The four figures paused in the dark. The ground above them rumbled, the ominous snarl of some massive beast slowly waking from its slumber. Sifts of dust filtered down on them from above.

"They've blown the doors," Gen said softly.

Eris, as silent as shadow, moved to the edge of the broken corridor and looked downward. "The Hive will be responding," she said. "Omnighul will be sending her Knights and their thralls to investigate."

"How long until the bulk of the Hive move that way?" Min asked. She didn't like this idea, but then, she didn't like much of anything they were doing here.

She, Kalina, Gen, and Eris had slipped in to the vast Hive network through a tiny passage that was little more than a crack. They had been following Eris downward into the moon for nearly an hour, now. The other Guardians- led by the Vanguard and Lord Saladin- were hitting the Hellmouth proper to both distract the Hive out of the lower tunnels and to bulldoze their way through to the ritual chamber.

After Min had entered the Ascendent Realm, the three left behind would go and join the main offensive trying to put a stop to the Hive siphoning any more of the Traveler's Light.

"Not long," Eris said, in answer to Min's question. "The sheer size of the offensive will necessitate her shifting all but a skeletal force to try and halt them. The path below has cleared."

Min looked as wel,l and seeing the corridor below was now empty of Hive, dropped down, using her jump jets briefly to cushion her fall. Gen and Kalina were only a breath behind.

"We are getting close," Eris said, as she touched down beside them. She sounded tense. Min didn't blame her. Only a full day trapped in these tunnels and she'd never wanted to see them again. That Eris was willing to come back and guide her after five years hiding here, spoke volumes as to her determination to put an end to Crota.

This is the easy part, Min thought. The hard part- that she was going to have to do all on her own.

Their Ghosts lighting up the way, they continued onward. This new tunnel seemed almost a spiral, turning back on itself again and again, but Eris moved on with unwavering confidence.

The walls had been lined with the same sickly green glowing pods, complete with their constant, disgusting chewy-wet noises. As they went deeper, however, these pods became more and more infrequent. The walls, however, were starting to look wetter.

Just before the last of the pods disappeared completely, Eris moved over and began to carefully remove several of them with her knife blade. As Kalina drew closer, curious as to what she was doing, the former Guardian turned and handed her a few of the small pods.

"Eew, what do I want these for?" Kalina asked, fumbling to hold them as Eris removed yet more, and added to the growing pile in her arms.

"They are necessary if you would like your Titan to survive entering the Ascendent plane," Eris said. Kalina boggled, then looked over at Min, who shrugged. Both looked at Gen.

"Don't ask me," he said. "She's the expert."

When Kalina's arms were full of seven of the orange sized pods, Eris put her knife away. "Just be pleased you do not have to eat them," she said to Minerva, then started down the tunnel again.

"Eat them?" Minerva felt her stomach churn a little, and swallowed hard. She'd never actually thought about what Eris must have eaten down here to survive.

Another turn down the spiral, and the pods on the walls were completely gone. The walls themselves were notably damp, and in places the moisture had formed small rivulets that trickled down the rock. While they could occasionally hear a faint rumble from the fight going on overhead, all sound from the battle had been swallowed up.

Was Nara up there, Min wondered?

Of course she was, she answered herself. Someone as obsessed as she was with returning to the moon would have been the first in line when the Vanguard put out their call.

A final turn, and Eris lingered at a doorway, holding out her hand so that they didn't go through it. Almost tentatively she peered around the corner, then nodded and looked back at them.

"The only stable portal to the Ascendent Realm is within," she said. "Although it can be accessed by none but the Hive, they do occasionally set up a guard within the chamber. There is no sign of such now. Come."

"I fully acknowledge that I probably won't want an answer to this question," Min said as she followed her into the chamber. "But if it is accessible by none but the Hive-w-what is that?"

In the dank, cavernlike space of the chamber, there seemed to be a faint glow. A round, stone-lined pool centered the space, filled with something that most definitely wasn't water. It had much the same sickly green cast as the pods themselves gave off, and while relatively clear also seemed as thick as oatmeal.

"This is the Well," Eris said. Reaching into her sleeve, she withdrew a small length of cloth. Holding her hand out over the pool, she dropped the cloth into the substance. Instantly, it began to dissolve with flashes of light. "It will do the same to your armor, to your weapons, and to your flesh. At the bottom, some twenty feet below, is the portal into Crota's throne world."

"Are you saying she has to swim through that?" Kalina asked.

"Yes," Eris said simply. Lev turned toward Min.

"I'm going inside your tag now. I suddenly have a suspicion what she's going to do with those weird pods, and I do not want it done to me."

As he shimmered and vanished, Eris took one of the pods from the stack in Kalina's arms, drew her knife, and sliced it open. A white-yellow substance was within, thick as snot and ten times less appealing.

"We must coat your armor with these," Eris said as she turned toward her. "It will protect you and your armor long enough to get through the portal."

"You're sure the portal is down there?" Gen asked. He was on the edge of the pool, leaning over in an attempt to see through to the bottom.

"Yes," Eris told him. "Do not fall within. You and your Ghost would be gone beyond saving within seconds."

Scooping a handful of the nasty stuff out of the pod, Eris began to smear it on Minerva's pads. The Titan grimaced.

"So this stuff will get me in?" she asked, as Gen went over to Kalina and took another pod, also cutting it open. "How…do I get out again?"

"Entering the Ascendent Realm is much more difficult than exiting it," Eris said. "It obeys different laws. Here, it is difficult to open a passage, which is why the Hive keep this passageway open. When you enter, you will see the portal open behind you. You must attune it before you come back through, else you come back through into the Well. There are two other altars that I am familiar with here, in the Hive's own catacombs, that you can attune the portal to link to. Crota's own Sword should be sufficient to the task."

Her three eyes lifted to meet Min's behind her helmet. "You must listen closely, Guardian. As you already know, Crota must be slain with his own blade. When that is done, you must take the blade and use it to touch the portal. It should present the options to your mind. Select the one you desire to return through."

"Present the options to my mind?" Minerva asked. Eris shook her head slightly, dropping the first spent pod and taking another from Kalina, slicing it open.

"I have never done it," she said. "I can only speak the words Toland himself spoke to us when we arrived above. The options will be presented to your mind and somehow you will be able to select which one you desire. That is all I can say. The first altar lies in that same Grand Chamber where you saw Omnighul and her army. The other, in Omnighul's own breeding chamber. I cannot tell you what you will face with either of those two selections, but-"

"But at least I won't be dissolved on contact like I would if I tried coming back through here," Min said, and Eris nodded.

Silence fell as Eris and Gen continued to work to coat Min head to toe with the foul pus, even so far as to smear a great handful of it over her faceplate. Before Gen did, however, Min held a hand up to him to wait, then looked at Kalina. The Hunter's blank helmet dissolved, leaving her bareheaded.

"You kick his ass and get back here," Kalina told her. "You can do this, Mini."

"I will," she replied, and hoped she had not just lied to the Hunter. "I'll do everything I can, I promise. But if I-"

"Shut up," Kalina said, brows knitting tightly. "Don't you dare start to say goodbye. You're not jinxing this. Go kick Crota's ass, and come back. You literally have one job, Titan, and you'd better damn well do it, ok?"

Min found she wasn't able to speak, so she nodded, and gripped Kalina's shoulder a moment. Then she looked at Gen.

"I'll keep her in one piece," he said. "And myself too, if I have time. We'll be waiting for you on the other side, Min. Now hold still so I can smear unspeakable egg goo all over your face."

She gave him a wry smile, then closed her eyes as his hand came up and grimed up her faceplate with pus.

Lev switched her HUD to full visual so she could see despite the glop. "We got this, Min," he said. "I'm with you every step of the way."

Not daring to look at the others again, she walked to the edge of the pool.

"Dive hard, swim straight downward," Eris told her. "This will protect you only for a few minutes. You will know when you have passed into the Ascendent Realm. Remember, your Light abilities will not work there."

"So long as bullets still work," Min said, trying to sound far more confident than she felt.

"They shall," Eris told her. "However only Crota's sword will slay him."

Ignoring the slime all over the Titan, Eris gripped her elbow a moment. "You can do this," she said softly. "You are the only one who can."

Min looked at her briefly, but said nothing. Eris's faith in her was unwavering, but Minerva didn't know if that faith was genuine, or if it stemmed from Eris's dying moments in that last life- the final thought she had that Minerva would save her, bleeding over into this life unconsciously.

Minerva had failed then. If she failed now, the cost was so much higher than just Eris's life, or her own.

Taking a deep breath as Eris stepped back, Min steeled herself a moment, and then dove.

The stuff not only looked thicker than water, it felt that way as well. The weight of her armor helped pull her downward toward the bottom of the pool, but as she tried to hasten her descent, she found her efforts were doing little. She felt like she was trying to swim through custard.

Pulling harder, she suddenly saw dirt and bare rock inches away from her fingertips and had a moment of panic.

There was no portal. It was gone. The Hive had closed it, and now Min was going to have to make a frantic break for the surface again, to get out of the pool before she-

Then the rock seemed to shimmer and blur. A force, a vortex, seemed to grab hold of her and hauled her forward. She felt a moment of weightlessness, clenching her eyes shut. Then-

-she slammed down hard onto rock. Opening her eyes and looking around, she saw she was laying on bare stone. Dark was all around her, but the pool was gone.

"Are…are we ok?" Lev asked, and Min slowly pushed herself to her feet.

"I think so," she said, looking down at herself. The slime that they had coated on her pads was gone now, no trace it had ever been. Her armor was clean and dry. Behind her there was nothing but the same darkness, but looking slightly upward she could see a whirling shimmer, a strange sort of pulsing, and realized it was the portal. It hovered a good six or seven feet above her head.

Lev appeared from out of her data tag, her rifle materializing in her hands.

Unable to hear or see anything around her, she said to her Ghost, "Go take a quick look, but don't go too far."

"On it," he said, and started away into the blackness. With no other guide but his Light, she started to follow him, all her senses straining for the slightest indication of danger.

So this was the Ascendent Realm? So far it looked like nothing beyond any other big dark cave. Could it possibly be that the portal had let her out somewhere else? That it was a trap, to trick threats to the Hive into some sort of prison?

Keeping one eye on Lev, she loosened her hold on her rifle long enough to bring her fingers up toward her eyes. She tried to create a ball of Sol in her hand.

Her palm remained empty, but something deep in her mind seemed to twinkle, like a single star out beyond the reaches of the galaxy. Brows knitting, she tried again, this time with Void. Again, her hand remained empty, but that twinkle repeated, fainter and softer, just a hint of it.

"Lev," she said, and the Ghost immediately turned and came back to her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"When I try Sol, nothing happens- just like Eris said. But I get a strange feeling in my head."

"What kind of a feeling? Pain?"

"No, it's like a…a twinkle."

"A twinkle?" he asked, puzzled. "Could be that your Sol is trying to ignite but can't quite do it?"

"I don't think so," she said. "It feels different than Sol. Different than Arc or Void even. It's kind of…"

She searched for a word that described how it felt, how it 'looked' inside her mind, but the only thing she could think of that even came close to it was…

"…white."

"It feels 'white?'" Lev asked. "What does that mean? How does-"

He broke off, whipping around. Min immediately snapped straighter, hand back on her rifle and it set against her shoulder as she held her breath. Further off into the dark, something stirred with the rustle of cloth, the scrape of metal on rock. Then, a new sound, distant but audible. A waiting, eager sound, rising and falling in a melody among the shadows.

Someone was Singing.