Do I remember?

It's a question that guardians are often asked. I tend to receive it a dozen times in a week when I walk through the City's streets. People who were not revived by the Traveler's Light are intrigued by us. They want to understand, a perfectly human reaction.

An excellent question that everyone asks. And one for which there is no set answer.

I know a guardian, a warlock, who can recall with perfect clarity every book he read in his prior life. Another recalls her wedding and the intimate moments with her spouse in incredible detail, which she naturally does not share.

There is an exo hunter whom I have spoken with who sees the faces of people he must have known, but cannot recall their names or where he knew them. He travels the lands searching for the locations that bring those faces flashing before him.

A fellow titan remembers the day he died. Screaming in defiance at the forces arrayed against him and his comrades in what was once Brazil. He makes a yearly pilgrimage to the place where he was resurrected to pay tribute to those who fell beside him. A bottle of something and a single glass with which to toast.

Others have fragments. A view, a sound, a fragrance brings a wave of emotions. You can sometimes see one of us standing in a location, lost in our emotions as we strain to remember why something triggered a reaction. These are moments we allow ourselves

You see, we are not just the relentless juggernauts, tearing through humanity's enemies one by one as portrayed in the stories. Reclaiming our worlds inch by excruciating inch, driving our foes back from the walls of our City.

We are people, the same as anyone who has lived their entire lives within the City. We may put on the face of the brave warrior, but we are who we have always been. Individuals striving to find our place in this universe.

But what do I remember?

Flashes. My family and their names. Our home. I have visited it once or twice since I was reborn. It's a ruin now, of course. Just the foundation is left.

But the garden my wife planted is still there, or at the very least its remnants are there. The rose bush we planted when we first moved into the house has given rise to many more. Even after hundreds of years, life continues on.

Perhaps when we have retaken our world, fully, I will return there. Replant that garden so that it flourishes once more.

Which is why I fight. Which is why we all fight. To regain control of our world, our solar system so that others may build on the lives we lost.

That warlock has visited dozens of cities, scavenged the ruins of libraries, searching for the stories he remembers so that he may share them with others and inspire them to create new works for a new age. He has driven countless fallen from our lost centers of learning to make knowledge safe once more.

The lover fights for those who will someday love. So that they can live knowing that they will see the end together after a long and fulfilling life. So that they are not torn from each other as she was from her companion.

The hunter roams the world for those faces he remembers and those faces he meets. So that the people he now knows can spread out once more and experience what it was he had long ago.

The titan fights so that the sacrifice his comrades made was not in vain. So that humanity continues on into the future and remembers those who gave their lives defending it from what sought our destruction.

Others fight for the sounds and smells and sights that reconnect them with the Earth. They say we are all her children, and it is our duty to return her to the glory and majesty she once possessed. And so they fight to reclaim the wilderness and life that invaders have stolen from her.

And it is why I fight for the families that live today. For the children I pass in the streets of our City who dream of a wider sky beyond its walls. For the mothers and fathers who simply want a better life for their children than they achieved.

For us guardians, what we remember is not quite as important as why we remember. It gives us our purpose. It reminds us who and what we were before, and what we can become again.

So we thank the Light for what we remember, for the purpose we have. And we fight for what we hope to regain and surpass.

Just a quick one-shot I put together while waiting for Destiny to finally arrive. Hope you enjoyed.