A/N: I'm baaaack!


The data tag was no big deal. It was applied by one of the AIs that Minerva thought of as 'robots', who did it as efficiently and wordlessly as someone might brush a fly off one's shoulder. The briefest of pinching pains was the only thing to mark its insertion. Her Ghost dematerialized and reappeared two or three times to test it was working properly, and that was that.

Then, the same robot handed her a strange item out of a locked drawer. About five inches in diameter, the object was made of some kind of glass or gemstone, and bore the shape of a dodecahedron.

How do you know what a dodecahedron is? she wondered briefly while examining it. It was a milky white color, and quite firm.

"This is an engram?" she asked Kalina, who was still hovering nearby.

"Yes," Kalina said. "It's kind of a portable transmat, used for gathering anything useful. Sometimes while we're out, we come across relics of the Golden Age, or strange tech, or data caches. Your engram does the same as a transmat does for us: it translates anything you find that you think might be useful into a data signature, which it then stores. When you get back here or somewhere safe, you can reverse the process and rematerialize everything in its matter form, or download the data into one of the computer hubs for analysis. Material only; it's too small to have the sophistication to translate complex organisms."

"So…" Minerva looked up at Kalina from the little object on her palm. "…it's a means to be able to scavenge efficiently."

Kalina grinned. "Pretty much. There is so much from the Golden Age we don't know, and so much of it is still lying around out there, or in use by the enemy. Anything we can find is a help, but Guardians need their mobility and to be able to fight. It makes it much harder if you're lugging around a crate of GA tech you found in a bunker that's been undisturbed for centuries."

She passed Min a small, hard pouch with a snapping lid. The pouch itself felt like metal but looked like plastic. Min slipped the engram inside, snapped the lid closed, then fastened it to the flimsy rubber belt she wore.

"We'll get better clothes downstairs before we see Lord Shaxx," Kalina told her. "You ready?"

Ready to get slaughtered over and over again by veterans who think it's a game? Is there any ready for that? Min thought this, but did not say it aloud. Instead, she only nodded, and followed Kalina out of the robot's little cubicle.

Each time they had left an area, they had headed downward. By the time they reached what looked like a small cluster of cobbled together shops formed of scrap metal, it felt as if they had been travelling downward forever.

Just how tall is this tower? she wondered.

The shops were clustered in a room large enough to be a small town square- and indeed, that's what it most closely resembled. It was as busy here as it had been in other areas, and just as the little café where they'd eaten, most everything looked as if it had been scavenged or scraped together from a hundred different sources. Only the tech gleaming from the walls in the form of displays or with the appearance of kiosks here and there, looked polished and new.

Kalina approached one of the battered together stalls and started talking to the woman standing behind the counter. Like Kalina, this woman was Awoken, though her hair was far neater and had apparently been cut according to slide rule. As Minerva moved over after Kalina, she saw that the shop's appearance was deceptive. The slats of scrap wood and metal, it seemed, only formed an enclosed entryway. Where it butted against the wall behind the proprietor, there was a doorway that lead into a much larger and neater space.

Looking more intently at the stall itself, Minerva noticed that the counter, the overhanging frame with its scrap of cloth that formed the 'roof', and the walls all appeared to be hinged.

Those…would fold inward, she thought as she regarded them intently. Yes, and there seems to be a handle just there…

It looked like a pull from behind it would fold the front of the stall in half inwardly, allowing the counter to fall downward and the walls to fold in, like doors shutting. The 'roof' would then fold down over the front of it.

At the end of the day, a single tug would literally close the shopfront and pull it flush with the wall behind it. It was actually quite clever-

"Mini?"

She blinked, and realized Kalina and the shop owner were both looking at her.

"What?"

"She needs to scan you for size," Kalina said. Then when Minerva kept looking at her blankly she gestured. "For your new clothes?"

"Oh. Of course."

She moved over where the shopkeeper directed her, then stood still with her arms out while a scanner was passed over her. Then the shopkeeper passed the beam over her again and this time, as she did so, the canvas and rubber clothes began to unweave and vanish, replaced simultaneously with new garments weaving themselves into place in their stead.

When the beam finished, she was dressed in what felt like thick, sturdy trousers, a far less scratchy tunic type shirt, and a heavy leather vest and belt. So quickly did the transformation take place that the pouch holding her engram had not fallen, and remained clipped to her new belt.

"Comfortable?" the shopkeeper asked. Minerva plucked at her clothes a bit, more in wonder at the process than anything else, then nodded.

The shopkeeper smiled and winked, then turned away and picked up some things on a nearby shelf. "First set is always free," she said, then turned back and draped a long coat over the counter, tossing a set of gloves over it. "These should suit as well."

The coat was a dark and heavy fabric that felt slightly oily on the outside. Min pulled it on and it fell to just below her belt. The gloves were thinner and finer and seemed made of a very similar material to Kalina's cloak- thin and delicate but deceptively warm when she pulled them on. As she was already warm, she pulled them off again, then tucked them into her belt with a grateful nod.

"Good luck in the Crucible," the shopkeeper said as they stepped away from the stall.

"I take it there's currency?" Minerva asked as they walked through the broad room, heading for yet another door and set of stairs.

"There is, but it's not the only means of buying something by far," Kalina told her. "Bartering is big. Don't worry; you'll find plenty out in the field, and scavenged tech is always paid for by the Tower, so you won't have too much to worry about."

Min was seized with a sudden thought, and looked at Kalina. "Those meals we had- were they provided by the Tower too, or did you-"

"Don't worry, I have plenty," Kalina said genially, but despite her friendly smile Minerva immediately looked glum.

Thinking about how much she had eaten she said, "I'll pay you back."

"You'll pay it back the first time you get sent out to pick up a newborn," Kalina told her. "Honestly, Mini- it's all right. Someone paid for my first meals, I paid for yours, and you'll pay for the next poor schlub. It's like the circle of life, but with fewer lions."

Minerva wasn't quite sure what this last bit meant, but she didn't comment on it. She was getting downright used to Kalina making little to no sense.

They moved downward once again, delving deeper into the Tower until Min started to wonder if they were actually underground now. Even here, on what had to be the lowest levels, the sheer bustle of the place had not thinned or ceased. There seemed to be just as many people down here as had been out in the corridor when she'd first ventured out of her room.

Kalina seemed to be getting quieter and quieter the further they went. Almost the moment they'd left the café she'd become more solemn and serious, and Min began to wonder. Was the upbeat energy and playful banter she'd demonstrated before out of character for her, or was this?

Or is she really just that bothered by the prospect of this 'Nara' in the Crucible? Indeed, it seemed as if her sudden solemnity had come the moment she found out the Twins were down there. What could be so bad about this woman that it brought about this kind of reaction in Kalina?

She said she frightened her. Kalina had been describing what a Guardian was and was meant to do; had been talking about some of the things she and others had faced in the field, and about the monstrousness of some of the alien creatures they were expected to fight without batting an eyelash or showing even the slightest hesitation or note of fear-but she feared this other Guardian? Did that make sense?

Kalina finally lead them out of the stairwell and into a broad floor. Across this floor there was a large alcove. Grand, wide windows covered nearly the entire far end of this alcove, eliminating the idea that they were now underground. The glass of the windows was thick and shimmering with an odd blue hue.

They might not have been underground but they certainly seemed to finally be on the ground, as through the windows Min could see dirt and grass, a torn up landscape that looked threadbare and seemed snarled with ruins.

A cluster of people, four or five, stood in the alcove among a mishmash of cabinets, shelves, and trunks. A broad beaten counter was propped on some boxes. Scattered throughout the shelves and on the counter were various weapons and pieces of armor. Among this hodgepodge stood another robot, and the biggest man Minerva had ever seen.

Shaped like a walking wall, the man stood at least half a foot above Min herself- and from what she'd seen of everyone else they'd passed in the corridors and stairwells, this was no easy feat. He was nearly as broad in the shoulder as he was tall, the thick patches of heavy fur he'd draped on his shoulders only enhancing his apparent width. She could not see his face, as it was covered with a gleaming, one horned helmet. It was impossible to tell if he was human, Awoken, or Exo- or one of the very alien beings Kalina had been describing.

The three others there were far less intimidating. Only one of them looked experienced- a short but wiry man with tightly curled hair and a narrow chin. He, like Kalina, was wearing a cloak, but his was bright white. It stood out even more starkly against the dark gleam of his skin.

The other two were dressed far more simply, like Minerva herself, and looked more uncertain. One was a rather droopy human woman with lank dark hair, the other a young human man with a shaved head. His brows were tightly knit and he seemed to be trying to put on pieces of shoulder armor. The wiry man was helping him. Everyone, save the robot, had a Ghost hovering above his or her shoulder. The one beside the wiry man was blue and covered in what looked like dark hash marks, and the one with the broad monster of a man looked beaten and chipped, almost scarred.

As they neared, the broad man turned and looked at them. "Hunter Kalina," he greeted in a voice not unlike a low rumble of thunder. "This must be your newborn."

His voice was translated by his Ghost into what sounded like the language that Kalina spoke. Min's Ghost re-translated it in echo into Russian. The effect of the man speaking and then both Ghosts echoing various translations in his voice was a bit disconcerting.

"Lord Shaxx," Kalina said with a pleasant smile. "This is Minerva Anosova."

Expression was impossible to see through his helmet, of course. "Both names," he said, sounding mildly interested but not surprised. It seemed to Minerva that he was measuring her up. "Where was she found?"

"Russia," Kalina said.

"Golden Age?"

"The Collapse, it would seem."

"I'm sensing a trend," Shaxx said thoughtfully, then gestured to the droopy woman. "Rhonda, from Ivodel on Venus, during the Collapse."

The woman nodded slightly, her head bobbing a bit like a bird's. Shaxx then gestured at the shaved and half-armored man. "Found drifting in an ancient junk freighter at the edges of the Reef," he said. "Freighter dates as well from the Collapse. Calls himself Ian."

"I couldn't remember my name," Ian said in a mellow, almost musical voice. He gave a tiny smile, much like Kalina's, and offered his hand to Minerva. "So I picked Ian. Pleased to meet you."

She shook his hand. The wiry haired man helping Ian into his armor flicked his eyes from Min toward Shaxx. "Looks like a Titan."

"I will judge that," Shaxx replied mildly. "Kalina, are you staying?"

"I…" She looked pensively at the windows, her expression for a moment almost hopeful. "I heard the Twins-?"

"There are twelve already in there," Shaxx told her. "Nara and Blayd are among them."

The flicker of hope vanished, but she sighed. "Well, I'm staying anyway, I guess."

"Then you can help your newborn armor up."

He stepped aside to talk to the wiry haired man, and Kalina gestured Min over to the counter and indicated she should remove her coat and put on her gloves. As Min did so, Kalina began to rifle through the offerings, eyeballing the size of the armor pieces against various parts of Min's body. The way her eyes kept flicking to Ian and Rhonda prompted Min to speak.

"Are they unusual?" she asked, draping her coat over the counter.

"It's unusual to have so many newborns at once," Kalina said. "I was expecting you'd be the only one here today. Usually we go a few weeks, if not months, before another is found. Three at a time is a bit out of step. Three humans, too. Strange."

"Shaxx seemed surprised we were all from the Collapse?"

"That's unusual too," Kalina said. "Most of our newborns are from the Golden Age, but not usually from the Collapse itself. It's rare. Not as rare as getting a newborn that predates the Golden Age, but rare."

"Does that happen?" Minerva asked, as Kalina seemed to find a satisfactory chest piece and directed Minerva how to put it on. "Finding someone who's pre-Golden Age?"

"I have not heard of it," her Ghost said before Kalina could reply, distracted as she was with the armor. Kalina shook her head.

"There's two I've heard of," she said. "Don't know for sure if they really were or not or if it's just rumor, but one's supposed to be the Speaker. There. How's that feel?"

Min shifted a bit. Kalina had helped her strap into some chest armor and a couple of arm pieces. They felt a bit heavy but nothing she couldn't handle. Beyond that, she didn't know how to answer, as she didn't know how armor was supposed to feel. It wasn't tight and uncomfortable, at least.

As Kalina rifled through a few more pieces with the robot's help, picking up some promising looking shoulder pads, Minerva said, "Did that other Guardian find both of them?"

Kalina looked over at her, brows raised. "Who, Tychon?" she asked, indicating the wiry haired man who was now helping to strap armor onto Rhonda. "I doubt it. That'd be far too much into the 'unusual happenstance' department for me to handle, I think."

"Then why isn't the one who found her here helping her?" Minerva asked, looking at the other two newborns. "Or the one who found Ian, I suppose?"

"Many reasons. They may have been too busy. They may hate the Crucible. There's nothing to say a Guardian has to stick with a newborn they find, beyond delivering them to the Tower and making sure they get fed and camped down."

Minerva looked at her as Kalina fastened a shoulder pad on and attached it to the chest pad Min was already wearing. "Why are you staying?" she asked.

Kalina's luminescent eyes flicked toward her face a moment, before smile and refocusing on the straps she was fastening. "My, you are full of questions," she said cheerfully. "You know, I'm starting to wonder if you won't end up being a warlock after all. Remembering both names, full of questions, clearly eager to learn-"

"You're evading."

"- using big words," Kalina said, then winked at Minerva. Min felt a slight scowl crease her face and Kalina laughed.

"Never mind, there's the big scary Titan face," she said. She gently gripped the shoulder pad she'd just strapped down. "I'm staying because I want to make sure you're ok," she said. "I'm only four years old, and I can still remember how unsettled and unsure I was when I was brought back to the Tower the first time. The one who found me stayed, and I never forgot how much that helped. Consider it the circle of life thing again. I'm staying because someone stayed for me, and this is the only way I can return the favor. Ok?"

She finished helping Minerva armor up, and almost the moment the last bit was fitted and snapped down, the robot handed her a set of weapons.

"You always get three to start," Kalina said, fastening them to Minerva with their various holsters and indicating each one as she did so. "Pistol, shotgun, sniper. Pretty basic models but decent enough."

"And whichever I use will help them to determine what Class I am?" Minerva asked. Kalina shook her head.

"Don't worry about that, just use what you feel most comfortable with. There are Titans that are crack shots with a sniper, and warlocks who like shotguns. It's not the weapons that will Class you, it's a ton of things. There's no right or wrong Class- it's something intrinsic to you and Shaxx just needs to suss it out. Don't worry, he's never wrong."

"If I could have your attention a moment," Shaxx said. He was now standing between them and the broad windows at the back of the alcove. From this vantage, Min could see they went all the way down to the floor. Outside, among the tangle of sprawling ruins, there were occasional flashes of light. Once or twice, she thought she saw someone moving, but she couldn't be sure.

At Shaxx's voice, the three newborns turned to look at him, and he regarded them in turn.

"You have basic gear, and basic weapons. There are twelve veterans out there who are in their own high end and highly modified gear, carrying weapons that make yours look like spit-guns. You will not win. Do not go out expecting to win. Winning, ladies and gentleman, is not the point for you today. You are going to go out there and you are going to die, painfully and repeatedly. You must experience this pain. You must experience this death. It is vital for you to become accustomed to it, to eliminate the fear that attends both in mortal men and women. This is a forge, out there is a fire, and you will burn in it- but make no mistake. You will come out refined by the experience."

Minerva felt that greasy ball clenching her stomach again and did her best to swallow it down. They had their backs to her, so she could not see if Ian or Rhonda felt the same, but she could not imagine a person who wouldn't.

Shaxx continued. "Follow your guts out there. Follow your instincts. You will be closely observed, your every action and decision monitored and measured. This is vital to determine to which Class you have been born. You may have already secretly decided on a Class, or one you would like to be. Do not behave as you think such a Class might be expected to behave, hoping to get selected for it. It will not work, and you will only do yourself a disservice. You are the Class that you are- you have been brought back suited intrinsically for it, and you could not change it any more than you can change your species by mere desire. We are here only to discover which Class each of you already are, not to determine where we would like to stick you or where you would like to be. Have I made that clear?"

Minerva nodded, as did the other two. Shaxx put his hands on his hips and nodded as well. "Good. Above all other things remember- today and the next few weeks are all about letting go of only one thing: fear. Confront it. Embrace it. Learn from it, and then learn to let it go. All right. Here we go. May the Light of the Traveler go with you."

He gestured at the windows and the centermost one suddenly slid upward, forming a doorway between the alcove and the outside. The moment it opened Minerva could hear the almost deafening sound of combat. The Veterans were already raging against each other, and likely had been since before Min and Kalina had even arrived.

That blue shimmer in the glass must render it completely soundproof, she thought. Kalina offered her a helmet and Minerva grabbed it almost reflexively and pulled it on. The sound didn't vanish, but it was moderated down to a tolerable and far less painful level by the helmet. As she awkwardly settled it down, Kalina pulled her own helmet from where it had been hanging on her back under her cloak, and pulled it on, draping her hood over it. She drew a compact, short-barreled rifle from her back as well, then touched a catch on it. Instantly, the barrel extended and a stock and grip swung and latched into place.

Feeling her hands sweating inside the gloves, Minerva pulled the pistol out and looked at it. Kalina reached over and flipped off a switch that had to be the safety, then patted Min's arm and gave an encouraging squeeze, before she started toward the door. The others were also already moving forward.

Min had no idea if she wanted to use the pistol or not- it was merely the first of the three weapons her hand had gone to. That seemed as good a reason as any other to use it, considering she had nothing but the most rudimentary idea how any of them worked, anyway.

She joined the others at the door. Kalina and Tychon had not paused but strode right out into the shadow-spotted sunlight. The three newborns paused at the door, watching them.

Tychon kept going, breaking into a trot and hurrying into the ruins. Kalina followed with a more sedate but long-legged stride. As she neared the ruins she looked back. Once again, it was impossible to tell, but Minerva got the sense that the woman had winked at her, before she too vanished into the ruin.

"They're not staying with us?" Ian asked, his voice tense but steady.

"You are born alone," Rhonda replied evenly, shifting her hands on her rifle a little. "I suppose it fits that we need to die alone."

"Did you forget?" Ian asked, a hint of humor in his tone as his helmet turned toward her. "We all already did that once."

Rhonda regarded him a moment. Min felt the sweat on her palms again, and gripped the pistol a bit tighter and was keenly aware of how much she didn't know how to use it.

That's not the point here. You'll learn. Fear. This is about fear.

She was afraid to go across that threshold and into that raging battle. Flashes of fire and light still blazed from every corner of the ruin and occasionally she could hear shouts and grunts of pain as the ground rumbled at a small explosion. Dust and chips of stone flew everywhere, the air itself hazy and stirring the sunlight into a vague caramel color.

Oh yes, she was afraid. She was terrified. Walking into that ruin meant that she would die. It wasn't a question of if, but merely of when.

But that's the entire point, isn't it? she thought. I'm terrified, but I can't fear my fear.

And she found herself walking forward, striding away from the two still lingering on the threshold and toward that hellish ruin.

Something exploded close by with a heavy whump! that she felt more than heard. Her armor was pelted with rocks and dust and dirt, and she staggered to the side trying to keep her balance. Her heart felt as if it might pound out of her chest, and her breath was narrow and hot in her chest. She hadn't been injured, hadn't been hit. The grenade or explosive or whatever it had been, had hit the wall about a dozen yards to her left and another dozen in front of her. She wasn't hurt.

She didn't dare stop. The moment she regained her balance she kept moving forward. She sensed that the other two were now following her, a dozen feet behind her.

The blast had torn a new hole in the already crumbling wall, one big enough for a person to easily stride through. It was clogged with smoke. Perhaps defiantly, Minerva changed her course a little and walked directly toward it, rather than toward the one that Kalina and Tychon had vanished through.

Even only a few feet away, she could see nothing through it save the lingering smoke and dirt. Instinctively, she turned so that her shoulder was toward the wall, and flanked the side of the hole, her pistol held out in front of her. Nothing stirred in the smoke. The rattles of gunfire were much closer now, but the immediate area seemed clear.

She edged forward, pistol up. Nothing happened. She edged forward a bit more. Nothing.

The other two reached her side, pressing on the wall just behind her. Though she knew they were as green as she was, somehow having others there made her feel a bit more confident. She entered the hole and the thinning cloud of smoke.

Nothing happened. Lowering her pistol a little she turned as she cleared the smoke enough to make out her surroundings. Trying to pick a direction she wanted to go, she thought I should probably try to get to high ground, if there is any-

-and found herself face to face with the barrel of a nasty looking rifle. A beaked skull of some kind had been fitted on it, the mouth gaping around the tunnel-sized hole of the muzzle. Beads and feathers dangled in macabre decoration from the skull, and metal seemed to rise behind it in a ridged mimicry of spine. Low green light the color of swamp gas seemed to spill from the eyes of the skull, dripping in thin mist from the abyss of its mouth.

Minerva's eyes shifted from the skull to the one holding the rifle. She could see no face beyond the helmet, and the plate on it was not reflective as Kalina's had been. Instead, it was dark and matte, yet somehow seemed full of the same swirling swamp gas that spilled from the rifle. Dark shadows of black and sickly green shifted in phantom shapes behind that helmet as Min watched. Similar spinal ridges of metal formed a stumpy looking ridge over the helmet.

Less than a tenth of a second had passed from the moment Minerva had turned and saw the skulled weapon and the monster wielding it. The monster spoke, and there was a chuckle in her low, throaty voice.

"Bye."

Min had only just started to lift the pistol up again, barely aware of what her arms were doing.

The skull's eyes and mouth lit up with green fire that swelled and bloomed and flared impossibly bright, climaxing in an inferno of pain that blazed endlessly through the whole of reality.