Path to Vengeance

Hey, I had seen Now You See Me several days ago and I loved it! It's a very good movie. My favorite character was Dylan Rhodes; he was just such a great character. I did not see the part about him being the fifth horsemen coming at all. Looking back, I should have. This is a summary of Dylan Rhodes' life from his point of view. Since the movie is still new, there isn't much about characters pasts out there, especially for Dylan, such as how he became part of the Eye. I took a leap of faith and wrote in a realistic and sensible way. I really like this story since it came so naturally. Hope you like it.

I was twelve when my life changed forever. Whether it was for better or worse, who knows.

It all started one year prior to his death. A man named Thaddeus Bradley was the one who started it all. My father was a magician, and a really good one at that. Many people loved his tricks; some even said he could be the next great magician. I thought so. His specialty was cards and escapes. Everything was going great. Then it all changed, and things went south. Bradley humiliated him. He called my father out on all of his tricks and illusions. My father lost it all, no one cared to see his tricks anymore, because they were no longer magic to them, it was trickery in their eyes. Deceit where there was none. A year later my father decided to try and stage a comeback. He was going lock himself in a safe and have it dropped to the bottom of the river and escape before he drowned. It would have been great. Except it didn't work that way. He was locked in, the safe dropped, things were going fine. Only, he never came back up. I watched the entire time from in the crowd. After a half an hour, they began the search. They sent search parties up and down the river, and finally a dive team to the bottom of the river. They found the safe within minutes. The safe had wrapped do to the pressure. He was declared dead. He had drowned. And his body was never recovered.

No one cared about what happen. The insurance company, Tressler Insurance, and the bank, France's OneRepublic, refused pay any of the insurance on my father. I received nothing that day, and would never receive anything. My mother died when I was young, and I had no other family than my father, so I had no one to fight it. I was left alone. I was that day I swore vengeance on them. They exploited my father and me. They will regret it.

I spent several years in the system. The only things I had left of my father was an old deck of playing cards and a silver pocket watch that had belonged to his father. During that time I mastered many of my tricks and illusions. Magic was my only source of comfort, the only constant I had. I didn't stay in one place for long, I was always being sent to new foster 'homes'. No one wanted me around. I was constantly mocked and beaten by schoolmates. I was a loner, by choice or consequence? I think a little of both. I had no friends, no one around, so it is no surprise that it took them so long to find out I had left. I was young, had little education to work with, no real skills beside magic, and was a minor. Not a very good hand of cards being dealt at the time. So it is also no real surprise I ended up a street performer. I performed my tricks to anyone that would watch. I lived in poverty for years, barely getting enough to live. I hated my life. This was when I first started truly wanting revenge for what they had done to me.

My life really started to pick up the day I was recruited. I walked up to a random person in the middle if Times Square and begin to show him the classic card trick "Is This Your Card?" I had managed to gather a good crowd and began doing more complex card and sleight of hand tricks. After I finished my show, I passed around a hat just like every other street performer and the asked for donations and the crowd dispersed. When I started to leave, a man walked up to me, and I made the mistake of not getting a good look. He grabbed my wrist and placed a twenty dollar bill in my hand, told me I was really good and to keep it up, then turned and walked away. I didn't give it too much thought until a couple blocks later when I placed my hand in the pocket of my jacket and pulled out a Tarot playing card. The card: The Fool, the card of hiding cleverness behind a persona of stupidity, as well as the beginning of something new. On the back were a time, a date, and a location.

The location was the carousel in Central Park early on a Sunday morning a day later. There was no one was around. I found a manila envelope lying on a bench. I open it and find a list of instructions. No signature, no name, nothing connecting anyone to it other than I. My instructions: Rob a small money loan business. Then give it back to the people wronged. The business had been loaning money to the very poor families of the city, those living in poverty, and then demanding the money paid back quickly and with a very high interest, and when the people could pay things went bad. I broke in by picking the lock in the middle of the night a week later just as instructed, threw a few cheap steaks to the guard dogs, broke in to the safe, grabbed the money inside, and stuffed in my pack under very thing else in there. I sealed the safe again in the same way it was before, locked the door again the same way I found it, and left. Just walked away like nothing had ever happen.

The next day, I wander into the hub of lower families, there is a good amount of people around, all of them down on life. I had been down here a couple of times, the people here are good folks just low on their luck. A few even gave me shelter for a night or food to live another day. I feel bad for them, having to play such a dangerous game just to live. I grin at the thought of what I'm about to do. I walk into the area and kick a small wooden box over in the middle of a side walk and step up. I gather there attention, make it clear I don't want money, and start with a couple of card tricks as usual. I don't use the show to give the money back. No, I simply do a show, ended it, and don't take any money. Then I leave. I walk away. Only, I come back later and begin talking to all the people, especially those I know when to the loaner. The trick is when I leave I slip a wad of folded cash into their pocket when I leave without them noticing and getting out before they realize what I had done. A bit of a low key robbery and giving away. Not much of a show from me, more blind obedience really.

I return to the exact same spot in the park several days later, task complete without a hitch . I find the tree with the signed card in the center of it, wave my tarot card over it, just as instructed. I jump when I hear the carousel start up, afraid I had been caught. I hadn't. Standing in front of the entrance is the man from Times Square. He tells me I did good work and welcomes me to the Eye, then walks me inside and instructions me to get on and hold on tight. Not even thinking, I do as I am told.

Several months later, I begin working on my plan for vengeance. I start by with the most obvious: myself. Now that I am part of the Eye, it gives me the ability to change who I am to others, create a new identity. I stop being Dylan Shrike and become Dylan Rhodes instead. I join the FBI to become a detective for them. During training I really solidify my new identity. I make sure everyone thinks I am a non-believer in magic or anything of that nature. I start acting like a stereotypical FBI agent, as well as arrogant and half-witted. I go through training undetected, no one cares to look beyond what they can see as obvious. They only see what I want them to see. A pretty good trick, isn't it?

After I am made an official FBI Detective, I request a transfer to New York City. In NYC, I really begin setting up my plan. I had been preparing what I would leave to my Horsemen. I had first started planning how they would do their first shows and a good number of new tricks for them to use to become stage performing magicians in Las Vegas under the sponsorship of one Mr. Arthur Tressler. Then came how they would rob France's OneRepublic bank and make it look spontaneous and real during an act. And told how they would get out of police custody without any charges. When the bank robbery was over, then came Tressler's turn, even if he's only meant to be a hundred thousand dollar distraction. Next came the safe company. And last, but certainly the worst of them, it was Thaddeus Bradley's turn to be condemned for what he did. I have him framed for all of it. A fitting end, right? I thought so. I leave all the plans and instructs in the small apartment, hidden them behind a simple trick, and lock the door. The plan is ready, all that's left is finding my Horsemen.

I spend several months watching and learning as much as I can. It doesn't take me long to choose my Horsemen.

J. Daniel Atlas specializes in card tricks and misdirection. He's a control freak, arrogant, and condescending to many. Though despite these he's a leader and loyal. He looks out for his former assistant (and possibly ex-girlfriend) even after she's left and gone her separate way. He means well, he just doesn't have a clue how to show it.

Next is Henley Reeves, a talented escape artist. I think I liked her shows most of all. She doesn't rely on anyone or cares what people say. She loves what she does and won't let any one stop her, not even her former employer (and possible ex-boyfriend) Daniel Atlas. She does want someone there for her, but she wants someone who's willing to stand by her and be a friend, not just criticize and think she needs protecting. She wants people to know she can hold her own, even if she doesn't want to be alone.

Thirdly is old Merritt McKinney, a mentalist. I never gave his abilities much thought before, but now he will come in handy. He's a loner, use to no one around, no one even thinking what he's doing is real or believing in it. Though, from what I've seen him do, he does try to help people. He corrects people from their bad ways in his own strange way (such as having a husband picture him naked whenever the man thinks of his lover).

And lastly is young Jack Wilder, a pick pocket and lock pick. He uses his tricks to steal the wallets (and other valuables) from people. Only, he doesn't do it for nothing. He's a street kid. He steals money so he can live (and I wasn't above doing the same thing when I was in his spot). He's young, talented, willing to learn, and willing to do anything to prove himself.

Now that I have chosen my Horsemen, I must begin the show. I leave Tarot cards for each of them, similar to the one I got, with a date, time, and place written on the back. Atlas got The Lover. Reeves got The High priestess. McKinney got The Hermit. And Wilder was given Death. I gave Atlas and Wilder their cards by slipping them into their jackets' pockets when they didn't notice, McKinney got his by me just laying it on his table at a café, and Reeves got her's by finding it floating in her piranha fill fish task. And just so you know, the piranhas were not man eating, they did have teeth though, very sharp teeth.

I watched several days later as they entered the apartment building one by one, and didn't come back out. I grinned and left, having prefect confidence my plan had begun. The next day I request a transfer to Las Vegas, where I will wait for my plan of vengeance to begin on a large scale, and watch all the pieces fall into place. Soon I will finally have my vengeance. The show has begun.

And that's it. I might do another later if anyone really likes this. If anyone wants to use this as inspiration for their own, go right ahead, just mention in an author's note. If you don't, fine, it's not like I'm going to get upset and not read it. I really do want more stories and for this fandom to grow. Well, I think I'm done. Good luck to anyone who's does a story or wants to. Later.