Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 41

Wawrzynski smiled and cracked his neck, the noise echoing around the cabin of the plane. His smile spread across his features, first alighting his lips, then his eyes, his ears, and his eyebrows. "Back together again, huh?" he said, joyfully. "Just the three of us."

A sound emerged from Zane's throat, surprising himself. It sounded suspiciously like a growl. The man standing in front of him was the cause of all his problems, but maybe even some of his triumphs. Zane's thoughts were jumbled, and he didn't know what to think at that moment.

Wawrzynski was exactly how Zane remembered; blood red tie, gray suit, close cropped hair, wide smile. Zane wished he could be outside with the others. He would be willing to fight for his life instead of facing Wawrzynski again.

"You're sick," Joseph snarled. He stalked forward, his skin changing to steel as he went. His voice took on a distinctly metallic tone, like two pieces of metal scraping together, hardened by his hatred of Wawrzynski. "You caused everything."

"I know," Wawrzynski said happily. "The good and the bad." He too stepped forward. He and Joseph were now merely inches from each other's faces. Wawrzynski's smile had grown until it seemed to encompass his entire face, like it had become his persona.

Wawrzynski suddenly laughed. "You can't blame me, son," he said. "I freed you from New Vancouver. I helped you escape that wretched place. I am the cause of all the good luck that has befallen you since I took you in."

Zane thought of the Forthrite soldiers fighting to free New Vancouver outside of the jet that seemed to have become Zane's entire world. He slipped his hand in his pocket and slowly began to dissolve it. "No," he said calmly.

"No?" Wawrzynski seemed surprised. "My dear boy, it is because of me that you were able to escape the mindlessness of life in New Vancouver. I allowed you to become powerful beyond your imagination, and you tell me no?"

"You didn't make this possible," Zane snapped. "We did. Our decisions are not yours to make. If it weren't for my own decisions, I would still be in that room, bored out of my mind, waiting for the day you used me as a weapon. Instead, because of what I alone chose, I am here, on the right side of this battle, opposing you."

"Who are you to decide which side is right or wrong?"

"Who are you?"

Wawrzynski's smile faded and his mouth dropped to set in a straight, grim line. He reached down and pulled a pistol from each side of his belt until he held a lethal weapon in each hand. "I am the ruler of an entire country," he spat. "You can't oppose an entire country, no matter how powerful I've made you."

Zane's eyes drifted toward the cockpit, where two pilots sat, their hands ready to flip switches and pull levers. He furrowed his eyebrows. "You can't hurt us with those futile, weak weapons," he snarled, pulling his hand-less arm from his pocket and letting the particles drift freely. "Your threats are worthless without something to back them up."

For a split second, Wawrzynski looked scared, but it was quickly replaced with yet another look of haughtiness. "If you are so decisive and assured of your position, why have you simply stood there instead of killing me?"

Zane hesitated. Joseph didn't. "We, unlike you, are not killers,"

"I beg to differ," Wawrzynski said. "By your decisions-" he looked pointedly at Zane. "-many people have lost their lives. Those soldiers in New Vancouver that you tased, several of them died. The pilots and soldiers on those jets I sent after you, they are all dead. Those people in the FEPE building. Dead. And poor Marlene, who only wanted to help you."

Zane was seeing red.

Joseph, his iron hands balled into fists, shook like a tree in the wind. "The FEPE building was not our fault. You sent the order to have it destroyed. Your jet fired on it."