AN: My first FFXII fanfiction, I hope you like it. It's a little drabble for Reks. Sorry it's so short though, I didn't want to ruin it by making it longer.
Life in the middle of war is not fun. You live your life the best you can, you lie to yourself and to others that you're fine and that everything will be alright, but at night, the cool sick reality washes over you and you know that nothing is the same anymore. Everyday goes by the same way; living the lies that make up your life and trying to make other people believe them, because when they do it becomes easier to forget that their not real. Of course, that one day comes when it all gets worse, because it always gets worse before it gets better.
When the fight is brought to your doorstep, what are you to do but fight back? You fight for your city, nearly lost to the enemy; you fight for your family, all but one lost to this brutal purge, but most of all, you fight for the life of lies this war has forced you to live. You arrive at the battle with everyone else that is ready to stand for what is right and tired of living their lies. But in one fell swoop, it's all taken away. The death lies before your eyes, as if it were all the right in the world; the stench of blood leaks in to your nose and stings your eyes and you know that that smell will haunt your dreams forever. But the real shock comes when you look straight ahead and see your good king, the one that has been keeping your country out of the enemies hands. Your thoughts quickly flash to the princess, that is now alone, but before you can even register the thoughts, you feel an icy cold hand on your shoulder startling you and making you forget all your training. You turn around, as fast as you can, then it happens, as quick as a flash of light, the searing pain in your stomach. You are surprised to see your own captian who slew your king and now slew you. You fight as hard as you can against the pain and try to dull it out as you are told to do, but you can't block it out, the pain is too great. You watch the scene unfold before you and wonder how long you had been betrayed. Suddenly, you think back to the scent of blood that stung your nose and realize that is doesn't matter anymore, it would never haunt your dreams.
Because you were going to die.
For probably the last time in your life, reality washes over you with its cool waters. Goodbye world and all the misery on it. The fate was a blessing in disguise. You are unhappy with your life anyway, lies you were forced to live, and now that your good king is gone, lies is who everyone will be. The great passing, leave your lie of a life behind and go on to a better place, with your family. You'll have no worries and get to watch over your brother from above.
You open your eyes again to see the captain being held down and sentenced to a worse fate. You close your eyes again; the sight before you was enough of a reason to give in. The last words of a seventeen year old boy who refuses to put up with the lies anymore. So you live through dreams, the dreams of your brother, the now only member of your family left. You whisper the name that will wake a boy from his slumber, just to have a horrible surprise in the morning. You whisper the name of the boy who will succeed where you failed and take up your charge. You whisper the name of your brother.
…Vaan…
Life in the middle of war is not fun.
Because it never got better after it got worse.