Gwen Cooper is alone in the hub when the blue box arrives. She doesn't notice it at once, has to rewind the surveillance tape to see when exactly it materialized beside the fountain. The little police box Jack disappeared in when he left them for good.

The thing is parked exactly on the lift and so she activates it, wondering what kind of face her former boss will make when he comes out of that door and finds himself down here.

Wonders what kind of face Ianto will make when he comes here and Jack is back.

There is no guarantee, of course, that Jack is really in there. She simply suspects it, because he's promised to visit. When Ianto comes to work tomorrow morning he might already be gone again.

Maybe it'd be better that way.

According to the tape the box has been here for hours, but no one has left so far. Even now there's no movement. After a minute she loses her patience, but the moment she lifts her hand to knock on the blue painted wood the door opens and Jack steps out. Through the gab Gwen can see the impossible dimensions inside, just for a second before the door closes with a sharp click.

Jack doesn't return her greeting smile, doesn't speak, hardly acknowledges her presence. His face is blank.

"You took your time," she finally says when his silence stretches too long to be comfortable, meaning both his long refusal to come out there and the time passed since she last saw him. Jack finally looks at her with empty eyes that make her shiver.

"There was something I had to take care of." Even his voice sounds flat. He seems drained, like a man who doesn't see a point in anything. Suddenly Gwen is concerned.

"Jack, what's wrong?" she asks. He doesn't answer, doesn't even shake his head, just looks though her for a moment, his back against the closed door. Then a jolt seems to run though his body and he steps away from the box, past her and towards where his office used to be.

"Where is everyone?" he wants to know, ignoring her concern, the friendship she's offering. As always. Her worry mingles with the old anger.

"The boys are home," she answers none the less. "It's almost ten in the evening and there isn't much work to do. What did you expect? You're lucky I'm still here."

"Ah," he says. "I forgot to consider the time. What are you still here for?"

"Paperwork," she points out. "You should know that. I was about to head home, but if you need me…"

The offer doesn't have time to hang in the air.

"I'm fine, thanks. You said the boys were home. Where's Martha?" The slight concern is the first emotion Gwen finds in his voice since he arrived and she hurries to reassure him.

"Martha's in Belgium, observing some weird occurrences that probably are related to the rift. She won't be back before next month, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he mumbles absentmindedly, gazing into the office Gwen has taken over. "Don't tell her I'm here."

"She'll curse her bad luck for having missed you."

"I'm staying."

Gwen frowns. Not that she minds having him around but this is sudden. When he left Torchwood they all believed he left it forever. Jack doesn't react to the look she throws him, gestures toward the blue box instead.

"When the others come here tomorrow have them move it to the basement," he orders as he enters the office and Gwen's anger wins over her concern.

"What makes you think you can give orders?" she snaps. "You take control again? Sorry I have to remind you, but you are not the boss here anymore, Captain! You can't just come and go like you want, disappear for a bloody year and then just return all of a sudden and assume you can get your old job back!"

Jack doesn't frown. Doesn't look annoyed. He gazes at her calmly and after a second he says:

"I'm not here because I want my job back, Gwen. I just have nowhere else to go."

Gwen's anger melts as her heart breaks a little.

"What happened?" she asks again, but this time her voice is a whisper. "Where's your friend? Can't you stay with him?"

Jack's face remains empty.

"I wish I could," he tells her. Pulls open the hatch that seals the hole leading to his room, and before she Gwen can ask for a confirmation of her apprehension he is gone.

-

The hole under the office is still Jack's room. It still holds his bed, his clock, his closet, but it hasn't stayed untouched. In the year of his absence stuff has been moved here. Alien artefacts someone was too lazy to carry down to storage, boxes filled with reports, an old chair that has been replaced with a new one. The others have offered to help him get it away but Jack never found the energy to get it done. It doesn't bother him, really. When he's down here he only lies on the bed, staring at the walls or the ceiling, for hours.

He doesn't start working for Torchwood again, has asked Gwen to keep his return a secret to the other branches. Sometimes he helps them when they can use his help. When dying is in order. Jack does it gladly – when his friends thought he was reckless and asking for death in the old days they learn better now. But most of the time he can't even muster the energy to get himself killed.

Where's the point in that anyway? The non-existent moment of oblivion isn't worth the realisation of being still alive.

Gwen must have realised what has happened the day he arrived but it took her a week to bring up the topic and Jack was grateful for the short break. He knows she's trying to help him but can't bring himself to appreciate the effort. When she drags Ianto into it Jack snaps and kicks them out. They could help, they argue. His friends think they can support him like the three of them supported each other when Owen and Tosh died. This isn't like Owen and Tosh.

That loss has been terrible but back then Jack has been the strong one. Able to comfort his friends because he's been prepared for it. The moment he's taken each of them into the team he knew he'd lose them someday. Just like he knows he'll lose Gwen and Ianto, Martha and everyone else. There were only two kinds of people in his life: Those who'll die soon, and the Doctor.

They could share their pain about their lost team mates. In his pain about the Time Lord Jack is all alone. Neither of them knew him.

He dreads the day Martha returns to Cardiff. If it was possible he'd never tell her. She doesn't have to know, but with the TARDIS in the basement she'll find out.

The Doctor asked Jack to destroy the ship but he can't bring himself to do it. The mere thought makes him feel sick – it's all he has left. Somewhere inside her twisted dimensions the Doctor is lying on his bed, washed and dressed in clean clothes, looking like he's sleeping. The TARDIS must keep his body from decaying for even ten days later he still looks the same, untouched by time.

In the lonely hours in his hole Jack often closes his eyes and imagines the Doctor's slim fingers in his own. Remembers the way the other arched beneath him when they made love, the flush on his face, his half open, clouded eyes and panting breath. His light weight on top of him when he for once fell asleep in the human's arms and Jack didn't move all night for fear of disturbing him, or even his big ears and close cropped hair and the feeling of leather under his palms as they danced. When the team is gone Jack goes to the TARDIS, and her dimly lit interior still feels like home. Every door leads to the Doctor's room and Jack spends hours looking at him, holding his hand, stroking his hair. The bed is broad and sometimes Jack lies down beside him, not close enough to touch, and only there does he find sleep. In his dreams the Doctor is alive but the impression never lingers when he wakes. Opening his eyes to stare at the peaceful looking man beside him he knows that he will never move again. Sometimes he breaks down and cries.

Outside of the TARDIS the numbness never leaves him. Even in the long years before he found the Doctor again he has never been so aware of the endless number of years stretching out before him, filled with nothing worth his time.

Every now and then Jack's chocking grief is replaced by anger and he clings to those moments, for anger he can deal with and while he's shouting and cursing and hitting his fists against the walls he doesn't have to think.

If he'd never met the Doctor he wouldn't be cursed with this endless life. And the Doctor knew it! It would have been his fucking duty to stay with Jack as the only one able to keep him company for more than a moment! But instead he went and used Jack as a means to commit suicide.

Those fits of anger are always followed by guilt.

What kills him is not the fact that he has been the one to end the Doctor's life. It's the fact that the Doctor has known, from the very beginning, that Jack would kill him. And he never said a word. Didn't prepare him (for Jack might not have done it had he known), didn't try to work out a way to prevent it with him. He simply lied and waved it off and as an apology gave his friend the only thing he could offer: himself.

"Just be happy and give that invaluable friendship of yours to someone who can give you something in return."

It all makes perfect sense now. Jack curses himself for not seeing it before. The Doctor knew their days were numbered and what losing him would mean to Jack, and tried to make their remaining time as good for Jack as possible. Give him something to hold on to in the countless years to come, until the memory fades and is replaced by something that doesn't hurt quite as much. "Forget me, if you can," his message said, telling the immortal that despite everything his friend never truly understood what he meant to Jack. Forget him. As if that were possible.

One day Jack might see the universe end once again and he'll watch the stars go out and wish for the Doctor to be there with him.

Almost three weeks after coming back to Earth Jack doesn't close the door of the TARDIS properly and Gwen comes inside after him, finds him behind the first door she tries because the doors are all leading to the same room. Everything in his own room is lost to Jack but it doesn't contain anything of value to him anyway.

Dressed in white, his slim form stretched out on this large bed the Doctor looks fragile and precious. Jack stares at him from his spot beside the door and doesn't understand how he could ever touch him. The ship is humming softly, as if singing a lullaby.

The look Gwen gives him when she comes inside tells him that what he does here is not healthy in her opinion, but she keeps that opinion to herself for once. Instead she steps beside the bed, sadly looks down at the Doctor's relaxed face, pale and beautiful in the soft light. She's never seen him alive, Jack recalls. This is not how anyone should meet him.

'Don't touch him,' he almost says. She doesn't. Just murmurs:

"So this is your Doctor."

"My Doctor," Jack whispers. His.

"He's dead," she states unnecessarily. Jack knows what she means though and ignores her.

She won't be ignored. And Jack wants her out of here, doesn't want to have this argument in the Doctor's presence. So he sits in the kitchen half an hour later letting her carefully chosen words wash over him while staring unseeingly at the cupboard.

The humming of the TARDIS seems to be with him still. The soft glow of the column in the centre of the console, burned into his retinas.

"Are you listening to me, Jack?"

'…this is her last trip…'

Another two days and Martha will return. She'll be heartbroken when he tells her. Maybe it'd be better to get rid of the ship, lie to her so she will never know.

"I understand it's hard but you of all people should know…"

Jack stares through Gwen, remembering how they found Rhys' bloodied corpse in the cellblock, on a day that never happened. She knows Martha is the Doctor's friend. She'll think she'd deserve to know. Jack wouldn't want to know if he could choose. He'd give everything for a little bit of hope.

Gwen would be glad if the TARDIS and all she contains were gone.

"Better yet, destroy her. The TARDIS will die with me and so her defences won't work anymore."

Martha loved the Doctor, once. She'll be able to share his pain at least a little bit. Gwen won't understand that this little bit isn't enough to make up for the pain it will cause her.

"The TARDIS will die with me and so her defences won't work…"

"You have to accept…"

He can't destroy the ship, it would be too final. And Martha will learn it someday. He's still the best person to tell her, the only one who understands. Jack dreads the moment she comes back.

"…will die with me…"

Jack stops breathing for a moment, his eyes still fixed on the cupboard.

One second later he is heading down to the basement, fishing for his key.

-

"What's the matter?" Gwen gasps, trying to keep up with him. "Did you even listen to a word I said?"

"I'm an idiot!" Jack curses. He falls to his knees in the console room, pulling open the hatch in the crate to get to the box stored beneath. Fishes around inside until he finds the sonic screwdriver. It was still in the Doctor's pocked when Jack got rid of the ruined suit and he stored it here, not wanting to have it with him all the time. By the time he jumps to his feet various objects are lying around on the floor, carelessly thrown away in his frantic search. Jack doesn't spare them a second look, and fortunately neither does Gwen. The TARDIS will take care of the mess.

If he's very lucky.

'Oh, please!' Jack thinks as he points the little tool at his friends still form. 'Please, please, please…'

"Yes!" he screams when the screwdriver gives him the signal he was hoping for, unable to restrain himself. "You're not dead! Oh, fuck, how could I be so stupid?"

"What are you talking about, Jack?" Gwen demands to know. "He is dead!"

"No, he just isn't alive!" Jack laughs, letting the tool drop as carelessly as the other things from the box so he can take his still friend in his arms. Rocking him back and forth he can't tell if he's laughing or crying, only that suddenly there is hope. His heart is aching. "Don't you see? She tried to tell me, but I was too stuck in my grief to get it. That's what you get from listening to a Time Lord! He told me he'd survive and I believed him. Then he told me he was dead and I believed him again! When he's okay I'm so going to kick him!"

"You're not making much sense," Gwen points out.

"Oh yes, I am! The TARDIS has saved him. Suspended him in time the moment he died. Which means I can heal him." He throws his head back and laughs. A small part of his mind wonders if it's sounding hysterical. According to the look Gwen throws him it does.

For the Doctor time has stopped. There's no reason to hurry except that Jack will lose his mind if he doesn't act now. Too much time has been wasted already, and he has to know.

"You need to help me," he tells Gwen. "I don't care if you think I'm crazy, just do it." She opens her mouth but Jack doesn't give her the chance to speak. "There's a box stored under my bed. A small metal box. I need it. Now!"

Gwen obviously thinks he's lost it but the urgency in his voice makes her jump up and run out. Jack follows a second later to lock the door, feeling only slightly bad for lying to her.

He doesn't need anyone around right now.

After making sure no one can get in Jack returns to the Doctor, and when he leaves the room with his friend gathered in his arms he finds the infirmary right next door. Placing the Time Lord on the operating table the immortal is torn between the boundless joy filling him, the worry that it might all go horribly wrong and the anger at himself for not seeing the signs.

"You tried to show me, didn't you?" he asks the ship. "I'm sorry, girl. It's not the first time this guy robbed me of the ability to think."

All the doors leading to the Doctor, the dreams about him being alive… Looking back she hasn't just flashed hints at him, she's smashed them over his head. Trying to communicate with him in her limited way and he couldn't see beyond the blood on his hands.

Lying there the Doctor still looks peaceful. He's known his life would end and been okay with it. When he survives this he'll remember what the demon did with his body, how many he killed, and Jack already knows nothing he'll say will convince his friend that it wasn't his doing, not his fault. He rummages through the drawers, colleting the needed equipment and doesn't feel the barest hint of guilt.

The medical tools he finds are of the highest standard, far above everything Torchwood could offer. It'll enable Jack to deal with the wounds he caused to the Doctor and those the Doctor caused to himself, even without the help of a proper medic. The TARDIS will probably keep her pilot out of time until all his injuries are treated. After that Jack will put him on life support, let the machines keep him alive because his body won't have the strength to live without them for a long time. The TARDIS will release her hold on his timeline and he will heal.

If all goes well.

Before he begins Jack places a firm kiss on the Time Lord's slightly parted lips. Then he runs his fingers softly over the nearest wall the way the Doctor has done it so often.

"Thank you," he mumbles. Oh, how he loves this ship, simply for her loving her pilot enough to defy the laws of time and space to save him!

She probably doesn't care what the Doctor will say to this.

And neither does Jack.

-

"Why here?"

The Doctor's voice is probably meant to sound nonchalant but Jack can hear his weariness. He didn't say anything when Jack told him to what coordinates in time and space he wanted to go but apparently he knows exactly where they are. And he doesn't want to be here.

"I need to take care of something," Jack tells him vaguely, and adds without much hope: "You can stay here."

The Doctor just throws him a look and moves his wheelchair over to the door. When Jack pulls it open the bright light of two suns is almost blinding. It smells of summer.

The meadow is still there. Below a city made of chrome and glass is glistening in the sunlight, filling the entire valley but the hill is still covered in grass and trees and, like the first time they came here, Jack can hear the singing of birds.

The wheelchair isn't made to move though the high grass, so Jack lifts the Doctor out of it and carries him outside, not listening to the Time Lord's protests. He knows his friend is able to walk a few steps on his own but doesn't want to waste the opportunity to hold him close.

There's a large, old tree nearby and Jack is aiming for its shadow. He stops when he notices the look on the Doctor's face as he's gazing down at the city.

"It wasn't your fault," he says once again. But the Doctor shakes his head.

"I gave it such powers… I knew it would come here. I sacrificed these people, Jack."

Despite the high temperature the human can feel him tremble. Maybe he shouldn't have taken him here. But the fact that only the Doctor can fly the TARDIS makes doing things without his knowledge a little difficult.

Jack sighs and moves on, finally sitting down beneath the tree with the Doctor on his lap. He places two fingers on the other's chin and forces him to look away from the town, at him.

"You saved them," he says firmly before kissing his friend tenderly on the lips. "All these people down there wouldn't be alive without you. If you hadn't done it the Lacarrest might have destroyed the entire universe."

The Doctor grants him a smile but it's merely in appreciation of his effort. He's knows there would be a price to pay for the safety of the universe and he has paid it. It was his decision, and now it is another guilt he has to live with.

Knowing words to be wasted Jack just kisses the Doctor again and leans against the trunk of the tree. He can't keep himself from tasting his Time Lord every once in a while though he hasn't gone beyond kissing since he got him back. Before his death the Doctor accepted Jack's love because he thought he'd owe him something and because he knew there'd be no complications in the long run. Now everything has changed. Jack will wait until the Doctor has recovered completely before he'll do anything to find out how far the other will still let him go.

In the shadow it's much cooler but the heat is still too much for the Doctor to handle for long. He nods off slowly, showing Jack that he's at least remotely at peace – or completely worn out. It's been months since he first opened his eyes – eyes that told of conflicting emotions they have never talked about. His recovery is happening slowly – like he told Jack in his holographic message, using his powers to this extend alone might have been enough to kill him and the injuries to his heart and lungs didn't do anything to improve his health.

Watching him slumber in his arms Jack wastes a moment to just take in the sight and be amazed that the Time Lord is still with him. Losing him has been the worst thing that ever happened to him and he's still owing the other man a good kick for it. But there's still time for that later. A lot of time.

All the time in the world.

-

Jack leaves the sleeping Doctor in the shadow of the tree. They're close enough to the TARDIS for her force field to protect him, and there is no danger here. The ship wouldn't have landed if there was. Jack suspects that it will stay like this until the Time Lord is back to full health again.

He still doesn't like to leave him alone for long and so he does his best to hurry up. Using the Doctor's sonic his first and more important goal is accomplished surprisingly quickly. It's the other thing that's costing him time but this is something he wants to do right.

The one upside of the Doctor's weakness is that he isn't going to wander off when he wakes in Jack's absence. So he only reason to cut things short would be his own irrational worry. He can deal with that.

It's finding the right person that's the problem. Jack wanders through the streets of a wealthy, modern city that hasn't been called Kradaat for two hundred years and doesn't even receive weird looks because of his clothes. It's in a park where he finds the kind of person he's been looking for: an old man, watching a bunch of children play near a pond.

When Jack sits down to talk to him the children come to listen. They love stories here, and Jack has a good one to tell them.

They have heard it before, of course, but never like this. And tomorrow is the night of the Dark Tear. A good time to pass it on.

In the relentless heat of the eternal day climbing the hill is even worse than the first two times. As expected the Doctor is awake when he returns. He greets him with a frown that disappears when he sees what Jack is carrying with him.

"Where did you get that?" he asks.

"Stole it from a museum," Jack answers proudly before handing back the screwdriver. The Doctor takes it without comment, his eyes fixed on the object Jack is holding.

"And then you just walked though the city with it?"

"They're selling copies in shops. I replaced the original with one, with some luck they'll need a while to notice it is gone." He grimaces. "Still, we shouldn't stay here for too long."

The Doctor doesn't give any sign that he even listened. He reaches for the stolen good and Jack hands it over without hesitation.

"Lady Inerala told me the Lacarrest would be trapped inside. I don't know how exactly it works but I thought we'd better not leave it to a bunch of people who have no idea what it contains. Wouldn't want to risk them set it free by accident."

As the Doctor's fingers run over the markings on the shaft they gleam ever so slightly.

"Yes, it's still inside," the Doctor whispers. "I can sense it."

Jack shivers despite the warm air. He wants to take the weapon back but the Time Lord continues before he can move.

"The spear has become its body." He smiles without humour. "The Lacarrest wanted to survive in this dimension, a body that would last. And they have given it to him: trapped it forever in a lifeless object. With no senses, no brain, just a vague awareness of its own existence. They're one now – the Lacarrest is no longer a shadow without form."

He looks down at the weapon that nearly killed him with an expression Jack can not read. Then he lifts the spear and in a display of strength the human didn't know he had brings it down onto his knee and breaks it apart.

The two halves fall to the ground without any dramatic effect as the Doctor sinks back against the trunk of the tree. Jack doesn't know what to say.

"Is it gone now?" he eventually asks. The Doctor nods weakly.

"Gone," he whispers.

Jack looks down at the spear. It's just a broken weapon.

"I suspect it's safe to leave it here then," he mumbles, not wanting to see the thing ever again. He pulls the Doctor to his feet and helps him over to the TARDIS that's waiting in the bright sunlight.

"What took you so long down there?" the Time Lord wants to know as he's sending the ship back into the vortex. "You were gone for hours."

Jack smirks.

"I just told someone a story. Wanted to clarify a few things they got wrong." He stands behind the other in his wheelchair, pulling him close so the Doctor's head is resting against Jack's stomach. "And now I wouldn't mind if we don't see that planet ever again."

The Doctor smiles dryly.

"You have a lot of confidence in your storytelling abilities if you just told anyone," he notes. "How do you know the message will be carried on?"

Jack kisses the top of his head.

"I'm sure time will take care of that," he says. "Never underestimate the power of a good story."

-

The rings of the planet called Kerrion by the people of this world are clearly visible in front of the weak glow of the Residion nebula. Lady Inerala of Dool has watched their soft colours become more and more visible as the light faded, taking in the simple beauty of this event.

In front of the rings the single moon of Kerrion can be seen, as a black shape that seems to swallow all light. The Dark Tear the people call it, and there are many legends connected with it.

The civilisation of Ansesh is young compared to hers – only a hundred years ago have they mastered interstellar travel. They are now forming first, careful economical contacts with the Empire. Not long ago no one here really believed there were other species out there. Now Doolan children are playing with the natives and singing their songs by the archaic fires that light the night.

Inerala wanders down the hill, unnoticed, unrecognized. She is old now and the images in her temple haven't shown the truth for a long time. Even with the support of the Source her life will not last forever and she is grateful that she could pass on her power in the final years of her life and return to the stars one last time.

This is a good time to come to Ansesh, this young world full of promise. Total eclipses are rare and according to the people the Dark Tear can be seen only once in five hundred years. And even in the age of space travel they honour their traditions, sit together in the dark and tell stories of heroes and monsters.

Close to her a group of children is gathering around a young woman sitting by one of the fires and she begins to tell them the legend of Kradaat. Inerala has heard this story before, in a dozen variants but she wanders over none the less to sit with the children and listen to it once again.

"Once upon a time," the woman begins, "in a mythical land called Kradaat, there was a Demon so terrible that he threatened the entire land.

One day all light disappeared and up in the sky a gate appeared – a gate to the Shadow Grounds. The people became very frightened for they knew the world would end should the gate ever open. And then the heavens opened and the Demon came to Kradaat, down from above dressed in a cloak of darkness. He sought to open the gate and bring chaos to the world and everything he touched turned to dust. And among the people there was much woe as they could not stop him. Anyone who tried got killed by the Demon who was called the Demon of Old Time because he could make children die of old age by just by looking at him.

When the people of Kradaat saw that no one could defeat the Demon they tried to flee, but there was nowhere to run. They were losing all hope as suddenly the heavens opened one more time and in a ray of light a Hero descended from above; a Hero so strong and brave that even the Demon feared his might and fled to the distant mountains. This Hero was kind and gentle and he promised to defeat the Demon of Old Time and free Kradaat of him forever. But everyone facing the Demon had died and the people feared that the kind Hero would meet the same fate. Still the Hero would not change his mind. He stepped forward and told them 'Do not fear! I will keep you safe!' and his spear was glowing in the darkness, giving them comfort and hope.

So the Hero of Kradaat, whose name has been lost to time, went to the mountains and so great was his might the terrible powers of the Demon could not touch him. But the Hero did not seek to destroy the Demon, for once upon a time the Demon had been his friend.

You see, they came from a world beside our own, where the light is bright but the shadows are deep and dark. One day the friend of the Hero fell into such a shadow and it swallowed him and spit him out in this world. But the shadow had twisted him, made him a creature of evil that would do anything to open the gate to the Land of Shadows, seeking to create an army to take over this world. But his friend, the Hero, could not bear to lose him to the shadows for they were very close, and so he travelled to our world as well, but though a ray of light, and he wanted to give this light to his friend and free him of the shadow.

But the shadow was too strong. Knowing that his friend was lost the Hero used his magical weapon to kill him, and both his friend and his shadow were banished to the Shadow Grounds forever. The Hero, his heart bleeding, would not stay in this world any longer and declined the invitation of the grateful people. He took the dead body of his friend and returned to his own world.

However, the Demon of Old Time had managed to crack open the gates of the Shadow Grounds just a little, and when the gate we now call the Dark Tear appeared in the sky the next time the Shadow of the Demon returned. Only it wasn't the Demon, it was the Hero's friend whose spirit had succeeded to defeat the Demon on his own and now wanted to return to his Hero. But the people of Kradaat, believing him to be the Demon of Old Time, trapped the spirit and wanted to send it back. Even though they were worlds apart the Hero heard his friend call for help and he came to free him. Now the people thought he had been infected by the darkness as well, because he wanted to help a being they thought was evil. And they decided to free the Hero of that darkness, as he had once freed them – they did not know that he wasn't tainted by it and so their fire would not have burned his shadow but only him.

In that moment his friend's spirit, seeing the danger he was in, found the strength that had helped him defeat the Demon in the Shadow Grounds, and he kept the people from harming his friend and they wandered away together, returning to their own world to never return.

But their happiness shouldn't last, as the Hero's friend was dead and just a ghost that would vanish after a single day in the world of the living. So the Hero went on another quest, armed this time not with a weapon of light but only with the strength of his heart, and he found the power to bring his friend back to life. Somewhere beyond the nebula they are still living, still fighting against the darkness, and they have saved a thousand worlds, but this one was the first."

Beside Inerala sits a little boy. He looks at the storyteller and asks:

"But if his friend was dead how can he live now? What brought him back from the Shadow Grounds?"

"There are as many different answers to that as there are people telling this story," says the woman.

"But what do you think?" he wants to know.

"Me?" She smiles, looking up to the moon in the sky. "What else? It was the power of love."

June 3, 2008