The day I was born again

I remember the first words she ever spoke to me. "Easy their guardian. Take deep breaths." It was a soft feminine electrical chirping voice. I don't know how, but I recognized that voice as if id never been dead and I was hearing the voice of a close friend who I'd known all my life. I recognized her voice even before I saw her. I don't remember what my first thoughts were but I remember the pain as I gasped for air to fill lungs that hadn't breathed in centuries. The pain of moving limbs that had just seconds before been bone.

I think it's something every Guardian has ingrained in their memories. It's not exactly something you can describe to a normal human or even an Exo. Every fiber of my body ached and burned as nerves fired off signals haphazardly. I remember laying in the grass for hours before I could move properly. I felt stiff like concrete and was covered in a cold sweat. When I'd finally caught up physically I remember my first words. "What just happened?" I asked watching as this tiny golden ... thing, buzzed around me. Its singular green eye emitting a strange ray of light as it hovered over me. I knew it was scanning me, but not why.

"I'm a Ghost, and you're my Guardian. A warrior of the Traveler, and I just brought you back from the dead." A Guardian? A warrior? I was a warrior? I had so many questions at the time. Like what's a Traveler, what or who was I fighting and why? I remember because that was our first argument. "You made a mistake, I'm no warrior, hell I don't even know WHAT I am!" The tiny golden object giggled scanning me one last time. "No, I didn't make a mistake. It's hard to explain, but we Ghost's know from birth who our Guardians are. It's just a matter of finding you is all. Besides, you said it yourself. You don't know what you are, so how do you know your not a warrior?"

It took some convincing on my Ghosts part but I eventually came around. Being attacked by a Hive Thrull and getting gutted by its claws before I managed to snap its neck didn't hurt either. I'd experienced my first death, on the first day of my new life, and my first time being razzed. It was a little much to take in, and for a while, I only barely managed to eke out an existence by avoiding what id come to learn were called the Hive. An invading alien race that was hellbent on killing. That was it! That's all they cared about. Killing.

I'd apparently been razzed in the Ruins of some long-forgotten Chinese farming village. I apparently wasn't a native to this area. I didn't look anything like what the natives here used to. I learned about this thing called the Great Collapse and how it had nearly wiped humanity off the face of the universe. How the remainder of humanity has now banded together under this thing called the Traveler, and eventually how my powers worked. That took a lot longer than my Ghost had expected.

My ghost had brought with her a single weapon. A scout rifle called The Jade Rabbit. Coincidently she was named Tianshang Shengmu which was the name of some lady from long before the Traveler had ever come to Earth. The story goes she was married to this dude called The Jade Emperor. She'd had been named by some Guardian who was reminded of the story by her ornate gold and green shell. That Guardian handed Tianshang the Scout and told her "Your Guardian is the Jade Emperor, and every emperor needs a sword." So when I eventually asked what my name was her answer was sweet and to the point. "You're the Jade Rabbit Emperor." I'm still not sure why she added the Rabbit to the name, but my name was the first gift I ever got. One I'll always cherish!