NORMAN (Narrator): I hung back out of sight and followed Wrath’s footsteps as I heard him move down the alley and into the blackness.
(SFX: Slow booted footfalls)
WRATH: (Whispered) Glory! Glory is that you?
NORMAN (Narrator): I could barely make out what he was saying, the blackness not only obscured sight, but all other sensory receptors as well. I wondered what else was distorted if one actually entered the darkness, which Wrath was just about to do.
WRATH: Glory? Don’t you know me? It’s me. Wrath.
(SFX: Garbled female voice)
NORMAN (Narrator): An unintelligible garbled sound emanated from the darkness. At least to me it sounded like a chaos of distortion. To Wrath, however, there seemed to be meaning.
WRATH: What? What are you talking about? I didn’t—
(SFX: Garbled Wrath voice)
NORMAN (Narrator): And that was the last I understood from Wrath as he entered the blackness. I hesitated a moment weighing what action to take when I felt a presence behind me and something touch my shoulder
NORMAN: Preach! You nearly gave me a start.
PREACH: Easy, lad. Cap sent me for’ard since you dinna come back presently. An’ looks like it was wisdom that he did. What cha got ahead, lad that ye’ve been watchin’ so intently.
NORMAN: There’s some unknown presence ahead. Wrath sent me back to report and it looks like he’s moving forward to—
PREACH: That isn’t some unknown force ahead, lad.
NORMAN: What do you mean? It’s just blackness.
PREACH: Ye don’ have my eyes t’ see. An’ I see who it is. Corruptor!
NORMAN: What?
PREACH: Down that pathway, lad, lay the most foul Deceiver ye ever laid ye eyes upon. Curse the day he walked the heavenlies an’ curse the day he come t’ earth.
NORMAN: A Deceiver of the heavenlies?
PREACH: Aye, lad. An’ why our Supreme Commander suffers the lot of him, I’ll never know, but I know what can be done ‘bout the foulness now.
NORMAN: Preach, what are you doing?
PREACH: I’ll take point here, lad. You watch my back.
NORMAN: You’re not going in there, are you?
PREACH: I’ve got a score to settle, lad. An’ this is the one to settle it.
NORMAN: Preach! Has everyone gone mad? Wait for Cap and the others.
PREACH: Sure an’ we wait for Cap, the surety it is we’ll miss our chance.
NORMAN (Narrator): And the next thing I knew Preach was striding down the alley and plunging into the darkness. I had no option but to follow and plunge into the darkness myself.
(SFX: Eerie distortion background)
NORMAN (Narrator): What transpired next was a strange distortion of time, place and being. It was more a dark veil than an area, (or so it seemed) and after entering into the blackness it was lifted and there I beheld Wrath, speaking to another being and they seemed to speak as if familiar to each other. Preach was nose to nose with another being and their discussion was hot and contentious. Neither Wrath nor Preach seemed to be aware of each other, or if they were, they paid each other no mind, and continued in their own conversations as if they were in their own world.
WRATH: But why did you leave us, Glory?
VOID: It’s not like I had a choice in the matter, Wrath. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? Being able to make a choice?
WRATH: A choice for good, Glory—
VOID: And who chooses what’s good, Wrath? You know the drill. Bad things happen to good and good things happen to bad. We stay idle with orders to “stand down” while horrors occur before our eyes – under strict orders NOT to interfere! I couldn’t stomach that anymore!
CORRUPTOR: Still on your vendetta, aren’t you Guardian?
PREACH: I don’ carry tha’ title anymore. I’m in deployed service now.
CORRUPTOR: My, my, my. How the mighty have fallen. I saw Guardian fall like lightning from the sky (sinister laugh)
PREACH: It’s not the demotion ye make it sound; it’s an honor to serve.
CORRUPTOR: So you keep saying. Someday you’ll really believe slugging out the grind in the muck is preferable to Honor Guard. That day’ll be a pity.
PREACH: You never understood service. That’s why yer—
CORRUPTOR: --My own boss? Listen, if the likes of you were as beyond reproach as you pretend to be, I’d be out of job. Take my latest protégé—
VOID: --didn’t realize how enslaved we were until I knew true freedom. Freedom, Wrath.
WRATH: Glory, I—
VOID: Don’t call me that name anymore, Wrath. It has no meaning for me. I’m Void now.
WRATH: What kind of a handle is that?
VOID: It’s a reminder of how empty I was until I crossed over.
WRATH: You can’t be serious—
VOID: How stifling the Old Ways were, with rules and strictures that smothered us until there was no life left in us—
WRATH: Do you hear what you’re saying?
VOID: Don’t YOU hear what I’m saying? You’re dead, Wrath, and you don’t even know it. You used to be alive and vibrant. You and I could take on anything together and we had no fear—
WRATH: WHY DID YOU ABANDON ME?
VOID: I did it for us, Wrath. So you could see for yourself. I sacrificed my glory for you—
WRATH: (Cry of anguish) NO !!!!!!! SAY IT ISN'T SO!!!!
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