Siege, with an arm slung over Talle’s shoulder, rushed past them toward the stairs to the shrine. A Messier gave a running start but was knocked off its feet by a boomerang. The weapon swirled back, and Elara jumped to catch it a few feet away.

Xu slammed their shoulder into the next Messier who came at them, blocking it from attacking as Siege and Talle hurried up the steps. Xu, one arm torn off, with a spear they had picked off an android’s corpse, stabbed the Messier through the shoulder and pinned it to the ground.

The captain and Talle were almost to the door.

At least one thing was going right.

Robb wiped his forehead again with his sleeve. He glanced around the square and gave a start. “Lenda! Fend her off!”

The woman in question achingly got to her feet. There was a deep red wound on her forehead that bled down into her eyes, but she wiped the blood away. Viera had escaped her, making a beeline for the shrine to stop the captain, and she quickly raced after her, grabbed her by the hair, and swung Viera away from the stairs.

“Yes—they’re almost to the door!” Xu reported.

“Don’t jinx them,” said Jax as he sliced through another Messier. He and Robb stuck close together, cutting down every Messier who came at them like they were an abundant weed patch encroaching upon the shrine.

A Messier with a halberd came swinging—

Mokuba blew a sizable chunk into its side with his antique Lancaster. The rebels and resistance swarmed around them, the noise so loud he could barely think. Robb grabbed the halberd out of the air, shoved it into the stomach of the next Messier, and launched himself in front and drove his lightsword down into a third body. Three more took its place.

This was hopeless—

For a second as he let his guard down, a Messier grabbed ahold of his ponytail and wrenched him backward.

“Ma’alor!” Robb cried, too far away to save him.

Another Messier raised its lightsword to slice him in half, but a bullet slammed into the side of the android’s skull. Robb tossed him his lightsword. Jax caught it and, with a brief moment of sorrow, sliced it across his hair. The smell of burned hair filled his nose as he stumbled forward, away from the Messier.

Another bullet sliced through its shoulder, and it fell back.

At the top of the stairs, holding only a smoking Metroid, was Siege as she leaned on Talle for support. She cocked her pistol again and put five more bullets into the Messiers coming up on Robb and Jax. They dropped like trees in the wood, sparking and hissing from bullet holes in their necks.

She gave one last nod before she turned toward the large doors to the shrine with Talle and slipped inside, her tailcoats fluttering behind her like the last line of a story.

“Ma’alor, are you okay?” Robb asked.