| abstract | - First it was her sister's sixteenth birthday party. She was sitting down at the table, scowling across at that very same necklace, now restored to its former glory, sitting in the palms of her sister's hands. It was the family heirloom, passed down from eldest daughter to eldest daughter, but 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? But 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 another girl, her sister, that same necklace sparkling around her neck, helping her out, pushing her to do better. From the looks of her sister, seeming to be around eighteen, she herself must have been ten. Recalling the memory, she found that she was correct. It was 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 her sister betrayed their family, joining the insurrection on the planet. Looking down into her bucket, filled with water, Sasha noticed something. The more she remembered her sister as the insurrectionist, rather than a sister, the water got redder. Looking back at her sister, the image changed. It was now Sasha who was eighteen, clad in full UNSC Marine Corps gear. In her arms was her sister, 26 years old, and bleeding through the bullet wound next to her left eye. 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, but 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. Seconds ago, the new marine, separated from the rest of her fireteam and on a mission to take out the sniper that was picking them off one by one 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 but, at the last instant before pulling the trigger, she saw that familiar face, the family necklace, it's original silver sheen not yet faded, around her neck, 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 her sister's skull, tearing up her eye and shattering the socket. Before her sister had even hit the floor, Sasha seemed to be under her, catching her and falling to her knees. Yet Sasha knew a medic wouldn't come and, hearing footsteps approaching, she stood up and ran. She was too appalled at what she had done, shocked at seeing the face her mother had said was dead long eight years prior, and panicked due to the hostile environment to wait to see if it was her teammates or the enemy that was approaching. Fleeing seemed the best choice. Running through the halls, leaving her sister just barely patched up, bleeding on the floor behind her, Sasha felt the image change again. Back on Biko, now just a few months later, Sasha was once again in her full marine getup. Yet this time, she wasn't fighting insurrectionists. In fact, she was fighting besides them. This was previous the very same night as Sasha had dozed off on, but instead of the eerie quiet of the warthog ride, the sounds and sights of battle cut through the darkness. Flashes of purple, green, and blue sliced through 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. Firing 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 for blade to go through her, when she heard a crack, and felt the spray of blood on her face. Opening her eyes, she followed the vapour trail left in the air, spotting her sister to her side, calling out to her. Standing up and running, Sasha made it to her sister and took a weapon from her insurrectionist kin. No more were they enemies. They were family, and they fought like family. Yet, despite the valiance of the resisting humans, the alien menace was too strong, and pushed back. The retreat was called, and the two Zaytseva's, Sasha and her sister, ran like they never had before. Making it to the Warthog first, Sasha crawled inside and reached out to her sister, fast approaching. But a flash of green got to the sniper first, sending her crumpling to the ground. Catching her hand, Sasha held her sister up in her arms, a tear rolling down her cheek. Her sister, blood flowing from her chest, reached up and grabbed her necklace, ripping it off silently, and placing it in Sasha's hand, before falling still on the ground below her. Sasha's cries were drowned out by the tires revving up as the last passenger secured himself to the Warthog, and the vehicle took off into the night, fleeing the battle, leaving the sounds of war behind. But suddenly, and 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, and gripped her rifle tighter, looking out over the night. It was funny. She finally got what she had wanted all those years on her sister's sixteenth's birthday once she had stopped being jealous. And for all the differences between her and her sister, Sasha had loved her, and these monster's had taken what she had loved from her. She didn't care what others would think of her. So what if they scoffed at her reason to continue fighting. From this day own, this was about revenge. No matter how shallow that was, no matter how little she had been with her sister, they were family, and the monsters about to burn this world took her family from her. They had shattered the beautiful lie of life, and for that, they would never stop paying.
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