Shades of time

Chapter Eight: Broken Puzzle Pieces

 The Drifter's ghost brought his ship into lower orbit and they boarded. Within moments of their flight Callie fell asleep, occasionally the Drifter would look back and check on her during the journey but she didn't wake,

"Poor kid, probably exhausted after all that."

Callie's ghost appeared and hovered around the Drifter's shoulder,

"She's been breaking herself over and over to try and get stronger... but that whole time she was waiting...she didn't sleep..."

The Drifter looked over to the ghost with a steely even glare,

"She was waiting for you to come back..."

The man sighed heavily, what kind of fool would get so attached to a stranger like that? She was clearly far too immature to be left unchecked for too long in this world, with this power and without a stern guidance... one that he himself surely didn't have the time and patience to provide.

"There's honestly not much I can do for her... Now that the Hive prince knows she's here he'll come a'huntin' for her. But he's not the only one looking to get his hands on her, thus far he's the only one who knows she's here... with any amount of luck he wont go spreading news of her arrival around for fear of competition. From what I was able to gather, she's arrived earlier than planned... who ever planned this didn't account for that kid being so..."

Drifter shook his head and grumbled, why did something this troublesome have to be dropped in his lap, now of all times. The ghost spun it's shell and looked back at the sleeping girl,

"The darkness in her... it's not like that of the taken, it's pure... that's not all Drifter... She knows it's language..."

He dropped the ship out of hyper drive and frowned at the ghost,

"What do ya mean it's language... no one speaks that."

The ghost backed up a little, feeling intimidated, as the Drifter got a little too close, his eyes frozen in a damning glare, if the ghost wasn't so afraid of this man he could have lied or changed the subject, but there was clearly no room for such antics now... not even to try and protect his partner, the young ghost stuttered as he tried to figure out how to put it... elegantly...

"I don't think she even understands what shes saying... or should I say...singing... her lullaby, the one she sang to summon the prime evil, I'm guessing it's the same one she sung when she first encountered the taken who brought her here. It's unlike any language I- or rather you've encountered... at least from the information I have shared from your ghost."

The Drifter rubbed his face and temples as he thought,

"How could a pre-collapse human have even heard that... and she mentioned the Ahamkara in her sleep..."

The ghost hummed quietly, He'd heard it too. The ghost had begun recording his partner in an effort to try and piece together as much of this puzzle as possible, or at least be of some use to others trying to help her.

"You don't think..."

The Drifter and the ghost went silent as Callie shifted in her sleep, trying to get more comfortable in the harness,

"It's only thoughts right now, I couldn't get enough information in the ascendant plane and no one's seen a wish dragon alive for years... at first I thought we could be looking at time travel... but the only species that have access to that are the Vex. I seriously doubt they would align with the taken for anything... except maybe-"

"Endgame..."

The ghost finished his sentence. The very thought of a combined front against the last of humanity was enough to chill each of them to the bone, the taken, the hive and the vex, working together could just be enough to snuff out the last light of the human race, not to mention the oncoming darkness and what having Callie brought into all of it could mean.