~I don't own Mass Effect or Destiny, all copyrighted content goes to their respective owners~

"Even if things don't unfold the way you expected, don't be disheartened or give up. One who continues to advance will win in the end." – Daisaku Ikeda


Arc I - Chapter 3

Learning

Crouching just before an outcropping of rock, Jane watched on as the strange aliens shambled past. She'd been moving north for the past eight days, and this was the first time she had come across any sort of life, hostile or otherwise.

"Careful. They're the Fallen."

The fact that her Ghost was whispering, despite them being both upwind and over half a kilometre away was more than enough of a reason for her to take these guys seriously. Even if he hadn't been, the fact that all she had in the way of armour and weapons was a cloak made of car seats and a wooden stick with a sharp piece of metal attached assuaged closer inspection anyway.

"Fallen?"

Moving closer to her, her Ghost spoke a bit louder.

"They used to serve the Light, they called themselves the Eliksni. But they betrayed the Traveller, grew to be unworthy, and thus became the Fallen."

With that bit of knowledge tucked away for further query, Jane instead focused on getting a read on a few of the Fallen that appeared to have strayed further out from the pack. While she consciously noted the biggest of the three had an extra set of arms, she only realised that she'd also noted their likely mass, reach, weapons and weak points after she'd actively done so.

Huffing in annoyance, she hunkered down further, the cold starting to catch up to her now that she wasn't actively moving. Her meagre underclothes and heavy cloak were preventing her from freezing to death, but she still wasn't even close to comfortable.

Returning her attention to the hostile aliens in front of her, Jane managed to regain her line of sight on the separated group just in time. Watching as one of the smaller aliens stepped onto weak snow, the resulting avalanche taking both of the smaller Fallen in a matter of seconds, with the big guy getting dragged in when the entire section of cliff simply shifted and fell.

Several scouts from the main pack broke away to investigate the catastrophic noise, but seemed unconcerned for the fate of their comrades once they figured out it wasn't an enemy attack, running to re-join the pack, which hadn't even stopped moving.

Watching the pack of Fallen crest the hill and disappear out of sight, Jane grabbed her spear and hauled herself out of the snow. Startling her Ghost as she did so, Jane set off at a light jog, stopping short of where the snow had given way.

"Hey! Careful, you don't want to join the Fallen down there."

Peering over the edge, Jane figured it was a good six hundred meter drop, and struggled to see anything other than snow at the bottom. She reckoned that the drop was far enough that the Fallen that had gotten caught up in the avalanche shouldn't have survived.

Turning to face her Ghost, Jane smiled at him. Then jumped, the last words she heard before the wind blocked out all other sound was the shocked cries of her Ghost. The last thought she had before she hit the ground was; at least she could keep some secrets from him.


In the blackness of the void, orange light arcs out…

"I am Harbinger of your perfection."

Breath stolen, gasps of air that remain unfulfilled…

"You cannot stop us."

Green grass and strange bodies, four eyes stare lifelessly…

"Pain is an illusion."

A giant construct floating in the void, red energy lancing out…

"Kill one and one hundred will replace it."

A graveyard of ships, broken and defeated…

"You have no one left, Shep-"


With a groan of pain, she regained consciousness. Her legs felt like they were being roasted over an open fire, and it felt like her spine was threatening to rip itself straight out of her back.

"What on Earth were you thinking?!"

With one final groan, Jane opened her eyes. Only to be met with the sight of her Ghost, hovering over her head and shining light directly into her eyes.

Swatting him aside, Jane pulled herself upright, taking stock of her surroundings. From where she now sat, she could tell that she had landed a little closer to the cliff face than she had wanted, but apart from that, she had accomplished what she had wanted.

"Hello? Insane Guardian? You jumped off a cliff and died!"

Snorting in amusement, Jane waved her Ghost away.

"Yeah, but you revived me. Just like you said you would."

Making a chirping sound that sounded close to spluttering, her Ghost seemed to get even more hysterical.

"Like I said I would? When?! When did I say that?"

Getting herself upright, Jane looked around for her spear, spotting it sticking out of the snow a few meters away. Walking over to collect it, Jane stretched her arms above her head.

"The other day. You said that one of your jobs as my Ghost was to revive me if I got myself killed, or heal me if I got injured."

Grabbing the wooden spear, she pulled the head out of the snow with a small grunt.

"Okay. Now that we know you can revive me, let's see if we can't find those Fallen."

Leaving her Ghost in what she could only describe as stunned silence, Jane began methodically prodding her spear into the shifted snow at regular intervals. Working from the left most area towards the right.

After a few moments of silent prodding, her Ghost floated up next to her, grumbling.

"Next time you decide to jump off something, could you at least warn me… please."

Smirking, Jane continued prodding, and after another few moments of silence, her Ghost seemed to give up on getting a verbal response. Instead, he made a digital chirp that might have been a huff, before moving to the other end of the disturbed snow, and began scanning.

It took them just a little under half an hour to locate the big one, which her Ghost helpfully identified as a Vandal. The other smaller two were most likely buried too deep under the snow for them to reach in a reasonable time, and Jane felt it best not to push their luck any further.

Pulling the alien corpse out of the hole they had dug was surprisingly easy, her Ghost stating that the Light that she now held within her provided her increased strength, among other benefits.

It was only as Jane moved over to remove the fur pelt it was wearing around its shoulders did she realise her mistake. The alien's small and numerous eyes snapping open as it simultaneously roared in rage.

Stumbling back and onto her ass, her only saving grace was that the Fallen Vandal's legs were rather obviously broken, and it afforded her the time needed to get up and brandish her spear.

The fight itself was rather anticlimactic, the alien acting more on instinct than conscious thought. It managed a few wild swipes with its swords, and made far too much noise for her liking, before she used her spear's longer reach to stab the alien in the throat and pin it to the ground.

Its cries of rage slowly trailing off into gurgles as it choked on its own blood, which began to seep out and coat the surrounding snow, dying it a rather disturbing shade of purple.

It was only after she was absolutely sure the four armed alien had died that Jane removed her spear, and after sticking it into the snow within easy reach, began searching and stripping it of anything useful.


Later that day

With one final look outside, Jane turned and headed into the rather small but cosy igloo she and her Ghost had made. Although igloo wasn't quite right, she'd dug into the snow in a more sheltered area and built a roof over the top.

It meant no fire, but with her new clothes, the snow insulated her body heat and protected her from the wind and snowfall.

Laid out on the small amount of floor space she had was everything she had managed to loot.

Two Shock Blades, a Dagger, three grenades and what her Ghost called a Wire Rifle. Not to mention the fur pelt and extra armouring materials that were now laid out to one side for her Ghost to mess with.

Sitting down, Jane started figuring out how best to utilise everything at her disposal.

The shock blades, she eventually decided, were going to be attached to the end of her spear, while the dagger and grenades were going on her newly acquired belt.

The fur pelt would be integrated into her cloak, lining the hood and neck area, while her Ghost worked to merge some the strange metal she had been found surrounded by into the chest piece and arm guards she had scavenged.

Alongside all that, there was the Fallen Vandal's Rifle. The strange and alien design meant that it wasn't built for human use, but Jane reckoned that with a bit of modification, she would be able to use it.

Prising off the metal plates that covered the rifles inner workings, Jane was surprised by just how compact everything was. If she wasn't mistaken, it looked like a human sized rifle had been placed in a bigger, Fallen sized frame.

Maybe it was. The Fallen are scavengers as much as I am right now.

Getting to work, Jane didn't even notice when the sun dipped under the horizon, and she continued pulling the rifle apart even after her Ghost started providing her torch light to work by. Occasionally, she would ask questions about the Fallen, and her Ghost would answer, giving her more questions to ask.


Authors Note:

I decided to give Jane a lucky break here, as I wanted her to slowly start upgrading her gear over time, without making her suddenly over powered or too under powered. Pretty much everything she's going to be using for the next three or four chapters is going to be scavenged or repurposed gear.

Also introduced the respawn mechanic, and Jane's seemingly okay idea with it. After all, without her memories, how is she to know that the reason she doesn't fear death is because she's already died once before?

Don't know when this chapter will be going up, my internet is proving difficult, and timing me out every time I try to save something on

The chapter after this one will be set about another week after this one. Keeping up with the steady time skips to cut out travel time and the other boring crap.


Thank you for your continual support everyone, and thank you to those who Review, Please do read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not as much. Of course, reviews are my life blood as a writer on this site, and every time my email goes off it motivates me to write more.

~ JunkMail