[Opener: "Heavy Dirty Soul"--21 Pilots]

"What the heck just happened?" Mercury asked. "Did someone stab someone?"

"Was it just me, or did that not hurt her at all?" Royal asked.

Esmeralda whimpered. "Maybe I should have mentioned this before, but...uh, nothing ever seems to hurt her."

"What do you mean nothing?" Cinder asked, still a little breathless.

"I mean...every now and then someone loses it and tries to attack her, but nothing happens. She acts like she didn't even feel it. I don't know how she does it. I think it's the Grimm."

"Are you saying she's freaking immortal like Salem?" Emerald began to panic. "How is that possible?"

"I don't think so," Hazel spoke. "While a knife may not have hurt her, she seemed wary of you, or our gift, more accurately. It's possible it's just that real weapons would not hurt her. I don't think she's immortal."

"Anyone else notice she's got grey hair?" Royal asked. "Guessing it's not natural like Merc's."

"No, she's gotten that in the last couple years," Esmeralda said. "And more lines in her face."

"Salem seemed to get worse over time too, from what I heard," Emerald mused. "It has to be the magic. But more importantly, what about those two people?"

"Nothing we can do for them," Hazel said. "If you're right, the Grimm won't eat them."

"Mala will kill them if that happens," Cinder said. "Probably she'll say it was the Grimm either way. She's a liar. So they're dead either way."

"I feel bad now," Emerald said.

"Look at it this way," Mercury said, "they'll still be better off than they would have been before. They would have died anyway."

The only remaining guard had disappeared from view now.

"What is she gonna do to us when she comes back?" Kate asked.

No one knew.

* * *

Mala dragged her two victims to the deepest part of the cavern, which was a bigger, hollow spot in it that had likely had dust in it at one point.

But now it just had Grimm. The core of the ones on the wall was like a big, huge mouth, like a fly trap. 

Here she would toss whatever victim she currently had in, and they'd be swallowed whole.

Most of the tribe didn't actually see this place in person; only her higher ups pushed people in.

Guarding the spot currently was the one they called the Mangler, whose real name was Pierre Pedir. [His name is a reference to the famous madman Robespierre of the French Revolution. His last name is a reference to the Spanish Inquisition, in that it means "to ask".]

Pierre was quite an artist of torturing people physically and had a Semblance that allowed him to increase pain, appropriately.

[Wonder what a battle between him and Hazel would be like.]

"Is it time for me to have a crack at the prisoners yet?" he asked Mala greedily.

"Sure." Mala had not really picked out her punishment for them yet, but she was livid. "Just after I take care of this."

The claws pushed the two turncoats forward.

"No, no, no..." Judy was mumbling.

"What did they do?" Pierre asked, without much interest. 

"They dared to rebel," Mala said.

Strictly speaking, neither of them had done more than simply reject the Grimm and refuse her order to retract that decision, but of course that was rebellion.

"How unfathomable." Pierre sharpened a knife. "I could teach them a thing or two."

"No, enough time has been wasted." Mala moved her hand, and both of them were pushed by the Grimm into the hole where the giant mouth opened.

Clyde wasn't making a sound, as he seemed to have accepted he couldn't escape.

Judy was yelling still, something about help and "save me!"

Mala just laughed, and so did Pierre.

Until...

Just as the plant mouth closed around the two of them, the plant suddenly stopped.

It would not have been more surprising to see a shark suddenly stop pursuing its prey, it was so unlike a Grimm.

But it was quivering like in fear.

Pierre, slightly less easily angered than Mala, perhaps, was gawking at it in awe--while her eyes were full of rage.

"What in the devil...?" Pierre muttered.

Judy stopped screaming suddenly and stared at the plant.

"Hello," Clyde said. "It's...not eating us."

He nudged the edge of its leaves (if you could call them leaves) with his boot, and the plant shuddered, and the leaves started to lower.

"No!" Mala shouted. "Finish them! Devour them! Put them out!"

The leaves began to close again.

A very strange thing happened after that.

A brilliantly blinding light seemed to explode out of the center of the room, not from either of the two victims, or the plant, but as if the air itself was full of light.

The light even seemed to take a shape for second, vaguely humanlike, but not human, not anything the bandits recognized.

But, as if it was stung, the Grimm plant suddenly lifted up its tendrils that had the two victims and flung them as far from it as possible.

They went sailing through the air and landed in the tunnel too far from Mala and Pierre to be seen, as it was pretty dark here.

But that was not all.

The plant then curled itself up and sank into the ground, burrowing into it like it was running for its life. Leaving only the hole behind it.

Pierre made a squeaking sound of terror.

Mala stared after the plant.

The light was gone. It had only been there for the slightest breadth of a second.

"What...what was that?" Pierre asked shakily.

"No!" Mala screamed at the top of her lungs. "You will not do this to me! I will not be stopped! I will not be humiliated!"

She shook her fist at the hole as if that would help. "You want to play games? I'll kill them all. Then what becomes of your precious shows of force?! I don't care if you drag us all to hell--you won't win!"

"Milady--" Pierre was, no doubt, a sadist and a lunatic--but perhaps he was not one enough to think this was normal behavior. "--what are you talking to?"

Mala turned to him, and she had a dangerous look in her eyes, like she might just kill the next person she saw.

Pierre backed up.

"I will not be cowed!" she shouted at him. "Go! I'll have my vengeance on them all! Get your tools, get the tribe, get the Grimm! Go!"

Pierre didn't dare disobey, though he had no idea what she was talking about. He ran for it.

Mala screamed and kicked the dirt, like a bratty kid throwing a temper tantrum, before she finally stopped and raced away from the pit.

* * *

Following the tunnel, Clyde and Judy picked themselves up. Thanks to Aura, they weren't that jarred from being thrown this far.

The Grimm was nowhere to be seen now.

"That was miraculous," Clyde said. "We should run while we can."

"Run?" Judy said. "Run where? We'll never get out of this cursed camp with Mala guarding it... She might follow us."

"The rest of the tribe doesn't know what happened yet," Clyde said. "We should head for the front entrance."

"Okay," Judy agreed.

They started to run, but then Judy said, "Wait...they don't know what happened...so they don't know that...monster just ran. What was that light?"

"I don't know...the hand of God? A fluke? I don't know," Clyde said.

"It couldn't be a fluke... It was like Aura, but stronger," Judy said. "We should tell them."

"Why? So they can kill us?"

"Might do that anyway, but if we want to get out, we'll need more to go on than Mala losing her s---."

"I guess..." Clyde was a little hyped after that, perhaps not as afraid as he usually would be.

They ran into the main front area of the camp, where the other bandits were still having their makeshift supper.

They were rowdy, as usual, but when they saw the guards coming in, they assumed there was a problem with the prisoners.

"What is it now?" one called. "Did the Silver-Eyed one escape?"

"Not that." Judy climbed on top of their table, kicking aside a plate while she was at it, to their annoyance. "Listen, Baba Tribe, we've just seen the strangest thing. The creature of the pit, the one no one ever sees but you higher ups--"

A few of the higher 40 were standing there, watching her.

"--it's been frightened away," Judy explained. "It ran. There was a burst of light, and it spat out its victims, and they escaped."

"The prisoners you mean?" one of the grunts yelped.

"They're free?" said the others.

"No," Clyde said. "The victims were us."

The tribe gaped at them.

"You're joshing us," one finally said.

"Not at all," Judy said. "We swear on the name of Sesame."

This was the only oath that the tribe took seriously.

They blinked at them.

"Why would you be victims unless you disobeyed Mala?" someone else spoke up.

"Mala lied to us all," Clyde shouted. "She told us the Grimm would give us power. But we saw the truth--the Grimm make us their slaves, and then as soon as there is no further use for us, they devour us body and soul. The very hallucinations we all have are the start of it. And then it gets worse. Have you all noticed that we're always unsatisfied? That we do more and more things to satisfy ourselves and it never is enough?"

Some glanced at each other dubiously.

"But it didn't click for us until they told us that it's supposed to work that way," Judy said. "That's how the Grimm work. We all know that Fall woman used to have a Grimm part--that was what inspired this plan at all...but she doesn't now, and she explained it that way."

"You can't trust what she said. She's a witch," someone else said.

"How are they the witches? They're not the ones using magic," Clyde said. "Just who are we fooling? Has the Grimm eaten all your brains up already? We're telling you we saw it ourselves. The damned creatures left our Auras, and they flared up stronger than ever. Then the monster of the pit failed to eat us, and we were released. Mala herself tried to stop it and it didn't work. If you don't believe us, go back there and see for yourselves."

"I will do that." One of the 8 stood up. Her name was Millie Segundo, but her code name was Blink because of her speed Semblance, not unlike Dodger's but more powerful. 

She zipped across the room like a lightning bolt and was gone.

Just about 30 seconds later, she reappeared, looking pale.

"The monster is not there," she said. "Just a hole."

The bandits had not been taking the two guards seriously until she said that, but now they began to murmur.

However, most of them were quite loyal to Mala, for their own selfish reasons or out of fear, and were not about to drop her just over this.

"Well, whatever you saw," said one, "it does matter. We have our orders. The prisoners are going to die. Then it won't matter what strange power they possess."

"But it wasn't them," Judy interjected. "They were tied up and restrained. It was their God. I think it was both times. We simply spoke to it (she didn't understand that it was a Him), and It drove the Grimm out of us, and now we feel different. Clearer...like we've been asleep all this time. Some of you must feel it too, that the days here make us less sharp. That you don't even remember when you joined this tribe."

Most of them scoffed at her.

But a few people, especially the newer ones, bent to look at each other uncertainly and muttered to themselves, "I'm not sure I do remember."

"If there is no Grimm to feed us too," Clyde spoke again, "what reason is there to obey Mala?"

That question resounded over the whole area, and everyone fell silent.

It had been ages since anyone had asked why they did obey her. Her hold over their minds was nearly absolute, but...well, no human can have complete hold over another's mind, and perhaps there was just enough uncertainty there to make them wonder if Clyde had a point.

But they were greedy, merciless cutthroats, and few of them had enough sentiments to care. They shrugged it off roughly.

But Shep Nottingham suddenly stood up.

"Is it possible there really is an Angel of Death?" he asked. "One unleashed against the Grimm?"

"I thought that was just that one girl," said the other.

"That one girl was not there," Judy said. "We saw it with our real eyes."

"Maybe then it's not just the prisoners," Shep said. "Perhaps there really is a judgement coming. Or...what if it always was real and Mala lied?"

Mala lying was nothing new to them. No one usually cared, but...

Some more of the tribe were getting uneasy.

"If you want to survive," Judy said, "you should go, now. Before Mala finds something else for you to do. We're leaving."

"Wait," Blink said. "Someone's coming..." She moved fast again, and then she was back. "It's Mangler."

"Then Mala is going to assign us a job right now," someone else said.

"I'm not staying here to get killed by some spirit," someone else said, running for the exit.

Judy and Clyde, knowing what would happen if Mala found them, ran for it also.

Shep and a few others followed them.

But most of them stayed put, and Mangler came into view to find them all eerily quiet. Normally they'd just be fighting or else drinking loudly.

"I see you're all eager," he said. "Mala is ready for round two with the prisoners. I think this one will be a lot more interesting. She said to bring the tools... Some of you, get up and get them."

Like dogs, the tribe did so.

* * *

The prisoners did not have to wait so long for Mala's return.

She came back even angrier than she'd left, but that anger had settled into a kind of deadly calm that was worse than her yelling. Esmeralda cringed away from her as she walked by.

Her very Aura was dark.

Yet at the same time, there was a pull to it. Cinder and Royal both recognized it as something they'd felt before around her, just had not noticed. The kind of unnerving magnetism she had that made it hard to argue with her.

Was it what made them so hesitant to fight her? Maybe it had not been just knowing better than to try.

"That was quite a stunt you pulled with them," Mala said, walking up closer to them. "But in the end it was futile. They begged for their lives and recanted everything, but it didn't help them. The Grimm will eat well tonight."

She sounded convincing. Only Esmeralda suspected it was a lie still. But only because she'd seen her sister lie to her face enough times to know it would sound real. However, she didn't dare call her out on it.

"Now to deal with the rest of you." Mala flexed her fingers. "I've been thinking about it, and really, what is this useless fighting getting us? We all know I'm going to win anyway. Why are you even still trying?"

"Are you going to win?" Cinder asked, defiantly.

"Oh, Cinder." Mala curled her name in a way that made Cinder wince. "Don't you think I've already won?"

She stepped closer to her and put a hand on her head, not very gently. "It's been too long for you, I'd say. They never last that long."

Her Aura was worse up close. Against her will, Cinder began to feel afraid. She knew it was a trick, but...what could you say? Mala was good at what she did--she'd have to be. Even though her attempts to intimidate were completely obvious, they were effective.

Even being this near her made all kinds of idea come into Cinder's head of what she would do to her if she was free to do so...some of them much more gruesome than anything she'd think of herself.

"Hey," she said in a low voice, but Emerald knew her well enough to detect that it was a fearful one for her, "stop putting ideas into my head!"

"What? Does it bother you?" Mala gripped her head tighter. "You know, Cinder, I can't put anything in there that's not already, deep, deep down. Maybe you just don't like that side of yourself anymore. But you should embrace it, really."

Esmeralda knew Mala was increasing the strength of her Semblance as she spoke, because her voice took on that creepy, almost enticing quality.

There were rumors that Mala's Semblance actually could be shared, briefly, by others, and that some of the agents of the tribe had used it to lure other people in...but only for short amounts of time...but it was the contagiousness of her ability that made people think she was right: Corruption was inherent and innate to humans. They would give into their base desires no matter what--

Esmeralda suddenly realized she was starting to think it herself. Oh no, just listening to Mala was enough to start it up.

"Stop," she sputtered.

"Quiet, Slave." Mala was not to be deterred.

Cinder tried to pull away.

"Leave her alone, you hag," Mercury called.

But they were only encouraging Mala to keep going.

"Does this bother you now?" she jeered at Cinder with diabolical glee. "Not really, right? Maybe I should turn up the juice. Really, you should just do what you want. What you really want. Why are you trying to lie to yourself? You're not a hero. You're not a saint. You're just the same as everyone else here--a killer and a monster."

Cinder strained. Her mind was clouding. Another second and she start seeing what Mala was suggesting to her take shape if she didn't keep her grip.

"Let...go..." she hissed.

"I don't think I will," Mala said.

Royal could take no more--but perhaps he'd put more thought into it than the others who were letting concern blind them to the obvious folly of begging Mala to do anything.

"You're so cheap, Mala," he said, and he put some of his Atlas Elite trained disdain into the tone.

A smart idea.

Mala looked up. "Is that an attempt at reverse psychology?" she said, but with a kind of baiting tone.

"No, just an observation," Royal said. "You're sore that you lost, and now you're resorting to this. You're predictable. And that's why you're going to lose. You never come up with anything new. You villains are all the same. One day you're going to not be able to use the Grimm and the cheap tricks to get away, and no one is going to feel sorry for you. I don't know what your deal with Cinder is, but I do know that, whatever it is, you're just pissed that you could never be that brave."

He hoped he wasn't making it worse by saying this.

"Brave?" Mala curled her hand, which just made her nails dig into Cinder's skin--but on the plus side, that did decrease the effects of her Semblance. "Her? I know that's bravado. What a hero you are, standing up for your girlfriend. But you know, given the chance, she'd destroy your life too. That's what she does. I respect that, really. But you can't actually think that makes me worse than her--or anyone else here."

"I can actually." Royal was not faking that disgust. "It says something when the woman who fell into a Grimm pond bothered them less than you."

Well...he touched a nerve there, somehow.

"Oh, I see." Mala suddenly let go of Cinder and shoved her face into the pole instead, walking towards Royal. "You think that that really proves anything? I'm sure it never happened the way they say anyway, but it doesn't matter. Good, bad, they're just things people say to make themselves feel better about their lives. There is no good or evil, there is only what you do to get what you want."

"Did you tell that to yourself when you decided to torment the only person your mother asked you to protect?" Royal said.

Mala's eyes flashed fire.

Esmeralda gasped.

"What do you know about it?" Mala said. "I did torment her, and you know what?" She stuck her knife right at Royal's throat. "I wouldn't change a thing. They told you I'm crazy, right? But this is just the way I am. I could hardly help it. We're all what we are. You're only a more acceptable version of it to the world. A person like you comes off as unselfish because they're more palatable to others, but deep down, you want the same things as anyone else. So why shouldn't I get it, if I can? I just won. And I hurt the slave because I wanted to. And I do everything because I want to. You do this because you think you have to, and does it make you content?"

"Look at yourself." Royal leaned away from her. "Do you feel content?"

Mala paused for just a nanosecond, with the closest thing to a human look in her eye they'd seen so far, though only Royal and Kate could really see her from their angles.

"Is she killing him?" Mercury hissed.

"Maybe?" Emerald replied.

It was not in Mala's nature to accept reproofs, though, and the moment ended as abruptly as it had started. 

"Content? What even is that?" She lowered her knife. "It doesn't exist. Just moments of fleeting satisfaction."

[G.K. Chesterton thought that the only mark of true joy was that it was something you felt you could linger in and really appreciate, while the way the world sees happiness is something to cling to and grasp at because it'll be gone any second (The book Heretics). I guess the Baba Tribe is the epitome of that.]

Mala seemed suddenly a lot more subdued, but it was not to be trusted. She was like a coiled snake.

Slowly she ran her free hand along Royal's face.

"After all, satisfaction is really all you can be sure of," she said slowly.

Royal felt sick.

Kate cast a look at him in concern and then at the others as well as she could.

Cinder strained but couldn't really see what was happening.

"It might be a waste to kill all of you," Mala purred, as if she'd changed personalities completely suddenly.

Esmeralda knew this side of her. it was not any less cruel than her other side, it was just that at times these surreptitious moods struck her, and she would be cruel in a much more sly way. However, usually she just ended up killing the person anyway. Mala got tired of her own games sooner or later.

However, it would not be good if she got hung up on it now. If she separated Royal from the rest of them, he'd likely never make it out of here alive.

Realizing this, Esmeralda drew her courage, what was left of it, inward. She knew only one person would likely get Mala's attention right now.

"You, I think--" Mala started to say something that no doubt would be worse than before, but she was interrupted by Esmeralda offering a kind of odd laugh.

She tried to sound like Mala herself, and while the voice was close enough, her tone was off.

But it didn't matter, Mala turned to her suddenly.

"You're...so predictable, sister," Esmeralda said, trying to sound mocking. "Can never keep your eyes on the prize, can you? Just like my father, so easily distracted."

She knew exactly what would happen when she said that, but, oh, did it happen even worse than she thought.

Mala let go of Royal and sprang at her in one swift motion.

She didn't even yell--that made it worse--she just stabbed Esmeralda in one of her eyes, making her scream.

[I apologize for how gross that is.]

"You dare to look down on me?" Mala hissed in her ear. "For that remark, you vermin, I should forget I ever made that oath. I can never forgive that."

But she'd forgotten about Royal...

Esmeralda gasped in pain.

Tears were streaming out of her other eye, which only made it worse.

"How ugly you are now," Mala said, which was cruel beyond belief, since she'd made her that way on purpose. Then she laughed psychotically. 

The others were so horrified, they were almost glad that someone else ran up right then, even if it was only another bandit, with the rest of the tribe.

Cinder felt she was going to throw up after what had happened to Esmeralda, but she was distracted when she saw that there were new people with the tribe.

On the way out, the runaways had run into the returning people: Hypnosia, Mino, their lackeys, and Watts.

Watts was only just awake now, blinking at them in some surprise.

"No..." Cinder couldn't believe it.

For a moment, she was full of shame that Watts should get to see the result of his efforts to bring her down.

But the next, she forgot it, because Watts himself turned very green and threw up nearly on the bandit who was next to him.

"Look who's back." Striker joined them. "And they brought a friend."

Mala turned, the evil glint still in her eye, but a bit more subdued. "I see," she said. "Arthur Watts...how nice of you to join us. You're just in time. We're going to have a real show here. Mangler, I'm getting tired of these worthless heroes...but I don't want to kill them the boring way. Have you your tools?"

"Yes, Milady," the Mangler said.

"Good... Let's start small, shall we? Maybe a good flogging to warm up, and then you can get more creative." Mala relished the thought from the sound of it. "The rest of you can help...and make sure they're taken down a few pegs as you do it."

"Milady...the slave...she might bleed too much..." someone said.

Mala kicked them into the ground.

But then she straightened. "I suppose someone should bind up that wound before it gets infected... Why should I get anything else I want today?"

"I want to go home..." Kate whimpered.

"Watts, you should have a good seat," Mala said. "After all, this is what you came for."

Hypnosia was staring at the heroes in disbelief.

Mino was staring at Esmeralda.

"What did she do?" he asked Mala.

"Hmm? Oh, her...she was trying to help the prisoners," Mala said carelessly. "If she likes them so much, she can be like them. I want her beaten within an inch of her life. Maybe leave the other leg though. If she can't work, she's good for nothing at all. "

Somehow her calculating was even worse.

"You are evil!" Emerald hurled at her angrily. "I can't believe anyone would follow you!"

"Shut up!" Mala said. "You know what? She should get double."

This was not good, Esmeralda thought dimly. This meant Mala was really in a fury now... Anything they said would only make it worse.

"You just hurt her because you can't do anything else!" Mercury was mad.

"Just so you know," Mala suddenly said with wicked glee, "gor every word you say I'm going to punish the person you care the most about here... Hmm, that's this girl, right?" She pointed at Emerald. "Pierre, how many words did he say?"

"8, milady," Pierre said.

"Hit her 8 times," Mala said. "I know you want to." Her voice sounded wrong again.

Pierre smiled and nodded.

"What?" Mercury said.

"Make that 9," Mala said.

Mercury didn't dare speak again.

"What?" Emerald said as the other bandits came forward and began to untie her. "What are you doing?"

"Better take your shirt off," one of them said to her nastily.

"What?" she said again, this time offended.

"You'll ruin your clothes otherwise," they said. "The flail is pretty brutal."

"No you don't!" Emerald said, struggling to twist away from them. "Let go of me!"

Cinder clenched a fist. "Just hang in there, Emerald," she said. "Don't beg, it just makes it worse."

"Someone wants to add more times to that?" Mala turned to Cinder. "No, wait, I don't think with this one..." She looked at Royal. "That one." She pointed.

Cinder paled.

"Of course," Royal muttered to himself.

"You sick monsters!" Hazel cried. "They're innocent. Can't you see what this witch is doing?"

"You shut up, or it'll be more," Mala said. "I can't say if your most dear person is here, but I can pick out of this group."

The bandits were pulling Emerald's shirt off against her wishes... Emerald was afraid they'd take her underclothes also, but they left that on, for some reason. 

(Actually it was that Mala wouldn't have liked it. She would get jealous if the tribe got too carried away in front of her.)

They did the same to Royal, who didn't really put up a fight, as he knew it was pointless.

He did see Hypnosia giving him a helpless look.

Then she motioned from behind Mino, something like "time", and then pointed upward.

Was she trying to say the others might be close?

Then...was there hope?

Maybe this wasn't going to happen after all...

But it did anyway.

Kate had her eyes tight shut, but she still winced at the sound of the flog falling.

Mercury was trying to break free, to no avail. So was Hazel.

Esmeralda was still sobbing silently.

They were untying her too to give her the same treatment...but honestly, even some of them felt bad. 

They were cruel people, but any of them, if they were treated the way she was, would have tried to run. Punishing her for it was something not all of them exactly liked, even if they normally didn't mind being cruel.

The fact that she was off limits also made them look at her less as a target and more as just a sort of animal they didn't much care about, but there was no reason to go out of their way to be mean to it.

Others of them liked the chance to pick on anyone weaker than themselves...though even some of them might have found the eye wound to be extreme.

But the person who was most affected, outside of the heroes themselves, was actually Mino.

Hypnosia saw his eyes darken as he looked at Esmeralda and then at Mala, and suddenly he seemed full of hatred.

He turned to Hypnosia and nodded at her darkly as if to say, "I'm in."

Hynosia nodded at him...but if the others didn't hurry, what could they do?

Mala was listening to the sound of the beating but turned to them finally. "By the way, did anyone notice you?"

Hypnosia had her story ready, though it was hard to focus right now.

"No," she said. "But we did intercept some messages from Argus on the way back. Apparently, there's been a Grimm attack near the Whistling Woods, but it's a few clicks away from anywhere we'd use. Maybe they got stirred up by what we did, but they're attacking some town. Argus deployed a bunch of huntsmen to handle it. I don't think they'll be looking for us till it's over."

"That is good news." Mala put her hands together excitedly. "I heard the same from the scouts already. It's as if the Grimm knew we needed a little distraction... We'll finish off these heroes before they ever think to look for them around here again."

"Yes, milady...and what should we do with him?" Hypnosia nodded at Watts.

"Well, he seems to be enjoying this," Mala said. Which was sarcasm, because Watts looked more ready to pass out than anything else.

"I suppose he should have his moment with Fall before we dispose of him," Mala noted. "And I might need to use some of his tools first. No sense wasting it."

She walked up to Watts. "You should go say hi," she said. "We did everything we promised you. We'll kill her once this is over."

Watts laughed nervously. "I see..."

"Go on." Mala shoved him that direction.

Watts didn't like to go nearer the Mangler and his minions.

Cinder was trying not to listen to the sounds, but her lip was not quite steady.

Seeing Watts coming closer, she glared at him. "Here to rub it in?" she said.

Watts winced. "Cinder...I...didn't quite expect this."

"Oh, don't even start," Cinder said. "You know what? I don't even care that you're here anymore. I'm past caring about petty things like that. What does it matter? Go ahead, gloat." 

She winced.

"I really have no words. I doubt I could possibly top this," Watts said, almost ironically.

"I hope it was worth it, Arthur," Cinder muttered. "Because trust me, you're dead. No one leaves here alive or intact."

Watts put a hand to his throat.

Hypnosia shook her head.

"Well, reunion over." Mala grabbed Watts and tossed him back at her guards. "And now, I'm tired of your snide remarks, Fall, so I think I have a solution."

She motioned at someone else.

They didn't look that enthused about it, but they pulled something out of a box.

Cinder recognized it...though she almost didn't believe it. It looked like a shock collar.

"Are you serious?" she said to Mala. "You could be just a little more cliche."

"Oh, I know it's old." Mala snapped her fingers. "But I thought it would have sentimental value for you, you know? And they say don't mess with the classics."

The bandit moved to put it on.

Cinder didn't even put up a fight. She wasn't that concerned about it.

"Now you'd better shut up," Mala said. "Or this will happen."

She pressed the button.

This shock was a lot worse than the one the other woman had used. Cinder almost blacked out.

"Now to find something for the big guy," Mala said.

Maybe those were the magic words, because in the next second, two things happened.

One was that Hazel suddenly broke free of the chain they used to tie him to the pole. He'd found the weak link in them somehow and snapped it like a twig.

This made the bandits jump back from him, and rightly so.

Secondly, a red doorway appeared next to him.

[Finally! right?

I'm so sorry for how gruesome this chapter got, but I promise, it'll get better from here.]