Greed, Pride and Wrath

Max was sitting at his desk grading papers when the butler knocked on the door.  Luckily the butler knew by now to not open the door until Max said something.  Last time had been rather embarrassing more for the butler than for Max.

The butler’s voice was muffled behind the closed door, “Sir?”

“Come in.”  Max said.

The butler stepped into the office, “Sir?  A gentleman by the name of Dedric Ormond has come to call on you.  He said to give you this.”  The butler handed over an envelope with Max’s own seal and handwriting.

Max stared at the letter and then jumped to his feet, “I’ll see him right away.”  He brushed past the butler and then stopped, “Er…”

The butler smiled a bit amused, “This way, Sir.”

The house wasn’t overly large.  But there were a few parlors for different purposes and Max always confused them for some reason.  Max stopped in the doorway of the parlor.  Standing with his back to Max was a man a few inches shorter than Max.  His blonde hair was slicked back, but a few strands fell into his green eyes.  He was dressed in loose fitting black wool trousers and a white wool shirt.  He turned and met Max’s eyes.

“Dee!”  Max said as he moved forward.  For a moment they just stood and stared at one another.

“It’s been a while, Havoc.”  Dee grinned.

“It has been.  It’s good to see you.  I was beginning to think…”  Max looked down at his feet, his voice breaking slightly, “…to think that I was the only one left.”

Dee smiled, “I thought I was too.”

They were silent as the maid bustled in with refreshments and even some of the fancy cookies Max liked.  And then they both began to tell the other what they had been doing all these years.  Dee had been away on a few odd jobs off and on throughout the years.

“You know, I asked Clare to marry me about a year after you left.  She said yes and a few days later I found her dead.”  Dee said.

Max was silent for a few moments, “Dee…?  Why didn’t you kill Emma for it?”

Dee shrugged, “Just not my style, you know.”

Max nodded.  Each of the gang had had their own way of doing things.  Max had threaded the line of his own morals.  He killed people for money.  They may have been innocent people, but he hadn’t cared.  He’d helped others though, but he walked a line between life and death, swaying from side to side.  Clare had been the best with sleight of hand.  She would walk through a bar; saying hello to everyone and no one would suspect that she had taken a good portion of their money.  Quin wasn’t exactly good at anything really unless you counted eating up all the food and drink.  He was clumsy and tended to only ever get caught trying to steal anything and he didn’t have the heart to kill anyone.  He was great at distracting people without even trying though.  That had been handy.

And then there was Dee.  Dee was a born leader.  He stayed calm.  He kept people in line.  He wasn’t the type to kill people.  He didn’t have to.  He had Max for that.  At least he did when they were all together.  When the four of them had dropped into the underground society, Dee had been the one to arrange jobs and negotiate payments and the like.  He was the calmest of them all and he could talk people out of even more money than they intended to give in the first place.

Dee’s odd jobs had consisted of helping the Lady and a few other contacts and clients arrange a number of various things.  He was oddly given trust to handle his clients’ money.  He never took anything.  He always talked his employers into giving him more money.  He didn’t need to steal it.  He had come back to Divinity’s Reach after hearing a rumor that Max was back in action.  And now he was here sitting beside Max.

Max introduced Dee to Lena.  She merely smirked when Dee tried his charm on her.  When he mentioned money and how good at handling it he was, he was rewarded with a punch to the arm by Max.  Dee was a very likable guy.  He was the kind of guy a person would just end up talking to about everything.  Over lunch, Dee entertained Lena with embarrassing stories about Max.  These stories lead to stories of the gang growing up.

“Listen, I’ve got to check in at the hospital, but I want you to meet everyone at the Phoenix Lodge tonight.  They’ll love you and you’ll love them.  Oh and you’ve got to meet my twin.”  Max said.

“I have to check in with a few people anyway.  You said it’s in Hoelbrak?”  Dee paused, “You know…I’m not sure there being two of you is a good idea…”

Max laughed.  And the pair parted.

**************************

Max was trudging through the snow toward the lodge when it happened.  There was a scream that ripped through the air.  Birds skittered out of tree tops a little ways from where Max stood.  Max bolted for the trees, heading toward the noise.  Someone was in trouble and probably hurt.  It was far too close to the lodge.  Why was it always so close to the lodge?  Emma…Had Emma hurt someone from the Phoenix on their way to the lodge?

He remembered what Varyl had said the night before.  Max refused to kill Emma while she was unconscious even though she had killed someone he loved and threatened the Phoenix.  Max was determined to kill her himself.  He hadn’t gotten the chance to kill his teacher, but he was going to kill Emma.  Dread sank in.  If she had hurt someone from the Phoenix, it would be his fault and everyone would see it as that.  It was his fault.  Because he felt that everyone deserved a chance to survive even if they had hurt someone he cared about.

He came to stop in a clearing.  A dark haired man held Dee up in the air, his hand stuck through Dee’s chest.  The man laughed wickedly and Max knew right away who it was.

“Greed…”  Max growled.

Greed stopped laughing.  He smirked and Dee fell to the ground in a heap.  A pool of blood quickly spread out from under Dee as Greed turned to Max.  His arms were covered in Dee’s blood.  His shirt soaked even more with blood.  Dee had never been the fighter that Max was.  He could fight, but he wasn’t as strong and he didn’t have the agility that the others of the gang had.

“So Havoc has returned.  How wonderful it is to see you for myself!”  Greed’s blazing red eyes bore into Max as he moved forward.  He spared Dee a glance, “Oops, looks like I’ve broken another toy.”  He sighed.  He grinned at max, “Maybe you can do something for him, Havoc?  I would like to play with him some more.”

Max growled, but moved to Dee.  He knelt down to assess the damage.  See looked up at him and managed a small smile on his blood covered lips.  It wasn’t good.  There were too many wounds.  Dee’s arm was broken.  A leg was broken.  His ribs were crushed.  His other hand was missing completely and there was the hole in his chest just below the heart but above the stomach.

Max swallowed, “It’s…not so bad, Dee.  I can fix it.”

Dee tried to laugh, “You’re…a…terrible…liar.”

Max tried to smile, but couldn’t.  He didn’t say anything.  He scooped Dee carefully into his arms as he sent healing through him, concentrating on threading the wounds back together.  There was so much damage that his magic couldn’t focus on one single wound.  It spread and spread, trying to stitch flesh together.

Max’s eyes shot open in surprise.  His healing had found something he couldn’t heal, not quickly anyway.  Organs, body parts, limbs took weeks, even months and years to heal and it couldn’t be done on the spot.  There were certain parts that were impossible to heal—the heart, the brain, the lungs and stomach.

Dee was missing quite a few organs.  Max swallowed again.  His magic was useless once more, but he had to try.  So he closed his eyes and poured all of his energy, his healing into Dee.  But nothing worked.  He might have been able to save Dee if he had been able to get him to the hospital quickly, if he had been able to secure what Dee was missing.

Dee shivered, his eyes trying to close.  He couldn’t move his arms, so he laid his head on Max’s shoulder, “She’s waiting on me, Havoc.  Clare’s waiting for me.”  His eyes fluttered.

“She’ll have to wait a bit longer.  I…I can save you, Dee.  Please just hold on.”  Max said.

Dee’s lips turned up in a smile and his voice grew soft, “I’ll…tell her you said hello…”

Max shook Dee gently, tear running down his cheeks, “Dee?  Dee?  Come on wake up, Dee.  Wake up…” He buried his face in Dee’s blood soaked blonde hair.  Behind him, Greed cackled.

There have been several times in Max’s life where he had lost control of his magic.  But this time topped them all.  He stood slowly, his head down.  The flames licked at his fingertips.  Flames rippled through his hair.  When he took a step toward Greed the very earth churned and rumbled, shook and echoed his anger.  The snow fluttering from the sky went still, freezing in midair and lightning joined the fire around his hands.

It was the first time in Max’s life that he took a life without giving the person a chance to fight back.  And he felt nothing but the churning rage and the aching pain that ripped through his body.