I once said I may write something good about Rosa Cossette D'Elise, and I keep promise. After absorbing inspirations from a couple of visual novels, I write this chapter as a hurt/comfort segment, also hinting Trigger may have a crush on her. Anyone who wants to write a romantic story between Trigger and Rosa Cossette D'Elise can take this chapter as a source of inspiration, no charges.
Writing this chapter doesn't mean I forgive Rosa Cossette D'Elise for her crimes, so make no mistake, she is still a sinner beyond redemption.
Rosa Cossette D'Elise is wandering aimlessly in a dimension of void, like a little girl lost in nightmare. Abruptly she turns around and is crucified as if seeing a Xenomorgh — well, not exactly an alien monster, but in a manner of speaking it's worse — because what's in front of her is a female looks like her identical twin, even clothing is identical — instead of being black.
"Who…who're you?" Rosa Cossette D'Elise is panicked, meeting someone who looks exactly alike is not a good sign, this look-a-like may turn out to be a T-1000 imposer.
"The more essential question is: Who are you?" The "dark" Rosa Cossette D'Elise opens her mouth with a sinister, taunting tone.
"I…I'm Rosa Cossette D'Elise, princess and Head of the State of Kingdom of Erusea…former…"
"Are these all? Oh, lemme help you to remember: War criminal, coward, ring any bells?" "Dark" Rosa Cossette D'Elise says virulently.
"Stop it…" Rosa Cossette D'Elise steps back.
"Mass murderer of countless fathers, brothers, husbands, sons…" "Dark" Rosa Cossette D'Elise says virulently again and steps forward.
"Leave me alone…"
"Can't do that. I'm just stating the objective truth. The hypocrite who abandons her people."
"No more! Please!" Rosa Cossette D'Elise crouches and covers her ears.
"Fascist pig of the likes of Benito Mussolini…"
"NOOO!" Rosa Cossette D'Elise screams in maximum volume, then wakes up with a rush. A recurring nightmare ever since she realizes what sins she had committed, even now, being awake, what the "dark version" of her says still echoing in head like a curse never wears off.
"Bad dream again? You want something to help you sleep?" A speaker installed in cell speaks. Yes, this is a detaining cell of International Military Court of Western Usea, specifically established for trialing war criminals responsible to Lighthouse War, and Rosa Cossette D'Elise undoubtedly is the first comes to the list.
"No. I've slept enough."
Speaker goes silent. Rosa Cossette D'Elise, panting and trembling as if having malaria, huddles her sweat-soaked body with sobbing: "I'm sorry…for everything…oh God…please…tell me what should I do…"
Days later, she is led to a detainee meeting room, for her lawyer has news for her.
"President of Osean Federation has issued a presidential decree to grant you a special amnesty." Lawyer elaborates: "Be grateful to those war heroes rallied together to pull strings for saving your life, and consider yourself lucky, because your primary accomplice, Schroeder, already been secretly executed. Do you know how he dead? Not a pretty sight: His corpse was literally dissembled into pieces no larger than one kilogram, nobody knew where his head had gone. Frankly, you don't deserve anything better, I just don't understand what value the heroes saw in you."
Weeks later, Trigger comes and takes her away. Like the lawyer stated, it's very ridiculous that Trigger, one of the people who should hate Rosa Cossette D'Elise the most, bails her out from impending doom, he has abundant reasons to enjoy watching her burn:
1. From national level, Rosa Cossette D'Elise is the spokesman of Erusean government, one of inner circle who started this war, also the very person who further escalated it. Countless souls and properties were consumed, Vincent Harling, the revered former president of Osean Federation and head of ISEV Project, was among the victims. Not to mention such project which was the symbol of new era of international cooperation and space exploration, got beaten back to square one.
2. From personal level, Trigger was stripped off everything and was thrown into penal unit because this war, a war started by Kingdom of Erusea with their lies and deceptions. Being the pro-war government spokesman, latter Head of the State, it's completely natural that he hates Rosa Cossette D'Elise to an extent that eager to gut her like gutting a fish.
However despite all these facts, Trigger is forgiving enough to let go of his animosity, even rallied like-mind companions including Count and Avril Mead, to persuade Osean president to remit princess' crimes, well, he has reasons of his own:
1. Hating someone is too exhausting, even after achieving a satisfying revenge, won't make the feeling any better, at least some old sayings claim so.
2. Never ever apply "common senses" to the protagonists, they act on their own terms instead of abiding rules.
3. In fictional worlds, sometimes a cute face can nullify even the worst sins (frankly Rosa Cossette D'Elise's face is more dumb than cute). Which means Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany can be left alone if the Führer is a female with sufficient "moe rating".
Whatever the case is, Trigger and his friends bail Rosa Cossette D'Elise out, and take her away, distant from rest of the world.
A seaside settlement located on eastern shore of Osean Federation, tiny and tranquil, a decent choice for exile if you're tired of hullabaloo of society. This is Trigger's hometown, also where he and his friends bring the (former) princess, to mend her severely traumatized mind. Rosa Cossette D'Elise is given the task to be in charge of the small chapel attached to the ace's house, aside being tasked to look after a small garden full of sunflowers and a small library connected to it. Doing so is based on following considerations:
1. Religious sites are always stereotyped to have psychotherapy effects, even without singing holy songs and reading Holy Bible, simply staying can be healing.
2. Sunflowers are said to symbol light and life, maybe they can disperse shadows in one's heart, especially to Rosa Cossette D'Elise who had shown suicide tendency as demonstrated during the operations of Tyler Island and space elevator.
3. This ludicrous war is completely attributed to Eruseans' ignorance and idiocy, after witnessing the destructive power bred by such, reading is not a bad idea for her.
Living in this serene surrounding and under Trigger and his friends' care, seemingly Rosa Cossette D'Elise is getting better with each passing day, she doesn't have nightmares anymore, and her expressions show less and less sorrow and depression — replaced by more and more happiness and smiles.
Finally Trigger decides to expand range of princess' movement and exploration, allowing her to go to town, for resocialization and reinhibitation into the crowds. She can make new friends and learn manners by practicing interpersonal interactions, also to further enjoy life.
For a time, it is good, until suddenly everything falls apart.
One day, Rosa Cossette D'Elise goes to town for purchasing materials necessary for gardening. On her way back, she sees a lot of people gather around the show window of a home appliance store, and are discussing among themselves. Curious, she also walks up to check out, a fatal mistake on her side (again).
Inside the giant sheet of glass, a TV set is broadcasting footage of the first anniversary of conclusion of Lighthouse War, in worldwide. The anniversary itself is not the problem, problem is quite a portion of footage is about angry mobs initiating a punitive expedition in princess' hometown. These wrathful groups are shouting slogan about killing Rosa Cossette D'Elise to comfort war victims' souls, and they go as far as incinerating the estate passed down from her ancestors, even prying open ancestral graves of her family and destroying coffins as well as tossing bodies around.
For townsfolk, what's on media is just an abstract idea, their reactions are no more than expressing diversified opinions with casualness. But to princess herself, it's like falling into a bottomless abyss, in a status of utter panic, she drops everything she's carrying and runs back to home. During following three days she locks herself in her room, refusing to talk to anyone, even denying food and water. Trigger is unable to persuade the unhinged princess, the only thing he can do is grabbing a chair and sitting right outside the door, with a tray of food, water and medicine.
The fourth day's morning, Trigger wakes up from chair and finds the door is unlocked, but princess is not in her room. Later he finds her in the chapel, kneeling in front of the altar and is praying. Three days neither proper replenishment of nutrition, and probably nor proper sleeping, Rosa Cossette D'Elise is looking extremely pale and haggard. Trigger forces her to go back to bed, and gives her a venous transfusion to prevent vital life indexes of hers from shutting down. He stays highly alerted to keep her from doing anything stupid again, but even tough as the dominator of the sky, he also needs to get some rest himself, so he tasks Count and Avril Mead to guard princess in rotatory while he's not available…which would both eloquently and factually prove "if you want to do something right, do it yourself".
"Where is she?!" Trigger comes to check Rosa Cossette D'Elise, who is supposed to be watched by Avril Mead, but she's gone.
"She said she wants to see sunrise, and she appears to be in a good shape, so I gave her green light." The Scrap Queen answers, not aware of what kind of trouble they gonna have.
"You! Get Count and meet me in garage! We're going after her!" Like a triggered bullet, Trigger darts away.
On the road to east, a car is racing, carrying the trio. Trigger almost pulverizes the throttle's pedal for he wants his vehicle to go faster.
Count: "What's wrong? She just wants to get some fresh air. You're overreacting pal."
Avril Mead: "Yeah, don't you think she's going to drown herself in the sea?"
Trigger is in no mood of joking: "The best spot to watch sunrise is on the far side of the forest, closest to the shoreline."
Count: "So?"
"…and it's on a high cliff."
Both Count and Avril Mead's faces are occupied by terror in an instant: "Oh no! Can't this thing go any faster?"
Soon they reach the road's end, still far from destination, leaving the car behind, they sprint like there's no tomorrow.
Rosa Cossette D'Elise is standing on the edge of the cliff, facing the eastern horizon, the direction to Erusea. She is singing a famous folk song of Erusean origin, with both hands holding in front of her chest. This is the last time she pays her respect to her fatherland. Hearing hurried footsteps approaching from behind, she turns around, and manages a bitter smile: "Thank you for seeing off my departure. I won't stay for long."
"Don't do that princess!" Trigger shouts, even he's short for air due to excessive running.
"It's too late. My hands are already soaked with so much blood, only can be cleansed in Hell."
"No! You're still young, there gotta be alternatives! Don't throw away your life like this!"
Count: "You heard the man! Come with us!"
Rosa Cossette D'Elise tries to maintain her smile, but tears pour out from eyes: "I don't deserve your friendship, nor your love. I'm a monster, a murderer of countless souls. Only my own demise can pacify their resentments. Sorry, you offer a path I can't follow."
"No…" Trigger and his friends are nailed to ground, they dare not to get any closer for they're afraid doing so will prompt her to jump off.
"It's too tired to be the focal point of all these hatred, but that's all because my fault. If I didn't make my mistakes, we may be happy together. Forgive me for there's no way I can return your hospitality. I wish in next life, we'll meet under different circumstances. Good bye." Rosa Cossette D'Elise closes her eyes and leans backward, falling off from the cliff.
"D'Elise!" Thinking fast and acting even faster, Trigger leaps forward in an attempt to catch her in time. He partially succeeds — by grabbing one of her wrists, but now both them are falling off — if his ankles are not held by Count and Avril Mead respectively, before it's too late.
Avril Mead: "No more physical exercises for me today." It takes almost fifteen minutes for her and Count to pull both Trigger and princess to safety, and by that time, all of them are thoroughly exhausted.
"Why? Why you risk your own life to save a worthless sinner like me?" Rosa Cossette D'Elise, sitting on ground, is even more depressed, obviously she's not happy for being still alive: "I'm already corrupted to the core, what I committed is beyond redemption…"
Trigger suddenly bursts in anger, ignoring his fatigued status, he grabs princess's collars and slaps her, strongly.
Count: "Whoa whoa whoa! It's not appropriate to beat a girl…" As for Rosa Cossette D'Elise herself, the feeling of pain comes with utter shock: He dares to beat her! In face!
"Even my father doesn't dare to beat…" Before she can finish, another slap from Trigger lands solidly on her face.
"Then I hereby to beat you in the name of your father!" Trigger, still holding her collars, pins her to a tree: "And to reeducate you!"
Count wants to express his objection, only to be stopped by Avril Mead. "Let him say whatever he wants, this is our last chance." She tells him via a meaningful glance.
"Do you really know what you were doing? That's called 'avoidance of responsibility'! Death is simple, only takes a snap, but what you can achieve by that? Atonement? Proof of courage? No, you just further brand yourself as a coward, because you know making up for your wrongs is too difficult, so you chose the easy way of escaping from your liability!"
"…" Rosa Cossette D'Elise doesn't respond as her eyes are widened like tennis balls, because her not-so-smart brain is undergoing a process…well, akin to a cyber-term commonly known as "formatting".
"You had realized your mistakes and wanted to remedy, that's good enough, nobody has the right to accuse you anymore." Trigger continues with a much-softened tone: "From now on, stop hating and punishing yourself, look forward to make yourself a better person, start with us, and we start with you."
"I…I…I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Forgive me!" Rosa Cossette D'Elise bursts in tears and collapses, cries out with an unprecedented volume, squalling as if a newborn infant. Count and Avril Mead let out a sigh of relief internally, at least she's not going to seek for self-termination.
Trigger helps her to get on feet, facing the opposite direction from the cliff: "Today is the beginning of your rebirth. Look, a brand-new path is right in front of you, make the first step, we'll be always side by side." Count and Avril Mead also give princess assuring smiles, even thumb-ups.
Wiping tears off, Rosa Cossette D'Elise nods with a steadfast expression: "I won't let you down, sir." The four walk away from the scene, to the home, their home.
Under the morning sun, Rosa Cossette D'Elise starts a new journey, it might be difficult and bumpy, but she is not alone and everything will be fine.
The End
Ending Theme: A Brand New Day (extracted from ACE Combat 6: Fires of Liberation)
As the actual game shows, this so-called "Lighthouse War" is caused by Erusean government's blindness to the change of time, they're too stupid to realize international cooperation is taking over international rivalry. Especially their princess, who is too lazy and idiotic to move her feet into ISEV to see for herself and ask questions about its purpose. It's a shame, Erusea could have joined ISEV Project as a major investor, and could be rewarded by a huge share of the profits, instead their wrong decisions costed countless lives and material losses, also shattered a bright future supposed to be bestowed on them. This is a deafening alarm bell to everyone: Open your eyes and use your brains, do not cling to outdated ways of viewing the world, for your poor decisions could be more devastating way beyond your worst nightmares.
I'm going to take a break from continuing this entry for the favor of completing other stories of mine, I will come back to update should any of Rosa Cossette D'Elise's lapdogs act up (actually there is one who barks almost immediately after this chapter's publication, however he's not worthy for a reply), and I have many good ideas lined up.
About Rosa Cossette D'Elise's Folk Song
I was struggling to choose an actual folk song for Rosa Cossette D'Elise to sing in this chapter, instead of vaguely describing it as "Erusean origin". But I know nothing about European traditional folk music, therefore after searching through databank, I selected the ED of "Hobberdy Dick (妖精ディック)", the anime adaption of the fantasy novel of same title, written by British folklorist Katharine Mary Briggs. It's completely natural that any characters in ACE Combat speaking Japanese, the whole franchise is made in Japan!
A song with beautiful rhythm yet also a trace of sadness, as well as the lyrics:
Hush いくら ねむっても (Hush, no matter how I sleep)
Wish 夢に こがれて (Wish, I always yearn for it in dreams)
おもいだす いつも あの家 (Missing the home of mine)
ねむりの国をわたって (Across the realm of slumbers)
こころにかかる月 (The moon is in my heart)
なの花の海 照てらすころに (Shining on the sea of canola flowers)
口笛はるかな 丘の向こうへ (Distant whistling, far side of the hill)
帰ろう 帰ろう (Go home, go home)
あの家が呼んでいる 帰ろう (The home is calling me to return)
Miles いくら はなれても (Miles, no matter how far I've gone)
Smile 風に吹かれて (Smile, being blown by wind)
おもいだす いつも あの家 (Missing the home of mine)
風のくるまに ゆられて (Spinning windmills)
いずみにひかる空 (Shining reflection of the sky in spring)
ツグミの心 満たす頃に (When drifter's heart is fulfilled)
歌声そよぐ 森の向こうへ (Singing by breezes, far side of the forest)
帰ろう 帰ろう (Go home, go home)
あの家が呼んでいる 帰ろう (The home is calling me to return)
だから Hush いくら ねむっても (Therefore hush, no matter how I sleep)
きっと Wish おもいでの向こうへ (Always wish, to the far side of my mind)
I'll be home
On a side note, the two visual novels I got my inspirations from, are "H2O -Footprints in the Sand-" presented by Makura, and "Aoitori (lit. The Blue Bird)" presented by Purple Software. Both games are about sins, atonement and remissions, the latter is specifically recommended for its drawing styles and soundtracks.