Magic Priest #3 Script

“Forget Me”

by Barry Lyga

PAGE 1: This is a splash page, with Father Crowe in his bedroom at the Vatican. It is an old room, with stone walls and a high cathedral ceiling that arches up out of sight, where shadows cast by the lights below gather and commune in corners and hidden nooks. Crowe is reclining on his bed, his back propped up by pillows. The head of the bed is against a wall off to the left of the panel. We see this panel from an angle, such that the bed protrudes out into the room and the panel from the left, slightly angled so as to provide some depth to the scene. Crowe is dressed in his Magic Priest garb, with the exception of his boots (which are on the floor next to the bed) and his cloak (which is draped over a chair). Near the chair is a small desk with a dark lamp on it--Crowe has eschewed the desk in favor of relaxing on the bed, but even in a position that one would assume is comfortable, Crowe looks stiff. He is once again studiously typing away on his PowerBook, which is propped up on his lap. It is nighttime, and the room glows with light of a small lamp on the nightstand to Crowe’s left. Being such an old room, it has no in-ceiling light fixture. On the nightstand, although we cannot yet see it, is the little bead of fused glass that has brought us this far, the bauble created by a Magic Priest’s powers intersecting stained glass. Off in the right background, we can see the door that would lead into the corridor. It is heavy oak, closed and bolted. In the left background (behind the bed, its view mostly obscured by that piece of furniture), there is a brief, darkened archway that leads into a lavatory.

1 TITLE: FORGET ME
2 TOP CAPTION: From the diary of Father Crowe:
3 DIARY CAPTION: “This morning, I beheld a dead man, a man of the cloth, like myself. And I wonder.
4 DIARY CAPTION: “I wonder at the sins that he committed, taking so many lives. I wonder at his final statement to us all--’Forgive me.’
5 DIARY CAPTION: “Did Father Boff truly forget in those last panicked, guilty moments of his life that God forgives everything...but suicide is always damnation?”
6 BOTTOM CAPTION: Barry Lyga--Writer
Neil Googe--Penciler
Sam de la Rosa--Inker
[FILL IN]--Colorist
[FILL IN]--Letterer
Herb Mallette--Editor
Special Thanks To: Maria Martin

PAGE 2:

Panel 1: A close up on Crowe. He has removed his sunglasses and is absentmindedly chewing on one of the stems. He is plainly concentrating on the PowerBook screen, which is off panel.

1 DIARY CAPTION: “I had thought that finding the murderer of Rudolpho Mantería and the others would evoke at the very least a sense of relief.
2 DIARY CAPTION: “A glimmer of the closure I never felt as regards the unsolved murder of my parents all those years ago.
3 DIARY CAPTION: “Instead...

Panel 2: Crowe puts the sunglasses on the nightstand, next to the bauble.

4 DIARY CAPTION: “...I felt nothing but failure.

Panel 3: Close up on Crowe’s fingers typing at the keyboard.

5 DIARY CAPTION: “I have always been predominantly a scholar, and the academician in me cries out against such illogic and the lack of resolution.

Panel 4: This is the largest panel on the page, a profile shot of Crowe sitting up in bed, still typing away, his neck craned to look at the screen as he writes. The whole scene is in silhouette, stark black.

6 DIARY CAPTION: “Why did Boff murder all those men? In particular, why all men who had studied at St. Dympna’s Academy while he was an instructor there?
7 DIARY CAPTION: “Had something happened that linked him to those men in some way? And yet if it did, how could something that wide-reaching and important have happened without his colleague, Father Doloroso, knowing about it?“

PAGE 3:

Panel 1: This panel has rounded borders to indicate that it is a flashback panel, but not a flashback to that moment in time when Crowe’s parents were killed. We can see the ominous Psi-Priest of the previous issue looming up from the Stygian darkness. This is a phantasm summoned by Crowe’s memory, made all the more dark and insidious by his personal discomfort at the hands of the Psi-Priest.

1 DIARY CAPTION: “The mind-scans of the Psi-Priests would have brought out any connection Father Doloroso could have made between Boff and his victims.

Panel 2: Another rounded-border panel, this one flashing back to the scene in the previous issue in which Father McKane studied the bead of fused glass made from the Faith Fire. (Page 9, panel 4).

2 DIARY CAPTION: “And the strange piece of fused glass, the clue that originally led me to believe that a Magic Priest was responsible for the murders...
3 DIARY CAPTION: “Why is it that it only shows up at the Mantería scene? There was stained glass in one form or another at three other murder scenes, but no beads of glass.

Panel 3: Now we have one of the red-tinged flashback panels we’ve become accustomed to. Once again, we see the shattering lampshade in the Crowes’ house, an image we saw twice in the previous issue. (Page 4, Panel 1 and Page 13, Panel 4).

4 DIARY CAPTION: “Mantería must have essayed a particularly effective struggle. Boff panicked and let loose with a magic bolt, shattering the...
5 DIARY CAPTION: “...lampshade.”

Panel 4: We see Crowe head-on. His expression is completely blank.

Panel 5: Crowe’s finger hits the delete key. We can barely make out the bottom corner of the PowerBook screen. On it, we see the cursor backing up over the word “lampshade.”

6 CROWE: Lampshade?
7 CROWE: No, it was the sculpture...

Panel 6: Now we have a round-corner panel of the elegant stained glass sculpture from Mantería’s apartment back in the first issue.

8 DIARY CAPTION: “shattering the sculpture and creating the bead I found...“

PAGE 4:

Panel 1: We see Crowe head-on again, his face visible over the back of the PowerBook screen, which fills the lower portion of the panel. His eyes are wide, his jaw dropped. He has just had a realization, a vision, an epiphany.

1 DIARY CAPTION: “...under the couch.”
2 CROWE: ...by his hand...

Panel 2: A red-tinged flashback panel to a young, crying Sebastian Crowe near the corpses of his parents. By his father’s hand, there’s one of the magic bolt-warped pieces of stained glass, which fell to the carpet after Doloroso shattered the stained glass lampshade in the process of murdering Crowe’s parents. Despite the tears running down his cheeks, Crowe cannot help but find his eyes drawn to the glittering piece of fused glass, which lies in the extreme foreground, right in the reader’s face.

Panel 3: Still red-tinged, still in flashback. Now we see the young Crowe turning the piece over in his hand before his eyes, amazed by it, entranced by it.

Panel 4: Still in flashback. Crowe looks up as Doloroso’s hand comes into the panel from above, reaching for the piece of glass. We cannot see Doloroso at this point--we just see his hand.

Panel 5: Doloroso’s fingers crush the bead to dust as Crowe watches, entranced.

3 DOLOROSO (off panel): Forget--

PAGE 5:

Panel 1: We are suddenly, jarringly returned to the present. Crowe watches in amazement as his dead mother once again appears to him, imploring him. She is standing to his left, down towards the foot of the bed.

1 CROWE’S MOTHER: Remember.
2 CROWE’S MOTHER: You have to remember and then you can forget.

Panel 2: Crowe’s hands are frozen above the PowerBook’s keyboard. His typing is forgotten. Now his father is standing with his mother, too.

3 CROWE’S FATHER: Listen to her, Sebastian.
4 CROWE’S FATHER: Remembering lets you forget.
5 CROWE: Uh

Panel 3: Crowe turns to his right and sees Father Boff hanging from a showerhead that has miraculously appeared from thin air. The sign is still around Boff’s neck, reading “Forgive me.”

6 CROWE: God in Heaven.
7 CROWE’S MOTHER (off panel): Remember...

Panel 4: A frontal shot of Crowe, hold his head in his hands.

8 CROWE: Not again. Please.
9 CROWE’S MOTHER (off panel): ...to forget.
10 CROWE: Lord, why am I losing...

Panel 5: Crowe looks up at Boff again, only this time the sign reads “Forget me.”

11 CROWE: ...my mind?

PAGE 6: This page is a splash page that takes place as much in Crowe’s own mind as it does in his bedroom. Crowe is at the center of the page, his fingers digging into the sides of his head, almost as though he is trying to tear into his own brain and scoop out the memories that are driving him mad. Swirling around him in a montage of madness are images from throughout Crowe’s life and throughout this series. We see his parents, both in their ghostly forms and as corpses, along with the beads of fused glass, Cardinal Stark, Father Boff’s hanging body with its changing sign. There’s an exploding lampshade made of stained glass and a sculpture made of the same. There’s a photograph of Mantería, as well as images of the Psi-Priest, Father McKane, and Father Doloroso. Random portions of this page should be filtered through the red filter that has been used throughout the story to identify Crowe’s flashbacks to his parents’ deaths, a symbolic indication of the breakdown of time and space in his mind.

PAGE 7:

Panel 1: Crowe falls out of the bed, pulling the blankets along with him. The PowerBook lands beside him with a thunk.

Panel 2: Tangled in the blankets, Crowe lies there, staring up into space...

Panel 3: A red-ringed flashback, seen from an angle that implies we are looking up, as though perhaps in Crowe’s position on the floor, or perhaps a child looking up at adults. We see Crowe’s parents, arguing.

1 TOP CAPTION: --sick bastard! I don’t care if he is a--
2 MIDDLE CAPTION: Gerald, please go to the bishop. Don’t confront him--
3 MIDDLE CAPTION: I’m going to tell him to his face--

Panel 4: Crowe in the present, staring into space.

4 CROWE: Mommy? Daddy?

Panel 5: Red-tinged flashback again. Back in the past, Crowe’s parents turn to look down at us.

5 TOP CAPTION: Sebastian! You should be in bed--
6 MIDDLE CAPTION: I heard you yelling--
7 MIDDLE CAPTION: Go back to bed, son.

PAGE 8:

Panel 1: Now we have a new flashback panel, seen--as always, through a red filter. The door to Crowe’s parents’ house is being thrust open by a shadowy figure. (It’s Doloroso, of course, but Crowe still doesn’t know that.)

Panel 2: Back to the present. Crowe has his hands up over his eyes.

1 CROWE: No. Not again.
2 MIDDLE CAPTION: When he closed his eyes--

Panel 3: We see the exploding lampshade yet again.

3 MIDDLE CAPTION: --he wished it would all go away.
4 BOTTOM CAPTION: But it was as though it was happening in front of him again.

Panel 4: Again, the red-tinged panel of a bead of glass being crushed before young Crowe’s eyes by Doloroso’s powerful fingers.

5 MIDDLE CAPTION: And when he opened his eyes...

Panel 5: Back in the present, Crowe tries to stand. His left hand is braced on the top of the nightstand as a way of helping himself to rise.

6 MIDDLE CAPTION: ...it was over.

Panel 6: Close up. Crowe’s eyes are focused on his left hand, which is in the foreground, pressed against the top of the nightstand for support. In the extreme foreground, between us and the hand, is the tiny bead of fused glass. Crowe’s eyes are actually, we see, focused on the bead, widened and fixed on the little bauble.

7 BOTTOM CAPTION: They were dead.

PAGE 9:

Panel 1: We cut to a hallway in the Vatican, outside Father’s Doloroso’s room, which is actually just down the hall from Crowe’s. Crowe is wearing his boots now, but not his cape. He’s knocking on the door.

1 CROWE: Father Doloroso?
2 CROWE: May I come in?

Panel 2: Crowe enters the room, closing the door behind him. The room is almost identical to Crowe’s; there is some pale moonlight coming in through the window. Depending on what angles you use in this scene, we may or may not be able to see out the window. If we can, we see that Doloroso has a nice view of the Vatican courtyard, complete with a beautiful fountain. (A fountain destined to be the scene of violence when the Hammer attacks the Vatican in Warrior Nun Areala #3.) Doloroso himself is sitting at the desk, writing in his journal.

3 CROWE: I’m sorry to disturb you.
4 DOLOROSO: Don’t worry about it.

Panel 3: Crowe stands and fidgets, while Doloroso turns to watch him from the chair. Crowe appears morose and confused.

5 CROWE: I-- The flashbacks--
6 CROWE: I just need to talk.
7 DOLOROSO: Of course.

Panel 4: Tight in on Crowe, who appears to be struggling with something deep down in his soul.

8 CROWE: You... You told me that Father Boff had taken the Magic Priest training in his thirties...
9 DOLOROSO (off panel): Yes.

Panel 5: Close up on Doloroso, who’s beginning to look a bit worried, as though he’s just realized something important that he forgot.

10 CROWE (off panel): But that’s too late. By then my parents were dead.
11 CROWE (off panel): And they must have been killed by a Magic Priest, too. These flashbacks... They’re driving me mad...
12 DOLOROSO: Mad? Did you say mad?

PAGE 10:

Panel 1: Crowe looks up suddenly as Doloroso rises from the chair. Doloroso is agitated.

1 DOLOROSO: I’m not mad!
2 CROWE: I didn’t say--
3 CROWE: Are you all right?

Panel 2: Close up on Doloroso. The old man is pale now, and sweating. He looks disturbed, as though he would rather be a million miles away.

4 DOLOROSO: I just...need to look in the mirror for a moment.

Panel 3: Crowe grabs Doloroso by both arms, as if he is going to guide the old man back into his chair.

5 CROWE: Are you okay? Are you having a stroke?
6 DOLOROSO: Just let me look in the mirror...

Panel 4: Crowe struggles with Doloroso, obviously concerned for the old man’s well-being, trying to sit him back down in the chair so that he can relax.

7 CROWE: Sit down. You need to relax.
8 CROWE: It’s been a harrowing few days.
9 DOLOROSO: Oh, God, please, don’t let me remember...

Panel 5: Close up on Doloroso.

10 DOLOROSO: God. God gave me the power...
11 DOLOROSO: ...so that I could continue his good works...

PAGE 11:

Panel 1: Doloroso reaches out to take Crowe’s face in both hands. He is very agitated, and Crowe is somewhat stunned by the expression on his mentor’s face.

1 DOLOROSO: Forget.
2 DOLOROSO: I forgive you. Forget.
3 DOLOROSO: It’s okay. It’s God’s power, not mine.

Panel 2: We see, again, the silhouette choking the life out of Crowe’s father. Red-tinged flashback panel.

Panel 3: Same panel, only now the image is fading, like ink on paper that’s been left out in the sun for too long. Doloroso’s power is beginning to erase Crowe’s memory.

Panel 4: Close up on Crowe, his eyes rolling back in his head.

4 CROWE: uhhhhh
5 DOLOROSO (off panel): Forget.

Panel 5: We are behind Crowe now as he is being touched by Doloroso. Behind Doloroso, over his shoulders, we can see the images of Crowe’s parents.

6 CROWE’S MOTHER: Remember...
7 CROWE’S FATHER: ...to forget.

Panel 6: Close up on Crowe’s right hand. The fingers are beginning to curl, almost spastically, into a fist. Sparks and waves of energy coruscate and gather as the Faith Fire builds for a magic bolt.

PAGES 12-13: This is a two-page spread. Our vantage point is from the Vatican courtyard near the fountain. The window to Doloroso’s room is exploding outward as Doloroso comes flying through it, knocked through the wall by a powerful magic bolt from Crowe. Bits of concrete and stone are chipped away from the area around the window, where Doloroso’s outstretched, flailing hands hit the wall. His velocity, combined with the supernatural indestructibility of a Magic Priest’s body, served almost as a jackhammer, easily shattering stone and mortar.

PAGE 14:

Panel 1: Inside, Crowe is down on one knee, only peripherally aware of what he’s done. He shakes his head to clear it.

1 CROWE: What? Mommy?
2 CROWE: What did--

Panel 2: Crowe looks up and notices the hole in the wall and the blown-out window.

3 CROWE: Father D--
4 CROWE: Oh, no.

Panel 3: Crowe flies outside through the hole in the wall. Doloroso is just getting up in the courtyard, slowly rising. From his position, Crowe can’t see Doloroso’s face, but we can--he is seething.

5 CROWE: Father Doloroso! I’m sorry!
6 CROWE: We have to talk about this--

Panel 4: As Crowe swoops in towards his mentor, Doloroso lashes out and hits him square in the face with a brutal, both-hands-clasped-together blow.

7 DOLOROSO: Forget me!

PAGE 15:

Panel 1: Crowe is on the ground now, stunned by the attack. We can see Doloroso’s hands “heating up” with Faith Fire.

1 CROWE: No, wait--

Panel 2: Doloroso blasts Crowe with a fountain of Faith Fire from both hands. The energy from the attack surges forth in what appears to be an uninterruptable stream from Doloroso’s hands. Crowe pathetically holds up a hand as if to ward off the attack, but that’s just not going to happen. His face is a map of pain.

2 CROWE: No...

Panel 3: Doloroso wades in, punching Crowe with a fist that shimmers with Faith Fire.

3 CROWE: Please--

Panel 4: Doloroso brings his other fist into Crowe’s face in yet another smashing blow, knocking the young priest off his feet. Crowe isn’t even fighting back, barely defending himself.

4 CROWE: I

Panel 5: Doloroso straddles the supine Crowe and begins choking him with glowing hands. Even Doloroso’s eyes are flashing with Faith Fire now, and spittle sprays from his mouth.

5 DOLOROSO: --make you forget--
6 CROWE: Please, don’t--

PAGE 16:

Panel 1: In the background, Crowe has finally struck back, blasting out with both hands to Doloroso’s mid-section as the older priest was on top of him. In the foreground, Doloroso is spinning in the air toward us, pitched by Crowe’s blast.

1 CROWE: --don’t make me--
2 CROWE: --hurt you...

Panel 2: Crowe lunges at Doloroso, who is standing and aiming one hand at his young charge.

3 CROWE: THIS ISN’T WHY I BECAME A PRIEST!

Panel 3: Crowe tackles Doloroso, knocking the older priest to the ground.

4 CROWE: Stop it!

Panel 4: Crowe punches Doloroso in the face. We can see blood spurt from the old man’s nose. A tooth goes flying from his mouth.

5 CROWE: Stop it!

Panel 5: For the next few panels, we cannot see Doloroso. We can only see Crowe, his face lit by rage, his fists flying off panel, striking his mentor. His hands are awash in Faith Fire and he seems completely and utterly out of control.

6 CROWE: Stop

Panel 6: Crowe lands another punch on the out-of-panel Doloroso.

7 CROWE: making

Panel 7: Another panel like the two previous.

8 CROWE: me

Panel 8: And another.

9 CROWE: hurt you!

PAGE 17:

Panel 1: We pull back far enough to see Crowe standing over Doloroso. The old priest--who had always looked vital and powerful beyond his years--now looks every bit his age. He is obviously hurt badly, brutalized and in tremendous pain, perhaps clinging to life.

1 DOLOROSO: I’m
2 DOLOROSO: sorry
3 DOLOROSO: Non farmi...

Panel 2: Close up on Crowe, who stares down at his mentor in disbelief. He is plainly horrified by what he has done.

4 DOLOROSO (off panel): ...vivere...
5 CROWE: Oh, God.

Panel 3: Back to Doloroso. He is weeping now, all the floodgates of his mind broken and smashed to dust. The sins and hypocrisies of his entire life are overwhelming him.

6 DOLOROSO: --kill me--
7 DOLOROSO: Per favore--
8 CROWE: Dear God, what have I--

Panel 4: Crowe raises a hand as though to run it through his hair, but stops, frozen and paralyzed when he sees Doloroso’s blood on the hand. He stares at the hand in horror.

9 DOLOROSO (off panel): Per favore, dimenticomi...
10 DOLOROSO (off panel): Forgive...
11 DOLOROSO (off panel): Mi perdoni--

Panel 5: From inside the Vatican, we look out a window with Father McKane, who is watching the action in the courtyard. Father Brute is standing behind McKane, off panel.

12 BRUTE (off panel): What is it, McKane?
13 MCKANE: I’m not sure. But we better get down there.

Panel 6: Doloroso is sobbing openly now propped up one elbow, imploring Crowe, who can only watch.

14 DOLOROSO: Amazza...
15 DOLOROSO: Me! Kill me!

Panel 7: Close up on Crowe, who is closing his eyes.

16 MIDDLE CAPTION: When he closed his eyes--
PAGE 18: Okay, Neil, here’s the payoff for all three issues. This is where we finally give the reader (and, more importantly, Crowe) a complete look at the murder of his parents. We will be tying in all of the flashback images from the very beginning of the storyline. This page and the two following it should be seen through the infamous red filter.

Panel 1: The panel of Crowe’s parents arguing from earlier in this issue. From an angle that implies we are looking up, a child looking up at adults.

1 CROWE’S FATHER: --sick bastard! I don’t care if he is a--
2 MIDDLE CAPTION: --he wished it would all go away.
3 CROWE’S MOTHER: Gerald, please go to the bishop. Don’t confront him--
4 CROWE’S FATHER: I’m going to tell him to his face--

Panel 2: Young Crowe is standing in the hallway, where his parents could not see him. He’s looking into the living room, the scene that we established in issue #1. Nothing has happened yet, but recall what that devastated room would look like whole. Very soon, though... Now he speaks.

5 YOUNG CROWE: Mommy? Daddy?
6 BOTTOM CAPTION: But it was as though it was happening in front of him again.

Panel 3: Crowe’s parents turn to look down at him, as on Page 7, Panel 5.

7 CROWE’S MOTHER: Sebastian! You should be in bed--
8 YOUNG CROWE: I heard you yelling--
9 CROWE’S FATHER: Go back to bed, son.

Panel 4: Now we have the flashback panel of the door to Crowe’s parents’ house being kicked open by a shadowy figure, as on Page 8, Panel 1.

10 CROWE’S FATHER (off panel): What the hell?
11 CROWE’S MOTHER (off panel): Gerald!

Panel 5: Crowe’s father instinctively steps into the foreground, facing us as though we are the intruder. His wife is behind him and Young Crowe is fading back behind Mom.

12 CROWE’S FATHER: Get out of here! Didn’t you hear me, you sick bastard?
13 CROWE’S FATHER: Get out of here!

Panel 6: Close up on Father Doloroso. He’s much younger here, as this happened twenty or so years ago, but still unmistakably Doloroso. His mouth is set in a line, and anger burns in his eyes.

14 DOLOROSO: I am afraid that I cannot, signor.

PAGE 19:

Panel 1: Doloroso lunges at Crowe’s Father, his right hand raised and already awash in Faith Fire. Crowe’s Father uses his right hand to push his wife further back for safety, and reaches up for Doloroso’s upraised hand with his left hand.

1 DOLOROSO: Perdonami...
2 DOLOROSO: But I must...

Panel 2: A close up on Doloroso’s right hand. His wrist is grabbed by Crowe’s father and held up, so that the magic bolt is firing awry, firing up...

3 CROWE’S FATHER: I won’t let you--

Panel 3: The stained glass lampshade overhead shatters as Doloroso’s bolt hits it. Issue #2, Page 4, Panel 1 and Page 13, Panel 4, as well as in this issue.

Panel 4: Young Crowe watches in stunned amazement. Shards of glass rain down in front of him. His mother, next to him, begins to stand, her hands coming up to grab her child.

Panel 5: The panel from Issue #2, Page 3, Panel 4: Doloroso chokes the life out of Gerald Crowe, only this time we see Doloroso, not just a silhouette.

Panel 6: Crowe’s mother, dead as in Page 13, Panel 6 of Issues #2.

PAGE 20:

Panel 1: The broken clock from issue #1, and also from Issue #2, Page 3, Panel 3.

Panel 2: The glasses with the spot of blood on them from Issue #1 and also on Page 15, Panel 5 of Issue #2.

Panel 3: Young Crowe spies the bead of glass. (This issue, Page 4, Panel 2.)

Panel 4: Crowe holding the bead. (This issue, Page 4, Panel 3.)

Panel 5: Doloroso reaches in. (This issue, Page 4, Panel 4.)

Panel 6: Doloroso crushes the bead. (This issue, Page 4, Panel 5.)

Panel 7: Now we see Doloroso from Crowe’s POV--looming, huge, his hand on Crowe’s shoulder.

1 DOLOROSO: Forget...
2 DOLOROSO: I forgive you what you have seen.
3 MIDDLE CAPTION: When he closed his eyes, he wished it would all go away.

Panel 8: Young Crowe closes his eyes.

4 MIDDLE CAPTION: And when he opened his eyes...

PAGE 21:

Panel 1: Back in the present, we focus on Father Crowe, whose eyes are opening.

1 TOP CAPTION: ...it was over.

Panel 2: Looking down on Doloroso from Crowe’s perspective.

2 MIDDLE CAPTION: They were dead.
3 MCKANE (off panel): Crowe?
4 DOLOROSO: Non farmi vivere. Kill me now. Let me die, Jesus. I pray you, amazzami.

Panel 3: We pull back now. Doloroso is on the ground, curled up in the fetal position, crying. Crowe stands over him, fists clenched. He could deliver the death blow in an instant. McKane stands behind Crowe, with the entire corps of Magic Priests, retired and active, behind him in turn.

5 DOLOROSO: Kill me. Forget me. Dimenti...
6 DOLOROSO: Can’t live. Kill me...

Panel 4: Close up on Crowe, whose face is impassive.

7 CROWE: No.
8 CROWE: I forgive you.

PAGE 22:

Panel 1: Close up on the Psi-Priest, who is impassive and tight-lipped, as always. Two or three beads of sweat (no more) dot his forehead, the only physical evidence of the strain he is under.

1 TOP CAPTION: Epilogue
2 PSI-PRIEST: Abusing children...
3 PSI-PRIEST: Raping children...

Panel 2: We are in a small observation room, with a large window ahead of us. The window is actually a one-way mirror, peering into another room, which is nondescript and plain. Through the window/mirror, we can see the Psi-Priest, who is standing next to Doloroso. Doloroso has recovered from the fight. He is bandaged where appropriate and he wears a straitjacket. Around his head there is a metal band with a single blinking light at his left temple. He looks beaten, not just physically, but also spiritually. Where once he held himself erect with pride, his carriage is now depressed and subdued. He stares ahead as if catatonic. In the observation room, Crowe and Stark watch through the window.

4 PSI-PRIEST: Make them forget...
5 STARK: He apparently developed this bizarre power when he was younger...
6 STARK: The ability to make people forget, just by forgiving them.

Panel 2: Close up on Crowe, who is gazing straight ahead. The scene in the next room is reflected, warped, in his sunglasses.

7 CROWE: Forgiving and forgetting are not the same.
8 STARK (off panel): For him, they were.

Panel 3: Back to Doloroso, who is still staring straight ahead.

9 STARK (off panel): Your father was a contributor to the Academy. And when he came to Rome that summer, with you and your mother...
10 STARK (off panel): He discovered that Doloroso had been...abusing...some of the students.

Panel 4: A shot of Crowe, heaving out a sigh.

11 CROWE: He used the power on himself, didn’t he? Made himself forget everything so that he could pass the scans, become a Magic Priest...
12 STARK: That’s what it looks like. According to the Psi-Priest, his mind is a stew of sins and psychoses...

Panel 5: Pull back for another shot of the two of them watching through the window/mirror.

13 STARK: And he just kept making himself forget, over and over.
14 STARK: But then your father found out.

PAGE 23:

Panel 1: Crowe watches impassively as Stark describes the moment of his parents’ deaths.

1 STARK: He was in a rage when he killed them, but even in that state, he couldn’t kill you.
2 STARK: So he made you forget, like all the others.
3 CROWE: But then, recently, the children started to remember. One by one, they called, threatening to reveal what had happened

Panel 2: Doloroso is still staring ahead. A little bit of drool is starting to leak out of the corner of his mouth.

4 CROWE (off panel): So this time he killed them and framed Boff in order to remain a Magic Priest.
5 CROWE (off panel): He was convinced that God had given him the power for that very reason. He said as much to me earlier.

Panel 3: Crowe looks over to Stark. Through the window, we see the Psi-Priest leaving the room.

6 CROWE: Will the Psi-Priests be able to help him?
7 STARK: They tell me that’s really up to him. Once they awaken him from his catatonia, he can go into therapy. But he’s been avoiding this for years, erasing his memory repeatedly...

Panel 4: Crowe turns toward the door.

8 STARK: The encephlic inhibitor blocks his powers... Where are you going?
9 CROWE: To see him.

Panel 5: Crowe is in the room with Doloroso now, down on one knee before the old man. He wipes the saliva that is oozing from the older man’s mouth.

9 CROWE: God loves you, so I love you.
10 CROWE: You raised me to be a good priest, and no matter what you’ve done, I will not add to your burden by forsaking that.

Panel 6: Crowe rises and kisses Doloroso on the forehead. The old man still stares straight ahead, totally oblivious to his surroundings.

11 CROWE: I don’t know if you can hear me or not.
12 CROWE: But I want you to know that I will not abandon you.
13 CROWE: I’ll be back to help you through this, I swear.

PAGE 24: Splash page. Father Crowe is flying high against a flawless blue sky, soaring over the Vatican. His arms are spread out to his sides, and he looks like some great bird that has taken flight. His poise and expression are relaxed and at ease, with perhaps the hint of a smile. (Although let’s not get too carried away with it--this is Crowe, after all, and he’s going to be slightly stuck-up and stiff as a board until the day he dies.)

1 TOP CAPTION: From the diary of Father Crowe:
2 DIARY CAPTION: “I do not know if the Vatican specialists will ever be able to bring Father Doloroso to terms with what he has done. The forgiveness of others and of God is surely the easiest claimed. It is forgiving ourselves that is most difficult, I know.
3 DIARY CAPTION: “Whether his demons are exorcised or not, mine are surely gone. Three weeks have passed since I last wrote here, twenty-one days without a single flashback.
4 DIARY CAPTION: “Cardinal Stark has asked me for another favor. It appears that an Israeli agent is breaking into churches in the United States. A commercial flight would take too long, so I am flying there under my own power. I don’t mind.
5 DIARY CAPTION: “In the past few days, I’ve come to see that flying is actually...fun.
6 DIARY CAPTION: “I do not know what my reaction will be to seeing Shannon, whom I’ve not seen in months, but I no longer obsess on the point. For the first time in my life, I am at ease with my past...
7 DIARY CAPTION: “...and my future.“
8 BOTTOM CAPTION: The End.