Stargazer - Segregation

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Last Stand

Michael looks at him and arches his brows. "Do you really think we are defined by what we used to do and who we used to be?" his head turns left and right. "No, we are not. I am me. I am who I am right now. Nothing else matters at this point. The same applies to you, my friend."

Henry breathes out. "If you see it that way then, no matter what happened before we knew each other but," he looks down then back up. "I would like you to know that you are one of the greatest people I've ever met. You are the reason why I am still alive. I owe you a lot. And I will never forget that, ever."

Michael nods, and Henry hugs him intensely. His eyes look a bit watery; he doesn't want to cry and holds back every tear that wants to go out. He just told Henry what he wished to hear from him, with the words comforting himself more. Let the past be past. He should do that, but why did he doubt it then? Why did he get so frustrated over watching what he knew would happen?

"We should head back," Michael says, pulling up his nose.

"He's literally forcing us to fight him," Riley crosses her arms.

"Then, we will fight," returns Logan.

"Yes, we will," she throws her arms into the air. "Are you sure that our Horizons are good enough?" and looks at him with a question mark above her head.

"Yeah. I am sure, you know why?" he glances at the other pilots. "Because we are a great team. We fight together. The Horizon's are our hope of winning."

"Oh, you're flattering us," she says, capping her cheeks.

"Where is Jason?" urges Henry, surprised as he walks in.

"We will be fighting without him. Don't worry, we can do this if we work together," says Logan.

"Yes, apparently this guy, this weird psychopath wants to fight us," she points her finger towards the projection of the events with Rory being fully on-screen. "We don't know when and we don't know where, yet," Mayumi breaths out.

"So, we will just wait and watch?" Henry huffs at them.

"There is nothing else we can do right now. We've contacted every single nation that we know. Your Horizon is still not ready to fight. There is still a lot to prepare and do before we can go out and just fight," she lifts an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot. My Horizon is still broken. How long will it take?" he looks at her with a long face.

"Maybe two days? Or even a week," she snorts.

"Depending on how fast the people can work on it. We tried our best, really but, we don't have that many resources to fix a broken Horizon in the matter of a day," adds Wylie.

"Right, I am sorry."

"It's fine. It's the stuff you, as a Pilot, shouldn't worry about," Wylie crosses his arms.

"I know, but it's a lot of work that you guys are doing. In a matter of seconds, it's all gone," he raises his voice and shakes around with his hands.

"Henry, this is our job," Wylie puts his arm on his shoulder." Your job is to save the people with these creations,"

Riley walks up to him to look him face to face. "Your job is far greater than you think. Your job will lead them back home."

Late at night, the world seems to calm down.

People are quiet around the dark; some are lurking to hunt others. The burning streets have yet to fade.

Corpses everywhere around.

Buildings have taken away their reason to exist.

No one left in the streets but the people of his.