So it had come down to this. Years of misery beneath my wings, triumphs that, in the end, had only meant an escape from death and no more. So it was to end like this. Our ship, the Rachel, named after the girl I had loved, still loved, was to ram this new enemy's ship. Both would be destroyed.
Rachel...dead. She was dead. I spread my hawk wings as the all the years of this war washed over me, all my conflicted past, in those few moments. Animals, all kinds of animals, some not even of Earth, rushed past as a blue light lit the scene. Pain rushed back, emotional and physical both. I screamed, but no human sound came, only a hawk's cry. This was it, and that was my life. Not normal, not human, full of loss.
Faith echoed in the nightmare and I prayed. I prayed, let prayer consume me, that eternal hope rising. "He who believes in me will have eternal life…" Let there be more than this, let that glorious sacrifice mean something, let all this pain endured for freedom's sake mean something…
Then the vision of the hell my life had become was shattered. A crash, an instant of pain.
The misery was past. Glory came. All was blue skies. I opened my eyes, as good as a hawk's but human, to golden hair and blue eyes. "Rachel…"
All was blue skies and will always be.
