“What’s the plan then Jake?” asked ‘Arry.

“I’m not sure, yet,” he answered. “Are you sure that you want to march all six hundred of us up to the Tower of Power?” Jake hadn’t quite realised how many people ‘Arry had rescued on his travels until his ship had emptied. It was quite a sight to behold, all of them together, skinny, dark black hair and glasses, looking like a gamers convention during a fire drill.

“Yes. We ‘ave strength in numbers, and we should use it.”

He had a point, Jake conceded. There were a lot of people and they could easily run amok in the Tower of Power. However, Jake would much rather infiltrate quietly and unseen. He really did not want to be recognised. Besides, Jake knew every door, every corridor, every hidey-hole from playing Lapine Death Corps. If anybody could find an unusual way in, it was Jake.

“Let’s compromise,” he suggested, a plan suddenly starting to formulate. “I am the Crawk-King, I can just walk in and take control again. I’ll do that, wait ‘til night-time and then I’ll simply let you in. It’ll be an attack from within. They’ll never know what has hit them.”

“I’ll stay here and fix the ship,” said Niall.

“Brilliant,” said ‘Arry, amazed that Jake was coming on side so quickly. “Let’s do it.”

It was almost too easy. Jake and Jaska walked straight in through the front door. No questions asked. They walked into the lift, up to the top floor. The security guard recognised them, let them in. Jake and Jaska got all the way to Jake’s usual office, he sat in his seat and still no questions were asked. It was so easy, Jake was becoming paranoid that something was up, that the Crawklings knew their plan and were playing along. He sat quietly in his office for a while – until Green_Turle_Boy_369 walked in, of course.

“Where the Hell have you been?” he asked.

“Hi,” said Jake.

“I said, where have you been?” he repeated.

“Don’t be so mean!” said Jaska. “You should be glad he’s back. You won’t win the war without him.”

“You must think I was born on the moon,” said Green_Turtle_Boy_369. “You full well know we have won the war, that’s why you are back. There is nowhere else for you to go.”

“What do you mean, you’ve won…erm.. we’ve won the war?” asked Jake, a lump forming in his throat.

Green_Turtle_Boy_369 stared at him, his bulging eyes not quite passing for a squint, but the attempted scrutiny was there. “You really don’t know? Follow me.”

Jake and Jaska trudged along the corridor after him.

“So this is where everyone is,” Jaska said.

There was a huge cheer as Jake and Jaska entered the room.

“Where have you been?” asked one voice.

“Escaping,” said Jaska, defiantly. “It was fun.”

They all laughed, with the exception of one desolate looking figure in the corner of the room.

She spoke, quietly but in a voice that cut clearly across the room. “Jakey,” said Leina. “Where did you go? Why did you leave me?”

Jake had forgotten that this would come up, and the question hung in the air. He didn’t know how to answer it and stared down at his nervously shifting feet. Fortunately, Jaska answered for him.

“We left. We are now married. He left you because he prefers me.”

Although Jake felt a little bit bad for Leina, he really couldn’t argue with anything Jaska had said. Partly because he was scared, partly because it was true.

Everyone else in the room thought the whole thing was hilarious, and Leina left the room quickly. Jake wished that he hadn’t sneaked a glance at her, as the look of daggers she gave him scared the living shit out of him.

The focus went back to the war, and Green_Turtle_Boy_369 explained how the White Palace had been destroyed and the power source of the Inner and Outer Galaxies was no more. The screen clearly showed that there were no more ships. The war was well and truly over.

There was only one possible way that that wasn’t true, thought Jake.

If, as he suspected, that by opening the door of the hidden room in Lapine Death Corps he had also removed the forcefield around the Tower of Power.

If this was the case, and the Tower could be destroyed, both sides of the war would be without power and nobody would have won at all. The only problem with that plan would be that there would be no more Lapine Death Corps. Oh, and Jake would be stuck in Crawk - forever. Jake went back to his office to think about it.