October 15th, 2020

Central Los Kyoto Cemetery

~~~~

Athena Venus Cykes was born on March 15th, 2009 in Los Kyoto, Japanifornia. She was a light to the staff of the Cosmos Space Center preceding her untimely death on October 13, 2020 as a result of complications following brain surgery. She is preceded in death by her mother, Metis Cykes, and survived by her aunt, Aura Blackquill, uncle Simon Blackquill, and sister and brother in spirit, Ponco and Clonco. She was loved dearly while on this earth, and will be greatly missed.

Fly high, little angel.

The lanterns had been lit, and the family and friends of the Cykes had gathered around a small temporary gazebo that had been set up by the graveside.

Simon bit his tongue so hard and so long it might fall off as he tried to choke back his tears enough to finish the procession. Athena deserved that much.

His obituary was only a mere four sentences, but it was all he could put down on the page summarizing the short life of an eleven year old girl that was never able to leave the center.

It was enough for all who knew her.

It was enough for him.

A few of his friends were scattered among the staff, coming to mourn the child Simon had spoken so highly of in between bouts of studious silence. Thick chains wrapped themselves around his wrists, providing another layer to the ever-thicker onion of their grief.

Athena was dead.

Metis was dead.

And he was in jail.

For their deaths.

His sister lay at the wreath placed by Simon's feet, sobbing profusely as weeps and wails consumed her and spread out through the flowers and grass beneath her. Violet hair, once tied up in tight antennae like bundles now swept out like an untamed river onto these flowers and grass. It shielded her face, her tears and her self-inflicted wounds that came from her initial agony and despair. He felt worse for her than he did for himself, or either of the two dearly departed they mourned today. She was thirty years of age and had just lost everyone.

While Metis and Athena were at peace now together, she was all alone. Her family was gone.

Though desperation was beginning to fray their relationship, the truth remained he was proud of his elder sister for her strength in dark times.

A year ago, the most upright of attorneys was convicted of presenting forged, illegal evidence in the trial of a premeditated murder.

The Phoenix had fallen, and the defense bench burned with his final flames.

Now a prosecutor stood on death row, convicted of murdering his mentor and drenched in the blood of her daughter.

The courts were facing backlash similar to the agony Aura and him experienced on Athena's first night in heaven. Just on a much larger, more devastating scale.

The courts, the judges, attorneys and prosecutors were in danger now. The murder of a dying magician and the untimely death of an eleven-year old girl had swiftly destroyed hundreds of years of legal proceedings. While these violent outbursts may calm down with time, one thing remained clear.

With the fall of the legal system, Japanifornia was a more dangerous place for all.

"Athena was unlike any other person I've ever met. Not only was she more sensitive to others than trained adults, she had a passionate love for everyone who crossed paths with her; no matter whether they were human, animal or robot. Her loss is a tragedy, but Athena would not be sitting here crying uselessly. She would use the love her loved ones left behind to give away, to understand the pain of others with her own. An era of the Space Center ends with her and Metis, but we must not forget what they would have done with the time we still have. Metis would better the emotional recognition of the robot guards, Athena would present handwritten notes and self-supplied snacks to random visitors and staff who she sensed needed a kind of help they could not explain. At eleven and confined at home due to her unique situation, Athena changed our world more than the famous with a heart purer than rainfall and a spirit brighter than the full moon that shines over us tonight. Compared to most of you, she was in my life for the shortest amount of time, but she still stole my heart in a way to where she was just as much family as my sister, Aura. I am proud, for as long as I live, to call Athena my niece. I hope that you all too, will dedicate a part of yourself to her memory."

Oh, Athena! Ponco and Clonco began to cry tearlessly. Not you too! What will we do without Mommy Metis and our sister, Athena?! Who will bandage us up and ensure our wellbeing?

Aura pounded the stage in front of her, grabbing onto the robotic creations who were the last remains of the Cykes, howling into the night.

It was darker now than it had been when Metis was laid to rest, and darker than the night Athena joined her.

Clay was only a student, not even a staff member, but the grief that swept over him was just as great as Athena's closest. Even his strange little friend with the two horns was moved and dabbing his eyes aggressively as he grieved someone he never knew.

How cruel the world was, that the life of a sheltered little girl could so abruptly end just before a triumph her family all wished she could see?

Aura was going to take her to the moon launch like a parent would accompany their child to a baseball game, watching Athena's awestruck, sparkling eyes as the engines roared to life while one of the technicians would sneak a microphone into her hands to talk to Solomon and wish him luck.

Metis was going to take them all out for lunch, a fancy Japanese restaurant still casual enough for little Athena, and the four of them would remark on how far their family had come from Aura's first day at the space center: when she was assigned a doctor of psychology as her partner, to Simon being brought on board and introduced to the most precious child the world would ever know.

He was going to sneak into Athena's bedroom that night after Metis had "put her to bed" and tickle her unexpectedly until she gripped his nose and giggled in that shrill way she does, "I love you, Uncle Simon!" before kissing him on the cheek and snuggling down with her plush lucky cat; sleeping in the innocent glow of the stars her family studied.

That was never happening. His final memories of her would be those glazed eyes and the blood spilling from her brain.

Metis never graced them with a thoughtful meal again, her pierced heart destroying all appetites. Their shared memories, from colleagues to friends to family, were swept away by her blood.

Athena didn't laugh the last few days of her life, the last "I love you" he got from her muddled from the fight she was losing. That lucky cat sits cold on her even colder bed, wondering what happened to its loving owner.

Athena's little hand slipped.

And she let go of the fight for her life.

That instant when she let go,

Everything ended.

Forever.

He wished he'd never heard those words.

He wished he'd never seen those words.

His being drowned in grief, howling out in a similar, more erratic manner than Aura clawing at the cemetery ground. Tell me... tell me it's all a lie. A cruel joke. Tell me... she's anywhere else but gone. Please... tell me she didn't let go! Please! Please! Bring her back!

Tell me it's a lie! It's all a lie!

Finally, he let his tongue go like the others had, tears glimmering in the moonlight.

All the police and attendees could do was watch the murderer himself break down in the cries of a bleeding, tender heart.

"I-... miss you, little one... rest in peace,

my dearest 'Thena."