That's as regretful as Owen gets without exploding into a ball of rage so Jack accepts Owen's breeze past without questioning it. He holds up a hand as if Owen has reminded him of something. "I've heard something similar to this before. Crystallization is actually an immune response to try to keep the calamity from spreading further." Jack snaps his fingers as he realizes it. "Crystal Stasis, somebody called it the same thing. We get turned into Crystal when we die to keep us from contaminating the cycle of souls on this planet."

"Like when we went back in time," Jack nods at K'pandolu. He looks at Owen sheepishly. "Long story, all my fault. Point is, nothing killed us. We ended up in Crystal because we weren't supposed to be there. It was the planet's natural way of keeping us from interfering with the timeline. The Crystal isn't the infection. It's not the Calamity. It's the immune response to the Calamity."

Jack looks up seriously at Owen. "And you can get an injection of outside antibodies to help you fight an infection," Jack waves to indicate himself and K'Pandolu and Owen. "But those are supposed to bolster your natural antibodies. The people that belong here on Crystallis."

Jack's face falls as he comes to the point that he hadn't wanted to bring up. "The city is empty. The world, it's the same? The cycle failed to save the people of Crystallis, so there's nothing left to fight back with?"