Chapter 9: During the Tragedy part 8: Home bittersweet home
On a world distant from Cocoon and Gran Pulse, night had fallen on a colony. In only a moonlit sky, a boy could barely be seen running out of the colony into the open fields. Tonight was the night that his one wish would be granted, and the means of granting it was on its way.
Soon, he saw something blocking part of the starfield, and a loud droning sound started emanating from the sky. It got closer, and closer, and as the sound source descended, the boy could see what it was: a dark grey insect-shaped spaceship, visible only because of the light cast by the stars in the night sky. The ship came closer and closer to him until he could feel the winds created by its movement. Soon, it produced claws, and with them touching down on the ground, it landed in the open fields. A hatch opened on the lower bow shortly afterwards, and the light coming from inside revealed the silver-haired boy that the one in the fields had been hoping to meet.
"Hope?" the boy shouted.
"Hi, Connor," Hope responded. "I am really surprised that you are up this late."
"What do you mean 'this late'?" a female voice shouted. "We barely had breakfast a few hours ago!"
"Who is that?" Connor asked, taken aback by this new voice.
"Don't worry, she won't bite," Hope reassured. However, he soon ran towards his friend when he saw that he was struggling to stay on his feet.
"My apologies… so tired… I have been waiting an eternity for you."
"Come aboard then, Connor. You can rest in the ship. Besides, you look like you need it."
Connor was then led inside the ship and taken to one of the makeshift beds. The next thing he remembered was a woman, with… a unique clothing style… and red hair tied in ponytails, sitting by his side.
"Where is… Hope?" he mumbled.
"Don't worry, he's just stepped out for a minute. He decided to show everyone the colony and left me with you for when you woke up," the woman responded.
"Tis good to see his sympathy still knows no bounds, a trait for which I am thankful. I do not believe we know each other though, my name is Connor."
"Great to meet you. I'm Vanille."
"Vanille… that is a beautiful name. I bid you thanks for your hospitality."
"Not a problem, Connor. Can I just ask you one thing though?"
"Yes?"
"Word has it you and Hope were friends during his early childhood."
"Yes Vanille, we were indeed friends, along with a third."
"Who was the third?"
Just then, the ship doors could be heard opening, and a few minutes later, Hope stepped into the room. Upon seeing Connor, he walked towards him, embracing him in a hug.
"Connor?" Hope began.
"Yes, Hope?" came Connor's reply.
"I see you have met Vanille. Aside from her and the geth, there are five other people on board, and they wished to see the colony."
"Vanille told me that you were showing them around."
"Just the areas surrounding the ship. I have made no attempt to approach the colony itself. Would you kindly show them around? I can't come with for the time being due to… prior engagements."
"Tis understandable. I will do as you ask, although it is necessary to introduce me first."
Hope called the rest of his party into the room. "Connor…" he began, "…these are the people I've been traveling with. Vanille, you already know. The woman with pink hair is Lightning, the blond by her is Snow, the black-skinned man with the afro hairstyle is Sazh, the woman in blue by him is Fang and the brown haired man in glasses is Bartholomew, my… biological foster father. Can you please show them around Eden Prime? Like I said, I have other matters to attend to."
Shortly afterward, the group left the ship. Connor took the l'Cie and Bartholomew towards the Eden Prime colony, while Hope… walked off in another direction with the three bouquets of flowers from Feros and a sword.
Arriving at the outer areas of the colony, Connor ran into a problem: two Alliance Guards by the names of Biggs and Wedge. After a fairly loud argument, they were knocked unconscious from behind (as their attention was focused mainly on lecturing Connor about leaving during the night) by Lightning and Fang.
"Connor, I'm sorry, but there's something I gotta ask," Sazh began a few minutes later. "Hope looked really hurt when he left the ship. What is he doing and will he be okay?"
"Tis difficult to say, Sazh," Connor informed, "…but Sovereign's attack changed everything. I am willing to wager that even now, a year after the disastrous affair, the scars of that time are still fresh in the lives of the people here."
"Sovereign… that name was mentioned to us on Feros," Fang interrupted. "Just what is it to have people so bloody scared?"
"Is there a purpose behind that question? Because if not, tis preferable to leave it unanswered."
Fang then told Connor of the legend of Ragnarok, the l'Cie focus, and the response on Feros to Ragnarok
"That is an interesting story," was Connor's reply to this, "…and if what you say about Ragnarok piercing a hole in the side of this 'Cocoon' planet is true, its no surprise that it is compared with Sovereign. Very well, I shall tell you. Sovereign was a massive Reaper that nearly destroyed the colony of Eden Prime. All for one Prothean Beacon."
"Destroying a colony… that would take a lot of firepower," Lightning interjected. "It couldn't have just been one massive battleship."
"Twas just one ship. However, there were also ground forces, consisting of geth and… other monstrosities that slaughtered anyone that wasn't able to hide."
"Wait…" Snow burst out. "This attack… was it how Hope lost his parents?"
Meanwhile, at another point just outside the borders of the colony, Hope was kneeling at three graves. Looking at the first one, it read:
ALISTAIR SHEPARD.
He set one bouquet of flowers upon this grave, and then turned to the right of it, placing flowers on that grave as well, crying all the while.
ANDRASTE SHEPARD
Looking to the left of Alistair's tombstone, he placed the last bouquet on the grave there. He had begun sobbing by this point, becoming increasingly unable to hold back the tidal wave of sadness that was looming. After much time, Hope, in tears, put the sword on the grave as well, such that if there were a body there, it might have been holding the weapon in his hands.
OREN COUSLAND
"I remember your dream, Oren," Hope sobbed. "I finally brought you a real one. A real sword. I just wish – I just wish you were here to hold it! Oren… Mom… Dad… I miss you so much! If only I hadn't found that blasted beacon, then you would still be… you'd still be… I'm so sorry! I never wanted to believe it… but I think it's my fault that Sovereign attacked us! It's my fault that Sovereign took you away from me! I'm so… so sorry. Especially you, Oren. So soon. It wasn't your time to die! And Mom… Dad… impaled on those giant spikes. I heard what happened to you, and you didn't deserve being turned into those monstrosities! It's not fair!"
From there, Hope's tears just streamed out, and he knelt on all fours by the three graves. Suddenly, in the midst of his sorrow, he felt an arm on him. Looking to see who it was, he was shocked to find Fang of all people.
"F-Fang?"
"Just let it out, kid."
"But – but – why are you here?"
"That's not important right now. Just hold on to me as tight as you wish. Don't worry, times like this I have no right to judge you."
"Hope!" Vanille's voice broke out, also sounding on the verge of tears. "I'm so sorry about this. If I'd known that coming back here was so painful, I wouldn't have pressured you about it."
"How did… you know I was here?" Hope questioned.
"Two things…" came the voice of Sazh. "First, I myself am a father. I can spot a child in pain a mile away. I just kept quiet because I could feel that you didn't want word of this to get around. Secondly, Connor told us where he thought you'd be."
"I appreciate the thought, but I need to handle this alone!"
"Listen to me Hope…" Lightning spoke. "I know exactly what losing your parents is like. I too have had to suffer the same fate, and I know from experience that you cannot shoulder that pain alone."
"So… your parents are here?" Snow wondered.
"No, Snow, they aren't!" Hope shouted, his voice still shaking heavily. "Only Oren's here, and that was because I got to his body before the Alliance did. My mother and father… their corpses were taken by the Alliance for study."
"Why would this Alliance do that?"
"They suffered a fate far, far worse than death. They were impaled on giant spikes by heretic geth, and they suffered a slow, grim transformation into horrible monstrosities! I only saw footage from security cameras after the attack on the colony, but from what I did see, they, along with so many other people, were rendered mindless electric husks. These things lost all traces of their humanity and just ended up indistinguishable from each other, left to murder and be murdered by their own… by their own… damn it! Damn it!"
"Don't worry, Hope, you are not going to go through this ordeal alone," Lightning reassured him. She, Fang, Sazh, Snow, Vanille, Connor and Bartholomew stayed with Hope for as long as he was at the graves.
The light started fading, and Connor took the party back to his house. Silenced reigned for quite a while, as Hope didn't seem to want to talk at all, and neither did anyone else.
"I'm coming with you," Connor eventually spoke.
"Are you sure, Connor?" Hope wondered.
"Yes. As much as I try to deny it, tis obvious that I cannot stay here either."
"I'm not too sure that I believe you. You seem to have held up much better than I did after Oren's death."
"I had to stay strong for you. The ordeal had left you with nobody, and I didn't want to leave your side for a moment, lest you be overcome by the desire to… to…"
"I… didn't know. I'm sorry, Connor."
"No apologies are necessary, fellow Lone Voice in the Dark. I couldn't call myself your friend if I chose not to help you through, no matter how badly I was hurting inside. I was fine when Legion took you away from this world; twas clear that the catastrophe continued to poison your very soul."
"And you fear that your own soul might be poisoned as well."
"Yes, Hope. Each day on my own since then had left me empty inside. Although we could still keep in radio contact, it didn't feel the same. It was like I lost you as well, and when you dropped out of contact, I feared the worst. So great was my fear that I almost lapsed into a coma."
"Don't worry, I think there is room on the ship for one more, but we need to figure out a plan to keep your parents from worrying."
"Thanks, Hope. At last the Lone Voices in the Dark will shoot for the stars!"
"Lone Voices in the Dark?" Vanille wondered.
"Twas the name we had for our little group," Connor supplied. "Me, Hope and Oren. We named ourselves that way because, out of everyone we met, only the three of us could voice what we truly felt without being regarded as insane. We were the only ones willing to listen to the other, hence 'Lone Voices in the Dark'. Hope was the technological prodigy, I was a firm believer in magic and the late Oren was aspiring to be a swordsman."
"That explains the sword at his grave."
"Yes. But now, although that number has decreased by one, I can see some light, it has increased to seven. Nine if you include the geth and that other man."
"Seven? Does that mean the other five are?"
"Yes. I regard you five as fellow Lone Voices in the Dark, as you are willing to listen and respond to Hope's cry for company, willing to show that you aren't willing to just sit idly by."
"Wow, thanks, Connor."
"Everyone, Legion has messaged me," Hope interrupted. "The Brand Reduction Agent is ready to test. We need to get back to the ship."
