Author's note: So this is an Idea I've been kicking around for awhile, decided to post it here. I'm only gonna update it occasionally as my main fic is Spirit of the King right now. for those that read the main fics I'm sorry I didn't get a new chapter for those up, I'm currently experiencing some writer's block, I know what I want to happen, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Fair warning to y'all, this fic is much more gritty and gory than Beyond the skies was even at it's darkest point.

Prolougue: Re-Awakening.

Too little too late, the only way that he was going to succeed now would be to destroy the whole damn complex. Nothing for it, better start planting the bombs, and quickly. Ivan stood on the verge of victory and the United States was not about to let him have it.

The cold war officially ended in the 80s, but in reality it never truly ended, too many people indoctrinated in the old ways, you can't just take it all away and force them to things the way you want. They fight back, they fight hard, the try again to force their own agenda on the world, on America.

Saun was here to end all of that, normally he was disgusted by the CIA, still was right now if he was honest, but in this case they had the right Idea, they couldn't let Ivan Gorbachev and his Cosmonaught flunkies get one up on the states by using this, whatever it is that they found in space.

Saun moved quickly, a Russian soldier saw him, for but a brief moment before Saun's knife introduced him silently to oblivion, another bomb placed, another objective complete. CIA would bitch about the Russian death tole later, they might bet willing use it as a political crutch after all, but fuck the politicians, he only cared about saving his country from devastation.

This song and dance had gotten Old, Granted he had fortunately stayed one step ahead of Gorbachev all this time, but unfortunately Gorbachev had nearly pulled the wool over his eyes with this one. It would not be easy to end this fight without massive casualties.

"Sir," The soldier near the comm. Console said "I've had three Units fail to check in."

"Ah," Ivan said sadistically "The American is hear to save the day as usual." A smile spread across his face "too little to late." He said dramatically. "Cue up the PA System."

The man pushed a few buttons and turned a nob, then handed the microphone to the general.

"Suan Davis," Ivan began "I know you are here, dropping my evidently useless men like flies as usual. Let's say we settle things once and for all, Mano a Mano, as you American's like to say."

There was no reply of course, The American did not have a communication device that was plugged into the network, but he would know in a few minutes if his bait had worked, he watched silently and waited.

After a minute or so a Russian soldier was sent falling from a catwalk far above them, his body slamming into the ground as inertia slammed him from ave effectively cruching his entire chest cavity together and leaving him dead on the floor with a rib sticking out of his side. Ivan kicked the body aside, stupid useless pawns these soldiers were, nothing compared to the likes of him, or this American, true warriors carved in a time of contention and strife, men out of time and place in the new world.

"You want yourself a duel Ivan?" Saun's familiar voice rang out from above his silhouette barely visible in front of the blindingly bright light that lit the main control room. The man lept down alighting on several metal surfaces along the way and landing nimbly on his feet in the center of the light. "You've got it. Let's end this."

"You never disappoint American!" Ivan said with glee as he pulled off his officer's jacket and cracked his knuckles and his neck. "All of you watch patiently, this fight is between him and I, Gulag style, no interruptions and no aide to either party, we fight until one dies."

Saun yelled and charged at his enemy slashing with his combat knife, the Russian dodged and planted his fist in Saun's abdomen forcing the breath out of him, but as expected he recovered quickly turning and kicking Ivan in the chest and forcing him back. Ivan pulled his own knife, this fight was now fair, one would live and one would die, the victor would decide the fate of the two countries they represented.

Ivan slashed and Saun dodged, Saun stabbed and Ivan parried, the Russian was bigger and stronger that him, but he was nimble and quick on his feet, his punches did not do as much damage, at times they seemed to do nothing at all, he was getting frustrated he needed to end this quickly. He began resorting to kicks as they seemed to at least force the Russian back and make him stop momentarily. He lept in the air and twisted his body his heel slamming down on top of the russian's head and forcing the man's upper body to keel over. His officer's hat pulled from his head and landed on the ground beneath his feet.

The Russian yelped for a moment in pain but retaliated with a a heavy punch to saun's center, throwing him off balance, then a kick that sent him off the ground and several feet back into a wall. As he was getting up a door-like structure closed over him. Trapping him within an odd blue oval shaped device.

Ivan laughed "I couldn't have planned it better myself American." He said gleefully "What better way to go out, frozen to death in the very tundra you tried to conquer."

"What?" Saun said angrily. "What are you talking about."

"surley you noticed that little device that you are trapped in," Ivan said "It's a, how do you say… Prototype, yes I think that's the word, Prototype for a cryo-stasis pod. It doesn't work right, see the body freezes and slows like it's supposed to, but the body is made mostly of water yes, the water becomes ice, and the ice cuts and tears away at muscles and nerves, I am told it's a quite painful death."

"You son of a bitch!" Saun said angrily

"Now, now American, no need for such talk," Ivan replied "Lose with a little grace and dignity won't you?"

Saun started laughing and Ivan's face soured quickly, no longer feeling like the supremevictor, something was wrong, the American should be in fear, not rejoicing.

"What is so funny?" Ivan asked.

"That you thought I was gonna lose," Saun said lifting a detonation device up to Ivan's sight.

Ivan was quick to react "Activate the chamber now!"

Mist began to flow in as the chamber's temperature cooled rapidly.

"Today ends this long Struggle Ivan," Saun said beging to feel the effects of the cold "Once and for all!"

"You will die in there American!" Ivan yelled angrily.

"Not before I Bury you." he said calmly and pressed the button, a series of beeps began to sound off and red lights erupted into existence all around them.

"No!" Ivan said "No, No, No!"

Saun leaned back an relaxed, the pain would come soon, but he would die grateful, he had won out in the end. He exhaled; his only regret was not being able to smoke that sweet victory cigar. Fuck it, he'd light it on hell's flames.

400 Years later…

The ghost flitted around the area, most of the recent guardians had been found in this area, somewhere in old Russia, he wasn't certain why, but it seemed that the traveler's light was densest here. As a result more individuals had the ability to use it as a weapon.

There were some signs of organic structure, he had to be careful, he was farther out than one usually traveled from the city and the area was fairly well controlled by the fallen, they had been capturing ghosts they found more frequently, ghosts no one ever heard from again.

He felt it then, like a tug, a blip on the radar, something was close, something that bore the power of light within itself. He was hopeful that he perhaps had found a new guardian, but he had to e careful, the fallen were crafty, this could be a trap.

He approached an old rusted out Russian bunker and followed the tug closely until he reached a collapsed control room. A few skeletons remained, protected from the elements by the ruble around them. If there had been any others they had become dust. There nearby was a glowing blue oval machine. How this machine had remained active all this time he was not certain, but he sensed an enormous amount of light within.

He hovered around the machine, moving and working, trying to activate the controls. After a few moments he managed to get it to whir and hum. He hoped that that was good, temperatures within the orb were rising, as they did he detected a blip of life, whatever was inside wasn't quite dead yet, he knew he wasn't supposed to "raise" anyone that wasn't dead, but he had been searching for oh so long, and the light within was oh so bright, he couldn't pass this up, it was too good an opportunity.

The machine awakened and withen was a human, a human that was at death's door as far as he could tell, there was extreme structural damage to all major organs and the entire muscle sytem, nerves had been severed and torn asunder, his bran was damaged as though cut up from many small knives, the ghost did not understand, how had this man managed to survive? And for how long?

He burst open, his shell dispersing around a large blue orb of energy with a tiny black sphere in its center "I found you at last." He said contently as he flashed an incredibly bright light. His regenerative powers, the ones that only worked once in a ghost's lifetime, activated, the cellular structure of the man's body reconstructed itself, the muscles regenerated, nerves realigning, brain cells reconstructing, a macabre miracle before the small rotating orb of light.

The man's eyes blinked opened slowly, the moved, taking in his surroundings, he looked around curious. What had happened? Where was he? Memories came flooding back in a flash, a deluge of images and sounds imprinting on his mind, most of his life, but not all, there were gaps, places where things didn't make sense where things weren't right. But he remembered what had just happened, moments ago, the fight with Ivan, the C-4s planted, he was supposed to light that cigar in hell. What had happened? Where was he? Where was Ivan?

"Ivan Gorbachev!" he yelled suddenly startling the ghost which hovered back, "Where is he? If I survived, he may have!"

"I don't understand." The ghost said "Who is Ivan Gorbachev?"

The newly awakened guardian lunged forward grabbing the ghost in his hand and pulling it next to his face, the small A.I. had never felt such desperate fear, something wasn't right, and something was keeping him from teleporting away. Who was this madman? What had he done?

"Ivan Gorbachev!" The man said Insistantly "The Russian KGB Leader, he was here, I fought him, he won, I blew the place to smithereens, I was supposed to die! He was supposed to die with me!" He yelled the words into the ghost's tiny face as though it would help get his point across, it only made the small light feel vulnerable and frightened.

"Please, I don't know what you're talking about." The ghost said "The Russians haven't had a group like that for centuries."

The man seemed to calm down after a few moments he let the ghost go, and the small light born of the traveler floated backwards gratefully trying to escape the maddened re-awakened man.

"What are you?" He asked, this time in a far darker tone "I've never seen anything like you before, a little talking orb floating around on… Who the fuck knows what."

"I am a ghost," The ghost replied "Well, now, I suppose I'm your ghost, though if I am honest, I am currently regretting that descision."

"Ghost?" The man said "Is that what they called you? Are you one of their science projects?"

"I am an extension of the traveler," he said "I am supposed to find those dead who have the genetic ability to use the traveler's light as a weapon to fight the darkness."

The man burst out laughing, it was a nearly genuine laugh with a dark, nearly insane undertone to it a threatening undertone, one that hinted the man did not believe the little light.

Again his hand reached out, and again the ghost was too slow to stop it from gripping him, this time locking itself around him and pulled him closer, right between the man's eyes.

"Who do you think I am?" the man said darkly "Some bright-eyed twelve-year-old sap? Save the bedtime stories for children. And start making sense or I will crush you into powder!"

The ghost didn't doubt the man's words, in fact he was nearly certain he would do as he said. Why couldn't he sense this darkness before, it was there, a darkness surrounded by light, the exact opposite of an awakened. He knew that if he wanted to live he'd best say something, something the man would believe. He didn't believe in light and darkness, so that meant he was old, very old, pre-golden age, but how was that possible? The traveler's light was not used by humans until the golden age had been upon them.

"Well!?" the man demanded.

"Okay, okay," The ghost replied "You were in a cryo stasis chamber, a very old model, it's a miracle you were even alive in there."

"Okay, I remember that," The man said "That stasis chamber was supposed to kill me, And the bombs I had set were supposed to kill Ivan."

"You're not Russian," The ghost said "Are you?"

"Ding, Ding, Ding!" The man said with a false glee "Give the little glowbot a prize, I am of the United States of America, CIA agent Saun Davis. Now then, the Russians had found something in space, mars I believe, I was here to stop them from sending anyone, did I succeed?"

"No," the ghost said plainly, finally something he could work with "The Russians found something on mars alright, your kind called it the traveler."

"The great light being that spawned you?" Saun asked, being a little more genuine this time.

"Y-Yes." The ghost answered hesitantly.

Saun visibly relaxed and allowed his iron grip to loosen, "That makes more sense, the Russians found something," He said "And used it to make little glowbots, A.I. Units that believe that this 'thing' is their god or something, that makes more sense."

"That's not exactly how it happened." The ghost replied.

Before Saun could come up with a snarky response a warbling, roaring sound echoes through the collapsed tunnels they were in.

"What was that?" Saun asked, this time deadly serious.

"Fallen," he said, "They must have tracked me."

"What are fallen?" Saun asked again very serious.

"For now let's just say they're bad news," The ghost said "I suggest we get out of here before they find us, because if they do, they will kill us."

"Acceptable," Saun said "where to? This place isn't exactly what it was when I went into cryo-stasis."

"This way," The ghost said and began floating down a tunnel "Follow me."

"Follow the little orb A.I. that believes in fairy tales," Saun said "The things I do for my country."

Saun did follow however and the little glowing orb led him through a labyrinth of tunnels that he would never have found his way out of on his own. Maybe he should be a little easier on him.

When they did reach the surface he stopped, the place looked decadent, destroyed, a piece of land right out of those post apocalyptic video games his nephew liked so much.

"What happened here?" he asked, his voice wavering, the reality of the situation he found himself in was finally making its way past all his mental defenses and into his heart. "Where are we?"

"Old Russia," The ghost said answering his last question first, "as to what happened, the darknees happened."

"What is this darkness?" Saun asked

"We… We don't really know," the ghost said "I suppose that's why we call it the darkness."

"Okay," Saun said "Now that, that I believe."

"Quickly," The ghost said "There's an old cosmodrome nearby, if we're lucky we may find a ship there, one the fallen haven't picked clean."

"Ship?" he asked "This place was landlocked."

"It still is," The ghost said "We're going to find a space ship."

"This… Traveler," Saun said "Gave them the technology to do all that?"

"Yes," The ghost said "Not just the Russians, but all of mankind. Things will make more sense when we get to the city."

"The city?" Saun asked again, followed by another of those warbling roars. "Never mind, let's go."

"Okay, this is probably going to freak you out a bit." The ghost said "but here goes nothing."

The ghost disappeared in a flash of light and his eyes burned momentarily before images appeared in them, as though he was looking through a helmet feed or a heads up display.

"What the fuck!?" Saun yelled angrily, rubbing his eyes "What did you do?"

"I integrated with your neural network," The ghost's voice rang inside the confines of his own mind, a sensation that felt as though he shared his body with another soul, it felt wrong, unnatural."

"Fuck!" he said "Get out of my head!"

"I will," The ghost said "When we find a ship."

"Damn it!" Saun yelled.

A bolt of blue lighting shot out from beneath the ground and slammed into something, a shield? Some hard light… something that surrounded him like a cacoon.

"The fallen have found us!" The ghost said worriedly

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Saun said "What the fuck! What the fuck okay!"

"Hard light shield," Ghost said "I can project one around you, but only when I'm bonded to you like this."

"Okay!" Saun said, still not grasping everything "Keep doing that then."

A moment later a humanoid shape emerged from the hole in the ground that they had walked out from, a tuft of hair ran above its head and it wore an odd helmet, two cylinder shapes protruded above its shoulders.

"A Fallen dreg!" Ghost said

"Can I kill it with a knife?" Saun asked.

"Yes," The ghose said "But I don't see why-"

Saun rushed the humanoid and punched it in the face before it could attack again, knocking it back, then he pulled it's head up and slit it's throat with his combat knife, something else the chamber had kept in one piece. The dreg screamed and went limp bleeding blue blood all over the ground. A pistol shaped weapon fell from its hand.

Saun picked up the pistol, he aimed it and pulled the trigger a few times, arcs of blue energy spat out like bullets. Seemingly satisfied with it he turned towards the large rusted wall in the distance.

"So, The cosmodrome is that way right?" he asked

"Yes." The ghost said "We should hurry, Dregs rarely travel alone."

"Alright then, onward ho!"

Author's note: I was thinking of making this longer, but I kind of want to draw some of the arcs out a bit because I want this to eventually run parralell to the game releases for destiny itself. So I'll be breaking it up into pieces, I'm gonna go play wakfu and work on Spirit of the king for awhile, PEACE!