a gilded cage is still a cage (take your gold and shove it)

She slept fitfully, desperate to wake but never quite managing to claw her way back to consciousness. Time passed slowly yet seemed to only rush by her, slipping through her fingers as she drifted in that haze between sleep and waking.When she finally woke properly, Pearl was alone.———————In one world, Pearl is freed from her cage after she is forced to sever her bond with Scott in an effort to save them both.In another, she is freed from one cage only to be find herself trapped in another she thought she had escaped long ago.Scott and Pearls bond may still be intact, but as they meet again years after Pearl ran away, they find their relationship is still in tatters and fixing it is not quite as simple as opening their cages.--Inspired by and set in the world of "how to growl and bare your teeth" by Odaigahara