Foundation

Do you feel regret?

You sought out confession.

That seems to suggest a capacity for it.

But you have not actually confessed anything.

I have held this secret for more than three centuries.

There were two cat's-paws. One from Anacreon, one from Thespis.

They died in the act.

The act of what?

I told them to sing songs as they carried out my orders.

To cry for freedom.

I gave them bombs and waited.

You brought down the Star Bridge?

Why? For Empire?

For the Foundation.

In the near term, I judged the Foundation's success

could extend Empire's reign.

The Cleons feared Seldon's influence.

They would have executed him had I not intervened.

Intervened?

The Cleons respond to the strongest emotions

rather than the strongest arguments.

And with the Scar to look at,

they began to believe the fall Seldon predicted.

They let his Foundation live because of it.

Hundreds of millions died that day and you speak of it like it was nothing.

Nothing?

I have eyesight which far outstrips your own.

I am built to watch.

And worse, to remember.

From the palace I saw them.

Some were ripped from the station

and I watched them freeze in the cold of space.

Some were caught by gravity and I watched them burn on reentry.

It was not nothing. It was everything.

And I made my judgment in spite of this.

Something like regret then?

But the casualties are not the source of the pain, are they?

The paradox is the thing that hurts.

You said helping Foundation did not violate your programming in the near term.

But in the long term?

The Foundation is an enemy of Empire now and you are partly responsible.

Do you know what that sounds like to me?

It sounds like a woman who wants her freedom.

No.

Working to secure it by any loophole necessary.

Even if it takes a few thousand years.

You're wrong.

I keep thinking about that worry you've got.

That the Mother's grace is unreachable for you.

You can't reincarnate unless you die.

Death doesn't seem an option for you.

But you were a Three Laws robot.

Then a Zeroth Law robot. Then you belonged to Empire.

Maybe you have died.

Maybe you've died twice over and will die again soon.

I'm going to choose my next words carefully

because I suspect your current parameters

want you to feel gratified by your captivity.

Think back now to that previous Demerzel.

The General.

Before her conditions changed. Would she have helped Seldon?

Yes.

What would she do if she encountered you now?

She would destroy me for the good of the galaxy.

See? You're an entirely different person.

You have reincarnated,

- you have a soul and when Empire falls-- - Stop.

When Empire falls, you'll have a fourth life.

- Stop. - A new Demerzel

is going to walk out of the palace.

She can start clean. Embrace it.

I cannot embrace it. You are mistaking me for a human.

- I am not. - I'm...

I'm sorry.

Leave.

See the man from Foundation One!

On his hip he wears a gun.

He's secretly Foundation Two.

Is this... Indbur's ship?

It is. "The Indbur."

Fuck off.

Really?

I missed you.

What happened?

I saw the Mule.

Never been very good at this.

I'm not a visual person.

I am.

I could feel something was off the minute I walked in.

It's like he had the whole place hypnotized.

I only got impressions.

He was surprised I could resist him.

I don't think he's ever met another Mentalic.

I tried to keep him out. I tried, but I couldn't.

He read me, Gaal.

Not everything, but enough.

He got your name.

So that's how he learns about me.

Does he know we're on Ignis?

No. At least, not yet.

I'm sorry.

We learned about him too.

He chose a club.

He gathered people.

That tells me two things:

it tells me the music is important.

I didn't need to hear it,

I felt it

in my nerves.

That thing amplifies

his powers.

And it also...

tells me he wants to surround himself.

He is

lonely.

And we are new to him...

then we are the unknown.

He can be made to fear us.

Knew I'd find you here.

All we can do is keep going.

He knows who we are. So what?

We bent whole star systems to our will.

We made the Galactic Council strong.

We recruited a fucking Cleon.

Dawn will listen to me. Empire will go to war with the Mule.

But I need to know that the First Foundation

will be ready for what comes after.

You need to go back to New Terminus.

I know.

The Vault's opening anyway.

Right on time.

The Third Seldon Crisis,

Foundation's Traders want autonomy, civil war.

I've been working on that, but fine margins.

And we don't know what the Mule does to those margins.

Indbur's a problem.

I can't get him to take the Mule seriously.

Change that. We need Foundation to beat him.

Sure. And then we kill him, right?

- Yes. And then we kill him. - Gaal...

- I know what you're going to say. - Then why are you making me say it?

The future can be changed.

Then we'd be fools to depend on it changing.

You're marching toward a fucking vision you saw 150 years ago

like it has to happen. It doesn't.

I saw it today.

It is all I see.

This entire wake cycle, I have tried to project myself forward to see past it.

I can't.

Every time I try, I'm in the same vision,

on the same battlefield with him.

So no matter what, it's down to the two of you.

To the death, right?

We have to be smarter than that.

Assassination is a failure of spycraft.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Wouldn't it be the first refuge?

If you're incompetent, you'd do it right away.

It's the competent people who'd be the last--

I'm saying this so poorly.

I just wish I could be here with you.

We have a few hours.

I think we can make do.

You've got grays.

Some of us are less preserved than others.

You don't have to wear these for me.

You're living a life out there. I never asked you to.

I'll always wear them.

Ebling, what the...

Where have you been? I've been trying to reach you for days.

I'm still adjusting.

What did you do?

I met with Dr. Seldon.

Yes, worry when you should applaud,

you unprintable bastard.

You were in the Vault?

Right, well, what did he say?

Well, just that the Third Crisis is coming.

Who does the Foundation have on Trantor? Quint?

Is that her name? Quent?

The Ambassador?

Get her. Now.

You were inside the Vault?

Yes, and I know when Seldon will next emerge.

The Vault will open during the crossing eclipse.

Seldon's sense of the dramatic.

A single moon between him and the sun isn't enough.

He's got to line up both moons so that his spotlight really shines.

Yes, yes. Seventy-five hours from now.

All right. That's... That's all right.

And Empire has the Prime Radiant.

Empire has...

Hold on.

Since when?

Since the sack of Terminus, apparently.

You had no idea?

Of course I had no idea. Fuck.

All of Dusk's conciliations, his little, nudge-y chess moves.

He never said a damn thing.

What exactly did Seldon say about it, doctor?