As we walked toward the woods I did my best to explain my plan to Barry without sounding too crazy. I called out for Pips and he came running. He jumped up and hugged my face and then over to Barry and did the same to him. We kept going with him alternating whose shoulder he sat on.

"I'm going to try and explain how I can bring Jen back but I need you to maybe just go with it even if you don't get some of it. I know you haven't known me long but I believe I have shown you that I am your friend and you can trust me," I said to the large confused man beside me. He nodded so I continued.

"I can bring everyone back that has died recently by resetting the world to a few days ago. Actually, to be completely honest, I'm not sure how far I would go back but I'm sure it would be far back enough to bring Jen back."

"Will it bring Edrus back to life also? Or does it only bring back good people?" He asked.

"He will be back too. Unfortunately, it brings back everyone, good and bad, that has died." I hadn't really thought about that so much since I was only focused on bringing Jen back.

"So we'll have to kill him again?" he asked.

"Yeah buddy, but some people are worth killing twice." I'd never thought I would ever have something like that come out of my mouth. He nodded again and waited for me to continue.

"Step one is we need to find a safe place to stash a bunch of gear and preferably closer to Bettyford. Do you care if we run to make better time?" I asked. He nodded again although he seemed to be confused when I mentioned hiding gear somewhere.

We started running at a good pace and were able to maintain it without stopping until sunset. I pulled up my map and we were more or less still on track to follow our trip to town almost exactly. I was hoping to avoid enemies as much as possible to speed up the return trip. We had traveled over halfway back to Bettyford already and slept for the night on our refreshing mattresses around a small fire.

Mae got me up early in the morning and we continued at a good pace toward Bettyford. Mae had been oddly silent. She must've known what I was thinking and I thought it was odd that she hadn't given an opinion. Maybe this was something I had to decide on my own. I didn't press the issue and we continued.

We got to a well tree-lined area and I continued to explain.

"This should work. We didn't see any bad guys around here the first time through and it seems to be fairly isolated from any walking areas," I said. I sat down on a log and motioned for Barry to sit down as well. I figured he might need to be for this next part.

"What I am going to say will sound crazy but I need you to promise me now that you will do the thing that I am about to ask you to do," I said in a calm and relaxing tone.

"What do you need me to do?" He asked. My calm didn't seem to be working. I think based on the cryptic way I had explained things thus far, Barry was not overly excited to follow along.

"I need you to promise me, please Barry." I looked at him with as gentle a face as I could make.

"Okay, I promise." He shifted uncomfortably on the log. I wasn't looking forward to the next part.

"Here is what will happen," I said in hopes that it would work again. I guess if it didn't then it wouldn't be my problem anymore. "I am going to reset the world. When I do, all of my inventory is going to pop out onto the ground from my dimensional space. That's why we needed a safe place to stash everything. Jen will be back and we can take another shot at saving her parents with the advantage of me knowing everything I know now. Everything will be fine and I promise to bring you with me again."

He nodded slowly as I spoke so I thought everything was actually going pretty well so far.

"How does the magic work to reset the world? What will happen to me? Will I remember everything?" I could tell he was just asking every question that popped into his head.

"I don't really understand how it works, but I know it is someone stronger than me that makes it happen. You will be fine. Most likely you'll be back in Bettyford safe and sound and I'll just have to find you again. The one unfortunate thing is that you won't remember me," I answered.

"Why do you get to remember?" He asked a little hurt.

"I think it is because the reset is based on me triggering it." I glanced over at him knowing what his next question would be.

"What triggers it?" He asked.

"The world resets when I die." I looked at him and was completely serious-faced so he knew I wasn't joking.

He processed the information and his eyes grew wide and watery.

"I need you to keep your promise and kill me right now." I stood up and motioned for him to do the same.

"I can't kill you. You are one of the only real friends I have ever had in my life. You're maybe the only person who has made me feel like a person and not a tool," he said getting a little more upset as he verbalized his feelings.

"You have to, Barry. I'll be fine and I won't hold it against you in the least." I put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"I just can't. Pips will never forgive me." He was grasping at straws at this point.

"Animals don't remember anything either. He will be happy as a clam when we reunite with him." I decided to pull out the big guns. "If you can't do it for me, please do it for Jen."

He looked up at me and I saw a change. He was going to do it. He was ready to kill me.

"You should tell me some things about you that no one else knows so that you know you can trust me when I get back," I said. Maybe I was stalling a bit but I did think this might be a good thing to do.

He told me his mother's name, his favorite color, and that he had a birthmark on his thigh. I stopped him there.

"Okay, I'm ready," I said. "Aim for the head." I didn't want a mishap that just put me in a lot of pain. I kneeled down to make it quicker and easier.

Barry's eyes were full of tears by this point and I had to ask him to collect himself before he made his attempt in order to try and avoid the pain of a misplaced axe hit.

It took him a few minutes to steel his nerves and stop crying enough to swing his greataxe with accuracy.

The last thing I heard was Barry's voice.

"I'm sorry."

Everything faded to black as I prayed for this to work.