Mary was taking another walk around Brutus Saint's Academy, as her brain was investigating the most important issue of the last week, and the eyewitnesses were being extremely uncooperative.

“What do you mean, 'are you sure he said it'? You never bothered to learn how to read lips - how should we know?” Mary's eyes responded.

The earwitnesses weren't of much help either.

“Well, duh? We told you what we heard when we heard it. It is your job to store it somewhere!”

Nosewitness just snorted and refused to elaborate.

And so, Mary's brain had to admit that either they just met a priest who knew stuff he really shouldn't have known, or that Mary was already going mad. Which, in the context, could very likely be the case, but since contemplating the possibility of her own insanity was really unpleasant, the direction of the ongoing investigation was firmly kept on the former.

“So which will it be,” a chilling voice whispered in her ear, “will you seek the truth, or try to hide from it?”

Mary whirled around, but the street behind her was empty. Well, empty of people - there were quite a few buildings, extremely unusable in the girl's humble opinion, but no people or other being who should have been capable of speech. The sun was close to setting, and it didn't help - the shadows grew long, and those cast by more... artistically... designed dwellings were quite unnerving.

“Or did you really think you could just ignore me? And people say I am arrogant,” the voice repeated in her other ear.

Mary spun again, placing her hands in fireball starting position. “Where are you hiding, Veritas? Show yourself!”

A burst of laughter echoed all around Mary, who couldn't even tell in which general direction she should have been aiming.

“Oh, I'm in your head. I thought that one was obvious. Where else would I be?” The voice drawled. It wasn't as... solid as in the dreams, but it was definitely not just Mary's brain making stuff up. But well, if it was, it would be in a lot of trouble.

She frantically grabbed her necklace and tried to follow various paths of the wire with both her eyes and imagination. Unfortunately, focusing on unfocusing is rather hard when someone else talks in your head...

“I see you still learned nothing about savoir vivre and just how rude it is to leave mid-sentence. I'll have to pay the Academy a visit and give them a piece of my mind about the topic sooner than later, it seems.”

Come on, the last time she got lost in less than a minute. Where was that damned impossible knot...

“Suit yourself, I guess. Honestly, I thought you'd have jumped at the occasion to get some real answers for a change. I'll admit that I'm the tiniest bit disappointed, even though I could have sworn I expected nothing. We'll see each other soon enough, heroine.”

Wait.

“What answers are you talking about, and why should I trust you?” Mary said, slowly raising her eyes from her necklace to the empty street in front of her.

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“Oh, could it be? Was I not wrong after all?”

“Get on with it, or get lost. I don't have a whole day.”

Mary was pretty sure she could accurately picture the smugness painted on Veritas face, wherever the boy was hiding.

“Still so rude...”

The girl's eyes got back to tracking the wire.

“I may be branded a Villain, but I'm not on the evil side of this war. Try taking your pink, glittered glasses off your eyes once in a while. You'll be surprised how many colours there are in the world.”

Mary snorted. “That's what you call an answer?”

“Of course it's an answer. I will not accept any blame for your asking the wrong questions. Or maybe you're so used to answering a question with another question that you find it unthinkable for the conversation to happen in any other way?” Mary heard a sigh somewhere around her, but she couldn't tell the direction it came from. “So be it, but know that my heart will be forever broken just for this little play of yours. Tell me, what evil had I done so far?”

“You mean, aside from assaulting an innocent girl in her dreams?”

Dry laughter rang in the unmoving air. “I really don't think someone like you should be talking about innocence, do you? But to give you a good example of what a polite answer is: yes, aside from whatever insult you perceive me to have offered you.”

This time, It took Mary a few reeeeaaalllllyyyy long seconds to come up with an answer. “Haven't you said that you are a villain yourself? Evil is basically what villains do.”

This time, she was rewarded with a snort. “Yes, right. And please, tell me, who named me the villain, and you the hero of this tale?”

“Well... you did?”

“Oh, Author Muchmighty, give me patience... No, Mary, I did not. Just like you haven't decided to become a hero - if my teacher had found you, and yours had found me, I would have been at your pathetic excuse of an academy right now, and you... well, you probably wouldn't be where I am, let's be honest - I don't think you'd have the skills or gut for it, but you'd still be in a darker place.”

“Oh, so you had a hard start in life,” Mary said. “So what? You could just... stop being a villain if you wanted.”

“Yeah, right, just like you could stop being a hero.”

Mary paused. “What do you mean? I just want to do good in the world, and that is what heroes do. I could walk away if I wanted. And since I'm going to die anyway, I'll leave sooner than later, that way or another.”

A six-foot-long cricket jumped onto the roof of the closest building and started playing its buggy music. Actually, it was better than the band she'd already heard within the Academy's walls. In any way, the break in the conversation lasted so long that Mary thought Veritas had lost the connection.

“You really don't know?”

“Know what?”

Another piece of silence.

“Mary... you can not leave.” He dropped the usual sarcasm out of his voice, and somehow, this made Mary scared more than any alien army she'd ever faced. Which, granted, was only one army, but it was the quality that counted. “Unless they won't allow it, you will never leave. And they don't allow leaving often. You've signed the agreements.”

“Why is everyone bringing up that damned piece of paper? I'm only fifteen, even if I wanted, I couldn't have-”

“My word, that every word I've just said is true to the best of my knowledge. Go to the dean's office and ask for a copy. Tell them you need it for the case of mental evaluation, which is part of your villain's court procedure. Remember to keep it, by the way, we may really need it for that procedure.”

“And why should I trust you of all people?” Mary asked, but only the cricket answered.

And then, she heard someone yelling from a nearby alley.

“There it is! KCUFUOY!”

A second later, a fireball struck where the cricked had just taken off from. Soon after, a party of teenagers dressed in black leather ran past Mary in the chase after the running bug.

She had nothing to worry about, right? Her Nemesis was just trying to destroy her morale and maybe get her in trouble with the office...

...right?