He took another step forward, not so sure himself of the plan. Getting into an all-out brawl with a grown woman wasn’t exactly how he’d envisioned saving the world. But he had to get it out of her—what they’d been on the verge of doing when he’d arrived.

“Just tell me the truth,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you. I could’ve easily just killed you back in the Wake, ended it the simple way. What were you going to do when I got here?”

“We had a plan,” she said, a glazed look in her eyes. “I stuck to that plan. We had a plan!”

“Listen to yourself,” Michael said. “You sound crazy. How can you be helping people by killing people? And taking over the world? It’s insane.”

Weber’s eyes met his sharply. “We needed you. But you’re really beginning to get in the way.”

Michael took another step, now only three or four feet away from Weber. He could almost reach out and grab her. “Let’s figure this out. What’s that thing behind you, anyway?”

“Circumstances have changed,” she whispered, sounding more delusional by the second. “I didn’t want to…I don’t want to kill you. Things won’t run as smoothly. But we can always rebuild the Doctrine. And reprogram the ones we lose. We can always adapt, can’t we?”

“What,” he said, emphasizing each word. “Are. You. Talking. About.”

“So be it,” she said, standing up straighter. She sounded as if she were having a conversation with someone who wasn’t there. “This can be on your conscience. Even though…even though you won’t be around for it.”

A fanatical look came over her face, eyes wild. “If you have even an ounce of sense left in that mind of yours, go back, Lift and leave us alone. Do not”—she held up a finger—“do not follow me. I swear if you do, I’ll kill everyone. Every last one.”

“What—”

She quickly turned from him and faced the glass box behind her. She put her hands on the lip of the stand it stood on and was suddenly pushing herself up, swinging her legs over the open top of the container. Michael bolted forward to grab her, but he was too late.

Then the strangest thing happened. As she descended into the container of lights, her body began to shrink. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, so that by the time she was fully in the box, she was the size of a small doll. She looked up at Michael, and for the briefest moment he’d forgotten he was inside the Sleep and was shocked by the sudden transformation. He watched as her tiny body disappeared into the lights floating in the box. Lights that Michael now realized made up a galaxy of stars.