That damned question. Names, and which one belonged to him. He'd heard so many hurled at him, wrapped in hate and bitterness. He wanted no part of them. Guardian did just fine, even if it didn't describe him.

The girl took his bowl eagerly, noodle soup just barely cooled from simmering. The guardian sat across from her, golden eyes watching her intently as she dug in immediately. She made it look like she hadn't eaten in weeks, and half the bowl disappeared in less than thirty seconds. "Careful, don't break those chopsticks. They're my best pair."

Kipo blushed a bit and swallowed. "Sorry. Thank you so much, I don't know why I'm so hungry, I just had breakfast a few hours ago."

He knit his hands in front of his face, leaning forward. "You go first. Then I'll ask you some questions, Kipo from not-around-here."

"Oh, yeah, all right. Um… Pork already answered a lot of my questions," she laughed nervously, " about the aliens-, um, the Eliksni, and the guardians. I guess I still don't know where I am, where am I?"

"Old Europe, in the ruins of Switzerland and Germany. Now it's called the European Dead Zone."

"Why?"

"That sphere thing messed up the entire area when it fell off the Traveler. If you travel past the containment walls, apparently things are odd as hell."

"Scary. Ok, that helps. Oh! Here's another one. I came here through a portal, tossed in by a robot with a red eye, do you know anything about any of that?"

"Red-eyed robot? Was it about six feet tall, with a frill on its head?"

"Yeysh!" Kipo burbled before swallowed her soup, smiling. "It was rusty, too."

"A Vex." The guardian stated, leaning forward, eyes narrowing intently. Yes, he knew what that was. Damned annoying to fight.

"Ah. Yeah, it snuck up behind me, knocked me out somehow, and next thing I knew I was flying through a swirly portal." The girl illustrated this helpfully by waving the chopsticks around.

The guardian looked to his ghost. "Possible?"

"More than possible! I met a man who claimed to be from a chaotic dimension ruled by an evil triangle." The guardian and Kipo stared at Pork for a moment. His eye light flicked between them. "It is entirely possible that Miss Kipo is from another dimension, and arrived here via the Vex gate network."

"All right." He looked at her. Fatigue was setting in after his long day. There was only so much that a cup of old coffee could do. "That answer some of your questions?"

Honestly, not really?" She laughed abashedly, "Sorry. What's the Vex?"

The guardian sighed and leaned back. "You know what, kid? I don't know the answer to that question, either. Pork?"

He spun his shell for several seconds, and his voice afterwards sounded like a dictionary definition. "All generations of warlocks and civilian scholars alike have found that question fundamentally unanswerable, but the basic understanding is known to be thus; the Vex are an alien mind collective of unimaginable size, that use their powers over space and time to manipulate timestreams and dimensions. They have clashed with the Guardians many times."

"That's cool, I guess," the girl said, running a hand through her pink hair with a nervous smile. "But what do you know about their portals? Can you open one again once it's closed?"

Pork whirled around for a while longer, and the guardian leaned back, settling against the trunk of a tree. "It is generally agreed that once the Vex build a portal, it is forever connected to the Network, though there are many portals that have not opened in a long time."

"So, how can we open it again?" Kipo asked, excitement visibly rising. The guardian kept forgetting how much energy children had.

"The circumstances under which it may be opened, where it leads, and the mind in control of its usage may be accessed, but only by an expert in Vex technology."

"Ah. Where can we find one of those?"

Pork bobbed up and down, and the guardian's eyes flicked to him. "The City has many Vex scholars! I know several, one of my close friends is a warlock who can help you."

The girl smiled, leaning forward. "All right! Can you take me to them?"

"I would love-"

"No." The guardian spoke over Pork, voice firm. They looked to each other, and the girl looked between them, confused. The guardian spoke again, face hard. "I'm not going to the City again. I don't go, so you don't either."

"But, guardian! Miss Kipo needs help, and I can assist her-"

"We're not going, Pork. That's final."

Kipo looked to him, eyes wide. The guardian looked away. "It's too dangerous for me to go there. Pork can give you a description before we leave you. For now, you should sleep."

"But I'm not tired," Kipo protested. "I have more questions." He scowled, and she appended, "You said you'd answer them, guardian."

"I did, didn't I. Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Who ARE you?"

He pointed at her, eyes narrowing. "Don't expect any answers to questions like that, girl."

She put her hands up defensively, but caught the Awoken sheet before it fell to the ground. "Ok, ok, just curious. Are most guardians like you?"

A sound emerged from him then, not unlike a snort. "No. Most of them are shining beacons of 'hope, light, and justice'." His voice was sour. "People with guns and powers, blessed with a divine mission to destroy anything that is dark, different, or mildly inconvenient." He let the silence simmer for a moment. "No. I'm nothing like them."

She looked down and shifted on her log, uncomfortable, and he sighed. "Anything else?"

"You don't like questions very much, do you," she said defensively, pulling the sheet around her shoulders.

The guardian growled and rubbed his forehead. The first person willing to speak to him in months, and this is how he treated them? He met her strange pink eyes. "I'm just not used to them. Look, Kipo, was it? I'll lay out my cards for you, if that makes you feel better. You want to see them?"

She paused, then nodded. "If it makes you feel better."

"I hate this world. Ever since I was brought back, I've seen nothing but hate." He held up a hand as she opened her mouth. "Don't ask the reason why, I don't want to tell you."

"That's not what I was going to ask," she murmured, then at his glare made a zipping motion over her lips before leaning in, attentive.

"Long story short, you remind me of myself. Stranger in a strange land, everything out to get you, not sure how to get back. I went through the exact same thing. And you seem like a good kid. But you're not going to stick around, either way. So," He shrugged for emphasis. "I'm not going to get particularly attached. Also, I hate personal questions, which you friendly people seem to just love. That make sense, then, why I'm being prickly?"

She wilted a bit. "Yeah, I guess… What do you mean, either way?"

"I've been sorting out things I can do for you. There wasn't much, so I came up with a better plan. Pork, bless his heart, knows all sorts of people in the City. They'd do anything for him, and helping out a young extradimensional girl would be a pleasure, even a curiosity, to them. You'd be allowed to ask all the questions you want, and they'd answer all of them." She looked doubtful, and the guardian continued. "I want to help you, I really do. It's just, I'm not really in the best position to do that. I don't have any transportation, I don't have any contacts in population centers, and I don't want to be around people." He sighed, then put his hands together and pointed at Kipo. "Look. I can get Pork to talk to people he knows, and they can get you to the City by tomorrow. So, either way, I'll never be seeing you again."

"Oh." She processed this for a moment. "But then you'd be handing me off to complete strangers."

"You'd just have to trust Pork."

"I guess I can do that. But what about you?"

"Maybe I can convince them to take some glimmer to leave me alone. Most of Pork's friends don't know I exist yet."

More silence. "What was your original idea?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Kipo narrowed her eyes. "Well, I know that you're a good person, and I can't say that about anyone else in this world."

The guardian almost fell off his seat. "What? How do you know that?"

"Pork said so." The statement was filled with simple honesty, but she kept going, to the guardian's surprise. "And even though, yes, you've been a bit unpleasant, you've also only helped me and been honest with me. I appreciate that."

He sat in a mild state of shock for moments, then looked to Pork. "You told her that?"

"You are a good person, guardian."

The guardian looked at the ground, blinking. The girl spoke up again, uncertain. "Of course, if you don't want me to stick around, that's ok. I'm grateful for everything you've done, and I won't make you risk whatever it is you're hiding." She looked down, waiting for his reply.

He was quiet for a long time, trying to sort out her words in his head. She wanted him to help her? He'd gotten so used to being alone, away from the rest of humanity, and now this girl from an entire different dimension up and wants to trust him after thirty minutes of sitting around a fire?

"I… um, all right," he managed. "I guess you can stay if you want." Things began connecting, and panic rose. He'd just said a teenage girl could accompany him on a journey across the EDZ! Did he have enough money to feed them both? How did teenagers work, anyway? Where would she sleep!?

Horror set in. He'd definitely have to clean out his train car before she set one toe in there, and whenever she was in there he'd make sure he wasn't. No need making any of this more awkward than it needed to be.

Could he protect her? His eyes narrowed. He had to, that was all he'd let himself think about that. The first person to treat him like something better, he'd make sure she would be safe. But did he have enough firepower to do that? He leaned forward, stroking his chin. There, finally a question he could answer.

"Um, everything ok?" Kipo asked, concerned.

"Can you use a gun?"

She blinked. "Uh, no. Why?"

It was his turn to look surprised. He shook his head. "Here, if you can't use a gun, you're dead. Tomorrow, I'll educate you."

"All right!" Kipo smiled nervously. "I always thought it looked fun. To shoot a gun, that is. Getting shot, that's a different story."

"It'll be fun," he assured her, running math in his head. "I have lots of guns." How many bullets would it take her to become proficient? Ammo was cheaper, recently, but his future pockets were already being stretched by the plans being made. Maybe he could make a run to the Firebase. He stood up. "If you're all dried out, you need some sleep. I need to clean out my box first."

"I can sleep out here if that works better." Kipo leapt to her feet, sheet still hugged around her shoulders. Well, she seemed like she was doing a lot better than the quivering emotional mess than he'd first seen.

"Don't be ridiculous, it can get in the negatives even on a spring night here." They walked up the slight incline, Pork bobbing beside them, humming happily to himself.

"So, what is your plan?" Kipo asked. "After making lots of bangs, that is."

"Well, walking all the way to the Farm would take too much time. I had my eye on a sparrow, a vehicle, that could get us there a whole lot quicker." He swung the cloth door over his head. "Don't come in." She stopped, surprised. He stepped inside and kept speaking, looking at the messy interior with an appraising eye. "We could head to the settlement tomorrow to pick it up, then double up and head out. I'm sure it can handle both of us." He nodded, pretending like he actually knew that. If the thing couldn't handle two people, then he'd have words with the vendor. He started grabbing armfuls of things off the floor and shoving them into his lockers.

Kipo's reply came hesitantly from outside. "Uh, ok. And then to the City?"

"Oh, no. It's way too far," he said, almost shouting. "We'll sparrow over to the Farm, the largest population center in the area. Then," He slammed the locker closed, then rolled up his mass of blankets. He selected two of the upper ones, then laid them on the metal, suddenly wishing he had invested in a mattress. "Then we'll have to get jobs, I guess. We can either buy a ticket to the City on a passenger transport, which I'm not a fan of, or we can sparrow it ourselves." He looked over his work and shrugged. It would do. It was only for one night. He grabbed his guns last and left the box car, and Kipo jumped back from where she had been peeking. She smiled innocently, and he pretended to ignore it, slinging the Night Watch over his shoulder. "It would require at least two weeks of rations and fuel, and hunter field reports so we can dodge Cabal patrols and Fallen movements."

She raised her eyebrows. "Woah. That is a plan. Also quite far."

Pork piped up. "When the guardian decided he didn't like the City, he went very far away from it."

The guardian shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm pretty good at planning. And getting away."

"Planning getaways, too?" Kipo interjected. She bit her lip and smiled at him mischievously.

The guardian rolled his eyes. "Ah yes, I see what you did there, very clever." He met her eyes and gave a fancy bow, opening the door flap with a flourish. "My lady. Your accommodations."

She pretended a curtsy with surprising grace, then walked in, eyes wide. "Wow."

"I know, pathetic, right?"

She swung the Awoken sheet off her shoulders, and traced the rough countertop he had welded himself. She looked with curiosity at the hanging lantern, then poked it, sending it gently swinging. She folded the sheet and sat cross-legged in his single folding chair, regarding the space heater which was quietly warming the rectangular space. "It reminds me of some of the places back in my burrow, actually." She looked back at him with a smile, completely disarming his next self-deprecating comment. "Thank you, guardian."

He cleared his throat roughly. "It's not a lot. I hope you can sleep on metal."

She gave him a thumbs up. "I've gotten used to sleeping on concrete recently, so I think I'll be ok!"

He nodded. "Pork?"

"Yes, guardian?"

"Stay with her. Wake me up if anything gets close."

"Yes, guardian." He floated over to Kipo, who smiled up at the ghost.

The guardian was beginning to step out when her next words caught him by surprise. "What about you?"

"Ah, I can just keep the fire going."

"You said yourself it gets really cold outside."

By the Traveler. She looked genuinely concerned. He waved the blankets under his arm. "I've also got the power to screw with raw sun power. I'll be ok."

She nodded and smiled. "Ok."

He let the flap fall and started back downhill.

"Good night!"

He paused. The silence stretched on, night sounds filling it again. But this time, there was warmth in it. There was warmth in him.

"Good night., Kipo."