A R L O

I was surprised I was even still alive. Between the brutal loss of the last battle and the illness raging through my body, I fully expected to be dead by now. If I would have known we'd lose so badly, perhaps I should have let myself succumb to my sickness to save myself from the futile effort.

We were miles from the battlefield in a series of tents that had been set up to accommodate what remained of our army. The outcome of the battle was always uncertain, but no one expected us to be so totally decimated. All the strategists and generals had convened here to plan our next move.

Bored with the talk of war tactics, I fixed my eyes on the high canvas ceiling above. Though this was the largest tent on the field, it was crammed full of people, including our entire team. However, as crowded as it was, there was a gaping hole that should have been filled with one of our own.

Neve.

Benton broke the news to us while we were retreating back to the planes; Gigi had apparently watched the entire thing, but she couldn't get out a single word about it. The rest of us hadn't known Neve as well as Gigi—and perhaps Benton—but she'd been a powerful presence in our group. She'd helped us break Delphinium out of the ONNT headquarters. And she had been a lethal fighter on the battlefield.

I didn't have to look at Gigi to know she was crying. I could smell the salt of her tears and hear how she tried to stifle the sobs with a hand over her mouth. While she'd done her best to heal us, her full power was dimmed by her loss. Most of us still bled freely.

"We'll avenge her," I heard Finn whisper to Gigi through the loud chattering in the tent. "Her loss won't be in vain." Gigi didn't say anything back.

I thought about how Finn comforted her even as our fates were uncertain. He always had something to give, even if we were in the darkest of times. Like wielding the might of his power against the Imperium army, even when he feared his own capacity for destruction.

My eyes closed of their own accord. I was getting tired. I was tired all the time now. And in pain that seemed to radiate from my very bones. Faster than the doctors had predicted, the end was coming for me.

Somehow, I knew another battle would kill me.

Good, thought some part of me that still found humor. I always hated waiting.

Perhaps I would have the glorious, spectacular death I always wanted. It was all I could hope for now.

I tried not to think of Finn's comforting Gigi and how he would need to be comforted when I finally died. I'd thought I should be with him while I still could, but that would only make the pain greater. Regret slashed through me. I should have stayed away...

"There's a message from Damien Hunt," someone said and my eyes opened again. It was one of the ONNT soldiers that had volunteered.

"Say it," Jaxon said, head cocked in interest. Would this be good news?

"It's for Arlo Damari," she said, uncertain eyes finding mine. "Mr. Hunt thinks it's necessary that you come back to New York as soon as possible. He wants to find a way to cure you before you succumb to your illness." Finn sucked in a breath beside me.

Shit. This was not good news. Well, it was...just horribly timed. Did she really have to say it in front of everyone?

"Before you succumb to what?" Jaxon's heart was pounding with dread, but his voice was a hiss.

I turned to meet my teammates' suspicious stares. "I guess the cat's out of the bag. I suppose I couldn't have revealed it in a more dramatic way, which is what I was going to go for—"

"Is that why you look like shit?" Riley asked, eyes wide. "Because you're..."

"Dying," I finished, giving them a sheepish smile. Benton sat back in his chair and I knew he'd known all along. He'd just been wondering when I'd reveal it. I was simply surprised he hadn't stolen my thunder and told everyone himself.

"How?" Delphinium asked, sounding as though the word was ripped from her. "I mean, how can this even..."

"The laboratory...they injected me with so many chemicals. They're slowly destroying my body."

"You were just going to keep this a secret until you suddenly collapsed and died?" Jaxon asked accusingly. But I knew him—he was hiding his worry with anger.

"It wasn't entirely a secret," I said, grasping for anything to make the situation better. "Finn knew."

Finn gave me a dirty look. "Don't throw me under the bus. I said that you should tell them."

That quieted me. For once, I didn't meet my friends' eyes. I hoped I'd made the right choice—if they didn't know about my sickness, they wouldn't have to carry its weight. Only I would.

Perhaps a part of Finn's goodness had come to rest in me. How unfortunate.

One of the strategists rushed through the tent flap, worry written all over his face. Fear was radiating off of him. "The invasion was only a distraction," he said, voice shaking. "Orion just took Russia. His assassins slaughtered their leader and he already has one of his own men in the seat of power."

The air was knocked from my lungs. Orion hadn't even been trying here. And now the largest nation in the world had fallen to him overnight—one that had never been seized by outside power before now.

Delphinium gave a strangled, "What?"

"He's already slaughtered thousands and there's no sign of him stopping. The people who don't meet his requirements are being rounded up. He's beginning the purge of three fourths of the world's population."

As the horror settled over our group, Benton jumped up from his seat, looking murderous. "We have to go there and kill their leader. Once he's down, the unsteady empire will fall in Russia."

"It must be crawling with soldiers." Finn looked down at his hands. "Especially if they're already rounding people up. How are we going to get in there?"

"Leave that to me," Jake spoke for the first time. He'd made a business off killing men, so I figured we were in good hands.

"We have to go." Benton raised his chin and met the eyes of anyone in the tent who seemed skeptical. "If we arrive too late, their presence will be too strong there. It has to be now."

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

The Russian capitol's streets were complete chaos. There was so much screaming and fighting that the soldiers didn't quite notice when the Kane, Riley, Finn and I slipped into the long line of people waiting to have our blood checked for the possibility of enhancement. They were too busy putting bullets into the citizens trying to escape the line.

Each person had been forcefully dragged from their homes and right off the streets, from the looks of it. Children, men and women, young and old, rich and poor. Orion didn't discriminate. Anyone whose blood couldn't hold the enhanced gene would be slaughtered.

They didn't even bother to hide it. After the large tent in which they made each citizen take a blood test, the line divided in two: the survivors and the ones marked for death. And though we were very far back in the line, I could see the butchering block. With each slit throat, more screams elicited from the masses. They left the growing pile of corpses in the open to show the crowd their inevitable fates. I could smell the blood, the broken flesh from here.

The people had a choice: either fight the Imperium soldiers and die on the streets or take a chance on what lay in their blood.

Above the platform on which executioner swung for innocent throats, a large group of Imperium high-ups stood on a balcony. They did nothing but watch the chaos of the streets, but I could make out the guns they all held. If things got too out of hand, they'd shoot to kill.

Right in the center of the balcony, with his hands firmly planted on the balcony railing, was the new President. Orion would use him as a puppet to rule the entire nation, adding it to his empire. With my perfect eyesight, I could see that he was a relatively young man, reedy and sharp-angled. His flat, almost bored gaze was on the executioner as he murdered victim after victim.

I clenched my jaw in rage. I hated people like him—the men that thought they could take anything they wanted. Like the cruel scientists that raised me.

Surrounding the street, the buildings rose high. It was impossible to see the tops from down here, but I knew Gigi was perched on a roof nearby, aiming for the President's head.

"They planned this perfectly," Finn muttered beside me. He was speaking so quietly even I could barely hear him. "The streets are so narrow that people can't run far. It makes targets of them much easier."

Riley gave a small nod. "By killing off all these people now, it makes for a smaller group to rule over. And small groups are easier to watch over, easier to keep from rioting, easier to control. Especially when they move on to slaughtering in more extreme numbers at a time. By then, there will be nothing those people can do."

"Good thing we're going to create a bloodbath of these butchers," Kane said darkly. The soldiers hadn't noticed the small handgun hidden on his belt yet.

I looked again to the balcony. Jaxon was smuggling Delphinium and Benton up there, invisible, so they could kill all of the Imperium leaders after Gigi shot the President.

No one expected us to be here. Not after we'd been decimated on the battlefield. We would need to have a death wish to be here, in the lion's den.

We definitely did.

But everything was going smoothly so far. Once Jaxon gave the signal that the two assassins were in place—

The President's right hand man was shoved off the balcony and hit the street below. That was a signal if I ever saw one.

The next thing I knew, the President had an arrow clean through his skull.

Benton and Delphinium materialized out of nowhere, already spilling blood. I watched in awe as Jaxon appeared and the three of them fluidly cut down the instigators of this massacre.

"It's time," I told the others, who couldn't see what was occurring in the distance.

Faster than I expected, Kane turned and began picking off soldiers with his gun. The bound people in the line around us turned to see the source of the commotion.

At Kane's side, Riley's face fell into a mask of dark determination. Once Kane cleared the way for her and Finn to escape the line, they ran over the remainder of the street and up a series of stairs leading to a bank. I watched Finn's every move, fearing that any wrong step could get him shot by the remaining soldiers. I'd much rather die a thousand deaths before seeing him die before me.

When they were high enough for the masses to see, Riley began saying the words Delphinium made her practice over and over again. "These people want you weak," she said in Russian, voice carrying over the crowded streets. "They want to rule your nation for their own greed. They want your friends, your parents, your children dead.

"How can you stand for this?" She asked. "How can you let them win, after all they've done?"

"Look at all your dead," Finn spoke, gesturing sadly to the mass of bleeding bodies. "Will you join them? Or will you fight?"

Numerous cheers went up; apparently Riley and Finn's Russian had been good enough to let them understand our message. The crowd was rousing now that they had clear leaders giving them hope.

"We've taken out your new leaders." Riley nodded to the balcony where Benton, Delphinium and Jaxon were finishing up. "But their soldiers still roam your streets. Make them feel your pain. Make them bleed."

That did it. The crowds were rioting now, beginning to push back against the Imperium soldiers holding them captive. "Kill them!" Riley screamed once more and all hell broke loose.

Imperium soldiers were trampled and beaten in the streets. Others ran, chased by the hordes. They wouldn't get far. Jake had created an ice barricade around the surrounding streets. It had been a gamble, as we were sealing ourselves inside with the Imperium fortresses. There could only be one victor.

But Jake's plans didn't fail. So, all around us, Imperium was crushed.

I cracked my knuckles as I watched the destruction, fully aware that after this, I'd have to go back to America to see if I had hope for survival. With that thought in mind, I surged forward, determined to crack a few Imperium skulls and secretly hoped it wouldn't weaken my health any further.