My name is Asher-8 and I am a Guardian from Earth. My partner is Hunter, he is my ghost and a vessel of light from the Traveler. I was forged in light, something Hunter continuously assured me of but I was not from Earth. I originated from Mars and I was stranded for weeks before I was able to make it back to Earth. I learned the history of the Traveler and the Golden Age it brought. How the Darkness followed it and brought the humans to the brink of extinction. The Speaker said it was coming back, human's would not survive a second hit from the darkness...they would truly be extinct. That is why we fight, to bring an end to the darkness. Then the Traveler will begin to heal and I thought then that it would end...but I was wrong. There was a Guardian who defeated the darkness, they traveled through Mars with their team but in the end only she was transported into the Black Garden. She alone stood against the Vex and their creator. She ripped out the Heart but not without a price. The Guardian did not return from the Black Garden and all that was found in her place was a ghost, void of all light.
Then Eris came and warned us of the Dark Below, her team fought in her honor and along with other Guardians, defeated Crota but that was not the end. We fought across the galaxy but it was not enough...Had we known something might have been done.
Mara Sov, Queen of Awoken, called upon the Ravagers to fight for the Reef. They answered and in turn we were called to fight as well. The House of Wolves would have been a great threat to all so we fought and we pushed back the Wolves. But that was not the end...with his last breath Crota sent a cry into the dark. Thus the war began, the Taken King would kill us all...
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"Hunter where are we?" a small machine like being appeared beside the man clad in armor and a hooded cloak hung from his shoulders. He scanned their surroundings before disappearing again.
"We're on Earth Asher but...the air is a bit more polluted rather than changed. Where are the others?" Asher looked around the area but his team was gone.
"We said before that the aura probably wouldn't be enough to pass all of us through the portal, maybe it was just a fluke and we're near Old Russia." Asher moved forward, heading deeper into the cave. "Let's get top-side, maybe we'll be able to call Falcon to us." as he moved deeper a light came into view, with a quick look at his tracker he rushed forward and froze at the sight of two towering robots staring each other down.
"Stay hidden Asher!" Hunter said lowly and Asher slowly backed up, trying not to bring attention to himself then hid back in the dark of the cave.
"You really think keeping us from this Energon deposit will save your precious humans or your Autobots Prime? We don't need this, it's you that does but you won't have it. You're won't get out of here alive." the green machine launched itself at the one he called Prime. Prime managed to push him back after a long while.
"I do not wish to end your spark but in order to save my comrades I will do so." a large sword extended from his arm then he charged the machine.
"Asher I've detected multiple points in the area, I think they're bombs!" Hunter brought up the locations to Asher's visor.
"Can we disable them?" he asked as he snuck around to the first bomb, keeping as quiet as possible. It ended up being this larger piece of equipment, "We can disable this right?" Hunter appeared and scanned the piece.
"I've managed to block the signal so the only way to detonate these would be if they were shot but still better safe than sorry. Cut the gray wire and pull out what's inside." Asher did so and what came out looked to be a large source of power. "I don't know what it is but that's the explosive. Four to go." Asher got a warning from Hunter so he moved quickly and just managed avoid being squished by Prime. Hunter disappeared once more and Asher went invisible using the cloaking tech form his Blade Dancer before moving to the other devices. He did the same to each and with each source Hunter added it to their inventory for further analysis. At the last explosive device Prime was thrown again into the cave's wall and the latter gave a gurgled laugh before a portal of some kind opened behind him and another machine creature stood waiting with his arms crossed. This machine held one eye and seemed to be impatient in his waiting for the green one.
"Megatron is waiting Brawl, get your ass in gear." Brawl hurried through the portal without a glance to Prime. The cyclops though took one last look at Prime's fallen form struggling to stand before following Brawl through and let the portal close.
"Unblock the signal Hunter, let them think they've won." With that said Asher moved forward, his Arc Blade sitting comfortably on his back and a void fusion rifle in his hands. From the looks of it, this guy could be a potential ally but better safe than sorry, at least that's what Imara always said. "Hello up there! Are you alright?" he called to Prime who looked down at him in alarm. Asher put a hand up in a placating manner, "Hey no need to worry we disarmed the bombs that Brawl guy had set up as a contingency plan. This place isn't blowing up anytime soon." the mechanized being visibly relaxed some and Asher counted that as a win, he was gaining more traction in the ally section.
"How have you come find this place and how did you stay hidden for so long?" something blue gushed out Prime's side and Asher set down the rifle altogether.
"We're pretty sure you're hurt enough that whatever is flowing out between your fingers is a cause for us to worry. We need to get a better look at it before you can be move." Prime hummed but did as he was told and even helped Asher get up close to the hole in his side. Asher knew it was probably to entertain him rather than believing he could help. "Hunter, gather up some spinmetal we have in the inventory and recreate what I use for me but bigger. That should be able to hold it closed until he can get back to the Autobots." Hunter gave a mental affirmative to the man's muttered sentence. "My name's Asher-8, most call me Asher but some refer to me as 8."
"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots." Asher hummed in return, letting Hunter tap in and assess the damage through his eyes.
"Alright Optimus, we can call you that right?" Prime nodded. "This is what we're going to do, we have no idea how to fix you. You're structure is similar to what I've seen but I don't want to risk injuring you further. For now we're going to put a bandage of sorts to stop the...the bleeding." Asher drew closer but in his distraction he slipped. As he fell back, Prime's thumb came up and kept him upright.
"Are you alright?" Asher nodded his head, yet another point added to the ally section. "How is it that you've seen a being similar to me?"
"Where we're from, there's tons of miniature you...of sorts. Robotic beings are not unheard of." Asher grew closer with Prime's help and with a hand over the hole, Hunter had the spinmetal appear over and in the hole. Prime gave a groan of sorts and Asher patted the hand holding him up. "That should stop you from losing anymore, now we overheard that thing say something about you needing this," he gestured to the glowing crystals in the cave. "To save the Autobots?"
"They were ambushed, this was the closest Energon deposit we could find and they need it to make a full recovery. My Medic, Ratchet, is on standby. He and I were the only ones left mostly unscathed, the others are farther away on their own respective missions." Asher nodded and jumped out of Prime's hand, the bot jolted at the action but with his booster's help Asher jumped again before hitting the ground and landed somewhat gently on the floor.
"Can you get in contact with your friend?" Prime shook his head.
"My communications have been damaged, I cannot contact Ratchet." Asher gave a hum. "But I can open a portal," a smaller device detached itself from his arm. "This will work once."
"Alright, so do it and go talk to your friend. We can hold down the fort 'til you get back." Prime struggled up, his form towering over Asher who whistled at the height. "Yeah we can definitely hold it down." Asher picked up his Fusion Rifle again. "No arguing Optimus, we may have just met but up to this point you've shown us we can trust you...for now at least. We've taken on things about your size so we should be fine." Prime hummed and activated the device. A portal opened and Asher let Hunter analyze through him again.
"I will return Asher," and with those words he was gone.
"He'll want answers Hunter," said ghost appeared before him. "Have you figured out what the hell happened? Just where the hell are we exactly?"
"We are on Earth Asher but..." Asher looked up at the sky and saw no Fallen ships or that of the Hive. "I'm going to take a look, maybe I can get a signal and figure out where we are exactly." Asher nodded at his partner and the ghost flew off. Asher turned his attention to the crystals.
"He called it Energon," he walked over and tapped it. Nothing happened so he hummed, a guttural purring noise drew his attention from the crystals. Asher turned, his rifle up at attention, what he found was a robotic cat. Said cat inched closer so he lowered his rifle and reached out to it. The cat purred and rubbed its head against his hand, "So are you an Autobot too?" the cat's demeanor did a complete 360, it jumped back and growled. Asher brought up his rifle again, "Oookaaay...wrong question." the cat jumped at him and Asher cursed, his rifle needed to charge before firing but this thing was too fast for that. He managed to move to the side at the last moment. He put a hand to his sword handle, switching the gun for his saber. "Seriously, it's just my luck." it roared, the screeching sound making Asher's head ring. "Aw don't be like that doll, why don't I scratch behind your ears?" it hissed and charged at him. Asher's sword crackled with the electricity of Arc energy. He swung as the thing jumped and the poor thing was cleaved in two.
"I leave you for five minutes and already you're getting into trouble?" Asher gave a smug feel to his partner as he straightened up and allowed the little machine to store his fusion rifle so he could place the sword on his back. Hunter sighed. "As I suspected, we are on Earth but it isn't our Earth. It is the year 2015, humans are thriving here." Asher tapped his foot before taking another look around the cave, Hunter took his silence as him processing the information.
"So you're practically saying we got transported back in time?" he said neutrally. Hunter gave a nervous feeling to his partner through their link and Asher grew suspicious. "Am I wrong Hunter?"
"Machines like Prime are not recorded in any of Earth's history." he replied.
"Much of Earth's history was lost Ghost." Hunter hovered nervously, Asher used his designation when he was running out of patience.
"Things like that would have been kept in stories, people would wonder where they went and why they didn't help us fight the darkness." Asher looked at the machine he cleaved in two. "Better yet, we would have been told if the Exo's were modeled after them...beings like this do not just disappear without something showing that they existed especially if they could have helped stop the darkness."
"What exactly are you implying here Ghost?" Hunter settled on his partner's outstretched hand.
"The portal sent us to a completely different galaxy...or better yet a different dimension. This is Earth so it cannot be a different galaxy. From what we know before the Collapse, this Earth fits that description with a few modifications." Asher sent a wave of warmth to soothe his partner. "Still, I need to analyze further to see if we can get back."
"If it has to do with the rift to get to Oryx we may not be able to, we'd have to re-create something similar.."
"That would be dangerous and almost impossible, we would have to turn to the darkness that created it." Asher sighed and nodded to his partner.
"I don't want to resort to their methods, we may as well think about what to say and how much alright?" Hunter disappeared. "We can make you seem like an A.I. within my equipment but I think it may be better for both of us if we tell the truth...from what I can tell these Autobots are protecting this Earth's Humanity and that's gotta count for something." a portal opened again but instead of it being Optimus, it was another machine with what looked like wing flaps on his back, it reminded him of Laura's sparrow racing cloak. The thought made the thing acting as his heart twinge. Hunter disappeared, the being not registering as an enemy but Asher only took a deep "breath" to call up to it. "Whoa, you're pretty big. Gaining some weight there big guy?"
"Pathetic trash," he started off and Asher sighed, it was an evil peep. "You will not keep Lord Megatron from his conquest of this world." Hunter gave a mental nudge and Asher gave an affirmative in return.
"Look doll face, I know you're supposed to have this place destroyed or what not but I don't think you're thinking this through...heh funny. Anyway, you have one Autobot to kill, the leader of said team by the way, and this...Lord Megatron? He's your leader right? Right," he didn't wait for a response. "Why doesn't he come here and finish him off? What's he got to lose except if you destroy this place then everything will be ash and what will you gain from it if Prime lives?" The machine aimed his weapon and Asher crouched in response. "Well I guess that means you guys don't care then?" the gun flared and Asher turned invisible as he jumped behind a large boulder. "Fucking convenient." he muttered.
"Our best bet is to detach the head of that thing Asher." His rocket launcher appeared in his arms and Asher sighed.
"Just another day huh?" he rolled out and fired a random one, it hit the machine in the chest and it stumbled back. "Head shots!" he said gleefully. He aimed and fired twice before taking cover to reload. He peeked out as he did and saw the machine growling out in pain, "Shit we took out its eyes! Awesome!"
"I'm getting a transmission Asher, I think it's Optimus."
"Let 'em in I guess, can't exactly decipher your coding anyway since you're constantly changing it."
"Asher," and holy hell it was Optimus, Swordfish!
"What's up big man?" he replied and went invisible again, eyes gone or not he was still a machine, he moved to get a better angle and to avoid the random shot the blind mechanized being was shooting. He had take him out before the cave caved. "Hah! The cave caved...dammit Asher focus!"
"Ratchet and I are returning, is the area cleared?"
"Not yet, got this big guy trying to blast my head off. Count to thirty will you?"
"We're coming through," he responded but before Asher could get a word in, Hunter cut in.
"Asher and I can handle this. The last we saw Optimus, you had a hole in your side, both of you will remain where you are until I deem otherwise."
"My god Hunter, when did you get so sassy?"
"Who do you think I learned it from Asher?"
Asher gave a mock gasp, "So much sass!" he stood from his crouch and fired twice at the machine's face. "Shye-yaya!" and the Machine's head exploded with Void energy. Hunter took the Rocket launcher into their inventory as Asher walked over to poke at the fallen machine. When Hunter gave the affirmative that it was dead Asher planted his booty on its hand.
"Returning signal location, you may pass. The machine is dead." a portal opened soon after and Optimus stepped out with who Asher and Hunter assumed was Ratchet. "Cutting transmission," he told Asher before he went quiet.
"Well welcome back Optimus!" he said cheerfully. Ratchet sighed, "Hi you must be Ratchet, the wondrous Medic and marvelous, overall amazing engineer of the Autobots."
Ratchet looked to Optimus, "He's tolerable." he then moved to the Energon and Optimus to Asher who was reclining on the machine's hand.
"Here come the questions Asher." Hunter warned.
"Alright Optimus, let's be semi-honest here." he said before he could start. "My name is Asher-8 and my partner is Hunter. He's an A.I. that helps me out when I'm fighting out there." he pointed up at the sky. "I can't tell you all the details considering the circumstances, it would take too damn long, but we're lost and possibly stranded here. Gotta trust ya some considering..." Ratchet came over and the portal opened again. "You're going to make me go with you aren't ya?" Optimus nodded and Asher sighed.
"It would be best if you did."
"Hunter and I need to set up a blocking signal, that way they can't open a portal like you. Not within a 60 to 100 mile radius." A beacon appeared in his hands, he placed it in between the machines uncurled fingers. He jumped off and jogged over to Optimus who offered his hand. "Thanks Swordfish!" he hopped on and they went through. As soon as the portal's walls disappeared Hunter activated the beacon and blocked the signal. They arrived in a medical wing of sorts, the biggest Asher's ever seen, and Hunter gave a worried feel when he spotted more machines laid out on tables. Their optics weren't lit up so Asher assumed they weren't awake, he was more surprised to find human children sitting with the three that were there. "They made friends or these are small agents like you told me existed in Earth's history." Hunter pushed his amusement to his partner and Asher gave one in return.
"I'll begin the process Optimus but other than this you're the one who needs to be fixed up." Asher backed up before running forward and jumping off of Optimus's hand to a tray to get a closer look at what Ratchet was doing. Said Autobot only glanced at him. Asher watched in rapt attention, Ratchet was typing away on the monitors before he moved to the large container and inserted the Energon crystals he collected.
"It's basically like a blood transfusion right?" Ratchet looked at Asher, question in his optics. "Well, when a person suffers from blood loss, or some type of trauma, a transfusion of blood is given so the body won't give out. This Energon substance to you is like blood to a human, lose too much and it could kill you, so you need to administer a transfusion to make sure they can recover from whatever happened to them right?" Ratchet seemed to have a sense of respect for the strange man before the monitors began to beep and his optics turned frantic.
"What's going on? Ratchet!" one of the humans called in alarm.
"Their sparks are going out," he said and began to administer the Energon but their vitals continued to fall.
"Give them a shot of adrenaline!" Ratchet continued to type, not stopping to even look at Asher.
"What in Cybertron's name will that do?"
"Adrenaline is usually used to give human's heart a boost so it will keep a good pace and not die, don't you have something similar for your kind?"
"We do but we don't have any, the Decepticons took the reserve months ago. They've been using it for explosives." Asher froze for a second before he whooped in success at the coincidence. Ratchet gave him a glare but Asher had Hunter give him one of the cores from the bombs.
"We disabled their bombs when Optimus was fighting, you're lucky we decided to keep them." Ratchet took the large vile, it was large in Asher's hands, and stuck it into the slot beside the Energon. Their vitals stabilized and both Asher and Ratchet sighed in relief. "Jeez...look we have four more so take them all." the last four appeared on the monitor next to Ratchet, who gazed at them questionably; they appeared out of nowhere on the desk. "It's not like we need it." he finally noticed the three humans staring at him so he did what any person in his position would do. "Hi I'm Asher-8, the strange but lovable guy who just saved your friends! Nice to meet ya!" he waved, out of all the things to do, he waved happily down at the three kids.
"Wait what?" the older male said in confusion and Asher had to let out a laugh at the way his face scrunched to show his confusion.
"This guy looks totally cool!" the female of the group said with a big grin on her face. "He's got this whole lone wolf thing going on."
"Miko..." the confused one said in exasperation.
"Miko sounds like a cool name, I've never heard anyone use that name before." Asher commented and Miko beamed at the Exo. "Rude much though? I introduced myself and all I get to hear is Miko and it wasn't even an introduction."
"I'm Rafael but everyone calls me Raf, thanks ya know? For saving our friends." Asher hummed and looked over at Ratchet who started working on Optimus. "You know Miko now and that's Jack." Hunter gave a curious feel so Asher gave an amused one in return.
"You said your name was Asher-8, what's the eight for?" Jack asked. If Asher could he would be grinning like maniac; instead though he jumped off the monitor and used his double jump to land safely. The three looked at him like he grew an extra head.
"I'm so glad you asked that young Jaqu." he said with an over dramatic wave of his hands.
"You're going to tell them you're an Exo aren't you?" Hunter said in an unimpressed voice.
"Well, seeing as I realized we may be stuck here for an extended amount of time, I think it's best we tell 'em. Gotta have trust right? That's what Ikora said at least...oh and Locien." Miko was giving him a look as if saying, you're-crazy-but-I'm-not-sure-if-I-hate-it. "Oh right I said that out loud, my bad guys. I was answering my buddy, Hunter. He's my A.I. of sorts, he's in here." he pointed at his helmet covered head. "But anyway," he started.
"You're going to end up making everyone think you're crazy, well insane. You're already crazy."
"Dammit there's that sass again! Don't sass me while I'm trying to communicate with human children!" Miko snorted a laugh. "Anyway back to what I was saying...My name is Asher-8 because I was named that way when I was forged. Simple as that really." They just stared and Optimus gave a sigh.
"Wow, we haven't been here more than ten minutes and you've already made a complete and utter fool of yourself." Asher gave a mental poke to his partner.
"Why don't you come out here and sass to my face...Little Light." Hunter sent him an annoyed push and Asher laughed. "I don't know what that portal jump did to you but I don't remember you being this sassy Hunter...wait, never mind you were always this sassy. Cayde always had a ball with you talking back to Locien." Ratchet gave an aggravated sigh and Asher glanced back at the Medic. "Sorry sir, I'll get right to the point then." His voice lost all playfulness, the three teens found the change spontaneous. "My name is Asher-8, I am a Guardian born from the Traveler's light to fight the darkness plaguing our world. More specifically," his hood went down and his helmet disappeared. "I am an Exo, a robotic life-form created by humans during the Golden Age, at least I think it was humans." Ratchet paused in what he was doing, everyone stared at the man...the Exo. "Look, how about I start from the beginning?"
Raf sat on the floor near the Exo, Ratchet had said the three Autobots were stable for the time being. "I think that would be better, you did say you were stuck here." Jack and Miko followed suit and sat around the Exo who in turn sat cross-legged in front of them.
"Well to be honest...Hunter is the one who was there since the Traveler saved us so I'll let him tell you the story of the collapse." Hunter gave him an exasperated nudge before Asher held out his hand and Hunter appeared, hovering over it. The three stared in wonder at the little machine like being that appeared in Asher's hand.
"Hello, I am Hunter. I am a Ghost, I am born from the Traveler's light before he went quiet but I came after so let's start at the beginning." He settle on Asher's hand as said Exo held him on his lap. "The humans found the traveler when they were on the moon. From there, the Traveler gave them knowledge and humans prospered under his light. With the Traveler's light Venus and Mars became habitable. Humans spread across the planets, they created new things and many took the stars and changed into the Awoken. Beings that were human but had adapted to space, this time in their history was called the Golden Age. However it didn't last." Asher closed his optics. "The Traveler had an enemy, the Darkness. It followed the Traveler across the cosmos and it found us too." Raf glanced at Asher.
"Humans fought for their survival but even with all their technological advances, even with the Awoken and Exos...it wasn't enough. Humans, Awoken and Exos even were on the brink of extinction." The three teen's eyes got wide in shock.
"The Traveler made its last stand, it protected what was left of them. With its last bout of strength it created us, the Ghosts. The darkness was pushed back, those remaining built a city, The Last City...location Earth." Hunter felt a nudge of sadness form his guardian so he sent a comforting warmth to him. "It took one thousand years to build and now...well now we're counting everyday it stands."
Everyone was silent, Ratchet's tinkering was the only noise in the room. They didn't know what to say, how would you respond if you knew that there's a chance the humans would be driven to the brink of extinction in their future. "You shouldn't worry about your humans," Asher directed at Prime. "There's is no recorded history of you mechanized life-forms in our Earth's history, you never existed to us but you do here. Where we come from is completely different from this timeline." He opened his optics and the three teens got the feeling he was smiling reassuringly. "The Ghosts were created from the Travelers light before it went dormant."
"We searched through the planets, trying to find our Guardian. We bring them back with our light...the Darkness was coming back. The Guardians were our last line of defense against it, against the Fallen that made their homes on the Earth, the Moon, and on Venus. The Speaker told us we wouldn't have survived a second wave from the Darkness but luckily we didn't have to endure for long. One Guardian, with the help of her team, found a way to end the Darkness. She fought through the Fallen, she found a way to defeat it at its heart. What stood before her and the Ravager team were the Vex. Mechanized beings "...evil so dark it despises other evils," that's what she had said. They found a way into the Black Garden, where the heart was located, but when the time came only she was let in. She alone stood against the Heart of Evil and its Vex creations. She defeated it but she never returned from the Garden Spire, all that was left of her was her Ghost...void of all light." Hunter hovered over to Prime and Ratchet, scanning the work Ratchet was doing so he could be of better use.
"Is that the end? You defeated the Darkness?" Miko asked, she was enthralled by the story.
"We defeated one darkness, but there was more." Asher looked down at his hands for a moment. "Eris Morn came to us, she sought revenge against the Hive. They went into the Dark Below on the Moon, they thought they were ready but they were wrong. She told us she saw what the Hive considered a God...his name was Crota son of Oryx, the Taken King." A device appeared in the middle of their little circle. It lit up and footage of the Hive appeared, Jack flinched back and Raf scooted closer to Miko who wrapped an arm around him. "She lost everyone," Eris appeared. "They took her eyes so she took three. She spent years in the Dark Below, using the shadows as they did until she got out. The Ravagers fought, they had four but with Ariel gone they had three. They thought it was enough, they almost died when they faced one of Crota's generals, an army backing up the Knight. Eris sent us after them, my team and I found them in time." A feed of the team surrounded appeared, "Imara didn't think we'd be able to help but I wasn't going to abandon them." The video played, a man jumped into the air; a blue aura surrounding him before he slammed into the ground. A wave of energy blasted the Hive, a woman followed up. She floated in the air for a moment before swinging her hand and three purple orbs shot to the remaining group standing between them and the Ravagers.
The knight roared, "Anger issues much? Hunter make sure to keep a record, we need to convince the Ravagers to team up." with that Asher jumped down, shooting as he did. The feed cut off.
"We became one unit, Laura was angry of course but she knew they couldn't do it alone. We made progress, when we finally got Crota's attention we managed to drive him away but he was not dead. We went further into the Dark Below, we found Crota and put an end to him." A flash of Crota before he disappeared with an ear splitting scream. A woman appeared in the next scene, her skin blue and her hair white, two creatures flanking her and a man to her right. "This is Mara Sov, Queen of the Awoken on the Reef, and this is her brother Prince Uldren. There was a war a long time ago, the Fallen House of Wolves tried to take over the Reef but Queen Mara rose above them as their new Kell...their leader. So she gave them a home as long as they recognized her as they should, a Queen to them and the Awoken. The peace lasted a long while before Skolas committed mutiny and killed her people. He became the new House of Wolves Kell. The Ravagers owed the Queen for her help in finding the Black Garden," as he spoke the images changed to match what he was saying. "They owed us their lives, in exchange for their debt we took on Skolas and they fought the Wolf Scouts and Generals that would have gotten in our way. A strange way to clear their debt but there was nothing else we wanted, my team and I despised the Fallen...perhaps more than we should have." It changed to the final battle between Asher's team and Skolas, the Kell was bigger than the three thought. "We worked with the Reef to find the traitorous Wolf and his associates. In the end the Queen did not want him dead, she wanted him captured. It made things more difficult but we managed it even though he were using Vex tech to transport the entire House of Wolves to his location. We had a time of peace, The Ravagers team pledged to the Queen. This made an alliance with them and then all that was left was to clear the remaining traitors and our fight went back to protecting the city." a picture of the Tower appeared before it was turned to find Asher, his stance was tense. The girl's face was that of horror and the man looked as if he was going to be sick.
"You thought it was over." Jack said, his face showing concern. A glance back to the Autobots and he saw Hunter projecting what he was.
"It seems our struggle is never over, we hadn't seen the last of the Hive. A Dreadnought had appeared in our solar system, Oryx had come. The Ravager team was summoned by the Queen, they and the Awoken stood against the wrath of the Taken King but they underestimated him. The Dreadnought did not fall..." A feed showed the aftermath of the fight, debris floated everywhere, Awoken bodies floated in space before it cut off.
"Your friends died..." Miko said in a whisper. She and Raf were now clinging to each other, the younger looked horrified and Asher began regretting telling their life to them.
"Yes," he answered. Another video, Asher's teammates were yelling at him and another Exo. After a moment he spoke, "Cayde had a plan, we needed to get aboard that ship. If that weapon wasn't disabled all it would take is one hit and the City would be gone. Imara and Dren did not like the plan, they would not help us so I made them swear to secrecy. They did but I was alone, Cayde could not leave his place in the Vanguard; after I managed to disable their weapon I established a transmat zone so other Guardians could land on the Dreadnought."
"Wait your team left you alone? They abandoned you?" Miko yelled in disbelief.
"I don't blame them, what Cayde and I did we did behind the back of the Vanguard. It was a suicide mission, if they had agreed to come I would have left them behind when I flew to the Dreadnought; had they come I guarantee the Dreadnought's weapon would have killed some of them or one of us." A portal came into view, Asher and his team stood before it along with three others. "I couldn't convince them to stay back when the time came to face Oryx, we went through the gate but I ended up here instead." The device disappeared and Asher sighed. "That's my story...well our story." Hunter hovered over and landed on Asher's head. "Any questions?" he said, his cheerful demeanor returning but the three teens were silent.
"I think we might have broken them Asher." Asher gave a dramatic gasp.
"No! They would have made awesome cuddle buddies!" that caused a laugh out of Raf then Miko and Asher beamed at the two. "See they think I'm funny!"
"Probably because you're crazy like Miko." Jack muttered. Asher pointed at Jack who blinked at him.
"Careful your sassiness is showing...Wait! You and Hunter will get along just fine!" Miko was laughing so hard she started crying. "No! Miko is dying!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her playfully. "Breath my young squishy friend! Breathe I say!" when he let go she rolled around the floor laughing and Raf ended up right next to her while Jack sported a grin and a chuckle. "Well my work here is done." Asher said in satisfaction while hunter sent him a feeling of exasperated fondness.
"Well enough with the heavy stuff, it's getting late and mom is expecting me home today. You'll let us know if they wake up right Ratchet?" Ratchet waved them off and Jack dragged them towards the exit.
"Are you sure it's safe for your three to be walking around at night?" Asher asked as he too stood up.
"We usually have our own escorts but...they need their rest." Raf answered. Asher nodded, his hood and helmet coming back on as he followed them out.
"I can walk you guys, then I'll just speed my way back here on my sparrow."
"We'll be fine Asher." Miko butt in.
"Look we're not stupid alright? I'm pretty sure those...Decepticons know all about you since your friends with them." he motioned to the bots behind him. "I took down some big ol' hunk of junk back at the Energon mine, I'm pretty sure I can take whatever comes next. Besides I can turn invisible so it'll look like it's just you three walking like friends. And also I wanted to tell you guys about the time I scared the scheisse out of Imara with..." and his voice faded when they went up the elevator.
"Now that Asher is gone, I can answer all your questions properly." Ratchet and Prime nodded at the small machine in gratitude.