This is kinda long, so I heavily summarized. The real conversation is a few pages. Major spoilers to the book ahead. [quote] "Have you come for what you came for?" [didact] "No. Life demands. It clings and is selfish." [Primordial, or the timeless one.] "Why did you come here at all?" [didact] "Are you again hoping to take vengeance upon forerunners for defying your race and surviving?[referring to forerunners defeating precursors]. Is that why you bring this plague down upon us all?" [didact] "No vengeance. No plague. Only Unity" [The timeless one] "(some stuff) The Flood will be defeated!" [didact] "Work, fight, live. All the sweeter. Mind after mind shape and absorb. In the end, all will be quiet with wisdom" [TTO] "You told me you were the last precursor. I see you are nothing more than a mash up of old victims. A gravemind. Were all precursors gravemind? Are you onlu an imitation? Are all precursors gone, or does the flood create more?" [didact] "Those who created you were defied and hunted. Most were extinguished. A few fled beyond your reach. Creation continued." [TTO] "Defied! You were monsters set upon destroying the mantle!" [didact] "It was long ago decided. Forerunners will never bear the mantle." [TTO] "Decided How?" [d] "Through long study. The decision is final. Humans will replace you and be tested next." [TTO] "Is that to be our punishment?" [d] "It is the way of those who seek out the truth of the Mantle. Humans will rise again in arrogance and defiance. The flood will return when they are ripe-and bring them unity." [TTO] "But most humans are immune...Can the flood choose who to infect?!" [d] "No immunity. Judgement. Timing." [TTO] "Then why turn (Forerunner AI) against us? Why encourage the torture of humans?" [d] "Misery is sweetness. Forerunners will fail as they have failed before. Humans will rise. Whether they will also fail has not been decided." [TTO] "How can you control this, trapped here? The last of your kind!" [d] "The last of [i]this[/i] kind." [TTO] "We are the Flood. There is no difference. Until all space and time are rolled up and life is crushed in the folds...no end to war, grief, or pain. In a hundred and one thousand centuries...unity again, and wisdom. Until then-sweetness." [TTO] They then proceed to kill the Primordium. [/quote] [Edited on 09.21.2012 6:00 PM PDT]