The Director fell to his knees, folding at the middle like scored paper before flopping headfirst into the dirt. Eli rushed to his brother's side, just as the soldiers, who'd gone momentarily inert in the confusion, took up their guns. Too slow, however, for the Wanderers were on them in an instant, wrestling them to the ground and their weapons out of their hands before they could fire a clean shot. A messy scrimmage ensued in which Ash couldn't tell friend from foe, gun from foot.

This was it. Her time was up. She would've like to have waited for the Establishment's retreat, so that she would not be disturbed half-way through the process. But this was as good as it was going to get. The Establishment were not going to back down now. And neither were her people. There would be only more bloodshed from here on out. And if she didn't do what she needed to do, who knew if it would be too late. The souls wouldn't stay tethered to the earth much longer.

The time had come.

Ash backed away from the chaos, out of the clearing and under the cover of forest where she found an alcove between two boulders and a Springybark, where long grass cushioned her feet. Kneeling, she unhooked the pocket watch from around her neck and held it, palm out, in front of her. It was now or never.

She was about to turn the dial and close her eyes when a hand gripped her wrist and squeezed tight. She looked up into the dark brown orbs of her brother and smiled. The memory flashed in her mind once more.

Ash was holding Jai's hand. They were in their father's workshop, but this time, the wall was only half covered in clocks. Her father was younger—there were grey flecks in his dark brown hair. And her brother sucked the thumb that wasn't already in her hand.

"Your mother and I have been developing a very powerful device," her father said. "And I think we should tell you about it, just incase something happens to us."

"Are you in trouble?" Ash said, her childlike voice high with trepidation.

"No, darling. Of course not. I just need you to listen. Can you do that?"

She nodded.

He touched her shoulder then pointed to the wall of clocks. "Do you remember that old film with your mum and I watched the other night?"

"Yeah, the one on that funny machine with the wheel?"

"The reel, darling. It's called a film reel." He paused to make sure she'd understood, then continued. "Well, your mother and I believe time is just like a film reel, flickering so fast that you can't see the blackness in between. We believe in that blackness, another world exists, just like ours, but different. a world with no humans. A world that's untouched, pristine, a utopia."

"A u-to-pia?" she said, trying out the new word.

"A place that's perfect. Where there are no tears, no sadness, no hiding."

"Wow," she said. "Can we go there?"

Her father reached into his pocket and withdrew the shiny gold watch. "This will help you get there. All it needs is a half turn to the right so the second hand ticks between the lines."

"And then?"

"That's the part I haven't figured out yet. But when I do, we'll have a place we can go if there's no room left in this world for the likes of us."

The memory faded.

"You've figured it out, haven't you," Jai said. "How to get between the worlds."

Ash tilted her head questioningly.

Jai smiled. "I've been having the memories too. Of our father, the room full of clocks, the lessons, the pocket watch. The day we got—"

"Taken," Ash finished.

He nodded. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing," she said, then smiled. "Just hold my hand."

Jai wrapped his hands around hers and together, they closed their eyes. Locating the flicker of her force, she let it fill her mind and body and felt the subtle shift as her spirit detached from her physical form and became fire. Slowly, using Jai as an anchor, she released herself and rose like a billow of hot air until she was floating, suspended above the battlefield. Bodies writhed, tangoed, fell like squashed bugs held down by the stickiness of their own guts.

She watched as Miki closed her eyes and conjured hailstones from the clouds, screaming as she let them fall on the writhing soldiers, offering deliverance in a quick death. A bullet ripped through the air to offer the same deliverance to Miki when Shorty grabbed her from behind and swung her around so that his body formed a human shield.

He dropped, chest spurting rosettes of blood. Miki fell beside him, intoning "No," over and over.

Shorty's soul flickered, clung by a tether, threatened to depart. "Leave it, Mik," he croaked.

"Reckless bastard." Miki pounded her hands in the dirt. "Don't you dare leave me."

Shorty sighed, chest heaving like a train about to derail. "I can see it. It's not so bad." He smiled.

And just like that, his soul curled, lifted like a cocoon and peeled away. His eyes disappeared behind a blanket of glass as Miki pressed her face against his cheek. Ash gathered up his fleeting soul before it could slip away and carried him from the battlefield.

Following a call of a soul from opposite bank of the river, she searched the charred earth for the remains of Jacob and found him, soft and malleable. He leapt exuberantly to her tether, joining Shorty. Around him, the blackened bodies of Establishment soldiers lay in the dirt—arms and legs splayed at jutting angles, foliage wrapped around them as though attempting to fossilise their remains. Floating closer, Ash probed their souls, but found nothing—no stirring force, no buzzing energy. Their essence was gone, leaving nothing but matter behind.

With a sigh, she floated over the ocean, answering the insistent tug of water and air. There, she plunged into the cool depths to find the twin sister from Aqua Mizuri waiting with her liquid smooth force, and two men, slippery like the wind with souls as soft as feathers.

Finally, she floated back to the battlefield and passed though the steel shell of the hovercrafts, locating the souls of Oroton, Gus and Gigi, curled in a loving embrace. They tethered easily to Ash and she carried them away. Lastly, Herald's soul, bright, golden and proud lifted from his body and joined the rest.

And that was it. That was all.

She floated over the battle field one more time to find it at another stalemate. The soldiers had surrendered their weapons and taken up their carabiners to lift them to their hovercrafts. The Wanderers were holding them up. Both sides held their wounded, both sides floundered in the futility of the fight.

Apple held her hand over a gunshot wound in Ollie's leg. Eli propped the Director's head on his lap and spoke to him almost in a whisper. Despite the fact that Jai had shot him three times in the stomach, he was still alive, though blood was trickling from beneath this bullet proof vest. Blood trickled from the corner of his lip.

"Why did you have to come here?" Eli said. "You could've left. None of this needed to happen."

"I had no choice. I'm dying."

"You're not dying. You've been shot, but you'll be fine."

The Director elicited a hoarse bark. "I'mdying, Eli. I've been dying for years."

"We're all dying."

"It's more than that." The Director pounded his fist against his chest. "I've got the throat rot, Eli. You were right. The shisha finally got to me."

Eli jerked backwards, the shock of his brother's confession wide in his eyes, "Is that why you wanted the watch? Because you thought passing into another world would cure you?"

"Think about it. Life and death would be different in that world."

"I don't think it works like that."

"Why not? You defy nature with your forces. Why couldn't I defy death?"

"The forces of nature can't be controlled. They choose us as vessels."

The Director closed his eyes. "Everything can be controlled."

"Do you really believe that?"

"Yes."

"It was father, wasn't it? He made you like this."

The Director didn't answer. "You love her, don't you. The rat girl."

"She's not a rat," Eli said, then after a moment's pause added, "And anyway... what's wrong with a rat? They're the ultimate survivors."

The Director's lips shook with the effort of talking. "That's the difference between you and me. You were born to be loved. And I—" a gurgle rose in his throat and a rasping breath shivered out of his mouth.

His chest stilled.

Ash felt a tug at her soul, as though she were an elastic band pulled too tight. The scene wavered in and out of focus and she realised the dial of the pocket watch was about to click back into place. Taking a deep breath, raised her eyes to the sky where a single ray of sun penetrated the clouds. Surrendering to the air currents she floated up, up, up into the pale, whitewash sky as it became the dawn of a new day.

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