by Max Jager
This must be how he got a hold of the sword, thought Scarlet in awe, He used this…new power of his to…lift it from the ocean…!
After having his nose broken, Abe grunted as an enraged Red pushed him to the ground.
"I have had enough of your foolishness!" yelled Red as he quickly got on top of Abe, "You are going to tell me what the weapon does!"
Bandit flailed his arms in the air in a desperate attempt to get back on solid ground as he spoke.
"Red!" he yelled, "Stop this! You don't have to do this!"
Red grunted as he placed his feet on Abe's arms to prevent him from fighting back.
"Apparently…" he began as he cracked his knuckles, "I do…"
Red pointed his index finger at Abe, and Abe began to flail around in panic as Red quickly moved his finger towards Abe's eye.
"No!" yelled Abe in horror, "Stop!"
"Stop it!" screamed Scarlet in fear.
She barely knew the man her brother was about to hurt, but she knew enough about the situation to realize that the man did not deserve the harm that was about to fall upon him.
"No, no, no, no, stop it, Red, just stop!
Like his sister, Bandit quickly realized that Red was about to torture his friend in a truly awful way. He tried to create a weapon of ice so he could save him, but quickly found that the constraint Red had exerted over him prevented him not just from moving freely, but from using his powers.
Desperate, he yelled at Red with everything he had.
"Goddammit, Red, I am the one who murdered our mother!"
Red's eyes widened in complete surprise as he slowly looked at his brother's face.
He had expected his brother to say a lot of things to keep him from hurting his friend, but he had never expected him to bring up the tragedy.
He looked at Bandit with hatred in his eyes, while both Abe and Scarlet looked at him in complete shock and awe.
What the…? thought Abe, terribly confused, He… What is he talking about…? He killed Red's mother…? He…and Red are…
...brothers...?
Meanwhile, Scarlet looked at her brother with a similar look of extreme shock, which slowly turned into a look of major confusion and sorrow.
"What…?" was all she could say as she buried her face in her hands, closed her eyes and tried to process this revelation.
Bandit looked at his sister with guilt, and took a deep breath before he continued.
"The only person you should be torturing is me," he asserted as he looked into Red's eyes, "The only person you should have killed all this time is me! Not the people of Lax or the rest of the Ice Lands, but me! Do you hear me?"
Red looked at Bandit with widened eyes as he listened to every word his brother spoke, while Abe looked at him like he was out of his mind.
What the hell does he think he's doing? thought Abe nervously as he gritted his teeth.
It's just like you said before…" continued Bandit, "This is all my fault…! I am the one responsible for taking her away from you! I am the reason you have suffered and experienced torment for the past seven years of your life! I deserve all of the torture and the pain you have been dishing out on other people! I betrayed your trust! I turned my back on you!"
Disturbed by his brother's words, Red slowly stood up as his jaw slowly dropped.
He could not believe Bandit was saying all of this to him, knowing how unstable he could be, he was, he is. He stepped away from Abe and averted his eyes as his brother continued to crucify himself.
"I'm your brother," asserted Bandit, "I should have been the last person to kill our mother, but I did! You shouldn't waste your time making others suffer! You should be making me suffer…just as I made you suffer! Please, for the love of God, just focus on me!"
Scarlet had been in a world of her own for the duration of Bandit's monologue, but she caught the last sentence he spoke, and shook her head as she spoke.
"What the hell?" she asked, frustrated by the situation, "Don't focus on him!What the hell are you talking about, Bandit?"
She looked at Bandit with distress as she spoke.
"You... You…? You...killed…our mother?"
Bandit averted his eyes from her, and she blew up in response.
"Why would you do that?" she asked, painfully hurt and confused by her brother's words.
"Yes…" said Red without looking at either of them, "Why would you do that?"
He walked up to Bandit as he continued.
"Go ahead…" he said as he looked Bandit in the eye, "Tell her why you killed our mother…"
Bandit was not going to say anything at first, but Red quickly grabbed his shirt, pulled him towards his face, and looked at him with raw anger as he screamed.
"Tell her!" he spat, causing droplets of his saliva to splatter onto Bandit's face.
Slight tears filled Bandit's eyes as he looked down at the ground as he spoke.
"I didn't kill her…in cold blood…" he began as he trembled, "…When she went on her…rampage…she came across Rachel and I… She told me to kill her… She couldn't stand the fact that she had killed all those people, but…she couldn't control herself because of what Dad had done to her…so she told me to stop her…by killing her…so I did…"
Red let go of Bandit, and Scarlet looked at Bandit with anguish before slapping him hard across his face.
Red grunted as he placed his hands in his pockets.
"In case you hadn't noticed…" he began irritably, "I didn't tell her anything."
Bandit looked at him from the corner of his eye as he spoke.
"I'm surprised you didn't," he responded.
"Wait a minute…" began Scarlet as she looked at Red, "…You…knew…?"
Red looked at her indifferently, but when she tried to slap him as well, he grabbed her hand before it could connect with his face.
"That…" he began angrily, "isn't going to work on me."
Scarlet pulled her hand out of his grasp as she yelled.
"If you knew… this whole time…why the hell didn't you tell me?"
This made Red furious, and he yelled in response.
"Of course I didn't tell you! Why would I have told my little sister that her brother killed her mother?"
Enraged, he looked at Bandit as he continued.
"Now why don't you tell her…who you killed our mother for?"
Bandit raised an eyebrow as he looked at Red in slight confusion.
"What…?" he asked, "Who I killed her for…? Who I killed her for doesn't matter!"
"Yes, it does!" asserted Red, "Who you killed her for is the main reason the whole thing makes me so angry!"
Red looked at Scarlet with widened eyes as he spoke.
"Do you know who he killed her for?" he asked with rising fury, "Do you have any idea…who he protected by killing our mother?"
Scarlet looked at her brother with fear as he spoke the person's name, the person who had led their brother to kill their own mother.
"Rachel…Thomas…"
Scarlet gasped in complete surprise at the mention of her name, and looked at Bandit in shock as Red went on.
"That's right!" he yelled, "Our brother…murdered our mother…because of that wench he calls a friend!"
He had been relatively calm the whole time, but Bandit quickly became angry upon hearing his brother call his friend that word.
"Shut the hell up!" he asserted, surprising Scarlet with his tone of voice, "Our mother was going to kill her! She went after Rachel, and she did so in order to make me kill her, knowing I wouldn't kill her otherwise! What the hell was I supposed to do? Let Rachel die because our mother killed her?"
Red looked at Bandit as though he was insane as he responded.
"Yes!" he replied, "That's exactly what you should have done!"
Red scoffed, while Scarlet's eyes moved from left to right as she processed this new information.
"Wait a second…" she began as things gradually became clearer for her, "So you ki
lled our mother…because she told you to…knowing that she couldn't stop herself…and because she…deliberately tried to kill Rachel?"
Bandit averted his eyes from her, but nodded his head in response.
Red shook his head as he glared at his brother with disgust.
"It's sickening, isn't it…?" he asked as he looked at Scarlet, "What kind of person would do what he did? What kind of a son would do what he did?"
Scarlet raised an eyebrow as she looked at Red in confusion and shock.
"What kind of person is he?" she repeated, "What kind of son is he? Red…he…saved Rachel's life…and…when I think about it…he…honored our mother's name by…preventing her from killing more than the one thousand people she had already killed that day…! I don't know what…you'd call him, but…I'd call him…a…well…a hero!"
Bandit's jaw dropped as he looked at his sister in complete and utter surprise, while Red looked at his sister as though she was the most foolish person who ever lived.
"A hero…?" began Red in disbelief, "…A hero…? He…killed…our…mother…and it was all for some girl who isn't even related to us! How can you be okay with that?"
"Red!" exclaimed Scarlet, "Are you hearing yourself? Rachel was like an older sister for me growing up… Our family and her family were best friends…! How the hell am I supposed to be mad that Bandit saved her life; the life of the woman that he loves…that he has always loved…and how can you be so mad about it…considering the circumstances?"
Unable to comprehend what he thought to be his sister's utter stupidity, Red rolled his eyes and threw up his hands in exasperation, while Bandit looked at his sister in confusion.
"What?" he asked, "I don't…love her…"
He yelled in pain when Scarlet angrily slapped him across the face once more.
Shut up! she thought as she rolled her own eyes and shook her head, You do, so you can just shut the hell up! Nobody has time for your bullshit right now…
Red balled up his fists as he spoke.
"You see?" he began as he looked at Scarlet, "This is why I didn't tell you anything! You don't understand just how messed up this all is! My family…was the most important thing in this world to me! It's the only thing that truly mattered to me! I don't care how close she was to us! He chose Rachel over our own mother! That is what makes me hate him!"
"Oh, really?" asked Bandit with rising anger, "That's why you didn't tell her anything? So I suppose that means she has no idea that you put me in a coma…or that you murdered our father and Rachel's parents?"
Scarlet's eyes widened in horror as she tried to process this revelation. She looked at Red in confusion as she spoke.
"What…? What did he just say…?"
Red grabbed Bandit's neck, and looked into his eyes as he spoke.
"You…little…shit…" he said with rising fury, "Stop talking! You're so lucky you're my brother… Otherwise, I would kill you just like that."
"Red!" yelled Scarlet in anger as she looked at him, "That's why we left the Ice Lands so quickly…! You… You're the one who put him in that coma…and you killed Dad…and Rachel's parents?"
She shook her head as she looked at her brother in awe, for she had never known these things about him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" she questioned.
Red became truly furious upon being asked that question, and pointed his finger at her as he yelled like a crazed lunatic.
"Dad deserved it!" he screamed furiously, "And Bandit's lucky I didn't put him six feet under, too! As for Rachel's parents…they deserved to die! They had only one child…one child! Rachel! Yet our bastard of a father managed to kidnap their only pride and joy and experiment on her without their knowing? They were irresponsible, and were not fit to consider themselves parents any longer!"
So that's why he wouldn't allow me to visit Bandit all this time we've been here, she thought as her jaw dropped, He must not have wanted me to find out the truth!
"Enough!" yelled Bandit, tired of this entire conversation, "I've had enough of all of this! Look, Red! Despite everything that happened in the past, despite everything that both you and I did, it all started with my sin, my transgression! Our mother is dead because I took her away from us…"
"Rachel's parents are dead because he took them away from her!" yelled an infuriated Scarlet, sick of hearing Bandit crucify himself, "Stop it! Stop putting all the blame on yourself!"
"That's where the blame belongs!" yelled Bandit as Red looked at him with slight tears in his eyes, "This all started with me…and that's how it has to end… I know it…and you know it, too…don't you, Red…?"
Stressed, Red groaned and buried his face in his hands as Bandit went on.
"You know what you have to do… Making me suffer…torturing me…none of it is enough! None of it would be enough! There is only…one way…one thing you can do…to make things right…and you know what it is…"
"…You need to kill me... I'm the only person here who has to die…"
Abe and Scarlet looked at Bandit as though he was out of his mind.
"No…" said Scarlet, "…No…!"
She gritted her teeth in anger as she looked at Red.
"Don't do it, Red!" she pleaded, "I won't let you!"
She flailed her arms and legs around, desperate to get back on solid ground and keep one of her brothers from killing the other, but no matter how much she flailed around, she stayed exactly where she was: above the ground.
Red glared at Bandit as he slowly pulled the Cosmic Sword out of its sheath.
"Yes…" said Bandit as he looked into Red's hateful eyes, "Take all of your anger, all of your rage, all of your bitterness…and direct it at me."
Red pointed the sword at his brother's neck, and Scarlet screamed in terror as she watched the tip of the sword touch Bandit's Adam's apple.
"No!" she screamed in horror, "Don't do it! Red, please! Stop this! Stop this right now!"
Red remained silent as he shook his head.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Scarlet," he said with a crazed look in his eye, "He's right… This has to end… I have to kill him right now…"
Abe's eyes widened in fear as he looked at his soon-to-be-deceased friend.
"Red!" he yelled desperately, "No!"
"No!" yelled Scarlet hysterically.
Red might have actually gone through with slitting his brother's throat, too, had he not remembered words Bandit had spoken to him the day they reunited in Lax.
"Fine! You know what? You're right! It's all…my fault! So act like it! I'm the one who hurt you, not this city! I am the one who did that, so go after me, hurt me, not…this land!"
"Wha…? What is it that you really want? Do you… Do you want to…kill me…? Make me suffer? Make me wish I was dead? Is that it…? Go ahead…"
"If it will make you stop this…pursuit of yours…then do it… If it will make you stop all of this nonsense, then do it, please! Just…stop…please… Stop hurting this land…"
Upon realizing his brother's intentions, Red slowly lowered his sword as he raised an eyebrow and smiled at him.
"I see…" he began, "Very clever, Bandit…"
Abe and Scarlet looked at him in confusion as he continued.
"Your plan all along…was to make me so angry, I would believe that I was doing all of this…because of a vendetta against you… You're a smart man, Bandit, I must admit…but you're not that smart. Like I said in Lax that day…I am not here because of vengeance…and I will certainly not kill you out of a desire for it. The truth is…despite everything we have been through…despite all that we have done to each other…"
"…I still somewhat care for you…and you…were the best brother…I could have asked for…"
Bandit gasped, and looked at Red in surprise as Red continued.
"Don't get the wrong idea," he said as he looked at Bandit seriously, "That doesn't mean I won't kill you… But…if I do kill you…it will be because you killed my head tax collect
or… If I kill you…it will be because you won't stop getting in my way!"
Bandit gulped as Red looked at him, and then at Scarlet.
"But I'll deal with you two later," he continued as he closed his eyes, "Now…where was I…?"
Bandit and Scarlet silently watched as their brother took a few steps back. They had no idea what he was going to do next, that is, until they realized that Abe was still helplessly paralyzed on the floor.