Era of Madness

Final battle 8 - The accomplishment of a gentleman

It all happened in the span of a second: as the pool was once again filled with water, and Tyler was going to throw yet another grenade in, the metallic cocoon in which Melia envelopped herself suddenly revealed an opening, letting water sink in it.

But as Tyler just threw his grenade, she suddenly shot her anti-matter ray through the opening, piercing it and making it explode mid-way as it was still in the air. Fortunately for Tyler, he was far enough and the explosion didn't touch him directly, but he was propelled backward, falling in another pool, unconscious, slowly sinking and drowning.

As his consciousness was fading, a phenomenon he had heard about before happened: he saw parts of his life pass before his eyes.

His parents screaming at him... Him drinking alone at his home... Him fighting drunk in a bar... Him running as cops were chasing after him while agitating guns... Him crying while talking with Harry...

Yeah, at least, he wouldn't have too much to regret if a life like this ended today.

However, among the worthless, pathetic and sad memories, some good ones were sliding in. Not memories of great events or such, but simple memories, from a simpler time, one when he was actually happy.

He saw his younger self running after Alicia, who was laughing at him because he wasn't able to catch up to her even. When he finally catched up to her, rub her hair, and laughing while she complained about it. Then, she threw water at him, and he did the same. They played this game for a long time, laughing at each other as they ended up all wet.

After that, they both sat on a cold stone step, close to each other.

"Well, I hope you're happy, you got us all soaked" Alicia said.

"Hey, you're the one who started!" the younger Tyler replied. "Beside, can't we see it as training?"

"Training? What training could throwing water at each other be, dummy?"

"Hehe, shooting practice of course! Think about it, when we'll escape sector V and this shitty planet, and get our own ship, we'll live tons of super adventures, so we better start practicing our aim now"

Alicia gave him a small kick in the leg:

"Idiot, by training like this you're only going to end up throwing your gun away too" she said.

"Heh, at least it'd make an original secret technic, right?" Tyler joked.

"Haha, ok, fair enough. Hey, Tyler... how did you manage to separate from your parents?"

"What do you mean, Alicia? They were awful, so I went away, that's as simple as that"

"Really? Personally, no matter how awful my parents would act, I would've never separated from them"

Young Tyler thought about it for a second before shrugging:

"Then, I guess your parents were so great that you can't imagine them being bad enough to leave" he replied. "Or more likely, you're simply a better child than me"

"Hehe, that part is obvious" Alicia laughed. "But I guess you're right, my parents weren't always great but they loved me, and I loved them just as much. When I lost them, I... I was so devastated that I might've actually lost my will to live... but then, I remembered how much efforts they did so I could live a happy life. So now, I'm trying my best, not only to survive but to live, and a happy life at that. Well, at least as much as people like us can"

"Oh really? Aaaaand... does my presence help you to be happy?"

Alicia faked thinking about it before answering: