Re: Third class, now in elevator
"Naw, just don't want you think I'm something I'm not," he said with crooked schoolboy grin. "I just want to know that people are safe. Not that I don't like rewards, but it's about more than what I'm going to get out of it." There'd been a time when he'd enjoyed as much as any young single man in the Corps could whenever they got leave.
He turned when she tapped the back of his armor with her wand. "I know, but it's annoying," he laughed as he glanced back up to the still flickering light. "I," he began. "I didn't. It's odd, it's not where I'm supposed to be, but I'm not scared." There weren't that many things left anymore to scare him anymore. Even the ship he found more of a nuisance than anything else.
"Whatever you want. I can teach you how to use that wand of yours. Or we can walk around the deck -- there has to be a deck, right?" He couldn't remember the last time he'd been on a boat. How long had it been? The pilot felt like he should remember, but it was lost somewhere.
What wasn't lost was what he wanted for the future. With a little hum, he leaned back against the wall of the elevator, hands on the railing that circled the cab. "I want what most people want. The war to end. For my home to be safe again. One day more of a family. Kids, so I can tell them my stories and listen to them groan about it," he said with another laugh. "But, that's not the ending." The ending would be something completely different, that part of the story was only the middle.
"Part of me wants to go quietly, in my sleep, because that means that my home is safe and there are no more monsters." But that wasn't what he truly wanted. He wanted go out swinging, his life spent to protect others. "I want to know that my death means that someone is safe. That they have time to kiss their loved ones goodnight. That's what I want." Strange as it may be to bare his heart with a complete stranger, he wasn't the type to keep secrets, not even the hopes he held most dear.