It sorta felt like a sleepover.

Lia and I were popular enough kids, she more than I, but we'd never actually had a sleepover at our place before. My parents were always insistent that I focus on my studies and sports, and I'd crashed at Brick's place a few times, but never in the 'wearing your jammies and whispering long after midnight' sense.

Lia had, but she was a second child, and therefore subject to much more lenient rules than me. And again, not at our house.

I still had to imagine sleepovers were something like this, though probably really nothing at all similar. We were all in the same room, the group had tucked Tem and me into the master bed, couches accommodating Karu and Saga, while AEGIS sat at the computer with the lights turned low. And we were whispering, definitely feeling that thrill of doing something wrong.

Except, unlike a load of kids sneaking up past nine, we actually were doing something wrong. Quite a bit wrong. This wasn't our house, and our host technically didn't even know we were in it. Saga had been pulling his strings ever since we'd used him to get ourselves out of the Extracts Labs without instant annihilation. Half of us were wrapped in pounds of bleeding bandages.

And, we'd stolen that lady's hard-crafted dinner for ourselves. It was alright, definitely needed salt.

"Well they were thinking of doing it, but I reminded them that was their son's bed and now they feel all gross," Saga cackled. "So they've got maybe twenty more minutes of laying there awkwardly before they drift off."

"Why don't you just put them under?" AEGIS asked.

She shrugged. "They tried to make me experience their nasty old-people sex. I'm just turning it around on them."

"Can we not just torture people?" I asked. "It's wrong enough that we're using him already. I don't want you to make him suffer on top of that."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. But only because I know I've got a lot more toys coming. One or two of them will be ugly enough that you don't mind me playing with him."

"It's not a joke, okay? This guy has a life, has a family. It's messed up that we're interfering with that."

"It is a necessity," Karu injected. "You said yourself that you tried everything within your power to make him listen, and he refused out of pure spite and stubbornness. Had you not utilized Saga, this woman would be a widow now, so consider carefully the weight of this alleged 'awkwardness' against her mourning."

Which, I knew. I was the one who'd come up with this, after all. Saga had wanted to set the entire XPCA ablaze and murder everyone in the whole tower, which I...after all the harrassing us they'd done, and all the stupid, goddamn moronic decisions they'd made, I actually kind of sympathized with. If they'd been even one percent willing to listen to our side of things, to hear about the real dangers that Liev posed, that Oasis posed, the corruption of Blackett, of IkaCo, of Ichiro--

Instead, no. We were public enemy number one, because we operated outside the law. Even though we were out there trying to fix everything, and those fuckers were ruining everything completely legally, apparently intent didn't matter anymore. It all came down to who could exploit the legal loopholes, not who had America's best interests at heart.

"Jesus, boy. Blow on that soup," Saga said.

"What?" I stared at her in the dark.

"Cool down. You just like, went into apoplectic-seizure mode there about how mad the XPCA made you. I mean, I like it...I dig that you and I can agree to get pissy on something. Maybe we can have some raunchy hate sex over it--"

"Veto," AEGIS said, without looking up.

"--but I gotta say, the random flaring-up is a bad look on you. Go for a nice, lingering simmer, like I've got."

This time AEGIS did look up. "Saga, you literally said, and I quote: 'let's burn all these motherfuckers to goddamn ash. Let's kill every single fucker in the building. And their children, AND their families, because every one of the fuckers deserves an end to their goddamn bloodline.'"

Saga shrugged. "Yeah, a nice simmer. Anyway, we've got that meeting tomorrow now. Everyone who knows about the incident all in one place. Should be a nice way to get started working our way through the ranks. I'm getting all tingly."

"I'd like to remind you, this isn't for fun," I said. "We just want the XPCA to hear us out."

"Work can be fun," Saga argued, but AEGIS cut her off.

"Athan, I know you're all about the sanctity of...well, our enemies. Respecting their rights to get their heads knocked off and everything but...you did see Justice. He's got like, twenty powers that we know of, and is completely off his batshit rocker?"

I shook my head. I didn't remember meeting him in the slightest. I should have but...there was a reason for that…?

She sighed. "The point is, I know we're going to be mostly useless against him. The XPCA has been proving mostly useless against him. Hell, the US Combined Arms has been mostly useless against him. I don't think…" she paused for a moment to fret with her hair.

"I believe what AEGIS means to say is, we should not so easily relinquish our hold of the XPCA," Karu concluded.

But AEGIS shook her head. "No, it's not that. Manipulating anyone with a code-X, even Saga is...it's abhorrent. No offense."

Saga grinned. "No, I'm abhorrent. That's just simple truth."

"And...I don't know if it's just because I was programmed to combat code-X's...but...well. We shouldn't. But at the same time, we're seeing what happens when we don't. And I...don't think that's better."

"So as I said," Karu repeated. "We maintain our hold of the director."

"No," AEGIS frowned. "We maintain our hold of the situation, through the director."

"I fail to see the difference."

"The difference is semantics," I cut in. "AEGIS, I understand, and I'm just as skeeved at pointing Saga at people as you are. But I don't think we can backpedal ownership of this by using more words. Either we think the situation warrants using her or not, there's no giving ourselves an out just because of the situation or how badly they've managed it until now. We're doing this, and I accept that. As much as I hate it."

AEGIS tugged at her strands. "Okay. If you say so."

"I do. And...I hate to agree, but you're right. We might never get this chance again. We can use it to...to hell, to fix everything, really. Everything in the XPCA's policies we hate, we can work out of them. We can fix the whole institution."

I started counting on my fingers. "We can improve conditions in New Eden until people there are getting along like Oasis. We can send out diplomatic envoys to Oasis instead of just presenting a threat. We can change how they manage the rash of politically-inspired Exhuman events to show more tact and leniency…"

"Focus efforts towards Liev and away from us," Karu added.

"Consolidate and optimize the remaining materiel, to preserve the limited supply of exotics for real danger situations," AEGIS said.

Tem looked around at each of us, her face growing in distress.

"What?" I asked her.

Her eyes went wide. "Everyone has s-smart things to s-s-say."

I gave her a pat on the head, and she went red, and then transparent.

"You already saved all our lives today Tem, by holding them at bay while I worked on Saga. You've contributed more than enough."

She squeaked incoherently, and it made me grin.

Karu cleared her throat. "It seems we have a golden opportunity. Perhaps the one for which you have always been destined. Do you believe yourself capable of steering the entire future of the agency towards a better tomorrow?"

I looked at her, thinking carefully. She spoke so clearly, so decisively, not mincing words even in the least and asking me to do the same...all while wrapped in bandages, shot and burned and beat to hell from her capture. She could be such an insane bastion of strength.

Not that I was doing so great either. AEGIS had been over us already, and assured us we'd live. She'd been prepared, as she always had, her hands rock-solid and her mind laser-focused as she'd cut out bullets and sewed and patched us up in Director Hall's office earlier today, while we were hiding out. I looked at her now, the glossy yellow of the holo reflected in her eyes in the dark while she was still working, tireless while we prepared to sleep.

My eyes drifted over to Saga, who waved lazily at my attention. Her outfit was shreds at this point, she was more covered by dried blood than by clothes, and as long as I was looking at her, she liked it that way. She was calmer now than before, still filled with a latent fury, but willing to put a lid on it, to channel it productively, for the good of all of us.

"Yeah, no," I answered Karu. "There's no way I can run the whole agency better than Director Hall. He's got tons of experience and expertise and skill that I'll probably never have."

The four girls looked at me with raised eyebrows. And I smiled.

"But we can." I nodded to Karu, AEGIS, and Saga in turn. "Experience. Expertise. Skill. And power too," I said to Tem. "Between all of us, and Lia, Cosette, and Whitney...we might have a chance at turning everything around. If you guys are willing to stand by me and help me…" I paused to take a breath. "Well, then I think this might be our best shot at all the things I've ever dreamed of."

"Oh you sap," AEGIS said, rising with a grin to clamber on the bed and give me a gentle hug. "Of course we'll be with you."

Saga was not so graceful, and landed more on my leg and crotch, probably by design. "As though you could get rid of us."

Karu stood slowly and lingered nearby awkwardly, settling for holding my hand and patting me awkwardly. "Yours is a light which we shall all follow in continuance. So long as you walk towards the light, we shall be as your humble servants."

Saga scoffed. "Humble."

Karu grinned. "Heh. Perhaps not. Regardless, we are with you, Ashton."

Their warmth surrounding me and couldn't help but to feel as though I was being lifted up by something in or around my heart. This was it, I thought. This was our chance to do everything right, at long last. We were headed for the endgame for the XPCA, and as terrifying as that sounded, as long as I had these brilliant, brave, sharp women with me, I knew we could do it.

"Let's punch that golden ticket," I said, towards Karu. "Let's aim for that brighter tomorrow."

"Let's have an orgy," Saga added.

Everyone sighed at her and the warmth dispersed as the girls clambered off and away.

"What? Everyone was thinking it."

"Good night, you guys," AEGIS said through a warm smile. "I'll get in touch with Lia and the others and tomorrow...we begin this plan in earnest."