"All right. Well, at the end of six thousand years, the Antichrist was born. An' jus' like Jesus, he didn't know he was special when he was growin' up. But a few days after he turned eleven, he started gettin' all these powers, or maybe he just realized they'd been there all along. An' he started gettin' these feelin's like he really wanted to change the world. Weird things started happenin', like continents raisin' out of the sea an' forests regrowin' real fast an' nuclear power plants runnin' without their core. Stuff that shouldn't be possible. An' this boy was doin' it accidentally, jus' by thinkin'. But the feelin's were gettin' stronger an' there were dark voices tellin' him that he could make things better if he destroyed everythin' an' started over again."

Adam sort of stared vaguely off into the distance, unable to meet Starbuck's eyes. But it was true, even if it wasn't terribly flattering, so he continued, his voice a little hollow.

"Now this boy had power like you wouldn't imagine. He knew everythin' an' could do anythin' at all. One of his titles was Prince of This World, an' it was true. Reality loved him so desperately that it'd do anythin' to please him an' would be whatever he wanted. No one had more power than him 'cept God an' even then it was close. That's a lot for one eleven-year-old to take, really. But for all his power, for all his bein' the embodiment of Evil, he was human, too. An' humans have free will. They can make their own decisions. So for all the swirlin' darkness in his head, for everythin' tellin' him that it was his destiny, an' to all the armies massin' for the final War, that boy said no."

He blinked and looked right at Starbuck. "I said I wasn't gonna."