Prelude

L: My memory has returned. There is just two of us now, hidden by the shadows. We followed the Glimmer to this world, their programmable matter that they use as currency. It leaks through the seams of reality and bled into our home. And with it their Traveler cried for help. At first we thought it was our God Parents seeking aid, but once we entered the Traveler's realm it was too late to turn back.

There were seven of us back then. Where did they go now, I wonder? I sought out their presence to find the answers to my questioning mind and found only madness. After we pierced through realities we were confronted by a force so dark and familiar we knew that our coming was not coincidence. But it took us first. The power we faced was too great and we were separated, our minds wiped. Or at least mine was. Some were not as fortunate.

We found them in the haze of chaos when the Traveler came to Earth. Their minds were bent and tarnished with the madness of the darkness and all they could do was follow their instincts through their shattered will. The Cult of Ball was formed in place of their purpose and I could not bear to see them like this. So I vanished from the populous and hid away for others to join me. Only one found me, my love, the last of us. Now it is only her and I that share our original goal of seeking out this call for help. We are still convinced it was the Traveler that sent it to us. Our comrade's marks may have faded, but ours remain on our skin. We are still Seekers and we will now have to recruit on our own to build our ranks. Reinforcements will not come from our home, the link has been severed. Our only chance now is to finish what we started. We just have to figure out how to communicate with the traveler now. As I walk amongst the last city of Humans I am reminded of my failure to my lost friends. The Cult is strong and is recruiting as well. An advertisement:

Before the Traveler, humanity stood upon ignorance of the dark abyss outside of the cradle, Earth. We knew not of the coming miracle that would take shape upon us. However, there were a small few who anticipated the Great Bounce of our lineage. A handful of voyagers from a plane beyond saw what few could. So they broke the seal to our universe in search of a Great Ball to the harbinger of our journey. What they found was not the glorious orb of salvation, but the endless enemy that also pursued it. The five great adventurers who bore the Crest of Seekers stared into the endless dark and peered through to the glory that would be the Great Bounce of Humanity. They lost the clarity their minds once possessed, but their knowledge sprang ever upwards. They saw the Ball of Salvation and rejoiced in its round glory. And sure enough, it came. With renewed faith, and a leap towards the stars, the crest that once found the skin of these voyagers was now replaced with an endless sphere of glory in light of the Traveler. And as the Traveler bestowed its gift, The Cult of Ball forever justified the benevolence of all things round. For it is not how high you climb that matters, but how far you bounce when you fall. Not how well-worn your mind is, but how round it is from the experiences of the great void beyond. As we, the Cult of Ball, and our children of the Glorious Orb continue onward giving praise to all spheres of the universe, our origins shall always guide us, and our God shall protect us from the Darkness.

Ball is Hope. Ball is Life. BAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Will we ever see eye to eye again?

Zvikara, the Huntress

Air rushed through her lungs as the young woman felt life return to her cold body. Warmth began to run through her veins and a healing light enveloped every trace of her, coating her in safety while effectively blinding the recently dead girl's vision. She had been gone a long time. Or at least that's what the strange little floating ball said.

"Hi." He continued with a high pitched, quirky voice.

Zvikara screamed at the Ghost in a panic. The last image before death repeated in her mind as she struggled between sanity and mindless hysteria. The final feeling of death rushed through her over and over never giving her a chance to realize that she is indeed alive again. The sharp blades of her final enemies piercing her and flaring every neuron in her body with intense pain echoed throughout her mind as she begged for it all to end once more. The girl was fixated on death and unable to tread way from these dark corners of her mind. Zvikara huddled on her side, sobbing and wishing for everything to just stop.

The Ghost didn't know what to do. It frantically hovered back in forth trying to think of some way to calm the resurrected human. The Ghost slammed into her head trying to knock some sort of sense to her. Miraculously it worked. She stopped screaming and could only stare at the floating thing in the air with wide surprised eyes as tears trickled down her terrified face. Her breaths were quick and frantic while her eyes continued to dart back and forth scanning her surroundings. She was clearly still in a state of panic. The girl was struggling to recall her memories as she relaxed slightly from her fetal pose. She rubbed the sport where the Ghost struck and flinched in pain. Suddenly, a bare chill enveloped her as she realized how exposed she really was in a cold cave on the winter solstice.

Shying away to the fact that initial resurrection did not include a wardrobe, the ghost quickly fashioned some simple gear for her. "Here." He began hesitantly. "You're going to need these."

She quickly put on her new garb as a hue of red flushed throughout her face. The gear consisted of simple hunter armor and a knife to protect herself. The clothing itself was mostly cloth and leather while the body suit consisted of a surprisingly sophisticated apparatus suited for interstellar travel and survival in zero atmosphere. The knife itself seemed unreasonably sharp and almost made here worry the blade would dull to quickly, but as she peered at the metallic gleam she failed to identify the metal with only her eyes. It was however a decent enough size to be used as a tool, or an effective close ranged weapon.

"Who are you?" The huntress asked, regaining a portion of her composure.

"I'm a ghost." It stated, almost excitedly. "Your Ghost now…" Its voice trailed off as the glowing orb seemed to actually show emotion. Zvika was impressed given Ghosts were basically armor plated mechanical eyes. Its sensor seemed to squint slightly as the Ghost lost a foot of elevation while solemnly looking towards the ground. It seemed a little disappointed, and Zvika was surprised to see it could easily express such emotion for a machine.

The woman took some offence to that. Not having any experience of encountering with the fabled messengers of the Traveler herself but hearing plenty of tales of their chosen warriors, she protested. "Ghosts are for Guardians." She said bluntly. "Why did you resurrect me?"

"You are a Guardian?" It said, unsure of itself now.

"You have no idea who you just awoken do you?" Zvika was becoming annoyed, although in the back of her mind she told herself how grateful she should be towards this thing for resurrecting her.

Determined to stick by his decision, the Ghost adamantly stood its ground. "I… I found someone, I guess that's enough."

Sensing the slight tinge of depression behind it's determined voice, she decided to soften her features. "What should I call you? Ghosts have names don't they?" She asked, trying to express compassion to her savior.

"No, not usually. Well, I do." The ghost seemed to be even more skittish now.

"Well what is it?" She tried asking in the softest tone she could conjure.

"Poco..."

Her voice immediately lost all of its tenderness in a half giggle, half surprised gasp. "Who in their right mind named you that?"

"My previous Guardian."

"Oh." Zvika covered her mouth remembering the complex emotions the mechanical creature was expressing earlier. She wondered, even if they weren't flesh and blood could they feel too? "I'm sorry." She began once again. "That was who you were looking for wasn't it?" This time she was genuinely sincere.

"I thought you were him..." A brief moment past as the awkward silence allowed the two to realize just where they were. It was cold and Zvika was acutely aware of the goose bumps on her limbs as she equipped the last pieces of her armor, leaving her helmet at her side to have a proper conversation with Poco. The wind from just outside the cave blew in a tender blanket of snow as the drifts shifted the Ghost's hovering stance only slightly. Zvika noted the excellent insulation that her garb provided despite the sub-zero temperature.

With an out of place and cheerful smile, Zvika secured her helmet and rose to her feet. "Okay Poco, let's go."

"Huh?" The ghost was lost in thought, lamenting.

"You revived me, so that means that you belong to me now right? Well, let's go." She was trying to call some sort of purpose out of the machine, hoping to conjure a hidden will that this thing seemed to be full of. "Guardians are supposed to be defenders of the light right? Saving the worlds and what not? So let's go save a world."

Not entirely sure where she was due to her foggy memory, the woman exited the cave. The sunlight was harsh as her visor immediately attuned to the appropriate shade to shield her eyes from the harmful rays refracting off the pure white snow just outside the cave. It was noon and not a single cloud was visible letting the two know they had a good window of clear weather for travel.

Zvika made her way up the mountain just past the small cave's entrance. Maybe the vantage would give her a good idea where on Earth she was. And then maybe she could connect with the others that are like her. If any of them were still alive. How long has it been? What planet are they on? The girl was lucky enough to even remember her name in this state.

The ghost followed her eagerly noting every nuance and motion the Huntress took. She seemed strong and devoted to whatever was on her mind at the moment. She also seemed rash and full of reckless abundant. She was probably not going to die he thought. Probably.

The Huntress just sat as she tried to catch her breath. She had been running for days. The Fallen were tracking her every step and she was using all of her energy to just evade them. They were getting closer. Concealed now in a cave on the side of a mountain she devised her next move. She had to act fast before the Fallen would corner her. The mountain range spanned on for a few miles more to the north and south. She came up the west face of the range to escape a raiding party close on her tail, and if she wanted to keep them at bay she would need to scale down the east. The mountain range was almost barren towards the top but it did have a sporadic tree line half way to the base with a stream heading towards the tree line below. Traveling north or south along the apex of the mountain would be preferable, she was better at scaling the terrain than the Fallen, but she was receiving a signal from the east. It was encrypted using a code familiar to her home, which meant that it must have been some one she knew.

Rest here for a few hours then keep moving she decided. Most of her memories returned when she saw the despicable Fallen. She keenly remembers exactly how she died, cornered and stabbed in the back with an Ark blade. This first sight of the pack hunting her brought back a chill in her spine as she could almost feel the intense pain once more. And lastly she remembered why she died. Revenge. The damned creatures trapped her lost love and slaughtered him as she watched. Rage, more than anything, was now driving her. The Huntress covered her tracks masterfully, so she wouldn't have much trouble staying hidden until dawn. She noticed that the Fallen moved slower during the day. Maybe it had to do with their sensors or equipment? There was no way of knowing for sure. She lay down and tried to get some rest.

The woman awoke to the sound of multiple footsteps. They were in a hurry too. Immediately awake she hid just behind the cave's entrance. Once the Fallen were far enough away she bolted into the opposite direction. Quickly, the Huntress ran down the side of the river towards the tree line. It was her best bet at concealing her movement. The rout was tricky, the range was snow caped and the river's edge was not without obstacles. Jagged rocks and sporadic ice plagued her path.

She raced the water making a game of it. Just as she reached the base the Huntress matched the currents speed as she drew closer to the edge, a fatal mistake. The woman slipped on a patch of ice and tumbled down with the river. Her momentum skipped her across the water and onto wooden debris. She landed hard and a stick impaled her left leg. The huntress quickly muffled her scream of pain and rose to limp towards the woods.

Her Ghost appeared from thin air. "I can heal that but you need to be immobile."

"Can't… Have to keep going… I think they heard me."

"Let me put it this way then." Poco realized over the last few days just how stubborn this Huntress was. "You can either keep limping slowly away from our enemy, or I could heal you behind this next tree and you can start racing the water again."

The Huntress shot a glare at her ghost. "Fine." She said sharply as she quickly pulled the stick from her thigh.

Even with her helmet on Poco could still feel the intense glare directed towards him. The Ghost shined a bright light on her and in seconds the wound disappeared. "See, why do you ever doubt me!?"

She didn't like the Ghost being so smug, but he was right. The huntress once again picked up her speed, but this time she broke away from the river.

The woods were becoming thicker now and she was struggling to keep up her speed. She slowed her pace and gingerly trailed the edges of the trees making sure her silhouette would not be too noticeable. Her motion tracker picked up activity just ahead. Something was in the distance, and it was hostile she decided. The forest broke into a meadow and the Huntress stopped in her tracks. Several Dregs blocked her path as they spotted the girl running out of the woods. They were the only ones of the Fallen that had just two arms while the others sported four. But even though they were the runts of the race, they were still vicious. The Huntress only had her knife, but it was enough.

The first Dreg rushed at her from the front, with one swift movement the Huntress leaped into the air and struck her knife in its back with one quick flick of her wrist. She landed just past the corps of the small foe and immediately recovered her dagger. Another rushed her from behind and jumped at her throat. The woman grabbed the Dreg by the back and in one swift motion cut its throat and threw it at another foe approaching to her right rendering it unconscious while the other bled to death on top. Two more came, this time from her sides. One went for her legs while the other jumped for her throat. With one lightning quick snap of her wrist the Huntress landed her knife in the head of the Dreg running for her legs and then immediately followed through with a kick under the second in the middle of its jump sending it skyward. She recovered her knife and sprinted towards the opposite side of the clearing towards the woods once again.

"That was awesome!" The ghost stated excitedly.

Zvika smirked as she sprinted further into the forest, happy that she finally did something to impress the damn thing.

The Huntress heard the Fallen sporadically around her now. The Dreg slowed her down and now the enemy surrounded them. She noticed lights in the distance as well. Are they shooting at her? No, it was large orange splotches in the distance. They were torching the forest!

The fire was fast upon her, burning trees and branches fell blocking her path every which way. It was taking all of her concentration to resist the flames, let alone dodging the burning debris. The fire killed her shield fast as she sprinted as fast as she could. Just when it seemed like the fire would not end, the Huntress burst out into another clearing, this time the clearing was next to the river. Zvika dove into the water to douse her flames and hid from her enemy. Now out of immediate danger, she realized the flashing red warning on her visor indicating an immediate armor breach. As she surfaced, Zvika took another look behind her. Did the Fallen see where she went? There were no signs of them following. She couldn't believe her luck! They must have gotten caught on the other side of the fire.

Poco materialized after the coast was clear. "Whoo! That was exciting." The Ghost was clearly enthralled by the ordeal of events. "Most of the time it's quite but you attract some weird stuff. I mean it's not bad, really it's entertaining. My last Guardian died by falling off a cliff and I couldn't find him so this is a huge improvement."

Zvika, wide eyed, turned toward her Ghost now realizing the true reason he seemed so lost. She decided it was best to keep he thoughts quiet as the Ghost continued to enjoy the situation. The signal was strong here and she was able to decipher the code after her scuttle with the Fallen. It was an encoded message from her brother. He's alive! The Huntress quickly made her way to the rally point after sending an encrypted reply. She couldn't wait to finally be face to face with her own kind again.