Disclaimer: I'm just skip this on this time, they're not that funny anyway.


He'd come back a few hours later to find the pair of them still asleep. Lana had managed to find her way into Serra's arms and, whether the brunette Huntress would approve of her violet-haired counterpart's efforts when she awoke or not, the Titan couldn't help but smile for how peaceful they both looked. He only hoped, for Serra's sake, that she wouldn't be embarrassed – Lana had a poor concept of personal space and, by this time in her life as a Guardian, it was far easier to accept her as she was than try to acquaint her with boundaries that she wouldn't understand. Or consent…

Nolano crept quietly towards the pair of them; if they were still sleeping he figured there would be little harm in allowing them a few extra moments of rest before awakening them to the grim prospect of their shared reality. When he was still a few meters away, the Titan lifted his shotgun so that he was holding it in both hands. His dark brown eyes were focused on the slight rise and fall of her breath, the tiny movements of Serra's slender form sleeping. Had he not witnessed the sight for himself, he would have never believed she could look so docile.

And in the same moment, he flinched, watching helplessly as Serra wrenched sideways and drew the hand cannon at her waist in a split second. Even when waking from a dead sleep, her aim was precise; he froze both hands in the air with his shotgun in his right hand and smiled sheepishly, "Don't shoot! It's um, only me."

She relaxed as Lana grunted something that sounded like, 'no need to be so rough' and turned over to go back to sleep. Nolano remained frozen as her pale green eyes seemed to adjust to the dim lighting. She put the hand cannon back in the holster at her waist and murmured, "Good Morning, Titan."

"It's s-still before dawn by Tower's clock," he chuckled, sliding down the wall to sit in the place that she'd taken a few hours before. He pulled off his helmet and put it down beside Lana's. To ease his mind, he took to prepping his weapons; if yesterday was to be used as any indication, they needed to be ready. After a few moments of silence, he could still feel her watching him so he ventured a hesitant glance up at her, "Y-you can, um, go back to sleep, you know. It's Lana's turn to take the next watch."

Serra didn't speak but Nolano watched her gaze travel from his hands to fall somewhere just beyond his left shoulder. It was the same direction as their second point of egress, as though she could sense something trying to flank them. As the Titan watched her shiver, he tightened his grip around the shotgun and prepared himself for… whatever would come. But there was nothing, not even a flicker of movement against his sensors in the direction they were both looking.

"Do you sense something is watching us, Titan?"

The sound of her voice startled him and he felt an all too familiar heat rise to his cheeks. He'd just been watching her – she couldn't possibly have sensed that, could she?

He inhaled slowly in an attempt to calm his heartrate, "Serra? W-what do you see?"

Nolano tensed as she shifted to her knees, turning in the same motion so that she was facing the direction of her perceived intruder. She rose to a crouching position and let the fingertips of her left hand trail over her hand cannon but she left it in its place on her hip. Her voice was a low whisper, "Nothing; I feel it. Something sad, quiet, and dark."

"Stay with Lana," he ordered, sounding significantly braver than he felt. Nolano rose to his feet and slowly crossed the distance to stand beside the ledge where he believed Serra sensed whatever invisible force was causing her such discomfort. He crouched beside the edge with his shotgun at the ready and peered down over the side.

"Titan, don't move!" she commanded with an uncharacteristic crack in her voice.

And he heard her draw her hand cannon, relieving it of the safety. Her breath was coming in short gasps. When he chanced a hesitant glance over his shoulder, there was a flicker of a distortion that glimmered in the space that separated him from the women of his Fireteam – but it was gone in the same instant. He couldn't be certain that he'd seen anything at all and the Traveler knew he needed to keep it together for Serra's sake.

Her face was pale as she kept her gun trained to whatever it was she thought she saw. Her breath remained ragged. Her entire body trembled. But she stood in front of Lana, still asleep and completely unaware that her counterpart was about to lose her fucking mind.

"Hey," Nolano murmured in a soothing voice, standing slowly and reaching out to her. "Calm down. It's a-alright."

But Serra wasn't paying him any attention as she turned her entire body a few degrees to her right. Her hand cannon was still at the ready, though, from Nolano's perspective, aimed harmlessly at jagged protrusion from the wall he'd just been leaning against.

"Serra," he tried again, a little louder as he slowly crossed the distance separating them. When her name elicited no response, he reached out to her. Even through the thick gloves he wore, he was surprised by how warm she felt. He'd had to pull his hand away from her shoulder like she'd burned him. But it had done the trick to snap her gaze off of her invisible target.

A strange noise escaped her throat – something caught between anguish and agony. Her green eyes glimmered with the faintest hint of tears as she clutched at her chest with both hands, dropping her hand cannon, and fell to her knees on the ground in front of him. Nolano knelt before her, unsure what to do to comfort her – and, as proof of his hesitance, his left hand wavered over her left shoulder, just above where she still had the scrap of his mark tied over her wound.

"Hey, that smells like…" Lana mumbled, pushing herself up off of the ground. She yawned, rubbing sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand. When she noticed the commotion beside her, she worried aloud, "Serra? Hey, what's wrong?"

The Titan watched helplessly as his best friend gathered the other woman in her arms. Serra seemed to melt into Lana's embrace, turning slightly to press her forehead against Lana's temple. The brunette kept her hands over her heart as she slowly brought her breath and heartrate back to normal.

"That's better!" Lana whispered, running her fingers through the long strands of brown hair at the back of the other Huntress' neck. The smaller Awoken woman stifled a yawn with her free hand before she patted Serra's back, between her shoulder blades, a few times as reassurance. "Now don't scare me like that again, okay?"

"We have to move," Serra whispered, pulling away from Lana to meet the other woman's gaze. There had been an unmistakable note of pleading in her tone that sent chills up the Titan's spine.

"W-what did you see?" Nolano asked with urgency in his voice.

"Nothing," Serra replied, seemingly unable to bring her gaze to meet the Titan's. "I didn't see anything. I felt it."

"We gotta leave, Tiny," Lana murmured, placing a hand on the Titan's forearm.

Nolano watched helplessly as Serra stood and Lana followed after. The Awoken woman gathered both of the capes they'd been using as pillows and silently handed over the one that belonged to Serra. Her amber eyes were etched with concern and apprehension as she gazed up at her taller counterpart who said nothing but replaced the hand cannon in the holster at her waist and fitted her gleaming black helmet over her head.

"Um, Lana?" the Titan cautiously inquired, strapping the shotgun he still held to his back. "D-do you feel it too?"

But Lana only shook her head 'no' as she continued to stare at Serra, fastening her cape around her shoulders and replacing her own helmet. Nolano inhaled slowly, studying both Lana and Serra for a long moment before grabbing his own helmet.

"If there's s-something I should know," he hesitated, glancing intensely down at Serra, in particular, before continuing, "Anything you think might be important-"

But Guyver materialized from the Titan's armor at that same moment, interrupting his thought. The Ghost hovered a circle between the Titan and where the Huntresses stood together, slightly away from him. He quickly showered Serra's slender frame in silver light before turning to the Titan's hand, where he worked silently, muttering only an occasional 'interesting' or 'very peculiar'.

"Whatever it was that just haunted Miss Serra left an unmistakable Vex signature in this area, Guardian," the Ghost cautioned. "I'd advise you listen to them. If they aren't headed this way already, it won't be long before this place is teaming with Vex."

"Understood," Nolano agreed, curling his fingers around the last glimmers of light that remained after Guyver returned to the safety of his armor. Whatever had happened, or whatever had found them, it wouldn't be until later that their trio could decipher the meaning. For now, they needed to be away from this place and progressing with their previous objective was better than sitting idle in the Black Garden. If anything, this trek would at least burn through some of the time it would take the Vex to rebuild the primary sync plate, rewarding his Fireteam's patience with a viable escape route.

"What's your order, Titan?" Serra asked.

"Heh, um… this is actually the tough part now," the Titan replied uneasily as he pointed toward a plateau a few kilometers away. It was nowhere near as large as the monolith that sat in the middle of the Black Garden but was still tall enough to offer any Guardian trouble. Giving his pulse rifle a last once over, he continued, "The terminal that needs service is hidden on top somewhere."

"Well that sucks!" Lana bemoaned, linking her arm with Serra's.

The taller huntress only straightened but didn't pull her arm away.

"Um, yes, but the other Guardians who came before us were able to do it," Nolano replied as he headed in the opposite direction Serra's would-be tormentor had emerged. He jumped down from the raised platform where they had slept, holding out his hand towards Lana and Serra, adding, "So, well, I hope we can, too."

Lana was quick to grab the Titan's hand, pulling Serra towards the edge with her. She hopped into place beside her best friend, leading the way the rest of the way down from the platform they'd adopted as a makeshift campsite for the night.

Turning to glance back at the other huntress, the Titan frowned as he watched her glance hesitantly over her shoulder and shiver. He grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze when she turned her attention to him. His voice was calm as he prompted, "This way, Cecilia."