I don't own RWBY or The Phantom Nevermore. This is an AU of the events that occur at the end of LaughingLefou's original PN. I started getting in my head "how would Cinder react to all this?" And while watching RWBY, I always wanted them to expand on Cinder's story. LaughingLefou was kind enough to give me the go-ahead for this story, so let's give it a shot. Hope you all enjoy!

EDIT: So, this is a re-upload of the chapter after my bet read it. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 1: All I Want for Christmas is to Get Out of Prison

"Huh," he muttered, as he heard the plate of food come in on the tracks at the bottom of the door. Considering that the slit under the door is only three inches high, even if it spanned the entire width of the door, he couldn't use it to escape. Looking up from his book, he decided to see what gruel he was expected to eat for dinner today. To his surprise, it was an amazing looking meal: steak, mash potatoes, a side of salad, and his favorite pop, Beowulf Crash.

He had to admit, he was surprised. However, that surprise quickly devolved into anger. He looked around the 1000'x1000' steel box he had been forced to live in for the past four years. The only thing in here was the mattress he slept on, a blanket, the clothes on his back, a toilet in the corner near the door (which is why he moved his mattress near the door from the other side of the room) and the book and picture he had sneaked in just before his captors had dropped the 70' steel door in his face, locking him in here. Oh, and there was the giant monitor on one of the walls to be used by anyone who was in the mood to screw with him. To one-sided conversations to simply torturing him with pictures of the world of Remnant, he'd had to deal with it all from the assholes who "guarded" him (like he needed any guards; even he wasn't strong enough to escape this place).

He knew that if he was getting something nice, then they wanted something from him. They probably wanted him to carry out a hit or gather intel for them. It pissed him off to the point where he almost just stayed on his mattress and read "The Hunter's of Grimm," leaving the food to go bad. Almost. Sadly, the guard responsible for placing food on the tracks underneath the door had "forgotten" to bring him anything to eat for the last two days. Honestly, part of him had hoped that they forgot he existed altogether, and that he could just wither away and rot in his cell. Guess that still isn't an option.

He put the book down and walked over to the tray and picked up the food. As he was about to take it back to his bed so that he could eat and continue to reread his book (for the 1000th time), he noticed a slip of paper attached to the bottom of the tray. With one hand, he took off the tape and read the message: "Congratulations. You're getting out early on good behaviour. Enjoy your meal. You will be released from the Goliath cage in an hour."

'Good behaviour'?! Is the bitch high?! What the hell could I possibly do in this hole that could be considered poor behaviour, let alone good behaviour?! He could feel his temper rising more and more. In an attempt to calm himself down, he took a slow, deep breath, held it for about 30 seconds, then slowly let it out. He felt calmer, or at least calm enough to crumple up the message, throw it on the tracks to head back to the guard, and walk back to his "bed."

About an hour later, with his meal finished and back to reading, he was actually surprised when the door opened, rising into the ceiling, especially after the little tantrum he threw (he knew he was under surveillance). Huh. Guess she wasn't yanking my chain. But what the hell does she want?

He figured he should stay in bed for a little while and see if anyone will come to him. Soon enough, a man with grey hair, wearing a blue-grey vest, and a woman with bright green hair and mocha skin, came out of the tunnel and walked right up to his bed.

XXXXX

"Remember, Cinder said that he's extremely dangerous. According to Roman, he was our predecessor as Cinder's go-to."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. He's been stuck down here for what, three, four years? He's probably atrophied," replied Mercury. Emerald and Mercury where walking down the corridor to the Goliath cage to grab the man that Roman had dubbed the "Blood Hound."

"Whatever yourself, tough guy. Don't forget that you're still injured." Mercury grimaced at the reminder. Scratching the bandage around his head, he couldn't help but think about the night he got injured. He still couldn't believe that some newbie thief had got a hit on him. A hit so rough, that he still had dizzy spells when he got up too fast, even a couple weeks later. It spoke a lot for his physical constitution that he was doing so well.

As they reached the cage entrance, Emerald typed the entry code into the control panel on the wall to the left side of the door. As the 70' tall door rose into the ceiling, lights on the ground of the hallway lit up, leading to a bright open space at the end of the entrance. As they crossed over, Mercury couldn't help but be impressed by the size of it all. "Damn, they weren't kidding. This place really was built to hold a Goliath... Maybe even 10?"

"Shut up," Emerald grumbled, lifting her head, "There he is."

Not far from the door lying on his back with his feet crossed at the knees, was the so called "Blood Hound" that Cinder had employed before she had recruited them. Sadly, both Mercury and Emerald where a little disappointed.

For starters, the "Blood Hound" couldn't have been more then 18, just a little younger then they were. He had long, messy black hair, with bangs that made it difficult to see his eyes. He was wearing white flannel, prison style pajamas and scruffy socks. Set neatly next to the bed was the food tray. Despite the meal he had, they could see how thin he was through the baggy pajamas. Admittedly, that wasn't all that surprising, given how often the guards starved him.

And he was completely ignoring them, reading a dingy looking book. Mercury cocked his head to the side. "Is that a copy of the Hunter's fairy tale book for kids?" Emerald, just as confused as her partner, nodded. "How the hell did that get down here? He was supposed to have been imprisoned with nothing more then the cloth on his back," whispered Emerald. "Well... Why don't we go ask him?" With that, Mercury walked over to the bed that the stranger was laying on. Emerald just huffed, rolled her eyes, and followed her partner's footsteps.

He still hasn't even looked at us. What's up with that? thought Mercury, as he came to a stop next to the bed. He looked down, noticing that the food stuff wasn't as neat as he had originally thought. While the plate and utensils where all piled neatly together, nothing was on the tray.

"Hi, little guy, time to ge-" before Mercury could finish his sentence, the kid had swiveled on his bed, and kicked Mercury's legs out from under him. As he was falling, the kid grabbed the wooden tray, and brought it up, hitting Mercury in the face. He hit it so hard, his head actually broke through it, making a hole in the tray. Using the tray as leverage, the kid lifted Mercury back up, twisted him around, and kicked him in the back, breaking the tray in two and sending Mercury right back to the cage entrance, face first.

Emerald was shell-shocked. Did this punk just catch Mercury by surprise?

"Shit!" she growled. Quick as lightning, she unholstered her dual revolvers, unleashed the sickle setting, and swung them outwards in a X-style. Instead of dodging, the boy raised the half of the tray he was still holding, allowing the first sickle to imbed itself in the wood, and with a reaction time that Emerald had never seen before, stepped forward and grabbed the second chain just shy of the sickle end. He quickly looped it around his fist, and with a strength you wouldn't believe possible for the thin stick of a man, yanked her off her feet.

Too late, she remembered Roman's warning as they left their meeting with Cinder: "Whatever you idiots do, DON'T get within arms reach of this guy. He's strong enough to rip apart a Ursa Major with his bare hands!"

As she was getting closer to him, Emerald tried to orient her body so that she could kick out at him. In hindsight, she should have just let go of the gun. He dropped the tray, stepped forward, and before Emeralds kick could connect, he punched her in the stomach so hard that she went crashing into the wall just next to the entrance. The shock of collision was so devastating that Emerald actually lost her grip on the sickle wrapped around his hand.

Mercury got up as Emerald went careening into the wall beside his head. He twirled around to see the "Blood Hound" standing a few meters away, Emeralds gun leveled at Mercury's head. In a raspy, dry voice, the "Blood Hound" said, "I won't do another job for Cinder. You have 10 seconds to give me the security codes to leave this facility, or you and your partner are dead."

Mercury tried to shake his head so that he could think straight. Thanks to the new blow to the head, his eyesight was swimming. "You do realize," "10," "-that even if you," "9," "-could kill us both, "8," "-you won't be getting past," "7," "-the 1st security wall." "6," "Why don't you just," "5," "-come quietly?" "4," Hell, we where the," "3," "-ones who let you out." "2."

Realizing that talking was useless, Mercury set himself up in a combat stance, ready to block the bullets with his Aura. "1-."

Mercury rushed the "Blood Hound," hoping to get in the first blow and even the score. He swung his leg upward in a fast, compact kick. The "Hound" moved one leg behind the other and angled his body so that the kick missed him by a hair. He then grabbed Mercury's raised leg and using his momentum, flipped him onto his back. Mercury tried to kick out with his free leg, but the "Hound" let go of his leg, jumped, and landed with one foot on each of his arms, effectively pinning Mercury in place.

"...0. Times up." He cocked the gun and aimed the barrel right between Mercury's eyes.

Mercury was in deep shit and he knew it. While his Aura was plenty strong, it was still attempting to repair his head injury from two weeks ago. Between that, a new head injury, getting kicked in the spine and landing flat on his face with enough force to skin him, he doubted that he had enough Aura left to block two bullets, let alone all six that where in the barrel.

XXXXX

As Mercury was getting knocked flat on his back, Emerald was regaining consciousness. "Urgh..." She raised her head as the punk cocked her gun and aimed it between her partner's eyes, "...0. Times up."

Emerald reached for her other gun and aimed it at the "Hound," and fired. The punk noticed her just in time, and raised his arm so that the bullet wouldn't lodge itself in his brain. Instead of knocking his arm aside or being deflected by his aura, the bullet actually lodged itself into his arm, staining his long pajama sleeve red.

As he raised the gun to take aim at Emerald, a female voice resonated out of the hallway, "I believe that's quite enough, Blaze."

Out of the hallway came Blaze's worst nightmare and most hated enemy: Cinder, followed closely by Torchwick and Neo. Great, just great. I was hoping to get out of here before the bitchtress and the rest of her crew got here.

"My, my, it's been so long Blaze. And here I thought you'd be happy to see me," drawled Cinder, seeing the look of disgust on his face before he could hide it. "Yeah," muttered Blaze in his raspy voice, "about as happy as seeing a pack of Beowolves while having my crotch covered in blood."

"Oh my. Isn't that quite the imagery you provoke?" teased Cinder. Blaze let out a frustrated breath as he rasped, "Well, you did give me plenty of time to think. Who knew I had such an active imagination? I gotta thank you for helping me discover that about myself." Instead of getting some form of guilty response (really, he knew better; why bother?), Cinder just laughed and said, "So glad to have been of service. Now, why don't you give my henchmen back her gun and get off her partner? Unless you feel like prolonging this charade?"

Great. She knows... Well, I guess it is a little obvious. Cinder had noticed just how tired Blaze was. Over the past four years, he had been horribly malnourished, sometimes starved for days at a time, so as to keep him docile and make sure that he didn't try and escape. Even with the meal that he ate, if the fight between him and Cinder's two cronies had continued another minute he would have fainted from sheer fatigue. Sure, he probably could kill one of them before the other got him, but in the long run he'd wind up dead. Hell, he didn't even have enough Aura to manifest his Semblance at the beginning of the fight. And he would need his Semblance if he wanted to go toe-to-toe with Cinder, let alone the rest of her zoo crew.

"...Sure, what the hell." He tossed the revolver downward, the scythe end going straight into the cement. It came close to impaling Mercury, finding itself in the crook between his ear and his head. Blaze stepped off him and walked right up to Cinder. "So, what's up sis?" asked Blaze.

Emerald walked past Blaze, eyeing him wearily. Once she got to Mercury, she knelt down, grabbed her gun, and helped Mercury up. He groaned and mumbled, "Couldn't someone have warned us that we were going to get Cinder's brother. That would have been useful info." Mercury was practically leaning on Emerald, his vision so blurred that he was seeing duplicates of his partner... Like the world needed more than one of the snarky chit.

Torchwick glared at them and said, "I warned you morons not to get close to him. I get that the three of us don't always get along, but would it kill you two to listen to me? Especially considering how not listening to me almost got you street rats killed tonight?" All he got for his speech was a vicious glare from Emerald... One that warned him to keep his good smokes and booze hidden under lock and key for the foreseeable future.

Neo rolled her eyes and said in her silent voice, [Like anyone gives a damn about what you say! Besides, this is a bad idea! We don't need to send him in, I can get Jaune to come around-] "Can it Neo," said Torchwick and Blaze simultaneously. Neo bristled, but kept her temper in check. If it had just been Torchwick, she would have given him a piece of her mind. But she knew better then to show her temper to either one of the Fall siblings. In this moment, she truly hated Roman for teaching Blaze how to "hear" her talk.

Blaze turned his eyes back to Cinder... Or at least Roman assumed he did. It was hard to tell, what with those bangs going all the way down to the bridge of his nose. "Sooo... What do you want? I doubt you're letting me out of here out of the kindness of your cold, black heart. And I doubt you want me dead... Yet."

A ghost of a smile graced Cinder's face. "Your right. There is something I want you to do. Two things, actually. First off, I need more of your Semblance for the experiments," Blaze narrowed his eyes on her, "-and second, you will need to take out a couple of targets." At this, Blaze let out a slow breath, and said, "No. If it was just my Semblance, that'd be fine. But I am done being your personal assassin." Cinder raised an eyebrow, then walked over to his mattress. "You talk as if you have a choice in the matter." She reached down and snatched a photo from under the corner of the mattress. WHAT?! She couldn't have known that was there! I never took that picture out from under there since they dumped my ass down here. Cinder walked back up to him and put the picture in the breast pocket of his pajama, in a manner that made sure no one present could see the pictures contents.

"Don't worry, this is a special job: if you complete it, along with anything else I ask you to do before you complete the mission, your free. You can go out in the world and become whatever you want. I'll give you the resources you need to set yourself up in whatever profession you'd like. And to top it all off, I'll stop blackmailing you. If you want, I'll even place her under my protection."

He was silent for long enough to make Cinder's men, and woman, very nervous. "...When something's sounds to good to be true, it usually is. If you let me rest for a few days, and feed me properly, then there shouldn't be a problem with my Semblance. Who are the two people you want whacked?"

Cinder looked downright smug at this point. "I want you to kill Jaune Arc and a thief whose going by the name of the Phantom Nevermore." Blaze, whose only visible emotions at this point had been disinterest, apathy, or mild irritation and disgust, was so floored by the chosen target that his jaw fell right open. It hung there for a few more moments, before he closed his mouth and swallowed. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you say that you want me to kill an Arc? In Vale? How in the hell am I meant to disappear after taking out an Arc? Almost every male member of that family for the last three generations have been national heroes!"

[And he's mine! We can't kill him! Roman, tell Cinder to just give me a chance!] Roman nearly choked, before he turned to Neo and whispered, "Are you out of your mind? The only reason Cinder didn't kill me for losing the Spider Droid and the Paladins is that I knew the identity of the kid who destroyed them!" [If you don't help me with this, I'll kill you!] He snorted. "At least it'll be a lot less painful then having Cinder kill me." The look on Neo's face would have made a lesser thug piss his pants.

Blaze glanced over his shoulder at Neo and said, "How about this: we'll set me up where I can be close to this Jaune fella, that way I can learn about him. However, my primary target will be the thief. Once the thief is dead, I can immediately go after Jaune. Neo, what if you used that time to win over Jaune? Does that seem fair to everyone here?"

While Emerald (Mercury was passed out by this point) wasn't sure what to make of this charitable attitude, Torchwick and Neo where downright flabbergasted. What the hell is going on? Blaze used to be as cold as his sister. Maybe not as sadistic, but definitely as cold. What the hell happened four years ago? Neo's internal monologue closely resembled that of the more experienced criminal. Huh? Who the hell is this, and what has happened to Blaze "Blood Hound" Fall? He's a cold-hearted bastard, not some sap. Why would he actually give me a chance? Even when he was my teacher he was never this nice. For Oum's sake, he hated me.

Not eliciting an answer from Neo, Blaze turns to Cinder. "I'm gonna guess that that's a yes by her. What about you?" If he expected Cinder to be surprised by his strange mood, he was quite disappointed. Her expression blank, Cinder said, "I have no problem with that. But you have yet to agree to my terms."

Blaze looked Cinder square in the eyes and said, "If you keep your word to me, that if I do this you'll help me become a free man and will completely vanish from my life and you'll stop threatening her, then you got yourself a deal." A sinister smile grew on Cinder's face. "I'm so glad that we could do business."

"Hold up," he called out just as Cinder started to walk away. She turned around, one brow raised expectantly. "Shake on it?" asked Blaze, offering his hand. Cinder actually laughed, before saying, "Nice try, but I know better then to get within arms distance of you, especially after last time." He sighed and said, "Can't blame me for trying."

Cinder simply "hmphed," and murmured, "Yes, I very much can," before she turned back to the hallway. "All of you, follow me. We will patch up Mercury and Blaze, and then catch Blaze up to speed in regards to the targets."

By this point, Blaze had more or less tuned Cinder out. Free. I'll actually be free. And all it'll cost is a little bit of my Semblance and two lives... Don't think like that. I'm a killer. What's a little more blood on my hands?

While everyone else was exiting the room (Torchwick carrying the still unconscious Mercury), Blaze pulled his photo out of his breast pocket and took a quick peek at it before shoving it back in his pocket.

At first glance, the photo appeared to be a family portrait. The photo depicted what looked like a nice living room, with five figures standing in front of an ornate fireplace. From left to right, the occupants of where as follows: a middle-aged gentleman with short, military style hair, dressed in a fine white military uniform embroidered with medals on his lapels. Held in his arms appeared to be his wife; a kind looking lady with chocolate brown eyes and long, wavy black hair, dressed in a beautiful blue dress that accented her pale skin. Standing proudly to her left was what appeared to be a younger doppelganger of the older man, also wearing a white military uniform, only with fewer medals. And next to him was a younger Blaze, no more then 14 or 15, with short black hair, piercing silver-blue eyes and a wide grin, held in a headlock by an equally young and cheerful little girl. She was dressed in a simple orange dress, and like her father she had dark brown hair, but she had her mothers warm, kind gaze. Maybe when this is all done, I can finally try and make amends to you.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. This is the first story I've ever written on this site, so if anyone would like to leave a review, or has any constructive criticism, please post it. It would be a lot of help. I hope to have another chapter up before the end of the year. For now, Merry Christmas, Happy Cuanza, ciao!