*
Less than a minute before Kain breathed his last breath, Barsch had just entered the train, unaware of the events unfolding above. Instead, he was far more concerned with the events that were happening around him, which mostly consisted of the train refusing to start.
“I do not understand, this should be working!” cried Maloch, in the closest the re-mech had ever come to frustration.
He and Kingston were busying themselves with the train's control panel, which looked like a curved wall filled with dead gauges and dim screens. Alza, on the other hand, had yet to enter the train, and was instead staring at the hallway from which they had emerged.
“Alza, come on! We don't have time to waste!” called Barsch, hoping to snap her out of her daze.
“I can't... Barsch...” Alza said, barely audible. When she turned to face him, Barsch let out a gasp. Tears were streaking down Alza's face. Her emotionless, apathetic face, now reduced to a pained mask framed by two rivulets of sadness.
“I am a monster... and I deserve to die here... with my kind...”
“Alza...” Barsch did not know what to say... he did not even know if there was anything he could say.
“You saw the video. You heard my father. I was grown in a tube. I was raised in a lab. My sole reason for existence was for Dr Emmerfield to see if his precious new species could survive in the outside world. I've completed my mission. I have nothing left... no goal to achieve...”
“That's not true...”
“Then what? Go back with you? Set out on my own? Both are meaningless choices. I no longer have a home to go back to... I no longer have a reason for living.”
Barsch, in a move he would most likely regret, stepped off the train. Alza, through teary eyes, stared at him in confusion. “What are you doing? You have to hurry up and escape.”
“I don't have a home either... not anymore. But that doesn't mean that I can give up on finding a new one. If there is one thing I have learned from what we've been through, it's that where you are coming from doesn't matter. What matters most... is where you want to go. Personally, I want to go somewhere where we can all live together, free from pain...”
With a smile on his face, Barsch reached out and grabbed hold of Alza's hand. Trying his best to sound confident, he declared, “Now, Alza, where do you want to go?”
Alza, in reply, gave another of her beautiful smiles, before answering, “I want to go with you...”
Without another word, Barsch stepped backwards, gently pulling Alza into the safety of the train. She followed, mercifully without resistance. Once she was comfortably seated on one of the train’s plush chairs, Barsch turned his attention to the more pressing matter at hand. Walking forward, he found Kingston and Maloch still staring at the lifeless console, confusion and hopelessness showing on both faces.
“I will not let us be stopped by something as stupid as a flat battery. Alza is finally smiling, we beat the madman, and we found a way out... I will not let us die... not after we've been through so much!”
Without even realising, Barsch had nudged both Kingston and Maloch out of the way, before placing his hands on the dead control panel. In his mind, amongst the desperation and anger, he could feel something squirming to get out. It was like a live wire, thrashing about in his brain, searching for an outlet. Without knowing exactly how he did it, he reached inside his mind, and grabbed hold of the strange sensation. With a great heave, he brought it to the surface, finally satisfying it's ache.
“Barsch? Are you alright m'boy?” Kingston asked, a strange look on his old, wrinkled face.
Barsch suddenly became aware of his actions, and frowned in confusion. The strange sensation had disappeared, but he could still feel it's echo, deep in his mind.
“Kingston!” called Maloch, pointing at the control panel. What had once been a wall of dim buttons and blank screens was now a cornucopia of light and sound. Lights blinked, dials whirred and screens soared into life, as the console slowly came alive.
“How?” asked Kingston, thoroughly stumped.
“Does it really matter?” replied Barsch, although he was equally as perplexed.
“Maloch, please get us out of here!” cried Kingston, shaking his curiosity away as he went to find a seat.
“With pleasure!” answered the re-mech, who was already entering commands at a blistering speed. Seconds later, the doors slid shut with a pneumatic hiss, and the train began to move forward. Following Kingston's example, Barsch found a seat close to Alza's. Staring out of the large window, he could see the facility's terminal quickly recede, as the train built up speed.
It was amazing, to think that so much had changed since his awakening. Meeting Alza, being saved by Kingston, fighting Maloch, seeing the Avatars... each event would stay with him until his last day; and although he had only been searching for a way back into his pod, he was glad things had turned out the way they had. Travelling; fighting; learning; exploring; all were things that he had never expected to experience, and he was thankful for all of them. The road may have been bumpy at times, but he had followed his father's words, and had never given up his stride. He wondered, would his father be proud of-
A sudden, massive roar emanating from the terminal stopped his thoughts in their tracks. From the madman's facility, Dr Emmerfield's last curse had finally taken effect, as the force of the reactor's explosion sent a wall of fire racing down the tunnel. There was no time to prepare, no time to react. The explosion, moving faster than the train could accelerate, slammed into the steel and plastic locomotive with the force of an atomic bomb. With a great shudder, Barsch was catapulted forwards, until his head was stopped, very suddenly, by the rock-hard window. As the darkness filled in his vision, he thought his last thought, “Alza, be safe!”
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