So that's it, then? You're just going to let me and Guri and Anachiel die?
[She looks over her shoulder as men come in, locking the door behind them. When she turns back, her eyes are wide and panicked.] Please don't let them do it to me, Ben. Don't let them hurt me! You know what they'll do!
[Elle screams as the men pull her away, kicking at them and trying to twist out of their grasp as they pull her into the shadows.]
[And then she's sitting behind him, watching the scene over his shoulder as the men disappear into the darkness. She's covered in blood, her face slashed as if by claws.] You ask me, this is what really makes you a monster, Bennie Boy. Will you ever stop letting other people get hurt and do nothing but watch?
You think this is my first rodeo? You think they'll take any suggestion I make? You think I wouldn't rather take your place? You think I wouldn't rather they hurt me instead of you?
People like this have one playbook. "Do what we want or we'll hurt the people you care about, because that hurts you more than just torturing you." It's what they do.
Don't you get it? It doesn't matter. Nothing I do matters. There will always be slaves, there will always be Black Markets and brothels, there will always be Pits. No matter how many I take down, three more will spring up to take their place.
And these people will always, always, always use the people I care about against me. And I... really don't want to think about the solution to that.
[He barks out an entirely humorless laugh.] Going dark? Do you know how may people I've killed in the last year? I've committed mass murder on a scale that puts the worst serial killer in history to shame. My hands are black with blood.
And it's easy. It's easy to walk into a place like that brothel and coldly decide that every human in the place down to the fuckin' janitor needs to die.
And then carry it out. Even if one of those people is a woman and I don't kill women.
My corpse appreciates your lack of active participation. [A worm pushes its way out from under her eye and falls to the ground, and she takes a moment to shove a patch of skin back into place.]
Have you ever seen an angel's body? Of course, Guri barely counts anymore. He was so happy to fly, too.
He huffs out a gasp. I can't. I am physically incapable of that.
And I-- I'm not playing their game, Elle. I'm not.
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[She looks over her shoulder as men come in, locking the door behind them. When she turns back, her eyes are wide and panicked.] Please don't let them do it to me, Ben. Don't let them hurt me! You know what they'll do!
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I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ellie...
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[And then she's sitting behind him, watching the scene over his shoulder as the men disappear into the darkness. She's covered in blood, her face slashed as if by claws.] You ask me, this is what really makes you a monster, Bennie Boy. Will you ever stop letting other people get hurt and do nothing but watch?
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But I can be not evil myself.
Fighting a baby angel would be evil. I won't do it.
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You just apologized for being so pathetic and did nothing.
Evil, Ben. Very evil. Letting people you say you care for get hurt like that...
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People like this have one playbook. "Do what we want or we'll hurt the people you care about, because that hurts you more than just torturing you." It's what they do.
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But you're right. Thinking you would have preferred to take my place, that totally kept me from not dying. That's how much it mattered.
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And these people will always, always, always use the people I care about against me. And I... really don't want to think about the solution to that.
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Finally being strong?
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And it's easy. It's easy to walk into a place like that brothel and coldly decide that every human in the place down to the fuckin' janitor needs to die.
And then carry it out. Even if one of those people is a woman and I don't kill women.
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But I guess that was as much a lie as you saying you wanted to protect me.
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And I can't protect anyone from the kind of evil these people perpetrate. Not you, not Tziporel. Not me. All I can do is not actively participate.
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My corpse appreciates your lack of active participation. [A worm pushes its way out from under her eye and falls to the ground, and she takes a moment to shove a patch of skin back into place.]
Have you ever seen an angel's body? Of course, Guri barely counts anymore. He was so happy to fly, too.
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