The woman standing in front of them seemed like the kind of person who would put the "laughter" in slaughter. She rattled the cage with the ymbrynes inside and smirked in satisfaction as they crowed terrifiedly. (Y/N) watched Emma's hands begin to glow, but the woman only tsked and pointed at her henchmen, who had taken control of the ship's guns and were pointing them right at the peculiars. From their short distance away, (Y/N) could tell that their eyes were completely blank. Of course the wights would work with the Nazis.

    "Look at you two: Abraham's pitiful little grandchildren. I'm sure your grandfather would be utterly disappointed—no, revolted—to see what a waste his children's children have become. A waste of breath. A waste of talent. And a waste of power," she paused dramatically. "Speaking of, where's your sister, Miss (Y/L/N)?" she inquired with mock sympathy. "Did she get lost somewhere along the way? What a shame," her voice bled with sarcasm.

    "Who are you?" (Y/N) shouted, ignoring the twist of pain she felt at the mention of her sister.

    "Calling me Madame X will do for now," the woman replied. "I'm sure you'll come up with all sorts of names for me when I'm breaking all the bones in your body. People always talk when there's torture involved."

    I'm going to punch all of your teeth out, (Y/N) thought to the woman. She didn't have the chance to act on that thought because something dropped from the ship into the water. (Y/N) realized too late that more soldiers had been setting up an inflatable motor boat as the lady spoke, which they now used to reach the twins—who were being guarded fiercely by Bronwyn.

    "Don't bother putting up a fight," the crazed woman warned, gesturing towards the weaponry being pointed at the children. "It'll only delay the inevitable. Besides," she drew her gun, clicking the safety and aiming at the birds inside the cage. "I have weapons of my own, and I'm sure it would crush your little hearts to see your Headmistress' skull shatter to pieces."

    It didn't matter what she said: Bronwyn wasn't letting the twins go easily. She circled her arms around them protectively as the soldiers tried tearing the three apart. For the time being, the Nazi woman was taunting Bronwyn more than she was guarding the cage. Taking advantage of the distraction, (Y/N), having gotten some sort of a break, decided she was going to pull off an illusion. She motioned for Emma and Jacob to stay quiet and not attract attention, for as a famous French emperor once remarked: "Never interrupt your enemy when [she] is making a mistake."

    (Y/N) slid quietly into the water, pushing off the rocks and gliding as far as she could under the surface. Behind her, a not-quite-opaque image of herself stood staring at the twins with a shocked expression on her face. (Y/N) pulled herself up the submarine's grating and onto the deck where the ymbrynes were being held. At that moment, she let the illusion drop as she shoved Madame X into the sea, grabbing the bird cage from her as she fell. However, the cage wasn't latched properly and the door fell open, dropping one bird into the sea.

    Before (Y/N) could dive in after the ymbryne, a wight grabbed her by the hair, tossing her backward. "Hey!" (Y/N) shouted, blinding the man with whatever light she could summon. I'm seriously going to have to work out these peculiarity muscles if I want to survive another fight like this, (Y/N) thought before shoving the wight aside and picking up the bird cage. She hurled it across the water to Jacob and jumped into the ocean after the other bird.

    "Filth!" Madame X snarled, pointing her gun and aiming at (Y/N) the second she resurfaced. However, the pistol had gotten submerged along with her, and it made only a clicking sound before the woman threw it at (Y/N)'s head. It was easy enough to dodge, but Miss Peregrine (or Miss Avocet) continued screeching shrilly as Madame X pulled a gleaming dagger out of a pocket hidden underwater.

    "I wish I could say you're going to regret this," she told (Y/N) sadistically. "But I won't let you live long enough for that." She wound up to stab (Y/N), but a fireball (her new greatest fear after the library incident) soared toward her, forcing her to duck underwater.

    (Y/N) looked to see Emma launching pieces of burning driftwood at the space where Madame X had been. "Take that, you bastard! Give the ymbryne back!" she hollered fiercely, as she conjured more flames on her fingertips.

    (Y/N) turned to grab the bird out of the water, but found that she was no longer bobbing and flapping in place. She ducked underwater, trying to feel for feathers, hoping she wasn't too late. But when she resurfaced, she realized she was. Madame X held the bird in her fist, climbing into the motorboat along with the soldiers and the struggling twins. She climbed onto the deck and gestured to the gunners, who trained their weapons on (Y/N). Any hope she had of rescuing the twins disappeared, and she watched with horror as the Nazi soldiers shoved them inside the ship.

    "I still have the book!" (Y/N) shouted desperately. "I'll make sure this never happened. I'll make sure you never happened!"

    "Oh, dear child," the corrupted ymbryne chuckled. "No matter what you write in there, you can't erase what's already happened. You can't erase me, and I'll never give you a chance to steal these wonderful specimens back. You know," she gloated. "I was able to ruin your grandfather's life with just a small locator spell, forcing him to forever be a danger to his friends and family. You think I can't do the same to you?" She walked toward the submarine's hatch, her henchmen close behind. "Abraham was a pathetic little fool, and that's what killed him. You're no different—just ask your sister."

    With that, she dropped the soaked bird into one of the soldiers hands and climbed down into the ship. The last wight pulled the hatch down behind them, winking a colorless eye and sneering derisively. A whirring began and the U-boat sank back into the depths of the ocean. (Y/N) screamed furiously, smashing the water with her fists before swimming back to avoid the force of the water's displacement.

<><><><><><>

    Back on island, the other children asked loads of questions, some of which were answered by the others, and some of which could be answered just by looking in front of them. Miss Peregrine was fine, Miss Avocet was not. And neither was Millard. The twins were gone with the other ymbryne. Enoch and Fiona gave Millard some clothing to keep him from losing too much heat, but nobody—including (Y/N)—was able to convince him to visit the doctor and get stitches. Then he mentioned how the loop hadn't reset, and that's when everyone began to realize the gravity of their situation.

    "In any case," he added, "all the supplies I need are in the house. Just give me a bolt of Laudanum and swab the wound with alcohol. It's only the fleshy part anyway. In three days I'll be right as rain."

    But when Bronwyn pointed out that his wound was still bleeding, he only told her to tie the tourniquet tighter, which she did. At that point he gasped and fainted into her arms, and (Y/N) ran over, relieved to find that he was still breathing.

    "He's all right. Just blacked out is all," said Enoch to (Y/N). "He ain't as fit as he pretends to be."

    "What do we do now?" Claire asked.

    "Ask Miss Peregrine!" Olive said.

    "Right. Put her down so she can change back," said Enoch. "She can't very well tell us what to do while she's still a bird."

    After a few minutes of trying different things and waiting for her to change back, everyone stood around her, puzzled.

    "Maybe she's too tired and cold," Claire said, and everyone agreed to go back to the house, treat Millard, and hope that with some time to rest, both the headmistress and her loop would return to normal.

    They walked back in single file along the forest path, trying (but failing) to ignore the bomb holes and smoke. When Enoch's foot hit a half charred brick, panic really set in, and the children rushed to the house. There, they found that the last bomb had indeed fallen, but instead of assuming its position over the finger of Adam—Fiona's topiary shrub—it had exploded, leaving a crater in the ground and destroying one corner of the house.

    Miss Peregrine leapt off of Fiona's head (where she had been perched) and began running around and squawking. No matter how hard she tried turning back, she couldn't, making it impossible to figure out why the loop hadn't reset.

    When Emma and Jacob explained how the wights planned to use the ymbrynes to re-create the procedure designed to make them immortal—the one that turned them into hollowgasts in the first place—everyone gasped, realizing that they had to try stopping them at all costs.

    "What's more," (Y/N) added. "They have the twins, and who knows what they'll use them for. We have to find them." She didn't bother explaining how their seeming immortality would fit perfectly with the wights' plan—not when there was already so much to worry about. She worried that Olive and Claire might never sleep again.

    "I know where they're going," Horace said quietly from the ground in his cross-legged position. "I don't know the name," he said, "but I've seen it."

    "Then draw it," Jake said.

    Horace stood and drew on the house's brick wall with ashes. It was a prison with a barbed wire fence and some sort of snowy background. It had a dark forest to one side, and Horace claimed that it was somewhere cold, but he couldn't elaborate any more on what he saw in his vision.

    Emma and Enoch (and the others) began a huge argument about whether or not they should go. What would they be risking, with their home destroyed and their ymbryne in need of a healer? How would they be able to adapt to the new world outside the loop? Was it just a matter of time before even more wights came after them?

    Finally, Millard woke up, and surprisingly, agreed that they should take the risk. After all, their only alternative was to just hope that things got better, as if that would do much. It was decided that everyone would pack up, take some boats from the docks, and leave in the morning. So Emma and Jacob went into the house to find a way to follow the wights, and they came back with alcohol, Laudanum and proper bandages for Millard. Emma opened The Map of Days, she and Millard briefly explaining the concept of leapfrogging through loops—time travelling, if you may.

   "So this place," Jacob said, pointing to Horace's ash painting on the wall. "We wouldn'tjust have to figure out where it is, but when, too?"

    "I'm afraid so," Millard replied. "And if Miss Avocet is indeed being held by wights, who are notoriously adept at leapfrogging, then it's extremely likely that the place she and the other ymbrynes are being taken is somewhere in the past. That will make them all the more difficult to find, and getting there all the more dangerous. The locations of historical loops are well known to our enemies, who tend to lurk near the entrances."

    Jacob announced that he was going to join the peculiars, but after some brief celebration, Emma had to warn him that if he chose to follow, the loop would close behind him and he might never get to return home. So he walked away into the forest to think. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain, but for everyone, the thought of leaving was so difficult.

    "What about you, (Y/N)?" Olive asked timidly. "Are you going to stay?"

    (Y/N) thought. For her, choosing to stay with Millard was a choice she knew she'd never regret, and the fact that he refused to try convincing her made her want to be with him even more. But still, being forced away from her family, always on the run, probably facing a miserable voyage...it was hard.

    "If it 'elps any, mate," Enoch began. "Your paren's saw your sister ge' killed in fron' of them. An' you were righ' there with 'er."

    "Enoch!" Brownyn gasped, horrified.

    "Like I said, I was jus' tryin to 'elp," he shrugged, looking at the ground.

    (Y/N) took a deep breath. "He's right," she sighed. "They know I'm peculiar, and they saw me do nothing to save my sister. At the very least, they'll put me in some sort of insane asylum or government compound. More likely, they'll put me in jail," she reasoned. "I'll stay."

    She hugged Millard as best as she could and smiled hopefully at the others, who cheered just as heartily as when Jake decided on staying.

<><><><><><>

    While Jacob said goodbye to his father, (Y/N) walked back into her room to retrieve The Book. It was the only thing she needed, and she left right after getting it, despite the twinge of guilt she felt at not saying goodbye to her parents. It would hurt too much, and Jake's dad could fill them in on whatever 'crazy' thing her cousin told him.

    She helped buy some modern pain medication for Millard's shoulder, and met Emma coming towards them on the sidewalk. "We're going to help Jacob," she explained. "Did you want to come?"

    "No," (Y/N) replied. "You go," she pushed Millard gently forward. "I just realized I should pack a few of my belongings."

    They entered the Priest Hole and (Y/N) pulled some clothes out of her suitcase, choosing the most modern-looking ones to leave with her parents. She repacked her suitcase and walked into Elise's room, crying slightly as she packed her sister's things and left them near the door. Noticing a pen on the nightstand, (Y/N) picked it up and opened the book to the last page, where her sister's handwriting still stood. No matter what happens, reality shifts so that (Y/N) and Elise don't disappear from the story.

    She sighed, the pen hovering over the page. It would be easy, so easy, to write her sister back into existence. She could walk right in, punch (Y/N) in the arm, and laugh at her for taking so long. But Madame X had said that the past couldn't be rewritten, and (Y/N) was sure that even if Elise did come back, she wouldn't be the same. Like in "The Monkey's Paw." Her hand trembled, but she put the pen cap back on and dropped it back on the nightstand.

    She heard voices in the next room over, and decided it would be a good time to head back to the loop. She left her luggage near one of the boats and walked back into the loop. She stood in front of the house, which had stopped smoldering except in one spot, on which she threw the book her grandfather had sent her to find. She was sure it could help her get out of so many problems in the future, that when they fixed Miss P. they could ask her all about it, but she knew that no matter what, the temptation to bring her sister and grandfather back would be too great. She knew in her heart that wasn't the reason he sent her after the book anyway. Besides, whatever challenges the peculiars faced in the future, they would face them together. No book could make up for their camaraderie.

    She walked inside, looking for one last thing within the wreck.

    When the other peculiars returned, Millard explained they had stopped to engrave their name in the cairn alongside a list of all the other loop-owners from the past. Then Bronwyn carried Victor out to be buried in his bed, and he was gently lowered into Adam's crater. Enoch left him his best clay soldier to look out for him, and Fiona began re-growing the shrubbery.

    "Wait," (Y/N) said, pulling out of her jacket a half-finished sketch of the tabby that she had made in one of Millard's notebooks. "For my sister," she said as she laid it down over the half-filled grave. Fiona nodded and the shrubs continued growing again.

    (Y/N) hugged Bronwyn, and they both sobbed, but only allowed themselves a few moments of mourning before they packed up along with the others. Millard squeezed her hand comfortingly once or twice, reminding her that she still had others she cared for, and who cared for her back.

    Once everyone had finished collecting their souvenirs of sorts, the peculiars rounded up and headed toward the docks, blissfully ignored by the villagers. As the last box was loaded onto the ship, (Y/N) and Jacob looked out to the ocean. (Y/N) stood pondering the empty space in her bag where The Book could've been, and while Jake knew nothing about it, it made her think of something.

    "You know," she told him. "Grandpa Abe sent Elise and I here on a mission of sorts. I suspect he did something of the sort for you."

    He nodded.

    "I thought I knew what he wanted from me, but now I realize it was something bigger than that. He gave us these missions because he knew it would bring us here at the same time. He was protecting us—his grandchildren—because he knew that peculiars need to stick together."

    "I miss him," Jake said, struggling like her just to breathe normally.

    "Me too," (Y/N) said. "But we're about to embark on a journey that would make him so proud, no matter what that stupid Nazi lady thinks."

    "Yeah," he laughed.

    When the others finished rearranging and even throwing things off the ship, Emma asked for a speech, but nobody had the words to say what everyone felt. So Enoch held up Miss Peregrine's cage and she let out a great screeching cry. Everyone answered with their own cry, both a victory yell and a lament, for everything lost and yet to be gained.

    They pushed off the docks, three boats between the eleven of them. Watching the coast recede behind them served only as a reminder at what was, so (Y/N) looked ahead. Despite the battleships lining the horizon, there was hope. For the ymbrynes. For the twins. For the future.