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[Sub]+}Echos of the Past{+[/Sub]
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The world around her dissolved into static. Her attention locked to the video playing out in front of her. It overlapped with the one playing in the back of her mind. The screaming multiplied over, and over, and over until she could hear nothing else. She choked on the ash, on the blood, on the bile. Frozen in place as her world burned down around her again, and again. Until all that remained was the frozen void and the endless screams that haunted her nightmares.

And then with the click of a button, the video stopped, and Aurora slammed back into herself.  Pale, shaking and nearly hyperventilating. She was cold again. Cold and alone. The screaming wasn’t gone but she recognized where she was, if only barely. And….

A man was speaking behind her. She parsed his words as if from a great distance. [color=6ecff6][i]‘He cared enough for others to let himself be labeled a fool.’[/i][/color] She thought in some distant part of her that had escaped the fresh horrors of her past relived.

But that wasn’t important now. So very little was important now. She needed….

[color=6ecff6][i]‘Sleepy!’[/i][/color]

Mechanically Aurora stood up. She gave the one-eyed man at the front of the room a regal bow. [color=6ecff6][i][s]‘I hate him… But we share a hate for them that is greater’[/s][/i][/color]

She turned to the man behind her, the one who had asked knowing what was to come, so that others wouldn’t be caught unaware. And gave him a regal bow as well. [color=6ecff6][i][s]‘He is noble, and kind, even if it would draw ire’[/s][/i][/color]

She then drew herself up, squared her shoulders and left. She did not say a word or make a sound.

She did not let herself think as she strode through the halls of the ship. Eyes locked forward, head held high. She could feel it all bubbling within her again. Fresh as if it has just happened, but with teeth edged with the vicious truth she only learned after. The screaming in her ears hadn’t abated. Nearly drowning the world in pain, that she longed to give back to the ones who caused it.

She couldn’t say how long she haunted the halls. Even with a destination in mind the entire time that she never once deviated from. She saw no one other then the corpses melted by plasma fire along the way. Smelled nothing beyond the acrid stench of burnt flesh and tasted nothing beyond thick ash, and fresh bile. Her face a frozen mask of indifference, only holding by a thread.

And then all at once she blinked and she felt something crack inside of her. She was before Sleeping Thunder. They had saved her back then, and would shelter her now. She knew it in her shattered heart.

Heedless of the now twicely concerned mass of engineers in the bays. She moved closer, deeper towards the back of the bay, before slipping into one of the gaps between the stabilizing flanges on Sleepy’s feet. 

Hidden in the Frames shadow. She brakes. Crying silently as she shakes almost violently.

[color=6ecff6]“We talked… Talked about them… Today, Sleepy.”[/color] She would say between silent sobs pressing close to her Framework. 

[color=6ecff6]“I know… I know… But there…. There was a video this time. Of… We weren’t the only ones Sleepy… I saw it happen again… It…”[/color] She breaks off, shaking her head. Uncaring of the tears streaming down her face.

[color=6ecff6]“I miss home Sleepy.”[/color] She croaks softly. Knowing she will never see it again.