Vault of Truth

4 centuries ago...

Xylar looked at himself, inside of a Precursor Goblin, standing in an unknown place. Where am I? Why am I here? The skies were normal, but held a faint touch of acid in its blue hues. The mountains looked like they had taken a beating over the years, and yet they still stood. Among the landscape stood many buildings of inferior designs. The Goblin realized where he was: Venus. Too long have these humans wasted away on 'preserving the land'. What this planet needs is a rebirth! Xylar raised his arms, and shouted in his own tongue, "To the metal that resides inside this planet, rise up! Build a Vault to render Time asunder, a Citadel to house my kin, and two Hezen armies to protect these sites and carry out my will!"

Underneath, the metal groaned as it rose, filling a large cavity in the caves, creating the two sites to satisfy Xylar. The Hezen armies later appeared in front of the Vex Overlord, as he explained his plans to invade Mercury. Now, let's see if we can put humanity back into the ground.

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Leviathan led the team down the middle spoke of the Templar's Well, leading into a network of caves known as The Gorgons' Labyrinth. Vex Gorgons were similar to their Harpy frames, except they could erase your existence with just a stare. As they carefully walked through the Labyrinth, Shin pulled Max to the side and asked, "Why are you doing this? Why are you curious?"

Max answered, "Because I want to see why the Vex think of me as dark."

"But you aren't!" Shin protested, "You fight the Darkness! You fought with me in the Chamber of Night and the Black Garden. Even right now, we're fighting side by side in the Vault of Glass. You are bright, Max. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Cass approached them in Leviathan's daze and asked, "What are you doing? We should be moving!"

Jess surprised Cass by removing and crushing the crystal from her back. Cass's eyes reversed from green to brown, and she took a quick look at her surroundings. Jess filled her in, "We're in the Vault of Glass, don't be alarmed, we need to play the part of Leviathan's minions until we can get Kaden released.

Cass nodded, "Ok, let's go!" Her words were demanding, almost similar to what she said under the spell, enough to convince the Dredgen Bane that she was still under.

As they left the Labyrinth and approached the inner sanctum of the Vault, Leviathan warned Max, "If you screw up again, you're dead and mine to command."

Max gulped, then followed him down a spiral of floating stone platforms appearing and disappearing in and out of their timeline. Kaden was last, watching the three ladies in the Fireteam in front of him. As soon as they reached the bottom, a door opened in front of them, leading into a metal hallway, ended by another door which led to the inner sanctum, the real Vault of Glass. Opening the final door, the team looked inside to find that the entire room was made of glass, from the bridges and the platforms to the decor and the two Vex Gates on the left and right sides facing the entrance.

As Max entered, he heard a different voice say, "Welcome, Max Prodigy, son of Felix Prodigy. I see that you want to reclaim your past."

"What do you know of me?"

"Your history, your life, and your fate. It is my job to see and record all things in the Universe's Time."

"Then what do you know of the Black Garden? Why did Crota take control of it?"

An image flashed in the glass below them, "Crota was banished by his father, stripped of his immortality from Oryx's Court, and locked away in our Gate System. He sought the help of the Undying Mind, and in so doing, they created the Black Garden and Crota's own Throne World."

"Praise be to Crota!" said the Dredgen Bane.

"And me?" Max asked, "What does Crota want to do with me?"

The gate on the right was powered on, "Step in, and I'll show you," said the voice.

Shin grabbed Max's arm, "No! It's too dangerous!"

Leviathan pushed both of them towards the gate, "Get in there, you cowards!"

Shin and Max were shoved into the past, looking at the ruined city once again, except this time it was lively and crowded. "Where are we?" she asked.

"The past," the voice explained, "The former capital of a nation known as the United States. Max was an American once, almost 2000 years ago. He believed in freedom and liberty, was a model citizen and a poster boy. But then, he snapped."

The scene was invaded by a giant mushroom cloud. Max's eyes bulged, "I did that!?" Then a memory came back to him, "No, I didn't snap. I was forced."

The scene fell away, revealing a Hydra guarding the Aegis on the far side of a stone platform covered in sand. Shin shot down the Hydra and grabbed the Aegis. The scenery changed yet again, revealing the capital as a war zone. Max took one look at it and said, "No, it wasn't like this. The day was dreary, and we weren't in a war zone."

"It might as well be," warned the voice.

"No, there wasn't anything else to this. It was an assassination mission!"

The voice sounded shocked, "Oh! I'm sorry!" The scene was corrected to match Max's description. Shin stared in confusion, 'Assassination mission!?'

They left the vision through the Vex gate, and they did, glass Vex began to spawn around the sanctum, firing glass shards at the intruding Guardians. As they ducked for cover, a glass Conflux formed in the center of the sanctum, attracting the glass Vex to it like a magnet. In the ensuing chaos, Jess pulled Kaden's crystal out of his back, returning him to reality. She also filled him in and said in addition, "After this, we arrest Leviathan." Kaden nodded, then proceeded to the Conflux to destroy some Vex, followed by Leviathan.

Shin and Max stepped into the second gate, revealing a scene of a barren earth, decorated only by the ruins of metal buildings that once stood tall. "Once, this was the largest city in the world, the economic center of the globe. The pride and joy of humanity, laid low by one angry person. Guess who it is."

"No!" Max exclaimed, "This place wasn't the joy of humanity, nor was it prideful!"

The scene disappeared, revealing a metal room covered in jungle vines, with another Aegis in the center. Max grabbed it and rushed out with Shin, moving to guard the Conflux. As soon as all six Guardians had cleared the Vex out of the glass room, the lights dimmed, the shields disappeared again, and a small glass ball and a giant glass throne appeared in the opposite direction of the door. The ball grew larger and larger until it shattered and reformed itself into a giant glass Minotaur. Atheon has arrived.

Atheon fired at the Guardians with its own glass Torch Hammers. Max, Shin, and Leviathan ducked behind the right gate, while Jess, Cass, and Kaden hid behind the left gate. All of a sudden, Atheon stopped firing and raised a hand in the air, transporting Max, Shin, and Kaden into the desert room. Max called out, "Right side." Leviathan stood on the gate's adjacent glass ring on the ground, activating the gate. More Supplicants appeared, the three Guardians outside the gate shot down each and every red Harpy that came and fired at them.

Inside the gate, Max, Shin, and Kaden saw a scene change into the assassination mission, as soon as Max grabbed the Aegis. 6 red Oracles appeared high above the ground, charging the scene. Max saw himself and the 5 other people from the bar sneak into the U.S. capital city, armed with snipers, pistols, and assault rifles, all equipped with silencers. Each time an Oracle was shot down, the scene changed to a different frame, the second of which was the 6 assassins standing before a wide rectangular building with a semicircular back. Max mumbled, "The White House!"

The third image was the younger Max taking aim from a vacant building with his girlfriend and another dude in the back. Max saw the fourth image with shock on his face, the other three assassins were storming the interior of the White House, silently killing uniformed men with pistols and knives, followed by the fifth image, a fat person with skin that teetered between typical White and Russian Dressing Orange, stood before the three people, as if he were about to knight them. Max saw his younger self brought in with handcuffs on his wrists, by none other than his other two teammates. "The traitors!"

The last image saw him escaping from a prison with 8 other prisoners, wardens' dead corpses and other prisoners running free littered the background. Max said to himself, "I led the rebellion."

Max, Shin, and Kaden came out of the gate with the Aegis in hand. "Go to the middle!" Max commanded. Everyone did as he said, albeit with doubt. Max fired a void blast at one of the Minotaur's arms, shattering it, then planted the Aegis into the center platform, generating a large shield around the team. More Harpies gathered around the platform, firing at the team, but to no avail. As the Guardians fired everything at Atheon, the Minotaur said, "Do you see your 'hero' now? Do you see his inner darkness?" No one paid attention to its words, except for Shin and Kaden, who stared at each other, then at Max in disbelief.

Atheon blasted at the Aegis, shattering it in Max's hands. The Warlock panted, "Oh crap!" He ducked behind another portal, before being transported into another room with Jess and Cass. Max grabbed the Aegis again, called out, "Left side!" then watched the scene change again.

This time, Max and the prisoners were established in a fortress of their own design, grinning over a tactical map of the whole North and South America, flooded with red 'X's across the map. In another corner, more prisoners were cackling over another map, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and Asia covered with red marks. Another image depicted Max and a team of ex-prisoners raiding a nuclear bunker, tampering with the equipment, and killing everyone in a camo uniform. The third image was a palace on fire, Max rushing inside to raid the place, only to be met by a man with a scar running from the forehead to the jaw, cutting through his left eye. The fourth image saw Max killing the scarred man and leaving him in the flames. The younger Max left the building with a suitcase in hand.

Jess and Cass looked at each other with concern as the image changed to Max punching in some sort of code into the opened suitcase/laptop. When they shot the last Oracle, it transformed into a mushroom cloud, and the scenery changed back to the jungle room.

Max gritted his teeth and led Jess and Cass out of the gate and onto the center plate. He fired another blast to shatter Atheon's other arm, then joined the others in shooting the glass Minotaur down. Atheon wailed as it fell, its legs crumbled, its chassis fragmented, leaving behind a yellow gun mysteriously made for human hands. Max stepped to the gun and picked it up, unaware that it was alive.

The Vault of Glass began to crack and break apart, all except for the center. Max jumped back to the platform and generated the Aegis's field again. Everyone ducked as the glass shattered and penetrated the field. The tiny glass shards that remained inside the Aegis started attaching themselves to the Guardians' armor and weapons, turning their materials from traditional metal and fabrics into bronze chrome plates and glass phase-weave fabrics, with strategically placed orange lights that looked like eyes.

The only thing left of Atheon was its head, projecting a hologram of a blue and green Earth over the team, the Vex's most damning piece of evidence against the Warlock. "Order," said the dying Atheon, "Earth and Humanity had order before Max came along. Everyone was just fine on their own, with authority to guide them. There was peace and prosperity, until Max snapped his fingers." The blue oceans faded and the green plains dulled as mushroom clouds and brilliant explosions dominated the sphere. When the explosions cleared, the entire Earth was barren; tones of crimson replaced the green, and where the oceans once were, there were only tan and orange valleys.

Everyone but Leviathan stared at Max in shock. They had forgotten about arresting the Dredgen Bane, and instead thought about Max's history from the Before. "Yes, it is true," the Warlock said in shame, "I am the Worldbreaker."