What's Out There? Part 2

Chapter 8

"Why would you bring them back?!" Doctor Strike raged at him.

"Because this." Maxwell flipped a switch to turn on the machine. Johnson saw this as a good time to escape through the panels. Within seconds it was kaput, broken, dead, demolished, whatever word you fancy.

"What...did...you...DO?!" Doctor Strike's jaw dropped. Despite this being her plan, it hadn't wiped out the universe as she wanted it to.

"I blew up your machine."

"No way! I had no idea!" She said sarcastically.

"If you knew then why'd you ask what I did?"

"You don't know what you've done."

"What, did I unleash something even worse upon the world, or did I just ruin your life's work?"

"This wasn't my life's work. It was half my life's work... the other half was creating a cure for EDV."

"Did I also destroy the cure or something?"

"No." She approached the machine, now covered in soot and flames. "This thing did make one universe. I thought as long as the machine was going the universe would still be around..." She laughed.

"Wait... what?" She wasn't doing a very good job at explaining and Maxwell wasn't following.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to lose somebody you hate?" She put her hand on the machine.

"I know what it's like. The first few times it's both upsetting and a relief realizing that the fighting is really over, but eventually, you get used to it." Maxwell shrugged.

"That machine created Blood Ruby's universe, the machine was theorized to never be turned off, to keep it stable and going. But with it gone... shouldn't it fall apart?

"Wait, do you think destroying that destroyed her universe?"

"That's what I theorized, and now..." She paused, staring at the soot on her hand. "I don't know. I'd hope it'd take her with it." She nodded in the general direction of Blood ruby. "Maybe this place wasn't useless..."

"Well, I know for a fact that Blood Ruby's universe won't be destroyed. This machine did create her universe, but it's not like it was holding it there or anything. Destroying this and expecting her universe to die would be like destroying a toaster and expecting your toast to un-toast itself."

"What's up with you and toast?! Never mind, it was just a theory." She wiped her hand on her coat and left the room.

"I found Midnight," Johnson popped his head back in the room.

"Where?" Maxwell asked.

"Under some debris downstairs, I brought her up. She's in the den that I went to earlier," Maxwell climbed into the wall and followed Johnson through to the den, where sure enough, there was Midnight. Unconscious, but already bandaged. Maxwell walked up and found her pulse.

"Well, she's alive."

"I know. But judging by how high she fell and how much debris fell on her... She is going to have a really bad headache when she wakes up."

"Yep." Maxwell picked her up and began to head back to where the machine was, where he left Blood Ruby and the double demon.

"What are you doing?" Johnson was close behind him.

"What we came here to do," he said. He successfully got Moon back to Midnight and Crimson back to Blood Ruby, erasing the double demon. Once Crimson returned to Blood Ruby, she woke up.