theweakhavepurpose | Hadriel Inbox

I don't know. Maybe it all got too big all at once. Nobody had the chance to get to know each other before they were all thrown in together.

Oh. That makes sense.

When I was still in the Academy we had to do this big event where officers from a bunch of states met up in New York and we had to do exercises together. It was terrible. No one understood each other, there were fights and huge arguments.

It's hard to relate to someone who's patrolling Los Angeles when I see more cows than I do people. And the people from the cities called the people from the country backwards hicks, and then the people from the coasts thought they were better than the people from the middle of the country.

And that's just statewide differences, not big world differences.

It's--yeah. That's something close to what happened. The Braalians and the Titanese had been at war for decades, the Winathians felt like they were being taken advantage of since that's where most of the UP's food came from, the Imskites wanted to prove that they were a big deal [and her lips twist in a private little joke], and everyone thought that the Carggites were backwards. And that's not even beginning to factor in the Daxamites.

Almost everyone had good intentions going in, but everyone also had something to prove.

Hard to broker peace when you don't understand each other.

I'm beginning to think we'll never understand each other. Even just humans.

Yeah, seems that way. I think. . . mother tried. But she had her own blinders on.

You may be right. Every human is so different. It can be hard to find common ground.

Did they manage to sort it out? Or is the fighting still happening?

It's still going on. We were in the middle of an attack by Daxamites when I came here.

Oh.

I hope everything works out for you guys.

[But he doesn't sound hopeful.]

They probably just need a bunch more people like you to sort it out.

So do I. I'd--lost communication with most of the other pairs trying to fight. I don't know if that means that they're knocked out or--or dead or what.

[she doesn't sound very hopeful, either]

They do. We call ourselves a "Legion," but there's just over a dozen of us. And one of us was a traitor.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

[He sounds like he means it too, the traitor thing hits a little close to home. ]

Maybe when we get out of this hellhole you'll find the rest of your unit and sort things out.

[she hears it in his voice and smiles a little sadly]

So am I. What's the point in being in a team made up of aliens, like the Legion, if you hate aliens?

I sure hope so. I've been--trying to not worry myself sick over them, but it's hard.

Yeah. Nothing we can do about it from here. But.. that doesn't make those thoughts go away. Now we have all this time to reflect on everything that went wrong.

Atone for it in a way. Well... regret it I guess. Close enough.

And so much went wrong, so fast. We should've been keeping a closer eye on the White Triangle and other racists from the start. Our job was to not only serve as a symbol of unity, we were supposed to be righting wrongs. And there's nothing more wrong than believing yourself superior to someone based on the planet of their birth.

I don't know what I could do to atone for it. I already regret it.

Yeah that's the hard part isn't it? Regretting things doesn't fix them. Man I wish it did though.

[He'd regret his whole life so hard he'd fix himself out of existence.]

I feel the same. If we had dealt with these religious freaks from the start instead of leaving well enough alone they wouldn't be killing everyone in the county now. We could have ended this so quick, but they weren't technically breaking any laws so we did nothing.

And now we're paying for it.

So do I.

[she'd undo that moment. that one moment where she let her guard down and assumed their enemy had been defeated]

...is it okay if I ask what they were doing?

They started buying up everything from under us. Eventually they owned half the county and you can do whatever you want on your own land. Close up shops that have been there for generations, bring in people from all over the country who follow your beliefs and call them a family.

It wasn't until they started forcibly converting people that we could charge them with kidnapping.

Not that it worked. By the time we acted it was far too late.

[she looks disturbed]

That sounds creepy. Really creepy. I'm sorry that you had to deal with that. You deserve better.

No I don't. I absolutely do not.

But lots of other people deserved better. Most of them are dead now.

Nobody deserves what you went through. Can you accept that, at least? [she looks hopeful]

And I'm sorry to hear that.

[ He is so close to saying he deserved it. That it was his punishment, his penance for being a Sinner. But... but he hesitates looking to the side for a second.]

I guess. I ... suppose that's true at least.

[He wouldn't wish what happened to him on anyone. Including the people who did it to him.]

Yeah. We lost a lot of good people. I don't know how our area will recover. Or if it will.

[she smiles at him encouragingly]

It's definitely true.

[and that makes him a good person]

I don't know. I wish I could say that it will definitely get better, but I can't. I am sorry for your losses, though.

[He will never believe that no matter how much she tells him.]

Thanks. And you too, I'm sorry it all turned out like that. It sounded like you had a good thing going in the future. For a while anyway.

[that's not going to stop her from telling him]

We really did. Not that everything was peaceful all the time. We had our share of battles, but they were--manageable. Even the prison riot.

It can't be peaceful all the time. But at least it wasn't full on war.

No, it wasn't. Not like with the Daxamites. They just wouldn't stop. Even the one my boyfriend managed to knock out got back up again.

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