Previously on ORIGINS OF THE PALADIN
Connor Sharpe is THE PALADIN, one of the last Earthborn Angels. After the destruction of the crystal temple, he has been nursed back to health by the street magician Stefan Wonder, who also claims to be one of the Earthborn Angels. But now, as Connor attempts to salvage the life that may have been ruined by his three day absence, Connor once again faces the demon Eblis, but all is not as it seems. The demon Eblis has regained his humanity for but a brief moment…and appears to be what’s left of Connor’s father!
I
It is Christmas of 1991, and Connor Sharpe is a joyous child of 8 years old. However, for this brief moment, the focus of our attention is not on young Connor, but rather on his parents.
When she was only 17 years old, young Lillian Hope was sent to Earth. As an Earthborn Angel, she was destined to protect the oppressed and defend humanity from otherworldly threats. She trained, like so many others, under the Archangel Gabriel until the age of 19. Though she trained long and hard under his watchful eye, she kept it hidden from Gabriel and the others that her powers were stronger than anticipated and were thus very difficult to control. She was able to fake the control of her powers, and was able to efficiently lose them, but every so often, when a stray emotion took hold, she would lose her grip on these awesome forces within her and inadvertently affect the world around her. However, satisfied with what he saw, Gabriel declared her training was complete and returned to Heaven to await the arrival of the next Earthborn Angel.
For years, Lillian led a normal, average life, never straying from the side of light and protecting all those she saw in trouble. When she was 20 years old, she met the man who would forever change her life. His name was Jonathan Sharpe.
Jonathan was a proud man, but once he was a lonely orphan growing up in a New York slum. His parents had abandoned him when he was barely a year old and he was taken in by a young foster couple. Though they appeared nice to the people who would come to visit, Jonathan found himself often starved and beaten. They didn’t care how he grew up, how he behaved; they just wanted the check they felt they so rightfully deserved for taking in this lowly ingrate of a human being. When he was 18, Jonathan finally freed himself of these people and ran as far away as he could.
Jonathan worked a variety of odd jobs, trying to find his parents so he could understand why they had abandoned him. Unfortunately, he came far too late. His mother had died just a few months after his birth. When he found his father, the years of hard alcohol and cigarettes had finally caught up to him. It was hard to believe this yellow skinned, red eyed, shriveled up shell of a man could possibly have once been his father. He sat there, silently and remorseful, as the man who held the answers to so many questions silently and unremarkably fell away into the unknown.
For sometime after that, Jonathan wondered aimlessly among the world, until at the age of 22, his life changed forever. One day, sitting alone in a darkened restaurant as he listened to some poor excuse for a poet recite his work, Jonathan saw a smile cut through the darkness. The beautiful young lady would introduce herself to him as Lillian Hope.
Six months later, in a gorgeous ceremony outdoors, the two were married. Lillian’s best friend since college, Josephine Smith, was there too as her maid of honor, and Jonathan’s foster brother (who had also escaped that terrible place, though it was far later than Jonathan), Mark Riece, was also present.
Six months later, their roles reversed as Josephine and Mark were married. Sometime after that, both families were overjoyed to find that Josephine and Lillian were both pregnant.
At the age of 20, Lillian Sharpe welcomed her son, Connor, into the world. A few weeks later, Josephine Riece welcomed her daughter Lea to join him.
II
It is 1991. Lillian has recently turned 28, and her beloved husband Jonathan is a few months away from 33. And their beloved Connor is now 8 years old, and is enjoying yet another Christmas morning, ripping open presents and screaming with glee every time he opens up another brightly colored box of toys. As the two lovers smile at each other, Lillian walks over to her husband and grabs him tightly, holding him closely in a lover’s embrace.
Jonathan squeezed his love tightly; he might have sworn that he could burst her. As he did, a bright light emanated up and outwards, engulfing the world around him. Suddenly, he found himself alone, the world and all the things he loved gone from around him. Instead the world was vastly open and made of pure white. As he looked out, he began to notice a few men in robes of the purest white walking, and he began to make out buildings and a gleaming, golden pathway. Jonathan walked out and looked at these people, waving his hands and trying to get their attention, but they would pay him no heed, as if he were merely a ghost in a world of apparitions.
Jonathan felt his chest tighten and burn, and feared it was a heart attack. He dropped to his knees and clutched his chest, tears forming in his eyes as he felt an odd sensation, like sloughing off a dozen wet blankets. Inside his body, his soul beat and thrashed about, fighting to get free and join the others around it. In an instant, Jonathan Sharpe knew he was seeing Heaven, knew that all the stories were true and that his prayers really were heard, and he knew that he wants to stay here so desperately. His soul finally ripped free and beat around inside his body, struggling to find a way out, when Lillian released her grip on Jonathan, unaware of what had just taken place. Jonathan stood there silently for a moment, his soul weak and flopping around inside him like a fish taking its last gasps of air.
For six long months, he felt that monster beat around inside him, until one day it withered and faded away. His soul now dead, Jonathan began to go through changes. He felt himself growing angrier, and would often fight with Lillian, never seeming to understand why he hated her so and what made him want to hurt her the way he did. Until one dark day, with Connor gone and Lea’s guard down, Jonathan made his move.
He snuck up behind her and threw her to the ground, taking a sick joy in the solid thump her head made as it dragged across the marble countertop and down to the linoleum of the floor. He straddled her and tried to choke her, but she countered. Too surprised and distraught to use her powers, Lillian frantically swiped and clawed at Jonathan, her nails ripping chunks of flesh from his arm. Furiously, he began to punch her flailing body, his blood mixing with hers and dripping to the floor below them as his blows connected with painful precision to her face, until he finally found himself punching only a hollow corpse that represented what his wife once was.
But the rage still burned deep within him. He went on a rampage, turning everything in the house on end as he destroyed it, wrecking and mutilating his own body in the process, before finally realizing his actions had set the house on fire. As the fire reached the gas lines near Lillian’s corpse, the house was rocked by an explosion the likes of which his small community had never said. There would not be enough left of the two bodies to even consider a decent funeral.
As the pieces of Jonathan Sharpe’s corpse blew apart and were scattered the world over, fate intervened once more. A powerful demon, the dark lord of Hell known as Vilnias, was watching that day and witnessed the accident, having been watching Jonathan Sharpe for some time. Vilnias used his powers, flexing his sinewy arms, stretching and cracking the charcoal black dusting of brimstone that formed his arms, and pulled the pieces of Jonathan Sharpe together. He brought them together and fused the pieces together, and made them stronger, more formidable, a force to be reckoned with. His soul was now dead, and Jonathan Sharpe was no more. In his place stood a fierce monster, the bloody demon Eblis.
For so many long years Eblis hid in these forests, desperately clinging to what was left of his humanity and struggling to remember who he was, until one day he felt a change in the world. He felt a power so much like the one that had taken his own soul from him, and set out to find it. As he neared it, his rage grew and he lost himself in the rage of his newly formed demon soul, laying waste to this legendary Crystal Temple and remembering very little of what had actually occurred there. Shortly thereafter, as Eblis’ memories returned to him once more, he realized the source of the power had been his own son, his beloved Connor. He followed this energy once more, and found himself here, standing before his son who had shed his costume and now stood before him a grown man, so strong and proud. If Eblis had the capability to feel pride, he feared his heart would burst.
Connor looked on at the monster Eblis with surprise and awe, unable to believe this was his own father, when a voice in the background screamed in surprise.
“Connor, run!”
Connor turned to find Victor, another friend who was curious as to Connor’s sudden and unexplained absence of two days, standing behind him with a large piece of rock. Connor was certain he should say something, but decided that Victor probably wouldn’t accept he’d spent two days recovering in a temple with a magician who was also an angel.
“Victor…” Connor spoke, his voice low and gentle. “I’ll be okay. You should go, and hurry.”
“Dammit, Connor! It’s a monster, and we can’t just stay here, we’ve got to go!!”
“I can’t do that, Victor.”
“Yes…yes you can!”
Connor watched in fear as Victor hurled the piece of stone over his head, striking the demon Eblis between the eyes. Eblis reared back and howled, his own sanity lost in the pain, and dropped down hard, the force of the stomp knocking Victor off his feet and rendering him unconscious. As Connor turned to look in the demon’s eyes, he knew at once that his father was gone.
He screamed and tightened his fists, his eyes burning a fierce, pure white, as the energy around his body grew visible and condensed, his costume forming in the blink of an eye. Connor shot forward, his fist colliding with the demon’s stomach, and let loose an onslaught of punches. Eblis countered and swatted down, his claws ripping off Connor’s mask, and followed up with a powerful kick that knocked Connor on his back by Lea.
Roused by the sudden noise, Lea looked over and saw, to her surprise, the hero Paladin who had recently been the talk of the town. She was even more surprised to look at his face and see that it was an all too familiar face…
III
Lea sat in the corner by where The Paladin lay, her feet tucked up under her, fear filling her eyes. Could it really be him? Could Connor be this hero who had so recently appeared? As the figure before her stirred and moved, she silently whispered his name.
“…Connor? Is…is it really you?”
“Lea…stay here.” Connor said as he sat up, a line of blood trickling from his brow. “I swear, I’ll explain everything.”
In a flash, Connor dashed forward and flew up, higher and higher until he was near the skylight over the commons area. His eyes narrowed, his body pulsing with power, he flew down and landed hard on Eblis’ head, slamming the monster down into a deep hole. But his assault did not stop there. Seizing his chance, Connor flew deep down into the hole and began to assault the monster. Refusing to yield, ignoring the painful sting of the brimstone that coated the demons flesh, Connor’s fists became a blur of power and speed, chunks and flecks of Eblis’ hardened skin flying into the air.
Some time later, Connor rose from the deep crevice and crawled across the floor, his boots and gloves burned away by the monsters flesh. He stood there for a moment, weak and out of power, before his legs buckled underneath him. Behind him, he heard the angry roar of Eblis, as the monster crawled up from its near grave, its rocky skin long gone to reveal the bright red, blood soaked tissue underneath. The monster stood over Connor, blood dripping down to the dust and rock below.
Connor bowed his head and found he was choking back tears. It was all for nothing. He had given it his all, had fought to the full extent of his power, and yet could not make so much as a dent in this monsters hide.
“I’m sorry…father.” Connor silently whispered as his body gave way to its humanity, and he fell to the ground.
The demon Eblis grunted and looked at the weak, human form beneath him, and for an instant contemplated its destruction. Yet it had heard it call him Father, and he knew there was something about this human. And so, as his humanity slowly returned to him, Eblis watched over the body of The Paladin. As police tried to make their way in, as students stirred and debating moving towards the limp hero’s body, the demon would grunt and watch over him.
Seven hours passed. The sun began to set, and yet still, the demon Eblis remained ever vigil, until finally the being he would call Son woke up and faced him once more. His power returned, his wounds nearly healed, his head spinning as he wondered what would happen now.
Eblis grunted and moaned, struggling to form words, yet the bleeding, craggy surface of what passed as a mouth would not bend and manipulate the way he needed it to.
“Father?” Connor said cautiously. “Father, what is it? What do you want?”
“..Co…n…nor…”
“Yes, father?”
“K..kill…me….”
IV
Lea, curled up in the corner and fighting back tears, was at a loss as she tried to understand what was going on. Was this monster really Connor’s father? Was this why the man had so suddenly taken the life of Connor’s mother?
Connor just stood there, his fists balled up, staring at the ground. This demon, who he now knew to be his father, wanted death. He wanted death at the hands of his son, the vigilant Paladin. Could he do this? Could he really slay this monster before him? Or would that betray everything he now felt and knew?
As the building continued to crumble around him, Connor blinked away his tears and formed his sword, its gleaming blade burning with Holy flame. He took one long, final look at the demon and envisioned the smiling face of his father he had so long missed and cherished. Finally, after years of wonder and heartache, his father’s life makes sense, as heartbreaking as it seems. His father, whose soul had been unjustly taken from him by the woman he loved, a woman who did not know what she was doing.
Exhausted, Connor held the blade off to his side, lifting it off the ground and holding it above his head.
“Father…”
Eblis slowly lowered his head, bowing before his son, struggling to hold on to his humanity for just a second more.
“I’ll set you free, Father.”
Lea gasped, her hands clasped tightly against her mouth as she realized what Connor must now do, unable to even grasp how terribly difficult it must be for him.
“I’LL SET YOU FREE!”
The Paladin’s sword moved swiftly, neatly cleaving the bloody flesh of Eblis’ neck. Tears streamed down Connor’s face as the demon’s head fell to the ground, sizzling and burning away as dark red blood spilled onto the ground. He stood there for a moment; the sword’s edge stuck in the ground as Eblis’ blood poured from the body and flowed out to his feet.
Lea sat leaned against the wall, sobbing silently when Connor walked over to her. He held out his hand and nodded at her. Taking his hand, she stood up and fell into his arms, burying her face deep into his chest. He held her tightly and kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry. I’ll explain everything.” He silently whispered into her ear. As paramedics and police officers finally found themselves able to get into the building, he wrapped Lea up tightly in his arms and took off towards the sky, moving as fast as he could to get away from this place and the terrible memories it now held…
END
COMING SOON
PALADIN: ORIGINS ACT VII
REVELATIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS
