by Max Jager
"…because you no longer have a daughter."
With that, Mary stormed off, and Wake watched as she disappeared around the corner.
He was an apathetic, calculating, absolutely ruthless sociopath, a man who very much cared mostly about his own self, but despite all of that, he could not help but feel something because of his daughter's dismissive attitude towards him, something he had not felt the longest time, something that he was not even sure he was capable of feeling anymore.
Guilt and remorse.
For despite everything he had done, despite all of his cruelty and perverse behavior, slight tears welled up in his eyes as he slowly realized that, because of the kind of person he had become, he had lost the only person in the entire world who actually meant something to him.
Damaged
October 24, 1854
Somewhere in one of the Ice Land's four frosty forests, a sweaty Red Blood panted heavily after having performed numerous rigorous body exercises.
I… I wasn't…
He gritted his teeth as he remembered how strong Bandit had been when they had last fought.
I wasn't strong enough!
For the past several weeks, Red had been training as much as possible to match his little brother's power. He remembered every single devastating blow Bandit had struck him with. He remembered all of the kicks to the head, how Bandit had knocked him into the air continually, how Bandit had kicked him to the ground so hard, a crater had formed beneath him, and how Bandit had mercilessly punched him in the throat. Had Bandit truly wanted to, he could have killed Red right then and there, and this fact made Red absolutely furious.
He became so strong in such a short amount of time…! At that rate, he…
He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he thought about how much wanted he to continue ruling over the Ice Lands, and balled up his fists to the point where his knuckles turned white.
No…! No way…!
He cracked his knuckles, and yelled as he enveloped his body in lightning.
I am the most powerful person in this land!
In the weapons room of the mercenary guild, Mary Noran and Thea, one of her mercenary allies, grunted as they practiced the art of knife fighting. During this time, the little girl Mary had found at the funeral several weeks ago cheered for her as she watched from the corner of the room.
"Go Mary!" she exclaimed as she pumped her little fists into the air.
Mary smiled as she picked up the pace of her fight by maneuvering her knife even faster than before.
"Oh, I see how it is," said Thea as sweat ran down her face, "You're picking up the pace on me so you can impress her, aren't you?"
"What?" asked Mary with fake surprise, "Would I do that?"
Thea raised an eyebrow at her, and Mary giggled before she spoke.
"Sounds to me like you're complaining because you can't keep up."
Thea grunted as she gritted her teeth.
"Who says I can't keep up?"
As soon as she said that, Thea yelled when she felt Mary's blade scratch her arm. She hissed in slight pain, and held her arm while Mary looked at her with concern.
"You okay?"
"Yeah… I'll be fine."
Mary smiled as she pinched Thea's cheeks and looked at her with a bright smile.
"Aw," she said, "That's cute. Putting on such a brave face for me. Didn't I tell you that you couldn't keep up?"
Thea grunted as she nodded her head. She did her best to fight a smile, but she could not help but laugh as Mary placed her fingers on her dimples and playfully moved her cheeks up and down.
Meanwhile, a sweaty Brayne Mercury, whose arm had finally fully healed, grunted as he engaged in a boxing match with Marshall, one of his own guild allies, in the guild's boxing ring.
Unlike Mary's match with Thea, however, Brayne was having a hard time keeping up with Marshall.
Even though Marshall did not possess the great power Brayne did, he was the quickest person in the guild, so Brayne had a difficult time striking him, while Marshall had an easy time striking Brayne.
Brayne yelled as he tried to punch Marshall in the face, but Marshall smirked at him as he dodged.
"Not bad," said Marshall excitedly, "You almost hit me that time!"
"Maybe so," said Brayne, "but I haven't actually done it yet. Let's keep going."
Marshall chuckled as he raised his fists.
"If you insist."
Concurrently, Abe War and his mercenary ally John grunted as they engaged in a heated swordfight in the basement of the guild.
"You're just as good as always!" exclaimed John.
Abe smirked at him before he spoke.
"Same to you," he said, "but…"
"What?"
"If you spent half as much time concentrating as you do talking, you'd be less predictable."
John chuckled before he spoke.
"So that's how it is," he said with a raised eyebrow, "Okay, Abe, you asked for it!"
"Bring it on, kid!"
Meanwhile, in a small diner on the north side of the city, Bandit Lane and Rachel Thomas ate lunch, or to be more specific, Bandit ate lunch while Rachel worriedly looked at him from the corner of her eye.
He had not been the same since the day of his torture at the hands of Wake Noran, and after several weeks of dealing with his out of character behavior, she was beginning to wonder if he would ever be the same man she once knew.
"You know, Rachel…" he began in between mouthfuls of his delectable orca tenderloin, "This tenderloin is really enjoyable. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I've gotta say…it has really grown on me."
Unable to hide her concern for him any longer, Rachel took a deep breath before she spoke.
"Bandit, what are we doing?" she asked worriedly as she looked at him.
Bandit raised his eyebrows as he looked at her in surprise.
"I'm…eating orca…" he responded, confused by her inquiry, "…and you're…watching me eat… What's the matter, Rachel?"
Rachel sighed as she looked down at the table.
"I'm sorry… I'm just… Well, I'm just worried about this whole Red situation."
Bandit thought about her words for a moment, and to her surprise, instead of saying something about the subject, he shrugged and went back to eating his food.
Rachel furrowed her eyebrows as she spoke.
"I hear he has been having people executed left and right for various crimes. I mean, I understand why he'd executed the murderers and the drug dealers in the land, but he's also murdering people who steal and who don't pay their taxes on time! He's out of control, and I think he needs to be stopped as soon as possible. Only God knows how many people he has killed in the past six weeks…"
After all that she just said, Rachel expected Bandit to react the way he usually would, to speak to her about a plan, any plan that he had thought of to deal with the dire situation at hand.
But all she got from him was a nod.
She continued to look at him with great concern as she watched him place another morsel of his tenderloin in his mouth.
"Bandit… I'm worried."
Bandit looked at her in surprise and wiped his mouth before he spoke.
"Don't be," he insisted, "I know you and the rest of the mercenaries will come up with a plan to deal with Red."
"That's not why I'm worried," she asserted, "…Well, actually, that does worry me a little-."
"Well don't let it worry you. Red isn't going anywhere. You guys have all the time in the world to devise a plan. You'll think of something in due time."
Rachel shook her head in distress as she watched him take a sip of his water.
"I'm worried because of the way you've been behaving ever since…you were discharged from the hospital… You haven't been sleeping well, you barely eat…and you don't act like the Bandit I know. Lately, you've been acting like you don't mind or even care that Red's ruling over the land when you know he had no right to."
"…I'm gonna order an ice cream sundae. Do you want to share it with me?"
Rachel shook her head as she sighed.
"Bandit…I'm being serious here."
"I am, too," he asserted without looking at her.
Rachel looked at him in disbelief. He had never ignored her like that before, and she could not help but feel a little hurt.
Bandit looked up at her and stared at her hurting eyes for several seconds before he sat up straight and spoke to her more honestly than he had in the past six weeks.
"I'm sorry," he said as he shook his head, "It's wrong of me to treat you like this."
"So why are you?"
Bandit looked away from her for a moment, and gritted his teeth before he spoke.
"Rachel, I'm in pain."
Rachel looked at her friend sadly as she reached for his hand to comfort him.
"I know-."
"No," he asserted as he pulled his hand away, "You don't. The torture I underwent was excruciating, but that's not what I'm talking about. I have nightmares about Ruby's death, I have nightmares about my father trying to choke the life out of me, I have nightmares where my mother tells me I'm a disgrace, my brother hates me and tortured me, I haven't seen my sister in years, and for all I know, she hates me just as much as my brother does, I was in a wheelchair for three weeks, after that I walked with a cane until just last week, just yesterday, I stopped taking any sort of medication to treat my body,and to top it off, I've…"
Realizing that he was on the brink of breaking down, Bandit closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and a tearful Rachel watched as he stood up.
"I've done a lot of things, Rachel… Bad things… Things that I'm ashamed of… And I'm in the worst possible position with this whole Red thing… I can't…live this life, anymore, I just…can't… All the bad things that I've done…all the pain that I've experienced over the years…the allies I've lost…the family I've lost…the horrible memories that will never go away… I just…can't…deal with any of it anymore… I know I can't take away the bad things that have happened to me… I can't fix anything or make anything better, but…I can try to…to move on… I don't know how much more pain I can take before I just…lose myself completely…"
He began to walk away, and Rachel looked at him worriedly as she called out to him.
"Wait," she said, "Where are you going?"
Bandit stopped and slowly turned to look at her before he spoke.
"I'm going for a walk… I… I need to clear my head… Rachel, you're my best friend, and I love you and the others, but I can't help you guys with Red. He is an enemy who not only knows everything about me, and who has been planning this whole thing for God knows how long…he is an enemy who will stop at nothing, who will do anything to get what he wants…including torture his own…"
Choked up, Bandit stopped speaking for a moment before he shook his head.
"I sincerely hope that you and the others think of a plan to deal with Red, but…I'm sorry, I will not involve myself in your war against him. My fighting with him led to the death of Ruby…but I can protect you…and Mary, and Brayne, and Abe…by not fighting with him… If he was crazy enough to torture me to get me to stop interfering with his plans…then he'd probably be crazy enough to use you guys as leverage against me…and I won't let that happen. I can't help you, Rachel… I'm sorry…"
A saddened Rachel watched as her best friend walked away from her, and took a deep breath as she buried her face in her hands.
Bandit…
During the rest of the afternoon, Bandit walked through town with his hands in his pockets, and wore a sullen expression on his face as he smoked a cigar. His head was lowered, and despite his attempt to hide his feelings, everyone who observed him could tell that he was truly sad. People had offered to take him out to lunch, and otherwise spend time with him, but he had no interests in socializing with others, and turned them all away.
As he walked, he began to remember moments he had with his brother as a child.
He remembered when his parents had forced him and Red to do things together when they were children.
They had just wanted the two to spend some time together.
He remembered when his brother had spoiled him on his birthday and had taken him out to a buffet for his present.
"The food is so good, Crim!"
"Eat as much as you like, Car. It's on me."
He remembered how Red comforted him when he killed Rodney in self-defense.
"Oh, Car…" Red had said, heartbroken by his brother's destroyed innocence, "It's alright… You're alright… I'm here…"
He remembered how Red had trained him when they were children so he could protect himself from bullies.
I love you," Red had said softly, "I know it may not seem like it all the time, but…I do love you… I will always be there for you…and I will do anything…to protect you, Car."
Finally, he remembered a family picnic the Blood family had when he was seven. That day had been one of those few days where Red had seemed truly happy and at peace.
If only that day had lasted forever…
If only indeed.
A Fractured Family
At eleven o'clock at night, Emily, the young woman Bandit had saved from Wake Noran weeks ago, took a shortcut down an alleyway to get to her home.
Damn it! I'm late! I hope Mom doesn't get too mad at me…
She was walking quite fast when a man appeared before her from out of nowhere. Judging from the clothes he wore, which seemed to her to be more expensive than he could possibly afford, she assumed he was a thief.
"Hello," he said with a devilish smile as he advanced towards her, "Don't you look beautiful this evening?"
The woman cringed as he touched her shoulder, and tried to back away from him, but he pushed her and pinned her against the side of one of the buildings in the alley.
"Please!" she cried, "Don't hurt me!"
He covered her mouth, and she struggled to scream as he spoke.
"Don't worry," said the man, "I don't want to hurt you. I just want to give you the time of your life."
The woman screamed in terror as he reached down to undo her belt, but before he could, an ice-covered fist came out of nowhere and punched him in the face, knocking him out cold.
The woman watched in shock as the man fell to the ground, and quickly backed away from him as she looked in the direction the fist came from.
"Please!" she screamed, "Don't do this!"
She thought the man's assailant was yet another aggressor, so she was incredibly relieved to see that it was only Bandit Lane.
"Oh…" she sighed as she put her hand on her chest, "It's just you…"
"Are you okay?" asked Bandit worriedly.
The woman nodded her head as she responded.
"I am…thanks to you… You've saved me twice now… Don't I feel special…?"
"Let's just hope this is the last time," he said with a small smile, "Go home… Get some rest."
Emily nodded her head in agreement, and looked at him with concern as she walked towards him.
"Speaking of rest…" she began as she touched his hand, "have you gotten any lately? I mean, you look okay for the most part, but judging by your expression, I get the feeling there's…something on your mind…"
Bandit looked down at her hand for a moment, and sighed when he realized just how good it felt to have someone hold him.
But at the same time, he knew that if he stuck around and let her hold him, he would not be able to keep his inner feelings at bay, and he wanted to keep them at bay at all costs.
"I'm fine," he said as he gave her a fake smile, "Don't worry about me."
He walked down the alley, and Emily turned to look at him with concern as she awkwardly clapped her hands together.
Bandit…
Bandit turned the corner into another alley, and gasped when he
saw a shocking sight.
What the…? Wha…? What is this…?
Only a few feet away from him lied two people, a man and a woman, dead and covered in blood and gore. The sight absolutely horrified Bandit to the point where he almost felt like throwing up.