Hello readers, so I've been away for a while and found that this fic is hard to write when I'm literally going back and forth between other fics because of creative burnout. (doesn't help that the discord I'm in has people reading one chapter of 'The Shattered Sword' and trying to say my characters aren't fleshed out enough or don't have personality.)

But I digress, thanks for the support so far and be safe.

(Currently looking for a Beta for this fic and 'The Shattered Sword', PM me and we can figure something out if you're interested.)

"I have seen some terrible things, like a Guardian getting their Light ripped out of them by the Hive, or seeing one getting completely erased from reality by the Vex." I rambled.

I turned around to face Valkyrie, "But one did stick with me, although the person never was even a friend to me. He died probably the slowest death I could ever imagine due to the Cabal and their incessant need to destroy things."

She looked at me curiously, [How did they die?]

"Was fed to their war dogs repeatedly, they kept getting the ghost to heal him until they had enough and killed both of them permanently, I was captured by them. I forget the exact details, something to do with an invasion that ripped away all of the Guardian's light for a period of time, I was one of the lucky few who escaped when I could."

[Aren't you sad?] she asked.

"No, the lucky guy finally gets to rest." I said with jealousy in my mind like a virus.

A look of concern flashed across Valkyrie's face, [Do Guardians ever get a break?]

"This is the closest thing I can call a vacation that I'll ever have, and I may not want to go back unless I am sure the Hive have been eradicated from this world for good... And maybe take a few years off. Honestly, we have thousands of Guardians ready to take our place, I'm no one special." I said with a small smile on my face, the possibility of having an un-official break here would be nice.

[Aren't you tired? You got beat up badly because of my-]

"It wasn't your fault, just a miscalculation, next time just focus on resisting the wizard if you ever see it again." I said calmly.

She eased up slightly.

"And no I'm not tired, for now anyway." I said with a little laugh.

She giggled along with me.

"I wish I could show you why they are dangerous, the moon in our world is basically one gaint fortress for the Hive and their abominations against all living things. The cracks in its shell show just how far-gone it is to even try and take the moon back, we can only hold certain parts of the surface while they do who knows what beneath our feet."

Although I wasn't there when a certain few Guardians went down into the moon and killed Crota, I have had plenty of adventures on the moon. From killing abominations with faces that not even a mother could love, to stopping Wizards trying to corrupt Guardians into their own minions.

A knock suddenly sounded at the door.

I opened it and there Henrick stood with a different pair of clothes on.

He had a black hoodie with headphones on that seemed to be hooked up to one of the Pokedex things. I also noticed another device on his wrist, what it was I couldn't tell…

Henrick also had a case with what looked to be radio equipment, Rose should have no problems using it.

"I'm going to guess that stuff is the radio?" I asked him.

He nodded while he set it down inside which had some dust fly off it. "Yep, everything you need to communicate with anyone within a few miles." Henrick carefully took his glasses off and reached into his hoodie and pulled out a small cloth to clean them with.

"Also," he said while subtly tapping his foot on the wall behind him. "After you're done using the radio stuff, I think I'll have to hang low for a while…"

"How so?" I asked in confusion. We've been careful to not get anyone suspicious of us, so what could he be talking about.?

A look of stress and fear washed over his face. "Remember when I ditched the Zoroark with the nurse?"

"Yes?" I said while looking towards him with a little confusion in my eyes.

The room seemed to get quieter and darker with each passing second. "She's gone, and I have the feeling she's looking for me."

I wanted to laugh, but stopped myself when I realized that he didn't have any other means of protection other than the other Pokémon that he had. These things could seriously hurt or kill him if he wasn't careful.

In a flash of light I phased my armor on without the helmet while patting him on the shoulder. "If you want me to protect you then I'm perfectly fine with that," he showed visible relief as I paused. "But I want to ask you something first…"

"What did you need to know?"

Perhaps something made me feel weird for getting a kid to help me with my endeavors. "Why are you so eager to help us? Don't you have anything-"

"Listen man, I haven't had fun in a long time because my life is about as boring as the Junior League. I'm not about to let this once in a lifetime opportunity run circles around me." he said dismissively about what I had to say.

I laughed briefly as my armor disappeared. "If you say so, Henrick."

Rose suddenly materialized right in front of him which caused him to jump slightly. "If you can help set it up, then I'll be able to get the right frequencies." she chirped.

He chuckled in relief as he opened the case in the center of the room and started putting it together with Rose helping the best she could.

I noticed that Valkyrie was oddly absent from the room despite us talking not even a few minutes beforehand. Without much wariness in my step I made my way over to the bedroom to see if she was there. I began to hear singing, it was low and droning and reminded me of a particular song I couldn't quite put my finger on. The door was left opening slightly while a low green glow shimmered from inside the room.

Why was it so familiar?

I saw Valkyrie floating slightly above the ground with her legs folded while a green orb was hovering around her chest. She didn't notice because she was facing the opposite way, I entered the room and paused at the door, what was she doing?

Wait, there was only one song that the Hive sung with such determination…

I went to tap her on the shoulder, but found myself unable to move as the song started to make every one of my actions feel twenty times harder than they are.

My consciousness began to slip as I fell to the floor with everything fading to black-

…

[I'm so sorry...] I heard apologized in a sorrowful tone.

Everything hurt badly, guess I can take 'hear what the Deathsong sounds like' off my bucket list. Go rot in hell Toland, I lived.

"I'm fine, I think…" I groaned as I sat upright.

I found Valkyrie bawling her eyes out with her hands on my chest. It was obvious that she was very distressed, suddenly she hugged me when I rose up to a sitting position.

Rose suddenly appeared in front of me. "Rise and shine, you're lucky that she didn't complete the song or else you would have ended up permanently killed."

How the hell did Valkyrie know the Deathsong? Was she being briefly controlled by the Wizard to sing it? At least she didn't finish it or else things could have been much worse…

Valkyrie was still hugging me with a little more relief for my safety radiating off of her. [I should've listened, I'm so sorry, please don't be mad.]

"I'm not mad," I said softly, which calmed her down just a little. "Just don't mess with Hive magic unless you get express permission from me or Rose to use it. Let this incident remind you what the dangers to using it are."

Something felt missing that was of great importance.

I flexed my hand and tried to summon anything Light-based, finding my powers to be suppressed…

"Well this isn't good." I muttered to myself.

Rose scanned me and caught on to what I was talking about immediately. "You think? Get comfortable I guess, because I have no idea how long it's going to take to fix this one."

Valkyrie grasped my chest a little harder, her emotions beginning to course into me like a landslide. I've felt this a few times already, never got any less weird though. Perhaps it's just how her species behaves and I'm overthinking it. I began to hug her back, embracing her to the best of my ability despite how much everything hurt. Slowly she stopped crying and instead took a more depressed posture, reflecting what I could feel now filling the room.

"Everything will be fine." I reassured as she began to shake slightly.

The experience here so far has been surreal, but I have to keep in mind that I will have to do my job. I just don't have a choice in whatever happens to me, I'm just here to protect and serve and look at what that's gotten me. I should be thankful this world is friendly when compared to mine, not to detract from the obvious problems from around here.

Thankfully the emotions coming from her turned to more positive ones. She broke away from me and sat on the bed, wiping away the tears from her face and sparkling red eyes. I noticed the weird horns on the sides of her head were glowing slightly as she began to lighten up and smile.

[Thank you, and to answer your question that you thought before. I just thought that it was a song like the ones my mom used to sing, I never knew it was dangerous.]

"It's no problem like I said," I said while sitting up on the bed beside her. "We just need to be careful to not get each other killed. Let me or Rose know if you feel like you can do something out of the ordinary, I'd rather not have any more surprises."

I noticed Henricks absence from the room, odd, I thought he'd be the second person to my side should I ever fall. Maybe Rose told him off or something, I'd rather not expect anymore from the kid as is, I owe him for going out of his way to help me.

I got up and had Rose appear in front of me. "Where is Henrick?"

"Well, I just thought something fell so I didn't think it was important, I left him in the living room." she said with little care in her voice. Least that explained him for me, stress seemed to leave my mind a bit.

Rose was about to leave the room until I spoke out after her, she stopped to listen while still facing the doorway. "Don't tell him that my powers are temporarily out, for his sake not mine."

Quietly she nodded in understanding before leaving, I pray she has an estimate for how long this suppression is gonna last.

"So your mom used to sing for you eh?" I asked Valkyrie.

She seemed to glance at the ceiling like she was picturing something. [Remember when I said that I was born and raised in a daycare?]

"Yes?"

[Well, I did spend most of my childhood there, but I did have a few years before then where I was with my parents deep in the forest. I don't remember much, but from what I can, it was perfect…] she seemed to trail off in remembrance of something.

The mood quickly changed in her posture, she seemed frightened immensely and curled up on the side of the bed before continuing. [She sang songs for me to fall asleep to, teaching me how to sing as well in little bits. Promising that when I evolved into a Kirlia she would teach me a full song…]

She shook her head as her voice began to crack. [I just wish that I could've learned before I realized it was too late… then they were gone.]

I could tell she was desperately fighting back tears that she'd been holding in for who knew how long. Suppressed and hidden away from everyone the entire time, I could only imagine how she felt.

It was time to tell her a story of my own.

"I knew this kid at The Tower in the Last City, the relationship started when I came to the Tower after my first revive. He wouldn't stop asking questions about where I had come from and how I got my weapon. Much like yourself." I said as I put a hand on her shoulder.

A small smile formed on my face. "A few missions later, I started coming to him to tell him what I had done while I was away. I told him tales of grandeur and glory, about the monsters I killed, the people I saved, he loved all of it. He enjoyed my company and me and Rose enjoyed his, even my fireteam took a liking to him. Everyone would tell him their perspectives on our Crucible matches or Raids. We had some good laughs then, just me and boys and gals."

"Eventually," my tone changed to a darker one which earned her attention. "I started asking around the Tower on who the kid even was, and found out he was an orphan."

"He helped out around the Tower where he was allowed, he was alone and by himself. I realized why he liked us so much, we were the only people who really spent time with him." Tears of my own were barely being held back.

I smiled again, but it was empty of any emotion. "So I then formulated a plan to make him happy for his upcoming birthday. I was going to get him a trophy of something big and nasty for him to hold onto to remind him of us. I planned to record it all for him to see just how awesome it could be. And lastly, I was going to take him on an expedition with the entire fireteam outside the Last City and show him the many beautiful places that still existed."

Memories began to fall into place. "Everyone was in agreement and were eager to do it, we were going to give him the best few days of his life no matter what. We found the energy signature of a giant Vex Minotaur and set off on our hunt, planning for everything before giving Rose the 'okay' to start recording. It was some of the most fun I ever had, taglines and cheesy references were galore and it was glorious. Eventually we found and started fighting the Minotaur, we fought with more than just a mindless want to kill that day, we fought to make someone we knew happy."

"We killed it successfully and took its head for him to have, after taking out the components that might reactivate later of course." I said with a bit of genuine laughter. "Everything was set, we were going to take it back to him and hang it up on his wall for him, before taking him on an adventure of his own."

Valkyrie looked extremely curious about how this related to her.

"That's when we got an emergency recall..."

Everything darkened as an unnatural anger arose from within me, I barely kept it below the surface. "We arrived just as The Cabal started an attack on the Last City, just as they destroyed the Tower and started their ground assault on the inside. We landed in a landing area and started blazing through what was left of the Tower, calling out his name and fending off an invading force to the best of our ability."

"We found him…" a few tears started stringing down my face. "He had a sidearm in his hands, all the rounds fired, surrounded by four dead Cabal Legionary and Combat Frames, looking scared for his life."

"He started running towards us the second he noticed us, for once I thought there was justice in this world…" I looked to the ground.

Everything started to burn on the inside with hatred and sorrow. "A single Psion with a sniper rifle appeared behind him… all of us started aiming far too late to stop it. Everything seemed to slow as a single shot ran out, he dropped to the floor clutching near his heart."

"One of us had another sniper and killed it before it could get a second shot off, we all rushed to our fallen friend's side… only to be told nobody could heal it because he wasn't attuned with the Light." the anger left, leaving behind a bitter taste in my mouth.

"Worst part was that it didn't even kill him right away." my voice became devoid of emotion. "There was nothing we could've done, in the end, he died in my arms incoherently crying out for someone to save him."

Valkyrie started hugging me while I continued. "You remind me of him, although obviously different in ways, I feel the same way as I did back then. It's odd, I never thought in a millennia that I'd be here in a new world with creatures like you, let alone one where one is my friend."

[I never thought I'd have a friend from a different world as well. Thank you for rescuing me back in the forest when no one else would.] she said while her horns began to glow again.

I suddenly felt better, happy even. A smile slowly grew on my face as I contemplated where to go from here. She smiled along with me as I got up. "You're welcome, maybe we can continue this conversation outside somewhere that has a nice view."

[Sounds good to me.] she chirped happily.

Suddenly the sounds of glass breaking sounded out from the living room.

I ran through the doorway with my gun drawn and ready to go, finding a broken window with Henrick and Rose staring at something that flew in through it.

"The hell's going on?" I said while the safety on my gun clicked off.

On the ground was a stone that had Hive engravings on it, I put two and two together and realized the Wizard sent us a message. Rose was already scanning it, Henrick had a kitchen knife in one hand and a Pokéball in the other staring at the window with neither fear or nervousness in his eyes.

I approached Rose carefully. "What does it say?"

"It says, 'you cannot hide Guardian.' and then a bunch of stuff I can't translate."

No powers, only my gun and our skill in combat, against the Hive and whatever horrendous things they have waiting for us…