Guardian

A/N: Sorry this took so long and also that it's not as long as the other chapters, but I finally got some free time on my hands so I decided to get this out for you guys now before I got swamped with more work. Anyways, enjoy!

Heart to Heart

"You've been here…? All this time…?

~?

Ruffling a hand through my hair, I turned to the Ghost and spoke, "So, how long will it take for us to get to the City?"

I took a glance at the moon through the windshield while she used her scan beam on the terminal before I turned back to her when her parts divided and spun around.

"About twelve hours.", she hovered for a moment and dropped back into her original position, the gesture that I'd come to associate with her shrugging. "Give or take."

"Twelve-?!", I nearly choked on my spit. "Where are we going that it's gonna take us twelve hours?!"

I watched her tilt to the side, looking at me curiously, "Well, we were just in Old Russia and the Last City is in Southern America." She explained. "This ship isn't really the newest model, y'know. And we don't even have a warp drive. If we at least had one of those we could potentially cut our travel time in half."

"Alright.", I spoke. "Well, could you get rid of this armor until we get there, then?"

In a flash of light the starter set was gone and I sent her an appreciative smile.

I sat back in the chair, exasperated. Geez, imagine if Destiny loading times were actually twelve hours. I ignored the estranged look she gave me when I chuckled at the thought. I guess the fact that it was gonna take us that long to get there only added more to the thought that all of this was real. But, that just raised more questions. If this was all real, would I ever see my family again? And what happened to the guys? Did they get brought here too, or was I the only one that got punted to this new universe on a whim?

I scratched the back of my head and sighed before laying my hands in my lap.

I was happy. I was looking forward to meeting all these characters that I'd always thought were just fiction and I even had my own little Ghost who was way better than the original main character's Ghost. But, I had a life back home. Back there it was just me, my mom, and my little brother and I couldn't just abandon them. But, how was I supposed to get back? Maybe whatever brought me here could send me home? I doubt whatever sent me here did it without a purpose, though. But, in case it was by accident, how would I even find whoever or whatever brought me here?

I sighed again and in the corner of my eye I saw her watching me intently.

There were way too many questions and just about no answers. Well, whatever. I had no doubt in my mind that I would see my family and friends again someday. Whether I'd just wake up from a coma or actually find whatever had brought me here, I'd see them. Until then, I'd just go with the flow of the world, or more accurately, universe, around me until I found my way back. No point moping about things that were out of my hands when I could just as easily enjoy this new life instead.

But before then…

"Damn, twelve hours, huh? What am I gonna do to pass the time for twelve ho-

I moved my hand in my lap and felt something on my right thigh. I looked down at the indent in my shorts and stared at it for a long time before I eventually put a hand in my pocket to grab it. That familiar rectangular shape in my hand made my eyes light up and I knew she saw my mood change because she floated closer to me, our link detailing just how curious she was.

Pulling it out of my pocket, I stared at the clean, inactive screen before hungrily holding the power button on its side and watching the screen turn on and start booting up.

Soon enough, I was at my lock screen and I was vigorously putting in my password to get to my home screen.

Everything was still there.

All my contacts, my notes, my apps, my-

"What's wrong?", her voice spoke softly beside me when my head lowered as I opened my gallery.

The first thing I saw was a picture of me, my brother, and my mom on my brother's second birthday. My friend Julian had taken it that day since he came over to celebrate with us. It had us in the kitchen with me laughing while my brother tried his best to look innocent in the face of my mother's angry stare. She was obviously doing her best to look angry, but with the small frosting handprint on her cheek, you could see the small smirk plucking at her lips.

I sighed again and leaned back in the chair.

"It's nothing.", I waved her worries off. "Don't worry about it."

Her top and bottom segments closed together, giving off the illusion that she was glaring at me, though the link told me that it was in concern rather than anger.

"Do you want me to play some music?"

My eyes widened. I hadn't even thought about that. And seeing as my phone would eventually die along the road with no way, to my knowledge at least, to recharge it in this universe, this was probably the best idea she could've ever given me.

"Yeah, I'd like that.", I smiled as I held the phone out to her. "But not whatever Ikora gave you. Could you download the music I have on here?"

She tilted to one side and I could feel her confusion, but she still complied nonetheless. She backed away from the phone a bit and displayed her scan beam over the device, sending her recoiling a bit.

"Whoa!", I heard her surprise before I felt it. "There are a lot of audio files on here!"

"Yeah.", I laughed. "And while you're at it could you maybe download all the pictures on here too?"

I was hopeful and I knew she could feel it. I mean, who knew when I'd be able to sift through all my stuff again once the device died, right?

"Sure.", she spoke softly and soon her scan beam disappeared and she tilted her shell up in what looked like a contemplative expression. Her parts split and spun rapidly for a moment before they connected back into place and her eye glowed brighter for a split second before dimming to its natural shade.

"There's- ...woo, there's a lot to choose from here."

A small smile graced my lips at seeing at her at a loss for words. That kind of reaction was to be expected since she just got to scroll through my entire music library.

"Yeah, could you pick something at random?", I spun around in the chair having felt it on a swivel during my thoughts as I watched her parts spin from her picking a song. Suddenly music started to play and it sounded as if it was coming from all around me, but when I looked at her, her parts were divided and rotating slowly while her blue optic light was replaced with a neon green ring light.

After a few seconds, I realized that the song that was playing even before the lyrics started was Destiny by Neffex. Fitting, I thought. At least in name, maybe not the words so much.

Stopping the chair from spinning on its axis, I turned and stood, walking about the Arcadia Class Jumpship. It was surprisingly spacious, moreso than I thought it'd be, but, a little homey despite the small, almost unnoticeable, patches of rust lining the corners along the ceiling and the floor. It was about the size of my bedroom with a bare metal floor and two benches lining the two walls facing each other. There were these rusted cubes lining the walls above the benches about the same height as my head when I sat down on the bench, if only a bit higher. Looking closer, I noticed that there were small hooks under each.

"Oh.", I said to myself as I pulled on one of the hooks and saw that there was a strap that felt like leather but was clearly not attached to it. "It's a seatbelt."

There was nothing else really noteworthy about the ship other than the one room it contained and the cockpit with the spinny chair. Allowing myself to slide back into said chair with a groan, I sat back and closed my eyes. There was nothing else I could do about my situation at this point but try to get some rest so my brain was working at full capacity by the time we got to the Tower.

You just came back to the land of the living and were thrust into a hostile world you didn't know anything about with no memory of who you were when you died the first time around. This world must be so big and new to you and I hadn't even thought of it, let alone taken it into consideration.

My eyes shot open before they softened at the recent memory.

I'm sorry, and I hope you can forgive me.

There was really no need for her to apologize back then, I'd have gotten over it soon enough, but I still appreciated the thought. Even so, her reason was misplaced. I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, discreetly watching her segments spinning around her ring light. This was going to be my partner for the foreseeable future. She was gonna be the one constant in my life above all else in the entire universe; at least until I found a way home.

I didn't have it in me to deceive to her like this.

Twelve hours.

I had half a day to explain to her the situation.

Should be no problem, right?

(Two hours later)

I sighed as I slumped back into my seat for what felt like the thousandth time. I had thought this would be easy, telling her what was really going on. Apparently, I was as wrong as wrong could get in that regard. I spent the last one hundred and twenty-something minutes pondering over how I would go about explaining things and I still hadn't figured it out.

On a side note, she had taken an apparent liking to various pop and hip hop songs I had in my library. Not my favorite, but it was okay.

Anyway, everytime I tried to open my mouth to speak I found myself doubting the words that would eventually come out of my mouth. What would she think? How would she react? Could Ghosts leave their Guardians?

Why am I so nervous about all this? Geez, I'm only telling the source of my newfound immortality about my past life, not asking a girl out on a date.

Yeah, Xavier, what's wrong with you? You're only telling an intelligent alien lifeform about how you were a nerd all your life and that you remember it. Definitely not as hard as asking a girl out.

I palmed my face and quietly groaned at my thoughts.

I really gotta stop making such a big deal about this.

I guess I'd just have to go with my gut and wing it. Definitely not my strong suit, as I'd rather plan out my moves before just flinging pieces across the board, but there was no perfect route to take here. Ah well, as the great Woody Harrelson once said in Zombieland, time to nut up or shut up.

And when Hannah Montana started playing out of my Ghost, that only sealed the deal.

"Okay!", I shouted as I sat up straight. "That's enough music for now, don't ya think?"

I watched her ring light slowly swirl back into her blue optic light as her parts stopped spinning, the music dying down as quickly as it had started. Her top and bottom pieces narrowed together over her optic light and I could feel her annoyance as she stared at me, "Aww, I wanted to hear that one."

…

Was she pouting?

"Sorry?", I cringed when it came out as more of a question than anything. I mean, who could blame me? What was I supposed to do in a situation like that?!

I cleared my throat in two quick successions, "I just had something I wanted to talk to you about."

She tilted her shell to the side, "Is something wrong, Guardian?"

"I uhh…", I scratched my cheek with a finger and averted my eyes as I thought about what I wanted to say. Might as well just come out with it.

"... you were wrong about earlier."

"Huh?"

I sighed as I began to explain, "Remember earlier, when you said that I was brought into this world that I didn't know anything about with no memory of who I was?"

She nodded.

"You were wrong."

Her parts narrowed again, as if she were scrunching up the eyebrows she didn't have in confusion, "What do you mean?"

I furrowed my eyebrows and breathed another sigh.

"I remember who I am."

…

It was quiet for what felt like ages and I honestly felt like my fears were coming to life in front of me. Until:

"I know."

My eyes shot open and I briefly wondered when I'd closed them before I shifted my gaze to the Ghost that was now sitting in my shorts clad lap. I stared at her with wide eyes while she did the same with that hypnotizingly soft blue light.

"You knew?", my voice was surprisingly calm, unlike the meltdown my thoughts were having.

I felt her embarrassment as she shifted in my lap so her light wasn't looking directly at me, "The link, remember?"

"But", my mouth was suddenly really dry. "I thought you could only read my thoughts and feel my emotions, not see my memories."

She turned further away from my gaze, "I don't really know much about how it works. All I know is that I got kinda excited to know more about you when you passed out back there."

Briefly, the memory of when I fell off that mountain of rusted cars flashed through my thoughts.

"And then", her voice broke and she cleared it in three successions. "and then your memories just came to me."

She looked back up at me when she finished and all I could give was a blank stare void of any emotion.

"So you just let me stew in my worries for two hours for nothing?", my blank stare slowly turned into a glare.

"Sorry?", I heard her sheepish tone before I felt the emotion this time.

I stood up without warning, sending her airborne as I walked into the back of the jumpship. Putting my hands to my face, I groaned, distantly feeling her trail behind me, a foreign feeling of uncertainty flooding my senses.

Good job, nerd.

"I don't think you're a nerd.", her voice, small and sorrowful, filled my ears.

Slowly, I dropped my arms down to my side with a sigh as I practically fell onto the bench lining the wall of the ship. I looked over to her as she floated up to my side, running a hand through my dark brown hair.

"I think it's nice that you're so passionate about something.", she told me softly, parts spinning. "It's certainly better than you showing no interest in anything, y'know?"

Scratching my cheek, I blew out another sigh, "I guess…"

So she knew everything about me? I couldn't even have a hand in the decision to let her see my memories if I wanted to since I was unconscious.

"And", she spoke up, dragging my attention away from my thoughts. "I'm sorry about before."

When I gave her a funny look at her subsequent silence, she cleared her throat again to explain.

"I didn't mean to leave you to "stew in your worries", as you so eloquently put it.", I nudged her with my shoulder, eliciting a short giggle from her as a small smile pulled at my lips. "Regardless of me having seen your memories, I just didn't feel that it was my place to act on it. I knew that if you wanted to tell me, then you would."

I blinked owlishly at her as she finished. Then I smiled.

I'm really lucky to have her.

"Yes, yes you are.", I heard the smugness in her voice as I stood up from the bench, pride that wasn't mine swelling in my chest.

"Alright alright.", I lightly flicked one of her parts, noting with a smile how the pride in my chest was swiftly pushed out of the way to make room for annoyance. "Don't let it get to your head."

I moved back to the chair by the windshield of the jumpship, settling into the old yet comfy seat once more. With that settled, I guess now I can finally get some rest. I definitely needed some after that conversation; I don't think I'd have enough wit to go toe to toe with Cayde, not to mention the words I needed to have with Ikora regarding the genre of music she decided to fill my Ghost with.

Yawning, I leaned back into the chair with my hands behind my head.

She seemed to have felt my tiredness through the link as she was immediately by my side, her optic light morphing into the emerald ring light, "Would you like me to play some music so you can get to sleep?"

I waved down her efforts, "Nah, that's okay. Could you just wake me up when we get there?"

She nodded, "Sure thing, Guardian."

"Oh and another thing.", another yawn. "Don't call me Guardian. We just had that heart to heart, it's only right you call me by my name."

"Okay…", she paused and I could feel myself falling asleep to the soft humming of the ship.

"…Xavier."