Back in the Oldest House, the silence in the Control Room was deafening. As the remaining team emerged from the Plane's gateway, all eyes turned to Darling, who stood rigid, his face pale and drawn. Underhill followed closely behind, her gaze avoiding the questioning stares of the Bureau's staff.
Director Trench waited at the center console, his cigarette smoldering between his fingers. His cold, calculating eyes scanned the group, noticing immediately that one was missing. "Where's Ashton?" he asked, his voice flat.
Darling couldn't meet his gaze. "She…" His voice broke. He clenched his fists, forcing the words out. "She sacrificed herself to stabilize the Nexus."
Trench exhaled slowly, a plume of smoke curling into the stale air. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath, his usual stoic demeanor faltering for a moment. "She knew the risks."
"She didn't have to take them," Darling snapped, his voice rising in uncharacteristic anger. "It should have been me."
"Enough, Casper," Trench said, his voice hard. "We all make sacrifices in this line of work. Ashton made hers. Now it's your responsibility to make sure it wasn't in vain."
Darling bit back further words, his grief and guilt boiling beneath the surface. He turned sharply, leaving the room without another word. The weight of his failures—Niedbala, Ashton—pressed heavily on his chest, suffocating him.
Hours later, Darling sat alone in his lab, the dim glow of the monitors casting long shadows across the room. The replay of the Astral Plane's events flickered on the screens, but his eyes stared blankly past them. His mind was elsewhere, trapped in an endless loop of what-ifs and regrets.
Ashton's final words echoed in his thoughts: "The Bureau needs you, Darling." He rubbed his temples, trying to focus, but the weight of her loss threatened to drown him.
Finally, he stood and walked to a nearby desk, where a journal lay open. Picking up a pen, he began to write. The words came slowly at first but gained momentum as he poured his thoughts onto the page:
"Ashton's sacrifice will not be forgotten. Her courage has given us a chance to protect the Bureau, to safeguard what remains of our world. I will not let her down. I owe her that much. To Ashton. To Hayley Niedbala. To everyone we've lost.
We must understand the Nexus, the Plane, the entity—everything. Only then can we ensure that no one else has to make this kind of sacrifice again."
He set the pen down, his resolve hardening. The guilt would remain, an ever-present shadow, but he would use it to fuel his work. Ashton had given him a second chance, and he would not waste it.