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Chapter Text

    An unending sea of red sand cacaded across the horizon in rolling dunes, reaching up toward the orange-swept heavens on occasion in scattered outcrops of barren rock. Everything visible stood bathed in shades ranging from pinkish salmon to deepest crimson. Red-eyed Vex units marched in a plodding copper line down toward an carnelian building off in the distance, past that a brick-colored valley lay dotted with caramel trees reaching thin reddish branches up toward hazy sherbet clouds and dammit, De Zu-6 just wanted to tilt her head back and scream up at the universe. Mars was the last place she wanted to be on any given day, it was always so boring and dull and repetitive and yet here she was, all alone as she stalked her enemy—
    "You're not alone."
    She turned to level a peevish glare at a small polyhedral construct floating at her shoulder. "Okay, we're alone, then," she corrected. "Abandoned by our fireteam in the middle of a dangerous mission, lost in the wilderness of Meridian Bay—"
    "We're not lost, and this is hardly much in the way of 'wilderness'," her companion interjected. It floated slightly ahead of her, its lone blue eye a testament that other colors did indeed exist in this duochromatic place. "It's just Mars. We've been here before."
    "We've been stuck out here for a week straight, Sunny!" She flopped backward onto the sand dramatically, ignoring cautionary signals from sensors at her back and in her helmet. The blazing red sun overhead beat down upon them without mercy, and she jabbed an accusatory finger up toward it. "I am officially out of words to describe oranges, reds, and browns!"
    "Perhaps we should start making some more noise, then? Maybe head for one of the big buildings, clear it out, and make the enemy we're looking for come to us instead?"
    "That wouldn't get us the one we want, though, just more of the scouts and stragglers and underlings we've been fighting already. We gotta find this guy, whoever he is, and take him out properly. That was our mission, and damned if we're not gonna get it done." She rolled over, pushed herself up off the ground and stomped the sand out of her greaves. "Let's just keep moving," she sighed wearily.
    "This way," said the little Ghost with an affable little twist akin to a humanoid shrug. He marked a waypoint on her helmet's HUD. "When we make it to this canyon area just past the Iron Line, that'll be halfway to where we need to be."

    "This is my hiding spot!"
    "Pardon me?"
    "You heard me, get out!"
    De Zu and Sunny had made it to the tree-dotted canyon only to find themselves trapped, the unfortunate witnesses to a Cabal march. A great Colossus led the way, flanked by Phalanx and Legionary warriors, followed by a wake of Psions and their Centurion handlers. They had quickly scaled the canyon walls, fully intending to duck inside a small cave Sunny had spotted to avoid the attention of Vex patrols out in the dunes, but now— "Ow," Zu grunted at a sharp jab in her side but otherwise remained unmoved.
    "Really, this lack of courtesy is unbecoming, is it not?" Sunny chided, shimmering into view at Zu's shoulder. "Would you honestly refuse shelter to a fellow Guardian?"
    "Look," the occupant seethed, anxiously looking between De Zu blocking the entrance to the cave and out upon the marching Cabal. "I have an important mission here, and you two are wrecking my concentration. Get the hell out of my hiding spot, right now."
    "Be reasonable, Katje," said the red-shelled Ghost that hovered by his ear, its voice soothing and mild and directed toward the cloaked Guardian as he checked his sniper rifle and braced it on the short ridge of rock that blocked any view of the inside of the little cave from below. He jabbed an elbow into Zu's knee and she did her best to squeeze past him and out of his way, but with the way he was crouching there was just no room. "I'm sure they won't spoil your view and they'll move on after the Cabal pass. Won't you?" it asked, blinking its lone optic at the intruding pair.
    "They are a distraction, I've already missed half the march thanks to this!"
    "Hey, you know what? I just remembered," said De Zu, lifting her hands up before her as she turned, sidestepped carefully over the Hunter's arm and stopped deliberately in front of his scope while he continued to rage impotently. "I don't need your stupid hiding spot after all."
    "The hell are you—"
    "I'll just take out this whole army and be on my way. Sorry to bother you!" she called cheerily, walking out into full view of any and all sharp-eyed snipers within the unit below.
    You're not serious! said Sunny worriedly, disappearing from view once more.
    How dare that little shit refuse aid to a fellow Guardian, she fumed, staring down at the throng of Cabal milling past them through the long natural corridor below. We'll show him his precious hiding place isn't necessary, and then we'll keep moving.
    You were just about to hide there yourself, you know.
    She ignored that. Light me up, Sunny.
    Right, he replied quickly, painting her HUD with information as she checked the ammo in all her equipped weaponry: A Suros DIS-43, excellent for long-range encounters; a shotgun gifted her by Lord Saladin himself for exploits in the Iron Banner tournament long ago; and by far her favorite heavy weapon at the moment, the exotic Dragon's Breath. She hefted it up onto her shoulder, fine painted teeth glowing brilliantly in the bright red sunlight. Its Solar attunement would be more than enough to break Centurion shields and send them running as well as to wipe out the worst of the trash below, Psions and Legionaries alike.
    The Cabal continued their forward march, piggish grunts and squeals their only communication between one another as they went. The Psions wove in and out of the main Cabal mass, watching their surroundings carefully, but there would be no escape today.
    De Zu fired, and the ants below began to scramble as she reloaded. She fired again and this time a Psion squealed harshly, pointing imperiously toward her rock spire. Bolts of Solar energy arced up toward her perch and she grinned, focusing her own Arc energy into her hands even as she took a flying leap into the air, a living, breathing streak of pure white lightning. Her strike was blinding, energy aftershocks felling even those she had not directly crushed as they rushed at her, and then she began to run, shouldering Legionaries and Psions out of her way as she raced toward the nearest Centurion.
    It roared and gibbered something, launching a devastating volley of rockets at her. She sidestepped all but one, leaping into the air to knee-kick the enemy in the face and, having stunned the creature, a shotgun blast to the chest finished it off. The second and third Centurion went down in the same manner, and by the time she came to the Colossus — who readied its chain-gun for her, surrounded itself with Phalanxes for protection, sprayed her with bullets as she came screaming toward it — she had gathered enough energy for a second devastating Fist of Havoc. A round from Dragon's Breath set them all to dancing in a field of fire, and then her own bolt of Arc lightning set the assembled Phalanxes to squealing as they fell. The Colossus she favored with a crackling punch to the face before it, too, toppled to the ground, chain-gun clattering out of its limp, dead hands.
    A hush fell over the valley then, Zu the only thing left standing. She looked up at the tiny cave, watched as the even tinier Guardian poked its head out of its precious hiding place. "There," she yelled upward with a wave, "I've just solved both our problems." And she shouldered her shotgun and began sauntering away, satisfied.
    In the silence that followed, the sound of angry spluttering drifted down from above. She turned upon hearing a series of sharp thuds as the other Guardian leapt down onto the valley floor. "What in the Traveler's name did you do that for?" he demanded.
    "What? Now we don't have to fight over your hiding spot because there's nothing to hide from anymore," she replied with an innocent shrug.
    "Dammit!" he growled, ripping the helmet from his head and throwing it to the ground. He kicked it, running pale hands through sweat-slicked pink curls that hugged his scalp, and then he turned eyes of blazing carnelian upon De Zu. "I needed those Cabal," he complained.
    "For what, your kill count? Go find some other Cabal to waste," she sneered, eyeing the sniper rifle at his back. The weapon was quite nearly longer than he was tall. "It's not like this entire planet isn't crawling with them."
    "That's not what I meant. I have orders from the Vanguard to track their movements — or I did, anyway, until you killed them all! Now where will I get that information from?"
    "How should I have known you were only watching them?" Zu asked, folding her arms over her chest. "You had a sniper rifle aimed at them."
    "Hell-lo, rifles have scopes on them!"
    She rolled her optics. "It's not my fault you never explained what you were actually doing. You kicked me out of a perfectly good hiding spot. I had to defend myself."
    "By killing them all?"
    She shrugged indifferently.
    "I... you..." he spluttered, kicking his helmet yet again. His ghost gave a long-suffering sigh as it retrieved the offending piece of gear and dropped it back into his hands. He slammed it down over his head, fastening the clips angrily. "You've wrecked my mission, Titan. In the name of the Vanguard, I demand you help me salvage what information I can, here!"
    Damn. De Zu knew she was already treading on thin ice with the Vanguard given her own current situation; the last thing she needed was some puffed-up jackass running off to squeal that she'd sabotaged their mission — which wasn't entirely the case, it hadn't been intentional, but it had happened nonetheless. Wouldn't that go over well with the Commander, she thought, glancing around the battlefield skeptically. Dragon's Breath had done more than its fair share of work, leaving the canyon ground scorched and littered with pools of molten slag and unidentifiably crispy Cabal.
    He would order you to make this right.
    I know, I know. May as well stay two steps ahead of him. "I don't think there's much left here," she said aloud, "though they were marching in that direction." She pointed farther on down the valley. "Maybe this will lead us to a stronghold or something you can inspect if we follow it far enough. Would that satisfy your mission?"
    The Guardian consulted with Ghost briefly before responding with a curt affirmative. "It'll be better than nothing," he grumbled, jerking his chin at Zu. "Come on."
    "If I am to go with you, Hunter, you will sweeten your disposition," said Zu flatly, entirely unimpressed by his behavior. "Had you chosen to be civil at the outset, you would not be in this mess in the first place."
    "Quit making people mad at you!" The red-clad Ghost flared briefly, whirling its rear points in agitation as it hovered before the Guardian stomping angrily away. "Please, please just be calm. We need her help right now, like it or not."
    He seems somewhat unstable, said Sunny as the Guardian and his Ghost argued between themselves for a moment. Perhaps the monotony of Mars has affected him as well.
    What do you mean 'as well'? Zu retorted. And if he wants my help, he can at least be polite.
    We did disrupt his assigned mission—
    Zu side-eyed her own Ghost. For the third time, if he hadn't kicked me out of that hiding spot, I wouldn't have had to protect us against those Cabal.
    And by 'protect us' you of course mean 'kill them all'?
    Not you too— look, it was the best possible choice, okay? If they're dead, they can't kill us. It's easy.
    "Okay fine," said the Hunter, rolling his eyes before sighing and forcing himself visibly to relax. He turned to De Zu. "I was rude, and I'm sorry. This is my mess, but I need your help to fix it. Please, will you help me?"
    Zu's face lit up in satisfaction. "Sure. Let's go before the trail gets cold."

    They traveled in silence, sparrows flying over dusty sand dunes as swiftly as their flesh-and-blood namesakes. Zu found herself intrigued by the tiny Hunter, who had taken point and was silent now that he was actively tracking his prey. His armor was red-orange and dark brown; the long, red cloak he wore had been painted with curious circular symbols in lighter shades of orange and yellow. It whipped behind him like a banner, though it left his helmet bare. Zu recognized his armor as mostly having come from the Vanguard with the sole exception of his helmet, which looked as if it may have been a gift from one of the faction leaders stationed at the Tower. She had never really fallen in line with any of their ideologies herself, therefore she'd never bothered to pledge her undying loyalty to any of them in particular.
    A faint line of old tracks in the sand was their only clue as to their path to follow, but the Hunter was on the trail like a bloodhound. Zu briefly wondered if she should perhaps learn to track her own targets the way Hunters did. Usually, her luck was good and if she killed enough things, their leaders would show themselves and she would eventually kill them, too, but this seemed like a much more expedient way of going about the whole process of finding the actual mission target. We've come closer to our own target in a few hours' worth of following this guy than we have in a week's worth of wandering and fighting stray scouts and wiping out patrols, she thought enviously. Maybe next time we should—
    Yeah, right, replied Sunny perhaps a bit smugly to that particular train of thought. You'd get bored of not punching anything and go back to fighting everything that moves soon enough.
    She couldn't argue against his logic, so she allowed him his little victory without comment.
    Rounding dead trees, dodging the occasional rock bouncing its way down the canyon walls, they eventually came upon a long tunnel that led up through a solid stone wall easily a mile thick. Dismounting their sparrows, they moved cautiously up to the outer lip of the metal-lined tunnel, peering out into the broad, flat area beyond.
    It was still the same unending sea of red sand and infinite sky of orange light, but now it held a horizon completely made up of Cabal embattlements. At its fore stood a monument to their power and might here on this red-orange planet, perhaps making this place far less boring and dull and repetitive as De Zu usually found it. And she wasn't alone anymore, either.
    "The land-tank," Katje murmured in awe. It was indeed a massive structure set onto a pair of the largest treads either of them had ever seen, marked with imperial symbols. Everyone knew the Cabal ate planets and spit meteors into the universe, but few had ever seen more than the attacking squadrons, dropships, and light cavalry mounted upon Interceptors and small tanks. This one vehicle was easily the size of the entire Tower Plaza, from transmat steps to rear overlook, and maybe even had room for the Speaker's observatory as well. Zu's fists clenched and unclenched in anticipation.
    This is what we've been looking for, said Sunny. Perhaps Katje may be persuaded to join us in rooting out this Cabal leader?
    If we can't do it ourselves, we don't deserve to return to the Tower. Zu side-eyed the little Hunter, squaring her shoulders and reaching back over her shoulder for her scout rifle. She hefted it out of sheer habit, checked its ammo. "Will this complete your mission?" she asked Katje as she reloaded.
    "Yes."
    "Then this is where we part," she said, and she moved into the opening of the tunnel leading out onto the sand.
    "Are you crazy!?" hissed the little hunter, locking both hands around De Zu's arm in a grip of iron and yanking her back down the corridor, just out of sight. "It's suicide!"
    Zu snorted. "Says you. Remember the canyon?"
    Behind his visor, Katje paled to a robin's egg sort of color. "You're not seriously implying that you're going to make it through this just as easily, are you?"
    "'Easy' isn't the word I'd use to describe what I'm about to do but yeah, this is my mission. You had yours, and now I'm up for mine. This is my proving ground, Hunter. I don't expect you to understand, but I do expect you to stay out of my way."
    He eyed her speculatively. "Fine," he acquiesced, relinquishing her arm. "But if you don't mind though, I think I'll just mosey on around the area, maybe see if I can't pick up some intel while you're in there slaughtering the contents of that Imperial land-tank. What say I give you a few hours and then, if you haven't yet returned, I'll head in after you?"
    "If you like," said Zu. "Otherwise, we can just meet back here."
    "... I'll just come in after you." He smirked at her and extended a hand. Shaking her head, she clasped it firmly and then headed up the passageway again.
    You're sure we've got this? asked Sunny, hints of worry still coloring his thought.
    Positive. I've got a plan.

    This wasn't in the plan! Sunny wailed.
    "That plan sucked, this one's much better!" De Zu was concentrating too hard on staying alive to properly focus her thought for internal speech; it was easier to answer him aloud with her helmet's external speakers shut off than it was to try and think down two paths at once. An Arc-wrapped fist shot out and crushed a Legionary's skull and two more fell soon after to her trusty shotgun, but a unit of Phalanx had entered the great cargo bay from a doorway at the other side; she caught their advance out of the corner of her eye even before Sunny lit up her tracker.
    The unit advanced slowly into the open, shields raised to provide themselves a cozy patch of heaven as they advanced to take up position before their immense commander. The great beast of a Cabal stomped and roared and peppered her hiding places with chain-gun fire. Zu was doing her damnedest to tread water, wearing him down over time while he seemed more than content to hole up at the end of the cargo bay and wait for his attackers to come to him. Or attacker in this case; Zu knew perfectly well how terribly alone she was now.
    She grimaced and would bare her teeth had she had any at the very idea of the fools who had abandoned her on Mars. They had approached her at the Tower claiming to have noticed her speed and prowess with regard to Cabal-related missions, they wanted to band together and clear out an elite Vanguard mission in record time — or so they said. As soon as they had touched foot upon the red sand under the orange sky surrounded by red rocks baked by the orange sun above, they had professed some sudden pressing urge to be elsewhere and disappeared, transmatting away in a puff of compressed data like so much sand-filled wind.
    She had been the one to obtain the missive, however. She had been the one to persuade the Commander to allow them to go, to obtain the necessary permits to approach the red planet — all Guardian activity on Mars was highly restricted at the moment due to the recent sudden increase of Cabal forces on the planet. She had been the one they used to allow them to step foot onto Mars, and they had bailed on her as soon as they'd landed. They had blinded her with ideas of glory and prestige. Next time, she would know better than to trust two random Guardians so casually, but for now, she had to get this done or die trying. There was no other way around it; she would not return to the Tower — no, to the Commander — with her tail tucked between her legs in defeat.
    There, said Sunny, who pinged her tracker, and she watched as it shifted about on her HUD. She quietly moved to keep her protective crate between herself and the great red blinking of this giant Cabal warrior as he stalked from one end of the room to the other in search of his prey. We should've asked Katje to help us. I'm sure he would have agreed to—
    "This is our mission. The last people we trusted to help us with it bailed, Sunny. We couldn't afford to have that happen again. We'll get it done, and then we'll take the proof back to the Vanguard and that will be that."
    You realize you're just setting us up for more difficult assignments down the road, don't you? Sunny replied worriedly as Zu began picking off scout Psions before they could get to her. We've been doing so well on our own for years now, and all of a sudden you get this crazy urge to punch everything — even things much, much stronger than you.
    "Well when you put it that way, it kinda sounds unhealthy," she admitted, punching a last brave Psion and taking aim at the tiny head set atop a massive chest backed by an enormous decorative fan at the other end of the cargo bay. 'Ping' went a round into his helmet and he snarled, shook himself, and fired a volley of rockets in her direction. She dove for cover, her poor battered metal crate taking quite the beating in her place. She hoped it didn't contain explosives of any kind given how much heat it'd taken so far. "But let's face it," she continued. "It's not like we were doing anything important before, just patrol missions and minor targets here and there. If we succeed here, no matter what happens, no one else will have killed this jerk. It'll have been all us, Sunny."
    So, this is a pride thing? he asked sourly.
    "So negative today," she chided, filling the beast's helmet with primary fire now, the steady, thudding rhythm of her DIS-43 a familiar, comforting sound for them both. "You know I can do this. We can do this. We're the best team ever, me and you, and we're gonna do all sorts of great things. We're gonna be the ones future Vanguard mentors will regale newborn Guardians with, just you wait."
    There's a reason it's the Vanguard and not the Guardians themselves who tell those tales, Zu — they're all dead!
    Another volley of rocket fire came at them now, catching Zu off-guard and she fell backwards, rolling instinctively away from the heat and flame that had briefly impacted her right side. She shook her arm, damage indicators slowly lowering to bearable levels as the Light within her restored the blistered outer skin beneath what had briefly been cherry-red plasteel plating. "That is it," she growled. "Sunny, do me a favor and pop that last heavy ammo synth for me, the one I've been saving for a rainy day."
    He obeyed silently, and she drew her beloved Dragon's Breath, checked to ensure it was loaded with a freshly-created shell and, giving a war cry the likes of which these Cabal would never hear again — whether because she died, or they did — she leapt into the air.
    Six shots, each one loaded and fired after the other filled his podium with a thick blanket of napalm-borne flame. The liquid splattered over the Phalanx units, who all squealed and keeled over at its touch, and the Valus himself was no match for her fire either. His armor began to glow brightly as he howled and danced in her flame briefly before crumbling and falling into the hellish pool at his feet. Morbidly enough, the bulk of his dead body managed to put out a good portion of the flames, and so she was gradually able to approach and inspect her kill in the silence that followed.
    "We did it," said Sunny, almost in awe as he appeared at her shoulder, moving to scan the dead Valus who lay smoldering before them.
    "We did it," sighed De Zu, finally able to relax a bit in the afterglow of battle.
    "What proof should we take back to the Vanguard?" asked Sunny. "His helmet? Banners?"
    "Yes." She took hold of the helmet, which had cooled enough to touch — at least with thermo-lined gauntlets, anyway — and gave it an experimental tug. It popped free of his head with a hiss, black-oil sludge dripping to the ground as she stepped back and allowed her Ghost to transmat the item to their ship. As Sunny retrieved the great banners at his back himself, Zu turned her attention to the various smaller weapons attached to his armor. Apparently he wasn't only capable of chain-gun or rocket massacres. A fine scout rifle caught her eye, bearing some kind of inscription carved into the side. "Can you read this?" she asked, holding it out for Sunny to scan.
    "I... well, it's familiar, I recognize some of the particles, but not the main words. Cabal language has always been difficult for me, you see." A conical beam of blue-white light shone forth from his lone optic. "We should allow the Cryptarchy to look it over when we return, see what they can make of it."
    Zu nodded, shouldering her new weapon and looking around the room with satisfaction. "Are there any consoles in here we can scan? May as well pick up some intel while we're here."
    "You mean while everything is dead." He scanned the dead Valus before them briefly, then recovered a thin, rectangular case from a pocket-like hatch in his armor. "Perhaps this will have some information for the Vanguard. I've already scanned all the consoles here in the cargo bay, however. We should leave while we still can."
    "You've read my mind," she replied with a lopsided sort of grin.

    Well aware of her low ammo reserves, De Zu kept to the shadows this time, though with all the chaos left in the wake of the dead Valus the Cabal seemed to have momentarily lost their taste for battle. Her few slips into view were largely ignored by milling Psions and fleeing Legionaries, and thus it was that she was able to make it back to the tunnel where they had left Katje almost without incident.
    Upon his return, the tiny Hunter came upon De Zu in about the same position as he had left her. "Hah," he smirked as she stood to greet him, brushing red sand from her greaves. "So, you didn't go through with it after all?"
    "Go through with what, killing that Valus? Of course we did," she said, glancing at Sunny in brief confusion.
    Katje blinked, his mouth opened, then snapped shut as his Ghost suddenly floated toward De Zu, interested in the new weapon holstered to her back. "But... you're alive," he said.
    "Naturally." She unslung the scout rifle she had taken and held it out for Katje's Ghost to inspect freely. "Check out what we pulled off the guy," she said excitedly. "It's got some weird squiggly carvings in it. I'm gonna ask the Cryptarchs to take a look at it when I return to the Tower."
    "No way," Katje mumbled, running gauntleted fingertips over the rough-hewn scratchings as he gingerly took the weapon from her grasp. "You mean you actually killed him."
    "Yes, he's actually dead," she retorted, crossing her arms over her chestplate. "You'd think you'd never heard of a Guardian managing to kill anything before."
    "Do you realize how many people have died at the hands of that Valus?" His hands clenched reflexively around the rifle he held. "From perhaps this very weapon?"
    "Probably a lot," she shrugged, holding a hand out for her new treasure. "But not anymore, and never again. Besides, the Cabal probably wonder the same about me and the rest of my other weapons by now, given all the enemies I've killed on this planet over the past week alone. What's the big deal?"
    Katje shoved the rifle back into De Zu's hands and began to pace a short line in the red sand beneath his feet. "You... you're the biggest, luckiest, most oblivious fool of a Titan I have ever met! You have no idea what's happened here!"
    A long-suffering sigh escaped her vocal speakers as she slung the rifle back over her shoulder into its magnetic holster, and she folded her arms over her chest again. "Wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last. Are we done here? Am I free to go?"
    The little Hunter stared at her speculatively, then glanced at his Ghost. "I... need to report in after all this. I'd like for you to come with me— er, I never did get your name..."
    "De Zu-6."
    "Katje Pel." He gave her a florid little bow. "De Zu, if you'd be so kind as to relate your story to the Vanguard for me, I'll think I'll consider us even on you having spiked my mission today."
    "I thought you already got your information? Why do I need to report in with you? I can tell the Vanguard what I did on my own."
    "All right, fine — you like going after big targets like that? How about I hook you up with more enemies like that to take down? You seem capable enough, and trust me, there's a lot more where that guy came from."
    Sunny appeared at Zu's shoulder in a flash, spluttering in shock. "You cannot be serious!" he cried, his pins all aflutter as he stared between his own Guardian and the little Hunter.
    Zu glanced at her Ghost for a long moment, her curiosity clearly piqued. It had been a very long time since she'd had an enemy powerful enough to provide a proper challenge, and she was still riding the high of their earlier kill. "Come on, where's your sense of adventure?" she teased him, then looked down at Katje. "Sure, why not?" she shrugged, and they shook on the deal right then and there. Sunny spun himself in frustration and disappeared again to sulk.
    "So, have you finished everything you needed to do here?" Katje asked quickly.
    "Pretty sure I've killed the biggest thing in the area. We're good."
    "Then let's go. No time to waste, we definitely want to be first to report all this." Katje grinned as he transmatted out of sight. Zu followed suit, allowing Sunny to transport her from the red planet with a sigh of relief.
    "Mysterious little thing, isn't he?" Sunny muttered, still sulky that Zu would agree to more of these dangerous assignments.
    "I think it might be worth the trouble," she said, keying in their destination and slamming a fist down on the launch button. They both needed to report to the Vanguard, they may as well go together. He could back her up along with Sunny in case there was any disbelief. She would resupply, rest a bit, have her new scout rifle serviced by Banshee and inspected by the Crypto-archaeologists stationed there, maybe even visit the City that lay spread out like a blanket far, far below the Tower. It would be nice to spend time in a place where other colors existed than red and orange.

    They appeared in tandem on the shining marble terrace of the Tower. De Zu straightened, drinking in the sight of white marble, green grass under a blue sky, and a rainbow of fellow Guardians milling about the Tower Plaza. The cool breeze this high up in the air felt like a caress across her facial plating, a welcome home from this place she had so long ago sworn to protect.
    "All right," said Katje, clapping his hands briskly. He, like De Zu, wore no helmet in the Tower and fluffy pink curls framed his blue face like a gentle cloud now that they were not stuck out in the wilds of the dismal red planet. His eyes burned mischievously as they settled upon her. "Let's go, time's a'wastin'!"
    "You go on ahead," she said dismissively as Master Rahool waved at her from across the Plaza in greeting. "I'll meet you in there—"
    "No, now!" said Katje quickly, moving behind De Zu to give her an ungracious little shove as his Ghost spluttered and twirled in protest. Zu laughed incredulously, locking her knees and leaning backward to hold herself in place as he shoved her again. Katje was soon fighting a losing battle, and after a few moments of huffing and puffing against the virtual mountain that was his new companion, he finally gave it up.
    "You done?" she asked sweetly.
    "In all seriousness, we really should visit the Vanguard immediately," his little Ghost answered for him as he caught his breath. "Though I do apologize for his... enthusiastic behavior."
    "You promised," Katje reminded her.
    "All right, all right." She chuckled inwardly as Katje damn near ran loops around her as she made her way across the Plaza, down the steps toward the Great Hall. He chattered, flirted with Eris, waved cheerily at Shaxx and Arcite 99-40 as they passed. His behavior has completely changed. He's like a puppy.
    He's growing on you. You like him. Sunny was amused within their shared mind-space.
    His presence is not entirely unwelcome. They did not have many friends, and though she was naturally quite wary after the fiasco that had brought her to Mars in the first place, she had a gut feeling that Katje wasn't the same sort of person as the two that had used her for safe passage and abandoned her at the first chance they got.
    They came to a halt at the top of the final set of stairs leading down into the Hall of Guardians, the little Hunter composing himself at the behest of his Ghost while De Zu herself straightened, sobering before entering the presence of her own Vanguard mentor. Commander Zavala was a large, serious sort of man, and she did not want to have to explain Katje's behavior to him — or the other mentors, for that matter. Ikora and Cayde-6 could be just as inscrutable.
    "Katje!" Cayde's greeting was cordial as he stood from his ever-present map at their approach. "What brings you back to the Tower so soon?"
    "Why, only that recon mission you had me out on Mars for — you know, the unit of Cabal forces you've had me tracking for the past month? The one that was supposed to lead me to that big target you're after?"
    "The one you suddenly stopped sending me information on about twenty-four hours ago?" he shot back playfully, though his entire posture clearly displayed the idea of disciplinary action should the reasoning behind such a lapse not meet the exacting standards of the Hunter Vanguard. Cayde-6 had a reputation for being lax and jovial with his subordinates, but only until it was time to buckle down and get things done. De Zu was careful to keep her own expression under tight control, still unsure what exactly was happening between the two Hunters.
    "That's the one!" chirped the pink-haired Awoken, turning his attention to the map laid out before them. "Aggie, where would you say that unit met its end?"
    His Ghost in its bright red shell appeared at his shoulder, moving to pore over the map. "Here," it replied, marking a spot with a bright blue dot of light as Cayde's own Ghost looked on curiously.
    "The unit 'met its end'?" Cayde repeated, folding his arms over his chest.
    "Well, I suppose I wouldn't say it 'met its end' so much as I would say that the 'unstoppable force' crushed them against some immovable canyon walls." He flashed a fond smirk back at De Zu, who suddenly felt all eyes — Guardian and Vanguard alike — focus on her for perhaps the single most uncomfortable five-point-seven seconds of her entire reborn life. "Trust me, those guys are gone."
    "I see, so you've made a friend," Cayde acknowledged Zu with a short nod. "But I'm guessing you managed to pull something important out of the ashes anyway, or else you wouldn't be standing here putting on this show for us, am I right?"
    "Oh that's a great way to put it," Katje purred, clearly aware that he had the upper hand over his own Vanguard. "Hey, why don't you show them the souvenirs you pulled from the ashes of that Valus you killed?" he asked Zu with a wink and a grin.
    "The ashes of— wait, the what?"
    Zu turned to Sunny, who bobbed in midair and there, in the middle of the Vanguard table, appeared the great helmet and banners of Valus Ta'aurc, symbols of his house, his leadership, his clan. Ikora's nose wrinkled slightly as the dry smell of Mars and the oily reek of dead Cabal filled the air. Cayde reached out to touch the banner, felt its material, ran his fingers along the woven lettering as his mouthplates worked silently.
    "You did this?" asked Commander Zavala, stepping toward the table again to pick up the helmet, turning it over in his gauntleted hands.
    "Not me," demurred the little Hunter, stepping aside finally and pushing De Zu forward. "This is the reason my stream of intel dried up, Cayde. It died at her hands."
    "How did this come to pass?" asked Ikora as the full attention of the room once more turned to bear upon De Zu. "As entertaining as your delivery has been, Katje, perhaps your new friend's explanation will be more thorough." She smiled warmly. "I do apologize, but your name escapes me for the moment."
    "De Zu-6, ma'am." She nodded at Ikora before returning her attention to her own mentor, whose ice-blue gaze bored into her from across the table. She would've had to report in to him personally anyway, this would save her the trouble. "If you recall, Commander, I had come to you with two other Guardians to ask for clearance to embark upon a mission to Mars to inspect the Cabal stronghold in the Valley of the Kings area. They had intel regarding a target there, or so they'd claimed to me when they asked me to join them. Upon our gaining entrance to the security net and successful landing, however, my two companions chose to abandon our mission in favor of something else. I tried to follow and failed, so I figured I'd find a target myself so that the trip wouldn't have been a total waste."
    "And so you felt that this," Zavala said flatly, gesturing at the banners and accoutrements lying on the table, "was something worthy of your time and expertise?"
    "At the time, I didn't even know he existed," said Zu, shaking her head. "They had shown me some of their information, but not all of it — and it certainly contained nothing like this. That's a little ahead of where I was at that point though." She paused to regain her thoughts. "I'd been traveling for a while and accidentally trapped myself in a valley as the unit of Cabal Katje'd been responsible for tracking entered it. I was forced to kill them all."
    "Forced?"
    "It was either them or me, sir." She continued to stand tall, unwilling to flinch or turn away under such scrutiny from the Commander himself. "Then he came down from his hiding spot and told me I'd just screwed his mission, so I helped him follow the trail the Cabal had been traveling in an attempt to salvage what we could from the situation. We wound up coming across a truly massive stronghold; he was after intel and I was out to find a target, so we parted ways. I had no idea this Valus was going to be there when I entered the Imperial land-tank, but I don't think he knew I was coming either. Maybe that worked in my favor."
    "Do you even know who this was?" asked Ikora, her golden gaze piercing.
    "No, ma'am. He was the largest Cabal warrior I'd ever seen, so I figured if I killed him, I could make up for my lack of judgment regarding my choice of fireteam by proving that I hadn't really needed them in the first place."
    "So you're saying you made up for lack of judgment regarding a fireteam by proving a lack of judgment in mission choice? That doesn't really wash," said Cayde, leaning against the table with arms folded. "But, go big or go home, I guess."
    "When I returned to our meeting place, Katje flipped out and asked that he be allowed to deliver the news at the Tower, and then he'd be even with me regarding the failure of his mission. He also said he could introduce me to some people who would have more targets for me like this one." She paused. "In all honesty, I still don't know what's going on here. Who was this 'Valus Ta'aurc'?"
    "From what we understand," explained Zavala as he walked around the table toward De Zu, "Valus Ta'aurc is the commander of the Siege Dancers, an elite group of Psions that include the Flayers, and he is also known as the Lord of the Exclusion Zone. He and his tanks have claimed much of the Meridian Bay area for the Cabal, and on a daily basis we see Guardians who return to the Tower gravely wounded — or who don't return at all — thanks to he and his legions of Cabal soldiers." He looked down at the helmet, turning it over in his hands. "We had been in the process of selecting a pair of dedicated fireteams to go in and kill him by whatever means necessary, but reported Cabal contacts in the area have steadily dropped over the past twenty-four hours and are still falling even now." He set the helmet back down onto the table, coming to a stop before Zu and looking her over critically. "And now you appear on our doorstep, claiming to have killed him yourself."
    "I do keep telling you to pay more attention during mission briefings and intel updates," Sunny murmured unhelpfully. "And, if you recall, you never did open that set of files I gave you about—"
    "If you doubt my trustworthiness," Zu replied coolly, refusing to flinch as she stared down her mentor, "surely my Ghost may be relied upon to corroborate my account of what transpired in that Imperial Land-tank."
    "Not that we'd ever accuse a Ghost of lying to us," said Ikora gravely, "but they have been known to... bend the truth slightly in favor of their Guardian."
    "Why, I'd never!" Sunny squawked indignantly, his little points flaring out behind him. "Mistress Ikora, I object to—"
    Zu reached out and took hold of her Ghost before it could fly at the woman. It's okay, she soothed him, and aloud, "What must I do to prove myself, then? If you doubt my skill, test me." Her facial expression was locked in determination, magenta optics blazed boldly in her face as she glanced at each of the Vanguard mentors in turn.
    "There's no need for that," said Katje, reaching up to take hold of Zu's left pauldron. "If what she brought back is not proof enough, if her word and the word of her own Ghost are not proof enough, I will vouch for her."
    The three mentors shared a look, and Cayde nodded. "Give us a minute, will you?" he asked as they began a discussion of their own down at the opposite end of the table.
    "What is going on," Zu murmured, giving Katje an appraising once-over. "Who are you?"
    "Nobody," he grinned in reply. "Just a plain old everyday Hunter."
    "I've never met a Hunter who would willingly describe themselves in such deprecating terms before," she retorted, "and there is nothing 'plain' or 'everyday' about a Hunter tracking that sort of target."
    "There's nothing 'plain' or 'everyday' about the Titan who took it down on her own, either. Relax, Zu, they're not going to punish you or anything."
    "Then what are they going to do? They don't exactly sound pleased with me."
    "That's probably more because you dove into your situation completely, willfully ignorant and could very easily have wound up just another dead Guardian, another number to add to the pile." Katje's face was very serious now. "But, it all turned out all right. Besides, you said you wanted to fight more things like the Valus," Katje replied, waving a hand at the pile of proof that still lay out upon the table. "And I told you I could hook you up with more enemies like that to take down. If you recall, you were informed at the outset of our adventure together that I was working for the Vanguard, so where did you think my intel and those assignments would ultimately come from?"
    "Fair enough," she conceded.
    "All right," said Zavala as the three mentors returned from their impromptu conference. "Since you're already familiar with Mars, we have another target there for you. Again, we had been considering sending a six-man fireteam in after it, but given what we've been presented with here today, we feel a three-person team will be enough. Are you interested, De Zu?"
    "That depends on who I'd be sent with," Zu replied warily.
    "We can discuss the specifics in the morning." Cayde offered her a data-pad. "This contains the intel we have on the intended target, as well as notes from a few of my scouts and a list of the Guardians we had been considering. Read it over, and meet us back here at oh-eight-hundred with your decision."
    "Yes, sir."
    "May we keep these items here for further study?" Ikora asked, gesturing to the items that still littered the table. "I'd like to have the Cryptarchs take a look at them."
    "Of course. Oh," she pulled the thin, rectangular case Sunny had given her from a pocket attached to her belt. "There was this, too. I'm sorry, I completely forgot about it."
    Ikora all but snatched the case away from her, opening it and removing a thin, glowing rod of some translucent orange material. "A Cabal data-crystal, completely intact! Where did this come from?"
    "When we removed the armor and helmet and banners, I had Sunny perform a scan and we found it hidden away in his chestplate. I didn't know what it was, but he said it might be important."
    "It could be," she said with a nod of approval. "Thank you, De Zu."
    "If there is nothing else, Titan, you are dismissed," said Zavala firmly.
    "Sir!" Zu saluted him with the clang of a fist across her chestplate, bowed, then turned and left the Hall of Guardians, Katje close at her heels.
    "That went well," the tiny Awoken man said, flexing his arms and straightening his back as they walked. "Hey, lemme see that data-pad, will you?" She handed it over without breaking stride, and he flicked through its contents with one almost bored finger. "What, my name isn't on here? Lame."
    "He just told me to read it over. He didn't say I had to pick two of those names to come with me on this mission." She gave him a sidelong glance. "Would you like to come with me?"
    He thought it over for a long moment. "Exciting things seem to happen around you. I think I would like to come with you, if that's all right."
    She gave him a lopsided sort of grin. "Well then, now we just need a third." She snatched the data-pad back from him, then tucked it down into a storage pouch at her thigh. "Why don't we celebrate our impending fireteam over a few drinks? I'll buy."

Chapter Text

    When Titans go out to drink, their first (and often only) choice of hangout is always the Blustery Brew. It's a tradition amongst the class, the family that runs the place is more than familiar with the peculiarities of the Guardians they host every night and, with the full support of the Vanguard, they have little issue keeping things under control. Titans in general are a rowdy bunch, so adjacent to the bar itself is an old, empty, heavily reinforced warehouse used as a sparring area when things get too intense. Any lasting damage is to be repaired before the patron leaves — if not immediately after it has been inflicted upon the building — and there are delicate rules of conduct enforced within the bar itself to keep tempers in check.
    "Never come here without an escort," said Zu as they strode along. The streets of the Last City were hung with paper lanterns that filled the air with color at night, and civilians offered them polite acknowledgement as they passed. "At least until the regulars get used to you. When they do, you're fine, but until then you're a target for pranks or forcible removal. The pranks are what you wanna watch out for the most though, I think. We're not really the most subtle class. You might wind up hurt or something."
    "I never would've guessed."
    "Come on now, I'm being serious. When we enter, always wave to the hostess immediately. That's how you show respect. People will return the greeting, and then I'll grab us a booth. And don't make eye contact with anyone in red armor, please don't. Those guys belong to New Monarchy and they'll come over and start trying to recruit us."
    "Really?"
    "Well... me, anyway. They've been after me for a while. I don't know about you." Her optical sensors rotated heavenward for a brief moment, then back down at him as they stopped before a door. "Just don't give them an opening, all right? For my sake?"
    "Can't we just go to a nice, quiet restaurant instead? Cayde's always talking about this one noodle shop with the best spicy ramen—"
    "You can get spicy ramen here if you really want some," said Zu. "I've heard it's some of the best in the City. And you definitely won't get a better drink this side of the Traveler than you will at the Blustery Brew."
    And as she threw the door open wide, Katje ducked instinctively as a chair sailed past. De Zu laughed and took the tiny Hunter firmly by the shoulder so that he couldn't bolt, steering him inside. "Hey!" she yelled over the din of laughter, heated discussion, and clinking glasses, waving merrily at a large, fat woman in a checkered apron who stood behind the bar.
    "Hey!" yelled the hostess.
    "HEY!" chorused a good portion of the bar patrons.
    Katje, somewhat dazed, waved a hand weakly before being steered — again, by De Zu — toward a series of booths lining the wall, away from the door and the worst of the noise. He was soon pushed down into a seat and Zu sat across from him, motioning to a waitress for a menu. They ordered drinks, and Katje something to eat. Finally able to relax somewhat, they chatted amiably.
    "So, do you usually kick all other Guardians out of your hiding spots, or was it just me?"
    He gestured at her with a thin slice of some deep-fried vegetable. "Look, to tell the truth, you're the first person to ever try and join me in one. I don't really work well with others." The vegetable made its way into his mouth, and he chewed noisily. "When I'm out on a mission—"
    "Would you finish that bite first?" Zu cringed.
    "What are you, my mother?" He smirked at her, then swallowed. "When I'm out on a mission, I don't normally see another Guardian until I get back to the Tower to report in. It's just me and my Ghost for months on end." He paused thoughtfully, popping another thin strip of fried vegetable into his mouth. "I guess I never really apologized for all that, did I? Sorry I didn't offer to share my shelter, Zu."
    "I suppose it worked out," she shrugged. "I came, I saw, I got things done. Can't complain, can I?"
    Katje, as it turned out, was Cayde's eyes and ears for special targets. He was the Hunter Vanguard's first choice for any important recon mission, or so he claimed. "Then why wasn't your name on that list?" asked Zu.
    "Probably because it's not a recon mission. He prefers me to watch, not fight — 'Eyes and ears' doesn't equate to 'fists and bullets', you know. I bring back his intel because I'm amazing at it," he tossed his pink curls and she laughed, "and then they send in a hard-hitting team once they know the full score. It'll be nice to be one of the hard-hitters for a change."
    "Well, well, well," came a voice over the din and Zu's optics widened as a hand came down upon her shoulder. "If it isn't De Zu-6. What brings you down into the Last City?" Fine, white teeth set in a pale blue face bared themselves in a nasty little grin. "Didn't think we'd see you again for another month at least."
    "That's why you don't get paid for thinking, Van," the Exo replied, coolly sipping her drink and pointedly not looking in his direction.
    "How did it go with those two who picked you up at the Plaza?" he asked, his voice cordial and light but his eyes missed none of her slight flinch and stiffened posture. "Oh, I see it didn't turn out well, did it? I tried to warn you, you know." He laughed, shaking her shoulder firmly as he sat down beside her. "Won't you introduce me to your new friend? Don't worry, I'm not familiar with this one, so I can't give you any advice to ignore about them."
    "Keep it up, smurf," Zu glared openly at him now, all pretense of nonchalance thrown aside, "and we'll take this discussion over to the other building. Or have you not had enough of me pounding your stupid face in over the course of your second lifetime?"
    "Just goes to show how ineffective your punches are, considering how beautiful I still am," he sniffed, inspecting his gauntlets in a manner suggesting he would rather have been checking his fingernails. He then smiled broadly at Katje and winked. "What's your name, cutie, and how'd you wind up with the ice queen of the robots?"
    Zu quickly disabled her facial expression and all vocal subroutines before she could begin laughing uncontrollably — Katje had turned his finest who are you to speak to me without permission look unto the hapless Awoken male currently shooting him his most sultry gaze — which, dulled by alcohol intake as it was, wasn't so much really 'I'm burning for you' as it was 'I'm a little too tipsy for this but the Liquid Courage runs strong through my veins'. "My name is none of your business," he snapped coldly, and Zu was quickly reminded of their own first encounter. "It would sit festering upon that drunken tongue of yours. Leave us."
    "My my, feisty, aren't we? Is that any way to respond to a man of my prowess, my prestige?" He pulled himself upright, standing tall before them at the end of their table and banging once upon his chest for emphasis. "Do you even know who I am?" he asked, golden eyes boring into Katje's own. "My name is Jasel Van," he declared, "and I'm—"
    "You're Jasel Van, the idiot who blundered his way into the Clovis Bray institute on Mars and made it to the twenty-fifth floor," Zu cut him off flatly before he could begin listing his exploits and kill count as any other man may have serenaded the one he aimed to woo. "Then you caught a glimpse of a Psion Flayer, pissed your pants and ran screaming back to the Vanguard under the guise of having found 'important intel'. Not so sure that glowing cloaks signifying a Flayer over a regular Psion is such important news." She sipped her drink again. "A real Titan would've killed one and brought a cloak back with them as an example."
    "Well I don't see you bringing back any prizes of your own," he sneered, cheeks flushing a faint lavender hue, "and it's not like you've ever killed anything important either." He turned to Katje again, and his face was once more elegantly composed. "If you ever get tired of not doing anything with this loser," he jerked a thumb at Zu, "look me up and we'll go exploring together." He grinned at the pink-haired Hunter, winking at him before sauntering away. "Maybe we'll both find something we like, hmm?"
    Katje snorted, rolling his eyes and returning his attention to his food.
    "Sorry about him," Zu murmured in his wake.
    "I'll give him points for boldness, at least." He paused, chewing thoughtfully. "Old boyfriend?"
    "Him? No, no no — Traveler, no," she replied hastily, gesturing with her drink glass. "Van was revived around the same time I was, we were in the same mixed-combat training course together. We were friends, but one time while out on a mission, he ran ahead and got himself killed. I had to take out a full Cabal unit of ten Legionnaires, four Phalanx, and a Colossus to get to him, and it was a little difficult between us after that. Then I kinda reneged on a promise to help him do something, and that set things between us in stone. Neither of us have really been all that nice to each other in the past year since it all happened," she admitted.
    "He's not the only one who seems to have a bone to pick with you," Katje replied, having noticed the strange and sometimes hostile looks other Titans would shoot De Zu when they thought she wasn't looking. His tone was very curious now. "Why?"
    "Probably because I keep to myself and Van doesn't, he's a social butterfly. He and I used to be good friends before everything went sour, and since then I haven't really made other friends to replace him — I mean, why bother if getting pissy with me is gonna be a regular thing when I do well, right? I don't mentor newborns, I usually run solo. I've been around long enough to know a lot of little tricks, and I've mastered both the Striker and Defender paths." It was rare for a Guardian of any class to master more than one subclass path — if they mastered one at all — and Katje knew it. She finished what little was left in her glass and set it down onto the table. "In truth, you're probably the first person I've spent more than a few hours with in at least a year."
    "So when the lone wolf trips up, it's front page news around here."
    "But when I do something good, no one cares because they could all have done it better somehow. That's why I'll just let the Vanguard break the news of what happened out there on Mars, if they bother doing so at all."
    "They'll have to, otherwise people will keep looking for Valus Ta'aurc." He sipped his drink, watching the assorted Titans converse and connect in their natural habitat. "You should've just told that guy to shut him up."
    "Don't say his name so loud," Zu warned, glancing sidelong about them. "It wouldn't mean anything without proper verification and I'd be spending the rest of tonight providing proof — as well as accepting challenges. The Vanguard is trusted by all of these people, their word will not be questioned, but if the news came from just me, I'd be fighting every single person in here to prove it. I'd really rather not, to be honest. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow." She pulled the data-pad from where she'd stowed it and began reading through the particulars of the mission.
    "You're right, we do." Katje downed the rest of his own drink and then pushed his chair away from the table. "I should go. Thanks for dinner, Zu. Guess I'll see you tomorrow."
    "Sure," she replied. "Oh-seven-hundred by the Gunsmith's tree?"
    "I'll be there." He waved cordially at her as he slipped into the crowd and disappeared for the evening.

    The pair met that morning as agreed, Katje still wiping sleep from his eyes and Zu anxious regarding their next move. Though she had spent the night studying the mission plans thoroughly and doing her own research with Sunny's help at a Vanguard database terminal, she still had no idea who to choose as their third. Maybe I can talk the Commander into letting us just go by ourselves.
    Doubtful, said Sunny. You were not running solo on that mission by choice, and Katje is not an adequate partner by himself. You will want a third person along.
    She glowered at the ground as they made their way down to the Hall of Guardians again. "Ah," said Zavala, standing tall and folding his hands before him in a posture of pleasant greeting. "You have decided to accept the mission?"
    "Yes, sir," she said, data-pad in hand. "But I did have a question regarding the fireteam."
    "Oh?" One slim brow raised, and ice-blue eyes stared at her unblinking as his lips set themselves in an thinly indulgent smile.
    "I'm afraid I don't recognize any of these names, and Katje is not among them anyway. Must I choose from this list?"
    "These were the Guardians we had hand-picked for consideration regarding this mission in particular," explained Zavala, swiping down the list with one finger. "This Warlock is an expert in Cabal machinery and electronics, this Titan a master of various Cabal tactics." He continued on, extolling the virtues of each. "Do you really not want any of these Guardians on your fireteam?"
    "If I could choose a team of four, by all means," said Zu. "But with all due respect, I've had a bit of a problem lately with people who look good on paper but don't really have much incentive to stick around once we're all out of Tower eyeshot. Katje is the only other person I trust at this point in time to come with me. In fact, he's already volunteered."
    "Sometimes a team familiar with one another is better than a team of experts cobbled together," the Titan Vanguard acquiesced the point. "The choice is yours. If Katje wants to accompany you, he may." He turned to the little Hunter. "Do you two have someone in mind for a third?"
    De Zu opened her mouth to reply, but Katje beat her to the punch. "I think so," he said with a smirk as Zu looked on in surprise. "Commander, I formally request that Jasel Van be assigned to our team."
    "Whoa," Zu straightened abruptly, her expression filled with chagrin. "Waitaminute—"
    "You said last night that he was the first to discover the Flayers. He probably has information regarding their stronghold and its layout. You two are already familiar with one another, you've more than proven that you're capable of handling whatever the Cabal decide to throw at us, so his own fighting prowess is a moot point. It's his information we need, not his skill — or lack thereof."
    "Well," Zavala rumbled, glancing at his data-pad one last time. "Are you sure you won't take any of our recommendations?"
    "I..." she looked at Katje, whose smirk wavered a bit as he realized she was honestly about to overrule his choice. "Yes, sir. I'll abide by his reasoning. If he thinks Van will be useful, then so be it." She shrugged helplessly.
    "Thank you," said Katje with a genuine smile that lit up the room, and it was then that Zu felt she had perhaps done the right thing after all.

    "No."
    "What do you mean, 'no'?" said Zu, blocking the door as he attempted to close it in her face. The idea that she had made the right choice and that something good could come of attempting to reconcile with Van was rapidly souring within her mind. "Commander's orders. We move out tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred." She shoved a data-pad at him which he grabbed, but he did not break eye contact with her, bleary as his were at that point in time. "This has all the information we have available to us thanks to the Vanguard. Anything you can add to it will be most welcome."
    Van snorted, leaning against the entryway to his quarters, and she backed down slightly. "Who says I want to add anything at all?"
    "It's not a matter of wanting or not," said Katje, approaching from a side corridor. He had pled an errand with the Shipyard Quartermaster as his excuse for not being present to deliver the mission briefing to Van, but apparently that was done with. "The Vanguard requires your assistance. You can either help us, or deal with them."
    "Well hello," Van's prickly demeanor quickly softened, smoothed itself out as he stepped out into the hallway, extending a hand to the tiny Hunter. "Zu didn't say anything about you being part of this mission. You know, I never did get your name last night."
    Zu rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chestplate as Katje extended his own hand to his fellow Awoken. "Katje Pel," he said, but he yanked it quickly away as, instead of shaking it as most other Guardians would have done, Van had raised it to his lips for a kiss. "Knock it off!"
    "Do my manners offend somehow?" asked Van, his expression all innocence.
    "Van," said Zu, and she moved to stand between the two men before Katje could say or do anything else. "Is it possible for you to be serious for a few minutes?"
    "All right, I suppose I'm a little too hung over for it this morning anyway."
    "Afternoon."
    "Whatever." The man sighed, pouted one last time at Katje over Zu's left shoulder, then winced and finally faced Zu as an equal. "Tomorrow at oh-nine-hundred, you said?"
    She nodded with an affirmative grunt. "Just read over the data and like I said, if you have anything to add, let us know. You're the only one of us three who's actually been up in that building, so you've got a leg up on us in that respect."
    "Then why are you leading this mission, and not me?"
    "Because," she said, her patience slowly nearing its end, "I don't know if you heard the general announcement this morning but I'm the one who killed Valus Ta'aurc, and together," she gestured at the three of them as Van's eyes widened slightly, apparently he had not heard the news, "we three are going to take out the Flayers. We're not going up in there just to piddle around, scan a few consoles, and bring back some stupid information, either  — even though that is part of the mission. We're going in there to get the job done." She turned aside, pacing a short line as she spoke. "When you went up into that tower the last time, you were alone. It was my fault for having accepted another mission that took longer than I'd thought it would, and you went without me not knowing I would not be able to join you there as promised. I was wrong to have done that, and I'm sorry, Van."
    He gaped at her for a moment, then quickly composed himself with a haughty expression. "And I suppose I have to just accept your magnanimous apology made a full year after the incident happened—"
    "Don't be an ass. You've been dealing with the fallout from that failed mission for a year now, and I know I've lashed out at you about it when you got too insufferable, but now it's time for both of us to grow up, go in there, and set things right." Her tone was firm and decisive. "We're giving you the opportunity to fix the only real blemish on your otherwise-spotless record. Now are you in, or should I go back to the Vanguard and tell them you've declined and that I want someone else for the job?"
    He was silent for a long moment, eyes searching her face for something, but she did not back down. "No. You've made your point." He glanced at the data-pad. "Valus Ta'aurc? Really?"
    "Yes," she admitted. "I can prove it if you like."
    "No need," he shrugged, waving a hand at her. "Believe it or not, I believe you. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess." His eyes flickered to Katje again, and he smiled roguishly. "And I'll see you in my dreams tonight." Winking one last time at him, Van backed into his quarters and closed the door behind himself.
    "Why?" Katje murmured, hanging his head.
    "You brought it on yourself, you know. I did think about stopping you, but then I figured maybe you had a good idea there." Zu chuckled, taking him by the shoulder and steering him down the hallway. "Hopefully I wasn't wrong."
    "I thought the two of you were friends at one point?" he accused.
    "We were."
    "And was he always like this?"
    "Worse, usually. We got along quite well, I used to enjoy getting plastered with him and then watching him chase after all the pretty Awoken men that caught his eye. It was fun." Her gaze grew distant for a moment, and then she shook her head. "Usually whenever we actually had to work with someone he'd been toying with the night prior, he'd lose interest once the mission started anyway, but just in case, if you really aren't into him I can let him know and that'll be the end of it — whether I have to beat that into him or not."
    "You don't have to go that far," said Katje quickly. "We do have to get through this mission together, after all. Can't do that if his eyes are swollen shut."
    "Of course," she replied, dropping the subject.
    He didn't say he wasn't interested, Sunny noted, and Zu smirked inwardly.

    The next morning they blasted off from the Tower as a trio, following the coordinates the Vanguard had provided. De Zu, as fireteam leader, decided that perhaps they should talk some strategy before they reached their destination. "What sort of loadout will you run, Katje?"
    "Hand cannon, sniper rifle, rocket launcher is my usual loadout for most encounters." His face took up a rectangle of space to the left on her cockpit display, and she watched him ran a hand through his short pink curls. "I don't see how this will be any different from any other day on Mars, but I have a few other options in my pocket just in case."
    "What about you, Van?"
    "Hand cannon, fusion rifle, and an LMG I picked up a while back. Why?"
    "Just curious is all," said Zu. "You still running as a Defender?"
    "Are you still a Striker?"
    "Fair enough," she conceded the point. Most Guardians tended to stick with one favored subclass when the shit hit the fan no matter how much they dabbled into another; the two of them had known each other long enough to know the answer to that pair of questions. "I think for the final encounter we may want to switch up our choice of heavy weapons — and I do have a few fun toys with me you guys can pick from if you like — but for now, we should be fine." She relaxed in her seat and looked at Sunny, who floated to her right. He was busily scanning a small readout monitor.
    "I'm a big boy now, De Zu. I'm fairly sure I can choose my own weapons."
    "Are you sure?" Zu purred, winking at Sunny who deposited a long, thin item into her outstretched hands wrapped in a curiously patterned cloth and tied with red string. She carefully undid the string and pulled away the cloth to reveal bright, shining steel, a razor-sharp edge covered in decorative scrollwork, and a deep purple stone that glowed in the dim light of her own cockpit. "You're positive you don't want to try out one of these?"
    "A Dark-Drinker!" His jaw dropped. "Where did you get that?"
    "Lord Shaxx was surprisingly accommodating when he heard we'd have the chance to test his swords against some Cabal." She flashed a lopsided smirk at him. "I think this one here will pair well with your bubble and that Saint-14 of which you've always been so fond. We can go over strategy for that final encounter when we get to it, though."
    "So... about this complex," said Katje, steering the conversation back to business. "We'll be going in on what looks to be the twenty-third floor, if these floorplans are correct." He ran a hand over the detailed map displayed on one of his own monitors. "Are we just making a straight run for the Flayers, or will we have time to explore?"
    "We'll explore as we go, but we're not going to waste a whole lot of time on it — we want to get to the top before they can call in a whole bunch of reinforcements beyond the Flayers themselves. If we stumble upon something during our ascent, excellent. If not, we'll explore more thoroughly on our way back down — at that point we'll be moving more at our leisure."
    "Some of these rooms shown on the building schematics are inaccessible," said Van. "Jasmine, annotate this map for us, will you?" Red marks began to dot their way across the floorplan. "These marked-off rooms are where the roof has caved in, or they're just filled with debris for whatever reason."
    "When you went in there before, were you sent by the Vanguard?" Katje asked curiously. "I was informed that all prior Vanguard excursions into the complex had disappeared."
    "I... went into the complex on my own. No orders," Van replied. "I was looking for some things some companions of mine had lost." De Zu glanced at him guiltily, but the look was lost on him. "I know the lower floors fairly well, but the higher ones I mostly ran through without paying close attention. If I'd known the Flayers had taken up residence in that tower, I would never have gone inside," he admitted quietly, eyes dropping to his hands.
    "Don't worry," said Zu firmly. "You've definitely got me along this time, no distractions. We'll wipe out the Flayers and find whatever it was you were looking for."
    Van snorted. "What makes you so sure?"
    "Come on, you know me — I'm lucky," she replied brightly.
    "You're an idiot is what you are," he grumbled. "But, I suppose you do have a point."
    "You know," said Katje, "we still haven't chosen a fireteam name yet."
    "Two Awoken and an Exo," said Zu with a shrug.
    "I think that's already taken," said Van. "Plus, didn't they come out with that rule that it had to be within three words? Ever since 'Fireteam The Bad Guys Don't Care What We Call Ourselves Do They' happened, they've been leery of another name along those lines."
    "Besides, it has to be something descriptive, but memorable," said Katje. "Like 'Fireteam Majestic', or 'Fireteam Stupendous'—"
    "Both of which already exist," Van pointed out.
    "We could go the humorous route," Zu mused. "Over the top and reckless."
    Van shook his head sharply. "'Fireteam Over-the-Top' and 'Fireteam Reckless' both already exist, I've seen them out in the Crucible. You're thinking too mundane. Besides," he said, shooting Zu a sly look, "if we're gonna go humorous, it's gotta be something that makes the Vanguard laugh. If it just makes us laugh, it'll just piss them off every time we show up to the table giggling."
    "Oh, I like a challenge," said Zu, cracking her knuckle joints ominously. "Does it matter which of the three laughs?"
    "I can tell you right now that Zavala will probably be the hardest of us to crack," Cayde's voice came crackling over the comms. "If you can get him to laugh, whatever you've got will be a winner in my book."
    "So what, you just sit there and listen in on our conversations while you're overseeing one of these missions?" asked Zu dryly.
    "You get used to it," said Katje with a smirk.
    "Come on, I'm an old hunter with his boots nailed to the floor here at the Tower. You wouldn't begrudge me a little bit of fun, would you? Maybe I'll make it more interesting for us all with a wager."
    "I'm listening," said Zu. "What do we get if we make him laugh?"
    "Whaddaya want? New gear, new weapons?"
    "There's an idea," Van mused. "I could use a new chestplate."
    "How about I give you each a pick from the Vanguard armory?"
    "Only if we can have any perks we want," Katje pressed.
    "What? Come on, Katje, I can't control—"
    "Oh yes you can, I've seen your requisition logs. You've got an 'in' with Banshee; that fancy new hand cannon of yours didn't come out of an exotic chest anyplace."
    Cayde made a slightly disgruntled noise at having been called out, but finally agreed. "Each of you can have one pick from the Vanguard armory, either a piece of gear or a weapon, any perks you want. But if you lose... you can do some volunteer work down in the City for a group of kids I work with. Don't worry, they get a little rowdy but it won't be anything you three can't handle. A week's worth of visits from each of you."
    "A week?" Katje spluttered.
    "It'll take me that long to persuade Banshee if you guys win, y'know."
    "All right, sounds fair," Zu agreed.
    "I love bets like this," Cayde purred. "Either way, I come out on top."
    "And we fell right for it," Katje said with a knowing chuckle.
    "Anyway, you've got a few hours before we reach Mars," said Cayde. "You should probably rest now; you most likely won't have any chance to do so while you're inside that complex. Vanguard, out."
    "Sounds like a good idea," Zu agreed with their nominal director. "See you both on the surface, gentlemen."
    Sunny cut the feeds as Zu stood from her seat in the cockpit. Stooped over, she reached for the controls on the rear wall that would open the door to her sleeping area, and he twiddled his points as he looked at her fondly. "I have a good feeling about this mission."
    "With two other Guardians along, it's gonna be a fight to see which of our Ghosts can open doors the quickest." She sat down on the cloth-covered slab of metal that made up her bed and held a hand out to him. "Think you're up for a race?"
    He ignored that, though he did move to hover over and settle into her hand. "You're a natural leader. I'm glad we're working with other people this time."
    "I'm glad we are too," she admitted. "But a leader? That remains to be seen. There's a lot more that goes into leading a mission than just giving orders. That's why I always used to just let Tsu Ne do—" she blinked suddenly, following the train of thought down a delicate series of long-forgotten memories. Tsu Ne, she thought.
    Yes?
    Not you, Sunny. Tsu Ne. He was my eldest brother. He used to lead us!
    He did?
    Yes. He was born second, but we all deferred to him. She tried to remember more, to follow the train of thought further, but it ended abruptly. Damn, she thought.
    "That was good!" Sunny encouraged. "You've managed to connect with an old memory." Some Guardians were reborn knowing exactly who and what they were, or at the very least where they came from and how they died. Zu had been reborn almost as blank as the day she'd been switched on the first time, the only thing she really remembered was having died at the hands of a Fallen Captain. Sunny worked hard to help her to remake the connections she'd had before her first death, but it was a struggle. Every little bit she was able to recall was something to be cherished.
    "It's something," she agreed, and as she entered her recharge mode she focused on the warm feeling that somehow lit up her insides as she thought about her eldest brother.

    I'm putting you down out of direct sight, said Sunny as De Zu materialized on the blistering Martian dunes alongside Katje and Van. They could see some sort of hastily erected fortifications and a small unit comprised of Legionaries and Phalanx units under assault by a mass of shining copper Vex. The orange winds here whipped past them, scraping against their armor with all the red sand it could carry and, thankfully, obscuring their silhouettes from the enemy forces fighting out in front of their objective. The Clovis Bray tower loomed overhead, its painted signs barely legible after centuries of natural sandblasting and sunbleaching.
    "I see you three have made it to the drop zone," said Cayde. "I'm sure they'll be happy to see you. Go ahead in there, Guardians, and good luck. I'll be listening and watching via your Ghosts' feeds, of course, but if you need me, just holler."
    "Thank you, Vanguard," said Zu, and to her teammates, "Let's move."
    They hastily slipped past the odd fortifications, behind a group of Cabal heading out to reinforce their fellows, jumped down an ancient collapsed staircase and down into one of the lower levels. "We can't just go straight up from here," Van had explained, his Ghost helpfully projecting the map it had annotated for them beforehand. "The elevators don't work and the shafts are full of rubble anyway. There's a door down in the area beyond these steps that will lead us down into another space with access to the main stairwell areas."
    "So much walking," Katje sighed, looking up from a freshly-activated console panel. "Well, if there's no helping it—"
    "Perhaps I can distract you somehow?" Van teased slyly, and Katje swatted at his arm.
    'We are Exo,' said Deng Li with disapproval in his tone. 'Mai So, your feet are made for walking, quite literally in fact. Your specifications state that you are able to walk for over a week without requiring rest or recharging.'
    'That doesn't make it any more interesting.' She sighed moodily.
    'Perhaps I can distract you somehow?' Chun Fa teased, laughing as So swatted his arm. Their youngest brother had always been cheerful, even in the face of a long, forced march.
    Usually when Zu remembered something from her past it was merely a name, an impression, a feeling in conjunction with whatever situation she and Sunny were in at the time. This time, the full force of a full-on memory fragment struck De Zu like a hammer to the cranial dome and she stumbled, catching herself on a nearby desk covered in thick, brown dust. It buzzed its way through her mental cores, settling in with an odd vibrating sensation that seemed to resonate with the tension she already had felt upon entering the building.
    What was that! Sunny asked sharply.
    I don't know, she admitted, but that was an actual memory! They were my siblings! Ne was second, then Li, then So, and then Fa was the youngest. I don't know how I'm only remembering them now, but—
    The others didn't seem to sense anything out of the ordinary; in fact, Katje looked at her from over the broken, flickering console screen before him and laughed. "You okay over there?"
    She forced a quick laugh to cover her own embarrassment. "Yeah, I just tripped over some debris. Come on, let's get moving."
    "Should we check the side rooms as we go?" asked Van.
    "We're not really here to explore just yet," said De Zu with a shake of her head, forcing herself to ignore the odd mental sensation and the precious new memory that had accompanied it. She would consider it more fully, digest every clue about herself it had to offer only after their mission was over with. "For now, let's just avoid the side rooms and focus on getting up to the Flayers' terrace."
    "I've got some of the lights activated and the doors ready to be hacked," Katje replied brightly, slapping a hand down on the console screen happily and then leading the way on silent feet.

Chapter Text

    The next area did indeed have a door that Katje's Ghost was only too thrilled to hack open for them. Agua began his work under his Guardian's watchful eye; Katje had a smile on his face but his hand on one of the myriad knives tucked away on his person. None of them knew exactly what lay beyond the door, after all.
    As the little red Ghost dutifully probed and zapped the input keypad, Zu and Van took a stroll around the room. It seemed to be a sort of reception area for this particular floor with small offices scattered around the elevator shaft that cut through the middle and short staircases leading down toward a set of informational posters and directories. The air was filled with motes of dust that danced lazily about them in the dim light from above. "Most of our path will have better lighting than this," said Van. "There's a lot of this building that's either open to the elements or relies on windows for natural illumination."
    "I do hope the other rooms are warmer than this one is," said Zu. So far buried beneath the warm, sun-baked surface, there was a definite chill in the air filtering through from her armor's intake valves.
    "You still don't like the cold?"
    "No." She paused. "Do you think that about covers the weather chit-chat?"
    "I think so." Van stopped, glanced back at Katje to make sure they were out of earshot. "Zu, why am I here?"
    Magenta optics blinked at him. "Well, to be perfectly honest, you're here because I revealed to Katje at the bar the other night that you had already been inside this building before, and neither of us have ever stepped foot inside. He put two and two together when I told him we used to be friends, I think, and then when the Commander asked us who we had chosen as a third, he popped off with your name."
    "And you didn't try to overrule him?"
    "His reasoning was sound, I couldn't think of a way to decline choosing you without possibly insulting him. Not up and on the spot like that." She paused, looking away; even though his Helm of Saint-14 covered his face entirely, she could feel his burning eyes upon her from behind the riveted steel visor. "I know we've kinda had this thing for a while now where we're both mostly shitty to each other in public and barely civil in private, Van, but I honestly think I'd like to put that to bed. I'm willing to work on being a better friend to you this time, if you'll have me as one again."
    "You know," Van drawled, "that this puts me in a very favorable position over you."
    "I'm still fireteam leader, and I can and will send you packing if you decide you want to continue being a jerk. I said I'm done."
    "That's not exactly fair," he protested, though there was no heat behind his words. "What if I'm not done?"
    "Again, I will send your ass packing back to the Tower."
    "Ladies, ladies," came Cayde's voice over the comms. "You're both pretty, I promise."
    "Sir!" said De Zu, sharing a short look of embarrassment with Van. They had forgotten their conversations were all being monitored.
    "Don't worry, we're always glad to hear a pair of Guardians work out their differences with words as opposed to via the Crucible," said the Hunter Vanguard. "I see you've entered the building. What's your status?"
    "I believe we're on the mend," replied Van.
    "Not you two, Titan, I meant the mission."
    "Katje is working on the door," said Zu quickly. "We're almost through. We're planning to head to the main Dust Palace proper,  take the stairs through the Atrium and cut through the Overwatch area, then head out onto the observatory terrace where the Flayers were last spotted."
    "Speaking of dust," Van said, "is the air getting thicker in here to you, Zu?"
    She blinked, finally noticing that they were standing close to the center of a great cloud of electric fog beginning to form. "Vex," she hissed, and the pair backed away from the sizzling, snapping cloud, down a short pair of steps to put a bit of distance — as well as a nice concrete directory structure — between themselves and the copper-clad enemies slowly congealing from within.
    "Looks like our first customers have arrived," Katje called from his spot up on the mezzanine.
    "How much longer on that door?" asked Zu, sparing one last glance up at Katje's red-shelled Ghost as she readied her new scout rifle. Freshly serviced and cleaned by Banshee-44 himself, Treads Upon Stars — the only part of the squiggly inscription that Sunny had been able to decipher — felt good in her hands, and she did have to admit she was eager to test it out.
    "Not much longer," Agua replied. "I've almost got it..."
    "No sense leaving a mess behind us, then. Let's take out the trash."
    Van had some sort of hand cannon aimed and ready and he quickly popped the heads off of a trio of Goblins, one-two-three. They staggered on their three-toed feet, bodies convulsing as flickering blue energy enveloped them and as they rushed the duo still down on ground level, Zu cleaned them up quickly with her trusty shotgun, and then her scout rifle was out. Quick as lightning she fired off a shot at each of the Hobgoblins that had appeared up in front of the elevator doors. There were only two, and they lit themselves like false suns in a vain attempt to ward off further damage. Katje sneered and lobbed a grenade down in between them, which lit up the area with Void fire as their shields died away. The pair of Hobgoblins writhed and gibbered, collapsing in on themselves with squeals of despair.
    The warbling elephantine trumpet of an enraged Minotaur caught their attention next. It rushed them from across the room, earning itself a fusion rifle burst to the stomach and a shotgun blast to the head. Two followup punches later, and the pair of Titans were already moving away to ensure the rest of the room was clear.
    "I've got it!" said Agua in satisfaction. "Let's go!"
    Satisfied that no Vex units remained behind them, the trio hustled through the adjoining offices toward sounds of more fighting and found themselves on another short mezzanine looking down into a large, open area surrounding the main central elevators. Cabal soldiers and Vex units were locked in ferocious battle, and the three stopped to discuss their next move.
    "Those elevators?" Katje suggested hopefully, but Van cut him off with a shake of his head.
    "They don't work, we've already tried." Jasmine, who had appeared by his shoulder for whatever reason, bobbed in agreement. "There's another door directly above our current position that will need to be unlocked. The only way to reach it is via the outer platform that runs alongside the windows." He gestured toward the steps leading up to a broken terrace where a Colossus and a Minotaur were at one another's throats.
    "We could just let them kill one another and then proceed onward," Katje murmured, peering over the railing as a group of Phalanx and Hobgoblins took shots at one another directly below them. At the terrace steps, the Minotaur squealed and warbled as it rushed the Colossus.
    "Well that's no fun," Zu disagreed. "I think if we make ourselves a nice foothold, it'll be easy enough to defend. You've got your Ward of Dawn ready, right?"
    He nodded. "I have a feeling we'll wind up ambushed after this first round of garbage is done with, so I'll attune it to healing as opposed to boosting our weapons' power."
    "Sounds good. I'm going to go clear you a spot for your bubble," she said, checking the ammo in her shotgun one last time before drawing her sword. Arc energy danced its way up the Bolt-Caster as if hungry for release.
    "You're going to get yourself killed," said both men at once; Van had actually taken her by the arm. They glanced at one another in surprise, then back at their headstrong companion.
    "It's too risky, Zu," said Katje, pointing out the continued battle taking place beneath them.
    For her part, De Zu smirked in her lopsided Exo manner, and she removed Van's hand from her arm, flexing her fingers in their plasteel-plated gauntlets. "Watch me."
    And she hopped the railing, raced toward the mass of warring forces, and launched herself forward into their midst, hands raised high above her head in a great solid fist that crashed down upon the horned head of a Hobgoblin with the force of a two-ton bomb of pure Arc energy. The shockwaves that crashed around her in the wake of her Fist of Havoc sizzled and snapped, sending anything that had been left standing — or that had been dumb enough to try and rush the woman afterward — stumbling about in pain. She casually punched what remained of a Centurion, which topped over onto its back with a piggish grunt, then launched herself forward once more, this time with sword in hand and she slashed it across the air, producing a great disc of arc light that shot out toward the Minotaur.
    It let out a digitized wail as the disc of light tore through its midsection, left it writhing in two halves on the terrace floor. Before the Colossus could properly comprehend its doom, Zu had slashed the air twice more, and two more of the same discs ripped through its armor, its flesh, and its breathing unit exploded, sending the great war-beast reeling. It flopped over onto the ground, the chain-gun it held clattering uselessly across broken tiles and sending swirls of dust up into the air as it convulsed in its dying throes.
    Ascending the steps to survey her handiwork, Zu waved her companions over to join her. "Show-off," Van muttered, not wholly unimpressed with the woman's ability to clear a room on her own but not entirely interested in giving her the satisfaction of reading his awe, either. Instead, he chose to run forward, launching himself up the staircase and circling around to the upper level to see what was there. Katje followed closely, and Zu brought up the rear.
    There were a few stragglers left upstairs, a couple of Goblins fighting a few Legionaries, but those were quickly swept aside and Jasmine was out and working on the door in a flash. Some few lingering Cabal reinforcements tried to stop them but were quickly subdued. "These are scout units," said Katje, removing one of his knives from a Psion's skull. "They're trying to see what's going on down here. We'll likely meet with more resistance in the next open and defensible area."
    "Overwatch," said Van. "We'll have to fight our way through an open area. The last time I was here, it was deserted for the most part, just a few random psions roaming around. If you're right, though, we could be walking into an ambush once they realize what they're up against."
    "While you're there, if you don't mind," said Cayde, breaking in on their conversation, "Ikora and her team of Cabal experts have managed to decipher some of the information from that data crystal you brought back. There's a couple of rooms we'd like you to look in on, I've marked them on your map." Jasmine helpfully projected it onto a nearby wall for them.
    "Some of these rooms are inaccessible," said Van with a slight frown. "Or at least they were the last time I was here."
    "That was a year ago, Titan," said Cayde. "My intel is a little more recent than yours."
    "Are we looking for something specific in these rooms?" asked Katje. He had moved on to study a screen set into the wall, and it blinked to life under the attentions of his Ghost. He tapped at the screen a few times. "Computer consoles, some sort of Golden Age tech? I've been activating everything I've come across, pulling information here and there—"
    "You'll know it if you find it," he muttered. "Trust me. Vanguard, out."
    "Well that wasn't cryptic at all," Van muttered in a mocking tone as Katje blinked, shrugged, and returned to his screen.
    The odd buzzing sensation was back, rolling through Zu's limbs and into her brain. "I thought he was the Hunter Vanguard, not the Warlock Vanguard," she teased in an attempt to ignore it, looking at Katje for a reaction.
    "He wouldn't not tell us if there wasn't a good reason," he sighed, shaking his head and abandoning whatever he had just activated. "Cayde is many things, but he's not an idiot. He doesn't mess around when it comes to an strike mission like this."
    "Let's get moving then," said Zu. "No sense letting the Cabal get too far entrenched in this Overwatch place."
    "We're already well ahead of schedule," protested Katje, glancing back over his shoulder at her. "Surely we have time to check—"
    "Let's get moving then. No sense letting the enemy get too far entrenched in this place," said Tsu Ne, bringing up the rear of their unit.
    "We're already well ahead of schedule," protested Deng Li, glancing over at Mai So as she worked her arm, flexing her hand and fingers as if testing them. "Surely we have time to check our resources?"
    Ne grunted, following his gaze. "Five minutes." They had each been worried about their sister and her newly reconnected arm. Li was a capable repairman, he had steady hands and a brilliant mind — as well as full schematics on each of them and a portable micro-soldering iron in his traveling pack — but she had not had the chance to really test the workings of her arm since it had been ripped off by a pair of the strange, four-armed warrior creatures they had been sent to clear out of these ruins.
    "So-so," said Chun Fa, taking the hand of her reattached arm in his own. "Is your arm okay?"
    "It's fine," she replied, but her voice was distant, as if she were working hard on one of her myriad calculations. "I'm fine. Please, go and find Zu so she can show you that kick again."
    "You mean 'so she can drop you to the floor and I can laugh at you again,'" he groused, but his tone was neither bitter nor fearful and Zu let out a chortle that she was quick to stifle in the echoing cavern. So began to chuckle, pulling Fa into a hug with her good arm as Li began to manipulate the hand and fingers of the one he had so recently reattached.
    This time, as she came back to herself, De Zu found that she had fallen against a wall in an awkward position. Her stiffened legs were the only thing keeping her from falling over entirely. She groaned, grimaced as she got her hands between her torso and the wall, pushed herself upright again, and then glanced worriedly at her companions. How much had they seen?
    Everything, apparently. "What the hell was that?" Katje demanded, his console now forgotten.
    "I've... uh, been getting a strange feeling from this place," Zu admitted, lurching unsteadily as she took a step — Van reached out to her but she waved him off, quickly running a balance center diagnostic as she stood stock still. "You guys don't feel that sort of... buzzing? Vibration? I don't know how else to describe it," she shrugged. "And I keep having old memories pop up without having accessed them directly."
    "What sort of old memories?"
    "From before I was originally revived." The diagnostic came back clean, she took a few steps and then began to head up the first staircase as she'd intended to do in the first place. The others followed closely.
    "You're lucky to remember anything from before you were revived," said Katje wistfully.
    "Perhaps not so much right now, if the memories keep intruding on our actions here," said Van, bringing up the rear. "You mentioned this has happened more than once. Is there a pattern, some sort of signal to you that this is about to happen so that we can prepare for your brief incapacitation?"
    "Not really," she admitted. "It's only happened twice so far."
    "I'll monitor you more closely this time," said Sunny, drifting into view at her side, then vanishing again as quickly as he'd appeared. He could be right, there could be a clue we're missing. She could feel him worrying within her mind-space, and she quickly blocked that feeling out. They were on an important mission, there was no time to be worried or anxious.

    Several flights of stairs and empty side-rooms later, they spilled out into another great round hallway surrounded by tall, sand-blasted windows that let in red sunlight to paint them all in shades of orange, gold, and brown. A Centurion flanked by Phalanxes and Psions met them as they entered and their entire unit was quickly subdued by Katje's tether and another Fist of Havoc — regardless of any strange lapses into memory, De Zu's connection to her Light seemed undisturbed. Van placed his Ward of Dawn at the center of the room, imbuing it with the ability to strengthen their weapons' fire, and with his Light's blessing they methodically cleared out all of the Cabal within the area, up to and including another Colossus that took potshots at them with its massive chain-gun whenever they peeked out to shoot him in the face. Playing it safe was better than winding up dead, however, and Katje's sniper rifle proved key to taking it down.
    "Another Colossus," Katje murmured, shoving at it with one foot. "Usually these guys protect entrances to important places."
    "The last room Cayde wanted us to check out is just beyond him," said Van. "When I came through here before, I just went onward to next locked doorway and the Cortex area, I didn't explore any of the other rooms on this floor. They had all been blocked off by Vex forcefields, and I figured if there was a switch somewhere to be flipped, the Cortex itself would be able to do it."
    "Well, I don't see any forcefields in place." Katje, entering the room beyond where the dead Colossus now lay. "Let's look around."
    The trio split up to search. De Zu looked first through one office, then another — a pair of Legionaries tried to stop her, but they were no match for her Storm Fist and her sword. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, none of them really were, but then under a desk she came across a small, pitiful lump of cold metallic angles drawn in tightly about an inactive core. "A dead Ghost," she murmured to herself, taking careful hold of it and bringing it up to her optics, turning it over in her hands slowly.
    We should bring it back to the Tower with us, said Sunny, his voice now solemn. De Zu stood, placing the tiny inactive Ghost into a pouch at her hip. It most likely contains some information the Vanguard and the Speaker may find useful—
    A sharp cry of anguish brought her to attention, sent her racing out of the little side-office. Her boots thumped loudly against the dusty concrete floor as she ran through the next room, leapt up onto a dais and continued running toward a door behind a partition of sorts that kept it from casual view. The first thing she saw was Katje on his knees, staring in silent horror as his mouth worked but nothing came out of it. His hand was still at the door controls, its little screen was blinking insistently. "Katje!" she cried, shaking his shoulders roughly. "Are you hurt? What's wrong!"
    He looked back up at the console, tapped in a couple of commands, then pointed and she followed his horrified gaze to the open door behind her. The second thing she saw, as the lights inside flipped on of their own accord, were dead Ghosts.
    Everywhere.
    Her mental processes stalled for an insidious three-point-eight seconds as she fought to comprehend the sight of colorful shells and inactive cores pinned to the walls like butterflies on display, strung from furniture to wall like grotesque party garlands, suspended from the ceiling like fallen stars. She, too, felt her knees go weak in disbelief as Katje's own Ghost looked back at them and shut off its external light.
    "Cayde," Zu finally managed to croak. "I think we found what you were looking for."
    "Are you sure?" he asked, no emotion in his voice.
    "If this isn't what you're after, I don't want to find it! Send him a visual feed, Sunny." Thankfully, her own Ghost seemed unaffected and was taking the sight of hundreds of his inactive brethren rather calmly.
    "I would congratulate you, Titan, but I'm sure you realize more than I do that this is nothing to really celebrate. We had reports that Ghosts were being stolen from Guardian corpses here and there," he explained, "and that data-crystal of yours held a copy of a transmission to their Supreme Leader regarding some intense study of the Guardian-Ghost relationship. We had reason to believe that Valus Ta'aurc would have his pet Flayers, the biggest brains he had available to him, studying these stolen Ghosts to see what their connection to us was, and what made us all tick. Your information was enough to prove it, and all that remained was finding his cache."
    "You could've warned us," she said angrily.
    "We didn't know for absolute sure it would be in that building, and we didn't want to distract you unnecessarily." He paused. "I know it's a lot to handle right now, but you're gonna be fine. Ikora's gaggle of Warlock experts has got your mission success potential estimated at a solid ninety-three-point—"
    "Yeah, yeah, we don't need to know the details," Katje muttered. Clearly he would be having a few words with his mentor when they returned to the Tower. De Zu had helped him to stand again while Van had taken the plunge and actually entered the room now that it was fully lit. He and Jasmine seemed to be searching for something, and as they watched, Jasmine stopped upon seeing a pair of twinned Ghosts hooked onto a garland, side by side in death.
    "Here they are," she said, and Van squinted up at them too. They were a medium sort of blue, with a bright yellow stripe across the middle of their spines and red tips.
    "I would recognize them anywhere," he agreed as he carefully, gingerly unhooked the two dead Ghosts from the line upon which they had been strung.
    "They belonged to friends of yours?" asked Katje, his voice solemn.
    "Yes." He looked at De Zu. "This was what I had been looking for last year. These belonged to a pair of old friends, the ones who led me here the first time. The last place I had known they would be was here, but they disappeared, and I needed your help to track them down. At the very least, I wanted to find their Ghosts and bring them back to the Speaker."
    Her heart sank, a cold feeling wrenched at her insides. "I... You never told me what exactly we were after, Van—"
    "Well, now I have," he said quietly.
    "You never told me," she repeated after a long pause, her voice now small and sorrowful. "I would've dropped anything to help you with this. Everything."
    Katje watched as they turned away from each other, Van placing the two Ghosts into a pouch at his side, De Zu striding out of the room as if the very air inside would suffocate her. "Zu, wait," said Katje, taking hold of her gauntleted hand—
    "Zu, wait," said Mai So, taking hold of her hand.
    De Zu wrenched her arm free and continued stalking away. The nerve of that insufferable man! she thought angrily. Was I programmed to be psychic? How was I meant to know? But deeper than those thoughts sat cold anguish and despair. It wasn't fair that this had happened to Unit Seven! It wasn't fair that it had happened to anyone! Would it happen to them, too?
    "Zu," called Tsu Ne after her. "Don't stray too far. The path is this way."
    "I know," she snapped. "I just... need some air."
    "But we don't breathe," said Chun Fa absently, still staring into the tiny cavern filled with the dismembered bodies of Unit Seven and at least fifty other Exo, if Li's hand count could be trusted, and at that, Zu couldn't help but chuckle. To her abject horror, she found that she could not stop, the sound intensifying into a chortle, then actual laughter, then cackling, and finally a wrenching sort of guffaw that shook her frame until, still spasming uncontrollably but no longer externally vocalizing, she collapsed into a heap on the floor.
    "You're cracking up," said Deng Li, helping her to sit back up and rubbing at her arms to quiet the shaking. "When's the last time you reset?"
    "I know you prescribe a reset once a day," said Mai So, rolling her optics, "but the rest of us haven't really seen the same sort of benefits you describe. We lose some of our recent memories in the process, it makes everything fuzzy for a while."
    "It also helps clear your mind to important matters," Li argued. "A good defrag and a reset should be performed weekly, it's in our factory specs—"
    "But there are side effects, and the people who wrote that manual didn't write it for fully sentient Exo. We are the first, Li, and we must be careful—"
    "It's been a long time," Zu interrupted, finally able to control her movements again, and she gave Li's hand a squeeze. "I'll consider it, once this mission is over with and we have a bit of downtime, okay? We can't stop right now. The other units are depending on us."
    This time, when Zu came back to her present self, Sunny was shining a bright beam of light directly into her optic sensors. "Ow," she muttered, pushing him out of her face gently. "Quit it, Sunny, I'm fine."
    "You are most definitely not fine," he declared. "We detected a pulse of energy this time, and it's coming from somewhere within this very building. The energy spike prompted some sort of sympathetic overcharge in your neural cores."
    "Another memory?" Katje asked, and she realized he was still holding her hand.
    "Yes," she admitted. "Each time they've been triggered by a similar conversation, like something is trying to link what's happening here with something that happened in the distant past. My past," she said, shaking her head and removing her hand from Katje's grasp before pushing herself up off the ground.
    "What sort of memories? What events are playing out?"
    "I can't access them directly," she said, shaking her head. "When I try to remember what happened next, there's nothing there. I haven't been able to remember much of anything about my past before, and now I'm remembering people, locations, an entire mission's worth of information. I guess I'll find out more as we go, if this keeps up. It's just... it's a lot to process."
    "What should we do about this...?" Van trailed off, gesturing toward the terrible cache in the room behind them.
    "We have to keep moving. When we're done with the Flayers, the Vanguard will have figured out a plan to remove all of these Ghosts, but for now we need to end this awful scenario by ending them." The words seemed to tear themselves from her throat and her hands clenched into fists at her sides for a long, tense moment.
    "Then let's go," he replied, laying a hand on Zu's pauldron and taking Katje by the elbow. "We're not very far from the top of the building. We'll take them out and then get everyone here home." And he pulled the both of them away, out of the laboratory of horrors and toward the door that would eventually lead them to the Cortex.

Chapter Text

    They wiped out a brief ambush after their exit from the Overwatch area, but there came no other real resistance barring their path to the Cortex. They had to move a bit of strategically placed rubble and hop a few hastily contrived barriers, but De Zu felt that was a good sign. "It means this place is one they want to hole up in and protect," she told them. "If they're just barricading it, that means it's important, and their main force must be beyond this point."
    "This is where I saw them before," said Van, removing his helmet and running a hand through his long white bangs, pushing them away from his eyes. "We can take a short rest here to plan the fight. Map, please."
    "'Map, please, map please, map please," Jasmine retorted peevishly, her shining white shell flaring with annoyance. "Do you have nothing else to say to me today?"
    "Thank you?" suggested Katje. He, too, ran a hand through his short pink hair as he removed his helmet, and as Zu watched it fall back over his forehead as if he hadn't touched it at all, she was glad that the short antennae decorating her cranium required no such useless readjustment.
    "Can't object to that, can you?" said Van, and Jasmine grumbled a bit even as she moved to project a map of the terrace they were fast approaching upon a nearby section of wall. "When they show up, they'll be spread about the room," he explained, pointing at three separate circles that had been marked in red. "Any reinforcement forces may come via dropship or from side rooms here," he pointed, "and here, but the Flayers themselves, they just appear in the area. Not sure how that works." He gestured with his helmet. "We'll be entering the Cortex from this doorway, so we'll have to clear the space out as quickly as possible before the Flayers have time to load in, so to speak."
    "If they're going to drop in reinforcements on our heads," said Zu, considering the map carefully, "we should probably have you and your bubble right there on the middle Flayer. That way, anything that drops in on you during the fight may wind up stupified thanks to your Saint-14. My Dark-Drinker should slice and dice the jerk quite handily." She held out a hand, and Sunny transmatted it directly into her grasp.
    "They each have different elemental shields. We won't know which will appear where until they actually do. Your Dark-Drinker may not actually be of the correct element for the middle Flayer."
    "It'll still do the job, especially if you attune your Ward to boost your weapons' power." She handed it off to him, watching as he hefted its weight experimentally, then turned and looked at the rocket launcher strapped to Katje's back. "You sure you wouldn't rather borrow one of my swords? I do have one more."
    "This Gjallarhorn and I, we go way back," replied the Hunter, patting the tube that stuck up out over his shoulder. "I think we'll be fine."
    "Suit yourself," Zu shrugged in reply. "Anything else we should know, Van? How much longer did you want to rest for?"
    "Hopefully not long," Katje hummed with impatience, eyes bright. "If all that's left now is to actually get in there and do it, we can't afford to keep them waiting."
    "Well if that's the case, I suppose it is time to get some things done," said Van slyly. He grabbed Katje by the shoulder, spun him around, then caught his face between his hands and kissed him soundly. Katje's knees wobbled, his arms came up to hold Van's elbows during the kiss. De Zu quickly averted her optics, focusing hard on the map that had been projected upon the wall to try and give them at least a little privacy. She and Jasmine shared a slightly embarrassed look with one another.
    Guess he likes Katje more than we thought, said Sunny.
    If it helps him focus on taking care of his target, so be it.
    Zu heard them each inhale sharply as they separated. "W-what was that for?" Katje asked, though his tone was not angry or unkind, merely surprised.
    "Why, for luck of course," Van said innocently. "We'll need all the luck we can get here."
    "Indeed?" Katje purred, and Van's responding smile was a bit shaken as the little Hunter leapt up onto a box beside Zu and planted a kiss of his own on her orange-splashed cheek. "I suppose we do need all the luck we can get." He grinned at her.
    "I-is this some kind of weird Awoken ritual?" Zu asked in embarrassed confusion, shying away from Katje, optics falling upon Van instead. "Am I supposed to kiss you now? Because I'm fairly sure it's not physically possible."
    "It's okay," he laughed, then moved in and gave her a quick peck on the other cheek. "There," he said. "Now, we'll be fine."
    "We've been on risky missions plenty of times before before and you never did this," she accused, wiping reflexively at her face.
    "Well, we're doing it now," Van replied, and Katje chuckled quietly from where he stood.
    Zu shook her head with a sigh of exasperation. "Helmets on, let's go." She clapped her own ox-horned Dawning helmet onto her head, settling her antennae into their connectors and snapping the outer seals together deftly before checking the ammo in her equipped weaponry.
    "All right," said Katje as he began running down his equipped grenades, melee charges, and available synths. Van's eyes lingered on him for a moment before he pulled on his Helm of Saint-14 and drew his borrowed sword.
    "Whenever one of us gets finished with a Flayer, call out to the others to see who needs help next, all right? If you get in trouble, pull back into this hallway and we'll make our way to you as soon as possible."
    "Got it," said both men in unison, and together they followed Zu to the open doorway leading out onto the Cortex terrace.

    Barricaded or not, a largely deserted terrace greeted them as they came barreling out of the hallway. A trio of Legionaries, two Phalanx, and a Centurion were quickly subdued by the trio of Guardians... and then, nothing. There were no more reinforcements. They walked the steps boldly, crossed the open heli-pad, but either no one was looking, or nothing seemed to be interested in fighting them today.
    "Last time I was here, they just showed up automatically," said Van, confusion plain in his tone of voice.
    "Perhaps there's a way we can summon them?" Katje's gaze drifted up toward the central control kiosk almost hungrily; any untended bank of computer consoles and unlit screen panels was a flame attracting him like a moth. His hands flexed eagerly. "Let me at that back there and we'll see what happens."
    The two Titans escorted him to the command console, then left him to his own devices. With the discovery of the Ghost Room, with the two Ghosts Van had taken for his own, they had all found everything they had come for. All that remained now was to defeat the Flayers and return to the Tower to have all of the dead Ghosts analyzed by the Cryptarchy and then presented to the Speaker for proper disposal. This was a terrible discovery, but the loss would not be insurmountable now that they knew what was happening and take steps to prevent future thefts of this magnitude.
    "Were they good friends of yours?" Zu asked him as they sat on an overturned crate in a rear corner of the area, waiting for Katje to figure things out.
    "Not really," he admitted. "I suppose they would have been more like acquaintances, but we fought together well, they took me under their wing. Remember when we first fought with one another? When you didn't res me and killed that unit of Cabal we were supposed to take down together?" She nodded, magenta optics blinking down at the floor. "They had approached me afterward with an offer to help polish some of my skills as a Defender. We ran a few missions together and then I was supposed to meet them on Mars and join them on a strike they had planned, but I had to stop and upgrade some new gear first, I knew there would be trouble. By the time I arrived, they had already left the landing zone."
    "I was able to catch the coordinates they had transmatted to," said Jasmine, sidling up to her Guardian. "We knew they'd come here to this building, but this was where their trail had ended.  That shouldn't have happened, so I recommended coming back with more trusted backup."
    "And that was when you asked me," said Zu quietly, the pieces finally falling into place. "And I agreed to help, but after you had gone I remembered I had already agreed to help do something else around the same time. I honestly thought I could do both, take care of the one assignment real quick and then join you out there, but it took far too long. By the time I tried to contact you, you were radio silent." She hung her head. "I'm sorry, Van. I didn't know."
    "Would it have changed anything?" he shrugged. "They were already dead. Stop apologizing—"
    "Would it have changed anything?" asked Ne, shrugging. "They were already dead."
    "Of course — I would've been there, I could've helped you search, I—"
    "There is nothing you could have done that would have stopped them from dying, Zu, and furthermore, you may have wound up just like them." Ne fixed his bright green optics squarely on his sister. "I know you, Zu. You would have gone after those who had done this to them and you would have wound up just as dead." He shook his head. "You don't understand the better part of valor, you launch yourself headlong into any fight that comes your way without thinking about the consequences.
    "It's better that you weren't there," Van was saying, and his voice was the voice of her eldest brother. She shook her head sharply, willing the odd double-image of the cave and her long-dead sibling to leave her optics, but it still hung there for a moment before finally dissipating as Van's head tilted in concern. "Are you all right?"
    "Another one," said Sunny, examining her bleakly. "The energy spike came from someplace very close to here. Let me look around for a moment, maybe I can detect some residual energy."
    Don't go too far, I might need you soon, said Zu as he zipped off to examine the area, his little blue beam flashing here and there as they watched.
    "You're not all right," said Van, hopping off of the crate. "Look, I think you should sit this one out, Zu. Let me and Katje handle the heavy lifting out front while you cover us from back here, or the hallway."
    "There is no way I'm sitting this out!" she protested, standing also. "Not with the Commander himself doubting I really killed the Valus on my own! If we can just get through this last fight here, we'll have all the time in the world to inspect whatever is generating those pulses. Sunny's looking for it now, in fact — he'll probably be able to interrupt them as soon as he figures it out."
    "You hope," said Van with a sharp look. "And if nothing else, he'll be able to resurrect you when you glitch out and catch a rocket to the face."
    "It's not like I've never caught a rocket that way before," she grinned loftily. "He has experience. Besides, you know I'm lucky. I'll be fine!"
    Van huffed at her in exasperation. "Be serious, you idiot! Luck won't save you forever—"
    Suddenly there came a great snap from deep within the Cortex structure itself and then the thrumming sound of live electricity rose in pitch about them. "I did something!" Katje called from deep inside the command kiosk. "Get into positions!" he yelled, running out and to his own spot at the top of a set of stairs looking directly down at the old helicopter terrace. Three circles of blazing Arc fire lit up the area, and he hefted his rocket launcher over his shoulder. "I don't know what's going to happen, but it can't be good!"
    "Relax, this is our cue!" Van yelled up at him. Zu clapped a hand down on his pauldron firmly, then jogged to her own position, hopping a short barrier of fallen debris and hefting her Bolt Caster, readying herself for the battle to come. Van raced out to his own target spot, popped his bubble directly over the flare of Arc Light and waited, Dark-Drinker in hand.
    There was a vicious pop and crackle, and then a Flayer finally appeared before him, but it jerked bodily and stumbled backward, hands over its face as it bumbled around in confusion. Van laughed to himself and began to whirl with the Void sword he had been given, following unbidden instructions into a swirling dance of sharp-edged steel and raw Void energy. He continued on and on, mercilessly ripping into the creature as it yelped and tried to sidestep him, and then it plunged back into his Ward of Dawn on accident, confusing itself even further. A few more good swipes of the blade had the Solar Flayer laid out at his feet, and he looked around to see what else — if anything — needed to be dealt with.
    "Van, over here!" Zu barked. "This one has a Void overshield!" The sword in her hands sparked and sizzled as she used it to block shots from its weapon, but then it raised its palm and sent forth a wave of Arc energy that sent the woman flying backwards. Her sword was of the wrong element to block that particular ability properly. The Void Flayer pressed its advantage, rushing forward to take the middle point in a small line of Psions that had appeared to continue driving Zu back toward the steps to the control room.
    He threw a grenade into their midst, stunning the Flayer and its fellows and then he was behind them, swinging the sword he held in the same deadly spiral that had killed the Solar Flayer. The unshielded Psions cried out and disappeared in a flash of Void energy, the Flayer itself laid bare and locked into place, stunned by the eradication of its overshield or perhaps still the lingering effects of the suppressor grenade. Van swung again and again, and just as his sword had run out of energy the Flayer wailed and flopped to the ground, as dead as its Solar brother. He hefted the bare sword hilt in his hand and rolled his shoulders, looking at De Zu, who laughed and punched him lightly in the chestplate. "Good, that's two down. Let's go see how he's doing with the third."
    Unsurprisingly, the third was still alive. "Thought you and that Gjallarhorn went way back?" Zu called over the sound of weapons fire as she and Van fought their way to Katje's side.
    "Just shut up and help me kill this stupid thing," said Katje, glaring sullenly at Zu as she ran in, launching herself into a Fist of Havoc that wiped out the riff-raff surrounding the Flayer itself and then finished it off with her own sword's namesake attack, a bolt of pure Arc Light cast by its swing. "If I'd been given the Solar one, I would've been fine."
    "Void sword took out Solar just fine," Zu pointed out, swapping to her scout rifle as the three began to clear out the last of the straggling Cabal from the terrace.
    "He had a blind-bubble," Katje huffed. "It just bumbled around and let him hit it. Mine kept jumping away into hiding, I couldn't even get it tethered properly!"
    "Not our fault," Van shrugged and the little Hunter finally snapped, popping off with a trio of Void arrow-shots that were most definitely overkill for the final three Legionaries. Van chose not to antagonize Katje further, merely following him with his eyes as he headed back around to the central console, arguing with his Ghost the entire way.
    "Do you feel any better?" Zu asked hopefully, slipping her sword back into its magnetic holster.
    "Somewhat." He knew it would take time for word to get around and completely absolve him of past mistakes and abandoned enemies, but now he would be known as one of the three who had destroyed the Psion Flayers as opposed to the one who discovered them and subsequently ran like a coward. It actually made him feel a lot better now that he really thought about it. "You said you borrowed this one from Lord Shaxx," he held out the empty hilt of the Dark-Drinker to her, but she didn't take it back. "Did you borrow that one as well?"
    "Actually... they both belong to me," she admitted. "This one used to be an Arc Edge, and that one a Void Edge. I think he's got the process of making them into proper exotic swords down to a science now. I'm sure if you asked him about it, he could make you one of your own, but for now..." she paused thoughtfully. "You did use it pretty well. Why don't you hold onto it for me?"
    "It's not mine, De Zu."
    "Relax, you're just holding onto it for me until I need it again. If it happens to get between you and some enemies here and there and maybe decapitates a few things, who cares?"
    He slid the hilt back into its holster, and they sat in an agreeable silence, looking out over the carnage. "It's good to fight with you again."
    Her head came up sharply, and her lopsided smile was as warm as the red sun that beat down on the orange terrace with its red dust and its... odd blue faintly-glowing thing. "I missed you too," she said, but her magenta gaze had locked onto the strange object. How had she not noticed it before? It began to pulse with a bright hum, and De Zu winced slightly as she stared at it.
    "De Zu?" Sunny asked quickly, casting a short glance at the glowing blue object before scanning his Guardian with concern. "Katje's attempts at gaining access to the Cortex itself have activated some odd bits of technology out here, and whatever that thing is," he glanced at it himself, following Zu's steady gaze, "it seems to be on the same frequency as whatever's been affecting you during this mission. I'm not sure yet if that's been where the spikes have come from, but— Oh! It's definitely this! De Zu, are you—"
    "Are you all right?" Deng Li was at her elbow now, waving his hand in front of her eyes. But his hand was the hand of Jasel Van.
    "I'm fine," Zu waved the both of them off, initiating an immediate sensory diagnostic that part of her knew would be useless. She slowly began to walk out toward the heli-pad from where they stood in the shade of the towers high above them. "It's this, Sunny," she said, approaching the glowing blue object. "This is what's been bringing my old memories out, the ones I haven't been able to access on my own."
    "Maybe you should stay away from that thing," said Mai So, hovering back in the doorway, her optics locked on her sensor readouts. "Let's go rejoin the others. Katje can probably tell us more about it, he's still messing around with the console." Van took her by the arm, began to lead her away—
    Lights across the terrace began to flicker and come alive, the hum of power flowing through Golden Age conduits slowly rising about them. The blue core — it looked like an energy core of some sort, anyway — brightened, sparked, pulsed again, and—
    "Ne, what is this thing?"  asked Chun Fa eagerly. Their youngest brother had always been so interested in new technology of any kind.
    "I don't know," said Tsu Ne. They had stumbled across some sort of cache, there were weapons and armor parts and one strange spherical purple unit with a glowing purple eye that radiated an odd sort of energy, it collected like dust on those who strayed too closely. It had clearly begun to affect Chun Fa, but Tsu Ne had no reason to worry just yet — Mai So was working on an analysis, after all. "Fa, don't mess with it. Let So finish her scans. Zu, don't let him touch that thing. I'm going to go check on Li and see if he's learned anything." Deng Li had gone off to consult with Unit Twelve's spokesperson about the fate of Unit Seven and where the rest of the dead Exo had come from.
    "I can feel the vibrations inside my chassis," said Fa dreamily, staring at hands painted with amethyst radiation. "Can't you?"
    "No," Zu admitted, "but isn't it pretty? It almost seems alive." She stared at it and her arms were bathed in its light as well, though she was fully committed to not disobey their eldest brother. Mostly.
    "He's still messing around with the console," Sunny trailed off absently, and then he whirled on Van. "The consoles! Every single time there's been an energy spike, Katje and Agua had just activated a console of some sort, a door, some kind of power nodule—!"
    "Hey, so we're detecting some odd readings from your Ghosts out there," said Cayde, overriding their comm channels. "Whatever it is you're doing, stop doing it. We've got a team en route to your location to investigate the area and retrieve the Ghosts you found; you three have already done enough for today. Take it easy and get out of the Cortex."
    "Katje, whatever you've just activated, deactivate it now!" Van barked.
    "I can't shut the power down," said Katje. "Believe me, I'm trying, but the controls aren't responding anymore!"
    There came the muffled sounds of a brief conversation over the Vanguard channel, and then Cayde ordered, "Have your Ghost send us a data feed directly from that console."
    The object continued to glow ever brighter. "Are you sure you can't feel it?" said Fa. "Maybe if you touched it—"
    "Ne told us not to," said Zu, and she took Fa's hands in her own, finally tearing her eyes away from the object. "We shouldn't—"
    "Ne told me not to touch it," Fa clarified. "He didn't tell you not to."
    "He... I... Fa, that's not the point—"
    "It's okay, Zu! Here, I'll show you." And he reached out to touch the sphere and its rapidly shifting eye.
    "Chun Fa, no!" cried De Zu, and she dove for him, twisting in midair to place her body between he and the strange glowing power source. She grabbed him by the shoulders, shook him firmly and turned him back toward the doorway. "We are going!"
    "You must not touch it!" said Van, and he was shaking her by the shoulders now, pulling at her, trying to drag her away.
    "No, no!" Fa howled, his optics now shining the same violet color as the object, no longer his natural sunny yellow. He writhed in her grasp like a snake, wriggled and shifted until she lost her grip and he swept her feet out from under her as he fell, that same leg-sweep she herself had taught him. Then he leapt onto the sphere, which lifted itself into the air with a digitized sound of unmistakeable glee.
    "NO!" Zu wailed, her own optics as blue as the object and pulsing with the same fire. She wrenched herself free of Van's grip and threw herself toward it. As her hands made contact with its smooth, shining surface, she was caught in a burst of Arc energy and jolted halfway across the terrace, lying stunned and unmoving.
    "Get her far away from that thing!" Sunny wailed, flitting about excitedly. "Van, please!"
    An arc of energy snapped and sizzled at the ground nearby the rapidly overloading generator. As he grasped her shoulders and hauled her into the air, the energy snapped at his back, spiking into his armor and locking it in place for a short moment. "What the hell—!"
    "Just grab her and go!" said Jasmine, and she and Sunny began to zip through the air about the odd blue thing, attracting the sparking energy bolts away from Van as he again lifted De Zu and hauled her away from the landing pad, back toward the hallway from which they'd entered.
    The two Ghosts rejoined him when they were far enough away. "Is she all right?" Van asked urgently of the pair.
    "The energy from that thing is too strong, it still has control," said Sunny, scanning his Guardian worriedly. "It has to be shut down!"
    "I don't even know how it turned on," he growled. "Katje!" he turned and called toward the control alcove. "Katje, what did you do!"
    "I was just trying to see what the Flayers were up to in here, I swear I'm trying to shut it down!" he replied, nimble fingers flying over the holo-keyboard the console had projected for his access. "Nothing is working!"
    "It did something!" He gestured helplessly at their fallen companion.
    "That's great, but I can't do anything to stop it!" Katje yelled in frustration, slamming his fists down onto the console as he finally admitted defeat. He ran out out from behind the structure, looked out onto the terrace. "What the — What is that thing?!"
    "I don't know, but it wasn't doing anything until you turned on the power. Zu is unconscious." He propped her up against a wall to get her up and out of the dust and sand that littered the ground. "You couldn't have waited for the research team to arrive before you went screwing around in there?"
    "When do I ever get an investigative team following me anyplace? Usually it's on me to perform any data recovery from consoles I come across. This was no different, so far as I knew." He shook Zu in an attempt to rouse her, but her optics remained blank, her body did not move. "We have to get her off this terrace— wait, where are you going?"
    Van stood and jogged over to the odd power core, which did not seem to affect him in the slightest. You are not Exo, explained Jasmine simply as he threw out his hands, forming a Ward of Dawn imbued with the power to strengthen him to near invulnerability while inside, and then he reared back and began to punch the generator.
    Katje cried out in protest as Van swiftly, mechanically decimated the perhaps precious piece of machinery filling the complex with its odd, pulsating hum. Lights burst over their heads, showering glass and chemical dust over them as he continued to beat the thing into submission, an action as natural to any Titan as breathing. With one final, sullen snap of energy that sizzled at his chestplate in futility, the generator finally exploded, knocking out his shields and throwing him from his now-clouded bubble. He stood shakily, noting in satisfaction that the hum of electricity had stopped, and he moved to kneel beside De Zu once more.
    The woman's optics remained dark, her form motionless. Van shook her by the shoulder as her Ghost — and now his own — watched in apprehension. "Sunny, what did that thing do to her exactly, do you know?"
    Sunny glanced at Jasmine. "We think it was made to crack the Cortex," the little pink Ghost replied, his rear points twirling agitatedly, "the AI overmind of this particular building. Exo minds must be similar enough to be affected, though it didn't really have the same effect on me personally. Given no proper direction upon Katje's activation of the various devices and power sources in this building, it must have just seized upon the closest mind it could locate."
    "So those memories it was dredging up—"
    "It was rooting around in her mental cores." Both Ghosts shared a quick wiggle almost in the nature of a humanoid shudder. "We won't know how far it went until she wakes up again." They didn't dare speak aloud the possibility that she may not wake up again at all.
    "You idiot!" Katje's fury threatened to boil over. "Why did you destroy it?"
    "I stopped it!" Van snapped. "I had to stop it!"
    "It seems to be some sort of deep stasis," said Sunny. "I can feel her inside, it seems like she's trying to self-activate but something keeps stopping her."
    "Possibly a form of self-preservation," Katje said, still scowling at Van. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Cayde.
    "All right, you two," he said crisply. "Enough chit-chat. Much of this complex was devoted to Exoscience," he explained, "and some of that includes whole floors devoted to the use of Exo for explorative purposes. The Cabal have been moving things around, connecting and disconnecting vital systems and checks. This generator," he said, "was apparently a booster or amplifier of some sort for the program they had created to crack the Cortex AI specifically."
    "We also came to that conclusion," said Jasmine.
    "And had he not destroyed it, we could have figured out how exactly it had affected her and thus perhaps have reversed its damage!" Katje fumed.
    "Are you seriously trying to blame me for something? Like hell any of this is my fault!"
    "Why did you activate it in the first place!" Enraged, Sunny flew at Katje, glancing off of his chestplate at top speed. It was a minor blow, but enough to display his extreme displeasure. "Surely you were warned by your own Ghost what could happen!"
    "I didn't even know this thing was connected to the rest of the complex!" retorted Agua, interjecting himself between his own Guardian and Sunny.
    "Knock it off!" Cayde commanded sharply. "Enough, all of you! Thanks to the readouts from the console, we can tell that power has been restored to all of the floors beneath the terrace level, and that's more than you'll need. According to blueprints and scout reports, the fifteenth floor was where Clovis Bray did most of their Exo research and development. Move it, Guardians, and quickly."
    "Let's get her down there," said Katje, turning to Van with a curt nod. "Maybe we can find something to help us."
    Van muttered a curse, bending to lift De Zu as the little Hunter jogged forward, leading the way out of the Cortex.

    Their journey back down through Overwatch was uneventful, the Atrium terrace of the Dust Palace itself was still littered with dead Cabal and Vex and not much else. They had been more than thorough in clearing out all the enemy units they could find on their way up the building, after all. Katje hopped down to the area beneath the broken terrace like a nimble flea, landing lightly before an elevator door. "Here," he said, his Ghost already present and scanning the controls. "The lab is below this area."
    "We didn't even know this elevator existed," said Jasmine as Van carefully descended the staircase leading downward.
    "Half of this building is elevator shafts. Hopefully this one won't be filled with rubble," replied Agua, rear pins shifting restlessly as he directed a last beam of data at the panel before him. It flashed green, and then the doors slid open obediently.
    Katje peered down the shaft. "It's clear," he announced. "A straight shot about three or four floors down, though. Should we—"
    Van grunted, pushing past the Hunter and hopping into the shaft, breaking his weighted fall with intermittent bursts of Lift. He landed rather gently given the circumstances and strode gingerly into the laboratory, looking around for the equipment they needed.
    "You're looking for a table or bed of some sort with at least three monitor hookups and a keyboard console attached," said Cayde. "It's a diagnostic station. As I recall, they were set up in side rooms around the main laboratory floor."
    Katje watched as the central monitors blinked and sputtered as Van obediently headed for a door off to the left. "Should I access the main consoles at all?"
    "I think you've accessed enough for one day, haven't you?" Van snapped irritably.
    "That's not fair," said Katje, bristling. "The Flayers didn't even come out until I started accessing that console in the first place. And I didn't mean to access these just to explore, I was asking Cayde if we needed to—"
    "Enough," said Cayde. "It wasn't your fault, Katje, it could've happened to anyone. Let's focus on getting your friend patched up."
    "I've found one of your rooms," said Van. "Katje, help me."    
    The two lifted Zu onto the table as carefully as they were able, and then Katje moved to the diagnostic monitors. "What do we do now?"
    "There should be a green button on the board. Press it and see what happens."
    He did so, and information began to fly across the monitors. "It's all gibberish," he muttered, shaking his head. "Agua, patch him through a feed of these readouts."
    After a few long moments, Cayde cleared his throat. "This... ah, it's not good. It's not entirely bad, but it's not all that good either."
    "How do we fix her, Cayde? Tell us what to do," said Van.
    "Do you two know anything about a reset?"

Chapter Text

    ... 001 DESPONDENT ECHO v.Z-U r.6...
    ... MAIN BATTERY LEVEL: 76%...
    ... CONNECTIONS CHECK: OK...
    ... VITAL SYSTEMS CHECK: OK...
    ... SENSOR CHECK: OK...
    ... PERSONALITY CORES: OK...
    ... MEMORY CHECK:
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ... DATABASE FILES 000000001.MEM THROUGH 849382014.MEM CORRUPTED ...
    ... ABORT, RETRY, FAIL?...

    De Zu was stuck.
    Her main sensory systems were apparently intact, but currently offline. Locomotive processes were also offline. She knew that something bad had happened, but she could not remember what exactly. She also knew that anytime she tried to access her core memory files, disjointed images and sensory readings bombarded her mind until the chaos was too much to bear and she was forced to shut down again, to restart, to try something else, but she didn't know just yet how she knew it — perhaps some lingering echo left in her volatile memory someplace. She would have to check in a moment. But then, with her core memory files so damaged, how could she even know which attempt this had been? Was it the first time she had tried to access her recent memories, or was this the twelfth, the twentieth, the hundredth? It was an obnoxious restoration loop to be sure. She hoped she'd left herself some clues.
    There were directives one could follow in case of emergency, and this somehow felt like an emergency — but again, she had no idea why, which made everything so very risky. Was something going on? Would she be in immediate danger if she went into a safe-mode reboot due to the environment, due to enemy combatants, or due to herself? Or had she already tried, and she just couldn't remember? Every millisecond was an eternity now, and, as always when it came to personal matters, she carefully weighed her options.
    An outside diagnostic bearing the correct set of keycodes and project engrams suddenly requested access, which she gratefully granted. If she couldn't sift through her own wrecked database, any outside help would be most welcome. She gave it just enough permissions to sort and pile them into loosely connected chains of events and report back with what it was able to find. Relieved of the need for input on her part, she found herself able to relax a bit. Reset still lingered on the horizon as a possibility, but if anything could get her memory files squared away, it was a good old diagnostic station.
     She wondered briefly who was taking care of her, as there was no way she could have hooked herself into the station on her own in her current state and no one had identified themselves via the diagnostic program.   

    "A reset?" Katje squeaked, eyes wide.
    "We've heard of them, obviously," said Van, careful to keep any emotion out of his voice, "but no, I don't think either of us knows what actually happens to an Exo during a reset."
    "That generator thing up there, the AI-cracker, it worked by dredging up old memories. You organics," said Cayde, "have brains that perform this process automatically, but we Exo operate differently: Think of your brain as an oyster, and a memory a piece of grit. The oyster would gradually cover the memory in mother-of-pearl to smooth it out, round out its shape, insulate it within your minds. Eventually, you would know what happened in that memory, but the specifics would be foggier, more clouded the longer you wait before thinking about it again, right?"
    "I suppose," said Katje with a nod, and Van frowned.
    "An Exo stores memories in files. Those files, we cannot forget — they are always there, always the same piece of grit they had been before. We may misplace them, but they don't disappear on their own. When we access a memory, we can tell you the ambient temperature, how bright the lighting was, how many people were present, exactly where and when we were — if we weren't capable of lying they'd be admissable as evidence in court. And if we can't store them all properly via memory dumps and during recharge sessions they build up, piling on top of one another until finally we can't think straight, can't think past all the grit. That seems to be what's happened here, the intent of that machine was to dredge up so many old files, bring them into active memory, and force a crash that would potentially provide some gap in the Cortex AI's programming that would allow for whomever was in control of the device — the Flayers, in this case — to take control and learn its secrets."
    "But it didn't crash the Cortex AI."
    "No, it crashed an Exo, and right now she's facing the decision to reset. Duing a reset, unimportant memories are purged and more important ones are filed away, sealed over, smoothed out. We have our inborn presets and personality, and in most cases we may be able to pick and choose what was most important to keep in active memory, which memories were necessary for our survival. After a reset, the Exo is refreshed, defragged, stable, and more ready to deal with whatever is going on at that point in time."
    "So you're saying that Zu will still have all her old memories, she's lost nothing?"
    "Now that, we don't really know," Cayde admitted. "Technically they should still be there, but most resets are performed in a safe area and the Exo in question has control. This one was prompted by an emergency situation where she was under the influence of an outside force scrambling her mental cores. We won't know anything until she makes the decision and wakes up afterward. There's also the chance that she keeps external backup engrams of her most important memories someplace, and if so, they may be used to restore her to almost-normal once you three return to the Tower."
    "We can't keep carrying her around like a paperweight," said Katje as thumps high overhead began to herald the return of Cabal forces to the Dust Palace. "She has to be mobile during our escape from this place. Can we somehow help her to reset now and then deal with her full restoration from any available backups when we get back to the Tower?"
    "The diagnostic station is already on the job. If it can't recompile her database for her, she'll still have to okay a reset internally, but it will tell her everything she needs to know before making the decision. Let it do its work."

    De Zu knew that her long-term memories were off-limits, the diagnostic had already told her as much, so she began to gingerly sample the contents of her volatile memory. She had, before a recent crash, apparently added a number to it, and if she knew herself — which she was fairly certain she did — she knew she must add one more to the number before progressing. It told her that this was the six-hundred-and-twelfth time her volatile memory had been accessed by her while in this state, or at least it had been that many attempts and likely subsequent crashes since the first time she had the idea to try and keep track of what was happening.
    She pushed past the number, feeling her way around tentatively. Her volatile memory was full of what could only be described as broken moments in time, brief glimpses into what had bled across from her scattered, corrupted long-term memories, and they would degrade over time. With each new access, they were made less. She didn't know what she'd already lost via prior access attempts, but she had to know what was still there.
    "Tsu Ne," she looked up to their eldest brother in awe as he towered over her, a spear in his hands — she had been knocked to the ground by an enemy, and he had come to her aid. She resisted the urge to follow the links to the corresponding database files, knowing they would just crash her again.
    "Not again, Mai So! Be careful," she admonished, helping their violet-painted sister to stand. She had a terracotta pot carefully balanced between her hands and a trio of seedlings swayed gently as she wobbled. De Zu knew she knew the name of the odd plants that So had been after that day, but she dared not remember.
    Deng Li was tinkering in his makeshift laboratory on their ship. He had another oddball creation on his table, all legs and optics and metallic squealing. The newly created creature's name had been Lai, an acronym for Little Artificial Intelligence, not quite as creative as any of their own names but then, it was not as intelligent as they had been made—
    Chun Fa lunged for her, and she easily sidestepped him with a laugh. "Not this time, slowpoke," she chortled, but then he twisted and rolled and launched himself at her with—
    no, stop
    "There are three main classes of Guardian," Sunny explained, his little gray pins flaring with excitement as they approached the long, cluttered table in the Hall of Guardians and about it stood three particularly well-outfitted specimens. They eyed her curiously as she gawked, her stolen weaponry and basic attire making it clear as crystal that she was very newly born even if her careful — even hesitant — steps into the room had not. "These are the Vanguard mentors for—"
    stop remembering, it's going too fast
    "Yes, sir!" she and Van cried as one, quickly turning and beating a hasty retreat. They could feel Lord Shaxx's glare burning holes in their backs as they jogged away with scuffed armor and bruised egos; they would never make the mistake of sneaking into one of his Crucible arenas after hours again. Not after that upbraiding—
    > STOP REMEMBERING
    "Get out!" Katje yelled, shoving her out of his tiny cave... or trying to shove her, anyway. His bright eyes burned at her through the thick goggles that protected them against the red sun and the orange breeze with all the thick sand it threw against them both here in the canyon—
    > ABORT
    The diagnostic came to her rescue this time by reinforcing the properly phrased interrupt command and instantly breaking her thought processes before she crashed, providing a blessed wall of outside logic that kept the worst of her whirlwind memories at bay. She would not make the mistake of reaching out to them again. She would keep what she had.
    "DATABASE FILES 000000001.MEM THROUGH 849382014.MEM CORRUPTED," it said. "RECOVERY FAILED. RESET NECESSARY. CONTINUE?" it asked.
    The question was a mere formality. Either she could continue attempting to sort herself out and eventually crashing into madness or she could initiate the reset now and save herself the trouble. Six hundred and twelve attempts had done nothing for her already, but still, she asked for confirmation.
    "RECOVERY FAILED. RESET NECESSARY." It seemed to pause. "RESTORATION MAY BE POSSIBLE AFTER RESET VIA MENTAL CORE IMAGE BACKUP. FOR THIS MODEL, PLEASE USE METHOD B AS DESCRIBED IN—"
    She cut it off there; she already knew how to restore her own mental image cores from backup. She just hoped she had made one recently, and worse yet, that she would be able to find it somewhere.
    > INITIATE RESET
    The diagnostic program swapped obediently over to a pre-reset defragger, and during that brief hand-off she threw herself back into her volatile memory, grabbing tightly to those last remaining fragments, the only ones she knew for sure she'd be able to keep with her. Then the strange limbo she had come to know began to thicken, to slowly condense around her and lock her into a deep, dark cocoon of nothing where her spark would wait patiently to be reinitialized. Reborn.
    It felt familiar somehow.

Chapter Text

    Sunny hovered at his Guardian's side worriedly. Katje paced, irritable and restless, and Van sat on another dust-covered table, his head in his hands as they watched, waited. A readout on the diagnostic console was slowly ticking upward, it was nearing one-hundred percent.
    "It's almost done," said Sunny, moving to inspect the screen more closely. "What happens next?"
    "She'll wake up," Cayde replied. "I'll feed you a series of questions to ask to get her mobile as soon as possible, that way she can probably follow you all out of the Dust Palace and get to a spot where you can transmat away to your ships unhindered. A med team will meet you at the Tower for another diagnostic, and if you know where she keeps her backups we can begin a full restoration."
    "Got it."    
    There was a quiet 'snap' of an energy connection severing itself, a glance at the screen showed them that the process had finished. They watched in silence as her optics powered on after a long moment, a piercing sky blue that made Sunny's heart sink. One fist clenched, then both, and De Zu sat up without making a sound.
    "Zu," Katje breathed, and Van's arm shot out to take his own before he could approach her. He shook his head, pointing to Sunny in silence.
    "Designation?" asked the little Ghost.
    "This unit is Zero-Zero-One Despondent Echo, version Zeta-Upsilon." Her voice was the same, at least, though carefully modulated. "Short form, De Zu. Reset counter, seven."
    "Status?"
    "All systems operating within normal parameters. Internal battery at seventy-one percent capacity."
    "Do you know who I am?" he asked, pins flaring hopefully.
    She blinked too-blue optics at Sunny. "Recognition..." She paused, brow plates furrowing slightly. "Uncertain. Your voice pattern is familiar, but... I'm sorry, I don't know who you are." He drooped dejectedly as her head swiveled, she was suddenly interested in their surroundings. "Where are we?"
    "You are in enemy territory," came Cayde's voice over the comms, brisk and authorative. "Your memory cores took heavy damage and you were forced to reset. Your orders are to escape and get to an evac zone. The two others down there with you are part of your team and will take the lead, the little floating ball of angles you don't quite recognize fully is linked with you for purposes of some special abilities he'll explain along the way. Hopefully you left yourself some proper backups here at home and can properly restore yourself to full functionality when you return." He paused to let it sink in. "Does this answer your questions for now?"
    Our commanding officer, Sunny supplied when Zu hesitated to respond.
    Her head swiveled sharply to face him, optics wide, but she recovered just as quickly. "Yes, sir." She stood from the table, testing her joints and balance carefully.
    "Good. As soon as you're able, we need you to get moving. Van, Katje, take care of her. Vanguard, out."
    "Do you think you'll be able to use this weapon?" asked Van, offering Zu her scout rifle. She hefted it, gripped it, looked down the sights, and then looked up at Sunny again. Her brows furrowed into an accusatory glare.
    "You have a direct communications channel into my mental cores," she said sharply.    
    "Of course," said Sunny. "I'm a Ghost. We're linked, you and I."
    "This model was not designed to be linked at a base level with an outside AI unit."
    "It's... complicated," he replied helplessly. "Can an explanation wait until we get out of hostile territory, at least?"
    She stared at him flatly for a long moment as if considering to demand him to explain everything to her immediately, but then she went back to examining her scout rifle. "You will explain later."
    "Yes," Sunny sighed.
    "Do you have a name?"
    "My name is Sunny. You gave it to me," he said sadly. Do you truly not remember?
    "If I know myself, I'm sure I left a backup someplace," she said. "Hopefully it will be a recent one." She blinked at him as he flinched again. "In the meantime, I apologize if I have upset you." Her words were apologetic, but Sunny could still hear her unease.
    Katje frowned as the thumping from overhead began to worsen. "I hate to interrupt the reintroductions, but it sounds like a party is going on upstairs, and we're the guests of honor. De Zu, can you use that rifle or not?"
    She blinked at him. "Yes."
    "Good, because we're probably going to need at least a little bit of help from you. Sunny can explain our enemies' weaknesses and how to fight them best as we go but we've gotta get back upstairs and outta here, pronto."

    They climbed out of the elevator shaft together and slunk around the rubble-lined windows to get to the door leading back out of the Atrium, thankfully missing the worst of what the Cabal had chosen to throw at them but catching the tail end of a scout unit filled with low-ranking Psions and Legionaries. De Zu turned out to be an excellent shot no matter her current mental state but she had trouble harnessing her Light; it was foreign to her all over again. The others covered for her, Katje with his Shadowshot and Van with his Ward of Dawn attuned to offer an overshield to allies.
    Outside the building they were met by one last group of Cabal, a Centurion and his Phalanxes racing toward them, but they were able to hop onto their sparrows at that point — De Zu clambered on behind Van, this wasn't really the time to teach her how to drive her own — and together they zoomed away to the evac zone, the piggish grunting shouts of the enemy fading into the distance behind them. From there, the return to their ships and subsequently to the Tower was without incident.
    A tech flanked by two blue-painted frames met them in the hangar bay to receive De Zu into their care, and at Sunny's silent prompting, she followed them. Van went with her, while Katje went instead to the Hall of Guardians to report in to the Vanguard.
    The infirmary ward was mainly utilized by the civilians who worked and lived in the Tower. Only rarely did a Guardian need healing or aid that their own Light could not provide. The entry of two fully armored Titans still covered in the dust and scrapes of battle was a curiosity that left everyone they passed gawking, but the Vanguard had already warned the staff to expect them and what to prepare for. The room to which they were led was not small, but it was filled with diagnostic and repair equipment.
    "Please," said the tech, an older man whose dark hair was salted with gray. "Hop onto the table, miss...?"
    "De Zu-7," she replied, taking a seat on the edge of the thick, strong metal table that stood surrounded by equipment. The pair of frames began to remove her armor with an expert swiftness that revealed their familiarity with caring for injured Guardians, and Van began to relax just a bit. Before he knew it, the woman was sitting there in her undersuit. She was solidly built, her limbs made of the same anodized blue metal as her face. It was weathered and worn at the creases and joints and the orange splash across her face was echoed in splashes across her upper arms and thighs. She was directed to lie down on the table, and then the tech began to fuss with the consoles set up next to it.
    "Do you have her backup engrams?" he asked, initiating a scan.
    "I think I know where to find them. Give me just a moment," Sunny chirped, and then he looked over at Van nervously.
    "I'll watch her for you," he promised, removing his helmet and settling himself into a chair as Sunny left the room, flying down the corridor at top speed.
    The tech sighed, watching the readouts thoughtfully. He tapped his foot. "You recognize this machine, don't you?"
    Zu looked it over. "This diagnostic machine is a 900-Series Clovis Bray—"
    "A simple 'yes' will do. You're pre-programmed with instructions to perform your own memory restoration?"
    "Yes."
    "I've got some other patients to check up on, some of Shaxx's Redjack frames are in bad shape after a recent incursion on Venus. You're in perfect health other than your recent memory loss due to reset, so if you don't mind—"
    "I can operate this machine. I will require no assistance."
    He nodded, then turned to his frames. "Acacia, stay here with them in case they need anything. Myrtle, with me."
    The frames nodded obediently, one taking up a spot beside the open doorway, the other following the tech out of the room. Van yawned, settling himself down more firmly into the chair and adjusting his belt so that he could fully relax. His demons, for the most part, had been defeated. Now he just had to ensure that all of them came out of this experience whole.
    "We were in trouble."
    His eyes cracked open, and he realized that he had De Zu's full attention. He turned in his seat to face her more easily. "Back on Mars?" he asked.
    "No, it wasn't Mars. It was very green." She was focusing very hard on his face, blue optics searching his expression for something, and he fought back an awkward blush. "There was a large man who was very angry at us, we'd snuck into someplace we weren't supposed to be and were apprehended. He wore a helmet with only one horn."
    "That's right," he said, sitting up fully with a firm nod. "We had gotten into an argument, we snuck into one of Lord Shaxx's Crucible arenas to duke it out that night and he caught us, kicked us out for two weeks. But how are you able to remember this and not anything else?"
    "I don't know," she replied. "This was not a good reset; I am supposed to at least leave myself more immediate information to work with. Since it happened out in the field, perhaps I knew it would not go well and didn't want to forget you, but these may have been the only memories to which I still had access. It's complicated, but possible."
    "I wasn't aware I was so important to you," he smiled faintly and cocked an eyebrow at her.
    She tilted her head as the loaded statement hung in the air between them. "We will require more interaction with one another for one-hundred percent non-verbal fluency. Please forgive any mis-read signals or a lack of reaction to tone and expression in the meantime."
    "A-ah," he replied simply, looking away in embarrassment as she continued to stare at him thoughtfully. "Do you remember anything else?"
    "The other one, he kicked me out of a cave on Mars. The spiky AI unit, he sounds the same and bears the same name as another who was my guide at one point. That one showed me around a room with three important people to whom I was to be introduced, but he was gray."
    "We each only have one Ghost; Sunny may have been wearing a different shell. Ghosts come in all shapes and colors," he said, pointing to Jasmine as an example.
    "Yes," Jasmine agreed, twirling in mid-air brightly. "But our pre-bonded shells are always a light gray color, it helps us avoid enemies while we search for our Guardian."
    "Ah." Zu nodded in acknowledgement. "There are others I remember as well," she said, looking around the room, "but I have not seen them yet."
    "Others?"
    "I think they're my batchmates, siblings. We live together. They are Exo as well. Are they here someplace?" She glanced at the doorway hopefully.
    "You never introduced me to anyone else, Zu. Sunny would know where they are, I think. If not, the information would surely be in your backup files."
    "I hope they're all right," she murmured, looking down at her lap.

    Sunny returned in a huff, loading Van's arms down with a case filled with palm-sized engram tablets that glittered and shone an opalescent white as he turned them over in his hands, one by one. "I didn't know which one would be the one we needed, so I just brought them all," he explained.
    "They're your memories," Van said, depositing them all carefully on the slab beside Zu. "Do you recognize any of these as the most recent?"
    Of the twenty or so engram tablets, she chose two. "These." She stood, approached the console directly next to the table, and began entering commands. The pair of engrams were slotted into openings connected to the console via bundles of wires, a final round of button presses were entered, and then she lay back down onto the table.
    "Do you need us to do anything?" Sunny asked worriedly.
    "The restoration process will take approximately an hour," she explained as an arm rotated outward from the machine to hover over her face. She reached up, repositioned it slightly, then allowed her arms to fall back to her sides. "The diagnostic machine will perform its function automatically. Please protect that case, and stay nearby." She held out a hand to him. "If the restoration process fails, I may require further assistance."
    The case disappeared in a whirl of transmat particles, and Sunny settled onto her stomach. "I'm not going anywhere," he promised earnestly. Still-too-blue optics dimmed and died out as he watched, and the machine attached itself to her cranium. The screens off to the side began to update with a progress bar, slowly ticking upward.
    "You act like she's going to die or something," said Van as Sunny's eye flicked back and forth between the screens and his Guardian.
    "My Guardian's mind imploded and I get to find out in an hour whether I'll get her back in one piece or not. What if her connection to the Light is affected? What if her personality is different after the procedure? What if her backup engrams turn out to be corrupted somehow?"
    "That's a lot of 'what if's, but I'm sure this is just a routine thing." Van settled back in his chair again. "I'm sure she'll be back to normal in no time."
    "I'm scared. It feels like I only just found her yesterday, even though I know it's been three years," Sunny admitted. "I don't want to be alone again. I don't think I can bear it."
    "You won't be alone," Van promised quietly as he drifted off to sleep. "I'll be here for the both of you when she wakes up, if you happen to need me."     

    A careful hand took hold of Van's pauldron and shook it gently. "Hey, what's going on?"
    Van sat bolt upright with a barked oath, golden eyes focusing blearily on the red-cloaked form next to him. Katje stared down at him with a bemused smile and gestured toward the bed. "Oh. Zu's having her backups restored." He stretched his arms high over his head. "Jasmine, how much longer?"
   "The readout says ninety percent, so about five more minutes," she replied from where she now hovered before the assembled screens.
    "Looks like I've arrived just in time then."
    Van wiped the rest of the sleep from his eyes, and Jasmine returned to his side. "You need to take care of yourself as well," she admonished.
    "Once all of this is over with, I'm sure we'll all be given some time to rest." He turned back to Katje. "What did the Vanguard have to say?"
    "They're thrilled to hear the Flayers are dead, but not so thrilled that De Zu is currently incapacitated. Expect new restrictions on accessing any new tech during our next missions together."
    "Our next missions?"
    "We're a team now, or at the very least the Vanguard seem to think we work well enough together for them to assign us more things to hunt down. When she wakes up, I'm sure she'll be thrilled." He sat down on the arm of Van's chair. "How are you feeling?"
    "Me? I'm not the one lying on a slab right now."
    "That doesn't mean you're any less in need of attention," replied the Hunter pointedly, and when Van stared at him in silence, he coughed uncomfortably. "Look... I know I yelled at you back there, and you didn't deserve it. You did the right thing, Van, destroying that device. I'm sorry."
    Van blinked at him, then finally nodded, looking away. "I'm sorry too. We all go running through Golden Age buildings on a regular basis playing with all sorts of random tech on our own. There was no way you could've known the Flayers had essentially booby-trapped the building against wandering inorganic people."
    "So... we're still friends?"
    "I haven't pushed you off my chair yet," said Van, reaching up to wrap an arm about Katje's waist. Katje blushed a bright lavender, shifting to drape an arm about Van's shoulders with a shy smile.
    The machine bleeped, drawing their attention back to the woman on the table. Sunny rose into the air, moved to check the readouts. "It's done. What happens now?"
    "After restoration, the Exo will perform internal diagnostics and then self-activate." Everyone in the room jumped slightly, turning to stare at the long-forgotten attendant Frame standing against the wall. "No outside input required. Please move away from the table."
    "Move away?" asked Sunny in confusion.
    "Until the Exo has self-activated, a safe distance must be maintained in case of—"
    A digitized squawk escaped De Zu, and her optics blazed on like white-hot suns. Sunny zipped away to hover at Katje's side as she shot up off the table, but the Frame was ready and caught her as she subsequently fell, her balance center and locomotive systems clearly maladjusted. Van was on his feet in an instant, but he could only watch as the Frame held her tightly until her arms stopped flailing, her legs stopped kicking. "Take it easy!" he said sharply, hoping to snap her out of her fit of panic.
    She looked up at him in surprise, then at the blinking face of the attendant Frame. "I... er..." she cleared her vocal buffers, forced herself to relax. "W-where...?"
    "We're in the infirmary. Do you remember anything that's happened?" The Frame slowly released her from its grip as Van bent and snaked an arm around her shoulders to help Zu to stand. Still dressed in his armor, he towered over her by at least a head.
    "A reset. My backup only went to the morning we were meant to leave the Tower. There is substantial gap, and then..." She blinked, processing her memory files as swiftly as she was able, and he helped her back onto the table, relieved to see her optic sensors and facial lighting had all returned to their usual bright magenta. She looked at him worriedly. "I'm sorry, I don't know anything else."
    "No big deal," he shrugged, placing a firm hand on her shoulder and squeezing lightly. "We're just glad to have you back in one piece. Besides," he added, shooting a wry smile at the tiny Hunter who still sat on the arm of Van's chair, now anxiously wringing a thick glove in his hands, "if anyone's to blame for any of this, it's Katje."
    "And I am so sorry!" wailed the tiny Hunter. Both her Ghost and his own hovered by his shoulders. "I didn't know all this would happen! I swear I was just looking for information!"
    "I'm... afraid I'll need more of an explanation before I can forgive you," she replied, obviously confused, "but... it doesn't look like Van's killed you yet, nor is Sunny reacting negatively to you, therefore it couldn't have been more than a mistake," she reasoned. "I'm sorry you two had to witness me undergoing a reset. This is all rather embarrassing." Resting her elbows on her thighs, she put her head in her hands and continued to process all that had happened — that she could remember happening, anyway. "Can you fill me in?"
    Between the two of them and their Ghosts, they explained how they had entered the Dust Palace, how Katje and Agua had activated consoles here and there that had powered on the AI mind-cracker. They told her how it had dredged up old, dormant memories from her distant past that even she had not realized were locked deep within her, and how the memories had grown so thick in the end after the Flayers were dead that she had been unable to discern them from reality. "I see," she said thoughtfully, staring at the floor. "I'm sorry."
    "Sorry? For what?" said Van, clapping her once more on the shoulder. "We got through the mission successfully. We discovered a cache of lost Ghosts to bring home to the Speaker, I found what I had gone in there for a year ago, we defeated the dreaded Psion Flayers, and we made it out alive. I won't say it was all your doing, but at the very least, you helped. Maybe you really are lucky." He smiled at her, and she chuckled.
    "Can I ask a question?" asked Katje timidly from where he still sat.
    "Only if you give me my Ghost back," said Zu, bringing her legs up to sit cross-legged upon the table. "Why're you avoiding me, Sunny? Did I say something wrong?"
    The little pink Ghost perked up considerably at her words. I'm not! I was just... I mean, you were really freaked out... I've been so worried, and you didn't know who I was, and I didn't know if our connection would ever be the same again, and—
    Come here, you, she said, holding her hands out expectantly and he moved to hover over them, his connection to her gradually warming to its usual soft glow. I feel like I've missed you. I'm sure I did, even when I wasn't really 'me'.
    I'm glad to have you back. His voice in her mind felt almost deliriously relieved now that they had fully reconnected.
    "So," said Katje, hopping up to sit beside her. "You told us you were remembering things, but you never told us what you had remembered. You said you'd explain when we returned to the Tower."
    "If it happened during the period between backup and reset, it's gone," she sighed.
    "Oh, oh! I can help make the necessary connections," said Sunny. "At least, I'm pretty sure I can. It's worth a try, isn't it?" Before she could say anything aloud, he scanned her face, his Light-laced touch lingering at her forehead for a long moment as it unlocked the same ancient series of memories within her. They blazed a jagged trail through her synaptic connections, snaking out to touch long-forgotten tangential memories that began to ache and throb all anew and she gasped, reeled in her seat. Van reached out to steady her as Sunny began to fret worriedly. "Oh no no no, not again!"
    I'm okay, I'm okay! She reassured him, pressing one hand to her forehead plating as he continued to fawn over her, scanning and apologizing. She pushed him away from her face gently as the wash of memories eddied and gradually receded from her foremost thoughts. "Ugh... I see why I didn't want to explain any of this out there in the middle of a mission. It wouldn't have been a very auspicious series of events to share."
    "If it's too stressful, it's okay," Katje quickly backpedaled. "I don't mean to pry—"
    "But you are prying," said Van.
    "Well... I mean..." Katje's eyes were wistful. "I can't remember anything from my life before I woke up as a Guardian. Maybe a few scattered impressions here and there, or a face in my dreams, but..."
    "It wasn't anything amazing or groundbreaking, it was just the mission that led up to my very first reset."
    "You don't have to tell us," said Van firmly, his icy stare causing Katje to finally blush and look away.
    "No... it's okay." She looked down at her hands, which were covered by the same sort of thick fabric as the rest of her armor undersuit. "I never told anyone about it, mainly because I didn't really remember it anymore, but I know I didn't want to remember — that's a big reason an Exo might go through a reset, because knowing something is too painful and we can't truly forget otherwise. But that was a long time ago, long before I died the first time, even. Now I do want to remember. It's important." Her hands balled themselves into fists. "I don't want to forget."
    Van looked at Katje again, who looked suitably subdued. He then looked back at Zu. "We're listening," he said finally, and he moved to pull his chair closer to the examination table.
    "What happened?" Katje asked.
    "Well... I was originally created as part of an exploration unit, but we were eventually overhauled to be warriors, soldiers. We were five in number. They were my best friends, my brothers and sister." She paused to put the sequence together in her mind. "We had been searching a warren of caves dug out by what we eventually learned were the Fallen. They had killed and dismembered three of our five-person units that had been sent in after them. As the unit with the most active hours under our belt, we were leading the latest operation. The people employing us at the time really wanted those Fallen outta those caves for some reason, and after we found a cavern packed with parts from other, foreign Exo as well as our own, we wanted them dead as well."
    "So that's why you said our mission was similar," Katje surmised. "We found a laboratory full of dead Ghosts, you found a cavern full of dead Exo."
    "If I did indeed make that verbal observation, you are most likely correct," she nodded. "As we continued, we eventually came across a cache of weapons and armor as well as a dormant Servitor. We had never seen a Servitor before, so none of us knew what it was or what it was capable of doing to us. It sat watching us, waiting for one of us to touch it before it would finally self-activate, fully intending to kill us all and add us to their collection."
    "How did you all escape the Servitor? I mean, this was before Guardians and Light were even a thing, wasn't it?"
    "We didn't all escape." Her tone was very somber, and her optics dimmed as she focused her attention inward. "Mai So was analyzing the Fallen tech in the room from an alcove just outside. Tsu Ne, our eldest brother, had gone to speak with a representative from another unit, Deng Li was helping them both, and that left myself and our youngest sibling, Chun Fa — the Servitor sang to the two of us, and I knew better than to mess with strange tech, but he couldn't resist its allure. He was too curious, too trusting. I tried to stop him, but he leapt onto it and died for his mistake. It exploded, the blast left his chassis intact but somehow shorted every last connection in his mental cores, turned his brain into a lump of smoldering metal. I very nearly wound up just like him because I tried to stop him." She shook her head. "Deng Li was our medic, he was able to revive me afterward but poor Fa, he was gone. We all reset immediately afterward. We couldn't bear remembering his loss with such vivid clarity, and we still had a mission to complete."
    "And now it's like you've lost him all over again." Katje laid a hand on her arm.
    "We razed that warren of death and everything inside it to ashes afterward." Her tone was much darker now. "We learned more about our enemy, their weaknesses and strengths, and we used all of that against them in future engagements. The death of our brother was also the death of our innocence. We became the pinnacle of what that subsidiary was able to produce in terms of fighting Exo." She blinked. "At least, I think so. I don't really remember all the details, but that sounds right."
    "Let's go with that, then," said Sunny. "You've had a long day of remembering things. Let's not push you into another reset."
    She shook her head. "No, this is different. From what you're telling me, that thing in the Cortex kept these memories it dredged up circulating within my frontal processors, kept throwing them all at me until I could no longer function. Now, I can access them at my leisure." She smiled. "Sunny usually helps me when I remember something," she explained, taking him into her hands again. "I do have flashes off and on, but never anything as serious or strong as what apparently happened today. We did get the job done, didn't we?"
    "We did, even though you don't really recall any of it yourself," said Katje with a grin.
    "I'm sure Sunny will be able to help fill in the gaps," said Van.
    "If you're feeling a little better, the Vanguard would like to see us all soon as possible," said Katje. "I did manage to appease them by reporting in for us, but the Commander in particular wants to ensure his new 'golden child' is all right."
    "'Golden child'?" Her head snapped up to stare at Katje, optics narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
    "You, duh," he said with a laugh. "De Zu-7, formerly of the 6 variety, the woman who single-handedly defeated Valus Ta'aurc, who led her fireteam to victory over the dreaded Psion Flayers even while suffering the devastating effects of their horrible Cortex AI mind-cracker. Sentinel of the Sands, Mistress of Mars, Foe of Phalanxes, Slayer of Psions, Queen of the Cabal-killers—"
    "Quit being an idiot, the Commander would never say any of that." Though Exo were not capable of an actual organic blush, most had adapted their non-verbal communications to accommodate an embarrassment tell somehow. Apparently Zu's version was a brighter, more reddened cast to her throat lights.
    "Okay... well, I suppose Cayde said most of that, not the Commander, but I digress. You're about to be the talk of the City. They just want to make sure you're okay, and they want a full group debriefing from us."
    "Well it looks like I'm halfway there," said Zu, tugging at the revealing undersuit that encased her torso and not much else. "Don't think he'd be too thrilled if I showed up looking like this, though."
    "You never know," said Katje, his smile widening into a full-on grin as he raked his gaze down her half-naked body. "Some guys like the heavy metal type." Her throat lights flushed a deep crimson behind her mouthplates and she shoved him away as he laughed merrily and Van groaned, handing her pieces of her armor. Sunny helped her to suit up, and together they bid the remaining Frame and the rest of the hospital ward farewell.

    "Aha," said Cayde, straightening from where he'd been leaning over his map to examine some smudge on the face of Venus as De Zu led Van and Katje down into the Hall of Guardians. Zavala looked up from his pile of reports, and Ikora from her stack of books. "I see you're all back in one piece?" His optics fell on De Zu meaningfully.
    "Yes, sir," she said with a firm nod.
    "Congratulations, Guardians," Zavala greeted them cordially. "The Cabal forces on Mars are so scattered that we've finally been able to open up the area to casual patrol missions. Our foothold has been established, and we have you three to thank."
    "It was our pleasure," replied Katje with a bow.
    "De Zu," said Ikora, "were they able to fill you in on the mission details? How much time did you lose?"
    "Luckily for me, I always leave a backup in my quarters before I head out on a mission. I've only lost the period of time between that last backup the morning we left for Mars to my activation in the underground laboratory." She glanced at Van and Katje, her trademark lopsided smile on her orange-splashed face. "Between them and my own Ghost, I think I've got a pretty good idea of how everything went down."
    "We're glad to hear you're all right, then."
    "Your success on Mars has made our efforts to clear the Cabal from Meridian Bay that much more effective, but there is still much to be done," said the Commander. "Take a few days, rest up. When you're ready, we'll have another mission for you."
    "Reset or not, though, we do need one last bit of important information from you," said Cayde, twirling a compass between his hands idly. "Have you three thought of a fireteam name yet?"
    The three shared a quick glance. "Did we?" asked Zu curiously.
    "No," Katje whispered, shaking his head. "After we left the Tower—"
    Van cleared his throat and addressed Cayde directly. "With everything else going on, we didn't really have the time to consider it." He gestured toward Zu meaningfully. "Perhaps you would be kind enough to grant us an extension—"
    "Now, now... no excuses," Cayde purred, using the compass to gesture at them with one hand, the other at his hip. "We need something to put over the loudspeakers when we announce your victory. Do you have one yet or not?"
    "What's the big deal?" Zu murmured. "What's he so happy about?"
    "We're about to lose a bet, that's what," Van whispered. "Hope you like being around small children, Zu."
    "Well I suppose I don't mind them, I guess, but—"
    "Dammit, I knew we forgot something," Katje groaned, slamming his fist into an open palm.
    De Zu's optics narrowed suddenly, and then she laughed aloud, mouthplates settling into her crooked grin. She turned back to the mentors. "Since you insist, we are happy to say that we've chosen a name for our team," she announced.
    "Wait, no!" Katje hissed in dismay.
    "We are Fireteam Punchline."
    Van and Katje stared at her in horror. All three of the Vanguard mentors blinked, and Ikora's brow knit itself slightly. "Two Titans and a Hunter..."
    "What the— Katje, you don't even punch anything," Cayde shot him a look of flat disapproval.
    Zavala suddenly barked a laugh that he was quick to stifle, and the other two mentors turned to stare at him in surprise as Zu grinned triumphantly at her companions, puffing up proudly. "That's the joke."