"You said this wouldn't happen anymore!" Kari said.

Jayesh had just been discharged from the hospital after three days of bed rest. He walked back to his apartment, feeling better than he had in months, only to be greeted by Kari's rage as he walked in.

She had been lying on the couch, deep in the clutches of morning sickness, while Connor scattered blocks across the entire living room. When Jayesh arrived, she came to life and leaped off the couch like an attacking lioness.

"You promised me!" Kari yelled. "You said you wouldn't come home half-dead again!"

Jayesh held up both hands and edged around her, into the room. "Kari, I didn't mean to - I can explain -"

"You always explain!" she yelled, following him. "You always have a good reason and I can't take it anymore! One of these days, you won't come back at all!"

They stared at each other. Kari was panting, her face flushed, fists clenched at her sides. Lightning flickered in her eyes and at the ends of her tousled hair. She was dangerous and beautiful and infuriating.

And Jayesh knew she was right. Guilt crawled through him. He had promised her to stay out of trouble, and he had broken that promise.

"Kari," he began.

"Don't," she snapped. "I know what you're going to say. You were saving someone. You were being a hero. When they hauled you off that jumpship, I thought you were dead. Your ghost looked dead. And I died, Jayesh. I died to see you that way."

They stood there in silence, staring at each other. Connor watched them from across the room, fingers in his mouth. His ghost floated close beside him, watching in concern.

"Kari," Jayesh tried again.

She whipped up a hand, palm outward, to cut him off. Lightning crawled across her fingers. "You Light-burned yourself, you careless bastard. What the hell did you do? Blow up half the planet? When you left, you had no Light!"

"Will you let me talk?" he asked.

She drew a breath to shout him down, hesitated, then nodded, glaring death at him.

"I'm a Sunsinger," he said.

"Well, bully for you," Kari snapped.

He pressed on, growing angry, himself. "That kid shot me with a Devourer Bullet and Phoenix couldn't heal me. But it splintered and didn't take my Light. Then Shin Malphur came -"

"Shin Malphur," Kari said, her voice breaking on the syllables. "Why is he always after you?"

"He killed me this time. And I found my song on the other side. I resurrected myself, Kari! In fire!"

The lightning was subsiding from its dance over her hands and hair. She was listening, interested despite herself.

"I picked up a whole forest fire," Jayesh went on. "Malphur was going to kill the others, so I went after him with it. He put up a decent fight. That's what happened."

They gazed at each other a moment in silence. Kari folded her arms and turned away. Jayesh was half-angry half-ashamed, and all he wanted to do was put his arms around her. But she'd probably punch him.

"They said you'd hurt yourself," she said over her shoulder. "The doctors said that Light burn can kill a Guardian's ghost. And Phoenix was almost dead. You both were. And I just ... not again. Not so soon." She finally looked at him and her eyes were full of tears. "Don't leave me a single mother."

She was angry at him because she cared so very much. His own anger fading, he stepped forward and touched her shoulder. "It's all right, lovelight. I'm well, now. When I resurrected, I healed all the psychic damage." He gently pulled her into his arms. She didn't resist.

"I was so scared," she whispered against his chest. "You were covered in ash and soot and your clothes were mostly gone ... and Phoenix ..."

"I'm here," the ghost said, phasing into sight beside them. "I'm all right. They stabilized me pretty fast."

Kari pulled him into their embrace. "You keep him alive, you little snot. Don't let him kill you with his heroics."

"I'm tougher than that," Phoenix said proudly. "Now my Guardian is a phoenix, too."

Jayesh stroked Kari's hair and kissed her. "I'm sorry, love. I'm so sorry."

"A Devourer Bullet," she breathed. "You should be dead. I should be a widow. Again."

"I almost was," Jayesh admitted. "It hurt so bad. But I'm well now. I can't explain how much better I feel. And I can talk to the Traveler again."

"You can?" Kari pulled away and searched his face.

He nodded, beaming. "It's like I'm finally home. But I'm ... more, now. I don't even understand what's happened to me."

"Your Light is brighter," Kari said. "It's ... you again." She hugged him tightly. "Oh Jay, I'm so glad you're here. And you're alive and healed."

They sat on the sofa and cuddled each other. Connor climbed up into his daddy's lap and received hugs, too. Jayesh held his little family and gave thanks for them, basking in their love and glowing with love, himself. It worked on Kari as healing, easing her nausea. It worked on Connor as happiness, sending him running around the apartment, chasing his ghost and giggling.

Jayesh took it on himself to clean up the scattered blocks and make dinner that night as a quiet apology to Kari. She noticed at once and accepted it. By the time they went to bed that night, they were friends again - and lovers once more.

Grant remained in the hospital as they slowly rebuilt his legs. At first, they kept his nerves shut off at the waist. But when the reconstruction reached a certain point, they had to reactivate the nerves to make sure he could feel each repaired micro section.

It also meant that he was in pain most of the time.

The Exos working on him were different models that didn't have the type of neurosensory network Grant did. When he complained about the pain, they blew him off. "You're an Exo. There's limits to how much you can actually feel."

But to Grant, there was no limit. Often he envied Jayesh's ability to faint. After that first time, Grant remained grimly awake through all ensuing surgeries and tests. There were no drugs for his mechanical body - nothing to dull the sensation of metal tools tugging his muscles and tendons into place. When they reattached his Achilles tendon, he gripped the bed rail so hard that it snapped in two.

His third night in the hospital, his legs were locked in braces like usual, and the pain was like liquid fire immersing each foot and leg. He lay there, panting, suffering, gazing at his ghost, who couldn't heal him until he'd been reconstructed.

Someone knocked softly on the door. After a moment, it opened, and Nell slipped in, active camouflage fading from her clothing in purple ripples. She wore faded jeans and a T-shirt, like any Tower civilian. Her black hair was pinned back with eight different barrettes, all different colors. She looked young, and alive, and out of place in a hospital room.

She hesitated by the door, taking in Grant and the braces clamped to his legs. He turned his head to look at her, and beckoned with one hand.

"Wow," Nell murmured. "You look terrible." She arrived at the side of the bed, looking him up and down. Grant wore no clothing but a sheet around his waist, his sculpted metal body bare for all to see.

"Should I be offended?" he replied. "I thought I looked manly."

Nell snorted. "Not that. I mean those things on your legs. And the way you look." She touched the side of his face. "You're hurt."

Grant relished this attention and drank it up. Not only was sympathy a wonderful thing, sympathy from Nell was the best. He smiled and took her hand.

Nell sat beside him on the bed. "I'm not supposed to be in here. The nurses have chased me out twice. So I waited until the night shift came in, and I sneaked in with my camo active."

Grant studied her, panting a little from the pain. "That was cunning of you. I thought you were still in the Praxic Order's rehab."

"I've been released," Nell said, waving a hand dismissively. "I only heard the whispers a few times, and they hadn't taken much hold. Cidrex might be in for a while, though. He was pretty messed up."

Grant nodded. "Why did you try so hard to come see me? I thought ..." He trailed off.

"You thought what?" Nell said, glancing at his legs. "That I'd forgotten all about you?"

Grant collected his muddled thoughts. Blast, it was hard to think with his legs still half-built. "I'm only an Exo. I thought that you ... that I'm ..."

"Spit it out," said Nell.

He shut his eyes and said the words. "That you only endure my presence because of the fascination of having a pet monster."

Nell didn't answer.

Grant dared to open his eyes and look at her. Nell was biting her lips very hard. Tears glistened in her eyes. "That's what you thought I thought of you?"

He nodded.

Nell clasped his hand in both of hers. "Grant, I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. Did I call you a monster at some point? Is that why you thought that?"

"No," he said quietly. "Look at me, Nell. I barely resemble a human being. This artificial body gives me the look of an ogre."

Nell sat very still, gazing at him. A tear ran down her cheek and dripped onto the sheets. She angrily swiped at it. "Okay, maybe I did think that when we were fighting in Gambit. You make a really good ogre, you know that?"

Grant didn't know how to take that.

Nell went on, "But these last few days ... being arrested and such ... and the way you worked so hard to save everyone out there ... I'm having a schism, here." She pressed both hands to her temples. "It's like there's two of you. One is this Exo who killed me in Gambit all the time. And the other is this sweet man who held me in that prison cell and let me kiss him. I can't seem to put the two of you together."

Grant listened to this, a warm glow filling his hearts.

"And now," Nell went on, gesturing at his legs, "you're all torn up and they won't let me to see you, even though we're on a fireteam. And look at you. You're in pain. I didn't know Exos could feel pain."

"How do you know?" Grant said. "I haven't said anything."

"Your eyes," she replied. "Your pupils are huge, like a cat's. And you talk so slow. And you move all slow and weird. If you were human, you'd be sweating buckets." She stroked his forehead. "Poor metal man. Can't they give you something for it?"

"No," Grant replied. "Drugs don't work on me. The best they can do is put that ring on me, which keeps me unconscious. But I can't wear it all the time." He pointed to a metal ring on the bedside table, like a halo encrusted with instruments.

"Point is," Nell said, "yeah, you look kind of monstrous. But you don't act monstrous. You're as nice as Jayesh, and he's super nice, when he's not being an asshat." She ran her hand across his head, touching the metal nodes where his scan antennae were retracted.

Grant almost wanted to cry. He hurt so badly, and Nell honestly liked him for who he was, not how he looked. He felt like he'd come to the end of himself and was caught there, even though he so desperately wanted to move on and get this over with.

Nell bent down and pressed her cheek against his. But when she moved to kiss him, he turned his face away.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Don't," he said. "Last time, you only kissed me because you wanted to know what it was like to kiss a monster."

He ventured another look at her. Nell's face crumpled with tears. "How do you know that?" she whispered. "Light, Grant." She turned her back on him and buried her face in her hands.

After a moment, he ventured to pat her on the back. "But ... you know what? I forgive you."

"You do?" she said over her shoulder.

"You came to visit me here," he said. "I didn't expect that. I thought you'd probably never want to see me again. After all, our terrifying warlock will be the popular one."

Nell turned back around and rested her chin on one knee, gazing at him thoughtfully. Her eyelids were red, but she seemed calmer. "I probably shouldn't have kissed you like that. It was ... mean, I guess. I didn't know what you were like, then. Running through the fire ... I mean, yeah, it hurt me, too. I had to cut my boots all to pieces to get my feet out, and Hadrian had to heal me in stages. But it only took half an hour. You've been here, what, three days?"

He nodded.

"Point is," she said, "I've been a complete jerk to you, and I'm really ashamed. Like, I'm sorry, but I'm more than sorry. I want to make up to you for treating you like a ... a thing." She stroked his head and the panel of his cheekbone. "What can I do? Can I distract you from the pain, somehow?"

Grant considered. "Would you read aloud to me? I've been working my way through Charles Dickens. I was preparing to start Great Expectations."

Nell held out a hand and her ghost transmatted her tablet into her hand. "Let me grab it from the archives. I don't read a lot."

Thus it was that when the doctors arrived a few hours later to resume work on Grant's legs, they found an unexpected visitor in the room. Nell sat on the bed beside Grant, leaning comfortably against the wall, reading aloud from her tablet. Grant lay beside her, hands folded on his chest, gazing at her and listening.

They shooed Nell away during surgery, but they couldn't keep her out. At first they tried, but Grant begged for her to be allowed to return. Finally they assigned her a special pass so she could come and go as she pleased.

Nell came every day for the two weeks Grant was in the hospital. She read until she was hoarse, had her ghost mend her throat, and read some more. The story immersed them both and helped Grant forget the ever-present pain. And even that began to fade as they rebuilt his legs and closed up the insides.

Nell wasn't Grant's only visitor. Jayesh came, too, with his guitar. He'd sit in a chair and play simple chord progressions as they talked, him and Nell and Grant.

"What happened to Shin Malphur?" Nell asked. "Did you kill him?"

"He escaped," Jayesh said, his music taking on a minor key. "He was smart enough not to fry himself. But Traveler's Light, the man is strong. I've never seen anyone fight like that."

"What about you?" Grant said. "You made a fire tornado."

Jayesh shrugged. "Praxic warlocks do that sort of thing for training. Some of them do crazier things, like capture meteors or harness volcanoes."

"Are you a Praxic warlock?" Nell asked.

"No," Jayesh said with a grin. "I serve the Vanguard. And the Traveler. But speaking of the Praxic Order." He silenced his guitar with a hand on the strings. "Cidrex is mostly well after just a few weeks. He sent me an apology letter, since he can't leave yet. He tries to describe the way the bones felt, then he apologizes all over the place."

"Did you write back?" Nell asked.

Jayesh nodded. "I told him that I accept his apology and to not worry about it. I saw that madness in his eyes. He was not in control. And hey, it's a good thing he makes lousy Devourer Bullets."

They chuckled.

Jayesh went on, "Liran and Nessa are already out of rehab. They keep asking me when Nell will be ready for Gambit again."

Nell looked at Grant from her perch beside him on the bed. "Gambit won't be the same without the number two invader."

He smiled up at her.

Nell turned to Jayesh. "I'll play once Grant is out of the hospital. But probably not so much, now." She lowered her voice. "Malphur said I was turning bad, like the Warlords. Just because I don't stick by anybody but my ghost. So ... I'm trying to change that. I'm going to try to work for the Vanguard more. I looked up the Warlords, and I don't want to be like that. Those guys were insanely evil."

Jayesh nodded approvingly. "Malphur does have a way of making people examine their priorities." He frowned at the floor, as if thinking of something else. "Grant, have you had any contact with Donovan Moorehead?"

"No," Grant replied. "But we usually only saw one another during Gambit games."

Jayesh cleared his throat and scanned the hospital room for cameras. Finding none, he said in a low voice, "Keep this to yourselves, all right? Donovan and a man named Tanner were building and selling weapons of sorrow. The Praxic Order raided their shop in the City the day after we arrived home."

Nell and Grant stared at him. "Did they catch them?" Nell asked.

Jayesh shook his head. "The shop was there. The tools and materials and so forth. I heard they impounded four hundred pounds of Hive bone. But there's been no sign of Donovan or Tanner. It's like they disappeared. Their ships are still in the hangers."

There was a tense silence. Nell and Grant exchanged uneasy glances.

Grant said, "Do you think Shin Malphur got them?"

Jayesh shrugged. "We may never know, unless their bodies are found. Tanner was a guardian who had lost his ghost. He was Dredgen Fate. A real Shadow of Yor."

The little group processed this. Grant shook his head. "Donovan ... why?"

"Greed, I guess," Jayesh said. "They kept the Hive bone stuff away from me, but I saw how much glimmer they were making. And you know, I met them here, in the hospital. They were torn up and getting healing, especially Tanner. I wonder now if that was from an encounter with Shin Malphur."

"Or a Hive Knight who didn't want to be a gun," Nell said. "That is so gross, making weapons out of alien parts. Who does that? Aliens are people. Kind of. Hive barely qualify."

"They were people once," Jayesh said, shaking his head.

He played a melody and hummed along with it. Nell stroked Grant's face as they listened. Jayesh's music had a different quality to it, a richness it had lacked. Even though he was a beginner, his music conveyed such deep joy, it was a delight to listen to. Nell's own Light stirred in response.

"Jay," she said when he finished, "what song was that?"

"A little thing my friend Charles is teaching me," Jayesh replied. "Why?"

Nell held out one hand. Flickers of Solar Light rippled down her arm and formed the outline of her golden gun. "That's not me. That's your music."

Jayesh studied her fire and played a few more chords. Nell's fire leaped in time with the music.

"It's affecting me, too," Grant said. He lifted a hand that glowed faintly with Arc Light.

"Maybe there's something to it," Jayesh said wonderingly. "You know that Gambit match when I sang to my team? And we won?"

"Sunsingers are crazy powerful," Nell said with a grin. "Why are you the only one?"

"They say the Light changed when the Traveler awakened," Jayesh replied. "I'm only a Sunsinger because the Traveler had to remake me after Riven ate my Dawnblade." He could almost speak the words without anguish, now.

He changed finger positions. "You know, I wonder." He picked out a different melody, halting, repeating, making mistakes. After a while, he figured out how to play the song in his head - a crooning, rippling love song. He tapped a foot and a healing rift opened on the floor, Light flowing into everyone in the room.

Grant's pain eased at once. He relaxed and shut his eyes.

Jayesh kept playing, maintaining the healing rift effortlessly. "I think the music is acting as a conduit for the Light. Any power will be maintained as long as I play."

Nell laughed. "Imagine if Shaxx let you play over the loudspeaker for Crucible matches. Both teams would go mad with power."

Jayesh grinned. "Now there's a thought."

When Grant was finally released from the hospital, his lower legs were very stiff, the joints refusing to bend. He had trouble walking, at first.

"The doctors recommend jogging," Sentry suggested, as Grant slowly made his way along the Tower walk.

"Jogging?" he said, taking one step at a time. "I'd fall on my face." He reached a low wall around the outside of an atrium with trees and plants inside. He sat on this, working his knee and ankle joints, and watched people putting up decorations for the Solstice celebration. Plenty of white and gold banners.

Sentry played a healing beam across her guardian's legs. "I'm sorry I can't fix them," she said. "They're technically healed. It's just that all your new tendons are stiff until you work them a bit."

Grant nodded. "I hate to ask for a cane, but I may need one."

As he sat there, Nell appeared, looking very young and human in a t-shirt and shorts. She spotted Grant and approached him, grinning. "Hey there, hotshot. Out walking around by yourself?"

"You might say so," Grant replied. "What're you up to?"

"Looking for you," she replied. "The doctors said that you needed some physical therapy, and I figured it'd be more fun with a friend along." She took his hand and tugged him to his feet. "Show me what you got, big guy."

He gave her a sidelong glance. "Are you flirting with me?"

She laughed and flipped her hair over one shoulder. "Flirting? Me? Never. Now, show me how you walk."

Grant took a few steps, showing how his knees and ankles had trouble flexing. Nell watched with a look of keen concentration. She offered him her shoulder to lean on. "Let's go for a stroll, then."

Shuffling along with a companion was far better than being alone. They walked around and looked at the decorations, and discussed the various activities planned for that year's festivities. When Grant's joints began to ache, they sat and rested. Nell was attentive and patient, keeping up a never-ending stream of chatter to him and their ghosts.

After an hour or so, Grant began to move easier, the tension in his legs lessening. He and Nell strolled out on the wall, where it was less crowded.

They passed by Cal and Jayesh, who were sitting in the remains of a guard tower, talking. Cal was smoking his pipe, his huge frame leaning against a broken girder. Jayesh sat nearby, balancing Kari's sword with one finger on the pommel, the tip resting on the floor.

"Glad to see those two getting along," Jayesh remarked, nodding to Nell and Grant. "For a while, I was scared she was going to murder him."

Cal nodded. "From what their reports said, it was touch and go for a while." He breathed a cloud of smoke into the breeze. "So, your Light is restored. You resurrected yourself?"

"Yes," Jayesh replied, spinning the sword like a top. "I had to do a ghost's job and heal my body, first. It was so strange."

"Being dead is strange," Cal said. "I resurrected myself a few times when I was a Sunsinger."

Jayesh nodded. "I don't like it. Being a spirit is like being unclothed. And there's things out there, watching you. Nine of them."

"Oh, you sensed the Nine?" Cal said, glancing at him. "Did they speak to you?"

"Only one did. The one connected to the sun, I think. That was enough for me."

Cal nodded. "Be glad it was only that one. It's benevolent enough, as such beings go. But the Nine don't understand life as we know it. They seize you, take your will and your body, peel you apart in layers. Happened to a very nice Titan I knew. Stay far away from them."

Jayesh shuddered. "I have no intention of seeking them out. Once was enough."

They watched Nell and Grant in the distance as they sat on the wall's parapet to rest. Grant pulled Nell close. She lifted her face to his, twining her arms around his neck.

Cal chuckled. "Got the hots for each other now, do they?"

Jayesh looked, then hastily returned his gaze to the sword. "I think they always did. It's why they played Gambit so hard."

"Nice to see an Exo with a nice girl like her," Cal said. "They don't get much love, generally. Too metal."

"I'm glad Nell got over her prejudice," Jayesh said. "Maybe a little too quickly."

Cal shifted his position so he wasn't staring straight at the couple. "Any sign of Malphur?"

"I was going to ask you," Jayesh replied. "I don't care to ever see him again. I assume he's not dead?"

"Not dead, no," Cal agreed. "Still out there doing his job, keeping the forces of gray from turning full black. We never did find those weapon smiths, by the way. Might have been Shin. Might have been a rival smith. No new weapons of sorrow have turned up, anyway. That particular snake nest has been cleaned out."

"I've been canceling orders and closing out the online store," Jayesh said. When Cal raised an eyebrow, Jayesh added, "It was my responsibility, right? I'm going to handle it. I just wish it had gone differently. Donovan and Tanner deserved a shot at rehab, at least."

Cal nodded. "Turning weapons of sorrow into artisan craftwork? That takes skill. Shame they put those skills to such use."

The two gazed across the Last City to the Traveler in the distance for a while. Nell and Grant got up and walked back into the Tower, Grant moving slowly again.

"If you ever want to join the Praxic Order," Cal said, "I'd fast-track your application."

Jayesh shook his head. "No thanks. They're doing a good thing, but ... their methods are too rigid for me. I'd ask too many questions and get exiled."

Cal grinned. "That is a concern. Aunor doesn't exile members of the order. They just find themselves permanently stationed on Europa."

Jayesh grinned, too. "That's what I thought."

"Just saying," Cal went on. "If you ever want a pay raise and an outlet for those Sunsinger powers of yours ..."

Jayesh gazed into the sky, at the distant moon setting beyond the Traveler's disc. He lifted the sword and laid it across his knees, his fingers caressing the smooth blade. "No thanks. I'll need all my powers to serve the Vanguard."

The end