There was a frozen moment where time itself literally stopped. Aria knew that time was actually passing quite normally, but this one second felt like an eternity. She stared at the ends of the cable which had severed, and could only think that it was by the blandest of deaths that she was going to die; by a rock cutting through the line. And then time sped up, and she felt the terrifying sensation of butterflies in her stomach as free fall grabbed her.

Matt was falling right alongside her, reaching his arms out to grab anything. Nothing came to his aid, and they both fell past any potential chances to rescue themselves. Aria began to level herself into a flat position, anything to slow her descent, and Matt imitated her. He laughed. "I suppose we'll do our best to survive, even until the end, right?" he said, commenting on their desperate attempts to slow themselves. Aria wasn't too worried.

"We'll, I've got my Sunsinger ability. I'll be able to bring myself back, though I'm not sure about you. Echo?" The Ghost popped up beside her, falling just as fast so that he could keep up with her. "You could use your radiance to restore his soul and body to life, yes, though it'd be damn difficult. As a matter of fact, practically all Guardians can be resurrected, assuming that their Ghosts aren't dead, and they aren't beyond repair." Matt turned to him sharply. "What constitutes beyond repair?"

"They don't have enough light within them, or the Ghost can't summon any light to revive them. That's why it's essential that in places like the Hellmouth, you don't die. There isn't any light to summon anywhere around them. Here though, we have the Traveler." Echo looked down. "You might want to brace Matt, you both are about thirty seconds to ground."

Matt followed his gaze, and though the Ghost was right, he was still amazed that they'd managed to fall this long. The Tower had to be quite tall for them to achieve this feat. This was gonna suck, regardless of what happened-

Suddenly, a shadow fell over them, keeping pace with their falling bodies. Aria and Matt glanced upward to see the Javelin flying startlingly fast downwards in a completely vertical position. "Or, you might not have to wait long at all." stated Echo. "Whip, transmit them now!" they heard Ash yell over the comms. Blue light began to shine around them, and in a second more, they were in the Javelin. But they were still falling at the same speed, so it now made sense for Ash to be traveling alongside them. She slowly began to ease up on the speed, causing Aria and Matt to begin floating towards the floor of the ship.

"You need to start pulling up, or we'll crash!" exclaimed Whip. Ash said nothing, as she was now concentrating on both slowing down, and pulling out of the dive. Matt and Aria hit the metal floor, and scrambled to their seats, strapping themselves in. The Javelin continued to arc upward, until they managed to reach a level of ascension instead of descent. Ash breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, so we knocked out our impossible rescue for this mission," she joked. "I don't think we've got anymore in stock, though."

Aria leaned forward and pointed out the viewport. "Look." No longer were they in a humorous mood, as they saw various explosions blossoming across the City. The armada of ships was firing upon their stronghold their home. And Matt didn't much care for it. He brought his wrist interface up to his mouth. "Vanguards, come in. Cayde, you there?" There was a second of static, and then the Exo's voice came through. "What's up, kid? I thought we saw you and the Warlock go over the side." "We did," Matt replied, "but that's not important. The city is being bombarded, I suggest moving Guardians in to defend." A moment's pause, and then Cayde responded, "I agree. Take your team and start defending the urban district, looks like they're under some heavy fire there. Most of us will head towards the city's center, where the biggest action is."

"Wait, the biggest action? Where's the center?" asked Matt, dreading the answer. "Right under the Traveler, why?" Matt swore. "They're going to try and take out all of our defenses there! Once they're clear, they'll move and begin to destroy the Traveler from the inside! Get there fast!" He hung up, and then stopped to stare at Aria who had gone pale. "What's up with you?" She looked at him.

"The urban district is where my parents live."

-X-

Fires had sprung up nearly everywhere. The cobblestone paths of the less wealthy district had been destroyed, uprooted and broken apart by missiles and explosions. A great number of people ran in terror, as an even greater number of people simply lay unmoving in the streets, oblivious to the destruction around them. Buildings were in ruin, smoking and crumbling, sometimes trapping individuals within their falling walls.

Mr. Sorentine hurriedly tried to find a weapon of some sort. The Fallen were beginning to scour the streets, searching for survivors, and breaking in homes to clear out those with enough sense not to go outside. His wife only wrapped herself in her own arms, rocking in terror under the dining table. Finally, he grabbed a cleaving knife from the dish rack. As he made his way back to the dining room, he heard the sound of wood splintering, and realized he was out of time.

A Dreg came through the door first, equipped with a shock blade. It spied him standing in the room, and let out a call to its other members. Mr. Sorentine held the knife up in a combat position, ready to defend himself and his wife.

When the Dreg's cohorts did not respond, it turned to see where they had gone, only to receive a burst of flame directly in its face. With its head melted and skull showing, it fell backwards to reveal a Warlock standing there, hand outstretched. They retracted their arm.

"Looks like today is your lucky day, dad." He squinted at them, recognizing the voice. "Aria?" She nodded. "The one and only. Hurry and grab mom, we're evacuating this district!"

Dragging his wife out from underneath the table, he carried her over one shoulder and followed his daughter out the door and into the streets. "What of the bombers?!" he cried. She turned slightly as she ran. "Don't worry about them, just keep moving! I've got a friend keeping them busy!" Indeed as she said that, he noticed a black ship attacking some of the Fallen's larger vessels, and evading their attempts to destroy it. She waved her arms at other people nearby, yelling, "Evacuation this way! Follow me! I'll lead you to safety!"

They kept running until they reached the main road, not made of cobblestone but rather a paved, grey metal that made up the structure of most streets connected with the wealthier parts of the city. He watched a Hunter join up with Aria, a group of near twenty civilians following behind him, slightly larger than the gathering that Aria had accumulated. "Alright, this is about all I could round up of the survivors. You?" She gestured a thumb at the group behind her. The Hunter faced everyone.

"Alright, we're doing our best to repel the invasion! While we do so, we need you to head for the Tower, and remain near the base for cover! You will be taken care of!" Mr. Sorentine knew his daughter had important business to attend to, but that couldn't stop him from wishing she would come with him to safety. The most he managed was to grab her hand and say, "Thank you," and then lead his wife towards salvation.

Aria watched her parents disappear. "You alright?" She turned to see Matt watching her, waiting for her to respond. She cleared her throat. "What's next?" He looked around the urban district. "There's not much left here except rubble. We're not doing any good here, we need to join the larger fight in the center of the city, stop the Messenger from destroying the Traveler on the inside." She nodded. He held up his wrist interface and said, "Ash, Aria and I are done here! We need to get to the center, ASAP!" He could hear grunting on her end as she concentrated on avoiding enemy fire. "Alright, just give me a second!"

He looked at Aria. "Looks like we're waiting for a ride."

-X-

Shaxx brought his arms up, aiming at the next Cabal to rise up and over the makeshift defenses they'd constructed. When one did raise its ugly head, he fired and sent a bullet spinning through its grey-matter.

He and the other Vanguards were fighting in the City's center, surrounded by massive numbers of Cabal and Hive. Numerous other Guardians stood with them, fighting until their last breath to beat back the enemy. Many had taken such breaths in the last few minutes, hit by Cabal explosive rounds or sliced to death by Thralls that tore through armor like can openers through tin.

Cayde-6 stood to his left, firing off rounds from his own hand cannon, and cracking sarcastic remarks every once in a while. Shaxx had begun to tune him out, and hadn't the slightest clue of what he was saying. Zavala and Ikora simply fought, hoping to somehow quell this flood of an army, and reduce their numbers until they were manageable. Saladin, who had conveniently been called back to the tower for defensive measures, fought with the many Guardians in the field, issuing out orders. Even the Stranger fought with them, Firing her vibrant yellow pulse rifle in quick succession, often saving the Vanguards from stray enemy shots that they didn't detect.

Anti-air guns that had been stationed around the city long ago to protect humanity from such an attack as this had been activated, and every so often launched a silo of rockets at hostile ships that came too close. It was such a satisfying sight to see a Fallen dropship hurts into flame, its metal carcass spiraling downward until it impacted against the ground.

In place of barricades and proper defenses, they'd dragged broken blocks of the nearby buildings around them in a kind of circle, its diameter around a hundred and fifty yards across. They seemed to block incoming fire fairly decently, and weren't too high to shoot over. Hopefully they'd be able to hold out here for a while longer.

Suddenly, a large Cabal dropship began to enter the scene. The anti-air guns started to train their aim on it, but it had already left by the time that they'd swung around.

"What the hell was that about?" asked Cayde incredulously, refusing to believe that a large Cabal warship had just up and run away.

"They only needed to drop off some cargo," said a voice from behind them.

Shaxx spun around to fire, but the Messenger had already fired off a round of his devastating weapon. Luckily as Shaxx had spun, his aim had been a bit off and the round managed to catch Shaxx in his shoulder plate as opposed to his back. Immediately upon piercing the armor, the munition began to secrete an ooze that immediately dissolved whatever armor it touched. Hastily, he wrenched the plate off and threw it directly in the face of the Messenger. The Warlock ducked, but seemed impressed nonetheless.

"I'm surprised you managed to evade the poison. Mark of the Devourer, they call it. Eats through anything, especially organic material." Without another word, he fired again and this time successfully hit Shaxx in the chest. Indeed, Shaxx began to feel the acidic substance dissolving his skin beneath his armor, and he groaned at the slow and agonizing sting.

As he went down in an attempt to recover, other Guardians began to gather and attempt to defeat the Messenger. With an almost casual style, he let off multiple shots, spearing them with the blade-like ammunition and letting the acid finish off those who did not immediately die. One Hunter tried to tackle the murderer, but the Messenger gripped her by the throat and slammed her into the ground. Putting the thorn directly against the Hunter's helmet, he pulled the trigger and a mixture of plexiglass and squishy grey globules sprayed outward. As her head fell on its side without muscular support, a mixture of acidic liquid and blood began to seep from the hole in the helmet, pooling on the ground next to it, hinting at what grotesque scene lay behind the visor.

The Messenger turned back to finish off Shaxx, but was immediately thwarted by an unexpected punch from Zavala, charged with arc energy. It sent the Messenger flying for a few meters, before he tumbled onto the ground and rolled back into a combat position. He was quick in realigning his aim and began to shoot, but Zavala had already placed a ward of dawn around Shaxx and the other Vanguards by then, and the thorns ricocheted off harmlessly.

The other Guardians around them began to open fire, but the Messenger brought up his hands to begin casting that unique void shield that he was so adept with. Deflecting bullets left and right, he smiled at Zavala within the large purple bubble, both of them knowing it was a matter of time before the light required to sustain the Ward of Dawn ran out, and they were vulnerable once more.

"He's unstoppable!" shouted Ikora, who seemed to be at a loss of what to do. Cayde knelt next to Shaxx, checking to make sure that the Titan was still alive and kicking. Shaxx sat forward a bit, wincing from the pain in his chest. "I'm open to suggestions here."

"If we keep prolonging this fight, we'll be overrun from the Darkness's forces!" Zavala said fiercely. "We must end this, now!"

"Oh, it's a bit too late for that," called the Messenger, grinning as a wolf does when it's about to strike down its prey. "Why not take a look?"

Zavala turned to look at what the Messenger was referring to, and realized they'd been played. Hive Acolytes and Thralls were charging over the makeshift barricades alongside cabal warriors, and were beginning to massacre the other Guardians. Numerous Guardians were torn apart by the Thralls' needle like claws, and those who managed to evade the many swipes of the Hive fodder were taken out by bone-shattering impacts from Cabal Phalanxes, swinging their shields like bats. If the Guardians did not manage to hold these waves of enemies back, they'd be overrun in minutes.

Now that the others were distracted, the Messenger was free to stop waving his void-shields around, and simply began to laugh at the Vanguards within the Ward of Dawn. "You see? All your efforts are futile! What hope do you have to defeat the might of the Darkness?"

The answer came in a fist belonging to Lord Saladin, who had left the defense of the barricades to the other Guardians, and come to the Vanguards' aid. The Messenger spun away from the threat, and readied himself.

Saladin's timely rescue jolted the other Vanguards into action, and they left the safety of the Ward of Dawn to attack. Ikora fired a few void projectiles before she was forced to roll away and avoid being shot. Cayde and Zavala teamed up to lay down suppressing fire so that Shaxx could get up close.

The Crucible handler threw a punch which the Messenger narrowly missed. He reached up to grip the Titan's extended forearm, positioned it over his shoulder, and pulled it downwards, effectively snapping it at the elbow. Shaxx cried out in pain, before the Messenger gripped him by the throat, and threw him at Cayde and Zavala. Both Vanguards were knocked over from the sheer force of the impact, and with Shaxx laying nearby, all three stirred feebly. With a wave of his hand, he used void energy to telekinetically throw Ikora a few meters into the air, and she landed on the ground in a heap, the air having been knocked from her lungs.

The Messenger quickly turned and shot a few rounds at Saladin in quick succession. The Titan dodged all of them, and charged down the Messenger, tackling him to the ground. Once he'd pinned the Warlock, he began raining blows upon his face, repeatedly smashing his fists into the helmet of the Messenger. The Exo swung his right fist in a desperate attempt to dislodge Saladin, and clocked him in the head.

Saladin recoiled, and the Messenger took the opportunity to roll backwards into a crouch. He pulled his knife from his belt, but was buffeted by the Stranger's covering fire which kept the Messenger from advancing. Saladin used the advantage to move forward, and reach around the back of the Messenger's head. Finding a grip, he pulled the Exo's torso downward so that his face met Saladin's rising knee, and the Messenger staggered backwards, reeling. One of his electrical eyes was broken, flickering on and off, and much of the metal in his face was warped. Saladin quickly gripped him by the throat, mirroring the Warlock's action against his former apprentice, and raised him in the air so that his feet could not touch the ground.

"Any final thoughts, scum?" asked the Titan in contempt. The Messenger appeared to ponder for a second before saying, "You've got a big red spot in the middle of your back." And suddenly he vanished in a flash of white light.

Saladin had only a moment to process and recognize the signature sound of a blink before he felt something sharp penetrate the small of his back, right into his spine. "Right about there." The Messenger twisted the knife, and Saladin felt all feeling in his lower body cease. Spinning him around, the Messenger pulled the knife from the Titan's back, and once Saladin was completely facing him, drove the knife directly into Saladin's helmet, resulting in the sound of glad breaking, and an accompanying splatter of blood on the inside of the man's visor.

"No!" yelled the Stranger. She watched Saladin's corpse fall to the ground as the Messenger turned to face her. She brought her rifle up to shoot again, but once more the Warlock blinked, and this time appeared directly in front of her. He hit the barrel of the rifle so that it lost stability and fired off target, then wrenched the gun out of her hands with one of his own, and used his free arm to brutally smack her across the face. She fell to the ground as he threw the pulse rifle far out of reach.

"All your fighting," he spat, "all of your so-called morals…" He stepped close to her, and violently kicked her in the head. "Your betrayal…" He held her up by the throat, and smashed her back into the ground. "All of your efforts, gone and wasted. I can't tell you how long I've waited to even the score between us…" He placed his foot on her abdomen as she groaned in pain, and slowly applied pressure, keeping her on the ground as she feebly struggled. "And how my patience has been rewarded; with the opportunity to personally end you with my own hand!"

He holstered his thorn, and drew his knife instead. She stared at it, her eyes slightly widening as he brought it closer to her face. "You thought your death would be quick, easy?" He chuckled. "I want to savor this moment. I want you to experience all of my hatred for you in the pain this will cause… and when I'm done, I want to see the light leave your eyes!" He brought the blade even closer, and the Stranger just glared at him, refusing to yield. If she was to go out, she was going to go out with dignity.

"Usually, this is the part where I say a corny line to signify my timely rescue, but we're running a bit behind schedule." The Messenger turned towards the voice before he felt bullets pepper him, denting and tearing the metal on his face and body. Matt had his aim trained on him with his hand cannon, firing round after round into the Messenger's form along with Aria and her pulse rifle. Ash grabbed the Stranger's yellow rifle, called out, "Catch!" and tossed it to her on the ground. The hooded Exo caught it, and quickly fired right up into the neck of the Messenger. His hands shot up to his throat in a instinctual move to defend himself, and he quickly threw himself off of the Stranger and conjured up a void shield.

"How-?" stammered the Messenger. "Ash rescued us from our fall." Aria smirked. "While we were defending the city, we figured out what you were up to. It was just a matter of predicting your movements, and deciding you'd probably try to be in on the action." Indeed, the javelin hovered in the air nearly fifty feet above them. Ash clenched her fists in anger. "It's a pity that we might have been a little too late," she snarled, her gaze fixed on Saladin's unmoving form, and the unconscious Vanguards.

The Messenger continued to hold his throat and maintain the shield, unable or unwilling to say anything in response. "What was your plan here?" taunted Matt. "You got overconfident, and thought you could take out everyone singlehandedly? It's over, Messenger."

Suddenly, a noise began emanating from a device on the Messenger's wrist. The relief of tension in the Warlock's body was blatantly visible, and that clued Matt in. The Messenger smiled slightly. "It's not over, not by a long shot." Then he shrugged. "And as for my plan, you're slightly off. Of course, I thought I could take everyone on singlehandedly. Evidently, I was not exactly correct, and I will admit that. But the purpose of my attempt was not to win the battle, but rather to distract you from the group of Servitors that have been stealthily infiltrating the anti-air guns' defenses, and will render them useless in about 3…2…"

He made a swiping movement, and on cue all the anti-air guns stopped firing. Matt looked at the roofs of buildings to see them slowly power down, and enter a standby stage. There was a few seconds of silence in realization of what this meant before the Messenger held up his wrist and said, "Now."

Immediately, the cannons came under fire. Enemy ships bombarded them with missiles. One gun in particular was blown up, and Matt was awestruck by the blossoming explosion that engulfed it. He was less awestruck when a massive fifteen foot long chunk of the cannon began flying towards them. "Get down!" he yelled, and he, Ash, and Aria dove onto the ground as the large piece impacted on the ground next to them. It bounced slightly and flew just over their prone bodies, narrowly avoiding smashing into them. Once Matt judged that it was safe, he looked up and saw a Hive ship coming closer, almost to ground level.

"This is my ride!" yelled the Messenger over the sound of the ship's engines, and with a mock salute, he vanished in the blue light of a transmat. The ship began to move away, and its trajectory seemed to be taking it straight into the underside of the Traveler.

"Shit, c'mon!" exclaimed Matt, and they all stood back up. "What about the Vanguards?" asked Aria. Ash faced the Stranger. "Can you ensure that they remain safe?" She nodded. "That's good enough for me, now bring us back Seraph!" A blue grid surrounded them, and a moment later they were strapping themselves into the seats of the Javelin. "If the Messenger makes it to the center of the Traveler," began Whip, "He won't stop until he's destroyed it. And if the core is destroyed, we could never return its Spark even if we manage to get it back!"

"Then we're not letting him destroy it," growled Ash. "Mark that Hive ship!" A red icon appeared on the view-screen over the ship in question, and Ash grabbed the controls. With no time to waste, she accelerated the ship towards their target.

They watched as the T-shaped vessel slowly ascended into the cracked bottom of the Traveler. As they came closer to the white orb, drops of rain began to fall increasingly, streaking water along the viewports. "Where'd this rain come from?" muttered Aria. Echo appeared. "Well, controlling the weather and climate was one of the basic abilities the Traveler has, quite simple really. I suppose that since it's under attack, its systems are activating based on protocol. It's almost like a reflex, if that makes sense. Its not truly thinking about making it rain, it's just doing it."

Ash paid the conversation no mind as she watched the ship completely disappear from view as it entered the Traveler. She accelerated even more, and began to curve in an upward arc as they prepared to follow it in. They passed the outer shell, and sped through the cracks and crevices, attempting to breach the interior. Finally they accomplished their goal, and they all drew in their breath at the sight before them.

The inside of the Traveler was massive, and stretched for what appeared to be between one hundred, to maybe one hundred and fifty miles. Lining the interior and following the curvature of the spherical structure was a labyrinth of structures, some seemingly made to be living areas such as city-like buildings, and others seemingly meaningless passages that created the appearance of a maze. These structures continued all around the Traveler until they reached two different points at opposite sides; two towers that stretched high above the other structures, and emitted whitish blue beams from their tops.

"Warning, I'm detecting an anomaly in gravity here," said Whip, "rather than being pulled down towards the Earth and ground, we're now being affected by the Traveler itself, and it's tugging on us towards the closest wall in an outward direction." Ash snapped, "English please?" The Ghost looked at her. "Basically, if we were to land on the interior here, you could walk all the way around it, like walking up the inside wall of a fishbowl."

Both beams shot towards the center of the Traveler; there, through some form of physics unknown to Matt, the streams held in place a ring-like platform that rotated around a smaller sphere hovering in approximately the midpoint of the Traveler. The sphere was of a transparent material, and as they continued to fly closer, he brought his hand up. "Seraph, bring up an image of that sphere there." The Ghost complied, and on the viewport appeared a magnified image of the structure. Matt now saw it wasn't a sphere, but actually a dodecahedron, and within it was a cylindrical glass chamber that appeared to be empty. "That's where the Spark must reside," he muttered, "but without it, the Traveler can't recover. And without the core, the Spark can't be replaced."

This was here the enemy vessel appeared to be heading. Warning lights flashed on the console, and Ash began to manipulate different levers and controls. "We're being targeted by their turrets!" she called out. Sure enough, slivers of void energy began hitting the Javelin as their turrets fired upon them. Ash squeezed the trigger on her control stick, and the Javelin responded by launching several missiles in retaliation. The trio watched the projectiles track the Hive ship, and maneuver around the void ammunition in the air. They waited with bated breath.

Finally, a series of flower shaped explosions appeared along the side of the ship, and smoke and fire billowed from it. They cheered. "Alright, we got 'em!" whooped Matt. "All we need to do is follow them, and finish the job-"

A stray set of void energy burned through their right wing as the Hive ship had continued firing as it descended. It appeared to be heading towards the leftmost tower. Ash frantically tried to regain control of the ship. "The controls aren't responding, we don't have enough support on our starboard side!" The Javelin began to tilt and turn, following a trajectory that was going to take them towards the rightmost tower, away from the Hive ship and the Messenger.

"Brace for impact!" yelled Ash as the Javelin continued to accelerate towards the tower. "Umm, aren't you forgetting something?" asked Whip nervously. "What?"

"The gravity here pulls towards the wall, remember? So if you're in this position when you crash-"

"Then I'm basically nose-diving into the ground," she finished, her eyes widening. "Shit!" She rotated the control stick, attempting to turn them sideways in relation to the Earth, and flat in relation to their crash point. All the different gravitational points were making Matt nauseous, as he tried to keep track of which way was up and down. Aria didn't appear to be faring much better.

Fortunately, they didn't have to deal with it long as their ship continued to plummet, and finally crashed into the Traveler's side. There was a jolt of pain in Aria's side, and then the blackness swallowed her.