Alice stood there, Grixis dashing across the flat Earth to get to her, she observed him. Knowing the enemy is half the battle, so she wasn't planning on doing anything very offensive just yet. The blade swung at her and she ducked under it, lowering herself so that barely a millimetre was between her and the blade. When she came back up, she launched her leg up at his chest plate, connected, and sent him back a couple of metres. Then she stood up straight, and tested out a new strategy. "You aren't very good at sword play, are you?"

Grixis dug his feet into the ground to keep from sliding further. The way this Hunter evaded his attack. This one wasn't going to go down easily. He built up the Arc energy and charged at the Hunter once more. He saw that she was preparing for the same attack. He readied his sword to slash horizontally, and once he was in range again, he- His entire frame was engulfed in shadows at the last second, before vanishing from sight. A second later, he reappeared directly behind her, and striked. His attack launched her a few meters from the direction from where he had been pushed back. He saw the damage he dealt too, a gash across her back. It wasn't deep however, to his disappointment, but it wasn't shallow either. He would have also liked to have cut the cloak in the process, but that thing has been flapping in the wind. Too bad, it would have added insult to injury. Suddenly, a roar sounded from overhead. He looked up to see Emaria and his Jumpship going in for another attack on Shovoroth, as he seemed to fall a bit before regaining control of himself, his flight however was a little off. The roar came from Shovoroth, one that sound like a roar of pain, but other than the present wounds, there weren't any other injures, so why had he- It clicked in his head. They were bonded to each other, and their pain was shared. Oh this was too good. "So that is how you are keeping him alive. Your souls are bound to each other." He said aloud to the Hunter as she began to recover and get up. He reached out to Emaria. '[i]Don't hesitate to cripple him. Make him suffer.'[/i] '[i]Why, of course.'[/i] He focused back on the Hunter, waiting to see what she would do next.

Alice turned her head to see Grixis out the corner of her eye. "Teleportation? Seriously?" She snickers. "Can't even face me head on." She turns around to face him once more, then she looks up at Shovoroth, seeing him losing ground due to her carelessness. "Y'know, I get pissed off when I fall for idiotic tricks. So, let me show you some of my own." She pulls out all three swords and holds all three of them together by the hilt. A light sparks in her hands, causing a flash bang of light that temporarily stuns Grixis, and in that moment, she rushes forward with drastic speed. She slices three times, once on the leg, once at the arm and once at the head. The first two hit but Grixis staggers back, the swipe at the head missing. She dashes past as Darkness leaks out of the two injuries she dealt. She stands up straight with her sword on her shoulder, a big bastard sword glowing bright. "Meet Lights Conduit. Tier Seven." Unknowing to anyone on the battle field, Grixis's darkness slides along the ground to Alice and floats up to her wound, seeping into her. Meanwhile, Shovoroth and Emaria continue clawing at eachother with the ship making unfair advantages. "Garuud, deal with that ship." Alice says, turning back to Grixis.

Grixis crashed to his left knee, the leg that hadn't been slashed open. His left arm had nearly been cut off as it had been cut halfway through the bone, allowing a large amount of Dark tainted blood to spill out on the rocks. The attack was. Unexpected. He was prepared for many things to counter. [i]That[/i], was not one of them unfortunately. Then his entire torso became engulfed in Light and Darkness, making it almost appear ethereal. The Reborn energies then traveled out along his arm and leg, and covered up each as well. It poured into each gash, and quickly reformed and healed each. When it was done, the Reborn energies dissipated, and leaving Grixis completely unscathed, as if he hadn't been hit at all. He slowly turned around to face the Hunter, holding the combination of the three swords. "I underestimated you." He called out. He quickly brought his free arm toward his chest and just as quickly brought it back to his side. When he did, the form of a Hive Cleaver appeared in his hand out of shadow. It's hilt was normal, but the entire blade itself was made of pure Darkness. At the same time, his first cleaver's entire blade became engulfed in pure Light. Then the Arc energy around his body became sporadic, electricity shooting out at no where in particular. "I will not make the same mistake again." At that moment, Shovoroth spoke to Alice telepathically when there was a break in his fight. '[i]Be careful, Alice. There is a reason why he has been the death of powerful Guardians.'[/i]

Garuud had made his way back down to fight between Grixis and Alice. Garuud pulls out twin sol Edges and jumps into the fray " Bonzai!' he yelled as he began spinning with both blades out and making Grxis back up and then Garuud landed in front of Grixis and slashed both blades upward towards Grixis.

Grixis blocked the two swords halfway. And the Titan was directly in front of him. Nowhere to run. "You have my attention," he said in a deadpan tone, "Congratulations." The Arc energy around him dissipated, and was immediately replaced with Dark Solar energy as his entire body became engulfed in green fire. With the added strength, he jutted his swords upwards, disarming the mad Titan of both swords. His dark cleaver vanished and was replaced with a menacing looking Hammer of Sol. The entire thing looked like a creation of the Hive, as the end had three rows of three small spikes. He swung upward, hitting the Titan center-mass. The impact sent him flying into the air, and soon later hit the ground, hard, beside the Hunter.

Garuud couldn't see anything, he couldn't feel anything except pain. Which is odd him being a exo. Garuud then heard a voice. One that he had not heard in a long time. " look at what you did. You screwed up my precious body." Garuud chuckled through the pain. " yeah but it was fun. Hahaha " Garuud said. "Yeah, well the fun is over. I'm taking over now. I'm going to show you how to properly use this body. *low evil chuckle* you are no longer in control." Garuud eyes opened and his normal yellow receptors turned black and all of his wounds healed instantly he stood up and began cracking his fingers and laughing a low laugh which the became higher and higher pitched. All of a sudden took off towards grixis at a extremely high speed grabbing his swords in the process. All the while screeching in a high pitched voice. "Die die die die die, I will feast upon you! Bhahaha hahaha!.

Alice stood, watching as a Dark Garuud dashes forward, slicing and fixing at Grixis with uncanny speed and power. But Alice knew he needed help. Grixis is strong, and just one person won't be enough to deal with him. Alice hefts the duel Lights Conduit up into the air, but then hears a screech from the sky. She turns to see Shovoroth being bitten on the neck. In the next second, Alice feels it, the non-existent teeth bitting at her neck. She gasps an amount of air into her lungs, then flings one of her swords up at Emaria. Alice guides it, straight into her tail. Emaria screeches, letting go of Shovoroth. Alice speaks to him through her mind. [i]"Shovoroth, come pick me up. Let's clip her wings together, but leave her alive. There is still a chance she's good, like you."[/i]

Grixis was about to charge at the Hunter, but then the Titan got back up and went on a rampage. The Titan closed the gap between them in little time. He didn't have enough time to block, and the Titan crashed into him, sending him back a few feet. Once again he charged, and began to throw fist after fist at him. Every time he tried to block or retaliate, he was struck under the relentless attacks. Then one hit struck his helmet and he heard a crack. That was the last straw. Time seemed to slow for a short amount of time, but that had no consequence on him. When the Titan swung at him again, he grab the fist before it landed. Solar energy gathered around his free arm, causing the flame to grow. With that, he reared back and struck the Titan on his helmet, sending him skidding on the desert sands. The Reborn energy shown on his torso again and began to travel up to his head. But before it got there, he reached up where the crack originated. He glided his fingers over said crack until he felt something out of place. He picked it off and brought it to his face. It was a piece of the bone. So this Titan had the strength to actually damage his armor? He would make sure he had a slow death. His thoughts were interrupted however, when he saw Shovoroth break off from the battle and dived down, headed on a path that met up with the Hunter. He saw what they were about to do. Two Hammers appeared in his hands. But instead of throwing them at the Hunter, he slammed them into each other. A bright green orb shown bright where the two hammers struck, and what appeared to be a long handle grew out of the orb. Grixis grasped the handle. Once he did, the orb dissipated, revealing the finished work of what appeared to be one massive, demonic sledgehammer. When Shovoroth was almost in range of picking the Hunter up, he took his chance. He raised the massive hammer into the air, Solar energy growing to immense size, then struck the ground. A massive torrent of fire raced across the ground toward the Hunter. But as it did, the fire created large, jagged shards of glass in its wake.

Alice, seeing how close Shovoroth was, turned to face him in his approach with Emaria in hot pursuit. So she never even saw the fire coming until Shovoroth told her. [i]"Look out!"[/i] He said in her head. She turned back to face Grixis, but saw how close the fire was. She had no chance of dodging such a wide fire. She attempted to put up her guard, but it was much too late, the fire burnt around her feet for an instance, catching alight the edges of her cloa- [b][i]"Never!"[/i][/b] Something shouted around the Valley in an ancient hive language only Alice could understand. To others, it sounded like [b][i]"Tooval!"[/i][/b]. Something drained around her, shadows swept along the ground, racing the fire. The shadows smothered the flames, leading themselves back along the glass ridden sand, back towards Grixis. The shadows around her feet began to dissipate into the air, and just like before, the tendrils swam through the air towards the cut on Alice's back, seeping in at an even greater speed. Eventually, Alice stood there completely fine. Meanwhile Grixis was getting surrounded by massive a waves of shadows, darting out like snakes and stabbing him wherever they could. Every time he moved, they followed, never giving him a break. Then they all retreated straight back to Alice, seeming to almost caress her as they travel along her to seep into the open wound. There's was too much here for everyone with eyes not too notice. Meanwhile... The creature of shadows stands on the cliff top, watching Grixis. [b][i]"What do you think of that little display, Grixis?"[/i][/b] It whispers, before disappearing into shadows.

Grixis stumbled about, gripping hold of his head with his free hand. The tendrils of shadow had cut off his link with his Solar energy, smothering the fire engulfing him. It was also causing havoc to other things to him as well. He looked up to see Emaria simply drop out of the sky and hit the ground and slide across the sands, leaving a large trench from where she hit to where she was now, unmoving and unresponsive. Whatever that was had strained the link! Whatever it was had spoke to him telepathically. He looked over to where the source came from, only to see dissipating shadows of something that had been there. His blood boiled; his rage growing to dangerous levels. He raised his head to the sky and let out a hate filled scream. At that moment, multiple areas on the ground around him became black and a vortex of darkness rose from each, before simmering, revealing five pitch black versions of himself, each holding a black cleaver and darkness lifting from their bodies like smoke from fire. Similar to the Echos of Oryx, these were the Shadows of Grixis. He looked about them all frantically, each giving him their undivided attention. "[i]Go! Find that interloper now![/i]" He shouted in the Hive language, his voice seething with rage. Their bodies turned into an orb of darkness, before the five of them shot into the sky, seemingly racing each other in the direction of the Valley of Kings. His gaze shifted to the Hunter who was still standing unfazed by the amount of Darkness that had just entered her. So she was tainted! "You," he said in English, voice still dipped in rage but with an amused tone, "You are tainted with Darkness! So much for being the perfect image of Light! I won't even have to make you suffer, that will do it already. And when it consumes you, it will consume him too," he pointed his sword at Shovoroth, "And we will all be back at square one all over again! Face it, Guardian; You. Have. Lost!" Movement to his left caught his attention. He turned in that direction to see Emaria stirring from her slumbering state. When she rose up and opened her eyes, they immediately locked on him. A growl escaped her throat. "You treacherous monster, taking my will, making me fight my mate, you will pay for this, Grixis!" She said, her voice also filled with anger. "Come for me then, [i]beast.[/i] You will be under my thumb once more soon enough," he said with equal rage. With that, her head struck out like a viper, but he teleported backwards a few meters. Her jaw snapped shut from where he once was. Both Guardians, and now both of the Titan Ahamkara versus him. He welcomed those odds. But before either side could make a move, shadows gathered in between them, making the shadow like form of Sarkon, showing only his upper torso and up. "[i]Leave them, Grixis. Other matters require our attention."[/i] "And what might that be?" "[i]The pieces are falling into place. It is time."[/i] With that, the shadows dissipated. With a slight grunt, he placed his sword on his back and a portal appeared behind him an instant later. "Prepare yourselves, Guardians. The end lies in the beginning. Soon, your city will burn, and your Traveler, destroyed." Without a second glance, he turned toward the portal and passed through the threshold, the portal closed behind him, leaving the group to their moment of peace.

Alice stares hard at where Grixis left through the portal. Then, after a moment passing, she walks over to Emaria. "I think you and Shovoroth have much to talk about. I'd suggest doing that, and splitting the link between him and me, forming one of your own with him instead of me." Alice turns away from her then, walks over to the Clifftop where Shovoroth once rested and, unknowing to anyone there, Lokumi interfered with Grixis's plans. Alice climbs up to the top and looks out across the sands. Then she drops to her knees, bent over with her hands on the ground, supporting her. Inside her helmet, she begins to cry. "Why?" She mutters to herself. After seeing what Grixis became, she fears that she will be the same. "Don't make me fight against what I love. Please, no." Her helmet becomes awash with tears, making it blurry to see through. "Why?" Alice feels what could be a hand, but cold touch her shoulder. She turns quickly to see it, but is met with a peculiar sight. Instead of seeing rocks and sand, it seems she is in some dark room, filled with shadows. [b][i]"I'm sorry it had to come to this."[/i][/b] A voice in ancient Hive dialect says. [b][i]"I meant this to be different. A calm approach."[/i][/b] Alice looks around the room wildly. "Who are you?" She practically screams. "What do you want?" [b][i]"It isn't about me, deary."[/i][/b] It replies calmly. [b][i]"This is about you. It always has been."[/i][/b] "Shut-up." She mutters into her hands. "Shut-up shut-up shut-up." [b][i]"I did not expect Grixis to be so foolish in his schemes, but no matter."[/i][/b]The voice continues. [b][i]"You have done me proud, Alice."[/i][/b] "Shut-up." She spits at the voice. It continues. [b][i]"Not only have you proven yourself, time and time again, but you have also claimed an Ahamkara as a personally prize, a pet you might say."[/i][/b] "Shut-up!" She shouts at the voice. It pushes on. [b][i]"The Darkness has gathered inside you. It is making you stronger, especially with my control and guidance supporting it. You will be my greatest achievement, it is your destiny to be m-"[/i][/b] "SHUT-UP!!!" Alice screams at the voice. At the same instance, the room disappears, leaving Alice looking around her wildly, until she realises it was all in her head, then she goes back to her head in her hands, weeping until someone finally approaches her.

Anaxis-12 marched across the sandy dunes and the steep rock inclines, headed in the direction of the Valley of Kings. When he was at the Tower, going over the events that transpired at the Vault of Glass, his jumpship's enhanced sensors had picked up a ridiculously large energy signature coming from Mars. And when it came to ridiculously large energy spikes, it was always Grixis' Reborn or he himself causing it. But this time it was higher than it usually was, so whatever it was, it was big. So that was why he was here himself. He wasn't going to risk other Guardians being involved. When he arrived at an incline that could be defined as a wall if it was steeper, he started climbing. He hugged the wall and gripped onto dear life as the wind roared its defiance. But he eventually managed to get to the top and hefted himself, allowing him to peak over the ridge. When he gazed out across the Valley, he wasn't prepared for what he saw. First thing was a massive Hive Cruiser laying in the dunes, but it didn't look like it was damaged in any way whatsoever. Curious. But the second thing was the titanic shape of a white and black Ahamkara with its neck wrapped around the neck of a slightly smaller, pitch black Ahamkara. The black one he thought was Shovoroth, but he looked at its body structure and saw that it was more slender looking compared to the white one. It was female? Shovoroth, from video surveillance, was depicted to be male. Then he looked at the white one and compared it to Shovoroth. They had the same size; same body structure. Everything except it's color. Why was he white now? Then he glanced out at the area around them. Some parts of the ground were turned to glass, and there was a large trench from one end to the next in the sand,and a graveyard of Cabal warships further out in the distance. So a battle had taken place here. But what happened here exactly? Then he glanced down and noticed a Guardian, a Hunter to be exact, crouched over. Slinging his auto rifle over his shoulder and into his grasp, he vaulted over the edge and, as quietly as possible, slid down the rock face, loosing small rocks and pebbles from the rock. Thankfully the sand below softened his landing. With rifle in hand, he proceeded over to the Hunter, keeping crouched as he went. He took the occasional glance at the two Ahamkara in the distance, but thankfully they were still focused on each other, completely oblivious to him. A minute later, he walked out on the large cliff where the Hunter was at the end. When he was behind the Hunter, he could faintly hear her sobbing. Just what happened here? He reached out and put a palm on her shoulder. "Hey," he whispered, "You okay?"

Alice clutches at the sand with closed fists. "Yeah." She says, stopping her sobs with a big breathe. "I'm fine." She turns to see a Exo standing in front of her, so she stands up, dusts herself off, and puts on a facade with as much confidence as she can muster. "Better question is, how can I help you?" She asks.

He slowly stood up with the Hunter. Actually, she seemed familiar to him, but why- Then it hit him. She was one of the Guardians that went into the Vault and defeated the Reborn Atheon. He wondered where she went. But now wasn't the time to go down memory lane. There were other pressing matters. "Well for starters: what happened here, and two," he pointed at the two Ahamkara, "Why is there now [i]two[/i] giant Ahamkara?"

Alice looked back at Shovoroth and Emaria, pointing to each one it turn. "That's Shovoroth." She says in mock amusement. "And that's an old friends of his, Emaria." Alice turns back to look at the Exo. "To answer your first, I'll tell it from the beginning." "Grixis had Shovoroth under his control, flooding him with Darkness so that Shovoroth had free will, but couldn't fight the urges to kill things. He proceeded to destroy Cabal, Vex and anything else that might have breathed. Then me and that Titan over there heard commotion in this Valley, so we came to check it out." "What we found was reborn scattered throughout the valley, tearing apart anything, and Shovoroth resting on this cliff top. Those Cabal war cruisers came to try and kill Shovoroth, so Shovoroth called the aid of Grixis and his three Hive Cruisers. As you saw, the Cabal got wrecked." "We arrived around that point, and Shovoroth noticed. He slid down the cliff, preparing himself to kill us. Then the Titan jumped off to fight the Reborn, leaving me with Shovoroth. But I honestly didn't want to fight, so I said the truth to Shovoroth, I didn't want to fight, that we could work together and such. He argued, I argued back. Grixis then appeared in the sky, saying to Shovoroth to kill us quickly." "Shovoroth declined since I convinced him that we meant no harm to him, Grixis got mad, launched barbed chains at Shovoroth, then turned one of the three Cruisers on us to blow us all up. Me and Garuud, the Titan, both leaped into action, cutting the chains to free him." Alice takes a moment to rest and the Exo to think.

She convinced Shovoroth to betray Grixis? That was. Impressive. "That was a bold move, convincing someone like him that has hated us for centuries. But a move that paid off in the end." He continued to play what the Hunter- Alice, he thought- had told him. But things weren't adding up still. "I guess you're only telling me half of the story, because it doesn't explain why he's white," he pointed at Shovoroth, "Why there are two of them now," pointing at the black Ahamkara 'Emaria,' "Why there's a Hive Cruiser parked in the sand, and why it looks like all hell broke loose down there," waving his hand at the scarred rock where the Ahamkara were.

"You be surprised what happen when you use reasoning." Alice says, but she quickly hops back into story teller mode. "After that, I prepared myself for the fire the Cruiser launched." Alice sees the question in his movement. Alice states what she means. "My sword can absorb large amounts of energy, so I absorb the three beams of energy. But as soon as the beams ran out, I began draining the energy from the Cruiser. That why it crashed." "A side effect of draining such a large amount of energy is that I have to empty it out soon or things get... Hairy." She says while wiggling her fingers. "So seeing Shovoroth injured, I emptied out the energy I had into him, channeling him with light, making him what he is now." "Due to that, him and me now have a link to each-other, one I want to cut and have him link with Emaria." Alice holds up her hand before the Exo starts. "I'm getting to that. Grixis came down from the crashing ship to fight us. He summoned Emaria to fight Shovoroth, Garuud dealt with Grixis' ship, and I fought Grixis himself head to head." Alice immediately skips over the darkened parts. "Eventually, we fought him off after a lot of damage, freeing Emaria of her bonds and forcing him to run." Alice sighs. "That's it. Any questions?"

That. Was quite a bit to take in all at once. So, this Guardian, was now bonded with probably the most powerful Ahamkara to have ever walked the earth, she brought down a Cruiser single-handedly, and she survived going head to head with Grixis? She was definitely one tough cookie if she truly did all that. He didn't quite believe her that Emaria was separated from Grixis' grasp yet, but he would leave that for her to explain if she would. But there was still one more thing that didn't fit in with the picture, something that actually had him frightened. "You said Grixis retreated from battle? Why? The reason I ask is because he has always fought to the death when it comes to dueling Guardians. If he just 'left' then there is a reason. What happened at the end?"

Garuud still in the darkness state is searching for Grixis, hell anything that he can hurt and or destroy. " Hurt... feed..... destroy..." The a loud screech emitted from his mouth as he spotted prey. A Titan talking to a hunter. Garuud began sprinting towards them at top speed Screeching " Feeeeeassssttt! GRaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Garuud yelled in a high pitched voice. He jumped up to the Titan and Hunter with a massive chilling smile. Smoke running off of his now white armor with red markings. He opened his mouth and smoke escaped. His black irises following Anaxis-12 and Alice.

"Hey Garuud, just come down. We're all friends here, remember? Grixis is gone, you can calm down now. Please." Alice leans over to the Exo. "Don't run, if he charges, I'll deal with him." She whispers.