This one came out a lot faster than I thought it would. Like, holy shit. Maybe I'm just not all that into fight scenes? I thought I was, but… eh, whatever. Let's keep this rolling!

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Holy Mother," Pyrrha mumbled, voice tight and high-pitched from the lingering pain, as she stared at her shaking hand – and the freshly regrown fingers that had sprouted from it. She let out a breath, startled at how sensitive they felt, when Jaune reached over and gently grasped her hand. "This is…"

"I know," Blake said, smiling comfortingly at the redhead. "It's a lot to take in. As far as I can tell, the blood we found in this cavern doesn't heal wounds," she began to explain, thoroughly confusing the few people she'd brought with her. "It removes negative traits."

"Considering it just grew back her fingers, I think you're a bit wrong about that," Nora said, letting out a laugh when Ren put his hand on her shoulder and exercised his power on her, much to Jaune's relief.

"Well, true. It can be used to recover from injuries, even grievous ones," Blake said, rolling her eyes when Nora giggled. "But I don't think I'm wrong when I saw that's not its actual purpose. It regrows body parts – as you've seen here today – but it also cured me of a nearly untreatable auto-immune disease, and removed a foreign object from another person's body, one which had been present for a decade and a half. It even corrected Ruby's metabolic enhancements, meaning she doesn't need an utterly absurd amount of food unless she's fighting off an injury or illness.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Blake continued dramatically, gesturing at the trough of blood, "Yharnum has a miracle cure." Nora clapped immediately and enthusiastically, prompting another eye roll from Blake. "So, how was that?" Blake asked, stepping down from the small bucket she'd brought down the stone staircase with her.

"It could use some work," Ren said, "but it has potential. You'll probably want to prepare a version that doesn't presume one of the reporters who comes down here will be suffering from something."

"The ending was pretty lame, too," Pyrrha said, blushing when Blake raised an eyebrow at her. "S-sorry. I know you just…" She trailed off, squeezing Jaune's hand for emphasis. "But… calling it a miracle cure just seems… not good?"

"We'll have a hard time proving that it does what you're saying it does, too," Ren said, frowning as he looked at the trough again. "The mayor's planning on using the existence of Menders as one of the focal points in his address tomorrow. Letting people know that supernatural sources of healing exist will advance medicine a bit, sure, but normal people won't know the limitations. Hell, I'm not sure I know all the limits of Mending. Adding this on top of it will just confuse the two in the public eye; it might even result in people thinking that all powers are… demonic, or something," he added, gesturing to the shrine ensconcing the trough of blood.

"Should we put it off, then?" Blake asked. "I can still get Dad to talk to the mayor out of including the Blood in the address."

"That might be for the best," Jaune said. "Still, though, it's pretty cool."

"That's all you can say?" Pyrrha asked, laughing as her boyfriend sighed.

"Well, what else can I say? 'Thanks, Blake, for giving us this weird miracle blood that regrew my girlfriend's fingers?'" Jaune asked, only half-sarcastic. Seeing the way Nora seemed to brighten and straighten, he added, "Nora, no jokes, please."

"Aw!" the shorter redhead whined, immediately pouting. "I was just gonna ask why you're so desperate for her to get those fingers back. Something fun you were planning on doing later?" she asked with a broad grin, making Pyrrha scowl at her.

"No, I use my other hand for that," Pyrrha said, expression changing to a contented smile as Jaune groaned and palmed his face.

"Well, if we're done here, we should probably get back topside," Blake said, gesturing to the way out. "Thanks for letting me practice that speech on you."

"That was a bit too short to call it a speech," Ren pointed out.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Mercury groaned as he woke up, keeping his eyes clenched tightly shut in a futile effort to still the throbbing in his head and neck. He felt something cold pressed against the side of his head, and a voice danced against his ear as he shifted his legs, trying to figure out where he was without opening his eyes.

"… -cury, stop it already!"

Mercury stilled, giving Emerald a shaky thumbs-up. Once she sighed above him, he croaked out the word, "Where?"

"The safehouse the Belladonnas put together for us. Remember?"

Mercury grunted. He did remember – it wasn't the biggest place he'd ever lived, to put it lightly. There was only a single bedroom, which he'd conceded to Emerald, which left him on the couch in the eight-by-twelve living room – where, he realized, he was laying right then. "Right," he said, grimacing at the rasp in his voice.

"I've got some water here, Mercury. It's got a straw and everything, but you need to sit up before you can drink it."

He groaned, opening his eyes to narrow slits in order to glare at his green-haired roommate. She met it with a cocky smile, drawing another groan from him as he tried to sit up – only for a wave of nausea to force him back down.

"Take it slow, Merc," Emerald said gently, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Winter checked you over on the way here. She doesn't think you have a concussion, but she said that I should treat you like you have one anyway, just in case."

"Great," he grunted, rising much more slowly this time. With Emerald's help, he turned and lounged against the couch's back; a few sips of water later, he asked, "How'd it go?"

"We won. Well, you guys won, I guess; all I did was sit in a car at the wrong side of the Harpy district," she complained, producing a chuckle from her partner. "I still can't believe they managed to hide another illusionist from me, though. I've never met someone like me before."

"How'd that go?"

"It didn't. I didn't get to meet him yet!" she continued to complain, drawing another laugh from him. "He knows what I look like, though. Apparently, he used me in the illusion he drew Raven out of hiding with. I feel kinda dirty, to be honest."

"Now you know how I felt that time I walked in on you playing with an image of me," he said, making her blush brightly.

"Look, you know I… wasn't well back then," Emerald said, the heat draining from her voice midway through her sentence. She shifted timidly as Mercury drank some more water, then asked, "Am I really better? I mean, we modified my subconscious mind to a state that it shouldn't technically be in, Mercury. Is that… you know, permanent?"

"If it's not, I'm suing for a refund," he said, prompting a self-conscious giggle from her. "Seriously, though, Emerald, you're only as good as you feel. If you think you're starting to backslide into that… crazed bitch you were before," he chose after a moment, smirking as she scowled at him, "then we'll just give you another good dose of hypnotism. Or maybe some actual therapy, if things've calmed down enough by then."

Emerald bit her lip, then sighed and shook her head as she let Mercury drink a bit more water. "I don't like using you like this, Mercury," she admitted a few moments later. "I feel like I'm that Valkyrie girl, latching onto some Telempath to keep my emotions under control. You…"

"Don't think of it like that, Em," he said, pointedly giving her a nickname to draw her attention back to him. "You're not just some basket case I've decided to work on out of the kindness of my heart. You're my friend, first and foremost, and I don't want to lose that."

"Merc…" Emerald said, only to pause when he chuckled.

"And I don't think that's how it is with the two of them, either," Mercury added, making her roll her eyes.

"You know, if you'd just shut your mouth for a moment, I would've tried to ask you out," she said, making him chuckle again.

"Good thing I can't help myself, then. You still want something long-term, right? Well, I don't…" he began, only to trail off, eyes widening.

"Mercury? What is it?"

"I… Dead gods below," he mumbled, shaking his head slowly – only to gag as nausea pulsed through him again. "Do I…"

"Mercury? You're kinda scaring me a little. Also, uh… you're crying a bit, too," she added, reaching up to wipe one of the tears leaking from his eyes.

"I… I thought I didn't…" Mercury said, shaking his head again as his mind raced to process the storm of thoughts and emotions surging within him. "Dead gods below, I think I do want something long-term."

"What?" Emerald asked, straightening. "But… Mercury, you… Oh, I think I get it. You didn't want something like that back while you were stuck working for the Family."

"Huh?... I… I think you're right," he said, swallowing as he realized she was right. "I… Emerald, I'm sorry, but…"

"Let me guess: you still don't want to ruin our friendship by getting into it with me, right?" she asked. A moment later, she giggled at his lack of response. "Yeah, I thought as much. Still, if we wind up dating sisters or something, you want to try swinging sometime?"

Mercury's brain essentially stopped working at that point. He slowly tilted his head to the side, staring at her all the while, until he finally asked, "What?"

"It'd let us get a chance to try some things together while also watching some super-hot ladies go at each other, you know? And it'd be extra-hot, since they'd be sisters and all, you know?"

"… Did I accidentally make you some sort of super-perv with that hypnosis shit?"

"Uh…" Emerald said, blushing hotly as she trailed off with a giggle. "No, not really."

"Okay. Well, uh… I'll get back to you on that. In a few years. Maybe."

"Yeah, I should've expected that."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"I still wish we didn't have to leave that to you," Ghira said, biting back a growl and letting out a sigh instead.

"We had everyone we needed, Uncle Ghira," Ruby said. She pointedly kept her eyes on him, or Yang, who was seated beside her – not for the sake of intimidating or chastising him, though; she didn't want to find herself staring at her hands again, seeing the red stains that still marked them after what she'd done. "No one died but… but her. And Blake's helping the few people who were injured."

Ghira did growl at that, only to flinch and shake his head. "Sorry. I don't like the thought of relying on ancient blood found half a mile beneath your high school to fix people, especially not people who shouldn't have been hurt to begin with. We should have been able to handle her ourselves, not rely on children to deal with her for us." He sighed again. "No use dwelling on it, though. How are you handling it, by the way? K-… Doing what needed to be done?"

"I'm…" Ruby began, then paused and cleared her throat when she realized her voice was trembling. "I'm handling it."

"Ruby," Ghira began, only to trail off at the possessive glance Yang gave him. As the blonde wrapped a protective arm around Ruby's shoulders, Ghira sighed and turned his head to the ceiling. "I'm dwelling on it," he announced after a moment, pulling a faint giggle from his goddaughter and her sister.

"Stop worrying them," Kali said, bearing a tray laden with an excess of baked goods – cinnamon buns, three different types of cookies, and slices of cake and pie alike – as well as a few drinks for everyone. Setting it down on the coffee table near the couch Ruby and Yang were seated on, she said, "Just rest, you two. You've done enough good for the city for the time being."

"No, we haven't," Ruby mumbled, balling her hands into fists. "Raven didn't come to the city alone. She was brought here, against her will, by someone who wanted to use her as a weapon. The only thing we can do is fight back."

"Ruby!" Kali exclaimed, eyes widening with fear and worry.

"Don't worry, Auntie: we're not going after her," Ruby said, fingers trembling as she reached out and picked up one of the cookies, only to whimper and set it back down when she caught sight of the blood still staining her hands. Yang clung tighter to her as she continued, saying, "Raven was… She was an artillery strike, meant to cause pain and confusion for as long as possible. This one, though… her boss… she's a knife. Former spec. ops., dishonorably discharged for something classified hard enough that Roman Torchwick can't get even the slightest hint of it. She's a different kind of dangerous – not as unbeatable in a one-on-one fight as Raven, but… what we did to take her out won't work on her."

"What do you mean?" Ghira asked, frowning deeply at the way his goddaughter was acting.

"She's geokinetic," Ruby said after a moment, letting out a sigh. "She draws nearly as much of her element as we aerokinetic's do, so she doesn't have to worry about burning her whole reserve in one shot – or keeping something up at all times."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

The air cracked as a rifle fired, drawing a deep sigh from Cinder Fall. Roman Torchwick raised an eyebrow at her, his hands clasped together thoughtfully over his desk as he watched the inch of shifting sand that had risen before her face and slowed the bullet to a stop. "A passive defense, hmm?" Roman asked, drawing a halfhearted scowl from her. He glanced down at the floor distastefully and scowled at the hole in the concrete between them – which hadn't been there before she'd been shot at – as he asked, "Why sand?"

"I have my hobbies," Cinder said cryptically, using her power to hide a blush when the remark only drew a laugh from the crime lord. "But you didn't really think that would kill me, did you?"

"I hope you're not too offended, Ms. Fall," Roman said, smiling warmly at her. "It was a good opportunity, and I had to make use of it. People say there's honor among thieves, but all we really do is give our allies and enemies alike a smile while we wait to stab them in the back."

"It's how we survive."

"It doesn't need to be this way, you know. You can leave your master behind and live a normal life in Yharnum. Well, as normal as the rest of us, anyway," Roman added with a laugh. "She'll never take Yharnum, especially not after tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"I'm going to actively refuse to explain my cryptic statement, thank you very much."

"Hmm."

"So?"

"The answer is no, Candle. I'm not turning against Salem."

"Ah, I was afraid you'd say that," Roman said, letting out a sigh. He pressed a button hidden beneath his desk as he added, "Still, I did prepare for it."

Another crack broke the air, and Cinder flinched at the sudden swell of sand – half a foot thick – that appeared beside her cheek to catch the bullet. "This is the same caliber," she murmured after a brief moment spent examining the round, turning to look out through the warehouse's roof, which had fallen apart in the quake. "You'd bring your niece in on this?"

"You think she's the only other Ferring in the city? Ms. Fall, I'm disappointed in you. There's at least five of us."

Cinder's eyes widened as more sand shot up around her, stopping another three bullets before they could reach her; her stomach sank as anger boiled in her blood at the sight of the foot-thick orbs of grit surrounding her, certain that she would have died if not for her training. Still, forcing herself to act calm, she sighed and said, "Why were these ones suppressed?"

Roman smiled and leaned back in his seat, saying, "There's a limit to the range of our powers. Those first two came from someone further away; the other three are much closer."

"Why would you tell me this?"

"You believe me? You know how good of a liar I am, right?" he replied, smile widening into a full-blown grin as she sighed again. "Now, get out of my office. You're getting sand everywhere and I need to get someone to fill these holes you keep making."

Cinder scoffed, spun on her heel and left, only to flinch as another bullet came dangerously close to her head. "Can you get them to stop that?" she asked, still heading out.

"Why would I do that?"

Cinder just grunted and kept walking, doing her best to ignore the sand undulating around her as it protected her from another half a dozen bullets. Truth be told, it was grating on her nerves, especially given the way the layout of the Gorgon district – interspersed with stone and concrete the quake had shifted – helped muffle and displace the already suppressed discharges. "Could've killed him," she murmured to herself a minute later, letting herself smile now that the snipers had finally stopped shooting at her. "But I suppose I didn't need to," she added, taking out her earring and smiling down into the miniscule lens of the secret camera.

She tucked it into the pocket of her purse, a red silk pouch less than twice the size of a typical wallet with straps lined with gold leaf to match the yellow trim of her dress. Then, she pulled out the mic-pack she'd hidden in her cleavage – only to stare at it, her anger returning, as the LED in its side didn't flash when she pressed the button beside it.

"An EMP? No, I would've felt the… pulse…" Cinder mumbled, turning to look back the way she'd came. "No, that was too precise for that. It would have to be… her."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Hey, uh, it's me again," Yang said, half-mumbling as she stared down at the gravestone before her. "I know I was here only a couple weeks ago, but… I'm here anyway. For… For my mom."

She glanced away, rubbing a hand along her arm – despite the long sleeves of her black coat, the dress she wore beneath it felt thin enough to seem cold despite the oppressive summer heat. She looked over at where her sister still stood dozens of feet away, staring down at the graves of her parents as their uncle, Qrow, laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"She took her from us, you know," Yang said, turning her eyes back to the grave she stood at. "Raven, I mean. She… She stole my mom, Summer, from me and my sister. The way she stole you from your parents. And it… It hurts just as much as it did when she took Dad from us.

"But… At least something good came of it," Yang said, ignoring the way her voice croaked. "Mom's… Mom's death made us get our acts together. In a couple hours, the mayor's going to hold a press conference about people like us, telling the whole world about how powered people exist. And… And there's more. We took her down. Ruby, Blake, me, and a whole bunch of other people. Raven's not going to hurt anyone else ever again.

"There's something weird about it, though," she continued after a moment, turning her gaze to the sky. "She… She could've stopped me. I know she could've. She was the better fighter, she was tough enough that she could've taken a hit to give one back; she had a damn sword, of all things! So… So why didn't she…" She trailed off and shook her head, letting her eyes fall back to the grave. "She could've stopped me. Did… Did she just want to die, or something? Or… Or did she just not want to hurt me?"

Yang sniffled, wiping up the few tears that dripped from her eyes with the sleeve of her coat. "We got her, but… It still hurts. They're not coming back, after all. Not Mom, not Dad. Not you. But this was never about that…"

She trailed off, wiping her eyes again as she sobbed. "I wonder what things would've been like if…" she mumbled a few moments later. "If… I don't know. I wouldn't give up Ruby for the world, and I don't want to know what not having Summer as my mom would've been like, but… I don't know. I wish things didn't happen like… like this."

She did clear her throat after that, more to clear her mind than anything. "Say, if… if you see Summer up there… could you help her find Dad? If she needs help, I mean?" A sobbing laugh escaped her, and she wrapped her arms around herself as she said, "I don't know why I'm asking that. Sorry."

Finally, she sighed and shook her head, then looked down at the gravestone with a fragile smile. "I don't know if I'll come back to visit you again. I… If I come back, it'll be for Mom and Dad, and… I don't want to come to you after I've been crying. So, uh… Sorry, but I think this is goodbye. At least we got the bitch who got you, though, huh?" She chuckled through another sob and shook her head again. "Anyway, I'm… I need to get back to Ruby. It's… I don't know. I think she was repressing this all or something; it's hitting her hard now. So… Goodbye, Coco Adel. Wherever you are, I hope you've managed to find peace."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"So, uh… What'll this mean for us?" Whitley asked, grimacing at the look Weiss threw his way. The two of them sat in the Rose-Xiao Long household's living room, watching as the mayor's press conference devolved into a series of back-and-forths with a single reporter who seemed unable to believe the display of telekinesis that Detective Ramirez was giving them. "I mean, we don't live here, Weiss, but Winter does, so… What'll happen?"

Weiss frowned, shaking her head as she said, "I don't know. I mean… Father wants us on a plane to Atlas tomorrow, but… I don't know."

"Don't worry," Winter said, startling her younger siblings with her sudden reappearance. She set down the bowls of soup and the sleeve of crackers she'd carried in as she continued, saying, "No matter what happens and no matter how far apart we wind up, we're still family. We'll still have everything we learned here to help us deal with our powers."

"Yeah. I feel kind of bad for Penny, though," Whitley said, glancing after Winter as she returned to the kitchen. "She's going to need to go through the same sorts of things we are and she's gonna be… pretty much all alone for it, isn't she?"

"I doubt it," Winter said, returning with a third bowl of soup. She set it down and then sat down beside them, pulling the bowl into her lap as she continued. "Her father is much more amenable to the words of another than ours is, so he would likely allow Miss Polendina to go to the same school as you, Whitley. Assuming Father doesn't put you in an all-boys school, that is," she added after a moment, dashing away what little relief she'd given her brother.

"You should've stopped a sentence earlier, Winter," Weiss said as her sister blew on a spoonful of soup.

"Should I have? My apologies."

"There's also… one other thing," Weiss said, reaching for a bowl of soup – with hands that didn't shake, Winter noticed, despite her younger sister's issues with anxiety. "You're going to stay here, right?"

"Yes. I felt that was somewhat obvious."

"Then… Will you be revealing your – our – powers?"

Winter hummed softly, idly stirring her soup as she mulled it over. "I hadn't considered that. If I don't reveal my powers, I will further solidify my status as the 'black sheep' of the fam-… is that a racist phrase?" she asked, interrupting herself.

"I don't think any of us can say for certain," Whitley said half-jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Hmm. Anyway, my staying here without revealing my powers would result in Father attempting to further distance me from the rest of our family. I wouldn't necessarily blame him for such a thing, either, given how much negative publicity the SDC is already dealing with."

"I would," Weiss muttered darkly as she crushed a cracker in her hand and scattered the crumbs into her soup.

"Anyway," Winter continued, "that's the most likely scenario for not revealing my powers. If I do reveal them… I believe the most likely scenario would be Mother revealing her own powers and permanently moving herself and the two of you to Yharnum."

Weiss was so startled that she nearly dropped her bowl of soup onto the floor. She and her brother stared wide-eyed at Winter until he finally asked, "Do… Do you really think that?"

"I believe it to be the most likely scenario, yes," Winter repeated, stirring her soup again. "Whether or not it would happen like that is something that remains to be seen, but it seems more plausible than any of the others I was able to think of."

"Then…" Whitley began, only to trial off. Shaking his head, he said, "That's… Wouldn't that be one of the best-case scenarios?"

"Technically, no," Winter said. "The best-case scenario is for powered people like ourselves to be accepted by the entire world in a single day. Judging by what we see here, though," she added, gesturing to the TV still showing the mayor's press conference, "I think that unlikely."

"Still… Mother bringing us all back together would be… Amazing," Weiss mumbled, feeling her cheeks heat. "She'd probably wind up divorcing Father, too, and…" she continued, only to trail off, straightening in her seat as her face paled. "And Father would likely use his connections to get full custody of Whitley."

"Since when has Father had friends in the courts?" Winter asked with a frown.

"About a year or so after you left," Weiss said. "He… made the effort."

"Ah. Well, then, that changes… Actually, no, it doesn't."

"Huh? How?" Whitley asked.

"If it comes down to it, Whitley, simply show that you have powers as well," Winter suggested, making her brother stiffen. "I know that the idea seems anathematic to how we've done things in the past, but for Father to contest the idea that a powered person can be a suitable parental figure –"

"That's where we're going with this?" Weiss mumbled, quietly enough that Winter didn't pause her explanation.

"– he'd have to deride the existence of all powered people. So, if his own son were to publicly reveal his powers after such proceedings began…" Winter trailed off, chuckling at the thought of it.

"Then Father would have accidentally shown that he wouldn't be a suitable father to someone with powers," Weiss finished for her, a small smile tilting her lips. "That… That could work."

"If such a thing comes to pass, at least you'll be prepared."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"You know, if your information regarding Branwen hadn't been credible, I wouldn't be even entertaining this right now," Roman said, steepling his fingers before him as he stared at the grey-haired teen before him. "This wasn't in your letter to Ms. Xiao Long, though. Why should I believe you?"

"I'm not asking for faith without evidence, sir," Mercury said, pulling a small drive from his pocket. "The last time we had an all-hands meeting, I had a camera running. This was after the quake, meaning after I gave Yang the letter, but…" He paused, letting out a sigh as he offered it to Roman. "Just… Just watch it."

"And why would I believe a video when I know, from your own words, that your closest ally is an illusionist?" Roman asked. He still took the thumb drive, but his question was enough to make Mercury grimace.

"Because she's trying to be a better person. She's trying so hard, in fact, that she's been having me hypnotize her into being better," Mercury admitted, sighing again when Roman's eyebrow went up. "Yeah, I know… You know who my dad is, right? Her foster father?"

"Mr. Black is rather infamous in our line of work," Roman said, his voice level and devoid of emotion.

"Would it surprise you to learn that a hitter makes for a shitty parent?" Mercury asked, drawing a grunt from him. "Would it surprise you to learn that the Family likes to brainwash young kids into being new members, and that their version of 'brainwashing' sometimes includes raping and torturing little girls until they happily go along with anything their 'master' tells them to do?"

Roman's eyes darkened, though – Mercury noted with relief – it wasn't directed at the youth in front of him. "And you've been countering this with hypnotism? At her insistence?"

"Yes. We… We got into a couple of big fights over the last couple years. Since we were raised together, since we tried to protect each other when we were little, she… I don't even know how she sees me, to be honest," he admitted, only now sitting down in the simple plastic chair in front of Roman's desk. "All I know is that she somehow started thinking my morals were better than hers, and she wanted to fix that. So, yeah, the hypnosis was her idea. I don't think it would've worked all that well if it hadn't been."

"Interesting. I'm sorry to say that doesn't quite make me believe you, though," Roman said, drawing a slight nod from Mercury. "However, due to your role in facilitating Raven's demise, I'm willing to at least watch the video."

"Thank you."

"If this isn't enough for me, however, I'll have Velvet kill you herself."

"I… Okay. I can accept that. Just… If you do, just… Don't go after Emerald right away. Watch what happens, instead."

"Heh. We'll…" Roman began, only to pause as his phone rang in his pocket. "Out," he ordered.

"Just… Just think about it, okay?" Mercury asked as he left the partitioned space Roman used as his office.

Once he was gone, Roman answered his phone, saying, "Yes?"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"I knew I shouldn't have done that job for you," Pyrrha hissed into her phone as loudly as she dared. She'd wedged herself into a narrow alley, then clambered over a dumpster and up onto the roof of an ice cream shop.

"Ms. Nikos? What's wrong?"

"She's hunting me!" Pyrrha said, only to clap a hand over her mouth; she'd said that louder than she'd meant to.

"Where?"

"Corner of Rich and Belmont. I might head north, I think," Pyrrha whispered into her phone. The crunch of grinding stone made her flinch, and she flattened herself further against the roof. "Or maybe I'll stay right here."

"I'm sending a team to you. Stay hidden, if at all possible."

Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak, only to whimper silently at the soft beep that told her Roman had hung up. More stone ground together, making her flinch again and mumble, "Yeah, like I needed to be told that. Asshole."

"Well, well, well," she heard Cinder say below her perch. "What have we here?"

"Huh?" Pyrrha mumbled, creeping closer to the roof's edge.

"Huh?" she heard someone else say – a young woman, by her voice.

"Wait, isn't that…?" Pyrrha mumbled, trailing off as she crawled ever closer to the edge.

"Miss Penny Polendina," Cinder murmured, making Pyrrha's blood run cold. "What brings a young woman like you to this part of town?"

"To… get… ice cream?" Penny asked, tilting her head to the side as she frowned at the older woman. "I'm sorry, have we met? You look… familiar…" She trailed off, eyes widening, as she remembered where she'd seen her before: she'd been in the pictures Ruby and Mercury had shown her of Raven. "Oh shit," Penny mumbled, backing away from her.

"Leaving so soon?" Cinder asked, barking out a laugh as she flicked her wrist at the redhead. Concrete flexed up from beneath Penny, rising in serpentine lengths that coiled around her legs and chest, making her scream in pain as they pressed against her far too tightly. "My, my, but don't you know? We're just getting started!

"Pyrrha Nikos!" Cinder shouted as she looked around, trying to find her prey. "I'm going to kill one of you before the night's end! Come out, now, and it'll be you instead of her!"

'Damn it, damn it, damn it!' Pyrrha's thoughts seemed to churn restlessly in her mind, but she couldn't think of anything even remotely helpful through the haze of panic that settled down around her.

"No?" Cinder asked, still scanning the streets and alleys around her. "I'm going to give you to the count of three, Nikos! One!"

"I'm right here!" Pyrrha announced, voice trembling as she stood up. Her hands shook as Cinder looked up at her and grinned, but she clenched them into fists and said, "Well? Let her go!"

"Make me, magnet!" Cinder shot back, her grin turning into a small smirk. She lifted a hand to Pyrrha, making her flinch – and making Cinder laugh. "Such a scared little girl, aren't you? You should have thought of that before you got in my way!"

Penny screamed again, the coils of concrete wrapped around her shifting and squeezing her more tightly, producing an audible crack as they broke some of her ribs. "Pyrrha, run!" she shouted, startling both Pyrrha and Cinder. "Just go, get out of here!"

"Oh?" Cinder asked, smirk widening as she tightened her hold on the younger redhead even further, making her scream again – and sending a few drops of blood flying from her mouth. "So brave, for such a little thing. Much braver than the other one."

"I'll show you brave, bitch," Penny mumbled, grasping the concrete with her hands. She grit her teeth as it shifted, but mustered up her will using one of the exercises Ruby had taught her more than a year ago – and let loose a tremendous blast of flame right up against her body.

Pyrrha gasped and flinched, eyes shutting at the profound brightness that momentarily shoved light back into the night around them; Cinder only narrowed her eyes and squinted, though the thunderclap that followed made her grit her teeth. Not because it was loud or even annoying, though: combined with the flash of heat from Penny's flame, it was enough to shatter the concrete surrounding her.

"Now, then," Penny mumbled, wiping away some of the blood trailing from her mouth and doing her best to ignore both the pain in her chest and side and the fact that she'd burned away most of her dress. She lifted a shaky hand to Cinder and let loose the hottest jet of flame she'd ever conjured, hoping to end the fight with a single attack.

Only for Cinder to raise a hand and catch the bundled fire. "Cute," she said as it burned away in her grasp without so much as singing her hand, "but now it's my turn."

She whipped her hand back at Penny, flinging a distortion into the air – one dramatically different from what Ruby usually sent her way, Penny realized. Whereas Ruby's looked heavy and full from compacted air, this one looked more wavy, light.

Like a heat shimmer.

Penny moved her hand to intercept it, conjuring fire in its path in a theory that felt hazy through the pain coating her thoughts. Whatever it had been, though, it didn't work.

She screamed in pain as the heat boiled against her shoulder, turning it red and splitting the skin nearly the instant it brushed against her. Steam – both white and pink – rose up from her arm as she fell to her knees, the raw agony of her flesh boiling making her vomit.

"Penny!" Pyrrha shouted, horror at the sight before her making her eyes widen.

"Well, it looks like you've made a liar of me, Miss Polendina," Cinder said, her amber eyes lighting up with twisted glee as she taunted her. "I said that I'd only kill one of you."

The concrete between them cracked and split, spitting out a tide of gritty sand as the edges ground against each other. The sand rose up before Cinder, who exercised her other talent to superheat it, turning it into molten glass; then, she inverted the excess of heat, turning it into a cold so intense that mist fell from the glass as it froze, turning into a slender, transparent spear – all within seconds, and with so little effort that Cinder couldn't help but chuckle.

Penny lifted her eyes defiantly, conjuring another jet of fire and slinging it at Cinder only for the geokinetic to brush away the heat as easily as she'd done before. She did it again, and again, making Cinder laugh again as she defended herself, slowly striding closer and closer with the spear in hand.

Finally, with a whimper, Penny gave up. She closed her eyes, accepted her coming death.

Only to open them again when she heard Pyrrha grunt, felt blood fall onto her head. Looking up, Penny whispered, "No…"

Pyrrha grit her teeth, spending what strength hadn't fled her body to keep herself from falling onto the redhead lying prone behind her. The glass spear had pierced her chest, stabbed clear through one of her lungs – at least, that's what she assumed; she tasted blood, so it was either that or she'd bitten her tongue or cheek without realizing it. "Bitch," Pyrrha spat.

Cinder growled at her, then spat to the side – revealing both a glob of blood and the broken remains of one of her teeth. She held a hand to her cheek, which was slowly turning red despite the cold she was gathering on it – the mark of one last, defiant punch.

"No, no, no," Penny mumbled, her injured arm cradled tightly against her chest as she crawled away, fear and pain urging her to retreat. She whined, tears blurring her vision, as she saw Pyrrha fall, collapsing onto her chest and pushing the spear out through her back. "Pyrrha…" Penny whimpered, shutting her eyes tightly – but not soon enough to keep from seeing those lifeless green eyes.

"Now, I balance the scales."

Penny's eyes opened wide as she felt energy course through her, starting at her cheek and scalp – where Pyrrha's blood had fallen – and singing down through her burned arm and partially caved-in chest. She screamed in pain as her flesh was regrown and her bones were mended by the strange power – only for righteous anger to replace her pain a moment later.

When she stopped screaming, breath coming in ragged heaves, she realized she'd risen to her feet – and held a pair of weapons, a sword and a dagger.

"The Arms of a Devil, made fresh for a warrior seeking justice," the voice said within Penny's mind. "Would you like to learn their name?"

"Rakuyo," Penny murmured, gripping her dual weapons tightly. Then, acting on instinct, she placed the bottoms of their hilts together and twisted, breathing in sharply when they screwed together and formed a nearly spear-length double-ended sword. However, her sudden breath drew the scent of blood into her nose, reminding her of what had just happened and breaking her from her momentary lapse of thought.

"You… You didn't have a Devil Arm," Cinder said, hands shaking as she grew more and more angry. "How? How do you have one now?"

"Balance," Penny said, though she didn't really understand it herself. She twirled her weapon, marveling at the way she knew precisely how to move to accomplish the feat of dexterity without so much as scratching herself. She'd heard stories of the Devil Arms – mostly from Ruby – and how they granted the ability to wield them to those who bore them, but they were so rare; even Ruby had only known about two of them, and that was only because Sun had been so open about his! "For a life taken, a life is owed," Penny continued, her heart skipping a beat – though the words had left her lips, she hadn't been the one to make them. "Choose: your own, or your master's?"

"Little bitch," Cinder growled, slinging her hand in a wild gesture that made stone rise up from beneath Penny again. This time, though, she was able to dodge, a burst of fire emerging from between her shoulder blades to help shove her out from between the coiling, serpentine lengths of concrete. Cinder growled wordlessly as she tried to snare Penny again, only to miss by inches when the young redhead flung herself into the air on twin columns of red flame.

Sand rose up around Cinder, making more holes in the ground beneath her, then launched at Penny in a rushing wave. She dodged, twisting away by manipulating the flames beneath her feet; they were already heatless and nearly solid, so all she needed to do was keep her balance as she moved the columns she stood on. Despite the flames themselves being cooler than the summer air, though, they still put out trails of heat the partially melted the sand that flew past her – something that made her wince and glance down at Pyrrha's body, still laying face-down outside of the ice cream store.

The reminder flooded her with rage.

Penny cried out as she threw herself at Cinder, swinging her sword in a flashing arc; she cried out again when it only met sand, which rose up around the older woman in an almost fluid-like tide. Still, the wild rush startled Cinder enough that Penny was able to wrest her blade from the sand and drift away without reprisal.

She growled up at her pyrokinetic foe as she gathered up more of her sand, flash-melting-and-freezing it into half a dozen arrows that floated before her, thanks to her own kinesis. She swept her hand at Penny, making the glass arrows dart towards her – but, despite their blurring quickness, Penny was able to bat them from the air with an almost stylish display, separating her sword and knife right as she parried the first.

"That damn Devil Arm!" Cinder murmured darkly, gathering the shards of glass within her power and throwing them at Penny like a storm throwing leaves. Penny spun in midair, the flames beneath her twisting gaily as she conjured a cylinder of solid flame between her and the glass. As the shards pinged off her barrier harmlessly, Cinder yelled in wordless anger.

With a swing of her sword, Penny sent a crescent of flame at Cinder, forcing the geokinetic to flex her hand and call up a curtain of stone between them. Before either could do any more, though, a river of compressed air slammed into Cinder's side and flung her out from behind her shield; as she rolled to a stop, she groaned, frustrated at the sight of the young woman who'd thrown her.

"Ruby!" Penny exclaimed, swooping down and landing beside her friend. "She… She killed…" she began, only to find she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I know," Ruby said, her fists clenched so tightly that one of her knuckles had split open. As a drop of blood spilled from it and dripped to the ground, she said, "I got the shop's employees and customers out through the back, and at least two of them called the police."

"Oh, right," Penny said, suddenly feeling embarrassed – she hadn't considered what would happen to any civilians caught up in the fighting.

"That means," Ruby continued, briefly glancing back at her, "we only have a few minutes to deal with her. Go all out."

"Yes, sir!" Penny exclaimed, lifting her dual blades into a ready stance and weaving flames around them.

"Good," Ruby said, extending her hand – and summoning a sword with a long red blade. Penny, startled, jumped at the sight of it; she recognized it the instant she saw it. "Cinder Fall, servant of the Londal Family and its matriarch, Salem, I demand you leave my city," she said, her tone even and commanding.

It was enough to make Cinder laugh. "Miss Rose," she said, her tone making it clear she was setting up a taunt.

"Now, Cinder," Ruby said. "I won't say it again."

"It doesn't matter how many times you say it!" Cinder said with a laugh.

"Then you'll be my third," Ruby said simply, momentarily confusing Cinder – and scaring Penny.

Without another word, Ruby tilted herself forward and shot off the ground like a bullet, clearing the distance between her and Cinder so quickly that she left a screaming trail of broken air behind her. She swung her sword, the Devil Arm she'd taken from Raven's corpse, only to let out a grunt as it bit into a wall of sand rather than Cinder's flesh; the force of the impact was enough to dislocate her shoulder, though it had already reset itself by the time she flipped over her foe and settled into the air a dozen feet away.

'I'm faster than before,' Ruby noted to herself – both about her recovery and the speed of her charge. She repeated the attack before Cinder could recover, cleaving nothing but sand and dislocating her shoulder again as she sped by. 'And I can handle more G-forces, now, too,' she mused, noting the sonic boom she left in her wake and the distinct lack of pain and nausea at the pair of sudden stops.

As Ruby attacked again, she swerved off to the side, deciding not to needlessly injure herself for a third time; instead, flames poured in from the side as Penny struck while Cinder was distracted.

'Outnumbered and off-tempo,' Cinder thought, growling wordlessly as she tapped her foot to the concrete and opened a hole into the ground beneath her. She shot a glare at Ruby before she vanished, the sudden sinkhole closing without a single tremor the moment she was through.

"Is she… Is she gone?" Penny asked. She stayed airborne until she saw Ruby descend to the ground and land beside Pyrrha's body, then drifted down herself and landed a few feet away.

"What happened, Penny?" Ruby asked, her voice breaking. Her eyes were closed, shut nearly as tight as her hand around her Devil Arm.

"She… Cinder was here looking for Pyrrha. I got roped into it, somehow, and Pyrrha… She…" Penny tried to say it, but couldn't. "After Cinder… I… I somehow had these," she said in a mumble, lifting her split Devil Arm. "And… And there was a voice in my head. Something about 'balancing the scales'?"

Ruby sighed, frustration and grief mixing together into something wholly unpleasant. "Was the voice sort of… stretchy?" she asked, trying to find the right words to describe it. "Like it was… somehow more meaningful than it was?"

Penny blinked at her repeatedly, then asked, "You… You've heard it?"

"Briefly. In the… In the fight with Raven," Ruby murmured, dismissing her sword in a flash of light. The display made Penny realize she was still holding her own weapons, but the moment she wondered how she'd dismiss them herself she realized she knew how. "It wanted to make a tornado to try to balance things back then, but I told it to stop. If… Would it have… Why did this happen?!" Ruby's voice broke, and she fell to her knees and wept beside Pyrrha's body. "Why does this keep happening?! Why do they keep taking everything from us?!"

Penny, overwhelmed by the display from the normally chipper and upbeat girl, found that she couldn't speak; she felt like she could barely breathe. Still, she knelt beside Ruby and embraced her, letting her cry into her shoulder.

"Shh," Penny whispered, rubbing her sobbing best friend's back – she wanted to do something, anything, to help Ruby with her grief, but that was the only thing she could think of. "Just… Just shh."

They were still there minutes later when the police arrived. Ruby offered to call Pyrrha's parents to tell them, but the officer in charge only had to look at her once to see she was in no state to deal with something like that; instead, he asked Penny to escort her home.

That only made Ruby start crying again.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"I see," Roman said. He sat at his desk once more, fingers interlaced before him as he processed what he'd just seen. "This is… certainly conclusive."

Mercury remained silent. He'd been able to overhear Roman giving orders, sending his agents to Pyrrha in an attempt to save her from Cinder – and then he'd overheard the scream of rage, one he'd ached to echo himself. After that, showing him evidence that Velvet Scarlatina had double-crossed him seemed dirty.

"Nothing to say, Mercury?" Roman asked, his voice tight. "You've just proven that one of my most trusted associates has been working for the enemy this entire time. I expected gloating."

Mercury closed his eyes and sighed. "Pyrrha was a friend, sir," he said softly, surprising the crime lord. "She… I wasn't doing well in school, back when I was still in it. She noticed, offered to help – and then kept trying even after I brushed her off. She came up with study guides, gave tips to Emerald in the hopes she'd pass them on to me… My experience with her may have been limited, sir, but… She was a friend," he repeated with a sorrowful shake of his head.

"Her loss hurts us all," Roman murmured. His eyes closed as he took a deep breath, then opened again as he said, "Velvet is nearly here, Mercury. I expect you to see what you've wrought."

"Her death is on me, whether I see it or not. I'd have asked to stay and witness it anyway, sir," Mercury said, prompting a dark chuckle from Roman.

"Then I hope you have no qualms with holding the knife, Assassin."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Cainhurst was an old city, one that always managed to make Cinder nervous. Tension wound itself inside her, coiling like a spring in her midsection and never quite going away no matter what she did.

It wasn't fear. She kept telling herself that it wasn't fear, that it would never be fear, that Salem had taken her all of her fear away.

Still, Cinder took her time as she walked through the lengthy corridors, letting her eyes catch on every tapestry and painting that cradled the stone walls and every embroidered rug that kept the cold permeating the stone floor from seeping through her boots and into her feet.

Not for the first time, she wondered why Cainhurst was always so cold. It wasn't as far north as it would need to be for it to ignore the summer heat, much less for the occasional bout of snow that came gusting through the city right at the season's end.

She shivered, pulling her coat tighter around herself. It wasn't the cold that had gotten to her this time, though; it was that coiled tension again, seeking to make her believe she was afraid.

She wasn't. She was right to be wary, however, considering how long it had been since her return. A full month had passed since she'd first reported her outstanding failure in Yharnum, how every subordinate she'd had either turned against her or died. Even her liaison, Velvet, had stopped contacting her; it was easy to assume she was dead.

Finally, Cinder reached the wooden doors leading to her master's audience chamber, realizing that her every thought during her lengthy walk up had only served to distract her.

She was afraid.

Cinder dipped a hand into her pocket as she knocked, letting herself feel the glass vial within. Eventually, the doors opened – by themselves, a sight she was more than used to at this point – to reveal an ornate display of red and purple velvet leading to a throne leafed with gold, of a dozen statues of gods and goddesses in various states of dress and undress lining each wall, and of her master.

Salem was not a young woman, but she didn't look much older than Cinder, either. With not a wrinkle on her face, but with skin nearly as stark and white as her hair, she looked to be a random mix of traits cobbled together from various ages. Her dress seemed to reflect that as well, bearing the uniquely-shaped neckline that had been fashionable centuries ago, a skirt that fell into arrow-shaped ribbons halfway down her calves, and lent a flare to her hips and bust that could only be from modern fashion.

"Cinder," Salem began as Cinder knelt before her, her heart racing at the sight of her master, "I trust that this time has allowed you to reflect on your actions."

"Yes, my lord," Cinder said, swallowing at the lump that had formed in her throat.

"Because it seems that every choice you made regarding Yharnum has only weakened our chances at holding the city," Salem continued, making Cinder flinch. "Bringing Branwen along cost us not only a powerful weapon, but many more to come, thanks to your management of our most unique asset. Your liaison has likely either been discovered and executed, thanks to your personal servants deserting, or has turned against us as easily as she turned to our side. Even your half-assed attempt at recording Roman Torchwick in his role as the Candle was easily foiled, and your overly emotional attempt at revenge against a teenaged girl nearly resulted in your death. Tell me: why should I not kill you?" she asked simply. "What possible reason could there be to keep a worthless creature like you alive?"

Cinder swallowed again, then drew the glass vial from her pocket. "This, my lord," Cinder said, needing to fight back her fear to raise her voice above a whisper.

"And what, precisely, do you hold, Cinder?"

"Two months ago, that earthquake that broke Yharnum into pieces… It opened holes in the ground. Some of those holes led to ancient catacombs, things that eluded all modern imaging devices," Cinder began, forcing herself to use the explanation she'd prepared during the last month. "Within these catacombs are shrines of some sort; many of them have statues depicting creatures I can barely describe, much less guess the names of, but all of them have a trough of blood sitting before them."

"And?"

"I've had some scientists look at this blood, my lord. Despite being fluid when I found it, they believed it to be more than a thousand years old."

"Is that so? Where are these scientists now, Cinder?"

"I… I had them killed, my lord. This is something that must remain secret if we are to use it effectively."

"We, hmm? That's rather presumptuous at this point. Since you're betting your life on this blood, though, I'm quite interested to see what it does that's so special. It does do something, yes? You didn't waste my time on a curiosity, yes?" Salem asked, her tone making it very clear what that would mean.

"It… My lord, it would be best to show you," Cinder said. She set down the vial of blood and tugged off the glove she wore on her left hand, revealing her fingers – even those Salem had taken from her as punishment for her first failure. "It can provide regenerative effects, my lord. Through my investigations in Yharnum, however, I've discovered that it can do so much more. It removed a shard of glass from a young woman's throat, cured another of a persistent auto-immune disease, and corrected the flaws in two different abilities: in a Goliath, it granted precise control of her strength; in a Bloodmaker, it reduced the caloric-intake requirements when uninjured."

"Now that is interesting, Cinder," Salem said, a smirk twisting her lips. "But is it enough to save your life?"

"That is not for me to decide, my lord. I leave that to my betters, and to you most of all," Cinder said, uttering the rehearsed line as she bowed her head.

"Then I shall grant it to you – for now."

"Thank you, my lord. I live to serve."

"However, Yharnum is currently beyond our reach," Salem said, lazily waving a hand to one of the statues along the room's western edge. Depicting a rather attractive woman, despite her excess of arms and the serpentine tail she had instead of legs, it held a glass sphere larger than a human's head – one that lit up with what seemed to be a new program about the recent reveal of powered people. "As you can see," Salem continued, needing no effort to be heard over the reporter's voice as it came from the sphere, "there is too much attention on the city for us to work within it. It will take time for the dust to settle, whether on the side of those with powers, or that of those who shun them."

"I understand, my lord."

"Good. When you are ready for an assignment, report to Dr. Watts. I'm sure he'll find something to occupy your time."

"My lord?" Cinder asked, lifting her head. Her eyes were wide with alarm, something that only made the matriarch laugh.

"Did you think it would be easy to regain my favor, Ms. Fall?" Salem asked mockingly, making Cinder flinch. "No. If you were truly that foolish, you would not have managed to gain it in the first place. You will be his subordinate until I say otherwise, and will do whatever he tells you to without complaint – or I'll make everything you did to your own seem like a day at the beach. Am. I. Clear?"

"Yes, my lord. Without question."

"Good. Now, leave me."

"Yes, my lord."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Finally done with Part 2!

I'm not really sure when I'll start working on Part 3 – much less when it'll start going up – but know that it'll take place about 9 years in the future. Ruby being a freshly promoted homicide detective with Yharnum's police force will be the crux of the tale, but you'll also get to see the very beginning of the Beast Plague, too.

Due to the length of time between Parts – in the story, not in real life – I am planning on writing an interlude to put into this as well. It will be very slice of life, having Ruby come back after finishing college and getting the degree she needs to start at a police academy; she'll spend time with whoever she crosses paths with, but I've got plans for Neo, Penny, and Yang (they are her girlfriend, best friend, and sister, after all).

Until next time, then!