Hey everyone.
I didn't think I'd ever do that. I promised myself that I'd never abandon a story and always see it through. That it has to hit Hiraeth is particularly hard, since I had so much planned for Nicole and Ghost... and who knows, maybe you'd have enjoyed some of it. Was pretty close to the end of the second book, too. Only four or so more chapters.
But I can't.
That hurts. It really does, but I'm getting my heart broken just thinking about writing it. Why? That's personal, I am sorry. Hope you understand.
So here's the rest of my outline. For closure, I suppose.
Book 2:
Nicole doesn't name the other Ghosts in the Daily Revive, but as the days there pass, she begins to buy them stickers and sticks them on them to be able to tell them apart. Since they are all wearing their Traveler given shells. On one particular evening, Ghost and she argue about how absolutely mad these Guardians are, especially John - because yesterday evening Ghost and her watched a Crucible match. The first one Nicole has ever seen and she's still shaking. They fight each other?! Why. What. That is so stupid. And so on and so on.
Still arguing, they take a trip to the Speaker after that. To a meeting she has. This is where she meets Zavala for the first time. Her impression of him is a positive one, even though she's a bit intimidated. They are introduced, and then Nicole is left with the Speaker to exchange notes. She's been writing down her dreams and the Speaker tries to help her understand them. She's also been trying to draw them, and she's horrible at it, but there IS one of a giant hand reaching for her that the Speaker is particularly interested in and... also seems worried about. That, in turn, worries her, but then she changes the subject to ask why everyone calls John Young Wolf. She gets a bit more story about him.
Then she walks home. The little plant in her flat has started to poke out of the earth.
After that, more training! Some with Joh. Some with Ikora. Ikora helps her make sense of the emotional connection she has to her Light. It doesn't ever work out super well, but she's beginning to get a better handle on the anxiety summoned Void Light at least. Solar and Arc are no good. She dies once more when she tries to summon a spark of Arc. The vision she endures during her death once again lasts for hours far as she is concerned, even if she was only dead for a few seconds.
The little plant now is a sprout. She still doesn't know what it is.
Life at the Revive is nice. The Ghosts there make waves - and she slowly begins to, too. People cannot really not notice a Guardian for too long who keeps the company of many Ghosts like she does and rumours begin to start. Guardians also try and talk to her more. Some about her. Some about the Young Wolf. There's a particular moment when a woman teases her about the good looking Young Wolf and Nicole being taken aback by that. "I guess?" Nicole is demi-ace, and she's just not looked at him like that. After that, she pays a bit more attention, and yeah, they weren't wrong and Nicole gets a wee bit more awkward and Ghost a wee bit more entertained.
Then, one evening, she, Ghost, and Felicia are headed to a private Ghost theatre production. See, Ghost figured out one thing that she missed (literally). The MCU End Game. And so he dug up old records, asked Felicia for help, and Nicole gets a private show of small Ghosts as Avengers kicking Thanos butt. It's great. She loves it. She gets so giddy, Ghost has to nudge her to chill out a little because she begins to build up an Arc charge. She can control it. She doesn't die.
It's a great evening.
Felicia accompanies her and Ghost towards home after that, eager to talk about the production cause it was ALL HER PLANNING. They's so engrossed in this, they don't notice the shadow rushing up to them; a large, torn figure, darkness bleeding off it in tatters and a chilling scent of rotten mud surrounding it. It's taller than any man, wider than any man, and it attacks them. As it lunges, the Ghosts wobble in the air. Nicole is barely able to catch Ghost, but Felicia was too far away. As Felicia hits the ground, the creature slams its hand/claw down on her.
Then it leaps for Nicole, who blinks herself and Ghost out across the roofs. The creature chases them. She runs. She blinks, and it keeps chasing her, until the racket gets the attention of Guardians who drive it off.
This was the creature that's been killing Guardians - sucking the Light out of them and their Ghosts as it gets near, making them good as defenceless. But whatever it did, it did not work on Nicole.
But Felicia is dead.
Devastated - and scared more than ever now - Nicole withdraws. It takes John to come by one day for her to step out of the flat again. She doesn't feel safe in the City anymore, and so John offers to take her out of it. Not just out though. Far far away. Up into space.
The plant in her pot has now grown further. She can guess what it is; a gladiolus.
SHE SEES SPACE
IT'S AMAZING
SHE'S VERY SCARED - but it's amazing. During the flight, John and her share their first mutual romantic moment. It's not much. But there's definitely something now. Ghost is delighted. And maybe jealous.
The gladiolus grows a little more. She gets to see space again. She gets to see VENUS. And she tries again. Makes a little memorial for Felicia in the Revive, and dedicates a drink to her. She even goes on a mission, raiding an old seed bank on Earth and bringing back old seeds.
Then, one day, John come by again. They flirt. They almost kiss.
And the Cabal attack.
Book 3: The Red War
The City falls, and the Cabal come for the Speaker.
The Speakers. A squad attacks the Revive, and John and the other Guardians there fight them off - until their Light is taken from them. Everyone's but Nicole's. Ghost is affected, but she isn't. The Guardians die. John is wounded - and yet hauls Nicole through the streets and to the hangar. It doesn't end well. His wounds are fatal. He gets them into a ship, gets them off the ground, they are shot down, crash outside the City, and Nicole is forced to watch over him as he dies. He hands her Darrow and asks for Darrow to look after her before he passes.
The rest of the story follows Nicole as she takes up the mantle of the player character in the Red War Campaign - except she doesn't do a lot of that stuff alone.
She still goes to the EDZ, following the vision. But unlike in the game, there's a whole Eliksni settlement there where the shard is (a small one, granted), and she and Ghost and Darrow need to sneak through. What she hopes to do is to rekindle Darrow's Light, so they can bring back John, but that doesn't quite work out. It's her who the Light floods into. And in extension, her Ghost, who is once again back to full working order.
And this time, the Light comes with instructions - and something else. She's overwhelmed with a fire burning in her and knows, instinctively, how to use a Dawnblade. But more so, she can tell there is something else in her. Something much darker. (I always wondered why nothing was done with the whole story of the shard being cast off from the Traveler cause it was infused with Darkness? Well, Nicole got Darkness powers now, though it'll be a while before they manifest).
She's able to fend off a wave of Eliksni, exhausting herself (and terrifying herself), until they stop attacking and simply let her leave.
Now she's killed. She's not fine.
But she's determined. Not because the world is at stake; she cannot make sense of stakes that high. But because someone she loves is dead and she can change that. She then realises that, yeah, she'd fallen in love with John.
After that, it's mostly Darrow planning, Ghost executing, and other Lightless (Guardians or not), pulling a lot of the weight since Nicole doesn't have the combat experience necessary. Her true goal gets put in front of her when she meets Asher though - him and Darrow figure out that they need to get Nicole to the Traveler. And with her Light, which is the Traveler's Light, can awaken it.
Ghost does some amazing shit in this book, btw. From hacking/possessing frames and combat bots to dropping shit on Cabal. And Nicole befriends Eliksni! A group from the shard, who saw her get hit by the Light and were the ones to stop attacking her, track her down and help with the attack against the Cabal.
And all through that, something dark grows in her.
But it's kept in check by a deep-rooted love she has for Ghost, one that's grown over the course of book 2.
Eventually, the attack on the City succeeds and the plan works; Nicole's presence and Darrow's plan reignites the Traveler - and rips Nicole apart in Light in the process. That part was unintentional.
BUT SHE'S FINE! She's given a choice by the Traveler: Find peace. Or return?
She chooses to return.
When she wakes up. Ghost is there. Like he always is and always will be.
So is John. Darrow zipped off to find him and bring him back.
In the epilogue, the Revive is being rebuilt. Nicole finds her powers come more easily to her now and she even "resurrects" the poor neglected gladiolus. And there might be a kiss.
Book 4: Wanted Man
For this one, I hadn't outlined things in great detail yet since there was a lot of time left before I got there. The gist of it?
We find out who the monster who was hunting Guardians is. Because one day, Nicole and John are alone, with their Ghosts off giving them some privacy, when Darrow suddenly drops cold and lifeless to the ground ~ and when Ghost rushes back to his Guardian, finds John attacking her.
With her newly honed control of her Light Light, Nicole is able to burn the Darkness wrapped around him away for long enough to give him clarity for long enough to get a grip on himself. He flees, Guardians on his heels, not knowing who they are actually chasing.
For the rest of the book, Nicole and Ghost first spend finding him and Darrow and then avoiding other Guardians (fighting other Guardians who are after some vengeance), and Nicole finally realising why she's here. She's not here for the Traveler. That was just a bonus. She's here to shake those chains off John.
Together, they figure out who'd done this to him (I hadn't named the big bad yet, my bad), and free John of their influence. Once again with a lot of Ghost being absolutely fantastic and brave and probably almost dying like a hundred times.
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY: At the end of this book, Nicole names Ghost. She names him NG.
"... Enngee?" he'll ask.
"Short for neach-gleidhidh."
Which, in Gaelic, means Guardian.
And yeah. That's it.
I'm sorry again, everyone.
-Taff