Huicne Est Verō Possumus Credere?- Pars Duo

“The way I saw it, it was always better to be loved than feared, it made life easier. However, if you knew they weren’t going to ever love you then you better make damn sure they feared you.”

I said that it was all for my father, for his honor, but…I know that’s not true. I honestly don’t know why I did this, but something about it just felt right; like I was born to do this. In a way I was. I am the daughter of the greatest warriors this universe has ever known. Fighting is in my blood, as is guardianship. I couldn’t just turn my back on those who needed my help.
Well…there was only one problem to all of this; (Haha, only one? Yeah right! There was a million and there would be many more to come.) I…had never actually learned to perfectly control and harness my powers. I had never fought in an actual war. I was never raised to be a soldier or a guardian like my parents were. They had never wanted this life for me, so of course they wouldn’t. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had warrior blood but, in all reality, I wasn’t one. That was my parents’ job, and it was never supposed to be mine. The sad part is I only realized this after I had agreed to help them.

So I had two options at this point. I could back out, which I knew I couldn’t. So I was left with the only other option, and that was to continue onward and learn as I go. After all, my father took command when he was thirteen, and I’m twenty-three; why shouldn’t I be capable? How about the fact that I simply had no skill in harnessing my power and no prior military or leadership training EVER!!! So yeah, you could say I was screwed here. I had to continue though; I wouldn’t let my people suffer. There’s something in me that couldn’t let this go; my point is… I had to do this. Very soon I would have my first taste of military life, the life my father lived for over 500 years.

When I arrived on Oaska I quickly learned that life here would be extremely different from life on Earth. I instantly knew I didn’t belong here. Even though they came to me for help and asked me to come to their aid, it felt like I was unwelcome, even hated; that was a feeling I knew well growing up and throughout my life up to this point.
It’s not something one forgets quite so easily. A feeling like that stays with you for a long, long time. And once you’ve felt it, you will never forget how it feels and it will stay with you for the rest of your life. It’s true; just ask any unpopular high school kid or someone who was. They’ll tell you exactly how it feels…It’s something you just don’t forget.
I apologize for this short rant. Thinking about things like that just ticks me off. Don’t get me wrong, as a child, and even in my adult life, I never let someone push me around. I didn’t care what people thought of me; they had their opinions and I had mine, but when they started messing with me I fought back. I never gave in. I learned quickly that I was rarely going to be accepted anywhere simply because of what I was. They never got the best of me, and they too learned quickly that I wasn’t the type to give in so easily, and they backed off; probably more out of fear than respect. The way I saw it, it was always better to be loved than feared, it made life easier. However, if you knew they weren’t going to ever love you then you better make damn sure they feared you. That’s not say my childhood was comprised entirely of this misery. My life was full of happiness and joy too, mostly because the majority of people didn’t know what I was.
Humans are capable of great compassion, possibly more than any Oaskan ever could, however this compassion is quite fickle and probably wouldn’t have been sustained had they known exactly what I was.

The lessons I learned those years stuck with me throughout my entire life, and they would be the very lessons that got me through every moment of this whole ordeal. If you learn anything from this story, then I want it to be this: Never let anyone give you a hard time simply for being who you are. It doesn’t matter what you believe or how you think, you are special in your own way. Stand up for yourself; never let them walk over you. Never become a slave to the will of others. This was a lesson my parents made sure I learned. They knew it would be painful for me, but they also knew that it would only be worse for me if I didn’t, and for that I am grateful.

As I said, these lessons would form the basis of my survival plan for this whole thing. I had to adapt quickly or I would never survive. There were, as you may know, a few (and I mean very few) half-breeds in the upper ranks of the OSF, which I was now in command of. This was mostly due to my father, and even they were not well liked by many of the pure-bloods. They, the half-breeds, helped indoctrinate me in the discipline of Oaskan military. I honestly owe a great deal of gratitude to them. Without them, I could’ve never picked up the pace quickly enough to have done anything practical.
I cannot overstate the importance of allies, and even more importantly, of friends. For without them, I would have surly failed. It was them that helped that helped me that first day on Oaska. I had no idea what I was doing, or what was what. I just kept asking myself the same stupid question over and over again, why the hell was I doing this? But, no matter how many times I asked myself, I never had a real answer.
Then, suddenly, things got real. I finally saw with my own eyes the reality of what Oaska was; what it had become since my father’s time. It was truly heartbreaking. The picture my parents had painted was nothing in comparison to what I saw. I suppose, perhaps, that it did look beautiful once upon a time, but that was before the ravages of a new war had torn it apart once again. It’s sad really. The capital city of Etomnia was in ruins. Careful examination would reveal that, yes, Etomnia was once a great, towering, beautiful city. Sadly, the forces of Fate had torn it apart. I had yet to even see the rest of this planet, and I can only imagine how bad the rest of this world is. The defenses of Etomnia are among the highest in the known universe, yet even Fate and their Angels were too much for them to take. Oaska had suffered greatly during the last Great War, and it took them many years to rebuild afterwards. From what I’ve seen so far I’m beginning to see that things here would only get worse before I had any shot at even attempting to make them better. So again I ask myself the question, what the hell am I doing here? Still no answer.

I continued my procession through the capital city towards quite possibly the only building left intact, OSF Headquarters. It was there that I would be formally indoctrinated in the techniques used by the universe’s most elite fighting force. It was then, that I would take on my father’s role and try to fill his shoes. I didn’t realize at the time exactly how trying this task would prove to be.

The building itself was large, very large. I’d lived on Earth my whole life and had seen the world. The architecture on Oaska is…breathtaking. This one building was bigger than any structure I had ever seen on Earth. We entered the building from the door on the ground level, which was surrounded by guards in every direction. This and the fact that the OSF HQ building was pretty much the only building left standing made one thing very clear to me; something my father told me but didn’t do the fact justice. Oaska took the military very seriously and was the single most important thing for them. This was something, being raised on Earth, I could never quite understand. I’ve seen the mindless war and destruction that humans have carried out but, for Oaska, it wasn’t so much as mindless, but they did it with much less guilt. They did so with skill and efficiency. And, worst of all in my opinion, they did so with pride. Sometimes it seems to me that intelligence does not equal survival. In my studies I have seen bacteria that have survived millions of years and they, by our definition, are not intelligent. Yet, humans in their intelligence have succeeded in waging wars that destroy themselves. Oaskans, who are of an even higher intelligence, are on the verge of doing what even humans have not done; total self annihilation brought forth by the Forces of Fate. From what I have observed, it seems to me that intelligence can only beget pain and suffering. It is true what they say; there is bliss in ignorance. It makes me worry though, I have blood of the supposed three most intelligent beings in this known universe. Would that lead me on a path to self destruction? I suppose that’s what made my parents the powerful warriors that they were. At the same time though, they only knew pain and suffering for most of their lives. So once again, even after coming upon this revelation, I ask myself the question; what the hell am I still doing here? Again, no answer.

I continue my path down through the building which, I have now discovered, is even more amazing on the inside than on the outside. I began to wonder where exactly in this large facility they were taking me. Who exactly was I going to meet? We continued down a long brightly lit corridor, descended several flights of stairs and the entered what seemed to be the most secure area of the whole complex (and believe me, complex would be an understatement). We had to pass several well guarded checkpoints. Finally we came to a large door that was watched by a single guard. I found that to be odd, but at the same time if you could make it that far into the complex, there wasn’t much more you could do to stop them from getting to whatever was behind that door; or in this case, whomever.

When I walked through those doors I couldn’t believe what I saw. I thought for a moment that I was dreaming and that was I was seeing couldn’t be real; any second I would wake up and I’d still be on Earth.
“Hello Aura, welcome home.”
Keskinia Jeselli, the Venus Angel…my mother was standing there in front of me.