A Destiny 2 inspired short story by MM Dameron
She awoke, the opening of her eyes heralding a sudden existence brought forth out of darkness and into the light. She nearly had to close them again, as the bright sun pierced through the clouds and directly onto where she lay, almost as if to usher her into the world, or perhaps to welcome her back. Cold air blew through over the landscape, as she sat up from her prone position.
“Guardian?” said an excited voice, “Come on! Eyes up Guardian!”
She turned her gaze away from the sun and towards a small, floating thing hovering just a few feet from her face. It was a tiny round being, with no visible mouth from which to speak from, and only a single mechanical eye encased within a white shell. She almost thought that the voice must have come from someone else nearby, until the thing spoke again.
“Good! You’re up! Welcome back to the land of the living! Long story short, you were dead, now you’re alive, and you’re a guardian! Isn’t that cool?”
The floating thing rotated its shell in excitement, and floated just a bit higher. She was still reeling from suddenly waking up with this… whatever it was hovering in her face. Did she hear it right? Did the ball really say she was…
“I was dead? What do you mean?”
“Oh, yeah! You’ve been out of commission for who knows how long! But you don’t have to worry about that now. Besides, there’s no time! We’ve gotta see you in action, Guardian!”
“What… Who… but I…”
Suddenly, a strange noise cut through the air and interrupted her confused stammering about “Who” and “What” and “How”. It was like that of a beast, a guttural sound which extended out into a screech. Fear immediately overtook her, as she whipped her gaze around her surroundings, trying to find where it came from.
She found herself amongst a pile of rusted and broken machinery, in the shadow of a large building adorned a spire with three interconnected spheres atop it. To her left was a forest, the darkness of the trees holding unknown terrors within them. As she turned to see what existed behind her, she beheld a large wall, hundreds of feet high and made of all manner of rusted scrap metal, hastily welded together and spanning the length of the horizon.
“Come on, Guardian! That came from inside there!” The orb being motioned towards the wall, and rapidly sped in the direction of the horrifying sound which paralyzed the “guardian” with dread. She couldn’t get her legs to work, and her whole body shook despite her best efforts to keep it under control. The orb, noticing that she wasn’t following yet, turned its attention back to her. “What are you waiting for? You’re a Guardian! Let’s go get this thing!”
Not knowing anything else to do, and hating the idea of being left alone in case something even worse than… whatever they were chasing after might appear out of those woods, she slowly took to her feet, shaky and unsteadily. She began to follow the ball, who reluctantly slowed down so that she could keep pace, getting closer and closer to the towering sight of the wall until even the cloudy sky was no longer visible. It guided her through a large sliver in the structure, and then even further through the belly of the beast. Up winding staircases, over piles of scrap which had fallen from the roof, and through small passageways which she could barely fit through, the two hunted down the source of the noise.
She still had so many questions, but every time she tried to ask her companion any of them, it was either too excited by the idea of what they were tracking or was too distracted by something in the area to notice what she said. Eventually, they finally emerged from a ventilation shaft which she was worried the whole time might collapse under her weight and out into a hallway, crowded with old crates and computer terminals. The small orb scouted ahead just a bit, peering around the corner of the doorway, before returning to her.
“You’re gonna love this. We’ve found the guy we’ve been looking for.”
Slowly, it guided her down the hall to the open doorway, and motioned for her to peek around it. With a small motion and her vision pressed firmly as far as it could go, she slowly took a look at what might have been the source of all her fear, and all this trouble.
She saw a tall, lanky figure bent over and rummaging through a box of scrap. She had never seen anything like it before, but considering the only other “living” thing she knew of was a small floating orb, that wasn’t immediately grounds for terror. No, the unsettling part of this creature was how grotesque it was. Sharp rows of teeth lined its jaws, and its face was made up of two groups of two luminescent eyes each, which scanned through the rusted garbage as if it were a great haul. Instead of her two arms and her two hands, this thing had an extra set on each side of its body, and the arms that weren’t being used for poking through the box were holding a long and dangerous looking device, which pulsated with blue light faintly.
She could barely stand to look at it, before dread once again overtook her entire body and she felt glued to where she sat, the orb hovering right in front of her with an expectant look in its eye.
“Well?” It chided.
“Well, what?” She instinctively thought in response. Her lips didn’t even need to move, as if she sent the message directly to the orb with no sound. It seemed to receive it as well, as it rotated to the side just slightly in annoyance.
“Aren’t you gonna kill it?”
“But, why would I do that? I don’t even know what that thing is! I don’t even know what you are! I have no idea what is going on right now!” She slammed her palms against her head and her breathing began to become harder.
The thing floated a bit closer to her, its expression a bit more embarrassed. “Oh, sorry. I probably should have explained that to you. My bad! So, I’m what’s known as a ghost, and that icky, disgusting thing around the corner is what we call a vandal. Hope that helps! Now, go kill it!” The ghost looked pleased with itself and expectant with her, as if all questions were now answered. That was very much not the case, and her fear and confusion only mounted.
“But why? And even if I did want to kill it, how? And how am I alive? And where are we? And… and…”
“Right! You’ll need a weapon! One sec… Okay, hold out your hand!”
She did as she was told. The ghost floated above her palm for a moment, and half a second later she felt a weight within her grasp, which she nearly dropped. It was a small device, with a round compartment that held six small cylinders, a long chute that the ghost told her not to aim at herself, and a small hook which comfortably allowed her finger to slip around.
“That’s a handcannon. I picked it up a while back, before I found you. I knew it’d come in handy! Now, remember, just point and shoot. It’s that simple!”
“Point… and shoot?”
“Yep! Remember, you’re a Guardian! You can take care of anything that gets in your way with that gun! So, come on! Eyes up, Guardian! There’s a vandal that needs killing!”
“You still haven’t answered why yet!”
The ghost rotated its shell in annoyance and she could have sworn that it gave a small huff. “Look, that thing is a bad guy. It’s going to try and kill you. So, you have to kill it before it does that! Otherwise, you’ll die and then I’ll die and then it’s game over! So, come on! Up, up up! Let’s do this! It’s vandal killing time!”
The ghost began to bump against her, encouraging her to stand up. “But, what if I…”
“No! Come on, just kill the damn vandal!”
“O… Okay…”
She once again fought against her shaking legs, using the wall behind her as support to take to her feet. Steadying her breathing, she raised the handcannon to her chest. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly took a step forward…
Clang!
Her toe kicked into a small rusted pipe on the ground, and she immediately felt a wave of fear wash over her as the sound reverberated down the hall. The vandal swiftly snapped its attention away from its box of scraps and towards her, a hateful glare in its eyes. Before she could even think, the creature had its weapon raised and a blast of blue electricity shot out of it, hitting her square in the chest. She recoiled in pain, and she nearly fell over in pain.
Her vision clouded with dread and darkness, she raised the handcannon towards the vandal. As she pulled the trigger, she felt like the weapon in her hand had a better chance of blowing her own arm off rather than doing anything to the monster in front of her. It completely missed entirely, the shot putting a hole into the rusted wall behind the vandal. The thing turned to look at the hole the bullet left, before returning its gaze towards her, a nasty smile on its lips and a guttural, alien chuckle in its throat.
It leapt upon her in that moment, slashing at her arms and torso with a knife that sparked that same shade of electric blue. Somehow, someway, she managed to wrestle the vandal off of her without being torn to shreds by the blade. She pushed it away from her forcefully, and the ghost let out a cheer of excitement.
Now freed from its grasp, she hazarded a glance down the hallway. In the distance, she saw a faint glow of sunlight, creeping through a crack in the wall. She took one more look at the vandal, who was quickly rising from the floor, and terror struck her in that moment. She didn’t know what was going on, she didn’t know why she was fighting this thing, she had no idea who this ghost was or why it wanted her to kill the creature, and she certainly, without a single doubt, did not know what the hell a guardian was or why she was one. She didn’t even know her own name.
But she did know one thing. She couldn’t stay here.
So, she found all the strength she could muster and she began to run. Away from the vandal, away from the ghost, and away from this place. She didn’t want to be a guardian. She wanted to be safe. She wanted to go back to being dead.
She didn’t have to wait very long. She heard the sound of a bolt of electricity once again crackle in the air, and felt a stinging, seraing pain against her back. Some sort of protection which kept her alive before broke against this shot, as it pierced into her spine. She began to fall, and everything went black.
There was a light, far in the distance. It beckoned to her, so soft and pure. She was so tired just a moment ago, but now everything was serene, gentle. She couldn’t even remember what it was she was so afraid of, or why she felt so heavy before. Now there was only light, calling her forward. She reached out, and allowed her hand to be taken hold by the light. It interlocked its rays between her fingertips. She felt an overwhelming sense of euphoria. Her story was only beginning. The light pulled her forward…
Once again, she awoke, this time on a cold hard floor. With a cough and sputter, she lifted herself up, and the ghost once again hovered just in front of her face.
“Okay, well, you’re welcome. Your tactical retreat didn’t quite work, but I’ll give you a pass this time since it’s your first fight. Now come on! Get up! You’ve still got a vandal to kill!”
“What?” She turned her gaze behind her, and sure enough the creature was staring in her direction, slowly making its way over to where she lay. “Shit!”
Thinking as fast as her mind could, which was still a bit hazy from her second resurrection, she scrambled behind a nearby crate for cover. The monster once again gave that low raspy laugh, and she saw from a peekhole in the cover that it had its weapon raised once again, waiting for her.
She fumbled on her person for her handcannon, which the ghost rematerialzed back into her hands once again. With no thought to her action, she hopped up from behind her barricade and fired vaguely in the direction that the vandal stood. However, the creature was quicker on the draw, and once again blasted her with a bolt of electricity which slammed into the side of her head and sent her reeling. Her bullet blasted into the roof of the hallway, causing a small ray of sunlight to pierce through. Pain surged through her, and she ducked for cover again.
“What are you doing! You’ve gotta aim before you shoot! You’re embarrassing me here!”
“I’m sorry! I just woke up ten minutes ago and I have no idea what’s going on!”
“That’s no excuse! You’re a guardian, now act like one! Maybe try running up and hitting the damn thing!”
“With what?”
“Your fists! You could have some hidden kung-fu abilities locked in that noggin of yours! Or maybe you’re a Titan! It’s worth a shot! Go get ’em!”
The ghost nudged her forcefully, urging her to take matters into her hands. She took a deep breath, put her handcannon on the ground, and quickly bolted out of her cover.
She never even got a chance to take a step. The vandal once again read her moves, and without a moment’s hesitation, once again placed an arc bullet through her cranium. For the second time in only a few seconds, she was dead.
Once again, everything went dark, then she felt that comforting light calling for her, urging her towards it. Just like before, she eagerly reached out her hand and let the soothing presence wash over her, accepting the light’s embrace.
She awoke for the third time. The ground was still cold, still hard, and her entire body felt sore. She blinked a few times, letting her mind refresh and come to. She had to do something…
The vandal!
She quickly spun around where she lied, peering into the darkness for those hateful eyes. However, all she saw was the ghost from before, floating above her and with a rather perturbed look in its eye. Its shell slowly rotated in frustration.
“What was that?”
“Where did…”
“You’re supposed to be a bad-ass Fallen slaying guardian. Chumps like that vandal should be an easy fight for you. What the hell happened?”
“I mean, we… we could a…always try it aga-“
“Never mind about the vandal. It’s gone anyways. Was more interested in its useless scrap than anything you had. Didn’t even bother to loot you. That’s just pathetic.”
For some reason, she felt a sting of remorse and embarrassment that she hadn’t been looted. She had let the ghost down, and now it was probably going to go find someone else to be a cool guardian that can kill vandals and shoot really well. She instinctively pulled her knees up to her chest and hid her head between her legs in shame.
“Sorry I suck at being a guardian.”
The ghost sighed and floated closer to her.
“Hey, it was your first fight. I’m sorry too, I probably got you a bit in over your head. You’ll get the next one, for sure!”
She looked up from where she sat, stunned by the ghost’s vote of confidence. Didn’t she just embarrass it completely? Wasn’t she a failure of a guardian?
“I don’t… I don’t understand. Why are you so confident in me?”
The ghost backed away for a moment, looking internally for an answer to the question. It floated forward again, gently this time.
“Well, you’re my guardian. There’s something about you that drew me to you, and the guardian that is my guardian must be the best there is. Because I’m awesome, and by extension you are too!”
She felt a little encouraged by that response, even if it was pretty narcissistic. However, she was confused by one thing that the ghost had said.
“What do you mean by ‘your guardian’? Can’t you just get a different guardian to fight vandals?” She said, with a puzzled cock of her head.
The ghost spun its shell, a bit flustered. “Well, not exactly. See, I can only raise one guardian… ever. So, that means that you and I are bound for life. Pretty much forever unless I can’t revive you or I die.”
She finally felt some semblance of understanding as to what was going on. Finally, questions were being answered! She had the intuition that at any moment this excitable ghost would get distracted and float on to the next vandal to fight, so she knew she had a very small window to ask as many questions as she could.
“So how many other guardians are there?”
“Oh, there’s loads of them all around the solar system! Fighting the enemies of the light wherever they hide.”
“And do all guardians have a… you’s?”
“Oh no, no other guardian has a me’s. I’m as unique as they come! But yes, each guardian has a ghost, and each ghost has a guardian. Except for the ghosts whose guardians… uh… die. For good.”
“Can’t they just bring them back to life again? I mean, I was dead twice and you brought me back both times. How can a guardian die?”
“Well, sometimes some particularly stupid guardians get themselves into situations where they can’t be revived. Places so dark the light can’t even reach. So, their ghost is without a guardian. On the other hand, sometimes some evil, wicked, disgusting thing will decide to attack a ghost and kill it, meaning that the guardian can’t be revived. Ghost-less guardians, and guardian-less ghosts.”
She tried her best to wrap her head around that thought, but it just didn’t quite click with her. Couldn’t they just bring them back to life later? And can’t a ghost just revive themselves?
“Hey, I can see those servos endlessly spinning in your processor there, but don’t think too hard about it. As long as you listen to me, and don’t do anything stupid, you and I are gonna make it out of everything alright. Now…”
The ghost turned its attention away from her and towards the crack in the wall from earlier that she had tried to escape out of. The last shreds of orange sunlight peeked through, as a cloudy night began to set upon the wall. The ghost rotated back around to face her, and she knew that her time for questions was running out.
“Wait!” She called to the ghost, before it got the chance to do something reckless, “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to call you.”
“Oh, you mean my name?” The ghost piped.
“Yes. What’s your name?”
“Well, I call myself Fahrenheit, on account of the fact that I like the heat of battle, you know? It tends to get hot when I’m around.” Fahrenheit spun her chassis in excitement at this declaration, but soon looked down bashfully. “I probably should have told you that sooner too. Got a little carried away again.”
“Okay. Fahrenheit. That’s kinda cool, I guess… Do you by any chance know what my name is?” She asked.
“Well, not really. Most guardians don’t know their name and kinda make up new ones for themselves. That’s what not remembering your past will do for ya! However,” Fahrenheit zoomed close to her, its eye scanning over her body for something, “since you are an Exo you should… Aha! Yes right here! Back of your neck, you’ve got a serial bar with your name on it! Let’s see…” The ghost leaned a bit closer to get a better look.
“St… err… ee… day… dash one eight. Streeday One Eight! No wait… Stride! Stride-18! That’s your name! Stride-18!” The ghost spun around excitedly, obviously pleased with itself. The newly named Stride-18 felt something inside of her whirr and stutter, almost as if a dormant system had come online. Stride-18. That surely was her name, she could feel it.
“Of course, you don’t have to go by that. There are quite a few exos who choose to use a different name instead of their-“
“No. I like it. Stride-18. It sounds nice.” She smiled to herself and looked up at Fahrenheit. “Nice to meet you, Fahrenheit.”
“Uh, yeah! Nice to, uh, meet you too, Stride-18! Now, if we’re done with the pleasantries and questions…”
Stride-18 cut off Fahrenheit once again with another question, “What does the 18 mean?”
“Oh, well all exos have their name and then a version number. Usually that means that either their previous incarnation died or was reset. I guess that means that happened to you… 18 times.” The ghost seemed a bit disturbed by its own answer, and looked away from Stride for just a moment.
“So… does that mean there’s 18 different me’s out there?”
“No, probably not. That’s not exactly how it works. You had 18 previous versions of yourself, but only the current you is… you, if that makes sense.”
“But when I woke up the first time you said I died.”
“…Yes?” Fahrenheit was obviously puzzled by this line of questioning, not really sure what Stride’s point was. “You died and then I brought you back to life. Simple as that.”
“But if there were 18 versions of me before, then I must have died 18 times already?”
The ghost sighed deeply and turned away from Stride. “Look, okay, you’re overthinking it again. Sometimes things die and come back to life, sometimes they stay dead. That’s just how it goes. Now, get up! I want to show you something!” Fahrenheit returned to the crack in the wall, the last bit of sunlight finally escaping behind the hills in the distance. Stride stood and followed her ghost to the opening, immediately feeling a tough gust of wind against her face.
“Wanna know another cool thing about being a guardian? You can jump from pretty much any height, and be perfectly fine.” Fahrenheit floated out into the night air, away from the hall and above the opening in the wall. It gave that same expectant look from before the vandal fight, waiting for Stride-18 to do something truly amazing. Once again, Stride responded to these expectations with trepidation, as she peered over the edge of the wall.
She couldn’t exactly tell how high up the two of them were, but from her estimations, they must have been really damn high. The ground below her was nothing more than a dark speck, and another strong breeze threatened to toss her from her perch. She managed to grab tight to a pole along the side of the wall, and looked to Fahrenheit.
“Are you really sure about this?”
“Absolutely! Now come on! Jump! You’ll be fine! Just don’t look down.”
Naturally, that comment immediately made Stride-18 look down, and the ground now somehow looked even further from her than before. The only sound she made was a squeak of fear, and she looked up again to find Fahrenheit.
But her ghost was nowhere to be seen.
“Fahrenheit?”
“Last one to the bottom is a Dreg!” She heard from below, as Fahrenheit began to float towards the ground pristinely. With ice in her veins, Stride-18 took a deep breath, readied her nerves… and began to slowly descend the wall along the outside, clinging to it for dear life. She didn’t know whether or not she could be considered Stride-21 after her last three revivals, but she sure as hell didn’t want to become Stride-22. Carefully and nervously she climbed down, struggling to find stable footholds along the smoother parts of the wall.
Gradually, she was beginning to gain a bit of confidence in her descent, and reached for a handhold which looked to be the remains of a vehicle door bolted to the side of the wall. Wrapping her hand around the handle, she put her weight entirely onto it for just a moment…
The handle snapped, and she immediately found herself sliding against the wall, unable to slow her fall. She began to panic, reaching for any hold she could possibly grab, but couldn’t find anything. The ground got closer…
“Jump!” Cried Fahrenheit
With no better plan and another death rapidly approaching, Stride-18 took her ghost’s advice and pushed off the side of the rusted wall. Her body was propelled forward faster than she expected, as if the wind had given her an extra boost. But the large problem of the Earth getting closer and closer was still very apparent, and she braced herself for impact.
“Jump again!” Her ghost once again advised her.
“On what?” She retorted in a panicked voice.
“Just trust me! Jump again!”
Stride once again did as she was told and pushed her legs against the empty air about ten feet before she would have become a pile of broken parts against the Earth. To her amazement, it was if there was a layer of solid ground at her feet, as she was once again launched upwards. She had just jumped on absolutely nothing and in her shock and awe she temporarily forgot about the ground coming to meet her.
She collided with the Earth in a tumble, and rolled slightly down a small hill before coming to a stop at the base of the wall, completely unharmed. Her entire body was once again sore, but nothing seemed to be broken, internally or externally. She cast her gaze to the crack in the wall where she came from, so high above her, and an intense feeling of adrenaline overtook her. She began to laugh softly to herself, absolutely overwhelmed with what she had just experienced. Did she really just fall that far? Did she really just land that easily? Did she really just jump on thin air?
As she continued to laugh, she saw Fahrenheit’s form gently float to where she lay. It looked very pleased, both with itself and, for once, with her. “Great job, Stride! Not the softest of landings, but also not the worst double jump I’ve ever seen! I’d give it a 6 out of 10.”
Stride continued to laugh to herself, the adrenaline continuing to course through her. Eventually, after a few more minutes of this, the feeling of euphoria passed and she found herself exhausted from the day. She stood up, dusted herself off, and looked up at the dark sky above her. The night was completely overcast, no light shining through those clouds, and the air began to sting with a coldness she hadn’t felt before.
“We should try and find another guardian. They might be able to take you under your wing and teach you more than even I could. Come on, there’s bound to be some around here. They’re more than common around the Cosmodrome. We’re sure to run into at least a few around here.” Fahrenheit chirped, before heading in the direction of the shrouded forest ahead of them. Stride quickly followed behind, trying her best to keep up with the excitable little ghost.
The pair trudged through the woods, which groaned and creaked in the wind. Stride-18, whose adrenaline filled eagerness to find another guardian had quickly turned once again to dread as they got further into the woods, held her hand cannon close and moved slowly, terrified that another vandal might pop out at her at any moment, or something even worse than that. For its own part, Fahrenheit was boldly trudging ahead, the tough wind only slightly hindering its flight.
As they pressed onwards, a light powdering of snow began to fall upon them. However, that light powdering soon intensified into a full on snowstorm, completely blinding them and chilling Stride-18 to the core. She had never known such aching cold before, which pierced through even her thick Exo frame and stung her entire body such that she thought she might die once again from the weather itself. Yet still they continued forward in search of another guardian, who might similarly be stuck in this blizzard.
Eventually, Stride-18 and Fahrenheit spotted a tall, decrepit structure through the blinding white snow which pelted against them. Without a word to each other, they pushed through the banks of snow towards the building, until they reached the front door of the abandoned ramshackle. Stride-18 forced open the door, careful not to break the rotted wooden boards. Her and her ghost both tumbled inside, and she kicked the door closed behind them. She dropped to the ground, her breath completely taken from her after such a long fight against the elements.
She was finally ready to let her eyes shut there, leaned up against the door to the cabin. Prepared to finally get some rest after a long day of fighting enemies, both natural and alien. However, she got a sense that something was wrong. That something was watching her intently, waiting for her to drift off.
Her gaze shot open, and she noticed a total of eight eyes staring down at her, illuminated in the darkness at the back of the cabin. She quickly hopped to her feet and readied her hand cannon, anticipating an attack from the two creatures. Fear began to creep its way forward again, as she was unprepared for even a single vandal. She couldn’t imagine how difficult two vandals might be to defeat, let alone two cold and hungry ones. She hoped that vandals didn’t eat metal, or if they did, that she wouldn’t be that tasty to the monsters. Her arms which held her weapon shook, both from the cold and from the dread she felt as she watched the eyes lurk closer and closer out of the darkness.
Fahrenheit peered further into the shade of the cabin, and gave a light scoff at the two approaching enemies. “These guys are absolute chumps. You can totally take these two. Just, uh, remember to aim this time.”
“Are they both v… vandals?” Stride-18 managed to mutter.
“Nope! You got this, Stride!” Fahrenheit encouraged, before floating up into the rafters, settling into a nice spot in which to get the best possible view of the fight about to ensue.
The comment was meant to reassure her, but the idea that whatever was coming after her from the darkness wasn’t a known entity made her chassis feel colder than even the blizzard outside did. The creatures inched closer, and Stride could make out that same crooked, jagged grin upon their faces, with rows of knife-like teeth leering at her. Unlike the vandal, both of these creatures only had two arms, with two stubs where their second pairs should have been. Both of them held a small gun in one of their hands, which had a faint blue glow, just like the vandal’s. In their other, they clutched a serrated knife that arced with energy.
Stride-18 remembered the last moment before her last death, and how she never got a chance to see if she might really have secret kung-fu powers or was a “Titan” as Fahrenheit said. Mustering all of her courage, all of her might, she quickly rushed forward and sent a cross hook against the jaw of one of the not-vandals in front of her. The creature recoiled in pain slightly, but Stride was pretty sure she did more damage to her own fist than to the monster.
“Okay, so maybe stick to guns then, Stride.” commented Fahrenheit from the peanut gallery. “Remember, aim first, shoot second.”
Stride shook her hand in pain, and looked up at the creature she just hit. The not-vandal lunged at her with its knife, but she deftly weaved underneath the blade’s reach. The second monster pelted her with electricity from its weapon, but the small gun did much less to her than the vandal’s long blaster. Maybe she could take these two after all, she thought to herself.
Above her, Stride-18 noticed a balcony, with an outcropping she was sure she could get to. With all her might, she leaped from the ground, then just like before, she pushed against the open air. She just barely managed to land upon the edge of the balcony, and she had to catch her balance so that she wouldn’t fall back down to the floor beneath her.
With a flourish and twist of her arm, she raised her hand cannon towards the creature she had hit across the jaw before. She gathered the target in the weapon’s sights, took a deep breath, then pulled the trigger.
The bullet blasted through the air with a crack, and it found its target true. The not-vandal fell to the ground, blue blood spewing forth from a hole just below its eye. Stride-18 had finally made her first kill.
The creature’s companion gave a howl of despair at its friend’s demise and it hopped the railing of the stairs to get to the guardian quicker. With its knife raised and teeth bared, it rushed towards Stride with a murderous intent.
It never got to act out those desires, as Stride put a single bullet through its skull as well. The second not-vandal collapsed in a heap at Stride-18’s feet, as dead as its friend downstairs.
Fahrenheit immediately floated down in excitement, hooting and hollering at Stride’s success. It cheered loudly, spinning in circles and orbiting Stride’s motionless stance. For her own part, Stride was rooted to where she stood, unable to process what just happened. She had done it. She had double jumped to a better position. She had aimed her gun and hit her targets. She had killed two not-vandals. She had made Fahrenheit proud. She had been a guardian.
Her legs gave out on her again, and she had to steady herself on the banister next to her to keep from falling over completely. She luckily hadn’t had anything to eat, because if she had it would have inevitably come out of her at that moment. She didn’t even really know if she needed to eat, being a machine and all.
“You did it! You freakin’ did it! Hell yeah! That’s my guardian! You were like BLAM! Then BOOM! Took ’em both out! Yes! Yes! I knew you could do it!”
Fahrenheit continued to bob up and down in excitement for a moment, letting out a loud squeal of joy, before hovering over to the corpse of the second not-vandal. “Okay, now you loot the body!”
Stride-18 went from overwhelmed to mortified, as she looked down upon the dead creature before her. She didn’t want to be anywhere closer to it, let alone picking through its pockets. Slowly, she inched towards the dead thing, raising her hand cannon at it in case this was one of the things in this world that didn’t stay dead. Luckily, the creature did not move a muscle as she neared, and she snatched the short red cloak that it had wrapped around it out from under the corpse. That was all the looting she really needed, encasing herself in what little warmth the thin piece of fabric offered.
Once more, she sat and closed her eyes. With a shiver, she balled her legs up to her chest and did her best to contain what little heat she could. Her insides had cooled from the fight already, and she was back to freezing, though less than she was when she was outside. Fahrenheit floated close and observed her, a ponderous look in its eye. “You know, you look pretty good in that cloak, Stride.” It remarked.
Stride just wrapped herself up even tighter, expecting to wait out the snowstorm in this cold cabin with two dead things and a morbid ghost to keep her company. She began to feel herself drifting to sleep…
Crash!
The door burst open, and Stride immediately jumped up, hand cannon at the ready. Howling wind could be heard pouring in through the opening, as the stomp of three different sets of boots tumbled forward into the cabin.
“Shut the door! Dammit, shut the door!” A low voice shouted over the wind, and a moment later the door slammed closed once again, and a few of its rotted boards broke off with a clatter to the ground. “Well shit, Cerbs, not that hard!”
Stride-18 had never heard any other voices before, except for Fahrenheit’s, and she cowered a bit at the harsh tone of the speaker. What if these were more bad guys, coming to attack her? What if they were going to take her cloak and toss her back out into the cold? She tightened her grip on her weapon and tried to move carefully to not grab their attention. Maybe she could sneak around them.
“Look Stride! More guardians!” Fahrenheit cried out, causing the three below to immediately take notice of the two of them on the balcony.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Fahrenheit. I see you’ve been getting into trouble again.” Said the low voice, chuckling as the ghost floated closer and began to weave between the three of them. “Who’s your friend, kid?”
“That’s my guardian! Stride! Come meet some other guardians!” Fahrenheit called up to her.
Stride-18’s lungs felt heavy, and she kept her hand cannon raised forward and clung tightly to her cloak as she cautiously descended the stairs and approached the group of guardians. There were indeed three of them, each clad in armor of different kinds and each with a helmet obscuring their faces. The one who spoke with Fahrenheit wore a long robe which fell all the way to the floor, and a metal spur jingled softly as he inched forward towards Stride.
“It’s alright now, we ain’t gonna hurtcha. Besides, that lil thing in your hand couldn’t kill us anyways.” He said in a low, calming voice.
Stride glanced towards the two creatures dead on the ground, gun still nervously raised. She tried to sound confident, but her voice shook both out of fear and from the chill now wafting in through the broken door. “W… Well, I mean, I… I killed both of the no… not-vandals… s. I… I got them in o…one sho… t each…ch.”
“We’d probably be able to take you out in one shot too, kid.” Piped up a cloaked guardian, who Stride had almost lost track of in the darkness of the cabin.
The robed guardian sidled closer. “Hey, Stride was it? We’re all friends here, okay? You don’t point your gun at friends.” The robed man slowly reached up and removed his helmet, revealing a face unlike any creature she’d seen so far.
Unlike her mechanical face, with a hard metallic carapace layered over a chassis, his face was covered in soft and pale skin, with plenty of hair covering both his head and above his lips. He smiled at her with eyes that were watery and squishy rather than her tough viewports, and something about those eyes made her feel like she could trust him. She slowly lowered her weapon, and the man’s shoulders relaxed. He stood up straight to her and held out his hand.
“Name’s Walker.”
She looked down at his hand, unsure of what she was supposed to do in the situation. “Stride-18.” She simply responded, leaving Walker’s hand unshaken.
The man gave an embarrassed cough and dropped his hand back to his side. “Right. Well, we’re all freezin’ our hides off out there so you mind if we hole up here with you for the night?”
Stride turned her head at him, puzzled by the request. “It’s not my cabin.” She responded, genuinely.
Walker gave a hearty chuckle at that, but she didn’t quite see what was funny about the comment. He gestured for the other two guardians to approach, and he pointed to each of them as they got closer. “That there’s Cerberus,” he said, pointing towards the tall man in heavy armor, “and the moody one’s Juno-4.” He waved his arm in the cloaked guardian’s direction.
“Hello, I’m Stride-18.” Stride said to each of them individually. Cerberus gave her a cheerful wave, while Juno-4 simply nodded her head in Stride’s direction. “Oh! And this is Fahrenheit.” She gestured towards her ghost, who had returned to floating behind her.
“Trust me, we already know your ghost very well. Isn’t that right, Fahrenheit?” Juno-4 snarked, her head turned towards the ghost. It simply floated a bit lower, its eye dropping slightly in embarrassment.
“Yeah, Stride, you’ve got a real troublemaker on your hands. You’re gonna have to keep an eye on that one.” Said Cerberus, taking a seat in an old chair that gave a long creak of pain under his weight.
“Let’s get some warmth in here, why don’t we?” Walker said, before snapping his fingers in the direction of a fireplace that hadn’t been used in who knows how long. Sparks of orange shot forward from his fingertips, and fire caught immediately at the spots where they landed. Stride-18 immediately felt a wave of warmth wash over her, but there was something even more than that. A feeling of something deep inside, sparking in that moment as well.
“Well, that blizzard’s not letting up anytime soon, so we have time to sit and chat before we take you back to the Last City. I imagine you have a lot of questions, miss.” Walker asked, taking a seat on the floor in front of the fireplace.
Stride-18’s mind immediately whirred to life, as she began to cycle in her head through every single question she had about the world and what her purpose in it was. She didn’t even know which ones to ask first, because they all seemed equally important at the moment. As she thought, she slid into a sitting position next to the fire, sitting so close to it that she threatened to fall into the fireplace.
Walker pulled her back from the flame by her shoulder and sat her next to him. “Alright, I can tell you’ve got quite a few, so why don’t we start with us asking you some questions first.” Walker gestured to the two dead creatures, which Juno was busy picking over for anything good. “You say you took care of them Dregs? That your first fight?”
“Oh, no! I fought a vandal earlier. I kinda sucked at it. It took more than one shot, and I didn’t even hit it.”
Walker nodded. “Yep. Vandals can be real tricky for a kinderguardian like you. Which is something that your ghost probably should have thought about before tossing you in front of one.” He shot Fahrenheit a judgemental look, and the ghost refused to meet his gaze.
“Yeah, but I killed the not-vandals! And in one-shot! So that means… I can kill anything that isn’t a vandal in a single shot! Just not vandals.”
The other three guardians let out a cacophony of laughter, and Juno looked towards Stride with disbelief. “You’ll need something better than that dinky little blaster to start.”
“Are there other types of hand cannons? Bigger ones?”
“You mean guns? Oh you know it!” Shouted Cerberus, who materialized a large machine gun in his hands. “I use this one against the big guys. It shreds them with bullets! I freaking love this thing.”
“So it needs more than one shot to kill something?” Stride-18 asked. She didn’t mean any insult, but her naturally inquisitive tone was mistaken for dismissal, and Cerberus dropped his shoulders a bit in disappointment.
“Uh, what Cerbs is trying to say is that there are a lot of different guns, and each does something different. Some are meant for filling enemies with bullets, some for killing in one shot. It just depends on the kind of weapon, and the kind of enemy.” Walker explained.
Stride nodded, her question answered, but she felt unsatisfied with the answer. Why use more than one shot if one is all you need to kill? It didn’t quite make sense to her. Then again, not much had made sense so far in her short second life (Twenty-second? Twenty-third? She had lost count already).
“What about punching? I was told I might have kung-fu skills? Or might be a titan?”
Juno-4 scoffed as Stride mentioned being a titan. “You’d be the shortest and scrawniest titan I’d ever seen.”
Cerberus, meanwhile, immediately perked up. “Nothing wrong with being short and skinny! I mean, maybe we bulk you up with some armor first, but anyone can be a titan with the right mentality!”
“You mean the right brain damage?” Juno retorted.
“Anyways,” Walker interrupted, intercepting an argument before it occurred, “You could be a titan, or you could just be a hunter with some hand-to-hand prowess.”
“So you’re saying that I do have secret kung-fu skills?” Stride asked. “I mean, I punched one of the not-vandals and it kinda just hurt more than anything. Do I always have to fight up close like that?”
“No, you don’t.” Said Walker. “Yes, you should!” Shouted Fahrenheit at the exact same time. They glared at each other for a moment, before both once again speaking at the same time.
“Don’t listen to it.” Said Walker. “Don’t listen to him.” Said Fahrenheit.
“Getting into the middle of the battle is what it’s all about! Get that adrenaline pumping!” Shouted Fahrenheit.
The man snatched the ghost out of the air, and it protested with a muffled voice from inside his palm. “If you’re trying to guarantee you’ll get yourself killed, maybe. You can also choose to use long range weapons and snipe from afar.” Walker more calmly explained, before letting Fahrenheit go with a slight shove to send it floating off into the corner of the room.
“And they can still kill in one shot?” Stride-18 asked, still hung up on that one detail.
“Like I said, depends on the weapon, depends on the enemy, but usually snipers are pretty strong. I think Juno’s got one she could show you.”
He turned towards Juno-4 expectantly, but she just slowly shook her head. “Don’t touch my stuff.” She muttered.
Walker shrugged and turned back to Stride-18. “She’s a bit territorial. Nightstalkers are like that.”
Stride still had so many questions in her to ask, and over the course of the night Walker stayed up and answered each and every one that he could. He patiently explained anything she could think of, including the classes of hunter, titan, and warlock (the last one was Walker’s class), the Last City, the Fallen houses and how to tell the differences between them based on their insignias and colors (specifically which ones were friendly towards guardians and which were hostile), and even some things she didn’t even know about such as the Traveler and the Hive. Stride shuddered a little in fear when he explained to her the Battle of the Burning Lake and the Great Disaster on the Moon, but Walker also told her about how some hive had recently been brought into the light themselves, and now some of them were even trusted allies of humanity.
“But how would I tell which Hive are good and which Hive to shoot? Do they also wear colors, like Fallen?”
“Not exactly. Uh, just shoot the ones who are shooting at you.”
“But I don’t like to be shot.”
“I don’t think anyone does, Stride. Not a fun experience.”
“I’ve already been shot a lot. Died too.”
“Yep, that’ll happen. Just try not to die in a place where your ghost can’t getcha.”
Stride-18 nodded, and found that she was finally running out of questions. She once again turned to the fire in the pit, which had somehow managed to keep going strong, despite the small amount of fuel to keep it steady. She had been periodically looking into it in fascination, but every time she thought to ask about it, Walker was in the middle of explaining something else and she forgot the question soonafter. The blizzard outside had long since subsided hours ago, and the first rays of sunlight began to creep in through the cracks in the door.
“You can make fire.” Stride-18 said towards the warlock, more as a statement than a question. Walker simply nodded, and thumbed the edge of his helmet next to him, his eyes drooping slightly in exhaustion. Cerberus had fallen asleep in the chair earlier, but was slowly coming to, while Juno-4 had remained almost completely motionless the entire night after looting the corpses, and Stride couldn’t honestly tell if she was sleeping or not.
She turned back towards the endless flame, its warmth and light still just as radiant as the moment it was lit. “Do you think I could make fire too?”
“Well, maybe. You might be able to make fire, or use Solar light as we call it. That’s my skillset as well, seein’ as I’m a sunsinger. Or you could be like Cerbs, and utilize Arc light.” Cerberus flexed, and blue sparks shot out from his fists, just like the kind that Stride had seen powering the vandal and dreg’s weapons. “Or maybe you might use Void, like Juno over there does.” Juno did not demonstrate her abilities, or even move. “It’s all a matter of which seems most natural for you to use. So, maybe!” Walker encouraged, with a slightly doubtful tone.
Stride took in this knowledge, but something deep down inside her burned as she once again looked back to the flame. Her enemies were not aliens. Her enemies were not vandals or dregs. She could fight those things, she could even win against them too. No, her real enemies were much more primordial, much more untouchable and intangible. She couldn’t fight the cold of the blizzard, and she couldn’t fight the darkness of the night.
But fire could. Fire burns warm and slays the cold. Fire burns bright and chases away the darkness. Just as the fiery sun shone upon her in her first moments as a guardian, it shined upon her now, melting away the cold snow and banishing the dark night. Fire was her ally. Fire was her greatest friend. And deep down inside, she felt fire there, waiting to be unleashed.
“I think I’m going to make fire.” She stated, to nobody in particular. The other guardians in the cabin each gave a small cough or scoff of dismissal, but Stride-18 knew that was no mere speculation. That was a declaration. She would make fire.
After all, her ghost did say it tends to get hot when it’s around.
“Alrighty you two,” Walker called to his companions, who began to stir from their positions, “let’s get this New Light to the Tower. I have a feeling that the Vanguard’ll be interested in her.” Walker gave Stride a little nod and a wink, before once again donning his helmet and standing up.
“Hey, Walker! Do you think we could find a guardian at the tower who could take Stride under their wing and teach her the ropes a little bit?” asked Fahrenheit as the warlock stretched out his sore muscles.
“We can certainly try.” responded the warlock, before gesturing for the group to follow him out of the cabin.
One by one, they each filed out of the cabin, save for Stride-18, lost in the flame once again. It had begun to finally die out as they left the cabin.
“Hey, Stride! Stride-18!”
She looked up, her trance broken for a moment. She saw her ghost, Fahrenheit, waiting for her in the doorway.
“You coming or what?” It chided.
Stride smiled, and followed the group out the door.
The sun burned warm and bright in the sky.
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