All of them paused to crane their heads strangely at the bandit.
"Do you mind?" Mercury asked saltily.
Emerald wanted to kick him.
"Can we help you with something?" Royal asked the bandit amiably, though it was sardonic.
"You people are all crazy." The bandit acted as if they'd offended him. "Aren't you afraid? This isn't some campfire tryst here. Maybe you shouldn't be so d--- cheerful. Like you plan to fricking hug it out later. It's disgusting. You all make me sick."
Despite the spew of venom, even Kate didn't really believe he was being honest.
"What do you care, Clyde?" Esmeralda called, not very worried, so they took it this was not one of the worst of the tribe. "You'll get your reward whether we're crying or not, unless you just like seeing people cry."
One of the other bandits snickered and got dirty looks for it.
"Sure you should talk like that to him?" Cinder muttered.
"He's mostly talk," Esmeralda said, "without backup, anyway... But no, I don't know if I should. I guess all of you made me feel a little bolder for a moment."
"You shouldn't have taken up with the prisoners at all, Slave." Clyde seemed to be more irritated by the other bandits laughing at him. "If you kept your head down, not as much would happen to you."
"Easy for you to say." Esmeralda sounded almost bored now. "You don't have to live my life. You chose to join this tribe. I didn't get a choice. I really don't see why it's such a crime for me to want to leave. If my sister did not own your hearts and minds, maybe some of you would get tired of her ruthless ways too." She frowned downwards.
"Mala does not own us," one of the others spoke. "She owns you, maybe. Pathetic little worm that you are."
"Big talk," Cinder spoke up, "for someone who is freely provoking someone who is tied down. It's easy to be bold when you remove your enemies' power."
"That's just loser talk," the bandit replied to her snarkily. "Like all that other stuff you were saying to make yourselves feel better about losing to us. We brought you down because we're the better fighters."
"You didn't do jack," Mercury said loudly. "Your leader did. And we weren't saying that stuff to make any kind of impression on you, so why don't you shut up about it, go back to cheating at your little dice game, and leave us the heck alone?"
"Can you believe this guy?" said the snarky bandit.
"Well, he's right," said one of the others sitting down, dryly. "You are cheating. Skinflint!"
"Like you weren't cheating too, a--h---!"
"Only dumba---s get caught, moron."
"Shut up--" the snarky bandit took a swing at them.
A fistfight ensued that the other bandits ignored completely and no one else felt interested in.
Clyde just frowned at the heroes. "Mala will make you learn some fear. She won't stop until you do."
"That's good to know," Cinder sassed him. "We'll be here a while then."
"The scariest thing about her is that all of you seem to think she's all that," Royal observed. "Who's really the delusional one?"
"You're wasting your time," Kate spoke. "I tried begging them once. They don't care. They won't listen to reason either. Some of the others tried that. They're like brute beasts."
"Watch your tongue, girl," Clyde snapped.
"You're only bullying her because you're too scared of the rest of us," Mercury said. "All of you. Which you should be, granted. But we're not even your biggest problem."
"Mercury..." Emerald warned.
"Oh? And what does that mean?" Clyde said.
"I'd say that, with all the sins on your soul, your big problem is what happens whenever Leader Knife-Happy decides she's bored of you too," Mercury said. "The next life won't be too comfortable for you. But when you get to hell, you should tell them to make some room, because the rest of your decrepit tribe is coming after you pretty soon."
The fistfight was petering out, and the other bandits gave Mercury a strange look.
"You're full of it," Clyde said, but less certainly. "Anyway, you all didn't really mean all that crap about life having meaning and 'being content'. No one is content. Everyone wants more, always more."
His eyes looked weird when he said that, to those who could see him. Too desperate.
"I remember now," Cinder said. "One of you told me how it was. Always hungry, aren't you? Always empty. Always wanting more...that's what it's like when there's Grimm attached to you. Or magic, either. I know, I had it once. Nothing's ever enough. Still, you get to where you almost prefer feeling empty because you have no idea what you'd do if you ever felt full."
These words began to affect the bandits more than expected. The truth of the matter was, as Esmeralda knew, no one ever spoke of this in the tribe. It was taboo to admit to each other that the very reason they joined it at all, to get what they wanted, was only something they grew farther away from the longer they were in it.
Mala would have been angry or indifferent if anyone said it to her, and she had long ceased to notice in herself, how her own lifestyle contradicted her professed goals. The other members felt instinctively that it was dangerous to speak of it.
"Well, you're liars." Clyde grasped at whatever straw he could to avoid answering her or else being silent, which would have been admitting she was right in of itself. "You're not all happy. You even said it yourselves--no one is happy all the time. In fact, happiness isn't real. Just satisfaction, for a brief moment."
"That's disgusting," Mercury said. "And it's not true. You're just projecting your stupid mindset onto us because you can't grasp that anyone might have a different one."
"That one has a big mouth," said one of the other bandits. "That's going to get him killed soon here."
"He's already dead. He's got the weird eyes," said one of the others.
"Oh, right...forgot about that. Do you think that the hair is silver too because of that?"
"I can hear you," Mercury called. "And for your information, the hair has nothing to do with the eyes. Completely separate. Didn't stop that creepya-- doctor from taking samples, but sorry, no magic hair. So don't get any weird ideas."
"Mercury!" Emerald said.
"What?" he said. "They're pervs."
"Your mouth is going to get you beaten again before they even start on the rest of us," Emerald hissed. "Shut up."
"I'm ready to go any time they are," Mercury insisted.
"He truly is mad," Esmeralda said.
"Yeah, how do you put up with this guy?" Kate asked Emerald. "I mean...you're together, right?"
"Unfortunately, yes, we're kind of stuck together," Emerald said. "Tried to fight it, you know, but it was no good. But I can't take him anywhere--he's so embarrassing. We're, like, being tortured here, and he's still being a smarta--."
"That was easily the nicest thing you've ever said about me," Mercury said.
"Both of you, stop it!" Cinder said. "It's bad enough that we got captured and flogged already by our enemies, but I cannot take the added insult of you acting like this while we're just waiting for them to come back. It's not decent."
"Oh, and you care about decency now?" Mercury said. "And I suppose you and that other guy were doing nothing at all while you were waiting for us to find you?"
"Mind your own d--- business," Cinder said. "I wouldn't discuss anything like that in front of the enemy. You have no shame."
"All of you are nuts," Royal said, choking on a laugh.
"Really, you could have a little dignity." Hazel was in disbelief. "Considering the situation we're in."
"This is how we cope," Emerald said. "It's freaking weird, but I can't help it."
"I thought it was nice to have a distraction," Kate said.
"You know what, they're more funny this way," one of the bandits sitting down said. "I say we should just let 'em talk."
"Funny?" said the others.
"Sure, most of the prisoners are so dull, they just cry and scream and panic. Which is fun only for a few minutes, and then it's just annoying. These guys are like a standup act."
"Great, free post-torture entertainment," Royal said flatly. "Let me guess--if we do good, you throw stones instead of flowers."
The bandits started to laugh.
"What's happening?" Esmeralda was confused.
"you're not bad," Clyde grinned, though it was not a very nice grin. "Sometimes the smarter ones last longer, you know, for the kicks. But a word of advice, you better not start up with that philosophy stuff with the leader. Just makes her mad."
"She doesn't need our help for that," Cinder said.
One of the others laughed, and their fellows shushed them right away.
"Don't make fun of Mala," Clyde warned. "Good way to get killed."
"We're waiting to die," Cinder said. "But I guess I can try to do it better, if I listen to you. Does this conversation have a point? Because it seems to me that you're just bothered because most of what we were saying actually made way too much sense, and your own pathetic existence is completely meaningless--just like your boss's--without revenge and inflicting pain on other people who happen to fall into you hands. I don't need to be bothered with this back and forth of warnings and insults. I have better opponents than you for that."
"Dang, Cinder, hold back a little," Mercury said. "I can't really see you, but I'm guessing you're not in too good a shape by now."
"I'm just as fit as you are right now," Cinder said. "I already killed 4 bandits."
"2," Emerald offered.
"Same," Hazel said.
"No fair, I didn't get any because Emerald wouldn't let me," Mercury said.
"I thought it was because I was saving your a--," Emerald said.
"I'm 0 also," Royal said. "But the night's still young...or day... How long have we been down here?"
"Just one day," Clyde said helpfully. "Well, less for some of you."
"Clyde, don't make nice with them," said one of the others. "It only makes you get attached."
"I didn't think you people had any feelings," Mercury said.
"We don't have any feelings about prisoners," Clyde said. "It's like pigs, you see... Ever work on a farm?"
"No," Mercury said.
"Not one with pigs," Cinder said. "Non-human ones, that is."
Clyde just went on, "You see, if you name it, you get fond of it. That's the thing. Makes it hard to do what needs to be one. Same with prisoners. Having a favorite is a waste of energy since most of them just get fed to the Grimm sooner or later. Unless they catch Mala's eye, but that's her decision. It's not personal with all of you, except Fall."
"Oh, and what did I do to deserve such an honor?" Cinder was scathing.
"I'm Valean, originally." Clyde frowned. "You destroyed our home."
"And you've returned the favor to Menagerie," Cinder said. "What's your point?"
"Cinder," Emerald said.
"What? Did you expect me to apologize to this scum?" Cinder said. "I think we're past that point."
"I really don't get why you all have to keep grinding that axe," Mercury spoke. "The fact is if you could, you'd destroy Vale yourselves now, so what's the big deal? Isn't it just an excuse? Like picking on one person who did something to you, sort of, is going to make it okay that you pick on all these people who didn't."
"I'm not sure reasoning with them is going to work," Hazel said.
"I'm just pulling an Oscar," Mercury said. "I know they don't care, but I can't believe anyone is this stupid."
"You mean as stupid as we were, before," Emerald said.
"Yeah, can't believe that either," Mercury said.
"That's the funny thing about you people," Clyde said. "Except that one--" He meant Royal. "You've been just where we are. And you think you're so different now. Didn't you really just turn coward and give in to the system? Argus offered you a paycheck, and you took amnesty, and now that makes you heroes?"
"Shut up, you insolent fool!" Cinder lost her temper--and, really, that it had taken this long was impressive. "You have no idea what you're talking about!"
"For the record," Emerald said, "I switched sides before I got amnesty or a paycheck, and the heroes were still getting their a---s kicked."
"Me also," Mercury said.
"Technically, I switched sides before I got any rewards for it," Cinder said. "But I wouldn't say I was good then."
"I switched sides while literally fighting Salem," Hazel said. "So there wasn't much reward in that either."
"All of you are something else," Royal said. "Really making the Baba tribe look pathetic here."
"Shut up," Clyde said. "You're just a worthless Atlas elite. Some pampered prince, no doubt."
"Even here I can't get away from that nickname," Royal complained.
"Just embrace it," Cinder said. "If you were really a prince, they'd have to show some more respect."
"Not sure bandits are known for that," Royal said. "I guess I'd be held for ransom... Eh, my cousin wouldn't pay it though."
"It wouldn't matter--Mala banned the ransom practice once we started using new methods--" began one of the bandits, and the others elbowed them.
The heroes were wondering why the guards were still talking to them.
But all of them knew that Shine usually got people talking, and so did Wally, when he could manage to slow down enough to. And then they turned the tide...so maybe they should keep this going.
[By the way, I've heard that one of the ways police recommend you handle kidnapping is trying to humanize yourself to the kidnapper. This does not work with everyone, but there is a percentage of cases it works with because it's harder to hurt someone if you connect with them. I guess you'd have to read the room, but it does sound like that one Amber Run music video for "I Found" to me.]
"Can I just ask point blank: Why do you all work for her?" Emerald asked the bandits. "It sounds like hell. I've known her for one day, and I can't imagine it."
"Don't answer. It's a trap," said one.
"It's not a trap," Emerald said. "I'm not gonna tell her or anything. I just want to know."
"She asks everyone that," Mercury said. "Even me."
"You had a crappy answer, too," Emerald said.
"And you took a swing at me. What's your point?"
"I'd like to hear the story behind that," Royal said. "But not right now."
"Well, if you really want to know..." Clyde leaned on his sword...which made everyone who had proper respect for weapons cringe.
But after a few moments of what might actually have been thinking, Clyde shook his head. "I'm not really sure now... How long have I been in this tribe?"
"Been a few years, hasn't it?" said one other one.
"No, no, not for us...right?" said another.
"Maybe the others..." said a different one.
"I heard some of you," Emerald said, "not sure who, but some who said that, after they get those injections, a lot of people have hallucinations."
"Who told you that?" someone said sharply.
"Wait...that's not just me?" said a different one, with an air of relief.
"Wait...you too, Judy?"
"I thought it was just me," Judy, apparently, replied.
"Holy s---, that happens to me all the time," said the other.
"Get out," Clyde said. "It's freaking creepy, right?"
He shifted. "Everything goes dark, and you start seeing these monsters...only they aren't quite like the Grimm. They're different, but they're the same too."
"I just feel like the world around me dissolves and I'm suffocating in it," said Judy.
"Or like things are choking me," said the other, still unnamed. "But then I think it's all a dream."
"Yeah, no," Cinder said, distastefully. "That's the Grimm attacking your mind when your guard is down. And your body probably."
"Is that what it is?" Clyde said, like it was a new thought. "I thought it was the dope."
"Could be that too," Mercury said. "But here's a bright idea, maybe shoving Grimm into your body has side effects like driving people insane. Ever think of that?"
"Well...not till you said that..." the unnamed bandit said.
"It gets worse." Cinder was warming up to this. "It gets so that you can't think--you're just like a beast. And you fall apart when someone pushes that button. Just like what happened in Menagerie. And the bandits there, they found out that the Grimm shots you all use actually make the Deimos work worse on you. Probably all the other Mind Grimm too. It shattered their mind."
"You're bluffing," Clyde said.
"If you don't believe me, then why do you think Fina is the only one who did not come back?" Cinder said. "Didn't Sand say it herself? She couldn't leave. She snapped. That wasn't us, that was the Grimm."
"I remember Dolly," Esmeralda said. "She was nice at first...but they broke her. I never can stand to see the ones they do that to afterward. Makes me feel weird inside. She never talked to me either."
"That Faunus?" said Clyde. "I remember her." He rubbed his chin. "And you're saying that this all happened because of the Grimm use?"
"Does it take a genius to figure this out?" Royal asked. "Grimm=bad. A child would know that. Why would you ever start to think anything else?"
[I think the same thing about people who romanticize villains who abuse kids in anime.]
"But all of us already did it." Judy stood up, suddenly. "No one said anything about the side effects, except that it hurts, and it did. But all they said was it would let us control them."
"It's a lie. They control you," Mercury said. "They just let you think so. They always turn back against the person once they're not useful anymore."
"I've seen it," Cinder said.
"Yeah, all of you think we're out to get you," Emerald jumped in, "but we're really just trying to stop this mess. And we'd even have helped you get free of it, if you wanted. But you never even considered that maybe you were doing something crazy. I don't know if the Grimm here just suck out the power of your brains or what, but you'll be destroyed by them sooner or later, maybe even today, and we'll still be better off."
"But I don't want to lose my mind!" Judy grabbed her head.
"You're in the Baba tribe--too late for that." Mercury was brutal.
But Judy just started crying. It wasn't repentant crying, it was fear. "I didn't know any different. I didn't mean to! It's not fair! Why did they do this?"
"Get a grip, Collido." The unnamed bandit gave her a kick, but that didn't help.
[Collido is latin for hit or punch, among other words.]
"What if this is true?" Clyde said. "Our days could be numbered."
"Are you both serious?" said the unnamed bandit. "You're falling for this? They're just telling you that so you'll help them. They'll say they have the only solution and you need them. It's a set up."
"You're wrong there," Emerald said before he could get any further. "Because we don't have the only solution, exactly. We just know what it is. But it doesn't need us. It could work now. Even if we don't do a thing."
"Oh, you mean that spiritual stuff you talked about," the unnamed one scoffed. "That's nonsense."
"But apparently, using magic Grimm isn't it," Cinder shot back. "Why is it only nonsense if it's good?"
[I'd like to ask this of all the people who love supernatural stories if they're about witches and use magic crystals, but somehow think praying is superstitious nonsense. Where is the logic there?]
Well...the bandit had no response... There really wasn't one.
"All of you know it already, don't you?" Mercury saw their advantage here. "You can't have it both ways, can you? You can't say that what we believe in is stupid when you're using the dark side to fight and use other people. Just admit you picked the dark side. Aren't you all proud of it? You became one with humanity's worst enemies just so you could get ahead, big hurrah."
"Maybe we shouldn't make fun of them," Emerald said.
"I swear, are you real?" Esmeralda asked her.
"I just don't think it's funny," Emerald said. "I felt bad for us before, but I'm kind of realizing that I should feel bad for them. Still...who knows? Maybe we're here for a reason. Maybe we were supposed to meet and tell them this. Who's to say?"
"That's crazy," Clyde said.
"Well, everyone told Shine she was crazy for reaching out to Cinder," Emerald said. "But that turned out all right. And for reaching out to Salem too. So..."
"Shine never listened to that," Cinder said. "She's very stubborn."
"You two get along so well because of that," Royal said.
"Shut up." Cinder pretended that offended her.
It was interesting that they brought Shine up again there, because it was right after that a letter popped into the air.
This scared the bandits considerably.
Cinder had almost forgotten she'd sent the letter originally.
"What the heck was that?" Emerald asked.
The letter fell in front of Cinder's feet.
Clyde walked up to it and poked it with his sword. "Is this magic?"
"No, it's just a trick." Cinder was afraid he'd read it.
Rightly so, because he picked it up.
If Shine had written about the plan, it was all over.
Clyde opened it. "This is blank." he said.
"It is?" Emerald said oddly.
"See." Clyde turned it toward her.
"That's not blank," Emerald said. "I can read it."
"No, you can't," Clyde said.
"It's just blank to you, jackass," Mercury said.
"Oh yeah?" Clyde walked up to Esmeralda. "Look, Slave, is there anything written on this?"
Esmeralda peered at it. "I can make out something..."
"She's just lying to go along with them," the unnamed bandit said.
"Yeah, why don't you read it?" Judy said.
Esmeralda cast Cinder a wary look.
"Read it." Clyde poked her with the sword point.
Esmeralda swallowed. "Okay...uh...it's a little unclear, but it says: To the prisoner: I wanted to write to you to offer you some advice. I know we cannot speak plainly because of the circumstances, but I've been in your position several times, and I've found some things always help me.
"You'll recall our time with the Inventor and how I acted. That was not all bravado--it really does help to keep focused on the right things.
"I would utilize prayer, singing, and recall the holy book. All those things usually help me stay centered.
"I also have this thought that you may recall from before: We're not really the prisoners. However bad an outward prison is, it's easier to leave it than an inward one. It is the tribe who are prisoners. Bound up in their practices and their greed and their sins... I feel sorry for them.
"Yet even here, who knows? There could be a light. Sometimes it takes the deepest dark to shine the purest light, to use the words of a song.
"We will pray for you. And I know wherever your other friends are, they will too, even if they were to think it was too late.
"Keep your head up. Whatever they do to you, remember who you are now and what you've learned. Jesus suffered too, even to death, but He will not leave us alone to suffer, though I cannot promise that we will never have to die. But I believe we will not be alone.
"With love--Shine and Wally."
Esmeralda read this in some surprise.
Cinder was just glad Shine was smart enough to know that someone else might find this. While the letter was risky in of itself, it might be mistaken for something Cinder would have just brought with her, had everyone not seen it appear.
It had a different effect on the bandits than expected. Cinder thought they would get suspicious immediately, but their minds went a different direction.
"There is no way she made that up," Judy said, sounding scared. "It's not like her talking at all."
"And she wouldn't know to reference anything in the past," said the other.
"Why did...? But how could you see anything on this?" Clyde said.
"I think...it's the Grimm." Esmeralda was surprisingly smart. "It has to be. I'm the only one of us who has not been touched by it."
"That's so cool!" Emerald said. "I never knew that. I thought we had to have a bond to get the letters, but I didn't know we had to have a bond to read them too."
"Isn't there something in that book about a veil clouding the minds of people who deny the truth?" Royal asked.
[There is. 2 Corinthians 3:15. Though, to be clear, I'm not comparing Shine's word to the Bible, of course. It's just symbolism.]
"Then...I could be like you," Esmeralda said.
"Anytime," Emerald said. "You just have to ask."
"It's not possible!" Judy sprinted over to look at the paper. "But it is blank..."
A fear and dread seemed to fall on the bandits after she said that.
"Trapped!" Clyde began to say, in a ghostly voice. "Trapped. All of us."
"Are we marked for death?" Judy was crying all over again. "Is it true that we're already the Grimm?"
"You two are being ridiculous," the other guard said, but didn't sound very convincing.
"Will all of you get a grip?" Mercury cut in. "No one has to have the Grimm if they don't want to."
"They...don't?" Judy said.
"No, could knock those suckers out right now, if you want," Mercury said. "Especially if I could use my eyes, but there's no chance of that, I suppose."
"You wouldn't put a spell on us?" Judy said.
"Do we seem like we're under a spell to you?" Emerald said. "It seems more like you are. Snap out of it. What more proof do you need? Just let us do it. No strings attached, you don't even have to help us escape. I'd consider it enough of a reward to see it."
"It happened to Sand," Judy noted. "And she didn't seem off..."
"It's not enough to just get rid of the Grimm," Hazel spoke. "We all know, unless you ally yourselves with the right thing, the wrong thing just comes back to you, slowly perhaps. But here, it might not take long at all."
"That's true," Cinder said. "The Grimm did not fear me just because I got rid of my...appendage. Only after I really committed."
"You have to want salvation, not just to not be bugged," Emerald said. "I guess it starts that way though."
"I want it!" Judy cried, flinging herself nearly at their actual feet. "Before it's too late. You have to help me, please."
"It's not us who can," Emerald said. "It's a Divine Gift."
"A divine gift?" Judy said oddly. "I..." She looked upward...though, as all she saw was the cave roof, it was not an inspiring view.
"This Divine thing is going to come for us," Clyde said, though how he came to that conclusion, no one knew. He shook the paper. "It's already watching us, I can tell. We should have known when the others did not come back. When the Menagerie attack failed because of some mysterious storm! I knew that was no coincidence."
"Suppose there's an earthquake?!" Judy squeaked. "It could take us right down to hell."
Bandits were really excitable people.
But in this case, they were far closer to the truth than they knew. While it might not happen like that, what else would you call the influence of the Grimm?
"Can you ask for mercy for us?" Clyde asked Emerald. "We've heard that you're the merciful one."
Emerald shrugged. "I can...but shouldn't you be begging for yourselves?"
"Mercy," Judy said, putting her hands together.
"Have you lost your minds?" The other bandit was puzzled.
"Don't you see the meaning of this?" Clyde asked him. "It's too late." He shook the letter more. "We're all done for."
"I really don't see that," the other bandit said. "How could you be done for because of a paper no one can read?"
"I can," Esmeralda reminded them. "And I also want mercy... Perhaps even being in this tribe is in a way a crime, when you think about it...but at least I know it was not my choice. Still, I have been wrong most of my life too. I know what they were saying made sense."
"Hmm, like an echo," Mercury said. "They sound like you, Em."
"Thanks, I think," Emerald said. "Am I dreaming or is this real?"
"I don't think I could dream this," Royal said.
Judy sat up a little. "I see," she said slowly. "I've been running over what you said in my mind... The emptiness, the greed, the anger, it's all the same, isn't it? It's all just like the Grimm, and it wasn't just because of those shots. That's what you meant, right? It's not enough to just not want them...you have to not want to think like them either."
"Pretty much," Cinder said firmly.
"I've done nothing but take from people since I can remember," Judy said, looking at her hands. "Maybe I signed up for this because it was just that natural outcome... People get worse over time, not better, right? Everyone is selfish...and yet...I did not want to die... Please, I'll do whatever you say. Just...let this be gone. I'm so sick of my own selfishness... It's never ending."
She hugged her sides.
"I hate myself," Clyde echoed what she said. "Deep down, more than I hate anyone else. I'd never admit that to anyone, but it's true. I know I'm a monster now. How did I let this become what I am?"
"Tell me about it," Cinder muttered.
The other bandit just shook their head like they still thought the other two were crazy.
["Set Me Free"--Casting Crowns]
A very strange thing happened suddenly.
Judy and Clyde's Auras suddenly lit up brightly, brighter than any bandit's would have, Esmeralda thought. In fact, the bandits hardly ever activated their Auras anymore.
At the same time, the Grimm in each of their Auras became visible, like gross masses of roots...and at the same time, the roots started to shrivel up and pull away.
They both shuddered like it hurt, but the Grimm crawled off of them like gross parasites and onto the ground, then they suddenly lunged at Kate instead.
"Stop!" Emerald cried. "Now!"
The Grimm worms stopped.
"Ew...." Esmeralda gagged. "They're so gross."
Glass suddenly appeared in the air.
Cinder was straining.
Then the shards pierced the Grimm and they turned to smoke.
Cinder gasped, since that had taken a lot of effort, even though she'd had the longest to recover from the Aura drain. But trying to keep the injuries at bay had taken most of her efforts.
"That was...gross," Judy said. "But oddly, I feel strangely free now."
She sat up, smiling oddly. "They were kind of weighing on me..."
"I feel different." Clyde rubbed his head. "Sharper... What...what have we been doing?"
"I don't know," Judy said. "But it was crazy, whatever it was, I'm sure of that."
"NOOO!" a familiar voice thundered.
Everyone turned their heads, dreading seeing who they knew they were going to see.
Mala had returned sooner than expected.
She was gaping at them all, and her eyes were aflame. Almost literally.
"What is this??!!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "What do you thing you're doing?! You can't leave me!"
She stretched out a hand, and the Grimm on the walls lunged forward at the two bandits and grabbed at them.
They squirmed.
"And you?!" Mala rushed at Emerald like a panther. "How dare you?!" She hit her in the face hard. "You tempest, you doxy! You slut!"
[Whoa, tossing out the big insults there.]
Emerald looked up at her and then spit in her face.
From her, that was so surprising, the others were speechless.
"Witch," Emerald said darkly, "you just lost your hold on them because you're not as all-powerful as you think you are. Do what you want to me, but just know that there is One coming for you who you can't stop with the Grimm or with weapons, and you're going to die if you keep doing this."
Mala screamed in rage and raised her knife--but then she paused.
Whatever it was--maybe it was that Emerald radiated a power she didn't like, maybe it was she realized that she was making it seem like she was afraid of her...but she lowered her knife.
"I'll deal with you shortly," she said.
She turned to the other two. "As for you, you will be cured of this lunacy."
"No!" Judy cried. "You lied to us!"
"You used us," Clyde said. "And we let you, but not again. Never."
"I just saw what the end of this is," Judy added. "I'd rather die free than go down to tartarus!"
"You want to die?" Mala had a manic gleam in her eyes now. "That can be arranged! So you're afraid of the Grimm now, are you? Well, I guess there's nothing for it but to let them have you then. You know they like people who are afraid of them."
"What? No!" Judy cried.
"You'll be fed to them right now!" Mala raged.
"Hey, don't listen to her," Mercury called. "Grimm don't eat us. Don't turn back now. You were home free."
"Shut up, you vermin," Mala spat at him. "They'll know just how bad the Grimm are soon enough. And you will suffer for this once they do."
A glass knife appeared behind her and suddenly stabbed itself into her back.
Mala turned.
Cinder was breathing hard.
"Oh..." Emerald said strangely.
Mala pulled the knife out so easily it was somehow unsettling, and tossed it into the pole over Mercury's head, just missing him. Maybe on purpose.
"Nice try," she said, walking away as if nothing had happened.
[Uh oh.]