I Fell For My Nemesis

Avery\'s phone rang and she wanted to scream. Now Angelo tried to get in contact with her? She didn\'t have time for this! She did need him to take care of the security footage for her though so she couldn\'t ignore it. She was going to have to multitask. 

"This is a really bad time," she said in Spanish. "The mission was compromised. I need you to hack the security footage and delete it at these coordinates, no questions asked. I\'m in the middle of something right now."

"Güera, what—"

"NOT NOW. Do as I said and I\'ll explain later." 

Avery told her phone to end the call after giving him the coordinates and sighed because Christian had heard that even if he didn\'t understand it. "Who were you talking to?"

"Again, none of your business."

"How many people are behind you? What are you all trying to do?" he pressed. 

"Let me go, Mercury! I\'ll fight you. I swear I will, baby or no baby. I don\'t owe you anything. I saved you and you saved me. We\'re even."

"Nox, I want to understand."

Avery did a double take. That was the least judgmental thing she had ever heard him say to her when they were Mercury and Nox. Was he being serious? Did he genuinely want to understand why she did what she did? 

"Why?"

"Because I don\'t think you\'re the kind of person to do something for no reason. You care about people. So can you please tell me why you\'re doing all of this? I won\'t tell anyone," Christian said seriously. 

"You already told Frostine," she said skeptically. 

"Not everything! I had to tell her I needed her help saving someone I owed my life to and she figured you were my old archnemesis but I didn\'t tell her anything beyond that. Really."

Christian wasn\'t a liar. Avery was inclined to believe him but that didn\'t mean she trusted him. He had quit hero work and only came back tonight because she asked him to. And she did still have his secret identity hanging over his head. He had no reason to rat her out. 

She let out a heavy sigh. "Set me down. It\'s hard to talk up here."

He landed on the nearest building with a flat roof and looked at her expectantly. "Tell me, Nox. Why are you out to get Nolan Hunsacher?"

"He\'s a monster. The kind that will kill anyone who poses a threat to him. Even I don\'t know how many people he\'s killed but it\'s too many. He needs to be stopped before he kills any more. Or before he manages to take over this country more than he already has." 

"Take over this country?"

"You have no idea how powerful he is. He owns everything. Healthcare, power plants, agriculture, water, the United States Congress. He\'s turned this country into a dystopian nightmare and it\'s only going to get worse if he isn\'t stopped." 

Christian\'s brow creased. "How do you know all of this?"

"People who work for him," Avery confessed. "There are a lot of us though I can\'t tell you how many. People who have seen how evil he is for himself and want to stop him. We aren\'t trying to hurt anyone. We\'re trying to save them. Things would be a lot worse without our interference."

"Worse how?"

"I can\'t tell you. But I will say this: Nolan Hunsacher is more of a villain than I\'ll ever be. For me doing illegal things is means to an end so I can stop him and give this country back to the people. For him it\'s a power trip." 

"Then why don\'t you leave it to the heroes to stop him? Why take things upon yourself?" Christian asked. 

Avery scoffed. "Like heroes would be willing to do what needs to be done to stop him. This is beyond what heroes do. Only someone like me who cares too much and has nothing to lose could even try."

"You have something to lose now. Or have you already forgotten you dragged me out of bed for your baby\'s sake? You can\'t keep this up while you\'re pregnant. And what about the father? You don\'t seem like someone who has nothing to lose."

She didn\'t know whether to laugh or cry. She didn\'t have nothing to lose anymore. But back when she and Angelo first started this endeavor they had both been grieving too much to think of long-term consequences and jumped in headfirst. Things had changed a lot for her since then. 

Avery sighed and sat down on the building\'s ledge, leaning back on her arms and kicking her feet. "I didn\'t when I started this. I thought I would be safe because I had already lost everything. I didn\'t expect to find anyone else I was afraid of losing but here I am." 

"Then why not stop and leave it to someone else?" Christian asked. "You were really keen on my retirement after I got hurt. Why not retire yourself?"

"There are always new heroes to replace people like you. No one else CAN replace me. This suit is one of a kind and it won\'t respond to anyone else. It has to be me. I have to see this through to the end even though I\'ve wanted to quit more times than I can count after meeting him." 

"Who is he? Your boyfriend?"

"Someone I thought I could get away with having something casual with before getting greedy," Avery said wryly. "I thought any time with him was better than no time at all despite my situation being less than ideal. Before I knew it I was in too deep to get out."

Christian frowned. "Nox…does he know?"

"Of course not. He would never accept me for who I am." 

"And who are you?"

Avery let out a tiny laugh. "An excellent question. Sometimes I wonder that myself. Am I who I was before Nolan Hunsacher took everything from me? Am I who I want to be when it\'s all over? Or am I nothing but a villain to be scorned for daring to ignore laws that allow people to get hurt?

"You were a hero; you would never understand. I have to help people too but I can\'t do it in the light like you did. All I want is to prevent anyone from suffering the way I\'ve suffered. If I have to be a villain to stop a worse villain so be it.

"I don\'t know what I am aside from an idiot for letting myself believe I could be normal. I\'m not normal. I haven\'t been normal since before all of this happened but I was so convinced everything would be okay if I kept at it. 

"It\'s not okay at all. The man I love would judge me the same way you do if he knew about me. Isn\'t that sad? He thinks I\'m a lot better than I am. Someone as good as him could never accept someone like me and I knew it from the start but I didn\'t want to let him go. Maybe that\'s what makes me a villain more than anything."

It was oddly freeing talking to Christian like this. He had no idea she was talking about him. 

Letting him know she was a woman had been a gamble but that narrowed it down to half of the population. It wouldn\'t lead to her directly…unless he found out about her pregnancy. That would make it more suspicious. 

Was that it? Had her decision been made for her because she needed to protect her secret identity? It would make things so much worse later if he found out because he would know what she did but he wouldn\'t forgive her regardless. It was amazing he even wanted to hear her side of things right now. 

Christian looked at her seriously. "I\'m not judging you. I didn\'t realize the depth of the situation before and I\'m sorry about that. Can you tell me what Hunsacher is doing exactly that you\'re trying to stop? It has something to do with that room in Hunsacher Inc. headquarters that you destroyed, doesn\'t it? All of the destruction you cause has to have a reason since you don\'t want anyone to get hurt."

Avery blinked at him in disbelief. "You figured that out, huh? Have you been looking into me?"

"I can\'t deny I was curious what you were up to. I don\'t like unfinished business," Christian admitted. "You destroyed that factory in California and those labs up and down the east coast too, didn\'t you?"

"So what if I did?"

"I want to know why."

"And you won\'t tell anyone? This is solely for your own curiosity\'s sake?" Avery asked skeptically. 

"Who would I tell? I\'m retired. I only got back in contact with Frostine tonight by chance to help you. Your secret is safe with me," Christian reassured her. 

She believed him. He actually wanted to understand Nox instead of tossing out his usual condemnation without much evidence.. She really didn\'t want to call Angelo back so it wasn\'t like she had anything better to do.