Hope I didn't make you wait too long! I wont keep you, on with the story
Yang chuckled lightly, of a sick and angered laughter.
"What's so funny?" Merlot said angrily, having a hard time keeping his blood inside his nose since she had headbutted him quite violently earlier.
"You just made a mistake. Probably the worst you could." testing her chains, she stared at him deep in the eyes, making sure to look out for the spark of fear that would unmistakably lit up in his eyes. "I saw your records on Blake. You told me you couldn't catch her. You lied, right you bastard?" She chuckled once more.
"What does it change? You're chained, drugged and she's on the other side of the complex. You won't see her ever again. Now hold still, I'm trying to take your pulse here." he said, stammering her right arm in the mattress as to stabilize it.
"Let's see, shall we?"
Without leaving him time to think through what she just said, the pissed off lioness headbutted him once more, with all of her strength and brutality. This time, she was aiming to stun, not just anger him, and was satisfied as the fragile scientist met the wall with a sickening crush noise. Her predatory smile still lasting on her lips, she started pulling on the chains until she broke it under her sheer force of might. Well, she didn't actually break the chains, they were too strong to be broken by human hands, but the medical bed instead was tore apart. Now free, she got up and started walking, without pausing to let her head stop whizzing around. The good point int struggling to eat everyday was that she kept her muscle strength, avoiding her an unnerving time of wobbling around if not crawling under the simple weight of her shackles.
"You really thought you could keep me?" she said walking over to her captor, shackles ringing on the cold floor. "I got out of the Schnee Mansion with a smile on my face and a laughter in my heart, and you really thought drugging me would be enough?" She kicked him in the guts, just to emphasize her point with a little pain. "You thought you were a genius, well, let me tell you: you're goddamn stupid." she slowly knelt to his level, enjoying the mix of fear, hatred and pain in his eyes before stammering her words. "Don't ever threaten a hurt lioness."
And with that, she was gone. Hopefully his laboratories didn't seem too large, and once you got through the Grimm test room, quite easy. For a second, Yang thought about slaughtering them, but she instead settled on leaving them be. With a little luck, they would rampage the underground and then die without harming anyone but the 'Doctor'. Stumbling around, she was forced to rely on blind luck and instinct, hoping that both would lead her to Blake, or at least to some kind of map. For now though, all she was seeing was some medical installations, some weird Grimms fused in-vitriol and some other tubes, seemingly empty.
She was just about to get back to her captor to know the exact way, when she finally stumbled on a more secured door. She stared at the lock for a few seconds, barely thinking, before shrugging and shoving the door out of its frame with a powerful stomp and an ironic smile.
"Bingo" she said, promptly taking in the sight before her.
She hadn't found Blake's cell, yet, but the control room she happened to break in was good enough to her. Not to mention the thick black file she spotted in one corners, 'mad scientist's thoughts and experiences' written all over it and the entire wall covered with screens. Taking the proof under one arm, she scanned the screen, searching for the gorgeous raven-haired woman that had to be held up somewhere. She saw drugged Grimms wobbling around, a blood pool where Merlot once was – that got her to frown – and finally, another hospital-like room, with an oh so pale and fragile silhouette curled up in it – new frown. If Merlot wanted to live past this day, he'd better stay out of Yang's way.
Groaning, she checked the cameras once again, soon forming a kind of map in her mind by linking the view she had. She just hoped that she didn't make any mistakes: she couldn't loose any second. Deciding that once again, she had to rest on hope and luck, she took off running in the corridors, hopefully easily dodging the diminished monsters on her way, and then skidded to a stop right in front of a white door. There was a small, fenced glass on top of it that allowed her to see that she was at her destination.
Swallowing hard, she suddenly found it extremely difficult, to reach the handle and enter. What if she was too late? What if Blake was injured? What if she was…? No, she couldn't think about this. Blake couldn't have died, here, alone. Her rational mind finally getting the better of her fears, she entered the room, flinching at the strong scent of ether filling the air. She made a few more steps, suddenly very self conscious of the noise she was making and how awkward it was in such even room. She saw Blake's torso inflate and deflate lightly, and she finally let out the breath she didn't even know she was holding. She then almost ran to Blake's side, the words rushing out of her mouth before she could think them through.
"Blake you're alive, I'm so relieved! Please, please, please don't ever fake being dead again, I can't handle it! Awaken Blake, please, I can't live without you!"
She was now hugging Blake's inert body, on the verge of crying her very soul out… Until she felt a slight shuffling in her arms. Her eyes widened in sudden realization at what she had said… and what the woman of her dreams couldn't have missed. Slowly, with the utmost precaution, she broke their embrace and looked at a tired, seemingly not entirely conscious Blake.
"Ya... Yang?" the drugged girl stuttered. "That's… really you?"
"Yes, yes that's me! Oh my god Blake, tell me you're okay?!"
"I'm glad..." she chuckled lightly, until she was interrupted by a cough. "I'm glad I died. At least now I can see you again" with a genuine smile, her hand came to rest tenderly against Yang's cheek before she faded away in unconsciousness again
"Blake?" Yang said, her stupid smile dropping at the same time at her crush's hand. "Blake?! BLAKE!" gradually panicking, she took her in her arm bridal-style, before pursuing half-scared and half-determined. "Blake stay with me okay? I'll get you out of here! I swear!"
She started running again, this time much more cautious as to not bump into any kind of obstacle – living or not – and most importantly, protect her fragile charge. She spun around again and again, feeling her mind wander closer to the 'crazy' state each time she realized that she had already been there.
"Fucking labyrinth, just get me out of here already!"
"I admit, you surprised me"
She spun, surprised, still remembering to avoid any contact between Blake's unconscious body and the narrow corridor despite her racing heart. And of course, that voice was Merlot's snickering one. He was standing in the middle of the corridor – if 'standing' was the right way to describe his crooked, inclined upright position – a sick smile on his lips… He would have been much more intimidating without the blood slowly drying out of his nose and the palish tint of his skin from the blood loss though. Sighing, the lioness slowly put her charge down, making sure that she was protected from about anything that could happen, before turning back to her opponent.
"You never learn, do you?" she clenched her fists, feeling her rage fuel her aura. She would have bet anything that her eyes were now flaming red.
She easily pinned the mad scientist to a wall by his lab coat, before grunting a few millimeters to his nose.
"Tell me where the exit is now, and I'll consider not breaking each and every one of your bones."
He swallowed hard, and struggled in her arms to free himself without the slight success, before abandoning.
"The… The door is hidden. Camouflaged as a wall part, at the end of the corridor. You'll need ton punch a code, 6287 before the elevator shows."
"See? You can be cooperative." She let him go, but not before she had twisted his arm beyond repair and stomped on his leg.
"You said you would spare me!" he managed to let out, in between a ragged breath and a pained scream
"And I did. You still have functional bones in your body." she left off, letting him whimper on the ground.
She picked up Blake, gently tucking her hair back behind her ears, before marching calmly to the corridor, confident that there was no more danger around.
An infuriating, blood-boiling pain in her shoulder proved her wrong.
She cringed when the raven haired woman almost slipped out of her embrace, and she cringed once more when she felt her left arm twitch uncontrollably under the sheer pain she was experiencing. Turning back to Merlot, she saw him shakily reload a kind of syringe-gun with fluorescent green liquid. Everything then started happening slower. She saw the weapon pointed at her, she saw herself avoiding it… It was as if the thing they contained, instead of knocking her out of her sense as it was probably supposed to do, boosted her Aura and semblance. Within a second, she understood the consequences of such impromptu boost, remembering how difficult it had been to control her flaming semblance.
As if memory was the trigger, some flames started growing around her, flickering at first, then rapidly expanding, licking the wall like an avid creature coming straight from hell. At first she was amazed by how powerful this wild fire was… But that was until she realized that even with her protective Aura, she started to feel the heat. Lowering her gaze in apprehension, she was met with a terrible truth: Blake's skin was already suffering from the fire. Cursing, swearing and coughing, she started running toward the exit, briefly seeing her ex-captor running around in circles, the flames already devouring his coat.
She managed to get to the hidden door and open it without much more damage, and she was about to enter the elevator when a wave of pure energy radiated from her and knocked out of the way almost everything just like a fire tornado. Hopefully, the wave had started about half a meter around her, so that she was still intact and so was Blake… but the elevator didn't have that chance. She stared for a split-second into the pitch-black abyss in front of her, before shaking herself. She had to find a way out, and quick. As the flames moved closer, she spot the supporting metal wire of the elevator, and even better: there was a service ladder on the side of the rectangular column!
Desperately searching her surroundings for any scrap of clothes that would have survived the savage rampaging of the fire, she had to admit that at this time, there was nothing that would be left unscathed. But she needed to find something, anything to hold Blake on her back while she climbed the ladder! Her eyes fell on her hospital gown, and she bit her lower lip in hesitation.
Struggling a bit, she tore the – hopefully long – sleeves of her clothing, rapidly making a primitive harness out of it and tying Blake to her back. Checking that her head was maintained, she then jumped straight to the ladder.
The smoldering scent and sounds of burning flesh came to her sense as her palms were burned raw by the boiling metal, and she had to blink back a few tears. She kept ascending despite the sharp pain in her hands, even when she got to a cooler portion of the ladder – her burned flesh protesting each time she touched it – and finally, got out to the open air.
She stumbled a few more steps, and then had to stare back at where she had come from as a sickening, awfully loud tearing sound happened as the entire complex finally gave up. Creaking and shaking the ground around it, the equivalent of two-stories mall sunk in the ground, leaving a torn battlefield instead.
For a second, Yang thought that she would fall too, exhausted by her recent action, the pain longing in her shoulder and the vivid one in her hands slowly getting the better of her… But that's when Blake twitched. Oh it was not much, about a hand movement, a slight reaction… but it was enough to remind Yang that she wasn't safe yet. Panting and grunting, she started walking toward the only thing out of place in this peaceful forest : a smoke column. Fire meant people, and people meant help.
Her pace was slow, economic, but determined. Readjusting Blake's position every now and then, she made her way through the forest, so focused on getting help that she didn't even think about Grimms. And maybe that's what kept them out of her way: confidence, and love.
So, whaddya folks think? I'm pretty proud of this one, and the rest of the story is finally getting written... It's like a miracle, after all the doubt I had not so long ago. Though as I'm writing daily Bumbleby, that might delay this posting a little... sorry :/
Anyways, hope you enjoyed, and thank you for bearing with my absurd ideas so far!