Ghost of the Arena
TF141 had seen young recruits before.
They had trained prodigies, soldiers who excelled beyond expectations—but none like her.
She was sharp, precise, impossibly skilled for her age.
Too good.
And while Price trusted her, the rest of the team wasn’t convinced.
So they decided to test her.
The simulation was designed to push limits, reveal weaknesses, expose truths no one wanted spoken aloud.
She knew what was coming.
She just hadn’t expected them to see the game.
The scenario loaded—lush jungle, towering cliffs, creatures that shouldn’t exist clawing through the undergrowth.
She moved without hesitation, scanning the landscape, navigating the nightmare with an ease that shouldn’t have been possible.
Ghost muttered under his breath, watching her. "She moves like she’s done this before."
Soap frowned. "How the hell would she have?"
Then the simulation shifted—and the arena walls appeared.
Cameras.
Fans.
The game.
The version of her that stood in the simulation was younger, smaller, covered in bruises and scars earned from years of survival.
She froze.
The AI figures surrounding her weren’t enemies—they were her family.
Her brothers. Her parents.
They were fighting—bloodied, desperate, struggling to keep her alive.
And then, just as it had happened in real life, one by one, they fell.
By ten, she was the only one left.
She had won nothing.
Only survival.
Soap exhaled sharply, breaking the silence. "What the hell is this?"
Price’s expression hardened.
Gaz narrowed his eyes. "She lived this."
The realization hit them like a bullet.
She had learned manipulation, survival, hunting, building—not out of training, but out of necessity.
Fans had sent her supplies when she entertained them, but she had never depended on them.
She had fought against creatures that no human should have survived—with weapons far too small to kill them, but she made it work.
She had broken the game at eighteen, escaped, and joined the military—because it was the only thing that made sense.
Because she didn’t know how to live normally. How to be a person.
The simulation had done more than test her.
It had shown TF141 exactly who she was.
And for the first time, they understood why she was so good at this.
Because she had never had a choice.
Survival had never been an option.
It had been the only way forward.