The moon was a terrible place, Artemis decides as she slams another ammo pack into her rifle and examining the horizon again from her hiding spot. Cold and dead and a field of gleaming rock that threatened to trip her every time she moved.

She voices the thought to her Ghost, who hovers at her shoulder, his faint whirring a comforting sound. He chuckles, the sound rather odd for a creation of metal and the Traveler's Light.

She glances at him for a moment before returning her gaze to the horizon. "What is so funny?" she is used to her voice now, the sound no longer so alien to her. It has taken months and hours of talking to Phi and Nes, the two encouraging the discussion of anything and everything in the time between their missions.

They are a team of sorts, already building a name for themselves within the ranks of the Guardians. They haven't decided on a name yet. Artemis muses on the idea of calling their group Team Badass, but ultimately decides that it is too…something. She doesn't have a word for it.

Her learning about the world she has returned to goes slowly some days and it irritates her when she has no words for a feeling or an object. She feels the irritation welling up inside her now but shoves it aside as her Ghost answers.

"It could be worse," he answers, the laughter still present in his voice as he drifts around her head. "there could be zombies."

"…zombies?" she sounds the word out carefully.

"The walking dead, re-animated corpses," Ghost clarifies.

"So like me?" she says. She doesn't remember being…dead, but when she dreams sometimes she sees an empty abyss rising up to swallow her. She doesn't sleep well afterwards, shaking in her bed, chilled to the bone for reasons she does not understand.

Ghost makes a chirrup of indignation, "Hardly, you are Awoken, that's something completely different."

She doesn't ask how the two words are different but is distracted by a wave of enemies. The topic is not mentioned again.

Two weeks later as she recovers from a deep wound to her leg, she manages to make it to the nearby lounge without asking for help for once. The lounge is nearly empty as Artemis peruses one of the large tomes that Ghost had managed to find on the history of the City. She struggles over the words, Ghost helping her sound out the strange syllables that clunk, rock like over her tongue.

It is here where Phi finds her, Nes slipping into the room after the Warlock, almost catlike in his movements, despite his size.

"Watcha reading?" Phi asks, plopping down beside the Hunter, limbs askew. Artemis taps the cover, raising the book so the other woman can see before returning to the pages.

"Any good?" Nes asks, seating himself by a window that looks out over the City.

Artemis puzzles over a word for a moment longer, before sighing and putting the book down.

"It's okay," she says, "I don't know some of the words."

"What words are you stuck on?" Nes questions, no condemnation in his voice for her inability to read as some have had.

"This one," she points out one of them, turning the book so the Titan can see. Phi tilts her head, squinting at the letters.

"Ah!" she cries, "Prestigious."

"What does it mean?" Artemis asks.

"Respected or esteemed," Nes answers, leaning back against the wall, watching her. Artemis rolls the word over in her mouth. She sounds out each letter until the word fits together in the way that it should.

She voices the word aloud, "P-prestigious?"

"That's it," Phi says, smiling, her orange eyes bright in her grey face.

The trio spends the rest of the afternoon in the lounge, reading through the book. Artemis wishes for many days like this. Warm and peaceful afternoons with her friends. She prays it would remain so.

But all things change, it is the way of the world.

The day comes when Artemis receives a request to investigate a missing Guardian on the moon. She is in her room, her friends beside her when Ghost chirps, "Incoming message from the Speaker, it's a mission request for the moon. Search and rescue."

"For me?" Artemis questions.

"Yes."

"When does he want us to leave?" the Hunter asks.

"Today."

She sighs, glancing at her friends. Phi is sprawled over the bed, her legs dangling over the edge, Nes is seated on the floor, his head tilted back against the bed. Yellow eyes flicker to her. "They had to call for you sometime," he says. "I've got a bounty mission on Venus later this week, myself."

"True," Artemis replies.

Phi pats her leg, a reassuring smile on her lips. "It'll be fine. And when you come back we can have a shopping trip to celebrate!"

Artemis laughs, as her Ghost bumps her shoulder gently.

She steadies herself with a breath, "Ghost, bring my sniper rifle, the new hand cannon and the rocket launcher."

"Expecting trouble?" her Ghost asks, after depositing the requested weapons into her hands.

"Always," Artemis says, loading each one with care, snapping ammo in with precision accuracy. "I had to deal with Hive when I was scouting last time. I ran out of ammo and I didn't have the rocket launcher."

Her Ghost chirps. "Should I bring medical supplies too?"

"Yes, that missing Guardian may need assistance."

"If they're still alive," Nes chimes in.

Artemis pauses, she hadn't thought of that. She nods, busying herself with preparations. She swings her legs over the edge of the bed.

"Alright, everyone out," she declares.

Phi groans, "But I'm comfortable here!"

"Too bad," Artemis says helping her up. Phi grins and hugs her. The contact does not scare her as much as it had the first time Phi had done it. It is…comforting.

Nes stands, resting one hand on the Hunter's shoulder. "Be safe," he rumbles.

"I will."

Artemis thinks over those words as she dives for cover on the surface of the moon. The Hive are many and she is but one Guardian amongst them. The Guardian she came to find is dead, their Ghost missing. This is a death trap. A thrall jumps at her and she blasts it away, scrambling back as more appear.

They are endless, one dies and more arise to fill its place. Ghost is whizzing around her, dodging Hive as he tries to hail the ship for an emergency evac.

Artemis swears violently, her heel crunching into the skull of a downed thrall. Ghost beeps, his voice loud above the din, "I've found the Ghost of the other Guardian, it's inside the Hive Caverns."

"I can't get it now!" Artemis yells, slamming another ammo pack into her hand cannon and taking down an Acolyte that had gotten too close for comfort.

She makes a snap decision. The Guardian's Ghost might have something valuable. Might as well try to salvage what she can of this mission. "Go and get it! I'll hold them off!"

"There are too many!" Her Ghost snaps.

"Then you'd better work fast!" Artemis says, nailing another Acolyte in between the eyes.

"I'll draw them out, now hurry!"

Her Ghost hesitates but cloaks and darts away. Artemis only has time to take a breath and bring her gun up before they are on her.

She loses count of how many times she kills, the cycle is repeated over and over. Punch, kick, shoot, the motions almost effortless now.

But she is tiring, her body is weary. She throws a knife into the eye socket of a thrall as plasma energy screams past her. A Wizard.

A few shots later and the last of the Acolytes falls before her. Her chest hurts from a punch that the Fallen soldier had gotten in before she shot it. The Wizard shrieks, hurling balls of purple fire and she barely manages to avoid.

She grits her teeth and aims for the head. One shot, two, three. An explosion of light and the creature is gone. She coughs, takes a breath. She is…light, floating like a feather on the wind. Pain lances across her chest, a glance down and she sees a glint of metal in her armor.

The armor has been sealed to keep her safe from the elements but now all it is doing is keeping her blood inside.

She coughs again, blood splattering the inside of her helmet. Oh, not good.

She drops to the ground, her breath rasping in her ears. She can see Earth, the glowing blue ball of life in the vast darkness of space.

She barely hears Ghost return, his voice faint and panicking. She does not feel the ship swoop down and carry her away. The abyss looms before her, dark and empty. She falls into it; there are no stars to guide her way…

Voices find her in the darkness, faint and dim and she fades into the light with nary a sound.