There are Heroes on Both Sides. Evil is Everywhere.

There are Heroes on Both Sides. 
Evil is Everywhere.


"The Techno Union Army eeeeng ooooogn uuuuuugn iiiiing eeeeng is at your disposal Count"

"The Banking Clan will sign your treaty" 

He is The Chosen One.

He will bring Balance.

SISKO : 
Do you know what The Trouble is? 

KIRA : 
….no. 

SISKO : 
The Trouble is Earth. 

KIRA : 
Really? 

SISKO : 
On Earth there is no poverty, 

no crime, no war. 
You look out the window 

of Starfleet Headquarters 

and You see Paradise. 
Well, it's easy to be A Saint in Paradise, 

but The Maquis Do Not Live in Paradise. 
Out there in The Demilitarised Zone, 

all the problems haven't been solved yet. 

Out there, there are no saints, just people. 
Angry, scared, determined people 

who are going to do 

whatever it takes to survive 

whether it meets with 

Federation approval or not. 

KIRA : 
Makes sense to me. 

SISKO : 
I'm glad someone understands. 



SISKO:
 Mister Eddington. I have just one question. Why? 

EDDINGTON [on monitor]: 
Will knowing my personal motivation change anything at this point? 

SISKO: 
No, I don't suppose it will. 

EDDINGTON [on monitor]: 
Then let's table that for now. The only reason I've contacted you is to ask you to leave us alone. Our quarrel is with the Cardassians, not the Federation. Leave us alone and I can promise you you'll never hear from the Maquis again. 

SISKO: 
Unless you see another shipment you want to hijack. 

EDDINGTON [on monitor]: 
You keep sending replicators to Cardassia and you're going to have a lot more to worry about than hijackings. 

SISKO: 
I don't respond well to threats. I thought you would know that by now. But I'm beginning to see that you don't know me at all. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
I know you. 
I was like you once, but then I opened my eyes. 
Open your eyes, Captain. 

Why is the Federation so obsessed about the Maquis? 
We've never harmed you, and yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. 
Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. 

Why?

 Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. 

Nobody leaves paradise. 

Everyone should want to be in the Federation. 

Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. 

You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways you're worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious. You assimilate people and they don't even know it. 

SISKO: 
You know what, Mister Eddington? 
I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, the Maquis, or anything else. 

All I know is that you betrayed your oath, your duty, and me. 

And if it takes me the rest of my life, I will see you standing before a court-martial that'll break you and send you to a penal colony, where you will spend the rest of your days growing old and wondering whether a ship full of replicators was really worth it.




DAX:
Les Miserables.

SISKO:
You know it?

DAX:
I can't stand Victor Hugo. 
I tried reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I couldn't get through it. 
It was so melodramatic and his heroines are so two dimensional.

SISKO:
Eddington compares me to one of the characters, Inspector Javert. A policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offence, and in the end Javert's own inflexibility destroys him. He commits suicide.

DAX:
You can't believe that description fits you. Eddington is just trying to get under your skin.

SISKO:
He did that eight months ago. What strikes me about this book is that Eddington said that it's one of his favourites.

DAX:
There's no accounting for taste.

SISKO:
Let's think about it.
A Starfleet security officer is fascinated by a nineteenth century French melodrama, and now he's a leader of the Maquis, a resistance group fighting the noble battle against the evil Cardassians.

DAX:
It sounds like he's living out his own fantasy.

SISKO:
Exactly. And you know what?
 Les Miserables isn't about the policeman.
It's about Valjean, the victim of a monstrous injustice who spends his entire life helping people, making noble sacrifices for others. That's how Eddington sees himself. He's Valjean, he's Robin Hood, he's a romantic, dashing figure, fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds.

DAX:
The secret life of Michael Eddington.
How does it help us?

SISKO:
Eddington is the hero of his own story. That makes me the villain. And what is it that every hero wants to do?

DAX:
Kill the bad guy.

SISKO:
That's part of it. 
Heroes only kill when they have to.
Eddington could have killed me back in the refugee camp or when he disabled the Defiant, but in the best melodramas the villain creates a situation where the hero is forced to sacrifice himself for the people, for the cause. 
One final grand gesture.

DAX:
What are you getting at, Benjamin?

SISKO:
I think it's time for me to become the villain.

There are Heroes on Both Sides. 

Evil is Everywhere.


EDDINGTON: 
But think about those people you saw in the caves, huddled and starving. 
They didn't attack the Malinche.

SISKO: 
You should have thought about that before you attacked a Federation starship. 

(Sisko turns his back on the Eddington hologram) 


(Transmission ends)

Captain's log, supplemental. 
Resettlement efforts in the DMZ are underway. The Cardassian and Maquis colonists who were forced to abandon their homes will make new lives for themselves on the planets their counterparts evacuated. 

The balance in the region will be restored, though the situation remains far from stable.

He is The Chosen One.

He will bring Balance.

SISKO: 

Are you all right? 

EZRI: 

I talked with Worf.

 He doesn't want to have anything to do with me. 

SISKO: 

Perhaps I should have a talk with him. 

EZRI: 

Absolutely not. You intimidate him. 

SISKO: 

Me? 

EZRI: 

Don't tell him I told you. 

SISKO: 

I intimidate Worf, huh? 

EZRI: 

You like that, don't you? 

SISKO: 

Of course not. 

EZRI: 

Come on. I've been a man, I know.