Chapter Text
It wasn't just one of them that had died this time. It was all of them - Jowd, Alma, Sissel, Missile, Lynne, Kamila. An explosion - Jowd had booked a restaurant for them all, and the blast had come from right under their seats.
Well, Sissel hadn't really died, of course. Hard to die when you were already dead.
Normally Sissel would have been hanging out with Yomiel at this time. But he'd taken to investigating with Lynne, due to her tendency to get herself into trouble, so he'd been there yesterday when she'd stumbled upon something that she really wasn't supposed to know. She had been planning to tell Jowd today, and Sissel had tagged along to their family dinner to make sure nothing happened.
Well, it seemed something had happened. A coincidence, or something more?
He wondered if he could find anything out in here before going back in time. He still couldn't possess corpses (except his own, but that was a special case), or he'd make 'Lynne' walk out of here and see what happened next.
...He tried to do it anyway, just in case something had changed. All that happened when he touched her core was that he ended up contacting her spirit again.
"Oh. I'm dead again, huh?" she said. "What happened? I don't remember much."
She was reacting in much the same way she always did, then.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!"
…Sissel always forgot they could hear him think.
What it meant that Lynne was too calm about death. Too comfortable. She'd died a dozen times, and she shouldn't remember most of them, but Sissel couldn't help but wonder if she did somehow.
"Not to my knowledge," Lynne said. "But who knows. I could know subconsciously!"
Sissel sighed. Not something cats usually did, but he'd picked up a lot of human mannerisms from Yomiel and from his night as a human, and even if they weren't usually something cats could do the intent came across perfectly fine in the Ghost World.
Going back to Lynne's original question…
"There was an explosion," Sissel said. "Everyone's dead."
Lynne gasped.
"Not for long, though," Sissel continued, with a cat-smirk. Totally confident in his own abilities.
"Ooh, is it time for-"
"Calm down. I want to see if I can gather any more information first."
Plus, he didn't know if it even was Lynne he'd go back with. There were a lot of possibilities here.
"Hey, I can help!" Lynne protested.
She probably could. And she was way too excited to watch Sissel prevent her own death – to remember another death, because he was pretty sure that only the person he went back with would recall. But was that something he wanted?
'Oh, Sissel,' she said. 'You always take too much on yourself.'
With the powers he had, wouldn't anyone?
"Sissel," Lynne said seriously. "Let me help you."
…Yeah. Maybe he would. Lynne knew the most about this case, after all.
For now, though, he would gather more information. He tried again to make her body move. Yomiel had shown him how he did it, once, so he knew the theory.
(Lynne was looking at him weird. They might have to talk about that later.)
…No luck. He mentally waved goodbye to Lynne and slipped out of her soul, back to his own body.
Okay, so… time to move. In his own body, or hopping around the cores nearby? His own body gave him more freedom of movement, but it might spook anyone nearby enough to see a kitten strolling out of an explosion as if nothing had happened. He also had part of a table stuck in him, which didn't actually hurt, but would continue to freak out anyone nearby.
Yeah, Sissel didn't want to deal with that. Cores it was.
This plan was immediately discouraged by the only cores he could access being those of the dead bodies around him. He had to at least move a little. He checked no-one could see him, then wandered to a better spot and hopped out of his little kitten body.
(He didn't like leaving his body, with the Temsik fragment in it, unattended. But he wouldn't have, because once he changed the past, none of this would have happened.)
Now, let's see. Where to go…?
The explosion had left a lot of debris around, and enough of it had cores that from this point he could hop around to almost anywhere he wanted. He picked a path near-randomly, working out how to move around the space. It felt like warming up, like using a muscle he didn't usually use, like slipping right back into being a ghostly helper rather than pretending to be a normal cat. It felt natural.
He had a few false starts before finding anything really helpful. The staff didn't know anything, they were just panicking. Everyone was being evacuated, and he went out with them just to see if he could overhear anything…
There were a couple of people standing away from the group, conversing in low tones. One with auburn hair, one with brown. Female, probably? Sissel dropped a leaf, letting it float over to them and land on the auburn hair with Sissel still inside.
"And the girl's definitely-" the brown-haired girl started.
"Dead, yes," the auburn-haired girl finished. "Who could have survived that explosion? Her and all her family – so even if she told the detective anything, they're both gone now. The leak is plugged."
Jackpot. So it had been Lynne they were after…
He wanted to listen in more, but the brown-haired killer noticed the leaf on her partner's head, and the auburn-haired killer brushed it off with a sigh. And Sissel was sent away.
Fair enough. He'd gotten what he wanted – he knew who was targeting his family. He had the information as to why they'd been assassinated, and by whom. Now, time to find out the how.
Sissel hopped back to his own body and walked over to Lynne, turning it into a run upon hearing some shocked screeching about dead cats walking. He placed his paw upon her face, then mentally reached out a hand, feeling the world stop.
"It's time?" Lynne said.
"It's time."
Together, they went back – back to four minutes before her death.
He couldn't see much. Just a conversation that he'd already witnessed – already had, because everyone here but Kamila could speak with him if he so chose – and then the explosion. Lynne seemed to have died near-instantly. That was better for Sissel, of course – it meant that he had the entire four minutes before it happened.
After he watched it all, he thought for a moment. The first thing to do was to give a signal - Sissel couldn't talk to anyone from the past directly, sadly including himself (which he found slightly strange, but it was true), so he'd have to get a little creative. Not much, though, at least not for a simple warning. Something moving unnaturally near them tended to indicate Sissel, and his past self would easily figure out what sort of thing must have happened. Exactly what had happened would be more complicated. But seeing as everyone here knew about Sissel, they knew to do something differently if he signalled them.
Sissel knocked over the salt, then the pepper, and everyone looked at the black kitten – but a shake of the head, a humanlike expression of concern on the cat's face, and then three inhabitants of the table startling one by one. Jowd, Lynne, Missile. He knew what must be happening, his past self reaching out in the Ghost World to warn them.
They stood. Good – they were moving. A brief conversation led to Alma taking Kamila, Sissel going with them (presumably trusting his future self to protect the others). But Jowd and Lynne insisted on staying in case anyone else got hurt, and Missile was with them to try and protect his lady Lynne. Sissel went one way, Missile the other – it was a familiar pattern, even though Sissel could do so much more. But they trusted one another. Sissel could never forget what Missile had done, after all.
Lynne was carefully peering round a corner right now, Jowd right behind her, and Sissel was once again sighing. Why did his humans love getting themselves into trouble so much?
They conversed in low tones. Sissel couldn't quite hear, still back at the table – he'd been trying to turn off the bomb, but it wasn't responding to him at all. It wasn't even a core (maybe because it was about to explode?) and nothing he could interact with got anywhere near it.
Over there, Lynne pointed at where Sissel was. Jowd rolled under a table, then another, making his way towards the bomb. What were they doing – of course, they wouldn't know it was going to go off. Sissel would have to do something about that. Still, they had a little more time. Sissel hopped over to a chair, then a lamp, then a picture hanging on the wall, making his way closer to Jowd. He hit a dead end, and stepped out of the Ghost World to see if he could wiggle the picture enough to fall down.
From the other entrance, the auburn-haired killer entered, slipping something out of their pocket. As the picture fell, Sissel looked over there to see what they were carrying.
A gun.
A shot.
Sissel froze time again, but the bullet was already halfway to Jowd's head. He had one move. Just one. He reached out-
No.
He couldn't move. There were no cores anywhere near him right now – and whilst time would inevitably bring some, he didn't have time. Jowd was about to die.
…Well. That wasn't good, but he could fix it.
"Can't we do something before he dies?" Lynne said.
Sissel jumped – he'd almost forgotten she was there.
"Oh, come on. Don't I die enough?"
"More than enough! But no, I can't see anything I can do from here. Unless you can get us out of this painting-"
'Hm. I'm pretty sure you're joking, but it can't hurt to try.'
What did that-
He felt the sensation of being grabbed, then shot across the Ghost World.
What.
"Huh!" Lynne said delightedly. "I guess I can!"
Sure enough, they were in another core, further away. Lynne, it seemed, could reach out her paw a little further, just as Missile could, and easily take him with her.
"But – you shouldn't be able to do that unless you have the powers of the dead," Sissel said.
"Well, I died right next to you, didn't I?" she pointed out. "Honestly, we should have realised this before!"
…Huh. Sissel had honestly never thought about that. It had, surprisingly enough, never come up before with her – when they were together, he'd always been able to save her before anything happened.
(It had come up with someone else. But his old friend… it had made sense for it to happen to him. He'd never thought what would happen if it was Lynne.)
"Okay, let's see what we can do from here," Sissel said. "There's two of us, but that bullet is well on its way. We have one chance, and we have no idea what your powers are. You might not even be able to trick things."
And they didn't exactly have time to test, either…
They hopped around a bit, or rather Lynne hopped around and Sissel tagged along with her. She said she felt like she could do something on some of the cores, but she wasn't sure what. And Sissel couldn't really do anything helpful.
In the end, they had to take a chance. To position Lynne on the table above Jowd and hope whatever she could do would protect him from the bullet. Sissel himself had been left in the gun, ready to jam it to prevent the auburn-haired killer from firing again – they were still connected, though, so he just waited until-
Lynne resumed time.
A crack, a thump, and – Sissel wasn't quite sure what had happened at first. He quickly jammed the gun (the auburn-haired killer dropped it in surprise) and looked over to see the table in pieces, falling apart on top of Jowd. He peered within – was that blood?
Sissel hopped back into the Ghost World. Yep that was blood. Jowd was dead.
'No…' Lynne said, or maybe thought.
Well, it had been a long shot.
"Still!" Lynne said. "It could have worked!"
It could have. But it didn't.
He'd changed Lynne's fate, maybe even averted it completely – the alive Lynne seemed pretty far away, and the auburn-haired killer didn't seem to have seen her – but he hadn't just come back to save her. But he couldn't just rewind her and try again when she wasn't dead anymore.
Jowd was, though. If he got to Jowd…
"I'm closer. I can try," Lynne said.
Before he could say anything, Lynne was already reaching out.
Sissel was pulled into Jowd's mind as well – still not in his core, but they could speak here.
"Sorry," Jowd said nonchalantly. "I was trying not to die."
Trying not to die would have been leaving the restaurant, but Sissel understood that Jowd couldn't do that if someone else might have been hurt. It had been Lynne they were after, of course, Lynne and anyone she might have talked to, but Jowd wouldn't have known that-
"It was?" Lynne said in shock.
…Right. No secrets in the Ghost World.
Sissel shrugged. "Yeah, it was about the information you found earlier. It would seem they won't give up so easily."
"What information?" Jowd asked.
"We can find that out once we save your life."
Sissel reached to rewind, but – he still wasn't here, he couldn't quite do it. Lynne, then?
"How?" she asked.
It took a bit to figure out how to send the information across. It wasn't something that could be put into words, it was a feeling, but the Ghost World allowed them to transmit it anyway.
(Yomiel had done that for Sissel before. They'd done it both ways, actually – there had been an incident a few months back, and whilst it hadn't been pleasant for either of them, it had allowed them to communicate like that and really reconnect.)
"Okay, I think I've got it," Lynne said. "I'm gonna try now."
…
"It's not working," she said.
It would seem Lynne didn't have that particular power. Sissel would need to make his way back over and rewind time himself. Lynne might have to carry him again, though.
It turned out that after the killer had dropped the gun, Sissel was too far away from any cores for even Lynne to reach. Whoops. Sissel wasn't bothered, though. He said they'd just resume time, and either something would come over on its own or Lynne would make it.
She hoped she'd be good enough to do so.
When they resumed, Missile ran over to Jowd with panicked barking, nosing at his corpse. Don't worry, Missile, we'll fix it soon. Then he wouldn't even have to remember that this happened (even if stuff like this never seemed to bother him too much).
Lynne didn't pay too much attention to Missile, trying to figure out how to use her ghost trick to get Sissel over to Jowd. She broke a lamp, which didn't do much except attract everyone's attention. Then she snapped the string of a painting. It seemed like the only thing her ghost trick did was break things.
'Seems a powerful ability, if a bit specialised,' Sissel thought.
(She was starting to figure out how to tell when he did that unintentionally. She wasn't planning on telling him that, though.)
"No secrets in the Ghost World, remember?" he said.
…Oops.
She was making a little progress, now. She looked towards Sissel – maybe if she could get over to the painting above him… no, the lady was picking up the gun again and hurrying away. Lynne quickly broke another lamp, but it didn't deter her this time. What exactly was she running from-
BOOM!
Light and sound and the world shifting around her and the fork Lynne was currently inhabiting getting thrown across the restaurant.
Sissel had shifted them into the Ghost World, and Lynne took a moment to reorient herself. He'd stopped the world in motion, and everything was currently midair – and Missile was dead.
'Oops.'
'OOPS, SISSEL?'
Sissel shrugged (something she felt more than saw). "Sometimes I don't get it right first try."
This was just normal for him, wasn't it? Lynne didn't normally get to tag along, and – and it was different when it was her. And when they were together, he'd saved her a dozen times – first try, she never even died at all. The only times she had seen him work, she'd died when he was away, and he'd popped through the phone lines when he heard the news, and – it almost felt like a game, the way he did it. She watched him knock cores around like batting a ball of wool off a table, and then she woke up perfectly fine and alive. But now…
"I forgot about the bomb," Sissel admitted. "Too busy trying to get to Jowd."
"We can still save them, right?" Lynne asked somewhat frantically.
"Of course we can."
Sissel looked at Missile's dead body, currently flying through the air.
"I think if I…"
Sissel let the world start again, and immediately the fork Lynne was currently in flew across the room and embedded itself in the wall. She looked over to see Sissel in much the same situation, in a shard of glass (from a lamp Lynne broke earlier) that had dug a furrow into the floor. But Sissel was right next to Missile's body, lying broken and limp.
Sissel beckoned her closer, as if nothing were wrong. Lynne obediently hopped over, attaching herself once more to Sissel. Then Sissel reached out to their beloved Pomeranian friend, and-
"SISSEL! And Miss Lynne!!! Hello!!!!!"
Lynne usually didn't talk to Missile directly, so she always forgot he was like this. She laughed, knowing that if they were talking physically Missile would already be all over her. She really loved him.
"I love you too Miss Lynne!"
"Missile," Sissel interjected. "We need to rewind your death to save you and Jowd."
'And if we can't do that, we can at least use it to get to Jowd and give us a little more time,' he thought-added.
"Okay! I hope I can help!" Missile said.
Sissel nodded to Lynne, and together, they went back.
It wasn't that different, working from Missile's dead body instead of from Lynne's. The only difference, really, was the very enthusiastic doggo cheering them on. Being privy to Missile and Sissel's conversations about random things was kind of amusing – Missile didn't get a lot of human things, and Sissel did, but didn't always think they were sensible.
"What's that?" Missile said about the painting Lynne had just broken off the wall. "It doesn't seem to be doing anything about the food."
"It's not. It's a painting, they're decorative. Usually," Sissel said, making a face.
"What else are they for if not decorative?"
"I don't know, but I mean – why would you hang that on the wall?" Sissel said. "It looks bad."
Lynne laughed. "It's meant to help the restaurant look sophisticated."
'Who cares,' Missile and Sissel chorused.
"Isn't this place for food?" Missile said. "It's not like it's in a best groomed show!"
Sissel shrugged. "Can't help but agree with you there."
Lynne smiled. She had to admit it wasn't exactly a pretty painting.
They rewound a few times, trying to figure out exactly what they could do. Missile and Sissel didn't really seem… bothered? As for Lynne, she'd been worried at first, but she was loosening up over time – if they could just rewind everything, then she could mess up as much as she wanted and they could just fix it. As Sissel kept telling her.
…it was nice, working with him, even like this. If still a little stressful, especially watching Jowd and Missile die again and again – Lynne couldn't look, but Sissel did. Everything from his past self's warning to the explosion – it was still four minutes before that, after all.
It wasn't like they couldn't get to Jowd, after he died. But they didn't have a plan for what to do if they pulled him into this mess, and Lynne was still trying to get used to her ghost tricks. So they spent a little more time out here, trying to figure it out.
"If only I could help you!" Missile yapped.
"What, you think you could swap the bullet again?" Sissel said with amusement.
"No! I think I could swap the Jowd!"
Sissel frowned. "But Jowd's not the same shape as anything. People aren't."
Missile huffed. "Look!"
He pointed at Jowd, currently rolled under a table. "Orb!"
…Okay, so maybe Jowd was kind of round, but…
Lynne felt the strange phantom sensation of Sissel taking her hand. She allowed him to lead her, and suddenly she was back in the Ghost World and – really looking at it, this time. Everything was different, here, space warping itself so sometimes things that were further away had cores that were closer together or something, and –
"Huh," Lynne said faintly. "I guess he is pretty round in the Ghost World."
Sissel nodded. "If we had a ball or a plate or something facing the right way, Missile could probably swap him. If we had Missile's ghost tricks."
'Do I need to go back to the beginning and go back with Missile?' Sissel wondered. 'No, I don't think I can do that. I averted Lynne's fate already, that timeline no longer exists. I'd need to stop them from leaving, but I don't think I can un-warn them… We'll just have to find another way.'
They played around with more things, Sissel urging Lynne to just try breaking anything and seeing what happened. So she did, because Sissel knew more about this than she did.
…She broke the door. She snapped the hinges of the door out of the restaurant, and the door collapsed inwards, startling everyone nearby.
"Wait," Sissel said thoughtfully. "That gives me an idea."
'I'm not sure if it'll work, but it's worth a shot,' he thought-added.
So there they were again, back to the beginning. Sissel and Lynne hopped over to the door (Sissel needed to help her make a path, it was a long way!) and then when Alma and Kamila and past-Sissel approached, Lynne snapped the hinges.
No-one was hurt – they'd made sure everyone was well out of the way – but it had thoroughly startled everyone. And stopped them from leaving immediately. Past Sissel narrowed his eyes at the door.
'What am I doing?' Sissel wondered. 'Oh, of course – checking for present-ghosts. There won't be any, which will mean we're telling them not to leave. I think.'
It seemed to work. Unfortunately, it also put Jowd right back on his investigation, rolling under tables towards where they'd been sitting and once again getting shot despite everyone's best efforts.
Past-Sissel yowled.
"Hey, we're trying our best over here!" Sissel said.
Lynne was expecting Missile to run to Jowd next, and he did, but – Sissel ran with him. So when the explosion hit, they both got thrown across the room.
"Well, that didn't work," Lynne said.
"Didn't it?" Sissel said. "If Missile died next to me…"
"Then I can use my ghost tricks!" Missile said.
Sissel nodded. "Hopefully, yeah."
So they rewound and tried again – but Missile couldn't use anything.
'Hm, maybe I need to restart the loop entirely?' Sissel wondered. 'I've never had to deal with this before… Missile should be able to use his ghost tricks if he died within reach of the Temsik fragment, but in this timeline, he didn't.'
"Why not just restart it and see?" Lynne said.
"Because if I do that, I might lose you," Sissel said. "The only way I can see to do that is to turn it off and on again – go back to the present, then rewind. And you won't have your ghost tricks then. You won't even be dead."
'Which is good, of course, but…' he thought.
"But you would have Missile's," Lynne said thoughtfully. "And he'd probably be more useful."
Sissel frowned.
"Lynne… you wouldn't remember any of this."
And despite Sissel's best efforts, his next thoughts came through loud and clear.
'I know me and Missile like to protect our humans, but… Lynne is my partner. I liked working with her. Plus, I think she understands more now. I don't want her to forget this.'
"Sissel," Lynne said gently. "I've forgotten a lot of stuff. But we're still partners, aren't we? I'll understand anything you want, if you just tell me."
Sissel breathed. A habit that, as an undead kitten, he really didn't need to do.
"…Okay," he said.
And he must have made up his mind about who would be more useful already, because he said nothing more before reaching out for Missile and-
Lynne slipped away.
Immediately at the start of the loop, Sissel hopped over to a painting that they'd used to get Lynne to the door, then wiggled it off its hook to block her path. No need for more problems. Alma and Kamila needed to get out safely, this time around.
He'd interfered with his past future self now. The universe was beginning to strain under the weight of all this twisting time travel, cracks appearing in the Ghost World. No more nested loops – he had to finish this, and soon.
His kitten-bodied self left with Alma and Kamila. Alive Lynne and Jowd and Missile stayed. He wasn't sure what Other Sissel and Other Lynne were doing, or if they were even still here, or-
"Missile," Sissel said.
Missile jumped to attention, already zipping over to position. They'd protect their humans together.
What they did was simple. They couldn't stop the explosion, but they might be able to stop the bullet – even more so if they could get Jowd out of the way. Wait for it to play out, and then at the right moment swap Jowd. It took Sissel a moment to find something to swap him with, but in the end he rolled a plate off a table and Missile froze it in the air at just the right moment. He was really talented at that – at finding the exact moment to hop into the Ghost World, and freeze time around him. Whether to find the perfect orientation of a plate, or to stop a bullet in midair. Sissel could do similar, but it often took a few tries for him.
Alright, Missile. Now's your cue. Andd…
There.
Jowd had received Sissel's signal – there was danger, and someone was going to die. They'd made their way to the door, ignoring paintings falling along the way, but Jowd couldn't just leave if someone was going to die here. Maybe Sissel needed him.
So he went – carefully, hiding under tables so hopefully no-one would see him, trying to make his way back to the place they'd been sitting without anyone being the wiser. And just as he was readying to make his next move-
The world shifted around him, and Jowd felt himself pulled through splintered spacetime by an almost-familiar paw.
He landed with a jolt, shaking himself back into his body. He was orbed in the middle of the restaurant. He looked up, and someone was pointing a gun at him. And Jowd-
Died. A shot to the head, and he was dead instantly. The auburn-haired killer dropped the gun on the bomb and then walked off.
"…We should have seen that one coming. At least we've signaled him, and helped him away from the bomb – brought the killer out into the open, too, even if no-one but Jowd saw them – but… Missile, you're good at bullets, right? Anything you can see that you can swap?"
"Not yet, but I bet we could make something! Maybe if we tip that over?"
-Was shot with a salt shaker. It knocked him out, then the auburn-haired killer moved his body closer to the bomb and Jowd died to the explosion.
"Well, that's not going to work. Even if we stop that, he's probably going to be severely injured. Salt shakers are not woolly hats. It's a shame no-one else is here to stop the killer from daring to get the gun out in the first place… but we're right in the back corner of the restaurant, and even Lynne breaking the lamps didn't bring anyone over."
"Can you go over there and attract someone while I swap Jowd?"
"Hm, maybe?"
-was pulled through spacetime with the noise of the fire alarm still ringing in his ears, and promptly shot dead.
"I think that did the opposite of attract people. They're all outside now."
"Yes, Missile, I know. I wanted to bring a waiter over, fake an order or something, but funnily enough I still can't read. Or write."
"I'd love to read!"
"Get Kamila to teach you, she'd love that… Hm, but the fire alarm startled everyone. Even the auburn-haired killer. I wonder if I can just…"
-stood up again right as the fire alarm went off, facing someone with a gun. Luckily, the would-be killer was just as startled as Jowd by the alarm, and Jowd took advantage of her disorientation to duck beneath another table and use it as a shield. In a moment, he was pulled through spacetime again, and while his enemy was looking where he had been Lynne (where did she come from?) threw the nearest object at her. Which was a salt shaker.
It wasn't enough. It didn't hit at all. The woman with the gun cried out in pain, but not from that – she stood with a bleeding leg, and with surprisingly steady hands took the shot. Bang, bang, bang. Neither man nor girl nor dog were fast enough to move.
"It almost worked!"
"Yeah. Almost. And now all three are dead. I guess you must have died earlier as well, seeing as we could do the rewind?" 'Unless spacetime is broken enough that it's just stuck me in this loop until I leave…'
"…I know swapping the bullet with a salt shaker didn't work earlier, but what if I do it now?"
"…Might take a few tries, but we'll give it a shot."
-Died.
-Died.
-Died.
"Nearly got it that time!"
"Sorry, I don't have your eye for timing."
-Died.
-and Jowd stood up again right as the fire alarm went off, facing someone with a gun. Luckily, the would-be killer was just as startled as Jowd by the alarm, and Jowd took advantage of her disorientation to duck beneath another table and use it as a shield. In a moment, he was pulled through spacetime again, and while his enemy was looking where he had been Lynne (where did she come from?) threw the nearest object at her. Which was a salt shaker.
Then in mid-air, it was a bullet. Not travelling at bullet speeds, but a bullet nonetheless, clattering to the ground. There was a cry, and a crash, and then Jowd's assassin went still.
There was a rattle from the area they'd fallen. A signal from Sissel? Jowd crept closer, taking a look at what had happened. The assassin had a major injury to their leg from what seemed to be a salt shaker, a gun in their hand, and had probably bashed their head when it happened as well. Had Sissel fired the gun from their hand, and then swapped the bullet with a salt shaker mid-air?
…since when could he do that? Since when could Sissel swap at all? Ghost powers did change over time, but… something about the hand that had pulled him through spacetime hadn't really felt like Sissel's at all.
Jowd had a lot of questions. But for now, he had an arrest to make.