by Max Jager
Whoa… thought Brayne as his eyes twitched in shock.
Meanwhile, Bandit's eyes widened in fear as he looked at his friend, for he quickly realized that she had become a monster, just like his mother had become.
No… he thought as he gritted his teeth bitterly, Not again…
Red grunted as he tried to move his body, but found himself completely paralyzed by Rachel's overwhelming power.
I…can't…move…! he thought nervously as he gritted his teeth, What kind of power is this…?
Rachel growled at him as she balled up her fist in fury, and looked right into his eyes as she pulled her fist back in preparation for the coup de grace.
Completely helpless, Red could only watch as she slammed her fist right into his stomach, and both Bandit's and Brayne's jaws dropped when they watched as Red Blood was sent flying into the air with such speed and intensity, he disappeared into the clouds above in only a matter of seconds.
Whoa…! thought Brayne in complete disbelief, for Rachel had punched Red so quickly, she had created a sonic boom.
She…beat Red…!
Naturally, Bandit was just as amazed as Brayne by how easily Rachel had dealt with Red.
Nevertheless, he was more concerned for her than anyone and anything else, for he could tell that her condition was becoming worse and worse with each passing second.
Bandit's supposed death had been the reason for her transformation, but now, even though he was alive, she would not revert back to her old self.
Her anger and rage had driven her to too far a point, and Bandit watched in fear as she began to bleed from her orifices.
"Rachel!" he screamed desperately, "You have to calm down!"
Within her subconscious, Rachel had only a little of her consciousness left, for it had been almost entirely consumed by the pain, agony, torment, and darkness in her heart.
Why…? Why is this happening to me…?
Bandit looked at her in complete terror as she released even more energy from her body, causing the ground to shake move fiercely than any earthquake imaginable.
Her body is dealing with too much power! thought Brayne, At this rate, she'll…
…die!
Rachel roared once more, and as she did so, Bandit noticed that her entire body was starting to turn black, which was due to the extreme oversaturation of Manna that her body was experiencing. She gave yet another powerful roar, and Bandit watched as multiple beams of energy shot out from her body and into the sky.
"Rachel!" he screamed as he looked at her in horror, "Please…listen to me! You have to stop! You'll destroy your own body at this rate! I'm begging you! Please, calm down!"
I can hear him… she thought, …I can hear his voice…but…it's not enough… It's not enough to bring me back… Bandit…please…I'm terrified of what will happen to me…! I can't take much more of this… Please…
…save me…!
Despite all of Bandit's efforts, despite how hard he tried to bring her back to her old self, Rachel continued to roar and release more and more Manna at a now uncontrollable rate.
Bandit panted heavily as he came within a few feet of her, and looked at her in great anguish as he yelled to her once more.
"I've already lost one person I love because of this nonsense!" he yelled sadly, "I will not lose another! Rachel, you need to stop! You're going to stop! Do you understand me?"
Consumed by nothing but darkness, Rachel was completely unable to pay attention to her best friend, and Bandit gritted his teeth bitterly as he watched her continue to roar. He closed his eyes as they slowly welled up with tears, and shook his head as he reached forward and grabbed her arm.
I never thought I'd do this…he thought as he pulled her close to him, but…if you won't listen to me…
…then I guess there's only one thing I can do to save you!
He placed both of his hands on her cheeks, and as he looked into her demonic eyes, he knew that there was only one thing he could try to do to bring her out of her monstrous state.
A tear rolled down his cheek as he pressed his lips against hers.
Despite how far gone her mind, body and soul was, Bandit's actions managed to shock Rachel's mind in a completely unforeseen way.
She slowly began to blush as he kissed her, and Brayne watched in awe as she quickly began to release less and less power.
Whoa…! he thought, completely surprised by the situation unfolding before him, It's…
It's working!
Tears streamed down Rachel's cheeks as her body began to tremble. Both her body and soul was trying to resist Bandit's influence on her, but he did not hesitate in the least bit, and continued to press his lips against hers, for he knew she would never hurt him, regardless of whatever state she was in.
After several seconds of resisting, Rachel's body gradually lost all of the demonic features that it had obtained upon her transformation, and she quickly stopped releasing any and all energy from her body.
Her subconscious slowly managed to regain control of her body, and as her eyes returned to their normal color, they widened in surprise upon her fully realizing that Bandit was kissing her.
She was stunned by what was happening, and she blushed very heavily, but before she knew it, she wrapped her arms around his head, and kissed him back.
He had saved her mind, body and soul, and he had done so in the most powerful and passionate way, by replacing all of her hatred, all of her pain, all of her anger and anguish, with the one thing both of them had always been too stubborn to confront: their deep love and affection for each other.
Love truly conquers all.
Where Their Hearts Are
That night, a number of doctors in the hospital devoted their time to healing those who had fought to save the Ice Lands and its people from what had been a subjugated land of tears and blood.
Compared to the others, Wake Noran had the least amount of damage done to his body.
His battle with Philemon had roughed him up quite a bit, but because he had his daughter's help, his injuries were minimal. He would be okay in due time.
Bandit's, Brayne's, Mary's, and Scarlet's injuries were more serious. They each had suffered quite a bit that day. Bandit had suffered quite a few injuries after his battle with Red, Brayne had exhausted himself summoning as much lightning as possible to strike Virtue for an extended period of time, and both Mary and Scarlet had been knocked out cold after Red's lightning sphere attack.
Thankfully, none of them sustained any lasting injuries, but because of their conditions, the doctors had no choice but to keep them in the hospital until they recovered enough to move without pain.
Rachel and Abe, on the other hand, had extensive injuries, and both of them had fallen into comas. The anguish Rachel's body and mind experienced had been too much for her to recover from easily, while Abe's body had a hard time recovering from not only Red's ultimate attack, but from his earlier beating from Red, in addition to the torture he had endured earlier that day that had resulted in him sustaining several bullet wounds, multiple stab wounds, and a number of broken bones.
Rachel had accelerated healing abilities because of the nature of the power gene within her, so she would recover naturally in due time, but Abe, who was not so lucky as to be gifted with such good fortune, had to undergo various procedures to recover from his injuries, and like the others, he also was forced to stay in the hospital until he was stable.
November 17, 1854
In one hospital room, Rachel slept soundly in her hospital bed.
Bandit and Scarlet sat by the window, and Scarlet looked from the corner of her eye to see Bandit's sullen expression. He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, and she placed her hand on his shoulder as she spoke.
"Are you okay?" she asked with concern.
"Sure…" he lied without looking at her, "…Rachel…in a state of grief and anger, murdered our brother…and now…she's stuck in a coma… Everything's just…"
&nb
sp; He sullenly shook his head before he responded.
"…peachy..."
She hugged him from the side, and he took a deep breath and sighed as he relaxed himself.
"I'm worried about you…" she began, "When was the last time you slept…?"
"I will sleep…when she wakes up…" he said tiredly.
The truth was he had not had a good night's sleep in the past three days. Between his brother's death and the comatose state of Rachel, his mind had absolutely no peace.
"Did you have a nightmare the last time you slept?" she asked.
Bandit took another deep breath before he responded.
"…Yeah…"
Unfortunately, nightmares were nothing new to him. He had begun having nightmares ever since the day of his mother's death, and despite however way he acted on the outside, he was constantly tormented by nightmares for half of the nights he had ever slept since then.
"It's not just Rachel and Red…is it…?" she asked as she looked at him sadly.
He remained silent as she continued.
"I know you've never been one to…speak about your feelings…but you're my brother…and I'm your sister, so…if you can't tell me what's wrong…who can you tell?"
Bandit closed his eyes as he took her hands off him, and she looked at him sadly as he responded.
"I don't know…what I've become, Scarlet…"
Scarlet furrowed her eyebrows, and swallowed before she spoke.
"You're a good man…and a good brother…"
Slight tears filled Bandit's eyes as he shook his head.
"Scarlet…we both know that…neither of those things are true… I couldn't be further from those two things… I'm a murderer…I'm a horrible brother…and a horrible son… I murdered our mother…I got my foster mother killed…and I betrayed both you and Red… People always talk about me like I'm some sort of hero, but…the truth is…I'm the furthest thing from it… There isn't…a god…in this world…that would ever…redeem me of my sins… All the lives I've taken…the bones I've broken…the bodies I've torn to shreds…"
He gulped guiltily as he remembered just how he had defeated Victor Prey not too long ago.
"…and the heads I've impaled… I'm not a hero…or a son…or a brother… I am nothing… The…young, childish boy I used to be…died a long time ago…alongside our mother… I can't even…recognize myself…when I look in the mirror…and I haven't been able to for…the past seven years…"
He swallowed again and closed his eyes as Scarlet placed her hand on his cheek.
"Bandit…" she began as she looked at him with compassion, "…It must have been hell for you…going through everything you did…doing the things you did… No one I know has ever had such a hard life or dealt with such harsh experiences…but there is one thing I do know, Car…"
A tear streamed down Bandit's face as he looked into Scarlet's eyes.
"It isn't…always about…what you've done… It's about where your heart is…and about the type of man you have become…"
She smiled as she looked into his eyes.
"…and you have become a truly wonderful man…one that our mother would be most proud of…"
Completely speechless, Bandit looked at his sister in complete awe as she wrapped him in her embrace, and he blinked back his tears as he slowly returned her embrace.
He could not believe that, after everything he had done, his own sister still had it in her heart to love and care for him, regardless of how irredeemable he thought himself to be, and in that moment, he knew that there was no better way to be comforted.
Thank you…
Elsewhere in the hospital, a bandaged Mary sat up in her hospital bed when she saw a bandaged Brayne walked into her hospital room. The two smiled at each other as he walked over to a chair positioned next to her bed and sat down.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she shook her head, still smiling, "Don't get me wrong. It's not that it's not nice to see you, but you should be resting in bed."
"Well, there are a lot of things I should do," began Brayne as he shrugged, "but that doesn't mean I will… Anyway…I wanted to check up on you. I already checked on Abe, but…he has yet to come out of his coma…"
Abe… thought Mary as she sullenly lowered her head.
She would most certainly have become more morose had something not suddenly occurred to her. She raised both her head and an eyebrow as she looked at the couch positioned by the window.
"I'm guessing you also wanted to make sure he wasn't upsetting me…"
Brayne turned to look at the couch, and sighed when he saw a hooded man, asleep with his arms crossed.
"Uh…" he began awkwardly, for he did not want her to think he came there only to keep an eye on the man under the hood.
Mary closed her eyes as she spoke.
"You're sweet," she said lovingly, "but don't worry about me. He and I are…better than we were before… He would never hurt me…"
"That may be true," began Brayne as he looked at her with concern, "but that doesn't exactly make me any less worried about you. Even if you're fine with him being here, you…have to know that…he can't stay here…or, to be more specific…he should not stay here… I'm grateful for what he did for us… Telling us that Abe had been captured by Red and helping us with the invasion were incredibly generous acts of kindness…but those actions don't erase what he has done to the people…to the women…of this land."
Mary sighed as she sat up in bed and crossed her arms.
"I know…" she said as she looked down at her bedsheet, "His staying here would only cause problems…"
She let out a sigh as he placed his hand on her shoulder and looked at her compassionately.
"Listen…" he began as he furrowed his eyebrows, "Whether or not he stays is not my decision… If you want him to stay here, then…I'll support you one hundred percent...in spite of what he has done…"
Mary swallowed as she looked into his eyes, for it was a rare thing for Brayne to look at her the way he was: with complete love and compassion.
"The thing is, Mary…I want you to be happy…and if having him stay here will make you happy…then…I'll do whatever I need to do to keep him here…okay?"
Tears slightly filled her eyes as she nodded her head and smiled at him.
"Yeah…" she said as she wiped her eyes, "I know…"
Brayne smiled as he looked at her, and Mary blushed a bit as she took her hand and placed it on the hand he had on her shoulder.
"Ever since I came to the mercenary guild…" she began, "you've been there for me… You…were the first person I met in the Ice Lands…and I'm glad I met you… I don't know what I would do without you…"
This time, it was Brayne's turn to blush as he raised his eyebrows, for he was surprised and visibly affected by her kind and affectionate words.
"Are you sure your wounds are okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," he responded, "I'm sure."
Completely comfortable with their current position, the two continued to look into each other's eyes until they heard Wake shift around in his seat. They turned to look at him for a moment before they looked back at each other.
"You should probably go," she whispered as she continued to smile, "Don't worry. I'll be fine. Thank you…for checking up on me."
Brayne smiled as he stood up, and turned to leave, when he felt her hand tighten around his own. Confused, he looked at her in surprise, but he understood what she wanted when she spread her arms out. He chuckled a bit as he wrapped her in his embrace for several seconds, and kissed her forehead before he released her.
She sighed as she watched him walk out of the room, and turned to look at her father.
"How are you?" she asked with a small smile.
He took his hood off his head and crossed his arms as he responded.
"I… I'm fine…" he said tiredly.
She raised her eyebrows as she spoke.
"How much of that conversation did you hear?" she a
sked.
"…Enough…"
He sighed as he looked at her concerned expression.
"Don't worry, princess," he assured her, "I… I understand that I can't…that I shouldn't…stick around here…but I didn't want to leave until you were released from the hospital… It seems, however…that you're in good hands."
She looked at him in surprise as he smiled at her.