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No Direction Home – part four
I want you to watch very carefully, Nate Grey warns the creature from the other world as he telekinetically stops the boulder the creature tossed at him after mutating it. With his powers, Nate obliterates the stone. That could have been you, Nate states calmly. He has tried to talk to the creature. All he has gotten in response is bile and ellipses. It has behaved like a mad dog. Can it give Nate a reason to believe it is something else? This is its last chance.
Nate is one of them! the creature snarls, referring to the Gauntlet. It protects them. Nate took its arm. They took their children. There can be nothing but hate and violence between them, until the last of them dies. What more is there to understand?
Considerably more, Nate retorts calmly. He has had enough. The creature and the Gauntlet are both so greedy with their secrets. All it had to do was explain things. Nate’s eye begins to glow, as he accesses the creature’s memories directly, over its protests.
(The creature’s memories)
Through his eyes, Nate sees the Gauntlet sailing down the Spiral in their scavenged spacesuits, to the creature’s world. It must have seemed a harsh world to them. Hostile and dead. It saw them coming, felt their psychic vibrations as they linked powers to scan the planet. The creature’s curiosity was too great. They sensed it, but it could read the, too. They were shocked to learn that life existed in a universe so broken, so far down the structure of reality. It was the miracle they’d been searching for. And it wondered what a miracle was.
(Present)
Yes, it did, the creature replies. His race shouldn’t have survived here. No life should survive here. It has seen Nate’s world. It knows what they lack. The sunlight here is all wrong. The soil and air are too harsh for all but the toughest plants. Time moves too quickly here. Their world changes rapidly, cruelly. They adapt as quickly. They mutate. They become a whole new species within a handful of generation. And the Gauntlet took their children. They called them “bio-technology.” A source of human-compatible organs able to adapt to any conditions by mutating the host. They said there was money in it. Whatever money is. It is difficult to conceive here. Children are precious and rare. They took them.
The Gauntlet then used their powers to encase this world to make sure they couldn’t follow them. It took them four generations to evolve the ability to pierce the barrier. Five weeks in their time, Nate points out. To them more than a century of grieving over their stolen children, of starting over in a universe not designed for life. It demanded to be the one to go. While it was away, its mate has died, its child has died, his child has died. It gave up its place in the world to exact revenge and it failed. This world is no longer its home.
It can be, Nate retorts. It didn’t fail. Nate did. This is Nate’s wound to heal now. The creature demands how it can trust Nate. Because he says it can, replies Nate.
Night over Manhattan. Nate levitates over the skyscrapers, concentrating. Finally, he telepathically contacts all the members of the Gauntlet, informing them that he is back. Now that he has their attention, he needs to explain something, what a shaman does. A shaman is a miraclemaker and a healer. A priest, a mystic, a poet. An ecstatic visionary.  He sees around the edges of realty. He exists outside the tribe, defending it from hat lies beyond. And from itself. Several months ago, he became this world’s shaman. He is used to existing outside tribes.
Sardonically, Ms. Yoshida informs Nate that she is fascinated. So what? Usually, Nate replies, the shaman is invited to work his healing. Sometimes he has to invite himself. Like what he did with her, Helen states. With them. Yes, he agrees and asks her where the children are. The next moment, he manifests inside her apartment.
Helen claims that she doesn’t know what he means and he clarifies that he is referring to the children the Gauntlet took from the broken universe. The children the Gauntlet took from the broken universe to dissect for their unusual organs.
Panicked the members of the Gauntlet begin to run. Nate calmly informs Helen that the others have panicked because they are afraid of him now. Not because of what they’ve done. He understands completely. They are all businessmen. It’s just economics. Something had to cover the costs of those surplus Russian spacesuits. Why not helpless creatures who shouldn’t have been alive anyway?
Is that why it came here? Helen inquires. Because they took its children? What is Nate going to do? What can he do? Nate asks as he uses his powers to check her computer rifling through all the files. He learns that the children have been dead for three weeks. Nate was too late before he started. Now all he can do is heal the wound.
Ms. Yoshida runs, ordering her driver to take her out of there. The next moment, she is enveloped by energy and her body rises. Angrily, she shouts at Nate, calling him a hypocrite and demanding he get out of her head. He has no right! Who then? he asks. They have committed infanticide, possibly genocide. “Homo superior” means they have advantages. It doesn’t mean they are beyond accountability. She explodes in a ball of energy.
No matter where they run the same fate awaits all Gauntlet members, as Nate adds that they knew what they did was wrong. They tried to hide it. They did it for no better reasons than to pad their portfolios. That sort of behavior can simply no longer be tolerated.
The only one left is Helen who has experienced all the deaths through Nate’s telepathic web. Nate informs Helen that he isn’t going to kill her. Even though she deserves it most. She looks up at him in disbelief. Nate coldly explains that the broken man was aiming for her in the elevator. He can read minds, but a mind is a big place. He has to know what to look for. Until he told him, Nate had no idea that Helen was the one to suggest the Gauntlet take the children.
The Gauntlet constitutes an infection of this society that needed burning out. Does Helene even see how vile such brutal greed is? Or does she think this is just some game she lost?
As a single tears runs down her face, Helen asks what if it wasn’t for the money? If she had a better reason? No reason could justify what she’s done, Nate simply replies. But he’s still not gong to kill her.
Energy envelopes her and Helen disappears. She falls down the spiral and ends up in front of the Broken Man and others of his race. Alive he simply states as he sees her. Good.
Two days later, Nate walks into a graveyard, where he has erected some small stones for the dead children. He knows their people have a myth of a world of peace and joy. That they could even conceive of such things is a miracle. He is sorry this wasn’t that world. They should have been cherished. A decent burial is the only crumb of dignity he can give them now. Poor children. Looking up to the sky, he announces that this must become a better world. His tribe, the mutant race, must become better. And it will. Because he’s watching.


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The Infinities of Evil – Part One: Further Down the Spiral
The Brilliant City, an unimaginably beautiful place, surrounded by black space. Two months from now.
Walking the broad silver pathways, while not touching the ground, are beautiful more than human beings, some displaying facial markings, dressed in togas and tunics. Two of them are arguing. One man, calling the other Qabiri, accuses him of being wrong. The city has always stood. Immaculate. Inviolate. Nothing can change that. They have always stood. And they always shall. His companion, Qabiri, tells Melchior that he places too much faith in tradition. Things are shifting.
In the darknesses? Melchior asks disinterested. The darknesses are corrupt, imperfect worlds. They are not their concern. They are, Qabiri insists. They know of them. They’ve dreamed of them since their time began. They know how to reach them now. If they allow it, the lower beings will devour them. They must be made to choose: be perfected or be destroyed.
As Qabiri steps to the edge of the pathway, Melchior points out that they are neither soldiers nor missionaries. Contact with the lower worlds is forbidden. It will only corrupt them. He places little faith in his own purity, Qabiri observes. Do they wait then, until they are overrun he asks, as they are joined by more. Until the undercreatures dance in the stained rubble of the Brilliant City? They are mightier, but the others number in the trillions. If they learn the City is more than a dream, they won’t be able to stop them.
They’re no threat, Melchior insists. Nothing imperfect can survive within the City. And once it was thought they were the only being who could walk the Spiral, Qabiri reminds him. That’s now untrue. No old wisdom is dependable anymore.
Trying to reach out, Melchior remarks that Qabiri’s proposition is monstrous. Genocide beyond imagining. It can only bring disaster. But the Brilliant City will live, Qabiri points out. The City must be defended whatever the price. Melchior can do what he likes, but he will do what he must.
Over Melchior’s warning, he runs and jumps over the edge into the awaiting darkness. Melchior just muses that this was foolish. Qabiri belongs to the darkness now.
Qito, Ecuador. Six months ago:
It is as though several natural disasters at once are hitting the city. People are running off in panic. Above the town floats a figure in the air. Watching the destruction below him dispassionately, he stretches out his thumb and slowly, Caesar-like, it points downwards. Within the next few moments the destruction is completed… and Nate Grey just watches.
Horrified, Nate Grey awakes from a nightmare in his hotel room, clutching his chest. Madelyne Pryor steps into the room, asking if he is all right. She heard him cry out. A bad dream, he explains. He crushed a city, because he could. All those people… They didn’t matter to him at all. It was sickening. Getting dressed he explains that he needs to take a walk. In Buenos Aires at 3 a.m? Maddie asks incredulously. He is not concerned with being mugged, Nate remarks. She supposed not, Madelyne concedes with a smirk. A walk sounds like a good idea.
A little later, they walk the streets of Buenos Aires. Nate admits that he is not sure if it was a dream. When he uses his telekinesis, there’s a vibration. It stays with him a while. He felt it when he woke up. It was very strong. He used his powers that night. And he doesn’t remember when. He continues that there is a lot he doesn’t remember. How long have they been traveling now? Three weeks? Ontario. Singapore. Auckland. Here. Why did they do that? He can’t remember why.
Several begging children accost him while Madelyne points out that his life has always been aimless. He admits she’s right, but…
A child accosts Madelyne directly. With glowing eyes, she calls him a cockroach. While Nate walks on, oblivious, Madelyne uses her power to kill the child in front of the horrified other kids. Nate just continues that evil event cast their shadows before them. He feels something awful will happen.
Suddenly, he stops. It just occurred to him it was her idea to go to all those places. Why? She touches his forehead in a soothing gesture, reminding him she was created to give his life direction. She tells him to forget about it. Ok, he replies. What were they talking about? he asks. She reminds him that he was agitated. They decided a walk would clear his head. Is he better? He thinks so. He isn’t sure. He’d swear there was something else.
They stop at a news-vendor, he sees the headline Quito destruido!!!. A whole city destroyed. He did this, Nate realizes. He can’t know that, Maddy suggests. He does. He wants go there and find out. She asks him to take her with him. Why would he do that? He wonders one moment, to agree the next. He may need her there, when he finds out the truth.
He flies them there and Nate is horrified at what he finds. The destruction is total. Nothing left but rubble. How many people lived here? Does it matter now? Maddy asks before cryptically adding that he is really everything she could have hoped for. What is she talking about? he demands. He is out of control. No, he isn’t, she replies and tells him to look again. What does he see?
Looking down, he sees that the profile of a face is etched into the ruins. Her face. She made him do that. It happens, she agrees, stroking his face. Go to sleep.  Nate is willing to comply before catching himself. Grabbing her wrist, he tells her to stop. All those people are dead because of them, he shouts. Why? Madelyne replies that he is making her angry now. He has no concept of what a bad, bad idea that is.
He fires telekinetic energy at her in vain. This isn’t possible, he exclaims. He made her. She only exists because of him. That’s a lovely fantasy, she replies. Every Nate Grey tries to cling to it. She fires energy at him and unlike him hits home. Madelyne explains that he created his Maddie, but she isn’t his Maddie. He created a phantom, a door for her to walk though. When he made his Maddie, it was because he was waiting for her. Who is she? he asks weakly. She is Madelyne Pryror, she replies. The only true Maddie Pryor he’s ever known.
She continues to explain that she replaced his Maddie several months ago. She’s been worming into his head ever since. The destruction of Quito was a final test to ensure he is fully operational. She needs an intact Nate Grey. Nate doesn’t understand. Maddie offers a hand and an explanation if he takes her home. Where’s home? he asks. She tells him to read the front of her mind. If he lets her she can show him the most amazing things, she tantalizes. As they hold hands, Nate sees a spiral of worlds and the fall and they arrive.
Nate feels sick and Maddie tells him that he is fighting himself too much. That sort of thing should be second nature to him. He looks around to see that they are standing on the roof a building in a high-tech city. Yet it is beautiful and he has never smelled air so clean. Where are they? he asks. Manhattan, comes another voice. The man introduces himself as Mr. Scratch and, addressing Madelyne as “your majesty,” he welcomes her home.


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The Infinities of Evil – Part Two: Danger Signs
Earth 998, months ago:
Thirty seconds ago, Nate Grey tore through reality, guided by a creature he thought he had created. For unknown reasons, he wound up on a world he didn’t know existed.
Mr. Scratch bows, asking Madelyne whether her mission was successful. As he can see, she replies, this one is perfect. No trouble in her absence, she hopes. Rumblings on the Asian frontier, he informs her. They’ll cease as soon as news of her return spreads, he predicts. Maddie, a nervous Nate interrupts, demanding to know what they are doing there.  Addressing Nate as “young man,” Scratch tells him to speak only when the queen speaks to him, and speak meekly. He will find manners preferable to death.
Touching his shoulder, Madelyne commends Scratch for his gallantry. But poor Nate is ignorant, not profane, she explains. That excuses nothing, Scratch replies stiffly. With a smile Madelyne remarks that she has gone to considerable effort to domesticate their young guest. She asks Scratch not to antagonize him. As she wishes, he replies. Bowing slightly to Nate, Scratch calls him by his full name and bids him welcome. As they walk to a strange organic looking flying-machine Nate asks how Scratch knows who he is. For eight years, the queen has been fishing for Nate Greys, the other man replies. Who else would he be? He is the queen’s protector, adds Scratch and tells him to remember that. They enter the marvelous flying device.
Looking outside, Nate asks why they ride the machine and not just fly under their own power. He doesn’t fly, Scratch states curtly, and the less publicly ascertained of the Queen’s powers, the righter her grip on the throne. The Maker who made these ornithopters discovered the spiral of worlds and built a device to see them. At the queen’s request, he constructed a great engine to project her from parallel Earth to parallel Earth. A brilliant man, Scratch concedes, adding that there was probably nothing Mr. Forge couldn’t make.
The familiar name gets Nate’s attention and he asks what happened to him. He died, Scratch replies. Nate doesn’t see him smiling as he stares out of the window, asking what on Earth that is, that referring to a mechanical fortress or home as Scratch calls it – the palace.
Several hours later, Nate is attired in several robes by servants. Is this really necessary, he asks. Scratch informs him that he must be presentable. It is an exciting day for Nate. Is it? the boy asks. How old is he? Scratch inquires. Genetically, he is seventeen, the boy replies. That’s very young for a knight in the queen’s service, Scratch points out. Nate should be honored. Today, he will learn what he truly is. Nate doesn’t get any of it.
As they walk through the seemingly endless hall, Nate expresses his impatience. Scratch explains that the palace extends more than three kilometers to honor the resurrected Queen and house her retinue and knight elite. It is dwarfed by the magnitude of her majesty’s glory. Madelyne can’t be their queen, Nate points out. He created her. He is droll, Scratch remarks, before adding a warning. They are about to approach the throne. In there, Nate is to do whatever he is told without question, in silence. He is to keep his heresies to himself or it is Nate’s liver they will roasting at tomorrow’s brunch.
Walking towards the throne, they pass guards who look at Nate curiously. Nate inquires why. Scratch cryptically replies that he is the Nate Grey. It’s been some time since they’ve seen one. The more Scratch talks, the less sense he makes, Nate remarks derisively. Is he doing that on purpose?
Now what? he asks, as everybody around him bows deeply. Scratch’s expression turns dark. Furiously, he forces Nate to his knees. Nate tries to fight back, but Scratch informs him that his mindtricks won’t work on him. It would take no thought and less effort to grind Nate’s collarbone to powder and Nate could do nothing about it. Before Nate can test that theory, Scratch is ordered to stand down. Madelyne adds that, if Nate were fully aware of his potential, he could have ripped Scratch’s secrets from him the moment they met. Though Mr. Scratch can be… difficult.
Nate incredulously stares at Madelyne, now dressed in a regal scarlet robe, her hair done up in an elegant style. Scratch announces her presence, calling her Her Majesty Madelyne I, resurrected queen of Briton, High Protector of the unified commonwealth, sacred mistress of the order of the Black Knights and absolute empress of the north and breachlands. Madelyne orders him to shush. He is frightening Nate again. She welcomes the boy to her world. Earth 998. It’s time he was made aware of the nature of reality. She gestures for everybody to rise. This is a day of celebration, not formalities. Their victory over the Asian empire is now assured.
She walks to the throne and orders Nate to come with her and sit at her feet. He refuses. Maddie just points down, advising him not to fight her. He will only hurt himself. She can make him obliterate cities. She can make him sit. Against his will he sits. Sullenly Nate spits out that she isn’t his Maddie. Stroking his hair, she tells him she is. Did he honestly think he could make a Maddie Pror out of thin air on a whim? Did he never wonder where the whim came from? A Nate Grey does not create. A Nate Grey destroys.
From the beginning, she adds, she was there, sowing the idea of herself into his head. He made a dream and she stepped in to flesh it out. For a time, she was only what he dreamed she should be. A necessary risk to snare him. She has been many Maddie Pryors, on many Earths, all with a singular goal in mind. To find him. That doesn’t make sense, he protests. She has shown him the spiral, Madelyne reminds him. She tells him to open his mind as she touches his forehead. Nate begins to drool as she shows him the true nature of the spiral: so many Earths, all arranged in a double helix, infinite and beautiful, stretching from the darkness to the light. As above, so below. The genetic structure of reality.
Nate staggers and Scratch wryly observes that he babbles. Madelyne orders him to leave Nate be. He stares into the abyss and sees himself staring back.
Madelyne continues darkly that Nate knows now what he is, what all Nate Greys have been on every Earth. The ultimate telekinetic, designed with a doomsday weapon in mind. The climax of the evolution of weapons.
A Nate still struggles with the newly imparted knowledge, Madelyne adds cruelly that most Nate Greys are faulty and die young. Her own died horribly. Their creators load them with genetic timebombs, the ultimate defense against the ultimate weapon. She needed a Nate Grey that worked. Finally, after years of false starts and dead ends, she has found him. In the months that they’ve been together, she’s subtly wormed her way through his mind, placing her controls there. He is her weapon now… But this is a party. She claps into her hands, giving the order to bring “her.”
A voice from nowhere, unheard by the others, tells Nate to be brave. “She” is brought. A slender Asian prisoner, in rags, who is thrown before the queen. The young woman gets up and defiantly announces that she will not bow. Should he eviscerate the Asian spy, Mr. Scratch inquires. No, Madelyne decides. With a cruel smile she orders Nate to kill the prisoner.
The young woman’s face contorts in agony as, out of nowhere, she is engulfed in telekinetic fire. Moments later, all that remains of her is a pile of dust. I didn’t do that,  Nate stammers in disbelief, repeating that line like a mantra, even though he knows the truth. Madelyne announces that she doesn’t need his cooperation. She aims him. She pulls the trigger. With a smirk, Madelyne explains that she rules half the world. She wants the other half. Tomorrow, he will exterminate Asia. Nate shouts that he is leaving and begins to fly, as the mysterious voice guides him.
Queen Madelyne orders her soldiers to find him. She will not have all her hard work ruined by a petulant boy.
Nate flies hard and long above the clouds and finally collapses on the ground in some forest. He is joined by a mysterious stranger who remarks that Nate must be very powerful. Most don’t make it. Who is he? Nate asks. The stranger, who is displaying an odd X-shaped tattoo on his chest, asks if Nate doesn’t know. He spoke to him in his mind. He is Nate Grey.


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The Infinities of Evil – Part Three: Double Vision
Earth 998, six months ago:
A full alert is ringing in Queen Madelyne’s sprawling castle. Her black knights, Madelyne’s elite troops, hurry to put on their uniforms, some of them figuring that the Asian army must be attacking. One man mutters that he heard they have a giant man made of steel. Yes, and a ghost devil who stinks of sulphur, another one adds. They’ve all heard the stories.
A young man glumly adds that, if it’s war, they’ll die. It isn’t fair! The Queen’s power is unimaginable. She doesn’t need them to fight for her. Without having noticed, they’ve been joined by Mr. Scratch. Young man, he asks mildly, as he touches the boy’s face, the Black Knights are the queen’s elite. How did he come to join them? Did his father buy his way in, thinking to assure his social future? Yes, the boy admits. Scratch slaps him, announcing that he lives to serve the Queen. Not his ambition, nor his father’s. Should that be unsatisfying, there are… alternatives. With that, he crunches the boy’s skull. Blood still on his hand, Scratch puts on his helmet. Nobody speaks.
The men bow as the Queen, also dressed in black armor, walks in. Curtly, she informs them that a Nate Grey is loose in the world. Something shields him from her. She senses him but cannot find him. He is destruction. He must belong to them or the empire will not be safe. The Knights are to remain ready. When he shows himself, they are to bring him in at any cost. For the glory of Briton!
Elsewhere, Nate Grey finds himself elsewhere and faced with a surreal experience as his mysterious savior announces that he too is Nate Grey, this world’s Nate Grey. Surely, Nate didn’t think that in all the universes he was the only one? That’s ridiculous, Nate snaps. Nate-998 remarks he’d have thought Nate would be predisposed to the concept. Wasn’t he born on a parallel Earth that stopped existing so the Earth he now inhabits could be? Nate holds his head as though having a migraine. How could the other know that? He too, Nate-998 replies. They all were. Tearing off the reminder of the uniform given to him by Madelyne’s men, Nate asks the other why he keeps on lying. He wants to know who he really is.
With a dreamy expression on his face, Nate-998 reiterates that he is him. Sort of. Wrong answer, replies Nate, as he strikes at him with his telekinesis. A stern look on his face, Nate-998 tells him that hurt. He doesn’t want to fight Nate, but he shouldn’t do that again, he warns him.
Nate is unimpressed. Nate-998 reaches out to him as he remarks that he realizes Nate is confused and frightened. They are both telepaths, but he doesn’t need to read Nate’s mind to know the trouble the boy is in. He asks to be allowed to help.
Clenching his teeth, Nate replies that they should have coached his double better. He is more than a telepath. Some think he has the most powerful psyche in the world. And he’s heard enough! He knows what Nate is, Nate-998 replies, as he simply repels, the attack causing Nate to fall. Don’t get me angry, he simply says.
Elsewhere, Madelyne senses the altercation. There was a vibration, but it wasn’t quite right…
Nate-998 offers Nate his hand and apologizes. He adds that she felt that. Time is running out. He asks Nate to work with him, as Nate is far more powerful than he is, but there is so much he doesn’t know. He can put it all directly into Nate’s psyche. Nate still doesn‘t trust him. Then the Red Queen wins, Nate-998 states grimly. He suggests another way. He will open his mind to Nate. He can take what he wants and needn’t worry about being gentle. Nate can’t damage him any more than she has.
Nate does so and sees the Spiral of Worlds, different versions of himself and, superimposed above it, all the cruel image of Queen Madelyne. He learns that there are worlds upon worlds. Ineffable worlds, rising to a light beyond brilliance, broken worlds, trailing into darkest abandon.
What Queen Maddie calls the Spiral his Earth’s legends call the Tree of Worlds. A double helix, the shape of life. Their worlds are dots of information, arrayed in a code, no one can decipher. What unimaginable beings could they be the tiniest part of? And many Earths that are as they should be, more or less have things in common. Many have Nate Greys.
The Queen hunts Nates and lures them here. She wants their power to destroy. She genetically brands them to defuse the cellular time bombs that would otherwise kill them. She slays them when they prove unsatisfactory and moves on to the next.
Nate reels from the psychic onslaught, while Nate-998 explains that he was the first. The Queen was less adept at killing in those days. He survived and tried to help the others. They were all defective as he was. He is insane, he explains. His grasp of reality is nebulous. The other Nate is first truly functional one he has seen. Then why is he even listening to Nate-998, Nate remarks.
Nate-998 flies ahead and Nate decides to follow, despite himself. Nate-998 explains he is going to see his tribe. He has put his madness to work. He is their shaman. He knows what he was created for, and he’s mad enough to think he can escape it. So can Nate. Telekinesis can be used for beneficial things. Damping pain centers in the brain, stimulating healing, neutralizing unbalanced body chemistry…
They land in a small village, as Nate-998 adds that being a shaman also allows him the odd fit of wild dancing. They seem to enjoy that. In the minus column, they fear him. But that’s all right. Shamans are supposed to stay apart from their tribe. He doesn’t mind. He finds he rather likes living alone. This is what he decided to do after escaping Maddie: help others trying to find their own way in Maddie’s world. Thanks to him she doesn’t even know they are there.
He addresses an elderly man, asking if it is still here and safe. As he asked, the man replies and takes them to it, “it” being a dead man. Nate-998 explains that his name was Mr. Forge while he lived. Nate repeats the name, recalling his old mentor.
Nate-998 continues that he was the greatest of the Queen’s makers. Mr. Scratch put him to death to guard her secrets. They stole and preserved the body. Has Nate ever spoken to a dead man? There’s something else shamans do. He is not a shaman, Nat states. He could be, his alter ego tells him. They are built for one thing only. Using their powers otherwise can take a toll on them. This is what they have to escape. He’s ruined, but Nate can do things he can’t. It’s a matter of tweaking the right neurons in the dead brain, of holding the vocal cords together and letting them vibrate. The trick is to facilitate it, without pumping his own thoughts out of a dead man’s mouth.
Why does he want to do this? a horrified Nate asks. Because it’s what shamans do, the other Nate replies. They risk themselves to create balance. To make things right. He’s not a shaman, Nate again points out calmly. So he heard, the other Nate replies with gentle irony. Mr. Forge had a relationship with Maddie. He thinks that’s why he was killed. Her secrets may still be in his head.
Nate orders him to shut up. He has Forge… The cadaver begins to speak in a shaky voice, asking what they want. One of the Nates informs him that he is dead. Oh, is Mr. Forge’s only reply, before he remembers. Mr. Scratch tore his heart from his chest. It was the triumphal moment of Forge’s life. Scratch stole it from him. It was all so formal, he adds almost nonsensically. Nate orders him to tell them of Queen Maddie. He loved her, Forge replies simply. What else? She did not love him. What else?
(Forge’s narration / flashback):
Forge relates how at the end of the 19th century Queen Maddie ruled an empire that covered all the world. Old and sick on her deathbed, she ordered that her corpse be burned, so that she could rise again from the ashes. Her corpse was burned, but she did not rise. Her end was the end of peace, independence ravaged the globe like a plague. Asia broke free, and parts of Europe and most of the Southern Lands. Political infighting corroded the empire’s foundations. War was all the world knew.
Then the miracle happened. Maddie Pryor did return. A burning angel of justice and vengeance. She led them to take back half the world.
As a queen’s makers he had special tasks. Forge’s story now turns to himself. The Queen had him seek means to see across the Tree of Worlds. For this, he made the Interscope. And when he had charted other worlds, he was ordered to find a means to send a living being along the Tree. And he conceived the Engines of the Gods.
Madelyne visited him one day and he confessed a problem: while he could easily project a man to any point on the tree, there is no way to bring him back. There is a way, Madelyne replies cryptically, but that isn’t his concern. Changing the subject, she remarks that she’d forgotten how handsome he was…
(present):
Forge reveals that, from then on, he had the Queen’s confidence. In an unguarded moment, she let slip the truth. She was not Maddie Pryor, but an impostor from another Earth.
Nate begins to buckle under the strain of animating Forge’s corpse. Forge continues that her power was decimated and she was cast off her own world for hideous crimes. Her true name is Jean Grey.
Not even the dead may blaspheme, thunders a voice as the corpse is destroyed by Mr. Scratch. Turning to Nate, he announces that he is tired of chasing him. Perhaps he knows Scratch once intercepted a Canadian heretic’s assassination attempt on the Queen. He plunged knives into Scratch’s brain. He has brain damage. He exists in an unrelenting state of murderous rage. His strength is that of a homicidal maniac. And he no longer understands pity. Her Majesty may have been inclined to have mercy on Nate. He is not.


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The Infinities of Evil – Part four: Worlds Without End
Earth 998, six months ago:
Both Nates attack an unfazed Mr. Scratch, who is just mildly curious about the fact that there are two of them. The Queen didn’t drag him to this earth to play with his weakling counterpart, he informs Nate. He exists to serve the empire.
Nate marvels at Scratch still standing. That blast would have split a mountain! Nate-998 advises him to stay calm. Not very likely, as Nate sees Maddie’s knights slaughtering everyone in the village. Nate-998 advises him to think things through before he acts. A waste of time, Nate decides, as he telekinetically blasts the knights, which allows Scratch to hit him from behind. Clinically, he informs Nate that he has just shattered his spine. Nate is curled on the ground and Scratch remarks that he cannot think of anything but his pain now, can he?
They don’t need his body. They don’t need Nate intact or sane, or even conscious. Thy only need the power hidden in his mind. He turns to the other Nate. He was their Nate, wasn’t he? Scratch is surprised he’s still alive. He recalls how this Nate, who now feebly tries to attack him telekinetically, helped a Canadian assassin attack the Queen…
Scratch grabs Nate-998 by the throat, asking if he never wondered how he saw through the psychic cloak Nate had wrapped the assassin in. He crushes Nate’s windpipe as he reveals that his power is that no mutant powers affect him. He tosses the boy away like garbage. Nate-998 telekinetically opens a fault line beneath Scratch, which swallows him. He still requires solid ground to stand on, Nate-998 mutters as he walks to the other Nate, who is still on the ground in agony.
Nate-998 weakly informs him they only have a moment, as he is suffocating. He needs Nate’s help. He doesn’t have the power to save Nate by himself. He begs Nate to listen as they both begin to glow.
Scratch, freeing himself from the hole, remarks that he can’t use the other Nate’s power. He hasn’t got the skill. Scratch and the surviving knights close in on the two Nates, as Scratch continues that the genetic brand the Queen marked Nate-998 with is all that keeps his body from destroying itself. His tribe is dead. He is alone. He can’t stop Scratch. He is nothing. He knows, Nate-998 replies.
The glow intensifies, as Nate-998 touches the X-shaped brand on his chest. A gift, he says to the other Nate. It’s all up to him now. Too late, shouts Scratch, as he hits the burning young man. He has lost.
A little later there is only Nate left, Nate-998 apparently incinerated by forces beyond his control. Scratch decides that they have what they came for. He tosses Nate to the soldiers, telling them they may show him any agony short of death. They carry him to their flying machine and return to the palace.
They return the mumbling and seemingly delirious Nate to the Queen. Madelyne muses that she should have done that herself. But she liked him. For this moment, she walked across worlds. For this, she sought a working Nate Grey, and wove her strings into his mind. She grabs Nate by the hair and orders him to make Asia die.
Saigon, Tokyo, Calcutta, Beijing… in all of Asia a huge globe of energy akin to a second sun appears. The people fear the worst, but find that the light is actually pleasant. It is little more than fireworks.
And Queen Madelyne realizes she has had been had. This is the wrong Nate Grey. Enraged, Madelyne kills two nearby knights with her powers and demands to know where the real one is. As she has Nate-998 in a telekinetic death grip, he informs her that the other Nate is healed and gone. They merged their powers and rebuilt each other. They traded physical traits. No illusion would have deceived Scratch. Then Nate-998 sent the other Nate on his way. She’ll never find him.
Madelyne announces that she can read minds too, then kills him. She coldly orders Scratch to prepare the Engines of God. She must bring Nate Grey back. Then, he may execute himself. He failed her.
Earth 616, New York:
A middle-aged woman walks out her apartment building to bring down the garbage. On the street, she sees several youngsters robbing an unconscious man. Angrily, she chases them away. She takes a look at the unconscious Nate Grey and feel pity.
A little later, Nate is in her bathroom, after having assured her that he doesn’t want the police or an ambulance or even a pair of shoes. Carefully, he studies his new look in the mirror. Shorter hair, the genetic X-brand that defuses the genetic flaws, which would kill him otherwise.
He recalls Nate-998 telling him this is what a shaman does. He recalls a grinning Madelyne announcing he is her weapon now. And finally he remembers dead Forge revealing that she is really Jean Grey. A creature of violence and unquenchable desire, Nate says out loud. His eye begins to glow.
His friendly samaritan hears something and opens the door to the bathroom. Nate is gone.
Back on Earth 998, Scratch has led Queen Madelyne to the Engines of the Gods. Maddie orders him to take his life now. He thinks not, Scratch retorts. May he call her Jean? he asks with an ironic flourish. How does he know? she wonders and instinctively attacks him psychically, to no avail. Irrelevant, he remarks. Of greater concern is the rebellion news of an impostor on the throne would surely generate. It’s time she had a husband, and the Empire a King. And she needn’t think to have him killed as she had him kill Mr. Forge…
Suddenly, the Engine of the Gods behind them begins to be torn apart, courtesy of the returned Nate Grey hovering above it. Scratch is buried in the rubble. Jean levitates herself to Nate’s level, asking if the show was for her benefit. Nate explains that, with the engines destroyed, she is restricted to this world. She never truly understood what a Nate Grey is. And does he know what a Jean Grey is? she asks with s a smile as she comes closer.
Nate retorts that a Jean Grey gone bad is an omnivore. Was that why her power was broken and she was ejected from her homeworld? Did they think they’d killed her, unaware they’d unleashed her to prey on all reality? With a snarl he announces that he knows what she is.
He romanticizes these things, Jean retorts as she concentrates. A Jean Grey is power without limit. Hunger without limit. All life is her fuel. Those who give themselves to her do so totally. She draws life energy from her subjects to boost her power. Nate shouts out in horror. That’s what loyal subjects are for, Jean announces as she fires an energy blast at him. Give me your power, she demands, but her tricks don’t work.
Nate explains that the other Nate ripped her hooks from his mind. She wanted his power to rekindle her own true power. As soon as he was loyal. Had she’d have devoured the universe. Every universe. He gestures and above them a huge sphere of energy appears.
He tells her not to be afraid. She wanted a working Nate Grey; here he is. She wanted his power. Take it. Jean draws back in fear. It’s too much. She begs him to stop. But the sphere extends, destroying her and her creations. The universe is better off without her, Nate announces as he flies off. Power should be used for better things.
Earth 616, several months later:
A lizard like humanoid female being, clearly wounded, stands before the corpse of another odd creature. Nate appears, announcing that the woman is wounded and offers to help. The woman exclaims whether he is an angel or God. His ways aren’t mysterious enough, Nate quips. He can heal her, but her friend is dead.
He supports the woman who explains that he isn’t her friend. She killed him. Nate reveals that he knows and understands why. After he heals her, he asks her not to kill any more mutants. He’s here to help them all. They are all his tribe. What does he mean? the woman exclaims. Who is he?
He’s a shaman.


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Fearful Symmetries – part one
Earth 616, our Earth, Kansas, 30 years ago. A fighting jet makes contact with an unidentified flying object that is hurtling towards the ground. There is no atmospheric friction, no detectable transmissions. The pilot informs control that it is likely to be only a meteorite. Then the object changes its course and destroys the plane.
On the ground in a wheat field, two elderly people in a car are necking. Theirs is an illicit affair. She’s been married to another man unhappily for 12 years, because her parents wished it, believing that her lover, Jeremy, would never come back from the war. They stop kissing as they see the object hurtling towards the field and crashing nearby. Curious, they go to check it out despite Margo’s bad feeling.
The thing has left a giant crater and Jeremy explains that he has seen rocks from space. That thing is no rock. Could be it’s worth enough they’ll never have to worry about her husband again.
They hear a sound like a baby crying and Jeremy jumps into the crater, walking towards the black round object. They hear the crying of a child in their minds. Jeremy touches the ball, trying to comfort whatever is inside with the words that everything is going to be all right. The sphere opens and he catches a glimpse of… something.
Horrified, Jeremy runs towards Margo and orders her to run as well. They cannot abandon a child, she protests. It’s not a child, you stupid woman! he shouts at her. He grabs her by the wrist and drags her onward… The glow coming from the sphere encompasses them and they crumble like dust. The energy takes the entire field.
30 years ago Kansas burned.
In a church, a praying nun is a visit by Nate Grey. Addressing her as Sister Perpetua, Nate introduces himself and informs her that he has come to heal her if he can. She informs him that he is disturbing her prayer and asks him to leave.
Nate replies that he knows why she prays. He’s heard her in his mind a long way off. She has visions, of worlds in pain, sometimes dying. It becomes her pain. Her pain is no concern of his, the nun retorts and turns around. Where her eyes should be are only empty sockets.
It is, Nate insists. He is a shaman. Mutants are his responsibility. She is a mutant. She is not, Sister Perpetua insists. She has been sleeping, Nate replies and touches her forehead with his finger. Time to wake up.
A little later, sitting on a bench, Sister Perpetua recalls how, when she was a little girl, she fell asleep in church. Her father cut off her eyelids so she’d never do it again. But she put out her own eyes when the visions started coming, Nate adds. It’s all beneath the surface of her mind. He reads minds? she asks. He explains that some like hers are so loud he can’t help it.
What else can he do? she asks. Move things with his mind. Can he destroy things with his mind? she asks. Yes. Should she be afraid of him? That’s up to her, Nate replies. He’d rather she weren’t. There are so many barricades in her mind already.
She’s ashamed she mutilated herself for nothing. Blindness didn’t stop the visions. Nothing does. Would she like to see what the angels see when they look down on Earth? Nate asks. She can’t see, Sister Perpetua reminds him. Use my eyes, Nate offers.
A little later, he uses his powers to keep them both aloft in the air, telling her he won’t let her fall. This isn’t an illusion? she asks fearfully. She is really doing this. He tells her to look down and she is awed by the sight. Tell me about the visions now, Nate asks.
They’re evil, Perpetua simply states. She’s seen mankind crushed by demon shadows, by merciless creatures of power. By its own humanity. Many visions, all different, all of the triumph of cruelty and death and the end of beauty and peace… She’s evil, she continues. She must be. The visions are her punishment. She’s prayed and prayed, but they’re stuck in her head and she just wants them to stop.
Nate protests that there is nothing evil about her. He believes she is a receiver. He thinks she sees other Earths. Those places… exist? The nun wonders. Nate admits he doesn’t know and needs to find out. He asks if he may trigger a vision. She shakes off his hand and asks him to get away. He has no idea what torture they are. Nate understands. But the only way he can cure her is by finding out what exactly is going on.
He can cure her? Perpetua asks hopefully. Possibly, Nate admits. But he knows she can’t go on like this. That’s true, she admits, and urges him to do it. Nate promises he won’t let her be hurt, as he touches her forehead and triggers a vision. He telepathically joins her.
Another world. The White House is in shambles. Before it stands a woman with close-cropped blonde hair and military pants. On her com-device she calls for her teammates White Bird and Thor. Identifying herself as Nicola Zeitgeist, she reports that Washington is as good as gone and orders them to report. Is anyone left?
Sitting on a New York skyskaper one man, the Citydweller, replies. He is in what’s left of Manhattan, he reports. Professor X and Thor are attacking the Burning Tiger. White Bird and Nightfighter may be dying. He doesn’t know where the Technocrat is. He doesn’t think he can help anymore. He draws energy from cities, but all the cities are dead. They’ve had a good run, he muses. They saved the world more than once. Not this time. Earth won’t survive this time. He looks at a burning spot in the sky. Two of his teammates, Professor X and Thor, are about to attack it.
Flying upward, Professor X nervously asks if they shouldn’t have a plan. It’s a bit late for strategy, his teammate replies. Is it? the Professor wonders. Their foe appeared from nowhere and attacked. They don’t know how to stop him. They don’t even know what he wants. That’s obvious, Thor replies, and force is the only answer.
Ignoring his teammate’s warning, Thor flies toward the flying man, addressing him as Burning Tiger. If he must call him something, his name is Qabiri, the other man replies. Is that funny to him? Thor snarls. He doesn’t have a clue how dangerous they are. That’s true, he doesn’t, Qabiri replies condescendingly and adds he wouldn’t recommend what Thor is planning. Ignoring him, Thor flies straight at him, only to be burned to bits by Qabiri’s aura. And no, Qabiri adds, it’s not funny.
Ugh, I’ll never eat Bolognese sauce again, the Professor exclaims. Addressing him as Professor X, Qabiri remarks that he is one of those he was looking for. His comrade dies horribly and he jokes about it.
Because he’s scared to death, if he must know, the Professor replies. Realizing that physical attacks don’t work on his foe, Professor X creates an energy ball, intending to short-out Qabiri’s psyche. Calling him “Burning Tiger,” he threatens that that his killing days are over.
“Qabiri,” his foe corrects him and compliments him on the creation of his dreamball. He adds that this is all the Professor’s fault. He can travel up and down the corridor of worlds. He and the other, Zeitgeist? The Professor points the glowing energy sphere at him and the Technocrat emerges from it. She’s been analyzing the Tiger’s force field. It’s the purest energy she’s ever seen. From her flesh emerge scorpion-like robots, techno-toys intended to devour Qabiri’s energy. Qabiri destroys the sphere and with it the lower half of the Technocrat, as well as Professor X’s arm.
As he momentarily busies himself with the scorpions, he calmly explains that he isn’t there to fight. He’s there to erase their earth. From below, Nicol Zeitgeist attacks with an energy beam. Fighting it off, Qabiri manifests a burning sword and remarks that he’d have preferred to just kill her and the Professor. But he knows what their people are like. When one of them can do something, they all have to do it. That’s why their whole world has to die. They don’t know when to leave well enough alone.
On the roof of a ruined building, the Citydweller realizes that this is the end. They’re dead. A voice tells him not to give up hope. She’s not sure how, but they’ve come to help. Looking around, the Citydweller sees a woman who looks just like Nikola. Sister Perpetua. Believing she is Nicoal, he wonders what happened to her up there. What happened to her eyes?
The real Nikola is falling from the skies, her power broken. Desperate, she exclaims that she’s the world’s last hope. She can’t die! She won’t, states Nate Grey as he catches her. Nate? But he destroyed you! Nikola exclaims, and why does he look like that? Nate tells her to shush. They have to go now, for Qabii is about to attack again. Nate teleports them away and Qbiri is livid at seeing another worldwalker. This world must end now.
Nate takes Nikola to the rooftop, where the Citydweller Perpetua and the maimed Technocrat are waiting alongside the body of Professor X, Nikola’s dead lover. Technocrat demands to know who they are. Under the circumstances, they can’t afford trust. Looking at the burning spot in the sky, Nate remarks he understands, but only his questions are relevant now. He is coming. Tell me what I need to know or we all die.


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Fearful Symmetries – part two
Above the world called Earth 253, death hovers. His name is Qabiri. A being of infinite might, he has descended from the higher realities to pass a terrible judgment on existence. He has come to exterminate this world.
On a skyscraper, one member of the former foremost superhero team of this world explains matters to Nate Grey. The injured Citydweller relates that they were called the Protectorate when there was something to protect. He drew his lifeforce from the energy of cities. All the cities are dead now. He won’t survive long without them. What do they call him?
Nate introduces himself. Very prosaic, the Citydweller comments and recommends Nate return to his own Earth. They’ll need him when the monster gets to them. Nate replies that he’d prefer to stop him here and asks the surviving members of the Protectorate to tell him more. Heavily sweating, the Citydweller retorts that there is nothing to tell. He appeared. That’s all.
The Citydweller’s story:
In Times Square some hours ago. He was fatally beautiful. There was talk of angels. He hovered there for one minute. Doing nothing. Burning. Then Manhattan burned. Manhattan was gone. Seven million people evaporated in a heartbeat.
They’d been at their subspace headquarters, the Foldcastle. From there, they can reach anywhere almost instantly. They were far too slow. And he was waiting. For them.
The four heroes arrived. Nightfighter asked the Citydweller to ask about the damage. There was no Manhattan left to ask. Brooklyn was sobbing, Queens was catatonic with shock. The Bronx just flashed him a rude gesture. He told Nightfighter the damage was total.
The Present:
Could someone help him? His eyes no longer seem to work… He asks for Technocrat and the woman whose legs are still missing crawls towards him to hug him. Why couldn’t they stop him? he asks helplessly. They stopped alien invasions. They ended hunger. They rebuilt time. He always hoped some day there’d be time for them. He’s sorry he’s out of time. He asks the Technocrat to tell the rest.
Technocrat’s story:
Bring me the wordlwalkers, the burning ordered. And what? Nightfighter asked while already charging at the stranger. He’ll let them live? That’s not possible, comes the answer. They are a contagion and must be purged. Then do your own dirty work! the Nightfighter snarls back and boasts that his cerebral cortex and nervous system were replaced by an interlocking chain of microscopic supercomputers. He can calculate a billion different fights before his foe can blink, and choose the scenario with the outcome he likes best. So it doesn’t matter how powerful his foe is, he has already beaten him- Qabiri replies that he is wasting his time. Only one outcome is possible. With that his energy hits and injures Nightfighter and White Bird.
Technocrat was barely able to shield herself and the Citydweller. The thing was they had no idea what world-walkers were.
Then they found out as a voice told Qabiri to stop. Nicola Zeitgeist, Thor and Professor X, the team’s mightiest members had returned from a mission to a parallel world. For a moment, she thought they had a chance. And then the monster smiled. At last, he said.
Thor called him a coward as he flew upward. Professor X corrected him. He saw extreme hostility and focus in his mind. He’s frightening. Not half as much as she will be if they don’t catch up with him. Nicola ordered and the men complied while Technocrat brought the wounded back to the Foldcastle, warning Nicola that Moscow and the White House are arming missiles. Nicola sighs. Haven’t those idiots learned to leave things to them yet?
White Bird replies that a nuclear war takes thirty minutes and she doubts they have that long. Even Nightfighter barely had time to finish a speech before the Burning Tiger dropped him. They’re in trouble. Nicola tries to contact Professor X and asks him to approach the target with extreme caution. This might take some work to win.
Doubling over, the Citydweller tells her it’s too late. Reykjavik, Osaka, Santiago, Nairobi, D.C. All the cities everywhere. They are burning. The Burning Tiger did this. The whole world is burning.
The present:
Which is more or less where he came in, Nicola tells Nate. This is what’s left of them. Satisfied?
Technocrat informs Nicola, that White Bird and Nightfighter were well enough to look for other survives. They’ll move who they can to the Foldcastle. She thinks the Citydweller is dead. Sister Perpetua touches the man crouching next to the Technocrat and he crumbles.
Clenching her fists, Nicola shouts that’s it then. It’s over. When she goes up, it will truly be the end of the world. That sounds a bit egotistical, Nate observes mildly. She’s the spirit of the age, Nicola replies angrily. Really? He wonders. Doesn’t that strike her a strange? Some things you don’t question, Nicola insists.
Nate thinks for a moment and replies that he does. He likes answers. This “Foldcastle.” It’s a sanctuary? From this? Nicola asks. No, it’s their headquarters. It’s in subspace, but it’s part of this world. Escape to other Earths, he suggest. She can’t, Nicola replies. She’s part of this Earth too. Professor X could have, but he’s dead. He looks like him. Who? Nate asks smiling. Nate. Professor X. Nate Xavier. Ah, he wasn’t a Nate Grey, Nate realizes. That explains a lot. Why is the Burning Tiger doing this? He didn’t say, Nicola replies. Someone should ask him, Nate decides and flies off.
Nicola is called by Nightfighter on the comm-line and she has to inform him that Thor is dead. He tells her he has found maybe a hundred of Aborigines. They are shunting them back to the Foldcastle. The rest of Australia’s a wash.
In Idaho, White Bird is evading the fire of survivalists with a lot of ammo. She’s losing interest in saving them fast. Nicola tells her to follow her gut. She takes a look at Nate’s companion, Sister perpetua and gasps. You’re me, she states.
Nate has met up with Qabiri n the sky. Has he come to fight? Qabiri asks. He has come to talk, Nate replies. He wouldn’t want to fight him. Wouldn’t I? Qabiri asks rhetorically and sends an energy bolt at him… to no avail. No, you wouldn’t, Nate repeats calmly. And, for once, Qabiri is shaken as he mutters “impossible.”
Nate continues that he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to invade his mind. His name is Qabiri. He’s from a parallel Earth far upspiral. He thinks spiralwalkers threaten his home and that they and their worlds must be eradicated before more spiralwalkers arise. He’s mad.
Qabiri returns the favor as he identifies Nate as a telekine of enormous power. An impossible being born on a world that will never exist. He fantasizes that he’s a shaman. A healer, a protector. He’s grown too comfortable with his own insanity. Not that it matters.
He can also read minds? Nate wonders, taken aback. Nate opened a path. He walked down it. What did he expect? his foe replies. When things can’t be healed radical surgery is necessary. Nate replies that this isn’t a broken Earth. Every Earth beneath his is in darkness, Qabiri retorts. Everything in the darkness is broken. Even his Earth 612. His Earth isn’t 612, Nate corrects him. It is now, Qabiri replies. In a moment it will be 611. He was warned, Nate threatens. His eye begins to glow.
Down on the building roof, Nicola watches the two men in the sky. Something is happening. One of them falls. Nicola asks Technocrat for the point of impact- 40.4 ˆ^N, 98.9 W. South central Nebraska, comes the reply and Nicola orders the other woman to get them there. They have to make sure the Burning Tiger is dead. If the fall doesn’t kill him, she’ll snap his neck herself. Moments later, the three women arrive in a burning cornfield in Nebraska. Technocrat crumbles to dust, her body too damaged to go on. It’s her fault Nicoal bemoans, it’s her fault.
The man lands, so hard is his impact that he creates a crater moments later. The woman stumbles down the crater. Nicola informs White Bird and Nightfighter of matters and moves in to kill the Burning Tiger.
Shocked, the two women realize that the man lying in front of them is Nate.
Above Earth, Qabiri gathers energy and fire and the whole world is engulfed in flame as the world explodes. Satisfied with the result, Qabiri announces Earth 611 and disappears.


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Fearful Symmetries – part three
Plunging down the Spiral of parallel Earths with her otherwordly twin and the unconscious Nate Grey, the mightiest mutant of Earth 611 (actually 616), Nicola Zeitgeist wonders if they killed this Earth 253.
Had they not walked between worlds, the destroyer Qabiri wouldn’t have come to keep them from ever reaching his pure Earth and tainting it. He beat Nate in three seconds. He obliterated her world. He wants them dead and any Earth they ever touched. He can’t be stopped. All they can do is run.
Nicola turns into her energy form and Sister Perpetua shouts at her not to abandon them. Nicola tells her not to panic. She created an energy shield around them, as the Earth they are heading for seems inhospitable. Why did Nicola bring them there? Perpetua asks. Nicola is confused. She thought Perpetua brought them there. She’s never been this far down the parallels before. The air’s exploding. They land in a lake.
Moments later, Nate raises them upward in a telekinetic bubble. An acid sea, the air’s acid too, he observes. They are on a broken Earth, an Earth that formed improperly. They can’t survive there. Whose idea was this? Wasn’t it his? Perpetua asks. He’d never have chosen a world where it takes most of his concentration to telekinetically filter enough oxygen from the air to breathe, he replies snarkily. He has to be conscious to walk the Spiral, he adds, his nose beginning to bleed. It’s not easy. Nicola angrily states that she doesn’t even know what the Spiral is. She’s still not sure who they are.
Nate explains that, on her Earth, it’s called parallels. A sequence of Earths stretched across existence, all unaware of each other. Others call it the Tree of Worlds or the Corridor. Qabiri from an Earth high in the sequence calls it the Darkness.
Clenching her fists, Nicola vows that she will kill Qabiri. Nate reminds her that she doesn’t have the power. Even Nate’s is a shadow of his. If he keeps this up, he’ll have a cerebral hemorrhage. They have to leave before they die, but he needs to know something. Of the hundreds of Earths to run to why choose this one?
Nicola insists it’s nothing to do with her. She can’t take people down the parallels. Nate reminds her she also claimed to be unable to survive the end of her Earth, and yet here she is. Is it a coincidence she and Sister Perpetua look alike? Nicola reminds him that they are counterparts from different Earths. Hasn’t he ever met a counterpart while world-walking? He acts like she’s got an agenda! Perpetua asks both of them to stop. Someone’s out there.
Outside their bubble, unprotected, a blonde woman, another lookalike, rises advising them that this place is dangerous. She is Hassan, champion and explorer from the Emirate. She didn’t expect to find others this far down the Serpent’s Tail. She too is dangerous when provoked. So why are both women wearing her face?
Edinburgh on Earth 611. Suddenly, the sky is burning, and then so are the people on the street. Qabiri has arrived. Where is Nate Grey? he asks.
A plane strikeforce has noticed him. Realizing he is hostile, they attack. Qabiri just points with his burning sword and they all explode. Floating down to the ground, he asks a frightened boy where Nate Grey is. Who? the child asks, confused. He should know him, Qabiri replies. His actions condemned the child’s Earth. It will end shortly. He does this only to protect his own world. He orders the boy to tell his people to gather with those they love. There’s nothing else they can do. They have until Nate Grey arrives. He must die with them, so that he doesn’t taint other Earths. So that their sacrifice won’t be pointless. The boy runs away.
In the meantime, Nate and his entourage have arrived on that Earth as well in the Himalayas. Hassan complains that she’s never been to this Earth. Is there anywhere warm on it? Yes, but being near civilization will be a bad idea when Qabiri arrives, Nate replies.
He asks Hassan why she was on that broken world. A whim, she replies. She doesn’t know. He does, Nate replies. She was called. And who would have done that? He? she asks. Them. He points to Sister Perpetua and Nicola who angrily informs him that he is out of his mind. He reminds her again that she survived the death of her own Earth when she swore she couldn’t. Hassan was found alive and unprotected where nothing can live. Hassan snarls at him aggressively. Nate continues that since the women met, all of them have done impossible things.
She hasn’t, Sister Perpetua points out calmly. She most of all, Nate replies. She has no eyes. But since she’s come into contact with Nicola, she’s seen. It was so natural, she didn’t even notice. He came to cure her. He thought she was a mutant, but she isn’t. He thought she had impassable walks in her mind, but they’re no walls. They’re voids. So wide and deep no bridge across them is possible. All of them have them. But different voids as if they fit together like a puzzle.
Nicola and Hassan gather around Perpetua almost protectively as Nicola snarls that they already figured that out. They’re parallel versions of each other from different Earths. Are they? Nate muses. Perpetua remembers her father’s abuse. Nicola recalls materializing as an Earth spirit without explanation. Hassan was selected by her caliph to control an unknown energy from the stars. Surface memories. Fabrications. The three women stare at him with identical looks on their faces.
Nate continues. Nicola and Perpetua got them off Nicola’s Earth when he couldn’t. Meshing so effortlessly, they didn’t even realize they were doing it. Hassan heard a psychic summons across reality and came running. They are not parallels. They are pieces of a singular being and they don’t want to recognize it.
Nicola accuses him of being insane as she shifts into her energy form ready to attack him. Quite possibly, Nate agrees. His eye flashes as he engulfs them in energy. They are running out of time. He asks them to forgive him.
With this display of power, Qabiri senses Nate’s return and as well that with him is a power far greater than Nate’s. What has he done? the three women accuse Nate. They now look identical, three perfect blondes in togas with stripes across their legs and arms. Stripped away their self-delusions, Nate explains. They are perfect. What if they don’t want to remember? Hassan asks. Perpetua states that she wants to know. Can Nate heal them? If they allow it. Do it, Perpetua decides. Again he links them.
That moment, fiery energy strikes him courtesy of Qabiri. Did he think he wouldn’t find Nate? He strikes again with Nate erecting a telekinetic shield, but it doesn’t hold and Nate has to evade the blow. He turns around. Qabiri’s energy blasted away half a mountain.
Qabiri takes that moment to wrestle Nate from behind. The Earths he has killed are his fault, Qabiri snarls. The world-walkers should have stayed on their own worlds. He only protects the Brilliant City from corruption. They made it necessary. Nate focuses… in vain. Nate’s power is nothing to him, Qabiri boasts.
He gets ready to kill Nate, when fiery energy like his hits Qabiri who falls to the ground. Disgusted at being profaned by the muck of the darkness, he flies up again to behold the united form of the three women. She accuses him of strange standards. He addresses her as Idris. He knows her? she demands. Qabiri explains that she fled the Brilliant City eons ago. They always wondered what became of her. The darknesses have corrupted her. Unchecked, it will corrupt the Brilliant City as well. Is that what she wants?
Nate takes Idris’ arm, explaining that there are still man voids in her mind. She’s far from complete. If she fights Qabiri, she will lose. They have to leave. Wherever they go, he’ll find them, Qabiri warns them. This world will still die first, before it generates more world-walkers. Destroy it then, Nate retorts. He can’t fight Qabiri. He accepts that. But he’ll waste time. Time’s on Nate’s side now. Qabiri made a mistake. He knows what Qabiri’s afraid of. With those ominous words, Nate teleports himself and Idris away.
In the Spiral between worlds, Idris states that Qabiri will come after them. Can they really fight him? No, Nate admits. What are they going to do? she asks. Find out what frightened her so badly she had to scatter herself across reality to get away from it, he decides. Idris doesn’t understand. What good will that do? What then?
Then? Nate asks. Then he does something evil.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Fearful Symmetries – part four
There are parallel Earths strung along a spiral from one end of reality to the other. Our Earth is a median world. At one extreme are the broken Earths, ruined worlds where creation went astray. On the other end is the Brilliant City- A singularity. Perfection on the head of a pin. A timeless home to a perfected race of unfathomable power. Nothing ever changes in the Brilliant City. Visitors are unheard of. Until now.
Nate Grey and Idris manifest above the Brilliant City. Why are they there? Idris demands. This is the pinnacle of everything they understand as reality, Nate explains. Qabiri’s homeworld, and hers. Qabiri’s willing to destroy all other Earths to keep it pristine. She ran from it so violently, she split herself across existence. This place is the key to stopping Qabiri, he believes. Idris wants to know what he’s planning. To help her, Nate promises. There are gaps in her psyche. He’s never seen anything like them. But there’s residue of secrets as well. What were her secrets? Unwilling to reply, Idris turns away.
They are joined by other inhabitants of the Brilliant City, who come flying up. They are not welcome here, Nate and Idris are told. Leave or be extinguished. Nate replies that one of theirs is “extinguishing” the lower Earths. Qabiri, the other being, Melchior replies. Nate wants them to stop him. No one else can. Qabiri left here, Melchior replies. He’s no longer one of them. They have no interest in him or the Darknesses. Were he to erase it all, why would they care? Nate’s eye flares up in anger. That’s all the rest of existence is to them? he shouts. Darkness? Does perfection exclude compassion? Leave, he is ordered again. If he’s there to taint the Brilliant City, he won’t get the chance, he is warned.
It occurred to him, Nate admits, but he wouldn’t. He doesn’t like to destroy things when he can avoid it. He points to Idris. Ask her why they are there. They will continue this when he’s back. With that, he dematerializes.
Idris addresses Melchior, telling him she’s come home. He recognizes her.
Earth 611 (actually 616). Qabiri in the skies decides to act. Nate Grey has fled. His cowardice only dooms more Earths, Qabiri predicts. Any Earth that birthed a world-walker will birth others, any Earth touched by a world-walker will birth others. Any world-walker could carry the taint of the darknesses to the Brilliant City. They cannot be allowed to exist. This Earth must end now. He summons his fiery energy.
Five minutes more won’t kill Qabiri, Nate who has appeared behind him states. He hasn’t come back to fight, he quickly adds. They both know Nate’d fail. They have things to discuss. The Earth will still be there for Qabiri to destroy when they are done talking. Or is patience beyond his understanding? Nate can see where it might be. He realizes concepts like space and time barely exist in the Brilliant City. What does he know of the Brilliant City? Qabiri asks suspicious. It sounded so interesting he had to see it for himself, Nate replies seemingly harmlessly. It still stands. For now, he adds. It will always stand! Qabiri shouts as he unleashes a killing blast at Nate.
“Nate” is revealed to be merely a projection, which informs him that Nate isn’t stupid enough to face Qabiri again physically. Qabiri demands he show himself or he will destroy Nate’s world. The image turns to a giant face of Nate as he states logically that this is a thin threat. Qabiri will destroy this world anyway. By the time he finishes, he’ll be too late. The Brilliant City will be gone. Unless he destroys Nate first, before he torches this Earth. Nate knows Qabiri can find him. Their mental link is a road map he can follow. But it will take time. He’s going to listen to Nate.
As Qabiri keeps on looking for Nate, Nate begins to explain that he is the mutant shaman of this Earth. He exists to heal and guide his tribe, though he must live outside it. He accepts that. He embraces the contradictions. He loves them as a parent loves a child, without question. It’s part of his job to negotiate with higher and lower dimensions, such as Qabiri’s. But he’s confused. He recently visited a broken Earth as far to the bottom of the Spiral as the Brilliant City is to the top. A world of constant murderous change. With survival their only goal to the creatures  there life was precious beyond belief.  Nate floats over an iceberg, still projecting as Qabiri closes in.
Nate continues that Qabiri’s world has been unchanged since time began. It’s always the beginning of time there and the end and they imagine all life as meaningless as their own. So which is the higher world and which the lower? Can Qabiri hear him?
Qabiri flies through Nate, shattering his form. The shards pull together again. Does he see? Nate asks. Qabiri never had to adapt. He doesn’t know how to, so Nate can pull the same trick on him over and over again.
Is he the real one? Qabiri asks. Yes, Nate replies and fades away before Qabiri can grab him. But something did change in the Brilliant City once, didn’t it? he asks. Idris found something. That’s why she ran away. He thinks he’ll go see what it was.
Left alone, Qabiri screams in denial.
In the Brilliant City, Idris asks whether they remember her. She’s their friend, Idris, who is no longer among them, Melchior replies. Why did she leave? Idris asks. It doesn’t matter, Melchior replies, clearly speaking for the others. She’s been to the darknesses. She’s contaminated. They all fire energy at her with Melchior’s judgment that the Brilliant City must be preserved.
Nate appears at that moment, breaking that energy flow. What do they think they’re doing? he asks angrily. She’s not their enemy. He’s not their enemy. He stands protectively over Idris, as he shouts that their enemy is right behind them. He’ll destroy both their worlds if not checked.
Qabiri appears in a halo of dark energy. A transparent deception, he scoffs. Melchior and he are brothers. He knows Qabiri would never harm the City. Come and die, he tells Nate.
Melchior turns to Qabiri, informing him that he isn’t welcome there. Qabiri is incredulous. He isn’t serious! What he’s done he did for them! Again, the citizens of the City fire energy, this time at Qabiri. Like Idris he is contaminated, Melchior explains. He knew that when he left return was impossible. Nothing has changed. After all, he’s given up they’ treat him like this. He sacrificed everything for them, Qabiri screams as he fires back.
Nate protects himself and Idris in a telekinetic bubble from the fight. They have a few second while the others are distracted. Is she ready, he asks. Why is he trying to help her? she asks in return. She’s not one of his tribe. She is, Nate replies. She’s a mutant. A changed being in a place where change in impossible. She did what she shouldn’t be genetically capable of. She learned what she couldn’t have learned. She shredded herself among the Earths and invented false memories to ensure she’d forget herself. He can’t put her back together again. But he can psychically reconnect her across worlds. He touches her forehead and proceeds to do so.
Qabiri blows away his attackers and by doing so destroys part of the Brilliant City. What have they made him do? he cries in horror.
Idris is also horrified as Nate connects her with her selves all across the Spiral. She remembers. It can’t be true! She recoils on herself, holding herself while Nate states disappointed that it’s all so… so  pointless!
Qabiri faces him menacingly. This is all Nate’s fault. He engineered this. He knew beasts from the darknesses could never tolerate perfection. A city is easier to rebuild than a psyche, Nate retorts. And this place is nowhere near perfection Does he want to know what Idris did? She looked up, that’s all. He orders them to look. They do so.
Above them the Spiral goes on. Mysterious shadowy beings tower over them. The Brilliant City is at the top of the Spiral they can see, Nate explains. But there’s a spectrum beyond. This is what Idris saw. Beings so great, the denizens of the Brilliant City are even less than the lowliest creature in all the Spiral is to them, so great they don’t even notice them. This is no less a broken world than any other. This was the knowledge so consuming, Idris couldn’t bear it.
With the citizens of the Brilliant City in shock after that revelation, Nate walks amidst the rubble cradling Idris close. It’s over, he tells her. It will never be over, she replies. Her people… will survive, he cuts her off. The Brilliant City will survive. Reality caught up with them. That’s all. All they’ve really lost is arrogance. And Qabiri?
He looks at him in the rubble, crying, possibly mad. He has nothing left to fight for, Nate replies. Idris sighs that she left to avoid this. Nate said he’d help her. She doesn’t want to be Idris anymore. Who would she like to be? he asks with a smile.
Earth 611/616:
Sister Perpetua prays. Her visions of terror no longer haunt her. Has she finally atoned? Are her torments truly ended? She is not worthy of the Lord’s mercy. She firmly vows with the help of his grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin.
Unseen by her Nate muses that she saved countless lives on countless worlds. The sin was his. He guessed what would happen when he “cured” her in the Brilliant City. He planned on it. Forget, he tells her. It’s the least he can do for her. But he can never forget. Go in peace.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Till the End of the World
Kansas, now. Two teenagers are running through a sunflower field. The boy, dragging the girl, is panicked, urging her to hurry or they’ll miss their chance. The girl in contrast is smiling happily. Aren’t the flowers beautiful? she asks. They smell so nice. She wants to smell the flowers, she tells the boy called Mike. Mike urges Carla to run. He can’t leave her there. Why won’t she understand? She tells him he is funny. This is their home. It isn’t! he shouts as they are close to the road. If they can get a ride, they’re gone. Oh no, he mutters the next moment, as from in front of him a voice asks where there is to go.
A flying glowing humanoid asks where he could go that would matter. Why is Mike afraid? He knows he’d never hurt him. Carla isn’t frightened. He continues that Mike’s power is interesting, but Mike shouldn’t presume for a moment that he can hurt him. Shall they go back now? No, Mike replies and shoots at him with a telekinetic bolt. Carla screams at him to stop. There’s too much pain! She screams. Why is he doing this?
Angrily, Mike turns back to the being. Accusingly, he states he said he wouldn’t hurt her. He isn’t, the humanoid points out. Mike did. He imagines quite a few people felt a twinge from that. Poor Carla was at the epicentre, so she bore the brunt. If Mike wants to go away that badly, he can go. But did he ask Carla what she wanted?
Addressing Carla, he tells her that Mike is going to take her into the world. Will that make her happier than they can? Carla shakes Mike’s hands off as she runs to the being. She doesn’t want the world. She wants to stay there and be happy. The being takes her hand and promises she will be. Carla begins to smile ecstatically as the being’s energy envelops her. He tells Mike to enjoy his time left. Carla will enjoy hers.
That isn’t happiness! Mike shouts. She doesn’t even know where she is! He sinks to the ground and lets his power flow free as he shouts that he remembers when she was funny, smart, intelligent. He destroyed her. He destroyed all of them!  That was very pyrotechnic, the being remarks. Is he done? They were all told the situation. They made their choice. Intelligence wasn’t something they needed. What’s intelligence ever done for Mike?
With his head bowed, Mike asks him to wait. He’s right. There’s nowhere to go. He asks to be taken back. The being levitates the three of them away. These little outburst of rebellion are quite entertaining. He’s going to miss them when they are gone. But he does understand rebellion is just an affectation. All their roles were foreordained, even his. And they must play them.
From the sky, he looks at the result of Mike’s telekinetic outburst. He has burned the letters HELP US into the sunflower field. All those poor sunflowers. Dead for nothing, the being observes. He tells Mike to accept the future. Accept reality. No one’s going to see that. No one can save any of you.
From orbit, Nate Grey looks down on Earth, seeing the message.
A little later, he floats through the town of Picayune, Kansas. Everything seem peaceful, the people happy. Carla is dancing on the sidewalk. Only one person seems dejected, Mike. Surprised, he sees Nate floating above ground and asks him what he is. Nate remarks that he is telepathically re-circuiting everyone’s mind so they don’t know he’s there, but Mike sees him. Mutant minds are hardwired differently from Homo sapiens minds. Bypassing them demands special focus. A mutant might see him. Is he a mutant? Mike attacks him telekinetically and orders him to go away. While the building behind Nate is in shambles, Nate himself is unfazed. He reminds Mike that this wasn’t what his sign said. Help wanted or words to that effect. He probably shouldn’t use his powers like that again.
A crowd has gathered. With a thought, Nate sends them away. He’s not human! Mike bursts out. Depends on what he means, Nate replies calmly. Is he Homo sapien? No, neither of them is. But calling themselves Homo superior is presumptuous, doesn’t he think? Homo sapiens are their cousins. That’s important to remember. His name is Nate Grey. He was born on an Earth that will never exist. Mike needn’t be concerned if that doesn’t make sense. Nate is an impossibility. And a shaman. Mutants are his tribe. Did Mike burn that plea into the fields? It’s why he’s there. He’d like to meet whoever erased that message.
They stop in front of a modest shop window announcing Picayune Sun, the town’s small local newspaper. How long has the town been like this? Nate asks. In a walking coma? Five years maybe, Mike replies. But it’s been going south as long as he can remember. Ever since he got there. He refers to the newspaper editor inside, who’s working on the paper. His dad says that was thirty years ago.
The man inside looks at them. Nate Grey he says… Energy hits Nate, as he continues that Nate’s interference is not appreciated. He walks out, critically looking at his glasses. Nate made him ruin them. That’s why he doesn’t wear them into action. Why wear them at all? Nate asks. He likes the way they look, doesn’t Nate? But that’s not what Nate wants to ask, is it? He invites Nate to read his mind. Nate finds he can’t His mind is too strange. The pieces are there, but not in any structure he understands. He’s an alien. In his own way, so’s Nate.
He builds a TK shield to fend off the alien’s offence, then attacks himself. The other being is strong, but he was built to destroy worlds. He hits his foe, but it’s the town’s inhabitants who scream in agony. Surprised, Nate stops.
Having dropped any remnants of his human identity, the alien replies that if Nate understood his nature, he’d know relative strength was unimportant. He asks Nate to look with his mind, not his eyes and understand why there is no point fighting him. See what I am…
Nate looks, seeing the swirling energy patterns. A moment later, he rises into the air. An agitated Mike asks where he’s going. He’s too big, Nate replies. He needs perspective. He’ll be back. He rises above the world into orbit. Everywhere beneath him he sees the alien’s swirling energy. It interweaves through the entire world. Indistinguishable. He’s the world.
Nate returns and angrily asks what he’s done. What he was sent to do, the glowing alien replies. He’s a harvester. He doesn’t know what that is, Nate replies. He wouldn’t, the alien observes. Did Nate think the vast resources of energy of this planet were accidental? Did he never suspect some agency might be responsible? His people are farmers, nothing more threatening than that. Earth’s starsystem has existed for billions of years. The harvester’s race has existed for tens of billions. Before Earth condensed out of cosmic ash, they had determined which stars generated the most fertile planet. They knew what to look for. Almost three billion years ago, they found this world.
It was then a volcanic soup without atmosphere; its continents still cooling and unrecognizable. And there was no oxygen, which was still trapped in the vast primordial oceans. Via meteors they rained down parasites that emerged with the cells creating something new. Most died, some spawned generations of hosts infected with generations of parasites, finally merging into a single creature. And evolution began.
The parasites now called mitochondria, the energy factory in all animal cells. Their world was used to develop better and better mitochondria in increasingly complex forms. This is their crop. For eons, they patiently watched it grow. Now it’s ripe. This is the planet’s destiny, the destiny of Nate’s species. They were never meant for anything else.
Thirty years ago, the signal came. He was sent. To prepare the Earth for harvesting. His native form was energy antithetical to survival on this world. A harvester must adapt to his cropworld or dissipate.
A couple found him. The man ordered the woman to run, shouting that it’s not a child. But then the energy engulfed them as the harvester obtained their genetic samples and then generated a physical body suited to the cropworld. In a very real sense, he tells Nate, he was born here. Born of parents – the couple turning to dust, and they were his parents who gave him their form, their energy. They gave him everything. With his new form he destroyed them. He is far more native to this world than Nate.
Yet he is also still energy. For thirty years, he cast his net across every mitochondrion on the glob preparing for the harvest.
Why now, after billions of years? Nate asks. He isn’t stupid, the harvester retorts. Isn’t it obvious? Mutants, Nate realizes. A quantum leap in evolution, it meant the field was ready, the Harvester explains. Not that it concerns Nate. He’s not sure what Nate is, but he doesn’t belong here. They seeded this world for energy. It’s time to bring n the crop. He warns Nate to stay out of the way.
He doesn’t have the right, Nate shouts. These are living creatures! Doesn’t he care about them? A rancher may love his lifestock, but that doesn’t save them from the slaughterhouse, does it? comes the reply. Life on this planet exists for one purpose and one purpose alone. It was made for harvesting and nothing will change that.
Nate offers his own power if the Harvester will leave humanity alone. His power is tainted, the Harvester scoffs. Nate could fight him and would probably win. But the Harvester is part of everyone now. If Nate hurts him, he hurts them. Kill the Harvester, he’ll kill them all.
Nate grabs Mike and flies away. They land in a sunflower field. Mike doesn’t understand. Mike could be a strong telekinetic if he tried, Nate says unexpectedly. Being a shaman is difficult, he continues. You stand apart from your tribe, and from you own emotions. You have to be ready to do what the tribe needs. Mike points upwards, seeing something. Nate ignores that, instructing the boy further. Above all you have to remember you’re just a man. No matter what your power level. Men make mistakes, men die. He touches Mike’s forehead, passing something.
What’s he going to do? Mike asks. He’s going to stop him, Nate replies and flies upward, instructing him to be a good shaman, if that’s his choice. Always think for yourself.
Now, the harvester states and his energies swirl out, engulfing everyone. People try to run in horror as they too are turned to stone, like once the harvester’s “parents.” Only Carla stands there happily and without any idea of what is happening.
Wait! Suddenly comes Nates voice. A last time, he reminds the Harvester that he lived among these people. Do they mean nothing to him? More than Nate knows, comes the reply. He cherishes every one of them. But he exists for this too. And Nate will not interfere. He fires energy at Nate. Despite the onslaught, Nate moves closer to him, insisting that he will. The Harvester reminds him that if Nate destroys him, he destroys the world.
Nat grabs him. In the swirl of both their energies, he explains that he was created to destroy worlds. Maybe this is the moment he exists for. He was told at some point every cell, every atom in his body would dissolve into a critical mass of unbridled energy. If he imploded, he’d burn out of existence. If he exploded, he’d take a large part of existence with him. He wonders what will happen, if he turns all his power on himself.
Is he insane? The Harvester protests. He wouldn’t be surprised, Nate replies as electricity crackles from his glowing eye. Suicide isn’t victory, the Harvester points out. Nate won’t win that way. He will only die. No one’s going to die, not even the two of them, comes the reply. Both begin to glow brighter. They are becoming energy now, Nate tells him. Can he feel it? The Harvester is a conduit to every living thing on Earth. With him Nate’s energy will flow through everything. Nate will taint everything. He’ll make this world useless to the Harvester’s people. But they’ll both dissolve, the Harvester protests. Neither of them will exist anymore. As entities no, Nate replies, but a bit of them will be in each creature on the planet. In every living cell that will descend from them. They’re going to live forever!
High above, Mike has watched the spectacle. They’re gone now. No, they aren’t, he realizes. They’re everywhere.
Everything’s changed, Mike realizes as he lands in the crater where the two of them fought. Carla runs to him. He thought she was dead, he admits. Why? she asks surprised, She doesn’t remember? Was he flying? She asks confused. He didn’t know how before, Mike admits as he holds her. It’s easier than you think.
They walk among the sunflowers as he tells her that today he watched a man give up his self and flow into every being on earth to rescue them from their destiny. He gave Mike something before he left, if he can figure out what it is. Carla doesn’t understand. Neither does he, Mike admits, but that’s all right. He’s got to go. He’s sorry. He flies away. Why? Carla calls after him. His tribe needs a shaman. He thinks he might learn how to be one.