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W
e’ve had
many years to learn how to hide ourselves in plain sight, and we take advantage of that as we follow the boys to Paris. They cannot take a plane, but they swim as though their life depends on it, making it to France in less than fifteen minutes. Once there, they are able to take a train, looking like two boys on holiday who had some fun in the ocean. None of this is fun for them, but it is what they were born for, and it is a part of their destiny that cannot be changed.

Before we left Brussels, I reached out to Hinton, telling him where the threat was heading, and giving him a chance to warn the others. The showdown is going to happen no matter what, and we’d like to get it over with, so we can finally be free.

I guide Levi to the park, and then let the two of them find them on their own. They go to the pond, but as it’s daytime now, they can’t exactly jump in. I don’t need to be connected to Levi to know he’s thinking of jumping in anyway, but Coalton talks to him, and they both move away, walking through the park like they don’t have a care in the world.

They’re learning bocce from some old men, when I sense Hinton and Jennifer coming towards all of us. I pull us back into the shadows of the nearest tree and listen to their exchange.

“You’re here,” Levi says, sighing in relief.

“Of course we are. The others should be here shortly—we were just closer,” Jennifer tells him.

The boys say their goodbyes to their new friends, and the four walk down one of the paths that’s currently deserted. They are on alert, as are we, but it appears we are all safe for the moment.

“What’s the plan?” Hinton asks.

“We go in after dark and get them out,” Coalton says.

I realize that won’t be necessary as the girls walk up to them. “We got ourselves out,” Lauren tells him.

Sabrina and Levi run to each other and embrace. He rains kisses all over her face as she smiles up at him. It is beautiful, but it’s also heartbreaking, because this is all the happiness they will know. These few moments, and possibly a few more, but there will be no happy ending for the two of them, or for any of them at all. There simply can’t be.

It doesn’t take too much coaxing from the others before they’re walking hand in hand through the gardens, flirting and stopping to kiss by every statue they come across. My companion follows them, and it’s almost dark when they join us near the model of the Statue of Liberty.

Guards come up and tell them they must leave, but Sabrina is able to send them on their way. “They won’t remember us,” she assures the others.

“We should be near the pond,” Coalton says.

“There are too many guards there,” Lauren tells him. “It would be impossible for Sabrina to control them all while we’re fighting.”

“I don’t like it here. It’s open, but there are also too many places to hide. We need somewhere with less bushes.”

“It’s too late,” I tell them, stepping into the open as I sense her. “Abigail is here.”

I jump back into the bushes as they all take defensive stances, forming a circle with their backs to each other. We won’t interfere, because this isn’t our fight, and as we may need to fight for our lives later, we need to save up our energy. Years of being on this planet, have made us weak. Our mutant “children” don’t have this problem because they’re part human, but it takes most of our energy just to keep ourselves looking human, which is why we stay hidden most of the time.

It’s not long before Abigail makes her appearance, bringing a group of military men with her. I know the Creators are nearby, but like us, they’ll hide for as long as necessary.

“You can still choose to give up and die gracefully. All you have to do is tell us where the Muses are, and I’ll take care of them,” she tells them.

“If you’re so sure we’re going to die anyway, why should we tell you anything?” Hinton asks her.

“We can make your death humane…comfortable.”

“She’s lying,” Sabrina yells out. “There’s too much hate in her to allow for humanity.”

Abigail attacks then, swinging a sword out from under her coat. Sabrina’s ready for her, their blades clanging as they meet. It’s almost beautiful, seeing the sparks fly off the blades as they crash into each other.
Almost
. This is a fight to the death, after all, and while there can be beauty in death, more often than not, it’s too devastating to notice.

No one else is moving as the two girls battle. It’s like both sides are waiting to see what will happen…who will win...before they make their own moves. Levi watches closely, but he doesn’t move, and I know he’s holding himself back because he wants Sabrina to know she can do this on her own.

It’s a lesson she’ll need if she survives this, because though Abigail may be the only one wanting to kill her right now, that may not be the case soon enough. The lines are going to blur, and right may become wrong. Knowing she can fight might just save her.

Both girls are showing no signs of tiring, despite the small scratches and gashes they’ve given each other. I send Hinton a message to step in and end it, but he shakes his head in response. I practically growl in frustration because this could go on for hours; they are just too evenly matched.

My companion lets me know he has the same views on the matter, and we are trying to figure out what to do when Michaela comes out of nowhere and jumps into the fray. She pushes Sabrina behind her, and takes control of the fight. Sabrina tries to move

forward again, but Alejandra pulls her back, whispering in her ear that Abigail needs to be taken care of, and Michaela is more capable of making that happen.

Sabrina concedes and takes her place next to Levi once again. He gives her a small smile before scowling at the man in front of him again. The man smirks back at him, and fires off a shot from his gun, which Levi quickly deflects with his blade, sending it back to lodge in the man’s forehead, killing him instantly.

The other military men stare at their fallen comrade in shock, before slowly backing up. The seven allow them to walk away, because their humanity does not allow for killing those who mean them no harm. I disagree with this decision, because I know the men would kill them without a second thought.

“Stop being so stubborn and join us,” Michaela says, trying to reason with Abigail one last time.

“We need to die, all of us. It is the only way to keep the humans safe.”

“Lies, Abigail, those are lies. We are part human, and therefore, we will not try to destroy this race of people. You must know that.”

“What about the Muses?”

“I don’t know about them, but they’ve lived here all this time without trying to overthrow the country, so I’d say the people are safe from them.”

The people are not safe from us once we are able to fully rest and regain the power we’ve lost, but I will not speak the truth right now. It’s not time—they aren’t ready yet.

“I cannot let you live.”

“Then you must die,” Michaela says, running to the Statue of Liberty and using it as a jumping off point.

Abigail is not expecting an aerial assault, and as Michaela arcs her body into a flip, she tries to hold up her blade in defense. It’s no use. The momentum Michaela has allows her to slam her blade right through Abigail’s human heart as she knocks her weapon aside with her shoulder. Both girls are on the ground when it’s all over, but only one of them is still alive.

Abigail’s siblings—Michaela included—flinch in a moment of pain as they feel the loss of her life. “I had to do it,” she tells them.

“We know,” Levi says, leading the others in gathering around her.

“What have you done?” Abigail’s Creator yells as he stumbles onto the scene. “You idiots. You’ve played right into their hands. Your Muses will take over the world now.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little melodramatic? There are only two of them, so even if that was their plan, it would be a little hard to make it work,” Coalton tells him.

The other Creator steps into view now as well. “They have a plan. We don’t know what it is, but we know there is one. Please, I beg of you, kill yourselves and save this planet that so graciously welcomed you. Without you their plan cannot be fulfilled.”

“Welcomed us?” Jennifer bellows, making the birds in the nearby trees fly away. “You
created
us. We are here because of you, not because we crashed our spaceship on your planet. This isn’t Superman or Supergirl, or whatever other hero you want to look to for that kind of thing.”

“Thor,” Coalton says.

“I’ve always like Batman the best,” Levi says. “I guess I’m more human than alien, huh?”

“Deadpool’s it for me,” Sabrina tells him.

“Shouldn’t we love the X-Men the most since we’re mutants, too?” Hinton asks them with a smirk.

“This is not a joke! You have put us in danger, and now you must work with us to control the threat,” his Creator yells at him.

“You cannot control us,” I tell him as we make ourselves known. “You couldn’t hold us, and you can’t remove us. Don’t you realize that by now?”

“
Y
ou cannot have our world
,” the Creator from America says to us.

“We do not want your world, only a small piece of it,” my companion tells him. “We cannot allow our race to die out, but we mean you no harm.”

“You were trying to eradicate the population of Australia when we found you all those years ago. You cannot have my continent!” the other one yells.

“Whoa! Hold up,” Coalton says. “You were going to kill people just to have their space? There are lots of uninhabited islands and mountains you could choose from. Why would you go after someplace that’s populated?”

“A power play,” America explains, and he’s not wrong. “To show us they could do it.”

“We aren’t going to let them kill us all, but we won’t let you kill humans as part of
your
game, either,” Levi says, glancing between my companion, and myself.

“You will have to choose a side,” I tell him.

“I choose me, and my friends. We’re on our side, and no one else’s.”

“One side will win, Son,” his Creator tells him. “He’s right about choosing a side.”

“On this we agree,” I say.

“I think you agree on many things—just on opposite sides. I don’t like either choice, so like Levi, I say we choose ourselves,” Hinton says.

I go into his mind then, urging him to side with us.

“No. I will not destroy people for you.”

You cannot let your humanity be more dominant. It will hurt you in the long run.

“I’ll take my chances.”

Foolish boy.

“I’d rather be foolish any day of the week than be a sheep who follows blindly behind a false prophet.”

I look to my companion, and he tells me that Levi is not going to budge, either. I did not want to have to fight them, because they are indeed strong, but it has come to that. We have one more ace up our sleeve, so to speak, and now it’s time to use it.

We walk quickly over to Sabrina, each placing a hand on her shoulder before anyone can stop us. Her eyes close, and she staggers back, as Levi rushes to her side.

“What did you do to her?” he demands, holding her up.

“We made her whole,” I tell him.

“What are you talking about?”

“Let go of me, Levi,” she says, opening her eyes to glare at him.

“Sabrina?”

“I’ll give you one more warning, and then I’ll have to hurt you.”

“What?”

“Silly boy,” she says, throwing him across the walkway. The bushes crunch beneath him as he crashes into them. He’s not moving when he hits the ground, but he’s not dead. Yet.

“What the hell?” her Creator asks, backing up.

“You had your tricks, and we had ours. Your best are all dead, but Sabrina is our best, and she’s going to kill you—and anyone who stands in our way.”

“Sabrina, dear, let’s be reasonable. There’s no need for any more violence.”

“Reasonable? You created me in a lab, intending to have me kill myself one day, and you think it’s reasonable for me to spare you?”

“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound harsh, but I was only trying to save my country.”

“No, I don’t think you were. I don’t know what your endgame is, but it’s definitely not altruistic. I guess I should give you some kind of thanks for making me…well, me. So, tell me how you want to die, and I’ll do it that way.”

She swings the sword in hand like the true warrior princess she is. She is the best of us, even if she herself didn’t know it until now. When her Creator doesn’t answer, she walks slowly towards him, one eyebrow raised. The others don’t try to stop her, because they inherently know they can’t. Sabrina holds the power—her own, and all of ours as well. We helped make her the perfect conduit for it, and she’s living up to our expectations at the moment.

“Just do it cleanly,” she’s told, and she does just that, slicing the woman’s head clean off her body.

Turning to the man next to her, she asks him, “and you?”

“You are making the wrong choices young lady.”

“I never had a choice, and neither did they,” she says, motioning to the others. “You created us, manipulated us, and waited for us to be killed. That’s not going to happen. We will live, and help those you call Muses build their race back up again.”

“Do your worst, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

“I don’t have one,” she tells him, slicing him clean in half.

The military men have scattered, leaving us alone. It’s time to finish what we’ve had her start.

“They’re against us, too,” I tell her. “These are not friends.”

“We are, Sabrina. You know we’re your friends.”

“I don’t know,” she says, tilting her head sideways.

What? This should not be happening. “You
do
know. We tell you the truth. It is only us you listen to.”

“No. Listen to me,” Alejandra tells her. “We share the same ability, so you know I’m not lying. We are not your enemies.”

“I don’t know,” she says again, making me feel what I think is fear for the first time since I landed on this planet.