Blackgaard's Revenge

Blackgaard demands that Whit enter the Imagination Station. Connie blames herself for leaving Aubrey alone, but Whit reminds her that the program could not have physically forced the girl inside; Blackgaard persuaded Aubrey to choose it. A monitor shows that her ability to reason is still active, though it is steadily weakening as his influence grows.

Simply pulling Aubrey from the machine or cutting the power might harm her mind, and it would not undo the lies she now believes. Eugene proposes using the station to make her fall asleep within the simulation, then suggesting that her encounter with Blackgaard has only been a nightmare. While Eugene calculates whether the procedure is safe, Whit prepares another plan. Connie receives the most important assignment she can carry out: pray.

Inside the program, Blackgaard lets Aubrey use his vortex to visit New Year's Eve in Times Square and famous moments from the ancient and modern worlds. She sees Greek philosophers, a deadly spectacle at the Roman Colosseum, the debate over American independence, Theodore Roosevelt's charge up San Juan Hill, the Pilgrims' arrival, Columbus's voyage, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. The sights delight her until she asks to witness the crucifixion of Jesus.

Blackgaard immediately closes the portal and dismisses the crucifixion as a myth. Aubrey objects that she cannot decide what she believes unless she is allowed to investigate for herself. His refusal exposes a limit hidden beneath all his promises of knowledge and freedom. She insists on returning to that moment, while his friendly mask begins to slip.

Eugene activates the sleep procedure, and Aubrey suddenly grows drowsy. Blackgaard recognizes the attack and threatens to send a dangerous electrical charge through her body unless Whit stops. Unwilling to risk Aubrey's life, Whit abandons the plan. Blackgaard then insists that the only remaining way to face him is for Whit to enter the machine personally.

After Whit agrees, Blackgaard tells Aubrey that Whit has tried to hurt her. Yet Aubrey is beginning to question him, for his accusations do not fit the man she knows. Blackgaard reveals the true purpose of the vortex: he intends to imprint his memory and personality onto Aubrey's brain. He believes this will free him from the computer and allow him to continue living through her.

Aubrey refuses to surrender her identity. Blackgaard first mocks her supposedly dull life, then drops all pretense and drags her toward the portal. At that moment, Whit appears and offers himself in her place. Blackgaard accepts because he has counted on Whit's willingness to sacrifice himself for Aubrey. He releases her and leads Whit into the vortex.

As the transfer begins, Blackgaard boasts that he has found eternal life without God. Instead, something within Whit's form attacks the corrupt program, and both figures disappear. Aubrey emerges believing that Whit has died to save her, until the real Whit speaks from beside Connie and Eugene.

The Whit who entered the station was a computer-generated likeness carrying a special antivirus program. When Blackgaard tried to transfer himself into it, he opened his own code to the very force designed to destroy it. Whit and Eugene could not be certain the plan would work, but they understood Blackgaard well enough to anticipate his hunger for another person's life.

Whit assures Aubrey that Blackgaard never discovered a way to live forever; his procedure would only have seriously injured her. Human ingenuity cannot replace God's plan, and eternal life cannot be seized through a machine or stolen from someone else. The Blackgaard program is now completely destroyed, finally ending the threat left behind by the man whose ambition had brought so much suffering to Odyssey.