“Look, there’s the London Eye!” Peter shouted over the roar of the quadcopter’s blades. “And St. Paul’s Cathedral! We’re higher than the Shard!”

Saffie and her dad had wasted no time in getting themselves strapped in and firing up the two-seater drone, ignoring Holly’s yells that she forbade them to do it. Before long they were high in the night sky and whirring across the cityscape towards the looming tower that was the Trellis.

As they flew over the Islington borough, Saffie looked down.

The streets were swarming with players, some marching away from the Trellis, and some marching back towards it with family members who had now been forced into the game, also now under Jade’s control.

Saffie turned to her dad. She needed to give him clear instructions as part of a plan she’d been concocting in her head since they had taken off.

“I’m going to throw something into the drone that’ll be invisible to you, okay dad?” she shouted. “As soon as I do, you need to fly away as fast as you can. Take it back to the house.”

“Whatever you say, Saffie darling!” Peter shouted back. “This is all so exhilarating!” He held up his left palm, and Saffie high-fived him. She had never seen her dad so happy in all of her life.

A few moments later, they were just a few yards away from the roof of the Trellis.

Saffie’s plan was to swoop down to Jade, jump out of the quadcopter, and knock her to the platform, hopefully dazing her, or even knocking her out. Saffie wasn’t sure, but she hoped this would break Jade’s control over everyone, at least for a moment, so she could remove her Faraday headband, stick her own hand into the Onyx, change the lines of code that Jade had altered back to their original states, and then throw the Onyx to her dad to escape with before Jade would have a chance to change the code again.

Saffie had no idea if this plan would work. She knew it wasn’t the best of plans, but she hadn’t had much time to come up with it. All she knew was that she had to try something.

As the quadcopter got closer and closer, Saffie could see that Jade was still stood on the platform, her hand hovering over the top of the plinth. She had to have had her hand inside the open Onyx, searching for more lines of code to change, but of course Saffie couldn’t see the Onyx because of the Faraday headband. It was strange not being able to see it, and even stranger to see Jade in her regular clothes instead of her in-game green robes.

Saffie looked around the platform for Keith’s body, but Jade’s followers had to have taken it away somewhere. She also looked around for Nate, but there was no sign of him either. In fact, Jade was completely alone. She evidently felt so comfortable in having everyone under her control that she didn’t need her followers nearby for protection.

Suddenly Jade was jolted out of her trance, noticing the approaching quadcopter.

“Quick, take us lower!” Saffie instructed, and her dad tilted the vehicle forward.

As Jade narrowed her eyes in a mix of confusion and anger, Saffie said, “Three, two, one!” then kicked her passenger door open and dived out of it.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Before Jade could react, Saffie pummelled into her.

Saffie tried her best to angle it so she could knock Jade’s head against the platform, but Jade had too much upper-body strength and twisted herself so that they instead ended up rolling in an awkward tumble.

When they came to a stop, Jade was on top of Saffie. Saffie tried to wrestle her off, but Jade pinned Saffie’s arms to either side of her head.

“What is that?” she snarled, staring at Saffie’s headband.

“Your downfall,” Saffie said through gritted teeth.

A smirk crept up the corner of Jade’s mouth, then she clasped her long-nailed fingers around the front of the headband and ripped it off.

The first thing that happened was Jade’s green robes re-appeared, then Octavius appeared, floating next to Jade, and Acorn reformed on Saffie’s chest.

Saffie could feel Jade’s control starting to take a hold of her once again, but there was a slight delay for both her and Acorn.

In that brief moment of opportunity, Acorn turned to face Jade, and pounced, digging his claws into her face.

Jade screamed and shook her head from side to side, but Acorn just dug his claws deeper. Jade grabbed him by the tuft of his neck and ripped him away, tossing him aside.

Safe tried to lift her one free arm that Jade had released, but it was no use. Jade now had full control over her movements once again.

Jade wiped her fingers over her cheek, where digital blood was seeping from Acorn’s claw marks.

“How dare you defy me? You insolent little girl. I warmed to you! There was something about you I trusted. You could have been like a little sister to me, but you chose to betray me. Why, I wonder?”

Saffie wanted to scream, “Because you put my uncle in a coma, you twisted maniac!” but now that she was back under Jade’s control, she couldn’t speak.

She didn’t need to.

Saffie felt Octavius’s tentacles slither over her head, and a moment later, Jade began laughing.

“Of course. You’re the glitch-hunter’s niece. I should have suspected this was a personal thing. How charming that you’ve come to seek your revenge. Well, I hate to disappoint you, Saffie Sparkes, but there will be no revenge. Your ineffective “Ice Shot” spells were never going to deal any damage to me whatsoever, but you’re completely under my control now, and your uncle isn’t awake to come save you. Nothing is going to stop me from becoming the God people want me to be.”

Jade continued to talk, but Saffie was struggling to hear her.

Something was getting louder, and louder.

It was the quadcopter.

With a sharp swoop, it careened down, and its front right blade guard smacked into the side of Jade’s head, knocking her to the platform.

Saffie saw her dad give her a thumbs-up from the driver’s seat as Jade lay still, making a dazed, moaning noise.

Almost immediately, Saffie felt Jade’s control diminish.

This was her chance.

She heaved herself up and made for the plinth, but she stopped as she realised the Onyx was no longer on it. It had to have gotten knocked off in her tumble with Jade.

She glanced around quickly. There it was, close to where Jade was lying.

And Jade, slowly coming around, had noticed it.

Saffie ran towards it, but she could feel Jade’s control taking over her again, and it caused her to collapse to her knees.

She wasn’t going to give up.

With every ounce of strength she could muster, she dug her fingers into the platform and clawed her way towards the Onyx.

Seeing Saffie coming, Jade reached out to grab a hold of it.

But there was somebody else who wasn’t going to give up.

Dragging heavy paws against Jade’s increasing control, Acorn reached it first, placed his nose against one of its remaining fragments of shell, and with a laboured movement, nudged it in Saffie’s direction.

Jade snatched wildly, but she wasn’t fast enough.

On its side, the Onyx rolled towards Saffie.

Saffie extended her arm as far as she could, willing her fingers to connect with it.

It was close, so close.

And then it came to a stop, just out of her reach.

With a roar and an almighty, final push, Saffie thrust her whole body towards the Onyx, and plunged her hand into it.