things, but as Ace just reminded us, things weren’t great when we were in charge, either. We helped make a mess of this city, and despite all their failings, I … I’m convinced that the Renegades really are trying to make things better. We may not agree with their methods, but this is the way the world is now. If we don’t like it, then maybe instead of trying to tear it down, we should lead by example. Build something new, something better. If we form a community outside of the Renegades’ control, show how we are capable of governing ourselves for a change, then … maybe that’s how we change this world. And if it doesn’t change the world, then who cares? Maybe this isn’t our problem to solve. At least the war will be over.”
Honey spoke first, her voice ireful and her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “This is that boy talking, isn’t it? I knew it. He’s brainwashed you.”
“I’m not brainwashed!” said Nova, heat flaring across her cheeks.
“You want to run away,” Honey snapped back. “You want to give up. Now, when we might actually have a chance of beating them!”
“I’m saying that maybe we don’t have to beat them. That’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s always us and them. Heroes or villains. Prodigies or civilians. The powerful and the powerless. I’m saying that I want a chance at a better life. For all of us, and anyone who wants to follow us. I want a life where we aren’t the villains anymore!” Her voice rose, with determination, but also with fear that they wouldn’t understand. “We can go anywhere. Be free anywhere. Why settle for this?”
Finally, a flicker of emotion in Ace’s eyes, still shadowed by the structure of the helmet.
It wasn’t understanding, though. If anything, he seemed hurt.
“Settle?” he said. “Settle, for Gatlon?” He moved toward her. “This is our city. Our home. I will not settle for anything less. I will not cower before the enemies who stole it from me.”
Nova’s shoulders sank. She shook her head. “We wouldn’t be—”
“Enough.”
She reared back, the harshness of his voice like a blow.
“If we are the villains to their heroes, so be it. We will give them reason enough to fear us.” He paced around the tower, somehow regal in his stolen double-breasted coat. “We will not run. We will not hide. We will stay and fight. And this time, we will win. This city will be ours!”
A roar of approval rang through the tower.
Nova shuddered. As the others pressed forward, she felt almost invisible. Her tongue had become gummy in her mouth.
She had been so confident that, once Ace was free, the others would agree with her. Leaving made sense. She had expected relief—that they could have their freedom without sacrificing more lives, without another battle.
Had she not been compelling enough? Had she not conveyed the power of her ideas?
How was it possible, with the world now open to them, that they would rather stay here and fight?
“We were not prepared when the Renegades surrounded us at the Battle for Gatlon ten years ago,” said Ace, approaching one of the open windows. “We will not make the same mistakes again.”
He lifted his hands, fingers outstretched toward the horizon. The wasteland beyond the cathedral stretched for acres in each direction, enclosed within a puny chain-link fence. A ring of torn-up pavement, the debris of crumbled buildings, crushed and overturned cars.
Those ruins began to tremble.
The others moved forward, gathering behind Ace.
Nova was still trying to form her thoughts into words, still thinking of how she could persuade Ace and the others to choose differently, when bits of debris began to rise anew from the wasteland. Plywood and unhinged doors. Metal sheeting and steel beams. The side torn from a bus, still papered with a faded advertisement. Bricks and stonework, appliances and roof shingles, broken glass, rebar and copper pipes, old street signs and a plastic slide from a child’s playground, ladders and porcelain bathtubs and traffic lights …
Countless bits of raw materials emerging from the wreckage. They began to fuse together at the edge of the wasteland. Bit by bit. Piece by piece.
Ace was building a wall.
Nova walked away from the others, to the opposite side of the tower. Here, too, the mess of materials was interlocking. Unlike the shimmering, near-transparent barricade that Adrian had used to protect himself at the arena, this wall was as thick and impenetrable as it was dark and unruly. It surrounded