“It’s funny the change a mere eighteen months can bring. A stupid kid just trying to do the right thing and an overbearing old man simultaneously trying to get him to stop and make him better.”
“He was just the annoying asshole preventing me from doing what she wanted me to, I was the woefully child he was terrified of losing again. I refused to listen to his teachings, we failed to stop any villain and grew to hate one another. I was convinced he was the villain I had to stop”
Destructo Boy sighs deeply.
“And then he told me the truth, one I had refused to accept before I was dragged into pools that warped my mind. My optimism, my hope drained away in those darkened waters leaving me with a fractured realization.”
“We weren’t good enough to save Arcadia. Not as we were. But this pool could make us better, make us focused. Make us whole. So I played the long game, suckered in my father and did everything I could to make him undergo the same transformation I had. My father went into those waters, what came out was much, much worse.”
The kid swallows hard as he moves towards the next painting, the introduction of Six Feet Under.
“Fuelled by vengeance, pushed to a false conclusion, you intended to use him to erase the last vestiges of his humanity. To take every last option he had, every friend, every ally, every person he cared about and either make them dead or hate him. That’s why you pushed the narrative that mom’s death was my fault, that’s why you had him try to burn the Doom Factory down. Because with nothing left but ash, he’d only have his own grave to delve inside.”
“But you never understood the basis of vengeance. It’s not hatred or lack of humanity, it’s sorrow and grief. The pool didn’t rob him of humanity, it made it louder then ever.”
He smirks before moving towards the next painting, one that shows Maxwell and James as they are currently.
“Humanity isn’t a cancer you can cut out, it’s what makes us stronger. After all what is Six Feet Under but a need for both of you to be whole? Both of you were drawn to Tombstone because he was everything you needed, the power to be loved, the father you always needed. The humanity you claim to despise is what makes you strong after all.”
The painting begins to glow as we see it’s not a painting, but a mirror with both TBM and Destructo Boy standing in front of it, glowing brightly.
“You both are fractured, hollow shells of the men you should be, puppets held aloft by strings of a monster. Shadows about to washed away by the light. The youthful brilliance of hope, the flaming inferno of courage. We’re a malestrom of burning justice you can never douse and come Lock and Loaded, not only will we defeat all of you but we’ll show you a better way.”
“Because even both of you deserve better then him.”