Journey to Destiny

Chapter 4: Alliance of Destiny

The next time I woke up was with the blinding light of the rising sun in my eyes. The morning air was cool against my skin. I found myself sitting in the same place and position I was in when I had fallen asleep the night before. The smell of roasted rabbit thigh caused my stomach to rumble and my eyes to look up and see the same man who had saved me from the Fallen base the night before cooking the same rabbit he was cooking then, already half eaten. With the sunlight upon the stranger's face, I could notice old scars and battle wounds standing out against his skin when it was too dark for me to notice before.

He noticed me awake and looked up at me. "You awake again?" he asked. He smiled at my lack of response."It's alright if your feeling shy," he said. He snapped off the other leg of the rabbit and handed it to me. My body felt stiff as I moved to put the meat in my mouth. As I ate, the man tried to strike up a conversation with me. "So, what were you doing in the Fallen base anyway?" he asked. I swallowed what I already had in my mouth and struggled to speak.

"A mission..." I said. "I was given a mission to gather information," I thought it might not be wise to give a total stranger that kind of information, but then again, if I don't trust the stranger, who am I supposed to trust? Everyone is a stranger to me. I'm not left with much of a choice.

"A mission?" he asked. "Seems more like a death sentence to me. You weren't nearly prepared enough to tackle what was in there," he paused before saying, "Who sent you on a mission?"

"Cayde-6," I answered.

"And that is?" He asked. I was surprised that he didn't know something so apparently obvious, but I can't just assume that everyone knows everything about the Guardians. Maybe he's more like me that I thought, but that wouldn't explain his high skill-level though.

"The head of the Hunter faction," I was hoping he could figure the rest out from that.

"You mean from the Guardians?" he asked. "Are you one of them, a Guardian?"

"I guess so," I replied, not sure what else to say.

"How long have you been a Guardian?" he asked.

"Not long," I said. "This was going to be my first mission,"

"Huh," he said, sounding puzzled. I knew what he was probably thinking, That was your first mission and it was there? The stranger continued.

"So, if your a Guardian, then that means you were brought back to life. How long have you been alive?"

"About a day,"

"A day? You mean you only have the memories of one day?"

"Yup," I said. This all seems fascinating to him, but completely normal to me.

"You have next to no experience with a gun or combat or anything!"
"Well..." I wasn't sure if what he said was necessarily true. "I might have had experience with a gun before I died, so I can handle a gun at least pretty well. It's kind of like how I can still speak the English language. I know how to speak it somehow,"

"Oh," he said. "So that means you might have other talents and abilities from before you died that you don't even know you have,"

"I guess so," I said. The only way I could know what other abilities I have is by knowing who I was before I died, which is an impossible question to answer. I guess I could just try a whole lot of different things and see what I'm good at.

"And don't you have a Ghost? You know, the little robot that first brought you back?" Suddenly, I remembered. Ori! I started looking around myself until I noticed the little metal point sticking out of my coat pocket.

I grabbed onto the metal point and pulled out the sleeping ghost, who startled awake upon me doing so.

"What?" he shouted. "Where am I?" I let him go so he could hover in the air next to me.

"He must have gotten knocked out last night at the base," the stranger said.

"And who is this?" Ori asked with puzzlement across his face.

"Good question," I replied and turned my attention towards the stranger.

"Pardon me for the lack of introduction," the man apologized. "My name is Reece, Reece Bourne. And you are?" Ori leaned in close to me.

"Maybe you shouldn't tell this man who you are," he suggested. "You don't even know who he is," It's a bit too late for that. I've already told him too much.

"Zokan," I said. "Zokan Ross," Ori rolled his eye and sighed in defeat.

"A pleasure," replied Reece. "And your little friend?"

"Orion," said Ori. For some reason, he was reluctant to let him know my name, but was all too happy to share his own. "Well, some of my friends call me Ori but you don't have too..."

"A pleasure to meet you Ori," Reece interrupted.I decided to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now.

"Why did you save me?" I asked. "From the Fallen base," he paused for a while before replying. "I was going to infiltrate the base so I could get information as to where they're keeping the prisoners."

"Prisoners?" I asked.

"A few weeks ago, back in my hometown, the Fallen came and kidnaped several people,"

"But why?" I asked.

"The people they took were builders, important ones. A long time ago, they helped make repairs on the Traveler when it was damaged. It is said that the Traveler gave the mechanics secret instructions as to how to repair it. I think the Fallen want to torture that information out of the mechanics so they can figure out how to destroy the Traveler. I have to find and free them,"

"Who told you to do that?" I asked.

"No one," he said. "I have been protecting the people of my town for years. I do it because it is what has to be done," I was moved by his words. A hero, defending his people, just because he knows it's the right thing to do. This one man might be doing more to stop the Fallen than the Guardians are. "I saved you because I didn't want to watch you die," and I came here just because I was given orders to. That's it. Nothing else. I looked up to Reece. I wanted to be like Reece. If I was going to do anything in this life, I was to try to protect people, just like him.

"Soon, I'll have to go back to the base to get the information," he said. "Maybe if we work together, we can get back to the base and find the information we need,"

"You don't need my help," I sighed. "Last time I was there I almost got killed,"

"True," said Reece. "But here's one thing. You have a ghost," I looked up at Ori, who had been watching and listening the whole time.

"Who, me?" Ori said, sounding startled.

"Your ghost should be able to collect data from the Fallen base computer mainframe,"

"Well, that is one of my specialties," Ori said sounding flattered.

" I don't know how I was planning on doing it," said Reece. "But if the prisoner's location and the information you're looking for is on the Fallen's database, Ori could be just who we need,"

"Aww, stop it," if Ori could blush, he was doing it. I tried to stand up but was forced to grip my injured leg in pain. Reece pushed me back down to the ground.

"You should rest up for a while before we get going," Reece suggested. "The ointment I put on the wounds should help soon," Reece put out the fire he had used to cook breakfast with and started putting down the tent. I was left to wonder what was to come next. We would get into the base, get the information we need, Reece would go rescue the prisoners and I would get the info back to Cayde-6. We could both me hero's, exactly what I wanted to be.