Voit tried to shake his unwanted hitchhikers off as he tried to gain altitude. The lion sword hit his shield and lit it up in a display of lightning before falling to the ground faster than the entangled group. Smoke drifted from the mummies but they didn’t seem to care.

Tyler pushed off from the winged power. Both pistols sent bullets against the shields in a stream as he fell. The sparkling discharges of the green light eating the impacts flashed as he fell away from the group.

A loud buzz of burning air hit the shield. It broke apart. More shots followed in rapid succession. Each one traced back to where the riflemen had started their battle and remained overhead.

Voit crashed into the ground. Smoke poured out of his back. Sara scrambled away with a yank of the threads to get them to retract. She glanced around for the sword. It jumped to her hand as soon as she reached for it.

“Ouchie,” groaned Tyler from where he had hit the metal floor.

“Serves you right using me for bait,” said Seek. He brought one of his sticks down on Voit’s head to make sure the Dark lord wouldn’t get up any time at all.

Lines of light wrapped around the group on the ground, and reached for the three riflemen above. Sara pushed back her hair as the energy flood passed through her and kept going.

“What do we do now?,” asked Seek. “Can we even go forward? We died twice.”

“Maybe we can get fixed up at a hospital,” said Tyler. “That would be great in my opinion.”

“I have to go forward,” said Sara. “I need to collect the rest of the stones, and get some clothes. Maybe see if the closet will give me some armor, or something.”

Ryan pointed at a door. He made a gesture for her to go ahead. She nodded. This was the closest closet that she could use to get back to feeling normal. She had so many questions, but thought she should stick to her plan at the moment.

She had brought the mummies to life, but she had no way to know if she should put them down again, or if she could. She decided to let them deal with their problems with the Light and the Dark while she tried to move on. She had access to a gate and two more of the Dark had been pushed out of the way. That had to be a win for her.

The rest would have to sort itself out between the three factions.

Sara concentrated on calling on the closet. She opened the door. She nodded when she saw the racks and racks of clothes hanging in the air. She stepped inside and closed the door. She sat down with her back to the door. She cried until she had no more tears.

She wiped her face with a grimy hand. Showers was one thing this underworld needed more than pest control. She had to get ready for the next few steps.

She dropped the rags and broken boots that used to be her clothes on the floor. She piled up the weapons next to them. She looked the nearest racks over for things in her size. Then she grabbed a set of tan clothes off the hangers and placed them next to the weapons. She got dressed as quickly as possible, arming herself as she went.

She took a moment to examine the blaster rig before she stepped out of the closet. The leather and metal had been scorched by the explosion. She pulled on the blaster. It didn’t want to come out of the holster.

How did she fix that?

The mummies stood in a circle with weapons ready. Nick looked through the scope as he aimed the rifle at various points.

“What’s going on?,” Sara asked. What should she do about the blaster?

“Light and Dark have decided they both want the area we hold,” said one of the riflemen. He had a crisp, English accent, and a red beret to go with the utilities he wore. His hand was on the grip of the rifle he used.

“Are we fighting them?,” asked Sara.

“No, lovey,” said the Englishman. “We could take minor powers, but once they

decided to group together, they would ruin us.”

“Do you know how I can fix this?,” said Sara. She indicated the rig.

“You could chuck it back into the armory and hope it repaired the damage,” said the Englishman. “You could rig it if you had a knife.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Sara.

“Let me see it,” said the Englishman. “We don’t have anything to do until one side, or the other, rush the building. I expect someone will want to talk to you about things.”

“Why?,” asked Sara. She handed over the rig, frowning at the half-melted buckle.

“You’re the one they’re going to peg for killing Voit and Belsin,” said the

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Englishman. “We’re just animated statues.”

He pulled out a knife and chopped at the holster. He widened the breach he had cut in the leather with his fingers. He took the blaster out and examined it. He handed it to Sara.

“I don’t know if it’s safe to use, so I wouldn’t unless it was the only thing you had left,” said the Englishman.

Sara examined the blaster and agreed with his assessment. She looked down the scope. The mechanism had been smashed by the fireball lifting her out of the central chamber. It had been good luck that she had been able to grab the plaques to fill her own arsenal. She would have been burned to a crisp in that one act.

“All right,” said the Englishman. “I think I have it where you can carry that without too many problems.”

He handed the rig back to her. He had gashed the holster, and pried it open. It should hold the energy weapon, but it wouldn’t be the fast draw that it had been.

She extracted the screws holding the scope on the top of the gun. She handed that to the mummy. She didn’t need it if it wasn’t working. The rifleman could probably have it fixed easier than she could.

If you could fix a weapon that someone dreamed up and no one knew how it really worked.

Sara tested the holster. The blaster was a little looser, but there was nothing she could do about that. She decided to put it out of her mind until she had to worry about it for a real reason other than the future needs she might have.

“All right,” said Nick. “It looks like the Light was able to form a cordon around

Mosk’s territory, and come down the sides to hold the other Dark lords off. I don’t know what they will think about all this. Sara, you might have to render us inoperative again as part of the deal.”

“I don’t see why I should,” said Sara.

“We’re not real,” said Nick. “Our real components were blown to bits when you blew up the vats. There’s no way the Light is going to allow homonculi to exist, especially not any as dangerous as we can be.”

“I don’t think they have any say in the matter,” said Sara. “I think you should be allowed to stand in for the freelancers you once were.”

“We’ll see,” said Nick. “Maybe they’ll keep us around.”

Sara wondered how the rat actually worked as the group waited for the

representatives from the Light to arrive and tell them what the organization wanted. She hoped the six could continue to operate. Didn’t they deserve that second chance?

Didn’t everybody?

The wall split at the ground floor level. The mummies spread out. Ryan vanished into the shadows despite his white mask. Sara found herself following Tyler as he took cover behind a support column.

She didn’t know how much help he expected that to be if things got violent, but she supposed every little bit of cover helped out. And Tyler was able to put out a large amount of fire to drive back anyone who couldn’t take the swarm of metal slugs he unleashed.

A woman in a white suit walked into the tower through the hole in the wall. She looked around at the mummies aiming weapons at her face. She had a set of glasses and earpiece. She didn’t seem that concerned by the weapons pointed her way.

“Sara Flowers?,” said the woman. “My name is Moon. Can we talk?”

“I’d like to talk, if you know what I mean,” called Tyler.

“I’m Sara,” said Sara. She shook her head at the mummy. “What do you want?”

“You’ve killed three Dark lords in the last bit,” said Moon. “We’re wondering if you plan to keep killing them, especially now that you have raised these six to do your bidding.”

“They’re not really doing my bidding,” said Sara. “They were stashed upstairs with a bunch of others. I gave them a second chance.”

“And what are your plans?,” asked Moon.

“I plan to use the gate that I now have access to and move to the tower to go back to my life,” said Sara. “The boys plan to stay here and defend this plot from all comers.”

“You are staking a claim here?,” asked Moon.

“You want freelancers to fight your proxy war, you should be ready for them to make their own camps to carry that out,” said Sara. “Spare me about the rules. You should be helping people go home if they want, but you don’t. You should be freeing land from the Dark, but you don’t. The Light should do more than what you do to help newcomers here. You want what we seized. I want continued access and freer traveling for freelancers who don’t want to stay here. That should be simple enough to arrange.”

“We have agreements in place,” said Moon. “We’re not here to help freelancers, or fight the Dark. We’re here to let people make choices instead of just staying in the Dark for their afterlife.”

“How does that work?,” asked Sara.

“That’s above my pay grade,” said Moon. “Let’s stay with what you want out of this current situation and what rules are relevant.”

“Can you fix the mummies upstairs?,” asked Sara.

“Maybe,” said Moon. “Why should we?”

“Because it will be giving them a choice,” said Sara.

“We can allow a neutral facility to be built here,” said Moon. “The injured freelancers can be worked on to be returned to their full status.”

“What about these six?,” asked Sara. “They’re only moving around because of the weapon I’m using.”

“They can be worked on if they want,” said Moon. “But not while your weapon is working.”

“So I have to put them back to sleep before you’ll work on them,” said Sara.

“Not me personally,” said Moon. “A doctor will be created with the facility to handle things.”

“Can I talk to them about this?,” asked Sara.

“Yes,” said Moon. “I can wait outside. I will let you know when the hospital is ready to be set in place.”

“Thank you,” said Sara. She waited for the woman to leave, thinking about the options. Would she really be helping the mummies by doing this?

“What do you guys think?,” asked Sara.

“We don’t really have a choice, Sara,” said Nick. “When Voit ripped us apart, we were drafted as his soldiers, but he never used us for that. When you came along, you allowed us a chance to get rid of him under fair rules. I think restoring the freelancers to the fight is better than leaving them to rot with Voit gone. The rule about hospitals means we will have to leave once we’re deemed repaired. That’s the only rub.”

“So I should take the terms?,” asked Sara.

“You don’t really have a choice,” said Tyler. “As long as you’re moving, you’re good to go. We’re just property that has to be deposed of if you don’t want us tagging along.”

Sara grimaced at that. She hadn’t thought that the six would be considered more weapons on the loose instead of people. They deserved better than that.

This world was nothing but problems that needed to be solved. The thought that this was why Joe had started his diner crossed her mind.

“Okay,” said Sara. “The other options involve waking everyone else up with the rat and seeing how much damage we can do.”

“I don’t think that will go far with the Light army sitting on our doorstep,” said Nick.

“But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t back the play,” said Tyler. “The Light can go down just as fast as the Dark.”

“Let’s see what we can do before I change my mind,” said Sara.

The five that she could see relaxed but didn’t take their hands from their weapons.