Ghost listened to my life. He listened to all the wonderful memories I shared with my mom and dad. He listened to the heartbreaking details and the joyous ones. He hung onto every word without even breathing, even if he didn't have to breath.

And all the while, I found myself more and more connected to my past and to the present, ever more hopeful to the future. I knew I would somehow overcome this predicament, but until then I had to rely on both myself and Ghost.

"Wow... That's... I'm so sorry, Hana. I never knew you had suffered so much..." Ghost finally said when I finally finished recounting everything before waking up in the Cosmodrome. "Still, even with all of that, it's very hard to believe that you think we're just in a game."

"Well, it still feels that way to me, but I definitely know that I have a close connection to you, Ghost. That will never change, even if I could somehow log out of this stupid thing..." I said, trying to bring up any semblance of a menu with no luck.

"I don't think that is something you would be able to do, Hana. At least, from every other Guardian I've seen, nothing of the sort has ever come up. If this really were a game, I'd wonder how you would bring up something like that." Even though Ghost still seemed skeptical and worried about hearing me explain 'Destiny' as a concept of a game to him, still was doing his best to assist me in the endeavor. It was something that I only ever felt with my dad.

"Hmm, regardless of that, I guess I can figure that out later. Do you have any more questions for me, Ghost? You're more than welcome to ask away."

"Oh, no no no. I can't keep talking taboo, you know? It really does make me feel guilty."

"Look, Ghost. I understand it's taboo, but you can talk to me about anything. We're a team now, remember?" I said, reassuring Ghost.

With a slight delay, Ghost asked me a question that did not pertain to the subject we just talked about but was pertinent nonetheless. "Do you think you're ready to take on more of the Fallen?"

"I don't know. Honestly, with these new weapons Banshee gave me, I feel a bit more confident but that doesn't change the fact that I have no idea what I'm doing." We both gave a chuckle at that statement before a small beeping noise came in on my ship's radar. "We're here already...?"

"Seems like that flight was a bit shorter than we expected. Well, we did take a lot of time talking, so maybe that's why the flight seemed to be a bit shorter than usual."

As we entered the Cosmodrome airspace, Ghost found the perfect place fo us to land. He transmatted us to the ground and I readied my scout rifle.

"A Guardian's ship was recently shot down here. If the Fallen haven't gotten to it, we might be able to salvage some parts. Let's get to it, Hana!"

"On it, Ghost." I made sure to scout out the ship before we approached it. Once we were there, I let Ghost do his thing while I provided cover for him.

Once Ghost finished his scan, he flew next to me and disappeared again. "The ship's avionics are completely catatonic. But I can cull their last transmission."

I heard Ghost skim through almost the entire transmission of the ship, the words garbled and meshed together in a very complicated assortment of sounds. After a few seconds, Ghost spoke up. "They managed to restore an information hub here. Down in the tunnels below. We should check it out."

Following the direction of the marker Ghost laid out for me, I started to gun down some dregs that were in our way. Each time I pulled the trigger, the gun felt more and more reliable as if it was made for me. "This is getting much easier!" I said to Ghost. "I just hope I can keep up with the recoil..."

I dropped the empty magazine and loaded another one with a dexterous motion. The short amount of practice I had at Banshee's seemed to be paying off.

Once the area was cleared, I hurried down the stairs into the tunnels of the Cosmodrome. The winding and rusted halls lead down to a monitor that displayed a map. "A map of the entire area." Ghost said.

Instinctively, I reached out with my hand and Ghost manifested out of thin air to scan the map. "What we really need to find is a warp drive, so we can jump to any planet or moon."

"Any planet or moon? Like, outer space?" I inquired.

"Yes. Almost the entire solar system had been colonized by golden age humanity. Sprawling colonies were on Venus and Mars, even as far as Saturn, though the records of how far we got have been lost during the collapse."

"I see. Remind me to catch up on some reading when we get back to the Tower, Ghost. I feel as if I need to get caught up on the history of this place if I'm going to be of any use."

"Oh, if that's what you're looking for then we definitely have to talk to the cryptarchs! They do enjoy telling stories of the golden age... But more on that later. Right now, we need to find that warp drive."

"Hmm, honestly speaking, Ghost... I have a terrible feeling that the only way we're going to find a warp drive is to go and meet that big guy back where we found our ship." I said in a nervous tone.

"My thoughts exactly, Hana! See, we're already a great team! Lets get moving."

We hurried back outside and headed back towards the dilapidated hangar that housed our ship. On the way, we met more resistance, but they quickly fell to a combination of gunplay and more solar grenades. Whatever they were.

I was still trying to get a grasp of this 'light' that both Cayde and Ghost kept telling me about. It was something that all Guardians had and yet, I still feel as if it was foreign to me. I didn't understand it, but I did know how to use it and right now, that was all that mattered.

Once we got to the building, Ghost chimed up. "Scanning for the warp drive." After a few weird noises that Ghost made, he spoke again with a worried tone. "Bad news. It's already in Fallen hands..."

"Guess we'll have to swipe it back then, huh?" I said giggling.

Ghost shared a chuckle with me, but he definitely seemed worried. I didn't know much about the races and enemies in this game, but I knew that these enemies scaled with level, so they shouldn't be too hard, right?

Before we pursued further into the hangar, there was an unopened chest. I went over to see what was in there and to no one's surprise, there was another chest full of glowing blue matter. Except... there was something else, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Blue prints for armor!" Ghost exclaimed.

"Blue prints?" I asked.

"Yup! They give me the foundation to make armor from glimmer and give you more armor pieces to increase your armor! Here, try it on!"

Sure enough, in the top right of my vision, a square popped up and showed what appeared to be long sleeve gloves. "Forester 2.1? How do I put them on?"

"Same way you put on your weapons and armor. You just transmat them on." Ghost said matter-of-factly.

"Right..." I knelt down and closed my eyes. I focused hard on the item that just appeared in my HUD.

I couldn't see anything. No clear menus or an inventory list or anything. But it was there. Almost as clear as day for me. Focusing on the new gloves, I opened my eyes to see that my arms were now covered in a thin, brown piece of armor that looked almost identical to the thin white ones I was just wearing.

"See? More defense means more protection against enemies!" Ghost said ecstatically.

"Well here's to hoping this'll give me the edge against that big guy... Speaking of..."

I continued onwards, coming back to the place with the large hole in the wall. The area was already teeming with vandals, dregs, and what appeared to be flying drones?

"Shanks! Hana, get to cover!"

I followed Ghost's suggestion and quickly ducked behind a pillar, avoiding the oncoming barrage of plasma that the Fallen were shooting towards me. Waiting for the opportune moment, I quickly turned the corner and fired at them, taking a few of them out before ducking behind the pillar again to reload.

The shanks flew towards me, flanking me on each end. They wasted no time and began to shoot me with their bullets but thankfully my overshield kept me safe. At least for now.

"Dang it! Here, have some!" I yelled, tossing another grenade towards the vandals while I quickly dispatched one of the shanks with a butt from my scout rifle. Taking the opportunity to seize the momentum, I quickly shot the other shank down, clearing the area of enemies.

"Awesome!"

"That was great, Hana! You're becoming more and more like a Guardian with each shot!" Ghost said.

I was thankful of my helmet because I felt like I was smiling a bit too hard, but the celebration was quickly short lived. I heard a rumbling, similar to that one scene with the dinosaurs. I turned around and sure enough, the archon was here.

I readied my rifle and aimed at the giant Fallen, only to be met with four large barrels filled with fire aimed right back at me.

"Shoot!"

I did what I could and began to unload my scout rifle into it's head. The archon merely flinched at the bullets as volatile solar bullets were launched my way.

I ducked behind the pillars as the bullets pelted the concrete away. As it eroded from the barrage of bullets, my mind was firing at a million miles a minute. "Ghost, how can I kill that thing?! It's too huge!"

"You can take it down, Hana. I know you can!" Ghost reassured me. Still, even with his words of affirmation, it was still daunting to take down a creature of that size. I ducked behind another pillar and continued my barrage of bullets towards its head. Nothing seemed to faze it.

"Alright. Gotta try out this new gun, then." I stowed my scout rifle and took out my new weapon. Both Cayde and Banshee assured me than although the weapon has a kick to it, it should give me an edge in fire power.

I readied it and held down the trigger. Nothing happened at first, but with a hum from the weapon and a charge of light, the weapon fired a round of seven energy bolts that staggered the archon.

"Nice! Looks like this fusion rifle really works!" Readying myself for another barrage, I tumbled towards cover and fired another set of bolts at the archon. It reeled again in pain. "A few more shots from this thing and we'll be outta here!" I screamed.

I never knew I had a knack for raising red flags. As soon as my confidence was high, the archon lunged at me with reckless abandon. He knocked me into the wall, shattering my overshield. "Hana!"

Ghost kept calling out to me as I shook off the discombobulation I just took and readied my trace rifle. Except, I couldn't because it was knocked out of my hand. "Wait! Where..."

Too little too late. Seeing the trace rifle get stomped on by the archon left me a with feeling of immense dread. "Oh damn it!" I took out my scout rifle and continued to pelt the archon with bullets, trying to figure out another plan.

"Ghost, got any ideas? This thing isn't going down!" I cried out.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Ghost said. It was a dance of dodging, firing, and throwing grenades at the archon, but it wouldn't stop coming after me. And that's when Ghost spoke to me again.

"That's it! Hana, use your golden gun!"

"Golden what?!"

"Golden gun! It's a technique used by Hunters! The solar light! Imagine a gun of immense power and use it to defeat the archon!"

"A gun? Like... A gun made from..."

"Solar light, yes!"

I couldn't make heads or tails of what Ghost just told me, but he was the expert when it came to these things, so I trusted him. Throwing another grenade to disorientate the archon, I found a good foot hold to give myself time to concentrate.

A powerful gun made from solar light. I thought long and hard about it and when I finally glimpsed that spark of power from inside of me, I knew that I had the winning piece. "Alright... Here goes nothing!"

I stowed my scout rifle on my back and brought both hands above my head into a clap. A huge spark of solar energy erupted from my palms and when I envisioned the gun in my hand, it came to life.

"Whoa... Hana... That's..."

"Eat this, archon!" I aimed the gun and shot the archon dead center in its head. The recoil sent me flying into the wall and nearly knocked me out clean.

What followed made me feel a bit afraid of the power I just unleashed. The archon's head exploded in a torrent of light and blue blood. The entrance of the attack was still ablaze with solar light as it began to consume the archon's body.

In a matter of seconds, the archon's body was nothing but ash and the warp drive was on the floor. Ours for the taking, I suppose.

"You... you just killed an archon, Hana... And we got a warp drive!"

"Yeah... We... Managed... It..." I said with a gasping breath. I reeled back and collapsed on the floor, incredibly winded and exhausted. "Ghost, what's wrong?"

"Hana... My light, it isn't healing you..." Ghost sounded incredibly distressed, but he immediately went into action. "I'll bring the ship around. We have to get you to the Last City and fast! This isn't right... This is... Hana?"

I was slowly fading in and out of consciousness. I did my best to stay awake, but slowly my eyelids dropped and I fell asleep. Exhausted, yet satisfied.

When I opened up my eyes again, I found myself in a similar situation to when I succumbed to pneumonia. Strapped to a bed with IVs and monitors all around me.

It was a surreal experience to be in a hospital bed again, but what was even weirder was when I saw Ghost hovering over me just the way he did when we first met.

"Hana! You're alive!" He came and pressed his body against me. It felt nice feeling the symbolic warmth from a friend.

I held him close to my face and embraced his small little frame. "It's good to see you too, buddy." I said in a small laugh. I let him go and he floated above me. "What happened? Where are we?"

"You're in the infirmary wing of the Tower, Hana. It's usually only for non-guardians who help out in the Tower, but for some reason even with the light, you weren't recovering from your comatose state. How are you feeling?"

I gripped my hands and tested the strength in them. "I'm feeling good as new, but still feeling groggy. Do you think it might've been when I got knocked back from my golden gun?"

"Even injuries like that are simple enough to heal given time, but that might be part of the reason, Hana. And not just the recoil, but the golden gun itself."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He means that we ain't never seen anything like that before, kid." I turned around to see Cayde standing at the entrance to my hospital room. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I am... What do you mean you haven't seen anything like that? I'm sure everyone's golden gun is like that, right?"

"Not quite..." Cayde sprung his hand up and unleashed a flash of solar energy. What erupted from his hand was nothing like my golden gun. His looked like a revolver, the same kind of weapon that I tried with Banshee and Cayde before settling on my scout rifle. "This is what we hunters normally constitute a golden gun."

In a flash, the gun was gone and everything returned to normal. "That... That wasn't what I made, was it?" I asked a bit embarrassed.

"No, kid. It was something unique. I've heard of rumors that the technique can be applied to other weapons, but I never imagined a sniper rifle..."

Indeed. When I used my golden gun, I envisioned what Ghost told me. "A gun of immense power... The first thing that came to mind was a sniper rifle... I never imagined that it was supposed to be a hand canon."

"And that's what concerned me at first, Hana." Ghost said. "When you used that much light to form the sniper, it must have knocked the wind out of you since you weren't used to harnessing that much power..."

Come to think of it, when I first formed my golden gun, my body felt incredibly hot and strained from the power. Just firing it alone knocked me back into a severe concussion. Thankfully with the light, Ghost was able to fix my head but he couldn't stop me from falling into exhaustion from the power.

"I see... So, what does that entail for me?" I asked a bit worried.

Cayde rubbed his chin and breathed in a sigh. "Well, until you get better with the light, I'll suggest you only use it in dire emergencies, got it?"

I nodded in agreement. "Understood. So uh... When do I get to go back out there?" I ask a bit in anticipation.

"Well, there are reports of the Fallen having a tight guard out in the Cosmodrome's Sky Watch. Speaker's been telling Guardians to look into it." Ghost said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Lets get to it!" I said, hoping out of my hospital bed.

Cayde gave a chuckle. "Already up to it, eh? Well I ain't stopping ya. Ghost, send the video of Hana's golden gun to the vanguard. I want them to see this and maybe Ikora can figure out a way to keep that thing from blowing up in Hana's face again."

"You got it!" Ghost said.

Leaving the hospital wing, Ghost brought the ship around and without hesitation trasnmatted me into the cockpit. "Alright. Here we go!" I said, punching the thrusters and setting us off on our next destination... The Sky Watch.

Author's Note: Sorry about the delay on the new chapter. It has been a wild few weeks since I uploaded, but I am planning on trying to upload more consistently. I will try to have a new chapter release at least once every other week. A follow and review would be greatly appreciated and thank you very much for taking the time to read! Until next time!