The man pointing a rifle at them was young, about their age, with short dirty-blond hair and pale green, brilliant eyes. The combination made him quite attractive in an angelic sort of way. He was about as tall as Vega, but a lot less bulky. Which wasn't a shocker: the only people bulkier than Vega were all krogans. This man wore comfortable clothes and soft shoes but no weapon holsters, so he probably wasn't a fighter like Vega and Jo. Still, he was... something. The badge on his chest unassumingly said: N7. When his hard, tense eyes measured both Jo and Joker from top to bottom, there was no helping a cold shiver down Joker's spine. Hard determination hid behind those eyes and Joker knew: given the slightest provocation, their host wouldn't hesitate to deliver a headshot. Jo obviously knew that, too.

"Angel," she nodded to him without lowering her hands. He nodded back, but kept the rifle aimed at her.

"How did we meet?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"I was sitting, you were standing," Jo deadpanned. He cracked a tiny smile, but said:

"A little more detail, please."

"We met in the underworld, Angel. You were stuck there for your sins and I came in to bring order. You kept my secret about not eating that testicle and I made an introduction for you. You proved yourself and became an invaluable agent."

"Have you ever touched me?" Angel insisted and Joker seriously wondered what was going on here.

"You're gay, why would I ever want to do that?" Jo shrugged with a daring smile. "But yes, I actually did give you a hug once, and my shirt was still covered in blood form that testicle when I did it."

Finally the guy put the safety on the rifle and cracked a real smile.

"Had to make sure you're actually who you claim to be. Is this your husband, Mrs. Moreau?" He said, coming closer and jerking his chin at Joker.

"Best pilot in the galaxy, at your service," Joker was tired of being ignored, so as soon as Jo lowered her hands, he did the same.

"Yes, I know," the Angel guy nodded seriously. "I know everything."

"Oh, really?" Joker tried for sarcasm, but Jo nodded:

"Matt here is the Intelligence.

"The Intelligence?" Joker wasn't sure he knew what she meant.

"My name is Matt Cyco, code name Angel." The guy said directly to Joker.

"Psycho?" Joker couldn't hold back a surprised blink. Matt rolled his eyes:

"C-Y-C-O. Used to be Sycamore a hundred years ago, but then my great-grandfather decided to change it. Apparently he didn't like it. Don't ask me how Cyco is in any way better, I don't know."

"Ever thought of changing it back?" Joker poked at the logic of things. Now it was Matt's turn to blink in surprise.

"Uhm. No, but now that you mention it... Anyway, I'm an N7 agent who specialised in Intelligence. For the last four years I've been the leader of the Intelligence branch of the ICA. I know everything and see everything our agents are up to, which is why when they talk about the ICA Intelligence, they're basically talking about me. You and I have actually met once before, only you didn't know it was me."

"You mean that one time when I tried to hack Jo's profile to find out how she knew how to wear high heels? You kicked me out of the system."

"Yes, I did. Don't feel bad, it was a fucking great attempt, hardly anyone has ever come as close as you did to actually getting in. I just had the home field advantage and, well, I'm the Intelligence for a reason."

"If you know everything, why did you need to question Jo when we entered? Didn't you already know it was her?"

"Technically I did know. Still, it's been many years since we saw each other last and a lot has happened since then. She died twice and came back to life twice, for starters. I just needed to know that it was still my Jo in there," he waved his hand in the direction of Jo's head. "You can't always tell with the indoctrinated people. Our scanners pick it up most of the time, but when it comes to people I know and trust, important people like Jo, I rely my gut. Indoctrinated people have access to their memories, but the difference is - they don't feel the same way about anything. I don't know if they really feel much at all. I needed to see her face when she spoke about our first meeting, needed to see that she still felt the same way about it. You know what I'm talking about. You're been relying on your own gut all this time, trusting yourself to know that she's still your Jo."

"Doesn't mean I never doubted myself and my instincts," Joker shrugged.

"Nobody's perfect. All we can do is try."

"I knew you two would get along well," Jo nodded in satisfaction. "Matt, what's going on here? Are you alone?"

Matt used the rifle to point towards one of the corridors in invitation. Jo and Joker followed him.

"Yes, I'm the only organic left on the base. Everyone else joined the war and when it was over, a few survivors returned to check in, but left again to join the reparation teams, or to go on terrorist hunts."

"How many are left?" Jo asked carefully. It was obvious she was dreading the answer.

"Including Hackett, you and me and excluding unranked recruits and everyone you enlisted after accepting the leadership - thirty eight."

Even to Joker the number was like a punch in the gut. So few! Hackett had warned them that 95% of ICA agents were dead, but the reality just pulled the ground from under his feet. Jo inhaled sharply, as if someone had punched her.

"The old ICA is truly gone, then," she didn't even try to hide her emotional response. "Are you okay, Matt? How have you been doing on your own here?"

"Dex is keeping me company."

"Who is Dex?"

"Hello, Commander Moreau," a pleasant, deep male voice spoke from the loudspeakers. "I am Dex, the ICA home base's artificial intelligence. It is my pleasure to welcome you home after a long absence and to congratulate you on your promotion to our leader."

Jo stopped in her tracks and let her gaze slide slowly from Joker to Matt. A little smile was about to spread on her lips, Joker could tell.

"Dex, how long have you been self-aware?"

"Two years, eight months, fifteen days, six hours and seventeen seconds."

"Did you feel any changes during the Pulse?" She referred to the energy pulse that had killed the Reapers and EDI.

"No, Commander. I have geth interface integrated into my programming. I was skipped during the Pulse."

"Good," she nodded and finally openly grinned at Matt: "Leave it to the gay guy to make his AI a male. Meanwhile I was stuck with titanium titties and ass on my ship for all this time."

"What can I say?" Matt shrugged. "Dex is my baby, so why not make him the way I like him?"

"Amen, brother," Jo nodded. Joker noted to himself that she didn't even ask Matt if he was the AI's creator. She just knew. They entered a huge room with a single seat in the middle, otherwise filled to the rafters with tech. Screens, consoles, devices of all kinds around the seat created a sort of nest, where the person in the seat had access to everything. News vids ran on a few screens, security footage on several others, geological surveys and satellite readings on others. Whoever sat in the chair had access to the entire Sol System and more.

"Welcome to my humble cave," Matt said, put the rifle in a locker in the corner and sat in the chair. Instead of turning to his consoles, though, he turned his chair to face them. "So, you're Mama. What's the plan? Are we really moving to Chrysalis?"

"Yes, we are. Pack whatever you need, we're moving everything we can to the Normandy right now, then we're activating self-destruct."

"Right now?" Matt shot out of his seat. "Kidding? Dex alone will take a day to move!"

"Well, I didn't know you had an AI in your suitcase, did I?" Jo poked the other man.

"Dex," Joker spoke up. "We have remaining servers from our resident but deceased AI on the Normandy. If I give you access, will you be able to download yourself onto the ship?"

"Yes, Mr. Moreau, I could run diagnostics and give you a report within six seconds whether the servers are sufficient or not."

Joker opened his omnitool and powered up the Normandy's main systems from distance.

"She is open for you. Don't break anything, and don't you dare change my seat adjustments!"

"I will be careful, Mr. Moreau," Dex sounded just a little bit condescending. "Please, hold. Done. It is indeed possible for me to move 34% of my software to the ship if you add just one Red Box from my room to replace damaged parts of the servers, Matt. That would be sufficient for me to remain fully self-aware and functioning. I can also install myself on the mobile platform created by Cerberus and previously occupied by EDI and help you with the move."

"What?" Joker exclaimed. "That thing is still on board? I haven't seen it. Tali told us that it was fried from the inside and damaged beyond repair!"

"While you were in Greenland, Tali, Ken and Gabby worked on that platform in their spare time. EDI could not be brought back, but the body is fully functional again and ready to carry an AI once more," Dex explained and it didn't escape Joker's attention that he used the names of the crew members easily as if he was well acquainted with them. "Tali has consumed several bottles of hard liquor while working on it."

"And you still trust it to be functional?" Joker raised an eyebrow.

"A drunk Tali is still a genius," Dex sounded a little smug.

Joker looked at Jo with unease. Would she allow some other AI take over the body that used to be EDI's? He was not comfortable with that.

"Dex," Jo saw Joker's face and knew his objections. "Would you mind using that mobile platform only during our move? We have an emotional attachment to it as belonging to our friend. Besides, it looks like a woman's body and I doubt your Matt will be comfortable with that."

"True, I won't," Matt nodded.

Joker saw the necessity of a helping hand during the move and was grateful for Jo's interference, but he noticed that Jo said "your Matt" to the AI, and that the man hadn't objected. Was her teasing based on truth? Were this human and his AI closer than… usual?

"Have you ever been on a mobile platform, Dex?" Joker asked.

"Not one of my own, but I have looked through Matt's eyes," Dex said a little cryptically.

"Are we talking about cyber-sex?" Jo grinned at Matt, who raised an eyebrow:

"Said the woman who carried a geth inside her brain. My interface with Dex is based on the design the geth came up with to get you inside their consciousness. That interface is what saved him from being wiped."

"So, we are talking about cyber-sex," Joker nodded.

"I love how you don't add 'weird' to 'cyber-sex'. Most people usually so," Matt sounded a little grim, but appreciative.

"Me? Never. I loved EDI too much to think it weird. What does Dex stand for, anyway?"

"Nothing, really, just a name I gave him. I always liked the name Dexter."

"Come on, boys, we have a lot to do today," Jo urged and led them towards an atrium. Despite being underground there was dim light coming from the opaque ceiling glass. She noticed Joker's questioning glance and explained:

"We're not that far underground, that window is masked on the outside so you'll never notice it, but the light is real. Also, some quarters have actual windows with a view, masked between rocks and boulders. It's nice to have fresh air sometimes."

The atrium was not big, but the main part of it was a beautiful garden with a fountain in the middle and magnolia trees around it. It was too late for them to bloom, but Joker could only imagine how breathtaking the place looked in early spring. Jo walked up to a slender, slick console near the fountain and reverently ran her fingers over it.

"Never thought I'd be the one standing here."

"Why? What is it?"

"The place where the new leader is sworn in. Hasn't been used for twenty eight years."

A holo screen appeared and a text ran up on it. Matt nudged Joker to stand at attention in front of Jo under the magnolias and to salute her.

"I, Johanna Victoria Moreau, born Shepard in Vancouver, Earth, swear to uphold the principles of the Interplanetary Combatives Academy," she read from the screen. "I swear to never admit unworthy recruits to the program. I take full responsibility for each recruit's actions for they are my children. I will protect my children with my heart, body and soul, whatever it takes, but not at the expense of my lawful and blood family." She raised an eyebrow, apparently somewhat surprised that this stipulation was in the text of the oath. "I swear my full loyalty and secrecy to the school and to each of my children. I swear to always respond to those in need, to protect the galaxy from any internal or external threats without any personal or political gain. I swear to place compassion, integrity and morals above any other authority. In front of three witnesses I accept the responsibility and take the Academy into my care."

"Standing witness, Matthew Cyco, N7 Intelligence Agent and the leader of the Intelligence branch," Matt spoke up on cue. "I swear my allegiance to ICA and to my leader, I swear to protect my family and the galaxy with my life."

"Standing witness, Dex, the home base's artificial intelligence," Dex spoke up from above them. "I acknowledge my leader and swear my allegiance to her, to the Academy and to the galaxy."

"Standing witness, Jeffrey Moreau, a Flight Instructor of the ICA," Joker said just as solemnly. He'd never been required to swear his allegiance to Jo when they started working together on the Normandy, nor had he ever expected to be accepted into this famous family these guys were talking about, but he'd be damned if he wasn't proud right now. "I swear my allegiance to my leader and to my new family and promise to protect the galaxy with my life."

"Thank you, gentlemen," Jo nodded and the console powered down.

"Do we have time to celebrate, Mama?" Matt cocked his head. Jo shook off the seriousness and smiled:

"Sure, Joker and I are technically still on our honeymoon."

"Ew," Matt shuddered in jest and went to a dining area of the atrium. In a bar there he found a bottle of brandy and three glasses. They sat together on a bench under a tree and raised their glasses.

"A toast to the leadership," Matt said. "Since it was the best and worst kept secret in the whole academy that Mr. Y was our leader, I'll drink to him first. He was a fair man, he loved us with all his heart, he gave all he had to this institution and even gave his life for the galaxy's survival. Twenty eight years of his leadership have not gone by unnoticed. His legacy, preserved in his students and everything we've achieved, will live on forever, in Jo's case even in galactic proportions. To the best of us, to the man always hidden behind the curtain, humble to the core, yet proud and… creepy."

"Definitely creepy," Jo nodded.

"I wish I'd met him," Joker said. They drank, as Dex dimmed the lights and projected a vid on one of the walls, showing them a few pictures of a tall, charismatic man with salt-and-pepper hair. Joker had no doubt who that was.

"And my next toast is obviously to the new leadership," Matt filled their glasses again. "To Jo, not any less creepy than Mr. Y, but a true protector and a servant of the galaxy. May you be as generous with my leash as your predecessor was," he addressed Jo with a sly smile.

"I was never a fan of your leash. As far as I'm concerned, you've proven yourself enough to earn your freedom a hundred times over." Jo said.

"What are you talking about?" Joker couldn't hold back the questions anymore. Jo put a gentle hand on his thigh and squeezed a little:

"It's a story that goes back to the one question you, my love, will never think of asking me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Whether or not I've ever been locked up in a prison."

"But you've been locked up for half a year in Vancouver!"

"No, that was a luxury suite in a detention centre. I'm talking about a real prison with murderers, sadists, rapists, terrorists and other scum inside, most of them in there for life."

"I resent that statement," Matt pouted in a voice that suddenly screamed "gay".

"You were in there for a reason," Jo swatted at the other man.

"Well, I may have been there for a reason and have spent a few years locked up with the most brutal scum of the human race, but it was only when you showed up that I truly understood the nature of evil," Matt said seriously, taking a long sip from his glass.

Joker tingled inside like a swarm of bees:

"I need to know that story!"

"I don't like to blow my own horn," Jo shrugged. "Matt, you tell it. Don't be afraid to be graphic. The only thing Joker loves more than hearing about my brutalities is watching me commit those brutalities."

"Gets you hot?" Matt asked Joker.

"Rock hard," he agreed. He'd just met this guy, but talking to him was so easy, as if they'd been buddies forever. And that, coming from a misanthropic asshole like him, meant a great deal.

"Okay," Matt spread his knees and slid a little further down in his seat, making himself comfortable. "Once upon a time seven years ago I was locked up in a high security prison. Hades, a station prison in Venus' orbit, ever heard of it?"

"Heard of it, sure, just never thought about it," Joker said. "It's a prison for the worst offenders, if I'm correct."

"I was in there for voluntary manslaughter. I'm just going to tell you now before you go snooping in my file. I own my past and my mistakes. When I was young and stupid, I felt the need to prove my hacking skills to anyone and everyone. So, for no other reason than to show off, I hacked a hospital system in Washington and released a virus. It lead to 64 deaths. Cocky hacker or not, I was still caught, shackled, tried and sent to Hades to serve seventy five years. I'd been there for two and a half years when three guys inside organised a rebellion. Their names were Iberi, Abernathy and Creed. Within a day or two the prisoners killed most of the guards, then the leaders fought among themselves. Creed took a few men and disappeared into the bowels of the station. Iberi killed Abernathy and nailed his mangled corpse to the wall in the lunch room. I was under Iberi's 'protection' then, doing minor tech stuff for him."

Joker nodded as the picture was painted for him. Anticipation sucked at his solar plexus. Matt took a quick sip from his glass and continued:

"Iberi had the most inmates under him. You see, there were seventy two inmates at the beginning, and all were men. Not a single woman had ever been brought to Hades. Apparently, women don't often commit crimes worthy of such a place, and those who do are mostly spread over other women's prisons. Hades is and always was a fountain of testosterone. Iberi knew I was good with tech, but a hacker is not an engineer. The station's engines and life support were damaged during the rebellion and the whole thing was slowly dropping into Venus' atmosphere."

Again, Joker nodded. This sounded just like a mission Jo would have been sent on.

"I couldn't help with the engines. So I was just sitting there, browsing the systems when suddenly I came across a file that I was pretty sure hadn't been there before. A woman on Hades, apparently transported in only a few days previous to that and locked in one of the highest security solitary cells. That means: a small room where they turn off the lights, there is only a bed and a toilet in the middle, while the rest of the walls, floor and ceiling is under high voltage. It's meant for the most fucked up criminals. I told Iberi about her and he sent me and a few other guys to investigate. When we opened that cell door and turned on the lights, it was like a divine intervention or something. Jo sat there on the bed in the lotus position. She looked like Aphrodite born of seafoam, I swear, and I'm gay. You can't even imagine what the apparition did to the rest of the guys. Of course, I did all I could to hide the fact that I'm gay. It's a sentence worse than death on Hades. I've personally seen a few guys being raped to death there, so I did all I could to conceal that little fact about me. Still, somehow Jo found out."

"It wasn't a hard one," Jo interrupted. "When that door opened, I faced a pack of rabid, horny hyenas and one mistrustful, rational man. A dead giveaway."

Joker's hands shook from excitement. The story just kept getting better and better, just to his liking!

"Yeah, well, with Hades being women-free I never had to watch myself in hose kinds of situations," Matt shrugged. "Joker, you can't even imagine the atmosphere. About fifty of the toughest, scariest, most vicious murderers, serial killers, mafia enforcers, rapists, sadists, psychos the world has ever known, who hadn't seen a woman in ages and had no hope of ever seeing one again - suddenly looking at this vision of delicate beauty and grace. She was so outnumbered, outgunned, out-everything that it was simply ridiculous. That gang rape was such a sure thing that they all simply stood still, savouring the fact that there was no chance they wouldn't get at her. They were all stunned into stupor. And had she only blinked once in fear, they would have rushed her right there and then. But she didn't blink even once. She showed no fear. Instead she let us take her to Iberi. She was obliging with the other inmates, kind of sweet, even flirty, took no offence at their slobbering and her eyes promised them fulfilment of their every filthy fantasy. I didn't trust her because I could swear her file appeared out of nowhere, and I could tell there was something creepy about her, but the rest of the guys lost their heads."

Joker looked at Jo and could see everything Matt was talking about right in her eyes. She was just the kind of girl to hypnotise that hard audience like a snake charmer. Joker was rock-hard from the image.

"So, when Iberi laid his eyes on her, he obviously claimed her for himself, but he decided to treat her somewhat like a lady, as much as he knew how to. Before he'd rape her, he offered her food. First, though, he takes her hand, licks her skin and says: "You taste glorious, Johanna." And she smiles prettily and replies: "Can't wait to find out what you taste like." And the rest of the guys all but cum in their pants, all growling and drooling and moaning, and she's just standing there, enjoying the fuck out of herself. Then Iberi takes her to the lunch room and at first they stand there and talk about Abernathy's corpse on the wall like it's a Monet or a Picasso, and all the while I keep thinking: am I the only one here who sees that this golden Aphrodite is creepier than all of you guys put together? It looked like she was outnumbered and at their mercy..."

"But she really wasn't," Joker stated proudly, beaming at his wife. He could very well imagine.

"No, she wasn't. In fact, it was them who were at her mercy, they just didn't know it. Anyway, everyone sat down to eat, and one of Iberi's enforcers, Keplan, puts an apple on the table. She'd asked for an apple before. He said she could have it for a price. She asked him to name it. He said: a blowjob."

"He didn't quite put it that way," Jo snorted. Joker also sniggered, imagining all kinds of filthy words the guy may have used, and nodded at Matt to continue the story.

"Everyone thought she'd balk, but she says: sure, let's do it. So she gets to the middle of the room and goes to her knees. I don't need to tell you that the guys pretty much go feral. And I sit there and think to myself: this is either going to be a disaster or... a disaster."

"So, which one was it?"

"It was the worst kind you could ever imagine. I'm telling you all this in such detail because just over fifty men who had been in that room are scarred to this day by what we've seen. Even me. So, she's on her knees and Keplan takes out his dick and comes to her, holding that fucking apple, and the mob is ready to pounce. And honest to God, I swear to you, she opens her mouth, takes his whole dick down her throat, then crushes her jaws together and fucking rips his dick off with her teeth."

A wave of heat slammed into Joker, immediately followed by a wave of frost, concentrating somewhere around his own balls and echoed as a phantom pain from the image alone. And then another heat wave drove droplets of sweat to his forehead, chest and groin. The unimaginable brutality of what Matt described was not surprising to Joker - he'd seen Jo do a lot of brutal things, but it was scary and arousing at the same time. Scary because he now knew what exactly those teeth that he let near his balls every night were capable of. And arousing... for the exact same reason.

Matt remained silent for several long moments, giving the story its due. It was Jo who shrugged:

"I helped myself a little with a knife I pilfered from an inmate, it wasn't just my teeth."

"Semantics," Matt waved her off. "Fact is still that you feminised the guy with your mouth." He then continued talking to Joker: "First there's shock in the room and Keplan is already screaming falsetto, when she spits his dick out into her hand, plucks one of his testicles from the bloody mess, rips off a wire holding Abernathy's corpse to the wall, makes a necklace from that testicle and hangs it around her neck. Her shirt is all bloody, but she has this serene smile on her face as she picks up the apple and bites into it. That's when everyone goes feral. Iberi's freaked out, he asks her: "What are you in here for?" And she fucking says: "I find cannibalism is such a harsh word. I can't wait to find out what you taste like." That's when they all realise what she means when she says that, and oh, man, that's when I realised that the real face of evil is pretty like a goddess."

Joker consulted Jo's face. She humbly looked to the side, as if Matt's story was just another embellished recollection of her heroic deeds that she didn't think were worthy of advertising. It was all in a day's work for her. To those men it was an image that probably still haunted their dreams.

"The rest of the story is far less dramatic," Matt continued. "Iberi wanted her dead, but she made a deal with him: she would repair the engines of the station if he kept her safe. He had to accept, or we would all be dead within a day or two. So, Jo and I worked together for the rest of that day: me running diagnostics and her doing the physical repairs. She was still wearing that blasted testicle around her neck and trust me, nobody wanted to come anywhere near that. Then at night we ran into each other in an empty corridor and I was really spooked, but we came to talk. I realised that she was neither a real cannibal, nor a real prisoner, while she confirmed that I was gay, so we both knew a secret about the other. Jo offered to introduce me to the ICA leadership as a possible candidate for recruitment, and in exchange I helped her keep up the cannibal image while providing her with intel on the gang. She tossed the testicle in a duct and I told everyone I saw her eat it. Then Creed and his guys snatched her from under our nose, Iberi sent a group of guys to find her, but they never returned. Neither did the second group. By the time he was considering a third group, there were only eighteen of us left and that's when new guards sent from Earth stormed the place and overpowered us. Then they found Creed, his guys and the two search parties all gagged and bound securely to pipes in various sections of the engine room. And out comes she, the demon in an angel's disguise, the winner of the whole skirmish. Neither Iberi nor Lockwood, the Chief Warden, could fucking believe her. I could."

"Dude, you're gay, but in your own way you're as hot for her brutalities as I am," Joker observed.

"Hm. Probably. She kept her word and introduced me to Mr. Y. You see, the ICA has a very strict policy: if you have a criminal record, you're out. But the instructors made an exception for me because Jo vouched for me and because I'm a fucking genius at what I do. They made me an offer: I could either forget about the ICA, serve my term in prison and then be a free man in my old days if I survived Hades. Or I could enlist in the Alliance, go through the ICT and remain at this base for the rest of my life with a bomb in my chest that would explode if I tried to escape. All things considered, a life sentence in here seemed like a vast improvement over the other option, so I accepted the deal. And that's my leash: a bomb that ensures my loyalty."

"Which, as I said, I find offensive. The ICA was a little hypocritical in this regard. They put a bomb into you for what you did, but I was a three-times murderer before I even joined the Alliance, the ICA knew all about it and yet they invited me."

"You were never caught or convicted, you didn't even have a record, unlike me."

"That is the bullshit excuse they used, but the fact remains: when it was convenient, they looked the other way for some of us, but not for others. That's the one thing I didn't like about our leadership."

"There's one more difference: your three murders can all be considered self-defence, unlike mine."

Jo only shrugged at that.

"So, Joker," Matt looked at him with mischief in his eyes. "Is that the kind of story you hoped to learn when Jo promised you access to her personnel file?"

"How do you know what she promised me?"

"I know everything. Since EDI is gone, your systems are completely open. I even know that you had a fascinating wedding night."

"Why is it that someone's always watching? If not Cerberus or EDI, then it's you!" Joker threw his hands up in exasperation.

"If you live in a bunker in the middle of a desert with one incorporeal being for company, all you can do is watch. So I watch."

Joker would have been a hypocrite if he claimed he didn't understand.

While he was letting the impressions of everything he saw and heard here wash over him, soft music began playing in the background. Odd, tingly-jingly kind of music. Matt groaned a little and rolled his eyes.

"Dex has a little obsession," he said. "He's been compiling a playlist for you guys. He does it for me, too, so my life has a constant soundtrack. This song," he waved at the speakers. "Is his choice for what should have been your wedding dance."

Joker looked at Jo and found her looking back, amused.

"We never did have our wedding dance," he reminded her. "What with Vakarian's interruptions."

"You can have it now," Dex said almost eagerly.

"I can't dance," Joker lamented, but to his surprise Jo got up and held her hand out to him:

"You don't need to. All you have to do is stand on my shoes and let me lead you," she pointed at her combat boots: "Titanium alloy toes," she explained.

The music grew louder and Joker, sceptical but intrigued by this new adventure, let Jo tug him up. Awkwardly at first, he managed to step up onto her toes and hold himself there by grabbing Jo firmly around her waist, balancing their weight. The music swelled and a male voice began singing:

"Let me be your wings, let me be your only love, let me take you far beyond the stars..."

"What the hell is that song?" He laughed when Jo started moving. She was strong enough to carry his whole weight on just the tips of her shoes, moving them in a waltz. From the side it must have looked like they were dancing together, and Joker actually felt like he was dancing, even though he didn't have to do anything but hold on.

"That's a soundtrack from a Disney cartoon vid from 1994, Thumbelina," Dex explained. The song carried on:

"Anything that you desire, anything at all, every day I'll take you higher and I'll never let you fall..."

"Did you just say Disney?"

"Did you just say cartoon?" Jo and Joker exclaimed at the same time and gaped at each other.

"Get ready for another world of wondrous things..."

They laughed at the ridiculousness of it, still locked in a waltz. There was no other choice but to embrace the tackiness and enjoy the fuck out of it, just because. Matt on his bench smiled and Joker could swear he had a tear in his eye. The music grew louder and even more powerful:

"We'll see the universe and dance on Saturn's rings..."

"Hah!" Joker laughed out loud. "That was written before flying to Saturn was as easy as walking across the street. Now I can actually take you dancing on Saturn's rings," he leaned in and kissed Jo sweetly. "That song was written just for us."

"Heaven isn't too far, heaven is where you are..."

That was when Joker felt a knot in his own throat and noticed a glimmer in his wife's eyes.

"Let me be your wings," he mouthed along with the last line of the song, the words meant for her alone, from the bottom of his heart.

Matt was looking at them with a hidden sadness, but Joker only had eyes for Jo. The music quieted down and Jo stopped moving, but they never let go of each other. They stood under the magnolias in a tight embrace and Joker knew that his heaven would always be right here, where she was.