Zara's New Life

Chapter 16: Consumed.

It's been a few days since Optimus and Ratchet save me from my memories. And everyone has made sure I was ok, especially O.P and SkyWing. Those two have not let me out of their sight, if one of those two wasn't with me then the other was.

Speaking of which, I am currently sitting on the couch in my room playing Halo3 on the Xbox 360 with SkyWing sitting on her recharge berth watching, well, watching me. I sighed before pausing the game and turning in my seat, looking to her.

"I'm fine SkyWing," I said to reassure her.

"Evidence suggest other wise," SkyWing counted.

I smiled sadly. "I know that you and the others are concerned for me, especially you and Optimus after what happened a few days ago. And I'm grateful for that concern, really I am," I looked back to the T.V screen.

"But... the pain that came with the loss of my family and best friend will never truly go away. I know that. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one feeling their loss," I said looking to Aurora who was curled up, recharging on my bed. I looked back to the screen.

"The best thing that I can do for me, for Aurora and for the pod, would be for me to move on. I have a chance to start over, a second chance, so dose Aurora. And I plan to make the most of it," my hands gripped the controller tighter.

"But I don't plan to let the deaths of my family and friend go un-justified. Nor am I going to let anyone else die if I have a say about it," my grip on the controller relaxed.

"But I'm going have to wait. So for now," I turned and looked to Skywing. "Could you at least play with me?" I asked, holding up a second controller.

SkyWing stood up, smiled at me and transformed down before activating her holo-form. She walked over and sat down beside me. I passed her the second controller that was already turned on and connected. I save where I was up to in story mode and went back to the main menu. I selected multi player and SkyWing joined in. I chose the game mode Slayer and the map Forge World so it was just me against her. SkyWing chose to go on the purple team and I went with the green team. And soon the game started.

I went around the map, careful to avoid SkyWing, till I found the weapon I was looking for. After picking up the weapon, plus some grenades along the way, I made my way to a great advantage point. There I crouch down and waited for my opponent to come along, checking my raidar for what direction she was coming from, just encase she was closer than I thought and was coming up behind me. And it wasn't long before the enemy came into view.

Like the many other times I have used this strategy it worked. SkyWing came into my line of sight, miles away from where I was and not suspecting anything. I lined up the shot of my sniper rifle, not having to zoom in, and pulled the trigger. The only sign of the bullet was the white streak that it left behind in the air. SkyWing had not time to react, it happened so fast, the bullet went straight through her shield, her helmet and into her head before her character fell to the ground. The perfect head shot. And like that the round was over in one shot.

I suppose that's what happens to you when you play against someone who has played the game for years and has completed it over and over again on the hardest difficulty.

We continued on like this for a couple rounds then we went co-operative in story mode. We played for a couple hours, till it was time for me to go to an assessment training lesson. I packed up the Xbox and went on my way.

I was walking through the halls when I sensed a group of new aura's. They were not military nor Cybertronian. As I got closer I heard Optimus and a couple other auto-bots talking to someone else; someone that sounded awfully familiar. I stopped in my tracks when I rounded the corner into the hanger, for someone I had never expected to turn up (and I hoped to never meet) had showed up.