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Chaos made you evil? That was an almost hilariously simplistic view, and Realgar snorted a little more loudly than he intended to, unable to contain his opinion of things.

"...Wouldn't it be nice if we could say that what side we're on made people do what they do? No, you're dealing with people who think they're doing the right thing, cause that's the line they got pitched. Invading aliens, greater good, blah blah. Chaos doesn't make you into a damn Disney villain, it's not that simple. It's one part war propaganda, and the rest is..."

He struggled to find a way to phrase it. That it wasn't like someone just flipped a switch in your head and turned you into a tropey villain... the agents who were like that had already been damaged in the head before they were recruited.

"It's subtle. They tell you you're doing the right thing, saving the world, serving justice, having power whatever it takes to get you on board. After that it's more... subtle. Either you wake up enough to realize that you're numb to the things that used to horrify you, or... you don't. And if you do wake up, you decide if you care or not, and if you do, then IF you're lucky enough to find out that those people you've been fighting can also purify corruption, you get to decide if it's worth it to put the lives of your family and friends in danger to ditch, because you know damn well there's at least one other agent who knows who you are and who they are, and they're probably more powerful than you.

"So yeah Hollywood. I'm just evil. I tie damsels to Railroad tracks on the weekend. It's a hoot. You should come."

Zia was clearly attached to the guy, but he just wasn't quite as sold so far. He could kind of see where that cut and dried world view came from, it wasn't too far off from where he'd been, but they were at a similar power level. Maybe it was his own Chaos taint talking but it was a little harder to forgive it.

Luxor listened, but if anything was getting through or not was up for debate. He just stared blankly at them, listening to both of their descriptions and understanding that it meant he could not hurt this Nega, specifically, but he did not want to start thinking about things like that.

Doubt. Purification.

This changed the way he saw the negaverse: the absolute that he had told himself and carried around with him was not as true as he needed it to be to justify his unbridled rage and thirst for revenge. But even knowing all this, he thought about his carnival, all the people that died or were hurt, and he knew that a few good eggs could not out weigh the terrible force of the bad ones. Chaos made people evil, that was true, but it seemed that sometimes it was involuntary.

He was not sure how to deal with that just yet, so he tucked it away into the back of his mind for now, to reference again later, when he felt he had the ability to properly deal with it.

"I am sorry I attacked you," he said stiffly, in his bland, hard to believe way. He did not put any sort of emotion into his words, so it did not sound like he was being sarcastic, but it did not sound like he was being sincere, either. He nodded his head, though, and looked at Zia, hoping she believed him more than he did the Nega himself. Though he did look back to Realgar and, after a long moment of thought, added, "thank you for helping Zia."

Zia grinned when Luxor apologized, obviously believing it with all she had. Even if part of her felt a little bad that he even had to apologize in the first place. He was a good war machine, she liked that, and it was unfortunate he had to cross paths with a particular corrupted individual on her 'keep from expiring' list.

And then she looked at Realgar and her sudden, pressed frown nearly made her look like a frog.

You idiot..

There were lots of ways Realgar had saved her in the past they couldn't really talk about. Things that, even without the hurdle of double identities, were hard to verbalize. So there was something a little poetic about finally getting to acknowledge it in a way that mattered, even if it just saved him from getting his face pounded in a bit.

Until he ruined it by being all literal and s**t.

"Stop talking. Just. Stop..." She nearly snarled and held up a hand between them in a 'close it' gesture.

"Fine," She snapped and mimicked his shrug. "You owe me then. I'll collect later. Come on, Luxor, I wanted to take you dinner anyway," She announced, grabbing the squire by the arm and trying to tug him into leaving.