Morals of a Villain

Chapter 3: Pandora

Damon rushed down the hall towards his guards and captive, scolding himself for not thinking of this before. It was one of the oldest tricks in the book, and yet he had still been stupid enough to fall for it. It would really bring shame on him if he couldn't recapture Angel and at least fight off her sister. No one would think of him as really much of a threat if he couldn't even keep an idiot from escaping. 
And Pandora. What was he going to do about her? He wished he'd had some sort of advanced warning about this before she came, so he could have prepared appropriately. As it was, he only had a gun and a handful of ammunition in his back pocket to protect himself with, and that wouldn't do much good if his enemy was the same as the last time he had met her. It had been years ago now since the last time they'd fought, but it was still burned into his memory as freshly as if it had happened yesterday. The one disgrace he had ever come up against in his entire life, perpetrated by the one person he considered an actual threat, and not just a bothersome politician. Pandora Viousce. That name was one he had hoped to never hear again, at least not without proper warning. She fought like a demon, laughed and smiled like a hero, and had a heart that not even Damon could quite figure out. There was something about her that set her apart from other heroes, and it went beyond her fighting style. She didn't seem to take herself as seriously as people like her sister did, which made her an unfortunate opponent in battle for someone like Damon, who was used to waiting until heroes started in on their rants and speeches to attack in earnest. Pandora's style of fighting was entirely different from that of her peers; she didn't seem to bother with the one liners and the whole 'reasoning with the villain' thing, choosing instead to stab now and ask questions later. And on top of that, she was well versed in many different fighting styles using hundreds of different weapons, which was part of the main reason why Damon hadn't been able to defeat her the first time their swords had crossed. Now, though, he knew what to expect. He knew that she was more inclined to actually fight than to leave everything up to chance and hope that whatever made her 'special' would be enough to guide her through conflict. He knew that he would have to be careful with her, and not carelessly antagonize every move she made while not even paying real attention to what he was doing himself. He needed to take her as a serious threat, as she had refused to take herself the first time they had met. 
As Damon got closer to the place he estimated Angel and his guards would have gotten to by now, he heard the faint sounds of fighting drifting through the halls. There was certainly something going on, and it wasn't a tea party. He picked up his pace, hurrying to reach the top of the stairs that led into the foyer and crossing his fingers that he could get there before Angel and her infernal sister could get away. 
He skid to a halt as he reached the balcony that overlooked the entrance to his home, gazing down at the scene before him with a slightly worried expression. Below him, framed by the two staircases that pressed up against two opposite walls of the foyer, he could clearly see his enemy fighting to get past the guards that had been within earshot when the battle began. Angel was hovering off to one side, uncomfortably watching the fight from a safe distance and looking like she had just been told off for getting in the way. She was hugging a wall, conveniently positioned near enough to the door that she had the chance to run for it as soon as she got the signal to do so. She wasn't holding any sort of weapon, choosing instead to simply watch the fighting from the greatest distance that she could manage. 
Her sister, however, stood in the middle of the foyer, wielding a broadsword that she was clearly very skilled with. Around her lay a few of Damons guards, injured and unconscious, but clearly not dead. She didn't seem to be aiming to kill, choosing instead to direct her sword towards parts of the body that would easily heal and hardly hurt at all compared to others that she had just as much access to. In fact, she didn't even seem all that invested in the fight. She was knocking down any of Damons guards that came near her, but she was also examining exits and even checking her watch from time to time, as though she was expecting something more exciting. 
Damon took a deep breath, readying himself to go up against someone he had hoped he would never see again. He could do this. He was an experienced fighter, and he had an idea of what to expect from Pandora now. He was on his terf, and he knew the surroundings much better than his opponent. He had the advantage here. But he also didn't have a lot of fights that he considered 'real' under his belt. Most of his life, he had only ever come up against the 'destiny sent' variety of heroes, who were mainly relying on some sort of magic to kick in and help them win against someone who was generally twice their size and at least ten times as skilled as they were. He didn't really know how to duel someone who was relying on themself to win, and not some sort of power that my or may not have ever existed in the first place. But he didn't have time to worry about that now. If he didn't get into the melee now and break this up before someone got seriously hurt, he wouldn't have a chance to later. With a little sigh, he grabbed his gun and leaned over the banister. "Oy!" He shouted, smiling a little as the word reverberated across the room. This was could be a lot of fun, even if there was a chance he would come out a lot worse than Pandora. "Could you not? Their health insurance is expensive." He said, waving to the guards scattered haphazardly around across the foyer. 
Pandora looked up, grinning as she saw him. "Finally! I was starting to think you chickened out." She said, carelessly stepping over a couple of the downed guards to get right below Damon. He shook his head starting down the staircase towards the woman. "Oh, me? Never." He said. Pandora laughed, matching his movements as he got closer to the ground floor. "That wasn't the impression that I got last time." She said. Damon shrugged, checking again that his gun was fully loaded before he reached the bottom step. "Last time, I underestimated you." He said. He pointed his weapon directly at Pandora's head, cocking it with a loud click. "And this time, I'm not going to make that mistake again." 
Pandora grinned wider, revealing two rows of perfectly white teeth. "Are you seriously going to give up a chance like this just because you might lose?" She asked, offering him the second of three swords she had strapped across her back. Damon looked down at it, wondering silently whether it had a poison spike in the handle or something. That was the only circumstance that any of his other enemies would have offered him a weapon under. But then again, Pandora wasn't like anyone he was used to fighting; she was her own, unique kind of crazy, and she was just the type to give him a weapon purely for the thrill of fighting him. It was admirable, honestly. She wasn't concerned with the outcome of their duel, she just wanted to engage in it. And looking into her breathtaking crystal blue eyes, he could see the tired and bored look of someone who didn't get to fight on their own level all that often. He could see the same look that had occupied his eyes for years. And while the better part of him was screaming that getting into a fight with someone like Pandora was a bad idea, the majority of his thoughts were centered around the fact that neither he nor this girl ever got to fight people they wanted to fight. Neither of them got to duel with anyone in earnest. And from his own experience, he knew exactly what it was like to constantly be pitted against people you could beat with one hand tied behind your back. He knew Pandora's pain. And it wasn't something he felt inclined to force her to suffer through just because he was apprehensive towards losing. 
Damon lowered his gun and set it on the edge of the banister, taking the sword Pandora offered to him instead and weighing it in his hand. Perfectly balanced. Clearly, she had brought her best weapons specifically for this encounter. He smiled, feeling a little thrill at the thought that she had expected him not only to fight her honestly, but had even gone to the extent of making sure that they were both on the exact same level so that skills could win out over the quality of their weapons. She cared about this fight. And while that meant that she had prepared in ways Damon hadn't had the time to, it also meant that she had learned something from their last encounter that made her think of him as an equal. She saw Damon as a threat, despite her skill. And, more importantly, she still wanted to fight him despite that. She was searching for a challenge. A challenge that she knew Damon was fully capable of bringing. 
Damon grinned, stripping off his jacket and stepping lightly into the open and away from the stairs. "First to break the other's skin?" He suggested, swinging the sword around a little in an attempt to get used to the weight and grip. Pandora nodded. "May the best triumph." She said, stepping into a proper stance and raising her blade in anticipation of Damon's next move.