Chapter 25 part 3

Again, almost on cue, a small chimera walked into the room, his tattoo completely red.

"Uziel, I'm so glad you could join us," said the Rogue.

"Are you Merlin?" asked Uziel as he rubbed the sides of his temples.

"Ah, Merlin, Hah! I haven't heard that name in awhile. I must make it ap oint to give Hiro a new business card some day. You let a few ages pass by, forget to give people your card, and they can't remember what to call you. You can just call me the Rogue."

"The Rogue," repeated Uziel.

"So, now that we are all gathered here, let's start, shall we? The big question that you probably want to know is why you are here. Well, you are here because each of you is on a journey, albeit a slightly different one as you each have different talents. Uziel here is working on behalf of Hiro, his god. Rei is working with a mysterious Reipawn, and busy questioning her sanity. Sal is working on his own behalf and trying to save his own skin, or at least so he thinks. The how you got here doesn't matter so much matter as they why you are here. The why is simple, although difficult to digest. The universe has been around for a long time. From it everything else follows. Most people believe it is a hologram, and so it is, but so too is it not. It works on the principle of harmony, and there are many ways to achieve harmony. Warring nations with differing agendas can combat one another simultaneously and cancel each other out. One can win, thrive for centuries, then end in the same way it rose. There are, however, delicate points in time--points in time where certain probabilities vary so immensely that the outcomes are radically different--and very often these outcomes depend on but a handful of people. One might think of them as destiny points."

Rei started laughing. "You mean to tell me, Rogue, that there are destiny points and we three are the ones on which much rests?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean," replied the Rogue. "I do wish I could skip the disbelief part of this debriefing. I've gone through it so many times. You should have seen Noah's face when I told him that he was approaching a critical moment and he'd hear from his God. He laughed right through his beard at me. I guess none of you know Noah now. Pity. It was such an interesting story."

Everyone became uncomfortably still in the room. Sal finally found his voice. "What are YOU exactly, Rogue?"

"What am I? You mean how is it that I'm still alive and am I human? well, that's a complicated question, Sal. Think of it this way, you call your interface, and you know the holonosphere will do your bidding. You know it will, in part, because you know that's what the holonosphere must do by definition. However, the holonosphere is only a microcosm of the reality in which we all have always resided. In fact, the holonosphere is the "cheaper cousin" to the reality in which we all reside. What I am and what I do is a lot like what you do in calling up your interface, except that where reality is concerned I place no constraints on it, and it places none on me.