Chapter 5

My vision slowly begins to refocus and I realize that I'm in a hospital room. I try moving but my body hurts every time I move. I rub my stomach and I instantly feel pain. I look down my shirt and I see the huge stitching on my abdomen. I reminisce about what happened back in the tunnel, but my head begins to hurt the more I think about it. "Ow my head, that Captain really put it down on me. I'm seriously thankful I didn't die. Wait, speaking of which…"

I look around the room and I realize I'm completely alone. "Where am I?" The door opens and the doctor walks in smiling, hopefully because she's happy to see me. "Good morning Mister Titan, how are you feeling?" "I'm feeling okay, just sore and slightly in pain on my core." I reply. She smiles and continues, "That's good." I grunt a bit and I keep talking, "By the way, what happened?" The doctor stops writing on her board and answers, "Oh, you were put under emergency care after your friend brought you here from one of your missions. Usually that's rare since your ghost can heal injuries like that, but you weren't healing which made us worry. Upon talking about your situation with a group of warlocks, it turns out whatever hit you had light-draining effects. Your ghost couldn't heal you as a result, and in order to heal you we had to use a special medicine containing Motes of Light to cleanse you." She points to the medicine bag to my upper left and it was sparkling, like a diamond.

"Thank you so much doctor, and thank those warlocks that helped me." I smile. "Well you can thank one of them in person." The voice said from the door. The doctor and I turn to see Alex leaning against the door frame smiling, still in his warlock outfit. "You really scared me back there bud. Light was draining from you like a faucet. If it wasn't for me and my friends, you would've been dry as cornbread." I chuckle and reply, "Thanks Nova, I seriously owe you one." He laughs and slaps my shoulder, "Just make me a steak and we'll be even." I laugh as well and reply, "Alright, deal."

The doctor chuckles and says, "Okay, I have other patients to attend to as well. You are free to leave anytime, just take it easy until your stitches heal, okay?" I nod and reply, "Yeah, thanks doc. You don't want steak either do you?" She laughs and kindly denies. Alex looks at me and says, "So you can do that to pick up chicks, just offer to cook for them." We both laugh until I realize what's missing. "Where's Leslie? And Pyro?" He stops laughing, "Oh they're both at your dorm." I feel a slight sense of reassurance knowing that they're both safe and alive. He continues, "Let's go see them, shall we?"

I get up and immediately feel discomfort and pain. I take longer than usual to dress out of the hospital clothes and into some casual clothes. When I take off my shirt I take a better look at my injury. From the looks of it, it's a stab wound. I got stabbed? Looks like I let my guard down when I was fighting that damn captain. Wait, did I kill it? No, Leslie killed it, but with what? It was from a few shots of a gun, firing solar rounds. Golden Gun? Did she really unlock her super in the spur of the moment? Very impressive indeed. I'll talk to her when I get back.

Alex and I walked through the foyer towards the dorms, saying hi to any guardian that we recognized. Shaxx himself said he missed the action I brought to the crucible table and he expects me to be on the field very soon. Some of them gave me different gifts as get well presents. I received chocolate from a young warlock, a very nice smelling candle from a fellow titan, a card from one of my hunter friends, and a plush of an animal from a small group of guardians. I shared the chocolate with Alex as we walked towards the dormitory tower.

Turns out, I've been unconscious for a few days, so people were really worried. I felt flattered to know that people missed me. Eventually, we finally reach my dorm entrance. Right when I walk in,I get attacked by a floating robot. "Oh Jason! You're okay! I was so worried when I couldn't heal you and I thought something bad has happened!" He kept nudging into my face with so much joy, I couldn't help but smile. "Hey Pyro, glad to see you're okay. I missed ya buddy." I look around the dorm and notice everything was still tidy. "Yeah, Leslie was really down after you were hospitalized, so I came here to take care of your place, and her as well." I look around and I'm amazed how clean it is. "Thanks man, I owe you two steaks for that matter." I reply, "Where's Leslie?" He points toward her room, which was closed. "She hasn't left her room while I've been here, but I cook her meals and leave it in front of her door. She eventually eats it, because I always get an empty tray." With that, I get kinda worried.

I walk up to her room and I raise up my hand to knock on her door. Right before I knock her door swings open and I see Leslie staring at me with a distressed face. Her eyes were read and her cheeks were puffy. I smile and say, "Hey, long time no see." She drives her head into my chest and begins crying. I turn my head nervously at Alex and he begins to gesture that I comfort her. "Hey it's okay, I'm not dead." She continues to cry. I look at Alex and he's just facepalming at me. I put my hand on her head and I say, "I didn't even thank you for saving my life, by the way." She looks up at me, still crying and sniffling, "So, thanks Leslie." She sniffs and wipes her tears away from her eyes. I turn back to Alex and he's giving me thumbs up with a big smile across his face. She looks at me and finally says something, "I've missed you so much Jason. I seriously thought something happened to you." I smile and reply, "According to the doctor and my memory, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you." She cracks a smile finally.

I finally say, "Okay, how about we have some dinner - " I look at the clock and notice it's 5 P.M., " – Yeah, dinner. Since I owe Alex here, how does steak sound?" Alex does a small celebration and Leslie nods. I served some wine to drink while we eat dinner, entertained by Alex's stories about our adventures in the outside. From meeting each other while fighting Hive in the Skywatch all the way to us slaying Oryx together. The amount of joy I felt was unmatched. Two of my greatest friends and I were having the time of our lives. It felt great to be back.

After about an hour, Alex finally left and I decided to go to the Foyer to take in the sights. While I was getting ready, I turned to Leslie, "Hey Leslie, what are you going to do?" She finished cleaning the plates before she answered, "I'm gonna catch some sleep, I haven't had a good night's rest in a few days." So she hasn't slept during the time I've been gone? Wow. "Okay, I'm gonna go walk around for a bit, alright?" She nods in agreement and begins to walk towards her room. Right before she walks in she calls me, "Hey Jason," I turn to her "Don't die next time, alright? Don't break our promise." And with that she, walks in and shuts the door.

I end up in the tower section that's usually closed off, but is now open due to Iron Banner being in town. As soon as I walk through, I see Saladin talking to Guardians one by one by one, giving some rewards and consulting others. Some guardians walked away happy, some sad, and some pumped up. Shame I'm gonna miss out on this one, but I'll definitely bring my A game next one around. I rest my arms on the railing as I absorb the feeling of nature. Suddenly I hear a voice behind me. "Well hello there Jason, good to see you here."

Ah, shit. It's Karina. She's a seductive Hunter that uses her looks to get what she wants. She's a curvy woman with too much darkness behind her mind. Her voice is dark and soothing, and her eyes warm but piercing. She has brown skin with brown hair, and very beautiful. She's wanted to get information from me for a while, usually about treasure troves that my other Hunter friends tell me about. I tend to stay away from her but she finds me, somehow. It's scary really, but she's never threatening enough for me to tell her anything.

"And how can I help you today Karina?" She smiles and puts a finger to her mouth in a thinking face. "Well, there's this bunker that the fallen own that I know is filled with tech and treasures all of fallen origin. I just wanted to ask if you know where it is." I do, it's a bunker located in Old Germany, near Munich. I've been there, loads of fallen everywhere. Barely got out alive really. But she is right about what it contains. There was Fallen prototype weapons everywhere and lots of treasure that the Fallen have scavenged. I was only there to steal schematics for any weapons I can find and bring them back here. I may have stolen some artifacts for the Cryptarchs to go nuts over. "Yeah, I know where it is. Why would you want to know?" She smiles seductively and replies, "Oh you know why Jason. And if you told me I would be in your debt. I would do anything for you." She presses her body against mine, "Anything." "Well, what you said about there being treasure, it's wrong. There's nothing there. Sorry to burst your bubble." She pulls her body away and frowns, "Oh poo, how disappointing. Oh well, I guess I'll find something else I want. Catch you later big boy, call me sometime." And with that she walks away, catching gazes as she walks out of sight.

I realize I should probably sleep since Leslie begins her training tomorrow. Now that she's unlocked her power, she needs to train. I start heading back to my dorm. Once I get there, I hear nothing but silence, and Leslie's soft snoring, meaning she's out. I change into some sleepwear and lay back in bed. I start thinking that I should ask Arcane if he's heard of any more bunkers so I can look for stuff, maybe to sell. I start yawning heavily before I inevitably fall asleep.

The next morning…

I finish making breakfast before Leslie wakes up. She shuffles into the kitchen and begins to wonder, "What's the big breakfast for?" I smile as I turn off the stove, "Well today, we are going to train! Eat up because you're going to need it!"