The crowd was murmuring in front of the small stage and podium. A few speakers had already been up and said their bits and blurbs. But that was all they were in comparison to the next speaker, the key speaker, even if hadn't been placed as such on the program.
Cameras broadcasting the conference followed the blue-clad figure as he walked across the stage. Silence spread as he reached the podium, every eye and ear across the planet straining to catch sight and word.
"Ladies and gentlemen; humans, reploids, and cyberelves; my allies and friends all.
"The war is over." The speaker paused as the crowd erupted in cheers. "The war is over, but there is still work to be done. Recovery must be focused on with equal, if not greater, determination.
"We have fought for peace, fought for freedom, for friends and family, and for our very lives. With every victory, from the named battles won to the shortest meter of an advance, there was a price.
"We've lost friends, felled on the front lines, and in the heart of our defenses.
"We've lost allies that we barely knew, who watched our backs and took the shot meant for us.
"We've faced comrades with sorrow, knowing that, were they themselves and in control their own actions, they would have wanted us to keep going."
The speaker paused again, a tired face looking down. The audience that had only moments ago been celebrating the victory now in respectful silence for the fallen. "I'm tired of fighting, tired of losing my friends to madness, and tired of felling them with my own hands.
"I know many see me as a hero. I've never claimed such. I am a warrior, an assassin, a fighter, a murderer." X was fighting himself to not cry, to put on a strong face for the already mourning crowd. But when he blinked and tears ran from the corners of his eyes, he did not move to wipe them away. "I don't like what I am, who I am. I've been able to keep going only by hope. Hope for the future, hope for the next generations, hope for peace, hope that, once the war was over, we would stand united and work together for these dreams!
"We can hope, and we are free to dream, to rebuild, to stand proud of our neighbor who contributed in their own way. Free to seek and pursue an inner peace after the turmoil of disaster and ruin."
He had to pause longer as the crowd responded in strong applaud.
"The war," X continued, reaching up and pulling off his helmet. He set it on the dais, and looked directly at the crowd and the cameras. "is over.
"Will you stand with me?"
The crowd roared in response, tears turned into determination, surging to their feet with applaud and shouts of acclimation. Many reploids in the crowd pulled their own helmets off, raising them in the air in fierce agreement while the colorful lights of cyber elves zipped around over their heads.
And while the survivors cheered, tears of joy and relief mingling with tears of sorrow and mourning, while the city answered the rallying cry of the legend, the ruined world was silent.