The Revenge of Seven recap

After Number Eight's death and Ella's capture, the Garde regroup around three things: recovering Ella, understanding what the Mogadorians are building, and Marina's determination to find Number Five. Ella, held aboard Setrakus Ra's warship, learns that he is her grandfather and that he intends her to inherit what he has built, and she resists while trying to warn the others in their sleep. Adam, a Mogadorian who carries the memories of Number One after an experiment on him as a boy, and the earth-shaking Legacy that came with them, defects and brings the Garde what he knows. Together they raid Ashwood Estates, a Mogadorian settlement in Virginia disguised as an ordinary suburb, and find beneath it the enemy's technology, captive Chimaerae, and evidence of a plan to approach the world's governments openly. The group splits: Six, Marina, and Adam go to Mexico to find a Loric sanctuary, and John's group goes to New York. Setrakus Ra presents himself to humanity as a benefactor, and then the warships decloak and the invasion begins.

Nine Loric children were sent to Earth with guardians called Cepans when the Mogadorians destroyed Lorien. Numbers One, Two, and Three were killed first. Number Four, John Smith, was found in Ohio, where his guardian Henri died; Number Six joined him, along with his human friend Sam Goode and a Chimaera called Bernie Kosar. Number Seven, called Marina, was found in Spain; the orphan she protected was Number Ten, called Ella, from a second Loric ship. Number Nine was freed from a Mogadorian mountain base, and Number Eight was found in India. All of their Cepans are now dead, including Ella's, and the charm that once made the nine killable only in order no longer protects them. Sam's father Malcolm was recovered from Mogadorian hands, and his returning memories revealed that humans met the Loric ships when they landed. Number Five was found last, and betrayed them: he had already made terms with the Mogadorians, and he killed Number Eight. Marina, in grief, developed a Legacy of lethal cold and took one of Five's eyes. Setrakus Ra took Ella captive. Five of the nine remain, and one of them is on the enemy's side.

The Garde pull themselves back together after Florida. John takes the group's losses as a reason to fight harder rather than to hide, Marina has come out of it colder and more dangerous, and everyone's first objective is Ella. Ella, meanwhile, is aboard Setrakus Ra's warship, held in reasonable comfort and treated as a guest rather than a prisoner, which unsettles her more than a cell would. He talks to her, shows her things, and appears to be waiting for her to come round to something. A third strand opens with Adam, a young Mogadorian and the son of a senior officer, who was used as a boy in an experiment that joined his mind to a dead Garde's. He has carried her memories ever since, along with a Legacy no Mogadorian should possess, and he has been living between the two sides.

Adam breaks with his own people for good and makes contact with the Garde, offering what he knows about Mogadorian installations, chains of command, and intentions. He is a Mogadorian asking Loric survivors to trust him weeks after one of their own betrayed them, and the reception is what would be expected. Number Five is now openly on the enemy's side, and Marina intends to find him. Aboard the warship, Setrakus Ra's interest in Ella becomes explicit: he has a specific role in mind for her, and he expects her to accept it. Her Legacies work on minds, so the only thing she can do from inside is reach for the Garde in their sleep and try to tell them what she has learned.

Setrakus Ra tells Ella what she is to him: she is his granddaughter, and he means her to inherit what he has built rather than to die with the rest of the Garde. He offers her a version of the war in which she is on the winning side and her people survive, and he makes it as reasonable as he can. Ella refuses and keeps refusing, while continuing to gather everything she can about his plans. On Earth, Adam's intelligence gives the Garde a target that changes their understanding of the enemy entirely: Ashwood Estates, a Mogadorian settlement in Virginia that looks from the road like an ordinary American suburb, complete with houses and lawns, and which has been operating for years within reach of the American capital.

The Garde raid Ashwood Estates with Adam guiding them. Beneath the suburb they find the real installation: Mogadorian technology, records, and Chimaerae held in stasis, Loric creatures like Bernie Kosar that the enemy captured rather than killed. They also find evidence of what Setrakus Ra is actually preparing, and it is not another hunting operation. The Mogadorians intend to approach the governments of Earth openly, presenting themselves as visitors offering help. The raid destroys the site and confirms Adam as an ally, at the cost of announcing to the Mogadorian leadership that the Garde have someone on the inside.

With the Mogadorian plan exposed, the Garde have two problems that cannot be solved in one place, and they split. Six, Marina, and Adam head for Mexico, following what Malcolm Goode remembered about a Loric sanctuary hidden there, on the reasoning that whatever the Loric left on Earth is the only thing that might change the odds. John, Sam, Sarah, Nine, and Malcolm head for New York, where Setrakus Ra intends to make his public approach to the world's governments. Ella, still aboard his ship, now understands the full shape of what he is planning and can do nothing about it except refuse him. Both groups are moving toward events they cannot stop, and the Garde have never been more thinly spread.

Setrakus Ra presents himself to humanity, in a form humans will accept, as a visitor offering aid rather than a conqueror, and enough of the world is willing to hear him out. The deception holds only briefly: the Mogadorian warships decloak over New York and other cities and the invasion begins openly. John's group is in New York when the first ships arrive; Six, Marina, and Adam are in Mexico, still searching for the sanctuary; Ella is aboard Setrakus Ra's ship, refusing the inheritance he has offered her. Adam has destroyed any way back to his own people. The war has changed shape entirely: it is no longer a hidden hunt for a handful of children, but an open invasion of Earth, with the Garde outnumbered, separated across two continents, and holding only one real advantage, which is that they know the Loric left something behind here and the Mogadorians have not found it.

Setrakus Ra's plan turns out to be public rather than covert. Having spent years operating out of hidden bases, he presents himself openly to the world's governments as a visitor offering help, in a form humans will accept, and much of the world is prepared to listen. Then the Mogadorian warships decloak over New York and other cities and the invasion begins in the open. The Garde are split when it starts: Six, Marina, and Adam are in Mexico looking for the Loric sanctuary Malcolm Goode remembered, while John, Sam, Sarah, Nine, and Malcolm are in New York, where the first ships arrive. Ella is still aboard Setrakus Ra's ship, now knowing exactly what he wants from her and refusing it. Adam has burned his own side for good and is trusted, if not liked, by the Garde. The war stops being a secret hunt for nine children and becomes an open invasion of Earth, with the Garde outnumbered, scattered across two continents, and holding one advantage: they know what the Loric left behind here, and the Mogadorians have not found it yet.