by Max Jager
Rachel was more than upset with the man, but despite her irritability, she knew he did not need to be under any stress.
She gave Bandit a kiss on the cheek, grabbed both Brayne and Abe's hands, and led the two of them outside.
"Come on, boys," she said, "Let's go grab some dinner in the cafeteria."
But…I'm not hungry… thought Brayne, infinitely disturbed by the fact that Rachel's raw physical strength was even greater than both his and Abe's.
He looked at Abe with concern, but Abe shook his head, and gave him a look that told him to let it go and follow her lead.
"Your mother told us your name was Emily," said Rachel as she looked at Emily, "Please, join us for dinner. It would be our pleasure."
"Thank you," said Emily as she nodded her head and followed the three out.
Meanwhile, Mary leaned forward to give Bandit a kiss on the forehead, and smiled at him as she spoke.
"Don't get out of this hospital until you're properly discharged, okay?" she requested, knowing her friend's impulsive behavior.
Bandit sighed as he smiled at her.
"I promise," he said as he winked at her.
It was a quiet day in the hospital. In fact, it did not even seem like there was anyone in it. Nurses were not running up and down the halls as per usual, but that was probably because it was dinner time and they were on their break.
After seeing Bandit, Mary decided to sit in the hospital lobby instead of going to dinner, for she had already eaten before coming to the hospital. She was sad, for after everything they had been through, including their three year mission, she had never seen her friend so beaten up.
Bandit…I…
As she thought to herself, a man in a dark hood walked over and sat next to her. Lost in her thoughts, she initially did not notice the man, but the man turned to face her, and made his presence known.
"Hello, Mary," he said.
Despite her mind's preoccupation, Mary had enough awareness to hear the man's voice, and when she did, her eyes widened in incomparable surprise.
That voice… she thought, shocked to hear a voice she never thought she would hear ever again.
She looked at the man from the corner of her eye, and gasped when she saw what little of his face she could see under his hood. She looked at him with an indescribable mixture of emotions as he raised his hood enough to reveal his eyes, and her eyes widened when she realized that he really was who she thought he was.
"You're… Wha…?"
Mary was completely lost about how to feel seeing this person, but the man himself was as calm as could be, and simply looked at her with a smile.
"Oh…" she said as she looked at the man as though he was a ghost, "You… What the…?"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself, and proceeded to speak with firmer conviction.
"Wha…? What are you doing here?" she asked, clearly disturbed by the man's presence.
"It's nice to see you too," said the man, ignoring Mary's shock and disbelief, "As for why I'm here…it's actually quite simple. I am here to make the Ice Lands a better place to live."
Mary looked at the man as though he was out of his mind.
"Better?" she said skeptically.
"Yes… The Ice Lands need the new law enforcement Red has brought to it. You should make sure your red headed friend understands that…before he gets himself killed."
Mary's eyes widened even more when she realized that this man was the one who had tortured Bandit, and placed her hand over her mouth in shock.
"You…?" she asked, "You're the one who beat up Bandit…?"
She slowly balled up her fists in anger, and looked at Wake Noran fiercely as she spoke.
"What the hell makes you think you have any right to come here?" she asked aggressively.
Wake took a deep breath, and spoke as he stood up.
"A lot of time has passed," he said, You've been here in the Ice Lands for quite some time, so in case you've forgotten, your mother was murdered by some criminal bastard who tried to rob her. I understand that the event occurred in the Desert Sands, not the Ice Lands, but it does not change the fact that this world needs to be changed one way or another…and if I have to be the one to initiate such change, then so be it."
He turned to face her as he continued.
"You may not believe me…but I'm actually doing this for you."
"Me?" scoffed Mary in disgust.
"It took me too long to realize where you went when you ran away. When I did figure it out, I decided that, because I was not there for you much when you were a child, I would be there for you as much as possible. You're the reason I'm here, Mary, and whether you like it or not…I'm here to stay."
He knelt down to look her directly in the eye, and Mary gulped nervously as he spoke.
"You know, I've kept tabs on you ever since I got here, Mary. You've become such a sweet and strong girl. I just wish you hadn't run away from me all that time."
"Stop," demanded Mary uncomfortably, "Stop…"
"I mean, I thought we had a more solid relationship than that… But at least now, I have the ability to watch over you and take interest in the things you care about…like this land."
"Don't…" said Mary with furrowed eyebrows, unsettled at the prospect of Wake's offer.
"Come now, Mary," said Wake as he slowly placed his hand on her cheek, causing her eyes to widen as much as they possibly could in fear, "Every father has the right to…protect his daughter."
Mary gulped in fear and shook her head as she looked at her father with more fear than she had ever experienced in her entire life.
Ghosts
In a restaurant located on the south side of Lax, a fourteen year old Bandit Blood smiled as he spoke to his friend Rachel Thomas with a smile.
"How has your birthday been so far?" he asked.
"Good so far," she responded, "My parents sang happy birthday to me this morning. They made this wonderful breakfast for me, and they got me a cake."
"Ah. Was it that strawberry shortcake you like so much?"
"It was!" she answered with a smile.
"Well, that's good. I know how much you love it… So, how old are you now?"
Rachel giggled as she playfully flicked his arm with her finger.
"I'm not gonna tell you."
"Why not?" asked Bandit.
Of course, he knew the reason why; he was just messing with her.
"You can't ask a girl how old she is," she responded with a smile, knowing he already knew how old she was.
"Oh, I see," he said with smug grin, "I get it. You don't want to talk about how incredibly old you are."
Rachel gasped as she looked at Bandit with fake shock. To make up for his little joke, he quickly put his arm around her and began to sing the Happy Birthday song to her. She rolled her eyes, but smiled as she did so.
He always messed with her like that, but he always did so because he knew messing with her like that would make her smile, and he liked seeing her smile very much.
Once he finished singing to her, Rachel quickly leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. He had not seen that coming, and looked at her in surprise. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, closed his eyes, and rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled.
"I certainly wasn't expecting that," he said, making Rachel giggle, "Thanks, Rachel."
Bandit opened his eyes from his nap, and looked up at the ceiling as he thought about his dream.
"You two always had the best time together, huh?" asked a voice.
Bandit gasped in surprise, for the voice sounded like one he had not heard in the longest of times. He turned on his side to see who else was in the room with him, and when he saw who it was, his eyes widened, and he gasped in insurmountable surprise.
"M… M… Mom…"
He did not know how to react to seeing his red-haired birth mother, but after getting over the initial shock of the situation, he quickly realized what was g
oing on.
This isn't real, he thought to himself solemnly, It's a dream…
He closed his eyes as he bitterly gritted his teeth, and looked at his mother, Desire Blood, with incomparable sadness as he whispered.
"You're not really here…"
Desire shook her head as she slowly placed her hand on her son's cheek, causing Bandit to close his eyes in sadness. He had not felt her tender touch in so long, and even though she was not really there, her touch so made him so emotional, he could not even bring himself to speak.
"I had to see you," she said as he slowly opened his eyes and looked into her own, "It's about… Well… It's about your brother…"
Bandit closed his eyes as he remembered just how far his older brother had fallen.
"You can't fight him, honey…" she said as she furrowed her eyebrows, "Stop training… Stop trying to be a hero…"
Bandit looked at his mother sullenly as he gulped.
"I… I…can't let him rule over this land… He's… He's not the brother I once knew… The son you once knew… He's more…cold hearted and cold blooded than he ever was before… Whether I like it or not…he and his associates…they have to be stopped."
"Maybe so…but not by you," said Desire earnestly, "After what you did to him…you should know that…you have no right to involve yourself in this battle… You've done enough… I hate to say this, son, but…you already know that…you are the one who sent him down this path to darkness…"
Bandit gritted his teeth in agony as his mother placed both of her hands on his cheeks.
"Whether you want to admit it or not…you are not a hero…or a brother…You're…"
"…a disgrace…"
Bandit gasped in surprise when his mother suddenly disappeared from his sight, and gasped again when he saw another red-haired phantom appear several feet away from his bedside.
Unlike the tender hearted image of his mother, however, this particular phantom was gruff and hard. His eyes were filled with hatred, and Bandit's jaw dropped as he looked at the man as though he was the most terrifying person in the entire world.
"Dad…"
"What's the matter, son?" asked Cardinal Blood as he smirked at his son, "You don't look so good."
Bandit stared at his father in fear as he walked towards his bedside.
"You've grown," he said as he eyed his son, "but you're still the same old Bandit. Always getting himself beaten up by others… I have to say… I disappointed."
"You're dead…" said Bandit, horrified as he watched his father look him in the eye.
"So are you," said Cardinal, "Or at least…you will be by the time your brother is through with you. I can see it now. In no time at all, your brother will have you bleeding and on your knees, begging for your life… You can't really blame him, though, can you? After what you did to him…I certainly wouldn't."
Tears welled up in Bandit's eyes as his father came so close to his face, he could feel his breath.
"You're…not real…" he emphasized as the hair on his neck stood on end.
"I could say the same about you," spat Cardinal, "You aren't a savior…or a brother, or even a good person… You are scum… Whatever Red does to you in the future…I can tell you right now…you deserve all of it. How could anyone ever do the kind of thing you did…and to his own brother no less?"
Cardinal suddenly punched Bandit hard in the stomach, and Bandit yelled as he gritted his teeth and held his stomach in immense pain.
"It's a shame what you've become," spat Cardinal fiercely, "I thought I raised you better than that!"
Bandit gritted his teeth in anger as he shook his head.
"You're the one who started all of this!" yelled Bandit as he glared at his father, "You are the one who made things this way!"
Cardinal glared at his son as he pointed a menacing finger at him.
"Don't blame me because of something you did. Besides…Red had the right to know what you did…just as I have the right to punish you for what you've done."
Cardinal proceeded to punch his son in the nose, and Bandit yelled in excruciating pain. Cardinal headbutted him and punched him hard across the face, before he grabbed onto his son's neck and began to squeeze the life out of him.
A now bloodied Bandit gasped for breath as he looked into his father's eyes in complete and utter fear.
"Don't worry, son," said Cardinal fiercely as he tightened his grip on Bandit's neck, "Death comes upon us all at one point or another. It is inevitable, and all one can do is hope and pray for an honorable one. Unfortunately for you…you will never know such death. All you will know…is the pain…the agony…and the suffering that comes with death…and when you're bleeding before your brother…when you look into his eyes full of hurt and sadness…you will realize in that moment…that you deserved whatever he did to you...including the murder of that red-haired wench you called a foster mother."
Bandit continued to gasp for breath as his father tightened his grip on his neck even more.
"Goodbye, son. I'll see you soon enough."
Bandit's eyes widened when he suddenly awoke from his nightmare. He was about to scream, when he remembered that what he had just experienced was just a dream. Tears fell from his eyes as he panted heavily, and he turned onto his side as he pulled the bed sheet of his bed up so it covered his whole body, save for his head.
Shit …he thought, extremely distraught.
He did not want to cry, but he could not pull himself together, and ended up sobbing as he thought of the hallucinatory confrontations he had just had with his mother and father.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Wake Noran took his hand off his daughter's cheek, and was about to walk away, when his daughter quickly grabbed his hand with such incredible strength, he could not move an inch. His eyes widened in complete surprise as she stood up and threw him back into the chair he had been sitting in. He had always known his daughter possessed a certain strength when angry or serious, but he could not believe that she was the least bit capable of executing such great strength, regardless of how she felt.
Mary slapped him across his face, and he looked at her from the corner of his eye as she whispered to him with a wrathful tone.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" she asked him angrily.
Despite his daughter's anger, Wake looked at her as though she was a child throwing a tantrum.
"Like I said," he began, "I'm doing this becau-."
"How could you do that to Bandit?" she interrupted with irritation.
Wake became slightly irritable himself as he answered her.
"He snuck into my compound," he asserted sternly, "He deserved what I did to him."
"What?" asked Mary in complete disbelief,"He only went over there because you kidnapped a woman and tried to rape her!I can't believe the kind of person you've become! I loved you as a kid, but now…"
She paused as she looked at her father with a mixture of sadness and disgust.
"You shouldn't have come here. You should have just left me alone!"
"You're my daughter, Mary," he asserted, "I'm here for you."
She shook her head as she took a deep breath and sighed in complete exasperation.
"You're sick," she asserted with rising fury, "What, so you beat up Bandit for me? You raped all of those women for me? Who the hell do you think would believe that crap?"
Tired of what he interpreted to be his daughter's foolishness and naiveté, Wake gritted his teeth in anger before he spoke.
"Watch your mouth, little girl!" he demanded, "You don't get to talk to your father like that!"
"Shut up!" she commanded as loudly as she could without yelling, "I don't know who the hell you think you are, coming to the Ice Lands and doing all of the crap you've done, but you are not my father! As far as I'm concerned, my father is dead!"
"Mary-!"
"Just save it," she demanded as she shook her head, "You say you're here to take an interest in what I care about, but once again,
the words you speak to me are lies…Once again…the only person who really matters…is you. Growing up, I thought you were this…amazing person who put family above all else… You bought me anything in the world I wanted, y-you showered me with love! But when Mom died…you retreated in your own little shell…and I was left to care for myself and love myself…because no one else was around to do so.So you can call yourself a lot of things, Wake…like crazy…psychotic…and selfish…but never can you call yourself a friend…a good person…or a father…"