The cold air hit Lapis in a sharp wave, sending every hair on her body to stand on end. She held her jaw shut to stop the clattering of her teeth.

"I thought the facility was cold." Lapis wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them in a vain attempt to create some warmth. They had reached a courtyard, an open area between different sections of the facility. Apparently when Pearl had said they were almost out, she just meant the building unit they were in.

"This is Unit A. It's in the center of The Mirror. There's a secret passage in there that leads underneath to a hidden sub-basement called Unit X. That's where the facilities main computer frame is," Pearl had said. "I figured if I got those computers running, they'd have a wealth of information on bright seekers. The Mirror has to know something if they made us."

"But then you blew it," Lapis had said. "Literally." Pearl had rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I blew it. The entrance to Unit X can only be accessed either through the computers, or through explosives. I'd rather not make a scene."

Lapis snorted. "Did we not just establish you already blew it?"

"Oh, quiet you."

Now they were standing outside of Unit A, and Lapis finally could see how big of a sprawling complex The Mirror was. The courtyard extended far, unkempt grass swaying in a partially frozen, arching wave away from them. When Lapis looked up, she saw what she was sure was once a glass dome, shattered to nothing but jagged pieces that stuck out like sharp teeth above them. A window, still intact, ran through each wall of the rectangular courtyard, a long and clear strip, giving a view to the multitude of building units beyond. The window was only disconnected by different doors, each leading into a vein that stretched to the organ system that were the buildings of The Mirror.

"This place is weirdly designed." Lapis shivered, squeezing herself tighter. Pearl nodded in agreement.

"I won't argue with that. If I were the architect for this place it would have been far less… organic." Pearl touched a hand lightly to Lapis's shoulder. "Come on."

Lapis shied away, Pearl's cold hands just feeling like an extension of her own frozen skin at contact. Pearl stopped and looked at her. She seemed to think for a moment, face hardening in concentration. It made Lapis slightly uncomfortable.

Finally, Pearl seemed to come to a decision, and she began to take off her jacket, bandana coming loose in the process. For her credit, she didn't even wince.

"Here." Pearl removed the bloodied bandana and held the black coat out to Lapis. Lapis stared at it, unsure of how to react. "You're cold," Pearl gave as an explanation.

Lapis shook her head, scoffing. "Yeah, and then you'll be cold, idiot. Let's just go." She turned, ready to walk through the courtyard before them. Then she felt a heavy warmth being placed on her shoulders, a change in temperature that brought a different kind of shiver.

"Please." Pearl rolled her eyes. "I'll be fine. Just wrap me back up." She held the muddy looking bandana out to Lapis. She blinked, but then took it.

"Okay," she said, robotically wrapping Pearl's still bleeding shoulder once again. The jacket smelled like the electrical bite of copper, and smoke, and something cleaner and more natural underneath it all. Like what she imagined wet roses would smell like. She tried not to think about it.

She followed Pearl through the courtyard, slipping her arms into the jacket sleeves as they went. The long and unruly grass parted with an underlying crunch, frost still lingering from the morning that Lapis assumed had passed.

"I think it's going to snow," Pearl grunted, eyes squinting as she looked up at the blanket of white looming over them rather threateningly. "Hopefully we can get to the city before that happens."

"How long is it going to take to get there?" Lapis asked. Pearl craned her head towards her.

"Two hours, give or take. There's an underground train station nearby that I take. It's not the safest, but it is a straight shot from The Mirror to the city."

"How long if we don't take the underground route?" Lapis didn't know if going into another closed space was appealing.

"It'll take a few hours longer. We'll definitely get caught in the weather then." They reached the far exit, Pearl grabbing hold of the glass door. "We're better off testing our luck with the railroad, trust me. I've done this enough times to know."

Lapis did not trust her. It seemed like a bad idea, but perhaps the only option they had. But she didn't imagine there were many places to run to in an underground tunnel if they happened to run into anymore of those bright seekers.

As Pearl attempted to pull the door open with a grunt, Lapis snapped to and helped her with the task.

"Thanks," Pearl muttered. Lapis thought she noticed an extra dampness to Pearl's bandana.

They entered the narrow vein, thin windows lining either side of them, set in place by steel walls. Lapis felt like she was going to scrape her head on the ceiling.

"Geez, could they make this thing anymore claustrophobic?" Lapis shuddered, gripping Pearl's jacket and pulling it tighter around herself.

"Well, they could have forgone the windows," Pearl said. Lapis looked out the windows, at the small frame of space it gave one to view outside. She felt like something, a bright seeker, was going to press its face up against the glass at any moment. She wasn't sure if a lack of windows would necessarily be a bad thing.

Everything inside the narrow passage was sterile, a stark contrast to what she had seen so far. The clean tiles were cold under her feet, although she could hardly feel them at this point. She hovered close by Pearl. If anything were to attack them, it was best to put Pearl between her and it. At least that's what she told herself.

The entrance into the next building was fast approaching and Lapis took notice of the pristine, shiny acrylic plaque that was screwed into the wall beside the door. Unit B, it said.

"Unit B is where I usually come in through. Closest building to the subway." Pearl didn't need to struggle with this door much. It was already partially open, just enough for a person to squeeze through.

"This where you blew the fuse?" Lapis smirked at the twitch of Pearl's brow, a subtle sign of irritation.

"No. That was in Unit D. The main generators are in the basement there." Pearl slipped through the doorway, Lapis following after.

"Wow, Unit D, huh. That sounds like it's kinda far from Unit A. You ran all the way over here from there after messing up?" Lapis couldn't help herself. She had already picked up on the fact Pearl held a rather stifling sense of pride about herself.

Pearl seemed to throw her hands up in defeat, eyes going skyward in exasperation. "Yes, yes, I get it, I messed up. Can we move on, please?" She rubbed her right temple, other hand now propped on her hip.

"I dunno, can we? You seem like the one still hung up on it." Lapis couldn't help the smugness leaking into her voice. She crossed her arms, looking Pearl up and down. There was a stiffness to how she stood, like she was trying to prove something, to cover up a weakness. Lapis couldn't lie to herself and say she didn't enjoy peeling away at it.

"Fresh out of the pod and yet filled with such spite, I see." Pearl frowned at her, an unimpressed mask poorly concealing her annoyance. Lapis didn't expect her face to fall into a frown of its own.

"Well excuse me if I'm not happy about being some fake person being dragged around by another one." She was surprised by the own venom she felt leak into the words she spat. Lapis wasn't sure where these strong emotions were surfacing from, but she didn't really care, as she thought about it. She had every right to be upset about all of this.

Pearl balked. "Fake person? Lapis, neither of us are fake people, " Pearl tried, but Lapis just brushed past her.

"I came out of a fucking pod. So did you. You literally said we were engineered. That sounds kinda fake to me." Lapis didn't even care that her heavy and quick footfalls were causing scattered debris to lodge themselves into the bottom of her feet. She didn't even care when she felt a splash of warmth following a particularly hard stomp, a wetness that slicked the heel of her right foot.

She felt Pearl grab hold of her arm, but Lapis yanked it away. "Can we just fucking get out of here?" She stopped walking away, but she turned herself away from Pearl.

Pearl sighed, hand pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, let's not fight." She looked up. "I'm sorry you've been thrown into this all suddenly. I know it's a nightmare, trust me, I really do." Pearl walked closer, placing a gentle hand on Lapis's shoulder. Lapis didn't look at her, but she didn't pull away either. "Just let me get you out of here. It'll be better once we're safe."

Lapis saw Pearl's intense stare from the corner of her eye, and she couldn't help but be drawn to that gaze. There was a nervous waver behind it, but it was an imploring look that Lapis was having a hard time ignoring. Finally, she nodded.

"Okay," she breathed. She still felt an angry pulse in the back of her mind and under skin, but she kept it at bay. It wasn't even Pearl's fault. But she was convenient to take it out on.

Pearl nodded back. "Things will make more sense when we aren't constantly on our toes to survive." Her hand slipped from Lapis's shoulder, down the sleeve of the jacket. Lapis knew Pearl's hands were cold, but she felt a trail of warmth follow them anyway.

They kept close as they traversed Unit B, both casting wary glances.

"I thought you said this place was usually crawling with bright seekers?" Lapis whispered. The bottom of her foot began to itch from where the rubble pierced her skin.

"I did." Pearl looked concerned. "This is actually more worrisome than if we had run into some on the way here besides the initial one."

"Maybe we're lucky and there just aren't many out today?" Lapis weakly offered. Pearl shook her head.

"No. I slipped by a few when I first arrived." She gave Lapis a wry smile. "You really think I let myself get caught by the first bright seeker I came across?"

Lapis shrugged. "I'm not sure what surprises you hold." Pearl shook her head again, but this time in amusement.

"No, believe it or not, I'm no rookie." She crept close to the wall as they neared the end of the hall where another intersection greeted them, a circular counter resting in the crossroads with busted terminal screens mounted onto it.

"Could have fooled me." Lapis put more humor into her voice. She wanted to just come off as playful this time. Luckily, Pearl caught onto it and shot a smile over her shoulder. Lapis couldn't help the one it spread on her own face.

"Well. That's no good." Pearl pulled herself back from the edge of the hallway, hand to her head. "I think I found our bright seekers."

Lapis's stomach dropped, and then a buzz began to grow in her skull. "Where are they?" She couldn't stop her hands from flying to her head, whispering intermingling with the static.

"Gathered down the hall, in the entrance lobby. I count eighteen, give or take. I don't know what they're all doing congregating together like that." There was a bit of panic laced in Pearl's voice. Lapis couldn't help but pick up on it, and in turn she felt panic well up in her own throat.

"Think you can take out that many?" Lapis gave a warbling laugh. Pearl's face twisted as she peeked beyond the corner again.

"Afraid to say even I'm not that good." Lapis could appreciate her joke, even if it did fall flat in the reality of things. "If there was some way to separate them, I could take them out individually, but altogether like that…" She trailed off, not wanting to complete the thought. Lapis appreciated it.

"So, what? Do we make a run for it? Hide?" Having a run in with just one of those things was enough experience she needed with them. She looked to Pearl desperately.

Pearl took a deep breath. "Well, we have two options. One, we take the longer way around and run the risk of running into more. Or two, I divert them away while you get to the subway station." Pearl steadied her eyes with Lapis. A shudder ran through Lapis.

"We can't separate, I don't know where to go. I can't fight those things if I run into one." She curled in on herself protectively, hands clenching at each sleeve of Pearl's jacket. Pearl gave her a saddened look.

"We won't separate. We'll just have to hope we're lucky. There's a backway that leads into Unit C. We can exit The Mirror grounds through there, too." Pearl shifted away from the corner, and Lapis copied her movements.

There was another hallway, a smaller one Lapis hadn't noticed, near where they had entered Unit B in the first place. Lapis could barely call it a hallway, barely being wide enough for them to walk shoulder to shoulder. There were no windows lining this one, leaving the passageway engulfed in a blackness that seemed unnatural even in that place.

"You sure know this place in and out, huh," Lapis said with a tremble in her voice. She gripped the back of Pearl's shirt tightly, certain the sweat from her palms were soaking the area through.

"Like I said, I've been around here a few times, both before and after this place shut down." Pearl led them to the end of the hallway, and Lapis watched as she crept towards the edge. To the left was a wall, and so Pearl stood opposite that, concealing herself from anything to the right. She moved her hand towards Lapis without looking.

"Hand me the mirror, please."

Lapis complied, digging her free hand into the inside pocket of the jacket. She felt the crumpled form of paper and then the hard casing of the compact mirror. She handed it to Pearl.

Pearl unclasped it, holding it in front of her at an angle. Her brow furrowed, and her pale eyes seemed to grow sharp as they glanced over the hallway reflected in the mirror. She nodded to herself.

"I think we're okay, at least down this hallway. Let's go." She slipped away, and Lapis slipped after her with a lump in her throat.

This hall wasn't as wide as the previous one they were in, and it was apparent much of that space was allocated to the multiple rooms that lined it.

"Unit C was used for physical therapy testing on bright hunters. There's technically only one official entrance into this building. The hall we just came through was to slip test subjects through out of passerby sight."

Lapis looked at Pearl strangely. "Why would they need to do that? Weren't you guys made to, well, hunt bright seekers? I didn't think you were a secret."

Pearl loudly exhaled through her nose. "Making us wasn't exactly considered ethical." Pearl glanced back at her, then down at the iron grip she held on the back of Pearl's shirt. She chose not to say anything about that. "That's why we were only moved around deeper in The Mirror. The courtyard was a compromise of giving us a taste of the outdoors."

Lapis grimaced. A part of her was grateful she hadn't been released for that. But then she remembered the situation she was in and decided she couldn't choose which was the worse scenario.

"That sucks," was all Lapis could say.

"Yeah," was all Pearl replied.

Silence fell heavy on them, and it weighed Lapis down, piling on top of the anxiety already burning in her gut and up her spine and behind her throat. She swallowed thickly. She became acutely aware of her body, and the feeling of grit in the raw underside of her feet, of the cold prickling her skin.

And then that cold prickled behind her eyes, and a crackle in her brain came with it. "Pearl." She couldn't help how harshly the whisper came out. "Do you feel that?"

Pearl was now alert, lank body tenser than Lapis had seen it. She could see the muscles in her thin neck tensing and even the pulsing of the blood under the skin. Both of their breaths came out in heavy plumes that shined with miniscule crystals, the moisture in their breath refracting light as it froze.

"What the fuck." Lapis felt the hair on the back of her neck stand in alert, pulling at her skin so sharply it stung. Pearl's hand had somehow moved to the handle of her weapon without Lapis even noticing.

Pearl whipped around and looked past Lapis, eyes hard and face painted in shock. Lapis felt her heart stop.

"Did they follow us?" And in the next instance Pearl's long fingers were wrapped around Lapis's wrist and they were running faster than she'd probably ever ran.

She felt the wave of a deep frequency washing down the hall, and her heart felt like it had been shocked into a frantic beating. She chanced a glance over her shoulder, and her rapid heart jumped into her throat and she felt the urge to throw it up.

Several bright seekers, a myriad of cold, shining blue and yellow light, came flooding from that narrow hallway, scrambling over each other like an undulating form of sharp glass and crystal. They were human in shape, but their movements were not, jerky like their limbs were on the verge of freezing. Yet somehow they were still fast, moving as if under a strobe light. Lapis looked back forward and doubled her sprint behind Pearl.

She forced herself to release the grip she held on Pearl's shirt as she fell in step along side her.

"That way!" Pearl breathed out in a thick fog, roughly grabbing Lapis by the arm again and yanking her sharply down another long corridor, this one marginally wider than the previous.

"There are a few security locked doors ahead of us before we reach the main lobby. Let's hope they're open!" Pearl was panting heavily, although Lapis could hardly hear it over her own labored breaths and the buzzing and voices that jittered angrily in her head.

"Oh thank goodness," Pearl rasped out as they reached the first door, blasted open into aging metal and rust long ago.

Lapis could still hear the crunch of glass behind them, the sound of the bright seekers in their own janky sprint. They were awfully persistent, and Lapis felt like she must have actually died and just woken up in hell.

They zipped past two more doors, both equally as destroyed as the first.

"We're almost there!" Pearl assured in a breathless shout, the slaps of their feet interspersed by the sound of the agonizing glass on linoleum. "They are awfully persistent today!" Pearl repeated Lapis's thought.

Lapis could have cried as she saw that overcast light wafting in through the clear double doors just ahead of them, an illumination that fought weakly against the unnatural light following close behind them.

And then something even brighter than them both crawled its way around the corner.

"Oh fuck!" Pearl's reflexes continued to impress Lapis, because she pulled Lapis down with her, their momentum sliding them over the long ago polished floor and under the many sweeping arms of bright that seared over their heads.

Lapis felt momentarily blinded, but the spots were quickly replaced by the even brighter form that pulsed with a tangle of crystal limbs before them.

An amalgamation of arms and hands crawled over each other in a knot, hanging from a shining mass that perched atop. Two pinpricks of shining dark cut through that bright, eyes that seemed to immediately focus in on them.

"What the FUCK is that?" Lapis felt like she was losing her mind.

"Shatterer. I'll tell you about them if we survive!"

Pearl pulled Lapis out of the way of another thundering slam, a shockwave of a high pitched whine cutting through the air. The arms crawled over each other, twisting back in their direction.

And then the bright seekers caught up, and some of those arms redirected, grasping hands of crystal grabbing multiple heads of weaker bright. And then with a sound of shattering glass, the hands clenched, and the bright beneath them crumbled.

"Uh," Lapis could only manage.

"I'll tell you later! Move!"

And Lapis felt that familiar grip on her arm again, tugging past the doors Pearl slammed so hard into they cracked.

And then they were outside. And the light was so dull and warm in comparison.

They were in a maze of buildings, but they were outside. Unsettled cobblestone made a path beneath their feet as they kept running. And before Lapis knew it, they were running alongside a cliff face, a dark ocean lapping loudly against it far below. There was just a cold, frosted expanse of land before them, tall and yellowed grass soon scratching at their shins.

Lapis felt like she could cry. She figured the tears had frozen in her tear ducts.

And as she looked at the blood dripping from beneath Pearl's makeshift wrapping, down the length of her arm in the brightest and deepest red her new eyes had ever seen, she didn't know what to feel.

But it certainly wasn't free.