Prophecy of Five: The cost of innocence (g!p)

Tainted

Lauren had been staring at the wall with a small faraway smile on her face, when Raquel asked,"Your about to probably be tortured for Ariana's own pleasure, yet your smiling. Why?"

Jumping from the soft, yet hard voice, Lauren looked at Raquel in the eye as she gave the girl a sad smile. "My family for now..... is safe. When you have a family of your own, you will understand. Your life has little meaning as long as they can live on. I may suffer today, but they will live on tomorrow, to me its a worthy sacrifice."

Raquels hard eyes soften for a moment, before she replaced it with a sneer.

"That's a dumb naive way to look at life. People are selfish, especially elementals. They grow hungry for the power they weild, and always look for ways to achieve more. If your families smart, they will join Ariana. And if they loved you so much, they would spare you the future pain they will feel. You love them, yet your here alone. Why are they not here with you? Surely someone who loves you so much would willingly sacrifice themselves to save you?" Raquel taunted angrily.

She knew if real pure love existed, she would have seen it by now. She learned, at a very young age, that love made you weak. She promised herself a long time ago that she would never allow herself to be weak in that way. She saw the damage it did, the lives it ruined. No, she would never allow herself such a ridiculous emotion.

Lauren looked down. Raquel almost smirked at the victory she had assumed she had won, until the silver woman surprised her with her next words.

"They didn't know until it was too late. I knew my wife would never give me up, even if it was to save herself. I only told my daughter the night before I surrendered myself, and made her promise to not interfer. Her responsibility was to help her mother protect the family and the world. The only person who knew of this plan, was a select few including my Guardian. My best friend Demi, who was my first companion, and helped me after spending almost a lifetime alone, and trained me to be the leader I was. After I saved the world, I got married to my soul mate and we had my daughter. I was so consumed with domestic life, at finally feeling normal, I started to slip on my patrols, which led us to here and now. I am at fault for this, and I was not going to allow any of them to pay for something I should have prevented. Demi hated my plan, but she knew it was the only way, and even though her love for me was as a sister, her responsibility for the world is greater as it should be. Right now, she is no doubt being rained hell on by my wife and family for our choices. But even now, with them angry and mostly likely hating her, she would die for them. It's what family does." Lauren finished quietly.

Raquel wanted to gape at the brunette. To sacrifice herself so willingly... well that was unheard of by the Gold girl. When Lauren had finished her explanation, Raquel bitterly said,"Not all family."

Lauren looked up when the girl had spat the angry words, and her heart hurt for the girl.

"No not every family. But that is the fault of them, not of their children. Parents are meant to love their children, protect them, show them the joys of life. My own daughter didn't realize how lucky she was until I explained how fortunate she was to have the life she did. She had never seen the horrors of the world because our family protected her and her cousins, and that was a mistake. A mistake that is being corrected as we speak. She is a strong girl, and now understands that all the training I gave her was out of love, not anger. I wanted her to respect the power she was blessed with, and to never use it unless it was for good. There are those in the world that are pawns of evil, but there are also those who are truly evil. She needed to protect herself and understand with the power she was gifted, meant she was meant for great things. To protect those who could not protect themselves, and free those who lost their way. The world is not a perfect place, but people in it can make it beautiful, as long as they understand what weilding power truly means." Lauren whispered tiredly.