The next day.
"Everyone Get Clear!" A titan yells as he brings up his ward of Dawn. five other guardians come rushing in to get clear of the denotation. Four orbs of corrupted light detonate blasting the Giant form of the Taken King.
"He's stunned! Let em have it!" Lawrence orders his raid team and they all fire upon the king's heart.
"Rahhh! You Pests!" The giant raises his fists and reaches out at the Guardians. Five of the team duck away but the one hunter is grabbed.
"Shit! Kevin!" Lawrence yells firing at the king.
"I will crush you all like Vermin!" Oryx yells and Crushes the Hunter in his hand...Extinguishing his light.
"NOOOO!"
"WAKE UP!" Holo yelled. Shaking the Guardian awake and gasping for air. After regaining his composure he takes a drink from his water canteen. "Ghost, I thought I told you to wake me up."
The AI rotate its body. "Sorry, but you wouldn't wake up..another one of those nights I take it?" the Hunter nods. "What was it?" Holo asked.
"Nothing, Just a dream.." Lawrence then gets up and Stretches. It was morning in the EDZ, about a quarter after ten. He then looks to Holo who was staring at him. "What?"
She then looks away. "Nothing, at least you're awake now. So what's the plan?"
Lawrence remembers that she wanted to join his adventures. Terms of what she could join would be needed to be discussed later. "Normally I would call up my ship and fly out but the model is one seater. But luckily enough I came here with a sparrow capable of having a passenger." he walks over the sparrow and takes the pack out of it.
"But first." he opens his palms and a spare cloak appears from his inventory and hands it the Holo. "
You don't have anything else for me to wear?" She said eyeing the cloak. "Sorry, We will stop at a place to get you some proper clothes before entering the city. Just bear with it for the time being."
"What if we run into another guardian?" She asks as she got up to take the cloak. Lawrence averts his gaze from the sight of her naked body.
"T-Trust me, I know how to keep my distance."
Holo takes the cloak and puts it on. It covers most of her body as long she keeps it closed up front.
"Sorry again, I am usually out only on my own." he guessed she must've felt ridiculous wearing nothing but a hunter's cloak.
"I'll trust you on this journey. But before we head out.." Her stomach grumbles Lawrence chuckles. He opens the pack again and tosses her an Onion Bun. Her eyes fill with delight as she munches while he preps the sparrow.
"Oh! There's one more thing before we leave. I need some wheat."
"Huh? What for?"
"My life essence resides in wheat. If I get too far from a wheat field or it is destroyed I would
disappear." Holo explains.
"But wouldn't it go bad after a while?" Lawrence asked confused.
"Not in my presence. If we fill a pouch with a good amount of grains and keep it on me I will be able to move freely. I would prefer it to be hanging from my neck just for simplicity sake."
Ghost blinks his optic. "Put your hands out." the construct asked and She obliged. The necklace from Hawthorne appeared in her hand and she observed it. "Would this do?" Ghost asks.
Holo nods. "This is perfect. Now we just have to harvest some and extract the Grains."
"Alrighty then." Lawrence walks over and pulls his knife out. He grabs a handful of plants and cuts it from the bottom. "Will this much do? " Holding a handful of stocks. "Perfect, Now just thresh it and I'll put the grains in here."
"Ummm…" Lawrence looked confused.
"You don't know how to thresh it do you?" Holo deadpanned.
"Hey! I am a hunter, not a farmer!"
"Relax, I'll teach you." She then walks over and takes Lawrence's hand that held the wheat. "I am the Wise wolf after all." She smiled at him.
'That smile.' Lawrence felt something in his heart react but it disappears as fast as it came.
After an hour goes by of Threshing the wheat, The group is ready to leave. Holo puts on the necklace and takes a seat in the passenger pod. Lawrence hops onto the driver seat and powers up the bike. "You ready?" He asks.
"Ready." Holo nods. Lawrence then pushes forward on the handles, sending them back into the woods. As the zoom past the trees, Lawrence looks to his passenger. Even with the hood he could see a smile upon her face. "Ghost marks a path to the Farm...and make it discreet."
"On it." A grey diamond appeared on his hud marking a path. Most of it was in areas he had mapped out so he took it. He felt a hand tug on his ar. "I would appreciate it if we speed things up. It will rain soon." Holo said.
"She's not wrong." Ghost confirmed checking weather scans. "Hang on then!" He then triggers the turbo sending them zooming through the forest and finding a dirt road he recognized. "We will be there soon." An hour or so away from the farm he guessed using this path.
Nothing happened during halfway through the ride. The sparrow was running properly and was probably getting more testing than Holiday asked for. Lawrence then wondered where would his new friends stay. She could stay as a refugee in the city like the rest of the citizen. But judging from her insistence of joining particularly him put that out of the question.
'I am going to need to tell her the truth. I can't have her around me. It's too dangerous...and I don't-'
"Stop!" Holo yelled and Lawrence hits the breaks.
"What is it?" Lawrence asked and noticing her ears poking under the hood.
"There is something ahead." Lawrence looks down the dirt road but found nothing not even on his motion sensor.
"Are you sure?"
Holo nods. "A strange smell, it's like...Ozone I think it was? Yeah. But it's triggering my sense of danger at the same time."
"Taken." Lawrence figured out what she sensed. Only Taken produce an ozone-like smell. It did surprise him though that they would be this close to the farm. "Taken?" Holo asked confused.
"Another one of the factions of Darkness. Originally hive but they are made up of corrupted troops of the many other factions. All under control of the darkness."
"Sounds like you know those things well."
"More than I wish." Lawrence shifts the sparrow to slower speeds and rides down the road. "Tell me when we are just out of there range."
Holo nods and pulls down her hood to give her ears more mobility. A good ten minutes go by. "Stop here. Any closer we could walk into an ambush."
"That sounds like them." Lawrence takes the sparrow to the bushes and dismounts. "Stay here. I will deal with this."
"Oh no, I am coming with you." Holo detested.
"No your not. I killed these things more than I can count. They are more dangerous than a couple of Cabal or Fallen." Lawrence said with serious in his tone. "Don't take me for some frail women I can-"
"You are staying here and That's FINAL!" Lawrence raised his voice stopping her right in her tracks. "Fine." Holo backed down and the Hunter glows with purple void light for a brief moment changing his Subclass to void, Way of the wraith. "I won't be long." He said and blinks out of sight.
It wasn't long before he was able to spot the Taken. It was a standard Blight summoning party. A wizard, Knight, a few Thralls and a Phalanx. After looking through his visors zoom he confirmed that the Shields were Void. All were in the middle of the road
'they won't see me coming.'
Lawrence equips a Void base Compound bow and smirks.
Crouching, he sneaks around to get closer to the taken unnoticed. He flanks them and sets up behind a large tree. Taking aim he lines up the sights at the thralls. Pulls back the string and lets releases. The arrow domes the thrall and it disintegrates and the Knight orders the rest to rush his current position.
Unlucky for them. Lawrence was invisible and moved to another spot. Two more thralls fall from arrows.
Way of the Wraith: allows the user to become invisible after headshot kills. Allowing a hunter to take out their prey via more stealthy means.
Super: Spectral Blades. The user will summon two short swords in head hand infused with void light and the hunter will become invisible. Attacking will expose the user but they can re-cloak mid-combat.
All of the Thralls are gone but the Knight spits dark flames into the woods and it nicks Lawrence breaking his streak. "Fucking Knights."
He pulls back on his bow at the knight but the Phalanx blocks the shot with its shield and rushes him. Dropping the bow for Last Word, Triple jumps over the Phalanx and unloads into its head. It falls and now the wizard as pause the spell and joins the fray.
Lawrence then triggers this super. Cloaking again he gets behind the knight and digs his two void blades into the Knights back. It swings around trying to knock off Lawrence but it fails. He sees the Wizard trying to get a shot at him. Stabbing into the knights head to finishing it off, he re-cloaks and Rushes the wizard. He slashes at it until the super runs out and follows up with a vortex grenade. The wizard fades and the blight begins to shrink…"Ok time to…" and then it pluses. "Son of a-" the blight Explodes blasting him into a tree breaking it in half.
"That hurt…"
His light began to heal the damage as he looked up…"No Blightmaker?"
"Lawrence!" Holo yelled running towards him. Looks like she followed him against his word. "Dammit Holo I thought-" Holo then stops dead in her track as her senses flare up causing her to rolled to the right, dodging an invisible fist. "Shit! A minotaur!"
Holo tried to get away but the was grabbed by the Invisible taken Minotaur. She was pinned and could not move. "Gah! Let me go!" She tried to free an arm to grab some wheat from the pouch. "HOLO!" Lawrence's body glows orange as he rapidly changes his subclass and forces A Golden Gun. He fires six round into its arm freeing her as she dropped into the ground. Lawrence the rushes in branching his Quick Fang Sword. Triple jumping, he stabs the blade into the eye and pulls down with all his might. The body begins to pulse.
'Shit! It's gonna-'
"HOLO GET BACK!"
"What about you!" Holo yells
"I SAID GET BACK!"
As a last desperation move, the Blight Maker self-destructs in a huge blast sending holo a few meters back. Once the dust settles she looks up and finds Lawrence's body lying in the middle of the road.
"No..no..no..LAWRENCE" She rushes to him yelling but there was no response. "No please no!" She slides down to her knee and rolls him over. He body was bloodied...arm was gone and he was breathing badly. "Lawrence, please! Stay with me!"
"Holo…*cough* will be alright…" Lawrence says weakly.
"No, you need help! Come on I can transform and..!" Holo panics seeing his life fade away.
"Lawrence! No..Stay with me please!" She begins to cry...then it happens...the hunter's body died…
"I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!" Holo sobs into his chest feeling her fears come to life.
Then his body began to glow white light.
"Huh?" She widens her eyes at Lawrence's body fades into glowing blue dust and swirls past her. She turns around to find Ghost with his body split apart rotating around his core. "What..are you..?"
"Bringing him back." Ghost absorbs the dust and then pulses a bright white light.
After the light fade...Lawrence took its place.
Alive and Well.
"Lawrence...Y-you're..not dead."
"Yeah. I'm not." Lawrence said bluntly but still angry that Holo followed him and put herself in danger. "Now, what did I-" his words stopped at sight of Holo eyes filled with tears. She then rushes in for a hug. "Did you hear what I said?" Holo asked sobbing into his chest plate.
He felt his anger fade..and felt...Something different. It was a long time since he was hugged by someone and now here he was...getting hugged by someone he just met.
Lawrence then remembers the last thing before his revival.
He understood her fears.
He slowly wraps his arms around Holo and promises her one thing.
"I promise, I won't leave you alone." it then proceeds to rain.
The rest of the road was thankfully uneventful but the silence between the two. The eventually reach The Farm. One of the very few settlements outside of the city walls and was the first refugee camp during the Red War.
Lawrence radios the base and has the farmhands open the main barn for them to stay the night and request some clothes for Holo. Lawrence rolls up to the barn and they both head inside while Ghost stories the Sparrow. Once instead Lawrence takes out his heat lamp and prepares a place to dry his cloak and wet armour. Holo just sat down near the lamp still wearing the cloak with the hood down. She was quiet the rest of the trip and still was.
"I guess it really shocked her when I revived you." Ghost whispered and the Guardian nods. To him, Resurrections is like second nature like most other guardians. But he never thought how non-guardians felt seeing them come back.
Lawrence decides to sit down right next to her but doesn't say anything or more like he didn't know what to say.
"You can come back right?" Holo asked breaking the silence.
"Yes, for the most part," Lawrence answered
"How?"
"Via me." Ghost appeared.
"Like the first time, I resurrected Lawrence. I can bring him back as many time as possible. As long as I am still functioning. I can also heal his wounds and repair bones." Ghost explained.
"But if the darkness is too strong or if I get destroyed then. It's game over." He added the harsh truth. Lawrence looks up to where a certain Exo would hang out in the barn.
"How.." Holo stuttered her words
"How what?" Lawrence asks confused.
"How long do guardians live for?" Holo asked.
Lawrence smiles. "As long as there's the light in the word, Guardians can live forever." It was true. So long as they had there light, Guardians can live on beyond mortal life.
Holo then smiles and looks at the Guardian. "Well, then I hope you don't mind me sticking around then!"
"Not without teaching you how to fight in your human form." He then gets up.
"So your saying-?" Holo lights up.
"I can't take you everywhere I go but as long you follow my instructions. I can imagine a few places you can join me on patrol." he then opens the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To get some else?" the wolf god's stomach then growled at the mentioning of something to eat. The hunter returns with a bowl of baked potatoes covered in cheese and in his other was a bag of clothes for Holo.
The women in question sniff the air and wag her tail. "Baked potato and Cheese?! Yes please!" She rushes Lawrence attempts to take some but he raises the bowl out of reach.
"Put these on. Then you can eat." He then hands the bag of clothes. She then looks back to the bowl and back then the clothes. She then put on a smug smile. "Okay" Holo then takes the clothes and drops the cloak to change.
Right in front of him.
It wasn't the first time he saw a woman naked. He has dated before but even then it seemed that Holo had no shame. Or was doing this to taunt him.
It also didn't help that she was really attractive.
After the whole tease fest, Holo finally finishes changing. The outfit was a pink long sleeve shirt, brown pants some and basic shoes. It all fits her nicely even with her tail. "Happy now?"
Lawrence the hands her the bowl and she runs back to the lamp and chows down.
"Vegetables grown by humans taste much better than leaf buds, and I love the idea of roasting them with fire." She mumbles as she at
"Yesh remember to brea-"
Holo then grasps her throat choking. After a quick save by the hunter she chugs down his canteen for water. "Hah, that was surprising, Human throats are too narrow! How inconvenient" she hands back the canteen.
"Wolves eat everything at once if I recall." Ghost said doing a quick scan of her to make sure there was no damage.
"That's right!" she then stretches her cheeks with her fingers
"They don't have cheeks, so they don't have to waste time chewing everything!" She said as Lawrence reseals the canteen.
"I see." Lawrence thought about her eating a legionary whole. It kinda frightened the hunter.
"Now that I think about it, I almost choked on a potato in the past. It looks like we don't get along too well. Damn you!" She eats another but makes sure to chew it thoroughly. She finally gives up the bowl to let him have some as they sat in the barn.
"So Holo, besides Transforming and enhanced senses, Do you have any other abilities?" Lawrence asked.
Holo then clapped her hands.
"I am good at detecting lies." Lawrence raises an eyebrow.
"How well?"
"I could tell that you weren't lying about the collapse of humanity and instantly believed you Ghost." She looks at the construct with dangerous eyes causing him to float back a bit.
"And I could tell that your nightmare was more than nothing, Lawrence." The hunter flinched.
"You want to share?" Holo asked.
"No."
"It is unhealthy to keep stuff like that in." Holo tried to get an answer out of the hunter but he was shelling up
"It's none of your concern," he answered with little emotion
"Well, I can guess it involved the Taken-"
"I said it was none of your concern!" The hunter raised his voice startling her but not surprising Ghost. The hunter then stands up. "If you going to join me then do NOT bring up that subject ever again!"
He then walks away and jumps to the upper floor. Leaving her alone with the heat lamp.
There was silence in the barn for a few moments.
"Is he upset?" Holo asks Ghost.
"Yes." Ghost nods
"Did something happen to him." Ghost looked back to its master thinking how should he answer the question.
"He's not just a veteran Hunter but one of the best. Always ready to take a dive into the Darkness. But no battle is without losses…" Ghost stopped there but moved closer to her ears to whisper.
"But do me a favour and don't stop trying...he needs you to."
Holo then nodes and ghost disappear. She looks at the hunter sitting in the rafters. The Wolf decides to climb up the rafters to the second floor. She walks up to Lawrence who was sitting against a support pillar while looking out at the dark rain. Without saying anything she sits down next to him.
Holo wanted to say something. Some word to have him smile. But she could not think of anything.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
There wasn't a reaction from the Guardian. So she leaned back in defeat.
"It.." She perked up as she heard him say something.
"It just hurts sometimes," he whispered. Holo sensed pain in his voice. From what she could tell he lost people in his battles. Most likely close friends or family.
She understood his pain.
Holo then leans her head on his arm and sat there.
Lawrence didn't move or react but his heart felt warmth.
"Thank you." The lone hunter said and the wolf wags her tail.
For once she has found a kindred spirit.
AN: Nothing to report. Lawrence is much more willing to bear his fangs compared to his cannon peddler self especially after the events of Forsaken. But that doen't mean holo will back down all the time. Smug wolf never gives up!
As always, Enjoy and leave Feedback!