Absolute Power

With just one hour before we could make our desperate escape, Ben and I were being shoved in front of their despicable emperor.
"You have alluded me for almost a decade, Benjamin." Gregory said factually.
Ben was staring down at his feet, but I wasn't. I was gazing straight into Gregory's eyes. I didn't plan on him realizing his mistakes right now, but I searched for that weakness, that piece of logic that he'd left out, that I could use to reveal that he had, indeed, made a mistake.
"Why are you here?" Gregory asked.
"To stop you." I said, with an undertone of anger.
"Wrong!" he looked almost teasingly at me, apparently with the goal of intimidation, "you're here because I forced you here." Then he looked at Ben again, "why are you here?"
"To give you a message...from your future self."
"Then do so."
I watched in disgust as Ben took out a sealed envelope and handed it to a guard, and I was almost thankful when I heard Bob Simmons yell at the door to let him in. Then his troops opened fire. He was obviously/understandably desperate to keep Gregory from getting the message.
All of Gregory's armed guard turned and ran to stop the advancing brigade. And that was our cue. Or my cue, anyway. I rushed toward the exit, hearing Ben's pathetic, "Peter, wait!" Luckily, he at least had the brains to follow me as I ran up to the hallway yet again. This time we only needed 15 minutes of time, which I was sure we could accomplish. I ran up to the same turret as before, with Ben at my heels.
"Peter, we've got to tell Vanderdecken12!"
"That's not Vanderdecken. It's Gregory. There's a difference."
"No, there isn't! He's trying to do what's right."
"And failing, Ben, failing. We have to convince him he was wrong so he'll call the whole thing off. That's the only way."
"But he hasn't! The world's at peace, Peter."
And indeed, the idea was appealing. I, too, had read of the small amount of war that had occurred, and, of course, the stricter regulations which had, at least according to the Government's newspaper, lead to a clean and safer environment. But I looked over the castle's edge and out into the surroundings, and shook my head, "No Ben, that's not true. It's being destroyed by something much stronger than war. I suppose you just don't understand." I had just used one of the forbidden arguments of the debate world that, unfortunately, is used far to often by the inexperienced. I couldn't articulate why a complete government takeover was bad, so I just said he didn't understand. I began to doubt my position for a moment, though only a moment.