Editing Jack Slash (section)

===[[The Ice Breaks]]===
When [[Limerick|Five]] returned to [[Earth Bet]] after [[Titan Fortuna]] crumbled away, he visited Jack Slash's time loop and peeled away the [[containment foam]].<ref>The foam peeled away as the spray ran down the invisible wall of the warped timespace, and Five could see the man’s face.<br><br>Jacob, apparently.  Jack Slash. - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref> However, the man inside this time loop was no longer Jack as he lost his mind and could not communicate.<ref name="II20.e3 eBroken">Five stared at the man, watching his head move, eyes blinking slowly, face contorting, before everything snapped back to its prior position.  The light was bright, but it wasn’t the eyes that had to adjust.  It was the mind, which would tick forward unimpeded toward a time when this landmass was underwater.<br><br>Except… there was nothing there.<br><br>Broken, cringing, inarticulate, the man struggled, wincing as an invisible blade dragged across his midsection.  The blade was withdrawn, time passed, and the man, no longer Jacob or Jack or anything resembling either, was cut open again.<br><br>There were one or two moments where the roving gaze of the man fell on Five’s own eyes.  Locked gaze.<br><br>''I know you'', he thought.  ''If there was anything there, I would see it.  A microscopic dilation of the pupils.  Something.  And if you don’t recognize me…''<br><br>''There’s no point.  No words that can be exchanged.''<br><br>Dissatisfied, Five turned away. - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref> Jack was in agony and, at one point, kept trying to crack his head open to no avail.<ref name="II20.e3 eAgony">The man within the time effect writhed, hands clutching at his opening stomach wound as if he could stop it from happening.  He staggered, and hurled himself against the invisible wall, cracking his head open.  It was quick and violent enough that Five was startled.<br><br>The time loop carried the man back to his prior iteration.<br>[...]<br>The man flung himself into the wall again.  Cracking his head open.  Five didn’t jump, this time.  He waited for the man to cycle back to awareness. - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref> He was not in a state suitable for becoming a [[Titan]] or a broken [[Entity]].<ref>'''Beehunter:''' Contessa's mind was broken by the shard which seems to be the standard outcome of titanification. What little remained of her, when roused, started drilling a 'message' into the earth right at the end.<br><br>My theory is that Jack's broken mind, which has been chilling with his shard for a long, long time, might be in a similar state by this point. Barely able to communicate, a mind that might be as close to a Titanised one as you can get without actually titanising...we're reminded of this within the chapter. It also seems Jack is reacting to certain trigger words with feeble attempts at communication.<br>[...]<br>Does a "broken cycle" mean that Broadcast has been sending out an SoS for the last few weeks into space that only Jack and Contessa can fathom?<br><br>Is that why Jack stared at the sun? Is a new, broken entity on the way?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Nope, sorry.<br><br>Five says he'd see a glimmer of something if there was anything to it, and he doesn't. So... you gotta cover that base better if you want to theorize. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived [https://spacebattles.com/posts/70243766 on Spacebattles]</ref> 

Thanks to [[Golem]], the [[Wardens]] are fully aware of Jack's secondary power.<ref name="II12.x e1">The paper-pushers wouldn’t get it.  They’d talk about budgets and hint at budget cuts, and blame would be shifted, and it would be a repeat of prior engagements against Jack Slash all over again.<br><br>But they had the boy who had beaten Jack Slash in the Wardens.  Jack Slash had had an unknown factor giving him an edge.  His power gave him the upper hand against any parahuman, and his ‘Slaughterhouse Nine’ made it next to impossible for civilians to get to him. - [[Heavens 12.x]]</ref><ref>Deep down, I don’t think my father wanted to defeat you, or he might have tried.  Good thing, too, because those instincts of yours… they’re something more, according to the after-action reports in the Wardens’ files.  He would have died trying.” - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref> [[Limerick|Five]] says they are not going to let him out of the time loop;<ref>Five turned, and walked back over to the man.<br><br>“I don’t know if you heard,” he said.  “They’re going to kill you.”<br><br>The man briefly met his eyes, still too lost in his own head to recognize anything, or respond to anything.<br><br>“Breaking time effects apparently creates a ninety-four point one percent chance that the person or people within trigger or second trigger the instant they’re out.  We’re not seeing many more broken triggers, but they’re still wary, still making sure they can communicate with the person on the other side and prepare them.”<br><br>He shifted his weight a bit.  The wind was blowing through the alley, and it felt nice.  It was cool, with what would be the first hints of spring, but Earth Bet wasn’t really in a state for ‘spring’.<br><br>“They’re not inclined to let you out, Jacob. - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref> he calculates that in seven weeks and three days, they will collapse the time effect and kill Jack in the process.<ref name="II20.e3 eCollapse">They intend to collapse the effect and kill you in the process.  They’ve already started elsewhere.  You’re second to last, and at the rate they’re going, accounting for travel time, it will be another seven weeks, and three days.  In the meantime, you get your ruins.  You get your blood.  You get to be king of your own desolate little world.” - [[Last 20.e3]]</ref>

Months after his scheduled death, [[Tattletale]] confirmed all [[Titans]] are gone and did not mention Jack when she discussed current villainous threats; he is presumably deceased.<ref>[[Last 20.end]]</ref>