[Opener: "Hometown"--21 Pilots]

[Also, if you catch it, the title is a reverse of the previous title "Falling Up", which was an arc about Cinder having things turn out better than she thought.]

Royal, Emerald, and Mercury were close behind the others, in time to see Striker getting up.

"All right, have to hurry," Royal said.

Cinder was right behind them.

"I don't know who those other people are," she said, "but Mala is mine."

"Don't do anything stupid," Mercury said. "Can't take her down till we knock out Striker."

"I need a spear," Royal announced.

"So?" Mercury said.

Cinder formed one and handed it to him.

"All right," Emerald said, "Mercury...you can do it?"

"Lot of people here I don't want to die, particularly before Mala." Mercury made a fist. "Should be no problem. Everybody, blink!" He yelled the last part.

The two bandits who had not been fighting yet looked up in surprise.

Mercury's Eyes flashed.

Mala had been about to attack Raven, and now she pulled back.

Emerald quickly drew a line in the dirt of the tunnel she was in, as the white light enveloped the area.

The bandits all screamed and ducked, but, while the light hurt them, it wasn't enough to drive the Grimm out of them all when there were so many. It did singe them, however.

Striker, as predicted by Royal, put up a wall of shadow to block Mala and himself.

Emerald put a hand to her head.

In Striker's mind he saw the shadows melting away in the white light...even after the actual light faded.

Mala didn't understand why he suddenly leapt back from them and raced towards the other shadows in the room...of which there were many, but Emerald made it so that it looked like all of them vanished in the light except for one right next to the tunnel's entrance.

"Striker!" Mala yelled, before Raven leapt at her to distract her. She slammed into her as Mala blocked her sword with her own again and pushed her back. The Grimm came to support Mala.

Striker didn't seem to hear, however. He dove into the shadow next to the wall.

Then he abruptly came out right at the line Emerald had drawn, as if it had ended there.

"Wait--" he paused, as if he'd expected to end up farther down the tunnels. He suddenly began to disappear again--but before he did, the spear went right through him.

It happened in a split second of time, since Striker was so fast, and likely no one but Royal could have timed it well enough to hit him.

Striker fell over, gasping.

"Striker?" Bloodrayne noticed. "S---! There went our escape."

Mala paused to notice. "What?...No!" she shrieked in anger.

They all knew it wasn't because she was upset about him dying--she was just pissed that she wouldn't be able to use him to run. But it did seem alarming to her own forces, who already knew to duck for cover when Mala got like that.

"Finally got one." Royal brushed his hands off.

"With help," Cinder said.

"It still counts," Royal said. 

"I thought it was poetic using the spear," Mercury said. "Just like Cinder used to do. Now, I think we're ready to put an end to this."

He called, "You can run, but you can't hide anymore. Might as well just surrender now."

"Not yet!" Mala yelled. "I still have the upper hand."

The Grimm responded to her rage, exploding over the room like tentacles.

Also this was when Mud and Nox decided to jump into action.

Mud held out her hand, and as Winter was running to lunge at them, the ground under her became like quicksand and her feet went in.

It happened under Mercury also...which was pretty crappy to do to someone with metal feet, but, again, Baba tribe.

"Uh oh." Emerald noticed.

One of the tendrils smacked itself at her while she was distracted and hit her into the wall.

Cinder and Royal just managed to duck it, since Royal had better reflexes.

"Time to end this." Cinder was fed up.

She dodged the tendrils and ran towards Mala.

"I really hope she knows what she's doing," Royal muttered, rushing to help Mercury. "All right, stop squirming."

"That d--- freak! It's like quicksand," Mercury cursed, sinking lower.

"Are you really going to let a little dirt be the thing that finally gets you?" Royal said. "Just hold still."

"Hey." Nora and Ren had caught up. "Need a little help?"

"Can you take out that person who's making the floor soft?" Royal asked.

Nora lifted her hammer. "Sure."

"We can do it without the Grimm stopping us." Ren activated his Semblance. "Just so long as she doesn't notice."

Winter was trying to ensure that. While she was stuck, she still had her Semblance.

A flock of summonings had already appeared to attack Mud, who was deflecting them wildly but at least couldn't really see properly past them.

Qrow just about had Bloodrayne backed into a corner, but the Grimm were starting to get in his way. He couldn't duck them and her at the same time.

Hazel moved to try to help him, and Nox jumped on his back and used the Faunus, bug-like glands in his neck to spray something that was like acid into Hazel's face.

Hazel roared in surprise and reached up to throw Nox off, but Nox moved in time to get out of his reach.

The acid didn't hurt Hazel only because of his Semblance...but it did blur his vision. He lurched dangerously close to the edge of the pit itself.

"Hazel, stop!" Qrow warned.

Hazel froze.

Nox unhooked a lash from his belt to use to trip him up.

A shield came flying through the air, ducking the tendrils, and slammed into Nox.

Pyrrha had finally caught up and was at the end of the tunnel, hand out.

Nox went flying over the edge of the pit himself, yelling.

One of the tendrils went after him as if to catch him--and then it was suddenly cut.

Ren had snuck up on it unnoticed.

Nora, also covered by him, was sneaking up on Mud, who was still focused on Winter.

Then she swung her hammer wildly and hit Mud into Bloodrayne, sending both of them into the wall before the tendrils could catch them.

"I'll break your legs!" Nora yelled enthusiastically.

"Ah!" Bloodrayne had an appropriate reaction to seeing Nora worked up.

They both struggled to scramble up, and Qrow was already there.

Pyrrha yanked her hand, and the weapon flew out of Bloodrayne's grasp before she could even do a thing.

Qrow sliced through both of the female bandits before they could run--even if they had tried, Nora was on the other side of them.

Ren had to drop his Aura shield then. He was tired...but it wasn't going to matter at the rate they were going.

Unfortunately, Mala was realizing this and had already tried to give Raven the slip.

To do this, she had the Grimm form a kind of net around her to block Raven from getting to her. Raven tried to slice through it, and Mala took the opportunity to run the other way.

Cinder, however, had anticipated this.

Mala turned the corner along the edge of the pit, hiding herself from the other's views--and also trying to get clear so she could take the other tunnel away--and Cinder was there, sword in hand.

"Oh..." Mala said.

"Hi," Cinder said, with a smirk.

"I can't believe you actually followed me," Mala said. "But I knew you would, because of this." She held up the controller for the shock collar. "I knew you'd get my message. Despite this minor setback, Fall, I'm still going to kill you."

She pressed the button.

It shocked again.

Cinder dropped her sword and fell to the floor.

"Coming here with that still on--I mean, I suppose you couldn't help it. I have the key..."  Mala said, moving toward her. "But still, pigheaded. If you thought you were going to get it back...well..." She raised her sword. "I'm not going to take any more chances with you. If I only kill one out of you all, it's going to be you."

She said the last with pure hatred.

However--

Suddenly, Cinder looked up.

Mala had thought she'd be too dazed to focus, but instead Cinder held up her hand. She'd made a tiny blade in it.

In one motion, she pried up the collar and sliced it clear off.

The collar sizzled as Cinder tossed it into the pit.

Then, while Mala was still surprised, she leapt up, and the knife lengthened in her hand as she used it to run Mala through the waist and shove her into the wall.

Mala actually gasped like it had hurt this time.

Cinder's Aura activated.

"The thing about the collar," she said through gritted teeth, "I didn't tell you this before, but when my old mistress used it, I developed a pretty good tolerance for pain. It was annoying, sure, but I learned to never, ever, let pain distract me from what I needed to do."

She pushed Mala harder. "One lesson I think I can still apply even now. One I think you'd appreciate actually--if your goal in life wasn't to just pass that pain on to other people instead of feeling it yourself."

But suddenly the Grimm claws came over and grabbed Cinder by her shirt and yanked her away so that she was dangling precariously over the pit now.

Mala stood up, yanking the glass knife out of her torso.

Cinder's Aura had done its job though...in that the Grimm that were hiding from sight suddenly became visible.

[Our theory here at worldwalkerdj HQ is that the reason Cinder's Aura gifting shows the true form of the Grimm in people has to do with her ability to make glass. Something that shows things that you don't normally see.]

The sight was...horrifying, as expected.

Mala didn't just have Grimm claws on her, it was more like they'd fused with her skin, or at least that was how it looked if you could have seen the invisible effects on her Aura, as you could now.

And the Grimm... it was covering her body, growing over the wounds so that they didn't bleed, perhaps even plugging the inside damage also.

Cinder almost forgot to be worried she was dangling over the pit right now.

"That's...repulsive," she said.

"You see it now, don't you?" Mala said, holding out her own sword again as the tendrils handed it to her. "That's why I never get injured. The Grimm protect me...not unlike your old mistress, from what I've heard. They do all this, and all they need in return is a little...well, shall I say, compensation, now and again? I'm sure they'd like you..." [I can already hear my sisters saying that's some body horror right there. I agree. Ugh.]

The tendrils reached towards her.

"You're crazy!" Cinder said, squirming suddenly as she realized she was in trouble here. "That's not helping you. It's taking away your actual body, you fool! It's just eating you more slowly."

"I'm not really interested in your take on it," Mala said. "All of you are so holier-than-thou now. It's all meaningless anyway."

The claws now began to drain Cinder's Aura again.

"This time not leaving anything for you to recover with." Mala frowned. "And then you're dead... You know, this is poetic, isn't it? Didn't you used to do this to other people?"

However, in her anxiousness to kill Cinder, Mala had accidentally done exactly what Cinder wanted her to do--though Cinder had forgotten it herself now.

She'd reveal her position.

Raven, now seeing where Mala had run to, stopped trying to cut her way through the other Grimm.

"Winter!" she yelled. "See that?"

Winter was pulling herself out of the ground, but she looked up. "Got it."

A line of gravity glyphs appeared around the pit itself.

Raven shoved the Grimm away and then began to hop from one glyph to the other, all at high speed.

At the same time, unexpectedly, there was a blast of white light.

Mercury, who was still stuck, looked up, stunned.

Ruby was there in the midst of the Grimm tendrils, and most of them disappeared from in front of her.

Including the ones holding Cinder in place. She started to fall, but Raven grabbed her just in time and pulled her onto one of the glyphs.

Mala gasped as the tendrils around her disappeared also.

She was still somehow not dead, but clearly it had hurt.

Ruby smirked.

"Silver Eyes, b---h!" Mercury crowed triumphantly.

"Mercury!" Ruby said.

"I meant her," Mercury said.

"Where the heck were you anyway?" Emerald asked, finally pushing herself up from where she'd been nearly knocked out.

"Oh..." Ruby said. "I just had to take care of something."

* * *

Actually, Ruby's fight with Blink had been painfully easy--for Ruby.

She'd caught her finally when Blink had to pause for breath, and Ruby had burst out of rose petals and pinned her to the wall with her scythe.

Then she'd flashed her with the Eyes before Blink could even say a word.

This had made the Grimm explode out of Blink pretty quickly, and Ruby had cut them down.

She thought she'd still have to fight Blink, but the bandit had immediately surrendered and begged for mercy.

Ruby's solution to this had been to punch her, and she blacked out. Ruby had then dashed Blink down the tunnel till she found the other group, who had finally found Nirvana, which they had no time to explain because Ruby just dropped Blink with them and ran back without another word.

Ruby was sure she'd be useful more for fighting Mala, but really...most of them were already dead.

Mala, seeing that this was not looking good for her, turned toward the tunnel exit.

But of course....

"Hey, frickers!" Theo appeared in it, holding up his grenades. "I knew I'd find you here. Is that her?"

He glanced at Mala.

Mala stared at him...as anyone well might when they saw Theo the first time.

"By the way, I'm pretty sure I might have made this place structurally unsound," Theo said casually. "So you might want to run."

Mala's expression changed, and then she yelled in anger at the top of her lungs.

The sound echoed over the empty space.

The Grimm tendrils rose up and sprang the empty space over the pit, crisscrossing and then spiraling up like some twisted staircase.

Mala hooked her sword on one claw and began to rise towards the top.

"Oh, no, she doesn't," Raven said angrily.

Cinder formed a sword. "I'm not letting her get away either."

"She's gonna try to tunnel out," Qrow called to them. "It looks like they can. If she goes outside, she could get away if there're any flying Grimm around. If you're going to stop her, do it before then."

"I can help," Winter said, making more glyphs that went up like a stair.

"These things are disgusting." Pyrrha slashed at one tendril, but more just grew in its place.

"I think we're going to have to run," Ren said. "Raven can leave anytime she wants, but if those things are going to burrow into the rock, this whole room might come down on us."

"I think he's right," Qrow said. "Everyone who doesn't need to be here, get moving. Warn the others to clear this place, in case it starts a chain reaction. We can't portal everyone out of here."

"All right, we'll do that, but be careful," Pyrrha said. "I don't trust Mala to go down so easily."

She used her shield to levitate herself and Ren and Nora out of the room at high speed.

"I could take down at least some of the tendrils," Ruby said, "slow her down...but I've used a lot of shots today. Might only be good for one more."

"Wait," Royal said. He ran up to join them. "Don't just waste it then. Can you aim?"

"I don't know," Ruby said.

"Try putting your hands around your eyes," Royal said.

"Do you think that would work?" Ruby said.

"I have no idea. It works for regular people," Royal shrugged.

Rube shrugged and cupped her hands around her eyes.

"Aim for that one big cluster right there." Royal pointed her hands towards one. "And, Mercury, you aim for the other. If I'm right, that will knock the whole thing off balance and Mala will have to recover. Give the others a chance to catch her."

Mala was actually disappearing into the pillar itself as she got higher, making it impossible for Raven and Cinder to reach her, even though they were climbing almost as fast as she was, with Winter's help.

"I see," Mercury said. "We destroy her cover. This better work. I think this is the last time I can use mine too."

"Together then?" Ruby said. "On 3."

"I don't know if we sync up like that, but whatever." Mercury pointed his eyes.

"Emerald, we need to go." Hazel had noticed Emerald, though he still couldn't see well.

Emerald took his arm. "I know. Follow me. Guys, you're following us right away, right?"

"I'll be running once we're done," Ruby said. "Just get to the other entrance."

Emerald nodded, and she and Hazel ran for it.

Qrow was standing behind Winter.

"You sure you can keep doing this?" he said.

"As long as I don't have to do anything else," she strained. "Watch my back."

"Always."

Though the Grimm were ignoring them, now that Mala was just focused on getting out of here.

Ruby counted to three on her hands.

Then they both blasted their Eyes at either side of the tendrils.

Mala was practically buried inside it by now, but, to her chagrin, she suddenly found that both halves of it now vanished from view, and she immediately shot down several yards back toward the pit.

Shs grabbed the edge of one that was still there, cursing.

They noticed her hair was nearly all grey now. [For the curious: She's not aging. It's like when stress makes people go prematurely white or grey.]

Raven nodded at Winter and then ran that way.

 Glyphs formed in time to catch her. Raven swung at Mala with her sword.

Mala ducked frantically.

The tendrils reached out like a ledge for her to stand on, and she stood up and held out her sword again.

Then from the other side, Cinder sprang at her with her own swords, and Mala turned to her to block her instead.

Raven had just gotten her sword lodged in the Grimm itself, but she yanked it out and then ran along the tendrils themselves... They didn't try to siphon her Aura now. It was as if all they cared about was getting away.

Cinder could see the truth hit Mala slowly that the tide had finally turned against her, at least officially. It probably had long before.

https://youtu.be/BzYAKDUaR18

["All Things Must Die"--Jeff and Casey Williams. I've heard this song was originally supposed to be Raven and Cinder talking to each other in their Volume 5 fight. Or you could read it as just Raven. I want to bring it back as them together again, but this time talking to someone else, which actually fits even better with the lyrics, I think. I liked the idea of using their edginess but against a common enemy, as it represents how both of them have had to overcome darker pasts but have come to see that it gives them an advantage against people like Mala and her crew.]

Now for the finishing touch, Cinder held out her sword.

"By the way, Mala," she said, in almost the same condescending tone Mala had used to address her, "there's something I wanted you to know before we finish this: Remember how you were really pleased with yourself that your henchmen caught me?"

Mala held up a hand and blocked Raven's attack, but her attention was on Cinder, and she raised her eyebrow.

Maybe she already knew, but Cinder's next words still must have been like hot coals.

"Hypnosia never caught me," Cinder said. "I let myself get captured on purpose."

Mala's eyebrows raised.

"I endured all that because I had a plan the entire time for how the others would follow me here and finally bring you down," Cinder said, with a smile. "And you went for it, hook, line and sinker. You never suspected that I could have let you capture me all this time. Oh, and when I could have escaped, I didn't, because I knew I had to keep this going. You thought you had me the entire time--I admit, you got close--but even that was part of my plan. I figured, even if you'd killed me, I'd still have brought you down, because they were always going to follow me here. It was just a matter of whether it was today or tomorrow or the next day, but you would have gone down no matter what. But I have to thank you for keeping me alive for so long. That meant I was able to pass along information about this place and that made this raid so, so much easier."

Mala went white... It was from rage.

Raven was freeing herself again, but quietly.

"I just wanted you to know that before we kill you," Cinder said, holding her sword up. "And just so you know, this really isn't for me. I signed up for this... This is for Esmeralda, and all those other people you tormented without any cause."

"ARRGGHH!" Mala howled in pure rage and sprang at Cinder a little faster than Cinder expected.

She slashed wildly and knocked Cinder into the Grimm pillar itself before Raven could do anything.

"This is your fault!" Mala was yelling in a tone so ragged you barely could make out the words. "You did this! You did everything! You destroyed everything from the beginning!"

She was clawing at her more than she was using her swords as swords.

Cinder struggled to break free. Her Aura flared up suddenly.

Mala's sword suddenly hit the Aura instead of her skin and broke off of it.

It flew out of her hand and towards the bottom of the tower.

Mala looked down, surprised.

Cinder suddenly kicked her off.

Mala went hurtling into the tendril's arms.

Raven sprang down on her and ran her sword through her chest, pinning her into the Grimm.

The sword lit on fire, smoldering so that Mala kept burning before the Grimm could block it out on her.

The Grimm dropped Cinder again, who was a little dizzy now.

Raven grabbed Cinder's arm and then opened a doorway.

She came out next to Qrow.

"Guys--" Royal was still there. He'd refused to leave. "--look at the top."

They couldn't really see it well, it was so dark, but Royal could see cracks had been forming along it.

"Theo," Royal said, "do you have any more bombs?"

"Yeah." Theo held one up.

Royal took it from him and then tossed it at the wall.

It blew up.

The wall cracked more.

Mala was pushing herself up, yanking the sword out, though it had to hurt like hell to do that.

"I will not be defeated!" she screamed at them, sounding more unhinged than ever. "Not by you, Branwen, or Fall, or Esmeralda, or any of you. I will not allow myself to be dragged down by you monsters! By hypocrites, by traitors! By heroes!"

Part of the walls began to fall in, knocking some of the tendrils off the top of the hole, into the void below.

Mala turned towards them, raising her hand.

The Grimm rose up again.

"No!" Winter cried. "Enough!" 

They all were standing close together, bracing.

Suddenly, the ground under them rumbled also.

They were knocked to their knees.

The Grimm plant of before, with the huge mouth, suddenly rose out of the pit again, right under Mala.

Mala laughed crazily as it appeared.

"You see?" she called at them.

Qrow tried to reach for his scythe.

The ground shaking made Cinder lurch toward the edge of the pit.

Royal got to her just in time, and Winter made a glyph to anchor them to the ground, but she didn't have much energy left.

Mala was looking down at them.

"I always win," she said.

Cinder looked up--and her eyes gleamed.

"No," she said, and even though it was quiet, somehow they could all hear it around the sound of rocks falling. "You lose."

Mala laughed at her insanely and was starting to say something else--but then the thing, that Cinder had somehow sensed was going to happen seconds before it did, happened.

The Grimm mouth turned swiftly toward Mala herself.

"What--" Mala turned to it in surprise.

The tendrils, instead of helping her, shoved her towards the mouth.

"What are you doing? You're supposed to serve me!" Mala shrieked as the mouth opened. "What? No! I did all the things you said. Why would you--?"

She was shoved in the mouth before she could even finish that sentence.

The giant plant jaws snapped shut, cutting off her voice screaming.

Then the giant plant moved to turn towards them.

They all gaped at it.

[Pause for everyone to cheer that Mala is finally dead.]

It started to reach for them, and a blinding light that was not the Silver Eyes flashed from nowhere in front of them all.

It vanished as soon as it had come, so that no one was sure what they'd seen, but the Grimm plant shriveled up away from it like it was hiding from the light.

And then a chunk of rock fell on it, and it burst into smoke.

Then more rocks began to fall.

"We have to get out of here!" Qrow finally found his voice.

"Right." Ruby burst into petals and grabbed Mercury and Winter, who was only just finally able to stand.

She took off down the tunnel.

Raven opened another portal "Go now!" she shouted at Royal and Theo.

"Royal!" Qrow yelled.

"Cinder!" Royal called at them.

The falling rocks were making the ground shake more, and Cinder was slipping.

The glyph had vanished, of course, when Winter had.

Pebbles were falling on all of them.

"I'll get them," Raven said, shoving Qrow and Theo through her doorway, then she sprang over and reached for them.

They slipped out of reach and over the edge of the pit.

Swearing, Raven jumped after them, making the portal under them all as they plunged towards it.

But suddenly a rock hit Royal's shoulder and knocked him off trajectory.

Cinder tried to reach him, and the same rock hit her and knocked her aside also.

"Hey!" Raven tried to catch them, and instead she fell into the portal herself and it snapped shut.

Cinder and Royal both fell into the hole further instead, hitting the side and tumbling the rest of  the way down while rocks and dirt kept falling around them.

* * *

 Yang had found Neptune before she found Nirvana.

Neptune had, actually, gotten separated from the group when he saw some bandits running away and had gone after them, thinking the others were following him--and then realized they hadn't.

But then the one person he'd found was actually Ali, who was trying to hide in one of the alcoves of the rocks.

Ali had tried to attack him when he'd tried to get close.

Neptune tried to explain who he was, but it all fell on deaf ears.

He didn't want to leave Ali here, so he tried to subdue him instead. Ali was pretty good at evading capture though. He kept disappearing around things and throwing stuff in Neptune's path.

Neptune was getting tired, and, to make matters worse, Grimm were running around too.

That was when Jasmine had found them. No clue how she'd skipped going past everything else, maybe sheer determination.

"Mr. Vasilias," she called, "I'm looking for Al."

"I have good news. He's right over there." Neptune gestured at where Ali had just disappeared into a small passage. "But, Ms. Sultan, I don't think he remembers who we are."

"I can help him, I'm sure of it," Jasmine said. "Just let me. Worry about the Grimm."

There were some to worry about by then.

"I..." Neptune was going to argue, but she ran off, and he had to stop the Grimm that tried to follow her immediately.

"I hope she knows what she's doing," Neptune muttered.

https://youtu.be/iWEsrQx6A2U

["Hymn for the Missing"-- Red. Seemed appropriate.]

Jasmine headed down the dark passage.

"Ali?" she called. "Al?"

"Go away!" called a haggard voice. "Cursed vision."

Not the thing a woman wanted to hear when she found her missing husband after weeks and weeks.

But Jasmine did not take it personally.

"Ali, it's me, Jas," she called. "Remember? Please."

Someone lunged at her from around a corner and slammed her into the floor.

Ali was hardly recognizable to her in the state he was in, but it was him, nonetheless.

She coughed as the air was knocked out of her.

"Go away, you haunting! You ghoul!" Ali said, shaking her in a frenzy.

Tears came to her eyes--more from the internal pain than the physical.

"Al...I'm real," she said. "I don't know what they told you, or what else they did to you, but I know you would know me, if you were really looking."

"Jas is dead," Ali said, angrily.

"I'm not dead!" Jasmine said, plaintively. "I never was. It was a lie... Look, look see."

She pulled one of her hands free and held it up. "I'm still missing part of a finger--it's not pretty, but it's real. Feel it."

Slowly, Ali grabbed that hand roughly and felt over it.

His expression changed a little. "It seems real..."

"It is real." Jasmine put her other hand on his face. "I came here to find you, please, please believe me. I'm going to take you away from here. From this horrible place. The heroes came to save you. I made them bring me."

"It cannot be true," Ali said.

"It really is," Jasmine said. "Come...let me show you. If it's a lie, then you can do whatever you want. I swear."

Ali hesitated.

"What do you have to lose?" Jasmine said. "That was how you convinced me to date you, remember? I'm telling you the same thing now. It can't be worse than what they've already done to you."

"That's true..." Ali said slowly. He got up. "It could not get much worse...but I feel strange. Like a ghost of a man."

"You look like one," Jasmine said candidly. "But we'll fix that, I promise... Come..." She held out her hand. "Just trust me." [See what I did there?]

Ali tentatively took it. "If this is a trick, I'll kill you."

That was not at all like him to say... Jasmine shuddered inwardly.

It's just the tribe's effects, she told herself. Ignore it for now.

[This gives me massive Peeta vibes from that 4th Hunger Games movie.

Is it enough to make everyone feel sad about these two minor side characters? It's still pretty messed up.]