A/N: I was incredibly reluctant and hesitant to post this fic. I'm very proud of it and it's kind of my baby. I'm no science expert so if my science is a little flaky to you real experts out there, I'm sorry.

This fic gets very deep and well… philosophical. Hope you enjoy it.

This was originally color coded to make reading easier... but apparently this site can't support color so hope there's no confusion...

Bold: Comedian

Bold Italic: Rorschach.

Nothing ever ends.

Particles never die. They never cease to exist. We breathe the same air the first plants expelled millions of years ago. Yet, while they never disappear, they are susceptible to change.

As a being that could see and seemingly manipulate all particles everywhere, it was no wonder Jon could appear to create something out of nothing.

A particle has the potential to be anything. All it needs is a blueprint.

Anything that ever was is and will be can exist and be called together again. This is potential.

This ability alone is beyond the far reaches of any one mind still contained within the restraints of a solid linear time bound body.

Was it possible to construct life from nothing?

Yes, Jon could build a working living body. But to create a person… A single mind separate from his own. As a being that was lost in the will of the universe, was it possible to create something with a sense of self?

Or, even more disturbing, was the mind simply a part? Like everything else, was it still out there when we died? Having lost its original containing form, was it now waiting for the next potential?

If he arranged the right particles together at the right time in the right way, could he stumble on a person that had once existed at a single point in time? Could this person exist again later on? Was a mind tangible?

Furthermore, existing then, now, and in the future, could Jon transport a being from the past to his present and their future? Could he create a paradox?

Could a paradox even exist? The simple existence of a paradox was a paradox in itself.

Simple rules do not apply to a mind no longer restricted by a perception.

Boundaries, rules, universal truths that may or may not exist. These things no longer mattered to Jon.

Yet… There was always still choice. Would a person reject being created?

Gears falling on an empty street being pulled back together to be stepped on by a fat man only to be disintegrated in an accident to be reassembled on an alien world crumbling to dust watching as half of New York died at the hands of fate.

To Jon, it was and always will be the same watch. Had he created this watch at each moment in time just to serve its purpose? Did he intend for them all to be the same? Perhaps, he had knowingly created them all the same in his desire for something new.

With this in mind, was it possible to create a new person without it being someone you already knew? To make them a blank slate and not impose yourself and your memories on them? With a desire for something new and familiar, could you create an individual self?

While he stood looking down at the fresh blood, looking across at the man who was about to become that splatter in the snow, hearing him announce that the Comedian was dead, working side by side, seeing him for the first time; Jon created.

Was it only a memory echoing in his mind, a prediction of what would be said had it been really him, or was this indeed fragments of a dead man pulled from time and space and pieced back together?

"Jon. Justice needed."

"Justice will come."

"Justice should not be delayed. Should be dealt with when needed."

"I will and have given him the worst punishment he could ever have."

"No. He still lives."

"Death is not always the worst, Rorschach."

"Hurm. No, but it gets rid of problem."

"Gets rid of, but does not solve it."

"Doesn't need to."

"You would rather a problem disappear than be solved?"

"No problem: Nothing to solve."

"Not always, Rorschach. It could always return. Out of sight, not out of existence."

"This why needs be dealt with now. You will let murders go unpunished? You can let him go free? Live in false paradise?"

"It is not my place to judge anymore. Nothing ends, Rorschach."

"Death ends."

Another personality is needed. Another mind added to the fray. Another voice speaks up. Is it pulled out of time or created or faked? Would the laws allow such a creation?

"Where the hell am I and why can't I see or feel anything?"

"You are dead."

"Is this hell?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Jon? Rorschach? Oh fuck. This is hell."

"I can assure you this is not heaven, hell, life, or death."

"So what the hell is this?"

"Not important."

"You and I have very different ideas on what's important, Rorschach. So I died. That means that pretty boy got me, didn't he? Please tell me I won't go down as the guy that got taken down by some pretty washed up self indulgent prick."

"Comedian is dead. I am dead. New York gone. No retribution. No justice. He won."

"See, now that's important. Jon… I have to know… Is she…"

"She is alive and well. She is with Dan now and will lead a decent happy life."

"Never did like her with you."

"She knows who her father is now."

"….Is she…"

"She was angry, but she will accept it. She will learn to forgive and move on."

"She always was tough like that. Think she got it from her mother. Real good girl… Sally did a real good job. Hell, I'd have messed her up. Sally did right by her."

"Jon. This not right. Why bring us here?"

A question from a voice that may only exist in memories. In a place only I know exists. Does it exist at all? Am just acting out a show I want to take place. I already know the answer and the next question like reading off a script.

After the hundredth time of taking it in, are we still as surprised by the ending?

"Emotion, curiosity, needing to know if I could. This place is done with me. Staying will only bring about a future for this world that it is not ready for. My very existence here has already altered it in ways that should not have happened. When god walks among men, will any of them stop and question if he is truly god? Or does he hold his breath and hope the wool never slips from their eyes?"

"You aren't god. Never will be. Don't pull that kind of bull with me, Jon. You're just a man that can't decide his own fate. You brought us here because you want to know if you can do something big. We're dead, everyone's dead, you're along. Sounds like you've got nothing left and plan on being awfully lonely. So you want to know if you can do something to solve that. Sounds like a typical man to me. All those years you spent in your own world doing your own damn thing and never listening to a damn thing anyone had to say. Not really. You've got this whole future shit going on and act all surprised, but we all know it's a load of crap."

"I could always count on you to question me, Edward. I regret that we could no longer work together after the war." He is here because he is humanity.

"You have no self. Hurm. You hesitated in snow. Killed only when I decided to die. When told time to die. Do not change things, do as universe tells. Now you want to know if you can change? Go somewhere else? Be own self?" He is here because he is an individual.

"I am presently considering leaving this universe. She has shown me that humans are worth a cause. Worth saving. But these are not mine to save. Perhaps I can create my own… "

"And we're the god damned guinea pigs. Well I hate to break it to you Jon, but that sounds awfully human of you. Creating something because you desire and need it. Creating in your own image. God isn't in heaven; he's in the gutter bleeding out into the filth of the world."

"Future is not ours to see. Only conclusions. Interpretations. See own version of outcome all the time, always right."

And then I know.

Is this emotion or logic? Can the two coexist?

Particles. There are particles designated for me. Did losing these particles make me something else completely? Was I the same when I existed but did not? A mind with no form? No particles or blue prints or a path?

As these two are now. Voices with no proof they exist. If I should forget this place, would it cease to exist? Had it ever existed in the first place?

"Hey… We're dead. When you make up your mind what you plan to do, are we just going to… You know… End?"

"Do not believe Jon knows. Jon cannot die. Even he cannot see."

"That's just fine. I'd rather not know, actually. I don't like the idea of some blue freak telling me what I have to do next or where I'm going. It doesn't matter anyway, right? You're dead. And when you just stop existing, you just stop. What do you care? You either keep on or you don't."

"Hurm. Agree. Not want to know. Not want to know what happens to world either."

They are ready to leave; they've made their decisions and made their peace with fate long before I could.

Am I ready to let them go? The strings of fate say I must. Yet… Is it possible to still be surprised by an ending the second time through? The millionth time?

Somewhere, a watch is ticking.

"Jon. Time to go. Done here. Purpose served."

Soon I will have made my choice. Soon I will look down on Laurie and Dan and smile. Soon I will be speaking to Adrian. Soon I will leave.

"Let's get this show on the road. I'm dead and I'd rather enjoy it than be stuck here with your naked ass. I'm not your personal cheerleader."

I cannot change what I see. I will always be following a script. Always be carrying out actions that I have no control over.

It is always more entertaining to be surprised by an ending. Even if you see it coming. Even if you've read it a million times over. No matter how many times you look at it, you will always know what to expect…

"Yes. It is time to go. I apologize for bringing you here."

Soon I will look down on Laurie and Dan and smile. But why do I smile? Because it is written that I smile?

"More than any other dead guy gets to do. No point in letting a perfectly good opportunity to meet up with old faces go to waste. Or voices. Or whatever the hell we are. Glad to know that I'm not the only one that died for a cause. Even if it all went to hell. At least I got a good laugh in, you know? Maybe I'll be laughing for all eternity after this? I wouldn't mind that…"

Or do I smile because I feel something? I know what I feel, but knowing is not the same as feeling it in that moment. I feel it in the future and I know what it feels like. Yet… It is still something that I look forward to. That I will be feeling for the first time and a million times over.

"Yes. Good to speak with you, Comedian. Always thought you were decent man. Your death was properly felt. ….Death was appreciated, Jon."

Somewhere in time, I am smiling as I find the answer for the first time. As I make the decision to leave for the first time. Somewhere in time I am happy for the first time. Even now, I can feel it.

"Thank you for your help. Goodbye, Comedian. Goodbye Rorschach."

And the pocket in a place that may or may not have existed disappears. Echoes in my memories. Particles scattered across the universe waiting for their next potential.

Somewhere in time I am experiencing something for the first and millionth time.

And I still look forward to it.