I gasped. I was breathing heavily. My screen flickered to life. My eyes shot open. The first thing I remember was the instant cold. I felt the ice under me. I clenched a fist and my claws scratched against the ice. Inside that fist, I thought I felt a little tingle, but it was probably nothing. I looked around. All I saw was ice and more ice. All of a sudden, something flew into my view.

“HOLY CUSS, WHAT IN THE CUSS ARE YOU?!” I yelled, my robotic voice echoing through the crystalline caves. It was a small silver orb with a shell of dark green triangles. I launched my hand out and swatted it away. It just floated back at me.

“Shush, quiet, you don’t want them to hear you. Look we’ve gotta get outta here before that Fallen Captain comes back. Now list-”

“OH CUSS, IT TALKS, ” I screamed, interrupting it. I scrambled to my feet, my claws again scraping on the ice. I ran away, straight into a wall. That hurt. I fell to the ground, my head in pain. I had cracked the majority of my screen, not good.

“Cuss, cuss, cuss, cuss, ” I mumbled to myself, not completely knowing the ramifications of what I had just done, but still knowing it would not be good. The thing floated over to me and I backed into the wall, pushing the fur of my back into the ice.

“Just wait, I can help, ” it said, the words coming from its non-existent mouth. I put my paws on the parts of my screen that were cracked, this thing wasn’t touching me.

“No, stay the cuss away, you ain’t putting your ha-, well I guess you ain’t got those, BUT DON’T YOU CUSSING TOUCH ME!” I yelled, my loud voice seeming to annoy the thing more. My breathing quickened.

“Just stay still, I don’t have to touch you. This’ll be quick, ” the thing said. It began to expand, a blue light encompassing it. In a few seconds, the cracks in my screen were completely healed. I touched my face and it was smooth. My breathing began to slow for the first time.

“Woah, how the cuss did you do that? You just fixed my screen like that, ” I snapped my clawed fingers. It seemed to calm down now that I had stopped hyperventilating.

“Well, I’m a ghost. Well, your ghost now. I came from the Traveler, in The Last City. You don’t know what that is, but you will. Now, what are you? I’ve never seen anything like you, and you aren’t like any Exo on file.” the “ghost” said.

One word came to mind when he asked that. “Protogen, ” I said, “I don’t know what that means, but I guess it’s me. It just popped into my head.”

“That doesn’t appear on any files either. You’re completely off the books. Unless, hmm, what’s your name? Can you remember that? Amazingly, you could even remember the first thing, usually the newly risen don’t have any memories, except some Exos.”

I thought for a second, trying to conjure something, anything. A word popped into my mind. “Bit. That’s all I can think of. I think I like the sound of that.”

“Alrighty, I guess you’re Bit, then. That’s not on the files either. Well, that’s not important now, let’s try and find-, ” A shot rang through the cave, reverberating through the ice.

“That wasn’t a Fallen shot or even a Vex shot. There’s nothing else on Europa and the Vanguard hasn’t sent any Guardians here today. A Guardian is what you’ll be, they defend The Last City.” the ghost spoke.

“So if there’s not supposed to be anyone here, then who the cuss shot?”

“I don’t know, let’s hide.”

I did as the ghost said and we hid behind a large mound of ice and waited for whatever was coming through the cave. Within a few minutes, a figure walked through the entrance to the chamber. He walked towards the hole in the ice where I once was. He had a long black cloak. In his right hand, he held a gun with a flared barrel. It was blackish-green. He held up his left hand and a ghost appeared. He had one too. He was a guardian. I started to stand up but my ghost quietly told me to stay down.

“We don’t know why he’s here, and there are light-bearers who oppose the Vanguard, the authority in the city. Anyone who opposes them is not usually a good person. We don't want to meet one of those.”

“Yeah, that’s fair, ” I whispered back as I crouched back down. I heard the guardian say something, but I only caught snippets.

“New light… here… won’t survive, ” is what I heard. My ghost heard it too.

“New light? He must be talking about you, Bit, but I don’t know what he means by ‘won’t survive’,” my ghost whispered.

The light-bearer raised his voice. “Oh, New Light, where are you?” he pulled back the hammer on his revolver, “The Vanguard can’t reach you out here, you little cuss.”

I whispered to my ghost, “What do we do, if we run he’ll see us, and by how he’s handling that gun, I think he’ll shoot us, and I don’t have a weapon.”

“Alright so, usually ghosts wait till a little bit after you’re revived for the first time to teach you how to use the light, but now is as good a time as ever.”

“What do you mean, use the light, am I gonna cussing flash him or something? Blink something in his eye?”

“No, you have powers. Now just listen to me. You seem to be attuned to Void light, so we’ll use that. Clench your left fist and hold it, there will be a small ball of purple energy. Throw it at him.”

I clenched my fist and whispered “I don’t cussing believe this is gonna cussing work but we can- WOAH, ” I accidentally yelled that last part. He heard me and was coming towards my hiding place. I looked at the ball that was in my hand. There was the tingling I had felt earlier.

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“Oh, New Light, you’ve made a big mistake, ” he yelled in my direction. I popped up out of my hiding place. The man immediately shot towards me, but right over my head. A large metal thorn stuck into the ice. I hesitated. We locked eyes.

“What in the cuss are you?” he yelled out.

“Uh, CUSS YOU!” I screamed as I threw the ball in his direction. It latched onto his cloak and exploded. His body disintegrated into purple dust.

“HAHA, YES, I CUSSING GOT HIM!” I yelled out. My celebration was short-lived. His ghost appeared and he suddenly was revivedwith a gasp. He looked me dead in the eyes and aimed his revolver at me. The thorn stuck into my shoulder, deep. I felt the energy drain from me and my screen began to flicker. I hadn’t been alive for too long, but I knew that shouldn’t have been fatal.

Something coursed through the organic parts of my body. It hurt, it felt like it was burning me from the inside. On the metal parts, it ate through like acid. I fell to the ground and I felt my vision failing. I lifted my arm to the thorn, gripping the back, and pulled it out. Something dripped off the blade and burned the snow. There was a tear in my shirt where the thorn once was. I saw my insides disintegrate. The circuits, my organs, the wires. My screen switched off and my vision was gone. I died. It hadn’t even been ten minutes and I died.

But then I wasn’t dead. My screen flicked on and I saw the man crouching a few feet away from me, I’d imagine he was looking for my ghost. My insides felt like they were brand new. The tear in my shirt was still there, but there was no wound under it. He had looked away and hadn’t noticed that I was breathing again. I quietly grabbed the thorn from the ground and got to my knees. I had to be silent.

“YES, IT WORKED, I REVIVED YOU, ” my ghost yelled out with zero discretion.

“Cuss, ” I said under my breath. I shot up to my feet. He was only a few feet from me, so I covered the distance quickly. By the time he turned around, I was right in front of him, with my free hand, I thrust my claws around his throat, the only thing vulnerable under his armor, and pushed the thorn into his forehead. It slid in easily through his helmet, puncturing his brain. To make sure he was dead, I clenched my fist and my claws dug into his throat, cutting veins. I pulled my paws away and the man fell to the ground, a pool of blood forming under his head. His ghost appeared and I grabbed it out of the air. I wrapped my hands around it, preventing it from opening.

“Wait, what’re you doing?” my ghost rang out.

“This thing allows him to be revived, right? I’m gonna destroy it so he doesn’t kill me.”

“No, don’t. Maybe, it’s a misunderstanding.”

“Yes, because the dude who came in here touting that he was gonna kill the “New Light”, which you said meant me, should be spared after killing me once. What if he kills me again and destroys you? Then I'm dead forever.”

“Let’s just see if we can talk to him. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. I’d feel better if we just figured this out.”

I looked from my ghost to the ground. The man’s flared revolver sat there. I grasped the ghost with one hand and wrapped my hand around the gun.

“Fine. But for the record, I think this is a terrible plan.” My ghost disappeared. I let the man’s ghost go and the man was revived, unscathed. The second I saw any sign of life, I grabbed his throat again and pushed him up against the wall of ice.

“Who the cuss are you? Why do you wanna cussing kill me?” I yelled into his face. No answer.

“Alright, you want this the hard way, ” I said, pushing the gun into my pants pocket. I put my claws under the chin of his helmet and ripped it off. The man’s face was of a white complexion. He had brown, wispy hair that formed some sort of part. I looked him in the eyes. He seemed as confused as I was.

“I said, why do you want to kill me?”

The man squinted his eyes. All of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my side. I looked down to see a small knife embedded in my side. It wasn’t a thorn, just a knife. Small amounts of blood had begun to leak out. I looked back at the man. He was smiling. He opened his mouth.

“I don’t know what in the cuss you are, but I know you’re a guardian, and I kill guardians, just like the other Dredgens, and I’ll kill you like any other guardian.”

I threw the man to the ground and fired one shot into his helmet-less head, almost directly where I had stabbed him earlier. He was dead immediately. I knew I should’ve stopped but something told me to empty the chamber into him. His body was full of thorns. His ghost appeared and I grabbed it. My ghost appeared and said two words.

“Do it.”

I pulled back the hand I held the ghost in and slammed it against the wall of ice. Its shell fractured. I hit the wall again. The shell fell to the ground. I smashed the orb into the wall. Again, and again, and again. Finally, it cracked and there was an explosion of light. When it finally dimmed, the orb was gone. I had fully killed the man.

“You just killed a Dredgen. Those are guardian killers. Light-bearers who devote their lives to killing those who don’t join them. You probably just avenged countless guardians and saved many more. And that gun, that’s a Thorn. Only Dredgens have ever used those. Something in the gun causes the victim to be poisoned.”

I pulled the dagger from my side and threw it to the ground, the wound created by it was quickly healed by the ghost. “I guess I did kill him. And uh, it might just be the adrenaline fading, but I am freezing. I’m only partly robotic and a t-shirt doesn’t seem like the greatest clothes for this weather.” I look down at the man’s body and get an idea. I crouch and pull the cloak off the man. It was partly stained red from the man’s blood, but it would have to do for now. It was warm and seemed to have some type of light armor plating inside of it. It had bullets as well inside of quick-loaders to make it easier to reload. There was also a holster strapped to the man’s waist. I put that on also and slipped the gun into it. I would have grabbed the helmet, but it wouldn’t fit my head.

“Well, this seems to work. So we got something to cover me up and we have a weapon, what now?” I say, looking over at my ghost.

“I think we should look for a ship. We can use it to break orbit and get to Earth and The Last City. We should also get you some different armor, you seem like a Hunter, and that’s for a Warlock. Although, seems odd for a Warlock to have a knife.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan to me. Let’s hope no one freaks out at me again.” We began to walk out of the cave but then I stopped. I heard footsteps echoing far behind me. We were deep in the cave, but something was coming from even deeper. I looked at my ghost.

“Didn’t you say something about some sort of captain or something?”

“Oh no, I used it to get you out of the ice. I got it lost down in the cave’s depths, but I didn't think he would find his way back so easily.”

As if announced, a giant creature burst out from the other end of the cave. It had four arms, in two it held massive swords. The other two held a weapon, like a gun, but it was flaming at the end. It charged toward me. It was getting closer and closer and-

BANG

I had pulled the gun out of the holster and a thorn appeared in the captain’s head. A burst of some gas came from the thing’s helmet. The barrel of the revolver was smoking. The creature fell and slid on the ice towards me. I honestly surprised myself. It was an amazing shot from the hip. A quickdraw, if you will. I kicked its head. Nothing. It was dead.