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“You’re just catching onto that fact now?” Oz deadpanned.

She whirled back to face them. “You’re both psychopaths!”

“No, I’m the psychopath,” Mull corrected, then pointed at Oz, “he’s a psychotic.”

“I don’t like labels.” Oz informed them seriously.

Mull grinned, point proven. “See?”

McPherson looked around the room helplessly, as it filled with more members of the team, as if one of them would agree with her.

“Don’t look at me, I’m the sociopath.” Arnold shrugged disinterestedly, taking his seat at the table. “None of this involves me, so I don’t give a shit.”

The woman ignored that, glaring at Oz again and looking disappointed. “You pretend to care. Which makes you the worse of all of them.”

Mull waved a hand at her sarcastically. “Buh-bye, Laura.”

McPherson stormed away.

And that’s when Mull started to feel… bad about it. Not the whole “killing inhuman monsters who kidnapped little girls” thing, just the fact that she had involved Oz in the fight.

Oz was… pure. He was an innocent. Stronger than anyone else she knew, but surprisingly innocent about the world. It wasn’t right to take that away from him, or put him in situations which would make him compromise his morality.

The Lone Ranger didn’t kill every bad guy, even if he had good reason to do it.

The Lone Ranger found another way.

And… and it was hard for her to imagine Roy gunning down the Agletarians with quite so much zeal either.

Mull was used to doing things in a certain way. A violent and loud way, which was dangerous and exciting. But that wasn’t the way Oz was used to doing things. She needed to remember that. She’d acted without thinking and Oz had been forced to follow her.

But… Oz could have been hurt today.

The thought caught her off-guard. She wasn’t used to really caring about people.

The only people she really worked with on any regularity were Ronnie—and if that bastard had ever gotten hurt on a job, it would have been cause for her to celebrate—and Poacher, who typically was just as loud and violent as she was.

She hadn’t really worried about anyone in a long time.

To say nothing of the fact that she was guessing that Oz would be pretty sad if she had gotten killed today. She remembered his bedraggled and devastated appearance at the hospital, trying to come to terms with the fact she was dying. She never wanted to see that look on his face again.

Maybe… just maybe… there was something to be said for being a little adverse to needless risk and casual murder.

She needed to be more careful.

“I’ve never liked that woman.” Oz decided calmly, somehow managing to dismiss McPherson’s entire existence in five simple words.

“I’m sorry.” She said softly.

He shrugged. “I dislike a lot of people. I’m used to it.”

“No, no,” she shook her head, “I mean, I’m sorry that I got you involved in a firefight with an evil army.”

“We survived.”

“Yeah, but…” She trailed off. “I’ll try to think before I do things from now on.”

“It worked out.” He reminded her. “I probably would have gone a different way, but my way might not have ended so well for us.” He was quiet for a breath. “Some men can’t be redeemed. Trying to just ends badly.”

There was something sad in his tone, like he was talking about a personal experience.

He was talking about himself. For some reason, in that instant, she knew it.

Oz was a man who always seemed like he had more sad stories than happy ones.

In their entire relationship, she’d never once heard him mention any funny memories of his childhood or his past or his parents.

Hell, Mull’s entire life was a shifting kaleidoscope of crazy, and even she had some funny anecdotes about her life.

But Oz didn’t.

And there was something very, very sad about that.

She moved her hand slightly, so that it brushed against his as they both rested on their respective armrests.

A sense of victory filled her, as Oz’s fingers intertwined with hers.

All told, that was a lot easier than she had thought it would be. She was really good at the whole “seduction” thing.

“You don’t need to be redeemed,” she assured him softly, “you will never be anything other than an honorable and heroic man.”

He didn’t reply to that, he just continued to look at the tabletop, deep in thought.

As they sat there holding hands, the rest of the team began to file into the room, ready to watch the start of the assault on the Agletarian’s main base. Oz had been able to track down its location by pouring over each and every file they had seized this afternoon.

The main part of the Agletarian military was holed up far north of the city, in an otherwise quiet area.

There didn’t seem to be anything else around, which was probably why they had chosen it.

From the looks of the fortified building, the Agletarians had been there for quite some time though, doing God new what.

“Wyatt is going to be pissed when he gets back and finds out about this.” Traitor predicted ominously.

Emily shrugged disinterestedly. “On the other hand, it’s going to be an exciting event in my continuing ‘Wyatt and Monty’ slash-fiction romance story.”

“They bicker because they love.” Amy put her hands over her heart, utterly charmed. “It’s adorable.”

Stacy nodded. “I ship ‘WyMon’ so hard.”

Vaudeville leaned back in his chair. “Is the new chapter done yet?”

“I’m working on it but don’t have an exact ETA yet.” Emily started to paint her nails. “It’s a work in progress.”

Vaudeville made a face. “You’ve been saying that for months …”

Emily pointed the brush at him. “Don’t rush my genius!”

Mack flopped down into his chair, looking upset. “I still can’t believe we’re doin’ this. ”

“What’s wrong with this?” Traitor sounded confused. “It’s not like we really have an option.”

“We always have options other than trustin’ Welles.” Mack sounded appalled. “The man is fuckin’ evil. And I don’t mean that in a charmin’ way, I mean that in a ‘he’s the fucking Lord of Darkness’ way. We need to stop him. The man’s a fuckin’ demon and we all know it!”

Monty strode into the room. “ Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time .”

The man’s usual great coat was replaced by a fancier one with a grey fur collar.

Mull had no idea why he would get dressed up for this though.

“Revelation 12:12.” Amy glanced up at him, looking surprised. “I didn’t take you for someone who reads the Bible, Montgomery.”

“He’s probably just trying to learn as much as he can about the opposition.” Bridget snapped.

“Indeed, indeed.” Monty smiled his soulless grin. “My mother was the only daughter of the town’s reverend, did I ever tell you that? A deeply religious woman.” He nodded to himself as if that had meaning.

“And the point is?” Bridget asked.

“Higgins?” Monty turned to look at his assistant. “Do you remember what my mother always used to say?”

The toady was silent for a moment. “’Do the best you can.’” The man repeated, his normally nervous voice filled with both confidence and emotion, as if inspired by the thought, but saddened at the memories it brought up. “’Always do the best you can.’”

“Exactly.” Monty smiled in cruel anticipation. “And I believe the Agletarians deserve my best.”

“Don’t worry, that’s not creepy at all.” Bridget rolled her eyes, looking amazed that she was really in the situation of letting Monty run wild. It wasn’t going to end well and everyone in the room knew it.

“How do you plan to win this?”

“Hate.” Monty replied simply. “They hate us. More than anything else. That’s their weakness.

” Monty sank into his chair stiffly, favoring his bad leg.

“Hate is a biography. A roadmap. It can tell you more about someone than anything else. When someone hates you… they are in essence telling you who they are. How they think. What they feel. What they’re afraid of.

They’re telling you how to beat them .” He calmly checked his gold pocket watch, as the little automaton workmen inside chimed out their happy tune.

“People confess their weaknesses, Bridget. All one has to do is listen .” He was silent for a beat.

“Show me what someone hates, and I will show you who they are.”

Bridget gestured to the screen, which showed a satellite view of a vehicle traveling down an isolated road. “So your plan is…?” She trailed off, inviting Monty to finish.

“I am going to present where I am strongest and make them think it is where I’m the weakest. I am going to hit them where they think they’re the strongest, but they’ve failed to fully understand why it makes them terribly weak.

” Monty smiled again, like a hungry animal. “I’m going to show them the future .”

“And ‘The Future,’” Bridget made little sarcastic quotation marks in the air, “involves some new plan which no one could possibly prepare for?”

“It’s the oldest military strategy in the book, actually.” Monty gestured towards the screen. “Behold: our Trojan horse. The stolen Agletarian military truck will be let through security, our operatives inside will unleash the dragon from Rayn’s kingdom and…”

“The magic happens.” Clarice finished.

“Yes, we sit back and watch natural selection play out.” Monty smiled in smug satisfaction. “It will be beautiful. ”

“And if the Agletarians aren’t complete imbeciles?” Oz asked. “This plan is stupid.”

“Agreed.” Bridget nodded, pointing at the screen. “I was really expecting something more imaginative from you, Welles. You built yourself up as some kind of master tactician, but really ‘your best’ plan would be at home on any Saturday morning cartoon show. ”