Curiosity Killed The Cat


Blake was not a stupid girl. She may have made her fair share of poor decisions, and she could admit to herself that she might not be the best at reading others, but she was not a stupid girl. Team CEMB—Team Symbol—was quickly beginning to have her on edge. Muttering behind closed doors that halted the moment she arrived. Glares and sneers, barbs and barks traded between her team and that of her former partner in crime. Failures to remember seeing their faces more than once or twice in Haven despite all their strength. Yet, every logical question she'd ask herself was countered by a perfectly logical answer. They knew she liked the quiet. It wasn't as if—besides their sunflower of a leader—RWAY wasn't full of abrasive personalities. Maybe Team CEMB spent most of their time on missions.

She was just being paranoid.

By all means, that should've been the end of it, but she just couldn't get rid of this feeling that something was wrong with these three. Her fellow teammates all had their little quirks: Mercury cared more about people's footwear than the people themselves, Cinder was one of the worst neat freaks she'd ever seen and Blake was quite certain half of the items Emerald returned home with each week weren't bought, but she was secretly a faunus and an ex-terrorist. Who was she to judge others?

The few occasions she'd spent time with her team left her feeling it was more like a family than a unit: mainly through Cinder trying to keep her rowdy 'children' in check. They had a closer connection than her previous team, that was for sure. Maybe, that was why she didn't find herself wanting to get too close to them: it must've hurt them a lot to lose a close teammate, just as much as it hurt her to lose her team. Blake didn't want to replace whoever that was. It wasn't just running away from getting too close... at least, that was what she kept telling herself.

It was the small things, though, that had been getting to her. Like the fact that they'd come here for the Vytal Tournament, yet had never trained together as a full team. Yet every time she saw them fight or fought alongside one of them in combat classes, they battled with ease. Blake didn't have a very high opinion of Hunters and Huntresses, but there was no way that their opponents should've been this weak. Nor should any of Team CEMB have been so easily able to adopt her into tactics that would've been impossible without her Semblance and fighting style.

Like they'd expected her from the beginning.

Yet, no matter how hard she looked, beside these oddities, they seemed like perfect fits for her: realist, capable, older students who knew each other's boundaries—alright, Mercury could use some work—and fought well together. All she truly had to go on was the fact that Adam's team seemed to despise them, as much as they tried to hide it. Only the Schnee would remain cordial enough to speak with them if encountered, but Blake was sure that was because she had more than her fair share practice hiding her disdain of those she disliked. Like faunus.

And what happens when she had the perfect chance to ask: when she and team RWAY were alone together, getting lunch after Mercury's bout with Pyrrha? Awkward fumbling from the redheaded kid, a sense of tension in the air and Adam just waving it away.

"Nothing important," he'd said. Like him looking like he wanted to cut down her leader with his eyes alone was nothing. Like she couldn't see the faint disappointment in Cinder's eyes whenever team RWAY abruptly would move as far away from them as possible whenever their gazes so much as met. Like she couldn't see Yang's scowl at her entire team that vanished the second the blonde realized she could see her, or Mercury's smug little smirks back at them. They were hiding something from her. Everyone was hiding something from her. It was so frustrating! Infuriating, even!

"My, my, I hope everything's alright..." The smooth voice of their leader cut through her thoughts.

Blake took a sharp breath and sat up straight. She hadn't even realized someone else had entered the room, let alone walked all the way over to her side of it. Cinder Fall stood tall and proud beside her bed with a curious look in her eye as the young faunus sat there, hands clutching an open book hard enough to crinkle the pages.

Blake cleared her throat. "I-I'm fine, really, Cinder. I was just... concentrating."

A melodic chuckle escaped Cinder. While she was able to change into her normal attire, Cinder still wore the militaristic, utilitarian uniform of Haven. "It must be quite the story to get you that worked up. You were trembling when I got here."

"It is," Blake said with a forced smile and left it at that, turning her eyes back to her book and trying her hardest to ignore Cinder's piercing gaze just barely visible over it. Cinder was the center of all of that mystery, and it didn't help that she was almost as quiet as she was. Her suddenly deciding to have a chat with her threw up too many red flags.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cinder let out a soft sigh and leaned down. "I'm beginning to get the feeling that you don't trust me, Blake," she said with a teasing tone. When Blake tensed up again, she chuckled. "Don't worry; I'm not upset. Trust is to be earned, not simply given."

"It's not your fault," Blake was quick to say, her eyes darting to Cinder. "After my last team..." She trailed off, then just shook her head. "Nevermind." She could feel her ears trying to fall limp, pulling constantly, uncomfortably, against the bow that trapped them.

Cinder waved it off. "I understand. I also understand why you wouldn't want to ask us." She sat down beside Blake and, though her mind warned her of how strange this all was, her instincts were already soothed by her voice. "After all, 'you start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others,' " she recited.

Blake's eyes widened in recognition, and she smiled. "You've read this, too?" She shifted the book in her hands, The Man With Two Souls.

Cinder raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Oh, don't look so surprised. When I was younger, I spent much of my free time with my face in a book. Though, these days, I prefer the tales of the past. It's... intriguing, really, to see that, often, reality is much stranger than anything fiction could match."

" 'Reality' is often much darker than fiction, as well." Blake let her gaze drop to the floor. "I prefer at least a glimmer of light, in times like these."

"Quite ironic, considering what you're reading," Cinder teased. Blake's book wasn't exactly known for its happy ending. Or middle. Or beginning, for that matter.

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "It's what this one is about that's important to me, right now."

"The eternal conflict between man and beast," Cinder said and tapped her chin. "I'm quite curious, where did you get it from? I know a lot of places stopped selling it after faunus began taking issue with its 'implications' of their race."

"An old friend," Blake responded with a sigh. The news of Tukson's murder still hurt, sometimes. "He wasn't too happy to lend me it."

"Faunus?" The silence was an answer of its own. "Understandable, I suppose. I've personally always taken a keen interest in faunuskind, myself."

Blake subconsciously gripped her book tighter: she didn't like where this was going, but Cinder didn't seem to notice.

"Like I said, I prefer tales of the past to those of fiction, and the history of faunus has been intertwined with humans since the very beginning of civilization... no matter how much one side tries to reject that fact. I sympathize with them, really."

Blake's ears chafed beneath her bow. "I'm not sure if they would enjoy your pity."

Cinder frowned and glanced aside. "No. No, they don't. But, as I said, trust must be earned, not given. Humanity has quite a lot of earning to do: you don't get many friends from oppressing an entire race and scrubbing their history for a single man's words."

Blake arched an eyebrow. That was a new one." 'A single man'?"

Cinder's frown turned up into a smile, and once more that paranoia scratched at the back of Blake's head. "Did you ever notice that, for all the major theories on the origin of man, not a single one theorizes that faunus came at the same time? In fact, there aren't many theories on the origins of faunus at all."

She'd changed the subject. Blake narrowed her eyes. "Probably because it would hurt humans too much to admit that they might be equal."

"Close. I think the reason so much has been done to hide the faunus' history is because, were they to learn where they truly came from, they'd never want to so much as look at another human again. So much has been taken from them..." Cinder sighed. "Have you ever heard of the myth 'The Emerald Cage'?"

Blake frowned. "Cornerstone of 'humanity's burden' to save faunus. I'm familiar."

Slowly, Cinder folded one leg over the other, her smile growing more sly. "Quite the oddity, isn't it? A witch who created the faunus out of the goodness of her heart, fighting against a king who wanted to have them trapped, minds erased by his magical, emerald cage. The faunus reduced to little more than a tool of war and damsel in distress in what should've been their most important hour." Cinder turned to Blake. "Frankly, I think it's true."

Blake twisted to look at her in a mix of offense and disgust, yet was caught off-guard by Cinder's eyes. In those amber eyes, all she saw was the utmost sincerity, absent of the hate or condescension towards faunus she expected.

Her lips parted, perhaps to reject such ludicrous claims. To end the conversation before she said something she'd regret. And yet, as if hypnotized, the words that fell from her lips were instead: "Wh... what do you mean?"

"Every legend begins somewhere, does it not? Through all of my readings, I have found that the Emerald Cage is only an exception in that it has more truth than most. When mankind was on the brink of darkness long ago, a witch scorned by humanity and besieged by Grimm saved the nature she held dear by giving them not just power, but human form. It was the birth of faunus. When the King of Mankind heard of this, he claimed these faunus to be the same as man, and lent his help to them. With their help, the Grimm were forced away from man's borders for the first time." Cinder sighed softly and shook her head.

"But, humans will be humans. The moment the Grimm were gone, the King grew paranoid of the faunus and their beloved queen. He turned on the faunus. The witch had broken the laws of magic, he said, and he demanded that the faunus be wiped out. The King tried to bring the witch to his side, but she refused to listen. So the king took a different route: he fed lies of the witch to his people until they were full of rage, and demanded that any faunus they see be captured in his invention: an emerald cage that would strip them of their aura and turn them back into animals. Permanently. Were it not for the interference of the King's own apprentice, he may have even succeeded." Cinder frowned. "Unfortunately, unlike the myth, it is not a story with a clean ending. The war started between man and faunus never truly ended, only changed forms."

Though she once more parted her lips a few times to speak, it took many seconds for Blake to form a response at all: "I... I don't understand. You're saying that a 'witch' created the faunus, and the big secret to their origin is in a human supremacist fairy tale?" She was caught between total disbelief and curiosity. Normally, Blake would've found herself rolling her eyes over something this farfetched, but she'd seen and spoken to true supremacists. She knew the disgust that would lace their words, the disdain and upturned noses even when speaking 'positively' of faunus. The gleam of hate that never left their eyes. Cinder wasn't like them. Her leader sounded truly genuine. It was something Cinder truly believed in, and her words left her subconsciously craving for just a little bit more understanding. It was too much to take in.

Somewhere in the back of Blake's mind, she knew her acceptance was from how she recalled a time when Adam, even Ilia, spoke the same way about their revelations about the faunus and the scale of their mistreatment. How they held that same tone.

"It wouldn't be the first time a kernel of truth was hidden away in the one place no one would believe it: the enemy's viewpoint. After all, you would know that original war of extermination by another name: the First Crusade."

"That was the faunus finally carving a place in the world, not the humans attacking us!" Blake was so quick to lash out that she never even noticed her slip of the tongue.

Yet Cinder was unfazed, her eyes carrying a glow to them all their own. "The winner writes history. When it became clear humanity couldn't win through strength, the King of Mankind simply decided to rewrite history to fit what he needed." Cinder checked her nails as if they weren't speaking of centuries of beliefs being incorrect. "Wouldn't it be easier to rally hatred if your foe attacked you first? Keep enough voices quiet and only the ones you want heard, and the story of the world can be rewritten as much as you like..."

This was madness. This was against all logic! Yet... why did she want to believe her? Was it because it'd justify her old actions? Another 'revelation' to clutch onto that would let her keep on her current path without questioning it? Or was it just the smoothness of Cinder's tone and that gleam of interest in her eye? Realizing Cinder was staring expectantly at her, Blake tore her gaze from the woman and looked down at the book whose words now seemed so faded and shallow. "... If the faunus were to know about that..."

"They would search for their Queen and humanity, now fractured, would be toppled with ease," Cinder said simply. "It's the exact reason those who know try to hide it."

Blake furrowed her brow. "There are others? That 'Queen' is still alive? How?"

Chuckling, Cinder patted Blake's knee. "In due time, I shall tell you. I'm sure you don't completely believe me, but I'll give you all the proof you need." Cinder's Scroll buzzed, and she flashed a knowing smile. "Later."

She slipped the Scroll out, and Blake could catch a peek at the name: 'M'. "Ah, I have to take this. We'll talk soon, Blake. Just think on it, and be sure to keep an open mind..."

And then Cinder left Blake alone in the room once again with more questions than she had even thought possible. It didn't make sense, but Cinder sounded as though she were talking about interesting gossip she'd heard, not world-shattering conspiracy masked as fairy tale. No racism or ignorance tainted her words. She held no reason to believe this was trickery or malice. It was impossible to hide something this massive, but it wasn't as if the human-run governments weren't well-versed in masking their mistakes.

It couldn't be true, yet how many times had she refused to believe her ex-partners on something diabolical the humans had done, only for it to turn out true or even worse than what they'd said?

How many times had her first instinct been wrong?


"Uh, guys? What time is it?" Yang piped up from the back of the group.

Oobleck flipped out a pocketwatch and squinted. "Approximately five p.m."

"Seriously?" They were dreadfully close to the center of the city now, where the majority of the fighting had taken place. Even this early, darkness strangled even the smallest ray of sunlight: another clear day this deep inside lent only enough light to match nightfall. The streets were almost completely covered in debris, cars were crushed and thrown aside, and jagged metal was a constant menace. The buildings began to canter dangerously to one side, the wind earning groans of strain.

It was like a different city altogether.

A howling wind cut through them, sending shivers down the group's spines. The previous nights' revelations had left the group on unsteady ground. With the feeling of walking through ground where millions died fully weighing down on them, they'd barely spoken a word to one another in hours. Weiss watched her Scroll, the green dot on her map dutifully marking where Penny was held—or at least, so she thought. Though they were now close enough for the blue arrow marking herself to be visible nearing Penny's location, there wasn't a sign of the White Fang. Nothing but Grimm and shadows.

Ruby tried her hardest to ignore the scattered bones that had survived the decades growing more and more prevalent. This was the graveyard of thousands.

Finally, Oobleck stopped. "I am sorry to say, Miss Schnee, but considering the total lack of White Fang activity and the growing danger we will inevitably face traveling this deep into the city's core, I believe that we should consider searching in other districts. The chances that this is a form of trap grows higher with every minute."

Weiss' eyes widened. "I-I am fully trusting in my decision, Professor—"

"Doctor."

"Doctor. I am certain my team would agree that this is the path that will lead to our objective!" She and Oobleck both looked around to the rest of RWAY. Determined, the three nodded.

Doctor Oobleck hummed to himself and adjusted his glasses. "So be it, we will continue until the end of the day and no further! As your chaperone I still carry the executive privilege to bring you out of this region the moment your fighting capabilities are not fit for the threat, so be sure to remember that. You do this at your own risk."

Any prospective reply was quickly snuffed out by a sharp, deafening cawing from above. A giant Nevermore slammed down on the building ahead, eyes like burning coals standing out in the dark as rubble and dust fell to the streets below. Smaller Nevermores circled around it high above, visible as only red stars and glimmers of white against the darkened skies. A last one merely the size of a raven stood on the Nevermore's shoulder, its eyes glowing a distinct, cold sea-green.

"The Grimm they bring to bear are far greater than before," Adam commented as he set his hand on Wilt's hilt. "It reeks of desperation. We're getting close to their base."

Ruby grinned and unfolded Crescent Rose, just glad to get her mind off of the dead and decaying city surrounding her. Suddenly, Yang swept out in front of her, arms raised and her position coincidentally leaving her right in front of Ruby to defend her. Even Weiss had almost imperceptibly shifted to block paths to their young leader, noticed only by the keen eye of a sniper. She groaned.

"Yang, Weiss, I can protect myself, you know! What's gotten into you two lately?"

"Pssh, what? Nothing!"

Adam cringed at Yang's horrid attempt at brushing it off. He realized that telling them anything at all was likely the worst mistake he'd made thus far.

Luckily, Weiss was there to salvage the situation. "Protecting the leader is a viable strategy! Since you have the longest range, we could be your vanguard while you provide supporting fire."

"Supporting fire?" Ruby whined. "I'm, like, the opposite of that! I'm way better with my scythe!"

"Well, yeah," Yang said, "but against the White Fang—"

"Pay attention!" Adam shouted to interrupt Yang before she managed to make it any more obvious. "They're coming!"

Scarcely a second after, the first of many feathers had already begun piercing the ground ahead of them.


"Is that right..." Cinder murmured to herself with a sly smile, having found a nice, quiet little corner of the academy to take her call in. "So, the purpose they forced upon her is even more diabolical than I thought."

"Absolutely," Merlot responded. "This Maiden Protocol is a total override kept hidden even from her. My understanding is incomplete; however, from what I can gather, it allows her to only take commands from her administrator—General Ironwood—and otherwise has her place all priority on her survival. At the moment, however, it does not look like she actually has any of that Maiden... 'magic'." He spoke as if the thought of magic was a curse of its own.

The half-Maiden scoffed. "She was right, after all: the Wizard has lost his way. He'd betray the very meaning he supposedly placed on the title of Maiden just for his own goals, even if he'd have to enslave an innocent soul to do so. How... pitiful." She sighed. "We have what we need. Wipe her memories. Prepare for the next phase of the plan. All tasks at hand have been cleared." Cinder snapped her Scroll shut and took a look around. Though few were near the building she had decided to take her call in, a window let her watch the courtyard outside and the many students hurrying along.

She couldn't wait until she could watch this all burn.


"This doesn't make any sense!" Weiss hissed as she stared down from her perch atop the rubble of one of many buildings. In the city center, barely anything above a single story was left standing, let alone the skyscrapers they were becoming used to, and this was no exception: their new campsite was more a collection of brick and gnarled steel than a true building. They were only a few blocks away from Penny's location now, and not only were there still no signs of the White Fang, but they'd begun to find weapons of the former defenders of the city. Decades-old and no doubt mostly inoperable, but the fact that they still laid scattered and rusting away meant that nothing had come to scavenge for them.

If a hiding army didn't even spare them a glance for spare parts and salvage, there was no way that they could be here. Yet, they weren't struck by waves of Grimm or sniper fire. No attempts to pick them off, no scouts, nothing. Worse, this close, Weiss could see that Penny's location was changing, ever so slightly: someone was moving it, so it wasn't just a Scroll left behind to trap them.

"It makes plenty of sense if we actually are walking into a trap." Adam stepped up beside her.

"Why would they set a trap so far from their base of operations that they would be unwilling to take further resources?"

"Potentially to lure us into a false sense of security. Make us think that they aren't waiting for us after all. Make us think it's genuine. It's not the most tactically sound decision, but Almond's strength was in his combat, not his strategy."

Weiss stared out at the darkness beyond their perch. It was only six in the afternoon, and rather than sunset, it looked more like a moonless, starless night. Almost total darkness laid beyond their campfire's reach. "Do you really think it's just a setup?"

"Perhaps. Either way, we win. Tacet was one of our"—he frowned as Weiss glanced over at him—"their greatest weapons. He died with relative ease. Whoever they have down there, if there is anyone down there, is in no way going to be a challenge for us and the doctor combined. That means we gain information."

The heiress crossed her arms. "And just how do you plan on getting that?"

Adam snorted. "Speaking of Tacet," he began, ignoring her, "just what do you think you and Yang think you're doing? If you think you're clever enough to escape my notice, let alone Ruby's, you must be insane."

"We're trying to be good teammates!" she hissed back. "You didn't really expect us to just sit by and let you handle an issue this sensitive, did you?" Weiss crossed her arms.

"... I'll disregard the slight, if only because you're correct. I didn't. I expected it to be a stopgap measure at least until we could get to Beacon, but I didn't think you two would be as transparent as glass trying to hide it."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, come now."

In response, Adam only motioned back towards their campfire. Yang and Ruby were happily chattering away about something, but it was not the words that were important. It was the grin Yang had that was just a little too wide, a gaze just a touch too intense, voice too happy. She was trying far and away too hard trying not to actually ask about what she wanted to. Worse, when she turned away to grab her canteen, Ruby's smile fell and her shoulders slumped.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby must've caught the two watching, for she bounced right back into a bubbly grin and waved over to the two. Adam nodded to her, while Weiss put on a bright smile and waved back. Ruby's brow furrowed a little, but Yang dragged her back into their conversation before she could think any longer.

"Even Ruby can see through your act." Adam chuckled. "Not like it's difficult, though."

"I wasn't acting!" Weiss growled back. "How would you even be able to know?"

"Because you're never that happy, Ice Queen." Adam walked off to the campfire, leaving Weiss flustered behind him.

"W-what!" She stomped over in pursuit. "I absolutely can be happy!"

"Without a drink or two?"

"Ugh, you are just unbelievable, you know that!"

"That wasn't a no."

"Uh-oh," Yang said with a smirk to Ruby while the two arguing partners sat down. "Sounds like another lover's quarrel."


Ruby couldn't take it anymore. Something had happened, and she knew it did: Yang was getting even more overprotective than normal and Weiss was being so nice that she was starting to doubt her. Even Adam had changed, arguing with the two about something almost every time that he didn't think that she could hear them. It was starting to drive her crazy! She hadn't even gotten anything worse than a scratch against all these hordes of Grimm. In fact, she had the highest score so far! Unless... unless one of them let her have the highest score...

As Ruby tried to scan their surroundings in the overwhelming dark of Mountain Glenn's night during her turn as watch, she found her finger nervously tapping against Crescent Rose. Was it about Oobleck's questions? Did Oobleck tell them something? It couldn't have been her combat skills, so... so...

The night felt twenty degrees colder. Pale and with wide eyes, Ruby could hear her fears whisper to her: what if they knew?

She whipped herself around to look down at their campsite, and swore that she saw their sleeping bags move. Ruby gulped, crouched down at her perch and tried to focus on watching the road through her night vision scope, but it grew all too difficult with her hands trembling. Adam had said that they were starting to press for questions: did he tell them? Yang? Weiss, too? Did Oobleck really know what had happened when he asked her about sacrifices?

But why hadn't they told her? Were they afraid to? Maybe, they thought she'd already changed, that she couldn't be trusted... What if they didn't tell her because they were just thinking of a lie? Like 'we still think you're a good person, even though you murdered someone'?

Ruby stifled a groan and held Crescent Rose tighter to herself. The night was cold, yet she was sweating. After a few hurried looks back at her team to see if they were moving or if it was just an illusion of the dying flame, she jumped up to her feet. Maybe, she thought, just like before, she just needed to walk around. Patrol a little! Focus on anything other than if her team knew she was a killer or not.

Taking deep, slow breaths in a futile attempt to calm herself, Ruby carefully climbed down the pile of steel and stone to the streets. Keeping her scope to her eye was the only way she could see much at all without the light of the campfire. It was dark to the point where she could barely even see herself. At least, Ruby thought, if there really were White Fang creeping around here, they probably wouldn't know she was around until they were right next to her, too. Always being sure to keep the location of their campsite in mind, Ruby crept around the roads and tried to clear her mind.

Instead, a previous question came clawing back: if she were to find someone, if she were to find a White Fang member about to call her or her friends' positions out, even though it could kill them, could she pull the trigger? Ruby subconsciously envisioned a soldier patrolling just like her in a long-abandoned park nary a block away, finger once more twitching on the trigger. She paused. It wasn't subconscious.

There actually was a White Fang soldier patrolling in the plaza ahead! In fact, Ruby noticed, there was a second stepping out from behind some rubble! She all but threw herself behind a rusted car and desperately tried to search for them through her scope again.

"Did you hear that?" Ruby could hear one of the soldiers ask.

"Ignore it," the second grumbled, "it was probably just this city falling apart even more. Can't wait until we're in Vale..."

She followed the two's movement until she realized that they were walking straight towards her. Ruby gulped and made sure to keep her steps quiet as she crept into the wreckage of one of the largest buildings still standing beside her. At the least it was recognizable as one, Ruby thought as slipped through the decrepit rooms in search for a window or a vantage point that'd let her keep an eye on the White Fang without being easily spotted.

Something struck the stone floors behind her.

Ruby spun to face it, but even peering through her scope, she didn't see signs of anyone else. The sound echoed again, and following it brought her to a hallway. Mountain Glenn suddenly felt all too silent as she crept down towards the source. Ruby scanned the rooms, her world restricted to the greens and blacks of her night vision scope. The noise did not come a third time.

She needed her team, and fast. Ruby ducked into a ruined room where she was sure no one could see her and finally brought Crescent Rose down before fumbling for her Scroll in the dark. Silently, she sighed as the dim light flickered on and she dialed up her team.

The sound of something striking stone behind her came once more. She spun to face it, but with only the faintest light emanating from her Scroll, Ruby didn't see the foot flying at her head until it was an inch away. Sent sprawling on her back with both her Scroll and Crescent Rose clattering to the ground around her, Ruby groaned and grabbed at her face. She already felt heat well up in her nose. Old lessons from Beacon shot to her mind as she instinctively rolled onto her side and out of the way of an unseen strike that cracked the stone where she once laid.

Aura pooled in her eyes, trying valiantly to improve her sight just as it did her speed and strength. In almost absolute darkness, even with her channeling a fair bit of her aura into her sight, it barely let her see anything more than a couple feet away from her, but, something was better than nothing.

"Hey, would you look at that, Beacon's actually teaching you brats something useful." her attacker's voice taunted as she pushed herself up to her feet. She could follow him with her eyes as he walked around her, but only as little more than a silhouette. But she could make out silver hair. A confident, sleazy swagger in his step.

"Mercury," Ruby hissed as she held her nose. Her eyes flicked towards her Scroll, then to Crescent Rose. She threw her aura into her Semblance and lunged for her only chance at calling her team, only for Mercury to catch her with a vicious kick to her stomach. While her aura kept her from being wounded, it certainly didn't stop the pain of the strike, nor of being flung into the wall behind her. Red flickered around her, aura standing but still waning as Mercury approached. Dazed from the blow, Ruby looked up just as Mercury casually crushed her Scroll on the way to her, fully extinguishing the light in the room and, even with her boosted sight, leaving her blind.

"All it took was a couple goons as bait and you came running." Mercury let out a snide chuckle as Ruby pushed herself up the wall to her feet. His humor faded. "What a waste."

She felt metal crash into her jaw, the world tilting, then nothing.