Authour's Note: Hey guys, I wrote this fanfic a long time ago, so when I stumbled across it the other day I decided to rewrite it and make it better. I'll keep updating it as often as I get the chance to, but for now, three chapters are refurbished and up. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

In a small dreary town, the day was passing lazily. The sun shone down through wisps of clouds, and a gentle breeze blew. People slowly got on with their day; children were safely tucked away in classrooms, mothers gossiped over cups of coffees and full shopping trolleys, fathers angrily argued in their business meetings.

On the outskirts of town, every house was quiet and tidy except one. In this house, a girl sat curled up on the lounge room floor with a blanket wrapped around herself. A mountain of tissues was beside her, along with the emptying box. The girl had managed to get out of school as she was sick, and she looked forward to spending the day engaged in her favourite pass time. She was staring intently at her TV screen, an xbox controller firmly clutched in her hands. The screen changed as she started up a game. Halo was her favourite, and she poured every second of free time into playing the campaign again and again, and fought online matches with her best friend by her side.

An icon signified that her best friend was finally online, and as soon as she could open the menu, she was shooting him invites to the game and party. Not soon enough for her liking, he joined the voice party, and his gamertag appeared below her's in the matchmaking lobby.

"Jake! You took your time, where were you?" the girl wheezed out in excitement.

"Crystal, god you sound awful. I'm sorry, mum was yelling again, I needed to take care of my younger brother for a bit, but i'm here now," Jake said back, grinning at the enthusiasm Crystal displayed. "Why do you sound so horrible anyways?"

"Pfft just a small cold," the girl named as crystal replied. "Let's get into the game shall we?!"

Half an hour later...

"Jake! Watch out!" I shouted, quickly blasting the rotting brains out of a zombie that got too close.

"Thanks, Crystal," Jake replied, taking care of yet another one that came too close.

Despite our best efforts, we were overrun, and the game was wrapped up. A smile graced my lips as the overall score was displayed on the screen.

"Great score, Jake," I said. "It shouldn't be long before you are promoted again."

"Well, you got 20 kills, not bad for a young Padawan," he mocked.

"Oh, go float yourself Jake," I replied giggling.

Deciding we were over matchmaking, I moved us to the campaign lobby and waited for the map to load. There was silence in our two person party for a moment and it made me think how lucky I was to know Jake. Gaming was my escape from my family, my school life of bullies and turmoil, and from myself. When I was gaming, all self destructive thoughts left my mind, and after meeting Jake, everything had begun to pick up in my life. If only he lived closer to me, not in another state. Still, I was saving every cent in the hopes of being able to meet him someday. As I gazed into the starry loading screen, a thought came to me.

"Wouldn't it be so cool if Reach was real, Jake?" I asked, in another world entirely.

"Yeah, it would be awesome, but how would you explain the re-spawning?" he asked.

"Easy," I began, "Don't die. You know the catch phrase, Spartans never die."

We both chuckled as the game started, and we were quiet as we watched the cut scene leading us to meeting NOBLE Team.

As Six walked through the door and was stopped by Kat, I snickered and made a snide remark about how ugly she was, but I commented on how awesome it would be to have a robotic arm. As soon as the words left my mouth, however, a ball of light appeared on the middle of the screen. I freaked out thinking that my screen was broken somehow.

"Uhh, Jake, I think my screen is broken...," I began to say.

"You're not the only one, there is this weird ball of light in the middle of my screen," Jake's voice came back, equally as puzzled as I.

"I think it's getting bigger," i commented stupidly, not actually doing anything about it.

"Yeah.. I-it...can't.." came his static reply.

"Jake you're cutting out, I can't hear-"

The ball of light had gotten so big it was blocking the screen entirely. Out of nowhere there was a screeching sound that made my ears pop and i felt like my head was going to explode. I tried to yell, but my voice was drowned out by the noise and the light was getting so bright that it was burning my eyes. There was such a build up of pressure, then suddenly there was nothing. I had passed out and everything finally went quiet. There was peace.