Ash walked out of the infirmary, eager to get away from the doctors and all their rules at last. Plus, she'd undergone quite the night.

Her plating had been completely replaced all over her body. At first, it had just started with her torso. That had been necessary, lest she walk around with a gaping hole in her chest for a while. The new plating was made from carbon fiber rather than the more common steel alloys, making her significantly tougher and lighter than she'd been before.

But it was white with black accents and streaks, not white and silver like the rest of her body. And she'd felt a bit off with this new addition while the rest of her body was still the same. She'd reasoned that the other parts of her body were likely wearing away anyway from years of battle and strain too, and so had opted to just go ahead and have the rest of her body's plating replaced as well with the new carbon fiber material and paint scheme.

She still retained the same proportions as before save for being roughly two inches shorter shorter due to the density and strength of the new material not needing to be as thick to protect her; she had less bulky plating than she did before on her feet and legs, and so lost a tiny bit of height. She was fine with it however; the trade off had been worth it. Her body was sleeker than it had ever been, lighter and tougher, and the new paint scheme was actually pretty enticing to her, with the black streaks accentuating her otherwise white form perfectly. She felt that this was likely how organic women felt when they received a makeover or bought new clothes.

Even her face had been updated; no longer was it purely white and silver, but rather white and black. The metal of her mouth now had several black components to compliment her white, and a black plate sat in the center of her head, in stark contrast with the rest of her face. Intricate black designs were curved around too, surrounding the bottom of her outer eyes and flowing down her cheeks. She honestly felt refreshed; when she'd seen herself in the mirror, she'd felt- maybe not pretty, that was an odd word for her to describe herself as- but definitely new, improved. She was happy with her new height, weight, body, and face. All of it was great.

As soon as that thought had crossed her mind, she tripped on her own feet as she walked towards the hall where her quarters were. Blast it; she was going to have to get used to her new weight to height ratio unless she wanted to be tripping over everything.

She wasn't the only one either; she wondered how Matt and Aria would react to her new form. Especially Matt. Would he be surprised? Excited? She supposed that he'd find out in the morning, she was exhausted and just wanted some sleep at the moment.

Upon coming to both her own room and Matt's, she debated with herself over whether or not to enter his and crash there. She decided against it, reasoning that he was likely just as tired as she was; he'd come back later and sat with her until night had fallen and she'd told him to get some rest. He'd resisted of course, but she didn't want him exhausted on account of her so she'd sent him off. She would avoid waking him for right now, and walked into her own room.

Groaning, she pulled off the makeshift change of disposable clothes they'd given her while they operated. She'd have to grab her armor they'd taken tomorrow, and start looking for a replacement chest-piece now that her current one was completely destroyed. Once she was rid of the clothing, she looked over her nude form in the mirror.

Maybe nude was the wrong word to use; something felt off, like she was different. She dragged her finger across the surface of her chest, tracing the new black markings that adorned it, and eventually placing her hand on the breast of her chest where the damage had been before they'd fixed her. Being carbon fiber, it definitely felt slightly softer than the regular steel alloy it had been before, but she still felt the hard resistance.

That annoyed her, and the fact that it annoyed her in and of itself annoyed her. Why should she feel odd in her own body so suddenly? She felt comfortable, much less bulky than before, she was lighter, slimmer, what was wrong?

She looked down at her left arm, also sporting new black plates with interesting patterns etched upon them. On a hunch, she reached over with her free arm, and gently performed the proper procedure to remove the plate gently and carefully.

Upon removing the black plate, she saw what she expected to see; her basic machine-like skeleton within. An array of different mechanisms and machinery working together to assist in the movement of her arm; the metal cylindrical frame that acted as her 'bone' in the middle, different vein-like cables and tubes carrying her blue blood throughout her system to keep it running, and the intricate sheets of gel-like substance that were stuck to the inside of her exo-skeleton; neuro-sensors that allowed her to touch and feel like a human.

Like a human.

That was it, she now realized. She was uncomfortable because she'd finally seen herself exactly the way that everyone else saw her; as a complicated and highly sophisticated piece of machinery. But at the end of the day, it was just that- machinery. She'd always thought of herself to be more human than she actually was to some degree, but here was concrete proof to the opposite staring right back at her in the mirror. She didn't have the soft, delicate skin that humans did; hers was hard and durable. She didn't have the organic eyes that blinked because it was necessary; she had ones that lit up because of circuits powering them, and 'blinking' because that's how they were programmed. She had no genitals or real breasts, it was all just… metal.

She was just metal.

This was a real wake-up call for her. This was the real her; not a human, not any kind of organic; she was a machine. A complicated system of moving parts and circuits that worked together to help her function. All of her likeness to humans was due to the way that she'd originally been built, whenever that had been. If one were to strip her of all her plating and other parts, she would be an endo-skeleton frame at her core. The thought of that frightened her.

But then what did that say about her? She knew that Exos didn't have souls originally when they'd first been built by humanity, but rather had been gifted them by the Traveler. But was it truly a soul? Many humans believed in an afterlife of some kind. If she died, would she be able to enter it according to human beliefs? Did she qualify as a living creature? Or could she even die as they did? Would she really just fade away from existence, her programming ceasing to be capable of working?

Where were all these thoughts coming from? She hadn't ever thought this deeply about herself, and she wondered what was so worrying to her in light of this revelation-

And then she found it. Of course it was Matt, as most things she was worried about concerned. He was human, she wasn't. How hadn't she seen this before? Or- had she already seen it, but pushed it out of her mind?

How would others see them? They'd been friends for nearly three years, but that didn't stop everyone else's views on the matter. Ash was no fool, and she knew perfectly well how people in the city saw Exos. What would they say if they knew? They'd probably accuse Matt of something wrong, seeking the company of a machine rather than an organic. And she'd be seen as nothing more than an object mimicking emotions and feelings, considering that they didn't think that Exos were capable of such things, let alone of having friendships, of... loving someone.

She quickly shoved that thought aside and scolded herself. It's been three years; if he felt the same way about you, he would have said something. Just let it go.

She may be one of the Heroes, but that's all; people saw her as a team member that was made to do her job and expect nothing more, certainly not to have a personal life of her own.

And what did Matt think of her? That thought stung as it crossed her mind. Did he see her as she was, or just as a human with the body of a machine? Nothing of hers was actually human; her soul, her true self apart from her physical body, was complicated; all Exos minds had been based off different human minds, volunteers to give imprints of their brains but not quite; they had acted simply as examples that Exo systems had used to adapt to human behavior from the supplied memories and neural networks. Then the Traveler had come, and actually allowed the Exos to live; they weren't just a system of coding and artificial intelligence any longer, they were living souls with different physical make-ups.

But try telling that to the city today; they wouldn't believe it if the evidence was smacking them right in the nose. As far as they were concerned, nobody could truly know if Exos had souls and feelings unless they were one, and humans were certainly not Exos. So they kept up their harsh and racist beliefs, forcing most Exos to take on the most ironic job; defending humanity and the very people that had prevented them from being accepted by society as normal.

"Ash?" Whip's synthetic voice startled her, and she immediately jerked away from the noise. He backed off for a moment, and then came closer once she saw it was him and had calmed herself. "Are you alright?"

She nodded numbly, the lie came easily enough. Whatever she was feeling, it was anything but okay. Perhaps she'd just had a revelation, or an epiphany, but one thing was for sure; she was shaken in the security and stability of the very fabric of her friendship with Matt.

-X-

Scorch awoke with a jolt, realizing that her head was hanging off the side of the couch at an awkward angle, and now she had a crick in her neck. Grunting, she pushed herself back up to her pillow, and cracked her neck to the left and right, hearing the vertebrae crackle loudly in an attempt to rid herself of the neck-pain. As she turned, she noticed that light was shining in through the window, a sure sign that it was late morning.

The events of the previous night were starting to come back to her, and she looked around for a sign of the maroon Exo from last night. Glancing over to the front door, she saw Rook slumped against the wall, watching her.

"It's about time," he muttered. She looked from him to where he'd gone to sleep last night confusedly.

"What are you doing all the way over there?"

He shrugged. "I tried to leave. Didn't want to overstay my welcome. Unfortunately," he grumbled, "this guy here wouldn't let me. Said that you wouldn't stand for it." He pointed to the air on his right where Spectre materialized a moment later. The Ghost faced her and bent his sides downward, the equivalent of a shrug for him.

"What can I say? I figured you wouldn't want him to leave without saying good-bye properly."

She raised an eyebrow at Rook. "Well, he's right. I wouldn't think that's how friends would treat one another." She emphasized the term he'd used for them last night, and he seemed surprised that she agreed with it so loosely. She smirked at his reaction.

"C'mon, stand up." She beckoned for him to get off the floor as she stood up and walked over to her room. He waited outside for her to return.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing," she replied as she walked back out, "I just wanted to change out of those clothes." Indeed, she had similar garments on, but not the same ones she'd worn the night before; new jacket and pants, but she still wore the same fingerless gloves as she had yesterday. "Alright, let's go."

"Go?"

She nodded. "I want to get out for a bit, take a walk or something. You alright with that? Or are you trying to take off early?"

At this, the Exo's jawline set tight, but he said nothing. She ignored it, and continued on to walk out the door. He came out a moment after she did, and she locked the door.

-X-

"Okay, so what's with the name?"

Scorch turned to Rook at his question. They were walking down the block, their feet crunching on the thin layer of snow that had settled upon the ground over the course of the night while they maintained several discussions with one another. He shrugged. "What? You've got to admit it's a weird name, I highly doubt it's your real one."

Without saying a word, she pointed to her left cheek. His eyes widened for a moment before he planted his face into his hand. "Okay, I probably should have guessed that one," he grumbled as she laughed.

"Yeah, I mean it's not like it was literally staring you in the face," she joked.

"Alright, it was a dumb question. But then how'd you get it?"

Her joking tone disappeared as memories started to resurface. He saw the change in her expression, and immediately tried to rectify his mistake. "Hey, if it's too personal, don't worry about it! I was just-"

"No, it's fine." She sighed deeply. "I was a kid during the battle for the Traveler. I had to watch as the city was destroyed and the Darkness's forces swept in, killing everything in their path. My family turned out to be one of those things, and they were killed right in front of me by a pack of Fallen." Slaughtered was probably a more accurate term, but she didn't want to open that door of specificities.

"One of the Captains had a Scorch cannon, and by some miracle I managed to dodge at the last moment. It still grazed me though," she said pointing to her scar, "and cauterized the flesh. I just decided to start going by 'Scorch' once I was living on the streets because a badass scar and name can earn you more respect than you'd think." She chuckled slightly.

Rook was silent for a few moments as they walked, before finally turning his purple eyes to her and saying softly, "I'm sorry about that. I'd say you probably had it worse than me, or any Exo I know for that matter."

She shook her head. "Nah, at least I'm not discriminated against everywhere I go."

"But you lost everything!" he argued, articulating his points with random hand movements. "You had a home, a family, and you lost it all and then were thrown into a life you had no idea of how to deal with!" He shuddered. "At least I've been this way for all my life; I had years to adapt and learn how to survive out here. And I never had a family or anything to lose either."

"I have a new family, though." She smiled at him and his shocked reaction to the insanity she was uttering. "I've got Dawn and Eager, as well as Matt, Ash, Aria… we're always there for each other." She looked down. "Or, at least they're always there for me." She smirked at him. "So no, I'd say that you have it much worse than I do."

This time, he also chuckled. "Oh, I know that. I was only referring to your childhood; it's more than apparent that you're much better off than I am now." The nonchalant way with which he'd said something so serious raised alarm bells in her head. How did he treat all of this so normally?

Suddenly, his eyes grew wide. "Duck!"

When she hesitated, he grabbed behind her shoulders and pushed her down as a glass bottle came flying from somewhere off to the left, accompanied by a gleeful shout. It smashed against the side of the building next to them, sending glass shards in every which way. Scorch looked back up to see two men in ratty clothes across the street, turning around and running now that their targets weren't off their guard.

She waved her fist at them while yelling, "Why, you-!"

But Rook pulled her arm back down. "Don't, it's not worth it."

She shook her head. "How do you all deal with this? I knew it was bad, but not this bad. Why don't the Vanguards do anything about this?"

"I'm sure they'd love to, but you said it yourself last night; they're busy protecting all of humanity. Who has the time to go around and help every Exo in the city?" He shook his head at the thought. "I don't blame them at all for this; if they had the opportunity to, I'm sure they'd take it in an instant."

Scorch considered this; maybe Rook was right. She was especially sure that Cayde wouldn't let the rest of his race go on like this without good reason. Then another idea struck her.

"Hey, you want to come to the tower?"

He stopped walking for a second, registering what she'd just asked. "What?"

"Seriously. Do you want to see the tower?"

He narrowed his eyes suddenly, his mood performing a complete turnaround. "Why are you doing all of this?"

The question threw her off guard. "What do you mean?" She raised an eyebrow in confusion, clueless as to why he was asking.

"I mean, why are you doing all of this; you stood up for me last night, you offered me a place to sleep, and now you want me to go with you to the tower. What's up with you?" This sudden suspicion was a curveball for her, she had no idea that he'd been feeling this way at all.

"People don't just come down here and immediately set to work righting all the world's wrongs," he continued, "or else the racism issue would have been solved long ago. Is there some particular reason you're doing this? Something personal to you perhaps?"

Was there? She thought hard; why had she suddenly been going against her long-since buried biases? She knew what she believed now, her two best friends and fireteam members were both Exos, what was the issue?

Her thoughts eventually trailed to Cayde. His own plight and problems that he'd dealt with, and his revelation of how people would see Matt and Ash's friendship. Was she doing all of this because she was trying to invalidate her own beliefs, to fight for her friends in her own way?

He saw the questions she was asking herself behind her eyes, and came to the conclusion he was right. "You said you don't believe in Exos not having emotion because you've seen it up close; what did you mean by that? Do you know someone, a friend of yours that's dealing with these issues perhaps?"

Once again, she had to give credit where it was due; the Exo was wiser than he let others know. She sighed.

"Two of my fireteam companions are best friends, practically inseparable; one of them is human, the other is an Exo. And yeah, I'm sure they do deal with discrimination because of it." She waved her arm dismissively at him, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"It has to do with our entire interaction." He crossed his arms. "See, this is how I'm looking at it; you used to have some prejudices against Exos, you said it yourself. Those prejudices seemed buried, but you find them coming back now that you see your friends so close with each other. In an effort to prove to yourself both that you're not racist and that you're in support of them, you see an Exo in need and use the guilty feelings inside you to go against the popular mindset of the city, help that Exo, and use those actions as evidence to justify that you're not racist."

She said nothing, realizing that he'd hit the nail pretty much on the head. He rolled his eyes and summarized it all with another line, "So basically I'm just a metaphor for your friends' relationship, and the only reason you helped me was because of the guilty feelings you were having."

"No, that's not-"

"That's not it? Tell me, do you think you would have been so willing to go this far if that wasn't it? Maybe you still would have stood up for me in the bar, but would you have sat with me? Would you have offered me a place to stay, and now offered to take me there?" he asked as he jabbed a finger at the tower, seen far off in the distance. "I was just a stranger, not a friend; so why all the help?"

She couldn't respond, trying to sort through her own feelings and thoughts. Was it true? She wanted to think that it wasn't, but something that he was saying was ringing true with her.

He sighed heavily, seeing the stress he was putting her through. "Look, maybe you are someone who would just do those things out of the kindness of your heart, but I've seen a lot of people over my years, and I've never seen anyone like that. So forgive me for being a bit cynical."

He thought for a moment, and then looked her in the eye. "Alright, here's what's going to happen. You're gonna head back to your friends, and you're gonna take care of all the issues between you and them. Once that's done, go ahead and think over what I've said. If you still think that our… interaction isn't just based on feelings of guilt, then come find me." He pulled the hood of his jacket up, and nodded in her direction before he began to walk away.

"Wait!" she called out, "where are you going? How will I know where you are?"

"I'm not making it easy," he called back, "you can figure it out when you have the chance. Like I said, if you're truly motivated then you'll be able to find me. But give it a few days thought first, hmm?" With that, he turned down an alleyway and disappeared from sight.

Scorch watched the spot where he'd just vanished from view as though expecting him to reappear. Not only had he accused her of being friendly only because of her inner shame, but he might have been right. And now he was gone, leaving her to mull over her choices.

This was not a good week for her friendships.

-X-

Matt jolted out of bed, his arm already swinging defensively with his fingers curled tightly around the hilt of the knife he kept hidden under his pillow. He'd been shaken from sleep by some unknown entity, and was now in a combat state of mind.

"Slow down there, unless you want to send me right back into the infirmary after I just got out."

He recognized the female voice to belong to Ash, and his eyes quickly adjusted to the light in his room. She was standing in front of him with her arms crossed, a smirk playing across her face at his wild behavior.

PTSD was a real bitch to deal with, but at least they could make some light of it in situations like these. Now he was just standing around in the dirty clothes he'd slept in last night, a knife in his hand like a psychotic idiot. He threw it back under his pillow while Seraph woke up from the commotion.

"Despite what it may have looked like, that was not my intention," he joked lightly. "Now, what's-" Suddenly, her face caught his eye.

"Whoa. That's… new." She immediately knew he was referring to the black markings and plating on her head, and she nodded.

"Yeah. They were just going to replace the plating on my chest, but I asked if they could do it for the rest of my form as well. For all intents and purposes, I have a completely different body." She looked down, gesturing to her form. "No more steel alloys, it's all carbon fiber; lighter, stronger-"

"Shorter?" he asked, and moved over next to her. Whereas she'd been not quite as tall as him before, she now stood even lower and it was certainly noticeable. The top of her head only came up to his eyebrows now, and she was wearing shoes to help.

She shrugged. "The carbon fiber is denser, meaning I don't have to have as thick of plating on my feet and legs to have the same protection. Without that thickness of the material, I lost a lot of weight but also a few inches. It's not a big deal."

"Wow, the black works really well with your white," Matt commented, tracing the artistic highlights on her cheek. "Beautiful work; I'd love to see how amazing the rest of your body looks." He winked slyly as he made such a comment, referencing the very first time he'd ever met her; he'd been trying to inspect an Exo's machinery, and hadn't any idea how embarrassed she'd be at someone seeing her 'naked'.

Usually, she would have laughed along with him, but her eyes suddenly seemed to appear downcast. "Hey?" He tried to get her to look at him. "Everything alright with you?"

She shook her head. "I'm fine; I just had a long night, and I'd rather not talk about my body right now. You said you had a contact or someone you needed to talk to last night?" He saw through the lie easily, but did not tell her; the trick to finding out what was wrong would be to let things progress, and if she wanted to come forward with whatever it was, then she would. But he had a feeling it had something to do with her new changes; she didn't want to talk about her body. Why?

"Matt?" She waved a hand in front of his face, trying to grab his attention. He cleared his thoughts, and smiled at her.

"Yeah, I have something planned. I just have to make sure it didn't fall through. Let me change into some clean clothes."

-X-

Eager nodded his head at the report before him. Now that Omnigul's forces had breached the city's boundaries, he'd been sending scouts out to report on enemy movements ever day. Luckily, the case seemed to be that without their general, most of the hive were reluctant to organize any kind of offensive. This was providing a bit of a respite for the Vanguards to plan and strengthen their defenses around the city.

He turned to leave his office and hand over the report to the Vanguards, but he jerked backwards when he was startled by the sudden appearance of a familiar Hunter looming over his shoulder.

"Goddamn it, Matt! Can't Hunters ever just say something like, 'I'm here!' rather than trying to scare the crap out of people to announce their presence?"

Matt smirked. "Sorry, afraid I can't do that. It's almost an occupational requirement." He looked to the left and right to make sure they were alone. "Hey, you know what I asked you about yesterday?"

"Yeah, yeah," said Eager, waving his hand at Matt dismissively. "I'll have it taken care of while you two are out. But that's it, I can't be providing anything else for you."

Matt nodded his appreciation. "Thanks, Eager. I owe you one."

Eager shrugged. "It's the least I can do, man. I know that you and Scorch are in a bit of a rough patch right now," he muttered, "but that doesn't mean that I can't be on good terms with you, right?"

Matt smiled. "You got that right. I'll see you later."

Eager gave a flick of his wrist in Matt's direction, and then walked past him to continue his objective in delivering the scouts' report. Matt waited a few seconds, and then followed after him.

The offices of the task force were down a few levels in the tower, and had to be reached by elevator. He grabbed the next lift up to the courtyard, and waited to reach his destination. He had a big day planned for him and Ash; he was going to take advantage of the break that Cayde had ordered him to take.

Once he reached the top level, he made his way over to the railing where he'd asked Ash to wait for him. She turned when she heard his shoes brushing against the grass behind her. "There you are! I was beginning to wonder if you were ever coming back up."

She wore clothing to match his own casual style today; a tan jacket, black pants, and her regular boots. Her eyes were watching him intently, trying to figure out exactly what he'd been doing. It was funny how much information he could gather just from watching those blue eyes of hers.

He shrugged nonchalantly, playing it off like there was no big deal. "Sorry. Anyway, we should be good to go."

"Go? Go where?"

"Well," he began, "the Vanguards ordered me to take a break from any missions for a while, at least until you're completely recovered and good to go."

She smirked. "So, what are you doing?"

"I'm taking a break from any missions for a while."

She gasped in mock-surprise. "Who are you, and what have you done with Matt?!"

He rolled his eyes with a light smile on his face. "I know, I know. Incredible, right?"

"More like, 'never thought it'd happen in a million years'," she laughed. "So, where are we going then?"

"Just down into the city. Walk around and talk, grab something to eat, you name it." He looked over at her. "You and I are going to have some quality time. Someone else can cover the hard stuff for once."

She looked surprised. Maybe she hadn't thought that he'd do all of this just for her? No, it was more than that. Probably the same thing that had been bugging her earlier.

As they set off for the hangar to grab their ship, he could only hope that the rest of today went smoothly.