Several dozen men stood before the sunken ruins they had left only weeks earlier. El Capitán’s gaze rested upon the silver cross on Adelaide’s chest.

“Quit staring, you old fool,” Galton barked. “Ya ain’t gettin’ it back,”

“I truly thought that cross would save him,” El Capitán said.

“Nothing could save him,” Adelaide said. “He was born for a purpose. He served that purpose and passed to a better place. He gave me this before he left.” Adelaide clasped the silver cross tightly in her hand.

“He has cursed that piece of jewelry,” El Capitán said. “If I were you, I would remove it.”

“He’s blessed it with his love, and it’s kept us alive,” Adelaide replied.

Galton glanced down at the pendant he wore and then looked at the one around Fiero’s neck. He thought about how they, too, had helped keep them alive.

Galton turned to the retired warlord. “Seems like old times, huh?”

El Capitán forced a smile. “I wish it were under better circumstances. What do we do now?”

Galton pointed down the ravine toward the ruins. “We have to go down there and wait.”

El Capitán frowned. “I care for you Lionel, but I’d like to be at a safe distance if this Fire Woman shows up.”

Galton shrugged. “You can leave, but don’t count on earning any more brownie points.”

El Capitán sighed. “I’ll stay.”

The weather changed suddenly. The stifling heat of the jungle seemed to evaporate into the sky and form clouds, and a cold rain began to pour. The group began rappelling down the side of the ravine, but the downpour made it difficult. Galton begged Adelaide to stay behind, but she insisted it would take the power of all three to call forth Grace. El Capitán’s men helped them get to the bottom, and the group dashed into the temple to get away from the storm.

The rain picked up, and lightning flashed. Adelaide heard the voice of the child once again. “Find me,” Grace whispered. Adelaide left the protection of the temple as Galton cried out for her to stop.

“It’s time, jefe,” Fiero said, nodding toward the Scroll and artifact necklaces, which were beginning to glow. He and Galton followed Adelaide out into the pouring rain, saw her standing at the base of the temple. Winds picked up and whistled through the trees of the nearby forest.

“This is where she died!” Adelaide shouted above the wind. “She landed right here when she fell!”

“How can that be?” Galton asked.

“The temple was buried.”

And Caesar buried it,Galton realized. Fiero, reading his mind, nodded.

Adelaide lifted the cross from her chest, yanked it loose, and held it to the sky. Galton and Fiero did the same with their pendants. “For love!” Adelaide shouted.

“For love,” Galton and Fiero repeated.

Through the swaying limbs of the trees they could see light flashing. The Fire Woman pushed through the brush, igniting everything in her path. Adelaide nodded at Galton and Fiero, and the three held their pendants above their heads. A bolt of forked lighting struck all three pendants and fed the energy into the ground and into the temple. The wounded temple ignited, and sparks flew.

The Fire Woman stared in amazement, her mind roiling with mixed feelings as she struggled to recognize the people before her and hold back the voices that whispered, “Kill them all.” When the lightning ceased, the three fell to the ground. Out of the temple walked the apparition of a young girl in her mid-teens. The apparition took human form as it walked forward and passed the three people lying on the ground. She touched the oldest of them on the shoulder as she passed.

“Grace?” Galton cried as he lifted his head to stare into his granddaughter’s eyes.

The girl smiled and continued toward the hovering Fire Woman. “You have a choice, Mommy,” Grace said.

“Grace,” Annie cried, as the winds whirling around her calmed. Her form altered and she resolved into the naked woman with swirling tattoos last seen in the Belizean beach house. “Oh, how I’ve missed you.”

“Save the world, Mommy, and you can be with me. Together we’ll find Daddy.”

“Caesar?” Annie suddenly realized her connection to her husband had been broken. She couldn’t feel his presence, couldn’t sense him, not here, not in the afterworld. What have they done with you, Caesar? The thought of the loss of her husband flooded her mind and polluted it again. The voices cried out. They were deafening. Galton, Fiero, Adelaide, and the freedom fighters covered their ears and moaned. The remains of the temple behind them shook and dissolved into rubble. Annie no longer recognized the girl in front of her.

“Liars!” she screamed as her body ignited and the winds began to spin wildly around her, lifting her back into the air. The Fire Woman rushed through the air, picked up the girl as she raced toward the temple ruins, burying them both in the rubble behind Galton, Fiero, and Adelaide.

Adelaide knelt on the muddy ground and began to cry.

“It’s over, Lionel,” El Capitán said. “We’ve failed.”

Galton got to his feet and glimpsed a small apparition surface from the rubble of the temple.

Grace looked at him and shook her head sadly, and then she vanished.