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hi! thanks for the click bestie. this takes place in the wee ole dark ages somewhere right after the collapse- though it won't be like that for the whole story. just for now, then a nice lil time skip.
note: the three different POVs don't take place in the same time frame, but this is the only chapter that follows this rule.
-caelesti
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•• ━━━━━ ••ghost #1•• ━━━━━ ••
It was a cold day. The sky was grey, stratus clouds glowing with the sun's hidden light behind it, swelled with snow that was destined to fall soon.
A small Ghost wandered the plains of tall yellow grass, trees here and there along with a forest in the distance along with an old rectangular building just over the horizon.
Her shell flicked back and forth as she moved nearly as fast as she could through the desolate landscape. Her destination: ruins of a centuries-old tower just under half a kilometer away. In the tower, her treasure: a brilliant spark of Light, one so similar to hers that it was like looking at her reflection. The deep, mysterious Light of a warlock, being so close she could now tell.
Years and years of searching, and I'm lucky enough to find my own Risen! She thought to herself, excitement almost causing her shell to flick again. A spark of Light so much like mine, not many Ghosts get this chance! I knew I was right to deny the other sparks. None of them are as bright and as beautiful as you!
She finally reached the tower- if you could even call it that. It looked to be a stack of stones with a wall of ivy covering most of it. She glided over it and immediately, a flash of blue light emanated from her singular eye, scanning furiously for a body to resurrect. To her surprise, all she found was empty, flimsy bags and crates that were fallen apart.
However, her scans picked up biological remains, and if she looked closely enough, she could see shards of bones scattered across the rotting wooden floor with grass poking out of it, along with more ivy and some moss. Nearly squealing with excitement, she started her first resurrection process- something she had never done before, but left the Traveler knowing it all as if she was taught it before she was born.
Her shell opened, revealing a blue sphere. Dust swirled from the ground, along with shards of bone and other materials. Once she was sure she had every bit of her new Risen's body, her shell expanded more and a blinding light filled the tower as life was created.
When the Ghost's shell returned to its normal positions, the light died down enough to look at her new Risen. With quiet excitement, she looked the shifting body over.
Her new Risen was beautiful- she was probably about five and a half feet tall, a pale, slim face marked between her eyebrows, under her eyes, and under her chin with light blue Risen marks- something only a few Risen were reborn with. Shockingly ginger hair was splayed out around her, thinly dreadlocked with a few silver bands swirling down some of her locks. She had a slim body with a small chest but wide and high hips and long legs. However, with her lack of shifting, the little bot grew concerned.
The Ghost flew in a bit closer, starting to wonder if she'd failed to bring her Risen fully back to life. But with a sudden deep breath, the Ghost's worries were dismantled.
•• ━━━━━ ••the warlock•• ━━━━━ ••
A coughing fit jostled her body as she woke up to a sky with swelled, gray clouds. Her mouth, throat and lungs felt dry, as if she'd never used them before. She wheezed and choked into her fist, slowly gathering her bearings. She blinked open her icy blue eyes and took in her surroundings. Her mind worked at a lightning-fast speed, but for the life of her she could not remember why she was there.
Gentle snowflakes started to fall from the sky and land on her pale cheeks. She started to sit up, but a small, floating object entered her vision.
"Hey there, Risen!" she assumed the bright, feminine voice came from the object ahead of her. Startled, she let out a yelp and jumped backward.
"Wh-" when she tried to talk, another coughing fit jostled her body. The object approached slowly.
"Woah, hey. Take it easy, you've been dead for a long time." her voice was gentler when she said this, but it caught the newly-resurrected Risen completely off guard.
"D- dead?" came her croaky voice. She looked up at the object as if she had really caught her attention this time. "What is going on, floating object?" it seemed to let out a snort at this. "Why is it that I cannot remember anything?!" her voice grew desperate. The points on the object's body flicked back and forth.
"Listen. You've been dead for hundreds of years- maybe thousands, so there are going to be a lot of things you won't understand. I can answer any questions you might have- that's what I'm here for. I am a Ghost- your Ghost now. I will be your companion for the rest of your life... if you choose to keep me." she added with a bit of an insecure note at the end. "And you are Risen, one brought back from the dead and gifted the powers of the Light," she paused, seeming to think for a moment. "to protect what's left of Humanity."
The ginger-haired woman was speechless for a moment, gears turning in her head.
"I was... dead?" she breathed, laying her slender fingers on her chest. "How long, exactly? Where am I?" The Ghost's points flicked again- she seemed to have a habit of doing that.
"You're in the ruins of a tower in the southeastern part of what used to be Norway." it meant nothing to her. Almost... she recognized the word 'Norway', but that was it. "I'm going to scan you, okay?" the Ghost continued. "To find out your exact age. There's going to be a blue light, and it won't hurt you- or even cause any sensation, for that matter. So don't panic." she said in a calming voice. Before the ginger-haired Risen could question her, a blue light as flat as a piece of parchment went over her, from her head to her toes. Taking in the information, her points flicked once more.
"Wow..." she breathed. It had the Risen feeling a tiny bit concerned. "Your bones are... you're ancient. That- that's not an insult. You died in the year 600 A.D., and it's now the year 2370. You've been dead for almost 2000 years... wow... and based on your appearance, you were likely a Viking, or at least part of that society. That's just going off of your hairstyle, though. Not many Caucasian people wear dreadlocks anymore." As she said this, the Risen absentmindedly brushed one of her locks.
"2000 years..." the Risen breathed, shocked to the core. "What has changed?" she asked, looking up to the Ghost.
"More than you can imagine." replied the Ghost. "It's going to take a long time to get used to today's age. But I'll be there for you the whole time, so don't worry." the Risen could hear a smile in her voice, though it seemed physically impossible for her to do that.
"Do you have a name?" asked the Risen, seemingly out of the blue. It caught the bot off guard for a moment, and she looked away.
"Well... Ghosts aren't born with a name. Usually, their Risen give them names, but... not all are lucky like that." she said meekly. The Risen could feel her heart break at that.
"Fret not, little Ghost." she smiled. "We can find our names together." the Ghost flicked her points excitedly.
"Sounds like a plan!" she exclaimed. "Now... we need to get out of here. I will explain everything on the way, but we have to find a ship and fly to the rest of Humanity." the Risen pictured a sailing ship in the air, puzzled.
"Flying ships?" the Risen echoed questioningly. The Ghost let out a chuckle.
"There is much for you to learn." she said with a mysterious tone that just seemed to draw the Risen in. Carefully, she stood up on shaky legs, her bones snapping and crackling as she moved around for the first time in 2000 years.
"Right." she said determinedly. "Now, let's find this... flying ship." and with that, they left the tower through the unstable arch that served as a doorway, looking out at the vast, tall, yellow plain that stretched before her. Before anyone could say anything more, a silver glint caught her eye. She kneeled down and divided the tall yellow grass to look at what she'd found.
A broken, rusted blade presented itself to her. The blade itself was still at its full length, though the steel looked more like copper and it looked as if it would shatter into a million pieces with one swing. The guard was reddish, long, rectangular, and curved, with three rusty circles. The grip looked as if it had been wrapped in some brown cloth some time ago, the steel below visible through a few stubborn pieces of faded fabric. The pommel was a small, rounded stone flame, its points chipped off. Familiarity sparked in her, and at that moment, she knew she had to bring it with her. The hilt seemed to fit perfectly in her hold. The Risen could barely make out the details in the blade, but there were some runes she was able to make out. The Ghost floated behind her, inspecting what she picked up from the ground.
"'Thyra'... and 'Yrsa'... and 'blood'." said the Risen. "That is what I can make out." she looked up at the Ghost, who was scanning the blade before her.
"Wow." said the Ghost, fascinated. "You really must be from the Viking age. I know trillions of languages, and this isn't one of them. The language of Viking runes were lost to time. Maybe this was your sword. You should keep it- maybe it can be restored some day." Something sparked in the Risen, and she smiled for the first time since she was reborn.
"Then my name must be Thyra, and yours Yrsa." she claimed, looking up at the Ghost. Overjoyed, the points spun all the way around.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Thyra." she said. Thyra let out a laugh.
"Same to you, Yrsa." she replied contently. Then, they set off to where Yrsa had located a hangar, explaining everything that had happened after her death along the way.
•• ━━━━━ ••ghost #2•• ━━━━━ ••
As opposed to the gentle, beautiful plains of Old Norway, a Ghost was flying as fast as she possibly could, hoping to beat the furious storm that would make things much more difficult for her. Though she was thankful the Traveler had gotten rid of the sulfuric acid rain- or, at least, made it significantly less harmful to its surroundings- this storm could screw things up for her, and her spark of Light that she desperately glided to.
Under any normal circumstances, she would take shelter and wait for the storm to pass, but nearly a century of searching for the spark that would align so perfectly with her own was worth trying to beat the storm for. In fact, she was starting to believe she'd never find a spark that reflected her own so perfectly. At that moment, there was nothing else more important to her than resurrecting her spark. Even as the wind screwed up her trajectory for what seemed the eighth time, her irritation only spurred her on.
The light- the Light of a hunter- grew to where it was almost blinding.
A large shipwreck came into view as she pushed through a few trees. She could barely see it, but the ruins of an old, rusted exo was visible through the cracked and fogged-up windshield.
That's it! That's my Risen! The Ghost thought, excitement consuming her. Quickly, she found an entry through the wreckage that was just small enough for her to fit through. She didn't take any time to study her surroundings as she quickly approached the fossil of an exo before her. Collapsed over the controls, an arm on the floor. A silver, robotic skull with a barely visible star on her forehead.
"Well... here goes nothing..." Said the Ghost as she started her very first resurrection process.
•• ━━━━━ ••the hunter•• ━━━━━ ••
She awoke with a loud gasp. Followed by a fit of coughing, as her lungs hadn't been breathed in for a long, long time.
"Wh-" She coughed.
"Woah, take it easy." The exo yelped and jumped out of the dusty cockpit she was seated in for some reason. Actually, now that she looked around, the whole ship was dusty. Hey, where was she? And why was she here, in this rusty dusty old ship? Who just spoke to her?
"U- uh, okay..." The exo stood up slowly. The source of the feminine voice came from a little bot on front of her with one big, glowing blue eye. "Woah, what are you?" Asked the exo, awe-struck at the little being. The little bot tilted to the side as if a bit bashful.
"Oh, I'm a Ghost. Your Ghost, now. And y- you must have a lot of questions, I'm sure, but we have plenty of time." The Ghost told the curious exo hunter. "We can't move through this storm, so this ship will have to be our shelter for..." She trailed off, as if checking something, "...about fifteen hours." The exo blinked.
"Wow... what planet are we on?" She asked.
"Venus. In the Ishtar prefecture." The Ghost answered. There was an awkward silence that lingered for a moment. After the questions came rolling in, the Ghost concluded that the exo was thinking.
"So... who am I? What happened? Why am I here?" She asked. The Ghost sighed.
"Those are big questions. You are Risen, here to defend humanity from its enemies. That being the Darkness, the Fallen, and even other, corrupt Risen, like the Warlords. It's normal to not remember anything after you become Risen, since I just resurrected you from death. You won't remember anything about your past life. But I can resurrect you as many times as needed." The Ghost explained, stopping when she saw the exo raise her hands.
"Wait-wait-wait... I... I was dead?" The exo sputtered, her mouth glowing gold with every stuttered syllable. The Ghost nodded. "Wha- how? For... for how long?"
"Well, judging from the setting, I'd assume you died crashing this ship. As for how long, I can see how old your metal plating is." The Ghost suggested. "You can also look around the ship to see if there are any clues from your past life... or, maybe what you're wearing, Bray."
That name sparked a bit of familiarity in her. The exo looked down at her clothing to see the name 'Bray' inscribed on the chest of the stylish flight suit she was wearing. She stood and looked around the ship.
It was medium-sized, probably only an interplanetary jet meant for getting 5-7 people from place to place. However, it looked as if she were the only one in here. Just below the control panel, on the floor next to the single cockpit, something caught the exo's eye.
It was an identification card from something called "Braytech" with a broken red lanyard, looking as if it had decayed over years and years. On it was a picture of a silver exo with a big white four-pointed star on her forehead, along with 16 circles behind it. She had big magenta eyes and purple ear-spokes. Her name was Nymphandora Bray, but it also listed her 'exo name' as Nymph-9.
What shocked her was adjusting the identification card so the light reflected off of the laminated card, and she noticed two magenta glints of light.
"That's me... I'm Nymph-9..." Nymph-9 felt as if a tsunami wave hit her. The name... it just felt right.
"Your plates are about 150 years old... you barely predate the Collapse." The Ghost said suddenly, causing Nymph-9 to yelp.
"Jeez, really..?" Nymph scratched her head.
"Hey, you used to work for Braytech- woah... you're a Bray- not just any Bray, but Nymphandora Bray!" The Ghost twisted her shell in excitement. Nymph laughed nervously, feeling a bit bashful. "Genius daughter of Clovis Bray, twin sister of genius Anastasia Bray! You invented, like, half of all Sparrows! And you made some badass weapons! I'm so lucky!" Nymph giggled as the Ghost nuzzled her jaw, but a thought came to her that caused her excitement to die down.
"Wait..." The Ghost looked up at her. "If I was famous and all... is there anything out there on how I died?" Nymph asked. The Ghost shook her head.
"No..." She admitted with a sigh. "A lot of information was lost with the Collapse. But we can keep an eye out for it. Who knows what kind of info can be resurfaced?"
Nymph sat down with a sigh, crossing her legs. The Ghost lowered down to her level again, staring at her with a big blue eye.
"...Y'know, I really like the name Nike. The Greek goddess of victory." Nymph said, remembering a random fact. The Ghost perked. "So, Nike, tell me about the Collapse, and what exactly a Risen can do?"
Nike's shell spun, overjoyed.
"Well..."
•• ━━━━━ ••ghost #3•• ━━━━━ ••
A male Ghost was having a conundrum. An issue. A problem, perhaps.
A little bit more than that. His Guardian- the Spark of Light that truly matched his- had only recently died. She was buried in an Iron Lord's fort, next to her brother. Her mother had left soon after they were buried, and her father still resided there, visiting their graves every day.
What made this very difficult for the male Ghost was that her father was Zavala, the Iron Lord's apprentice.
The male Ghost didn't know how the human mind worked apart from his own consciousness. No doubt it was extremely different from his own, considering his mental stability and the very clearly grieving and confused Risen father. He had no idea if Raising his daughter would relieve him or anger him.
In this phase, so soon after, he honestly might be pleased, the male Ghost concluded after much thought. He still talks to them as if they were there. Perhaps now is a better time than ever. Well... after he leaves. The Ghost's conclusion was likely the best decision, but he was still risking a lot.
At dusk, his Guardian's father finally left the pair of beautifully-decorated graves.
This is it! This is my moment! The Ghost thought excitedly, his shell twirling with sheer glee. Once the brooding Awoken had departed, the Ghost sped down to the graves and hovered above the almost blindingly bright reflection of himself.
Here goes nothing...
•• ━━━━━ ••the titan•• ━━━━━ ••
The first thing she felt was being constricted. Panicked, she wiggled, and found that she barely had any wiggle room. She was trapped in some tight space, and wrapped in... something.
She couldn't remember where she was, who she was, why she was there, or how to escape...
Suddenly, she felt movement above her. Like something was trying to dig her out of here. She wiggled and screamed, hoping whoever was moving above her would help her.
It took excruciatingly long, but eventually they dug her out, ripping her restraints off to reveal a dark purple-skinned half-Awoken girl with huge navy blue curls and tears down her purple-marked face.
The first face she saw- or rather faces- was a big blue man and a small white bot.
"Saskia, are you alright?" The man asked, leaning toward her with wide eyes. She only stayed silent, not knowing who this 'Saskia' was.
"Zavala, she's not going to remember anything." Said a deeply gravelly voice. The girl looked up to see a tall brown man with golden and white armor, looking down at her with a disappointed frown. The man before her let out a sigh.
"Saskia, I- I'm your father." Said the man, presumably her father. The white bot moved a bit closer to her.
"And I'm your Ghost." the bot chirped. "You're Risen, a powerful protector of Humanity. You just came back from being dead- if you couldn't tell from the grave. You're not going to remember anything about your past life, but I can assure you that you can trust us."
Saskia... it sounded like her name. She quite liked it, anyways.
The teenager stood and brushed herself off, the dirt covering her cloth dress. Her bare feet were quite dirty as well. She saw the faces present- the tall brown man, her father, and her Ghost, all look up at her as she stood.
"It's nice to meet you all... again." Saskia murmured. "I- I'm sorry I can't remember anything, but w- we can always make new memories together." She smiled, causing the man below her to tear up. "I'm glad to be back."
In a lightning-fast movement, her armor-clad father wrapped his arms around her, being at her height on his knees. His embrace, despite the armor, was tight and warm. There was something familiar and incredibly comforting about it. When she hugged back tightly, it was only then that she realized that her father was crying on her shoulder.
Neither of them said a word, but accepted what was once lost was now regained. Today was a wonderful day.
•• ━━━━━ ••thyra•• ━━━━━ ••
The two arrived at the hangar in just a few hours.
"All right, now let's see what we can find..." Said Yrsa, floating off as if everything in this building was normal.
Thyra was in shock. Everything here... it looked like nothing she could've imagined. It was like something she'd find in Asgard... was she actually still dead, and she was in Valhalla now? She must've been quite the warrior in her past life, in 600 A.D.
"No, this isn't Valhalla." Yrsa's voice rang through the hangar. Thyra gasped, shocked.
"How did you..?"
"We can sense each other's emotions and I can read your surface thoughts." Yrsa explained airily as she searched for what Thyra assumed was a working ship. "When I resurrected you," She paused to look down at Thyra from the high-up place she was floating. "our consciousnesses linked." Thyra blinked, but understood smoothly, thankfully.
"I see..." Thyra trailed off as Yrsa began her hunt once more. After a few beats of silence and Thyra tugging on her collar awkwardly, a loud sound of the likes Thyra had never heard before, even in her past life, and Yrsa let out a joyful shout.
"This one is almost in perfect functioning order!" Yrsa exclaimed. "We must head to the Traveler immediately!" Thyra nodded.
"Right." With that syllable spoken, suddenly a very odd feeling overtook Thyra, as if she were painlessly being turned into noodles and she yelped, panicked and confused, before a blue flash covered her vision. It faded to reveal a futuristic interior, controls and bits she couldn't even begin to understand.
"What..?"
"This is the inside of the ship, Thyra." Yrsa appeared next to Thyra's head in a flash of blue light. "I just transmatted you. It's a weird feeling, but you'll get used to it." She nudged Thyra's arm, and she giggled.
"Whatever you say, little bot." The girl smiled, walking to the front of the ship, looking out the big window. "So, how do we... get out of this place?"
"Oh, don't you worry about that." Thyra could hear the smug smile in her voice, although she lacked one. "Just sit down in the cockpit and I'll take control." Thyra cocked her head to the side. "Uh... the cockpit is the front seat of a ship. This seat here." She motioned to the cockpit, and Thyra's lips formed an 'o'. She quickly took a seat on the cockpit, staring up at the window, anxious for what was to come.
The ship rose to life with a loud whir and lots of little blinking lights, along with even more words and numbers on the window above her, transparent, as if it were painted on with impossible accuracy yet able to move on its own. Was this some sort of special glass? Or was it special paint?
"These are holograms. Floating light particles that project... basically anything we want or need." Yrsa explained, reading Thyra's surface thoughts again. The young warlock found it very convenient.
"I see..." She trailed off for what felt like the seventh time that day.
"Alright, hang on tight, we're lifting off!"
Thyra's hands flew to the sides of the seat she was in when the ship lurched, shuddering with every loud snap! Thyra assumed it was whatever was holding the ship up. It hovered and slowly flew forward through the wide open entrance and sped away faster than Thyra was prepared for.
"Mother of Odin!" Thyra cried as the ship steadied out. "This is nothing like the flying ships I imagined." Yrsa giggled.
"Yeah, I can imagine." Turning to the tray of lights once again, she hummed before turning back to Thyra. "It should be a few hours. Get comfortable."
"All right..." Said Thyra, leaning back in her 'cockpit'.
•• ━━━━━ ••nymph-9•• ━━━━━ ••
"...That was a lot..."
"Yeah, just let me know if you have any questions."
"Um... I think I'm gonna be processing this all for a bit."
"Well, we'll have to get outta here soon. The storm's clearing up." Nike looked outside at the drops of sulfuric acid were letting up, turning into more of a harmless drizzle. "I can fabricate some armor for you using the surrounding materials, and you should be able to get by just fine that way. Gimme a sec."
Nymph-9 looked down at her body, seeing that she was dressed in what she must've died in- incredibly tattered clothes that almost looked like scrubs. Lots of her body was showing, including bits she'd like hidden. Covering her chest, embarrassed, she watched as her small bot wandered around the wrecked ship. She was blunt and moved quickly, but that was something Nymph liked in a partner. Though she felt as if she were just reborn, she already felt as if she really had a place here. It was a strangely refreshing feeling, feeling as if she were a clean slate. The rain, though as deadly as it was, was a calming noise that caused her to relax easily.
"Here." Came Nike's voice. That being the only warning, Nymph was suddenly clad with extra layers of cloth and metal, fashioned with a torn-up cloak complete with a wrap-around scarf and hood, as well as a knife. She now had a HUD, showing a health bar of sorts and a maybe a map on the top left corner? "Let's get out of here. This place is infested with Vex and all that nasty stuff. We need to get you to safety- say, the encampment beneath the Traveler?" Nymph nodded.
"If my job as a Risen is to protect humanity, then that might be a good place to start." Nymph replied. She clutched the metal around the destroyed exit of the ship. The rain was letting up, but it was still coming down as a little more than a drizzle. Nymph looked up at Nike, and it was like she read her mind.
"I'll be safe. I can deconstruct myself and insert myself into your mind. It's something we can do since we're bonded by the Light... it has to do with the fact that I'm the only Ghost who can resurrect you, as well." Nike explained quickly. Nymph, while she didn't understand it at its core, knew that Nike would be safe, and that was enough for her. With a nod, Nike disappeared in a flash of blue light.
"I'm still here." Nike's voice appeared in her head, like a thought, but it was unfamiliar, since she didn't generate it. She yelped and clutched her helmet-clad head, the foreign feeling making her slightly uncomfortable. "Sorry, you'll get used to that quick."
"Gotcha..." Nymph murmured. She looked down to see that the water beneath her was rough and choppy, the tide clearly past the point it usually was, beating against the sand dunes and boulders. The ship was crashed on a rocky shore, but it was wrecked in such a way that the cockpit hovered a bit above the shore, that being the only reason she was never washed away in a flash flood or a large wave. In that moment, she felt really lucky she wasn't at the bottom of the Venusian sea.
"You can still get out. That water is best avoided due to the rough current but you can survive it. As a Risen, you have enhanced physical capabilities along with the fact that I can resurrect you as many times as you die." Nike assured her. Nymph gulped and looked down again.
"The metal on the side is probably too wet for me to safely climb it..." Nymph looked at the boulders on the shore. They were just a few meters out of her reach.
"You know, you could make the jump to the boulder." Said Nike. Nymph's "eyebrows" furrowed. "You, as a Lightbearer, have the ability to double-jump. You can hop twice again after your first initial jump. Why don't you give it a try?" Nymph felt dazed suddenly from all she'd received.
"How do I do that?" Asked Nymph airily.
"You just... try to imagine yourself hitting solid ground, and make the motion to jump again." Nike explained. Nymph nodded. She tried to look on without fear, but to be honest, the choppy waves scared the hell out of her. The water looked as if it were trying to reach up at her, contain her for itself for her to rust at the bottom for eternity. She knew Nike had said that she could bring her back from death from what she'd explained, but she wasn't sure Nike could get her back from beneath the waves. With a gulp, she realized she didn't want to ask.
Well, nothing to do but brave it. She didn't know exactly how long she'd been sitting in that chamber rotting away, but she wasn't gonna do it for a moment longer.
When she leapt, it hadn't even felt like she'd done it at first.
"Jump again!" Nike's voice cried. When she came to her senses, she was already making the downward fall toward the cliff's edge.
She screamed in fear as she realized her arc would bring her to slam on the rocks. She would have a chance to catch herself, but it would hurt.
But... she was different now. She was "Risen". She could jump again. So, gritting her jaw, she did as her Ghost instructed her. A strange, tingling feeling like pins and needles resonated in her legs, and her feet, miraculously, met solid ground for just long enough for Nymph to propel herself desperately forward to the flat ground only meters before her.
She bounced as if she had landed on a trampoline, and her limbs flailed slightly as she was launched forward and hit the cliff's edge with her chest. She let out a cry of pain and clawed at the ground, preventing her fall into certain death. Some grass had rooted itself far enough to hold Nymph's weight, and she held onto it as it was her lifeline, and her legs searched relentlessly for at least semi-stable footholds.
Panting, time seemed to slow down again.
"Not so graceful, but that can be honed over time. Nice one, Nymph." Nike materialized next to Nymph's head, her presence comforting. Nymph took one final, deep inhale and exhaled quickly.
"...Thanks." She said, hoisting herself up with ease and swinging a leg onto solid land, standing up straight and tall. "So. Where to next?"
•• ━━━━━ ••saskia•• ━━━━━ ••
She had been outfitted with bulky armor, fitted to her small size and forged by the base's blacksmith. She was a Titan, like her father, of course.
She spent most of her days being trained by Lord Saladin, alongside her father, who was also his student. Many days, there were Fallen attacks and Saskia, her father, and Lord Saladin were among the only capable fighters in their camp, as they could come back after they'd died.
Strangely enough, no matter how many times Saskia chopped her massive curls off, they came back with every resurrection. Her father said it reminded him of her mother's, though she didn't know what she looked like.
One night, she caught fer father talking to his Ghost.
"Targe, can you message Safiyah from here?" He'd asked. Saskia's hand was hovering on the tent's entrance flap, about to turn in for the night when she heard her father speak an unfamiliar name. She hadn't explored or heard much about the outside world other than the general state of it, nor did she really have any desire to leave the base. But this... this interested her. It involved her father, so it involved her as well, right?
"Zavala, are you sure that's a good idea?" Asked Targe cautiously.
"She will want to know about her daughter's resurrection, will she not?" Saskia's eyes widened. Daughter? He's talking about her mother?
"But... with how she left..."
"Targe, enough. I have debated this long enough. She deserves to know." Her father shut his Ghost down in that no-nonsense voice of his. With a sigh, there were a few muted beeps.
"...This should be able to get to her." A pause.
"Safiyah... this is Zavala. I'm just... I know you don't want anything to do with me, but... this is in regards to our daughter. A few months ago, a Ghost came to the base, and resurrected her in her grave. She's... like me, now. She doesn't remember anything from before... before her death. What I'm trying to say is... I'm sure she would like to meet her mother. But if it's too much... I'll... understand."
"All right. Sent. Zavala... are you okay?"
Saskia's hand was shaking.
"Hey, Saskia. Are you okay?" Came Gemini's voice in her head. Saskia lowered her hand.
"I..." She thought back, "I need a moment to think."
"I saw a nice cliff on the topographic map around here that you haven't been to, yet." Gemini responded without missing a beat. Saskia felt a grateful flower bloom in her chest.
"Take me to it."
•• ━━━━━ ••
Saskia sat atop the cliff- she'd made sure to tell the night watch at the gate where she was going, but she was the only one who knew Saskia had left. he'd donned her armor and taken a rifle, of course, since she was going out into the wild, but she had also draped a large, furry cloak around her shoulders. It was a chilly night- they'd just celebrated Saskia's sixteenth birthday- and Saskia didn't see herself heading back to the tent anytime soon.
Climbing up the rocky terrain, the sparse trees made for a good view of the land. She wondered why the trio of Titans had never gone to this area- it didn't seem as if there were any Fallen nearby- though they could be sleeping.
There must have been a lot of complications that had come with her rebirth. A few weeks after that, Lord Saladin had sat her down and told her exactly what had happened in regards to her death. Normally, Risen weren't really supposed to pursue finding out what their past lives were, but Saskia didn't have much of it, and it was fairly recent. She at least deserved to know that.
Lord Saladin had told her that a Fallen captain had killed her and her brother, and once they were buried, their mother left. Zavala hadn't spoken a single word about it. Saskia, not having felt any connection to her past life, felt as if she were an awkward, out-of-place piece of a puzzle that seemed to have already been set before she was born. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to meet her mother. If she had left Zavala in clearly his greatest time of need, what kind of person could she expect her mother to be? Emotionally absent, like her father?
Saskia had reached the peak. She stood at the very edge, looking down at the ground a few hundred meters below. The height gave her a short rush of adrenaline, the liberating feeling blooming into a peaceful buzz. She plopped down on the ground, staring up at the massive, clawed full moon that stared back down at her.
Though she was very much above average stature for a teenaged Awoken girl, the moon and the cliff made her feel very small. Strangely enough, it was a comforting feeling for Saskia.
"What's on your mind, Saskia?" Asked Gemini, materializing beside her. Saskia leaned back on her hands with a sigh.
"This is... so much." Saskia found those to be the first words her brain could make into sense. "I don't think I want to be around a bunch of emotionally absent people." Gemini let out a chuckle.
"Well, that's usually hard for emotionally intelligent people." Gemini said, inserting a compliment into his phrase, causing Saskia to let out a ghost of a smile. "It's going to be hard, but maybe you need to talk to your father- or maybe both of your parents, if Safiyah comes. You'll know how to knock some sense into them." Saskia hissed a sigh.
"I'd rather not be put in that situation at all." Her voice only had a touch of a whine. "This feels so... awkward. I don't know these people, and yet, they have so many emotions surrounding me. I want to love them back, but they'll just be..." Saskia looked down at her hands, which quivered with frustration.
"...Difficult?" Gemini filled in. Saskia dropped her hands with a sigh and nodded. "I'd say... maybe at some point, you should set off and go on your own." Saskia's head jerked up to meet her Ghost's big blue eye. "Hey- I know, it's a wild idea. But if you want to escape all these feelings and let your parents heal on their own, then going off on your own might be the best option for you."
"But... I don't think I could do that to my father." Saskia muttered. "It'd be like losing me again."
"And he'll have to learn how to let you go knowing you'll come back." Gemini responded. "It's all a part of the healing process, and the healing process is painful as shit. Risen aren't used to healing, since Ghosts can make injuries disappear in the blink of an eye. But we can't heal mental pain. That, they have to heal on their own. And being around someone with mental pain will bring you mental pain of your own. You'll start feeling guilty for dying and causing your parents pain and all that..." Saskia blinked.
"You're wise." Was all she could say. Gemini laughed.
"I guess your emotional intelligence rubbed off on me." He admitted. Saskia chuckled, but sobered quickly.
"You have truth in your words..." She murmured. "Perhaps I will, if my mother comes. I shall decide then."
"Sounds good." Gemini said. "And remember, I'm always here for you." Saskia gave him a smile.
"Thanks, Gem."
•• ━━━━━ ••thyra•• ━━━━━ ••
It was smooth sailing for a while.
There was a massive window above the cockpit, giving the warlock a view she was sure was more amazing than she had ever seen in her past life. The clouds stretched beneath her, and beneath that, the glittering blue ocean. It was like it was a vista she was meant to see ever since she was born.
"Thyra, buckle in real quick, turbulence incoming." Yrsa said, hovering behind the ginger. Thyra only strengthened her stance and her ice blue eyes darted around, searching for what in the world could possibly be causing the turbulence. She blinked, her thoughts halted, when Yrsa's chuckle rang through the ship, right before the ship lurched, causing Thyra to stumble into the glass. Yrsa's chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh.
In Thyra's position smushed against the glass, she started chuckling. Pushing herself off, she fell backward into the cockpit, another lurch destabilizing her footing, and buckled herself in quickly, the seat belt saving her just in time from being flung sideways out of the seat.
"We're nearing the South American coast." Yrsa told her. "Due in a few minutes. We'll find a safe place to land from there- we definitely don't want to be in the Amazon rainforest. I don't even wanna know what's been boiling there..." Her shell shuddered. Thyra looked up at her, a confused look spread across her face, more questions forming in her head. She decided to ask the most burning one.
"What caused the... 'turbulence', you say?" Thyra asked her. "That was a mighty lurch." Yrsa looked down at her companion.
"It's just patterns in the wind current. You know those gusts of wind you feel sometimes when you're on the ground? It's constant up here. Kind of like water currents." Yrsa explained loosely. Thyra nodded slowly, her focus on her conversation with her Ghost fading when she noticed a bit of green on the horizon. Instantly, she was out of her seat again, ogling at the view. Yrsa let out a chuckle. Thyra was kind of like a puppy.
The South American forests were lush and beautiful, the eco-brutalism fascinating Thyra to no end. As her Ghost, Yrsa could hear Thyra's mind working like a slight buzzing in the back of her own mind. It was beautiful, the Risen bond, being fully engrossed in each other's mental beings.
All of that wondrousness cracked as soon as they made it to the mountains.
"What's going on!?" Thyra's distressed voice rang over the blaring, broken, glitchy old alarms, her arms tightly pressed against her ears, confusion and fear raging within her.
"I- I don't know! We were shot!" Exclaimed Yrsa. She flew over to the console as the ship flipped and turned enough to make Thyra lose her footing.
"Aah!" She shouted as she entirely left the floor, a deep feeling of vertigo placing itself in her stomach for a moment at the sight of seeing the floor so far below her- but only for a moment, as the next she had slammed into the ceiling of the ship- barely able to let out a grunt, she was sent toward the windshield of the ship. She landed with a loud 'oof!', her limbs sprawled, and while the glass cracked like a web, she didn't break it. Thankfully, however, her body seemed to remain there. She raised her knees slowly and cautiously, trying to steady her position.
Yrsa looked up suddenly at the ginger's sudden impact, gasping at the pained grimace on her Risen's face.
"Th- the damages are too severe, this ship is too old! Even a stray bullet would knock this thing down! Oh, what do we do, we're a hundred meters away from the ground!" Yrsa rambled. Thyra wanted to respond, but every time the ship turned a certain way, the glass behind her would crack a little more, stopping her words in her throat.
"U- uh, would abandoning ship possibly be an option?" Thyra asked nervously, finally getting the courage to speak through the cracks. "There is no shame in retreat... and I think we may not have a ch- choice in the matter soon-" Before Yrsa could ask what she meant, Thyra's ice blue eyes widened, all color draining from her face, when a particularly loud crack was heard even through the alarms.
A second more of eye contact and the both of them suddenly flew out, the glass finally breaking under the pressure and speed.
The image of the ship grew father and father away so quickly that fear rose in Thyra at the same speed. It felt as if she could barely breathe, and looking around, she noticed that the ground was getting very close very fast.
"Thyra! You have to jump!" Thyra heard Yrsa's voice coming from within her.
"What!?" She replied out loud, not even able to hear her own voice.
"In order to save yourself, you have to jump again! As a Risen, you have the ability to glide!" Yrsa shouted, just loud enough for her to hear the bot over the rushing winds.
"O... okay!" Thyra shouted. The trees and mountains were getting steadily closer. Thyra's already quick breathing increased and seeing no other option, she jumped.
•• ━━━━━ ••
Everything stopped. Or at least, time slowed down for the shocked Risen. Her robes billowing out like wings against the gentle wind, Thyra glided gently the rest of the way to safe ground.
"Nice, Thyra! I'm so proud of you!" Yrsa said excitedly, appearing at Thyra's shoulder. The wide-eyed human only stared for a moment, processing her situation. Looking down at the ground that came much slower than it had before, her thin lips slowly spread into a grin, a breathless chuckle escaping her throat. Yrsa studied her Risen's expression as it turned into a full-blown laugh.
"That was... that was..." Thyra said airily, her shoes tapping the slightly slanted ground, leaning against a tall beech tree, heaving breaths. Her chest tingled, the feeling spreading to her stomach, her hands and fingers and legs. Her knees buckled at the feeling of adrenaline wearing off and her back leaned against the bark.
"Awesome?" Yrsa finished for her, causing Thyra to look up at her, her grin returned. She nodded quickly.
"...Yeah."
"I think they landed over here."
"Yeah, I saw them, they glided over there somewhere."
Fear gripped Yrsa and Thyra.
'These are the assholes that shot us down!' Yrsa's voice came from within her. Thyra's relaxed state was long gone, her muscles tensed, on her feet, a hand on the ruined, rusted sword that was once on her back. Thyra opened her mouth, but Yrsa appeared on front of her face. 'Don't speak out loud! Speak in your mind, and I'll hear you. But for now- run! Be quiet!' Thyra closed her mouth and nodded, dashing away quickly and quietly as the voices grew closer.
To her immense fear, she realized she had absolutely zero experience with being stealthy and cracked a twig not two steps away from the tree.
'Shit.' Chorused both Yrsa and Thyra's thoughts.
"Over there!"
"What was that?"
"That was the Risen!"
Thyra turned, nearly paralyzed, at the source of the voices, and noticed three tall figures, wearing some sort of knight-like suits of armor, massive hammers on their shoulders. With only the thought of not wanting to feel the bottom end of those hammers, Thyra fled, sprinting as fast as she could.
"There!"
"They're running for it!"
Despite their large suits of armor, they had no problem running. Everything in Thyra was screaming at her to turn around and fight, even if she was at a severe disadvantage. The only weapon she had was in no shape to use- and Thyra desperately wanted to keep the familiar blade- and she had next to no protection on her body. Still, a roaring voice within her, though insurmountably unreasonable, somehow had the power to veto her flight response.
Fire in her eyes, she turned and faced her pursuers.
'Thyra, what are you doing!?' Her Ghost screamed in her mind, overcoming the crowd that screamed for battle. She didn't respond.
"There she is!" The one in the front shouted, seemingly a man. It sounded as if his voice was... garbled, somehow.
"I got 'er!" Shouted a female voice, running ahead, hammer in hand, rushing at Thyra.
The Warlock's eyes were wide. As if out of instinct and muscle memory, she swung the sword in her hand. What she expected was for the sword to shatter into a trillion pieces. A bright light nearly blinded her instead, and an explosion blew her back.
•• ━━━━━ ••
hi everyone! sorry if it was a bit long, lemme know what the general good word count is for a story in the reviews. personally, i prefer longer chapters, but i'm not majority. i'll try and keep it around 6k-9k words but... no promises :)
i'm not entirely sure how often this will update considering my senior year of high school (EEEEEEEEE) is starting v soon and i'm going on a trip to boston soon. but it's likely i'll be able to update frequently, i got my phone as well as my laptop so no issues here!
n e ways, see y'all in the next chapter ;)
-caelesti
•• ━━━━━ ••
