1 The End Is Also the Beginning

Mari stood on the edge of one of the tallest buildings in Nova City. In fact, she was so high up that she doubted anyone even could see her and even if they did, they couldn't reach her in time to stop her. Nothing could stop her. The woman's face was gaunt and while she looked beautiful, even as an older woman, just a month ago...

Now she had deep wrinkles etched under her eyes, and they were dark from lack of sleep. The neon lights of the city highlighted the depression written clearly across her features. But, you might wonder, what horrible situation pushed the old woman to choose death?

The wind lightly blew her grey hair and while the city normally seemed alive, tonight, the silence was eerie. Mari thought of her son, which is how this series of events started...

He was her precious child, a fine young man that grew up with deep respect for her but also a sense of humor that often made people think he was a little brat to her. But they joked around often and their friendship was beyond compare.

When Ethan's father had left them, alone and quite poor due to Mari being a stay-at-home mother, she told her son that he had to be the man of the house.

While that was technically true, Mari simply wanted to boost his morale and teach him strength and a sense of responsibility. She didn't actually make him do much different, except for extra help around the house, as she went back to work.

Mari was reminiscing as she neared closer to the edge and as more recent memories filled her mind, her eyes started stinging.

Ethan wanted to go to college and while he knew Mari knew, he still pretended she didn't know, as he didn't want to put more pressure on her. Mari kept money from every paycheck in a secret account for him, and that part he didn't know, however, his mother wasn't the only one planning for the future.

Despite living in a beautiful part of the city, the world had gone to shit since Mari was young. She had been so excited for the future, having poured over novels as a teenager, which were full of VR gaming, real-life robots, and people with cybernetic hardware implanted in their bodies, not to mention the flying motorcycles and all kinds of unique, futuristic gadgets. While those parts weren't far from the truth, the worlds she read about were a brighter, more interesting future filled with mystery and exploration.

In reality, the black markets across the world had grown, bounty hunting became a "grey area", and alcohol and hard drug use dominated both the big cities and the poor neighborhoods. But the part that truly struck her heart was those bounty hunters. Ethan picked up some odd jobs, he was a bright child but too trusting.

Mari blamed herself for that now. He believed the lies he had been told, and he got into trouble that he couldn't escape from. She didn't know the details, but she had a visit from a small flying robotic "policeman", who relayed a message that her son had been killed by one of the bounty hunter guilds.

The robot didn't care about her look of shock and despair, the scream that left her mouth, or the fact that she slammed the door in its face and slid to the ground sobbing. The world had grown cold, and so had her heart at that very moment.

Mari took a deep breath. She convinced herself or at least tried to, that she wasn't afraid. You might think she felt that she had nothing left to live for, her only family and her precious boy gone. But that wasn't the case. She wanted to live, she wanted a second chance.

She wasn't dumb, but she believed in what others thought was impossible. She believed in the stories she read, no matter how protentional friends and partners looked over her as if she was insane when she told them. She grew up in the age of novels about reincarnation and time travel and second chances.

With that, she lept off the edge and fell to the Earth with a twisting feeling in her stomach of fear but, also with a heart full of hope.