Just a quick note, I don't go back too much and edit things, so if you have high standards for grammer or spelling (lol) avert your eyes now! Cheers, leave a comment if you enjoy it!
It had been long enough from her past life that Ellana finally felt comfortable in her own skin. There was only one soul beating through her veins, and that was hers and hers alone. Well, and Pearl of course. At the moment Ellana was sitting cross legged in her room on the Wall, where the new head quarters of the Vanguard had been placed until further notice. She was using a brand new tooth brush and tweezers to get between Pearl's delicate gears and trying to pluck some bits of leaves and rocks that had gotten stuck.
Pearl popped out of her hands quivering, "Stop! That tickles!"
"Well you just have to put up with the tickles until I can get that leave!" Ellana plucked the Ghost out of the air and pushed her fingers between his gears to expose the part she'd been working on. After much wriggling and pulling she finally yanked free a bit of leaf from either Titan, the last planet they'd visited in recent weeks.
"How the-? I'm always careful though!"
"Yeah but you know life always finds a way!" Ellana snorted as she scooped up the small pile of debris into her hand that had came from her ghost.
"Don't quote weird old movies at me!" Pearl spun each part of his shell to make sure everything was working properly. He then went over to the window sill where a soft silky pillow was and plopped right in the middle of it. Ghosts' didn't need beds of course, but Ellana seemed to enjoy Pearl's company face to face during those long late night conversations.
The Awoken Guardian finished putting away all the cleaning supplies before joining her Ghost at the window. It looked out on the city below. Huge cranes were slowly moving through the city sections column by column, either repairing or destroying buildings. The Cabal had done years worth of damage even with the tireless workers out there. However non of that mattered to Ellana, she sat there with her head on her elbow watching Pearl who, in turn eventually noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"...Really?"
"I mean... I think I've asked the question enough."
"Oh." Pearl bashfully looked back outside.
A few pigeons flew past.
"You can feel her too... can't you?" Pearl asked.
"Sometimes, depends on where we are." Ellana didn't move.
"It's one thing to deal with your old memories leaking out because I resurrected you badly..."
Ellana's eyes lingered on the right side of her ghost, "To be fair you were shot by a Fallen in the process."
"... but it's quite another that another Ghost has... shared my connection to you." Pearl finished.
"We didn't know what would happen when we put her in that machine, Pearl. I think she would've preferred her own shell upon waking up."
"She didn't have to put me to sleep!"
"But she also didn't have time to be quarreling with Ponaptys breathing down her neck."
Pearl clicked a few gears together, "Are you defending her?"
"I'm defending the situation, not her." Ellana felt a prickle of annoyance at her own ghost's distrust. However it had been getting better, they'd had many times where they'd sat with Ikora to help mediate their arguments over Sagira's... occupation of Pearl's role as a Guardian's ghost. It was an unusual situation for certain, no Ghost had in the known history of the Guardians been attached to more than one Guardian. Sagira hadn't exactly replaced Pearl, but for the time she'd been there she'd had to take on a Ghosts' responsibilities to someone she had not chosen, so the threads were... tangled to put it mildly.
Ikora had assured them that most likely time away from Sagira and Osiris would help mend the... strange bond they had. All Ghosts and Guardians were fiercely connected to each other. Even as briefly as she'd been with Osiris himself, Ellana had felt strange around him and she was confident that he'd felt that same connection though he'd said nothing. Most of his words had been exchanged with Ikora, and of course when he'd needed her help with other tasks on Mercury.
Pearl looked down then back at Ellana, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."
She waved the apology aside, "We're all struggling."
"That's the thing, I don't think Sagira struggles with this... this connection. Every time we've gone to Mercury she's reached out... strongly through me to get to you... and... I don't like that, it makes me not trust her."
"Sagira is not evil."
"Not evil... just... oh what's the word I'm looking for. I trust that she's on our side... I just don't trust her with you is all." Pearl finally managed to spit out, "I... ever since we had to... to purge most of your old memories..."
Now Ellana reached out and cupped her ghost in both hands, "You are my Ghost, Pearl, you've done what others could not have done. Most Ghosts would've died, you persevered." she smiled warmly, "I am what I am today, because of you." she rubbed her thumb over a nasty scar across Pearl's center where the Fallen bullet had nearly torn him apart.
"You're not weak, or broken." Ellana finished. She'd said this many times, and she would say it more until Pearl believed it.
The Ghost looked into his Guardian's eyes for quite some time before finally tilting in a nod. Ellana smiled warmly before putting a kiss on her finger and tapping the top of his frame. Pearl twittered happily, the ritual of affection his Guardian had adopted always made his circuits buzz with a pleasant warmth. Something that he could only describe as possibly love. Not the kind of love that involved the weird and gross mating rituals of organic life forms, but one of mutual respect and admiration.
Pearl watched Ellana settle down under her blankets and open up a fictional novel she'd found in one of the City's civilian libraries. Eventually she would fall asleep and rest that dreamless sleep Pearl had worked so hard to achieve after their rough start as Ghost and Guardian.
It was a silent agreement between all of the Ghosts that it was better to choose a Guardian who'd long been dead, it was easier to tuck the memories away to make a good soldier for the Light.
But Pearl just... couldn't pass Ellana up.
When you found the one you found the one.
The cracked moon reached the height of its journey across the sky. Pearl was resting when something... moved. His optic popped open and he looked around the room franticly, only to find that he and the sleeping Ellana were the only ones there.
He felt the movement again and suddenly realized it wasn't in the room itself that this other one was in, but inside his head.
It was Sagira.
She wasn't doing anything in particular, no 'touching' per se if there was such a thing in the phantom world of code. The older Ghost was simply... there. Reaching out through their weakened bond.
Pearl immediately put up a wall metaphorically, protecting his memory core and consciousness out of instinct. The other presence hovered over him, a feeling of amusement tickled his senses. The communication was a bit different than sending compressed messages or a live feed. Sagira, in essence, was a part of Pearl. Though she could only do this when she was in the same reality as them. Her and Osiris must physically be on Mercury somewhere.
The tarnished colored ghost 'twirled' around happily, reaching out to Ellana gently to check on the Guardian, whom simply rolled over and sighed heavily at the mental touch. Pearl did the equivalent of a wrist slap against Sagira, the pop of junk data he sent telling her to back off without actually hurting her.
Sagira distanced herself, the buzz of amusement from her presence becoming louder.
Then she was gone. Jumping through a different portal in time and space.
Pearl waited for a few more minutes before slowly sinking back on to his pillow. He didn't believe Sagira would ever harm them.
That didn't mean he had to like her.
The endless cycle of the universe... or in this case... Ellana and Pearl were just good at what they did. So they got all of the 'no pressure' assignments as far as Pearl was concerned.
"Oh come on, this one's not so bad."
"Yes but every time we step out of our room some god pops up and is like: Rawrrrr I want to eat humanity! Can we just stay and sleep in?" Pearl huffed around in circles as Ellana was finishing putting on her black and green Warlock robes and gathering up what she needed for the trip.
Ellana squinted her bright green eyes at Pearl before diving into her gun safe, "Well that would solve all the universes problems wouldn't it?"
"Yes, staying in our room would encourage all the evil gods out there to leave us alone. It's a scientific fact." Pearl zipped over to her shoulder and started pocketing away several bricks of ammunition, "Put your hair up!" he squeaked.
"Oh yeah..." Ellana whirled around and ran to her mirror. She pulled up her long black hair into a messy bun that could easily be squished down once she wore her helmet.
"Oh my Traveler... Ellana you're driving me crazy!" Pearl flew over and pinched the hair tie between his gears and pulled her hair apart, "Brush it first!"
"Wow... we're late and you want me to brush my hair... ok Dad."
"Don't call me 'dad'!"
Once Pearl was satisfied his Guardian looked like a properly groomed Warlock, the two made their way out to the ship yard where Holliday had their ship ready. They exchanged greetings and other small chit chat before Ellana gave the Shipwright a half hug and climbed up the stairs to the launch platform.
The bustling of other Guardians, civilians and machinery dulled as soon as the door shut and sealed itself. With a hum the dashboard came to life as the Awoken sat in the pilot's seat.
"We'll be headed to Mercury this time, Zevala wants us to contact the Cult there for information, mostly about the Vex and what's left of the Red Legion in that area. Details inside." Pearl added as he tucked the note away in a different corner of his core.
"Ugh... the Cult." Ellana curled her lip in disgust, "Some of them are alright."
"I'm assuming you're not including Brother Vance in that statement."
The ships engines started whining as they spun up for lift off, "He's somewhere in the middle."