It was late as Vish ran up the communal staircase on the side of Tonya's estate and along the balcony to her front door.
After the argument he hadn't gone home. Instead, he'd sat in the park next to Tonya's flat worrying about her. As he ran towards her flat, he practised his apology, hoping she would understand he was just trying to help, but when no one answered he knew instinctively she must have tried to travel outside her mind again.
Panicked that something bad had happened, he tried to barge down her front door by slamming his body against it, but he wasn't strong enough. He grabbed a kid's bike from the communal balcony. A fire engine passed down below, siren blaring. Using the sound for cover he smashed the bike into her front window, breaking the glass in an instant.
Suddenly a voice shouted out on the balcony,
"Oi! Oi! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" He knew immediately that it must be Tyler.
"Please, it's not how it looks. It's Tonya, she's not coming to the door. I'm worried about her."
"Did you just break the window, you little shit?"
Tyler lunged at Vish, who swerved his punch by an inch. Vish felt anger bubbling up inside him.
"You're the piece of shit. I know what you did to Tonya."
Vish grabbed for a piece of glass in the window and pushed Tyler against the front door, but Tyler was huge compared to Vish and thrust his body round, knocking the glass out of Vish's hand and punching him in the face.
"You get away from my family. My baby boy is better now, you hear me? He ain't got the virus in him no more, and I don't need you and your useless piece of shit girlfriend spoutin' any more of your filthy lies about me."
Tyler pushed Vish to the ground, slamming his cheek against the concrete of the communal balcony. Tyler's words about Tonya's brother not having the virus seeped in, and it sent waves of hope through his body.
He pulled himself up, taking Tyler by surprise. Vish used this moment to punch him hard in his bandaged eye. Tyler roared out, clutching his hand over his eye.
Vish quickly jumped through the broken window. He ran through to the back bedroom and found Tonya in bed. Her body was shaking in a fit, with sweat pouring from her skin. He took her by the shoulders and shouted her name, trying to wake her.
"Tonya, if you can hear me, whatever you did to your brother, he's okay, he's better, he doesn't have the virus anymore. If you can hear me, you did it, your baby brother doesn't have the virus. I was wrong, I'm so sorry. I should have been here for you. I messed up, but I'm here now and I'm so sorry. Come on, wake up, please wake up."
-------
High above, as Tonya went to grab her thread to take her home, she felt something warm running through her body, as if someone was holding her.
"Vish?" she whispered in dismay. Something powerful raced through her body, and her back jolted with energy. She heard his voice ringing, a faraway sound that seemed more like it was in her heart then her head.
"You did it, your baby brother doesn't have the virus. I was wrong, I'm so sorry."
She looked across at Tamashi and remembered what she said the first time they went in the sky. She had Vish on Earth protecting her and Tamashi in the sky, but now it was her job to protect them, to protect all of them.
With the evidence of her brother's survival, knowing that Sakuru was inside the mind of her newborn brother gave her the evidence she needed. If she had achieved that, she felt like she could achieve anything.
Tonya closed her eyes and spoke to herself.
"I believe I can do this."
Feeling the power of self-belief surging through her body, she lifted her warm hands together and rubbed them to make a friction, projecting a tiny tornado inside her palms. Her powers were finally back.
The powerful swirling wind came alive, twisting and turning angrily. She held her hands out wider and the tornado grew with her outstretched arms. With one last look at the thread that could take her home, she turned her back to it. She jumped inside the tornado and it lifted her up in the sky, away from Salvo and his icicle knife.
From the corner of her eye she saw Salvo as he launched himself into the tornado, closely followed by Tamashi, Rupa and Zarni. It took all their weight, whipping all five of them up through the sky. The wind was strong and Salvo dropped his knife as his body was pushed backwards against the inside of the tornado's swirling winds.
"I'm coming for you, Septem!" he shouted.
As the tornado sped up towards the Kármán line they all jumped out, attaching their harnesses to the final hooks of the atmosphere before pushing themselves up into the cosmic realms of space, each racing for the Harp.
Tonya saw Salvo as he lunged himself at her, narrowly missing her as she raced ahead of him. Salvo and Tonya were too fast for the others, leaving them far behind as they surged through space.
Tonya heard Salvo's voice coming up behind her "Just you and me now!"
Tonya – still ahead of Salvo – soared up through the darkness, letting her long rope unwind as she travelled towards the Harp. She could see it, suspended inside the silky black airless void of space. As promised, the seventh string was open.
-------
Vish was pushed up against the door by Tyler when Birdie ran into the flat and saw them fighting.
"Stop it, stop fighting. Whatever's going on, we need to get help for Tonya NOW. Someone call an ambulance, for god's sake."
Tyler let Vish go and left the flat.
"I'm going back to Ruby and the baby. You sort that nut job." He spat.
Birdie took hold of Tonya's hand and Vish hurried to the other side of the bed, fishing his mobile from his pocked he called the ambulance. When he hung up he looked at Birdie trying to calm Tonya.
"Sweetheart, it's Nan. I tried calling but you didn't pick up so I came to the flat, Listen, if you can hear me, it's okay, I'm here now. Vish is calling an ambulance. You're having some sort of fit, but it's okay, its okay, darlin', I'm here now. There there."
She pressed her hand on her forehead gently.
"Oh my god, she's absolutely boiling." She looked at Vish. "Wet a towel in the bathroom. We need to bring her temperature down."
-------
As Tonya was soaring through the sky a warmth like no other ran through her body. She listened in shock. Her nan's words were inside her, just like Vish's had been.
"Sweetheart, it's Nan. If you can hear me, it's okay, I'm here."
She thought of her kind, sweet nan and her mind glazed over for a second. She realised for the first time that by going into the Harp, she had no idea if that meant she would ever get home.
Distracted by her nan's voice inside her she hadn't unravelled her rope and she felt herself pull against her anchor down below.It was enough to allow Salvo to catch up. His hands clutched her ankles, and he dragged her into his arms.
"I've got you now!" he shouted.
He put his hands around her throat and began to strangle her. She tried to pull him off, tried to conjure something with her mind to stop him, but he was too strong, too powerful.
-------
Vish watched in horror as Tonya began to choke. Her neck jutted back, and her body wriggled as if someone had her by the throat.
"It's okay, the ambulance is coming, just hold on," he said, with tears of worry streaming down his face.
-------
Tonya felt Salvo release his grip, evidently startled by cries from below.
"Dad, help please, Dad!"
As Salvo twisted his body Tonya could see Rupa was being held at icy knife point by Zarni and Tamashi below them.
"Let Septem go, otherwise we will kill Rupa."
Salvo let out a high-pitched laugh.
"You think I'm fooled? I know these are your friends. You're a traitor and no daughter of mine."
Tonya gasped for breath, as Salvo's grip on her neck loosened for a second. Her lungs felt like they were going to explode out her chest and her neck felt like it had snapped in two.
Her body was losing consciousness as her arms that had once fought to get free became limp by her side. Her hand grazed the softness of Muku's ripped bear, still tied to the harness on her hip bone.
Something sharp caught her hand, and she looked down at the bear. Something silver and sharp was sticking out the fur. Realising what she had, using the last of her strength, she dug her finger into the ripped bear and quickly pulled out the silver needle that she had stored for Muku inside.
Salvo twisted back round and once again began to strangle her neck. Yet this time she was ready. She lifted the needle up high and without hesitation plunged it through his eye and straight through his brain, killing him instantly.
She watched in silence as Salvo exploded into a million pieces. His body rejected his lifetime of Akumu's. Millions of unimaginable horrors soared out his body, released into the abyss.
Down below, Tonya saw Tamashi, Rupa and Zarni as they floated up towards her, pulling her into their embrace.
"You did it," Tamashi said in disbelief. "You killed Salvo."
Rupa looked stunned, her eyes wide with relief. "He's gone, my dad, he's actually gone."
The girls looked down as the atmosphere below them was suddenly painted in a flood of orange. Tonya embraced them one by one.
"Muku did it, she knew that Tangles would keep us safe, and he did. Without her I wouldn't have had the needle to kill him."
Tamashi's face flooded with trauma as Tonya handed her Muku's broken bear.
"Quick, Tonya, we don't have time. The sun is rising, the Harp threads are closing back together."
Tonya rubbed her hands together and produced a tiny oyster shell, similar to the one she had collected Sakuru in. Rough and bumpy on the outside but smooth and shiny on the inside. She handed it to Tamashi.
"Listen to me. Go back down to the atmosphere and find Oba. When they come, you will know what to do. Remember: no ends. Just new beginnings, right?"
Squeezing Tamashi's hand for the last time she let go, allowing herself to soar upwards into the never-ending expanse of space.
She remembered the words of the Harp: "Whoever enters will have the power."
Hoping it was true she completed her journey, finally reaching the Harp. She unwound the rope from her harness, disconnecting herself from the atmosphere below.
She looked down, stealing one last glance at the beautiful green and blue glowing orb below her. She thought of the millions of newborns down below, lying unresponsive, empty of their Samsaras. She climbed into the open seventh string.
Warmth burst through Tonya's veins as her body glowed bright and strong. The seven strings of the Harp once again poured out a beautiful resplendent light, blinding her with its brightness. Hundreds of white tentacles slowly pushed themselves from the open string.
Tonya watched as a jellyfish, with a transparent body and a red stomach slithered out and floated down. It glowed brightly against the darkness of space, a neon blue aura surrounded it. The tentacles gently wrapped their strings around her body and pulled her inside the seventh string. A beautiful melody reverberated through her, and she felt calm as she was carried inside.
She closed her eyes, and a voice spoke to her.
"I am Turritopsis, the eternal jellyfish. I live inside the Harp and inject my poison into the chosen seven. It is I who made the Samsara inside your mind immortal. Close your eyes Tonya, you have the power, let your mind direct the future."
Tonya closed her eyes as instructed, inside her mind she visualised millions of stunned Incubus and Samsara watching as their lifeless Samsara elders floated up from the Earth's surface back into the sky.
They covered the entire span of the globe, each one holding inside them a precious lifetime collection of Lucids. Their bodies were flat and stiff, dead and gone. Their lifeless, grey bodies scattered visible light all over the atmosphere, creating streaks of yellow that sparked against the glare of the rising sun.
When they were high enough in the sky they finally began to deliquesce. For they were not dead after all, just waiting for Tonya to lift them back up into the clouds.
In their millions, they dissolved into individual water droplets that would each fall back down to Earth, destined to re form inside the minds of the newborn babies who didn't have their Samsara yet.
Tonya then willed those who had died in the war to come back up.
"You can't bring back the dead, Tonya," Turritopsis the jellyfish whispered to her, sensing her desire to save Muku, "but you do have the power to help them complete their journey."
With her eyes still closed Tonya saw a vision of the Samsaras in the atmosphere below as they listened in disbelief. They heard the rich sound of plucking strings reverberating through the atmosphere.
The angelic sound of the Harp once again played their beautiful melody. They watched in further astonishment as those who had died in the war before deliquescing began to rise up through the sky. Their broken bodies were fixed back together and reunited with their Lucids, but just as Turritopsis had warned, they were not being brought back alive; their bodies were lifeless.
With her eyes still closed, Tonya could see a vision of Tamashi as she pulled herself back down through the atmosphere to be with her mother. Tamashi and Oba watched in tears as Nayko and Muku's flat bodies rose up together, floating side by side in the sky. Both were dead. Their eyes were shut and they looked peaceful, like they were sleeping.
Tamashi and Oba pushed themselves through the atmosphere and floated up towards their bodies. Tamashi reattached Tangles the bear to Muku's harness and Oba kissed Muku's forehead and pushed Muku's dead hand into Nayko's.
Neither spoke.
As their bodies began to deliquesce, Oba broke down. Tamashi took the shell that Tonya had given her. Just as Tonya had done to her grandmother, she caught her sister and her father's liquid in the pearly case. As she closed it tight, she turned to her heartbroken mother.
"I promise I will be back, but there is something I have to do, a journey I must take."
Tonya saw a vision of Tamashi as she kissed her broken mother and zip-lined across the sky towards the silvery thread that Tonya had conjured just before she had jumped into the tornado.
Tamashi found it and grabbed hold of it with both hands. With her eyes still closed, Tonya watched as Tamashi was pulled from the atmosphere, but this time Tamashi was alone as she followed their normal route, swimming through the cerebro-spinal fluid of Tonya's empty brain.
The wires in Tonya's brain reached out to Tamashi, their suckers contracted, trying to reconnect Tonya's brain to her Samsara. Mistaking Tamashi for Septem, they stretched out as far as they could go.
Tonya watched as Tamashi raced past the wires of her mind, through the inner chamber of her empty brain. Still clutching the shell, Tamashi climbed into Tonya's ear canal, finally climbing out of her ear thread and into Tonya's bedroom, clambering across Tonya's huge limp body.
Vish, Tyler and her nan were there. Vish was shaking her, trying to pull her limp body from its slumber, shouting her name, screaming and pleading with her to wake up, tears spilling down his desperate cheeks.
A pair of paramedics came into the room. They called Tonya's name, confirmed her as unresponsive and put her onto a stretcher. Tamashi climbed into Vish's pocket, holding onto the precious shell against her chest.
Next Tonya tried to visualise the earth and ecological balance restoring. Once again, she heard the voice of Turritopsis in her mind.
"You cannot restore what your kind are responsible for Tonya, human beings have done much damage to the planet, and that is not something that can be fixed from up here."
The jellyfish held on tight to Tonya's body,
"You can open your eyes now. It's ok, you've done what needed to be done. Goodbye Tonya, you are Septem again now."
Tonya felt the tentacles wrap tighter and tighter around her body, she tried to scream out, but she knew there was no point. That was the sacrifice she had to make. It was over, she was gone.