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002

safe

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When she hears the news, she is furious with him. Stupid idiot. What a fool. Got himself hurt, or catched, or… something. All she knows is that Ruby has vanished, and no one knows where he'd gone.

Her father tells her over breakfast in the middle of summer; stubborn to the end, she shouts at him, calls him a liar, runs out of the house and to his house. She climbs up his maple tree and peers into his bedroom, assuming she'll see him asleep in bed, arms strewn across his sheets and hair limp on his pillow. The only time she ever sees his hair without a hat is when he's asleep…

But he's gone. And so Sapphire climbs down from the tree.

Her father has followed her all the way across town, and he puts a hand over her back. Her shoulders tighten up, and Professor Birch prepares to comfort her as she weeps. But…

He expects tears, but he does not expect her to collapse, to scream out, eyes screwed shut as her voice crackles, lightning and fire and darkness. Her entire body coils and her face twists into a feral mask of fury.

The next day she's gone. Birch finds an illegibly scrawled note on her desk, but he doesn't need it to know where she went.

Sapphire is clever, and she is determined. She steals one of Ruby's hats for tracking purposes. Then she checks the secret base; she doesn't find him, but she sees footprints on his expensive rug, as well as signs of a scuffle. Whatever happened to him, didn't happen consensually.

She grips the hat and prepares to set off. Sapphire may not know where Ruby is, but she does know is that she won't rest until he's home safe again.