Unlawful Good- A Last Life Superhero AU

~12~

"Cleo, what are you doing?" Grian squeaked, his voice cracking slightly as he stared at his friend in disbelief.

At the same time, BDubs spat, "Cleo. Put the knife down. And let Luna go.", his voice dangerously low.

The ginger haired woman glanced over with an amused hum to herself, twisting the knife between her fingers. "Oh, Avis! Speculum! Glad you could make it in time for the show. I see you got my message then, Avis." Cleo added with a wicked grin.

Grian glanced at BigB, who was stood behind Cleo with a slightly stunned and scared expression. What on earth happened here? How did she- what is- what's going on?

"What do you mean, 'show'?" Grian asked, speaking up and frowning as his dark gray gaze met Pearl's terrified blue eyes. "Cleo, this isn't funny. Let Luna go and put the knife down." He said slowly, wondering what on earth was going on. Is Pearl okay? Is Cleo okay in the head? Did they get into a fight or something? Why didn't BigB stop them?

"I'm not joking, Avis." Cleo said with a shrug, swearing as Pearl attempted to pull away more fiercely than before. "Stay still unless you want this knife through your head." She snarled, and the brunette froze, her struggles drawing to a sudden halt.

"Cleo, whatever the hell is going on here, leave Luna out of it and explain." BDubs said fiercely, shooting a barely visible nod at BigB, who was slowly reaching for a discarded throwing knife on the table next to the vigilante- the same one, Grian noticed, that had been used by Aoratos to stab him.

"I think 'leave Luna out of it' is a bit drastic." Cleo complained with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, the whole point of this whole 'becoming a vigilante' charade was to take a vigilante or a hero to the villains as a hostage and use them as leverage to sort of... get rid of the rest." What? Cleo's... working with the villains? That's- no, that can't be- she stopped working with them! She wanted to get rid of her bad reputation. That's... that's why I... Cleo?

"I was right!" BDubs spat. "You did meet up with the Red King. You were a villain this whole time. Weren't you?" He asked accusingly, and although the vigilante had been guessing something like this would happen the whole time, he still looked just as shocked as Grian did.

"I won't deny it." Cleo said with a shrug. "It's more fun being evil than being a goody two shoes like you lot."

"Cleo, stop. As your friend, I'm asking you to-" Grian's plea was cut off by a harsh laugh from the ginger haired woman.

"Friend? You thought we were friends? Oh, that's adorable!" Cleo said, although her broad smile didn't meet her eyes. "No. No, you were just... Hm... a pawn? Is that the right word? I needed to use you to gain the trust of the other vigilantes. It seems that Speculum is the only one of you with a single brain cell." She snarled. "Not that he's incredibly bright anyway, or he would have fought more to get you to listen to him."

Not again, not again, NOT AGAIN. She's leaving me. She doesn't like me. We aren't friends. I thought... was it... was it all in my head? Was she controlling me? With the absence of Cleo's control, a feeling of distrust returned as well as a wave of guilt for so easily dismissing BDubs' suspicions. It's happening again.

Cleo rolled her eyes. "Well, as fun as this is-" She dropped the knife and her hand flew up to be right in front of BigB's face. BigB, who had been about to stab her in the arm to get her to let go of Pearl, stared as her palm emitted a dull glow and his eyes flickered the same shade of red as Cleo's. "Hand me the knife." BigB nodded, passing it to Cleo as she returned the knife to its original position next to Pearl's throat. "I suppose bringing two vigilantes with me is better than one." She mused, half to herself.

"You're saying that as if we'll let you leave with them as well as having all of your limbs still attached." BDubs snarled, and Grian nodded with a glare, nocking his bow and aiming it at Cleo.

"Avis, we both know you won't hurt a hair on my head. Also, you think I'm just gonna walk out? I have a way out of here." Cleo said with a laugh.

"How do you plan on doing that?" Grian asked, shifting slightly so that he was blocking the door.

"Well, you see, the Red King happened to borrow the power of some random Enderian hybrid he met on the street, so, if I just... let him know I'm ready to leave..." She carefully reached up to an earpiece that Grian had failed to notice and tapped it three times before reaching out and grabbing BigB's arm. "Something like this should happen." The three disappeared in a flurry of bright purple sparks as Grian jumped forwards with a shout.

"PEARL!" He stumbled slightly, staring at where his friends and the villain had been.

He vaguely heard BDubs whisper, "BigB...?", taking in an uncharacteristic shaky breath.

Grian slumped to the ground, falling onto his knees quietly. He could hear BDubs pacing anxiously in the background but he didn't really care.

It's my fault. I trusted Cleo, I ignored BDubs, I let Cleo become a vigilante and now Pearl and BigB might be in danger and it's MY FAULT. Its ALL my fault. He jumped slightly as he felt BDubs gently rest a hand on his shoulder. "Grian. One, you don't need to cry, I have a plan." Grian blinked. He didn't even realise he'd started crying. "Two, I think we both know what we need to do now."

"What...?" The dirty blonde turned his head in his teammate's direction.

"We need to ask the heroes for help."