Morals of a Villain

Chapter 24: Caught in a Lie

"Well, I didn't know it was that kind of love." Glevthop smirked, stepping into the room. Damon instinctively stepped in front of Pandora, but she quickly pushed him out of the way. "How long were you standing there?" She asked, an undertone of something deeper than rage in her voice. Damon glanced at her, confused. Moments ago, she had been completely fine with Glevthop and the orders he had brought. Now she looked like she wanted to strangle him with her bare hands. 
"Long enough." Glevthop said, tilting his head to examine Pandora. He looked like a hunter inspecting a catch, with all the malice of evil gleaming deep within his eyes. Pandora scowled back at him, using every ounce of strength she had in her body to stop herself from physically attacking the man. "You shouldn't be in here at all. This was a private conversation, one you weren't invited to eavesdrop on. If we wanted your opinion about this, we would have come and gotten it." She spat. Glevthop shrugged. "I really don't care whether or not you didn't want me to listen in, if I'm being perfectly honest. Normally, I would. Privacy and comfort are very important things. But when it comes to wanted war criminals, my morals sort of fall by the wayside. And I think that's perfectly reasonable." He said. Pandora sighed. "I'm not a war criminal. Not anymore. If I had the choice, I would have never been. And besides, privacy is still a human right, no matter how bad of a person you were in the past. The thing that I hated most about the 'heroes' I worked for was that they didn't understand what it meant to allow each other the few comforts that even bad people deserve. No one got how putting everyone in a dystopian hell where none of them could have a moment to themselves to form an opinion outside of the 'right' one would only ever breed mistrust and violence. I was hoping that you people would be different." She said, staring pointedly at Glevthop. The man laughed, brushing off her comment with a wave of his hand. "There's an argument to be made that you're not entirely human anymore, with all the things you've done to hurt us." He said, returning the her glare. Pandora curled her lip. "I'll always only ever be human. That was the thing that no one I worked under could understand. I'm just a person, with hopes and dreams and heartbreaks. I'm not some great monster that needs to have its head cut off, and I'm not a harbinger of justice spreading the message of a society that wants nothing more than violence in the name of righteousness. I'm only human. And that's all I will ever be." She said, her voice filled with both disdain and a deep, dark sadness. 
Glevthop shrugged this off, too, making no motion to show any sort of sympathy towards her. "That's a pretty good start to a sob story. I'm not the one you should be spitting venom at, though; Save that sort of stuff for your meeting with the king. He's still new enough to this world that he has some heart left in him, which is both commendable and foolish, depending on the angle you look at it from." He said, glancing at his watch. "And speaking of, if you want to beg for forgiveness and acceptance anytime soon, than we've got to get going. There's usually a bit of traffic on the roads at this time of day, and it only gets worse the longer we wait." He added, completely ignoring Pandora's hate-filled stare now. Damon shook his head, pulling his lover into his arms and staring down the king's henchman. He couldn't care less if he was going to get seriously hurt or possibly even killed for what he was about to say. Whatever happened to him, he would never allow himself to let Pandora fall into something that was so clearly a trap. "We aren't going anywhere with you." He said, firmly but politely. "It's simply too big of a risk to take." 
Glevthop looked him over, laughing a little. "Well, you've certainly gotten your priorities mixed up. Do you really think it even matters if you refuse to come of your own free will? I pity you if that's the case." He said, shaking his head. Damon stood firm, pulling Pandora even closer to him but not saying a word. Silence was going to get his point across more easily than speaking would right now. Glevthop scoffed, looking a little insulted. "You know, I told His Majesty the king that giving you any sort of polite warning would be completely pointless, since there was almost no chance that someone as snakeish as a model hero would take any offer of kindness and truce without turning it into something violent and hateful. But then I come to find that, to my complete surprise, it's not the hero who wants to make trouble and keep things from getting resolved quickly and easily, after all. It's one of our own kind. Someone that should be more loyal to us than anyone hero should ever think of being. Shame on you for being the one to act like a problematic vengeance-seeker, Damon. I really thought the roles would be reversed here." He scowled. 
Pandora pushed Damon off of her before he could say anything else, letting out a little huff of frustration. "Alright, look." She said, clearly fed up. "I'm not going to be on the hero's side ever again, not of my own free will. But just because I don't follow their morals or teachings or even basic ideals anymore, that doesn't mean that I'm willing to stand by and listen to you tear someone I care very deeply about to shreds with half-hearted, meaningless insults that would fit better in a school room than in a political dilemma like this. We're all adults here," She cast a look back at Damon, her gaze telling him what she thought of his attempts to protect her more than her words ever could have. "We should start acting like it." She added, letting her eyes rest on those of her lover with a clear distaste for his methods of keeping her safe shining within them.
Glevthop smiled, looking rather impressed. "Well, I'm glad at least two of us have our heads screwed on the right way." He chuckled. Pandora turned back to him, her expression turning from one of disappointment to one of disgust. "And you. You came to this place, already knowing that there was a good chance I would be here, and then even after you had your confirmation that whatever source tipped you off wasn't just dicking with you, you still decided to stick your nose into a private conversation and stir things up more than they already were. You knew where I was, and you could have just had some ounce of trust that I would do the right thing when we both know that I have no other choice. But you decided against that, choosing instead to be suspicious and snarky. I understand that technically you didn't really doing anything bad or even really all that invasive. But don't think for a moment that you're any more mature than Damon or I. You're still acting like a child about this, and it's completely ridiculous for someone with as much experience and knowledge as you have to only be on the same level of maturity as a five year old. If you really think you're so much better than any random hero, then you should start acting like it." She scowled. 
Glevthop looked at her blankly, clearly not used to being spoken to in such a way. For a moment, he looked as though he wanted to snap back with his own retort. But he didn't. Instead, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment as an expression of complete exhaustion crossed his face. "I don't have time to deal with this right now." He muttered, more to himself than to either of the other two people in the room. "Just tell me if you're coming of your own free will, or if I'm going to have to send an army out to drag you in kicking and screaming." He said, turning back to Pandora with an impatient air. She hesitated, thinking for a moment. "I'll come on my own." She said. "But Damon's coming with me, as is just one weapon. I'm not inclined to think I will be completely safe trusting a truce made by anyone who acts like you do, and I imagine there's a good chance I'm going to require some form of self defense." She said, putting her hands on her hips. Glevthop shrugged. "Bring whatever you like. Just don't make it too obvious you're carrying weapons into the royal palace, or someone's going to start asking questions that I do not have the PR team to deal with." He said, turning to leave. "I'll expect you to join me in ten minutes. Anything over that, and I'm leaving to tell the king you refused to cooperate." He said over his shoulder, starting back down the hall before either Damon or Pandora could say anything. 
Damon sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair and staring at the spot where Glevthop had stood moments before. "I get that we were being stupid." He said, completely giving up on keeping his lover from following the orders of the king. She clearly wasn't intent on listening to him, and he wasn't sure he wanted to risk the consequences that would come with forcing her to. "...But did you really have to call us out about it?" He added, looking down at her. Pandora shrugged, taking a deep breath. "I probably didn't. I had just hoped that I could go from the overly serious world I was raised in, to one where things were just a little more balanced out and fun. But I guess there's a reason why people who call themselves villains and people who call themselves heroes are on different ends of the spectrum. It really is like two completely different worlds, both focussed around an unhealthy extreme that does nothing other than make things miserable for everyone involved. I guess I just overreacted to things not really being what i expected. I'm sorry." She sighed. Damon wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug for a moment before pushing her away and smiling into her beautiful, crystal blue eyes. "It's alright. We all make mistakes, and we all panic when things start going downhill. Let's just hope that you can see when you're about to do something like that again and stop yourself in the future." He said, playfully. Pandora nodded, smiling a bit. "Let's hope." She said, taking a deep breath. "Alright, shall we go hear a verdict on whether or not I get to live?" She added, chuckling a bit. Damon didn't feel like laughing even a bit at the thought, but he forced himself to do so anyway. For the sake of his sanity.