"A species which believes that a good existence can be invented through games of civilization and through laws of conduct is doomed by that belief. They will die in terror. The lawless and the ruthless will drag them down to die. The universe will erase their monuments." - XLVII: Apocalypse Refrains

Kaedro was surprised to see Harley standing behind him. Truthfully, he hadn't expected the other Hunter to leave the booth again — the poker game had seemed like a one-off.

Harley was frowning. That wasn't unusual — he'd been frowning all evening, getting him to lighten up enough to play poker was something of an achievement for Kaedro. But this frown was different. The hunter's jaw was tight, like it was taking a conscious effort to hold his mouth shut. His eyes were narrowed as they bored into Kaedro's, and the exo began to get the feeling that something else was going on.

He offered another poker game, somewhat out of hopefulness and somewhat to gauge Harley's reaction. It wasn't surprising that his friend turned it down, but the forcefulness of his insistence on leaving did surprise him a bit. Was Harley really having such a bad time that he wanted to cut the evening short, even when he'd insisted on pressing on before?

He tried to play it off, joking about hitting "the sweet spot" but he could tell from Harley's face that the other Hunter wasn't having it.

"Oryx isn't dead," Harley blurted, spitting the name out as if to rid his mouth of it. His shoulders were taut, gaze unwavering. "And if we don't do something about it, this war with the Taken won't be ending anytime soon."

Kaedro had never sobered up so fast in his life. How the hell did Harley find out about Oryx? He'd taken great pains to avoid mentioning the subject and he knew he hadn't been anywhere close to drunk enough to let something slip on accident.

Harley's eyes narrowed as they studied his face. "I'm not an idiot, Kaedro," he accused, "I know you didn't forget about how Hive throne worlds work. You knew he wasn't dead for good."

Shit. This was bad. He had to do something quick or the conversation was about to head in a direction he really didn't like. "Oh, yeah?" he blustered, "And you're such a good judge of my expression, are you?" He scoffed. "Kid, I'm an Exo. I've got a built-in poker face."

Harley's lips pressed together and he gave an exasperated sigh. "Just because you're an Exo doesn't make your face unreadable, Kaedro. It does move. And it's not that hard to read someone when you spend time around them. Which brings up another question: why didn't you tell me?"

"We were- I was waiting for the right time." It was a pathetic excuse. Certainly not one of his better lies. And Harley could smell the blood in the water, because he wasted no time in tearing it apart.

"You can't be serious!" he snapped. His voice had risen dramatically, drawing looks from other patrons, and a flush was creeping into his cheeks as he jabbed a finger at Kaedro. "The only right time is as soon as fucking possible! This- this guy is the worst news there is! If you're really concerned with protecting the City, you would recognize that!"

He'd been accused of many things in his long career as a Guardian, but one thing he would not tolerate was his commitment to the City being called into question.

"Well, I'm sorry!" he retorted, matching Harley's volume. At some point, he had left his seat and now he stepped closer to the other Hunter. "I'm sorry for trying to look out for you!"

Harley's expression was incredulous. "Protect me?!"

"You'd better believe it!" He pointed at Harley. "If you knew Oryx was still kicking, you'd've gone after him the first chance you got and probably would've got yourself killed in the process! Permanently."

It was Harley's turn to step closer, his flinty eyes not shying away from Kaedro's face. "Newsflash, Kaedro! I don't need you to protect me! I never asked you to. By keeping this from me, you put the City, the Traveler, hell all of Sol at risk! The Taken can conquer entire planets in a matter of hours and he can singlehandedly bend the will of anything under the sun to his own devices!"

Had he still been a Gunslinger, he might have felt his chassis boil with heat. But he was a Void user now, and the anger of the Void was a cold anger. Cold, yet as all-consuming as a singularity.

He spoke without thinking, without feeling anything other than the need to hit back.

"Speaking from personal experience, Harley?" he said bitingly.

And in the same way that his Shadowshot might sap the strength out of those it ensnared in its tether, he saw the impact of his shot play out in the other Hunter's face.

Harley flinched, his face slackening in shock. He stepped back, and it was only with that distance that Kaedro noticed how wrapped up in the argument they had gotten.

For the first time since he accosted Kaedro about Oryx, Harley looked away.

The full weight of what he'd said began to register as the anesthetic of anger seeped away, replaced almost instantly by growing horror and disgust at himself. He had fucked up.

Harley turned to leave.

"Ace, wait…" He reached out as though to stop the Hunter, but thought better of it — the motion died a millisecond after it began.

Harley turned slightly. His face was stone, betraying nothing. "Save it," he said quietly. "Just… just make sure the others are ready to go." And in those words was a singular exhaustion, as though all of the fatigue he'd been fighting off since his coma had come crashing back down.

Harley walked out of the bar.

He sighed and turned to Tristan, who had been watching the argument with wide eyes. "...Could you get everyone else together?" he asked tiredly.

The Warlock nodded and hurried off, no doubt glad to be away from the shitshow that had just gone down.

With another sigh, he slumped back into his seat and picked up his drink to finish it off, only to discover that Kira had topped him up. He shot her a half-smile. "Thanks."

She shrugged. "Seemed like you could use it." She winced. "That argument was… a lot."

He cringed. Right, they'd just had it out in front of a whole bar full of civilians. "Yeahhhh. Uh, look, we talked about a few things that really shouldn't have left the Tower…"

Kira nodded understandingly. "Don't worry. I'll pour everyone a free round. They'll forget soon enough."

"Thanks, Kir."

"No problem…" She smirked at him. "Guess you'll just have to owe me one." He nodded absently, sipping his drink. She sighed. "Listen… Nothin' you two said made a lick of sense to me, but it sounded pretty serious… I hope you two can work things out."

Kaedro nodded. "I'll go talk to him." He winced again at recalling what was said. "...I messed up big time."

"I'm sure he'll come around," she said, waving him off, "You just gotta make sure he knows you didn't mean it."

Someone cleared their throat behind him and he turned to see the rest of his friends standing there, clearly waiting for him. "That's my cue," he told her, finishing his drink and standing up, "Thanks again for everything, Kira. I'll see you around."

She smiled, giving a little wave. "See ya, Kay."

He led the rest of the Guardians to the exit. Once they left the bar, he spotted Harley standing off to one side, clearly waiting for them. Upon seeing them, the other Hunter turned and began walking in the direction of the Tower.

The distance between him and the rest of them was visible, and Kaedro sighed, feeling incredibly guilty about the whole thing.

In a not-very-subtle move, Jade sidled up next to him. "...What's wrong with Harley?" she murmured, sounding concerned. Her eyes were fixed on the Hunter in question.

He groaned. "We… had a fight," he admitted.

She frowned questioningly. "About what?"

He shook his head. "Yesterday, he came to see me after he got out of the med bay and asked about a mission that Cayde apparently mentioned." He shot her a glance and saw understanding in her eyes — she knew the mission would have been about Oryx. "...I lied to him and told him there wasn't a mission, that Cayde was mistaken." He scoffed. "Which, really, you'd think that dumbass would know better than to say anything to Ace about it. He should know what Ace is like by now and he definitely shouldn't've mentioned it knowing the Vanguard were gonna ground Ace for a week."

Jade nodded. "Ikora told me about that. She thinks he still needs more time to recover." Her eyebrows furrowed. "I usually tend to agree with her… but I'm not really sure what she meant. I mean, he's fine, isn't he? The med bay cleared him."

Kaedro shrugged. He personally agreed with the Vanguard on this one, but he didn't want to get into that right now. "...Yeah, well, tonight he found out that we didn't fully kill Oryx, and… he was pretty upset."

"Understandable."

"Yeah," he agreed, "But my reaction wasn't." His shoulders slumped. "...I got worked up and started yelling back at him."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Jade offered, "I mean, it isn't great, but it could have been worse."

"Oh, I definitely made it worse," Kaedro assured her bitterly.

She shot him a questioning look. "What did you do?" There was a hint of wariness in the question.

He sighed. "I… brought up what happened to him on the Dreadnaught after Phobos. Like a fucking idiot."

Her eyes widened. "You…"

He nodded. "He said something about how Oryx bends the will of other lifeforms and I threw it back in his face."

"Kaedro!" His name came out as an admonishing hiss.

"I know!" he groaned, "I know I crossed the line!"

She shook her head. "That's one way of putting it…"

He groaned again. "I feel like shit… I need to go apologize."

"Definitely," she agreed, "But you might wait to wait a few more minutes first. Give him a chance to calm down first."

Was that better than going immediately? Harley hadn't seemed very angry in the aftermath, just tired and hurt. If he was angry, then Kaedro could see Jade's advice applying. But if he was hurt… well, letting him sit with those words was probably not going to help matters.

He shook his head at himself. "I'm such an idiot. You should've seen him… He was so angry, but not like hot angry, y'know? He was cold angry. And that's the scariest one."

Her lips twitched. "...I think those drinks might be messing with your circuits."

He scoffed. "Please. If my circuits are messed up, it's not the alcohol that did it… I'm just a terrible person."

She frowned at him. "That's not true. Look… I'll drop back and walk with the others so you can think for a bit. Maybe once we reach the Tower, you could try talking things out with him."

He nodded. "Sounds like a good idea… Thanks, Jade."

The Warlock nodded and slowed her pace to fall in with Fireteam Calypso.

He sighed, thinking back over his argument with Harley. His friend had seemed agitated even before the fight, and even though he hadn't known the other Hunter as long as some of the other Hesperides members, Harley never seemed like someone to take things personally.

Which means he probably fucked up more than he thought.

Everyone has their touchy topics, he reasoned. Then he frowned to himself. Hold on a second…

Because he was right. Everyone did have something they didn't want to talk about. He just hadn't realized that, after Phobos, the Taken had made Harley's list. It was completely understandable, considering, but Kaedro suspected it went deeper than him merely not wanting to talk about it. Harley had seemed hesitant to say Oryx's name, visibly struggling with himself whenever it came up.

His Ghost flashed into existence beside him. "What are you going to say?" she asked.

He started in surprise, his train of thought broken by her sudden appearance. "Huh?"

"To apologize to Harley," she said patiently, "What will you say?"

He shrugged. "I dunno… I wasn't exactly planning on preparing it beforehand."

Jyn mirrored his shrug with the sides of her shell. "It's up to you. But I'm warning you now, I will not tell you what to say in your head."

He scoffed. "I know. Wouldn't be worth much if you did."

She chirped proudly. "I taught you well."

He rolled his eyes at her, waving her away good-naturedly. "Yeah, whatever. You can shove off now."

Jyn sighed. "That's what I get for praising you," she muttered before disappearing.

He took a deep breath, bracing himself for the discomfort of the conversation that was about to ensue. "Right. Here goes nothing…"

He sped up a bit to catch up to Harley, who regarded him with a decidedly neutral expression. "Kaedro." Well, he supposed any acknowledgment was better than nothing.

"Ace…" He drew a breath. "Listen, kid… What I said was shitty. Hell, it was downright awful, and I want you to know that I didn't mean it, not really. I'm not stupid enough to say it was the alcohol talking, 'cause we both know that's bullshit... I got heated and didn't think about what I was sayin'. I shouldn't have said it and I'm sorry that I did."

"It's fine, Kaedro," said the other Hunter in a rather flat, tired-sounding tone, "I overreacted."

He frowned. "It isn't fine. I was the one who was out of line. You were making some good points and I was being an asshole."

"Kaedro." Harley looked him right in the eye. "It's. Fine." He shook his head. "It was my fault anyway, I wasn't exactly being level-headed either. I pushed you into saying that by being the first to yell."

Kaedro wasn't sure he liked how Harley was reacting to the whole situation, but he decided not to push it any further. He wasn't keen on starting another argument, so instead they walked the rest of the way back to the Tower in silence.

The next morning, he entered the dining hall to find Harley already sitting at one of the back tables with a cup of coffee in front of him.

After getting his own coffee, he sat down across from the other Hunter, who nodded at him. "Morning, Kaedro."

He nodded back. "Good morning." He squinted at Harley, assessing the circles under his eyes and the slump in his shoulders. His friend looked exhausted. "...Sleep ok, Ace?"

Harley waved him off. "It's fine. I was just up a bit late, that's all."

He was a little skeptical about that answer. "Uh-huh…"

"Seriously, it's fine." Harley shot him a wry smile. "I've had worse."

Well, it wasn't like he could argue with that. He decided to drop it. "Whatever you say, kid… So what's the plan?"

At that, some of the overt tiredness seemed to vanish from Harley's face and he sat up a bit straighter. "We need to figure out how to get into a Hive god's throne world," he said gravely.

Kaedro nodded thoughtfully as he sipped his coffee. "Well, I mean, it can't be too hard, right?" His mouth plates pulled into a half-smile. "We've done it once already."

Harley acknowledged the fact with a slight nod. "True… But I think we can expect this to be different. Who do you think Crota learned it from?"

He nodded. "Point. Ikora did say somethin' similar."

A somewhat evasive look came over Harley's face. "When you fought him before… was it hard?"

He frowned, thinking back on the fight. "...No, actually. The whole time I was thinking it was easier than it should've been." He hadn't liked the feeling, but he knew something had been off. Hell, he knew what Crota was like during the Great Disaster and Oryx should have been ten times worse than he was.

Harley nodded like it didn't surprise him. "Makes sense… It was all part of his plan."

He couldn't find fault with that. It was a conclusion they'd been leaning toward themselves. And it fit in with what Orxy had done after the fight.

He spoke up. "Right at the end, he drew this weird energy from his sword. It looked like…" He vaguely mimed cupping his hands around an invisible sphere. "Like an orb of Darkness or something."

The other Hunter's movements stilled, his attention now razor-focused on Kaedro. "...What did he do with it?"

He frowned, shaking his head. "He Took himself. Or something like that. Whatever he did, he obviously wanted to end things on his terms, which means-"

"In his throne world," said Harley, "I know."

Then a voice tore through their conversation, shattering the quiet that had enveloped the rest of the dining hall. "Hey, Kaedro!"

He turned to see Liv, Tristan, Jade, and Kai entering the hall. The leader of Fireteam Calypso was waving enthusiastically at them.

"Good morning," greeted Jade as the group sat down.

"Jade," replied Kaedro, offering her a mock salute.

"Morning," said Harley, "We were just about to talk strategy for the throne world."

He winced internally. Way to shatter any good vibes the others had brought with them... Not that it wasn't necessary, because they did need to talk about it.

"Hm. Guess we showed up just in time," said Kai evenly, "What do we have so far?"

"Actually, we have more information about Oryx's throne world than you'd think," said Jade with a tinge of excitement to her voice, "The only problem is not much of it is useful for our purposes. We know how he made it and we know others have tried to breach it before, but we don't know what defenses he has in place."

"We have to assume the entrance is pretty far in," said Kai.

"Do we? I mean, Oryx's entire ship is his throne world turned inside out. It's enormous. He could feasibly be anywhere in the Ascendant Realm. The Dreadnaught is his first line of defense."

"Ok…" said Harley, "Let's take this layer by layer. First, we get into the Dreadnaught, which we've already done before. What's the next defense?"

"The Hive," input Kaedro, shaking his head, "That place is filled with 'em."

Harley nodded. "And after the Hive?"

"He's bound to have traps and locks and stuff like that," said Liv, "But that doesn't help us much."

Kaedro thought back to how they navigated Crota's throne world. Liv was right. There were certain to be barriers in their way, but just knowing they'd be there wasn't enough. Especially because the Hive had any number of ways of opening doors and revealing passageways.

Jade frowned. "The Hive have a hierarchy-"

"The Hive-erarchy," Liv interjected, only to receive a number of critical looks, "...Sorry."

Jade shook her head, but there was a slight smile on her face. "They're a bit like the Fallen in that way. Thrall to Acolytes to Knights and Wizards and so on…"

Kai leaned forward, looking interested. "So what you're saying is wherever the strongest Hive are is where the entrance is," she said. Jade nodded. "Great. So what are the strongest Hive on the Dreadnaught aside from Oryx?"

"Oryx is said to have two daughters, but I'm pretty sure we would have noticed them if we encountered them," said Jade. She frowned thoughtfully. "But he also has a Court — a bunch of powerful Hive to challenge him and learn from him."

"Do we know where the Court is?" Kaedro asked.

"It isn't very far in. We actually passed the site when we disabled the Dreadnaught's weapon." She shot him a meaningful look. "There was a huge portal, remember?"

He had to laugh at that. "Kid, there're a lot of huge portals on that ship… But it doesn't matter. We know it's there and we know where to find it."

"So we get to the portal," Harley continued, "Then what? We just go through?"

Jade shrugged. "That's my guess."

Kai nodded, looking pleased. "Sounds straightforward enough."

"It won't be," Harley replied, "And even if it is, the rest sure won't be… Expect challenges, weird Hive relics, and a ton of stuff that'll kill you. The Ascendant Realm operates under a different set of rules."

Kaedro nodded in agreement. "Too true. I recall those swords in Crota's throne world. You had to carry them in order to cross the bridge."

"And his Oversoul," Jade added, "Who knows whether he got that from Oryx too."

"Yeah," said Harley, "We can't be sure what we're walking into, but it sure as hell won't be easy."

"Wonderful," said Kai dryly, "And when are we going on this amazing expedition?"

"Tomorrow," the other Hunter said with conviction, "We can't afford to wait any longer than we already have. We're taking him down." With that, he rose to his feet. "...I'm off to get my gear together… See you guys later."

Kaedro sighed as he watched Harley leave. He rather felt he could do with a few less high-stakes missions, but those seemed to be the only kind around nowadays.

Liv and Tristan stood as well. "Wish I could stay, but we've got a patrol in half an hour," Liv announced with all the excitement of a funeralgoer.

Kai nodded. "You two go on ahead. I'll catch up in a second."

"Alright."

As her teammates left, the Titan turned back to face Jade and Kaedro. She shook her head. "Man… Hard to believe we've only just met that kid, Hayden, and he's already bossing us around."

"He isn't that bad," said Jade.

Kai raised her hands placatingly. "Not meant as an insult. Trust me, he's got nothing on Liv… All I'm saying is it's hard not to be skeptical when a grave-fresh Guardian is calling the shots." She jerked her chin at Kaedro. "Bet you know what I'm talking about... Still…" She shrugged. "...He was on the team that took out Crota so that counts for something. I guess we'll see how things go tomorrow."

She stood up, stretching. "I'd better catch up with the others. But first, Wrythal…" Kai leaned over to Jade to whisper something that Kaedro couldn't catch. The Warlock nodded and Kai straightened up, looking satisfied. "Alright, see you two tomorrow."

With that, she walked off. As soon as she left the dining hall, he shot Jade a pointed look. "What was that about? What'd she say?"

Jade waved him off. "It's not important."

"If you say so…" he said, pouring his skepticism into his voice.

"I do," she replied, getting up, "Now, given what we're planning to do tomorrow, I'm going to head to the library to see if there's any information in the history we have on the Hive that might be helpful."

"Sure," said Kaedro, "Later, Jade."

"See you later."

He watched the Warlock leave in full knowledge that she had been lying when she said whatever Kai said to her wasn't important. But as nosy as he was at heart, he could recognize that it probably wasn't any of his business. He had to believe that if it was relevant to the mission at hand, they would tell him.

He wasn't sure what he thought about Kai's statement regarding Harley. Her insinuation that he knew what she meant wasn't inaccurate. Kaedro had lived the equivalent of several lifetimes after his revival during the Dark Age. He'd seen a lot and done even more that Harley probably couldn't even fathom.

He certainly had feelings similar to Kai's crop up back when he first met the other Hunter, which wasn't to say he thought Harley incapable, just that he recognized the discrepancy in experience between them. But after invading Crota's throne world and overthrowing Atheon in the Vault of Glass — a Guardian legend if ever there was one — with Harley, he no longer felt it as keenly. And he was entirely prepared to put his faith in him once more. None of them could do this alone. If they wanted to topple the Taken King, they would all have to pull together.

A/N: Oh man. Guys, we're only a few chapters from the end of this story! Then we'll be catching up to the D2 timeline and boy do I have some good stuff in store... In the meantime, I'd like to give a shoutout to my friend smolTITAN118, who has her own set of oneshots up on . I highly recommend checking them out because they are toit!

For other things like art, updates, and shitposting, y'all can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, and now Instagram under the tag ArcaneGlitch. Instagram is primarily for art, and I do take commissions if anyone's interested.

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Eyes up, Guardians!