Tom is now a fully fledged, magical being with a mind that wants to compromise instead of "fight". Something the Army of Light wishes to fight against.

Her husband, Mark, having insight into thirty-two distinct realities, is desperately trying to change the upcoming mortalities he thinks will probably be in theirs. Having insight, foresight, and outright timelines to view doesn't exactly help when each outcome depends on the choices they make, especially when circumstances won't allow him to make the right ones, not to mention him believing his own demise must happen for balance.

While the rest want to steal more powers to kill the Disrupter, Tom's passive ideas increase. Olivia knows they must do something different to win, but is seeing things from the Disrupters' point of view a step too far? Or is it the only way to defeat the threat he poses to Omnipion?

Every choice the supermundanes make could lead them to an alternate, and even deadlier, reality, especially after knowing what the alternate future suggests is in store for Mark and Tom. One thing is certain, if they don't do something radical in this, the deciding reality out of the many foreseen, the Disrupters' intention to destroy Omnipion and create a realm of his own may prevail.

With both the dark and light sides of the supportive forces telling Olivia the Adapters rules to fetter out the evil players in the game of life she concocted may have disrupted the natural balance of things, she finally has to question her higher-self's old motives and rules. But even if she can see their points, she knows the dark side won't ever see the light, no matter how many times Tom tries to have "a chat" with Ethan in the middle of battles.

Mark convinces her it has to be his way as it wasn't in the alternative where they lost, and is determined to support him, but the rest believe a compromise with Ethan isn't possible.

Tom knows, just like Ethan, that good and evil are subjective in the supportive forces, and having this commonality means he can appeal to this old side of the Disrupters mind when "she" first came through to help Omnipion, and before she threatened to destroy it because of the Adapter not living up to her end of the bargain.

So this meant Olivia having to see things from the Disrupter's perspective, and her allowing evil to continue being evil for as long as it wished?

Even if she could admit, after living as a human and understanding where the Disrupter first came from, that she was wrong, would it really be that simple? Could a compromise between the forces of good and evil, one that ensures both sides get what they were fighting for, happen? Could the Disrupter leave Omnipion alone to carry out some form of a remaining test for sentient beings from then on? And was giving Ethan what he wanted all along really the lesser of all perceived evils?

It would take her heart, mind, ESS, and ego to produce the silver energy it would take to change the rules. She would need to trust the universe to sort out its own balance, not to mention the Disrupter to keep to his end of the bargain in leaving Omnipion and its "good" players alone, who enjoy taking the test for the rest of eternity.

Was her higher self becoming human after eons of time really all it needed to see the truth that everyone has the potential to change, including the tarnished? And would they more likely do so, and hence reduce the overall amount of evil on earth, if the Disrupter could teach them the truth of who and what they were, a truth she once thought would ruin a test?

If so, it meant that everything she'd ever thought, created, and held dear, was about to...