AN:

I have recently found myself with a lot of free time to do a story that I really wanted to happen for a while now.

For those who are fans of my other stories, I would like to announce that I'm back in the Fanfic business. I'll still focus on real life but I will also put some time in working on my other fics.

Sadly, Young Lamb of Justice and Eleanor's Utopia has been discontinued.

Remnant of a Rose

Chapter 1

The tip of her sword burrowed into the snow as she fell to one knee. It seemed to be the only thing keeping her in an upright yet kneeling position. Liquid that was red as roses dripped from several places on her body and stained the pristine white snow like crimson Rosarch art. It took her a moment to realize that they were really blood pouring from a multitude of injuries on her body. Many were superficial with only one or two that were actually life threatening but she was most likely going to bleed out if she doesn't get medical attention soon.

But that was the least of her worries.

Darkspawns surrounded her from all sides. It was like she was about to drown in an ocean of black and white with the fishes having fangs and claws. The desire to feast on her broken body could clearly be seen in their red eyes. They were practically salivating at this point.

Correction. They were drooling from what she could see from all that's left of her already blurring vision.

Outnumbered, surrounded, losing blood fast and could barely even move. The odds were heavily against her. The only thing that she could hope for at this point was a quick death but she doubted that would be possible with these monsters.

Using her sword as leverage, she pushed herself up with every strength that she had left. Her bones cracked, muscles screamed in protest and mind nearly blacked out from that simple movement but she continued on regardless until both feet were placed firmly on the ground.

She almost crashed back down to the ground if she didn't lean on her sword to support her exhausted legs. With the deepest breath that she ever took, she pulled her weapon out of snow and raised the blade into her preferred combat stance.

She was not going to give them the satisfaction of an easy meal. Her body may be broken (and possibly her mind as well, judging by the amount of blood that she lost) but her spirit remained wholely intact.

Without warning, blood began to well up at the back of her throat, forcing her to violently hack it out and add more red to the icy mixture beneath her.

Her lung must have been damaged from how it now hurts to even breath and for a very brief moment, her will to fight faltered ever so slightly. What was the point in fighting if the very act of breathing brought her closer to death?

It appeared that the younger Darkspawns took her moment of weakness as a sign to strike. They charged at her injured self with reckless abandon while the older Darkspawns kept their distance. The older ones were quite aware of the sheer number of their kin that she had slaughtered and what she was so they were cautious enough to steer clear from her.

For now.

As the younger Darkspawn shortened the distance between them, she entertained the idea of just letting them kill her without a fight so they would both be done with it already. It was complete agony to even stand let alone fight. It felt like only death would release her from this suffering and oh God dammit, she welcomed it. Besides, what does she even have left to lose if she gave up now?

"You're the bestest superhero ever! Of all time!"

With grace that you wouldn't expect from one so injured, she twisted her body away from the claws of the first creature in such a way that it seemed the barest milimeters between cloth and claw. As she finished her spin, her sword went through the Darkspawn's back and sliced it in half from the shoulder to the waist.

She kicked off the ground with a flip to evade another Darkspawn attempting to maul her. Using the momentum of the flip, she cut off the second Darkspawn's arm while still in midair. The moment her feet touched the ground behind the second Darkspawn, more Darkspawn rushed at her with the clear intent to overwhelm her with numbers.

Despite the fact that her legs should have collapsed by now, she easily dodged the Darkspawns by stepping into the small openings between them. These openings were so small that she could almost feel their fur brushing against her as she stepped past them.

Once she had sucessfully evaded all of them, she spun herself to face the horde of Darkspawn that tried to kill while her right foot dragged through the snow in a half-circle to halt her forward momentum. She then changed her posture to something like the starting position of a sprinter and launched herself forward, looking like a red and white comet gliding across the snow. She dashed past the Darkspawn repeatedly while swinging her sword left and right. To the untrained eye (and to even some of those who were), she looked like a blur as she weaved in between the Darkspawn.

As quick as her attacks on the Darkspawn, she reappeared at the very same spot where she launched herself from with her blade held out to the side and white cape flowing from the wind. The Darkspawn behind her appeared to be unharmed at first sight but they all crumbled into several bloody pieces a split second later.

The side of her mouth lifted up to a small bloodstained grin before she violently hacked out more blood while her sword nearly slipped from her numb fingers.

If she was in peak condition, that feat wouldn't have left her winded. In fact, she could have pulled it off few more times without any problems. But she was pushing her damaged body way past what it can already take by performing that move and it was beginning to take its toll on her. She would very much like to lie down and quietly slip into the abyss right now.

But she wasn't finished just yet.

Raising her blade once more, she charged at the encroaching horde of Darkness while fully aware that this would be her final battle. But at least she was going to kill every single Darkspawn that she can before she fell.

One last image appeared in her head but it wasn't about the monstrous Darkspawn or her impeding death. No, this image-this memory gave her a sense of peace yet a hint of regret.

Two girls no older than ten smiled at her as if she was the most important person in the world to them. The older one had long blonde hair and lilac eyes while the younger covered her head with a red hood so not much could be seen of her but she could clealy see the silver eyes and a smile even more radiant than the Traveler.

How she wished she could see them smile one last time.

"I really hope you girls would forgive me for breaking my promise one day."

00000

An alarm loudly went off and jolted the Hunter from her slumber. She fumbled blindly to end the annoyance. She grinned as her fingers felt a very familiar object that would surely help her current predicament.

BANG!

"Ah, much better," she sighed in content as she placed the powerful hand cannon back under her pillow after shooting her alarm. Since she could still feel the heat of the of the gun through the pillow, she sat up from her bed instead of laying back down.

The hand cannon that she kept under her pillow used to be what she would normally carry into battle but it was replaced after acquiring Thorn. A Guardian would normally dismantle the older gun for more Glimmer and spare parts but being the weapon nut and hoarder that she was, this Guardian could not bare to get rid of it entirely so she kept it under her pillow as some sort of lucky charm to chase nightmares away.

It doesn't actually work, considering her dream earlier but it was the thought of having a weapon within easy reach while sleeping that counts.

"That dream again," she furrowed her eyebrows in contemplation over the dream that she had.

It wasn't the first time that she had dreamt that specific dream. It used to occur more often during the early years of being a Guardian but it became less so over time. With how the dream reoccurs every now and then, one in their profession would think it to be a vision of things to come or something along those lines. After meeting with several Warlocks that were well-versed in these things, they were able to ascertain her dream as something other than a dream.

They told her that it was a memory of her past life before she was revived as a Guardian. To be exact, it was the memory of her death.

Not many Guardians can remember their past life. They have only vague recollections at best. There's no clear explanation on why this was so but there are some theories to it like the Traveler was limited to what it can bring back so most of a Guardian Initiate's memories and experience was lost in the process but some manage to remain if they had a big impact during the Guardian's past life. Like their first death for example.

No matter how many times a Guardian dies and revives, they can never forget their very first death.

Her mind flashed back to the many claws and teeth tearing into her skin and the feeling of complete hopelessness. She had to repress a shudder at that unwanted memory. Indeed, it wasn't something that anyone including her could forget.

If that was how she died in her first life, then she could see why the Traveler chose her to be a Guardian of the Hunter class.

"I told you many times to stop doing that, Guardian," her Ghost, Drei (pronounced as "dry" and is also German for three in case you were wondering) interrupted her train of thought while floating lazily over the destroyed device, "If you're just going to keep breaking them, then why bother buying an alarm in the first place."

"Oh right. Sorry about that, I guess," she replied, rubbing the back of her head in embarassment, "I thought I had it turned off though."

"Actually, I turned it back on."

"What!?" she exclaimed incredulously, "Why would you do that!? You know darn well that I was planning to sleep in today! I need my beauty rest, you know."

"You should also know that Guardians don't actually need to sleep," the Ghost countered, ignoring the idignant "But I like sleep!"

She already does know that Guardians don't need to sleep though. In fact, Guardians don't require the basic human neccessities. The Light that fueled their powers also replaced the need for sleep, food, water and even air. A Guardian could survive in the vacuum of space without anything but they have the tendency to go insane if they're stranded there for too long.

Even though Guardians didn't need to eat or sleep, it doesn't mean that they couldn't indulge themselves with food or an occasional nap whenever they wanted to. She herself was guilty of partaking in these indulgence more often than not. She just couldn't find the cons of eating as much sweets as she wants without the worry of getting fat or diabetes.

"And you also told me to wake you up in case you were called in for an urgent mission," Drei continued, fully aware of her about to slip back into Dreamland.

"Can't they just send someone else instead?" she groaned, covering her eyes with her pillow. That turned out to be a bad idea since her head was now lying on top of the gun that the pillow was previously concealing. Guns were terrible cushions.

"Most Guardians skilled enough for this mission are preoccupied with another one and cannot abandon them at the moment while the rest are too far away to make it on time."

"Duty calls," she thought with a sigh. She slid her slender legs out of the comforting warmth of her bed and placed her feet firmly on the floor. She stood up and began her early morning stretches. She hummed in satisfaction as she felt several joints pop.

"Drei, suit me up," she told her Ghost.

Without a word, her tank top and pajama bottom were replaced with her Hunter armor. She did a bit of shadowboxing as the Ghost Angel gauntlets covered her arms and the Gravebreaker 1.3 wrapped around her torso. Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she then kicked her Jackknife 1.3 cladded legs in the air.

She ended her imaginary spar with a flourish as the Frumious Cloak materialized. Its white form billowing against her back.

"You always manage to make a spectacle of yourself even when no one else is watching," Drei motioned his little pieces to resemble an eye roll.

"Hey, I look awesome," she retorted and with a nod, her helmet, Order's Mask appeared over her head, "Don't go dissing my epicness."

"I will consider it if you stop acting like a dolt," the Ghost deadpanned.

"I'll stop if you stop being a meanie," she pouted from under her helmet, crossing her arms and looking away as she did so.

"And you wonder why most Warlocks and Titans can't stand you."

"But you still love me, right?" she quipped.

"Debatable," he snorted with good humor. They have been through so much that they were comfortable enough with each other's presence to banter back and forth like this.

But their banter could wait for now because they had something important to do.

"Give me Bolt-caster, Patience and Time, Fair and Square, and Thorn," she listed off her chosen armaments. In spite of her armory being filled to the brim, she preferred to carry four weapons (excluding her knives) at a time.

Bolt-caster materialized on her back while Thorn materialized on the side of her thigh. Fair and Square was placed in her hands while Patience and Time remained in reserve.

"Alright, patch me in to the Tower," she said as she made the final adjustments to her personal loadout. This mission better be important enough to disrupt her much awaited free time.

"Establishing connection now."

"This is Guardian Summer Rose reporting in for duty."

00000

In the space in between Mercury and Venus, a ship flew. It sped deep within the territory of the Darkness and far from the safety of the Tower and gleamed like a dark blue flash in the blackness that was space. Summer Rose sat within its cockpit and stared at the viewscreen in front of her, trying hard to not fall asleep again.

There had been reports of increased Vex activity in this sector. Under normal circumstances, it would have been dismissed as another attempt to strike at the Cabal but the Vex went through great lengths to prevent the scouts from finding anything deeper than that. If it was preparation to attack the Cabal, then the Vex wouldn't have bothered to hide it from them.

It was no secret that the Vex and the Cabal were sworn enemies and would kill each other if given the opportunity. There was even an unspoken agreement between them and the Guardians. If the Vex had plans to cripple Cabal forces on Mars, then the Guardians would not interfere until it had been implemented, where they would then capitalize on the losses that the Cabal and Vex had sustained.

With that said, it was at least safe to assume that whatever the Vex were doing would be highly benificial for them. For the Guardians, most likely not.

But Summer didn't really care for any of that exposition even though it was her job to find out what the Vex were up to.

"I'm so booooored!" the young Guardian complained mentally. She agreed to take the mission because she thought that there would be some action but it was more like a glorified scouting mission.

Sure, any new intel on the Vex was worth its own weight in Glimmer and she was one of the only Guardians with the highest chance of not getting caught or killed by Vex patrols but by the Traveler, she did not just hyped herself up from bed for nothing!

"Why did it have to be me again?" Summer asked as she began to play with one of her knives. This would be dangerous to an ordinary person but Summer was an expert when it came to handling knives because any decent Hunter must be adept enough to not stab themselves with their own knives even by accident.

"Like I said, you were the only one available for this mission and the sooner that we can gather intel on the Vex's plans, the more time that we could prepare before they enact them," Drei explained idly, having expected for her to ask, "Plus, we still have that stealth drive that Cayde gave us."

"Didn't that malfunction at the worst time possible and nearly got us stranded in space?" the young Hunter arched an eyebrow as she remembered piloting Eris Morn's ship with the aforementioned stealth drive. She was lucky that they were close enough to make a jump for the Dreadnaught or they would have most likely died on that 'test flight'.

"Well yes but the stealth drive still held some merit so I had it upgraded and installed in our ship after it was salvaged from the wreckage of Eris Morn's ship."

"Wait, when did you find the time to place an order like that?"

"I did it while you were drooling over that new ship with the many guns," Drei replied.

"I was not drooling!" Summer exclaimed indignantly, "I was just appreciating its design!"

"I'm sure you were. It's not like you have a weapon fetish or something."

"I don't have a weapon fetish!" she vehemently denied as she tried and failed to stop herself from blushing.

"The fact that you spent more time than necessary to go over your weapons while talking to them like they were your children disproves your claim just as much as it supports mine."

Being caught flat-footed, Summer desperately sought for anything to change the subject without getting called out on it. Fortunately for her, one of the screens flashed a warning that could help her get out this.

"Oh look, incoming Vex!" she quickly pointed out, "Better activate the stealth drive before they see us."

"Activating stealth drive," Drei sighed as he proceeded to do so. He knew that this was Summer's not so subtle attempt to divert the conversation from her apparent obsession with weapons but it should be set aside for later.

The NS22 Cloud Errant briefly flashed a tint of yellow before disappearing completely. Originally, the stealth drive combined with Hive hybrid ship would make them totally undetectable by Hive forces but with the upgrades that Drei added to it behind her back, it was now able camouflage from the other servants of Darkness, not just the Hive. It should keep them from being seen by the Vex.

At least in theory anyway.

Summer held her breath as she saw Vex ships approaching their location. As they flew past her ship without a second glance, she let out a sigh of relief. Thank the Traveler that the stealth drive actually worked this time.

"Let's go see what the Vex are up to," she announced, gunning her invisible ship forward at high speed. It wasn't fast enough to strain the stealth drive but it was fast enough to get her to the objective quicker.

Guardian Rose knew quite well that it wasn't a good idea to stay deep in Vex territory for too long even with a stealth drive. She also doubted that the stealth drive would last long for them to make a clean getaway. It malfunctioned last time after all.

Summer needed a good place to spy on the Vex and she figured that Mercury's moon would be a suitable vantage point for them. As they neared the small planet's lone moon, Summer realized one crucial fact.

Mercury doesn't have a moon.

Summer slammed down on the brakes as hard as she can before they could get any closer to the false moon. Taking a closer look at it, she wondered why she had mistaken the metal construct for a moon.

"What the hell is that?" she whispered to her tiny companion, both still reeling in shock at the sight before them.

"I don't know, Guardian. I don't know."

The massive construct consisted of two fifteen kilometer long curved metal arms surrounding a set of rings five-kilometers across. It appeared to be inactive from how it showed no signs of moving but they didn't know how long that would remain to be so.

They shouldn't be so surprised that the Vex managed to create something like this. The Vex were able to convert an entire planet into one giant machine after all. Who knows what else they could accomplish with their otherworldly technology.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't seem turned on at the mome-" she started to say after recovering from her shock but was interrupted by the previously inactive construct powering up. The set of rings began to rotate in a gyroscope-like manner as a purple energy began to form within the rings.

"It's a transfer gate," Drei gasped in realization, "It's one giant transfer gate."

"…shit," she stated in a perfectly calm manner, "Well, we got what we came here for. Now let's get outta here before something else ha-"

"I'm picking up fluctuactions in the power conduit!" the Ghost cut her off with a cry of alarm. The Guardian and Ghost were both aware what happened last time before the stealth drive failed.

"Block all attempts of our transmissions being intercepted! I'll send everything we learned to the Tower!" she yelled as her fingers danced over the controls. It was just an image of the massive transfer gate and its general location but it was better than nothing.

"There! The Tower has been notified, Guardian," Drei announced with relief.

Not a moment too soon, the Cloud Errant flashed red before becoming visible once again.

"Oryx's balls!" she cursed, directing the ship to get out of there as soon as possible, "It's time to leave before any of the Vex spo-"

Summer was once again interrupted by another occurrence that was not good for her wellbeing.

A multitude of Vex ships dropped in from FTL and blocked her way out.

She gritted her teeth at the overwhelming number of Vex ships. She didn't stand a chance to fight them off or escape. If there were less maybe, she could have pulled it off with some damage to the ship but their backs were up against the metaphorical wall.

Summer flashed back to the memory of her first death and could not help but point out some parallels between it and her current situation.

Outnumbered and surrounded.

There was one other thing that was similar to now and her first death: she wasn't going to give up just yet.

She continued her flight towards the Vex ships while firing at many as she can. Only a few were actually shot down as the rest evaded her barrage with expert skill.

The Guardian growled in frustration as she was forced to perform a barrel roll to dodge the enemies' counterstrike.

The Cloud Errant may have served her well on many assignments but it wasn't the best ship in terms of firepower. It had sacrificed that in exchange for manueverability, which was one of the only things preventing it from being blown up.

"Hey Drei," she said almost casually as missiles chased after their ship, "Any idea how long it would take for reinforcments to come help us?"

"Considering how far we are in Vex space with no transmat zone," the Ghost began to calculate, "They won't arrive in time to save us."

"That's what I was afraid of," she sighed as one of the missiles blew up on their ship. The hull of the Cloud Errant was damaged but there was no breach just yet. The ship's occupants knew it wouldn't be long before that really happened.

"In spite of your many faults, I'm glad that I found you, Guardian," Drei solemnly said to her, beginning an impromptu eulogy, "You were always rushing off recklessly to every battle that I'm a bit surprised it took you this long to get permanently killed."

Summer ignored her Ghost's somewhat touching speech in favor of finding a solution to their current predicament. It wasn't the first time Drei started spouting praises concealed by thinly-veiled insults during a life or death struggle and it certainly won't be the last as long as she had something to do about it.

Dammit! If only there was a way to transport them instantaneously from one place to another, then could have been long gone by now.

The Hunter halted for a split second in realization and nearly took another hit if it wasn't for her Ghost taking control of the ship.

"Have you gone mad!?" Drei exclaimed at her in frustration as he did his best to not get them blown up. He would have called her more derogatory words if he didn't see the familiar gleam in her silver eyes.

Drei knew that look quite well. It appeared whenever Summer Rose had an extremely dangerous and insane plan. For a moment, the Ghost regretted not letting themselves be exploded. At least he knew that it would be a relatively quick death compared to what's to come.

Summer regained control of the ship from the distraught Ghost and pushed the afterburners to the max. The Cloud Errant blasted off faster than it ever had before, leaving Vex ships in the dust as it approached the gigantic transfer gate.

Having not expected that she would head for the transfer gate, the Vex were momentarily at a loss on what to do. But that was set aside as they went off in quick pursuit of their target. They knew that they would not be able to stop the Guardian from passing through the transfer gate but they could at least inflict heavy damages to her ship before it goes through the gate.

She would then be forced to make an emergency landing on the other side or risk immediate destruction. The other side also lacked the means and materials to conduct repairs on her damaged ship, essentially leaving her stranded on wherever she landed and allowing the Vex to deal with her at a later time.

The Vex watched the Guardian's now heavily damaged ship enter the grand transfer gate. Even if one Guardian managed to reach the other side, they would not be able to stop what was to come.

After all, one Guardian was not enough to save a Remnant of a forgotten world.

00000

AN:

Here is the first chapter of Remnant of a Rose. I hope you enjoyed it.

Not much is known about Summer Rose so I just sort of combined Yang's thrillseeking adrenaline junky personality and Ruby's childishness. Tell me if you like my version of Summer Rose.

In case you haven't realized, the Vex pretty much built a Mass Relay to Remnant. I honestly couldn't think of any other way to get Guardian Summer Rosse back to Remnant that hasn't been done by other Destiny crossovers already.