As the final boat arrived at Dragon Island, there was quite a bit of cheer; the handful of servants of the Empress, as well as the Family and mercenaries, were gathered together on the docks, cheering the lack of deaths on the mission. A few gunshot wounds, broken limbs; but the most seriously injured one on the team was Eyeball himself; and while Butcher had wheeled him out in a wheelchair, the synthesized voice worked well enough to mask any pain the man felt as they rolled him into the makeshift hospital that the Japanese had setup to treat the victims of the Fortress's collapse.

They'd all seen the news stories; the random, chaotic responses from China as the next tiers of leadership fought over how to respond, the reports that there might even be a civil war in the nation. At minimum, there would be a horrific economic collapse. There might not even be a People's Republic to deal with by the end of the year. A few shipping companies that carried goods for the Chinese firms primarily owned by the PRC had tested Oshe's warning; and the boats had simply vanished into the waves; fortunately without loss of life, as they were ready this time.

The prevailing theory behind the unrest was fairly simple; so long as what they did worked out best for China as a whole, it could be considered that the rulers were doing their job properly, even if some suffered or were angered by it. And, of course, if the government's actions were a catastrophic failure that would harm almost everyone, and had virtually no approval...

The only thing restraining the atmosphere from truly turning into a party was the presence of the various kidnap victims; and of the children themselves. Eyeball had claimed to have a plan for it, but he was currently undergoing surgery; so the population of the island was dealing with hundreds of children. when they were already suffering from the abrupt destruction of homes for quite a few of them.

Emerald watched the reports; both those coming from Eyeball's people, as well as those from China, with a blend of respect and horror. She went to the makeshift hospital; and settled in beside Eyeball, to wait. Watching as they removed a few pieces of shrapnel; set a broken leg that had apparently been walked on despite its fractured state; and generally commented about how he was lucky to have only lost a hand; they could get him a prosthetic, easily enough, and these injuries should very well have killed him.

When the doctors left, and Eyeball was simply lying there, covered in bandages; a handful of surgeons now added to the short list that had seen Eyeball's current face; Emerald stared. Her wings were mostly recovered; she couldn't fly at full strength, but she could glide; and would soon be back on top of things. She had some decisions to make. About the future of the island. And her future with Eyeball. And some grim news to share, when he awoke.

***

Six hours later, Emerald had fallen asleep in the chair. The doctors had come in to check on Eyeball a few times, careful not to wake her; and when he finally awoke, he relaxed; the improvised feel, waking up from unconsciousness in a field hospital... by now it was all old hat. He looked around; studying himself. The bandages. The... stump of his left arm. He sighed.

Well. The guys at Eyetech could probably make him something kick-ass for his left arm. He should look into places that had done well on experimental prosthetics, see his best options. Maybe get a gun built into his new hand. He reached out, and laid a hand on Emerald's head, where it rested on the bed.

She jerked up, staring at him. Her face... the traces of tears were obvious. Her eyes were red. Had she been worried about him? "Emma. You know I'm coming back to you, whatever happens. I've been hurt worse before, and for less important causes. The last one, before I got kicked out of the military? I was gonna be on several transplant lists if a meta hadn't showed up to heal me. Be out for months. Or years."

Emma glared, claws digging into the bedding. "No, you weren't. It would be bad, but you'd have recovered, eventually. And you never lost a hand. I know I was just as bad, kept getting the urge to go out on another adventure. My idea of settling down never really seemed to sink in. That this one was my fault, my idea. But... we can't keep doing this."

Eyeball sighed. "Yeah. Once you settle things down here on the island, we should take a vacation. At least until the kids are old enough to leave alone. Aside from helping with this whole Ragnarok thing, I can see us sitting on a beach, raising a couple of little superhuman terrors."

"..There won't be any kids."

He blinked. "..What?"

"The stress, the radiation exposure, the fight... I miscarried. The doctor said I'll be fine, I should be able to try again someday. But... the twins are gone."

Eyeball just stared at her; she could see tears starting to form as he reached out for her with his left arm; not quite touching her. She gripped his right hand instead, leaning forward. "I'm not going back to Famiglia. You're... not good for me. Not good for the world, really. You take shortcuts. Leave trails of bodies behind you. I know I wanted this done quickly... but..."

She leaned back in her chair, releasing his hand. "My people told me you didn't even try to save the kids at two of the camps. You saw where they were, and just gave up. Told them to just gas the place to make entry easy and safe, then gas it again to make sure nobody survived."

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He blinked. "Sweetheart. I don't mean to sound callous. But those places were near military bases in areas that they knew locals were angry at the government. A small team could get in and out if they were quiet. But hundreds of children? A convoy of dozens of aircraft, or even worse, transport trucks? There were dozens of tanks and hundreds of aircraft at the site we got children out of less than half an hour after we left. Fighting our way out across an entire country against that instead of just making it to the water...."

"You didn't really try! You left it all up to the Engineer, that godforsaken cyborg, and just told them that if it were too far from the coast, they probably couldn't do it. Well it wasn't near the coast, so they didn't try. No bait and switch games to get them to chase the wrong trucks, no Pale Ones attacking places as a distraction. I was hoping for some sort of daring plan, maybe a bit of cunning..."

He sighed. ".... Can we talk about this later? The plan wasn't perfect, but we saved more than I expected, and we got the people responsible for all of it. The moment that tour was over, the clock started. Our only chance to get the men behind it all. I was only getting one definite shot to pull it off. We didn't have time for tricks, or complicated plans."

She shook her head. "No. I... I'm glad I'm not having your children. That I don't have to raise some little boy that might grow up to be... you. I've let it slide for so long because you seemed so dangerous, so amazing, and you cared, and did so much for me."

She pulled to her feet. "You told our people you had a plan for the children. What was it?"

Eyeball blinked. "Oh. Uhh.. Taiwan. I spoke to them about it, sort-of. That we'd hopefully be having a bunch of metahuman children of Chinese descent, orphans, in need of adoption."

"Sort-of?"

"I scoped out how many children they could handle abruptly with a few people in their government if some emergency happened, figured out who I needed to contact... and sent the messages just before I pulled the trigger. They're probably already waiting for the kids, though without knowing how many."

Emerald sighed. "Ah. They're close, have enough population to handle this many adoptions without too big of a problem.... and with China falling on its ass, probably won't be forced to turn them over. Good plan."

She stared at him; glaring directly into his eyes. "Get hold of them. Handle it. I want you, the family, these refugee women, and the mercenaries, all gone by the end of the week. I don't care if they go to Taiwan, to La Famiglia, to wherever." She pulled to her feet.. "I just wanted to tell you in person. This will be the last time we speak."

Eyeball stared at her as she left. The sheet-metal door swung shut. He collected a single vibrant, emerald scale in his right hand, looking at it. That... felt wrong. She felt... different. Was she right? Was there some way to have really had it all, to save all the kids, and still make sure those monsters died?

He looked over at his broken helmet, sitting beside the bed; tried to grab it; instead simply knocking it to the floor with his stump of a left hand. He laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, pressing a hand to his face.

By the time the doctors next checked up on him, he'd dried his tears, and was using his helmet to make calls; getting ready to head home.

***

"Why exactly are you doing this, mister Bennet? I'm certain you could arrange to deliver these children to the United States, or even to Famiglia; I'm certain they would raise quite a substantial price for a mercenary such as yourself."

He sighed. The HUD on his helmet was only showing part of the Minister's face; reading his expression was difficult with only the mouth apparent. "These children are Chinese. Each of them was created from two Chinese people and the embryo planted in a surrogate; either one or both metahumans. For each child we have a name, a family tree; and while I was only vaguely hoping it might be the case when I first started this plan, further research by my people has proven the truth of it; most of them have relatives in Taiwan. You can explain their origins to them or their families if you'd like, but... with a bit of leg-work, you can contact the families for all but a few dozen of these children and offer them a chance to take in a probable meta-human child. I believe your government offers free assistance to the parents of such children, yes?"

"Of course. We take an approach much like your own homeland in encouraging more births with such abilities. We are, of course, eager to welcome these children, and already have our people on the way. I was simply asking for your motivation."

Eyeball glanced at the door Emerald had left through. "I may not be a superhero, but I generally try to do the right thing for those who aren't my enemies. My only regret is that we couldn't save more children, or heal the women lobotomized by the program. Just handle it quickly, if you can. The locals have had some rough times recently, and the sudden deluge of toddlers and infants to care for is... well. If you could have help here in a few hours, I'd appreciate it."

"A few of our own naval vessels are already on the way, with plenty of nurses and supplies already aboard. I can't promise we'll have all of them immediately, but we should have them all on the way here by sunset."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you. Taiwan will remember the friendship of La Famiglia in the future, when we have over a thousand extra meta-humans in our armed forces thanks to your conscientious efforts."

***

The Engineer had delivered a spare armor suit and helmet; Eyeball was used to getting clothing on while hurt. He'd broken many a bone over the years. A broken leg, while irritating, was also familiar. A missing hand, however... It took almost an hour to get dressed, in a suit he'd designed to be easy to put on in minutes. The Engineer had also added a very helpful feature; a few brackets, and a splint, along his left leg, to help keep him from making the fractures worse over the soft cast.

He slowly limped out of the building, leaning on a crutch, and looked around; taking in the new construction, the old, ornate village, the forest... recording a video of it all, since he knew he would never be back here.

Clone stepped up, looking him over for a moment. "Want a hand getting to the chopper? Most of our people are taking a boat home, with their gear and a bit of loot. I figure we'll take a chopper over to a real airport, and then jet back home. You can get some sleep... and recover the rest of the way in your own bed."

"Ehn. I'll take it slow, but I'll get there on my own."

Clone glanced at the slowly rising fortress. For a moment, he considered telling him about the meeting between Aziz and Emerald. But... no. He'd never told Aziz anything about Eyeball that wasn't already public knowledge. All of his relationships only really worked if each of his 'Brothers' kept a certain level of... trust... with their clients. He shook his head, and walked alongside Eyeball, heading for the helicopter; and the start of the long trip back around the world, to home.