A/N: I've been rattling around with this multi-chapter thing since TTK days, and only recently got the gumption to actually post it. Set pre-TTK but after Dark Below. Hope you enjoy!

The inferno raged around them, belching smoke into the night.

"Where are the others?" Ger rasped.

"Right behind you."

"Any idea what's happened here?"

"'Fraid not. That's for you to find out."

"Hook me in."

Ger took a tentative step into the chaos, hand outstretched, as his Ghost wired in the comms. His fingers were burning through his gloves, but it didn't seem to be getting worse.

"...at's happening, boss?"

"Stay close," Ger said. "Both of you. Watch for – "

Something slammed into his leg. His gun was in his hands before he'd even fully registered the impact, Arc energy sparking in the pads of his fingers.

"Light!" He barked. His Ghost immediately obliged.

He nearly dropped the rifle.

The child squinted at him. Skinny arms and legs, hair braided, body wrapped in what looked like animal skins and covered from heat to to in Ger could say anything, the barrel of a gun appeared at his shoulder. The little girl let out a thin wail and promptly wet herself.

"It's a kid, Takaala!" Ger snapped, knocking the gun away.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ger." Algoth said. "Nothing could have survived this. You can smell the burning - "

"That's plenty." Ger cut him off. Before he could overthink it, he released his helmet with a hiss and pulled it off.

"Have you lost your mind?" Takaala gaped.

"Where's your family, little one?" He said, ignoring the Warlock.

"Ger – "

"P-please," she said, visibly quivering.

"Ger, that's – "

"Please don't k-k-kill me."

"Ger, I think she's a Nightcr – "

"Enough!" He snapped over his shoulder. The child wilted, eyes flicking between them.

"It's alright." Ger said quickly. "I'm not going to hurt you." He smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way and took a tiny step towards her.

She didn't move.

"Where's your family?"

Wordlessly, she pointed into the depths of the inferno. Ger felt his guts plummet. And speaking of guts, he thought, she was clutching at her abdomen, white knuckles visible through the soot coating her hands.

"You hurt, little one?"

"Magpie."

"Magpie?"

"That's my name," she croaked. "Magpie."

"Huh."

As gently as he could Ger plucked his Mark from his hip, ignoring Takaala's noise of dissent behind him.

"Can I see?"

Magpie's trembling hands were coated with blood, dried and fresh, as she lifted them away from the dark spot near her waist. Ger folded the Mark once and once again and handed it to her.

"Here," he said. "Press that on, and don't let up until the bleeding stops. Can you stand?"

Magpie shook her head and promptly burst into tears. Ger's decision was made for him.

"We're going," he said sharply to his Fireteam, ignoring their mutinous expressions. He snapped his helmet back on and scooped Magpie into his arms, where she howled and thrashed as though he'd set her ablaze.

"Can you shut her up?" Takaala muttered irritably into the comms as they started to walk. "She'll give us away if we're not careful."

"You're all heart, Takaala."

"If you think I'm going to - "

"I'll fight you," Magpie said suddenly, with a surprising amount of venom for a child. "If you try to kill me, I'll fight you. I'm not scared."

"Why on Earth would we try to kill you?" Ger said.

"Because you're a Guardian." She said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So?"

An explosion rattled the air around them and Magpie shrank back into his arms.

"It's getting heavy out here, boss." Algoth said grimly into his ear. "We need you.

"I'll be with you in a second," Ger said heavily. He lowered Magpie gently to the ground and she grabbed his hand, tiny fingers curling around his own.

"It's not safe here, Magpie." he said gently. "Are your family evacuating?"

"What's that mean?"

"Leaving," he said grimly. "Heading to where it's safe."

"I d-don't know," Magpie hiccuped. "I don't know where M-Mama is."

Ger felt an iron fist of misery clench around his heart. The village burned around them.

Trying not to let his face betray him, he looked for shelter. The land outside the City wall was notoriously mountainous and wild, but his immediate surroundings were flat and tilled. Farmland. How had they never spotted farmland?

"How well do you know the countryside, Magpie?" He said slowly.

She shrugged, one thumb in her mouth.

He knelt so he was level with her head. "I need you to find somewhere to hide, kid. You hear me? Fast as you can. Keep still, and don't come out until it's quiet. Do you understand?"

She nodded and took a couple of hesitant steps forward, before stopping with a contemplative look. She peeled the Mark away from her side carefully and offered it to him.

Ger chuckled and pushed her cold little hands back. "Keep it. Remember we're not all monsters."

Her face split into a wide smile, the first Ger had seen.

"Thanks, mister," she said, and took off into the smoke. Grief unfurled in Ger's chest. She was tiny. Alone.

And what were humans doing out here anyway?

"Alright team," he said down the comms, fighting to keep his voice steady. "What's our - "

The burst was so violent it narrowed his sound, his vision down to a pinprick, slamming him into the ground, forcing the air from his lungs. Scrabbling among the dirt for his weapon, Ger hauled his breaths in. Dirt scratched his eyes as he blinked, trying to find clarity in the chaos.

When he found it, he would have given it up again in an instant.

Six enormous metal legs. One monstrous body. Fallen everywhere, screaming into the night.

No sign of Algoth or Takaala.

A horrible, grinding noise next to him made him jump. His blood froze. The flickering, blue eye of his Ghost gazed at him from the dirt.

"I'm sorry," it said faintly, and flickered out.

Ger looked up to meet the turret of the Walker as it turned, impossibly slowly, to face him.

Run fast, little one, he thought grimly, as fire took over.