Anthem

Prologue

           We had failed—the rebellion was over. We were outwitted. But our plan was never going to be enough. We couldn't just leave, we had to repay our debt, we owed it to them. The victims, the accidental targets. The dead.    
           Impossible - it was impossible to mend. We had earned the distrust of civilians - and rightfully so. To them we were just another gang of evil-doers, that had gotten away. But they lie.
           I couldn't even begin to comprehend the sheer mass of people who had died at my hands. We were only trying to help... impeach the Xori, find a new set of Supreme Leaders. Some real leaders that listened to their people. That were fair and just and not... killers. But they discovered our strategy, our intentions, our target. It would have worked.
           We were betrayed.
Failed. Failed. Failed.

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She had tucked these words close to her heart the day that they lost. That irreversible, deadly day, when she discovered the true meaning of being a Xora. It was as if the devil himself had come upon the continent and decided to add another bloodsoaked canvas to his demented gallery. Crimson and wicked and evil. Odiously won, he'd think. But she knew better: there was no glory in death. There were no victors. Only the darkness that coated the world in its sickly embrace.
           Failed. Failed. Failed.
           The truth echoed in her head. How had she let this happen? How could she have been so—so horribly wrong? Maybe if she'd been there she could have saved them. She could have stopped that unseen gas as it drowned thousands in its phantom, burning song. Could have saved the hundreds of innocents from the massacre. Could have saved her family.
           She had failed, and their rebellion was over. She had done her best but it was not enough. It would never be enough.

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