The End

We came to an agreement. We convinced ourselves that it's unlikely that the price for Jack's wish would be the destruction of the multiverse and short of that we couldn't think of anything worse than the current situation. So we took the deal. We made the wish.

Jack snapped his fingers and took another sip of his drink. Nothing had happened. We waited a couple of seconds and nothing continued to happen. We eventually worked up the nerve to ask him why nothing seemed to be happening.

Jack: Oh it did happen. I saved the universe. Well more accurately you did.

Me: But... But we're still stuck here.

Jack: Yes you are but somewhere else you have just saved the universe.

Nathan: I don't follow...

Jack: Well I couldn't just set everything right here. It doesn't work like that. Instead I created a universe split. In the other universe things were different you guys succeeded.

Portnoy: *His eyes were glassy* You mean we're...

Jack: Stuck in a doomed alternate timeline? Yes very much so.

Me: But somewhere else The Universe is saved. We're all going to live?

Jack: Yes. Actually there are technically two split universes but I didn't create one of them. In one of them The Fears didn't lose their powers at all but that's not mine. As an added bonus the best way to keep you from screwing everything up was too make it so Muffy's sister wasn't all brain addled. So the other universe consists of happy living people and Muffy has a completely sane sister. In one of them Mr. Specter is even still alive.

Harold: But not here... Here we still failed. The End is still coming we're all going to die?

Jack: Exactly. *He looked thoughtful* Want a drink? *He offered his drink out to us*

None of us accepted. Somewhere we saved the world... Somewhere people are happy and things are going on like normal... Somewhere everything is perfect. But, here everything is wrong. Here we sit and wait for

The End.
 

7 years of bad luck probably doesn't matter much when you're current lifespan is measured in minutes.

The Mirror is broken. The world is ending and Nathan came too.

First The mirror shattered and there was a great wave of force and then just a feeling of well it felt like being full... Or more like being bloated. Something had entered the universe and everything in it and was over saturating it... Then there was just this great feeling of ill. You know how some animals and stuff can feel the coming of their own death. It might feel like this... Although there was no feeling of being at peace. It was just abject terror and the queasy feeling of incoming unstoppable doom. Oh and a little despair thrown in there for good measure. This is when Nathan came too. "We're missing the fifth!" He yelled.

Me: "Yeah we know. There's no fifth anymore we're done for."

Nathan: No. No! There is a fifth. Well you're the fifth what I mean is there was a second.

Harold: Yeah Faceless...

Nathan: No he wasn't the second! Time time looks after itself.

Portnoy: What are you talking about?

Nathan: We went back in time and made him not the second.

Me: Yes so then you would be the second and we could get a new fifth.

Nathan: Yes but it already happened. Before we did it. Faceless was never the second because even though we did it later the effect of changing it had already changed it before we did it.

Portnoy: That doesn't change anything. It just means you were always the second.

Nathan: No! Someone met The Herald before I did!

Harold: What who?

Nathan: My sister!

Me: But I thought she was possessed by him that doesn't count otherwise all The Emaciated would be numbers as well.

Nathan: She wasn't possessed. When everything started she was channeling those dying in the affected area. That's what that was. She wasn't possessed she was channeling someone possessed. The Herald had spoken to her... She interacted with him. She's the second!

Harold: How do you know she was just channeling someone possessed.

Nathan: The Herald said so. Well not quite but he said I should be with my sister. That wasn't just idle talk he was taunting us. That we hadn't brought her with us. During the fight he said: 'Your sister follows orders well. I tell her to listen and repeat and she does.' He was telling me what he did. He knew we'd think she was possessed the bastard set us up and we fell for it but there's still time we can go get her!

Harold: No we can't.

Nathan: What why not?!

Harold pointed and we turned. Somehow we had failed to notice that a large dome of earth had risen around us. Eyes stared out of the dome at us. There was a rumbling and in the very center of the dome a pedestal rose out of the ground. There were small handprints on the pedestal each one numbered. 1-5 It was obvious what was supposed to be done. Without the second though we couldn't do anything.

Nathan: Maybe we can use the path or one of the other travel methods?

Harold: *Shook his head* The domains were destroyed when The Fears lost their powers.

Nathan: ... I... I could use The Godsway?

Me: You can what?!

Nathan: Yeah I'm not really supposed to though.

Me: Who cares use it!

Nathan: *Closed his eyes and just stood there for a few minutes* No good I don't think we're in the same universe. I think this might be some sort of pocket universe...

Portnoy: So that's it we're doomed then.

A very calm voice spoke up here.

???: Not necessarily...

We all turned. There was a man leaning against the wall of earth seemingly unbothered by the fact he was leaning on an eye. He had a bottle of Gin in one hand and his other hand was hanging by his side. It was also blood red.

Nathan: Jack?

Jack: *Smiles and waves*

Nathan: How did you get here?

Jack: I can go anywhere someone desires something. I'm not bound to any one universe or time.

Nathan: But The Fears lost their powers how-

Jack: -I'm not a fear. I'm not quite the same thing as Mairun *He saw the blank stares the name elicited and stopped changing tracks quickly.* The creature who saved you from The Envoy. I'm not like him or the one who spoke to Muffy in his dreams but I'm not a fear either. My powers can't be taken by any means. Because they come straight from your desires.

Me: Wait... You can change this can't you?

Jack: *Smile widened* Of course all it takes is a wish. *He took a swig of Gin* There'll be a price of course...

Nathan: What price could be worse than the end of the world?

Jack: Good question. I'd advise you think of an answer before making the wish. You have some time.

Despite Nathan's insistence that nothing could be worse than what's happening at the moment we're going to take a bit to deliberate.

The whole universe holds it's breath in anticipation.

Nathan is still out of it. He's mumbling something.

I can't get much of it but it's mostly: "How could we forget?" Followed by stuff about "The last one was right there." and "Time is capable of defending itself even in advance." Who knows what it means.

Meanwhile the sky. The mirror that once showed a hideous monster now shows us. Well it is now literally a mirror reflecting our universe. Except in the mirror our universe is a desolate world covered in bodies and rot. Oh and the earth seems to be cracking up. This is quite worrisome. This is especially worrisome because the mirror is splintering. I'm pretty sure when it breaks The End will arrive. We still have no clue what we're supposed to do to stop it. Nathan's mumbling is probably important but he's too out of it to explain and none of us can comprehend his meaning.

Wait... I think I just got it... Well part of it... We're still missing someone. We had gone to get Vadim because we needed one more to replace The Faceless Bastard. He died and then with everything else we forgot why we had gone to find him in the first place. We're still missing someone. We could go find someone but we finished off all The End Pieces and I doubt The End itself counts. There's no way to create the 5th.


We're totally screwed...