Shortly following the Guardians' escape from the Gorgons' Labyrinth, they proceeded to follow the waypoints their Ghosts provided, leading to the heart of the Vault. They came upon two ways to press on, and after a few minutes of debate, they choose to leap the chasm than take their chances with the vanishing platforms.
Bitsine volunteered to go first. Taking several steps back, everyone cleared a path for her, and she took a running stance. Counting down from three, she took off in a sprint, jumping off the edge of the cliff, going as far as she could, then plummeted down towards the chasm. Kelly held her breath as her friend fell, relief washing over when Bitsine used her Light to levitate and move closer to the landing point. She went as far as her Light could take her, then plummeted again, managing to use her Light one last time to slow her descent before landfall. The Titan hit the ground with a roll, standing back up to wave up at her comrades. "See, nothing to it. Now come on."
The Guardians gave each other looks before Crux decided to go next. Following Bitsine's example, he took a running start, jumping off the ledge as far as he could before plummeting. He noticed his initial jump didn't get him far enough so he doubled jumped. He fell closer to Bitsine's location, jumping again, only to see that it wasn't enough and would plummet into the chasm.
Everyone else saw it too, Ellie and Avez calling out to him, believing he wouldn't make it. Thinking fast, Crux reached forward, his arms catching the edge of the platform, his body slamming onto the side. At first, he thought he was safe, but he started slipping, grasping to get a firm hold to no avail. He was about to fall again when Bitsine rushed in and grabbed his hand, saving him. Holding onto the floor with one hand, Bitsine pulled the Hunter up, Crux crawling to his knees thankful. "Thanks. I owe you."
"No, you don't. You saved me, and Kelly back with those harpies, so I'd say we're even." Both exos got up to their feet, radioing to their comrades to follow. Ellie Avez and Kelly followed, each of them making it without much trouble save for Kelly, who stumbled and almost fell when her foot landed on a loose rock.
Once they were all together again, the next step was crossing the narrow ledge that leads to the next area of the Vault. The small width of the path meant they would have to hug the wall and go slow. This time Avez volunteered to go first, pressing his chest on the rock wall, using his foot to sweep away the rocks that sat on the ledge. After getting a few feet, Avez gestured for the others to follow. "Come on, let's go."
Following Avez's instruction, the other four Guardians pressed onward across the ledge, wind passing by the howling throughout the darkness of the Vault. As she hugged the wall, Kelly and Bitsine hoped they would see Pekis at the end of their journey.
Elsewhere, Pekis was waking up. He groaned as consciousness returned to him. Head rested on a hard surface, his senses slowly returned to him. Pekis eyes opened up, the Hunter sitting upright with a gasp, believing himself to still be in danger. It only took him moments to realize that he wasn't where he was before, remembering what a short while ago. The fight with the Legionless Mind, the vortex sucking him in before blackness took over. Confused, Pekis tried calling Aepvis, "Aepvis?" initially, he got no response from the Ghost. "Aepvis? Aepvis, are you there."
A few more seconds then he heard a static sound in his helmet followed by Aepvis' voice. "Ugh... W-What happened?" He sounded distorted momentarily but back to normal soon after. "Where are we?"
"I do not know," Pekis answered, standing up to look around. Something was not right. He was surrounded by Vex architecture to be sure, but when he looked up, he saw the most bizarre thing. There was no ceiling. The Vault of Glass, although being its own dimension, was still an underground fortress so when looking up, they would expect to see a rock ceiling blocking their view of Venus' sky. Instead, Pekis saw an all-white sky above him. "What is this?" taking another look around, Pekis noticed a large tree behind him directly in the center of wherever he was. The tree was rooted into dirt that extended a few yards around it before ending at a stone floor shaped in a hexagon. The top of the tree itself split apart into several branches leading to horizontal platforms made of wood and foliage, clearly not of earth origin.
More patches of dirt with plant life surrounded the stone hexagon floor, four triangular stone doorway surrounded the area, each of them closed, leading to an unknown location. It was different than anything Pekis or Aepvis had ever seen before, "What is this place?"
"I don't know. There are no records in the City's database about anything like this, and the readings I'm getting are suggesting we aren't in the Vault of Glass anymore." Aepvis answered. "But the biology of the tree and nearby plants match with those that use to exist on Mercury during the Golden Age."
Pekis gave the tree another look. "Why would the Vex have plant life in such a place."
"Maybe they have an interest in botany."
Moving on, Pekis walked away from the tree to look around some more. The thing that disturbed him the most was the sky. It was so unnatural. There were no stars, no clouds, just pure empty white. Thankfully, Pekis still had the Aegis on his arm, the shield of Light glowing as always, but he lost Fatebringer shortly before getting sucked through the vortex.
It also appeared that the Legionless Mind was nowhere to be found. Given the instability of the vortex, it made sense both Pekis and the Vex wouldn't wind up in the same place, but that raised another question. If the Legionless Mind wasn't there with him, then where was it? Pekis decided the first priority should be to escape wherever it was they were. "Aepvis, is it possible for us to get back to the Vault?"
"I don't know. If you can get me to a conflux or something, I might be able to find a way out."
Checking around, Pekis was certain there were no active confluxes Aepvis could access, so there would be no point in sticking around. So then he would have to try one of the doorways to find their way back to their allies. It probably wouldn't matter much which door he chose, so he picked the one closest to him. Walking up to the stone door, it opened up for Pekis, sliding into the floor, revealing a stone walkway leading to another door identical to it. On either side of the walkway were two stone walls that were Pekis' height. Seeing it as an opportunity, he jumped on top of one of them, and the view he saw left him awestruck.
Beyond the Vex architecture was nothing more than an entirely white void. From the sky above to the horizon beyond was vast emptiness. Looking down, Pekis was shocked to see his reflection looking back up at him from the white. Unable to fully understand, Pekis hopped back down from the wall, moving on to the next door. "This place is strange."
Pekis passed the next door. The next area was mostly the same as the previous, with the main difference being instead of a tree at the center, it was a large or orb hovering over a white reflective surface. To Pekis' surprise, he spotted his sword Fatebringer impaled on top of the orb. A void glow emanated from the exposed part of its blade. Unfortunately, said orb was surrounded by a few dozen precursor Vex scanning the sword that appeared out of a space-time anomaly. A goblin closest to the door Pekis came from turned around, taking notice of the Hunter, signaling the others to engage in combat. 'Warning! Paracausl entity within time nexus! Eliminate!' With the Vex now focused on him, Pekis went at them, raising the Aegis to block the incoming fire while he closed the gap.
A Goblin was the first victim of Pekis' attack. He bashed the unfortunate robot with the shield, breaking it apart on the first hit leaving dozens more to go. A minotaur came next, swinging its arm at the Eliksni, who blocked it and threw a solar knife at its mind core. The knife pierced the radiolaria container, exploding and killing the Vex. Pekis upholstered his two shock pistols, holding them in his right hands to fire at the Vex while shielding himself with the Aegis. The remaining Vex keep their distance, attempting to flank Pekis but proved too slow to keep up with him.
Pekis took out several more Vex with close-quarter combat, then set his sight on reclaiming his sword. Pekis bashed another goblin to pieces, making a dash to the orb his sword was embedded in. Avoiding the Vex's attack, he jumped on top of the sphere, grabbing Fatebringer with two hands. Pekis yanked his sword out of the stone construct, revealing Fatebringer's entire blade shining with void energy.
Glad to have his weapon back, Pekis jumped off the orb as the Vex focused fire on his position. Pekis first act was slicing through a minotaur's midsection. More soon followed. With sword and shield in hand, Pekis proceeded to cut down the remaining Vex one after another, using his honed swordsmanship skills combined with the Aegis like before.
The Hunter cut down the last goblin, and he was the only one standing. Sheathing Fatebringer behind his back, he looked around at the dismembered robot corpses he left behind. Pekis was glad to have his sword back, but he still didn't have a way to return to the others. "Where do we go now?"
"I don't know." That was all Aepvis could say. He combed through all the data he obtained from the Templar's sphere but couldn't find anything useful for their situation. The Templar didn't have any data logs on this dimension, probably due to the Hydra's main function being security for the Vault and not here. "We better keep moving. Were not going to find a way out by standing around."
Pekis was inclined to agree. He picked out another door to walk through when a sound made him turn around. It was a damaged minotaur lying on the floor with one of its legs missing, arms twitching, sparks coming out of its wounds, clearly still alive. It was too injured to be of any threat, so Pekis chose to ignore it when Aepvis told him. "Wait, Get me to that minotaur."
"Why?"
"I want to try hacking it to find a way out." Intrigued, Pekis did as he said, walking over to the machine. The minotaur took notice of the Hunter, making an electronic sound, but Pekis knew it was no longer dangerous and let Aepvis out. Aepvis hovered over it, looking down at it the flickering red-eye, and shot a beam of light at it. The minotaur gave out an alarming sound from its systems being hacked, Aepvis being able to break through its firewall with relative ease to find what he was looking for. After a minute of searching he found something, "Okay, I got a map of the current layout of this place."
"Current layout?"
"Yes, the Vex often change this place so it never stays the same for long. Were in a dimension outside of time and space that the Vex made for themselves. Clearly, it's a much different place than the Vault of Glass, but there is a part connected to our own timeline that we can use to get back. I mark it with a waypoint, but we have to be quick before the Vex can make any changes." Aepvis returned to Pekis, and the Hunter ran to the door the waypoint directed him towards, not giving the dying Minotaur a second thought.
In the Vault, the Guardians were nearing the end of the Ledge. Avez led the way, kicking off loose rocks in the way to let the others following him have an easier time. They all thought to themselves about the situation. What would they be fighting next? How many more Vex would they face? How would they escape once the mission? These questions ran through everyone's and more continued to pop up.
Avez's thoughts ceased for a moment once he reached the other side. A quick look around determined there were no threats in the area so he waited for his comrades to follow. "It's safe. Come on." Crux reached the end moments later, Followed by Bitsine, Ellie, and finally Kelly.
The two Warlocks took a moment to pat off the dirt from their robes while Avez and Crux went ahead. Bitsine stayed behind and watched the two Warlocks for a moment. Judging from the looks of their robes, it was hard for Bitsine to imagine their clothing offered adequate protection in a firefight. Her ghost told her before that Warlock robes were made using a special weave of glimmer and ballistic fibers, giving them the tensile strength of combat armor while making them comfortable to wear. Bitsine didn't fully understand it but accepted the explanation. Bitsine moved on to meet up with Avez and Crux. Kelly and Ellie following her soon after.
The waypoints lead the Guardians to a stone door with a triangular which they believed lead to the heart of the Vault. Inspecting the door, Crux saw no way to open it. "Okay, so what do we do now? Open sesame?"
"Let me try something else," Soul said, leaving Crux's inventory to scan the door. A bright light emitted from her eye, looking up and down the stone for a way to connect. "Bingo." Soul found a spot right of the door's center and fired a beam. The Templar's sphere had the access codes, so the door slide open. Light from the other side washed over them, and what they saw left the fireteam in awe. Kelly stepped out in front of the others at the sight of the Glass Throne. It was not what she or the others had been expecting. At the far end of the area, around an elevated platform were dozens of floating separated crystal pieces spinning at a diagonal axis.
Kelly was confused. It was not what she was expected the heart of the Vault of Glass to be like. "It's not active," Walker said over the commlink, getting all the attention of all the Guardians.
"What do you mean?" Kelly asked her Ghost.
Avez's Ghost, Jade, answered her question thanks to the information on the Templar's sphere. "The Glass Throne is dormant. That's why all those crystals aren't joined together. It's a defense measure in case intruders ever got this far into the Vault. If we want to destroy the Vex's hold over the Vault, we need to force it to activate again and draw out their leader."
"And how do we do that?" Avez questioned, looking around, seeing no Vex in the vicinity.
'Warning: Paracausal entities in Nexus! Defensive measures activated! Expunge imminently!'
As the Guardians pondered the next step they must take, the Vex made their appearance. Black clouds appeared in front of the Glass Throne, releasing many goblins, and minotaurs, back by a Hydra. The Ghosts imminently tagged each new hostile for their Guardians who readied their weapons.
"That hydra," Walker called out, his Guardian noticing the hydra's tag called it the Gatekeeper. On top of that, it had no shields circling around it as all other Hydras had. "It's part of the security system here. We need to take it out first in order to use the Vex time gates before we can activate the Glass Throne."
"If you say so." Bitsine opened fire on the first goblin she spotted, quickly gunning in down with more to follow. The other Guardians followed her example, engaging the Vex as they had in their previous encounters.
Pekis continued his trek through the strange dimension he found himself in a while ago. Wasn't sure how many rooms he had gone through, but it was starting to get tedious. Most of the rooms he passed through were more or less the same with him encountering increased resistance with each one. He snarled, blocking a strike from a minotaur which the Aegis repealed with a blast of energy sending the Vex flying away into a goblin. A dozen or so more Vex fired at him, A hydra at the back of their ranks flanked by two cyclopes providing heavy support.
Pekis dashed across the battlefield, slaying Vex left and right. He threw an incendiary grenade at a pair of hobgoblins then spun around, decapitating a goblin before bashing an incoming minotaur with the shield. The minotaur collapsed, Pekis finishing the headless goblin a moment later as the two hobgoblins were destroyed by the grenade, and still, it was not over. He raised the Aegis' barrier to absorb the energy blasted fired from the hydra and cyclopses, Lowering it to return the favor with a bolt fired from the shield. The Aegis' attack hit the Hydra directly, destroying it completely, leaving the two cyclopes and a few lesser Vex.
Pekis made quick work of the standard Vex units then went after the cyclopses. The Vex artillery guns were powerful weapons but were too slow-firing for the much faster Hunter. He closed the gap in no time, leaping forward to stab the first cyclops in the eye, jumping away just at the second one fired, its attack hitting its fellow unit instead of the Guardian, destroying it and leaving it the last hostile in Pekis' way. He ran up to it bashing its firing optic with the Aegis and planting a trip mine grenade on its side, backing away as it exploded. The cyclops' body was blown open by the explosion, killing it and allowing Pekis to move on.
Pekis took a moment to relax, then continued following the waypoint Aepvis made for him. "Aepvis, how much far now." The irritation in Pekis' voice was noticeable.
"Not far now. it should be the next area." Pekis passed through the door leading to the next area.
He crossed the corridor in seconds, making it to the other end where the next door opened. The next room Pekis found himself in showed to be different than the rest. The area was the largest by far, extending in a rectangular fashion. Multiple Vex gateways were positioned against the walls, sitting Parallel to each other, None of them activated. The Door closed behind Pekis as he walked in, counting a dozen or so inactive gateways similar to the one that brought him to this strange dimension. "The way back is here?"
"Yes. Each of the gateways can connect with different locations including the Vault of Glass, but we need to input the coordinates to send us to it. Get me so that conflux."
Pekis took notice of the shining conflux that towered in the middle of a Vex sync plate just like the ones they used to open the Vault of Glass. It was positioned in the middle of four stone columns which provided decent cover. Pekis went over to it, releasing Aepvis to begin scanning the conflux. He was surprised that the gates had no Vex defending them as the previous areas he had gone through were all defended. "Aepvis, how long do you need?"
"This security is tough but I should be able to breakthrough in a few minutes."
Pekis was relieved to hear that since he didn't want to spend more time in this dimension than he needed to. He was prepared to wait for Aepvis until he heard the sounds of the gates activating. Startled, Pekis looked around he saw the once deactivated gates now surging with power. "Aepvis, I thought you said it would take minutes."
"That wasn't me! I tripped a security alarm! The Vex are coming!" On cue, a pair of goblins stepped out of one of the gates, followed by more from the rest. "I need time to shut of the gates! Hold them off!"
Growling, Pekis unsheathed his sword and took a defensive position near Aepvis to protect him while he worked. More Vex came through the gates setting their sights on the Guardian to attack.
In the Glass Throne, the Guardians Were making headway against the Gatekeeper. It may have been a hydra, but it was no Templar. It wasn't long for the Gatekeeper to take significate damage from weapons fire. Its chassis was littered with bullet holes and scorch marks, and its remaining minions weren't faring much better. Most of the lesser Vex that appeared in the Gatekeeper's defense had been killed, leaving only a handful left to fight.
Bitsine fired a burst from her auto rifle, taking out goblin and injuring another that was destroyed by a shot to the mind core from Crux. Ellie threw a scatter grenade taking out the last minotaur in the area, leaving the Gatekeeper all by itself. The Guardians then focused fired on the Hydra from all sides. Though it was armed with heavy Aeon Maul cannons, the Gatekeeper was too slow and outnumbered to defeat the Guardians. Chunks of the Vex's body broke off and hit the ground, its internal system failing due to extensive damage.
"It's almost down!" Avez shouted, reloading his weapon.
"No crap!" Crux said, equipping his Prospector grenade launcher, firing three bombs that made direct contact with the hydra. The explosions finished the job. The crumbling Gatekeeper collapsed to the ground, its red eye went dark, and its body now glowing very bright. Moments later, the hydra exploded, scatter pieces of shrapnel in all directions. The Guardians armor protected them from the metal fragments that hit them.
The smoke from the explosion cleared, and the Guardians stood before the inert Glass throne without any hostiles coming at them. "Well, that wasn't too hard." Crux commented, putting away his grenade launcher. "I was expecting a tougher fight than that."
"We're not done yet." Soul informed him. "That was just the first Gatekeeper we needed to kill. There are two more keeping the Glass Throne on lockdown. If we want to take out the Vex leadership then we take out the remaining Gatekeepers to lift the security lockdown."
"Alrighty then. Where do we go from here?" Bitsine asked, checking her gun to make sure it was fully loaded.
"It's more of when we go than where we go." Bitsine ghost informed her. "The other two are located at different points in time to make it near impossible to find them."
"If they're at different points in time then how are we supposed to find them. It's not like we brought a time machine with us." Kelly's heart sank fearing they had come all that way just to hit a roadblock with no way to turn back as the Vault entrance had been sealed behind them. The other Guardians held similar feelings but luckily their Ghosts weren't done yet.
"Not a problem we can borrow one of the Vex's," Walker told his Guardian, "We can use those Vex Gates to get us where we need to go." Using the data obtained from the Templar's sphere, the Ghosts directed their Guardians in using the Vex gates that would transport them across time to their targets, none of them aware of the trap in store for them. It seemed simple enough, but the moment of peace they bought themselves came to an end as the Vex sent reinforcements to stop them.
Bitsine gunned down the first robot she seen appear out of thin air, making it hit the ground full of bullets, but many more took its place. More Vex appeared out of black clouds and from small cave entrances around the Glass Throne. The Guardians took up arms once again as their Ghost directed them to the first sync plate they needed to operate to activate. They stood in a defensive formation inside the plate as a transparent ring of light formed around them. Amidst the sounds of gunfire, Ellie's Ghost, Dex reminded them, "Remember Someone needs to stay on this end to keep the sync plate activated, or else the Vex will be able to deactivate the gate."
"Alright, Me, Avez, and Kelly will go through the gate to kill the Gatekeeper! Bitsine and Crux, you two stay here and hold the Vex off!" Ellie ordered, firing her Assembly II as the gate neared activation.
"Stay here and kill robots, got it!" Crux confirmed, firing two shots from his Last Word to kill another goblin.
"No problem!" Kelly fired her Conduit pulse rifle taking out a hobgoblin that was about to shoot her.
A few seconds later the sync plate was completed and the gateway activated with a flash of light. A glowing portal leading to the point of time in the past where the next Gatekeeper would be. "Go!" Ellie shouted rushing towards the portal, Avez and Bitsine following closely behind. Kelly looked over her shoulder seeing her fellow Warlock and two titans pass the threshold into the past, unaware of what the Vex had in store.
Elsewhere, Pekis was holding his ground, defending Aepvis from the Vex that came from the gates. Doing it single handily with a sword and shield proved to be difficult. Pekis couldn't get too far away from Aepvis without leaving him vulnerable, A few Vex having attempted to shoot the Ghost when spotting an opening only to be foiled by the Hunter's fast reflexes. Blocking a strike from a minotaur, Pekis threw a Swarm grenade at a trio of goblins before pushing the larger Vex back and jamming Fatebringer directly into its mind core. Four more Vex fell, adding to Pekis' increasing kill count.
More Vex continues coming out to the active gates, on the verge of becoming more than Pekis could handle. "Aepvis, how much longer!?"
"Almost got it!" Aepvis worked as fast as he could to hack the conflux, having had a few too many close calls for his taste. This is why Ghosts should stay in their Guardian's inventory until the fighting is over. It's just plain dangerous.
Pekis activated the Aegis barrier, encompassing himself and Aepvis in its protection as Vex fired at them from all sides. "Just about... Got it!" Just like that, all the gates that the Vex were coming from shut down, cutting off their reinforcements. Aepvis immediately returned to Pekis and with his Ghost safely with him again, The Hunter went on the offensive. Dropping the barrier, He leaped high in the air, raising the Aegis above his head then thrust it downward, using it to crush the torso of a minotaur he landed on. Afterward, Pekis went on a killing spree of Vex, dropping one robot after another.
He dodged a shot from a Hobgoblin, turning around cutting through a goblin's torso with an upward swing. A minotaur charge at him, using its teleportation feature to close the gap. Pekis tackled it with the Aegis, lifted and heaving the machine over his shoulder, then struck a hobgoblin in the head with the shield. The Vex's numbers decreased bit by bit until the last Goblin fell to Pekis blade and it was over. Pekis to a moment to relax when Aepvis spoke. "Now that that's over with, get me back to the conflux so I can get us back to the others."
"Very well." Pekis returned to the Conflux, with no Vex in the vicinity it was safe for Aepvis to work again. Some time passed, Pekis keeping an eye out for any threats but nothing appeared. "How much more time do you need?"
"I think I have a lock on the others' location. It looks like they manage to get to the heart of the Vault and are trying to lift the security lockdown keeping the Glass Throne dormant." Pekis smile. he feared for his comrades' safety since he was separated from them, but it seems his fears were unfounded. "It seems they manage to activate a time gate. If I can establish a connection to it..."
A moment of silence took hold then the sound of a gate activating broke it. "You've done it?" Pekis questioned looking at his Ghost.
"No, that wasn't me!" Aepvis answered in alarm.
The sound of something passing through the gate was heard and upon turning around, Pekis was met with a metal fist colliding into his chest, giving him a good shock as well as sending him flying back. His back hitting a column, falling to his knees with a groan. The hit broke his shields and cracked his chest armor, not to mention taking the air out of his lung. Aepvis wanted to return to his Guardian to help but backed away when Pekis' assailant got right in front of the Hunter.
"Target reacquired" Pekis managed to get back to his feet, when another punch struck the side of his head, rattling his brain in advance for another hit right to his stomach. The Legionless Mind pressed its assault, having lost Time's Blade in the vortex, it resorted to using fists. The damage done to it in the last battle was still present, the open wound on side of its head and chest not fully repaired, but that would not stop it. Pekis attempted to retaliate, swinging Fatebringer only for the Legionless Mind to grab him by the wrist with enough force to break it. "Ahh!" Pekis screamed in pain and rage as he then swung the Aegis around to strike it but the Vex blocked it with its arm, using its Light to increase its durability, and swatted the shield away.
The Legionless Mind grabbed Pekis, lifting him off his feet over its head, and slammed him onto the floor. Dazed, Pekis was unable to react in time for when it to pinned his shield arm to the floor then brought its other foot, focusing its power at the bottom to bear down on Pekis head.
When it seemed like it might be the end for the Hunter, Aepvis came floating to the damaged part of the Legionless Mind's head, firing a beam of Light into the exposed circuits providing him a direct access point to its systems. The Vex let out a loud screech sound upon its internal system being breached. It back away from Pekis, twitching and sparking as Aepvis did everything he could to mess with it. files and data were corrupted or stolen, systems and programming went haywire.
During the hacking attempt, the Legionless Mind was able to regain enough control to swat Aepvis away, breaking three of his shell fins and sending him hitting the floor breaking a fourth. 'S-ystem bre-ach Ex-punged! Re-soring c-c-cont-rol!' As it tried to get systems back in working order, Pekis had managed to get back to his feet albeit heavily injured without Aepvis' aid. His broken wrist made him drop Fatebringer, so instead, he brought the Aegis around, slamming its edge into the undamaged side of the Vex's head. The force of it pushed the Legionless Mind back, fracturing its head's metal plating, then struck again dead center in its chest, breaking off more of its armor, forcing it back further almost to the point of falling over.
'System control restored. Severe damage detected!' The Legionless Mind straightened up, Pekis throwing a solar knife into its knee to prevent it from moving. 'Servo motor damage! Mobility impaired!' Pekis brought the Aegis to face the Vex, focusing all its power at the front. 'Danger!' The Legionless Mind eye turned purple, raising it hands to cast a ward of dawn but it was too late.
Before the void barrier could be complete, Pekis shouted, "Begone with you!" The Aegis fired its energy blast, hitting the incomplete shield the Vex had made at point-blank range. The resulting explosion blew both combatants away, The Legionless Mind took most of the damage as it was sent flying back through the gate it came from. Pekis tumble across the floor, coming to a stop, laying on his side groaning in pain from his injuries.
The gateway was closed soon after. Pekis turned his head to see a damaged Aepvis at the conflux. "Pekis!" Aepvis flew over to Pekis, doing a quick scan detecting a broken wrist, several fractured ribs, and bruised organs with internal bleeding to go with it.
Pekis coughed out a spray of blood behind his face mask, soon after fleeing the Light wash over his entire body, healing all his wounds in moments. The light shinned by Aepvis faded and the Eliksni Guardian was back up without any problems. "Thank you." Pekis took note of Aepvis' broken shell fins. "Are you injured?"
"No, my shell took the brunt of it but by the looks of it, I'll need a new one, but first..." Remembering why they were there in the first place, Aepvis went back to the conflux to get a lock on their comrades' position again.
Pekis looked over at the gate the Legionless Mind was blasted through. "Is it dead?"
"Hopefully. We'll have enough problems soon enough. If I'm reading this data right, Ellie, Avez, and Bitsine are about to walk into a trap!"
The Aegis shinned brighter for a few moments, Pekis ordering, "Get us there!"
"I'm on it!" If what the Aegis was trying to communicate with Pekis about was true then they needed to get there a quickly as possible.
In the Vault, While Kelly and Crux were defending their side of the gate, Ellie, Bitsine, and Avez step into the portal. When they first sprinted into the gate, their vision was overwhelmed by blinding light, soon after their bodies felt familiar weightlessness that's similar to when they transmat and a loud shriek-like sound was heard through their helmets. It only lasted for a moment as they pass through, and soon after their vision cleared up.
The Guardians shook their heads, looking around they could not hear the sounds of battle anymore. They could easily tell they were in the Glass Throne, but it was different. It was quiet. The gunfire they were listening to only seconds ago was gone. The crystal shards of the Glass throne were no longer present, the area seemed darker, more barren, desert-like, a brownish light shining from the chasm the area overlooked. Bitsine looked around weapon raised, not seeing any enemies at the moment, but that changed soon enough.
A few dozen or so Vex appeared out of the air, including another hydra tagged as a Gatekeeper, just like the previous one. Ellie took note of the different appearances of these Vex, her Ghost labeling them as Descendants. Their black brown bodies and ring-shaped head certainly set them apart from previous models of the Vex, including Precursors. She had no time to think about it as they had a mission to focus on. The Vex focused on them in Seconds.
Avez took the straightforward approach, rushing ahead of his comrades, jumping high into the air, channeling Void Light into his arm. A round purplish shield took shape on his arm, the Titan throwing it at the first Goblin he saw. The robot was destroyed on contact, the shield bouncing off heading imminently for the nearest Vex and repeating the process. Avez came back down with another shield having formed on his arm, bringing it down on an unfortunate Minotaur. Seeing her fellow Titan in action, Bitsine couldn't help but feel jealous, "You have got to teach me how to do that!"
"If we make it through this, I'll give you some lessons!" The two other Guardians joined Avez in his slaughter of machines, their combined might overwhelming the Vex. Before his super ran out, Avez threw his shield one last time directly at the Gatekeeper, but its reinforced chassis meant that the damage done was minimal as it still held up strong against the attack. Regardless, the Gatekeeper couldn't last long against the three Guardians who surrounded and attacked it from all sides.
In no time flat, the Gatekeeper had taken too much damage and its core was set to overload as its systems shut down. After a few seconds, the shining hydra exploded in a cloud of fire and smoke leaving only debris behind. With another Gatekeeper dead, the Glass Throne's security has taken another blow. "That's another one down!" Bitsine declared, seeing no more robots in the vicinity.
After taking a quick look around, Ellie said, "Good now let's head back and-" Before she could finish, a sound coming from the direction of the Gate they use drew her attention. She turned around seeing that their only way back to the present was closed. "The gate's been shut off!"
Back in the present, Kelly and Crux were forced to abandon their positions around the sync plate when a large influx of Vex reinforcements, backed by several praetorians, came forcing them to move to avoid being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The Vex captured and deactivated the sync plate, also shutting off the gateway to the past. "Damn it!" Kelly launched a Nova Bomb at the group of Vex coming after her, wiping them out and denting the Vex's numbers. "We have to take that plate back or else they won't have a way to get back!"
"No kidding!" Crux worked his Last Word and Havoc Pigeon as he ran and weaved through the crowd of robots trying to kill him. He tossed an incendiary grenade a praetorian's feet, blowing off its legs, persistent to fight his way back to the plate.
In the past, the trapped trio of Guardians felt a large influx of Darkness. 'Security Unit terminated! Security integrity compromised! Paracausal entities detected outside place in the timestream. Initiating erasure.' What they felt was a power the Vex obtained through the Black Garden's heart. As beings that were currently outside their own point in time, they were marked by the void to be erased from existence. This Darkness they felt while being similar to what they felt whenever a large presence of enemies concentrated in their area, began to sap away at their strength, smothering their Light from the outside-in. The Guardians and their Ghosts felt the effects immediately. They soon found it harder to stand, their vision clouded by black shadows.
Bitsine dropped her gun and fell to her knees, no longer able to stand. It was as though her entire being was fading away. Was this what it was like for Crux when he was attacked by the Gorgon? If it wasn't, it must have been very close. Ellie was the next whose legs gave out. She toppled over on her side, her arms wrapped around her abdomen, groaning as she was in much pain. Avez was last, falling to one knee then his chest hit the ground. Their Ghosts were unable to help as they too were feeling the effects of the Vex's dark power, their Light being smothered as well, prevent them from aiding their Guardians in any manner.
Their vision was almost completely gone, most of what they could see was darkness, their ability to hear no doing much better. Bitsine was so weak she had the desire to just shut off so she wouldn't be conscious of what was happing to her, but her Titan will forbid her from just giving up. Amidst the situation, Bitsine could have sworn she heard something. It was faint because the Darkness was impairing her hearing but she could swear it sounded like the gate activated again but it didn't matter. She couldn't find the strength to get up, let alone go back through the portal, Avez, and Ellie were in the same state.
When it seems like the end was certain, the Guardians and their Ghost felt a strong presence of Light wash over them. The Darkness engulfing the trio was pushed back, soon their strength returned as good as new, so did their vision. "What the?" her strength returning, Bitsine was able to sit up, seeing that they were inside a transparent barrier. "The hell?" She turned her head, her optics first seeing a pair of nonhuman legs standing beside her. Looking up, Her eyes lit up seeing the familiar appearance of their four-armed savior. "Holy crap, Pekis!"
Avez and Ellie got up and turned to see the missing Hunter of their Group had returned, Emitting the Aegis' protective barrier around them which cleansed them of the void's mark. "Pekis! Where have you been?" Ellie questioned, standing up alongside Avez and Bitsine.
"Elsewhere. We must leave. It is not safe to stay here." He gestured to the active time gate they could use to escape.
"Tell me about it." Bitsine picked up her gun.
The four of them were about to leave when Pekis felt the Aegis' power begin resonating with something again. "What!?" Growling, He scanned the area, expecting the Legionless Mind to be making an appearance. The other Guardians quickly caught on to Pekis change in demeanor, raising their weapons for an attack. No attack came but at the top of where the Glass Throne would be, A large presence of Light emerged out of nowhere, just like when the Aegis first appeared. The blinding Well of Light receded, becoming smaller and dimmer until a familiar shape was all that was left.
"What the hell?" Bitsine muttered, lowering her weapon, looking back on the shield on Pekis' arm then back at the completely identical shield floating a few feet off the ground yards away. "There are two of those things now?"
The four Ghosts present all did a quick scan on the second Aegis, their readings indicating that both shields were the exact same one. "That's not a duplicate. It the same one as the one Pekis has." Ellie's Ghost, Dex said.
"The same one?" Ellie had a bit of skepticism in her but that faded fast. The gateway that brought them there took them to a distant point in time so it must mean that the second Aegis is from this point in time while Pekis' is from the present. "But why is it here?"
Pekis was as confused by this turn of events as the rest of the Guardians but the Aegis on his arm caught his attention. Its energy pulsed to communicate with him and Aepvis. It was short but Pekis understood. "One of you take the shield."
"What?" Avez said, "You mean the second one?"
"Yes. One of you needs to take the second Aegis and bring it back with us. I already have this one so it must be one of you."
"Why?" Ellie questioned, "If we already have one why do we need more."
"There's no time! Just take it!"
"I'll do it!" Bitsine announced raising her right hand. "You and Avez have shields so I want to try using one." Satisfied with Bitsine's decision, Pekis lead the group to the second Aegis, maintaining the barrier around them to protect against the Darkness waiting for a chance to smother, and erase them from time. Once they reached it, Bitsine walked around to the back end where the handle was. Holstering her weapon, Bitsine's optics spotted the text Kabr engraved into the metal, reaching out to grab the handle but instead, just like with Pekis, the Second Aegis immediately attached itself to Bitsine's forearm like a magnet. "Whoa!" The Exo Titan took a step back, sensing the Aegis' Light connecting with her own.
The Second Aegis flashed, signaling that it successfully bonded to Bitsine just as the first did with Pekis. "Now that feels... I don't know."
"We must not linger. Come." Pekis turned and went in the direction of the time gate, the other three following close, with Bitsine now equipped with her own Aegis.
Back in the present, Kelly and Crux were holding the line as best they could. They manage to retake the sync plate, holding on for dear life knowing that plate was the key for their comrades' way back. "How long are they going to take!?" Crux fired a burst of explosive from his Prospector for crowd control, taking out several robots but more kept coming."
"As long as they need!" Kelly threw a scatter grenade, heavily damaging a praetorian enjoy to finish it off with gunfire. She switched to her Antiope-D submachine gun as more Vex were getting closer. "I do wish they'd hurry though!" Try as she might, Kelly couldn't suppress the idea that something bad might have happened on the other side of the gate. If that was true then chances were that neither her nor Crux would be getting out of this situation alive, not that they wouldn't go down swinging.
As more robots fell to the two Guardians, a familiar sound was heard among the fighting. "Finally!" Crux said, recognizing the sound made from when Bitsine, Avez, and Ellie used the gate. "You guys sure took your-" He turned his head seeing familiar but unexpected Guardian had returned. "Holy crap!"
Hearing Crux, Kelly turned her head towards the gate, Her heart leaping with joy at the sight of the first one to come back through. Pekis upon hearing the sounds of battle snarled and looked around at the attacking Vex. Avez, Ellie, and Bitsine returned moments later behind Pekis, they all quickly getting into the fighting mindset to aid their fellow Guardians. Bitsine jump headfirst into the thick of it, ready to test out her Aegis. She bore down on an unfortunate goblin that would be the first of many more to fall.
As the goblin broke apart from Bitsine's attack, Crux spotted what was on her arm. "Bitsine, Where the hell did you get that!?" He gave a quick glance at Pekis who still had an Aegis attached to his arm.
"Don't you know!? There a fire sale going on and it's first come first serve!" Bitsine charged, raising her Aegis to defend against the Vex while she closed the distance. Ellie went to back them up while Pekis and Avez moved to assist Kelly. She wanted to embrace Pekis after being so worried about him but there was a firefight going on so that would have to come later. With the Guardians' numbers risen from two to six, The Vex lines were quickly pushed back.
'Warning! Paradoxal event in progress! Timestream integrity compromised!'
"We have to activate the next time gate to eliminate the last Gatekeeper!" Crux's Ghost, Soul reminded, she and the other Ghosts giving their Guardians waypoints to their objective. With their fireteam back at full strength, they had little trouble fighting through the Vex to the Next sync plate. Bitsine and Pekis made full use of their shields, their impenetrable barriers providing excellent cover for their comrades. Pekis unsheathed Fatebringer once again, rushing forward like a valiant knight to strike down his foes. With all six of them together they activated the next time gate with ease, opening the doorway to the past.
This time, Pekis, Crux, and Kelly were the ones to go through while Bitsine, Avez, and Ellie protected the sync plate. This way the Guardians split their numbers evenly this time and leave both teams with one Aegis to use. Pekis, Kelly, and Crux crossed the threshold into the past, reappearing on the other side to another version of the Glass Throne. This version was brighter, greener with foliage like a small jungle. On top of that, there was a Gatekeeper and a legion of Vex already waiting for them. Pekis raised his Aegis' barrier to protect them from the Vex's initial barrage. Kelly and Crux leaping out from opposite sides, activating their supers right off the bat.
Kelly's body was engulfed in solar Light, throwing Solor grenades at groups of robots like no one's business. Arc Light surged through Crux, a blade forming in his hand as he went to work cut up Vex left and right. With the Vex distracted by the other two Guardians, Pekis dropped the barrier, rushing forward going right for the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper detected the Eliksni coming for it at trains its cannons right on him. Pekis avoided being hit, several of the other Vex attempted to intercept him but that proved to be nothing more than bumps in the road. He leaped into the air, face the front of the Aegis towards the hydra channeling its power, and fired.
Back in the present, Bitsine was having a fun time with her new weapon. She may not have had a sword to go with, but being a titan it hardly mattered. "Come On!" She challenged any Vex near her. A Praetorian answered, marching forth to meet her. the heavy Vex swung its arm to strike. She met the melee attack with her own, sending her free arm to counter it. The Praetorian's hand broke on contact with Bitsine's who then swung her Aegis at its Chest. The Praetorian's chest was completely crushed as it was sent fly towards some goblins, knocking them over as it broke apart upon landing. Since Bitsine is a Titan, her strikes with the Aegis hit much harder than they do with Pekis'.
"Nice to see you're a quick learner!" Ellie complimented. She and Avez stayed inside the sync plate to keep it active while Bitsine ran around putting her Aegis to good use, greatly reducing the number of Vex that could get close to the plate.
"After seeing Pekis in action, I got the gist of how to fight with it pretty fast." Bitsine levitated in the air, facing her Aegis towards a crowd of machines, letting it focus in energy before firing an energy blast. The explosion decimated the Vex, The Titan raising the Aegis' barrier as she descended, dropping it once her feet hit the ground.
They continued holding the line but not for long as the other three members of their group soon returned. Hearing the sound of the time gate in use, Avez turned to greet them but the words got stuck in his mouth when Crux returned with an all too familiar relic now attached to his left arm. "Hey, Avez! Check out my new accessory!" Pekis and Kelly returned moments later, Pekis still having his Aegis on his arm.
'Warning! All security units terminated! Paradoxal event in progress! Timestream integrity critical! calculating response...'
"We destroyed the last Gatekeeper!" Kelly informed. "That's all three now what?" She asked her Ghost, Walker.
"With the Gatekeepers dead, the Vex won't be able to maintain the lockdown. We just need to hold them off long enough to force their leader out of hiding."
"Fine by me!" Crux pulled out his Last Word, Using his Aegis for cover while he opened fire. The rest of the Guardians got to work clearing the Area of Vex, machines falling one after another.
'Paradoxal response formulated! Timestream correction in progress! Purge sequence initiated!'
As the Guardians dealt with the remains of the Vex, Their Ghosts all simultaneously detected the creation of at conflux in the center of the area. More Vex were summoned, marching straight for the construct to sacrifice themselves to rid their realm of the intruders and force the Aegis' of past and future back to their respective points in time. The Ghosts warned their Guardians of what the Vex were up to and they took up positions around the conflux to prevent any sacrifice from being made. Even as heavier cyclops and hydra units were summoned they were unable to break the Light bearers defense.
While all this was happening, the three Aegis' of different points in time being together was sending ripples throughout the Vault of Glass. The relics resonated with one, their Light connecting, growing stronger. This was a paradox. An unfathomable and dangerous event that threatened to harm the control over time the Vex struggled to maintain at all costs. The resonance grew stronger, the relics glowing brighter than before, the Guardians they were attached to quickly noticing that something was happening. The Ghost monitoring the event were astounded as none of them, or any other Ghost or Guardian had ever witnessed such a paradox unfold.
'Warning! Paradoxal event reaching critical levels! Unable to contain!'
The Relics all fired beams of Light into the conflux the fireteams were defending, overriding it, using it to send out a disabling pulse that short-circuited all Vex caught in it. The fight stopped, the machines hitting the ground, sparks flying out of their chassis leaving the Guardians as the victors but it wasn't over yet. The conflux disappeared, the resonate reaching its peak at the Aegis' were drawn to one another. "What is happening!?" Crux was pulled by his shield towards the others, Pekis and Bitsine going through the same thing. Kelly, Ellie, and Avez stepped back at the relic met one another in the middle, the energy readings going off the charts as they were about to touch.
The relic wielders braced themselves as the shields finally made direct contact and only what could be described as an explosion took place. The Guardians were all blown back as a burst of light erupted from the meeting of shields. The power they felt wash over them was overwhelming and when it was over, Pekis was the only one left with an Aegis, while Bitsine and Crux found that theirs were gone.
"What just happened!?" Kelly asked perplexed.
"Those three Aegis' being together created a paradox. When they came into contact with each other, it would have sent distortions throughout the timeline of the Vault. My guess is that the ones that Bitsine and Crux had were probably sent back to where they were found." Walker explained.
"Well, that sucks." Bitsine was already missing her shield. She, Pekis, and Crux check themselves for any damage. The Vex that were attacking were all destroyed by the pulse so they were safe for the moment. Then they heard the sound of glass cracking. They all looked towards the crystal fragments of the Glass Throne floating in the air, seeing that some of them had large cracks, indicating that the event certainly had an effect on the Vault.
'Para-doxal Even-t Ended. Disto-rtions detec-ted in time-str-eam. Secur-ity compro-mised. Para-caus-al entities uninhibited. Calcul-ating appropriate response...'
The Guardians finished checking themselves, and their equipment, finding no serious damage in no small part to their Ghosts. "Now that all that's done, what now?" Bitsine questioned.
"Wait for it," Aepvis responded.
"For what?" Pekis asked, looking around on alert.
For several moments, the group was silent, staying ready for whatever may come for them. The tension in the air was cut by a high-pitched sound coming from the Glass Throne. All Light bearers present turned to the floating crystals that began moving. One by one, each crystal connected to one another, forming larger fragments that increased in size. It didn't take long for the all crystals to merge together into their true form. The Glass Throne had fully formed. Almost directly upon completion, the Glass Throne lit up with the power of the Vex. At its center, an immensely bright light shined out as the Vex's confluence of time had been fully awakened.
'Direct intervention required.'