So here it is: the penultimate chapter. *sobs* Oh, and there will be mentions of blood and death.

Blaze's POV

I land beside Hermes and stare at the Overlord, who says in the same husky voice as before, "Hello, Bill."

"Tamsin…!" Bill gasps again. "What the hell…? I thought you were…you were…"

"Dead," finishes the Overlord—no, Tamsin. "You thought I was dead because you left me for dead. Let me jog your memory: bionic chip, human test subject, presumed failure? Any of that ringing a bell?"

Bill stares at Tamsin in horror. Dimitri is looking confusedly at Bill. We hear him say, "Bill, you didn't use human test subjects, did you?"

Both Bill and Tamsin open their mouths to reply but Hermes gets there first. "No, not subjects. Subject."

Everyone turns to look at Hermes. Tamsin gestures mock-politely to Hermes, indicating for him to tell the story.

"You used Tamsin as the first human test subject for the bionic chip, way before Project Newborn was ever a thing. The upgraded chip reacted badly in Anke and me, causing massive amounts of pain. I'd imagine that the prototype bionic chip altered Tamsin's DNA way too much, causing the scarring on her face. It looked like a failure to you so you abandoned her. You decided to test the chips on animals next, leading to Project Newborn. But what you didn't know was that the chip implant was actually a success. The chip, while scarring her badly, gave Tamsin the ability to control earth. Hence the earthquakes and the men made out of soil. That's why Tamsin stole the list of your facilities from OWCA."

"I wanted revenge," snarls Tamsin. "I got these powers that I didn't want because of you lying to me about what the chip did. Then you abandoned me without even waiting to see if the chip worked."

"But why use us?" I ask Tamsin. "The Bionics, I mean."

"I was going to make a distraction anyway so that I could steal the list of facilities. I just happened to find your kind on the street so I gave you a place to live in the hopes that you would be able to attack OWCA for me so I could steal the list."

"You assaulted my dad," Hermes accuses.

"Who, the teal platypus?" Tamsin pretends to think. "Oh, yes. Well, he was in my way. So I had no choice. Now get out of my way so I can take my revenge."

Hermes's POV

I take a step to my left, blocking the pink forcefield from Tamsin. "No," I say firmly. "No, you're not going to hurt or kill anyone else."

Tamsin laughs huskily. "Wanna bet?"

She waves her hand.

Blaze suddenly lets out a haunting cry. I whirl round to face her and find that an earthman with a spear has plunged the weapon through her back, splattering blood on her chest.

"No!" I yell. "NO!"

I rush towards Blaze and kick the earthman away. It comes to attack again, but Charlie the Dog speed-runs into it and carries it away.

I catch Blaze as she collapses backwards. Kneeling, I lie the crane down, resting her shoulders and neck sideways on my knees. I examine the wound. It looks very bad. I look wildly around for Adrian but in my heart I know there's nothing he can do. I look down at Blaze's face with tears in my eyes as the crane gasps for breath.

"Y-you're gonna be…y-you're gonna b-be okay…" I stammer.

She gives me one last smile before the light dies from her eyes and her head slumps sideways. Tears are rolling down my face and I have neither the time nor inclination to wipe them away. I'm not ashamed to be crying for my fallen friend. Just three hours ago, we were enemies. Now she's been killed while fighting by my side.

I look back up at Tamsin and find that the evil woman has resumed her attack on Anke's forcefield. She's taking advantage of the fact that Anke is crying and not focused, and I know that any minute now, Tamsin will be able to break through the forcefield and kill Bill and Dimitri. But I myself am not focused, so I can't use my power either.

Lydia's POV

I leave Charlie the Dog's side, wiping away the tears with the back of my hand. Poor Charlie…when he tackled the earthman that was about to attack Hermes and Blaze again, he hadn't realised that the earthman was so fast. When they stopped moving, the earthman had managed to stab Charlie. The poor dog hadn't survived.

That's when I catch sight of the Overlord. Tamsin. She's attacking Anke's forcefield. I automatically think oh no you don't.

I charge forwards, ducking past the others' battles, and kick Tamsin in the side. She gets thrown off-balance a little so, before she can recover it, I grab her wrist and kinetically charge her whole body.

"Lydia!" shouts Anke in alarm.

"Don't move," I snarl at Tamsin. "You know what I can do. If I let go of you, you blow up."

Tamsin stares at me, real fear in her eyes. It almost looks like my own fear that's being reflected in her eyes, which are the same colour as mine.

"Lydia!" Hermes shouts at me. "Don't do it!"

"Her earthmen killed Charlie too!" I bawl. "Blaze and Charlie are both dead, and it's because of her! Why shouldn't I kill her?"

"Because you're not a killer, unlike her."

That's Laurence's voice. It continues, "You're better than this. You don't need to kill for revenge. That's not you. You're kind and sweet and you never like hurting anyone unless they've hurt you. So I know that you must be hurting really bad if you want to kill Tamsin. But believe me, this isn't the way. We'll get justice for Charlie and Blaze but this isn't the way. Trust me."

"Then what is the way?" I wail. "Prison is too good for her."

"Steele Bay isn't," promises Hermes. "Lydia, I promise she'll answer for what she's done."

Breathing heavily, I really believe for a moment that I'm going to let go and cause Tamsin to die. But I know Laurence's words are true: I'm not a killer. I extinguish the kinetic energy just as Hermes drops a heavy bit of pipe on her head, knocking her out.

Anke's POV

We've won. The cost has been rather heavy but we have won. It seems like it's over too quickly but it isn't, not really.

We've really been fighting this battle for five years and we haven't even known it.

*sobs again* poor Blaze and Charlie. But then again, they died after picking the right side after all.