With one last gasp of air, Matt sunk to his knees and let himself splay out on the ground. Off in the distance, some large vortex-like orb was hovering in the void of this realm's 'sky', and he was probably no safer here than he'd been just a few moments ago, but he didn't care.

He'd made it.

Rolling onto his back hurt as it was covered in claw marks and scratches, but he managed it. He held up his left hand only to see that there wasn't anything but a bloodied stump there. Groaning, he dropped the Hawkmoon from his right hand, its silver casing stained with red blood and gore, and instead let Seraph materialize there.

Her chassis fell into his palm, and it only took a few moments for her blue light to begin strengthening in brightness now that they were far away from the suffocating Darkness of the abyss.

"…I… wha- what? Matt?"

He grinned, and waved at her with his left arm. The stump moved pathetically in front of her. "Hey, Seraph. Good to see you again."

"Oh my God! What happened to you?!" Immediately, she set to work scanning him and looking for any other injuries that might not have been as obvious. "All I remember is us falling, and then… nothing."

He sighed. "Probably best that you don't know. I wouldn't wish those kinds of memories upon anyone."

"And you managed to get through that horrific place by yourself?"

He debated whether or not to tell her about the mysterious voice he'd heard, and the blue lights. Maybe it had all been a hallucination, and hadn't happened at all. Or maybe there was something bigger at play here. Either way, he would wait until later. "Yeah, it wasn't too fun. Now would you mind lending me a hand here?"

She pulsed at his small joke. Hurriedly, she channeled what light she could into him, and he felt himself healing. When she finished, and he next looked back at himself, his armor had been repaired for the most part and he had two hands. He flexed his left one, testing it. That was good enough for him. "Thanks, Seraph."

"So, what's the plan?"

Out of the silence of the void came the sound of gunfire. Matt turned towards a castle-like structure on the opposite side of a chasm between it and his own position. He pointed in its direction.

"Something tells me we're going that way."

Seraph nodded knowingly. "Why would I expect any different?"

-X-

Ash swore as another blast from a Knight's cannon landed less than a meter from her, and she dove to the side to evade yet another blast before it blew her up. Above her, on the focal point of the arena, Crota roared in a way that just made her feel like he was mocking her efforts. She grunted, and began to run towards Eager to assist him.

They'd figured out pretty early on that the massive Hive prince wasn't affected much by their weapons, they just seemed to annoy him a bit. But there were more sword bearers here, and those swords DID seem to do some damage on him. There were just a few key issues, the first one being that the swords tended to break after a bit of hacking away at him. The second was that Crota was so freaking big, it was hard to come close without risking total obliteration from a swipe of his own sword.

Right now, Eager was just jumping down from the platform above where Crotastood, and cast aside the cracked blade in his hands. She dove into him and pinned him to the ground to save him from the blasts of energy she'd seen a wizard nearby casting at him. A sniper bullet tore through the air from one of the other members nearby, and the Wizard ceased to exist.

They both scrambled to their feet. "Thanks," he panted to her.

She looked around. "We'll get overrun by Thralls and Acolytes long before Crota kills us if we don't start clearing some of them out."

"I'm on it," he replied, and ran off to get a better vantage point. She gripped her scout rifle tightly, and ran in a different direction towards Dawn. The other Titan was near the top of one of the two sets of stairs, taking cover behind a makeshift barrier as part of the structure.

"How are you holding up?" she asked.

Dawn nodded her head to the side to point out something. "Just waiting on that sword bearer to go down so I can grab it." They'd all been grabbing the sword whenever able, and taking turns at slashing away at him. He definitely seemed to be tiring a bit, but the fight was taking its toll on them as well.

"I'll call it for you."

Dawn nodded, and Ash peeked around the side of the barrier to look where Scorch had just tethered another sword bearer. Once it had been trapped, she unleashed all of her ammunition from the Last Word into it, and it disintegrated to dust, leaving the sword behind.

"Go!"

Dawn wasted no time in hopping down, and sprinting over to the blade. Grabbing it as she ran, she used her thrusters to propel her up to the second level again, and made a beeline for Crota. Aria was keeping him busy by unloading her pulse rifle in his face, and he was too distracted to notice Dawn before she was next to him, and took a massive swing. The sword carved a chunk of bony armor away from Crota's right leg, and the Hive prince screamed in anger.

The Titan just barely made it down below before Crota's swiping reach nearly smacked her away. She fired as she ran, trying to lessen the crowd of Hive soldiers that clustered amongst the lower level.

Ash spoke over the comms, "Aria, you're up."

"Got it!"

She watched across the arena as the Warlock stopped firing long enough to hop down and help Scorch kill another sword bearer. Ash took over as the distracter and began pumping bullets into Crota. He retaliated by shooting beams of arc energy in her direction, and she was forced to take cover.

"Alright, got the sword! Heading up!"

Ash swore and moved herself back out of cover so that she could shoot Crota again. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Aria making her way towards him.

It was only for a second that she looked away, but it was enough. One of Crota's blasts caught her in her chest plate, and she was knocked onto her back. She held a hand over her chest, trying to stop the sensation of pain from taking over.

"I'm down, repeat, I'm down!" she called out. She turned back to look at Crota where he was laughing triumphantly-

His laughing immediately stopped as Aria's attack arrived, and cleaved through his leg altogether. Crota screamed in pain, and released his sword as he was knocked off balance and grasped his wounded appendage. The sword fell to the lower level, and skittered away a bit towards the entrance they'd all come from, lighting up green with dark power.

Aria swung again, fully intending to finish the Hive prince once and for all. The sword arced towards Crota's chest…

Suddenly, it came to a full stop as it met resistance in the form of Crota's hand. He had placed it in front, and caught the sword cleanly by the blade. Then he yanked it away from Aria, causing her to fly backwards towards Eager and crash into him.

"AGH!"

"Oh, shit."

"What's going on?!"

Ash heard the comm channels explode with chatter as Crota slowly maneuvered the new sword into his hand, and shockingly, began to speak to them.

YOU MURDERED MY APPRENTICE. YOU DESTROYED MY ANCHOR TO YOUR REALM. YOU HAVE HELD THE DARKNESS AT BAY FROM YOUR WORLD FOR TOO LONG, BUT NO MORE! I HAD WISHED TO STICK YOU ALL UPON THE BLADE OF MY OWN SWORD, BUT YOU GROVELING BAGS OF MEAT FROM THE LIGHT HAVE ENTERTAINED YOUR EXISTENCE FOR THE LAST TIME! DIE!

With that, Crota stabbed the sword into the plate beneath him, and an ominous green glow began to emanate from it. Suddenly, that same glow manifested itself in the center of the oversoul high above them. The entire arena was bathed in green, sickly light. The Hive soldiers everywhere began to dissolve, their dead forms unable to cope with the power of the oversoul.

THE OVERSOUL WILL REAP YOUR LIGHT, AND BEND ITS WILL TO MY OWN!

Ash cried out as she began to feel a prickly sensation all over her. It was like she was starting to melt inside her armor, like her body was trying to separate itself from her mind.

"AAGGHH!"

"Make it stop!

"I… I can't… feel…"

Slowly, Ash laid on her side. All she was left with was a view of Crota as the oversoul grew behind him like an evil sun, and the lower level where his sword lay, and where a figure approached it hastily.

Wait… a figure? She tried to think through the pain. They were all here, Eager and Aria were on the other side of the arena and Dawn and Scorch were down below on the ground from the effects of the oversoul. Who…

Crota looked down to his new challenger, and roared in fury at them. The Guardian bent down to pick up Crota's sword, green fire spreading over their form as they did so. The blade's power was dark, but the light of the Guardian repelled it, and it could not harm them as it covered their form. Then they looked back at Crota.

"Nice to meet you too." Matt grinned. "But it's gonna be even better to say goodbye."

He jumped, and blinked out of existence. Crota was momentarily confused until he reappeared right in front of the Hive prince, and slammed the sword with all his might into his chest.

The oversoul stopped in its tracks as its wielder stumbled backwards from the blow. Gooey black essence began to drip out of the crack in his body as Crota held a hand to his breast. He gave one final roar to the void, one final call for… something, before he crumbled into pieces and became no more than ash in the wind.

In an instant, the chaos ended. The oversoul was no longer active. The Hive were all dead. Crota was dust.

Everything was still.

Matt turned to look at the broken arena. Slowly, the other Guardians were making their way to their feet, and staring at him. He hopped down from Crota's pedestal, and remained on the lower level. They all began to approach him from their respective places, until all five were standing in front of him. No one said a word.

Matt noticed a prompt in the bottom corner of his HUD. It was the list of members who had acknowledged green since the last time that a ping had been sent out. His remained gray, and lifeless. With a small smile tugging on the corners of his lips, he switched his to green.

Eager laughed upon noticing, and stepped forward. "Man, is it good to see you." He extended his hand, and clasped Matt's hand heartily.

Matt chuckled back. "The feeling's mutual, Eager."

Scorch stared at him like she was seeing a ghost. "You survived that place? By yourself?"

He shrugged. "Yeah?"

"Holy shit," muttered Dawn.

Aria laughed and stepped forward to hug him lightly. "'Holy shit' is right, we're super glad you're not… y'know. Plus, you kind of saved all our asses right there. But a few moments earlier wouldn't have hurt."

"I'll try to be faster next time," he joked. Then, his gaze fell onto the one person who he'd focused on when he was in the dark, the one ray of hope that he'd had when he was down there in the pit.

Ash walked up to him cautiously. She didn't say anything, just stared. He waited for her to make the first move. Everyone else watched.

Suddenly, she moved forward and pulled him into a hug. He was shocked just for a moment, then reciprocated the action.

"I'm sorry…" he heard her whisper. He raised an eyebrow?

"What?"

"I pushed you away… and we tried to contact you and you didn't pick up, and I just- I didn't want to think that you had… that you were… and that I never fixed things between us before-"

"Hey, look at me." Her head lifted until they'd locked gazes. Both visors depolarized, and Ash was rewarded with a view of his signature smirk on his face. "I'm here. When we get back to the tower, we'll go out for a drink, how's that? Let it all out there."

She nodded, and then stepped back. Everyone remained silent until Matt clapped his hands together to get their attention. Then he looked down at his left one.

"Huh. Never thought that clapping would feel so good with both hands."

"What?"

"Anyway, what say we all get out of here?"

Scorch gave a satisfied exhalation. "Yes, please. If I ever see another Thrall, it will be too soon."

"How are we supposed to get out again?" asked Eager. Matt looked at him.

"Well, we needed to be Ascendant to enter this realm; only makes sense that we exit it that way too. We've got the Traveler as an anchor point to our realm, and by the way I'm able to hold this sword, I'm pretty sure that I count as Ascendant right now… why not test it out?"

Without waiting for anyone, he held the sword tightly and began to focus on returning home. Nothing happened for a few moments, but then the greenish glow that accompanied the Ascendant Hive began to emanate from the sword and washed over all of them. He focused on home, on all of his friends, and on how great that drink was gonna taste when they got back.

-X-

Rook watched as the rock he'd been throwing in the air to himself fell just out of his reach, and he sighed. It really wasn't that big of a deal to get up, but he was just so comfortable right now- or at least as comfortable as he could be while laying on a slab of broken concrete. He decided that he'd grab it later-

"Too lazy to pick up even a rock, huh? No wonder you're not employed anywhere; no work ethic."

He sat up properly at hearing the joking tone of someone nearby, and he looked over to where it had come from. Walking towards him under the large broken roof was none other than that Guardian that he'd met a few weeks ago. She was in civilian clothes, except for her boots which were still signature Hunter armor.

"Scorch?"

She smiled. "Just got back from helping save the world again."

He nodded. "You Guardians seem to have a knack for doing that. What was it this time?"

"A Hive prince that wanted to slaughter all of humanity."

"Oh yeah, I think I heard about that guy."

She chuckled. "Anyway, I got back and I realized that there was something I had to do. Didn't have time to fully change, so I apologize for the boots."

"How did you find me?"

"I may have coerced an answer out of some other people." She looked around the broken down building. "All the way out here in Messenger's Fall, huh?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Nobody ever comes out here because there's nothing of worth; they left all these crumbled broken buildings around as a memorial of that battle. Figured that if I'm gonna be homeless, I might as well have a roof over my head."

She nodded. "Yeah. I know that mindset."

They sat in silence for a minute, unsure of how to proceed.

Scorch cleared her throat. "So, uh, look."

"Yeah?"

"I know how you said that I just was looking for rationalization before…"

"Yup."

"… but that isn't the case. I hope I'm proving that by being here."

He pretended to think. "That is true, you did come and find me. I suppose that earns you a few points."

"I get why you were mad at me… and now that everything's been resolved, I want to ask for another chance."

"Another chance?"

"Yeah."

He laughed. "I was never really mad at you. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a pity friendship."

She shook her head. "No, it's not. I really do want to be your friend, Rook."

"Well, it's a welcome change from how people usually interact with me. Welcome to my fan club, Scorch."

"Happy to be here."

"I must warn you, it's a very small fan club. I'm not even a part of it."

"Ha!"

-X-

With a clink, Matt set his glass down on the counter.

They'd gotten back from the moon, told Eris and the Vanguards that Crota was dead, yada yada. People were happy, Guardians were celebrating, once again the Heroes and Seekers had returned victories. But he was bit tired of all that, and for once he wasn't going to join in the festivities. While Aria, Eager, and Dawn were all at the Tower with other Guardians, he was going to be having a drink with his best friend.

Much better way to spend the night in his opinion.

He looked over to his right where Ash was downing a beer as well.

"What does that even do for you?"

She shrugged. "I have to get fuel somehow. My body can turn pretty much anything into energy. But actual food tends to taste a bit better." She raised her glass up to her mouth again. "And I'm a bit partial to beer. Just can't get drunk."

He shook his head. "Getting drunk is one of the better perks. Means that you can forget things for a short while."

She looked pained for a split second.

"Was it that bad down there? Alone in the dark?"

He realized what she was referring to, and felt hairs raising on the back of his neck. "Yeah, yeah it was."

She nodded. "I'm glad that it was you then. I can't forget anything."

"Hmm?"

"I can't forget."

He narrowed his eyes. "Like, anything? It just-"

"Gets stored in my head, yeah."

"Wow. That's a lot of info over the last three years. Can you erase any of it? Maybe get rid of some bad memories."

She shook her head. "I could, but I'm not going to."

"Why?"

"Because if I did something like that, it would just cement the idea that I'm a machine even further."

And finally, the problem of what had been troubling her all those weeks ago was revealed.

He shook his head. "Hey, don't say that. You are not a machine."

"Then what am I? I'm certainly not human."

"You're a person. You have a soul."

She laughed for a moment. "Ha, you always have the answers don't you?"

He looked at her seriously. "Why is this bothering you all of a sudden? I mean, it never seemed like it bothered you before."

She sighed. "When they fixed me up in the infirmary and replaced all my plating, it kind of made me realize that I've thought of myself as more human than I am all this time. But I'm not human; I can turn off my nerves, replace body parts, erase memories, the list goes on." She tapped her hand against her chest through the jacket she was wearing. "My body isn't made of muscle and blood, it's made of metal and circuits. I may have a soul, but that doesn't mean we're the same."

She took another swig of her drink. "No matter what I do, I'll only ever be like a human."

He felt sympathetic, but he was still confused. "Still, why would any of that bother you? Why do you want to be human so badly?"

She looked at him like he'd just said the dumbest thing "Why do you think, genius?"

Oh. Shit.

"For me?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, I guess."

They sat there for a few more moments before Matt asked, "How long have you… had feelings, for me?"

"You know when you saved me from falling into the Hellmouth?"

"Wow. Seriously?"

"Yeah." She shrugged. "It was a dumb idea from the start. Like I just said, when you really think about it, it's a dumb idea no matter how I feel."

"I never once called it-"

"I know, I did."

"Would you please just-"

"No." She said it emphatically, and took a moment. "Because if I ever stop saying that it's a dumb idea, then that means that we might actually consider it."

"So let's talk it over!"

Taking one last shot from her drink, she stood up and began to leave. Swearing slightly under his breath, Matt let Seraph materialize. "Pay the bill, please? And give us a bit of privacy."

She nodded, and he set off after Ash.

Upon exiting the bar, he looked to see her walking down the sidewalk towards the tower. He hurried to catch up with her. He sidled up next to her.

"I'm not letting this go."

"Please."

"Not until you tell me the whole story. Why do you think it's impossible for me to have feelings for you, like you do for me?"

"Because!"

"Great rebuttal."

She spun and faced him. Luckily, it was night out and there was nobody around to see them argue.

"If you had any feelings for me, then you would have told me! You would have said something, would have-"

"Like you did?"

She seemed confused for a second before he explained. "You may have had feelings for a long time, but you never once told me about anything until that night. How was I supposed to react to that?"

She couldn't think of anything to say, he had a point. Whip materialized in the air. "I've been telling you to tell him for years, but nooo-"

"Get out of here!" She waved her hands at him, shooing him away. The Ghost ducked out of her reach, and then set off towards the bar where Seraph had remained. Ash glared after him and then turned around again.

"Regardless, it just wouldn't work."

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself more than me. Give me some concrete reasons that you think-"

Unexpectedly, she turned and looked at him quite seriously. That frightened him.

"First, tell me for what reasons you never said anything if you truly may have had feelings for me."

He shrugged. If this got her to talk, then so be it. "I never considered the possibility before. There's not a doubt in my mind that I love you just as much as you love me; you can't be best friends with someone for three years without growing to love them, it's impossible."

He sighed. "But I just never thought something like that could actually happen. I've seen how Exos get viewed in the city, I know how people would see that kind of relationship. If I'm being perfectly honest, the thought just never crossed my mind because society prevented me from thinking it. I was so conditioned by how life is here, that I never even once thought about something like that; that's not to say that I don't think we could make it work."

She nodded, accepting all that, and then launched into her own argument. "Now, let me tell you exactly why we can't make it work. First off, we're Guardians. You think that just because we have a relationship that the Darkness is gonna ease up on us? What if one of us lost the other? What if… what if…"

Her voice began wavering, like she was about to cry. "Today, when you fell… I thought you had died, and that I'd never see you again. It wasn't like before, where we could get the Traveler's spark back. How am… how would we deal with the other's death if we were together? All I could think about as they tried to contact Seraph was how I'd pushed you away, how I-I'd never get to s-say I'm sorry, and that it w-wasn't your fault…"

Suddenly, the wall that she'd put up around her emotions came crumbling down, and her voice became wracked with sobs. "It's all me, it's all m-my fault! I would just h-hold you back. You're a human, I'm a m-machine, people w-would hate us, they'd hate y-you, and what would happen i-if we made it that far? I can't have k-kids, I can't age, e-eventually you would…"

She held her face in her hands. "It j-just hurts to know all of this, a-and be so close to y-you all the time, but I can n-never open up about it or…"

"Ash…"

Matt walked forward and pulled her into an embrace. She didn't resist, and he just heard her synthetic sniffles as she continued to cry into his chest. He held her there for a bit, letting her release her emotions. Eventually, she looked up at him, and he could feel nothing but affection for those electric blue eyes of hers.

"I don't see you as a machine, and I don't see you as human. I see you as an Exo. You are unique, and that's part of what makes you who you are. I don't love you because you try so hard to be human, I love you for you. I love everything about you, every strength, every flaw, it's all what makes you… you."

She looked so shocked to hear him say that. He had finally opened up to her as well, and now even he had a few tears coming down his face. They were happy tears though, tears of bonding and a sign that they were making progress.

"I don't care about any of t-that other stuff. One problem at a time. All I c-care about… is you, Ash. I love you."

She was silent for just a moment until her lower mouthpiece began trembling a bit, and she whispered, "I l-love you, too."

Ash pulled herself tighter into Matt's hug, and he returned the action enthusiastically. They held each other for those precious minutes, those few minutes where everything had finally been laid out in the open; and they decided that despite the odds, regardless of anything that could ever happen, they would at least have each other.

A/N: And finally, we've reached the title chapter. I always try to have something good planned for each one of those. Hopefully, you guys agree with me that their relationship has now been fully developed, and has a much better origin than it did when they originally got together in the first book before I rewrote the whole thing.

As always, please leave a review and follow/favorite! We're nearing the end of the third book, and you know that that means that book four is right around the corner!

Until the next time,

-Matteoarts