Present

I pulled the Venom into the driveway, drifting to a park next to the subtle hatchback that Queen had likely been driving to make her less likely of a target. I hope she was panicking, that she was having a meltdown in this stupid fucking waste of money estate. It was pretty, though. I will admit that she has good taste.

I grabbed the handgun from the passenger seat before I jumped out of the car, not even bothering to turn off the ignition. I didn't need to save petrol; I needed Queen dead.

"Come out, Queen!" I shouted as I ran through the front door of the immense mansion. This place was far too big to be comfortable, to have no one moving around in it, to not have a party happening in the grand hallways at every minute of every day.

"Come and face me!" I shouted next, making sure that I focused on listening for movement. I had to clear the bottom floor first, then I could go to the top. There were far too many rooms to find her easily. Where would she be? Would she be in a bedroom or in a sitting room? She was running here for her safety, so probably a bedroom where she could wallow on a bed that was most likely extremely luxurious and covered in silk sheets.

All the bedrooms were upstairs, so I needed to head there.

I ran back to the gran entrance and ran up the oversized staircase to corner her upstairs. Bedroom. I had to find a bedroom.

"It's time to pay for what you've done!" I shouted next, looking into each room that I passed with keen interest. She was up here. I could feel it.

"Where the fuck are you?" I whispered to myself before looking into the next room. Instead of finding nothing again, I saw someone dramatically on the ground, curled into a ball with their blonde hair splayed around them. I crept in, my gun aimed at the woman who was crying on the ground. No, she wasn't crying, she was laughing. She rolled onto her back and looked up at me.

"This is all your fault..." She said, her laughter as her words turned to anger instead. There was so much anger in her. "I didn't think anyone could stop me, thought that with the little time that your MI6 agent had left that I would win. I was supposed to win."

"How the fuck can you win? If you got what you wanted, everyone would die." I said. Queen slowly sat up, her eyes never leaving mine. The spite in them only grew stronger.

"Exactly." She said. "The only people who would be left would be the ones worthy of living."

"Worthy? How the fuck would they be worthy? The only people you were going to protect were the ones that could afford your fucking protection!" I shouted. She slowly stood up while I shouted at her.

"The only people worthy of anything are the ones who can afford it. I came from poverty, my family was useless. They didn't do a fucking thing to pull us out of it. I did. I put in the work, and when they asked for my help, I told them to fuck off." She said, smiling. "The only people worth my time are the ones who can afford it. This plan wasn't just going to get rid of the people who don't do shit for this world, it would have solved overpopulation, which is the root cause of most issues of humanity. I would have been able to make a new world which would focus on merit. It would make people earn the right to be a part of it."

"You don't even hear how fucked up you sound, do you?" I asked her.

"Do you want to know something? When I first came up with this idea, the plan was to have you right at my side, my second in command. I know what you come from, a working class family that threw you out when you came up with a better way to make money. They punished you for doing something they should have done. But then you had to have your little team choose you over me. I couldn't have that, not from my second. I couldn't have people favouring you over me because that would mean I would lose control. No. And then, to top it all off, you had to get involved with that MI6 agent too, didn't you?"

"I had to do something about you, all the people you've hurt... did you think I could let you keep doing it?" I asked. She laughed, taking a step towards me. I trained my gun on her, but maybe this was a bad idea. My aim had always been horrible.

"Yes, because you had the people you needed to protect. You failed. Do you think I would have killed Jake if you hadn't of fucking well snitched?" She asked. I let out a shaky breath.

"You would have, because you do whatever the fuck you want without consequence. So here I am, being the consequences of all your actions catching up to you."

"Poetic, Max, that you think doing this one thing will make you a good guy. It won't. You've been a criminal for over half of your life. Face the facts, you aren't a good person. You never were and you never will be."

"No, anyone is capable of good actions, even bad people. But I know that I'm a good person, or I try to be. Definitely can't say the same about you." I said. She raised an eyebrow.

"Are you saying I'm a bad guy?" She asked, using her tone like she was talking to a child. Like she was poking fun at my view, but her point wasn't entirely true.

"No, I'm saying you're a fucking asshole, and I don't like assholes." I said. She tilted her head to the side.

"Cute, but I am over this conversation." She said, before pulling out her own gun and aiming it at me.

Fuck.