"Tell me; how'd you end up with Salem?"
Cinder hadn't expected him to ask straight up. In fact, despite her earlier words, she'd not actually expected for Jaune Arc to do much of anything, aside from huff out in indignation and then stand up and walk away.
She'd been banking on him being a touch more emotional than he'd shown himself to be in this meeting so far. When last they'd fought, he'd had blood on his blade, and tears in his eyes. He'd killed that girl, Penny, to prevent Cinder from receiving the Maiden's powers.
And yet now, he questioned her with steel in his voice. A steel that had never been present before.
What had happened? What had changed?
It had been but a few months, and yet…
"Tell me, what are you expecting?"
"Probably that you killed puppies in your spare time as a child, or something to that effect."
She laughed genuinely. The man's sense of humor was oddly similar to her own. Sardonic and even caustic at times.
"Not quite." She decided that she would rise to the man's challenge. She would tell him. But not the full story. Not all of it. "I was an orphan. Like many. Then I was a slave. I escaped, but doing so cost me everything. I was all but dead when Salem found me, and when she did, she offered to either let me die in the snow, or to be taken in by her, and given power. I chose the latter."
Arc's eyes narrowed. She wondered what he thought. They had nothing but time, after all. She could afford to feed that curiosity.
"So? What you expected?"
"…You're from Atlas?"
Some surprise filtered through her, but she perhaps should not have been. She'd mentioned the snow, after all, and it was a fair guess knowing that. Mistral was a more temperate climate, getting at most a dusting during the coldest months, and though Vale saw snow in winter, Atlas saw it year-round.
"Technically, I grew up in Mistral." Cinder corrected, seeing no harm in telling the truth. That time meant nothing to her. "Atlas was where I was enslaved, and eventually escaped. Salem found me in the snow fields beyond Mantle."
"Who enslaved you?"
"A woman who is long dead."
"Good." Jaune Arc nodded his head.
Cinder couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Happy to hear that I murdered someone so young?"
"She took you as a slave. She deserved all that and more."
Cinder sneered. "I killed her daughters as well, you know. Just a few years older than me at the time. And then a huntsman who tried to bring me in after the incident. All of them, dead. Are you so happy about that as well?"
Arc's face morphed. "What, did you tell me that so I wouldn't feel sorry for you?"
Cinder wasn't entirely certain, now that the man had pointed it out, exactly why she had told him that at all. It didn't exactly add up inside of her head. Like he was implying, there had been no reason, and yet…
"Perhaps I simply wanted you to be able to make an informed decision." She forced a smile onto her face.
Jaune Arc studied her for a while. It made Cinder feel like there was something crawling up the back of her neck. Eventually, he let out a quiet breath, before changing topics entirely.
"That Grimm crawling up your arm… was that your choice?"
Cinder cocked an eyebrow in the man's direction. "Why?"
"Did Salem give that to you, or did you ask for it?"
Cinder didn't understand this line of questioning. "It was given to me. But it was necessary. It forced me to recover my strength. To push myself harder than I wished to. To not allow myself to break under what that Rose girl had done to me."
Back then… even moving had been agony. Mercury and Emerald had carried her to safety, and then back to Evernight. But she had been in terrible shape. It had taken her months to recover, and by the end of that time, Salem had been tired of waiting.
So, she'd grafted the Grimm to her arm, and forced Cinder to adapt or be consumed.
She had adapted, as she always had.
"I'm sure." Arc sighed. "…Every time I've seen you, it's been further up your body. It seems like it's trying to destroy you."
"And?"
"I would assume you'd rather it didn't do that?"
"It is a battle of wills." Cinder informed him. "My own against the arms. It takes from me when I am at my weakest. But I am not weak. It will advance no further."
"Can you not push it back?"
It was not a question that Cinder had expected the man to ask. She inquired on that. "Is that what you wish? I am your enemy. I had thought you would be quite pleased that this arm threatens to consume me if I show weakness."
"That's what happened earlier, then." Arc muttered. "When I healed you. The arm was trying to take over more of your body while you were injured."
It had been trying to do more than that, in truth. Cinder had not been that severely injured in… not since Mistral, when she'd been defeated by Raven Branwen and cast down into the chasm beneath the Vault of Knowledge.
The last time, it had climbed up her entire arm before she'd been able to stop it. Then, when she'd been defeated by Penny Polendina and Winter Schnee, it had taken more.
Just now… she had been fully passed out, and on death's door. The injury to her stomach had been enough to take all of her aura's attention, trying to hold the wound together.
And because of that, the arm had seen its chance.
It…
If Arc had not been there…
No. Such thoughts were pointless.
"I have fought it off in similar scenarios before." She lied. "Do not give yourself so much credit."
Arc scoffed; harsh and mean. "Right. Because you'd look at me the way you did if your life wasn't in danger."
…What? Cinder had…?
She didn't remember anything up until she'd awoken, other than pain. She'd been… almost caught in some sort of reverie. She'd remembered that feeling of warmth, which could only have been Arc's semblance, but… had there been something else?
"What do you mean?" She asked, because she needed to know what she had done.
"You…" Arc trailed off for a moment. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose, before running a hand down his face. "You just… you looked desperate. You looked up at me, and… it was like you were asking for help."
"What!?" She was infuriated by the mere suggestion. "I would never!"
"And yet, you did." Arc answered. "I had a rock in my hands, and was about to bring it down on your skull. I was going to kill you. But then… I don't know. You screamed. The arm was writhing beside you. It felt like… you were going to die if I did nothing."
"Why did you care?" Her voice carried venom. "You'd been planning to kill me. You could've let it happen and kept your pretty little hands clean."
"I answered that already." Arc spoke, now defiant. "Because you were in front of me, and you were in trouble. Because I could do something about it. So, I did."
"And I didn't believe that then, so why should I now?"
Arc scoffed. "Do you want me to kill you? Is that what you're after?"
Cinder didn't respond. She didn't have a response, in truth.
"Right…" The man just rolled his eyes.
Silence reigned for a good few minutes after that. The crackling of the fire in front of them was the only noise either of them could hear. Cinder peered up to see if the sandstorm had died down, but was unsurprised to find that it was still howling.
They wouldn't be leaving anytime soon, then.
She growled out under her breath as she looked across at Jaune Arc. Despite the fact that the two of them were enemies, his head had begun to droop. Exhaustion, it seemed, threatened to overwhelm him.
In truth, Cinder felt similarly. The wound in her stomach had not healed, and likely would not fully heal until she could apply some sort of salve to it to help her aura along. That was out of the question for the moment, however. The best she could do was avoid getting sand in the wound itself.
"What do you want, Cinder?"
Her face contorted. Such a question was odd. "In what way?"
"In the grand scheme of things." Arc clarified. "At the end of the day, what do you want out of life?"
"This is a rather sudden line of questioning."
"We've got a lot of time to kill."
Cinder supposed that was true.
"I wish for power. To be the strongest." Cinder said, and she found that it was as close to truth as she could summon up.
"You have no other aspirations? No other goals?"
"What would you have me wish for? A nice seaside cabin where I could while my days away in peace, or some other such nonsense?"
"I just expected there to be an end goal to all of this. What use is getting stronger all the time? What use is being the strongest? What do you do then?"
"Then?" Cinder laughed. "Then I…"
Her voice cut off. The question was one she had an answer to, but that answer was not fit for Arc's ears. It was not, in truth, fit for the ears of any other people on Remnant. A secret that Cinder would take to her grave.
Because the reason she wanted power so deeply was so that she would never be helpless again. Never be trapped. Never be enslaved, and taken advantage of.
But she would die before admitting that.
"Then I rule over the people of this world." She came up with in an instant. A falsehood, but one that would serve her purposes fine.
Arc's brow furrowed. "That's it?"
Cinder bristled. "What?"
"I just… you just want to be powerful to rule over the world? Like some two-bit cartoon villain?"
Cinder bit down on the inside of her cheek. "And what is it you want, boy? Let me guess: a loving wife, two children, perhaps a large, mangy dog?"
Arc laughed. "I'm not even sure what I want these days. But I guess I'd like to be happy, if you're curious."
To be happy. So simplistic a notion, and yet Cinder could not find fault in the idea. Happiness was something that oft evaded her. She wondered in that moment what it would be like to find it.
"So simplistic a notion." She repeated from out of her own head. "That's all?"
"I'm keeping my options open at the moment." Arc said; his arms crossed over his chest to keep the heat of the fire active in his core. "What with 'trying to save the world' occupying a pretty decent percentage of my time."
Cinder almost wanted to laugh at the thought of a bunch of children trying to stand against Salem. Despite their efforts so far, all they'd succeeded in doing had been slowing her down. Vale had fallen. The Relic of Knowledge from Haven was in Salem's hands, as was the Relic of Creation from Atlas.
Now, only Destruction and Choice remained. The latter would be easy. Fall was already Cinder's. They needed only to locate the Vault of Choice, and it would be theirs.
"Why stand against her?" Cinder, now, was curious. "Salem is a force of nature more than she is a person. Surely you understand that you cannot possibly stop her?"
"I don't understand that at all." Arc argued almost petulantly. "And even if I thought there was no chance at all for us, I'd still try."
"Why?"
"Because Salem's trying to destroy the world." Arc spoke like it was obvious. "Because I live on the world. My family lives on the world. My friends. I quite like the world; I'll have you know."
"And?"
Arc sneered. "How can you say 'and' like that makes any sense at all?"
Cinder cocked an eyebrow. "Because I do not care what happens to this world."
"Not even if you die in the process?"
"I have allied with Salem. I shall survive when this world is remade."
"It won't be remade," Arc argued. "Salem's not going to remake the world. She's an immortal woman from the dawn of time who's been trying to die ever since. If she succeeds in ending the world, she's going to hope it dying kills her, too."
Cinder laughed. "And you're getting this information from where, exactly? Ozpin?"
"The Relic of Knowledge." Arc countered, and Cinder's brow furrowed. "Ruby asked… actually, y'know what? I don't feel like telling you anything."
Cinder scoffed. "Really? You make something up and then give up that quickly?"
The man glared her way. "Fine. Ruby asked the Relic of Knowledge what Ozpin was hiding from us. It apparently took this to mean we wanted to know the source of everything that Ozpin was working towards. It was… complicated."
Over the course of the next fifteen minutes, Jaune Arc elucidated exactly what it was – or, more accurately, what he said it was – that the Spirit of Knowledge had told to them. About how Salem and Ozma had once been a fair lady and a gallant knight, fallen in love, and wed. How Ozma had perished, and Salem, in a fit of grief, had lied to Gods to get him back, earning her immortality as a punishment. How she had rallied armies against the Gods, and gotten the world nearly destroyed. How they'd come back together, but eventually, once more, come apart.
It was a rather fascinating story.
Cinder was simply certain that was all it was.
"And you expect me to believe this?" Cinder arced an eyebrow at the man in front of her. "You expect me to believe that the Brother Gods were real? That they cursed Salem to eternal life upon Remnant?"
"I told you what we saw." Arc shrugged. "You've used the Relics before, haven't you? You wield literal magic? Feel free to believe it or not. You were the one who pushed to hear what happened."
Now that he mentioned it, he was right. She had pushed to hear his story. And what a story it had been.
"I'm curious," The man continued. "After what I've said, assuming it's true,"
"A rather large assumption."
"Assuming it's true," He pushed onwards. "Would that change anything for you? The fact that the world could end, and you with it?"
"It does change things." Cinder admitted. "Of course, if you think I'm going to magically switch sides and throw in my lot with you all, then you're going to be rather disappointed."
Arc frowned. "Why? How can you still side with Salem when–"
"First of all, because what you tell me is likely false, and I have no reason to believe it." Cinder began. "Second of all, because I do not believe you and your 'side' have any chance in hell at beating Salem. Even if Salem were to destroy the world, I believe I would live quite a bit longer on her side than yours. And third of all, because even if Salem means to destroy the world, I have no intention of allowing that to happen."
Arc's eyes widened. "What?"
"I am gathering power for more than my own self-satisfaction." Cinder spoke. "I am gathering power to become the strongest being on Remnant. If what you say is true, then all you have done is reduce the amount of time I have to gather that power in order to stop Salem myself from ending the world."
Arc seemed shocked by this information. Cinder laughed. "Does that surprise you?"
"You'd betray Salem?"
"Betray?" Cinder laughed. "No. It is not a betrayal. Not when Salem herself has known that this is to come from the very moment that she took me in. She expects my rebellion. It is no secret between us. When I am ready, I shall challenge her, and when I defeat her, I shall usurp her."
Arc's expression was a betrayal in its own right; showing how much he doubted that such an event might come to pass.
"You believe me incapable?"
"I know you're incapable." He corrected, and Cinder's smile pulled downwards into a frown. "I'm not even saying that anyone else would be, either. Ozpin himself has never been able to stand up against Salem. No matter how much power he has."
"I defeated him with ease when I was younger, and less powerful." Cinder argued. "I have already surpassed him."
"Have you surpassed every single hero in recorded history?" Arc continued. "Have you become stronger than anyone has ever been before? Because I somehow doubt that Ozpin has never tried sending people after Salem; hell, I doubt he's never tried to face her with a small army. And yet, Salem still stands. She still rules over the Grimmlands, and the Grimm themselves. Right now, she's trying to conquer the world – has already conquered a lot of it – …and you think you can beat her?"
Cinder snarled as she summoned a dagger utilizing the Maiden's power, and threw it at Arc. He deflected it with his right gauntlet, causing it to impact the wall behind him. It sunk deep into the sandstone.
"You speak as if you know me," Cinder tried to keep her voice measured, but anger had snuck its way into her tone. "But you know nothing! The power I wield–"
"In that vision, I watched Salem use her magic to crumple a Giant Nevermore the size of a small town into a ball of flesh no wider than a baseball." Arc interrupted her. "I was there, fighting her alongside my allies, and watched as Hazel Rainart beat her to a pulp. Do you know what happened? She looked up at him boredly. She didn't care. It was only because Ozpin had his cane – which he had been building energy up within for years – that we were able to temporarily defeat her, and escape with our lives."
Arc met her gaze. In his eyes was a sort of defiant fire. "You were the one who called her a force of nature. And you think you can be stronger than that?"
"I will become stronger than her! I have to. Because I–"
'You think you're entitled to everything just because you've suffered, but suffering isn't enough! You can't just be strong; you have to be smart! You can't just be deserving; you have to be worthy! But all you have ever been is a bloody migraine!'
Watts' words – which had been drumming about in her head for the past few months – once again assaulted her when she thought she'd been rid of them entirely.
"Because what?" Arc wasn't asking out of malice like one might've expected. There was a genuine curiosity in his voice.
She'd been about to say 'because she deserved to'. Because she'd lived her entire life by that creed. Because she'd suffered so much, been put through so much, she felt as if the world owed her.
And she'd proven herself correct, hadn't she? Even despite her failings in Atlas, it was her here now, and Watts a pile of ashes in the ruins. She… she had risen above, just like she had time after time for her entire life.
She was going to become the strongest there was. She was destined to be.
Otherwise, what had been the point?
"It's nothing." She clammed up. She understood it was suspicious, but she was done talking about this. "I will exceed Salem's might. That is all you need to know."
Arc… his eyes studied her for a while in silence after that. Cinder met his gaze for a while, but eventually gave up, seeing he was not trying to challenge her, or some other such nonsense.
It was strange. He was her enemy – aside from the Rose girl, her greatest enemy – and yet she was less on edge than she normally was in the middle of Evernight's dining hall. Despite the wound in her stomach meaning that she could barely defend herself if things came to blows – she had already flung a dagger at him, even if he'd brushed it off like it was nothing – she just felt…
Calm.
She was not sure what to make of that.
They did not speak. Not for quite some time. Cinder sat with her back to the canyon wall and allowed the fire to warm her. All around them, the desert was growing colder. It had already dropped below freezing, but it was entirely possible it would grow colder still. Cinder was hoping it abated.
She zoned out for a while. If they weren't talking, and weren't killing each other, then there was simply nothing to do. Cinder watched the flames lick at the air above, and tried to think of nothing.
She failed.
Her mind, as it had for months now, went back to those words that Watts had spoken to her. How he had called her unworthy. But such could not possibly be true. No one had suffered like she had suffered.
Really? Do you truly believe that?
…She wasn't sure.
She also wasn't sure how long she'd been lost in her head, but when she looked up, it was to find the man across from her asleep.
…What?
For a moment, she couldn't believe it. It was so ridiculous a prospect that she hadn't even considered it a possibility. Assuredly, he had looked exhausted – the same was almost certainly true of her – but she'd thought him better than that. Someone who had managed to be such a thorn in her side simply could not be undone by something as pathetic as the urge to sleep, could he?
And yet… the longer she watched, the surer she became that he was asleep. His breaths were even. His movements incredibly dull.
He had actually fallen asleep.
And, in doing so, he had surrendered his life.
It wasn't even a matter of chance. She would summon a dagger, and throw it into his throat, and that would be that. He'd be dead before he had the chance to do anything. She wouldn't even be in any danger.
She did the first part. A dagger of burning obsidian came to life within her right hand. She took aim. His throat wasn't exposed, but she could just as easily settle for one of his eye sockets. The blade would pierce through to the brain, and that would be that.
And yet…
Something stayed her hand. She watched the man across from her breathe evenly. He was… genuinely asleep. She knocked on the canyon wall behind her. He did not jolt awake.
A noise such as that would have been more than enough to rouse her, even as a child. She had grown quite good at sleeping whilst no one was around, getting in as much rest as she possibly could when the Madame was not looking. She had also gotten good at waking at a moment's notice, and getting right back to work.
She had discovered that, while being slow came at great pain at the end of a day's work, collapsing entirely from exhaustion came at an even greater pain.
And yet this man…
She threw the dagger beside his head. Not intending to hit him. She could summon another in but a moment. She was merely testing him. Seeing if he was truly asleep.
He did not wake. The dagger joined another of its brethren in the canyon wall behind him.
Cinder summoned yet another dagger, and then just… stared.
…
She was not entirely certain how long this went on for. How long she looked across the fire as the light danced across Arc's face. How long she sat there with him entirely at her mercy, and did nothing.
Her mission, the mission that Tyrian had less than subtly forced on to her, had been to clean up her mess. Jaune Arc was a part of that.
By all that made sense in the world, she should kill him and be done with it.
…
She allowed the dagger to fade from existence, even as she pulled up her legs so that they were against her chest in order to shield her core from the worst of the cold.
"…Now we're even." She whispered.
The man did not so much as stir.
/
Jaune understood that he'd fucked up rather royally when he awoke the next morning.
In fact, he was rather surprised he'd awoken at all, given that he'd fallen asleep in front of a woman who could've easily killed him without so much as rousing him from slumber.
His eyes shot open, and he reached for a Crocea Mors that wasn't there. His sword and shield both were still – likely – perched somewhere in the sands above the canyon he was trapped within.
More importantly…
His eyes widened.
The fire in front of him was still burning. If anything, it was stronger than it had been the previous night. But…
Cinder wasn't there.
Where there had been a megalomaniac the previous night, there was now only a slight imprint in the sandstone. A slight shifting in the light layer of sand that suggested someone had once been present at that spot.
…
She had… left?
It didn't add up inside his head. The idea that Cinder had watched him fall asleep, done nothing, and departed? What was more, she had seemingly spent a decent amount of time sticking by the fire, too. She had thrown a good majority of the firewood that Jaune had gathered last evening onto it, which explained why it hadn't long-since burnt out.
The desert was starting to heat up, though, and so he used his boot to scatter the firewood. The embers would burn themselves out over the next few minutes, but…
"HEY!"
The voice shocked him out of his own head, and he turned towards the sound of it to see… well, to see a canyon wall, given he was a good twenty meters below the earth. Even so, he recognized that voice.
"Hello!?" He called out. "Yang!? Is that you!?"
"Jaune! Is that you!?"
"Yeah!" He laughed, relieved to hear familiar voices. "Follow the smoke?"
"Yeah!" Suddenly, blonde hair poked over the edge of the canyon wall above him, and he saw Yang waving down to him. He waved back. "Sorry for taking so long!"
"We were worried sick, you know!" Nora shouted as she poked her head over the edge as well, and Nora's shouts were twice as loud as a normal person's. "Ren said Cinder carried you off into the distance, and then you just disappeared!"
"Ah, well… we fought, but… actually, y'know what!? I'll explain more when you guys get me out of here; how about that!?"
"Deal, vomit boy!"
"Stop calling me that!"
"Deal, vomit man!"
He supposed he'd have to settle for that.
Notes:
Our 'heroes' first meeting within the canyon ends in a stalemate. Cinder chooses not to kill Jaune even though she definitely could've, and life goes on. How will things go from here? Who knows. Find out next time!
For more on me, and my stories, check out my linktree! https://linktr.ee/deferonz
Chapter 4Notes:
Yo! Welcome back to more of this. Not a ton to say. Let's just start!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"Alright, tell us what happened."
They were, the seven of them, sat together within Shade's library. It was located within the basement of the ziggurat itself, which meant that it was lit entirely artificially, giving it a bit of a dingy atmosphere. Despite that, it was cozy in a way that Jaune wasn't entirely certain how to describe.
It was perhaps because of the lack of windows that the area felt smaller than it really was. There had to be a few hundred thousand books down there, and yet Jaune felt like his childhood home had been larger.
It definitely hadn't been. Not even close.
His current line of thought – his feelings on the library of Shade – probably arose from his lack of wanting to answer the question that had been asked of him by Ruby.
Jaune understood that admitting the particulars of what had gone down within that canyon within the desert just out of Vacuo shouldn't have been difficult, of course. He and Cinder had battled, he'd done something really dumb in healing her, they'd talked, and then she'd disappeared, apparently having decided to spare his life.
It was just…
Well…
It was odd, in a way, how it had been a lot easier to talk to Cinder than it was going to be explaining that he'd talked to Cinder.
"Well, first of all," Jaune cleared his throat. "Cinder and I dueled down to where both of our auras were shattered."
"Damn, you're that strong now?" Yang eyed him with surprise. "I didn't realize you had that in you."
"She wasn't at her best, that was for certain." Jaune wasn't making an excuse for Cinder, of all people. It was more that he could tell she should've been able to defeat him. That she hadn't been able to suggested there was more at play there then met the eye. "If I had to bet? She was too angry at seeing me alive to think clearly. I got the drop on her more than once with some of the upgrades that Ruby helped me with, too."
"Ah, yeah, that would do it." Yang hummed.
"How did the upgrades hold up, by the way?" Ruby leaned forwards. "Anything jam or give you problems at all?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. "Oh, I just remembered that I think I broke my nose."
Blake stepped around the table and looked down at him. She studied his face for a few moments, then hummed. "You did."
"Is it obvious?"
"Not too bad, no. You want me to set it?"
"I'd… rather a medical professional did."
"I understand." She walked back over to Team RWBY on the other side of the table. "Continue."
He grunted. "Well, outside of knowing I have a trip to the nurse's office here in a few minutes… we both lost our auras, and then the ground beneath us gave way. I guess the sandstone we were fighting on wasn't too strong?"
Ren nodded his head. "You fell into the canyon, then? The both of you?"
"Yeah. I got lucky; I hit a ledge about halfway down. Passed out from the impact but woke up okay… I don't know, a few hours later, maybe? The sandstorm had hit by then, so I figured you guys weren't going to come and get me 'til it passed."
"We wanted to so badly!" Nora assured him. "You have to believe us, fearless leader!"
Jaune snorted. "I do, Nora. I do. Anyways, I woke up on a ridge, looked down and saw Cinder passed out. I thought she'd just fallen, but when I jumped my way down there, I found out she'd fallen on a super sharp rock. It punctured right through her side. Around here."
"Ouch." Yang muttered. "Well, I mean, bitch deserves it, but ouch."
"Here, here." Blake snickered under her breath.
"Anyways, I uh…" Jaune decided to abridge the next bit. "Cinder's Grimm arm started freaking out. I think it's technically a different organism from her? Like, they're connected, but only just, you know?"
"That makes some vague amount of sense." Weiss nodded.
"So, she screamed bloody murder, the arm was flailing, and she was…" Jaune pursed his lips. "She was going to die."
It was odd that, even without saying anything, everyone around him seemed to immediately cotton onto what he was about to say. Nora groaned. "Jauney…" Blake just rolled her eyes. Weiss ran a hand down her face. Yang actually laughed. Ruby… Jaune couldn't really decipher how Ruby felt.
Ren was… studying him. Likely, he had his semblance active.
"You saved her life?" Ren asked him. He knew the answer to the question, so Jaune wasn't entirely sure why he bothered.
"…I did."
No one seemed all that shocked at this information. Jaune was almost – almost – offended. "No one's surprised?"
"You are you." Weiss sighed out. "For better or, in this case, for worse."
"Okay… I think uh… I think that's…"
"Not a compliment."
"Okay." He nodded his head. "That's probably fair."
"Probably?" Yang eyed him.
"Okay, that's definitely fair."
"Better." Yang prodded his arm. "Alright, keep going. What happened?"
"Well… she pretty much immediately got on top of me with a knife to my throat. I uh… probably should've died for doing what I did. It was dumb."
"Very, but you are alive." Blake stated. Ren hummed in agreement.
"She questioned why I did what I did. I told her it was because I saw her in pain, and I was there, and I could do something about it. She uh… didn't really believe me at first. I'm not actually sure if she ever believed me."
"Did she flee after that?" Ren jumped in.
"No. Uh… she might've been about to, but her legs gave out from under her. Pretty sure she had some adrenaline spike that let her do the interrogating at first, but once it ended, she collapsed. I… again, probably should've killed her. But I didn't. I… we came to some sort of temporary truce, I guess."
Nora raised an eyebrow. Seeing that this was apparently not enough, she then raised her other eyebrow. "Okay, fearless leader, you didn't make friends with Cinder Fall, did you?"
"No." He laughed. "No, very much not. But… we talked. There wasn't much else to do."
"Did you get anything valuable out of her?" Blake, as always, was concerned about appropriate things.
"I mean… nothing inherently valuable, no. I learned a bit about her backstory, I guess?"
"I would assume a troubled home life?" Blake sat forwards. "Abused in some way?"
"Er… yeah. How did you know?"
"Cinder is not at all a rarity in the world, Jaune. As much as I would like for her to be. I met many who had gone through similar in my days in the White Fang. Adam himself was one of them."
"Cinder said she was enslaved. Or, well… she was adopted by someone who essentially treated her as a slave. This was in Atlas, apparently."
Weiss grumbled. "It's… not as surprising as I'd like it to be. There have been rumors for years about the glitzier parts of Atlas. Hell, more than rumors in some cases. There was a major event when I was younger… perhaps eight or nine? Around there? One of the casinos in the downtown area – which is seedy, relative to Atlas – this place called 'Neverland', was raided by the Specialists. It was found to be a hive of human trafficking and extortion. The dealers and machines were set up to bait people in with winnings at first, then pull the rug out from under them by cheating or rigging games against them. Most people just left, but some, the addicts, lost too much. Then, the casino would swoop in and… well, suffice it to say that it was a rather dark time in Atlas. That raid brought down a lot of other businesses, to the point that entire streets of Atlas' old downtown were closed down."
"Damn." Yang muttered. "Shit sucks."
"Yeah." Blake was clearly feeling this more than anyone besides him. Jaune because he'd heard it from Cinder herself, and Blake because she'd known Adam, who had gone through something similar, and had been destroyed by it.
"Well, anyways," Jaune tried to get things back on track, since there was more information to share. "I uh… sort of ended up telling her an awful lot, too. Not like strategic stuff, or anything, before anybody freaks out!"
Everyone had sort of been freaking out.
"I meant… I told her what we saw in the vision Jinn showed us. About Ozma and Salem. I was hoping that hearing that the world was going to be destroyed if Salem won would be enough to convince her to… I don't know, switch sides, I guess?"
Nora's frown told him what she felt about that idea. "As if we'd accept her on our side."
"As much as I agree on principle, Nora, we could frankly use all the help we can get." Ren countered. "Although I am guessing based on the fact that she is not here that she didn't care very much about that?"
"She didn't believe me in the first place, I don't think." He shrugged. "I mean… it's kind of an outrageous story. I wouldn't believe me either."
"Same." Yang muttered. "I mean, shit, the brother gods are real, magic was everywhere, there's an immortal witch from the dawn of time in love with a semi-immortal wizard also from the dawn of time who was also the king of vale–"
"We don't technically know that." Weiss pointed out.
"It is the most obvious thing in human history." Yang countered, before continuing, "and he's also the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Oh, and that immortal witch from the dawn of time is trying to assemble four ancient relics to resummon the gods and bring about the end of the world. Did I miss anything?"
"No, I think you hit the major points." Blake chuckled. "Anything else, Jaune?"
"Well… embarrassingly enough, I fell asleep."
Everyone looked shocked at hearing that. "Like, in front of Cinder?" Ruby questioned.
"Yeah." He sighed. "I had overused my semblance, and my aura needed to recover. I think because of that I was more exhausted than I normally should've been, and… the fire was nice and warm. I closed my eyes for a second… and then I woke up in the morning. About five minutes before you guys found me."
Yang whistled. "Lucky dog."
"Yeah, I feel like I should probably have been killed eight times over yesterday." Jaune admitted. "But I wasn't."
"Thank the gods." Weiss groaned. "Still, does that mean that Cinder Fall spared your life out of… what, honor? You spared her life, she spared yours?"
"I prefer it to the alternative of you both being dead." Yang said, shrugging. "I'd take this a hundred times out of a hundred."
"Same." Blake met his gaze. "We're all incredibly thankful you're okay, Jaune."
"I… thank you, all of you."
"Hah. What are friends for, right?" Yang grinned his way. "Alright! I don't know about you all, but I'm starving. Let's get some food!"
"I still have to go get my broken nose looked at."
"Oh, shit. Right. Okay, you go do that! We're going to go get food!"
"You're all traitors."
"Hey, we waited to eat this long!" Yang scoffed. "I think you should be thanking us for hearing you out! I'm starving!"
"Yeah!" Nora turned to Ren.
"No, Nora, I am not making you cake, pancakes, or anything involving sweets. You have had more than enough this week."
"Oh, come on! I didn't even ask about that!"
"You were going to."
"How do you know that!?"
"Nora, I have known you for going on twenty years now." Ren met his partners eyes. "And let me tell you; you have a tell."
"That is?"
"You drool."
Nora reaches up, touches her lips, and pulls away to see saliva on her fingers.
"…You win this round, Rennie." She glared.
Jaune joined the others in laughing at Nora's antics.
It felt like all was right in the world.
/
"You what!?"
Cinder kept all noise she was making to a minimum. She was not an idiot. She understood the situation she was in.
She was back within her hotel room in the middle of Vacuo. It was just as modest as it had been the previous day. She'd turned the air up so that it was warmer within the space. It had been far colder than she preferred the previous night out in the desert, which meant she was trying to compensate for that now. It wasn't really working. She hadn't stopped shivering since she'd gotten back into her room and barricaded herself inside.
She was telling herself that that was purely because of the cold. She was not sure even she bought that.
She could not swaddle herself with the hotel bed's covers yet, either, given that she had to be dressed down by Tyrian first and foremost.
She had not been planning on speaking with Tyrian, of course. That had very much not been the plan. But given he was already holding something over her, she had had no choice but to answer him when he'd called.
And lying to him – telling him that she'd killed Team RWBY and that idiot Arc – would've been a far poorer choice than speaking truth.
"I said that I failed to kill them yesterday." Cinder repeated.
"Ah. Aha… how interesting, Cinder," Tyrian gritted his teeth. "Here I was thinking that you could not continue to impress me with your failures, and yet lo and behold, here we are!"
She has not seen or heard Tyrian like this in quite a long time. Normally, he at least kept something of a lid on just how maniacal he could truly be, but it seemed as if he'd decided to abandon pretense and address her how he truly felt.
This was how he had once been when she'd first arrived in Evernight. A caustic wretch, incapable of anything but ridicule and mockery. She'd hated him from the first moment they'd met, and hated him further when Salem kept pitting him against her in order to test how far along her training was coming.
In all her days, she had never once beaten him.
In fairness, however, she had not had the chance to face him since becoming even half of the Fall Maiden. She knew now that she would decimate him without effort, but even so, he still lorded over her like she was the same incapable brat she'd been when they'd first met.
She had half a mind to bite back at him, but for the moment, she wanted to keep her failure, and, more importantly, the survival of Team RWBY, a secret from Salem.
And that meant playing along with whatever it was Tyrian would deem as punishment for her failure.
She was half expecting him to just tell Salem exactly what had happened. She'd be summoned back to Monstra, and then probably tortured for a few hours before being sent back out on her merry way. In truth, Salem still needed her, at least for a while. She was the Fall Maiden. Until she had opened the Vault of Choice, she was essential.
Of course, that did not mean that she, as she was, was necessary.
She'd cottoned onto that fact long ago. After all, the Grimm arm that threatened to overwhelm her every minute of every day would, in theory, entirely subsume her if she was not at her best. When it did, it would likely keep her body alive inside of it, utilizing the unthinking, unfeeling body of the Fall Maiden for its own ends.
So, no, Cinder did not think she was necessary, so much so that she could not be expressly killed.
And that… was not much of a bargaining chip.
"I will make up for my failure." She spoke simply. Tyrian loved to speak in flowery language, but he did not care for hearing it. Only cold logic. "I was caught off guard by one of Rose's friends' abilities. Jaune Arc. I believe you know his name?"
Tyrian's expression shifted more than Cinder would've expected, then. He looked… pensive. "Oh? Him, hm?"
"…Do you have some knowledge of him that I am not privy to?"
"Oh, no. Nothing really." Tyrian giggled, back to his normal self. "Nothing you need concern yourself over, Cindy-poo. I suppose I am simply surprised that you would be overwhelmed by so feeble a combatant. Truly, how far you have fallen."
"He was not nearly as feeble as I expected him to be. He had grown exponentially stronger since our last bout, taking place only a few months ago in that strange pocket dimension created by the Relic of Creation."
"Hm… hm… Intriguing." Tyrian massaged at his chin. "Well, Cinder, you are, as always, a complete failure, but at least you have brought me something to think about. Far more than I expected, in truth."
He was needling her for the sake of needling her. That was obvious. There was no rhyme or reason to his words. Just the will to inflict pain upon her.
She was used to it, of course. She'd been dealing with such behavior since she'd been fifteen years old.
"I will begin planning my next attempt to eliminate them." She spoke, because she had nothing else to be doing.
Tyrian sighed wearily. "Yes, yes, I'm sure. Accomplish that before I return to Vacuo, would you? I'm taking the terrible twosome back to Evernight to give Salem the chance to fill them in on what they'll be doing. Allow me to make it clear that, if I return and find Team RWBY and their little friend alive?"
Tyrian's expression darkened. "We will not be discussing anything further. Am I understood, Cinder?"
She was not afraid. Despite the threat, she was not afraid. Despite her hand tightening on her scroll as she met the man's gaze, she was not afraid. Despite swallowing down on some spittle within her mouth…
She was not afraid.
"I understand."
"That was not my question." Tyrian hissed. "Am. I. Understood?"
"…You're understood."
"Good." Tyrian smiled. Gone was the look of seething fury that had been present within his expression mere moments ago, replaced with the same faux jovial attitude he normally carried. "Well, then, until next we meet, Cinder darling! I bid thee adieu!"
The call went dead. Cinder allowed her arms to fall back to her sides. She placed her scroll down on the bedside table, before shucking off most of her outfit and climbing into the bed itself.
It was warm. She needed it to be.
She stared up at the ceiling for a long while after that. She tried to sleep, but despite the exhaustion that hung over her, that dogged her every step, she could not manage to find slumber.
Instead… instead, she tried to think of how she was going to kill those five idiots who'd gotten in her way so very many times. How she would go about finally ridding herself of them.
The seconds turned to minutes which turned to hours. The sun outside began to set. It was… probably somewhere around four in the afternoon, but Cinder had not slept in going on thirty-six hours at that point.
She was used to worse. This was nothing.
Yet, strangely, as sleep eluded her, she found her thoughts straying away from planning the deaths of Team RWBY, and towards one Jaune Arc.
She remembered, not for the first time since departing that canyon and leaving the man alive, the warmth that had encompassed her when Jaune Arc had used his semblance upon her. The way that the agony, the terrible, coursing pain, had faded, and been replaced by a sense of…
…No. It was nothing. Nothing at all.
She turned so that she was laid out on her side, closed her eyes, and forced herself to think of nothing at all.
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TO BE CONTINUED