"Wren! Urgent message from the Vanguard incoming," Kiran said and Wren nearly jumped out of her skin. Blankets and pillows hid her face as she grumbled and cursed at her Ghost.

"Sugarbird?" Cayde's voice came in loud and clear.

"I'm here," she muttered, rolling to her back.

"Did you go back to sleep?"

"Cayde—" she said, her tone warning.

"Okay okay. But look, you need to get that cute little ass outta bed and to your ship ASAP…uh… Ikora… hi how uh… how long you been standin' there exactly?" He laughed nervously, cleared his throat and spoke more firmly. "Anyway, suit up and set course for Helas Basin, Mars."

Wren hopped up and stretched. "What happened to being grounded?"

"Shit, I forgot to tell you, I'm your Vanguard again! And ya know… Zavala approved it so… right. We still have some issues to get around but it'll be fine. This'll be a good start for us."

"So what's happening?" she asked, putting on her armor.

"We got a distress signal but the Guardians in the area haven't had much luck getting to where they need to be. Got some major issues with warsats fallin' out of orbit so we already have some Guardians en route to see what can be done about that."

"No one else is closer to answer the Guardian distress signal?" Wren asked, tucking her helmet under her arm before heading out the door.

"Yes and no? Like I said, warsats are crashing all over the place. Besides, you're our godslayer, remember?"

Wren rolled her eyes. Sure, it was something she'd heard around but it was nonsense. Always being in the middle of the action was simply wrong place wrong time. Or right place right time depending on who was telling the stories. There wasn't a thing she could think of that she'd ever done that was impressive enough for the title. Cerulean as a whole? Well, they deserved it.

"I assume my ship has been loaded with necessary supplies?"

"Yup. Even put a little somethin' extra in there for you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Chicken cordon bleu."

"What?"

"Food, Sugarbird, food. You'll love it trust me!"

"If you say so."

Wren closed the apartment door behind her, Kiran hovering over her shoulder.

"He seems to be doing better," Kiran said.

"You think this is better?" Wren asked, raising a brow at him. "In the past two weeks he's worked himself to exhaustion almost every day. He's put the mask back on so fast I don't think he's taking time to grieve or process what happened."

Kiran sank a little. "But… he's not sad sad…"

"Just because he's not crying doesn't mean he's not in pain. But if he wants to distract by being busy then I don't know how to stop that. It's better than what happened to me when Beorn… well, we both know I was spiraling."

She crossed the Courtyard, hoping to get a glimpse of Cayde. She did, but he was far away, standing on the overlook where Zavala had taken up talking to Guardians since the old Tower collapsed. He gave her a subtle wave and a forced smile. The other Guardians left when they saw her coming.

"How are you feeling about this?" she asked.

He hesitated. "I'm doin' my best. I mean, it shouldn't be anything crazy right? Go save a Guardian and come home. Cake."

"I'll be fine."

"I know. You better come back to me."

Wren stood on her toes to sneak him a quick kiss. "Every time. You take care of yourself while I'm gone, okay?"

"I'll try."

A couple of Hunter approached him and Wren took her leave. Kiran hovered over her shoulder as they made their way to the ship. In the distance she could see Franz's ship preparing to leave but the hanger was too big for her to ger an eye on Sisre or Rorick's. Maybe Franz was going to Mars to help with the warsats…

Mechanics moved out of the way to let her onto the catwalk where her ship was docking and there stood Commander Zavala with his back to her, hands clasped behind him. Wren's shoulders tensed.

"Commander," she addressed him flatly.

For several moments he didn't answer, only stared out over the City, the bright reflection of the sun casting a blinding white light on buildings in the distance. When he did reply to her, he didn't turn around.

"Life is a delicate thing," he said. "Hope… faith… love…in an instant they're gone. Everything you've sworn to protect is gone. All you're left with is silence and shadow… and the knowledge that you should have done more."

Wren clenched her jaw and her gaze fell to the floor. She could still see Beorn's face sometimes. Hear his laughter… hear his screams.

"I ask myself if we could have won. If we could have defeated Ghaul had the Traveler not awoken. What if we couldn't?" he continued. "What of our next threat? Or the one after that? The Traveler is awake now but what does that mean for us? In this Age of Legends?" He finally turned to face her but Wren had no words.

Why was he saying all of this to her? Not like he'd ever opened up or shown her this kind of vulnerability before. So why now? Nothing he was saying was new and yet she had refused to ask it of herself. There was nothing she could have done to stop Ghaul, she'd known that. Maybe with her fireteam but alone? Who was she kidding? Even with the rest of Cerulean they wouldn't have been able to take on the behemoth that Ghaul became.

"In the shadow of the light, our universe is a terrible, beautiful place." His stare pierced through her but she did her best to maintain it. "Where I once saw miracle, now I see monsters. Someone has to. We have to. That is what a Guardian does."

Wren gave a quiet nod in understanding, but it didn't fool the Commander. He gave a low sigh and passed her.

"There are things we must encounter," he said. "Things I have been putting off for a long time. I can only hope that when you encounter them, you understand why I make the decisions I make."

Zavala left and Wren watched until he disappeared.

"What the hell was that about?" she asked but Kiran only shrugged.

"I'm not sure. Kinda feels like the Commander is hiding something. Or that was some kind of weird way to beat around the bush at an apology for the way he's acted about you and Cayde…"

Wren climbed up onto the wing of her ship and slipped into the cockpit where a single container box of food sat in her seat, still warm. A smirk played at the corners of her lips and her stomach rumbled.

"Kiran, set course for Helas Basin. I'm going to eat my lunch."

They closed in on Mars, balls of fire streaking toward the surface as warsats fell from orbit. Guardian ships darted around, doing what they could to break up as much of the machines as possible to minimize damage to the planet's surface. Wren's fists tightened on the controls of her ship.

"Isn't this impossible?" she whispered.

"Maybe… but I don't think they're trying to protect the whole planet, mostly the old Golden Age facilities. There's still a lot we don't know about Rasputin and the Clovis Bray facilities here on Mars."

"Clovis Bray… right."

"Anyway, all of the good stuff has been hidden under ice caps for centuries. But with the Traveler waking up? That's going to get a lot of attention through the system and maybe beyond."

Wren followed a warsat toward the surface, taking a few shots at it to see if she could break it up a bit but it didn't do much. Her ship wasn't equipped with the firepower needed to take one out. The controls began to shake violently in her grasp.

"Let go," Kiran instructed. "I'll plot a course for our landing."

"What are those ships over there?" she asked, noticing a firefight in the distance.

"Hmm Cabal. With the warsats falling looks like the Cabal are headed here too."

"For what?"

"Scavenging parts maybe? With their forces scattered I'm sure they're still hurting for supplies."

Wren scoffed. "For a highly militarized group that sure have a hard time getting back in working order."

"Probably fighting over who should be the next leader or something," Kiran said, his tone dismissive as he did his best to safely guide them toward the surface. "Huh… weird…"

"What?"

"Something's coming in over the private Vanguard channel."

"Cayde?"

"Mayday! Mayday! Do you copy?" a woman's voice came in loud and crackling. "Vanguard access code 0306… get away from my Ghost you frozen– Guardian, requesting backup! I repeat! I need backup down here!"

"This is an official Vanguard channel," Kiran said. "We're already en route to a safe location for drop off but you need to keep off this line or—"

"Oh cute, you got one of the uptight Ghosts."

Wren snorted but Kiran spun, annoyed. "Uptight!?"

"This is Wren of fireteam Cerulean, the Vanguard sent me to assist."

"About damn time! All those Guardians out there shooting down warsats you'd think one of them would have been here ages ago."

"Landing now. What's the situation?"

"They didn't tell you?" she cursed under her breath. "Go figure. Look, the most dangerous weapon in the solar system is on this planet and an entire army of Hive are trying to destroy it. I need your help. Is your fireteam with you?"

Wren and Kiran exchanged a glance. "No, it's just me."

"We'll do fine."

The area she'd touched down in had a sheer rock wall to her left and a narrow path that was open on the right, dropping down and around the cliff face. Below, chunks of thick ice floated in water that looked so black it was reflective. Flaming warsats mirrored back at the sky as Wren hopped down to a lower portion of the path, ever closer to the water. She kept close to the inside wall, memory flashing back of being in the pitch black cave under water.

She rolled her shoulders and extended her arms, trying to calm her hammering heart and remind herself that she was safe. She wasn't trapped and could easily move.

"Are you at least safe?" Kiran asked.

"For now," the voice replied. "But there's a lot of "not safe" between us and the Clovis Bray facility, which is where we need to be."

"So this isn't a rescue, this is just joining up to complete the goal," Wren curved down the snowy slope, wind blowing fresh powder across the path.

"What's in the facility anyway?" Kiran asked.

"Well, judging by the fact that warsats have been falling since I got here I have to assume Rasputin is behind it."

"Rasputin? Here? But that's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible where Rasputin is concerned. Look, I'm sending you coordinates. Meet me at the facility."

The line disconnected. So much for a quick rescue. Wren kept her Better Devils loose in its holster, ready for anything but the area seemed quiet enough. The path was wide and despite the fresh snow it was clear enough to traverse without issue.

A flaming warsat blocked part of the path before it disappeared into a crevice in an ice wall. Wren gave it a wide berth. It was a small warsat compared to others she'd seen and she didn't concern herself with the fire as there was nothing nearby that might help it spread.

Instead she stood at the mouth of an icy cave barely tall enough for her to stand up in. Caves. Again. Why was it always caves? She rolled her shoulders, put a hand on her weapon and took her first steps in. Her boots cracked through stalagmites of ice that jutted from the floor, crushing them to pieces.

Luckily she didn't have to stay in the narrow cave too long. It soon opened to a large cavern with an interesting center piece. It looked like a tornado had frozen solid from floor to ceiling. The smooth surface had a strange swirling pattern. There were other smaller ones dotted through the cavern, pale yellow light glistening across the ice.

The path dropped off to the left and hugged the right wall but it appeared to curve around and up toward the left. A gap between the two ends was a little too far for her to jump without the Exotic boots Cayde had gifted her with. Damn Ghaul and the Red War. She loved those boots.

With a frustrated sigh she continued on only to be met with a Hive Thrall popping up from a pile of snow with an angry hiss. Wren snorted and with a single shot killed the Thrall. No sooner did the smirk and roll her eyes, did dozens more emerge from all corners of the cave. Roars echoed from the walls and Wren took a few steps back.

"Of course there's more," she spat.

Kiran chuckled.

Wren continued to step back until she was almost at the small tunnel again, using knives, headshots, and a Solar grenade to fight back the swarm. She remembered some of her first encounters with them as a new Guardian, how terrifying they could be to deal with and considered how she felt about them now. Sure, they were a pain and in large numbers could be quite dangerous but it was hard to feel afraid of them in the same way after facing beings like Oryx or Ghaul.

When the cavern fell silent once more, Wren toed a pile of Thrall ash with her boot, noting the hard icy crystals mixed within. Were these even the same as Hive found on the Moon? She set her jaw and started to walk again, scanning the area for any more Hive that might pop out of the snow drifts.

"I've never seen Hive like that before," Kiran said.

"As far as I know, they only exist here," the voice said and Wren jumped.

"Wait, I think we need to take a step back here. Who even are you?"

"You can call me Ana. Now hurry up. We have to get inside as fast as possible."

"Well, you could always meet us and help with these Hive."

"No time for that little Ghost."

"She's gone again, isn't she?"

"Yeah. Thrall are so… strange," Wren said.

"Hm? How so?"

"Well, when you think about the other enemies we face, they have a sense of self preservation. Even though the Vex charge us, they still have ways to protect themselves, hide their more sensitive areas, but not the Hive. At least not the Thrall. They charge almost aimlessly, clawing and screaming. It doesn't even matter that you're mowing them down in droves, they just scramble over the dying and scatter the ashes of the dead and… I don't know. Can you imagine if we had issues like that from more powerful enemies?"

"Like a swarm of Cabal Centurions?"

Wren let out a small snort, but the thought was almost terrifying. "Yeah, like that."

"I wonder what waits for us in the Clovis Bray facility."

"Exos were made my Clovis Bray right? Do you think there will be anything about Cayde in there?"

"Maybe," Ana replied. "But I doubt it. Why?"

"Eh, long story," Wren chuckled.

Too bad. It could have been a way that Wren could find out more about him. The things he kept hidden away from the world… from her. Still, there was hope, right? Maybe a system that would link to his past? Of course she couldn't help but feel apprehensive at the thought of snooping into his past without his permission again. That hasn't gone well last time. Besides, how fair would that be? She'd asked him to be better and he was genuinely trying. If she broke down and started digging without being patient enough to wait for him to trust her, it would only make matters worse.

The path took her back into a cave, though taller than the last and well-lit by the strange Hive crystals that jutted from the walls. Water dripped from stalactites, echoing from the icy walls. To her left was a sheer wall, glistening and reflecting her shadow and within she could hear the whine of ice shifting.

"What's that?" she asked, nearing the wall but she only took a few steps before the wall exploded, pelting her with heavy chunks of ice. She dropped to a knee as a piece as big as a melon knocked the wind out of her.

A Knight had erupted from the wall and took no time in its attack. Wren rolled from her knee to the side as the Knight's sword crashed into the floor, wedging in the rock. A crack split in the stone as the Knight yanked it free but Wren had already retreated, arm firmly clutched around her belly as she gasped for air. She threw a grenade behind the Knight, passing up its shield as the Solar grenade sought its target.

Rage and pain filled screams shook the cave and the Knight crumbled. Wren took a few shots to the Knights head to kill it but Thrall burst through the ice wall and rushed her, each taking a bullet of blade before Wren was again alone, sitting in a pile of ash and ice crystals.

For a moment she leaned her head against the wall and collected herself. The prospect of more of those Knight popping out of ice walls wasn't exactly enticing her to proceed but she had a mission to accomplish. She hauled herself to her feet and continued, winding through the caverns, defeating the few Acolytes and Thrall that remained to defend their dark little corner of the planet.

Only one more shielded, sword wielding Knight fought against her and she found that a well-placed grenade was sufficient enough to dispatch them quickly.

"Not as tough as I thought they'd be," she said.

"Don't underestimate them," Ana warned.

"I see another warsat." Wren walked up the slope of a larger cavern to where a warsat lay half buried in snow and ice but at least it wasn't on fire.

One of the plates was missing and the inside arced with red light that somewhat reminded her of SIVA. She kept her distance, but Kiran was eager to scan the device and see what he could find.

"That's odd," he said.

"What did you find?" Ana asked.

"There's nothing wrong with it. Nothing that would have made it fall from orbit. It was like it was pulled down. I think it might be time to call in help from the Vanguard."

"Not a great idea. Zavala won't be happy about us digging around Bray. He wants the past to stay buried. But we need to get in there to find out what's going on with Rasputin."

"You act like you have a stake in this personally," Wren said as she and Kiran headed through the caves. The line was silent a moment before Ana replied hesitantly.

"You have your long story and I have mine. Just hurry up and get here so we can see what's going on."

Wren blinked against the harsh red glow of the outside when they finally stepped out into sunlight once more. She shielded her helmet a moment, taking in the surroundings but something in the distance caught her attention.

At first it looked like a simple explosion on the other side of what she assumed was the Clovis Bray facility but through the debris and plume of dust she could see what looked like the spinal fins of some great monster arching behind the buildings. Goosebumps raced down Wren's arms and she cursed under her breath.

"What was that?" Kiran whispered, as if being too loud would draw the behemoth creature's attention.

Wren shook her head. Maybe they did need to contact the Vanguard…

"What was what?" Ana asked.

"I don't know it—" Wren inhaled deeply. "Didn't you feel the ground shaking?"

"Yeah I heard an explosion but I thought maybe a warsat collided with the building."

"That was not a warsat. It was like a giant snake… thing. Are you sure we don't need to contact the Vanguard?"

"Trust me, whatever is out there can't be worse than Zavala if he finds out what we're doing out here. Meet me at the entrance to the facility."

"Look, I'm already not on the best of terms with the Commander. I'd like to stay out of trouble if I can so I'm no more eager to tell him about this than you are, but whatever that was, it can't be ignored."

"We'll figure it out when you get here."

"Ana wait. Ana? Dammit."

"Do you want me to send a message to Cayde?" Kiran asked as Wren headed down into the valley toward the complex where they had seen the creature.

Wren clenched her jaw. "I don't know. Just… be on standby to send what you just saw and coordinates. If things start to get sketchy I trust you to know the right time to send it."

"I don't like this."

"Seems like we say that more and more as time goes," she muttered, wishing she could use her Sparrow to close the distance but knowing it would be like painting a target on her back. If she could stick to the shadows and keep her head down, she could reach the facility with little to no trouble at all. The faster she got in there, the faster she could get off this planet and away from whatever the hell that thing was.

The area around the entrance was crawling with Hive but Wren saw an opening to the left and began skirting the area until all that stood between her and the door was a couple of Thrall. She snuck up and killed them with throwing knives before they could alert the rest of the patrol.

Ana was waiting for her in white armor, a wolf head insignia emblazoned on her left pauldron. She was a pretty woman with uneven black hair and a glint of excitement in her eyes.

"Hey, you made it!" she said, a smile playing on her lips.

"Of course."

"C'mon, let's see what's hiding in there," she said, nearing an open doorway that led farther into the facility. "Besides hordes and hordes of frozen Hive I mean."

"I still don't think this is a good idea."

"How about this, you help me, and if we get caught I'll tell Zavala it was all my fault and you were just trying to be helpful. How's that sound?"

Wren huffed a sigh.

"You two go that way and try to clear some of the Hive out while I try to find another way in."

Ana trotted off around the corner and Wren slapped a fresh clip into her Better Devils. Here we go again, she thought begrudgingly making her way into the complex.