Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Indolent]

The bolt ricocheted off a quick slash of the sheathe blade, Blake’s eyes locking onto Cinder’s as the young maiden nocked her arrows. The shots flew, and the center one actually came to a halt instead of flying down the alleyway in a clean miss. Blake’s hand gripped the shaft in the middle, the tip scant inches away from her face and its dust payload still hissing as she kept Cinder’s gaze, and finally gave the fall maiden and her surprise reinforcements her first word of acknowledgement.

“Enough”

The haft snapped in her hands as she clenched it into a fist, and standing where she’d been was a fiery facsimile of her right before it exploded, igniting the arrow’s head at the same time. It was a dangerous action in and of itself, but what it most importantly did was cut the two young huntresses off from each other, and making the path between Cinder and the arrows she’d just fired past Blake a treacherous one.

She didn’t even have time to consider that before Blake tore out of the flames like a demon, her blade ramming straight into Cinder’s gut. The Right Hand of the fang was no longer testing the waters; The next strike came before Cinder could even think as something hit her across the chin like a rocket, sending her spinning into the air before the air supply was suddenly ripped out of her lungs again as her makeshift leash jerked her even further upwards. By the time the flames cleared in front of Gretchen, the maiden and shadow fang were gone.

But of course! Gretchen groused internally at the bolt batted aside as if it were a mere nuisance, a simmering growl the only outward reaction as her hands shifted along Dearth's length. The shillelagh was brandished in a twirl of the hands as the huntress sprinted in to follow up her attack, keenly aware that she was barely registering on the Hand's radar with Cinder's presence. The grating feeling of frustration weighed on her twofold when the faunus made that abundantly clear in way of separating Gretchen from the Maiden via a fanning of flames that divided the alley and them.

"Cinder!" A shrill cry made for her friend, the huntress in green's nimble fingers snapped to one of two cases resting against her thighs, pulling free a bolt with its receptacle revealing an aqua blue shimmer. Wresting the head free from the shaft, she crushed it in hand and threw it down into the flames' base, a rushing sound rising from the spontaneous creation of water that snuffed the flames out. A hurried cast of the eyes confirmed they were gone and a frantic jostling within the folds of her scarf bid Gretchen to look skyward, as Brosel rose to full height as to indicate where they'd gone complete with urgent yips.

"Dammit. Hang on!" She realized her poor wording considering the treatment the Maiden received in the entirety of this conflict, wincing internally in an instant before brushing it aside as Dearth unceremoniously morphed back to its crossbow form. An inconsolable mood to her form could be noted, stemming from a number of things surrounding the entire affair, whether it was the attack in a populated area, the seemingly murderous intent bearing for Cinder, or that freaking horrifying General was on the scene. A minuscule addendum to it all was that Gretchen was displeased with the inefficacy she displayed in the whole of it combined with the falling number of bolts she had on hand, a growing factor that could drastically affect her ability.

She swallowed the rising bile pertaining to it all and fired into the brick wall, aggregating them in steps as footholds for her to monopolize in reaching the top. In a fluid motion, Dearth was stowed into portable form gripped in one hand as Gretchen maneuvered her way to the roof-side.

Whether those questions were answered at all or just met with the silence of the wind passing them by...once Blake was gone she exhaled several times before dragging herself over to the edge of the roof and trying to look over the edge for any sign of Gretchen.

The second Cinder made to eke out the tinier Rainart was the same second she saw a blur of colors shoot over and past, a somersault of sorts that landed with softness that even the ninja faunus would have to appreciate, her demeanor abundantly clear Gretchen was more than ready to engage in a melee to the death. Except the leader of the operation wasn't there any longer, only a severely injured Maiden. The next second saw her kinder side emerge, a shocked gasp intermixed in a cry at the sight of Cinder's injuries, their extent, falling over her to ascertain her conditions.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't able to stop her, Cinder. From brutalizing you like that. Oh god, what did she do... she dislocated your knee!" Her solid footing really only applied to the scenarios of battle, this was anything but that, something she had immense difficulty. Whether that was something inherent to her her entire career or as a side effect of the night at Beacon remained to be seen. Still, the training prevailed as she moved her younger peer into a more comfortable position, applicable for the knee's relocation.

"My brother's down there. I don't know what's going on as of yet but seems the fight's over. We've got to go." Cinder would find a lightness softly alighting on her chest, a pair of ears twitching into view as Brosel expressed concern of his own, paws reaching for the chin in an assuaging gesture. "Sorry for this!"

There was a painful crack.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Blake turned and took a few steps towards the edge of the roof as she pulled a ragged edge off of one of her sleeves to wipe Cinder's blood off her blade. She held it up to the light, none of her motions indicated that she even heard the maiden until she spoke.

"To me? Absolutely nothing."

Her voice was calm as she pocketed the rag and looked out towards the horizon, eyes scanning the city streets for Carnelian's reinforcements.

"No human's ever made me bleed in a fight I didn't start. My parents weren't poor, and I didn't grow up in the mines. Is that what you think I am? A scared, angry girl lashing out for personal revenge? No. There's nothing personal about this, human. I do this for every faunus. For everyone that's been under a human's whip. For every faunus who grew up an orphan because of human cruelty. For every unjust scar that your kind have left. Heh...."

Her gaze went upwards, and there was almost something wistful in her words.

"...Other faunus keep asking me how I could side with him too. Tell me I'm acting like a monster, that the humans can't be worth siding with the grimm. I wish they understood. That humans aren't as bad as grimm."

Her gaze finally met Cinder's own as she looked over her shoulder, her eyes wide with prideful fury as she spat out her next words.

"They're worse."

A dark, terrible roar started to fill the air, the air rustling around Blake

"Worse because they have the capacity to be better, and they aren't. Because for as many faunus as the grimm have killed, the humans have probably killed more. Your kind had one thousand years to change their ways before I was born, before the Shadow Fang forged me into the weapon of vengeance for every faunus that has suffered at your kind's hands. One thousand years to remove our chains and take your boots off our back. That's more time than you deserved. And you will get no more.

The roar came to a head as the massive airship came to a hovering halt besides Blake, a grimm itself in all but truth as its engines buffeted the roof with winds that send Blake's hair and robes billowing

"You want to know why? Because when forced to choose between two monsters sitting on top of the world, I'll pick the ones who kill indiscriminately over the ones who only hurt us. Goodbye, little maiden. Get in my way again, and you'll be hung from the chains you humans refused to let go of."

The airship turned, and Blake leaped from the side of the building to grasp the handle in the hold as it sped off into the sky for where the storm had been raging moments ago.

"...…." Cinder didn't have a response to any of that, or at least none that actually got spoken. Part of her silence was because of the still throbbing pain she was feeling from everything Blake had just done to her, but that was a minor part of it. It was much more that she could see a lot of herself in the cat faunus, beyond the superficial fact that they were both black-haired and yellow-eyed individuals. She could understand, even sympathize with where Blake was coming from. She knew personally how cruel humans could be, how hard it was to grow up under the thumb of people like that. How much it motivated the teenage maiden to stand up and be somebody to do something about all the long-standing hate in the world. She didn't know how much of an effect she could have on more than a thousand years of hate and pain and discrimination, but she was determined to find out by doing all she could. Blake had a similar motivation, from what she heard.

But that was where the similarities ended. Where Blake's motivation took her, that was somewhere Cinder believed that was a dark place she could never go, and neither did she ever want to. The methods the Shadow Fang faunus used to achieve this better world she wanted, the people the cat allied herself with, stood shoulder to shoulder with...Cinder couldn't condone any of it. Slaughter like that, attacking the schools that kept them all safe and razing kingdoms, it was wrong.

It was only after Blake was gone that Cinder spoke up. "I'm sorry you feel that way...but I won't let you do any of it. I will stop you." The teenager made a promise to herself. Even if it would take a lot more training in both general combat ability and maiden magic to be any real match for Ozpin's forces. as this recent conflict had demonstrated.
​

The second Cinder made to eke out the tinier Rainart was the same second she saw a blur of colors shoot over and past, a somersault of sorts that landed with softness that even the ninja faunus would have to appreciate, her demeanor abundantly clear Gretchen was more than ready to engage in a melee to the death. Except the leader of the operation wasn't there any longer, only a severely injured Maiden. The next second saw her kinder side emerge, a shocked gasp intermixed in a cry at the sight of Cinder's injuries, their extent, falling over her to ascertain her conditions.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't able to stop her, Cinder. From brutalizing you like that. Oh god, what did she do... she dislocated your knee!" Her solid footing really only applied to the scenarios of battle, this was anything but that, something she had immense difficulty. Whether that was something inherent to her her entire career or as a side effect of the night at Beacon remained to be seen. Still, the training prevailed as she moved her younger peer into a more comfortable position, applicable for the knee's relocation.

"My brother's down there. I don't know what's going on as of yet but seems the fight's over. We've got to go." Cinder would find a lightness softly alighting on her chest, a pair of ears twitching into view as Brosel expressed concern of his own, paws reaching for the chin in an assuaging gesture. "Sorry for this!"

There was a painful crack.

"Hey." Cinder greeted, remarkably casual all things considered. She was just that happy to see a friendly face. "And don't worry about it, I couldn't stop her myself either." She pointed out. If Watts were here...he'd probably say something along the lines of 'told you so' but Cinder only thought about that briefly before refocusing on the situation. "Yeah…" Thinking about that, and more importantly, discussing the arrival of Gretchen and her brother, that could wait until a better time. "...leaving sounds good." She agreed.

There was a cry of pain in response to the knee but after it passed, Cinder gave a light smile. "Don't sweat it, I was gonna ask you to un-dislocate it myself." The teenager shakily pushed herself up to standing, testing if she could put any weight on--nope! She winced. "Preferably by car or boat or airship or something." She added in regards to leaving. Though she was so deadset on getting out of here that she would have grabbed the siblings and flown out of here, if it came down to that.​

 

[Indolent]

Swinging her left arm off to the side with a bit more oomph this time, the ground in front of her seemed to positively erupt. Debris went flying off to the side as the force behind her swing alone was on it's way towards Hazel. Her opening act played, Tiger played the odds over in her head. Would he try tanking it again like he had her punch? Would he attempt to dodge and so to which side? Her ears twitched in anticipation.

Whatever Hazel ended up deciding to do, Tiger braced herself and jumped up high. Leaving the spot where she'd previously been standing a miniature crater. For the brief moments that she was airborne, she felt...relieved. The wind blowing through her hair, gliding across her face, an opponent who wasn't all talk. It was...nice.

Shame that she'd have to kill them.

Rearing her left hand back and closing it up into a fist, the muscles shifted and bulged. Over the years she'd gained enough fine control over her semblance that she could control what parts of her body got beefed up. Most of the time she went for all of it but in cases like this? She could just boost a limb for just a bit of extra gusto in a punch.

She came crashing down with her arm cocked back to smash right into Hazel.

His affecting an air of complete and total impassivity didn't come from a place of feeling invincible, that nothing would go wrong for him in the moment. It was a facade, an outwardly inscrutable representation of himself that was rarely demonstrated in place of his standard berserker practice. It came from the newly gleaned understanding that if he were to approach this melee, if it could so much be called that, with his typical aplomb he would have became a footnote in the Atlesian military's reports, that all being what remained of him when the likes of Tiger was finished with him. It was the beginnings of a personal treatise on abolishing the foolhardy tendencies he so often displayed, finding it poignantly auspicious that he arrived at this realization now. Pragmatically speaking, the endeavor undertaken in the little port's defense and to extricate a maiden or two wasn't ever going to be a waste in its entirety, especially if he was still alive after all this with some modicum of growth, the beginnings of a change to a more calculated approach to battle.

Hazel understood he'd survive the opening act with little trouble, withstanding it under the strength of his aura that would have flared a brisk hazel for each impact from the cobbled debris buffeting him. He also understood it was an unnecessary tactic, especially in the face of an overwhelming opponent such as the one standing before him. So it was a snap decision that saw the Mistralian leveraging the incredible strength inherent to his frame, a sidelong jump that looked more as if he kicked the very earth, a meager eruption in comparison to the one bearing down on him, a move that removed him from harm's way.

He anticipated that she would mark his position, trying for a set-up to a following attack. It was a ploy he'd executed before with ranging success, the latest being that of the bodyguard of the departed, notorious Valkyrie. The sunshine exacerbated the glint in his eyes as he kept the faunus in sight, tracking her trajectory and position relative to him as he prepared a repeat of the evasion maneuver he'd undertaken.

Before Tiger's punch could land, a lightning bolt crashing down mere feet away from where Hazel had been standing caught her attention.

She landed but her suped up punch was a few inches off the mark. The force behind it went careening over Hazel's shoulder threatening to pull him right off his feet as it left nearly a mile long crevice in the street behind him.

"Tch..."

If Tiger were to give Vernal anything it was an unwillingness to surrender.

She could respect that.

Still, weakened as she was, Vernal had once again moved back up the list of priorities. Focusing her energy into her right hand's thumb and forefinger, Tiger let loose a barrage of air bullets to keep Hazel at bay after the punch that went awry. A couple shots flew past him to destroy some debris that had been threatening to fall on some innocent bystanders as well. No need for them to die. They hadn't been the ones fighting.

'You deserve better than this but time's not on my side, unfortunately.' Tiger mused to herself.

A dodge would have been completed were it not for the selfsame lightning bolt that drew Tiger's eye away as well. Realizing the distraction could have very well cost him his life too late, he shifted his figure to mitigate the blow's impact. An unnecessary tactic as Tiger seemed to... overshoot him, for similar reasons, eliciting the first shift in his facial features since their fight's inception. It was that of surprise, born from the maginanimous combination of gratefulness and understanding of the consequences otherwise. The expression persisted in spite of the draft-winds of Tiger's blows, Hazel intuitively resisting being dragged off his feet.

It was then he allowed himself this split second to rotate his gaze over the shoulder, observing the aftermath of the attack. Crystallizing well his judgement of this opponent's strength, cementing the fact that were he hit directly by that... the thought didn't need to be finished.

Reclaiming the prestige of stony stoicism in his features, hazel irises settled onto the Tiger faunus once more with the next instant seeing him languidly raising a single arm to protect the face, his eyes visible across the contours of the forearm as he kept view of Tiger. The air bullets pinged against his form, a series of yellow brown flaring in tandem with their impacts in announcement of a healthy aura stubbornly persisting under the fusillade. He knew he couldn't simply allow for a protracted battle, that they were here just the same as he was, to pursue an objective. And there were more of them than there were of him, owing to the obvious difference in the accomplishment said objectives. Something had to change--

Eve landed in a half-crouch from her dive, Wilt already back in its sheath and completely unfazed by the harrowing wound she'd just inflicted as she straightened up and held a decidedly neutral glance on Vernal over her shoulder. "Lucky. You get to walk away with a scar instead of a prosthetic."

There was nothing savage or gleeful in the way she said it, but neither was there anything remorseful or sympathetic. Her lips curled in a grimace as the winds started to howl and Vernal prepared to take her pain and outrage out on the surroundings, momentarily breaking her razor-focus from the maiden to shield her eyes and assess the potential damage. Most of the civilian element had fled (obviously), but some had merely crowded into buildings nearby and were liable to get caught up in the destruction, while others still were still scattered intermittently with scrolls recording everything; wielded with such confidence one would've been forgiven for believing it made them bulletproof. Humans really were such idiots. There was even some old man flagrantly refusing to get the memo as he pottered down the streets towards them aimlessly, probably too senile and stubborn to deviate from his daily walk routine even with literal armageddon raining down on his neighborhood--

It was only when she saw him lunge that she realized. His stride was anything but aimless.

And it took glimpsing his face to understand that wasn't an old man.





"That's quite enough of that."

Vernal felt the stern, authoritative growl in her ear the same instant she felt a claw-like fist jab into her lower spine and twist, instantly feeling a loss of sensation below her hips. Another hand was gripping the back of her head, almost politely turning it to better facilitate the impolite elbow that smashed into the side of her face, if successful depriving her of consciousness before she could even begin to wonder how this happened when she was hovering a good ten feet off the ground.

Assuming she didn't have any last-ditch tricks to play, her assailant landed silently from his ambush a moment later, quarry still held by a crushing grip around her head even as he bore her aloft for all to see.

"Attention, Talons."

There was a deep, gratified ring of familiarity in the way he said the word, a veteran sneer that spoke of past battles and victories riveting enough to bring a smile to the man's face.

"Your activity here during these trying times is unforgivable. Argus is Atlas's most important trading port, already in upheaval after recent calamities, and you degenerates were arrogant enough to believe a strike carried out in broad daylight would fly under the radar? That this was just going to be tolerated?"

He shook Vernal once for emphasis, and it was obvious in the way his smile deepened into a sneer that he found his next words greatly satisfying to speak.

"I know it might be optimistic of me to expect your kind to have a firm grasp of concepts like luck, but you should be thanking your lucky stars that I was the one tasked with fortifying our military's presence here in light of last month's tragedy. And you had damn well better be thankful for the chance I'm about to give you. In about two minutes my men will have this block completely surrounded; same thing applies for your little friends up the road. Take what you came here for-"

He turned and whipped Vernal dismissively across the street, letting her tumble to a stop at Hound's feet in a battered, crumpled heap.

"-and drag your mangy, flea-infested carcasses out of my city before I give into old vices and exterminate every last one of you pests myself. Like I said, you youngsters are lucky."

He turned his head and spat in Vernal's direction.

"We don't want her kind in Atlas any more than we want yours."

"YOU'RE DEAD-"

Eve's roar of feral outrage was enough to leave a metallic screech in their comms, but it was followed barely a moment later by interference and a yelp of pain as her voice betrayed how unprepared she really was to face this particular enemy (on multiple levels). Wilt had been sent spinning across the street by a parry so quick and technically complex Eve's mind was still catching up to it when she followed suit, repelled with enough violent enthusiasm to send her skidding to a limp stop next to it herself. She hadn't even seen him draw his sword. There was a pause following that, and his next words were brimming with a rage-infused eagerness, like he was at once furious and grateful for the hate he felt blowing his way.

"Is that really your final decision?"​

Tiger's assault ended in abrupt fashion, complete with the widening of the space between the two, as the General made his proclamation. It was enough to bid forward a sense of urgency within Hazel, a recognition that if this man was here so would the Atlesian forces follow. The Rainarts couldn't afford to linger any longer than they already had.

Whatever faults Belladonna might have had, Tiger had one thing she needed to admit.

Belladonna was a damn good leader.

"Sorry."

It was al lthat was said to Hazel as she finally broke eye contact with him and simply turned to walk away.

Their business was done here.

Tiger wasn't worried though. She had a feeling she'd see this stranger again.

There was no verbal reply of any kind, simply a warrior's silent farewell that was more an acknowledgement of the other's prowess, an underlying understanding they would see one another again. And just as well, it was that the faunus wasn't the only one here who had a task to attend to.

The elder Rainart strolled down the main street before ducking off into an adjacent side street, making way out the city for a previously agreed upon point of rendezvous with his sister. Reaching for the padded pocket of his pants, a forlorn grimace was evident in his features within the reflection of the scroll's cracked screen. Thankfully, it flickered to life as he hailed his sister's own utilizing Watts's improvised network with the intention of keeping communications brief, a burst more like.

"Exfil, now."

The one thing that stuck with him after the whole fiasco was the appearance of that person. That person that acted completely differently from the person he knew, intense callousness bounding off her in the way she interacted with the members of the Shadow Fang Hazel gleaned in passing. She looked almost identical in every respect save for the lack of childlike innocence in her mannerism, minor quirks in her appearance. It was a severe, grating dissonance that gave him a weighty pause, as if a stone formed within his gut, the very idea of a Cinder Fall brimming with a megalomaniacal disregard for those around her.

It emboldened the hope that his Cinder was alive and well.

 

[Indolent]

"Hey." Cinder greeted, remarkably casual all things considered.

Spoiler

She was just that happy to see a friendly face. "And don't worry about it, I couldn't stop her myself either." She pointed out. If Watts were here...he'd probably say something along the lines of 'told you so' but Cinder only thought about that briefly before refocusing on the situation. "Yeah…" Thinking about that, and more importantly, discussing the arrival of Gretchen and her brother, that could wait until a better time. "...leaving sounds good." She agreed.

There was a cry of pain in response to the knee but after it passed, Cinder gave a light smile. "Don't sweat it, I was gonna ask you to un-dislocate it myself." The teenager shakily pushed herself up to standing, testing if she could put any weight on--nope! She winced. "Preferably by car or boat or airship or something." She added in regards to leaving. Though she was so deadset on getting out of here that she would have grabbed the siblings and flown out of here, if it came down to that.

"... Probably could've if we did it together, kick some Shadow Fang butt!" Infusing an upbeat tone into the dour circumstances, Gretchen knelt by the maiden's side with cursory glances here and there. Both hands clapped together, the tips of her fingers resting against her chin in contemplation of evacuating a weakened and wounded maiden. Her amber eyes flickered in place, telltale of the stream of thoughts she entertained. Fireman carry? Bridal carry? A travois? Could Brosel support her weight...

"Yeah... dunno if you've noticed but General Carnelian's here, means serious business and worse. The fleet's not going to be far behind so air and sea's not any good--" The scroll shuddered within her pocket, prompting its expedient retrieval and a semi-grave look to her face. "Time to go, we'll meet Hazel on the outskirts." Gretchen swung over to help Fall up to her feet, supporting her with the use of her shoulders. "Hey? Keep the maiden magic business to a minimal, we can't afford to draw attention."

Brosel emerged from one shoulder of Cinder's after he'd decided to keep her company in these sparse minutes, springing off and bouncing down the way with a series of yips.

"S'going to make sure the way is clear and also he really likes you, I'm so happy he has another friend." :')

 

[MyrtenRose]

"... Probably could've if we did it together, kick some Shadow Fang butt!" Infusing an upbeat tone into the dour circumstances, Gretchen knelt by the maiden's side with cursory glances here and there. Both hands clapped together, the tips of her fingers resting against her chin in contemplation of evacuating a weakened and wounded maiden. Her amber eyes flickered in place, telltale of the stream of thoughts she entertained. Fireman carry? Bridal carry? A travois? Could Brosel support her weight...

"Yeah... dunno if you've noticed but General Carnelian's here, means serious business and worse. The fleet's not going to be far behind so air and sea's not any good--" The scroll shuddered within her pocket, prompting its expedient retrieval and a semi-grave look to her face. "Time to go, we'll meet Hazel on the outskirts." Gretchen swung over to help Fall up to her feet, supporting her with the use of her shoulders. "Hey? Keep the maiden magic business to a minimal, we can't afford to draw attention."

Brosel emerged from one shoulder of Cinder's after he'd decided to keep her company in these sparse minutes, springing off and bouncing down the way with a series of yips.

"S'going to make sure the way is clear and also he really likes you, I'm so happy he has another friend." :')

"Maybe so. Might have but a little late for that now, heh heh." She chuckled nervously as she got pulled up to her feet, bracing against the other huntress's shoulder to keep herself standing. "...General who?" Cinder asked, confused. "Guessing they aren't a good guy, then? Dang." She answered her own question, looking yet more displeased by everything. If a fleet is truly incoming...how am I supposed to get to Atlas now? Cinder grimaced with the thought, struggling to figure out an answer. Probably didn't help that her head still hurt. Though when the conversation turn to the topic of Brosel, she managed to give a thin smile.

"That's...good to hear. Kinda don't have many of those these days. Speaking of, you seen Vernal around? I sorta lost track of everything in the madness." The teenager asked as she stepped alongside Gretchen, doing her best to not strain one particular leg. "Before we got jumped, we were supposed to figure out a way into Atlas."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

She whirled on Eve at the suddenness of her words, Blake's senses out of sorts in the mixture of frustration, anger, and fear for the other faunus that had briefly gripped her. Without the mask, her own gaze was as open as it always was; yet another reason she kept it on so often, to the point that it slightly yet noticeably paler than the rest of her skin. She met Eve's eyes with an anxious frown that looked wholly out of place in the eyes that had been so furious, so righteous a minute ago, but she bit it down with a firm nod as she gave her response.

"Right."

Then she was gone, a blur ricocheting from the walls that alighted gently in the airships open hatch. She roved her gaze across the other talons; Tiger with a starting to slightly squirm against Hound under arms, and Wolf in the cockpit. She knelt down and grabbed her mask from where it had dropped to the floor when she'd leaped out after Cinder

"... Lets go. We did what we could. I'll take this up with Lord Ozpin myself; either one of his human pets have gone rogue, or he doesn't respect what we're capable of. either way...." She said as she turned to look down on Argus, one last glare sent to the human infested city as the hatch doors began to slide shut with the hum of gears. She slid the mask on back onto her face, and whatever softness had infected her words below was stamped out.

"...Someone will answer for this transgression."

Eve wasn't even a second behind, the way she turned her back to the softer features that still waited under the cruel visage Blake chose to wear before she could get too lost in it entirely deliberate. A similar reticence defined her even while she stood by the Talon commander at the hatch, her masked features focused on studying Blake's own face whenever it wasn't pointed her way right up until the moment she covered it back up in that warped misinterpretation of the trend Eve started, snapping her right out of her brooding stare with a bitterly noncommittal snort.

"And here I thought you'd be used to letting things slip through your fingers."

That was all she said, but she made sure to move an inch or two closer than was necessary to say it as she brushed past Blake and went to go find a more solitary perch in the airship for her sulking, an ever-so slightly affected sway to her hips despite herself. She'd done her share of suffering for how it all turned out between them, and now that she was back anyone who thought she wasn't petty enough, spiteful enough and vindictive enough to revisit it all on her old partner through whatever childish and harmless tactics she could clearly just didn't know her very well.

Which meant she fully intended to keep ignoring Blake's authority and reminding her of what she missed out on at every given opportunity. Some would've considered it immature, but frankly it just made her feel good after everything she'd put herself through trying to reason with the girl. Ironically, her own recent decisions had brought about a certain amount of clarity in her skewed mind; when it came right down to it Blake had chosen this life, the cruelty, the bloodshed, the crusade of violence and sociopathic apathy, she had chosen all of it over her. That she had been weak enough to come crawling back in her broken state didn't change that. She made the first mistake of leaving, true, but she had humiliated herself enough for that, thrown every single part of herself at Blake trying to win her back to no avail.

Well, that was fine. But she didn't care how much Blake wanted to play monster, act like she was soulless and heartless and too sound of mind to let herself be compromised by such lowly things as emotions; there were plenty of ways to skin a cat, more than one way of making Blake (even minorly) regret her decisions, and Eve was easily petty enough to employ every single one of them.​

 

[Indolent]

"...General who?" Cinder asked, confused. "Guessing they aren't a good guy, then? Dang." She answered her own question, looking yet more displeased by everything. If a fleet is truly incoming...how am I supposed to get to Atlas now? Cinder grimaced with the thought, struggling to figure out an answer.

Oh right, she wasn't there when that happened. "He made his first appearance in Mistral. In Tock's place, through one of Miss Raven's portals when they were rescuing General Ironwood. A bad guy is putting him lightly, he's the one human icon vilified by the faunus for his part in the revolution. We saw what a monster he is first hand..." Her words trailed off as she remembered the fighting vividly in her mind, the beginnings of a far off stare forming in her face that almost prompted her to stop walking before she shook herself out of it.

Probably didn't help that her head still hurt. Though when the conversation turn to the topic of Brosel, she managed to give a thin smile.

"That's...good to hear. Kinda don't have many of those these days. Speaking of, you seen Vernal around? I sorta lost track of everything in the madness." The teenager asked as she stepped alongside Gretchen, doing her best to not strain one particular leg. "Before we got jumped, we were supposed to figure out a way into Atlas."

Gretchen noted Cinder's efforts and paid it no mind lending more of her support, trying to alleviate the strain on the aforementioned leg completely. "Before I tried, and failed, to help you in the alley, I saw her just about ready to drop the sky on the Shadow Fang. It was freaking terrifying." There was something of a bitter inflection to the word failed, as if she was loathing the fact she was borderline useless in the confrontation.

"If the General's here... I can only hope she's made it out. Hazel might know more, Cinder. He was down there on the ground, maybe he will. As for Atlas, their border's closed and security's ramped up. We were trying to figure a way ourselves, thought you were already there."

Reaching the rooftop's edge, she craned her neck to approximate her whereabouts, her free hand over her eyes to facilitate the process. She saw Brosel in the distance, a speck waving the way clear. A sigh of relief spoke aplenty as she glanced to the maiden she was hoisting with a regretful frown coming on.

"You're gonna hate this."

The next minute was Cinder in a bridal carry as Gretchen bounded down the building's side, sprinting towards the rendezvous.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Oh right, she wasn't there when that happened. "He made his first appearance in Mistral. In Tock's place, through one of Miss Raven's portals when they were rescuing General Ironwood. A bad guy is putting him lightly, he's the one human icon vilified by the faunus for his part in the revolution. We saw what a monster he is first hand..." Her words trailed off as she remembered the fighting vividly in her mind, the beginnings of a far off stare forming in her face that almost prompted her to stop walking before she shook herself out of it.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Alright then, somebody to steer clear of if at all possible." Cinder nodded, filing that detail away in her mind for now.​

Gretchen noted Cinder's efforts and paid it no mind lending more of her support, trying to alleviate the strain on the aforementioned leg completely. "Before I tried, and failed, to help you in the alley, I saw her just about ready to drop the sky on the Shadow Fang. It was freaking terrifying." There was something of a bitter inflection to the word failed, as if she was loathing the fact she was borderline useless in the confrontation.

"If the General's here... I can only hope she's made it out. Hazel might know more, Cinder. He was down there on the ground, maybe he will. As for Atlas, their border's closed and security's ramped up. We were trying to figure a way ourselves, thought you were already there."

Reaching the rooftop's edge, she craned her neck to approximate her whereabouts, her free hand over her eyes to facilitate the process. She saw Brosel in the distance, a speck waving the way clear. A sigh of relief spoke aplenty as she glanced to the maiden she was hoisting with a regretful frown coming on.

"You're gonna hate this."

The next minute was Cinder in a bridal carry as Gretchen bounded down the building's side, sprinting towards the rendezvous.

"Hrm." Cinder grunted, and it was hard to decipher exactly how she took that news. Vernal wasn't really a friend in that sense, her nature more like a loner than somebody who invited many friendships...but there were other things to consider. Other than Cinder's desire to generally help people out and keep them alive and also okay, if she could do anything about it. Even backstabbing dirty bandits. "Well, I guess we just gotta try to figure out a way. That is, when we aren't dealing with a prob--ah."

There was no sign that Cinder did in fact, hate this, as the hurt huntress-in-training got scooped up by Gretchen. In fact, there was evidence to the contrary as she just gave a light, vaguely mischievous smirk. "Hate this?" She repeated. "Nah, I don't mind. This is my second time being carried by a Rainart. You should ask your brother when you get a chance, about the time he held the rest of us(his team) up on his shoulders." : D​

 

[Indolent]

There was no sign that Cinder did in fact, hate this, as the hurt huntress-in-training got scooped up by Gretchen. In fact, there was evidence to the contrary as she just gave a light, vaguely mischievous smirk. "Hate this?" She repeated. "Nah, I don't mind. This is my second time being carried by a Rainart. You should ask your brother when you get a chance, about the time he held the rest of us(his team) up on his shoulders." : D

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? No way, that sounds absolutely... just like him, yeah." Which conjured a diminutive frown as she remembered a few instances of where that happened for entirely different reasons.

As the two approached the great wall that loomed over the port city of Argus, enclosing it between two magnificent, sloping mountains that stretched towards the sea, Cinder might have noted something. Gretchen wasn't guiding them towards the city's only point of entry, rather, it looked as if she were guiding them to the east heading south. The reason was self-evident, with the inevitable lock-down by order of the Atlesian military, there was bound to be a rudimentary checkpoint established as part of protocol.

"So, hey, remember I said none of that maiden magic business? Yeah, I kinda lied. We need to get over this wall and cross a huge span. Could you maybe...," Her eyes tightened as her voiced adopted a conspiratorial bend, "Conjure some cover for us?"

Assuming the maiden was amenable enough despite her injuries to facilitate all of that, Gretchen would double-time it for the the designated swathe of land covered with a smattering of overgrown bushes and trees. Sequestered there under cover lied their getaway vehicle, its faded color of lime-yellow dusted in dirt blending in with the surroundings neatly enough.



A familiar figure stood by the car, watching the way they came from with anticipation, reacting to their approach by immediately opening the rear door for Gretchen to deposit the maiden inside. Whatever Cinder decided to do between then and that was her perogative, her presence eliciting concern from the bigger Rainart as he moved to inspect her.

"You look like crap, Little Red."

Gretchen snorted, "Your bedside manner still sucks; also, is this really the getaway car it's so tin--"

"Get in the car."

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? No way, that sounds absolutely... just like him, yeah." Which conjured a diminutive frown as she remembered a few instances of where that happened for entirely different reasons.

As the two approached the great wall that loomed over the port city of Argus, enclosing it between two magnificent, sloping mountains that stretched towards the sea, Cinder might have noted something. Gretchen wasn't guiding them towards the city's only point of entry, rather, it looked as if she were guiding them to the east heading south. The reason was self-evident, with the inevitable lock-down by order of the Atlesian military, there was bound to be a rudimentary checkpoint established as part of protocol.

"So, hey, remember I said none of that maiden magic business? Yeah, I kinda lied. We need to get over this wall and cross a huge span. Could you maybe...," Her eyes tightened as her voiced adopted a conspiratorial bend, "Conjure some cover for us?"

Assuming the maiden was amenable enough despite her injuries to facilitate all of that, Gretchen would double-time it for the the designated swathe of land covered with a smattering of overgrown bushes and trees. Sequestered there under cover lied their getaway vehicle, its faded color of lime-yellow dusted in dirt blending in with the surroundings neatly enough.

View attachment 705109

A familiar figure stood by the car, watching the way they came from with anticipation, reacting to their approach by immediately opening the rear door for Gretchen to deposit the maiden inside. Whatever Cinder decided to do between then and that was her perogative, her presence eliciting concern from the bigger Rainart as he moved to inspect her.

"You look like crap, Little Red."

Gretchen snorted, "Your bedside manner still sucks; also, is this really the getaway car it's so tin--"

"Get in the car."

"Oh, uh, yeah." She closed her eyes and focused, doing her best to make some foggy mists to cover them. Once that was done and they got to the other side, her eyebrow was gradually raising the whole time until they got to that car. Cinder glanced up to Gretchen from where she was being held. "I hope you have a plan beyond this or something. I sorta need to get into Atlas and we can't exactly drive there..." An obvious thing to point out but she pointed it out nevertheless. Not that she had any better of one right now. Her gaze shifted away from the female Rainart once she dropped into the backseat. "...Feel even worse, big green." Cinder replied, a sad hint to her voice as she did and as she averted her eyes.​

 

[Indolent]

"Oh, uh, yeah." She closed her eyes and focused, doing her best to make some foggy mists to cover them. Once that was done and they got to the other side, her eyebrow was gradually raising the whole time until they got to that car. Cinder glanced up to Gretchen from where she was being held. "I hope you have a plan beyond this or something. I sorta need to get into Atlas and we can't exactly drive there..." An obvious thing to point out but she pointed it out nevertheless. Not that she had any better of one right now. Her gaze shifted away from the female Rainart once she dropped into the backseat. "...Feel even worse, big green." Cinder replied, a sad hint to her voice as she did and as she averted her eyes.​

"Um, no offense but I don't think you were going to get there from Argus to begin with. The odds were stacked against you." Gretchen commented as an offhand, pointing out the obvious of well everything that just happened before begrudgingly acquiescing her brother's words, jumping into the driver's seat. Brosel took well to the command bridge that was the dashboard, doing the stoat equivalent of a sploot as he gazed out the windshield.

Hazel, for his part, was crammed in the passenger's seat in front, arms crossed with his face patently stoic as ever. The engine turned over and it was before long the vehicle rumbled out the clearing under the thinning fog, traversing down the road leading away from Argus, covered by the brush in a timely manner.

"I am pissed that you left. Not because you left me behind but that you didn't allow me a good bye. I understood why you left but it wasn't enough to temper the pain, Cinder. I imagine it was worse for you." It was then he looked to her in the backseat, the makings of tears forming in his eyes if the indicators were any clear by their turning misty with a shuddering sigh. "Team might be done, but I'm not. I'm not."

He maintained that look, implacable as it was, regardless whether Cinder dared to look back or not. He wouldn't hold it against her, content to make his feelings plain as possible on the subject and to put it to bed.

"Vernal's been taken. She was severely injured by the Shadow Fang and Carnelian but it wasn't them who took her. Cinder. It was you, the other you. Probably from the same world as the others we've met." It was a somber look to his face now that spoke these words. "She's a Maiden like you. Yet nothing like you. I... felt an evil hunger from her." Hazel turned back around, his eyes glancing out the window now.

"We'll get to Atlas one way or another, it'll take longer. But it isn't through Argus and not through you going it alone."

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Um, no offense but I don't think you were going to get there from Argus to begin with. The odds were stacked against you." Gretchen commented as an offhand, pointing out the obvious of well everything that just happened before begrudgingly acquiescing her brother's words, jumping into the driver's seat. Brosel took well to the command bridge that was the dashboard, doing the stoat equivalent of a sploot as he gazed out the windshield.

"...pshaw, no way-" Cinder objected, waving a hand as if to physically brush that aside. "-we definitely would have found a way to make it work, get us into Atlas and okay yeah maybe you're right." She finished much quieter. Any attempt on the two maidens' part would have been more improvised than planned.​

"I am pissed that you left. Not because you left me behind but that you didn't allow me a good bye. I understood why you left but it wasn't enough to temper the pain, Cinder. I imagine it was worse for you." It was then he looked to her in the backseat, the makings of tears forming in his eyes if the indicators were any clear by their turning misty with a shuddering sigh. "Team might be done, but I'm not. I'm not."

He maintained that look, implacable as it was, regardless whether Cinder dared to look back or not. He wouldn't hold it against her, content to make his feelings plain as possible on the subject and to put it to bed.

There it was. The reason she wasn't looking him in the eyes. "I..." She started, gaze locked firmly on the view out the window. "I'm sorry about that, but...I had a lot of time to think about it. Eventually I realized that I made the right call. It hurt, but it was right. Because, you see, it's all my fault. Everything bad that happened to us, around us, it's all because of me. Penny's death, the attack on Beacon, the loss of my eye, Tyrian getting stabbed with his own tail, all the people who died that night... because they, the Shadow Fang, Valkyrie, the rest, they were trying to get to me." Her eye closed as she couldn't even bring herself to look at anything now. All the guilt, all the sadness, all the things she'd kept bottled up inside since her only traveling partner for the last month was not the kind of person to share those feelings with, they all came out in this moment of time.

"The only reason any of you got dragged into the Haven stuff is because you were associated with me. The Fall Maiden. If you weren't teammates with me, weren't friends with me, had someone else on team WTCH instead of me...then that team would still be together. Tyrian would not have lost his tail. Emerald wouldn't have been zapped near to death. Mercury and Neo wouldn't be so devastated. And Roman..." Her voice trembled as she said that name, and she didn't manage to finish the rest of that sentence.

"I lost Penny. I lost my eye. I lost Roman. I lost my team. But despite everything I lost, and everything I could still lose, I chose to come out here because I thought I could still make a difference. I still do. But I will not be responsible for dragging you guys into this with me and make you suffer any more loss. So no. I appreciate the help you gave me back there, but no. Now that we're not in the middle of a fight, in the heat of the moment...just drop it, for your sake. Go home. Please." Cinder half pleaded, half demanded as her eye opened again.​

"Vernal's been taken. She was severely injured by the Shadow Fang and Carnelian but it wasn't them who took her. Cinder. It was you, the other you. Probably from the same world as the others we've met." It was a somber look to his face now that spoke these words. "She's a Maiden like you. Yet nothing like you. I... felt an evil hunger from her." Hazel turned back around, his eyes glancing out the window now.

"...………….What." Her voice was devoid of seemingly all emotion in response to that knowledge bombshell getting dropped on her. There...there was another her here. She supposed there had to be one, back on this other world, but she never imagined that this other her would be here too. So long as her counterpart was more than a world away, she didn't have to think about how said counterpart was most likely on the side of evil, given the differences between the Red Masque of this world and the Ruby Rose of that one. But now that her doppelganger was here...​

"We'll get to Atlas one way or another, it'll take longer. But it isn't through Argus and not through you going it alone."

"It should be that way." Cinder rebutted to the notion of her not going at it alone. "Everything that happened to us, it is all on me because of who I am. What I saw in the Blake back there who left me beaten down on that rooftop, knowing there's an evil version of myself around now...don't you see? All the signs make it clear that this is my fight. It shouldn't be yours. So please, once this car ride is done...just go home. Save yourselves."​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Mistral; city of the mountains, home to Haven academy. Rich in history and culture… and completely cut off from the rest of the world. The destruction of a CCT tower slowed communications for the rest of Remnant, but Mistral was at the epicenter of it. Communication, even at a local level, was a mess, and what was happening in the outside world only arrived in the form of travelers and letters. Maintaining any sort of defensive efforts had to be done oldschool while the agonizingly slow work of rebuilding the tower began, with couriers delivering orders and reports by foot. With all the extra manpower needed to make that happen and ensure the grimm were kept off the city’s outskirts, the city’s defense force was too strained to be anything but a shadow of what it once was. Life went on, but the streets got dangerous real quick. With so much of the city’s wealth simply gone, Inaccessible in Atlesian banks that were normally the safest place in the world to electronically keep it, physical lien was king, along with other precious goods; jewelry, cars, even dust or unique hunter’s weapons; anything that had a high price tag before the tower fell suddenly found that value skyrocket.

It was a good time to be a thief, needless to say. When what you were already doing was suddenly three times as profitable, life was good, and anyone with light fingers had an easy time either filling their own pockets or finding others willing to pay for the work. Yet the law of underworld was a predictable beast. When one profession suddenly found itself flush with cash and opportunities, it was inevitable that another cropped up to prey on it. A law one thief in particular was coming face to face with on this dark and cloudy Mistral day.

He skidded to a stop after dashing around a corner, pivoted on his heel, and practically dived into an alleyway. He came out of his roll behind a dumpster, and peered over the top of it just in time to see a pink and brown blur go dashing past the entrance of the alley. He stayed deathly silent as he strained his ears to see if there were any returning footsteps, but after almost half a minute, he slowly let out his breath and stood back up. “Damn bounty hunters… can’t a guy work in peace? Since when are they so... colorful?” He muttered before he turned around, and shrieked at the top of his lungs at the young woman standing behind him with her hands crossed behind her back and a light smile on her face, a closed parasol poking out from behind her shoulders. Pink hair framed the left side of her face and brown the other, her eyes reversing that order as they studied his own. After a second they snapped close in a bright grin as she stuck a hand out expectantly. He slowly lowered the arm he’d reflexively raised in front of his face in fear, and let out an exasperated breath before he glared at her.

“...Hey kid. These streets are dangerous, y’know? It’s not safe to be chasing strangers into dark alleyways. You never know when they might… GET YA!” he suddenly exclaimed as he produced his revolver from his holster in a flash, pointing it straight for the girl’s head.

She tilted that head at him and simply flexed the fingers on her outstretched hand a few times. His eye twitched slightly, and raised one hand to scratch the side of his head. “...No fear, eh? Must be one of the leftovers from when Haven fell. What are you comin after me for, I haven’t even done anything!”

Her eyes lidded in amusement at his words, and she shook her hand and just flexed her fingers again.

“...grr. FINE. Nothing worth dying over anyways.Take it.” he grumbled, reaching into his pocket before slapping his hand into the girl’s- he suddenly grabbed it and with a mighty roar suddenly tossed her straight over his shoulder for the street. “SECRET SNAKE TOSS!”

[This is Lupin’s special move, where he pretends to surrender and give his enemy what they want before throwing them over his shoulder]

“SUCKER!” He said with a dark laugh before he turned and sprinted down the alleyway- He slammed into an invisible forcefield.. Rather, what had looked like an open alleyway shattered, showing it to be a dead end straight into a brick wall. He staggered back clutching his nose with a pained hiss as the girl gently floated to the ground behind him with her open parasol, closed it to tap him on the shoulders, and put out a hand expectantly with the same smile. He stumbled a few more steps before he simply collapsed backwards, a blank look in his eyes and completely slack.

The girl blinked, her smile breaking as she looked down at him in surprise. She looked in both directions before she squatted down next to him and gently prodded his side with her umbrella. He didn’t move. She put a fist to her mouth with a flummoxed frown, and leaned in to try and see if she could even hear him breathing-

A foot connected with the side of her head as his body contorted in an impressive display of agility “SECRET SNAKE KICK!”

[This is Lupin’s special move, where he pretends to die and kicks his opponents in the face when they attempt to check on him]

The girl came up from her roll just in time to see him running past her and back into the street. She blew a few bangs out of her eyes with a frustrated huff, and turned on her heel to continue the chase.

 

[MyrtenRose]

Her eyes opened in a sudden blink. It didn't take long for her vision to adjust, given how little light was illuminating this place. It was a few notches above utterly dark, but that was it. An eyebrow rose up as she put that aside to take note of other things. The rough feeling running across her sleeveless tattooed arm told her she'd been lying on harsh dirt-covered ground for a while now. Her opposite arm, the one that bitch had carved a long scar into, on the other hand, that one did not feel as rough. It had been bandaged up, it felt like it had been cauterized and she could already feel her aura at work healing it up. Her eyebrow rose up more, wariness increasing too.

Vernal slowly rose up to a seated position, eyes scanning her surroundings to get a better grasp on things. She had no idea how long it had been since she lost consciousness, and no clear way to even attempt to determine that but the amount of light streaming in from an opening a short distance away revealed enough that she recognized she was in some cave. She bit her lip as she gathered her thoughts.

"Sleep well?" A voice from behind her interrupted said thoughts. A voice overflowing with mocking contempt. Vernal sat up a little straighter, some of her muscles tensed up slightly and she turned her head enough to look that way. The darkness around the other person was even more lit up, thanks to the fire that was burning in her hand. More than sufficient for her to make out the distinct features. The short black hair, though not as short as her own. The burning golden eye that positively shined in the dark...and the smile on her face.

It was Cinder standing there, but obviously not the Cinder that she'd been in the recent company of. For starters, this one was taller. "Let me guess-" Vernal replied, not bothering to answer that question. "-you're the Cinder from that other world that's been vomiting up people left and right onto this Remnant."

"How perceptive of you."

"It's just one of many things that have kept me alive."

"I'm afraid the only reason you're still alive is because I allowed you to remain in the land of the living. I didn't want you to die quite yet."

"...no restraints."

"That's right. Because, you see..." Cinder took a few steps closer to Vernal, who by this point had stood up herself. "...I have nothing to fear from you. More importantly, I want you to feel it."

"Feel what?" She spat out in a low growl.

"The weight of your failure. The depths of your powerlessness. How completely insignificant you are, you filthy idiotic thug." Cinder snarled back, every venomous word indicating a strong desire for personal vengeance. That golden eye, filled with such hate. It spoke of a less than pleasant history between her and the dead Vernal of her world.

"What the hell are you talking about??"

"Hmph." She scoffed in derision. "I said idiotic but you truly are that dense. I am referring to this." Excess energy suddenly poured out her eye in burning orange, the fire in her hand swelling up in the same moment. Vernal's eyes widened noticeably in response and she brought her own hand up to try and replicate that. No fire erupted to life in her palm. Not even so much as a single spark.

"N-no."

"Yes." The proud retort came out instantly, hanging on the coattails of that stuttered no. "It belongs to me. It always did." Cinder firmly stated. "Now do you understand how far beneath me you are?" The megalomaniac took a couple more steps closer, the apparent need for Vernal to recognize how inferior she now was burning inside herself just as much as the fire in her hand was. "I am both Spring and Fall now. What do you think of that?" Cinder asked, so convinced of her control over the situation thanks to the newfound depths to her power that she patiently waited for the former spring maiden to respond. Once she had, once whatever pitiful responses that came out of that pathetic mouth were finished...that would be the moment she would die. Painfully.

It took a while for the shock to disappear from Vernal's face, but when it did there was no sadness present in the expression that replaced it. No fury either. Despite it all, the only thing plastered on that face after the shock was an almost cocky smirk.

"I think you're a hateful bitch...and one who made a big mistake."

"What would that be?"

In an instant, Vernal Zerrin's eyes were both darker than the darkness of the cave. Cinder's sight vanished before she had the time to properly register that, and in her blindness she didn't see the uppercut that knocked her skyward for a few feet before gravity brought her crashing back down into the dirt. "Not restraining me." She heard the stomping of boots as Vernal wisely retreated. Sucker punches aside, Vernal knew she wasn't in any condition for that fight. Her semblance evened the field some but she needed as much aura as possible to deal with her arm wound. Cinder shot a fireball down in the direction where the sounds of that run were coming from but she was not rewarded with the sound of it making contact nor any grunts/cries of pain.

Once out of the cave, Vernal made a beeline for the woods nearby, sprinting into them to lose any potential pursuit that would soon be coming. Her years spent as one of the Branwen tribe's chief scouts for their raids allowed her to blend into the thick woods with a natural ease. After a few minutes, Cinder's sight returned. And though she instantly flew out of the cave, rising into the sky when she was free to do so...the bird's eye view did not help her find the elusive former maiden.

There was some frustration there, but it was a mild afterthought. She would have gotten some pleasure out of ending that miserable scum's life, again, but she still had gotten what she wanted most. It was a good feeling, to have that much more power coursing through her veins. Yet...it left her still hungry for more.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Dusk fell over another eventful day in Argus, a city that had seen its share of unrest lately. The chief general of Atlas's military might huffed out his weariness as he stepped through the sliding metallic door to their facility's main office, formerly occupied by a Caroline Cordovin until he did their kingdom a favor and relieved her of command after the fiasco last month. Every followup attempt at locating the perpetrator had failed to yield anything more substantial than smoke, and the former base commander's incident report only served to confuse matters more than clarify them, something he had been quick to point out upon her discharge. Councilwoman Schnee hadn't liked that. Yang might've wondered why her manor's security tripled and the woman herself became more high-strung and snappish in the weeks that followed, but for those in the know it didn't take a genius to figure out.

It had even bled into her manner of dealing with Carnelian himself, something he was acutely aware of as he stood dutifully before the flickering hologram thinly veiling a glare at him. The inheritor of the Schnee fortune cut no larger a presence in hardlight form than in real life, but typically more than compensated for it with her elegance, distinctly trustworthy air of blueblooded nobility, and the firm, steely resolve underlying it all that belied the genuine gratification she got from cutting men like him who'd served their entire life down to size. Diminishing them, belittling them. Sweeping them away in a tidal wave of sheer confidence. It was a tactic only she could pull off, but it served her well, had worked on untold legions of officers and Atlas elites in the past.

He was not having it happen to him. Favors to old golfing buddies aside, when he made the decision to act in the interest of Jacques Schnee's youngest daughter he truly hadn't considered what a spoiled little bitch she might've turned out to be. Whatever happened to the quiet, polite little girl Jacques used to mortify at dinner parties? What had spawned that gigantic chip on her shoulder? He couldn't explain it, but any daughter of his would've had that chip knocked off by whatever means necessary. He couldn't fault her mind, her knack for scheming, even her backbone if he was honest. But that attitude of hers?

It was gonna get her in trouble someday.

"I have to wonder if I made a mistake appointing you."

The statement was calm, emphatic and decisive, born of clear judgment and glowing dissatisfaction as the general made his reply politely enough.

"Have I failed to comply with my duties as general in any way?"

Her features sharpened, eyes hardening like something about that response rubbed her the wrong way. "It's your failure to comply with them well that concerns me, general Carnelian. Are you senile? Should I be putting this in children's terms?? I'm-"

"Stop." He held up his hand.

"-Do NOT get in the habit of interrupting me!"

"And don't you get in the habit of thinking I work for you. Repeat what you were going to say. Respectfully."

Almost no one would've seen it, but he did. Something about his prompt, disciplinarian tone, about the way he held up a hand as if addressing a misbehaving child than a colleague he held in any regard. It angered her, definitely, but there was something else buried under the outrage, another layer to the expression that flickered across her face for that brief instant. Something else in the way her eyes widened. What that was, he couldn't say.

But it was enough to satisfy him.

The beat that followed was painfully, cripplingly tense. The frozen look of icy fury was one of two minds, whether to pull on this thread and see where it led or be the one who blinked first and defused the tension. Pride or reason. As ever, the rational option won out.

"...General, please understand how stressed I am. Scared, even. It should be no surprise when a public figure with enemies gathering grows uneasy."

"I understand that, miss Schnee."

"So understand how serious my complaints are. If I didn't have nerve to spare the entire design could be facing total collapse. We're approaching a crucial phase, and the one death that puts a stop to all of this before it ever benefits the kingdoms is mine. Yet with every one of your reports, there's a new headache. I'm hearing about riots in Mantle, dissidents gathering momentum, an unprecedented massacre at an Atlesian military outpost... Now you're telling me there are two maidens unaccounted for, a stone's throw from our territory, and of ALL PEOPLE to be involved..."

"Of course, madame Schnee. I'll do everything in my power to ensure your continued safety. You can be assured of it. I owe your father that much." The general just nodded once again, appeased by the vulnerable side the councilwoman seemed to be showing. Entirely fabricated, of course, but men who reminded her of her father were among the first she learned to manipulate so he wasn't likely to find that out. His mannerisms were dutiful once again, so Weiss leaned further into her vexed dismay and pinched her brow, huffing. Having multiple headaches to think about had been no lie.

"...So here's what you're going to do. First of all, I'm beginning to get tired of that shrew Sienna Khan forgetting her place. Organizing a public Talon strike in my territory without permission is completely unacceptable. Come down on them. Hard. Remove any infestations near Argus, and while you're at it you can rip every last trace of the Shadow Fang out of my continent, root and stem. I'm giving you full executive authority when it comes to dealing with those lunatics."

The corners of his mustache quirked up in what was far too eager a smile for Weiss to appreciate. "Consider it as good as done, councilwoman."

Her orders gave way to thoughtful ruminations, crook of her finger tapping against her chin.

"...As for the other threats... they'll most likely be converging on me. Leave it to myself and the city garrison."

His eyebrow arched up in wordless askance.

"Like I said, nerve to spare. You really shouldn't act so surprised that I had contingencies for this." Her tone was a bit miffed as she raised an eyebrow of her own, hand on her hip. "Very well, general, that will be all. Keep me abreast of any developments. I'll let you know when I need you."

His nod was polite, but the drawn-out yawn he gave after the councilwoman hung up was anything but. He turned his attention over to the military map of the four kingdoms, dimly lit by the glow of an ornate, ancient lamp.

What a mouth.​

 

[Indolent]

The entire exchange that followed was so uncomfortable for Gretchen that she exerted a focus upon her driving, eyes out the wind-shield as she traversed the curvature of the roads whilst sighting in the distance for any incoming traffic. She replayed the repetitive lines Father Rainart drummed into her skull; treat the meridian, even if it's a lousy dirt road, as if it's a fence, if you brush against it you wipe out the entire side of the car. And the shoulder is never to be used as an extension to your side of the road but only for emergency parking or avoiding debris, otherwise treat it like the meridian. And act as nobody else on the road has the intuitive grasp of these rules that were just inherently brilliant and always drive defensively lest you died a horrendous death, here's a number of those deaths as examples. It was roughly a minute lost amid her recycling thoughts that she realized.

Wow, that's a great way to make your kid anxious about driving.

Her face scrunched up in concern.

There it was. The reason she wasn't looking him in the eyes. "I..." She started, gaze locked firmly on the view out the window. "I'm sorry about that, but...I had a lot of time to think about it. Eventually I realized that I made the right call. It hurt, but it was right. Because, you see, it's all my fault. Everything bad that happened to us, around us, it's all because of me. Penny's death, the attack on Beacon, the loss of my eye, Tyrian getting stabbed with his own tail, all the people who died that night... because they, the Shadow Fang, Valkyrie, the rest, they were trying to get to me." Her eye closed as she couldn't even bring herself to look at anything now. All the guilt, all the sadness, all the things she'd kept bottled up inside since her only traveling partner for the last month was not the kind of person to share those feelings with, they all came out in this moment of time.

"The only reason any of you got dragged into the Haven stuff is because you were associated with me. The Fall Maiden. If you weren't teammates with me, weren't friends with me, had someone else on team WTCH instead of me...then that team would still be together. Tyrian would not have lost his tail. Emerald wouldn't have been zapped near to death. Mercury and Neo wouldn't be so devastated. And Roman..." Her voice trembled as she said that name, and she didn't manage to finish the rest of that sentence.

Hazel's first instinct was to throw himself into a lengthy counter argument, to impress Cinder on the finer points of why that was just plainly wrong. It didn't happen, or rather, didn't transpire as swiftly as he understood why she took on these faults wholesale. He'd done the same when it came to the attack on Beacon, having been taken out of the fighting so easily that he contributed little else. The attack on Haven with the death of Roman and his partner's maiming, feeling that if he had done just a scant more that would have all been preventable. That if he had positioned himself better in Argus, maybe Vernal wouldn't have been taken so easily like that. It wasn't entirely a uniform line of thought they shared as they placed the onuses unfairly upon themselves for different reasons. Was it hypocrisy, to argue against her when he had similar thoughts? Probably, it's what he had been struggling with for the last month and half to reconcile with the understanding that he had largely arrived at, wanted to elucidate the Fall Maiden of. The silence that followed from him lasted almost sufficiently long enough that it could have been interpreted as his answer except it wasn't. The words that streamed along carried at a brisk pace, a combination of his reply having been thoughtfully cultivated and a dollop of reproach that brooked no interruption underpinning them.

"No, that's not right. You're only one person, as much as you're a maiden, you're still one person. There's only so much one can do and to shoulder the burden of the world is foolish. To shoulder every instance, big or small, you're going to kill yourself doing that, push people away. It's not healthy. Just because you've embraced the responsibility doesn't mean you claim all of it. I know you'd insist that much if it were someone else in your position. Those things would have happened regardless, maiden or not, by the hand of these deplorable bastards. To eat all of that... it's admirable but stupid. And you will never convince me you can do this alone. Two maidens were just soundly destroyed with little trouble. You need friends and you have a pair right here willing to bear that weight."

"I lost Penny. I lost my eye. I lost Roman. I lost my team. But despite everything I lost, and everything I could still lose, I chose to come out here because I thought I could still make a difference. I still do. But I will not be responsible for dragging you guys into this with me and make you suffer any more loss. So no. I appreciate the help you gave me back there, but no. Now that we're not in the middle of a fight, in the heat of the moment...just drop it, for your sake. Go home. Please." Cinder half pleaded, half demanded as her eye opened again.

"...………….What." Her voice was devoid of seemingly all emotion in response to that knowledge bombshell getting dropped on her. There...there was another her here. She supposed there had to be one, back on this other world, but she never imagined that this other her would be here too. So long as her counterpart was more than a world away, she didn't have to think about how said counterpart was most likely on the side of evil, given the differences between the Red Masque of this world and the Ruby Rose of that one. But now that her doppelganger was here...
​

"It should be that way." Cinder rebutted to the notion of her not going at it alone. "Everything that happened to us, it is all on me because of who I am. What I saw in the Blake back there who left me beaten down on that rooftop, knowing there's an evil version of myself around now...don't you see? All the signs make it clear that this is my fight. It shouldn't be yours. So please, once this car ride is done...just go home. Save yourselves."

The car-- if it could even be called that-- lurched as the huntress driving tapped the brakes in rapid succession, anticipating that if she were to stress them for the full shot that they would simply wear out or blow. The end result was the vehicle going partially off the road, coming aground into some brush pressed against the passenger's side. A cry of surprise came from Hazel, who shot an askance gaze towards his sister, on the verge demanding why the hell she had just done that.

"Clam it, Hazel."

The voice modulated the words definitively as an order, a subversion of the sibling hierarchy the two maintained throughout their whole lives. These instances were infrequently, arising only in matters that were frankly either dire or straight up an exhaustive, imbecilic affair. It was difficult to say which of the two it was for Gretchen as she spun on the Fall Maiden from the front, anger defined in the contouring of her face.

"Do you realize how insulting it is for you to say that? Being responsible for us? I caught that spat you had with Watts. If you want to prove him wrong about being a kid, act like an adult and accept the fact we can make the same choices as you! That we're responsible for ourselves, that we understand the ramifications! It's disconcerting that you would deny your friends, the fraction of huntsmen that know the situation the chance to make the same difference as you. I don't get it. We live in the same frickin' world as you, we face the same problems, the same enemies. How dare you, tell us to go home, to save ourselves. There'll be nothing to save if we turn a blind eye to all of the horrible things that have happened. Hazel and I became huntsmen to make a difference, do you understand that? We made a commitment. Don't you dare."

Towards the tail end, the frustration within very clearly boiled over, angry tears threatening to disembark and ruin the sincerity of her words. When she concluded, her reddening eyes affixed Cinder in a fleeting stare before the huntress turned back, killed the engine, and slid out the car, stones crunching underfoot signalling the growing distance between Gretchen and them. Hazel's features were rendered somber by it all, his eyes lingering where she had been sitting seconds ago before leveling them for Cinder. There was something in his face that needed no verbalization, that he agreed with the content of what she'd said.

 

[MyrtenRose]

"No, that's not right. You're only one person, as much as you're a maiden, you're still one person. There's only so much one can do and to shoulder the burden of the world is foolish. To shoulder every instance, big or small, you're going to kill yourself doing that, push people away. It's not healthy. Just because you've embraced the responsibility doesn't mean you claim all of it. I know you'd insist that much if it were someone else in your position. Those things would have happened regardless, maiden or not, by the hand of these deplorable bastards. To eat all of that... it's admirable but stupid. And you will never convince me you can do this alone. Two maidens were just soundly destroyed with little trouble. You need friends and you have a pair right here willing to bear that weight."

"I...I..." Cinder struggled to accept that, even as much as she had missed Hazel. Her attempts of minutes ago to try and figure out if they had any plans had been less genuine attempts to team up and lowkey more to give herself a plan before she left them behind. So convinced was she that her greater power also came with the greater responsibility here, not to mention how much she didn't want to see Hazel or Gretchen or any of them continue to get hurt that...that she hadn't been looking at it that way. That pushing them out as she took on the weight of the whole world by herself, with zero regard for how that might kill her...she hadn't given any real thought about her own death would hurt them if it did go that way. It was hard to listen to that, to accept the logic...because she truly couldn't argue against the fact that she'd insist as Hazel said, were somebody else sitting in her position.

That she would making the friends make you stronger argument herself, were the situation reversed. It was difficult to give voice to her guilt in the wake of that...as well as...​

The car-- if it could even be called that-- lurched as the huntress driving tapped the brakes in rapid succession, anticipating that if she were to stress them for the full shot that they would simply wear out or blow. The end result was the vehicle going partially off the road, coming aground into some brush pressed against the passenger's side. A cry of surprise came from Hazel, who shot an askance gaze towards his sister, on the verge demanding why the hell she had just done that.

"Clam it, Hazel."

The voice modulated the words definitively as an order, a subversion of the sibling hierarchy the two maintained throughout their whole lives. These instances were infrequently, arising only in matters that were frankly either dire or straight up an exhaustive, imbecilic affair. It was difficult to say which of the two it was for Gretchen as she spun on the Fall Maiden from the front, anger defined in the contouring of her face.

"Do you realize how insulting it is for you to say that? Being responsible for us? I caught that spat you had with Watts. If you want to prove him wrong about being a kid, act like an adult and accept the fact we can make the same choices as you! That we're responsible for ourselves, that we understand the ramifications! It's disconcerting that you would deny your friends, the fraction of huntsmen that know the situation the chance to make the same difference as you. I don't get it. We live in the same frickin' world as you, we face the same problems, the same enemies. How dare you, tell us to go home, to save ourselves. There'll be nothing to save if we turn a blind eye to all of the horrible things that have happened. Hazel and I became huntsmen to make a difference, do you understand that? We made a commitment. Don't you dare."

Towards the tail end, the frustration within very clearly boiled over, angry tears threatening to disembark and ruin the sincerity of her words. When she concluded, her reddening eyes affixed Cinder in a fleeting stare before the huntress turned back, killed the engine, and slid out the car, stones crunching underfoot signalling the growing distance between Gretchen and them. Hazel's features were rendered somber by it all, his eyes lingering where she had been sitting seconds ago before leveling them for Cinder. There was something in his face that needed no verbalization, that he agreed with the content of what she'd said.

"............................................" Her gaze lowered to the floor of the car in the wake of that understandably frustrated and angry reply, as well as Hazel's silent agreement. She didn't manage to bring herself to say any words as the other huntress exited the escape car. It was almost a minute later that she managed to whisper an apology. She'd been lucky enough to be the recipient of these powers, but that didn't make her an authority on the matter despite her guilt. She was no leader. Yes, she was free to make her own choices, but so were they. By the time she lifted her head back up to look at Hazel, she'd seemingly accepted that. Her mouth was opening to ask him to ignore what the teenage maiden had just said so they could go on, figure it out together.

The words never came though, her eyes narrowing something as she looked through the front windshield.

It was around this time, as their car ride away from Argus and that whole messy show back there had come to an abrupt stop far off from the coastal city, that they could see a dot on the horizon getting bigger and bigger as it flew closer and closer to them. Gradually that dot got became more distinct as an airship, and not just any airship. It was Mistralian in design but it stood out in stark contrast to the typical ones used by their government and police forces. Even at this distance they could see it was dark green, and the nearer it got the jagged sharp lines painted across a portion of the front became more recognizable as sharpened teeth. The Tock vibes were strong.

"Wait a sec..." Cinder suddenly remarked once she realized that sense of familiarity with the huntress they'd met at the bar. She leaned over and rolled down one of the back windows, thrusting a hand out and shooting a ball of fire straight up into the air as a sort of flare.

The pilot of the ship seemed to get the message as the ship's course adjusted to head straight for them. When it was close enough, it swirled in to come for a stop nearby. After a few moments, as might have been predicted, Tock herself popped into view, the croc eyeing their ride with an amused look. "How's it goin'?" The faunus remarked with a grin. "Headin' somewhere specific? Thought ya guys were supposed to be headin' for Atlas. That's the other way, y'know. We're on our way there, at least."

"We?" Cinder questioned from the backseat.

"Uh-huh." Tock answered with a nod, thumbing over her shoulder to the side at something further inside the ship. "See, I've run in certain circles in the past. At times when Salem's in need of information. Info she suspects the underworld might have. So I went to one of the local bosses in Mistral to see if maybe she'd have details on the Atlesian blockade that's closing their kingdom off, or maybe ask her to divulge any discreet 'trade routes' that could get into the kingdom despite all that. Nobody gets past security like seasoned criminals, yeah? Figured it was worth a shot to see if she would play ball and share before I tried to follow after Ray and the others. 'Cept I didn't find that. Found these two instead."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Weiss sighed and settled back in her study's chair as she terminated her last business call for the evening. There. Maybe now she could go find Yang and see if she still wanted to do something. And apologize for her brusqueness earlier, while she was at it.

Spoiler: Moments after the proposal of what were no doubt super fun, structured and well intentioned lunch plans

Prickly in hindsight, but it was hardly her fault if she was acting a little standoffish lately. They just didn't get it. None of them could truly grasp the importance of what she was striving to achieve; Only she could. It was her vision, and now she had a duty to see it through. To do that she had to be strong. Had to be ready. Had to war with every ounce of her focus to hold onto her spot on the ladder lest she be knocked off it. She didn't have time for quaint little notions like lunch dates and interrupting practice sessions to fawn over a dog, never mind ones suggested by someone she knew full well was still actively seeking to oppose her. She'd been a fool to even consider it.

Still... She knew how this house could be. The pretense and moral corruptness rife in Atlas had changed her through the years, snapped and bitten at her until she was always looking at people through distrustful eyes, always preparing for the next scheme being hatched against her. She didn't consider it a flaw. But in her short time here Yang had revealed herself to be such a genuine person, and... she suspected the girl was just lonely. She wasn't like anyone else in Atlas. Weiss could make all the claims she liked about her mercy in how she chose to benignly eliminate this particular enemy from the board, but watching someone with such a vibrant heart grow duller and duller with each passing day was never what she intended, and seeing how glum Yang was becoming whenever she traversed their massive halls in solitude gave an uncomfortably familiar turn to her stomach. She was a caged phoenix, and doing anything more to dampen that shine than she already was seemed pointlessly cruel. So she really was trying to be nice.

But it was difficult to be nice and respected. Triply so when you were a woman. Moreover, she could see how the gift of her mother's nerves might've been making her a bit of a recluse lately; Except her mother had never set out to achieve anything on her scale, never been anything more than a stupid kept housewife who drank herself into a stupor every single day. She might've hated her father, but she pitied her mother. And she was nothing like that.

The irony didn't even occur to her as she reached for the wine bottle on her desk with intent to pour, only to sigh at its weightlessness and listen to the mere trickle inside swish around the glass when she shook it. The sound prompted the room's other occupant to perk up where he was laying beside the fireplace, head cocked as his mouth fell open to let tongue flop out of its own accord.

Weiss glowered and pointed the bottle at him. "Don't you start looking at me that way."

"Though you are my mother and primary food source, the day fast approaches when I cease to find your antics amusing and finally crush you for your impertinence."

"Bark!"

"I KNOW YOU'RE NOT CONSTANTLY JUDGING MOMMY THE WAY EVERYONE ELSE IS YES I KNOW YOU AREN'T!" Weiss babbled adoringly, flinging Zwei across the room and into her waiting arms at escape velocity from a glyph propulsion. The corgi was more than receptive to this hilarious development, tail furiously wagging and ears ramrod straight as he squirmed around and licked her face until the councilwoman had enough leverage to gently cradle him like a baby, tickling his chin with a soft murmur. "You believe I can make a better world out of this ugly excuse for one, don't you?"

"Your affairs do not concern me."

"Bark bark!"

"Good boy." She squinted and gave him a final tap on the nose before releasing, letting him flop to the floor where he had barely alighted before taking to excitedly running laps around her ankles. She blinked and chuckled in surprise, pushing out her chair in preparation to stand. "What??? Does my wibble baby woof monsta wanna go for a nighttime stwoll???"

"Aroooo!"

Her gasp was hushed, demure, and entirely genuine.

"Should we go bring Yang her present to make up for blowing her off earlier?" She mused, glancing under her desk at the long crimson box neatly emblazoned with an M insignia surrounded by a digitized cube. "Maybe we could still find something fun to do in Atlas at this hour. It's only..."

She glanced over at the clock and blanched.

"2:56???? How is it that late????? I have to be up in less than...!"

Weiss groaned, an anguished, miserable sound that lived and died in the back of her throat as she slowly buried her face in her hands. A moment later, she peeked down at the dog between two fingers.

"Well, come on. You can at least help me pour myself a drink before I go to bed."

---

Weiss hated this house.

She'd done everything she could to make it comfortable since her father's passing. Redecorated, commissioned refurbishments, covered up some of the uglier statues from when he indulged his more macabre tastes. But she hated it. She hated walking it alone, and she hated walking it at night.

Its historical significance to her family was too great to simply abandon. But her statement to Carnelian about never feeling safe in her own home had been no lie, either. Something about this place made her paranoid. The endless corridors and pallet of blue and grey. How you could do an entire lap of the place and never encounter anybody, even on days when the manor was busy and staff were plentiful. She wasn't sure what it was, whether it could be ascribed to simple childhood trauma or an irrational belief that somehow, someway his foul presence still lingered here, echoing through the spacious halls and cursing her to her dying day.

She really needed to take that down. She didn't look at the portrait as she passed by it, but felt more vulnerable barefoot in her nightgown than she had a moment prior, quickening her step a bit and glancing down at Zwei with an appreciative smile. "I knew that loathsome general was useless. You'll protect mommy, Zwei, won't you?"

"?" The corgi cocked his head up at her in puppyish confusion as he trotted along beside her. Cute, but not entirely helpful to her right now.

Another reason she hated this house was it made her imagination way, way too overactive when she was on her own, a fact she was keenly aware of as she squinted in the cold gloom. All childish flights of fancy aside... Something had been strange about the manor lately. Weiss was fastidious enough to notice when food was going missing, attentive enough to hear the occasional bark or warning growl come from the garden at hours her pets typically slept. One night not so long ago she was convinced she even woke up to the sight of a shadow under her door, and lay staring at it for over ten minutes trying to decide if it was a trick of the light or not before feigning a stir prompted whatever shape was casting it to move away.

Weiss considered herself to have nerves of steel. Though paranoid, she really didn't scare easily; it was just another feeling on top of all the others she managed, and it was rare that anything even could generate a significant enough spark of fear in her to merit snuffing it. But something about that night, the sheer length of time whatever it was had lingered there, the positioning of the shadow by the door that almost could've given the impression it was watching her through the keyhole... Above all there had been an aura, a kind of malevolence thickening the air she couldn't really put into words properly. She hadn't moved for at least another five minutes that night, and had a wonderful time explaining to Yang why she woke up to the sight of Atlas's premiere politician curled up in a blanket on the chair near the foot of her bed. In her time here she'd seen Weiss paranoid plenty, anticipating her enemies' next moves constantly. That was the only time she could recall seeing her freaked out.

Speaking of her rising paranoia, that was all security dismissed it as; No alarms were tripped, no guards could recall seeing anything, and all the camera feeds looked normal, so by their estimation of course the wealthy spinster living alone was simply jumping at shadows. Particularly with the times being what they were and her increasing prominence in the public eye of late. They were lucky life had already taught her the only person she could depend on in this world was herself, but she gave them hell anyway, and with faith in her god-bestowed abilities rising with each fruitful practice session simply decided the issue of whatever wretched stalker was hiding amongst her staff was one she'd handle herself. In hindsight, that was when she really started blowing Yang off; It was such a pity. Things had been almost nice before.

She could at least see a little of the irony in her least favorite part of the entire house being the one she kept coming back to. The interior stairwell to the mansion's wine cellar was at the end of a long, spacious storage hallway cluttered by the statues that had been too much to her father's taste to ignore when she became head of the household; she'd had them taken down, covered up in tarps and left here to gather dust while she figured out what to do with them. That had been about seven years ago. Oops. Maybe some part of her appreciated the covered-up statues for creeping her out enough to keep her from visiting the cellar more than she should've, but she didn't see much point in speculating. The door to the corridor creaked shut on heavy hinges; this was a corner of the manor meant for staff, not guests, and its comparatively unsightly state reflected that. Various cleaning products and household tools gave the entire hallway a chemical-infused smell, and a single bulb lit the way in contrast to the rest of the mansion's lavish dust sconces. She glared at it when switching it on immediately made it start to flicker in protest, distracting her from Zwei's attentive "!" and the way he padded up to one of the statues warily with ears pricked up.

Weiss was too tired to think about anything but getting down and then up those stairs with a bottle in hand and removing herself from this place, so she just huffed as she swept past, opened the cellar doors and quietly crept down one at a time. "Do not take that tarp off, Zwei. If I so much as glimpse one of those abominable stone monstrosities I won't get a single wink all night. Stay here and wait for mommy, okay? Of course you will I know you're a good boy oh yes you are I love you so much-"

Her goochy goo talk slowly faded as she descended, leaving Zwei to look between cellar door and statue helplessly. The pup circled a few times in place before sitting down between them like the good boy he was, jaws shut for once with an alert demeanor as he cocked his head up at the statue and stared at it. And stared. And staaaaared.

After about thirty seconds, whatever was under the tarp (and decidedly not a statue) suddenly turned its head to stare back, and a ghostly 'shhhh' hissed out from under the fabric as it carefully raised a finger to its lips. Another world's Zwei might've sprang into action at that moment. Flipped Zwei bolted, disappearing through the door at the other end of the hallway with a sharp whine, and when Weiss reemerged from the cellar it was with a fiercely urgent look that overcame her features at the sight awaiting her. "Who's there?" She demanded boldly, a genuinely angry grit to her teeth and a blue flare to her eyes that helped the flickering bulb above sharpen the gloom at what she saw. Zwei was missing, and the statue he'd been so focused on was now no more than a tarp sprawled loosely across the floor. Which meant...

Before she could finish the thought, the lightbulb exploded in an angry hail of glass and sparks. The light from Weiss's eyes was now the only one lighting the room, eyes that widened in alarm a bit as she glanced down to strike a blue flame in her palm instead. A small part of her immediately regretted the act, as it served only to illuminate the bonelike curves and ridges of the face now no more than a centimeter or two away from her own, a face that wasn't truly a face at all.

"Performance reviiiiieeeeeeewwww!~"

Weiss's eyes reached their peak diameter as she stepped back in surprise, only to stumble over something snagging both her angles like a cord. She fought to keep her composure as well as her balance, but ultimately failed in the pursuit of both as something yanked her legs out from beneath her and she was dragged back into the cellar with a shrill, abrupt scream.

---

Some portion of Yang's brain might've registered the clamor on the vague edges of consciousness, but more prompt in waking her up was the faint breeze in her room, the curtains flapping by the window she was pretty sure hadn't been open when she fell asleep, and the rugged hand clamped firmly over her mouth.

"SHUSHHHHHHHSJSKLDJKJDSJKFSSD!!!!!"

Qrow basically flailed trying to disencourage whatever his niece's reaction to that would normally be as she woke up, and assuming he didn't get instantly clocked urgently pressed a finger to his own lips, waiting until she was relaxed before removing the hand. A cautious glance over his shoulder followed.

"Hey. Been keeping tabs. Bird. I hadn't planned on making a move tonight, but keep quiet. Something bad's here."

He moved over to the door, pressing an ear against it and listening tensely for a moment before he cracked it open. As he checked the hallway proper, a streak of lightning bolted around the corner and blurred past, barely distinguishable to either of them as Zwei with Myrtenaster gripped in his mouth like a stick during fetch as he frantically dashed back toward the other end of the house.

"The queen mother is in danger! Protect the queen mother! Secure dominance over all other boys! Only we shall be the one they call 'best'!"

"BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK B-"

Qrow sort of thought that little dude looked familiar, but that was way too big a coincidence for him to think anything further of it. He peeked back out from where he hid around the doorframe, one hand in his pocket, before he finally looked back over at Yang and thumbed out to the hall.

"Something tells me Weiss is gonna have her plate full this evening. This could be our best shot at springing you for a while."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Something tells me Weiss is gonna have her plate full this evening. This could be our best shot at springing you for a while."

"So long as we're as quick and quiet as humanly possibly about it." The other bird emphasized even more than Qrow just had because it truly could not be understated how bad this could easily go if they weren't careful. Yes she was here too :|, and one of few words in this situation. It was hard to tell which Raven it was even.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The girl came up from her roll just in time to see him running past her and back into the street. She blew a few bangs out of her eyes with a frustrated huff, and turned on her heel to continue the chase.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH

BAWHUMP THUMP

The car that ran him over out of literally nowhere was not merely cool. It was so profoundly, unbelievably cool that he somehow didn't even see it until it was literally filling his vision, orange streaks on a black chassis that bowled the man over and sent him careening over the hood to land behind it, bruised but otherwise fine as heavy rock blared out the speakers.

"I can't believe this thing was still in the ditch we left it in."

The two occupants got out, completely blase about the whole thing as they hopped over the convertible doors to stand at ease, propped nonchalantly up against the bonnet.

"I can't believe Mistral became like, the apocalypse basically. After one month."

"I can't believe that guy's still awake after I hit him with my sweet ride."

"I can't believe you can't shut up about that stupid car."

"Yeah, well I can't believe your outfits get skimpier and skimpier every time you go outside."

"...I can't believe you're shaming me."

"Oh no, I support it in multiple ways. Honestly, Em, I can't believe you'd even think that."

"Oh yeah? Well I can't believe you think you have a beard in you!" She retorted, ending it in a sudden and decisive movement: jabbing a finger at the teeny-tiny(!) layer of stubble sprinkled all over the lower half of Mercury's face. He looked away stiffly.

"There is one in me. On me. My face."

"I thought that was your butt."

"Ha! Not toned enough."

They shared a riotous laugh, none of which made the sight any less terrifying to the man on the ground. The duo's heads were slowly increasing in size, growing and inflating like balloons all throughout the duration of their exchange until they were the size of watermelons. Like really huge ones.

"Neo, you gonna cuff this guy or whatever?" Emerald ventured with a wave, a wave which also inverted the man's perception of up and down because she thought it'd be funny. It was too bad only a single target at a time could see how ballin' she was getting with her semblance creatively as of late.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Then she was gone, a blur ricocheting from the walls that alighted gently in the airships open hatch. She roved her gaze across the other talons; Tiger with a starting to slightly squirm against Hound under arms, and Wolf in the cockpit. She knelt down and grabbed her mask from where it had dropped to the floor when she'd leaped out after Cinder

The strain that 100% took on her body was taxing. Her occasional breaths turned into pants. Once she and the baggage she was carrying were safely aboard the ship, she relented. The muscles faded and there stood Tiger in her shredded clothing, still toned but not monstrously so. Feeling Hound starting to squirm in her arms, she looked down at him and met his eyes with hers.



*flick*

She flicked him in the head just enough to knock him out.

He'd already been taken out in one shot, no need to further the humiliation by having him see the 'Arena Meat' cradling him like a newborn.

She knew a thing or two about suffering indignities.

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Some portion of Yang's brain might've registered the clamor on the vague edges of consciousness, but more prompt in waking her up was the faint breeze in her room, the curtains flapping by the window she was pretty sure hadn't been open when she fell asleep, and the rugged hand clamped firmly over her mouth.

"SHUSHHHHHHHSJSKLDJKJDSJKFSSD!!!!!"

Qrow basically flailed trying to disencourage whatever his niece's reaction to that would normally be as she woke up, and assuming he didn't get instantly clocked urgently pressed a finger to his own lips, waiting until she was relaxed before removing the hand. A cautious glance over his shoulder followed.

"Hey. Been keeping tabs. Bird. I hadn't planned on making a move tonight, but keep quiet. Something bad's here."

He moved over to the door, pressing an ear against it and listening tensely for a moment before he cracked it open. As he checked the hallway proper, a streak of lightning bolted around the corner and blurred past, barely distinguishable to either of them as Zwei with Myrtenaster gripped in his mouth like a stick during fetch as he frantically dashed back toward the other end of the house.

"The queen mother is in danger! Protect the queen mother! Secure dominance over all other boys! Only we shall be the one they call 'best'!"

"BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK B-"
​

Yang could not believe Weiss hadn't taken her up on hitting up that minigolf place they got an ad for in the mail. It was the perfect size for her :' (

In these kinds of situations, where someone felt trapped and stifled, their sleep patterns usually ended up skewing one of two ways; Some people felt like the walls were closing in on them, that their lives were already so empty that every minute spent awake was another minute of the rest of their life wasted, and insomnia's insidious claws dug into their eyelids and kept them open all night long. Others did the opposite and drifted off to sleep earlier and earlier, for longer and deeper. What was the point of being awake, when your life was practically the same as when you were asleep?

As Qrow alighted through the window, his niece didn't even budge from her quiet snores, not from the breeze, not from the sound of his feet hitting the floors. The normally light sleeper that she was, not so much a part of her personality as it was a requirement for any huntress worth her salt, was still far off in dreamland right up until the moment he shook her shoulder.

Only then did he get slugged in the face. Except it was like getting hit by a toddler in a pillow fight, rather than the particularly malicious freight train her fist normally was. She scrambled backwards into the headboard in surprise, her eyes wide and baffled as she took in the room around her, wholly similar to every other night she'd been forced awake by false hopes or particularly vicious old nightmares her head state were dragging back up, except for the presence of one very anxious looking uncle.

Qrow sort of thought that little dude looked familiar, but that was way too big a coincidence for him to think anything further of it. He peeked back out from where he hid around the doorframe, one hand in his pocket, before he finally looked back over at Yang and thumbed out to the hall.

"Something tells me Weiss is gonna have her plate full this evening. This could be our best shot at springing you for a while."

Qrow's aura utterly failed to warn him of the sneak attack that came from behind, and aura or not, he was forced back a step from the sheer momentum in the tackle Yang hit him with as she wrapped her arm around him and buried her face in his chest.



She'd spent at least one week rehearsing this reunion, somewhere in the middle of this month and a half wait. Spent some time practicing her languorous lounging, kept a plate of grapes by her bed at night, and practiced a whole slew of one liners and fruit based puns she coulda dropped on whichever one of them inevitably showed up to rescue them, just so she could show them that there wasn't ever anything they had to worry about; that she was ok, that she'd made the right choice staying behind, and that there weren't any bad feelings towards however long she ended up waiting. That she never doubted they were coming for her.

Not even Weiss rescinding her grape privileges for taking a whole plate into her room and throwing that same plate out every morning dented her enthusiasm


All of that went out the window, somehow. She didn't want to say she didn't have it in her to play the tough girl, to act like none of this had an effect on her and that she came out of it completely fine, act like this was nothing more than a brief, all expenses paid vacation in the middle of saving the world(s!), and if it had been Ruby who'd shown up with the rescue team, that probably would've been exactly what happened. But once her thoughts cleared and the fact that this was reality and not just some particularly obnoxious dream hit her, she realized she really just didn't want to do any of that. "Took you long enough" she muttered, muffled in her uncle's shirt.

Then she pushed off of him and shot him an exasperated smirk.

"Too bad your plan's no good; Either we're gonna have to go chase Weiss down, or I'm gonna have to sit tight for a while longer." she said, poking her head down the hall in the direction Zwei had tore down in a sprint. "Is that you guys? I hope you didn't send Ruby to deal with Weiss on her own."

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH

BAWHUMP THUMP

The car that ran him over out of literally nowhere was not merely cool. It was so profoundly, unbelievably cool that he somehow didn't even see it until it was literally filling his vision, orange streaks on a black chassis that bowled the man over and sent him careening over the hood to land behind it, bruised but otherwise fine as heavy rock blared out the speakers.

"I can't believe this thing was still in the ditch we left it in."

The two occupants got out, completely blase about the whole thing as they hopped over the convertible doors to stand at ease, propped nonchalantly up against the bonnet.

"I can't believe Mistral became like, the apocalypse basically. After one month."

"I can't believe that guy's still awake after I hit him with my sweet ride."

"I can't believe you can't shut up about that stupid car."

"Yeah, well I can't believe your outfits get skimpier and skimpier every time you go outside."

"...I can't believe you're shaming me."

"Oh no, I support it in multiple ways. Honestly, Em, I can't believe you'd even think that."

"Oh yeah? Well I can't believe you think you have a beard in you!" She retorted, ending it in a sudden and decisive movement: jabbing a finger at the teeny-tiny(!) layer of stubble sprinkled all over the lower half of Mercury's face. He looked away stiffly.

"There is one in me. On me. My face."

"I thought that was your butt."

"Ha! Not toned enough."

They shared a riotous laugh, none of which made the sight any less terrifying to the man on the ground. The duo's heads were slowly increasing in size, growing and inflating like balloons all throughout the duration of their exchange until they were the size of watermelons. Like really huge ones.

"Neo, you gonna cuff this guy or whatever?" Emerald ventured with a wave, a wave which also inverted the man's perception of up and down because she thought it'd be funny. It was too bad only a single target at a time could see how ballin' she was getting with her semblance creatively as of late.​

Lupin the 33rd, fourth of his name, slowly pushed himself up to his knees from where he'd landed in a heap after the impact. He sneered and lifted his head towards the punks who "OH WHAT THE FUCK?!" he screeched, scrambling backwards on his backside and palms as he saw whatever the hell was going on with Emerald and Mercury's heads. "H-heh, this is one of your semblances, isn't it? Well the jokes on you then brats, because its nothing compared to mine! SECRET SNAKE-"

An umbrella absolutely clobbered the side of his head, and he fell to the ground in an unconscious heap instantly. Neo leaned over and gave him another thwack just to make sure.

[This is Lupin's ultimate move, where he announces he's going to use his semblance before using it and gets knocked out before the fight even starts, thereby stopping it before it escalates into any real danger]

Neo shook her head and grabbed the leg of his pants to start dragging him around to the trunk. She tossed the parasol to send it flipping into the backseat, solely so she had a free hand to tap her wrist where a watch could go as she popped the trunk open with a well placed kick and fished out a pair of dampening cuffs to put them on the guy.

 

[MidwayLives]

Harriet wasn't one to complain about a task.

She was a soldier. Atlas's finest had chosen her to stand among their ranks.

That said, she didn't think her skills were truly being put to the test watching over a slowly growing glum prisoner.

She had no chance at escaping on her own and even if she could fight, Harriet was confident that she could take her down within seconds.

Yet as each day stretched into the next, the sassy blonde she'd been guarding seemed to get turned away by the councilwoman more and more. Or at least they weren't going around having fun activites. Harriet didn't think that was a bad thing mind you: cripple or not, Yang was a prisoner first before anything else. In Harriet's opinion, she deserved a nice cold cell rather than the relative lap of luxury she got here.

But it wasn't her place to say that, never had been, and probably never would be.

So there she stood doing some patrolling around the interior of the manor. Others may have written the councilwoman's worries off as mere paranoia, the first world problems of a heiress with too much time on her hands. Harriet was skeptical but to pass up any potential for a threat no matter how small it may be was naive at best, stupid at worst .

...Didn't seem like she was going to find anything though-

Hey, wasn't that one of Schnee's dogs?

...Why was it just sitting there and staring at her???

~~~

"Gaze upon my form you intolerable neophyte. For I hold the answers to questions untold."

"Bark!"

Harriet thought the dog was a cutie but going around petting dogs wasn't why she was here. "Ask your mommy if you wanna go on walkies, pal." She wasn't some glorified babysitter damn it! Couldn't Schnee have a maid or butler do something like that? Had she sent the dog here to bother her?

What if...

What if she left the dog here to see if Harriet would play with it and then bust her for slacking off on her duties???

"...Nope. Too far out there, hey...Are you holding something?"

Come to think of it, Harriet had seen this dog in particular get babied a whole lot. When you stuck around in the same house for a while, you tended to pick up on things. Normally, Weiss wouldn't have been too far behind one of her mutts, least of all this one in particular. As Harriet got closer, she realized the reason why Zwei had appeared before her.

"That's...It's.."

It was Schnee's blade! What the hell was this dog doing with it?! If she stood by and it got dog slobber all over it, it'd be her ass! She'd never live down the pisspoor report she'd get.

"Okay...Zwei, right? Why don't you give me the sword and I'll give you...uh a treat?"

'Don't patronize me you delightfully ignorant miscreant. When I desire a treat, I'll savor one from your steaming innards.'

Zwei stayed still as Harriet leaned in...and then he turned and hauled ass down the hallway.

"UGH! GET BACK HERE!!!"

She could have caught him in no time with her semblance but using it in the hallways was liable to knock over one of Schnee's paintings or other trinket. It'd probably come out of Harriet's pay on top of that.
​

Then she pushed off of him and shot him an exasperated smirk.

"Too bad your plan's no good; Either we're gonna have to go chase Weiss down, or I'm gonna have to sit tight for a while longer." she said, poking her head down the hall in the direction Zwei had tore down in a sprint. "Is that you guys? I hope you didn't send Ruby to deal with Weiss on her own."

Bursting forward and scooping up Zwei once she felt she'd closed the distance enough, Harriet sought to try and pull Myrenstar from his canine grip.

"Ugh, you probably got dog saliva all over it-"

For the second time tonight, Harriet was left stunned.

Why did Zwei have Schnee's rapier and why were these people in the prisoner's room?

Holding Zwei under one arm, Harriet narrowed her eyes.

"If you two stand down, I promise I won't kick your asses too much."
​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Qrow's aura utterly failed to warn him of the sneak attack that came from behind, and aura or not, he was forced back a step from the sheer momentum in the tackle Yang hit him with as she wrapped her arm around him and buried her face in his chest.



She'd spent at least one week rehearsing this reunion, somewhere in the middle of this month and a half wait. Spent some time practicing her languorous lounging, kept a plate of grapes by her bed at night, and practiced a whole slew of one liners and fruit based puns she coulda dropped on whichever one of them inevitably showed up to rescue them, just so she could show them that there wasn't ever anything they had to worry about; that she was ok, that she'd made the right choice staying behind, and that there weren't any bad feelings towards however long she ended up waiting. That she never doubted they were coming for her.

Not even Weiss rescinding her grape privileges for taking a whole plate into her room and throwing that same plate out every morning dented her enthusiasm

All of that went out the window, somehow. She didn't want to say she didn't have it in her to play the tough girl, to act like none of this had an effect on her and that she came out of it completely fine, act like this was nothing more than a brief, all expenses paid vacation in the middle of saving the world(s!), and if it had been Ruby who'd shown up with the rescue team, that probably would've been exactly what happened. But once her thoughts cleared and the fact that this was reality and not just some particularly obnoxious dream hit her, she realized she really just didn't want to do any of that. "Took you long enough" she muttered, muffled in her uncle's shirt.

Then she pushed off of him and shot him an exasperated smirk.

"Too bad your plan's no good; Either we're gonna have to go chase Weiss down, or I'm gonna have to sit tight for a while longer." she said, poking her head down the hall in the direction Zwei had tore down in a sprint. "Is that you guys? I hope you didn't send Ruby to deal with Weiss on her own."

Oh crap. There he was, getting so caught up in the moment he was being a bad uncle again. He turned right back around from the door and into instinctively catching Yang as she flung herself at him, so urgently stressed about whatever Mission Impossible fantasy he was living out right now that he totally forgot the emotional element to all this, or at the very least downplayed it for the time being and assumed Yang would follow suit. Maybe close to two months apart just meant he needed some reminding of what kind of person his niece was, and some of the tension unwound from his neck and shoulders as he returned the embrace with a hand on her crown, letting a good chunk of his worry and relief out in the form of a sigh.

All that said, what he said next was probably the most shit-eating thing Yang had ever heard him say in his entire life.

"Yeah, well. We realized it was actually kinda quiet without you around, soooo..."

However his niece reacted to that, he hopefully escaped reprisal with an awkward, self-effacing half laugh, giving the back of her head one last stroke before they separated.

"Nahhh. Raven and I've been swingin' by every day since we found out you were here. Tried to find spots you could see us in, but ice queen went ahead and made the entire grounds a no-fly zone for crows and ravens. Couldn't even show up in a pair without everyone going on red alert. Took a whole two weeks of eyeballing Weiss's new security detail just to figure out their routes and reach your window."

Tenderness of the moment aside, he seriously was living out the whole Mission Impossible thing and it was kinda awesome. Kinda also giving him a continuous heart attack. This was it. His big chance to get Yang out, bring her back to her sister where she belonged. It was almost sooner than they were ready for, but after a month and a half of recon and entrenching themselves with Robyn's people they had all the pieces they needed to move, and when he realized what was happening with Weiss he knew it was an opportunity they couldn't pass up. They were blowing this creepy joint Alcatraz-style. Whatever Alcatraz was.

He let the warmth he felt from seeing her take over for just a moment, smirk growing more sincere and contrite. "...Sorry, firecracker. This was... it was too long. We're holed up with the Mantle resistance, but even getting a footing in Atlas has been hard. Weiss practically owns this city, bought-n-paid for in full, and she's really doubled down on personal security as of late. Must've realized the jaws are closing in."

He gave a bitter snort, long legs carrying him back over to the door. The look on his face was one of extreme caution once again as he checked both ways up and down the hallway himself, rubbing a faint scar on the side of his neck Yang couldn't recall seeing before.

"...Speaking of which, seriously. Keep your voice down."

On that note, his niece's declaration left him a bit puzzled, but he copped it a second later and shook his head with a rueful grin.

"Oh. It's fine, Yang; we know about the chip. Robyn's got a guy who can take care of it, we're pretty sure. And your sister's not here. Like I said, oodles to catch up on, ABSOLUTELY NOT the time. Let's just say Weiss is having some trouble with her boss and leave it at that. Whether she makes it through tonight in one piece is anyone's guess, but personally? I'd say the odds aren't great."

Jerks getting their comeuppance from worse jerks was kinda funny in his book, so he couldn't keep a note of faintly smug swagger out of his voice. Karma rewarded him instantly with Harriet showing him up.

"Ahhh, crap."

Bursting forward and scooping up Zwei once she felt she'd closed the distance enough, Harriet sought to try and pull Myrenstar from his canine grip.

"Ugh, you probably got dog saliva all over it-"

For the second time tonight, Harriet was left stunned.

Why did Zwei have Schnee's rapier and why were these people in the prisoner's room?

Holding Zwei under one arm, Harriet narrowed her eyes.

"If you two stand down, I promise I won't kick your asses too much."

"FOOLISH RABBIT. UNHAND ME. YOU ACCOMPLISH NOWT SAVE TO HASTEN YOUR OWN MASTER'S DEMISE."

"Arararararrr! Grrrrrrrrr!"

Zwei squirmed like no dog has ever squirmed before when Harriet scooped him up, barking and snapping at her fingers. When he was able to wriggle out enough room for himself to strike, he flung himself up in a thunderous rolling headbutt, landing a short distance away with ears and tail stiff and a fierce snarl on his face that even Yang could only place on the corgi at his absolute worst.

Then he jumped up, snatched the rapier out of Harriet's hand and took off running again.​