Lee didn't know what to say. None of the group of students assembled at Coral Grove did. They all knew that the pyramid could only be opened during an eclipse - and that was another century or so away. They were looking at each other with sadness - sure, the council was bad, but they just couldn't believe that nothing could be done to help this person - when Cam asked, "Wait, what's going on? Why the long faces?"

"Ugh, don't you know?", Jenny asked.

"The pyramid can only be opened during an eclipse!", Tina added.

Cam's face went blank - he didn't know what to say either. Then he looked at Brandy, and they both said it at the same time: "Finnwich!"

The old man - well, old was a bit of a misnomer, given that his age was so advanced that he had augmented himself with steam-powered mechanical body parts in an effort to stay vibrant - who had been entirely silent during this exchange gave a start. Everyone turned to look at him, and then back at the pair who had spoken his name. Lee asked, "What do you mean? What does Finnwich have to do with it?"

"Dude..."

"No, I'm telling him this time," Brandy interrupted.

"Okay, fine..."

"When that monster dialed in, we, like, saw him talking to those creepy clones... they think that Finnwich can replicate an eclipse or something."

This time, everyone in the room was truly shocked. Everyone stared at Finnwich. Lee was the first to recover: "Finnwich!? Is this true!? But then, why did you... or why didn't you... I don't get it..." "You must understand, my boy - I've waited 112 long years for this." Not a good answer, Lee thought as he remembered that phrase that had surprised him at the time. How could Finnwich have risked everything not falling exactly into place for the opening of the pyramid just so that he could get the satisfaction of keeping Lee in the dark for a bit longer? Now he was doing it again, Lee thought angrily. It was time to get some answers.

For a moment, the room had fallen entirely silent. Then, Finnwich finally spoke: "Don't disappoint me, Manifestum! If I knew how to open it without an eclipse, don't you think I would have done just that?", he replied, clearly unfazed by the looks of shock all around him. "I'm just a bit confounded as to why they would think... well... even if I did possess the ability to generate a substitute for that cosmic event, I wouldn't do it!"

Lee was not pleased with this. "Finnwich, we gotta help him! We can't just leave him trapped in there!"

As Finnwich and Lee stared at each other, Tina decided to back Lee up. "He's right. We're the good guys. Leaving people trapped in pyramids is what bad guys do!"

Finnwich, however, remained unmoved. "I'm sorry, Manifestum. I greatly respect you - all of you - for what you've been able to do; however, I cannot bring myself to enable an event which could result in catastrophe. That is my final answer."

"Look, even if you don't want to help him - I'm tired of these guessing games. I want to know what they meant by you being able to generate an eclipse!", Lee said with evident frustration in his voice. "You know what? If you don't know... then how about we ask him?", Lee said, pointing his finger. The collective response was quite predictable: a shocked "What!?" filled the room - Lee was almost sure he even heard it from the monitor. "Well, clearly, Finnwich isn't going to help, and we need to try this.", he said, trying to reassure his friends that he wasn't completely off his rocker.

"But... it's not safe!", said Tina, clearly distraught.

This time, it was Jenny's turn to come up with an idea: "Wait, just use that!"

"Of course!", Lee replied, as he grabbed what Jenny was pointing at. "Okay, someone needs to do this with me. Anyone?", Lee said as he looked around the room.

Just as he was about to sigh that nobody was coming forward, Tina said, "Here, give it to me. I'll do it."

They flashed each other the briefest of smiles as they prepared to fire the weaponry almost simultaneously: "Okay, I go on 3, you go on 5, alright?" Tina nodded. Lee heard an elderly voice say, "Manifestum... what are you doing!?", but he paid him no attention; they had to get to the bottom of this after all, Finnwich or no Finnwich.

Tina, however, surprised Lee by snapping, "You're not helping us, you're keeping things from us - what are we supposed to do? Go, Lee!"

"One... two... wait a second!", Lee said, almost yelling that last part. "I just realized... someone's missing..."

"Duh, Biffy - he went to find his parents, remember?" Jenny responded, rolling her eyes.

"No, no, someone else," Lee said. There had been one other person in the room before - Lee was sure of it.

Then, they all seemed to say it simultaneously: "LYNCH!"