The collapsing singularity erupted into a nebula, new stars born from the debris of Blackstone Planet. Carlel's body slowly became transparent, and the core of Susan's mechanical arm floated at his heart, playing fragments of memories that spanned time and space:
• A crystal ore specimen his father gave him for his third birthday
• On their wedding day, Susan, wearing her mechanical glove, locked her fingers with his
• The night before Haken's corruption, secretly altering the reactor parameters
"Death is not the end," Isanel's voice echoed with the expanding nebula, "It is the eternal form of memory."
Carlel's final gaze turned toward the Arctic, where Susan's crystallized statue stood on the ice plains, frozen in the pose of initiating the sealing program, with star tear roses growing beneath her feet.