A/N: Sort of a random piece. I wrote it in response to an assignment I had for a writing class. Enjoy! Please Review.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dark Angel, or Alec...dammit!
Call It Freedom
Alec turned back to glance once more at the place that had been his home. He would never classify it as home, such a warm and gentle term would never be worth wasting on such a place. How would you define a facility that had raised you since birth to be an assassin, drilling military regime and dictatorial hierarchy of command into your head since you could talk?
He watched as flames burst through the windows, shattering glass and igniting the rest of the structure. He didn't even blink as the blaze engulfed the concrete and steel. Only one thing came to mind as he observed the destruction. Freedom.
It was like being set free from prison, an unwilling incarceration of an innocent man concluded.
The higher floors of the facility flickered in and out of visibility as the heat from the flames tore through them. The whole of the structure had now been taken completely over by the inferno.
"Good," he murmured. He flinched at the mention of the word. For his entire life he had been trained to look down on anything that was in opposition to the base. The fact that this had come from him was the best shock that he could have expected. It would take a long time for him to get used to the fact that everything he had respected growing up was a lie, and that everything he feared was fake. It was all chains. Illusion. A deception only used to bind him in pseudo-loyalty for the duration of his life, a life that would have ended supporting the ideals drilled into his skull since he was a small boy.
But he didn't have to follow those lies anymore. There was truth out in the world that he had never been exposed to. He knew shadows of truth, based on the lies that his superiors had told, but none of those mattered. Sure there would be disease and chaos, it existed everywhere. Even in the minds of his fellow soldiers on base.
The chaos that had ruled his mind for fifteen years was stemmed from being told everything all his life, having no experiences of his own. They had taken away his choices, had almost succeeded in eliminating his God-given free will. But now, they couldn't touch him. He was free.
He turned around, walking into the world beyond. No cage would hold him back now. He would live, and no one could tell him how.
What was real in the life he was about to face? He would find out for himself.
A/N: Actually, the assignment this is based on is a one-page respone to Mary Oliver's poem "The Journey."
A/N2: Let me know what you thought. Please, drop a review.