He hugged himself tightly around the ribs while she seemed to process that. He hadn’t meant to tell her so soon, but she made him. She ruined all his plans. Maximus didn’t hate her quite as much as he hated Blackagar, only because she had never hurt him quite as much as Blackagar did (and she was beautiful and good to look at, anyway) but he very much feared she was going to retaliate very violently now.
Maximus tensed to run, when the hair suddenly lashed out and caught him, and he reached for a weapon– a blade or gun or anything he knew he had on his person, but was bound tightly before he could reach any of one of them, and he found himself fighting to free his hands in vain.
“Please, you know how Black Bolt has used me!” he cried plaintively, switching tactics and feeling that very real panic begin to overwhelm him. “He uses my poor, brilliant mind, that he damaged, and makes me build things. I can’t help building things!”
Blackagar had heard the commotion and, fearing the worst, he burst upon the scene. He knew that his brother had been on the edge of instability the entire time, but felt that minimum contact would keep him in better shape than otherwise. However, he also knew that Medusa, while prone to anger, exercised a sense of judgement and command he respected. That Maximus was an innocent he couldn’t force even his familial-biased view to accept.
He froze up, processing the scene, and it suddenly hit him what must have passed. Blackagar stared at Maximus with wide eyes, then transferred his gaze to Medusalith in alarm. He was torn on who to defend. Anything that happened to Maximus was on his head. He had permitted his brother to continue his work, and so accepted all that would follow. He would never forgive himself if anything should happen to his younger sibling, who he felt permanently obligated to cover for since the injury he had suffered.
However, Medusalith was his queen, his conscience and better half. She knew now what he’d committed and sacrificed, and he couldn’t bear that she suffer for what he’d taken on himself, that he had even considered such an option. But Maximus had gone so far… and despite everything Blackagar found himself ripped apart by two loyalties.
Medusa knew the moment her husband had arrived on the scene. “I don’t believe you,” she sneered, hair tightening ever so slightly around Maximus. “That accident affected your powers and your sanity, not your mind.”
She turned her gaze to her husband. “And you!” she snapped. “How dare you. How dare you even consider this! You gave Maximus permission to work on the genocide--the genocide!--of an entire race! I might not care for humans, but even I know that this is madness! You condoned this! I cannot believe that you did!”
She stepped as far away from the two as she could, keeping her hair wrapped around Maximus. “For the first time in my life, I am disgusted with you, Blackagar, and you, Maximus. You would dare jeopardize our relationship with the humans in favor of building a bomb that could wipe them out. I never thought I could feel this much disgust for the man I love so dearly, but obviously, it can happen.”