Shine was on point about the rescue party.

Wally had really thought getting through the Grimm would have been harder, since they were in their mistress' house.

But they were still afraid of him. If anything, the fact that this group had made it this far only made it worse, as if they knew how many monsters had been slain up to this point.

The few who were aggressive were made short work of by Neo, Cinder, and Emerald.

Theo had directed Wally the basic right way before they left. Mercury was in the north side of the castle, probably so that no one could have snuck in without Salem seeing them coming.

But Emerald and Neo kept most of the Grimm that were inside from seeing them.

Ren masked them from the rest who would smell them.

"This is too easy," Jaune said. "I mean, she doesn't have any extra traps?"

"If she did, we'd have fallen into them," Cinder said tightly. "She had to keep the castle itself mostly free from such things. Her magic runs through the entire thing, though. She can trap you anywhere in it."

"She'd have to see us first," Wally said. "I'm starting to wonder if I needed your backup after all, but finding the kid in there could still take a while."

They snuck in easily enough. The door wasn't locked.

Of course this was because Salem was allowing them on purpose so she could trap them.

Which Cinder pointed out.

"Why did you come again?" Jaune asked her tightly. "Is this some kind of trick? You want her to trap us in here."

"I've worked for Salem longer than any of you, except Hazel," Cinder said testily. "I've been to this place scores of times. If I say it's too easy, it's too easy."

"I don't remember Salem really telling us that much about it," Emerald said. "Why would she let us rescue Mercury?"

"The simplest answer to that is if someone else is here who she wants more, he was just bait," Cinder said.

"That is a good thought," Wally said, not sounding concerned about it. "But it's nothing to worry about."

"Why not?" Ren stopped walking. "She could want you instead. Any of us. What if she did just want to trap more of us? Why else would she allow us in here?"

"Relax," Wally said. "Salem might want to capture us, but whatever she's got to use against us is nothing--magic and Grimm. Remember what we've been kicking the butt of for the last week and months too? Just make sure I don't get caught in anything like a net or something, and we'll be fine."

"I think Salem could be more formidable than you expect," Cinder argued. "Even if magic is not as harmful to you as she thinks, she has a lot of Grimm specialized to do her will, and she can always make more if she needs a new one."

"I don't know what could really be a problem for us that we haven't already seen," Wally said.

"That maybe..." Jaune suddenly said, as they rounded a corner.

They found what looked like spider webbing all over this hallway.

"This is so cheesy," Wally said. "Like a haunted house at Halloween that has all the clichés. Is there gonna be a skeleton around that corner?"

"If there was, it would be a real one," Emerald said uneasily. "There were spider things in that... creepy volcano thing."

"I would think we'd have noticed something like that," Wally said. "A big spider is kinda hard to miss."

"Miss Malachite would have a field day with this." Cinder pointed to the webbing with disgust. "This was not here before, however. I'm sure if we touch it, it's some kind of trap."

"Like Indiana Jones?" Wally said. "Spikes will come out of the wall?"

"Maybe," Emerald said. "Or just Grimm..."

Neo looked around, then suddenly she made some motions and pointed behind him.

"What?" Wally turned around. "Oh... we don't have to worry about finding that spider after all."

The spider Grimm had either crawled down a wall or just appeared out of thin air behind them. It was even uglier up close.

It was also the size of a horse.

"Ah--!" Emerald almost screamed but Ren covered her mouth.

"Do you want every Grimm in here to hear you?" he hissed.

"Can it see us?" Jaune wasn't moving.

"Not yet." Ren still had his Semblance. "At least, not with its sense of smell... but if it can literally see us... it shouldn't attack us, however."

"So are we just going to stand here, or are we going to kill it?" Cinder held up her hand.

"Before you do that, remember how magic was kind of a problem for attracting those plants?" Wally said. "If you use it now, Salem might know you're here. A Maiden sneaking in here is going to make her mad."

"Then what?" Cinder snapped.

"You know, your problem, Cindy, is that you think the solution to everything is killing something," Wally said. "It can't see us. I say we just get the heck out of this hallway."

"But it's blocking us," Emerald said.

"Not if we go forward. Come on," Wally said.

"What? Through the webs? No, what if there's more of them?" Emerald said.

"We have to get to Mercury, Em," Wally said. "I'm not going to let a few Shelob relatives stop me... even if they're disgusting and I hate spiders. But if you think about it in a way, they're not even real spiders."

"Yeah, they're way worse," Jaune said.

"Just pretend like you don't see them." Wally inched forward and stepped over the webbing. "And don't touch any of this stuff."

Easy for Neo to do; she just sprang over it like it was nothing.

"I hate her so much right now," Jaune said.

"How unheroic," Cinder said tightly, stepping over the webbing as well as she could.

There was so much of it that this wasn't a light undertaking, and the more clumsy teens had to tiptoe around it.

The spider didn't budge. Whether it saw them or not, apparently it knew not to move.

Ren struggled keeping his Semblance up.

"If Salem knows we're here, where is she?" Emerald asked thinly as she stepped around another long strand of web.

"Shine's distracting her." Wally probably should have given more warning before he told them that.

"She's what?" Jaune squeaked.

"You didn't tell them yet?" Cinder said, nonplussed.

"I forgot about them not knowing," Wally said nervously. "Oops."

"Miss Likstar came here?" Ren said. "Why didn't she come with us? She's talking to Salem?"

"Yeah, so that Salem won't try to stop us," Wally said.

"But that's crazy," Emerald said. "Salem is going to know we're here. She'll blast Shine."

"I'm sure if that's true, Shine probably knew that," Wally said, trying to sound assured. "She'll not let Salem just take her down easy. I mean, she didn't before. Salem never put a scratch on her."

"I remember that she caught you," Emerald said. "If she could do that to you, she can do it to Shine."

"Shine is smarter than me." Wally had no issue saying this; he thought everyone was smarter than him. "I do jackass things sometimes, but she always has a backup plan. Don't you worry about her. This whole thing was her idea. You know she won't let Mercury stay here."

"So her plan was to blow our cover by talking to Salem so she knew something was up?" Ren said.

"Likstar always tells people her plans for stopping them," Cinder said. "I don't know how it still works."

"Because they aren't the kinds of plans that would be ruined if people know about them," Wally said. "Makes her different from Ozpin, doesn't it? If Salem knowing that we were here would change anything about Shine's idea, then she wouldn't have done this, but if Salem was going to know anyway, then Shine must figure that taking it head on is going to throw her off more. And maybe it will. Salem's clearly not as smart as everyone thinks she is. I mean, even Oscar and Emerald outsmarted her, and they're kids."

"That was a mess," Emerald said. "If Hazel hadn't helped us, we'd still have been doomed."

"Technically that's still outsmarting her, if you got Hazel to help," Wally said. "So don't sweat it. Now, if I know Shine, she'll talk Salem's ear off, trying to keep her from really using Mercury as leverage effectively till we can get him. If she can keep her guessing for a while like she usually does, we can get him out, and then Salem might try to use him, but it won't work. Then this whole thing is back on track."

"One problem with that," Cinder said. "You say I don't know strategy, and you might be right--"

What a thing for her to admit!

"--But I do know spite," Cinder said. "If you humiliate Salem like that, she'll never do as you wish. She'll want to get back at you."

"Huh," Wally said. "You think so?"

"I wouldn't," Cinder said. "If you did that to me, I would never do as you say. I would try to kill you more."

"But we did do that to you," Wally said matter of factly. "And you're still here."

Cinder blinked.

That wasn't the same thing, surely... It wasn't like they'd totally stopped her plans and made a fool of her...

Then she thought of how Shine had convinced her to abandon her plan to get the Relics till further notice, and then Pyrrha had done the same, and then Shine had caught her following them and talked her into joining this as if it was easy.

And how little fight she'd put up about it... Why hadn't she?

Even now she was still cooperating after Shine had just humiliated her yesterday!

The teens looked at her like they thought she'd fly into a rage, but she was just staring at Wally in bewilderment.

"What?" he said finally. "Was that a weird thing to say?"

"That's different," Cinder said aloud. "I knew I couldn't win that way."

"Yeah... but what if Salem knew she couldn't win that way either?" Wally said. "Shine always thought Salem would try to get an advantage over us if she could. She told me that before. She thought Salem would never want to work with us--she's too proud--but that we'd have to try to prove ourselves to her. What if this was part of that? All Salem's old tricks don't work on us usually. What if this one doesn't either? What would she do?"

* * *

After Shine broke out of the circle, Salem was a bit at a loss.

She raised her hands, and magic crackled in them.

Shine just stared at her.

Then she slowly held up her sword to deflect it, not as if she was that worried about it.

"Are you really going to do that?" she asked flatly.

"Is that why you came here? To mock me?" Salem said angrily. "To show how much stronger you are? Is that what you think is going to happen! I won't do what you want! Even if you were to escape now, I'll come back. I always do!"

"Isn't that the problem?" Shine said calmly.

Salem paused her rant. "What?" she said yet again.

[Take a shot for every time Salem has said that since Shine arrived. You'd be hammered by now.]

"You always come back," Shine said evenly. "Why do you think I didn't come here to threaten you? What good would it do? I could cut you into pieces, sure, but you'd only come back. And I'm not like you--I don't enjoy tormenting people enough to do it even if I know they'll come back to life. I find the whole thing rather grotesque. I don't want to fight you at all. I would win, certainly, but I don't want to win. You are not my enemy here. The gods are. They cursed you."

She moved towards Salem, which made Salem put up her hands like she might have to deflect it.

"I specialize in breaking curses," Shine said, still very evenly. "I also know that they drive people mad and make them do things they wouldn't normally do. I have no idea if what you are doing now is the curse or you talking. I think it's both. Maybe it's always been both, in a way. I've watched Ozpin's curse work for months, and I'm very sick of it. It breaks my heart to see what it does. But yours is... well, much worse. His almost seems like a nuisance compared to yours. You don't believe me, do you?"

"Believe you that Ozpin is cursed?" Salem said.

"No, believe that I didn't come here to threaten you," Shine said. "I only ever said that, if you'll recall. But you never once believed it. Because no one ever does come here except about your favors or your death, isn't that so?"

Salem began to feel off balance, and this also was a new feeling for her.

But Shine's effect on her was almost like weaving a spell, because it was so unlike anything she'd heard, it stupefied her.

"All anyone ever wants is to use you or to kill you," Shine repeated, slowly and carefully so that it would not raise any alarm bells. "So of course you don't trust me. Why would you? What makes me different from anyone else?"

Salem clenched her one hand with the magic in it.

"I wouldn't have come here in all this power and state if you'd left us alone," Shine said. "I prefer not to use force. And I don't intend to use it now. I can only defend myself if you attack me. But you don't need to attack me. You don't need to manipulate me for anything. I came here to offer you our assistance because we have the same basic goal. However, before I can do that, you have to be ready. We can take this curse... We can take all the curses off, in some way. But it's no good if the powers that are behind them can still reassert themselves. I can tell you how to stop them. That's what I was trying to do. But you have threatened me and my team again. It would serve you right if I let that be the end of the matter."

Salem frowned at her--there was an edge of fear to her anger, though, and Shine could see it. Like she was wondering if she'd just screwed herself over--again.

But Shine shrugged. "However, I did anticipate this. You are what you are, Salem. Human possessed by Grimm. And you will act as such. What do Grimm care about reason or fairness? You're afraid, and so you tried to get an advantage against us. I suppose I understand. I would have done the same thing if I were you. So, I'll let it go. We will take Mercury with us, and then this is what I'm going to do..."

She gestured around. "I'm going to forget this entire incident ever happened. It was just a hiccup. I have much bigger priorities than a grudge over a kidnapping and hostage attempt. After we take the boy away, I will return to you the next day, and I won't mention a thing about it. If you don't attack us further, I will take that as your tacit agreement with me that this whole things is best shoved aside in favor of achieving a higher goal. After all, I heard you say 'in pursuit of a new world, no cost is too great.' "

Salem didn't expect to get that quoted back at her.

She frowned again.

"You may believe that to admit this is me making a fool of you," Shine said dryly. "But if I were you I would not let it get in the way. As you yourself would say, freedom is more important than personal ties. And who is to say what would happen? I've seen two people raised from the dead since I got here. Death is not that final to me anymore in this world. It's almost not very permanent compared to my world. You're not going to intimidate people who've already resurrected two others."

Salem, if she could have gone whiter than she was, probably would have.

"However, this is not entirely on you," Shine said. "You didn't know after all. And I held that information back because I wanted to wait to discuss it in person. I hope you understand my attempt at civility was because I didn't want a misunderstanding to occur before we had a chance to talk. After all, it would have sounded like a threat if I told you that before. But it wasn't meant to be one. I thought you'd be interested to know what we can do differently than your noxious gods."

Salem clenched her other fist. Magic shot out in between her fingers but didn't even get far enough to make Shine have to back up.

"You haven't lost yet," Shine said. "I want to challenge you to win a different way. Set your wits against mine, that was my proposal. I didn't come here, as you seemed to think, to convince you to give up. Far from it. But I do believe you may be missing some critical pieces to your plan. I didn't think you'd pass that up no matter what your grudge against us is, because your grudge is going to stick around forever, but we won't, and it's better to get this over with, isn't it? I did hear a lot of complaints that I was risking all this on the chance that you can still reason that much, being part Grimm."

Here Salem looked offended again.

"But I was thinking that reason was still in there because I saw some signs of it," Shine shrugged. "I don't believe that you're pure Grimm yet. Though you'd like people to think so-- so much easier to intimidate them that way. But not me. The Grimm doesn't bother me. It's better for you if you're not one. A human can communicate with me, but a monster can't. And that being said, I beg leave of you to exit this room without further theatrics."

There was a dramatic pause.

Salem's employees would have sworn she'd never allow anyone to leave after a speech like that.

But the fact of the matter was that Salem had never heard such a speech in her entire life, and if Watts and Cinder had found Shine mystifying in her nerve, they at least had heard it before, but the sheer shock of it was even more effective here.

It infuriated a part of her, but it also was so mind numbing in another way. She had no usual response for this.

Ozma had never spoken to her like this. The man hadn't had a good protagonist speech in millennia, let alone a well thought out, persuasive argument about what to do.

Most of all, though, it was that Shine wasn't speaking to her like she was a monster. She spoke to her like she was a strategic ruler, an equal, really. No fear, no awe, and, oddly enough, no scorn now.

And this lack of any kind of emotion at all-- composed and confident was not a reaction anyone ever had in front of Salem.

For all these reasons, she might well be baffled about what to say or do.

The Grimm in her would have just blasted Shine anyway--but since Grimm also knew that they couldn't do much to Shine, even that idea wasn't looking too bright for her.

The human in her, buried amidst a lot of other things, would have resented Shine's impertinence, but was also not quite sure it could take her on anymore.

And maybe also... Salem had just enough humanity left to be curious still. She wasn't interested much in the way of men, but if they began to talk of the gods, well... she could hardly have been indifferent about that.

This hadn't gone the way she wanted at all. And as Salem didn't know Shine well enough to know that her words often concealed other words, as Shakespeare would have put it, she didn't know that her diatribe that rescuing Mercury was doomed either way might not really have meant that she didn't care.

For her part, Shine was worried about the kid, but that didn't change that she considered Salem's plan an idiotic way to get what she really wanted. Her confidence that Salem was making a mistake was a part of the reason she wasn't worried about success. How could she lose? Even Salem's winning this round would only hurt her in the long run.

That was why she'd found it so amusing. The woman-Grimm was trying so hard to do the thing that would ruin her in the end, and Shine could only hope to stop her, which ironically would make Salem much more likely to succeed than Salem winning this would.

The hilarious thought to Shine was that she actually was trying to help Salem win, just not the way Salem had intended to.

[Shine is a weird person, but it would be hard not to think this is kind of funny.]

So she just waited for her to answer.

* * *

Wally thought they'd get clear of the Grimm spider since it hadn't followed them.

But at the end of the hall they found a web just covering the doorway itself.

Then Wally remembered something.

"Maybe I can handle this."

He pulled his new sword out and sliced into the web.

It dissolved at the touch of the blade.

"Since when did you have a sword?" Jaune asked.

"Uh... since yesterday... It's cool, huh?" Wally said.

"Yeah, actually it's pretty cool," Jaune agreed.

"Focus," Ren said. 

They rushed through the doorway.

This hallway split into several halls with pillars. Most of them didn't have walls, but one did go down into stairs.

"If I had to guess, that's the holding area," Cinder said.

"Guess? You don't know?" Wally said.

"I haven't actually been to it. I assume she has one just in case she ever dragged Ozpin here by his host's feet, but she didn't use it for us," Cinder said testily.

"You mean you never wanted to explore a classy looking castle like this?" Wally said dryly. "Lots of spooky hallways in a castle that might or might not be magic. And plenty of pests in the form of Grimm lurking around the corners? I'm shocked."

"Is this the time for sarcasm? Let's go." Emerald charged down the hall. "Mercury must be down there."

"Wait--" Cinder thought this was too easy.

She was right.

Ren's Semblance hid them from the Grimm following them, but the whole castle was like a Grimm. Maybe not alive in a way, but certainly capable of sensing intruders.

Clearly Emerald had just crossed a line.

Suddenly, a bunch more of the monsters came out of the corners and hallways.

Some were familiar, like the Irasci-- and more spiders.

Others looked like giant vultures but smaller than Nevermores.

Emerald skidded to a stop as they blocked her path.

"And there it is," Jaune said. "I knew it wouldn't be that simple."

"What do you want, a prize?" Cinder snapped.

"Okay, let's just kill them," Wally said. "Emerald, you can slip past them. Go find Mercury. I bet they'll let you pass if we're fighting them."

"Are you sure?" Emerald had her knives up.

"It's better to just get him at least out of the room," Jaune said. "At least we'd know where he was. Ren, you could go with her, mask her."

Neo jabbed one of the Grimm with her umbrella and then made some motions at them.

"Did anyone get that?" Jaune asked.

"All I got was trouble," Wally said.

"Yeah, there will be," Cinder said.

"Well, I don't have a better plan. We need to find the guy if this is going to work." Wally sliced through some of them. "I can handle these ones alone if you all want to go. I just think there'll be more."

There were more. But the spiders were starting to spin webs.

Emerald realized that they'd block her off if she didn't hurry. They didn't have time to kill them all before it would be too late. Wally could probably cut the threads again, but what if they made more?

She hoped it wouldn't matter, but she'd rather find Mercury before any more tricks happened.

She slipped past the other ones, which sniffed like they knew she was there, but with so many other humans distracting them, they didn't think it worthwhile to try to get a bead on a specific one.

Somehow she got around them and the Seers that were waiting just down the steps and around the corner.

Good thing she knew to expect that, or she'd never have done it in time.

Emerald never thought she'd be thankful for all that time she spent sneaking around this creepy castle trying to avoid being seen.

She hoped Tyrian wasn't around, but if he was, he'd have come to join the fight, with his bloodlust.

But also, if he wasn't, where was he?

Time to find out later.

Ren had slipped after her, but more slowly, and she didn't notice him since he was so silent.

She looked in different doorways... They were all covered with Salem's weird portals... They usually just opened if she pushed on them... she hoped.

She stuck her knife through one, and it did open. This room was empty.

She tried another one, and it was also empty.

This happened a few more times, and she began to be afraid Mercury had been moved because Salem knew they were coming.

But farther down the hall she found a Grimm standing outside one of the doors--blended into the wall. She almost missed it before it jumped out to pounce on her, snarling.

Emerald ducked barely just in time and then sliced its head off.

That was close. Her heart was pounding.

Well, this had to be it. She sliced into the door, and it opened.

Gingerly, she stepped inside.

https://youtu.be/1jJwiP7hyU0

["Curses"--The Crane Wives. Thought it fit.]

It was dark in here. There was only one dim candle. But as her eyes adjusted, she made out a hook hanging over the ceiling and Mercury tied to it with his arms over his head.

Grimm arms were lashing the hook to the wall. They did not move though, must be stationary ones.

Emerald made a face.

"Back for Round 3, Callows?" Mercury couldn't tell who it was, and he didn't sound so good. "Let me guess-- it didn't work, and you're here to kill me as a consolation prize for the old hag."

Emerald sliced through the grimm arms, and he dropped with a thud that was worse then she intended it to be.

"Or not..." Mercury muttered. "Guess we're doing something different."

Now that she'd cut the arms, Emerald was certain Salem would know she was in here.

She rushed to Mercury and knelt down.

"Hey--" Mercury began.

"Shhh!" Emerald hissed. "It's me, you idiot!"

"Emerald?" Mercury didn't sound happy. "What the h--- are you doing here? Or-- is this some kind of trick? Like I'll give something away if I think it's a rescue party. That's not going to work. They're not that cra--"

Emerald kissed him hastily.

Mercury stopped.

"There, you see? That's not a trick," Emerald said awkwardly. "I have to get you out of here."

"Oh, frick no, you're really doing this?" Mercury said. "I swear, a guy cannot make a decent maneuver around here. Get out of here before she finds you."

"It's too late for that." Emerald took his arm and tried to pull him up. "Can you walk?"

"I don't know if I can, but I'm not leaving. You'll never get out of this dump if you take me, so go."

"And I'm not going without you, so if you don't move, I'm just going to sit here till Salem comes in," Emerald said tightly. "I'm not letting you pull this s--- again."

"You're so dumb..." Mercury groaned, struggling to get up. "I don't know if I can walk. I can't feel my legs."

Emerald hit his arm.

"Ow!" He yelped much louder than she expected.

"Oh, sorry..." she said hastily.

Then she pulled out her emergency flashlight and looked him over.

"Oh my gosh!" she said, horrified. "What did he do to you?"

"Honestly, less than I expected." Mercury tried to force a smirk. "Salem wouldn't let him kill me before you all showed up. Guess she knows you're all that stupid."

"I can't believe this," Emerald said. "I mean, I can... but I was hoping... Why did you do this?"

"I didn't really get much choice."

"I mean for me, you idiot!" Emerald said. "This was so unnecessary."

"It was necessary."

"Mercury!" Emerald sniffled. "Ugh, I hate you!"

"Could've fooled me."

"Shut up!" Emerald tugged at him. "Can you get up? Seriously?"

"Oh, I've lived through worse than this," Mercury said. "I mean, it was a close second..." He winced and struggled to sit up. "Ow... I don't think anything's broken, but it feels pretty bruised."

"Jaune's not far away. He can help. They wanted me to get you out of this room," Emerald said. "We have to get out of here... You know if you weren't already totaled, I'd beat you up myself later for this. Where do you get off saving me like that? I never asked for this."

"And since when did I ever do what you asked?" Mercury replied flatly.

[Well, true.]

"I should have just asked you to get caught, then you wouldn't have," Emerald sniffed.

"I would have known you were lying, so it wouldn't have worked. But I'm fine." Mercury struggled to push himself up. "Nothing a little rest won't cure. Does Salem have the Relics?"

"No, no, we're rescuing you without that," Emerald said. "Shine's distracting her."

"What? How many people are trying to get themselves killed over this?" Mercury said.

"I guess you made more friends than you realized," Emerald said dryly.

"Heh... I thought you would be freaked out, but the rest of them..."

"Even Cinder's here--they didn't want her around the Relics."

"Ew, gross," Mercury said. "I bet the whole thing was her fault anyway."

"Oh, it was. I slapped her."

"The frick? You really do have a death wish."

"Actually she didn't do anything," Emerald said. "You would have done the same."

"I would have killed her," Mercury said, so intensely that Emerald thought he didn't just mean because he would think nothing of it.

Maybe he meant if something happened to Emerald because of her... wow...

That was almost kind of sweet.

"I'm actually kind of surprised you're not giving me crap about that thing," she said, helping him stand up. "After all the jokes you made about it, nothing to say?"

"If it actually happens, what's there to joke about?" Mercury said. "Of course you're stupid to just put yourself out there."

"Apparently, I'm stupid to do everything, according to you," Emerald said flatly.

"So we're both stupid," Mercury said in a lower voice.

Emerald glanced up. "You are into me, aren't you?"

Mercury wasn't ready for that question. "What?"

The girls were right, Emerald thought.

"What, are you embarrassed about it?" she said mockingly.

"Em, after all the crap that's happened, I'm just embarrassed on your behalf that you didn't figure it out sooner," Mercury said, like he felt sorry for her.

"Shut up!" Emerald said. "Is that your idea of a confession?"

"The frick am I going to confess to anything. This is Salem's house. Do you really want that to be what you remember about it?"

"At this point I don't really care where we are, but if you have to be picky like that," Emerald said. "Still, on the record, you admitted it first."

"I think you kind of did actually," Mercury said. "I can't figure out why, but it was definitely you first. I totally knew that would happen."

"I was just trying to be nice since you were trying to be all heroic. I didn't really mean anything by it," Emerald said mercilessly, stepping through the door.

"That's total BS," Mercury insisted.

Ren was standing right outside in the hall.

Mercury thought he was Tyrian for a second and flinched, but then Ren said, "I can mask all three of us... if you're finished."

"Nothing was going on," Emerald said hastily. "That would be weird. I mean, look at where we are. Geez, Ren, get your mind outta the gutter."

"I don't know what you mean by that," Ren said stoically. "The others have not found us yet. I'm  worried that means they ran into more surprises. Let's go."

He took Mercury's other arm.

[You know, a big romantic moment would have been nice and all, but I just can't see Emerald and Mercury having the suave... unless you consider what just happened a big romantic moment. People do have such different tastes.]