He stood in the near-empty arena, Vex wreckage strewn haphazardly about. His opponent, a Vex Gate Lord, kneeled before him, gravity tethers holding it in place- a little-known technique he had picked up on a few decades back.

"The Queen's Guard is starting to get past our countermeasures. If you're really going through this, you'd better make this quick."

Something was coming. This Gate Lord knew what- but getting that knowledge was seemingly impossible. It couldn't be coerced, like he had done with the Fallen before. Destroying it would only affect the body. The mind, though heavily damaged, would escape back into the Vex networks. As a precaution, his Ghost had shut down the portal in this cell, momentarily isolating it. Fragments would persevere and escape eventually, but it would protect his sanity- what little she thought he had left- by not exposing him to the infinite axis of the Vex.

"Then let's hope this works." He began removing his left gauntlet as his Ghost unpacked a new one.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"I've come too far for anything else. There's more on the line than just me."

This gauntlet was no ordinary glove. It had been reforged from Vex component matter, and adapted into a neural interface. With this, he would forcibly drag information out of the Gate Lord.

He strapped on the armor, taking a moment to adjust to the sensation of wearing it. He had worn it before, but it felt... different every time. The interface was originally connected to a Vex mind core. Ghost had calculated at least 39 ways the experiment could go horribly wrong, and only 3 where it could go right.

Once it was securely on, he looked back towards the colossus. It stared back with it's singular, damaged eye, flickering with contempt. It had already deduced what he would try to do.

"Last chance."

Ignoring her pleas, he drew his knife (in case it really did go wrong- outcome number 13) and approached it. Last time he had gotten this close, it made the brash move of trying to crush him in it's fist. Now it could do nothing. It couldn't call for help, detain him in a dimensional sphere- all it could do was continue to stare. Study. Anticipate.

And with that, he reached out and touched it's mind core.

Ghost watched fearfully, monitoring his body's reaction. Almost immediately, his pulse changed. Unknown energies coursed through his nervous system. His body temperature began rapidly fluctuating within a range of 3.5 degrees in either direction. Despite this, he held his composure, transfixed on the bowed Vex's eye.

Seven seconds passed before he spoke up.

"Tell me everything. You know what I want."

More anomalies in his nervous system, mainly the auditory cortex. He could hear what it was saying- but could he understand?

"Because you knew I would be here. That's why you brought yourself to this prison."

The machine growled.

"I've figured out more than you realize. I know you saw. Millennia ago, when the galaxy was nearly destroyed. I know you played your part in that. Why?"

Silence.

"STOP SPEAKING IN RIDDLES!"

Almost immediately, he recoiled in pain and cried out, yet kept his hand firmly locked on the Axis Mind.

Ghost spoke again. "If it's not telling you anything, you should-"

"No," he panted, clearly in pain, yet still defiant. "I got something... I just... need more..."

"We'll run with it. Pull out now!"

Shaking his head, he focused on the Vex again. The temperature in his arm touching the Vex began increasing...

"Who? What forbidden power?" He shook his head. "Why would the Vex want to- AAAGGHH!"

The gauntlet suddenly flared to several hundred kelvin- enough to completely incinerate his arm. He desperately tried to pull away, to no avail- the Gate Lord had him trapped. Reacting quickly, Ghost tried to interface with the gauntlet, but it had too strong of a grip on him. Immediately, she went for her second option, a total information overload. She streamed a beam of raw data through her eye, disrupting the Gate Lord's hold. Seizing the opportunity, he drove his knife into his arm, but it failed to completely cut through. Fighting against the scalding pain, he kept hacking and pulling away until he finally broke free.

The temperature immediately reverted to normal. He staggered backwards, clawing off what remained of the charred glove- then froze at what he saw.

It had -replaced- his arm. Once organic, now fully formed into the alien metal limbs of the Vex.

He barely had time to contemplate on it, though, before the Gate Lord broke free of its voidlight restraints and rose to fight him again. Before the Guardian could react, it slammed it's foot into the ground, discharging a massive shockwave and throwing him across the room and colliding with a wall.

The wounded Guardian barely blinked out of the way as the Gate Lord attacked with it's Torch Hammer. Once in cover, he drew his hand cannon, unable to use his mechanical arm, and haphazardly shot back, aiming for it's power core as it retreated to its portal. A few explosive arc-charged rounds made contact, harmlessly splashing across it's armor, but doing no real damage.

He charged, ducking from cover to cover and wildly exchanging shots with the Axis Mind. He was NOT going to let it escape. His gun ran dry, and he hunkered down behind a wall to reload. Flicking the cylinder open and dropping the magazine, he fumbled with his still-numb arm to load a new one, dropping it in the process.

Space itself distorted in the cell as the Gate Lord reignited it's portal. He wouldn't have time to kill it- only one option left.

Drawing his Void Bow, he leapt out of cover, quickly took aim, and fired a gravity tether in it's general direction. A torrent of voidlight lashed out and snagged the arm holding it's torch hammer, pulling it away. He lined up for a second shot- and then time froze around him.

It had trapped him in a detainment sphere. He had failed. One way or another, it would get away. The best he could do now was not get captured by the Awoken. He drew an incendiary grenade, hit the primer, and dropped it at his feet.

The door to the cell opened and dozens of the Queen's Guard stormed in, rifles ready. After ensuring the cell was secure, Petra Venj followed them in and surveyed the area, accompanied by Variks.

The lead sergeant approached her. "No sign of him here. Looks like Qodron got out, too."

"Well, I doubt we'll get it back. It'll be worlds away by now." She continued to slowly walk about the arena, letting Variks keep up. "Dispatch patrols and monitor all traffic. We're not letting this Guardian get away. The Queen wants him alive."

The sergeant nodded, and sent out the order for the remaining guards to follow her out. Petra and Variks remained behind.

"Variks, you know more about the Queen's specimens than me." She examined a large burn mark on the ground. "What would he want with a Gate Lord?"

"Hmmmm... this Guardian... Queen knows him. Variks does not."

She drew her knife and twirled it about in her hand. Clearly Variks wasn't helping. Mara Sov likely already knew what he was after. "Well, she won't be happy one of her prized possessions escaped."

"Vex not our prisoner," growled the Warden. "Here for purpose. A purpose now served, yes?"

She tossed the knife up and caught it blade-first. "So you think it wanted him to come here." Before Variks could respond, she turned and exited the Prison. "I guess we'll just ask our guest when we get him back."

The Guardian and his Ghost approached his ship, hidden in the haunted remains of a Ketch in the asteroid belt. Looking down at his arm, he turned it about a few times as his Ghost primed his jumpship's engines.

"It gave me a name. Kabr." Ghost curiously turned to him. "I've heard it before."

The little construct idly spun for a moment. "There are some records of a 'Kabr' in Guardian archives. He's been missing for years, though."

"I think I know where to find him." His jumpship active, he climbed into the cockpit and activated the stealth drive- there would be Reef patrols all over. "Set coordinates for Venus. The Vault of Glass is real."

"The Vault?" Sworn to serve him, his Ghost reluctantly interfaced with the controls. "This sounds like a trap."

"I know." He took off his helmet and rested it on his metallic arm. "But its a risk I have to take. The Vex.. " Still finding it hard to believe himself and still shaken from his fight, he struggled to find the words. "The Vex want to recreate the universe. Exterminate all life at once. Somehow, the Vault is key to that."

"That doesn't seem like typical Vex MO..."

"Because it wasn't their idea." The ship levitated up and slowly drifted out of the derelict. "Something... someone... is controlling them."

"That's impossible."

"I know how it sounds. It's not all Vex- just a rogue segment of them. As for what's controlling them..." His voice trailed off for a second. "It knows me. Told the Vex everything about me. Everything they didn't already know, at least."

Ghost simply stared in stunned silence. "You don't really think it could be-"

"I don't know what to think," he sighed. "But it looks like my past is starting to catch up to me." His grip tightened on the control stick.

"All the more reason you should go back to the Tower and-"

"As far as Andal is concerned- and as far as I am, for that matter- Shadow is dead," he snapped, crushing the ship's controls with his robot arm. Ghost immediately took control of the flight computer, and he stared at the mangled joystick in his robotic arm.

"Sorry. It's still numb." He threw it to the ground with a metallic 'clang.'

"You should get feeling back eventually."

Silence fell over the cockpit for a few minutes. Shadow closed his eyes and bowed his head. The Vault of Glass. Most Guardians would give anything to so much as try to crack it's door. He had long been disillusioned to the grandeur and recklessness of most Hunters. Whatever horrors awaited on Venus...

"We need to go back, now!"

The voice was his own. He snapped his head up and instinctively looked around the cockpit. Predictably, it was just as empty as it was a moment ago. His Ghost made no response- he hadn't physically said anything.

A new feeling seized him. An all too familiar one.

He suddenly felt very alone.

There's probably gonna be more author's notes here than actual story content. First and foremost: I'm a f*cking liar. Never listen to anything I say.

This story's becoming much more difficult than I initially envisioned. Destiny's constantly changing lore made me rewrite vast sections of the story at least 3 times before I posted the last chapter. After The Taken King dropped, I was tempted to just drop it entirely with how dramatically I'd have to write this all out and have it still be believable. I've got sort of a new direction for it, but my waning interest in Destiny, the fact that I'm now in college, and my sudden addiction to Battlefield 4 (which is going to literally kill me) have made this complicated, to say the least.

I'll try and pick up the pace and actually finish Sonic Guardians, but no guarantees. A distinct possibility is me cutting this story entirely and going with a rebooted version I've been idly drafting in my spare time, which I was initially going to pick up after this concluded. I'd hate to just kill the story, so I'd probably end up eventually summarizing the rest of the story and writing just the last chapter.

Or I can just drop off the face of the Earth and never write fanfiction again. I guess all we can do at this point is just see what happens.