Marcus…
As the match came to its conclusion, and the spatial battlefield collapsed and Raime’s head disappeared from his grip. It then reappeared on his body as he was healed back to full health as he stood up.
He turned around and stared at Marcus, who was covered in blood and gore from butchering the Dragon Kin warrior.
He walked towards him slowly and glared down at Marcus as he said, “Just because you’ve defeated me does not mean I accept you as my god. I will serve no other than Dagon.”
“I don’t care,” Marcus replied impatiently as he turned around and walked away, leaving Raime alone on the floor of the arena.
Moments later, as the audience was leaving the arena, he found Thalia and Selene waiting for him, with the former staring at him with a look of disgust mixed with anger.
“What the hell are you looking at me like that for?” he asked, annoyed.
As he walked closer to them, Selene wrinkled her nose and said, “You need a shower. You smell awful.”
“Yeah, I know,” he replied, but looked down at Thalia, who still seemed upset with him for some reason.
“Why do you look so mad?”
“I just saw you rip that man’s head off with your bare hands! That was horrible!” she complained, obviously very disturbed by his display of barbarism and brutality.
Hmm...what to do…
He decided to grab both sides of his head, and using magic to keep it connected to his neck via a barely noticeable arc of electricity, pulled his head from his shoulders.
He then stuck out his tongue and yelled “BLAAGHR”
Selene scrunched her face in a grossed out expression but said nothing while Thalia screamed before she started kicking him in the shin and yelled, “THAT’S SO GROSS! DON’T DO THAT!”
She continued kicking him all while he put his head back on and started laughing at her reaction while Selene shook her head in exasperation.
“I’ll ask the obvious question, why did you decide to rip off his head and scream like a maniac?” Selene asked, to which Thalia stared at him expecting an answer to the same question.
“Its a deterrent, a scare tactic. There was no genuine risk of Raime being killed because the battlefield will heal all injuries and revive the dead when the fight is over. However, simply killing him with my sword or my magic was not going to have the effect I wanted. I want people to soil themselves in fear at the thought of wanting to fight me. That way, I won’t have to deal with as many people trying to come after me if I am seen as a threat or a challenge. Because if I can do what I did to Raime, they would have to imagine what other horrible things I might do to them.”
“And what about Ender? Or New York? Or about any of the other possible secrets you have about your life that you kept from me?” Thalia asked, to which he stiffened up about.
Though he hesitated to answer her, he eventually asked, “What exactly do you want to know?”
“I want to know what Ender is. I want to know why you said you conquered New York and anything else regarding your crimes and past life. I already know you’re a killer and…I’ve decided to live with that because I know you did all of that to protect me. However, I don’t want to live with knowing what you are if I don’t know what you did.”
He went silent again until he sighed and said, “Alright. I’ll tell you everything I can, but wait until after I get cleaned up.”
“Ah…okay. I’ll wait,” she said, surprised that he agreed to tell her at all while Selene eyed him curiously.
When the three of them arrived at his house once again, they opened the door his guests watching Lord of the Rings.
Alta and Fayebel were absent from the house, but otherwise everyone else was present.
As he closed the door behind him, Cole, who was sitting at the kitchen counter eating chicken katsu and rice, took one look at him and turned white as a sheet.
He dropped his fork on the plate and quickly got up from his seat as he tried to make as much distance between Marcus and himself.
Selene looked at Cole with a confused look on her face as she muttered, “What’s going on with him…?”
Rosanne and Lyrra noticed the sudden change in behavior as they looked in Marcus’s direction and scowled at him.
“What?” he asked, faking an innocent tone of voice.
He knew full well why Cole was acting this way as it was obvious PTSD from when he killed his parents. At the time, he looked terrifying, covered in blood from the guards he killed leading up to their deaths.
“What did you do to him?” Rosanne asked angrily.
He passed them by and said, “I didn’t do anything to him this time, though I’m sure looking like this is bringing up some bad memories.”
As he passed by him, he turned his head to look at him and decided to be an ass as he said, “Isn’t that right pal?”
“Fuck you asshole.”
Marcus smirked at him and went into his room to undress so he can shower off all the blood and gore clinging to his skin.
Selene…
As soon as Marcus went into his bedroom, Cole audibly exhaled while Lyrra looked at her and asked, “Who did Marcus fight for him to look like that afterwards?”
Before she could answer, Thalia spoke up first and said, “He fought Raime and...it wasn’t pretty.”
Felkin, who was lounging on the couch, spun his head around so quickly it looked like it would pop off as he asked, “Did he win?”
“He did. He ripped Raime’s head clean off his neck. It was disgusting and barbaric, but he won,” Thalia said.
“Say Cole, you fought Raime during the Mordrinite War didn’t you? What was it like for you?” Selene asked.
He shivered as if the thought of it still bothered him as he answered, “It was an absolute nightmare. Getting caught by his flames would have driven me to insanity if I didn’t have my rain magic to douse them. See, I can turn my body into water as well so that attacks can pass right through me, though that didn’t seem to work against Marcus very well. Bastard caught my lightning bolt and shoved it back into my chest.”
“To think that he’s strong enough to fight Raime and win is…hard to grasp,” Lyrra admitted uncomfortably.
“The strange thing is that I think he was holding back for part of it,” Selene said, to which everyone, including Thalia, stared at her in disbelief.
“W-What do you mean he was holding back?” Cole stammered.
“That sword he carries, Light Taker, has the power of omnipresence. If he wanted to, he could have cut off Raime’s head in an instant and killed him before he could have a chance to fight back, but he chose not to. He wanted to kill him in the most brutal way he could think of to scare off anyone who might want to fight him. One of Raime’s opponents forfeited before the match even started probably due to fear and the same happened for Artemis,” she explained.
“I guess that makes a lot more sense now…but its still gross and horrible,” Thalia said.
“Yes, but I doubt that tactic will work against his remaining opponents. He’ll be fighting against Ares next, and Julian will likely be the next one up afterwards. One is a god of war while the other has a personal grudge against Marcus.”
“Hah! Who doesn’t!” Cole said bitterly as he finished his meal.
Selene glared at him and said, “I don’t know what your deal with Marcus is and why you hate him, but your attitude pisses me off. Either shut the hell up and start appreciating the fact that he is taking care of you or I’ll kick you out myself.”
“Is that a promise?” he replied sarcastically, but before she could follow up with a retort, the door to Marcus’s bedroom swung open and he stepped into the living room with his hair still wet.
He wore only a plain white T-shirt and shorts, but his face seemed relaxed after being clean.
Cole, Lyrra, and Rosanne eyed him carefully as he stepped into the room.
Rather than engage in the conversation, he looked at the TV and asked, “Hey, Felkin. This is the Two Towers isn’t it?”
Felkin blinked in confusion for a moment before answering, “Uh, yeah. Cole said Lord of the Rings was an amazing movie trilogy from your world so he put it on.”
“Its probably one of the few movies I have that would make any sense to you guys set in a world like this one. Do you like it so far?”
“Yeah, its great!” he said, excited to talk about it.
Marcus grinned and asked, “Whose your favorite characters?”
“Probably Gimli and Legolas. Their dynamic is fun to watch,” he answered honestly and respectfully, much to the bafflement of Cole, Lyrra, and Rosanne.
“I think I’ll join you,” Marcus said as he took a seat next to him while Felkin seemed completely unbothered by his company.
Thalia, who was waiting for him to finish cleaning up, walked over to the TV and stood in front of it.
“You promised me that you would tell me what I want to know after you got cleaned up, right? Don’t try to weasel your way out of it!” she demanded.
Marcus sighed and said, “You’re right. I apologize. Felkin, can you pause the movie for me?”
“Sure, also…should we leave you two alone or-”
“No. I think you should all stay and listen. I think you will find it to be…enlightening,” he replied.
None of them protested and sat still and quietly to watch things play out.
“Now before we start Thalia, I need to make sure you are aware of what you’re going to be asking. You know that I am a murderer and that I worked for the mafia. Everyone in here knows that, obviously. However, that comes with knowing that some of the things I did were so horrible that it might turn your stomach to learn about them. Are you sure you still want to know about my past?”
“Yes! I’m prepared to deal with it, I just don’t want to be left in the dark about it, that’s the worst part about it!” she answered angrily.
“Okay then, ask away.”
“How many people have you killed?”
He widened his eyes at the question, less in surprise and more so impressed that she was so direct in what she was asking.
“Uh…its a little hard to tell. If we’re talking about me individually…I think a little over a thousand.”
“What do you mean individually?” Cole asked.
Marcus turned around to answer him and said, “A few years before I showed up in Erebus, I was working with some ex-military guys to get rid of the gangs in New York. They helped contribute to cleaning up the whole state.”
He squinted at Marcus in confusion but said nothing.
He turned back to face his sister and said, “Next question.”
“In your fight against Raime, you talked about New York as ‘your kingdom’ as if you conquered it. What did you mean by that and why would you want to do that in the first place?”
Marcus paused for a moment, holding his chin in his hand as he thought of how to respond.
Lyrra and Rosanne didn’t seem that interested while Cole was listening intently, but Felkin seemed like the only one who was invested in what he had to say purely for the fun of it which Selene found odd.
“I guess you could take what I said and interpret it very literally. I conquered New York. Me and the men I worked with hunted all the gangs that we could find and took control of every facet of governance in the state. We even held the governor's family hostage to do so, using his authority to order police raids and hostile takeovers.”
Thalia looked as if she were trying to piece together why he would do that but couldn’t find an answer and decided to ask, “Is that why you sent me away for so long? Is that also why you disappeared for almost two years when I was seven years old?”
Marcus flinched at that question, actually appearing nervous for the first time since the conversation started.
“Ah…no. No, I’m sorry about that. I had no control over that during the time. At the start, it was mafia business but…it became something else.”
“Why did you disappear back then?”
“I was on a job in Japan but I got caught in an explosion and had amnesia for a while before I regained my memories,” he answered quickly, as if wanting to move on from that particular topic.
“What were you doing in Japan?”
“I refuse to answer that question,” he answered flatly, to which Thalia blinked in surprise.
“B-But you promised that-”
“I know what I promised you, and although those two years were mostly unrelated to my mafia past, I will not ever tell you what happened there. Do not, under any circumstances, ask me about my time in Japan. Understood?”
“But-”
“Thalia…please. I don’t want to talk about it. Ask something else. I will answer anything else, just do not ask me about Japan.”
He seemed genuinely disturbed by that topic, to which Thalia decided to respect and asked something else.
“Who was the first person you ever killed and when?”
“Why do you want to know that?”
“Because I’m curious. I want to know how old you were when you started killing people,” she said, to which Cole nodded in agreement.
Marcus sighed and answered them, “Do you remember that church I put you in when I was looking for a babysitter? I think you were five years old at the time so I think you remember.”
“Yeah, I do. Why?”
“Well, apparently the pastor running that daycare program was a child sex trafficker and I only learned about it from Stefan after I had left you there. He was the first person I killed.”
Thalia went pale and started hugging herself as if she were going to be sick while Cole said, “Oh god…”
Marcus gave her a pained smile and asked, “Are you sure you still want to know more?”
She took in a deep breath and said, “Yes. I do. Now I want to know why Cole hates you so much. You and him have history right? What is it?”
Selene wanted to know the answer to that too, if only to explain his terrible attitude.
Marcus’s smile faded as he leaned forward and answered, “I killed his parents in front of him when he was a child on Romano’s orders.”
Cole blinked in surprise at his blunt honesty while Selene looked between the two of them and finally understood the tension between the two of them.
“I…I didn’t think you would be so upfront about it with her like that,” he said.
“I’m not that surprised by it to be honest, but I am surprised that he’s helping you,” Thalia said to Cole, seemingly unbothered by what she heard, which made Cole look at her angrily.
“Y-You can’t be serious! You don’t even look upset to learn about it!” he spat at her, to which she flinched slightly.
“It certainly explains a lot,” Selene said as she was put off by it but wanted to learn more.
Marcus then turned to face her and said, “This is the kind of man I am Selene. This is the kind of past that I’m trusting you with, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you were bothered by it.”
She shrugged and answered, “Not really. I already knew the kind of man you were going into this. The fact that you trust me this much to share it with me is…actually good to know. Like Thalia, I’d be more bothered if you kept it from me.”
Cole stood up from his seat and seemed furious with all three of them as he said, “You can’t be seriously accepting this so easily! He’s a damn monster and yet you don’t care?”
“You don’t care enough to the point you can live in the same house as him, so shut up,” Selene said, to which Lyrra and Rosanne started glaring her way.
She ignored the both of them as they seemed like a waste of time to stress over.
Honestly, it was strange to picture why Cole, Thalia, and even Marcus for that matter were so bothered by his own past. Him being an assassin, or ‘Enforcer’ as he put it, was not that surprising to her.
Perhaps it was the difference in their perception of morals from Terra and Erebus that made them act this way, but Selene did not care that much.
“Why are you not more bothered by this Selene? You’re the dumb bitch dating him! Why aren’t you more disgusted?”
She decided to ignore that insult for a moment as she glared at him even more intensely as she answered him, “Killing people was his job, that’s hardly any different from if he was a soldier in an army. To my knowledge, he took that job to provide for his sister and then killed everyone involved with them to get out of it and prevent them from killing anyone else. If I’m being honest, I think your Terran morals are pathetic. If I were in his position and I had to kill people to provide for my family and it was the only option I had, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Personally, I don’t consider him a bad person for what he did for the reasons of why he was doing it.”
“That’s enough Selene,” Marcus said as he stood up from his seat on the couch.
He then started making his way to Cole, who glared at him defiantly, before punching him in the face.
There was not an ounce of magic in that punch, nor any intent to severely harm him, but nonetheless, Lyrra and Rosanne quickly rushed to attack him from behind.
Before they could get the chance, Selene grabbed both of them by the neck, pulled them back, and slammed their faces into the floor.
She then turned to look at Felkin as if expecting to come to their aid, but he sat on the couch with a neutral expression watching everything play out.
“You’re not going to jump in and help them?” she asked him.
He shook his head no and replied, “I figure Marcus punched Cole because he insulted you. As far as I’m concerned, he messed up in his own way and that has nothing to do with me. Those two rushed to help him because they thought Marcus was going to kill him. By all means, beat their asses.”
I can see why Marcus likes him.
She then turned her attention back to Marcus as he stood over Cole and said, “You speak to her like that again and I will beat you within an inch of your life, understood?”
Cole struggled back to his feet, wiping the blood from his nose, and said, “F-Fine. Just get away from me.”
Marcus appeared satisfied and went back to the couch to answer Thalia’s questions while Selene took her hands off of Lyrra and Rosanne as they stumbled trying to stand up.
As they did, the two of them stared at Selene, confused and horrified as to why she would help Marcus at all.
“Alright. Next question.”
Thalia was looking at Selene the whole time, seeming just as confused as the two she had face planted into the floor.
“Thalia?”
“Oh, right. Uh…what exactly is Ender? Is he the Enderman?”
“Uh…,” he struggled to answer as he looked at Selene.
“Its a little hard to explain. We don’t fully understand it yet either Thalia,” Selene said.
“For a long time, I thought it was multiple personality disorder but…I guess its not,” Marcus answered.
Thalia made a face and asked, “What the heck does that mean?”
“Uh…do you remember those stories about the Greek gods that I used to read to you and how there were also Roman versions of the same gods with slightly different personalities?”
She squinted as she struggled to understand where he was going with that but nodded.
“Its kind of like that.”
“What does that mean? Are you claiming to be a god?”
“Well that’s fuckin rich!” Cole said, laughing.
“Not sure honestly. I mean, Hestia is our mother, which means that you are a demigod. Besides, Selene is a god anyways,” Marcus answered, which caused everyone in the room but himself to stare at her.
She felt uncomfortable with all their stares and said, “What?! Don’t look at me like that! It was a shock to me too when I learned about it!”
Cole then shook his head and asked, “Hold on, the Goddess Hestia is your mother? You have to be kidding me.”
Marcus waved his hand at him in a shooing manner as if to tell him to drop it.
“Do you have anything else to ask me Thalia?”
“I…no. I think I learned enough for today,” she said, hesitating. It looked like there was something else she was hoping to learn about but decided not to ask.
Marcus seemed to notice as well but chose not to push it.
However, there was something on Selene’s mind that was bugging her.
“I actually have a question I want to ask you if you don’t mind,” she said.
“Oh? Okay then. What do you want to know?” he said as he turned around to face her.
“Aside from getting rid of the gangs in New York, why did you take it over? I get the feeling there was more to it than that.”
“Ah…,” he muttered, with his voice trailing off as if he didn’t want to answer that. He had an unusual expression on his face that said he wasn’t so disturbed about what it meant because it was so horrible, nor did he seem super depressed like when Japan was mentioned.
Instead, he seemed almost...embarrassed.
“Marcus?”
“Yes?”
“If all you wanted to do was get rid of the gangs to make your home safe, I doubt you would have to take over an area of land that large to do it. You could have easily kept it a local effort and made it fairly easy to keep them out. What was really going on?”
“Yeah…that is definitely true.”
“So then, why conquer all of New York? To what end? You don’t seem like a greedy person or a warmonger. So why?”
He sighed and asked, “You’re not going to stop until I answer you, are you?”
“No. I’m curious and want to know.”
“Alright…the truth is, taking over New York was just step one. I wanted to start with that to remove any possibility of any gangs showing up again if I was going to bring Thalia back before the rest of things took off.”
Now his sister seemed interested as she asked, “Before what took off? What were you going to do?”
He looked at her and then back to Selene as he answered, “Before I tell you, I need to make something very clear with the both of you. This was not something I wanted to do and I wasn’t going to participate for all of it. It wasn’t my idea or even my plan, I just supplied the weapons and the funds for it for the most part.”
“Funds and weapons for what Marcus?”
“For…for conquering the world. I was going to help conquer the world.”