A/N: Sorry this one took so long, fight scenes are my weakness. Or, one of my weaknesses. I do much better with dialogue scenes. I think. If you have any helpful pointers for fight scenes, let me know in a review, I will likely be eternally grateful!

This chapter is dedicated to Courage and Love, who reviewed once again. Enjoy :)

R&R everyone, and thanks for reading.

Luckily, Myles had been taught enough self-defense by Butler (and had apparently paid attention) to avoid the few attackers that got past Holly's defensive array of stun-bolts. Whatever they were doing here, these ninja fairies could fight. None of them had a neutrino, instead they slashed at Holly with long, thin swords or smaller, aerodynamic throwing knives. They also seemed to recover from the neutrino blasts way too fast. She shot them down, and they stayed down for a grand total of two minutes before they were up and running at her again. Whether it was the suit, or some kind of training, was a question for another time. When she wasn't fighting for hers and Myles' lives.

She kicked a particularly lucky ninja in the stomach, doubling him over and conking him over the head with the barrel of her neutrino. knocking them out the hard way was the only way to keep them down. Well, as far as she knew. They could possibly wake up at any time. Behind her, Myles held a very solid rock with his small, slender hands, and despite his small size (small for a human, just below average for a grown fairy) he looked fierce, his scowl darkening his boyish features. So far he had not used the stone, but he looked ready to.

The next ninja to get too close to Holly got kicked in the knee with enough force to break their leg. Holly felt bad about causing her pain, but not as bad as she would have felt had she gotten past her and harmed Myles. Holly targeted quickly, and took down two more ninjas with one blast by knocking the first into one behind it. The second one didn't stay down for long.

"Holly! A little help?" Myles' voice was strained, and Holly whirled, neutrino already firing, so that she knocked the ninja away from Myles before she saw the knife at his throat. Luckily, the ninja dropped the knife as he fell back, so no blood marred the Mud boy's skin. Blue eyes wide, Myles picked up the rock he had dropped.

"This thing is useless," Holly heard him mutter as she turned back around just in time to duck under a ninja's beheading stroke and send a blast of concentrated energy into his sternum, dropping him to the ground without a sound. She spared a moment to hope that the beam hadn't killed him at near point-blank range, then turned to the next black-clad warrior. And seriously, why in Frond's name? None of this made any sense. Not unless Glimmer expected someone to be here. Which she shouldn't. By all acounts, and her own experience, Glimmer was an idealist, but not much of a strategist. So was this luck, or someone watching the elf-sprite's back?

Holly dropped the next ninja with a firm chop to the base of the skull, rendering him unconscious. She didn't particularly like hand-to-hand combat. In the LEP Academy, she had been one of the best shots, but hand-to-hand had always been something of a weakness.

"You still doin' okay there, Hols?" Mulch's voice almost had Holly losing her balance as she leapt back from a swiping sword.

"I'll be alright. Monitoring Artemis' condition, I'll give you the signal when it's time. Butler and Number One still good?" Holly knew her speech was choppy, distracted, but she was under quite a bit of pressure at the moment.

"We're in the clear, Captain," came Butler's voice, and Holly grunted to let them know she'd gotten the transmission as she blasted another ninja into temporary unconsciousness. "Number One's spell casting seems to be winding down."

"Good." A majority of the ninjas were now on the ground, felled by quick jabs from Holly or (in the case of one or two) the quick thinking of a Mud boy holding a rock, but the five that were left seemed to be the smartest. They circled slowly, moving like panthers, silent and deadly. Following them with her eyes, Holly shifted her weight slightly, and pain flared up through her leg. Holly gasped in surprise. She must have been cut at some point, but through the adrenaline and need to keep moving, she must not have noticed it. Quickly, she shifted her weight onto her uninjured left leg, hoping that the black-clad fighters hadn't noticed. Judging by the way one of them cocked their head to the side, eyes (the only part of the face visible) calculating, told Holly that they had. Oh D'Arvit. Something warm pressed against her right side. Myles.

He was watching the circling ninjas wide blue eyes, an expression like a rabbit facing a wolf adorning his small features. There was blood on his forehead, dripping into his eyes. He must have taken a bad tumble. Holly's neutrino was steady when she brought it up, but the ninjas all easily evaded her blasts. Which was to be expected. An alarm in her ear had Holly scrambling for composure as she blinked frantically at Artemis' icon. His vitals were all elevated, the pain was flaring, and his magic was extremely active. "Oh, hurry, Number One. Hurry." They were too far along in plan A to switch to plan B, and there were five ninjas in between Holly and the portal. And Glimmer was doing something. A probably bad something.

"Holly, I'm nervous."

"We'll be okay, Myles."

"Mm hm. Heaven's a lovely place." When all of this was over, Holly was going to have a serious conversation with Artemis about making his little brother a pessimist too.

Just then, Number One's voice was in her ear. "The spell is prepped and ready to go, Holly."

"Go. I'm still tied up."

"We'll come get you once the objective has been completed," came Butler's voice. "Can you hold out for a few more minutes?"

"Of course." Holly wasn't so sure, but she put all of the confidence she could muster into her voice. Myles was shifting nervously against her, craning his skinny neck in a vain effort to keep all of the ninja warriors in sight. He gave a squeak of surprise, and Holly had just enough time to pull him into a duck with her so that the star thrown by one of the ninjas passed harmlessly over their heads. Then the black-clad fighters leapt forward all at once.