Chapter 14

Crota snapped awake, and tried to spring to his feet but found himself barely able to move. He tried to yell, tried to reach out to his father with his magic, but found he could do none of these things. There was suddenly a massive weight on his chest, and he opened his three eyes to find himself staring at the reflective surface of a metal helmet. Upon his chest stood a massive Guardian, clearly male, and obviously a Titan. Swathed in full Vanguard gear, shaded a dark black, with the armamentarium chest plate, the Titan seemed quite proud of himself. Before Crota could attempt to speak, another Titan appears, somewhat smaller and slimmer than the first, opposite the other so She was above Crota's head. Her armor matched her male counterparts with perfection, their smugness angering Crota. He attempted to sit up and throw the male Titan off of him, but was easily stomped back down. Crota did however, catch a glimpse of two other Guardian's, these ones being Hunters, and their six tethers(three each) which were sapping Crota's strength. Crota opened his mouth to speak, and immediately both Titan's sprang into movement. The one on his chest grabbed his lower jaw and the female grabbed his upper, and they wrenched his mouth all the way open. From out of the Corner of his eyes, Crota spotted two more Guardians, Warlocks, a male and female, approaching him from either side. Crota began to panic as Solar energy begins to swirl around the Warlocks, but he was no match for the Titan's strength. The Warlocks each summoned a single massive Solar grenade in their hand, and held them over Crota's open mouth. The Female Hunter then spoke, shattering the silence.

"You Know, we came here to kill your daddy, but now, looks like we get to blow your stupid little head off too. Such a waste of a resurrection, isn't it?"

With a stifled giggle from the Warlocks, they tilt their hands and drop the grenades into Crota's mouth, and the two titans fire jolts of electricity through Crota's muscles, causing his muscles to tense and his jaw to slam shut, forcing him to swallow the grenades. The Guardians all dive away, and wait. The Solar light dies out at the same time the Tethers decay, and Crota gets up, anger in his eyes. He opens his mouth and sucks in a deep breath, and the Guardians watch as his chest starts to glow. The moment he goes to roar, the grenades detonate, blowing his entire body to smithereens, and blowing a hole in the floors and ceiling, and setting off every alarm on the ship. The Six Guardians start laughing their heads off, and stroll out into the hallway. Arc Energy starts crackling around the Guardians as they start jogging, and then sprinting towards the wall at the end of the hall. The Two titans throw grenades at the wall, quickly taking the lead. Moments before they hit the wall, the grenades detonated, and the Titans shoulder charge into the weakened material, blowing it open, and using their second jump to boost themselves back up and much further forward in the massive chamber. The soar rather far due to their momentum and then the arc energy around them grows stronger as the plummet to the ground at lightning speed, leaving a trail of arc energy behind them. The twin titans had separated mid-air and came crashing down in different areas amid the massive horde of hive, causing a resounding boom like thunder, which seemed to shake the entire area. As they stood back up, they both switched to Sunbreaker and began tossing hammers of flame into the Hive.

The Two Hunters leapt off immediately after the Titans and reached forward to grab something in mid-air, their Arc energy vanishing as pure Void swirled around them. The world around them slowed, and they took in every detail of the room. The massive gate in the middle was what they were here for. It was the entrance to Oryx's home, whatever it was. The two Hunters looked over at each other, and came to an immediate understanding. They turned their backs to each other, took the ball of void energy in their hands and allowed it to expand and form into a bow of pure void light. They carefully drew and fired six arrows each, setting tethers which formed a perfect circle of death. To the Warlocks, it had appeared that they had simply quick fired six tethers off, but they knew otherwise. The Hunters dropped to the ground, switching back to arc just in time to start slashing through the tethered Hive.

The Warlocks closed their eyes as they leaped through the air, focusing and gathering energy into them. In unison, they vanish, Blinking down to the ground. With an ear splitting explosion, the Warlocks unleash the Storm Within, falling deep into Stormtrance.

Oryx leaned back in his throne, watching through the Crystal mirror as those six pesky guardians destroyed his son once again, and shredded through his armies. He shook his head in disgust.

"You know, brother, you could stop them. If you confront them now, you can kill them."

Oryx looked over in the direction of the voice, and found himself staring at a small Shrieker floating near him. It was clearly the work of his sister, Savathun.

"You know nothing, O' sister of mine. You have not stood where I am, you have not fought these beasts that call themselves Guardians. And it does not matter, they cannot reach me. They are not Ascendant. I have not fully left this realm since the Guardian I took made an attempt on my life beforehand." Oryx made a deep growling noise, which to him was nothing more than a sigh. "I would use that pesky Guardian, but I cannot find him, nor my daughter. They vanished into a Vex Trap. I cannot reach them."

Oryx stood suddenly, snatching the shrieker up in his grasp. He snarled viciously as he crushed the Shrieker, silencing Savathun. He stalked over to where his sword sat on it's pedestal, and prepared to send the Guardians his most powerful general. A New Beast, a Hive Guardian, a mix of Darkness and Light, completely taken and under his control.

The Six Guardians come to a stop, not a single Hive or Taken left alive. In the middle of the room, the massive gate began to hum, and a strange black and green portal forms in the middle with a loud boom. However, something didn't seem right. There were no Hive or Taken coming from within. The female Titan gasped audibly and then quickly threw up her Ward of Dawn, mere moments before a massive sword came spinning from the portal and slammed point first into the Ward, easily penetrating it but being slowed enough that it stopped mere inches from her face. With blinding speed, a Massive Hive Knight came flying out of the portal and slammed himself into the sword hilt, slamming it to the base in the Ward and into the Female Titan's chest, pinning her body to the rock behind her. The Ward of Dawn drops, and the Knight places his foot on the Female Titan's body and yanks his sword back out of her chest. Her ghost appeared and the Knight went to grab it, but the Male Hunter was faster. Using his Arc energy, he launched himself forward and snatched her ghost from out of the way of the Knight, and blasted a massive amount of pure light into the Ghost using the Shard of the Traveller embedded in his Gauntlets. She was immediately resurrected, and they all moved back from the knight.

"Val! Val, are you okay?" The Male hunter questions his friend as they all back away, his voice quiet and raspy, as he had always been.

"Y-yes… I think so anyway… did anyone else get hurt, Remas?" The Female titan coughs and sputters a bit, her voice barely audible. Unlike the others, dying and being resurrected was not easy for her, as she always had strange visions. Remas shakes his head as the two Warlocks, Anubis(Male) and Ame(Female) launch massive Nova bombs at the Knight in an attempt to drive him back. The Knight casually swats the Nova Bombs aside, and swings his sword up onto his shoulder.

"All of you… pathetic. Your god is dead, and soon, you shall be too." The Knight's gravelly sounding voice surprised the Guardians, as they had never encountered a Knight that could talk before. The Male Titan, Vorin, snarled quietly and formed a Hammer of Sol in each hand as Artemis, the Female Hunter, drew back an Arrow on her Shadow Shot bow. With a ground shaking roar from the Knight, the battle began.

Earth: The Last City

Edward sat perfectly still as his lover poked and prodded at all his new scars, but he couldn't help but notice she was intentionally avoiding the fact that his body was also riddled with what looked like cybernetic implants. He knew she was curious, and was unsure as to why she was holding back.

"Ana, love, I know you're curious. I'll tell you anything you ask." Edward shifted slightly as he spoke to Ana, who just sighed quietly. "Ana, it's alright. It's different, I'm different. But I'm still yours. The implants were just there to keep me running while I was in the stasis."

"I know… it's just so strange. I knew every inch of your body before… every scar, every shift of every muscle, but not anymore. Everything is different. But your voice… and your attitude… all still the same. You've changed so much without changing at all. It's just very strange to me. I'm sorry." Ana spoke quietly, her fingers running across his skin still. "We should hurry. The Vanguard wants to talk to us."

He sighed audibly, knowing what was to come, now that he'd returned.

"We have a report right here from the Research team, saying you said you had the key to beating the Vex. You have to tell us where it is." Zavala slammed his fists onto the table, irritated by Edward's seeming lack of cooperation.

"Look, Zavala, I don't know how else to put this. It isn't an object, or a person. At least as far as I know. I just have pictures, images, in my mind." Edward rubs the bridge of his nose before continuing, frustrated by his own inability to remember. "When I interfaced with… whatever that was… through my implants, I saw a place. Not the Black Garden, the Black Garden was simply a waypoint. The Vex had a map, pointing them somewhere, but I can't recreate it. If you could get it and bring it to me, I could read. Only issue is that, well, the Vex mind that has it was Taken. I don't know how I know this, I just do. You have to believe me." As Edward finished his explanation, Zavala glances over at Ana and subconsciously rubbed his jaw before starting to respond, being immediately interrupted by Cayde.

"I believe him. All we gotta do is draw out this Taken Mind thing and blow it up, right? Just a quick one two and boom, we got a map." Cayde looks back and forth between Ikora and Zavala, hoping for a response. Ikora breaks the silence after a moment, seeming rather amused.

"I hate to admit it, Zavala, but I think Cayde's right on this." Cayde quietly laughs to himself when Ikora responds, clearly proud of himself.

"Alright, then let's get us a Strike team together and go kick some Taken ass… do we even know where this thing could be?" Cayde stops to look at Edward as he asks his question, seeming to deflate a bit.

"Yes, actually. I know exactly where it is. It is currently in the dead middle of what used to be London, England." Edward can't help but smile when Cayde gets excited by the fact that Edward knew where it was.

With a wave of his hand, Zavala dismisses Edward and Ana, and the two begin preparations to destroy a Taken Vex Mind.

Shannon groaned outloud, her fighter zipping away as quickly as it could, trying in vain to outrun the Hive Tracking Missiles locked onto her. Jesus grumbles to himself as he attempts to repair the weapon systems of the damaged Fallen Craft, considerably irritated by the fact that he didn't really know what he was doing, and was just hoping something would happen. To his surprise, several loud beeps came from the consol next to him, and a set of Joysticks pop out. He looks up at Shannon, who was paying him no attention, and shrugs, grabbing the joysticks and firing the dual plasma machine guns at the missiles, and then at the ships in pursuit, wiping them out.

"Hey, Kid. You think you can fly a Hive Tombship?" Shannon yells back at Jesus over the loud warnings going off, making the young Exo guardian jump.

"I… uh… I dunno. Maybe." Jesus responds, his voice full of doubt. "Why?" Shannon doesn't respond to his question, instead she spins them around and launches them into what is clearly a collision course for the Hive Tombship's landing bay. Jesus says a quick prayer to the Traveler as there ship slams into the bay doors, a split second after weakening it with their missiles. The ship smashes through the bay doors, and the glass on the cockpit shatters, throwing the two Guardians out into the middle of the Horde of Thrall waiting for them. Shannon went to call up her light, and she felt something strange, as if the Void were calling to her. Without hesitation, she reached out to grab the spec of void light before her, and a large shield formed in her hand. With childish glee, she chucked the shield out into the crowd of Thrall, watching it bounce between them for just a second, and then ducking as a giant flaming hammer swung past her and slammed into the ground, creating a massive shockwave and a tornado of flames. Jesus let out a loud cackle as he dived into the Horde, spinning in a circle with his new hammer, obliterating everything that came near him. Shannon lightly shook her head, and dived into the Hive right behind him. It was going to be a long way to the control room.

3 hours later...

The Hive Knight grunted as he formed a massive shield to block the twin Nova Bombs thrown at him again, the several dozen tethers around him sapping his strength. He'd been fighting these Guardians for hours, barely able to stop them. He would be able to beat them easy, but the Hunter's using so much light from those damned shards to tether him so much, he knew he could not win like this. Unfortunately for them, however, he still had a trick up his sleeve. The Knight reached up to grasp the black crystal on his sword, breaking it off, and let out a roar as he shoved it into his chest. A massive barrier forms around him, cutting the Tethers away from him, and blasting Taken Energy through him once more. With a pissed off growl, he cracked his neck, and smiled at the Guardians.

"Ready for round two, maggots?" The Knight snarled at them, and without giving them a chance to respond, teleports right up to the Male Titan and full on kicks him across the room and into the stone wall, putting a massive hole in the wall. With that, the Guardian's realized they couldn't win, and played their own Trump card.

Without any warning, a Cable Ship smashes through the wall and into the room, firing a shot into the Knight's back. The Six Guardian's transmat onto the ship as it fires into reverse and launches itself back out of the massive hole and back into space. The Knight slowly got back to his feet and turned to watch the Guardian's retreat, knowing that their time would come.

I'm so so sorry I haven't updated in so long. Everything in my life went to shit all at once, and I've only just recently clawed my way out of that utter disaster.

This may not be the best Chapter I've ever written, but I've written and rewritten bits and pieces over the last couple months.

Anyway, I am officially back, and am planning on Starting Weekly uploads.

I hope you guys can forgive me.

-Your Favorite Villian, Oryx

-RIP Cayde-6, you were always my favorite. I will miss you till the end of Days.