Maria Santiago
From Gears of War
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- "So you always have me with you... I love you, Dominic... Always, Maria."
- — The note Maria wrote for Dom on their picture of them in a bar.
Maria Santiago (née Flores) was the wife of Dom. But like all humans on Sera their lives changed on Emergence Day when the Locust destroyed their home and murdered their two young children. Maria and Dom fled to Jacinto, but the damage was done. With her children gone and her husband spending more and more time on the frontline, Maria surrendered to her grief. She vanished, leaving no word of her plans. Dom has dedicated himself to finding her.
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[edit] History
When Maria was 11, she'd moved in two doors down from Dom, he would look forward to see her climb her front yard tree. He finally talked to her, they soon became good friends. Later, when they were teenagers, they both started dating. One day, Maria came to Dom saying she missed her period. Maria became pregnant out of marriage, which amongst other things led Dom to marry her, hoping to take responsibility for his actions and for his growing family. Dom enlisted after his son, Benedicto, was born and gave his mother a necklace. He did this to support his family, going against his mother's wishes. Before Dom left, he, Maria, and Carlos went to a bar off of Embry Square where Carlos took a picture of the couple, the one used for Maria's search picture. Maria mostly wanted to take care of Benedicto by herself. A year later, she was pregnant with a girl. However, little Sylvia was early so Dom missed Maria giving birth to Sylvia. After Aspho, he spent more time with his family after Carlos died. Two years later, Dom and Maria moved out of their Lower Jacinto apartment and moved in a house in Ephyra (the one in Dom's flashback dream after being swallowed by the Riftworm). The house was a beautiful two-story Villa-style house. After they move in, they go on a date.
[edit] Emergence Day
When E-Day occurred, Maria and Dom have just rented their first house.[3] Maria had sent the kids one day to her parents house so she and Dom could have the whole day together and relax. Unfortunately, this day was Emergence Day. Maria and Dom discover that their kids are dead and Dom forced Maria to flee to Jacinto back to their rented house. Both parents were devastated, but Maria soon descended into depression while her husband stayed on the frontlines to keep from thinking too much.
One year after Emergence Day, Maria was still in grief over her children. While Dom was saddened, Maria was so depressed she was prescribed anti-depressants. However, this led to horrible things. Her eyes would be red and puffy from crying everyday. After she cleans the children bedroom's, she goes out for walks. She would go for weeks without speaking or eating. She spent years blaming herself for sending the kids to her parents house that day, thinking she let the grubs get them. After the announcement of the Hammer Protocol, she was transported to Fenix Estate where Adam Fenix took care of her. Dom eventually got her to admit that she goes on walks because she believes that the kids are still alive and that she sees them everyday on her walks. She also blocks out the truth that her kids are dead and does not listen to Dom. She actually risked her health to go outside to see them again after the Hammer drop because the Hammer left a pollution cloud all over Sera.
Her basic routine was to clean the kid's bedroom's, take her meds, take a nap, and go out for a walk. This routine went on for four years before Maria simply left Jacinto to live with the Stranded. She left no words of her plan. No note and no one knew why.
[edit] Living with the Stranded
Maria soon found herself with a Stranded clan that was lead by Stu. It is unknown what happened for the next eleven years. After the Lightmass Offensive, many Stranded were forced to go underground, including Stu's group. They were afraid like many others and headed under Mt. Kadar, camping on the shore overlooking the lake. Until then, they waited for Chaps and his group to join them. While waiting, Chaps had found out the Locust had captured his friend and his group along with Maria. The Locust had taken them deeper near Nexus. During this time they were enslaved, imprisoned, and processed. Maria was tortured for months by being starved, scratched, lobotomised, and beaten. This treatment went on until Operation Hollow Storm. By this time, she was far gone and left a shell of her former self. During the second day of the battle, Chaps told Dom and Marcus about her and the missing group when they found him under Mt. Kadar. Dom and Marcus fought through her prison near the highway finding her emaciated, tortured, and broken in every way: she was a ghost of her former self, too traumatized to realize who Dom was, so he was forced to euthanize her, due to her lost sanity.
[edit] Legacy
Maria's death was a toll on Dom and the emotionally cold Marcus. The final moments of her life turned the charismatic Dom into a cold machine, sending him on a killing frenzy in the Nexus. Dom's love for her caused him to temporarily abandon the mission.[4] During the aftermath of the sinking of Jacinto, Dom tells Augustus Cole (and Damon Baird by proximity) that he had to kill her. Later, Marcus tells Bernadette Mataki, who is both shocked and tries to tell everyone, including Anya and Col.Victor Hoffman not to talk about her. Many people had been looking for her, and were saddened and shocked by her death. Dom kept blaming himself for not finding her in time, and thought he had made a mistake killing her instead of taking her to a hospital. He loved her so much that he took her necklace and tied it around his COG tag. One day, Dominic sits on the beach and thinks about Maria. He thinks about the new life she started and that some one had found her and loved her, he feared some one might have married her. But he still misses her.[5] He begins seeing people as Maria as she saw Bennie and Sylvia; he saw a woman outside a bar that resembled her but turns out to be nothing like her. He was curious about what had happened to Maria and why she was like the way he found her. Dr.Maryon Hayman had theories that Maria may have had ataxia, dystonia, nystagmus, bradykinesia, ocular toxin deposition and she said none of those diseases were curable and that Maria was slowly dying. Dom had also questioned himself the scars on her scalp. But no one had any idea what it was. Now, Dom has nothing left but sing her favorite songs, wear her necklace, look at pictures and just remember her.
[edit] Personality and Traits
Maria, typical of most parents, loved her children and husband. Maria, however, was independent. When Dom was in the army, she wanted to take care of Benedicto and Sylvia by herself without her mother's help. When her children where killed on Emergence Day, she enter into a phase of Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. She was later prescribed anti-depressants and showed some revealing side effects. She would cry everyday while she still cleans the kids bedrooms and goes on walks believing she will still find them. She would go days without food or water and finally giving in to her loss, left the only safe place on Sera to live among the Stranded.
[edit] Trivia
- Maria's prisoner number was Female 620 and was 32 when she was imprisoned and eventually euthanized.
- Maria was imprisoned in the same prison as Jonathan Harper.
[edit] Quotes
- "Dom? Dom? Dom you awake? I brought you breakfast! The kids are at my mothers, so we get the whole day to ourselves! Dom! Are you awake!? Dom? Dom!"
- — Dom's dream inside the Riftworm.
- "She's right, you are one in a million."
- — Telling Dom what Anya said about him.[6]
- "Now, Marcus and Anya... I know it looks like a good idea to you, but those two will never last beyond tonight. Don't try to fix it for them. And she's an officer, he's enlisted. They'll end up on a charge."
- — Maria pointing out why Anya and Marcus could never be together .
- "So you always have me with you. Don't let me go. Keep it in your pocket, please."
- — Maria giving Dom the photo of them so he has something to remember her by when he leaves.
- "I need to find them. Bennie and Sylvie. I know I saw them. Just once, but they're out there, and they'll be so scared. I have to find them."
- — Maria stating why she needs to go out for a walk after her kids died.
[edit] References
- ↑ Beneath the Surface
- ↑ Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant
- ↑ Gears of War: Sourcebook
- ↑ Gears of War 2 instead of following the Highway Marcus and Dom enter the dam and find human slaves
- ↑ Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant
- ↑ Gears of War: Aspho Fields
