Ruins of Earth

*(Lena’s POV)*

The cold wind blew through the wreckage, lifting clouds of dust and ashes. I walked slowly through streets that had once been full of life. Now, they were nothing but rubble, remnants of a world destroyed. No laughter, no movement. Only silence and memories of what once was.

Each step felt heavier than the last. The weak sun illuminated the ruins of buildings and monuments, like a flickering lantern on the verge of extinguishing. Why was I still here? A part of me needed answers — I had to know what happened to my parents. But another part of me knew the terrible truth: they were probably gone.

Accepting that would be like letting a piece of myself die along with them. I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.

Kael stayed close but gave me space. He seemed to know when to remain silent, as if his quiet presence was a shield against the desolation threatening to consume me. I knew he was trying to support me, but every time I looked at him, his guilt hung heavy in the air between us.

After all, it was his planet that brought this destruction.

**“Lena... are you sure you want to keep going?”**

Kael’s low voice broke the silence like a drop of rain in stagnant water. He approached cautiously, like someone afraid to touch an open wound.

“I have to.” My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t back down.

He shook his head, pain reflected in his eyes. “No matter how much you search, nothing will change what happened.”

“Do you think I don’t know that?” I turned toward him, my anger mixed with despair. “But I have to try. I need to believe there’s something — anything — left of them.”

Kael lowered his gaze for a moment, and I knew he was suffering too. Maybe in a different way, but he felt it just as deeply. His guilt clung to him, like a shadow he couldn’t shake.

“This wasn’t your fault.” I wanted to believe my own words. “You didn’t give the order.”

He looked at me but didn’t reply. The truth was more complicated than that. He hadn’t attacked directly, but he was still part of the system that caused this destruction. And now, both of us carried the weight of this tragedy.

I kept walking, pushing the pain to the back of my mind. Each step through the rubble was a silent promise: I would find something. Maybe not my parents, but something that would give me a reason to keep fighting — for myself, for Earth, for everything that was lost.

Kael walked beside me in silence, respecting my space. I knew he felt like he didn’t deserve to be here, but somehow, he stayed. And strangely, that gave me some comfort.

We continued through the remnants of a park, once filled with families and children, now reduced to crumbling benches and scorched trees. I knelt beside what used to be a playground, running my fingers over the charred metal of a swing. The silence pressed down harder here, and my throat tightened as memories I’d tried to bury resurfaced.

I saw flashes of the life I had left behind — birthdays, games, the faces of friends whose fates I would never know. The weight of it became unbearable.

Kael knelt beside me, not saying a word. He didn’t need to. His presence, steady and silent, was a reminder that even in this overwhelming loss, I wasn’t completely alone.

“What if this is all that’s left?” I whispered, almost to myself.

Kael’s voice was soft but certain. “Then we rebuild. We survive.”

His words should have been comforting, but they only deepened the ache inside me. It wasn’t just about survival — I needed to understand how it had come to this. How a planet could be reduced to ruins by the will of another. And why Kael had chosen to stay, even when the guilt of his homeworld’s actions weighed on him so heavily.

“Why did you stay, Kael?” I asked, finally voicing the question that had haunted me since his decision. “After everything your people did... why?”

He hesitated for a moment, then looked at me with an honesty that was both raw and unsettling. “Because leaving wouldn’t change what happened. But staying… maybe I can make things right.”

I didn’t know if that was enough. But it was a start.

And right now, a start was all I had.