Running through the red smoke that darkened his hometown, Heole, Pisea, a Lashan Commander in Chief, the honorable Ramozoga Walkerganta, had finally returned home. Although, to his dismay, it was nothing as he had imagined. His people were being slaughtered left and right and multiple fights broke out, not even from the enemy quickly gaining on his beloved city and instead from pure stress. In haste to prepare for the foreign attack, the citizens of the town built up tension with one another which eventually led to conflict. The smoke came from the several bombs that had hit nearby cities, poisoning the air, but as the enemy hadn't even stepped foot on this city's soil yet, all other destruction was from the fall of the national government and lack of organization within the community. Horrified, Ramozoga zigzagged up and down the streets, searching for his childhood home, the one he'd abandoned to fight this godforsaken war. When he found it, he ran up to it, tears of joy swelling his eyes. But before they could cloud his vision, Ramozoga staggered to a halt just a foot or two away from his parents' front door and fell to his knees. There, he laid his eyes on a sight no child wished to see: his own mother's thawed out body. Pascale Walkerganta lay lifeless on the ground, her usually rich brown skin rotting to an ugly greenish gray. Minuscule insects surrounded her, lured in by the pit of blood and gut viciously carved out with the knife of an angry Pisean. Memories from the one and a half decades he spent under her roof, being loved, protected and guided by her and his father before being sent off to military school. Guilt overwhelmed him as he recalled all the times he'd lied, cheated, and went against his mother, which, in recent years especially, had mostly been for Versili Fawning, a girl whom he planned to marry and had successfully hidden on Earth.
Despite all the emotions running through him, Ramozoga managed to tame his breathing and stabilize himself in mere moments based off his training and experience as a Commander in Chief. Solemnly, Ramozoga placed a hand on his mother's bone-chillingly cold forehead before standing back up and stepping over her. Beside her body, was the frame where the front door should've been, empty except for a few jagged boards hazardously hanging off of it. Ramozoga ducked his head under it and was met with a ghostly quiet house. A quick scan screamed some kind of break in had taken place with glass and wooden shards, vandalized furniture and destroyed silverware scattered all across the floor not even visible through the ruckus. Faintly in a far corner, he could hear the soft sound of clattering teeth through petrified tears.
Looking over, Ramozoga saw his younger sister whom he gave eleven whole years, shaking through a torn, off colored dress draped over old leggings and tear streaks staining her face. The young seventeen-year-old Lashan pressed herself between the eggshell walls, as if she was hoping to merge with it to avoid facing the trauma before her. The pair's father was nowhere to be seen and all the worst possible scenarios ran through Ramozoga's already stumbling mind. The gravity of his sister's situation hit him and he bolted the few feet and fell on one knee, ready to aid her.
"Rosi," he barely whispered and remained a good distance away from her, afraid she'd shatter into a million tiny pieces if overwhelmed. "It's me, my ship finally arrived." Rosi's lip stopped quivering and she managed to swallow enough of her terrors to look up at her brother. Almost instantly, her eyes welled up with thick blinding tears threatening to fall again. Her brother placed a hand on her shoulder, "Where's Papa?"
Wiping her eye so roughly it was bound to hurt, Rosiphasia answered, "Papa, he realized waiting for you was becoming a more dangerous option than stealing a few drops of eliphen, so he went out to find some and told me to take care of Mama." The image of his mother turned so inside out she was almost unrecognizable flashed through the both of their heads. A hand flew over Ramozoga's mouth, recalling how gray and lifeless his mother's formally vibrant dots were, a sight that would otherwise be unimaginable to him. His jaw clenched as they sat wordless in remembrance of Pascale Walkerganta. "You really look like her, Rami," Rosiphasia broke the silence, desperately fighting another waterfall itching to pour out. Hearing it in her voice, Ramozoga took her hand and lifted her up to her feet.
Pulling her over to the staircase leading up to the three bedrooms, he asked, "Has it been over a week since he left?" Looking over his shoulder, Ramozoga saw her slight nod as her face scrunched up and a worm of guilt turned in his stomach. He and his men had fought fiercely to keep Foaland safe from the enemy to devour, especially as it was his own parents' home country, but the Seigis still managed to obtain the power they'd been after. And to add salt to the wound, Ramozoga and his men had been forced to retreat and rush to Pisea, not even in time to save his ill-fated mother and selfless father.
Reaching into his pocket, Ramozoga pulled out a small tube of glowing ivory colored eliphen, the very thing his father had been after. Rosiphasia's eyes widened as he led her up the stairs and into his room. Stepping over clutter, he opened his closet door. "What about Papa?" she frantically asked while he pushed her into his closet, determined to not let his father's efforts go in vain. "Rami, he's still out there."
Shutting the door behind them, the only light left was the tiny white tube. Soon, Ramozoga's stripes began to flutter on and Rosiphasia's dots shone through the dark as well. "I'll come back for him," he promised, doubting the possibility of it himself. "You, on the other hand, need to go to Earth and stay until I come for you." While screwing the tube open, Rosiphasia stared at him, the outlining of her face just visible in the faint eliphen light. Through it, he was able to see the confusion on her face. Gently, he reassured her, "Earth is a safe place and I promise I'll come find you." With that, he gave her the thin tube and took her hand. Just below where her two rows of soft blue dots ended at her wrist, a small red scar managed to stand out against the back of her cocoa colored hand from a babysitting accident, illuminated by the soft glowing of her dots and the eliphen. Letting out a small chuckle, Ramozoga abandoned his physical body, effortlessly from the training he'd received his senior year of high school, the same one Rosiphasia was meant to go through in barely under a year.
Floating above in spirit form, Ramozoga watched as his eyes and limbs went limp, his muscles giving out and his body collapsed. It didn't phase him having seen it several times before, yet a small knot in his stomach formed seeing his sister do the same as she gulped down the eliphen. The small ivory light faded down her throat as Rosiphasia gulped it down. Ramozoga heard a light thud and the whole closet was black, save the blue stripes glowing on his soul. When he caught sight of dotted blue lights hesitantly emerging from the floor, Ramozoga rushed and took hold of his sister's hand once again. Hastily, he led her out of the closet to his turned over childhood bedroom, checked that the closet was locked from the inside to protect their vulnerable bodies. He took one last look at Rosiphasia and the two spirits began the long journey to Earth.
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