"You don't know what you've done for me," Viktor continued. "For years, I've been lost."
Atticus remained silent, listening.
"I was once in charge of a squadron. They were my responsibility, my comrades, my brothers and sisters in arms."
A shadow passed over his face. "And they all died during a mission."
The words were delivered calmly, but Atticus could hear the rawness buried underneath.
"I watched them die. And what I saw that day… it made me believe that everything we were fighting for was a lost cause."
His fists clenched.
"What was the point of training, of fighting, of sacrificing, when in the end, we were just bodies to be used and discarded?"
"For so long, I hesitated. I went through the motions, but I had no real drive, no real reason to push forward. I lost faith in this war. I lost faith in myself."
He looked directly at Atticus.
And for the first time, his eyes burned with something new.
"Then I saw you."
