Odysseus, sitting down, begins to question the journey he and his crew have been on, his heart filled with guilt. He begins to speak, voicing his thoughts out loud. "How has everything been turned against us? How did suffering become so endless? How am I to reunite with my estranged? Do I need to change?" He wonders, closing his eyes to think, and to avoid looking at the souls in the water, fearing he'll see more of his dead crew within it. "I'm surrounded by the souls of those I've lost... I'm the only one whose line I haven't crossed! What if the greatest threat we'll find across the sea... is me?" He asks, leaning forward slightly as he continues to think. "What if I'm the monster? What if I'm in the wrong? What if I'm the problem that's been hiding all along? What if I'm the one who killed you every time I caved to guilt?" He wonders, unable to keep the thoughts of Polites and the nameless soldiers he'd seen die in front of him out of his head. He then continues to speak his thoughts aloud, hoping to brush those thoughts and memories away. "What if I've been far to kind to foes but a monster to ourselves? What if I'm the monster?" He quietly asks, before standing up and slowly opening his eyes, a shadowy figure in the edge of his vision. "Is the cyclops struck with guilt when he kills? Is he up in the middle of the night?" He wonders, as the memory of the cyclops crushing Polites and biting a soldier in half enters his mind. "Or does he end my men to avenge his friend and then sleep knowing he has done him right?" He asks, remembering the dead sheep laying on the ground, and how that was what had angered the cyclops in the first place. His memories then shift to Circe, and how she'd turned his men into pigs.
Odysseus begins to pace back and forth as he continues to question his actions in the past. "When the witch turns men to pigs to protect her nymphs is she going insane? Or did she learn to be colder when she got older and now she saves them the pain?" He wonders, before slight anger fills his voice as he remembers Poseidon's actions and how the God had killed so many of his crew. "When a God comes down and makes a fleet drown, is he scared that he's doing something wrong? Or does he keep us in check so we must respect him and now, no one dares to piss him off?" Odysseus asks, before he thinks back to his own actions in Troy, realizing he may not be any better than the monsters he's faced so far. "Does a soldier use soldier use a wooden horse to kill sleeping Trojans cause he is vile? Or does he throw away his remorse and save more lives with guile?" He asks, voice filling with more anger as he starts to weigh his options. "If I became the monster, and threw that guilt away, would that make us stronger? Would it keep our foes at bay? If I became the monster to everyone but us, and made sure we got home again, who would care if we're unjust? If I became the monster?" He asks, the crew joining him on the last word as he finally makes his choice. "Oh, ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves..." He states, the crew once again joining with a word of their own. "Monster." They say, as Odysseus continues talking. "...and deep down I know this well. And deep down I know this well." Anger fills his voice once more as he keeps talking and fully commits to the choice he's made. "I lost my best friend. I lost my mentor. My mom! Five hundred men gone. This can't go on!" He cries out, continuing to speak.
"I must get to see Penelope and Telemachus, so if we must sail through dangerous oceans and beaches I'll go where Poseidon won't reach us, and if I gotta drop another infant from a wall in an instant, so we all don't die..." He says, conviction filling his heart. "Then I'll become the monster!" He yells out, the crew joining with him to say the final word, Odysseus grasping the hand of the shadowy figure he'd been seeing in front of him since he'd opened his eyes. It seems to merge with Odysseus, his eyes glowing almost like a fire as it does so, his teeth becoming akin to razors, a snarl upon his face, his sword seeming to become a bow, and his body seeming to be covered with a cloak. The figure disappears as suddenly as it had first shown up, and Odysseus seems to return to normal, though the anger in his voice remains. "I will deal the blow! And I'll become the monster, like none they've ever known! So what if I'm the monster lurking deep below? I must become the monster and then we'll make it home!" He cries out, his crew having joined in with him every time he said the word monster, as if they're agreeing with their captain that they can no longer be merciful.
The crew begins to speak, though they're only saying a single word. "Monster!" They say, as Odysseus speaks as well. "Penelope..." He says, grabbing the hilt of his sword tightly. "Monster!" The crew says, as Odysseus slowly draws his sword. "Telemachus!" He yells, pointing his sword in the direction he wants the crew to sail, the ship suddenly moving again as they exit The Underworld. "Monster!" The crew cries out, Odysseus' conviction not wavering. "Oh, ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves..." He says, his grip on his sword not lessening at all. "Monster!" The crew yells, as Odysseus once more tells himself what he must do. "I'll become the monster." He states, the ship finally leaving the underworld.