Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned here.

This story was made only with entertaining purposes and is not intended to be taken seriously in any social, political or religious context under any circumstances.

"Destiny" and its characters belong to "Bungie".

"Tangled" and its characters belong to "Disney".

Believe

Chapter I:

The Path of a New Life.

Since the day I was born, I had a vision about you, and the Guardian I knew you would one day become.

When the Traveler died, as everything collapsed around us, we, 'Ghosts', were created to bring Guardians back. So together, we could save what remained of Earth, humanity, and the Light.

That is my purpose.

But before I noticed, we were losing the battle, and you weren't there to turn the tide in our favor.

While I saw other Ghosts find their own Guardians, I began to wonder if I would ever find you, if there was any hope left…

And then, I stumbled upon the last place where I expected to find you…

Beyond the corroded walls surrounding the last safe city, a small, cerulean light sailed aimlessly across the prairie bathed under the late sunbeams.

Since the shadows first lengthened above the horizon, until the heavens obscured the Earth beneath a starry nightsky, the glowing construct traversed far and wide over a thousand desserts, forests and ravaged cities. Every time scavenging the remains of the lost world, just like in its previous search, and the one prior to that.

Days became months, seasons became years, yet it always began with the same goal, and ended in the same result.

Nothing…

But then, after what seemed to be an endless loop of fruitless search, change was found within a place called 'The Cosmodrome'.

"Is it possible? Is it really you?" the small machine questioned itself, emitting low chirps as it hovered atop a lone hill amidst the vast blanket of tarnished vehicle bodyworks.

Suddenly, the construct's pristine, spiky shell decompressed in several segments that started orbiting around its single eye, emanating a sapphire, pulsing radiance.

And before long, its pieces converged inwards anew, reassuming their original shape with a strong blast of energy that turned everything white for a moment.

"Guardian? Guardian? Eyes up, Guardian."

She barely picked up the muffled voice as she slowly regained consciousness. She blinked a few times to clear her blurred sight, yawning silently while stretching her arms.

Once her detuned senses focused again, she found herself sitting on the soil at the middle of a bleak wasteland, surrounded by undergrowth and rubble.

"Guardian, can you understand me?" an odd creature, smaller than her palm, entered her field of view, hovering before her freckled nose.

"W-Wha… What…" she mumbled weakly, her sight fixed with curiosity upon the floating, one-eyed being.

"What a strange-looking… bird… And you can speak, too?" she completed in a raspy whisper, cautiously raising her hand to touch the uncanny creature.

"What? No! I'm not a bird!" the one-eyed being answered, retreating from the girl's reach.

"Oh… Then perhaps…" the girl withdrew her palm, pressing a slim, armored finger against her pursed, pink lips. "You are… a fairy?"

"No! No, listen," the creature replied hastily. "I'm a 'Ghost'. In fact, I am your Ghost."

"My… What? No, that cannot be," the girl retorted, narrowing her emerald-green eyes. "Because, if you truly were my… 'Ghost', then that would mean that… I'm…"

"Well, you actually have been… dead, for quite some time," the 'Ghost' said. "So you might see a lot of things you probably won't understand."

"D-dead? No… How? … It cannot be…" the girl trailed off, her gaze falling upon her mysteriously armor-clad body while she gingerly ran her fingertips across her cheek in disbelief.

"It's a lot to digest, I understand, but we have to get moving," the construct spoke, approaching from behind, hovering above her shoulder. "This is 'Fallen' territory, we are not safe here. Can you walk?"

The girl stretched her lips into a thin line, then she placed her palms on the ground and pushed herself upwards.

"W-whoah…" with moderate effort, she rose from the land, standing straight for a moment before her legs began shaking like those of a baby deer, making her lose her balance. However, she managed to regain her equilibrium by quickly bending her torso forth while she waved her arms, remaining still in her stance as her limbs slowly recovered their strength.

"Huh, that wasn't so bad..." the girl said nonchalantly, looking down over herself. "Lead the way, sir… 'Ghost'."

The construct gave a small nod and took the lead with a spin, but then it stopped dead on its tracks, turning around once more to face the girl.

"Um… Before we proceed," Ghost said. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I'm… I'm not sure… Um…" the girl replied feebly, placing a palm on her forehead.

"What about your name? Can you remember it?" the construct questioned.

"I'm… Uh… R-…" she stammered with difficulty, rubbing her temples to ease the sudden migraine plaguing her. "R-… Ra… Rapunzel…"

"I… I can't believe it… It worked! You're alive!" Ghost exclaimed unexpectedly, spinning its ivory, spiky carcass like a whirligig, earning a small smile from 'Rapunzel'. "I was right this whole time! After all these years I finally found you! You don't know for how long I've been looking for you."

"But why?" the girl asked softly, raising her palms, gently cupping the construct in between them as she held it before her face. "Why me?"

"You see, the thing is-"

Ghost's sentence was interrupted by the sound of cracking iron elicited when several insectoid beings appeared from thin air, landing upon the rusted frameworks spread across the wasteland. Those ominous beasts had four arms and a second quartet of pupiless eyes glowing blue while their bodies were wrapped in thick metal plates entwined with crimson cloth.

"Fallen! Get down!" the construct shouted horrified as the pack of arthropod-like monsters started gathering around them, roaring viciously.

Then, the atmosphere was filled with an endless stream of lightning projectiles piercing through the wind in all directions, emanating from the strange-looking weapons they wielded on their three-fingered claws.

"What is going on, sir Ghost!?" Rapunzel yelled, swiftly crouching behind a corroded metal-structure lying nearby to avoid the bulletstorm surrounding them.

"Hang in there! Just a moment!" Ghost quickly answered before vanishing with a flash of cerulean light.

"Sir Ghost!? Where are you!? Please don't leave me!" the girl cried after realizing she was alone, for the construct was nowhere to be seen. In that moment, she curled into a ball beneath her hideout while the ceaseless discharge of electric projectiles continued flying towards her.

"Don't worry, I'm still with you," suddenly, Rapunzel heard the Ghost's calm voice in her head, despite its current absence from the physical plane of existence. "There's a breach in the wall, we can lose them there but you have to be quick. Think you're up for a good sprint?"

The girl remained silent, her gaze lingering hesitatingly on the soil beneath her feet as she hugged her legs tightly against her chest.

Then she looked above her shoulder, right past her tiny refuge. The pack of insectoid beings was growing closer to her at a snail's pace while a thousand volt-bullets kept swarming the air around her.

"Is there no other way?" Rapunzel asked.

"If there was, I wouldn't be asking you to do this," the construct replied. "Worst case scenario, I'll bring you back like I just did, but we have to get out of here, fast!"

The girl closed her eyes, letting out a deep sigh before slowly opening them again. So, after a few seconds of mental preparation, Rapunzel stood from the ground, abandoning her hideout as she engaged in a frenzied sprint across the dirt road, heading to a colossal steel barrier encompassing the horizon.

The path beyond the vehicle cemetery was long, filled with arc-shrapnel bolts. Inhuman war-cries and thundering explosions drilled through the girl's ears during her run.

Rapunzel's breathing grew increasingly erratic as she evaded every obstacle in her way. Dust and rocks jumped on all directions due to the numerous projectiles impacting the ground near her in a failed-by-little intend of hindering her escape.

It was difficult for her to keep a steady pace with the never-ending bulletstorm breaking the sound barrier practically at her side, but the girl neither flinched nor doubted. She paid no mind to the foe's presence or its murderous attempts of stopping her while she continued her race towards deliverance, being closely followed by many of those 'Fallen'.

Yet, against all odds, Rapunzel managed to reach her destination unharmed, traversing an abyssal fissure in the hull of the colossal wall that led to its inner structure. But shortly after crossing the breach, an avalanche of rubble plunged into the earth behind her, creating a skyscraping dust-cloud which rose tall into the heavens.

Thus, the path inside was closed to her enemies, who merely continued their assault on the steel pile obstructing their advance, but this also meant that there would be no way to return.

"Did-… Did we… lose them!?" Rapunzel questioned between frantic gasps while she blindly continued venturing deeper into the construction, heading towards pitch-blackness for as long as the strength on her legs allowed her.

"I believe we did." Ghost replied calmly, assuming its physical form above the girl's shoulder with a spark.

"W-what… What the heck are those things!?"

"Fallen, from the House of Devils," the construct replied, projecting a blue light from its eye to unveil their surroundings, revealing a long, iron bridge hanging amidst a network of titanic steel columns. "They arrived to Earth during the Collapse. Since then they've been quite invested in pillaging the remains of our worlds, and murdering anyone who gets on their way."

"'Co-collapse'? W-what are you… talking about!?"

"I'll explain it to you later on the way back home. But right now, I must get you to the city before the Fallen find us again."

"Bu-but… to w-whereAAOOWW! Ow…" Rapunzel's run came to a sudden end after she tripped by cause of an unseen obstacle on her path, making her fall upon the cold soil with a sonorous 'thud'.

"Ugh… What did I trip over with?" she mumbled stunned, rubbing her forehead as she sat on the steel mesh of the bridge.

"Are you alright?" the construct inquired, approaching from behind.

"Well, I'm not injured, badly… What even is this?" Rapunzel asked, picking up an odd-looking, elongated device lying below her feet, inspecting its complex mechanisms up-close.

"It's an old weapon," Ghost answered. "A 'Khvostov 7G-02' to be precise. Do you know how to use it?"

"This is the weirdest sword I have ever seen."

"Here..." the construct hovered beside Rapunzel, casting the light-beam from its eye over the ancient weapon between her hands. "Take the lower grip with your right hand, grab it from here with your left and hold it firmly to your shoulder."

"Um, like this?" she followed the instructions to the letter, enveloping one palm around the posterior handle protruding from the bottom of the gadget, then wrapping the other upon the fore barrel at its opposite end. "And what does this little lever do?"

"Dont!" Ghost exclaimed worriedly, causing Rapunzel to jump slightly. "Don't pull it yet. That's the 'trigger', the weapon will fire if you press it. You must be thoroughly careful with it. It's loud, and very dangerous if you're not aiming at the right direction."

"Oh, alright. But how do I know if I'm 'aiming at the right direction'?" she asked, releasing one hand from the weapon, raising it to perform a finger quote.

"Just keep it pointed to the opposite side of your person," the construct replied. "You can use the iron sight at the top for precise shots."

"Hmm… So, if I press this… 'trigger'…" Rapunzel said, placing the rear end of the device beside her clavicle, lowering her face to look through the small piece of cracked glass protruding from its top. "This weapon will just spit… fire? Arrows? Oh, magic!?"

"Small, pointy projectiles of incandescent iron cutting through air, flesh and bone at high speeds. They're called 'bullets', but your assumption is correct. You just have to remember that it won't shoot forever. It'll eventually run out of rounds and you'll have to replace the empty magazine with a new, full ammunition clip. That's called 'reloading'."

"Hmm… It doesn't seem that difficult. What about-"

Rapunzel's question was interrupted when two Fallen suddenly dropped from the heavens, landing on both sides of the bridge.

"Well, class' over! Time for a hands-on lesson!" Ghost spoke nonchalantly, vanishing from the physical plane of existence with a blue flash.

Rapunzel desperately glanced back and forth at her foes slowly approaching her, tightening her grip around the weapon in her hands. These Fallen were different from the others they had faced earlier, for these ones were remarkably taller, sporting a bulkier armor, wielding a pair of sabers wreathed in pulsating, lightning energy.

"Sir Ghost!?" she yelled, freezing in her spot.

"Pull the trigger, just like I told you!"

Even when she had the means to defend herself, Rapunzel was at a clear disadvantage, and she fell prey of fear.

She anxiously scanned her surroundings again, searching for anything that could balance the odds in her favor while her enemies continued growing closer to her. Yet, her eyes found nothing more than loose wires and a vast stretch of endless darkness around her.

Her breathing became erratic.

She had to act now, or it would be the end.

But then, when her sight settled over the steel mesh beneath her feet, an idea struck her like a bolt of lightning. She smiled with an inaudible gasp.

In that moment, Rapunzel aimed the weapon down to the bridge and pressed the trigger, releasing a spray of incandescent bullets against the iron columns beneath. The environment illuminated intermittently with every shot echoing loudly across the facility.

Before long, the supports holding the structure yielded to the numerous projectiles raining upon them. Several mechanical noises blared through the atmosphere, the world around her trembled uncontrollably. The girl and the Fallen failed to remain standing when the bridge collapsed upon itself, and everything started crumbling apart.

A thousand pieces from the framework of the construction were falling alongside Rapunzel. She screamed to the top of her lungs during her free fall.

As the ground grew rapidly closer with each second, she placed her palms before her face, clamping her eyes shut and tightening her body, preparing for the abrupt impact… that surprisingly never occurred.

While pieces from the structure of the barrier impaled themselves on the land with large clouds of dust raising below them, Rapunzel found herself floating steadily in the air, merely a few centimeters above the soil.

Utterly pussled, she looked down over herself, but no cables were stripped to her person. Instead, a faint, bluish luminescence was enveloping her whole body.

"What in the name of-Ow…" the strange brightness emanating from her being faded as soon as it appeared, causing her to plunge face-first into the ground.

After that, Rapunzel placed her palms upon the soil, pushing herself upwards to stand again. She shook her head, easing the pain. And once her senses cleared, she was greeted by a pitch blackness engulfing her surroundings.

"Sir Ghost? Sir Ghost!? Are you there!?" Rapunzel shouted at the black void, rubbing her still-aching nose.

"I'm here, I never left your side..." the construct suddenly appeared with a flash of light beside the girl's head. "By the way, nice improvisation. You killed everything in a radius of at least 30 meters, almost including us."

"You saw it, right?" Rapunzel asked, turning to her small companion. "That was so… strange… What is happening to me?"

"Well, you see," Ghost answered. "There comes a time in every human's life where their bodies begin to experience modifications, such as changes in their voice tones, the emerging of pimples on the epidermis and the apparition of hair in the-"

"Sir Ghost!" Rapunzel interrupted, frowning while clenching her fists. "Back there, just before I touched the ground… I was floating… Floating!"

"Your powers…" the construct spoke softly after a brief silence. "They're starting to manifest, faster than I had anticipated, actually. It must be a signal."

"'Signal'? Of what?" she questioned, narrowing her eyes with curiosity.

"I'm not sure yet. In this early state, I cannot tell if you are a Titan, a Hunter or a Warlock. In time we'll find out, as you keep honing your Light."

"I'm not sure I understand that..." Rapunzel mumbled, lowering her gaze as she scratched the back of her head. "But happens now? How do we get out of here?"

"Hang tight. The Fallen thrive in the dark," Ghost said, unexpectedly leaving the girl's side, flying upwards into the superior framework of the wall. "We need more light, I'll see what I can do."

Rapunzel stood still amidst the void, silently watching the construct's blue shine slowly fade in the distance until it blended with the gnawing abyss around it. For a brief instant, everything remained dark and quiet.

But then, several pillars of light dropped from the heavens, vanishing every trace of darkness within the barrier.

And it was revealed. A large structure with elongated, iron cylinders attached to each of its sides was hanging from the roof, held by many loose cables. A strange-looking machine shaped like the tip of a spear, enveloped by tubes, as well as wide metal plates.

"Whoah… What is this?" Rapunzel asked in awe, placing one palm before her eyes for protection against the new light-source.

"A ship," Ghost replied, approaching to the supposed vehicle, casting a blue beam upon its hull. "It's been here for a while, hasn't made a jump in centuries. We're lucky the Fallen haven't completely picked it clean."

"And how are we going to get it to high seas?" Rapunzel inquired, tilting her head.

"High seas? Is not that kind of ship." the construct answered.

"Then wha-"

Again, Rapunzel's train of thought was interrupted due to an inhuman roar suddenly shaking the atmosphere, produced by an enormous, eight-eyed Fallen slowly emerging from a large crevice in the background wall, while a thousand more of the smaller ones started surrounding them.

"Um, sir Ghost!?" Rapunzel cried in sheer dread, taking a trembling step back from the endless stream of enemies approaching to them.

"Hold still, I'm getting us out of here!" Ghost swiftly yelled in reply.

Then, before she could even react, her body was enveloped by a sudden wave of shinning sapphire dust until it became all her person, which quickly began to swirl around her limbs, dissolving her whole being into thin air.

Shortly later, Rapunzel found herself sitting in a small cabin populated with numerous flashing, little lights, buttons, wires and toggles displayed on a large dashboard below a large window that showed the sight of the Fallen army corralling them.

"W-what-t? Ghost! What did you do!?" she shouted exasperated, frantically palpating every inch of her body, ensuring that everything remained in its rightful place after her being was restored.

"I'll explain it to you in the way. Now, hold onto something!" the construct answered, hovering above Rapunzel's shoulder.

The small cabin around her started trembling uncontrollably. The Fallen at the other side of the window grew increasingly smaller till their sizes resembled the ants', just like the lightning bullets they uselessly fired against their vehicle while it took off.

The picture on the crystals swiftly shifted from the inner metal structures of the wall into the mountainous horizon covered in snow, followed shortly later by the cerulean, starry nightsky and a full moon looming over the Cosmodrome.

"We can come back for them when you're ready. Rest for now." Ghost said.

"What say you? Come back here? Never in this life." Rapunzel retorted, twisting her eyebrows.

Two engines blared with the might of a blazing sun. Then, in the blink of an eye, the flying ship pierced through the clouds, fading in the obscure fabric of the celestial vault blanketing the Earth.

Once more, Rapunzel followed the construct's advice at the letter, and reclined into the padded chair she was sitting on, sighing deeply while closing her eyes.

She was still unsure of what had just occurred. Who was this 'Ghost'? And why it was so interested in her? But this and many other questions occupying her thoughts would have to wait until tomorrow.

Enough life-threatening experiences for a single day, and she survived them all. As of now, she only wished for the realm of dreams to take her away into a more pleasant journey.