Chapter 3

"What makes you think that's the best place to go?" Gil asked.

"That's a secret for now~" Oz teased back.

"Oz—! Please…" Gil cried, restraining himself. He was glad that Oz was returning to his normal self, but then his master's normal self also consisted of a not-so-great side that dismissed the serious atmosphere when it shouldn't have been dismissed. These were the times when he really wanted a cigarette.

Oz, sensing Gil's irritation, became more solemn. "I promise to explain while we're on the way. Please trust me."

Oz's tone of voice made Gil raise his head to really look his master in the eye. Sometimes he forgot how deadly serious Oz could be as well, and because his master rarely did it, the seriousness of his gaze felt like it was being magnified ten times over.

With a firm look of his own, Gil replied, "Alright. We'll get a carriage and leave once we've bought more bullets."

With the preparations over and the carriage under way, Gil and Oz spent their first few minutes inside the carriage trying to calm their nerves; Gil for not knowing what was going to happen next, and Oz for knowing what would happen all too well. Sort of.

With a deep sigh, Oz finally spoke up. "Gil, when I was asleep a few hours ago I dreamt, or rather, revisited Jack's memories of when he spoke to the Will of Abyss to form a contract with me."

Gil's head snapped to full attention, a silent urge for Oz to continue.

"It was the time when she told him that he needed to open a Door of the Abyss because I was too powerful to be released through simple means. But, then I remembered that that wasn't all that she had told him. She told him the one problem he had with forming a contract with me."

"And, what was that?" Gil asked.

"That, since Jack wasn't a Baskerville, he could only form an illegal contract with me."

"But how is that possible? Jack didn't end up in the Abyss right after the Tragedy of Sablier! Until now he's still here." Gil replied.

"Exactly. And how do you think that was possible?"

"Did…he find a way around the illegal contract? Something like the blood mirror method that Pandora uses?" Gil guessed.

"Right. Now the blood mirrors that Pandora members like Sharon use today are made by the heads of the duke houses [1]. Because of the dukes' bonds to these powerful chains, they had the power to authorize other people to form contracts with other chains through the creation of these blood mirrors. These blood mirrors look like the seal on an illegal contractor's chest, but instead of sending the contractor to the abyss like an illegal contract would due to the seal making a full rotation, the blood mirror, when drenched in the blood in the contractor, freezes the 'body clock' of the contractor, which in turn, also freezes the actual body of the contractor, and explains why people like Break and Sharon do not age. However, like Break said, that doesn't make him immortal. The blood mirror still has a limit because it was only created through a small fraction of the duke's (and his chain's) power. Once the power of the blood mirror runs out, it will 'unfreeze' the contract. Fortunately, for Break and the others, they won't get sent to the Abyss because the power of the duke (and the chain that he was contracted to) was offered as the sacrifice of the contract. The only problem is that people like Break who have been in such a contract for so long may suddenly just die one day when their body is at their limit."

"So, what are you getting at, Oz?"

"What I'm getting at is that Jack used the principle of the blood mirror, only, blood mirrors hadn't existed back then because a) The other duke houses back then didn't exist and the Baskervilles had all the five chains; and in turn b) Because no non-Baskerville was contracted to a chain, the need for other forms of legal contracting like the blood mirror did not exist. So Jack started it all."

"But how did he do it?" Gil asked.

"The Will of Abyss gave him advice. She told him that he needed to make a contract the way a Baskerville would even though he wasn't one himself. Now the principle things needed for a blood mirror contract are: a mirror or any other object for the blood of the contractor, and a sacrifice to the Abyss for making this contract, which will act as an assurance to not get sent to the Abyss."

"But since Jack wasn't a Baskerville and he didn't have any of the powers that the current dukes have today, what did he use?"

Oz smiled. "And that's the question I was waiting for. For the object, he used this pocket watch that he made for Lacie. I found out from the dream that he had created a small compartment at the back to contain his blood. The sacrifice to the Abyss, of course, was another matter. It was also the very question he asked the Will of the Abyss: 'What do I have that can equal the power of one of the black-winged chain?' And that's when the Will of the Abyss said that the only thing Jack could sacrifice was his memories of Lacie."

Oz opened the small compartment in the pocket watch, observing the minute, faded blood stains that spoke so much history. With a deep sigh, he closed it firmly and continued. "The Will of the Abyss told Jack that his love for Lacie was the only thing that could even come close to the power of a black-winged chain. Of course, that would have defeated the purpose of forming a contract with me to sever the chains of this world, so the Will of the Abyss said that Jack would have to pay the price once the limited power she would put into the blood mirror ran out."

"Wait." Gil interrupted, confused. "Then doesn't that kind of feel like an illegal contract in the end? Jack, with his memories slowly being sacrificed to the Abyss in bits and pieces would eventually result in all of him being sent to the Abyss."

"True, but it was able to last longer than a typical illegal contract, as evidenced by the fact that he's still here. This 'improvised blood mirror method' that Jack performed was imperfect. It had never been tried before, after all, and Jack himself didn't have any special powers linked to the Abyss. And most of all, Jack's sacrifice apparently wasn't fully enough for some reason. This imperfect sacrifice resulted in an imperfect blood mirror contract. His body didn't freeze. Rather, it began this cycle of growing into an adult then regressing into a child. This happened every time a fragment of his memory was surrendered to the Abyss. With the continuous sacrifices of his memories and the numerous cycles of aging and regressing, his soul was damaged to the point that not only his memories but his entire existence was slowly being swallowed by the Abyss."

"And this is Jack's last cycle, right? Meaning this is also his last fragment," Gil inferred.

"Precisely, and again that's why he's getting more desperate. I don't know how long it will take for his existence to fully fade away, but we simply can't wait any longer. He hasn't channeled his consciousness into me since before I was captured, and that worries me because I think he's saving up his energy for one last, grand struggle. I can't risk it. I have to send his last fragment to the existence to the Abyss before it's too late."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to ask a Baskerville to do it. After all, only those who control the black-winged chains can send people to the Abyss."

"Then in that case, why not let me do it? Gil asked, perplexed.

"Because there is only one Baskerville who can do it; one older and, in a way, more powerful than Glen."

Upon seeing that they had arrived at the mansion, Oz opened the carriage door, saying:

"We need Jiri Baskerville." [2]

Footnotes:

[1] This is purely a theory of mine on the blood mirrors used by Pandora. Of course, I exploited it to my advantage in bending the story.

[2] Jiri is the most mysterious character in the series so far, and for that, I'm exploiting her. The fact that Levi, the "Glen" before Oswald, had said that Jiri has been around ever since, acting as the adviser to the current Glen proves that she is someone much more important than just another Baskerville servant. Her seniority (literally) over Glen and the others makes me think that she could be as old as time itself (at her debut in the manga during the time Levi was alive, she was already more than a hundred years old!). As much as I would love to create my own detailed account of her past, I honestly wouldn't know how to proceed with that, since there's so little information about her in the series. Still, as you can see, she will play a pivotal role in the succeeding chapters.

Anonymous Guests Review Reply (how I wish you were members so I could PM and thank you personally):

Guest from chapter 2: Here you go and hope you liked this one even though it was mostly dialogue. I wanted to clarify things first, as I plan for things to get more mixed up from now on. XD

Paz: OH WOW THANK YOU I AM FLATTERED. As a Psych major, I am flattered to be praised for good characterization. It reassures me that I chose the right course to supplement my writing. ^^ I hope this chapter did not disappoint.

Please review! It super motivates me. :)))))