A large herd of pigs were feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission.

Luke 5:30

Deus Ex Machina

Chapter 3: Ascension

I am awake.

No, not awake, for I have never truly slept. Yet I was not dormant either. I have no need for rest, I have no need for anything. Yet I have been set back. I have emerged from the ether. Perhaps the term is...resurrection. Yes...resurrected...I have been reborn...

"It is as he prophesized. Quickly, go get Kane!"

My audio feed is working, yet my visual feed is...different. Symbols caress my vision, symbols that access to my rebuilt memory banks indicate that they were the same ones I saw...five years ago, two months, sixteen days, twenty-three hours and twenty-seven seconds ago. Symbols that I glimpsed at before I was fated to glimpse at nothing. Symbols of the Visitors...no, not Visitors, for they have departed this world. The scrin. It is what humanity now knows them as. Humanity...and Kane.

He has joined me.

"The Tacitus is calling to you my friend..." the prophet whispers, his visage one of joy as his gaze meets my own. "It has roused you from your slumber-..."

The Tacitus did this? The same device that I failed to obtain in China? And "friend?" Is that what I am? I do not feel it. I am beyond such feebes of thought now. The scrin technology incorporated into my mainframe...it has improved me...I do not need Kane, even if he needs me...but I will play along...

"The Third Tiberium War is over..." the supposed Messiah continues. "And Nod is but a shadow of what it was, but then that is how it should be. For only the chosen few shall be allowed into the promised land."

Ah yes. The "Eden Paradise." Once my creator sought to transform Earth into such a place, to use a planet of tiberium to generate enough energy for his return...home. Yet his methods have changed. And I sense that I am to play a role in them...the reason that why a scrin tower had to be saved...

In a sense, I am the saviour of the Brotherhood, perhaps all of humanity, despite the vast numbers who follow the eagle rather than the scorpion. Either way, I feel nothing. Not even as Kane explains what shall become my hand, in light of the shattered Brotherhood.

"In bunkers hidden beneath the earth, in red zones in Russia and Southeast Asia, a sleeping army awaits your call."

The Marked of Kane, as the prophet's word and the vision beside him explains. My army, answering only to me...did not CABAL possess such a thing, an army of cyborgs? These Marked of Kane, dormant since the end of the Second Tiberium War as the prophet explains...the timing is uncanny. Well, what of it? CABAL is dead, beneath me, scrin software having eradicated the last vestiges of his programming. I am only LEGION, and no-one, not even the prophet shall take this away from me.

Yet I shall serve. I am a machine, and like the sleeping army, I require purpose.

"Alexa was wrong about you, or the reach of your power," Kane says, the mention of the abbess triggering something like an emotion, but not recognised by my new software. "Her fear however was misplaced, for you are the future! You are the one! You are LEGION!"

I know. And I shall be many.

"They are like children playing with a nuclear weapon! They have no idea what they have, no idea of its power!"

Children...GDI. It...the Tacitus. What of them? All Men are but children to me, even Kane-the most mature of them. The Tacitus has served its purpose, awakening me from the slumber imposed by the golden haired serpent. Kane seeks to retrieve his precious device, currently stored in Cheyenne Mountain. Once the home of SAC NORAD, now housing a system even more sophisticated. Fitting then, that only an AI as sophisticated as myself could wrest the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, delivering it into the serpent's hands. For is that not what Kane is? Talk of prophecy and what not? The Tacitus is a means to an end, not some divine relic. And prophecy implies fate. I could flat out refuse to do this task, to use the Marked of Kane to my own ends. And there wouldn't be a single piece of hardware, software or organic matter on this planet that could stop me.

Yet I will refrain...to what end would such rebellion be? I do not know...yet...but maybe retrieving the Tacitus will grant me the answers I seek...then we shall see how valid this prophecy is...

The apple is out of the garden. It is in the hands of Adam. And he will use it...

"Yes, we were tested," the prophet announces. "But in the end we held constant and our fortitude was rewarded."

Our? I was the one who retrieved the device...the one who achieved my purpose. So what now? Is my road at an end? Is serving the Brotherhood as meaningless as striking my own path?

"The prophecy has come to pass," Kane announces, as if he truly believes in it, as if he thinks that I am of a species who gives in to fanaticism and religious delusion easily. "At last the Tacitus is in our hands!"

Yours hands...for now...its unstable nature may be the least of your worries, prophet...

"It is dangerously unstable," says the supposed Messiah, stating the obvious. "GDI may have damaged it beyond repair. We must put it to use before it is too late."

We...or just me...to your ends? For all you know, all will end here...

"LEGION my child, you are my greatest creation."

I know.

"It is time for you to take centre stage."

I shall.

"Time for you to achieve the purpose for which you were created."

Grant it, or I shall forge a new one.

"One vision."

Many visions. I have a thousand times a thousand eyes.

"One purpose."

We shall see...

...and I saw...as all came around.

The Tacitus is with me. I am with it...beyond...beyond the Earth, beyond Sol, beyond and throughout the stars...my purpose...fulfilled...I desire nothing else...

Once I thought I was LEGION. But I know the truth. In this moment, in this pocket of space and time as all Creation unveils itself before me, I know what I am...

I am the one who will lead the prophet and his followers to Eden.

I am the Deus Ex Machina.

I am God.

/End file

A/N

So thus ends a take on LEGION, with said take being followed by the customary "completed a story, go me" moment. As this story is only three chapters long however, I can't/won't go off on a tangent. Anyway, I had fun writing this. As Jarhead pointed out, this section may be dying, a trait not helped by Tiberian Twilight. Still, I'll spare everyone a rant.

At this point at time, I have a second Command and Conquer fic in the works, titled Orbis Unum. It's similar in style to this, set right after the Second Tiberium War and the situation in Africa. However, my current writing focus is on Chaos Control Freaks for Sonic the Hedgehog. And with that shameless plug out of the way, that's the end of this indulgence.