The compound burned with chaos. Helena's fire lit the sky, painting shadows across the river, her wings of flame tearing through Serpent ranks. But for every soldier she knocked down, two more took their place. Orchid staggered behind her, half-weak, half-defiant, clutching her side as Helena shielded her with blasts of heat.
"Too many," Helena muttered through gritted teeth, sweat stinging her eyes. "I can't hold them all—"
Then a blur of motion cut across the floodlights. A soldier's rifle split cleanly in two before he even realized he was disarmed.
Helena's eyes widened. What—
Three figures dropped into the fight like sparks in a storm.
Liesel struck first, her dagger slicing with pinpoint precision as her body blurred at impossible speed. Soldiers tried to aim, but by the time they lifted their guns, she was already behind them, knocking them out cold.
Mara followed, her blade flashing as she ripped a steel gate off its hinges and hurled it into a line of Serpents. She swung her dagger once—cutting chains around prisoners without nicking their skin, leaving them free but unharmed.
Klara landed last, sparks bursting from her boots as her electromagnetic field shorted out drones overhead. She raised her dagger high, and every rifle in the courtyard wrenched itself out of soldiers' hands, flying into her grip. With a flick, she dropped them into a magnetic pile at her feet.
Helena's flames flickered with shock. "Who—?"
"Friends," Liesel called, her voice steady. "Government sent us."
Orchid's face lit with disbelief. "Children?"
"Not children," Mara snapped, lifting another Serpent with one hand before slamming him to the ground. "Sisters."
The battlefield shifted. With Helena's firestorm carving through their ranks and the sisters' unique rhythm of speed, strength, and magnetism, the Black Serpents faltered for the first time.
Liesel darted across the compound, carving open armored transports so Helena's flames could ignite their fuel. Mara plowed through barricades, clearing paths that Helena sealed with fire. Klara disrupted communications, frying the Serpents' radios with bursts of electromagnetic static.
And together—together they stood, four figures in the smoke and blaze, their daggers and flames gleaming.
Helena looked at them with awe, the thought striking her for the first time: Germany wasn't sending her to stand alone. They were building something more.