"The Living Legend"
                         (by Pat Harkin)

                Father...
No!  You can't be gone, you can't!
All my life, I tried to live up to your legend.
I was your baby until I could be your Warrior.
And when Mother died, I tried to be more for you
I'm not sure how, or what,
But I knew no one could take her place.
And now there's Cassiopeia.
How I hated her,
And only now realize how much she meant to you,
And what a friend she could be to me.
But you can't be gone, you can't!
You can't leave me alone,
Come back, Father!

                Lover...
How many times must I grieve for you?
And grieve that our last words were cold --
"So tell me, are you winning?" --
When I was wiping up the blood and
Salving the burns and mending the bones.
Or am I grieving that the love I thought had come back
Turned out to have changed with time?
I changed;
It's different when you see the wounds.
It's hard not to feel angry.
But maybe I took it out on you.
Maybe I should have remembered
That it was them killing our Warriors
And your plan that kept the rest of us alive.

                Rival...
When did I start thinking of you that way?
Was it when I heard all those stories,
And was jealous, inside, and thought I could do better?
Or maybe was afraid that I couldn't?
Or when someone I loved looked up to you
So much that I thought I lost her,
Even though I wouldn't admit it even to myself?
I looked up to you so much of my life,
I never thought of you as human enough to love.
But you're still the legend,
And I wouldn't take your love from you,
And I'd die for you if you asked me to.

                Friend...
We shared so much, long ago,
When you were the maverick young Warrior
And I was the old blood,
The next in a family of heroes.
So different,
But we both knew how to fight,
And that forged a friendship and kindred
That was legendary in itself.
Having you here reminded me of that.
I tire of running, old friend.
And you took loneliness away I didn't even know I felt.
I wish we could fight together again.

                Legend...
When I heard you praised and felt
Those honors were bought with blood
That wasn't yours,
And saw my own dearest friend
Deemed the lesser because of you
And that he seemed to accept it,
I felt the less too, and angry for it.
Then on your ship, with your people cheering,
I felt defeated myself,
Because how do you fight a legend?
But you remain the legend --
In death as in life.

                Idol...
I grew up admiring you, I really did.
My father's stories of you were more real
Than what I saw on the vids,
But all of them said you were invincible,
The Living Legend,
The hero we could all be proud of, who kept us safe.
I see, now, how easy it was to be caught up in you.
Now I see too how much we needed you,
Were starved for you -- a hero, a legend, a myth --
But real, too, a human being, with all that implies.
We still need you, Cain,
All those yahrens, and today.

What do we know of our legend,
What lies beneath the surface?
If the legend is gone,
Does anything remain?
Do we allow the man to be a man,
Or would the legend no longer be living then?

Cain, return.
We miss you, and
We need a legend today.