AN: Hey, sorry for another slow update; work schedule went crazy right after I decided I wanted to continue this.

Anyway, here's the next one! Hopefully the next chap won't take so goddamn long!


Maya grabs Nina and dives for cover the moment she sees the giant Fallen soldier enter the lab. Nguyen stands motionless, staring wide-eyed at the enemy, and takes a bullet in the mouth for his mistake. Zharia calls out in terror, trying hopelessly to pull him away from the direct line of fire, before Cayde shoves them both into cover. They make it to a centrifuge that they duck behind just as Nguyen's body hits the floor. He slams into the desk on the way down—the one sitting on top of their contingency plan—and falls with a wet thud. Maya forces herself to look away, trying her best not to vomit at the site of an open skull. Nina stares in open horror and begins to scream. The bark of a hand cannon is the only thing Maya can hear over the girl, and she fights down the urge to curl up into a ball and cover her ears.

Ghost appears beside her head, body shivering with energy. "Calm her," it orders. "And hide."

She grabs Nina, covering her mouth and pulling her deeper into the recesses of the desk. "Find us a hiding spot," she whispers to the ghost, who blinks out of sight. "Nina, shhh. It's alright." Maya wraps her arms around the girl, rocking a little too fast for it to be comforting, but it at least stops her from screaming.

Maya continues to rock them both, flinching whenever the desk shakes above them. Small screeches and clicks sound all around them, but the real terror is the deep, bellowing howl that could only be coming from the Kell. She can't see Cayde or Zharia from this angle, but the Guardian must be putting up a hell of a fight for all the racket the Fallen are making.

Ghost blinks back into existence beside them. Nina squeaks in surprise, and Maya covers her mouth again before anything more substantial could escape. "Where?" she asks.

"Follow me."

Maya unhooks her arms from Nina, pressing a finger over her mouth to keep her quiet. Nina nods, and they crawl towards the ghost. It guides them towards the fume hoods at the other end of the lab, helping them crawl from cover to cover by watching the room. Cayde has somehow managed to keep the enemy from flanking them, which is the only reason they aren't all dead right now.

She turns to look back at him. His knife is in his left hand, bolstering the revolver in his right, which snaps off shots so quickly that his arm is a blur of motion and the barrel of his pistol heats to a molten red. Zharia is still huddled in cover beside him, arms covering her head. "What about—"

"I will help her after," Ghost assures them, then motions with its shell forward. "Keep moving."

They follow orders, shuffling over the ground and curling up against desks or consoles whenever stray shots find their over way to them. The fume hoods, which she assumes Ghost wants them to shove into, are only a few metres away from them, separated by an open expanse of floor they'd need to dart across without being seen. It's a small distance under normal circumstances, but the tile stretches longer with each ping of lead and screech from the Fallen.

And there was something slithering along the floor, too; not shadow, because shadows didn't move, but the inky dark coiled and curled like smoke, wrapping around desk legs and sliding across the tile with strange purpose.

She had no time to postulate on what it might be, and resolved herself to ignore it for the time being. "I'll—I'll go first," Maya whispers to Nina, trying not to think too hard about what she just volunteered to do. "Watch what I do and copy me, okay?"

The girl nods furiously, and Maya turns her attention to the ghost. She takes a deep breath and blinks hard. "Tell me when it's clear."

Ghost peeks out just beside the console they're hiding behind, watching the Fallen. She doesn't know how many there are, or what they're even after, but they aren't shooting at random or destroying the equipment. She hoped—prayed—it was only data they were searching for.

"Now!" Ghost orders, and she darts from cover. She's halfway across the floor when a Vandal spots her and screeches, and she gambles with a combat roll that sends her tumbling into the side of the fume hood.

She clutches at her head, trying to recover, and shuffles towards the cabinets under the hood. The Vandal is still howling behind her, getting closer now, forcing her heart up into her throat and making it difficult to breathe. It wasn't shooting, and for a moment she wonders if it intended on eating her instead.

Maya turns to see how close it is only to watch it fall, blood flying from its neck as it twirls away from her. Ghost must have tipped the Guardian off about her impending doom. "Thanks, Cayde," she mutters, and unlatches the door to the cabinet, shoving away boxes of gloves and safety gear to make room.

The air crackles behind her then, a horrible static that she would describe as nauseating if static could be such a thing. The current is so strong her hair floats up towards the source and crackles along her coat in tiny pricks of light. She looks back again, sees Nina still hiding beside the console for a split second before her view is obstructed by a massive leg. The owner of the leg materialises above it, impossibly large, and Maya thinks she hears it start laughing. Its back is to her, heavy cloak dropping to floor and blowing putrid air towards her.

"Get inside!" Ghost is beside her head again, whistling at her, and she shoves into the cabinet, pulling the door shut. The little shell follows her in, dimming its light to keep from shining through the cracks. The Kell hasn't seen her dart inside, and she hopes nothing else has, either.

Maya presses her face to the crack in the door, wondering where Nina had gone. She peers out just in time to watch the Kell crush the girl's head in one of its many fists, and this time Sundaresh is the one who is covering her mouth to keep back screams.

"Oh god," she moans, not able to look away as the headless grad student slips to the floor. "Oh god, oh god."

"Be still." The ghost's voice is gentle and not unkind, but firm enough to anchor her to something other than the grizzly sight in front of her. It nudges her in the shoulder with its tiny body, successfully forcing her to look away from Nina. "We're safe here, for now."

Maya swallows hard, nodding, and wraps her arms around herself. She'd be the one dead right now if she hadn't gone first. The sick relief she feels at being alive makes her want to vomit again, so she concentrates on the nausea instead of the guilt.

"Shouldn't you be with Cayde?" she whispers, trying to distract herself.

"He's safer if I'm not in the line of fire," it replies. "And you need some company."

She doesn't ask any other questions. She doesn't want any more answers right now.

At some point she hears Zharia start screaming. Maya doesn't look this time, but she can't quite hold in the sob when the woman's voice suddenly cuts off with a resounding crack of bone. She hears Cayde call out, a sick fear in his voice that sends a thrill of terror through her body. A blaze of orange light spills through the gaps in the door, and the sound of thunder rolls through the room. She thinks it's a revolver maybe, but the shots are loud, so loud it makes her head throb. Three booms ring out in quick succession, igniting screeches from the Fallen.

She's shaking uncontrollably now, curled up tightly in the furthest corner of the cabinet and pressing her wedding band to her mouth, grip still hard around her pistol. The last time she spoke to Chioma in person had been seven months ago, and she feels a bone-deep regret flood her body when she realises she most likely won't get the chance to see her again.

She walks the line of terror that keeps her mind just past coherent, rocking in the space that she could and reciting any conversations she could remember having with her wife. Whatever her last moments were, they were not going to be spent without Chioma, one way or another.

She recognises the sound of the ghost's voice next to her ear, not quite audible. It nudges her again, hard, and she looks dimly over at the robot. "What?"

"Cayde is down. Do not make any sound." Then it winks out of sight, and it takes all she has not to call out for it to come back.

Maya follows orders instead. She stills her rocking, draws close to the back wall of the cabinet, and forces her breathing to slow. She focuses her entire brain on being silent, straining to listen for any movement her way. She doesn't know when it happened, but the room is quiet now, broken up only by the low chatter of Fallen. A wash of purple light finds its way through the cracks of the cabinet door, the sounds of mechanical buzzing and beeping interplaying with Fallen barks. Their Servitor must be here.

She hears computers and equipment in the lab begin to boot up from the coaxing of the Servitor. If she could keep quiet, wait for them to collect what they wanted and leave, she could crawl back over to Cayde and wait for his ghost to piece him back together. Maya focuses on keeping her breathing slow and measured, counting Mississippis in her head and locking her limbs to stay as still as possible.

Her hiding plan works, up until the giant orb arrives at the centrifuge she's hiding beneath. It scans the metal, beeps loudly, and before she can move or even exhale, arms are reaching into the cabinet and pulling her out.

She kicks hard at the grip on her leg and raises her weapon, thrown immediately going raw as she lets out a howl. Her pistol finds the face of a dreg holding onto her knee; it crumples on top of her instantly, spilling its foul-smelling blood all over her pants, but it is quickly replaced by two more dregs. She shoots at them until her chamber empties, managing to bring down three more before she's dragged out from her hiding place by stronger Fallen. A hand—claw—reaches down and takes her gun, tossing it onto a desk. She stares up at the many eyes locked on her, glowing faintly in the dim light.

Then the Kell moves to where she lies on the floor, breaking through the crowd of Fallen standing over her prone body. Too many eyes stare out from behind its mask, unflinching and entirely devoid of anything she could read or interpret. A hand larger than her torso reaches down and wraps around her waist, pulling her up from the floor. She realises she is going to die now.

But it's not Chioma's name on her lips, as she would have thought. She doesn't even think of her—not when she's staring down the helm of a Kell.

"Vex!" she yells instead, putting her hands up in front of her to shield her from its terrible gaze.

The Kell freezes, cocking its head. Its deep voice vibrates through its whole body, down its arm and shaking her spine as it asks her questions she can't understand. "Vex," she repeats, and points to herself. The ghost had been onto something after all, and its theory had just afforded her a few extra minutes of life. "I—I know how to control Vex."

She doesn't know if it understands anything of what she's saying, but apparently the word Vex is enough to persuade the Kell to not kill her right this instant. It drops her back to the floor and begins speaking to the Fallen around it, clicking and growling. Maya looks around for another hiding spot while the Fallen are distracted, and spies Cayde on the floor not far from her. She flinches at how broken and lifeless his body looks. She knows his ghost will repair the hole in his chest and the arm ripped from his body, but his utter stillness and lack of any light in his eyes reminds her that she is the only living thing in the room not hell bent on killing her.

A dreg punches her in the hip and shakes a fist at her, forcing her attention back to the ring of soldiers crowded around her. She shrinks away from it, especially when it waves a gun at her, and watches it point at a console to her left. The Kell is still standing over her, but it's silent now, only watching her. She almost liked it better when it was picking her up and shaking her. At least she knew what was about to happen.

Maya gets up with a groan when the dreg hits her again and limps to the console it pointed to. The Servitor is right beside it, its lone eye also staring at her. She turns to the dreg. "What do you want me to do?" she rasps, throat ragged from the horrible air that had settled in the lab. The room had become inky, with shadows curling at the edges of their feet. This must be what Darkness smells and feels like.

The dreg snarls at her and points again. The Kell turns to fully face her, watching for… something. Deceit, perhaps. Could Fallen even understand human expression?

Maybe.

The hum of the Servitor gives her an idea. She pulls up a text box and types: CAN YOU UNDERSTAND ME? She looks to the giant orb and points to the screen. If it can synthesise human data, maybe it could understand human language.

Words appear in the box right next to hers: / YES /

She looks to the keyboard, wondering what she could ask without threat of being murdered for it. Eventually she settles on: ARE YOU LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ON THE VEX?

/ YES /

/ YOU HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR FUNCTIONS /

YES I DO. Maya's fingers dance over the keys, wondering if she should say the next line; they'll kill her the moment they realise she's lying, but then she supposes they'll kill her if she doesn't have any information they can't just find on the consoles. Finally she types: I KNOW HOW TO CONTROL THEM.

/ HOW MANY UNITS [TYPE: QUERY] /

She doesn't know if Fallen were similar enough to humans to either understand or deploy the concept of trick questions, but it feels like the Servitor is testing her.

THEY ARE NOT AUTONOMOUS, she begins. THEY ARE A NETWORK. UNITS ARE IRRELEVANT. I KNOW HOW TO MANIPULATE THE NETWORK.

/ YOU WILL SHOW US /

The Servitor turns to… speak with the Kell, if she could call it speaking. It vibrates and moans, a series of noises with no identifiable pattern.

Whatever it's saying, it's keeping her alive. A Vandal grabs her arm and jerks her forward. She looks back to Cayde, panicking. Her trick may have granted her temporary immunity, but she doesn't know how long that will last. "Wait," she says, tugging at her arm. The Vandal growls at her. "Wait!" She points to the console she spoke to the Servitor with. The Vandal looks to the Kell, who waves it off and shoves her back to the computer. She stumbles and grabs a hold of the desk to stabilise herself, then looks to the keyboard.

ONE MORE THING, she types, and the Servitor turns back to the console. I NEED THE HELP OF THE GUARDIAN. She points to Cayde in the corner.

/ IT IS DEAD /

The shadows at her feet pull on her pant legs, urging her to invite them in, but all they do is give her an idea. I KNOW HOW TO REVIVE HIM. She types furiously on, heart beating hard as she prays to everything in the sky that Cayde's ghost is still around somewhere. CONTROLLING VEX WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT LIGHT FROM A GUARDIAN. HE MUST BE REVIVED.

/ IT WILL BE EXECUTED IF IT ENGAGES /

HE WILL NOT. I WILL TELL HIM TO STAND DOWN.

/ THEN YOU WILL REVIVE IT /