They needed to get inside and help Ana. The longer she was trapped in there with Mellifare, the less likely he’d see Ana again alive. He remembered facing Mellifare the last time in the shrine in the Iron Palace. It had been terrifying, and back then he hadn’t known that she was the Great Dark. It was because of him Viera was dead in the first place. She had faced off against Mellifare in that shrine and given him time to flee after Ana.

And now Viera was dead, and Ana was fighting Mellifare alone.

He had to do something—

Jax stilled his hand reaching for the hilt of his sword and shook his head. Robb ground his teeth, feeling more helpless by the moment. “Maybe we can overpower Viera together, and then sneak in through the side entrance—”

“No can do, kiddo—that entrace was melted shut,” a gruff voice said behind them. Everyone jumped in surprise and spun back to it. A tall and burly shadow towered over them, with curly peppery-gray hair and a handlebar mustache.

Robb recognized the man with a start.

“Mokuba! Finally!” he cried, pulling the burly man into a quick hug. Over Mokuba’s shoulder, he noticed other people behind him—Red Dawn mercenaries and the people from the sanctuary on Nevaeh. “Did Xu and Elara—?”

“Take destiny into their own hands when the comms went down and rally the reinforcements? Why yes, Smolder, we are competent,” interjected Elara as she melted out of the shadows, Xu beside her. “Though we kinda ran into some Messiers.” She pointed her glowing boomerang behind her, and to his horror Messiers began to come into focus at the end of the street, patiently stalking toward them. “They’re heading this way. There’s a lot of them.”

“They’re coming from the other streets, too,” Siege added grimly, nudging her chin across the square. A handful of Messiers in pressed blue uniforms came into the square. They advanced on the shrine—and on Viera and Lenda.

“Shit,” Robb cursed. “Can’t one thing be easy, just one?”

“Ma’alor, when has anything been easy?” Jax replied tiredly.

Xu assessed the situation. “I believe our best option is to try the front door. But they will attack if we make our move.”

Siege forced herself to her feet. Her hair burned a deep, bloody red. She took out her Metroid and checked her bullets. “Aye,” she said, and the look on her face was grim. “And if we go over in our skysailers, we’ll be shot out of the sky. Front door’s the only way.”

Talle gave a start. “You’re hurt, Sunshine! We need to trust Ana.”

“But I’m not dead yet.”

“Even if we tried, there’s twenty—maybe thirty Messiers already in the square,” Jax added, but the captain wasn’t taking their excuses.

“I’ll get myself there, with or without your help.”

Robb gave Jax a hesitant look, and then he glanced back at Elara and the rebels from the santuary, the last of the rogue Metals who had held out this long, and a few crewmembers from Siege’s other fleetships. His family’s militiamen were helping with the disaster of Astoria, evacuating all nearby buildings and making sure everyone in the gardens got out safely, while the Wysteria militia were trying to keep order in the docks above after Mellifare had cut off all incoming traffic. They weren’t going to get any more reinforcements.