Both were right, completely right, and Evey nodded emphatically. "There really is no way to say that what I'm about to suggest isn't the very catalyst of what we're trying to avoid."
She turned and paced the apartment floor. "But neither can I sit idly and let it come to this. You see how they are with us. We're very nearly revered, but what happens when we let them down? When we disappoint them? When we frighten them because they don't understand what we are? What happens when one of us does something... something that isn't right, and is wholly terrifying? Will they only turn against the one? Or will they turn against all of us?"
She was thinking of Peter. The thought that Peter's lunatic abilities might become common knowledge was a nightmare to her. If they found out... Oh, it could go so many ways. They could demand or expect him to take all their burdens for him, turning him into little more than a slave. And he'd allow it. She knew without a doubt that he'd give everything he had - and more - to them if they asked. But that was only the very best scenario she could imagine. There were far darker paths she could envision, were Peter to be found out.
And, she thought grimly, he would be. Eventually. He was just too good to stand idly by when people suffered and he could prevent it. She loved him for it. She loved him completely. But she was terrified for him.
"They have to know us," she said, turning on her heel and stopping in the center of the room. "They have to know us as people and they have to know that we're not here to hurt them. We're here to help. Not in the grandiose save-the-world sort of way -- but in the everyday sort of way. We have to treat them as more than just neighbors. If we can get them to think of the almighty "Chosen" as their friends, whom they love, then perhaps when the time comes, war would be unthinkable.
"Perhaps even just being closer and more open to them will stop the whole bloody thing from happening at all."