Mithias froze. For the first time, Jack saw the look of true fear in the vampire's eyes. It made him seem quite human. Mithais shook his head slowly in sheer disbelief. His lips parted absent mindedly and his eyes shifted over the table as he mentally scrambled.

He reiterated Jack's words in his mind. 

"...a weapon that will wipe out the entirety of America... would slaughter millions of innocent humans..." 

Mithias leaned back in his seat. An almost trembling hand ran over his forehead, gathering the hair back over his head slowly in a nervous gesture. "A nuclear holocaust... " He said. Mithias didn't need to ask any questions. He knew Jack had done it, regardless of how, and wouldn't be bluffing. "I can't believe how much we've underestimated you." The vampire looked at him in horror and strangely also disappointment. Jack had pinned him. He wanted Mithias to kill Magnus in exchange for the immediate survival of the world, leaving him no choice. There was no way that Mithias could decline against such a massive threat. 

The one option, the only option, to prevent ethier of the two choices presented to Mithias, was to kill Jack at this very moment. Mithias lifted his head and glared at the wicked old man: smug, smiling, gloating in the revelation of his grand design. There were cameras at all angles, trap doors in the ceiling, drones ready to appear and subdue a vampire in a heartbeat... Even with his speed, Mithias probably wouldn't make it across the table before he was shot, netted, or ran into some crazy forcefield. He was fully expected to attack, and he knew it. His heart pounded furiously inside the cage of his chest. 

But there were things about vampires that even Jack still did not understand.

In that critical moment, completely unexpectedly, a voice rang in Mithias' mind like a godsend. 

(weird characters)"Hello again big brother. How are you feeling? Cooped up with the Titanic Mind must be tiresome. Have you uncovered any lines in the script he has written for us all?"(more weird characters, damn you)

Mithias dropped his gaze, appearing to struggle with the idea of attacking Jack straight out. "No..." He placed his hands flat on the table, closing his eyes in apparent pain and denial. Inwardly, his mind latched on to Martin with intense desperation. 

"Martin!" Mithias didn't even remember what Martin had asked him as he pleaded desperately in his mind, but he knew his brother had untold psychic power. Even reaching him from vast distances was a spectacular feat. "Martin, I need your aid this very instant! Please, you must trust me. I need you to use your power to boost my pyrokinesis. Right now. Everything you've got! The fate of the world is literally counting on it. Please help me. Please do this with me..." Mithias opened his eyes, which now bore a glow the color of fire deep within. He beheld Jack at the other end of the table, still consumed with pride and an eagerness to see what Mithias would try. 

Mithias remained seated. "You leave me no choice, Stine. I'm sorry, but this is going to be extremely painful for you." He seemed genuinely saddened, and Jack could feel an unexplained warmth starting up within his own body. "I will mourn for you, just as I said I would." The glow in Mithias' eyes grew brighter, and the heat in Jack's belly rose sharply, painfully. There was no escape. Mithias was cooking Jack from the inside out.