Note: I've noticed that the list of beings I put in the previous chapter includes some that wouldn't be speaking to Anareth, because I put a list of non-corporeal entities instead of hyper-sentient entities, but that's because I wasn't looking up every species in the ST Encyclopedia to see what they all were. Oh well, c'est la vie. Also, I'd put the orb experience in italics if it wasn't so long, but because it's like the entire chapter, I don't want your eyes to hurt :)
The promise of clarity from looking into the Tear of the Prophet was true to a great extent; however, there were questions Kira asked which weren't answered. As she sat in the transport to Bajor with the orb safely resting beside her, she thought back to her experience in the orb.
Kira opened her eyes in the vast whiteness of the Prophet's realm. Within a moment, the landscape transformed, and she was on Deep Space Nine, standing in her office. Only it wasn't her office, it was Sisko's. Everything about the office was different, the way it had been nearly ten years earlier, and Kira herself felt the way she had then as well. Yet in the same moment that the office was Sisko's, it was hers, and it was Dukat's. Before the paradox confused her, Ben Sisko stood before her.
"Captain," she said quickly, surprised by his presence.
He smiled serenely. "Call me Ben, I'm no longer Captain Sisko, and yet I am always Captain Sisko."
"Or Emissary," she added.
His smile grew. "And yet so are you."
"I'm still not certain about that."
"I didn't want to accept this position, but we have no choice, it's always been our path."
"What is the purpose of this path," she asked as she walked around the office.
"To bring understanding to those who don't understand," he replied enigmatically.
"Who are they?"
He shrugged. "The corporeal and non-corporeal."
"That's everyone."
He beamed and tossed his baseball in the air. "Exactly."
She shook her head, confused. "So the purpose of the Emissaries is to help everyone understand…" She drifted off, wanting an answer.
He laughed and pointed at her with the hand his baseball was in. "That was the lesson that took me the longest to understand and teach. Look around this room, and tell me what you see."
She sighed, growing frustrated. She described the room to him, noticing the differences that were representative of the different eras of the station. During the earliest era, the Occupation, the lights were lower, the air warmer, and the decorations were different. The next era was Sisko's time as captain, with his baseball resting on the desk. During Sisko's time, there was the temporary change when the station was controlled by the Dominion, and she could sense those differences as well. Finally, she could see the office as it existed in the present as her office. Yet she could sense other differences that she couldn't explain.
When she had finished, he asked, "What is important about all that?"
She smiled, but was still a little puzzled. "They all exist at the same time, all the eras, all the differences, they exist as one." She paused, knowing he expected her to connect the pieces of the puzzle. "So, our job is to help everyone understand that everything exists at one time?" The answer didn't make sense to her, but it sounded like the correct one.
"The linear and non-linear are intertwined. Everything linear exists in a strand of time, and there are infinite strands that extend from every moment in time."
"Like parallel universes," she interrupted.
"Exactly," he said excitedly. "In the non-linear realm all the strands exist at the same moment."
"The Celestial Temple and the orbs are the links between the realms."
"Yes."
He allowed her time to let that particular piece of knowledge absorb in her mind, and awaited her next question. "You said that you had to teach that lesson as well as learn it?"
"Everything exists here, but not everything is understood. That's the reason why we are necessary. By helping the Prophets to understand time, they begin to understand the non-corporeal."
"But they know the non-corporeal already don't they?"
He smiled enigmatically at his headstrong friend. "Once it is understood it is known and has always been known. Take for example my birth. Until I came to them, they didn't know that I was necessary, but after they knew I was necessary, they created me. While I existed in the linear realm they hadn't known me in the non-linear realm yet, and yet I already existed here."
She shook her head. "That's a paradox."
"Welcome to non-linear time." She glared at him for a moment, but then accepted his words as they came. "What can you tell me about Anareth?"
"She is different from everyone else. While she is the same race as the Prophets and Pah-wraiths, she exists apart from them all. She helped both sides to understand that the Emissaries, especially those who were born of non-corporeal blood, were necessary."
"We are necessary to help both sides understand the complexity of the dual nature of reality," she guessed.
He nodded. "Exactly, you see, there are many dimensions of reality and many parallel timelines, but they all exist at the same moment in the non-linear realm. Our job as Emissaries is to help the linear and nonlinear understand how the two connect. Anareth isn't completely trustworthy."
Kira raised an eyebrow. "I could have told you that."
Sisko grinned a little. "Not because she is an enigma, but because she knows something about the upcoming battle which she won't share with anyone."
" Battle?"
"The Final Reckoning, which she mentioned to you before."
"She mentioned another Emissary being important to the Final Reckoning."
"Yes, that Emissary is known as the Fifth, and that being is important to the linear and non-linear realms, but Anareth refuses to reveal who the Fifth is."
"So she's the only one who knows the Fifth?"
"Yes, and that is why she isn't trusted. However, there is still much else you need to hear…"
Sisko proceeded to tell her about why many of the events that had occurred in the universe were necessary. He also told her a little more about the Final Reckoning, and the fact that no matter what was going to happen in the Final Reckoning, it was going to happen soon.
TBC, hopefully soon, but this story is so complicated to write as this chapter probably showed you, plus there are my other (easier) stories to write. I know where I'm going in this, so it won't be abandoned, it'll just take a little while. Thank you so much for your reviews! Especially to who are still willing to stick with it after such large breaks in between updates.
Thank you also to the reviewers whose compliments were so completely amazing for this past chapter, you guys rock!
Lilith- (sorry if I wrote a review reply to you about this, I don't remember if I did or not)
The thing with Garak is this: in the books, possibly in Andrew Robinson's book as well as in the other after the series books, Garak wrote an autobiography that he sent to Bashir, apparently it was very detailed about all of his dealings during the war. So, other than Garak knowing himself (the person who knows yourself the best is always you), Bashir knows who Garak is. I like Garak more than pretty much any other character in the show, so that's one of the reasons I used him, plus he has a position of authority within the Cardassian government, and therefore would have been a good choice to escort Kira around the planet. Kira and Garak trust each other relatively well from their time in the Cardassian resistance against the Dominion. I didn't intentionally make Garak intriguing in this story, although Garak is intriguing in his own right.