The Policy of Truth

"Now you're standing there tongue tied
You'd better learn your lesson well
Hide what you have to hide
And tell what you have to tell."
Depeche Mode, The Policy of Truth

I should know better than to open something long sealed that's been told to contain power and evil. I know that story, and it didn't end well for Pandora.
My common sense told me not to open that box, and at the same time my paranoia told me that if we found it someone smarter definitely could too. My common sense tells me a lot of things I blatantly ignore.

Anyway, we got the eye. We didn't want the eye, really, but after Gunnar accidentally switched it on... Yeah. I don't really see how we had a choice but to take it with us.
He told the others to ride in the other car, that he was going to take one vehicle and the eye, in case something went... awry. I don't know if he really needed to tell the others, they all seemed more than willing to be as far away from it as possible. Common sense told me I should do the same. I told my common sense to just shut the hell up, then I told Gunnar I was coming with him. He respected my wishes, which was good because he'd have needed to physically put me in the other car to keep me from going with him. If the eye started doing anything weird, I wanted to be there. No, I didn't really have a plan but Gunnar's stuck with me when I've gotten myself into trouble, and that's worked out pretty well for us so far.
Plus, I really should have thought to say, "Hey, hon, before you hop down into that dark nothingness with an artifact of ultimate destruction, why don't you hand me the remote control so you can't... you know, accidentally turn it on or something."

We pulled up to the cliffs just as the sun was setting. It was a breathtaking sight, really. This whole country is just gorgeous.
Everybody piled out of the other vehicle, while Gunnar and I stayed in the second. A group of guys came striding up, harping something fierce about closing time.
Brendan pulled his badge out and the guy he was talking to looked really unimpressed. The guys around him started getting antsy, and it looked like there was going to be a fight out by the cliff and frankly, I was tired of fighting for the day.
I hopped out of the car, sauntered up to the crowd and asked, sweet as I could, "What's the problem, boys?" I thought about trying to be sneaky, but it turns out as it usually does that honesty was the best policy. He, whom I might have thought was quite handsome if he weren't in my way, asked what business we had up on the cliff so close to darkness. Something about it being dangerous. I wanted very badly to laugh at this man's skewed understanding of "dangerous."
I had to think a minute. I used to plan conversations like this, but I guess being around Gunnar so much, I've gotten a lot more used to leaping first. "Look," I finally sighed, rubbing my eyes a little. "I've had a really long day, and I just wanted to see something beautiful." Not a total lie. Not really even half of a lie. From landing, to the drive, to the panicked evacuation of the civilians, to the fight with Caleb, I was feeling like I was standing on my last leg. I hadn't slept in about a dozen days and I've known since the plane landed that I needed to sleep soon, but there just hadn't been time. "Besides, what kind of harm could a little thing like me do to a big cliff like this?" I tried really hard to look innocent and harmless. Holy shit, it actually worked.
The guy agreed to take me, just me, over to the cliff. I made sure to let him lead. He wanted to know what was so important that it couldn't wait until morning. "We're kind of running up against a deadline here," I told him, exasperated. Of course, that wasn't good enough. I said something about giants, and then something about Fomorians, asking something like whether or not he'd heard of them. He looked at me kinda like I was an idiot. Every Irish kid knew of the Fomorians, they were the boogeymen here, he said. I mentioned that the dust of one was hanging out in the dry bed of the Loch na Suil, but he didn't know to be impressed because he had no idea who Caleb was.
Then Derrick, as he later introduced himself, pulled a gun on me. He wanted to know how I was mixed up with the Fomorians. He warned me that there was a wrong answer. Well, duh. Again, common sense told me that there was an appropriate and reasonable reaction, and that the one I chose probably was not it.
I held my arms wide and kept my hands low, pretty much inviting him to try to put a bullet in me. I was, to put it mildly, too tired for this shit. My lungs hurt pretty badly and as far as I knew, time was running out to get to Mag Mell.
"I'm here," I gritted my teeth, speaking with my arms still spread wide, "to ruin every plan the Fomorians have. From the socks they don in the morning to the dinner they plan at night to their machinations for world domination. If they want it, they can't fucking have it."
I guess that was the right answer, because Derrick put his gun away. And he guessed I was a Scion, which means he's not a total idiot. "I'm going to ask you a personal question, feel free to tell me it's none of my fucking business," I grinned. "Who's your parent?"
He's a son of Lugh, which doesn't mean a lot to me. I hope to the gods that means he's one of the good guys. I let him know I was Apollo's kid, and he asked what a group of Americans were doing out here in the Emerald Isle.
"My fiance's sitting in the car with the Eye of Balor," I said bluntly.