You want to know the real Hana Song?
Let me ask you something; have you ever seen someone die? Were they killed in front of you?
The first time the MEKA defenses were broken, and the Omnic monster made it ashore, I did.
My town was one of the first attacked.
Missile fire blew in the windows before any of us knew what was coming. I was lucky enough to not be in front of one - my parents, not so much.
I can still remember my mother gasping for breath, my father's body broken in half by the force of the blast. I saw him die as he clawed his way toward her. I watched the life leave her moments later.
I'd been in the same room not moments before, getting some water.
Hana Song died that day; the real Hana Song did.
Death has followed me, Mr. Reporter Man.
I hide day in and day out behind the mask of , the pop idol who plays her way through life. 'Nothing's wrong if you're having fun!' Unless you lose.
We always lose.
I lost my parents that day, and I lost myself during the next week. Friends got hurt. Suits got destroyed. The emergency eject function wasn't as reliable when they first started having us pilot their drones. On our first mission, I watched as one of my closest friends sacrificed herself to drive the monstrosity off. She didn't eject-she couldn't, and the suit blew up with her in it.
No, they didn't air that part of the stream.
They didn't show me gasping for breath through the shock, or the silence I went through in the next week. They didn't show the nightmares that followed-that still follow. I haven't slept a full night in years, and do you know why?
Do you think you know why?
Because no one can know.
is a symbol of hope. I put on a show from the moment I wake up every morning until I go to my room at night, pretending to be her. Even when I fight, I have to behave like she would, say only what she would say, do what only she would do.
She is not me.
But she has to be, just like I have to be her. became a piece of propaganda: a character for the government to use to turn tragedy and mortal danger into entertainment. She is unshakeable, and unbeatable, and in that, she is an analog for the strength of our people. turns despair into hope, and threat into fun.
No one can know that behind the mask is a little girl who is scared beyond her wits' end. No one can know that is just a façade. They need her to be real, and they need her to be me. She protects them not only from the monster, but from their own fear-the moment she can't do either is the moment we lose.
So, Mr. Reporter Man, that is the real Hana Song: a scared little girl who has watched the most important people in her life die in front of her, who wants nothing more than to get away from it all, but who knows more than anything that she can't, and that she can't tell a soul.
And neither can you.