Author's Note: This is the first story I've written for public viewing. I'd very much appreciate critique on how to make future chapters better. I have to thank Hopeful/Bladedancer from Byf's discord server who helped me tremendously with this.

Chapter 1 : Revival

The first thing I heard was the crashing of the surf and a faint voice in my mind saying "Guardian? Guardian! Get up, we need to get moving now! The Fallen could be here any minute and the storm won't wait for you either!"

With that, my eyes flickered open and I slowly sat up and looked around at the bluff I was on, just catching a flicker of movement in the corner of my eye before something that looked like an orb floated in front of me. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing something that wasn't actually there only to find that nothing changed. "The hell?" I muttered as I pushed myself off the ground.

"I'll answer all your questions later, we need to get into cover now!" the thing said before disappearing, leaving me even more confused than before.

"I'm still here and I can direct you to a nearby cave" the thing said in my mind.

My only response was a very noticeable increase in my breathing and heartrate before I started following the directions of whatever it was to a cave just a bit farther up the hill. The moment I was far enough in the cave to stop feeling the wind I collapsed against a wall, breathing heavily and shaking slightly.

I watched as the orb fazed into existence in front of me and started scanning me with a blue light, ringing off a diagnosis as it went, it was at this point that I realized the voice was clearly female. "Increased heartrate, multiple abrasions due to branches, and nothing life threatening."

"wha-what are you?" I asked in confusion as my eyes darted around searching for anything that could be used as a weapon if needed.

"I'm a ghost. More accurately, I'm your ghost." She said as you floated from side to side, seeming to examine me. That barely explained anything. If anything, it confused me even more.

"Um…. What?"

She huffed in exasperation "I was created by the traveler to bring you back to life." I have no clue what this traveler thing is, but I guess it's good.

"But for what?"

"To protect the traveler and what's left of humanity of course." she said with more than a hint of exasperation.

"Next question."

"Shoot"

"You called me a guardian, I know what the word means, and I now know what I'm supposed to be protecting, but how do I do that?"

"You use the light of course."

"explain"

"The light is what brings guardians back and gives them their powers."

My head immediately swiveled to her at that and I help my hand out for her to land on "Powers? Like what?".

As she settled in my hand she started explaining "It all depends on your class, based on how you look id guess you're either a Hunter or Titan."

"2 questions." I said as I looked at her "1. What are Titan's and Hunter's, and 2. Do you have a name?"

"You want the short version or the long version to that first question? As for the second one, I don't have a name until you decide on one." She said

"I'll have to think of one then, and I think I'll go with the short version" I said with a small smile.

"Short version it is then. A Titan is a tank and a Hunter is a scout"

"Is there more?" I asked as I tilted my head slightly

"There's one more which is Warlock, but they're almost entirely scholars. Now I have a question for you, do you remember your name?"

I waited for the flash of lightning and the crash of thunder before responding. "Salem"

"Oooo nice name and good dramatic timing, I think I made a good choice." To which we both laughed.

"So, what are the, what was it you said, Fallen?"

"They're scavengers who're spread all over earth, they hunt and kill any humans and guardians they find." Well then.

"Sounds pretty bad."

"To be fair, I don't actually know if there are any fallen in this area, I just needed a way to get you away from the storm."

"Eh, that's fine. Though I think that storm is more than enough motivation." As if to prove my point, lightning flashed just outside the cave and the thunder rolled in.

"Anything else you want to know?"

"Why can't I remember anything?"

"I brought you back from the dead, no guardian can remember their past. You can look into it, but it's not encouraged."

"Alright then." I then looked down at what I was wearing to see a suit of cloth with light plates of Armor covering the vital areas. "Where do we go from here?"

"The Last City"

"And that is?"

"It's the last bastion of Humanity, and the home of the guardians."

"Well that'll have to wait until the storm passes for 1 and for 2, and I'm wondering why I didn't ask this sooner, where are we?"

"We're 40 or so miles north of old San Diego."

"Military or civilian airfields?"

"Several. There's the San Diego airport, NAS North island, and MCAS Miramar."

"Thought there'd be more."

"There is, but I've already been to them, I already know there's nothing left that we could use to get out of here."

"Maybe not, but there should at least be weapons, some supplies, and if we can't find something to use ourselves, radio towers strong enough to broadcast for a pickup."

"B-But that would attract the Fallen to the area they'd pull everything apart to find us."

"That's the risk we run if we can't find our own way out, understand?"

"I-I understand" Good, don't want her to see just how scared I am of that option.

"With that planned out, I have a name for you"

"What is it?"

"Zara"

She floats of my hand and quickly flies around the cave giggling before landing back in my hand "I love it"

I laugh quietly "And with that done and our plan worked out, I'm gonna sleep."

She floats back out of my hand and settles on my shoulder as I start to fall asleep.

Zara's POV

I'd always heard the strange stories about ghosts finding their guardians, I'd always heard of the trouble they'd gotten in so soon after revival, but I never imagined how amazing it would be to finally find my own. Salem is so drastically different than I was expecting. I've never heard of any guardian talking that way about finding their own way out or risking capture so soon after revival. As I hovered around him, I wondered what the next days would bring, and how we were going to get to the Last City. All I knew was that I was exceedingly excited, I mean, I'd finally found him after 403 years. This is what I'm alive for, this is why I never game up when so many others did. This is the beginning of something new.

Author's Note: That concludes this chapter, thank you again to Hopeful/Bladedancer for all his help in making this so much better than it was originally.