The elevator door opens, and the sight that immediately greets us is Palmer’s rear end, his scorpion tail twitching happily like a cat’s would. He is not currently doing anything other than sitting on the edge of the roof and looking down.

“Don’t you fucking dare fly away again!” Nova blurts out right off the bat. “We’re here to finish this.”

“Don’t fret, foulmouthed child,” Palmer replies. “I knew you would follow me up here. And I do plan on dealing with you promptly. I just had more important matters to attend to first.”

“Uh yeah, sure you did,” Anja says, leering at him. “Like telling everyone you awakened the secret weapon, when you totally just, didn’t?”

Palmer slowly gets to his feet and turns around to face us, his feline face showing a smug expression. “I have been granted the power I need to carry this out,” he contradicts. “It just came in a form I did not expect. At any rate, it is our time to teach the people how to fear again. There is no use in pushing your watered-down doctrine onto me now. My mind is set.”

“Oh, if you want to talk about watered down, let’s talk about this,” I say, seeing an opportunity. “You know how the Bible portrays a view of the afterlife which is a little more nuanced than just ‘eternal happiness or eternal torture’ as the only two options, and it got dumbed down hundreds of years ago to attract more pagans to join the faith?”

“Did you ever even read the Bible?” Palmer replies disdainfully. “It’s very clear on the subject.”

“Yeah, it is,” I respond. “The servant who doesn’t know their master’s will and does not prepare will receive a light beating; the servant who does know their master’s will and does not prepare will receive a severe beating, and- you should pay attention this one- the servant who was made master of the house and used their power to beat their underlings will be cut to pieces.” (1)

“What’s your point?” he asks.

“My point is, right there are three different punishments that can happen to people. And considering that a pastor who abuses children will be punished worse than the average non-believer, do the ends truly justify the means?”

“Quit acting like you know more about the Bible than me,” Palmer orders bluntly. “I’ve studied theology at a university level, and you’re a high schooler going through a rebellious phase.”

“All I’m saying is that you’re not as much of a Biblical originalist as you claim to be,” I continue. “But I know how it is with your type. The road to hell is paved with…”

While I’m saying the word “with,” several things happen at once.

Ted screams “GET DOWN!” and I hear Zoe yelp. Palmer suddenly springs forward, the side of one of his front legs knocking into my torso and knocking the breath out of me just as the word “good” was forming on my lips. And finally, I go flying backwards off the building, plummeting to the parking lot below.

Before I have time to take this in, something grabs my wrist and I slow to a stop in midair. I look up to see that Nova got me, using that spinning hammer trick.

“We gotta stop- huff- falling for shit like that!” Nova asserts, winded by the hit. “In hindsight, that was a pretty obvious trap!”

He slowly lowers me to the ground, and I have to admit he has a point. It was quite ingenious, honestly; lure us all to the roof, provoke either Zoe or I into a religious diatribe, and then pounce when we aren’t expecting it. I feel immensely stupid that I didn’t see that coming.

Palmer flies straight over our heads as we fall, and he lands a short distance away. Anja lands below us on her feet unharmed, making good use of her wind powers. I look all around the ground and don’t see Zoe or Ted. I look back to the top of the building to see Zoe’s head poking over the side of the roof. Ted must’ve also managed to avoid being blown off.

Nova and I land on the ground next and sort of collapse to the pavement, still shaken by the initial blow.

“All I’m saying is that you’re not as much of a Biblical originalist as you claim to be,” Ashley continues. “But I know how it is with your type. The road to hell is paved with…”

Suddenly, I hear Ted shout “GET DOWN!” and he grabs my hand and yanks me to the floor with surprising strength. I fall face first onto the floor, but I can feel something very large quickly move over me and the sounds of the others grunting, as well as a distinct metallic thud. Finally, a huge gust of wind travelling the other direction blows over me, shaking the building underneath me slightly.

I roll over onto my front to see the manticore flying away from the building. Panicked, I quickly crawl over to the side of the building to see what happened to my friends. Thankfully, it looks like they all somehow landed safely. However, the manticore is landing close to them, and a small contingent of soldiers are surrounding them…

“Up and at ‘em!” Ted barks at me. “Let’s get down there and rejoin the group!”

“Yes!” I agree, nodding. I jump to my feet and turn towards the elevator we stepped out of, only to find that it got smashed by Palmer’s jump forward.

“That looks like it’s too dangerous to try using now,” I say to Ted. “Let’s head down using the stairs.”

“Aye,” Ted agrees.

Come on. Get up. Get up… My body resists my demands. I feel like I’m stuck laying on the floor. I can sense that we are being surrounded, and I feel a sense of hostility…

“You okay, Ashley?” I hear Anja’s voice say. “C’mon. Get up.”

I finally push myself up to my knees. I take Anja’s outstretched hand and get to my feet.

“I’m fine, thanks,” I say. “You’re a good friend.”

“Um… thanks. You too?” Anja replies, confused.

Finally having snapped out of whatever funk I was in, I survey our surroundings. As I suspected, a small circle of soldiers are around us, rifles up and pointed at me. There’s something surreal about how I recognize every one of them; after all, they’re the mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles of the people I knew growing up. Palmer is nimbly walking up to us from the distance, the smirk from earlier gone; it’s been replaced by a serious expression. That said, the vast majority of the army is being directed elsewhere, moving out to the different parts of town in small groups.

“Bet you regret stabbing me now,” Garrett says, forming part of the circle in front me. Unlike Palmer he looks pretty pleased with the current events.

“Not at all,” I respond. “I’ll fucking do it again.”

“Do you remember what I told you? Years ago?” he replies. “Well, looks like I’ve been vindicated, hmm? I was exactly right about you…”

“Uh… what’s he talking about?” Nova asks from behind me. “What’s this guy’s beef with you?”

“It’s not important,” I dismiss. “Let’s just get rid of this posse and get Palmer already.”

“That’s big talk. You think you three can take on all of us? Two of you don’t even have guns!” Garrett taunts.

“They can take you on,” Palmer contradicts, having just reached the front of the lot. “And they will win. Like me, these three have awakened a great power within them. Take your squad to go do your assigned job, and I will handle them.”

“But we can’t just abandon you, sir!” Garrett protests. “It’ll be three against one!”

“Don’t worry. My power far exceeds theirs,” Palmer assures him. “For my power was awakened by the good spirit inside me, while theirs are born from their selfish and wicked thoughts.”

“It’s kind of the reverse, actually,” Anja contradicts. “See, I got my powers when I was…”

“Shut up! I’m tired of your contradictions!” Palmer hisses. “Garrett. Lead your squadron now!”

“Roger that, sir!” he complies, saluting. The other soldiers quickly disperse along with him.

Without saying another word, Palmer’s eyes begin glowing, and the three of us are engulfed by blindingly bright beams of light. It doesn’t do much to me except make me wince at the brightness, but the other two get blown backwards with surprised grunts.

“Pastor Palmer, you’ve got something in your eye,” I taunt. “It looks like a log… or a plank, or something.”

“I am not amused, Ashley,” Palmer growls. He makes to smack me with his paw, but something odd happens; for the briefest of moments, time seems to move in slow motion, and I angle my sword just right to where it catches the center of his paw, causing him to quickly retract it and stumble backwards.

“Damn, you can do that now too?” Nova questions from somewhere behind me. Out of the corner of my eye I see Anja leap forward and blast Palmer with a huge gust of wind, sending him tumbling back further.

“Ha! That finally worked against something!” Anja celebrates.

“I hope Zoe and Ted get down here soon,” Nova comments, stepping up to the other side of me. “In all the chaos I didn’t think to fly back up there and get them.”

“We’ll have to get it started without them,” I state. “Focus on the battle.”

“Yes, I’m pumped now!” Anja shouts excitedly. “The real battle has finally begun!”

The base is now ominously empty. It seems like everyone has already left. Ted and I are back on the ground floor, and there is not another soul in sight. We sprint for the exit. I find that my determination has given me seemingly endless energy. Even after running down the many stairs, I do not feel even a little bit fatigued.

I lead Ted down a shortcut through the kitchen, and that’s when we run into the first other person since the confrontation on the roof. Diana, of all people, is in there, halfway through shoving a slice of cake into her face. For some weird reason, she’s not wearing a military outfit like everyone else, and is instead dressed in church clothing.

“Stand aside, lass!” Ted growls at her.

It’s tough to say whether she is more shocked about seeing me, or Ted. Either way, her eyes quickly dart between the two of us, and she hastily swallows the bit of cake she had been chewing on and puts the rest down.

“Zoe?” she asks, seemingly not minding Ted’s order. She smiles widely. “You came back!”

“Um… what?” I ask, not expecting this reaction.

Diana quickly darts across the room and gives me a huge hug. “Zoe! I missed you so much! I-“

I push her off me. “Diana, I don’t have time for this. I have something I need to do.”

“What do you mean, Zoe?” she asks, still irrationally cheery. “Now that you’ve come back, we can finally be friends again!”

“No we can’t, Diana,” I tell her plainly, wiping the grin from her face. “I came back to snap you all out of this… crazy warlike mindset!”

“You mean… you’re not staying?” Diana asks, now looking gloomy.

“You’re being just like my parents,” I chide her, annoyed. “How can you ever expect things to go back to the way they were after everything you did to me?”

“Everything… I did?” she asks blankly.

“You’re the one who took the video of me with Ashley, which showed everyone we were together!” I rant at her. “You can’t be my friend again after that, Diana. And you clearly never were to begin with anyway.”

Diana looks at the floor, distraught. For a moment, I wonder if she’s about to awaken her own shadow form. However, this time turns out differently as she begins crying.

This goes on for a while, and Diana doesn’t seem to even be able to come up with any excuses for herself. She just stands there and cries.

“Let’s leave her and get along,” Ted tells me. “The others are out there fighting already."

“I know… I just want to have a quick word,” I tell him. “Diana, look. I know that was really harsh. I’ve been through so much today that I never dreamed of before. You have to know that…”

I am interrupted, however, a fourth person enters the room; Terra, wearing her soldier’s uniform like everyone else, with a handgun in the holster on her belt. The rest of my sentence stops in my throat, and for a few seconds there is only awkward silence, as Diana, Terra and I glance back and forth between each other.

Terra gives me a steely gaze. “Well. Fancy meeting you all here,” she says in a casual tone of voice.

“Fancy nothing,” Ted snarls at her. “We have no more time to waste. Move aside!”

Terra smiles slyly and draws her handgun, pointing it straight at me. “No. I’m not going to.”

“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Terra,” I tell her sternly. From the corner of my eye, I see Ted draw his own gun, ready to retaliate if Terra attacks. “I am much more powerful than before. Even a gun will not stop me now. Move out of our way.”

“Wait! No!” Diana screams, hysterically running between us. “Please don’t fight! We were all friends once, remember?”

Diana turns towards Terra and asks, “Terra… sniff… what are you doing here? I thought you were with the battalion?”

“I thought you were.” Terra says accusingly. “What’s your excuse?”

Ted scoffs at the continued impediment. While a very large part of me wants to see this confrontation through, Ted is right; Ashley and the others need us.

I turn to leave the kitchen at last, but Diana grabs my hand and tugs on my arm. “No, Zoe! Please don’t leave!” she pleads. “I’m sorry, okay? I never should have done any of that! Let’s just talk about this!”

“Quit trying to appease her, you worm,” Terra tells her harshly, the venom in her voice back again. “I can’t believe you’d touch its hands.”

Its hands, she said. Being referred to in this way causes something within me to snap… I am overwhelmed by a blind rage which goes beyond anything I’ve felt before. I raise my shotgun up and aim it at her. “Shut your god damn mouth, Terra.”

Diana clasps her hands over her mouth in shock that I just said a swear word. Terra, however, does not look afraid in the slightest; in fact, she laughs at me.

“You can’t touch me, you little freak,” Terra gloats. “To answer your question from earlier, Diana; I have a special mission to do.”

“Huh? From who?” Diana questions, puzzled. “Palmer?”

“No, not from him,” Terra continues, smirking at the barrel of my shotgun. “I’m going to go to the basement and pilot the ultimate weapon. I’m no fool; I know that Palmer failed to get into it and chose to take a shortcut instead.”

“If he couldn’t get in, you don’t even have a chance,” I scold her. “You’re an awful, hateful person, Terra!”

“We’re supposed to hate what is evil, freak,” Terra counters me.

“Please! Stop this, both of you!” Diana shouts hysterically, jumping between us. “We don’t have to fight! Just give it up, both of you!”

“This isn’t a conflict we’re just going to be able to hug and walk away from,” Terra tells her. “It’s a clash of ideology. You’ve got to pick a side.”

“No… you’re both my friends!” she agonizes, tears streaming down her face. This gives me an idea…

“And Yonca is your friend too, right?” I ask Diana.

“Yes! Of course!” she pleads. “All three of you are!”

“I saw Yonca earlier today,” I explain. “And she was running at me with knives and wearing terrorist clothes. The people of this church view her as the enemy.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense!” Diana says, shaking her head.

“Of course she’s an enemy,” Terra responds. “She believes a false doctrine. That makes her an enemy of God. So she’s an enemy of ours too.”

“That’s not how that works,” I contradict her. “It’s not our job to judge.”

“Which is lucky for you, freak,” Terra comments dryly. “I’d smite a disgusting creature like you where you stand.”

Diana winces slightly at this. But she seems to be figuring something out internally…

“But Terra… don’t you think she’s right?” Diana questions tentatively. “Yonca being a different faith doesn’t make her our enemy. It’s just something we… disagree on,” she reasons.

“Alright. So you’ve made your choice then,” Terra states. “Well, I see no reason for you to stick around here, then. Whenever you wind up after this, I’m sure you’ll find your way back to where you’re actually supposed to be…” And then without a single warning or change of expression, she brings her gun up and shoots Diana straight through the head.

I quickly raise my own shotgun and fire on her in retaliation, but it’s too late; Terra is being engulfed in shadows, and the bullets just get absorbed into the smoke. Diana’s face shows intense anguish and hurt for a few seconds before she collapses and fades away like Garrett did.

In this middle of her transformation, Terra tells in a now scary and distorted voice, “And now… I have something special for you!” The shadows engulf her entirely, and then she emerges transformed; she now has a large pair of batlike wings, a horned devilish tail, a pure white leotard in place of her military uniform, and, most unnervingly, a wicked, maniacal smile.

This is an abbreviation of Luke 12:44-48.