.o0o.

Mai lay in bed in her pink pajamas with the charm, thinking. There was still a piece of information missing; they all knew that. And it unnerved them. This nervousness made it very hard for her to go to sleep.

So Jack is an alien, she thought. But he's also a demon… An alien demon. Is that even possible?

She shifted in the bed, rolling onto her side. I don't understand what the problem is. If Jack wants me to testify, I will. It'll only take a week.

"Do you really think that?" came a voice.

Mai looked up from her bed. She could see. The bandages around her head were gone. The room was suddenly transparent, and there wee white orbs floating around the space. She looked down to see an image of herself, riding on Jack's back. Jack seemed to be bleeding from his mouth. The entire landscape was pitch black, so the only indication that the two images were safe was when Jack stopped. Mai's image jumped down from the raisin's neck and held his chin in her hands. "I promise to repay you in whatever way I can."

At that, the images vanished into a thin vapor, leaving only the black void. Realizing that nothing else was happening, Mai called out. "Gene?" she asked.

"I'm here," a voice replied.

"I can't see you."

"I'm too weak to take a more solid form right now, but there is something I need to tell you before I'm too weak to talk."

"Wait, but why are you so weak? Did something happen?"

There was a chuckle. "Yeah, the last few weeks happened. To put it bluntly, I'm exhausted, Mai."

Mai frowned in concern, but she knew there was nothing she could do. "So what did Naru want you to tell me? And why did he want me to wear the charm while I slept? Belphegor moved across time and space, didn't he?"

"Yes, Belphegor's gone. For now."

"You mean he could come back?"

"He can always come back, but it's not very likely that he'd come back in your lifetime. Perhaps in a few centuries he'll try Earth again. Remember, time and dimension travel takes a lot of energy."

"So then what's the charm for?"

The voice hesitated. Then it spoke, "Jack. To make sure he's not spying in on us."

Mai clenched her fist. "I keep telling you! Jack is not a threat! He saved you– he saved all of us! I think he's worth some trust now!"

"Not if he's deliberately keeping important information from you."

Mai crossed her arms. "Like what?"

"Are you familiar with the concept of time dilation?"

To that, Mai tilted her head. "That means… the faster you go physically, the faster you go temporally?"

"Bingo," Gene replied. "Jack cannot travel in the same way that Belphegor can. He can only open up a wormhole that will protect its contents from the pressure of traveling faster than faster than light speed. You will still be physically crossing space."

"But that means…"

"Yes. While you may only be needed for a week on the Planet of the White Star, you will be returning to a planet that has endured thousands of years worth of change. None of your friends will be here. It will be unlikely that their descendants will care about you. I can't even guarantee that I'll still be here."

Mai's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean? You're a spirit! You can't die!"

At that statement, she could almost feel his eyes boring into her. "That's where you're wrong. While it's true that spirits can last for thousands of years, the time we're talking about now is a huge stretch."

"But what about spirits holding grudges, like Urado and those crazy Pharaohs who cursed people?"

"Magic lasts much longer than spirits, but even then, we must all fade back into the fabric of existence. Mai, all energy is borrowed, and it eventually must be returned. It isn't ours to keep."

Mai cupped her hands in her face. "But… but Jack said he was protecting me!"

"From the truth. Technically, he isn't 'protecting' you from anything. That was a lie. He took your memories so that you wouldn't be inclined to investigate further until he got his tongue back (and his ability to explain himself). He just doesn't want you to know this, since you wouldn't go with him if you knew. That's why we wanted you to wear the charm tonight. If Jack kept guard over you in your dreams, then he would have succeeded in keeping you ignorant."

Mai didn't know how to respond. She sat and thought for a while, letting Gene's essence curl around her. She couldn't see him, but she could sense his energy. It was a comfort. "But… I can't believe it! Jack lied!"

"He was only ever in it for his case, no matter the cost to others."

Sounds like Naru, Mai thought. At that thought, she smiled. Well, if he's anything like Naru, perhaps I can talk some sense into him.

"Since when has that worked?" Gene asked.

"Never in the moment; he usually has his epiphany in a day or so."

"But you don't have a day."

"That's right. I have a week."

"Mai."

"I'm going to talk to him."

"You're going to tell him you refuse to go with him. Nothing more, nothing less."

Mai looked up. "Why?"

"Mai, he's a demon lawyer. His most powerful weapon is his word. If you give him a chance to speak, he will turn the tables on you and persuade you to go with him."

Mai narrowed her eyes. "And what if I choose to go with him?"

At that, she could almost feel Gene's aura darken. "Then that's a choice you make yourself. But once you get back, you will be alone. I won't be here. None of your friends will be here. You're going to have to start your life from scratch in a world that you will barely recognize." There was a pause as the entity shifted. "Mai, I just want you to understand– so many things can happen between now and hundreds of thousands of years from now. You have a life here. You don't have one there."

Mai sat there, wheels turning in her head. She knew Gene had a point, but she also knew that Belphegor had to be stopped. Gene felt her inner conflict. He sighed. "Mai, if you leave, the SPR will fall apart." There. He said it. Mai looked back up, horrified. It was a low blow, but she had to understand. "You are the glue that keeps the SPR together. Everyone comes in looking forward to your bubbly, sunny self. It's your purity that keeps the others from… well… going mad. They depend on you, and you have to know that it's not just your life that this choice will affect."

His energy began to fade.

"What's going on?" Mai asked.

"I'm too tired to continue. Just promise me that you'll think about what I've said."

"Wait! Do the others know about this?"

"My brother knows." And at that, his energy faded.

A light came from behind her. She turned around. It tickled her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. There was only one voice that sounded as she woke. "I promise." The voice was hers. "I promise to help you."

Her senses became clear, and she woke up.

"Mai, it's time to change your bandages," Ayako said.

The door to the SPR flew open. Mai stormed in, unbothered by the objects she was barreling through to get to Naru's office. She threw that door open, too. Naru looked up, scowling. "I assume Gene told you," he said.

"It can't be true. Why? Why…" The rest of her thought died on her tongue.

"Don't blame me," Naru said as Lin and Ayako made their ways into his office to see what the commotion was about. "I am only telling you the truth. The truth that Jack wants to keep you from."

"It's not fair," Mai said while sinking to her knees.

Naru slapped down the book he was reading. "To be honest, I don't understand your dilemma." Mai looked up at him. "Just refuse to go with him. It's that simple."

Mai bit her lip. "I promised him, didn't I?"

Naru narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I bet I promised him that I would help him. Yeah, I would most certainly do something like that. And if I promised…"

"No, Mai. Didn't you understand a word that my brother told you? Nothing will be here when you get back!"

"Now hold on," Ayako exclaimed, finally breaking the tension. "What are you talking about?"

"When Jack travels, he will be physically traveling faster than light. Taking into account time dilation, Mai won't be back for several thousands of years. That's the information that Jack was keeping from her. That's why he sealed her memories."

"I need to talk to Jack," Mai murmured. "Where is he?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since yesterday. My best bet is that he's getting the wormhole ready."

No. No, this wasn't happening. "He said I had a week!"

"Wormholes are kind of hard to set up, you know," Naru countered.

"Uh, Naru, I have a question," Ayako interrupted again. Naru looked at her, a signal for her to continue. "How do you know all of this?"

"Gene," he replied. "Gene knows the most out of all of us right now."

Mai buried her face into her hands. "I don't know what to do. If I go, then I'll return to a completely new world. But if I don't go, all will have been for nothing."

"Now that's not true," Ayako replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Belphegor has been driven away. We all did that together. We vanquished a demon prince. I think that's worth something."

"But this will mean that he'll be gone forever."

"You can't know that for sure." This time, the voice was Lin's. "Remember, Jack is only building a case against Belphegor. Cases can go either way, and from what I understand, Belphegor hunts for food, rather than for sport. There's a pretty significant chance that the judges and juries will take his side because of that."

"Lin, how could you say that?" Mai exclaimed. "Belphegor's evil! He kidnaps children and eats their souls!"

"Male lions kill rival male's cubs. Tasmanian devil mothers eat all of the babies that haven't made it to her teats. Birds of prey will target baby birds because they are easy prey."

Mai shot to her feet. "Are you actually defending Belphegor?"

"Of course not," Lin snapped. "I'm fleshing out a possible outcome of this case. If it's lost from the beginning, then you shouldn't go. There's no reason to beat a dead horse."

"But you don't know that for sure! Belphegor is evil."

"Mai, stop that. You're upsetting my shiki." At that, Mai calmed down slightly. Lin let out a sigh as if to say, 'I can't believe I'm about to say this.' "If you treat demons as a species rather than a force of evil, then your judgment and perception of them will change. Remember when Jack said that demons and monsters are not one in the same? I bet on my life that the Planet of the White Star will hold those same views."

"Yeah, but Jack is a lawyer. I'm sure he understands that, and I'm sure he can play off of it well enough!"

At that, Naru stood up. "So you would rather spend a week on another planet only to come back to a place where you have nothing left on a case that you'll never take part in again?"

Mai whirled around to face him. "I can't make a decision with you all screaming in my ears all the time! Just shut up and leave me alone!" With that, she stormed towards the door, face planting into it before opening it and storming away.

"Well that went well," Ayako muttered.

"She'll come around," Naru said, rubbing his temples.

Lin cast him a worried glance. "Will she?" Naru and Ayako looked up at him. "With you treating her like a child all the time, I wouldn't put it beyond her to go just out of spite."

Naru scoffed, turning his head aside. However, the more he thought about Lin's words, the more worried he became.

The sun came and went five more times. Mai had been systematically avoiding Naru and Lin at the office. She still made the narcissist his tea, and she still offered it to Lin when he was in his less cranky moods. Ayako regularly dressed her bandages for the past four days, and this was the day where the bandages came off. That also meant it was the day that Jack was supposed to take her to the Planet of the White Star.

Mai sat outside on the steps, head in her hands. The weight of her decision was now bearing down on her shoulders with full force. She watched her tears of regret hit he concrete. If I go through with this, then I'll never see my friends–my family again. And I just spent the last few days I had with them pushing them away! What kind of a person am I?

The door opened behind her. She turned around, and her eyes widened in surprise. It was Lin.

He crouched down next to her. "May I sit with you?"

She hesitated before moving over, allowing him room. He mirrored her position on the ground and looked at her. "Today's the day, isn't it?"

Mai nodded.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to talk to him."

"To what end?"

Mai shrugged before shaking her head. She was so lost. She placed her face in the palms of her hands, sighing deeply. Then she felt a hand on her back. She jumped and looked at Lin.

"You have a good heart. You can't stand injustice. But we– Naru and I– worry that you let that cloud your judgment."

"I know what's at stake, Lin," Mai protested softly.

"Do you? Do you really, truly understand that you're never going to see us again?"

Mai closed her eyes. "I'm an orphan, Lin. I know what it's like to lose my family and never be able to see them again. I know what it's like to be thrust into a world where nobody gives a rat's ass about your existence."

"Is there no way we can dissuade you?"

"My decision has to be mine. Let me talk to Jack when he gets here. Relax, Lin. I might turn him down."

"Like that's supposed to make us feel any better."

The door creaked open again. Naru. "Mai, Jack is here. He's on the roof."

Automatically, the brunette got up off of the concrete and walked inside. Lin followed suit, but he kept a fair distance away from Naru and Mai. Mai looked around. "Where are the others?"

"Others?" Naru asked.

"You know, Ayako, Monk, John, Masako… them?"

"They're waiting with Jack. I can't say they're very happy with the situation, and how you've been treating us."

"I'm sorry. I needed to, to clear my head."

Naru shook his head as they entered the stairwell. "Not going to fly with me. These could have been your last days with us, and you chose to spend them isolating us."

Mai grasped onto Naru's shirtsleeve. "I don't want to leave you all bearing a grudge. I hate grudges."

And that's when Naru snapped. He whirled around, a fierce expression on his face. "Then why act like our input doesn't matter?" Mai jumped back in surprise, but because she was on a stairwell, she fell backwards. She was lucky that Lin was behind her to catch her. Naru continued. "I thought you were the one who always emphasized considering other people's feelings before making a decision."

Mai's brow furrowed. "Since when have you ever considered my feelings when making a decision? Not when we were at Yasu's school! Not when we were investigating the fake Dr. Davis! So now I'm going to make a decision for me, by me."

"That's stupid."

"That's stupid, Naru says. You're an idiot, Naru says," Mai mocked, waving her hands in the air.

Quick as a whip, Naru grabbed her wrists and held her still. "Mai, just shut your mouth for one second and listen to me." And all of a sudden, Mai felt unable to do otherwise. "Mai, we depend on you. We need you." He paused to take a breath. "I need you. And it's not just because of your tea."

Mai's eyes widened. Lin crossed his arms in an, 'it's-about-time' gesture.

"It's your high spirits that keep the SPR alive. You're our heart."

Mai's eyes stretched even further. To hear that from Gene is one thing, but to hear it from Naru… Mai bit her lip. Someone knocked on the metal door.

"Coming!" Naru shouted. He turned back to Mai. "Do you understand?"

Without speaking, Mai nodded. Naru released her wrists, and they continued up the stairs. The door opened to reveal all of the others: Ayako, Takigawa, Masako, John (still in a wheelchair), Yasu, and Madoka. They were all standing near the door. In the back, Jack was standing next to a blue swirl of energy. The swirl was about the demon's height, pulsating slowly.

"Come, Mai," Jack said.

Mai looked at Jack before looking at her friends. They seemed apprehensive at best: downright anxiety-ridden at worst. She turned back to Jack. The two of them began to walk towards the circular vortex. Jack motioned for her to go first. She stood a nose-length away from the spinning energy disk before jumping back. "No!" she exclaimed. "I can't do it!"

"Mai, what's the problem?" Jack asked, stabilizing her with his tail as she stepped backwards.

"I can't do it! I thought I was ready. I thought I could step through the portal and put Belphegor away for good. But I can't anymore. I just can't."

"I don't understand," Jack said, lip curling.

At that, she looked him in the eye. "Jack, answer me truthfully," she said. Jack's left antenna gave a twitch. "If I go with you, I won't be able to return to Earth for several thousand years, will I?"

Jack closed his eyes. "I was afraid that's what they'd say." He looked up at the others. "That's what I was trying explicitly to avoid."

"But why?" Mai shouted, clenching her fists. Jack looked back down at her. "Why would you keep that critical piece of information from me? From us? We helped you!"

"Because if you knew, then we would run into this exact situation. You would begin to doubt. Then you would break your verbal contract."

"Verbal contract?" Ayako asked from the sidelines. "What contract?"

"Mai promised to help in any way she could. This is how she will help."

"I said I would help in any way I could, yes, but I won't if you keep information from me like this! Your dishonesty is a game-breaker, Jack."

Jack tilted his head. It looked as though the demon was having an immense amount of trouble understanding. "Humans are always most comfortable when ignorant of dire decisions."

"That's not true!" Takigawa snapped. "Ignorance is not security."

"I would have appreciated it if you told me from the beginning," Mai said. "If you had, I might have considered coming with you, but now, the deal is off."

She turned around and began to walk away, but Jack's cough from behind stopped her. She cast him a glance, only to see his lips pull back into a toothy smile. "You really want to lie to my face like that? I gave up my tongue for you. I mollycoddled you and protected you to make sure you didn't die during these past two moons. I endured the ridicule from the others for the past I don't know how long! You considered the pros and cons of my offer for the past five days straight, and you pushed away the rest of your friends in the process."

At that, Mai averted her gaze, not just from Jack, but also the others by the door. "You're right. I did push my friends away, and your offer did weigh heavily in my mind for the past week. I understand how important it is to you that Belphegor is brought to justice. You've worked so hard and sacrificed your time, energy, and safety for us, but what you're asking for in return is too much. Regardless of the circumstances, it's still an offer I have to refuse."

Jack once again tilted his head. "You were so eager to accept a week ago. You were prepared to honor your word, but now apparently your word means nothing. What changed, may I ask?"

A flare of anger sparked in her gut. She turned around, eyes narrowed. She could also feel the others behind her reeling with anger at Jack's jab at her integrity. "I could ask you the same thing! Back before, when you lost your tongue, you were always so friendly with us, and now you're a complete jerk!"

"I'm not a jerk. I'm just right. And after I had sealed your memories (for your own good, might I add), I had to show you that I was on your side somehow."

"No, you're wrong," Mai said, shaking her head. "I thought you were my friend, but it's clear to me that you're not. I wish I could have the old, nice Jack back, but apparently that's out of the question. What's also out of the question is my going back with you."

Jack scowled. "I don't understand you fickle humans. A true demon would have stuck to his oath, whether spoken, written, or sealed in blood."

"Well I'm not a demon. I'm a human. And I'm saying that my friends are here and I want to stay with them. I would have gone with you if there was a way to bring me back to this time, but there isn't. Now." She narrowed her eyes. "I want you gone."

Jack narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, revealing his quickly unfurling fangs. "And what if I were to grab you up and just bring you with me anyways?"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, pal," Takigawa growled. The others, too, took a fighting stance, ready to defend Mai at whatever cost.

"I could grab you and turn around even before you could blink."

"Make any sudden moves and I'll blow you to smithereens," Naru threatened. His qi aura was forming around his body. It was enough for him to control without overexerting himself, but his power at that level was absolutely pathetic. The message was crystal clear, though.

While this was happening, Mai's eyes were budding with tears again. This was not the Jack that she had come to appreciate. She liked the somewhat temperamental, stubborn Jack who enjoyed a good scratching on the corners of his jaws from time to time. Looking at this Jack, she saw that he had all of the temperamental stubbornness that she remembered, but he had absolutely none of the kindness that had entranced her before. So was this what Gene meant when he said that I'd be thanking my friends later for getting rid of Jack? He knew Jack's true nature?

"There's no way I can dissuade you?" Mai asked solemnly.

Jack shook his head and looked down, hopefully. Mai's eyes widened ever so slightly. That look emphasized just the kind of creature that Mai knew him to be. But it didn't last. Jack's words could not be taken back, just as hers couldn't.

"Jack," she said. The demon's antennae perked up. Mai raised her hand before pulling back her pinkie and ring fingers. "I'm sorry," she whispered. She then proceeded to strike. "Rin! Pyou! Tou! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!" The words spilled out of her mouth faster than the demon could register what was going on. The blast hit Jack in the chest, pushing him back slightly. The rest of the SPR took that as their cue and attacked, not giving the demon a second to recover. All of their combined spiritualist attacks pushed him into the swirling vortex, where he was quickly engulfed. With a whoosh, the vortex snapped shut, like an old static TV turning off. All was silent again.

Mai fell to keeling, wide eyes betraying how heavily her actions weighed on her. The rest of the SPR turned around to face her. Slowly but surely, they approached and knelt down in front of her. The first one to make contact was Ayako, who enveloped her in a hug. Takigawa and Yasu joined in, followed by Madoka. John remained on the sidelines, alongside Naru and Lin.

"Thank you, Mai," Takigawa said.

Mai looked up at her friends. All of the faces that she would have forsaken if she had gone with him. Speaking of which, "He's not coming back, is he?"

Naru took that opportunity to speak up. "He's traveling faster than faster than light, with no way of traveling back in time. By the time he gets back, the world will have become a much different place."

"So that would mean that he and Belphegor winding up in the same place at the same time–"

"Was either precise calculations or purely by chance."

"Or both," Madoka added, to which Naru shrugged. The strawberry haired woman turned back to Mai, giving her an extra hug. "I know that decision must have been hard for you."

Mai looked down again. "I guess so. But after I was faced with the immediate moment of truth…"

"The truth became known," Yasu said with a smile.

"And we're glad that this is the truth you chose to pursue," Masako added.

They sat that way for some time, soaking in each others' presence. Then Mai spoke up again. "So now things just return to normal?"

Ayako snorted. "Define 'normal'."

That statement hit them all like a slap to the face, which then proceeded to turn on all metaphorical light bulbs over their heads. Of course. Of course. There was no such thing as 'normal.' It was as they had said days ago: they were changed and made by each case that they took on, each new person that they met, and each circumstance they overcame. It strengthened them as a team, as a family. They couldn't go back to 'normal,' since there was no 'normal' to go back to. And that wasn't just because they were a weird ghost hunting team at the top of their fields. It was because they were living, breathing people. Life went on. That was as close to 'normal' as they would ever get. For Mai, that was enough.

And that was that. This is a story that I had a lot of fun writing, and I hope you readers had just as much fun reading it. Thanks to all who followed, favorited, and reviewed. It makes me happy to know that something I created resonated on some level with other people.

Thanks,
~Galacticexplorer12~