Destiny: Rise of The Warlock

Epilogue: Sins of the Warlock

Shin and her team rushed Max to the hospital. Dr. Harko-7 rushed him in for blood tests, X-rays, MRI's, and ending in the Emergency Room. The four Guardians stood by Max as he was rushed between the points. Even his own Ghost and Gabriella stood by his side, examining him. "Nothing we can do," they told each other. Dr. Harko and the nurses kept 24/7 tabs on the new Hivesbane, keeping everyone, including Ghosts out of Max's ER. For the next few days, they performed multiple operations on Max, trying to get a solid diagnosis on his condition.

Nothing came up. No breakthroughs, no light at the end of the tunnel, nothing.

Then late at night, Dr. Harko had an idea. He took the blood samples and the results from the blood tests and said, "That's why!" Next morning, he explained to the Guardians, "I never cracked open a Ghoul before, but I understand their anatomy now thanks to Max!"

"So spill it!" Cass barked.

Harko said, "Ghouls have tar blood; their organs are dead, all except for the skin, muscles, and brain. That's why Max's bomb wounds healed fast enough, but not to his original shape."

Shin looked grossed out, "So they're intelligent zombies that heal super fast?"

Harko nodded.

"And the 'X' on his hand? How is that bleeding and not healing!?"

"While Max is connected to the Light, any wound that isn't dark or connected to his past heals within the snap of your fingers. However, wounds that are will rarely heal on their own."

"So what's wrong with him!?" Cass demanded.

"Everything!" Dr. Harko explained, "His mind is undergoing a struggle between Light and Darkness, he's bleeding through his stitches on his hand and belly, and I don't know where to find extra Guardian blood and Light!"

Max's Ghost piped up, "Take me, it's my job to protect him."

Harko warned, "But you could lose your life!"

"What's a Ghost without their proper Guardian?"

Gabriella said, "Um..."

"No," corrected Max's Ghost, "Leviathan is not a proper Guardian, he was toxic."

She nodded.

"Ok," said the doctor, "Come with me to the OR."

"OR?" asked the Ghost.

"Operating Room."

4 hours later, Dr. Harko and 6 nurses were performing multiple operations on Max, recovering his blood, stuffing the Ghost's Motes of Light into the wounds and organs, then piecing him back together. Within minutes, Max was breathing again.

At 1:13 PM, Dr. Harko came out of the OR dramatically and said, "He's finally recovering!"

Shin smiled for the first time in days, "Can we see him?"

"As soon as we get him back to his room."

30 minutes later, Max was comfortably back in his ER with his team by his side. As he woke and opened his eyes, he asked to his right, "Shin? Is that you?"

Shin cried tears of joy, "Yes it is! We're all here, Max!"

The Warlock looked around and found Cass at the foot of the bed, Jess beside her, and Kaden standing to his left. He smiled weakly, "Hey, guys. Did I miss much?"

Shin and Jess chuckled, "Nah."

Cass butted in, "I hate to break the party, but..."

"No!" Shin yelled, "You can't take him to the law! He needs to explain why he did what he did!"

Max nodded, "Yeah. I think it's time you learned the truth, the good things and the bad, the how and why, everything."
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There were 6 of us, operatives on this difficult mission. A dictator named John Saxon had taken over the United States, imprisoning immigrants and political opponents, upscaling the army to start attacking neighboring countries and neighborhoods, and integrating church into politics and education, taking over everything with extreme religion. All of us decided to kill him before he got too powerful, and so the assassination mission began.

Two of my teammates and I were the snipers, while the other three hacked the White House security and stormed the castle for potential heirs. Everything was going well, I found Saxon's head and pulled the trigger, he fell, the three stormed the heirs, the mission was a success. Until it wasn't...

I was knocked out cold by the butt of a sniper, and when I woke up, I found the 3 heir-killers rewarded like war heroes, by none other than Saxon himself! The dictator somehow survived my bullet! My other 2 teammates were restraining me before Saxon. He said to me, "You think you could kill me? I am invincible! I have become the right-hand of God!"

As soon as he left, I fought my ex-team, killing 4 and scaring one. Erik Larsen growled as he almost gutted me, but I was quicker, running away as fast as I could. But their law caught up with me and locked me in a maximum security prison built on a ship, made specifically for political opponents and weed smokers.

For a while, I thought it was the end of the road. A few fellow prisoners convinced me otherwise, so much so that we led a revolution against the tyrannical guards, transforming the prison into a base. 8 ex-prisoners and I became known as the Children of Liberty, and the rest of the ex-prisoners became freedom fighters. We vowed to end Saxon's dictatorship over America, and restore peace to the world.

For 10 years, we fought the good fight in 3rd world countries, keeping them out of the claws of the Fascist States of America, but Saxon had conquered larger fish, namely the American continents and most of Europe and Asia. The Children of Liberty agreed that in order to end Saxon's rule, we needed to devastate his territory. We deployed the freedom fighters all over the globe to steal control of every nuke, or save every single person who still believes in democracy and a separation of church and state and placing them in hidden bunkers. I made the final step by deploying myself to Russia, initiating the final launch of the nukes.

Erik suddenly surprised me at the console, and fought to keep the world under Saxon's iron fist. I made a few punches to his stomach and balls, Erik fired his pistol twice, but I launched the nukes and wrecked the console. He stabbed me and shouted, "You think this will stop God's work!? You're only delaying the inevitable!"

I coughed, "God..was created...by man. He...will also...be destroyed...by man."

The last thing I saw was the mushroom clouds only a few meters away.
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"I wrecked the world, yes," Max explained, "but I also gave it a second chance: the freedom fighters taught humanity about the evils of discrimination and Fascism, how governments will always lead to dictatorships, and the only way for humanity to survive and thrive is to live without an oppressive government or regressive society." He sighed, "I have committed sins, yes. But I did so with the hope of restoring peace to the Earth and to humanity."

Cass stared at Max in shock, not knowing what to say, then abruptly left. As she walked away, she turned those thoughts in her mind. Shin turned to Max and patted his shoulder, "It's ok. What's done is done, and you saved the world from one of the greatest threats of that time. Don't ever doubt yourself."
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A fully armored soldier with green fists emblazoned on his shoulders and gauntlets approached a bald man with a swastika tattoo on the back of his head. "Lord Lysander, I have some bad news to report."

"Speak, soldier."

"Your nemesis, Max Prodigy has reclaimed his memories from the Vex, and he's killed a Hive Prince and crippled the Moon."

Lysander turned to face his soldier, a scar running down his face and through his eye dominated the soldier's attention. Erik "Lysander" Larsen barked, "Then it's time to awaken our asset, SIVA."

TO BE CONTINUED IN "DESTINY: PLAGUES OF DARKNESS"