Summary: Post PG. Bartimaeus is dismissed. Nathaniel dies while successfully killing Nouda... supposedly. Fate makes Bartimaeus being summoned again on earth as Kitty as well and Bartimaeus realize that Nathaniel is not really dead, as they had assumed to be.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of the characters, its all of Mr. Stroud's.

A/N: I am trying hard for parts of Bartimaeus - he is really difficult to write - (at times he may sound a bit ooc- but I think it is necessary) It takes place right after PG.


"No, you are clearly not thinking about it!" I rambled in his (our) head. I was furiously shaking his head in denial.

"There is no other option, Bartimaeus."

Nathaniel had been way too injured to come out of this ordeal alive. I knew it, but refrained from thinking about it. Though he seem to know it better than me.

"There has to be some other way!"

We both knew there wasn't any. Still I had to try persuading him to not take that path.

You have to listen to me, Bart! I am your master!"

With me dismissed, it was impossible for Nathaniel to control the staff's powers. I was needed. He had become too weak in strength physically as well as mentally to dominate the entities bound to the staff.

I ducked an attack form Nouda. Mumbling an incantation, Nathaniel threw a detonation from the Gladstone's staff.

Nathaniel's condition was worsening with each passing second.

"This has to end now. There can't be any better conditions for it." He whispered.

Nathaniel looked up, taking into consideration the huge network of glass and steel that constituted the crystal palace.

From what I could see and feel, Nathaniel was gravely injured. We were barely keeping up. He could pass out any moment...

Though I had no intention of leaving him alone, he was already muttering the incantations for my dismissal.

However hard I tried to stop his mind and thoughts from thinking, he proceeded.

Damn Nat! Stop it! Nathaniel...

I had to admit, I truly was worried for him. Other than Ptolemy and Kitty, I had amassed enough respect for him. I had seen him evolve from the frail and weak Nathaniel to strong, heartless and blasé John Mandrake and back to the sensitive and kind himself.

Before I could complete my chain of thoughts, I was already getting linked to the Other Place and at a certain point the bridge joining me to the earth, collapsed. The staff broke. Glass splintered and the steel network holding the glass palace came down destroying everything underneath.


Where am I? Alive? Dead?

Bartimaeus? Right, I dismissed him...

Nathaniel was confused. Where was he? Wasn't he supposed to die after the staff broke? He could conjure up nothing. Just darkness surrounded him. He could feel emptiness around him and inside him.

Just then, a feeling of sudden heaviness filled him. His eyes opened. He felt a certain vagueness of the milieu surrounding him. Where was he?

His vision cleared and was unexpectedly blinded by a bright illumination. After a few moments, he realized that the light was his own aura - bright and iridescent - which had increased manifold.

Bewilderment was at its peak when he realized he was like a torch in an obscurity.

A short assessment of himself revealed his injuries to be non-existent. He still wore the same blood-stained clothes but the injuries and wounds were gone.

This is what death must feel like! Nathaniel concluded as another luminous light enveloped him completely.