“What have I become?”
[Darkness. A shred of light illuminates the old mask of Lux Bellator.]
“I spent so long chasing the light. Believing darkness was evil. Vowing to fight it in the name of the Lord.”
“I believed Padre Venganza was the darkness I was created to vanquish. Yet now I kneel before it.”
“I embrace it.”
“For in Nox, veritatem inveni… in darkness, I found the truth.”
[Nox holds a candle to his face, the flame dancing and reflecting.]
“Light gives you evidence. You see what it chooses to reveal.”
“But darkness is where faith begins. Faith is believing in what you cannot see.”
“If you believe everything the light touches, what need have you for faith?”
“Light asks you to believe what it illuminates. And that is the problem.”
[We widen to see Nox kneeling at a concave mirror, distorting him, barely recognisable.]
“It can be contorted.”
[The true Nox turns to face us.]
“Marvolo controls the institution. The beholder. He chooses his team, decides who is a threat, and points his spotlight at the Family.”
“Light can be directed. Darkness cannot. That is why you fear it.”
“Scripture tells me God has been in the darkness all along. Working in mysterious ways.”
“Padre intended to infect Lux. The darkness consumed Lux. Yet I emerged.”
“Where everyone else sees catastrophe, I see providence.”
“And I see that same false light in those Marvolo has sent to stop us.”
“Siniestro follows it because he was told to. He follows the man holding the lantern.”
“Deadeye follows out of loyalty, a deal struck to ensure order remains. I didn’t know the Wild West was so easily controlled.”
“Doctor Cube believes he can distinguish black from white. He prides himself on being enlightened… But mistakes enlightenment for wisdom. There is truth within the black that the enlightened cannot fathom.”
“And then there is Mars.”
“The loud. The bold… But Afraid.”
“Afraid because you’ve lived the end, and fear the path we tread. You fear what you might find inside the darkness.”
“I was afraid too.”
“I was once a warrior of light, believing if I illuminated something, I understood it.”
“Then the light went out. For the first time, I had nothing left to see.”
“That is where I truly found God.”
“He did not abandon me in the darkness. He was there, waiting.”
“You look at me now and see an infection. A creature consumed by darkness.”
“But perhaps that is your mistake.”
“You are calling what you see evil simply because the light distorts the truth.”
[He waves his hand in front of the mirror.]
[It appears contorted, twisted and gnarled.]
“Marvolo beholds the light. He chooses where it is pointed. What it illuminates.”
“And what it does not.”
“I exist in the world of what Marvolo cannot see.”
“I do not need you to believe I am good.”
“God knows why I am here.”
“At Ring King, the Family will prove exactly why.”
“Because the light is not all you think it is.”
[Blackout. Nox's voice speaks from the darkness.]
“In Nox, Veritas.”