[Would you like to leave the Primordial Expanse?]
Alex didn't even give it much thought as he answered yes to this prompt.
He hadn't even checked Count Desmond's body for any spatial treasures or any other valuable items, but he couldn't really care about any of that right now.
All he wanted to do was leave.
***
Planet Hortus.
A huge, black swirling vortex opened up in the same spot Alex and Mira had departed just a few months beforehand.
Soon after, a figure appeared from the other side.
It was Alex.
Several seconds of silence passed.
Alex just kept looking up, into the void of the deep night sky with emotionless eyes.
There were no tears, there was no emotion at all. Most of all, there was no hope.
"I'm sorry." Alex said with a restrained voice as his gaze continued to linger up above him.
It was like he was afraid to look back down, like he would be forced to face a grim reality — all those faces of the people who needlessly died, if he did so.
He didn't blame himself for their deaths, but he blamed himself for being too weak to save them.
'Strength. In the end it all comes down to strength, it always does.'
The mad laughter of Desmond kept replaying in his mind from the moment those thousands of desperate people turned into puddles of blood.
"You didn't do anything wrong." A voice spoke out from the shadows, followed by the figure of a man whose appearance looked familiar to Alex.
Flames welled up in Alex's palms as he felt anger and rage boiling inside of him.
"ARGGH, JUST SHUT UP!"
In what seemed like a split second, the flames soared towards the man, but in a weird turn of events, there was nothing there.
Like the man was never even there to begin with.
But Alex didn't seem to notice.
'What do you care about how I feel?'
'Fate? Everything is already set in stone? I can't change fate even if I want to? Fuck that, I'm never letting something like that control my life.'
'I could have saved all of those people if I was stronger. Power, I need more power.'
Alex quietly turned around and wandered through the streets.
Everything seemed so meaningless to him at the moment, and he wasn't even paying any attention to where he was going.
***
"That kid left?" A well armoured man spoke.
He had been waiting in line for the reception to the space port, and had been watching Alex's mental breakdown from the moment he stepped out of the portal.
"Yeah... He seemed quite depressed — shouting about 'it's all his fault' and what not. He even started talking to himself at one point, like he was having a full blown conversation with nobody but himself. It's kinda creepy really." The female clerk behind the counter spoke to the armoured man as it was his turn.
"The kid's probably been through some kind of traumatic experience in the Primordial Expanse. Give it some time, and he'll either adjust his mindset correctly, or he'll remain broken like that for the rest of his life. I've seen too many people like this over the years, and it always ends up as one of the two."
The armoured man finished up his conversation about Alex and quickly moved on to his own, as he had a deadline to meet and he couldn't miss the flight off planet.
Like the man said, he had seen many people like Alex over the years, so he wasn't shocked at all seeing him act so crazily in public without any care.
For Alex, this was the worst day in his life that would probably affect him until the day he died.
But for the Armoured man, it was tuesday.