Everything lay in ruins.

The trio stood in the middle of a blood-ridden battlefield, littered with bodies and debris. Towers and buildings around them crumbled or scorched from fire. The heat hit their skin like a sweet summer breeze accompanied by dark smoke that hung in the air. Planes and ships had crashed into the ground or landed in the middle of some buildings. They could smell the gun powder, scorched laser markings, and the stench of death. The sun shown brightly down on the horrendous battle that took place.

Alaura's breath hitched in her throat. She took a few steps forward, then stopped to take everything in. Her hand hovered over her stomach as her heart fell. "Oh god," she whispered to herself in disbelief. Her stomach churned at the sight before her.

Malachi saw something in the distance and walked straight towards it. He hopped over the rubble, the destruction, and the many dead bodies of soldiers to get to this one spot. He halted abruptly once he realized what he was staring at.

Outside of the small circle, robot bodies lay lifeless on the ground. The cone-like, fan-shaped heads littered the place. The robots had a big, single red eye just below the fan shape. Some parts were huge, others skinny. Guns lay in white liquid that ran down ways away from the bodies.

The ghosts glanced at each other as they surveyed the battlefield. They knew what did this. They weren't sure why The Traveler sent them there, though, or even what time year this was. Jarvis spoke up out of the bunch, "We're in the future."

"Those robots are from a group in the Darkness called the Vex. They...what they are is complicated. The white fluid you see is the Vex itself. The robot body is just a shell. The Vex are known to travel throughout time using," Jarvis turned around and gestured in the other direction, "time gates. That thing glowing over there is a time gate."

Tanis looked at the glowing purple time gate over yonder. More Vex bodies were piled by it; the white fluid mixed together and formed a tiny river. Tanis' voice couldn't go above a whisper, "So they caused all of this?" He felt sick. His hands shook and sweat started forming on his skin. His eyebrows twitched upwards and he cringed from the pain in his stomach.

Dinklebot gestured over to one of the crumbled ships that was shaped like a giant black sarcophagus. "Seems like humanity was caught up in the worst dominance battle ever. Vex like to take over, but the Hive...damn. The Hive live off of sword logic. In other words, barbaric survival of the fittest."

"Where are the Hive bodies?" Alaura questioned breathlessly, her blue eyes glued to her surroundings. She couldn't stop looking at everything. She just couldn't believe something like this could happen.

Jarvis responded, "They disappear after death for some reason. We haven't been able to figure out why. Some thrall bodies manage to stay, but the rest disappear."

Dinklebot joined in, "You're lucky you haven't seen any of those bodies. They are an ugly zombie-like race."

Malachi winced and tried to take in every little bit of the scene in front of him. This was unreal. The bodies, the destruction, this was something taken straight from a movie. What he saw next sent chills down his spine. Alaura and Tanis followed Malachi to get a closer look at what he was staring at. Tanis threw up on the side at the sight, while Alaura knelt down on the ground.

Three dead bodies were sprawled out in a triangle formation. The soldiers' guns still had smoke rising from them. Bullet wounds penetrated the armor and cracked it in various places. Blood pooled around the corpses, oozing out of their wounds and trickling down to the puddle on the ground. Alaura pulled one of the helmets off to reveal their identity. She yelped in fear and backed away quickly.

Alaura stared at herself.

She was the one dead on the ground. Her navy blue eyes were half open, and blood splattered all over her face. Her black hair covered a huge gash in her skull.

Alaura looked away from the sight and almost got sick. If that was her, the other two must have been Tanis and Malachi. There was no doubt about it. All three of them had powers, so they'd work together as a fireteam. All three dead bodies appeared tattered, torn, and beaten. They had new armor that they've never seen before. Malachi's helmet was broken in half, while Tanis' had a big hole in it from a gun shot.

"What the..." Malachi paused and knit his eyebrows together in confusion. He didn't want to go near the bodies. The possibility of being able to touch them made them even more real. "How the fuck is this even possible?"

"Guys..." Tanis trailed off and pointed at the sky.

The Traveler floated in the air above the towering city, throwing electrical sparks at the sky. Enemy ships were inbound and firing at humanity's last hope. Lasers and bolts impacted with the orb of light, causing a chunk of its shell to fall off. A swirling dark entity moved in passed the ships and attacked The Traveler itself. The Traveler sent off a blinding light that fought against The Darkness. The light and the dark mixed together and sent off a spark of purple into the air. It hung around like a heavy cloud around the fight.

One attack after the other, The Darkness and the enemy ships had the advantage. The Traveler frantically tried to protect itself, but with all of the explosions and the amount of light it took to retaliate, it was too much. One final blow of darkness critically hit the orb and it started to fall out of the sky. It collided with the city below it, causing a massive explosion.

The trio covered their eyes from the blinding light that flashed the city. Once it was over, they breathlessly lowered their arms and stared at the burnt debris aghast. Fear built up in the middle of their stomach, almost like an big knot. Pain surged through their systems as they watched their future crumble before them.

All hope was lost.

Humanity collapsed and could never recover from something like this. If this happened everywhere, it would cause humanity's extinction. The only light left was destroyed. Gone. Vanished.

It's like they were only there just to watch.

The Darkness loomed overhead and started trailing the ground, swallowing any cars, buildings, or debris in its path. The Hive dropped off from their tomb-like ships. The small ones had sharp claws and a round head, but appeared to be blind. They had no eyes. The big Hive were adorned in armor and big guns, their many green eyes fixating on the trio from across the battlefield. The Darkness surged passed them and tried to cover the whole land in pitch black darkness.

"We have to get out of here," Alaura called out and turned around to face her companions. The two men expressed concern and worry for what was heading their way. Alaura's eyes glanced around urgently and settled on the time gate. She gestured to it by pointing, "You said we can travel through that?"

"It's never been done before by anyone else..." Jarvis stopped talking slowly and contemplated. His dark shell twisted around and he blinked a few times. "It's worth a try."

She nodded and led the way to the purple gate. She full out ran and Jarvis flew in the air at the same pace. Malachi ushered to Macey and sprinted towards the gate. Tanis wiped some sweat off of his forehead and followed suit with Dinklebot hot on his heels. They hopped over human corpses and vex parts every few seconds. They slid under a pile of debris too big to hop over and continued their pursuit. Freedom never smelled so sweet.

Tanis slowed down and threw up once more. His limbs felt weak and his breath shortened. Blood dripped down from his nose, making a trail down to his chin. He couldn't feel his abdomen and he collapsed. He cried out in pain and tried to get back up, but to no avail.

Alaura sprinted back to help Tanis, but when she realized Malachi wasn't there, she called out to him, "We can't leave him here!" A hint of desperation was in her voice as she slung one of Tanis' arms around her shoulder. She attempted to pick him up, but failed to do so. She glanced at Malachi in slight fear, and that's when he decided to run to help them. He couldn't just leave them both there, even though he wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as he could.

Both of them hauled Tanis to the static purple time gate. They stood in the middle of it and turned back for a second. Their reality started to bend and shimmer before them as they watched The Darkness cover the earth.

In the next second, they were teleported to a dark place. The sound of dripping water echoed off of the walls on their right. The air was humid and heavy, and the area smelled of moist dirt. Bats fluttered in the distance and other noises met the trio's ears.

The three ghosts lit up the room with a bright light from their eyes. Dinklebot looked at the time gate behind them and urgently declared, "You need to destroy the portal right now."

Alaura scrunched her eyebrows together in slight worry and anger. She snapped at him, "We need to get Tanis help. That's what we need to do."

"This portal is a link to this time. Wherever we are at, the Vex can just come through as long as this is active. You need to take it down," Jarvis added to his fellow ghost's argument. This was now, or never.

Malachi gave in quickly to appease the ghosts. The quicker they get this done, the quicker they could get out of there. "How?"

"Shoot at the purple substance until it deactivates," Macey projected the words in blue. She bobbed up and down, waiting for a response from the two guardians.

Alaura and Malachi held onto Tanis with one hand and took their pistols in the other. They shot at the dead center of the purple portal repeatedly. Tanis flinched at the loud, booming sounds, but he was too weak to cover his ears. When they put a whole clip into it and it didn't go down, Alaura put Tanis' full weight on Malachi. Malachi holstered his gun and held onto Tanis. Alaura walked up to the portal and punched it with all of her might. The portal crackled against her knuckles, and she screamed from the intensity of power it sent through her bones.

The portal powered down, and only the frame stood there as an empty reminder of what was there. Alaura shook her hand out and huffed a few times in exhaustion. She and Malachi got a better grip on Tanis before moving out. The cave had to have an exit, and they were desperate to find it.

Someone had to help Tanis. They weren't going to let him die.