She gasped, shooting up from the laying position she found herself in. The last thing she remembered was- her eyes snapped open, not realizing she closed them, and she looked around- "Mom!" she called out. She was panicking, she didn't know what was happening.
"Hey, hey, calm down- everything's fine. You're fine, everything's okay," A soothing voice spoke from above her.
"W-what happened?" She looked up at the voice, it was diamond in shape, pure white save for the center eye-like device and two points at the top and bottom, which were an orange color.
It spoke again, its entire body moving with the words and white bits moving, "You, you died. And, I brought you back to life. What you did was very brave."
"I-is- are they alive? Did they survive?" She asked, looking hopefully at the thing.
It shook its body up and down, white bits twisting back and forth, in a mimic of nodding, "Yes. I'm almost certain of it."
"Almost?" She caught, fear creeping into her relief.
"You've. . .been dead for a long time." It said, twisting again.
She blinked, finally looking around to where she died. The best word to describe it was a wasteland. Which it technically was, but that was beside the point. The great, towering buildings, the massive gardens that spanned acres of land- gone. Swept away by the red sands. Mother Nature of Mars has taken back what is hers.
"Wha-? No. No, no, no, no- this has to be some sort of illusion- some sort of fever dream." She tried to hit her head, but something blocked her hand. Blinking she grabbed her head, around it was what felt like a helmet, "What? Why- how- huh?" she tried pulling it off, but was stopped by the voice again.
"Hey, Hey! Calm down! If you keep freaking out, we might not get to safety. And with what's happening lately, well, we don't want to be out here any longer than needed," It said.
"W-Why?" she asked. A roar was heard in the distance.
The thing looked towards the source of the roar, then back at her, "That. C'mon, come quickly." It moved away.
"W-wait!" She shakily stood up, and followed the thing, he steps quickly becoming stable. "What was that thing that roared? What are you? What's going on? Where are we going?"
It continued speaking as it moved, "That was one of the invaders of this world, the Cabal. A Legionary, if I had to guess. I am a Ghost, created by the Traveler to seek out and create a Guardian. You are my Guardian. We're running from them, the Cabal, you aren't at a high enough level to defeat them yet. Somewhere safe, I hope."
She stayed silent as she processed this, but realized what it had said at the end, "'I hope'? What do you mean, 'you hope'?"
"Well, I haven't been to Mars all that often, I don't know any safe places. Do your last memories tell you anything?"
"I-I don't. . ." she trailed off, something coming to the forefront of her mind, a memory:
"Run! Get to the bunkers!" She had called, yelling at someone.
"Where!?" The person called back. She couldn't see her face nor remember her name.
"Don't you know? Ugh!" The person had apparently shaken their head. "Rivers Street, under the library!"
Her eyes opened up, she didn't remember closing them. Looking at the. . . 'Ghost', she said, "Rivers Street. Underneath a library. I-I don't remember where Rivers Street is," She confided.
"What you have is good enough." It bobbed decisively, "C'mon, there might be a map nearby that we could use to find the library."
"O-okay. Let's go."
They started moving again, realizing that they had stopped moving while talking. The hallways were littered with red dust and long-forgotten items. They continued through the building, when they came upon something. "H-hey. I think I found something. I-it looks like a map."
The Ghost flew up towards her, "Yeah, looks like one." It flew down closer to scan it, "Yup, definitely is one. Now, where is the- oh." It stopped its scanning, "It seems that we might actually be in the library. Well, now that's nice." It flew off again, then stopped as it realized that the new Guardian hadn't moved, "Guardian, hey, Guardian." It flew around her head, "Are you alright?"
She shook her head, clearing away the memories, "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Let's go find the bunker." She moved past the Ghost and back into the hallways.
Her Ghost stared after her for a few moments, sighed, then followed. Re-forming next to the Guardian's head, the Ghost activated its flashlight function, lighting up the dark hallways. "Thanks," the Guardian muttered, still moving.
They moved on in silence, only the hum of the Ghost's flashlight function and the Guardian's footsteps provided noise. For what seemed like hours later, they came upon a room that was darker than the hallway they were in; the only light that shined in the room was from the Ghost.
"Well, I think this might be it," The Ghost said, shining the flashlight into the room. The Ghost started to speak again, but they heard a metallic roar.
"W-what was that?" She asked, trying to pierce the veil of darkness.
The Ghost was scared, "T-the Vex." A red light lit up in the darkness, aiming straight at her and her Ghost. "R-Run!"
She didn't need to be told twice- she turned her back on the glowing red eye and started to run the way she came. Behind her, she heard the sounds of guns firing- well, at least she thought it was that- and saw red bolts of something whizzing past her.
Ahead of her and her Ghost, a light lit up the darkness, similar to her Ghost's flashlight. There were voices, like they were conversing something, then the light turned down her hallway.
"Vex!" The other Ghost called, lighting up said machines.
Beside it, its Guardian barked out, "Get down!" and she spent no second throwing herself to the floor.
Above her, the Guardian loaded his entire magazine of bullets into the Vex, aiming at their stomachs. The Vex that were hit in their white cores exploded, core juice flying everywhere. She watched as the other Guardian slaughtered the Vex with expert precision.
She was still staring at where the Vex where following her, now dead on the floor. She was broken out of her trance when a gun was shoved into her face. "Here, take this- I don't need it anymore."
She blinked, and slowly reached up and took the gun- it was a hand canon, kinda like one of those old Earth western revolvers. "It's a hand canon- one of the first I got. It's Tower-made, so it's better than what you could pick off an enemy. Of course, some weapons you pick off of enemy are better than Tower-made, but-"
"Ark," He got cut off by his Ghost, "You're rambling again."
Ark sighed, "Thanks, Fas. Anyway, you're a new Guardian, aren't you?"
She nodded hesitantly, "Y-yeah, I think so. The Ghost didn't explain it that well, though."
Her Ghost looked offended, "I was trying to save you from the Cabal!"
"Yeah, well, look how that worked out, huh?"
"I didn't know that there was VEX in here!"
Ark decided to intervene, "Guys, stop. Now's not the time. Ghost, you said that there was Cabal earlier?"
The light nodded, "Yeah, an entire legion- I'm pretty sure I saw it earlier, too."
"Full legion of Legionaries and a Centurion?"
It bobbed up and down, nodding.
Ark nodded decisively, "Okay, so I already defeated them. Fas, bring up the map."
Fas, Ark's Ghost, flew in the middle of the group and displayed a hologram of the area they were in. "Okay, so, we are here." Ark pointed to two green dots inside of a building, "And the Cabal I fought was over here." He pointed to an area marked red, "So that means you were revived around this area." He pointed to an area marked a deep blue, "And you made your way to a-" he frowned, "an Unmapped area?" he looked up at the female Guardian, "Why were you heading towards an unmapped area?"
"I-I- bunkers. I thought if we could reach bunkers, we might find a weapon," She admitted.
He frowned again, "Bunkers. I've never heard of bunkers here- especially in this area." He looked up sharply, "Do you know anything about them?"
"N-no, j-just that there was one in the library. We- me and Ghost- found a map and tried to find the library- which it turns out that we are in a library, then we started walking to find the bunkers. A-and the map said the bunkers were where we fought the robots."
"Vex," Ark muttered idly, "they're called Vex. If what you say is true, then we might just find some sort of relic of the Golden Age!" despite the helmet on his head, Ark looked giddy at the prospect. "C'mon, let's go find this bunker!" and marched off in the direction of where she, and the Vex, had come from.
Fas shook her shell, muttering, "That's a Warlock for ya." Then moved off to follow him.
The Female Guardian and her Ghost stood there, looked at each other, then went back to staring at where the male Guardian marched off to. "Well," Her Ghost said, "You did want to find the bunker."
Sighing, she moved off in search of the 'Warlock'. As she moved over the bodies of the Vex, she heard gunshots and metallic cries. Entering the room, she saw glowing white goop, similar to what the Vex from earlier sprayed out when killed, on the ground and on what seemed like robotic legs.
"You're dead, and you're dead. Aaaaaand you're dead!" She heard three gunshots ring out. "So, like, what does this bunker look like? 'cuz I'm pretty sure I found it."
The female Guardian blinked, and walked towards where Ark's voice was coming from- only to find him in front of a doorway. She walked up to the Warlock and stopped, gripping her head when a memory forced its way to the forefront of her mind.
"Wait, you're not coming in?" the person- she thought it was the same one, asked, looking through the bunker's doorway. She could see it was nearly filled to the brim with people.
She shook her head, "No, there's too many people." She gave a smile, though it was more of a grimace, "Plus, someone needs to lure things away from here."
She could see the other person's expression, but new it was full of grief, "Please, don't. Stay."
"Sorry, but I'm the only one who knows how to fight." She tried to smile again, "I was the only one who took those lessons, you know."
The person in the doorway of the bunker flung theirself at her, and hugged her tight, "Try to come back alive, alright?"
"I plan to, Em," She said, hugging the person back. After what seemed like hours, they pulled apart and she could see the other person's face. She was breathtaking, golden hair, green-blue eyes. But the image was ruined by the tears running down her cheeks.
She gasped and fell forward, only to be caught by Ark. He looked at her concernedly, "Are you okay?"
She pulled herself out of his grip and stumbled towards the door. Acting on only instinct, she brushed away some dust on the wall and pulled open a little hatch, revealing a keypad. She punched in a number, and the bunker's door unlocked, releasing centuries-old air.
Ark stood off to the side, watching the other Guardian stumble around. Turning to her Ghost, Ark asked, "Do you think she's alright?"
It shook its shell negatively, "No. She's had this happen before, reliving her memories, I mean. I've heard this happening to Guardians, but, I never thought that'd I'd see it. I'd like to comfort her, but, I don't know how."
Ark stayed silent, trying to imagine what she might be going through. He had this happen to him before, too. When he was first awakened, he didn't know what was happening, only knew that he had died and was now alive again. He had accepted his fate when he was faced with death, and when he was awakened, he just wondered, 'What happened?' nothing traumatic like this.
The Female Guardian grabbed the hidden knob on the door and pulled, the hinges swung noisily open. "No," she muttered, looking in. Ark frowned and looked past her, into the bunker. Skeletons upon skeletons laid there, undisturbed for centuries.
"No." She pulled off her helmet and threw it, banging off the walls of the library, careful not to disturb the skeletons inside the bunker. She collapsed and curled into a ball, repeating "no" over and over again, only being interrupted by sobs.
Ark stood there, silent, a grim look on his face. Closing his eyes, he recited a small prayer of his people- the Awoken- one of the few he knew. Opening them again, he gently lifted the crying Guardian and closed the door- it shut with a thump. Looking at Fas, he gave her a mental command to lock it again. She did so, and followed him, as did the other Guardian's Ghost- who had already transferred her Guardian's thrown helmet into an engram to be stored inside its inventory.
Fas had already brought down Ark's ship from orbit when they exited the Library. Ark, still holding the now sleeping Guardian in his arms, was transmatted inside the ship, into the sleeping quarters he had on the ship. Gently laying her onto the bed, he moved out and into the cockpit to start moving to the Tower.
The female Guardian, whose dreams were tormented by Vex and skeletons, had seen one last thing before she burst out crying.
She stared into her watery eyes, knowing that she, too, was crying. Em pulled her close, and kissed her for what felt like eternity, then pulled back. She looked into her eyes and said one last thing, "I love you, Raikia."
She, Raikia, returned the kiss and pulled back one last time, saying, "I love you too, Emmersen."
I'm evil, I know.
-FreohrWK