'What comes after death?'

It's a question on the same line as 'What's the meaning of life?' It can't really be answered, because in truth there is no way to get an answer. You could only theorize about an answer. I have theorized and thought about many answers to this question.

Do you go to some metaphysical afterlife? Or maybe heaven and hell exist, and the sinners go to hell, and the do-gooders go to heaven. Maybe it's the other way around. Or maybe you just stop existing. You stop thinking, you stop breathing, you stop feeling. You lose control of every part of your body, and you just fall into an endless sleep where you never dream.

I think that the last one is the one that gives me existential dread. The idea that I won't be able to do all the things I do now scares me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I had just turned into a young adult, and I barely did anything with my newfound independence. In the end, all of this doesn't matter, because I got the answer to the supposedly unanswerable question.

It feels like I'm adrift at sea, deep at the bottom of the ocean. However, at the same time, I can't feel anything at all. I'm able to think for myself, but at the same time, I'm not thinking at all. I'm in a strange limbo where my body is performing its normal functions, and not performing them at all. It's weird and completely uncomfortable, but at the same time, it's an extremely comfortable state of mind.

At this point, it just feels like I'm going in circles.

Then suddenly, a feeling started to rise in what felt like my gut, and this time it was an actual resolute feeling and not the limbo-like feelings from before. It was... warm. In pulses, it slowly starts to grow outward from my gut. Eventually, my torso felt warm, then my limbs, until it reached up to my head. Everything felt warm, and in truth, I felt very uncomfortable.

"Gu...ian..."

I could hear a voice slowly echo out in my consciousness, and with it, I slowly began to gain control of my five senses. I breathed deeply, and my eyes slowly blinked open. I felt stiff, almost as if I had been lying still for decades.

"By the Traveler..." the voice, which I recognized as feminine, was slightly more clearer if a bit muffled.

"Ugh..." I let out an inhuman groan, but I was so out of it that I didn't notice. Slowly I rose from my position and winced as my head pounded in a dull headache. I grabbed my head, not noticing my three-fingered hand.

"Th-This should be impossible!" the female voice yelled out in exasperation. Realizing that there was someone here with me, I focused my gaze on the source of the voice. When I saw who, or rather what was talking, I widened my eyes in surprise.

A small drone was floating in front of me. It was a silver orb surrounded by eight tetrahedrons. In the center of the orb was a black lens, with a blue rhombus-shaped eye with a circle in the middle. I didn't know what I was looking at, but somewhere in the back of my mind, something tingled in recognition.

"What are you? In fact, where am I!?" once again, I spoke in an inhuman language that I didn't recognize, but with my mind being much clearer I noticed it, "W-Wha... What?" When I tried to speak in English, what came out was a garbled mess of what should be words. For some reason, I wasn't able to say the word naturally.

"What... do I even do in this situation!?" The drone spoke out loud once again, and this time she sounds a bit frustrated, "I have never heard of a fallen being resurrected as a Guardian," the drone let out a sigh, "Why do I have to be the one to discover something like this..."

I just stared at her in confusion, but the words "Fallen" and "Guardian" sounded very familiar to me.

"Ok... baby steps," The drone turned her attention towards me, "Ok! So... you're a Guardian," The drone started awkwardly as she watched me for any type of reaction. I just stared and waited for her to continue, "And I am your Ghost! I had just resurrected you after you've been dead for a long time. Normally you'd either be an exo, human or awoken but... you clearly are not any of those."

This time I gave her a confused stare. What does she mean I'm not human? I have been human since I was born. I mean even my body is...

What.

When I had gazed down at my body I noticed that instead of my normal pair of arms and five fingers, I had four arms with three fingers each! My feet as well were completely abnormal, as instead of five toes, I had two clawed toes at the front, and one on the beach of my heel. Slowly, I started to realize just what I was and gradually brought my fingers to my mouth. Instead of my normal lips and teeth, I felt two mandibles at the bottom of where my chin would be, and rows of sharp teeth.

"H-How..." I said more to myself than anyone else. Also, I realized that it was becoming slightly easier to speak English.

"Exactly!" She said to me, thinking that what I said was directed towards her, "There have never been any records documenting a race outside of the normal three being resurrected let alone a fallen! If the warlocks back the Tower heard about this, hoo boy they'd be having a field day!"

I hadn't even been paying attention to her, as in my head I'd been having a meltdown about where I was. I mean who in their right mind would think that they would reincarnate in the Destiny universe!? Not only that but to be reincarnated as a guardian, which is probably one of the most dangerous jobs in this universe. Oh, and the cherry on top is that I'm a fallen guardian, something that has only been theorized by the Destiny community as something that might happen.

"Guardian? Helloooo." The drone, or rather ghost, pulled me out of my thoughts and I turned my attention to her, "Oh good, your finally paying attention."

"Sorry," I unconsciously slipped into what I presumed to be the fallen language. I have no idea how I knew a language I didn't even know about, but it may have something to do with the fact that I'm in an eliksni body. I had to consciously think about speaking in the English language, "I mean, sorry." I spoke much slower than normal so it was easier for me, but it was still kind of hard to speak in a language your body is not used to.

"Hm... we'll have to work on your English, but it will do for now. Anyways, what I would normally do is recommend that you head to the Tower and introduce yourself to the Vanguard. However this is not only an abnormal situation, but it would be very hard to get back considering where we are."

"What do you mean?" I looked around and notice that we were in some kind of desert, and a light breeze blew sand all over the place. I looked up and noticed that the sky was colored purple, and a massive ring of wreckage floated in the sky, where some source of light was being hidden by the clouds.

"We are..."

"In the Tangled Shore. A lawless frontier owned by criminals, outcasts, and scum," my ghost explained as she looked around us, "I recommend finding somewhere to hunker down in. We need to figure out our future plans, and being out in the open like this is just calling for danger."

When my ghost looked at me, she found that I wasn't paying attention as I was still feeling shellshocked about this whole situation. I mean, who would've thought that reincarnation was real? Not just that, but I barely remember what happened before I entered into this situation. Maybe I actually died, or some R.O.B. thought that placing me inside a foreign body in a foreign world would be funny.

"Guardian!"

I jumped at my ghost yelling at me, and she sighed to herself, "Your pretty absentminded, aren't you?" I was about to answer but was stopped when my ghost gave me a look, "Don't answer that, it was rhetorical. Now stop sitting around and get up."

I listened to her as I stood up and wow, standing on my legs felt... fine? I mean my mind recognized it as strange, but my body felt really relaxed with itself. I hoped it stayed like this, as I would not like to learn how to use my new body, as that just seemed tedious.

"Where to?" I asked my ghost.

"Hm..." my ghost trailed off as she looked around the area, "There's an empty cave nearby here, to your west. We can use it to hide, and then I can explain to you the situation we're in," the ghost gave me what seemed like a sheepish look, "Also it'd give me enough time to process this whole situation as well."

I nodded as I looked to my left, and if I squinted I could see an entrance to a cave. I looked back at the ghost but noticed that she had disappeared completely. I looked around for her before I was interrupted by a voice in my head.

"I'm still here," she chimed out helpfully, "Just keep moving. Who knows what Fallen might spot us... though they might leave us alone considering you look like them."

Oh yeah, I forgot they could do that. Being stuck in a void really messes with your memories, huh?

I moved at a brisk pace, as I kept my eyes on my surroundings. There was no one around me, but who knows what's lurking in the shadows. I would not like to come face to face with a Fallen pirate, or worse a Hive knight. Oh god... will I have to face off against the Hive at some point? This whole situation is starting to become less and less appealing.

It took about a dozen minutes to reach the cave, but when we need I quickly entered it. My ghost told me she already did some scans and the cave should be empty, however, I was still alert as there may be a chance it wasn't. After all, this is an age where cloaking technology exists.

I sat down and leaned against the cave wall. My ghost appeared in front of me and floated around a bit as she did some last-minute scans. It was a few seconds before she seemed satisfied with herself before she floated directly in front of me.

"So..." she started awkwardly, "I guess introductions are in order?"

I shrugged as I said, "I guess."

"Good! So let's start off with me. My name is... well actually I don't have a name, but if you want you can call me Ghost. Or if your feeling creative you can give me a name."

"I'm in the same boat as you, except instead of having no name, I can't seem to remember it," or rather I do have a name, but it'd be weird if I suddenly called myself a human name, "You seem more familiar with what I am, so how about you give me one."

"Jeez, way to put me on the spot," she said jokingly, "I don't know... maybe Elikses the Resurrected! Ooh, how about Kraksis the Revived!"

"Wow what great names," I responded sarcastically, "I especially like that you only gave me titles that are literally the same."

"Oh yeah? Why don't you make up a better name, four arms? I'm sure whatever you make up will be better."

I stay silent at that as I tried to think up a name for myself. I thought back to every fallen I had cross paths with back when I played Destiny. Aksis, Mithrax, Eramis, Skolas... honestly making up a fallen name is both easy and hard. Easy because I could probably mash up a bunch of words together that sound like a Fallen name, hard because I have no understanding of Fallen naming conventions, and who knows if the name I mash up a bunch of words into translate into some insult in the Fallen language.

A name suddenly popped up in my head.

"...Four."

"Four?" My Ghost echoed curiously.

"Yeah, I mean you called me four arms, so I just shortened it to just 'Four'." Yeah, I know, extremely boring and simple, but sometimes the best answers are the simplest ones.

"Four huh... I like it. Short, simple, and it rolls off my non-existent tongue. Now make a name up for me, and then we can finally get down to business."

A name for my A.I. companion... one immediately popped into my head. It was a fitting one considering my Ghost was a female A.I. and Destiny was made by the same company that it came from. I mean, how can I not name her this? It'd be a sin.

"Cortana."

"Cortana," my Ghost Echoed once again, "Cooooor-tahhhhhh-nuhhhhh. Hmm... I like it! I think it definitely more unique than 'Four'."

"Hey! I tried my best!"

"Clearly you didn't try hard enough if you were able to come up with Cortana," the now-named Cortana smugly said.

"Don't we got other things to talk about, like the current situation we're in?" I try to divert.

"I see what you're doing, but..." Cortana took on a serious tone, "There is a lot I have to tell you, so buckle up because this is going to be a long one."

Cortana began to speak about all the basics of what a Guardian should know. Things I am familiar with, but it's better to let her go on so I don't have to explain later why I know so much.


"...and now the Last City is in a battle on four fronts, in which we are perpetually stalemated," Cortana finally finished.

I took a few moments to let the information sink in, time that Cortana graciously left me too. Most of the things she told me I already knew about, however one thing that stuck out to me as important was the info that helped me pinpoint when exactly I was. In her explanation, Cortana referenced the recent capture of the Kell of the House of Wolves, Skolas, which meant that I was somewhere after the House of Wolves expansion ended.

She also spoke about the Queen of the Awoken, in the present tense, meaning that she hadn't been "killed" yet. This also meant that Oryx, and subsequently the Taken haven't arrived in the Sol System. There was nothing I could or should do about that particular event, but what matter was that I now had a timeframe of where I was in the timeline.

"So what now?" I asked as I drew myself out of my thoughts.

Cortana looked pensive as she thought about, "I would originally have recommended finding some way to get to the Last City, but considering you...appearance I don't know how the groups the would react."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the Vanguard and the Speaker may not mind your presence there, Traveler, they might even accept you. However, there are many groups who inhabit the Tower and the Last City that may not approve of your presence. That's not even including how the overall Guardian population would react..."

"So the Tower is a no-go at the moment," I brought a hand to my chin as I thought about our next course of action, "Let's not think about what might happen in the future but instead let's focus on now. I think that finding a ship is the first thing we should focus on, and then we can go on from there."

"Agreed, however..." Cortana looked me up and down, "We need to get you some equipment. You have no way to defend yourself, and you're literally naked. We also have no glimmer to our name, so purchasing those items is not an option."

"Well, we might as well 'borrow' some weapons and armor from the local fallen, I'm sure they won't mind. Though I don't really know how to solve our glimmer problem."

"Maybe... we could take some from the fallen we plan to 'borrow' from, but that won't give us a lot of glimmer. Actually, if we can get some equipment then we may be able to do some bounties or some other odd jobs."

"Yeah?" I asked curiously, "And where would we get said jobs?"

"Easy. There's only one place where people of all walks of criminal life conglomerate on the Tangled Shore."

"And this is..." I trailed off.

"The Spider's Palace."


A/N: Aw shit, here we go again.

Here I go writing another story that I most likely will lose passion for in the first few chapters, and eventually forget about as other things catch my attention. Seriously you guys have no idea how many stories I have started then deleted.

But maybe this story will be different compared to the other ones, as this type I'm trying a novel concept called "planning". I think one of the biggest reasons why I lose passion with these stories is that I don't plan them out, and eventually I forget what I was going to do, then I just leave them in the dust. Hopefully I'' be able to get past the five-chapter mark and not lose interest.

Oh, and don't expect consistent updates. I'm really busy right now as I'm in the last few months of senior year, so I'll be putting most of my focus on graduating. Also, I just don't like forcing myself to write a chapter before a deadline.

Comments and criticisms are welcome!