Chapter Text
Guardians never talk about the pain of coming back for the first time. We always feel pain, but coming back for the first time, it's a searing ache that we'll never forget. It's like experiencing your own atoms being shredded by a black hole's event horizon and then reassembled for an eternity. And people wonder why some guardians hate their ghosts.
The Guardian awoke in the decrepit, broken remains of an apartment. Life and death breathed into her body by the Ghost that floated there above her, watching her gasp desperately for her first reincarnated breaths. It would take a minute, oxygen needed to be absorbed, and her blood needed to flow throughout her body so she could escape the terrifying feeling of asphyxiation. When she was fully cognizant and beginning to take in her surroundings, she looked at the Ghost in abject horror.
"W-What are you...?", She asked the floating specter hovering in front of her as she stood.
"I'm Scylla, your Ghost. You've been asleep for a long time, Guardian. We have to get moving, the Hive will be here soon.", The orb spoke back to her in a disembodied, metallic, and feminine voice.
"The what...?"
"The Hive, enemies of humanity. I'll explain later, but we have to move." Scylla responded in almost a hushed tone. "I'll lead the way out of here, I believe I saw an old weapon you could use as I came in." Scylla led the Guardian out of the burnt room and into equally destroyed living quarters. The windows were broken but looked out into the pitch-black night of city long since dead. The orb continued to float forward out of the apartment and into a dark hallway, at least the Ghost lit the surrounding area enough for her to see her way.
It was colder than she'd first realized, the adrenaline from her resurrection beginning to wear off ever so slightly, she grew curious about her whereabouts. "Where are we?" The Guardian inquired.
"New Chicago on Europa. A long way from The Last City." Scylla responded as she led the Guardian down the stairwell. They made their way slowly to the ground floor before finally, Scylla showed the Guardian to a broken desk, next to it an old pistol of some kind.
The Guardian reached down to grasp it and raised it to examine its contents. 3 bullets, hopefully, that would be enough to kill these 'Hive' Scylla spoke of. She chambered a round and pressed forward and out onto the street, the night here incredibly dark, in the distance some faint electronics still whirred and dim-lit the road. There the Guardian saw something that chilled her down to her bones. A contorted and disfigured humanoid figure stood there. She hadn't been paying attention and tripped on a deep crack in the asphalt, causing her to yelp, she just managed to catch herself and raise her eye level back to the street. The figure twitched, and the monstrous head turned to pierce her gaze. It began immediately began to charge at her.
"Incoming!" Scylla warned quickly. The Guardian fumbled to get a good grip of the pistol as the thrall closed the distance between them. She managed to level a shot and fired. A narrow miss, the Guardian cringed as she felt terror begin to set in. She leveled herself again and fired again, the shot landing squarely in its chest, but still, it charged at her, nonetheless. The Guardian terrified by the aberration approaching her; she leveled herself one last time and took a deep breath. A Gunshot, and then silence for a moment before the bullet casing tattered softly to the ground beside her, the squealing beast silent. She blinked as her eyes adjusted and settled upon the faintly lit corpse of the creature. It's body quickly withering away into dust. "Let's keep moving. There's an abandoned spaceport not far from here, maybe we can find a ship."
"I think I'm beginning to understand..." The Guardian responded and sighed as she took a breath. She followed the Ghost continuing down the road for some time. As they walked, the woman began to look around the dead city. 'How could something that must've been so vibrant once be so cold and ruined now?' Still, though, there was beauty in the way that plant life had begun to revive the metropolis. As they neared the outskirts of the city and the skyscrapers became warehouses and homes, the flowers and vegetation began to glow iridescently in the night.
In the distance, the Guardian could now see a mechanical spire coming from a large building, probably the traffic control for the spaceport that Scylla mentioned. She returned her attention to the path they began to take up the hill the port was on. The only thing that the Guardian could hear was the mild whirring of Scylla moving and the ghostly howling of the forceful wind. Then for a moment, she swore she heard a skidding of something hard against the ground behind her. She quickly turned to see what it was, the cracked concrete was empty, but the fear began to put her on edge. Scylla turned back to look at her curiously.
"Hear something?" Scylla asked calmly and began to look around their surroundings.
"Yeah, it sounded like something was following us for a second. I couldn't quite make it out." The Guardian gulped with fear in her voice for a second. Immediately, she heard some rustling above them on the ridge beside them. She looked up to see the same type of creature from before jumping down on top of her. It's gaping maw beginning to try and gnaw at her flesh, her arms immediately began to try and push the monstrosity off of her, but the creature seemed extremely physically capable. She couldn't find a weakness on it to exploit immediately either as her rational mind began to think a thousand miles a minute to come up with something.
She tried punching at it to no immediate effect. Her Ghost tried calling to her at that moment, but as she began to feel her muscles stripped from the bone, she cried from a mixture of pain and terror. Right as she began to see black, something inside of her called out to grasp it, and she reached her hand around the aberration to do so.
She could feel every heartbeat, every breath as her in fire cascaded out of her body and into her hand, forming a flaming blade. Her eyes shot open, and she sunk the blade deep into the creature, it's body evaporating above her. She laid there for a minute, panting as her mind was racing, beginning to comprehend what had just happened. She just stared forward, looking at the midnight sky and stars. Scylla came to her and began to glow with a dark blue light as she could feel her wounds heal, and her blood beginning to flow through her veins. Soon she would return to her feet and thank Scylla for treating her injuries.
When they entered the spaceport, the Guardian began searching the complex room by room and hangar by hangar for any remaining ships until she stumbled into one. The vessel was partially rusted, but it retained looked sturdy as ever. Scylla scanned it and disappeared inside for a minute while she evaluated its flight capabilities.
"It's not pretty, but it'll get us to the City just fine," Scylla called out.
The Guardian quickly found her way into the craft and seated herself appropriately as Scylla began to explain to her how to pilot the vessel. Soon enough, the engines roared, and the ship shook profoundly as it pulled itself out and away from the spaceport and into the sky and towards the stars.
They flew for quite some time, slowly headed for the city. Scylla spoke briefly if only to guide the Guardian. After a long silence, she finally spoke. "Guardian, have you thought of a name you'd like? I know it's a tough decision, but it's an important one."
After the Guardian thought for a couple of moments, she responded. "Call me Midnight