Waddup?

Needless to say, Nico wakes up sore the next day, her back and head throbbing from a combination of terrible sleeping arrangements and the battle soreness that hasn't had a chance to work itself out yet. Michael was on the verge of making an "I told you so" speech, but he didn't have a chance to before Westly poked his head out the door to regroup and start a game plan. Nico stuck her tongue out at Michael as she passed him and Michael responded by rolling his eyes and followed her inside.

Wes's mother - who they finally find out is called Amber - and a few surviving soldiers, the ones not tending to their families or the group in general sit in a semicircle on the floor of an empty station platform, no one saying anything until Wes and the other two take their spots on the floor. Once everyone is settled, Amber clears her throat and starts the conversation,

"It's obvious we need to move soon," she starts, voice hard and trembling from the emotions she doesn't want to show. "This bus station may have everything we need to last here for a while, but the size of this place makes it hard to defend."

"We have angel power now," Wes reminds, he too more downtrodden than usual. "We should be fine for a while, right? Everyone needs to rest before we try to make anymore big moves."

Nico lifts a finger for attention. "We never agreed to help," she informs matter-of-factly. "Just saying."

MIchael raises an eyebrow and glances at Nico from the corner of his eye. "Weren't you the one who insisted on helping them in the first place?"

Nico returns the side-eyed look. "That was different," she explains. "These people couldn't help themselves in a fight that big. Obviously I was going to help. Anything after that where I didn't volunteer to help isn't included in that previous help."

"I didn't know helping the needy had terms and conditions."

"That's rich considering you didn't wanna help them from the start."

Wes clears his throat and bring the siblings back to the conversation at hand. "We clearly need your help," he says. "At least to get us to our next destination."

"And that is?" Michael asks, sparing his sister another half second glance as she settles back onto the palms of her hands.

Amber leans forward to answer. "Our sister encampment has another location about four hundred miles north of here. If we leave now, we'll make it before dinner."

"That's not a close enough location to be considered a sister location," Nico mumbles.

Wes ignores her and shakes his head. "I still think we should wait," he says firmly. "Our people are tired and hurt and we all need time to process the fact that our home was destroyed. We could at least take a day to mourn the lost."

"The longer we sit, the greater risk we have of being attacked here," Amber reminds coldly. "We already got attacked seven times on the way here. Waiting-"

"Is the best option right now," Michael interrupts cooly. "Nico and I can scout ahead a bit and check out the path to the sister site and we all can move in the morning."

"What about in the morning?" Amber asks. "There could be a swarm-"

"No, Michael's right," Nico says, yawning heavily and wiping her eye with the back of her hand. "He's usually like that, all smart with battle strategies and shit. If he says we should wait and scout, we should wait and scout. Besides, moving in the bus during the day would work, but we'd have to stop for the night. We'd be more vulnerable then considering how tight everything is in the bus. And even if Michael and I are on guard through the night, which we most likely will be since everyone relies on us, we'd be exhausted from fighting yesterday and the lack of sleep we got from last night."

Again, Michael's eyebrow slides up and he looks to his sister. "You slept pretty soundly on the stairs last night. . ."

"Do you honestly think I would sleep soundly like that?" she responds in the same tone. "It was comfortable, yes, but it was also exposed and I was pretty hyped up on post fight adrenaline."

"If you say so. . ."

Amber huffs tiredly and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Do you honestly expect me to listen to two total strangers who were our prisoners yesterday?" she asks skeptically. "Honestly?"

Michael shifts his attention to Amber as Nico raises her own eyebrow at the statement. "We've been fighting battles since before your kind was even thought of," Michael reminds in a tone only Nico knows as warning. "We're probably your only hope out in the deserts."

A sarcastic snort pushes from Amber's nose and she rolls her eyes. "I might believe that about you," she starts, "but your sister-"

"Is over eighteen thousand years old," Nico cuts in a tone similar to Michael's. "The number of battles I've fought is more than doubled your age."

It seems like everyone gets the chance to have an eyebrow raised because Amber's slides up as looks to Nico. "You say that like you think I'm old. . ." she says in a clearly challenging tone.

"You say that-" Michael jabs an elbow into Nico's arm before she has a chance to reply, instead cutting it into a short outcry of annoyance. "Michael."

"You were about to say something that might start a fight," Michael says. "I had to intervene."

Wes holds up a hand before Nico can get another word out and makes a drawn out sound of displeasure before speaking. "I'm going to stop you two there before you get off topic again," he laughs hesitantly. "We really need to focus on our next move."

Nico frowns in confusion and tilts her head at him. "Didn't you hear Michael?" she asks. "We're not moving. We're-"

"Michael is not in charge here," Amber bites angrily. "We need to move."

Nico passes a look to Michael, who reads the look and sends his own back in response. Then once the conversation is complete, they both look to Amber. "Alright." Michael relents casually. "You are the leader. Whatever you say goes, correct?"

Amber's eyes narrow and she passes a challenging look between the angel siblings, her eyes narrowing further when Nico smiles an unreadable smile at her. "What's the catch?"

"None," Nico assures. "We just aren't coming with you."

Wes scoffs and forces an unnaturally happy grin on his face. "That sounds like a pretty big catch to me," he says through a couple tight chuckles. "We can leave, we just won't have protection."

Amber leans forward and rests her elbows on the knees of her crossed legs in front of her. Both angel siblings know its an attempt to maintain control of the situation and appear threatening, but all it succeeds in doing is making Nico smile. "You're still our prisoners," she reminds, a cool smile pulling on her lips as she speaks. "You'll go wherever we go."

Michael passes another unreadable look to Nico, who shifts to spread her legs in front of herself and sit straight up yet again. He then passes a look around the group and settles back on Amber. "Do you think you can take us both in your current state?" he asks calmly. "We're stronger than all of your men combined and we're armed now. If we wanted, we could separate your heads from your bodies and make our exit before your men can raise their weapons."

The smile fades from Amber's face and she shifts uncomfortably, noticing how the soldiers around her start fingering the shoulder straps of their weapons. "We could drug you again," she counters. "Our serum proved itself against you a while ago, I'm sure it'll work just as well a second time."

"I imagine you're working under the assumption that we'll allow you to draw your weapons before we strike," Michael says. "We could move right now and neither you, nor your men would be able to react in time to put us down again. Besides, you caught us off guard that time. Do you really think we'll give you the same opportunity twice?"

Amber's discomfort deepens as Nico smiles politely at her and Michael allows the hints of a challenging smirk to grace his lips. Neither of their expressions reach their eyes and there's something dark swirling under their expressions, leaving Amber with the impression this is not a conversation with room for negotiation. She knows her men are tired and possibly wary from it, and even though the angels are probably the same. However, she doubts that the exhaustion will effect them the same way it would her men.

With no other options, she sighs and shakes her head in defeat. "Fine," she relents. "We'll wait until tomorrow. Since you two had the idea, you have to-"

"Have to?" Nico repeats. Amber grits her teeth.

"Can you," she corrects, "go to our sister and let them know we're on the way?"

"We can," Michael answers, pushing himself to a stand and offering Nico a hand to do the same. "We'll be back before nightfall. I assume we don't need to tell you how to protect everyone, correct?"

Neither Amber or Wes respond to the statement, but they don't move their eyes from the siblings either, watching as they make their way around the group then back out the door they entered from. Once the door closes, Amber turns to Wes and glares at him. "You had to bring them, didn't you."

Wes scoff and throws his hands in the air. "I thought they'd be easier to manage!" he defends. "Besides, we needed the manpower and Michael seemed like he could do it. His sister is causing him to act up because he was nothing like this when he was alone."

Amber rolls her eyes and she too rise to her feet and starts for the door. "I don't care who's fault it is," she starts, "I want it under control ASAP."

Outside, Nico stretches her arms over her head and takes a swig from the water bottle she picked up on the way out. "Four hundred miles?" she repeats, passing the bottle over when Michael reaches a hand out for it. "Not too long a trip."

"It is when we have children and other people in shock," Michael says before he lifts the bottle and takes a drink. "An eightball might come out of nowhere and the driver may swerve to avoid it and cause an accident. Either that or they'll freeze up out of panic and cause more problems." He passes the bottle back and catches and holds Nico's gaze in the same moment. "These people aren't used to dealing with threats," he says. "They're weak."

Nico rolls her eyes and takes the bottle back, twisting the top back on and shoving it in the supply backpack she swiped with the bottle of water. "People aren't weak just because they don't know how to handle emergencies," she counters sagely. "They're either sheltered or lucky that they never had to."

Michael smirks and turns his eyes northward. "You actually sound smart right now," he teases, earning and ignoring the sounds of distress Nico gives as response. "You should talk like that more often."

"Oh, fuck off, Michael," she responds, snapping her wings out and moving them lazily to undo some of the stiffness that settled in. "Don't say anything, I've earned one."

"I beg to differ," Michael says, he too unfurling his wings and letting them bask in the sun. "Are you ready?"

"Waiting on you."

With that, they both ruffle their wings once more in preparation before pushing down hard and launching themselves in the air toward their newest destination.

What is a schedule? But in all seriousness, I'm making plans to keep everything here and on AO3 updated regularly, so just bear with me as I get my shit together. Please and thanks and thanks for sticking with this even when it feels like I'm not. I know these last two chapters are fillers but I'm mapping out new routes to take this story and I have no idea what's going on in life so it's going to be fun. I am starting college soon so keep that in mind.

Don't forget to follow, favorite, and comment (Please comment, comments give me life and motivation). Love you all! Thanks!