The Fall of Five (lorien Legacies, #4)

In the Lorien Legacies series, the story follows a group of young alien survivors called the Garde, who were sent to Earth as children when their home planet, Lorien, was destroyed by the Mogadorians, a hostile alien race now hunting them down. Each Garde is identified by a number and possesses supernatural abilities called Legacies. Their guardians, known as Cêpans, trained and protected them, though most have since been killed. A mystical Loric Charm once prevented the Garde from being killed out of numerical order, but by this point in the series the charm has been broken.

The novel opens with Sam Goode, a human teenager and ally of the Garde, imprisoned in Dulce Base, a top-secret government facility in New Mexico co-opted by the Mogadorians. Sam was captured during a previous battle and tortured by Setrákus Ra, the supreme commander of the Mogadorian Empire, who interrogated him about the other Garde. Sam revealed nothing useful and was dismissed as expendable.

Sam is rescued by his long-missing father, Malcolm Goode, and a Mogadorian defector named Adamus Sutekh, known as Adam. Adam uses a seismic Legacy, an earthquake-like power impossible for a Mogadorian, to collapse Sam's cell wall, then stays behind to fight soldiers while Sam and Malcolm escape. Malcolm explains that he was one of the "Greeters," humans who helped the Loric children upon arrival on Earth. The Mogadorians imprisoned Malcolm for years and experimented on his mind, leaving gaps in his memory. Adam, a True-born Mogadorian (the ruling class, as opposed to genetically engineered "vat-born" soldiers), turned against his people after being exposed to the memories of a dead Garde and freed Malcolm.

Meanwhile, the surviving Garde have regrouped at a Chicago penthouse belonging to Number Nine. John (Number Four), the group's emerging leader, struggles with indecision after their near-defeat at Dulce Base. The group includes Six, who can turn invisible and control weather; Marina (Number Seven), a healer; Eight, who can teleport and shape-shift; Nine, a brash fighter with antigravity abilities; and Ella, the youngest, who possesses telepathy. John's human girlfriend, Sarah, and his Chimæra (a shape-shifting Loric animal) named Bernie Kosar are also present. Ella has escalating nightmares in which Setrákus Ra taunts her and asks whether she has read a certain letter.

The group detects Number Five's signal and traces him to Fouke, Arkansas. John, Six, Sarah, and Bernie Kosar find Five, a stocky teenager who reveals he has never encountered a Mogadorian. His Cêpan, Albert, died of illness years ago, and Five has been hiding alone ever since, burying his Loric Chest, each Garde's personal container of artifacts from Lorien, in the Florida Everglades. A Mogadorian ship attacks, and Five joins the fight using his Externa Legacy, which allows him to take on the properties of whatever material he touches: rubber for elasticity, steel for armor. Malcolm and Sam arrive independently and help defeat the attackers. The group reunites, though Five loses the Xitharis stone, a Loric artifact that can copy Legacies.

Back in Chicago, tensions emerge. Nine mocks Five, who makes provocative comments questioning the humans' trustworthiness and suggesting that the Elders, Lorien's ruling council, chose the Garde at random. Malcolm reveals that Pittacus Lore, the most powerful Loric Elder, visited him before dying and told him each Garde's Chest contains a "Phoenix Stone," an item from Lorien's core that can help restart the planet's ecosystem. The group inventories their Chests to identify these stones.

Marina reads aloud a letter from Crayton, Ella's deceased Cêpan, revealing that Ella was not one of the original 10 Garde. Her father smuggled her off Lorien separately during the Mogadorian invasion. The others console her, insisting she is still one of them. Ella's nightmares grow worse: When Marina touches her during one episode, she is pulled into a vision of Chicago devastated by invasion. When John tries to wake Ella by shining his Lumen, a light-producing Legacy, into her eye, Ella's hand seizes his wrist and pulls him into the same comatose state.

With John and Ella incapacitated, the group debates their next move. Five suggests that a prism in his buried Chest once stabilized his own uncontrollable Legacy and might help Ella. Six, Nine, Eight, Marina, and Five travel to the Everglades, while Sam, Sarah, and Malcolm remain in Chicago, translating Mogadorian documents John recovered from scouts. Sam discovers the translated documents contain copies of Malcolm's own notes on the Garde, including the penthouse address. Adam calls urgently to warn the Mogadorians are incoming, and seconds later a ship lands on the roof.

In the Everglades, the group locates Five's Chest. After pacifying a mutant alligator with a flute from the Chest, Five attacks: He sucker-punches Six with a steel-plated fist, fracturing her skull, and holds Nine underwater with a rubber-stretched arm. Five reveals the truth: The Mogadorians found him six months after his arrival on Earth, trained him, and converted him to their cause. He tells Marina and Eight that resistance is futile and that the Chicago penthouse is being raided simultaneously.

Marina, Eight, and Nine combine their telekinesis to shatter Five's hand, forcing him to lose his Externa power. Five momentarily breaks down, but when Nine taunts him, Five erupts in rage, deploying a wrist-mounted blade and diving at Nine. Eight teleports into the blade's path, taking it through his heart. A new scar sears across Marina's ankle, confirming Eight's death.

Marina's grief triggers a devastating new Legacy: She radiates freezing cold, flash-freezing the swamp. Icicles erupt from the ground, stabbing through Five's foot and destroying one of his eyes. She spares his life but warns him she will take his other eye next time. A Mogadorian ship collects Five. Six, barely conscious after Marina heals her, carries Nine over her shoulder. Marina grabs Six's hand, and they turn invisible and flee into the swamp, leaving Eight's body encased in ice.

Inside Ella's nightmare, John witnesses a vision of a possible future: a Mogadorian-conquered Washington, D.C. Setrákus Ra sits on a throne at the destroyed Lincoln Memorial with Ella beside him as his heir, older and transformed. Five, in a Mogadorian uniform with an eye patch, leads the last prisoners, Sam and Six, to execution. Ella pronounces sentence: "Execute them" (338).

John snaps awake as a new scar burns into his ankle, confirming a Garde has died. The penthouse is under full Mogadorian assault. Sam, Sarah, and Malcolm have been fighting to defend John and Ella, and Malcolm has been gravely wounded protecting them. Sarah is cradling the unconscious Ella and firing one-handed when Mogadorians stab her and rip Ella away, retreating because Setrákus Ra wants his "heir" alive. John faces a devastating choice: pursue them or heal the dying Malcolm. Remembering how losing his own Cêpan nearly destroyed him, John heals Malcolm rather than let Sam endure the same loss. Bernie Kosar, who flew to the roof to fight reinforcements, does not return.

As John prepares to evacuate, the elevator opens and a young Mogadorian steps out. After a tense standoff, Adam identifies himself and asks if Malcolm and Sam are safe. John struggles to accept help from a Mogadorian but recognizes the symmetry: If Five fights for the enemy, a Mogadorian can fight for the Garde. Adam tells John, "I know where they live" (355). John takes his hand: "You're gonna help me win this war" (355).