Samaritan and Infidel continued their feud for years, with Infidel always seeking to restore his prior reality (or close approximations), and Samaritan always thwarting his efforts and reinstating the current reality. At one point, their dispute even erased reality altogether. They eventually settled into a truce when each man realized he could not permanently defeat the other. Infidel agreed to an exile outside of the timestream, and the two meet annually to have dinner and take stock of one another. Each of them also secretly seeks a means to defeat or neutralize the other, so far without success. At the end of each meeting, each invites the other to work with him. Although each always declines the other's offer, Infidel believes that Samaritan is beginning to weaken in his resolve. Infidel, too, begins to feel doubt when Samaritan reintroduces him to a female scientist Infidel had once worked with during one of his plots, whose own advanced intellect appeals to him.