Beneath the fireteam was nothing but the seemingly endless abyss, the water around them was cold, and it would only grow colder as they went deeper. The only indication as to where they were going was the white objective marker on their huds ahead of them. The shark vehicles that they were using were some of the first of their kind. There was no need for a submersible until recently, Zavala and the other vanguard took notice of the colossal beasts beneath the seas and believed that there could be some Golden Age technology at the bottom. The only issue with heading down there was that the vanguard couldn't find anyone brave enough to head down there. 

Most guardians had an unnatural fear of the ocean, not the water itself, but the creatures that lay beneath the waves. The members of Fireteam Conquistador were the only people willing to dive into the oceans maw. 

"Come in Tower, this is fireteam Conquistador, do you copy?" Aaron asked over the comms. 

"Rodger that Conquist, we read you loud and clear up here. Whatcha guys seeing?" 

"Nothing but the black abyss below Cayde," Cameron replied. 

"Oh, really? You didn't start at one of the islands nearby and made your way down?" 

"No, we've got other things that we want to accomplish today." 

"Okay," Cayde replied. 

"Cayde, is there any particular reason as to why the leviathans exist?"

"Well, funny story about that, the scientists of the Golden Age discovered an ancient skeleton for a big one on Earth. Using carbon dating they put it at nearly sixty-four million years ago. So the conception of life being annihilated for anything smaller than a mouse was false, things at the deepest depths of the ocean were perfectly fine. The era of the dinosaur never ended down there. Think of the sea as one large time capsule, except instead of photos of your family in there; there are giant monsters."

"Lovely." Ghost replied sarcastically. The entire location around them began to grow increasingly colder and darker. Aaron was somewhat eager to keep exploring even after they get what they came down here to find and more eager to see what one of these leviathans looked like. "How far down do we need to go?" He asked as they continued diving down into the ocean. 

"We've still got ten thousand meters to go," Cameron replied. Then the team heard a loud noise off in the distance. The sound like an explosion, deafening, leaving a ringing in the ears. The entire group stopped, their sharks held still in the cold blackness of the ocean. The group looked at each other concerned. A collective look of regret encompassed their faces. 

"James, what was that?" Aaron asked him. 

"I'm not sure, it could have been a whale," Cameron replied.

"I've been in the ocean before, I've heard whales, that wasn't one," James replied darkly. "If you want to turn back, I understand. But I'm not going." 

"You want to go down there by yourself? Are you insane?!" Aaron asked him. 

"I just might be," James replied looking down. The darkness below looked like it could swallow him whole, the entire experience made him remember the Collapse. The Darkness and how it came down and ate people alive. He'd been brave before, but this was different, he was afraid of the dark. "I guess we just keep going, move together, and keep an eye on our motion trackers," Cameron replied turning her shark to face the deep again. The two Exos followed, the group moved side by side to make sure none of them got lost, having their radios in constant contact with the Tower. 

"Okay this is Conquistador checking in again, we're about two thousand meters down, it's getting darker by the second." James radioed into the Tower. 

"Rodger that Conquistador, we read you loud and clear over," Cayde replied on the other end of the comms as the group continued delving into the darkness below. The world that they had known began to seem further and further away with each second that passed. "You heard that earlier right Cayde?" James asked him. 

"What?" 

"That roar, you heard it right?" 

"I did. Sounded big, you'd better hope to whatever deity you believe in it isn't hungry." 

"Thanks for the sound advice," Aaron replied sarcastically. A few moments later they heard the noise again, and the group stopped dead in their path. It was louder than before. At that point they considered turning around, even James himself. It was as if the creature beneath was evil manifested on Earth, a bone-rattling roar emitted from the depths further below. Aaron was somewhat excited for what could lie at the bottom of Challenger Deep, these roars could reveal a new prize that he could claim. The group continued downward to the darkness, and before them lay a world of perpetual night. No sunlight could reach these waters, temperatures around the team began to stagnate to a blistering cold two degrees Celsius. 

Nearly two hours had passed, and they heard nothing from the beast, and nothing from each other. Dead silence at the bottom of the ocean. "Okay, we're here," James said as the group finally reached the sand at the bottom of the sea. Using weighted boots, they climbed off their sharks and activated their head lamps. "So, now what?" Aaron asked as he took his hand cannon off his belt. The white hud marker revealed itself and pointed them in the direction of a cliffside. 

"Alright, let's go," James said pulling his rifle from his back and walking toward the white objective marker. The others followed taking out their weapons and following him. "Cam, you remember when we went to the moon right?" 

"Which one?" 

"You know, the one where we almost died."

"There were two of those." 

"The one where we were nearly eaten alive by that giant spider." 

"Yeah, what about it?" 

"That cave was brighter than this," Aaron remarked. "We could at least see what was in front of us." He said clutching his hand cannon. 

"Yeah, but what the heck could possibly be down here?" Cameron asked him. The group followed closely behind James as they approached the side of the cliff, and there was a large steel door in front of them. The door was old, it was much cheaper and rusted looking to be Golden Age. James took his gloved hand and dusted off some of the sand and rust that was on the front. The door had a symbol on the front, a sickle and hammer inside a red star. 

"Old Russia?" Aaron asked. 

"No, older. This symbol was the same one from the USSR from the Cold War, how is there a Soviet military bunker down here?" James asked. 

"Perhaps it's something they wanted to hide," Cameron replied to them. "Perhaps a weapons project or some other sort of experiment." She said getting her hands under the cracks of the door to pry it open. The door opened with minimal effort. The team then walked inside, their weapons still held tightly in their hands. The group then locked the door behind them, and the water automatically drained from the chamber. Then lights turned on, the group was on edge, so it made each of them jump. But the lights were far younger than a Soviet military base would have, this base had changed and in recent time. 

The fireteam approached the door inside, and they cracked it open. The inside of the facility was unlike anything the group had seen before. It was empty, but it was so pristine you'd think someone was there yesterday to clean it. The tools strewn about through the room suggested something about the time period. "What is this place?" Aaron asked as he put his handcannon back on his hip. 

"I don't know, the outside suggested a USSR base, but now, it looks like we're in some sort of lab," Cameron replied walking over to a door to the left, she opened it to find a greenhouse. Somehow the light of the sun was getting inside to grow the plants, there were tomatoes all over the place, but they weren't rotten. Aaron all the while walked over to another door and opened it. Inside was a large bed with white sheets, it looked like it was just made. Aaron walked inside curious as to where this would lead him. The room had large shelves and drawers built into the walls. Aaron walked over to the drawers and placed his hands under the handles. "Aaron, don't you think it's rude to go through someone's drawers?" Aaron's ghost Omni asked him. 

"I don't think they're here Omni," Aaron replied opening the drawers. Inside was just a basic outfit with white and black accents. "These clothes are basic, but they look nice," Aaron remarked looking at the garments a bit closer. In the main chamber, James was looking around the various machinery, he didn't recognize any of it. He then walked over to a large computer that was inside of the wall. There was a piece of paper on the table, it seemed out of place. The other guardians who were with him came out of the chamber to his side. James was reading the small note. 

"James, are you okay?" Cameron asked him. James turned around to them and handed her the note. It read, "James, play recording number 219-01, I'll do my best to explain everything, Love, Mom." Cameron looked up from the note shocked, she handed the note over to Aaron. 

"So that's why this place was so important to you," Aaron said to him. James didn't say anything, he started typing on the computer to gain access to the recording. There were thousands of different files on this computer, most of them were video files. He kept typing until he found the recording that his Mom told him to find. He clicked on the video file for it to play. Then there she was a woman with black hair and dark rectangular glasses. Her hair was pinned up in a bun in the back, and she was wearing a white lab coat. The group looked at the large monitor. 

"Hello, uh, James." She said with a sigh. "My name, is Sara, Sara Andrews. I, I'm your mom." She said with tears being held back. "Okay, this, this is the hardest one of these I've ever had to make. I was, contacted by the MDU a few hours ago. They told me that, the project I gave them, was out of control. They knew that I had used the funds to build an Exo that I could call my son." She said partially crying. "They, want to take you away. The other scientists that were here, they told me that one of them contacted them about the facility. They knew where we were. Our AI on the site said that it was a one-hundred percent chance that they would wipe your memory." She said breaking down. "The others left. Now it's just you and I down here. I'm powerless to stop them." She completely fell apart, tears were practically flooding out of her eyes. Nobody said anything. "I, just want you to know, that, I love you. I've made backups of your memory, they're in a safe above my bed. The password, is, human. Goodbye son, I miss you." She had said before the video log finished. 

James wandered over to the room that his Mom lived in, he opened the safe that was above the bed using the password that she had given him. Inside was a small disk, what looked like an SD card. James took the chip out of the safe and examined it. "James, are you okay?" Cameron asked him. James didn't reply, he just stood there and slowly raised the disk to a slot that opened on the side of his neck. James then placed the disc inside of the groove. How many memories did he have? He fell to his knees as he kept them flowing in. Cameron and Aaron rushed to his side, it may not have been a lot, but these events hit him like a freight train. 

"James? Can you hear me?" Cameron asked him. A tear fell down James' face and onto the ground. He could hear, but it was as if all time was standing still, he was whole again, but the entire second part of his memory was built on a lie. He had a family, he wasn't built for the MDU, he wasn't built as a machine of war. What was worst of all was that the people who he cared about more than anything, people who he thought were his friends, were the people who took him away. He didn't know what to feel or think.

"I, I don't know what to believe anymore." He muttered. "They took me away from my family Cam, my friends, they, stole me." He said. Cameron just sat next to him and held him tightly. 

"It's okay, you're going to be okay." She whispered to him. Aaron didn't know what to say, his best friend was in pain, and he didn't know what to do to help him. He took the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around James and Cameron. "You can fall apart buddy, and we'll be here to hold you together," Aaron said to him. "I'm sorry, I can't even begin to think about how you're feeling right now." 

James said nothing, his tears were just falling off his face and onto the ground. James just continued to sit there, reflecting on all of this. He'd made sure that they were remembered, his friends were honored. Yet, they kidnapped him. Does that mean that they were never his friends in the first place, did they only see him as a means to an end? He had so many questions, now he knew the truth, he knew where he came from, his whole story leading up to this point had been told. He looked up over to Cameron, he began to understand. In spite of them taking him away, their friendship for him was real. Her love for him was real. He pulled her close to him and gave her a kiss. 

"Cameron, please, don't leave me." 

"James, I promise, I won't." She said holding him tightly. "I love you, I don't care what anyone says or thinks, I am never going to leave you." She said returning his kiss to him. 

"I think, I'll, uh, just wait up at the ship," Aaron said placing a transmat beacon on the bed. "Take care you two." He said before he faded away. The two just stayed there for a moment embracing each other. James was sad because of what happened all those years ago to his family and upset that he was taken away. But without that happening, he would have never met the love of his life. Without it, he would have never become a soldier. Without it, he would have never died in Russia. Without it, he wouldn't have become a guardian. He understood that what happened to him in his past didn't matter. All that mattered was what he is now, and what he's going to do next. Cameron let him go for a second. "You feeling a bit better?" She asked him. 

"Yeah, I feel a little better." He replied drying his face. "Now, let's go get Nova. We have a family member to find." He said standing up. 

"Agreed, who know's what Upgrade is up to now."