the right of me) "If I jump out and yell 'boo', will you be startled?" LOL.

The Scatter Field is basically a forcefield that will kill anything it comes into contact with. I like to think this is what the Tower uses to discourage Guardians from jumping off the Tower. That's why in-game you die as soon as you jump.

The "black lumpy berries" are actually a combination of Mulberries and Black Berries. They're pretty common where I live, so I thought maybe my character would like them, too.