["Fear" by Jeff Williams. This is actually Oscar's theme song according to the internet.]
Emerald had been thinking about what Ozpin yelled about for a while, and now that it seemed Salem was distracted by directing the Zeppelin outside, she snuck past the Seers to the torture room.
She hadn't heard nearly as much sounds of pain coming from here, so she suspected Hazel was actually talking to him, but she didn't expect to hear what followed.
"You can make things easier on yourself if you start telling the truth," Hazel was saying. [I checked the timing of this scene, and the way it started with Hazel's OG line makes it seem like it's right after the throne room scene, but given that the whale moved and Emerald had to sneak to the room and Ozpin has clearly been beaten some more, too much time has passed for that to make sense, so I changed it.]
"You never wondered why she recruited you, you specifically, to help her find the Relics?" Ozpin asked in a low voice, so that Emerald had to strain to hear it.
"We share a vision," Hazel said. "She's gonna create a new world order."
This was what Cinder had told Emerald, so it lined up.
"No kingdoms and no huntsmen academies," Hazel added.
Emerald thought there was more to it than that... That wouldn't be that new, really; there didn't used to be kingdoms, right?
"New world order, no. When Salem gets all four Relics, there will be no world left at all," Ozpin spoke.
He sure sounds beat up, Emerald thought. Also...what the frick?!
"Don't you get it?" Ozpin went on. "She's been alive longer than you can comprehend. All she craves now is release. Death."
Hazel growled. "Stop lying!"
He turned and, from the sound of it, hit Ozpin hard enough for him to swing on the hook he was on--like a piece of meat.
"Salem can't be killed!" Hazel said. "When she came for me, I killed her over and over again. The longest she was gone was only a few hours before she put herself back together again."
Ew... Emerald thought. Also...she had no idea Hazel did that.
She didn't know that much about her co-workers, but dang, Salem let him join after that? That didn't sound like her.
"When I couldn't lift my arms anyone, she showed me that, through her, I could have the vengeance I needed."
"Oh, Hazel." Ozpin sounded remorseful. "Don't you see? That is why she came for you. Because she could make you believe that this is what you needed."
At this stage, Oscar was actually suggesting this to Ozpin, who wouldn't have seen that on his own, quite frankly, being much too caught up with the fact that Hazel had tried to kill Salem initially.
"This is what you deserve!" Hazel yelled.
"Yes." Ozpin finally got more on top of it. "But Oscar? The people of Atlas? Remnant? You haven't done what you've done for justice, you've done it for yourself. Because she pushed you to think it would help you."
He paused dramatically. "Has it?"
Emerald gulped.
* * *
Oscar waited for some kind of reaction from Hazel, but none came.
After a long pause, Ozpin went on. "'As long as this world turns, you shall walk its face.' That was the curse cast upon her. But if Salem can divide humanity beyond repair and bring all four Relics back together, she believes that maybe her curse would be broken. The gods would rule against us and destroy Remnant, once and for all."
"Nice story," Hazel said. "But if Gretchen's death taught me one thing, it was never to trust you."
"Please, let me," Oscar piped up.
But, Oscar-- Ozpin began.
"You want him to trust us? Then trust me." Oscar was sure he knew what to do suddenly.
They switched.
Hazel slowed.
Here went nothing...
"Her name is Jinn," Oscar said weakly.
"Hmm?" Hazel said.
"You want her to come out of the Lamp? Just say her name. She can still answer one more question," Oscar said.
This felt right. Lying to Salem, it hadn't worked. Lying didn't work with her--she was too used to it.
Telling the truth, that was more what Oscar did...and even if this blew up in his face, he felt like it was the better approach.
Though Ozpin was dying on the inside--figuratively.
"After all that," Hazel said in anger, grabbing him, "you're just going to give Salem the password!?"
"No," Oscar said, somehow still calm... Honestly he just didn't have the energy to not be calm right now. "I'm giving you the password and hoping you'll find the truth for yourself."
Suddenly a phrase from that book Shine had given him came into his head.
"You shall know the truth," he said slowly. "And the truth shall set you free."
The very air in the room seemed to still.
Hazel let go slowly and got a new look in his eye.
* * *
Emerald waited for a reaction.
But Hazel made no answer, and she heard him coming towards the door.
She booked it.
* * *
Without Cinder available, Emerald had no one to tell this to except Mercury--and in all honesty, she knew, Cinder wouldn't care anyway. She wouldn't care what Ozpin said.
But Emerald had to bounce it off someone.
But...
"He's a prisoner, Em." Mercury wasn't receptive. "He'll say whatever he thinks will get him out."
"So, you're still going to Vacuo, after what I just told you?" she said. "I mean, even if there's the slightest chance it was true, don't you want to know that for sure?"
"Those are Salem's new orders, and I know better than to disobey Salem." Mercury finished packing his duffle.
"But--" Emerald protested.
"Look, even if what he said was true, we can't stop Salem," Mercury said, proving to her that he knew it was true. "You told me yourself--Hazel tried. He failed, and he got in line. Big guy's not gonna pick fights that he can't win. And neither should we."
Emerald wanted to say something but had no words.
Mercury backed up. "And all this is pointless anyway. Salem's not ending the world."
But just as he walked into the hall, they heard the worst laugh in the world--Tyrian's.
"Of course she is," he chortled. "You're surprised?" He looked delighted. "Salem is destruction incarnate! Our mistress wishes to see the end of it all!" He grabbed Mercury and put his tail in front of him so he couldn't get away, to Mercury's great discomfort. [I get too many pedo vibes from Tyrian for this not to make me cringe watching it.]
"There's no ideal more beautiful!" Tyrian went on.
Emerald could think of a few...like living.
But did this confirm it?
"If you couldn't see that from the start, you must be out of your mind." Tyrian grinned. [When he's the source of truth, you know you've fricked up your life.]
"Now come along, Mr. Black," he said, grabbing Mercury again. "You and I have a date with the desert."
Emerald thought she'd never forget in her life the look Mercury shot back at her after that. After he got thrown in the plane.
Not that it was even that emotional, but just because she could see it in his eyes--he knew this whole thing was a charade...even if he wouldn't admit it.
And he couldn't escape... Tyrian would kill him if he tried to run for it now, kill both of them. He was stuck.
Mercury finally just nodded at her, and then the plane took off.
Emerald swallowed.
He wasn't much...but he was...friendlier than the others.... Now she was alone.
Well, Hazel was still here.
If Hazel left, she wasn't staying, no way!
Time to go find out once and for all what he was going to do.
* * *
About this time, the group at the Schnee mansion was ditched by Mai, who had given up on any hope of their plan working.
Now left alone again, they weren't sure what to do.
Pyrrha finally reappearing helped a little. But she looked exhausted.
"What happened?" Weiss demanded. "Where are Maria, Pietro, and Penny?"
"I don't know where Penny is," Pyrrha said. "The other two split to try to find somewhere to lay low. I had to use my Semblance to get us back. Penny seemed to lose focus... Maybe she...crashed."
She fell to her knees.
"Your Aura is almost gone," Weiss said, holding up her scroll. "You need to sit down, come on."
She and Blake tugged Pyrrha up and to the sitting room with the rest of them.
Not long after, there was knocking at the door.
Everyone hoped it was a friend, though they were afraid it was the authorities.
Instead it was... "Klein?" Weiss said.
"Hello," Klein said. "I heard the little Miss here was in need of some medical assistance."
"Klein..." Weiss said. "I'm so sorry. It's my fault--"
"Don't worry, my snowflake," Klein insisted in one persona. "It had nothing to do with you." He switched to angry. "And everything to do with Jacques."
He came in.
Weiss hugged him.
"Now where is she?" Klein asked.
"Upstairs..." Weiss said. "But how did you know?"
"Ah, hello, Master Whitley," Klein said.
Whitley had ventured to join them.
"I'm so glad that you rang," Klein said. "May I please see the patient? I understood it's urgent."
"She's in Weiss' room," Whitley said. "You know where it is?"
"I haven't been gone that long," Klein said a bit archly.
"Of course," Whitley said.
Klein headed upstairs.
"Whitley? You called him?" Weiss was flabbergasted.
"That girl needs a doctor." Whitley shrugged. "I didn't do it for you." He frowned.
Weiss knew she deserved that.
Shine was right...
"I know," she said. "It's...it was nice. I mean...I'm sorry, for what I said earlier--and how I acted."
Whitley shrugged.
"No, really." Weiss put a hand to her face apologetically. "And...at the party too... I ignored you."
She glanced at Blake and Ruby, who just nodded at her.
Pyrrha looked pleased.
"I...shouldn't have forgotten about you." Weiss decided to just finish her apology like an adult. "I suppose that's kind of a pathetic apology after all this, but, I really am sorry."
Whitley frowned. "What? But I do something nice for you, now you're nice back?"
Ouch.
"I don't think that's it," Pyrrha spoke up, rubbing her arm. "I think it's that...sometimes we don't see people how they are, because we're so caught up in what we're going through ourselves...and we forget to look around us. I think Weiss is saying that she wishes that she had looked around more." She smiled at Weiss.
Weiss nodded at her. "Yeah, that's what I'm saying..." She looked down. "I didn't...look around me a whole lot. I forgot that you were...also stuck. Here. Alone."
Ruby and Blake looked at each other. They were probably thinking that their team was also stuck somewhere, most likely, alone right now.
Whitley looked up finally. "Well, it's not like I asked for your pity."
"I guess not," Weiss said.
Pyrrha stood up and put a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Not everyone asks for pity," she said slowly. "And that's fine. But it would be worse for us not to try to see things their way, every now and then. Not everyone has the same talents and opportunities...but we all have the same basic...need, I think. To be believed in. So...Thank you for showing us that even people we don't expect can be our friends in a time like this. And on Nora's behalf, thank you also."
Whitley finally softened a little. "I suppose that's acceptable..." he mumbled.
Pyrrha then almost fell over again.
"All right, sit back down," Weiss told her. "Maybe Klein should look at you also."
"I'm just tired." Pyrrha leaned back. "Not hurt. But I do have some bad news... I saw Emerald, Neo, and...Cinder."
Pause.
"Did they see you?" Blake asked.
"Emerald and Neo, yes. Cinder, no," Pyrrha said. "But if they tell her what they saw..."
"This is just great!" Weiss cried. "Like we needed one more reason for them to be hunting us."
The other two glared at her.
"Not that it's your fault," Weiss added hastily. "It's just...bad."
"I know." Pyrrha threw her hands up. "And I shouldn't have exposed myself. I was trying to help Penny. I forgot completely that they shouldn't know about me. I'm sorry..."
"They were going to find out eventually," Blake said, sighing. "I mean, we knew that. I guess it's just now. That's all. Don't worry about it too much. If they found us, they'd have seen you anyway."
"Yeah..." Ruby sighed also. "I just wish we could have put it off longer. Still, no one knows we're here, right?"
"How's Fria?" Pyrrha asked.
"She fell asleep," Blake said. "She's...still alive, but she seems so weak, so incoherent. And without Jaune here... Well, maybe Klein can do something."
Klein did give Fria some IVs, but he told them it didn't look good. She was just...old. Her time wasn't far off.
"Should one of us try to be there when...?" Blake said. "Then we'd..."
"Isn't that way just the same as Ironwood?" Weiss said.
"Yeah, but if one of us doesn't get it, then wasn't it for nothing?" Blake said.
"No...we saved her from being murdered," Pyrrha said. "That is not for nothing."
She suddenly felt her scroll buzz.
She looked at it.
Winter? Winter was sending her a message?
Just then they heard a loud crash outside.
"What was that?" Ruby asked.
"Let's go find out." Blake pulled out her weapon.
"Stay here, Pyrrha," Weiss said, not noticing her scroll. "You're too tired to fight."
They all rushed out the door.
Pyrrha opened the message. but kept her hand ready for her sword.
"Nikos?" Winter's voice came. "Are you there?"
Pyrrha hesitantly pressed the talk button.
"Yes?" She said warily. "What is it?"
"There's...something I thought you should know," Winter said.
Pyrrha listened to her account of what her team, Yang, and the two DJs were doing with horror.
"Oscar was taken by a Grimm?" she said somberly. "And they went to...but...isn't that...?"
"Dangerous? Yes," Winter said. "And I have to inform you...if they are not back in..." She seemed to check a clock. "...40 minutes, we're going to drop the bomb into the Zeppelin."
"While they're inside!?" Pyrrha felt like her heart almost stopped.
"Yes...I'm sorry. We have no choice," Winter said.
Pyrrha stood up. "You do have a choice," she said loudly, too loudly, really. Willow probably could hear her. "Choose not to do this."
"Miss Nikos, I am still a soldier," Winter said. "I shouldn't even be talking to you right now, but the others are picking up the bomb... I don't have much time. I thought you should know what to expect... If they make it out, we'll be taking them in... All of you will have to decide what to do."
"How far are you willing to take this?" Pyrrha lowered her voice again. "How many more things do you have to do that you feel are wrong?"
"I don't know that I feel that destroying this monster is wrong," Winter said. "Even if I don't like the price we're paying to do so."
"It is wrong," Pyrrha said. "You know that Salem won't be stopped by that bomb... She can't be killed. What if the Grimm cannot be either? Or it comes back? Or another one?... And then all you did was kill our allies?" She wiped a tear off her face. "Don't do this, Winter."
"Even if I was to disobey orders, Miss Nikos, the others will do it," Winter said.
"You could stop them...stall..." Pyrrha said.
"I have far less power than you think," Winter said. "You all still have the Maiden also... We need to accomplish something."
"She's not going to last long," Pyrrha said somberly. "I have no idea who the power will go to. What if it's still you?... What will you do?"
"The General wishes to remove the Staff and use it to lift Atlas higher," Winter said.
"That won't save you." Pyrrha was not a tactician, but she was smart enough to know this much.
"He wants to buy us time," Winter said.
"For what?" Pyrrha said. "It would be better to find some method of escaping."
"I am tired of going over this with all of you," Winter said.
Pyrrha was silent for a moment, then she said, "All right...I know you don't want to argue...but can I ask...what is the real reason you are following these orders? When I did what I did, I was...afraid of what would happen if I didn't...but in this case, I'm more afraid of what will happen if you do. I thought I'd lose everyone I cared about if I didn't become the Maiden...but you are losing everyone you care about by doing this already... What makes it worth it to you?"
Silence.
"You wouldn't understand," Winter said.
"I wouldn't understand duty?" Pyrrha looked out the window. "No...that is what I told myself about being the Maiden. I think I do understand that...but I've come to see since that time that duty isn't just to your country or to your friends... You have to do what is right. That is our first duty. I died trying to do that... I'm not sorry for that. But I would be sorry if I thought I died making a choice that I would not even be proud of while I was doing it... Suppose Atlas is doomed either way, Winter...what is the last thing you want to think before it falls? That you did what was right? Or that you followed orders because of your duty to someone who may have been wrong."
Pause.
"Are you so sure, Miss Nikos--" Winter almost sounded like a real human being there. "--that the General is wrong?"
Pyrrha put her hand on the window pane briefly, looking at her reflection...
"I am...sure that he is afraid," she said slowly. "I know people who are not afraid of Salem. They only want to stop her out of...love, for their friends. I'm...sure that Jaune and the others want to save Oscar because we care about Oscar, not just because it's strategically better. I'm sure they told you that, so you would let them...but deep down, we just care about Oscar... Miss Likstar said something, didn't she? That we can't let ourselves do the same things Salem does if we want to beat her... Is this approach that we're talking about...saving other people for our ends, one that we can say is so unlike hers? Will...will she be afraid of it?"
A long pause from Winter.
"And yet, if you can't make sacrifices," Winter said, "you can't win a war. You of all people should know that."
"Yes...I did make a sacrifice," Pyrrha said. "I would do it again. My life...but what I believe in? No...I don't want to sacrifice that. That is the question here, Winter. Does the truth really not matter just because we're in a crisis? Or is that when the truth matters the most? If we drop all our higher ideals when our backs are to the wall, then did we ever really believe them? I've been asking myself that since I came back and realized what I did...and...I think, I can forgive myself for getting confused about it. Because we all do--I've seen that, in the last 3 days, how easy it is to slip...but that's why I'm warning you. It's one thing to get confused, but once someone has pointed out to you so clearly that it's not right, and you haven't listened...then who's at fault? Who can we blame but ourselves then?"
She turned away from the window. "I don't want that. I want to do what is right."
"Perhaps you weren't wrong before," Winter said.
"It doesn't matter," Pyrrha said. "I know what I think now, but even if I didn't, I'd still be obligated to do what seems right to me now. Things are not the same now as they were then. We know more. We've seen more.... But are we making the same exact choices?... I...feel like you didn't call me because you think this is right...but because you feel it's wrong, and you're...trying to make it better... But, Winter...there is nothing I can do from here, or any of us can...to save them."
She wiped more tears away. "I wish I could race over there right now, but I'd never get there before the time was up... But you could do something."
"I have to go." Winter seemed to be turning. She probably heard the other Ace Ops coming back. "Think about the situation, Miss Nikos. You can't hide forever."
"Neither can you--" Pyrrha began, before she was hung up on.
She glanced at her scroll, then she threw it across the room and sank to the floor.
"If you're listening," she said, still crying, "please, get them out of there before the bomb goes off...make some way...any way..."
"Pyrrha?" She heard Weiss come in. "We found Penny outside... She's hurt... What's wrong?"
"The others..." Pyrrha said, "they're...going to try to save Oscar, but he's...inside the huge grimm...and the Ace Ops are going to blow it up in 30 minutes or so if they don't get out in time..."
"What?" Weiss gasped. "No, my sister wouldn't--" But then she stopped.
Pyrrha shook her head.
"So...Jaune, Ren, and..." Weiss glanced back. Ruby wasn't in the room yet.
"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Should we tell her?"
"I don't know..." Weiss put a hand to her mouth. "On the one hand, if they get out, we'll worry her for nothing, and we have enough problems, but if they don't, she'll be furious with us... Could we get there in time to help?"
"It's halfway across Atlas," Pyrrha said. "Even at Ruby's speed, I don't think her Aura would last long enough to get us there, and then we might get caught... What would we do?"
"Yeah, Ruby's too tired for that," Weiss said. "But if we do nothing...I mean...that's not that much time."
"Guys, we need help getting Penny upstairs..." Blake called.
Weiss pursed her lips. "Give it a few minutes," she said. "Maybe they'll call back, let us know they're okay..."
She hurried out of the room.
Pyrrha retrieved her scroll and just sat there, staring at it in her lap.
She didn't think they would call, one way or the other...but what would she tell Ruby...or Nora?
Or herself...
[Anyone else notice how this mirrored the way Jaune broke down when Pyrrha went off to fight Cinder? He also called for help from other people because he was too far away.
Even worse for Pyrrha, since it's more people. I feel bad for making her suffer more...but it is more realistic this way.]
* * *
The haphazard plan to get Oscar started off all right.
Shine and Wally both ran and started shooing Grimm away.
But there were a few problems.
One, the Grimm were bolder while they were so close to their mistress and her large scale minions, and only ran off a little ways.
Two, there was so many of them that they could regroup almost as fast as they were scared off.
Three, there was plenty of Atlas military around for them to attack also.
In the end, Shine and Wally just barely made a passage to the door big enough for the others to sneak by, and then ran after them.
* * *
In that time, Oscar was left to himself for a while.
Strange, what went through his head was the story of The Girl Who fell through the World. Maybe because he'd been rereading it so recently.
"'She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest.'"
"I recognize that," Ozpin said.
"Of course..." Oscar said. "Once, I thought the idea of falling through Remnant, into a new world, was exciting. I never understood why she was so sad when she finally made it back home. But now it makes more sense."
"She wasn't the same girl anymore," Ozpin noted.
"Yeah," Oscar said.
"Thinking of our friends?" Ozpin said.
"Not just them," Oscar said. "I think...it's also like this... Even if I got out of this...somehow, I wouldn't be the same person anymore... Will everything familiar feel...sad?"
"I felt sad when I returned to life," Ozpin said. "Everything was different...fallen...but perhaps I put some of that into the story. I never really knew her take on it. I often thought she seemed sad...but I'm not sure it was because she had to go home.... Perhaps it was the reason she did."
"Because you didn't take her help?" Oscar said.
"I got the impression that the bonds one forms in a new world are not so easily forgotten," Ozpin said. "That the way you see people there, it's different than how we see each other. It's deeper, perhaps. Perhaps only someone who's from another world can clearly see a different one for what it is. Proximity does breed blindness...and in some ways, maybe I have been too close. That's what I've been thinking, watching you handle this...that I have missed many things, because I was too close to them."
"That's a sad thought," Oscar said. "But it would make sense. I think...I missed a lot about life, while I still had a normal one. Things that I took for granted...and I wish I could have them back... Still, I wouldn't go back... Maybe that's how the girl felt. I wouldn't fit anymore... I don't know if I can ever go back."
"I can't help you there, Oscar, because if it happens it will have nothing to do with me," Ozpin said sadly. "But on the subject of being too close to the situation...I think this plan to divide and conquer may have run its course."
"No..." Oscar said. "I'm not ready to escape yet. I don't want to use magic... I think we just need to wait it out."
Ozpin began to argue, but at that moment Hazel came back in--and this time, he just took him off the meat-hook thing he was hanging off of and dragged him out of the room.
Even this hurt really badly...but according to Ozpin, he still didn't have internal damage.
"I can't explain it, but somehow you'll probably live through this if he stops beating you," he said. "I'd have thought someone his size hitting someone your size would have killed you at least in the aftermath."
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Oz, Oscar said.
"If you saw yourself right now..." Ozpin said. "I can just imagine what we must look like."
Can you stop saying we? Oscar said. This is still my body.
"Right...still...I took some of the hits. Doesn't that count as me getting beat up also?"
If this is your way of trying to cheer me up, Oz, it's not working.
Hazel brought them through another of the disgusting portal doorways and, to Oscar's shock, the room the Lamp was being held in.
He tossed him on the ground, which hurt a lot also.
"Why did you bring me here?" Oscar asked...though he'd guessed.
"I've been thinking about what you said," Hazel said. "If you're lying, and I take that lie to Salem, the punishment will fall on my head before yours... If you're telling the truth, then I don't know what happens when this thing activates... There's only one way to know."
"You want me to summon her?" Oscar said.
"Whatever happens, I'll know," Hazel said.
"What are you guys doing?" Emerald came into the room
Oscar hadn't gotten a good look at her before, and his vision was a little blurry right now...but she seemed more nervous than hostile.
"I...uhhh," he faltered.
"We'll find out," Hazel said.
Oscar swallowed and then said, "Jinn?"
Jinn appeared in a cloud of blue smoke.
"Hello again, Old Man." She looked at him.
Oscar wished she wore clothes...but right now that was the least of his worries.
"Do any of you have a question?" Jinn asked.
"No..." Hazel looks stunned. "I think my questions have all been answered."
"Holy s---," Emerald said.
"Sorry...no, I just needed to prove something," Oscar said.
"I really don't like this," Jinn said. Then she peered at him. "Something's different about you though... What have you been doing, Oscar?"
Did she just call him by his actual name?
"I... You don't know?" Oscar said.
"Is that your question?" Jinn asked.
"No," Oscar said. "Sorry."
"How is that a real question?" Emerald asked. "And what could he have been doing that you wouldn't know? I thought the Lamp knew everything."
"Is that--" Jinn began.
"No!" Oscar said.
"You know, I don't have to let you pick and choose," Jinn said. "But since I'm in a good mood, I'll overlook it."
"Just...uh, can you go back?" Oscar didn't like to tempt fate here.
"Can I--" Jinn began.
"Go!" Oscar was a little short tempered after what he'd been through the last few hours.
Jinn raised an eyebrow in surprise and vanished in a puff of smoke.
"That was weird," Emerald said.
"Uh...can I ask why you're here?" Oscar asked.
"I...uh..." Emerald faltered. "I kind of overheard what you guys said."
"You're going, right?" Hazel said, like it wasn't even a surprise.
She was silent, but then she nodded.
"Right...you two go first. I'll come back for the Lamp," Hazel said. "Once we remove it, she'll know; better if you get a head start... You're in no shape to run for it."
Who's fault was that? Oscar thought saltily, but there was no helping it now.
"I'm stunned that this worked," Ozpin said.
Who knew telling the truth would actually get us somewhere? Oscar shot back. But Emerald is a surprise.
"Come on, this way." Emerald motioned for him to follow her.
That Oscar could walk at all was shocking at this time, and every step hurt.
"So...it's just you, right?" he said in a low voice.
"Yep, just me and Hazel." Emerald looked down. "The others wouldn't quit...and Mercury got taken to Vacuo...by Tyrian, so..."
"That's..." Oscar wanted to say "not good" but then stopped.
"Yeah." Emerald seemed to guess. "Freaks me the frick out too. But I can't worry about him right now. He'll keep his head down. He'll probably be fine. Anyway, why should I care?"
"I get the feeling you do," Oscar said.
"Hey, kid, I'm just escaping with you. Don't think you can get all fresh with me." She shot a him warning look.
Oscar didn't find her that scary, but his head was pounding too much to really make sass worth it right now.
"Right..." he said.
The floor spun a little.
Maybe his adrenaline rush was petering out.
"Oh, great," Emerald said as he wobbled. "You aren't going to make it out of here, kid. The Grimm will eat you up like a cookie."
"Thanks..." Oscar said faintly.
Emerald tentatively took his arm like he was a snake. "All right...since you're kind of important, I guess I'll help, but this is a one-time thing. After that you're on your own."
Oscar was in no place to argue.
Somehow she got him probably at least halfway out the whale thing...
Someone rushed by them.
Oscar looked back. "Mr. West?" he said.
"What the h--- was that?" Emerald frowned.
Wally turned and came speeding back.
"Oscar!" he said. "Oh, thank God, you're alive!--oh, the minty-green girl is here too... What's your name again?... It's like this green thing, right?... Emerald? Right, Emerald, like the Emerald City."
Emerald stared at him like he was a talking animal. "Uhh...."
"Mr. West, how did you get here?" Oscar said.
"Hey, it's no big deal," Wally said. "Time to explain--"
He turned, and one of the Seers was in their way.
"Hush up." Emerald put her hand to her head.
The Seer passed them.
"I gotta get you two out of here," Wally said.
"No, wait," Oscar said. "Get Hazel instead. Get him and the Lamp. With your speed we won't need to worry about Salem finding us first. We can just run for it. We're almost out, right?"
"Yeah, just up that way." Emerald pointed. "If you're fast, get the dumb Lamp, then come get us."
"Uh...if you say so," Wally said. "Who's Hazel? Is he the angry, big guy?"
"Yeah," Oscar said. "He's on our side now."
"Okay, cool," Wally said. "I'll find him--wait, is the scorpion dude here?"
"No, he's not, but Salem is," Oscar said.
"Right, she'll never see me coming." Wally looped around. "Gosh, this place is disgusting though... Ew...is that membrane?"
"Don't look at it, just go," Emerald said.
"Right, chica." Wally ran.
"What did he just call me?" Emerald said.
"I have no idea," Oscar said. "But if he's here, I bet my other friends are too. We're saved."
"I thought I was doing fine..." Emerald muttered.
"I meant that we have help coming." Oscar tried to walk fast.