You are Hunahpu. You have the ability to access Guardian’s array. This will forestall the end, but only the destruction of Tezcatilpoca and the Black Road—Xibalba Be—can prevent the wicked ones from passing through to your world.

The Black Road—where will its entrance materialize?

The porthole to Xibalba Be will ascend on four Ahau, three Kankin. Only a Hunahpu can enter. Only a Hunahpu can expel the evil from your garden and save your species from annihilation.

You’re speaking in riddles. Where is this porthole? Is it aboard that spaceship in the Gulf? Am I supposed to go back inside? And how am I supposed to destroy it?

The porthole will come to you. Use the array to destroy Tezcatilpoca, then enter the porthole. The two evil ones will come forward to challenge you. They will attempt to prevent you from sealing the portal before He arrives.

And if I seal the portal?

Then the two Under Lords shall be vanquished from your world, allowing your species to evolve. Succeed—and two destinies shall await you. Fail—and both our people will perish.

What do you mean, two destinies await me?

Should the time come, then you will know.

What about Dominique? Is she Hunahpu?

She is part of a greater destiny, but she is not Hunahpu. Do not allow her to enter Xibalba Be, or she will destroy you both.

Dominique is seated on the floor of the chamber, her back to the alien marble tub, her head in her hands. She is scared and alone, her exhausted mind engaged in a nonstop tug-of-war between reality and denial.

This isn’t real. None of this is happening. It’s all part of some schizophrenic delusion …

“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

She jumps to her feet. “Accept the fact that you’re here and do something about it. Find a way out—” She walks out of the chamber, then returns, frantic. “No, Mick needs me. I have to wait here.”

She bangs on the side of the open sarcophagus again, uncertain of whether Mick is alive or had been vaporized by the neon blue light.

“Mick, can you hear me? God dammit, Mick, answer me!”

Her tears flow, her heart aching. Selfish bitch, you never told him you loved him. You could have given him that. Just because you’ve denied yourself, doesn’t mean …

“My God…” She leans back against the granite tomb at the sudden revelation. I love him. I really do love him.

She kicks the side of the granite tub again. “Mick! Can you hear me—”

The sudden burst from an invisible force field knocks her sideways, as a brilliant blue light brightens the entire onion-shaped chamber.

From the tub rises the dark silhouette of a figure. It stands, rising out of the open sarcophagus as if floating, its features enveloped within the alien light.

It is Mick.