Qrow's hands were shaking. His right hand slightly less, but only because it was clenched tight around his flask.
He took another sip, but it didn't help any.
The street was busy, and that didn't make it any easier to get his head straight. A kid slammed into him and apologized in a hushed voice, lingering in such a conspicuous fashion, it would have earned a deserved slap on the back of the head by Raven. They scampered off before Qrow could say anything, seemingly deciding he didn't have anything in his pockets worth filching.
Don't run off so fast, Qrow thought as he watched the kid duck into an alley and disappear. Could have made a fortune if you'd just dug a little deeper.
He took out Ozpin's cane and turned it in his hand, prodding at its edges with his thumb. No reaction, no miraculous revelation yet again. Obviously.
He took another sip.
"Everything fine, sir?" Clover said, appearing at his side.
Qrow lowered his flask. "Why wouldn't everything be fine?"
Clover stared at him, for a moment bemused by his response, before he smiled and shrugged. "I wouldn't know, you look perfectly composed to me. I'm here on behalf of someone else."
Qrow stole a glance at Winter, who remained at the front of Malachite's place, her severe gaze pointed in his general direction with all the subtlety he expected from her.
"The Ice Queen is concerned about me, then? I'm touched."
"Concerned is one way to describe it," Clover said. "I don't think she entirely trusts your judgement."
Of course she didn't. Who would?
"Can't blame her. Something tells me she didn't exactly volunteer to take orders from yours truly," Qrow said. "But she's a big girl, she'll suck it up." He paused. "Don't tell her I said that."
"Cross my heart, sir," Clover said, nodding. "I assume you're thinking about our next move? If you need someone to strategize with, I'm your man."
"Appreciate that, but I already got a few ideas in mind. Just gotta decide which one to stick to," Qrow said, spinning his flask. "You trust my judgement, right?"
"I've no reason not to," Clover replied. "I understand Winter's misgivings about your Semblance, but I hardly have to worry about that myself. And I have to assume you're Director for a reason."
"I guess we'll see if you're right, on both counts," Qrow muttered.
He tossed Ozpin's cane to the air and caught it. Looking at it reminded him of the day Ozpin died, and everything after that, and in turn that reminded him of what was at stake here. His hands were shaking again.
"Would you do me a favor, Clover?"
"Shoot."
Qrow offered him the cane. "Take this."
Clover paused at the request, but accepted the cane after a second. Qrow held his breath, daring to hope for a second, but of course nothing happened.
"Was that all, sir?" Clover asked.
"Hold onto it for a while. Feel free to fiddle with it all you want. Tell me if anything happens," Qrow said. "Oh, and stop calling me sir. I'm not your boss, I won't keel over dead if you use anything other than my rank."
Clover looked down at the cane, turned it in his hand for a bit, then looked at Qrow again.
"You're a strange man, Qrow Branwen," he said. "It'll be my honor to hold and fiddle with your cane for as long as you like."
Qrow grinned. "See, you're way more fun than Winter. She'd neverhold my cane."
"Well yes, if what you told me is true, your suggesting she do that once is what sparked your contentious relationship in the first place, wasn't it?"
Qrow chortled.
He didn't get to laugh much these days. It felt good.
"You reallytrust my judgement, Clover?" he asked.
Clover nodded. "Completely."
"Good," Qrow said. He corked his flask and put it away. "I think I'll be needing that."
Arriving back to their neighborhood brought Emerald an ironic sense of relief. Sure, the place was gloomy and falling apart and the people here were far from friendly, but compared to the sunny upper districts? At least she didn't stick out here. She got to feel a little less dirty.
"I really could have done it any other way," Mercury mumbled beside her, shooting a scowl down at his left boot. He had scrubbed and washed it vigorously before they bounced from the apartment, but the blood stains were still painfully visible. "The gun was right there, too."
"That was pretty stupid of you, yeah," Emerald agreed.
She looked over her shoulder as they turned a street corner, unable to shake the feeling that they were being watched. That was to be expected, though. One did not walk away from a double homicide with a carefree spring on their step.
"Do you think I might have a fixation with using my legs as instruments of violence?" Mercury said. "I wonder what that says about me. Probably should see a shrink about it. Don't know where I'd find one that'd take me, though."
He was rambling. Worse, she had insulted him to his face and he hadn't even acknowledged it, much less fired back. This was worrying.
And yet, what was she supposed to do about it? Console him? She felt awkward just thinking about it. Ignore him, maybe, but that would probably only make it worse down the road.
She had to do something, though, if only to prevent him from blowing everything up for her.
"You know what today reminded me of?" she said, plucking the first thought that came to the front of her mind. It was quick, seeing as it had been bouncing around in there for a while now. "The Atlas job."
It was a dangerous topic, but at least it did grab Mercury's attention.
"Explain," he told her.
"I don't know." Emerald shrugged. "You don't see it?"
"I guess there are some similarities," Mercury said. "Both times we got roped into doing a psychopath's dirty work against our will. Both times we killed a guy. Yeah, same old."
"Technically, we didn't kill anyone last time. We just kidnapped him."
He gave her A Look. "Sure, Emerald. And technically, you didn't kill anyone today. Think that'll fly in court?"
There were other objections Emerald wanted to make, but the less they lingered on Cinder-adjacent topics, the better.
"I was thinking something more along the lines that our goals were similar, and we worked well together both times," she said. "Get in, get the job done, get out."
"What, like a well-oiled machine?" he replied sardonically.
"Exactly! Just like your legs, which you totally don't have any repressed trauma about."
Mercury chortled. Emerald took as a good sign. He still seemed a little jittery, but then again, so was she.
"One more thing," she continued to say, for some reason. "I guess I should thank you."
"This will be good."
Emerald scowled. "If you're going to be an ass about it, then I'll stop talking."
"No, no. By all means, praise me."
Emerald chewed on her words. Just for his attitude, she should keep them to herself, but something still compelled her to get them out.
"I just wanted to thank you for killing Lobo. You could have been a hardass about it and forced me to do it instead, but you didn't. That was nice of you. So, uh, thanks, I guess."
Mercury opened his mouth, then closed it.
"That's the most fucked up thing anyone's ever told me," he said, looking straight ahead. "You're welcome."
"Yeah," Emerald replied quietly. "Don't let it get to your head."
They continued to walk, now in complete silence. So Emerald had made it awkward, after all. She didn't regret it, though.
This was better.
It took only a few more minutes for them to get to their street. The house, if it could even be called that, was a sore sight as always, and yet Emerald almost found herself running towards it. Was she starting to put down roots here? God, they really needed to get a better place.
"So what's the plan now?" Mercury asked as they walked up the curb.
"We lay low for a couple days, then meet up with the Little Miss to see about that penthouse she promised." Emerald looked at him from the corner of her eye. "Maybe see if we can't squeeze in those bikini maids you mentioned."
"Sure, for your enjoyment. I'm classier than that."
Emerald rolled her eyes as she pushed open the gate. The rusted metal scratched against the ground, sending a vicious shiver up her spine.
She took one step towards the house and stopped, that prickling feeling at the back of her neck coming back with a vengeance.
Emerald spun around, scanning the street up and down, her thoughts and heart racing. Then she saw it and went still.
There, perched on the roof at the other side of the street, was a crow, black-feathered and with redder eyes than her own. Grimm, she first thought, before her mind snapped back three months, to the day she and Mercury had escaped prison.
He was back. She'd been expecting this.
"What?" Mercury asked, looking around as well, but not seeing the bird yet.
Emerald prepared herself to run. Yet the bird didn't move – it just stared in her direction, head tilted curiously, one talon tapping idly on the broken roof tiles.
"Nothing." Emerald exhaled. "Just losing my mind."
Mercury snorted. "What's new?"
The bird flew towards them.
Qrow's talons morphed the instant they touched the ground. He dusted off his shirt and looked at his prey.
It was difficult to say which of them was more surprised. Black looked like he'd been in the middle of saying something, and now he stood like a deer caught in headlights. Sustrai, in the meanwhile, was backing away slowly, her eyes darting everywhere for an escape route.
Bad. He didn't want her running just yet.
"Why the shocked faces?" he asked, just a tad too loud to command her attention. "Don't tell me you thought you could run off the other side of the world and I'd just forget about you."
Sustrai squared her shoulders and stopped moving. "Maybe we just didn't expect you to come looking for a repeat of last time."
"Oh, this isn't ending the same way, believe me."
Sustrai's eyes narrowed, and suddenly Qrow felt an invisible force drilling into his skull. The distance between them doubled, then tripled, the edges of his vision warping and blurring.
Gritting his teeth, Qrow focused on a loose cobblestone between his feet and closed his eyes. He shook his head, and when he opened his eyes again, everything was back to normal.
"Like I was saying," he drawled, "your tricks are cute, but I'm wise to them now."
Sustrai frowned. Moving behind Black, she nudged his arm, finally startling him out of his stupor. His shocked expression morphed into a scowl, and he took a step forward, fists clenched at his waist.
"You're not getting the drop on us this time, so yeah, thisisn't gonna go the same way. How's the head, by the way?"
"Splendid, thanks for asking," Qrow said. "Now, this is the part where I give you the 'we can do this the easy way or the hard way' spiel, but we all know which one you're going to pick. So let's cut to the chase, how about it?"
Black shrugged. "It's your funeral."
Qrow braced himself, sliding his right foot forward. He had left Harbinger at HQ, the weapon much too lethal for anything less than slaying Grimm. Maybe he should have kept the cane a little longer – that thing packed a whooping, even sans timey-wimey Oz magic.
Black didn't give him another second to strategize, coming at him at a full sprint and transitioning into a sliding kick. Qrow jumped back, but that hardly bought him any safety, as Black was immediately upon him with a flurry of kicks, his leg moving so fast it was little more than a blur.
Qrow ducked and weaved between the blows, waiting for the right opportunity. A half-second of reprieve came as Black adjusted his footing, and Qrow went in with a punch to the throat.
His fist passed through nothing, and he had only an instant to brace himself before he felt a steel foot ram into his side. Qrow stumbled away, hissing. Even with Aura, that had to have bruised a rib.
"Okay," he said, shooting a glare at Sustrai. "That was dirty."
"I thought it was cute," she replied, smiling.
"Just wait until I knock him on his ass. That will be cute," Black said.
Qrow sneered, a retort rising to his lips, before he saw the red soaked into the hem of Black's pants. "Who's that belong to?"
Black flinched, and then he was on Qrow again, somehow striking even faster than before, forcing him to block rather than dodge.
When Black suddenly vanished and reappeared five steps to the left, coming at a completely different angle in a fraction of a second, Qrow was ready for it. He pushed Black away with an elbow at the same time that he slid back, not daring to go on the offensive again while Sustrai was there.
"You know this doesn't prove anything, right?" Qrow said. "Can't land a single blow without your girlfriend stepping in with her cheap tricks."
"Not my girlfriend, thank fuck," Black huffed. "And you're the one who picked a fight. How does that saying go, the one about playing stupid games?"
"In my defense, I'm just buying time," Qrow said, pressing two fingers to his ear. "The problem being that my back-up is taking ages to get here."
A second later, Winter's voice buzzed in his earpiece. "Perhaps because this is in fact not the plan as we discussed it, Director!"
Gods bless her timing, because she did finally appear in the distance, gliding around a house on top of a glyph. Clover dropped from it as she sped past, landing to the left of Qrow. Winter halted and floated down opposite him, forming a triangle formation around their targets.
Black slowly returned to Sustrai's side, their backs turned towards their hideout.
Clover cleared his throat. "We can do this the easy way, or the – there they go."
With nowhere else to run, Sustrai and Black spun around and ran inside the house. Qrow gave chase immediately, catching a glance of Winter soaring towards a window on the upper floor before he entered the place.
"Watch out for mind games!" Qrow shouted as he jumped up the steps of a rickety stairway.
"Down!" Clover warned behind him.
Qrow hopped the last step and ducked. The air above him displaced with a pop, Black's kick missing his head by an inch. His foot broke the wall instead, sending debris flying everywhere, and even more as he pulled it free and escaped into a room, slamming the door shut behind him.
Qrow gave chase, only to slide to a halt as he blinked and suddenly there were a dozen identical rooms in front of him, all with the exact same door.
This was getting annoying.
"Allow me," Clover said, running past Qrow.
He didn't so much as hesitate as he tackled one of the doors shoulder-first, slamming it open. There Sustrai and Black were, the latter in the process of unlocking a window.
Sustrai jumped and grabbed Black by the wrist, pulling him into another room to the side – but Winter appeared in their path, a glyph stopping them from moving any further. Qrow and Clover came up behind them, cutting off their exit.
They were cornered, and Qrow watched as that realization slowly dawned on their faces. Sustrai's Semblance was far less effective against a prepared, capable opponent. She could perhaps confuse one of them and create an opening, but not all of them at once. And Black? Even he wasn't arrogant enough to think he could win this fight.
This was the end. Checkmate.
Not ideal.
Qrow inched to the left, and that's when it happened. He heard a snap, and then a loud crash as the floor gave way under Winter. Dust filled the air, her glyph fizzling as she fell two stories down.
Qrow turned away, coughing into his elbow. He watched the silhouettes of Sustrai and Black run across the room, before he heard a shattering of glass, and then they were gone.
Before Qrow could say anything, Clover was gone too, only shouting behind him before he leaped through the same window.
Blowing the dust away from his face, Qrow walked to the edge of the hole and peered down. He could just barely make out Winter down there, digging herself out of the rubble.
"Schnee, you need a hand down there?"
"Branwen!" she shouted up at him, and it was a wonder her voice didn't bring down the rest of the house. "Don't lose them!"
"Message received," he mumbled, and jumped out the window as well.
He shifted into his bird form before he hit the ground, and flew higher and higher until he had an overhead view of the neighborhood. He spotted Clover nearly immediately, but Sustrai and Black were a harder task. He finally caught sight of them running from alleyway to alleyway, switching streets and taking shortcuts.
By all rights, Clover should have lost their trail completely by now, but he somehow always knew the correct path to take. Yet they still had a head start on him, and it was growing, not shrinking.
Clover seemed to come to the same realization. He slowed down, and then stopped completely as he stepped out of an alley. Sustrai and Black were running up a hill now, blending into a small crowd. Forty meters. Fifty. Seventy.
Clover took out a Dust pistol and pointed.
No goddamn way.
The round pierced through the air, passing by every other person to hit Emerald square in the back of the head. Sparks exploded from the point of impact. She faltered and went limp, Black catching her just before she hit the ground.
Qrow landed on a nearby rooftop.
"Nice shot," he said, touching his earpiece. "A little offensive, gotta admit, but nice."
Clover waved at him from a distance. "Thanks, I practice a lot!"
"You can let them go for now. I'll stay on them."
Winter buzzed in. "Branwen, what exactly do you think-"
Qrow took wing again. By complete happenstance, this meant he was unable to hear the rest of what she had to say.
Staying high enough that they couldn't see him, Qrow trailed the fleeing pair as they navigated the streets. Black was supporting Sustrai still, though after a few minutes she seemed to regain her senses enough to take the lead again.
They diverged from the busy parts of the neighborhood, going not in the direction of the connectings bridges that would take them to the base of the city, where they might have made a break for it, but rather drawing towards the mountain itself. Finally, they broke from developed land, disappearing into a tunnel on the side of the mountain.
Qrow landed at the mouth of the cave, rolling his shoulders as he took human form again.
"The Undermountain, huh," he said to himself.
That answered some questions, and created several new ones.
"Malachite sold us out," Emerald said, rubbing the back of her neck. It was tingling like crazy, which was somehow worse than the numbness before.
At least she wasn't in the daylight anymore. Her eyes couldn't have taken the brightness a second longer.
"Glad you figured that one out. I for sure never saw that coming," Mercury said beside her.
His steps echoed loudly through the tunnels, attracting curious and hungry eyes from the people they passed by, huddling in tents or out in the open. Emerald met their stares head-on, and most averted their eyes right away. Hopefully the rest wouldn't be stupid enough to try something.
"Reallyglad we took that job now," Mercury said. "Paid off real quick."
Emerald glared at him. "Don't start blaming me. I trust Malachite about as far as I can throw her-"
"That's a really short distance."
"-but she's not in the business of selling out people who are useful to her, okay? And we were very useful to her," Emerald said. "That Beacon asshole must have really put the squeeze on her."
Mercury very conspicuously didn't respond to that, anxiety flashing on his face before he turned to hide it from her. Emerald clenched her fists, identifying the chink in the armor and almost digging in right then and there.
She stopped herself at the last moment, telling herself to breathe and keep the peace – for however much longer that would last.
"What's done is done, Mercury. I'm sorry, but there's no point in whining about what got us here. We can point fingers later."
Mercury exhaled, and only after a long minute, spoke again, "Where's here, anyway?"
"The Undermountain," Emerald said. "Geez, you really don't know Haven at all, do you?"
"My father didn't exactly keep me on a long leash."
That was a sobering thought, especially as they delved deeper into the tunnels.
People became a less frequent sight the further down they went, until they were walking alone, the only sources of light becoming the occasional luminescent crystals growing out of the walls. It was claustrophobic, but Emerald had grown used to being down here.
"You sure those idiots won't follow us down here?" Mercury asked.
"They'll probably try. Here's better than out in the open, though."
"Okay, but unless your plan is for us to live out the rest of our lives sucking the water out of rocks, what's the next step in getting us out of this pickle?"
"Stop being a baby and just follow my lead."
The tingling in her neck was gone, which made it hard to ignore the sweat building up on the palms of her hands, that slow-rising itch in her throat.
They arrived at a crossroads, the tunnels splitting in several directions. Emerald stood frozen for a moment, desperately trying to devise a way out of the hole she'd dug herself into. But there was no obfuscation to pull off here. No more misdirections.
Resigned, Emerald crouched next to a rock near one of the splitting tunnels and rolled it aside. From underneath she retrieved a pack, and from it she produced a flashlight. Tapping it twice on her hand, she rose back to her feet.
Mercury stared at her in the half-light.
"Something doesn't add up."
Emerald's mouth felt like a desert. "How so?"
"If they really wanted to capture us, they could have done it any number of ways. Wait for us to go to sleep; catch us in Malachite's place. The way they did it was dumb. Which makes me think they wanted us to get away. Are you following my train of thought?"
Unfortunately, she was following it all too well. The full weight of it made her wish the ceiling would collapse and bury her under the rocks.
"How long have you been searching for Cinder down here?" Mercury asked.
Emerald turned on her flashlight and pointed it at one of the tunnels.
"I took that path last time, but I didn't get very far," she said. "Come on."
She walked into the tunnel. A moment later, Mercury's footsteps followed.
Qrow rubbed his forehead. "Then how many agents do we have available? How many can we pull back?" he spoke into his Scroll.
The answer he got was depressing, even when the number didn't account for agents on critical missions like Grimm incursions. Not enough to cover all the space he needed. Not by far.
"Just send out everyone we've got, assign pairs to each exit point. Start with the lowest exits so we at least have the ground level covered," he said. "This is just surveillance. If anyone sees the targets, they are not to engage, just let me know right away."
He didn't wait to hear the confirmation from the other end; he just hung up and put his Scroll away, refusing to even glance at the screen. He knew he'd see a hundred other urgent things pending his attention, and just the thought of that made him want to toss the damn phone off the side of the mountain.
Bothered as he was, his blood was still pumping. He'd missed this feeling. Being on the hunt beat sitting behind a desk any day.
Because of that, he couldn't be more elated when Clover and Winter finally arrived, touching down just outside the mouth of the tunnel. The latter was still brushing dust and splinters off her outfit, but that didn't stop her from starting murder into him.
"Reporting for duty," Clover said, as if this was just according to plan. It wasn't an act, either, which Qrow was strangely glad for. "What's next, Qrow?"
"Our targets have fled into the Undermountain," Qrow said, pointing behind him with his thumb. "I've got people watching in case they try to slip out. In the meanwhile, we're going in to catch them."
"Wouldn't it be more prudent to wait or try to flush them out?" Clover asked, though he didn't sound like he really objected to the idea.
"Probably, but for all we know, they could know a way out that we don't. Better to cover all our bases."
"All of this, of course, in the interest of trying to apprehend Cinder Fall," Winter said.
Qrow held back a sigh. There was no one more adept at saying the quiet part out loud, was there?
"I sense multiple objections coming."
"And am I being unreasonable in voicing them? Fall was never our goal. The objective was always to capture Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black, yet you've needlessly complicated matters, such that I'm starting to doubt our chances of accomplishing this bloodlessly," Winter said.
"I'm not. That's your problem, Schnee – you've got very little daring in you," Qrow said. "Anyhow, we're still catching those two. We're just getting a bonus now. It just so happens that the bonus is much larger than the initial prize."
"It would seem like a waste to let Cinder Fall slip through our fingers when we have a golden opportunity to catch her," Clover piped in, flashing his trademark smile at Winter. It had no effect on her trademark scowl.
"I feel a reminder is necessary that this assumption we are working under, that Cinder Fall is hiding under our very feet, comes from the mouth of a criminal and nothing else," Winter said. "Hasn't Beacon thoroughly combed the Undermountain for her already?"
"We searched for her down there, yeah, but do you realize how easy it would have been for us to miss her? The Undermountain has more space that's been sealed off, forgotten, or that just collapsed over the years than it doesn't," Qrow said. "Fall probably has a hidey hole all to herself we've got no records about."
That was more likely than he could say. The Undermountain was older than Haven itself, and there were beings older than it still, one of which was known to whisper in Fall's ear from time to time, to the sad detriment of everyone else on Remnant.
Winter didn't seem convinced, which was all well and good. Qrow didn't need her to approve of his orders, he just needed her to follow them – and considering who she was, there was little doubt whether she'd do that.
Still.
"You can't say you wouldn't do the same if you were in my shoes," Qrow insisted. "It's like Clover said. It's a golden opportunity."
"For you to take your satisfaction from her for hurting your niece? It would appear so, from your perspective."
Qrow scowled. "I guess that would seem out of line to you, seeing as it wasn't Weiss that she nearly killed."
"I do believe she's tried multiple times," Winter said. "Frankly, Director, the less we discuss the hypotheticals of how I would act were I in your shoes, the smoother the rest of this mission will go."
Oh, if she wanted them to be frank, he had a few things to say as well.
"This is a fascinating conversation," Clover interjected, peering at the inside of the cave. "I suggest we continue it on the move, before we lose our targets completely."
Winter held Qrow's stare a moment longer before she nodded. The fact that she got the last word irked him to no end, but at that point pressing the issue would just come off as petulant, which was, of course, the last thing anyone could call him.
"Clover's right," Qrow grunted. "Hopefully they'll lead us right to Fall, but we better move fast. The less time we give them to plan a counter-offensive, the better."
"I concur." Winter turned to look at the cave, wrists crossed behind her back. "Though I fail to see how we are supposed to track them in the tunnels."
"That's the easy part, actually." Qrow looked at Clover. "We let lady luck guide us."
Mercury was quiet, and that was exceptionally worrisome.
Did he argue with her every chance he got? Yes. But that was just his piss-poor everyday attitude. Emerald knew that ninety percent of the time, he couldn't care less about whatever he was rambling about.
When he was furious? When he cared? He seethed. She'd seen it only a handful of times over the years. Usually he worked it out by himself, some manner of physical violence typically involved in the process.
Somehow, this time felt worse. Maybe because she knew she was the cause of it, and that for once, there was no lie or bribe she could pull off to make this go away. She could only sit in his silence and keep moving.
Maybe if she ignored it long enough, the ticking time bomb would defuse on its own.
Deeper and deeper they went, descending into the bowels of the mountain Haven sat upon. Darkness greeted them at every turn, only minimally pierced by the glare of her flashlight.
As she pointed it at the walls surrounding her, like every night before, Emerald held on to the hope that she would finally see it shine on Cinder's face. Those golden eyes would greet hers and she could finally stop searching.
Those hopes were dashed every time. She despaired. She breathed a sigh of relief.
She was coming back to Cinder, but she was bringing ruin with her. This wasn't the plan.
Too late to turn back.
Too paralyzing to keep going.
At some point, she'd stopped moving. Emerald only realized it when she looked down and found herself standing still, the hand that held the flashlight trembling madly. A void formed in her lungs and grew to occupy them whole, expanding into her throat.
She felt like she was going to die.
"Good to see you know where you're fucking going."
Mercury's voice hit her like a bucket of cold water. The flashlight fell from her hand, and she nearly crumbled crouching to pick it up.
"I know where I'm going," she sputtered breathlessly. "Give me a second. Cinder showed me."
"Well, if Cinder showed you."
"Give me a second, Mercury!"
Emerald aimed the flashlight left and right. Where were they? She didn't recognize this chamber, these walls, and as hard as she tried to retrace her steps in her mind, everything came up blank. She was lost.
Lost.
Lost.
Holding her breath, Emerald lowered the flashlight and stared into the darkness
(a spark flashed in front of her eyes. Cinder's flame chased the shadows away, illuminating the tunnel like a miniature sun.
"The crystals are sparser the further down you go, and you can't exactly replicate this little feat of power," Cinder said, spinning the hovering flame above the palm of her hand. "Should the need arise, you will need to have something else prepared to light your way."
Emerald nodded, though secretly she doubted she would ever come down here of her own volition. Not unless she was desperate. Certainly not without Cinder.
"Another word of caution, you won't find many people this far from the surface, which should make you wary of any people you do cross paths with."
"Got it," Emerald said. "Although I think they'd be sorry they met me."
Cinder's lips gleamed in the flamelight. "Yes, that would be quite regrettable for them, wouldn't it?"
Emerald tried not to let her pride show. Praise was a rare commodity coming from Cinder.
"You talk like you're really familiar with this place. You don't live down here, though, do you?" Emerald asked. It was a risky question, but she was riding that high still, and Cinder seemed receptive for once.
"No, I do not. You know me, Emerald. I like my creature comforts."
"Well, you deserve them."
Cinder didn't seem to hear her. She slowly moved her hand in front of her, lighting the rocky walls they walked by, a dark flicker in the gold of her eyes.
"This place was a necessity, once," she said. "I'm long past that."
For a moment, Cinder seemed almost)
"Get a grip!"
Emerald reeled forward, the air exploding out of her lungs as she felt a fist slam into the back of her neck.
She spun around, eyes wide. "What the fuck, Mercury! Have you completely lost your mind?"
"Have I lost my mind?" he yelled. "I'm not the one who was off in dream land again!"
She stared at him, dumbfounded.
"Don't act like I'm fucking blind," Mercury said. "What was it this time, were you prancing through a flower field with your darling Cinder, or were you just making out with her?"
Emerald pursed her lips. "I'm so done with you."
Picking a direction at random, she marched down another branching tunnel. Mercury's footsteps followed like an earthquake on her heels.
"Yeah, you'redone with me, because I'm the one who insisted we needed to come to Haven instead of anywhere else," Mercury said. "I'm the one who got us indebted to a crime lord who stabbed us in the back the first chance she got. I'm the one who ran us into the goddamn tunnels where you've been searching for your imaginary girlfriend for the last three fucking months. But hey, we can point fingers later!"
"I didn't force you to come with me, Mercury!" she yelled, not looking back.
"You're right, I should have just run back into the loving embrace of Beacon. That would have been more rational."
Emerald laughed. "You wanna do this? Fine, let's go way back! Maybe we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place if you had actually killed the guy who's chasing us right now like I told you to."
"Sure, Emerald. You point, I kill, like a good little dog."
"Oh, please. Like you care. And like you haven't been using me just the same way. Hell, if it weren't for me, they would have snatched you and tossed you back in prison before you got a wink of sleep. I get you food, I get you a place to stay. But you don't hear me complain about your whiney, freeloading ass, do you?"
"Yeah, probably because you've been too busy keeping hush-hush about what you've been doing every night. It's almost like you knew it was stupid. Or maybe you just felt guilty about all the lying. Wouldn't that be a novel experience for you."
Emerald stopped in her tracks, pressing the cool metal of the flashlight to her forehead.
"Oh no, somebody doesn't have a comeback." Mercury affected a pout. "Don't worry, I'm sure Cinder will make everything better when you finally find her."
Emerald fixed him with a glare. "You don't get it."
"I really don't. What, you spent like a year with her before we met? I'm sure you had a merry time together," Mercury said. "You know, I used to pity you. Now that I realize you're completely delusional, I just think this is pathetic."
"If I'm delusional, Mercury, what does that make you?" Emerald turned to face him. "You thought we'd just run off somewhere and leave it all behind? It doesn't work that way. I did terrible shit, you did terrible shit. Daddy made you this way? Tough luck. You don't get to change what you are."
He moved faster than she could follow.
Suddenly she was being pressed against a wall, his hand around her throat.
"If that's true, why shouldn't I kill you right now?" Mercury growled in her face. "Give me one good reason."
The flashlight was on the ground now. In the half-light, he hulked over her like a demon out of a nightmare, squeezing the life out of her. She pulled at his wrist and kicked at his ankles, but he didn't budge an inch. Desperate, she tried to hone her mind on his, but her thoughts were as scattered as the air in her lungs.
In the back of her head, a little voice told her that she deserved this.
Just as her vision started to go black, he released her. Emerald slid to the floor, coughing, tears streaming down face. Weak, she pushed herself to her knees and used her sleeve to wipe her cheeks.
"I never-" she croaked- "I never made you any promises."
Mercury stared down at her. "Yes, you did."
She breathed heavily. He didn't move from where he stood.
In the pause between her gasps, a slithering noise pierced the silence.
Something wrapped around her ankle.
Her body seized up at once – whatever it was, it sent a chill through her that she felt deep in her bones. It was thin and slimy, but deceptively sturdy as it coiled higher and higher up her leg, until it had a stranglehold on her thigh. Something sharp dug into her flesh.
Emerald turned her head and saw only a red glow before she was being pulled into the darkness, screaming.