Disclaimer: I don't own Fearless or any of the characters in it. They belong to Tim Lott.
Hero
The inspection's going well. Everyone looks smart and no-ones misbehaving, for once. Partly because the main troublemaker is in the Pit.
I shy away from that thought. Little Fearless, that's what they call her. Called her. As far as they're concerned, she never existed. Which is good. It's for the best. It's for the best! I have to believe that. Rules must be obeyed. I learnt that, if I learnt nothing else in my life. And she's still alive. That's something.
I force myself to scan the group of listening girls again. They're not listening any more. Even the X girls are staring elsewhere. Angrily I follow their gazes. It's that Y girl and the X who're ill. How dare they come out, spreading whatever they've got-what's the little one carrying?
No.
No, it can't be. I'm shouting, ordering for them to be taken away. If I can't see her, it won't be true. It's not true.
No, it's not true. The keys. Of course, they couldn't get into the Pit without the keys. It's a ploy, a trick.
I've stopped shouting, and the Y girl-Stargazer- is speaking. I listen. I can't do anything else. Let her speak, then I will find out who is pretending to be dead, and punish them. It's a mistake. The words stir up memories, of the time when I fought the rules. Of the time I saw these rules for what they were, cold, heartless.
No. Don't let me lose that belief. Rules. This can't be happening. Without the rules, humankind are nothing…I'm praying now, pleading for Eidolon to help me hold onto what I need to believe in. Then Stargazer is talking again, to me now, although her voice still carries around the institute. I register her words subconsciously, and feel the truth in them, but now I can't lie.
It's her. From here, I can see straight into her face, those mis-matched eyes, my eyes.
"Fearless."
Hero.
The institute is burning, and I don't care. I failed. I thought I could protect her, but I couldn't. Her friend is asking me to leave. Asking me to leave, when I caused Hero's death through my own weakness and stupidity. Caused the death of my own daughter.
Caused the death of my daughter, but I won't be the death of her friend.
"Go, girl, go. You must not stay here."
She's asking questions, wondering why I tried to keep Fearless alive. I can't answer. She never had family. How will she survive, if she knows that a father could treat his own daughter how I've treated mine? She's leaving, looking back over her shoulder one last time.
Maybe I'm wrong again. She has to know. I treated Hero so badly, but I still loved her. She never knew any of that. But always believed it, I take off my glasses. I'm talking, explaining, but I'm not really sure what I'm saying. Then the other girl is back, carrying her away. Maybe they were both friends of my daughter.
I can hear Stargazer shouting the only title she knows for me. Perhaps there's hope for the world, if a girl can still scream out for someone who made her life a misery.
We named you Hero, your mother and I. Your friends named you Fearless. We were both right. You were both. I wish there had been time to explain, that I'd had half as much courage as you, and made time to explain. Now I'll have to explain in whatever Heaven there is left for me.
Hero.