" The One has been after the information that I'm about to share with you since he first imprisoned you in The Light… "
Tom says telepathically with a foreboding tone as he continues to peer out the window of the cruiser.
" I encountered The One a few hundred years after your disappearance. At that moment I thought that I was done for, but to my surprise, he harbored no animosity towards me. Instead, he politely requested that I divulge information regarding Our Father and what we are. At this point in time before my encounter with him, I believed you to be dead. However, after this encounter and The One's sudden change of heart, I thought that perhaps there was still hope that you may be alive… or at the very least you intrigued The One with your power before your death which caused him to be curious.
The One explained to me that his genocidal campaign against our brothers was a misunderstanding and that he had seen the true reason why his universes were disappearing. He apologized sincerely and told me that if he was able to, he would've brought back all of the lives that he's taken. At the time, it didn't matter what he could've said to me. I was still grieving the loss of you and the remaining Black Traps that escaped the night that Rosie died. I was alone. A sole survivor of a terrible misunderstanding which caused me to lose everyone whom I held dear.
The One asked many questions… What we are… Who our creator was… The source of our power… All of which I refused to answer. I told him that I'd rather die just like my brothers than give him any sort of information about who or what we were. I was emotional, and I believed that he didn't deserve to know these things about us after he did what he did. Since he didn't ask these questions before the killings, I told him that he didn't deserve any answers after the fact. Or so… that's what I wanted him to believe in order to obscure the actual truth from him. "
You look at Tom and you can tell that he's visibly upset. Still, you respect the fact that he's sharing this information with you and you ask him a question.
" So what is it? What's the truth? "
Tom's eyes begin to water and you can tell that he's taking himself back to old memories as he elaborates telepathically.
" Before there was Everything, there was Nothing. Before there was Nothing, there was The Absolute and his sons… I don't expect you to remember or understand since you had your memories erased and you're limited to a mortal's thinking capability, but think of this as a time before existence and nonexistence. An era before time even existed or didn't exist. Words can't describe it because it's beyond what any language speaker can contemplate. To make it simpler and easier to understand for you, I will call this era Provenance.
Father had many sons in Provenance, but his first son was named Uphedis. Father was lonely, so he created a great number of sons to share Provenance with him that would think and act freely from his control. Father loved us dearly, and he thought that using his Absolute power to control us or our fate would rob us of our pursuit for our own meaning and purpose. So naturally, we each grew into our own understanding of ourselves and what we believed our purpose should be.
Inspired by Our Father, I was among the majority of those who first proposed the idea of existence. It would be a state of reality in which many other lesser beings could be created by us and pursue their own meaning within the reality in which we place them in. Uphedis however, was opposed to the idea and believed that if we were to create this state of reality, it would only lead to suffering.
Rather than disagree openly with the notion of existence, Uphedis secretly schemed a plan to undermine the existence in which we were creating. He had us convinced that he supported us and he generously lent a helping hand many times when we were conceptualizing key things such as time, space, and consciousness. Everything was coming together well and Father, in support of our idea, allowed us to overwrite Provenance with this existence that we all created together. Things were looking up and we were happy with our work, that is, until Uphedis finally struck us with his scheme.
As we finished overwriting Provenance with this new existence that we created, Uphedis convinced us that we should abandon our Provenantial forms to become a part of this new existence that we created together as well. Since Provenance was to be overwritten entirely, it made sense to become a part of our new creation instead; but as soon as we took on our mortal forms within existence, Uphedis refused to become a mortal and finally revealed that he had been working against us the entire time.
Uphedis destroyed existence before it came to be, leaving Nothing behind. Afterwards, he saw us as a threat but couldn't fully destroy us because he didn't create us, so instead he corrupted our mortal forms into beings of Darkness and we took on the ability of undoing existence rather than creating it so we'd be unable to oppose him in our mortal forms. This is where Black Traps and our powers come from.
Since Uphedis was still in his Provenantial form and Provenance was gone, he chose to take on the very aspect of the nonexistence in which he brought upon reality. A nonexistence of peace that was free from suffering. A nonexistence which replaced Provenance rather than the existence that we had created. It was at that moment that Uphedis became The None. "
Your face goes pale and your heart sinks in your chest as you look at Tom in denial.
" It can't be… Is The None really a Black Trap like us? "
" No. Black Traps were created out of Uphedis's betrayal. We became Black Traps because of what he did to us. We're beings of Darkness because that was the only way he could've corrupted our mortal forms. The None isn't a Black Trap, but he's still our brother and son of The Absolute. Think about it, Donny. What beings does The None specifically send his Valghuli to kill before consuming a universe? "
You think back to what happened to Aatu and what the Valghul said in the cafe.
" Valghuli are sent to kill Gods because they have the power of creation. "
" Precisely. I'm sure now you can understand the true reason for why I refused to answer any of The One's questions. The implication that we're connected to The None is what almost caused our extinction in the first place.
The One did what we couldn't. He created The Holy Omniverse… and I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to convince him that I'm an ally if he were to know the truth. "
You think back to when you first encountered The One and you ask Tom another question.
" But he read my mind and erased my memories… How could you deceive him? "
Tom turns and looks at you as he taps his temple with his finger.
" Matters of the mind have always been my specialty. I had been strengthening my mental ability and consciousness long before The One first appeared. He's all powerful against those under him, but since I predate his very existence, there are things that he's less versed in than I am. "
You look down as you try to process what Tom just told you and ask him another question.
" But what about The Absolute? Why didn't Father do anything about Uphedis's betrayal? "
Tom looks back out the window as he continues to elaborate telepathically.
" Father was disappointed in Uphedis, but he refused to rob him of the meaning that he chose. To Father, Uphedis was only doing what he was created to do. This was the purpose and meaning that Uphedis chose, and therefore Father respected it. However, Father's respect and approval are two different things.
Father loved us just as much as he loved Uphedis and he pitied us for falling victim to his scheme. So rather than use his Absolute power to undo what Uphedis had done, Father created one final son that would be both Provenantial and mortal simultaneously. Since Provenance was gone, Father would replace that part of his son with a piece of himself, and give that son a heart that was capable of loving others just like Our Father loved us in the hopes that that son wouldn't end up like Uphedis.
Through great power and great love, you were born as both Black Trap and Absolute. You were given to us as Father's final gift before handing the responsibility of reality to his sons. Before Father departed, he told us that Uphedis's nonexistence wasn't the end and there would be an opportunity for redemption; and after what felt like an eternity, The One appeared within the Nothingness and created The Holy Omniverse.
We didn't know where this new existence came from, nor did we know if Father had been involved or not. Thankfully in this new existence, the Black Traps who had been stuck in Uphedis's nonexistence were finally given back their physical forms, albeit our forms were still corrupted and could also be killed. We realized that The One wasn't our ally the hard way though after he found us within his Omniverse and began to eliminate us. "
" What about Anito? "
You ask Tom as you recall the old memories from when you were among the other Black Traps.
" If Father gave me the heart like his to love others, then why did Anito say that it was forbidden? "
" It was jealousy. You were Father's last son and you were to be the most powerful, but Anito saw you as a threat to his position. He was our main leader in the group of survivors and he studied you extensively until he found out that your power and your heart go hand-in-hand. He was the only one who knew, so he created the Grand Orders against us becoming attached to lesser beings and said that it came directly from Father in order to keep us alive. Everyone including me was so scared of The One that we believed him, but not you…
You followed your heart and met Ariel. The rest, you know, is history. "