Vengeance

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Revenge

The action of inflicting harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands.

They say it exists in direct contradiction to the concept of justice. The word itself implies fairness, balance, but what they don't teach in social studies or law school is that the law isn't written with fairness in mind. It isn't impartial. It doesn't return righteous verdicts.

It's a game like any other and victory belongs to the brutal, the unscrupulous. Sometimes the only true justice in this world is taken with two bloody hands.

Oh, how much she's changed in two years. Only two years ago she would have been disgusted by her own thoughts, but that was before. Now idyllic dreams of justice are a thing of the past and revenge is her unforgiving reality.

She's succumb to the darkness she spent much of her life fighting. She's grown to love it. It's freeing.

Fools believe light reveals everything, but as she's learned anyone can flourish in the light by hiding behind a badge or a smile. The light reveals nothing. Quite the opposite, it conceals everything. Every secret, every lie, ever hidden agenda is tucked away from the light in the shadows. The darkness. Light sees your mask. Darkness sees your soul.

It feels strange, wrong to be back here after she's changed so much. While she's changed Metro City hasn't. It's remained the same, as if frozen in time, awaiting her return.

The bustling metropolis was founded in the mid-1800s and has since grown to be one of the nation's largest cities. It's home to a number of public figures and many Changed, but even the brightest lights cast shadows and Metro City is no exception.

This city is a revolting petri dish of crime and gloominess, a city where darkness manages to find new, inventive, and deranged ways to manifest. It's a sickness that took root, decades ago and has since grown, corrupting the city in sections. The Gallows are the most evident testament to this and no amount of bright lights and designer clothing can hide what lurks there.

She could have left years ago, but for all its sins, it was home. It still is. Back then she was able to find hope, no matter how wretched the darkness got. Now it doesn't matter, let the so-called "heroes" clean up the mess. Let them waste their lives for nothing.

She can see it, even from the Gallows; the hundred and ten story structure of glass and steel with the words Fairwood Industries etched across the top. The sole beacon of light in an otherwise dark city. She is all too familiar with it.

She looks away from the light.

The Gallows, so appropriately named, are Metro City's dark side, it's shame. The thirty-five block section of the city is infamous for poverty and its "criminal element". It's ruled not by the Mayor or the police, but by gangs that have no qualms with shedding innocent blood and at night, it's a whole other world. They're an abandoned people, thrown to the wolves, left to scavenge for scraps.

The Gallows aren't Metro City's worst, though. The city is corrupt all over. The Gallows just look the part. The criminals that run the rest of the city wear hand-tailored suits, drive imported cars, and fix their problems with carefully concealed bribes. Deep down they're no better than the scum in the Gallows, they just look better, and perhaps they're more ambitious.

Two years hasn't quashed her rage, her righteous fury. She beats it down. Her former self would have cared, would have wanted to fight tooth and nail, but that was before.

Now revenge is the only thing keeping her alive. They need to pay, the ones she once called family, for betraying her. They think she's dead. How wrong they are. She isn't one to roll over and die. She wasn't trained that way. She'll stand and fight to the bitter, bloody end.

She wants vengeance. She deserves it. They're going to suffer. They're going to bleed like she bled, die like she died.

Valkyrie is what they named her death, but she lived.

Now, Metro City is going to run red with Valkyrie's revenge.