Hey hey hey everyone! How's things? So. As you can see. I made a new story. The reason is two fold. I had this idea bouncing around in my head for a LONG time. And it will serve as a inspiration for Lost Stars and vice versa to help me crank out chapters faster, hopefully. Without further adieu, enjoy.

I own nothing.

The following is a log on the Psychological profile of GUARDIAN, TITAN, [ARES] gathered from an interaction between a Hunter who had gone on a mission with [ARES] and GUARDIAN, HUNTER [CAIN-1], who is a close friend of [ARES].

H(F): *timidly comes up to C1 who is leaning on railing of Tower and overlooking City* U-Um C-Cain? Can I talk to you?

C1: *keeps looking forward and waves H(F) forward, she obeys nervously* Relax kid. I ain't gonna bite your head off...Reola right?

H(F): *eyebrows arch in surprise* Ye-Yes Cain! I-I'm surprised you remembered me. Me having just Risen a few months ago and only having a few conversations and-*H(F) begins to ramble*

C1: Oi. You're rambling. But of course I'd remember you. You're a Guardian. There are a finite number of us. Gotta remember everyone. So, *C1 leans back against rail and looks at H(F)* Whatcha need?

H(F): Oh! Y-Yes. I'm sorry, I had a question about a Titan, Ares, and Cayde said to find you. I had a mission with him recently.

C1: *rubs sides of head plates* What did he do now?

H(F): N-N-Nothing! Well, nothing wrong really, I was just curious on his behavior.

C1: *looks up and chuckles* Let me guess. Hive?

H(F): Yes. How did you know?

C1: I get asked about him every time a newbie goes on a mission with him. He only takes Hive missions if he has a say.

H(F): Why would he do that? He seemed so..so...

C1: Angry? Hateful? Burning with unbridled rage? *H(F) nods and C1 chuckles* Re. He does hate them. More than any Guardian out there. Hell you think they'd learn by now to run when they hear heavy metal and gunshots.

H(F): Why?

C1: He hates them, loathes them even, because of what they took from us, from him. They took everything from us in the Golden Age. And they took the love of his life from him, *C1 chuckles hollowly* because of my mistake. *C1 sighs*You gotta understand something about Ares, Reola. He has so much anger, so much hate inside of him, you could drown the Darkness in it.

The Traveler, a god from places unknown, found mankind in the twenty-second century.

It elevated them to heights unthought of.

Lifespans tripled.

Disease eliminated.

Colonies spanning the solar system and beyond.

It brought Light.

But for all Light, there is Darkness.

The Darkness found its mortal enemy not too long after that Golden Age.

It took EVERYTHING from us.

Colonies destroyed.

Hundreds of millions of lives lost.

It was not a war.

It was annihilation.

The Traveler gave us another chance with its dying breath.

The Ghosts, sent to find those who could wield the Light of the Traveler.

I am a Guardian.

I am born of the Traveler, the dead god that rests over the Last City.

I bear title many titles, Ares, the Crying God, Twinhammer, Fable and many more.

I am a Titan.

I am a Sunbreaker

I am a Striker.

I am a Defender

I am a warrior for the protection of the Light.

I am a weapon.

I am nameless.

My enemies fear me.

My comrades need me.

I am lost far from my people, with no way back.

But nothing will stop me from returning home.

Vanguard Tower, The Last City

A large, armored, blue-skinned and bald man with one tall red shoulder guard on his left arm read over the report given to him. His name was Zavala. The Titan Vanguard of the Guardians. He was an Awoken. He rubbed his temples. Once again the other boot dropped. They had defeated Crota only a few years ago. His father, Oryx, the Taken King had come to call in search of his son's killers.

He had found one.

Cain-1, the Nighthawk, a Hunter Gunslinger. Cayde's brother-by-bond. He had taken him during a mission to establish a beachhead on the ship. The Titan Commander sighed heavily, "Does he know?"

Ikora, his dark-skinned female companion with close cropped hair and garbed in violet Warlock robes befitting her position of Warlock Vanguard sighed. "Luckily, not yet," she said. She looked to Zavala with worry in her chocolate brown eyes. "You know we're going to have to tell him. The longer we wait to tell Cayde Cain's been captured...the worse the fallout will be."

Zavala nodded. "Yes and I plan to...but we both know he will likely try to go to get him back on his own. We need someone to attempt a rescue. But the amount of Guardians needed to breach the Dreadnought..." Zavala trailed off in thought before gaining an idea. His protegé, last he had heard at least, was near Jupiter, much closer than they were on Earth. The Commander stood tall and called to any who listened in the communications portion of the Vanguard room.

"Get Ares on the comms immediately."

The God of War was being summoned.

Callisto, Jupiter's moon

A large armored form flashed in the dark from gunfire. The dark glowed with eyes of the Hive. The Hive were a race turned to irredeemable evil through their pact with worm gods. They could have had the Sky, but they fell into the Deep. They bargained with the gods. That deal sealed the fate of the Hive as war worshipers. They were skeletal bi-peds, armored and vicious.

Thralls were the lowest tier of their sort. They had no eyes and used claws and teeth to rip and tear apart their prey. Cursed Thralls were blue headed and exploding versions of the Hive Thrall foot soldiers. Acolytes were the next step up and were the first with three visible eyes. Lightly armored and agile, acolytes waged medium to long fire support. Knights were just that. Wielding a sword and heavily armored in chitin, they were commanders. Wizards were above them. Robed and flying monstrosities, they launched volleys of dark Hive magic from afar.

The Thralls were currently doing battle.

If wholesale slaughter could be called that.

One poor Hive Cursed Thrall was grabbed by a large armored hand and promptly thrown into its brethren as it activated its explosive capabilities, killing over a dozen in the tight corridor.

There was a brief light as the end of the corridor was cleared. A lone light ray shone into the dark as a black armored boot stepped forward. A pair of flaming hammers blazed to life in the dark, held in black armored hands. Silver with one side bearing a beaked bird face and the other brutally spiked for tenderization, the glow reflected off the black tree shoulder guard and showed a merciless, pitch-colored medieval knightly-looking helm with two gouges across the left parallelogram-shaped eyehole. The Titan wore a plated chest piece decorated with metal embedded dual spread wings and a sun with a ring through it almost like a necklace painted on.

Thralls and Acolytes appeared at the cavern's edge, cloaking the rock hall in darkness from their density. A flaming projectile was lobbed at the murder of Hive and detonated.

Fire poured out of the hall, burning the Hive inside to nothing. A figure rushed through the flame and was in front of the remaining Hive in an instant, already swinging his fiery hammers in an overhead crash at a unlucky Acolyte. The hammers met no resistance as they burned a path through it. Once hitting the ground, the figure threw his right hammer straight out to the side. It crashed into the chest of a recently arrived Knight and it flew back from the force. The hammer exploded as the Knight arrived in a group of Hive.

A black palm caved in the chitin of an approaching Acolyte. The nameless Titan saw reinforcements arrive to the rear in the form of high-ranking Wizards and several Knights. The Titan said nothing as he formed another hammer and rushed towards them, carving a path through all Hive that stood in his way and leaving nothing but flames and embers in his wake.

Arriving at his targets, his foot planted on an Acolyte's head and crushed it. Pushing off its body, he threw one hammer after another forming a new one the moment one left his hands.

One Knight survived the barrage. The Titan flew towards it in the air and charged Solar Light into his remaining hammer. The Knight swung it's sword to block and the two weapons clashed.

The Knight never stood a chance. The hammer crashed through the sword and crushed its head, sending chitinous shards flying.

The Titan kept his hammer burning for another minute as he looked around to make sure he was alone. Once satisfied, he approached the reason he was here.

A shard of the Traveler stood suspended on a platform in the center of the gothic-themed chamber. Holding up his palm, a small shimmer of light appeared and a Ghost with a white with an orange stripe down the center of its shell came into existence. It set to work immediately, knowing talking to its Guardian on a mission about pointless chatter, in his eyes, was not wanted.

The Ghost transmatted the Shard aboard the ship and nodded to its Guardian who returned the gesture. Reaching up and undoing the fastening on his helmet, he removed it. Red, shaggy, neck-length hair spilled out as the helmet was lifted off. An amber left eye and an emerald right eye stared stoically at his Ghost. A trio of scars ran across the semi-pale, almost blue skin of his right eye diagonally towards his ear. "Good work Harmonia." The deep and gruff voice rumbled warmly. The Ghost named Harmonia seemed to preen at the praise.

"Oh, it was nothing," came the female voiced reply. Harmonia flew up in his face and began to get angry. "How many times do I have to tell you! You. Have. Guns! Use them! Especially with Cursed Thralls around. I'm not sure if you're aware but this is a Dark Zone bonehead! If you were to die, I can't revive you because my Light is smothered in here!" She rammed herself into his head again and again to try and physically ingrain the lesson she had told him multiple times. "Hard Light would have been perfect in that little corridor you decided to have a grapple match with the Thrall in! Think! I know Titans are known for force before brains but I also know you are smarter than some Warlocks...please think before you act. I worry about you.." Harmonia's voice dipped low in worry and shyness. A large hand cupped her and brought her close. A smile met her eye.

"As you wish." Harmonia nodded in acceptance.

"I'll hold you to that Ares." She suddenly perked up. "Incoming urgent transmission from Zavala and Ikora. Patching them through now."

"Ares. Zavala speaking. Where are you?"

"Jupiter's moon Callisto, Commander," came the respectful reply. He asked not the reason for the call. It would be explained.

"Good. You're close to Saturn. We have a problem."

"Sir?"

"Cain's been captured." That single sentence sent off warning bells. Cain...was strong. For a Hunter that is. He was of the less squishy ones. He was...a close friend. One of the few Ares had. If he had been captured...

"How?"

"Oryx came for revenge."

"Oryx...The Taken King? Crota's father? That Oryx?" Ares asked. He had...done research on the Hive to put it lightly.

"The very same. He arrived and wiped out the Awoken fleet. We need you to go to the rescue. His Dreadnought resides in Saturn's rings. It cleared a circular area around it. You'll see it immediately."

"Already heading back to the ship." Ares said as he replaced his helm. "What do we know?"

Ikora's voice came over the comms of his helmet this time. "Cayde...sent him to establish a beachhead and patrol network on the dreadnought as an unofficial mission. He was deep in the Dreadnought when his comms cut out after he disabled the main weapon. We don't know if Alastor is still alive either. We're sending you due to the fact if we don't send someone soon Cayde will likely go alone. Zavala decided since you were closer you would be able to handle it with your strength. At least until backup arrives if needed."

"Noted. Anything else?"

"We have his last location. Nothing else that would help you. Good luck Ares. Bring him back safe." Zalava stated. Ares nodded to himself and the line dropped.

"Harmonia, set a course for Saturn. I'm raiding the Armory." The Ghost dipped its head as she transmatted them both into the blue, tripronged Awoken ship known as Ceres Galliot. He had received it as a gift from the Awoken Queen Mara Sov. Even though it was for services rendered, Harmonia had a feeling Mara Sov had a soft spot for her Guardian. Or Titans in general.

After all, there was that time with Shaxx...

With the shard put under Light signature hiding sealing and other preparations done, they set off for Saturn.

They found Cain's ship or rather what was left of it. It floated in the void of space aimlessly, broken in too many pieces to count. Ares, who had finished his raid and taken the helm, scowled. Gliding stealthily to the Dreadnought, Harmonia transmatted her Guardian to the sand covered floor.

Holding a suppressed sidearm forged under the Iron Banner, Ares scanned the immediate area. There were some Hive in the distance feasting it seemed. There were Cabal too. The big blue ship he saw was theirs. They engaged the Hive and Ares moved, thankful for the distraction.

Quickly leaving the room, he set a course for his friend's last known location.

He arrived at the area Cain was last seen and looked around, trying to find any marker of where Cain had gone. He was in an aqueduct seeming type of area. Moving forward he heard a repeated, thumping boom. Peering around a corner he saw a Hive contraption lift, turn, then drop in a resounding boom. That was the noise at least. He also saw a few Wizards, several Thralls and three Knights guarding a large, heavily secured door. Their shielding aura each held a different tint to it. He cursed. Ritual magic it seemed. If Ares was a betting man, he's wager Cain was beyond it. No matter, he had seen this magic before.

But first, he had to get to the door, and there happened to be some..."obstacles." Ares put his scout rifle to his shoulder. Black painted, it reflected no light as The Doctor treated its patients. The Thrall and Wizards were dealt with within one magazine's worth of bullets. The dozen Thrall fell with a single shot each. The Wizards took a bit more to take down but The Doctor treated all patients equally with extreme care. An Acolyte who had entered from the side scored a lucky shot. Its round grazed his side.

Hissing in pain, Ares dealt with the annoyance. He sighed in relief as he felt the effect of The Doctor's Loving Treatment. Through Hive rituals typically used to leech the life-force and Light of Guardians, Ares achieved the desired result with his own creation. After all, what better way to battle an enemy than with their own techniques?

The Knights were all that was left once The Doctor finished its Treatment.

They knew not the storm that came next.

Ares launched himself into the air and channeled Sol into his fists. As he landed, the pent up Light exploded out, incinerating the orange tinted Knight. Quickly lashing out with an Arc-laced foot, he sent the limb through a Knight's head with a jumping spin kick. The last one was bisected as a Void made shield crashed into its chest cavity and went through it like tissue paper. Ares landed and took a deep breath. He had not switched between his Light attributes like that in a long time.

He stood, popping his shoulders as the magic holding the doors closed ceased and they slowly ground open. The Titan raised his weapon to its position against the shoulder and marched in. Inside Ares saw something both incredible and terrifying.

Endless, massive, cylindrical cells, each hanging from cords, ready to be discarded on a whim. Bridges with no guards wound down to each from the skin of the ship.

A glint of metal from the shadows took Ares from his thoughts as he swung The Doctor to its position.

"A-Ares," came a weak and distorted but familiar voice, "Harmo-Harmonia? Is that you?" Slowly a shape made its way from the shadows.

It was Alastor.

He looked terrible.

Scratches and cracks adorned his black green-speckled shell and one fin was missing. His eye flickered feebly as he looked to them with exhaustion evident. Harmonia quickly left Ares' Light and went to her friend and looked him over. "Ares! Light! Now!" She commanded. Ares rushed over and held up two hands on either side of Alastor. Light in its rawest possible form for Ares emanated from his palms. Slowly, worryingly so, Alastor began to heal. The cracks receded and the scratches disappeared. The Ghost perked up slightly as he absorbed the Light.

"I..I'm so glad," he said. "They finally sent help. I-I was beginning to worry." Alastor glanced up to Ares helm in worry. "Cain...he's in a cell here. Oryx has been torturing him personally. I-I've done what I can to help him but that," his core gestured back to the missing fin, "was when he almost caught me. That was 437 hours, 31 minutes and 48 seconds ago. Before that Cain had been captured for 19 hours, 49 minutes and 16 s-seconds. However, t-that fin is now lodged in the Taken King's eye," he finished proudly.

Ares chuckled internally, good on the little Light for messing with Oryx. "Can you lead us to him?" An affirmative dip of the Ghost was his response. "Then let's go, quickly." Ares masked his Light to the lowest level possible and the group began to move, Harmonia merging back to Ares' Light as Alastor led them.

He led them deep, oh so very, very deep into the ship. Through stealth and luck, no conflict that would alert the Taken King was had.

They stopped finally.

"This it?"

Alastor dipped in a nod. "This is it." The cell was heavily fortified, runes adorning every last visible inch of it. Oryx took no risk it seemed.

"Harmonia? Can you open it without-"

His Ghost materialized from his Light and looked at him. Harmonia rolled her eye and went to work mumbling in annoyance.

Ares wisely said nothing as he stood guard.

It felt like forever.

How long had he been here?

He could feel no Light.

His Ghost was gone.

Help was not coming.

It was dark.

Suffocating.

Quiet.

Wayyyy too quiet.

He was supremely bored.

And the chains sucked.

He couldn't even scratch himself from this spread eagle position.

It felt like forever since he had been trapped. Since then Oryx came by often to personally...entertain him.

At first there was no torture. He had simply spoke with the Guardian, trying to turn him to the Deep. Cain of course oh so wisely proceeded dig into the King about his son's death and, when he provoked Oryx, to physically hit the Taken King in the head with his own, unknowingly digging a piece of Alastor's shell deeper. After that, well, Cain thought he had felt pain before.

He was wrong.

The way Oryx used the Dark was as impressive as it was agonizing. He used it to directly attack Cain's Light, but was careful never to snuff it out. He wanted to continue as long as possible.

The Hive runes on the door to his prison glowed before going black. Oh goodie. It seemed it was that time again.

"So Ory-boy," Cain called to the darkness, not even lifting his head, "what'll it be this time? Dark attack again? Or some activation of the pain runes? Oh! Oh! How about the good ol' hack and slash? Though I will admit I've grown rather partial to the method where you rip out my Light bit by bit before shoving it all back in like stuffing in a toy." His voice was strong, not letting Oryx know how badly he was hurting.

A voice answered him. "Ever the snark Cain."

Wait...that wasn't Oryx.

Cain's head whipped up, "Ares...Well I'll be damned," he tried to sound strong, he really did, but the strain in his voice was evident of just how long he spent in Oryx's care. "That you, you Hive Slayer asshole?...The Vanguard pulled out all the...all the stops huh? C-curious, how many did you take out before you got here?" He chuckled weakly, "You really think...th-they'd learn to run whe-when they hear the s-sounds of heavy metal and...gu-gunshots." Cain coughed heavily as Ares approached.

"Sure," Ares strode from the shadows with purpose towards Cain. He set about undoing the chains one by one. "Insult the guy saving your shiny metal ass. Real smart idea Cain."

Cain chuckled weakly in relief. "Hey...I gotta get ya to let loose every now and then...Otherwise when...when you open your mouth, we can see that...big...fuckin' stick up your ass...in the back of your throat." The pain in his voice caused the hate Ares had for the Hive to rise just a little more. They would pay.

Ares got him down and Cain fell to his knees as the last chain came undone. A heavily armored hand filled his vision. The Exo reached up and grasped it. Ares pulled him to his feet and the bright light Harmonia cast on him revealed the physical trauma Oryx dealt.

Long trenches of rent black metal littered Cain's face, one eye was dysfunctional as a result. His jaw hung at an awkward angle, and there was a weird rustic looking wound on where his left ear fin used to be. His cloak was torn to shreds, armor slashed, clawed, and otherwise destroyed. His signature helmet was nowhere to be seen.

All in all, Cain went through hell and it showed.

"Alastor? Are you strong enough to heal him yet?" Cain's lone eye shone brighter at Ares' statement. Alastor was here? His Ghost was safe?

The Ghost in question flew forward. "Not yet. We need to get to the outside part of the ship. The Light is smothered in here."

"Then let us get there then. Cain, are you well enough to walk?"

He nodded and went to take a step, "Yea-" Cain fell forward and Ares caught him. He slung Cain over his shoulder. "Oh c'mon man...this is just embarrassing."

"You cannot walk and I am the only combat fit Guardian here," Ares stated, his mission personality back in place. He drew Ironwreath-D from his thigh. "We need to hurry. The longer we dwell, the longer the Taken King has to discover us."

Alastor nodded. "Let's get out of here then."

The group began to move, fast but stealthy as possible. The way to the outer shell provided no difficulty, but it was suspiciously easy. There was inter-dimensional plasma-like...goo of the Taken all over the place with a massive splatter on the edge of the hole of the ship.

"Alastor? Is this close enough," Ares asked, eyes panning the room where the Cabal and Hive had been doing battle only a short time ago. All was silent now.

"This is perfect." The Ghost nodded and Ares set Cain-1 down against a nearby pillar.

"Hurry and heal him," Alastor began to do just that. Ares felt something off about the situation in his gut. "We need both of us combat capable on the chance Oryx attacks us on the ship. Harmonia bring Galliot around."

It was slow going due to the Dark inflicted wounds but Cain was healing as time ticked on. The next few minutes were spent in tense silence. Ares felt something coming. The ship shook and he heard a distant roar. "Alastor! Hurry," Ares called as he hefted The Doctor to his shoulder.

A bang echoed across the room. A dark shadow flew from the darkness above the Cabal warship and swooped down. "SON KILLER! YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE," came the bellow of the Taken King.

Oryx had come.

Ares hated when he was right.

He fired several shots from his creation trained directly on the King's facial region. Oryx flew around the shots and hefted his sword.

"Cain! Run! I'll hold him off," he knew the look Cain was giving him. "GO!" Ares roared. He heard Cain curse behind him as hurried, limping, footsteps receded. 'Harmonia. Oryx is here. Stay away,' he sent over their mental link.

The King of the Taken went to pursue his prisoner but a flaming hammer would have exploded on his face had he not flipped his sword so the width took the brunt. The blast obscured his vision and the force still pushed him back. He roared as he reared back. "Your opponent is me Auryx." Ares snarled as he formed another hammer. On his left arm, a large, circular, Void-made shield with a two-headed pheonix came into existence. He raised the shield until it was below his eyes and willed his hammer into a hand-and-a-half form for more reach.

Oryx grasped his sword with both hands, clawed fingers curling around the handle. "Your Light shall belong to me then Titan," he growled.

In an instant Oryx was on Ares, sword in mid-swing. He lifted his shield from the ground to block the strike but Oryx diverted last second and the Titan was forced to jump back lest his legs be severed. All was not lost in this maneuver however as he threw his shield at the King and willed his hammer into a Maul of burning Light.

Ares landed and rushed towards Oryx and swung with all his might upwards. Oryx deflected the shield and it flew off to the side. He saw the swing coming last second and moved back to avoid it. The Titan let go with a single hand and formed another hammer as his original shortened. Ares saw a darting color of blue far off the Dreadnought and cursed. Why of now did his Ghost decide to disobey?

Oryx focused on Ares, disregarding the ship in its entirety. He swung, blade a black horizontal flash across his vision. Ares bent backwards and kicked up, sending his foot into Oryx's chest. A snarling cough let him know he had landed a solid hit.

First blood belonged to him.

Oryx did not let that stand. He came at Ares, much faster than before. Slash, stab, slash, claw, backhand, Ares was hard pressed to block and dodge them all, such was the speed. He caught the pitch blade of the King between the hooked beaks of his hammers as Ares diverted the path of the swing.

Thus began his fight for survival.

Their fight took them all across the room as they fought for several minutes that stretched eternity. Ares had gone for more speed and less defense and opted to form another smaller and denser shield on his arm. The Titan dropped his left shoulder back and stepped to the side to avoid another slash. He threw the shield, Oryx tilting his head to dodge. Ares ran at him and got inside the guard of the Taken King. He called his shield back and it struck the blindside of Oryx's head then faded. He jumped and sent an Arc filled spin-kick with the force of a freight train at Oryx's face and sent the King skidding back.

Oryx gripped his face and stood. A growl was all that was issued. He was on Ares again within a second, his hand lashing out with speed that had yet to be seen, Oryx grabbed Ares by the head and threw him into the personal ship of the Titan that had arrived milliseconds before. He crashed through the ship and sent both careening into the Taken plasma-like substance that linked dimensions.

Ares fell unconscious to the screeching of rending metal, tearing earth and Harmonia screaming his name.

Deep in unknown territory, red irises set in pitch orbs snapped open in the night. A snarl found its way onto a beautiful, black veined, pale face. A regal voice spat words with so much venom, it could kill gods themselves.

"Light has returned to Remnant."