Uniting As The Ten- Part Two Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Fifteen

Max's POV:

I shout in pain as I try to fight against it. I can't let Bryce control me. Not now.

"Max?! What's wrong?!" Nico asks me frantically, placing his hands on my shoulders.

"Bryce!" I shout, my hands on the sides of my head as I try my best to keep control. Nico looks towards Bryce Lawrence, who has his arm extended towards me, and then to Setràkus Ra, who's watching all this go down with a proud, amused smirk.

"Just focus, Max. You can do this." Nico tells me, then jumps to his feet and sprints towards Setràkus Ra to disconnect him from us. More pain settles in my chest and my head as I try my best to fight against Bryce. I look up at Nico and he's so close to reaching Setràkus Ra until he's grabbed from behind with telekinesis and flung across the room. I bite my lip so hard it starts bleeding as I continue to fight back.

I hear footsteps from behind me until Bryce walks in front of me. I don't dare break my concentration to look up at him, but it's not my choice. He grabs my chin and lifts it so I'm looking directly up at him as I'm on my knees. He smirks smugly at me.

"Just give up, Max. We both know you can't do it." Bryce tells me, and he's right. I know that I can't do this. It's impossible. I can't win against him. But I can at least fight back and stall him.

My head pounds and my chest feels like it's on fire. I yell out in pain and I can hear Nico shouting to me from across the room. Soon enough, the ground under Bryce's feet cracks open, and it quickly expands out to a deep chasm, created by Nico. Bryce reacts quickly by jumping out of the way towards me. I feel a huge weight lift off my shoulders as he stops trying to control me for now.

I breathe heavily and try to crawl away from Bryce, but he lunges towards me and grabs my throat, lifting me off the ground. He doesn't choke me that badly, since I'm still able to breathe, though. I struggle against him but he holds me in arms length, then walks over to the chasm Nico made and holds me right above it.

He turns back to Nico and smirks. "Try anything and I'll drop her." Nico freezes and glances at me being held above a deep chasm.

"Lawrence, we don't have much time. Get her to do it." Setràkus Ra orders Bryce, glancing at me with that same look in his eyes as before.

"Of course, Beloved Leader." Bryce replies to Setràkus Ra, then turns to me and smirks again. He closes his eyes and I can start to feel the effects of his controlling washing over me.

"No!" Nico shouts at Bryce, rushing towards him with his hands clenched tightly. Bryce glances back at him, once again delaying his controlling, and smirks at Nico running to us. He raises an eyebrow and tightens his grip on my throat until he's choking me. I gasp for breath but I can quickly feel myself losing consciousness. Black spots dance around in my vision and my struggles and hits get weaker by the second.

"Okay, stop!" Nico shouts at Bryce, putting his hands up in surrender and backing away from us. Bryce smirks at him again and throws me on the ground right next to his feet. I gasp for breath and look up at Nico. He catches my eye and purses his lips, then looks back up at Bryce and scowls deeply.

"If you leave her alone, you can do whatever you want with me. I'm the one who killed you in the first place, after all." Nico tells Bryce and my heartbeat seems to go a million miles an hour. I am not letting anything happen to Nico.

Bryce chuckles darkly. "Why give her up when I have both of you captured? And besides, I'd rather take her than you. She's worth more."

And I snap. No one talks to Nico, or any of my friends, that way. No one threatens them. No one is allowed to hurt them.

Growling, I lift my leg and kick his knee in with a horrible crack. Bryce screams in pain and falls on his back, clutching his now-broken knee tightly, but I don't stop there. I lunge at him and pin him down, then kick and punch him in all the spots where I know it's painful. I want to hurt him. I want to hurt him so badly that he's terrified to even look at me.

He coughs up blood and starts choking on it, but I elbow his face and force it down his throat again and continue punching him. I stand up and smash his rib cage. I punch his throat until his shouts are just hoarse yells. He screams at me to stop, tears of pain streaming down his cheeks. But I don't. I remember all those times I've told him and the others to stop, and they kept on going like nothing happened. I want to continue. I want to see just how much punishment the son of Punishment could take.

"Max, stop!" I hear a voice shout to me. It sounds...scared. Scared and utterly shocked. I turn in the direction of the voice and Nico is staring with wide eyes as I beat Bryce with no mercy whatsoever. He actually looks terrified. Of me. Scared of me.

I breathe heavily and look back down at Bryce, shaking and crying. Cuts and dark bruises litter his body, blood is pouring from his mouth, he has two black eyes, a bloody nose and I can already tell that multiple bones are broken along with his knee and shattered ribs.

I stand up and stare down at my hands, heavily bruised and cut at the knuckles. I look back up at Nico and breathe shakily at the sight of him looking at me like I've just killed his closest friend with wide, terrified eyes and shaking hands. Looking at me like I'm a murderer, and I am.

I look back down at the floor and remember Setràkus Ra. I turn to face him and he looks impressed and amused. There's still that one look in his eyes I can't quite place.

"Well done, Number Two. I always knew you had it in you." He tells me. 'It'. As in being able to torture someone.

I glare up at him and storm towards him, my arm raised to finally get rid of him. His proud smirk melts away into a scowl as I approach him, but I'm too late.

Before I can do anything about it, I feel my soul leaving my body. I can't speak or move, I can barely think, and I know that now we're really in trouble.

I black out without a chance to fight back.

-INSIGHT-

Remo Helmer was brought back to life in book six by the entity of Lorien that gave him the resurrection legacy because it thought that everyone deserved a second chance and hoped that Max would be able to convince Remo to help the Garde- it was proven wrong once again.