Emily's Taken body sprinted through the forest of the land surrounding hope, trying to get back to the Cosmodrome where she would return to the Dreadnought with Dregen Yor. However, the creature was not alone, her spectral duplicate was following her. Emily had started to get a better understanding of the situation that she was in after what Toland told her parents. She was stuck in between life and afterlife. She was a ghost as she thought she was. She floated over the head of her Taken self as she ran.

"Even though I'm not physical, I think that I can manipulate her somehow." She thought to herself as she continued to follow. "What matters is how I can do that, and if I would be able to before it's too late." She followed her Taken self as it sprinted through the forests and plains of Europe, hours turned to days before she had approached a strange site. Emily's body kept running away. However, her soul stopped to take a look. She floated toward the massive structure that was jutting out of the woods into the midday sky; it was so large it was as if the moon crashed into the Earth. 

It was large, towering over the surrounding area. It was jagged and broken; it was smoking, all around it, a blue fire was raging across its surface. The entire area was surrounded by a strange forest below, the trees were dead, or dying, however at the same time it felt alive. Emily moved to the ground beneath the large object. As she walked through the darkened world, she started to have an epiphany about the nature of the object itself. 

It was a piece of the Traveler. 

The young girl kept walking through this strange place, thinking about what was wrong with this place. The Traveler was supposed to be the good and bright, but the forest that she was walking through was dark and evil, corrupted by the same energy that gave her the ability to see. Something was eerie about this place it was quiet, not a creature to be heard, just the air in the wind. 

The trees were all absurdly large, so big in fact that it would have taken at least a thousand years for them to get this big naturally. It was the middle of summer; there should have been leaves on these trees if they were still alive. Emily kept wandering through the dark place, as she drifted through the forest she started feeling something warm...embracing. "What is that?" She asked herself. However, she noticed something about the feeling she was getting, as she moved deeper into the forest the sensation got hotter. 

She moved through several destroyed buildings until she felt as if her entire soul was melting on the inside. She looked out over a balcony on the ruined building she was inside of and saw what was attracting her. Deep into the Earth's crust was a shard of the Traveler, just a small piece that was jutting out of the darkened forest. She floated across the balcony toward the part, her soul continued to burn and get even hotter as she moved forward. She touched the ground in front of the small shard and walked ahead. She stretched out her hand to touch the shard. An aura appeared around her body; she could feel some form of corporealness return to her. 

Her body then appeared to be a purple color with her features being more defined by bright pink lines. She looked up at the shard in amazement. Curious, She looked at the shard more carefully and glared at her reflection at it. She'd tried to see herself in the mirror a few days ago; she was invisible. But now, she could see herself again. She could feel things in her hands and manipulate objects. 

"YES!" She cheered out into the sky. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nova woke up several days after Emily disappeared again, she was feeling groggy and all around unpleasant. She rubbed her forehead for a moment before looking to her right at her alarm clock. It was half past noon; she'd slept for nearly half a day. She looked to her left to see that Katie wasn't there. She sighed heavily to herself and stepped out of bed. The Guardian walked outside of her room slowly, her bare feet set down on the carpeted floor, feeling the brush in between her toes. 

She moved out into the main room of her house noticing how cold and empty it felt without people being in it but herself. She looked over at the counter and let out a small smile, noticing that there was a little cup of coffee with a sandwich next to it. Nova walked over to it and saw a short note on the napkin under the mug. 

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present." 

Love, your favorite Exo,  

        Kathrine Storme - 12 

Nova took a sip from the mug and smiled. The coffee was still warm, and she looked at the sandwich, and it made her feel a little better. It was a BLT with extra mayo. Nova's favorite sandwich. Something that only Katie knew. She set the mug down and took a big bite out of her lunch. "You always did know what made me happy, twelvie." She said to herself thinking about when they were just kids. 

Nova then heard another person walking around the house, Will was poking around the fridge in the kitchen getting himself a soda. He looked over to his Mom a smiled slyly. "Hey, you're up early." He said walking over to where she was sitting on the couch. 

"Am I? It's noon." 

"You were out until five last night, where were you?" Will asked her before taking a sip of his soda. Nova sighed to herself before setting the plate with her sandwich down. 

"I.....was....out drinking," Nova told him honestly. Will looked her sternly in the eyes.

"Mom...no." He told her. "Don't do this to Mom or me. I know how bad you feel and I feel the same way. But drinking? Drinking?! No way. I will not allow this." He told her raising his tone of voice. "Sorry....it's just....I lost Em....I don't want to lose the rest of my family." He continued sheepishly. 

"I'm sorry Will...it's just...been hard..living like this." She told him. 

"Mom. Think about Grandpa. You remember what happened to him when you first heard about Emily?" 

"Yeah.....I remember..." She said sadly. 

"Think about what he'd do if he heard that you had developed an addiction to alcohol, and Katie divorced you. You have any idea what that would do to him?" Will asked her. 

"He'd....." She said with her eyes growing wide. "He'd go on a rampage." 

"Exactly. That could get himself killed, causing Cameron to be a widow and David to be upset with you. You need to understand Mom; alcohol destroys everything that it touches in large amounts. Especially relationships." He told her bluntly. Nova turned to look at her son and pulled him tightly to her chest. 

"You're right....I need to cope....but this isn't the way.." She replied before letting him go. 

"Anyway, Grandpa needs to meet you and the rest of us in the hangar. We're planning the final assault on the Dreadnought." Will said getting up from the chair with his soda in his hand. "I suggest you finish your breakfast first." He said before walking outside of the apartment. Nova quickly ate her sandwich and followed him out. Soon after a group of the strongest guardians all met in the center of the hangar. 

"Nova, William, glad to see you could join us," James said to them as he stood upon a large box in front of the group. "Alright listen up. I've gathered all of you heard today because you are the best of the best and the Vanguard and the City are all counting on us." He said looking across the group of guardians. "We are tasked with the assassination of the Hive God King Oryx. For us to do that, we need to board the Dreadnought and move to the command bridge. However, we have recently been made aware of the existence of Hive Throne Worlds. Places outside of time and space, and for Oryx to be gone forever we need to kill him there." James said to them. 

"We get inside by way of a Hive portal to the chamber of the king, three of us will go there to draw him out. Once we defeat him, it'll  force him to retreat to his dimension. Then we fight our way to the throne room and end this bastard once and for all. Any questions?" James asked them. 

"Yeah, just one, why isn't Sidriks here?" Charon asked him. 

"Sidriks is too important to the Elik to come with us, he wanted to be here, however, his people said otherwise," James replied to his inquiry. "Now, here's the way we'll divide the teams. Aaron, Cameron, and I will be a part of the first assault team to reach the command bridge on the Dreadnought. Kronah, Charon, Nova, David, and William will be the members of the team establishing the link to the Throne World once we've sent Oryx packing." 

Everyone nodded in reply and moved off to check their weapons and ammo count, making sure that everything was ready. Meanwhile, Cameron walked up to James and handed him two rings. 

"Cameron....you're not divorcing me are you?" James asked her. Cameron burst out laughing. 

"No you idiot." She chuckled. "Those are the Lithuura rings, Sidriks gave them to me for this mission." 

"Lithuura rings? What do they do?" He asked her. 

"Essentially they allow the users to bond together as one being, increasing their strength, speed, and durability by immense amounts for as long as the bands are worn." She told him. "I think they'll come in handy for the mission." 

James looked at the rings and placed both of them around his middle fingers. "Right. Good thinking." He replied as he pulled out his rifle and checked the ammo count. "Cameron....just in case we don't come back from this....I just want you to-" He said before being interrupted by Cameron placing her hand over his lips. 

"James....that's not going to happen...we'll get through this like we always have." She told him sternly. "I don't like you talking about you dying okay? I've still got at least a thousand years with you." 

"Right." He said putting his rifle on his back before pulling her close with a kiss. "I love you, Cameron." 

"I love you too James." She replied.