What Exactly Does Regret Mean?

Her bunk was cramped, but Jinx Bubastis had been in space so long that she felt uncomfortable in an open bed. Her quarters were orderly, yet cramped -- she used what little free room there was to store the cases for her recording equipment.

She rolled out of bed at lights-on, pulled on a robe over her nightshirt, and sat down at a table with a mirror and double-headed sonic brush. Jinx stuck the small head into her mouth and started to clean her teeth.

She saw Peter in the mirror, sitting on the case of her psychogram. She retrieved the remote control for the psychogram and started recording. "Good morning. You learn irritatingly quickly."

"You have to let me out."

"The way out is easy, but you're not going to like it. Let me finish brushing my teeth." Jinx took a swig of water between her cheek and gum and stuck the brush into the accumulated water. She swallowed and entered a trance, joining Peter in her mindscape.

The changes were subtle, but Jinx noticed them instantly. Instead of a dimensionless white space, Peter's prison had a clearly defined floor.

She looked at him, obviously puzzled. Peter explained, "I tried to reconfigure the environment into something I could work with. I've blasted my way out of extradimensional prisons before."

Jinx was agitated.

"Unfortunately, you stopped breathing for about a minute after I put this environment together. I didn't want to take any chances--" Peter seemed hopeless.

"You had the chance to kill me in my sleep and you didn't? Why?" Jinx was angry.

"Because it would be wrong." Peter seemed strengthened by saying this.

"I beat you up, tore out your throat, ate your soul and damned you to hell. I think you have the right to take vengeance." Jinx sneered.

"Then two people die instead of one." Peter stood his ground.

Jinx became angry. "I'm not a person, I'm a monster! Are you such a self-righteous moron you can't even pretend you value life?"

"I do value life--"

"If you aren't willing or able to exercise your rights, you might as well not have any. It's an empty pretense if you don't follow through."

"You want me to kill you?"

"I'd like to see you try."

"No. No, you seriously wouldn't. Because I can." A touch of fear crept into Peter's voice.

Jinx paused for a moment and felt the air surrounding her. Peter had bound vast amounts of ectoplasm together into a crude parody of matter. A rapid state transition could blast both of them apart.

"Like I said, there's another way out."

"You said I wouldn't like it." Peter was calm.

"You won't. Somewhere here is a threshold. You'll find it when you can imagine a world without you, but I very much doubt you are mentally and spiritually equipped to concieve of a world without your petty moral certainties--"

"What, over there?" Peter pointed to a grey curtain that stretched away in both directions into the ghostly mists.

Caught in the middle of her stream of invective, Jinx rallied in an instant. "You suck."

"I can't cross. I tried that first." Peter seemed nervous.

Jinx's momentum, first slowed, now stopped. She paused for a moment, and contemplated the situation, recognizing the stand-off. "It takes most people a long time before they can. Something's keeping you here."

"I... I have some unfinished business." Peter looked at Jinx.

"What?" Jinx was curious.

"I'm worried about the attack on Sedgewick Station..." Peter seemed uncomfortable, and uncertain how to continue.

Jinx tried for a few seconds to keep a straight face, but eventually burst out into laughter.

"You've got to be kidding me! You seriously think Team Evil's ill-conceived plan is going to mean a damned thing in the grand scheme of things? I think you're taking show-biz a little too seriously, man..."

"That's the thing. The scale of the operation was too large. They must have had some kind of logistical support--"

"Uh, yeah. That was my job. Seriously, if Demonslayer had anything planned after the fighters launched, she sure didn't tell anybody about it."

"But... why bother, then? Are you sure she had no plan?"

"Peter, it's... it's just a game. They blow stuff up, get a subcontractor to rebuild it -- it keeps the wheels turning. It doesn't mean a damend thing in the end. This time, they got rid of a bunch of bums without paying for relocation and rehab. It's not real."

"How can you be so sure, Jinx? I think your cynicism blinds you--"

"Lucky for me you're a rational being. I think I can prove your concerns unfounded. Just one little piece of evidence that it's all a scam, and you can go."

Jinx shook her head dismissively and disappeared.

She sat down on her bunk, looked in the mirror, and saw no Peter. She smiled, and paused the psychogram.