Gravity Rises (S3)

AI: Part Seven

Gideon and Charles watched Mabel run away from the Museum and disappear into the trees.

"Well," Charles said sarcastically, "congratulations. That worked really well. Now she'll definitely want to go with you."

"Shut up," Gideon snapped. Then he frowned. "Wait. What are you still doing here?"

Charles raised his eyebrows. "Good question."

Gideon looked at him warily. The fake people in this prison had always disappeared as soon as Mabel left them. So why hadn't Charles? And what was that mocking look on his face?

"What are you?" Gideon asked.

"Also a good question. I've been watching you through Mabel's eyes since you came. It's hard to adapt to having another person in here, I'll admit. You've kept me on my toes."

Gideon's eyes narrowed at this cryptic message. "Are you some kind of prison warden?"

"Close," Charles said. He wasn't talking like himself anymore, and he stood stiffly, as if he didn't quite know how to carry himself. "More like I am the prison. I'm using this body to speak to you."

"An honor, I'm sure," Gideon said dryly. Despite his callous tone, he felt an immediate sense of foreboding. Supernatural creatures, ghosts — he could deal with those. But a magical force appearing as a person to talk to him? No, thank you.

"You won't take Mabel away from here," the prison said through Charles. "She's mine."

"She's not yours," Gideon said. "Can't you see what you're doing? You're helping Bill! You're killing someone!"

"That is what I was created to do, yes," was the reply.

Gideon frowned. "But you were created by the ancients, weren't you? They fought against Bill. They captured him."

"Correct on all counts," said the prison. "And they knew that Bill was too powerful to trap indefinitely. They wove a powerful prison that trapped him, but they had to leave him a way to escape, or else their magic would have unraveled. It's part of why he's so dangerous: If the prison is too easy to escape, then he gets out very quickly. But if the prison is impossible to escape, it can't hold Bill at all."

Right. Gideon had read about that once in the Order library, and he thought it was dumb that Bill could simply dissolve his impenetrable prisons. Stupid overpowered demon. "So you're part of the magic that would let him escape," he said. "But the ancients still created you."

"Yes. They had to."

Gideon didn't think they had to create magic that would kill. But maybe they did. Maybe it made the prison stronger somehow. There were lots of different kinds of magic in the multiverse — and concentrated in Gravity Rises specifically — and it annoyed Gideon that he didn't understand most of them.

"The point," the prison said, "is that I will keep Mabel imprisoned. I will drain her of her life. And you will not get in the way."

"I'm going to get in the way," Gideon shot back. "In fact, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find Mabel."

Charles placed himself between Gideon and the door. "I won't let her go. She's been here twelve days — according to the time in this world — and she has three days left before she dies. I can't let her leave when I'm so close." He gave Gideon a significant look. "But I'll give you the chance to leave. Take it."

Gideon scoffed at the offer. "I'm not leaving without Mabel."

He tried to push past Charles, but Charles shoved him away and said, "You'll be a lot happier if you do. Leave, and wait your turn, and you'll have your own perfect world. It's a great way to die, honestly. At least, I imagine it is."