Oliver stared in disbelief at his parents. Teddy had the same messy hair as him. Maggie’s dark eyes were the exact same shade as his. He was a perfect combination of them both.
He looked over his shoulder at his friends. They were all staring in disbelief too.
If his friends could see them, then that must mean they were real. Not a vision or a dream. They were definitely really there. He’d not made them up.
Still, he needed to ask.
“Are you real?”
His mom and dad exchanged a loving look, then turned to face their son, tears glittering in their eyes, and nodded.
A surge of joy swept over Oliver.
Before he even had time to think he ran for them. They both opened up their arms and he fell into them, feeling his body enveloped in their warmth.
Now there was no denying it. They were real. Really real. Not appearing to him in a dream or a vision but physically in front of him, physically holding him how he’d always longed for them to.
Oliver nuzzled into them. “How are you here?”
“We came back for you,” Mom said, her voice a sob.
“We always hoped you’d find you way back to Leonardo,” Dad replied.
“And that once you did, we’d be able to come for you,” Mom finished.
Oliver straightened out of their embrace. His mom wiped away the tear falling from his cheek with her thumb, in just the way he always imagined a mother would. That simple gesture meant the world to him.
“It’s time,” Dad said, planting a firm hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “Will you come home with us?”
Oliver’s heart leaped. His parents were offering him the one thing he’d always wanted. A home. A safe home with people who loved him.
But a horrible dawning realization overcame him. He stepped back. His father’s hand fell from his shoulder. He saw the frown appear between the man’s eyebrows.
“Oliver?”
Though it killed Oliver to do it, he shook his head.
“I can’t,” he said.
From behind him, he heard his friends let out stunned gasps and murmurs.
Hazel’s voice rose above the din. “Oliver, you need to leave with them. It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
But Oliver shook his head again, this time more firmly.
“Esther,” he told his friends. “The Elixir.”
“We can deliver it!” Ralph protested.
“Please, Oliver,” Simon begged. “We’ll finish the mission for you.”
Still, Oliver kept shaking his head. They didn’t understand what he meant. They had not been there when Leonardo told him of the sacrifice he had to make in order for the Elixir to work.
“The Elixir feeds off emotion,” he told them. “It can only work if I sacrifice something. Something intangible that I have always wanted.” He glanced back to his parents. “You.”
Maggie’s features dropped. She looked devastated, like someone was ripping her infant son from her arms all over again. She grabbed Teddy’s arm for support, and he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her from dropping.
“There may never be another time,” he told Oliver, his voice etched with pain.
“I know,” Oliver replied, hearing his own crack. “But I have to say no. This is the sacrifice I have to make in order to save Esther.”
Maggie broke down sobbing. “Please, son. Ever since we were forced to leave you here, all I’ve wanted is to have you home.”
That’s when Oliver realized. There was more to his sacrifice that just giving up his parents. He had to give them away to another.
“There’s a parallel Oliver,” he said, his chest pounding with pain. “He’s the son you can take with you.”
His friends’ murmuring protests grew even louder.
“Another Oliver?” Maggie asked through her tears and stifled sobs.
Oliver saw the glint of hope in her eyes. It was all the confirmation he needed that he was making the right decision.
Teddy looked confused. “There is a parallel Oliver here? Where?”
“It’s true,” Leonardo said, speaking up for the first time. “He is in hiding to stop the universe from becoming unstable. But there is an Oliver here for you. If you let this one go, you will not be giving up your son.”
Slowly, his parents seemed to understand what they were being told.
“As soon as I’ve left this dimension,” Oliver added, “he’ll be able to come to you. But you have to let me go.”
“Our son is coming home?” Maggie asked.
Teddy grabbed her hand. “Yes.” A smile spread on his lips. “Yes. He’s coming home.”
Oliver felt his friends crowd in behind him, offering the support he so desperately needed at this moment of great personal sacrifice. He was giving another version of himself the thing he wanted more than anything in the world. Would there ever be another chance for him?
Just then, a second portal suddenly appeared.
“It’s Professor Amethyst’s!” Ralph cried.
Sure enough, the same red and gold portal that Ralph and Simon had come through began to swell in front of them. It could not have come at a better time. The sand in the scepter had almost run out entirely.
The portal grew, making wind rush around the room. It was in the exact same spot where it had appeared before. Oliver felt a great sense of relief that they had not headed for the portal in the bell tower. This one would take them right to the place Simon and Ralph had entered through.
“He opened it again!” Simon exclaimed with relief. “Come on, let’s go before it collapses.”
Just then, a bang startled Oliver.
“What was that?” he said.
The black-haired Obsidian boy began to laugh evilly. “That is the dark army,” he said with relish. “They’ve found you. They’ve come to kill you.”
He looked thoroughly pleased with himself. But Oliver raised an eyebrow.
“We’ll be gone,” he said. “The dark army will have to kill you instead.”
The boy’s face went as white as a sheet. The two girls began to wail and cry. Oliver knew he shouldn’t feel glad but the poetic justice was satisfying.
The dark army began to claw at the other side of the magic wall. They were going to claw their way in again.
“We have to leave now,” Hazel said hurriedly.
Professor Amethyst’s portal was now full sized, big enough for them to escape through.
“What about you?” Oliver cried, looking at Leonardo.
“I will escape with your parents through the other portal. I will bring Gianni and my apprentice boy, too. So don’t worry. Just go. We can’t escape until you’ve gone.”
Oliver nodded. Leonardo was right. His parents wouldn’t leave without their son. And the other Oliver couldn’t show himself until Oliver himself had gone. He had to leave now or risk the dark army getting inside before Leonardo, Gianni, his parents, and his parallel self could get away.
Feeling a grief like none he’d ever experienced, Oliver looked at his parents, trying to commit every molecule of them to memory. It was the first time he’d seen them in the flesh rather than in dreams or visions, and their solidness made them seem so much more real. It made it even harder to leave them.
“I love you,” he told them.
“We love you,” they both said, huddling together, wiping away their tears.
“Thank you,” Mom added. “For sacrificing yourself in this way.”
Oliver swallowed the painful lump in his throat. The enormity of the sacrifice he was making stabbed him like a knife through the heart. He didn’t think he’d ever recover from this. He would always feel that hollow empty space in his heart that he could have filled with the love of his parents and yet had chosen not to, for Esther.
That’s what he had to focus on now. Esther. Her life.
Oliver moved out of the warm embrace. He looked back at Gianni and gave him a nod of gratitude. The boy returned the gesture.
Next, Oliver did the same for Leonardo, communicating his thanks through his eyes. Leonardo returned the gesture with a humble nod.
Then, Oliver gazed at his parents. Though he wished to stay in that moment forever, his eyes locked with theirs, he knew that couldn’t happen. This may well be the last time he ever saw his parents.
Without saying another word, he turned and leapt into the red swirling light.