John looked at Helen. This was truly the cruelest trick Fate had ever played on the two of them. To give them a taste of what they once had and then snatch it away. It was like a knife had been shoved deep into his heart. From Helen's look he could tell she thought the same. They had been so damned close. But now there was no more time. He pointed out to her that his body was tuned to being this things host. She still didn't want to let him go.

"John," she said.

He could hear in her voice the silent plea. There was nothing else that could be done. They both knew it. "Let me go," he told her.

"You don't have to do this," she said, "We could find a way—"

Oh how he wanted to believe that. That some how his brilliant lover—and he would always think of her in that present tense—would be able to think of some plan that to stop the beast. But he knew in his heart they didn't have time. The only way to save everyone in the Sanctuary was to sacrifice himself. "I love you," he said instead.

Helen's eyes widened. She knew his plan as she always did. The world narrowed down to just the two of them. "Remember that," he added, knowing that he would become a monster once again. He hadn't gotten a chance to tell her that the last time. This time he could at least give her that tiny comfort. The fact that even if the beast was in control John would lover her until the end of time. "Always."

Helen's eyes now showed that she was resigned to his course of action. She knew there could be no other way. "Mr. Foss," John called, not looking from Helen's beautiful face. "Would you be so kind as to deactivate the EM shield?" He had to look toward the wolf at the end because he couldn't stand the sadness in Helen's eyes.

The loyal boy looked to Helen first. She didn't want to, John could tell, but she nodded to him. The flick of hers downward before she looked back to him twisted the knife in that much deeper into John's heart. He felt the weight of the EM shield lift off him and he searched for the right words for Helen. He didn't dare move in for a kiss. Any man that had tasted Helen Magnus would not willingly give that up. It was doubly true for him. After all this time if he so much as brushed her lips with his own he had a strong feeling that they would die up against the wall, half clothed, with himself inside Helen. And while that was preferable to many other forms of death, he did not want Helen to suffer in that way.

Nor did he reach out to even cup her cheek. The electric spark he knew to be in their touch would be enough to cause the same consequences. Though every muscle in his body ached to gather her into his arms he held back. It was his duty to keep Helen safe in whatever way possible. If that meant becoming her enemy again then so be it. His mouth opened and closed several times with no words coming out.

Suddenly it came to him. He knew what he had to say. It was the same words he had used over a century ago. They would tell Helen everything he needed to know. "For all eternity," he reminded her. They continued to look at each other for a long moment before John teleported to the other side of the door. He looked up as the entity reached out to him. It took everything he had to reach out his arm to it. As he felt the darkness consume him once more, he the picture of Helen's face before his eyes. She would find a way to force this thing out of him one day.