**Author's notes: Slower updates for awhile.**

After about ten minutes of Null hastily fixing Jinnicky after I beat the ever loving hell out of him, "my" Tech-priest guided us to a bare exposed metal wall so that he could project what his metal drone had seen on my shoulder a short time ago. Jinnicky followed the three of us as he continued to babble and mumble to himself about how he had died and gone to hell. We stopped about two paces before a nondescript wall and proceeded to wait for Null to begin show time. Using a calmer application of Sight, I was able to reach into the spider Magos's soul in order to calm him and to have him order all the servitors to stop mining.

A long moment passed after it was finally quiet in here. The spider Magos turned to me, and pointed. "Are-are you... a Chaos Machine God avatar?" Jinnicky abruptly asked me in a cascade of anxious words. "A-a Chaos God for humanity? Akin to how the Aeldari have Slaanesh? Has humanity's collective depravity birthed you, oh dark female reflection of our Omnissiah? A Dark Queen instead of a Dark King?"

Lian turned toward the gibbering Magos in anger, even going as far as to brandish his sword from behind his back. I quickly said, "Hey, hey," with an outstretched arm toward my companions. "He's messed up right now. Don't worry about him. I'm not taking this personally."

"And-and-and if I'm in hell, a damned inverse of reality, then yes! Yes, yes, yes! You are a hell reflection of the eternity of the Machine God," Jinnicky chattered with a mad quiver in his artificial voice, placing a trembling thin hand up to his temple in a gesture of thought. He vigorously nodded. "And in an inverse of rational reality in another dimension, yes, you are the Omnissiah of this inversion! Female instead of male! Oh!" The spider Magos fell to his metal knees before me, and looked upward at me in an expression of worship. Another of his remaining seven green eyes burnt out in a pop. "Fear not, Dark Queen, for I have seen your light of darkness, oh blessed Omnissiah!"

"Uh..." I began to mumble awkwardly at Jinnicky's new madness. Gratefully, my companions interrupted the spider Magos's psychotic breakdown by motioning me to look toward the section of exposed metal wall. With a short electric crackle, a two meter tall projection flickered to life before us originating from one of Null's mechadendrites.

For the next ten minutes we all watched what I had seen in the simulation room. Null and Lian marveled with wonder at seeing the tall white-haired and armored form of Spoiled Prince as he fought the strange Heinrich kaiju-mech robot. Jinnicky continued to mutter to himself under his breath in unintelligible phrases, some of which sounded like he was speaking in binary. About halfway through the playback, Jinnicky excitedly asked, "That's the Pale Lord, isn't it?"

"His real designation is Spoiled Prince, not Pale Lord. If you don't know, the Emperor is the Weeping King, and I'm the Omega," I offered, trying to defuse the tense mood in here.

"Omega? That's you?" Jinnicky asked, his eyes flickering nervously as he observed me. "A designation to an ending! An excellent name for a destroying angel!"

Beside me, I heard Lian sigh heavily, his soul nearly vibrating with irritation at witnessing this Magos's behavior. Null restarted the projection before anyone else could beat the living daylights out of this Magos for his behavior.

As we continued watching Spoiled Prince's battle, I noticed that the Inheritor's features were subtly degrading the longer the recording was played.

"Interesting," Null hummed at the conclusion of the playback as he turned to me again, his animated eyes smiling. "I've seen it described that the holy machine entity of the Divine Retribution is seen as an affront to reality due to her fate distorting capabilities. This would, theoretically, extend to her captains, as they exist as a symbiotic extension of its will. I postulate that the memories and images of Inheritors, while in conventional time and space, will warp and vanish. This projection displayed an image of a previous and now inactive Inheritor, and once viewed outside of the time-dilated space of the simulation room or the protective embrace of the Divine Retribution, it proceeded to degrade rapidly. This... this may also explain why nearly no images the Omnissiah's most recent previous avatar survive to present day, despite studious record keeping. Fascinating!"

"Sure," I added. "I couldn't have said it better, yeah."

Null continued with, "Yes, the Divine Retribution is an affront to the natural fiber of fate in the universe. The universe treats the grand vessel and her memories as a wound which must be closed and healed when it is not active."

"She is a knife against the natural order, yes!" Jinnicky decided to barge in, pointing a trembling metal finger in my direction. "To come from another reality to kill us as a weapon to wound the very fabric of existence! A Dark Queen! A destroyer!"

"I, um, don't know if I'd go that far," I responded, turning away from Jinnicky's mania. This wasn't the first time I had been called the "Dark Queen", and hearing that name made me uncomfortable. The Magos began to laugh and shake his head.

"Ah, but you will! You will! Abominable affronts to fate such as yourself are destined to destroy, to upend. It is in your nature to be something that realigns destinies."

"Anyway..." Null interrupted Jinnicky again. "I have a question, Inheritor, if you would oblige me." The Tech-priest brought the projection up again, and briefly searched through the playback until finding a certain still frame. Before us were now the three arches that I had seen on the strange pyramid when I turned back in order to leave the simulation. "When you turned about to leave the simulation space, I noticed these three arches. Did you happen to intuit where these other two arches lead?"

"No, I didn't actually think about it," I answered. "What do you think they're about?"

"I'm not certain. A pity I cannot see this simulation space with my own eyes so I can study it more vigorously, but since the arch you traveled through also appears to be some sort of teleportarium, it would bear reason to believe that the others are separate teleportarium entryways. I've seen similar arches used in the construction of small Webway gates, but none were as flawless as the the arches we have seen here."

"Yes, I did have that theory!" Jinnicky cried out, still trembling and still shaking in mania. After briefly stumbling over his robe (which caused a mechadendrite to disarticulate from his torso, which fell to the floor with a smash), the spider Magos hastily walked back over to the arch I had walked through and pointed at it with his remaining arms. When he spoke again, it was in a high-paced stream of words. "I, like you, have said to myself 'oh, it is too pristine for a Webway gate'. But, this appears to be a specialized space used for the business of Inheritors, and would have more powerful protective technology or enchantment guarding its operability. Maybe it is somewhat of a variant of a Webway gate that operates as a trans-dimensional teleportarium and Webway node. Something used and utilized by Inheritors as both a training space, and a method of personal long-distance travel. Why, one of those other two arches could lead to a room in the Imperial Palace!"

"Or Commoragh," Lian observed as he placed his sword on his back again. "We should be cautious of such technology."

"Fascinating," Null answered. "The simulation space may potentially lay in the Webway. The other nodes could indeed lead to locations across the galaxy."

"Three arches! Oh! Yes, now I remember! Yes!" Jinnicky shrieked in excitement, pointing at the projection of the three arches. "I found a degraded engraving in the remains of a stasis box. It's in my workshop! It displayed three arches! Just like that!"

"What do you know, Magos?" Null asked with great interest.

"Three arches! Three arches!" the spider Magos continued to cry out, now nearly incoherent. It felt as if his sanity was beginning to splinter along with his damaged body as the scent of burning electronics began to fill the air. "One arch, no name. Another arch, it says, 'Obsidian City'. A third arch, a scrambled mess of letters and symbols!"

"Obsidian City?" I asked curiously. My companions and I turned to one another. It appeared that none of us recognized the name.

"Oh, this location!" Jinnicky shrieked madly, and even jumped up and down before us before whirling around again. "This incredible location! So many glorious things to unearth! It is a jewel! A jewel that must be ripped from the dark clutches of this world before hell descends forth from the sky!"

"A jewel..." I hummed, watching the spider Magos continue to descend into insanity. I took a breath, and turned on my Corona in order to influence Jinnicky again. "Magos," I began, my voice strengthened. As soon as I spoke in my resonant voice, I felt a tense quiet fall over my company. I extended my light outward, willing my energy to calm Jinnicky so we could get an actual answer out of his mania. "Calm yourself. Have you, by any chance, discovered any sorts of jewels that resemble those in the crown of the Inheritor with the white hair?"

Magos Jinnicky stood watching me with flickering green eyes, the metal of his facial implants and arms reflecting my gold light. He shuddered before responding. "Oh yes! I have found many things! Many! And jewels as well, yes, my Dark Queen and inverted Omnissiah! But, woe as me, the mercenaries that came here first found a lucky haul that I have not been able to match just yet! Magos Amee showed me two small clear stasis boxes! Flawless condition after all these years! They are... they are back on Tar Vigaz."

"Stasis boxes?" Null now spoke up, very interested. The code that had unlocked some of Null's Kelbor-Hal memories had been contained in a stasis box. The Tech-priest definitely had an interest in finding more codes in order to unlock more terrifying memories. "Have you discovered any other stasis technology? Have you, by any chance, seen a long string of archaic code 79 symbols in length?"

"I have seen no such code, my fellow," Jinnicky said with a shake of his head. "But to the Dark Queen, yes, jewels! No crown, but precious minerals!" The Magos then began to frantically nod. "Strange minerals! Resist scanning! Resisting study!"

"Plural?" I asked hopefully, my halo dimming. "Like, more than one?"

Jinnicky then began to frantically nod again. "This base, this outpost. Whatever it is. The jewels! The minerals! They were pushed upward with the lava flow. My gravel men find them when chipping away at the rock! Would you like to see, Dark Queen?"

"Sure," I answered. "Just... you don't have to call me Dark Queen, okay? Just Inheritor is fine."

"Very well, destroyer!" the spider Magos replied with a dramatic bow.

My friends and I followed Jinnicky as he quickly walked back through the tunnel and into the base of the tower again. The door locked automatically behind us when we were through. Here, Jinnicky's servitors were still at work sorting bits of excavated rock into various rectangular containers. The spider Magos stumbled again as he skipped ahead, motioning us to follow him. "Come and see!"

We now stood before a very suspiciously young servitor with a slight build. The figure (I couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl) was dressed in a black rubber bodysuit, and was delicately brushing over a small shiny object with a brush of soft bristles. The servitor stood before what appeared to be a small pile of rough stones on a metal table off to the side of the main group of rock sorting figures. A small glass dish off to the side was filled with dark and very shiny pebble-sized rocks. One of Jinnicky's mechadendrites reached forward and snatched one of these glittery stones.

"Look!" the spider Magos explained, holding the stone before us. Another of his mechadendrites reached over his back, and illuminated the stone as he delicately grasped it in a metal clamp. It appeared to be a rough, almost black ruby. "These little stones! They are not typical minerals! I had planned to take them back to Tar Vigaz for further study. Nimmie would have been so proud!"

"Oh, are these bloodstones?" I asked as I held a hand out, gesturing that I wanted the spider Magos to hand me the the jewel, which he did. I held it up to the light. These were rough stones, I observed; they were smaller and darker than the jewels on Spoiled Prince's crown, only about the size of a fingernail at most. Curious, I pushed my Sight into the tiny object, and I studied it with my psyker abilities.

I smiled as I then knew that this was definitely a bloodstone! Hurray! However, an intuition passed through me to let me know that this little gem wasn't satisfactory for my needs. Images flickered in my mind's eye of larger, specially cut stones that held greater power. I got an intuitive sense that the larger, clearer, and more perfectly cut these particular stones were directly correlated to how much soul energy they could bolster.

"They're rough bloodstones, yeah. Hey..." I began, turning toward Null. "Do, uh, these remind you of any stone that might have existed in that, uh, other crown you were talking about?"

Null narrowed his eyes, and I offered him the stone I was holding, which he took. The Tech-priest observed the stone critically for a moment in his gold hand. "Interesting! But, I suspect that the clarity must be much higher for any kind of enchantment to take place. But yes, these look like they could be bloodstones similar to what was worn by the primarch I spoke of. It was said that the strange rubies in his crown were discovered deep within the planet Nostramo."

"Konrad Curze..." Lian spoke heavily, his voice deep with disapproval.

"Hey Jinnicky," I began as I opened up my Corona again, preparing myself to influence the Magos, who continued to deteriorate before me. A brief wave of dizziness swept through me as my halo began to shine. "Do you happen to have a gem like this, but larger, brighter, and more clear? Like, maybe resembling the stones on Spoiled Prince's crown?"

The spider Magos stepped away from me, and began to shake as another of his eyes flickered out. A spark popped from his scarred midsection, filling the air with the scent of ozone. "I-I-I..." he began to tick. Jinnicky then abruptly collapsed face first onto the floor, and all his green eyes guttered out like spent light bulbs.

Stunned, no one moved for a moment. Oh. I withdrew my Corona, and turned to Null again with a nod, indicating that he should attend to the downed Magos, which he did after placing the jewel pebble back in the glass dish.

Lian and I watched as Null quickly turned Jinnicky on his back and placed his hands on the Magos's scarred metal chest, hastily examining him. The servitors continued to work, organizing black igneous rocks into various piles while some deftly chiseled and split other stones.

"He deserves this," Lian said with a derisive sniff. He placed a giant hand on my shoulder. "Anyone going against you deserves this. Such is the way of wisdom."

A few weeks ago, if someone had said something like this to me, I would not have agreed, but a sense inside of me now looked on at Jinnicky's current plight with dark satisfaction.

Lian and I watched awkwardly as Null hastily continued to fuss over Jinnicky's prone form in the middle of the base of the tower. A thin plume of smoke rose from the spider Magos's torso, letting me know that this was actually quite serious. I knew that I had not only damaged the rude Tech-priest in body, but metaphysically as well. Null then stood up tensely, not making eye contact with me. "Magos Jinnicky has been overloaded. He is on emergency power. In order to live, he needs a fresh power supply replacement, and soon. I have suitably compatible cells back on the Divine Retribution, but we should try to search this location first here. Most Magos Explorators have a personal workshop devoted to personal health and modification. There, he would keep his spare parts. He has already mentioned such a workshop, so we should find it."

"So, we can take him back to the ship or we can search for his personal workshop and fix him here," I clarified.

Null nodded. "Yes. If you should wish it so."

The servitors around us continued to chip away at the rocks, organizing their small pebbles of bloodstones into glass dishes.

"Or, we could simply allow him to expire," Null quietly offered as he looked down at Jinnicky while nudging him with a metal foot. "Unless we're planning on taking him with us, this Magos was doomed the moment Nimmie Amee passed."

"No one is coming for him, and I am not exactly fond of individuals that express this level of impropriety. He will not be missed if we do not take him with us," Lian said with a dispassionate grumble. "The less people who know of our existence, the better. That is a lesson I take from my Brothers."

"But, maybe he has some sort of security measures that get triggered if he's dead. He's already paranoid about hereteks coming to get him, so I'm pretty sure he's set up some sort of defenses," I explained. It also felt morally questionable to let this guy die. Sure, he was a jerk, but no one deserves to die for the crime of being an asshole.

I heard (and psychically felt) Lian's disappointed sigh from above my left shoulder. "That... is an excellent observation," Lian responded. "I do not have my armor, I must remind you both."

I slouched in defeat at realizing that I could not excuse letting Jinnicky die. "How long does he have before he's dead forever, Null?"

"Six hours or so, give or take a few hours. He is in a similar state that I was in before the belt was fastened to me. A sort of unconscious stasis. Should we hunt for his personal workshop, or take him back to the Divine Retribution?"

We'd certainly have a nice excuse for rifling through Jinnicky's tower here, and I knew that there was probably at least one cut bloodstone somewhere at this location. "Let's see if we can find where he keeps his goodies here. Lian, move him somewhere where the servitors won't step on him."

The Fallen Paladin dragged the unconscious form of Magos Jinnicky to lay next to the doorway to the tunnel where he was left in a prone position. A nasty thought of "That's what you get" rose inside of me, which caused me to feel guilty again. Swallowing my existential loathing, I turned to my companions and said, "Okay boys, time to see what this guy has here."

Null led us upstairs again. The top floor, it appeared, was where Jinnicky kept his entire "home base".

The three of us quickly stepped into Jinnicky's residential area where we had been previously during our first meeting with the rude spider Magos; Null was immediately drawn to the many whirring amorphous machines that lined this wide round space. As he began to hastily tinker with each machine, Lian and I sat down at the long table before us where we had enjoyed recaf before. The Fallen Paladin settled himself in his too-small chair, and exhaled heavily.

"Forgive me this opinion, but I do not enjoy the idea of bringing such an unpleasant individual aboard our vessel, Inheritor," Lian quietly informed me.

"Our whole vessel is filled with unpleasant individuals," I replied sadly. "I really do get the feeling that if this guy dies on us, that some kind of defensive measure will get triggered. I looked inside his mind. He's terrified of the local hereteks getting him. I bet that he's got this place armed and wired like a bomb in case Cyclothrathe comes knocking."

Lian nodded. Nearby, I heard the sound of Null's metal feet tapping against a rigid surface in a regular, testing manner. The Tech-priest then made an inquisitive noise. I turned in my chair to see Null kneeling down and uncovering a wide two meter squared panel in the floor under a thin dusty cloth. From what I could see from my seat, the floor panel was split in its center, and two wide rings were riveted onto its surface. It appeared to be a trap door! Lian and I both stood from our seats, and walked forward to where Null was laboring.

"Ah! I knew it! This-" the Tech-priest lowered himself and gripped one of the rings of the trap door with his metal arms, and pulled upward. The floor door swung open, and a small gust of warm spicy-scented wind brushed against my face. "This is the entry to his personal workshop. It is quite poorly hidden, if that was his intention. I wonder why the Magos even bothered trying to hide it like this?"

"I don't think Magos Jinnicky is much of an AdMech super genius, to be honest," I said with a sniff. Lian and I now stood adjacent to Null, who peered over the open trap door, looking downward into a dark space. A faint glow of red was visible from somewhere off to the left, but aside from that, I couldn't see much of what was below. There appeared to be a metal ladder extending downward.

A soft gust of warm dry air wafted upward from the hole, along with the faint scent of incense. The Tech-priest turned to us, and said, "Sacred incense and anointing oils is what you smell. I will send Jiminy down the hatch to see what he sees. You are correct in that Magos Jinnicky seems to be on the paranoid side, so he may have trapped his own workshop."

The gold mantis clambered out of a pocket in Null's red robe and extended its wings. Launching itself into the air with a whir, I watched as the drone buzzed down into the open entryway. "Just to be safe, keep a short distance away as Jiminy explores, please."

After a tiny light flickered on atop its head, the drone vanished into the dark. The three of us now stood waiting for the metal mantis to scout out our next location.

"So," I said with an awkward sigh. "No one knows anything about an Obsidian City?"

Null did not respond, and I noticed that his animated eyes were moving rapidly. He was probably concentrating on directing his drone. Lian answered me with, "I'm not familiar with such a place, but the galaxy is vast in both space and secrets."

The Tech-priest then blinked, and turned back to us. From below, I saw the metal drone flutter back up and perch on Null's shoulder again. "I... I feel a whisper of an incomplete memory about a location called the Obsidian City, yes, but what I am most curious upon is what Jinnicky mentioned concerning a so called a 'scrambled mess of letters and symbols.' He may be talking about a code, but may not have the wisdom to appropriately understand what it is."

"What's down there?" I asked, leaning over the open trap door again.

"Just his workshop. No traps detected," Null explained as he prepared to climb down the ladder. "It's a simple and very disorganized workshop. But-" The Tech-priest began climbing downward. As he descended, a light flickered on in the room below us. "But, there also exists what appears to be some sort of complex cubic energy shield atop a pedestal. It seems to be in use as some sort of safekeeping measure for a small object, but I cannot see what it is. It's strange, really. For all of Magos Jinnicky's inconsistent observable security and erratic behavior, it appears that he has placed great and complex precautions in the protection of something important."

I pursed my lips as I remembered what the daemon glaive Valkyrie had told me. Was I really about to just listen to daemonic advice like this?

"Are you going down there?" Lian asked me.

"Yeah, I'm going down," I answered as I lowered myself to the floor. I handed my force staff to Lian so I could keep my hands free. Afterward, I swung my legs into the entryway, and began to climb down the ladder.

As I climbed down, I noted that the drop was actually quite sizeable. The room down here was over three meters in height, and it was bent to follow the outer curvature of the tower at a length of about five meters in a slim semicircle type shape. A dim lantern hung above from a rough ceiling which lit this space in a yellow, dingy light. A spicy herbal scent hung in the air. I stepped off the ladder and onto a plated metal floor. Taking a good look at this room, I first noticed what appeared to be some kind of strange silvery metal bed-pod to my right that hugged a straight stone wall that stood opposite the curved tower wall. Long spindly metal limbs extended out from each side of the pod, and a pile of metal scrap lay beside it.

"This is where he modifies himself," Null said with a note of disapproval, waving one of his four arms in a dismissive manner. "Not very impressive, really. Placing one's discarded metal in an open trash pile in your workshop without clearing the rubbish away is quite insightful."

Near the bed-pod, Null went to busying himself with investigating a large metal crate. Above, I could now tell that Lian was cautiously testing his weight against the ladder. I heard the metal of the ladder groan as the Fallen Paladin gingerly tried to step on the ladder.

"You don't need to come down here. We're okay," I said, looking upward. Lian removed his giant boot from the rung. "Keep an eye out in case of trouble. There's not a lot of room down here anyway."

Lian nodded, and I continued exploring the workshop space.

It was very disorganized in here, but my eyes were immediately drawn to a red glowing cube of energy that stood atop a pedestal on the opposite side of the room. I passed a few storage bins and a drafting table covered in little pieces of scrap metal, rough bloodstones, and crumpled paper along with a magnifying glass. I passed a sketch of three arches, which was probably what Jinnicky had been referring to earlier. However, I was fixated on my prize. In my anticipation, my Corona brightened, and I walked quickly to stand before the glowing red energy cube.

The glowing cube of energy wasn't large; it seemed to only be about the size of my head. It stood upon a metal pedestal covered with little blinking lights and was fastened securely to the floor. A number keypad was fixed into the pedestal. Behind the cube, a reflective silver wall scattered the red light of the cube and the radiance of my halo through this space. I caught a glimpse of my golden-eyed Corona-wreathed reflection again, and looked away. My slow metamorphosis was causing me discomfort. I was now starting to feel anxiety at viewing my own reflection, afraid of seeing my features change again.

Instead, I focused my attention on the red energy cube. With a soft inhale, I extended my Sight, and began to investigate.

An image of a teardrop-shaped fiery ruby the size of my eye appeared in my mind, and I smiled.

"Ah, found it," Null answered behind me. "He only has one spare power supply. Magos Jinnicky did not come well prepared to this world."

"Do we have to drag him down here to swap out his energy core thing?" I asked without turning around, holding my right hand over the keypad. The daemon had said that the code to open this was "999999999". Was that correct? That was the most Tzeentchian number I had ever seen, I thought morbidly.

"No, we don't. You, ah, only severed one essential cable on his chest. Repairing that along with replacing his core is not a difficult task." I heard Null walking to me. "What is this cube you observe? Do you know what it holds?"

"I think... it has a bloodstone," I answered, continuing to hold my hand over the keypad. Null was now directly behind me. "A big one."

A few moments passed, and Null asked, "Shall we be up?" with a brief tap on the shoulder.

I didn't answer, and held my finger tensely over the "9" key.

Null walked to my right side, and quickly started to tap against one of his forearm as I considered the pros and cons of following the words of a daemon. It seemed that my options were either to follow daemonic advice, or let myself get consumed by the Divine Retribution. Extrapolating on that, I had a very real fear of history repeating itself and somehow ending up tortured on my own Golden Throne powering my own Astronomican for thousands of years. The ship had an agenda, my free will be damned.

And I wanted to keep my free will intact, no matter what...

I caught my reflection again. I was scowling, and my halo was shimmering in emotional conflict as my eyes glowed in frustration. I swallowed, and looked away.

The Tech-priest then placed his arm before me, which diverted my attention away from my rumination. On the floor below his arm, a projection of green words appeared. It said, "There may be an active microphone in here. You are considering breaking the encryption of this security field? How?"

I turned to Null, and gently gripped his arm. I began to type out a message. "Had a dream about this. I think I know the password to this. There's a large cut bloodstone under the energy field. I want it."

Null looked at me, and blinked twice as he processed what I said. He then typed another message. "I will follow you no matter what course of action you take. We should not labor down here too long, I suggest. We need to repair the Magos."

"Yes," I typed out. "Gonna do this."

I went back to gazing at the keypad, and Null began to shuffle about behind me near the drafting table. The Tech-priest then said, "Aha, the sketch of the arches!" in a delighted exclamation.

I considered my position, and remembered what the daemon inside of Alberich's glaive had told me. Was I really about to listen to Tzeentch again? That god, in the lore, was so good at manipulation that he could box you into doing what he wanted by putting you in impossible situations where choosing his desired outcome would definitely feel like the better outcome. Magnus got "Tzeentched", and now, I recognized that I was definitely on the road to being Tzeentched if I kept listening to that god's words.

But, if I didn't look for bloodstones, I risked the complete erosion of my free will and the annihilation of who I was. I'd become the same sort of inhuman weapon-demigod Sebastian became, and while to an outsider that would look like an "isekai jackpot" scenario, there was real and horrific existential danger if I advanced along that golden path. This universe was doomed, and I'd be doomed too if I stayed here.

Fuck. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't, I thought with a resigned sigh. I wanted to go home, and the only way to do that was to preserve my free will.

And at any cost...

"Like Dorothy said, there's no place like home," I whispered as I typed "999999999" in on the keypad.