Author's Note: Sorry, I think my last author's note was confusing. I'll try to explain.

This isn't one of the last stories I'm posting, from this series, on this website.

I just happened to write it later.

Truth is, I write my stories out of order — I always write the season together, but I start with the stories in that season that have the biggest season-wide plot points. Usually, that's the beginning and end of the season. This season, I started with "One Word" and "Reunion". Then hit "Irkoli" and "We Must Survive". Then I worked my way through the middle of the season.

This story was one of the last because, as a Jenny story, it has a lot less to do with the overall plot of the season. I think "Mirror Vision" was actually the last one I wrote, but that one's more polished because I had to scrap everything and completely rewrite it at least 3 times before I was able to finish it. (And it sucks doing that when you're 100 pages in)

There are a total of 18 stories in this season. We're currently on story #8.

There are plenty of stories left for you guys to read.

(The disclaimer is basically explaining why I didn't edit this story as thoroughly as the others. Usually, I write more drafts than this. And take several months to edit what I've written. Instead, I've used that time developing my own independent universe.)

Enjoy!

"No," Jenny said, the second she entered the chamber and had seen the machine. It had only been a few hours since she'd seen it last… but already, it looked different. A lot more like the model in the movie — the wormhole-clogging dome almost completely eaten away. "The chemical reaction's already started! We're too late."

"Too late for…?" Peters said. Then stopped, just staring at the Zillwell Machine. "Hey. That looks a lot more like it did in the movie!"

"What happened to the dome?" Hopper asked.

"One drop," Jenny muttered. Bunching her hands into fists. "She said 'one drop'! She thought she needed to get rid of the dome to get into the machine and destroy its power. She created something to dissolve it!"

The dome was growing more and more transparent by the second.

And while Jenny knew she could resist a mental attack from one of the Poilarin… she didn't know if even a Gallifreyan mind could stand up to an attack by a whole army of them.

"Well… can't you fix it?" said Hopper. "Build another one?"

"In the seconds we have left before that army breaks through?" Jenny shook her head. "I've left it too late! Unless there was some other dome just lying around, there's no way I could…"

Before Jenny quite registered what was happening, Peters had sprinted forwards. Carrying… a small dome in his hands. Something Jenny had seen back in the MIT labs — and had forgotten that he'd brought with him.

He held it up, ready to slam it down on the Machine…

"No, not yet!" Jenny cried.

Too late.

The second he slammed it down, the entire machine sparked and rippled. Peters screaming in utter agony, as a flood of energy swept through him, wrinkling the skin around his hands and face and then crumbling him into dust.

All in an instant.

Hopper cried out, hands flying up to her mouth, as she saw what had happened.

"Why did he…?!" Jenny stopped. Then sighed, her eyes never straying from the spot where he'd been killed. "The Zillwell machine and its predictions. He'd seen that this was how he was going to die."

"He died saving the galaxy," said Hopper.

Jenny gritted her teeth.

Because that was the most unfair thing about what the Poilarin were doing here — getting innocent people to kill themselves in the name of goodness… when it was all part of the Poilarin's trap.

"He would have," said Jenny, "if he'd listened to me, and waited until the first dome had completely dissolved."

Hopper spun back to Jenny. "What?!"

"The chemical on the other dome has already gotten onto this new one," said Jenny. "It'll dissolve it in hours — and with that MIT lab gone, we can't make a new one." She brushed back her hair. "Peters bought us time… but that's it. He hasn't saved anyone."

Hopper's expression turned angry. Seething. "You mean Peters died for nothing?!"

"Everyone here is dying for nothing!" Jenny shouted, throwing her hands into the air. "Haven't you figured that out?! Peters, putting that second dome on too early! Gavin, throwing himself in front of a bullet aimed at a man who can't die! Even—"

Jenny stopped.

Hands lowering… as she realized.

"Seo shot Jack with vampire bullets," said Jenny. "But the Poilarin aren't vampires. They knew her bullets wouldn't stop them!" Her eyes lingered on the stray bullet embedded into the side of the room — from Seo's first shot. "So when she tried to shoot Jack, in here… why did he run?"

Hopper shook her head, confused. "What? Of course he ran! She was trying to kill…!"

Jenny grabbed Hopper up by the shoulders, suddenly. "It's not just a wormhole — it's a temporal wormhole!" she cried. "Combined with excess time distortion! Oh, why didn't I see that before? That's what Seo figured out! It's utterly brilliant!"

Hopper struggled to figure out how any of this made sense. "But… why does that explain why Jack ran?"

Jenny grinned. "Easy. The Poilarin made Jack run… because Jack's the way to stop them."

Then she turned on her heels and raced out the room. Down towards the morgue.

To Jack's body.

"I said it the moment I arrived — Jack was wronger than usual," Jenny explained, as she made her way back upstairs, carrying Jack with her. "If the Poilarin had just drained his life from him, kept him lingering in death — he'd have felt normal. Not wrong at all!" Jenny shook her head. "I really underestimated my sister, didn't I?"

"Sister?" Hopper said, chasing after Jenny. "What sister? What are you talking about?!"

"I thought Seo had chased Jack straight out of that room with the Zillwell Machine and all the way down into the alley where I first met you and Peters," said Jenny. Shook her head. "But that's not how it happened. Can't be! If you hypothesize that Seo went somewhere else, first… it all starts to make sense. Gavin. Jack. Even Peters and the dome!"

"The dome," Hopper repeated.

"Yes, the second dome!" Jenny said. Sighed. "You don't honestly think the MIT scientists who barely had time to create the first one would have made two?!"

Hopper shrugged.

Hadn't thought of that.

"My sister knew she'd mucked up, with Jack and the Zillwell Machine," said Jenny. "She didn't chase Jack down to the alley — she kept him away, and then returned to the MIT labs. Started the process of creating that second dome." She zipped around a corner, a small smile on her lips. "And, while she was at it, figured… if she was in the material sciences department… why not use their technology to her advantage and create a special type of bullet for Jack's gun?"

"The pure iron bullets," Hopper clarified.

"I thought they'd come from Jack — or someone who'd lived through 2004 on Earth," said Jenny. "But they weren't exactly pure iron. 99% iron, and just a dash of something the scanner couldn't identify, but assumed had to be iron by process of elimination."

"But it wasn't?"

"Nope," said Jenny. "It was a dash of blood. Very specific blood, with very specific properties — Key properties."

"Key…?"

"Wormhole-manipulation properties," Jenny clarified. "The Poilarin didn't know what Seo had done, or what she was planning. But they knew it involved Jack, and could jeopardize their whole plan. They sent Jack off to kill her — but she turned the tables on him. Which is how they wound up in a blind alley. With you waiting for them. And Gavin certain that he had to sacrifice himself."

"I know that part," said Hopper. "But what I don't understand is how this dead body is going to stop the Poilarin from invading."

"Because it's a temporal wormhole," said Jenny. "Time. And a wormhole. Combined! Jack's a fixed point in time — able to reset no matter what. And the bullet that killed him contained an energy that could manipulate wormholes."

Hopper felt her head spinning.

Figured… there was no way she'd ever follow this explanation.

"The Poilarin filled Jack and this whole place with massive time distortion — have been doing so since they first arrived," said Jenny. "So the second Jack comes back to life…!" Jenny clicked her fingers. "Complete reset, back to how he was before. Clearing away the time distortion inside his head! Use Key energies to expand the reset outside his head… into the wormhole… and it'll be as if none of this had never happened in the first…!"

Jenny slowed.

Then stopped.

As she noticed every single member of the police force, now standing in front of the door to the Zillwell Machine. Their eyes murderous and glaring, many of them with guns in their hands.

"You will take Jack away from here, in your time ship," they commanded her, "and leave. Now."

Hopper gasped, in fear.

Jenny just faced them down — holding her own.

"And if I don't… I'm guessing you've got some other poor policeman you've convinced to race out and take the bullet for me?" Jenny said. "Just like with Seo. A policeman who just so happens to have a Poilarin tucked inside his head — ready and waiting to spill over into my mind, the moment he's killed."

"What?" Hopper squeaked.

"The other girl proved too… troublesome," said the Poilarin, through the many policemen ahead of Jenny and Hopper. "It was necessary to sacrifice one of us to stop Jack from coming back to life. And to summon to this planet a being — yourself — to give us access to the vortex."

"Someone who's already bested you, once before?" Jenny laughed. "Not your smartest move."

"You bested… one," said the police chief. Stepping towards Jenny, gun cocked and ready. "We are not one. We are multitude. We are legion."

Jenny's laughter stopped. "Ah."

She backed away, slowly. Watching as the Poilarin advanced on her, matching and mirroring her movements step by step.

"Hopper," Jenny said, giving her a glance, "have I ever told you what my favorite activity is?"

Hopper shook her head.

Jenny spun on her feet, lightning fast. "Running!" she shouted, sprinting into the distance. "Follow me!"