Hey guys! Got a new story for you. This one was inspired by a sketch I did a while ago combined with REALLY wanting to write a story about a Guardian living amongst the Fallen. I know the intro isn't much (I started writing in the middle of the story for some reason) but chapters are coming, and soon. Hopefully. This is kinda just so i know to keep working on it. Anyways, i hope you enjoy!

Part 1: Prologue

Thousands of Ghosts have found their Guardians. Thousands and Warriors of Light have arisen and lived their stories, of love and death, honor and betrayal, last stands and long life. In the early days of the City new Lightbearers came in droves, dozens a year, eager to serve a higher purpose. Those were the days of hope, and of invincibility.

But over time that flow became a trickle, and disaster upon disaster overcame the standing Guardians. Six Fronts showed that they could die for good. The Faction Wars cemented that knowledge across the stars. Twilight Gap ended half of that grand force. And then thousands fell under Crota's blade in the ill-fated assault on the Hellmouth. More died during the Red War, proud warriors brought low by a simple cage. And all during that time more and more succumbed to the Darkness' call, becoming Dredgens and murdering their fellow Lightbearers.

Of six Towers, only One remained, battered and bruised.

Needless to say, the dwindling influx of new Guardians fell far short of even meeting half of those losses. In the early days the Vanguard had regular training programs for new recruits, with a steady cadre of veteran Guardians and civilian defense soldiers rotating in and out to handle the masses of New Lights. But now? The City is lucky to see five new Guardians in a year.

And then the Pyramids came. The City's warlocks bemoaned the presence of the Darkness, and warned the Vanguard that they could expect no more new Guardians to show to the City. Yet another brick to add to Zavala's shoulders. Yet another problem to haunt Ikora's dreams at night.

But they were proven wrong. The Warlocks forgot that the darker the Night is, the brighter Light will shine. All over the planets, determined ghosts suddenly became hyper-aware of Sparks lying hidden across what remained of the system. Many ghosts found Sparks that they would have never discovered before if it weren't for the Darkness' presence. And so the Traveler raised a new generation of its defenders in its hour of need. And a little hope was given to the lone Tower on that mighty Wall.

This is the story of one of those New Lights.

/

Part 2: Wilderness

The first thing the Awoken saw was snow. Solid white in all directions, making every rock and pine tree look like a snow sculpture in the dim twilight of a clear northern night. The second thing she saw as she laid on her back was the dancing green and blue rays of strange light floating far above her, twisting and turning this way and that. It took her breath away, the beauty and marvel of it all. So much so she didn't notice the little robot/ball thing next to her until it bonked itself onto her ear.

"Guardian! Sit up! Oh, I'm sorry! Did that hurt?"

The graceful woman sat up and blinked. She had a large shock of crazy deep blue hair going off to the side with bangs on the front, wide and curious glowing white eyes, and a skintone that was like a light violet tinged with pink. "No, I… no. Was it supposed to?" She looked at the beaming ghost next to her. "Oh! You're cute. What are you?"

The little thing perked up and its eye formed a little upward arrow of happiness. "I'm your ghost! A child of the Light whose sole purpose is to wake you and help you to defend the last of humanity!"

The woman stared at him blankly for a second. "Uh… ok! Sounds… wonderful. You have a name?"

"Nope! You may name me how you see fit!"

"Ok. How 'bout Rebecca?"

The ghost froze, his unbounded excitement suddenly dampened with a flash of horror. "O-ok! I would like to point out I'm more of a… a male… ghost. But if that's what you want! I guess-"

The Guardian started laughing. "Oh, you're too easy! Do you have any ideas?"

"Well, I uh-" a burst of wind suddenly came scything across the dim snowy ground, penetrating both ghost and Guardian and forcing both to involuntarily shiver. "How about I get you to some shelter where we can finish this conversation?"

The woman clutched the meager robe she had on close to her as her teeth started chattering from the bitter onslaught. "S-s-s-ounds go-o-o-o-od!"

The ghost popped up a bit and took a quick geological scan. "Ok, there seems to be a hollow about a couple hundred yards this way, hidden in a stand of trees. We'll take shelter there for the rest of the night and set out for warmer climates in the morning."

It took the Guardian a little bit to get used to walking. The increasingly intense shivering didn't help. But her ghost did, keeping up a steady stream of chatter as he explained anything she asked about (to the best of his ability). By the time they had finally found ghost's 'shelter' however, the woman was starting to believe she was going to freeze solid from the wind.

The shelter itself was a small snow-filled hollow directly beneath a massive fir tree, providing just enough space for an adult human to sit in shelter from the scything gusts. The Guardian quickly tumbled into the space and hugged her knees to her chest, desperately trying to get warmth back into her limbs and her skin. To get her mind off of her toes and fingers, she started to try to understand what was going on. To her horror, she couldn't remember who she was, or what her name was. She really couldn't remember much of anything, to be honest. And that lack of base knowledge was frightening.

"Uh, g-g-host? W-w-w-hat's m-m-y n-name?"

The little thing gave his version of a shrug. "I don't know. Guardians are awoken with no memory of their past lives. Which means you can give yourself one!"

The woman suddenly looked forlorn. "B-but I d-d-don't w-want to! I c-c-can't n-n-ame myself! There's t-t-oo many op-p-ptions! W-w-wow I'm-m st-t-t-tuttering a lot-t-t."

"Well, just think about it for a bit. The sun isn't scheduled to rise for another couple hours." He softly floated over and settled on her shoulder with a happy sigh. His weight felt strange and out of place to her, but she welcomed the little bit of warmth the gesture offered. "I finally have a Guardian! I can't believe it. You don't know how long I've been looking for you."

Her shivering started toning down as the snow (strangely enough) became her main insulating layer, reflecting what little heat she was giving out back at her off of its smooth surface. As the two of them sat huddled in the little covered divot, staring at the night sky through the gaps in the branches, the colorful waves of light dancing above them once again caught her eye.

"Ghost?" she whispered. His mechanical eye popped open and glanced at her.

"Yes, Guardian?"

"W-what're those? How do they w-work?"

He looked up and caught sight of the waving green and blue lights. "Oh that? Those are called the Northern Lights. Aurora Polaris is the scientific name, if I remember correctly. It's basically certain gasses in the atmosphere getting pushed around by solar wind and ionizing when they hit the mesosphere to create light. Why?"

She just kept staring up dreamily, the beauty soothing away fear and cold with calm facination. "I like that. Aurora Polaris. Say!" She glanced at him, her eyes bright. "How do you like Polaris as a name?"

He was saying something at the exactly same time. "How do you like Aurora as a name?"

They looked at each other for another second or two before nodding.

"Yeah, actually"

"Yep. I like it."

She grinned. "Well, now that we both have actual names, we can properly introduce each other now. Polaris, nice to meet you, I'm Aurora."

The ghost popped off of her shoulder and did an overly theatrical bow at her. "Ghost Polaris, at your service."

"My, aren't you formal."

/

They began traveling roughly south that morning. Polaris said that they were in the far north of a continent called Europe, roughly where old Norway used to be, and that he was doing his best to guide her toward the lowlands of old Denmark. Aurora had no idea what that any of that meant, but she was eager to learn as they trudged through the snow.

And as they walked, Polaris became more and more convinced that his Guardian was a warlock. Her curiosity was insatiable, constantly asking intelligent questions about their environment, nature, the Traveler, history, anything. And to be honest, he didn't mind. It just let him talk to his Guardian more!

As it turned out though, the first day was the easiest day. The next morning was when hunger really started hitting Aurora's ravished body, steadily slowing her down as they trudged through the beautiful and harsh landscape. Polaris was unable to find any sort of food, not even animals, for his Guardian. So he did his best to ease the stomach cramps she was having, and they doggedly kept on, putting another 20+ miles behind them.

Then Aurora died that night. Froze to death while she was sleeping. Polaris rezzed her in the morning and began apologizing profusely: the awoken was quick to brush it off and get back to walking. So they soldiered on some more, their pace starting off strong then slowing as the rush of the Rez slowly wore off and the hunger and cold returned.

This marked the beginning of a torturous cycle: Aurora would consistently freeze to death almost every night, then get rezzed in the morning and stoically attempt to shrug it off with a grin- pushing on South through snow or shine. She never questioned her ghost's guidance or complained: silently trying to ignore the shadow of her inevitable death again that night. She just fought it off with questions and jokes as she walked, trying her best to use the countless hours to at least learn something.

Polaris, however, wasn't taking the situation too well. Newly-bonded ghosts are normally rather sensitive to their new Guardian's Spark, but Polaris was in a special case. When the Pyramids arrived in the system, unbounded ghosts had become hyper-aware of Light- Sparks in particular- as if the contrast of such deep evil everywhere made even dim Sparks shine like beacons. This led to the fact that every time Aurora died, Polaris could feel it. Not physically, per say, but whenever his Guardian's life was snuffed by the cold or by hunger his own Spark seemingly wept in response, and it was a feeling he was distinctly unused to. And completely unaware of how to handle.

And the torturous part was that Aurora noticed and tried to comfort him. He was the one who was failing her. Failing to find proper enough shelter. Failing to locate any source of nutrition. But she went out of her way to make sure he felt comfortable. It made him both incredibly proud and cripplingly ashamed.

This went on for two weeks. Two weeks before ghost and Guardian finally got a break. It was starting to get dark on day 15 when Polaris made his usual scan for a good place to shelter for the night and something pinged. It took him a second to recognize what he had just picked up.

"Aurora!"

She was shivering again, the thin body suit Polaris had constructed for her doing little against the cold despite the additions the two of them had added. "Y-y-yeah?"

Polaris was almost dancing with glee. "I'm picking up the remains of an old trading post about two miles to our west! We might be able to even find a blanket or something for you! Plus, it should give us a road that'll lead to more buildings on our way South!"

Aurora wasn't listening, her mind locked onto one thing. "Y-y-you think it will have f-f-f-ood?"

Her ghost shrugged, running a few more scans of the surrounding area. "I dunno. Maybe? Best not to get your hopes too high, but it is fully possible we'll be able to scavenge something. Let's get going. Maybe we'll be able to get there in an hour."

Fueled by the promise of shelter and possible sustenance, Aurora covered those two miles as fast as her weakened body could make it. And roughly an hour and a half later- in the pitch dark- they found the small settlement. Polaris immediately guided her to the most intact building and let her collapse into a corner to sleep, promising to wake her if he found anything. With that reassurance, she immediately fell into a deep sleep.

Polaris floated outside and took a more comprehensive scan of the town. He sighed. It was made up of 26 buildings in varying stages of disrepair or destruction. The town had obviously been raided by Fallen at some point, completely cleared of humans and picked clean of salvage. No matter, even a simple piece of cloth held immense value to his Guardian. Plus, he was a ghost. He could find many things that stupid Fallen would have missed. So, with a dogged determination, he began methodically searching every dilapidated building, car, or pile of rubble in the town.

He was on pile number seventeen when he found it. A large piece of thick cloth, hung on the side of the largest building in town, dirty, ragged, but a piece of cloth no less. He hurriedly phased it into himself and zipped back to his Guardian's slumbering spot, gently re-phasing it on top of her to form an almost perfect blanket. To his intense happiness, the awoken immediately started snuggling under the cloth as she slept, a soft smile appearing on her face as she began to feel warmth for the first time in weeks.

With renewed determination, the ghost zoomed back to his search, flashlight indiscriminately swinging left and right as he burrowed through the remaining buildings for anything else they could use. He did this for about another hour, determined to find his Guardian some sort of food. He hit the jackpot when he phased into the basement of a cottage that had collapsed onto itself: three jars of sealed pemmican, probably a couple decades old but still good. He quickly transmitted them into his on-board data storage and zipped back to Aurora's hiding place.

He could barely contain his excitement. "Guardian! Psst! Guardian! I found food!"

At the mention of that last word Aurora bolted up and glanced around wildly, blinking fiercely in the bright light of her ghost's eye in the stark blackness. "Food?! Where!?"

Polaris proudly transmatted the three 1-quart jars onto the ground. "There! Three jars of something called Pemmican! My scans show that despite the age, the stuff in there is still good and highly nutritious!"

Aurora wrenched the lid off of one jar and stuffed her mouth with the paste, a moan of pure delight at the taste. "Mrpfh! MMRPFPH! Dith ith rrrly good! Wha yer say itths name wath again?"

The ghost was so happy he could barely float still. "Pemmican! It's an ancient recipe of dried meat, tallow, and dried berries, mixed with spices, that originated from the indigenous Americans. If properly made and stored, it can last for an EXTREMELY long time, all while maintaining its high nutritional concentration! However, I would suggest you only eat a handful or two of the stuff, since this is all we have to go on."

Aurora nodded, her mouth still full. She took another small scoop of the paste out and closed the jar again, holding it out for Polaris to transmat back into storage, which he was quick to do. She ate in silence for a little bit more, enjoying the feeling of her stomach no longer clawing at her insides.

It wasn't until she settled back in for the rest of the night that she noticed the rough cloth that she was using as a blanket. "Polaris? Where did this come from?"

The poor thing was beginning to sound a bit exhausted himself, having stayed awake for almost 24 hours straight. "I found it hanging on the side of the church out there. Cleaned it up a bit and covered you up before I went out to find food for you."

"Oh." She tucked the edges in on herself and sighed blissfully as her body heat started warming up her self-made cocoon. "Well it's definitely warm." She smiled at him and untucked her arms. "Wanna come in?"

He gave a little squeak of happiness and dove into her hands, shutting off his flashlight as Aurora re-tucked the disturbance in the wrap, plunging the room once again into comforting darkness.

"Polaris?" she murmured. She could feel his pointy shell shift a bit in her hands as he adjusted himself for a shut-down. Due to the layers his voice was muffled, but still understandable.

"Yes Guardian?"

"Thanks for being such an awesome ghost."

He just beamed in response as the two of them feel asleep. And as Aurora passed into the land of dreams, she fancied that she could almost see her ghost's joy as a ball of Light shining in her hands, intertwining in harmony with her own.

/

Aurora woke first, feeling incredibly chipper and more hopeful than she had been in for a while. Soft grey light of the mid-day sun was glowing on the floor nearby, showing that she had slept in a bit late. She glanced down. Polaris was still snoozing away in her hands, his little eye turned off but contentment leaking out of his shell. She petted him a bit before gently placing him in her pocket and standing up.

She groaned as she stretched herself out. "Ok, Aurora, let's see. We can either strike out South again or hang here for another day or so to rest up. Maybe see if we can gather some more supplies." She nodded to herself. "Yeah. I like that plan. Take a break from walking in the snow."

Having made her decision, she carefully folded up the large blanket Polaris had found for her and wrapped it around herself as best she could. In the dim light she could see that the blanket had a weird pattern on it. Maybe it was a mark of some sort. Pushing those questions aside in her head, she made her way toward the outside.

It was actually a bit of a climb. She hadn't noticed it last night, but Polaris had guided her into what seemed an under-ground parlor of some sort, and she didn't remember which ruined hallway lead to the outside. She didn't mind- the building actually looked fun to explore, and she had all day. But as she wondered around, some noises came from outside. It sounded almost like children's laughter, but… wrong somehow. Curious, she headed toward the noises and saw the front door of the building- the noises were coming from beyond the door. So she opened it and took a step outside, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun on the snow.

Stunned silence descended. After blinking away the bright spots, she looked around and froze.

Before her were easily two dozen four-armed and four-eyed beings, all staring at her with fanged mouths agape. There where what looked like only five adults- all lounging in the center of the yard- two scraggly beings missing a pair of their arms, two medium height adults, and one broad-shouldered individual toting a wicked-looking long gun. The rest of the… aliens, she guessed, (all children) were scattered all over the courtyard, hanging off of beams, perched on crumbling walls, or crouched around little wooden objects in the clear spaces.

At least she hoped they were children.

The aliens stared at her. She stared at them. Aurora was wondering who was going to move first when she felt wiggling in her pocket. And before she could whisper anything Polaris popped into existence over her shoulder with a completely oblivious and alarmingly loud "Good morning, Guardian!"

Pandemonium ensued.