Title: Know Thine Enemy
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3TP Challenge, tv_universe
Prompt: Enemies
Author's Note: Sequel to "Only Hope."
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.
***
If he and Hannibal hadn't been sworn enemies before, they certainly were now.Will touched his stomach gingerly, wincing automatically, even though the pain of being gutted had long since subsided. He was lucky to be alive, and he knew it.
He didn't want to think about what had happened the last time he and Hannibal had crossed paths. He couldn't let himself think about that; if he did, he would go insane.
He needed to put that horrible experience behind him as best he could, and move on with his life. And he had to use all of his energies to catch Hannibal, to make sure that the bastard was put behind bars for the rest of his life, not only for all of the murders he had committed, but for the rape of an FBI agent.
Will's fists clenched involuntarily, without his conscious mind thinking about what he was doing. He would find Hannibal. He would be made to pay for his crimes.
But not with death. Oh, no, that was far too good for him. No, what Will wanted was to see his enemy in a cage for the rest of his life, deprived of his freedom.
That would be a fitting punishment for someone like Hannibal.
He knew that the other man prized that freedom, that he thought he was smarter than his FBI nemesis, that he could continue to move about freely and kill with impunity.
He would make sure that didn't happen. No matter what it took, he would put Hannibal behind bars, and he would take great pleasure in doing so.
All he wanted right now was to see his enemy brought down, to see Hannibal helpless and cornered. He'd thought that it had happened before, the night that the bastard had killed Abigail and gutted him, leaving him for dead. But he had been so wrong. He had overestimated himself.
He had reached too far, and made the wrong calculations. He should have been far more careful, and not have thought that it would be so easy to trap a wily beast like Hannibal.
Maybe he had been guilty of the same pride, the same hubris, that Hannibal had always shown. Maybe in that respect, the two of them were more alike than he'd ever have thought.
He hated to admit that he could be anything like Hannibal, but he had to admit that he did share a few qualities with his enemy -- and he hoped that some of them were good ones. Like his tenacity to see something through to the end, no matter how bitter it might be.
He'd had enemies before, of course. No one got to where he was in the FBI without making those. But Hannibal was the fiercest nemesis he'd ever had, or ever would.
He had never encountered anyone who epitomized evil to him in the way that Hannibal did. And Will hoped that he never would again. Once in a lifetime was more than enough.
He just wished that evil hadn't decided to focus on him.
Will knew that Hannibal was waiting patiently, simply biding his time before he could jump out of the darkness again, attacking when Will least expected him to.
What was that old saying about knowing thine enemy? He struggled to remember it, then gave up. It wasn't important, anyway. He knew all that he had to know about Hannibal.
He knew that his enemy was smart, and wily. He had gotten away with dozens, maybe even hundreds, of murders over the years. And it wouldn't be easy to bring him to justice. But there was one thing that could be his downfall, and Will had every intention of exploiting that one chink in his enemy's armor.
Hannibal was a proud man. His pride would eventually bring him down; that hubris would get the better of him, and he wouldn't be able to resist a little bragging.
He thought far too much of himself. And that would be how Will could bring him down, make sure that he spent the rest of his life in prison, where he belonged.
Yes, he would make his enemy pay for all of the crimes he'd committed.
Not least of all the crimes against himself, Will thought, his hands clenching into fists again. Hannibal deserved to pay dearly for those atrocities.
That was what he wanted to see more than anything else -- Hannibal behind bars, suffering the same imprisonment that he had intended for Will when he'd framed him for those crimes that Hannibal himself had perpetrated. It would be such a delicious irony to be on the other side of those bars.
He would track his enemy down, and he would make that enemy pay for all that he had done. In the end, justice would prevail. He would make sure of that.
He would win this game, if it was the last thing he ever did.
***
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