Why should I be the one to save others?

  Why should I be the one to help?

  Why should I care what happens to my neighbor?

  Because, If I don’t do it, then who else will?

  *****

  Evan’s eyes cracked open. His body was stiff. Heavy vibrations shook where he lay. It was a familiar place, with curved metal walls and circular windows. He was in Ad Astra, lying across one of its benches. He cocked his head back. Blink sat next to him, sleeping; deservedly.

  Cranston and Nyla were asleep on the opposing bench, their heads propped against each other. Andrea lay next to them with straps around her, still comatose as she was when Evan had left them. Rowic and Daniel could be seen piloting the ship through the cockpit doorway.

  “You lived, huh?” Vihn asked. He was at the far end of the bench. His eyes drooped to that old picture of Farfa in his hand.

  “I guess I did.” Evan’s arms quivered as he sat himself up. His head ached, as did his legs, and his chest, and just about everything else. “You too?”

  Vihn faced him, his stump twitching. “You tell me.”

  “Still breathing?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Can you walk?”

  “With a limp.”

  “See any white lights?”

  “Only sometimes.”

  Evan shrugged. “Seems like you lived to me.”

  Vihn smirked. “I guess I did.”

  Evan planted his feet on the humming floor and his eyes drifted down.

  There was a mound of something covered by a black tarp at the center of the ship.

  It all came back to Evan; his mind replaying all the parts as it always did, trying to separate the dreams from the memories. Mostly nightmares, but some good bits mixed in.

  He thought about what was under the tarp. It wasn’t hard to guess. “He didn’t make it, did he?”

  Vihn shook his head. “Died on his own. So, thanks for taking that from me.”

  “You think that if you’d have been the one to do it, you’d feel better?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  He shrugged. Then he gave a lighthearted chuckle. “Geeze, kid. Krow. You killed him in the end, like we had planned. So, what was all that about stopping me from killing the Governor? How was that any different?”

  Evan rocked his head as he processed out loud. “I think– I know, it was different. I wasn’t angry at him anymore. I think I understood who he was. Someone who lost a lot of people he cared about. He just wanted to stop the pain, like I did. I couldn’t fault him for that… It was what he did about it that was all wrong. At the end, I didn’t want to kill him, I realized I just had to defend my new family. Maybe everyone else gets high off vengeance, but I decided I wasn’t going to fall into that. Seek to redeem, be ready to defend the ones I love.”

  “So, protect your family at any cost?”

  “No. That was what my father did.”

  “Hmph. So, what do you do when it’s a choice between your family or someone else? You going to let the other guy hurt them?”

  “No.”

  “Then what, kid? I don’t get it.”

  Evan pondered the question. He wished he could figure out the perfect answer. But he did come up with, “I’ll defend my family. I’ll defend my friends. I’ll defend those who can’t defend themselves. But I won’t defend evil. I won’t let evil break the innocent. See, the part that gets messed up is what people define as evil or good. I can’t always know the right answer. But what I do know is that love is good, and love is what’s worth protecting. If I love, and I welcome what is love, then that is what is right. I think, maybe there’s some love in everyone, something that’s worth fighting to pull out of that person. It’s just, sometimes you do have to choose. Sometimes that person stamps out the love. Sometimes they go too far, and what’s inside becomes hate, and they come for you and what is good. So, they must be stopped. Not out of anger, or hate, or righteousness, or vengeance. Out of defense, and always with a heart behind the shield, to be ready for when the evil fades away and the human is left abandoned. I want to be ready to welcome them back from death. That is how we heal. That is how we get past the cycle. Let the past die, forgive, rebuild.”

  Vihn was silent for a time, until he put the photo away and said, “I don’t know if I agree with you, kid. But I can’t argue with your conviction.”

  “I don’t know if you have to agree with me. I’ll try to do what I believe is right regardless.” Evan stood and placed his hands in his pocket. He was pleasantly surprised to find both his and Ken’s IDs still there. We did it buddy. We beat them. Thank you.

  Evan knelt next to the tarp on the floor, where the Governor lay, and pealed it back to see his face. There he was, the decaying man who had once been whole, as all men were. He once held a power that Evan thought could never fade away, but maybe that seemingly invincible power had just been a part of the deception as well.

  A door opened at the front of the airship, and out walked Twitch. His smile almost as bright and positive as Blink’s. His face pealed back with shock and excitement when he saw Evan. He waved him over.

  Evan grinned, and put the tarp back over his father, ready to move on, accepting all that had come.

  He followed Twitch to see what he was trying to show him. Evan teared up when he saw it. On the wall of the ship was a bunch of rough sketches and paint doodles of people, with names written under them. Zachary, Jeck, Luna, Alpha… Ken.

  Evan smiled. “Thank you, buddy.”

  Twitch patted him on the back.

  For once, Evan knew what he should do next. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the two IDs. These little pieces of metal that had been with him since the beginning of this whole mess. But now, it was time to let the past rest. He used his power to fuse the IDs to the wall at the base of the mural, said a prayer over his friend, and left them there. Not forgotten, but finally let go.

  Evan rejoined Blink who had just woken up. Together they stared out of the ship’s windows, music warming their ears while Ad Astra soared high above the sandy beaches below, over bright blue waves, toward the rising Sun – a fiery leaf falling into the next life.

  THE END