The Father, The Prodigal Son, and the Holy Taco

**We find ourselves looking out across dark waves, highlighted by the full moon overhead, at the City that Never Sleeps...New York, New York. The lights flicker across the city...A million lives. Twice as many tales. Slowly the camera turns away from the City to it's surroundings...**

**Steal railing, a giant torch, and a giant expressionless face of olive...The Statue of Liberty. The Lady...The torch is currently dark...casting many shadows across the observation area around it. The monument is closed, but...we are not alone at this great height. For now the camera spins as it begins to search for the source of some hurried talk...**

**Finally it wheels around to find Jose Gonzalez engaged in a conversation...seemingly to himself, but as the camera looks toward the shadows he presently faces...it sees movement. We listen in...**

Jose Gonzalez: "...so yeah boss it's tomorrow. Yeah, against some guy named uh...Mako! Yeah, Mako...Last week it was this idiot named Scorch, and this week it's some shark freak or something... "

Shadowed Figure: "Mmm hmm."

**Jose smiles brightly at the response from the dark figure and continues on in even higher spirits.**

Jose Gonzalez: "Yeah, yeah! He was going on and on about his appetite, and well I guess he's never seen me at Taco Bell during 49-cent taco day. Because you know I can pack the taco's away...right boss? You know it right?"

**There is no response from the shadows this time, and a frown crosses over Jose's face, but still he presses on.**

Jose Gonzalez: "So uh...yeah I don't even think he believes int he power of the Taco...I mean I just don't understand the prejudice there boss! Everyone believes in Santa Clause and we never see him...Why not the Taco? I mean I've even seen the effects of the Taco...and to tell you the truth it ain't pretty, but dammit it's real. So yeah I'm thinking maybe I'll break this Mako guys leg or something for doubting my Taco...I mean really that's just something you don..."

**Suddenly a new voice interrupts Jose...**

"Con permisio...  Nessissito ablando con su's padre..."

**Jose slowly turns his head from the man in the shadows to the doorway leading back into the statue and the stairway winding up the observation area. Jose's eyes go wide...**

Jose Gonzalez: "Que? Father??"  

**Again we hear the voice. This time closer.**

"Buenos Noches pinchi stookie..."

 **Jose jumps back as aa average sized man in a long jacket suddenly emerges from the darkness of the doorway...His long hair whipping around his head in the wind he looks Jose over from behind a pair of circular sun glasses. The pale moonlight pouncing off his shoulders as his hands rest deep within his pockets.**

Jose Gonzalez: "Fleshy?"  

 **The new comer wrinkles his brow as the area around his mouth tightens into a grimace...**

"Va ah afueda porque no quiro tu pinchi puertra aki...I'm not my brother dipshit..."

**Jose's eyes go wider, and his jaw drops...**

Jose Gonzalez: "AH NO!! It's the bad man!! IEE!!"

**Jose clutches at his neck and takes a giant step back...pushing himself as far back along the railing and towards the man in the shadows as he can. The new arrival speaks again...this time more forcefully.**

"Va ah afueda.  Quiero ablo con sus padre solo!"

**Confusion spreads across Jose's face as he clutches at his neck, and he looks from the man in the shadows...and then back to the new arrival, and shrugs...**

Jose Gonzalez: "Huh? I don't...?" 

**Jose is interrupted as the figure in the shadows finally breaks his silence...** 

The Father: "Stay...he has no authority over you yet...Hello Faith."  

**The camera returns to the man in the doorway. He takes another step away from the doorway, and the wind catches the bottoms of his coat.** 

Faith: Hello....I brought it...

The Father: "Hand it to Jose then."

**Jose nervously steps forward towards Faith...trembling slightly. He reaches out his hand. Faith, in the door way makes a quick move, and suddenly a long slender metallic pole finds its way into his hands. It glints in the moonlight, as Jose who had recoiled a bit at the sudden movement begins to move forward again...**

**Then as Jose is just inches from grasping the pole...Faith pulls it in towards him...Coiled tightly he suddenly takes on the appearance of a snake ready to strike. Jose, again jumps backwards with a shriek...**

Jose Gonzalez: "IEEE!!"

Faith: This is mine....

**From the Shadows the Father chuckles...and Jose shoots him a glance.**

The Father: "So it is...so it is...It's good to see that you remembered."

**Jose rises up to his full height now looking back and forth between the two men as they engage themselves in an almost encrypt conversation. Which is unimportant...**

Faith: I'd never forget.  I have always done what I've set out to do.  What you've sent me to do.

The Father: "Funny...but I don't recall ever sending you away...did I?"

**We see the flicker of match in the darkness occupied by the Father...A cigar is lit. Faith shuffles his feet a bit beneath him.**

Faith: Nor did I turn, I'll admit, I did hide.  I realized something that I hadn't thought of when this all began.  But I did not renounce your name.  Not even when you encountered the clone.  As others did.  I only hid. 

**There is a long drawn out silence...A plum of smoke escapes the darkness. Then finally The Father response in a voice full of spite...**

The Father: "The clone? Why not say his damn name!? Jeffery Drake! He was the guy that finished me off...that does deserve some form of respect doesn't it!?"  

**The Father seems to spit the word "respect" out as he again falls silent, but no sooner do his words die then Faith suddenly takes a giant step forward and rips off his sunglasses. Jose recoils a bit and hides his face. The camera falls upon Faith's face to reveal a look of pure rage, and...two burning green eyes. In the darkness many of the finer details of his face are hidden, but it is apparent that his gaze is directed to the shadows as are his words...**

Faith: He didn't finish me...Tell me these aren't his eyes.  Tell me that' s not what you see.  Tell me the look on my face isn't the same one you saw in an eleven year old child.  I just want to know what he was.  But I couldn't be him. 

**In the shadows we don't see the Father...In the shadows we can only guess of his facial expressions, but he speaks...**

The Father: "Maybe...maybe I could once clearly see him in you...Like the day you approached me in the Zodiac...So ready to kill me. Then you were him, but he never hid...No matter how bad I was hurt...He never hid."

Faith: That's because I'm not him.  And I don't know what you expect from me as me.  I didn't then.  No matter how efficiently I performed.  I never knew what it was you really wanted.  And I still don't.

The Father:: "What I wanted? What I wanted? I wanted loyalty! I wanted trust! I wanted my King! I wanted...I needed my son."

**His last words drip out in a whisper...And there is silence for a moment before Faith finally speaks again.**

Faith: I'm not your son.  But I...I want to know what it was like to be him...how could I know?

**He shakes off the last sentence as he slips his round sunglasses back on his face, and recoils back into the shadows.**

The Father:: "There's only one way to do that...Only one."

Faith: And that would be?

 **From the shadows a glinting object is tossed to Jose...Jose catches it...bobbles it and then finally clasps it in his hands.**

Faith: Is that...?  

**The Father ignores him and continues on...**

The Father:: "When I first found him...he wasn't my son...He was just a puppet...Something to toy with..."

"Through the years though he became so much more...He became a part of my creation...he became an institution, and he gave his body, soul, and spirit for me..."

Faith: Is that what I think it is?

**Again the Father ignores him, and continues on.**

The Father:: "I could never...ever repay him now...not ever...But there was one thing above all else I gave to him...I allowed him to have that title...That King of Extreme, and I sealed it with a medallion."

**It is then Jose looks to his hands as realization finally strikes him. he opens his hand, and there laying in his palm is a golden medallion...Jose drops to his knees...**

Jose Gonzalez: "Oh lord."

The Father:: "To become him...to know him...you would have to walk in his shoes. He was the King of his genre in the AOWF..."

**There is silence from the shadows once again as another plume of smoke escapes into the night sky.**

Faith: The AOWF is long since dead.  Hope...gone.  Glory...faded.  Liberty...A fucking joke.   There is one fragment left....A fragment in which I was a king.

The Father:: "True...you and another, but if you want to know what his life was like...if you really want to know...You'll have to start with him..."

**Jose points to himself and mouths the words...Me?**

The Father:: "My son never had all the glamor and glitz that came along with the position...He took nothing and turned it into gold...That's what you're to do for me...Take the W4F and make it mine."

"Many times...Many times in the past he was left on his own, and never...Not once did he fail to create and army, and prepare it for my arrival. Not once."

**Another plume of smoke.**

The Father:: "But I don't know if this is what you truly want..."

Faith: The only way for you to know, is for you to let me show you...I can make it home.

**A long hand reaches out from The Fathers shadow and snatches up the golden medallion...Faith leans forward a bit, looking longingly and the vanishing medallion. Slowly he begins to extend a hand...and then drops it back to his side looking away.**

The Father:: "Can you now? Well...I'll let my son decide that one. This one..."

**And he seems to indicate Jose who has now moved back to his feet**

The Father:: "Will be useful...He worked with your brother in the past...He's lost his mind a bit, but nevertheless he won't disappoint you as far as loyalty goes."

Faith: Just what I've always wanted for Christmas.  A Joser...

**An indignant look flashes across Jose's face, but he remains quiet.**

The Father:: "Heh...so then...if there is no further business gentlemen you may leave. I believe a need a moment alone with the Lady." 

**There is a long moment of silence, but then from Faith's direction a single black rose is tossed down...**

Faith: I'll find more.  More with loyalty.  And those that don't wanna get with the damn program can...join my brother...

The Father:: "Yes...yes I suppose they can..."

"...I'll be watching you Faith."

**Jose looks from the rose to the Father, and then quickly heads for the door way. He pauses right inside it...crosses himself, and then vanishes into the dark stairwell.**

The Father:: "Long live the King."

**The father falls silent once again, and the scene fades out.**