Bandit's Revenge

by Max Jager

  "Not even that guy I fought…" said Bandit as he looked down at his feet.

  This time, it was Mary who looked down at her feet.

  She had not told her friends that the man who had beaten Bandit up was her father, and like Bandit, she did not want anyone to know about her relationship with her villainous relative.

  Dad…

  "I suppose the best way to find them would be to stay on the lookout for any suspicious activity," said Bandit.

  As soon as he said that, somewhere in the city of Ekusa, Sean Parker, who had just finished terrorizing citizens in order to assert his dominance over them, screamed in pain when the ice spear Bandit had thrown into the air impaled him right through his chest.

  Innocents in the area screamed in terror, and ran away, while Sean Parker took what would be his last breaths.

  "It would seem so," said Rachel, "We'll have the mercenaries continue to seek out more information on Red's allies."

  "Good," sighed Bandit as he put his hands on his hips, "So, is there anything else you guys have discovered?"

  "Red has recently finished creating a base for his operations in the city of Virtue," said Brayne as he looked at Bandit, "That's where he, a few of his allies, and their henchmen reside…but I assume you already knew that."

  "I did," confirmed Bandit with raised eyebrows, "It's kind of hard to miss the metal gates that now surround the city. I snuck into the area not too long ago. It's a fortress. Armed guards are at every corner. Search towers are in position to identify any and all intruders and troublemakers. It took me far too long to get out of that place without being detected."

  "Do you think we have any hope of taking it?" asked Rachel.

  "No," answered Bandit matter-of-factly, "Red freed every single degenerate from the Ice Lands' four prisons and its asylum, and now they all work for him. They all reside in that place, and there are far too many of them for us to deal with, not to mention the fact that far too many of them are armed with technology the Ice Lands have no idea how to combat. Trying to take the city would be suicidal, but I am working on a plan. Brayne, you and I…will discuss it later."

  "Uh…okay…" said Brayne, confused as to what role he could possibly play in taking Virtue.

  "Anything else?" asked Bandit.

  Brayne, Mary, and Rachel looked at each other awkwardly, and Bandit looked at them in confusion.

  "What?" he asked as he crossed his arms.

  "Yeah…" began Brayne, "There is one more thing…"

  "What is it?"

  Rachel cleared her throat before she told him the truth.

  "Some of the mercenaries claimed they saw one of Red's allies carrying a golden longsword on his waist…"

  Expecting more information, Bandit raised an eyebrow as he looked at Rachel.

  "O…kay…"

  A pause swept over the four as Bandit looked at his friends in confusion.

  "Okay… So one of them wields a golden longsword… What about it…?"

  Brayne cleared his throat before he spoke.

  "Bandit…he, uh…he wields…that golden longsword…"

  Bandit looked at Brayne with furrowed eyebrows, for at first, he did not realize why Brayne had emphasized the word "that". As he looked at the unnerved faces of Rachel and Mary, however, he slowly began to realize what they were talking about, and his eyes began to widen in shock.

  "No…" he began as he took a step back, "No…! You don't mean…"

  Mary nodded her head, and Bandit placed his hands over his face as he took a deep breath and sighed.

  "The Cosmic Sword?" he asked as he looked at her with distress.

  "…Yeah…" she confirmed worriedly.

  Bandit turned away from his friends as he looked up at the sky, and after a few seconds of silence, he punched the air as he yelled in anger.

  "Goddammit!"

  I can't believe they got a hold of that sword! thought Bandit, I tossed it into the fucking ocean! Red, you son of a bitch! He must have been in Vast Expanse when I was there, and followed my ship as it traveled to the Ice Lands. Aw, I led him right to it!

  "Things are getting worse all the time," said Brayne, "I hate to say it, but…we don't have a lot of options here… I don't know how we would go about doing this, but…somehow, some way…we're gonna have to kill them…kill all of them…"

  Bandit's and Mary's eyes widened in surprise as they looked at Brayne.

  "What?" they asked, genuinely surprised by his suggestion.

  Rachel averted her eyes as Brayne continued.

  "We have no choice," he said bluntly, "We have to kill them, and we have to do it sooner rather than later."

  As he looked at Bandit's and Mary's faces, he realized he had struck a few nerves with his suggestion, but he had no idea why.

  Regardless, he tried to further persuade them.

  "What happened to those people in Lax…" he whispered as he looked away from them, "and what happened to…Ruby…cannot be allowed to happen to anyone else…"

  Bandit and the others became morose as they thought about those they had lost on the day of Red's attack.

  "Either we kill them all…" continued Brayne, "…or we live under their rule and allow them to terrorize the citizens of this land for the rest of their lives…and we cannot allow that to happen…"

  "Right…" said Bandit as he looked down at the ground.

  "We…have no choice…" said Mary as she did the same.

  Rachel looked at Bandit with sadness, for she knew that, for all of his plans and considerations, he had never considered killing the brother or the sister he had once loved and cared for.

  Bandit…Why…?

  Why did this have to happen?

  War

  March 6, 1848

  Twilight Valley is a luscious forest expanse teeming with just as much wildlife and wonder as its neighboring land, Vast Expanse. It possessed a great number of waterfalls, beautiful flowers, and multiple streams of rapidly flowing water. As beautiful as the land is during the day, it looked even more spectacular at night, for at night, fireflies flew all over the place, and the flowers in the land shone so bright, they practically lit up the entire forest.

  The land was truly a wondrous sight, but unfortunately, on this particular night, a certain family was in the middle of facing the greatest tragedy they had ever been forced to face.

  Their obliteration.

  Mila War groaned in pain as she rolled on the ground in anguish.

  Tears filled her eyes as she looked at the deceased man who lied next to her.

  Patrick… she thought as she gritted her teeth in sorrow and shook her head, No…!

  "Mom!" she heard a voice cry out, "Mom!"

  She was still in complete shock, but she had enough consciousness to slowly turn her head to look at the situation unfolding before her, the grimmest situation that she and her family had ever found themselves in.

  For before her, her two children were bound by rope and crying, while the redheaded villain who just murdered her husband stood behind them.

  "Mom!" her eldest child, Simon, cried out once more, "Mom!"

  Remembering that her children needed her, Mila blinked back the tears in her eyes as she looked up at the redheaded man's face, which was somewhat ridden with guilt at what he had just done.

  Somewhat.

  "Your husband…was a fool," he began as he looked at her.

  "You…" she said bitterly as she looked at him with rising anger.

  She desperately wanted to stand up and torture the man in the most vicious ways she could devise before ending his life, but sadly, he had broken both of her legs, leaving her completely helpless in a situation where she needed the most help.

  Meanwhile, her youngest son, Abe, closed his eyes as he wept.

  Why is this…happening…? he thought, painfully confused as to why his father had to die.

  "Hopefully…" continued Red as he looked into her eyes, "…you will not make the same mistake he did…
and force me to kill again…"

  Mila shook her head as she glared at the man and looked at him with the ferocious intent to kill.

  "You…fucking…sociopath," she said slowly, emphasizing every word, "I…don't…know where it is!"

  "Yes…you do," asserted the man bitterly as he cracked his neck, "and you're going to tell me where it is. Otherwise…I am going to make you…and your children…suffer…just as I made the rest of your clan suffer."

  Immensely frustrated by his words, Mila gritted her teeth in fury, and her heart rate increased as she shouted.

  "You won't touch my children!" she screamed.

  The man gritted his teeth in anger as he shouted back at her.

  "I will touch your children!" he yelled, inwardly irritated that he had killed yet another innocent man, "I will if you don't tell me where the Manna Ascending is!"

  Mila furrowed her eyebrows in distress as she looked at him.

  "I already told you!" she yelled in frustration, "I don't know where it is!"

  Tears filled Simon's eyes as he looked up at the man with frustration of his own.

  "Damn it!" he yelled as his tears began to stream down his face, "What do you want with that thing anyway?"

  Silence passed over the group, and Abe slowly looked up to see the man close his eyes, grit his teeth, and ball up his fists in anger.

  "I used to live a normal life in the Ice Lands…" he began bitterly, "...and then my brother went and did something unforgivable!"

  Simon gasped in shock at the man's words, and felt sweat appear upon his brow as the man continued.

  "I loved him as dearly as any brother could…but he turned his back on me…"

  He looked at Mila, and Mila watched as slight tears filled his eyes.

  "I will not stand by…and let what happened to my brother…to my entire family…happen to anyone who lives in the Ice Lands ever again…but to do so, I need to become the most powerful being the Ice Lands have ever known, and the Manna Ascending will help me become just that. Tell me where the weapon is…and I will spare your life."

  Stressed, Mila looked at the man with sadness as she spoke.

  "Listen to me…" she pleaded, "I really don't know where it is…!"

  Red looked at her with suspicion as she continued.

  "I mean it! I don't have a clue about its whereabouts! Patrick toldme about it, but he never told me where it is!"

  The man sighed as he looked at her, and sweat dripped down the faces of her children when they heard him crack his knuckles.

  "Mom!" they cried out, knowing that the man was about to do something awful.

  "Please!" cried Mila as she looked at him desperately, "Please! Don't hurt my children!"

  "I am sorry…" said the man as he knelt down behind Simon, "but you have left me no choice… Every single one of your clan acknowledged that they knew where the weapon was… They just chose not to tell me…so now…I have no reason to believe that you don't know where it is."

  Mila's eyes widened in fear as the man put Simon in a chokehold.

  "You have five seconds to tell me where the weapon is!" he whispered ferociously, "You're going to tell me where it is before those five seconds are up. Otherwise, I will kill him."

  Simon's eyes widened in shock, awe, and fear as he felt the man tighten his grasp on his neck to the point where it became difficult for him to breathe.

  "Sto-" Mila began as she shook her head.

  "Five…" said the man as he looked Mila directly in her eyes.

  "No!" cried Abe, who Red had injured so badly, he could do nothing else but cry, "No!"

  "Don't-."

  "Four…" continued the man as Simon struggled to free himself from his grave dilemma.

  "Stop it!" screamed Abe in anguish, "Stop!"

  "Please…" pleaded Mila, her voice cracking, "I'm begging you!"

  "Three…"

  Abe gritted his teeth as he looked at his defenseless brother with fear in his eyes.

  "No!" he screamed in terror.

  Simon tried to speak, but the redheaded man had his arm around his neck too tight for him to get any words to come out of his mouth. Instead, he yelped in fear as he looked to his mother for salvation.

  "Two…"

  "Mom!" screamed Abe as the man tightened his grip on Simon's neck even more.

  A severely distressed Mila shouted at the man with more anger than she had felt throughout the entire ordeal.

  "Goddammit!" she yelled viciously, "Please, let go of him!"

  "One…"

  "Stop it!" she screamed desperately, "Stop! Stop!"

  She and Abe wept furiously, and watched as Simon struggled to breathe.

  "Please…" she continued to beg, "Please…don't kill my children… Please don't take them away from me… I've already lost…so much…"

  "Let him go!" sobbed Abe.

  The red-haired man looked at Mila with silent anger as she desperately tried to appeal to what was left of his humanity, regardless of however little there seemed to be.

  "Please…" she continued, "…just…let them live… Please…!"

  Abe grunted as he tried to escape the ropes that bound him, but the pain that radiated throughout his body was too great for him to bear.

  "Don't hurt him!" he grunted as he tried to free himself from his bondage, "Don't! Please!"

  "Just leave him alone!" screamed Mila at the top of her lungs.

  Red swallowed as he looked at Mila with more guilt than he had ever felt in his entire life.

  "Okay…" he began as he looked at Mila with slight sadness in his eyes, "I… I am sorry…"

  "…I will do what you ask of me…and spare your son's life…"

  He broke Simon's neck with one quick motion, and Abe cried out in extreme anguish as he buried his face in the ground.

  "No!" he screamed uncontrollably, "Simon!"

  Unable to deal with the loss of both her husband and one of her sons, a catatonic Mila could only stare at Simon's body as it dropped to the ground with a thud.

  "…but not that son…" said Red as he slowly walked towards her.

  Abe looked up to see his mother frozen in place as the man positioned himself behind her.

  "Close your eyes, kid…" sighed the red-haired man as he knelt down and put Mila in a chokehold, just as he had done to her son.

  "No…" begged a broken Abe as he shook his head.

  He watched as the man tightened his grip on Mila's neck…

  "No…"

  …he watched as the man looked away from him…

  "No…!"

  …and he watched as the man took the life of the last person in the world he had truly loved.

  "No!"

  November 14, 1854

  Six years later, the eyes of a twenty-seven year old Abe War widened when he suddenly awoke from his nightmare. He was about to scream out his mother's name, when he remembered that he was sleeping in his cot in the mercenary headquarters, and that he was not going through that tragic event for a second time. He quickly stifled his scream, and sweated intensely as he sat up in bed. Tears fell from his eyes as he panted heavily.

  He took in a deep breath and tried to calm down. As he did so, his eyes widened in surprise, for he suddenly sensed that someone was in the room with him, sitting on his windowsill. He turned his head to look towards the window of his room, and as soon as he did so, he was quickly knocked to the ground by an electrified fist.

  Bleeding from his nose and mouth, he grunted in pain as he looked up at the twenty-four year old possessor of the fist, and was about to cry out for help, when the man quickly wrapped his hand around his neck and squeezed it tight to prevent his voice from being heard.

  "Quiet," commanded Red as Abe struggled to free himself from his grasp, "I will kill everyone in this place if you so much as whisper."

  Abe quickly punched Red across the face, but unfortunately, his attack did virtually nothing to Red.

  "That…" he began as he tightened his g
rip on Abe's neck, "was uncalled for."

  He proceeded to discharge electricity from his hands, electrocuting him. Abe screamed in excruciating pain, but his screams were heard by no one because Red placed his hand over his mouth to muffle his screams.