"I wonder if fears ever really go away, or if they just lose their power over us."

- Veronica Roth

Soren swept his gaze up the black wall in front of him. Even though he wasn't touching it, the kraenite reached for him, for his powers. The stone was like a living creature, scraping its claws down his spine.

He should have feared of the dread that tried to seep into him the closer he got to the Wall. His knees should have quivered, his chin wobbling as his eyes burned with tears.

Instead, he was as emotionless and still as the stone before him.

He knew fear-it was like an old friend. He remembered how it struck him when the shadow loomed over Adira in the dream, how it paralyzed him when it wrapped its tendrils around him. When the shadow pulled him out of her grasp, the fear had devoured him.

When he woke up in the backseat of one of the vans with Grimm gripping the back of his neck, it was over. It was all over. Grimm knew-he was the shadow in the dream. There was an angry fire blazing in his eyes. Soren attempted to shrivel away from him, but the fingers at his neck squeezed tighter in response.

A familiar cold swept through his skin, down his spine, into his head, through his heart. He had one last moment to realize Grimm was once again sweeping away his emotions, the very thing he was just starting to get back. Then it was gone and he was numb.

Now, Soren smirked at the Wall in triumph. The sheer size of it, the metallic smell that reminded him of blood, the blunt power it exuded-it would have sent him, the scared little boy, running back to the van.

Grimm had made him a man once more. He was stronger than anyone of Grimm's crew that skirted Soren's sides. They all knew fear, but unlike him, they still had to feel it. He could practically smell Elian's terror from a few yards away.

"Company," Grimm said, stepping forward from the line of Wielders. He spun on his heel, turning to face the group with his hands clasped behind his back. "Today is the day in which we change the tide. Wielders will once again take their rightful place at the top of Evaros. No longer will our friends and family be trapped within this forsaken city."

Raydon and Terran cheered, pumping their fists into the air, ready for bloodshed. Others remained quiet, but Soren witnessed their gazes of approval. Elian was no longer in the front line, but was taking slow cautious steps backward. Coward.

"Once Acadia is ours, we will crack open the ground. We will unleash those who would fight with us, and exterminate the humans who would rise against us. They are powerless where we are power. They are fragile where we are strength. If all of us band together, along with the Foulings, then the world will be ours!"

Soren scanned the line as cheers erupted around him.

The cousins, Carver, Lilla, and Geo, threw their heads back in a war-cry. "For Wielders!" they screamed.

Lacoria looked the happiest Soren had ever seen her as she gazed at Grimm like he was her hero. "For friends!" she yelled, with tears in her eyes. This made Soren cock his head, curious at her show of emotion.

Titan grew before his eyes, his shirt ripping to shreds as he pounded his fist into the palm of his hand. "For family!" he roared.

Any moment now, the wind would pick up around them, ruffling their clothes and stinging their eyes. Aeron's power would lift the Wielders up over the Wall and into the city. Then they would unleash hell on the humans.

It was not wind they were greeted with. The smug smirk on Soren's face faltered as the ground beneath him tremored, a crashing boom echoing through the evening air.

"What was that?" Raydon grunted.

Soren stepped forward, the silence of feet letting him know that no one intended to follow him. Another boom-this time strong enough to make him stumble. But there was a new sound that joined the crashing, one that made him freeze in his tracks.

Crack.

Slowly, cautiously, as if any sudden movement might shatter the ground where he stood, he lifted his head up towards the source. He blinked, unbelieving. A fissure spider-webbed out in the center of the Wall in front of him.

Another boom. Another crack. Black dust rose into the air, quickly fogging the area. What would happen if he inhaled it? Would it ruin him?

Soren hurried back to the line, tripping over himself as his eyes remained fixated on the Wall. He waited for the next boom, and it came, but this time the Wall could not stop the force behind the sound.

A hole burst open through the stone, sending bits of it flying over the heads of Soren and the Wielders. An incredible orb, shot through and headed right for them, its shiny surface reflecting the last bits of the sun as it soared. They all turned to run, but Grimm stepped forward, holding his arm out in front of him.

His hand shook as the orb came to a stop, hovering in the air before them. Looking closer, Soren saw tires and metal inside of-what was it? It was as if someone had formed a ball of cars and then coated it in ice. He'd never seen anything like it before.

Grimm lowered his arm, placing the giant orb on the ground as the hole in the Wall grew, shattering, a pile of rubble forming on the ground.

"This," Grimm mused, placing his hand on the orb before flinching away. "This is marvelous."

"But how?" Soren asked, approaching Grimm. "How did the Wielders inside use their powers to break through the kraenite? It should be impossible."

"You're right, Soren. Which makes this even more marvelous."

"Where the hell is Aeron?" Raydon sounded from behind them.

"Who cares?" Grimm asked back. "We needed a way in and it has been provided. We must find and thank the Wielders responsible."

Grimm was right. The orb had not only broken through the Wall, but there was also now an opening above the pile of debris. Three Wielders emerged from the other side of the pile, standing in the gaping hole they created. He recognized all of them.

"Looks like they found us," he said.

The blonde twins were there-the ice Wielder and the telekinetic that had been stupid enough to get himself locked up. Both of them looked exhausted, their chests rising and falling much faster than the Wielder between them.

Something deep inside of him tugged as his eyes fell upon Adira. She was practically shining. The last bit of the sun in the sky seemed to be shining directly on her like a spotlight. She didn't lean forward as the twins did, but instead stood tall, her dark hair blowing in the wind behind her. Power rolled off of her, impossible to miss.

"The Channel," Grimm seethed beside him. "It's her."

Soren didn't reply. Instead, he battled against the will inside of him-the invisible string that pulled him to Adira. He wanted to cut it. He knew that it made him weak, which was exactly why Grimm had fixed him.

Tearing his eyes away from her, he fixed his gaze on Grimm as he straightened his collar and smoothed back his hair. He glanced at Soren out of the corner of his eyes, clearing his throat.

"Follow my lead," Grimm commanded, glaring at him from under his eyebrows. "Don't do anything stupid. The Channel is mine."

A few hours ago, he would have attacked Grimm before he would let him approach Adira. But now, Soren bowed his head, falling into step behind him as they navigated around the giant frozen orb that was beginning to drip onto the ground. Footsteps trailed behind them as the rest of their crew followed, but Grimm held out his hand behind him, motioning for them to halt.

They trekked alone through the rubble until they were at the bottom of the pile of kraenite. Soren placed his feet astride a large chunk of the black stone, careful not to touch it. He already felt the nulling power just from being close to it.

"Friends," Grimm said, his lips curled into a dazzling smile. "I am Grimm. We are here to- "

"Cut the shit," Marina yelled from above. Soren had to tilt his head back to see her. "We know exactly who you are."

Grimm choked on his words. As he scrambled for a reply to the reaction from the ice twin, Soren took it upon himself to address her.

"Then we can skip the nonsense," he said, as he gazed up at the Wielders. "You know why we're here too, right?"

The group didn't answer him, but Marina narrowed her eyes, probably debating whether to turn him into an ice cube. How they hurled the car orb through the Wall remained a mystery, but as long as they stood on the pile of kraenite, Soren assumed he was safe from anything else they might want to throw at him.

After a moment of silence and wind, it was Adira who spoke, her voice clearer than any dream he remembered. He stilled when his eyes locked with hers, the emerald of her iris glowing, visible even from the distance between them.

"Soren," she said. The sound of his name on her lips quaked him, unsettling the numbing fog Grimm had placed inside of him. "I'm here. Come with us."

Soren couldn't look away from her. She didn't glance back at the Wielders behind him, or even Grimm who she knew was deadly to them all. Instead, she looked only at him as if he were the only one there, the only one that mattered. A light, a faint shimmer, split the shadows inside of him. He suddenly wasn't alone in the dark anymore.

"He won't be going anywhere," Grimm announced, stepping in front of Soren, cutting off the connection between them. Immediately, he was thrown back into darkness, the fog shrouding his mind once again.

"But you," Grimm continued. "Twins. You will move aside and let us pass. The Channel stays right where she is."

"Says who?" Ryder asked, placing a foot in front of Adira, his knees bending into a protective stance. Idiot. He didn't stand a chance.

"Me," Grimm answered, his voice deep, magnified by sheer power.

A loud scrape sounded from behind then, making Soren whip his head around toward the source. The orb the Wielders had thrown through the Wall was being lifted back into the air. One glance at Grimm's throbbing temple and hard-set eyes, and Soren knew it was him using one of his stolen powers.

"Now you have two choices," Grimm commanded as the orb continued to rise. "Either move and join us, or stay where you are and die with the Channel. I will crush you with the very thing you created."

"We stand with her," Ryder replied.

They were either very brave or very stupid. What chance did they think they had against the most powerful Channel since the Great War? Soren shifted his weight on his leg, shaking his head in disbelief. This was slightly amusing.

Grimm chuckled darkly at their choice. "This is too easy," he said as he prepared to hurtle the orb in their direction.

"We stand with her too," a new voice rang out.

Soren recognized it from somewhere, but who was it? Where were they? He scanned the debris, searching for a Wielder he might have missed earlier. But then movement caught his eye. Rising from behind the rubble, joining Adira and the twins, were more four more Wielders.

He immediately recognized the fire Wielder, Colson, from the smoke meetings Grimm had with Aeron and the rebels. He'd actually sort of liked him previously, but now he didn't care for anyone at all. He never would again after Grimm had numbed him.

There was a Wielder with short ebony hair, whose eyes cut like daggers across Grimm's crew. Another had his arm wrapped around a frail girl with wild golden-red hair. He knew exactly who she was. He remembered the vision of her when he had looked into Titan's mind.

"Wren!" her father yelled across the distance. "My Wren!"

"Daddy?" Wren squealed, almost falling to her knees as she tripped over the debris.

Grimm's shoulders shook from the strain of holding the weight. Still holding the orb in the air, he looked over his shoulder, straight at Titan. "Remain where you are."

"But you promised!" Titan roared.

"I promised nothing."

As if he was throwing a small ball, Grimm pitched his arm over his head, hurtling the orb straight towards Adira and the others. Why did Soren's face clam up as he envisioned her being crushed? Why did his heart suddenly race in his chest?

Cast in shadow as the orb passed over his head, he was struck cold. Desperation ravaged through his body, making him gasp for air like he was drowning. He had to act-now. He locked his gaze onto Adira whose breathing matched his own and he realized in the flash of a second, that they were still connected. It was her desperation he was feeling. Grimm's power somehow couldn't touch whatever it was that held them together.

The orb stopped in its path. Suddenly, Soren was calm, the euphoric relief-her relief-washing over him like cool water. Sneaking a glance at Grimm, and judging by the confusion set on his brow, Soren knew that he had fully intended to crush the Wielders. It was someone else who had stopped it.

The air trembled, making the hairs on Soren's arms stand up. Then the orb shifted backwards, the tension in the atmosphere growing thicker and thicker the further away it inched. It was as if they were in a glass bottle and the cork was being pulled out.

Grimm grunted, strained, as the orb continued on its backward path. His toes dug into the dirt as he braced himself, trying to drive it back in its original direction.

Then Soren could finally see behind the orb. The Wielders were wide-eyed as they stared directly in front of them. Wren was openly sobbing. The girl with short hair picked herself up front the ground, stumbling closer to her comrades. Colson was in front of Marina, his arms wrapped behind him as if he could somehow shield her from the impact, and she was trying to squirm around him.

Adira and Ryder stood hand in hand, their jaws set. It was them that were moving the orb against Grimm. But how? How? They were standing on kraenite, they should have been powerless.

Soren didn't mean to, he hadn't even thought to do so, but after he blinked, he was in her head, swimming through her thoughts. He saw Grimm and the crew through her eyes, how small and insignificant they looked from her position above them. His gaze fell upon himself and the lifeless look in his eyes. He looked like a puppet, like an empty shell.

He felt a warmth where the kraenite should have been smothering him with its cold invasion. What was it that was sweeping it away? He had to know. He dug further and further into Adira's mind, ripping through thoughts and memories until he found it-the reason why they could move the orb, why the touch between them allowed Soren to even enter her head.

Ryder was immune.

Soren was flung back into his body from the shock of the revelation. The warmth he'd felt in Adira's mind vanished, leaving him shivering. He couldn't catch his breath. He couldn't even think.

If Grimm... his thoughts faltered. His struggled to even fathom the dreadful possibility.

His eyes trailed upwards as Grimm finally gave up on the orb, letting Ryder and Adira toss it to the side like it was made of paper. Pure rage lit Grimm's features, heat rising up his neck, coloring his cheeks and ears.

If Grimm knew the truth of what just happened-if he knew that Ryder was immune-he would take it for himself and nothing in all of Evaros, absolutely nothing, could stop him.

A/n: And here we are.

Are you nervous? I'm nervous.

Playlist ~ Blood Red Roses  

Will everyone make it out, alive?