The agent narrows her eyes. ‘I’ll show you if you let me go.’

‘What do you think, Four?’ Nine asks.

‘John? What happens when you find your ship?’ asks Sarah, grabbing my arm.

‘We don’t have time for this!’ Marina says. ‘I know Six is inside this room. The fact that this woman will say anything to keep us from going in tells me I’m right! Forget about her! Who cares if or where our ship is, until we have Six!’

Nine says, ‘I’ll handle her.’ Walker floats up into the air and hangs by her belt hook on the light fixture high above us, red-faced with fury. Nine looks at us, winks and flicks the fingers of one hand behind his back, blowing the door open. ‘Marina’s right. Six and Setrákus Ra come first. Shall we?’

He smiles at Sarah. ‘You’re pretty badass from what I’ve heard from Johnny here,’ he says, handing her Walker’s Mog cannon. ‘Think you can handle her?’

Sarah takes the cannon. ‘If she moves from that light, I’ll blast her. Gladly.’

I look at the rest of the Garde. ‘It’s time.’

We rush inside. We don’t have to figure out who’s doing what. We just know. It’s quiet and dark and an awful stench permeates the air. All I can think of is the arena that kept appearing in my visions. Is this it? I look around, trying to see if I can tell. The center of the large room is dimly illuminated. Nine runs into the circle of light and yells, ‘Time to come and play, Setrákus, you piece of shit!’

‘Where’s Six?’ Marina says. She joins Nine in the center of the room, along with Eight. They quickly drop their Chests and start to look around.

‘You guys! There’s something up on the ceiling,’ Ella says, her voice echoing around the room. I look up to see a small formation of rocks hanging from the ceiling.

I shine my Lumen on the object, and bathed in its glow, it almost looks like a statue. ‘This isn’t right. I don’t know why, but there’s something wrong here,’ I say in a low voice.

While we watch the shadows for any sign of movement, Nine uses his anti-gravity Legacy to run up onto the ceiling and look at the rock formation. When he starts to get close I hear a familiar voice yell, ‘Stop!’

I whip around to see Six standing alone in the doorway. A loop of thick rope hangs from her hip, and in her hand is a jagged blue sword. She looks unharmed. Now that is the Six I remember; confident and strong. Did she do it? Is it possible that Six has already killed Setrákus Ra?

‘Six! Oh, my God, it’s you!’ Marina cries. ‘You’re okay!’