Guys. This story is the product of a friendly competition between my friend burning happiness and I, where we decided on a fandom (Gone), a pairing (Ciana), and three prompts (Trying, Star, and Escobar), then we each wrote a story to see which would be better. So feel free to read both of our stories and see which you preferred. As always, I am not secretly Michael Grant, and as such do not own Gone. P.S. Burning Happiness says that she's cooler than I am in her AN. She is a dirty liar.
Astrid, Sam, and Diana were all crowded around the telephone in their house, awaiting a call from Roger. Edilio's trial had been scheduled for that day, and Roger was supposed to call them to say how it had gone once it was over. Which, according to Astrid and Diana's prediction, should have been about two hours ago. Sam suddenly reached out and grabbed the phone. "I can't stand this," He said, "I'm calling Roger". He was just about to start dialing when the phone rang, startling him and causing him to drop it. Rolling her eyes at her former so-called leader, Diana picked up the phone. "Hello" she said. Roger shouted excitedly from the other end, "We won the trial!" Diana was shocked, partially because of the boy's complete lack of preamble, but mostly because, to be honest, she had not expected Edilio to win. "Th-That's great Roger!" Diana said, trying to hide her surprise, "what happened there?" "I'm not quite sure," Roger said, clearly far too exited to care, "something about them being afraid of what the public would do if they deported a folk hero". That shocked Diana again, though she could not say why. "Okay, Roger, I'll pass along the good news." Diana said. Roger immediately hung up, almost certainly to go celebrate with his boyfriend. "They won!" said Diana with mock excitement, which Astrid and Sam responded to with a round of cheering. "We should have some sort of celebration!" exclaimed Sam. "You two can if you want," Diana said, faking tiredness, "I'm going to bed" and without waiting for an answer, she walked off to her room and locked the door. "I'm being stupid," she told herself, "Edilio is innocent; that means we're one step closer to being rid of the FAYZ once and for all". This didn't get her to change her mind, however. She just kept thinking about how unfair everything that had happened since the barrier came down was. Here was Edilio, with his get out of Honduras free card, and what did the other heroes of the FAYZ get? Nothing. Sam? He had a regular trial that was won by wit alone. Dekka? No one had even seen her since the wall came down. Caine? She immediately hated herself for allowing her mind to stray there, but it was true; Caine was undoubtedly the biggest hero of the FAYZ. He had sacrificed himself to kill The Gaiaphage and free all the children of Perdido Beach, he held order better than Sam or Albert did, and even after he died he took the blame for everyone. What did he get? Less than the others. There was no memorial, no funeral, nothing. Edilio had saved lives, but Caine had lived trying to do the impossible, and he hd died doing just that. Sobs racking her body, Diana lay down and looked at the stars. The stars that she would have never lived to see again without the great, unsung hero of the FAYZ.
Read and review, and don't forget to PM Burning Happiness and I to tell us how much more you liked my story. ;P