“Let me tell you something, Ares.”
“As I stand here across from you, two men, two caged fucking animals clawing at the bars… I think I finally understand you.”
“I hate to admit it, but it’s because when I look you in the eyes, all I can see is myself looking back. A reflection in the mirror that shows me exactly the kind of person you are.”
“The person that I am.”
“From the very beginning you were given a purpose in life just like me. Thrown to the wolves and told that you were going to suffer, to never feel a moment of rest because you exist to serve.”
“No choice in the matter, plucked from birth and given your marching orders by the time you could take your first steps. From the first moment you tasted life you knew that your only purpose was to be at Zeus’ beck and call.”
“Just like I was chosen to be the heir who took his place on the throne. Picked to lead the APD, pushed to lead the Preservationists. Expectations stacked upon our shoulders as we were expected to fall in line.”
“The blood pumping through our veins decided our fate before we could even think. Choices made the moment we drew our first breaths.”
“… Did your dad try to love you like mine did? Did he lie to you about who you were just to push you towards your destiny? Or was he truthful about your place in the world? Were you given the gift of knowledge about the futility of your existence or were you cursed with ignorance like I was?”
“I guess it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“We’re not so different, you and I.”
“We bleed for our cause, we make sacrifices we could never take back in the name of our goals. Broken hearts, ruined lives, and yet we still we trudge forward. Even now you want to fight me because Zeus decided that you would.”
“Zeus’ megalomania is the only reason in the whole fucking world that you and I do anything.”
“Actors in a play written in blood.”
“Two halves of the same coin.”
“Look me in the eyes, Ares. Look and see the man who has done everything you have, suffered as you have, and yet still persists. See your reflection, let this sink in.”
“Because the moment that I get out of this cage I’m breaking free from the cycle.”
“I’m going to shatter that mirror, Ares. I want you to know that I’m going to tear you apart with my bare hands until my knuckles bleed and shards of my reflection embed themselves in my skin. I’m going to shatter you, to destroy you so that I can destroy myself.”
“Something has to give.”
“One of us has to blink.”
“It sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”
“Zeus isn’t dictating my life anymore, Ares.”
“No one. Not you, not Zeus, not Klaus, is above the Law.”
“And fated or not… I am the Law.”