Era of Madness

It's not your fault

After once again passing out, Tyler took almost three whole days to wake up. When he did, he was met with a gloomy atmosphere. Penny wasn't uttering a single word, swinging her legs, with her eyes looking in the vague. Tyler tried talking to her, but she just turned her head in the opposite direction and remained silent, as the sad expression on her child's face that gave Tyler heart aches again.

Strangely, John too seemed to have lost all his focus. Tyler knew he was sad, but he also knew this reaction was a bit too exaggerated: had John met a problem while he was unconscious? Or maybe even before, on Glactia-62, without Tyler noticing? Anyway, the drunkard wasn't really feeling well enough to investigate.

The only one that was acting the same way was Erica. When Tyler woke up, she simply greeted him with a photo of John holding him like a princess- only god knew when she took it- and then taking with him for a bit before putting her focus back on piloting the spatial ship, and making sure they had lost every potential pursuer and weren't chased anymore.

Therefore, understanding a bit more time would be needed before everyone could calm down and feeling pretty conflicted himself, chose to retreat in his room for a while. At the same time, Erica was fully focused on piloting the spatial ship, meaning John and Penny were left on their own.

Clumsily, John walked close to Penny and sat on the same bench as she was. Subconsciously, he tried to swing his legs like Penny did, but they were too long for that, so his heels crashed on the floor, leading to an awkward moment.

Seeing Penny wasn't reacting, John took the initiative to gently tap on her small shoulder:

"Do you... need to talk?" he asked hesitantly.

She didn't reply.

"Are you too sad? Or too angry against me?" John asked with a soft tone. "Do you consider it's our fault if he died?"

"Yes... my dad is dead because of you..." Penny hesitantly said. "If at this time, you didn't come to our home... he wouldn't have done that... he would still be there... he... he..."

"Continue, tell me what you need to, I'm there to listen"

"If you didn't come, he wouldn't have sacrified! Dad, he... he..."

"So what makes you feel like this is the fact he killed himself?"

"Yes! I... I hate you guys! I hate you all so much! I... without you, he wouldn't have sacrif- he wouldn't have died!"

Penny punched John in the face with her little hand, and the latter didn't bulge.

"Yeah, I understand... Honestly? I often hate myself too" he said. "If it can consalate you in any way, know that Enry Arsin is dead already, and a painful one. A friend that stayed on Glactia-62 confirmed it for me"

John didn't react when she punched him again, this time in the nose, as she started crying with a face that was expressing both anger and sorrow equally.

"So what if he's dead? Yes, I hated Enry Arsin, this bastard, more than anyone... but I also hate you all! I hate Tyler, because my dad gave him one of his last thoughts while all he did was pushing him to act! I hate Erica, because she promised she'd help me to get him out of his self-destructive fall, only for him to end up like this! And I hate you for trying to tell me those stupid consoling words, just so you can avoid feeling guilty!"

"Really?" John asked. "Are you really sure we're the ones you're angry against?"

"Wh- what are you talking about?"

"Penny, I know you're an android, and that even though you look like a child, you're actually an adult. But you lived your whole life with only one person at your side, Harry. Even if he loved you more than his own life, for nearly all the time you've lived with him he only saw you as his little, fragile little girl. It's only natural that on some aspects, you didn't grow up as much as you could've"