New York was still there, and Daredevil wasn't hearing anything about an explosion near Earth, which meant that the sacrifice had been made.

Daredevil and Angel were standing on a rooftop in Manhattan. The sun was rising; Angel was watching it, while Daredevil seemed to be. He hadn't actually seen the sun rise in a long, long time, but he always felt it. It was a tidal wave of soft warmth that washed over everything around him.

After getting back aboveground, Daredevil had shouted at the cops on the scene, telling them to push everyone back. The cops were a little busy-they hadn't had enough handcuffs to detain all of the General's men, so some of them were still being held at gunpoint-but they'd listened to him, moving the entire circus a block away. (A few of the soldiers tried to run, but Daredevil put them down before they got police-issue bullets in them.) Luckily, this part of Manhattan was mainly business, and not residential, so there weren't any apartment buildings nearby. But it ended up not mattering. The generator had slowly risen out, and the office building had essentially crumbled in on itself. Afterwards, there'd been nothing but a massive crater in the street, which went deep under the city.

Daredevil had told the cops what happened, though he'd left out the part about Halo Knight being a mutant (or connected to the space program). He'd made sure to explain how Halo Knight had come to his senses and gotten the generator away from the city. Without his help, they would have been doomed. At that point, Daredevil had assumed that Halo Knight would be returning along with Angel, and he didn't want the troubled young man getting shot on sight. But, in the crowd of onlookers (many of whom were in their bathrobes), a different story was already forming: namely, that Daredevil and Angel had "beat up some aliens" and "scared 'em so bad they hopped in their ship and left the planet."

The CIA man had vanished as soon as they got out. A masked vigilante sticking around to explain things to the cops, while the government agent vanished to avoid questions...that might not have been a great sign for the future. Daredevil tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. At the end, the CIA man had seemed a little panicky, and he'd been muttering questions to himself. Maybe he'd finally realized that he'd been sent to do a job that didn't actually need doing.

Daredevil had swung up to a rooftop, and Dr. Halloway-the original Angel-had eventually made his way up there. They'd watched for the younger Angel together. When the expected explosion never came, Daredevil started to get worried. But, minutes later, Angel had returned, half-frozen. He tried to tell them what happened, but it took him a few attempts. Halo Knight had shut himself in the shielding, picked up speed, and somehow vanished into space. Daredevil had immediately understood Halo Knight's thinking. He wanted to get the generator as far from Earth as possible, so he'd had to stay with it. Maybe Halo Knight was already dead. Or maybe he was alive, and still inside the generator, creating more separation between it and their world.

Angel had thanked Dr. Halloway and given him his cape back, and Dr. Halloway had performed rudimentary exams on both of them. They were banged up, but he didn't see anything serious, and nothing internal seemed to be damaged. Daredevil could have told him that. Thanks to his senses, he was all too aware of his own physical condition. He'd also used his senses to check Angel. If something had been seriously wrong with him, Daredevil would have let the cat out of the bag about his abilities, telling them that the younger hero needed to be checked out.

Dr. Halloway had still offered to take them back to his mansion for further examination, but they'd turned him down. Apparently, he lived right down the street from the Stark mansion, which hadn't been used since the elder Starks' deaths. Tony Stark preferred penthouse living. (Dr. Halloway said that the walled-in mansion was an overgrown, haunted-looking place, and he hoped that Tony Stark would eventually find a use for it.) After telling them that they could always come to him for help, Dr. Halloway had left.

They were still standing vigil for Halo Knight. If he came back, he might need their help. Or-and Daredevil hated to think this-maybe his return to his senses would be short-lived, and they'd need to deal with him again. But nothing had ever happened. They just remained on the rooftop, Daredevil crouching by a gargoyle and Angel warming himself with his wings.

After a while, Angel said, "You told them, right? You told them that Halo Knight realized he was wrong and saved the city?"

"I did," Daredevil said. "But, we had something to do with that, too."

"...we did, didn't we? We helped save the city. I mean, millions of people! Wow." Angel paused, thinking. "You know, for a tough guy from Hell's Kitchen, you're pretty good with words. The way you reasoned with him..."

Daredevil thanked him, nodding. He'd used both of the tools in his toolbox-his fists and his words-but he'd also added a new one. Call it the devil's smile. He'd never be as funny as Spider-Man, but he could disarm his enemies with his attitude, making them think that he wasn't taking them seriously. It just felt right. He wanted them to think that he was a demon come to life, and demons were grinning, gleeful things.

Angel angled his head toward the sky. "So, where do you think he ended up? Out in some other part of the galaxy?"

"Somewhere we can't even imagine," Daredevil said.

Angel suddenly snapped his fingers. "Hey, at the end of the fight, when the soldiers ran-what did they say, exactly? Something about you not being the darkness?"

"They were trying to remember a name, but they couldn't quite do it. The soldiers were still trying to remember when they were being arrested. In fact, they were really frustrated. It was strange."

"So...it's over," Angel said. "What happens now? I mean, am I your sidekick or something?"

Daredevil chuckled. "You're your own man, Angel. You proved that tonight. If you ever want training, or need help, you know where to find me. But I'm just a pair of fists in Hell's Kitchen, and you're one of the Children of the Atom. People like you will probably end up changing the world. If you ask me, that's the part of your life that you should focus on, and I'm pretty much useless in that area. You'll have to figure it out for yourself. But I do know this: when the truth comes out, the world needs to see that mutants can be heroes."

"I'm not scared of that, anymore," Angel said. "Sooner or later, everybody will know about mutants. I've accepted it. Before, I was kind of like Halo Knight: instead of giving people a chance, I just gave up on them...preemptively, I guess? I think people can deal with the idea of mutants. It'll take a while, but they'll get there."

"That's a good attitude to take."

"Well, uh...I've actually got class in, like, an hour. I'm supposed to take a test this morning, but I can't stop thinking about redheads. I saved that one at the hotel, and, yeah. What I'm trying to say is, I kind of need to go."

"So do I." Daredevil stuck his hand out; Angel shook it. "It was a pleasure working with you, Angel. I never would have been able to do this without you."

"Right back at you, buddy," Angel said. "I really learned a lot, and I mean that."

People were starting to fill the streets. Some of them were pointing up at Daredevil and Angel, shouting in amazement.

"I'm not in a huge rush," Angel said, looking down at them. "Should we do one last patrol? Just ten minutes, in case we missed something."

"Sure thing."

Angel launched himself from the rooftop, flying, and Daredevil casually leapt off of it, firing his billy club and swinging. They were about to return to their (challenging) lives, but they deserved to bask in a little hero-worship, first. It felt good. It felt great, actually. The sun was shining, the people were cheering, and the heroes were on patrol.

Halo Knight had been exactly what Daredevil needed to see. He'd known that greed and viciousness were threats, but he now understood that hopelessness could be just as dangerous. It could truly destroy people. Daredevil was fighting a one-man war to clean up Hell's Kitchen, and it could be a slog, but he now knew that he needed to find ways to stay positive. And other people needed hope, as well. Daredevil would always be a terrifying figure...but, at the same time, Matt needed to use him to give the citizens of Hell's Kitchen a little hope. Maybe his new attitude would help in that. A devil that smiled would make the guilty even more frightened and confused, but maybe that same smile could be used to calm the innocent.

Trying to create fear and hope at the same time...it'd be tough. But, in many ways, his masked identity was a challenge that he'd made to himself. A dare. Well, with his new strategy, he was arguably doing a double-dare. Instead of wearing one D on his chest, maybe he'd have to start having two.