[ WP ] The Hero is doomed to replace the Villain .

Dead. Andromeda was dead. I, Sol, so named after the sun of this wayward little solar system hovered beside the lifeless carcass of a man that I had tried to save, to turn from the path he'd walked, the path of hatred. 
 
 
 Killed by his own machinations, and there has been nothing capable of...... no, do n't lie to yourself Sol, to them maybe, those that would n't understand, but do n't lie to yourself. You could have saved him, there was time for someone who moves at relativistic speeds. True, it had been his own device, his own weapon that had turned on him in his final moment, but I could have saved him. I chose not to, and while those outside, waiting with baited breath to see who emerges from the battle victorious, may decry my choice, it was really the only one left to me. 
 
 
 How much suffering had Androme... Charles, his name was Charles, how much... how much pain had he, had Charles visited on other people. How many people were living in tents only with food from the good graces of the Red Cross to sustain them. 
 
 
 No, Andr... Charles, for whatever man he might have been in the past, had to die, here and now. After all, it was for the greater good, why let one man live against the pain and misery of thousands, tens of thousands? Why had I waited so long anyways? How many had I let suffer to appease some... some misguided jingoism that my parents had imparted on me? And why had I held onto that antiquated belief for so long when I knew, deep down, that the world did n't work that way, not anymore. Perhaps that naivety could hold in a small Kansas town, but had I really believed that the world worked that way, that seven billion people could all just get along? That putting dangerous people in jail for a couple of years really changed anything? 
 
 
 No, that did n't change anything, I did n't change anything. How long had it been, ten years? What had really changed, what had I really accomplished? 
 
 
 The world was n't a safer place, I'd saved a few, but what small percentage was that? Just some media coverage of the big ones? Thousands dying every day in car crashes, tens of thousands in small border disputes - children gunned down, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands dying every year in abject poverty and starvation around the world. What had I done for those people? Nothing. The world was getting worse, I was n't making the world better. No, I was just giving the media something to play with, something to make people smile, immunized to the real horrors in the world, safely ensconced in the false security of a hero named Sol. 
 
 
 No more though, that all ends today. Charles' methods may have been extreme, unethical, but his goals... he was trying to make a better world. He may have... I may have let him... I may have killed him, but that dream of a better tomorrow, of a paradise for all mankind, I wo n't let that die with him. 
 
 
 Though I'll have to be subtle. This moment, his death, will be heralded by the people, of course, everyone gets enraptured by the death of a villain, no one will question me, no one will doubt me. I'll have to use that, build trust, and exploit that trust. I have to change the world, for the better. I have to save the world from itself. I have to secure the world, keep it safe, but the only way is with tighter rules, more restrictions, I ca n't be everywhere at once, but if I can drag people out of the petty light of false freedoms and bring them into a structured existence... one that promises health and longevity, security and freedom from fear. They'll understand in the end, some may fight against it, but in a century, a millennium, I'll be heralded as a savior of the world. I'll be heralded as the one who saved the world from itself, as the one who saved the people from fear and death. There will have to be some sacrifices, but that seems a small price to pay for the salvation of an entire species. After all, I should be their caretaker. I'm the only one that can see the whole picture, that can pierce into those private conversations between dictators, presidents, and kings. I have to save them from themselves, it's my duty, I'm responsible for them, like a master caring after it's pet, they simply do n't know about the dangers out there. And I have to keep them safe. 
 
 
 Yes, I have to keep them safe.
