I don’t know what to tell him. Grainy footage of a massive Mogadorian warship sliding out of the clouds in the sky over Los Angeles appears on-screen. It’s everything I dreaded, coming to pass. The Mogadorian fleet is gliding slowly towards a woefully unprepared Earth. It’s Lorien, all over again.

“I tried to tell you,” Sanderson calls to us. “It’s already too late. They’ve already won. All that’s left is surrender.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

“I’M DONE DOING WHAT THEY TELL ME. WHAT ANY of them tell me.”

My eyes snap open. I’d been in a deep sleep, one that I didn’t think would be possible in my giant Mogadorian bed with its strange, slippery sheets. I’m becoming uncomfortably adjusted to life aboard the Anubis. I thought I heard a voice in my sleep, but maybe it was just my imagination, or the remnant of some dream. Not taking any chances, I stay very still and keep my breathing even, like I’m still asleep. If there is an intruder, I don’t want them to know I’m awake.

After a few seconds of silence filled only by the ever-present hum of the warship’s engines, a voice resumes speaking.

“One side drops us on this strange planet and basically forces us to fight for our lives. The other side, they talk about peace through progress, but that’s all just fancy talk for killing anyone who stands in their way.”

It’s Five. He’s in my room somewhere. I can’t locate him in the near darkness. I can only hear his mumbled under-the-breath rambling. I’m not even sure if he’s talking to me.

“They all just wanted to use us,” Five hisses. “But I’m not going to let them. I’m not going to fight in their stupid war.”

He shifts then, and I can finally make out Five’s outline. He’s sitting on the edge of my bed, his skin the dark, slick texture of my sheets. He blends right in to my covers, and it must be because he’s touching them, using his Externa. That means his Legacies are back. It also means that he’s seriously creeping me out, like a monster came crawling out from under my bed.

“I know you’re awake,” Five says to me without turning his head. “The ship is descending, we aren’t in orbit anymore. If you want to go, now is the time.”

I scoot up in bed, keeping the covers close. For a second, I consider making Five powerless again by charging the sheets with my Dreynen. But what good would that do? I decide not to attack him. For now.

“I thought you were on their side,” I say. “Why would you help me?”

“I’m not on anybody’s side. I’m done with this whole thing.”

“What do you mean, done?”

“For a while, after my Cêpan died, I was alone. It wasn’t so bad. I’d like to go back to that,” Five says. “You know how many little islands there are in the oceans? I’m going to pick one out and stay there until this is over. I don’t give a shit who wins, so long as they stay far away from me.”