Chapter 39 Part 1

Rei tried to hide her derision where Sal's newfound blind belief in the Rogue was involved. She wasn't very good at it though, and Sal saw through her mask. Whatever had happened to Sal had obviously erased his ability to think. Rei was surprised when Sal formed a semi-coherent question.

"Is this the same dimension as when I left? I sorta took some actions back there."

The Rogue stared off into space for a moment, as though trying to compute the trajectory of time then and there. Then, he answered. "An old saying says you cannot step in the same river twice, and so the principle is true here. However, to answer your question, the changes you made are mostly negligible and time has morphed accordingly and accommodatingly. The biggest change you have made is summoning Aries. It's been a while since I've talked to him. He was never the most pleasant conversationalist--what with the setting on fire of things and rivers of blood."

Sal turned pale at the mention of the name as images of Aries flooded back into his mind.

"It seems everyone here has had an interaction with a god of some kind or another," said the Rogue wryly. "Even Rei over there has seen Cerberus though she scoffs inwardly at the idea of your having summoned Aries, Sal."

"You said earlier that we have a duty that influences how things unfold, is that right Rogue? Doesn't everyone by existing tend to do that?" asked Uziel.

"That's a good question, Uziel," began the Rogue. "Everyone contributes to how the tapestry unfolds, but some threads are more crucial than others in that so many other threads depend on them."

"Why can't you just fix this matter yourself, then?" asked Uziel.

"Well, I suppose I technically could, but the best way to think about the issue is that it is against company policy for me to do such a thing."

Uziel bristled at the Rogue's reply since Hiro had told him the same thing. What was it with these guys? Why become all-powerful and all-knowing if company policy forbade the use of either when it mattered?

Sal finally shook off the images that arose at the mention of Aries's name. "There is something that bothers me, Rogue. When I was off doing what you suggested I did, I didn't see you anywhere in the town square. How did you survive the attack?"

The Rogue let a self-indulgent smile cross his lips. His reply was cryptic. "The funny thing about time," he began, "is that you only see those things that are most relevant to you at any given point. In some sense, my house exists outside of time. Once a very long while ago, there were experiments done concerning the attention span of human beings. When the humans were told to watch how many times a ball was passed among players, they paid attention so closely to the ball being passed, that they missed a man walking onto the scene in a gorilla suit. Stage magicians used the same technique. Perhaps one might call it misdirection. I prefer to think of it as a misperception. It is not as though my house is not in those time frames, but almost more like the people in those time frames tend to ignore it. For what it is worth, though, Sal, you did look smashing out there standing next to Prilock."