October 13th, 2020
Japanifornia District Detention Center
"I will now hand down my verdict in the case against Simon Blackquill! Guilty as charged!"
It was all over now. Simon was a dead man. But knowing Athena was safe and sound brought him relief. He was sure Metis would understand what he'd done in order to save her daughter.
Even that contemptible Gavin couldn't sour it.
Until he did.
How dare that putrid soul know about his beloved niece's passing before he did?!
Aura rushed to the detention center that evening.
"Aura. I told you. It was I who killed Metis Cykes."
"Simon, listen to me for once!" The thirty year old scientist pounded a few papers onto the table. "She's gone!"
"Welcome back, Aura! Metis has been gone for almost a week!"
"Not Metis! Athena!"
Both Blackquill siblings crumbled at the sound of her name.
"S-she...-she had a seizure after being removed from your trial..." Aura passed the papers to the guard, who handed them to Simon.
The words were almost too much to bear.
Country of Japanifornia Death Certificate
Legal name of deceased - Athena Venus Cykes
Manner of death - Brain death related to traumatic injury; resuscitation failed
Injury type - Homicide related
"T-they believe... she was gone before she hit the ground." Tear marks from Metis' death were refreshed. "S-she was declared insane, Simon..."
He clutched Athena's death certificate to his chest. No, no, no! She'd come so far!
"They took her into the courtroom across the hall, and ran a trial for her on suspicion of insanity. There were some dead spots in her brain, where the surgery had been done..." Aura wheezed and coughed in front of her convict brother, both dissolving faster than they had wished to do in public, "the prosecution identified these dead spots as being in parts of her mind that regulated emotion. They think the stress caused some of the stitches in her skull to split and cause... a hemorrhage. She started acting strange on the stand; twitching, fumbling, Simon, why didn't they notice something was wrong with her? As soon as that gavel came down and she was legally declared insane... she gasped sharply and jerked back. She was gone by the time the bailiff got there." Sudden force swept through Aura's body and she pounded the bulletproof glass with all her might.
The glass came so close to caving into Aura's might. It was built to withstand bullets, but not the grief of a tighter bond than anyone understood. "They were so focused on punishing her for surviving, that they never noticed something was wrong with my baby, Simon! She's gone because all those courts cared about was passing punishment! Athena would be here with me if it wasn't for them and their one-sided rushing!"
"Not here, Aura!" He agreed with her in every sense of the word. They should have whisked Athena right back to the hospital, gotten her back on her medications, hooked up to a CAT scan...
Athena didn't have to die. She walked into the courthouse stable, she was carried out of the courthouse dead.
Her death was hastened entirely by the courts, but that could not be said when a death row convict was in the visitor's room of a prison.
"W-when is Athena's funeral?"
"Just after Metis'. They're going to hold it after sunset, by lantern light."
"Guard!" The guard standing watch over Simon flinched and nearly ran for the hills. "I get one final wish, correct?"
"Pending approval, Inmate Blackquill. You're on death row."
"For my final wish, I want to attend the funeral of Athena Cykes. I want to present the obituary and preside over it."
"That is an extreme wish for one of your position. And what makes you think that will be approved? You murdered the girl's mother and, by association, assaulted the little girl to the point of a fatal wound.
His chair clashed against the concrete floor, black and white fabric rushing out behind him. The breath of the guard fell short, yet Simon did not lay a hand on him. "I confessed to the murder of Metis Cykes only. I plead no association to the incident that dealt young Cykes-dono her fatal wound. Not now, not ever. The only hand I laid on my mentor's daughter on October 7th was the hand that brought her to the ambulance. She would have shared her mother's deathbed had it not been for I! While Metis may have been my mentor, Athena was so much more than just her daughter! She was like my own, and I cared for her as such!"
Hugging the wall with minute strength, the guard nodded. "I will submit your request, and subsequent reasoning, to the department of criminal affairs."
His visit with Aura concluded shortly after. They allowed him to keep the death certificate, as there was nothing that could really benefit him from it and UR-1 related incidents were considered closed since his verdict, but everything else on Aura's person was escorted from the center. The stars seemed to shine brighter tonight than they had the night before. There was an old child's tale that stated souls who were taken too soon became stars to watch over the ones they were forced to leave behind. Such a tale was never fitting to the rigorous standards of psychology... but nothing else fit Athena so well and so completely. Before he could use the tactics of psychology on himself to stop such foolish behavior, Simon was meticulously scanning the sky for the singular star that harbored Athena's singular soul. Though it was not a new star, the North Star, Polaris as that young, black-haired lad (Clay Terran, was it?) had gushed about only a week before Metis' passing, was glowing so much brighter tonight. That's when it hit him.
Athena was his Polaris, his North Star. She guided his actions no matter the darkness, and she lit up such brightness by just being Athena.
"I see even death is not going to keep you from me for very long, huh Athena?" The weight of Athena's death was crashing down on him harder than his numbered days now, his mouth began to bleed from how he bit back his tears. "Your mother keeping you out of trouble? How's it feel to finally be able to see people without their emotions crashing through your head?" Memories of Athena buckling her knees and clutching her head, crying out in pain from her special power, flooded his mind. He was her favorite safe place. She knew that if the emotions of the world became too much, all she had to do was run to the coat of her Uncle Simon and hide away as he worked on his reports. Seeing her frightened eyes light up when he turned from his papers to present her an insignificant box of apple juice was a genre of memory he never wanted to fade.
"One day, Athena... even if it's the last thing I ever do in this world...-"
"-I'm going to show them all just what you're made of!'