Elaina's POV:

What took care of most of the job wasn't my ability to fend off guards with a sword, or even Safire's incredibly ability to stop the guards using anything she could find near her, but the laboratory.

Yes, that's right. 

There are machines set to scan the faces of the people that enter. If Safire is among them, the laboratory acts normally. If it is a face Safire has programmed to be trustworthy, it doesn't act, but monitors their movements to make sure that the machinery is safe. And if someone the laboratory doesn't know enters, well, stuff gets bad. 

It starts off mild, setting off alarms and alerting the person entering that they shouldn't be in there. If the person ignores them, however, and does so much as lay a finger on a single machine, the laboratory jumps to defensive action. All the machines shut down, so no trespassers are able to use them, and arrows begin to rain from the ceiling and walls. They won't kill you, not yet at least. They'll simply injure you very badly, and slow you down until authorities can come and deal with the situation themselves. 

Which, of course, meant the Chrysoberyl guards could swoop in and take out a whole bunch of Galena citizens, quickly and with ease. 

"This is cruel," Safire muttered, watching from a distance as, one by one, the Galena guards were shot and fell to their knees. "They're all dying. All of them."

"It's a kill or be killed situation," I responded under my breath. "I don't like it either, but what choice do we have?" I turned and looked at my friend. Her pale, freckled face was streaked with blood, not all of it hers. She was determined to continue fighting, and acted as if she wasn't tired in the slightest, but I knew her well enough to see right through her act. She was exhausted and scared, but maybe not for herself. 

Safire looked upset, but she didn't argue any more. Squinting out at the place where the guards were fighting, suddenly, I saw her eyes fly wide and her eyebrows raise. She rushed to her feet immediately, as if to take off in that direction, but I quickly held her back. 

"What are you doing? You almost died already, we have to stay here!" I snapped, ignoring the furious glance she gave me. 

"Look at them, Elaina," she hissed. "They're fleeing, running for the train station."

"That's good!" I responded, determined to make her stay here, out of harm's way. "They're leaving! We don't need to pursue them. They're the attackers, not us."

"They have some other plan," Safire growled, narrowing her eyes in the direction of the station. "It isn't like Galena to just give up. They haven't gotten what they came here for, and I seriously doubt they'd stop until they do. They want me dead."

"Then maybe this is a trap, you ever think of that?" I yelled, desperately hoping I could snap some sense into her.

"Fine." She sat back down, not taking her eyes off the fleeing guards. "But something's wrong here, you have to agree with me on that point."

I let out a long sigh. "Safire, you know I trust your judgement, more than anyone else's. So I'm not ruling it out as a possibility. But we can't jump to conclusions here, and make assumptions when there are lives at stake. Let them run. We'll be ready if they come back for a second attack."

"Fine." Her blue eyes were ice cold, and she looked more intimidating than ever before. "We'll wait here, while our friends die. We'll wait, and then you'll see that I'm right."

Alyssa's POV:

I gripped Andor's hand tightly, knowing it made him feel better. Maybe romantic advances weren't the best idea considering the state we were in, but if it calmed Andor down, it was worth it. We needed to be brave together if we were going to get through this. 

If my years in the Realm of Mianite had taught me anything, this was it. 

Andor gave me a silent look of gratefulness, and I relaxed slightly. We walked side by side, our steps synchronized, ready to take on what came next together. He may have been frightened, but I felt more powerful than ever. I was determined, and furious, and ready to fight for the ones I loved. I could have taken on the world. 

"We need to get you two to the train station and send you back to Galena," Malachai was telling us, and I glared at the back of his head. "I'll come with you, of course, to escort you to the laboratory."

"What are you going to do with us?" I growled, my voice low and swimming with fury. "Lock us up? Hook us up to one of your terrible machines? Wipe our memories?"

"I don't think that's necessary," Malachai answered my question as if it had been serious. "But Galena makes the rules. And I can promise you, having been someone who got operated on in the laboratory, it isn't nearly as scary as it seems. You feel so much better when it's over, as if the world has been opened up to you. You can cast aside your childish thoughts and embrace adulthood, truly."

I felt Andor's grip on my hand tighten out of anger, and he finally worked up the courage to speak again. "Yeah, because they destroy what's left of you. They get rid of all logic and reason so you can forget you ever had problems in this world. Disgusting and manipulative, is what it is."

"Childish thoughts, I'm telling you," Malachai snapped. Andor fell silent, although he looked like he could go on for hours. "We're approaching the station. All we have to do is go now, we're out of harm's way."

"Trying to leave my city at last, are you?" one of the guards grumbled as we entered the station.

"I'm not here to cause trouble. These two were separated from their families, and I'm just here to take them back," Malachai answered, struggling to keep his voice calm. 

The guard snorted. "Well, looks like that's not happening."

Malachai stopped in his tracks, and I could see him tense up from fear. "Why not?"

"The system is down," the guard answered. "Someone in Chrysoberyl destroyed the entire thing. So there's no leaving, and there's no entering. Whoever's here is stuck."

Andor and I slowly looked at each other, our eyes wide with terror, trembling ever so slightly. 

This was going to be an even longer night than I thought.