 Upon returning to her barrier city , Aki joins Sid and appears before the leadership council along with General Hein ( James Woods ) , who is determined to use the powerful Zeus space cannon to destroy the Phantoms . Aki is concerned the cannon will damage Earth 's Gaia ( a spirit representing its ecosystem ) and delays the use of it by revealing that she has been infected and the collected spirit signatures are keeping her infection stable , convincing the council that there may be another way to defeat the Phantoms . However , this revelation leads Hein to incorrectly conclude that she is being controlled by the Phantoms . Aki and the Deep Eyes squad succeed in finding the seventh spirit as Aki 's infection begins to worsen and she slips into unconsciousness . Her dream reveals to her that the Phantoms are the spirits of dead aliens brought to Earth on a fragment of their destroyed planet . Sid uses the seventh spirit to bring Aki 's infection back under control , reviving her . 
