"I . . ." Leo muttered, taken aback by the words of the alien. He, of course, cared for Mila, Sarah, Barbara and a lot of other people.
"What about your kid? You have one now. Do you want them to grow in this world?" Nigredo asked again, Leo freezing for a second as the words struck him like a bucket of cold water.
He took a deep breath. "I know, okay? But what can I do about it?" The boy asked the alien, raising his tone just a little bit, as he knew that there was not a lot he, as a hero or civilian, could do to change the world.
"Oh, you know what to do; it is something simple. Just become the one in charge, and if something is wrong, just fix it." The entity pointed to the obvious answer.
"What? I can't do that," he said, simple and to the point. There were a lot of things that he wanted to change about the society, laws that were too strict or too lax, people that he wanted to help, and people that he wanted to punish; however, he couldn't do it. Why? Because the government tied him down, all of them, to their roles.
"It is still legal after all those years, what your parents did to you. Kids can get taken against their will to reeducation camps without their consent. Do you think that is right?" She muttered, calm and collected, while Leo began to breathe heavily.
The boy's eyes dilated, his heart skyrocketed, and a sharp shiver traveled all the way from his spine to his brain.
When the first drop of cold sweat emerged from his forehead, Nigredo continued. "And you know WELL because it is legal; the millions of dollars that they move each year, after all, forced labor is forced labor," she added, twisting the knife in the wound.
"That is just the tip of the iceberg, and you know it . . ." The alien slithered that infectious thought right into his mind.
Leo took a deep breath and calmed himself, or at least tried. "Then what? Do you want me to become a politician? To stop being a hero?" he asked her.
"You know that it doesn't work," Nigredo pointed out and made a small pause, letting Leo imagine the correct answer.
When the thought crossed his mind. "You know what actually works." She pushed him in that direction.
"I can't become a villain thinking about world domination. We know how that ends," Leo finally said. There was always that crazy supervillain that tried to take over the world, to make their own utopia or whatever sick dream they had, but at the end of the day, the heroes or even other villains always stopped him. Those were the rules; the status quo could not be challenged in any way.
"You just need to be strong enough; just imagine how many things you could fix, how many lives you could improve and even save, how good the world could be . . . " she purred but got interrupted by the hero.
"Who am I to decide what people do? Why should I be the ultimate person that says what goes and doesn't go?" The boy asked an important question. After all, he didn't know everything; he was even biased.
"Yeah, good question. How are you, Leo? What kind of person are you? Are you better than the people currently in charge?" She asked back, not mentioning that he was perfect, just a little bit better than what they currently had.
"I am . . ." he muttered, doubting for a second.
"If you really think you aren't, why are you going around fighting crime on YOUR way instead of being a cop?" She stabbed him once again with that dagger covered in poison that was her tongue.
Leo froze, not being able to answer that question. Well, he could do it; he knew what to say, but he didn't have the guts to say it out loud. However, it didn't matter as long as he thought about the answer the alien was satisfied with.
"You don't need to answer, as always; I know what you are thinking," Nigredo muttered.
He shook his head, trying to get that thought out of his brain, but . . . The only thing Leo could do now was just shove it aside, but the seed of doubt was already planted. "We should focus on Mila for now; we can talk about this later," the boy said. However, it took Mila two full hours to finally wake up, with the sun on the horizon starting to slowly bleed over New York.
"What . . . what happened?" She asked, slowly opening her eyes and looking around.
"Mila? It is me, Leo. Are you alright?" Leo asked, watching the woman slowly sitting on the bed and looking around, her eyes half closed.
She looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, just . . . can I borrow your bathroom? I need to take a shower," Mila mumbled, stinking worse than a bag full of used gym clothes.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" The redhead tried to help her to get off the bed, but she could do it without his help.
She shook her head and let out her goggles over his nightstand and took off her jumpsuit. "Nah, I am fine, just need a shower and I will be fresh like a lettuce!" she exclaimed and then flashed Leo with her fully clothed body. She was wearing white pajama pants and a top under her spandex suit. What kind of freak would be naked under that kind of costume?
"You should rest a little bit more . . ." Leo asked with noticeable bags under his eyes, unable to sleep while having the girl resting on his bed.
"Do you want to help wash me?" Mila asked with a smirk.
"Well, if you ask," Leo said back, this time unprompted by Nigredo.
Mila blushed, and her eyes widened, the teasing evidently backfiring. "Come again?" She muttered, thinking that maybe her brain was playing tricks on her thanks to the exhaustion.