The Raid team stepped through the opening and looked around; the place was beautiful. Thousands of glass crystals in the back of the room caught and bent light, making it seem like it stretched on for miles. The ceiling was unimaginably high up; and on either side of the walkway, were abyssal drop-offs. There was one thing wrong with the sight: the hundreds of red eyes of Vex everywhere. Dakota cracked his knuckles, then reached for the Red Spectre on his back. Daniels gave a nervous laugh, and the scout rifle in his hands was trembling just as much as he was. Everyone else readied there weapons and waited for what was next to come. "A gate lord..." Brian stated as he pointed to the back of the chamber. Master Jal turned to see a lone Vex hydra watching them. It didn't move, or even attack; it just sat there, and watched. "I got it," Dakota said as he switched to a sniper rifle. The warlock lined up the sights with the triangular face of the hydra. [b]Pow![/b] A bolt of solar energy pierced his left elbow. "Son of a!..." the warlock shouted as he hid behind a rock wall. Never before seen Vex goblins, with white and gold plating, walked around the pillars and engaged the Guardians. Clara and Isaiah whipped out sidearms and shot at the approaching machines while Daniels wrapped a bandage around Dakota's arm. Brian hovered in the air and tossed a void scatter grenade that swallowed up the enemies. Master Jal picked up one of the Vex heads and examined it. "This is amazing..." he marveled. "I wonder what kind of Vex this is..." The warlock tossed down the device, then gave cover fire. Dakota got back up, and since his arm was still injured, he propped his sniper rifle on top of a barricade. After one trigger pull, the Vex hydra exploded into pieces that scattered the ground. As Dakota reloaded the massive weapon, his ghost, T.C, began healing his arm. "Time gate opening!" Brian shouted. Everyone turned to their left to see a Vex gate ring roar to life. Brian and Isaiah charged in while everyone else stood around a sync plate. "What's taking them so long?!" Clara asked. It had been ten minutes since the two Guardians ran into the portal. Suddenly, as if to answer her question, Brian and Isaiah dove out of the gate. Brian had an aegis similar to what Master Jal had while fighting the Templar. "Look!" Daniels yelled as he pointed to the gate on the right side of the room. Dakota joined him through the portal and engaged the odd Vex that surrounded the two. They resembled the current Vex more closely, but had dish shaped headpieces. "I got the hydra!" Daniels shouted as he double jumped over the swarm of robots. "Sure, go ahead... I got the endless Vex down here..." Dakota said sourly as he force pushed a goblin off of the cliff. He tossed a grenade at a minotaur; melting its metal plating and sabotaged its circuits. Daniels lifted up a machine gun and riddled the gate lord with bullet holes. In no time, it exploded. From its pile of scrap, a second shield appeared. "Daniels, we need to go!" Dakota yelled as his aim seemed to faulter. "I got the shield! Let's go!" The hunter exclaimed as he, and Dakota, ran back to the portal. The two passed through the gate and joined their team. "I got the shie--" Daniels shouted before blindly running into a column. "Let me see this..." Dakota said as he took the shield and raised an aura around the Guardians. Both were cleansed of the Void that had marked them. Daniels got back up and joined the warlocks. Now, with Brian and Dakota wielding aegis, a Vex conflux formed in the center of the chamber. "Oh, great..." Isaiah groaned. "Quit your belly achin'! We got this!" Master Jal exclaimed as he rushed to the machine. Brian and Dakota crashed their shields into large minotaurs while the other four took out the weaker Vex. After eight minutes of hording Vex, the conflux vanished. The team of six exchanged looks after they realized both aegis had vanished from existence. A noise filled the chasm, then a bright light blinded the Guardians just long enough to spawn a machine three times taller than even Dakota, who easily stood at six feet and five inches. Its chassis appeared more like glass, than metal. "Atheon..." Master Jal muttered. The team of six prepared for the final engagement; but mysteriously, Master Jal, Brian and Clara had vanished. Dakota looked around, but couldn't find them. "Clara?! Do you copy?!" Dakota yelled into his radio. "Do not fear," Master Jal said back. "It appears Atheon sent us through time... We appear to still be in the Vault of Glass, but the chamber has been taken over by plants..." "Hey, that's what the place you and I went to looked like!" Daniels exclaimed as he slapped Dakota's shoulder. The Sunsinger nodded. "Isaiah, come on!" The three Guardians ran to one side of the room and stood at the Vex sync plate. Soon, the time gate was open again. "It may take us some time! We got oracles!" Clara exclaimed. Gunshots could be heard over the radio, and so could incoherent shouts. "We need to help them," Daniels declared. "No!" Dakota demanded. The screams of Clara, and everyone else, tortured Dakota, but he knew they had to keep the gate open. "They will pull through..." he said reluctantly. Soon, harpies crowded the Guardians. Daniels and Isaiah picked them off, causing them to detonate early. They were exploding harpies. "Master?! Master, where are you?!" Brian shouted over the radio. "I can't see!" The hunter placed his scout rifle on his back, and ran to the portal. "Daniels! Stop! We need your help keeping this gate open!" Dakota exclaimed. Daniels looked to the warlocks, then to the portal. "You two can keep this gate open, I'll help them get out!" The hunter summoned a Golden Gun and ran in. Dakota and Isaiah stood back to back as they fought off incoming Vex. Suddenly, both were flung across the chamber from the explosion of a supplicant. Dakota landed against a wall, just so he could watch as the time gate closed. "No! No, no, no!" He screamed. "Dakota, come on!" Isaiah shouted as he ran back to the sync plate. "We have to get them out!" A Vex hobgoblin shot the Voidwalker through his forehead, causing him to collapse. Dakota stumbled to his feet and shot at the innumerable Vex that swarmed him. Despite his efforts, a line rifle pulse punched through his heart, throwing him to the ground. The last Guardian in the room, now lied dead. From a blaze of Light, Dakota returned to life and obliterated Vex with his power. "That f***ing hunter! That f***ing hunter should've listened!" Dakota exclaimed as he refused to give up. The longer Dakota fought, the more his adrenaline-fused body was riddled with wounds, marked by blood that stained his white coat. Finally, with the last of his energy depleted, Dakota collapsed in front of the door that had locked him, and his team, in. He could no longer hold up his weapon, and his vision slowly faded. "James, help me get this door open!" Yelled a Guardian. "Now what?" Daniels asked as the four Guardians stood before the closed time gate. Brian periodically created an aura around the team so they wouldn't be devoured by the void. Master Jal turned to the source of a noise. "We do what we set out to do. We'll defeat Atheon... of this time line..." The other three Guardians spun around to see a crystal Vex with moss and vines growing all over it.