"Oh my God, oh my God," screamed Kizuna. She threw herself on her knees beside the red-haired stranger, checking Arende's vitals.

"Shit! Oh shit, shit, shit"

"Arende, do you hear me?"

"I do, I do," smiled Arende. His voice was coarse and his usually healthy complexion was turning ashen.

"Oh I wished Aura was here," exclaimed Kizuna. "His vitals are plummeting, I don't know what to do!"

"I'm simply dying, Kizuna."

"No, no, you're not, we're gonna fix that, right Jay?" Kizuna looked up at Jay who remained silent, reminiscing the cerulean rope of light caressing Arende's back. What it was, he didn't have a clue, but he knew in his bones that Arende was dying. He kneeled down too.

Ananda, Starling and Epos drew closer. As they did, thundering sounds were heard, and the Distorter's gates were severely shaken. Every second mattered.

"How do we pilot the Distorter? I must try to get this thing off," said Starling. "Hold on tight, mate," he said to Arende, bending and briefly touching his shoulder.

"I can help. I know how to pilot this thing," answered Epos.

They all looked at him, astounded.

Help will come from the blond rat after all. Aura was right.

Of course he was!

Epos looked deep into Arende's eyes and swallowed his saliva. A fleeting air of sadness quickly passed over his face. Arende smiled weakly at him, as if the two men were silently making amends. More thunder was heard. The gates shook again.

"Follow me Starling, we need to reach the Command Zone."

The two men ran away and went through a series of halls and rooms, until they reached the piloting quarters. Stretchy, rectangular screendows showed the Distorters' Zone, where rays of light kept being shot from every angle. An army of Retrievers was now standing on all sides of the vehicle.

"Take-off's not the most difficult. Entering time-distortion will be. For now, we just need to join forces and instruct the Distorter to leave. These vessels need to be treated very respectfully. Any careless movement may endanger the route we take or cancel the order we give. Look..."

Starling looked at Epos and imitated his manoeuvre. Gently, effortlessly, the Distorter came to life, snorting and shaking off inertia and attackers. Moments later, they were going higher and soflty gliding through the endless Zone.

"Take us to the Sulphur Lands. No stopover, no delay, full speed."

"The Sulphur Lands?"

"That's the only direction I could think of. It's just a direction, we'll enter time-distortion before that, anyway."

From below, Retrievers were aiming at them. Rays of light hit the vehicle and made it shudder, but they had already reached sufficient speed. They were safe. So they both headed back to Arende.

Ananda was propped against the gates, while Jay and Kizuna, on each side of their friend, were trying to keep him awake, talking to him. The red-haired boy was crouching beside Arende, swearing and moaning at the same time. Starling kneeled down beside him, and Epos stood slightly further, gazing at the scene with clenched fists.

"Hey Epos, we all know how this is going to pan out, right?"

"What does he mean, Epos? Epos?"

As Epos wasn't willing to answer, Arende spoke again, in a low, weakened voice.

"It means... that I've been hit by a Reprocessor. I'd never seen one being actually used, but Epos probably has, right? And I know how it works. It won't be long now."

"No!"

"I just wish I'd been born at least a second time. Damn, this life has been too short! Mhh... I guess one has to leave one day, anyway. Oh, I've enjoyed the ride."

Before anyone answered, a beautiful, shivering light wrapped itself around Arende, who closed his eyes. Epos took a deep breath. Kizuna shook Arende, although she was aware that the attempt was useless: an eerie blurring was forming, and Arende's contours started to dissolve into a misty soft, pearly light.

The red-haired boy hit his hand against the ground with sheer violence and shook Arende too.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! It should be me! It should be me, not you! I don't want you to die!"

Arende opened his eyes and for an instant, his strong, raucous voice came back.

"Ah little fellow, you're a brave boy, you are. I didn't die in vain you see, that's something... You all, promise me you'll have a good life. Promise me that... you'll find happiness!"

"We promise," they all whispered, while Arende's body continued to dissolve and dissipate into thin, shiny mist. With a final moan that sounded more like a sigh of relief, Arende's life drifted off, his body became totally transparent, and all physical trace of him disappeared.

Kizuna looked at her now empty hands, sobbing soflty. Silence followed.

Arende had spread his wings and left.

One less companion. One more reason to fight. One more promise to keep.

"I swore I'd find happiness, but I don't believe it exists," said Epos, not realizing everyone could hear him.

"Well... I don't even know what it is," said the red-haired guy.

It took them all a long time before they realized they needed to stand up, move on and take action. Slowly, they left the premises of Arende's death, their hearts heavy and their minds confused, and they went to the Command Zone.

On the screendows, they could see the outskirts of the Red City, its glorious colours, its geometric buildings and long linear streets. Already the wide ranges of mountains stretched out to the infinite. They were free. They had escaped.

"Will we ever see the Red City again?" wondered Kizuna.

"I'll miss it," said Ananda.

"I won't," said Starling, bitterly.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this," Jay paused. "But we need to move on now. We need to enter time-distortion before GloCo catches us. We know what will happen if we don't."

"So we're really going to Earth, then? Wow, we stole a Time-Distorter!"

"I'm sorry, you said you want to reach the Earth??"

"That's... that's our plan, yeah... But... who are you by the way?"

"My name's Osée Swingan. I don't want to speak about me. Not interesting. Thank you though. You saved my life when you crashed on the Composium. I'd be brainless by now, if it wasn't for all of you! And your friend, well, I wouldn't be here without him..."

"Aren't you a little too young to join us? I mean..."

"Damn it, I'm not young, I'm not a boy!"

"I can't believe we lost Arende..."

A moment of silence followed Ananda's words, eventually broken by Osée.

"So, why do you want to go to Earth? What are you running from?"

"Does that make a difference, whether you know or not?" Epos said.

"Doesn't. If you don't wanna say, fine. I don't wanna speak about me either... But how long will it take? What'll happen when we get there?"

"You don't sound too upset to leave B24!"

"Shitty place, if you ask me!" Osée looked back at Epos defiantly.

"Why?"

"I just... I just don't fit in here."

"Leave the boy alone, he's with us now," said Starling.

"I'm - not - a - boy!"

"We should focus on our destination. Osée, welcome aboard. Whatever happened to you, there isn't much choice now. We can either leave you somewhere, or take you to Earth with us," said Jay.

"I have nowhere to go."

"I know a place where you could stay..."

"What do you mean, Kizuna?"

"Well... Osée could stay with Aura...."

"Who's Aura?"

"Aura's a hermit of some sort. He leaves on his own, in the Sulphur Lands, because he made the decision to escape from GloCo's tyranny."

"And he chose not to be re-condtioned, too," added Jay.

"So he's going to... grow older?"

"He's started already. Suits him," said Ananda.

"You want me to live with a wacky old man in the desert?"

"To live with a wise man, rather," said Kizuna. "Aura's a very special, wonderful person. You just need to meet him to understand."

"Sorry to interrupt this little conversation, but we need to shift into Harvest Mode," said Epos.

"Into what?"

"Aura's explained that to me. It means that we need to collect energy from the CCA, the Cygnus Constellation Array, before we're able to move into time-distortion."

"Jay's right. Time-distortion requires the highest possible amount of energy in space-travel. Right now, our Distorter has about half his capacity."

"Let's do it, then. Anything special we need to know beforehand?"

"Well, during Harvest Mode, we need to stay put and gather energy too. That's because our bodies will need a lot of power to endure time-distortion. Also, we'll be surrounded by a lot of light. So we need to head to the Harvest Room, sit comfortably or lie down, and wear eye-protection."

"How long will it last?"

"About twelve hours or so. We should all take our supplements too, before we start harvesting."

"Well Epos, better start the process then."

The former head of the Bureau of High Intelligence made a step towards the Command Pad and cautiously incremented directions for the Time-Distorter. A persistent, low buzzing sound slowly rose, while the wondrous landscapes of B24 began to vanish far beneath them. Soon they all dissolved into thin clouds, and within minutes a misty haze covered the screendows.

"That's it. Let's head to the HR, then," said Jay.

A few instants later, they were all settled in a half-lit large oval room lined with padded armchairs and comfortable couches. Small screendows all around them allowed to see the view outside, which was now a dreamy shade of orange and pink. Level with the screendows, a thick layer of mist  blocked the view between the Time-Distorter and the ground. While their vessel kept ascending to outer space, they feasted upon an assortment of condensed nutrients. Kizuna checked on everybody's vitals and sighed in relief.

"Looks like most of us are in correct shape. Although Jay, your BPM and chemical report are a little erratic. How are you feeling?"

"Very well, actually. Don't forget that my blood's been altered. I guess I'm not supposed to respond to your screening test as before."

"Our science works like magic on us, but what's going to happen to you, Jay?"

"Well, who knows what's gonna happen to all of us, anyway?"

"Let's fly this rocket and see," said Starling.

"Hope we'll do a little better than old-school rockets," smiled Ananda.

"Don't forget to take all your nutrients," reminded Kizuna.

"Not worth a good gratin, but that'll do," said Jay.

"A good what?"

"What did you say?"

Everybody turned to Jay, perplexed. Everybody except Epos who looked away.

"A gratin... It's some good food from the Old Days. It tastes wonderful." Jay's voice trailed away as he realized the incongruousness of what he had just said.

"How would you know?"

"I don't know how. I just feel I know... Forget it, I don't even know why I said that..."

"You're a bunch of weird people," exclaimed Osée, smiling and frowning at once.

"Only our distant ancestors experienced the pleasure of eating real food. How would you know about it?" insisted Ananda.

"Tampering with human memory has its perks," laughed Starling. "Jay and I have been through a little too much I guess. Right, dude?" said Starling.

"Don't mind what I've said. I need a good rest, that's all," said Jay.

"We all do," said Kizuna. "And we have twelve hours to do so!"

"We've reached Harvest Point," exclaimed Epos. "Our vessel's going to shift into Powering mode now."

All around them, a deep starry night had replaced the sweet sunset colors on the screendows. The room sank into darkness and tiny blue dots started glowing everywhere. A feeling of relaxation came over the little troop.

"Have a good sleep, my friends," said Starling.

"Til time-distortion," added Jay.

"I feel sooo tired," yawned Ananda.

"Time for rest," whispered Kizuna.

"I don't like resting," mumbled Osée.

Epos rested his head against the back of his armchair, and cast a worried look on the people who had unwillingly become his companions. He stared at Jay for a while, then he took a deep sigh and put on his eye mask.

I hate silence. Stillness frightens me.

Soon the low buzzing sound of the spaceship became the only sign of activity, and the night envelopped them all.