Flora brushed her hair from her eyes and looked to the black-haired young huntress - faunus - Blake Belladona.
"Are you ready to go?" Belladona spoke, quiet and kind.
Flora nodded. Smiled her best. "Yes, thank you. It's been a week in this place; I really appreciate getting the chance to stretch my legs - even if it's to go to an election victory party."
"It's no trouble, Ms. Castella," Belladona assured. "I'm happy to accompany you - it is the job."
Flora picked up Maggy's carrier, flashed another smile. "Is baby care a part of your job training, by any chance, Ms. Belladona?"
Belladona laughed. Shook her head. "I'm afraid not, no. I won't be much help if there's a problem in that regard."
"That's alright. I can take care of this on my own pretty handily."
"I'm sure. You look like a natural to me."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome, Ms. Castella."
"Please, just call me Flora!"
"If you'd call me Blake - Ms. Belladona makes me sound like my mother. And I'm not that old yet! Not nearly."
"Blake, then, alright."
Cinder pulled her flowing black cloak around herself, pulled the hood up, and placed the ornate white mask over her face.
She leaped from the rooftop, landing on the next across the street. She moved through Mantle toward her destination; she jumped down into an alley a few blocks from the edge of the city.
She navigated the dark narrows easily, silently, until she'd reached the wall.
She strode along it, single eye scanning it for any weaknesses.
Ahead she spotted a lookout tower.
They wouldn't be a problem - hadn't been, this past week now. They were focused on looking outward, not inward.
Cinder soon came upon an indent in the metal. Shearing. Several small gashes. Sabyrs doing their work on it, plenty of them, over plenty of time.
She focused, reaching out to place a palm to the wall; white light flared from her hand, and the broken metal repaired itself, the gaps filled in with hard crystal and stone, the thin spots reinforced.
It wasn't perfect - she wasn't perfect at this, not by a long shot - but it was enough to shore up the defenses. It was enough to let things...hold.
Nodding to herself behind her mask, she continued on along the wall, looking for more spots like this one.
She was nearing the biggest problem: the great big gap in the wall.
Cinder had been reluctant to try to fix that one, to even approach it; she'd risk discovery, risk some kind of encounter with the military guards. She didn't want to get into a fight, and she didn't want to have to hurt anyone. But, she decided she couldn't put it off any longer - Mantle didn't deserve to have such an exposed flaw in its defenses just sitting there like it was. So, guards or not, potential problems or not, Cinder was going to fix that tonight. For them. Because it was...good, and right to do. Because it was what Cinder could do, with what power and skills she had to her.
Tonight, there was an election party going on, for the foregone conclusion of a victory for Mantle's councilwoman, Robyn Hill; Cinder hoped that would at least have reduced perimeter security a bit, redirected to potential crowd control deeper into the city.
If not...
Cinder would just have to deal with it in the most delicate way she could manage.
She slinked along the wall, cloaked in shadow, the voices of idle chatting guards on comm units growing clearer and louder.
She was there; there was that giant, gaping section of wall missing.
Cinder glanced up along the wall - four guards, two on each side.
Okay, then...
Cinder crouched down right next to the wall's gap, set her hand on it, and she focused.
Light flared from hand, and her power began to work.
Thick stone burgeoned, filling in the gap, from bottom to top, like rising water.
"W-woah! Hey, Daz, do you see that?!"
"What the hell's going on with the wall?"
"Somebody's got to be nearby - using a Semblance."
"Well...do we stop them?"
"Protocol says to keep non-authorized personnel fifteen feet from this containment zone at all times. And I'm sure somebody has to be within fifteen feet to be doing this!"
"So...?"
"So fan out, get down there - we'll find whoever's breached the zone. Send them on their way."
"We're really stopping this?"
Cinder gritted her teeth and began to cover her fully formed stone wall now with hard, blue crystal.
A sigh from above her - directly above, on the wall. "Look, I'm sure it's just somebody thinking they're helping out - but we don't know if any of this crap is stable, or how long it'll even last, or anything else! This is why we can't have just anyone coming in to do as they please! It might ruin the structural integrity of the wall around it! So just get searching, would you?!"
"Yeah, yeah, okay...but I'm not going to try too hard..."
"What was that, soldier?!"
"I just- you know- they're doing more than old Ironwood is for us. He doesn't care to send in a truck of supplies to patch this up, does he? Hasn't for weeks now..."
"Just - start your search! And I don't want to hear any more talk like that if you know what's good for you."
Another sigh. "Yes, sir..."
Clattering of metal, armored, armed figures coming down from ladders on either side of Cinder.
She concentrated on solidifying the crystal layers, on both sides of the wall. It finished just as boots hit the ground.
A figure turned her way, and then froze. The soldier squinted, leaned forward, half reaching for dust rifle. "Hey! You there - you know there's not supposed to be civilians coming this close to the walls, don't you? For your safety as much as ours. So I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the area - step away - or we'll have some problems."
Cinder rose to her feet, arms disappearing into her cloak. Crunching boots; she turned to see two more soldiers come down from the ladder behind her. These two actually had weapons at ready, held in hand.
"Whoever you are: take off the mask and get down on your-"
My knees? Yeah, screw that. Cinder leaped several stories high, straight up, and came down on the rooftop of nearest building. She leaped on to the next, and the next, with shouting and yelling soldiers left in her wake.
Mission accomplished - and not a single person had had to even get hurt.
She smirked to herself with satisfaction.
Blake Belladona entered the auditorium with a heavy heart, but a demeanor she tried to portray as "professional." The Huntress she was meant to be.
She shared a small look with Yang - Yang, who didn't seem upset with her for not being able to go out dancing with Team FNKY. For being dragged into an escort mission with her to this election party.
At least, Blake thought, they were with their teammates. Well, Weiss had gone with Oscar and Jaune to the movies. But at least Ruby was here, too.
And it was a party; Blake thought that maybe they could have this chance to relax and enjoy themselves, all the same.
On the other hand...she was on a mission, an official assignment - and that assignment didn't include relaxing or enjoying yourself. It meant being alert, aware, attentive to your charge. To her charge.
Particularly these charges: civilians on the run from Salem, wrapped up in all of this horror just for happening to come across Cinder Fall (or, Rynon, apparently, Qrow had briefed them all, after a long series of discussions alone with a very shaken and lost Flora Castella earlier this week).
Blake felt such an awful heartache for them - and, privately, she wondered now just how many people's lives she had changed this way during her time in the White Fang. Though she had always done her best not to hurt anyone, and had done her best to reign in Adam, there were still...there had been many times over when she recalled...How many families, how many civilians were out there that she had possibly...?
And if she ever ran into any of them again, would she recognize them? Would she even be able to look them in the eyes? Could she manage to apologize to them, for all of it, just as deeply as one Cinder Rynon apparently had been capable of doing?
That was why she had become a Huntress, in the abstract sense - to save lives, to do good, make up for her past. But that had only been abstract, generalized.
She hadn't ever before imagined the real, the personal...the individual people and families she might have affected, left in her wake.
People just like Flora, and baby Maggy.
People going about their lives, their jobs, until one day a black haired White Fang girl had come leaping in to change it all - and not for the better.
Blake had never thought about it before - until Cinder had entered Team RWBY's life again, and caused Blake's mind to be thrown into turmoil. It was a distressing thought to realize that she had so much in common with that woman.
Blake sighed to herself. But it wasn't any good to get caught in thoughts like that - not now, not here. She had a job to do, a duty to the people right in front of her.
She could worry about those not in front of her...later.
Cheering and excited voices erupted in the hall.
Blake refocused on the stage from the far back of the crowd - eyed the display.
The polls were closing; it was a close match, for both Robyn Hill and Jacques Schnee - they were neck and neck in the votes.
The crowd was counting down.
Excitement and tension alike were mounting.
People's lives would change because of this, no matter the outcome of who won.
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One!"
And the lights shut off completely - even the display had gone black.
Complete and utter darkness.
And silence.
A moment, a beat, eerie and squirming in Blake's stomach as her faunus night vision immediately adjusted to it all.
And she saw the movement so clearly among the crowd of densely packed innocents. Families, mothers and fathers and children.
A man she had heard of and seen pictures of before now, but never actually met in person: Tyrian - a fanatical agent of Salem's!
He was spinning and twirling, a delighted grin stretching across his face, as he began cutting down everyone around him with wrist-blades and sharp cybernetic tail!
Blake pulled her blade out and started forward- then she froze. Turned to Flora, standing in the dark looking terrified and lost. "Come on!" Blake grabbed her arm and raced for the exit, shoving the door open and pushing the woman non too gently into open air and street light. "Stay out here!" she told her. Then, Blake squared her shoulders and went right back inside again.
She leaped high above the fleeing, frantic crowd, tossing out her ribbon to swing off a stage light and send herself flying right for Tyrian. She swung her blade and slashed across his chest, lighting up his Aura and causing it to crackle.
He staggered back, off kilter, his eyes menacing as they found hers. "You stupid little bitch, you're ruining everything!" he hissed, and he swung for her with those blades furiously.
Blake took out her second sword and was put on the defense, using shadow clones to evade deadly strikes from the third element - that stinging tail. She saw him turn and give a frustrated slice of his blades to a man with a little girl in his arms desperately trying to get away in the darkness; the man fell, and the child screamed.
Blake lunged, shadow cloned, and tackled Tyrian bodily! She took him back and slammed him through the wall with an Aura blast, mighty but significantly draining for her.
They were rolling and slashing in an alleyway now, Blake was snarling and hissing, screaming as she landed a punch on the man's face, as she got her blade behind his guard and shoved it to his throat and yanked it across, his aura sparking and flickering! She didn't see Tyrian anymore, not really - she saw Adam.
His hands were coated in a purple energy, and then he was slashing her across the chest and driving that stinger into it, right between her breasts. She cried out and seized, hands going to the tail stuck in her still. Tyrian flung his tail up, lifting her bodily and propelling her up into the air wildly, like he was flicking off a bug.
Blake came down on her hands and feet - just in time for a flying knee to catch her in the face. She flew back and hit hard against a dumpster. Tyrian was on her, slashing and stabbing at her, every inch of her, her Aura shearing and breaking, and that burning pain in her chest was mounting, becoming a burning, spreading through her body! Poison, his poison, she realized. Recognized. Already she felt herself getting weaker, sluggish, the world was dimming and echoing- and Tyrian wasn't letting up on her...
There was a flash of scarlet, a flutter of rose petals, and Tyrian was launched down the alley with a cry of surprise and pain alike.
Blake fell to her hands and knees, clutching her chest with a trembling palm.
"Well, if it isn't the little rose! You'll make quite the prize to take away to the queen, even after tonight's utter failure thanks to your faunus friend there!"
"Don't bet on it!" Yang's voice, furious. A flash of yellow, light and fire, and long hair flaming down the alley...
Tyrian leaped away, over Yang, and then he gave a snarl and jumped clear up out of the alleyway.
"Go after him," Yang told Ruby instantly. Her red eyes changed back to normal as her gaze fell on Blake. Ruby gave her sister a nod, and flew up into the air in a burst of rose petals. Yang was by Blake's side in a flash, reaching for her, pulling her into her arms. "Blake, you're going to be all right - Qrow's dealt with this before, and we have Atlas medical here this time! We can fix this, you'll be fine. Just hang in there for me..."
Blake tried to nod, to speak an affirmative - but all that came out was a little grunting noise, and her head fell into Yang's lap.
Her eyes closed, and the world faded away.
As Cinder brought herself simple pleasures in traversing the rooftops in secret and shroud, distant red lights and flaring sirens caught her eye and ears.
She paused right on a ledge, foot already up on a lip and ready for a next jump.
Her head turned at a shrill sound - and there, descending from the sky, were several Manticores and a greater Sphinx.
More and more joined them, emerging out of the dark clouds in short order, descending on the city.
Alarms everywhere now, more and more red lights popping up in Cinder's field of view.
Cinder tilted her head, lifted an arm, and activated her Maiden powers; she sent out a blast of flames, which split into multiple, and scorched several of the manticores.
A flash of blue from her palm, and the sphinx's wings froze over, and it plummeted, shrieking.
Thank god I fixed that wall tonight, she thought with relief. This wouldn't be too bad, with only the flying ones to worry about - maybe the occasional Sabyr or Ursai from another entry point, a smaller one.
Cinder raced across the rooftops with purpose and urgency now, toward those red lights.
If there was someone to be helped, to be saved, she'd be there to do it. She had to be.
Screaming sharpened into clarity the closer she got to those lights.
She swept her gaze across the streets below, found a half dozen people holed up inside a shop, with an Ursa advancing, and four Sabyrs snarling and snapping - pacing, and waiting.
Cinder created a spear and hurled it for the Ursa; it fell, but it wasn't dead.
It lifted itself up and threw its great body at the shop display window, shattering it.
The Sabyrs immediately moved in, darting forward with grace and speed no normal human could match.
Cinder burst fire from her feet and lunged down from the roof, across the street to land right behind the Sabyrs. She summoned twin swords and began to slice and slash, catching their attention and holding it now. She kicked one into the air, backflipped and dragged her blade along its underbelly, killing it. She twirled to evade two that leaped at her with snarling; a blade was held out to catch one in the ribs, impaling it as it flew by. Two dead, two left now. And the Ursa was now turning its attention to her, too.
Cinder leaped high and flipped back, tossing a sword down at a Sabyr making another lunge. Her blade seemed to be about to strike home - until the Sabyr narrowed its eyes and leapt aside. The blade embedded into the street with the force of the throw.
Cinder ignited flames under her feet to hover, and summoned a new blade - she hurled both simultaneously, aimed at two separate targets; the keener Sabyr dodged her again, while the other caught a blade through the top of its skull, pinning it to the ground dead.
She stretched out her arms, aiming empty palms, and erupted ice around the crafty Sabyr, ensnaring its legs. She threw a spear down, and she didn't miss this time.
All that was left was the Ursa.
Powerful, strong, and faster than they looked, sometimes.
People really did underestimate the larger grimm, assuming they'd always be slow - easy to escape, to avoid. Many people had been proven wrong on that.
Cinder played it safe, deciding to blast it full on in the face with a stream of Maiden fires.
It was incinerated after several moments intense flames.
Cinder let a breath go, and set down on the street again.
A man in the shop came forward, staring at her with undisguised gratitude and relief - and awe. "My god, thank you - thank you! Please, tell me your name!"
Cinder cocked her head; she put hand on hip, gave a single wave, and blasted off into the night sky again.
She had a long night ahead of her, with no time to stop and chat with every single little person she saved the life of. Not that she'd even want to do that; she wasn't exactly enjoying this - she was just doing it. So she'd do it, and that was that.
She didn't need anyone's gratitude - or want it. What did she really care for faceless strangers? She never had, and she wasn't about to start now. Why waste so much time and effort on every single person? No, she wasn't doing this for any thanks or praise. Except, maybe, if it was Flora's, or her mother's...but the former was really out of the question now.
Cinder put thoughts of Flora out of her mind, and focused on searching for the next area lit by red glowing light.