Hello there! This chapter, everyone needs to have A Talk. Also, a certain hatchling finds that a door guard makes things a lot more difficult.

41. A Gentle Rain

Pyrrha was right on the edge of sleep. She could feel it—the dark, in-between space where her thoughts blurred and her body faded away. A brief instant where she was still conscious, but everything was dulled. Peaceful.

The zipper of their tent opened. She jolted awake, coming face to face with Jaune. He was sitting up. "I told you to stop waiting for me to fall asleep!"

"I was just—Blake?" She was leaning in through the tent flap, her ears flat against her skull. "What the heck?"

"I need to talk to everyone." She saw his glare and winced. "Trust me, I wouldn't have woken her up if it wasn't important. Meet us in the woods."

Then she retreated. Pyrrha could hear hushed voices near where Ren and Nora's tent was.

"You told them not to wake me up?"

"Not exactly. It's just... we know it's hard for you to get back to sleep, so we try not to if we can avoid it."

"You don't need to do that."

"I know." He stood up, offering a hand. "But since there's only so much we can do about the big stuff, we wanna help with the little stuff. Okay?"

"...Alright."

They snuck into the woods a few at a time, leaving their dragons where they slept. Weiss and Yang were already waiting by the time they got there, and before long they were all there.

All fifteen of them. Twelve students, two professors, and...

"You brought Emerald?!" Weiss hissed.

Ruby leaned back a few inches. "Um... well, Blake said we were all meeting, so...?"

Weiss glanced at Blake. "Well?"

She shrugged. "It's... fine. Probably. But... sorry about this." Then she looked at Yang. "Can you?"

"What?" Yang glanced uncertainly at Emerald. "Like...?"

"Just make sure she can't leave."

"What?" Emerald tried to back away.

Yang slung an arm around her shoulders. "Okay then. Do you wanna explain what we're all doing out here? Because this is getting really cloak and dagger."

"You—what the fuck are you doing?" Emerald moved to bolt, only to end up in a headlock. Yang released her a moment later, though she kept a loose grip on her shoulder.

"Miss Belladonna." Professor Goodwitch prompted.

Blake took a deep breath, then let it out. "An old friend of mine told me that Cinder is working with the White Fang."

Weiss reacted first, and loudest. "She what?!"

"Why are we talking about this in front of Emerald?" Neptune demanded, jabbing a finger at her.

Ruby slapped at it. "Hey!"

Emerald shifted in Yang's grip. "It's fine, Ruby. I'm curious about that myself."

"If worst comes to worst... knock her out?" Sun suggested, grinning sheepishly.

"What? No!" Ruby waved her arms frantically. "We are not doing that!"

"You're the one who brought her!" Scarlet said.

"Guys!" Yang put up the hand that wasn't restraining Emerald. "Let's not cross that bridge unless we come to it, okay?"

"Oh, you'll fucking come to it alright you—"

"Don't yell at my sister!" Ruby pleaded.

"Your sister just put me in a headlock!"

"But—"

"Enough." Professor Goodwitch slashed her hand through the air in a cutting gesture.

"Let us ask questions rather than starting arguments," Professor Port suggested.

Weiss kept her attention fixed on Blake. "When you say that Cinder is working for the White Fang... what does that mean, exactly?"

"Not for. With. I don't know any details, but..." Blake glanced at Emerald. "That injection equipment from Shade went to whoever is hatching eggs for Cinder." Her jaw clenched. "And I remember being surprised that the Fang had managed to scrounge up so much for their lab, so they've probably gotten supplies from her before."

Ruby was the first to speak. "Is that true?"

Emerald flicked her eyes from one face to another, like a cornered rat—but she didn't look at Ruby once. "It's more complicated than that."

"This whole time."

Pyrrha's voice came out oddly flat. Everyone turned to stare at her—she could see the naked concern on their faces.

"There wasn't a better—"

"Just answer the question!" Weiss snapped.

"Yes, but—"

"This whole time." Pyrrha could hear her heartbeat roaring in her ears. Something in her tone made Emerald's eyes go wide. "While Haven was rebelling. While we were destroying Shade. While you were stirring things up at Beacon."

Jaune grabbed her hand. Yang took a step back, Emerald almost tripping over herself to create some distance. "Just let me explain!"

"No!"

"Pyrrha—" Nora said softly. Ren put a hand on her shoulder. Jaune's fingers tangled with hers and squeezed.

"No!" She tore herself away. "Everything that happened, everything we lost, it was supposed to be part of a plan to stop the council! And now we find out we sacrificed all that so that Cinder could be the one experimenting on them! Throwing their lives away!"

She raised a hand. Yang's grip had slackened, but Emerald was so stunned that she didn't try to run. She just stood there, staring, as Pyrrha made a fist—

"Wait!"

Ruby jumped between them, her hands up. "This is bad. It's bad. But please, just let her talk first?"

It was like a bucket of water had been dumped over her head. Pyrrha stumbled back. There was an urge to apologize, and she squashed it. She stood stiffly, watching Emerald.

"Fine," she gritted out.

Yang could feel Emerald shaking as she tried to find words. She relaxed her grip a little—though it was about to get a whole lot tighter if her explanation wasn't really good.

Emerald swallowed hard. "Yes. We worked with the White Fang. But Cinder didn't want to. There aren't that many of us, not enough to run a lab and fight the council. They already had enough manpower, and we had all the equipment they'd need, so..."

"I've seen that lab," Blake said flatly. "It's disgusting."

"She's been trying to change it! First she got them to be systematic, so they wouldn't keep trying things more than once. Then she made sure they had tape to put on after injections, so there wouldn't be so many infections—"

Weiss' lip curled. "I suppose she thought they would be more useful to her if they worked efficiently."

"It wasn't about that, but they wouldn't listen if she just said that it would be better for the dragonets! They don't care, you know they don't care, but Cinder was making things better."

Blake grimaced when Emerald looked at her. "Damn it."

Yang squeezed Emerald's arm. Not hard—just a reminder that running away wasn't an option. "Blake? Are you okay?"

"My friend let something else slip. There's been a change in leadership since... well, you know." A collective wince. "She said Sienna is in charge now, and she's... a lot more likely to listen to reason. So Emerald might be telling the truth."

"I didn't know about the leadership change," Emerald admitted, "but I haven't really been involved in that side of things. And Cinder mentioned that she's been making a lot more progress with the White Fang recently."

Silence. They exchanged glances. Some, like Sun, seemed hopeful, while others were more dubious. Weiss and Professor Goodwitch both looked skeptical, and Pyrrha was still furious.

"I trust her," Ruby said softly. "We've seen her with Strike. She loves her. So... she'd want to do as little harm as possible, right?"

"Maybe," Blake admitted. "But we're in enough danger without 'maybes'."

"Okay." Ruby turned to Emerald. "How about this? We agree to stay—for now!" she added quickly, when Pyrrha opened her mouth to argue. "But no more lies. No more hiding stuff. And no more surprise skeletons in Cinder's closet. Otherwise we're going to leave, and you're not going to stop us."

Emerald didn't speak for a moment. Then, finally, "...Okay."

"And you're not telling Cinder we had this conversation," Blake added.

"Um." Scarlet raised a hand. "Are we just going to trust that she'll do that?"

"Yes." Ruby flashed Emerald a grin. "Because she's our friend. And if she does tell her, we run."

"What if Cinder decides to attack us?" asked Neptune.

Weiss scoffed. "With what army? I doubt the tribe or the pit dragons would side with her. At worst they'd stay out of it." A pause. "Or attack everyone indiscriminately. Either way, it would just be stupid for Cinder to risk that."

She glanced at their professors, looking for confirmation. Both nodded.

"Fine," Emerald said, exasperated. "Any other demands while you're holding me hostage?"

Yang had a sudden flash of inspiration. "Oh! See if you can get Cinder to show us—"

Weiss made a violent slashing gesture across her throat, angled so that Emerald wouldn't see. Yang stumbled a bit as she changed what she'd been about to say. "—the, uh, formulas that you found. They might have failure rates or something that we could check."

"They don't, and it'd make her suspicious if I asked."

"Okay." Yang forced a smile. "Worth a shot."

"Is everyone good?" Ruby asked.

"Yes," Weiss said, briefly meeting Yang's eyes and mouthing, "Thank you."

"Cool. I'll walk Emerald back to camp."

"Sleep tight, guys!" Yang released Emerald and tossed her a wink. "It was nice talking to you."

"Fuck you."

Ruby shot her a hurt look. "Hey! Leave Yang alone."

Emerald's grumbling eventually faded into the distance.

"So." Yang looked expectantly at Weiss. "What the hell was that about?"

"Blake? Do you think you could get in touch with Ilia again?"

"Maybe. Why—oh."

"Care to share with the class?" Yang prompted.

"You were going to ask her to get Cinder to show us the White Fang lab, right?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah."

"It might be better to ask Ilia to do that," Blake explained, "so that Cinder won't have a chance to cover anything up."

"...Oh."

Sun put a hand on his forehead and groaned dramatically. "That's enough spy crap at three in the morning. I'm going to sleep."

Yang stuck close by Blake and Weiss until they found Ruby sitting by their tents. "I really think she's telling the truth."

Blake sighed. "Are you sure that isn't because it's Emerald?"

"I mean, it is a little. She cares about dragons, so doesn't it mean something if she trusts Cinder?"

"It might mean Cinder is fooling Emerald, too," said Weiss. "She lied to Blake, and none of us noticed a thing."

Yang groaned and plopped herself down beside her sister. "I don't know what to think anymore."

"I wish she was more honest about things," Ruby admitted, "but... it's not just Emerald that likes her. Strike does, too. I've seen them together. Cinder would have to want to do as little harm as she could, right?"

The death smell was strong again.

She padded silently between the trees, keeping thick undergrowth between her and the faunus. They could see when it was dark. Sometimes they had hidden claws. Sticky webs. Sharp steel.

But now she knew that the fire had worked. The death smell had almost gone away for a while, and now it was back. So she had to make it stop again. She crept around the evil place, sniffing, tensing as the smell of faunus was mixed in. She recognized the faceless man. And, when she poked her head out from behind a bush, she saw him.

Bad. Very bad.

She shivered. He was standing in front of the entrance to the tent with his arms folded across his chest. When she was smaller he had picked her up and let her ride on his shoulder as he walked, while she sunk her claws into his shirt and flared her wings. Part of her was still not convinced that it was possible to fly any higher.

Could she fight him? She tested her bad leg and hissed. Not now. Probably not for a long time. If she were as big as Justice... but she wasn't. And if she was...

He didn't like her hurting the faunus, even when they tried to hurt her first. He said that it wasn't their fault, that there were things called humans who made it this way. They sounded made up. Sienna had talked about a lot of monsters, and there had never been any in the woods. Maybe she'd made all of it up—the humans and the Grimm, big cities and little villages, sea and snow and the island of Menagerie. Maybe this was the whole world, this forest and the faunus that lived there, this place where she was not welcome. She could find out... but only if she ignored the tent that smelled of death.

She tossed her head. This was stupid, anyway. Justice was a liar. He said that if she didn't hurt anyone he'd visit her, but she hadn't seen him since. She had started pacing around the camp at night, watching. It was bad, dangerous—both times they'd almost caught her, it had been because she got too close. She couldn't stop.

At night she dreamed strange, feverish dreams, and when she woke she put her paws over her nose and whimpered for Sienna. The only thing that brought her back to herself was to sneak close to the evil place, to smell and to feel and to remember.

Freya woke with a yelp when Nora tapped her nose. It was dark outside, and for a moment all she could do was blink in helpless confusion. Had she slept through the whole day? She was still so tired...

"Sorry, girl," Nora whispered. "But we gotta talk!"

Oh. It was still the same night.

Freya rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes. Nora groaned. "Okay, okay! I'll make sure you get to sleep later. Deal?"

Reluctantly, she dragged herself to her feet and padded after Nora. Ao Guang and Twiggy joined them a moment later, and soon she and her siblings and their humans were all huddled together in the forest.

Jaune explained. Ren clarified a few details. Nora waved her arms wildly for emphasis... and Pyrrha sat in stony silence.

Guang barked anxiously. "Does this mean we have to run away again?"

"They said we're going to wait until we know more," Freya said. "Maybe Blake's friend was lying."

"I bet she was. Strike is nice."

"So is Phoenix. Raven still isn't."

"But... Raven wouldn't hurt hatchlings."

Freya turned to Twiggy, to see what she was thinking about all this, but she was watching Pyrrha. Jaune noticed at the same time.

"Hey," he said, putting an arm around Pyrrha's shoulders. "Are you okay?"

"Not really."

Twiggy purred in her ear.

"This is... a lot to take in," Ren agreed.

"It's not that." Pyrrha's shoulders slumped. "I'm just... tired of not knowing who to trust."

There was a moment of fraught silence. Then, Twiggy pounced.

Pyrrha yelped, landing on her back with the dragon licking her face. Jaune went down with her, laughing and wrapping both arms around her. "I mean, come on," Nora said, plopping down next to her and hugging her other side. "We're right here."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—!"

Ren sat next to Nora and took Pyrrha's hand. "We know."

Then Guang nuzzled at her hair, and for the first time in days Freya found enough energy to jump on top of all of them. Soon they fell into an enormous, affectionate heap, with Pyrrha struggling to breathe between giggles.

Alright, Freya decided, as she shoved her head under Nora's arm. This was worth waking up for.

Emerald told herself it wasn't safe to do it that same night. Then she told herself it would be better to wait until Raven wasn't around. When they finally split off from the Branwen tribe and made for Cinder's base of operations, and she caught herself thinking that maybe it would be best to do it once they were safely inside...

No. Cinder saved her. Cinder made her everything she was. Cinder deserved her loyalty.

If anyone had noticed her slipping into Cinder's tent, she would have told them she was going to look for the formulas she'd found, and see if she could slip one out to show them. None of them did.

Rain pattered against the canvas as she walked in with her heart in her throat. Cinder was sitting on a straw mat, a map spread out in front of her. Probably plotting their route. She glanced up as Emerald entered, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"I don't remember asking you to come in here."

"You didn't." Emerald's mouth was dry. "There's a problem."

"Your instructions recently have been very simple," Cinder snapped. "I hope there hasn't been another failure."

"No! No, it's not that. I found out about something."

"Well? What is it?"

It took a moment to force the first words out. Once she did, the rest tumbled from her in a rush. Ruby waking her up in the middle of the night. The woods. Blake's accusation. She left nothing out. Nothing except for the fact that she'd known for three days, now.

"I see."

Emerald tried to be discreet as she wiped her sweaty palms on her shorts. She had a horrible feeling that she knew what her next orders would be. They needed people loyal to the cause, not those who were too weak to do what had to be done. She'd send them away. They'd be enemies. Emerald would have to—

"I suspected it would take some time for them to understand the kinds of sacrifices that must be made," Cinder said mildly. "I'll have to be sure to give them that time."

Emerald almost blurted aloud, 'What?' but stopped herself. "What do you want me to do?" she asked instead, trying not to show her relief.

Cinder hummed. "Nothing for now. I'll need to rethink a few things."

"Right." Emerald bowed her head and moved to leave.

"Oh, and Emerald?" She froze, paralyzed by the small, approving smile Cinder was giving her. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

Emerald struggled to keep her face neutral as she said, "Of course." The grin took over her face the instant she was out of sight, and stayed there long after she'd fallen asleep in her own tent. It had been a long time since Cinder given her one of those smiles.

The memory stayed with her until the morning came. Those moments were always like that—disappearing as soon as daylight touched them. And, in its absence, the guilt finally swamped her.

They'll understand, she told herself, over and over. Of course they would—Cinder was sure of it.