"Well... Okay. Child seems a bit too rude, don't you think?" I said in response to Zavala's words. Although the statement rung a bit hollow with me, I did have to keep in mind that I barely turned 16 just recently.
"Hana... You're just a kid. I... I revived a kid?" Ghost said. His voice was stuttering as if he made a huge mistake.
"Ghost, when you scanned the remains, are you sure that you knew that this child was your destined Guardian?" Ikora said.
"Y-yes! Ikora, you and I both know a Ghost will search for decades, centuries even to find their guardian! And..." Ghost looked back at me. He stared at me with a hesitant glint in his eye before confidently turning back towards Ikora. "And I know that Hana is my Guardian."
"I see." Ikora said, nodding approvingly. "Zavala, this may be an extremely rare case of a Guardian being as young as Hana here, but you, Cayde and I have seen some extraordinary things in our lifetime. Perhaps the Traveler has some road destined for young Hana here."
Zavala took a moment before he breathed a sigh. "Agreed... Still... Having a Guardian who is as young as you may raise some questions among the other people here in the Tower. For now, I would suggest keeping a low profile as to not attract too much attention. I hope the two of you can manage that?"
Ghost and I stood at attention. "You can count on us, Commander." Ghost replied. "Although, there's no hiding just how short Hana is."
I threw a grumping look at Ghost before I heard Cayde chuckle. "Yeah, there is the point of the pipsqueak's height. Don't worry, Hana. I've got ya covered. Zavala, I'm gonna show Hana here around the tower. I'll be back in time for lunch!"
"You still have vanguard reports to approve, Cayde!" Zavala interjected.
"Yeah yeah, they'll be there when I get back. Don't wait up!" Before Zavala could interject, Cayde grabbed me by my waist and hoisted me up as if I were just a plank of wood.
"Uh, I guess I'm leaving. It was nice meet you Commander and Ikora!" I called out as Cayde walked out with me.
Before we were out of earshot, I swear I could hear Zavala mutter in agony. "What am I going to do with him..."
Outside in the Tower, Cayde planted me back on my feet and took in a deep breath. I found it weird considering he was a robot thing and I just assumed that robots didn't need to breath.
Cayde noticed me staring at hime and snickered. "You know it's rude to stare kid. Didn't take you for someone with no manners." he said.
"Oh! I'm so sorry... I didn't mean any-"
Cayde began to laugh. "I'm just messin' with ya, kid. Lighten up. I know, I know. Being revived and seeing an Exo for the first time might be giving you the creeps but trust me, I'm still a Guardian. Same as you."
Cayde extended out a fist, holding it up just high enough for me to respond. I held out my fist and as soon as our knuckles touched, I saw a spark of orange flick from Cayde's pupil down his arm and rush into my own body, giving me the same glint he just had.
In that short moment, I felt my body feel immense heat from the inside, as if my entire body was on fire. The weird thing for me was that it didn't feel like pain. It felt like... Destruction and chaos... but it also felt alive. Life. I couldn't describe it then, but I know what I felt and this was something I knew that I felt before.
"What was that...?" I asked astonished.
"That's the feeling of the wild, kid. From what I felt in my gut and what I just felt right now, I knew you were a Hunter."
"A... Hunter?" I asked.
Ghost was the one who chimed up at this question. "The scouts of the vanguard. They're tasked with going out into uncharted territory and bringing back information and the layout of the land. They're an integral part of all fireteam missions and without them, we'd be going in blind in most missions."
He seemed very happy to tell me all of that. Until... "But Cayde, are you sure she's a Hunter? She didn't display any signs that she might be one."
"Trust me on this one, Ghost. I call them as I see 'em." Cayde said. "Now, about your new home..."
Ghost interrupted Cayde. "Sorry, Cayde but we actually came here to give an update on the situation in the Cosmodrome."
Cayde groaned at Ghost's comment. "You've gotta be kidding me, Ghost! I seriously was looking forward to showing the pipsqueak-"
"Hana!" I barked.
"Hana around the tower! You've gotta give me this one thing!" Cayde said, honestly imploring my Ghost.
Ghost shook his body in disapproval. "Okay, fine. But you're on a limit, Cayde!" Ghost said.
"You've got it!" Excited, Cayde yanked me by my arm and dragged me all over the Tower, showing me nearly all the amenities, living quarters, and the views of the Tower. But what intrigued me most were the people.
"This is Arach Jalaal. Dead Orbit representative of the Consensus."
"It's a pleasure to meet a new Guardian in the tower. Tell me, are the wilds still as ever dangerous and encroaching on our beloved city as I said so long ago?" He said. He was an Awoken, much like Zavala, but he seemed a lot more.. distraught? I couldn't put the right word in my head.
"Umm... Well there's a lot of Fallen out there, that's for sure!" I said, meekly. "As for them encroaching on us... I have no idea I literally only got here a few minutes ago and Ghost 'revived' me like... a few hours ago?"
Jalaal was stunned at this revelation but before he could comment on it, Cayde moved on. "Executor Hideo! What're you up to? Still trying to get on the good graces of the speaker?" Cayde said.
"Hardly. These days, it's all about the citizens, Cayde. You and I know both know well that a new governing mind must be in place if we're ever to survive this predicament we find ourselves in."
"Well, so far we're doing a bang up job, and I do think the Speaker would say otherwise." Ghost said in a defensive tone.
"Of course you'd be on his side, little light, Aren't you all?" Hideo said in a mocking tone.
"Hey, you can't talk to Ghost like that!" I nearly shouted. "Apologize!"
Hideo stammered a bit before Cayde intervened. "Whoa! Let's all cool the jets and take a step back. Hideo, I do think you owe the little guy an apology."
A disgruntled Hideo gritted his teeth, but the words eventually came out. "I'm sorry, Ghost."
Ghost sighed (?) and floated closer to Hideo. "And I'm sorry too..."
Cayde clapped his hands together and erupted into a happy tune. "Great! Onwards!"
"Wait, but-" And I was whisked away again.
We met Lakshmi-2, Future War Cult's leader, Amanda Holliday, the shipwright, and then we met... "Banshee-44! Gunsmith of the Tower! Your gun ever on the fritz, he's the man to bring it to! Speaking of guns, what are you even rocking, kid?"
Sheepishly, I brought out the Khovstov and the Calcutta and laid them out on Banshee's table. "This is what we found." Ghost said. "It wasn't much, but it helped us get out of there alive."
Banshee took a look at the weapons and scoffed. "Garbage. Runt like you ain't gon' last long out there without something better... Hang on..." Banshee turned around and looked at the guns hanging on the railings behind him. Finally, he brought out three weapons. One that looked like an auto rifle, another that looked like a hand cannon, and another that looked like a... toy. I have no idea what it was. "Try these, kid. See how they fit."
"Umm... Okay..." I took the autorifle one first and held it in my hands. It felt heavy just like my previous gun but it felt more strong... I aimed it at a target dummy Banshee had set up and squeezed the trigger. The recoil felt hard against my shoulder and I couldn't keep up the rate of fire. "Yeah, no. That's a no from me, Banshee."
"Huh..." Banshee gave a disgruntled scoff and took back the auto rifle. "Next." He handed me the revolver and let me handle the weapon.
Again, it felt heavy but had a much more comfortable weight. I didn't know how to operate it, only how to squeeze a trigger. I aimed the revolver at the dummy and fired. The recoil forced the gun out of my hand and jetted straight towards my head. The impact cracked my overshield and left me clutching my nose on the ground.
"OOHH! OW! NO NO A THOUSAND TIMES NO, BANSHEE!" I yelled. "WHAT WAS THAT?"
Cayde chuckled as Banshee grabbed the revolver from the floor. "Guess she ain't using a hand canon any time soon. Let her try the scout rifle, you ol' dog." Cayde said.
"Think it might be suited for this one. We'll see." Banshee handed me the toy looking gun as I got up and my nose began to feel better.
"I swear of this thing flies out of my hands..." I aimed the gun and squeezed the trigger. I expected it to shoot more than once, but it only shot once, like the hand canon. The recoil was drastically different, though.
"Huh..." Banshee saw me shoot the scout rifle a few more times before my magazine ran out. "Seems like we got your main workhorse weapon, kid. Bring it back when you get some more experience under your belt and I'll whip it up to shape." He said.
"Thanks Banshee!" I said as I stowed the scout rifle away on my back. "You can keep the sniper, too! There's no way I'll-"
Cayde stopped my words fast. "Hold it, kid. You gotta have another weapon with you in sticky situations. Banshee?"
"Got 'er covered. Try these on for size, kid." Banshee laid out a few more weapons on the table and I dreaded what kind of recoil they would have considering I only shot the sniper once and it nearly knocked me out...
After we finished up at Banshee's corner, Ghost and I went back to the Tower Hangar to check up on my ship. She was a beautiful woman who knew her way around a wrench. At least, that's what Cayde told me when we met her the first time. "Howdy, Guardian! Right on time! Just finished up with the last of the repairs of yer ship and she's purring like a sweet kitten!"
Her country accent was thick with excitement as she showed the very bland ship that was floating just above us. "Thank you so much, Amanda! I can't thank you enough!" I said to her. Instinctively, I gave her a huge hug and she reciprocated in kind.
"Well aren't you jus' a ray o' sunshine! 'F I didn' know any better, I'd say you were actually just a youngster!"
Neither Ghost nor I responded. It was Cayde who saved our skins. "Right? These new lights are getting smaller and smaller every time... So, what about a warp drive, Amanda?"
"No dice, Cayde. 'Fraid that the only ones we have left are for emergency use only for strike teams and the Commander. Even if I had extras, I couldn't give one to the Guardian. No clearance." With a dejected sigh, Amanda gestured to my ship. "Still, reckon if you got what it takes, Guardian, I'm sure you can scavenge one out in the wild."
"Of course! That Archon! I'm sure if there's any warp drives left out there, then they would definitely offer it up to him. Still..." Ghost looked at me with my new equipment as if he was afraid to say something.
"What is it, Ghost?" I asked.
"Nothing. We can discuss it more in the ship. We're going back to the Cosmodrome!"
I gave a confident smile and turned to Amanda. "Sure, she's all yours. Give 'em hell, Guardian!"
Ghost transmatted me to the front of the ship. I was glad he took care of most of the controls because I couldn't begin to decipher them.
With a rumbling noise, the ship turned 180 degrees out towards the hangar and with a push of the lever, we bolted away back to the Cosmodrome.
On our way there, I turned to Ghost after I made sure that our communications line was private. "So, what did you want to say back there, Ghost? Seemed like something was on your mind."
"Well... Don't take this the wrong way, Hana, but..."
"But...?"
"Well, the vanguard is right. You really are just a kid. I knew something was wrong when we first met. You keep talking about things I don't see any way in you knowing about and... and..."
"And...?" My voice pathetically cracked as I said that.
"And you aren't the least bit worried... As if this... any of this is just some sort of game."
"Well of course it's a game, isn't it? I mean, I get it. You guys and the NPCs back at the Tower aren't REALLY conscious, right? It's all a script and I'm just pushing it along."
As soon as I said those words, I wished I could take them back. When I saw just how taken aback Ghost was, it made myself feel terrible. "N-no I didn't mean... Ghost..."
Ghost audibly sighed. "It's okay, Hana. Like I said before, we share a neural interface together and from what I could feel from you, you really meant those words..."
I sighed as well. "I'm sorry, Ghost. I just... I don't know what is happening right now. I'm scared. I'm really really scared and worried about my dad and what all of this entails. I don't even know if I'm just feigning ignorance or if I'm just being hopeful for something or someone to give me a clear answer. Just... please know I really do care about you. You can feel it with your neural thingy, right?"
Ghost looked at me and he seemed to brighten up. "I definitely can feel that you care about me deeply, Hana. Oh Traveler, forgive me..."
I began to get worried. "What's wrong, Ghost?"
"Hana... I don't know everything about you because I only just met you and I feel like I can put my faith in you. I would follow you to the edge of the galaxy and back if that's what you want to do, but I would feel..."
"You can tell me, Ghost. I'm here for you."
"I would feel more confident in you if... you told me about who you are. Who you REALLY are..." Ghost said that with as much confidence and gusto as he could muster, but even I could tell how hard he struggled to get the words out. "Oh my... I can't believe I asked that..."
"Well of course you can ask me that, Ghost. Why were you struggling so hard with that?"
"Finally something you don't know!" Ghost said excitedly. "Sorry, that came out wrong. Ahem. Well, among Guardians, it's an incredibly huge taboo to ask or recall a Guardian's past life. It's something that's best left in the dust, but every once in a while, a Guardian remembers who they are and where they came from. Asking about it is a big no-no and I just desecrated centuries of tradition... Oh jeez this feels awful."
Understanding what Ghost had just asked me, the monumental realization hit me hard. I took a deep breath and held out my palm to Ghost again. "Well, you're my partner from now on, Ghost. We're in it together, so it's only fair you know who you're going to be stuck with."
Ghost chuckled at that corny line. It felt good seeing him in good spirits. "Well, tell me everything about you, Hana. It's not everyday a Ghost can hear their Guardian's past life and be there from the start to continue their journey with them!"
I smiled brightly and set Ghost in front of me. I crossed my legs and took a deep breath. "I was born in the middle of Spring to Ichika Sasaki and Lucio Valiente..."