Author's Note: Sorry about not posting this yesterday. I was very tired, lol. But I'm posting this now and will have Day 9 later tonight. So, Day 8 was...Orion!
Everything looked exactly as Orion remembered it. The well-worn path from the mines to his village was one he knew by heart. Despite how many bad memories were associated with this pace, Andresia was still his home. As welcome as he felt on Earth, there were many days were his heart longed for his home planet. So seeing it all, the path, the wide open fields between the mines and his village, even the way the the area was so flat you could see straight to the village to the whole way, was welcome to him.
And Orion wanted to enjoy it. So, he didn't think about how the flat lands and simple layout was what had allowed the Armada to so efficiently wipe out his home.
How the last time he'd seen these fields they'd been full of burial mounds; covering shallow graves he'd dug himself.
All the burial mounds were still there, but now covered over with grass and wildflowers. They more resembled tony hills dotting the fields.
Something ached in his heart, so Orion kept walking toward the village. Last time he'd been here, after burying the dead, he'd been scrounging for food and supplies. Most of the structures were destroyed, but at least this time they weren't still smoking. His steps slowed as he entered the village. By the time he reached the center square, he stopped completely. For a few seconds, Orion closed his eyes. He pictured the festivals they'd had here. Festival days were the only days no one in the whole village had to work. He smiled as he remembered the music and dancing and food; even as tears ran down his face.
A stone clattered to his right, snapping him out of the memory. "Hello?" Orion called on reflex. Then, he chastised himself. 'I'm literally the only person here. The only Andresian. Get it together, Orion.' It was probably just a wild animal, so he ignored it and kept walking. Despite the grief that assaulted him when he saw it, he wanted to visit his family's home. It was one of the destroyed buildings, nothing more than rubble now, but in his mind, he saw the building perfectly. For a minute, Orion just stood there, letting the tears fall down his face. "Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom. I'm home."
"Welcome home, Orion."
It took him a second too long to realize the voice wasn't a memory inside his head. The voice came from behind him. Orion spun in his heel, hand dropping to where he kept his morpher, but it wasn't there. 'What? I always carry it on me!' HIs confusion over his morpher caused him to not immediately process what was in front of him. When he did through, he cried out and stumbled back "What- What-"
"Orion?" his father asked, tilting his head in confusion; a habit all of Orion's brothers had picked up from him. "What's wrong, son? Aren't you happy to see me?"
"You- You-" Orion shook his head, taking another couple steps back. "No, you're- You can't be-"
"Orion-" his father took a step toward him, but Orion stumbled back again.
"No! Stay back!"
"Orion!" another voice said from his right. Orion's head snapped toward it and his eyes widened even more. His mother gave him a very familiar look of disapproval. "Don't speak to your father with that tone."
"No. No. No." He couldn't say anything else besides that. "I- No. You can't be here. You…can't."
"Why is that?" his oldest brother asked, walking up behind their mother. It felt like someone stabbing Orion when he saw his brother. The man was still wearing his mining outfit he'd worn the day Andresia was attacked. "Aren't you happy to see us?"
"Yeah?" a voice from his left added. HIs next oldest brother. "We've all missed you so much, Orion. Don't you miss us?"
"Of course I do!" Orion relied. "Everyday! But…"
"But what?" his new oldest, and last brother asked. "What's so wrong here?"
"Because- Because you're dead!" Orion's voice bordered on shrill. "You're dead, all of you are dead! I saw it. I was there. I buried your bodies for God's sake!"
"Dead?" his father laughed. "Orion, what're…you…" His voice trailed off. As it did, his face changed from happy and laid back to tense, then finally angry. "We're dead." Uncertainty crept up Orion's spine, causing him to back up even more. "We're dead…and you're not." His words caused the silver ranger to freeze. "We're dead and you're not, Orion."
"What's up with that?" his oldest brother asked. He glared at the youngest accusingly. "Why aren't you dead?"
Orion couldn't answer for a second. He stumbled again and fell back, so he scrambled back on his hands. "I- I own't know…" His voice cracked as he cried harder. "I ask myself that every day! Every day and every night I wonder why I'm alive and you're all not!"
"And then you left us," his middle brother added, also angered now. "You left us all alone while you ran off to make new friends."
"No-"
"A new family," his third brother said, sounding betrayed.
"No! No, my team could never replace you guys!" Wanting to get out of there more than anything, Orion leaped to his feet. He took off running, pushing his father aside as he did. 'I- I need to get out of here! I need to get back to my ship-' Where was his ship though? He couldn't remember where he'd left it. Every time he tried to remember where he landed, his brain got fuzzy. Orion came to a stop, out of breath and still sobbing. "Where- I need- I have to go!"
A voice behind him made his heart freeze. "Go?" his father asked. Orion slowly turned around. HIs father was standing behind him, perfectly calm. "Where are you going?"
"I…uh…" Orion's brain wasn't working. He stumbled back into someone. He yelped in surprise, spinning around and jumping back. It was his oldest brother, who still looked angry.
"Leaving us again, Orion? Choosing to save yourself?" he hissed, voice almost inhuman.
"I- I didn't choose to save myself! I just happened! Honest!" His middle brother grabbed his right arm, appearing out of nowhere. "I- I didn't just try to save myself, you have to believe me! Please!"
"Why should we?" his brother asked. "When you left us here. We didn't ask to die."
"I know, I know! God, I know that! That- That's why I had to leave. I had to go so I could get revenge for Andresia." His third brother appeared, grabbing his left arm. "I left because I loved you all so much, I had to do something…" His voice wavered as he cried. "You have to believe me. I just had to avenge you all."
"If you really love us then stay," his third brother said. "Stay here with us Orion."
Orion shook his head, closing his eyes as his brothers' grips on him clutching him even tighter. "I- I can't. You have no idea how much I want to…but I'm needed on Earth. They need me to defeat the Armada-"
"What about we needed you?!" his father demanded. "Where were you when we were dying? When your mother was buried in the rubble of our own house? When your brothers were blown apart by those bombs? When I was crushed by the collapsing mine shafts? Where were you then, Orion?!"
"You were probably glad we all died," his mother said, her voice more venomous then he'd ever heard it. "Glad to have a reason to leave us all behind and."
"No! That's not true!"
"Then stay with us!"
Orion sobbed, his legs shaking so much that he was certain he would've collapsed if it weren't for his brothers holding him up. The heart-splitting grief that he normally felt consumed him, making it difficult to think. How could he describe the pain and sadness that occupied his mind every day? 'I miss them all so much… How can they say those things to me?' Orion closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Then another and another. "I- I can't stay. I have to protect the Earth. To stop what happened here from happening there too. I'm sorry." Before he could change his mind, Orion moved. He used an escape tactic that Troy had taught him to free himself from his brothers. Then, he ran.
This time, Orion didn't stop running until he was out of the village. Even though his sobbing made it hard to breath and his lungs burns, he kept running. Only when he was back on the path that led to the minds did he allow himself to stop. He stumbled as he did and dropped to his hands and knees. For a few seconds Orion stayed where he was, bent over with his head in hands. He gasped and sobbed, unable to properly catch his breath. His lungs were burning, but it didn't matter. Orion didn't know if the pain in his chest was from grief or lack of oxygen. He just wanted to leave.
"Orion."
Orion shook his head, digging his fingers into his hair. "No, no, make it stop!"
"Orion!"
The shout came from his left and when he looked, Orion nearly vomited. It was one of his childhood friends. They'd gone from playing together in the schoolhouse yard to working side-by-side in the mines. His friend had been one of the people killed when the bombs collapsed the mine shafts. Orion had spent many nights with the sight of his friend from the waist up, crushed in the middle from rocks. Now, he could only see the top of half of him because the rest was still buried in his grave.
"Orion," his friend said, clawing at the grass as he pulled himself out of the shallow grave. "Why did you leave us, Orion? How could you let us die?"
"I- I didn't…" Orion responded weakly. All around him, he saw people. Hands, heads, shoulders, but all were crawling out of their graves. His friends, co-workers, neighbors. All of them looked angry.
"Orion, how could leave us!"
"Traitor!"
"You abandoned us to rot on Andresia while you traipse off to Earth!"
"You let us all die!"
"Why did you get to survive!"
Orion threw his hands over his ears. "I'm sorry!" he screamed. Tears streamed down his cheeks. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He took off running again, heading for the mines. He didn't have any breath to talk, but his apologies kept repeating in his head. Tears obscured his vision, causing him to trip a few times, but he scrambled to his feet and kept going. As he neared the mines, he dared to glanced back, but before he could decide if he could see them, his feet gave out. The ground disappeared and Orion dropped like a stone. He instinctively tried to roll when he hit the ground to cushion his fall. Unfortunately, he still hit his head off a rock. Pain exploded in his skull when he finally stopped.
Filled with pain and exhausted, Orion didn't even try to get up. 'I'm at the mines,' he thought, all to familiar with his surroundings. 'I'm back at the mines.'
"Orion!"
"Why did you leave us?!"
"How dare you live while we die!"
"You should've died with us!"
While all he saw was their feet, Orion felt surrounded by the voices. 'I'm sorry,' he thought as he continued to cry. Beyond the film of his tears, he could see their hands reaching for him, so he closed his eyes. 'I'm sorry, I couldn't save you all. I wish I had died too.'