Stargazer - Tribulation

Chapter Twenty-Six - Tormentor

With a smirk, Maxim takes it away from him.

"Why you don't pull it?" asks Logan.

"Because I don't want to."

"Did you think you could intimidate me with that thing?" he looks at Rory. "He has done it better."

"Anyways," says Maxim. "You sure you don't want to join us?"

The wind hushes through as Logan stays silent. He looks around the ruins, at least what's left of it. People really didn't care anymore—burying the history and the remains with it. If Alphonse would have cared, it wouldn't look like this now.

People would have reconstructed it at best as they could to keep it alive. But now?

"Why did you choose this city?"

Maxim shrugs. "Because it's a nice place."

"Riley told me something about it," he stares in the blue eyes of him. "Do you know what all of this is?"

"No, and I don't really care."

He smirks. "This is why all of this will be forgotten. The same as the history behind it."

"What history?"

He looks at him. "Let's just say, this is where it all began with people having their own opinion and choices."

"You see, Logan. As much as you hold on to what happened, you gotta move forward. Whatever happened in the past should stay there. If you keep talking about it, it will never be buried."

He sighs. "That's not what I mean. It's there to take a lesson. It's not about moving forward or forgetting. It's about how it happened, why, and what we, as the future, can learn about it."

"To never repeat those things in life, right?" says Rory, walking up closer.

"Exactly that."

"The more we talk, the more I am starting to dislike you. Anything that comes out of your mouth feels like as if you're shitting on everyone else. And it always felt like that, even before you were fucking annoying," Maxim raises his tone.

"If you see that way, then there is nothing I could do," he smirks. "To prove it wrong, right?"

He clenches his fist and throws it into Logan's face, his head turns to the side, but he keeps himself straight.

Logan touches his chin. "It's fine," he looks at Maxim. "If I can make you angry like that, then I guess I am still important to you."

"No," he chuckles. "You're not."

"There is someone who would like to have a word with you. One who might be important to you," he pauses. "Just know that everything I said was exactly how I meant it."

Maxim shortens his eyes at him, looking above his shoulder; his mouth opens as he watches him come closer and closer.

"Hey, Mich," he shakes his head. "I mean Maxim."

"Why are you here?"

"Because I wanted to be."

His eyes flicker at him—he seems so different. He's standing there with confidence as Maxim stares at him.

"What, what, I, what?" he clears his throat to get rid of the stutter.

"I said quite a lot of things to you that I shouldn't have. I didn't know if I would get the chance to talk to you ever again, so—"

Maxim shakes his head. "No."

Henry sharpens his eyes at him.

"You were right," Maxim continues with a fake smile on his face. "Blood can't be changed."