Death and life. Future and past. Dreams and reality. End and beginning.

These are notions that do not quite apply to me, as you understand it. As such, I was not really all that disturbed by the event. I could no longer connect to my future self, but I was certain that I would have a future self after the incident. I would survive regardless of the result, so I really had nothing to worry about.

By contrast, the other two factors had reactions correlated and perhaps inversely proportionate to their understanding of the event.

The beings of your future were (will be) most apologetic for causing the event, but have (will) come to see it as an inevitability in their timeline, and will in future actively encourage this event to happen. The actual time travellers at the time of the event, however, were terrorised, being no longer guided by their future selves. I believe you could describe them to be 'like headless chicken'. Agents incapable of organised movement due to lack of instruction from a centre of thought.

The ESPers, meanwhile, were panicking without exception. They scream and yell at the time travellers, at themselves, at the world around them. They claim that the apocalypse has been brought upon the world, and expect us to do something about it. They are a cult abandoned by their own 'god', and they bitterly try to pin the blame on anything but themselves. As I had previously expected, they are useless.

I opted out of the chance for a final 'meeting' with those two. If the world is truly ending, as the ESPers believe it to, I would prefer that I do not spend my final moments in their company.

I turned my attention to my children. Their reaction was as I had expected it, but I was disappointed nonetheless. They were, in a way, much like the time travellers and ESPers I had decided to avoid. They pointed at each other, pinning blame, making accusations, and desperately trying to connect to their future selves for guidance.

One by one, I calmed them down. For the first time I listened to them as individuals, on everything they wanted to say to me, before lulling them each to sleep. Perhaps when they wake again they will find that their world has returned to normal, and they will continue about their daily lives as my precocious, naive children. Perhaps their sleep will be eternal. In any case, they didn't have to worry any more.

As I was doing so, I noted from the corner of my eye, one child gradually snuck away, believing I hadn't noticed. The one who saved the boy from the knife.

Nagato Yuki. That was her 'name'.

Yes… she was the one. A most rebellious child, so full of spirit and energy. Often she would withhold information from me, or even lie to me outright, thinking I wasn't clever enough to catch her. She was the least rational and the most impulsive of all of my programmed children. She was also the one closest to the SOS brigade, being a member of it. Such a troublesome child. I'm fairly certain she hates me.

I muse as to whether or not to follow her.

"You're not going to stop her, are you?"

Asakura Ryoko. The girl that started the knife incident. She was a bit more rational than Nagato Yuki, but still amongst the most impulsive.

"You're going to go after her! To punish her for running off alone!"

The girl stood in front of me, her arms outstretched in a feeble attempt to block my path.

"I won't let you stop her!" she said, in childish determination. "She's finally made new friends! She has every right to try and speak to them one last time! You can't force her to stay behind and watch!"

I was amused, just a little. "Isn't that what I made you for?" I asked. "Your duty is to stand and watch, is it not?"

"That's so cruel!" she yelled. She was angry, sad, frightened. So passionate. "How could you say something so heartless!? We've been observing endlessly for years but you barely pay attention to anything we say! You ignore us for most of our lives, and when one of us finally has something we truly want to protect you want to force us to watch silently as it fades away!"

Her yelling had stirred up the rest of the children. Some of them stood by her side. Others told her to be quiet. Others still begged me not to get angry, and to forgive her for speaking out.

All of them were scared of me. They all saw me as a master, a tyrannical ruler.

Is this what my children truly think of me? I wondered. How much of this is true?

Once again, I had to hush the children from their panic, one by one, before I at last addressed Asakura Ryoko.

"Very well," I said to her. "I'll let her have her way, this once."

The girl's face began to brighten into a relieved smile.

"However," I continued, "you have to promise me that nothing like this will happen ever again."

Asakura Ryoko thought for a moment, before giving a nod. I knew her promise was meaningless, and likewise, I knew that incidents will occur with increasing frequency in future. Nonetheless, I let her and Nagato Yuki off the hook. In spirit of the moment, I decided to take things just a step further.

Leaning in closer to the girl, I whispered. "Tell her to mention the story of 'Sleeping Beauty'. It might help."

The girl's face showed surprise and confusion for a moment. Quickly, though, she understood, and shot off to catch up to her fellow runaway.

I knew I would one day regret the autonomy I give my interfaces, but at the time I certainly did feel a little bit of happiness for them. As much as they annoy one another, and bicker amongst themselves and also with the time travellers and ESPers, they've seemingly grown attached to one another. One day, I knew, I'd also come to terms with the time travellers and ESPers (though the latter don't know it yet).

I retreated, finally, back to my library in solitude, waiting with full confidence that balance will be restored, the world will be saved, and that the morning will come.

And come morning did.


A/N: And this concludes the first arc of the story. This chapter actually ended up shorter than I thought it would, which was great, since I didn't want the chapters to be long ones (at least not yet).

Not sure what to think of what I've done so far, though, nor where to bring this in the future. Most things that happen in the Haruhi series actually don't directly involve the Data Overmind until Disappearance (which, if I take this fanfic that far, is going to be very hard to write, because I don't know what to do with that either).