#maxim alkaev

[lnfinitesim]

Blood was blooming at the spot the bullet had entered Maxim’s chest. He gave a pained breath, letting his head roll back onto the seat behind him. 

“Harper, we have to go-” 

“Not without my daughter-”

“Harper, move!” 

“Ren!” 

Ren looked at the sound of her name. Veteran was sheilding Harper, and Harper was reaching out for her. Filled with fury, Renegade pulled the gun out of her belt loop. She pointed it at her mother, and at Veteran, and fired. 

Bullets shot out of the gun, hailing past them both. Harper and Veteran bolted for the door.  Once it closed, Ren kept pulling the trigger, until the gun was empty. She hadn’t got either of them, but she wished she had. She was filled with fury, and grief. People that she trusted had shot at her Uncle, who she loved. Who was always honest with her. She turned back to him, worried about the sight she might see. Maxim had managed to peel off his jacket. 

“Uncle Max! Oh my god, he got you right in the chest.” Ren squealed. “What do I do?” 

“Phone.” Maxim growled.  Ren pulled in out of his pocket. “Dr. Weber.” 

“Hello, Dr. Weber? My Uncle Max has been shot, he needs... yes, okay.” Ren said. “A helicopter will be here in five minutes, Uncle Max. Uncle Max!” 

Ren shook him, but his blue eyes closed, and Maxim let the pain, blossoming in his chest, take over. 

“Stay with me, Uncle Max. Stay with me!” 

[lnfinitesim]

Maxim gasped, and bolted up in his bed. Panic set through him, though he wasn’t sure why. A pain in his chest sent another wave of panic over his body, what the hell happened?

“Relax, Uncle Max. It’s me.” Renegade said to him. “You’re gonna be okay.” 

At that moment, a doctor walked in the room. Maxim recognised him as the doctor who gave him his experimental cancer drugs. 

“Dr. Weber.” he said, his voice was gravelly. “What happened?” 

“You were shot in the chest. It narrowly missed your heart. You lost a lot of blood but you’re fine now. You’ve been out for three days. You’re in Germany. We flew you here via helicopter. Your niece insisted on staying with you.” he said, before quickly leaving the room. 

[lnfinitesim]

“Then, I went away, and had you-”

“You’re forgetting something.” Maxim cut across her.

“Are you going to keep interrupting?” Harper snapped.  

“Loric.” Maxim said.

“Oh, yes. I killed the youngest, Loric Alkaev.” Harper said, and Ren clapped her hands to her mouth.

“Shot him straight in the head.” Maxim said, his face betraying a hint of anger.

“We were in a gunfight.” Harper fought the urge to roll her eyes.

“He was hardly 20. He was going to be married. He had a promising future.”

“Harvey was 21,with a promising future on the right side of the law.” Harper retaliated. “That didn’t stop Mikhael shooting her.”

“He had just seen his little brother’s brains splattered all over the wall! He didn’t know who shot him. Of course he wanted revenge on who had shiot his little brother. He didn’t think you had it in you, so he guessed wrong.” Maxim said. “I knew it was you. But I never told him the truth. It would have broken him.”

“Will you drop the ‘he secretly loved me act’? We both know you’re bullshitting, trying to make him seem like a better man than he really was.” Harper said coldly. Maxim silenced himself, and gestured with his hand for Harper to carry on.

“Then I went away and had you. I vowed that I would always keep you safe from your father, and from the entire organisation that threatened us. Because you were threatening us, weren’t you Maxim?” Harper taunted. “I heard you say it to your brother. What were your words… ‘You should have let me kill the baby when I had the chance’?”

Ren gasped, and looked at her Uncle. He looked sympathetically at Ren. “You had to understand, from my point of view, that the birth of a child was a… complication. Being in my violent line of work, that was the only solution I could think of at the time. I was bloodthirsty, angry about the death of Loric, and the endangerment of Mikhael. But he wouldn’t let me touch her- you.” Maxim corrected himself. “An act I greatly appreciate now.”

“Then what happened?  How does this relate to my father?”

[lnfinitesim]

It took Harper no time at all to find the place. She went well over the speed limit, jumped out of her car, scaled a fence, and crashed through the door. Her gun lead the way, and she pointed it right at the man she found sitting at the table. Maxim Alkaev

“Evening, Harper.” Maxim said, remaining quite calm, despite having Harper’s gun pointed in his face. “You’re looking a little worse for wear since we last met.”

“As are you,” Harper said, her eyes roaming over Maxim’s scarred face. “Cancer, I hear? Can’t say i’m too upset.”

“Well, you never cared much about the deaths of Alkaev’s.” Maxim said.

“You’re right. And once you tell me where Ren is, you can join your brothers. Where is she?” Harper demanded, taking a deliberate step towards him. Despite being so nervous, it felt wonderful to point a gun at someone, to force information out of them, to be in control. If Maxim didn’t tell her, she’d put a bullet in his shoulder. He was no stranger to pain, but hopefully it would make him talk.

“Where is Ren?” Harper repeated, louder. Maxim’s eyes flickered to something behind Harper, but she wasn’t going to bite. Harper trained her gun on Maxim’s shoulder, where she knew a bullet would graze through muscle and skin, no broken bones, no bleeding out, but cause him immense pain. Her finger twitched slightly, and something made Harper stop. A voice that sent chills down her spine, and froze her to the core.

No, she thought desparately. Not that voice.

[lnfinitesim]

“I’m so stupid.” 

“You’re not stupid.” 

“Everyone hates me.”

“Not anyone that matters.” 

“They all think i’m stupid.” 

“A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of sheep.”

“I want them to pay.” 

“They will.” Maxim replied. “Don’t you worry about that.”

“I don’t mean by ‘being successful’, or something stupid-”

“Nor did I.” Maxim said, with a glint of madness in his blue eyes. Ren smiled at him.  Maxim shifted.

“Excuse me for a minute, i’m going to go smoke me one of these filthy habits.” he said, climbing down the ladder. 

[lnfinitesim]

“Ren? Ren!” Harper called up, bounding up the stairs. She burst through the door, and saw her daughter’s bed, perfectly made, with the window still open. Harper pulled out her phone, and dialled her daughter’s number. The phone rang a few times before it connected. 

“Ren’s phone.” a deep voice, that sent chills down Harper’s spine, answered. Harper was frozen. Her worst fears were all coming true. 

“Where is she,” was all that Harper managed to get out.

“Ninety-six Sunshine Boulevard. See you soon, Eclipse.” Maxim hissed into the phone. Harper heard the dial tone. She rushed into the room behind her bookcase. She would need protection. 

[lnfinitesim]

Ren walked out of the school building, with tears trailing down her face. Children were so cruel, they took every chance to humiliate Ren. She had put on her pretty dress, dolled herself up, and rode the limo to Prom. Ren was excited to attend with one of the most popular boys in school, Jimmie Glenn, who had asked her to go with him. When she got there, all the kids in school pretended not to know who she was. When she asked Jimmie what was going on, he had said “What? I wouldn’t have asked someone like you to Prom.” 

It had been a plot all along. Uncle Max was right. She pulled out her cellphone and dialled his number. 

“Shouldn’t you be at prom?” he said lightly. When Ren refrained from answering, he said “What’s happened?”

“You were right. They all pretended they didn’t know who I was.” Ren said, fighting back the tears. 

“Names?” Maxim asked seriously. Ren didn’t hesitate to give them. 

“Want me to pick you up?” Maxim asked. 

“Yes please.” Ren said.

[lnfinitesim]

“Do you believe in heaven?” Ren asked, taking another breath of ciggarette smoke. 

"No.” Uncle Max said. “I don’t think there’s anything after we die.” 

“I do,” Ren said. “I have to.” 

“Why ‘have to’?” Maxim asked. 

“I have to know that I can see he’s... okay. That he’s still here.” Ren said. She blinked up at the stars. 

“He’s in a better place now, and I don’t mean heaven.” he said, blowing a cloud of smoke above him, temporarily blocking Ren’s view to the stars. “This world is a shitty place. He’s not suffering any more.”

“So everything is pointless, then?” Ren asked. 

“Look at the impact your father made. On you, on me, on your mother, on the world. He brought something to it, and he left it behind when he died. That’s the point. He made a difference. He may have done some shit, but he did some good too. Helped a lot of people. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve what he got!” Maxim shouted into the sky. Ren hadn’t seen him with so much passion before. “At least he died quick. He didn’t suffer.” 

“How did he die?” Ren asked. Maxim opened his mouth, and Ren knew he was going to say it was a story for another time. “You told me that one day you would tell me everything.” 

“That day will be soon.” Maxim promised. 

“Can I please just know how he died?” Ren pleaded.

Maxim sighed. “He was shot-” 

“Renegade Maria Childs!” Harper yelled.