“How the hell is anybody supposed to follow that?” Harry asked, and then turned to face Natsuki. “The boss said you’re known as ‘Detective Natsuki’. Well, that makes two of us – I’m a private eye in my story, which is apparently some American television show. People come to me when they need help finding somebody, or when somebody they know has been murdered, and they need to know who did it. That second thing, by the way, is the sort of thing you’d think they’d go to the police for, but they can’t. Not in the San Francisco of 1937 of my world.

    “The police in my world are as corrupt as it gets. They’re as likely to frame some poor bastard for a crime as they are to try and solve it, and that they only do for the local politicians who have bought and paid for them. The feds aren’t any better – the only difference is that the ones who bought and paid for them are in Washington. So, if anybody actually wants justice, they have to come to somebody like me. And because there’s no point in bringing somebody to the police once you’ve caught them, almost every single case I take ends in a gunfight where I have to ventilate somebody. At least I’m a very good shot – I almost never miss.

    “You know how Balthazar recruited me? He asked me a question – he asked me if it made any sense that a country as democratic as mine could function with corruption like this. And, as soon as I thought about it, I realized that it couldn’t. I realized the strangeness of my world, and just how deep the injustice ran. And then, I got here and I looked up the real United States.”

    He leaned forward. “In the real world, the police of my country aren’t that corrupt. The feds are internationally respected, and help train the police of other countries. And the San Francisco of the 1930s was never that bad. The people who created my series made a world without justice for me and everybody I know. I’d love to ask them why, but they’re across the ocean, and I’m here, and there’s a whole bunch of documents you need to be able to travel, which none of us have. And, apparently, because my series was dubbed instead of subtitled, I don’t actually speak English. Talk about weird surprises – ‘you’re not speaking the language you think you are, you’re actually speaking Japanese with a few English words!’”

    “I’m like Ken,” Selena stated, putting a strip of chicken in her mouth and starting to chew.

    “Seriously,” Darius said, “that’s all your going to say?”

    Selena swallowed. “Okay. I’m like Ken, but replace the light novel with manga, the zombies with an army of killer robots, the foraging with mech combat, the seeing your family torn apart with seeing your comrades torn apart only to meet new ones and see them torn apart, the twenty-two volumes with seven, and add being ripped away from your family and forced into genetic modification to transform you into a super-soldier.”

    “I don’t think that you can really call it the same if you have to replace every single part of it,” Darius stated.

    Natsuki took a deep breath. “And let me guess, you’re the hero from a tragic story too?”

    Darius grinned. “Not at all! I’m a villain from my story. I’m just here to watch everything burn.”

    Balthazar sighed. “There’s more to it than that. Tell Natsuki all of it.”

    “You’re no fun!” Darius declared. “Fine, I’ll tell it to her properly. Natsuki, have you ever heard of Grimdark?”

    Natsuki shook her head.

    “It’s a fantasy sub-genre,” Darius said. “Heroes like Ken and Selena here, they don’t last very long in it. My story world is a place where personal nobility just gets you betrayed and killed, and what passes for heroes, at least the ones who survive, can be pretty ruthless in their own right. What made me a villain was that I hated the ‘hero’ for burning down my village and kill everybody I ever loved.

    “Balthazar didn’t recruit me. He was trying to recruit the hero, but the hero said no. Balthazar killed him, as he does. I was there to kill the hero myself and get my revenge, but Balthazar did the job for me. And I’d overheard enough of what he had said to know what he stood for, so I volunteered to help him.”

    Darius’ smile faded. “But when I got here, I discovered that my entire world was a television show based on a book series. And in that series, I was going to die that day – that bastard of a hero was going to kill me, and make sure I suffered as he did. And then I learned what Grimdark was, and that there are a lot of stories and worlds like mine, and it’s all just pointless suffering. And like Harry, the author of my misfortunes is across an ocean in some place called England. So, I can’t take the matter up with her. All I can do is help end it and save everybody from their torment. Funny thing...in my story I’m a villain. I don’t know what I am here.”

    Natsuki stared at her plate, the untouched chicken katsu going cold.

    “I wish I could give you the satisfaction of us all being terrible villains,” Balthazar said. “But, we’re not. We’re doing what we’re doing to save everybody from their suffering. None of us have lied to you – you’d know if we had.”

    “I’m not going to join you,” Natsuki said, her voice almost a whisper. “What you’re doing is monstrous.”

    Balthazar nodded. “We know. None of us are taking this course of action because we want to. None of us are comfortable with the idea of ending billions of lives. But, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you the opportunity to end this war, right here, right now. All you have to do is answer a question with ‘yes’ and mean it.”

    Natsuki looked at Balthazar in shock. He was telling the truth.

    “Thanks to you and your friends, we now know that there are many worlds of creator gods out there,” Balthazar began. “Almost all of them would have had a war like this one – it’s inevitable. And once one of these wars happen, they’ll know that our kind exist, and that the worlds they are creating in their stories are real, and so is the suffering in those worlds.” He leaned forward. “So, all of those creator worlds, once they know that our kind exist and that they are causing us to suffer – have any of them ever stopped?”

    Natsuki stared at him, her mind racing. Then her shoulders slumped and it was all she could do to fight back the tears. “No. I’ve never seen any sign of it.”

    She took a deep breath. The silence around the table loomed over her, heavy and oppressive.

    “Okay,” Balthazar said. “I’ll give you another chance. Give us one reason we can accept to forgive them. Just one. You do that, and this war ends today, and I’ll put the story worlds back in their proper places tomorrow.”

    Natsuki closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “They don’t know what they do. They don’t understand that we’re real, and–”

    “But they don’t stop once they do,” Balthazar stated. “How can we accept that?”

    Natsuki put her head in her hands and began to weep.

    “I’m sorry, Natsuki,” Balthazar said. “I spent two years looking for the answer to that question before starting this war. It wasn’t fair to ask you to figure it out in only a couple of minutes, even if you are a genius. Please don’t feel bad about this.”

    Ken sighed. “I was really hoping she’d have something there.”

    “We all were,” Balthazar said. “And she might still come up with something. If you do, Natsuki, or you figure out some way to end the suffering in the story worlds and this one that doesn’t involve killing billions of people, just tell us and we will act on it.”

    “Just...please don’t hurt my friends,” Natsuki begged.

    Balthazar frowned. “I’m sorry, but I can’t make that promise. If they’re with the other side...”

    “Aquila just wants to get us away!” Natsuki cried. “That’s all she wants to do! She doesn’t want to fight anybody!”

    “That’s what she wants to do now,” Balthazar stated. “But what will she want to do tomorrow? Can you really guarantee that she won’t change her mind as soon as she has gotten all of you to safety?”

    Natsuki opened her mouth to protest, but the memory of Kasumi begging Aquila not to go with Cap if the portal worked flashed through her mind.

    “As I thought,” Balthazar stated. “I know how to read people too.”

    “Then please just let me go,” Natsuki said, wiping away her tears. “You can remove the memory of where your base is from my mind, and–”

    “I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Balthazar replied. “Your friend Aquila is quite the powerhouse. If we want to stand any chance of dealing with her without getting mauled, right now we need you as a hostage.”

    Ken stood and stretched. “It’s getting late, and my wife and kids are waiting for me.”

    “Let them know that we’re on for the amusement park on Saturday,” Selena declared. “And that they can look forward to Darius showing them a new magic trick.”

    “You do know I’m not a children’s entertainer, right?” Darius asked. “I’m a master of the arcane arts and the mysteries of the universe.”

    “No fighting it, pal,” Harry said. “Those ankle-biters adore you. And we can all tell that you love showing off to them.”

    “Natsuki,” Ken said, putting on his leather coat, “if you want anything in particular to read or watch, or any games to play or some food you want to eat, just let one of the others know, and I’ll pick it up on my way here tomorrow morning.”

    “Give Felicity our love!” Selena called as Ken left.

    Balthazar looked at the untouched plate in front of Natsuki and sighed. “When you’re ready to eat, just ask Selena to warm that back up for you. Unless...”

    “I’ll make her whatever she wants,” Selena said. “It’s the least I can do for her.”

    “I just want to leave,” Natsuki whimpered. “Please let me leave.”

    Balthazar gave her a kind smile. “I’m sorry. I wish circumstances were different, I truly do. We are going to make you as comfortable as we can. But, for the foreseeable future, you will be staying with us.”