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Another boring day of patrolling Europa. It's not that Nessie dislikes it, per se- it's just that Europa is cold as balls, Variks is always grumpy, the Vex are a pain in the ass, using the Darkness feels weird, and okay maybe she does dislike patrolling Europa, but that's still not an excuse for slacking off, damnit.
She chains a few more Trinity Ghoul arrows together, and watches as the Vex goblins in the distance spasm and collapse into the snow.
"Nice shot." Her Ghost, Betelgeuse, materializes over her shoulder.
She swats him away with a pout. "I told you not to come out during field missions! What if you get shot at, huh? What am I gonna do next time I fall off Cadmus Ridge?"
Bee's eye upturns into a circumflex. "They'll have to drag your poor, frostbitten body all the way back to Variks."
Nessie flicks his shell. "Shut up." The motion sends him into a small spin, and he clinks against her helmet.
"You love me."
She smiles. "Yeah, yeah. C'mon, let's go get those Vex scraps before Variks yells at us for taking too long." Nessie turns to the distant snow-covered hills, ready to start collecting scrap, but something stops her.
"Bee."
"Yeah?"
"What am I looking at?"
Her Ghost turns his gaze to match hers. In front of them is what can only be described as a massive rip in space, filled with swirling green.
Bee stares. "I... have no idea."
"Do you think it'll kill me?" Nessie brushes a finger against the edge, and startles when it goes through.
"Get your hand out of there," Bee chides.
"No, wait, it's like a gateway!" Nessie exclaims. "We can go inside it! Bee, we have to see what's on the other side. "We have to document this! Imagine what the Gensym Scribes will think!" Nessie pokes her head through the tear.
"They'll think we're crazy-!" But despite his protests, Bee follows his Guardian through the hole in reality.
On the other side is an endless expanse of green. Nessie takes a step forward, feeling oddly light. Her cape wavers in a breeze that does not exist. "Woah."
Her Ghost shudders. "I don't like this place. It feels like the air is made of Darkness."
As much as she hates to admit it, that is a valid cause for concern. "Maybe we should go back and get backup." She turns around to step back through the portal, but-
It's gone.
If Bee had a mouth, Nessie would bet all of her glimmer and then some that it'd be slackjawed. "We're doomed," he says, so matter-of-factly that it barely leaves any room for doubt. "We're going to die in this Darkness pocket dimension and they're never going to find our bodies."
Nessie grabs his shell and tugs it downwards so he's facing her. "No we're not. Look, there's another weird rift a couple meters away. We'll pop back through, call the Vanguard, and everything will be fine."
Everything is not fine. They make it through the second portal easily enough, but it doesn't take them back to Cadmus Ridge. It doesn't even take them back to Europa.
Nessie finds herself in the middle of a city- not a village, a city. But it isn't the City. The Tower is nowhere in sight, and the Traveler is missing from the sky.
The Traveler is missing from the sky.
"Bee," she hisses. "Where's the Traveler?" Where in Sol did that thing bring them?! She spreads her fingers, trying to summon her Light. Arc dances between her fingertips. Wherever the Traveler is, it's safe enough for her to use her Light. She lets the Arc fizzle out.
"We've got another problem." Bee pipes up. "My scans say we're on Earth- about thirty kilometers out from old Chicago. But there's no major settlements this far north. Definitely not another city, and even if there was, we'd still be able to see the Traveler."
A horrible idea crosses Nessie's mind. "There used to be settlements this far north."
"What, you mean pre-Collapse?" Bee sputters. "Are you saying that hole took us back through time to before the Traveler came to Earth?!"
"It'd make sense!" She protests.
"Except for the part where it's crazy! We can't just time travel!"
"What about the Sundial-"
"That was once!" Bee spins agitatedly in place. "Look, arguing about this is getting us nowhere."
"I'm not arguing!" Nessie argues.
Bee ignores her. "Why don't you try talking to some of the people here while I see if I can get in contact with the Vanguard?" With that, he decompiles into her Light- resonating faintly in her chest.
"Asshole," she mumbles, without a hint of malice. She sighs. If she's going to talk to people, she should at least take her helmet off. "Bee, could you-" She doesn't even get to finish speaking before he transmats it away.
Nessie knows he's not actually mad at her- all of their spats have always been in jest- but it's good to be reminded they still have each other's backs.
Bee had said to talk to people, but Nessie decides fairly quickly that she'd rather try to find an archive or a library. The people here look at her strangely- like they know she's an outsider. Is it her weaponry? Her rifle and machine gun are stowed, but her bow is still strapped to her back, just in case. Her armor? Everyone here is dressed in thin and colorful fabrics, but she's wearing protective metal. Her face? This city is full of humans, but Nessie is clearly Awoken; with pale purple skin and glowing yellow eyes. Her Light? Do they know, somehow, that she's been Risen?
Whatever it is about her that makes her an outsider to these people, she doesn't care. She just needs to-
CRASH!
"Nessie, eyes up!" Bee's voice rings throughout her head, though he certainly doesn't need to tell her to be on her guard. There's an impact crater a few meters away from her. She rushes over to it as Bee transmats her helmet back on. Inside the crater is a child- probably a teenager? Somehow he's not only alive but conscious after being thrown into the ground.
She crouches over him, shaking his shoulder. "Hey, kid! What's happening?!"
A roar sounds from overhead- in the sky is a massive winged creature. It looks almost like an Ahamkara. "Phantom!" It cries. "You stole my kingdom!"
The boy in the crater whose name might be Phantom brushes her aside, stands, and then flies up to meet the beast. What the shit?
"Correction!" He yells. "You lost your throne to your sister by being a terrible king! I just stopped your reign from draggin' on!" Phantom forms a ball of strange green energy in his palms, and throws it at the dragon.
Is he using the Light?! I thought I was the only Guardian here!
"No," comes Bee's reply. "It feels like the Darkness, but not like Stasis. It's like something else."
Well, that's helpful. And also really interesting? But Phantom and the Ahamkara are still fighting above the city, and Nessie isn't about to stand around and watch a kid get beaten up by a wish-dragon. Even if the kid is using some crazy unheard-of Darkness powers.
She pulls her trusty Trinity Ghoul from behind her back, nocks an arrow to its string, aims, and fires at the Ahamkara. "Leave the kid alone!"
The dragon roars with anger. "How dare you interfere with our fight?!"
Nessie shrugs. "I'm kind of just winging this!" And she lets loose a flurry of arrows.
Phantom makes an expression of delight- which she will happily assume is from her pun- and continues to throw Darkness grenades at the dragon. Halfway through, he switches to Stasis, and coats its wings in a layer of ice. The dragon falls to the ground, crashing through the streets and making an even larger impact crater than before. Nessie thanks her Hunter instincts for letting her avoid getting crushed.
Phantom floats down, clearly pleased with himself. "And that's how you dethrone a tyrant!" He pulls a strange cylinder from his belt, points it at the dragon, and... dematerializes it?
Okay. Nessie has questions. Lots of questions. Who is this kid? Is he a Guardian? How is he using the Darkness? Why was he fighting an Ahamkara?
But he puts his cylinder away and puts his hand out with a grin. "Good fight! Name's Phantom. You're not from around here, are you?"
She takes his hand and shakes it. "Nessie. You have no idea," she laughs. "I fell through some weird portal and ended up here."
Phantom's eyes widen. "You know, I might just be able to help you with that."
Which is how she ends up back in the swirly green place, led by Phantom, who insists that he "knows a guy." Nessie isn't sure she trusts him, but it's not like she's got any better options, so here she is.
They've been traveling for a while when Phantom turns towards her. "Hey, Ness, can I ask you a weird question?"
"Oh no," Bee says over their link.
I'll bet it's not even that weird. "Sure." She smiles. "I don't mind."
"Are you a ghost?" Phantom looks up at her with those big, green, owlish eyes.
"Nevermind, this is hysterical."
Nessie nearly chokes. "What?! What in Sol gave you that idea?!"
Phantom puts his hands up defensively. "I'm sorry! I just thought- y'know, what with the purple skin and the glowing eyes and the lightning powers-"
"Phantom." She takes a breath. "What do you think a Ghost is?"
The boy looks at her like she's asked the stupidest question in the history of stupid questions. "You know, like... spirits? Ectoplasmic manifestations of consciousness?"
Nessie takes a moment. And then she cackles. "You thought I was dead?!"
Phantom sputters. "I don't know- maybe? What was I supposed to think?!"
You know, Bee chimes in, he's not necessarily wrong. You have been dead. I just keep bringing you back.
Nessie loses it all over again.
The guy Phantom knows turns out to be a spirit named Clockwork, who supposedly has dominion over all of time.
"Young Wolf," they greet her. "Godslayer."
"Godslayer?!" Phantom questions.
"Um," she laughs nervously. "You can just call me Nessie."
They hum. "Nessie, then. You are a long ways from home."
She feels incredibly out of her league. She'd rather be slaying Riven again. "Haha, yeah. Phantom said you could maybe help with that?"
Clockwork nods. "Indeed I can. I will send you and your companion back to your time in the future, where you belong."
"Wait, it really was time travel?" Bee's voice carries a note of disbelief.
Hah! Suck it, I was right! Nessie fights to keep the smile off of her face. "That would be greatly appreciated. Is there anything I can do for you?" She's not so stupid as to think favors like this come for free.
But the spirit just shakes their head with a smile. "Enjoy the time you've been given. No one lives forever." Before she can question what the hell that means, the ground below her disappears.
"Nessie!" Bee calls out to her.
She's falling, the world around her is pale and blurry and there's no ground beneath her feet but the snow is roaring around her.
Unceremoniously, she lands face-first in a Europan snowdrift.
"Ugh." She rolls over onto her back. "The Vanguard's not gonna believe this shit."