End

Sumire and Rion slumped back while in their hibernation state. Their bodies were previously suspended in stasis, and the memory fragment's power waned away into the atmosphere. Little specks and fragments of the already existing memory fragment vanished into the air, never to return to light again. And the memory world that was created to establish harmony through one's mind had disappeared.

"Sumire!" Lucine spoke, catching Sumire in her arms as she fell back. "Wake up! Wake up!"

Her eyes opened slowly once more, just like she did in the memory world. Sumire's wounded body could hardly move. She pressed against her head as she laid back. Lucine dragged her and retreated several steps away to give her more air to think and breathe. Her head pulsated in quivering pain after being subjected to the white monochromatic universe that she imagined. She could not even determine whether or not it was real.

In the current reality, however, Sumire and Lucine were both defenseless. Sumire's nanosuit inside the memory world was nothing but a figment of her imagination. Lucine clutched Sumire tightly as she shook her side to side. With worried eyes, Lucine gasped after witnessing what remained in front of them. Sumire watched as well.

"This is not over..." Rion's weak voice blurted out. The wound that Sumire created inside the memory world appeared in reality. His chest was spurting blood down his shirtless body. However, armed with his knife, he sluggishly pulled himself forward towards Sumire and Lucine as the embodiment of inevitable death. His face eventually regained total control with his mind, and his irises dilated and shrunk after wanting nothing but Sumire and Lucine to erase. "I'll kill you..." Rion whispered.

"Get back..." Sumire ordered Lucine, pushing herself forward. "Get out of here."

"No, stop!" Lucine cried. "Let's go together! That's what you wanted, isn't it? Don't do this!"

Rion did not stop moving with the knife. He was only steps from ending Sumire's life at last. "I will kill you... crush you... destroy you...! Because you're wrong... Sumire! I am not alone! There are more like me who will avenge all that I have done...!"

Sumire closed her eyes one final time. Lucine's cries and screams muffled in her ears. A flash of light emitted through her mind, signaling heaven's entrance to its gates.

"Sumire...!" Lucine cried one final time, bellowing her heart out with tears streaming down her face.

"Sumire." Ryo's voice came through in the middle of the beach sunset.

"Sumire." Claude's chuckle came through with a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice in hand.

"Sumire!" The members of Sunlight greeted her as she entered through the main door with groceries. Naoto, Jinni, Nana, Rose Accel, Akai, Rux, and Claude all greeted her near the steps with a welcoming cake. Even Natia, whose usual brash attitude condemned their friendship, grinned slightly with confidence.

"I'm proud of you." Sumire's mother rang through as the final voice toward the gateway to heaven.

Sumire's eyes opened one last time. She used the last of her strength to smile one last time before death took her away.

If I could hurl the stars... then I'd want you there with me.

"Die...!" Rion's death cry voiced out with his knife piercing toward Sumire's lifeless, accepted body.

Yet, before Rion could even stab forward, his face collided with an invisible force. Something shoved him back, rendering him confused and disoriented. Sumire blinked rapidly and noticed an invisible figure standing in front of her, camouflaged with the help of a nanosuit. The sunrise's rays made the figure visible from her point of view, but she could not quite make out who it was.

Rion did not see it. He used his left hand to press against the camouflaged figure, touching what seemed like the chest of a nanosuited individual. As soon as the figure revealed itself, it was too late. A towering man wearing a chemical-green nanosuit armed with a prototype version of Lucine's crimson gunblade gently shoved Rion back toward the cliffs.

Sumire and Lucine aimlessly gazed at the figure from far away.

Rion charged forward with his knife, clashing it with the figure's gunblade. Without any effort at all, the figure sliced the knife away into the cliff's abyss. He shoved Rion back once again with his shoulder and brought the gunblade toward his hip. As Rion shouted once more to mangle the camouflaged man, the figure penetrated through Rion's stomach with the gunblade.

Rion choked on his blood; his throat closed up, and all he could see were the stars alight above his head calling for his name. He exerted his final breath.

"You are alone, Rion," The deep manly voice noted with Lucine's gunblade still pierced through Rion's stomach. "She was right, and you were wrong."

Rion's mouth opened slightly, and all that was left of him was a final grin after confirmation of Sumire's truthful words. His eyes rolled back into his brain, and his final words escaped through.

"I see... then... Aries..." He voiced out. The figure sliced the gunblade through Rion's side. The figure maintained their position as Rion eventually fell off of the cliffs with a sea of blood rippling through the atmosphere along with him. His corpse eventually tumbled down through the mountainous rocks and splattered within a riverbank, gone for eternity.

Sumire's cold blood froze entirely after watching the unknown figure slice through the air to clean the blood off of Lucine's gunblade. He lifted his head so that the sunrise reflected off of his shadowy silhouette. From behind, Sumire instantly recognized the figure's hat and straps dangling from his ears. He slowly turned around and saw Maven, adorned in a green nanosuit, drop the gunblade to his side.

"Zack?" Lucine's voice trembled out from behind Sumire.

"What-" Sumire turned her head back to watch Lucine on her knees crying. She turned back toward Maven and witnessed him removing his aviator hat and goggle. He tossed it down the cliffs behind him, revealing his silvery wind-swept hair and crystalline blue eyes. His face was finally revealed to Sumire, not only as of the one who played the role of Maven intentionally but as the one who rescued her and provided her with the necessary tools to survive in Sagittarius.

Sumire's eyebrows drooped down. She understood now. She understood why he could not reveal his true identity. Without another word, Sumire only watched him from afar as Lucine clutched onto Sumire's shoulders.

Zack's face was riddled with embarrassment and regrets after looking deep within Sumire's eyes for the first time. A radiant aura of trust and hope emitted from his face as he took a single step forward. His eyes never retracted away from looking deep within Sumire's amber eyes. Lucine watched the both of them stare each other down in mystery.

"This was why," Zack revealed, clasping his lips together with his mouth. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

Her dream of the sunset vista sprawling on the beach came to life after meeting her eyes with his. That man in the very back... was true all along. Her heart quivered and fumbled, skipping beats rapidly as time passed. Her cheeks blossomed in dark-red circles dimmed by her utter embarrassment and cruel nature. The rosiness of her personality began to erupt within her soul, but all that came out was tears of regret.

"Sumire?" Zack whispered as he kneeled toward her. "Are you okay?"

I love you, he previously said. Was that all true? Or was that just a deception to blend in? She didn't know. She didn't want to know. She closed her eyes and wiped a single tear from her left eye. Lucine held her tightly from behind after being reunited with her deepest companion and ally.

Sumire giggled after wiping her final tear. "What am I supposed to say...?" She voiced out, keeping laughs in between her words.

"You could say okay," Zack said, raising his palm out for Sumire's hand. "Or you could wait until later."

Sumire broke out into laughter after holding Zack's hand tightly. He lifted her off of the ground with Lucine wrapped around her arm. From behind the rocky cliffs where Sumire battled Rion, another twinkling star came alight. Sumire turned around and waved at her brother, who came in the worst of all times to ensure his sister was safe.

Ryo's confident smile brought life back into Sumire's weakened body. She turned back toward the sunrise and realized that it was not heaven waiting for him, but her future. After laughing her final remarks, Sumire stepped forward toward Ryo with her hand clasped tightly into Zack's grasp.

Shut up... I'm done waiting...