Snow and wind howled furiously outside the circular window beside a bed, atop of which sat a young girl with blue and white hair, and glassy white eyes. The fringe of her hair hid her right eye, and the length of her hair hid most of her back in a mess, as if she had just woken up after days straight of sleeping. Unfortunately for her, however, she did not sleep, not tonight, not in the last couple of nights. The wind was disruptive, and the howling of it scared her more than she liked to admit to anyone, or, anyone besides Mila, whom she adored and respected. He was an older boy, one she had met some time ago, her first real friend. He was an odd sort, but that was okay in her eyes, as she was odd herself. That was what the other children in the town said, anyway. Shimmer was an outcast, though she never truly understood why. She didn't talk much, that was true enough. And she didn't like being around too many people, or participating in their games, but she didn't think that was odd, just different.
Though, she figured that what she thought didn't matter, not when everyone else had their own opinions of her already. Their minds were made up, and so, she was to be left alone. She had Mila, but he wasn't always around. He lived with his uncle, and they both didn't stay directly in the village. Their home was a short distance away. Too far to see from her house, but not too far that either of them couldn't walk to meet each other, though she had never actually gone to visit his home. He had strictly forbidden it, or his uncle did, which was another thing that she determined to be unimportant. It didn't matter whose decision it was, all that mattered was that it was decided upon, and she was stuck here. She had only one other friend among the other children. He was a boy named Blaine, and was the same age as her and Mila.
While Blaine's black hair was normally short and straight, he always left some of it long enough to tie into a thin braid that started behind his left ear and draped over his shoulder. He had mentioned that it was an idea of his mother's and he grew partial to it over the years. Surprisingly enough, nobody made fun of him for it. Blaine was quite the opposite of Shimmer and Mila, really, as he was one of the most popular kids in the little hamlet. The howling grew louder outside the window, and Shimmer wrapped herself tighter in her bedsheets, making a sort of cocoon around her body as she gazed out of the window with her exposed eyes.
"I wonder if Mila is up as well." she thought, watching the shattered moon hover in the sky outside, over the vast tundra. "Probably. He's always tired. I doubt he sleeps at all." Shimmer whispered.
The thought of Mila brought a longing in her young chest. She was only seven, and she didn't know what love really felt like, but she enjoyed being around him, and by his side was where she was happiest. If there was any inclination as to what love was, to her, that was it. But Mila didn't like her in that way, she could tell. She could always tell. In the three years since they had become friends, she felt like she was treated differently than Blaine, like they were in different positions or something. Her role was that of a sister, a person to be loved and protected, but never in a way that gets closer. Shimmer recalled seeing her parents kiss before going to bed, and the memory caused her to touch her lips with two fingers, gazing out at the drifting snow with her distant eyes as her imagination traveled.
"I'm running out of time." she murmured, softly, almost inaudibly.
Shimmer had news that she had not told her friends yet, news that she had decided it best to keep secret until the last possible moment. She still had a few days anyway, and they would understand, she was sure of it. She just didn't want to ruin what time they had left together by making it awkward in any way. And… she simply didn't want to say goodbye yet. She wasn't ready to leave her friends, or her home, but she was a child, as her parents had pointed out, and she had no say in the matter. Atlas was safer, and their futures would be in better hands up in the skies than out here, away from Mantle's and Atlas' protection. Shimmer only saw selfishness when her parents spoke of this great opportunity. She was supposed to be starting in a combat school in the coming months, and eventually, when she was old enough, she would start at Atlas Academy, so she could train to become a proper Huntress. It was a path decided for her, and she didn't know enough about the world to argue that much, and even if she did, she was much too young for her voice to be heard above those older than herself.
When morning came, Shimmer's eyes opened, and she realized that she had fallen asleep at some point throughout the night. Her head was resting against the wall as she was curled up in the corner, still in a slouched sitting position. She yawned and left her drab, white room, and made for the light colored hall and living room of her abode. A lot of the homes here were pre-fabricated buildings, set up by the Atlas Military in order to provide housing for some of the people that lived out in the tundras. It was some kind of popularity act to get some guy in power more votes, or so her father said during his drunken conversations with some of the others in the settlement. They might have all looked mostly alike, and they might have been dull, but Shimmer never found reason to complain. She was dry, warm, fed, and had a place to sleep at night, so all in all, she thought they were perfect. So perfect that she didn't want to leave it. After a brief breakfast of toast and eggs, she moved back to her room to change from her blue pajamas, and into her usual clothing. She pulled on a mildly heavy, white dress that reached her knees, some black leggings, and a large, brown woolen coat. She then pulled some gloves over her hands and wrapped a red scarf around her neck to keep it safe from the chilling wind outside.
She proceeded to the streets outside, all of which were pretty much just cleared paths where the built up snow had been shoveled aside. Her boots kept her feet dry and warm as she traveled down the snowy pathways and looked around at all of the adults and other children walking by. The looks she got in return were not so kind as the one she was giving them, which only made her turn her head, and keep her eyes down.
"Shimmer, wait up!" called out a youthful, energetic voice.
She stopped and turned to see Blaine running up to her, panting and smiling from ear to ear, as was normal for him.
"Good morning." she said, kindly, and quietly.
"Back at ya." said Blaine, catching his breath. "So, where are you going so early in the morning, Shi?" he asked. Shimmer didn't need to respond, so she instead turned her gaze towards the end of the street, where the edge of the village was, and where a large building rested some way further past the boundaries of her home. "Ahhhh, Mila again." Blaine stated. "He'll think you're weird if you keep rushing to look out for him every morning," he added.
"He will not." she protested, puffing her cheeks. "He said he'll never think of me that way." she then added, feeling her cheeks and face growing hot. She put her hands against her blushing cheeks and smiled as she avoided Blaine's judging look.
"They think you're weird because of your semblance, Shi, so yeah, he'll never judge you for that. Still, he might think it's kinda creepy if you are always waiting for him."
"He won't!" she said, and while she yelled it, her voice still didn't carry. She had always been a quiet person, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not get her voice to be loud. People always had trouble hearing her, and she suspected that would never change, as it was simply how she was born. "And what do you mean about my semblance?" she then asked the boy.
"Your semblance is kind of weird, Shi, you have to admit that. You said that it urged you to lick Tina's finger after she pricked it, and then you had her semblance all of a sudden. It's only natural that the other kids don't want you near them."
Shimmer looked away, her blush changing from affection to embarrassment and shame. "I didn't mean to do it. I just felt like I had to. It was just a little lick, that's all."
"And then you copied her power." Blaine repeated. "But don't feel down, we'll always have your back, 'kay?" said Blaine, putting an arm around her, and pulling her close. "You might be a bit off, but you're our special weirdo, right?"
"I-I guess so." Shimmer replied, not really knowing the correct way to respond to that.
This was just a Blaine thing, and she never knew how to react. Sometimes, he was a fantastic friend, who always put you first. Then there were other times, where he would be brutally honest, but he would have the kindest intentions behind them. He would point out flaws and insult you, but that didn't mean he hated you. On the contrary, it meant you were close to him. When Shimmer was first introduced to Blaine, he had been much more reserved with her, and hardly spoke his mind. After a couple of weeks, however, he was calling her a weirdo and making fun of her, like he did now, but she didn't think he ever meant anything ill by it. Still, it was just another reason why she preferred Mila to anyone else, especially Blaine. Mila was kind, no matter what. He would never call her weird, even if Blaine said he would, and he always had time for her whenever he was around.
"You're getting that look in your eyes again, Shi. Thinking about our lovely beast?" he asked her.
"N-no! You're such an idiot." she said, looking towards the plains again, where she could see the outline of Mila's house in the hazy, frosty mist that hovered over the ground as the morning sun burned away the moisture in the air.
"Or maybe I'm the world's biggest genius. Ever think of that?" he asked, putting a hand on his hip and holding the other up in a pompous fashion.
"Mila would call you stupid too."
"Well, Mila isn't here right now. I don't think he's coming either. He said something about being busy today." Blaine stated, now gazing off towards the home alongside Shimmer. "I really wonder what he does in there all day long. And he always looks sick when he comes on the days after his missed visits."
"I think his uncle does it to him. I don't like him much." Shimmer suggested.
"I think you're right." Blaine said, nodding his head. "Eh, it's Mila's business, at the end of the day. He'll tell us eventually, I'm sure of it."
The thought of that word, 'eventually', sent pain into her heart.
"I don't have that kind of time anymore." she thought, still staring off towards the house.
Blaine touched her shoulder and when she jumped, Shimmer's eyes opened in a different place. She looked around and saw that she was resting against a metal wall, and opposite of her were a series of silver bars to keep her caged in. Her hair was a mess around her head, which felt as if it had been struck by a hammer, or something similarly heavy. She examined herself and saw that she was still in her mission attire, her white shirt, her blue and white skirt, some tights, and her boots, but her heavy coat had been taken, as well as her weapons and sheaths. Looking around the cell didn't provide much in the way of information besides confirming that she had been taken. The room itself was empty, and outside of her barred exit, she saw only white, metal walls. The whole place gave off an Atlas sort of feeling, strict and unassuming.
She rose from the ground and held her head as she wobbled where she stood, using her free hand to hold herself up against the wall. The memory within her dream was starting to fade, but the longing for Mila persisted still, causing his image to appear at the forefront of her mind.
"I hope you're okay." she whispered, looking towards the hall outside her cage.
She activated her semblance, or, accessed the one she had copied from Mila on the day she kissed him. Her power was mimicry, or something similar. She copied and stored the abilities of others, as long as she had taken in some form of their DNA, be it saliva, blood, anything that made them who they were. Her white accents began turning red, and the blue in her eyes changed to scarlet. Claws began protruding from above her normal human nails, and her senses grew much sharper, though not as much as Mila's would've been. That was the primary restriction on her semblance, that she couldn't use it near as well as the original possessor of it. However, it was enough to hear footsteps pattering around the halls, and the smells of oil and machinery. Without a single doubt in her mind, this was an Atlas facility, and she was now a prisoner within it.
She continued smelling around, even to the point of walking to the bars so she could get as close as possible to anything of importance. It was faint, but she smelt something familiar in the air, the smell of flowers, Rose's scent. It was not near her location, but it was there, and that was enough to know that they were at least in the same place. Both of her clawed hands gripped the bars, scratching the metal as her sharpened nails scraped against the cold steel. She pressed her face to the bars in an attempt to get a look in both directions of the corridor, but there were slight curves in the walls on either side, meaning her visibility was limited. With a sigh, she stepped back and let her semblance fade away. She had only three abilities copied so far, one she had taken from Mila, which is the one she primarily used, the one that she had taken from a girl in the village, which is an ability she rarely ever touched, and one she had received from a teacher in Atlas. She didn't know why she avoided the second one, as it was more of an unconscious choice, something she did on a whim.
It wasn't as if she hated the girl, or her power, but she simply didn't use it, and that was all. Perhaps it was because she felt attached to Mila's, so she acted as if that was her power as well. Or maybe it was because she didn't want to remember that this ability of hers, the day she stole that girl's ability, was one of the primary reasons she was looked at oddly back home. She did, however, know why she refused to use the third, as it was the reason she had to leave Atlas, or part of the reason at least. It was connected, and it left a horrible taste in her mouth. She could still taste the blood as it flowed between her teeth, and the rage she felt as she bit down into his neck with the fangs Mila's own semblance caused her to attain. It was a bad memory, a nightmare, one that she wished above all to forget, but she knew that would never happen. In fact, the more she wanted to forget it, the harder she wished for it, the clearer the lingering memory became.
Shimmer sat down on the ground, her legs crossed, and her hands in her lap. She closed her eyes tight and tried her best to concentrate. There was a teacher at Atlas Academy, one that she liked very much, the one that she had attacked in the heat of the moment during her final week in attendance there. He had taught her the art of meditation, a way to help calm her when she started feeling like everything was going wrong. It helped with anxiety and stress, and so, she practiced it almost everyday. On her days off back at Haven Academy, she would spend half of the morning in a state of meditation, secluding herself from the outside world, and concentrating solely on herself. She did so now, and everything seemed to come to a stop around her, and she alone existed in her mind. That is, until a loud rapping rang out from her cell's door.
"Wake up, kid." came a sharp voice, a man's voice.
One eye opened and she saw a man in a white suit of Atlas military plating. His helmet was off, however, and she saw an aged face, not yet heavily wrinkled, but tired in appearance, as if he had seen too many nights without sleep. In his hands was a rifle, Atlas standard for the personnel that were not Huntsman. Shimmer had seen them all the time back at the academy, thanks to both the school and military being somewhat connected to one another. He had wavy dark hair, a matching goatee, and a small scar cut through his right eyebrow. Shimmer stared into his emerald eyes with her single, open one, and then ignored him. Her eye closed and she returned to her meditation.
"I said to wake up, kid."
Still, she ignored him, and remained silent. It was not in Shimmer's nature to talk much, even to her team, so she refused to give anything to this stranger, one that she detested the instant she heard his interruption.
"Who are you?" he then questioned, and again, she gave no answer in return. "Why are you here?" he then questioned, to which Shimmer gave only more silence. "Can you even speak?" he inquired, and she ignored the man's words. She heard him sigh briefly. "It doesn't matter either way, kid. Answer me or not, we know what you are. Thanks to the scrolls we found on you, we at least know your name and where you come from. We were simply hoping for a bit more detail, Shimmer Hei of Haven Academy." he said.
"Good for you." thought Shimmer, but she refused her temptation to say it aloud.
That was more Petal's thing, to reply with some cheeky remark, and to try to antagonize whoever bothered her. Shimmer, however, settled with her continued silent treatment, hoping that the man would eventually reach a point, or would simply leave her alone. To Shimmer, either one was a valid option. Instead, Shimmer thought about the last thing she saw before being knocked out. She saw the two people that assaulted them in the woods, and remembered the prick she received from the slimy tendril that had locked her in place. Then she recalled that she had not seen what happened to Rose, as she instantly fell unconscious. For all she knew, Rose could be hurt, or killed. She could smell her, but that didn't mean she was alive, just that she was near. To this line of thinking, Shimmer gave a silent prayer of hope that Rose was fine, and that they would be able to find a way out of here. Or that Petal and Mila would be able to find and rescue them, which would be the most likely outcome of the situation.
Petal's faunus blood gave her fabulous senses, and Mila's semblance put him close, if not on par with her, so they were by far the best trackers she could imagine. She would just have to stay alive until then, which if her current predicament was anything to go off of, there was a good chance of that. If they had wanted her dead, they would've killed her already. If they had wanted to hurt her, she would not still be in good health, besides for her incessant migraine.
"Are you even listening to me?" the man asked, his voice pushing its way into her concentration again. A loud metallic bang erupted as the man stuck the bars with his gun, and scoffed. "Stupid brat. Let's see if your attitude keeps up after he is done with you. None of them are the same after seeing him once or twice." the man spat, laughing as he walked away.
"Him?" questioned Shimmer, though it was much too quiet a voice for the guard to hear her, and so, he continued down the hall. "I don't like the sound of this guy." Shimmer then muttered, and the image she always imagined when thinking of Mila's uncle appeared. Though she had never actually seen the man, Mila's descriptions led her to imagine a wicked, evil scientist, with needles, a stark white lab coat, and a terribly low sense of morality. Just the idea sent a shiver up her spine, one that she had to shake off as she returned to her meditation, and her thinking of a way to leave this place safely.
Minutes went by like seconds for her, and idea after idea came and went. She had no weapons, and no means to destroy the bars, which were the two primary issues in escaping. Every plan returned to one thing, and one thing only. She would have to use her other semblances if she wanted to get herself out. She spent nearly two hours trying to think of a way to avoid that, but there was nothing to be done about it. Shimmer rose to her feet and opened her eyes, which now gained a new ferocity in them, one that she always tried to keep at bay as much as possible. Now was the time for survival, not for holding anything back. If she wanted to break out and return to Mila, she had to do everything in her power to do so. She activated Mila's semblance, granting her his beast-like attributes, and then searched in her mind, in her very being. She imagined her semblance like a hard drive, a memory device that stored these captured abilities. Looking through it, in her mind, seemed like programming, so that was how it was pictured in her thoughts. She delved through her proverbial code until she found her imagined folder of semblances. Upon taking a deep breath, as she tried to quell the rising nerves in her body, she reached out and activated it. It was a question of if she could even activate multiple abilities at once, as she had never actually tried it before.
At once, she felt it come to her, and she knew that it went as well as she had hoped. She moved to the wall of the cell and stuck her clawed left hand to it. At once, it stuck in place, and she then placed her other one against the hard metallic surface. Realizing that this would work, she reached down to remove her boots, and then she removed her tights, dropping them down on the pair of leather footwear. She leapt to the wall and felt her feet and hands stick to it, before proceeding to climb into a position to wait, which she didn't need to do for long. Within a few minutes, she heard a guard coming closer, and then heard him audibly gasp as he noticed the emptiness of the cell. The door creaked open and when she saw the man walk in, she attacked. Shimmer kicked off of the ceiling above the door, and tackled the guard. With a powerful elbow to the back of the head, he was quickly dealt with, which allowed her to search his body.
She found a few keycards but nothing much besides. She then looked at her boots and black tights before deciding to leave them. If she was going to use this semblance, it would be better if she could fully utilize it, and not restrict herself for the sake of covering her feet or legs. Turning, she then moved out into the hall, which gave her another question that needed answering. She needed to save Rose before leaving, and to do that, she needed to find Rose. Shimmer let the girl's scent be her guide, and ran left down the hall. As she moved, the layout of her room became clear to her. It was a large circle, with four cells inside of it. At two intervals, there were doors that continued down hallways, which she assumed would lead to more circular rooms and corridors. On her way to the first door, she passed by one other cell, and noticed a man sitting against the wall. He had no shirt on, a pair of ragged, torn pants, and a strange leather strap across his chest that held a vial of blue liquid on his right shoulder. She gave it a curious look but her mission came first. Save Rose, escape the facility, and report back to Petal. She needed to get these done before she could bother saving anybody else.
She sprinted down the next corridor, smelling and hearing a few more people up ahead. Without any hesitation, she charged forward, preparing herself to attack.
"You, stop!" barked one man, raising his rifle to shoot her.
"Halt!" ordered another, doing the same as the first guard.
To this, Shimmer continued on her path. As they began to fire their beams of blue energy, she lowered herself to all fours, letting the feral intuition of Mila's semblance take hold. She darted left, then right, avoiding the two flurries of gunfire, before leaping up to the nearby wall. She stuck in place before leaping for the first of the two men. As the second one started to take aim again, a spire of black rock arose, one that looked similar to obsidian, or the skin of Grimm, piercing through his leg. He let out a howl of pain as he dropped to one knee, and Shimmer connected with the first man, digging her claws into his chest as they flew to the ground. She straddled his chest as she plucked her nails free, and she noticed the second man taking aim while cursing under his breath. She rolled to the right, grabbing his friend again and using him as a shield.
"Damn you!" yelled the second guard, and in response, Shimmer kicked her human shield to the man, sending both into the wall, and knocking both unconscious as their heads smacked against the metal.
She hurried back to her feet and continued forward. When she met two other guards, she dodged more gunfire before leaping into one, rolling off of him after hitting the ground, and kicking at another, sending him into the wall. She then spun and kicked the head of the first as he started rising, sending a splatter of blood from his lips as he went limp and hit the floor. She eyed the crimson liquid for several seconds before shaking her head, and continued on her task. After another handful of guards, she eventually came across the next set of cells, the one where she smelt Rose's scent from. She used a keycard on the sensor and the door slid open, granting her access to the circular chamber.
"If you just tell me what you're doing here, we can all sort this out, understood?" she heard a woman say.
"And if you would tell me the same, maybe we can avoid any further misunderstandings." replied a familiar voice.
"You're unbelievable," said the woman.
"Likewise." stated Rose.
Shimmer followed the hall and saw the female guard gripping a bar with one hand while her other held her rifle towards the ground. Shimmer rushed forward and tackled her, before bashing her head with an elbow, knocking her out cold.
"Shimmer?" gasped Rose, walking towards the cell door as Shimmer rose to her feet.
Rose was wearing her usual black boots, her dark shorts, which now that she was not wearing her coat, seemed way too short to Shimmer, and a black sleeveless shirt that was tight on her body, accentuating her natural curves. Now that Shimmer saw her without the coat, she felt that Rose really did dress in a bit too revealing a way, or at least, more so than Shimmer would have expected from the girl's personality.
"Shimmer, how did you get out of your cell?" asked Rose.
"How are you not out of your cell?" retorted Shimmer, recalling what Rose's semblance was. "Couldn't you make a portal?"
"Afraid not." replied Rose. "I don't know what they did to me but I haven't been able to use it since the forest. Now, answer my question." Rose demanded.
"My own semblance." Shimmer replied.
"Makes sense, I suppose." Rose said, stepping away from the bars.
"How so?"
"They saw our semblances." replied Rose. "They saw you go all wild because you were using Mila's. They didn't know you have multiple semblances stored up, so they assumed you wouldn't be able to get out with some extra strength and a better nose. They knew I could make windows to other places so they did something to stop me from doing so. Either way, it doesn't matter right now. Can you get me out of here?"
To this, Shimmer smiled and pressed a card to a digital panel beside the door, which glowed green as the bars slid into the ceiling.
"Fantastic, Shimmer, you really are the best." Rose stated, as she walked into the hall. "We need to find our gear." she then said, before looking down at Shimmer's feet. "Where are your shoes?"
"Left them behind. I needed my skin to be bare." Shimmer stated, her voice straight and quiet.
"Really?"
Shimmer shook her head as she walked past Rose, and began walking down the hall. Just before they reached the exit, a blaring alarm sounded off, and red lights started flashing throughout the halls of the facility. All around them, Shimmer heard the cell doors opening, and the shuffling sounds of feet as the residents of them stepped out into the corridors.
"To the young Huntresses trying to escape, I see that you do not wish to cooperate with me." came a man's voice, presumably over a loudspeaker somewhere in the room. "It is a shame to have it be this way, but reality is usually rather disappointing. Instead, you will participate in an experiment of mine. I need to try out this batch, and you will be the perfect subjects to get the best results. Good luck, children."
The voice faded and Shimmer saw a man appear on either side of her and Rose, blocking both exits.
"We'll have to fight." said Rose, who sounded terrified at the concept, and Shimmer couldn't blame her.
Rose had no use of her semblance, no weapon, but Shimmer thought she would be alright. Rose was decent enough at hand to hand combat, which she imagined would suffice for this situation. That is, until she noticed the vials of blue liquid on the other prisoners start to turn black as they swirled in the small glass containers. They then began emptying into the man and woman that blocked them, and in seconds, their bodies were already changing. Their eyes began changing to a deep crimson, their skin was starting to turn oily and dark black, leaving them more like humanoid Grimm than what they had been before the injection. Red veins began running along their dark, tar-like flesh, and in a few more seconds, the crimson shifted more and more into a blue spectrum, starting at purple, and eventually becoming a dark sapphire. They let out a terrifying growl as they started approaching. Shimmer looked behind her, and then faced forward again. A quick idea came to her and she swiftly grabbed hold of Rose to pull her close.
"Sorry." she murmured, as the transformed humans got within striking distance.
Obsidian spires rose from the ground around her, forming a shield. Several more spikes erupted from the shield and ground all around them, and she heard the sounds of objects piercing through flesh. The next sound she heard was a hissing, burning noise, and when one pillar retreated to give her visibility of the room, she saw steam rising from anywhere the blue blood of her victims touched. Rose gasped as she put a hand over her mouth, and Shimmer's expression became one of remorse and sorrow. The two bodies were stuck on the ends of some of her spires, and several other branching ones had pierced multiple other places along their bodies, like their arms and legs and stomachs.
"D-did you know?" stuttered Rose.
"Know what?" asked Shimmer.
"That their blood would burn."
"I had an idea. They reminded me of the blue Grimm we've encountered. I assumed they would be the same now."
To this, Rose looked even more horrified as she backed into a nearby wall. "Does that mean we've been…" Rose stopped short of finishing her question, but Shimmer didn't need to hear the rest to know what she was thinking.
"Maybe." Shimmer said, solemnly. "They might have been human once." Shimmer thought, refusing to say this aloud in front of Rose.
Rose was strong, but in this way, she didn't know if the girl could handle it. This required a completely different kind of strength, a sickening lack of emotion, and the ability to be so distant from people, that their fates did not bother you. Shimmer, having been alone for most of her life, could be this way, and normally was when it didn't involve Mila or her team. Sometimes, she even worried that if Rose or Petal died, she wouldn't bat an eye. She was that person, the type that could lose somebody and simply not care, and she feared that this was how it would be if even her closest friends would disappear. Of course, she kept this fear to herself, even from Mila, the only person she suspected to be an exception to this. She looked to Rose, who was dry-heaving as she supported herself against the wall with one hand, and clutching her chest with the other.
"Are you okay?" Shimmer asked.
"No, I'm not." Rose replied. "What kind of sick people would do this?"
"We don't know if that was really the case. The other Grimm might have been a basic evolution, nothing more."
"So this was a coincidence, was it?" Rose snapped, looking back at Shimmer. "They bleed the same, look the same, and you want to tell me it's not the same?"
"They still looked like Grimm. These two looked like humans." Shimmer pointed out. "Even if those ones were experiments, they might have been Grimm before, not people."
Rose slowly nodded her head before resting it against the wall. "Y-yeah, you're right. I really hope you're right."
"Me too." said Shimmer, and she reached over, intending to put a hand on Rose's shoulder. However, she stopped short and let her arm drop back to her side. "We should go find out stuff and get out of here. We need to let Petal know what's happening."
"Y-yeah. Okay." Rose said, softly, and she took a deep breath before moving away from the wall.
The pair of them continued into the next corridor, and pressed on with their exploration of the facility.