A Chat Between Ghosts.
Four Guardians were playing two-on-two Football by a Farm in the European Dead Zone. They were waiting on two of their number to return from the wild, so they could hone their skills in the Crucible as a full team of six. One Titan, One Hunter, and Two Warlocks. A few meters away, up in a tree, a Ghost fizzled into existence. The little robot looked this way and that, eventually focusing on the shard of the Traveler off in the distance. A second one popped in slightly behind it.
"Something wrong?"
"What? Oh, no. Nothing. It's just that, ever since we arrived here; I've been feeling these pulses of Light every now and then. I think it might have something to do with that shard."
"I haven't been feeling anything. Of course, what the Red Legion did to the Traveler might have affected us differently."
The two robots looked at each other in awkward silence, hovering slightly. The first spun his shell, a habit he picked up whenever he felt unsafe. The second one tried to make small talk to kill the silence.
"So, uh nice shell."
"Um, thank you."
"Hmm, red, is it a Crucible shell?"
"Uh, yeah. Yours?"
"Guardian got it from Hawthorne. She said the teal matched his armor better."
There was more silence.
"Well, we'd better get back to our Guardians. They might need us."
But before they could transmat themselves back, a third Ghost with a blue and white shell fizzled in.
"Hey, everything all right?" –She asked.
"What? Oh, oh yeah." Replied the teal one.
"I just saw you guys away from your Guardians and wondered what was going on."
"I just thought I sensed something, but it was nothing." The red one said timidly. There was a slightly shorter silence as the new Ghost looked between the other two. She spoke up:
"I'm Jakina. My Guardian said the name was important to him, but he doesn't remember why."
"I'm Alex." Said the red one.
"Barry." Responded the teal one.
"So how'd you get your names?" Jakina asked.
"Chose it myself, after combing through some archives in Greece." Alex said proudly. "It was the name of someone important Pre-Golden Age, but the files were incomplete, so I don't know why. At least I found my Warlock there. She was clutching the corpse of another Exo, I knew that if she was willing to die to protect someone else, she'd make a perfect Gaurdian." They both looked at Barry.
"What about you?"
"I was just called 'Ghost' for most of my Titan's life. One day, we were up to our neck in Taken when they disappeared and we got word that Oryx was finally dead. My Titan said: 'glad we can finally bury that son of a bitch. Wait, Barry! That's a good name for you!' " Barry's eye narrowed as he did his best impression of his Guardian. "We had been discussing name ideas since Skolas broke out of jail." Alex then floated forward and asked:
"So Jakina, do you have the other Warlock? Or the Hunter?"
"Oh my Guardian's the Hunter. Found him on Venus. He saved my life, really. Fallen were hot on my trail, I couldn't run or hide forever but I lucked out when I finally found a human corpse with Light in it. Or, humanoid, he's an Awoken. You have the Warlock playing Goalie then?"
"No, mine's the one trying to wrest the ball from your Hunter."
"Oh Jakina I'm sorry but there's no way you're getting the ball past my Titan." Barry quipped after Jakina's Hunter tried to kick the ball into the opposing goal. The Titan deflected it to Alex's Warlock, who feinted back and forth to trick his opponent. Meanwhile, a fourth Ghost appeared with a plain beige shell.
"What's all this then?" He asked the others with a surprisingly gruff voice for a Ghost. "Why are you all the way over here when our Guardians could need us at any moment?"
"Uh, Alex thought he sensed something, which turned out to be nothing, and then we came over to see what it was." Barry responded to the fourth Ghost, who in turn did his best to raise a nonexistent eyebrow when he asked:
"Who?"
"Oh, I'm Alex. Mine's the Exo Warlock."
"Jakina, I have the Awoken Hunter."
"Barry, Human Titan."
"Hmf. Name's Sparky."
"That name does not go well with your voice!" Alex blurted out while Jakina broke out in laughter.
"That's what I told that blasted Warlock when he named me. He said that it made the name fit all the better." Sparky turned his attention back to the game to see Alex's Warlock kick the ball at his own. Sparky's Warlock responded with an expertly timed counter, thrusting his arm out perfectly mimicking the motion of throwing a Nova Bomb, he connected with the ball and sent in flying back at the rival Warlock, hitting her in the head and ricocheting out of bounds.
"Guardian Down!" Barry exclaimed.
"Ooh! I like him!" Jakina said excitedly, wishing she had hands with which to clap. Sparky, just sighed and floated slightly lower. Jakina noticed this and turned to ask "Is something wrong?"
"He's been missing his Voidwalker powers." Sparky said, his voice softening somewhat. "He was a fresh Guardian, after so much waiting I finally found him in the Cosmodrome, after the Siva Crisis had abated. He had only been reincarnated for a month when the Red Legion came. He would wield that Nova Bomb as if he was the only Voidwalker in existence; disintegrating Fallen Walkers, smothering the Darkness of Hive Knights in his Void Light, Not to mention the time he destroyed three Vex Minotaurs with a single Nova Bomb. That was the only time I was ever afraid with him."
"Afraid because he was killing other machines?" Alex supposed.
"Afraid because he got us surrounded! He went to Mars without a Fireteam, headed straight for the nearest Vex conflux, and charged ahead without giving a thought to the Hobgoblins that were sniping us, and then got himself killed! I was nearly destroyed trying to revive him! He's stubborn, inexperienced, and has an ego the size of the Dreadnaught!"
"Then why did you revive him?" Barry asked after a beat of silence.
"Because, after centuries of searching, I decided to stop inquiring of every corpse I found, I stopped asking where my Guardian was and I started listening. I silenced myself and just listened to the Light. After I stopped asking and started listening, I heard something. It was his Light, it spoke to me, and then it listened back. So I hovered over to this pile of bones, and reincarnated him. He is a good listener. Most of the time, he would wait before charging into combat. On the Moon he lured a hundred Thralls into a trap after finding a small canyon with unstable boulders above it. In the Cosmodrome, he sent a scavenging team of Fallen Devils running after he flanked them, took out their Snipers, and destroyed their Servitor with a single rocket. That Vex situation happened because he listened to the wrong source. He was listening to the Minotaurs, when he should have been listening to me. He did get us into a lot of trouble, but he always got us out of trouble.
Just before the Red Legion invaded, he had just found his first Exotic, The Ram helmet, and was so happy. His smile could have killed Oryx a second time he was beaming so much. He was running around the Crucible in a free-for-all Rumble and bellowed out 'PRAISE ME!' after Lord Shaxx named him the victor. Granted, his opponents weren't the best, but it was the first time he ever placed first in a Crucible match.
The Red Legion attacked that night. They took the Traveler, and everything went dark. When I woke up, I saw him without his helmet. Apparently, a Cabal Centurion punched him so hard he lost hold of me and his Ram helmet cracked and broke. He then had the choice of running to safety and catching a ship out, or look around the City dodging Cabal in order to find me. He told me: 'I listened to the Light, and it led me to you.' "
There was silence after that as the four Ghosts watched their Guardians. The winning Goal was struck by Jakina's Hunter, who danced with maximum sass as the other three clapped and congratulated each other. Jakina gave Barry a smug look while Alex broke the silence by asking:
"Sparky, how is it that your Warlock came to be a part of this group?"
"He was revived by the Titan and Hunter we're waiting on. He fell to his death while exploring a Lost Sector. They helped him clear it out, then mentioned these three. I suggested that he needed a Fireteam now more than ever, and he listened."
"Here come those two now. Looks like we should head back to our Guardians…"
"We should do this again some time."
"Or-" Jakina interjected "We should make our Guardians sit down and talk. They might enjoy it as much as we do!"
"Hahahaha!" Sparky chuckled "Yes, We need to do that before we kill Ghaul and retake the Traveler. But first, we have a Crucible match to win."
The Ghosts fizzled out of existence, returning to their respective Guardians. They flew off into the sky and then settled down for a match of Control. The Crucible Lord's voice rang as the match begun, "Stick together, and you might win this!"