On her way into the house, she saw Variable socializing with the early-arrived guests. As he kept up polite conversation with an attractive redhead, he watched her. His eyes seethed with a bouncing difference between lust and hatred. He wanted her and he hated her for it.
She flipped him off as she headed into the waiting room, and remembered to keep an eye on him.
He was swimming in a fog. No matter how much he tried to swim out of it, the weight of his own head forced him back into the water. His eyelids felt like thousand-pound weights and he groaned.
He sat up slowly, and with great effort. The world spun around him and his hand went out to the bed for support.
Paper rustled under his fingers and he grabbed it.
Paper … with words written on it.
“What the –“
He struggled to read it.
“Will – I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry that I have to do this, but I have to. The past two years have been my mistake, and I intend to fix it.
You have been right all along. I know a lot about Variable. More than I like to think about.
His name is Luke Vanst. He was born in nineteen eighty eight, on August seventh. Three months after I was. The only reason I’m going this far back is because you need to know how it started to realize how it must end.”
He re-read that last line, sure he must have it wrong.
The more he read, the more he was horrified.
“Oh my God,” he muttered.
He launched into action as adrenaline washed away what remained of the sedative.
“Ladies …. Go!” the announcer ran and slid under the ring, leaving her and Reaper alone in the ring.
Slowly, they circled each other, eying each other’s weaknesses.
She knew what Reaper would see. A slight limp in her right leg, the way she gingerly held her left arm.
Reaper would see what Max wanted her to see. There was no gimp in her right leg, no wound on her left arm. There were traps, no more no less. The few weaknesses that Reaper did see were put there for her to see. And if Reaper realized that, she would also disregard Max’s true weaknesses as fakes as well.
Reaper snapped out a kick out of nowhere, and Max dodged it. The heel missed her by an inch, and Max grabbed it and yanked as hard as she could, pulling Reaper off balance.
Reaper recovered and kicked Max’s legs out from under her.
Max fell on her butt-bone and pain reverberated up her spine.
Reaper came closer and kicked her in the stomach, sent her skidding back a few feet.
She stepped closer to Max to kick her again, and Max kicked her feet from under her.
Reaper landed with a thump and Max drove her legs down on the other woman’s stomach and face. Both feet connected with a crunch and Reaper grunted instead of crying out.
Max rolled over and onto her feet while Reaper did the same.
“God!” Reaper screeched as she spun towards Max.
Max dodged the backhand that Reaper was aiming for her and jabbed at her opponent’s unprotected stomach.
Reaper took advantage of Max’s position and rammed her knee up, connecting with Max’s forehead.
Max groaned and stumbled back a few steps.
Reaper spun, snapped a kick and sent Max sprawling.
She leaned over her, blue eyes gleaming.
She took Max’s arm and twisted it violently. Max bit off a scream that threatened to muscle its way out of her throat.
“You won’t win. I won’t let you,” Reaper whispered in Max’s ear.
She released Max’s arm and shoved her away with one foot so she landed on her back. She walked away.
Max stared at the ceiling. She needed Maverick. She needed to be Maverick.
She closed her eyes.
Max and Maverick are just two sides of one person, each one of them too afraid to embrace the other.
She closed her eyes as her own words rang through her mind.
Then force them together. You’re broken, Max, Will’s voice echoed.
Max and Maverick. Not two people rather than one. Maverick’s strength and Max’s tenderness. Two sides of one coin, two pieces of one puzzle.
Two halves of one person.
Her eyes opened as Reaper’s foot was descending on her face.
She rolled out of the way and took out Reaper’s leg in the process.
Her opponent lay sprawled on the floor as she stood. She grabbed Reaper’s leg and gripped it.
Reaper’s eyes contracted in panic as she suspected what Max would do.
Instead of straightening it, Max took it and yanked harshly until Reaper was in the middle of the ring and she feigned walking away.
As Reaper’s relief peaked, she whipped around and launched herself in the air, and both feet landed on either side of Reaper’s head.
“You can’t stop be from winning,” she muttered.
She repeated the same move and her heel connected with the side of Reaper’s head.
The announcer slid into the ring.
“Ladies and gentlemen – “
Screams ran throughout the mansion as the team moved in.
Out of the corner of her eye, Max saw Variable duck into the hall that led to the waiting/changing, where the path to the kitchen led him to the back door, where he could escape.
She slid out of the ring and ducked below the sheets that hid the space between floor and mat. She stuck her arm under blindly. When she felt what she needed, she grabbed it, stood and ran.
