"You look so cool. Like, better than mission impossible." Charlie grinned as Mali walked out in her new battle armor. It was a little heavy and constraining, but, it oddly felt right sitting on Mail's body. She liked the way it felt, and how she felt in it—it was like she was made for this. She whistled as she took in everyone else's battle suits. There were mostly grays and blues, but Oliver's was black.

"Where'd you guys get those?" Mali asked. Oli shrugged.

"When we heard you were getting one for your birthday, we decided you couldn't have all the fun." Mali grinned. Cadence walked out wearing an almost skin tight olive green suit that Mali had never seen before. It had thin armor plating, like an exoskeleton, on the main parts of her body, but it was mostly fabric everywhere else. "What's that?" Mali asked, interested.

"A viro suit. Anything as bulky as your stuff would just get in my way." She answered. It looked familiar to the armor Mali had met Liara in, so long ago. There was an assortment of weapons laid out on the table, although it wasn't much. Ara had apparently put Mali's blades back down because they were laying right where Mali had found them the first time. She picked them up again, and realized that her suit had a special sheath on her back to carry the handles, so she clipped them on in a crisscross pattern.

Her swords were really the only real weapon. Audin carried a baseball bat, Alex had a steel pipe. Cadence had liberated the kitchen butter knives. Charlie walked out of his room carrying a colorful plastic gun, loading darts into its mag as he walked. "Seriously, a nerf gun?" Oli raised an eyebrow. Charlie grinned.

"Think about the songs they'll right about me. Taking on a reaper with my deadly gun of plastic." He smiled.

"What about you?" Mali asked.

"My hands are weapon enough for now." He smiled. "Oh, here," he rummaged around in his pockets, "I almost forgot about your present." He withdrew her lucky chit piece from his pocket, except now it was on a chain. "So you never lose it." He smiled. Mali looked into his eyes.

"Thank you so much." She smiled. He looked right back. Slowly he walked around her and placed it around her neck, attaching it in the back.

"Happy birthday." He whispered.

"Alright people." Finch strode in, wearing some battle armor of her own, "let's get a move on." Before Mali could ask, Oliver answered.

"Ara's. We bought her some too, although she never wanted any. Now we know why." He said with a dark look. A beeping sound filled the room from a speaker in the corner.

"The elevator?" Cadence asked in confusion. Alex ran over and checked the monitor that sat on a box near all the shoes.

"Yargh. Three yargh are going to be up here in one minute." Panic was evident in his voice.

"The "people" sent to get me." Mali groaned.

"They're so much bigger in real life." Audin commented form over his shoulder.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Charlie almost screamed with hysteria, clutching his nerf gun to his chest.

"Oh my lanta, SHUT UP! WE ARE SOLDIERS!" Cade hit him on the shoulder (the highest she could reach).

"Oh ya." Charlie replied, embarrassed.

"Everyone hide," Mali grinned, picking up her hover board, "I've got this."

I

Mali was armed with an eight ball from the pool table, her cloak, and a container of bubbles, hovering high up in the branches above the catwalk. On her way up, the lid on the bubbles had come off and some had spilled over her glove and made it sticky before she had noticed. Of course it would have been easier if she had had a pistol, or better yet a shot gun, but without she had to improvise, so bubbles had been her best bet. She was still cursing the little container when the elevator opened and the three yargh emerged.

Mali had been half-hoping that the elevator would have fallen and crashed and burned because of their weight, but the elevator had been well built, and they had made it safely up, despite being way over the carrying capacity. The rest of the group was holed up in the pantry, and would be watching the recently moved monitor. Audin had already been reaching for the popcorn as she left, and Alex and Charlie had been placing bets. She had promised them that they wouldn't even get to the front door.

Cloaking herself, she flared with bionic power. Smiling slyly, she set to work. The yargh were walking towards the door in a straight line, perfect conditions for her. If she did this right, none of them would know what hit them. Mali soared up above their heads, almost snickering. She remembered when facing one yargh had been a life or death, and now here she was, only a month later, facing three and thinking it child's play. The very back one would be hit first.

Using her power, she snaked a branch right behind them. As the back yargh lifted up his foot to take a step, Mali darted the branch forward, simultaneously knocking it hard on the head and sweeping it up and out of the line. The yargh, fifty feet up now, was knocked out cold, and was very secure; Mali silently laughed, one down, and she hadn't moved a muscle. Mali swooped up even farther above their heads, and followed them carefully. The last two were about halfway now across the catwalk, she would have to be quick. She was almost seventy-five feet above their heads when she aimed carefully, and let the eight ball drop from her hand. It hurtled straight for the second yargh perfectly. As the pool ball hit it on its head, Mali used a branch to sweep it and the ball away before they could hit the ground and make a noise.

This last time was going to be different. Mali smiled, ready for the challenge. Silently she swooped down and hovered right behind the last yargh, who was walking towards the door ignorant of what had happened. "Hey." She said loudly. The yargh turned in surprise, shouting his dumb yargh-speech. But when he turned, he didn't find anyone, but her face was literally inches from his own. Mali wrinkled her nose at the smell as she splashed the bubble solution into his mouth, making him choke on pure chemicals, and then taking one of her swords, she knocked him square on the side of the head. He tumbled to the catwalk, out like a light. She shuddered, now she knew what Princess Leia had felt like during the Jabba encounter.

Mali de-cloaked herself, laughing; from the house Cadence came running. "That was awesome!"

"Not the whole yargh-in-face part, but ya, thanks." Mali smiled. The yargh were heavily equipped with rifles and pistols, they were like a walking armory. All of them had their pick of weapons; Mali only picked a pistol to accompany her swords.

"Alright, let's hit the road." Finch led the way down the elevator and out. The shooting had just about stopped, there was only a few pops here and there.

"That doesn't sound good at all." Alex grimaced. "No one is shooting, which means the fighting is over."

"The real question is who won." Cadence answered. They all knew the answer to that.

"Hey! Look at these!" Charlie motioned them over. Three hover bikes sat just outside the entrance a little to the side. "This is how the Yargh go there so fast. We could use them." Mali nodded.

"Sounds good." They all got on the bikes as best they could. No one wanted to ride with Finch, that just would have been awkward, so Charlie, Audin, and Alex crammed on one, and Oliver and Cadence got another. Mali was just about to join them when she was struck with an idea, from a conversation she had had when she had first arrived. She ran back to the elevator entrance, but instead of hitting the lion head as usual, she hit the snake. Nothing changed, but when she hit the lion's head, the elevator did not open.

"What'dya do?" Oli threw over his shoulder as she got on. Mali tucked her arms around Cadence's waist.

"Now the yargh are trapped. At least for an hour. Someone might want to question them later, ya never know."

"Nice." He praised. As they flew through the trees, Mali used her biotics to bend them out of their way, making it easier to go through the dense foliage. When they hit the plain, they sped up, skimming the ground as they went. In only a minute the main buildings were visible, and so was the reaper. Mali had seen it from the forest, it was that big, but before it had only been a black smudge. Now there was detail, and Mali couldn't help but gasp with wonder.

It had landed it very close to the buildings, only about a mile away. A large shallow crater had been created upon its landing, small fires were still going on around it. The reaper itself reminded Mali of a huge black spider, but with a lot more legs and an ovalish cone for a head, like an octopus. The reaper was all black, with a fait red pulse coming out from under its belly. The legs supported it so the main body was about four-hundred feet off the ground. The thing towered above all the buildings; casting a huge shadow across them. For now, it sat silent, but Mail knew it could jump to action at any second. This was the ship that had been hunting her all across the galaxy, and it was finally only a few hundred yards away.

In the town, things looked like a war zone. Many dead men and women lay scattered across the main square and grounds of the buildings. Small craters in the ground showed where grenades had gone off. The main building was on fire, flames were coming out of its windows. The light cast a harsh glow on the scene making it seem unreal. Also amongst the dead were many yargh as well as enemy humans; those who'd sacrificed their lives didn't do so without taking someone with them. All were shocked at the scene that lay before them. Cadence had a hand to her mouth.

"So many…" Alex grimaced.

"They didn't die in vain Alex." Oliver responded.

"Where is everyone?" Finch asked.

"What if there isn't any survivors?" Cadence asked with horror. A pang went through Mali. Liara.

"There are always survivors in these situations. Reapers take them to harvest them. Besides, there would be Yargh out here scavenging if there weren't prisoners to guard."

"There!" Audin exclaimed. He pointed to some dark orange blobs walked around guarding what looked like a line of black sticks, and occasionally poking them with their guns—a hard to see line of people being loaded into an entrance in one of the reaper's legs.

"It looks like we've found our entrance." Mali said.

"And there is the office building." Alex pointed.

"Alright, everyone comm up." Oli ordered. They all stuck their earpieces in their ears—Finch had Ara's. "Hands in." They put their hands together, in the bunkhouse five tradition. "To victory." Oli said.

"How about just not getting killed?" Charlie grimaced.

"To victory and not getting killed then." Oli amended. They broke and separated. As the three kids cloaked themselves and started heading for the buildings, Mali heard Alex's voice in her ear.

"Just tell me when you are going to need the explosion. We'll be ready."

"Good luck everyone." Mali smiled into the comm. "Today, we're going to save some people's lives."

I

"So, tell me you have a plan for getting in?" Audin crouched behind Alex who was scoping out the front door. It seemed locked, secured by a panel next to it.

"We'll get in with this baby." He held out his arm.

"What, you're going to punch through?" He asked sarcastically. Behind him Charlie snorted. "You can't even open a jam jar without asking for help."

"Boys!" Finch exclaimed from behind them all. Alex gave him a look, but let it slide. He powered up his omni-tool.

"I recently downloaded a pirated hacking program from the military's databases. It can hack the door's security, and anything else I throw at it. I might add." Alex boasted with pride. If he could hold anymore attitude, Audin would say that he looked like a blimp. Quickly checking that the coast was clear, Alex zipped up to the door and pressed his omni-tool up to its surface. Two concentric circles appeared, one orange, and another, divided up six times was red, obviously a timer. Alex tip-toed back and hunkered down. "Watch the magic happen." He grinned.

I

"Do we even have a plan?" Cadence hissed as they ducked in between buildings. Well, at least Mali thought they were crouched like she was, but with everyone being invisible it was kinda hard to tell.

"Yah, get close to the door. Then when the explosion happens, we slip by and into the reaper we go."

"Great."

"What?" Mali raised an eyebrow—but of course they couldn't see that.

"We're going to die!" Cade answered.

"No we are not!" Mali argued, "It's a good plan!"

"Yah, right up until you actually put it into action." Cade snorted.

"Ladies!" Oli hissed. Mali instinctively ducked behind an upturned slab of concrete as a squad of black-clad men holding rifles jogged by in orderly lines. Mali sucked in her breath and held in a cry of pain as weight pressed sharply down on her toes. The men past without incident.

"Jeeze-La-Pete's!" Mali exclaimed.

"What?" Both others asked at the same time.

"Did someone just step on me?"

"Side effects of being invisible." She heard Oli say, with a small chuckle. "Sorry."

"Ugh." Mali groaned.

"We're close." Oli said. "Look over there." They were crouched only about a hundred Yards away from the line. Mali could see many of her teachers and fellow students, as well as many security guards. She spotted Sadna, with about ten different restraints on just about every part of her body to keep her from breaking loose; there was no Shepard or Liara. Captain Corwin stood just behind Sadna, looking just as haggard. In fact everyone looked bloody and exhausted, like they had fought to their very last straw-including the students. Everyone was being herded like a pack of cattle into the reaper.

"Looks like that student evacuation didn't work out." Cadence commented.

"If we had left to the evac point, we would be in that line too." Oli whispered. Mali turned her back on the hopeless scene and crouched with her back up against the concrete slab.

"Alex, how you doing?" She asked. A lot of huffing came through the comm.

"We—we are climbing stairs." He gasped, out of breath.

"How long?" Mali asked.

"According to the map in the lobby, we are going to the fifth floor—chemicals and mixtures lab. About two minutes, and then we will see where we are at."

"Ok, then we will hold our position."

I

"Where are they?" Finch asked, ascending the staircase next to the sweating Alex. For a woman over forty, she was definitely handling this well, probably better than Alex himself—she wasn't even breathing hard.

"Waiting for us to get the bomb ready."

"Here it is!" Audin said, a few steps ahead of them. He opened a door with a big number five on it and they filed in.

"Oh my gosh, it looks like a scene from World War Z." Charlie whispered in a scared-out-of-his-pants way. Florescent lights flickered above, papers were strewn everywhere, and shelves, bookcases and workbenches were overturned, their contents scattered across the floor.

"Creepy." Alex muttered. He scanned the room until his eyes caught part of the room that was sectioned off by glass. "That's where they'd keep the dangerous chemicals."

"Then that's where we need to go." Finch strode in that direction. They kept the barrels of their guns high as they swept across the large expanse. Suddenly a shattering sound accompanied by yelling frightened them down into crouched positions.

"A girl's voice." Audin whispered.

"And it came from in there." Charlie motioned to their destination.

"We will proceed with caution." Finch commanded. "Everyone stay behind me." Crouching, they weaved their way silently through the debris of the room like a commando strike team. They came to the door, but it had already been busted open with what looked like a sledgehammer—there was shattered glass everywhere. The team silently stepped over it, not making a sound, rifles and pistols high. The glass room was full of worktables and lab equipment. They made their way down the center isle until about halfway when Ara, now wearing all black, surprised them by striding out of a storage closet to their left. Finch and the others quickly dove behind a workbench, peering over to watch.

Ara's back was to them, she was watching as two people in lab coats were being dragged out by a couple of men in black. The two scientists where a man and a woman, obviously married by the way they almost clung to each other as they sat there on their butts in front of Ara. They were both quite good looking, the man had nut brown hair that swept over his coffee brown eyes in an attractive way and the woman was a spitting image of Ara herself, or more accurately to say, Ara was the spitting image of her mother, just less friendly looking.

Audin cringed, no family should have this going on between them. "What do we do?" He hissed into Finch's right ear.

"Nothing, yet. Let's see what she will do." The professor responded in hushed tones.

"Barbara, please!" Her mother pleaded from the floor. Audin could see real pain in her eyes, like her heart was shattered. He grimaced, glad that Mali wasn't here to see it, because she would have had a fit over all the injustice happening before his eyes.

"It's too late for that mother; about seventeen years too late." Ara responded harshly. Audin could hear the scowl in her voice. She held a pistol in each hand, pointed at the two parents. There was no doubt in Audin's mind that they were loaded and ready to kill. "Where is it?" Ara asked.

"What? Where is what?" Her father responded.

"I'm not stupid! Where is your precious research? The research you gave up your daughter for!"

"Honey!" Her mother pleaded again.

"Please Mom," Ara cocked her right gun, "just give it to me." Everyone could hear the strained anger in her voice.

"What did we do to you?" Her father whispered, shaking his head in sadness.

"What did you do? What did you do?!" Ara jumped on his comment like a starving panther, "YOU DID NOTHING! That's what you did! Where were you when I graduated elementary school? Or when I wanted to talk about my first kiss, or wanted to cry on your shoulder? Where were you to give death threats to my fist date, or to help on my resumes?! Gone! That's where you were. You always sent Carter, the butler, to my band concerts and everything else."

"I only got a card from you on my birthday if I was lucky, and God forbid I ever saw you at Christmas! And it was all in the name of science! I worked my butt off to get accepted into this program so I could be near you, who knew, maybe I would actually get to see you?! But no, never a call or a visit, and I was only living a mile away. So where is it? Where is your research? My boss needs it."

"Gone." Her mother shook her head.

"What?!"

"We've destroyed it all." Her mother answered. "We knew someone would come looking, we just didn't know it would be our own daughter."

"I'm not your daughter," Ara replied, venom in her voice, "You don't even know me anymore." She spied her dad's omni-tool.

"You're lying. It's on this, isn't it?" She snatched it off his wrist. Her dad looked at her hopelessly.

"You don't know what that could do. Our research is very dangerous."

"I know." She handed the omni-tool to the guard standing next to her and. "see that that gets to Strojnik." She commanded. The solider saluted than ran out, not seeing them as he ran by.

"Barbra, maybe we can start again." Her father pleaded, hands open. "You are right, we should have been there. The galaxies safety is important, yes, but you should be more important. We see that now."

"Of course you do, with my gun pointed at your head!" Ara scoffed.

"Please Barbra, come back to us." Her mother begged one last time.

"Get them up," Ara ordered her two remaining men, ignoring her mother, "we'll take them in. Let's see if they can do a data analysis on the pain of getting harvested." The two men grabbed Ara's parents by the backs of their lab coats, forcing them to their feet. Finch nudged Audin to get his attention.

"Take care of the guy on the right, Charlie will take the left, I've got Ara covered." Audin nodded, gripping his rifle tighter. Ara was striding toward them, her two men following a little slower, hauling the scientists with them. "Now." Finch spoke. As one Charlie and Audin sprang up; aimed, and fired. Only after did Audin realize he had just killed someone.

Finch had her pistol trained on Ara, whose hands were up. Her two parents stood, shocked. "Alex, find what you need." Finch ordered. The boy moved around them and started combing the area.

"What are you doing here?" Ara asked.

"Charlie, search her." Finch ordered.

"Who are you?" Ara's father asked as Charlie approached her.

"My name is Abbara Finch. I am a faculty member in the program. These are my highly trained students. We have come to get you out. May I ask, what was it that you were researching that was so important?" Charlie started to pat Ara down, taking her pistol, she rolled her eyes.

"Recently? It was a continuation of the research that Captain Corwin's station where doing. Investigating the flow of mass relay energy."

"What will you do with my daughter?" The mother asked.

"We will bring her into custody, find out what she knows, and then most likely, she will be put in a juvenile detention hall." Suddenly Ara pulled a gun from its hiding place in her pants and grabbed Charlie, pressing the gun to his head.

"No way! I'm not telling you anything! Now everyone, put your guns down." Everyone froze.

"Ara, please." Audin said.

"Do as I say. Or he dies." No one moved, too shocked to do anything. "Ok, fine," Ara frowned, "if it has to be this way, so be it." She cocked her gun, getting ready to fire. Ms. Finch grimaced.

"I'm sorry girl." She spoke, and then fired her gun. It was so sudden, Ara didn't even get a chance; she fell to the ground with a hole perfectly in the middle of her forehead. Ara's mother screamed, falling to her knees beside her dead child. A single tear slid down Audin's cheek; Charlie stood stunned, a horrified hand over his mouth. Finch just looked grim.

"It's ready." Alex quietly whispered from the corner of the room. On a desk he had assembled a maze of tubes and bubbling chemicals in vials. "When I set it off we will have about three minutes to get out before it blows." Ara's father picked up his wife from the still form on the floor, and she clung to his shoulder sobbing.

"My little girl, my little girl." She kept saying.

"I know darling, I know." He smoothed her hair, then looked up at them. "Whatever you're planning, let's just do it. We need to get out of here." Finch nodded in understanding. Audin activated his comm.

"You guys ready?" a few grunts came through, and then a yell and a kick. Mali came on the line, breathing hard.

"What took you guys so long?! We're getting swarmed on out here.

"I thought you were invisible?" Audin asked.

"That doesn't make us invincible!" Mali retorted with a grimace. "How long?"

"Three minutes. You better make it to the reaper fast."

"Ok."

"Mali?" Audin caught her right before she disconnected.

"What?"

"Ara's dead." Audin blurted. There was a long pause. "Mali?" He asked tentatively.

"She's dead?" He heard pain in her voice.

"She almost killed Charlie. We didn't have a choice. Mali, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Her voice shook, he could tell she wasn't ok. "She was threatening the team…"

"Mali…"

"No! It was necessary. Let's move on. Start that bomb." She commanded, steel entering her voice. The shields were down, no getting through to her now. Audin sighed.

"Aye, Aye." He relied, then shut off his comm. He hoped to God she was going to be ok.

I

Oliver watched Mali as her face turned pale, and then angry. They had turned their cloaks off for them to cool, and that had been what had led them to be discovered by a squad of rifle toting men. However they had quickly dispatched of them, taking their ammo. She shut off her comm after exchanging a few words. "What did they say?"

"It was Audin."

"What'd he say then? I couldn't hear, for some reason he blocked your channel." Mali turned to their small group.

"Ara's dead." She responded. "She tried to kill Charlie or something. They shot her."

"Oh no." Cadence gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. A tear leaked out of one of her eyes. Oliver but a hand on the little girl's shoulder, his face as grim as a death mask.

"We have three minutes to get on to that reaper before the building blows. Let's move." Mali ordered. They powered up their cloaks and started making their way toward the landing zone. While they had been waiting they had worked their way to a patch of shrubs behind the line of prisoners. Now they were only twenty-five yards from their goal. Under the cover of invisibility Mali let her tears fall; Ara had been her first friend here, and a bit like an older sister. Mali pressed her lips together to muffle a sob, and Cadence, she thought, she had been even closer.

"I suggest that we get right up next to the door, so that when the bomb goes off, we'll be right there." Oliver suggested.

"Ok, but there is a lot of yargh along the way." Mali responded, trying to recover. It was true, on either side of the line of prisoners, yargh stood guard about every five feet.

"Just go along the outside, we'll be fine." Static erupted in Mali's ear.

"We just set it off, you have three minutes. I suggest you hustle." Came Alex's voice.

"Roger." Oliver replied, "You guys get out of there." He shut his comm off. "Radio silence from now on girls, we don't want them picking up anything."

"We've got to get to that door. Let's go." Mali pushed forward from the brush.

"Man," Charlie panted as they ran down the stairs, "I have got to get in shape!"

"I know-" Alex huffed beside him, "I know what you mean!"

"Come on boys!" Finch yelled from in front of them, "In three minutes we are going to have flames chasing our butts!" Charlie snorted. Ara's parents where right behind them, sniffling as they ran. They got to the bottom steps with one minute to spare. Charlie and Audin stopped by the door, but Alex pushed them forward.

"Go, go, go! You do not want to be around when it goes up!" He yelled. All of them sprinted for the speeders, climbing onto them.

"Go for that hill!" Finch yelled pointing in the distance at a hillock about fifty feet away. They sped as fast as they could, and barely had they made it before the science building exploded in a huge burst of flame. Concrete blew everywhere, chunks as huge as their speeders were vaulted twenty-five feet up in the air. Smaller explosions combusted as chemicals caught fire and exploded; they could feel the heat waves from where they were. The entire building was in smithereens, great clouds of black smoke billowed up into the air.

"Whoa." Audin said.

"Yah…" Alex watched the flames writhe. Charlie just shook his head.

"I hope we don't get suspended for this." He grinned at his halfhearted joke. The other boys chuckled, and even Finch looked a little less grim.

"What do we do now?" Ara's dad asked.

"Now, we get out of here. There will soon be squads from the reaper all over this place." Audin looked toward the reaper as they started to climb back onto their speeders.

"Good luck." He whispered.

Mali tried not to breathe too loudly as she squeezed by a yargh and a prisoner for the tenth time. Twenty-five yards didn't seem far, but when you're trying to get there without making a sound, it's like flying to the moon. Cadence was probably not having any trouble at all, Mali thought, she had seen her first-hand during the stealth training. Cadence could do backflips and make-faces around you and you'd never hear or see her. Mali was only five feet from the door when the explosion happened, and the shock wave nearly knocked her off her feet and into Sadna, whom she was trying to pass at the moment.

Screams and cries rang out as people ducked for cover, probably peeing their pants with fright. The yargh roared with surprise and became agitated, speaking in their grunting language. The yargh chased after the prisoners, while billowing smoke obscured vision and stung eyes. Tranquilizer shots rang out everywhere, making the pandemonium worse. It was chaos. Mali smiled a wicked smile, it was time to move. She got up and sprinted for the door, which was unguarded at the moment. Ahead of her she saw a slight shimmer as a small form entered, she smiled, it was Cadence. A bigger shimmer passed through also, smoke billowing around the cloak. Oliver. With a final push Mali rushed through the door; then they were all in.