Shattered Lies

UNSC Marine Private First Class Aleksandra Zaytseva thinks back on the few interactions she had with her sister during the final hours of the .
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Sasha sat in the back of a Warthog trundling its way to the evacuation site. It was cold and dark. And quiet. The only sounds present in the still early morning air were the breathing of the marines around her and the crackle of the gravel road beneath the vehicle. But Sasha didn't mind. 
After hours of fighting, the young marine welcomed the rare chance to close her eyes and potentially catch some rest. But as she leaned back and closed her eyes, her sister's blood-stained necklace held tightly in her grasp, it wasn't a peaceful sleep that found her, but memories.
• • •
First, it was Vika's sixteenth birthday party. Sasha was sitting down at the table, scowling across at that very same necklace, sitting in the palms of her sister's hands. Brilliant silver, it was no longer the blood-stained, twisted metal she held today. It was the family heirloom, passed down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter. It was tradition for Vika to be the one to get it, but still, Sasha was jealous. It wasn't her fault that she was born second, and she wanted that necklace. Why did her sister get it, just because she was older? 
This memory didn't last. As soon as it started, it was over, dissolving into the next.
Now Sasha was at the beach, digging in the sand. Next to her was Vika, that same necklace sparkling around her neck. Sasha's older sister helped dig, pushing her to do better. From what Sasha could tell of Vika, she seemed to be around eighteen. She herself would have been ten, then. This must have been one of the last moments she had spent with her sister as friends. Before their father ran off with her and left Sasha and her mother alone. Before Vika betrayed their family, joining the insurrection on the planet. Looking down into her bucket, Sasha noticed something. As her mind drifted away from seeing Vika as her sister, and instead as the insurrectionist she became, the redder and bloodier the water got. Looking back at her sister, the image changed once more.
It was now Sasha who was eighteen, clad in full UNSC Marine Corps gear. In her arms was Vika, 26 years old, and bleeding through the bullet wound scraping along the left side of her head. Crying out for a medic, Sasha grabbed her biofoam canister and applied it to the wound. Deep down, she knew it wasn't real, just a dream, a memory, but Sasha felt she was living the moment over again. She spotted the silver necklace around her sister's neck, slowly reaching out. But she didn't grab it. It was her fault her sister was in this situation. Even her jealousy couldn't drive her to care that little for her family. She was better than her sister. She wouldn't betray them the same way.
Seconds ago, Sasha—separated from the rest of her fireteam and on a mission to take out the sniper that was picking them off—had come into this room and spotted a woman across from her. The sniper rifle across the stranger's back gave her away as Sasha's target, and she had drawn her pistol to fire. Yet, at the last instant before pulling the trigger, she saw that familiar face. She saw the family necklace, its original silver sheen not yet faded, and faltered. Not enough to stop her shot, but enough to pull it to the right and up. The magnum round, what would've been a fatal shot to the chest, skirted across the edge of Vika's skull instead. Even deflected by her helmet, the round tore her eye and shattered the socket.
"Medic!" 
The cry rang through her mindscape a second time, back to where this memory had started.
Yet Sasha knew a medic wouldn't come and, hearing footsteps approaching, she stood up and ran. Her mind was racing, and she couldn't risk waiting to stay and see if it was her teammates or the enemy. 
"What have I done? Vika's supposed to be dead! Why did mom lie?"
Fleeing seemed the best choice. Running through the halls, leaving her sister just barely patched up on the floor behind her, Sasha felt the image change again.
Back on Biko just a few months later, Sasha was once again in her full marine getup. Yet this time, she wasn't fighting insurrectionists. She was fighting alongside them. This was the very same night Sasha had dozed off on, but instead of the eerie quiet of the warthog ride, the sounds and sights of battle cut through the dark. Flashes of purple, green, and blue sliced the air. The roars of hulking beasts and yelps of the vicious monsters clawing at the humans' feet sent the cowardly and unarmed fleeing. Yet Sasha held her ground behind a pillar. Down to her Magnum, she fired away at the beasts that ran towards her cover. One slipped through the perimeter, raising its blazing blue blade aloft, set to bring it down on her skull. Closing her eyes, Sasha prepared to die. But then she heard a crack, and felt the spray of blood on her face. Opening her eyes, she looked around wildly, trying to find the shooter. But it was only when Vika called out to her that she noticed her sister, rifle still smoking. Sasha froze, but as a roar sounded out behind her and she saw her sister take one more shot, she broke and ran. Not away from the fight, but towards Vika. Grabbing a spare weapon, Sasha stood side-by-side with her sister. No more were they enemies. They were family, and they fought like family.
Yet, despite the valiance of the resisting humans, the alien assault was too strong. The retreat was called, and the two Zaytseva's—Sasha and Vika—ran like they never had before. Making it to the Warthog first, Sasha crawled inside and reached out to her sister. But a flash of green reached Vika first, and she crumpled to the ground. Sasha's world shattered even as she caught that collapsing hand and pulled her into the warthog. Her sister reached up and grabbed that old family necklace, ripping it off silently. She placed it in Sasha's hand. And then she fell still, slipping from Sasha's grasp onto the ground below her. The Warthog's tires revved, drowning out everything but Sasha's own cries, and the vehicle took off into the night.
An explosion rocked the vehicle. Her eyes jarring open, Sasha knew this wasn't part of the dream. Taking a brief look at the bloodied necklace in her palm, she pocketed her sister's last gift, gripped her rifle tighter, and looked out into the night. It was like a cruel joke. Even as Sasha's jealously had finally faded, the universe delivered that gift she had always wanted. It didn't feel like a gift.
For all the differences between her and her sister, Sasha had loved Vika, and these monsters had taken that from her. This was about revenge, now. She didn't care what anyone would say about that. No matter how shallow her motivation, no matter how little she had been with Vika, they were family. The monsters about to burn this world took her family from her. They had shattered the beautiful lie. For that? They would never stop paying.
Category:The Weekly