Chapter 29: Winter's Run: Nysa's Retribution

"Marcus, chill! Seriously you have no idea what you're doing!" Dawn tried her hardest to hold the Hunter in place, but his stubbornness trumped her strength as a Titan. Despite her pulling, Marcus marched forward, enraged.

"Dawn get off of me!" He shoved her off him, causing her to fall back on the cold, tile floor beneath them. He turned back and stared at the large door before him.

"I get it, you're upset, but going up against—!"

"I'm way past upset! I already lost Jasmine, what the hell makes you think I'm gonna sit back and lose Phoenix too?!"

Dawn jumped back up and grabbed him by his cloak. "How do you think I feel? How Nysa feels?! You don't see us trying to challenge the god forsaken Queen of the Reef!"

"I don't care who she is! Fact is she put you all in danger and I'm here to make her own up to it." He shoved her hand back. "Either you're with me or against me."

Dawn was at a loss for words. "You can't be serious right now…"

Marcus didn't respond, instead turning back and making his way through the door.

The doors flew open, alerting those inside of his arrival. The Queen's pair of Vandals leapt into action, but immediately they burned, Marcus' Golden Gun drawn. One shot left he aimed it directly towards the queen, who sat on her throne, with a bored expression on her face, unfazed by Marcus' breach of security.

Some of the Queen's guard prepared to surround him but the Queen put her hand up.

"No need." She said. "I will address his concerns. Now then, speak."

Marcus, feeling looked down on fired the bullet.

And the Queen waved her hand back at it, the bullet fizzling out as it hit the ground.

"He's completely serious…" Dawn said looking from a distance.

"If that's you statement then we are done here. Alert Variks that we have another prisoner for him."

"Hold on!" Marcus said as hands started to grab a hold of him. "Why did you agree to help us, knowing full well that you were sending my friends towards their deaths?! Tell me that at least!"

"Entertainment."

Marcus didn't expect that kind of answer. "Entertainment…? My friend's dying…because you were bored?!" Out of nowhere, in his hands, white light energy began to generate. He looked up at her, his eyes also beginning to illuminate with the same light.

In a matter of a second, he was in front of her, the balls of light pressed against her. Still she wasn't fearful in the slightest.

"You witch! I swear on the Traveler I'm going to…" Marcus' voice trailed off, as Nysa walked into the room. As she stopped, he noticed the tears streaming down her face.

"Just…stop." Her voice broke. She knelt down on both knees and bowed, her face turned towards the floor.

"Nysa, what are you doing? She doesn't deserve this…" Seeing her in the state made him calm down, the brief period of light disappearing from him.

"My humblest apologies… I know you don't owe us anything…but I beg of you…" Nysa's voice continued to break from the pressure. "We need to get into the Black Garden. I don't care…what it takes. But we can't do this without your help…"

The Queen gently pushed Marcus aside and descended from her throne. "You Guardians are interesting. Honestly, I wonder to myself how my Awoken brethren will themselves to serve the anomaly that is the Traveler. It's a blind faith, but faith nonetheless. She knelt down, picking Nysa's chin upward. "I think I will try this out myself."

"In return of what…?"

Marcus once again, dumbstruck. "We don't owe her!"

"The head of Aksor. In times recent, the House of Winter on Venus hired a mercenary who staged a prison break, retrieving a houseless Archon Priest. Draksis, the Kell of the House of Winter is a common enemy, both to us and your Vanguard. Depriving him of such an asset will prove to be a tactical advantage to both of us, wouldn't you agree?"

"Done." Nysa nodded.

"Again, we DO NOT owe here anything!"

"Marcus just shut up!" Nysa snapped. The latter grew quiet. "Just let me fix my mistake."

Marcus wanted to protest some more but he couldn't. "Fine. I'm coming with you though."

"That's fine by me." She said, standing up. "We kill Aksor for you…"

"And you will have the Reef's backing in your little conflict." The Queen agreed.

Nysa acknowledged that and turned back. "Let's get moving."

Marcus sighed and followed along, Dawn waiting outside patiently for the two. Marcus stopped in front of her, wanting to apologize. Dawn threw her hand up, and pushed him ahead, feeling as though any apology can wait.


Sol hovered between the three Warlocks, Ikora included, while they held their hands out, eyes closed. Light energy radiated from their palms, with the corrupted ghost twitching every now and then. As the light grew brighter, the shadowy energy emanating from Sol began to extinguish, before it eventually reverted back to it's white color.

The Warlocks rested their arms, and Ikora picked Sol up from the table, looking at Otto standing on the other side of the window with his arms crossed rather impatiently. She came out of the lab she was in and handed Sol over to him.

"Despite my opinion of Starslayer also running off to obtain an audience with the Queen of the Reef, I have to be honest. Treating Phoenix's Ghost have allowed us to look into the powers of the Invaders."

"So they are being influenced by the Darkness then." Otto said, retrieving the lifeless Ghost."

"Their powers resemble ours like the other side of a coin. Which means that we have a basic idea on how they work. We can safely assume that they're no stronger than our Guardians."

"What's the bad news then?"

Ikora crossed her arms and started to pace. "They may be Guardians by definition, but they are influenced by a force that we don't really know ourselves. There's no telling what other abilities they have outside of the ones that we've seen thus far."

"But the fact that they are similar to us is a start."

"Indeed. Even so, I'd suggest you remain here for a while until my Hidden can gather more information."

"No arguments here. I want to keep an eye on Phoenix anyway."

Ikora nodded. "It's a theory, but I don't necessarily believe that Zavala was correct in assuming that these Invaders can't change. If anything, they may just need the right kind of people to see things differently. Lysander after all, while his goals were noble, they were gone about in the wrong way. I wouldn't be surprised if these Invaders feel similar."

Otto heard her words and thought back to Galvatron's purpose on Venus. "You could be right about that."

"I'm willing to bet that I am." Ikora smirked. With that she exited the medical bay and Otto looked down at Sol.

"I think I'll second that bet."


Dawn put down the binoculars she kept in a pouch on her side. "How did the Vex get into their lair?"

Marcus, reloading his Auto Rifle looked up. "You're really going to question the capabilities of time traveling robots?"

Dawn shrugged. "Just curious." She looked through them again. "Knowing the Fallen, I'd imagine they'd scrap them and use them for parts or something, you know?"

"As if the Vex would give them a chance to." Nysa said. "Cover me."

Marcus looked at her. "You really think you're in the position to make smart moves?"

Nysa turned to Marcus. "I could say the same thing."

Before the pair of Hunters could go at it, Dawn got in between them. She took one of her grenades and lobbed it over, the magnetism of said grenade latching onto one of the Goblins and taking it and the rest of the smaller Vex out.

"Okay, let's keep moving." Dawn hopped from the ledge into the bright cyan water and continued down the path. She stopped and turned back. "Well, are you coming or not?"

Marcus and Nysa didn't say anything to one another and both decided to follow her.

Rubix appeared beside Marcus. "While I understand the purpose of this mission, I feel that not a lot of thought has gone into this."

"No one asked you." Nysa snapped.

Rubix shrunk back.

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Sooner we get this done the better."

Luna materialized and waited for Nysa to trail off a bit before she approached Marcus.

"What's up? You've been quiet." Marcus said.

Luna stared down the pair with a sense of animosity.

"Don't tell me you're on her side."

"Quite the contrary. You both are acting like children."

"Oh god you're sounding like Stella."

"And that's a problem?" Luna got up in Marcus' face.

"No ma'am." Marcus straightened up.

She backed up. "Listen. Understand that Nysa is doing this out of guilt."

"Guilt? What does she have to be guilty for?"

"I believe…she's felt the guilt of not being able to help at first."

Marcus and Rubix looked at one another.

"Everyone but her were making efforts to aid in the upcoming conflicts with the Invaders. Nysa didn't know what to do, and when you and Optimus returned she especially felt useless. Asking the Reef for help was a poorly executed idea but an idea nonetheless."

"Why is she going so far for Jasmine?"

"Not Jasmine. You."

Marcus' voice caught in his throat.

"She won't admit it, but truth is, she wants to see you happy again. And I'm willing to bet that if it means demanding the audience of the Queen of the Awoken, hunting down an Archon Priest, and forcing the House of Winter to come hunt us down, then she'll do it a hundred times over."

Marcus exhaled, not having much to say. He gripped his Auto Rifle and started running.

"Hey, where are you going?" Rubix and Luna trailed behind him.

"Got no time to waste. We got a Priest to slay." Marcus said, keeping his momentum.

The three raced up towards the top of the cave to catch up with the two girls who paved a path for them. The Ghost disappeared as Marcus approached the pair ahead of him. Dawn had her binoculars out once again, but Marcus didn't need them to explain to him what he was staring at.

"That must be where the Fallen are parked at." He noted, scanning the massive ship in the distance, along with the vandals guarding the bridge with wire rifles.

"Luckily for us, we're not focusing on them." Dawn said. She motioned over and the Hunters looked to their left, where a group of Dregs were being tossed about by a Minotaur. "It's what's behind that door."

"What do the Vex get out of having an Archon Priest?" Nysa crossed her arms.

"How about we kill it before we find out?" Marcus suggested.

"It was just a question…"

Marcus hesitated but shook it off after a moment. "Right; anyway, stay focused. We gotta get ourselves through that door and onto the other side; without getting killed by those things. We'll follow your lead Nysa." Marcus said.

The Awoken girl turned to him, and he confirmed it with a nod. She as well was somewhat surprised, but nonetheless she turned back in front of her, and gathered her inner Arc energy. "Alright then. Try your best to keep up."


Otto leaned up against the balcony of the Tower Courtyard, thinking about what Ikora said, about how the Invaders may need a sense of guidance. If the Invaders were just like them Guardians, then maybe all it would take to understand them is some persuasion. Arius proved to him that not all of the Fallen have lost their way.

So could the same be said about the Invaders who still have a spark of light in them?

"This spot taken?" a voice asked him. Otto looked over noticing the Green-faced Exo woman take a place beside him. He scooted over the banister, giving her ample room.

"Rough day?" Otto asked Midori-7.

"I feel like Steel and I turned the European Dead Zone inside and out. No sign of Yor, Malphur…you?"

"Ran into the Titan several times, came face-to-face with the Mirage, learned the Black Garden is a real place, and Phoenix is out of commission within all of that."

"Ouch. Sounds like you had it rough." Midori commented.

"Guess you can say that. Ikora did what she could, removing the Darkness from Sol should give Phoenix a chance to make a full recovery, but we just have to wait on Sol himself to get back into it. In the meantime, Ikora's looking into what they managed to recover."

"Gotcha." Midori sighed. "That Phoenix-0. Looks like his overconfidence finally bit him in the circuit board."

"Could say that again. Reckless idiot. It's what he gets for thinking he's immortal all the time."

"To be honest, I'm surprised. After what happened before, I would've imagined he'd learn from past mistakes. Though, granted, would be hard to do so when you don't remember."

"Don't remember?" Otto turned to her. "Wait, are you saying that Phoenix had his memory wiped before?"

Midori shook her head. "It's more complicated than that. Rumor has it, there's a reason why he named himself Phoenix. It wasn't because he's 'immortal', but because he had the opportunity to be reborn."


Nysa's boots clicked against the rocks leading up to the giant circular door. Luna materialized and began to scan the lock. Meanwhile, Dawn and Marcus watched her back, all the while admiring their handiwork. Scraps of Vex parts and Fallen limbs decorated the former battlefield, leaving the teens pretty accomplished and optimistic, that things were going smooth—now that everyone was tentatively not at each other's throats.

"Best not take long with that lock, Luna. Draksis might pop out of his ship and wreck us for taking out his goons." Marcus said.

"I'll do my job hacking equipment and opening doors. You continue to do yours and kill things."

"Relax, it was a joke. Besides, If things keep going the way they do, then we'll have the Archon's head on a silver platter for Queen bossy-boots. And y'know; one step closer to getting Jasmine back…"

Nysa frowned under her helmet, thankful that no one could see her reaction to his words. She kept focused on the task in front of her, trying to avoid overthinking things.

"Uh…Luna?" Dawn voice quipped.

"Again, you two must be patient!"

"And while we get that one hundred percent, we…have a problem."

"What are you two on…about…?" Nysa said, realizing the fog stirring up around them. "What the heck I thought all of the Vex were taken care of!"

"I…think they would beg to differ."

Singular red eyes blinked in the middle of the mist, and moments later, cyan-blue tendrils expanded outward from the red point.

"What…are those things?!" Dawn's voice cracked.

"How about we just kill it?!" Nysa screamed, aiming her weapon. Before she could even pull the trigger, one of the tendrils shot around her arm and yanked her away from the door. Her scream pierced the sky, leaving the pair awestruck by how fast things went.

As the smoke cleared, Nysa was getting an unintentional scope of what captured her, the cold, sleek metallic bodies snapped together like a spine, and the menacing robotic bug-head that stood on top.

Nysa's heart thrashed as the eye whirled and scanned her for a moment. It held her steady, equating how she fit into the algorithm in its processing unit. But the same couldn't be said for her.

All she saw in its deep red eye, was death.