Snippet #2813603

Att just glared at Gemini as he stepped between him and Malfyre, telling him to calm down. They didn’t seem to understand how urgent this was, that this wasn’t him overreacting to the call. Gemini gave another one of his grand speeches, telling them how they all knew what they were getting themselves into and how they were all in danger. He knew that the hero was just trying to stop things from escalating into another fight, but he was angry. He felt that if it was a hero that had been taken, they all would have been trying much harder. But because it was one of them, it didn’t matter as much.

He stared Malfyre down as she stared at him. He wasn’t scared of her, and he wasn’t going to back down just because the heroes told him not to be so angry. Malfyre said that she didn’t want to see Red Witch dead any more than he did, but it felt hollow. He just raised an eyebrow as she said she couldn’t see any reason that they’d kill Lucy, but fresh anger burned in his throat. They weren’t taking him seriously. They still thought he was over-reacting, and now they were just trying to de-escalate the situation. “It doesn’t matter that we don’t know why they’re going to kill her. They will kill her unless we do something. That’s how it works, and I have never been wrong before.”

He might have let it slide, had Malfyre not then produced a hard drive, stating it was a copy of all of the information she had on them. He didn’t understand why she crushed it. Probably just another display of power. The only bit of information that Atticus really took from Malfyre’s little speech was that she had access to information on them, information that they’d all tried to keep buried. He was glad when Piper spoke up and said exactly what he was thinking. Malfyre said she had only looked at her own, but he didn’t fully believe that.

Dhani tried to placate Piper, but seemed to only make things worse. Att trusted Dhani, probably much more than he should have done, but the others didn’t get the same privilege. Piper made the point he was thinking. Best case scenario, they looked and viewed them all differently. Atticus knew that they all underestimated him, not knowing how dangerous he was, and if they found it out… well, he didn’t know how they’d react. He glanced at Dhani, almost subconsciously.

“We have much more to lose if our secrets, our identities are leaked. Me and Paladin burned the files we found because we didn’t think anyone deserved to have that much power. You keep saying we’re all in the same position, we’re all in danger, and then you reveal that you have compromising information on us? How are we supposed to trust you if you have that information at your disposal? All we have if your word that you won’t read it and won’t leak it and won’t use it against us.” He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair.

Artemis tensed as everyone else seemed to ready themselves for a fight, almost instinctively bracing herself into a fighting stance. But it didn’t seem to get to that, Icarus and Malfyre seeming to prefer to stick to just words for now. But a divide seemed to be rapidly growing between the group. She visibly winced as Malfyre revealed that she had information on them all, and claimed she hadn’t looked at them. Aaron seemed to believe and trust Malfyre about this, so Cerys would return the favour, but she didn’t particularly like the idea of someone having that much information on her.

Icarus and Aboleth, however, were very obviously not happy about it. And in some ways, Cerys almost didn’t blame them. Dhani tried defending Malfyre, but couldn’t quite stand up to Aboleth. The villains didn’t trust the heroes, that much was clear. Did they really have more to lose? Or did the heroes have further to fall from the podium they’d be put on?

“Listen. We can’t afford to let this come between us, and Red Witch sure as hell can’t afford it either. Trust me, I’m not totally happy about someone having that much information about me either but we need to work together, if only long enough to get Red Witch home safely. But we need to know that our secrets are safe and that nobody will use them against us. I don’t blame anyone for wanting that assurance.” She said, folding her arms. She knew that it was the villains that wanted the reassurance their secrets wouldn’t be used against them, but she also wanted to know that if the villains got their hands on the heroes’ secrets, that they’d be offered the same respect.

“So. Has anyone any suggestions? Or can we just agree to at least trust each other for a few goddamn days to save Red Witch’s life?”