Malik is crying and Sophie is crying but she can't figure out why. The tightness in her chest that had lingered harmlessly for so long strengthens and there's a ringing in her ears that's both quiet and deafening at the same time and it hurts and Sophie cries harder.
"Captain? Wh-wh-why-" Sophie's choking on her words and she's confused. Why won't they come out the way I want them to? Why am I- "-why won't Kurt wake up? I told him- I told him he has to come back, you need him but he isn't- he isn't opening his eyes!" The last few words are gravelly with desperation.
Malik turns his eyes to her and there's something harsh and cold and sad reflecting in them and Sophie can't piece together what it is.
"He isn't coming back Sophie. He's… he's dead."
"Dead… but I came back. I was dead but I came back. Can't Kurt come back too?" Malik closes his eyes and the frigid air erases the tear tracks on his face.
"No Sophie. He's gone on. To a better place than this."
"But he's still here! He just won't open his eyes. He can't have gone… he's-" she's choking again "-he's still here! Look Captain!" Sophie shakes his shoulder and points a trembling finger at Kurt's body.
"That's not Kurt Sophie."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"That was merely his vessel. Kurt was the words he spoke, and the emotions he felt, and the things he did and the impacts he made on the people around him. The body wilts, but the spirit lives on."
"Lives on…"
"High, high above the clouds. In a place where there's no war, and no starvation, and no one ever has to suffer. The lines that divide Fendelians and Strahtans and Windorians disappear. No one ever runs out of cryas, and everyone can get a drink of water, and bloodlines don't matter and revolutions aren't necessary. Paradise."
"Paradise…" And Sophie wonders if she can ever go to Paradise. To a haven for spirits that live on, even when her spirit doesn't seem to want to leave. What if I die again? What if I die again and again and again and my spirit is too weak so I always come back and I never leave because-
Malik's hand on her shoulder jerks her back to ice cold freezing reality. He doesn't look at her, but she can see it and she smiles through the tears.
Even if I never leave, I will find more people to protect. More people like Asbel and Hubert and Cheria and Pascal and the Captain and Richard.
My friends will be my Paradise.