"We have to move, quickly!" A woman's voice echoed throughout her mind, she found herself back on Krypton, the day that was supposed to be about celebration, that soon turned into a nightmare.

Her eyes caught onto the looming black ships in the sky, with a pointy edge and lit up with a bright orange like lights on the sides of the ships, getting brighter before waves of energy burst out of the ships, destroying everything in its path, the skyscrapers within Kandor began to collapse.

"I knew this would happen! I knew it!" the woman complained, holding her daughter, Kara by the hand as they ran through the panicked crowd.

Then the entire planet began to shake, tremors in the ground, shook the citizens as they began to stumble.

Kara Zor-El stumbled onto her knees as Alura looked back at her daughter, helping her up.

"M-Mom-!"

"I've got you Kara! I got you" Alura helped her daughter up quickly.

"What-What are those things?!" Kara asked her mother in a hurry, being dragged by her hand still as they rushed past the panicked crowd.

"I'm not sure, Kara. But your father and Jor-El warned me something like this would happen, but the damn Council wouldn't listen! Except myself and a few others" Alura explained with an angered tone. "That's the last time before we ever-"

Suddenly, a hexahedron with a tetrahedral extension hovering the underside of it, about the same size as a Kryptonian combat ship, that resembled the invading tetrahedron Pyramid ships spawned into view, followed up by an eerie sound that fell upon their ears, what came afterwards was a growly voice.

"Ga'li'jek'te'o" a tall behemoth like brute, colored in red, with an odd looking head, was the result of the noise that spawned in, wielding a scythe and had began to attack the citizens of Krypton, killing a few in its wake already. O'ko'kos ko'ki'jag" 

The Krypton military had responded to the threat but weren't strong enough to face this behemoth of a unit, grabbed by its scythe before it used its hand to shoot out purple like energy... "Kos'yen'eit'get!" the behemoth sounded enraged, a reddish-orange light emitting from its head, killing the Kryptonian soldier it had in its hand.

"Kara! This way" Alura called out, dragging her daughter away from this behemoth up-ahead, Alura hoped to join up with her husband the way they took, a shortcut in other words due to the behemoth that had spawned in.

She could hear more spawning in and wreaking havoc on her people, along with another species that was in line with these... Invaders.

"You all live without purpose, (without purpose), gifted, (gifted), by a false God that is chaos incarnate (chaos incarnate). Do not worry, (Do not worry), your futile lives will end soon (will end soon)"

"Hey, Kara?!?" suddenly, Kara was brought back to reality with a small gasp of breath, she found herself staring into the eyes of her boyfriend, the eyes of solace in her life. "You alright? You've been staring into space for the last ten minutes" Y/N asked her with Glace checking her.

"Hmm, nothing's wrong with her-"

"It's just memories flooding back into me, nothing more" Supergirl interrupted out of the blue with quick intent, holding her arm before rubbing it.

"Krypton?" Y/N asked before she nodded.

"Y-Yeah" she sighed with a heavy breath. "I... I think I heard a... Voice? Speaking to me, or everyone I think. saying something about us living without purpose" she looked away from him for a moment, crossing her arms closely as she looked down at the Moon's ground. "I remember running, my mother had me by my hand, it was... Scary" her voice shook near the end, she couldn't keep the image out of her head, "the Pyramids, the panic, the screaming... The forces that attacked...".

"And your father? I thought he was with you?" he asked her, remembering she mentioned that her father was with her when it started, or was it false??

"We eventually met up with him if I remember correctly, it's still all coming back to me" she squeezed her arms closer to her chest together, shaking a little from the memories that flooded back, from all the nightmares she had? This one was surely a nightmare came true. "There was these units that I think resembled the Pyramids that attacked my people, with scythes or something, and then..." Kara suddenly began to remember the other race that attacked, that had three eyes... "The Hive... They were there also!!"

"Wait wait... The Hive were there??" Glace asked before looking at her Guardian, who also looked at her.

"Y-Yeah, I-I-I remember! Th-They were in groups, I remember my mother fighting them, to protect me and dad... I-I" she stopped herself from speaking, before she could even have a mental breakdown from all the pain she began to remember.

She sighed heavily before Y/N approached her, placing a hand on her shoulder, before she turned around with a few tears falling down her face. "I remember seeing them one last time" she croaked, looking at Y/N with tears in her eyes, letting them fall down her face before one was swiped away by Y/N's thumb that traced the soft skin on her face.

Y/N hadn't said anything, he pulled her into him with his next move, letting her dig her face into his uncompleted Dreambane look, even without the helmet. All he was missing was the pants, they had defeated the Nightmare of Skolas, Kell of Kells and Phogoth, The Untamed.

Supergirl's muffled sobs was enough for him to hold her tightly, rubbing her back underneath her cape, quietly comforting her as she continued sobbing.

Y/N had a feeling Kara would eventually break down about it all, no one stays strong enough for too long. Not even Supergirl.

Kara remembered seeing her mother one last time beside her father, after she fought off the Hive that invaded alongside those Pyramids, and Brainiac, it was no wonder why she had a feeling she saw the Hive before when they first appeared on her Earth. She was rocketed off Krypton by her father, which was where she last saw him...

Then Krypton... Died...

To say she was traumatized was true, the Pyramid sighting brought it all back up, her thoughts were only to destroy that ship if it could be destroyed and harmed, however... Eris had stopped her and that she had plans to breach within the Pyramid. This was before Kara had heard Y/N was in trouble, and was possibly about to die if it weren't for her arriving in the nick of time.

Kara began to move her face out of Y/N's chest, sniffling and looking right at him next, feeling a hand on her left cheek as Y/N looked at her with a remorseful look.

"Aw sweetheart" Y/N broke the silence, sucking up to her. "I'm so sorry" he felt a little guilty, he had to admit it. Maybe if he hadn't brought her here, she wouldn't be like this right now.

"Don't blame yourself, Y/N" Kara told him seriously, wiping a tear with her hand. "This isn't your fault, none of this is" Supergirl placed a hand on his right cheek.

A stray tear was still on Kara's face and Y/N proceeded to wipe it with his thumb, a little smile wept over Kara before it disappeared as she thought back about her parents once again.

"Can I tell you something?" she asked him, looking at him for reassurance.

"Anything" he nodded.

"When I was cleared from the Kryptonite Poisoning, I didn't just remember the final days on Krypton. I began to remember what my parents were like" she admitted, looking away for now. "I wasn't as close to my mom as I was close with my dad, both were part of the Science Guild on Krypton, I'm sure you remember what I taught you about the Guilds on Krypton, right?" she tilted her head at him.

"Yes, I remember, spent all night talking about it two weeks ago" Y/N nodded.

"If it helps, I even saved all you had told us" Glace added in.

"Thanks Glace" Kara slightly smiled before it was gone by the second. "My mother wasn't always around, she was 'busy' with working under the Council or whatever it was. My father was always around, he taught me a lot about Krypton's history, how it was blessed one day by a God that terraformed the planet and brought a new age to our people" she explained, the last part of her explanation, stuck with both Y/N and Glace.

"Wait, wait... A God that terraformed your planet?" Y/N brought up, much to Kara's surprise.

"Yeah" she nodded. "My dad taught me how it lavished us with gifts, it helped us tremendously, it brought a new age to the Kryptonians, our technology advanced, its gifts transformed our planet to the molecular level" Kara explained, it almost seemed like a story too good to be true, but Y/N and Glace looked at each other, his face showing concern.

"You're thinking what I'm thinking, right?" he asked his Ghost.

"And it means one thing, but it seems... Impossible" Glace's tone alone made Kara suspicious of what was going on, she wondered why they both were shocked at her description of Krypton's history.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked.

"Kara..." Y/N paused to let it linger for a moment. "From the description you've told me? It means one thing... I highly believe that your planet was visited by the Traveler" he told her, much to Kara's shock and confusion at the revelation.

"Wh-What?" she sounded flabbergasted. "Th-The same Traveler on your Earth, right? The one that... Oh Rao" she began to put the piece together in her head, from what her father taught her, to what Y/N taught her about the Traveler, both having almost the same description, only difference being the Ghosts and what happened during the end of Humanity's Golden Age. "Wherever Light goes, the Darkness follows, that's what Eris said. That's how your Golden Age ended, because the Traveler was there" she explained in a little fast tone of speech. "But dad said it left ages ago from Krypton... Ages b-before-".

"Hey, if I'm thinking what you're about to say? I have high doubts that would be the case" he interrupted her for her sake, he could tell she was about to burst a vessel about it all. Y/N thought about having to tell the Vanguard about this also now that it came across his mind, leaving more questions that needed to be answered about the Traveler, the mysterious orb of Light that lavished those with gifts.

"You're certain? I mean, I dunno but... Why would they attack Krypton? Did the Traveler really put a target on us?" Kara was unsure what to think about it, now that she put the pieces together, she felt stupid not seeing it sooner.

"I'm not entirely sure" Y/N shrugged. "But I suppose we now know that the Traveler can move beyond reality itself. It's still... Shocking to think about it, which proves that our reality, yours and mine, our Earths... Are linked through the Light... And possibly, the Darkness" his tone lowered a little, the Guardian didn't think much about it, but it was too good to be true also.

World's linked, two sides of the same coin... One where Humanity wasn't blessed by the Traveler, and one where it was... Before Darkness descended upon Humanity much later, ending the Golden Age in dread and despair.

"It is a fitting benefactor, that our realities are correspondently linked to one another" Suddenly, Eris approached, her Phantoms following behind her, trying to annoy her once again, haunting the poor woman.

"Eris, I suppose you eavesdropped on us?" Y/N asked.

"I heard everything from where I work" Eris corrected, looking at her green flaming rock. "I have a hypothesis on what could be the matter behind the Pyramid's attack on your planet, Kara. Do you wish to hear what I have to say?" Eris asked kindly, she sensed the pain in Kara, a familiar pain in fact, she wouldn't wish to inflict more with her hypothesis.

"Thanks Eris, but maybe not right now" Kara brushed it off, looking away from the woman 

"Very w-" Eris suddenly stopped speaking, overhearing Eriana-3 taunting her once again. "Quiet! You have no right to say that!" she hissed at the Phantom with malicious intent.

"Eris-"

"I'm alright, Y/N" she held her hand out slightly, signaling him to stay where he stood. "You both have one more Nightmare to defeat, it would be best not to waste any more time" she began to walk back to her station, with the Phantoms following her from behind.

"We do need to help her after this" Glace whispered into Y/N's ear.

"You don't say" he looked at his Ghost before to his girlfriend who regained herself. "We got one more Nightmare, which I believe is an old foe we put down a few times".

"Who?" Supergirl asked curiously.

"Taniks, The Scarred" Y/N answered. "I'm sure you might remember what I told you about him".

"You only told me a little bit, but you did mention he was responsible for Cayde's mentor's death and that you put him down quite a few times?" Supergirl replied, arms crossed still as she kept her eyes on him.

"I'll tell you more about Taniks since we're hunting him" he offered. "And did you hear what I said earlier? Before you began staring into space?".

Supergirl's facial expression turned into deep concern from Y/N's question alone, she hated the fact he, Eris and Glace were going through with the plan of him and Glace going to find a way inside the Pyramid, ALONE. As much as she hated being near the Pyramid that only brought bad memories, she wouldn't want those two to go alone together.

The Girl of Steel then sighed to herself for a moment, thinking of what to say about it next after earlier. "I... I-I don't like it, I hate the fact you both are going in alone" she looked at the Guardian and Ghost before looking away. "We're supposed to stick together, like a team!" she expressed her fears toward her boyfriend and Ghost, looking right at him. "I can't imagine you going in without me, we're supposed to be a team, we always stick together".

"I know..." he held the girl's hands in his, keeping his eyes on hers, with a reassuring love behind his. "But you don't have any Dreambane armor nor items to help you go beyond the Pyramid's warding, at least Eris believes that its needed to go through the warding" he explained for her to understand.

"I suppose so" she nodded. "But still... It makes me sick to my stomach, what if you-".

"It won't come to that" he shut her up with a finger on her lips, taking it off her lips straight after. "We shouldn't waste more time like Eris said, we got one more Nightmare to eliminate".

"Alright" Kara nodded before swooping him off his feet and into her arms, Glace soon disappeared into Y/N's backpack and the girl instantly flew up.

________________________________________________________________________________

[Moments later | Temple of Crota, The Moon]

The pair walked down the deep structure within the Temple of Crota, blasting through the Hive that awaited their arrival within the Temple of Crota, where the Nightmare of Taniks was located, exactly underneath the Temple itself.

Supergirl still had her thoughts processed about the last moments on Krypton, she could see it now, that the Hive were also there the day Krypton died, it weren't these Hive but it was like the ones back on her Earth that made an appearance.

It was all still coming back to her, but it was a little more clearer now... The Hive played a role in the invasion on Krypton, the invasion of the mysterious Pyramids... And Brainiac who's ship was also spotted during the invasion.

Supergirl soon shook off those bad memories, trying to stay focused on the current task right at this minute, eliminating the Nightmare of Taniks, The Scarred. A well-known enemy that Y/N knows people had a history with, including himself, considering he has said before to have killed Taniks plenty of times.

"He surely reminds me of Luthor in a way, he just doesn't stay down, he'll always come back for revenge or something" Supergirl said with a reminder of Luthor, she herself wanted revenge for what he put her through with the Black Kryptonite, whenever she could get her hands on him.

"Something they have in common, Taniks hates Guardians, Luthor hates Kryptonians, you and your cousin for example, Taniks doesn't stay down, nor will Luthor" Y/N cross-referenced.

"So... Like Luthor, Taniks left scars on the Guardians, mostly the Hunters, right?" the Maiden of Might asked as Y/N hummed afterwards.

"Correct but it was on all Guardians when Andal Brask was murdered in cold blood years ago, Taniks was however last seen since near the end of the SIVA crisis a few years ago, a year before the Red War, until I put him down for good... Again" he replied, reloading his Ace of Spades in fashion sense.

"Which was when Cayde-6 became Hunter Vanguard, due to a Dare between him and Andal, his mentor" Supergirl pieced together once again to herself. "About the SIVA crisis, I still need to catch up on that".

"You should, it was a pretty serious topic. Next time Lord Saladin is in the Tower? I'll introduce you to him, you could ask him about it, he'll tell you everything if he's in the mood" he walked down the steps, after watching Supergirl dealing with the Fallen that were nothing but conjured with Nightmare Essence.

"And you will make it out" she looked at him dead in the face, floating beside him, referencing the next task of his mission going alone, going beyond the Pyramid's warding. The serious look on her face, paired with the jaded tone made him chuckle a little. "Y/N, this is no laughing matter".

"Hey, I get it" he nodded, composing himself. "I'm gonna be fine, as much as it is scary I will admit, trying to find a way inside the ship, I'm more worried for Glace".

"We have our objective, *chirp* even if I'm not comfortable with it, I'm sticking with you, *chirp* no matter what" Glace informed her Guardian, with a few chirps then and there. "Ghosts and Guardians should always stick together".

"I agree Glace, but I just... Don't want you to go through that experience of what you said was reaching inside you, that's all" Y/N showed concern for his Ghost's wellbeing, as much as Kara did too, Glace was Y/N's associated partner, through and through.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take, *chirp* if we're going to get inside that Pyramid. We have to, I don't care what the consequences are" she doubled down. 

"Good... Because here's our culprit" the pair now arrived within the room of where the Nightmare of Taniks was, underneath the Temple of Crota, in a familiar area. "He may not be the actual Taniks, but I can't wait to put him down again, in Cayde's name of course, he made him Hunter Vanguard after all".

"Didn't Cayde love his job?" Supergirl asked as Y/N approached the Nightmare Essence. 

"Love his job?" he repeated in a sarcastic manner. "Please... Cayde has said many times he hated his job, if he was here today, he'd tell you everything he hated about it" he looked back at Kara before the Essence burst out, revealing Taniks.

The Nightmare landed on his feet before looking around, and spotting the lone Guardian standing in front of him, looking up at Taniks with a surprised look.

"Uh... You remember me, don't you?" Y/N stared ominously up at Taniks, The Scarred, who then roared and readied his Scorch Cannon. "I think he does" he made a mental note to himself before finding himself staring at a wall next, Supergirl having to save him before Taniks could fire first.

"I've got the reinforcements" Kara eyed the Fallen reinforcements, conjured by the Nightmare Essence, that backed up the Nightmare of Taniks. "Taniks is yours, I'm sure you can handle him".

"I'll catch him up to speed, even if he's not the actual Taniks" Y/N nodded, splitting from Supergirl who flew away to handle the reinforcements, keeping them off his back for the meantime.

Y/N readied his hand cannon once more and began firing at Taniks, tanking the shots of such a little weapon, the Nightmare fired Scorch Cannon rounds at him, the little explosions made him dodge into cover.

He popped out of cover to fire at the Nightmare, shooting him in the head which made Taniks stumble for a minute as this gave him the chance to throw a trip mine directly near the Nightmare, soon the laser made contact with a recovered Taniks as Y/N moved from cover to cover, tanking some hits from the Scorch Cannon as he fired back.

"And he's relentless, just like I remember" Y/N hissed through the little pain he endured from the shrapnel, pulling out his Gjallarhorn next and sprang out of cover, pulling the trigger to fire a rocket at the Nightmare.

The rocket made contact with Taniks as he then teleported away after being hit, appearing on the other side of the room, trying to retreat in a way, in the direction of where a Fallen teleporter was once working.

Y/N gave chase, firing another rocket at Taniks before it impacted with him again, stunning him for just a moment, giving him the opportunity to grab his knife and quickly approach the Nightmare.

With his knife, he jumped onto Taniks' back, as the Nightmare struggled to get him off after standing up 

"Hold... Still...!" Y/N found himself struggling to keep onto him, before driving his knife into one of Taniks' arms, making him growl in pain. "Oh shit" The worst was yet to come by when the Nightmare managed to grab him before Y/N could get the chance to pull his knife out of Taniks' robotic arm, he threw the Guardian off of him, sending him flying through the air. "Aaaaaahhhh!! shit!"

Before he was about to collide with the wall ahead, he was fortunately caught by a caped Super that came to his rescue in the nick of time. "He threw you pretty good, you really are lighter than I originally thought, thought it was just because of my super strength" Supergirl pointed out.

"No time to talk about that, he's getting away!" Y/N pointed out, with Taniks soon retreating through the darkened hallway that was all too familiar.

"Oh no he doesn't, he's coming back here!" Supergirl quickly put Y/N back onto the ground before rushing after Taniks, meanwhile, Y/N reached down to grab his Hand Cannon, realizing something wasn't right.

"Oh no..." he looked down at his holster, noticing Ace was gone, about to panic before seeing a red glint in front of him, where Ace had fallen out of his holster, due to being thrown violently. "I really need to upgrade my holster" he made a note to himself with a sigh of relief before rushing over to grab his gun again.

A few Nightmare Fallen stragglers still lurked around the area his girlfriend left him at, while she went to go after a retreating Taniks.

"A few stragglers, best we deal with them" Glace suggested,

"Best we do" he agreed, aiming his hand cannon as he pulled the trigger, killing a few lurking Nightmare Fallen that spotted him before all of a sudden, Taniks came flying out from where he previously retreated, followed up by a floating Girl of Steel, eyes lit with heat vision. 'I didn't think she meant everything she said about bringing him back here'.

"Y/N! He's all yours!!" Supergirl called out, arms crossed as she stared directly at Taniks, glaring at him as the Nightmare began to recover after being roughed up by Supergirl herself, levitating with no such damage left on her at all.

The Nightmare of Taniks roared angrily at the Girl of Steel, now unarmed and having not one, but two robotic limbs disabled, one from Y/N's knife and the other, whatever Supergirl had done toward it, all there was to see was that it had a hole through it, obviously heat vision.

Taniks turned his attention next to the sound of a Golden Gun activating with a little screech of a hawk, casting a Celestial Nighthawk Golden Gun before a gunshot ringed out, piercing right through Taniks as he exploded in Nightmare Energy, followed up by his anguished screams, the Nightmare of Taniks was now defeated, the Nightmare Essence began to change form and color where he once stood.

The last remaining Nightmare Fallen began to dissipate out of reality itself, with Taniks now eliminated, and the Essence transforming due to the Nightmare being vanquished, Y/N sighed as he approached where Taniks once stood, after Supergirl forced him to come back.

"He put up a good fight" Y/N started as he knelt down to pick up the Essence of Isolation. "Too bad my knife was stuck in his arm, that was my favorite knife too" the Guardian sulked with a sigh, losing his engraved knife, one that he had for many years as a Guardian, engraved with a Damascus look, and even had a name on it... L/N.

"You mean..." Supergirl uncrossed her arms after floating down to join him. "This knife?" she showed her hand to him, showing that his engraved knife was in her hand, she had yanked it out of Taniks' arm before she had forced him to come back where he was last seen.

Y/N's face lit up upon his eyes staring down at the knife in her hand, politely taking it back from her hand, before looking up at his girlfriend. "My hero" he smiled and gave her a little wink.

The result made her blush a little with a little smile. "You're welcome" she replied, with her smile soon fading as she knew what was going to happen next, once the Essence had been cleansed. Y/N had stood up after and holstered his knife.

"Hey, whatever happens next... Just know that I love you" he gave her a reassuring smile before kissing her on the lips quickly.

"I love you too" she nodded, kissing him back for a moment, continuing the kiss further for a little while longer before allowing him to pull back.

"I'll contact Eris" he suggested after he caught his breath, his com link soon connecting to Eris's. "Eris, the Nightmare of Taniks has been vanquished for now. The last Nightmare Essence has also been covered, going to cleanse now".

"Good" Eris Morn soon replied. "We are one step closer to reaching near the Pyramid. Once the Essence has been cleansed and the last piece of armor uncovered, come see me. I have something to say before you set journey into the Pyramid" Eris then disconnected from the comms, leaving the three alone with each other.

"Alright, Eris has spoken. Let's go cleanse the Essence. Then... The Pyramid"...

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To be continued...

Word Count: 4639