A Light In The Darkness - Christa

[Gildarts]

The crisp corners had curled in some, as the female Prime gingerly took the time to part the thin pieces together. There stood the paper, flat, and the lines bold against the yellow-stained white backround. Was what she was seeing even real? Sure this had to be some kind of mistake, for something like this... It couldn’t exist.

Apparently reading the skepticism off of her face, the old man smiled, “Age-stealer’s got a nice ring to it, don’t it? Though one o’ my friends likes to call it a reaper.”

“What in God’s name... Is it?” Christa felt her jaw hanging open off a loosened hinge and abruptly sealed her lips. Her eyes narrowed, her jawline became more defined as her expression set on one of fury. “Is it one of Diablo’s?”

The elder shook his head and weakly shrugged his shoulders, “Who even knows anymore?” shade covered the man’s pale eyes, while pain shimmered in their distant light, “All I know is, this town can’t handle much more, you saw the soldiers out front, we aren’t even using the livin’ anymore. Can you imagine? I wonder what kind of black magic spells they had to cast on the armor in order for it to have a life of its own. If we don’t even have men to fight for us anymore, we may as well have lost this war. Look at me, Christa, I’ll be in one of those suits next!”

“Don’t say that! There has to be a way Jesse,” Christa said passionately, with determination overriding the twinges of fear in her eyes.

“I just know.. That you’ll have a better chance at fighting against them, since you’ve always been good at stealth, and I think this is the kind of mission where a single scout goes in, plants some C-4 and hopes for the damn best. Any more than one person and they’ll sense and ambush ya. Tch. Damn shame. If even one gets in here, comes to the town and gets past our measly barrier, there will be nothing and no one left to protect, since we’ll all be...” the old man struggled, water formed in his eyes, and then rolled down his cheeks. Christa took it all in with wide eyes, just how helpless and agonizing his condition was.

“What do you think.... Will happen to a Prime when it touches th- er, me?” Christa asked, hoping to distract him kindly.

“You’ve got a better chance than the lot of us did, and you’ll have more than one chance if we’re lucky. I guess I was, because now you’ve come here and you’re a prime. You’ll be able to carry on our legacy, eh?” Mornel spoke to the rogue, with ample hope in his eyes.

Christa could not meet them.

Instead, her eyes fell back on the paper, and wondered just how a terrible monster like this could even exist in their world. It wasn’t all bright lights, angels, and smiling Omnis as it had been in the Oververse, or even in the Vasty Deeps.
No. This creature was real, and it apparently could steal a man’s youth with a single touch. Without realizing it, her fists had turned white, the paper crunched in her hands and was nearly ripped in half. “I’m so sick of this! It’s always murderers, monsters, or the fucking government! Everything and everyone wants to rule, cause chaos or destruction, or all three!” she burst with an exclamation, which suddenly grew dark, “And just look what they’ve made me become!”

Christa was standing now, her breath was violently heaving from her lungs, and her eyes widened after she heard the words pour from her lips. She never had had much of a filter, but now she felt the flames of shame on her face, and an instant regret fill the pit of her stomach. Her eyes slowly wandered down to see how Mornel had taken this, she expected to see the scorching look of his scorn, but instead, she too saw him nod and speak, “They’ve turned me into something I’m not. I’m not an old man, and they can’t stop me from fighting to my last breath! Right Christa?”

She felt her eyelids quiver and she felt her shoulders melt downward after the fire had left her, her words became coldly sympathetic now, “That’s just it, Mornel, I am a murderer now. But it is because of them that I am this strong.”