Title: Hope
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: Seven Heavenly Virtues Challenge, tv_universe
Prompt: Hope - Taking a positive future view, that good will prevail.
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Hannibal Lecter or Will Graham, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.
***
He had to believe that he would find Hannibal.Will sighed, leaning back in his chair, wincing at the twinge of pain in his stomach. He wondered if that pain would always be with him, if it would ever go away.
He doubted that it would leave him in peace. It would always be a reminder of those last few moments with Hannibal, that dangerous embrace that he'd been all too willing to go into, thinking that it was somehow benign. He should have known better.
He'd known how wily Hannibal was; he had known that the man was a monster, that he couldn't be trusted. Yet he had walked into that embrace willingly.
And he'd been stabbed in the gut for his trouble and his trust. He should have expected that; he had already seen what Hannibal had done to Abigail, so why should he have believed that such an evil monster would be anu more compassionate with him?
Yet something in him had thought that Hannibal had some feelings for him. He'd been stupid and careless, and it had nearly cost him his life.
But he had survived that attack, and lived to fight another day.
He would keep on surviving, Will told himself, his mouth an unsmiling, firm line. He wouldn't give up or give in until he had caught Hannibal and put him behind bars.
That monster had hurt too many people, destroyed too many lives. He had left too many families bereft; his evil had stretched too far to let it go. He was honor-bound to catch Hannibal and bring him to justice, not just for himself, but for all of the other victims.
He had failed once. He didn't plan to fail again. The next time, he would be prepared for anything, any kind of trickery that Hannibal might engage in.
He had to hold on to the hope that he would be able to track Hannibal down.
The good guys had lost the last round, but at least he and Jack had survived. Hannibal hadn't counted on that; he'd thought that he had gotten rid of both of them.
They would track him down, no matter how long it took. They would bring that monster to justice, make him pay for his crimes. He would spend the rest of his life in a small cell, the same fate that, at one point, he had intended for Will to suffer.
That would be poetic justice, of a sort, Will thought, his lips twisting in a wry smile. Make Hannibal find out just what it was like to be a prisoner.
He wanted to take Hannibal's freedom away; Will knew that for him, it would be a fate worse than death to lose that freedom, to not have the autonomy to do as he pleased.
Will wanted Hannibal to know every day of his life that he was a prisoner, that he would never be able to harm or manipulate people again. He wanted to be sure that horrible monster thought about the loss of his freedom for every moment that he was behind bars.
Of course, those thoughts would mean that Hannibal zeroed in on him, blaming Will for his loss of freedom, and more than likely plotting revenge.
Well, let him, Will told himself. Once incarcerated, Hannibal couldn't hurt him again.
He'd make sure of that. He wouldn't leave an opening for that monster to sneak through. There would never again be vulnerable chinks in his armor.
He had been careful to shore up those vulnerabilities in the time that had passed since those last fateful moments with his nemesis. The next time they met, he would be the one to have the upper hand. He would make sure that good prevailed over evil.
Hannibal's run of good luck, his reign of terror, was going to end. He was going to be brought down like the dog he was, and punished for his wrongdoing.
The fangs of that viper would be wrenched out, and it would be rendered powerless.
It wouldn't be easy to find Hannibal; now that the monster behind the mask had been discovered, he would be even more careful and cunning at hiding himself.
But eventually, Hannibal would have to come out of hiding. He would begin committing more murders, and he would grow careless. His hubris wouldn't allow him to keep himself hidden forever; he was too cocky, too proud of himself, too puffed up with conceit.
Will had to hold on to the hope that they would be able to catch him sooner rather than later; he didn't want more people to become victims.
He knew all too well what it was like to fall victim to that monster. It had almost happened to him, and the last thing he wanted was for more people to turn into statistics on a page. He would keep searching for his nemesis, and keep hoping that they would catch him soon.
Good would prevail over evil, he told himself. The light would overcome the darkness, just as day always succeeded night. It was inevitable.
If he kept that hope in his heart, then it would be fulfilled.
***
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