Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from DC Comics, I'm only borrowing them for awhile. This story has spoilers from Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Omac Project and other Infinite Crisis related books.
Sacrifice: A tale of Max Lord
Max Lord didn't know when the 'other' presence in his mind awoke. It was after the alien called Kilg%re put him back in his human body, but exactly when he didn't know. All Max knew was that he gradually began to do things under it's control, and eventually, after much struggle, it took over.
(And how insane was his life that a sentence like that made sense? He had died of cancer, then a alien computer downloaded him into a robot body. He fought the Justice League, eventually regained his faculties and became human again.)
Helplessly Max watched the other use his business skills to take on a business empire, then extend his reach into the government. Checkmate, the international agency monitoring superhumans, fell to his control and Max twisted it to fit his agenda. Trapped in his own mind Max watched as he plotted the deaths of every hero he knew.
Desperate, Max ereted what little control he could to leave clues for the heroes. Money channeled through Ted Kord's company, some more obvious moves to try to get the heroes attention. He prayed Batman or one of the others might find out, and was overjoyed when Blue Beetle broke into Checkmate.
His joy turned to dismay when Max realized Blue Beetle, his old friend Ted Kord, had come alone. Fighting uselessly Max watched as Ted was captured, his possessor confronting him, and offering Ted a chance to join him.
"Rot in hell, Max," Ted answered grimly.
Max had never been prouder of Ted, then watched in dismay as his other self killed him. But Ted Kord's death wasn't in vain. The unexpected arrival of the hero forced Max's hand, and he activated a plan to use Superman for his dirty work. That brought Batman and Wonder Woman against him, and in the end Max ended up bound in Wonder Woman's lasso of truth.
"Tell me how to free him from your control!" Wonder Woman demanded.
Max felt the control of the other inside him slip, and seized command. He was nearly smiling as he told her, "Kill me."
And she was as good as her reputation.
End.
Notes: This is sort of a 'fix fic' for how badly out of character Max Lord was in Omac Project and Countdown to Infinite Crisis. Yes, it is actually canon that Max died, got his brain downloaded and became a villain awhile, all unwillingly. So why not have that have lingering effects? My theory is he was still under the baddies control as of OMAC and did what he did because of that.
Thoughts?