"If you die here, how many lives will that save?"

Leo's words echoed in Hal's head.

A lot of lives, he thought. Too many to count.

Alex's life.

He shook it off. This was a trick - Leo wasn't real. He was a figment created by the devil to convince him to die here in these godforsaken woods. But why? For hundreds of years, he had done the devil's work. Killing him for his attempt to eradicate him so that the supernaturals could live in peace, that would make sense, but to send him back, to erase his bloody history….

Something was not right.

And yet, the thought of erasing those years gripped him. The thought of Alex, smiling in the sea breeze, chasing after her brothers gripped him. He was selfish enough that he could make himself live with the nameless victims, the villagers, highwaymen, and prostitutes, but here he had the chance to save Alex. Beautiful, headstrong Alex. Trick or not, how could he not take the deal?

There was Tom, of course. He had done little but make Tom's life more difficult, really. Without him, Tom could be off living a happy life with Allison. He shouldn't even be involved with this madness.

Hal looked around. He had wandered away from the clearing in thought.

"Leo?"

The woods had fallen silent and dark. Had he -

"Leo!" he cried. "Don't leave me! I haven't made up my mind!"

Christ. He was calling for the satanic equivalent of a hologram, and he couldn't stop.

"Leo, please! I'm still deciding!"

The wind rustled the leaves in the trees.

"It appears that you have made up your mind," a familiar voice said from the darkness.

Hal spun around. He knew that voice anywhere. It was ingrained in him.

"Pearl?"

As his eyes adjusted to her visage, he fell to his knees before her, grasping her skirt in his hands.

"Pearl," he said, choking back tears. "I can't do this without you and Leo. I thought I could -"

"You can."

"No. I've ruined their lives. I lost Annie -"

"Annie did what she had to do to stop the vampires."

"No." Hal shook his head. "You don't understand. What Annie did was in vain." He let out a sob. "The devil is creating an apocalypse on earth as we speak."

"That's what he would have you think, isn't it?" She crossed her arms and looked down at him. "You, of all people."

Hall pulled himself to his feet. "What do you mean, me of all people?"

Pearl tilted her head and looked at him pointedly. "The Devil wants the vampires to win. He wants them to destroy humanity. And that's why he wants you to die."

"What?" Hal shook his head, confused. "But I didn't destroy the Old Ones."

"Didn't you though?"

"No. No, Annie did. Tom… helped, I suppose, but I had nothing to do with it."

"Annie and Tom were most important. And Mitchell, and, of course Nina and George -"

"Stop." Hal raised his palm. "Stop this. I don't understand. I didn't destroy them. My death here wouldn't save the Old Ones. Even if I'd had the ability to have done it, I… I wouldn't have had the fortitude. I'm not Annie."

"Oh, no one's arguing that," she said with a laugh. "No, Annie was special. They wouldn't have been stopped without her." She clenched her fist. "The strength and breadth of a woman. It was the way it was meant to happen." She shrugged. "But these things don't just happen."

Hal continued to look bewildered. "What?"

"Did you know," Pearl said, "That around the time of the bloody reign of your Lordship," she curtsied sarcastically, "the body of a little girl disappeared from Shoreditch."

Hal hesitated. "Of course I know."

"Such a sad story," she said. "So tragic."

"Pearl -"

"It was a slaughter. Mother, father, brothers and sisters..."

"It was the Reformation. Hetty would have died along with the rest of her family…."

"Oh, the Reformation. Nothing keeps vampires hands clean in their own minds like a religious slaughter."

"She was still alive," he said, his eyes losing focus as he remembered. "But she was left for dead. I drank her. I drank them all. But I didn't leave her to die, I saved her, I took care of her."

"Noble."

"And I still don't understand what Hetty has to do with it. Was she a traitor?"

"Oh, no not at all. You can't find many as absolutely committed to the vampire cause than Hetty."

"Then what?"

Pearl smiled. "Everything is connected. Without you, Hetty would died that day. She wouldn't have turned Herrick-"

"Herrick?"

"Who wouldn't have turned John Mitchell. Without Mitchell there would be no War Child."

Hal paused. "I'll take your word for it."

"Well, George Sands would been killed before he ever met the child's mother, Nina. And even if he'd lived, it was Mitchell who brought them together."

"Well and good, but it was the absence of the War Child that was to take down the Old Ones -"

"It was the death of the War Child."

Hal thought for a moment. "And Annie? Please tell me I didn't have a hand in killing Annie."

Pearl shook her head. "No. Annie would have died whether you became a vampire or not."

Hal nodded. "Good."

"But if it weren't for Mitchell and George moving into that house, she would have been left isolated and alone. She would have suffered the worst fate a ghost can succumb to."

"She would have faded."

"It would have been slow. Hundreds of years of suffering. Haunting. She would have become a shadow, that thing that goes bump in the night."

"A poltergeist."

Pearl nodded. "A poltergeist." She smiled. "But Mitchell and George did find her. And she became strong. So strong. And she still is. You have no idea, Hal."

Hal swallowed. "What would you have me do?"

"What do you think?" She pointed toward the clearing, as the sun peeked through the trees. "Refuse his deal. Go back to the world, don't be fooled by the illusions of apocalypse. The devil can't do it alone. He needs corrupted souls, and none are so corrupted as the Old Ones that were destroyed. Face him. And put him back in his place."

Hal stared at the clearing. Hatch was there again, if he'd ever left.

"How do I know you're not just another one of Hatch's creations?"

"I suppose you don't."

"Then why should I do what you say?"

"Because -" she turned around abruptly. "Just another minute, please!" she said to nothingness. She nodded and turned back to him. "I have to go, Hal."

He reached out to her. "Pearl -"

A blinding light engulfed her, so bright it almost knocked him off his feet. He looked back at the clearing. Hatch was still there. He hadn't seen a thing.