The Day of Liberation

It was an oddly clear night in Luna as the girl -- the liberator, they'd come to call her, but for now, she was just one person in the infinitely large complex that was all society and, in a way, the entire world -- stared up at the endless skies, illuminated with so many colors.

The northern lights were her favorite thing about living in Luna. Despite the number of times she'd wanted to just get up and run, to try and find her way out of the system that held her in, she looked up at those lights in wonder every time she had the chance to see them.

She knew that the days to come would bring change. That change, in her mind, meant one of two things: freedom at last, or almost certain death.

The great beyond, everything so unknown, scared her, and yet she knew it was the only way to continue.

She slept restlessly that night as she wondered about what would become of the government she had wanted to bring down since the moment she was old enough to understand that it was taking away her liberty and freedom to live as she chose. That it was taking from the people, their voice and from those who tried to resist them, their lives.

She couldn't live under the dictatorship anymore, and she knew something had to change.

And she would help the rest of the revolution bring about that change. Because they had a plan and they knew how to fix it... right?

They know, she assured herself, because they have experience. They've been planning for a while. It's not all going to fall to pieces.

When she woke, Luna's typical fog covered the world in its blanket, and somehow, it comforted her that something was the same. That the revolution wouldn't shatter everything she knew and force her to try and build it back together without breaking it further.

That day marked the start of a war that'd go down in the nation's history as the War of Liberation, where they led their army of so many civilians all united under one banner -- united to take down the ones who had been oppressing them their entire lives. 

And in time, she, at the age of sixteen, was forced to take the lead, to step up after the death of the former leader of the revolution -- unprepared, terrified -- because she could not let the movement fall to pieces in his absence. She was alone, without her advisor, without a friend who had to shelter alongside both of their younger siblings -- both children.

What am I but a child? she asked herself as she watched the war unfold. Am I not a child, but deprived of the things that a child deserves? Is this anything but a childhood shattered by the endless fight?

And yet, she kept fighting, because it was what she had dreamed of since her earliest days: a nation of freedom, where people had their voice and people were free to live their lives. She dreamed of a world where the war never had to happen, but it was the only way.

The war kept on going and the nation burned and she, alongside her army yet alone in her own mind, trapped in another form of a cage, lonely as she watched the horrors of war taking place all around her, called for an end to the fighting, but it was to no avail.

Not until May 28, 2074.

It was on that day that she met with the ruling family of the old government, trying to hide the fact that her hands were shaking and that her heart was pounding. On that day, the war ended as she shook the hand of the former dictator mere hours before the courts of the new Luna decided that the fate of the tyrant would be lifetime imprisonment for the suffering his government had wrought upon them.

That day goes down in Luna's history as the Day of Liberation, when the rebel forces defeated the dictatorship and brought about a new era in Luna, an era of democracy and of freedom for every citizen -- a better day.

That girl who stood and watched the Northern Lights, hoping that the days to come would bring freedom to her people -- that was Lily Aquilla, former President of Luna.

And on the day the war ended, only seven years later, Luna celebrates in an occasion to honor those who fought valiantly in the war, to honor those who laid down their lives for freedom. To honor the ones who gave up everything so that the new world could rise.

Only last year did she make her last noble move, leaving her position of power to save the nation from destruction, and in those days the people wished and hoped and prayed to whoever they believed in that their liberator still lived. When they found she was gone, some lost hope. Some thought that it would break the nation to pieces, that nothing could ever be the same. The new President could barely sustain themself through those times, having lost a good friend, and the triumvirate placed to lead temporarily couldn't agree on a thing. Then the elections were held, and the new President, today, stands strong at the head of the nation, wanting not to avenge the death of her best friend and the sister of the Vice President but instead to form Luna into a nation that Lily Aquilla would have been proud of.

But in 2081, the festivities are tainted by grief and fear as we watch our nation's cities collapse once more, as war shatters our fragile progress in rebuilding all the damage done, as Cydonia still burns and mysterious happenings begin to rise once more in the mountains, as we look over the news of the death of our beloved liberator from months ago and still wonder...

Will it ever get better?

But we know that things will change in the end. We know that there is no point in giving up all hope, in letting it collapse once again.

For our seventh Day of Liberation, half of Luna's people may be trying to shelter from the relentless radiation and the government may be dealing with millions in bounties on our nation, and we may be back to rebuilding our cities, even those we just recently established, but we will never fall.

We will always be standing side by side with our allies and our friends until the entire world collapses.

Nobody will ever bring us down, no matter how hard they try. No matter how many times the people have to shelter from yet another weapon of mass destruction, we will always weather the storm and survive another day.

Long live the Republic of Luna.