Fly Away [Rita/Kansas]

Rags to riches.

That simple statement was supposed to be Rita's life. Arising from the slums, working her way through the drudge of society, and coming out the top like a gold star had been her ambition for quite some time. Yet, as she stood in the charred remains of her old hometown, her heart felt as empty as the barren landscape around her.

Looking upward at the grey heavens above, the woman's teal eyes took in the vast rubble, debris, and dust in the distance as her hair whipped about in the wind, and she seemed lost in thought. Yet, something drew her back to this place where her life began, even if there was nothing and no one to be found.

Was it to remind herself of where she began? Perhaps some foreign power was calling out to her? It was hard to tell what, but her soul wanted somewhere familiar. Something to feel warm, something to grasp and call her own. Yet, as she continued to venture into the city, glancing at the ruins of a school and down the road of a hollowed-out neighborhood, nothing was coming to her.

Memories of the past played in her head as she eventually came to the house her parents owned, yet these recollections may as well have been from another lifetime ago. The world was different, she was an adult, and nothing felt the same. Just a burning feeling of pain that the woman couldn't her finger on lingered as she entered the house.

After mulling through the charred remains of the abandoned house, Rita did some across a photo of her family. With a furrowed brow, she stared at it with a pained expression as she noticed a child version of herself in it. Dirty but happy, this past incarnation of herself was surrounded by her parents and didn't seem to even care about the slums around her. So pure, innocent, and clean of the stains of this world, Rita wondered whatever had ever happened to that person.

Jumping out of a hole in the ceiling, she landed on the roof and just sat there gazing at the picture until something clicked internally: there was nobody to share her life with. With her parents, she could always show them how she was getting better at fighting, investing, and becoming a more resourceful child; but was that all there was to life? Was that the only thing that mattered?

Was she really...that shallow?

"....this can't be it...."

...

No. That wasn't the case. This life and herself weren't that empty. She couldn't accept that.

Recalling the memories of her investment in people like Shou, Kenichi, Vanyel, Sora, and others that worked under her, she knew that her blessings were meant to uplift others. Maybe it was her own selfish desire to want to feel needed, but it felt good to be needed and valued. It filled in that emptiness of an endless life of greed, hunger, and striving to keep amassing more and more.

After leaping off the roof, the woman moved and wiped her face. A few tears came to her eyes as she could feel her aqua aura bleeding around her. Source Alter was activating on its own as her own personal reality came to a sense of awakening.

While she yearned for power to keep herself safe and secure from a life of insecurity, at this stage of her life, she wanted to feel...needed. But, no. Even more than that, she wanted to use these powers to prevent others from making mistakes that hollowed out so much of herself and stunted so much growth and relation to the world around her.

"Keep flying...."

Muttering to herself at this point, the woman glanced at an exhausted bird around her that seemed on death's door. As if acting on its own, her asset aura seemed to have a wisp of aqua energy flow from out of Rita's body and toward the creature to amplify its strength, stamina, and health to begin the process of healing and allow another living being a 2nd chance at life. Even if this bird would die today, to have the strength to fly away and find a more beautiful place to rest than this barren wasteland was an act of release for this woman.

So as the bird eventually chirped to life, the energy within it allowed the tiny thing to eventually fly away in the breeze as Rita stood there gazing at the endless ashen skies above. There was so much turbulence in her soul, yet she knew she had to keep moving ahead. So, she spoke aloud, finished her sentence, and spoke to herself and to that bird:

"...and find your peace."

And much like that bird, Rita needed to fly away from the chains of this melancholy. As two wings forged from her energy appeared on her back, the woman jolted toward the heavens with a single thought in mind: to be someone who could bring the value of others out and perhaps find meaning and connection through that.