The morning sun rose over the side of the mountaintop, spilling light into the meager shelter through a slatted wooden window. Despite the slight increase in warmth within the house, the entire building felt more like a shell than a home. The floorboards were caked with dust and ash, and odd drifts of snow had accumulated in the corners of the rooms. One of the support timbers in the corner of the structure had been assaulted by various weapons during the siege of the mountaintop, and the roof was leaning downward at an odd, threatening angle as a result. There was precious little untouched within the house, and precious little there to begin with. Even so, Cinder found that she would somewhat miss the place in spite of everything.
Salem had informed the young woman that she would be gone for a year or more, and something about the way the witch had made the statement so nonchalantly made Cinder think that or more was quite likely. While she had no love for the people of the mountaintop any longer, the same couldn't be said of her childhood home, shabby as it had become, and a select few places on and around the mountain. There were memories within the walls, from a time before she had been briefly chosen as Arowana's protégé before being dropped in favor of Raven. There were incredible views of the world below from what could be called her backyard, and a distant peak that seemed to cradle the sun between its points as the dawn broke. There was a man standing still as a statue in the corner, simply watching her as she gazed wistfully toward the front door.
Cinder let out an audible gasp and took a step backward as she noticed the figure smiling- rather leering at her from the darkened corner. Only the rising sunlight reflecting off the metallic toe of one of his boots had drawn her attention his way. If it hadn't been for that, she could have left the house none the wiser that she was being watched. If he wanted to, he could easily have killed her then and there. Something about the way he stared through her suggested to Cinder that maybe, just maybe, he did want to.
Tyrian Callows' gaze upon Cinder was what she would have called 'creepy' if asked to describe it to someone who wasn't there to see it. The longer she studied his face, though, the unsettling nature of his expression became clearer. There was something almost sexual in the way he looked at her, tinged with a hint of manic glee. While others would potentially undress her with their eyes, Tyrian was dissecting her, and Cinder could quite easily imagine the man standing over her while she was strapped to some sort of torture rack. He would giggle to himself choosing what tools to use and where in her flesh to bury them. It was easy enough to visualize that the mental image caused her to shudder, especially when she noticed that he seemed to be staring at her covered breasts.
As Cinder turned to the side, she realized that her analysis had been partially incorrect- turning away only served to increase the intensity of Tyrian's gaze. It was then that she realized he wasn't fixating upon her chest at all- he was actually looking at her arm. The faunus' slow, almost calculated breaths seemed to match the gentle pulsations within the grimm material. Though she hadn't felt pain within the sinewy faux muscles since right before her last encounter with Salem, Cinder found that she would have much preferred that sensation over the sick feeling that Tyrian's covetous eyes gave to her.
"Simply magnificent…" Tyrian said quietly, still unmoving bar the scorpion's tail emerging from his back. The hooked tip gently scoured patterns into the wooden floor of the house as he lazily circled it beneath his feet. "Magnificent, and utterly wasted…"
"How long have you been standing there?" Cinder demanded as she took another step backward, shifting to the other side to let her natural arm face the faunus. His disappointment was obvious and immediate. "Are you stalking me?"
"In a sense," Tyrian answered. "I do tend to stalk my prey before the exhilarating kill… or those who interest me."
"Nothing about you interests me," Cinder retorted as she grabbed the shoulder bag she had packed for herself from the nearby wooden table. "I would rather be going to Mantle with anyone else here."
"You and me both," Tyrian replied as he pushed forward off the wall and began to step closer to the young woman. "And perhaps that's the point. You interest me because you're such a failure. Such a waifish, petty, illegitimate little girl."
Hot anger bubbled in Cinder's chest as she pulled the drawstring on her bag tight and slung it up over her shoulder. A simple 'fuck you' was at the tip of her tongue, and yet something caused her to hesitate. There was a far more effective jab that floated to the forefront of her mind as she glared hatefully at the faunus, and it was venomous enough to cause her to settle back into a gentle smile not unlike the one she had while looking over her former home.
"And yet, despite all that, Salem saw fit to bless me with her gift of grimm while the only gift she's given you is lifting her feet to allow you to lick the soles at every given opportunity."
No amount of rising sunlight could truly brighten the room when Tyrian's shift in expression darkened it so completely. There was a moment where Cinder legitimately feared for her life based on the look in his eyes. She had a feeling that there would be many more, especially when her back was turned in the coming months.
"When we succeed in Atlas, I will be rewarded in a way that will put your new limb to shame, little bird."
"My name is Cinder," the woman seethed. "Sparrow is effectively dead. This is a new life. A rebirth."
"How quaint. You fancy yourself a phoenix?" Tyrian mocked as he raised his hands, letting the fingers dance to echo flickering embers. "Rising from the ashes of her pathetic childhood to soar above us all? You're merely the new blood and flying too close to the sun. I'll be watching. I'll be waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Cinder snapped. "An excuse to turn on me? Salem wouldn't like that, you know."
"Unless you give me reason," Tyrian said, his manic grin back in place. "And I'll be watching very. Very. Carefully."
"And maybe I'll do the same," Cinder threatened. "If I determine that you're a threat to progress, I won't hesitate to cut you down. In fact, I might enjoy it as much as you would enjoy killing me. I don't see what she sees in you, either. Hazel, I can understand. His semblance, size, and straightforwardness are qualities to be admired. Leonardo…"
"…you cannot think me lesser than Leonardo," Tyrian said plainly. "No matter how much you may claim to hate me."
There was a brief silence in which the two stared at each other.
"…I can't," Cinder agreed. "I really can't, as much as I'd like to…"
Tyrian's manic expression settled a bit, turning to something closer to a genuine friendly smile.
"At least we can agree on that. I would enjoy skinning him."
"Little too far there for me to agree," Cinder replied as she walked past Tyrian and headed for the door. "I'm not a fan of flaying people alive. I'd rather just kill them and move on."
"Your loss," Tyrian said as he followed, using his tail to pick up his own bag from the corner where he had left it. "Are you finally ready to leave?"
"…did Salem give you a timetable?" Cinder asked as she walked out into the sunlight with a small shiver. "Or can we linger here a while longer?"
"The longer we delay, the longer we're away," Tyrian answered in a singsong voice. "Keep that in mind."
Cinder couldn't help but roll her eyes as she walked around the house and toward the edge of the sheer cliff face in the back yard. She took a long inhale as she looked out over the vista, only to see the sun rise between the rocky points in the distance. It would be the last opportunity in a while, and she had no intention to let it go to waste.
"That may be true, but some things shouldn't be rushed," Cinder advised. "And while we're on the subject… you said Atlas before? Salem said we'd be destabilizing Mantle."
"Well yes- can't do one without the other, and it makes sense to work our way up the chain," Tyrian explained. "We begin in the lower city. Skirt around the edges, trace our way through the arteries and veins of the downtrodden, slowly injecting venom along the periphery…"
Suddenly, Cinder felt an odd sensation along the small of her back. It was a pinpointed, deliberate pressure, and as it slowly dragged upward, she realized that she was feeling a stinger pressed up against her clothing and working its way toward her neck.
"…and then, when it's too late… we'll move to strike with every possible advantage."
Cinder could feel the venomous point resting at the base of her skull. She did her best to merely keep breathing, acting as though she was blissfully unaware of the sensation as she focused on the horizon line.
"Well of course. We're not taking on the twin cities half-cocked. Do we have a contact established in either?"
"Supposedly," Tyrian answered. "We'll be given details upon our arrival."
"…so she doesn't trust you enough to tell you directly. That must grate at you."
Cinder regretted the words the second they left her lips. A hand automatically moved toward one of her sheathed swords, but she knew she would be too slow if Tyrian decided to push his tail forward. Fortunately for her, the sensation let up as the faunus withdrew the limb instead of using it with deadly efficiency.
"The less links in the chain, the less opportunity for mistakes," Tyrian explained icily. "We will know at the same time. I do appreciate you keeping the antagonism between us going, though. It's far more entertaining than bitter silence."
"You want me to constantly deride you and spark up a rivalry?" Cinder asked as she turned to face Tyrian.
"Hazel won't engage or indulge me in any capacity, and Leonardo would sooner soil himself than return a single barb," Tyrian lamented as he checked over his nails. "That leaves you. Perhaps your value is in your venom. Another thing we share. This could be entertaining after all…"
"…you're a strange man," Cinder accused. "I can't tell if you're messing around for your own amusement, or if you seriously wish you could run me through."
"Well, not knowing is half the fun, is it not?" Tyrian asked rhetorically as he stepped beside Cinder to fully face the sunset. "Quite the view from the top."
"And nowhere to go but down," Cinder returned. "Take that as you will."
"Already taken. Our transport awaits at the bottom of the mountain. I'm sure it's something incredibly impressive."
"…are we the B Team, do you think?" Cinder asked as she looked over at Tyrian. "Salem sent Hazel and Leonardo out first…"
"Heavens, no," Tyrian replied immediately with a wave of his hand. "They were sent to Mistral, and we're being set to Solitas. Solitas is where things happen- where the faunus rights protests are reaching a boiling point, and even minor shifts could cause seismic waves. We're the A Team. Besides… Leonardo."
"The presence of Leonardo would indeed suggest that we're the A Team," Cinder agreed. "I suppose you have a point. Are we walking down the mountainside?"
"You might be," Tyrian answered. "I have no intention of doing so. See you at the bottom."
Without another word, the faunus opened a portal in the ground and slipped through it, disappearing entirely from Cinder's line of sight. She did a frantic sweep of her surroundings before seeing a similar portal open far below.
"…self-centered asshole," Cinder muttered as she wrinkled her nose. Suddenly, her grimm arm began to ache in a whole new way and she gripped the artificial biceps with an annoyed grunt. "Why now?"
The sensation was a far cry from the usual burning- it was a tightness that could best be described as a pulling sensation, as though her entire arm had become a divining rod and the cliff before her was water. It didn't take her long to figure out what her arm was trying to tell her, and she slowly flexed her claws as she considered the notion.
"I supposed there's only one way to find out…"
With one final, deep breath, Cinder threw herself over the edge, ready and eager to test the limits of her limb as it extended to nearly double its length.
Author's Note:
And then she fell and fucking died.
The End.
-RD
