MIDNIGHT

Ironwood watched the footage of Penny falling from Amity and turned his attention towards Watts, who seemed smug. "What did you do?!"

"I did exactly what you asked me to, James." Arthur chuckled. "She's probably just restarting right now, I'm sure your men could easily figure out where she possibly could have landed."

"Sir, it's Monstra, she's getting closer!" a technician warned Ironwood, pulling up the approaching beast on the largest screen in the room. "No… We're too late…"

Ironwood stroked his chin and looked over at the Ace Ops. "We can't risk Penny falling into Salem's hands, I'm going to need you to go out there and look for her." he instructed them.

"Sir!" The Ace Ops all stood at attention.

"That includes you as well, Winter." he added as Winter saluted with the group.

While the General was distracted, Watts carefully reached over to the corner of his desk where a technician had left their scroll and took it into his possession, tucking it into his sleeve just before Ironwood turned his attention towards him. "Arthur, you've done enough damage." he gestured to the soldiers while Harriet walked over as well.

"I'll come with, for this little drop off and catch up with the others before they go, we can't risk this one getting out." Harriet insisted as Ironwood nodded at her thoughtfulness. She began to restrain him with Gravity Bolas before the door into the room opened.

"James, what the hell are you doing to Atlas?!" Councilman Sleet shouted as he entered the room, much to the surprise of everyone in the command center. "Martial Law?! You know, this is the EXACT reason why we have the council, so one man can't call all the shots!"

"Listen, Sleet, this is necessary for-" before Ironwood could get any more words in Sleet continued.

"Don't give me that crap James! The people are scared! What about the Mantle evacuation efforts you approved of?! What about those refugees you shoved into a single building?!" Sleet continued to rant.

"We had reason to believe that they were compro-" again Ironwood was cut off.

"Camilla and I voted against you, and we're sure temporary Councilwoman Hill will agree with us that you're unfit to lead this kingdom!"

Between the visuals of the encroaching whale, the staring eyes of everyone in the room and Sleet's yelling, Ironwood was oddly holding his composure.

"You're finished James, we're taking charge of things now!" Sleet explained as some of the technicians in the room stopped what they were doing at that statement.

Before any more words could be said from Sleet, the sound of a Gunshot echoed in the room, along with the sound of a body hitting the ground.

Ironwood held his White Due Process Pistol in hand and took a single deep breath before falling completely back into his normal composure and turning towards the Ace Ops and Winter who all stared at what he just did in shock. "Resume what you were doing." he stated coldly.

Everyone in the room immediately got back to work.

He then glanced over at the officer who was standing by the door. "Clean this up, and give a warning to Camilla to not interfere with my affairs."

Harriet focused herself on shoving Watts out of the room now.

"James has really lost his marbles, huh?!" the disgraced Doctor laughed as Harriet shoved him harder now.

"Keep walking." Harriet insisted.

Winter, and the Ace Ops remained silent as they made their way to the hangar.

Marrow held a hand over his mouth over what he had just seen, Vine held a regretful look on his face, and Elm clenched her fists.

Winter on the other hand closed her eyes, before taking a deep breath in and pressing the button for the elevator.

"What gives, where the hell's my sword?" an angered masculine voice asked.

"We promise we'll look for it right away!" Drucilla assured the man as frantic footsteps sounded off from just outside of the vents Cinder was hiding in, with a wrapped set of towels.

She waited until she knew the coast was clear before emerging in the storage room where she slept, placing the towels down onto her pillow and sheets. She slowly began to unravel the towels, revealing the missing sword in question that she held up with a smile as the blade reflected her eyes in it, but it also showed the reflection of the man who it belonged to, standing on the other side of the room.

He had long black hair, dark skin, wore a pauldron over his shoulder, which was over his outfit that consisted of a prussian blue shirt covered by a black vest. His pants were a simple black and matched his boots.

"That isn't yours, you know." The man crossed his arms.

Gritting her teeth, the enraged Cinder charged straight for the man, attempting to bring her sword down on him, but oddly he didn't move a muscle to stop her as she slashed at his neck.

Her blade stopped right on it though, rather than cutting it right open as she expected it would. His neck had turned to metal where the sword made contact.

"If you telegraph your moves like that you're never gonna get better." he snatched the sword from her grip, much to her surprise as she backed away from him now in fear. "Relax, I'm not here to hurt you." he assured, getting on one knee in front of her now and offering to let her hold one of his maces, which she hesitantly took and held defensively in front of herself.

"The name's Rhodes, do you have a name?" he asked her.

Cinder lowered the weapon and looked away. "I'm Cinder."

"Cinder… From what I've observed, you haven't exactly been getting the best treatment around these parts." the man began. "Seems as though the hag who runs this place and her brats have you working on a leash…" he reached for her collar now, something that instinctively made her take a step back out of fear. "Relax." he insisted now before she walked over to him and he looked it over.

Examining it, his eyes narrowed at the gem in the middle. "Electricity dust. A real expensive shock collar at that." he then looked her in the eyes. "Do you want to get out of here?"

"More than anything." Cinder declared. "You huntsmen are always so lucky, getting to go anywhere you want. I just thought that if I took matters into my own hands that, I'd be able to do that too."

"You'd soon regret that, trust me." He gently put his hand on top of her head now. "I want to help you, Cinder."

"Why? What do you get out of helping me? You're already free to do whatever you want." Cinder crossed her arms, dropping the mace to the floor.

A smile spread across Rhodes's face. "Because it's the right thing to do. Look, it's likely gonna take me years between jobs to gather enough dirt on this place to get you out of here... "

"Why can't you just arrest them? This collar I'm wearing should be able to prove that they're guilty." Cinder pouted now.

The man simply shook his head. "It's not that easy… Look, I want to get you out of here, but I'm going to need to search for more evidence, such as where they bought that collar, where they found you, and other violations they're likely guilty of. But… I don't want to leave you here by yourself with no one that cares."

His words resonated with her deeply now. "Y-You really mean it?" tears were starting to form in the young Cinder's eyes.

"I mean it." Rhodes affirmed. "How about this, to make up for the fact that it's going to take time for me to get you out of here, I'd like to train you to be a huntress, if that's what you want… How old are you?"

"10…" Cinder answered with a weak smile.

"Well then, we still got plenty of time to get you ready for the huntsmen exam." he offered her a hand now.

She took hold of it and he lifted her up.

The years continued to pass at the Glass Unicorn, Rhodes became a normal guest, his eyes narrowing at any signs of abuse he witnessed from the twins and their mother towards Cinder.

Despite all the hardships she was enduring, the one thing that kept Cinder going every day was Rhodes, whether he was there to directly train her in sword combat, or there to feed her and give her the general support and comfort she had missed out on for many years.

He'd simply sit patiently in his room until it was lights out and invite her into his room, where he'd play cards with her, talk about the missions he went on, even going as far to show off a cool facial scar he got from fighting a really nasty Beowolf.

Madame, Esmeralda, and Drucilla were partially aware of these interactions, but Madame insisted that they be left alone due to how efficient his presence made Cinder, not that it still wouldn't stop her from occasionally letting off some steam on the young woman via some shocking.

"Show me what you've been practicing these past few months." Rhodes insisted to her as she started to swing at him with the two training swords he had given her, the wooden blades colliding with Rhodes's arms that he was using his semblance over.

She then focused herself one more time and the wooden sword heated up with her semblance as she swung harshly with it, catching even him off guard by shattering the sword into splints that started to get all over the room.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Cinder apologized as Rhodes was now picking a couple of splinters off of his face.

"No, no it's fine." he assured her as his aura was already doing the work of closing those wounds.

Cinder handed him a towel while she used one herself to wipe away her sweat.

He smiled up at her when she helped him to his feet. "I have some great news, Cinder. All my digging has paid off. I finally have enough incriminating evidence to free you. We'll be making the arrest later tonight." he explained.

What Rhodes wasn't prepared for was a hug, that he promptly returned. "I told you I'd do it."

When Cinder broke away, she looked him in the eyes. "I didn't have any doubts you would."

Rhodes now stood up, seemingly ready to leave. "I'm going to need you to get your things ready, because once I'm back here with the police, I'm going to take you into custody. Afterwards, it's going to be an uphill battle against the Atlas Foster system, but I think I should be able to win it just fine."

Cinder nodded and walked over to her corner of the room. "Oh, and one more thing, Cinder."

She turned around and was surprised when he had handed her his pair of swords. "I feel like you've earned these."

"R-Rhodes, I-"

"You'll have to keep them a secret for now, I was gonna wait, but I thought I'd give you something to really make your push into becoming a huntress official." he ruffled her hair again before making his way out the door.

In a corner of the room, behind one of the large shelves, Esmeralda smiled, having listened in on the whole conversation.

Cinder was wondering what Madame had called her over for this time, it was only 11 at night right now, meaning she still had some time to kill before Rhodes arrived to finally free her from this dump.

"Cinder, it has come to my attention that you're planning on betraying your own loving family." Madame stated coldly.

"Loving? Don't make me laugh, when have you ever shown me-" almost like clockwork, Cinder was on her knees again, the electricity she was so accustomed to, coursing through her body.

"We ARE your loving family, and we were so worried about you when we saw that you had weapons in your possession." Madame continued as Esmeralda approached now, holding sheets in her hand that she quickly parted a little to reveal the swords that Rhodes had just given her.

"You were always such a bad kid, weren't you, Cinder?" Drucilla snickered cruelly as she watched Cinder get electrocuted more.

"Plotting to murder her own family? Who would even take your word over ours." Esmeralda laughed, dropping the swords to the floor in front of her now.

"You… Know?" Cinder sputtered out as Madame let up on the remote.

"I do." Madame glared at her. "Did you really think we'd let something like that pass?"

"I'd say your life is over, but you never really had one to begin with." Drucilla taunted her now as Cinder reached her hand towards one of the swords on the floor, but found herself getting harshly electrocuted again.

"And what do you think you're planning young lady?!" Madame held the button down as Cinder started to power through the pain now, it was becoming almost numb to her… Numb like she had been all those years before she met Rhodes.

She grasped onto the Handle of one of her swords and forced herself to her knee. "I… Never had a life?!" she asked, glaring at Drucilla, who now seemed scared as Cinder screamed aloud while swinging her sword at the fear stricken girl, blood dripped from the blade now as Esmeralda screamed, falling limp on the ground with a deep gash across her chest.

Cinder's eye focused on the straight haired twin and she caught the girl running, driving her sword right through her abdomen and pulling it out, watching as she dropped to the floor in a puddle of her own blood.

"Cinder…" Madame was mortified at what Cinder had just done to her daughters, she knew her only option was to turn the remote up to its highest setting.

Cinder fell to her knees and screamed aloud, dropping her sword to the ground before grasping at the collar on her neck in spite of the pain and activating her semblance, now not caring about keeping it a secret anymore. Her semblance superheated the collar and melted through it to the point where she could tear it off while the older woman began to back away in fear.

"Please, Cinder! Stop!" Madame cried out, dropping the now useless remote while Cinder walked up to her, grasping at her throat.

"Without you, I AM nothing." Cinder affirmed the phrase that Madame had made her repeat so many times throughout her life as a deranged smile crept up her face, one that would become almost normal for her as time went on.

"But because of you, I'm everything!" she finished as her semblance activated, immolating the woman's throat till she went limp in Cinder's hand and was finally dropped to the ground.

The clock had finally struck midnight, and with it, the Atlesian police, lead by Rhodes entered the place and started looking around. "Where the hell is she?! Do you think someone might have tipped her off about our raid?" a police officer asked Rhodes.

"I wouldn't know… But I think we should be thorough in our search." Rhodes started in the direction of the store room. "You guys would be best starting with the other rooms, interrogating guests. I'm not much of a social guy." he insisted as he neared the door. "I'll check the back rooms." the accompanying police did as he instructed while he pushed the door open.

His eyes widened in shock at the sight before him. The two twins lay dead in puddles of their own blood, while Madame's corpse was laid out in front of a blood stained Cinder.

"C-Cinder?!" he cautiously approached her.

The delirious girl stood up and smiled. "I did it, Rhodes! I don't have to hide anymore! I don't have to pretend to be someone I'm not! I can live the life I want!"

The man's normally stoic posture was gone as his lip quivered slightly. "You'll never be able to, Cinder… Not after what you just did. I'm… I'm sorry." he apologized as he brandished his weapons.

The hopeful look in Cinder's eyes vanished as her eyes narrowed as well while she readied the blood stained swords he had given her just earlier that night.

Rhodes immediately pulled the trigger on both of his maces, shotgun blasts firing from both that Cinder slid under before slashing her blades up at him, he narrowly blocked her strike before slamming one of his maces down in her direction.

She raised a sword up to block it, but found herself shoved backwards while he opened fire on her again.

She narrowly dodged around his gunfire before kicking at a shelf in the room and knocking it over in his direction. He swung his mace at it, smashing it to bits, all of its contents falling to the floor while Cinder had seemingly vanished from sight.

"Cinder… Please, turn yourself over. I promise I won't let them hurt you!" Rhodes pleaded before his eyes narrowed at the sound of movement from the corner of the room. He struck a pot that was tossed in his direction while Cinder moved to close the gap between herself and him.

Rhodes barely turned his neck to metal in time to block Cinder's swords and promptly countered her with a headbutt, knocking her back several feet onto the floor where she landed next to a sack of flour.

"Please, stop… I don't want to hurt you." he pleaded while Cinder pointed one of her swords at him.

Cinder shook her head. "You know I can't do that…"

"If you won't listen…" the man's stoic posture returned to him. "Then I'll take you in by force."

Cinder sped right towards him, slashing at him with both swords, clashing with his maces before backflipping to where she previously was and kicking the whole bag of flour at him, which he hit to the side, resulting in an explosion of white powder.

Silence fuels the deadly cries

While he was blinded, Cinder jumped at him, grasping onto his neck, which he quickly hardened with his semblance.

Ripped apart by knives in lovers' lies

Cinder activated her own semblance to start burning his throat and it worked, until he struck her hard in the gut with the top end of one of his maces, forcing her to let go.

Curse my innocence goodbye

Take my hand then take my life

He panted heavily as the burning from Cinder's semblance had left him unguarded against her next set of slashes that broke his aura, making him stumble back slightly.

Before Cinder could finish him, she was struck in the side of the head with one of his maces and slammed harshly into a crate on the ground, her aura breaking from the impact.

Rhodes fell to his knees, heaving and glancing over in Cinder's direction. "Cinder!" he dropped his weapons to the ground and went to make sure she was okay, but that was the only opening she needed as she took both of the swords he had given her and stabbed him through his abdomen.

His eyes went wide as he put a hand on Cinder's face. All he could do was offer her a weak smile before she pulled the swords out of him and he dropped to the ground.

Blood dripped off the blades now as she started to hear the sounds of footsteps from just outside the room. She knew she had to leave now as her eyes scanned around the room and found an open window. She took her next step forward.

Cinder rather suddenly sat up from the inside of her room in Monstra, holding her head, while Emerald, who was standing by the door, facing Mercury turned back towards her.

"Cinder, you're okay!" Emerald ran over to her, but Cinder put a hand out in front of her.

"Stop." the woman glared at her now with pure malice in her eyes. "Why are we back here?" she asked.

"Well you took a really bad beating from Penny, and this was the only place we could really-" Emerald was cut off.

"I'm supposed to have the powers right now…" Cinder's powers flared up within her eyes as Emerald fearfully backed away. "And you brought me back here?!"

"She would have killed you if I didn't do anything! Everything I've ever done was for you, Cinder!" Emerald shouted at her, bowing her head.

Cinder held her head, remembering that Emerald's so called 'help' only resulted in her defeat. "Well, I don't need your help anymore! I can do everything on my own!"

This response made Emerald's eyes go wide as she took a step back, tears starting to form in them now. "They're right about you… You don't give a damn about anyone!" she ran off, as Mercury wanted to stop her, but took a deep breath.

"I… Didn't mean it like that." Cinder responded too late though.

Mercury couldn't help but chuckle at Cinder's late response. "That's really all you have to say?"

Her eye flared up in his direction now. "Leave me alone."

"I don't know if you got the memo, but… I don't take orders from you anymore." Mercury waved a finger in front of her and tutted.

"What do you mean?"

Mercury shrugged his shoulders. "I take orders directly from the big lady herself. Anyways, I just came here to inform you, you're needed on the bridge. I can't imagine she's gonna take too kindly to hearing about your little stunt here."

"Leave now!" Cinder yelled at him again while he simply walked off and rolled his eyes.

Watts was thrown into his cell by Harriet who closed it behind him and noticed that Qrow was holding Clover's pin. "You know, that doesn't belong to you."

"And you know that he's not guilty for what he did." Robyn defended him.

"Oh that's bullshit and you know it!" Harriet slammed her fist onto the hard light wall between her and Qrow. "He killed Clover! I don't give a damn if it was Callows that did it or not, he was complicit in the murder!"

"James's orders led Clover to his death." Qrow spoke up finally.

That response was the exact opposite of what Harriet wanted to hear. "Oh?! And what would you know about that-"

"I know because I didn't start the fight with him that let Callows loose, and started the whole chain reaction of events that led to Clover getting killed with my weapon!" Qrow stood up, his fist balling up over Clover's pin now. "I didn't want to fight him."

"I tried to de-escalate." Robyn added. "Clover insisted in not hearing us out, even after all we'd been through together. Loyalty is one thing, but throwing all reason out the window for orders is another."

Harriet's anger began to flare up more. "Orders are EVERYTHING!" she stomped over to Robyn's cell.

"Do they matter more than the truth?" Robyn asked now.

Before Harriet could raise her voice even more, Marrow entered the room. "Hare, c'mon we're about to go!"

She calmed herself down and looked Robyn in the eyes. "You're not worth my time. I'll be sure that Qrow's nieces and their friends join you soon." she sped out of the room with her semblance while Marrow just sighed in defeat.

"Well I'd never!" Jacques simply adjusted his tie, earning a glance from Qrow now, given his apparent silence this whole time..

"Oh, and just when this show was about to get really good!" Watts chuckled as he sat up on his cell's bed.

Hazel stood before Oscar with his arms crossed, waiting for his aura to regenerate so he could continue his work.

"Why?" Oscar looked at the ground. "Why do you knowingly work with her to destroy everything?"

"I work with her because she's a force of nature, it's as simple as that." Hazel stated. "You don't think I ever tried to destroy her?"

That response surprised the boy as Hazel cracked his knuckles. "I killed her many times, but she always got back up… The longest she ever stayed gone was a few hours. After I realized how pointless fighting against her was, she made me see the truth, the true enemy that I was foolishly overlooking this whole time. The man who led my sister to his death-"

Before he could finish, Ozpin took control back. "Me…" he looked down.

"Enlisting children to fight in your war is cruel and unjust. But Salem plans to bring about a new world order without huntsmen academies, without fear of Grimm. A world that I know my sister would have been able to live in." Hazel explained as he walked back over. "Now tell me the password to the lamp and I can promise the boy with you won't have to suffer anymore."

"Hazel…" Ozpin looked him in the eyes now. "Someone has to try to fight her… Even if there's no chance of victory, because if she brings all 4 relics together-"

"Ah, Ozma… You're right on time…" Salem smiled as she peered into the doorway. "You're just in time for the show. Hazel, you're needed at the bridge. You're welcome to take our guest with you…"

Salem sat upon her throne, with all of her followers and Oscar kneeling before her. Emerald couldn't stand being in Cinder's presence as she avoided eye contact with the fall maiden.

"We'll begin with good news brought from Tyrian." Salem gestured to him as he stood and bowed. "Our dear friend, Dr. Watts is still alive and well, albeit, in captivity. While in captivity he's managed to seize control of the puppet masquerading as the Winter Maiden. He remains useful to our cause, yet."

Her eyes then narrowed in Cinder's direction as the woman screamed out in agony while her Grimm arm started shaking against her control and smoking.

"You directly disobeyed my orders despite how clear I had made myself." Salem stood up from her throne and walked over to her as she cried out in pain. Memories of her past sufferings coursing freshly through her mind. "Not to mention, you failed again."

Cinder looked up at her with fear in her eyes now. "Mistress, please! I'm sorry, without you I'm-"

Salem hushed her as the pain suddenly stopped. "I've come to realize that this is all completely my fault."

This caused a few raised eyebrows across the room, Emerald had turned herself away, figuring she was about to see something a lot worse than what was actually happening.

"You've fought unwaveringly for your whole life for all that you've wanted, and yet I've been doing nothing but holding you back, instead of lifting you up." Salem offered her hand towards Cinder who nervously took it, and was helped up to her feet.

Salem smiled at the woman, almost tenderly. "Go to Atlas, recover Watts, he'll lead you to the girl."

The Hound notably walked up and sniffed Cinder and growled.

"Whether you, or my Hound find her first, you'll get your power, and I will get my staff…" she smiled in Oscar's direction

"You're only going to help her bring about the end, for all of you!" Ozpin tried to warn them before Hazel slammed him into the ground and held him up before Salem.

"You're already too late." Salem cupped his cheek.

The atmosphere in the bullhead that Harriet was piloting was tense, it was clear that discussion with Robyn and Qrow had struck a nerve, and she was choosing to just hide that by burying herself into her work.

"How do we even know Watts's hack worked?" Elm asked. "For all we know he could have just screwed us all over!"

Vine shook his head. "We had a visual of her dropping out of Amity, she was malfunctioning due to the hack."

Elm kicked her leg onto the ship's floor. "This is why I hate technology, now we're just picking up a pile of scrap-"

"Silence!" Winter yelled from where she was sitting. "You're Atlas elite, act like it."

"Um, guys I'm picking up a comms signal." Marrow stated as he turned it up.

"It's headed straight for Mantle!" Jaune's voice sounded frantic as the sounds of gunfire and fighting could clearly be heard. "A large mass of Grimm, please, if anyone can hear this, we need an evac immediately!"

Jaune cut himself off from his message by slicing the head off of an Ice Sabyr.

"They just won't stop coming…" Ren panted heavily before the light of a ship shined down on them.

The door opened and out leaped the Ace Operatives who immediately went to work in eliminating the surrounding Grimm.

Harriet sped through as many of the Centinels, Ice Sabyrs and Beowolves she could.

Vine simply started securing a perimeter around the trio, tossing any Grimm that got too close away from them.

Marrow opened fire, throwing Fetch out towards a diving Teryx, decapitating it.

Elm pointed Timber in it's rocket launcher form towards the river, blasting it directly and seemingly stopping the spawning Grimm from coming out anymore as Winter pulled her sword out of a Beowolf's torso.

"Great, it's you guys." Yang groaned as Harriet moved fast to restrain her, Jaune and Ren with gravity bolas.

"Now then…" Harriet stopped in front of the three of them. "Where's Penny?"

"Where's Penny? Are you serious, do you not see that?!" Yang pointed herself towards the river.

"People are in danger the closer that gets to the city!" Ren pointed out.

"People are in danger because you kids were selfish and-" before Harriet could yell at them anymore, the ground beneath them all shook.

Jaune glanced over towards the spreading cracks in the tundra… "What…"

"...was that?" Marrow finished his statement.

It was sudden but the Dark liquid the Grimm River was made out of shot straight up towards Atlas.

"N-No…" Winter fell to her knees in shock.

Atlas ships began firing on the sudden eruption of black liquid, but all that resulted was the liquid exploding outwards and spawning various aerial Grimm, ranging from Griffons and Manticores, to Nevermores, Teryxes and flying Beringels.

The wave finally stopped after it spawned in several large Centinels and Sulphur fish that began burrowing into Atlas's base. The smaller ships were distracted fighting off the airborne Grimm that their prior attack had summoned, and the larger ships had trouble aiming at the Grimm without hitting any important structure as they burrowed into the ground around one of the barrier pylons.

Everyone on Atlas could only watch in horror as the pylon dropped from Atlas, disabling a large chunk of it's shield.

Ironwood's eyes widened as he saw this happening.

Blake held Ruby's hand tightly as the drone footage on her scroll was showing this as well.

Salem's face curled into a smile while her eyes glowed brightly.

"It's time." She declared as all of her followers and Oscar watched from the front row as Monstra made it's landing on Atlas from the hole that was torn through it's barrier, landing in the farming fields just outside of its main city limits.

Monstra's mouth opened, more black liquid began to seep from its mouth and out of it came more Grimm of just about every type.

Commentary: As the clock strikes midnight... This chapter is the big turning point for both Cinder's backstory, and the events in Atlas.

For Starters, Jimmy has officially gone extremely off the deep end. I didn't kill Sleet in chapter 1, because I wanted to kill him here. My logic for Ironwood's descent into Madness is as follows: Declares Martial Law Mandates his students do not run from the fight(which contrasts how he was with Beacon in Volume 3), Pushes all the people he suspects being enemies into a single building, likely with the intent to kill them all, works with the Enemy(Watts), and Murders Councilman Sleet for speaking up against him... I hate to tell ya this, but it's only gonna get increasingly worse for him from this point onward...

Now we move onto the biggest chunk of this chapter, Cinder's flashback. Where do I start with this monster of a section? Well the biggest change is how I decided to have Rhodes handle things with Cinder... He's working to get her out of the Glass Unicorn. The biggest issue that really keeps him from focusing all of his energy on that is other jobs he takes between his investigation. He sometimes was gone for months, which pretty much halted all progress on the investigation. I was considering throwing some loose reference in about the Spiders being who provided Madame with the collar, but I decided against it as I felt it'd clutter things too much, even if it was a small reference.

The fateful night transpires as it does in the show, albeit with WAY more graphic detail than we got in the show (seriously there was NO blood in that scene at all, which was weird to me. What? Was Rhodes a prototype for Penny or something? How the hell was there no blood on Cinder's swords when they went through his gut?).

Now, this is where the show ended Cinder's backstory. But I don't quite plan on following the show in that regard. Given how we're likely not going to get anymore backstory for Cinder in the show proper... I'm deciding to continue things. Where it leads to, will be a surprise. But I mean I can only go so far with it...

Ozcar's plan to turn Hazel against Salem isn't all that different from what the show portrays. I am doing something a little clever next chapter, that I'm sure you'll catch onto. Something tying back to Chapter 5.

Finally Salem's assault on Atlas was handled a little differently here(seriously all those ships were just sitting there doing nothing, open fire or something.)

Next chapter, the war's only getting started...