She turned to him and clasped his hands and raised them to chest level.
“Duo, will you help me?” She asked, the hope he had heard in her voice clearer than ever.
For a moment he was silent as he thought again.
“Only if you will restore the Earth as well.” He said.
“You mean like what I did with Mars?” She asked.
“Yeah, I would love to see Earth like this.”
She smiled at him.
“Ok, Duo. As soon as I can, I will.”
“I will help you Hope.”
She looked relieved, then she hugged him.
“THANK YOU DUO!”
“Ahhh...” Yelled Duo in surprise.
She let go of him, embarrassed.
“Sorry, I was just so happy that you said you’d help.”
The strange look reappeared on Duo’s face.
“Whatever. Now what?”
“Now we go meet the others.”
He followed her as she went back down the path to the field. She walked towards the little house. Duo was a bit confused when she walked right past the house and went towards the back. He understood when he saw a dirt road and a little green jeep. She stopped to search for the keys in her pocket. When she found them she opened the door to the jeep with them. She got in and put on her seatbelt. Before she closed the door she stopped and looked at Duo.
“Are you coming or what?” She asked him happily.
“Yeah.” He said as he ran to get into the car.
She shut her door and started the car once he got in.
“Buckle up Duo, the roads are a bit rough.”
He complied, and they went off deeper into the woods.
“Ok, this is pretty far, more than a couple of miles. So Duo, do you have any questions?”
He thought for a second.
“Yeah, why did you ask me my name if you already knew it?”
The question caught her off guard.
“Uh… Well… I thought it would be impolite to just start off using your name out of the blue, so I decided it best to ask you so you would think that’s where I got your name.”
“Oh.” Said Duo.
He thought some more, and having another question, turned to her.
“Hope, how did you know where to find me?”
She didn’t answer for several minutes.
“I knew where you were because I’ve been keeping an eye on you ever since I became human. Now I know you don’t believe me you’re just humoring me, but I will prove it to you. It’s important that you do.”
She became silent and concentrated on her driving. Duo became annoyed.
“Why do I have to believe you? What is so important about that?” He questioned her loudly.
She became very serious, so serious that she stopped the car. She turned it off and turned to him.
“Duo, I can feel it. There is no hope in you. You feel the future is something horrible that you would rather not face. Until you believe that I am hope, until you believe that the future can be better. You can’t help anybody, …not even yourself.”
She turned away and restarted the car.
“You need hope to do things on the scale we need to.” She continued.
She sighed softly in frustration as she continued driving.
“Duo, I know this is going to be hard for you to believe in me. I really want you to believe. That’s why I never gave up; I still have a chance with you to save humanity. I really don’t want to abandon anyone to the fate given to them by OZ. I want them to see how good life can be.” She said softly.
A thought struck Duo.
“Wait! Are you saying even the leader of OZ doesn’t have hope?!?!” He shouted.
She lowered her head sadly, but not so she couldn’t see the road.
“He lost hope years ago. He became like those I saved you from. He needed to control something to make himself not feel so utterly useless, so pointless. The only difference is that he possessed power, a lot of power.”
For some reason having her say that sounded like it was very true and was frightening to him. Even if he didn’t believe her, he believed that statement.
TO BE CONTINUED...
