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I've got it. I'm going to make Aussie/Michael a galactic news anchor. After all, she and whoever controls her are trying to change events in her time, so where better to put her than reporting the events of her time. She'll be the one impersonating Saint Michael the Archangel et al and I'll drop hints in her broadcasts that it's her doing so. Rather than involve Hinkley in this unrelated subplot, I have a much better candidate: Dr. Jorge Francis, the religious scholar and historian who lives in the year AD 7329 and regularly researches and writes about Joseph and Apollo and their effect on history. His reports already appear as epigraphs in recent drafts, although I'll probably do more of them in the next pass. Talk about a perfect fit. The last book in the series was always intended to be set in AD 7329, long after Joseph and Apollo are dead.

I can die happily now.

Short of making her a roving reporter, I'm currently at a loss for a role for her. If I put her near Joseph (e.g., his assistant) it then begs the question why him and not Apollo.

I don't have a single Darth Vader. I have Nero, whose purpose is to drive Apollo and Joseph to finally begin their journeys by way of the first attack on New Bethlehem. At that point in the story, Admiral Lupus takes over until the very end, bombing 20M people on Magellan and then destroying New Bethlehem. Aussie was intended to play a contributing role by arming terrorists/rebels to ratchet up the chaos throughout the story. She wasn't intended to appear until the very end, at which point she's on the run and becomes Caligula's robopilot when he flees for his life. Her 'character' arc isn't working, IMO.

Potentially, Professor Hinkley could secretly continue to run his company, jumping around time to bring futuristic inventions to market. Him running Acme eliminates the need of another character to do so. It simplifies that aspect of the story. He founded Acme, invented time travel, and is believed to be using the latter to keep his monopoly on tech.

No, I want The Prophecies to foretell actual events, even though they don't get into specifics, like naming Joseph and Apollo. Also, if I add another character, it will further complicate the story. I already have Hinkley bouncing around time and Queen Aussie running Acme, receiving instructions from the future and communicating with Joseph and Apollo, pretending to be Saint Michael, among others.

In the current draft, a mysterious character named Aussie pops up every few chapters to cause carnage, leaving 'Queen' Aussie (CEO of Acme) to deny any involvement, yet Acme's share price goes up every time there's an attack because governments buy more weapons. Neither Aussie nor Queen Aussie appear physically in the story (until the end), but rather through events told in news broadcasts. The two Aussie's are one and the same, of course. The authorities eventually come to that conclusion and Aussie takes off, assuming the role of robopilot for Caligula, who goes on the run across the galaxy because he was indirectly responsible for the destruction of New Bethlehem.

In theory, all of this should remain in the book, otherwise there's no reason for Aussie to appear, not even in news broadcasts, until the reveal at the end of book three. However, I don't care for how Aussie currently appears in the story. She doesn't really tie into the story. I need a way to use Aussie to give the reader clues that she is the one haunting Joseph and Apollo.

I'm considering Britannia because Joseph's home world is a monarchy that serves as the head of the church on his world, based on and descended from Queen Elizabeth. If I introduce Brother Hinkley and the Third Testament early enough in the story, I think the reader will give me some latitude when Jesus appears to Joseph, apparently fulfilling one of the crackpot prophecies of the Third Testament. Ponder I must.

Another twist. What if the Professor jumped through time and was responsible for the Third Testament of the Church of Britannia? I could use 'Father Hinkley' as the historical prophet who wrote the Third Testament. This makes him the one who has been messing with events throughout time. After writing the Third Testament, he entered a monastery and was never heard from again.

This keeps getting better and better. If Jesus had kids, as the Church of Britannia believes, then Joseph and Apollo could be His descendants. I could hint at it by suggesting that the Church has been looking for His descendants for almost two millennia, believing that they are the last hope for mankind.

It just occurred to me that Queen Aussie could serve as the 'artifact' in Seabrass's post above. Since Acme, Inc. manufactures everything in the book, and Professor Hinkley is thought to be alive in the future, sending back messages in time to his company, Aussie could include programming from the future. That might be worth dropping my original ending to the series in favor of an AI god.

I would probably drop the whole drag queen bits, though, since they're not working in the story, in my opinion. I especially dislike her in the prologue, in the middle of a desperate battle.

I'll still need to hijack a religion for Aussie's plan to work. That will entail doing something about the irreverent chapters. I would add something to the Church of Britannia, such as a Third Testament to their Bible, addressing why Jesus didn't return yet, and hint that the Church has found some evidence that Jesus was married and may have had children.

I have 650 lines in my names bible for my old book (90 rows just for the characters), and that was easy compared to what I'm going for this time around. Fortunately, a much smaller cast of characters, but Connor is going on a Middle East tour of many of the exact places visited by Jesus, as documented in the Bible. Few of them exist as they did in His time. In some cases, the original location is buried under new villages or monuments built over top. Even the Church of the Nativity is probably in the wrong location. There are a number of sites on the Web that say the translation from the original Gospels for Jesus's birthplace should have been interpreted as a spare or lower room in a private home, which is where people often stayed when the inn was full. It was customary in Palestine in that era. Bethlehem was Joseph's ancestral home, and it's highly unlikely he couldn't find a relative or friend with a place for Mary to give birth. It's too bad I never did database programming. A database would be ideal for this much data.

Thanks, JP. It fits with other have said as well.

Church of Britannia might be better than Church of England, especially if I introduce a Third Testament (written a few hundred years into the future) addressing why Jesus didn't return after the Great Collapse of Civilization, which had to be the Great Tribulation of Revelation. Surprisingly, the Antichrist was a woman, namely Dr. Ess. Also, I need some way to justify why Jesus didn't return before humans left earth and colonized the stars. The new prophecies will mysteriously foreshadow the events of the book.

I still need to consider how much of Charles's suggestions I can use. It breaks things I had planned for future books, but we'll see.