Glynda stormed through the Warlock Cloisters leaving a trail of scattered Magus and Adepts in the wake of her clicking heels. She was struggling to find an adjective to describe how angry she was but words like furious and livid just wouldn't cut it. She should have seen something like this coming, this was Ikora she was dealing with. To think the Warlock Vanguard would be so reckless with the life of her apprentice just to expedite Scarlatina's ascension to Clericship. Now that she thought about it, it was an obvious play for Ikora to make.

If a Warlock of Velvet's level were to become a Stormcaller, the first for over a century, it would only be right for her to be made a Cleric. But that meant one of the current Clerics would have to step down. She could see Ikora's line of thinking; it would make sense for the new Stormcaller to take one of the seats held by either her or Ikora, so all of the sub-orders were represented on the Cleric's Council. And Ikora's position as Vanguard all but guaranteed that it would have been Goodwitch that had lost her seat.

But from the reports she had heard Ikora's plan had crashed headlong into an unexpected problem.

The doors crashed open in front of her as she forced them open with a flick of her wrist, the boom echoing around the central hall. However it didn't have the intended effect as Ikora didn't even flinch, leaving Glynda now on the back foot, psychologically speaking.

"I must have someone look at those doors they do swing ever so loosely." Glynda fought back a grimace as Ikora looked up to face her, "I suppose you have heard the extraordinary news."

The Vanguard was keeping her cards close to her chest, "It took some incredible foresight on your behalf to see the potential Neptune had, personally I've never held I very high regard."

But two could play at that game and Glynda took delight in the grimace that crossed Ikora's own face when she threw the Vanguard's failed plan back in her face.

"You obviously had a lot of faith in his abilities to send Miss Scarlatina along with him…"

It was at this point that Cayde-6, who had been listening in on their conversation decided to take his leave lest he draw the ire of either of the powerful Warlocks.

"Speaking of Apprentice Clerics…"

Since she had seen Ruby's jumpship leave the Tower, Yang had been constantly on edge. Her agitated pacing around her recovery room had even caused concern for the Speaker who thought she was starting to lose her mind. So when Cayde-6 walked in with what constituted a grin plastered across his metal face he shouldn't have been surprised when she grabbed his collar and lifted him into the air.

"Yang! It's so good to see you!" The Exo exclaimed as his feet dangled a centimetre or so above the ground, "My word. Haven't you gotten strong."

"Enough bullshit Cayde where is Ruby going? You're meant to be looking out for her!" Yang punctuated every couple of words with a rough shake.

"Right. Down to business. I like that." The Vanguard rather stupidly joked.

"I will throw you off that balcony…" Yang threatened with a flick of her head towards the vista to her right.

"Okay… How about we both sit down and talk this through." Cayde suggested, nodding in the direction of the small table.

A few nervous seconds passed, during which he thought the exceptionally protective older sister might actually stay true to her word, before the grip on his collar loosened and his feet touched back down on the ground.

Using the time it took to brush himself down, the Exo made sure that the Sunsinger had taken her seat before joining her.

"Ruby isn't meant to be going on any missions alone." Yang's tone reminded him so much of her mother that an image of the black haired Hunter was dug up from his memory core and displayed just in the top right corner of his vision. It was easy enough to see Taiyang in her appearance but she definitely took after her birth mother, especially her eyes which had turned to the blood red colour that signified her Branwen heritage. He would never understand how she had ended up being a Warlock when her parents had been a Titan and a Hunter not that becoming a Guardian was hereditary. It was just unusual that she hadn't taken after either of her parents.

"She hasn't been sent on a mi…"

"Then where is she going."

With a vague gesture Cayde-6 summoned his Ghost which began to project a small map displaying Earth and its local space. A small red arrow flashed slowly in a low Earth orbit.

"From what little information Tower control knows they think she is preparing to make a faster than light jump, with a predicted target of the Moon."

"Why the Moon?" Yang asked as Cayde slid a small electronic display over to her.

"See for yourself."

A quick read of what revealed itself to be a field report caused all of the colour to drain from her face and her voice to go quiet.

"The House of Winter…"

"Watch where you're putting your hand!"

Jaune flinched away from the sharp voice that bought him back from the daze he had been lost in. The light of his and Weiss's Ghosts quickly revealed his predicament. Sprawled out below him was the smaller frame of one undoubtedly unhappy Warlock.

Shifting his body as swiftly and cautiously as he could, the Titan extracted himself from the awkward situation. Slowly rising to a standing position the blonde took stock of their situation, the pair seemed to be at the bottom of a very deep pit, the steep stone walls were featureless save for one narrow fissure that was probably just big enough for them to squeeze through.

"What do you think happened?"

He asked has he searched for what he hoped would be the top of the pit, but even with his Ghost's light he could see nothing.

"You obviously lost your footing, crashed into me and knocked us both into this hole." Weiss spat angrily.

"But something crashed into me…"

"Are you blaming me?"

"N-n-no, something else obviously hit me and I hit you."

The Titan replied raising his hands defensively.

The Warlock gave a small dismissive huff as she pulled her feet underneath her and rose to a standing position.

"Well it looks like I'm going to have to get us out of this mess."

"How?"

"Like this."

The white haired girl said assertively as she took a small running start and leapt into the air before vanishing with a surge of energy that Jaune had come to associate with her powers. There was a pause of maybe half a second before a high pitch scream pierced the darkness and Weiss's small form dropped down from above and straight on to his upturned face.

Once again finding themselves in a tangled mess of limbs, Jaune muttered only one complaint as the Voidwalker pulled herself of him.

"My back…"

"Oh stop moaning I'm fine and I was the one who fell."

"That's because I broke your fall!"

"Well aren't you the perfect hero." she replied sarcastically.

"And I thought you were going to get us out of here!" Jaune uncharacteristically snapped causing the Voidwalker to pause.

"I can't." she muttered inaudibly

"What was that?"

"I said I can't!" Weiss yelled back, "I'm not strong enough! I wasn't strong enough during that match in the Crucible and I'm not strong enough now!"

Her piece said the small Warlock stood their breathing heavily her slight frame rising and falling with her ragged breaths. "I'm sorry…"

"Why? It was my actions that meant we lost."

"It's not about that…" Weiss hung her head as she continued, "You did the right thing but I wasn't strong enough to admit to my mistake."

"Weiss it wasn't your fault. How could you have known?" Jaune asked, this tone becoming more even in response to Weiss's despondent one.

"I should have known… I should have been more aware… I could have killed her… I'm sorry Jaune I was weak and I took it out on you."

"Do you think they're okay?" Pyrrha asked as she followed the dark form of the Hunter in front of her.

"Hopefully."

Pyrrha had quickly learned in the short time she had been alone with the girl that Blake wasn't much of a conversationalist, though she should have probably realised that earlier as she couldn't actually remember a time she had, had an actual conversation with the girl alone.

They had managed to dispatch the Thralls that had been chasing them with a few well-placed grenades a little bit of luck. But their flight from danger had forced them deeper into the cave system, and Pyrrha knew that without Blake and Toland's Journal she would probably never have found her way out.

According to Toland's extensive map of the winding tunnels and halls of the Hellmouth Jaune and Weiss should be able to get out of the hole they had fallen in through a large fissure in the rock face that would bring them out in a place called The Gatehouse.

Pyrrha hoped that they would both be okay but her thoughts kept inexplicably drifting to Jaune.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden burst of static through her radio.

"It's Jaune's Ghost. We must have gone deep enough to re-establish contact." her Ghost concluded.

Jaune and Weiss hadn't spoken since Weiss's apology so the sudden burst of static that crackled in their ears caused the Titan and Warlock to jump in surprise. Though their Ghosts had been hailing on all Guardian frequencies, for a while now, they hadn't expected anything so quickly.

"Ja-e, W-ss, can y- h-ar me?" The voice over the radio was very distorted but it was clearly Pyrrha's.

"Pyrrha! We can hear you."

"Jaune!" the relief was evident in the female Titan's voice as the signal began to strengthen. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah we're fine. What about you? Are you safe?"

Pyrrha's heart did a little flutter; the blonde's concern for her wellbeing seemed to run a little deeper than what she would expect. "I'm fine Jaune; we managed to deal with the Thralls."

"I'm here and doing fine as well." Blake added sarcastically.

"Oh righ…" Jaune cut himself off with a blush, "I'm glad you're okay as well Blake."

"Thank you."

"Blake has found a way for you to get out of the pit." Pyrrha added enthusiastically.

"If she tells us to climb…" Weiss, seemingly back to her normal self, muttered under her breath.

The Titan continued unaware of the Warlock's comments. "According to the Journal, there should be a fissure in the rock face that you can slip through. It should bring you out at a place called The Gatehouse."

Jaune looked across the small area of ground to the crack in the rock, as it stood it was going to be a tight squeeze for Weiss let alone him.

"Is there another way?" he asked hopefully.

"You could try climbing." Blake added.

"Okay understood," the Titan replied quickly before cutting of communications as Weiss began to curse about smart-mouth Hunters.

Giving the Voidwalker her space for a moment, Jaune moved to examine the fissure. It was definitely a claustrophobe's worst nightmare, the sharp ragged surface closed in from about a shoulder's width as it rose from ground level until coming together a foot or so above head level.

Slowly moving his arm into the space, he was thankful nothing leaped out of the dark to take his arm.

"So are we going or not?"

Whipping his head round as his companion spoke Jaune cracked his head against an outcropping of rock, though his helmet protected him he still led out an involuntary yelp.

"I don't get you," Weiss sighed. "One minute you're sweeping and clearing like a highly trained soldier and the next you're bumping into everything like a toddler."

"Sorry…"

"Never mind let's just get moving before I change my mind."

Refocusing his attention on the task at hand Jaune slowly edged himself into the fissure sideways, the light of his Ghost casting his shadow against the enclosing walls. With Weiss at his metaphorical heels they made a good about of progress before their journey came to an abrupt halt.

"Uh… Weiss…"

"You're stuck aren't you…"

On his journeys Toland, being a Warlock, had probably never had to face the problem of having a few inches of Plasteel plating strapped to is back and chest. Jaune on the other hand…

"Can you move?" Weiss asked from very close to his side.

The plates of his armour groaned as he tried to move in either direction but to no avail.

"I could try to force you through with a Void Burst." the Voidwalker offered.

His training with Goodwitch still in recent memory Jaune quickly replied, "N-n-no that's okay."

"Have you got a better idea?"

"I could just have my Ghost remove my chest piece," he ventured.

"That would leave your torso unprotected in a hostile environment." his Ghost replied.

"No, it's risky but I have to agree with Jaune. There's no guarantee that the tunnel gets any wider, we could just end up making things worse."

Jaune couldn't help but be surprised at Weiss changing her mind and agreeing with him, but he was definitely thankful for it.

His Ghost added no further comment as sparkles of light sprung up from the armour plating as it was transmatted to his storage leaving only his light base layer and ammo pouches. The pressure his chest relieved Jaune heaved a sigh of relief before pushing onward into the darkness.

From the cockpit of her jumpship Ruby watched her HUD readouts as it slipped out of it's faster than light jump into a lunar orbit. She was a few kilometres off her target exit point but that was within the acceptable margin of error. Making a few course corrections she descended to a lower orbit.

The reports had said the House of Winter's Ketch had been sighted passing over Archer's Line and to Ruby that only meant one thing.

Draksis.

The Kell of Winter.

"This is a really bad idea…"

Her Ghost tried to be the voice of reason against the turmoil of emotions that was pushing their Guardian forward but was completely ignored. With a quiet sigh the Ghost secretly sent their location data back to the Tower.

Cayde didn't even read the information that appeared at his terminal, within half a second it had been forwarded to the one person who needed that information and within the minute he had a reply.

"On my way."

Propping is feet up on his desk and reclining in his chair, the Exo once again cursed his confinement to the Tower as his eyes dimmed. Contrary to popular belief Exo's cannot run indefinitely, they require periods of rest during which their neural networks wind down to almost zero sensory data transfer. Most Exo describe the phenomenon as being akin to sleep.

It was in this state that Cayde currently resided, his metallic eyes flicking to and fro as if following an invisible spectre around the room. While ignorant to the world around him the deep neural pathways of his mind accessed the vivid memories stored in his memory bank.

Summer hadn't made contact with the Tower in two months; this in itself was not an unusual occurrence, the dark haired Hunter had a habit of targeting the largest prey available and the tracking and planning required took an exorbitant amount of time.

Cayde knew this but had been unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong. And now as he stood on the edge of Winter territory he knew he had been right.

Her wrists bound and hanging over the entrance to the Ember Caves was the woman he had once truly fallen for, her dark shoulder length hair whipping in the wind across her pale blank features.

Beside him was the only man she had ever loved in return, the Titan's voice broke as a scream of incomprehensible pain and raw primordial fury tore itself from his throat. The mighty Titan fell to his knees, his fist striking the ground repeatedly as sobs racked his body.

Cayde could only wonder how one man could be so lucky and at the same time be so equally unlucky, two amazing women had become completely smitten with him and he had lost them both.

Movement to his right alerted Cayde to the Titan removing his helmet and discarding it in the dirt. His pale blue eyes staring at the scene in front of him to confirm what he was seeing was real. Confusion and pain slowly morphed into a steely decisiveness, priming his shotgun the Titan rose to his feet. The stony expression on his face betrayed his intentions as Cayde managed to grab the bigger man from behind as he moved to rush onward.

"Damn it Cayde! Let me go!" he screamed as he strained against the Exo's metal arms.

"We're not prepared for this," the Hunter replied flatly. "You're not the only one who wants revenge."

"I don't care! I'll kill them all or die trying! Either way it doesn't matter anymore…"

"You can't really mean tha-"

Cayde was cut off by the other man's voice, "Let go of me! You infernal machine, how could you even understand how I feel! You don't even have a heart!"

The Titan's statement was one of the simplest, yet most painful insults that the Exo had ever had thrown at him. But he didn't begrudge the man it, he was just throwing his anger at anything that stood against him.

"Summer wouldn't have wanted this, think of your two beautiful daughters. Do you want them to grow up without a father?"

At his words the Titan visibly sagged in the Hunter's arms.

"We'll take her home and give her the funeral she deserves. Then we'll return and burn this House to the ground."

Author's Note: Guess who's back!

Wow its been a while, guess I should probably take care of a few things.

1. No, I'm not dead.

2. No, the story is not dead/abandoned.

Now that's over I'd like to apologize for constantly going dark in between chapters but I really don't have anyway to directly communicate with everyone accept when I post chapters and I really don't want to post a chapter that has no actual story cause I know I hate it when other people do that.

Any advice?

Now on to Volume 3 discussion.

Some of the events that occurred in Volume 3 have, for me at least, confirmed some of the ideas I have had for this story for a while now so those ideas and story lines have become more concrete. I leave all speculation in your hands.

As always please leave a review with any questions or PM me if you'd prefer and I'll see you on the other side Guardians.