Fanfare

Dependence

It's a tunnel. That is all it is, all it will ever be. Trenna sighs and rakes a hand through her hair, looking at the pile of rock, at the small gap near the side. A thin, rushing sound crackles from it; familiar, but hard to place. She crouches and tries to look through again. A blinding white light assaults her eyes, and she smiles bitterly; she can't even do the one small thing they asked her to do.

She stands, frustrated, and walks back through the tunnel. The light the others saw was from a crack. A crack past a huge hole in the ground. They're lucky they had the foresight not to continue on blindly in the dark, or they would have fallen to their deaths at the bottom of a pit.

Trenna walks easily around it, casually looking into its depths as she passes; she catches the sight of milky bones at the bottom, half-covered by more rocks from the apparent cave in.

She goes on for a little while longer, until she can see Pierce, his body blocking the exit. He's moved so he has one hand on either side of the mouth of the cave. His head hangs down between his shoulders as he takes deep, carefully measured breaths. She stands in front of him, and his head rises slightly, but she's not sure if he knows she's there. All she can see is the bones in the bottom of the pit. She's suddenly immensely glad he didn't come with her; she doesn't want anyone who can't see going anywhere near that cave. The thought of him, broken and still, in that hole in the ground, makes her shiver.

"Cold?" His voice is cautious, quiet, as he reaches a single hand out towards her. His hand rests on her hip before travelling up, across, over her stomach. Her breath catches, and his fingers grip the zipper on her jacket, pulling it all the way up.

"No," she says, her face flaming as she forces herself not to step away.

"What did you see?" Pierce asks. The cave behind him goes quiet as every person strains to hear what she has to say.

Trenna searches for words for a moment. She doesn't want to disappoint them. But she also doesn't want to give them false hope. She looks up into Pierce's face, as if he holds the answers. His head is angled towards her attentively, his ears trained for her words, just as anxious for a sign of hope as any of them. But his face is trained for disappointment, as well.

She moistens her lips before she speaks. "There was a hole. Big enough to swallow five of Jack."

"Was that an insult?" Jack manages to sound both amused and offended at the same time.

Trenna ignores him and continues. "And after that there's been a cave in." Groans follow her words. She is quiet til they are, too. "But," she pauses, making sure she has their attention. "There's a small gap. That's where the light you've seen comes from. It's too bright for me to see through. But, if I find someone strong enough to move the rocks, we can get through."

Everyone starts talking at once, almost thunderous in their volume. Pierce doesn't even try to shut them up, just stands there, watching her with his eyes closed, something she had thought was an impossible feat.

"Take me there," he says softly.

Trenna doesn't question him. Amidst all of the voices and the darkness, their exit is not noticed. She takes his hand and leads him through the tunnel, deeper and deeper, til they reach the hole. The voices of the rebels are almost lost this far in, a low undercurrent not unlike that of the flames surrounding the city. She stops and turns to Pierce, wanting to gauge his reaction when he can't see her looking at him. "We have to go around the hole now," she says.

"How wide is the path?" Pierce asks tightly.

"Not very," Trenna responds.

Pierce's jaw is a sharp line as he swallows. "Help me," he says. Trenna wonders how he can ask, when she hates to ask for help herself. But she has no problem with helping.

She takes his hand and pulls him along with her before turning his body and taking his hands, pressing them to the stone with her own. She pushes his feet with hers, so that his toes press against the stone. And then she pushes him gently. "Go. Don't move away from the wall." He hesitates, not moving. "I'll be right behind you, Pierce," she says. He starts moving. His progress is slow but steady, and she follows behind him at a patient distance. When she steps off the ledge and he's still edging along the wall, she holds back a laugh. "It's over, she says. He stops and cautiously steps away from the wall, holding out his hand. She takes it with a sigh and moves forwards, towards where she knows the hole will soon come into view.

"Do you see a light?" Pierce asks.

"Here." She pulls him to the side, and then they're there. The rocks spill down in a ragged tumble, all the way to the top of the cave. And there is the gap. Pierce drops her hand and immediately crouches by it before reeling back, rubbing his eyes.

He looks up at her sourly. "Could you not have warned me?" he growls.

She can't help but smile wickedly as he looks up at her through narrowed eyes. "Now, where's the fun in that?"

Pierce looks at her for a long moment, his eyes tracing her face as the seconds tick by, agonisingly long and slow. Her smile slips. He holds his hand out to her as he rises to his feet. Wordlessly, she takes it and leads him out of the cave.