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“You’re always the asshole, Arn.” Mack assured him.

“The TV is saying that this is what happens when they let Capes into the same hospitals as the Norms.” Emily shook her head. “Can you believe that shit?”

“Yes. I can. And I think this is a warning that you people should be sent elsewhere from now on. We are instituting a new rule: no more going to regular hospitals.” McPherson announced, like she was somehow in charge.

“Your job is to protect people. Going to civilian hospitals endangers people, so if leaving the city before seeking medical treatment saves even one life , I’d like to think you’d be all for it. ”

“I will state this for the record once and only once: my people love this city...” Bridget began.

Poacher and Emily looked at one another and silently mouthed “ my people?” in surprised but dismissive uncertainty, apparently confused by Bridget’s unannounced power grab.

“We protect this city.” Bridget continued. “And if any of my people are injured while doing their job, this city will treat those injuries or we will stop protecting this city. That is not open for debate.”

“Well… I’ve decided that I like her more than I like Julian…” Natalie announced.

Julian nodded, beaming with pride that his betrothed was putting her foot down. “Me too.” He agreed.

“…which, granted, is a low bar.” Natalie finished her thought, then flashed her duel thumbs up. “But happy to be part of your team, Bridge.”

Cory looked amazed by the argument. “Even when we were villains, we could still go to the hospitals. This idea is fucking crazy.”

“It’s just something that’s being discussed.” McPherson defended. “If you have objections to the new policy, you are free to voice them.”

Emily cupped her hands over her mouth. “FUCK YOU!” She flipped the woman off. “How’s that for giving it voice?”

Holly shrugged. “Hell, if I’m going to be treated terribly either way, I’m going back to villainy. Now I know where all the cool expensive shit is stored around town, so it’ll be really easy.” She nodded persuasively. “I got a map and everything.”

“Wyatt’s got that key to the city.” Poacher volunteered. “I bet that thing opens up all kinds of safes and stuff.”

“Pretty ballsy to suggest to my face that I should let you risk my wife’s life for people I don’t even know.

” Steven O’Probrian, AKA “The Cynic,” leaned back in his chair, passively looking at McPherson in bored disinterest, like she was an aquarium.

“You remind me of this one girl I used to know back in the old country…”

“’The old country?’” Marian repeated, looking utterly amused and charmed by her husband.

“Really? That is what you are going with? Are you from Brigadoon all of a sudden, Steven? Because as far as I know, your knowledge of Irish culture seems to consist entirely of Guinness, the opening two and a half lines of Danny Boy , and repeated viewings of Far and Away on basic cable.”

“Nicole Kidman is hot as fuck in that.” Poacher thought aloud.

“She is a remarkable talent, yes.” Amity agreed.

Emily shrugged. “She’s overrated.”

Poacher glared at her in sudden theatrical fury. “Fuck your lies, whore!”

Emily started laughing.

“You people are children.” McPherson put her face in her hands. “I don’t know if I should be afraid or just sit here and pray that God takes mercy on your idiot souls.”

“My fiancé is a god, you bitch.” Bridget snapped. “You don’t pray for him. You pray to him.”

“Do you see why I chose to be alone all those years, my heart?” Julian looked around the room in distaste. “These people are horrible .”

Bridget shrugged, accepting that as a given. “Well, they’re surface-dwellers. What can you really expect?”

“Very wise.” Julian nodded in appreciation of that sentiment, then leaned down to kiss the top of her head. “Very wise, my love.”

Oz didn’t care about any of this. His only concern at the moment was finding the man who tossed Natalie off a roof. In Oz’s mind, that was the key to everything.

“If you people insist on wasting my time like this, I will go find Mercygiver on my own.” He told them flatly.

Natalie made a face. “I’d really prefer that you stayed out of this one, Oz.”

“I can take care of myself.”

She didn’t look convinced. “All I’m saying is that you should stay here with everyone else and let me handle it.” She flashed him a persuasive smile. “I’ll deal with Ronnie and then we both can deal with whatever the hell the Agletarians are up to. Okay?”

That was not okay with Oz.

Oz was not a possessive man. But there was a small part of his mind that was always in shadow.

The little bit of himself that his aunt always warned him would grow bigger and bigger until it consumed everything good inside him.

And at the moment, that little piece of darkness was furious that another man would touch Natalie like that.

The woman had a way of fanning the flames of his worst impulses, and Oz wasn’t exactly struggling to stop her.

Oz believed that you needed to understand what an enemy wanted in order to remove the problem he or she represented.

If you found out the root of the problem, you could end it.

In this case though, he knew what Mercygiver wanted.

He wanted what any man who looked at Natalie would want: he wanted Natalie .

The man wanted her, and since he wasn’t going to get her, Mercygiver was intent on making sure no one else did either.

Oz fully intended on killing Mercygiver when he got the opportunity.

It was against everything that Oz had ever believed, but… He’d killed once for Natalie today already. He was fairly certain he could do so again without trouble.

Which… probably should have worried him more than it did.

But it didn’t. At all. Because he’d gladly toss aside everything he’d ever believed and everyone currently alive in this city, if it meant Natalie was safe.

Natalie recognized the angry determination on his face. “I really don’t need to be protected, Oz. You’re just going to get hurt in this. Trust me: this is going to go bad in ways your orderly brain can’t even conceive of.” She sounded almost worried. “ Please just let me handle it.”

Oz squinted in sudden realization .

She was worried. About him.

In his entire life, Oz couldn’t remember anyone worrying about his safety before.

It was… nice. He almost smiled at the very idea.

Oz wasn’t someone people worried about. Oz was the kind of person who worried people.

It was entirely different. But for the first time ever, his death would actually mean something to someone.

Unfortunately, that someone in question was in very real and very serious danger at the moment, so Oz was more than willing to risk himself to save her.

“I spent last night watching you die, Miss Quentin.” He shook his head, looking into the stunning blue depths of her eyes.

She had the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen in his life and it felt like his heart skipped a beat every time he met her gaze.

They were sparkling and intelligent and teasing… “That won’t happen again.” He vowed.

Bridget nodded. “We will solve this, Mull, don’t worry about it.”

Natalie snorted. “Do I look worried?”

Poacher wagged his hand in the air. “Kinda.”

“Well, I’m not.” Natalie defended. “If Oz wants to get himself killed over this, that’s his prerogative.” She sniffed indignantly. “I just think he should be a little more careful with his life, that’s all.”

“Well, someone here has to state the obvious,” Clarice Thompkins, AKA “Pastiche,” announced, “why don’t we just let Multifarious and the government work this out with the Agletarians?

She doesn’t even technically work here and if they’re allegedly willing to go to this much effort to kill her, they probably have good reason. ”

“That’s not going to happen.” Oz told her flatly.

“They are here to discuss a peace treaty.” McPherson reminded them. “Seeing as how the last time you attempted such an agreement it ended up with you killing their leader…”

Poacher shook his head. “That wasn’t us.”

“They are trying to avoid a war,” McPherson continued, “so I think we should do everything we can to hear them out.”

“The only thing I want to hear out of my enemies is screams of pain.” Emily told the room.

Poacher nodded in agreement, like she was the height of logic. “I think we should kill them before they kill us.”

“You do not command the government or our military.” McPherson shook her head. “You will not interfere with foreign relations again.”

Poacher arched a challenging eyebrow. “ Or ? ”

Cory sat up straighter in his chair. “And what happens if ‘foreign relations’ wants to interfere with us?”

“The government’s policy on this is going to be ‘Wait and See.’” McPherson smoothed her suit.

“At this point, we should focus on covert information gathering without doing anything which could be interpreted as an escalation. Thus far, the Agletarians haven’t done anything to indicate that they mean us harm. ”

Holly snorted. “Aside from blowing up a hospital and trying to kill Mull?”

“There’s no proof it was them, and…” McPherson began.

Emily rolled her eyes, talking right over the woman. “I guess they were just visiting sick kids while dressed in their evil techno death-suits, and we overreacted.”

Poacher chuckled in amusement. “Maybe one of them Make-a-Wish kids asked for a foreign assassin to show up and kill Mull.”

“And you stood in the way of that final dream, you selfish bitch.” Emily’s eyes narrowed at Natalie in mock anger. “That poor dying child.”

“To be fair,” Bridget interrupted, “I can think of at least three people in this room who would use their final wish to do something very similar.”

“I’d want to go to Paris.” Poacher announced. “I’d much rather watch a foreign assassin kill Mull in Paris. It’d be all cultural and shit.”