Sweet lie, the beginning of a new life

As he was falling, Harry's consciousness was already declining. However, he still managed to see Nova-C-8394 clashing one last time against the magnetic barrier. Its ethereal body had now turned to a near smoke-like state, but at least, with this breach, it would now be able to escape into space. The old drunkard smiled slightly, knowing that the three Cifer's members, along with Penny, would be able to do the same.

If he was in good enough condition, Harry would've sighed: in truth, he didn't really want to die now. Even if most of him was tired of life, there was still a part that wanted to get on the spatial ship with Penny. Restart a new life and become a better person, to finally be happy with people he loved...

But he knew it wouldn't be possible: commanding a Nova beast was a very difficul process. If it wasn't for Nova-C-8394 still being weak due to its interrupted growth, he couldn't even have dreamt of creating a device that could command it with his limited ressources. Even then, for his device to work, he had been forced to stay close to the phenix-like beast.

For an instant, just a short one, he thought his noise-cancelling headphones would be enouh to survive the nightmarish shockwaves caused by the repeated clashes against the magnetic barrier, and that he would then be able to join the spatial ship too, but reality sadly catched up.

Now that he was approaching his inevitable death, for some reason, everything around him seemed slow, almost stopped in time. He felt as if he stopped falling, as if everything around him had disappeared. 

Suddenly, a memory came back to his mind: the one where he met his wife.

In truth, it was probably one of the most ordinary encounter ever: they just met at work, exchanged some good words, and that was it. Such a boring first encouter...

Yet, finally remembering this moment filled him with melancholic happiness: the first time their fingers touched, the first time he heard her beautiful voice. All those little things he had forgotten overtime, he was sincerly happy.

All of a sudden, he felt like he wasn't this old obese, unshaved and tired drunkard anymore. It was as if he was back in his late twenties... when Stelly was still alive. He saw her standing there, in front of him, in a vast expanse of nothingness. 

"Stelly... is that really you?" he asked.

Her beautiful lips contorted into a sad smile, as she took him in her arms:

"Of course not, my love. I'm just a creation of your subconscious"

Harry laughed:

"Heh, I guess it was too good to be true... after all, there's nothing after death, is it?"

Stelly's hallucination didn't answer, and hugged him tighter. Despite the familiar warm that was making him feel safe and peaceful, he could still vaguely notice the coldness that was infiltrating his real body.

"I... heh, can't say I'm not sad, but I'm not disappointed either. After all, would there really be an afterlife for someone like me who entrusted my first daughter to corrupted political power-hungry bastards, and my second one to inter-planetary criminals? Hehe, bet even the Silent devil wouldn't want such an irresponsible drunkard in their hell, else it'd crumble in weeks, hehe"

His laughter died as the dreadful coldness was infiltrating his body more and more:

"I know it's stupid, but can you tell me that it's really you? That I'm about to join you in your eternal rest, and finally reach happiness in the afterlife, with you and our daughter?"

"Of course I can" the hallucination replied, kissing his forehead. "It's me, Stelly, and I'm happy to finally be with you once again. Now, we'll finally be able to rest happy, together and forever"

Harry felt another person hugging him. In-between the warm arms of his daughter and wife's hallucinations, he smiled one last time:

"Thank you"

He knew it was selfish to delude himself into this dream of an afterlife that didn't exist, instead of dedicating his last thoughts to the one family he still had left, the Penny that was still alive in the spatial ship.

But for his last moment, despite all this, he just wanted to sink in this illusionary warmth.

Truth was cold and brutal, but lies were sweet. Sweet, sweet lies.

With his last remnant of strength, he clicked on a small button on the side of his control device, and then, his breath stopped. Everything stopped. Harry Wiser was dead.

At this moment, Tyler, who saw it all happening, suddenly felt as if everything around him was silent. His body reacted on its own, as he took Penny in his arms to prevent her from running to Erica and John. From the way her mouth was moving, he knew the tiny android was screaming but he couldn't hear it. Yet, he had no issue guessing what she was screaming: she was screaming at Erica and John to turn back and save her dad from the fall.

But they didn't: just like Tyler, they already knew it was too late for him, and that they should instead aim to get past the magnetic barrier and the Outergate to finally escape Glactia-62. 

Penny too probably realized it already. Yet, she kept screaming for her dad. Tyler could vaguely discern another scream that was echoing in the room.

'Weird... what is this scream?' he wondered.

He then realized: he was the one screaming. Not to ask John and Erica to turn back and get Harry whatever it needed, but simply because of the pain he felt having lost the one person he knew that could truly understand how he was feeling.

So, just like Penny, he was screaming a mourning cry, as Harry's body was approaching the ground at an astonishing speed, that kept increasing each second.

Director Arsin, who was there, right below, internally scoffed at this: this bastard helped the terrorists escape, he might as well end up as a bloody pancake on the floor!

As he thought that, he suddenly noticed that the device Harry used to control Nova-C-8394 was beeping, and the pace of the beeping was becoming quicker and quicker.

'No, no way this bastard actually...'

In sudden realization, Enry Arsin started to run, trying to get away from Harry's falling point. But it was too late: the device suddnly exploded.

The massive explosion that followed engulfed Harry's body, and director Arsin was sent flying by the violent shockwave.

Seeing her dad's body disappear, Penny finally stopped struggling and screaming, and fainted from the shock. Tyler carefully sat her against a wall.

'Hey, since it's an android, how could she faint? He, higher sectors' technology surely is impressing, how do you think it works?' the voice in his mind laughed.

It was yet again the same voice as before. Tyler mentally laughed, but a bitter one. Just a few days ago, instead of actually mourning his dead friend, he would've chosen to hide himself behind stupid jokes like this.

But not today, not after hearing Harry's last words.

"Urgh... no... why does it always... end up like this" he cried.

As tears started to flow from his eyes, Erica finally managed to get past the magnetic barrier, thanks to the breach Nova-C-8394 and Harry managed to create. As they flew vertically, Tyler, still crying, looked up. Last time they were so close to the Outergate, Melia had appeared and brutally ended their try.

But now, Melia was dead, and there was nobody left to stop their progression. As he always dreamed, he saw the spatial ship crossing the Outergate.

Finally, after all of this, all those fights, losses, sufferings and trials, they did it: they successfully exited the Outercoat of Glactia-62, leaving the planet once and for all.

When the ship arrived into space, physically, he felt nothing but a slight depressurization. But mentally, as he finally got to see how the tiny, insignificant planet he was born on and on which he lived his whole life looked like, lost in the dark immensity of the boundless cosmos, he felt a surge of unknown emotions.

He saw the other planets of the solar system, colored in green, brown, grey and blue, and the massive sun in the middle, lighting the entire solar system with its beautiful white shine, offering a mesmerizing contrast with the near-absolute darkness filling space. For an instant, even if his problems didn't disappear, they seemed as if they didn't matter anymore.

Even if he finally achieved his life-long dream, it didn't make all the pain, sorrow, trauma and depression disappear. But now, instead of hiding from those scars, Tyler could finally face them and, at least this time, do it with a smiling face.

And when he fainted too due to his exhaustion, bleeding shoulder, and numerous emotionnal shocks, it was with this exact same smiling face, that seemed to laugh at the world itself.