"This is the universe figuring out what it should be in the end. And it is majestic. Majestic. It is the only thing that can be true in and of itself. And it is what I am." - XXXII: Majestic. Majestic.

Kaedro, Jade, and Liv flew toward the transmat zone they'd set up on the Dreadnaught. "You guys ready for this?" he asked.

"I was born ready!" said Liv.

"Same here," said Jade, "We'll make Oryx pay for what he did to Harley."

"All of this was set in motion long ago," said Eris, "He calls out, and the Darkness answers."

"Ok!" said Cayde, "Creepy sidekick, check. Rogueish commander, check. And then we have you Guardians… I'd say we're ready to get this done."

They transmatted down into the Hull Breach. "Here we go," Kaedro muttered.

"Push back the dark," said Eris, "End it."

"She's right," said Cayde, "There's no doubt in my mind this could possibly work. Now, get to that rupture."

Outside the Cabal ship, the Cabal and Hive fought their never-ending battle. Kaedro followed a trenchway around the side, avoiding the conflict. When they emerged into the Mausoleum, they met a host of Hive and Taken waiting for them. "Should've guessed we'd have company," said Kaedro.

"Get that rupture open," said Cayde, "Once you're there, send your coordinates. We'll lock down your position and send in reinforcements."

Kaedro chucked his grenade into the squadron of Knights and Acolytes guarding the rupture. It burst into a wall of purple fire, burning several of the aliens to ash. The survivors were shot down by Kaedro. Three more Acolytes appeared. Liv took out the first one with a headshot as Jade meleed the other two. A Wizard swooped in, shooting them with blasts of energy until Jade hit it with a grenade. In front of them, the rupture expanded out into a glowing portal.

"It can sense the soul you hold," declared Eris, "You are Ascendant!"

"Time to go kill a king, eh, Guardians?" said Cayde, "Good luck."

Kaedro glanced at his companions. "You ready?" They nodded. He sighed. "Right. Well...let's go."

They stepped through the portal, emerging into a dark hallway. They were definitely still on the Dreadnaught, but it was an area Kaedro hadn't seen before. At the end of the hallway was a circular room with a pit taking up most of the floor. A large pillar protruded from the pit, lined with strange capsules. He heard a burst of static as the comms cut out. "Great. There go our reinforcements…"

"My scans aren't returning anything," said Rhys, "We're...somewhere but I'm not finding Oryx."

"Nice. Well, if we keep going, we'll find something."

They moved down the hallway and into the circular room. Another hall branched off to the left, this one much longer and darker than the last. However, as Kaedro took the first few steps, lanterns on the walls lit up to illuminate the space.

"Motion-activated lights?" said Jade.

Kaedro shrugged. "Who knows?"

They passed into another circular room with a pit and entered a short hallway. At the end, Kaedro saw another one of Oryx's probes. "I guess Oryx knows we're coming… This just keeps getting better."

As they moved forward, the probe vanished and they found themselves in a large space. A pair of tall dark doors were at the opposite end and Kaedro could see the probe in the middle of a platform that was lower down. Further along, three Taken Hobgoblins waited, snipers at the ready. "Yeah? I've got one too."

He set down his auto rifle and retrieved his sniper rifle from his back, aiming it carefully at the first Hobgoblin's head. Bang! It disintegrated. He took down the next two in quick succession, then put his sniper rifle away to move forward once more. Before the stairs leading up to the doors was a squad of Taken Psions.

"Leave those to me," said Jade.

She dashed forward and directed a few bursts of her fusion rifle across the enemies. Once they were gone, the Guardians continued up the stairs. As they approached, the doors slowly slid open to reveal a large chamber with a portal frame in the middle.

"Looks like another rupture," said Liv.

Suddenly, a large shadowy form sprung up in front of the rupture. It was the same thing that Kaedro had seen on Phobos and then again in the Cosmodrome. "Oryx."

"That's Oryx?" Liv sounded alarmed. "You mean we have to fight that?!"

The projection spoke, its voice rumbling with power. "You are the last hope of the Light? I have taken entire worlds! You are not worthy to face me!" The figure disappeared.

"What?" said Jade.

"Is he really not gonna fight us?" said Kaedro, "I find that hard to believe." Then the rupture opened and a Taken Cabal Primus stepped through. "Shit." Then a Taken Ogre came through behind it. "Shit!"

"We're screwed," said Liv.

Kaedro summoned the Void, planting an arrow right between the two Taken, tethering them. Then all three Guardians began to hit the aliens with as many rockets as they could.

"Why did I agree to come on this mission?" said Liv.

Finally, the Primus and Ogre were defeated, imploding in flashes of white. "Where do we go now?"

"Through the rupture," said Jade, pointing. They headed to the portal, stepping through. After a circular chamber with a rotating pillar and a narrow hall, they stepped out onto a wide ledge. Across a dark gap was another set of doors that glowed red. Several Hive were scattered around the entrance, patrolling.

"Come to me, warriors of Light," echoed the voice of Oryx, "I will finish what Crota began."

"So not much of anything then," quipped Liv, "At least, from what I heard…"

A bridge appeared, spanning the gap. "Hope Oryx doesn't drop this from under us," said Kaedro as he stepped onto it, "That's one way to a quick end."

When they got across, the Hive on the other side had vanished, leaving the path to the doorway clear. They climbed the stairs and passed through the doors, finding themselves in a room that was pitch black. A short distance away, a small white flame burned on the ground. As Kaedro approached, it shot off, creating a line of white fire that raced along the floor and up the wall. It burned in the image of the Hive symbol for Oryx, shining white for a few seconds before turning to a smoldering red and splitting in half as a hidden door opened. The room beyond was black like before, except for a tinge of dark red. Kaedro stepped back as a section of the wall melted into the shape of a winged figure with a huge sword, revealing the visage of Saturn in the background.

"At last!" Oryx bellowed, "I will have vengeance!"

He raised a hand and Kaedro felt a peculiar sensation come over him. "What the-" He went to summon his grenade, but found that the Light was beyond his reach.

"Kaedro something's wrong!" said Jade, "I can't activate my Radiance!"

"I know," said Kaedro, "Looks like we're doing this the old-fashioned way."

He raised his auto rifle and started shooting at Oryx. Jade and Liv joined in and while Kaedro felt good doing it, he wasn't sure how much they were actually damaging the Hive God. He switched to his rocket launcher and managed to get off a shot before Oryx vanished. "What the hell?"

But the Taken King was only gone for a few moments before he reappeared at the other end of the room. "Your Traveler's Light cannot reach you here. I will take your worlds as you took Crota!" He spun his sword, whirling it over his head.

Kaedro looked up and saw a swirling mass of Dark energy above him. He scrambled away as a bolt of it struck the ground where he'd been. The three Guardians resumed their assault. Oryx held out a hand, firing orbs of energy at them. Kaedro ducked behind a rock to avoid them as he reloaded and was about to rejoin the fight when his vision went black. When he came back into focus, he saw that they were somewhere new. A dome of some kind of energy surrounded them, moving like fog. Inside the dome were four pillars of stone. Kaedro squinted into the fog and saw two huge wings moving.

"Your Light will die," said Oryx. He vanished and Kaedro looked wildly around to see where he went.

Suddenly, he was knocked off his feet by a blast of energy. He rolled away and aimed his gun at where the blast had come from, shooting into the fog. Suddenly Oryx flew into the dome, sword at the ready. The Guardians backpedaled, firing at him as he charged in. Oryx slammed his sword into the ground, causing a shockwave that threw them to the ground. Then he shot up out of sight. Kaedro reloaded and stood up.

"The Darkness is a gift," said Oryx, "Let my will set you free as it has freed your companion."

"Fat chance!" yelled Kaedro, "You want us? Come and get us!" He scanned the edges of the dome. Away to the left, he could just barely see the outline of a figure. He nudged the others and pointed. Oryx sailed in and they open fired, this time jumping back before he could slam the ground.

As Oryx flew off again, he called, "Crota fell. I will not!"

He shot at them out of nowhere, causing them to split up and scramble for cover. Kaedro glimpsed one of his wings in the fog to their right a split second before Oryx charged again. "Down!"

Jade and Liv dropped to the ground, shooting upward as Oryx flew in, slamming his sword down. But this time, the sword was not raised again. Kaedro watched as Oryx slowly sank to the ground, his sword poking upward like a strange tree. Oryx reached toward it, as though to take it up once more. However, instead a blueish-white energy crept up the blade, gathering in Oryx's palm as a pulsing orb. Oryx met Kaedro's gaze for a moment before raising the orb triumphantly and plunging it into his own chest. Before Kaedro's eyes, the Taken King floated upwards convulsing, his body dissolving away. Right before Oryx's face crumbled to dust, he laughed, a dark menacing laughed that promised retribution.

"Why was he laughing?" Liv demanded, "We decked him!"

"He's not dead yet," said Jade, voicing the thought that Kaedro had been harboring.

"Whaddaya mean Oryx's still kickin'?" asked Cayde, "He turned to dust. Sounds pretty dead to me."

Ikora shot him a look. "You think Oryx wouldn't have a Throneworld? Who do you think showed Crota how to do it?"

"I knew he went down too easy," said Kaedro, "Of course he'd wanna finish it in his Throneworld. He's stronger there."

"He may be stronger, yes," Eris acquiesced, "But he is also vulnerable. In his Throneworld, he can be killed permanently."

Liv looked confused. "Wouldn't he know that?"

"He is aware of it. However, he does not deem Guardians a threat to him there. He has had millennia to build up defenses."

Jade nodded. "That's true. And he's been attacked there before. His own sisters tried to get in."

"Great," said Kai, "So how do we succeed where Hive Gods failed?"

"We go in together," Kaedro declared, "When we killed Crota in his Throneworld, we all were there as a team."

"You want another double fireteam," Jade realized.

Kaedro nodded, turning to Liv. "We might not have Bazzle and the others, but we have you guys. The six of us should be able to-"

"Whoa whoa wait," said Kai, holding up a hand, "'The six of us'? There's only five of us here. You, me, Wrythal, Liv, and Tris."

Tristan cringed. "I'd prefer if you didn't call me that."

"Point is, you miscounted."

Kaedro shook his head. "No, I didn't. With Ace, we're a six-man team."

"Ace? In case you haven't noticed, Ace is Taken."

"Right. Which is why we're gonna fix him before we start with this Throneworld business."

The Vanguard had remained silent through the whole exchange, but now Zavala sighed. "Kaedro-"

"No," asserted Kaedro, "I am done waiting for a 'good time' to work on this! We can't wait for the City to not be under attack 'cause there's always gonna be another 'Oryx'. Ace is my friend and he's important to me and because of that, we're gonna start looking for a way to fix him!" Kaedro's optics swept the room, daring anyone to say otherwise. When no one did, he nodded. "Good. Starting first thing tomorrow, Ace is our number one priority." With that, he turned and stalked out of the Hub.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, my friends! I just want to ensure quality in my work so update times won't be as certain as with Darkness Ascending. As you may/may not know, I'm taking part in Destcember. There's a list of prompts for the whole month. The first one went up on my Twitter and tumblr yesterday. More will be joining as the month progresses. Also, thank you all for your support, especially those who reviewed! Reading them never fails to make my day.

S0UL SURVIVOR: Thank you!

olliexdiscord: Aw ty. Also, you got it, sister!

Catch you on the flipside!

- TheWolfParadox