Blessed by Night

A familiar black Escalade pulled into a busy parking lot. While the outside seemed calm and put together, inside, a great storm was brewing.

"I-If anyone tries to bully you or your sister, what do you do!?"

""Tell the teacher / Beat their ass.""

Camille and Shiro glanced at each other as if they couldn't figure out which of them was supposed to be right.

"Your sister's right, Shiro." Celeste smiled as politely as she could without showing just how worried she was internally. "The other kids are human, so we can't go around slugging them if they're being butt faces, can we?"

Shiro looked toward the front of the car, where her father was behind the wheel.

All she could see was him shaking his head and mouthing the word 'no'.

"...No?"

"Good girl."

Malachi let out a small sigh of relief that no one could hear.

Bianca was already in the back seat with the kids, so she began unbuckling them from their car seats and giving them a pep talk of her own.

"R-Remember not to freeze anyone, or teleport them across the country or fly them up in the air and then drop them."

Camille blinked her eyes with sweet, innocent confusion.

"We wouldn't do that, Mommy."

Shiro nodded along in unison as if she hadn't just considered it seconds prior.

Bianca sniffed. "That's right, I forgot what good kids I have. I never need to worry about you becoming juvenile delinquents like your mom."

Anna: "Hey!"

Bianca ignored her.

"Alright, well let's walk you guys in and-"

"No, thank you." Cami interjected. "We can go in by ourselves."

The car became deadly silent.

"….What?" Sei sputtered.

Cami picked up her backpack and unzipped it.

She pulled out a small brown bat that she didn't seem at all surprised to see.

"We can go in on our own. Everything will be okay." She held up her thumb.

Nadine became bashful in her small form. "I-I see. As long as you're certain, then it's fine.."

"T-They can't just go in by themselves!" Luna argued. "It's the first day, we have to help them find their class."

The wives looked like they were relieved at her quick thinking.

"W-We don't have to all go in with you, but some of us have to. Just so that we look responsible, okay? No other reason." Luna smiled just a touch too hard.

The rest of the car nodded along in solidarity.

Camille knew that her parents weren't going to let this go. Just as Shiro did.

In an instant, their minds went to picking out which of their parents was best suited for this kind of situation.

Pickings were a little slim. But in the end, there was one clear choice that was better than all the rest.

Ten minutes later, the car door opened once again and Joanne was sliding back into her seat.

She barely got to buckle herself in before everyone was demanding an update.

"Well??" Sei practically launched herself into Joanne's lap.

"S-She seemed nice." Joanne replied in a flustered tone. "Early twenties, preppy type, passionate about her job… I think the girls will be fine."

Several sighs of relief were let out all at once.

"Okay, but did you get her driver's license or something so that we could run a background check?" Anna asked.

Joanne stared at her daughter with a bewildered look. "What do you take me for... I did that yesterday before bed."

Malachi found his wives cute when they were crazy.

Sei slid back into her seat and was a bit more relaxed now that she knew their children would be taken care of. "Alright, now that that's out of the way... Should we go to that meeting?"

Malachi looked preemptively exhausted. Joanne looked like she was in for the most fun of her life.

-

It had been a while since Malachi and company set foot inside the new Dark Angels base. Luckily, all their keycodes still worked or things would have been awkward.

As it was only eight thirty, most of the men and women who lived here were either running early drills or still in bunks. With late-night ops being as frequent as they were, they were probably just getting back in.

Malachi headed straight for the office that used to be his own and knocked on the door twice.

"COME IN BEFORE I KILL THIS BITCH!"

Malachi opened the door without waiting further.

Inside, the room was surprisingly full of people.

Awena was backed by a quartet of shady government types.

Sitting behind the desk were a pair of individuals Malachi knew very well. One older gentleman with a field of white hair atop his head, and another much younger woman without any hair on her head at all.

"Bad time?" Malachi smiled.

"Oh, not at all. I just made coffee." Rowan held up a mug. "And this one over here just finished swearing at our bosses."

Opal slipped her glasses off her face and threw them on her desk. "Bosses my ass..."

She unbuttoned her blazer and crossed the room while smiling at the group.

"Sorry, I missed the wedding. Duty stuff, y'know?"

Anna smiled as she hugged her first. "It's fine. Pretty sure we sent you enough pictures anyway."

It's true that Anna was a big drunk picture-taker. When she woke up this morning, she had over 100 new photos and she only remembered taking around thirty of them.

"You all look so goodd!" Opal squealed as she wrapped her arms around Luna and Malachi's necks. "When y'all get to the swinging phase of your marriage y'all just let me know."

The group laughed and took her words as a joke. They knew they weren't.

Opal made this kind of offer too frequently for it to be a simple round of banter.

"I'm sorry, what are we doing here??" Awena was noticeably reaching the fringes of her patience.

There was no telling what Opal had said to spark her ire before they walked in here. Her tongue was noticeably as sharp as her nails.

"We're about to leave in…" Joanne checked her watch. "Three hours give or take. Now we're just here to pick up our ride-alongs."

Awena bit her lip. She was hoping to ambush Joanne and the others here.

The men behind her were the ones the brass had handpicked to accompany the Saint family out of the country.

But the fact that she'd been told to show up here today with no explanation, and no one was answering her questions as to why was really making her blood boil.

Suddenly, there was a third knock on the door and Joanne smiled maliciously.

"Oh? Looks like they're right on time."