A.N: Spoilers up to chapter 115.

Our Guiding Light

Kaya sat on the floor of the cell, looking down with eyes unseeing. She just didn't know what to do anymore, everything was far too much out of her control.

"What would sis do?" she wondered, knowing she'd never get an answer. Sasha was dead "Sis can't help me anymore."

"You sure look down" Kaya looked up "Pun not intended."

She couldn't help it; her mouth quirked upwards just a little bit. She remembered this man, Connie was his name, Sasha had brought him over often. He'd been her best friend "What's eating you?"

"You ask that like getting thrown in a cell by rebels is an every day thing" she said, asking: "Is it?"

"Nah" Connie said, sitting down next to her "Usually we are the rebels. And usually we don't mess up enough to get caught."

Kaya actually snorted at that. She'd heard stories from Sasha, including ones from the time they overthrew the government. To Kaya, her sister was a hero, but Sasha had always denied this, insisting that she had only been following the captain's orders and deserved no credit. Kaya had to wonder about that, though.

"Tell me" she said before she could stop herself "Was my sister… a good soldier?"

Connie looked at her in surprise, not sure of what to answer to that. He was quiet for quite a while before saying: "A good soldier and a good comrade aren't always the same thing."

Sighing, he started to explain: "A good soldier follows the orders and rules, a good soldier is serious, putting duty first. Sasha wasn't exactly any of those things, but… she was a good, no, great comrade. I was always anxious while in battle, always afraid, but with her by my side, I always knew I was never alone. She'd be there for me, no matter how bad things turned out. And it wasn't just on battlefield… she was a great friend. We were always fooling around together, always having fun, yet when I lost my family, that goofy girl was the one to support me, the one who was there for me. She… kept me on the right track."

Kaya just listened quietly, agreeing that that did sound like her sister. Chickling, Connie asked: "Does that even make sense?"

"I think it does" Kaya says honestly, drawing her knees closer to herself "I feel somewhat same… sis was rarely home because she had so much work to do, but when she was, I felt more at ease than anywhere else. She was always so kind, always helping everyone… I wanted to be like her."

"Past tense huh?" Connie asked "Because of what happened at the restaurant?"

Kaya gave no answer, which was an answer on itself.

"You can still become like her, you know" he said, head lowering "Well, not exactly like her; no one else can be so kind and pure, but you can become someone she could be proud of" clenching his fists, he finished: "I want to be someone like that, too."

Kaya looks at Connie, seeing his pained expression.

"You blame that girl for killing Sasha, and it's not like you're wrong. She pulled the trigger, there's no denying that, but… it doesn't make her a bad person. She's simply an enemy, no more no less."

Kaya frowns, not understanding the difference. If someone was an enemy then they were a bad person, right?

"What's the difference?" Connie thinks of it for a while before replying: "A bad person is someone who hurts others for the sake of hurting them, even if they pose no real threat. An enemy is someone who stands in your way for one reason or the other. I think that just like Sasha and me, that girl is nothing but a normal person, a soldier who wanted to defend her home from an enemy invasion, thinking she was doing the right thing. Just like Sasha and I did when we killed MPs four years ago in the coup."

"…" Kaya didn't know what to say. She didn't like the idea of Sasha being compared to Mia, but if she tried to think of it rationally, she couldn't come up with an argument. Mia was a soldier just like her sister, but on the other side. And that was why her sister was dead.

"I kind of feel like I'm stuck in the dark" Connie suddenly started again "Ever since I lost Sasha, it's like I lost the light in my life, like there's no longer a clear direction. But even so…" he let out a sigh "I don't plan on giving up. Sasha wouldn't want that."

"…Yeah, she wouldn't" Kaya admitted "She'd want you, want us both, to find our way out on our own. We can't keep on relying on her forever."

"Exactly" Connie said "I'll try my best to live a long life, but once it's my time to join her again, I want to be able to say that I did my best and I want her to be proud of me."

"…Me too" Kaya confessed. She might not be able to be exactly like Sasha. Just like Connie said, she could never be so kind and selfless, but she could make her sister proud. And she would.

"And perhaps someday, it'll be my turn to guide someone the way she guided me."