Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
"Jack! Gus! Mary!"
Ella dashed through the night, through the broken streets of the Lower Ring, the pale shine of the shattered moon offering her no providence or comfort. She ran from the shadows, ran from the flames, ran from the flash of silver light that had left her father—
No! No, no… the hag. She'd tried to protect him from the hag. She had killed him. She had killed him.
She was going to kill her. Her dogs were on the hunt.
She needed to get away! She needed to get away!
"Jack! Gus! Mary!" Ella wailed again, stumbling over into their traditional park.
She frantically glanced over the ruined playground. They had to be here. Her friends had to be here! She needed help! They were a team! They helped each other! They were the only ones who could help her—
"Ella?"
The young silver-eyed girl whirled towards, breaking out in tears at the sight of her friends. She staggered to her feet and ran towards them, only for her exhausted legs to slip out from under her. The trio of mouse faunus gasped and immediately dashed to her side, helping her to her knees.
"What are you doing here?" Gus asked, glancing over his friend's shivering legs.
"Do you know how late it is?" Mary demanded. "There are HH members all around! If they find you—"
"Hide me!" Ella pleaded. She reached out and grasped at Jack's baggy shirt. "Please, you have to hide me!"
"Wha—what are you talking about?" Jack responded, his eyes wide with confusion. He took hold of the silver-eyed girl's shoulders, calming her trembles. "Ella, you're shaking. What's wrong?"
"She can tell us later. It's not safe for her out here. For any of us," Mary reminded them all, the distant torches of the Hunters for Humanity's rally visible through the cracks of the faunus slum. "We need to get her back to the Upper Ring. Whatever's going on, I'm sure Mr. Autumn or Ana can help—"
"No! We can't go there!" Ella screamed. She gripped tighter onto Jack and threw her tear-stained face into his chest. "Dad's… Dad's gone…"
"Wha… what?" Jack stammered. "What do you mean… gone?"
"Ella!"
The silver-eyed girl froze, her shivering quailed as terror blanketed her face. The dogs had found her.
"Ana?!" Gus called back into the dark. "Ana, she's—"
"Gus, quiet!" Jack hissed, smacking the other boy upside the head.
Gus moaned, rubbing the back of his head. "What was that for? Whatever's happened to Mr. Autumn, Ana can keep Ella safe."
"No… no…" Ella stuttered, fear and terror paralyzing her mind. "The hag… the hag did it… the hag…"
Jack and Mary shared a look at their friend's broken speech, neither eight-year-old sure what to do. They'd heard her talk about her stepmother with disdain and anger so often, and now to have it combined with such blind panic?
But they had to understand. They had to! They were her friends! They were the only ones left she could count on!
In the end, Jack passed her to Mary and the faunus girl pulled her friend into the shadowy wreckage at the edge of the park, hidden behind the rotting door of an old shed with the glass shards of its broken window at their back. In the meantime, the leader of their band turned himself and Gus towards the darkness to await the imminent new arrival.
Sure enough, Ana ran in from the streets a moment later.
"Jack, Gus, thank goodness I found you," the redheaded Tremaine said. "It's Ella. She ran out of the house and we have no idea where she is."
Gus opened his mouth to speak to the older girl who they'd played with, who'd taught them fighting moves and unlocked their auras, but Jack clasped his wrist. The glutton of the pair glanced at his friend but managed to hold his tongue.
"We haven't seen her," he said. "We haven't seen Ella since you guys came down the other day."
"There are Hunters for Humanity all around," Jack added. "Ella would never come down here this late."
"Jack, we both know she would," Ana panicked, terror blanketing her face. "Please, have you seen anything? Do you have any idea where she'd go?"
"Not a clue," Jack lied. "If anyone would know, it'd be Mr. Autumn."
Ana paled, glancing away as tears pricked from her eyes. "Jack… dad's… something's happened to him. Ella ran when she saw and… she's not in her right mind. Please, we need to get her home."
Ella peeked out from behind the wrecked shed, watching Gus look to Jack. And watching Jack shoot a furtive, worried glance back at her hiding place.
"No, no," Ella whimpered. Ana had weaseled her way into all their hearts, unlocked their auras. Not to mention Jack had a thing for redheads. If he thought she really was just trying to help…
He couldn't think that! He couldn't think she was hysterical! He couldn't believe that liar's tears over her—
"She's over there, isn't she?" Ana said, easily having followed Jack's attempt at a sneaky look.
Ella's eyes widened. No… no… her friends had thought about betraying her, just for a moment. They hadn't done it, but they'd still doomed her. Failed her.
The silver-eyed girl broke free of Mary's gentle hold and ran for the shed's opening. But that opening was soon closed as a familiar figure rose up from the shadows of the night.
"Ella, we're not going to hurt you," Drizzella said, holding out her hands as if her stepsister was a spooked horse. "I know what you saw. I know how terrified you must be. But you're safe with us."
"Safe?" Ella barked, madness flooding her at the absurdity. "Safe?!"
"If you trust us, trust that we have orders," Drizzella pleaded. "We have orders to bring you back, safe and sound."
"Orders?" Mary squeaked, her eyes squinting suspiciously at the more unfamiliar Tremaine sister. "What do you mean orders?"
Drizzella's gaze shifted to the faunus girl, terror flashing through the twelve-year-old's eyes as she realized her mistake. Unfortunately, she also provided an opening.
Ella threw up her aura and rammed her hand through the shed's broken window, snagging a jagged shard of glass and leaping for her stepsister.
Drizzella reacted instantly, crossing her arms and just barely keeping the Autumn girl from striking her. The glass shiv was halted barely a millimeter from the Atlas killer's cheek.
No! No! She would not be taken! She would not let this bitch take her! She needed to hit her! She needed to kill her!
Something happened in her aura. A great heat rose in her palms, ignited by her animalistic urge to kill. Her glass dagger lit up a molten orange. Drizzella screamed, steam rising from her arm blocking Ella's strike, only to howl as the break in her defense allowed the glowing shard to tear a jagged gash down her cheek.
"Ella!" Mary shouted, leaping out to step in front of her friend. "What are you—gah!?"
A gunshot sounded through the night, and the young mouse faunus fell. Ella's eyes widened, a spurt of blood flying from her friend as she hit the ground.
She whirled around towards the source of the shot, her gaze landing Ana, her trembling hand dropping her pistol to the ground. The redhead's eyes were locked on her injured sister, tears misting over the yellow orbs.
"I… I… just wanted to shoot the dagger," she stuttered. "I didn't mean… she jumped in the way…"
Ella didn't hear any more, and not just because Jack and Gus immediately jumped on the older girl, their hesitance eradicated by the death of their friend. But she knew their spirit would come to nothing. The dogs had been committed enough to their façade of peace enough for Ella to slip in a blow with that sudden heat from her aura, but the element of surprise was gone. Drizzella was already rising anew, the wound on her face solidifying into a crooked scar.
Ana was only caught off guard a moment, and then she threw Jack and Gus into the dirt. Ella knew what would happen next, knew what would come. She would kill them, she would kill her friends just like the hag had killed her father.
The hag had killed her father. The hag killed her father.
She had to protect them. They had failed her, but she had to protect them. They had failed her, but they were precious to her.
The hag killed her father.
Silver light filled her eyes. Ana noticed the glow, fearfully disappearing in a flash of her semblance. Leaving only Jack and Gus in the way.
The hag… the hag had killed her father…
The silver light of her eyes erupted.
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Mercury had forgotten what it was like to feel with the soles of his feet. The pressure sensors of his prosthetics had kept his nerves informed so he could keep his balance, but it wasn't the same. As he strode across the smooth obsidian floor of the castle's training ground, he nearly trembled as the rush of cold tingled over his fresh flesh, spiking its way up the nerves of his new legs.
All these years since his dad had taken them from him, now they were just… back. All his training, and it was his brutal defeat at Haven that restored his second greatest loss to him. He hadn't taken them with his own hands, he hadn't suffered more agony like with the Ascension Chamber. He'd just gotten lucky.
Among all the warring emotions churning within him, the helplessness of that thought sparked a blaze of rage within him. He remembered Salem's words that the Ascension wouldn't return his legs, but she seemed to have withheld a fair bit of context! All he'd needed to do was die and he could have had them back before Haven, could have removed the weakness that Yang used to beat him—
Pain erupting in his head like a dying star.
No body, no feeling. Screaming into a void that he couldn't even hear.
Powerlessness.
The flame of fury flickered out. Mercury staggered over to the wall of the arena, panting as a sudden sweat dribbled down his forehead. No… no, he could understand Salem didn't consider him purposefully dying to reclaim his legs as an option. Hazel was a hundred percent correct about the void "not being an enjoyable experience". Freaking understatement!
But why had he ended up there in the first place? Why had he lost that fight? Yang, Blake, that Ren guy, none of them had suffered like he had. Sure, they were strong, but he was stronger! He'd been taking on all of them at the same time no problem! He hadn't made any mistakes, so why had he died—
"How are they?"
Mercury roused from his thoughts and whipped around towards the entrance to the arena, towards the uncharacteristically gentle voice of his former boss. His eyes narrowed as Cinder, her dress now a subdued black and gold instead of her usually resplendent red, walked into the room.
"Unless you want to try to play chess again, you're in the wrong room," he dismissed her. "Salem took Emerald to the other training room for Maiden 101."
"I know. I can sense the… her new power," Cinder replied, surprisingly not livid at his disrespect. "I actually came for you. I wanted to see how you were doing with your new legs?"
Mercury gritted his teeth and propped himself up from the wall, trying to put more weight on his new legs. He would not trip over his own feet like he did in Hell's Core. He would not give the Gate of the Archer more ammunition to mock him with. He would not be weak.
"They're fine. Fine and dandy," he spat. "Perfect for an up jumped cutthroat with daddy issues like me."
Cinder winced, biting her lip as she looked away. "I'm sorry."
Mercury's face squirreled into a bamboozled look. "You're what?"
"I'm… sorry," Cinder managed. "What I said back at the gardens was said in anger and I regret taking that anger out on you. I was… concerned about letting anyone learn about my past."
"Uh… okay?" Mercury responded, unsure of how exactly he was supposed to react to this.
He'd noticed that Cinder had lacked her usual overconfident stride when she'd come in, but he'd assumed she'd just been reeling from Salem's ruthless dressing down or whatever lesson her vaunted Teacher had followed it up with. But now an apology? The Queen had had to chaperone her to get her to call him and Emerald equals. Had Hell's Core really brought him back to life or dumped him in some bizarro alternate universe?
"Why are you here?" he asked.
"I wanted to apologize," Cinder said. "I acted rashly before, but I want us to be able to move past that. As friends."
"Friends…?" Mercury repeated, his incredulity palpable. "No, really, what game are you playing?"
"No game," Cinder insisted. "Is it so strange that I want to salvage our relationship?"
"Our 'relationship' where you either use me as a minion, insult me, or both?" Mercury snarked.
Cinder sighed. "I had hoped to improve upon it somewhat."
Mercury blinked at her unamused. He turned his back and started staggering his way towards the door. "Yeah, no. I'm not Emerald. You want someone to like you for your pretty face and not being a bitch for five seconds? Bark up another tree."
"You lost."
The silver-haired assassin scowled, whipping back to glare at the still calm Gate of the Archer. "So did you last I checked. Erza Scarlet kicked your ass."
"Not alone," Cinder argued. "If she hadn't had Nikos and Branwen helping her, I would have won that fight."
"And then Salem would have taken more than just your maiden powers," Mercury taunted. "Besides, doesn't matter if she had help. 'The great lie of chess', remember? Conditions are never fair. The only thing that matters is that you lost."
"Precisely."
"What?" She was insulting him a second ago, why was she agreeing with him now?
"By all logic, I should have won my fight at Haven. And so should you. But we didn't," Cinder said. "We're Eclipse Etherious. We have more raw power than any Fairy Tail wizard and we're hardly lacking in the skill or tactics to use it. But we keep losing nonetheless. Why?"
Mercury frowned, unwilling to admit that her pondering mirrored his own earlier thoughts. "I don't know. Maybe it's the 'Power of Friendship'."
"Exactly."
"I was being sarcastic."
Cinder ground her teeth against each other before letting out a strained breath of air. "I am aware. I am also aware of how ridiculous it sounds. But if we are equal or superior in every other factor, there must be some unknown that is allowing them to constantly defeat us. And, as ridiculous as it sounds, perhaps it is the fact that they genuinely consider each other friends."
Mercury rolled his eyes and started walking away again. "And maybe there are unicorns in Vacuo that shit gold. I make my own way. I don't need… well, I do need magic, but real magic. Not meaningless sentimental crap."
"How well has that been working out for you?" Cinder challenged.
Mercury bit back a retort, scoffing to the side.
Cinder sighed, throwing a calmer, almost emphasizing look over her face. "What was it like for you? The void, I mean."
"It… it was…" Mercury gulped, slapping his hands over each other to silence his trembling.
He couldn't finish. He couldn't think about that place, that horror. He couldn't…
He was strong. He'd suffered so much, trained so hard. Why had he lost? What the hell was he supposed to do?!
A gentle hand clasped atop his shoulder. He glanced up to find Cinder looking down on him, her golden eyes, for once, soft and caring.
"I spent years, decades, in the Vault of the Spring Maiden, burning in the sun without food or water. Then I went there and…" Cinder mumbled, unable to keep a shadow terror from her face. "I understand your reservations about this plan. Neither of us has good experiences relying on others. But neither of us wants to keep losing either. The Queen is bringing Fairy Tail into the fold, and if we cannot keep up, we will be cast aside."
"Cast aside?" Mercury cocked an eyebrow. She did remember how furious Salem was with her, right? If she was going to be 'cast aside', it would have been then.
"Yes. Left alone, with nothing," Cinder continued, apparently not recognizing his incredulous tone. "But the two of us are survivors. Evolving, adapting, it's how we've gotten this far. And I'm sure that, together, we can do it again."
For a long moment, Mercury stared at her. The woman who'd recruited him as a terrorist when she'd happened upon him standing over the corpse of his assassin father who he'd murdered, was now trying to ask him to be friends. Genuinely be friends. Really, there was only one appropriate response to something like that.
"Pha! Hahahaha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!"
Cinder frowned, confused. "What's so funny?"
"What's so funny? What's so funny?!" Mercury managed through his peaks of uproarious laughter. "You! Trying to give a friendship speech! What, did you practice this thing in front of a mirror?"
"I didn't—look, do you want to try to be friends or not?"
Mercury threw off her hand with a shove, staring her head-on with a mocking smirk. "Oh please. You really think I'm dumb enough to fall for this? You don't make friends, you make minions."
Cinder's eyes narrowed. "That's not what I'm trying to do—"
"That's all you do! You manipulate people. It's what you do. No harm in it, Emerald and I are the same way," Mercury noted. "But don't try it on me. This little pawn's reached the back of the board and levelled up."
Cinder tilted her head. "You actually remembered the rules of chess?"
"Yeah. I know the game you want to play," Mercury shot back. "And there's nothing in it for me. I may have lost, but the boss lady's made it clear that you're the only one in hot water. So I ain't sticking my neck out to help make an 'accident' happen to Emerald."
"I'm not trying to do anything to Emerald!" Cinder growled. "I am at peace with The Queen's decision."
"Ha! Yeah, right!" Mercury cackled. "You know your days are numbered now that Salem's real favorites know the score, so you're trying to manipulate your way into security. What, did your precious Teacher kick you to the curb already?"
"Don't you dare!" Cinder snapped. "Teacher would never… she would never abandon me."
Mercury smirked. "And if you'd been able to finish that sentence, I might have believed you. Then you'd have fooled one of us."
"Rraaggh!"
Emerald sparks flashed over Cinder's body, her curse boosting her muscles as she blitzed forward. Mercury's eyes widened as the air was suddenly blown out of his guts, the silver-haired cracking against the wall as he was sent flying.
He managed to harden his body by the time he hit the ground, but by then the Gate of the Archer was already on him again. Between her aura and enhancement, he was barely able to react to her speed and he felt her blows even through his armor, quickly giving ground to the former maiden.
Mercury threw out a kick in an attempt to gain some distance, smirking as Cinder dodged back from his leg, gleefully anticipating the wind dust bullet that would blast her in the stomach a second later.
But no shot fired. The silver-haired Gate was confused for a moment before he recalled that his new legs didn't have guns built into them.
Cinder snorted, obviously coming to the same conclusion. She charged his now off-balance defense and rammed him against the wall, her elbow pinned into his neck. She raised her opposite hand, the molten glow of her Scorching Caress semblance growing in her palm in front of his face.
"Poor little Mercury. So used to being broken that you have no idea how to be whole," she mocked. "I deserve the maiden powers, but I don't need them. I don't need you. I am strong. I am powerful! And if you want to decline my generous overture, then you are free to be a stupid, little—"
"Cinder!"
Mercury didn't recognize the new voice, but the way Cinder instantly paled at its words gave him a pretty good idea who he was dealing with. The Gate of the Archer immediately released him from her hold and whirled towards the arena entrance, her back both ramrod straight and completely exposed to her opponent.
Standing at the door, Yang right beside her, was a woman in a white cloak with golden eyes and a face that kind of resembled Ruby of all people. The power of the Winter Maiden flooded out of her as she fixed Cinder with a distinctly displeased glare.
"Wow, 'sis'," Yang droned, glaring at the former Fall Maiden. "I thought you were just a psychotic megalomaniac, but I guess you really are a sensitive flower at heart, aren't you?"
The Winter Maiden slumped slightly with a sigh before she glanced at Yang. "Firecracker, can you please stay with Mercury for a moment? Cinder, a word."
Cinder gulped. "Of course, Teacher."
The Gate of the Archer spared an awkward, almost fearful glance at Yang before shuffling out behind the older woman down the hall, in for a scolding. Or worse.
Meanwhile, Mercury cracked a cocky grin at the Devil Slayer. "Hey, blondie. Long time no kick your ass."
Yang responded in kind. "If you're feeling nostalgic, handsome, I can always blow your head off. No reason to let Ren have all the fun."
"Cute," Mercury snipped, stretching to relieve himself of some of the ache from his fight with Cinder.
Yang cocked an eyebrow at his lower half. "Since when do you have actual legs?"
"Since when do you call Cinder 'sis'?" he shot back. "You know Teacher or something?
"She's my mom."
Mercury blinked. "… seriously?"
"Seriously."
"So you and Ruby really are…"
"Yup."
"Wow," Mercury remarked. That was another point for his bizarro universe theory. "You have my pity."
"Thanks so much," Yang deadpanned. "Mom asked me to tolerate her."
"You must really love your mama."
Yang glared at him. "You know about her past?"
"The basics," Mercury shrugged. "Why? You really care if poor traumatized little Ella Autumn is buried deep down inside under the mountain of corpses from The Fall?"
Yang pursed her lips and scowled. "No. Horrible shit happens to everyone. Doesn't make her any better than any other worthless piece of crap."
Mercury frowned. "A worthless piece of crap that your mommy loves."
"Mom blames herself for every cat she can't save from a tree," Yang sneered, brushing him off. "I guess that's family for you. She'd give anything for someone she loves. Even someone who doesn't deserve it."
Mercury's eyes narrowed at the blonde. It was strange. He had no love for Cinder. More often than that, he found her annoying, threatening, or just a whiny brat. If he could benefit by kicking her ass, he would shine his boots and get to work. But hearing Yang dismiss her suffering, suffering she had never asked for, as meaningless… it stirred something within him. Something he didn't completely understand. A prick of… anger?
Maybe it was just his own issues. After all, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that Cinder would slit his throat in a heartbeat if she could gain something from it, but as he'd noted back at her dad's grave, there were similarities between them both. Yang discounting her as worthless could easily be applied to him as well.
He supposed that even if he didn't like Cinder in the slightest, he did at least understand her. Still, it'd be a cold day in hell before he believed she actually wanted anyone for a friend. Whatever that meant to people like them.
Mercury may have had his legs back, but for the first time since he lost his semblance, he wondered if he really was just broken. With no way to fix him.
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"Rough training day?"
Weiss panted hard, turning away from the tree she'd just frozen in a black glacier and coming face-to-face with Gray, his shirt nowhere to be found and his chiseled abs on full display. She supposed that was one side benefit to her new Ice God Armor Gigas. She couldn't strip when she was surrounded by living armor.
'Living'. Wasn't that a strange way to think of the Grimm she summoned? Not just creatures she had slain, but Umbral Spirits from another world, a world where they had died over and over again before choosing to return every time to kill even more innocents. So monsters nonetheless. But if her summon was so eager for her to "Open the Gate" as it said, she'd happily unleash their wrath upon other monsters.
At least, that was her strategy. Her teammates seemed to favor other schools of thought.
"They want to talk to her," she vented to Gray. "They want to play nice with Esper and Salem."
"Yeah, I figured that when I saw you storm off," her mentor replied, nervously running a hand through his shaggy black hair.
Weiss frowned. "They want you to convince me to get in line."
Gray sighed. "I wouldn't put it like that, but… partly, yeah."
"Wow," Weiss scoffed. "Esper burned my world down around me, and somehow I'm just as much the bad guy here as everyone thinks I am back in Atlas."
"That's not at all what we're saying, and you know it," Gray insisted. "You're not the bad guy."
"Well, according to everyone else, neither are Rosenflos and Salem."
"They're… that's not what they're trying to… It's just that Umbral Spirit King is a way bigger bad guy."
"Do me a favor, Gray. Stop talking in 'we' and 'they'," Weiss requested, taking a large step towards him. "What do you, not Ruby or Erza or Blake, think we should do?"
For a moment, black tattoos flared over Gray's muscles. The Devil Slayer gritted his teeth and banished the markings by the time Weiss came only inches away from his chest, but she knew what their presence implied. He was filled with just as much rage as she was over what happened in Atlas, so much so that his magic was reacting to and inflaming the boiling rage.
"What I want to do… is cut Esper Rosenflos apart with her own knives. I want to beat every last one of the Tremaines bloody and plant what's left of them on the end of a spike. I want to freeze Salem from the inside out, shatter her into a thousand pieces, and then ask her if she still thinks we're still friends."
An eager grin slinked out over Weiss's lips, her soft, freezing hand coming to rest on his pecs. "Then we're on the same page—"
"But what I want to do, is not what I think we should do," Gray injected. He reached up and gently clasped his fellow ice wizard's hand, silently pleading with her to not pull away.
Weiss could admit such was her first instinct, to recoil at having her hunger for justice seen as dirty by another beloved friend (possibly more in this case). But after so many months starved of Gray's company, of any friend's company, due to her focus on her training and his and Penny's focus on his recovery, she found herself unwilling to disentangle herself. Instead, she pressed herself closer into his chest, his other arm coming up to wrap around her slim waist.
"I want her head," she murmured. "I want her to pay for what she's done."
"I know," Gray whispered back. "But, vengeance, even when it's justice, can cost you more than the original sin took. Even if End had been responsible for what happened to my family, all that killing him would have done back then was cost me Natsu, and who knows who else. If you go after Rosenflos and Salem now, without even trying to find common ground, and the world burns because of it… well, you won't live with it, but even without the Umbral Spirit King, could you?"
Weiss squeezed herself further into his embrace. "How can we trust her? Rosenflos lied as easily as she breathed. Even if Salem is Sitara and dealing with us in good faith, how do we know all the psychos she has in her little cabal aren't planning their own schemes? Cinder's already gone off-script at Beacon and End certainly wasn't supposed to try to kill Lucy at Haven. Who's to say she can promise they'll do anything? Who's to say she can make Rosenflos pay for what she did?"
Gray frowned. "We'll have to trust that she can. And verify by kicking their asses if they step out of line."
Weiss managed to flash a smirk at that. The image of Rosenflos attempting her inevitable double-cross, only to be skewered on the White Fairy's blade brought a thrill of satisfaction down her spine. Maybe the huntress would get the chance to slay a monster after all.
"How are you?" she asked. "Bane Particles out?"
"Every last one. Both Wendy and Penny gave me a clean bill of health," Gray replied. "I'll be ready."
Fretful concern bent Weiss's lips into a frown. "Will you? The guild… Juvia… your family…"
"I've lost families before. And the other times I didn't get to keep a good chunk of them. I'll survive. As for Juvia…"
Weiss's eyes widened as she felt a smattering of wetness splash off her forehead. She looked up to see a trickle of tears dripping down Gray's face.
"I… I hope she was happy," he managed. "I hope she moved on and was able to be happy and in love with someone else."
In that moment, Weiss didn't know what to think. Lately, aside from vengeance, she hadn't even known what to think, everything a swirling maelstrom of despair and rage. She'd felt so helpless and impotent, unable to save Winter, unable to avenge her loved ones or clear her name. Now, Salem was Sitara and she could not even strike back at Esper for fear of alienating her old friend turned foe, with Ruby and Blake of all people advocating an alliance. Nothing felt like it made sense anymore, nothing but her need for justice.
Yet, also in that moment, there was one thought that crystalized, one need that managed to claw its way up to air in her turbulent mind.
She did not want to see Gray cry.
The white-haired beauty squeezed his hand that held her own, drawing the Devil Slayer's gaze down to her. For several long seconds, the ice users stared into each other's eyes, the brisk air of Patch as warm as a beautiful summer's day against their freezing cores. Slowly, Weiss's face rose as Gray's fell.
Amidst a raging storm, one must weather the screaming hail and howling winds, trudging forth through the towering banks to find some far-off safe harbor. But, if one should find the chance to truly gaze upon one of the hundred thousand fluttering snowflakes, they would glimpse an intricate pattern of beauty well worth the hardship.
The Fairy Tail wizards' lips met and, for just a moment, their two anguished souls knew peace amidst the storm.
Ah, romance. Still not sure if I'm any good at writing it, but I felt pretty good putting that Weiss/Gray kiss to page. A moment of pure light amidst all the angst. I like to think that, though she'd be sad that she couldn't be with Gray, Juvia would still be happy that he and Weiss had each other.
Meanwhile, you guys now know why Cinder hates her eyes. She's got a LOT of trauma to work through instead of repress and cope with in that regard.
Gotta say though, while the flashback was nice and tragic, my favorite bits to write were once again the interaction between her and Mercury. She gives an honest try at the whole 'friendship' thing, but he's just as damaged as her and has no reason to trust her. Meanwhile, her default is still beat down and belittle if opposed, especially when she's so terrified of Summer casting her aside for Ruby and Yang. Only time will tell what their upcoming discussion will lead to.
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!