Wolfhound: Secret Heroes

We were all in good spirits on the way back. Free trip? Cool. First class? Nice. Free meals and drinks of whatever kinds available, too? Awesome.

And, we’d gained the upper hand. Kind of. The roles had switched. For once, we’d been the attackers. Now it was Crimson Justice that was on the defense, instead of us.

Mission success. Crimson Justice would have to be more cautious from now on. We had the locations of their outposts. If they hit us, we’ll hit them back.

Okay, maybe not all of us were in good moods. Sarah and Ranger were talking. Or, at least, Ranger was. Sarah was trying to, but when your face is covered in tears and you’re still sobbing, it’s hard to talk.

Ranger was trying to comfort her and calm her down. He seemed to be doing alright, but Sarah must’ve been hit hard. I didn’t blame her.

She went from:

Being an imposter among horrible people who knew they were horrible and either couldn’t care less or actually even liked it.

To betraying all she’d ever known.

To a thorough – but aggressive – debriefing that could be attributed to a slightly friendlier interrogation.

To being separated from all but one of the people she actually knew and trusted.

To striking down the leader of a place that reminded her of where she grew up.

All in only a few days! It was no wonder she was breaking down. If anything, I was surprised Ranger wasn’t collapsing, too.

But, as I walked over to help – doubting that I eve could, but wanting to all the same – I found that apparently that wasn’t what was eating her.

What she’d done was.

“We killed so many innocents!” She cried. “All in the name of doing what we thought was the right thing!”

“We didn’t know.” Ranger replied gently. He was almost whispering.

“But we still did it! We thought were targeting soldiers! People who had signed up knowing what they were getting into! And instead we were killing people who hadn’t done a thing against us in their lives! Most of them probably didn’t even know we existed!”

“We’ve changed, Sarah. We’ve changed.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better!?!” She screamed at him.

I stepped in. “No.” I said as I moved up to her, and kneeled down next to her. “But taking down the ba**ards that caused all this will. You didn’t know what you were doing, and they did. Redeem yourselves! Help us take Crimson Justice down! Whatever injustices you’ve unknowingly, unintentionally committed, can be redeemed and forgotten! You’ll always carry the scars of what you’ve done. Always know of what you’ve committed. But that cause was false. And you’ll have done even more good than you’ve ever done bad.”

I looked over at Ranger. Even he had a tear in his eye. He nodded at me appreciatively, and blinked the tear away.

On a hunch, I stood up and said “Now on your feet, soldier!”

Immediately, Sarah stood up, saluted me, and said, loud and clear, “Sir, yes, sir!”

I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and she relaxed. I squeezed gently, letting her know that she wasn’t alone. Then, I turned around and walked away.

“Firestar?” I heard her voice behind me. It was shaking again.

I turned around. There were even more tears in her eyes. But this time, she was smiling. They were happy tears.

“Thank you.” She said softly, almost whispering.

I smiled, nodded, and walked away.

Not all of us were soldiers. But we were still fighters. And like the rest of us, Sarah wasn’t just a fighter. She was a person, just like any other. She knew how to do a lot of things, and she knew how to handle herself. But she’d been through a lot. She had emotions. She could break down, like she’d just done. Any one of us could.

You can’t make the case that we’re just killing bad guys. Yeah, that might be a large part of what we’re doing. But, deep down, we’ve all got something in common.

We’re all, beneath the skin, more than a fighter.