Things are starting to get heavier here.

You may notice that my writing feels a bit reluctant here - as if, for some reason, I don't want to write what's next…

This chapter is our final destination before the angst sets in.

And as with all writers, I live off of feedback. If you enjoy this story, please let me know, so I can muster up the strength to do what I must in the coming chapters.

Marsh,

Thank you.

Does this mean you're finally joining us? We need you. Desperately.

If you're right, if she's what you think she is, she could make all the difference. With you as well, we could finally do it.

We could finally save the world.

-Kelsier

—-

Powder wakes up in a haze, alone, tied to a chair, in a cold and mostly-empty room. There's a steel table in front of her, and she realizes, shivering, that the chair she's tied to is steel, as well.

Not long after she wakes up, a door behind her opens. She tries to turn around to see behind her, but she's exactly the wrong height, the chair completely blocking her view. The intruder stands behind her for a long while. She can feel her heart racing, faster, faster, and she worries it might explode.

The footsteps are slow, heavy, deliberate as they make their way around her, the table, to the steel chair directly across from Powder. The large man, with tattoos on his face, pulls the chair out with a horrific scraping sound. He doesn't seem to notice, but the sound practically rips through Powder's soul, and she cringes like something sharp had gone inside her ear.

The obligator watehes her intently as he sits down, his elbows on the table and fingertips pressed together in front of his face, his weathered hands a steeple. Powder feels dumb, frozen like a prey animal. She doesn't have Whiskers or any of her other experiments with her - they must've taken those when they'd grabbed her.

At this thought, it strikes her. Vi.

"What happened to Vi?" Powder asks, terrified. "Where is she? Where's my sister?"

The obligator doesn't answer. He simply watches. At some point he produces a notebook and a pencil, writing things down as Powder begins to spiral in a panic. She can't breathe, the world is spinning, and before she realizes it she's screaming, a feral thing in terrible pain. Spit flies from her mouth, ropes cut into her flesh, as she writhes and screams until she loses her voice, "What did you do with Vi?"

She doesn't want to stop, doesn't want to stop screaming and fighting until she gets her answers or breaks free, whatever comes first. But she's exhausted and in pain, feeling like she was beaten - thinking there's a high chance she was, actually. Eventually, she runs out of fuel, and Powder becomes still and silent.

At this, the obligator smiles. The expression creeps across his face like ice, sending shivers down Powder's spine. This was a predator's smile. And she didn't know what exactly had just happened, except that he seemed to think he had… won something from her. She hated that. Trying to muster up the strength to continue resistance, to figure a way out of the complicated knots tying her too tightly to the chair - why can't she slip out, she can always slip out - Powder takes a deep breath.

Behind her, the world explodes.

There's smoke and ash, a harsh voice in her ear hissing, "quiet, kid," rough hands under her arms, and being thrown over a shoulder like a sack of barley. Powder squeezes her eyes shut, partly to avoid getting dizzy from being carried practically halfway down, partly to keep dust and smoke out of her eyes. It feels like they run forever, through mazes with constant adversaries, until all of a sudden… silence.

The man who'd been carrying her unslings Powder from his shoulder and drops her to the ground. Her natural agility is the only thing that keeps her from falling into what appears to be a river of sewage - they'd escaped underground, a place where no one would think to look.

Powder had been expecting multiple people, but it's just one haggard, bedraggled-looking man with cold eyes and a blank expression. He looks her up and down, opens his mouth to say something, but she interrupts.

"Where's Vi?"