Emerald and Mercury lost Vara along the way when she suddenly stopped following them and took off on her own.

She ignored their cries for her to come back.

They tried to run after her, but they not only did not catch her, they also lost track of where they'd left Jaune.

"Oh no," Emerald said.

The plant things snapped at them, but Mercury was able to fry several.

"You're getting good at that," Emerald noted. "I thought it would take longer."

"Used to focusing on one thing," Mercury muttered, sounding stressed. "Guess it was just finding the right thing."

[It actually makes sense that, with the hell his dad put him through, he'd have to be mentally tough enough to keep fighting back no matter what distraction was around, so switching gears to the Silver Eyes mindset was the hard part for him, not maintaining it. Ruby was a much less focused character initially, so it took her longer. It would be reasonable that not all Silver-Eyed Warriors are the same.]

"We're lost," Emerald said after a pause.

"Yeah... I'm going to get a higher vantage point," Mercury said. "Grimm be d----d, I'm sick of wandering around."

"Just watch your back then. They're still up there." Emerald held up her Thieves' Respite.

"Like I need to worry about Grimm." Mercury tried to play it off cool. He climbed onto one of the rocks.

Emerald tried to watch the sky line behind him.

She forgot to watch her back.

Suddenly something or someone grabbed her around her mouth so that she couldn't scream and yanked her behind the reflective rocks.

Emerald thought it was one of the team who'd lost their minds under the Grimm, but instead it was so much worse.

Tyrian shoved her into the rock and put the end of his tail on her windpipe so that she could hardly breathe.

"Shh." He held up his finger to his lips. "Not the time for screaming just yet."

What was he doing here? Emerald thought frantically. Why wasn't he with Salem?

Unless she sent him... She must have... to kill someone.

Why hadn't he just poisoned her then?

Then she knew.

"Em?" Mercury's voice called. "Where did you go?"

She heard him jump down. The rock edge must have hidden them from view while he was up there.

"Oh, lookee there. Your guardian is never far away, is he?" Tyrian sounded much too happy.

Emerald attempted an illusion of a Grimm jumping at him.

Tyrian didn't release her when he took a swing at it, and then he knew it was a trick.

He pushed Emerald harder.

"Very clever, girl, but sadly that's not going to save you," he leered. "I've waited a long time to punish you naughty children for disobeying our goddess... She did say only one, but I really doubt she'd care if I did a little pro bono work." [Never use that phrase that way, Callows.]

"Hey!" Mercury came around the corner and saw them.

He held up his foot. "Let her go, freak!"

"Oh my, if it isn't the other traitor." Tyrian did not let Emerald go. "Fancy meeting both of you here. I'd almost be disappointed you're walking right towards us. But I'm too delighted to care."

"I said let her go." Mercury's eyes darkened.

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?" Tyrian jeered at him. "Those Silver Eyes of your won't help you against me, boy."

Mercury blinked in surprise.

"What? Did you really think we didn't know?" Tyrian said. "I can't say I was even that surprised. There was always that annoying, noble attitude on your side. Bah," he scoffed. "You children have no vision."

"I think my vision isn't destroying the entire world so that the gods can kill me," Mercury said. "Check your facts, Callows. Salem's only doing this to serve herself--it wasn't ever about making the world different."

"But of course," Tyrian said. "That's what you just don't see. Pure destruction incarnate is the only way!"

"You're a sick man," Mercury said. "The rest of us happen to like being alive."

"Life is overrated," Tyrian said.

"Then do us a favor and go jump off a cliff yourself," Mercury said. [I don't advocate telling people to do this, btw.]

"But I can't. I have a job to finish," Tyrian said.

Emerald gasped, but she began to slip her knife upward into gun form.

"Even if you think we can't take you," Mercury said, cautiously, "there's plenty of the group around here who'd love to take you out. You won't escape."

"But I will," Tyrian said. "They're all divided, and the goddess has provided some other distractions. I'll be long gone by the time they realize what happened. You can be sure Cinder will ensure that."

"Cinder?" Mercury said warily.

"Oh, yes, she's helping us deal with you vermin," Tyrian babbled on. "And now all that remains is to take a hostage. Salem has ruled that I needed one alive, regrettably. Now, back off and she'll stay alive."

"Why would you want Emerald? She's not the most powerful," Mercury said carefully.

Emerald got ready to pull the trigger.

"Oh--" Tyrian hastily grabbed her wrist with one of his hands and twisted her arm so painfully that she dropped her knife and bit her tongue.

Mercury stepped forward, but Tyrian held up his weapon and laughed psychotically. "It doesn't really matter which of you it is. Salem knows that your guides are too soft to let any of you die. And perhaps a small, weak one will be more appropriate. Just think how easy it would be to break her."

He squeezed Emerald's arm harder, and she felt tears prick her eyes since she couldn't scream instead.

Just run, Mercury, she thought. He's crazy. He'll kill one of us if he doesn't need both of us alive. Just go...

But Salem capturing her? That was a fate worse than death!

No no no!

Mercury knew perfectly well that he couldn't stop Tyrian alone, Tyrian was much faster than him and he didn't care about protecting anyone.

Also he knew Tryian would take more delight in torturing Emerald since she was so obviously afraid of him.

He didn't want to provoke him into killing her on the spot.

He lowered his hands and feet.

"I'm surprised you'd want to take her then," he said flatly. "Out of the two of us, I'm the more valuable hostage."

Emerald's eyes widened at him.

"Oh, you think so?" Tyrian said.

"Yeah, duh, I've killed more grimm than anyone else on the mission," Mercury didn't know if that was true, it had to be close though. "They need me. Plus Salem is after Silver Eyed Warriors, and, I sold you out. Why would you pass me up? Are you scared?"

"Of course not," Tyrian said. Eyes narrowing, but only like he was interested. "Are you proposing a trade then?"

Emerald tried to shake her head.

If Salem needed someone alive, she would probably not die if she got taken, but if Salem wanted a Silver Eyed warrior... would she pass up a chance to use one?

"I'm not scared of you, bug man," Mercury said. Which was not really true. "We both know you don't really care who it is, but Salem would be a lot more pleased with you if it was a super valuable hostage, wouldn't she?"

"You assume a lot about your worth," Tyrian sneered. "but it is true that the queen would be pleased with a Silver Eyed warrior... You'd come willingly?"

"If you let Emerald go," Mercury hoped this wasn't taking too big a chance that Tyrian wouldn't just stab her as soon as he had their guard down.

Tyrian's hold on Emerald's throat loosened.

"No!" She choked out. "You can't do this!"

Tyrian knocked the other gun out of her grasp and kicked them both aside.

"Deal." he said.

He let Emerald fall, she stumbled forward, coughing and rubbing her throat.

"Well, come on, prisoner," Tyrian held out a hand toward Mercury. "Or do you plan to try to run?"

The grimm plants suddenly snapped behind them.

Emerald was worried that they would hem them in... they all worked for Salem after all... All the grimm did... there would be no way to run from Tyrian, they'd get crushed as soon as they tried. He must have known that.

"I want her to get a head start first," Mercury must have seen it also. "No grimm attacking."

"Well, that isn't really up to me, but if you want to try," Tyrian waved his hand dismissively. "Get moving girl. Don't try to be a hero, it's not your strong suit."

"No, no I won't let you do this!" Emerald cried. "You know what she'll do to you."

"Well, it's not your decision," Mercury said. "I can handle it."

"No way," Emerald snatched up her knife.

Tyrian smirked.

"Can we have a minute to talk about this," Mercury looked at him. "I'll bring her into line."

"Oh, take all the time you like, but just know if either of you tries to go back on this, well, I can find another prisoner and kill you both, or they will," Tyrian nodded upwards.

Some of the grimm were already perched on the rocks.

Mercury put Emerald a little further away, though they were not out of line of sight of the creep.

"I'm not going to," Emerald insisted. "You can't do this for me!"

"It's not just for you," Mercury said, grabbing her shoulders. "If he drags you to Salem, you'll crack. You know you would."

Emerald bit her lip. She was... not strong under duress.

"Maybe it's not your fault Em, but you're never been good under torture," Mercury said. "I've lived it, I can handle whatever she throws at me. I make more sense. I won't tell her a d--- thing."

"There are worse things than being tortured," Emerald said.

"You're not that far from her house, I figure you'll get her before she can do that much," Mercury was definitely bluffing about that. "She'll not be that ambitious with that little time. This way we know what's up. Callows won't let us both go, no way, he wants one of us traitors, he'd love that. And I make more sense."

"You make less sense!" Emerald said. "And beside that, I can't..." She paused.

"You can. You have to. It's not your choice." Mercury insisted.

"Not that you idiot, I can't lose you!" Emerald hissed. "Not now! Don't you get it? I need you alive!"

Pause.

Mercury was honestly too shocked to know what to say.

Then he sighed. "Well I need you alive, so you're just gonna have to stay that way. You have to get out of here. You can, you're resistant. Get help. It's been too long not to finish this."

"You never even believed that we could do this..." Emerald had tears going down her face by now.

"Maybe I've changed my  mind about that. Something got us this far. I'm not one for faith, but... well something's worked, hasn't it? Call it what you want, don't you buy into it? You're not going to wimp out at the final stretch are you?"

"But this is... no I'm sick of people defending me and me being the helpless one," Emerald said.

"Tick tock, tick tock," Tyrian called.

"Will you shut it? We're almost done!" Mercury snapped at him.

He shrugged menacingly.

"We can't bat this around, I'm going and that's final," Mercury said. "If you're so worried, you'll just have to bring them and come after me."

He tried very hard to manage a cocky wink... it wasn't that convincing.

Emerald knew she couldn't change it, not single handedly. If she tried, they'd both be more than a match for her. And the grimm made it impossible.

She hated agreeing with every fiber of her being, but she nodded slowly. "I'm going to bring them after you then. You'd better not die before we catch up."

Then, since she was past caring about it being awkward, she reached up and kissed him quickly.

Mercury was more surprised than before. "What--?"

"Oh just kill me," Tyrian saw. "That does it!"

He yanked Mercury away.

"You two lovebirds enjoyed your goodbye I hope, because it's, well, very unlikely you'll both be in one piece the next time we meet," he snickered. "Come along then, Black."

Emerald shivered.

"Get going," Tyrian told her, holding Mercury back with his tail. "The grimm won't wait forever. Oh, and you want to know a little secret?"

He leaned forward slightly. "This was what I wanted all along, you were just bait. And you played your part so beautifully. Go on now, save your own skin."

Emerald felt sick.

But she reasoned that if she found someone else fast, they might be able to intercept Tyrian before he got to Salem, she shouldn't waste the head start.

She took off.

The grimm didn't chase her right away... it was as if Salem herself was looking right at Emerald and making her feel small.

"I knew you'd come into line," Tyrian yanked Mercury after him roughly. "Salem would love to have a chat with you, traitor. Especially about those eyes of yours. She'll be very pleased indeed. But I am almost disappointed you denied me the fun of forcing you to come."

Mercury made no answer to him, just glared furiously. But any response would only egg the monster on.

He really thought the grimm had more mercy, at least they just ate people without taunting them first.

https://youtu.be/8LvT-_zz_go

[Thought this would work again here. Running up that Hill AMV by Holy Schneet.]

* * *

Wally found an exit finally that led them right out into the quarry and the plants.

The stony silence he and Shine maintained toward Cinder was dreadful for her, since it felt as if they might go off like a bomb at any moment.

Yet they were far safer than almost anyone else would have been.

It didn't take Shine long to figure out the team had split and fallen under the influence of Grimm, because she couldn't get a real bead on anyone.

They also noticed the mountain and wondered if it was a volcano.

"Well... what do we do?" Wally asked. "Those demon plants will make it hard to chase anyone down."

"That looks like Winter there." Shine pointed. "Or Weiss."

They could see the glyphs... but then the person using them fell. They also heard a shot.

"Someone..." Wally said slowly.

"I have a feeling Oscar is in trouble..." Shine said. "We might need to split up. Call it a hunch, but... do you think you can get to him?"

"I could go after the Schnees too," Wally said.

"I know, but at least that was closer. You'd save more time than me," Shine said. "Oscar is that way, I think." She pointed. "Follow the one down the middle... Ugh, I think they'll start saying 'feed me' any second."

"So they do represent ego," Wally said.

Shine glanced at him and then nodded. "It's risky to split up, but... I fear what would happen to them if we wait."

"Then we better not wait. This is our team. These stupid Grimm aren't going to take it," Wally said.

"Babe, careful about saying things possessively right now," Shine warned.

"You don't have to keep telling me--" Wally broke off. "Right... sorry."

"It's... fine," Shine said with difficulty. "We have to run..." She glanced at Cinder.

"Well, it doesn't much matter which of us you go with, but if you don't want to risk it after earlier, I get it."

Cinder would not let Shine think what happened had scared her.

"I don't care. I'll just follow you since you're heading straight ahead," she huffed.

More or less.

"You'll be fine," Wally told Shine. "It wasn't you."

"Frankly, that is not a comforting thought," Shine said. "What else could work through me is not something I want to find out. But staying here won't make me safer, so it's better not to think about it... I love you."

"Yeah, I love you too," Wally said, kissing her. "I'll see you in a few."

He hurried toward Oscar.

"I pray he gets there in time," Shine said. "Keep praying." She seemed to be talking to herself. "Can't focus on yourself as much then."

"You two are unbelievable," Cinder noted tightly. "The Grimm is poisoning your minds also, and you still want to curb yourselves to where you don't step on each other's toes. I would never worry about that if I was in danger."

"Your encouraging words are much appreciated." Shine was killingly sarcastic. "You want to stick with me? Let's walk."

She took off.

Cinder followed her.

"I didn't mean it was a weakness," she said, contriving to sound irritated though this was not really a cruel thing to say. "Your current bi---iness isn't quite the change of pace I was looking for."

"Nothing pleases you." Shine sounded pissed off still. "If we're good, you resent it, and if we're bad you find it annoying. Nothing will ever please you because you can't please yourself."

"How do you still manage to lecture me even when you're infected by Grimm!?" Cinder was just astounded.

"How do you manage to be what you are no matter what?" Shine retorted. "Do you have a point to this or are you going to distract me again?"

"If you had it in you to kill me, you would have before," Cinder said. "Admit it, you can't do it."

Shine suddenly turned and slammed her into the reflective rocks using her sword.

Cinder gulped.

"Cinder, I am hanging on to my self control by one thread," Shine said in a voice that scared Cinder far more than the action did. "I was given grace to resist the pull of the Grimm, but if you keep pushing me, I'll need more grace still, and it's hard to ask for grace where pride is concerned. I'd love to smack you around some more right now, but I know that's not me... Keeping that knowledge at the front of my consciousness is imperative right now. I don't want to regret something I did later, when the Grimm is passed. It has taken years of training to get me to where I can know that at a moment like this. So if you don't mind--" And here she used the tone people do when they're warning you not to push them one second further. "--keep. Your. Dang. Mouth. Shut. And screw off."

Cinder swallowed.

Shine let go and stepped back.

Anger suddenly filled Cinder's mind that was overpowering.

"How dare you threaten me?!" she burst out.

Shine whirled around, perhaps to hit her again, but something else beat her to the punch.

The plant behind Cinder's head, for there was one on every piece of a rock, one of the large ones, struck out and stuck its stalk into Cinder's chest.

A feeling of pure, hard, confidence filled Cinder almost to bursting.

At the same time, her Aura began to be drawn out of her body.

Cinder almost laughed.

Shine stopped short of hitting her and stared at the plant in horror.

"The Black Mercy?" she said strangely.

[She's referencing both an issue and an animated episode of the Justice League. An alien plant was used there that was part of the inspiration for how these Grimm work. The plant fed a person a simulation of their heart's desire, to the point of killing them by keeping things frozen in place till they'd waste away. The only way to stop it was to pull it out of them. Which broke their hearts.

The catch was it created a world where you were responsible for nothing in your life except doing exactly what you liked with who you liked. No hardship... and no heroism or self sacrifice was possible. So to get out, you had to sacrifice the dream itself. Good metaphor for pride also.]

Shine had no way of ascertaining if this plant worked the same, but she wasn't going to take that chance.

She hit the stalk with her sword.

She didn't cut it--Aura was protecting it--but as Shine had been able to break Aura before, she did at least stun it a bit.

It pulled back, letting Cinder go for the moment, and quivered in a very disturbing way like it was sensing something.

Cinder blinked.

"Hey!" she said.

Then she realized she felt exhausted and fell to the ground.

The plan shot the stalk at Shine, and she deflected it with her sword. It shot itself so fast, she barely moved in time, but somehow she did this a few times in a row.

Then the plant seemed to be breaking itself on the sword itself, and suddenly it turned to smoke.

Shine laughed oddly. "So much for pride..."

"Then destroy them all," a voice in her head said. "You can."

Shine didn't hear it as if it was her own voice, quite, like the others. Illusions didn't work on her the same way.

She thought about it--but then she shook her head. "Waste of time... no one could take these all on at a time like that... Shut up."

"Who are you talking to?" Cinder pushed herself up. "What are they?"

"Evil venus fly traps/alien plants," Shine said. "Stay away from them. Something you said or did must have triggered it. Of course you would, you--" She broke off and covered her mouth.

One of the other plants opened up, but didn't shoot yet.

Cinder stood up.

"Oh, go on," she said. "I'm what? Just because you're a little more immune doesn't make you better than me! You have an unfair advantage."

"Silence, you idiot!" Shine hissed.

Too late, though. The plant shot at Cinder. It would have been funny if it wasn't so terrifying.

Shine pushed her out of the way before she could even realize what was happening.

The plant struck Shine in the chest.

Shine screamed--because while she felt the same soaring pride as the others had, somehow it scared her also. She knew it was a feeling that she discouraged in herself.

"No, no, let me go!" she screamed at the plant. "Lord! Mercy!"

Cinder gaped at her.

Then, to her astonishment, the plant suddenly shriveled up on its own like someone had cut off its roots.

It turned to smoke, and Shine stumbled back, then fell on her backside.

She looked as young and scared as one of the teens right then. Her eyes were huge.

"That was awful," she said strangely. "I could feel it infiltrating my entire body! Is that what the others were like? How terrible! Did I judge anyone for succumbing to them? Forgive me."

"Stop babbling," Cinder said. "We're much too close to them."

She struggled to get farther away, but there was another one behind her.

Shine rubbed her chest and got up, then she looked towards the mountain.

"I think that's the way Winter or Weiss are, and I have a feeling... the same things are over there... I can sense it now... the same feeling that was inside that thing, it's all over... It's like that opened my mind to it for a second... I can just sense the stench of it."

"Is that good or bad?" Cinder couldn't tell with her.

"It's unpleasant, but one thing--it's now very clear to me," Shine said, biting her lip nervously. "So let's use it. Hurry, try not to think. They seem to be attacking when you're in a moment of arrogance."

She started to run.

Cinder had nothing to do but run after her.

The plants didn't shoot after them now. What happened before seemed to have warned the others, or the women were moving too fast for them to get a bead on any prideful thought they had. Or they just had none.

"Maybe it wasn't just arrogance." Shine was considering it. "I think it was more offense... like bait. Insulting each other only makes it worse."

"You... actually took a hit for me back there," Cinder realized suddenly. "Why would you do that? You hate me."

Shine cast a look at her like she was stupid. "I want to be the kind of person who protects people because it's what should be done. I'm not in the habit of leaving them to their own sins. I try to be like my Master. Do you have a problem with that also?"

"No..." Cinder lowered her voice. She was tired.

"What is it now?" Shine asked.

"It drew the Aura out of me," Cinder said, going very white. "I think running and resisting it has used up nearly all the rest."

She fell over.

"No you don't, not now of all times!" Shine cried. "Get up."

She yanked Cinder up. "I didn't just save you to have you pass out now."

She jabbed her with the tip of her sword, which felt like fire.

Cinder sat up, gasping.

"Maybe that knocked the Grimm out of your head," Shine said.

Cinder blinked. "But I'll never get away from it."

"We will by the grace of God." Shine waved her hand. "Get up."

"No...not with this." Cinder put her hand on her Grimm arm. "She's always going to be able to find me.... It's already in my head."

https://youtu.be/uEarzUxnU9A

[Using this again because it fits. "Monster" AMV by Fancy.]

"That it is," Shine agreed. "I warned you about that."

"Take it off," Cinder said.

Shine didn't think she'd heard her right.

"What?" she said, puzzled.

"This..." Cinder patted the arm. "You said--"

"It would hurt," Shine said. "And I can't just cut it off and stop the pull. The Grimm itself has to come out. Deeper than what Victoria did."

"But you can."

"Of course I can, but it could take several tries to make it permanent," Shine said. "And you'd have to want it."

"I want to be free!" Cinder spat out. "As long as I have this, Salem can make me do anything! How can I stop her like that? And the Grimm invade my mind so easily!"

"Because it's already in there," Shine said. "It never had to invade it, period."

Cinder didn't like being told this.

"Well then, take it out!" she said.

"Cinder, it's in your soul, not just your mind," Shine argued. "What do you care about your soul? Only God can heal that. I have authority to remove that Grimm, but I can't change what you are. Or anyone else. That is a choice we must make, asking for that. In the end, it might amount to little to try if that change is not there."

"Even for a short time, it would do something. I thought you wanted this! Now I'm suggesting it, and it's a bad idea? Just because it's me asking, is that it?"

"That would be a reason not to, usually--" Shine stopped.

Then she looked up.

"All right, fine," she said. "But I want to find the person who got hurt."

"I can't keep going like this. Just do it quickly," Cinder said.

"I don't know if it can be quick."

"You can try!" Cinder almost yelled, but it was more desperate than furious this time.

Shine was really just stunned that Cinder was urging her to do this at all.

But perhaps she saw the wisdom of not kicking a gift horse in the mouth, and resolutely she bit her lip, then sliced her sword through that arm... at the root.

She also told the Grimm to leave Cinder.

The pain was excruciatingly worse than anything before, but somehow not quite the pain that Salem caused--and not quite like pain of torture.

It was more like what it might feel like to rip off a bandage and disinfect a wound, but sharper.

The arm seemed to burn up in a searing fire that wasn't visible.

The pain did clear Cinder's head, though.

And it seemed to give her an adrenaline boost. She got back to her feet.

"Huh... that took less than I thought..." Shine was surprised. "It was ripe for removal, I guess... Perhaps you'd already started to resent it more than you thought."

Cinder didn't know what to say to that.

Shine didn't spend any more time assessing it. She raced towards the mountain.

Just a few seconds later, they saw Winter fleeing from Ironwood and Glynda.

The sight of both of them stunned both women equally.

"This is not possible!" Cinder cried. "How did they find us?"

"They never gave up after all," Shine realized. "This must have been James' plan from the start... How did I not see that coming? I thought he might follow us, but that he'd think to lie in wait like this..."

"Oh, berate yourself for not figuring out that one tiny detail later. He must be here for the Relic."

"Well, duh." 

"I'll just--" Cinder began to make fire.

Every plant within a 20-foot radius suddenly turned toward them. [Yikes.]

Shine shoved Cinder's arm down.

"Don't," she said.

Cinder put out the fire.

Shine shook her head. "Clearly those things want the Maidens also. Magic and pride are perpetually close to each other. Crap! James is faster than I am, and so is Glynda. You're not much good fighting without magic."

"Excuse me?" Cinder said.

"Unless you can make a glass wall or something," Shine said.

Cinder formed a glass spear in her hand with an irritated look.

"I believe trapping James is the more effective plan," Shine said. "I might be able to if Winter cooperates with me. If you can get Glynda immobilized, since a tap is not going to work--do not kill her. I don't want any more bloodshed because of this hideous Grimm."

"You're not going to like this, but they're only here to get those Relics at all cost," Cinder said. "Do you think they'd spare us? They are not on your side anymore. Cut your losses."

"Glynda is just doing what she thinks she must for Ozpin," Shine said. "I wouldn't judge her so harshly. James is mad, but we couldn't kill him if we wanted to--he's too metal. Best to just get away if we can and let a better fighter deal with him once he follows us. Are you going to trust me on this one, or shall we squander what little time we have bickering about it?"

Cinder gritted her teeth. "Fine."

* * *

https://youtu.be/H80R8AI6MsY

["Vertigo"--Alice Merton. There should so be an amv to this. I thought it fit Winter in this part.]

Winter did not shake Ironwood or Glynda, but the plant things did slow them down.

However, they didn't try to catch them that hard, as if they were being told not to.

Winter wanted to find help, but, by Salem's design or by bad chance, she hadn't found anyone else yet.

It was also questionable if they'd help if she did. They'd all pretty much left off teamwork except for the few mentioned already.

So much exposure to the pride Grimm, or Faustus as Theo had called it, also was bound to take its toll. Winter had resisted thanks to her burst of grace, but she was too close to them for that to last.

She ended up landing next to one rock, and her reflection began to speak to her.

Actually more than one did.

"Come on, Schnee, get yourself under control," her own voice seemed to say. [I completely buy she'd call herself Schnee in her mind.]

"Run that way," said another reflection.

To Winter it seemed they were all the same. It was making her dizzy and disoriented to listen to them. Somehow she didn't know which way she was going or what... just that she had to do something!

The pride trap was less effective on her, perhaps, if it was trying to get her to become violent, but it was just as petrifying this way.

However the plant didn't snag her, perhaps because she'd not taken offense to anything.

This gave Glynda and Ironwood apt time to catch up, however.

"Give up," Ironwood said, cocking his gun. "You're tired, Schnee. Stand down."

"Please," Glynda called. "This is pointless."

Winter looked up at them.

Anger surged up inside her.

"You fools!" she cried. "You don't understand what you're doing!"

The plant began to uncurl... but then stopped.

This anger wasn't actually from pride--yet. Winter was genuinely aghast at what they were doing because it was dangerous.

"I think I'm the only one who does understand," Ironwood said grimly.

Winter thought the worst of it was, really, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between Ironwood before and him if he was being influenced by the Grimm... and that gave her strange thoughts.

"Please..." She held up her hands. "Just listen for a moment."

"Drop the Relic," Ironwood said.

As if on cue, the plant behind Winter suddenly shot out its tongue.

But instead of her, it latched around the Relic instead, to her horror.

It yanked it over to itself so hard she was pulled off her feet and then dropped as it came loose.

The plant then shut tight with the sword inside it.

"Oh..." Winter said in horror.

Ironwood reached for the plant, to tear it open, probably.

Winter sprang up and blocked him with her swords.

He threw her aside easily. Even if he hadn't been much stronger, she was already weak from the Grimm.

Ironwood shot at the Grimm, but this didn't seem to harm it much. Strange, since the blows from the others had hurt it more... Ironwood probably didn't carry their same power, however.

The Grimm began to retreat, actually moving, like a crawling vine.

Glynda attacked it with her powers, trying to pry it open, but it only twisted tighter shut.

"You're only making it go farther away!" Winter said. "Stop attacking."

"Be quiet," Glynda said, pushing herself up and attacking again.

"I said to stop!" Winter thundered in a different tone.

For a second she caught them off guard.

They looked at her angrily.

"How dare you speak to me that way!" Ironwood said.

Immediately one of the plants shot out and caught him--oddly enough, it really shouldn't have been able to latch onto his chest, but it seemed to find the one part not covered by metal and hooked on.

Winter didn't have time to ask herself what the plant was actually doing--she rushed at the one with the Relic.

Glynda blocked her path.

"You can't really think you can take me," she said.

"Another moment and I won't have to!" Winter almost screamed at her in desperation.

"You impudent little girl," Glynda said. "Don't you understand? You're so naive. We are the guardians. You are just someone who happened to inherit those useless powers--" One of the Grimm snagged Glynda and yanked her towards it.

Winter gritted her teeth.

"Serves them right," that voice said.

It did, really... She tried to warn them. No one ever listened to her.

Winter suddenly stopped midstep, head pounding.

That didn't sound right... No...no, something was wrong.

What was she doing? The Grimm were the enemy... right?

She turned from the Relic for a moment and plunged her sword into the base of the one that had just snagged Glynda.

"Let them go!" she cried.

The plant made a hissing sound like it was in pain--or it was angry--and then burst into smoke.

Glynda was dropped like a rag doll, the Aura already half sucked out of her.

Winter turned toward Ironwood.