As the spirals slowed down further and further, they stopped being spirals and instead started deforming into some kind of eerie wave shape. It reminded me a little of a heart monitor, but I guess you can compare it more to how you see heatwaves on cheap American cop shows. The atmosphere was certainly more calming now (If you ignored Haruhi) and, in some ways, more mysterious. Maybe it was all the silence around, maybe the fact that there was nothing to see except blue sky and odd wave-shapes…eh, I don't know.

The relief turned suddenly to concern, and I began to wonder how we would get back to our universe- that is, if there was still a universe to get back to. If the whole thing had ended with the death of that Koizumi-creature, then…I guess I'd been playing too many video games, but I thought that the entire universe would simply…come back. Just reappear, maybe. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.

I'm not sure how long we waited there. Haruhi fell asleep eventually, frustratingly deciding to use my leg as a pillow, and leaving me to stare into the wave pattern in the sky, wondering what it was the result of. If the waves were the remains of the spirals…then did that mean the Great Old Ones were still around? I suppose it was only the ambassador that was killed…these were the thoughts going through my head.

And then I heard the odd sound.

I'm not quite sure how to recollect it. At the start, it sounded as though it was a Theremin or some sort of synthesiser from a Pink Floyd album. A sort of…high-pitched, alien sound. Honestly, at this point I was fully prepared to be abducted by a UFO, considering the rest of the weird crap that had happened. I'd probably have welcomed it- at least it was a way out of this mess…although, what did happen was somewhat more pleasing.

The waves in the sky started to move faster and faster- let's compare it to the ocean becoming more and more fierce. As they sped up, I found myself having to stare at the piece of rock we were floating on to stop myself from getting sick. The sound came again, this time at a slightly lower pitch. I opened my eyes a little, to find that the speed of the waves had increased many tens of times over, now looking less like a calming ocean than a psychedelic rock video.

The sound, again. Once again, lower. I felt Haruhi stir and hoped beyond anything that she wouldn't wake up. I would hate to imagine the massive cataclysms that would come from her seeing what I was seeing, after all. Sadly, it looked as though her waking up would be unavoidable, and all I could do was wait and see how she reacted. By this point, the waves were pooling together, the…lines, I suppose you'd call them, were overlapping, twisting…

The mass of waves was beginning to remind me of a giant spiral.

Oh yes, and Haruhi awoke upon the fourth sound. I'm not sure which gave me the worse feeling.

"Kyon…are we…?" She murmured, sleepily. A dazed Haruhi was a placid Haruhi, I guess.

"We're still here." I replied. The hopelessness finally hit me at this point. The waves were still merging into their giant spiral, the sounds were decreasing in tone and increasing in duration…I began to feel as though Haruhi would have done something by now, if she could have done so.

"Ugh, Kyon…this isn't funny anymore!" She cried, petulantly. I didn't reply, mainly because I couldn't think up any sort of witty remark, and partly because all I felt like doing was sitting back and watching events unfold as they seemed destined to, ie. not in our favour.

"Kyon…why aren't we going anywhere…what's with that giant spiral…"

More moaning from Haruhi. Looks like she'd noticed it after all.

"Wow…it's like…I can see everyone in it! Kyon, what did you do?!"

She sounded excited. Well, at least one of us was…then I realised what she'd said.

"Wait…what was that?" I blurted out, without thinking. Against my better judgement, I looked up at where she was pointing, into the spiral…and there they were. Hundreds of figures- I guess you could say souls, really, judging by how they had those opaque bodies and closed, peaceful eyes. Among them I could spot people I'd seen around school, sure, as well as celebrities, even a couple of politicians.

"Kyon, what are you looking at? Why's your mouth wide open?! Don't tell me you haven't seen this before!" she screeched, accurately. Then I saw what she was truly staring at- the centre of the spiral. As I looked, squinting my eyes…I could see Nagato. And Koizumi. Fran and Asahina…in fact, I could see everyone from our old high school.

That was when it hit me. Remembering what the fake Koizumi had said, I recalled the concept of the "spiral to destruction" or whatever the clichéd sci-fi term was. He had said that the goal of the Great Old Ones was to create a spiral that merged together every dimension, thus leading to the eternal death of Haruhi…but I had thought Haruhi had foiled this plan by- well, I guess I don't know HOW she did it yet. The fact is, the spirals that were covering the sky had begun to spin backwards and ended up reverting to waves, and yet…these waves had somehow transformed into one giant spiral, flowing in the same direction as the old ones…