Chapter 20: The Butterfly Effect

"Your ‘knowledge’ is worthless to us, blasphemer. We have already seen the end of all things."

- Eclipse to Quolas

The Butterfly Effect is the twentieth chapter of The Mazkertis Paradox. In this chapter:
 * Guinan continues to educate the newly-resurrected Sefer Yetzirah on Akasha and the nature of the BZPB Multiverse by showing her the Robin Hood Universe.
 * The Wanderer arrives in the Dark Universe to undo the changes made to that universe's timeline by her counterpart.
 * In the Original Universe, Quolas visits Urka-Nazkarath to show Genetoes a revelation that he has learned from Tsunami.

This chapter was co-written by Kon and JS. The material from JS was originally written for BZPB's original tenth anniversary special, which ended up being replaced with Ten Years Gone. JS wrote most of the opening segment set in the Robin Hood Universe (with some minor continuity edits by Kon), the Supermax 282 segment, and the Tybion Primaris segment up to "Glad to be here". Kon wrote everything else.

Plot
In the Robin Hood Universe, King Uterio and Edward Allman, the Sheriff of Nottingham, are traveling through Sherwood Forest in a convoy of carriages. Uterio comments that things have been different since the death of Robin Hood, whom Allman reveals was killed by the mercenary Dallas of Dalton. During their conversation, one of the carriages at the front of the convoy is attacked. When Uterio and Allman step outside to investigate, Allman is ambushed by Klak, who has taken up Hood's mantle to continue his mission. A few moments later, Dalton arrives with a badly beaten Kakamu, who has taken the mantle of Will Scarlet, and threatens to kill Kakamu unless Klak surrenders. Instead, Klak uses explosive arrows to signal more bandit allies, who storm the convoy and give Klak a chance to rescue Kakamu. As the two heroes prepare to steal Uterio's gold, Allman steps in and engages Kakamu in combat. Klak readies an arrow to assist his friend, but before he can fire it, time stops, revealing that the entire battle is being observed by Guinan and Sefer Yetzirah as part of Sefer's education as a canon agent.

Sefer deduces that the Robin Hood Universe exists due to the infinite nature of the BZPB Multiverse, but Guinan informs her that the multiverse contains only 500 universes, meaning that the Robin Hood Universe must exist just because one of the Users felt like writing Robin Hood. Guinan also reveals that beings from the Knowledge Dimension such as themselves draw their energy from Akasha - a dimensional repository of the Users' creative energies.

Meanwhile, it is revealed that the Dark Universe's version of Sefer followed Dukamu through a crack in time into the Knowledge Dimension and stole two books: one regarding her own future and the other regarding the canon agent Sefer. Dusefer used this knowledge to reshape the future of the Dark Universe upon her return, proceeding to destroy all of her universe's significant characters - anyone who could potentially pose a threat to her - allowing her to assemble a vast empire and conquer most of the universe. 7108 years after the creation of this revised timeline, Alex Jones is freed from his cell in Supermax 282 by Bojack and Thomas Wiseau, the latter of whom has taken control of the Dominion in the absence of Malygos. Fully aware of their status as 'insignificant', 'joke' characters, Wiseau offers Jones to join him in an alliance against Sefer to show her that she was mistaken to underestimate them. When Bojack hesitates to join them due to the danger of their mission, Jones kills him, and he and Wiseau leave the prison.

Two weeks later, the Knowledge Dimension's Sefer arrives in the Dark Universe, having now completed thousands of canon clean-up missions and becoming known as 'the Wanderer'. Upon emerging on Tybion Primaris, the capital world of the Ta'har-Makuta Empire, the Wanderer witnesses a propaganda broadcast delivered by Gordon Freeman be interrupted by Dusefer, who has detected her counterpart's arrival. After teleporting the Wanderer aboard the Divine Providence, Dusefer lectures her on the futility of her mission and traps her in an apathy field which severs her connection to Akasha, rendering her unable to move. Dusefer then admonishes the Wanderer for attempting to undo the greatness which Dusefer thinks that she has 'rightfully earned' and prepares to destroy her counterpart. As a final request, the Wanderer asks to know how Dukamu created a path to the Knowledge Dimension, which should have been impossible with the Chousin still in place - but to her surprise, Dusefer states that Dukamu didn't create the path, he merely discovered it.

Although Dusefer believes that her victory is assured because the information she stole from the Knowledge Dimension also foretold that she would destroy the Wanderer, her counterpart reveals that the books she stole were 'old revisions', meaning that the future to come was no longer the one that Dusefer had foreseen. A moment later, an untold number of ships led by Jones in the 1776 Awakening and Wiseau in the O-Hai Mk. II launch an attack on Tybion Primaris, disrupting Dusefer's concentration long enough for the Wanderer to escape the Apathy Field. Dusefer sends Kojol and Tridax after her, but both are effortlessly destroyed. The Wanderer, armed with the Revision Blade, and Dusefer, armed with the Lance of Taenarus, duke it out across the skies as the battle rages around them until the Wanderer finally gains the upper hand and impales Dusefer on the Revision Blade. Upon her death, the total sum of her actions since her visit to the Knowledge Dimension are undone, restoring the original timeline of the Dark Universe and depositing the Wanderer in Chronospace.

In the Original Universe (Day 76 of The Mazkertis Paradox arc), Quolas enters Urka-Nazkarath, the home of the Kra'lythe, interrupting a telepathic communion that the entire Kra'lythe Sect (including Minutún) were having with Eclipse. During conversation with Eclipse, Quolas reveals that he has been conversing with Lady Tsunami of the Chousin regarding the future of their universe and has a memory tablet imprinted with her memories to prove it. Although enraged by Quolas's presence, Genetoes's curiosity gets the better of him and he secretly takes the tablet from Quolas, viewing its contents while Quolas converses with Eclipse. Quolas asks Eclipse how the Kra'lythe discovered the Knowledge Dimension; an event which gave Eclipse the knowledge he needed to access the Forest of Lights and destroy the Living Stars. Eclipse revels in pointing out that the fact that neither Quolas nor Tsunami knows the answer means that Tsunami does not know everything, before revealing that the Kra'lythe did not create the crack in time which led them to the Knowledge Dimension; they merely discovered it. Eclipse also reveals that his new mission is to turn all Forests of Lights across the multiverse into Forests of Chaos, restoring the multiverse to its natural, unaltered chaotic state before the alterations made to time by the Living Stars reshaped the multiverse. As the assembled Kra'lythe restrain Quolas and prepare to sacrifice him to Urka-Nazkarath, Genetoes finishes observing the memories which had been imprinted on the memory tablet and learns a secret that Eclipse had been keeping from him: Eclipse is responsible for the destruction of Quolas and Genetoes's original homeworld.

Characters

 * Eclipse
 * Minutún
 * Quolas
 * Knowledge Dimension characters:
 * Guinan
 * Sefer Yetzirah
 * Robin Hood Universe characters:
 * Dallas Dalton
 * Edward Allman
 * Kakamu
 * Klak
 * Uterio
 * Dark Universe characters:
 * Alex Jones
 * Gordon Freeman
 * Kojol
 * Sefer Yetzirah
 * Tridax
 * Bojack
 * Tommy Wiseau

Trivia

 * This chapter was named after the Heroes episode of the same name, which itself references the butterfly effect, a phrase that refers to the fact that even small actions (such as a butterfly beating its wings) could create a chain reaction that would lead to much greater consequences. The butterfly effect in this chapter was caused by Dusefer stealing books from the Knowledge Dimension, which allowed her to dramatically alter the timeline of the Dark Universe.