Sophie only frowned harder, hazel eyes barely visible under the hook of the deep red cloak. She opened her mouth to curse at him again, pointing a finger that was also almost covered by the sleeves of her cloak, when she heard the cars, too. Ryan's words only confirmed that the noises were something to worry over.

Her vicious look of anger had disappeared completely, replaced by one of somewhat shock, and possibly fear. She blinked almost owlishly as Ryan began throwing things in his backpack before returning to her with his ultimatum. Her choices were shitty. All three of them. Of course she couldn't open a portal in this shape. There was a chance she might be able to escape on her own, but again, in this shape...

She mentally groaned, and began to slip her strappy sandals on. Just as she finished, Ryan grabbed onto her and started dragging her out of the apartment. She couldn't muster the extra energy to frown again. But damn it, what if she'd wanted to go off on her own? She hadn't, but he didn't know that! Assuming he knew her like that. And dragging her around, again.

Really, once Sophie cooled off and had some real time to think, she'd probably be able to appreciate what Ryan had done. Probably. As they descended the fire escape, Sophie really realized for the first time that Ryan was injured, perhaps quite seriously. As they ran down the alley, Sophie summoned all the energy she could to search for a dimensional weak-spot. It wasn't far. Was Ryan seeing it on that dumb bracelet, too? Could they make it there in time?

Sophie heard a strange noise and turned her head in time to see two men round a corner of an attached alley behind them. "There!" Sophie called to Ryan, "They're behind us!" Her voice was laced with urgency and fear. She wouldn't go back to that place, she couldn't. She was breathing heavily already, having a hard time physically exerting herself after all she'd been through. She imagined that Ryan might be, too. Her heart rate spiked. Would they make it? Would Ryan's bracelet work? Sophie was already prepared to call upon every last ounce of strength she could to get them out of here. Even if it cost her her life. She'd rather die than go back to that hell.

They turned corners and crossed the slum streets until up ahead Sophie could sense the weak spot. As they slowed to a stop with the men not too far behind, Sophie stared up into the spot where they would travel through dimensions. Ryan wouldn't be able to see it, not without activating that stupid trinket. But Sophie could. It would take all of her strength to tear the hole, not something that was usually a challenge to the blonde.

She was breathing hard still. "Ryan," she breathed his name for the first time, weakly, not taking her eyes from the spot. "I'll open the portal," she said, not bothering to ask him if his bracelet would even work. There was somewhere she wanted to go. She closed her eyes and concentrated, calling upon all that she had left. Just before the portal opened, Sophie grabbed Ryan's hand.

As the weak spot tore open to reveal a place that no other person had seen before, Sophie opened her eyes. What Ryan could see of the land was beautiful, an undiscovered paradise. Lush green trees and vibrantly colored plants and flowers of a kind never seen before. A sky of no other color, perhaps a color never seen by Ryan's eyes before at all, where stars twinkled even through the daylight. Beautiful rivers and small bodies of water near an endless ocean, and a large tree at the edge of a tall cliff. "My... home...," Sophie said weakly.