8BTFreek: I'm back with the Saturos OneShot. Name: "This Was Not Me", Song: Billy Joel's "The Stranger", Ownership of Golden Sun: When the skies turn yellow and rain cotton candy, or, in layman's terms, never.
**This Was Not Me**
Saturos frowned. The plan was simple. It was blindingly simple; any idiot should have understood. Of course, Saturos forgot the one simple rule when dealing with others: Never, and we mean never, underestimate the power of human (or Proxan) stupidity. In this case, the stupid one who was holding everything up was... Ran. Big surprise. "Sorry, but what's the plan again?" He had been busy staring at Andra.
Nyna sighed. "We go into Vale and talk to the elders. We try to convince them to turn over the Elemental Stars to us. And we don't threaten," she added quickly.
But Ran was trying to be stupid. "And we use force if they don't agree, right?"
{Sometimes I wonder how that knucklehead managed to keep himself alive. Stupidity should have killed him years ago.} "No, bone-brain. We steal the Stars from Sol Sanctum. If we use violence and threats, we'll not only be going against Puelle's orders, but Elder Sahasrahla's advice. The Stars are all we want, not corpses. Bodies speak louder than stolen items." He sighed.
Menardi looked at the rest of them with her usual confused look. "But what if we fail?" she asked, spreading her doubts to the rest of the group. "I mean, the Stars are supposedly guarded by powerful traps and monsters."
"Nyna can handle any traps we encounter if she keeps her mind off my half-wit cousin for long enough. As for monsters... You do have power over Mars Psynergy, right?" She nodded. "And I've got my sword. So there's nothing to worry about." Menardi still looked doubtful, though. And Nyna was blushing. Mentioning Agatio, even in passing, gave her face a little red tint, but suggesting that she loved him turned her face crimson. Saturos excused himself.
A green recruit - {Velsyr,} he thought - almost got up to follow him. Fortunately for both, he sat down before he could follow along. Saturos nodded to himself. He had to have some time alone. He entered the tent and closed the flap. Afterwards, he wrapped it in a flame aura. The defensive measure wasn't useful in battle, but it kept intruders from his tent. He lay down in the tent and pondered his life.
{Which I've done a fine job of screwing up,} he thought. He had to keep up his tough-guy persona, or the others would laugh and call him a phony. He had to pretend that he actually liked killing things, even when the "things" were other people. He sighed. He would never understand Agatio. The boy was a good soldier, there was no doubt about it; he just enjoyed torturous ways of killing things. How Nyna, the most good-natured member of his squad, could fall in love with such a brute was beyond Saturos. The words of a poem that he'd memorized came into his head. Softly, he whispered the words to the tent ceiling. "Well we all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone."
"Yeeowch! Saturos, drop the damned barrier and let me in!" Menardi's voice shouted into the tent. He had forgotten that she was staying in his tent. The whole memory made him suspicious. Her tent had burned down in a "mysterious" fire, and she said that nobody had offered her space in their tents, despite Nyna's dissenting testimony. Her presence made him angry.
"Before you enter, go bathe in the creek. Your stench could fell a bull." As soon as the word had left his mouth, he realized what he'd said and wished he could take back the words. He sighed as he heard her stomp off. The poem's words echoed further in his mind. "Some are satin, some are steel, some are silk and some are leather; they're the faces of the stranger, and we love to try them on." He paused as a sound came from the direction of the creek.
"Well we all fall in love, but we disregard the danger. Though we share so many secrets, there are some we never tell." It was Menardi; she was singing the words to a strange tune that seemed to fit despite there being no melody for the words. Saturos actually thought she had a good singing voice. The trouble was, she only sang when she thought she was alone. Fortunately for him (and whoever else listened,) her singing voice carried through open air and made it sound as if you were standing next to her. Unfortunately, she stopped singing. Either she didn't know any more, or she was unsure of how to sing the rest.
"Why were you so surprised that you never saw the stranger? Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?" he murmured. He thought it odd that she should only know that part. Soon after he whispered this, he took down the barrier. A few moments later, she entered the tent.
***
Saturos woke at midnight. Silently, he sat up from the earthen bed that he'd made. The grass was cool and soft, and the stone he'd used for a pillow was now slick with dew. Quietly, he stared at Menardi's sleeping form. He suppressed an urge to wake and serenade her; he figured the most he'd get out of that was a glare and a murmur of insanity.
He lay down just as she stirred. She looked at him; he could feel her eyes scanning his body. "Asleep, are we?" she muttered; his ears caught the whisper like a child's hand catches snowflakes. "Hm, maybe I'll fall asleep and he'll be kinder." She started singing again. "Don't be afraid to try again. Ev'ryone goes south ev'ry now and then. You've done it, why can't someone else? You should know by now, you've been there yourself." Murmuring, she lay back down and fell asleep.
He sat up again. Perhaps his ears had been deceiving him. The poem's words caught his ears, just like when she sang the third stanza. {Oh, I used to believe I was such a great romancer, then I came home to a woman that I could not recognize. When I pressed her for a reason, she refused to even answer. It was then I felt the stranger kick me right between the eyes.} He pondered this for a while. {Hm, I'd like her more if she wasn't so damn doubtful. But she is beautiful. And likeable, once you get past her short fuse and ever-doubting quality. Hells, if I ever saw past those, I'd say I'd even love her.} He extinguished the thought, but it was harder than he'd thought, and he turned over.
He lay down to sleep. He didn't wake up until dawn.
***
Saturos looked down his nose at the rest of his crew. "Well, at least you're awake. Now remember, the plan is simple: We go to the elders, tell them our side, and hope that they believe us." Ran looked at him. Saturos ignored him. "And what do we do if they don't comply?" He stared pointedly at Nyna.
"We... We go and steal the stars..." A note of fear crept into her voice. "But... we won't have to, will we?" Menardi had definitely put fear into her. Or maybe it was the local legend concerning Mount Aleph swallowing "defilers."
"If we do, we will take the Stars, and we will not hesitate to take that path. If we don't, Prox will be destroyed." Saturos spat onto the ground. "We will get the Stars, one way or another."
Shaking her head, Nyna led the recruits following them into Vale. Saturos and Menardi headed the column, mainly because (outside of Nyna) they were the only officers.
***
Saturos had known things would not be pleasant the moment he entered town. The people he met with had no knowledge of events outside their own town. They didn't see the Rift growing south of the lighthouse. They didn't see Gaia Falls eroding more and more of Weyard every day. They just thought of their own safety and preserving their way of life. He and the others left the meeting with a feeling of hopelessness. The need for thievery didn't really appeal to him, but it had to be done.
They were going to go back to the ship to get the necessary equipment needed for a raid on the Sanctum. The moment they got back on the ship, though, Nina sealed herself in her cabin. A faint murmur of "Leave me out" escaped her cabin. Saturos threatened her with ejection from the military. "I don't bloody care!" she shouted. "Agatio will love me anyway!" Saturos couldn't think of a retort for that one. She would never believe that his cousin was a brainless killing machine, incapable of human emotion.
He pondered her blind devotion. The poem's words sprang into his mind. Oddly enough, the writer seemed to express things exactly as they were. {Well, we all fall in love, but we disregard the danger. Though we share so many secrets, there are some we never tell. Why were you so surprised? Did you disregard the danger? Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?} Sighing, he got the rest of the crew together and discussed their operation. "Ran, uh..." He pointed at the new recruit.
"Sigmund Velsyr," he said.
"Right. Ran, Sigmund, you're the brute squad. Menardi, Andra and I will be the brains. Three heads work faster and better than two. Move out!" The group stole off the ship and headed for Vale.
***
Thunder rolled in the chamber. "Andra, I thought you said it was foolproof!" shouted Ran. The scene was pure chaos. The statue was trying to move to its original position, but Ran and Sigmund held it in place with their brute strength. Saturos and Menardi had stayed in the room below, but at the first crashes of thunder they had headed up to see what was going on.
"Secure the statue!" yelled Andra. "Move the others into place!" Saturos grabbed her and spun her to face him.
"Are you crazy?! This storm was caused by the statues! This is clearly a trap!" She writhed in his grasp.
"Get your Gods-damned hands off me, you bastard! Let me finish!" A bolt of lightning crackled behind Saturos. Panicking, he spun around, releasing Andra from his grasp. Quickly, Ran and Sigmund secured the statue, then ran to move the other pillars. The storm intensified. Securing his statue, Ran dashed over to the last one. The pattern on the floor had changed. Now, instead of displaying Sol, it mostly displayed Luna. Saturos would have thought it interesting, had he not been frightened half to death.
A deep voice filled the chamber. "Thieves!" it cried. "You will be destroyed!" A power filled the room. Saturos and Menardi bolted. Three voices screamed behind them: two men and a woman. Something that sounded suspiciously like a boulder broke off the mountainside. The two fled the Sanctum, taking many wrong turns into dead ends in their haste. As they neared the exit, they could hear a crash as the boulder fell down the hill. A crash of splintering wood could be heard. They walked down the hill to a cliff overlooking the Valean Plaza. "Only the two of us survived," he murmured, almost frightened.
Menardi came up behind him. "We tried the best we could. How could we have anticipated Sol Sanctum would release such fury?"
He nodded glumly. "It's a miracle that even the two of us were spared."
She turned to face the Sanctum. "That switch... It must have been a trap..."
He shook his head. "That's what I told the fool girl. But to think it could conjure up a storm this powerful..."
She looked at him. "Another demonstration of the awesome powers of Alchemy."
He looked into her eyes. "Regardless, we must not fail the next time we challenge Sol Sanctum. It's the only way we'll save Prox."
She nodded. "Next time, we shall certainly -"
A voice cut her off. "Isaac! Wait!"
They turned to see two young men. One, a brown-haired young man, looked like he'd been listening to them. The other, a redhead with spiny hair and a sword at his side, looked like he'd just run up to the young man. "Were you just eavesdropping on us?" they asked the young brown-haired man. He shook his head, but it wasn't convincing.
"What do we do, Saturos?" asked Menardi.
"Knock them out. With luck, they'll forget the whole thing." She nodded.
"You must forget everything you heard," she said to them.
Saturos jumped down to their level. "Don't worry... We'll help you forget!" He lashed out and cuffed the redhead on the back of his neck with the hilt of his sword. The boy fell unconscious. Menardi swung at the brown-haired boy, who dodged. He jumped and slashed at Saturos. There was no avoiding it with this one. "Flare wall," he muttered. A line of flames crossed the boy's chest. He fell, landing next to his friend. "Let's go. We'll come back and take the stars some other time." Menardi nodded reluctantly, then began shaking uncontrollably. He took her hand. "Don't be afraid to try again. Everyone goes south every now and then." He looked at her. "We need to get out, but I'm not sure which way to go."
She walked him over to the gate, still shaking a little. He knew what she was feeling. They had just knocked out two innocent boys that were just a little too curious. There was nothing they could do about it, though. When they reached the ship, they ordered Nyna to put out for a new location.
As they sailed slowly down the creek, Saturos noticed something in the creek. On the riverbank were four bodies. At least one appeared to be alive. He shouted for Nyna to stop the boat on the opposite bank. Not waiting for her to obey, he dived off the side into the waters. Looking at the four, he noticed that all of them were alive. Quickly, he grabbed the two oldest (a pair of adult males,) then called for Menardi to pick up the other two (a young woman and a boy no older than 15). Saturos pulled his two onto the ship, and Nyna quickly put them in four cabins. Saturos's cabin she left open, assuming that the two would share it. "No avoiding it now," he murmured. He grabbed the door to his room and opened it. Menardi followed him in and closed the door. She sat down on his bed. He was sitting there, and (a rarity, this was) he was crying. She wrapped her arm around him.
"Saturos, what's the matter?" Her arm felt good on his shoulder.
"I killed them. They were in my charge, and I as good as killed them. The only people I've ever saved are the four in those cabins. I'm no good." She pulled him in closer. He knew that this was the first time anyone could see this side of him.
"You've done it, why can't someone else? You should know by now, you've been there yourself." Apparently, she knew the end of the poem, not just words in the middle of it. "Saturos, you yourself said that giving her free reign was the only way to be sure of anything. So you made a mistake; people make them all the time." She kissed his cheek. "You know, I thought you were like this on the inside. I always wished you'd show me this side of you." He could feel her holding him tighter, her warm breath caressing his face.
Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her. "I guess we didn't know each other well enough, but we had faith." For the first time since entering the army, Saturos truly smiled.
***
Nyna sat at her desk, pondering the poem that was in the front of the book. It was a classic. That wasn't in dispute, but she thought it was missing something. It needed a proper ending. Finally, after spending half of her life looking for the answer, she had found it in the most unlikely place: the military. Saturos's unprecedented act of kindness had given her what she needed. She picked up her quill and wrote. "We may never understand how the stranger is inspired, but he isn't always evil and he isn't always wrong. Though you drown in good intentions, you will never quench the fire; you'll give into your desire when the stranger comes along." She placed down the quill and walked out onto the deck, in the still-storming weather, whistling a faintly haunting tune.
***
8BTFreek: Well, you guys know the drill: Review, and I will be happy and might put up another OneShot. In fact, I'd like you to tell me what you like. If you give me a good enough reason, I'll write it and put it up for the world to see.
Eshli: So review, and Dad will do writing for you!
8BTFreek: *grumbles* I'm not your bloody father. If anything, I'm God to you.
**This Was Not Me**
Saturos frowned. The plan was simple. It was blindingly simple; any idiot should have understood. Of course, Saturos forgot the one simple rule when dealing with others: Never, and we mean never, underestimate the power of human (or Proxan) stupidity. In this case, the stupid one who was holding everything up was... Ran. Big surprise. "Sorry, but what's the plan again?" He had been busy staring at Andra.
Nyna sighed. "We go into Vale and talk to the elders. We try to convince them to turn over the Elemental Stars to us. And we don't threaten," she added quickly.
But Ran was trying to be stupid. "And we use force if they don't agree, right?"
{Sometimes I wonder how that knucklehead managed to keep himself alive. Stupidity should have killed him years ago.} "No, bone-brain. We steal the Stars from Sol Sanctum. If we use violence and threats, we'll not only be going against Puelle's orders, but Elder Sahasrahla's advice. The Stars are all we want, not corpses. Bodies speak louder than stolen items." He sighed.
Menardi looked at the rest of them with her usual confused look. "But what if we fail?" she asked, spreading her doubts to the rest of the group. "I mean, the Stars are supposedly guarded by powerful traps and monsters."
"Nyna can handle any traps we encounter if she keeps her mind off my half-wit cousin for long enough. As for monsters... You do have power over Mars Psynergy, right?" She nodded. "And I've got my sword. So there's nothing to worry about." Menardi still looked doubtful, though. And Nyna was blushing. Mentioning Agatio, even in passing, gave her face a little red tint, but suggesting that she loved him turned her face crimson. Saturos excused himself.
A green recruit - {Velsyr,} he thought - almost got up to follow him. Fortunately for both, he sat down before he could follow along. Saturos nodded to himself. He had to have some time alone. He entered the tent and closed the flap. Afterwards, he wrapped it in a flame aura. The defensive measure wasn't useful in battle, but it kept intruders from his tent. He lay down in the tent and pondered his life.
{Which I've done a fine job of screwing up,} he thought. He had to keep up his tough-guy persona, or the others would laugh and call him a phony. He had to pretend that he actually liked killing things, even when the "things" were other people. He sighed. He would never understand Agatio. The boy was a good soldier, there was no doubt about it; he just enjoyed torturous ways of killing things. How Nyna, the most good-natured member of his squad, could fall in love with such a brute was beyond Saturos. The words of a poem that he'd memorized came into his head. Softly, he whispered the words to the tent ceiling. "Well we all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone."
"Yeeowch! Saturos, drop the damned barrier and let me in!" Menardi's voice shouted into the tent. He had forgotten that she was staying in his tent. The whole memory made him suspicious. Her tent had burned down in a "mysterious" fire, and she said that nobody had offered her space in their tents, despite Nyna's dissenting testimony. Her presence made him angry.
"Before you enter, go bathe in the creek. Your stench could fell a bull." As soon as the word had left his mouth, he realized what he'd said and wished he could take back the words. He sighed as he heard her stomp off. The poem's words echoed further in his mind. "Some are satin, some are steel, some are silk and some are leather; they're the faces of the stranger, and we love to try them on." He paused as a sound came from the direction of the creek.
"Well we all fall in love, but we disregard the danger. Though we share so many secrets, there are some we never tell." It was Menardi; she was singing the words to a strange tune that seemed to fit despite there being no melody for the words. Saturos actually thought she had a good singing voice. The trouble was, she only sang when she thought she was alone. Fortunately for him (and whoever else listened,) her singing voice carried through open air and made it sound as if you were standing next to her. Unfortunately, she stopped singing. Either she didn't know any more, or she was unsure of how to sing the rest.
"Why were you so surprised that you never saw the stranger? Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?" he murmured. He thought it odd that she should only know that part. Soon after he whispered this, he took down the barrier. A few moments later, she entered the tent.
***
Saturos woke at midnight. Silently, he sat up from the earthen bed that he'd made. The grass was cool and soft, and the stone he'd used for a pillow was now slick with dew. Quietly, he stared at Menardi's sleeping form. He suppressed an urge to wake and serenade her; he figured the most he'd get out of that was a glare and a murmur of insanity.
He lay down just as she stirred. She looked at him; he could feel her eyes scanning his body. "Asleep, are we?" she muttered; his ears caught the whisper like a child's hand catches snowflakes. "Hm, maybe I'll fall asleep and he'll be kinder." She started singing again. "Don't be afraid to try again. Ev'ryone goes south ev'ry now and then. You've done it, why can't someone else? You should know by now, you've been there yourself." Murmuring, she lay back down and fell asleep.
He sat up again. Perhaps his ears had been deceiving him. The poem's words caught his ears, just like when she sang the third stanza. {Oh, I used to believe I was such a great romancer, then I came home to a woman that I could not recognize. When I pressed her for a reason, she refused to even answer. It was then I felt the stranger kick me right between the eyes.} He pondered this for a while. {Hm, I'd like her more if she wasn't so damn doubtful. But she is beautiful. And likeable, once you get past her short fuse and ever-doubting quality. Hells, if I ever saw past those, I'd say I'd even love her.} He extinguished the thought, but it was harder than he'd thought, and he turned over.
He lay down to sleep. He didn't wake up until dawn.
***
Saturos looked down his nose at the rest of his crew. "Well, at least you're awake. Now remember, the plan is simple: We go to the elders, tell them our side, and hope that they believe us." Ran looked at him. Saturos ignored him. "And what do we do if they don't comply?" He stared pointedly at Nyna.
"We... We go and steal the stars..." A note of fear crept into her voice. "But... we won't have to, will we?" Menardi had definitely put fear into her. Or maybe it was the local legend concerning Mount Aleph swallowing "defilers."
"If we do, we will take the Stars, and we will not hesitate to take that path. If we don't, Prox will be destroyed." Saturos spat onto the ground. "We will get the Stars, one way or another."
Shaking her head, Nyna led the recruits following them into Vale. Saturos and Menardi headed the column, mainly because (outside of Nyna) they were the only officers.
***
Saturos had known things would not be pleasant the moment he entered town. The people he met with had no knowledge of events outside their own town. They didn't see the Rift growing south of the lighthouse. They didn't see Gaia Falls eroding more and more of Weyard every day. They just thought of their own safety and preserving their way of life. He and the others left the meeting with a feeling of hopelessness. The need for thievery didn't really appeal to him, but it had to be done.
They were going to go back to the ship to get the necessary equipment needed for a raid on the Sanctum. The moment they got back on the ship, though, Nina sealed herself in her cabin. A faint murmur of "Leave me out" escaped her cabin. Saturos threatened her with ejection from the military. "I don't bloody care!" she shouted. "Agatio will love me anyway!" Saturos couldn't think of a retort for that one. She would never believe that his cousin was a brainless killing machine, incapable of human emotion.
He pondered her blind devotion. The poem's words sprang into his mind. Oddly enough, the writer seemed to express things exactly as they were. {Well, we all fall in love, but we disregard the danger. Though we share so many secrets, there are some we never tell. Why were you so surprised? Did you disregard the danger? Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?} Sighing, he got the rest of the crew together and discussed their operation. "Ran, uh..." He pointed at the new recruit.
"Sigmund Velsyr," he said.
"Right. Ran, Sigmund, you're the brute squad. Menardi, Andra and I will be the brains. Three heads work faster and better than two. Move out!" The group stole off the ship and headed for Vale.
***
Thunder rolled in the chamber. "Andra, I thought you said it was foolproof!" shouted Ran. The scene was pure chaos. The statue was trying to move to its original position, but Ran and Sigmund held it in place with their brute strength. Saturos and Menardi had stayed in the room below, but at the first crashes of thunder they had headed up to see what was going on.
"Secure the statue!" yelled Andra. "Move the others into place!" Saturos grabbed her and spun her to face him.
"Are you crazy?! This storm was caused by the statues! This is clearly a trap!" She writhed in his grasp.
"Get your Gods-damned hands off me, you bastard! Let me finish!" A bolt of lightning crackled behind Saturos. Panicking, he spun around, releasing Andra from his grasp. Quickly, Ran and Sigmund secured the statue, then ran to move the other pillars. The storm intensified. Securing his statue, Ran dashed over to the last one. The pattern on the floor had changed. Now, instead of displaying Sol, it mostly displayed Luna. Saturos would have thought it interesting, had he not been frightened half to death.
A deep voice filled the chamber. "Thieves!" it cried. "You will be destroyed!" A power filled the room. Saturos and Menardi bolted. Three voices screamed behind them: two men and a woman. Something that sounded suspiciously like a boulder broke off the mountainside. The two fled the Sanctum, taking many wrong turns into dead ends in their haste. As they neared the exit, they could hear a crash as the boulder fell down the hill. A crash of splintering wood could be heard. They walked down the hill to a cliff overlooking the Valean Plaza. "Only the two of us survived," he murmured, almost frightened.
Menardi came up behind him. "We tried the best we could. How could we have anticipated Sol Sanctum would release such fury?"
He nodded glumly. "It's a miracle that even the two of us were spared."
She turned to face the Sanctum. "That switch... It must have been a trap..."
He shook his head. "That's what I told the fool girl. But to think it could conjure up a storm this powerful..."
She looked at him. "Another demonstration of the awesome powers of Alchemy."
He looked into her eyes. "Regardless, we must not fail the next time we challenge Sol Sanctum. It's the only way we'll save Prox."
She nodded. "Next time, we shall certainly -"
A voice cut her off. "Isaac! Wait!"
They turned to see two young men. One, a brown-haired young man, looked like he'd been listening to them. The other, a redhead with spiny hair and a sword at his side, looked like he'd just run up to the young man. "Were you just eavesdropping on us?" they asked the young brown-haired man. He shook his head, but it wasn't convincing.
"What do we do, Saturos?" asked Menardi.
"Knock them out. With luck, they'll forget the whole thing." She nodded.
"You must forget everything you heard," she said to them.
Saturos jumped down to their level. "Don't worry... We'll help you forget!" He lashed out and cuffed the redhead on the back of his neck with the hilt of his sword. The boy fell unconscious. Menardi swung at the brown-haired boy, who dodged. He jumped and slashed at Saturos. There was no avoiding it with this one. "Flare wall," he muttered. A line of flames crossed the boy's chest. He fell, landing next to his friend. "Let's go. We'll come back and take the stars some other time." Menardi nodded reluctantly, then began shaking uncontrollably. He took her hand. "Don't be afraid to try again. Everyone goes south every now and then." He looked at her. "We need to get out, but I'm not sure which way to go."
She walked him over to the gate, still shaking a little. He knew what she was feeling. They had just knocked out two innocent boys that were just a little too curious. There was nothing they could do about it, though. When they reached the ship, they ordered Nyna to put out for a new location.
As they sailed slowly down the creek, Saturos noticed something in the creek. On the riverbank were four bodies. At least one appeared to be alive. He shouted for Nyna to stop the boat on the opposite bank. Not waiting for her to obey, he dived off the side into the waters. Looking at the four, he noticed that all of them were alive. Quickly, he grabbed the two oldest (a pair of adult males,) then called for Menardi to pick up the other two (a young woman and a boy no older than 15). Saturos pulled his two onto the ship, and Nyna quickly put them in four cabins. Saturos's cabin she left open, assuming that the two would share it. "No avoiding it now," he murmured. He grabbed the door to his room and opened it. Menardi followed him in and closed the door. She sat down on his bed. He was sitting there, and (a rarity, this was) he was crying. She wrapped her arm around him.
"Saturos, what's the matter?" Her arm felt good on his shoulder.
"I killed them. They were in my charge, and I as good as killed them. The only people I've ever saved are the four in those cabins. I'm no good." She pulled him in closer. He knew that this was the first time anyone could see this side of him.
"You've done it, why can't someone else? You should know by now, you've been there yourself." Apparently, she knew the end of the poem, not just words in the middle of it. "Saturos, you yourself said that giving her free reign was the only way to be sure of anything. So you made a mistake; people make them all the time." She kissed his cheek. "You know, I thought you were like this on the inside. I always wished you'd show me this side of you." He could feel her holding him tighter, her warm breath caressing his face.
Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her. "I guess we didn't know each other well enough, but we had faith." For the first time since entering the army, Saturos truly smiled.
***
Nyna sat at her desk, pondering the poem that was in the front of the book. It was a classic. That wasn't in dispute, but she thought it was missing something. It needed a proper ending. Finally, after spending half of her life looking for the answer, she had found it in the most unlikely place: the military. Saturos's unprecedented act of kindness had given her what she needed. She picked up her quill and wrote. "We may never understand how the stranger is inspired, but he isn't always evil and he isn't always wrong. Though you drown in good intentions, you will never quench the fire; you'll give into your desire when the stranger comes along." She placed down the quill and walked out onto the deck, in the still-storming weather, whistling a faintly haunting tune.
***
8BTFreek: Well, you guys know the drill: Review, and I will be happy and might put up another OneShot. In fact, I'd like you to tell me what you like. If you give me a good enough reason, I'll write it and put it up for the world to see.
Eshli: So review, and Dad will do writing for you!
8BTFreek: *grumbles* I'm not your bloody father. If anything, I'm God to you.