Ethan brought the car to a gentle halt, killing the lights. The sun had slowly set behind the mountains, the last rays of light fading just as Ethan pulled into the Stillrock mine’s gravel parking lot. The overhead lights shot to life, bathing the lot in a gloomy yellow.

Ethan slid out of his truck, pausing to give Raz a moment to catch up. His heart pounded in his chest as his eyes gazed forward, settling on the entrance to the mine‘s elevator. The cold metal void outlined by three rickety wooden beams, barely visible, lit solely by two old gas lamps installed a century ago that were in desperate need of replacement, somehow seemed even more eerie without the typical amount of miners and maintenance workers walking about.

Tonight, Ethan’s truck was the only car in the lot, save for a black motorcycle parked right up next to green shipping container that guarded the mine’s entrance.

“See,” Raz gestured to the bike, “that’s the kind of recklessness that I expect from someone who wants to find a breach point. You drive that thing on the highway and you’re just asking for an accident. You, on the other hand, drive a sensible, safe truck.”

Ethan glanced at his cracked windshield, which he hadn’t fixed since Raz’s dad sold it to him ten years ago, then just shook his head. He ignored Raz, heading towards the shipping container.

The metal, like the rest of the mine, was a far cry from what it once was, now chipped and weathered. It comprised the office where the miners checked in with the Super prior to heading through the entry and down the elevator.

The last time Ethan was here, he and Raz nearly died. Just the sight of the dark entryway made his skin crawl, the sounds of the rocks crashing down all around him reverberating in his head. They barely made it out with their lives, and now Ethan was dragging them back down there on a hope that he might be able to beat the odds and gain powers.

If he was lucky, this would be the last time he’d ever have to go down to the mines. Rainey wanted this just as badly as Ethan, so she’d be keen to help him stay on the path he mentally charted out on the ride over, one that would hopefully lead them under Basin Lake. They would navigate the winding tunnels to reach the breach point where he’d plunge his hand into it and be changed forever, leaving the mines behind and ascending to something more than he ever dreamed.

Or he’d be killed. Dramatically and painfully. Ethan wasn’t sure which option was more likely, but, despite Raz’s insistence that there was another way, Ethan knew better. It was now or never, and Ethan wasn’t going to stare down a life of never.

“Alright, I can take a hint,” Raz said, folding his arms. He’d been silent almost the entire car ride over, a rarity. “You’re set on seeing this through, and I’m done trying to stop you. Now, you had thirty minutes driving here to think, so tell me you have a plan.”

“Absolutely,” Ethan nodded, pointing to the car, “first, you’re going to need to take my car and drive it full speed directly into the trailer, only to bail out at the last second.”

“This can’t be what you really planned-”

“Don’t worry, after I become a Protector I can buy a new one. Then, I sneak past Oscar, because you’ve got him in a chokehold, not sure if I mentioned that, and then I-”

Ethan was rudely interrupted by the sound of the trailer door being kicked wide open, the rusted out door nearly flying off its hinging and slamming against the metal wall with an echoing ka-chung that startled Raz and Ethan. They held their breath as they watched one black boot after another step out onto the grated landing.

Out stepped Rainey, already looking annoyed. Come to think of it, Ethan hadn’t actually seen her look any other way.

“Finally,” she exhaled, leaning casually over the railing, her helmet banging against the bars, “took you two long enough. I’ve been waiting here for an hour, and there’s nothing to do in this trailer.”

“I’m a little hampered right now,” Raz admitted.

“Should’ve stayed home, then, instead of wasting my time,” Rainey muttered, shaking her head. “Is he going to be like this the whole time?”

Ethan interjected, taking a tentative step towards the trailer. “Uh, I’m sorry, where is Oscar?” he asked, hesitation in his voice.

“Who is Oscar?” she asked, a light breeze blowing her bangs across her forehead. “I don’t work here.”

“I already knew that,” Ethan muttered. He cleared his throat. “He’s a big guy? Bald? Works in the trailer you’re currently standing in?”

She threw a glance over her shoulder, her eyes connecting with a nameplate on the desk. “Oh! Him. Unfortunately, he forgot to turn his stove off when he left his house. Thankfully, I let him know that the fire department was there and they needed him to decide which of his cats he wanted them to save.”

“I know she sounds insane, but, frankly, I always wanted to do that to Oscar,” Ethan whispered to Raz, who elbowed him in the ribs.

“Don’t worry,” Rainey continued, waving them off. She walked down the metal stairs, each boot clanging with a head thud. “He’ll find out he was tricked eventually, but his…absence gives us the perfect opportunity to head right inside without having to explain to someone that we need to head down into the mine and find something that officially does not exist.”

Without waiting for a response from the dumbfounded pair, she spun around the railing and headed straight for the mine’s entrance, striding casually while humming a tune as if walking into a store instead of a maze of tunnels that run a mile deep underground.

“Wait, you can’t just go marching in there,” Ethan said, setting off to follow Rainey in front of him with Raz close behind.

“None of us can!” Raz exclaimed. “We have no safety gear!”

“Hey!” Ethan yelled, catching up and grabbing Rainey’s arm. She spun and shrugged him off, glaring at him. They stopped just short of entering the mine, Ethan already tasting the dust heavy in the air, gritty on his tongue. He pushed back a wave of fear.

“Who are you?” Raz asked.

“Rainey,” she replied, her eyes jumping from Ethan to Raz. “And you are?”

“Raz,” he replied, folding his arms. “Also, the only person here not stupid enough to think any of this is worth pursuing.”

Rainey glanced down at Raz’s knee, practically sneering at the vertical scar extending over the whole of his knee.

“Why did you bring him, then?” Rainey asked Ethan directly. “If this goes south, and there is a great chance it will, you probably want to be able to run.”

“I’m fine,” Raz brushed her off. “Tell her, Ethan. I can get around just fine.”

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Ethan hesitated. Raz was here because Ethan was here. That was how things had always been, ever since kindergarten. But, Rainey’s question did prompt Ethan to reflect, suddenly growing worried about Raz’s ability to flee if there was another cave in. He sighed. “Are you?”

Raz suddenly looked hurt, prompting Rainey to roll her eyes. “Decide. Quickly,” she ordered. “Fake house fires are great distractions, but they don’t last forever you know.”

As if on cue, Ethan and Rainey’s heads jerked to the left at the sound of approaching sirens. Raz frowned, shifting uncomfortably. “Could you give us a second?”

Rainey rolled her eyes, but walked towards the entrance, giving them some space.

“Ethan, we don’t need her,” Raz said quietly but urgently. “We can go down there and find the breach point ourselves.”

“Why don’t you just go down there yourself?”

“Think about it,” Rainey

“That was an accident, as I’ve had to remind you so many times,” Raz retorted. “And you don’t need to go down there to make it up to me.”

Rainey snorted. Despite the situation, she had to laugh. “Is that what you’re going with?”

Ethan’s eyes darted to hers. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night.” She held her hands up. “So, is everyone going?”

“Why should we take you?” Raz demanded to know. Ethan was getting antsy and desperately wanted to go, but Raz’s questions had led to too many forming in Ethan’s own mind. “We already know the tunnels, and don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem a little….unhinged.”

Anger flared hot across Rainey’s face, but after a brief indulgence she held back the tide.

“Two reasons,” she said, holding up two fingers. “One, because I have more experiences with the breach than you do, and two, because I have something that you don’t.”

“How do you have experiences with a breach?” Ethan asked. “They aren’t even supposed to exist.”

“And what do you have?” Raz folded his arms.

“You don’t search for something like this unless you know it really exists,” she told them.

Ethan gave a small nod. After what he had seen during his and Raz’s accident in the tunnels months ago, he was absolutely certain that breaches existed. Rainey seemed to have a similar experience, which Ethan knew he’d have to interrogate later.

“As for what I have…Did you two consider how you were going to break through the rocks to actually get into the breach, or were you just planning on staring at it?”

Ethan shuffled uncomfortably. His eyes spotted a pickaxe laying against Oscar’s trailer, and he retrieved it after a moment. “I’ll hack my way through,” Ethan said.

Raz took a short step back, sinking Ethan’s stomach.

“Right,” Ethan said quietly. “Maybe that’s not the best idea.”

“Well, luckily for you, I have a better one.”

Rainey slung her book bag over her shoulder and dropped it to the dirt. She unzipped it just enough for Raz and Ethan to see a power drill fit snugly inside, its edges pushing the limits of the bookbag’s elasticity.

“Diamond drill bit,” she said, pulling out a long, silver colored drill bit that managed to gleam even in the low light of the tunnel. “It’ll bore through anything. All I need is someone to get me down there. Then, we can poke a hole in the blockade and hopefully leak just enough energy for us to both get powers, and keep our lives. Instead of causing a cavein, which you already did, we make a pinhole. Safe, controlled. Until it isn’t, of course.”

It made sense to Ethan, but Raz had already proven how little that meant, so he waited for Raz to issue an opinion. After a moment, Raz nodded slowly.

“You know, despite how you come off, Rainey, that…isn’t a bad plan. If you were going to do this,” he paused, furrowing his brow. Ultimately, he shrugged. “That…does seem like the safest way.”

Ethan was momentarily relieved that Raz might actually approve the plan, but eyed him suspiciously anyway. He thought it was too good to be true and, not a moment later, was proven correct.

Raz turned to Ethan, his face stern, the corners of his lips taut. “But I still can’t let you go, Ethan. You’re my best friend, and I can’t let you go down there with someone we just met and potentially vaporize yourself just because you feel bad about an accident that wasn’t even your fault.”

Ethan paused, then took two steps to join Rainey’s side, turning to face Raz.

He knew it’d come to this eventually. Raz was too practical to take a chance; too content with life to search for something better. It wasn’t bad, of course, but it wasn’t a way Ethan could continue on.

He shook his head, his voice steadier than he imagined it would be when he rehearsed this speech on the way over.

“You’re my best friend too, Raz. I’m going to move us to Ascension and get us out of here, but I can’t do it with you. It’s too dangerous.”

Ethan gritted his teeth and shoved Raz away from the entrance as hard as he could, sending Raz spiraling to the ground just as the first of the police cars swung around the bend. Raz cursed in surprise, tumbling on the dirt, and coming to a stop a few feet away from Ethan.

Rainey raised an eyebrow in surprise, but said nothing. She eyed the cars slamming on their brakes, sliding to a stop, then let out a curt breath.

“Now or never.”

“Ethan,” Raz pleaded, reaching his hand out, blood smeared on his palm, “don’t do this. Don’t go down there. You’ll get hurt.”

“Better me than you,” Ethan smiled sadly. “I can’t live like this anymore, Raz. And when I’m back, we won’t have to.”

Ethan raised the pickaxe over his head, turning to one of the wooden support beams.

“Ethan, don’t-”

“See you later, Raz.”

Ethan brought the pickaxe down with all the force he could muster, splintering the wooden beam into a thousand pieces. The other beam gave away, fracturing and sending a cascade of rocks barely held in place over the past hundred years shooting down in front of the entrance, blocking it out entirely, leaving nothing but a loud echo ringing off the walls and a choking dust that Ethan tried furiously to wave away. When the last echoes of the crashing rocks finally abated, Ethan and Rainey were left standing in silence, their ears ringing. With the dust settling and the air clearing, Ethan took a curt breath, let it out, and tried to regain his composure.

Rainey spoke first.

“I’m guessing he’s going to try to find somebody to stop us,” she pointed out. “Any chance Titan is busier tonight than this afternoon?”

“She’s always busy, but she’ll drop a lot if she thinks I’m in trouble. If we’re lucky, I’m going to guess we have about ten minutes to make a thirty minute journey.”

“So,” Rainey said, throwing her bag over her shoulder. Her face was already streaked with dirt. “What are we going to do?”

“We already came this far,” Ethan told her, “and we can’t back out now. We get to the breach point as fast as possible and hope the confusing maze of tunnels slows down anyone who might come after us. Are you ready?”

“Well,” Rainey said, pushing her auburn hair out of her face, “if I had someone to show me the way…”

Ethan threw one last look over his shoulder, half expecting to still see Raz, covered in dirt, begging him not to leave. He grunted, shutting his eyes tight to block out the memory, then exhaled loudly. He tapped his helmet, turning on the light, and set off down the tunnel.

“Follow me,” he directed Rainey. Despite the situation, he found an eager anticipation bubbling inside him, “before I realize what I’ve just done.”