Emerald lost her smile as the alarms continued to blare. The guards posted around the room looked at each other, rooted in place – these Beacon lackeys had obviously been trained for just this sort of emergency, but they had never had reason to put it to practice before, hence the standing around like clueless idiots.

A full minute passed before one took the initiative and bolted out of the cafeteria, the rest following suit immediately after. Three stayed behind, closing the doors from the inside and putting their backs to it.

"The hell is going on? Did someone escape?" someone yelled behind Emerald.

"Just a drill," one of the guards said, his hand going to his baton. "Stay put. This will be over in a second."

If that was a rehearsed line. Emerald felt sorry for herself, that these were the people keeping her locked up.

She took stock of the people around her. They were obviously not buying it, even if most of them had never seen a Grimm in the flesh. They were about to be in for a rude awakening.

"This isn't just any alarm," Emerald shouted over the incessant blare. "The prison's under attack by Grimm, isn't it?"

The same guard took out his baton and pointed it at her. "You stay quiet. In your seats!"

He might as well have confirmed it. Chairs scraped against the floor and fell over as people rose all at once, shouting at the guards, who only shouted back and waved their weapons, as if that was going to do them any good.

Emerald felt an elbow brush her own as Mercury shuffled to her side. She looked at the windows – the cafeteria was fairly deep in the facility, with the only open area being the courtyard just outside, so she wasn't surprised to see no Grimm there. She wasn't banking on that staying true for much longer. Just the contrary.

"What are you doing?" Mercury whispered urgently. "You're gonna get us killed."

"Just follow my lead," Emerald replied through gritted teeth. "Or don't. Just don't get in my way."

She jumped onto her table and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout.

"They can't keep us in here! We're a distraction, the Grimm are attracted to fear!"

And anger. The shouting grew even louder, the inmates starting to approach the doors.

"Don't come any closer!" a guard yelled. "This is for your own safety!"

"Oh hell," Mercury mumbled, then jumped onto the table as well. "We're safe how? You gonna keep the Grimm away with your little sticks? Let us out!"

"Let us out!" a woman yelled, and charged the doors.

The guards struck with their batons all at once. Emerald didn't catch which of them ultimately hit, but the inmate crumpled to the floor before them, blood trickling from the side of her head.

For a second, everything seemed to come to a standstill, the only noise in the cafeteria being the alarm bouncing off the walls, before a roar rose from the inmates and they blitzed the guards as one. There were too many to hold back – one moment Emerald saw the guards, the next they vanished in the vicious mob.

The timing was perfectly horrifying. From the corner of her eye, Emerald caught two shadows landing in the courtyard, grotesque bodies with wings burning to whisks after catching fire from the facility's defense turrets. The Griffons broke through the windows and fell upon the nearest inmates before they had a chance to scream.

"I hope you're happy!" Mercury said, grabbing Emerald's arm and jumping off the table.

She ran with him, ducking her head as they merged with the mob. The doors were open but everyone was trying to get out at once. Emerald desperately searched the floor for any sign of the guards – if she could only get one of their batons, she could get the damn collar off her – but the crowd was shoving and pulling her in too many directions.

She felt Mercury lose his grip on her arm, and then she was out the door. Someone barreled straight into her, sending her spinning until she hit a wall. Emerald pushed off it and elbowed her way through the crowd. This was way more people than had been in the mess hall. Was everyone out of their cells?

Finally, she managed to break free. "Mercury!" she shouted, but he was gone, and there was no hope in hell she was going to find him in there again. She called his name twice more, her stomach doing a free-fall, before she forced herself to turn away.

She couldn't stand around forever. The Griffons were rampaging through the cafeteria still, and if she had to guess, there were even more Grimm assaulting the front side of the prison, where most people were making a break for. Freedom, or a death sentence. Emerald turned the other way and ran.

Get the collar off. Find Cinder. Break free. The steps were simple, which all but guaranteed something was going to go wrong.

The first problem happened when she tripped over someone. She caught her fall and got back up, glancing over her shoulder for just a second before she started running again – and stopped.

It was the damned bald bastard that had assaulted her in the courtyard. He sat slumped against a wall, unconscious from the looks of it, a hole torn in the side of his prison-issued orange shirt. A burning smell made Emerald gag as she approached him.

Grimm were tearing the prison apart and he had somehow managed to get himself shot in the meanwhile.

Emerald stared at him with her hands on her hips, resisting the urge to tip him over with her foot. Would be lovely if he broke his nose that way. She spun around and walked a couple steps, then stopped again.

If he stayed there, he was probably going to get eaten by the first Grimm that came across him, if he didn't get trampled by a panicking mob first.

Sighing, Emerald turned back and crouched next to him. Grabbing him under the armpits, she dragged him down the hallway, grinding her teeth back and forth all the while. Fabulous time to grow a conscience, Emerald.

The son of a bitch was twice her weight in muscles alone, so she was lucky she only had to drag him for a few meters before she found a janitor's closet. She tossed him inside, leaving him splayed out on the floor as a mop fell over and hit him in the face. He did break his nose, after all

"I hope you rot in there," Emerald told him.

She closed the door and continued walking down the hallway. The sound of screams and gunfire came from all directions as she rounded a corner, but Emerald only had the mind to keep going. Get the collar off. Find Cinder. Break free. Nothing else mattered.

The ground rumbled under her feet. Instinctively, Emerald jumped back. An instant later, the wall to her right exploded. Debris flew everywhere, dust filling the air.

A hulking black beast stepped through the crumbling hole. Emerald froze, her insides turning to ice as the dust settled and the Beowolf sniffed the air and snarled, blood-red eyes falling on her

(she tried not to shiver, but it was easier said than done. Telling herself she didn't want to appear weak in front of Cinder didn't help. No matter how many times she saw one of these things, Emerald knew she would always be scared witless of them.

"What are we doing again?" she asked, hating how dry her mouth felt, how clumsy the words came out.

Cinder hummed, standing to the side and a little behind her. The distance made Emerald nervous. If the Grimm suddenly lunged at her, she wasn't sure Cinder could move quickly enough to protect her.

"We're teaching you how to protect yourself," Cinder said.

Emerald swallowed dry, unable to look away from the wolf. "From them."

"Just so." Cinder snapped her fingers, sensing Emerald's objection before she'd voiced it. "I can only shield you from their hunger so long as you're with me, Emerald, and there will be times when I need you to act on your own, or when circumstances force us apart. I need to know you'll be able to keep yourself safe and come back to me."

Emerald's heart skipped a beat. Hearing that, she almost forgot there was a salivating monster standing in front of her.

"Right!" Emerald said hastily, wiping her chin. "So I should learn to kill them? I'm… not exactly armed for that."

She always carried her knives on her, and her pistol when the situation allowed her to pack it discreetly, but the idea of her taking down even one Grimm with any of her weapons was a tough sell.

"If push came to shove, I'm sure you could manage," Cinder said. "But you're uniquely equipped to avoid such a fight. If you're clever, it should never come to that."

"You mean my Semblance." The realization sent another shiver up Emerald's spine. "I've only ever used it on people."

"And why should that matter? The only difference between people and Grimm is that they don't disguise their foulness under a pretense of civility."

Emerald heard Cinder walk behind her.

"Look at it. It wears its sins on its flesh." Cinder leaned over her shoulder, her hair brushing Emerald's neck. "I should think that only makes it easier to manipulate."

A hand slid down Emerald's arm, stopping to grasp her elbow for a brief moment before it pulled away. Her heart hammering at her throat, Emerald tilted her head slightly as she kept her eyes locked on the Beowolf.

When she focused, she could feel the walls of its mind like she had hundreds of people before. Probing beyond them was a vast, alien conscience – but not all that different than what she was used to, Cinder was right about that. It was only darker. Bleak. Dripping with hatred.

Emerald shrank away with a shudder. "I could do it, I guess."

"I've no doubt in my mind you can," Cinder said. "Now, you should be careful. People like you and me are particularly enticing morsel for the Grimm. The world spat us out with all this power, and it's eager to swallow it back." She patted Emerald's shoulder. "Let's put you to the test then, shall we?"

She started walking away. Emerald felt her throat constrict, the Grimm beginning to move.

"Don't worry," Cinder said, not looking back. Emerald caught the flash of a dagger in her right hand. "I'm always watching."

The Grimm edged towards her)

but she didn't move an inch, even as her body and soul screamed at her to turn tail and run. She kept her eyes on the Grimm's, slowly raising a hand in a show of peace. Panic was death. Acting without thinking was death.

"Good boy. Sweet boy," she said, fighting to keep her voice even. "You don't want to hurt me, do you? We're on the same side. You want to hurt the loud, raging assholes with the guns."

The Beowolf didn't advance on her, though neither did it give any indication that it was going to leave her be. Tar-like drool dribbled from its fangs, splashing on the floor with an acidic hiss. Just a little push, then. Point it in the right direction.

Emerald tapped into her Semblance, prodding the Grimm's mind – and immediately felt the buzz of her collar come to life. Pain spiked through her skull, her vision going gray for a split second. She gasped and stumbled to the side, hitting a wall.

The Beowolf lunged.

Somehow Emerald had the presence of mind to slide down the wall, ducking under the swiping claws just in time. The Beowolf landed somewhere behind her with a crash. Emerald exploded into a sprint, jumping over the debris.

The Beowolf's steps followed her down the hallway like thunder in her ears. She could feel it getting closer, breathing down the back of her neck. She turned a corner, darting to the left. The Grimm was not as fast to pivot, slamming into the wall directly ahead, but that only delayed it for a second before it was on her tail again.

Running was useless. Her legs were burning. Where was she going? She needed a place to hide-

Sharp claws swiped across the back of her legs. Emerald's calves burned, but it was the impact that sent her to the floor. She kicked blindly at the Grimm as she crawled away, but she might as well have hit it with a pool noodle. It grabbed her ankle and dragged her back towards it.

Emerald rolled onto her back. The Beowolf's maw descended on her. She grabbed at its face, pushing it back. It was useless, she was as good as dead. But hell if she was going down without a fight! Not after everything.

"Hey, mutt!" a voice echoed down the hallway.

The Grimm reared its head back, turning to look – and an instant later, a metal foot connected with the side of its skull, hurling it into a wall with a sickening crunch.

Mercury rushed to the Beowolf while it was still dazed and stomped on its head. It whimpered and snarled, but Mercury only brought his foot down again and again, until on the fourth stomp, something cracked, and the beast fell limp.

The body started to dissolve into shadowy smoke. Mercury limped away from it, rubbing the joint of his hip. "Shit, I'm rusty," he muttered.

He offered Emerald a hand, wincing as he pulled her up to her feet. Emerald had never thought her heart would soar to see him, of all people. It helped that he wasn't making any wise-ass remarks about coming to her rescue again.

"You good?" he asked.

Emerald twisted in place to look at her calves. The bottom of her pants had been shredded by the Beowolf's claws, and there was an ugly red line across her skin, but it seemed the wound was mostly superficial.

"I'll live," she said. "What happened? One minute you were there, then you were gone."

"Got swept away in the crowd, figured I might as well see if they had the right idea. Mercury shook his head. "They had the wrong idea."

"I figured. At least they'll draw most of the Grimm to them, but I don't know of any other ways out. I'm guessing you don't either?"

He shrugged. "I've been a good boy, but for some reason our supreme overlords still don't trust me with knowledge of their secret exits."

"We find Cinder, then."

To her surprise, he didn't immediately scoff at the idea.

"For once, I agree with you. Except we've got no clue where they keep her, and even if we did, something tells me she's not going to be waiting patiently in her cell." Mercury pointed at Emerald's neck. "So before we go searching for our pyromaniac ex-boss, I suggest we get you out of that thing."

Emerald scowled. It made perfect sense now, why he had come back for her. Not out of the goodness of his heart – he didn't have any – but because he needed her to stay alive.

Well, it was only fair. If any more Grimm attacked her before she was able to use her Semblance, she could use his stupid brute strength to protect her. He had just saved her life, so the deal seemed pretty clear with neither of them needing to spell it out.

"Easier said than done," Emerald said. "We're gonna need to grab a baton from one of the guards. It's what they use to adjust the collar's potency – right now it's turned up to eleven." She rubbed mindlessly at the base of her neck. "Not sure we can deactivate it completely with just that, but it's a start."

"Good plan, except it's not. The pigs are armed to the teeth and they're fighting the Grimm as a unit up front. We're not picking any of them off." Mercury crossed his arms. "You got another idea that won't get our heads chomped off or our asses fried?"

Emerald bristled in frustration, but she had to admit he had a point. She thought all the way back to when she'd been transferred to the prison – pulled out of an armored truck in cuffs and a similar collar, before she was separated from Cinder and Mercury and put through hours of tests and security measures to make certain that she would never be able to lift a finger against her incarcerators, much less attempt an escape.

"No secret exits," she said, an idea coming together in her head, "but would you happen to know the way to that big security room? The one where they processed us when we got here?"

Mercury paused, thinking for a second. "I can get us there."

She followed him down the hallway, keeping her head low as she listened for any rampaging Grimm nearby. It was obvious that Mercury didn't know exactly where he was going, but he had a good enough idea that he didn't have to hesitate long as he picked which corners to turn.

It seemed backwards, to Emerald. She hadn't seen much of the prison outside of the usual route the guards took when escorting her from her cell to the cafeteria or the bathroom, all owed to a dangerous Semblance she couldn't use. Meanwhile, Mercury had enjoyed a suspicious amount of freedom all these years, and his weapons were quite literally inseparable from him. Just being allowed outside his cell at all, he was a lethal threat.

It was difficult not to resent him for it. But this was not the time to dwell on that, when any ill thoughts might bring the Grimm down on them.

"This your stop, miss?" Mercury asked dryly, stopping by a metal door. A window beside it gave a narrow view into the room beyond. Empty, as far as she could see.

Emerald tried the door handle. It rattled, but the door didn't budge. "Locked. You think there's a way around to the other side-"

Mercury kicked the door down. It slammed on the floor with a very much not inconspicuous clatter. He grinned at her. "Don't forget to tip."

Emerald sighed. "Your problem-solving skills haven't gotten any better."

She hopped over the collapsed door. The room was as vast as she remembered. It had that sterile look with the white tiles, same as her cell. Half the floor was empty – the space where the prisoners were held while they were processed. The other half of the room was host to two rows of computers, as well as other machines Emerald didn't recognize.

The wall behind the computers had a number of security feed screens embedded in them. Of them all, only a handful were still functioning, showing the unfolding chaos inside and outside the facility, while for the rest, there was only static.

Emerald walked over to the controls and pressed all the keys, but nothing changed in the images. She looked back at Mercury, who was messing with one of the computers. After a moment, he stepped back, shaking his head and huffing.

"I think the whole facility's on the fritz," Emerald said. "Remember when the power went out for a second? And everyone's out of their cells. Seems like a major flaw if a little outage is enough to release all the prisoners – too big of a flaw for Beacon to let slip. And the Grimm attacking at the same time?"

"I see what you're getting at, and I'm not saying this isn't the type of batshit escape plan Cinder would come up with," Mercury said, "but how would she even orchestrate all this from her cell? They never let her out."

"Cinder's got resources. You know that." Emerald glanced at his legs. "They didn't actually beat her in Vale, remember? She surrendered."

Mercury sneered. "I remember."

"Point is, she would have never subjected herself to years in confinement if she didn't have a way out."

"Sure, or maybe let's consider she's never been right in the head."

Emerald bit back a retort. Mercury didn't know Cinder like she did, not to mention the fact he only ever used half of his brain at any given moment. Of course he wouldn't understand.

"It doesn't matter," she said, walking over to the computers. "What's important is we get the collar off. Then we find Cinder."

"Okay." Mercury nodded. He waited, staring at her. "You don't actually know how to get it off, do you?"

Emerald clenched her fists. "Yes, I do!"

She stood in front of one of the computers and pressed Enter on the keyboard. Nothing happened. The monitor didn't even turn on. Annoyed, she mashed every button on the keyboard.

"It's not my fault," she grunted. "This should work! It's the stupid electricity that's acting up."

"Right," Mercury replied, all smirks. "Have you tried turning it off and on?"

"You try, then! Since you're such a computer genius."

"I'll give it a kick."

"Do not give it a kick, Mercury!"

They were interrupted by footsteps coming down the hallway opposite the one they'd come from. Emerald saw a head pass by a window and punched Mercury in the elbow, hissing. He looked from her to the door, eyebrows shooting towards the ceiling.

Honestly, she didn't know what she was trying to communicate either.

The door opened, and three guards walked in, carrying Dust rifles. "-authorized use of any and all firepower at our disposal. Something's going down in the capital as well so reinforcements might take a while to arrive, but-"

The lead guard stopped, looking at the collapsed door in the other side of the room, then at Mercury and Emerald.

"Hey, fellas," Mercury said, waving a hand.

Emerald threw herself behind a desk. Dust rounds whizzed over her head, exploding on the surveillance screens behind her. Glass shards flew everywhere. An errand shot burned a hole through a computer monitor. She peeked her head around the corner and saw Mercury dashing at the guards, slanting forward to avoid their shots.

He'd said he was rusty, but he could have fooled Emerald. With a sliding kick, he took out one guard's legs from under him, and in the same motion jumped back to his feet and spun, hitting another guard's rifle with his elbow, sending a Dust round astray. His fist rose in a blur, striking the guard in the throat. The bastard collapsed like he was boneless, eyes rolling to the back of his head.

Mercury advanced on the remaining guard still on her feet. She was so startled that she forgot she had a cutting-edge rifle in her hands that she could have blasted him with, and by the time she remembered, it was too late. He ripped the rifle from her grasp and turned it on her, tearing a hole in her shoulder with a haphazard shot. She had fainted even before he kicked her to the floor.

A burst of motion alerted Emerald to the guard on the ground getting his bearings. He had lost his rifle when he'd fallen, and now he was reaching for a pistol holstered on his belt. As he took it out, Emerald grabbed the first thing she found and threw it.

She missed her throw, the stapler shattering on the floor just beside the guard's head, but it was enough to startle him. Mercury turned and kicked the pistol out of his hand, then aimed the rifle at him.

"Wait!" Emerald yelled. She ran over, picking up the dropped pistol on the way – Dust model too, nice – and lowered Mercury's rifle with her hand. "Don't shoot him."

"Wasn't planning to," Mercury said ruffly. "Not unless he made a stupid move. Which he won't, right?"

The guard glared up at them. He'd been the one in the lead when they walked in, the one who had been speaking. "Whatever you want from me, I'm not helping. You're in deep shit, breaking out and assaulting officers like this, but go back to your cells and maybe you'll see the daylight again in fifty years."

"Tempting, but I think we'll pass on that." Emerald snapped her fingers. "You're gonna get me out of this collar. Or else."

"Or else?" the guard scoffed. "Torture me, kill me. I'm not caving to you animals."

Smirking, Emerald crouched in front of him and grabbed his chin, tilting his head this way and that.

"Good little soldier won't betray his duty. That's how Beacon likes their drones." She patted his cheek. "I'm wondering if your friends would be more compliant. But gosh, it looks like they're out cold, so they're no use to us. Maybe we should just finish them off."

He stared at her, stone-faced.

"Yeah, that sounds more convenient. We'll just have to rely on you." Emerald nodded in Mercury's direction. "You know who he is, right? He's Mercury Black. He knows all the best ways to draw out someone's death. He's really an artist, in that sense, and I love to watch him work."

The guard's expression finally broke. His eyes flickered to his fallen companions, before he grunted and shook his head. "Fine. I'll need to use the computers over there. Don't shoot me."

Emerald clapped and stood up, looking at Mercury. "You heard the nice man. No shooting."

"Don't even think about calling for help," Mercury spat, shifting the rifle between his hands.

The guard glowered at them and walked to the computers, a permanent scowl on his face as he tried to get any of them to work. Finally one of the monitors lit up, and he started typing away, shoulders drawn tightly towards his body.

Mercury shuffled to Emerald's side.

"Hey, I'm not your attack dog, got it?" he whispered.

His anger was so palpable, it took Emerald a second to reply. "If you didn't catch on, I only said that stuff to scare him. And it's not like it was that far from the truth." She paused. "Except for the part about enjoying watching you work. That was purely for dramatic effect."

His scowl deepened. "Just don't do it again."

Emerald accepted that with a nod. She was all too cognizant of the rifle he was still holding to press him on why he was so bent out of shape about a little intimidation routine.

The guard stood up and moved to one of the other machines in the room. Emerald watched him like a hawk, expecting him to try and pull a fast one on them, but luckily, he seemed smarter than that. He returned with something like a metal stick in hand.

"System is offline right now, which I would need to access to deactivate the collar," he said, begrudgingly raising the object to her neck. "But this should scan it and override the locking mechanism. Hold still."

Emerald held her breath as a red light washed over her neck. She waited for the collar to suddenly strangle her, or for her head to explode into a gory mess – well, she guessed she wouldn't exactly see that one happening. Instead she heard a click, and when she looked down, the front of the collar was parted. Her breath hitching, Emerald grabbed the collar.

Her hand burned at the contact. The collar was still active and it remained relatively tight, but she pulled and tugged at it, not caring how it might bruise her, until she managed to get it off her neck. She dropped it. The object that for years had erased so much of who she was bounced on the floor with barely a noise.

It was like emerging from a cold lake. The world exploded with sharper colors, the breath in her lungs felt purer, the ground under her firmer. She brushed a finger on the palm of her hand and felt a flicker of her Aura coming back to life. It was barely there, but no longer restrained. Time and quality rest would bring it back to what it had once been.

More than anything, her awareness expanded beyond the bounds of her own mind, extending to touch Mercury's and the guard's in front of her. She couldn't invade or read their thoughts – never had been able to do that – but she could bend them to her design, and there wasn't a thing they could do about it. It was exhilarating, to finally be in control again.

She winced, touching the side of her head. Too much all at once. Would take some time to get back into the swing of things.

"Welcome back to form," Mercury said dryly. "Please point the mind hijinks awayfrom your partner in crime, thank you."

"Sure, partner," Emerald said. "For now, while you're being polite."

"Shit. Probably won't last."

Emerald turned her attention to the guard. He was glaring, but it was an impotent kind of rage as he glanced from her to the pistol she'd taken and Mercury's rifle. Probably figuring out how to grab them, but he had to realize there was no point even if he could.

"What now?" he asked.

"Now, you take us to Cinder Fall," Emerald said. "We know she was never transferred someplace else or anything, so don't try to lie that she's not here. Lead the way."

"She isn't here. She burned her way out of her cell, tore through the place, then got on a Nevermore and flew away. That was minutes ago, you just missed her."

Emerald frowned. "I told you not to lie."

"I'll take you to her cell and you can see for yourself. Fall's long gone."

Emerald almost lashed out at his mind, but the man had little reason to lie. He had shown already that he wasn't that big on self-preservation, so that was unlikely. Maybe he just wanted to stall her, or to keep her from reuniting with Cinder, for the greater good or whatever bullshit Beacon spouted.

She knew he was telling the truth. It was the simplest explanation and the one that made the most sense. Once free, it would have been in Cinder's best interest to flee the scene as quickly as possible, as Beacon's top priority was without a doubt to recapture her. Finding Emerald in all this mess was a risk bigger than the reward, she had to acknowledge that.

That didn't make her feel any less shitty, though.

"You're gonna have to do better than that. Emerald, you wanna chime in anytime soon?"

Emerald startled, realizing Mercury and the guard had been talking and she had missed a large chunk of it. "What?"

"Guy's trying to sell that there's no other way out, and I'm not buying."

"Why the hell would we have a backdoor exit out of a max security prison? One that held Cinder Fall, of all people?" the guard said.

Mercury sighed. "You're gonna make me show you what she was talking about earlier, aren't you?"

"Look-" the guard raised his hands, seemingly having gone from furious to exasperated in the last minute –"there are other ways out of the building, but after that, it's surrounded by a fence. If you get past that, there's a wall that you're not gonna climb. All you'd accomplish out there is getting yourselves picked off by the Grimm – which don't get me wrong, I would love to watch happen, but preferably from far away."

Emerald ignored the sting of abandonment. She had to push that aside for now. Cinder was gone, and that meant that for the moment, she had to fend for herself. She was prepared for this.

She turned her mind back to the matter at hand – how to escape the prison in one piece. The most obvious solution remained the front gate. With her Semblance unleashed, she might be able to mask herself from the Grimm, but there were so many of them, and compounded by the terrible headache that was building, she couldn't be sure she wouldn't lose her concentration midway through. Masking Mercury alongside her would only make that harder.

No, this required a less direct approach. Lucky for her, that was her specialty.

"You and your buddies were going somewhere," Emerald said to the guard. "You were talking about firepower. The armory, I'm guessing. Going to grab every weapon you could carry?"

His eyes narrowed. "You're not going to shoot your way out of this."

"No, we're not," Emerald agreed. "Is the armory where you keep all your Dust? Ammunition or otherwise. Gotta imagine this place keeps some live crystals lying around, just in case."

The guard's lips thinned, his glare turning into a frown as he refused to answer.

Mercury nudged her arm. "Why're you asking?"

"Because, Mercury, if our friend here insists there is no way out," Emerald said, "then we'll just have to make our own."

Lugging all the Dust on the way out of the building was a trial, though unfortunately not the hardest part of the plan. Rather, that was keeping the Grimm's eyes off of them as they trudged towards the fence.

The Grimm were out for blood. Convincing them there was no one out in the open, ripe for the picking, was like turning a starving man away from a free all-you-can-eat buffet. The unrelenting throbbing in her head wasn't helping, either.

Mercury tore a hole in the fence with his rifle – with the state the facility was in, the noise shouldn't attract any suspicion, if anyone even heard it in all the mayhem. He slipped through, careful not to jostle the bags of Dust on him, then offered Emerald a hand. She took it, holding her own bag to her chest, and didn't waste a second before turning around and fixing her pistol back on the guard trailing behind them.

He followed them through the hole in the fence, still with that scowl on his face.

"Shoot me, you get blown sky-high with me," he said through gritted teeth, adjusting the bags they were forcing him to carry under his arms. "So go right ahead, scum."

"If you were that tough, you'd have blown all this Dust fifteen minutes ago, and us with it," Emerald replied, unphased. "But you didn't, so at this point, all this posturing is just pathetic. Shut up and move along."

She gestured with her pistol, and the guard took the lead, approaching the outer walls in a brisk, if begrudging pace.

Emerald eyed the wall up to the top, while splitting her attention between the guard and the Grimm flying overhead. It was too high to climb, that much was true, but what worried her was that it looked like simple concrete. That didn't nearly match Beacon's standards, so she was certain the interior had to be made of a tougher material.

"You think this will be enough?" Emerald asked. They had grabbed as much Dust from the armory as had been feasible to carry, but maybe they should have taken more.

"It's your plan," Mercury replied. "No time for second guessing now."

Emerald grumbled. He was right, but he didn't have to be a dick about it.

"Look, I'll handle the logistics, you worry about the rest," Mercury said. "Ice Dust goes off first, makes the wall brittle. Then everything else goes boom. It's crude but that should blow through almost anything."

"I didn't know you knew so much about Dust," Emerald said.

"Gotta employ a little fancy stuff sometimes before you get down to business." Mercury shrugged. "That's basic knowledge anyway. Pick up a book sometime."

"Okay, are you being a pain in my ass on purpose, or what is this?"

"I'm always a pain in your ass on purpose, glad you're finally catching on."

So it was something else. Either way, Emerald had more important things to worry about than Mercury's bullshit. She handed off her bag and walked away as he started ordering the guard as to how the Dust should be laid out against the wall.

Emerald kept her eyes on the sky, in the interest of making sure no Grimm were wandering too close, but she could barely keep her mind on the task. Freedom was right on the other side of that wall and her heart was racing at just the thought of it.

She tried to stamp down on her excitement. They weren't in the clear yet. There was the Grimm still, and the explosion would draw a lot of attention. They would have to move fast once they had their opening. There was a highway not too distant from the prison – they just had to grab a car and drive. After that…

She hadn't thought that far yet.

"All ready," Mercury said, rejoining her. "You?"

She nodded, not trusting her voice not to quiver.

"You, scram!" Mercury barked at the guard, and the man wasted no time running back towards the facility.

Emerald wasn't worried about him – by the time he came with reinforcements, they should be long gone. Hopefully.

"I'll do the honors, then," Mercury said, lifting his rifle. His voice was jittery, as was his aim. "Here goes nothing!"

He pressed the trigger.

No matter how prepared she thought she'd been, the explosion still caught Emerald off guard. She was at a safe distance, but the noise ripped through her, rattling her skull. Smoke and dust filled her vision, forcing her to cover her face behind her elbow. Mercury was a shadow beside her, and then he was no longer there, vanishing in the violent aftermath.

Emerald stumbled away. When the Dust cleared, there was a hole in the wall – and a Griffon landing to the right of her, then another behind her.

She yelled, ducking as a claw rent the air over her head. She tried to get a lock on the Grimm's mind, but it was right on top of her, slashing at her back.

Mercury grabbed her arm and shoved her towards the wall. "Go!"

Emerald stumbled into the hole. It was wide at the start, but it quickly narrowed a few steps in, and she was forced to get on her knees to progress further. The noise of Mercury's rifle went off behind her, and she paused momentarily when she realized he wasn't following her.

Her head bumped into something. The air was too dusty for her to see anything, so she reached out with her hand, and her stomach dropped – concrete. The explosion hadn't penetrated far enough.

The material was loose, though. She could feel air on her skin, filtering in from the other side through tiny fractures in the concrete. She tried to push through it, pull it apart, but it was useless. Her breathing grew harsher as her mind caught up to the position she was stuck in.

Don't panic.

Sliding back a smidge, Emerald grabbed her pistol with both hands, silently celebrating the fact that she hadn't dropped it when the Grimm attacked. Holding her breath, she got her finger on the trigger and squeezed.

The concrete crumbled in front of her, and fresh air filled her nostrils, even as it mixed with the dust.

Emerald crawled through the opening, having to press herself to the ground and hold in her breath to squeeze through. Her hips got stuck, but with another push, she was out. She rolled onto her back and gasped in relief.

There was another Griffon perched on top of the wall. It was turned away from her, watching whatever was happening on the other side, but the noise drew its gaze to her. She had a half-second to lock onto its mind – too late to make it look like she wasn't there. It had seen her.

Instead, she pictured herself sliding back into the hole in fright. The Griffon squawked viciously and jumped off the wall, to other side, to ambush her there. It would be very confused when it didn't see her there.

Monstrous screeching and the noise of Dust rounds going off continued to fill the air as Emerald rose to her feet. She braced herself against the wall, and everything fell silent.

"Merc?" Emerald called after a second. She listened, but there was no noise except for her own breathing. "Shit."

Stepping back, she checked her pistol. No luck, she had exhausted the ammo breaking the last barrier. So what were her other options then? She could hardly hurt any Grimm without a functional weapon, and the fighting was too messy for her to get Mercury out of it with her Semblance alone. But maybe if she could provide the right distraction-

His hand poked out of the hole in the wall, following by his arm. He felt around for a bit, then tapped the ground.

"Some help?" he shouted, his voice muffled by the rubble.

Emerald grabbed his hand and pulled. His head and shoulders came free, only for his other arm and his chest to get stuck. She fell on her ass, blowing the hair off her eyes.

"A little more effort wouldn't hurt," Mercury said breathlessly.

"I'm trying, moron!" Emerald planted her feet on the wall and pushed against it. "Why are you so heavy?"

"Gee, Emerald-" he dug his hand into the ground and pulled- "let's think about that for a second-"

The rest of him came free, the hole collapsing behind him.

For a moment, Mercury lay with his face in the dirt, his body heaving as he coughed. When he got on his knees, Emerald saw that his face, hair, and clothes were all under a layer of dust and grime. Belatedly, she realized she must look just the same. If the prison uniforms weren't bad enough, that would certainly draw attention to them. But that was a problem for later.

"Come on, we have to keep moving. They're gonna be on us any moment now," Emerald said.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him upright. Mercury took a couple steps, his knees buckling slightly, before he started walking ahead with purpose.

"You okay to move faster?" she asked, and in answer, he broke into a jog. She matched his pace.

"Thought I was a goner back there. Those things are vicious when they don't have a leash." Mercury brushed his face with the back of his hand, wiping some dust away. "You better pay me double for this bodyguard gig."

"I'll pay you by not leaving you behind. Could buy me some time while Beacon's busy cuffing you."

"Fair, but we'll renegotiate later."

The highway came into view in a couple minutes. It was a long stretch of road, extending in both directions farther than Emerald's eyes could see, yet there were no cars in sight. Was the prison in the middle of nowhere? The only inkling of information she had was that it was somewhere in Vale, but for all she knew, they could be on an island off the coast.

Just as Emerald began to measure her chances of swimming to the nearest shore, a car appeared in the distance. She sprinted the remaining distance, running onto the road. The car had nearly sped past when she got her eyes on the man driving it. She flexed her Semblance, and the car veered sideways, drifting off-road to dodge a brick wall that wasn't there.

Mercury was making a break for the car before it had even stopped, but Emerald found herself stumbling as she made to follow. Her head spun. She breathed in and out with big gulps of air, fighting the rising urge to throw up her shitty prison breakfast. When had been the last time she had a headache this bad?

When she gathered the strength to move again and got to the car, she found Mercury had already ejected the driver and taken the seat behind the wheel. She glanced at the man sitting on the grass, shock plastered on his face. Emerald offered an apologetic shrug and hopped on the passenger seat.

She closed the door, and Mercury drove the car back onto the road. He floored on the gas, the vehicle jostling as he pushed towards and then past the speed limit. Even with her head killing her, somehow Emerald could not be bothered by any of it.

They drove in silence for a few minutes, eyes on the road, before Mercury took one hand off the wheel and reached for the dashboard.

"Oh hey," he said in a small voice. "AC."

He pressed a button, and cold air hit Emerald's face.

She nearly cried.

"So, what now? Is there a next step to this master plan, or do I just keep driving until we run out of gas?" Mercury asked. "Emerald?"

"Who cares?" Emerald said. "We're free."

She wiped her eyes and frowned.

A bird was sitting on the hood of the car. Black feathers and red eyes, she could have mistaken it for a Grimm, except as she tentatively felt out with her mind and brushed the bird's, it felt way too human. And was it glaring at her?

The bird hopped off the hood and spun in midair. Emerald blinked, her vision seeming to go out of focus for a split second as the space around the bird blurred with a swirl of gray colors.

Emerald yelled for Mercury to brake, and then there was a man in a Beacon uniform kicking through the windshield.