Game Changer

As a girl, Ash goes by Ashley. Layton, who is her boyfriend, checks on her the next day and stays over at her house to keep her company. Ashley reflects on her memories of her relationship with him combined with Ash’s memories. She realizes that Layton’s control and possessiveness manifest in subtle, complex ways.

Ashley visits the Edwards—who are now sextuplets—and finds that they have ostracized the fifth one for training Ash to create a so-called perfect universe. In fact, a truly peaceful world would be one with no life on Earth, so Ash could have erased all humanity. It was mere intuition, the Edwards suggest, that kept Ash from making that mistake, hence the ominous feeling from just before the shift. The Edwards have now elected a new dominant personality, and this Edward has given up on Ashley—he instructs her to leave the universe as it is now. When Ashley threatens not to, noting that the Edwards won’t harm her, the lead Edward notes that while they don’t interfere in that manner, other humans may be perfectly willing to do her harm. Later, Ashley and Katie decide to visit Leo, who is still in jail.