The drones cluster into one mass army of metal. They block out the sun, an ominous cloud of chrome.

The hum of planes gets louder. If Gunther has reinforcements coming, we won't stand a chance.

"Remember," Jacob speaks to us through his voice box, "what you do on this earth affects what you will do in the afterlife. There is no need to fear death if you've lived with strength. It has been an honor to live and fight beside you."

"What are the drones doing?" Celia whispers to me.

"They're getting ready for a massacre," I say, the sound barely audible from my still recovering lungs.

Over the treetops, I spot the first plane, a small fighter jet, followed quickly by a fleet of the same. Gunther has an air force.

The drones continue into the sky, but as the fleet of jets descend toward the yard, the drones do something strange: They turn their lasers upward to focus to the jets. One of the drones shoots a laser beam at the first jet, and to my surprise, the jet fires back, sending hundreds of bullets spraying into the cluster of drones.

They can't be from Gunther's army. They must be allies. Still, their friendly fire threatens to kill us anyway. "Get out of the way!" I push the sound out of my body. "Retreat to the woods!"

Shot down drones fall like sparking meteors around us in the yard.

Our soldiers dive out of the way, avoiding the falling drones as they crash to earth. Everyone begins running into the woods, leaving our mysterious allies behind to fight, but the remaining Prowlers follow us as their programming requires. They've locked us in their field of vision. Now they must collect us.

As we near the treeline, our soldiers begin to stop. "Keep moving," Mom yells to cover for my returning voice, but then I see why our soldiers won't move any farther: Through the trees, I spot the bodies of more Prowlers, coming straight toward us.

I swallow hard. "This way," I command, my voice gravelly but loud enough now, and I lead the group toward the woods farther north. Our soldiers follow swiftly behind me, and I stop at the brush to usher them into the forest first. "Go, go, go," I yell.

After the last soldier, my mom, runs into the forest, a crash booms behind me, and I turn back to see what's happening in the yard. "Isla, come on," Mom orders me after hopping beneath the canopy of trees.

One of the planes has just flown through the cloud of drones, taking many of them down, but the pilot loses control and crashes into the trees. The jet explodes in a burst of flame. Near the fire, the Prowlers from the forest emerge to meet the Prowlers from the yard. There are three of them, and I blink to make sure I'm not dreaming.

At the estate, I had a nightmare that the Prowlers all had the heads of people I knew, and now, those Prowlers exist in reality.

Seated atop the Prowlers, in pod-like boxes with pedals and gears for driving the machines, are Winston, Joe, and Daniel. Joe's gears are all accessible with his hands, of course, but the three men drive their Prowlers into the yard. Daniel and Winston just couldn't stay away, I think, though I'm not sure how they convinced Joe to join them.

Winston leads the three of them, and takes the first swing at Gunther's machines, beginning a metal on metal brawl between the gigantic machines.

"Is that Daniel?" Celia asks from the forest behind me.

I smile. "Yeah."

"It's Daniel!" she shouts behind me.

Our army erupts in cheers and applause. For a moment, Daniel allows himself to be distracted by our cheering, and turns toward us, smiling a huge grin.

Their Prowler arms crash into the other droids, and then the blows are retaliated. The whole yard is glittering in machine versus machine warfare. Between the jets, the drones, and the Prowler machines, it's a full on battle. I back up into the forest at my mom's insistence, and watch with the rest of my army, cheering and clapping and screaming for our unknown allies, Daniel, Winston, and Joe to destroy as much as they can of Gunther's army.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see movement from the pit. Suit-clad arms grip the sides, pulling a broken-legged Gunther up as best as they can. Not far ahead of the pit, on the side of the airstrip where smoky plane remains rest, is the gamma ray detector Gunther used to turn over the Beast and kill General Kazemi. If he gets his hands on it again, he could destroy all of the jets, and even the Prowlers Daniel, Joe, and Winston have converted into their own droids.

I step forward, hoping that someone, anyone, will see Gunther, but he's nearly at the top of the pit and no one seems to notice. I was wrong earlier: I am still the impulsive girl who yells at sociopaths in ballrooms. I sprint forward, too focused on Gunther to listen to Mom screaming for me to stop or to Celia yelling for me to come back.

I race around the outer edge of the pit, not daring to look down or else I may lose my balance. The machines still battle each other on the other side of the chasm, so I stay on my side, never taking my eye off of the gamma ray detector.

My legs pulse with exhaustion, and my throat and lungs burn, but I can't stop now. Gunther is already halfway out of the pit. I keep running. Faster and faster, as fast as I can without stumbling from fatigue.

Now Daniel sees me. He must, because I hear his muffled voice shouting my name from inside the Prowler's cockpit. I can't turn to him now. I can't look away from the gamma ray detector. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that Gunther is out of the pit.

As I near the detector, I let myself glance toward Gunther. His force field is down, as one of his cufflinks is now missing from the climb. He's spotted me and watches me with fury and fear as I race closer to the detector. Then he looks up, and I do too. He's controlling one of the drones to break from the cluster fighting off the jets, and it's flying straight at me. It shoots a laser beam at me like a flash of lightning.

I dive to escape its path, but another quickly follows. I roll over to avoid it, and spring myself up. I have to reach the detector. I pull my electric gun from its holster and aim haphazardly at the drone on my tail. I shoot, and the electric pulse of light misses by a long shot. If Gunther weren't in such pain, he'd be laughing, but instead he just scoffs. At least I'm close enough now to hear him.

I fire again, and this time, my pulse hits one of the drone's, sending its trajectory off course. I focus ahead, darting toward the detector until finally, I reach it. I pull at it as the drone regains balance and redirects itself toward me. Once, twice... I pull three times before I am able to loosen the detector from the ground, just in time to use it like a baseball bat to swat the drone away.

With the drone out of the way, I direct my attention back to Gunther, who crawls toward me from the pit.

"Finally," he says, stopping to look up at me, "I've found Isla Blume."

He means to sound smug and strong, but by the shaking in his voice, I can tell how much his leg is betraying him. Still, I won't let that stop me. This is the man who started this war, who killed my friends, who killed all those people with the drones, and who wanted to kill me too.

I pull back the detector shaft like a golf club, ready to strike, when Mom's words fill my brain: "There's no coming back from killing."

I falter and almost lower the detector when he says, "There you are. My little monster in the flesh."

Anger stiffens my muscles and I tighten my grip. "I'm not your monster," I say, and swing the detector down, slamming it into his face. The impact hurls him back, and he rolls to the edge of the pit. I step closer. "I belong to me."

"Isla!" I hear Daniel's muffled scream behind me. I turn just in time to see the look of panic on his face before the drone I hit away returns to knock me into the pit.

I stumble over Gunther as I fall, kicking him down with me.

I do my best to brace myself as I tumble into the dirty, snowy chasm, but it's no use. My body slams against the frozen earth and debris, shocking me into so much pain that I can't tell where it's coming from. I fall onto my side and roll the rest of the way down.

When I settle at the bottom beside Phoebe's lifeless body—from here I can see she's not breathing—I realize how much my muscles and bones ache. Gunther tumbles down after me, falling at my side. Now, not only is his leg broken, but his femur juts out from the fabric of his suit pants. He wails in agony.

I'm not sure how injured I am yet. I move my head from side to side. Then I wiggle my fingers and toes. I shake my legs. I'm not paralyzed, but I'm definitely injured. When I try to shake my arms, I feel an intense scraping in my shoulder. It's out of its socket. I bite my lip and push myself to stand. Once I'm up and balanced, I take a deep breath and bite down on my cloak. I have to get my shoulder back into place. I run into the nearest dirt wall to slam my shoulder against it. The bone snaps backs into its socket, and I scream in pain.

Gunshots fire above me, and then the drone that sent me down here plummets, crashing down between me and Gunther. I look up and see Mom at the edge of the pit. "We're going to get you out of there, Isla," she yells down, then disappears from view. Down here all I can hear is metal crashing and explosions, but it sounds like we're winning.

Gunther chuckles to himself, lifting his body to a seated position against the opposite chasm wall. "Of course it's you and me down here," he says. "Though I wish Phoebe could join the party too."

He's trying to get to me, but I can play his game too. "Do you hear that, Gunther?" I ask, pointing upward. "That's the sound of you losing. And now, without your force field, I can finally kill you and end this." The forcefulness of my words strains my chest.

He laughs, though it appears to hurt him. "Don't forget... I've been in your head, Isla Blume. I've seen your memories. I know you don't have it in you to kill me. I know you don't want to be a monster, and you think killing will make you one. What was it...? A rat? No... a groundhog? Almost, right?" His eyes light up. "No... it was a rabbit. That's what it was. You shot a rabbit when you were fourteen, and you watched it suffer and die. And now you want to give everyone and everything a fair chance. Except for Hugh, right?" He chuckles to himself as I shift uncomfortably. "You were right: You and I are nothing alike." He reaches over to Phoebe's body and pulls the drone leg out from between her armor. He points it toward me like a sword. "I can still kill you too. For Hugh."

"I didn't kill him. I didn't tell him anything. He found out the truth for himself. If you saw my memories, then you would have seen that."

He throws his head back as his nostrils flare and his eyes tear. Is Gunther Quail about to cry?

"But if you didn't have anything to do with his suicide, then that means only I did, and...." He pauses, regaining his composure, and then steadies the drone leg toward me. "Well, I simply can't accept that, can I?" He licks his lips to stop them from quivering. "Fight me, Ms. Blume. I cannot be the only villain in this hole."

Cheers echo from above us as the earth quakes, and I stop to listen. I can only assume the final Prowler has fallen. "We've won!" someone shouts above us. A person, not a machine.

Gunther is defeated.

"Soon the others will be down to get you," Gunther says, "and when they come, they'll be as anxious as Phoebe was to kill me. You'd better do it now. I'd rather you do it than someone else."

"Why?" I ask.

He sighs deeply. "Because I don't want to see Winston's face when he finds Phoebe. I didn't torture Daniel enough for him to deserve the honor. And I can't face Declan." He shakes his head, smiling to himself. "Turns out Declan Kunkle was the only person Hugh ever truly loved, and I kept them from each other. I am a monster, Ms. Blume. You know this, you've seen it. You've been in my head."

A rope falls into the pit beside me, and I look up to find Mom, Daniel, Celia, and Ava on the other end, ready to pull me up. "Grab on," Mom yells.

"Isla, don't step any closer to him," Daniel calls.

"Please, Isla," Gunther says. "Give me the honor of a combat death."

I don't want to—I despise Gunther and all he's done to me and this world—but I begin to cry.

"Come on," he says, lowering his voice. "Don't prove me wrong now. You're not actually worthless, are you?"

"Stop trying to manipulate me," I say. "I'm strong and you know I know that."

He frowns. "Yes... I do. May I at least believe I had something to do with that?"

"As much as a burn strengthens the skin, sure."

He smiles. "I'll accept that." He shakes the drone leg at me. "Now c'mon, kill me."

"Isla, take the rope," Mom shouts.

I reach for the drone leg, hesitating as I near Gunther. This could be a trap. Gunther is a master manipulator. But he doesn't flinch.

"When you write about me in your history books," he says as I step closer, "at least let the kiddies know I was handsome."

I smile a bit, wrapping my hand around the drone leg.

"One more thing," Gunther says. "Tell them I never gave up, either."

He quickly retracts and lunges the drone leg through my palm, and as I let out a scream, a bullet pierces through his skull.

Lifting my hand from the drone leg and pressing my cloak against the wound, I look up: Standing at the side of the pit, behind a smoking gun barrel, are my dad and Declan. They stand together, combining their strengths to complete one perfect shot to the head. Declan, using his left hand and all his fury to pull the trigger, and Dad, using his years of experience to steady Declan's aim. Tears stream down Declan's face as he catches his breath.

"Isla, take the rope," Mom tells me again. "He's dead now."

Clutching my hand, I take a long look at Gunther as I back up toward the rope. He doesn't move, and even though I watched the bullet tear through his head, I still wait for him to reanimate, to terrorize me more. But he doesn't. Gunther is really dead. The color has left his skin and blood stems from the hole in his temple. Only now, the blood doesn't make me anxious. All I feel is relief.

I wrap my good hand around the rope after fastening it around my belt, and my friends and family pull me out of the pit. As soon as my feet are planted on the snowy ground, Mom pulls me into an aggressive hug. "Don't ever run off like that again," she says.

To her, it doesn't matter that I helped end the war. I'm still her little girl, and I don't mind that at all. I squeeze her tighter. "Okay, I won't," I promise.

I feel someone take my hand and bandage it. It's Jane, scratched and bruised, but alive. She applies pressure to my wound as she wraps it, and then smiles at me. "I'm glad I followed you," she says. "Meg was too."

"Thanks," I reply, wincing at the pain.

Celia runs over and nearly tackles me with a hug. "We did it," she squeals. "We won, we're free." Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a boy who still reminds me of bronze and sunshine. Daniel. "Daniel, we did it," Celia says, taking his hand and pulling him into a group hug.

He smiles at her and kisses the top of her head, which is now free of her helmet. "We did," he says, but he's preoccupied. He glances at me, and our eyes meet. His are wide and bright with emotion, small suns pulling me into their orbit.

I step closer. "You didn't listen to me," I say.

"I know."

Maybe it's seeing him again or my adrenaline levels normalizing or both, but I start to cry. "I'm glad you didn't. I really wish you were there with me the whole time."

"I'll leave you two alone," Celia says, slipping away, and before I know it, I'm falling into the empty space in his arms.

He squeezes me tightly, and when he finally pulls away, he kisses my neck up to my cheek as we part. "New rule: We stay together from now on. Got it?"

I smile at him. "Yeah." I brush the tears from my cheeks and try to lighten the mood. "You're impossible, do you know that? I keep you from the fight, and you come in anyway to save the day. What am I going to do with you?" I laugh, but his smile fades. "What? What is it?"

"I forgave Winston, and we created those Prowlers."

"I figured something like that happened."

"We made them in a hurry," he continues solemnly, "and one of them wasn't reinforced with bulletproof glass, because we ran out. Winston volunteered to drive that one." Daniel looks away. "I wish I had forgiven him sooner. I wish I hadn't been mad at him at all."

I know what Daniel is trying to tell me. "Winston is dead... isn't he?"

Daniel nods. "At least they're together now," he says, pointing his chin at the pit. At least Winston never had to hear Phoebe's lackluster goodbye to him, I think.

"And we're together now too," I say in an effort to hide my sadness at Winston's death. He wasn't my biggest ally, but he was a good man for the most part. He had selfish choices, but we all have. And had it been Daniel who was mindless, I would have likely done anything to save him too, even if that meant creating weapons for Gunther.

"Well, if you fight, I fight too," Daniel says. "Whatever happens, we go through it together."

I smile. "Joe was right about us. We are good supports for each other."

I take a deep breath, about to bring up the reality everyone seems to be missing—that all of this isn't over until Roberts' crew lands—but both of us become distracted by barking from the woods. MacArthur runs out, and Daniel crouches down to welcome him. MacArthur doesn't know his own strength and tackles Daniel to the ground with a series of licks, as Daniel laughs and pushes him off. For the first time since our battle began, all I feel is warmth.

But I have to be the buzzkill now: "All that's left to do is welcome Roberts' crew, and hope they come in peace," I tell Daniel as he pets the loving wolf in front of him.

"That's the plan, isn't it?" he asks, pushing himself to stand. "They were going to return to Earth to live here again? So they'll want to live."

"Yeah," I say. "We should be ready just in case."

"We have five more days until they land. Let's not be Judge Blume and Soldier Crowley in that time. Let's just be Isla and Daniel."

He takes my hand and runs his thumb over the ring still on my finger. I smile. "Okay."

Phoebe's body is lifted from the pit. Declan makes the call to keep Gunther there, and no one argues. Tomorrow we will begin piling the drones and Prowlers on top of him. Gunther will be buried with his monsters. But Phoebe and the rest of the dead will be buried with respect, even the ones Gunther turned into mindless warriors.

The Nomads help our soldiers bury some in foxholes, and others in the trench. Phoebe and Winston are buried together. I assume that would have been Winston's last wish, even if it wasn't Phoebe's.

I want to go to Declan and thank him and wrap him in my arms, but as Judge Blume, I have to accompany my mom to meet our mysterious allies from the sky. They stand in a line on the airstrip beside their jets, and one of the men, all of whom have tanned skin and dark features, approaches me.

"I am looking for Isla Blume," he says with a thick accent I can't place.

"That's me," I say. "Who are you?"

"Raviv Levy," he says, "of the Middle Eastern Alliance. We were sent here by a friend of yours. A boy, Ian Becker."

My eyes widen. "Is he alive?"

"Barely when we found him. Luckily we have some of the most advanced technology still in use. He's recovering from surgery now, safe in Petra, Jordan where our headquarters is located."

"Surgery?" Mom asks for me. I'm too shocked and happy to speak.

"Yes. We inserted a metal plate in his head and stopped the bleeding, but he will need intensive physical therapy in Petra. However, he should regain his strength within the year."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Will we be able to see him?"

Raviv opens his arms. "We are allies, all of us survivors. Petra welcomes you whenever you please. Our only enemy that remains is the spacecraft about to land."

"You know about that too?" I ask.

"We've been tracking it for months. It is the same that belonged to Roberts and Cooper."

"How do you know about that organization?" Mom asks. "You must have only been a teenager when the world ended."

"They had a bunker near Petra. We kept a close eye on it. That's where your friend came from. Besides," he says, "there was a chip in your friend's brain. It connected us to a computer network with all the answers about what happened to this planet." He smiles at us. "You would be surprised at how many surviving groups there are on this earth. Once this is all over, I'd like representatives from groups here to join us in Petra. We are going to create a world alliance. No more wars. They do nothing for us but breed destruction, and the Middle East has already seen too much. We do not want to repeat the past."

I smile and extend my hand to Raviv. "Agreed. Tell your men they are free to camp out with us until the spaceship lands," I say, still shaking his hand. "But there's someone I want you to talk to. She'll be happy to hear about Ian Becker, and I want you to do the honors of telling her."