Feeling, perhaps, for the first time in years, refreshed and enthusiastic about the new day, Cinder greeted the morning with a great yawn. A glance to her left revealed Emerald and Mercury on the floor, sleeping in hastily-acquired sleeping bags now that their beds were occupied with Ruby's copious, and delicate, informational architecture. She'd find a more permanent location for them, but for now, it didn't hurt to have Emerald and Mercury spend a night on the floor. A little reminder that Cinder was still in charge of things, even if their direction had shifted.
And a glance at Ruby's plan laid out before her… Cinder had to give the girl credit. She was undeniably a genius, even if her brilliance was directed in such an… absurd fashion. But was that really so bad? Would it be somehow better if Ruby's mind was directed to planning something serious, but dedicated to the immiseration of innocents? No, Cinder much preferred to see the way strings looped and wound their way through a dozen girls' loveliest features and how they might all find happiness. Like how Nebula Violette—by all accounts, just a loathsome girl, though Cinder really wasn't in a place to judge—had lines connecting her to the sticky note of girls who had a passion for gardening and flower arrangement, or Ruby's analysis that she clearly yearned to escape the struggle for survival at the core of Vacuan life. She could follow any string and go from woman to woman, seeing all the best features of these young Huntresses and the hardships that held them back leading to…
Ah, well, leading to… Arc. Sitting at the center of Ruby's spiderweb of eternal love and devotion was a man who'd largely been a "don't bother; doesn't matter" in Cinder's assessment of Beacon's student body. She might have entirely overlooked him if it wasn't for the fact that he was Pyrrha Nikos's partner… and that had led her to start imagining the Arc-Nikos wedding, whose plans had been complicated by his inept efforts to woo Weiss Schnee, which would have been laughable if not for the fact it triggered an even more laughable situation as Cinder found herself enraptured by the thought of the two of them having their first dance, where all the glitz and glamor of Atlesian wealth simply dropped away as the two of them became lost in each other's eyes, endlessly circling in a world without family names or legacies, only the two of them…
Shaking her head, Cinder reminded herself not to get lost in illusions. She was… she was doing this, and that meant she was doing it right. She was no starry-eyed little girl who would simply wish for a Prince Charming to whisk her away to a life of happiness, she was, for good and for ill, an international terrorist, and that meant that she took charge of things. Planning a harem and the ruination of a city weren't that different in that regard.
Rousing herself from sleep, she moved to get herself ready for her day. Today they saw the results of their first gambit, and that meant that the next twenty four hours would be crucial. Showering, getting dressed, making sure her hair and makeup were on point, it was all to give herself the look of omnicompetence that would help carry her to achieving omnicompetence. They were going to win. The Harem Route would succeed. As surely as any of Cinder's other plans were destined for victory.
As Emerald and Mercury woke up and flitted about in their now-cramped quarters, delicately attempting not to disturb any of the boards or stacks of paper as they tried to find their clothes, Cinder opened up the binder and scanned the Gantt chart Ruby had made. She knew what she had to do to stay on schedule, but she wasn't looking at the chart for that. Instead, she wanted to take a moment and appreciate that she was working with someone, for once, who was actually on her level. Nested event chains showing every recourse until only victory was left. This could-
A sudden pounding on the door gave Cinder a jolt of adrenaline that immediately reminded her that there were other parts to being a terrorist than efficient project management. Her hand snapped to Midnight before she realized that this wasn't the violent, pounding knock of an Atlesian Kill Team, but rather, the frantic, wild knocking of a girl she should have recognized immediately.
Getting the door, Ruby practically spilled into the room, making Cinder wish she'd taken a more active oversight role in last night's occurrences rather than keep to her firm "leave me out of this nonsense" stance. Because Ruby looked panicked as Cinder quickly shut the door behind them.
"What happened, did the plan fail?" Cinder asked quickly, her mind running through scenarios where Roman overplayed his hand like an idiot or there was some other miscalculation that now put them in crisis mode.
"N-no, the opposite!" Ruby gasped out, "We succeeded too well! J-Jaune actually saved my team from R-Roman's surprise attack a-and-"
Cinder's eyes went wide at that. Had Roman set that up, or… or was Arc somehow… competent? That didn't sound plausible, but Roman making his own decisions that successfully helped the plan sounded even more implausible. Neither man was what Cinder would consider useful in her plans, but perhaps… like multiplying a negative by a negative, they reversed each other?
"-and they spent the night in Vale! Together!" Ruby finished, making Cinder's eyes go wider. "Yang called last night that they missed the last Bullhead, but Jaune also called Pyrrha! I don't know what's going down in the JNPR dorm, so we are at DEFCON 5, people!"
"You know that's the lowest state of readiness, right?" Mercury cut in, "Cause I am fine with-"
Cinder cut him off as she snapped, "We are in a crisis situation, Mercury, and I do not have time for your 'insights' right now!"
That shut him up in a hurry. But it didn't help the bigger problem, so Cinder took little comfort in it. Ruby's plan for last night had fallbacks and recourses for just about every outcome, but not for one where Jaune succeeded in wooing three very different girls, one of whom already disliked him, so adroitly and by his own charms. Who could have anticipated that? The whole point of Ruby's plan was that he was so hapless!
"I've got a plan," Ruby said, and Cinder hated how she felt a rush of relief to hear it, "But I'm going to need Emerald and Mercury today to back me up-"
"Whoa," Mercury cut in, "I don't know if I-"
"Shut up, Merc," Emerald said, wisely yanking him back before he got on Cinder's nerves.
But Ruby continued, "-and… and I know you said you didn't want to be part of this, but Cinder, I-"
"I'm in," Cinder said without hesitation, "I've made up my mind, I've taken my stance. Ruby, I am going to see this plan succeed."
A smile broke across Ruby's face, and Cinder couldn't deny: it felt good to see it.
"I'll be handling the larger operation and keeping the transition into the full Harem Route managed," Ruby said with a nod, "But you've got the hard part. I can't explain the job here, so you're going to have to trust me, but… I need you to be mean to Pyrrha! Really mean, and you…" she screwed her eyes shut, obviously uncomfortable with what she was about to say, "...and you have to offer t-to… help her get back at my team. Like… being evil-you-like."
Cinder blinked… then realized… she could do that.
"Absolutely," she nodded, knowing that she was now committing herself fully into enacting Ruby's scheme, even if it meant acknowledging words like "evil-you-like." She was in now, and she was in fully.
Giving her subordinates a warning look to not let things slip in her absence, she headed to the door, but not before giving a quick, respectful nod as she said, "I'm on it."
Finding Pyrrha was not difficult. Cinder saw half of Team JNPR at breakfast, the loudmouth looking uncharacteristically subdued as she and her partner ate their breakfast at a tellingly empty table. So Arc had spent the night with most of Team RWBY… the reality of it was starting to set in, a confirmation that this wasn't just some theoretical or notional exercise in wedding planning, but that Cinder had actually stumbled into a kind of polyamory she'd never foreseen before.
But whatever hidden charms Arc evidently had, they didn't cover everything because it was quite obvious why his partner wasn't there. And from the look on Valkyrie's face, the situation was as emotionally turbulent as could be expected.
All the better for Cinder.
Ruby had given her a task with an unstated aim, and while Cinder abhorred being used as a pawn, she trusted—for the first time in years, actually trusted—her to know what she was doing. To know what she was handling. And if she asked Cinder to be mean to Nikos, well…
Cinder knew how to do that.
She was isolated right now, her teammates clearly separated from where she was. Knowing Ms. Nikos, she would retreat into her training to try and handle her frustrations, and her fell mood, alongside the early morning, would mean she was likely the only one making use of the practice hall this morning. Alone and emotional, she would be in the perfect place for Cinder to intercept her and eviscerate what no armor could protect.
Though Cinder had to acknowledge that Pyrrha did seem rather imposing in the practice space. Frustration unleashed upon training robots who might have well been wearing the faces of her romantic rivals from the way she thrashed them. It was a magnificent sight in Cinder's eyes, seeing all that coiled fury held back behind her controlled facade now unleashed in pure, explosive passion…
Cinder could already picture the reception, where all the guests could tell how eager, how impatient she was, her desires hidden behind a facade that had never been thinner as she tried not to show her drive to get on to the honeymoon and out of her dress. But for now, Ruby had a task for her, and Cinder trusted that it would lead to that reception.
"Impressive…" she said with a smirk, seeing as Pyrrha whipped around to see who didn't get the message to leave her alone.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
Cinder kept her posture superior and condescending, but gave her a devilish smile. She was used to this, to finding a person who needed a service more than they wanted to be a good person and then exploiting the weakness that presented.
"I think the question, Ms. Nikos, is about what you want," she began, "I've kept my eyes on the promising competitors, looking for opportunities where my services might be-"
"Spit it out," Pyrrha growled.
Good. Make her think she had some authority in this conversation, that she was the one setting the pace. Cinder could work with that.
"Very well," she said, feigning subordination, "I see you're aware that your partner seems to have found some… companionship. But you don't have to lose hope, there are ways to… remove threats to what is rightfully yours."
She saw the war of indecision on the champion's face. She wasn't a bad person—at least, she didn't think of herself as a bad person—and she knew what the correct answer was in a battle between her desires and her morals. But as much as Pyrrha Nikos was a good person, a dutiful young woman, the girl before Cinder was a warrior, a woman who knew what it meant to seize glory, to take what was hers by force of arm.
"No," she shook her head, "I don't want… I don't want anything to do with… whatever it is you're offering. Thank you for your 'concern,' but I'd rather-"
"He's a man, girl," Cinder pushed, feeling her predatory side leap forward to strike, knowing not to let the deal close before she could take it, "his eyes, his affection, they'll go wherever you want them to go, unless you allow for other women to make their-"
"I said no!" Pyrrha protested.
But Cinder kept pushing, "-to make their move and hold down what could be yours if you only had the boldness to make it yours!"
And now Cinder saw the trap snap shut behind Pyrrha's expression. Her denial was a wall of taboo and mores, firm and inviolate… but never truly tested. Cinder had seen this before, politicians and businessmen who thought they were beyond their vices only to find that combating your desires wasn't a sprint, but a marathon. And Pyrrha's desires ran deep in her soul, even as austere and focused a life as the one she'd led.
Time to go for the kill.
"You're not unreasonable to want what you want," Cinder soothed, massaging the ethics of the situation, "And I can see why you might desire him. Three women…" she darkly chuckled, "well, it's good to see he has some utility, but a man like that can be led anywhere you want him to be led, so long as you know-"
Only to be cut off.
"You," Pyrrha spat, her emerald eyes suddenly blazing with righteous fury, "don't know anything about what you're talking about. You don't know him. You think you can judge him, you think you have him figured out, you think he's simple, but he's so much more than anyone sees. Even… those girls," her cheeks turned pink, "don't know what they have. And if you think I'm beaten… you don't know me either."
Cinder reeled, momentarily taken aback by this sudden burst of loyalty. "What- what do you-"
"I don't need your held," Pyrrha shot back, "and I wouldn't want it. They- those girls- they're my friends, and if they made their move, I'm happy for them, and if there's three of them, well… that's just opportunity!"
With that, Pyrrha whipped around and stormed off. Cinder had a suspicion where she was going.
But as she disappeared from sight, Cinder felt the tension of the room dissipate, and with it, the predatory, devilish persona she had put forward. It was… strange to feel it fall off of her, like an ill-fitting coat. So much of her identity the last few years had been forged by her ability to play this role, to ply good and moral people to indulge their baser desires and give Cinder what she wanted in the manufactured hopes it would get them what they wanted. Only to find that deals with the devil never went how they expected… but Cinder didn't really feel like a devil anymore. Perhaps that was why she overplayed her hand so harshly? Or was that what Ruby was expecting?
Would the plan work? Cinder didn't know.
But she trusted Ruby. Trusted she knew what she was doing, and even if she didn't see the ends of what this step of her plan was… Cinder was willing to let go of the reins and see where it went.
Cinder felt the buzz of nervous energy as she began working her way through the complicated security protocols to patch her into the secret channel that connected the CCT with the Grimmlands. It had to be complicated, yes, for security purposes, but sometimes, Cinder wondered how much of this procedure was just for Arthur's ego. Oh, she had no doubt he'd love to catch her making a mistake and proclaiming her "incompetence" to everyone, but she thought it was even more likely he wanted to force them all into a situation where they needed to ask him for help, for a reminder or a hint of the needlessly, and ineffectively, complicated protocols he made. After all, Cinder knew firsthand that Arthur was willing to neglect his own rigor when it came to his convenience.
But as Cinder finished connecting, she was swiftly greeted by a face she would never get used to. Even digitally transcribed onto the screen, the visage of Queen Salem was unsettling, in some deep, primal way. Something about her pallor, about the look in her eye, it spoke directly to some ancestral, ingrained fear of the Grimm in a way no makeup or CGI could ever achieve. But Cinder also knew that showing a hint of her fear would be a grave mistake, and so she braced herself to disclose none of her internal thoughts on her face.
In a way, it was an advantage she held over Salem. Salem knew her lieutenants were terrified of her (though how they… or more specifically, Tyrian, expressed that primal fear was varied) and she knew they'd be concealing it from her. She took this deception as a given and that gave Cinder some cover she could work with.
That was, of course, assuming that an immortal witch didn't have a more refined method of ferreting out the truth, but Cinder knew anything with Salem was a gamble. You did not do business with the nemesis of your entire species without taking a risk sitting down at the table.
"Good morning, Cinder," Salem began, almost seeming pleasant as she addressed her. A bit like a dotty grandmother who had forgotten that they were several time zones apart and Cinder was currently in the late afternoon, though Cinder knew not to fall for such impressions. Salem was imposing and theatrical in her grand pronouncements, but she wasn't an evil Queen every hour of the day. Rare moments like these, seeing her before a meeting where she offered a basic courtesy, gave an impression that there was a real Salem behind the evil Queen, and that was… unlikely, to say the least.
"Good morning, my Queen," she responded, but now that she had… Cinder started to wonder. She'd thought it was a mistake to read too much into odd moments of placidity with the monster on the other end of the line, but… Salem had revealed to Cinder that she was once human. That she did have a childhood, that she had not always been like this. And that gave… possibilities. And a big one related to Cinder's own thoughts.
She would never be able to rest unless she asked this question, until she knew what she should already be able to guess.
"My Queen…" she began, her voice measured and careful as she lied to the Queen of the Grimm, "I have noticed that the connection between the Deputy Headmistress of Beacon and the Headmaster of Atlas is… more than friendly. And much further along than we had expected. It's possible that they were already married in secret, in advance of this event."
A lie, Cinder could tell that General Ironwood's efforts to court Glynda Goodwitch, while not misguided, were carried out so ineptly that it was almost embarrassing to watch him so utterly misunderstand what Goodwitch found likable in him. But from the way Salem's brow knitted, Cinder had either been found out as a liar, or… or she was seeing what Salem truly felt about matrimony. Something quickly confirmed by her answer.
"Do not put stock that the vows of marriage mean anything, my child," she began, the collared rage in her voice making Cinder's heart nearly stop beating, "A man can pledge anything, can pledge his undying love, and then show you the folly of believing him. Love, Cinder, simply does not last, as much as it might fool those simple or naive enough to be taken in by it. Have you not seen it yourself?"
Cinder winced, knowing she couldn't show her true colors, but fortunately, the question was rhetorical. And better, the rest of her "associates" were now connecting to the meeting, changing Salem's focus before she might pry into what Cinder actually meant when she put down the topic.
Arthur, of course, was a mess of braggadocio and unsubtle posturing that only escaped "pathetic" in the context of Tyrian's open sycophancy. But he was being given the opportunity to hold court under the excuse that he was explaining the specifics of his little computer virus, which was right now downloading across her scroll's connection to be placed into a portable drive for insertion the night of the dance. In Cinder's mind, this was once again a misstep of tradecraft, that the virus should have been directly handed over via physical media, but… Arthur was Arthur, and this way, he could continue tinkering with his "act of genius" even longer rather than having to work on Cinder's timetable.
As his words droned on and on, Cinder glanced at the face of the Queen, seeing only her unemotive, but attentive look as solid as if it was carved of marble. Sometimes, Cinder wondered at Salem's game here, if she allowed this kind of pomposity because it kept him loyal, or sowed the seeds of mind games between her lieutenants, or perhaps if she'd just learned over the millennia that some people are just going to talk. But now, as Cinder saw Salem's utterly inexpressive face watch Arthur's needless explanation of the minutiae of Atlesian security protocols, that sense took on a new tone. That perhaps, across those millennia, Salem had simply… gone too long in a world where there were no deadlines. Where failure didn't really mean a meaningful setback and there was always time to achieve success later. She had as close to an eternity of attempts behind her as anyone in this world could comprehend, and yet… Ozpin had all four relics and at least two Maidens. Every day the world did not cower under Salem's boot, every day the sun rose over a world that felt ordinary, that had no idea of Salem's existence, was another victory for Ozpin's side. In all of recorded history… had Salem ever been winning?
Or had she just engaged in attempt after attempt like this, with a new cast of rogues shunned by society and seeking the vengeance or power or opportunity that Salem offered them. To try and try again, endlessly trundling forward into the thousandth variation to achieve the same goal. And in that light, the deathless Queen of the Grimm suddenly appeared… more pathetic than anything.
But, true to his word, as Arthur finally wrapped up his lecture, but not before glancing at his notes and adding, "And, ah yes, Hazel and Tyrian, you're currently placed in Mistral to best capitalize on the chaos of the evening as well as to use the intelligence shared by our turncoat, correct?"
Hazel gave no reaction, but Tyrian's face suddenly fell as he clearly glanced towards the corner of his screen that held Salem's face, a look of apologetic shame as he mumbled that he'd be in place. And Cinder couldn't lie—it felt good to see that sociopathic little bug squirm. A shame she couldn't smile, perhaps while swirling a glass of fine red wine, as she savored his obvious discomfort. It was something she admittedly couldn't get out of wedding planning: even if she and Ruby were in nefarious conspiracy to bring the bride and groom… and bride and bride and bride… together, a wedding was simply not a place to menacingly sip wine.
Unless one was a newly-minted mother-in-law, but that was outside of Cinder's consideration.
"My faithful lieutenants," Salem began, her voice rolling magisterially and reminding Cinder to focus, "We now embark upon an offensive unlike any other in history. You will enact the first shots of a war to end all wars, to overturn the world entire. And it will be by your hands, by your cunning, your brilliance, your strength, your skill…"
Cinder's scroll buzzed. Now was not the time to get distracted, but the notification from who sent it told her it was worth it. Clicking the message, she saw what she was hoping to see:
"All clear; Arkos is go."
Then swiftly followed by another message that simply said:
"Good work! :P :P :P :P"
"...as Vale burns, all the world shall see the folly of their faith in the security provided by Huntsmen," Salem continued, "and when their champion spills the blood of innocents before the whole world, it will show them who truly protects them!"
But Cinder wasn't listening. She had bigger plans on her mind, far bigger plans than anything this council concerned itself with. She knew who the champion of Vale truly was; she'd already planned her wedding. And on that note…
Cinder promptly selected Arthur's virus on her scroll… and marked it for deletion. It was a hefty program that took up far too much memory that she could be better spending with her true goal at Beacon. And besides… the Dance was coming up, and the last thing she needed was a distraction from that.
As she watched the file vanish, her most absolute and total act of treason against her former allies… Cinder knew she should feel nervous. Afraid. Some level of trepidation for turning her back on the Queen of the Grimm, but she couldn't even notice any of that. She felt free, free and alive and ready…
Looking up from her scroll, Cinder embraced her feeling of power as she looked past the face of the Queen of the Grimm and resolved to achieve her goals.
Thanks to Renarde for feedback on this chapter!
I like to think that Jaune and WBY had separate rooms their night in Vale, which Ruby took as a given when she announced that Jaune had "spent the night together" with her team. Cinder, however, immediately went to a different conclusion from it, and when Pyrrha confronted Jaune about sleeping with the other girls (though trying to be cool about it to spite Cinder), Jaune clarified the point... leading to him noticing that Pyrrha cared a lot about him spending the night with Weiss, Blake, and Yang.
Also, Jaune was able to save WBY from Roman's surprise attack thanks to Neo. An illusionist with experience in misdirection is very, very capable of making her crush look gallant and heroic, and Neo is determined to make herself a part of Ruby's plan whether Ruby's been informed of this or not.