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“But I’m a superheroine in underwear. Don’t cheapen it.

I deserve some respect for saving the city, even if I had to do it in a bra and panties.

” She crossed her arms over her chest. “We’ll blur out some stuff and frame it as a sporting event, on the scale of Godzilla. And Oz gets to be in it too.”

Oklahoma perked up at that. “Naked?” She sounded hopeful.

“No!”

“I’m just asking, jeez.” Oklahoma ran a hand through her hair. “Why would Oswald want to be featured in your film debut? …I mean, ‘Your glorious victory over your foes.’”

“Because he wants to be remembered as a hero.”

“And you really think my customers will give a good goddamn about Oz’s completely clothed half of the fight?”

“If you want my half of it, you will.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Oz saved millions of people. I want the city to remember that.”

“Your contributions to the battle were rather memorable, I doubt the men of the city will be forgetting this fight anytime soon…”

“You’re not helping your case.” Nat deadpanned.

“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “We’ll add some fight commentary and graphics.

Maybe a post-fight interview with you both.

That’ll sell it even better.” She paused.

“But I’m not blurring anything. We can add another zero or two for the fact you’re a natural redhead alone.

I make Cape erotica , not those crappy basic cable dramas or MMA clip-shows. ”

“I’ll consider it.” She shook her head. “But I seriously doubt I’ll agree to that.”

“Consider fast, because pretty soon, I’m just going to bootleg the footage and trust that my attorneys are better than yours.”

She made a face at the other woman. “You’re a horrible person, Oklahoma.”

“I’m an Irregular.”

Natalie looked around the interior of the hospital room, which was filled with flowers, balloons, and get-well cards.

“At least you’ve got a shit-ton of flowers here.” She remarked casually.

Oklahoma shrugged again. “Boss’ friend tries to beat you to death, boss sends you flowers. It’s one of the only perks.”

“ Monty sent you flowers?”

“Doubtful he did it himself, no.” Oklahoma flipped a disinterested hand. “I would be the one usually tasked with that kind of thing. It was probably Leland. I can’t imagine Mister Welles even knowing how to order flowers.”

Nat looked down at the expensive looking fabric of her chair. “This hospital is much better than the one I was in.”

“This is our hospital.”

“’Our’ hospital?”

“This is an extension of Wellesburg Memorial.” Oklahoma sounded very proud. “It’s the best medicine money can buy.”

Nat made an incredulous sound, remembering the shitty hospital she’d been stuck in last week. “Why wasn’t I sent here?” She gasped.

“You’d have to ask Mr. Welles.”

“To be honest, I kinda figured Monty’s version of medical care was basically the same as when a horse breaks its leg.” She made a gun-firing gesture.

“Wow.” Oklahoma looked disappointed by Natalie’s lack of faith. “You really don’t understand him at all, do you?”

“Are you trying to tell me that under his horrible surface there exists a heart of gold?”

Oklahoma snorted, which then turned into outright wheezing laughter over the absurdity of that idea, tight because of her broken ribs.

“No, no, not at all. He’s exactly as bad as he seems. Probably worse, in fact.

” She leaned back against her pillows, tiredly.

“The Roman scholar Persius had a saying: vincit qui patitur , ‘he conquers who endures.’ The Welles family made it their motto, way back. It means that you can get what you want, if you’re able to ignore all of the bad things associated with it and the terrible things you had to do to get it.

You can win any fight, if you can withstand the pain long enough.

” She paused for a moment. “I think about that sometimes…” She swallowed, then met her eyes.

“I’m not your friend, Natalie. I will kill you if I’m asked to or if I think you threaten my family.

But I can tell you this: you won’t beat Montgomery Welles.

” Her voice was firm and completely certain.

“He got shot three times in the chest and once in the face, and it didn’t kill him.

It just made him stronger. He lost his entire family and it didn’t stop him.

It just made him ruthless. He will somehow use your attempts to kill him, to make himself more powerful.

He is dangerous in a way that you and the Consortium have never seen.

I honestly don’t know what it is he thinks he wants, but I can tell you…

he’s going to get it. He will get it, no matter who is in his way trying to stop him or what powers they have.

He’s a Welles, the last of the Wellesburg Welles.

That’s what they do . That’s who they are .

” She nodded to herself. “And I’m going to help him, in any way I can. ”

Natalie wasn’t sure what to say to that.

The room fell into silence.

“He taught my sister Karen and I to play the piano once, when we were girls.” Oklahoma randomly shared, her voice now sounding slightly dream-like from the drugs.

“All he could play was ‘ Leaning on the Everlasting Arms .’” She flipped her hand again.

“I assume his mother taught him. I never asked. He kept messing up the lesson though, he tried to hide it, but he was just terrible. Then we all laughed.” Her voice grew sadder, trailing off. “…God, we laughed...”

“I don’t have all of Rondel’s memories, thank god.” Natalie began. “They’re still… murky. But I know I worked with Monty before. I know I did jobs for him.” Her voice became stern. “What did I do , Oklahoma?”

“I have no idea.” The woman told her.

“I think you’re lying.”

“I would, if I knew.” Oklahoma admitted.

“I’d lie to your face and I wouldn’t feel badly about it at all.

” She looked out the window, voice far away.

“My mother… she warned me about the Welles family. ‘That boy’s great-great-grandfather sold his soul to something dark, for riches and power, and it has poisoned the family ever since,’ she said, ‘They’re ruined and rotting.

Hollow inside. They might seem nice. They might seem friendly.

You might even like them. But there is fire burning beneath their surface, just out of sight.

.. And sooner or later, the ground you think you’re standing on with them will fall out from under you…

and the Welleses will take you down with them.

Down into the darkness where their souls used to be.

You’ll burn too, Car. …You don’t touch a Welles and not burn.

’” She swallowed, voice tight, reaching up to touch one of the charms on her necklace.

“She didn’t take her own advice though. None of us did.

” Her voice lowered to a haunted whisper, cracking. “…And now? I’m the only one left.”

“You tell me he’s a monster, but you also tell me that he’s just misunderstood.” Natalie leaned forward. “You’re an intelligent woman, who says she’ll die for someone we both know is a madman. So, help me understand him.”

“Sometimes who you were is more important than who you a re. ” Oklahoma thought aloud, clearing her throat and visibly fighting against the pain meds she was on.

“Do you know what the orbital cortex in the brain does? It’s the center which controls behavior.

It’s the brain’s safety switch which keeps your other drives in check, judges the context of the situation, and tells the parts of the brain what their responses should be.

It tells you when you should feel love or empathy or guilt or gives you a gentle reminder why you can’t just stab the person who cuts you off in traffic.

All kinds of things. I’ve always thought of it as the brain’s morality center; it’s the piece which makes humans humane .

For lack of a better term, it’s… your soul.

” She tapped her face. “It’s located right behind here.

And if it got injured, like say, if someone put a bullet into it, no matter who you were before that, you’d be pretty damaged as a result.

And that wouldn’t be your fault. You’d just be different as a result of your handicap.

It would make you incapable of feeling what a normal person would feel.

It would make you capable of doing things no normal person could do, if they ever wanted to sleep at night.

It would turn you into something that not everyone understands or even tries to. ”

Natalie processed that. “Doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be an asshole though.”

“Didn’t say it did. Just that… we live in a very complicated world.

” Oklahoma sounded sad again. “I’m under no delusions about Mister Welles, I’m not brainwashed and I’m not love-sick.

I know exactly who and what he is. Better than anyone else in this world.

I just don’t care.” She gestured to the cards which surrounded her, sent to her by the other Irregulars.

“None of us do. That’s the only power he has over the Irregulars.

And that’s what you never seem to understand.

We will help him, because we want to help him. We believe in Montgomery Welles.”

“Why be loyal to someone who has no loyalty in him?”