Adrian muses about his ability to absorb lessons on collective psychology by viewing a host of images at once. He is hoping to uncover “the blueprint for an era of new sensations and possibilities. An era of the conceivable made concrete…and of the casually miraculous” (349). Approaching Adrian’s base, Rorschach and Nite Owl contemplate his motives, as he seems to be plotting both mass destruction and a brighter future. Adrian assembles his assistants for a celebratory drink in his vivarium and tells them about his precocious childhood, the death of his parents when he was only 17, and his profound admiration for Alexander the Great. It is true that under his reign “people died…perhaps unnecessarily” (356), but he nearly achieved the dream of a united world, and Adrian pledged at a young age to follow his example. Following the path of Alexander’s army, he resolved on a path of conquest, “not of men, but of the evils that beset them” (359). When he has finished speaking, his assistants have all died of poisoning, and the vivarium is consumed in snow.

Nite Owl and Rorschach make it into the fortress. They approach Adrian as he is eating, and he quickly disarms both of them.