Chapter 1

Born from the Flames

Fire.

That was the very first thing she could remember- everything being as hot as fire, hot enough to make a man scream in pain, hot enough to melt skin; her body surrounded by darkness, heavy as lead and immobile, but she didn't try to move- she didn't even attempt to do so.

Her body stayed there, emotionless and hot, for god knows how long, until she heard a voice- a whisper of a different language, a language she couldn't recognize at the moment, but even if she had no idea what the voice was saying, she felt it was calling for her.

And that is when she tried to move, but she could feel hot debris around her, on top of her that prevented her from moving an inch, even if she tried she couldn't move any limb. That is when she felt a great load leave from top of her, as if someone- who knows who, was removing the obstacles from her path, as she was gently lifted by an unknown force. She could feel her body gently pushing the planks and debris around her, as it finally emerged from a pile of ashes.

For the first time, she opened her eyes.

The brightness of the world- specially the moon- surprised her, and she covered her eyes which hurt as she gasped for air, expulsing ash and fire soot from her throat as her lungs filled with chill air of winter.

Her body was still in the air, as she was gently placed in the ground by the same force that pulled her out from the wreck.

After expulsing every bit of ash from her lunges, she finally started to observe her surroundings, looking at the moon, bright, brilliant.

The voice from before spoke to her, and even though the voice didn't say who they were, she had a feeling it belonged to the moon itself.

And it told her name.

Ash.

She repeated her name to herself, as if to make sure it belonged to her, and started to examine her body.

Her olive skin was covered by fire soot, most of her body in fact. The back of her hands were covered with it as well, as most of her bare legs; her clothes consisted of cotton shorts, which the bottom were burned and uneven, a cotton shirt that was burned and covered in ashes and soot as well, while being burned and uneven at the bottom of the torso and the sleeves.

She was barefoot, and even if she had very light clothing in the middle of winter, the cold didn't bother her; in fact she felt fairly hot, but that didn't bother her as well. Without being able to inspect her face due to the lack of mirrors, she turned around to examine her surroundings, the place she emerged from.

Most of it was rubble, hot and burned debris from what was before a big house, with random junk littering the floor among with the debris. The house has burned down, but Ash didn't know when the fire stopped exactly, but she wasn't exactly interested; the world was new to her, she was more curious about all the snow that covered everything.

Ash started walking towards the woods without knowing where to go, she just wanted to explore her new world. Every step she took in the snow melted it, leaving green footsteps behind her, until she touched something really warm and metallic with her barefoot.

Looking down, she found a staff-staff? It was more of a long, metallic and yellow rod, with a ball in the end of one of the sides, the other one having the ball snapped off. She crouched, grabbing it between her hands, the moment she touched it she felt as if she was whole- it gave her the feeling that it was something very important, she just didn't know why or how.

The rod became hotter at her touch, but it didn't hurt her, she smiled when she had the feeling of being complete the moment she picked it up. Ash let out a faint giggle, as she waved the metallic rod around.

Waving it, the snow that was in front of her melted, leaving instead wet green grass; her eyes widened, as she looked to the rod once again while she turned around, noticing the footsteps she left in the snow. To make sure of her theory, she placed her right foot on snow, pulling it up after some seconds, and the same thing happened- the snow melted.

She smiled brightly, as she looked to the rod once more, and she began running in circles, waving her rod around melting the snow in the trees around her, while she melted the snow that her feet touches as she laughed like a child around the place of her birth.

After several minutes of waving, she jumped, only to feel as she was lifted to the sky wildly, but instead of screaming for her life Ash continued to laugh like a child, pointing the rod to the sky and stabilizing her body, floating on top of where her body was pulled from as she looked down with her bright smile.

She could see the burned down house which was covered by snow moments before, there was an almost perfect circle of green surrounding the area now, including the trees. Ash let out a playful laugh, but as she looked up, she saw the entire forest, and how it was all covered by the snow; Ash felt the sudden urge to melt it all the same way she melt the one surrounding the debris, but there was another thing that caught her attention.

At the horizon, there were lights- many sparkly and yellow lights. Letting out a laugh, Ash pointed the ball of her rod towards the lights, and her body- which hasn't learned how to fly by itself yet, was pulled wildly towards them, as she continued to laugh the entire time.

When she reached the lights, her body awkwardly started to descend, until she started to fall just a couple of meters above the ground, slamming her body against the soft snow and melting it at her touch. She looked up, to see people walking in the streets, heavily clothed to prevent the cold, something Ash couldn't resist laughing at.

She quickly stood up, looking at her surroundings of the bright town, as cars were parked in the streets, people entering and exciting the buildings – it was all so busy!

Ash wasn't sure where to start- she wanted to melt all the snow that was covering the town, but the urge to speak and meet new people took over.

She walked around, looking inside the buildings to see people shopping and trying on different kinds of clothes, to other people sitting and drinking beverages on fancy places- there were too many things to look at, and all of them looked exciting and fun.

She happily saluted every person she came across, even if they didn't answer back, she figured they were too busy to notice her, who wouldn't be in that wonderful place? However, the need to talk to someone and to know where she was made her try to talk directly to someone; she turned to the street, as someone was walking directly towards her.

"Good evening!" She chirped, as she grabbed her metallic rod tightly between her palms, her smile wide and eyes bright.

"Could you tell me what this-"

Before she could finish her question, the person went through her body.

Ash gasped, shocked as she saw the person go through her as if she didn't exist; her smile vanished leaving a panicked gasp, as she tried to reach someone else to touch, but the same thing happened.

Eventually, she noticed that nobody had talked to her because nobody had seen her, as if she didn't exist. Ash started to gasp loudly, holding the rod tightly to her chest, she spotted something shiny at the other side of the street, quickly running towards it to find a mirror, and she finally managed to see her whole body, including her face.

She was different from everybody else- while their hair were brown to black, to yellow to red, her hair was a grey color, grey like fire ash; her face was covered in soot freckles as her eyes were a different color from the ones she has seen today: they were red- fire red, with the edge of the iris turning into a soft grey, as if simulating a fire.

Ash touched her face, noticing how she was completely different from everybody around her. Panicked, she started to yell to see if anybody could hear her, but there was no response which led her to start yelling even louder, trying to attract anybody's attention.

At one building she noticed someone sitting behind a wooden desk, as Ash jumped on top of it to try to attract the attention of the young lady sitting, but she didn't react.

"Can anybody hear me?!" She shouted to her, but the lady just was motionless, as if- as if Ash didn't exist

"I'm here! I'm right here!" she shouted even louder, but the indifference of everybody around her hit her, as she closed her eyes in frustration, letting out a cry of desperation, pressing her rod tightly between her hands.

Suddenly the wood beneath her feet caught on fire, the young lady screaming in terror as it was engulfed by the flames, as Ash jumped away in horror to what she did, covering her mouth. Everybody around them formed a circle, panicked for the sudden fire that just started, as some others called for the authorities nearby to inform them of the fire while panic started to spread.

Yells of terror spread around the area, every single one of them amazed yet terrified at the fact that the table was on fire out of nowhere, some of them shouting Demons! to the table.

There were too many people around now, all of them whispering and talking and- it was too much for Ash, she was terrified of all those people appalled at the fire.

She pointed her rod to the skies, and fled the town.


Hello! This is my first story. I created a fan character, and I wrote this fic to explore her and her interactions with the world, how the world of the guardians is. There will be interaction with canon characters, but this story is mostly about her!

She is also kind of similar to Jack (the whole staff like object), this was kind of intentional!

Cheers!