"Can you fix it?" Kendrix asked hopelessly.

The gunsmith- Banshee, Kendrix recalled- turned the crushed collection of scraps over in his hands, looking it over with a gaze that was simultaneously detached and interested.

"Fallen scorch cannon," the Exo muttered to himself. Kendrix was amazed the man could recognize the former weapon in its current state."Newer design. Evidence of Warmind tech integration, nothing extreme. No other notable modifications from the norm."

"Can't tell if that's a yes or no," Kendrix muttered, slightly annoyed and unnerved by Banshee's… well, robotic mannerisms.

The Exo's eyes shifted to meet Kendrix's own, hidden as they were behind his helmet, and the Guardian immediately regretted saying anything. The optics glowed a bright blue, almost like Nova's, in a way, but they lacked a certain warmth that even the alien Cybertronian possessed. They weren't cold, or even cruel, just… mechanical. And they looked at Kendrix as if he was a machine too.

"It's a maybe," the gunsmith eventually replied, his voice showing no hint of emotion, disapproving or otherwise. "Most things are possible with enough glimmer. But this is a Fallen weapon. Non-standardized. Lot harder to reverse engineer, and to find parts for. Not to mention scorch cannons are pretty volatile even when working as intended. Why'd you bother keeping it?"

Kendrix shrugged. "Liked the feel of it in the field, and the punch. Seems pretty rare too, didn't want it to go to waste. Plus, the Fallen are only a few steps short of dumpster diving when it comes to how they get their tech. I'm curious what someone with actual skill and resources can build from this basic design."

"Underestimating the Fallen is a surefire way to get yourself killed, kid." Banshee said, a tinge of warning in his voice. "Believe me, I know. They've been in the game a lot longer than you and me, and your average Dreg can do a lot more with a lot less than your average human mechanic."

Kendrix's head tilted down with a mixture of humility and discomfort.

"But…" Banshee continued, just after his silence became unusually long, "...I haven't had the pleasure of working on an arm this trashed in a long time. Would make for a good challenge, keep my skills sharp. So if you give me the glimmer, I'll give it a try. Deal?"

"Deal," Kendrix replied with a relieved nod. "My Ghost will wire you whatever you need."

"Don't give me anything you can't live without. Odds are nothing's gonna come of this."

Well, at least he's honest. Proxima pointed out. Kendrix nodded again and turned away, eager to leave the interaction behind. As Kendrix began walking towards the elevators, he had Proxima patch Nova into their internal comms from where he was resting in the Tower's hangar, so the bot wouldn't be left out of the loop.

"Alright, that's one avenue pursued. Let's get on to the next."

"For the record, I still think this is a terrible idea."

"Yeah, well, that's kind of just how we roll, isn't it?"

Nova let out a quick melody of beeps in agreement. Proxima gave an exasperated sigh.

"There are times I wish I'd left the both of you in the Cosmodrome."

A few moments later, Kendrix found his way into his room after exiting the elevator, and quickly sealed and locked the door behind him.

"Is it ready?"

"I've scrubbed it as clean of Hive magic as I can. We'll find out soon if it's enough once Eris sends some Titans to knock your teeth in."

"Good. Bring it out."

Proxima appeared in the air next to him, her fins twitching for a few moments. Then, in the largest flash of transmat Kendrix had ever seen, a long, black object appeared in the room, stretching nearly from the door to the far wall.

Bludgeon's sword.

The black blade was cold and quiet, no glow of soulfire to be seen. Still, Kendrix could feel the slightest edge of Dark coiling around it, faint though it was.

"I did a bit of preliminary analysis while I was cleaning it. It's like nothing I've ever seen. The blade is mostly composed of hadium, while the hilt is Hive xenotech."

"Hadium?" Kendrix asked, not recognizing the word.

"Oh, yeah. It's a metal used in Hive tech, being particularly common in their swords. Stores whatever energies it's exposed to, including paracausal ones."

"Including Light?" Kendrix asked, his mind already turning with the possibilities a substance like this could provide. "Seems like something we should hold onto if possible.

"Yup. I'm also finding lots of glimmer constructs in line with Nova's-"

Proxima paused, seemingly taken aback.

"What's wrong?" Kendrix asked quizzically.

"Nothing, I just- I realized that we know Nova's real name, now, and-"

She didn't finish the thought.

"That's… a good point," Kendrix said hesitantly. "So uh, bud, do you want us to call you-?"

N-O.

The single word came across the commline hastily and without hesitation. It was difficult to tell, what with it being just code and all, but Kendrix almost thought the robot sounded… afraid.

I- -A-M- -N-O-V-A. he reconfirmed after a moment of silence.

"Uh, ok then," Kendrix said, trying not to let his concern show as he glanced to where Proxima hovered above the blade. The Ghost just raised her side fins in an imitation of a shrug. He decided not to press the issue, given he couldn't even begin to comprehend what the Cybertronian was feeling at the moment. "Right. Proxima, you were saying?"

"Yeah… yeah, sorry. I also found some glimmer constructs that match pretty closely to Nova's physiology. Best guess is it started out as part of ol' Skeletron's body when he first took the tombship form, then he reformatted the rift drive into the hilt and added some hadium he snatched off the Hive. Next thing you know, sword that cuts tears in the fabric of reality."

"Jesus," Kendrix muttered. "Scary to imagine he could pull something like that off all on his own."

"Yeah. Daily reminder that these guys are way more advanced than us. Although if his ship survived whatever crash stranded him here, I wouldn't be surprised if he had tech on board that helped out with this."

"Let's put a pin in that for the time being." Kendrix said nervously. He didn't even want to imagine what they'd be up against if they went looking for trouble in Bludgeon's ship. "Right now, we should focus on scrapping this hunk of junk for whatever parts and info we can find. Any ideas?"

"A couple," Proxima said as she floated over and began scanning the slightly curved blade. "The glimmer constructs are somewhat like cells, programmed into the appropriate shape by a digital code almost like DNA."

"So, what? It's like, cyber nucleic acid?"

"That's a dumb name and you should know better. Anyway, the 'cells' are already showing some small signs of decay. Seems like they don't last if they're separated from the main body for too long."

"Dismemberment, then? Probably could've guessed that, it works for most things."

"You gonna keep interrupting me so you can be a smartass? You already used up your bad idea pass on bringing this thing out in the Tower, don't push me."

"You're right, you're right," Kendrix said apologetically. "But I still say there isn't any harm in bringing it here. Bludgeon already knows about the City, so on the off chance he does have a tracker somewhere in this thing, he won't learn anything new."

"Whatever," Proxima said with a sigh. "As I was saying, I should be able to map the process of the cells' decay, which we can in turn use to try and develop a program to accelerate it. Might pass the job off to Rasputin, let his supercomputers do the heavy lifting. Once we have that, we can use it to break down the sword's molecular structure and harvest the hadium once it's separated out. Could even use it on Bludgeon himself, if it comes to that."

"Biological warfare?" Kendrix said hesitantly. "Isn't that a little messed up?"

"Messed-up bastards call for messed-up measures," Proxima argued gravely. "Hopefully your Light and Nova's guns will be enough, and we won't ever have to use it that way."

"Right…"

"For the time being, I think I'll remove the hilt and have it destroyed full-stop. Only thing it's good for is opening rifts into the Ascendant Plane, and that's not something we want to be doing. Ever."

"Fair enough," Kendrix said with a nod. "Nova?"

The robot beeped out his consent. Proxima nodded, and transmatted the hilt right off of the sword.

Kendrix knelt down next to the blade and ran his hand along the flat of it. He could feel the residual Dark writhing against his touch, and resisted the urge to pull away. He focused his will, releasing a small, contained pulse of Void from his open palm. He watched and felt as the violet energy streaked down the sword's edge, hungrily swallowing some of the Dark as it did, before dissipating at the sword's point.

"I think I might be able to burn out whatever's left of the Darkness' influence," he murmured.

"Worth a shot," Proxima answered. "Just be careful. Don't want to create a black hole in your bedroom."

Kendrix nodded, then placed his remaining hand onto the blade beside the first.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. And push.

Ripples of purple bloomed from each hand, traveling along the sword's surface, catching whatever Dark energies remained where they met and ripping them to metaphysical shreds. But when they reached the edges of the blade, the ripples bounced back towards the center. Kendrix's body tensed as his hands were compressed against the sword by the rebounding gravity, and he hissed through gritted teeth as the Void burned him. He tried to push away, filling his hands with force until it overwhelmed the strange attraction and blasted him away, where he slammed against his bed with a crash.

"Kendrix!" Proxima cried out in shock. His comms filled with distressed beeping as Nova rattled off a series of concerned noises.

"I'm alright, I'm alright." Kendrix gasped as soon as the wind returned to his chest. He glanced to the sword to see the fruits of his labor, and his face fell.

Branded onto the blade, still burning with violet hunger, were two bright handprints.

A second later, they were gone. Whisked away into transmatt.

"I think that's enough of that for today," Proxima said tiredly. If she'd noticed the marks, she gave no indication. "We need to plan our next move."

"That's easy. Find Bludgeon while he's weak, stop whatever he's planning, and then find out what more he knows about Nova's brother."

"That's a little easier said than done," Proxima sarcastically pointed out. "We don't know where he ended up, and we don't know where he's headed next."

Kendrix thought for a moment. "He made it sound like he's still looking for something in the system, and it looks like he's gotten everything he wants from the Hive. What in Sol is higher on the pecking order than them?"

"The Traveler, maybe, but I doubt he's stupid enough to go after it, even if it didn't have a veritable army of Guardians protecting it. Only other thing it could be is…" Proxima trailed off as her eye brightened with concern and understanding..

"What?"

"The Vex."

"The Vex," Kendrix echoed. "You mentioned that name when the stranger contacted us on the moon. They're on Venus, right?"

"Venus is one of the places they can be found, yes. Their major presence in the system is on Mercury, but there's no way Bludgeon would risk going there either."

"What are they?"

"In the simplest terms, they're robots."

Nova's end of the line filled with hopeful buzzing.

"Not your kind of robot. Sorry, bud." A lone, sad whine was Nova's only reply. "The Vex are a collective computational mind spread out over billions of drones and structures. They are vastly intelligent, but diplomacy has never been an option, since their only observable goal is to conquer and consume everything until every atom in the universe is part of their 'pattern'. That's what happened to Mercury. They can cross space and even time with relative ease, and they can convert matter into data and vice versa even better than our transmatt can. So if Bludgeon goes after them, and manages to copy their technology like we've seen Nova do…"

"...then he'll become unstoppable." Kendrix finished, all his concerns about his powers pushed aside by a sudden existential terror.

"My worries exactly."

"Our lunar acquaintance mentioned enemies we wouldn't believe. You think she was referring to the Vex?" Kendrix wondered aloud.

"Given the coordinates she told us to find her at are right in the middle of one of their staging grounds?" Proxima said with an expression as close to a raised eyebrow as a Ghost could probably manage. "I'd be shocked if she meant anything else."

"Right. If Bludgeon's going after the Vex, we need to find out as much as possible about them while he's still on the back foot and come up with some countermeasures. Stop his plans before they start. And if this woman knows something… I don't think we can afford to pass up the opportunity."

"Yeah, right," Proxima said with a snort. "You're just itching to find out who the hell she is."

"True," Kendrix admitted. "But unless you have an alternative, I think it's our best move. And don't be so high and mighty; I know you're dying of curiosity too."

Proxima neglected to comment.

"Thought so. Nova?"

Kendrix could hear the eager roar of activated thrusters over the commlink.

"Alright, alright! But calm it down until we get there, ok? Holliday will have my head if she sees my ship filling her hangar with exhaust."

Nova beeped out a slightly disappointed confirmation, and Kendrix heard the thrusters power down.

"Thanks bud. We'll be there in a few."

"Always one thing after another, isn't it?" Proxima murmured as they stepped back out of the room, not more than ten minutes after they had arrived.

"Not much choice, when potentially all of time and space is at stake."

Kendrix was about halfway across the Tower's main platform when a weighty hand fell on his shoulder.

"Off again so soon? Barely had a chance to notice you were back, glad I caught you."

"Hey Beckett," Kendrix said, trying not to let his exhaustion seep into his voice and risk offending the other Guardian. He turned around to see the warm yellow of the Exo's eyes and mouth shining out like always. "What's up?"

"Me and the team are gonna hit up the Crucible tonight, do some drills. You should come."

"Not really a fan of the whole deathmatch thing, thanks though."

Beckett chuckled. "It won't be like you and Apollo, promise. The Crucible is mostly for training, not grudge matches. Good way to hone your skills."

"Wouldn't learning in the field be more valuable? Why spend my time learning to fight Guardians instead of Fallen or Hive? We're all on the same side."

Beckett hesitated for a moment, as if he was going to say something but then decided against it. "True. But fighting in the Crucible is more about learning to work *with* other Guardians, not against them. Plus, if you go down, you and your Ghost will be perfectly safe. Can't say the same for the field."

"Fair enough," Kendrix admitted. "In any case, though, I can't. I'm running a bounty on Venus, need to head out and get it done before it expires." The lying was becoming second nature to him. He wasn't sure he liked it.

"Hope you're not going after Vex," Beckett said with a laugh.

"What if I am?"

Beckett's eyes narrowed, and a note of concern crept into his voice. "The Vex may be predictable, but they're still dangerous. And while I'm sure your Ghost knows her stuff, she's never faced them in the field. You've got talent, and you're a quick study, but you're still very young. I don't think you're ready for this."

Kendrix didn't say anything.

"Maybe I should come along," Beckett added after a moment, refusing to drop the issue. "Make sure you don't-"

"I'm fine, Beckett." Kendrix interrupted, a little more firmly than he'd intended. The Exo's expression twitched, and Kendrix was flushed with regret. "Sorry," he said, softening his voice. "I just… I think this is something I need to try for myself. I'll be careful, and if things get too dicey, I'll hightail it back to Earth. I promise."

Beckett's eyes searched him for a moment. Then the Exo sighed. "Alright, I hear ya. But if things get too out of hand, don't hesitate to call me for backup."

"I won't," Kendrix said, giving a firm nod. Then he turned back around and continued towards the hangar.

He has a point. We're taking a pretty big risk here. Maybe we should bring him along.

The stranger knows about Nova. Kendrix said firmly. If she let the wrong detail slip to Beckett, then it's over. I'm not risking Nova's safety like that.

You don't trust Beckett?

I trust him to have my back and fight the good fight. But I also trust him to do his duty and tell the Vanguard whatever he learns. And it's them I don't trust.

They're good people. The best of us.

Exactly. They'd do anything to protect this City and its people. You said yourself that they wouldn't risk jeopardizing humanity's future by allowing a potential threat like Nova free reign. Besides, Nova should be more than enough backup if things don't work out.

Kendrix had reached the hangar now, and quickly found his way to where Nova was waiting in his berth.

Fair enough. I just hope you're right about this.

Kendrix climbed up into the cockpit, and once the nearest frame gave a go-ahead, Nova went sailing out into the noonday sun.

A few moments later, another jumpship slipped out of the hangar, and began flying towards where they had disappeared into the atmosphere.

AN: Decided to delete the April Fools chapter, since it didn't get a reaction and so that it doesn't interrupt the flow for future readers.

Coming up on the one-year anniversary of when I first started working on this story, which is crazy to think about. I'd like to do something special to celebrate, but I can't think of anything so a new chapter might just have to do. Assuming I can get the next one written in time.