We sat side by side with Xue Gie and the others at the dark balcony walkway, holding hands and looking up at the starry sky. Just like the countless times when we had sat along the city wall in Noah City, looking up at the bright moon in the sky. But now, there was only a clear moon in the night sky tonight.
“I never expected that both of you would be Queens now!” Sis Cannon said, gazing at Xiao Ying and I in envy. There was an envious light in Xue Gie’s eyes too.
On the other side, Raffles, Harry, Joey and Sia were with Williams, Bill and the others. They were having a bottle of fruit wine each, chatting and laughing. It had been a while since everyone had reunited.
Xiao Ying lifted her chin smugly, saying, “You will all be Queens if you come to Radical Star.”
“You know we can’t…” Sis Cannon replied in disappointment. “We can’t leave Noah. Regardless if it was in the past or in the future, it is our home…” Sis Cannon turned to Xue Gie. Xue Gie didn’t have much of an expression. She pointed at her heart, saying, “Noah is rooted in our hearts. We can’t leave.”
Xiao Ying was disappointed, looking at them. She suddenly became quiet too. She was hardly ever that quiet. She was always high-spirited as though she had booster jabs.
“What’s wrong, Xiao Ying?” I held her shoulder.
She glanced at me then at Sis Cannon and Xue Gie, before sighing, “There are only four of us left in Doomsday Rose. Ming You and Arsenal are not here…”
Xue Gie and Sis Cannon suddenly turned awkward. I smiled, looking at them as I reassured them, “I’m okay now. We can head back to Noah City first when everything ends here.”
“Really?!” Sis Cannon and Xue Gie wore bright smiles again. Sis Cannon let out a hearty laughter, patting my back. She said, “It’s great that you can let go of the grudge between you and Arsenal! Lil Bing, Elder Alufa misses you a lot! He has been nagging that Lil Bing will definitely come back.”
“Plus, he’s been nagging more often lately…” Xue Gie seemed worried.
I held their hands and leaned closer to them. “I will go back. Even in the future, I’ll visit…”
We held each other in a group hug under the serene moonlight. Just like in the past, we hugged each other while a special warmth engulfed us, chasing away the lonely chilliness…
When dawn was coming, He Lei brought me to the city wall of Silver Moon City. Sayee stood quietly in the dark, hanging her head low.
There was no more Silver Moon City and Cang Yu had died. There was no need to put Sayee on trial or to punish her. To Sayee, Silver Moon City was her home and Cang Yu was her creator.
“Thank you for seeing me. Are you really not going to ask me anything?” Sayee asked with her head hung low.
I gazed at her calmly, saying simply, “Start a new life, Sayee.”
Sayee looked down at the ground mindlessly. “I have been living for a communicator all my life. All my missions came from the other side of the communicator. Suddenly, you killed the person on the other side…” She wore a very faint, almost unnoticeable smile. She continued, “I can finally live for myself.” She turned her back to us and stood there in silence. Finally, she turned slightly and added, “North Star, I admire you but you killed all of my kind. They are not robots. They are just like me. They have sounds after activation. You were supposed to save them just like how you saved me, and give them a chance to live. You should have become our North Star too…” She turned and walked forward into the boundless darkness before us.
I stood on the spot, dumbfounded. Sayee… Is she like Chaksu… But she looked like a real person…
The darkness at the end of the horizon was torn apart by a string of golden light and Sayee’s figure gradually faded in the glaring light…
“Bing, don’t mind what Sayee said. You did the right thing. Ice Dragon thinks that he is a human too but he is just an AI,” He Lei said, placing his hand gently on my shoulder.
“No… It’s my fault… It’s not blood flowing in them so I didn’t view them as humans…” I felt a buzz in my head and it was rapidly swelling. I hated Hagrid Jones for belittling lives, but in the end it turned out that I was just like him.
“Bing…”
“I want to be alone…” I pushed He Lei’s hand off and walked forward with heavy footsteps. I could have let the hybrid humans live, but I had melted them in the capsules like failed experiments in the end. I felt so heavyhearted that I couldn’t walk further. I felt a hefty sin weighing on me, just like the first time I had killed the spirits in Kro.
Slowly, I sat down on the barren land, watching the pale light woo the surrounding darkness. I watched the red sun rise from the horizon, growing blurry before it turned into a blurry golden light that drowned me within it…
I stood in Valley Dust Ruin, and saw familiar faces. They all looked at me with a smile, surrounding me. I looked around at them happily while they held hands around me. The adults were holding the children, the husbands holding their wives, the guys holding their girlfriends and the girls holding their best friends. They were all smiling at me.
“Lil Bing, thank you for responding to our call to send us off. We feel honored to have you send us off. This is perfect.”
I glanced at them confusedly, asking in reply, “Send you off? What’s going on?”
They exchanged satisfied smiles with one another.
“It’s time, Lil Bing. We have to go. See you…” They suddenly disappeared one after another before me. Like shattered starlight, they faded before me bit by bit.
“No! No!” I pounced at them but only grabbed a handful of shattered starlight. Why is this happening? Why?!
“Lil Bing, we shall leave Jun in your hands!” Suddenly, I heard Jun’s father shouting from behind. I quickly turned and saw West Port. Before me, a thin layer was separating me and West Port.
Jun’s parents and the other scientists waved at me from the other side of the layer. “We passed all the data to Raffles. It is really time. Our destiny should have ended sixty years ago. It was the blue crystal energy stones that had frozen our time. Now that you can go forward, we have to go forward too…”
“No! Why? Why?!” I ran towards the thin layer. The moment I crashed through the layer, Jun’s parents and the scientists turned into starlight and soared into the high sky like golden bubbles.
I woke up in tears, greeted by brilliant morning sunlight.
It is the arrival of a new world and a new life. Why is my heart so sorrowful?
Suddenly, someone hugged me. In my blurry vision, I saw Jun who was crying, equally in pain, and Zong Ben who stood next to him. I buried myself in Jun’s arms and cried with him in the warm sunlight.
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