Destiny being reborn within Marathon sounds like one of those ridiculous ideas fans come up with to keep their hope alive, but it’s one of several “leaked” plans Bungie supposedly has, which recently made their way online. Bungie has now responded, shooting down what may be the most outlandish part of the leak.

“As someone who’s worked on both Destiny and Marathon, I can confirm that the ‘leak’ about us merging the two IPs is fake,” Bungie veteran and Marathon creative director Julia Nardin wrote on X. “They share a lot of the same Bungie DNA, but like siblings they’re also their own independent entities. Please don’t believe everything you read online.”

According to the leak, Bungie is apparently “testing the waters” to merge Marathon and Destiny into a single franchise “with Marathon representing the beginning of mankind’s Golden Age and to foreshadow more threats to be used in a future Destiny project.”

The wide-ranging leak apparently originated from 4Chan, and was later collated on Reddit. Though it mainly involves Marathon, it does touch on Destiny in some key ways. Nardin didn’t directly address any of the myriad other leaked details, however.

That merger seemingly isn’t limited to narrative and lore, the post said “multiple” former Destiny 2 developers have been rehired to join the Marathon team. Some of what those Destiny 2 veterans are working on is implementing ideas – initially planned for the game’s cancelled expansions and sequel, into Marathon.

Bungie delivered the final major Destiny 2 update in June after announcing all development on the game had ceased. The studio said Destiny 2 wouldn’t get any any more expansions, and that Destiny 3 is not in development. Bungie laid off hundreds of workers later in the same month.

The leak claimed Marathon will ‘borrow’ ideas from Destiny, such as the first game’s reputation and faction systems, as well as the addition of a social space. It also said Bungie will entice Destiny 2 players to try Marathon by offering in-game rewards to those who completed certain Triumphs in the game’s final update – which is the most believable part of the leak.

Elsewhere in the post, it’s revealed that Bungie is making Marathon free-to-play in December. That, apparently, was the reason behind the recent delay of Marathon’s next major update, which is introducing a permanent PvE mode. On the subject, the leak said the mode – called Investigations – is “seen as a blend of Monster Hunter and Salmon Run from Splatoon”.

“Drop in and hit the ground running with you and one-five friends clearing objectives around maps, exfilling to the next to get all the pieces together to fight large Destiny raid-style bosses,” it went on.

There’s more there about changes coming to certain Marathon features, the arrival of new Shells and the reworking of maps. Marathon has struggled to make an impact, having sold only an estimated 1.2 million copies at launch. On Steam, where the game’s largest audience lies, player numbers have dropped to their lowest point since launch, peaking at under 3,000 concurrent players daily (via SteamDB).