I collapsed on myself. Fell forward onto the ground and wept a lifetime–three lifetimes–of grief and failure. I wept for Dad who I loved and hated and had killed. I wept for Nash who I'd always dragged into this disaster. I wept for myself who apparently I'd let down time and time again. I wept so hard that I couldn't breathe, couldn't tell what was happening around me, until the wonderfully familiar arms lifted me, and I fell against Nash's chest.

There was no slipping away from him. He'd always held me, hadn't he?

"Let go," Dr. Henderson whispered. "This is your only hope. The world's only hope."

Nash pressed his mouth against my temple and spoke softly to me like the first time he'd told me the truth about Flare. "Don't listen to her, Max. Listen to yourself." He ran his fingers through my hair and pulled it away from my face. "Listen to me." Nash held my head against his chest. His heart beat steadily in my ear. How had he not broken with me today? This had to be far more shocking to him than to me.

I trembled in his arms.

"Nothing has changed." Nash kissed the top of my head. "We still need to stop her, just like before."

"Nash." Dr. Henderson sighed. "I don't want to remove you too. I've seen a world without you in it, and Elsie doesn't need to go through that again. Stop this talk."

The black void Dr. Henderson had trapped me in opened up inside of me and swallowed me whole, so I lost all feeling, even as I wept against Nash. My mind and body had separated. I wasn't here. I wasn't anywhere. I was gone.

Nash continued to rock me gently. "You're the only one who stands against her every time. That's what I heard. You're the only one she fears. Her only threat." Nash breathed in my hair. Kissed my face. Held me close. "Stop holding yourself back."

Henderson rose before us, looming over us, darkness shadowing her face. "Maybe you're the only one who needed to die all this time, Nash. So Max will finally break and relent."

Panic threw me back into my body violently. I jerked up, eyes wide and unfocused.

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"Don't worry." Henderson lifted her hand toward him. "It won't hurt. You'll wake up in perfection in the after-life and won't remember a thing."

My eyes snapped to Dr. Henderson. The hottest of fires erupted from within me and flooded the room with energy. Fear flickered in her eyes. I would never let her hurt Nash.

"How are you accessing your power?" Her voice was tight.

"You shouldn't have let me bond with Piercey." The white room shook. Color leaked from the images that had been painting the walls as everything began to melt away. My voice rumbled out low and dangerous. “This is our world. Get the fuck out.”

A scream tore from her throat as power sparked like a flash of electricity against her arm.

Nash stood beside me, as fearless as I'd ever seen him.

Dr. Henderson's eyelids flickered. Her hands twitched. As I dug my way into the fabric of this room, through its boundaries, working out into our world, resistance suddenly slammed against me.

The code Piercey had shared with me rolled through my mind as if I'd always known it. This power of mine had always come as an instinct. Now, I also had Piercey's knowledge. I felt my way through the code of the world just as my hands could feel the cool of water, or my ears could hear music, or my eyes could see color. I searched for control of my world instinctively, just as a child learns to walk. And I knew Dr. Henderson was in the interface as well, trying to stop me.

Blood trickled from my nose. Pain popped over my head. Sweat doused my skin.

"You really will destroy it all!" Dr. Henderson cried out with effort. "You reckless, foolish girl. You could eradicate everyone's consciousness if you damage the simulation."

I couldn't stop now. There was no stopping. No questioning myself. I'd started this and I didn't know what would happen if I turned back. But her words tore at me like daggers.

"Max, please." Tears slid down her cheeks. "You'll never get your world back if you destroy it. The work it will take to restore your consciousness…" Power zapped against her skin again. I thought she'd retreat, but she stayed firm, fighting against me. "The stain of death never leaves. Never. If you kill us all, it will stick with our souls, even if they resurrect us!" More tears fell. "Trust me, Max. I know."

Nash spoke against my ear again. Somehow, despite all evidence that I'd only fail again, he still believed in me. "You can do this."

Consequences be damned. Maybe I really was Eclipse, the Soul Eater. Maybe I was nothing more than destruction. One thing I never did was surrender. And I would never, in any life, let this woman kill Nash. If I wouldn't do that, how could I leave the rest of our world in her hands?

I pushed through her resistance with every nerve ending in my body sizzling in pain.

A feeling like slipping filled me. Dr. Henderson met my eyes, sorrow, panic, maybe anguish filling them. And then, just like that, she was gone.

It was all gone.

Nash and I were lying on the ground in the Sacred School, our arms around each other.