"Mini?"

Min took a shuddering breath, reassuring herself a little by realizing air was still there, that she wasn't dead or dying. Self-consciously, she wiped her face on her knees before abruptly getting to her feet.

The lift doors were still open, and as Min stepped out she saw with some small relief that they were on floor 119 again. Kalina didn't stop her as she headed toward the Den, only trotted to keep up, putting one arm around Minerva's waist as if to prevent her from falling.

Min didn't mind it. The arm was steadying, though not physically. Her heart was still racing but it seemed whatever had struck her was easing off. That impenetrable cold was warming away quickly, and in its wake she felt only embarrassment.

She didn't stop until she got to the battered old couch in front of the vis-screen, and sat down. Kalina crouched beside her.

"Water?" the Awoken asked.

Min shuddered at the very thought, and shook her head.

"Beer, maybe?"

"I'm ok," Minerva said with another weary shake. "I am. Thank you. I don't need anything."

"What happened?" Lev asked again, more firmly. Had he possessed them, he would no doubt have been wringing his hands. "What did she do to you?"

"She?" Kalina asked, looking sharply at the Ghost. "Who?"

"Eris Morn," Lev told her. "She was talking to her and then…well, this."

"She didn't do anything to me," Minerva told them. "Honestly, I'm…I don't know what that was."

"You went white," Lev said, and passed a scanning beam over her. "I thought you were going to collapse, or have a seizure. Your heart rate went through the roof and your adrenaline- but I don't see anything physically wrong with you."

Minerva felt her cheeks heat again and passed her hand over them again. The tears she had shed had mostly dried, but she could still hear her heart pounding in her ears. Her throat and her lungs were burning faintly.

"Lev, stop," Kalina said gently. She looked at Minerva again, seated herself on the couch beside her. "What happened? I see you got your first mark-you saw the Speaker?"

Minerva nodded, and told Kalina all that had happened in the Speaker's library- the conversation about the Hive, the moon, Dredgen Yor. All of it.

"Eris followed me out," she said at last. "She wanted to apologize, I suppose. I was a little surprised to hear her speaking Russian. And then it was just…I don't know. I think I remembered something."

Kalina lifted her brows in surprise. "Remembered? You mean, from your life before?"

"I'm not sure. I saw it once before, just briefly. Like a photo in my mind. Wood, and iron-wrought windows. The smell of beer. It was just there and gone that first time, but this time there was a little more. The same wood and windows, the same smell, but this time I heard glass breaking. Voices."

"Do you recall what they said?"

Minerva shook her head, and could feel her jaw tightening. "No. It was like background noise taken out of context. Either way, I don't want to remember."

"I get that," Kalina said softly. "But if it frightened you this badly-"

Minerva's jaw went even tighter. "That didn't frighten me. It was her. Eris. But it wasn't really her that did it either it was…"

She thumped her fists into her knees in frustration and Kalina began to rub her arm. "It's ok," she said. "We're not in any hurry."

"I don't know what it is about her," Minerva said. "She feels like she knows me, ok, I get that. But my skin crawls whenever she's around. She repulses me. Not disgust, not really but the closer she gets the more I feel like my very molecules move away from her. All I can think about is getting away from her. It's not fair. I know it's not fair. She's done nothing to deserve it, but I can't seem to control it."

"You said the vanguard feel like she may have known you before," Kalina said. "She herself seems to think she knew you from before, isn't that what you said?"

Minerva nodded. "And she speaks Russian. Natively. She didn't learn it after becoming Lightborn, she was like me; she spoke it right out of the gate."

"Which even further suggests that she may have actually known you," Kalina said.

"Yes. But for the first time, standing outside the Speaker's library, I started to feel like I knew her too. When that image hit me, I kind of stumbled- it was only a second long but it took me so much by surprise. She reached out her hand-"

Min could feel the cold coming on her again, the burning in her chest intensify a little, just remembering Eris reaching out her hand.

"Her heartbeat is going back up," Lev said.

Kalina's hand went from her arm to the back of her neck, the other coming up to Minerva's cheek. When Min looked at her, Kalina said, "Just breathe, ok?"

Minerva realized then that she was holding her breath again, and let it out in a slow, controlled exhalation. It wasn't like the first time. She didn't have the same urgency that if she took a breath she'd die as she had before, but the ghost of the first experience was still very much there.

"Ok," Kalina said with relief. "Your color's coming back. You went a little gray there for a moment."

"Something about Eris reaching out seems to be what's causing it," Lev said thoughtfully. "It must be a memory, as well. What did you feel just now?"

"The first time, I felt like that hand was going to bite me somehow," Minerva said. "I felt cold, panicked. I felt like if I took even a single breath, I would die. It wasn't as strong just now but-"

"Do you think she could be remembering her death?" Binky asked, and Kalina stared at her. "I mean, when she died before being Lightborn? Could the reason Eris Morn has such an impact on her be because they did know each other, and Eris murdered her?"

"That's an incredibly cheerful thought that's sure to make her feel better, thank you Binky," Kalina said flatly. "I've been letting you watch too many PT crime dramas."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Min said tersely. "I don't care and I don't want to know this. Any of this. This is my life now. Here, as a Guardian, a Titan. Whatever I was, whatever happened before that I don't care. I'm not that person, not any more, and it wasn't my life. It wasn't her life, either. This is my life now. That's all that matters."

"If this happens again, it may-" Lev started, but Min fixed him with a look that was literally edged in flame, tiny whispers of solar light spilling between her lashes like golden smoke.

"It will not happen again!"

"Ok," Kalina said lightly. "That's fair. Have you eaten yet?"

Min visibly relaxed, shoulders slumping a bit as the light snuffed out. "I'm not-"

"No, she hasn't," Lev told Kalina, and the Awoken gently gave Minerva's arm a squeeze and got to her feet.

"Good, neither have I. Stay here, Mini. I'll rustle up something, and while we eat we can talk about this idea of going to the moon, ok?"

"I guess…sure," Minerva said tiredly.

"Great!" Kalina said, then rather abruptly she ducked over and kissed Minerva on the temple. "Won't be a tick."


"Well, there she is! A beauty if I do say so myself."

Amanda Holliday, one cheek grimed with oil, beamed up at the ship hovering in the docking slip. Kalina laughed and nudged Minerva with her elbow.

"I may just talk you into a trade," she said. "This thing looks like it could chew through asteroids and shit out glitter."

It had been five days since Minerva had met with the Speaker and the vanguard. Zavala had not been kidding when he'd told her he'd make sure her ship was a priority, and her sparrow. She'd had the latter now for four days, and had broken it in on a few field trips with Kalina and Gen. More, he'd sent her a full suit of top-notch armor and some weaponry that Gen had whistled over.

"I'm starting to wish I was a Chosen One," he said. "If it gets you gear like this."

The Exo joining them on these excursions felt natural, somehow. They seemed to make a pretty good team, and Minerva liked both him and Kalina quite a lot. The night before, the Hunter had made a joke about never thinking she'd be part of a fireteam before. It was the first time any of them had mentioned that word, 'fireteam', but that also just felt right. There were those Guardians who were lone wolves and seemed to like it that way, but most seemed to cluster into teams or at the very least, pairs. Gen and Kalina had more experience than Minerva did, but in the grand scheme of things all three were young as Lightborn went, and the grouping made sense.

Hell, even the Vanguard are a fireteam, Minerva thought, as she looked over the ship.

"You flown one before?" Holliday asked her, and when Min shook her head, Amanda gave her a smirk and a wink. "Ah, well. Fastest way to learn is a crash course anyway."

"Don't listen to her," Lev said. "Honestly, I do all the hard parts. You'll see."

Holliday snapped the dirty rag she had in one hand at the Ghost, and he darted away from it. "Hey!"

"Don't spoil all my fun," she said.

"Why don't we take her out?" Kalina said. "Give her legs a stretch? I can have Gen meet us in orbit and after a few spins around the Marble, we can see if we can't rustle up some trouble with the Fallen somewhere. Clear out some more scrappers."

"Dirtside, yes?" Minerva asked.

"Well, yeah, dirtside," Kalina said. "You haven't even flown her yet, I didn't think you'd want to jump right in to hitting Fallen ships. But then, you are a Chosen One, right? I bet we end up taking down Xur and the Kodan Armada our first go round."

Minerva rolled her eyes a bit, but a smile was on her face. The Chosen One nonsense was just that…nonsense. So of course Kalina and then Gen (when he'd been filled in) had taken to using every opportunity they could to tease Minerva about it.

This time, though, she got Kalina's weird joke. Every time they were in the Tower they made a point to watch at least one old PT movie. Gen had been officially invited in to the Den as well, and seemed to enjoy himself, though sometimes it was hard to tell. He gravitated more toward the books than the movies, but he watched them gamely.

Yesterday's movie had been about a teenage kid who had found himself recruited as a fighter pilot in a larger universe he hadn't even known existed until that day, and on his first trip out in his fighter he found himself single handedly winning a war. Min could definitely identify with him on an emotional level, if nothing else.

Kalina, for her part, had laughed wildly whenever the movie's villain, Xur, had been mentioned. Minerva asked why but the Hunter seemed to find the fact that Min didn't get the joke even funnier, and had gone into hysterical fits that had left her in tears. Min had looked once, helplessly, at Gen- but the Exo had only shaken his head and stuck his synthetic nose deeper into the book he'd been half reading.

"Let's go, before she gets going again," Lev said, and in a shimmer of momentary non-existence, Min found herself fully suited up and in the cockpit of the new ship. Outside, they could see Holliday giving them a cheerful wave, and Kalina herself vanishing in a shimmer of digitized light.

The cockpit was comfortable but definitely snug- clearly built only for one person. Min was a Titan but even in full armor she wasn't as large as Shaxx or Zavala were. One of them in this cockpit would barely be able to move.

"I'll get us into space," Lev said in her ear. He'd gone into her tag, but she could still hear him easily enough. "Then you can play around with the controls a bit."

She kept her hands on her lap, just watching as various indicators lit up. The engine rumbled to life and then growled in an eager purr as he pulled back from the gantry. Further along, she could see Kalina's familiar jumpship doing the same, and the Hunter's voice suddenly was in her ear as well.

{Race ya!}

"You win," Minerva said dryly. The Hunter's jumpship gave a goofy little waggle of its wings and then darted away, gone into the azure sky before Min could blink.

"She definitely wins," Lev said. "I'm not taking you that fast for your first time out. If you pass out, you won't get to admire the view."

And it was a hell of a view. The entire City spread below them, still wreathed in the last tendrils of mist that hadn't burned off with the morning sun. The young, golden light of the day reflected in whirls and splashes over the Traveler, and gleamed off the windows in the Tower shrinking below them. Beyond the Wall, the idyllic and velvet green of mountain meadows, and then the sharp and rugged peaks of the mountains themselves, crowned in snow that glittered like fireflies.

Min had never before had a chance to see it like this. Every trip to and from the Tower before, she'd been riding digitally. Seeing it now, there were no words to describe it.

Then the City was getting smaller, and smaller, until they reached the clouds, and reality around them became soft and white and tenuous.

By the time they reached orbit, Min was blinking back tears. Kalina and Gen were already waiting for her, hanging like angels in the black, and they were beautiful, too.

{Good morning, Titan,} Gen said in her ear. {Hell of a day for your first time up, isn't it? Just take your time. You'll never forget this.}

No, Min didn't think she ever would. For a long time, she just sat and let Lev guide the jumpship after Kalina and Gen, watching the world below change shades and colors, the clouds swirling and shifting in an endless lazy dance. They were slowly catching up with the sunrise, and she could see the line of shadow marking the edge of night, when she finally let out a breath.

"Ok, I should try this," she said, and put her hands on the stick in front of her. Lev quickly walked her through the basics and she found it was incredibly intuitive. The ship had obviously been designed to be as easy to fly as was possible. She quickly got the hang of it, and a few minutes later slipped between Gen and Kalina with a shaky but serviceable wag of her wings.

{Oh, now. Who's showing off?} Kalina asked, and then her jumpship darted past and did a quick little spin. Gen's came in from the other side and did the same, and Minerva laughed.

{If we're gonna dance, we need some music,} Kalina said. {Care to waltz?}

Music began to fill the cockpit, and soon all three of them were weaving and bobbing together, slipping in and out and past each other in time with the airy, drifting violins. Min would later learn the name of the song- the Beautiful Blue Danube-but that moment in space was the first time she'd ever heard it, and it was as perfect as the rest of it.

As the music faded away, they settled into a comfortable orbit and were silent for a long moment, each thinking their own thoughts. Then Gen broke through.

{So how do we feel about hunting down some trouble?}

{I'm a Hunter. Hunting down anything is always my cup of tea,} Kalina said. {How are you feeling, Mini?}

"Like I could take down a whole squadron of Fallen on my own," she said.

{You're a Titan. Aren't you always supposed to feel that way?} Kalina teased.

{I have a lead on some scrappers near-} Gen began, before another voice suddenly broke through.

{Guardians, are you there?}

Min's warm and almost drunken sense of joy abruptly shrank down to a tight little ball in the pit of her stomach. It was Zavala.

"We're here, Zavala," Lev replied, before she could speak. Gen and Kalina responded in the affirmative as well, and Min almost had a little hope. If he was talking to all three of them, then-

{Minerva, I took the liberty of contacting Kalina and Gen as well. Cayde informs me you three have been working together the last few days. Are you together now?}

-and there went that little hope, killed before it was truly born.

Licking her dry lips, Minerva said, "Yes, sir. I just got my jumpship out of dock, thought I'd get a little practice behind the stick."

{I have some grave news. We have lost contact with Tychon and his Ghost. We were hoping he had merely gone dark, to prevent detection by the Hive- but it has been too long. We have also been able to confirm Eris Morn's claims. Not two hours ago a fireteam only a few kilometers from where you were Lightborn ran into a group of Hive and what appears to be a breeding chamber. With confirmation the Hive are now on Earth- and with great reluctance- I have agreed to ask you to go to the moon under these conditions: you are not to go alone, and your priority is solely to locate our lost Guardian or his Ghost.}

Minerva felt fixed to the spot, eyes closed as she absorbed what he'd said.

I'm not ready, she thought.

He knows that, she argued back to herself.

The other Guardians that went up with Eris; the Twins; even Tychon- they were solid veterans and look what's happened to them.

He knows that, too. You can't help those who went with Eris, and you can't help the Twins, but you may be able to help Tychon. You're a Titan, and this is the job. At some point or another, you need to jump in and do your job. What if it was Kalina up there? Or Gen? Or one of the Vanguard? If there's even a chance you can help-

She opened her eyes. "I understand, sir. But I cannot answer for my fireteam. I'll go, but the rest has to be their decision."

{Are you kidding me right now?} Kalina said, and damned if she didn't sound a little irritated. {Of course we're not going to let you go to the moon on your own!}

{I didn't have anything better to do today anyway,} Gen replied.

{I need you to be absolutely certain,} Zavala said. {My every instinct is against this. We have no idea what you will encounter up there but we are certain of this; some of our most dedicated and skilled Guardians have gone up to the moon and never returned. I cannot and will not order you to do so in their wake.}

It was clear to Minerva that he wanted them to say no. He did not want to be going along with this and she got that. Her every instinct was against it as well, and more than her life, there was no way she wanted to put Kalina and Gen in danger too.

It's their choice, Anasova. You can't choose it for them, you can only choose it for you.

{Sir, I'm certain,} she said, though she had never felt so uncertain of anything in her life.

{We're certain,} Kalina said, and Gen brought up no dissent. Another long pause. When Zavala spoke again, he sounded tired, resigned.

He sounded as if he were already burying them.

{Then so be it. I am sending the coordinates of Tychon's landing zone to your Ghosts. Find him, and bring him home. Good luck, and godspeed.}