Dream 10
He knows this place. He knows the village. It's small, filled with little stone buildings caked in sand and dirt. He grew up here.
"You shall offer yourselves to God."
He knows that voice. It's ringing out everywhere - it seems to be coming from all around him, echoing off the single-story homes.
The sound of the voice makes his hands ball into fists and every muscle in his body tense almost automatically.
"In order to participate in this holiest of wars, there is something you must do first."
He knows what's going to come next - the sky above him is dark, cloudy, ominous, and he starts running frantically through the streets of the village, eyes quickly passing over familiar houses, trying to find the boy that he knows will be there. Trying to stop him.
Trying to hope that maybe, this time, it will be different.
"That is... to remove your ties to this world."
There. There he is. There's the boy - no more than eight or nine, running towards the home in which he grew up, determined expression on his face, pistol clenched in his hand.
There he is - a child, but it could be no one else.
He runs after his younger self. He sprints, so fast that he feels like his heart is going to burst out of his chest, but no matter how fast he runs, he can never quite catch up as the boy goes into the home, and there is a horrible cold feeling in his stomach as he realizes that no, this time won't be any different at all.
A gunshot.
"Stop... Soran!" She pleads. "Why... why?!" Her voice is more than terrified - she is betrayed. He knows she is right to sound betrayed. "Why, Soran?!"
He sees her face in his mind -- Another gunshot -- and then everything goes quiet.
The boy stumbles out of his home, shambling along the ground like a puppet... he passes straight through the older man as if he wasn't even standing there. He hears that hated voice speaking out again, almost lovingly - as a father would praise a child.
"Good work. God is proud of you."
He runs into the house that he has never been to since, looking at the scene that is exactly the same as he remembers. Two bodies, a man and a woman, slumped together against the blood-spattered wall. The woman's eyes are frozen open, staring at the ceiling.
Setsuna walks over to them... and finds that he cannot stand anymore, his legs giving out as he falls to his knees, barely forcing one word out - half apology, half desperate plea for forgiveness:
"...Mother..."
*If you know Setsuna, you may realize that the sound you hear now - the soft changes in his breathing - is something you will not often - if ever - hear: Setsuna is very quietly crying.*
"You shall offer yourselves to God."
He knows that voice. It's ringing out everywhere - it seems to be coming from all around him, echoing off the single-story homes.
The sound of the voice makes his hands ball into fists and every muscle in his body tense almost automatically.
"In order to participate in this holiest of wars, there is something you must do first."
He knows what's going to come next - the sky above him is dark, cloudy, ominous, and he starts running frantically through the streets of the village, eyes quickly passing over familiar houses, trying to find the boy that he knows will be there. Trying to stop him.
Trying to hope that maybe, this time, it will be different.
"That is... to remove your ties to this world."
There. There he is. There's the boy - no more than eight or nine, running towards the home in which he grew up, determined expression on his face, pistol clenched in his hand.
There he is - a child, but it could be no one else.
He runs after his younger self. He sprints, so fast that he feels like his heart is going to burst out of his chest, but no matter how fast he runs, he can never quite catch up as the boy goes into the home, and there is a horrible cold feeling in his stomach as he realizes that no, this time won't be any different at all.
A gunshot.
"Stop... Soran!" She pleads. "Why... why?!" Her voice is more than terrified - she is betrayed. He knows she is right to sound betrayed. "Why, Soran?!"
He sees her face in his mind -- Another gunshot -- and then everything goes quiet.
The boy stumbles out of his home, shambling along the ground like a puppet... he passes straight through the older man as if he wasn't even standing there. He hears that hated voice speaking out again, almost lovingly - as a father would praise a child.
"Good work. God is proud of you."
He runs into the house that he has never been to since, looking at the scene that is exactly the same as he remembers. Two bodies, a man and a woman, slumped together against the blood-spattered wall. The woman's eyes are frozen open, staring at the ceiling.
Setsuna walks over to them... and finds that he cannot stand anymore, his legs giving out as he falls to his knees, barely forcing one word out - half apology, half desperate plea for forgiveness:
"...Mother..."
*If you know Setsuna, you may realize that the sound you hear now - the soft changes in his breathing - is something you will not often - if ever - hear: Setsuna is very quietly crying.*