AN: Hey Gaurdians, welcome back. Remember when I said this wasn't gonna take very long?

XD

Anyway, I'm sorry for the delay. I had a serious loss of confidence in this story about midway through writing this chapter, and basically forgot about for a good, long time. I'll have you know though that this story is back up and running, so stay tuned for more updates on a better timetable.

Anyway, enjoy :)

None of the Guardians had much experience with the Awoken Monarchy, or the Reef. However, after being their only a short time, all of them couldn't wait to leave.

Quickly after they arrived, their weapons had been confiscated. Derrick and Mark had been left in a small room while they waited for an audience with the Awoken's Queen, while Li had been sent to talk to an Awoken emissary. Due to the Reef's matriarchal nature, they had figured it would be better if she did the talking. This had left Derrick and Mark to revel in their foreign surroundings.

It didn't take them long to realize that Li had been right about the Reef. It really was a floating scrap heap.

The room they stood in was made out of a modular section of an old Fallen ship, gutted and littered with live, dangling wires and rusted surfaces. There were few portholes, and just beyond the room's one and only blast door with a huge open hanger, protected only by a hastily constructed entry barrier. Some sections of this place had little more than lightly welded sheet metal between its occupants and the vacuum of space, making Mark rather uneasy.

And from what he had seen, it was one of nicer places on the Reef.

It also didn't help the he had been left with a seemingly endless amount of time to wait while the Awoken Debated what to do with their plea for help, and since they had arrived he had already wasted all the time he could checking, rechecking, and re-rechecking his gear for battle damage.

Even though he tried his hardest to distract himself, he found it hard to stop his mind from wandering to thoughts of the life he had lead before, and eventually he gave up trying. He had downloaded all of the footage Rasputin had shown him and was now playing it on a continuous loop on the small screen of a tablet. He hadn't been playing the footage of the battle, or the device, or his dath, he remembered all too much about those parts of his life. What he was most interested in seeing over and over and over was still Amanda.

The image of their embrace still haunted him. When he saw it now the same flashbacks he had had before raced through his mind like a wild fire. The short memory of her in a white dress made his heart race. That memory was certainly important. The joy that built up inside of him, even upon thinking about it was almost enough to take his mind off of the rest of the world he had woken into.

The other memory that he couldn't get out of his head was one of her crying on his shoulder. It was much more specific and detailed than the other memory. He could still feel Amanda's fingers dug into his back and her thin arms locked around him as tightly as she could manage, his collar bone wet where her tears were collecting.

The memory made him nauseous with grief for her. He wanted anything but for her to feel this way, but trying to forget the memory seemed wrong. She had trusted him to see her in that state, and trying to shut out this memory now would break that sacred trust.

"Hey, Mark," said Derrick from behind him suddenly.

His words startled him from his trance like state and caused him to jump. It almost felt as though just by talking Derrick had pulled him out of the past and into the future. Derrick didn't seem to notice his plight, however. The Warlock rubbed his neck with his hand and cast his eyes towards the rusted deck of the station, looking a little embarrassed.

"We got off on the wrong foot," he continued.

He looked genuinely apologetic. His stern expression had been dropped and the sorrow of their shared experiences clearly shown through in his features.

"It's not an issue," said Mark, knowing full well that Derrick hadn't acted the way he had for no reason.

Derrick, however, didn't seem so reassured. He cast his eyes towards the ground like he was remembering something in the distant past, and then snapped them back up to meet Mark's gaze.

"Yes, it is," he shot back, "I hardly even knew you and I was already at your throat."

He sat down on a crate next to Mark and let out a long sigh.

"Look, you're my teammate, and there no excuse for that kind of behavior, but it wasn't personal. I've lost some important people during my time as a Guardian, I just didn't want you to come out here with no experience and wind up on that list."

He then glanced down at Mark's tablet, and the recording he was watching. He once again cast his eyes towards the ground, and for a moment, squeezed them shut tightly.

"But I guess we've both lost people," he said evenly, "and for what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Mark nodded at Derrick's acceptance. He'd rather not have had this be the common ground between them, but for the time being it would work.

When Mark glanced over at Derrick once again, he was met by an odd, sideways grin.

"So, lighten up, will ya? We'll find her, don't you worry."

Mark dropped his glare and smiled, throwing a glance over to the edge of the room where he noticed Li leaning against a door frame, smiling at the two of them. She must have finished her meeting with the Awoken ambassador, and she was clearly all too please with the Awoken's royal treatment of her.

"If you too are about finished, the Awoken say they're ready to make their decision," she said sarcastically before turning and walking out the door.

Derrick rolled his eyes and Mark laughed softly as they headed for the door as well. They were stopped immediately by a group of four Awoken guards that surrounded them on all sides, hands on their sidearms as they gave them both piercing glares. The Guardians stayed on edge as the silent, armed guards lead them to the Queen's throne room.

The room was large and open, with a small walkway that lead to the center where the Queen resided on her throne, flanked by two Fallen guards with staffs. The rear a of her throne room was encased in glass, and almost looked open to the void of space. The dangling writes, malfunctioning robots, and and poorly placed and cheaply welded bulkheads seemed to have been cleaned up a little, but still it seem that wealth and luxury afforded the Queen no more safety from the blackness of space than any of her subjects.

The Queen herself, an azure skinned Awoken with yellow-blonde hair sat in comfortable looking clothes one would expect to find on a scavenger, but her regal posture and intense gaze made it no secret that she was in charge. Pacing next to her was black haired male Awoken who held a combat knife in each hand and was glaring intently at the Guardians. He seemed to be sizing up each one of them as potential targets, and deciding how best to deliver the killing blow to each of them. He had clearly already made up his mind about them.

The three of them slowly walked down the thin and rusted walkway that lead to the Queen's throne until they were a few feet from her. They knelt down on one knee, looking at the ground in front of them respectfully.

Slowly but surely, the Awoken male approached the three Guardians, flipping his combat knives end over end in his hands in a threatening manner.

"Ah, more Guardians," he scoffed, "what have you come to beg for this time?"

He dragged the tip of his knife over one of Mark's pauldrons making a sharp, scraping noise. Mark had to fight the urge to wrench the knife from his hand and break it, and the Awoken's amazed smile did not help his restraint one bit. Mark glanced over to Derrick, who reflexively reached for his handgun. He scowled when his fingers found nothing.

Li, however, didn't seem fazed at all, not that she ever usually did.

"Your grace," she began cooly, "We are here to ask for your help. We have found a piece of Vex technology that we believe only you could identify."

The Queen remained silent, and did nothing but throw a sideways glance at the Awoken that paced in front of them.

"Show us," he commanded.

Mark stood up from his kneeling state, the rifles the Queen's guard held tracking him all the way as he pulled a datapad from his armor's hip pocket, projecting a hologram of the device into the middle of the room.

"This is it your grace," said Li.

The Awoken guards slowly lowered their weapons as Mark knelt back down and the knife wielding Awoken began to examine hologram, walking through it and picking it apart piece by piece. He seemed almost amused, but then again he really didn't seem to be studying it at all. He was toying with them and waiting to present his forgone conclusions, that much was clear. Mark just hoped that they could escape alive after he presented them.

When he was finished, he walked away from the hologram, laughing hysterically.

"You think that that is Vex technology?" Said the Awoken, casting a finger in the direction of the hologram.

He walked back to the hologram pointing out various parts of it that he apparently fond to be out of place.

"This is nothing but a pile of parts slapped together by humans," he said before spinning around to face the Queen, looking her in the eye

Mark's senses heightened as he began to sense the threat on the man's tongue. He quickly tired to determine the quickest exit route, but escape would be next to impossible from this floating fortress, even without the two dozen plus rifles currently pointed at him. If they made it out of here at all, it would be a messy run for it.

"Sister this must be some kind of trick," the Awoken man continued, "Even the Guardians aren't this stupid."

Upon hearing the word trick, the Guards that surrounded the three Guardians brought their weapons to bare. One jabbed the barrel of her weapon into Mark's neck, nearly throwing him into full combat mode.

Mark wasn't about to put up with any more of this. He readied his fist of havoc, lightning already coursing through it as he prepared to slam it into the guard behind him, but before he could the Queen made a single, sweeping gesture with her hand, causing the guards to instantly lower their weapons and bow as well.

Her Brother seemed ready to protest, but the glare she shot him and the raw power she emanated caused even him to obey her command, and he too bowed before her. The Queen stepped out of her metal throne and approached the three Guardians, looking them up and down like she was inspecting a new section of hull. Anyone who wasn't intimidated by the piercing gaze she gave them was either crazy or dead.

"Rise, Warriors of the Light," she said calmly.

Mark swore he heard a noticeably displeased grunt from her Brother, but he ignored it and stood all the same, staring straight ahead of him. All three of them expected the Queen to approach Li, but to their surprise she seemed to face each one of them as equals.

"What my Brother says is true. This device is not of Vex origin. Where did you find it?"

"We found an image of it in a bunker in the Cosmodrome. We think it's connected to someone he needs to find," said Li, gesturing to Mark with a nod of her head.

The Queen nodded and walked over to Mark, looking him dead in the eye as he stared forward.

"And who is it that you seek Titan?" She inquired.

The Queen's gaze was intimidating to say the least. She commanded respect, and she didn't look like she would tolerate trivial requests. Considering Mark didn't even know who he was looking for, she hoped she would tolerate his.

"I," began Mark, stumbling slightly, "I'm not sure. I'm looking for a woman stationed on a colony ship before the collapse. This device was on the ship with her."

Mark heard her Brother laugh quietly. No doubt he found Mark's mission to be completely ridiculous. The Queen, however, was not so amused. She spun silently on the balls of her feet to face him and glared at his back. Even though Mark was certain there was no way he could see her, his laughing stopped the moment her eyes fell on him.

She held her gaze for an intense moment before she spun away and approached the hologram. She gazed at it intently, her eyes showing just how much knowledge of technology she had. A Cyrptark attempted to approach and offer assistance, but she declined with the flick of a hand. Mark guessed that that must be a basic requirement of living on the Reef, given how easily the place appeared to break down. Maybe her technological prowess had even been what had caused her to be crowned ruler. By time she was done examining it however, Mark knew that the intensity of this woman's gaze alone would have easily been enough to install her as ruler.

The Queen returned to her chair nonchalantly after her inspection, now bringing her attention back to the Guardians.

"This device was built by human hands," said the Queen, gesturing to various pieces of it, "most of this is just pieces of scrap metal, torn from Vex chassis. The only piece I recognize is this."

Her hand fell on a piece in the shape of an orb that protruded from the side of the device. It glowed red and looked almost like a mechanical eye.

"The eye of a Vex gate lord. It can be used to enter the center of the Vex's strength, the Black Garden on Mars. What ever this device was built for, its creators wanted it out there. They would not have risked so much to retrieve that eye otherwise."

The Queen gestured for her servants and guards to rise.

"Another Guardian assaulted the black Garden a few months ago as I recall," stated the Queen, "Return to Mars near its entrance, and you will find what up you seek."

The Queen smiled at the three of them and then made a sweeping gesture with her hand over the three of them.

"Go in peace Guardians."

And so they did.

They returned to their ship under the Guard of the Awoken and all collectively flopped down into chairs its troop bay, each one of them exhausted from tension of having weapons trained on them for hours on end without any way to defend themselves.

Derrick looked at Mark worriedly.

"You sure about this Mark? The Black Garden is a helluva place, even though the Heart of it was destroyed. The Vex have portals that lead there from every part of space and time. We'd be facing down a lot of them if we entered."

Mark thought for only a moment before nodding.

He'd seen a lot of stuff since he woke up that his mind could barely rationalize, let alone process. Whatever this Black Garden was, there was no way it could be any more dangerous or confusing than what he had already seen.

"I'll plot a course," said Li as she walked to the cockpit.

Derrick moved to the edge of the troop bay, leaned back against the bulkhead, and closed his eyes, seeming to drift off to sleep almost instantly.

Mark did the same. His adrenaline was still pounding from watching the Queen's guards come within inches of killing them. He hoped that he could catch a few moments of rest without tension or violence or visions of his life before the collapse, but as his eyes closed he found they came anyway. Most of them were still about war. Battles, explosions, running, tripping, falling, shooting, dying, they all seemed to blur together into one big memory. He could hardly tell what he was fighting. Maybe it was Fallen, maybe it was other humans, he wasn't sure. All he knew was that it made sleeping impossible.

He tried to recall more pleasant memories. Maybe he could catch a memory of Amanda and follow it to learn more about her. Maybe, just maybe, if he tried and enough he could speak to her, learn why he needed her so badly, but it wasn't long before he dropped these wild fantasies and gave up trying to sleep.

Even if he could drift off, he wouldn't wake feeling rested. He'd only feel like he'd been through yet another battle, and as far as his mind was concerned, he had. So he sat awake with his eyes open and his helmet on against the bulkhead, hoping that he would find a way to sleep peacefully latter.

Thanks to Jaeger Jypsy Danger for kicking this story back into action :)

See you in the next update Gaurdians.