Unreality

33. Reality

Despite everything that had happened, Virgil still couldn't believe that the man he had begrudgingly served for the past two years was now lying before him, completely at his mercy.

More importantly, Luther Weiss was also the man that had recently attempted to sentence him to a lifetime of imprisonment.

Remembering everything that had transpired between them, Virgil pulled out the steel blade in his cyberized arm, and took slow but steady steps towards the man that used to be his Commander, whose anxious eyes were now fixated on his former agent's weapon.

As soon as he reached him, Virgil raised his arm while breathing in deeply, and then brought it down as Luther flinched away as best he could with his hands and feet tied.

But it was precisely the rope immobilizing his limbs that his former agent's blade had cut.

The Commander rose to his feet at once, while Virgil occupied the entrance to the passage that served as the only real exit to the place lit by the phosphorescent light of the glow-worms in the environment, seeing as, on the other side, there were only the cold, still waters of an underground lake. As they moved, neither man took his eyes off the other for even a split second.

Finally, Luther employed his now freed hands to remove the duck tape covering his mouth, becoming thus able to make himself heard at last.

'So... what now, York?' he asked, his husky voice now sounding far less composed than when behind his desk at Ethos HQ. 'Are you going to keep adding crimes to your list... or will you—'

'Let you leave this place?' interjected a belligerent Virgil. 'Why should I? Isn't this what you wanted to do to me? Lock me up for good?'

Luther pondered his answer for a brief while, as if wondering how bold he could afford to be in his answer given his current predicament.

'Surely you don't believe our actions are equal — only one of us is a threat to society,' he declared brazenly at last, 'and any sensible person who saw us now would be able to tell at a glance who that is.'

Virgil let out a grim, humorless laugh.

'I wonder,' he muttered with scornful eyes, 'sometimes looks can be deceiving...'

'Please... you can't in all seriousness believe I'm the dangerous one here — just take a good look at yourself, and face reality for once.'

'...What do you know about my reality?'

Luther shook his head in disapproval as he stared down Virgil's contemptuous eyes.

'You keep proving my point, York — only someone truly delusional would say something like "my reality". Reality is but one.'

'And let me guess... you get to decide for everyone else what that one reality is like? And then you go and try to destroy anyone that has a different view of it... like me.'

'I merely weed out the bad apples that threaten to spoil and contaminate the bunch we call society. For that is my duty and responsibility. But I do not expect you to be able to understand that, now that you've turned your back on society and are intent on indulging in callous and destructive behavior that threatens to destroy the peace and order others have struggled to create and preserve.'

'What order? What peace?!' protested an increasingly irate Virgil. I've never been able to have peace in my life precisely because of society! People that manage to find peace in this world do so in spite of society! Not because of it. Never because of it.'