The Anomaly
In the wake of the Witness’s defeat, it was as if the universe itself could finally take the time to breathe. With the crisis over, many unpartnered Ghosts restarted their long search for their missing half. Ophelia was one such Ghosts, having spent centuries searching the system for the one who she would eventually awaken. For the past year, Ophelia suspended her search in order to help the Vanguard with finding a way to stop the final shape.
Her friends, most of whom had found their Guardians already, were dispatched to investigate the anomaly on the Centaur Nessus, leaving Ophelia alone. She was currently on her way towards Neomuna, but something caught her eye.
There was a bright light shining in the darkness of space. She decided to take a scan of it in case it could be related to what has been happening to the system.
“This is odd.” Ophelia said to empty space. “It’s definitely a product of both Light and Dark, but what is it doing all the way out here?”
She concluded her scan and was creating a report when the light began shining brighter, overwhelming her vision. She could feel herself being pulled into whatever it is. “Woah, what’s going on?”
After a while, Ophelia felt herself falling, but that shouldn’t be possible in space. Her optical scanner wasn’t working and she was trying to troubleshoot when she felt herself land with an audible crack.
Her vision finally returns and she is met with sand and a whole bunch of trash. “Where am I?” she chirped. She floats herself up off the sand and takes in the surroundings. “This is definitely Earth, but it looks so… clean. Well, clean-ish.”
It was currently around early morning, with the Sun keeping out of the clouds. She definitely found herself on a beach of some sort. There were a few buildings around, though she could see much taller ones in the distance. She even saw a few people going about their day.
Patching into the Vanguard comms, she tried to reach Earth. “Vanguard command, this is Ophelia. I found an anomaly in deep space which transported me to Earth. Hello?” She was met with static.
With a sigh, she disconnects from the comms. “Nothing. Let’s see if there’s a terminal around, see what I’m dealing with.”
Floating away from the trashed beach, she makes her way into the cityscape. The more she saw the more she was confused. Not even the Last City was this peaceful. The few people she saw were wearing nothing like those in the City did.
“This writing,” She hummed, looking at some of the signs on the buildings. “It looks like Old Earth Japanese. But that can’t be right, Japan is underwater.”
During the Collapse, the waves eventually sank what had remained of Japan into the ocean, leaving the survivors to make their way onto the Asia mainland towards the City. Ophelia kept feeling a sense of wrongness. She could feel the Traveler, but it was like it was far away, when it should be hanging in space above Earth. Adding that to the fact that she is, in fact, in Japan when it’s been destroyed for centuries.
Activating her cloaking so as to not draw attention, she kept moving through the sky but was interrupted with an explosion ringing out in the distance. Is it Shadow Legion? There are still some cells active on Earth?
She flew over and eventually spotted a massive figure of some sort, definitely not Shadow Legion. It was a large person with what looked like a shark-ish head wearing a torn vest.
What in the world? She thought. Without a Guardian, there is not much she can do to intervene. She looked down and saw a crowd forming to watch the hulking figure. She was about to go down and warn them to leave when another figure entered the fray. She did a scan and it was definitely a human, though they were wearing some sort of wood… armor?
Ophelia activated her auto translator and the newcomer was saying stuff about the monster being an incarnation of evil. She continued observing as the wood man fought the beast and he looked to be charging up some sort of super move when a rather large lady burst onto the scene, drop kicking the monster.
Ophelia’s eye light blinked on and off as she was, well, flabbergasted. This is definitely not Earth, at least how I know it. Turning away from the scene, she went through a door behind another person and searched the building for a computer. Finding one out of the way, she uncloaks and scans the console to absorb the information on it.
She first searches for some familiar terms. But there was nothing about the Traveler, the Vanguard, Ghosts, Guardians, or anything of the sort. She then decided to download the last few hundred years of history in case she was missing something. She was centuries in the past, somewhere in the 24th century. Instead of the history she knows, she sees entries about what this Earth called quirks, or rather superpowers. Not powers like what the Guardians wielded, but more varied and honestly much more interesting to Ophelia.
Her first and most plausible theory is that that anomaly has transported her to another universe, one where the Traveler and the Witness either never came to Earth or never existed in the first place. In turn, it seems humans evolved to develop superhuman capabilities.
“This is unprecedented,” She mused. “Gallagher would be so jealous.”
It was always a theory that there existed other universes, but to witness one with her own eye, Ophelia was amazed. Though as she continued her research, unbeknownst to her, the boy who would eventually change the world left the cleanup of the battle outside.
“Today is going to be a good day.” Both Ophelia and one Izuku Midoriya thought at once.
Hours later, Ophelia was observing Musutafu and its people. The sun was beginning to set and she was thinking of heading to where the City would have been located in her universe when she felt something. It wasn’t like anything she had felt before, something indescribable. She felt IT. Something she had only heard about from her friends.
“Could it really be? Here of all places?” She said. She followed the feeling, keeping out of sight, until she eventually found herself in a graveyard. As she moves through the cemetery, she is reminded of what exactly the Guardians used to be. The dead and the forgotten. Yes the Ghosts were created to find soldiers to fight in a war, but the war is over now. The Witness is dead. Ophelia stops above a grave, this was the one. She reads the name as well as the date of birth and death.
“So young…” She saws sorrowfully. Her purpose is to find her Guardian, her other half, but is it worth it? The goal of her life’s mission is finally in her reach, but she can only hesitate. With the war over, is it worth bringing this soul out of its sleep? On the other hand, maybe now the Ghosts can find those who deserve a second chance, a chance to live the life that they were unable to before. Ophelia looks again at the headstone. Her chosen is young, much younger than those that are normally chosen. Maybe it’s a sign that she’s right. That she can give someone that second chance.
Steeling herself, Ophelia begins the process of reviving her chosen. Her Guardian. Unlike many before them, her chosen was buried in a casket. She’ll have to do a short range transmat to bring them above the ground.
As the lost Ghost finally fulfills her duty, elsewhere, a young boy is given his own second chance.
It’s cold. I’m… cold.
This is the first sensation that she feels. The chill in the air and the breeze carrying it. Slowly, she opens her eyes and is met with a blurry landscape.
“Are you awake?” a voice says, airy yet tinny at the same time.
Her eyes adjust and her vision clears. “Where am I?” she asks. Her throat feels raw, like she hasn’t spoken in years.
“Musutafu Cemetery.” the voice answers her.
She looks around and is met with a strange flying thing. “What are you?” she asks.
The thing seems to be excited. “I’m a Ghost. Your Ghost. You can call me Ophelia.”
She reaches her pale hand out towards the… Ghost? It seems to settle right above the palm of her hand. It feels like something is missing.
“Who… who am I? I can’t remember.”
“That’s normal.” The Ghost answers. “They never remember who they were before.”
“What?”
“The Guardians. Once they’re risen for the first time, it’s like a full reboot. Everything personal at least is gone. But I can tell you your name.”
“Your name is Ayano, and you’ve been asleep for a rather long time.” The Ghost, Ophelia? answers. “It’s getting late, we should find somewhere to rest for the night.”
“Do I… have family somewhere?” Ayano asks, knowing that she should have such a thing.
“As per Vanguard protocol, Guardians aren’t supposed to investigate their pasts, but I was never one for rules.” Ophelia chirps, leaving Ayano’s hand and looking off into the distance. “But with how long you’ve been gone, there’s no feasible way to explain your sudden resurrection.”
As Ophelia was contemplating their next move, Ayano looked behind her. There was a headstone, one with her name on it. It was a little overgrown, looking as if it hadn't been properly looked after. Her family name is unreadable, but the date wasn’t.
Ayano —--
Dec 12th, 2313 - June 5th, 2326
Beloved sister, daughter, and friend
So it wasn’t that she was merely asleep. She was dead. How was she alive? Ophelia seems to have noticed Ayano’s train of thought.
“I understand that this is a lot to take in, but you’re not in this alone. Think of it as a second chance. A chance to live your life again.” She said, trying to be inspiring.
Ayano looked down at herself. She was wearing a simple white dress that went down to her knees, a matching pair of shoes on her feet. Locks of raspberry colored hair hung around the edges of her vision.
“Normally, we Ghosts would synthesize some basic armor for you, but I felt that it would make you stand out too much. Come on.” Ophelia said, using her body to gesture towards the gates of the cemetery. “Let’s find somewhere to stay for tonight. Resurrection takes a lot out of our chosen, so I can explain more in the morning.”
Her legs still feeling a bit wobbly, Ayano and Ophelia slowly made their way out of the cemetery.
People…. are watching.
Those were Ayano’s thoughts as they trekked through Musutafu. She couldn’t blame people for staring at them, a little girl and a floating robot together in the middle of the city after dark.
A little ahead of her, Ophelia floated while searching her internal map. Though she didn’t feel great about it, she synthesized some yen so they could buy a room for the night.
“This is the place,” Ophelia said, stopping in front of a hotel. It was not the greatest looking building, but it was deemed safe enough for them to stay in. The two walked in the hotel, the receptionist giving them an odd look.
“Can I help you?” He asked, looking confused at the floating Ghost.
“Oh, hello.” Ophelia chirped. “We were looking for a place to stay for tonight, do you have any available rooms?”
“Uhh, we do but,” He paused, glancing over at Ayano. “Are you lost?”
Ayano, who had mostly been unfocused on the conversation, lost the glazed look in her eyes. “Oh um no. We have nowhere else to go.”
“I see.” The receptionist said, as a key floated from the wall behind him. “We have a room for tonight. Don’t worry about paying for it. Believe it or not, I used to be in your shoes, so I can understand.”
With an understanding yet sad smile, the key floated into Ayano’s hand.
“Thank you, sir.”
The two made their way to the elevator, but Ayano stopped short, turning back to the man at the desk.
“Have a good night, mister.” She said, the ghost of a smile on her otherwise impassive face.
After Ayano eventually fell asleep, Ophelia was going back over the information she had gathered during her first day in this universe. She felt guilty because she wasn’t entirely honest with her chosen. Using the dates from her data scan, she knew that Ayano had only been dead for around 20 years, so much of her immediate family was still alive. A lot of guardians were revived many decades if not centuries after their deaths, while the most recent example of a guardian reviving not long after death being the current Hunter Vanguard, Crow. Though Vanguard Protocol wasn’t always Ophelia’s favorite rules, she didn’t want to reopen old wounds for people who had already mourned for those they lost. She also didn’t know how the people of this universe would react. In her world, not staying dead was rather commonplace, but here, she just didn’t know. From her knowledge of pre-Collapse cultures, a lot of the planet thought that messing with the dead was heretical and unnatural.
Part of Ophelia wished her friends were here, but the other part was excited to explore this new world. She was the first Ghost in recorded history to explore the multiverse, though it is not without its risks. Her connection to the Light was still rather dim, but the fact it is still there means that maybe, just maybe, the Traveler was out there somewhere. But it also means that the Witness could be too. And the thought of that scared her more than anything.