Tileka and Hiffom watched as Arasine emerged from the mirror dimension — alone.
And hurried over to them and their machine, fast as she could.
"We must hurry," Arasine said, as she began to scribble down mathematics. Trying to come up with the solution to her dilemma. "Once the Lady Seo has done her part, the Glarnov weapon will be coming through. We'll have only a small window of opportunity to make this work."
"Make what work, my Lady?" said Tileka.
Arasine gestured at the spiral staircase. "While I'm working, go up the stairs, second closet on the left. You'll find explosive charges. Set them around this chamber of the palace — and the surrounding chambers. Best not take any chances."
"What?!" Hiffom cried.
"That was a command, Hiffom!" Arasine snapped, stopping in her scribbling to give them an imperious stare. "Not a debate. Do it. And bring my father into this ship — to make sure he's free from harm." She returned to her work. "Now. I need to concentrate."
Seo entered the room where the Glarnov weapon was trapped with only a slight hesitation. Then put that behind her, and strode in with her head held high.
"Oh, come in, come in!" said the Glarnov weapon. "Glad you've seen sense and decided to kill Jack."
Seo ignored him.
Instead, she crossed over to Prince Creax. Turned him to face her, his blank stare and empty eyes unable to understand what was going on.
"Arasine's waiting for you," Seo promised him. "I'll get you back to her. Don't worry."
"Arasine," Prince Creax repeated, his eyes lighting up as he said it.
A spark of life inside that couldn't be extinguished.
"Just hold on," Seo told him, letting him go. She took several steps back. "I have my own friends to rescue, first."
She turned back to Jack.
He remained stuck in that memory. A past that wouldn't stop plaguing him. A past that had trapped the Glarnov weapon in this room.
Seo walked towards the memory.
Staring at the blond little boy who was screaming and dying. Over and over again.
"Sacrificed to save humanity," Seo said to the boy. She shook her head. "Yeah — I've been there. Hurts, doesn't it? Makes you just wanna smash everyone and everything into goop until the whole universe is just as miserable as you."
The boy said nothing. Of course. Just a memory.
The boy didn't even know she was there.
Seo looked up at Jack. "Smash everyone to bits," she repeated. "My revenge."
Stepped towards Jack.
Then stopped.
"I really wish you hadn't done this, Jack," said Seo. She bunched her hands into fists, remembering what it had felt like to get everything drained from her, over and over again, so she could win someone else's war. It made that anger rise in her, even now. "You burned his mind away to nothing. Like Major Pelor and the others did to me. You used him and discarded him, and how dare you...?!"
She stopped. Took a deep breath.
Calmed herself.
"But... I suppose we all have our off-days," Seo decided. Stepping right in front of him, her hands on the console of machinery he was fiddling with, trying to meet his eyes. "You killed your grandchild. I almost destroyed the universe." With a small laugh, "Makes what you did not seem so bad, huh?"
"You're laughing it off?!" the Glarnov weapon shouted. It stormed towards her. "You idiot! You can see what he's done, recently. Think it's the first time he's done it?"
Seo snapped her head round to glare at it. "Yes, if you could just shut up for two seconds," she snapped. "I'm trying to break my friend out of this loop he's been caught in."
The Glarnov weapon paused.
A small, sinister smile on his face. "Is that what you're trying to do?" It clarified. "Break the loop? Divorce him from this reality?"
Seo quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why? What's it to you?"
"Nothing!" said the Glarnov weapon, raising up its hands. "Nothing at all. You go right ahead! Save your friend."
Seo paused a moment longer. Thinking hard — had she missed something? No. She couldn't think of anything.
Right.
She turned back to Jack. He kept staring straight through her, like she wasn't really there.
"Jack, it's me," Seo said. "Listen. This isn't real. You're stuck in a memory. Follow my voice. Come back."
Still.
Nothing.
His eyes did not stray from the boy standing in the center of the room. The little boy he kept killing, over and over again.
Seo sighed. "Fine! You only have eyes for that spot?" She raced back to the spot at the center of the room, as the loop reset and the little boy reappeared, perfectly fine and innocent, awaiting his fate.
Seo shoved the boy out of the way.
And took his place.
"Jack, snap out of this!" Seo demanded — now staring him in the eye. "This is a memory, generated by the mirror dimension. It's gotten you tangled inside of it, so you can't break out. But you can, if you follow my voice."
Jack hit his hand down on the button.
And Seo felt something sear through her. A deep, horrible pain that penetrated through her very essence. A burning like... like...
Like her own memory of being burned away.
This mirror dimension was picking up on it. Fishing it out and trying to shove her through the same thing. Again.
"Could have told you that strategy wouldn't work," the Glarnov weapon sneered. He leaned back, watching her writhe. "Still. At least you're amusing when you fail."
Panic flared through Seo.
How much more of her could get burned away before she lost everything? She'd only just held onto her soul, last time. What if she lost that, too?
"Jack!" Seo shouted. "Stop this! You're killing me!"
She could see tears rolling down Jack's face.
And that horrible pain... the dull, hopeless eyes...
It was how he'd looked just after she'd met up with him in the Irkoli Galaxy. When he'd said she didn't need him ruining her life.
It was the pain she felt when she thought about Mom.
And Seo knew the words he needed to hear.
"I know what you did to that little boy," Seo said, crumpling over. "And... I forgive you."
"Explosives are ready and primed, my lady," said Tileka, with a bow.
Lord Shelik, in the meantime, was staring up at the endless ceiling of the ship. Lost for words, as his mind tried to reconcile the tiny exterior with the boundless interior of Seo's craft.
Arasine shoved the paper with her scribblings at Tileka.
"You and Hiffom have always been the ones able to turn my ideas into reality," Arasine said. "We need to pull our machine out of the Lady Seo's ship. And modify it like this. But do so fast."
Hiffom glanced over Tileka's shoulder, reading the scribblings. "But if our machine did that, it wouldn't just change the visible light in the room," she said. "It'd actually shift the dimensions around so that…"
"I know!" Arasine said. "Just do it. We have little time." She hurried out of the ship. "And if we are to have the correct atmosphere for this to work... there is one task I must perform."
She raced over to the Emperor — still staring straight ahead. Empty. Vacant.
"The Lady Seo confirmed it — his majesty's mind was affected only after Jack had begun to weaken the Glarnov weapon," Arasine said. "His majesty's mind has been drained, but not terribly well. Jack's presence saved him. And as a familiar voice from the correct version of the past, I can bring his majesty back."
Knelt down before him. Just as Seo had instructed.
"You're caught in a memory, your majesty," Arasine told him, calmly, softly. "Listen for my voice. Return to the world beyond your mind. Return to us."
"I forgive you," Seo said, again.
The burning feeling around Seo cut out, at once.
Jack blinked, through his tears. Finally staring past his memory... and at her. Standing in the middle of the room, in his grandson's place.
"Seo?" Jack whispered.
"That's it — come back," Seo begged him. "Follow my voice. Step out of this memory."
He hesitated.
Then, his face set with determination... walked forwards. Stepping through the computer banks from his memory as if they were phantoms or ghosts. Their shapes disappearing into nothing behind his back.
And crossing to Seo.
"Like that," Seo said, reaching out to him. "Take my hand."
Jack took it.
And the moment they touched, a huge wave of energy flooded through the dimension. Seo cried out, feeling it wrench her inside-out and back again, but managed to keep herself stable.
"Seo?" Jack said. Grabbing her up into his arms. "Hey, kid. Speak to me. What just happened? What's going on?"
She felt weak.
Like she was in a million pieces and could barely keep herself together.
"She freed you without killing you," the Glarnov weapon said, arms crossed, pride swelling. As he regained the power that Jack had taken from him. "Only one way to do that. By taking your place."
The Glarnov weapon placed a hand down on Seo's shoulder.
And she cried out, as she felt all the moments and memories of her life grabbed up and tugged at by the Glarnov weapon.
"Can't kill her, unfortunately," said the Glarnov weapon. "But it'll be fun to play with her, a bit."
"You get away from her," Jack said, yanking her out of the weapon's reach.
The Glarnov weapon let go of her past.
Left Seo panting for air.
"No, you're right — better leave her for the moment," said the Glarnov weapon. "After all... now that she's released you, Jack, I've got all my powers back." The weapon grinned. "And that means... all of Draconia is on my menu."
Jack jumped to his feet.
Ready to race after the weapon, try to hurt it or tackle it or stop it.
Seo reached out, grabbed Jack by his military greatcoat. And pulled him back.
"Stay with me," Seo pleaded. "I need you."
Jack hesitated.
But stayed put.
"Toodles!" the Glarnov weapon said, waving at them as it disappeared from the mirror dimension.
Headed straight for the real world.