Chibiyu: It is fun being evil...to fictional characters of course. I decided to give you all mercy and update quickly. Enjoy the...well, you'll see.
Nick: Oh, I don't like the sound of that.
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"Why do you think this?"
Nick straightened his posture and stared directly into the masked man's eyes. "Because the Four needs me more than it needs you."
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Necrophere slowly approached the young man. "Why do you say that?"
Nick smirked, a gleam now in his eye. "Tell me, Necrophere," he whispered as the man stopped before him. "Can you hear it?"
Nothing but silence surrounded the two; nothing but a deep ring.
"Can you hear it?" Nick asked again. "Hear it singing a terrible song of your inner most desires? Can you hear it whispering your name enticingly? Can you feel its power bow down as it wills you to control it?"
Necrophere remained silent.
"I once did. But I did not use it. No, I was stronger than that. But now," Nick paused, his eyes only on the ruby. "I'm not so sure."
"You're desire only rests with retrieving the Four, doesn't it?"
Nick slowly looked into the Villain's covered eyes. "It lies with other things as well."
"But you cannot achieve those things without the Four's power?"
Nick shrugged. "Even with the Four they are doubtful to achieve."
"You do not believe in it?"
Nick shook his head at the Villain's surprised comment. "No," he sighed once as he took a step back. "I just don't believe in anything else."
"So the Normal doubts the Heroes?"
Nick nodded. "And the Villains. And everyone in between. It is only the Four that I do not doubt."
"You only trust in the very thing that has made you its puppet?"
Nick inclined his head. "I trust it to do what it was made for."
"To cause destruction and chaos?"
Nick smirked. "If you don't understand it's true purpose, then you will never be its master."
"To create balance."
Nick only stared at the man. "Balance," he slowly stated. "Cannot, and never will, exist. To create balance is to create a utopia. It is," he paused again with a sigh of longing. "Impossible."
"In order to attempt such a place," Nick continued as he paced. "Would mean to start something worse than any war. The Four and its master would have to manipulate those who didn't believe by using their weaknesses against them. In this case, Normal siblings, or say, a younger Super. They would have to lead a great army of Villains and repress those who wouldn't cooperate with the balance."
"In order to end the fighting," Nick concluded when he reached the far wall. "The world would have to first turn the color to blood."
"So if not destruction or balance, then what?"
Nick put up one finger tauntingly. "Now, Necrophere, are balance and destruction really that different?"
"Explain."
Nick rolled his eyes as he leaned against the wall. "The world functions on disaster. It brings people together. It tears them apart. It glorifies one and damns the other. Those who are in between are the ones who have no place. It has created the separation of Heroes, Villains and Normals. It is the way humans think: one must always be better than the other. Good must always triumph."
"But over time," Nick paused as his gaze drifted towards the Four. "Over time the line between good and evil has been blurred and distorted. One may have good intentions, but still be a Villain. And one may hurt those around them and still be a Hero."
"It is the Four's job, then, to remake that line?"
Nick nodded once. "In part. But that is only the smallest of its duty."
"And the rest?"
Nick looked up to the man as he held out his hand. "Give me the Four, and I will show you."
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"If you had the Four, what would your next course of action be?" Kevin asked his living room, which was full of Heroes.
When no one spoke up, Paragon laughed. "Why not ask the only Villain in the room, Kevin?"
Kevin closed his eyes, fingers pinched at the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Paragon, what would you do?"
Paragon smiled small. "I would get revenge on those who wronged me. Necrophere has done that already with taking the Normals. But it never stops with kidnapping. Ransom and threats generally happens next. The next step depends on the person behind the mask. I would personally take the reward and annihilate the ones I took."
Again, the room rang with silence.
"Most Villains would do as I would, but few would succeed," she continued. "If they release those kidnapped and actually let them live, well, then they aren't really Villains."
She stood up and walked to the center of the room, feeling oddly exposed in an old tattered sweater and stained yoga pants. "Villains are a lot like Heroes in that aspect. They have a one-trained mind and both sides always strive for revenge. Whether it's for pain or for a robbery, the feeling is always there. Villains just nurture it more. We let it shape us."
"And Heroes let it shape our actions," Joe finished easily. "We all know this, Paragon. Just answer Kevin's question!"
The girl smirked, eyes bright as she stared through her copper colored hair. "I already did. But I didn't finish, did I? Now that all of the Normals have been taken, Necrophere would send out the ransom within 48 hours. It's just simple protocol. You all should know how these situations work."
"It doesn't mean we've actually cared," Loraine sneered. "We don't care about the Normals – there will always be Normals. We care about the fate of the Heroes!"
"I care about my son," Sandy Lucas interrupted the girl. "And I care about my people. But my son comes first to me. And he should to you as well! The Four used him. Nick can tell us more about it. He is an asset in this fight."
Loraine pursed her lips. "He is more of a liability. Even if we can get him back, how do we know if the Four isn't controlling him? The Bane didn't stop it before, so why would it now? It must know that the Normal is a lost cause."
"He is my son."
Loraine rolled her eyes. "And my own sister was taken by Florice and murdered by her, but you don't hear me whining about it."
The only reason Sandy Lucas's palm didn't meet Loraine's cheek was because it was held back by Joe.
"Whining isn't the same as caring, Loraine," Tom Lucas gently reminded the girl with a warning in his eyes. "But you are right. We need to focus on beating Necrophere. Only when we beat Necrophere can we free the Normals."
Paragon nodded as she pushed Loraine back onto the couch. "Exactly. That is what Villains always plan! The only way to their hostages is through them. God, it's like you people have never seen this before."
"We haven't," a council member whispered. "Not to this extent."
Paragon nodded once. "You're right," she replied in the same tone. "The Four changes everything. For Heroes. For Villains. Even for people like me who don't believe in taking sides."
"How does it affect you?" Joe questioned.
Paragon sighed once. "It makes me choose a side."
"And you chose Hero, right?"
Paragon looked toward the middle brother with sorrow. "I can't make the same decision you did. When I walk out of this house, it will be as a Villain."
"So why are you helping us now?" Kevin asked, trying to answer some the anger that stirred in the thoughts of the many Heroes.
Paragon shrugged once. "Because I want you to have a chance."
"A chance?" Loraine said skeptically as she crossed her arms. "A chance for what, exactly?"
Paragon hung her head. "To live."
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"Say I just give you the Four," Necrophere laughed. "Then what do you plan on doing to me? To the other Villains? To the Normals? the Heroes?"
Nick let his hand fall, eyes suddenly icy. "I would do as the Four wanted me to do. I would murder you. Massacre the Heroes. Enslave the Normals. And raise kingdoms for the Villains."
Necrophere snorted. "I doubt that, boy."
Nick shrugged. "The Four will give me what I want if I give it what it wants."
"Stop circling the conversation back to impossibilities."
"Why is wanting impossible?"
Necrophere pointed to the young man. "You said it yourself. You want a utopian society. The Four wants a Villain utopia. Therefore, impossible."
Nick looked at Necrophere as if he was seeing him for the first time. "You really don't understand, do you?"
Nick turned his back to the Villain, his eyes on the cracked ceiling. "The Four and I want the same thing. We always have. However the way we wanted to get there was different. I wanted to create balance and it only wanted chaos. So we came to a compromise."
"And what might that be?" Necrophere asked when the teen did not continue.
Nick looked the Villain over his shoulder with a smile. "It took something from me so I may gain something else."
Necrophere raised his head, eyes narrowing in confusion behind his mask. "What did it take from you? Your memories?"
Nick faced the man and rolled his eyes. "Memories can't be taken. But naivety, innocence and whatever lies society has thrown into lives; all of that can be taken away. That is what the Four has shown me. What the Heroes have continued to show me."
Nick pointed to the ceiling above him. "When the Normals were taken, not one blood relative jumped to their feet to save them. It was only my family and it took them my entire life to do so."
"But you seemed so keen on doing the right thing," Necrophere carefully stated.
Nick snorted at this. "The right thing? I wanted to destroy an entire way of life and create a hierarchy of Normals. I wanted them to suffer as they made us suffer. I want the world to burn in the anguish that my people feel because of the actions of those with powers."
"But you could never do that. Not even with the Four."
Nick shook his head. "I did what I could. The only real obstacle we faced is now dead. And many more are bound to follow. But you're right. I cannot sit back and watch the world burn. But I can't create balance either."
Necrophere looked at the Normal in front of him as if unsure whether to put the boy in chains or let him talk. "What has changed in you, Nicholas? You used to be so sure of everything you did."
Nick looked to the side, face dark. "What changed?" he repeated humorlessly. "Nothing. Nothing but my confidence. When I was first granted the power to change the world, I denied it out of fear, not strength. But now, when nothing has changed from the existence of the Four or the Bane, when no Hero is acting any differently and when no Villain has stopped harming innocents," Nick paused, his eyes only on the Four. "Now I am not afraid."
"You used to fight it."
Nick nodded once. "Because it was necessary. You wanted to hurt my family. To hurt people who are trying to change."
"There is more to it than that," Necrophere guessed, voice just a hiss.
Nick nodded as a cold smirk grew on his face. "I needed them to believe that I wasn't planning this."
"Planning what?"
Nick sighed once, his posture certainly not matching the sorrow on his face. "You've been a valuable distraction, Necrophere, but I am afraid that your services are no longer required. "
"What are you..?"
Nick only had to nod to the ruby around the man's chest. He only had to turn his back to the horrible screams of pain. He only had to walk out of the room and leave the burning man to the darkness of death. And why did he only have to do those things?
Because this was his plan.
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"So you're just going to walk out on us?" Joe exclaimed as Paragon leaned against their front door.
"I have to, Joe. I may not know how this is all going to unfold, but I do know that it isn't going to be pretty for the Heroes."
Joe opened his mouth, but it was Loraine who spoke first. "The Bane will save us."
Paragon looked the girl in the eye. "The Bane is gone. All Villains know it."
"What?"
Paragon nodded. "We can feel the Four's power growing. When the Bane was with Nick, the Four had a constant power. It was being held back."
"How do you know?"
Paragon tapped the side of her head. "How do you think? The city is now in chaos. Villains are running rampant. Heroes are disorganized and at a loss. And Nick, the one person who could give you any hope, has willingly gone to the Four. Tell me, Loraine, does that sound like something the Bane would allow?"
Silence.
Paragon laughed. "Nick always did say you were blind."
"But why?" Sandy Lucas breathed. "Why would he go?"
Paragon opened the front door and shrugged. "Maybe because he didn't want to be a distraction. Maybe he knew that you would need an incentive to fight. Or maybe he knows how this is going to end. Maybe he planned for it."
Every eye in the room bulged.
Paragon nodded once, her cold smirk back on her face for the first time in long while. "By the way," she laughed as she backed out of the door. "Necrophere is going to slaughter every one of you if you try and stop him. But don't worry, the Normals have been in luxury ever since he took them. They won't be harmed."
"What are you...?"
She smiled to Kevin, who knew that she only spoke of the truth. "Talis wasn't lying when she said that she felt no death. There were signs of this, Kevin. Nick left them on purpose. But no one saw them. Not even the one who sees everything."
There was only one thing Paragon left in the room as she strutted out of the house.
Silence.
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Chibiyu: I know this chapter is a bit choppy with the setting changes, but that is what happens when I write after watching a movie that is set up like this. Sorry about that!
Anyone surprised with this chapter? Will the evil stick around, is this all the Four's doing, or is Nick pulling the ultimate genius plan? (Or something else entirely?) Tell me your theories!
Until Next Update!
