Jack and Talonor's wedding crisis was a temporal and personal rupture caused when their vow-sealing kiss split Present-Day Jack into two instances. One remained at the wedding. The other was placed into Old Jack's dying body, received approximately five months of Old Jack's catastrophic memories, and was named New Jack by Moonshade.
New Jack returned to the wedding and impersonated Present-Day Jack. By concealing both his identity and the fatal stakes, he obtained Talonor's uninformed declaration of love. The declaration selected New Jack as the continuing Jack and caused reality to erase Present-Day Jack. Talonor later uncovered the deception and chose continuing Jack again with full knowledge and boundaries. That later choice repaired their ongoing marriage but did not make the original selection informed or restore the erased Jack.
¶ Background
Inside the temporal anomaly, the younger Talonor kissed Old Jack after learning about Old Jack's catastrophic survival timeline. The kiss gave Old Jack love and forgiveness before his death, but it also created a future that had not previously existed.
Years later, Present-Day Jack and Talonor reached their wedding. John Kaiden walked Jack down the aisle, Chlo participated in the ceremony, and the couple exchanged vows. Their kiss intersected with the earlier anomaly event and produced an identity fracture.
¶ The Split
The wedding kiss generated two instances from Present-Day Jack. One remained in the wedding setting and retained the life he had just lived. The other appeared inside Old Jack's body immediately before the Chloinite self-destruct.
The displaced duplicate retained Present-Day Jack's memories and identity while also receiving roughly five months of Old Jack's survival memories. He awakened amid Old Mistress's countdown, canceled the explosion, and encountered Moonshade. Moonshade called this combined configuration New Jack.
New Jack later restarted the countdown and escaped through Moonshade's wormhole. Old Mistress remained aboard and died in the resulting destruction.
¶ The Choice
Moonshade brought New Jack back to the wedding and framed Talonor's selection as the means of stabilizing reality. Whichever Jack Talonor chose would remain; the other would be erased.
New Jack did not disclose that he was the duplicate in Old Jack's body or that Present-Day Jack's existence was at stake. He impersonated Present-Day Jack, seduced Talonor under that identity, and sought a declaration of love. Talonor said that he loved him without knowing that two distinct Jacks existed or that his words would kill one of them.
Reality selected New Jack and erased Present-Day Jack. Present-Day Jack did not consent, volunteer, or surrender his life. New Jack became the continuing Jack and was ordinarily known simply as Jack afterward.
¶ Aftermath
Continuing Jack carried overlapping memories, trauma, migraines, and unstable behavior into the marriage. He initially benefited from concealing the crisis. Shared memories with Present-Day Jack did not make the deception harmless or eliminate the erased instance's personhood.
Talonor later found photographic evidence showing two Jacks at the wedding. He recovered the hidden conflict and recognized that his original declaration had been manipulated. He withdrew and required continuing Jack to acknowledge both the deception and Present-Day Jack's loss.
¶ Informed Renewal
Talonor eventually chose continuing Jack again after learning the relevant history. He called him Jack Plus, recognizing the shared life, Old Jack's additional trauma, and everything the continuing person had become.
The renewed choice established consent for the relationship going forward. It did not retroactively authorize the wedding deception, erase Talonor's violation, or resurrect Present-Day Jack.
¶ Participants
- Talonor Kaiden
- Present-Day Jack
- New Jack / continuing Jack
- Old Jack, through body and inherited memories
- Moonshade
- Old Mistress
¶ Significance
The crisis establishes that common memories do not automatically make two simultaneous instances one person. It also separates love from informed consent: New Jack's fear and love explain his conduct, but neither gave him the right to choose for Talonor or Present-Day Jack.
¶ Appearances
- Starship Dominatrix — Jack and Talonor's Wedding Crisis appears in this work.
- Starship Dominatrix: Inheritance — Jack and Talonor's Wedding Crisis appears in this work.
- Starship Dominatrix: Flesh and Steel — Jack and Talonor's Wedding Crisis appears in this work.
- Starship Dominatrix: Apotheosis — Jack and Talonor's Wedding Crisis appears in this work.
¶ See Also
- New Jack — New Jack appears in the documented history of Jack And Talonor's Wedding Crisis; New Jack is a temporal duplicate of Present-Day Jack created when Jack and Talonor's wedding kiss fractured reality.
- Present-Day Jack — Present-Day Jack appears in the documented history of Jack And Talonor's Wedding Crisis; Present-Day Jack was the continuing Jack Kaiden who survived the events of Starship Dominatrix and Inheritance, accepted Talonor's proposal, and reached their wedding four years later.
- Old Jack — Old Jack appears in the documented history of Jack And Talonor's Wedding Crisis; Old Jack was a future or alternate instance of Jack Kaiden who became trapped with the Dominatrix inside a temporal anomaly.
- Old Mistress — Old Mistress appears in the documented history of Jack And Talonor's Wedding Crisis; The Mistress instance who accompanies Old Jack inside the temporal anomaly and remains aboard the doomed Old Dominatrix.
- John Kaiden — John Kaiden appears in the documented history of Jack And Talonor's Wedding Crisis; John Gideon Kaiden is a human Resistance leader, combat engineer, military officer, father of Jack and Yvonne Kaiden, partner of Una, and later President of Earth.
- Moonshade — Moonshade appears in the documented history of Jack And Talonor's Wedding Crisis; Moonshade is a Maitdiné keeper of time, Talonorium attunement figure, architect of the New Jack resolution, and officiant of the Great Healing.
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