All The World's a Stage

“You’re supposed to look after them!”

The villain’s voice quivered with fury, eyes wild, as their gaze moved between the hero and the hero’s mentor. Their caretaker. The love of the hero’s supposed bloody life or whatever.

“They’re fine,” their mentor said. “Not a scratch on them. They’re just being dramatic.”

The villain’s hands balled into fists. “That why you have them in a big glass cage?”

“They have a habit of losing control when they get…upset,” the mentor said. “It’s childish.”

“They’re traumatised.”

The mentor rolled their eyes. “It’s not like they’ve ever seen a real battlefield. It’s just you.”

The villain took a slow step closer, heart sinking at the way the hero hunched further into themselves, but didn’t look up. “They can’t see or hear us.”

“One way glass. Like how you’d put blinkers on a horse to calm them.”

The villain’s jaw clenched. They whipped to face the mentor.

“Look,” the mentor said, “I don’t know why you’re getting so pissy. I’ve kept my part of our deal.”

“Our deal? You were supposed to pull them out if it got too much!”

“Well,” the mentor said, loftily, “you’re the one who was a bit too much, weren’t you? And, like I said, they’re-“

“Say they’re fine again.” The villain’s skin lit up crackling with power. “I dare you.”

The mentor edged towards the stupid glass cage. “They really will be traumatised if you kill me.”

The villain seethed, fingers flexing, but didn’t attack.

The deal was that the mentor had wanted to create a hero, the best hero that the world had ever seen, but to do that they needed a suitable opponent. A villain – someone powerful enough to be a challenge, but who the hero could ultimately defeat, winning the hearts of everyone. They’d offered to pay well enough for the villain, already shunned for their abilities, to set up a new life somewhere else in peace and comfort. The villain had agreed, for the money, and with the caveat that the mentor would keep an eye on their chosen hero and make sure that they were okay. No permanent damage. No real hurt that wouldn’t be soothed with time.

“We’ve come to far to stop now,” the mentor said. “What, you want to walk in and tell them that it’s not real? That all they’ve suffered for is for nothing? You think that will magically make them fine? Or do you think that will break them for good?”

“You’re a monster.”

“Heroes aren’t created by good men. You agreed.”

“I agreed to-“ The villain squeezed their eyes shut. “I’m out. This isn’t – look, just give me my money, they’re famous enough now and-“

“-And so you’ll let them fight someone actually out to harm them?”

The villain stopped. Their powers pulsed through them.

The mentor smiled at them, faintly. “I didn’t pick you by accident, you know. Plenty of oddballs with some power at there, capable of putting on a show with me behind the scenes. But you…you cared for them, or at least pretended to.”

“You think I’m pretending?”

“We’ll see if you take your money and abandon them, won’t we?” The mentor shrugged. “For all your indignance, that’s what counts isn’t it? So, are you out, then? We both know I can’t force you to do this. I’ve told you that from the start.”

The villain glanced between the mentor and the hero again. The hero, who had been so much more than the shiny trophy they had expected, who was supposed to have fun becoming everything that people dreamed of, who wasn’t supposed to be rocking in a glass cage making the quietest and most dreadful keening sound in their throat as their powers rattled with nightmares and everything the villain had inadvertently done to them.

Because, act or not, the mentor’s promises to withdraw them if it got too much or not, they’d agreed, hadn’t they? For money, and peace, and escape. They could have seen the signs earlier. Looked beneath the perfect mask that the hero maintained in public and in their fights, too scared to let their guard down to an enemy.

Bile rose in the villain’s throat. Their shoulders slumped.

The mentor’s smile grew, and they walked over, gently cupping the villain’s cheeks, fearless.

“Next fight is on Monday, as planned. I’ll see you there.”