Eye for an Eye - Epilogue: The Morning After

"You've really gone and done it this time, haven't you…?" Archangel's exasperated voice broadcasted from the hologram. A few hours had passed since the battle with Alchemist, Sabre team was back in their home base, things were seemingly slowly getting back to normal.

"We didn't have a choice," Night Eyes calmly responded.

"Didn't have a choice? Didn't have a choice?!" Archangel repeated, "Night Eyes, you killed a ringleader!"

"It was just one of her spare bodies. You can cover for us, right?"

"Why is it that every time your team does some crazy shit, I'm always the one explaining it to Agent?" Archangel complained, "Like the time you blew up Air Station Mike-27 to minorly inconvenience a Griffin scouting team, or the time you literally tried to set the forest on fire?!"

"This time, it was personal."

"Personal, huh?" Archangel asked with a sigh, "Care to explain?"

"Alchemist made me feel… Very angry," Night Eyes replied, crossing her arms.

"Right, shouldn't have even bothered," Archangel muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"So… Can you cover for us?" Night Eyes asked again.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see what strings I can pull from up here. You should be fine. Probably."

"Okay, thanks."

"Uh huh," Archangel nodded, "So is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"…"

"Well, if that's all-"

"You know this war won't last forever, right?"

"Huh…?" Archangel asked, caught off guard by the sudden change of topic.

"The war with Griffin. The Sangvis rebellion. It can't continue forever."

"That's… factually true?" Archangel answered, "What are you getting at here?"

"Nothing, I-" Night Eyes began before hesitating, "It's nothing…"

"When the time comes, we'll do what we need to do to survive," Archangel reassured Night Eyes, "I know you want to keep your team safe, right?"

Night Eyes didn't respond.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there. I've… come up with some ideas already, but I'm not ready to share them with everyone yet," Archangel revealed, "But for the moment, we need to work together with the rest of Sangvis Ferri, for everyone's sake."

"Yes," Night Eyes agreed.

"Thank you for understanding," Archangel said, "And I know it's not your style, but if you ever need some help, you can always ask the rest of us… Or at least send Swiss over to do so."

Night Eyes watched as Archangel's figure disappeared from the holographic projector. She lowered her eyes, deep in thought. Though Archangel said she'd try to soften the repercussions from their actions as much as she could, Night Eyes wasn't foolish enough to think they'd get off completely scot-free. But a part of her was still relieved. Her relationship with the rest of her team had evolved tremendously that night, and for the first time in a while she was looking forward to what the future held.

"So? How did the meeting go?" Dazzle asked as Night Eyes walked over to the living room.

"We'll be fine," Night Eyes replied with a nod, "So what are you all up to?"

"Swiss," Dazzle replied, tilting her head towards the sofa with a wry smile.

"…And so there are actually different subtypes of NK cells, each of which are CD3-negative and FC-gamma-R3- and NKp46-positive," Swiss said, gesturing in the air towards a thoroughly confused Sapphire. "The CD56-high phenotype specializes to release inflammatory cytokines such as interferon-gamma and tumor necrosis factor, while the CD56-dim phenotype specializes to have cytotoxic effector functions via things like granzyme B. Ninety percent of NK cells are CD56-dim, and they are involved in the early stages of the immune response, while the CD56-high cells…"

"I'm going upstairs…" Night Eyes declared as she turned to leave.

"No you're not," Dazzle responded with a grin as she placed a hand on Night Eyes' shoulders and dragged her down onto the sofa with the rest of them. "We're all family now, and family members don't get to skip out on bonding exercises."

"Fuck me," Night Eyes cursed under her breath as Swiss began to explain her obscure knowledge with even more enthusiasm, beaming with happiness now that her beloved team leader had finally decided to join in on the fun.

Looks like getting used to this new life may be more challenging than Night Eyes initially thought.