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Seraphina could not help but feel comforted by the simple gesture that Svetlana had given her. It was as though she too understood her pain. She sighed under the gentle pressure of Svetlana's hand. She almost asked her to stay as she entered the suite but chose not to.
She sought the same comfort she had always known beneath the Tuscan sun but could not find it under the sterile lights that bore only physical light and warmth. As the air moved around her, it caught her hair in its cool tentacles just as it would have on Earth, but it smelt mildly of coolant like that of an air conditioner. For all of the similarities of Earth that this place bore the bustling people, the trauma, the sorrow and the politics, it had no personality, no history. This simple trip had taken her farther into Gabriel's and her own minds than she had ever really thought it would, or cared to be. As her empathy with Gabriel grew about the sterility and phony nature of the Colonies she began to fear for the affections of her lover. As she sat there alone she sank deep into a depression, her humanity was slipping away from her, like sand through a sieve. He sadistic delight at the thought of Dante writhing in pain, clashed cruelly with her memories of him standing up for her against the bullies the tormented her in school, and the ex-boyfriends that would linger about her in secondary school, and tickle fights. How could I relish another person's death? She thought to herself, Another persons suffering. I have become an abomination, and there is no way to make amends for it. I cannot even tell him goodbye. At last she began to weep tears of true grief and remorse. She wept for the loss of her cousin, his death and his innocence. She wept for the loss of herself, her humanity. She wept for all of those the she had seen over the last three years, injured, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically, by the ongoing conflicts both on and off world. She wept for Gabriel's losses and sacrifices as he went about his duty as he defined it.
As she sobbed her ribs began to gnaw at her in agony, but she wept through this as though the simple act would purge her of all of her pain. She begged for forgiveness from Gabriel, God and her family for what she had become.