The Expatriate-the story of a Prodigy

Epilogue

Days went faster than usual. A lot of events passed by along the way. The Martian finally sent a message to Earth that he would be coming a month later. The Martyr went back to his old, pizza smell-reeking training room, for Alex's house was already getting small, with two new residents already. Lewis, Mark, and the three other majors came visiting and the house, for one day and night, became very crowded and two days' meals' worth of provisions flew away. Alex Mars got the pills and each day, didn't forget to tell Lyra to ingest them, though she didn't want to. One day, he asked her of what number he looked like to her. When she answered that it's been ambiguous for a few days, he knew that things were improving, and that Lyra was also healing, though slowly.
Also, the funeral came. Alex and Lyra and everyone else they knew spilled out onto the streets freely and made their way to the park. Finding the Cannes' gravestone wasn't difficult, for it was one of the stones on the first line, and also, the one that got the most flowers and cards and everything.
Sarah wept.
Lyra almost wept, but she managed to be a big sister.
Alex felt an odd connection to the gravestone in front of him, for he had been one of the last people the person beneath the stone had spoken to before sacrificing herself. However, others, except Lyra and Sarah, weren't able to truly understand his peculiar feelings.
Then, like all the other events in life, the funeral was over.
It was a gloomy but also, a neat ending, Mars thought.

After the funeral, Lyra led him to one of the tallest buildings in the city-190 stories high-by hand, and soon, they were in the elevator, ascending quickly.
"Where are we going?" Alex asked as the sound of the elevator's cables moving and the steel box shaking filled his ears. However, he didn't Mute his Muters, for he wanted to enjoy everything possible after the funeral.
"You'll see,"
Though that was one of the most annoying answers that Lyra had given him, he complied and managed to stay silent for a minute.
Then, they arrived .
At first, it kind of confused Alex, for instead of seeing the interior of the building, he was looking at the tops of other buildings and the clear afternoon sky. Also, the wind rushed to greet them as soon as the door opened.
"-The rooftop," Lyra summarized. They both got off the elevator and walked to the corners and edges of the cement floor, eyes wandering on the floor before suddenly dropping to the scene below. It was the same city that they had just traversed to get there, but it seemed so... different. Everything was miniature. The people were ants or merely dots swabbed in some hues that seemed to be clothes. Cars were merely moving blocks. Other buildings that had looked big enough just looked like old and tiny bricks of cement and glass.
However, the sky was almost the same. They could see it closer up here, and since it was nearing fall, the night sky was already mixing itself with the bright, blazing sun of the afternoon. Though a long streak of red had been shadowed on the rooftop just a few minutes ago, Alex found darkness swallowing it and making the hue less blazing.But it didn't make himself feel gloomy. The night sky wasn't pitch black, but a calming dark hue of blue. Already, he could see the faint glow of stars and the moon, as if they had been all along behind the stage, behind the curtains, waiting to have a chance to be seen by the audience.
-It just felt as if he was back in the desert. However, the sky didn't feel to him like the sky that he had seen while wandering to Canada. It rather looked similar to the deep night sky he had seen in the desert when he had been coming back, returning to his country, with all his friends(alright, except Thomas, but let's forget about that fact for a moment) at his side.
"It's beautiful," He observed, and he knew that since it was kind of rare for him to feel such deep emotions or humane feelings, the sky must have awed his heart so much and definitely to make him feel such feelings.
"It is,"
They stood in a few more comfortable silence, admiring the sky and the city going on with its cycle and life with no regard to the fact that they were up on the highest building, observing all.
"Just simply still can't believe we did such a thing, though," Alex said, giving Lyra's hand a squeeze. He was now looking back down at the city, instead of the sky, which was now sparkling with the moon and stars.
"Yeah. But the thing is, there is a long way to go, Al, even now. The name of the country is yet to be confirmed, we have to replace all the political seats taken by officials by the previous Military, we need to restore all the buildings after the Revolution-""Of course I know that. But with my previous words, I meant that 'we have come a lot. Though there's a lot to go still, it's still a starter, eh?' Step by step, it is called. The most annoying but effective and quick way to get a thing done,"
Now, he took her by the shoulders, and once more, like how he did it in the hospital room, held her closer to him. They now stood at the edge, looking down at their city, huddled close together. Then, they both neared even closer, and feeling the adrenaline and electricity shoot across their veins and nerves, fit their lips together, and stayed like that for a long time, tasting and breathing in each other.
Alex Mars wasn't shocked completely, nor embarassed at his feelings for Lyra at all, now. He knew that it was very normal to feel love, and he would never say that he was shy of liking the perfect(at least to his standards-as the two had discussed before, there was no ideal standard of 'perfect' in the world) girl now in his arms.
After 2 minutes, they finally separated, then sat down on the edge of the rooftop, enjoying the love, thrill of sitting before a sheer drop of 190 floors, and simply, each other's warmth via linked hands.
"Nothing's impossible for us now. Everything's open," He observed and felt her nod. So they sat together, skin on skin, hand on hand, like how they had been inside the burning house of the Cannes'. However, it felt so much different and new than then...
Life is finally much much better for me. At last, Alex Mars confirmed.

And, he was right-after his 17 years of life on Earth, Alex Mars finally felt true happiness coursing through his veins as they stood over their city, under the sky, under the moon, under the stars.

-Finally in his proper place.