After Fate Fell

18 • MARINA

1 year, 3 months, and 13 days after it all
•MARINA•

Planes fly over our heads. How did we not notice their arrival? How did we not hear them?

We lie low to the ground, covering our heads in case something else insane decides to happen at this moment. I guess it's in case the planes spotted us, badly hidden on the hillside, and were to drop the same fiery fury onto us. But how would our hands protect us from something like that?
I risk a glance back at what remains of our Himalayan "Paradise", what has been our home for months, completely destroyed in just a few moments. The flames burn hot and bright. I feel my eyes become watery, but I will myself not to cry, to just move forward. There's nothing we can do to save it now.

But I do feel anger, bright, hot, burning anger at whoever has done this. It's like the flames set to our home have relit a fire in me, burning just as brightly as the ones atop this mountainside.

I don't look back again. I don't need to look back again. I just know that whoever did this to us—the saviors of their goddamned planet by the way—is going to die. They're going to die in fire, I decide.

I then start to hear a voice, distant, calling my name. I peer into the darkness, but I see nobody.

Marina? I hear again, and now it's clear that it's only in my head. It's Ella.

Ella! Are you in Mexico? At the Sanctuary? I ask.

Yes. And no. I'm in Mexico City. I'm with Five. Legacy told me I would find him here. Marina, there's something you should know.

I pause. Nine is still walking next to me, oblivious to this whole conversation going on between Ella and I. The way these last few words Ella has sent me come across make my stomach feel uneasy. Will this have something to do with the destruction of our hideout? No matter what, I can tell what she's about to tell me isn't good.

Marina, something is happening to Legacy. Her energy is weakened, just as ours is. We thought our Legacies were weaker because of disuse, but it's actually because of this. Lorien is dying. I'm afraid that if we don't do something, the world will never know peace again. All that is Loric will cease to exist.

I sigh. It's a stupid reaction to something so extreme, but to be honest, hearing this exhausts me. "Peace" is a term that is synonymous with Lorien, we have been taught that Lorien was a perfect place which knew only peace and did not know of corruption or war. But this was only before we were alive, or at least before I can remember. For my whole life, I feel like I've just been devoting everything to this idea of creating peace, restoring what once was, but for some reason, something is always blocking me from that utopia.

Marina? I hear, and I realize that I've been silent.

I'm still here, I tell Ella. It's just a lot to take in.
I know, she tells me.

Why can't we ever just have peace? I ask her, vocalizing my frustration into a question.

I don't know Marina, she says. But Marina, I do know one thing. It's been on my mind, in my visions and my dreams, and most often in my imagination, my silent hopes. As soon as we beat this thing, we are going home. To Lorien. It's what we are meant to do. When the Elders rushed us onto that ship, don't you remember what they said? They told us that Earth was never supposed to be our home. They told us that as soon as we had the chance, as soon as the Mogadorians were no longer a threat to us, that we had to return. So we will.

Hearing this, I feel that Ella has grown 10 years in 2 days. She has evolved from that shy little girl I met at the convent back in Spain, to a strong and sure warrior. She has become the leader of the Garde, in all aspects. None of the rest of us have any sense of leadership at this point, and she rises up out of the war's rubble and shows us the way. I'm smiling, because even though what we face ahead may be strenuous, I know we can make it through. Ella is beating us back into our senses. I'm so proud of her gained assurance.

So we will, I repeat back to her.