The Big Reveal

Lafayette:

Appearing in a puff of black smoke, I drop down on one of the rafters in the church's ceiling. From high above, I can see A still on the ground. He's curled into a ball. A sizzling, smoking, shaking ball on the church's floor. Sitting in one of the church's pews, not too far from A is Moses.

"He's keeping a close eye on A," I think, silently walking on top of the rafter. As I walk along the wooden rafter, I realize something.

"I'm walking with my knees crouched down and my hands at my side. Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah. Ezio Auditore. From Assassin's Creed. Man. Who would have guessed all those times playing video games with Matt would have come in handy?"

As I keep walking along the rafter, I stop when I'm right above Moses.

"I can't attack Moses. He's one of my friends, and even if he isn't, Jacob and everyone else would hate me if I did attack him. Also, he's one of us and not an enemy. Unlike A. Who is an enemy. That I'm rescuing. From a friend. Okay. My head is starting to hurt."

Feeling a slight headache, I shake it off and look back down.

"Moses is watching over A," I think, "I could easily teleport A out of here but to do that, I need to reach him. And I rather do that without Moses knowing I was me who teleported him away. I need some way to distract him."

I look down, not at Moses, but at my feet. I then look at my hands.

"Thank you, Matt," I say after an idea sparks in my head. "And Assassin's Creed."

Spotting the confession booth against a wall of the church, I bring up one of my hands. Wiggling my fingers while making circles with my hand, I make myself a magical smoke bomb.

Winding my arm up, I throw the smoke bomb at the confession booth. My smoke bombs hit the curtain, going right through it before exploding and unleashing a thick, black smoke cloud. The black smoke spread out from beneath the curtain, and it doesn't take Moses very long to see it.

"Ahh," Moses says, jumping up from his seat. "What in the world?"

Running out from between the pews, Moses runs over to the confession booth and examines the smoke. He grabs and pushes open the curtain and the second he does, a wave of black smoke hits him right in the face.

Moses screams as he backs away from the confession booth.

"Sorry Moses," I say, still watching from above. "I'll be sure to clean your clothes afterward."

Still watching as Moses coughs, he waves his hand and pushes the smoke back. While he does this, I jump down and teleport to A.

"Lafayette," A says, still sizzling as I put my hands on him. "What--What are you--"

"Shh," I say, putting my finger against my mouth. "Be quiet. I'm in enough trouble already, and the last thing I need is for Moses to see me helping you."

"Help me," A repeats. "Wait, Moses? You know that man over there? How? And--And you teleported! Just now! You teleported! You have powers too! Wait. Was it you? Were you...that shadow person? That explains it. That explains why you stopped fighting me at the gas station and took Alieen away! That explains why you stopped fighting when Alieen told us to stop! It was you! It was all you!"

"A please," I say. I turn around and luckily, Moses is still distracted by the smoke. "A, please. Stop talking! I'm trying to help you here!"

"Help me," A yells back. "You tried to kill me over and over again! Why would I--"

"Because Alieen is my friend," I say, cutting A off. "At least, I think she still is. And right now, I think what Alieen need is to see you."

A looks right at me. He looks at me as my words sink in. I can see the gears in his head turn as he still tries to make sense of everything. I turn around again and see the black smoke flying out.

"Moses is pushing the black smoke away. I have only a few seconds before I'm busted."

"A," I say. "It's now or never. Take my hand."

A looks at me and then at my hand. He nods and takes my hand. With that, I teleport away.

I teleport us back to A's gas station. Screaming as he falls onto the ground, I stand with crossed arms and watch as A pushes himself up.

"I am...home," A says once he's back on his feet.

"Yeah," I say. "Welcome back to your gas station."

"I am surprised you have not destroyed it yet."

"I'm--I was only after you. My mission was to find and capture you."

"Your mission? What is your mission? Who are you? Who am I? Are we...human?"

"Yes," I yell. "Of course, we're human. At least, at one point, we were."

"We were," A repeats. He screams and slams his hands onto his head. He starts to pace back and forth.

"We were humans. Oh! Oh yeah! That makes total sense! We were human! And now! Now what are we?"

"I'm an angel," I answer. As soon as A hears my answer, he stops dead in his track, with his foot in mid-air. Slowly, very slowly, A turns to face me.

"You're a what?"

"I am an angel," I answer.

Jacob:

Teleporting into the church, I see Moses kneeling on the floor in front of the priest's stand. As I approach him, Moses stands back up.

"What happened," I yell, looking around. "Where is A?"

"Gone," Moses answers with a sigh.

"How? I thought his powers didn't work inside the church.

"They don't," Moses says. He points at something behind me. I turn around and see the church's confession booth. "Something happened and smoke started coming out of the confession booth. When I went to check on it, A disappeared all of a sudden."

"Smoke started coming out of the confession booth," I repeat, turning back to look at Moses. "Odd that it happened just as A is finally captured."

"A," Moses repeats.

"Oh yeah. I owe you an explanation. Meanwhile, you owe me for cleaning that whole bakery and for wiping the baker's and her customers' memory clean."

"Hey, that wasn't entirely my fault. Besides, I just wanted some doughnuts."

I shake my head and explain that, according to Lafayette, for the last two years, he had been going by A.

"Speaking of Lafayette," I say, looking around. "Where is she? In this whole world, there are only three of us that knew about A's location. You, me, and Lafayette. And both A and Lafayette aren't here."

"Jacob," Moses says. "You can't be serious. Do you really think Lafayette would betray us?"

"There's only one way to find out," I answer. "Follow me."

A:

"I do not think so," I say. "You are no angel. You were quite harsh to me when we met for the first time. And many times after that."

"The apartment wasn't the first time we met," Lafayette says. "We met almost a century ago."

"A century," I repeat. "How old are you? How old am I?"

"I can't be sure how old you are, but I'm over 500 years old."

"500 years old?"

"Yes. I was born in Bordeaux, France in the year 1508. I died about 20 years later. I was then reborn--"

"As an angel," I finish. "You are not lying. Are you?"

Lafayette lowers her head and sighs.

"Yes," she says. "I was reborn as an angel and granted special powers."

"Like telekinesis and teleportation?"

"Those are the most basic powers."

"Basic?"

"Basic," Layafette says with a smile. Looking to the side, Lafayette shoots out her hand and lifts the whole price sign. She then slams it back down.

"Please be careful with that," I say. "That is a part of my home."

Lafayette shrugs her shoulders.

"So wait, I'm an angel. From up there?"

I point up before looking at the bright sky."

"No," Lafayette says. "You're actually from the opposite place."

"The opposite," I repeat, looking back down. As I look down, Lafayette points at the ground.

"A. You're a demon from Hell."