For All My Friends That Have Died For Our Future

"Man to man...? What is it?" I asked Orion.

"My daughter... she doesn't deserve a life of torture or neglect just because of the person her father was." Orion began.

"Then why were you such a terrible father... and such a terrible person for your entire time on the Isle?" I asked him.

"Sky... you're young and naïve... I couldn't be a father to my own two children, so let me at least teach you a lesson. Push away your hate, and just consider what I have to say." He asked me. I decided to listen, even if I did hate him. He may have been horrible... but Orion wasn't stupid by any means.

"On the Isle... on Earth... across the galaxy... there will always... and I mean always, will be people who subject their hate to one group of people, or one person in particular. The sooner you accept that the person they hate is yourself, the sooner you can make progress. I'm used to being hated, I'm used to wanting to be killed. All of those slaves I made fight in that war, they wanted me dead too. Do you know how I got them to fight? I told them the ones that live get to rule over the new land I create and kill me the second we get it. I pawned my life in exchange for their temporary allegiance... and it worked!" He said.

"Those were slaves we were fighting... and you accepted all of that hate that people directed towards you?" I asked him. I was impressed by the change in Orion's demeanor... but I guess being this close to death, he didn't have any time to act like his old self.

"If you fight that hate, you gain more. There will always be that person everybody hates... you might be a hero for now, but if word gets out that you are a Corrupt White Stone, they will hate you next. You will be hunted for the rest of your life, regardless of your drive to survive and prove to those that you aren't the bad guy... you always will be. Your children will never be safe, your family will never be safe... not as long as the Humans live on Earth." Orion told me.

"Maybe... but I don't care. To keep me and my family safe... I'd kill everybody on that planet." I told Orion. He chuckled.

"White Stone of Wrath... you really shape up to that name... I'm glad to hear my dream isn't dead after all." Orion told me.

"What happened... to make you want to hate Nova? What did she do?" I asked him. Figuring this out was something I needed to do. Nova was Red's sister that was lost on Earth, I want to know everything possible.

"Nova killed my wife... she pushed me over the edge. You and I used to be one of the same White Stones... I used to want to lead, I built a prosperous life, but one day, Nova's child ended up in my hands and I decided to take care of her. Because I did the right thing, Nova killed my wife... ever since then, I vowed I would kill her no matter what it would take because that's what Moonlight's only wish would've been." Orion admitted.

"I'm sorry Nova did that to your wife. I'm sorry you never climbed back up that ledge you fell off when Nova murdered your wife, but I don't regret freeing the people of this Isle and stopping you from killing anybody else." I told Orion. Again, he chuckled. What was so funny?

"You and I are so similar it's not even funny... there will come a time when those Humans will take away everything from you and you must make the decision to become the villain... or to accept their abuse. As White Stones, our charismatic DNA wouldn't simply let us take the beating. That's why we have System Corruption... I believe that the reason we can Corrupt is so that Humans can identify us and kill us easier. You've marked yourself." Orion told me.

"Let the Humans try. I'll play nice until they mess this up. I have no obligation to be nice to people who marked me to hunt me. Just as I did with you, I will fight the world if I have to." I told Orion.

"You make an old man proud to be dying... enough about our stones. You'll take care of my daughter in my stead? She's a good girl... she's got White Stone blood in her, she's naturally charismatic, and brightens everybody's day when she's around. Please Sky... don't let the world corrupt her. Not like us. We can shoulder the burden of today's terror so they can enjoy tomorrow's happiness." Orion told me.

Today's terror... tomorrow's happiness...

"I promise. I'll take good care of Aegis. I won't hold back from teaching her about her sadistic father and what you did. She'll learn that people like you are bad and follow in my footsteps in fighting for the right thing." I told him. Orion smiled once again. But this time... tears fell from his eyes?

"Dying sucks... there's so much of the world I want to see still. I want to see my daughter grow up... I wanted my son to live... dammit..." He said.

"Why did you kill your son?" I asked him. Orion covered his eyes with one of his hands.

"The blood of Generation Two and Generation Three Arkian gives you much more power than us White Stones already have. Nathan... he was sick with a terminal illness that Zeal and Nova gave him. A disease from Earth, the doctors described it as incurable with the medicine we had here. I wanted to get to Earth to cure him... but when I found out from Zeal that they didn't have it, that meant Nathan only had a limited time left. It was dark... talking to my son about his incoming death, but he said he wanted to help me in any way he could. I hope he's peacefully resting in Heaven as he should be." Orion said.

I didn't want to understand his reasoning... but it made sense. Not letting his kid die a natural death because of his wish... I understand. I understood it all. Orion had pure intentions... No matter how much of a prick he was for following through... I understood. Somebody has to be the villain, he said it himself.

"Yeah... the world's getting darker now. Please Sky... I'm begging you, man to man... take care of my family because I was too weak to do it myself. Give them the future all of the children deserve... one without evil." Orion said. His chest deflated as the air left his body and his eyes were stuck open, staring at the sky as his arm fell down from reaching for the clouds.

I crawled over to his eyes and closed them out of respect, and laid down on my back, looking at the same clouds.

Dammit... that man was an Arkian after all. He was just like me... huh...

[SYSTEM EMERGENCY! A WHITE STONE HAS BEEN KILLED IN ACTION!]

-SKY WINS-