"The lights in the sky, are stars."

The wind howls through the great wastes that once were something, but now are simply wide expanding deserts. Flatlands dried by sun and scarred by craters. It was a lonely place, Kid thought, the wind had told him that all his life. But every now and then, when he would stop for sandstorms or just to rest, hidden away in a crag or a cave on a side of a barren mountain, he would look up. Colors that weren't dead and dried, had painted the sky. The Milky way. It had lived up to its name at times like these. “The lights,.” He would whisper to himself, as his eyes all but sank into the ever expanding heavens.

Morning would come, the sun would rise and blaze in Kids eyes. He would give a heavy sigh, as he slid his tinted goggles down, slung on his bag, and began walking again. To where he never knew, but would always at some point come across ruins. Cities and towns buried in dust and wind. Houses he would pass by, stood only by their foundations. Some still had the couches, beds, and cribs that were kept in them. Kid spent the night in a bed once, he wondered if this is how they once slept. He had slept in all the beds, the couchs, and even the cribs, which proved challenging.

Now though, he wanders through cities, no longer curious about how and where people used to sleep. Today, he rummages through junkyards, trash, old mechanical bodies that littered the offices of the fallen towers. “The lights,” he would repeat to himself, as he picked through piles of scrap he put together, and attempted to boot up old computers. Everything from the lost age, had run on small tube-like sources of power. In a computer, it could be kept on for decades. He knew what had them, and what didn't. Clicking a button here, sliding a slide there, the tube would pop out and Kid put a handful in his bag. He climbed out of the shattered windows of the tower that had fallen long before, half buried by a mountain of sand. He wandered back through the city, back through the houses, and the wastes. Through a small town, where at the very edge, a station still stood. Kid was told once that the stations were repurposed, before they would pump gas in vehicles as their fuel, then after that they had charged the inner batteries for the more advanced models. It was run down, but he made it his home. The store floor was emptied of all the food and drinks long ago, so he had organized his assorted piles of junk on each of the shelves. The back room was his favorite part, he had made it his workshop. Over the years he has collected all the tools necessary to revitalize broken computers and machines, and so he did. In each and everyone, was a story. Some had pictures of people with no clothes, Kid had always wondered why but never knew. Many had random things, graphs, numbers, files of an array of information. Many more had small little virtual games installed, so he would play them for a little while, but not for long. He had beat every single one he had found. Every once in a while, he would “treasure”. Home videos of families, and friends. Whose they were, remained a secret somewhere deep in the ancient world sleeping deep under the wastes. He kept every one he found in a special case. He would watch them for hours, sometimes days. The fathers and mothers sharing moments with their sons and daughters. In one the father pretended to be a glorious mount for the children, and would nay like a horse would. “Stars,” he would say, as he grinned at their faces, reaching out his fingers to graze against the screen. That night, he went to sleep, something he hadn't done for a long time. He woke up to the morning sun, and looking at his hand made a tight fist. He felt slow, so it was time to go out once more, and scavenge. He strapped on his gear, and headed out. Back through the city once more, what its name was he couldn't recall. Going past the building he looted the other day, to another side of town he had noted may have more tubes. In a dilapidated market once filled with many kinds of abandoned computers and technology, he finds some tubes. He made a face, for each one didn't have much power, and there was no way to charge them.

Outside somewhere there were thunderous roars, they shook the ground with explosive strength. There were two waves of noise, but any noise convinced Kid to throw himself into hiding. Soon they were just outside. Then he heard a hard crashing impact, the smashing of steel and glass, and only one thunderous voice remained. It went past and came back around, before being silenced. Peeking out over the windows, he saw the makeshift car wrapped around a street light. The other was full of men, and each of the four doors opened out. A woman struggled with the car door, but managed to force it open, stumbling out. “No!” she screamed as she saw the men, slowly walking towards her. She reached back in the passenger seat and snatched up her child, who cried violently. Kid wanted to escape, to get away, he wasn't meant to be there. But before he could move, his eyes latched onto them. Metallic things he remembers from some of the videos he had seen. Ones that spat out metal, and were used in war. Once the weapons had been seen, it began to take control. It was in some way a god and a devil. Kid never knew what it's name was, but he was afraid, and avoided everything that seemed to awaken it. It was cold, and unfeeling, the embodiment of the technology man had once worshipped for so long. It had slept, until now, when the scent of war and blood had fouled the air. Kid had kept It locked away, and held it down, but It was inevitable. One of the men had pulled his gun, and shot the mother as she shielded her little girl. The hostiles had been confirmed. There was much that kept the two from meeting again, all but one thing. Now the moment had not only brought them together but collided the two. He gave a shrieking battlecry, and It gave a reddish light in his eye, a menacing frosty glow. Its speed was unmatched, dashing at the assailant, swatting him away with force, embedding him in the back of the crashed car. The other three had become stunned for a moment, and in that moment It had already attacked another, launching it's fist and bludgeoning his flesh. Blood and pieces flew and organs had burst. The man who had stood a ways back by their car, drew his gun, but It always had the solution. It grabbed the third man, and his flesh caught the bullets. He was promptly thrown aside once the gun had emptied, exactly how It said the gun would. Pinned to the ground, the man begs for surrender. "Wait stop, I give up, please don't kill me!". Kid freezes with his fist held ready, holding back his monstrous possessor. Moments go by as they both breath hard, as Kid struggles with his demon, and the man with his next move. He had a contraption built as a bracer on his arm, pointing it at Kid, he fires. The bullet shatters. Under skin and blood, a body shelled in shining metal is unraveled from it's shredded flesh bag. The bullet ate through his eye, which was genuine and burst, and his right cheek. The man is petrified, seeing what seemed like a mere boy, take a gunshot to the head and live. Kid however, was horrified. His fingers brushed the metal, and the emptied socket. The two lost something in that moment, both Kid and it. For the first time they came together, Kid in his fury, and it in his strength. Slowly, they planted their hands on the man's face. Sliding their thumbs into his eyes, he began to panic. " W-wait, no! I'm sorry!". It was too late for apologies. Both of them were crying out, as they pressed down further, and further, jabbing into the skull. With a crunch, and a split, blood exploded from him, painting Kids face red.

Many moments had passed since and he had sat there for all of them. It had seen the job finished and left once it was over, crawling back within the depths. Within which of them, was a question Kid had asked himself as he felt his wound. He thought he knew what it was to feel cold, until now. As bloody flesh was exposed to the dirty gusts of wind that blew through the faded streets of the old world, he shielded them with his hand, and gripped at his jacket as his chest began to ache. He felt like a wounded creature, and had gotten up to go back home, to the safety of his workshop, and his looted videos. “Wait.” Kid stopped, and turned. He saw the woman bleeding out on the littered street, holding on to her child, who slept soundly after crying out so hard for so long. Blood had flowed from her lips, she had choked on some. “ Please, my baby...she needs help, please,”. Kid had this look of distaste, and anger. He marched up, and bending over, he screamed at her. He screamed until he was out of breath, until all he had was tears rolling from his last eye. Through the screams and the anger, the woman's eyes could see a dangling heart shaped locket from his neck. They glistened with familiarity. Despite the blood, the pain, and the loss of feeling, a smile had cracked across her face. “It's nice to finally meet you, Kid.” The name had stopped time. The name from a time so long ago, when the world was ending. A name that came from a special person, as a gift. A voice within him confirmed it, and the two were a match. This was Makers granddaughter, and the child, his great grand baby. He collapses on his glutes, and looks at the two, enveloped by nostalgia. “Would you take care of her? For me? Or at least for him?”.

She lifts the girl up weakly, and almost drops her as Kid catches the two. He lets the mother down softly. Kid holds the child tightly with his other arm. The mother closes her eyes and begins to drift. Kid had felt nervous, and was ready to leave. “Sweet boy, I'm so sorry. I know the weight you bear. Whatever you decide, know that we will never blame you.” he gave one last look, but she was gone, drifting away to someplace. The Maker had said once, that people who die go to heaven. But the way they had written heaven, paled in comparison, to the place the stars called home. With the child, he ventured back into his station, and packed. He prepared himself, making sure he installed the tubes he tore from the car within himself. Kid had prioritized two things, finding a new home with the girl, and getting supplies, which was more difficult now with a mouth to feed. To get food and water, would mean visiting the last vestiges of humanity, travelling through many towns and cities repurposed for the survivors of the end. Kid had looked at the girl, who couldn't have been older than three, and had thought of leaving her somewhere to fend for herself. Should he even let a girl live to suffer in a world like this? By taking the girl he had made a promise, and a promise he would keep for the sake of the Maker, for the Maker was a father of more than his own family. For the Maker was the reason Kid had never made his most important decision, until now. Yesterday had convinced him of what he had to do, but as walked alongside the Makers great granddaughter, she looked at him with a clueless smile. She didn't know about what happened to her mother, and she wouldn't for a long time. Five years would pass as they passed through each village, town, and settlement there was. They had finally reached the coast, and for the first time, Kid laid his eye on the ocean. It embodied the sweetness of the purple and orange colors. He saw stars almost as beautiful as those above them, dancing among its shifting and calming surface. “The lights.” he said, choking on tears. By now the girl understood what his few words had meant, and so she gave him the widest smile, and in her eyes Kid had seen the stars, for the third time. but the moment was not long. shouts and screams sounded out from the distance, the direction back to town. In their travels, the two had met those who had grown afraid of Kid. Only few truly knew his purpose, but many have feared him because of it. The two exchanged looks. there was nowhere else to go, no town had lived on top of the water. The girl panics as she sees soldiers run towards them. "we need to leave! we have to go! they are coming!" she cried.

Kid answered her with the warmest smile. kneeling down, holding her by the arms, foreheads kissing, the only words he had managed to speak from his mouth, a recording made the Maker himself, the very last piece of his past, the keys to humanity's future. "The lights in the sky, are stars." rivers of tears flooded from her eyes. Kid removed his locket and laid it on her. the soldiers reach them, and begin to yank Kid away, restraining him. Despite the force they used, his last gift could be heard, uttered from his mouth. "Goodbye, Lily." A gift not unlike the one he was given, so long ago. She had chased after them, but was buffeted by the soldiers. they strung him up, hands bound on a large post. she told them all no, but they didn't care, or couldn't. the resounding clack of guns echoed. They were ready. Kid looked up at the sky, dusk was coming to an end, and the stars crept out from the darkness, witnesses to the decision of Kid, the last of the redeemers. "So what will you do, kid?" Kid had been returned to a time and place, before he was cast away into the wastes. "Destroy the world or save it?" The Maker asked. in Kids mind, It had whispered destruction. Looking back at him, in Lily's eyes, he grins. "It was never my decision." his chest rips open, revealing mechanical functions which produced a green glow. the glow exploded, blanketing the world in its revitalizing glow. The wastes he once called home, had become grassy as they once were centuries ago. Forests had returned, as well as the creatures that lived in them, the world had been resurrected from the state of decay. The soldiers never had the chance to shoot. They stood and looked at the life that was given back, shocked, and moved. All but Lily, were reinvigorated by the planet's revival. Slowly she walked up to Kids empty husk. She mourned. It was then the people knew that it was never what they had destroyed, but who. Many gathered, kneeling to pray, and thank the ambiguous divine body that was both Kid and the one who had sent him. They however were human, and will always forget, but Lily will remember. For years she will remember, and will pass on the gifts to her children and their children. Old, wrinkled, and gray, to the grandchildren in her lap, she would recite the words. “The lights in the sky are stars.”