Charon lay in bed that night, sick at how badly she'd hurt Phantom. She expected him to get angry and tell her off, not ... go agonizingly quiet and accepting.
Mitzi was phased somewhere in the living room, and Charon wasn't sure how much she liked her. Mitzi was a nice ghost, sure, but for someone else. Maybe she should take Mitzi for a patrol or two. See how she held up in combat. That had been her litmus test for Phantom, and he had done as well as an unbonded ghost possibly could.
She got up, found her handheld computer tablet, and composed a message to her fireteam. "Hey guys, want to run another patrol this week? I've got another potential ghost who needs a test run."
Charon asked Mitzi to transmat her sparrow out into the snowy wilderness, where they'd be patrolling.
Mitzi hesitated. "I don't know ... I thought only bonded ghosts could do that."
"Phantom did," Charon said cheerfully. "He said it only needed a tag."
Mitzi looked are her doubtfully. "But Phantom was a renegade. It's why he's locked up."
"It wasn't from transmatting a sparrow," Charon replied. "Just try it."
Mitzi flew half-heartedly around the bike, then shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't."
This became Mitzi's refrain. She couldn't transmat anything, and she couldn't hack Charon's helmet HUD, either.
"It's still under your old ghost's account name!" Mitzi said, shocked. "I couldn't hack into that! You said that Phantom got right in?"
"Sure," Charon said, crouching behind a tree, watching her teammates move into position to attack a Fallen scouting team. "Took him two seconds. Hurry up, I need my live map."
"I - I can't," Mitzi said, phasing into hiding. "Please don't get too close to the Fallen. I'm so scared of them."
"I'm a Titan," Charon said, raising her rifle. "Up close and personal is what I do."
It was a small group of aliens, only about sixteen of them. The Guardians picked them off at a distance. Three of them tried to escape into the trees, but Charon ran them down and killed them in hand to hand combat.
As she walked back through the snow to congratulate her team, Mitzi reappeared, shivering in midair. She flew beside Charon without speaking, but often she spun in a circle to check for attackers.
"You wouldn't have to do that if you'd hacked my HUD," Charon pointed out.
"Maybe I will, next time," Mitzi said faintly.
She accompanied Charon on the remainder of the patrol. The fireteam rode their sparrows all the way down to the south end of the wall and back up again, making a long, slow loop. They cleaned out a second nest of Fallen along the way.
As the short day turned into dusk, the Guardians returned to the north gate and reentered the City.
"Well, how was it?" Charon asked, riding her sparrow at a crawl down a busy street, her team following.
"Educational," Mitzi replied. "I've never observed Guardians so closely before." She spoke absently, and turned from side to side, as if still watching for an ambush.
"What's the matter?" Charon asked.
Mitzi said, "Can we turn left up ahead? I'm picking up something odd."
Charon did so. Mitzi directed her through the City's streets to the shores of the lake that lay within the walls. Here was the City's water supply, and also several pleasant parks, where families played in the snow before night settled in completely.
Mitzi left Charon without a word and flew along the lake shore, pausing here and there to scan.
Ashton and Sheen caught up to Charon. They sat in a row on their sparrows, watching the ghost shrink into the distance, only the light of her scan beam marking her location.
"What's she up to?" Ashton asked.
"I think," Charon said, "she's about to find her Guardian."
And it's not me, she thought, heart sinking. Why had she told Phantom about Mitzi and thought he wouldn't mind? The way he'd turned his back and put his eye in the cage's corner ...
In the distance, Light flashed. A human figure was illuminated from head to foot in the lake shallows as Mitzi resurrected her Guardian.
"That's how it's supposed to work," Sheen said. "None of this dating ghosts nonsense."
Ashton zipped away on his sparrow to greet the new Guardian and guide them to the Tower.
Charon stayed where she was. "You think dating a ghost is nonsense?"
"Girl," Sheen said, "Guardians don't work that way. Our ghosts resurrect us and that's it. One Guardian, one ghost, one shot."
"So ..." Charon drew a deep breath, thinking of Phantom's reassurances, and the words of other ghosts who had seen cracks in her spark. "So you think it's impossible. For Phantom and me."
Sheen patted her shoulder. "You two are crushing on each other, but it won't work."
Charon shrugged off her friend's touch, anger rising within her. "You've basically just said that I'm damned."
Sheen shrugged, holding up both hands. "Just saying, Guardians don't get replacement ghosts. Ask Eris Morn."
Charon didn't want to think about Eris, ex-Guardian who carried around a glowing rock as if it were her missing ghost.
Ashton returned on foot, guiding a confused young Awoken woman. Mitzi floated contentedly beside her. As they passed Charon, Mitzi said, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Charon said stiffly.
"You two head back," Ashton said, unable to take his eyes off the new girl. "I'll escort her to the Tower myself."
"Another crush," Sheen said, rolling her eyes, and departed on her sparrow.
Charon took a different route home in order to be alone with her thoughts. Seeing a ghost bond to a Guardian had driven home the Vanguard dogma about how only the first resurrection counted. Charon had been resurrected by Simon, and according to them, Simon was all she'd ever have.
But the thought of Phantom tore her heart. If it had been Simon in that cage, it would have hurt equally as much.
Riding home, alone and ghostless, Charon took a hard look at herself. Did she want a ghost because she wanted to be a full Guardian again? Or because she honestly cared for the little light trapped in a cage like an animal?
She desperately wanted to be a Guardian again. That had never changed. But a large part of her heart was locked in that cage with Phantom. Even if a second ghost bond was impossible, she owed him better treatment than that. He was her friend.
"I'll help him find his Guardian," she muttered as she drove. "I'll take him out into the wilds and escort him around until he finds his other half. I owe him that much for putting him through this."
She arrived back at the Tower and went to her apartment, where she paced restlessly around her rooms. Voices echoed in her head.
You only get one shot at being a Guardian.
You could bond to another ghost if your spark was healed.
The spark condition means nothing - only the first resurrection.
Worst of all, over and over, she heard Phantom ask, "Do you think I deserve to be in here, Charon?"
She finally crawled into bed and blasted loud music on a headset until she dozed off. Even then, Phantom's dejected voice haunted her dreams.
"Did I hurt you so badly?"
The next morning dawned gray and snowing heavily.
Charon was standing in line to check her mail before going to see Phantom, when a voice said, "Guardian Charon?"
She looked around. A warlock stood nearby, a dark-skinned human, with snowflakes collecting in his hair. A ghost in a red and yellow shell floated over his shoulder.
"Yes?" she said.
The warlock extended a hand. "Guardian Jayesh. My ghost met yours a few days ago, and I wanted to talk to you about him."
"He's not mine," Charon said automatically.
Jayesh and his ghost exchanged looks. "Oh, he's yours, all right."
This enigmatic statement was enough to coax Charon out of line and under the nearest overhang, which kept the snow off.
"What do you mean?" she asked in a low voice.
Jayesh's ghost spun his segments and dusted the snow off his Guardian's hair. Jayesh didn't seem to notice. "I went by to look at this Phantom a few minutes ago. He's given himself up for dead. Wouldn't look at us or interact whatsoever. I've never seen a ghost in a cage before, and I think it's beyond cruel. But ghosts don't pine away like that for nothing." He gave Charon an earnest look.
Charon looked toward the administration building, and her feet almost carried her in that direction. "He's dying? No, no ... he can't." When the warlock looked inquiring, Charon explained," I brought in a ghost to meet him that had a decent compatibility rate ... four days ago." The words sounded so dry and careless. They choked her. "He got so sad, then. Told me he didn't want his name anymore."
What had she really expected? Phantom loved her, and she had all but rejected him. If anything would kill a ghost, that would.
Jayesh smacked himself in the face. "Don't you get it? He cares about you, you care about him. The soul bond goes way beyond just the spark. You two should have bonded as soon as you met."
"But," Charon protested, "my spark is damaged."
Jayesh gestured to his ghost, who flew forward and studied Charon.
"One crack," the ghost announced. "And I'll bet it's being separated from her ghost."
Charon's heart leaped - with joy and awful guilt. Even this ghost said Phantom belonged to her. Oh, what had she done? Had she not been a Titan with a reputation to keep up, she might have begun crying right there on the Tower walk.
Jayesh pointed toward the administration building. "You'd better get in there and make up with that ghost before he dies of a broken heart."
"What about the Committee?"
"I'll deal with the Committee," Jayesh said grimly. "I know all of them, and they could use a good talking to."
The ghost who had been Phantom lay in the cage with his eye in the corner. Agonizing pain beat in his core. He'd found his Guardian and lost her.
Charon had found another ghost. She didn't need him. They'd probably bonded in the first few days. All of his wishing and hoping had been for nothing. He had another six months to spend in this cage, and then ... nothing awaited him on the other side.
If only he hadn't been so arrogant. If only he hadn't trusted the other ghosts so much. If only he hadn't treated Charon like his Guardian before she was. If only he'd been patient. If only. If only.
He was a severed ghost without ever having bonded his spark. He'd failed Charon, he'd failed the Traveler, he'd failed himself.
He slept for hours and hours. When he was awake, the misery hounded him until he sought solace in sleep again. His spark guttered and dimmed. Eventually, he wouldn't wake up at all. Maybe the Traveler would accept him back, pathetic, ruined spark that he was. He tried not to think about Charon. She was lost to him, bonded forever to someone else. He tried to dream of the Traveler, but his cruel subconscious gave him memories of Charon's laugh, instead, and the way her watercolor brush had glided over the paper.
How hopeless it was to love a Guardian who could never truly be his.
He awakened from one such dream to a frantic tapping on the cage wire. "Phantom. Phantom!"
Charon's voice. He woke up a little. She had rotated the cage, and her eyes were on level with his own. He gazed at her. Beautiful Charon. Someone else's Guardian. He wasn't allowed to care about her anymore.
"Phantom, please don't die," she whispered. "Please."
"Where's ... Mitzi?" he whispered. Surely Mitzi had come along to offer false sympathy as the remains of his spark faded away.
"She left," Charon said ironically. "She wouldn't transmat anything, wouldn't hack my HUD, then took off and found herself a different Guardian."
His eye brightened with a fragment of hope. "She ... she did? And you ... you came back? For me?"
"Yes," she whispered. "If it's possible, I want you as my ghost. Only you, Phantom."
Hearing her speak those words revived him like he'd received a full-powered healing beam. His spark brightened. She wanted him.
He exerted himself and floated a few inches off the cage floor. "So ... I guess I can be Phantom again."
"You always were," Charon said. Her fingers tightened on the cage. "Light, I want to hold you. I'm so, so sorry, Phantom. Look, if we still can't bond, I'll take you out and help you find your true Guardian, all right?"
Her spark sang to him through her words. She loved him and she wasn't trying to hide it.
"You're so kind," he murmured. "But I don't think that'll be necessary."
Charon glanced around. "That warlock set me straight this morning. Said we should have bonded as soon as we met. He's fighting the Committee right now. Hear them?"
Phantom looked around, becoming aware of his surroundings for the first time. They were in a different room, one with chairs against the walls. Muffled shouting came from a nearby closed door.
"He's right," Phantom said. "Because I think ... I think I could heal your spark. I could have held it together, maybe. Helped you heal faster."
Phantom was reviving rapidly now. Charon's spark was so warm and near, and nearly all the discord was gone from its song. Only one crack still marred its beautiful light. His own Light surged in response. It was time. Oh, it was finally time, and he wasn't even out of confinement yet.
"Charon," he murmured, lifting his eye to hers. "My wonderful, talented, ferocious Titan. Will you be my Guardian?"
"Yes," she whispered, leaning her forehead against the wire. "I need you, Phantom."
He opened his core, at long last, baring his spark to hers. His Light flowed into her, merging their souls, teaching him how to heal her, resurrect her, to speak inside her mind. He felt her desperate longing for him, her loneliness, her never-ending grief for her first ghost. Maybe he could help with that, in time.
He folded his own spark into the crack in hers, mending it with himself. For a moment it hurt - hurt with grief and longing, despair and helpless anger. Phantom took it into himself, sharing the pain, reducing the burden Charon carried. From now on, when she hurt, he would, too. And when joy filled her, he would double it.
Charon felt his Light beating alongside her own, felt his moods, his sympathy, his hopeless adoration of her. She also glimpsed a terrible insecurity she hadn't known existed ... but maybe she could help with that.
She felt him mend the cracks in her soul, patching them with his own devotion, reducing her grief, strengthening her in a way that Simon never had. Maybe it was because they'd had to work so hard to find each other.
"My Phantom," she whispered. "My own little light. Come here."
She tore the cage apart like it was made of rotten wicker. The sides split under her furious strength, the metal breaking with a series of sharp pings. Charon lifted Phantom out and let the cage clatter to the floor. She broke the anti-phase device off his shell, dropping it to the floor, where she crunched it under a boot heel.
Then she cuddled him against her cheek, as she'd been wishing to do for months. His shell was cold, but his core was warm from all the Light he'd just given her. She felt a gust of relief from him touch her mind, as if he'd sighed in bliss.
"How are you so strong?" he whispered in her mind.
"I'm a Titan," she thought. "And I need you, my little stalker creep."
They sat there together, whispering thoughts of love and companionship to each other, paying no attention to their surroundings.
At the noise of metal ripping apart, the arguing in the next room stopped. The door opened, and the Committee and Jayesh looked out to see the cage had been torn in half. Charon sat in a chair nearby, in Titan armor, holding the prisoner ghost.
"Hey!" exclaimed one of the Committee warlocks. "His sentence isn't complete, yet!"
Charon leaped to her feet, releasing her ghost, who took his position at her left shoulder. A rifle appeared in her hands, transmatted at her silent command. She covered the Committee.
"We've just bonded our sparks," she said, her voice strong and fierce. "Phantom is mine, now, and he's done with the stupid cage. Any further discussion will be settled by bullet."
Behind the three Committee members, she glimpsed Jayesh grin and duck out of sight.
The flabbergasted Committee gaped at the Titan, then the ghost.
"But you're severed," said the Cryptarch. "It shouldn't be possible."
"Surprise," Phantom said. "If you ever think of putting a ghost in a cage again, for any reason, we will march in here and ruin your day. Several days."
The Committee flinched. "Maybe we were a little over-eager with your sentence," one said. "In hindsight, caging a ghost in such a manner seems ... excessive."
"Hear that?" Phantom said to Charon. "That almost sounded like an apology."
"I'll believe it when they send flowers and a nice card," Charon said. "Come on, we're done here."
Phantom phased inside his Guardian's armor for the first time and rode along in complete comfort and security. He didn't care where they went or what they did, as long as they were together. Oh, the joy of being bonded to his Guardian, after the gutting loneliness of the cage! Charon was there, part of him, filling the void he'd carried since his birth. He brooded over her spark like a dragon with an egg. His thoughts leaked into hers.
"You're mine, my beautiful Guardian, and I'll heal your wounds and raise you if you fall. I'll be your friend when you're lonely, your champion when you triumph, and your shield when you fail."
"My ghost," she thought in return. "My little light, my partner in war and peacetime, my closest friend always. I'll never forget my first ghost, but together we'll honor his memory, and may our sparks burn together against the Darkness."
Their sparks sang to each this way as Charon left the building and walked out into the snowy Tower thoroughfare. She knew exactly where she was headed first.
By the time they arrived, Phantom was in such a euphoric state, when she summoned him, he saw nothing but her for a while. He flew around her, sweeping her with healing beams, just because he could.
"Ma'am?" said another Guardian nearby. "Is there something wrong with your ghost?"
"He's just practicing," she said, laughing.
Other Guardians smiled fondly and moved on.
Phantom spiraled around her and buried himself between her hair and the collar of her armor. "I've wanted to do this for ages," he said in her ear, snuggling against her neck.
"Well, come out and pay attention," Charon said. "We need to replace that tattered shell of yours."
Phantom emerged, blinking around in surprise. He had no idea they were standing in front of the Eververse booth, with its racks and racks of exotic items. Every ghost in the Tower coveted shells from this place. He gazed at all the colors and shapes and felt a little overwhelmed. "Where do we even start?"
Tess, the human who ran the store, came to the counter. "A ghost shell today?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Charon. "His name is Phantom."
Tess held up a finger. "Ah. Say no more." She picked up a tray and circulated around the shop, adding shells seemingly at random. When she returned, she presented a selection of sleek, streamlined shells in various dark colors. But the one Phantom instantly wanted was glossy black with three yellow racing stripes.
"This one?" Charon asked, pointing to it.
He nodded, speechless with excitement.
Charon bought the shell. "Come on, let's go home and put it on."
"Home!" Phantom danced around her. "We're going home! Our home! My home! Your home! No more cages!"
Charon walked along, smiling in pure bliss, as her ghost flew and flew, exulting in both his freedom and his Guardian. Oh, it felt good to have a ghost again. Especially a ghost she liked so very, very much. The pain inside her had decreased dramatically - after all, it was hard to feel sad when half her soul was singing and dancing.
When they reached her apartment, Charon had to hunt for her ghost maintenance toolkit, which she hadn't needed since Simon died. She finally found it shoved in the back of a bathroom cabinet.
As she stood up, she realized that not only was Phantom not with her, but he had gone quiet, with only flickers of dismay to indicate where he might be.
She had a hunch, and looked into her bedroom.
Phantom floated over Simon's old bed, staring at it, motionless.
"Phantom?"
He looked at her, his expression sad. Slowly he flew to her and took his spot over her shoulder. "You still have his bed," he said softly.
"So?" Charon said.
"So," Phantom said, "does that mean that you'll always want Simon more than me?"
Charon gently lifted him out of the air in her palm. He accepted her touch trustingly, gazing at her face.
"I loved Simon," she told him. "But he's gone. I'll always remember him, and I'll always miss him. That's how grief works. But I have room in my heart for you, too. I love you differently than I loved him, because you're so different. Also, I kept that bed because it was damn expensive. I was hoping you'd like it."
"I can give it a try," Phantom said, cheering up a little. "Thanks, Charon. I first saw it when I was transmatting your paints, and it's bothered me ever since."
"Oh, that's why you acted so weird that day in the hospital," Charon said, picking up the toolset and shell. "Come to the table, I need the light for this."
They chatted as she disassembled the new shell, and then carefully removed his old, scraped, ruined shell. Deep contentment filled them both. This was normal life, and being together made everything about it better.
The racing shell suited Phantom exactly. Once it was on, he shot around the room, then phased and reappeared in dark corners, pretending to stalk Charon.
She laughed as she put away her tools. "What is this, a license to be creepy?"
"I want to be good at it," he said, zipping under furniture. "I went to jail for it, so I might as well do what I was punished for, right?"
"Stalk me all you want, Phantom." Charon put everything away, then finally took off her armor and changed into civilian clothes. Phantom turned his back to give her a little privacy.
"Some stalker you are," Charon said, wrapping a scarf around her neck. She added a heavy cape with a hood, making her look like an off-duty Hunter. "Come on, hop in."
Phantom gleefully snuggled into her scarf inside the hood. "Now this is cozy," he told her. "Where are we going?"
"I need to find Guardian Jayesh and thank him," Charon said. "He set me straight on ghost bonds. Especially how you'd been my ghost all along, with or without the actual bond."
Phantom considered this as his Guardian headed out into the cold, snowy afternoon. "But ... how can that be? Your spark was still so shattered when we met."
"Unattached ghosts don't fall for someone and pretend to be their real ghost," Charon said. "Like following them into firefights and saving their lives."
"Your spark always did sing to me," Phantom admitted. "Even when when it was broken, and it sounded more like crying than singing."
She turned her head and kissed his shell. "I wish you'd told me."
"I couldn't," he said. "You weren't my Guardian yet, and there's certain things you just don't do if you're unbonded."
"Well, now you can tell me everything." She hesitated in the middle of the Tower walk. "Do you think you could find out where Guardian Jayesh is?"
"I can do that!" Phantom scanned the nearby Guardian ID tags. "He's down by the commercial district."
Charon walked that way. The falling snow was beginning to thin out, and here and there, people were shoveling snow off the walks and sprinkling salt. It crunched underfoot, providing traction.
As they walked by one such person, Phantom said, "That's him. Wait. Go back. Snow shovel, nine o'clock."
Charon turned in surprise. The nearest man shoveling snow wore civilian clothes, not warlock robes, with a scarf over his face and hair.
"Excuse me?" she said. "Guardian Jayesh?"
He straightened, resting his shovel in the snow, and pulled down his scarf. "Oh, hello there. Things working out with your ghost?"
"Very much," Charon said. "I wanted to thank you."
He grinned, his teeth very white. "No problem. No ghost should ever be in a cage, not even an unattached one. Besides, it was obvious how you were pining for each other. My ghost picked it up right off."
Charon didn't quite know how to reply to this, so she said, "Aren't you a Guardian? Why are you shoveling snow?"
Jayesh drew himself up in a salute. "For the good of the Vanguard!" Then he relaxed and grinned. "And my apartment's down this stairwell, and nobody ever shovels this part of the walk. I have mercenary motives."
Phantom flew out into the cold and floated in front of Jayesh. "Thank you," he said. When Jayesh's ghost appeared in his red and yellow shell, Phantom said, "And thank you, too. You were the only ghost ever to talk to me in that cage."
"I was?" said the other ghost. "Well, it was pretty shocking. I had to know why you were there."
"I'm free now!" Phantom twirled in midair. "And I have my Guardian. Thank you both."
He flew back to his nest in Charon's scarf. Charon bade Jayesh goodbye. She walked home, content to have Phantom close by, content to be a Guardian again, content to have her life back.
"Say, Phantom," she said. "What's your opinion of the Crucible?"
Phantom was silent a moment. Then he chuckled evilly. "I think we'd be an unstoppable death machine."
"Me too." Charon rubbed her hands together. "First thing tomorrow, I'm signing up."
Phantom's pure glee was music to her heart.
The end