Cinder soared down for the street and hurried right into Emerald's apartment, clutching Bae's hand and dragging her along at probably too quick a pace for the poor girl.

Immediately upon entering, she spotted something very wrong.

Everything wrong.

Every single person was laid out on the floor of the living room, unmoving.

And Maggy wasn't among them.

"M-mom, w-what happened to everyone?"

"Stay back." Cinder shoved Bae back and ignited her Maiden flames, stepping further into the room.

She scanned it swiftly with eye alone, listening intently. Nothing, no one.

She went for Flora, dropping down next to her and reaching for a wrist. A pulse. She checked the neck, and the chest too, just to be triply certain that she wasn't-

Flora's heart was still beating.

She didn't seem hurt, nobody did - just...like they were all in a really deep sleep.

Cinder pulled Flora into her arms, shaking her. "Flora, w-wake up, come on - wake up, right now! I can't- I don't know- please, please just open your eyes!"

Flora's eyes fluttered. A groan escaped her lips. "Cinder? Did you- get Bae...?"

"Y-yes, but- Maggy- Maggy's gone, what happened, where is she?!"

Flora sat up immediately, looking around herself with wide eyes and a pale face. Hands came to her mouth. Her eyes closed again. "Oh gods, oh gods no..."

"Flora. What. Happened?"

"It was that bounty hunter again," Flora breathed. "Aisha - she- we were waiting for you to come back, and then some bomb or something came through the window, and then there was this big cloud of gas filling up the room and then we all just- we couldn't even move - it was almost an instant paralysis - and then we all must have fallen unconscious after. But I don't even remember...What even was it?"

Cinder whirled around, stalking away to who knew where. "It doesn't matter what it was, we need to find Maggy, right now!"

"Cinder, you asked - and, please, calm down. Just breathe, just - coping methods, remember?"

"You want me to fucking cope with-"

"Yes!" Flora said firmly, jumping to her feet. She stalked up to Cinder and grabbed her shoulders, looking her in the eye with fire. "Yes, I want you to try to breathe and cope right now, because that's the only way we're getting Maggy back! Not by getting pissy with each other, or blowing up nice buildings, or flying off with some vague idea about killing people! We can make a plan! We can get her back! Just calm down! Breathe and think for me!"

Cinder's body trembled violently; her mouth worked in silence. The world spun and darkened, and her chest threatened to burst...

Control, control, control...just breathe, just breathe...dammit, breathe!

Cinder tore her arms out of Flora's grasp, stalked over to Ozpin and kicked him in the stomach. "Get up, wake up - fucking get up right now!" She stomped on his ribs, kicked him again. "Now!"

"Cinder, that isn't being calm!"

"Well what do you want me to do? I can't fucking do it to Salem, can I?!"

"I want you to stop being an asshole and sit down!"

"I am not being a-"

"You are! You get pissy and lose your shit when things spiral, and I know that losing your three year old is as spirally as any situation has ever spiraled in the history of spiraling, but you need to get a grip and stop it already - you're scaring Bae."

Cinder froze. She glanced at the girl, who was eyeing her with wide eyes, standing there shaking on her own. Cinder tried to pull in another breath. She let it go, and whirled around and stomped over to Salem - and gave her a reckless kick.

Salem's eyes snapped open, and traveled up Cinder's figure. They narrowed. "What do you think you're doing?" she said lowly, rising to her feet without even using her arms.

"Why did I trust you people?! Any of you? I trusted Emerald and Neo, and look what happened: our house is destroyed! I trusted you - you - and look. What. Happened: Maggy is gone! They took her, how the hell did they take her from you?! For someone who goes on so much about the usefulness of others, you were pretty useless to me when I actually needed you! When I actually thought for a second that I could even rely on you to-"

Salem released a breath, standing very still. "You're clearly very emotionally disturbed - and so I'm going to assume that you just forgot who you were talking to here."

"I know exactly who I'm talking to!" Cinder roared in her face. "You - you - you're just like them. My stepmother who I couldn't ever rely on for anything good, my birth mother who, turns out, I couldn't rely on for anything either! And then there's you. You fit right in with my mother figures in life! You never did a single goddamn good thing for me in life!"

"Cinder, I understand-"

"You don't understand a thing!" Cinder hissed. "You don't know what it's like to-"

"I think I understand far more than even you," Salem cut across coldly. "I've lost four."

Cinder laughed. "Right - the four that you killed yourself. Like that even bothered you-"

Salem's hand came up - Cinder flinched - and she slapped Cinder across the face.

"Everyone: enough!" Ozpin shouted, climbing to his feet with cane for support. He stalked forward and put himself between Salem and Cinder, his expression hard. "We are all very emotional right now, but we must remain calm. We cannot afford to have infighting at this stage, not when we only just achieved a victory over the enemy. Now, Cinder, you will offer an apology to Salem - and you, Salem, you will apologize likewise for the slap. Do you understand me? Both of you?"

"Of course," Salem uttered. "As I said, Cinder: I understand that this is a very stressful time for you. But you still crossed quite a line. Apologize to me. Now."

"I'm s-sorry!" Cinder stammered, high and choked, bowing her head.

"I forgive you - and I suppose I myself am sorry for striking you like that. I lost my own composure as well."

Ozpin gave them both a firm nod. "Good. Now, if we could turn our minds toward just how, exactly, we will go about tracking down and retrieving the child...the sooner we come up with a plan, the sooner we can put it into action."

"I have a plan," Cinder said, the words wrenched from depths of her soul. "I let myself get captured, and the rest of you can come and find me on your own time."

"And what are you going to do after you get captured?" Flora questioned. "They're going to do whatever they want to do with you - to break that seal and let out their forces - and then...maybe not even let you live after. Not as you, anyways. I don't think they just put the essence and magic of their great leader into you from conception just to let it go to waste! Even if that soul of Mordeya's isn't doing anything right now, doesn't mean it won't do anything later! I don't want to have to meet up with you again and not recognize who I'm even looking at!"

"So, Imryll Mordeya's soul is inside of you..." Salem spoke softly, gazing at Cinder with interest. A finger raised, flicked at Cinder's face; Cinder flinched again. "That eye of yours; I had wondered, ever since we first met..."

"I had wondered much the same," Ozpin put in, nodding. "It seems we were correct about her - after a fashion. Not quite a living, biological descendant..."

"Well, my one and only suggestion now would be that we kill you immediately, in order to prevent the Order from utilizing you as both a seal-breaker and a vessel for their primogenitor," Salem said bluntly. She paused. "But I suspect that a number of people in this room would strongly object to that tactic."

"You're damn right we would," Flora responded sharply.

"Naturally," Salem replied, absent.

"Rest assured, Ms. Rynon, that no one will be taking your life from you," Ozpin said firmly. "I'm certain we can resolve this situation without needing to take such drastic measures. But we are going to need all hands on deck for this rescue mission. Qrow, if you would call the rest of Team RWBY, and inform them of the situation - Miss Xiao Long needs to be informed anyways, and she'll wish to help with a passion. Team JNPR as well. It is time they were all brought in on this. And, Ms. Rynon, if you could reach out to Hazel, he would be a great asset."

"Lastly, Qrow, if you are still in touch with your sister, it would be an appreciable increase in firepower to have the two other Maidens here with us again - I understand that she and the Summer Maiden have been spending their time together as of late. "

"I'll make some calls," Qrow nodded.

"And you," Cinder gritted at Ozpin. "You're going to get the Relic of Creation already and fix this! Fix Neo, fix Blake, fix Miltia! And then try and fix me! I'm done screwing around, I'm done waiting around - just fucking do it already! If you're so worried about Salem taking them, tell her to go wait on another continent while you use it on this one! Putting an ocean between you two should make it safe enough for the all of five minutes it should take to zap my friends with it!"

Ozpin inclined his head at her, sighed. "Yes, I agree we are past the point where the safety of the Relics can remain absolute - or a priority. A risk must be taken if we are to end this before it can go any further. Especially if you are going to hand yourself right over to them like this, planned or not. Although, it is not the Relic of Creation that will save your friends - but the Sword of Destruction."

"Are you planning to kill them?" Cinder glared. "That isn't the kind of 'freeing' I had in mind!"

"Certainly not. Allow me to explain, if you would, how this will work." Ozpin shifted his stance.

"The Sword of Destruction can be used to destroy anything," he began quietly. "from living organisms, to objects and structures, and even certain things on a conceptual level - for example: you could eliminate the word 'apple' from existence, robbing it from every mind, book, and language. Or you could destroy certain memories of events or people, eliminating events, histories, or individuals from societal recollection. But that is the very thing about this Relic, its greatest danger in using it: it cannot do half measures. If you want to destroy a single ship in a fleet, you need to destroy the entire fleet. If you want to destroy a member of a family, it will kill every single living person in the immediate blood family. If you wish to erase a traumatic memory from a mind, all knowledge of it will be erased from every mind that knows about it, from the victim to the perpetrator, to their friends and family, and even to law enforcement and such - and any physical records will be wiped as well. Fortunately for us, our intent is to destroy the entirety of something: the Keshiri Plague that still permeates the bodies of people on Remnant. The catch...is that the blade must make physical contact with one sample of whatever it seeks to destroy - a single airship must be struck at, a family member must be attacked, or...for us...a single person infected with the Plague must be struck into by the blade. From there, it will spread to the rest, erasing every trace of it from the face of Remnant."

"And you never used it to do that three hundred years ago, why?" Cinder snarled, throwing up her hands. "You just locked thousands of monstrous cultists away in another dimension!"

"Because, there are two other catches to the Sword," Ozpin said carefully. "The first is that the act of destroying something is permanent. It can never be undone, not even by the other Relics. The Relic of Creation could create a copy of, say, an item you destroyed, but the original could never be restored. A memory destroyed could never be recovered, not even a fragment. The second catch, and the more concerning one, is that the act of erasing the entirety of something from the face of this entire planet...requires an equal exchange, taken as payment by the Sword for its use."

"What do you mean? What does it take in return?"

"In return for destroying something utterly, and permanently, the Sword will permanently and utterly destroy the soul of the one who wielded it to do so."

"It kills you."

"It annihilates your very soul from existence. Forever."

"But you- you still couldn't use it?" Cinder pressed. "You're two souls in one body; if it only takes one soul-"

"You think me so monstrous, do you? So callous? That I'd sacrifice a host's life just to use the sword? Because I would be fine and well, reincarnated again after? No. In the thousands of years I've lived on Remnant, I have never once used the Sword personally - though, those who once sought the Relics have, for one reason or another. Selfish, misguided goals that turned to tragedy when the full power of the Sword was realized. And by then, it was too late. It was done, and permanent."

"But we're going to use it now," Cinder stated. She looked around the room. "So, who are we sacrificing? Who's going to be the one to do it? You? Or will you manipulate one of us into it?"

"Why don't we just make her use it?" Flora sent a scathing look at Salem. "She can't even die - wouldn't she be immune? Survive it? Not that I'm rooting for her to."

"Highly likely, yes," Ozpin replied. "Her immortality was granted by the Gods themselves, whereas the Relics, while the most powerful artifacts of magic on this planet, still remain mere objects created by the Gods. They are still only a quarter of the power the Gods possessed. Perhaps even less. Although, it is likely Salem would survive it anyways for other reasons..."

"The Gods wouldn't have given me such an easy out," Salem said softly. "It would have been foolish to leave such relics behind here if I could have just used one of them to end this curse for myself."

"Precisely my thinking," Ozpin said, in an almost considerate voice. "At any rate, now you're all aware of just how dangerous it is to even use the Sword at all - even once. And yet, we will," he finished, with a nod at Cinder of reassurance. "We will do away with the Keshiri Plague, and with it, all the unique powers and properties possessed by those infected with it. The telepathic link between them should be torn apart as well - and so too, should the brainwashing effects be ended. Anyone afflicted with it should be rendered ordinary humans again."

"Should we use it before or after we find Maggy?" Flora asked. "If we do it before, they'd surely all suspect that we did something to them, and they might..."

"They might hurt or kill her for it out of sheer spite," Cinder said flatly.

"I think your plan is a good one," Ozpin spoke. "You give yourself to them for the chance of freeing yourself and your child from the inside, while we ready ourselves for an assault from the outside. It will also give me the time to actually retrieve the Relic itself...and figure out the specifics as to who will be the one to use it once we arrive to free you."

"Just make Salem use it," Flora insisted venomously. "Either she can't die from it anyways, or she dies and we're rid of her forever. Either way, it doesn't matter - as long as it's her and not any of us."

"You really have so little regard for the value of my life..." Salem said idly.

"How many lives have you had any regard for?" Flora challenged furiously.

Salem appraised her with sharp eyes. "I honestly don't know by now."

Flora moved swiftly, to place herself right in front of Salem. Her hands were quivering fists at her sides.

"Flora, don't!" Cinder cried, lunging to grab her arm. "Please, don't do-"

Flora shrugged her off, gave her a little push away. But her eyes were a touch soft. "I understand how scared you are of this bitch - I understand why you're so scared - but you don't have to be. And neither do I."

"You know," Salem said softly, deadly. "Just because I've lost my former appearance does not mean I'm not still the same woman I always have been. Do not fool yourselves into thinking that I'm just some common human you can-"

"But that's exactly it," Flora hissed, interrupting Salem. Her Aura flared across her body, and she took another step in - bringing her face inches from Salem's. "You think you're some big, bad, high evil of darkness incarnate. Some great monster from horror stories! But you know what? You're not, and you never were, and you're never going to be. You know what you are?"

"What?" Salem spoke, managing to turn the one word into several dragging syllables.

"Just a fucked up woman," Flora answered, blasé. "Just another psychopath. Just another grandiose, egotistical, lunatic. You think you're special, different from any of a billion people who lived before you, and are going to live after you? They all think like you, they all do the same messed up things as you. All monsters, yes, but also all humans. Because monsters aren't monsters, they're just humans who are really screwed up in the head. And that...is all you are, sweetie: just another human with a screw loose in their head. And that doesn't make you better, or more, or greater - it makes you lesser, and pathetic. You're dirt and scum compared to the rest of us, not some higher power lording above us. No matter how much you change yourself, no matter what kind of spooky reputation you want to build up, no matter what lengths you go to to appear like you're not - and I know when a woman is doing this; I'm married to one who does the same thing! - you were born human, and you're going to die a human. Just a common human woman. A pitiful, broken human woman at that. Defective. Because normal people? They don't think like you do, they don't do the things you do - but that's not anything impressive. You're not powerful, or different; you're just a flailing old lady desperately trying to look like you are, because you can't fucking cope with yourself, and how much fucked up shit you have going on in there. I mean gods, give the world a break already. The whole 'I'm an evil queen, rawr!' act is just silly; you're like a little girl playing pretend. You're not scary, you're sad."

Flora paused, she breathed, heavy and harsh. "And that isn't even getting into how you're a manipulative, abusive piece of shit - to a woman who was already abused before in her life! And you did that anyways, you knew, you took advantage of it! And you don't even care how it makes her feel, how it makes her respond to you - how she reacts!"

Salem regarded Flora utterly impassive. Still as a statue. "Are you quite finished?"

Flora laughed in her face. "Not yet. I just have a bit of advice for you, Salem - advice that's worked pretty well for Cinder: drop the act for once, take a look inside at everything you have to fix in there, and go get some therapy."

Flora turned on her heel and stalked away, pulling Cinder along by the hand.

A hand that Cinder grasped in overwhelming terror, lest it be tugged away from her at any moment.

Flora squeezed back, and gave her a small grin.

After two impatient hours of preparations and waiting, the silence in Emerald's living room was broken by the voice of Salem.

Salem, who had been standing with a swirling crystal ball hovering in front of her, a look of concentration on her face, for those past two hours like it didn't even bother her to do so (it probably didn't, being immortal and all).

"Tyra Aryle is somewhere in the middle of Anima."

"Somewhere in the middle of Anima?" Flora repeated.

"I'll be able to be more precise in pinpointing her location the closer we get," Salem said casually, waving a hand.

Flora snorted and left the living room for the pristine kitchen.

Cinder followed after her, a tightness in her chest. "Flora, you need to stop, please..." she whispered, grasping her partner's hand tight. "Salem - she's going to-"

"She won't do anything as long as she's outnumbered," Flora interrupted. "She's a coward, and a bully, and an abuser, and a manipulator. She can't do anything without power or control over us - and she doesn't have any of that right now. We're the ones with power over her; she came to us, didn't she? Why? Because she's scared. She's scared of the Order. She's all alone, and she's scared. She's a manipulator with no one to manipulate, nothing to use - except to try and manipulate herself into staying with us. Because if she's with us, we can protect her from the Order, and destroy them for her. She's using us as a shield right now. She's weak and selfish."

"Please stop...please..."

"Cinder, nothing bad is going to happen to me, okay?" Flora said firmly. "I know where you're coming from - I know - but you don't have anything to be afraid of. You don't have to be afraid of her anymore. There's no reason to listen to her; she's not going to hurt us for not obeying her or anything. There's nothing she has over us, there's nothing she can do."

"B-but what if she-"

"But nothing! Just - nothing. You have to try to stop thinking of her as Salem the evil monster, Salem the lying abuser. Think of her as Salem the lowlife. Salem the desperate. Just some sad blondie who's clinging to the only protection she can get right now. She's not a dark queen - she's a mentally ill woman who needs some pills in her, and some long sessions in a psych ward with a trained therapist. She's just as much a screwed up human woman as you are - but the difference is that you are working on it. You've been working on it for two years, every day of your life! She's not; she's still stuck glorifying it all, excusing it all, and justifying it all to herself. You moved out of that phase a long time ago. You're better than her, you're healthier than her, you're stronger than her. Don't ever let her make you doubt that again! Right now, you have power over her! You have control over her. She's got nothing."

"Flora, please-"

"Hell," Flora laughed. "you even potentially have control over the grimm with your Semblance still, and she doesn't anymore! Isn't that some nice irony? You could set them loose on her just like you did against your stepfamily, and she'd be helpless to stop it!"

"N-no, no, it's different, that was different! She's different! She's not my stepmother, she's-"

"She's not different," Flora said firmly.

"But she is, she is!"

"No. She's just really good at making people think that."

Cinder shut her eye and threw herself around Flora - buried her face in her shoulder. Why couldn't she make her understand! Why couldn't she get it?! "She's not..."

A sigh. Flora patted her head, took up stroking her hair. "I'm so sorry you really still believe that. But I hope you'll realize soon enough that you don't have to."

Cinder pulled away, sighing herself. Drawing in a quivering breath. "I need to go to Maggy, I need to get her back. I have to see her. I have to know she's not...either made into one of them, or killed. I can't just stand around with everyone. Not me."

"The sooner you go, the better," Flora agreed quietly. "We'll all be there for you as soon as we can."

"I promise we'll get you out again," Emerald spoke, entering the kitchen with a fierce look on her face. She hesitated, then she was flinging herself at Cinder and hugging her. "You and Maggy!"

"T-thank you," Cinder told them both, offering a small smile - the best she could do at the moment. Plan or not, she still wasn't eager to actually go through with it. But, for Maggy, she had to do it anyways. She pulled free of Emerald and turned away, face a bit heated. "Goodbye, for now."

"Whatever happens...whatever they do...I'm going to be there for you," Flora asserted.

"Don't worry about me," Cinder murmured, shaking her head. "Worry about our daughter. I can handle whatever they throw at me; I'm not new to being treated terribly. But her..."

"You're right." Flora frowned, like she didn't like it that Cinder was. "I love you."

"Love you, too. S-see you around." Cinder lifted her chin and stalked out of the apartment, human fingers and grimm claws alike trembling at her sides.

Down the steps, onto the sidewalk.

She drew a breath, gazing all around her; this was probably the last she'd see of it for a long time. Or, even forever.

That doesn't matter - I just have to make sure Maggy gets to see it again.

Cinder bowed her head and grasped her arm, gazing at her feet.

"Hey. Mother - or whoever you people still have left alive here - I'm ready. So come and get me!"

Her own shadow rippled, and then rose up from the ground in three dimensions. It shifted and changed, and her mother stood beside her.

Cinder refused to look at her.

"And this isn't just another bait, why?" her mother's cynical tones flowed freely.

"Because you have my child."

"We do, that's right. Well, come on then. Let's go, Cindy."

"Cinder."

"I like Cindy - I think Maggy will, too. Does she ever call you that?"

"No..."

A soft laugh. "She should. It's cute."

"Can we just...please...go."

Amusement. "Of course; if that's what you want. Let's take a trip to Anima - we can do some nice, mother-daughter bonding!"

The only mother-daughter bonding Cinder would accept...was going to be fighting and killing this woman.

After the flight over to Anima, they made landing in a small city named Podaris.

From there, Cinder's mother acquired public transport, and they traveled for several more long hours before finally disembarking.

It was a tiny village in central Anima.

But even this wasn't their destination.

Tyra turned to Cinder and reached for her arm. "If I give you directions, can you fly the rest of the way?"

"I could..." Cinder retorted.

"It would be faster than walking; it will take us another six or so hours to get where we're going from here."

"Fine. Yes," Cinder sighed.

Mother smiled. "Good." Cinder's body tensed as her mother stalked around behind her, as those arms slid around her neck - but they didn't squeeze tight and strangle her to death. "Go on now."

Cinder blew a breath, bringing her Maiden powers to bear, and lifting off from the dirt.

She soared over endless forest, until Tyra finally spoke up in her ear, an arm pointing below and ahead - somewhere off to the left.

As Cinder descended, she found a small clearing and a tattered old cottage overrun by wildlife.

Trees, plants, bushes - thick and pressing on all sides.

A fallen log a few feet from the front door.

Tyra let Cinder go, striding forward for that door immediately, a smile on her face.

"Is this where you live?" Cinder asked, staring after her.

Tyra stopped with hand on the door handle. "This is where we live."

"Is Maggy here?"

"Why not come in and find out?"

Cinder obeyed.

Tyra led her through a tiny living room, rotting and dirty. Through a short hallway, in past a door half hanging from its hinges, into a small bedroom.

In the middle of the room, the floorboards were gone - there was a trapdoor in place. Tyra pulled it open, wiped off her hands and then jumped right in, disappearing into darkness.

Cinder hesitated before following, keeping her Aura up.

She fell a much farther distance than she expected, until her feet hit solid stone.

Her eyes adjusted to the dark, helped out by torchlight around her.

She was in a hallway, pure stone, carved out far too perfectly - rounded and smooth. At one end of the hall, there was a large wooden door framed by torch brackets. At the other end, a "T" intersection.

Tyra stepped over to the door, pulled it open, and then turned to give Cinder a patient look.

Cinder gazed past her, into the room ahead - large, more stone, a few torches in sight, rows of candles on the far side, a red mattress on a slab of stone, like some kind of altar for prayer...

"Well?" Tyra spoke, gesturing.

Cinder moved, entering the room.

Tyra stepped in after her - and shut the door behind herself.

Cinder did her best not to startle. She moved slowly around the room, eyeing it all in detail now. Her grimm claws curled into a fist at her side...

"Cinder?"

She stopped, turning.

Her mother had lowered herself to her knees in the middle of the room. Hands resting on her thighs, her expression...troubled. Her brown eyes shimmered in firelight.

"Yes?" Cinder responded, drawing the word out.

"Could you come sit with me, please?" Tyra gestured to the space in front of her.

"Why should I?"

"Because I'd like to give you some of those answers you wanted - about your life," Tyra went on, quiet, neutral. "About me, about your childhood. About- your father."

Cinder slowly stalked for the middle of the room. She lowered herself down in front of her mother. "Alright. Tell me."

Cinder went rigid as her mother suddenly moved for her, and took her into her arms.

It was warm, it was gentle, it was...everything she'd ever wanted. It was a dream she'd long since given up on.

"When we met last time - everything you said - you were right. I've thought about it all. About my own behavior, my attitude...it wasn't the best foot to start off on. And you...you were right. If I meant it, I should have been on my knees. I should have been begging you for forgiveness. So I'm begging now, Cinder. I'm on my knees now. I'm sorry for everything, for what kind of a mother I was, for abandoning you - you and your father. If I could explain it to you why I did..."

"Explain."

"I have a very powerful Semblance: the gift of foresight," Mother began. "I can see into the far future - days, weeks, to even years ahead - but only if I'm in physical contact with the person I want to see the future of. If I'm not, I only see the immediate future; we're talking minutes to hours. But no matter what I'm seeing, it's only ever brief snippets, and they're jumbled up - out of order. While I was pregnant with you, it was at its worst. And I hated you, and I was afraid of you. You weren't even born yet, and I hated you! Because I saw the things you'd go on to do - the fall of Beacon, your stepfamily. Though, I didn't understand any of it at the time. There was no context. And I had to hate you for nine months straight, my Aura constantly draining, flashes in my head, sights and sounds and smells...screaming, burning, blood..."

"I didn't have hardly a minute of peace," Mother went on, with a little laugh. "I was going insane because of you. It was a relief when you were finally born - pushed you out of there. I tried to forget it, I tried to just keep you away from me - stop any more visions - but every time we touched again...I remembered why I hated you all over again. And it never helped that I never wanted you to begin with, never even wanted to have you!"

"Then why did you?" Cinder asked, voice cracking. "Why even bother? Why not just abort me, or strangle me after I was out? If you hated me that much?"

"Because I was told to have you. I was...made to have you. No matter what I wanted. Or what your father wanted." Mother's breath hitched. "He...didn't even understand why I was trying so hard for it, for you. He didn't want it either, didn't want you either. He- I-"

"What?"

"I'm never going to be proud of what I did to him."

"What...did you do?"

"I- tried too hard for you, a lot of nights together. Even...when he didn't at all want to again."

Cinder recoiled, ripping herself free of Tyra's grasp and shooting to her feet. She stared down at her imperiously, grimm claws splayed.

"I know," Tyra said simply, tilting her head to look up at her from the floor. "I know..."

"You- you- you v-violated him, you raped him?!"

"I did. A number of times. Especially towards the end. I was just- getting more and more desperate, and frustrated, and I...I stopped caring what he really even wanted anymore, or what he thought about it all."

"No wonder he left with me! He was probably happy to get away from you for once." Cinder's voice was strangled, her claws threatened to strangle. She felt so sick, her stomach was just...

"That wasn't his choice either..."

"What?"

"I- when you were three, I made him leave with you. I couldn't stand you anymore, I couldn't keep...and not him, either, how guilty I felt, how- he shouldn't have had to keep staying with me as long as he did. But he- he did. Until I made him leave."

Cinder closed her eye, letting oldest memories drift back to her again, for the first time in a while now.

She still did remember those times, traveling around with her daddy. She remembered every time he'd hug her, kiss her, hold her. He'd get her little gifts, treats, probably with money he didn't exactly have to spend. Courier work in Remnant was valued, sure, and it gave good money, but not quite that good. But he had done it, on almost every stop in every little town or village. She remembered the treats of ice cream, she remembered a stuffed rabbit...she remembered when her dad had come upon the village that would become a more permanent fixture in their lives. The mansion outside of it, the family that lived there...the Nuveri family...

Even if her dad hadn't ever wanted her either...even if he'd always had to look at Cinder's face and see in it a striking resemblance to the grown woman who had violated him...he'd never once looked at Cinder with anything but love, never once treated her with anything but care. Her dad had chosen to do that - just like Cinder's mother had chosen to hate her! To express that hate at her, in ways Cinder couldn't remember or imagine - she didn't want to.

Her dad had been good, and kind, and wonderful - no matter what.

And, whatever the hell her stepmother had been to Cinder, at least in those earliest years before her dad had died, Cinder remembered her dad as being so happy. So happy to be with that woman, with Lady Nuveri, to have all those other girls around. How he'd encouraged Cinder to play with them, to get to know them. How he'd always been so...

It had been good, at least, for those first few earliest years of life there, hadn't it? For her dad, at least. And Lady Nuveri had to have...treated him well, had to have- hadn't she? It was only Cinder she'd ever looked at like a literal stain on her shoe. She'd loved her dad, as much as her dad had loved...right?

Cinder hadn't ever thought about it before, but...her dad had found happiness, freedom, hadn't he? It hadn't just been one god awful marriage to another? One abusive wife to another?

Her stepmother had loved him, she'd been smitten with him immediately - Cinder did remember that right! She did, damnit!

Although, even with that, it was always possible that behind closed doors, when Cinder was out of sight...

It had been a big mansion, after all...

What if - What if...?

Oh god, what if...

Cinder blinked rapidly, gave a furious swipe at her eye and glared down at her mother with a flaming amber eye. "Why? How could you do that to him?! How could you-"

"Because the Order wanted me to."

"They wanted you to put Mordeya's essence inside of me."

"So you know - yes. That's what they wanted."

"Why?"

Tyra winced suddenly, shook her head, grasped it - as if in sudden, great pain. "Because...because with Imryll's soul being both out here and in there...it creates a twofold bond, a much more powerful connection - one that magic can go through - and once she's awake in you, both parts of her from both sides will be able to use their powers to...widen the bridge, make the crack in the wall between dimensions even bigger. Enough for all of them to cross it without even needing to destroy the seal that that damned wizard put on the gateway into that realm. We'll just- they'll just...ignore it, go past it. Another exit. A self-made exit. A big hole in the wall."

"But she can't do that yet. She's not awake yet."

"Not yet," Tyra agreed, mournful. She dropped her head with a sharp gasp.

"What happens to me when she does wake up? When she does all this?"

"Your body will be hers to control, and you'll be the one going to sleep. An unconscious state. You won't be dead - just...asleep in there."

"And you don't care, she doesn't care - none of you care!" Cinder yelled. "You don't care what you do, to who, to anyone, you don't care if you-"

"NO, WE DON'T!"

A thousand whispers filled the room; the wall's shadows rippled. And from them emerged a face, a face made of shadows, black smoke drifting off of it. The face wasn't all too sharp, or any sort of definably, maturely "female." It was small, rounded, with thin eyebrows and thinner lips. Almost...like the face of a child, Cinder realized. Were they trying to manipulate her? Play on her sympathies? They did like to talk about those poor, imprisoned kids, didn't they? True or not. But no matter what, this face wasn't real, wasn't tangible. All the same, when those pure black eyes found Cinder...

Cinder slowly turned, fighting not to look away. "Who are you supposed to be?" she said, adopting the fakest of disinterested voices, willing it not to tremble.

"We are everyone that the wizard locked away." The voice was, like the face, a facsimile of a child's - a little girl's. But there was an undercurrent to it, a thousand other voices behind it, morphing it into something far different. "We're the Ascendants. We are-"

"Skip the theatrics; let's just be straight with each other," Cinder interrupted, mouth dry. "Who are you?"

Those whispers intensified, overlapping - roaring and screaming, whispering and begging, urging and snapping - and then it was silenced.

That shadowy face shifted, small lips formed a smile. "If you like; we are Imryll, and we want to make a deal with you, Cinder."

"What deal?"

"You fulfill your purpose at last, and we let you leave with your daughter afterward."

Cinder set her grimm claws on her hip, offered up an uncertain scoff. "Liar. I'm not going to be able to just walk out of here, because I'm not even going to be me after it's over. Am I?"

"Yes you will - your mother still lacks a full understanding of how things work."

"Really? So to convince me, you're going to play good cop, bad cop - pin all the negatives on my mother's lack of understanding?" Cinder laughed at that face, shaking her head. "Ridiculous. It's amateur, is what it is."

"We're only doing what you asked."

"What if I asked you to let me go now, with Maggy, and never bother us again?"

"We can't let that happen."

"I thought so," Cinder snorted.

"We need you - we need to be free!" the childish voice insisted, with the weight of thousands.

"And you don't care who you hurt to get it. Not my dad, not my daughter."

"Your father wasn't hurt; and neither has your daughter been."

"You call raping, you call kidnapping-"

"They weren't hurt."

"Oh, so that's how we're doing this - we're playing semantics!" Cinder said, disbelieving. "There wasn't pain involved, so it's all right! Go to hell! You know, a lot of people would say that trauma, PTSD, is something infinitely worse than the event itself - because it stays with you, it's there every single day, it affects your personality, your health, your-"

"No one was hurt!" Imryll burst out with utter frustration, tendrils exploding from the wall around that face, writhing furiously.

Cinder stared. On one hand, she was literally talking to a wall, wasn't she? On the other hand...she was also talking to a child. Or, the image of one. But why was Mordeya acting like one? It was like she really, genuinely didn't comprehend why any of this was so horrendous. It was like Cinder when Cinder had tried to explain to Bae, one time, just why she couldn't just go skateboarding right down the middle of the damn streets of Mantle; Bae had insisted that she hadn't gotten hurt, that nobody had even gotten hurt, nobody had hit her, so why couldn't she? What was so bad about it? Why not? It had been frustration and confusion to the point of near tears with that girl - for both of them.

"And no one...is going to get hurt when you do what you want with me?" Cinder said, slowly and clearly, eyeing Imryll's face intently.

Those eyebrows scrunched...then lifted. That frowning mouth relaxed. "Correct. Have we hurt anyone so far? Why do you think we would hurt anyone now?" There was that genuine confusion again, that questioning with total...innocence. An earnestness. Like Imryll really just wanted to know. No mocking, no devil's advocate, no playing dumb.

"I know three people you've hurt," Cinder replied, deliberate, thinking hard. "Neo, Blake, and Miltia. When you turned them, I heard it was all very violent - painful. What do you think of that?"

Imryll's face lowered. Every feature downcast. "That's the one pain that can't be helped. But after it is, it's worth it. For anyone, for everyone. Isn't surgery painful, but in the end you're better off for it?"

"Yes," Cinder said slowly. "But people volunteer for surgery. They sign themselves up, they consent to go through with it. Nobody consents to become an Ascendant."

"Plenty of people asked before. Plenty of people willingly agreed to let us help them. And we helped them. People who were so sick they were going to die - or had children who were so sick they were going to die."

Irritating semantics again - or infantile incomprehension? Cinder drew a breath, stepping forward. "Neo didn't. Blake didn't. Miltia didn't," she said, as clear as she could - like she was talking to Bae or Maggy.

"We still helped them; they're happy we did."

"But they didn't agree to it."

"You don't need to agree to get helped."

"Why?" Cinder asked - simple, patient - adopting a faux curious tone. "Tell me what you mean."

Concentration crossed Imryll's face. A long moment of silence in the room. "We never did; whenever we needed help, we were helped. Whether we wanted to or not - and we protested it a number of times we can remember."

"As a child, perhaps-" Cinder began, allowing - anticipating the logic she felt was at play here now.

"Yes." A statement, simple as could be.

Cinder stared into that face ever more intensely. Took another few steps forward. "But you...aren't a child anymore - it's been three hundred years - even if you were once."

"Why?"

"Are you saying you are one?" Cinder responded, incredulous.

"Yes, we are."

Cinder breathed. Okay, then... "Imryll: how old are you?"

"Nine - we're always nine."

"What?"

"You don't understand. That's all right; no one does until they really meet us."

"No, I understand what you said, I'm just-" Cinder cut herself off, shaking her head. "My father, my- the Ascendants-"

"It is a nice name, isn't it? I made it up for us." Nothing but childish pride - satisfaction.

"But my father! My father- you- you had him raped, you- you made my mother do it- and everything that's ever...you're a child?!"

"I knew it was something really awful..." that small voice admitted. "But I don't care; I just want to get out of here! And you're going to help me - help all of us!" Anger, a crashing wave of force, with all those other voices behind it again now. Raging, screaming at Cinder! Like being in the middle of an angry mob, a thunderous crowd!

Cinder clapped her hands to her ears, falling to her knees. "I- I c-can't, I'm not- Imryll, shut up, stop it already! You're not-"

And just like that, the voices died.

"You will help us - we will make you help us."

"Imryll..." Cinder spoke, letting her hands fall and bringing her head up - trying to regain herself. "Please - tell me - what exactly are you going to use me for? How?"

"Tyra told you part of it."

"Part of it?"

"Yes."

"What...what else is it that you want from me?"

"We want you to help us all get free."

"Yes, but what else?"

"We want to get free! We told you!"

Cinder took a hasty breath, pushing herself to her feet again. She made eye contact with the shadowy child's face again. "Okay - yes, you did - but you said 'part of it.' What's the other part, Imryll? I'd like you...to explain that to me. Details, specifics. Explain it. Please."

"I...I don't understand how it will work, myself. Not really. But I know it will. And when it does, I will be..."

"You'll be what, Imryll?"

"Helped."

"Helped how?"

"You'll help me. I'll be better again."

Cinder reached for patience once more. "What do you mean?"

"I won't be like this anymore."

"Like...an Ascendant?" Cinder guessed. "How the Relic of Creation changed you all?"

"Yes. I will be free of this at last. All of it."

"You mean that you- want to be- normal again?"

"Yes! That's what we just said!" Dark tendrils surged forth and began to encircle Cinder - but they didn't touch her, didn't squeeze her up and try to kill her or anything (yet, Cinder thought).

"You did - I'm sorry, I just wanted to be sure!" Cinder said quickly, evenly. She gazed at Imryll's face, blinking at her. "Please get rid of these, Imryll. Or are you going to hurt me?"

Imryll's eyes widened; the tendrils retreated, vanishing altogether into the wall. "We told you: we don't hurt people. We help them."

"Yes, you did say that," Cinder agreed. "Imryll, how exactly am I going to be able to help you become normal again?"

"I told you - I don't understand it! I just know what all of the others tell me; they came up with the idea. It's taken a long time to make one that will work."

"Well then, what have they told you? Did they explain it to you?"

"A bit."

"Can you explain it to me?" Cinder asked, in the kindest voice. "Don't you think I should know? How am I going to help you if I don't know what's going on?"

"Yes, okay..."

Cinder waited, breathing in and out; she put her hands together at her waist, presenting an image of utter attentiveness.

"After we free everyone from Kintu-"

"Kintu?"

"Kintu is our home; the home we made for us after what Ozpin did to us!"

"Alright. Please, keep going."

"After everyone is let out of here, the part of me in you will get stronger and let me be drawn into you, and then I'll come out of you like normal again. I'll be normal again."

"'Come out of me like normal?'" Cinder said tersely. "What does that mean? Are you going to rape me too?"

"No - not that again." Imryll shook her head, smoke wafting with the motion. "They said that because that part of me is already in you that we won't need to do that again. I just need to get pulled into you by the part of me in you now, and then it will happen all on its own."

"All on its own? So - what - I'm just- spontaneously going to get pregnant or something?"

Whispers in the room, which faded quickly as they'd come.

"Yes - that is what they said would happen."

"How exactly is this going to work?" Cinder asked. "For freeing the others, for putting yourself in me to do all of this? How do you get from where you are, in Kintu, to here inside of me to join this other part of you? Is it going to hurt me?"

"It might hurt for a few seconds."

"How?"

"Your eye."

Cinder's stomach squirmed. "My eye what?!"

"The eye is the window to the soul; but if that eye doesn't work, your soul can't look out through that window. That will let me-"

"You're going to-"

"Just for a moment; it will be healed after I'm in you - I am an Ascendant. My soul will bring its healing properties with it, and those will work on your body. My new body, while I have it."

"Alright. And if..." Cinder began, pressing on. "if I were to even...let you do this...if you were normal again..."

"What?"

"What does that mean for all the other Ascendants?" Cinder asked finally. "What about their powers, what about your telepathic connection that you all have?"

"The entire web will break apart. We won't be able to hear each other anymore. Because I'm the...the center point that it all spreads out from. That everything passes through."

"I understand that," Cinder said, nodding. "And what about all of this helping people stuff? Ascending, transforming? Will that all stop too?"

"I'm the only one who will be free of...the Relic's..." Hesitation, struggling. "How it changed us."

Which means, even if you won't be a threat anymore, even if you won't all be connected anymore...everyone else is still going to be a threat - individuals, but individual threats still.

"What if I agreed to just help you?" Cinder spoke kindly. "If I were to go along with all of this, could all the rest be...left behind in - Kintu, you said? - the other dimension?"

"NO!"

Cinder winced. Right - didn't think so. "Okay, okay - fine! That's- fine! Now what about-"

"We are done talking! You will help us, you will help all of us, no matter what we have to do to make you!"

"No, no, Imryll - you're going to let me go, you're going to let Maggy go, this isn't-"

"Be quiet! Don't cause us trouble or you'll regret it! We will make sure Maggy regrets it!"

"Imryll-"

That childish face, twisted with rage, disappeared in smoke, and then tendrils were bursting from all directions - every wall, and even the floor and the ceiling! Swift and powerful, they were smothering Cinder from all directions before she could even move!

They were wrapping around her, there was a burning sensation across her flesh - like some acidic substance was being lathered all over her figure - and they were contracting, squeezing-

Cinder screamed as her Aura was rapidly sapped and shattered; she burst with Maiden powers, explosive, raw magic.

The tendrils were destroyed in her immediate vicinity, a frozen wind surrounded her, lifting her into the middle of the room.

"Cinder!" Mother was calling to her from the edge of the room, her expression one of total distress. "All those years ago, I made a mistake. I was acting on information that wasn't whole! All I saw was all the worst things about you - the fall of Beacon, your stepfamily's murder, and so many other horrible things - but I never saw your best! I never really saw...just how special, how wonderful, how beautiful you are. I never should have sent you away! I should have kept you, I should have tried harder! I know I can never make that right with you - I was scared, and I panicked, and I did hate you because of who I saw you'd become, and I can't defend myself on it - but if you give me a chance, I want to show you I can still give you all that love you deserved from me! I want to have the chance to still be in your life somehow! I'm s-sorry!"

Cinder turned a flaming eye on her as she rippled out with fire to turn another wave of tendrils to ashes. Too late. It's way too late for that, mother!

The door burst open, and half a dozen people spilled in and began unloading weapons at her - automatic dust rifles, grenade launchers, and even dust tipped arrows.

Cinder raised a magic barrier to block it all, her eye narrowing at them all.

A tendril ensnared her grimm arm, wrapping around it like a serpent and snapping it straight - burning into it with that acid, hissing black smoke...

A scream, and Cinder turned just in time to see her mother come launching at her, swinging a powerful burning blade of fire Dust crystals in its hilt; it was slicing down onto Cinder's shoulder, going through like nothing! Cinder screamed as the limb was severed, falling to the ground and shrieking shrilly!

There was nothing but that agony, nothing but wanting it to stop!

Suddenly Tyra had grabbed her human arm and was shoving her back onto the floor. Cinder lit her eye up with a scream, thrashing; there was a sudden explosion in her shoulder stump as a fire dust arrow buried itself in it, blowing it apart. Blood and gore flew everywhere - and the grimm beetle, long ago first burrowed in it, was scattered to nothing with a shrill screech.

No! Nooo! Emerald, Emerald, goddammit, please - focus - Emerald!

The Maiden powers, now freed again, burned like a wild flame in the room, and soared up into the ceiling.

Cinder thrashed and tried to fight, but there were several robed figures around her, several weapons striking at her, dust rounds and large blunt weapons.

She tried bringing up her Aura, but what little she even had recharged was taken down again in an instant by the barrage of bullets and beating of hammers, clubs and maces.

More hands were seizing her, and then there were chains going around her legs and sole remaining human arm, her waist - and these chains were being hooked into the floor where a steel ring was revealed from beneath a stone slab...

Tyra's face above hers, looking down at her with sheer hatred and disgust. A dagger in her hand, being lowered right toward Cinder's face. Right toward her eye socket.

"Wh-what are you doing, what are you doing to me, let me go, let me up, right now! I'll- I'll kill you, I'll kill all of you, I'll incinerate you - every last one of you, do you fucking hear me- mother, mother don't- you can't do this to me, you can't do this - please I'm sorry, please I'm sorry, mommy please don't I'm sorry I really am, please! I'll be good, I'll be quiet, I'll do anything you want, I'll be really really good I promise, please just don't do this to me! Please don't, please, I promise!"

Her mother plunged the dagger into her eye.

Cinder's world exploded into searing red, waxy and distorted- and then darkness as the blade tore free again.

A hand was on her face, a palm over her eye socket. Something hot and burning rushed into it, scorching straight through to her brain...and then it was washing through her whole body.

In the core of her chest, Cinder felt something pulse, and her frantic screaming died in her torn up throat as she fell unconsciousness.