It took a long time for his tears to run dry. A long time to find his voice and apologize to Glint, who, being Glint, insisted the it was unnecessary.

The he realized he'd charged blindly into The Howling, and cried a little more as the psychological panic of the place began to work its magic. The only thing his Light could feel was the pull of the dream. So, drying his face with his cloak, and with the new, real fear of Spider blowing up Glint within the next half hour spurring him on, Crow started to follow it. I was Uldren Sov.

He couldn't remember finding the place, or how long it took. Just that everything was the same, that this place was timeless, and that at some point he has spent an inordinate amount of time falling through The Howling. His only anchor from total disassociation at this point was Glint, who was, being Glint, constantly talking and reminding Crow to notify him if he started hearing voices in his head.

-"Yes, I hear something right now." Crow rasped. Glint materialized, shell spinning anxiously, and scanned him.

"Male, constant, very clear, slightly mechanical, and bit annoying sometimes-"

"Light. Ha, ha. Don't scare me like that!"-

They had stumbled upon some kind of gate ritual. He was no expert in hive gates or rituals, but this one looked a little strange. Blue-hued energy seemed to warp the air around the portal, rather than the rippling tears he'd seen in the past. Naturally, he turned to his ancient energy construct companion for guidance.

"Glint, does that ritual look atypical to you? Something feels off." He inquired. The little being materialized in his hood, eye narrowed.

"My professional opinion is that yes, that gate looks wibbly." Ahh, yes, ancient wisedom. " The energy draw is massive, from what I can scan from here...and they seem to be powering it from the other side not here. The signatures and readings I'm getting are entirely unique and don't match anything that I've ever seen. Fascinating."

Although the pull led in this direction, Crow felt anxiety wrap around him."Let me guess... we have to shut it down from the other side."

"Yup." How did he stay so cheerful? With a bomb in him, no less?

"Of course." Emotionally and physically exhausted, he didn't know if he could do this... but everything the hive did put someone at risk. If they needed help, and he could do the helping, didn't he have an obligation to at least try? I can't believe I was him.

From: Illusive Man

Subject: Indoctrinated Team

Shepard, we have a situation at one of our observation posts. Several of our operators began sending increasingly strange reports, and our experts agree that the phraseology is indicative of indoctrination. The operation is so small I wouldn't bother you without absolute proof, so I've attached several of the reports so you can see for yourself. Your mission still takes priority, of course, but it may interest you to know that this is happening on Eden Prime.

I've had the coordinates forwarded to Normandy, and we're still monitoring the messages and surveillance feeds coming from our operatives. Investigate, if you find it's worth your while. There are always other cleanup crews.

Crow crept slowly around the perimeter of the ritual, hoping and praying that they wouldn't smell his Light. He'd come too far to wind up eaten. He stopped often, holding his breath, terror pounding through his veins the closer he got. He stayed low to the ground, using his hands to steady himself because he didn't quite trust his legs. Everything shook against his will.

The air of The Howling was stale, despite the constant winds, and it smelled like the inside of an ancient coffin. The corpse had long since withered away, but you could still tell that there had been decay in the air once. He kept turning his face towards the gust, hoping for some kind of fresh smell, and was always disappointed.

The stone beneath his fingers was cold and smooth, while at the same time warm and rough enough to feel like it was made of needles. The chants of the wizards were hypnotic and horrid. The words made his spine tingle and his blood curdle, and half the fear of this place was of hearing those horrible words for too long...

"In the darkest days of the Dark Age," Glint's voice through the Ghost Link nearly made him jump," when there were no heroes and greed ruled the hearts of many a Lightborn, there rose the Lords of Iron."

As his heart stopped pounding, Crow felt himself relax. "They who swore in the aftermath of a terrible battle, to do better. To be more."

Crow took a deep breath, as silently as he could, as Glint drowned out the horrible voices. He crept forward, slowly and methodically.

"To be noble. To be honorably. To protect where others would exploit."

He was getting close. Soon there would be no cover to hide behind, and he would have to make a run for the gate. Should he just run without pause or risk, or should he spray them with a thousand cuts of Light as he came out of cover?

"To heal where others would harm. To replace greed with sacrifice. They swore a solemn oath to protect the innocent, confront the evil, and guard humanity without greed in their actions."

He primed his Light, taking deep breaths of the stale air. Oxygen fueled life. Oxygen fueled fire. Oxygen fueled living fire.

"And from that day forward there was hope again. Hope in better nature. Hope that people could be inherently good to each other."

Breathing, stoking his Light, Crow planned his trajectory, and readied himself.

"Hope was all it took for more good people to do good things. And the Iron Lords grew."

One more deep breath, and he dashed out of cover. He pushed his fire down his arms and out, twisting in the air to give the shards of sol Light more momentum before letting them fly at his targets. He stumbled on the landing, and fear shot through him.

"Keep going!" Glint urged. He scrambled for the gate a horrible screams cut off the horrible words. Terrible howls and screeching filled the air. The portal loomed, and he felt every step as he ran. Streaks of void-hued projectiles passed him, striking at the rocks and leaving taces in the air behind them. Pain lanced through his back, and he tripped, more pain stabbing through his jaw as his chin struck the rock.

Blood roaring In his ears, Crow staggered to his feet, and launched himself at the portal in a desperate scrabble.

It felt like he was being torn apart.

When Crow came too, it was to the welcoming rush of warmth that tended to come with being revived. After the day he'd had and the ordeal he'd just experienced, he would gladly lay down and let let Glint fuss over him with Light as long as the Ghost pleased.

Then he picked up the smell, realized he was face down in hive gunk, and decided he would relax later. Before or after another emotional breakdown he wasn't sure, but after being out of the Ascendant Plane for only half a second, he wasn't feeling nearly as... thin, as before. He sat up, spitting, trying to get the gunk off his face.

"Sorry about the goo." Glint ran another beam of Light over him. Outside of the Plane, it felt far more warm and revitalizing. "We need to move, before they follow us."

Nodding, he got to his feet shakily as Glint phased, as looked around. His breath caught in his throat. He was in a warehouse of some sort, corrupted with hive growth. In the center was a cryptolith... surrounded by humans. Looking around frantically, he found what looked to have once been a peice of heavy machinery and hid behind it. There were large, hive-encrusted windows on the other side, and he let himself feel relief for a moment.

I need a plan. I can't destroy a cryptolith without a plan! He jammed open the hatch, and a vicious scream signaled the arrival of his pursuers. He kicked it open the rest of the way and jumped out into a cave. He paused for a moment, sleep-deprived brain confused. Who needs windows in a cave?

Another scream startled him into running, and he tore up the path away from the warehouse, following a trail of cable-connected rod-like he saw light ahead, and realized he could smell fresh air. It was slightly off, not quite earth-like; most people wouldn't notice the difference but a Hunter definitely could, not that he cared. Any air was better than The Howling.

He burst into a rocky clearing, and he stopped for a moment, astonished. The cave entrance was cut into the side of a ravine, and the area was surrounded by trees. Sunlight cast itself across the area, and he could hear leaves rustling in the wind. He could smell wet earth and stone, indicating it had rained earlier. This was much better than The Howling. Glint materialized at his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we be running-ooo!" His Ghost almost immediately tried to scan the nearest rock. Crow grabbed him and took off. "Hey!"

"Running for our lives, remember?" He reminded his friend. "You can scan stuff later."

Glint phased with a tragic sigh as he wove through the forest. It was at an incline, if he could gain hight and get a lay of the land, he could lay the groundwork for a strategy. Osiris had theorized that with the Celebrant dead, Guardians would be able to burn down the cryptolith with their Light. If he was going to do that, he was going to have to burn it to its roots, to the 'seed' from where it sprung. Like a bad mole. Then he would have to find what the hive were sapping power from...

He came up on a rise, and once again found his breath taken away.

Before him was a clearly populated valley of tilled fields. Great towers rose intermittently from the land. He could see houses and roads and active farm equipment. A strange noise to his right startled him, and he drew Hawkmoon on...

A cow with arms.

Crow blinked, and rubbed his eyes. Glint phased in beside him.

"Um... what?"

I was sick as a dog when I wrote chapter one and it shows.

seabo76: Yeah been in droopy creativity phase for a while. Thought I'd try something with Crow since he's becoming so popular.

OnePunchPlayer: I actually looked up the meanings of different flowers in an attempt to give the dream more flavor. Honestly, Crows canon dreams sou d like tripfests so I decided to give him more Awoken-y dreams to lead him to the ME-verse.

I wrote this on a tablet. Let me know if it shows.

In other news, my gecko fell asleep before my very eyes today and it was adorable.

Fare Thee Well!