Having experienced a single perfect moment of faith at the destruction of the Vatican, Cardinal Giardi went out into the world to do what his heart told him was right: healing the sick. Not just those among the resistance, but any and all who needed help. He wandered the earth to wherever there was conflict and death, and using the powers that had been granted to him, brought life and light to dark places. He was seen at the G8 disaster, was found walking Naki hospitals at the height of the plagues and often met with those in the resistance he considered friends, but was assiduous in offering no more than he did to any other.
Many who still held to Catholic faith, and others beside, began to refer to him as Saint Giardi, the Even Handed, and he appears in the texts of the Hopeful Scribe under this name. Organisations sprang up attempting to follow his example. The Naki often rejected the healing he brought, considering it to be tainted by the hated black magic. However, the doctors that followed behind him were ever welcome. And when war came to Brazil, he walked the battlefields, healing those who had fallen.
When the war was done, for better or worse the amount of death in the world fell, and Giardi’s workload grew less and less. In consultation with the Naki, he set to rebuilding Rome, and setting up a huge hospital and medical research facility to continue his work. He passed away in [year], leaving a world better prepared for the time of chaos that was to come than it would have been without him.
Farah “The Phoenix” Tynes knew that this time she would not walk away. The bullet wound in her stomach had been bleeding for a good minute now, and she was starting to feel a little unsteady. Still, the Naki snatch team she had ambushed were in no better shape, lying around her with a variety of terrible wounds sapping their lives away. She slumped down against the wall, waiting for her eyes to close for good. She must have started hallucinating, as suddenly there was a man clad all in white standing before her, then kneeling down.
“You should be more careful, my child”, he said, laying his hands upon her bleeding body, and with a shock her vision sharpened,, and strength returned to her limbs. Where there had been a gaping hole in her stomach was now merely a tender spot. She saw that the man had walked over to one of the injured Naki, and was kneeling down.
“What are you doing?” she shouted.
“What I must.”
“But they are enemies. Murderers.”
“And yet they are still people.”
Farah stood, agape as the man returned to tending to the Naki. After a few seconds, he sighed, and looked up from his work.
“If I were you, I would start running.”
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27