Morals of a Villain

Chapter 29: Ambush

Damon's first instinct when he realized what was going on was to shield Pandora, despite how much she seemed to hate him doing so. He removed his gun from the inside of his jacket almost on instinct, checking it quickly to make sure that it was loaded. He measured up the situation, ready to shoot the second he could get a good shot at the people storming through the castle doors. 
It looked like an entire army was marching in, despite the headcount only reaching twenty or thirty. They were carrying some of the biggest guns Damon had ever seen outside of a war, and all of them were decked out from head to toe in heavy metal plates covered in black fabric and designs that made Damon's blood run cold. The armor was almost the same as what Pandora had worn, just a lot more of it. But the most blood-chilling thing of all wasn't their weapons, or their armor; it was the stenciled dove standing triumphantly over a dead crow that decked out any available space on their clothes or cloaks. The dove was the flag of Pandora's kingdom, but when paired with the dead crow it became the symbol of the heroes who worked directly under the king. The ones that were feared more than any others. This was no band of marching armed guards sent from the other kingdom to be annoying or to whine out a ransom demand for whatever city had been most recently captured; this was an ambush. 
The king gestured to the rows of guards lining the walls of the room, motioning for them to stop the heroes in their tracks. They followed his unspoken commands, but didn't manage to stop the hoard for much longer than a few seconds. The heroes pushed forward, almost completely unmoved. A few of them carelessly shot and killed some of the guards, but most of them simply kept moving as though nothing had happened. 
"Shit." The king muttered, turning to give Glevthop some sort of signal while the heroes were too distracted to see. The man nodded and ducked through a barely noticeable door behind the throne, leaving the king, Damon, and Pandora alone with the heroes and the guards that were still only just barely managing to slow them down. The king stepped away from his throne, positioning himself exactly in the path of the heroes. "What do you want?" He asked, raising his voice to get the attention of the mob. The heroes stopped at his words, only about ten feet away from him. One of them stepped forward while the others remained completely still, obviously the assigned leader of the pack. His face was covered entirely by the heavy fabric-covered helmet he wore, but that didn't stop him from glaring at the king with all the malice of someone with anger issues and an inability to feel remorse. 
"You know what we're here for." He spat. The king shrugged. "I might not. You never know. I'd hate to get it wrong and make a fool of us all." He said, calmly. Damon stared at him, completely baffled. What was going on? First he had sent Glevthop off, and now he was acting like he was just chatting with some old friends instead of the horrid creatures that were considered heroes. Was he just stalling for time? That was the only reason Damon could think of for the candid, cold tone he was using to talk to people who clearly had a lot of strength and power. The hero scoffed, sounding almost offended that the king was acting like he had no clue what the posse was talking about. "Pandora Viousce, dipshit. We're here to bring her back to her rightful place among our ranks." He spat. The king tilted his head, amused. "Now, now. Is that any way to address someone of my stature?" He laughed. The hero sighed, exasperated. "Just give her over to us, and we can avoid any violence." He said, clearly not willing to stand and banter back and forth. The king shook his head. "I don't think I want to. It took me five years to get to this point, and I'm not going back on any of that now. Besides," He added, glancing back at Pandora and Damon with a smile. "I'm not the type to break up happy couples." 
The hero let out an exasperated huff, clearly not having it. "I don't care what you want to do. I wasn't asking." He took a step forward, drawing the king's attention back to him with a snap. "I am telling you that we came for Viousce, and we aren't leaving without her." He said, very matter-of-factly. The king nodded. "And I'm telling you that I'm not going to let hand her over. I will keep her in my kingdom and guard her from you people, no matter what it takes." He said, sternly. "Why do you even want to do such a thing? She holds no loyalty to you, and you hold none to her." The hero growled. The king grinned. "Oh, that's where you're wrong, my friend. You might have been right about that yesterday. But not know." He took a few steps closer to the hero, clearly intent on angering him as much as possible. "Today, your 'hero' defected over to my side. She's a part of our lovely community of villains now. And as such, I do not intend to let her go so easily. You see, we aren't like you people. We actually care enough to protect and help each other. And once someone is on our side, they are accepted and defended as though they've always been one of us. So, you can try to take her back. But she's already made her decision, from what I hear. And unless she intends to change that, I don't think you're ever going to get ahold of her again." He said, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure he had gotten it right. Pandora nodded, grinning as she took Damon's hand and pulled out her machete. "Do you want to fight together? Like a real couple?" She asked, looking up at Damon. He was quite a bit startled by just how accepting of her the king was being, but he didn't have time to worry about that now. 
Damon nodded, giving her hand a little squeeze before he pulled away and unsheathed his sword. A smile was starting to creep over his face. A smile that accompanied a feeling of complete, bloody, chaotic bliss. He could already tell this was going to be fun. So, so much fucking fun. 
The king chuckled, stepping aside in a silent encouragement of their bloodthirst. Damon looked down at Pandora again, and saw that her eyes were glowing with the light of murderous rage. It was strangely attractive, in a way. As though her entire face had lit up and twisted into a manic joy that accented her hair and complexion really well. In a way, the glittering insanity in her eyes was a much better makeup than any that could have been bought at a store. She took a step forward, carefully mapping out her next few steps and moving in a wide crescent shape around the heroes. The leader took a step back, clearly knocked off his guard by the way she was stalking around them like a predator. "What are you doing?" He asked, clearly startled. "I'm showing you how it feels to be on this side of the fight. Scary, isn't it?" Pandora giggled, getting ever closer to them as they subconsciously pressed themselves into a tight ball and started to move backwards. "Wait, you don't want to do this." The hero said, starting to realize what Pandora intended to do. "We're your friends. Remember? The ones who were there for you all that time? The ones who fought alongside you when things got bad? We're a team! And we need you as our leader." He said, stumbling backwards a little bit. Pandora shook her head. "You're annoying more than anything. I never needed to work with you to win my fights. In fact, you only ever slowed me down and complained about everything that naturally comes with working as a hero. I didn't need you. You needed me. The only way anyone would ever take you seriously was if they saw you fighting alongside someone considered to be a 'prophecy hero', whatever that fucking means. I could have done so much better without any of you. And on top of that, I'm sure I would have seen that what I was doing was wrong a lot more quickly, too. I am not on a team with any of you. I do not belong to your kingdom. Not anymore." She said, her voice cold and hard. 
The hero stepped back again, this time tripping and nearly falling over his own feet. "But you would let me go, wouldn't you? For old times' sake?" He asked, fear pitching his voice upwards a few notches. Pandora shook her head. "I might let the others go. But you? I have some scores to settle with you." She said, closing the gap between herself and the hero. Damon followed her, his grin growing as his fingers tingling at the thought of getting to help his lover kill people she clearly despised. 
Pandora stepped into a fighter's stance, raising her weapon up and readying herself to make the move that would start the chaos. "This is for my parents, you sad fucking waste of oxygen." She spat, swinging her machete faster than seemed possible and aiming straight for the hero's head.