Chapter Text
"Okay, so I'm going to go get some food, you two get the Squire."
"How are you going to pay?" Ballister asks.
"I have money. I've got a job. Had I guess," Victor shrugs.
"Well, put your cloak on. Knights are trying to get us."
"I know, I know dad- Boss."
Ballister smiles and Victor puts his cloak on and sneaks off.
Ballister nods and Victor goes and gets some fruit and ingredients to make dinner.
Victor watches as Ballister goes into a car and Nimona turn into a little boy and talk to the Squire.
"Hi, could I just get some bread?"
"Of course."
"There's the Queen Killer!" A knight yells.
Victor turns around and sighs. Ballister and Nimona were trying to put the Squire in the trunk and Ballister yells, "Victor! We got to go!"
"Coming!"
Victor leaves and runs to the car and gets in the back and they quickly leave.
A few minutes after in the air, Nimona says, "You know, you make a pretty good bad guy."
"Agreed," Victor says.
Ballister glares at the two but then the car starts falling.
"Oh for the love of-" Victor starts before they start falling.
They park and get out of the car.
Nimona says something about talking to the Squire in the bad part of town while Victor reads the news on them.
"You have an arrow in your leg!" Ballister says to Nimona and she looks at him and shrugs.
"Doesn't hurt."
"I... sit down. C'mon. We're just going to look at it."
Nimona sits down and Victor sits on the trunk so the Squire didn't get out. Ballister pulls it out and Nimona just sits there.
"Okay most people scream at that part."
"I'm not people."
"Does it hurt?" Ballister asks.
"Yeah. Fells pretty stabby in my leg region," Nimona jokes.
Victor laughs and Ballister laughs and says, "No, no. I meant when you shapeshift. Does it hurt at all? Sorry, small minded question. Hold still." He wraps a piece of fabric around Nimona's leg.
"Honestly? It feels worse when I don't. Like my insides are itchy. You know that second right before you sneeze? That’s close to it. Then I shape-shift, and I’m free."
"What if you held it in?" Ballister asks. "If you didn’t shape-shift?"
"I’d die."
"Good Gloreth, that’s horrible!" He exclaims.
"Don’t be so gullible. I wouldn’t die die. I just sure wouldn’t be living," Nimona laughs.
"Victor, is it the same for you?"
"Nah. Y'know when you know a bunch of skills and you stop using one of them? And then you try to use it again but it's really shitty? That's what it's like. But if I tried to get rid of... this... it would hurt a lot," Victor laughs.
"Aww. You're bonding! That's great. Now can you let me out?" The Squire asks.
"Oh yeah, the punk in the trunk. Let's go dunk on the punk in the trunk," Nimona says.
Victor laughs and they go open the trunk.
"Start talking."
"He wants blood," Nimona says.
"Your blood," Victor says.
"I don't want blood," Ballister corrects.
"Buckets of blood."
"Gallons of blood."
"What I want is answers. So start talking," Ballister says.
"Or we start stabbing," Nimona smiles.
"No stabbing."
"Slapping?" Victor asks.
"No! I want answers! Why did you set me up?!"
"I didn't!"
"Who then?"
"You!"
"No!"
"Todd? Chad? Blanche?"
"Punchable face guy?" Nimona and Victor asks.
"Todd! Yes! Why are you protecting him?!"
"Who would protect Todd?"
"Good point," Victor says.
"Guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way."
"The hard way?" The Squire asks.
Victor and Ballister grin as Nimona turns into the demon baby.
"Peekaboo," She says and the Squire screams.
"Here! Look!"
The Squire shows them a video.
"Check it out. I’m in the locker room, and you are looking at history in the making. Ballister’s armor. It’s speaking. It’s saying, “Respect me. Protect me. Put me on. No one’s watching.”
Victor looks at the Squire and makes a face of awkwardness and says, "Uh... okay?"
"Awkward," Nimona says.
"Oh, we can just fast-forward. Okay, this is the part you have to see."
"The Director set me up. She killed the queen," Ballister says.
"I, I didn’t know what to do. I tried to show you before…"
"None of this makes sense," Ballister says, walking away.
Victor grabs the groceries and follows him.
"Look, boss, you got betrayed by someone you trusted."
"I get it. It sucks," Victor says. "But we did it. You’re innocent, and we have the proof!"
"Once we upload that video…" Nimona starts.
"We’re not."
"What? Everybody needs to know the truth!" Victor exclaims.
"The system is jacked. The Institute needs to shut down," Nimona says.
"Will you two be quiet?" Ballister snaps.
"Prospective target. Clear on Avenue Three. Over."
"We will not be quiet about this."
"This video could damage people’s faith in the Institute," Ballister turns around and snaps.
"No duh!"
"Look, I don’t know why she framed me, but the Institute’s not the problem," Ballister says. "The Director is. That’s why I’m taking this to Ambrosius."
"Who cares?"
"Ambro…"
"This is the man who cut off your arm. Arm-chopping is not a love language!" Nimona exclaims.
"He didn’t cut off my arm. He disarmed a weapon. It’s how we were trained," Ballister replies, looking at the statue of Gloreth.
"Wow. They brainwashed you real good. Didn't they?" Nimona asks. "You think this stops with the Director? You should be questioning everything right now. The will of Gloreth, the Institute, the wall. What’s it all really for?"
"For protecting the realm!" Ballister scolds.
"You mean from villains like you? Or monsters like me and Victor?"
They stay silent for a minute and Victor looks at the ground.
"I'm... I'm going to go home. Can't have the food get warm," Victor fakes a laugh and hurries away.
"I... Victor!" Ballister says.
Victor was already gone and headed home.
He writes an article and quickly posts it, barely double checking anything and makes dinner and the two get home after taking the long way home to make a plan.
"Victor, are you alright?"
"Yeah, just couldn't get the food warm right?"
"I guess... well, tomorrow we're going to give the video to Ambrosius."
"Okay," Victor replies, putting his dishes in the sink and leaves the room.
Ballister looks at Nimona who says, "What did you do?"
"I don't know. I'll go talk to him."
Nimona nods and Ballister goes outside to go talk to him.
He finds Victor brushing Camelot. "You don't think I'm a monster. Right?" He whispers.
"Victor? What's wrong?"
He stays silent but then asks, "Do you think I'm a monster?"
"What? No! Of course not."
Victor nods and Ballister goes over to him. "Why do you think that?"
"Everyone who has every known about my powers has."
"Who else knew?"
"My best friend back in 1000's," Victor replies.
"What happened?"
"He... he uh.... he killed my family in a fire. I wasn't home."
"Victor, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. It was a thousand years ago anyways."
"No, no it's not okay. He... can I ask what happened afterwards?"
"I ran away."
"You ran?"
"I had friends in that town. I couldn't stay there. So, yeah. I ran."
Ballister hugs Victor and he freezes. He'd rarely been hugged. "I'm sorry that happened to you."
Victor just nods and passes Camelot a carrot and they go back inside.
"Hey, Victor! Wanna play video games?"
"Yeah! I'm going to kick your ass," Victor laughs.
The two play video games and laugh and talk and Ballister smiles.