*Legend 7*

We got this

...

Chit-chit-chit! Chit-chit-chit! The ballistics of Blake' pulse rifle echoed off the gray moon walls around them, and off of her targets' heads. As the small creatures screamed in death, their bodies crumpled away to ashes. After several precision bursts, Blake hit the bottom of her magazine. "Swapping mags!" She announced to her partner.

"On it!" Yang said, picking up the cue. Clough! Clough! Clough! The heavy slugs from the Duke MK.10 fell even more of the little horrors. But even a they fell, scores more of them poured out from the inside of the strange machine. "Need some help here!" Yang called.

Blake unstrapped a stored grenade from her left hip. She took careful aim, judging the rapid progress of the screaming mass of incoming creatures, and gave it an educated toss. Her target, was not actually the very creatures that were closing in on their position, but a slight curve that they had to take to reach them. Upon contact with the wall, the grenade split into a myriad of tiny homing projectiles. The electric missiles swooped down upon the charging creatures and exploded in every direction. In no time, the horde was reduced to nothing more than a pile of black ashes.

Yang let out an admiring whistle. "Not even Ruby uses skip grenades like that." Blake shrugged rather modestly. "About time we took down bonehead over there, right?"

Blake nodded. "Our primary weapons won't cut through that shield, though."

And as though sensing their immanent assault, the creature in question sounded a ghostly wail and loosed a volley of bright blue projectiles in their direction. "Incoming!" Blake shouted. The girls scrambled out of harm's way as the blue bullets scorched the ground around them. From their new and very temporary place of safety, Blake was able to make an assessment. "Well, now we know it uses arc energy," she said. "Which is strange considering its shielding."

"Yeah, it's red," Yang agreed. "You thinking solar?"

Blake pumped her shotgun in response. "Exactly," she said.

Yang smiled. "If it's solar you need, then just leave it to me!" Yang stood up and slammed her fists together, sending up a small shower of red sparks. "Be back in a flash, kitty cat!" She dropped Blake a sultry wink and bounded over the hill.

The terrible robed creature saw Yang's advance, which wasn't all to difficult seeing as she was charging out in the open with absolutely no cover, and fired a barrage of sizzling spheres in her direction. Yang evaded these by slaloming to her left and to her right, picking up speed the whole time. And it was here that a change began to come over her.

As Yang picked up momentum with each step, her body began to glow, a though illuminated from within by an intense fiery lambency. And in no time she was a charging ball of fire. Using her Titan lift, she propelled herself into the air, where she was actually quite a distance above her quarry. From here, she took a moment to appropriate her target, and the she charged down. She flew through the air like a firebolt strait from the sun itself.

The creature didn't have a chance.

Yang plowed into it with an earth-shattering (or rather, moon-shattering) eruption of solar energy. The immediate area around her was bathed in flickering tongues of wild flames that burned whatever they touched. And at the inferno's epicenter, was Yang. Her back was turned to Blake at the moment, her long hair billowing out behind her, it seeming to have become a very part of the flames of her own creation. She turned around slowly now, and faced Blake. And it was here that Bake could see another change that had come over Yang. Where her eyes were a brilliant shade of lilac before, they now burned as red as the flames around her.

Blake was mesmerized. Seeing the burning girl in this sea of flames was the most awesomely beautiful sight to ever grace her eyes.

She would not soon forget it.

But in no time, the flames dissipated, and Yang's eyes returned to normal. Blake made her way from behind her place of cover and approached Yang, who had her fists set triumphantly on her hips. "I told ya it'd be quick!" she said.

Blake nodded. "You were incredible, no doubt," she said. Now however, with the threat of not only The Fallen gone, but also whatever new force had made itself known, Blake could finally achieve a scan of this strange machine. "Adam, if you could please?"

"My pleasure" the Ghost responded.

As Adam set himself to the task of scanning the machine, a sudden atmospheric event attracted the attention of the two girls. A guardian jump ship had just entered the moon's atmosphere and flew it's way over their heads at some little altitude. Blake immediately recognized it. "The Quite Content Damsel," she said. "That's Coco's ship." She frowned academically. "She's awfully late. There can't be more than an hour left for initiation."

"Better late than never?" Yang shrugged. "And speaking of which; since we didn't really accomplish our mission from Cayde here, does that mean..."

Yang trailed off, letting the question hang.

"I'm not sure," Blake responded. "Perhaps, seeing what we encountered here, they can make a special consideration on your part." She paused just slightly, turning her gaze to ground beneath her. "I know I would..." she said almost inaudibly.

Yang was about to respond to this when Adam shouted, "Alright, I got it!"

Blake turned to her Ghost. "What have you got, Adam?"

The Ghost spun his shell in a slow contemplation. " I'm not sure what to make of it," he said. "This technology is definitely beyond anything I've seen before." He hovered right up to Blake's face and said, "We should really get back to The Speaker, he'll know what to do with this."

Blake nodded. "Call in the White Fang," she said. The Ghost nodded, or rather, just dipped his tiny body forward slightly. And instantly did the jump ship in question fly in from orbit. Adam wasted no time initiating the transmat, and the three of them were off again to earth.

...

Ruby had spent the last ninety minutes among the relative noise and rabble of the Tower's hangar bay. She was here waiting for Yang to return from her initiation. All day she had been watching ships returning, bearing Guardians and their recruits, the body languages of said recruits varying from exhilarated success, to crestfallen failure. Ruby sighed and rested her head on her overlapped hands.

"Still here are you?" The voice of her partner, Weiss, said somewhat clearly against the organized mechanical ruckus from below. Weiss was as concerned with Yang's return a Ruby was, but said concern did not stop her from returning to her quarters to shower and generally freshen up. "Ruby, stop worrying yourself, I'm sure your sister is fine."

Ruby rolled her head around a bit on her hands. At length, she asked her partner a question. "Weiss, have recruits ever been...hurt on their initiations?" Weiss did not answer right away, leading Ruby to fear the worst answer to that question. She turned to face the girl fully. "Weiss?"

Weiss folded her arms somewhat defensively. "There have been a few...casualties, yes."

"What!?" Shouted Ruby. "I thought they were supposed to be safe! It's just a training exercise isn't it?"

` "Ruby, get real!" Weiss said back. "These people are signing up to be soldiers; Guardians. That is not a decision they made based on any predication of safety!" Weiss softened herself a bit, seeing the hurt in Ruby's eyes. "I am sorry," she said. "But that is the reality of a Guardians' life. We will not be around forever, and some of us will die early. But we strive to make a difference, and that difference comes at a cost sometimes." Weiss rested both her hands on Ruby's shoulders. "But I can promise you that your sister will make it home today."

Ruby took Weiss's assurance to heart. She seemed to genuinely want to comfort Ruby in her time of worry. It was this feeling that came alight in Ruby's chest..along with another. Staring as she was into Weiss's lovely ice-blue eyes, she was able to notice a feature she hadn't before. There was a scar, more than likely earned in a previous battle, that ran vertically just on the outside of her left eye. To any other observer, this mark would more than likely be seen as a blemish; something to mar her extraordinary good looks. But to Ruby, Weiss's scar only served to accentuate her beauty; the perfect little imperfection.

But just as Ruby's heart was ready to jump into her throat, did Weiss exclaim, "Aha! The White Fang has returned."

Ruby spun around on the spot, her heart jumping for new reasons now. As the jump ship settled onto the deck, did it's two occupants transmat into being. Yang was safe. She made it home. Yang and Blake ascended the stairs and Ruby ran into Yang's arms at top speed. "Whoa there little sister!" Yang said, giving Ruby a hug and a quick spin around. "I'm glad to see you too!"

"Did you do it?" Ruby asked her breathlessly. "Did you complete your mission?"

Yang shuffled a bit nervously. "We're not really sure..." she said.

Blake added, "We were accosted by an unfamiliar enemy. We were forced to deviate from our assigned mission to investigate the threat."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'unfamiliar enemy'?"

"That's just it. We don't know," Blake said, just a little impatiently. "I should be bringing my Ghost to The Speaker, as he holds all the relevant data from the scan we acquired on the machine." She gave them all a nod farewell and then said to Yang, "Good luck, I'll vouch for you as best I can."

Yang nodded and Blake was off across the plaza, intent on Seeing The Speaker.

Yang turned to Ruby, "So how did your mission go?"

"Swimmingly," Weiss answered with superior air.

"Oh heck yeah!" Ruby added. "There were like Fallen everywhere, but they were totally weak. And we got to fight this Archon Priest and we kicked his ass!"

"Nawce!" Yang said, slanging the word. "So what do we do now?"

"Results on who made the cut won't be announced until tomorrow morning. So We have free time until then." Weiss said.

So Ruby and Yang spent the rest of the afternoon exploring The Tower together. Weiss had to study up on her Cryptarch courses and decided to retire early. The two of them walked all the way to the Tower north and back again, and even took a peek in the Vanguard hall. They saw Pyrrha and Cayde-6 at their respective posts, each looking over holographic maps and giving orders to their Ghosts and the rank and file of their individual Vanguards.

And when the sun dipped below the horizon, did Ruby and Yang decide to call it a night. They retired to their quarters and, after showering up, did they get into bed. Ruby skipped the pretense and decided to cuddle up with Yang right away. "Hey," she said. "So what did happen on your mission?"

Yang was silent for a moment. "Well, it's just like Blake said. We encountered a new enemy."

"Something other than The Fallen?" Ruby said.

Yang nodded. "Whatever they were, there was alot of them. But they won't be any match for us. Guardian united are more powerful than any threat we'll ever face." Yang smiled, in her pretty and rather lopsided way. "We got this."

"We got this," Ruby said back.

*End of Legend 7*

...

A/N:

And now, the proverbial apology for the, most assuredly, non-proverbial absence. As it is, I just really wanted to get something posted, to refresh this story and float it back up to the top for a while, so I apologize for the short chapter length. While I'm far from lacking motivation for this project, I may (or may not) end up lacking something else in the future, immediate or no. So I'll end this by saying thanks again for the faves, follows, and positive reviews, and for taking time to even read this mess. I'll post again...when applicable.

-B.D. Skunkworks