~I don't own Mass Effect or Destiny, all copyrighted content goes to their respective owners~
"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path." – Gautama Buddha
Arc I - Chapter 2
Understanding
The world darkening, shadows the size of buildings…
Glass raining from the sky, glittering red…
"We fight or we die!"
People running in terror, children being pulled by parents…
"Go out there and give them hell."
Monsters chasing…
"I've had enough of your tabloid journalism!"
Ships exploding in the sky…
"Come back to me, Jane."
A red beam carving its way towards-
With a scream of terror, the woman awoke, arms coming up with her fists clenched. Eyes darting around and assessing her surroundings, cataloguing details.
Snow, ice, rock, earth, wood, fire, exit, movement.
Breathing heavily, the woman whipped her head towards the moment, revealing a faded white object peering at her from behind a rock. Staring at each other for a moment, the woman continued breathing, adrenaline and nerves slowing and settling.
It took a moment, but logic asserted itself over instinct, and the woman breathed out, lowering her arms and unclenching her fists.
What was that?
The floating object, her Ghost, came out from behind its rock. Whizzing to float in front of her. She hadn't really looked at the Ghost all that closely. But the dents, scratched and worn appearance of its shell spoke of time and experience, something inside of her acknowledging it.
She closed her eyes, calming herself as she tried to understand the images and sounds that felt muted compared to mere seconds ago.
"They were memories."
Jerking her eyes open, she stared at the Ghost, her pale complexion going even paler at the machines words.
"What?" She whispered.
"They were memories, I think… it's all rather jumbled and blurry." It replied.
Can it actually read my mind?!
The Ghost blinked at her, "Kind of, though only surface thoughts mostly."
Staring at the thing in surprise, the woman felt emotions boiling up inside her mind. Irrational anger and hostility, combined with a strange mix of paranoia and despair that seemed to only fuel her rage further.
"Well, could you not do that?!" She snapped.
The Ghost shrank back, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy… not that she knew what a puppy was anyway. Or what it looked like.
She was distracted from her own jumbled thoughts by the mind reading Ghost. Its voice cutting though her distracted mind.
"I'm sorry, really, but were linked! The Light that's now inside of you is also inside of me!"
With serious effort, the woman rained in her wild emotions, asserting a level of control that came surprisingly easy to her. Yet more unanswered questions, more quirks that have no memories attached that should.
Breathing through her nose and out through her mouth, the woman bottled up the wild emotions she could barely understand, and instead attempted to backtrack. Recalling the Ghosts earlier words that had set her off in the first place.
"You said that they were memories."
As if nothing had happened. The Ghost once again perked up at her calm words, and moved to float next to her.
"Yes. I didn't really understand much of it, but it looks like you're from the time of the Collapse."
The woman frowned, the memories of buildings falling, families running. "Collapse?"
The Ghost nodded, "When the Traveller first arrived, it gifted humanity with knowledge, understanding and technology. It was called the Golden Age, a time of unparalleled prosperity. But it didn't last."
Lighting up again like it had back in the chamber, the Ghost projected the image of a giant sphere-like object, and it took the woman a moment to realise that the light underneath it was a horizon, and that the object beneath that was a planet.
Holy hell, that thing is massive!
"Yes. Unfortunately for us all, the Traveller has an enemy. We call it The Darkness."
The image changed, morphing into figures, aliens. They were all different, some looking entirely mechanical, while others looked downright toxic to her.
"The Darkness is like the Light, except its natural opposite. The two sides have been in conflict for eons, and now the Darkness is winning."
The images changed once again. An enormous city emerging, with the Traveller looming above it, what had once been a smooth surface now marred with scars.
"The Traveller managed to fight off the Darkness, but was wounded in the process. That's where we come in." the Ghost almost sounded proud, "The Traveller now sleeps, but it still sends out Ghosts, who travel the Earth, locating and reviving those it deems needed."
The hologram faded, and the woman turned and looked at the little Ghost.
"Guardians. Like you… Jane."
Leaning back, the woman. Jane. Tried to process everything she had just learned. The Ghost left her to her thoughts, whizzing off, claiming to be going in search of more firewood.
Sitting on the floor of the cave, Jane stared into the fire before her and thought.
This Darkness, whatever it was. It was clearly a threat.
The thought alone sent a powerful urge through her, willing her into action, to stand up and fight. But at the same time, a different urge, one that felt old and tired, asked whether such a fight was worth it, worth the cost, and worth the sacrifice.
Staring into the fire, Jane thought of her dream, her memories. She thought of the child she had seen, who was in all likelihood dead by now. She thought of the voice calling her name, at the end.
Did she even have a choice?
Would the Ghost simply leave, if she said no? Could it reverse the process it used to revive her, simply shut her off like a machine, like a puppet with its strings cut?
She needed to make a choice, and she didn't have all the facts.
Looking up at the snow falling outside the cave, Jane couldn't help but compare it to the Darkness, and the fire in front of her to the Light. She could fight the snow, she could find more fuel for the fire, but at the end of the day, the fire would one day die out.
But the snow would also someday melt. Everything had an end, but that didn't mean that which now existed shouldn't be preserved. Futile as it would be.
As her Ghost returned, Jane smiled. She had made her choice.
Several hours later
The snow had finally stopped falling, and the moon was just beginning to go behind the top of an adjacent mountain, which meant it was time to start packing up and getting ready to move.
Standing up, Jane grunted as stretched, her joints cracking and popping as she released the tension that had built up overnight.
Her Ghost was already active, floating about the cave, dissolving the leftover firewood and anything else that they could take with them.
It had freaked her out at first, when it had whizzed into the cave and shone its light, magically making wood appear out of thin air.
It had apparently sensed her thoughts, as it had been quick to explain that it was actually a rather interesting ability that all Ghosts wielded. Not only could they store digital information, like a mobile computer, but also transfer matter into digital information.
They had limits though, as according to her Ghost the more complex an item, the more data was needed to effectively store it. Apparently it was less an issue of mass, and more an issue of how everything was put together.
According to it, Guardians stored the majority of their blueprints and other designs on things called Engrams, and Ghosts simply held onto the raw materials needed to create the objects instead.
It was why she was so surprised when her Ghost presented her with a rugged but rather durable and warm looking cloak. The weaved material was rather complex when you thought about it, and despite it being rather obviously put together via more car seats, Jane thought it looked to be rather comfortable.
From what she understood, her shirt and pants were made from the remains of the armour she had been wearing before her Ghost had found her. Jane steadily ignoring the fact that she was wearing clothing that had been fashioned from the armour on her corpse.
Wrapping the patchwork cloak around her shoulders and pinning it across her chest, Jane grabbed a long and thick piece of wood she had set aside for helping her walk, before turning to face her Ghost.
"Well. How do I look?"
Despite not having a face, she got the distinct impression that if it had, it would have been smiling at her.
"Prepared." It replied, before floating over to the mouth of the cave. "Shall we?"
Shaking her head in amusement, Jane pulled the hood over the top of her head and followed.
"Lead the way."
Authors Note:
A shorter chapter, literally written in a day. Felt this was something worth showing, as ForbiddenFandom so kindly reviewed, letting me know that I'm not the only one unknowing of Destiny Lore.
In the game, in both of them now that I think about it, your Ghost does most of the talking. The idea that they're linked to each other, and that a Ghost can tell what a Guardian is thinking, is my way of expanding on that. I'll probably expand upon that even more at some point. I have a few ideas.
I was planning on periodic updates, but I'm having far too much fun writing this. I'll probably write more over the course of the next few days.
Thank you for your continual support everyone, and thank you to those who Review, Please do read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not as much. Of course, reviews are my life blood as a writer on this site, and every time my email goes off it motivates me to write more.
~ JunkMail
