There was a slight rumbling underfoot.

                I was a little thrown off by it, for even the big trucks didn't usually shake a solid building like the one we were in.  The others noticed it as well, for a slight rain of dust came down from the ceiling fixtures.

                “What's up, oh great god of everything?"

                “Nothing much. Just the old geo-fault regulators undergoing a little maintenance."

                “The what?"

                “Veracity, you and your present generation are woefully out of date when it comes to information pertaining to what I set up here so long ago. This city derives most of its energy from the active magma system underneath it. This city was built on a caldera. Since you can't have a city shaking all the time, I placed devices deep underground that stabilize the shield and keep the tremors at bay. It was the plan for you folks to get the outskirts planted and move away from here. As we all know, that never happened."

                “So the shaking is the earth grumbling?"

                “A terrible way of expressing it, but if you wish, then yes.

                “So you mean this whole time we've been in danger of blowing up?"

                “No. The magma system isn't all that active right now. Give it another twenty thousand years or so and it might be."

                “ Uhhh, yeah. I don't think I'll be around when that happens."

                “No, but I might be." The creator paused a moment. “I think that as much preparatory work as I can do has been done. What say we get this show on the road?"

                “What road?"

                “Shut up Veracity."

                Veronica smiled at my ignorance. “I think he means that it's time to do whatever it is he plans on doing."

                “Right you are. Back in the old days, this was called showmanship. Today I think we'll just call it the apocalypse. “

                “That doesn't sound very reassuring," she said, with just a touch of nervousness in her voice.

                “Oh, it won't be all that bad. Besides, you have the advantage of knowing something is going to happen, even if you just don't know what it happens to be as of yet."

                “Can you enlighten us?" my little partner asked.

                “I could, but sometimes the best lessons are the ones learned the hard way. Back in my day people often argued against scientifically proven facts, theories if you will, and tried to take a different course. Such courses inevitably led to disaster, just like what's been going on here. I have freed the archives and I have scanned the systems, so I know the damage that has been caused. That fact is, there will always be someone lingering on the sidelines just waiting to spring forth their ideas. And while there is nothing wrong with change, there is much wrong with idiots spilling their vile lies across the planet. It stops here and now."

                The figure in the robe and mask stood.

                “It's time to set the reboot into motion."

                He strode outside, followed by a distorted shadow made up of miscellaneous random nanites that had finished their duties and were now pursuing him for whatever reason. After about thirty yards, the walking figure was noticeably taller.

                I looked on approvingly. “You know, I'm following him. Whatever he does, I want to be there to witness it."

                The rest slid out from their chairs and followed too, uncertain if this was a wise move or not. I figured the closer I was to him, the less likely I was to be caught up in the mess that followed. I had a fairly good imagination, but I had a feeling that whatever he was going to do was going to be well beyond the limits of my mind.

                I caught up with him and spoke to him with as much authority as I could muster. “Look you, I used to be the one who looked after this city when no one else would. I think I deserve to know what you have in mind to do to it."

                “I don't care what you think.  This is well beyond you, and even if you could manage what I about to do, I have a feeling you'd still fuck it up."

                “Is that so?"

                “Yes it is."

                At that moment the ground decided to shake a little stronger. There were already more people outside than normal, apparently attracted by the vibrations. It was then too that I noticed we were walking back to the Brotherhood building. I figured maybe he was right, for he had to know something more than I did. But then, of course he did. What was I thinking? I was still thinking in a manner that didn't include things like him.

                By now, there were throngs of people leaving the buildings and flooding the streets, and my compatriots were nearly lost in the crush of frightened residents as the earth continued to thrum beneath their feet.  They milled around the streets  as we boldly stepped up onto the plaza of the ancient library complex.

                We were now in a position that would have gotten us killed at any other time, but the Brotherhood believers were running amok, saying stupid incantations to the sky and making silly gestures across their chests. They almost totally ignored my group entirely, as the others had caught up to us.

                “Is this shaking going to bring down any of the buildings?" I shouted above the din of our surroundings.

                “It shouldn't. All the originals were built to specific specs, so if they got off of those groundwork plans, then a few might. I can't be responsible for someone else's stupidity."

                The ground was shaking a little more.

                “I thought you said the things were just recalibrating or something."

                “Or something." He said noncommittally.

                I was beginning to think he intended to shake this place down around our heads. My head was tough, but not tough enough to deal with falling masonry. He was standing stock still now, his robe riding several inches higher off the ground now, as well as somewhat bulked out. His voice was quiet as he mumbled a few words. I couldn't quite hear what they were.

                A few seconds later however, everyone could hear him. The entire town shook with his voice.

                “Greetings to you, the people of my great city and the descendants of those I created so long ago. Greetings to you from your creator."

                The giant exposed vidscreen behind us came to life. On it was the robed figure, and I know it was the one and the same because I was standing there too at the edge of the picture. It was a damn weird feeling being broadcast like that when there wasn't a single visible camera in the area.

                People in the immediate area stopped and looked up to the screen, and as it turned out, to every functioning vidscreen in the city. Old ones on the front of many a building, left there for no other reason than what to do with them afterwards had been repaired and sprung to life. Every radio device came alive and they were all mysteriously reset to the same frequency as the broadcast.

                He removed his mask and robe, revealing a black, stone-like face and body. It looked like something fresh from the sculptor's work room rather than the countenance of an animated being. But he moved his arms with remarkable fluidity.

                “I am Jenar Lorash, and I created the city in which you live. Behold me and my power."

                The earth went into a fit of shaking again.

                “I have been summoned back here not by the falsity that is the Brotherhood, but because of it. I have been called forth by one of you who understands the true nature of life"

                 I felt a little silly at that moment. I had never intended to call this freak from anywhere.

                “Be it known that the Brotherhood is a lie. Their headquarters do not belong to one, nor a few, but to all. The great library is the source of all information, from the detailed accounts I left of myself and my home world, to the ways and means for doing everything I expected from you. I have returned to find this place to be little more than a rancid, festering hole, not the jewel I had planned it to be."

                I mouthed over to him, “Festering hole?"

                He smiled and shrugged. “Too over the top?"

                I shrugged back.

                He continued. “I am faced with the choice of wiping the slate clean and starting over again, and leaving you to wallow in your own filth. I am willing to hear argument for either side. I will be able to hear you wherever you are, so feel free to speak your mind. I will give you one hour. Chose your words carefully."

                The vidscreen went black.

“So, oh great and mighty one, what will you do if enough people call your bluff and ask for you to start over?"

                “Seriously? People will fall over themselves for the sake of self preservation. If I asked them for their first born children, they would bring them here faster than you can blink an eye. That's what religion does to you."

                “If you say so." But I had the feeling he was right. People would promise many things to save their skin, though once it was in the safety zone; they tended to go right back to doing whatever it was they had been doing all along.

                “Look Veracity, I have no intention of playing the part of overseer here.               I'm treating a disease at its roots. Trust me; think of me as a big dose of antibiotics with a continuous maintenance dose planned for the long term."

                “Long term? Why, are you coming back?"

                “In person?  No, I don't think so. If you can't figure it out, then keep your eyes and ears open. You'll see everything that the rest of this city will see."

                That got me thinking. “Hey big guy, what about the Outlands?"

                “This cure will work its way wherever it needs to go. Rest assured I've got most of this covered."

                The “most" part was both reassuring and annoying. It meant that he had a handle on a lot of it, but not all of it. That went far in my mind to decry any other thoughts as to his godlike abilities. A god had no limitations; at least that was the Brotherhood's professing. Still, just the ground shaking was enough to get everyone's attention. His brief televised spot only focused their attention even more. Vehicles were piling into the streets surrounding our location, and more than a few of them were the law.

                I was no coward, but I was also no fool. As I was presently armed and standing close to the reason they were gathering, I found it in my best interest to drop from sight. Veronica, Serrena and Arch did the same.

                Jenar didn't seem fazed in the least. He gazed upon them all with black eyes, sizing up their capabilities and standing firm. Some nervous rookie fired off a shot at him, and in the ensuing panic, eight more joined in. Bits and pieces of him disintegrated in little clouds of black dust, and when the bullets stopped flying, he looked like some exotic cheese-like statue covered in dark mold. He remained still for just a few seconds before gathering his missing nanite things back into his being, this time growing ever larger as more and more of the things came streaming out of the cracks, crevices, drain pipes and conduits, until he was a good thirty feet tall.

                The crowds which had come to watch, largely under the assumption that this was somehow a hoax or promotion by the Brotherhood; well they began to backpedal towards the direction that had come from. It was quite apparent to them that this was not what they had come to see. Their god had suddenly turned out to be more real than even the most firm believers had ever imagined.

                I was seeing what he had planned finally. Sometime if you give people more than they expect, they don't know what to do with it. He was giving them an overload of his divinity.

                His voice boomed out."I am no simpleton, nor am I mortal in ways you can ever understand. Fire at me as much as you like, for I will only grow stronger!"

                While many were fleeing, just as many more were still fighting to get to the grounds outside the old library. There was something to be said for the old adage of seeing is believing.  The vidscreens kicked back on once again, and from every speaker of every device in the city, his voice came out, this time at a calmer level than before.

                “I have returned to this? Being attacked as some great beast here to destroy you? Perhaps I should, for how can you be worthy of life when you cannot even recognize the seed that brought about your miserable existence?"

                All this time those tiny black particles continued to add to his bulk. This whole thing was getting to be like some bad dream, only in this case it wasn't mine. I was glad of that.  That didn't keep it from being nightmarish all the same.

                The police had quit firing, apparently recognizing that their simple bullets couldn't hurt it. The crowds were keeping back, but a lot of persistent folks were trying to press forward from the rear. Jenar, or this semblance of Jenar was viewing everyone with what looked like a grim smile of satisfaction. I was wondering about then what he planned on doing in the end, because like him, I figured that everyone was going to end up groveling like the weak, mewling fools they were.

                A few people were coming up the step, hoping I suppose for him to grant them some sort of wish. He noticed them and extended a hand to the ground. Instead of crushing them, or picking them up, a finger dissolved and reformed into a smaller version of himself.

                “What is it that I can do for you?"

                I didn't recognize the guy, but it turned out to be the inventor Ramses Apollonius.  I had never met him before, but I always wanted to. He had lived a life underground in more ways than one thanks to the Brotherhood.

                He reached out and touched the figure."Most strange. What is this technology?"

                He hardly noticed he was being shown on the vidscreen.

                “Technology?" asked Jenar's avatar.

                “Yes, technology. It is wonderful beyond my ability to conceive it."

                “Then there is at least one person on this foolish planet who is not an idiot. Yes, this is technology. Everything is technology that is created with thought. This planet is not technology, for it was created under the natural laws of the universe. There is no great mind controlling everything running about your skies. Not even I am all seeing, or else I would never have allowed such stupidity to reign for as long as I now see it has. But this fellow; he knows the true science when he sees it."

                Ramses walked around the smaller figure. “But you have not answered my question. What are you?"

                “This present form is constructed using nanite technology."

                “Nan-ite? I do not know this word."

                “You will in time. The library will be returned to the people, and all of its contents made available to whoever wishes to use it. It was a gift I gave a long time ago, and it was never meant to be taken away. And as much as I would like to purge this city of anyone connected with the Brotherhood…"

                He paused for dramatic effect.

                “…it would be to no good use to do so. The person responsible for starting this mess is long dead. I will not punish the foolish for their folly because they do not know better. But after this day, such folly will be dealt with swiftly. There is nothing to be gained from false worship, or for any worship for that matter. I find that having something to aspire to can have great rewards, but that is philosophy, not religion. Therefore, any religion will be conducted outside of the city, where it will not interfere with the growth of this society. It is hereby relegated to the Outlands, where you have decided that all unfit things should go to live."

                Ramses was looking around wide eyed. “Do you mean that?"

                “As of this moment, I have rewritten the laws as I originally set them down, and restored all the others as they were prior to the plague that is the Brotherhood first infected this place. You are free to replace those that you think you need to have back, but heed my warning. Any law that does not apply to one person equally as to another will result in swift retribution. Everyone on this rock deserves equal time and treatment, regardless of what they look like, think like, or smell like."

                There was a murmur running through the crowd. A few voices rose about the dim.

                “Are you really God?"

                Jenar let loose a hiss, which I found to be amazing, since his present for did seem to have or need lungs.

                “Is that what you'd like to think?"

                Silence.

                “Listen up. I started out as a living, breathing, sentient being just like all of you. Over my lifetime I aspired to be more and to that end I went beyond my mortal form and took another. That does not make me a god. Nor does the fact that I created your ancestors make me a god. They knew the facts and accepted them for what they were. To think that their descendants would fall to such lows as I see here now would tear them up inside."

                “So does that mean we don't have to follow the Brotherhood's rules anymore?" It was another timid voice rising about the murmur.

                “What it means is, you can do whatever you like within the rules set down by me, and by those who legitimately came after me. It means that you will follow your hearts and your minds, not someone else's. It means you will live your life treating others as you yourself would wish to be treated."

                Here his toned changed.

                “It means that you will be kinder to one another than you have been. Doing things in the name of a god that doesn't exist is a folly that cannot be tolerated."

                Ramses, who seemed to understand this better than most, looked past the black mass of congealed nanites to the open doors of the library.

                “May I go in?"

                The shorter version of Jenar put an arm around him and pulled him close. They walked together towards the building, while the larger version stood as an immense colossus, daring anyone in the crowd to interfere.

                There were no takers. Already people were wising up.