He'd done it.
Just like he'd always said he would.
His only obstacles were now eliminated, and there was no chance of them coming back. Ever.
The triumphant "Hah!" he had cried when he managed to take the apprentices by surprise still echoed in his ears and a vigorous grin lingered on his face. He caught his breath in pants through his teeth as he stood and gloated. The dust began to clear.
He knew what he had done, and he'd done it intentionally. But as soon as he saw what he'd done, the grin became strained. He refused to let it fall altogether; no, somehow that would mean defeat. His eyes, however, his eyes fell as their gaze descended upon the bloodied and mangled bodies before him. It occurred to him that in all their years of fighting, he'd never once caused any of them to bleed. Now there was so much blood.
I'm making up for all the blood that went unspilt before, he told himself. As an evil mastermind, I should be used to blood. I should bathe in blood.
Still grinning, he looked down at his boots and noticed the lower part of his legs and his feet were splattered with the mess. Well there's a start. He giggled.
He took a step forward and slipped on the rubble, falling to his knees and sliding into the crater with the others. It was warm there, steaming, in fact. He was kneeling in blood.
Suddenly keenly aware that his robots were still surrounding the area, he dismissed them. He wanted to be alone in his glory. And to get a closer look at his work.
All four had both their eyes and mouths open. Their ends had been sudden. They probably hadn't even registered what was happening before it was over.
Kimiko lay the closest. Her blonde wig was half off and matted with blood. He removed it altogether. Jack had always liked her natural hair better. She was on her back with her upper half lying at nearly a right angle to her lower half. One of her arms was gone. He didn't know why he did it, but he kissed her forehead before moving on to the next body.
Clay was mostly in tact aside from the gaping hole in his chest. His hat was still perched on his head despite the obvious struggle. His entire shirt was red.
That's a good look. Jack told himself, with his teeth now clenched together in an uncomfortable grin. I should try that look out. A shirt, soaked in the blood of my enemies...
Jack jumped suddenly when he realized someone was staring at him. His expression changed to fear only for the brief moment until he realized the eyes looking at him belonged to Raimundo. Jack returned a smile to his face, much less bright than the previous grin. Raimundo's neck was twisted back so far that if he'd been standing, he would be looking behind himself. His jaw had snapped, and his gaze was directed exactly towards Jack's current location. Jack found this severely unsettling, so he placed Kimiko's discarded wig over Raimundo's face. He giggled again, less jovially than the first time.
Jack turned to Omi. The tiny monk was in two pieces, split jaggedly through his torso. On his top half, one of his arms was twisted behind him, and the other in front, as if he'd been about to perform a tsunami strike. On the bottom, his legs were twisted in a way that would have been impossible to do painlessly.
kneeling in the cooling crater, Jack forced himself to grin again. This is great, he told himself. This is fantastic. A raindrop hit the ground before him. The roof must have busted during the fight, he thought as another landed in the pool of blood at his knees. He tilted his head back to welcome the mourning skies. He had made even the skies weep for the fallen warriors. Warriors in training, he corrected himself.
There was no hole in the roof. He felt another raindrop roll down his face, passed his nose, to his lip, and into his grin. He brought a hand to his face. His cheeks were wet and the trail of water led up to his eyes. Part of him was not surprised to find that he was crying
