"… Clara …? Clara!"
She inhaled and exhaled rapidly, trying to breathe through her punctured lung. There was little effect, however- she could feel her vital functions beginning to shut down. Another few minutes with these damaged bio-components, and she'd be nothing but a statue in the snow.
"Clara!" Ghost's light illuminated her half-buried form, and he hovered around her head. "Where are you hurt?"
The correct answer was 'everywhere', but she focused on the greatest priority first- her lung. Reaching down and tearing away the damaged chunk of armor that the Stag's bullet had pierced through, she revealed her metal 'skin' beneath- a large hole with blue ichor seeping from it.
"Okay, hang on- I'm going to extract the bullet, and patch your lung," Ghost declared, flying closer and narrowing his optic for a tight beam. He shot it into her, and she clenched her fists at the sudden pain of it- she'd forgotten to turn off her neuro-sensors.
"It's done- but I can't do much more than that with all this wind, ice will start to form on your innards," he apologized. "We need to get to shelter."
She nodded, just grateful to be breathing again. "We need to get back up there."
Ghost bobbed in the air. "Follow me."
—X—
"They're gone," she said dumbly, surveying the scene.
Almost no trace of their encounter with the Stag and his enforcers remained- their footprints were almost completely covered by snowfall, and there wasn't a soul to be found.
"They must have taken him," Ghost said aloud, shock prevalent in his tone. "What … what do we do now?"
How had things gone so wrong? Just when things were starting to look like they might have a chance-
A glint of metal caught Clara's eye, and she walked over to a particular spot in the snow. Leaning down with a pained grunt and scraping away the top layer, her digging revealed the Hawkmoon and Mathias' destroyed helmet.
But you proved me wrong. You showed me that there's still hope for a better world.
No. They did have a chance, and she sure as hell wasn't going to give up on it.
"This isn't over," she called, picking up the Hawkmoon and standing up. "Not by a long shot."
"But Mathias is gone-"
"And he gave me what I need to see this through," she said, pulling the tip of her hood down over her face. "We keep going to the Iron Temple."
She gave no pause for him to argue, and instead marched on through the snow. After a moment's hesitation, he followed after her.
—X—
Lying next to the fire, Ghost hovered over her and made careful work of removing the rest of the bullets that had become lodged throughout her chest and stomach.
As they'd approached the Iron Temple, several Keepers had met her to provide assistance. They'd seen the Trinary Star ship land on the peak, and had put together the pieces of the puzzle. When she and Ghost had arrived, it only confirmed their suspicions.
Now, they watched her from across the flames that they'd lit in the center pit of the Temple. She'd only been inside this place once, when she'd first met Dirk- but it had changed very little in the year or so since she'd last stepped foot here.
Ghost flew upwards, his beam disappearing, and nodded proudly at his work. "That's the best I can do with the spinmetal we had on hand, but you won't bleed out anytime soon. You're lucky to have survived that."
"I doubt he knew about you," she mused. "Otherwise, he'd have killed you to make sure I didn't come back."
"That's going to come back to bite him," Ghost agreed. "Once we put together a plan-"
"I have a plan," she cut him off. "Charge the City. Save Mathias. Reclaim the Traveler."
Ghost paused for a moment. "That's not a plan- that's a goal, and a death wish without a proper idea of how we're going to manage that."
"The Ghost is right," one of the Keepers said softly, eyeing the pointed robot. This was the one who sat at the center of his comrades, the one who'd claimed to be the new head Keeper of this Temple.
"To attack the City would be suicide. The Trinary Star's forces are too great-"
"-to fight alone," she finished, silencing him. "I'm aware. Why do you think the Last Hunter and I traveled here? Why we've told our story to settlement after settlement, inspiring bravery in others who haven't felt anything but fear all their lives?"
A hush came over the Keepers as they began to connect the dots. "You … you wish to lead a revolution?"
"What's your name?" she asked suddenly, nodding her head towards the first Keeper who'd spoken. The others turned to him expectantly, though she couldn't see his reaction behind the knight-like helmet that was standard for them.
"Sive."
"Did you know Dirk?" she questioned. "The head Keeper here before you?"
He paused for a moment. "I did. He was my mentor, and a friend."
"When I first came to this Temple, he offered me sanctuary and kindness, two luxuries I have come to understand are quite rare in a world so unforgiving as ours," she began, her voice quiet. "I watched him die in open defiance to the Trinary Star, watched the Stag murder him in cold blood. He died because he chose to fight for something bigger than himself that day- he died for the crime of nothing more than choosing to do the right thing."
"And what would you have us do?" Sive asked incredulously. "Share his fate? Defy the Star, knowing we'd die-"
"Yes," she said simply. "I would."
She stood up and walked around the fire towards them, all of their eyes upon her. "The Star has cast a shadow over the planet for centuries, and only the Hunter has dared to shine through it. If the Star had their way, the Keepers- and all affiliated with the Light- would be destroyed without mercy."
"The Star is a blight on humanity, on that we can agree," Sive admitted. "But our job has always been to keep the peace- if we were to stand against the Star, it would break out into war-"
"The Star hasn't tried to eradicate you for the same reason," she countered. "Because it's a war they fear they might lose."
"It's easy for you to stand there and talk about fighting the Star," one of the Keepers behind Sive criticized. "You and the Hunter are capable of far more than we are. Even being more naturally attuned to the Light, we can do little with it- you can actually use it as a weapon. Your Ghost can raise you from the dead while we would breathe our last."
"You're wrong," she said. "I don't use the Light as my weapon- it uses me as its instrument. My Ghost revives me so that I can fight on, not so that I can run and hide."
She could see that she had some of their attention now, but many still looked unconvinced. "We're just Keepers."
"No," she said, a smile on her face. "You are so much more than that. While the Star has beaten humanity down, struck fear into our hearts, and hidden the past from us, you have stood against them without even knowing. You have protected the weak, carried out justice for the victimized, and refused to yield to the Dark."
She looked at them proudly. "When I look at you, I see Guardians."
A silence fell over them.
"Being a Guardian is more than having a Ghost," she continued, her head held high. Her voice shook from her nerves, but she refused to back down now. "It's more than being a warrior of the Light- it's about devotion, sacrifice … and death."
"I don't think 'death' is a great motivator," muttered Ghost at her side. She ignored him.
"Devotion inspires bravery, bravery inspires sacrifice … and sacrifice leads to death," she explained. "Being a Guardian is about giving yourself completely, even if it costs you everything. When you choose to stand for what's right, knowing that you'll forfeit your life … that is when you become a Guardian."
Her voice dropped to no more than a whisper. "Dirk did exactly that. He was a Guardian before I ever dreamed of becoming one."
With nothing left to say, she turned and walked away. They watched her retreating back as she approached the large doors of the Temple, and Sive called after her.
"Where are you going?"
"The Trinary Star has the Hunter," she answered. "My friend. If they kill him, then the last Guardian of old will have fallen."
"If you take on the Star by yourself, you'll die!" he said loudly. "They'll kill you too!"
"I know," she said simply. Then, she opened the doors, and disappeared into the snow, leaving them speechless.
—X—
"Are you sure about this, Clara?" Ghost asked her nervously. "Those Keepers were right- if we go through with this … it's a one-way trip."
They stood a few hundred maters from the edge of the City walls, just beyond the outskirts of its boundaries. The snowfall here wasn't heavy, but it did blanket the rocky ground with a thin layer of white powder that crunched beneath her feet wherever she stepped.
"Don't have a choice," she whispered. "It's us or everyone else."
This was what Mathias had trained her for. Her reawakening, becoming a Guardian, their travels together- it had all led to this moment, this second where she stood at the precipice of her destiny.
She didn't hesitate.
"To all who can hear me," she began, broadcasting her message through Ghost who then routed it across every satellite and radio frequency he had access to, "my name is Clara. You have come to know me as the companion of the Last Hunter during our travels. We have shared our story, the story of the Guardians, more times than I can count- and I have watched as that story has encouraged men, women, and children everywhere.
"We showed you that the Guardians are more than just a myth, more than just a legend- they were the bravest warriors this world has ever known. Where they went, the Light followed. And wherever there was Light, you could always find hope." She paused, steadying herself. "Over the centuries, humanity has lost that hope- it has eroded away, replaced by fear and corruption from those who would have you believe hope is dead."
She clenched her fists tightly. "The truth is that hope, while frail, is quite hard to kill. It lives in the hearts of all who would bring about an end to injustice, and it only takes a single spark to ignite a fire- a fire that can burn the darkness away."
Clara shuffled her feet slightly, sighing heavily. "The Trinary Star has taken the Last Hunter to the City. They intend to execute him, to make an example of him for all who would defy them. If they succeed, then we have admitted defeat- we'll have given into the fear, and resigned to live out the rest of our days cowering from our oppressors.
"I implore you now- humans and Keepers in every settlement, Exos in solitude, the Awoken of the Reef, the Ghosts living their lives out in exile- fight. Fight for your lives, for your children's lives, for the lives of those lost in years past, and born in the years to come." She took a deep breath. "Today, I make my last stand. I may be killed, I may not- truth be told, it doesn't matter. So long as my story has given someone hope, so long as that hope lives … then there will always be Guardians."
She lowered her head. "My Ghost is transmitting my coordinates now. I know we can do this, I know we can succeed. I urge you all to be Guardians with me on this day, to stand as one against tyranny knowing this truth …"
She lifted her head once more, her eyes set in steely determination.
"Guardians never die."