We start off in the lighthouse home of the recently deceased D. Oswald Heist, which is rapidly going up in flames following the shootout between heist and Prince Robot the IV and the intrusion of Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn leaves Lying Cat with Klara and searches the lighthouse for Marko. Although pinned by the blue beast, Klara manages to stick Lying Cat in the eye, giving Izabel an opening to fend the beast off with by appealing to its sense of honor. Lying Cat knows Gwendolyn had no reason to kill heist, and its admission of guilt gives the infamous cat a chance at some character development while its master is out of commission.
Marko and Alana run out of real estate and emerge on the roof of the lighthouse, trapped both by the flames and their assailant, whom they still believe to be Prince Robot IV. Gwendolyn emerges, surprising them not only with her arrival, but also with her demands for Marko to heal a friend of hers. Marko reminds her that such magics would only work on an individual of their kind, prompting Gwendolyn to grow even more unbalanced. While the tension here is well done, its also fun to see the rules of the world still being established. Down on the ground floor, Prince Robot IV awakens but is malfunctioning and offers his service to Izabel, who uses him to carry Klara's body out of the lighthouse.On the roof, things with Gwendolyn come to a head, and she fires The Will's deadly lance on Alana and Hazel. Marko manages to push them of the roof and out of immediate harm's way just before the land can blow, taking the lance to his shoulder instead. Fortunately, Alana is capable of flight, despite her proclamations; she flies back up to the roof, gun drawn, and forces Gwendolyn to surrender.
At this point, Narrating Hazel takes over and steers the story through a series of three endings, wrapping up this section of the larger narrative. First, the two reporters begin to research ways of avoiding the embargo keeping them from pursuing the story while learning about the appearance of Prince Robot IV. The Brand arrives to check in on her brother, The Will, who is recovering in a field hospital. The narration tells us he won't be returning to the story for some time. Finally, the tree ship lands on an unknown world and opens its door, allowing us to see a now toddler-aged Hazel standing on her own two feet beside Alana.Overall this issue was a fast read but served as a solid ending to the arc while still managing to plant several seeds for the issues to come. Wrap-up issues such as this are often just a series of violence and payoffs, but Saga 18 made space for some great character moments, particularly between Alana and Marko, whose romance manages to stay an endearing component of the story, despite the books' over-the-top science fiction story elements. Sadly, the letter page confirms this will be the last new issue of Saga until May, but the events of issue eighteen have left plenty to be speculated in the weeks to come.
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