Chapter 21 Part 2
As soon as Uzine had these thoughts, his mind wandered to Brezine. He found himself missing her, and at the same time hating himself for it. How could you miss someone who wasn't real? What made it absolutely unbearable for Uzine was that it had been real to him--or mostly real to him. He had always been aware of something not being quite right, but he could not pinpoint what it was. As long as he didn't know, he could at least have the illusion of having a companion in life--a feeling that give and take was being met. Now that was gone, and what was left was a hole filled by the knowledge that what he thought he had was a lie. He missed the lie, not because of the fact it was a lie. It was because in his his innocence it had been real to HIM. When the truth had found him, it had given him a reality with slim comfort. His only consolation was in laying the falsity of that reality bare so that it could be razed to the ground. Other chimeras might have an initial shock like his, but they would have the option of living their life in freedom if what Uzine had in mind was something he could engender.
As Uzine reflected on this reasoning, he realized that Hiro had been right. His life was no longer his in a fundamental way. It was true he was making choices. Yet, if someone had asked him starting out in life whether he would like to liberate all chimeras, he would probably have said no. It would not be because of a lack of idealism, exactly. It was more that he would rather find some comfortable slice of life and enjoy it as opposed to embarking on some arduous trek.
At the moment, it was not so much that his trek was arduous so much as it was annoying. Here he was riding this Palcan apparently nowhere, with time offering him no reprieve. He felt death pressing its fingers around his throat and found himself not alarmed on the account of death but on the account of time.
As the clock ticked, Uzine's focus became as sharp as a plasmoid cutter. So caught up was he in his focus that he did not even notice when his tattoo had turned completely red. So devoted had he become to his purpose that when his consciousness faded, his thoughts admitted nothing of death. There was only the work that needed to be done.
