Chapter 2 : Fight For Her

A burning sensation slowly appeared in her body which, until now, felt like it didn’t even existed. It started like a tingling sensation through her veins and became quickly like a fire all over. A fire so intense that Sora had to wake up from whatever kept her unconscious. As soon as she opened her eyes, the fire went away.

-“Ouch, my head…” she said as she sat on the ground.
-“Guardian?”

Her head was hurting so much that she couldn’t hear or pay attention to the voice calling her. It took Sora only a few seconds though to remember everything, or she thought so, that just happened and she started panicking. She stood up like an arrow and ran towards her car.

-“Oh by the Gods, Mara! MARA!” She shouted. “You have to come back quick, there are…. creatures…?”

She stopped and looked around, in shock.

-“What….?

She had been dead for hundreds of years, but in her mind, it all just happened ; Mara telling her to wait there, her getting out of the car to look on the other side, seeing those weird four armed monsters, wanting to warn Mara before… before what… what happened? All she remembered was this electric-like pain spreading in her head, then her, shutting her eyes for a second and waking up in the cold, among this car cemetery.

-“Guardian?”

A soft female voice came from behind her. Sora turned around to see the little blue star drone floating above her.

-“Are you okay?” The Ghost asked.

-“What….”

She looked around, turning on herself, confused and in shock. She looked at the Ghost.

-“What happened… Where is everybody?.. Where’s Mara?? What did you do to her?? Mara!!?”
-“Please calm down…”
-“Calm down? CALM DOWN?? I was about to leave this hell of a place with my sister!! The only person I have left! I blinked for a second and you brought me into this post-apocalyptic parallel universe, I need to go home, now!! She cannot leave without me!! Mara???”

Her voice was louder, desperate, with a touch of anger. The Ghost could feel all of Sora’s storm of emotions and knew she couldn’t explain everything softly.

-“Listen, Guardian, you’ve been dead for a very long time.”

Sora had a step back. Her breathing intensified. The Ghost continued :

-“So there’ll be a lot of things you won’t understand.”
-“… What…?”

Her anger turned into fear. Tears were building up in her eyes as she let herself fall on the ground, on her knees, unbelieving what she just heard.

-“I could bring you back to life because you carry the Traveler’s light. I’m here for you from now on. I’m your Ghost.”

She looked up at her Ghost, the tears now running down her cheeks.

-“Am I really years in the future?”
Her Ghost got closer to her.
-“Centuries. I’m afraid so. But look at the bright side. You’re alive again. You hold the Traveler’s light, it means you’re one of the few worth the privilege of fighting the Darkness in the Traveler’s name. You are a Guardian!”
-“But I lost everything… I’m all alone. Everybody is dead. I saw it happening, the Darkness, with those scavenger creatures. I’m alone, how am I supposed to even stay alive by myself?”
-“As your Ghost, I can revive you anytime, no need to fear death anymore.”
-“Is this supposed to be some sort of consolation?”

Her Ghost remained silent. Sora had stopped crying but looked… numb. Emotionless. Staring at the ground, with empty eyes.

-“What am I supposed to do now?” She asked. “Where am I supposed to go, to live? Everything is destroyed.”
-“Almost everything.”
-“What?”
“Not everybody was killed in the Collapse. Some survived and built a city underneath the Traveler. That’s also where the other Guardians live. On a tower, at one end of the city.”
-“Other Guardians..?”
-“Of course! You’re not the only Traveler’s chosen one!… oh.. am I not helping again?”

Sora chuckled. She looked at her Ghost with a little smile.
-“No, you’re fine.” She said.

If her Ghost could smile, she would have one of those grins on her face right now.

-“We have to go to the city before the Fallen find us.” The Ghost said.
-“What are the Fallen?”
-“Most certainly the creatures you saw with the Darkness.”

Sora stood up immediately.
-“Those monsters are still around?”

Fear seized her, for she remembered the evil look on their faces, killing people out of their cars like savages. She could clearly not stand up against them, being revived over and over again by her Ghost or not.

-“I have to find you a ship before they find us.”

The Ghost flew up in the air, expanding itself like a pufferfish, its spikes floating around her, to have a wider scanning field.

-“I think there’s a ship that way, come on!”

Sora followed her Ghost. She was still feeling very emotional from everything she had learnt since she opened her eyes that day, but she was also very scared. Her fear of the Fallen made her forget her pain for a moment, she just wanted to be safe. She would grieve when she’s safe.
The ship was not far away and they reached it within a minute. A bright blue ship with a purple and yellow crown emblem on it.

-“What an odd ship.” Said the Ghost.
-“You’re aware I don’t know how to fly a ship, right?”
-“Don’t worry, I can fly anything.” The Ghost scanned the ship and checked its mechanics. “Mmh… I can fly anything with an engine. This one’s has been pulled out….. wait a sec?”

The ghost was floating around the ship, and back to Sora, quickly charging direction a few times, looking for something.

-“What is it?” Sora asked.
-“We are not alone.”
-“Oh no, Fallen!!”
-“No it’s… another Guardian… another Guardian was here moments ago…”
-“Which means?”
-“They can help! They must have a ship to come here in the first place, I could take you to the city!”
-“How do you know it’s not their ship right there?”
-“Because I know Earth ships. This one is not from here.”
-“So, how are we gonna find them?”

Her Ghost became a pufferfish again for a few seconds.
-“I can track them down, follow me.”

The Ghost flew in the direction of the space station, Sora behind her. It stopped near the entrance, looking down. When Sora joined it, she noticed the scene her Ghost was looking at. Fallen. Many of them. Dead.

-“Do you have a weapon?” The Ghost asked.
-“Of course not, I don’t touch those things.”
-“Well now you won’t have a choice. You have to defend yourself.”
-“You said you could revive me anytime, no?”
-“Yeah but I can’t stop enemies to capture you, and if they capture me, or destroy me, I can’t help you anymore. You need to have a weapon and defend yourself, and me.”
-“Okay, but I don’t have one.”
-“The Fallen do.”

The Ghost used its core like a flashlight and showed Sora the guns left behind after the Fallen died.

-“This will have to do.” The Ghost said. “Take one.”
-“What?”
-“Please, we don’t have much time.”

Sora was very unsure but her Ghost had this way of winning her trust. She took one of the guns that seemed to belong to a four armed Fallen. She inspected it, in every angle, trying to figure out how to make it work. If Mara had never seen that kind of technology, Sora never touched a gun before, at all. She couldn’t even fire a normal scout rifle.

-“Just be careful with that.” Her Ghost said.
-“No worries, you can revive me anyway right?”
-“I was talking for me.”

Sora laughed.

-“Right, stay behind me then, if I shoot myself, hopefully it won’t reach you.”
-“I have a better idea.”

On those words, the Ghost seemed to dematerialize in front of her Guardian.

-“I’m still there.” It said. “Now test this weapon. Before I lose the track of the other Guardian.”

Sora looked closer at the gun.
-“I think I found the trigger.”

But as she pressed it, nothing happened.

-“Nope, sorry give me a minute.”
-“I’m not sure we have a minute.”

The pressure never did good on Sora, her Ghost started to sound less pleasant.

-“I don’t see any other thing that could be a trigger than what I already tried.”
-“Then try again!”

The new Guardian pressed it again. Nothing. She started to get anxious. She pressed it harder and for a little longer. A weird sound came from the gun, with little blue sparks at the muzzle.

-“Oh… I think I’m onto something.”

She pressed the trigger and held her finger down. There was a charging sound for one or two seconds and a kind of an electric laser spark was shot.

-“Woah…”
Sora let go of the gun which fell on ground.

-“What’s the matter? Did it surprise you?”
-“No… I just… remembered. It’s that kind of gun that killed me.”

Sora looked at the weapon. A tear fell down next to it. In an instant, she remembered everything. She saw three of those monsters, two with two arms, with knives, and one bigger, with four arms and a gun. This gun. She made eye contact with him and when she thought of running back to her sister, she saw the little sparks at the muzzle, and the laser spark before the pain and the dark.

-“I can’t take that monstrosity.”
-“You have to, unless you can find right now another weapon that you’re more comfortable with.”

Sora looked among the dead Fallen, but there was nothing else.

-“No…” Sora said.
-“Then take this weapon and stuck it up!”

Sora slowly bent over to take the gun. Her Ghost was right, no time argue. It was a little harsh, that’s true, but the drone clearly knew how to handle Sora. Tough love, they say. Sora pressed the trigger a few times to make sure the gun still worked.

-“Okay, let go.” She said.

Her Ghost took the lead, going up the stairs to the orange glowing bridge room. She used her core as a flashlight to lit up the way at the stairs after the bridge. They arrived at a kind of a deck. Probably what had been a boarding deck before.
They made a u-turn to enter a corridor at their left and passed through many turns but there was no one to be found. Only Fallen corpses here and there on the ground.

-“The signal is getting stronger.” The Ghost informed Sora.

They walked a bit further before they started to hear noises and growls.

-“Stay back. Let me look.”
The Ghost floated a bit forward to have a look at what was coming in front of them. She came back to Sora.

-“Fallen. Lots of them. They have captured a Guardian. If we wanna fly back to safety, this is our only chance.
-“What do you mean?”
-“We’ll have to rescue the Guardian. That means killing every single Fallen. You ready?”

Sora readied her gun.

-“Not really but… I’ll try.”

Sora entered the room and didn’t wait to be noticed to shoot. She missed her first few shots and the Fallen attacked back. They were about 8 creatures shooting at her, she tried her best to dodge the sparks and then she saw her. The captive Guardian. Mara. Sitting, tied up against a pole, her head leaning down, she was either unconscious or… worse! “Mara??!?” She thought, staring at her. Only a second of inattention and an electric spark passed right next to her head. She became aware again and a strange force took over her, a mix of hope, joy, vengeance and probably a bit of adrenaline. She shot her gun, again and again, almost hitting Mara in the process.

Under the pressure, Sora couldn’t aim precisely, but she managed to kill most Fallen anyway, mostly by luck. She was rather clumsy with her weapon even if she was doing the best she could. Once she got rid of most monsters, she saw a huge Fallen rushing towards Mara, who was still unconscious, with his two heavy swords.

Mara’s life was in immediate danger, Sora didn’t get reunited with her sister to lose her again. She charged the Fallen, screaming what sounded like a warrior shout. It was like every step she made built a burning rage inside of her, both her palms felt warmer and warmer, like fireballs materializing in her hands… there actually were fireballs in her hands and she threw them at the Fallen, one after the other, trapping it in two miniature burning suns on the ground.
Sora took the advantage of the Fallen being stuck in place to fire a shot to its head, killing it.
The fire inside of her started to fade as she got closer to her sister, but the panic built up when she saw Mara’s pale blue skin and purple lips.

-“Oh by the Traveler’s light, please no!!” Tears were flowing down Sora’s cheeks as she freed her sister from those ties. She must have been without oxygen for a while to look that pale and blue, Sora feared the worst.

Mara’s body fell on the ground, with no tonus at all when Sora untied the last knot. She held her sister in her arms, looking at her pale face.

-“Mara?” She called, shaking her sister’s body a bit.

Nothing.

-“Please wake up…” She touched Mara’s face. “She’s warm..” she looked at her chest. “.. and breathing? What the…”

Sora just stayed there, not understanding what was going on. How could her sister be alive and breathing with this cadaver look. Sora’s Ghost appeared above Mara, looking at her, scanning her.

-“Oh….” the Ghost said.
-“What?” Sora was crying. “What is it? What happened to her?”
-“She’s Awoken…”
-“Awoken? To what?”
-“It’s a kind of nation. Called the Awoken. Led by a powerful Queen, they live in the Reef.”
-“What’s the Reef?”
-“A dark place somewhere in the asteroid belt.”
-“How can she be of a different nation that mine??”
-“All Awoken were humans before.” It took a pause. “She’s just unconscious. She could probably tell you more when she wakes up.”

Sora sat, her back against the wall, still with Mara nestled in her arms. She would gently stroke her hair, waiting for her to be aware again.

-“Will she remember me?” Asked Sora, drying her tears on her cheeks.
-“I don’t know.” Her Ghost said, softly.

Everything was calm and silent. Both Sora and her Ghost were just waiting. She tried to make the most of this time, when she could be closer and loving with her dear sister, in case she wouldn’t remember her.
Sora didn’t want this moment to stop. She felt a mix of worry and excitement when Mara started squirming, moaning, grimacing.

-“Mara?” Said Sora, softly. “It’s okay, you’re safe now, I’m here.”

Mara’s eyes were still closed. “Hmm?”

-“It’s me, Sora.”
-“… So… ra?..”
-“Yes, you remember me?”

Mara slowly opened her eyes. Sora had a sudden move of surprise and uncertainty when she saw the bright and glowing sky like blue iris in Mara’s eyes.

-“Sora…?” She asked again.

Sora just smile. Mara came back to her senses. A huge grin appeared on her face.

-“Sora!!”

Mara tried to sit and hug her sister, but Sora asked her not to move too fast, to take the time to recover. Both girls were just looking at each other, smiling, laughing, crying.

-“I can’t believe you’re here!” Mara said. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to see you again!”
-“Yeah for me it’s only been a few hours but….”

They both laughed.

-“What happened to you?” Sora asked. “How did you become Awoken?”
-“You know about the Awoken?”
-“No, but my Ghost told me you were Awoken. And that you could tell me more. So tell me more.”
-“Can I sit?”
-“Yeah sure.”

Sora helped her sister sit next to her, her back against the pole she was tied up on, so she could face Sora. Mara was still feeling a bit dizzy and tried to gather her ideas. She told Sora about what happened that day, how she ended up leaving without her. Sora was listening very attentively.

“And then, lots of stuff happened. All I can say is…. I don’t think it was random. I could tell you about the people that left Earth and found in the Reef a home. I could tell you of the greatness that we’ve seen and changed us forever. There are many legends told throughout known space to mystify our origins but now it’s lost anyway.”

Mara kept silent after that, staring into the emptiness. Sora looked unsure.

-“Oookayyy?” She said.

Mara smiled at her and her Ghost appeared in front of the girls.

-“That’s a super cute story.” It said “But we have to move. We’re still not safe.”
-“That right!” Mara said, getting back on her feet. “We were getting to my ship when I got attacked.”
-“Do you mean the blue ship with the crown on it?” Asked Sora’s Ghost, as she materialized between the sisters”
-“Yeah! It’s my ship! Made it myself.”

Mara winked at Sora.

-“I’m sorry to inform you that the engine have been ripped off. ” Said Sora’s Ghost. “This ship was our exit strategy too.”
-“Damn it.” Mara grumbled. She looked at her Ghost. “Now what?”
Her Ghost took a few seconds to think and said :

-“I remember I’ve seen a ship not far from here, when I was searching for you. We could see if this one has an engine.”

The sisters nodded, reloaded and readied their weapons. Mara’s Ghost went ahead and everybody followed. They passed through what looked like a huge manhole that opened to what could have been an ancient military training ground, accordingly to the rusty tank on their left. There was no monsters around.. scratch that, there was no living monsters around. But there were lots of Fallen corpses. The group was advancing forward, noticing more and more Fallen down the further they went.

-“What happened here?” Asked Mara.
-“I don’t know.” Her Ghost said.
-“Did you do this?” She asked, looking at Sora.
-“No! I could barely hit anyone to save you.”

He flew to one of the Fallen and scanned it.

-“It hadn’t been dead long. Someone else was here. Someone who visibly can carry their weight.” Said the Ghost.
-“Or a bigger monster.” Sora suggested.
-“We better get going.” Suggested Mara’s Ghost.

They moved forward until they reached a wall and turned left to enter a building. They turned right then left, they entered a room with a few old computer and then a kind of dock. There were lots of Fallen dead, including one even bigger than any other Fallen they’ve ever seen. Sora had a shiver of disgust at this sight. Mara’s Ghost went ahead, and stopped in the middle of the room, looking at the roof.

-“Oh….”
-“What? What is it?” Asked Mara.
-“The ship. It’s gone.”

Sighs of discouragement from both Guardians. The Ghost scanned the huge Fallen.

-“They slayed an Archon…”
-“What’s an Archon?” Sora asked
-“They are the high priest of the Fallen. Each Fallen house has their priest that acts as the intermediary between the high Servitor and the Kell. Once the Archon is dead, it leave the Servitor vulnerable to attacks.”
-“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Said Sora.

If the Ghost could rise an eyebrow, he totally would right now.

-“I’m not entirely sure I know much about Fallen hierarchy either.” Mara said. “I know the Queen had to deal with Fallen a few times, but it’s not something that is well known to us, simple citizen.”
-“The Queen? What Queen?” Asked Sora.
-“My Queen. THE Queen. The great leader of the Reef.”
-“As I was saying,” continued the Ghost, “the Archon being dead is a good thing. The house of Devil is weak now.”
-“Okay” Mara said. “But that won’t get us to the city will it?”
-“No, you’re right.”
-“Not to interrupt you or anything,” said Sora’s Ghost, “but I just scanned the Archon myself and it looked like it holds a kind of a key… probably for some sort of ship, according to the code. If we could find that ship….”
-“That’s a long shot.” Said the other Ghost.
-“You have a better idea?”
-“Right now, not really.”
-“Then let’s go back a find a skiff.”
-“What’s a skiff?” Sora asked.
-“It’s one kind of fallen ship. It’s like their transportation ship.” Mara said.
-“How are we gonna find one?”
-“We are in Fallen territories.” Said Mara’s Ghost. “For sure we’ll encounter a few skiffs, dropping Fallen.”
-“We’ll just have to find a way to make one land.” Sora’s Ghost added.
-“How big is a skiff?” Asked Sora.
-“Very.” Mara said. “Let’s go.”

They all ran back where they came from, to the ancient military training ground. They sat against the wall, outside, and waited, guns in their hands, ready to fire in case of danger. They had to wait for about 10 minutes before they could see this huge Fallen ship arrive from nowhere, in the shape of a distorted tadpole, black and armed with turrets.

-“You said they were transportation ships, how come they have turrets?” Sora asked.
-“Because Fallen.” Her Ghost said.
-“How are we supposed to force land that thing?”
-“I don’t know.” Said Mara’s Ghost.
-“Oh come on.” Mara said. “You’re the AIs, you know more than us, and are probably smarter to, think of something! I can’t even believe you suggested to steal a skiff without having any plans on how to actually get in one!”

The Ghost was floating around, visibly concerned, for a few seconds and then said :
-“….. Electromagnetic pulse.”
-“Simple as that right?” Mara said, sarcastically. “I wonder how I didn’t think of it myself, I’m guessing you can shoot that kind of wave from your little light there.”

She poked the Ghost core. It moved aside, frowning.

-“Well I can’t and I can. We already have an arc elemental weapon, which is basically electricity. Alone I may not have the strength, but we are two Ghosts.. together, we could focus this electricity between us and concentrate this electromagnetic field into a kind of ball that we could direct on the ship.”
-“That could actually work.” Said Sora’s Ghost. “Let’s try this.”

They all moved towards the ship, which flew, immobile, about 30 feet above the ground, between two buildings. They passed on the right, walked quickly along one of the buildings, and hid behind the rusty tank. They were at a good distance to hit the skiff. The Ghosts did their pufferfish thingy and told Sora it was time to shoot, which she did. The sisters could see the electricity within the field, moving and slowly forming a sphere, that looked more and more solid. When they were ready to fire, the Ghosts moved from behind the tank and built up more energy to give enough push to the electromagnetic ball.

The sphere was shot right in the middle of the ship’s body. They could see the electric flux spreading to the entire skiff. It tried to fly away but it could only barely move, wobbling in thin air, and fell down. Six Fallen and a big purple sphere got off and the sisters put them all down in a few seconds. They were ready to attack, the Fallen were not, the Volkov had the advantage.

Another Fallen got off, it looked stunned and dizzy. It didn’t even have the chance to look around that he got a bullet in the head.

-“Quick!” Said Mara’s Ghost. “Get inside before reinforcement arrives!”

They all took place in the cockpit.

-“How are we supposed to fly that thing?” Sora asked.

Her Ghost scanned the dashboard.
-“I told you I could fly anything.”

The dashboard turned on, so did the engine, and within a few seconds they were flying toward the city.

They could finally breath and relax. The Ghosts were flying this beast of a ship, soon they will be safe, in the only city left on Earth. They took this time to look out the window, to see how everything changed.
It was forests and plains everywhere. Some ruins here and there. They took more altitude and speed and flew above the clouds.

-“What will happen once we get to the city, to the tower?” Asked Sora.
-“Once at the tower,” her Ghost explained, “We’ll bring your two to the Vanguards. They are kind of the managers of all Guardians. They’ll know what to do with you.”

The ship started to lose a bit of altitude. They
could see the Traveler at the horizon, and soon the wall of the cities, and some buildings in the city perimeter.

-“Back to civilization!” Mara said.
-“Away from all those Fallen, I hope I will never have to touch a gun again!”

The Ghosts looked at each other.

-“Sora?” Her Ghost said. “You remember I told you about holding the Traveler’s light and fighting the Darkness?”
-“Briefly, yeah?”
-“Odds are you’ll have to use a gun again.”
-“What??”

The ship shook violently all of a sudden.

-“What was that?” Asked Mara, worried.
-“I don’t know!” Replied her Ghost. “It’s like… wait, we’re being attacked?”
-“Well who’s attacking us?”

The ship shook again, an alarm went off inside of the ship, smoke started to fill the cockpit.

-“It’s.. the tower!! The tower in attaching us!!”
-“You haven’t changed the Identification Friend/Foe??” Asked the other Ghost.
-“What? I thought you were doing it, you seem to have everything under control!”

The ship shook again, more violently, and began to lose altitude fast… dangerously fast. The sisters started panicking. Mara yelled to her Ghost to do something! The skiff was falling towards a large building near the city.

-“Hold on to something!” He shouted.

The sisters held each other’s hands and sat on the cockpit floor, leaning on one another, as the skiff took even more speed and the Ghosts were doing everything they could to control the ship.
The sisters held each other tighter.

-“Oh by the Gods.” Said Mara. “We’re not gonna make it.”

They both cried, waiting for the inevitable.

Author's Note

Again, some typos might still be there, I write on my tablet and sometimes the auto correct is against me!