Chapter 1 : Back For Her

Mara was putting the last touches to her little ship, made from spare parts of the Awoken royal fleet. She had been working on it in secret for decades, having never forgotten her past and what was still waiting for her on Earth, she hoped.
Her home, the Reef, was located in the asteroid belt of the solar system, built in countless derelicts.
Life had been good for Mara for centuries, but it was time now to go back for Sora.

-“Are you sure?” Said a soothing male voice behind her.
The man was tall with a light shade of blue skin, but still darker than Mara’s. His hair was down to this chin and dark blue, his eyes, a piercing glowing green.
-“Yes, Adex. I’ve been sure since the day I left, you know that.”
-“I know. I also know that it’s one thing to talk about it, but actually acting on it.. I’m scared for you.”
-“It’ll be fine, I’ll come back you know, you’ll see me again!”
-“The Queen will see you as an intruder if you come back.”
-“Don’t worry about me, I’ll deal with the Queen.”

Adex looked at her with concern. “Here then.” he said. “Take this.”

He handed Mara a little stone ring.

“It’s for good luck.” He added with a smirk.

Mara smiled back and kept on working on her ship until late during the night.

She woke up early the next morning. She got everything ready in her ship and she went to give her respect to the Queen.
The Queen was sitting very comfortably on her throne, serious as always. With her light beige hair to her shoulders, very light purple skin and light blue eyes. She oddly looked like Mara, beside the skin tone and the more mature face and body language.

-“Who bows before me?” Asked the Queen.
-“Mara Volkov, your Highness.”
-“And what can we do for Mara Volkov?”
-“I just came to pay my respect, my Queen, and reinforce my allegiance to you.”
-“That is quite appreciated, young one.”

Mara stayed at the Queen’s feet for a little while without a word. She knew that what she was about to do, leave the Reef, would mean renouncing to her home, her family, and her Queen. No. Not the Queen, not ever. Even if she would become an outsider and be treated as such. Not welcomed to the Reef anymore. She spent a long time getting ready to leave, but she knew she had to.

-“My Queen.” She’s said as she stood up.
The Queen nodded and smirked. That was unusual of her. She was powerful and great, she’d do anything for her people but she was kind of cold. Mara left the throne room with a heavy heart, without turning her back on the Queen, ever.

Back to her little ship, she threw her backpack behind the pilot’s seat, double checked the warp drive and wore the Queen’s allegiance bond on her upper arm. Gone or not, she’ll always be the only ruler in Mara’s heart.
She took place in her seat and turned on the engine. The lights on the dashboard lit up, the ship started to float a bit above ground, then flew up in the air and off she went.

The warp drive worked like a charm and Mara could reach the Russian Cosmodrome in a few minutes. She wasn’t really sure what she would find on Earth, but she needed answers. What happened that day? Where was Sora? And how did Earth look now that the Darkness took over, centuries ago?

She landed near the walls outside of the Cosmodrome, the last place she saw her sister, and got off her ship. There was a cold wind blowing and she could see the dark orange grass under the snow. The cars responsible for the massive gridlock were still there, all rusted. Looked like a macabre cemetery.

Silence.

Mara thought she should first look for her old car, maybe she missed something, all those years ago.

All the cars looked the same. How was she supposed to find hers? She was walking randomly, looking for anything that she could remember. She saw that some car’s still had the skeleton of their driver still in the front seat. She shuddered. She looked to the horizon and something caught eyes. A little object was flying from one car to another. Like a small flying camera. The sight on that direction rang a bell though. She waited for the camera to leave before walking towards that direction.

The rust and weather conditions during centuries had made every bit of paint disappear of the cars and even seemed to have alter some of their shapes. How to be sure which one was hers… her keys. She had kept her car keys. She was keeping them as good luck charm, maybe they will still work.. despite the rust… She tried to open one of the cars’ door, and it did open. Her car’s doors were locked, she remembered it, but maybe the mechanism failed at some point. Wouldn’t be surprising seeing the state the cars were in. She put the key in the lock and nope, didn’t work. There was also the risk that the lock would be useless too, cause of the rust, but she felt it was her best bet. She tried a few cars she thought was hers, but no luck. Until she saw it. This one had a crack on the right front light, just like hers, she remembered it now. Sora hit a small pole that was on the side of the street while learning how to drive. She didn’t even try to open the door, she put the key in the lock right away. It didn’t work. She just knew it was her vehicle, so she tried again, turned the key with more strength this time and it moved a bit, and more, until it unlocked the door, who creaked loudly when she opened it. She sat on the driver’s seat. She could see herself back then, Sora next to her, saying they should run. It was the last time she saw her sister. She could live this moment again like it was yesterday. Mara would have been crying at this moment if it weren’t that she wasn’t the kind of person to get overwhelmed by sadness. On the contrary, she was the kind to use that sadness to become stronger and fight back.  She would find what happened to Sora, whatever it took. She inspected the car itself for clues, or anything that could help her discover what happened. She looked in the inside first and then on the outside. Nothing. She looked to the horizon, everything was still very silent. Mara took a deep breath. She put her backpack on the hood of her car, to be able to find it again easily and decided to walk towards the station. She could only hear the wind blowing, her feet in the thin snow and her many thoughts bumping into one another.
“Oh by the Gods, Sora, where are you?”
“She left the car, she must have left the car.”
“What if I came back for nothing?”
“Guardian?”
“Where does this voice come from?… nevermind.”
“I only left the car for like 30 seconds, what could have happened in 30 seconds..”
“I can’t believe I left without her.”
“Guardian?”

She stopped.
“Hello?” Said a male voice behind her.
She put her hand on her gun at her belt and turned around, pointing her gun at who was behind her.
-“Don’t shoot!!” He said.
In front of her was what she thought was a camera earlier, a little floating star drone with a bright blue light in its core.
-“I can’t hurt you.” He continued.
-“Who or what are you?”
-“I’m a ghost. Actually I believe, I’m YOUR ghost.”
-“What do you mean ‘my ghost’ I’m not dead!”
-“I know and this is very curious.”
-“What?? Are you here to kill me?” Said she, always pointing her gun at the ghost.
-“No, no I told you I can’t hurt you… oh I see what you mean, no, I’m not your ghost as in your dead spirit, but as your companion. We’re just called ghost.”
-“Like a pet ghost?”
-“….. if it can help you understand, kind of. It’s just that usually, ghosts find their guardian dead and bring them back to life, you’re already alive. That’s unusual, that’s for sure.”
-“So I won’t have to die..?”
-“Well as a guardian, you’ll probably die many times…” Mara’s eyes opened wide out of fear. “… But it’ll only be a minor inconvenient.” Now she was just confused. “Hold on.”

The Ghost scanned her for a few seconds and disappeared. Mara put her gun away.

-“What the…” Mara said.
-“Don’t worry, I’m still with you, Guardian.” Reassured the Ghost. His voice seemed to come from Mara’s body itself.
-“Why are you calling me Guardian??”
-“Cause that’s what you are now, a guardian, to protect the city and the world, to push back the Darkness.”

Mara shivered at the mention of the Darkness.

-“I remember the Darkness… It killed everyone. How can I push back such power? I’m just a simple girl, I can’t even…” she took a few seconds before continuing. “I can’t even keep my own sister safe.”
-“I can explain. When the traveler died,..”
-“The Traveler is dead??”
-“Yes, it died to save us all, to save humanity.”

The Traveler, this mysterious and enormous, city-sized sphere, was found on Mars, even though its origins are unknown, and brought to Earth. After it arrived, Earth’s Golden Age of space exploration began. Life span tripled, it was a time of wealth for the human race.

The Ghost continued :

“In its dying breath, it created the Ghosts, like me, to seek out for those who can wield its light as a weapon, to do what it no longer can. You seem to be one of them.”
-“Is the Traveler still here somewhere?”
-“Yes. We did build a city, the last city on Earth, right beneath it.”
-“And each Ghost was assigned to one Guardian?”
-“That’s correct. And we have to find them, which is not an easy task.”
-“How do you know that a person is assigned to you and not another Ghost? How can you be sure you’re MY Ghost?”
-“There’s a link between a Guardian and their Ghost. That’s what we seek, this link. We can’t be mistaken… or I thought so.”
-“What do you mean?”
-“Not so long ago, I was following the wave of what I thought was my Guardian, but couldn’t revive them. I was rather disturbed cause I don’t think it ever happened before. Sure, the strength of the wave was not super intense but since one Guardian is assigned to one Ghost, what else could it be? But then I found you, and there’s doubt. Hold on?” A few seconds passed. “Huh. That’s odd, you both have the same DNA.”

Mara’s heart skipped a beat. She became numb in a instant.

-“What?” Asked the Ghost.
Mara was paralyzed.

-“Can I see her…?” She finally said.
-“How course, follow me.”

The Ghost materialized in front of her and flew in the direction Mara came from. Her legs were moving mechanically as she followed the Ghost. There was so many emotions all mixed up inside of her, she was relieved but scared, happy but aghast, eager to know and not ready to know.
The Ghost finally stopped, scanning the ground.

-“Here she is.”

Mara got closer. On the ground was a skeleton, half hidden by a bush. It was heartbreaking. She took a look around and they were about 20 feet away from her car. She kneeled next to her sister and lovingly touched her hand.

-“Is there anything that we can do?” She said.
-“I’m afraid not. I cannot revive her.”
-“Can you try again?

The Ghost felt Mara’s despair and agreed to try once more. He scanned the skeleton to look for a fault somewhere that would make him succeed, couldn’t find any, but tried anyway. And failed.

-“I’m sorry.” He said.
Mara sighted.

-“Then let’s bury her.” She said.
-“We can’t do that!”
-“Why not?? Doesn’t she deserve that respect?”
-“Listen, if I perceived the Traveler’s light in her, it means she’s a Guardian and a Ghost is looking for her. If we bury her, they won’t find her and she’ll never return. Leaving her here is the best we can do.”

Mara stood up. She went to her car to take her backpack and walked towards the end of the line, where she heard the screams, centuries ago, her Ghost following silently behind her, scanning here and there and looking out for threats. He knew this wasn’t a safe area, but now wasn’t the time to put one more stress on Mara’s shoulders.

She walked like a zombie, in circles, among the cars for a while before heading towards the space station, as if she wanted to relive everything. She entered the space station. She could remember the soldier being told off as she walked up the stairs. The sun rays entered the windows on the right side of the bridge, up the stairs, giving the room an intense orange glow. The further she went, the more altered the station was. It wasn’t like in her memory. It was darker, sure, but certainly someone changed this place. The stairs on the other side of the bridge were in total darkness. Mara took her backpack to look for her flashlight when her ghost arrived next to her, with his core lighting bright.

-“I don’t know what you are looking for here” he whispered “but I have to warn you, it’s not safe. I have to get you to the city.”
-“How isn’t it safe here? Are there traps or something?”
-“Each second we stay here puts us in even more danger, so I’ll be quick. We are in Fallen territories. They are scavengers and killers who arrived with the Collapse.”
-“What’s the Collapse?”
-“It’s when the Darkness arrived. We call this event the Collapse, and then came the dark ages.”

They heard a loud growl.

-“Oh no” whispered there ghost. “They are right above us.”
-“So what, I have gun, I can defend myself, plus, you can certainly shoot lasers or something.”
-“No I can’t, I told you, I cannot hurt anything.”
-“You said you couldn’t hurt ME!” She sighed. “Then what can you do?”
-“I can scan things, make mechanical stuff work and… I can open doors?”
-“For fox’s sake, we’d think the Traveler would have created more useful drones.”
-“I can also revive you, you know.”
-“Aaahh see? You’re not that bad!” Said Mara, petting the Ghost, who tried to dodge the teasing sign of affection.

-“Come on now” he said. “I need to get you out of here!”
-“How far is the city?”
-“Far enough that we cannot get there by foot. Now we really should leave this place, let’s go back to your ship.”

Mara had no idea what was a Fallen, what it looked like, how threatening it was or anything. She knew how to use her gun, but she hasn’t had to fight anything so far. There was nothing else she could do about her sister anyway, and in any case, she could always come back later. They rushed outside, back to the car cemetery where she landed.

-“Hold on” said her ghost as soon as they got outside.
-“What?” Said Mara, a bit exasperated.
-“Shhh…”

The Ghost floated forward a bit, looking for what was going on.
Creatures started to get out of behind the many cars, slowly moving towards Mara and her Ghost. Weird cybernetic looking humanoid creatures, some with four arms, some with only two and what looked like limbs of two other arms. Their faces reminded her of one of a praying mantis. Knives and guns in their hands, they growled aggressively.

-“Fallen…” the Ghost said. “I hope you know how to use your gun.”

One of the four armed Fallen put his hands in the air, holding his gun and shouted a kind of a roar, then they all started to attack Mara. A kind of a blue laser spark almost hit her shoulder. They were using guns with a technology she had never seen before. She managed to kill a few of the two armed creatures quite easily but more Fallen fell from a huge ship, flanking her. She fired her gun again and again, reloading it a fast as possible and firing again. There were to many of them, Mara was starting to feel scared, very scared. Those monsters were all around her and she didn’t have the skills to fight back any longer. In a split second, she thought about all she had accomplished in her life, why she came here, and how much of a failure it had been. She couldn’t save her sister. Death was what she deserved. She had a last thought of her home and felt all the essence of the Reef flowing in her veins. In a rush of adrenaline she couldn’t explain, as if her soul took the lead and gathered all her energy in hopes to survive, a ball of purple void energy materialized into her hand. Coming to her senses, Mara freaked out and threw the void ball in front of her in the Fallen crowd to get rid of it. The void energy expanded into a large bubble, killing the creatures stuck in it within a few seconds.

-“What was that?” asked the Ghost, happily surprised.
-“I don’t know!!”

Mara was shaken.

-“Do it again!!” Her Ghost said.
-“I can’t! I don’t know how!”
-“Just try again!!”

Her Ghost seemed to have faith in her abilities, Mara thus trusted him and tried again. She didn’t know what she had done, but she concentrated, trying to gather some sort of energy, but couldn’t recreate that void ball. She wasn’t paying total attention to her enemies anymore and they took advantage of this to restrain her. Her Ghost disappeared like he had done when they met, she could feel his presence, she knew he hadn’t left her. She was stuck in Fallens’ hands.
One of them arrived in front of her. He was twice the size of the four armed ones, with a bigger armor that reminded a bit of royalty captain’s outfits. He growled something at Mara, that she obviously didn’t understand, and knocked her out.