I do not own Watchmen or Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
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I need to be cautious. I may not have much to live for but history says I haven't died yet.
"Ozymandias," I say. My voice comes out harsh - I don't use it much anymore. He jumps and turns around. He's pale, like he's looking at a ghost.
Oh. Right.
"You were going to reveal your part in what happened in New York. I can't let you do that."
A knock at the door. "Come in," says Veidt weakly, not taking his eyes off me. It's Nite Owl and Comedienne, in civilian dress but I'd know those two anywhere. Comedienne pulls a gun on me and I have to fight the urge to startle her.
"Rorshach..." says Nite Owl. "I'd heard you were back, but I thought... You can't be..."
"I am Rorshach," I say. "I think. It's all in the interpretation, isn't it?" I catch a glimpse of my face in the mirror on Veidt's wall. For a moment, it looks like the smiley face that was the Comedian's symbol. I turn back to Veidt. "I can't let you do it. I need to save the world."
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Yes." A look of almost relief crosses Veidt's face, and I want it. I pull out a syringe. "This will simulate a heart attack."
"Will it be..."
"It's not entirely painless but it's quick. Here."
Comedienne walks towards us. "Whoa! Don't you remember—"
"No I don't. I am not now, nor was I ever Walter Kovacks. He is long dead, and so is Billy Buddy, and so is Dr. Horrible. And so is Penny. I am Rorshach, or nobody, until I am dead." I inject the serum into Adrian Veidt's vein, all of it, so I won't be tempted. He dies quickly. "Find anything that looks like a confession and destroy it. There are too many innocent people dead to let the plan be derailed now."
Comedienne wants to kill me, and I want to let her, but there's nobody to take the mask after me yet. I try to leave the way I came but Nite Owl puts his hand on my shoulder. "If I ask you who you are, you'll just say you're Rorshach, won't you?"
"Yes."
"Will you tell me about who you were?"
I consider it. There should be someone here besides me who remembers Penny, remembers why we're doing this. But here is not the place. "Not here," I say aloud. "People will hear me and then people will hunt me down and kill me. I need to be cautious."
I look at Veidt's corpse longingly, and pocket the empty syringe. I'll ditch it in a back alley, with the hookers and the junkies and all the other kinds of whores. No one will notice another needle there.
"Even though I want to be dead, history says I can't do that yet."