virago|c.g.|

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Death to Solaris

Long Live the Commander

Clarissa Dean was not one to be easily scared, having grown up in a world where the undead would much rather eat her flesh than stay dead, there was no room to be scared. But as she read the words upon the walls of what used to be her home, the red liquid dripping to let her know the fall of her community had happened not too much earlier to her arrival, she felt terrified. She could hear the blood pumping through her body, pounding in her ears as everything around her seemed to go silent. She heard nothing from what used to be the bustling community within the walls of old camp grounds. She saw a few houses up in flames, but surprisingly not the staples of the community. She couldn't even wonder why as she just felt her heart break upon seeing that her people were gone.

Clarissa Dean was surprised when she felt hands rest upon her arms, tugging them in a frantic and forceful manner. She almost thought that they were the ghosts of her people, wanting her to join them in their demise. But the grip was too strong, too solid, to be the cold spiritual embrace of a ghost. "We have to go!" cried a familiar voice, but the girl didn't want to listen. "This— this is all my fault." Clarissa Dean couldn't help but fall to her knees, the hands losing their grip upon her arms as her fingers dug into the dark earth. Her voice was filled with emotion, filled with wondering of what she could have done to save the people she had cared for.

The destruction of her community, the fires along the streets and some homes, the red threats, all of it was covered as a face entered her view. The face was... beautiful, perhaps in the way that marble statues were beautiful, precisely cut and sharp. The face was familiar, with her strong jaw and cold, pale blue eyes, but what was once a cold blue was now filed with pools of tears. "We have to go, Reese," the girl with the blue eyes said, her words soft yet filled with emotion. Clarissa Dean shook her head softly before her dark eyes landed on the girl. "How can I? How can I leave the destruction that I allowed to happen?" The young girl, who hadn't moved from her knees, was caressed by the other. Her hands, cold and smooth, ran over her friends clothed arms to comfort her in any way she could. The statuesque girl paid no mind to the boy that stood to the side, eyeing the two young women in a controlled, jealous rage. He believed that it was his own duty to comfort the grieving girl, the sad girl who was supposed to be his lover, the job he believed not to belong to his sister. However, he tried to understand the bond the two had, being a closeness he knew not many had ever experienced or ever could.

"Clarissa, you have to let go. Our home is gone, Solaris is gone, but we aren't." The girl took a deep breath before placing a hand on her heart. "Our home lives within us just as it always has, just as it was a part of us even as it still stood. We have to continue on, for those we lost. Please, Reese." With her last plead, the grieving girl met the cold blue eyes of the one in front of her, surprised at the softness in her voice. It produced such an intimate moment between the two, one that perhaps shouldn't have been shared in front of the boy that she was supposed to love. However his own sister, the beautifully cold Millie Graves, cared not for the thoughts of her brother. She needed the grieving girl to know how much she meant to her to plead with her to find a way to survive at least for another day.

With those hushed words, Clarissa Dean allowed her friend to help her up. She pushed away the tears. The heartbreak. The grief. She allowed a familiar mask to paint her face, one she wore many times as to not be seen as weak to those that believed her too young to hold the strength and power she did. She turned away from the devastation, the threat upon the walls, she turned away from the ghosts. "We continue on, and we don't stop." Clarissa waited for confirmation that Mille and her brother, Ashton, would stand by her side as they tried to find a way to survive without their people. She wasn't surprised when Millie stood by her side immediately, Ashton following before giving a curt nod. And walking side by side, they left the destruction that had become of their home, wondering what tomorrow would bring.