As Astro, with Luna at the controls, plummeted to the ground below, he discovered that flying was about way more than programming. He meant to simply help her, but in the panic his link suddenly looped back, and he was controlling her as she struggled to control his body. He stopped the tumbling, and they landed softly.

"Wow," linked Luna. "How'd you do that?"

"No clue," he replied. "It just happened. Okay, my processor's on line again." He did a link hug. "Thanks."

"Yeah. Let's not do that again soon."

"No kidding; not if I can help it."

"And don't you forget this: Nobody's going to steal you from me."

Astro grinned. "Got it. Now, I'd better get back to Azera before he wakes up. I'm done here, and I really want to get back home."

"I'll be waiting."

"How could you let him escape?" Mella's image asked Dr. Pendrada in a tone of barely restrained rage.

"I do not know, Holy One." He wrung his hands anxiously. "He was apparently able to operate in some manner our equipment was unable to detect."

"He is a robot! He cannot do anything without his computer!"

"I know that very well, Holy One, but ... he did."

"And he was able unexpectedly to neutralize the stasis field as well," added Safi nervously. "It was when I heard the alarm that I looked up to see him leap off of this table and through the window to the street below."

"You clearly underestimated this robot very badly, Dr. Pendrada," said Mella grimly. "That is too bad." He reached over to something out of the field of view, and Pendrada gasped.

A blast filled the room with flames.

"Yes sir," Astro said to General Devan in his office a couple of days later. "They knew I was coming. The message me and Luna decoded said, 'The messenger has arrived'; and Mella said, 'Welcome, my messenger,' when I went through that last door."

"But how is that possible?" Devan asked. "That would imply that they have spies right here in the CDA."

"Yup. And Mella is the centre of the Mellanine mystery. He's their, uh, god-type person, like I told you—I wasn't able to get what Azera meant by that."

"I did a lot of research while you were on your way back from Suenisia, and there are some prophecies floating around some supposedly secret societies all over the world that there's a new world order coming, of 'freedom and love', which is to be led by ... well, somebody very much like Dr. Mella, who will teach everyone 'the way to God'. It all sounds pretty suspicious to me."

"Yeah. Mella reminded me a lot of Adversary, that God wannabee I fought on Mount Wildfield."

"Interestingly, when I broached the subject of Dr. Mella to my higher-ups, they ordered me to drop the case."

"What a surprise, right?"

"Right. So my hands are tied." Devan lowered his voice and leaned closer to Astro. "But if you're about to do some, shall we say, free-lance work, I don't know anything about it."

Astro nodded. "Sure. Thanks."

"Who are the 'unholy ones' Mella was talking about?" Luna asked.

Astro sat with his face against her back, his arms and legs wrapped around her, and their clothes lay safely in the cave nearby. They had returned to the ledge on Mount Wildfield for the night—they'd felt the need to be alone together.

"Well, if he's 'the holy one', then the 'unholy ones' must be everyone who doesn't believe that he's God, or God's prophet."

"In other words, people like us."

"Right."

"You're actually going to do what he wants you to do?"

"M-hm. If I announce his coming as a free android, it'll give hope to God's—the real God's—people, instead of destroying it, like Mella wants."

"Of course you're changing the message some."

"Oh yeah. I wouldn't want people to think I actually agreed with him."

"For sure."

They fell silent for a little while as Saturn set in the western night sky. Then Astro squeezed Luna hard as he realized the vast uncertainty of the task ahead of him.

"It is scary," she linked. "How do we fight Mella when it looks like the whole world is following after him?"

"I-I don't know, but God's people are in big trouble, more trouble than I've ever seen. I think that's what he meant when the message said, 'prepare to cast aside the unholy ones'. They don't know; they don't have a clue about the terrible danger they're in."

"Then that's where our best destiny lies."

"... Yeah."

"What are you up to, Dad?" Orkan asked when he found Astro sitting quietly in a corner of Hamegg's back lot the next afternoon. But Astro didn't answer, so he linked.

"He's studying the web," Luna linked back. "So he needs to concentrate. That's why he's off in this corner with his sensors all turned off."

"Is that safe?"

"I'm watching him."

"Oh, yeah, of course. Why is he studying it?"

"Come inside so we can talk. We might bother him if we stay here."

"Okay."

Once Orkan was inside where she was cleaning, Luna said to him, "He wants to announce the coming of Dr. Mella, but he needs to find a way around all of Mella's people. If he doesn't, they'll just stop him before he can say anything."

"They can do that?"

"Most everybody who's anybody is on Mella's side. They can do it."

"So we're seven androids against the world. I don't like it."

"Neither do I, but Astro and I have been there before. This isn't a new problem. In fact it was an important part of the fall of Metro City."

"... and me?"

"I don't know about Leader."

Suddenly Orkan saw a vast crowd in front of him, cheering for him. He blinked and shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.

"I don't know. I just saw something, like a memory, but I know I've never seen anything like it before."

Luna came over and extended a blue hand. "Show me." As she watched, she nodded, then linked, "It is a memory. Astro thought you'd lost all your Leader memories when he purged your core, but maybe not."

Orkan backed away, terrified, pointing at his core. "You mean he could still be in here?"

She smiled gently. "Son, as long as that's a scary thought for you, it's not a problem."

He looked back at her doubtfully. "How can you be so sure?"

"Memories don't make a 'droid; will does. If you continue to choose to be the Orkan I've come to love, that is what you will be. There is no Leader separate from you in there who could take you over if you weren't careful."

Orkan smiled tentatively. "Oh yeah. That's right."

Luna took him in her arms and held him close, and he began to cry.

"You look pleased with yourself," Luna linked to Astro a couple of hours later as she cleared the pool table for supper while the children played around her. "Figure something out?"

"Uh-huh." He grinned. "I was able to hack into the Imperator Corporation's computer system, and found files of the so-called unholy ones—they weren't even encrypted!"

"You sure it wasn't another trap?"

"They probably thought it was, but I was able to encrypt myself, so there's no way they could trace the hack back to me."

"You're hiding something."

"Yup. I left behind a little file to tell them I'd been there."

She tried to stifle a grin. "That's mean."

"I know, but how else can I say, 'You're not God'?" He wandered into the kitchen, and came back with a stack of plates.

"So now what?" she asked as he put the plates in place.

"Now nothing. I've already sent text messages to everyone listed in the files and told them what's coming. Hopefully if they're warned, they can at least do something."

She started towards the kitchen, then stopped. "Um, Astro? What about all the other people?"

"They're going to have to be God's problem, because they're way too much for us."

"Yeah."

"Hello?" Orkan peeked in at the back door of Hamegg's place. Then he radioed, "Anybody here?"

"Hi," responded Luna, and she appeared at the top of the stairs to the sleeping area. "I guess all the humans are out. What's up?"

He came in and closed the door. "I was looking for Dad. Do you know where he is?"

"He's on his way back from a delivery. If you want to wait, he'll be here in eight minutes or so."

"Okay, I'll be in the back lot."

"I'll tell him."

Orkan turned when he heard Astro land fifteen minutes later. "What kept you?" he asked with a half grin.

"Oh, you know, " Astro said casually as he came over. "Humans have got to chat a little. I guess they miss the link without knowing it."

"Hm." He gazed off at a neighbouring building. "Would you please link with me?"

"Sure. Why?"

"I need some ... guidance about ... lunas, I guess."

Astro grinned and gave Orkan his blue hand. "Worried about Ran-tan and Evan-sa's little one?" he linked.

"Yeah, kind of, you know. I ..." Suddenly he glimpsed Astro's memory of the trip to Suenisia. "That's how you escaped?"

"Huh? Oh, that. Yup."

"And then you hacked into their computer system and stole the files for the 'unholy ones'."

"Yeah; I didn't know how else I could figure out who to contact."

"You told him you did it." Abruptly, another memory appeared, this time Orkan's own, of Leader glaring at the picture of an enemy on his wall, then flinging a knife at it in a rage. Orkan flinched as the implication of that sunk in. "Dad! You gotta get outta here! Mella'll be out to get back at you! That's what Leader would have done."

"How do you know that?"

Orkan backed up a step, clutching his hands together nervously. "I'm remembering. It's coming back."

"Oh yeah? So how's he going to hurt me?"

"Don't you get it? Think Adversary, Dad! He'll hurt you by hurting the humans around you!"

Suddenly an explosion tore Hamegg's building apart.