Damon lingered to talk with Pandora for a moment longer, before he said a brief goodbye and locked the door behind him. He started back down the hall towards his study, sinking into thought over what she had told him. He hadn't ever contemplated such a thing before. And now that he had opened his eyes to it, he couldn't help wondering why he had never even thought of such a thing before. Everything seemed rudely obvious, like it had been there in the direct line of his sight for quite a long time and yet he had still somehow ignored it, until he was faced by someone who had explored these new and uncharted waters extensively.
Pandora had clearly spent a lot of time thinking this over. Damon didn't want to admit it, but she had a lot more knowledge of this than he did. There was of course the chance that he would learn more as he observed both the 'heroes' and the 'villains' in deeper depth, but for now, he was severely outmatched in this department. He wasn't all that upset about it, though; after all, it was only a way of thinking. It couldn't hurt him, not physically. And while he was sure Pandora was more than capable of finding a way to mentally torture him into doing her bidding through it, he was fairly certain that she wouldn't. They had made a truce, after all. And while there were other heroes out there who would have broken the rules agreed to in a standstill like this without second thought, he had a distinct feeling Pandora wasn't one of them. After all, it wasn't like she had ever broken her promises before. Damon had heard many stories of her grand exploits, but in none of them had she ever outright ignored a rule set in place by her opponents. Not if she had also agreed to it. She would find no end of ways to bend it, but she would never outright break a promise. And that gave him hope that she would willingly stick to the few and simple rules he had set in place with her. Of course, he was probably missing something major that she would be able to use against him if push came to shove. But he didn't have to worry about that right now. If it came to that, he would deal with it. But for the moment, he intended to ride the thrill that was starting to descend over him at the thought of what he could tell his friends.
He'd captured the great and fearsome hero who everyone was terrified of. The cunning young beast of a girl no villain could get past. It wasn't exactly the truth, but it was close enough that he didn't mind telling others something along those lines. Although, as he continued down the hall with a smile on his face, he couldn't help listening to a nagging voice in the back of his mind telling him he should at least consult his guest before he squandered her name. After all, this was a lot bigger than if he had just caught some new young hero fresh out of the miniscule training they were given and tucked them away in a cage of some sort. He could risk ruining Pandora's reputation if he did this. And while he didn't generally care about that sort of thing and might have even done it for fun if it was anyone other than Pandora, he had to wonder if there wasn't some side of this that he wasn't seeing. There was some part f him that couldn't help butting in and saying that the opportunity to tear down one of the most feared heros was too good to be this simple. And even if it was this easy, he couldn't believe it was a good thing. There was too much of a gap here. Something had to be going on that he couldn't see, something that was drawing his attention even from the shadows of his thoughts. And yet, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't focus on it. The feeling was elusive, slipping quickly from his grasp any time he got even remotely close to it. He huffed, irritated, but decided to take the safe route with this one. If he couldn't even put a name to what was causing him to hesitate, then it was probably something that went a lot deeper then he knew. It would come to him in time. And until it did, his best bet for making sure nothing he didn't like happened would be to keep its very existence on the downlow.
Damon pushed open the door to his study, breaking out of his thoughts at the sight of the papers littering his desk. They were obsolete now. He was sure he'd be served a new flurry of threats and offers for Pandora that would far surpass anything he'd gotten for her sister, and he would have to match their mailing addresses just the same as he had done in the past to find out which cities were most invested in returning her to their side. But he wouldn't have to sort through them and actually pay attention to any of it, like he did for most heroes he captured. He wasn't intending to give her back in exchange for anything, not until he'd figured out some way for her to return to regular society without having to worry about her being recaptured and forced back into heroics she didn't want to be a part of. He couldn't quite place why, but a part of him just couldn't stand the thought of someone with so much life and so much potential being forced into work that they didn't want to do. And work that had them killing people who disagreed with their boss, at that. It wasn't something anyone her age should have been forced into. And while he supposed that also meant he shouldn't have had to do it either, he decided to ignore that little voice. He killed people because he wanted to. It was fun to him. It was a way of getting revenge against a world that couldn't stand him not thinking the same way as them. It was his hobby, more than anything. He liked it.
Pandora, however, did not. And that was something he felt inclined to respect and even encourage. After all, if she left the 'good' side for literally any other group, the threat that heroes on a whole posed to self acclaimed villains would be cut in half. They might actually have a chance at leveling things out a bit without her. The world could go back to being balanced evenly between good and bad, as it had been for most of the war up until this point. It was honestly ridiculous that one person could be such a pillar for a group she didn't even want to be a part of, especially when there were thousands upon thousands of other heroes to consider and factor into the equation. But when you measured Pandora against a regular hero, there was hardly any comparison. She was far superior in every way, to the point that matching her up against the people she worked with was almost laughable. She had built the modern system for finding and inducting heroes, and she had been the one to create clear boundaries between 'good' and 'evil'. It was something that for most of her life, she had enjoyed. But that obviously hadn't lasted. The damage she had done was apparent in every corner of the world, no matter which side it was governed over by. She had the influence of a million others, and she always seemed to use it in her fights. She ruled more of the world than any villain ever had. Or, at least, that was what Damon had thought. Now that he knew she had a boss of some sort, he couldn't help wondering if she wasn't the one who did all the work, while her immense influence and power was enjoyed by whatever special breed of bastard could get above her. She obviously didn't want to use it herself, especially not if it meant she would hurt people she thought she could reason with.
Damon frowned, a little puzzled by these thoughts. Why would he even care if she had a boss or not? It wasn't like he'd ever met the guy. He was just trying to help Pandora find a way to be who she really wanted without having to worry about being a hero. He absolutely didn't want to fight her battles for her. And yet, despite these thoughts, he knew that if he ever met the infernal son of a bitch who had hurt and manipulated the one hero Damon had ever enjoyed fighting, he would tear the man's heart out and hold it in front of him while the light faded from his eyes and his screams echoed in Damons' ears. There were many things Pandora deserved, being the one hero who had ever been any fun to fight. But having her mind twisted, her family taken from her by the incompetence of one of the imbeciles she had to work with, and her sister used against her were not on that list. And even though he knew he held no loyalty to her, he still couldn't help promising himself that he was going to help her escape the horrible rulers she'd been forced to work under for most of her life. Even if it was the very last thing he ever did, he was going to make certain that Pandora Viousce was happy again.
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Morals of a Villain
General Fiction(Completed) Damon, a Duke by right, has never particularly liked the morally righteous narcissists he frequently has to deal with in everyday life. While others might see them as heroes courageously pitting themselves against the horrible and sadist...
