(This is my disclaimer:...)
Into a strange new world, into the after
All your tears might find you've fallen too far
Take another look, take another ride
Can't we make them leave the hate behind
And I still believe in nothing
Will we ever see the shape of tomorrow?
Into the empty storm, into the formless loss of hope,
Where we can forget the game
And I still believe in nothing
Will we ever see the cure for our sorrow
Nothing is sacred when no one is saved
Nothing's forever so count your days
Nothing is final and no one is real
Pray for tomorrow and find your empty still
Nothing -Believe in Nothing-All That Remains
I had thought, that after the Shadow Academy, I had lost my innocence. That we all had to a degree, but that I had the most. Then the Vong War, and watching the one brilliant light I never thought would flicker darken to crimson...then I thought I had lost my innocence. Watching dear friends die, and change. After the Vong War, the Second Galactic Civil War. I thought I had lost my innocence definitely by then, lost the illusions I had. As I met that young girl's eyes I knew I had some illusions left in me still.
How old was she 16? She looked younger...but somehow I knew she was 16. Her eyes were not 16 though, her eyes were old and tired, they held a depth of pain and despair that was at odds with 16. The eyes were strange, tricolored...a dark charcoal rim around an iris that was blue but with a green rim around the pupil. They reminded me of the choppy seas off the coast of Ennth right before the moon destroyed the planet again. At 17 I killed in cold blood, yet somehow I looked into that small girl's sea colored eyes and saw the steel that had been forged by killing many times. That shattered some illusion I had, some belief in innocence.
In that time she was studying my eyes as well. To this day, I do not know what she saw. She spoke first though, Surveying the wreckage behind me. What had been my ship. She looked at me. "Come on then...you can't stay here. Take the things most important to you, and come with me" her voice held no emotion, save compassion. "My ship.." I started "Will be destroyed. I can protect it or you..I am choosing you" her voice brokered no argument.
"But," I started to argue.
"We tarry to long" she said sharply, as other voices and noises suddenly made themselves apparent.