Chapter Text
Since the Traveler had made him, he had been searching.
He was born missing a vital part of himself. He didn’t know what it was that was missing, but nonetheless, he searched.
As days passed, he met other Ghosts, other beings. Other Guardians and their Ghosts. He marveled at their intimacy, the bond between them, the power they both gave each other. He was lucky enough to see Guardians in battle a few times, and by the Traveler was it majestic.
As time passed, the slight nudge that told him to search became more concrete in his core. This inkling grew to an all-encompassing need. He wanted to know one of these powerful Guardians, inside and out.
This drove him to planet hop when his search came up fruitless. The little Ghost scavenged the entirety of Mercury, visited Titan, sniffed out Io.
His urge to find his Risen had devoured all of his passing thoughts by this time - he had grown desperate, preparing to fling himself to the farthest reaches of the universe to find the individual he was meant to share his Light with.
Out of pure desperation and disappointment, he returned to Earth, the first planet he had broadened his voyage to.
It was here that he found himself poking at the barren lands of the Cosmodrome.
Wind-whipped fields and what were once hills did little to greet him. He knew that the Hive and Fallen presence near the Cosmodrome itself was strong, so he warily skirted it and stuck to the outer lands just beyond its perimeter.
Rusted cars, along with a few remains, but none of it was promising.
The sun went from high noon to evening. He had just gotten through checking out a decrepit refueling station when something caught his eye.
An odd shape, which had at first appeared like the remnants of a shack, became more visible as the sun dropped lower on the horizon. The Ghost recognized the tell-tale triangle shape of a wing - hardly, but the shape was there. He figured checking it out would be interesting, if anything.
As he flew closer, he could make out more parts of the old ship - half of a jet engine, a crumpled fuselage shell. He slowed his pace.
The crash site was older, older than he had anticipated. What remained of the ship gave little to indicate what model or even era it was from, but a quick scan gave him the information that it was at least as old as the Red War. The harsh wind and vandals had most likely picked off anything of value. What was left were hardly legible mangled pieces of eroded metal, jutting out in violent and misshaped angles. Much of it was blackened, as if intense heat had taken place.
The Ghost cautiously entered the center of the wreckage. He could just make out a slight indentation in the ground about half a hectare away, an impact trail that the ship had no doubt left when it crashed. Rocks had been moved in the event, but now seemed a natural part of the landscape. Taking it all in, it made him quite uneasy, what with the setting sun casting shadows from the misshapen metal slabs jutting out of the ground. For a moment, he felt as if he was on the Moon and not Earth.
For once, he was glad he hadn’t found any signs of life around, for it would have surely scared his shell straight off.
He scanned larger pieces of metal - trace elements was all he could scrub.
“Fine then, keep your secrets,” he muttered to the shadows.
He turned to leave and head back to the mild safety of the gas refueling cell when something odd caught his attention.
He hummed and turned, facing what had grabbed his eye. Something out of place, darker than the rest, faintly reflected light on the ground. A few yards away, behind another slab of metal. He flew over.
Before him lay a slick, solidified black blob. Flecks within the material caught the light and gleamed.
He narrowed his eye at it, attempting to recognize the amorphous blob. It resembled minerals, perhaps some kind of geothermal deposit, but he knew there was no activity of that kind in the area.
He scanned it. As he read the environmental data, he froze in the air.
Organic compounds. DNA fragments.
The ghost shrieked and shrank away.
“This... you . Used to be..human? No, not human...” He whispered, sympathy welling in his core. Whatever had happened to the individual had been violent and excruciating to reduce them to a puddle.
His Light lurched and swelled in a bubbly kind of way.
“Could it be .. ?”
He reached out with his Light and pulsed - the vibration that returned was that of a soul. A soul that had been there a long time, tied to the wreckage. A heavy soul.
His Light jerked back, and he physically shook with shock - the energy that had passed through him for a nanosecond was charged. Within the passing was an essence that was hardly the tip of the iceberg, and it left him yearning for more. He had to know this energy, even if it killed him.
His plating exploded and whirred around his core in a way he had never done before. He thrummed with excitement. This soul that he had gently prodded with his own life was thick, roiling, and had given him an answer - a spark .
Hardly containing himself, he began to ready his Light, focusing it into a ball. He approached the meandering soul, and carefully, gingerly, offered himself to it.
There was a moment of stillness as the soul noticed and moved closer. It was honing in on his Light. The Ghost could feel their two beings growing closer, closer together, closing the distance, and then - he was petrified but enthralled all at once -
They were one.
Their miasma - no, it felt distinctly feminine - her miasma enveloped his, their energies coursing together. A rush consumed him, and he shuddered with ecstasy as she gave all that she was in return. She opened, allowing her ethos to spill forth, and that was when he truly felt her. His core was barraged by millions upon millions of atoms that he drank in like a siv. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was for this type of interaction. His system took it all in turn without complaint, for he was made for this very convergence. He gulped it down like he had been starved for a millennia.
All of her fell into him like pieces of a puzzle. He felt them settle, and he felt the soul draw upon his light. She was building up energy, coalescing into a single pinprick of energy that grew and grew. He was watching her Light form for the first time, drawing upon the spark that they shared. He poured more and more of himself into her, feeding her, coaxing her forward. Colors whirled into existence, her Light at full form - and he was in awe at the sheer beauty that took place as a nebula of purple and yellow pulsed with her life.
Through his ecstatic fog did the ghost begin to take notice of movement below him, his optic sensors slowly turning back on.
The pinprick of concentration that was her had begun to manifest in the physical plane - a radiance that bloomed and whirled like mist and ember, licking the rubble below. It found the black pile, then pulsed with recognition and grew once more. Hurriedly, it began to pull the black blob into itself, whirling and whirling the center that was this soul, turning and glowing brighter. So bright, that the ghost could not look into the light without blasting his optic - it was as if he was watching the birth of a star.
Another flood of data assaulted him, a rush much stronger than before overtaking him. He felt his core reacting and feeding the glowing ball of energy. The rubble around them spun and spun, streaking across his vision the striking color of purple.
The ghost didn’t quite know what happened next. All he knew was blinding brightness, that’s all everything was. And then, suddenly, it wasn’t.
He was back in one piece again, floating. His core felt red hot. He bobbed in the afterglow as if he had just spun around his axis at Mach 3. Sluggishly, he opened his eye and remembered he was in the middle of a wreck.
The ancient splinters of what was once a space flight vehicle scattered around him. Except - there was something new.
Glinting in the setting sun was a sleek shape. It shimmered with a slight woven texture, as black as oil.
The ghost stared. The more he looked, the more he realized the shape had appendages, plating. His eye grew wider. The middle of the form gently dipped like a snow bank. The form was smooth, yet piercing.
The Ghost came closer, shell slowly shifting. He ran a scan, then gasped.
Before him was an Exo, unlike one he had ever appraised before. With a female body type and the digits ‘0M10SGHKT’ etched into her thigh. A gash of purple ran across her face. On her heavy brow ridge were two protrusions.
This was his Risen.
She was such a stark contrast to the surroundings that it put him on edge.
“...Guardian?” He ventured, now only a few feet away.
His scan had indicated she was alive, stable, the steady waves of her consciousness lapping his. Yet her eyes had not opened. She was still.
He waited, scanned her again for good measure. Yes, everything seemed in order…but.
What if had he made a mistake while parsing her DNA? A mistake so small that it had slipped past him entirely, but would spell the end for her before her new life had even began?
Unease grew inside his core. “Guardian?”
Nothing.
“Guardian!”
Plating within her face shifted. Two yellow orbs opened and fixed on the sky.
He was now inches from her face. This was the first time he had seen her eyes. They were warm, bright. Yet something inside them smoldered. She didn’t blink.
“Guardian..?” He whispered.
The lights moved a little.
“Ah.” A sound escaped her, a light flashed that was the interior of her mouth.
“Yes?”
“Hhhnnn. Huh.” The last part was almost a statement.
“How do you feel?” He ventured. Words didn’t come as quickly as they normally did for the Ghost. Relief washed over him - she was indeed alright, but worry irked him all the same. He wanted to know if she was truly okay, if the slight hesitation before her awakening was a cause for concern. Suddenly, he was overcome with impatience. He swayed side to side.
She stared. “What is that?”
Her voice, coupled by a short metallic ping, was soft.
“What is what?”
She lifted her arm, pointing with a stiff finger. “That.”
The ghost looked up. Above was just the expanse of sky, a few clouds covering the setting sun.
He looked back at her, righting himself. “That is called the sky. The blue color is from the atmosphere of this planet.”
She lowered her arm and hummed thoughtfully.
Panic began to swell in the ghost again. She didn’t remember what the sky was?
“That.” Her gaze was fixed on the clouds.
“Those are...clouds. Droplets of water that have formed in the atmosphere. Cumulonimbus, by the looks of them.”
She sat up. Small bits of debris fell off of her back.
“We really should find you some armor, and soon..”
He knew there wasn’t much in the wreckage site. They would have to travel a distance, go closer to the Cosmodrome, which met almost immediate danger.
He looked back at her and she was examining her arms, sunlight glinting off of the smooth plates that made up her muscles. She flexed her fingers, examined her palms.
He couldn’t help but watch, despite feeling like an intruder in a very private moment.
The Gaurdian began to gingerly touch her shoulders, fingers grazing her neck, leading up to her face. When her fingers came in contact with her protrusions, she flinched.
Her head whipped towards him, eyes wide.
“What... what am I? ” She breathed, her voice crumbling.
Her fear lanced through him like a pike.