Jean-Pierre got off his brother's semi-conscious body. Martha began to treat Gwen and Neal's wounds as well as her own while Jean- Pierre told his story.

"Zee story begins a very long time ago," Jean-Pierre began, "Back when zee ring was first discovered. We had this great uncle. His name was Francois, and he was unusually large and strong, as ef he was on steroids, but he was not. Even though he wasn't on steroids, he was married to the bottle, and would do anything to make money for his habit. One day this man approached him at zee local bar, and said that ef he could get a ring for him, a ring that looked like a swan wrapped around zee finger, with a diamond eye. He described the woman who would be carrying the ring, a peitie, beautiful young woman with high cheekbones a thin body, coca-dark skin, and sparkling emerald colored eyes. The man told Francois when he thought the girl was coming to town. That night, today is the day it happened in fact, my great uncle waited for that young woman on the stench road that runs through town. He stood there until she came by. She saw him and she ran for her life, but then she tripped and Francois picked her up by the throat and, and," He looked like he was gonna be stick, "And choked her to death. He it was brutal. He lifted that little girl up in the air and squeezed the life out of her. It was- horrendous." He had to stop a minute, and hung his whole head down in such deep shame and remorse one would've thought he had murdered Collette. He gulped, couched and then finally continued, " My grandfather, Philippe, knew that his brother was up to no good that night, but had not known what he was going to do, so when he never returned to zee family estate that night, he went looking for him. He found zee woman's body, and because how bad she had been injured, he guess what had happened. He saw zee ring, and remembering Francois telling him something about a ring, and Grandpapa was somewhat of an enabler, that and he was afraid of what zee person who wanted the ring might do, so he took eet. He was racked after and decided to turn eet into the police zee next day, but then the man who hired Francois in zee first place turned up dead, and Grandpapa was frightened for his lift and never turned zee dammed thing in, but he didn't get rid of eet either. I suppose he should have." He a paused a minute, and then elaborated on his last comment, " Just because Francois didn't get justice in a courtroom, does not mean he did not get what was coming to him. Two weeks after he killed the young woman, he started to go mad. He would hallucinate that birds were attacking him, he would see zee young woman everywhere, he would hear voices that weren't there. He drunk more than he ever had before, which, from what I've been told is saying something. No one could figure out what was wrong with him. Within a year he died of organ failure. But it did not end there. Grandpapa also had younger sister, Marie. Even though she was the youngest, at nineteen she was the first to get married, the same year the Francois died. The next year she and her husband, Jean-Paul, had baby, a little girl named Jeanette. They brought Jeanette to zee family estate to show her off. Grandpapa girlfriend at the time, the woman who would one day be his wife and my grandmother, Lynette, offered to take zee baby for an hour, so Marie could have some time to rest. Marie went searching for her old bedroom, but went into Grandpapa bedroom by mistake, and round zee ring. When she touched it, she accidently activated something, and apparition of the poor woman being murdered, and Marie ran in fright. Right off the balcony. Jean-Paul raised the Jeanette on his home with help from the family. Then it just kept getting worse. After Grandpapa married Grandmamma, they had three children. My father, Amador, his brother, my uncle, Jean-Baptiste, and his sister, my aunt, Josephine. I never got to meet her. When she was sixteen, she started having hallucinations, much like Francois did, except zhis time they had a name to the problem. Paranoid sizophrenia. She had terrible hallucinations, and even though zhis time they knew eet was something else, the hallucinations seemed hauntingly familiar to grandpapa. They were exactly like Francois'. She was sixteen years old when one day, in one of her fits, she walked up on zee roof and jumped off. Grandpapa knew the ring had caused it, somehow. The moment he found her crumpled body he realized that an evil had somehow attached itself to that ring, and it had spread throughout the family and would continue to, and there was nothing to be done about it."

"Why didn't he just get rid of the ring?" Gwen asked as Martha stitched up her arm.

"He thought of that," Jean-Pierre explained, "But he feared that would do no good, and the evil would just continue. Or worst, that someone else would find it and it was transfer to them. He would never wish what had happened to his family on anyone, even his worst enemy, so he kept it. And the horror continued. Two years after Josephine killed herself, Jean-Baptiste was involved in an industrial accident on zee construction site where he was, as you say in English, zee foreman. A metal beam fell on his head. After that, he was never right again, he never regained full control of his muscles, and then, once again, the hallucinations started. They weren't exactly like Francois, but similar, birds attacking, voices no one else could hear, and there was this strange chanting. Unlike Francois and Josephine, Jean-Baptiste's suffering was not ended by an untimely demise, he lived until zee age of 86. At least he outlived Grandpapa who surname to a brain tumor two years before, but not before telling my father, about, zee ring and what Francois had done, and what eet had one to our family. On that day my father vowed to find a way to put an end to it, that it may have taken his uncle, his aunt, his little sister, his older brother, but it would take no more." Jean-Pierre sighed, "But it did take more, it took, in a way, anyway. My father became consumed with finding a way to redeem zee family, to zee point where nothing else mattered. In fact, that is how Jean-Luc and I found out about it. When we were twelve, we were playing in zee study, and accidently knocked zee wooden box eet was kept in, the very one I left for you, off zee desk, and eet fell out. When eet hit zee carpet, eet must have activated, because zee the carpet dissolved from right under our feet. We were so shocked and terrified that we jumped up emeditly, throwing the ring to the ground, where it rolled over to the desk and turned it back into unpolished wood. And then, worst of all the girl appeared, chocking and gasping for breath, she looked at us and begged for help as best she could. We were so scared we ran out of the room screaming, and crying. Our parents ran out emeditly to see what was wrong. We somehow managed to get our story out, and my mother was confused but our father took us back into zee study. There he told us what his father had told him in all zee gory details. Before that, me and Jean-Luc were very close, after that, we slowly grew apart. I switched back and forth between trying to forget zee cursed thing even exist, to joining my father in trying to redeem zee family. Jean-Luc, on zee other hand, became obsessed with zee ring, with eets power. I've spent my life running interference, trying to keep him from doing something crazy. My parents helped, too, but my mother died in car accident zee year after we found out about the ring. Then my father died two years ago, and I've been on my own with this ever since. Jean-Luc's madness was getting worst and worst and then you came, like a miracle. You see, when I discovered you were here, I heard that you were looking for the ring, and I came to zee conclusion that you were zee ones zee girl was carrying zee ring for. I knew I had to give eet to you, eet was zee only way to end all this. When Jean-Luc discovered what I was going to do, he attacked me and tried to take zee ring from me. I was able to fend him off, lock in a room, I'm not sure which one, and go to leave the ring for you. I figured it would be best for us not to meet. But when I came back to zee family estate after making sure you found the ring, I discovered Jean-Luc had broke down the door and ran off. I went looking for, but when I found him, eet was too late. He was I heard people talking and found you with my brother uncurious, then my brother rose up and attacked that man." Jean-Pierre pointed at Neal. Then Jean-Pierre looked down, ashamed. "I don't know what else to say. You have-you have no idea how sorry I am for all of this." Tears started to roll down Jean-Pierre's face. Tears of pain and grief, and guilt, and remorse so deep it could fill a canon. Remorse he shouldn't have felt, that shouldn't have belonged to him, because he had committed no crime.

"Hey," Martha said, sitting down beside Jean-Pierre, "It's not your fault. None of this is your fault. You can't be blamed for the terrible decision making of people over sixty years ago. In fact, of all the people in your story, you're the one who's done the most to try to right the wrong that was done." Martha thought for a minute then added. "And now you can get on with your life."

Jean-Pierre looked up, "What?"

"The ring's where it can't hurt anyone else and what's done is done. You don't have to redeem your family anymore. It's time for you to live."

"But what about Jean-Luc?"

Martha didn't say anything. She hadn't thought about that. "Maybe you could get him some professional help, from a doctor…"

"There are some wounds you just can't heal." Jean-Pierre said, in the voice of someone who had given up.

They all looked at Jean-Pierre and figured he ought to know.

As Jack looked down at Pierre, he couldn't help but think about his own brother Gray, and what had happened with them. He, like Jean-Pierre, and Philippe, knew how it felt to have the guilt of failing his brother on his shoulders, and the guilt of what his brother had done because of that. Francois had killed Colette for money; Gray had killed Owen and Toshiko in revenge. But unlike Jean-Luc, Gray was dead. He had died when the hub exploded, because Jack had put him in staitas, because he couldn't bear to kill him for what he had done. So Jack knew exactly how Jean-Pierre was feeling right now.

"I had an idea." Jack said, "About what to do with Jean-Luc."