Devoid of it

Soon the shuttle reached the Monolith. As they came closer they could see the monolith beneath them. It was just as strange and bizarre as the reports. They could also see the bodies of the researchers and other personnel in the vicinity.

Kita's brows firmed up as soon as he saw all the bodies lying down. His suspicion was correct. Either all of them were unconscious, or Dead.

"Take the helm, I'm going down.", Kit said as he removed his seat belt and got up from his seat.

His sudden moments alarmed the other pilot. He quickly said.

"Shouldn't we look for an area to land the shuttle?"

"Don't waste your time, this area was already scanned by the previous teams. There's no where to safely land the shuttle. Just stay in the air. I'll go down first. And figure out a way to get the shuttle landed. We need to bring them back." He said with an unfazed tone which made it sound like he didn't care about the researchers at all. Like it was all just another Monday. But they knew what was at stake. They knew that Dr. Kita wasn't unfazed at all. He was just good at controlling his emotions.

Dr. Kita moved towards the hatch of the shuttle. It was a smaller shuttle than the Yuki. But still big enough for logistical missions. Kita moved to the vacuum sealed compartment and opened up the hatch to the outside.

The shuttle was stable and was hovering above the area. He could just jump out of it. And jump out he did. He opened up a control on his comm before jumping out of the shuttle.

The shuttle was quite high up in the air, but that wasn't helping. With the high gravity of the planet. His fall would only be hastened if he didn't do anything. But Kita wasn't just free falling.

With his comm, he began to control the output of the anti-gravity backpack. It allowed him to slowdown his descent to the ground to a manageable level. It used a huge amount of energy in the process, But Kita didn't care about that right now. As soon as he got closer to the ground, he began to look around while slowing down his descent further. His eyes frantically looked around the area of the monolith. He was only looking for one thing and one thing only. Within all the vac-suit covered bodied of the researchers, there was only one that he wanted to see right now. Soon, it came into his view. He quickly hastened his descent and got as close to her as possible before landing with a thud. He began to ran towards her as soon as his feet touched the ground.

He could finally see her. He could see how she was. That was all that mattered to her. As he kept running towards her, realization began to gradually dawn upon him. The more closer he got, the more slow all of it felt. He gradually felt his knees weaken. More and More.

When he reached her. His legs felt like twigs. Unable to support him. His body crashed to the ground like a sack. He looked at her. His eyes? Red.

He extended his hands, picking her up in his arms. He felt all his energy drain out of his body. He couldn't get himself to pick her up. He didn't want to.

Tears rolled uncontrollably. Nothing anyone could say or do would help right now.

In his arms, he held the love of his life. Only, devoid of it. He had seen what happened to her with his own eyes. Yet, powerless to stop it. He couldn't do anything for her when she needed him the most. He couldn't be there when she NEEDED HIM THE MOST.

And it killed him. It felt as if someone took his heart out and chopped it up a thousand pieces.

The Vac-suit had removed all the blood and other fluids from the helmet. It allowed kita a view of her face.

As pristine as the last time he saw her. Yet, with an void in her greater than any black hole ever seen.

"Helen….. How could you do leave me… How could you???", Kita whispered gently. He held her firm in his arms. Yet, Delicate as a feather. He was afraid of hurting her. He held her gentler than a newborn first time in it's mother's arms.

All the energy had left his voice. He wanted to scream, he wanted to call out to her. Yet, his voice wouldn't let him.

He hugged her. Still as gentle as ever. He didn't even attempt to control his emotions. He laid bare all he had and all he was feeling right then and there.

He whispered to her.

"Honey, I'm Sorry."

"I'm sorry too."

Kita perked up. For a moment he felt like he could hear her. With hope filled eyes, he looked at her. Nothing. There was nothing.

"Helen… Honey… Honey!!! HELEN!" Kita screamed with the last of his breath. He just wanted a response. Anything would do. He waited eagerly for any sign from her. But that sign…. never came. She was as silent as the vast space.

Kita lost track of time, as he held her body in his arms, Hours had probably gone by. sitting on an alien planet. The planet that was responsible for taking away everything he held dear.

He was angry. He was angry at the circumstances that lead to this situation. He was angry at the monolith. He was angry at everyone that was responsible for this situation. Most of all. He was angry at himself. He didn't identify the threat of the monolith. He didn't warn her in time. If he had paid more attention to the reports. Maybe.. Just Maybe…

He blamed himself for everything. He felt responsible for everything. He blamed himself for Helen's death. If there was anything in this universe that would let him bring her back. He wouldn't even think for a moment before making the trade. Even if it meant the rest of humanity might perish, he still would bat an eye.

Alas. Nothing he knew about could bring back the dead. He felt so helpless that he wanted to die right here and now. He wanted to die with her. In her arms. That was the death he deserved. He wanted to die right now.

He moved to detach his helmet. He didn't want to live in a world without her. His suit began to warn as soon as he unsealed his helmet. He moved his hands to remove the helmet altogether. But before he could do that. A hand moved in from behind to stop his.