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His fingers were cold on Maxwell's cheek, the nails that tipped them sharp and unforgiving.
"Well," he whispered, looking up at the new demon. The humanity that tore through his own body was just as sharp as the other man's claws, as his mind could be when he felt the need to focus all of his brilliance into one diamond sharp spike. The knowledge he had traded his humanity for, the dark knowledge that had once been hidden away that was at the root of it all...
With a sigh, Maxwell chuckled.
"You made it through my gates after all." he tilted his head down, looking up at Wilson from underneath his eyelashes. "Good show, pal."
Wilson, black eyes and draped in shadows, tilted his head to the side, voiceless and damned. One hand clutched Maxwell's chin, kept him pinned like a butterfly to a board. A fitting analogy, given the man's previous obsession with science and being a scientist.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and smelled the scent of winter on Wilson's skin, the ice cold nothingness that lingered in his veins. He would become more terrifying than Maxwell had ever been, that was for sure. His deals might not, at first, be quite as smooth, but that would fade with time. As he became more sure of himself and his power, the man he had been would fade, his moral compass would degrade.
A blessing in Maxwell's case, a curse in Wilson's.
"I hope that this does not ruin you." Maxwell whispered, a slow smile spreading fluidly across his lips. Beyond them, snow was already falling, a harsh winter gearing up to match the new master of the land. "I was meant to prepare you, that was what it was all for."
Wilson's hand withdrew, the ice surging forward to bite at Maxwell's face the moment the contact ended.
He closed his eyes against it, still smiling.
"You are a kinder man than I." he hissed the words out between chattering teeth and already frozen lips. "I would have let you suffer. Your end, if I had managed it, would have been slow."
Footsteps, hesitant at first, marked the sound of Wilson walking away.
Maxwell let his entire body sag, the fight leaving him entirely, like a sick dog being put down. It was almost a relief, this ending of his. If it had come any earlier, it might actually have been.
Without warning, Maxwell was yanked to his feet, his entire body flooding with warmth.
Wilson, still silent and vaguely angry looking, tugged a coat around the taller man's shoulders. It was a shadow made thing, something the scientist had made with his new powers, and it exuded heat like a furnace. It fought off the chill well, despite clinging like a second skin, and Maxwell huddled into it while his face turned puzzled.
"Why-"
"I think you got too lonely." Wilson spoke for the first time. There was an echo in his voice, something hiding behind it. "You went too far because you had no one to stop you. And if I am truly the kinder man, I must stay that way. I am not going to force you through what nearly happened to me several times." he cleared his throat, eyes shifting up Maxwell's long body, finally settling on his face. Despite his newly gained throne, he hadn't grown an inch.
A moment passed between them.
Maxwell smiled, a true smile that did wonders for his sharp countenance. "You have ruined me."
"I think," Wilson smiled back, holding out a hand. "We've ruined each other."
The shadows surrounded them, taking them somewhere else entirely and leaving the barren field with their footprints empty.
The snow kept falling, filling in their tracks.