Hey, guys! School year's winding down, and my junior prom is tomorrow night! My schedule is gonna be filled with tests and exams, so I might not be able to be so on-time like I usually am. But, I think you'll enjoy this chapter. The Palace of Mistral rapidly approaches, and I'm looking forward to writing it! So without further ado, enjoy the next chapter of Thorns!
"Again!"
The new assassin shouted the word in an attempt to get her sparring partner to rise, but it was useless; he was unconscious after she delivered a powerful flying kick into his temple.
She growled in frustration and walked away. She was attempting to get used to her unfamiliar body after the months she'd spent in stasis while the surgeons and engineers replaced her living body with that of an android, the only difference being that she still had her human brain. So she was struggling to find a single person to contend with, someone with the same amount of skill as her, but it was futile.
And now that her mechanical cybernetic body no longer had the restrictions of her human body, she was especially hungry for a challenge.
She holstered her green-plated revolvers in the holsters strapped to her lower back and turned around. Instinctually, she'd have gone for a sip of water after this much exercise, but now that she need not rely on it, she no longer drank it unless it were for the flavor.
Instead, she left the makeshift arena and moved to the locker room, where she showered—another pointless, habitual act—and got dressed in the new outfit she'd been provided, which was quite similar to her old one, though this one had a green cloak and hood attached to it. It wasn't quite inconspicuous, but nobody would guess her identity soon enough before she ended their life.
"Two days, Emmy," a voice said behind her, and she turned around to see them.
"Hey, Janus," Emerald answered the girl. The girl had a rather interesting appearance that reminded her of the late Roman Torchwick's ally, Neo. Janus was an odd mix of black and white. On her right side, she had white skin, blonde hair, and a blue eye, but on the other side, she had dark skin, dark brown hair and a brown eye. It was the case all over her body; dark skin on the left and light skin on the right. Her outfit reflected that, too; a leather jacket that was black on the left and white on the right, jeans that were similar, a black boot on the left foot and a white on the right. Also, being a White Fang member and operative, she had two different Fauna heritages, both displayed on opposite sides. On her left side, she had a black cat's ear, and on the right, a golden wolf's ear. Her brown eye was slitted.
"Why so serious, Emmy?" Janus asked, grinning excitedly. This also looked strange, the two different faces smiling simultaneously as one being. "You're gonna meet the queen!"
"And then kill her."
"Yeah, but still!" Janus persisted. "Not many people get to do that!"
"And even fewer get to kill her."
"Oh, you're no fun. Yes, she is! She is totally fun! I like it when she's murderous! Well, I don't!"
Emerald rolled her eyes. Janus, as well as having two faces, was a schizophrenic, and had two personalities that regular argued with one another. So, often in the middle of a conversation, Janus would drop off and start arguing with herself, like her two faces couldn't quite agree on any one thing. Annoying, to an extent.
"I'll see you later, Jan," Emerald said, slipping out the door and into the corridor while her friend continued to argue with herself.
The new assassin walked out of the locker room, cape flowing behind her. She headed down the corridor, making her way to the briefing room, and didn't make it far before she heard the Twins.
Romulus and Remus, the two boys widely known as The Twins, were speaking at the end of the hall, their Mistralian accents loud and clear, especially to her heightened hearing. They were both mirrors of each other, if that mirror allowed them to look at each other from other dimensions. Their bodies were built identical, their facial structure identical, and their personalities were identical as well, but they had opposing ethnicities: despite being twins, Romulus was born a black, reddish-brown-skinned Cat Faunus, while Remus was born a golden, light-skinned Wolf Faunus. The result of mixing the two was Janus, their younger sister. Together, the three of them were the main and most effective WF operatives in Mistral.
And the most insane.
"Brother, a beautiful gem this way comes!" The light-skinned brother said. That one was Remus.
"I see, brother! I wonder, should we have it embedded in the most expensive of jewelry, or placed in the king's crown?" Romulus mused aloud, looking upward with an arm around his waist and the other hand stroking his thin-bearded chin.
Emerald groaned inwardly but remained passive outwardly. Always with the theatrics, these two. Even their pickup lines were plays all on their own. Sure, she felt somewhat attracted to Romulus—they hadn't removed that function in the process of mechanizing her body—but with his dramatic personality, he might have been worse than Mercury.
But, then again, she actually preferred these two over the deceased prick anyway.
"Never mind her now, brother," Remus said, his manic smile and bright blue eyes reflecting the strange madness he experienced regularly. "You shall have a chance at the ball!"
"Indeed I shall, brother! And who else to dance with her than the great Romulus?" Romulus boasted proudly, still acting as if Emerald weren't standing in front of them.
"Don't get too carried away, Romulus," Emerald warned, "I will need to kill the King, and the Queen when she's been crowned. I don't know that you will get your chance to dance."
"Of course I will! The queen needs only to be slaughtered after the coronation, and we will have all the time in the world!"
Emerald sighed. It was going to be a mess, what with having to deal with him and Remus for hours and then having to sneak off and kill the king and the queen. With secrecy and discretion. With two loudmouths and a schizophrenic in tow.
What fun, she thought sarcastically.
"They say that the Schnee girl will be there with her sister, brother," Remus spoke up again, interrupting Emerald's thoughts, "Do you think she will be grieving at the loss of her father? Do you think, perhaps, she will be vulnerable, for I do so love the thought of Schnee blood upon the dance floor!"
"I heard that she is being courted by a rather large and aggressive blonde girl," Romulus said, further continuing the mad ramblings of the psychopathic siblings, "A girl, of all things! Who'd have thought such a well-known girl of fortune would have such an exotic characteristic?"
"Oh, ho, ho! Oh, so interesting, such a juicy little tidbit, hahahahaha!"
Emerald turned and stalked away before she got sucked into their babbling.
To think they would be her teammates in the Mistral Palace! A cyborg, a schizophrenic, and two insane twins, heading to the palace to commit regicide against the king and queen of Mistral beneath the guidance of a pair of wealthy bankers who she knew nothing about. Perfect.
She wished herself luck, muttered a prayer to no specific god, and headed back to her quarters to prepare.
"How are the new legs treating you, Winter?"
"They clank. A lot." Winter answered her sister.
The personal Schnee airship had arrived with Weiss to pick her up from the resort a few minutes ago, and they were heading back to Beacon to prepare for the ball tomorrow.
"So they work like they should?" Weiss asked.
"Yes. At least I can walk."
"Can you still fight?"
"I can do that, too. In fact, I think I can actually fight better with them. But that doesn't mean I don't wish I had my old legs back."
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but your spine was too damaged to help you. If there was any other way—"
"It's okay, Weiss," Winter replied, cutting her sister off, "It's hardly anything more than an inconvenience. Alright?"
Weiss nodded almost submissively, and she looked like she was missing something. Winter raised an eyebrow.
"What's wrong?"
Weiss looked up, snapping out of her thousand-yard stare. "What?"
"You look like something's wrong."
"Oh. Right. This is the first time in weeks that I haven't been with my...friend."
Winter knew that look. Weiss was a terrible liar; she wasn't telling part of the story. "It's gotta be something a little deeper than that."
Weiss sighed and nodded. "Okay, so they're not just a friend of mine. We're dating, but...this is the first time we haven't been together in weeks. I miss her."
"Her?" Winter wondered.
"Yes, her. I'm dating a girl."
Winter laughed. "And here I thought you were talking about a boy."
"I'm bisexual, Winter. I go both ways."
"Have you had any other, er, partners, at Beacon?"
"I did at Signal. Just a rich boy who was jealous that I was born as a Schnee instead of him."
"Ah."
They both went quiet. Winter stood up when a beep signaled they had reached a safe altitude, then walked over to one of the windows and peered out.
"Is she nice?"
"What do you mean?"
"Does she treat you well?"
"To her, I'm the only thing that matters. I could say the same thing about her."
"Good. I would hate to see you wind up like Dad did after Mom left him."
Winter cried out and leaned against the wall when her left leg jerked out and twitched, rotating around several times before she got it back under control. Weiss stood up, alarmed, but Winter dismissed her with a wave.
"That happens sometimes. I'm still learning to use them. Therapist said he wouldn't allow me to wear high heels to the ball because it would just be a disaster."
"Understandable. Maybe you could utilize your rotary legs as a part of your combat strategy?"
"That would make sense. I think I'll do just that. Speaking of combat, I would like to bring my Bolzen to the ball with me."
"They make exceptions for Huntresses and Huntsmen. It's a tradition for warriors and Grimmslayers like us to carry our weapons on our persons at important formal events like this."
Winter pumped her fist and triumphantly hissed the word, "Yes!" Then regained her normal posture.
"So, who else is going, too?" Winter asked in her more formal voice.
"Well, my girlfriend is going, naturally. Uh...you, Blake, a team I'm friends with, and three other girls."
"Who are these three other girls?"
Weiss opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated. "They—...uh..."
"Uh, what?" Winter said, turning to face her older sister.
"They...they're...the ones who killed Father."
