A/N: in this chapter there is an unfamiliar Guardian who is a canon Titan in the game. I name him in the chapter but don't want to give away spoilers until I do :) I could not find the name of the Ghost of this Titan, and so I named it myself. I believe it was never named in game or in game canon- at least it isn't anywhere I can find. Apologies if the Ghost does have a canon name that I couldn't find, but this is left-of-canon, anyway.

Also, due to circumstances this week I have not been able to write very much. I still plan to post the next chapters of DA and Destiny on Monday and Tuesday next week respectively, but it may be that they're posted later in the week instead. I don't want to force anything, because the last thing I need is getting stuck in a huge block again.

Just an FYI.

Thank you.


Min reflexively tried to push the other Titan back but Nara seemed as immovable as stone. She answered Min's efforts only by pressing harder on her throat, cutting off her wind completely.

"Let her go!" Lev said, his shell spinning in agitation. When she didn't immediately loosen up he sent a little beam at her cheek. The beam visibly burned her, but didn't even produce a flinch. She remained fixed on Minerva, and her eyes were dark with murder.

"I have been asking to go back to the moon for years. Years! And who do they send? You. A newbie. A baby little shit who barely knows which end of a fucking rifle to hold. So what's the fucking deal? Why you? Why you and not me?"

Min couldn't have answered even if she wanted to. Her vision was narrowing and all her efforts to get loose were feeble.

"Let her go!" Lev said again furiously, and sent out another beam. This one struck near the corner of Nara's eye and this time she did flinch, swinging her arm away from Minerva's throat and backhanding the Ghost out of the air with a bright, snapping flash of Arc energy. As he cracked into the far wall and tumbled, smoking, to the ground, Minerva lunged.

Her fist crashed into Nara's face, the blow thrown with all the strength she had left. It hardly turned the other Titan's head. Nara slammed her back into the wall again, and this time Minerva not only saw stars, she saw whole galaxies. Something hot was sliding down the back of her neck.

"I will fucking kill you," Nara growled. "I will crush that simpering Ghost of yours and I will fucking kill you if you cross me again. I-"

Then an arm was swinging around Nara's neck, another around her torso, and she was being hauled bodily backward.

"Stop! What the hell are you doing? Nara!"

It was Blayd. More footsteps were thundering down the steps. Min struggled to get air around a throat that felt as narrow as a human hair, feeling dazed and unfocused. The struggling Twins were only a large blur to her eyes.

Lev was still on the ground, motionless and smoking slightly. Min half fell over reaching for him. Picking him up, she cradled him protectively to her chest. "Lev?"

Zavala, with an unfamiliar Titan on his heels, left the stairwell and closed in on Nara. The Awoken's eyes were pure ice.

"What is the meaning of this?" Zavala demanded. Nara had stopped trying to throw her sister off and met that cold gaze with a fiery one of her own.

"That's exactly what I would like to know," she snarled back. "Why did you send her to the moon and not me?"

"If you have a problem with my orders you take them up with me! You have attacked another Guardian unprovoked in the Tower, Nara!"

"Oh, please. She's a damned Titan. She can take a lump or two."

While they were arguing, the unfamiliar Titan had crouched down at Minerva's side. She tried to focus on him, wincing a little in pain as his fingers touched the wound on the back of her head. His dark eyes shifted to the Ghost in her hands and he gently unfolded her fingers to take a better look at him.

His own Ghost- a battle-scarred blur of gold, green and white- scanned Lev.

"He was hit with Arc," the Ghost said in an amazingly deep voice. "I think he's just been badly jolted. His Light is intact. I'll see if I can't get him conscious again."

The stranger stood and turned toward the still arguing trio. "Zavala, I don't know your business and I won't tell you what you should do," he said. "But this was more than just a fist fight between hotheaded Guardians. Her Ghost was attacked. With Arc."

"The shit burned my face!" Nara said hotly, as Zavala turned around and looked at the Ghost in Minerva's hand.

"Was that before, or after you attacked Minerva?" he asked. Nara scowled.

"Why does it matter? She-"

"Nara, this crosses the line," Zavala said, regarding her again. "We allowed you to remain living and working in the Tower so long as you followed the rules, and until now you have done so admirably. Attacking a Guardian unprovoked in the Tower puts you right on the line, but this…you attacked her Ghost. We can neither overlook nor forgive such an action."

"He fucking burned me!"

"If he'd come out of nowhere and burned you, that'd be one thing," the stranger said angrily. "A very, very small thing, at that. But if he burned you because you attacked his Guardian that's something else entirely. And to hit him with Arc, when all the threat he posed to you was a tiny, easily healed burn, is inexcusable."

In Min's hand, Lev's oculus flickered and began to brighten. Relief made her dizzy again as the battle-scarred Ghost shifted back a little.

"You're all right, Brother," it said.

"Who…" Lev sounded groggy, then blinked a few times and brightened, levitating out of Min's grip. "Min! Are you all right?"

His warm healing light played over her head and her eyesight and mind both started to clear. She pushed herself up to her feet almost before he'd finished, then stepped forward toward Nara as a white-hot fury clouded her sight instead.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

The stranger reached out and stopped her with a hand on her shoulder before she could reach Nara. His grip was iron.

"Is your Ghost all right?" Zavala asked her, but it was Fenris that answered.

"He's fine, fortunately. I was able to repair him. She's lucky she didn't overload and kill him."

"Nara, we cannot tolerate this behavior from you- from any Guardian," Zavala said. "You will take your things and leave. You are no longer welcome in this Tower or in the City."

"Zavala, please, you must reconsider," Blayd said, looking stricken.

"I am sorry, Blayd," he said. "Nara, you will get your things and you will leave. If any report reaches me that you have set a single foot on the moon, or attacked another Guardian or human civilian out in the field, you will be considered a full enemy of this Tower, the City, and all its inhabitants- and we will treat you as such. Am I understood?"

Nara pulled away from her sister and stood toe to toe with Zavala. "You're a disgrace," she said. "A disgrace, and a fool, Zavala."

"Am I understood?" he asked again, more firmly. She smiled a nasty, twisted, knife of a smile.

"You're understood, sir, but you don't understand. You will though. Don't worry. I won't haunt your halls or muss up the pads of your precious little newbie ever again."

She turned and walked away. Blayd looked after her, then back at Zavala.

"I'm sorry, Big Boss. She's my sister," she said sadly.

"I understand. You are always welcome back at the Tower, but I'm afraid I stand firm on this."

She nodded, then turned and followed her sister away.

With the Twins gone, Zavala hung his head and sighed heavily, then looked at Minerva. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," she said, though she was swaying on her feet. The struggle, and then being healed again- she was barely holding to consciousness. "I just need rest."

"I'm sorry, Minerva. To your Ghost as well. Get some rack time. I'll talk to you later."

She stepped out of the alcove of the stairwell, and headed down the corridor toward her room. Lev was in a state, and as she rubbed the back of her head wearily, feeling blood still tacking her hair, he lost it.

"The unmitigated-! The absolute idea that she-! I cannot understand why the Vanguard-! Prison!"

"Lev, you seem to have lost the ability to speak in full sentences."

"I just…when I think about what she could have done to you! And for what? Because she wasn't the one they sent to the moon? I just don't get it. I really don't. She should be locked up!"

"Where?" Minerva asked.

"I don't know. Back in that pit on the moon with all those Hive around, if she wants to be there so damned much! If I hadn't gotten a message to Zavala's Ghost before she knocked me out, who knows what would have happened?"

"It's over, Lev. We're all right."

He stopped in front of her as they reached her door, turning toward her. "How are you so calm with this, Minerva? I feel like I want to invent myself hands just so I can strangle her!"

"I think I'm just too tired to be angry," she said. "I can't think of anything but my cot."

His anger seemed to deflate. "I'm sorry, you were dead on your feet before she even showed up, and healing you again-…come on. We can have a good, long, relaxing rage about this in the morning."

Min had been planning to bathe first, but as they stepped into that room and Lev dematerialized her armor, she found she didn't even have the energy to think any more. Flopping down onto her cot, she fell so deep into sleep even dreams could not find her.


The stranger's name turned out to be Saladin Forge. Zevala introduced them properly the next morning, after Min had finally dragged herself out of bed and showered the stink of Hive off of herself.

Saladin, it seemed, normally stayed somewhere called Felwinter Peak rather than in the Tower.

"When there was no word from you, as there had been no word from Tychon, we had to consider our options," Zavala told her. "Saladin is one of the very first Guardians, and has been a good and capable friend since the moment I first woke to the Light."

"You were going to go to the moon after us?" Minerva asked him, and Saladin half-shrugged.

"I was coming only to talk to the Vanguard, see what other options remained available to us. However that may very well have been the road taken."

"Fortunately, you and your fireteam did the impossible, and returned."

"After last night, Zavala filled me in a bit more on that Titan that attacked you. Nara, was it? Bad business. It's not often a Guardian gets banned from the City and the Tower. Not since Dredgen Yor. I certainly hope she doesn't prove to be another him."

"We won't allow it," Zavala said.

Thinking of Lev's mention of prison the night before, Min asked, "What would you do with her? Lock her up?"

Saladin lifted his brows in surprise. "Lock her up? No, Titan. Guardians would be sent out after her in number. They'd secure her Ghost even if they had to cut off her tag to do it, and then make sure there's not enough left for him to revive."

Minerva must have looked horrified, because Zavala shook his head. "I agree, it is dreadful. But we will have no other choice. Let us pray it doesn't come to that."

"At least Yor's Ghost had the good sense to abandon him after he started his atrocities," Saladin said to Zavala. "I didn't see Nara's Ghost last night. Could it have left her?"

"I don't think so," Zavala said.

"I can't imagine any Ghost just standing by and watching their Guardian do that," Lev said. "If he hasn't left, I'm curious as to why."

"It's academic, at this point," Saladin said. "So. After that little kerfuffle last night, Zavala filled me in about you, Minerva. I also spoke with Eris Morn to some extent. That's a woman will run the hairs up on anyone's arms, I think. Regardless of her strange prophecies, it stands as fact that you came back from a place that has claimed far too many much stronger and much older Guardians. That is certainly impressive."

"Yes," Zavala said. "Minerva, I am sure you have heard by now that the Vanguard and this Tower are not the only places that Guardians may choose to serve. Even those that remain in answer to us may choose any number of factions that they feel best reflect their abilities, or values."

"I think I may have heard some of that, in the general chatter after a Crucible," Minerva said. "One is, I want to say, something like 'War Cult?'"

"Future War Cult," Saladin nodded. "There is also Dead Orbit, New Monarchy, and others."

"Representatives of each faction, along with we Vanguard, the Speaker, and various civilian groups- make up the Consensus, which is the real governing body of the City," Zavala said.

"And Saladin is a representative of one of these factions?"

Forge seemed amused. "Not as such, no. I take no hand in the governing affairs of the City or the Tower. I am what you would call an Iron Lord, one of only two left alive. Most of my comrades in arms were wiped out addressing a…particular and unique threat to mankind, both in the City and beyond. I have been alone for a long time. However, with news of the Hive on Earth and some unusual activity among the Fallen, I have considered reforming the Iron Lords under a new name. I asked Zavala to keep an eye out for particularly promising new Lightborn I could approach about helping me. You are the first he has put forward."

"Min, whether or not you join the Iron Banner is up to you," Zavala told her. "However I believe you would greatly benefit from Saladin's training and expertise. Eris was correct- you were the only one we could send to the moon who returned alive. I must at least entertain that she is correct in other regards."

"After hearing what the Vanguard had to say about you, and speaking to Morn myself, I extend this offer," Saladin said. "Minerva, would you allow me to be your instructor? Teach you in the way of the Iron Lords in the hopes that you will become the first of many who will lead the fight against the Hive and the enemies of the City under the Iron Banner?"

Minerva looked from one of the old warriors to the other, before she shook her head.

"No. I'm afraid not."

Of all that they had been expecting, this was clearly not it. Zavala seemed particularly taken aback.

"Minerva, I would like you to consider this very carefully. You still remain a Guardian. This is a unique opportunity to-"

"I understand and respect the opportunity, sir, but I can't give any other answer. I didn't go up to the moon alone. I had a fireteam. I'm alive because of Kalina and Gen. We went up to the moon together and we came back together. They survived that place as much as I did. They're my fireteam, and so if this offer is extended to me it must be extended to them as well- and I cannot answer for them. If they want to train with Lord Saladin, then I agree. If they don't, I must respectfully decline. I go nowhere without them."

The two men stared at her a moment, before Saladin burst into hearty laughter, clapping her hard on the shoulder.

"Oh, I like this one!" he said to Zavala. "You are absolutely right, Minerva. I know what it is to be part of a fireteam, as does Zavala- though his years sitting in this Tower may have dulled him a bit to that reality."

"I think Cayde being part of my fireteam is what has dulled me to it," Zavala said. Neither his expression nor his tone changed, but Saladin laughed uproariously again and Min realized that the Titan Vanguard had actually made a joke.

When his laughter had subsided, Saladin looked at her again. "Get your fireteam," he said. "I would not dream of not including them in this offer as well."

She smiled at him, and nodded, then looked at Lev. "Could you-"

"Already let Binky and Poet know; Gen and Kalina are on their way," he said.

"Good!" Saladin clapped his big hands together. "Now, while we wait for them, tell me Minerva. What do you know about Rasputin?"