The plane ride to Mount Everest was beautiful, but seemed a bit too long for the Warehouse team. However, this made it the perfect opportunity for conversation.

"Pete, I want to talk to you about something," Myka said to Pete. She had requested to be seated next to him.

"I know, these peanuts are rotten! How long do you think they've been sitting there?" Pete responded, sounding irritated.

"Pete..." Myka sighed.

"I know, right? It's blasphemy against airplane food, which is hard to do since most airplane food is usually blasphemous to food in general! How does that even happen?" Pete was rambling. Myka put a finger on his lips.

"Pete, I wanted to talk about your idea of having kids," Myka blurted out quickly before Pete could say anything else about the admittedly bad food. "I don't know if I want to be pregnant."

Pete looked down at his tray sadly. He then perked up, an idea forming in his mind. "Myka, what do you think about adoption? It'd be okay if you didn't want to, but I definitely wouldn't mind it."

"I didn't think you'd suggest that. It seems like I underestimated you," she said, grinning. "Yeah, I think that would be just fine."

They kissed each other and went to sleep.


Claudia was showing Claire the first episode of Game of Thrones on her tablet as they passed over the northern coast of California. Claire decided the show was too violent for her, so they looked out the window for a while. Claudia saw a bay below them with tall red trees just inland.

"So that's the new Univille, huh?" Claudia mused.

"I guess. What's the name of the town?" asked Claire.

"Well, according to the GPS, it's Arcata."

"Can I maybe move in with you guys? I mean, I'm definitely not agent material, but..."

"Claire, I'm going to tell you something Artie told me once. You will live your life the way you want to. I will make sure of that," Claudia responded. "If you want to be an agent, you can be. If you don't, you won't have to."

Claire smiled. "Thanks, Claudia."


Steve was sitting next to Joshua, who was looking depressed. Suddenly, Joshua turned to Steve. "Why do you think Claire likes you?" he asked.

"I don't know, maybe it's my sense of humor," Steve replied.

"I love you, Steve, but your jokes are awful."

"Sorry. I seriously don't know why she's attracted to me, but I'd let this one go. I mean, I'm pretty sure Claude has a thing for me too. But people can be close friends and not be romantically involved with each other, and I think Claire can eventually accept that and move on." Joshua looked even more worried at Steve's mention of Claudia liking him as well.

Steve continued, "Joshua, I'm always going to love you. You have two sisters who are alive today. My sister is gone. If I could somehow spend any more time with her, I wouldn't waste it by being upset with her."

There was a brief pause. "How do you always know how to calm me down, Steve?" Joshua asked, smiling.

"I meditate a lot."

"Your jokes are getting better." They both laughed.


Later, as they were flying over Hawaii, Artie and Mrs. Frederic looked worried. "Mrs. Frederic..." Artie began.

"Stop it," she snapped. "None of this 'Mrs. Frederic' business anymore, we've been through too much. You may call me 'Irene' from now on."

"Okay... Irene, what's the significance of the coin that Valda threw in the Lehmann Fornax?"

"The Coin of the Golden Dragon. It contains Alexander the Great's soul. Upon striking the magma chamber of the Earth, it places the soul of the ancient Macedonian emperor into the nearest corpse."

Artie looked stunned. "Wait, so there is a corpse of a giant dragon near the center of the Earth?"

"There was. Valda must have sent Alexander's soul into the dragon's body. I believe he needed that specific dragon, the one that breathes black fire." She sighed. "Arthur, there was a time before artifacts. It all started with a soldier in the Etruscan army named Curtus Godel. He was ahead of his time, but like many other similar people, he was a lunatic. The Romans were using dragons at the time to conquer the Etruscan civilization. Curtus and his men killed all of the dragons, save one that he captured for himself. It breathed black fire."

"So what's special about black fire?"

"It separates a soul from its body. Godel hid the dragon he had captured after the Romans had won, and interrogated the dragon in terrible ways to obtain the knowledge of how to create the unique flames himself. He then massacred the entire population of the Roman capital with black flame. With nowhere else to go, the souls contained themselves in items. These were the first artifacts. The dragon was cast down into Mount Vesuvius, and Godel was executed. After Rome was rebuilt, all records of dragons being used and of the massacre were redacted by the new Roman emperor."

Artie shuddered. "So if the sky burns with black fire, it will be worse than we could ever imagine."

"I'm afraid so."


To the front of Abigail, there was a woman with long, black hair. She looked familiar to Abigail, as if she had seen her in a photograph before. She was wearing headphones.

"Helena?" Abigail asked the woman. The woman sighed and turned around, taking off her headphones.

"Yes," the woman replied in a British accent. "I am H.G. Wells, and I am hunting Valda as well."