Blood, brain matter, and shattered bits of skull sprayed out of Eagle's head as a bullet passed through it. Even the speedster, Quicksilver, was far too slow to react to Eagle getting shot as he and the rest of the team tried their best to reach him in time.

The only one who stood in place was Tempo, Ky Thatcher, looking at the world in front of him moving as if it were in slow motion. The extent of his powers was always that he could only simply reverse time by a single second, a second where he could only watch as his body was reversed along with it, unable to move forward.

Despite this limitation, Ky was determined to save Eagle, no matter what it took. If he could reverse time by a single second, why couldn't he go even further beyond that?

Why not two seconds?

Five seconds?

Ten seconds?

Thirty seconds?

A minute?

An hour?

Days?

Weeks?

Months?

Years?

Determined, Ky was prepared to push himself past his limits to prevent Eagle's death. He couldn't tell anyone why if he was asked. In fact, even he didn't understand why. Eagle was a genoist piece of garbage. If the shoe were on the other foot, Ky was certain Eagle wouldn't even lift a finger to help him.

Regardless, Ky Thatcher reversed time by one second...

The bullet that once struck Eagle in the forehead, along with blood, pieces of his brain, and fragments of his skull reentered his head. The bullet itself then exited Eagle's forehead before spinning in slow motion as it flew backward into the barrel of the gun that belonged to the man who fired it.

Ky's teammates, the Dark Angels, were all walking backward, taking multiple steps back as Eagle was also walking backward into the room he once hid inside. As Ky strained, he realized he was reversing time far past a second, reaching past two seconds and cutting it close to three.

Just before the moment when Eagle stepped out of the room, Ky stepped forward and time began to resume. However, unlike how time usually progressed, the world around Ky was not moving at its normal speed. Everything was moving in slow motion, though Ky was so focused on saving Eagle, he failed to notice that he'd just unlocked a new ability: Time Reduction, which is the ability to slow down time and continue to move at one's normal speed.

Ky stepped forward, and time around him continued moving but at a snail's pace. By this point, no one had noticed that Eagle was in danger, nor had the gun fired yet. However, once Ky took a few steps forward, he eventually passed by Quicksilver, whose eyes followed Ky as he ran past the speedster. His eyes were wide as he continued to watch as Ky moved forward, only for Xiao to begin to scream, "Eagle, wait!", though extremely slowly.

By this point, everyone started to act as they did before Ky reverse time, running forward toward Eagle, everyone except for Quicksilver who stayed in one spot. He was the only one who could see Ky, and Ky was already multiple steps ahead of him.

He was too mesmerized to speak, never having seen a person moving as fast as he could. Though Pietro was faster than Ky, this was still shocking to the speedster.

𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙂!

In slow motion, the bullet fired from the soldier's rifle spun out of the barrel of it before making its way toward Eagle. Unlucky for the soldier, Ky had already reached Eagle and began pulling a gun out from his right holster. Ky then grabbed Eagle's head, forcing him to bend down slightly, before firing a bullet directly at the soldier.

𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙂!

Though two gunshots went off, and two muzzle flashes illuminated the darkness, only a single body was heard hitting the ground as the smoking barrel of Ky's gun remained aimed at the final, dead soldier. Still holding Eagle's head down, Ky looked backward to see a bullet hole in the wall mere inches above Eagle's head.

Eagle was speechless. It was as if Ky teleported in front of him, but at the same time, he felt like his own head teleported as well. "Mate... Did you just-" Tom stopped himself from speaking aloud in case Eagle wasn't able to formulate what happened on his own. Eagle didn't need to know, Tom knew that this could be a valuable weapon for their escape. Being incredibly smart, Tom was able to come up with a pretty much one hundred percent accurate theory for how Ky was able to perform such a feat.

Thanks to Xiao's ability to read minds, she too was able to understand Ky's new ability.

Of course, since Quicksilver literally watched Ky run past him in real time, he had at least a basic understanding of it.

"Why did you do that?" Eagle asked, peeling Ky's hand off of his shoulder disrespectfully. The entire group, including Ky, was confused. They couldn't comprehend why Eagle was so ungrateful, but the fact of the matter was that he was embarrassed to be saved by a mutant. "Did you think saving me was going to change my mind about you?"

Hearing this ungratefulness infuriated Ky. He wanted to partake in yet another argument, but he held his tongue. Arguing was pointless, especially right then.

"I didn't save you for a fucking thank you. I did it because you're my teammate, whether I like it or not, that's what we are. Can you stop being petty and tell us what to do next? We can't stay here? Where do we go?" Ky spoke the truth. Whether he liked it or not, he needed Eagle, they all did. He was the team leader, and despite his flaws, he was the only one equipped to lead.

"Pack your things. Be outside in two minutes, our driver is parked at a location nearby. Let's move it and don't get too comfortable, there could be more of them."  Eagle was the first to walk away, heading back to his room to gather his things. Everyone else followed suit, heading straight to their rooms and packing what little belongings they had.

As Eagle, Quicksilver, and Ky packed their belongings, Eagle paused and looked over at Ky. He had a guilty, regretful look on his face, and it was clear that he had something he wanted to say. "Thanks, kid. For stopping me from biting a bullet." Eagle quickly looked away and finished packing, zipping his bag before walking toward the door.

Both Ky and Pietro looked at each other, Pietro having a bit of a look of surprise on his face. It wasn't much, but they could tell that Eagle was at least starting to turn around. When they first met him, there was no way in hell that they'd get a thank you out of him. With their bags packed, the two boys walked out of the room together, spotting Tom and Bobby who were exiting their room together.

At the same time, Xiao walked out of her room, looking at Eagle as he walked by. Though it was faint, she had a small smile on her face, hearing what Eagle was thinking about in his head. Though he denied it, Ky saving him did in fact change his view on them.

Using the darkness as cover, the Dark Angels fled the hostel, figuring the owner who conveniently was nowhere to be found had set them up. Being targeted by Russian forces who were occupying Norway wasn't something the team accounted for, but they continued on with the mission regardless, starting their road trip from eastern Norway to the Russian border.