Anti-Hero || Leo Valdez

9 - I Do What I Want

There was an increasingly strong feeling of guilt building up in Via's chest as she made it to the garage. She'd gone behind Jo and Emmie's backs, lied to Calypso and Pat, and just now she had knocked Leo out and given him a concussion and definitely a bruise. Even as she grabbed the keys for her car, Via felt guilty. The Volkswagen Beetle she drove had been bought and completely refurbished by Jo. Now she was using it to go behind Jo's back and sneak out on an extremely dangerous mission.

As she settled herself in the driver's seat, she took a deep breath and tried to give herself a small pep talk. "You can do this. Once you save Georgie, everyone will forgive you." She started the car, turned off the security alarm with a button on her key fob, opened the garage door with another button, and drove off, repeating to herself that she was doing the right thing.

To calm her nerves, she tried to play some music, but she realized that Pat's playlist was still up from the last time they'd driven in this car. That was even worse, and she turned it off immediately.

Via found the Sailors' and Soldiers' monument with no trouble. After all, as Jo had said, it was exactly the kind of ostentatious, over-the-top edifice you'd expect the emperor to have for his entrance.

Two blemmyae with fake human heads were patrolling the plaza when Via parked. She took a deep breath. This would take a lot of good acting to work. She ran her fingers through her hair briefly, hoping the gesture made her look slightly more disheveled and desperate. Then she got out of her car and headed over towards the blemmyae.

"If you'll excuse us," one of the blemmyae told her as she approached. He was wearing an orange vest and hard hat. "This monument is under construction. Please come back later. Thank you."

"I'm not here for the monument," Via said. Her voice shook slightly, but that probably just sold the act better. "I came here for my sister. Georgina. I'll do whatever Commodus wants. I just want Georgie back." She exhaled nervously, then added, for the blemmyae's benefit, "Please. Can you take me?"

"Emperor Commodus will want valuable information before he lets you see your sister, dear," The other blemmyae told her. She was wearing a police uniform. "Pardon me for asking, but do you have valuable information?"

"Yes," Via said. "I have information he'll want."

"Oh, good. We can take you inside, then. Come with us."

Via sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," both of the blemmyae replied politely.

They began to lead her up the steps and into the monument, then headed straight for the elevator.

"Excuse me," Via said to the blemmyae.

"You're excused," they both said.

"Um... Where's the palace? I thought the emperor had a palace."

"This is the entrance to the palace, ma'am." Construction Blemmyae replied. They went into the elevator. Via had been in this elevator before, but she didn't remember it leading to a palace. It went to the observation deck at the top of the monument. Police Blemmyae pressed the emergency call button. It buzzed, and a polite voice blared from the speaker.

"Hello! Names, please and thank you."

"You're welcome," both of the blemmyae replied. Then the one who'd pushed the button added, "It's Rita and Daryl, and we have a potential informant, thank you."

"Hello, Rita! You're welcome. Please scan your security card." Both blemmyae did as they were instructed. "Excellent! Welcome back!"

Via heard the groaning of metal, then a sharp hiss, like a dagger being drawn. The elevator started going down instead of up, and the doors opened into a torchlit room which seemed to be the entrance hall. Several people streamed in and out of the entry hall, heading from corridor to another. Via kept her mask of terror on (which wasn't hard) as they went down the corridor in the middle. She was pretty sure they would take her straight to the throne room. She hoped she wasn't wrong.