Min lifted the launcher again and fired, just moments before the servitor-thing. This rocket landed almost directly on the oculus, sending the servitor into a mad spin as it spat that odd 'blood' in fits and sprays.

She started out of her cover, fire filling her head and wings of flame unfolding on her shoulders, before Gen suddenly grabbed her arm. "No! Don't. You don't want to get that stuff on you, if it is what I suspect it is."

Instead of charging, she and Gen both backed up, the Sol dying down around her but not snuffing completely. Her rocket launcher shimmered and vanished. Min then exchanged a look with Gen and he nodded.

The two Guardians took another step back, but not in retreat. Almost as if choreographed, they each lifted their arms and began to trace a spherical shape in the air. Within the emptiness they encircled, two orbs began to grow. One was a silver blue, licking and spiking with jags of lightning. The other, a hot red-golden miniature sun.

As one, they took another step back, the wings of Sol flaring up again on Min's shoulders as a cape of Arc seemed to spread in a cloud behind Gen. The two balls of paracausal energy they were forming writhed with power, now grown as large as their torsos.

The servitor was wobbling drunkenly, mechanical sounds grinding in its gaping depths. That thick blood-like liquid was spilling on the ground in great gluts as it weakly tried to orient on them again. Still moving as one, both Guardians now took a step forward, throwing their arms forward and sending the spheres of lightning and sunfire careening into the servitor.

What was left of the top half of it exploded outward. What remained, sizzling with flame and writhing with electricity, tipped over the edge of the cliff and vanished from sight.

Panting, she and Gen let their energy die as they smiled wearily at each other, then turned in surprise at the sound of slow clapping.

Kalina stood behind them, eyes wide as she clapped. "Wow. I mean, just…that was a cinematic moment if I ever did see one. You couldn't have waited a few more seconds until I could join in? I see how it is."

Min gave her a smirk. "Well, if there are any other monster servitors in our way we'll make sure that-"

She broke off, all three of them turning their heads. The servitor had reappeared, rising from the past the cliff in a haze of red smoke. The bottom of it had been the only part intact when it had gone over, but already more than half of it had restored itself, and the rest was growing swiftly.

"What in the actual fuck?" Kalina said, staring at it in horror.

A stuttering sound rose from it, swiftly transforming into a blast so loud all three Guardians slapped their hands to the sides of their helmets. Then, it shimmered. The red fog seemed to swallow it up, and it disappeared.

"Saladin, we have a serious problem," Gen said. "We destroyed the servitor, but it's back again. It's disappeared, I think it may be trying to-"

{It's here. It just appeared in the square again, almost entirely in one piece. It's as I feared. Get here as quickly as you can, we're going to need all the help we can muster.}

The three of them ran.


Min found herself once again at the sealed doors of the Temple, sitting with her back propped against one of the columns and her helmet resting near at hand. She was soaked with sweat, dragging with exhaustion, resisting the urge to close her eyes just for a moment.

"Binky," she said roughly. Kalina lay in front of her where Minerva had placed her, wisps of smoke still rising up from the gaping hole in the chest of her armor. Her little Ghost's healing beam darted this way and that as she assessed and then started to heal the Hunter's wounds. Min had pulled Kalina's helmet off, and could not tear her gaze away from the way the Awoken's eyes stared upward, empty and fixed.

"I have her," Binky said, as in the courtyard something exploded. Flashes of light reflected off the Temple doors, and from behind her came shouts and weaponsfire that all blended into a dull white noise.

Lev, having left her ear tag as soon as she was in cover, hovered nearby.

"Binky," Minerva said again, but it was Lev that turned toward her.

"Binky will get her back on her feet, Min," he said. "Let her work."

If she heard him or not, Min gave no sign. Rocking up on her knees, she leaned over Kalina a moment, her fingers touching one of her eyebrows just above those vacant, staring eyes.

Then, the fingers drew back, and the Titan got to her feet, not even bothering to grab her helmet and put it on again.

"Stay here with them," she said to Lev, and turned toward the courtyard. Tiny tendrils of smoke were already curling around her eyelashes as fire filled her eyes.

"Min, wait!" Lev's shell spun in agitation but the Titan was already in motion.

In the courtyard, Fallen and Guardians alike were fighting. Bodies lay everywhere, littered amongst smoking craters caused by the monster servitor's main weapon. The fountain was little more than a heap of rubble, half frozen water spilled in a wide fan around it.

Most of the bodies were of Fallen, but one or two Guardians also lay, their Ghosts not daring to emerge in the chaos to heal them.

When Gen, Kalina, and Min had finally reached the Temple courtyard from the Observatory, a handful of other Guardians were appearing, having heeded the Vanguard's call. Lead by Saladin, such a force should have been able to break and overwhelm the Fallen in minutes, but the monster servitor would not be thwarted.

It seemed to teleport at will, vanishing in and out of that odd red haze without pause. No matter how hard it was hit, how badly it seemed to be damaged, within just a few minutes it would be regenerated almost completely.

The air was almost frigidly cold without her helmet on, but she felt not even the slightest chill. Leaping down the steps of the Temple, Min came like a revenant. Teeth bared, eyes glowing and streaming with tendrils of flame, the young Titan ran with every ounce of strength she could find.

The thing hung on the horizon, glimmering with yellow light and hazed with distance. It was huge, so impossibly huge, and yet it seemed to look at her- a single ant among the horde that streamed from the hive.

The servitor-thing was not facing her, busy shooting madly at a couple of other Guardians who ducked behind a ridge of rock for cover. Forge, the ground around him littered with the bodies of the Fallen, hit it with a rocket. The explosion, to Min's ears, was soundless. The servitor wobbled again as it turned toward Forge, a new hole in its continually repairing hide.

Screams surrounded her, running forms. Her fingers were gripping the radio so tightly it felt they might punch right through it. Nastya! Nastya, respond!

Great wings of Solfire spread again on her back, their edges streaming behind her like a bridal veil. Min's foot hit the edge of the fountain and her jump jets ignited even as she leapt, carrying her high into the air. The servitor-thing turned upward to the Guardian now above it, and its oculus began to brighten.

Nastya!

Min's hands swung upward, the fire surrounding her drawing in and forming a massive hammer. As she started downward, teeth bared in a grin of murder, the hammer swung with a roar of flame and crashed right into the glowing oculus.

The hammer crashed into the servitor and slammed it downward to the stone courtyard with such force the thing split in half. Chunks of metal flew off in all directions. Min's own momentum brought her down right in the middle of the mess, the arc of her swing already changing and sending the Sol hammer into the left side of the ruin.

Half the servitor ripped off and went spinning away over the stones. Her boots sunk into that strange red goo that filled the monster, and as she lowered to cushion her impact, she very nearly went one knee down into it as well.

The fire had just started to die when a rope of Void light suddenly coiled around her chest and waist, and she was ripped bodily backward. She hit the ground on the other side of the fountain hard, the impact blasting out her air and making her head spin.

She had already been exhausted- her reckless charge and the force of paracausal energy she had called upon only served to drain her more. She lay where she'd hit, struggling to get air back into her lungs and keep a hold of her consciousness.

She saw Saladin's helmet above her for only a moment, before a huge splash of water slammed over her. Though she could not feel the water through her armor, it shocked and surprised her so much she felt a momentary renewal of energy. She tried to surge up, intent on getting at the servitor thing again and finishing the job she'd just started, only to be grabbed by two or three others and slammed back down.

This time, she began to drift, everything going soft and distant. She didn't lose consciousness completely, but all the world had gone slow and numb. They nearly had her entirely out of her armor before she realized she was being stripped, and tried to revolt again. The movement was pathetic, and a moment after her helmet vanished, Lev hovered over her face.

"Hold still! It's all right, just hold still," he said.

Her last boot was yanked off, leaving her in a set of wrinkled trousers and a tank top. Before she could speak, a hand brushed Lev out of the way and she was looking up at Saladin again.

He tipped a huge bucket full of ice-cold water over her again, and the shock of the wet and freezing cold made her gasp frantically. She aimed out a kick as she flailed, catching Forge on his leg, but if he was at all hurt or staggered by the blow he did not show it.

"Get her out of here," he said, lowering the bucket. More hands hauled her up. Dizzily, she realized that the one on her right was Gen. The Guardian on her left was unfamiliar.

"Stop! Stop it, let me go," she panted, resisted them. "What the hell are you-"

"Just over here, Min," Gen said. "It's all right, just come over here. Lev, get her scanned. Poet, you too. Is any of that shit still on her?"

Beams from two different quarters passed over her as they got her up the stairs and back behind the columns at the front of the Temple.

"She's clean," Lev said, sounding relieved.

"Clean," Poet added a moment later.

"Well, wasn't that a boy howdy," the unfamiliar Guardian, an Awoken man with a flop of green hair, said. "Titan, you're a fuckin' spitfire, and ain't that the truth."

"What the hell Gen?" Min said, spitting some more water as the two of them finally released her arms. She felt frigid to the bone, actively shivering.

"You're lucky to be alive, that's what the hell," Gen said, and damned if he didn't sound as relieved as Lev. "Min, what were you thinking?"

She spat again, blinking numbly at him. "What?"

"That servitor, little miss," the stranger said. "It was lousy with SIVA. That red goop it kept using to repair itself, all SIVA tech."

"That's what killed the other Iron Lords," Gen told her.

"And you just took a damned bath in it," the stranger added.

"Looks like we got it off you just in time, though I'll bet money your armor is now crawling," Gen said. He rubbed at her arms, trying to warm her up.

The other Guardian, the stranger, looked around the column and gave a low whistle. "It looks like the Fallen have scarpered off. Servitor too. I'm going to check in with Saladin."

He strode off, leaving the shivering Minerva and Gen standing alone.

With expertly placed transmatting, Lev quickly removed her soaking wet clothes, simultaneously replacing them with dry ones and a heavy coat. She gathered the coat around her, breath puffing white as she looked around and saw Kalina, looking tired and somewhat disappointed, heading over.

"I just get healed up to find you've scared the damned thing off," the Awoken said. "And apparently made a hell of a show doing it. You ok? What happened? Why are you soaking wet?"

"I'm fine," Min said, then knit her brows and turned to Gen as the warlock squeezed her arm, glanced at Kalina, and then headed away toward the others as well.

The hell was that about?

"She decided to break that servitor open like a melon and then go leaping about in its innards," Lev said exasperated. "Without her helmet on, to boot. Armor was covered with SIVA, but we got it off her in time and-"

"And Saladin dumped a bucket of water over me," Min said. "To make sure that none of it was on my skin, I guess."

"Aw, I missed the big Titan finale?" Kalina said, shaking her head. "Damn it, you have to stop being cinematic without me! I have a reputation you know."

"I'm sorry, but you were dead at the time," Min said, her teeth chattering a bit.

"Tax reasons," Kalina said offhand, looking out into the courtyard.

"It's not funny," Min said, and the sharp tone in her voice made Kalina turn with a look of surprise.

"What? What's the matter?"

I don't know, Min nearly said. Nothing, she also nearly said. And that was the problem, wasn't it? She didn't know. She kept getting these horrible flashes that she could only assume were from her first life, full of pain, loss, anger, and helplessness. The someone that she had been kept haunting her like a ghost at the most inconvenient times and she couldn't articulate the truth of how it made her feel, couldn't put into words the anxiety and dread-

You're all right. Someone wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. Cold, so damned cold. It was eating through her. You're all right, we got you. You're safe…

Sonuvabitch!

"Min, talk to-" Kalina began gently.

"I'm fine," she said, that helplessness filling her again as her exhaustion weighed down every atom of her.

"Min-"

"There's nothing you can do, Kalina," Min said softly, apologetically. As she looked at Kalina, her eyes were filled with regret. "There's just nothing anyone can do. I don't know what's happening, I don't know why, and there's just nothing you can do."