Different Points of View
Disclaimer: I do not own The Incredibles. I also do not own The Last Unicorn (book) where I got this idea from. Nobody sue me; I am very poor. ;)
A little Incredibles oneshot. Please don't kill me for this one.
"Life is short and how many can I help or harm?" – Shmendrick, The Last Unicorn
The forcefield vanished without warning and his body dropped fifteen feet, landing heavily on the cold stone floor. With a groan he was unable to suppress Bob Par raised his head. He did not try to get up yet, not until he knew whether his legs were broken or merely strained.
He heard the click of heels on stone and turned to see her, slim, tall, dressed in slippery black cloth trimmed with gray fur. Her hair shone like midnight satin beside her pale skin.
She smiled when she saw him turn. She stopped just far enough away that he would be unable to surprise her and considered him silently, her head tilted slightly to the side so that her hair dripped across her shoulders in a cloud of lustrous ink.
"You know how this will end, Mr. Incredible," she told him. Even now, years later her voice still felt like a knife cutting slowly into him. It had hardly changed at all, even if she had. He hadn't intended to speak, had only meant to get up and fight her, foil her plot and escape once again. That was how it always ended. But all at once he couldn't do it anymore. He couldn't pretend, couldn't play this game. He'd had enough of fighting in the dark.
"Just tell me why." His voice was low, almost a mutter through his bruises, but she heard and the smile left her face. He felt her hesitate for one brutal moment then, matching his tone she said sadly "I realized that it made no difference."
Now he did raise his voice. Bob Par risked shoving himself into a kneeling position and stared at his enemy, confused and furious.
"No difference?" he snarled. "We fought villains, saved countless lives! We saved the world together. Now…" He trailed off, looked her up and down. A beautiful, deadly, heartless young woman.
She did not look overly disturbed by his outburst.
"Oh yes, we did all of that," she agreed amiably. "But in the end, what did we accomplish really?"
"What are you…?"
"Oh, temporarily the world was saved," she said bitterly. "We were famous; super heroes. But with every vanquished villain all I could see was my life dripping away to feed a useless cause. I had few friends. Why? Because I was constantly having to duck out on them. It was the same with my boyfriend. He suspected that I was seeing someone else and I can't really blame him. My life was growing steadily worse and worse with no sign of any change.
"And then I started thinking." Her voice softened until she seemed not to be speaking to him, but herself. "Life is so short," she mused. "You have about eighty years to live, a measly fifty or sixty in which you can actually make a difference. And how much of a difference was I making? Not a whole heck of a lot."
She took one slow step closer to him. She was only five feet nine inches, and yet Bob thought she suddenly looked as tall as the domed ceiling.
"We are all trapped, you see," she said. "Heroes, villains and those in between. We're all caught in an endless cycle with no escape. The heroes will never rid the world of its evil, just as the villains can never succeed while the heroes are there to stop them. And everyone else is just there to be used and protected.
"And life is so short. No matter who you are, how many people can you help or harm before the end? It doesn't matter."
Bob had felt himself paralyzed by her silky inescapable voice, but at this he raised himself again angrily, yet his voice was soft to match hers.
"If it doesn't matter," he whispered, "than why did you become a villain? Why did you leave your family?" She was nose to nose with him now, and if he chose he could have reached out and crushed her windpipe with one hand. But he wouldn't, and they both knew it.
Slowly, clearly she said "Because to be a hero you have to believe in what you are doing, that you can make a difference. To be a villain all you have to believe in is yourself.
"Good luck next time, Mr. Incredible."
He did not notice she had gone until the emptiness in the chamber began pressing in upon him, suffocating him. Then he ponderously stood and walked toward the door. At the threshold he halted and stared for a long moment at the room where he had last seen her.
"Good luck next time, Violet," he murmured, then he turned and trudged off in the direction of home. Ellen would have supper ready.
Please tell me what you think, or why else do I post these here? ;)