" Who are you?" " Your new head teacher." "How would you like to get that little creature out of your head once and for all?" "Are you ready?" "Now!" "She's fighting it." "Doubled, doubled, doubled again." " That's the realm of the Shadow Kin." " I'm going to go get my heart back." "Ram, what are you doing?" "!" "Wait!" "April!" "Oh!" "Don't kill me." "Please..." "Oh, God." "Are you coming?" "April!" "God!" "I've been looking for you everywhere." "Are you OK?" " Do I look OK?" " We've got to get out of here." " We've got to." " I tried to protect you." "But we can't really hope we're gonna make it out of this alive." "Out of what alive?" "I'm going to kill the King." "No, you can't possibly get this thing out of my head." "It's designed to kill me if you try." " We have our ways." " But who is this 'we'?" "Are..." "Are you this UNIT?" "Far more modest than that." "When Ever Upward Reach took over Coal Hill as an academy, we installed a new board of governors, one focused on keeping the school safe, keeping it clear," " keeping it ready." " Ready for what?" "Besides, governments have a way of tripping over themselves." " Slightly too concerned with rights." " It's terribly inefficient." "Ah, so are you a robot?" "Goodness, gracious me, no." "OK." "Just wait." "Now, you didn't help with the Shadow Kin and you didn't help with the really quite hot dragon tattoo guy." "We thought we'd see how you did on your own." "You proved remarkably capable, my dear." "But this time, we feel that your attention is somewhat diverted from the main threat, so we've come to you directly." "And you're offering to give me my free will back?" "There is a way." "It's not without risk." "Alright." "And what would you expect me to do for this privilege?" "What are your thoughts on genocide?" "Where is my daughter?" "That boy, Ram, he said, "Tell my dad." That means you know something." "So, you better start talking." "April's sharing a heart with a murdering alien and, well, it looks like she's cut a hole into his world to try and kill him." "Right." "So, this is a mushroom flashback." "Sorry, she reached into her chest and healed her spine." "You know, I'd let that open up my world view just a little bit." "Ok." "I'm just going to set that aside for a minute." "Do you know how to find April?" "No." "But we know someone who might be able to help." "From what we understand he's the only one who can use the weapon." "He is, but he won't do it." "He lied to me about it even working all this time." "Irritatingly moral that one." "He's just going to have to get over that." "They don't burn." "You can't mulch them, melt them with acid, poison them with pesticide." "Meanwhile, they eat living tissue and multiply." "That's it." "That's all they do." "And you know all this since this morning." "I told you, we're efficient." "But even we won't find a solution before there are enough of those things to start eating full-sized humans." "The Cabinet of Souls is the closest weapon of mass destruction we have to hand." "And you want me to convince Charles to use it." "Convince?" "No, no, my dear Miss Quill, there is no time for convincing." "I want you to force him." "So, this is another planet, like, an actual whole other planet." "It's the planet of the Shadow Kin." " They call it The Underneath." " What?" "!" "How do you know all of this?" " And underneath what?" " The rest of the universe." " I can't go back." " What?" "That's what you're here for, isn't it?" "I don't know why I'm here." "I just sort of acted without thinking." "It's kind of a problem for footballers." " That's sweet." " Sweet?" "You know what I mean." "I can't get back." "I didn't think I could get back... after Rachel." "I thought the only thing left was..." "But I did get back, and you helped." "That's sweet too." "But I mean it, I literally can't get back." "Look." "What are you...?" "I can't cut a hole back to our world." "I got us here, Ram, but..." "I can't get us back." "Great." "She said she needed to talk to me about the flowers." " What's wrong?" " She sounded... weird." "Weird how?" "Happy." " We need to get to the school." " Right." "I'll drive." " I will drive." " She will drive." "I need to find Ram's dad." "April's not the only one that's missing." " We're connected, me and Corakinus." " What?" "Through your heart?" "And then whatever happened back there with my mum." "Suddenly the connection was clearer, it was stronger." "He could see a path through me and I could see a path to him." "And he can find a way back to Earth again." " I have to find him first." " What... and he's in there?" "Man, I've just come out of a cave." "The other side." "It's safer going through than trying to cross open ground." "And how do you know all of this?" "Are you hearing his thoughts?" "Kind of." "Yeah, echoes." "I just seem to know stuff here." "And we're supposed to go through there and kill him?" "If we don't, everyone we know will die." "Fine, Frodo, let's go hop in a volcano." "Frodo?" "Yeah, some old movie my dad likes." "We need to talk." "Mrs MacLean, this is a surprise." "April's gone." "I need you to get her back." "Yeah, priorities have changed, Charles." "We're under attack." "By who?" " Ow!" " Wait." "Watch." " The flower petals are attacking us?" " They'll bury us by tomorrow morning." "It will be quite gruesome." "But you can help us, Charles, because it turns out that you've been lying." "Oh, my, how you've been lying." "I care very little about your opinion of my actions, Quill." "What are these?" "Is there something you know?" "Yeah." "The Shadow Kin believe that they're an evolutionary mistake." "Like... a peek into the universe's dark side that it never wanted, so they were cast down here to live in our shadows and be forgotten." "They're pretty pissed off about it." "Yeah." "I've noticed." "These are here to remind them that the universe will crush them if they don't defeat it." " All of it." " Pretty bleak." " Yeah, well, most religions are." " Not all." "Not mine." "Says the Sikh boy with the short hair." "Ever tried going through airport security in a turban?" "My dad doesn't like that I don't practise Kesh." "That's the long hair and the beard, right?" "Yeah." "But, you know, modern times, gotta look sharp." "I like that he does, though, honestly." "It tells me where I came from." "And I've still got a kangha he gave me in case I ever change my mind." "The comb!" "Seriously." "There's 30 million of us." "Try to learn something." "This is the Kara." "It... reminds us that... we're part of the community and that our hands and life should do good work." "We believe the important thing in your life is to do good action." "But if you do the good action, right, somewhere in the process, there's got to be God." "Even if you don't have faith or believe there's some dude out there looking after you, isn't doing a good thing, one human to another, the closest we're going to get to God?" "And what about all the bad things that we do, one human to another?" "I don't know, but I wish I did." "But it makes it a lot easier to live in a world like that, or a universe." "Is that why you followed me?" "To do a good deed?" "I followed you because I thought you shouldn't have to face this alone." "I don't need a knight in shining armour, Ram." "I never have." "April..." " What happened?" " There you are!" "I looked inside his mind too much." "He knows I'm here." "Who was that woman?" "And why does she know so much?" "It was worth it." " What is the matter with you?" " You will not..." "Oh, stop it!" "Stop it!" "I'll die before I do any real harm, remember?" "Remember that?" "!" "A punishment from his people who were destroyed?" "A punishment given to only my people who were also destroyed." "That's billions of people gone, murdered, and you... you, all this time to take your revenge and you said nothing?" "!" "The choice isn't yours." "Oh, God!" "If I didn't have this thing in my head..." " Yeah, but you do." " And you will do as I say." "You have a weapon that would kill the Shadow Kin." "And kill every Rhodian soul that I have stewardship of." "Plus, the whole mass-murderer thing." "So, it's not enough that you make me your slave." "Prisoner." "You're going to make me stand by helpless and watch those who slaughtered my people just live and thrive." " You killed my people too." " In war!" "In terrorist acts." "It's possible this may not be the best time." "No, it isn't." "And now you're saying the threat is ongoing and somehow four children are supposed to fight it?" " It's not like that." "It's..." " It ends." "Today." "It ends." "We need to get to the Cabinet." "We don't even know if it'll work on a plant." "It ingests living matter, which would suggest the tiniest soul lives within." "And that's what the weapon needs as a target." " Isn't it?" " Hmm." "Don't look at me." "I didn't tell her." "Venus flytraps ingest matter." " They don't have souls." " Oh, you think so, do you?" "What's going on?" "!" "Where's April?" "You should stay at the school." "This is where the cracks in space time are centred." "She'll almost certainly come out here." "Are you sure?" "Because if you think about those sentences, not one of them makes any sense." "I've got a positive vision." "Come on." "She's not coming." "That's where he is." "But what about your own heart, April?" "April?" "You have a weapon that could kill all the Shadow Kin right now." "You'd leave this world to its destruction." "Our destruction." "That's a small price to pay for the destruction of our enemy." "You're heartless, like all Quill." "No, I am grieving, Prince." "You call me a terrorist." "You call me a slave." "You call you slave." "Everything I did, everything was for my people, for the proud Quill who saw their life taken from them by the greedy Rhodia!" "I never took anyone's life." "I would have tried to be a fair leader." "And you still can be." "You can be the greatest leader your people ever had." "And the last." "This planet, it never ceases to stop talking about luck and fate and destiny." "Well, I believe in none of those things." "I believe life tries to kill you from the moment you are born." "And the only proper response is to fight back at every moment." "If I use the weapon on the Shadow Kin, then this world dies and everyone on it, including you." "The life I'm currently living doesn't make me weep at the prospect." "That wasn't our deal." "What... what deal?" "Who is this woman?" "How did she get inside of our house?" "Don't listen to her, Charlie, we need your help." "We can see what kind of a person you are." " Look, I'm handling this, alright?" " Who's "we"?" "You obviously have a good heart." "You care what happens." "Charlie, Prince, we need you to save this planet." "No." "You must be the father of the boy who led my girl astray." "All I know is that my son never had any trouble before he got involved with your daughter!" "You talk about my... our daughter like that again and I will break your neck!" "Oh, enough!" "God, do any of you even know your own children?" "April is the most decent person I've ever met." "And she's also brave and she's kind and she cares about what happens to the world." "And Ram saw his girlfriend murdered in front of him and he still carried on living and he still cares about his future." " They're the nicest people I know, ok?" " Nobody forced anybody into anything." "So... where are they now?" "What was that?" "I don't know." "It doesn't matter." "April, you can't fight all of them." "No, just him." "That's what kings do." "Here we go." "What did you just say?" "I don't think you understand the threat we're under." "I understand it perfectly well." "I also understand that you don't." "Whatever deal you think you made with her, she'll betray it in a second to get what she wants." " Hey!" " You already have." " Yes, of course." "We know that." " Hey!" "But she got me through your door, didn't she?" "She brought me to the weapon itself." "And believe me... something will be fired today." " That... that was." " What?" "I swear I felt April there for a second." "You felt her how?" "Like a tug." "A pull." "April, what can I do?" "Just stay out of the way and try not to die." "April, wait." "Listen." " Don't say it." " Don't say what?" "Don't say that you love me." " What?" "I wasn't." " I've known you, like, a month." " You totally were about to say it." " I wasn't." "You were because I was gonna say that we've only known each other for, like, a month." "Well, I wasn't." "I know what type of guy you are, Ram." "You have this heart and it's so wonderful." "You're not the usual dickhead footballer type who shags around and whose perfect idea of a girl is just someone who just doesn't mind that." "I shag around." "Ram." "You know I think you're pretty cool." "Apart from that remark." "Can we just go from there?" "Teenagers!" "Just win this fight, ok?" "I'll win." "Don't you worry." "Argh!" "What does it feel like?" "Like electricity running through my body." "But every time..." "I definitely felt her." "Is Ram with her?" "Uh, guys." "Whatever we're doing, can we do it quickly?" "Come this way." "Only a Rhodian can operate the Cabinet, correct?" " Correct?" " Yes." " Not even a Quill can." " How do you know all of this?" "As I said, the Governors are resourceful." "You can't force me." "I won't be forced." "Really?" "If you harm him, I will stand by and watch you die." "Yeah." "A topic on which I concur." "We're using the weapon for something else." "You see, I don't believe you will make us all pay, Charlie." "I think you're a better person than that." "You have no idea what kind of person I am." "Or what's at stake here." "If I use it, I will have nothing." "The souls of my people..." "Will have saved the souls of another people." "We'll destroy the right people." "Which would make you as bad as the Shadow Kin." "The Shadow Kin who kill whole species." "If we... if we could trick them... somehow... get them to attack the petals." "And then have the Shadow Kin on Earth?" "I don't think so." "But then you could use the Cabinet to kill them all and everybody is happy." "But how?" "How could we do it?" "If we'd gone after April like I wanted to in the first place..." "That is not the plan." "There is no time." "This is not a debate." "And believe me when I say I have enough bullets in this gun to make this afternoon go exactly how I want." "Please be alright." "What?" "Please be alright." "Oh, God, please let her be alright." "What have you done to yourself, maggot?" "Don't call her that!" "Not the biggest issue here, Ram!" "You can feel them, can't you?" "You can feel someone in your world." "Your mother!" "Is it?" "You leave her out of this." "All Shadow Kin are linked." "That's what the Underneath is." "It's not a planet, it's a pure shadow." "That's what we're all made of here." "Once part of it, you're part of it forever." "And now you've put our very lifeblood in your mother." "I'll kill you if you mention her again." "Silly me." "I thought you were going to kill me anyway." "It is time for some regicide." "What?" "Tanya would have got that." "Look at it this way." "Use it on the petals and you save us all." "You and Matteusz can live happily ever after." "You're wrong." "I die either way." " What?" " If I use it, I really am lost." "I lose all hope." "I lose all of Rhodia's past and even the faintest chance for its future." "If I use it, I lose you." "But if you don't use it, you lose him too." "It's really less of a pickle than you seem to think." "I'm lost and alone." "You are not alone." "I lost everything once before and... now I'm going to lose it all over again." "If you are ever lost, I will find you." "I will be your hope." "God." "Young love." " So beautiful." " Get on with it." " Is it true?" " Is what true?" "If the King fights one on one, he has to win." " Yes." " What if he loses?" "That's the fun part." "I become King in his place." "Don't I?" " Kill the boy!" " No!" "Hey, that's cheating!" "You're connected." "That's how she found him." "Found who?" "Maybe she can find us too." "Can you think of her?" "Get the clearest picture you can in your mind." "Argh!" "You can't defeat me and keep protecting him." "But I've got your power." "Which I match... obviously." "But I'm really pissed off!" "Can you do more?" "Baby, baby." "Baby, look." "Remember..." "Remember her eighth birthday, yeah?" "And that beautiful blue dress you got her." "It was her favourite." "She loved it." "She loves you." "Wait." " Wait, what?" " I can feel her." " I can feel my mum." " What?" "Where?" "I know where they are." "I can get you back." "April, no!" "Ram?" "Dad?" "I'm going in after him." "Are you...?" "Right, I'm going after our daughter!" "Go on, then!" "April, look out!" "You know this is a suicide mission." "No, she's got a plan." "Don't you, April?" "April?" "We still share a heart." "If you kill me, you will die." "I don't know that." "Yet here I am." " April!" " Ram!" "God, Dad, stuff going on, mate." " Are you hurt?" " No." "Not yet." "Are you sure about this you becoming king thing?" "I kind of am." "Yeah." "They won't be led by a maggot." "Why not?" "They are now." "It's now or never." "We will be overwhelmed in moments." "Try to still love me." " April." " Go!" "Get your dad to safety." "You can't survive this." "None of you can." "Come on!" "I've come to take you back." "Come on." "You have no say in this, Dad." "I know what it's like to try and take a life." " How dare you compare..." " I meant mine." "I was blind." "I never actually meant to hurt you and your mum, I..." "I could only see myself." " Yeah, because you're selfish." " Yeah." "Yeah, I was." "I almost certainly still am." "But you're not." "Can everybody just stop telling me what I'm like?" " You don't know me anymore!" " I've seen who you are today." "One day!" " After eight years." " I know." "April, I know." "I do." "You were given the worst deal." "Someone who's supposed to protect you instead threw you into danger." " Could you just please stop talking?" " No." "No, you found out way too early that the world isn't safe." "But what did you do?" "You said, "Tough."" "You said, "I won't let it break me."" "Yeah." "You do say that." "You lived." "April, you took the terrible thing I did to you and you threw it back at the world and you said, "Not me."" "You said, "I've got my own rules I want to live by."" "I mean, for God's sake, you've got all these... these... superhero powers and the first thing you did was heal your mum." "That's who you are." "Even me, the worst dad in the world, can see that." "So, please, please, please, be you right now." "Don't be me." "Even I don't want to be me anymore." "All I had to do was defeat you, didn't I?" "Now they've seen me beat you in battle." "Tell me!" "Tell me." "Yes." " That's all it takes." " All what takes?" "I'm King." "I'm King." "And what do the Shadow Kin always do to a defeated king?" "Kill." "You can't kill me." "There is a lifetime of possibilities other than death." "Maggot!" "You still need a heart to beat, remember?" "Lock him in the tomb." "This is not the end of this!" "No." "I get the last word." "April!" "Are you ok?" "We gather the souls of the Rhodia." "Now is the hour of our need." "You can still do it." "You can still kill the Shadow Kin." "We would all die." "Everyone dies some day." "God." "What the hell is going on?" "Um... yep." "The world's ending." "But you were busy." "But Matteusz says the Shadows might be able to help stop it." "Can you do any..." "Shadow stuff?" "This weapon, never to be used." "This weapon, in which we rest ourselves, so that it will never be used." "This weapon of such destruction, this is never to be used." "Oh, hell's bells." "I'd forgotten how up themselves the Rhodians were." "This weapon to end all weapons." "This is where I declare my intention." "Who I wish to use the weapon against." "There's no going back from here." "There's never been any going back for us, Prince." "You are the last Rhodian and I am the last Quill." " Punish them who made us so." " More would die." "This planet, the souls." "Every Rhodian who ever lived." "By leaving the Shadow Kin alive, you guarantee that billions more will die on countless worlds." "Would you really sacrifice your entire people just for the love of a few?" "I don't doubt you love him." "I was in love once." "I know what it looks like." "But you are a prince." "And you've said it yourself, you have duties beyond what is personal." " Don't listen to her, Charlie." " You have to do it now." "Be glorious." "All war is sacrifice, but you can end the one they wage on the universe forever." "And to what better purpose can a life and a death be put?" "Be a hero." " They're in the corridor." " We're trapped." "Oh, what do we do?" "!" "You never told me there were going to be more monsters." " You didn't want to know, Dad." " I always want to know!" "If the world is going to end in shadows or in petals," "I want to know, son!" "End in shadows?" "April, the Shadow Kin." "They enter worlds and kill in shadows." "That's what Matteusz's text meant." "Yeah, and?" "And you're their king probably." "Forgive me, but I would rather be alive than glorious." " Now, I could take that gun off you..." " Yes, but in time, do you think?" "Even with a gun, you should never turn your back on an angry Pole." " I don't like guns." " Do it." "Do it now." "Well, what are you waiting for?" "You know what your King wants." "I declare unto you my intention." "I declare the enemy that endangers all of Rhodia." "I give you my intent." "Look." "What's happening?" "My army." "They're turning into shadow." "How do you have an army?" "What are you going to do with an army?" "No!" "No!" " No!" " Step away from me, Quill." "You can still kill them all!" " Kill the Shadow Kin!" " No, that would make him a monster." "When your entire people are being killed before your very eyes, then you can talk to me about monsters!" "You will use that on the Shadow Kin." "Maybe not today, but trust me, you will." " She'll get over it." " You pulled a gun on me." "You'll get over it." "Back." "Wait." "Destroy the path here as you go." "Dude, you are totally a queen." "No, she's an alien now." "Dad, at least pay attention." "I can feel them." "All of them." "I can hear them inside my head." "And everyone's looking at me." "You'd be looking at you too." "Oh, Ram." "I think I need saving." "It's only fair, after you saved the whole planet." "Why do you need it?" " I am free of the anchor." " The bond is broken." "We still share the same heart but... he's cut the new connection." "The strong one that..." "No!" "No, your legs." "I think we've got a lot to talk about?" "I think we do too." "Well, I'm glad my mum didn't come." " Go on, then." " What would you have done?" "Would you believe me if I said I didn't know?" "I think I'm lost, Matteusz." "Then I will find you." "You do realise that's not my car?" " Ah." " I am not your enemy." "Yeah, an enemy is decided by her actions, not by her intentions." "Basic rule of warfare." "Did you really think the Governors hadn't taken all these variables into account?" "What?" "A solid 66% chance the girl would stop the petals." "What?" "77% chance you would try to use the Cabinet for your own ends." " What are you trying to say...?" " I had argued it was more like 90, but there are still men who won't listen to a woman who's smarter than they are." " So, you expected all this?" " We did." "And, in fact, our thinking was that the petals probably had only one aggregate soul between them." "Charlie would have only had to use one soul from the Cabinet to eliminate them all." "Oh, right." "And you were planning on telling me all this when?" "In the end, it was a far closer run thing than we would have liked, but now we know quite a lot more about young Charlie and about the Cabinet than we did before." "And for that we are grateful." "Our deal still stands." "You helped us, we'll help you." "Come and see me on Monday about getting that thing out of your head." "Still have to do parents' evening, though." "So?" "Are you still queen?" "They call you 'King' even if you're a woman." "And no." "All the extra powers have gone now." "I need to go." "I need to remind them I'm still their daughter." "Yeah." "Same deal with my dad." "Charlie will be pissed you outrank him now." "I need you to go now." "I need you to... just do that until we contact you." "That might be never, though." "Maybe." "But you gave up having that choice." "Yeah, I did." "I won't change my number." "I'll keep it." "Forever, if that's what it takes." "You don't have to worry about me." " I'm strong now." " Yeah, I can see that." "You didn't get that from me, did you?" "Goodbye, Dad." "For now." "Goodbye." "Bye." "It'll take a while before I get full strength back." "Still want to try?" "It was a violent thing you did, April." "I'd accepted my life." "I know." "It was full and happy and in no way less." "I know." "I know that too." "All it takes is one step." "Then we can decide on the next one after that." "One..." "You have all got an hour detention and I've got things to do." "That's interesting." "Don't explain my own feelings to me." "Confess!" "I love you." "Confess." "I don't trust how fast you've fallen." "A prisoner!" "I'm also afraid of you." "No!"