Where There's A Will…
Mara was laying back on her white lawn chair, her eyes shielded by a pair of sunglasses. She wore a bright red swimsuit, and took a sip from a glass of coca-cola through a pink bendy straw. A slice of lemon adorned the rim, along with a little decorative umbrella. She took a sip and smiled at the hint of rum and sighed happily. Her body was glistening in the sunlight, having just stepped out of the pool and applying a fresh coat of sunscreen.
These were the days she lived for, the days she could just forget about everything else and relax. She sat up further and leaned over to grab the slice of pizza on a plate, on the little table just to her left. Yes, these were the days. No thinking about her shitty job, and no thinking about…
Her job? Wait, what was her job?
The sun went out, and everything around her began to dissipate. There was nothing left but herself, and an infinite sea and sky of white.
Suddenly she felt very cold. She felt a shiver creep through her, and it was dark again.
"Hello?" she called out into the void.
It did not reply with words, but with warmth, and she opened her eyes.
There was that warmth and the smell of food. She must've passed out after cooking dinner. She was comfortable, but her head hurt, and she sighed as she felt the soft sheets of a bed against her body and curled up under the thick comforter, closing her eyes again. "Weird dream," She muttered.
"Feel like sharing?"
She quickly sat up after hearing the voice, startled. There was a hooded man sitting by the fire, slowly stirring a metal pot. She brought a sheet up over her chest, then realized she was no longer naked and had a loose, white shirt over her form.
"Wh-who are you?"
The man chuckled and turned towards her, his face invisible to her, as he was between her and the fire. The strange thing? The glowing eyes. The man reached up to pull the hood back. "Just relax, I'm a friend."
Beneath the hood were robotic features. Its face was sleek and composed of a white, almost translucent metal and kind of looked like a sports car, complete with a couple of teal racing stripes down either side of its face. It had green, glowing eyes, and what might have passed for a mouth- or throat? -behind its metallic lips. The jaw shifted; a gesture that passed for a smile, for his kind. Though, emotions were not difficult to read on their faces.
Mara pressed her back against the wall. "What are you?"
The stranger raised his eyebrows. "Well good morning to you too, sunshine," He chuckled, continuing to stir the pot. "Look, I'll be upfront with you. You're not gonna remember a damn thing, and you're gonna have a load of questions. Some I can answer, some I can't. Hell, I might have some of the same ones you do. And we'll get to that;" He said, wagging a finger. "But for now, I just need you to eat up and get your strength back. Just, know that you're safe, I can promise you that much."
Mara sat with her back to the wall, watching the figure cautiously as he took a bowl and a ladle, scooping the food into it and setting it down on an old, wooden nightstand that seemed to have been pulled over beside the bed as a makeshift table. "Here you go." He pulled the chair over on the opposite of the nightstand, taking a seat. She could swear it was the most amazing thing she had ever smelled. It was a creamy, cheesy potato soup, loaded with different herbs and spices, and little bits of bacon.
The room was small, and cozy. There was only the one bed, and most of the other furniture was covered in books, weapons, strange odds and ends, and machines she didn't quite recognize. Looked like technology right out of some science fiction movie. There was a doorway that led into a hall, and beyond that, a closet and another door that was shut, covered in tons of old, worn away stickers, carvings, and a sign that had been lazily nailed in that read 'dook rook' in what appeared to be blue crayon.
"Sorry about the rude awakening there. I'm sure you're hungry, though." He smiled again. "Like I said, I'm a friend. I'm also an Exo."
Mara stared at him.
"Y'know, mysterious race of robot people?" He asked.
Mara replied with a curt shake of her head.
The Exo shrugged, placing a spoon on the nightstand, and a smaller plate with half of a small loaf of bread for her as well. "Ah, well. The name's Bastien-9. Or, you can just call me Bastien. Or B. Either way works. Don't ask about the number." He said leaning back. "And who might you be?"
Mara eyed the soup, then him, then the soup again. "Mara," she said quietly, sitting up.
Bastien crossed his arms and nodded slightly. "Pretty name. Go on, I'm sure you're starving. No need to stand on ceremony."
Mara scooted forward and took the bowl, hungrily slurping down the hot soup, then, taking it down a notch and proceeding to spoon at the rest, having never tasted anything this good in her life. She bit a nice chunk out of the bread as well.
Bastien watched her curiously, satisfied that aside from her hunger, he may not be such a bad cook after all. That, or the poor girl was starving.
After a couple minutes, Bastien leaned forward. "Do you remember anything- er, relatively speaking? Do you know what you were doing out there?"
Mara took another bite of the bread, chewed for a moment, and took a big swig of the water cup Bastien had also placed on the table for her. And at that moment, the events of the last day or so returned to her. "I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me. I... I just…" She stared off to nowhere in particular with a grimace. "I just woke up… yesterday? And, and…"
Bastien felt terrible for her. The lack of a Ghost was just the stale icing on the poorly baked cake.
He sighed. "Alright, well. I guess I'll just fill you in on what's been going lately."
Bastien shook his head, trying to find the words. He hated having to be one to bring this news. He'd done it enough throughout the years. "We were hit, about seven-hundred years ago- or perhaps more. No one is really sure anymore. Humanity reached a technological golden age, which we now call... er, The Golden Age. Medicine became almost... Magic. Lifespans tripled, technology advanced at an incredible rate, and we started colonizing the other planets in our solar system. This was all thanks to the Traveler. It's a giant, sphere thing, sort of looks like a small moon. But it's no moon. It gave us this advanced technological knowledge and blessed us with its Light-"
Mara squinted.
"Light, that's what gives a Guardian his- or her- power, but we'll get to that..."
After about an hour, Bastien had told her everything. At least, as much as he could. It was a lot to take in, and she had even cried for a little bit, during which Bastien had comforted her and even hugged her. He understood what it was like to wake up one day and know nothing; to be lost, alone, and without purpose. To take in so much that had happened to his home, and to his people. Had it not been for seeing the aliens before, and the moon in its current state, she would have never believed him.
Mara sighed and pulled away from the embrace, wiping a leftover tear from her cheek. "I… Don't know what to say."
Bastien just nodded and rubbed her back gently. "Well that brings us to now, Mara."
He stood up and went over to the fire, taking the pot off the metal grill that had been set over it, and putting it up over by a few other used pots and pans to wash later. "You are a Guardian, too. Like me." He says, returning to his chair. "I'm sorry to say that your Ghost didn't make it. The Fallen- those things that attacked you,"
Mara remembered them, and felt at the bump on her head, that was bandaged up. She remembered that well enough. Not that she wanted to.
"They found your Ghost while it was attempting to resurrect you. Destroyed it. I saved the remains once the damn aliens scattered, but there's nothing really salvageable from it, unfortunately. I'm not exactly certified to work on these things. I hunted them down though, you know."
"Wait, hold on a minute. If you saw them take my Ghost, or saw it trying to resurrect me, why did you leave me out there?"
Bastien put his hands up in defense. "I checked your pulse. My Ghost did a scan. You were dead. Now I would have moved your body somewhere sheltered, or buried you somewhere, but these Fallen? they've been crawling all over this sector for several weeks now. Several dropships worth of 'em swooped in and I had no choice but to get out of there. Was in a bit of a bad shape myself at the time. I suppose you're lucky they didn't incinerate your body or something."
She shook her head. "If I was dead, after being resurrected, how am I alive now?"
Bastien blinked. "I'm as surprised as you are. When we get back to the Tower, I'll see if Ikora might be able to make sense of it."
"And the Fallen?"
"There's been a huge spike of activity here. They're looking for something, and I? I'm here to find out what it is." He stopped himself for a moment. "Well, actually, I know what it is, sort of. Some kind of cache. Maybe weapons, or other important Golden Age artifacts." He shrugged. "The usual. Whatever it is I've gotta beat em to it and bring it back to the Tower. The crypto-archeaologists go nuts about this sort of thing. And pay handsomely."
Bastien shrugged. "Well, sometimes."
Mara yawned and nodded, at this point being far too tired to inquire about all the jargon she didn't quite understand.
"So, er, not that I don't think you would be capable, but you should probably stick around here while I get that done. You are a Guardian like me, but you're a new one. Sometimes takes a while for us to return to good shape after we're brought back for the first time. And having lost your Ghost while it was bringing you back for the first time, well, I'm no doctor, but it's probably a good idea to get you to the City and have someone check you out, make sure no screws are missing anywhere."
She got up on her feet and stretched. Aside from the white shirt, she was wearing gray shorts. They seemed a little big on her. Bastien had taken the only clothing he could find here to dress her in for the moment.
They were in an old hideout that was atop one of the skyscrapers. It used to be a condo, long ago. Now it was one of many hideouts hidden across the earth, locations shared by Guardians only by word of mouth, where they could rest if needed while on long missions, or passing through areas. It was a large desert that this ancient city was built on. The city was surrounded by several mountains that created a valley, with a single, large river running near the center, though time and the presence of man had formed it into an artificial canal, at least until now, that nature had reclaimed it. Many years of climate change and who knows what else brought on by the collapse had radically changed the climate.
The whole city had originally been named after a mythical bird that would be reborn from its own ashes, a metaphor for the success of building a thriving town out of the ruins of a former, native civilization, in an otherwise inhospitable desert landscape. It seemed the bird had returned to the ashes, for now.
The days here were extremely hot and humid, while the nights sometimes reached temperatures below zero. It was about one in the morning.
"That's okay," Mara groaned. "I don't think I feel well enough to go adventuring right now."
"Look, here's what we'll do. I'm zeroing in on that cache, shouldn't be more than a couple of days now until I can track its location."
Mara listened attentively.
"So, once we find it, I can call in my ship, we'll haul it outta here, and I'll bring you back to the Tower with me. While we're at it, we may want to arrange a meeting with the Speaker, I'm sure he'll be able to explain…" Bastien waved a hand around. "All of this far better than I could. And we'll wanna see about getting you a Ghost, or fixing yours, if either is at all possible."
Mara nodded. "Okay. There a lady's room here?"
Bastien pointed. "Yeah. Yeah, down the hall there, first door on your right. The funny one."
She raised an eyebrow. "Running water?"
Bastien grinned. "Only working faucets and shower around here for maybe a hundred square miles." He stopped. "D-dont ask about the plumbing."
She brought her hands up dismissively and shrugged, before walking down the hall. She opened the door, but loitered at it for a moment, and turned to look over at Bastien. "Thanks for saving me, by the way."
Bastien's jaw shifted again, another Exo smile. "Anytime, sunshine."
She walked in to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. The first thing she did was look in the mirror. Her face was dirty, and smudged. Evidence of Bastien having wiped her down a little, but of course, there was never anything quite like a full shower or bath. She washed her face and dried it off with the hand towel, and looked again at herself. It was like looking at a stranger. A face she had never seen before, except, somehow, it was her own. It had delicate, feminine features, despite the more lightly angular shape of her jawline. She had bright, ice blue eyes, dark brown hair that flowed down in gentle waves to the small of her back, and a small mouth with somewhat thin lips. There was a very subtle dash of freckles across her nose and cheeks.
Looking over to her right, she noticed the shower and sighed in relief. The hideout was old and maybe even falling apart at certain parts, but this was a blessing. Every other Guardian that came and went would always leave something for the next visitor. Be it supplies, or fixing up a thing or two. Years of that had made the makeshift plumbing possible, thanks to the small stream that ran through the area. Solar panels on the roof powered a generator, which in turn powered the water filtration system Bastien had installed about three years ago.
She stripped her shirt and shorts, and took a step into the shower. She paused, and took a quick step back, returning to the mirror, looking over her own body. She was average height, about five foot seven. She had large breasts on a slender, hourglass frame and a small waist, which curved down and out to wide hips. Her skin was soft and fair, with a light dusting of freckles over her shoulders and back.
She was absolutely gorgeous, in her own opinion, and she smiled. Despite feeling like a dumb question to ask herself, she wondered if she had always looked this way, or if the Ghosts brought Guardians back in their most optimal form. Or maybe she had looked entirely different?
After she'd taken the time to get a good look at herself and regain somewhat of a sense of identity, she took a long shower, practically drained the boiler nearby of all the hot water, and returned to the room. She talked with Bastien a little while longer before crawling back into that bed and closing her eyes.
She hadn't slept better for centuries.
