A/N: Just a little idea I've been playing around with. Slow beginnings are slow. Just giving you a heads up. Please review and let me know what you think :)

"Guardian?"

A voice echoed to him from the surrounding darkness. His tired bones called him back to sleep, begging for rest, but the feminine voice was insistent.

"Eyes up, Guardian."

He tried to open his eyes but the lids were so heavy, and the sweet beckoning of dreamless sleep was so inviting. Slowly, he became aware of his body. Muscles he didn't even know he possessed screamed in protest as he tried to sit up. Light sent shards of icy agony streaming into his brain when he finally opened his eyes, the pain pulsing from each eye to the top of his spinal cord with each beat of his heart.

"W-Where am I?" His voice was hoarse and speaking felt like swallowing mouthfuls of broken glass down his sore throat. Thoroughly disoriented and half blind, he scanned his surroundings. He was in the middle of a field, but there was no waving grass or sweet scented breeze to greet him. The earth was torn, and there were large dips with jagged pieces of broken rebar jutting up in places, as if an underground structure had collapsed….

Memories came flooding back, broken and with large chunks missing. His hands flew to his head, fingers fisting in the dirty, shoulder length hair. The agony of half-formed remembrances mounted upon his already throbbing headache, and he gasped for breath until the memories faded along with some of the pain.

"Easy, Guardian. I know this isn't easy for you. You've been dead a long time."

Looking around for the source of the slightly mechanical but still pleasantly female voice, his eyes fell upon an oddly shaped floating…thing. And it was staring at him. It had a single green diamond shaped 'eye', and a very geometric body shape. Purple in color, the outer plates expanded outwards from the little thing, revealing a glowing ball of blue light.

"What are you?"

"I'm a Ghost. Well, now I'm your Ghost. And you're my Guardian."

"What's a Ghost?"

"Ghosts are AIs that were created from the Traveler and its Light. We seek out Guardians to recruit to fight the Darkness, and in some cases, bring beings back from the dead to fight for the cause. Which is why you're here now."

Dead. He'd been dead. Flashes of broken memory played in his mind, memories filled with fear and stifling blackness, and then… His eyes flew open. Clumsily, he made his way to his feet, forcing legs that hadn't been used in he didn't know how long to hold his weight and keep him upright. A wave of dizziness slammed into him and he dropped back down to his hands and knees. He vomited bitter bile into the dead weeds sparsely strewn about in front of him.

After a few stabilizing breaths, he sat back on his heels and stared up into the sky. It was comfortable, reassuring. It was the same sky he'd been born under. It was beautiful. It was normal. After what he'd discovered, he desperately needed normal. After a few moments, the Ghost started speaking to him again. Her voice, though strange and robotic, was oddly comforting.

"I know none of this makes sense right now, and that you're probably afraid and extremely confused right now, but this isn't exactly a safe place for us to discuss everything. Safer than most places, maybe, but I only just got you. I'd rather not lose you in the first day."

Without moving his head, he glanced over, watching her from the corner of his eye. She was bobbing up and down in place and twitching the back half of her body, her strangely iridescent green eye darting nervously from place to place.

"Do you have a name, Ghost? Or is that what I'm supposed to call you?" She fixed her eye on him and floated closer, an almost hopeful look about her.

"You're my only Guardian, so I've only ever been referred to as 'Ghost'. But you may name me if you like."

He detected a hint of a smile in her mechanized voice, and he couldn't help the slight tug at the corners of his mouth. He stood, and though it was much easier this time, he still felt the wobbling muscles of his legs straining to keep him up.

"I'll think of something once I get to know you better. But if it's not safe here, we should probably get moving."

The Ghost dipped once and turned toward a distant line of buildings. As she zoomed away from him, he sighed. He could barely stand, but he was going to force his body to carry him away from that field, away from the memories, and into a new life.

O.o.O.o.O

After wat seemed like hours of silent struggle in which he trudged along, thinking of names his Ghost might like and trying not to focus on the fact that his body was going to give out at any moment, she stopped him. Rather, she stopped and he walked into her, smacking his forehead against her metal back shell.

"I thought I told you eyes up, Guardian?"

He couldn't help the exhausted chuckle that escaped him. A blueish-green beam of light was coming out of her eye, and she was running the beam up and down his body repeatedly. After a few moments, her eye returned to normal.

"We need to get you to the Tower. I'll be lucky if you don't fall apart on me in the next ten minutes."

With his eyes so focused on watching the ground pass by under his feet, he hadn't noticed that they'd actually made it to the deserted buildings. There was no road, and no sign that anyone had been to that area in years. Wind had swept earth over the asphalt streets, and over the years, Mother Nature had been working to reclaim what was rightfully hers.

Climbing vines disguised most of the walls, with only the barest hint of brick peeking through in places. He thought there were three buildings, but it may have been more. Or less. Without some further investigating, there was no way he could tell.

The Ghost was muttering to herself as she hovered about. She seemed to be looking for something, and occasionly her shell would separate to reveal the blue orb at her center. He decided to take the time to rest his legs while she was busy, and sat as gracefully as he could with his back leaning up against one of the ivy covered walls.

The glassless windows looked to him like empty eyes, staring out over the vast expanse of the sepia toned field. As her gazed out over the land, he had a strange sense of déjà vu. He'd been here before, sat just like this, staring out but seeing nothing as he daydreamed. The feeling was overwhelming. He blinked rapidly a few times to try and clear his head, but the feeling stuck.

"I think I lived here," he said. His Ghost floated closer, her attention now focused on him. "I remember this view. It was different, greener, but it's almost exactly the same." His headache was coming back, and the more he tried to recall any facts or details he could, the pain only grew.

"Don't push it. You'll only hurt yourself. You'll remember in time." Her words seemed to break the spell. He shook his head a bit and rubbed the back of his neck. After pulling his hand away, he examined the black skintight mesh weave that seemed to cover his entire body from his neck down. It looked tough, but it was flexible, and the fabric breathed well enough that he'd barely noticed he was wearing it.

"What is this?" he asked.

"It's your undersuit. I tried to gather enough materials to fabricate some armor to go over it, but there just isn't enough out here for me to work with. I had barely enough to make that." She seemed not to notice how dumbfounded he was that the garment had been created by her. She didn't even have hands.

"I need to find a ship we can use. My initial scans of the area turned up one promising lead, but it seems to be further away than I originally thought." She hovered away from him a bit and then drifted slowly back. "I know you're beyond tired, but we really need to get moving. I'm detecting a Fallen skiff inbound, and without the proper armor and weapons, we won't stand a chance."

Another sigh escaped him. Beyond tired wasn't the only thing he was in that moment, but he picked himself up off the ground anyway. Gesturing for her to lead the way, they ventured off again, moving past the group of buildings towards a larger barn-like structure. The Ghost was moving at a much faster pace than she had been before. Whatever the Fallen were, she really didn't want to be around when they showed up.

By the time they reached the lone structure, he was far beyond exhausted. Willing his vehemently protesting muscled to cooperate, he pulled the door open wide enough for him to fit through and stepped inside. The interior was dark, but before his panic could fully set in, a light erupted from his Ghost's eye.

Dust motes floated across the beam of light, and the distinct tang of fuel permeated the stale air. Her shriek of excitement both startled him and alerted him to the fact that they'd found what she'd been looking for. It was dusty and rusted, but the ship looked sturdy enough to him. By the way the little Ghost was flitting around and chattering excitedly, he figured she thought so too.

He could just make out a rumbling noise coming from outside, and was tempted to find the source of the sound, but his legs didn't seem like they didn't want to obey. So he stayed where he was and focused on not collapsing into a heap on the ground.

The rumbling was getting louder, and just when he thought to bring it to his Ghost's attention, she made a beeping noise and he was in a totally different space and his stomach was in his throat. On his hands and knees again, he dry heaved at the instantaneous nausea of his first transmat.

"Sprry about that. I would have tried to warn you, but that Fallen skiff I was telling you about just showed up and we need to get out of here, like, fifteen minutes ago." His only response was another heave as his empty stomach protested the abuse. Lights winked to life all around him and he could hear the roar of engines starting up somewhere to his left. Reaching out, his hand found the back of a cracked leather chair. He used it to stabilize him while he stood up. Once he was steady enough, he made his way around and promptly planted himself down in the chair.

It faced a panel of blinking LEDs and touchscreen navigation panels. Just in front and to the left of his face was a clear pane of glass on a swiveling metal arm. He guessed it was the ships heads up display. The ship was roomier than he was initially suspected it would be. His Ghost was scanning the control panel, and all he got was a quick "Hang on!" before he was thrust against the back of the chair as the ship broke through the doors of the old barn and quickly made its way up into the sky.

As their flight plan leveled out and their speed slowed to a more comfortable pace, he relaxed back into the chair. It was worn and smelled like its previous occupant had died whilst sitting in it, but for him it was the most comfortable thing he'd ever sat in. He could feel his eyes drifting closed, but there was something he needed to ask.

"Hey Ghost," he called over to her where she piloted the little ship. "How do you like the name Evie?" She rotated her back shell and twitched a few times before her eye settled on him again.

"Evie," she parroted back as if she were tasting the word. "I like it very much. Evie."

She repeated the name a few more times and then lapsed into silence again. Except for the slightly brighter glow showing between the cracks of her shell, he wouldn't have thought she actually liked it. But she seemed almost proud to be named.

Done fighting with his eyelids, he finally let them slide closed. Just before he drifted off to sleep, he inhaled deeply.

"Hello, Evie," he said quietly. "It's very nice to meet you. My name is Vincent."

Evie bleeped a short acknowledgement, and Vincent drifted off into a blissful, quiet sleep.