Snow was a nuisance.
Even if it didn't really pose a threat to her temperature wise, it had become a hazard to travel through…especially because she had to hold Neo's hand oh so often while outside.
It was embarrassing, it was mortifying and…it messed with her head.
She avoided physical contact where she could, but this…this didn't feel so bad.
Similar to how she had caught the short girl fast asleep, curled up against her side that one day.
Which she probably would never admit.
…not that there even was a reason to do that.
She was just stressed.
Unsurprisingly, keeping in mind just who was definitely going to come after her sooner or later, but fortunately they hadn't run into any grimm under her control yet.
…which would change as soon as Salem gave them the order to capture her.
Sighing softly she inspected her surroundings.
Trees, snow and even more trees as far as one could see.
Neo trailed behind her, visibly strained from the overuse of her aura lately.
It tended to make Cinder nervous.
There was only so much backstabbing she was willing to endure.
Traveling by foot was far more demanding and slow than she had anticipated.
They had passed Argus only a few days ago, the whole city in utter uproar at the news of Atlas destruction, rumors of war whirring around.
Cinder knew their options where to…run to were quite limited, with Beacon overrun by grimm and Vacuo being the next big target on Salem's list, so it seemed Mistral was the safest place for them right now.
'Ugh.'
She wished they wouldn't need to return to that blasted kingdom.
Not for the first time Cinder cursed herself for failing the attack on Haven.
To see it burned to the ground, just like…
What have you done?!
You will regret this, Cinderella!
Clenching her hands into fists, she ripped herself from these disturbing thoughts.
It wouldn't do her any good.
Not when they needed to focus on finding another shelter for the night.
It was then that Neo caught up to her, pointing excitedly to a point farther ahead.
Following her line of sight Cinder managed to make out the blurry schemes of a building.
"Good job, Neo", she praised the shorter girl, while internally calculating how long it would take to get there.
Since losing her eye her depth perception was pretty much gone and she had to draw everything from experience and muscle memory…or in this case, Neo's vision.
Neo grinned at her, as she went for her right hand.
'Ah…'
That could only mean her companion was almost out of aura.
Oh well…she guessed she had to get used to this from now on.
Entwining her hand with Neo's they both tracked through the snow.
It took them maybe half an hour to reach the gate leading to the land's property…half an hour too long of holding hands, while running through the wilderness in Cinder's opinion.
Not that she complained…
…and that was exactly what was bothering her.
Her almost nonchalant reaction to being touched by Neo.
Coming to a halt in front of a wooden post that read: Brunswick Farms, the dark haired girl squinted at the half destroyed main building with suspicion.
This looked like a small village of sorts…or at least a small community, so…where was everybody?
Aside from the central house, everything else looked to be in pristine condition…just…abandoned.
Neo however didn't seem to care too much about this strange occurrence, instead she simply stared in disbelief at the wooden plate.
'…interesting.'
Cinder would file that away for later.
Right now they needed to find out if this…ghost town was a good enough shelter for the night.
Tugging lightly on Neo's hand she got them moving again, her eye always trailing back to the burnt out main building at the center.
What could have happened here?
…and more importantly, when?
The dark haired girl had the distinct feeling that the fire wasn't what drove all these farmers out of their homes.
There was this…soft tingling along her spine…something that felt awfully familiar for some reason.
But maybe she was just getting paranoid.
In the end she let Neo pick the house they would be staying in.
Her complaints about Cinder's inability to choose comfy shelters, as she put it, just got too annoying after a while.
An incredible feat for someone who couldn't articulate herself at all.
'Let's see if you can do it better.'
Neo could be certain, if anything bizarre happened tonight she wouldn't let her live it down.
Following the short girl into one of the spacious houses she had the distinct feeling she was being watched, but it disappeared as soon as she turned around, peering through the falling snow.
Nothing…
She really needed to rest her head a bit, or else she would go crazy and hallucinate apparently.
Inside the house it was just as eerily silent as outside.
Not that Cinder was afraid of ghosts or anything like that, but something wasn't right here, she just knew it and Neo seemed to share her opinion in that regard, as they both searched the building for any sign or clue to the whereabouts of the owners.
It was better to be safe than sorry.
And yet…it didn't feel any more reassuring once they found them…dead in their bedrooms.
Cinder had seen her fair share of corpses in her life, but the couple laying under the blankets creeped her out. There was this…familiar icy fire inside her, running through her veins the longer she looked at them.
As if…they just fell asleep and died…
The expression on their faces quite like…
'Drowning!'
Enough!
Turning around hastily, she made her way back downstairs sitting in front of the chimney.
It didn't take Neo long to follow her.
The dark haired girl bit her lip in frustration when she spotted concern flash through her companion's eyes.
Muttering a silent curse under her breath she raised her right hand and jumpstarted a fire inside the dusty old fireplace.
Hopefully that would keep the shorter girl distracted from asking too many questions right now.
She didn't feel too comfortable talking about…that day.
To be honest, she wanted to forget it ever happened.
The warmth of the flames chased the cold away, causing it to recede back into the depths of her soul, as the tension left her body.
Neo plopped down next to her on the carpet, visibly enjoying the heat radiating from the chimney, peering at her cautiously before giving her a beaming smile.
She held out both her hands, letting them assume some…curious looking shape, while regaining her grin.
Cinder sighed defeated.
How many times did she have to remind her partner that she couldn't understand her weird hand talk?
"Listen, Neo, I don't…"
She trailed off, after the short girl motioned for her to turn around and face the wall across from the fireplace.
Perplexed, she followed her instructions…although begrudgingly, and found herself staring at a big shadowy wolf.
"What the-?"
Her eye shifted back to Neo, who grinned at her even wider, wiggling her fingers.
Cinder shook her head in disbelief, her tone full of annoyance.
"Very funny."
The short girl looked at her almost innocently, searching for her scroll in her bag.
/You never played with shadows before?/
Now Cinder, let's play a game.
It's called hide and seek.
The maiden couldn't help the cold shudder that ran down her spine.
This definitely wasn't the time to recall her carefree childhood days.
"No, playing hasn't been on my mind for a long time now."
Seemingly on instinct, Neo raised her hands again, before realizing it wouldn't yield any satisfying results.
Staring at her palms in frustration her face fell.
After some deliberation she grabbed her scroll and typed:
/Would you want to learn it?/, looking at her expectantly.
'…huh?'
Cinder felt heat rushing to her face.
Did she look like a child who wanted to fool around?
"…what of my last sentence implied that I want to learn your shadow game?"
The short girl rolled her eyes.
/Not that, sign language./
'Oh!'
To be honest…Cinder had already contemplated taking up that strange language. Not only would it make communicating with Neo easier, but also give them an advantage for sneaking around…their enemies she supposed…or maybe the townsfolk they would come across soon.
"Yes…I suppose that could become useful."
The short girl's expression lit up. Apparently the prospect of teaching her this concept of communication delighted her to no end.
Sighing softly, the maiden crossed her legs on the carpet and tried to replicate one of the strange motions she had seen Neo do before with her right hand, eliciting a few silent giggles from her companion.
/It's easier if you use both hands./
Reaching forward, she corrected Cinder's sign, one of her hands grasping the maiden's left one…before she pulled it back immediately with an uncomfortable look on her face. The dark haired girl cocked her head to the side questioningly before her eye settled on her left arm.
'…oh…'
Right, her grimm arm.
Of course Neo wouldn't be comfortable to touch it.
You turned yourself into a monster just for power.
Cinder gritted her teeth.
Why did this lowlife bandit's words still bother her so much?
She was accepting of who she was.
That's why she had even chosen this outfit.
To make a statement!
Her arm was a part of her and she was not ashamed to show it off.
She stood up, gazing at the warm fireplace with something akin to longing, before addressing her companion, her voice calm despite the turmoil she could feel building up inside her.
"Let's reschedule our little learning session and call it a day.
One of us needs to recharge her batteries after all if we want to reach the next village tomorrow."
She didn't bother checking on Neo before she left the room and wandered upstairs into one of the more empty ones, making herself a little make shift shelter next to the bed, using all the blankets she had packed in her luggage. There was no way she would lie down on that mattress.
Who knows what had been going on in that community to drive them all out?
Lying down onto her blankets she stared at the dark ceiling and tried to give her head some needed rest, only the pale moonlight falling through the window illuminating the room.
The shadows dancing in front of her eye reminded her of her first night in Evernight Castle…back when she had been a scared, little girl so in need of a place to call home.
Can I stay with you for tonight?
Come here.
There is no need to be scared of the dark, Firefly.
That's right…the darkness wasn't as dangerous as people loved to paint it as.
She felt a pang of sadness wash over her when she recalled the time Salem personally had tucked her in…just like the mother she never had and yet…her affection had always felt…
'Conditional!'
Cinder knew, as soon as she started to perform under expectations, Salem would withdraw her love, if one wanted to call it that.
Sighing in resignation she couldn't stop the yawn that escaped her, alerting her once again to how tired she actually was.
The maiden closed her eye.
Thinking about these things wouldn't result into anything useful.
With that she began to drift away into an uneasy sleep.
xxxxxxxxxx
She couldn't say what woke her up, only that it was cold… no, it was literally freezing!
And yet she couldn't seem to move.
Cinder's head felt so heavy, her eyelid too hard to open.
'Wh…what's…going…on?'
Even her thoughts were so hard to focus on, so incredibly slow that it took all her efforts to stay in the here and now and not slip away to sleep again.
And why would she when it was so cold?
That's when she heard it!
An almost inaudible heavy moan right next to her head that send a cold shudder down her spine.
Fear and shock ripped Cinder from her stupor, forcing her to open her eye and blink through the darkness…
Only to be met with a black skeleton like hand, its sharp nails mere millimeters away from her skin!
'APATHY!'
With a strangled yelp the maiden blew the grimm away, throwing a blast of unsteady fire in its face, as she scrambled to her feet in a hurry.
Running outside the room she cursed herself.
Of course this was the work of Apathy grimm.
Why hadn't she bothered to check the other houses?
She should have known immediately that something wasn't quite right about this farm's state.
'Neo!'
Gods, Neo was still inside this building and if she knew anything about the Apathy it was that they were never acting by themselves.
And that meant the rest of the pack was probably here as well.
At the very least she hadn't heard the short girl scream-
'Shit!'
Almost flying down the stairs, she bumped into yet a dozen more Apathy, their eyes glowing ominously in the dark when they seemed to spot her, blocking her way into the next room.
They were simply everywhere.
Standing in her way, hanging on the ceiling, weirdly entwined on the railing, staring her down, while approaching her slowly.
The deep breathy moans made Cinder's hair stand on end.
She could feel the cold creep up on her once more.
She couldn't risk losing her will to fight right now, or else…
Breathing in deeply, she closed her eye in concentration, before fire burst from it.
The maiden's powers filled her with enough warmth to keep the cold at bay.
Summoning her weapons she tore through the grimm blocking her way downstairs and made a break for it, stumbling into the next room…and froze.
It was as if she just entered a hellish nightmare.
The whole room was crawling with Apathy grimm!
A grotesque blackish void with demonic crimson eyes that tried to bore into her very soul and right in the center of the nest…laid Neo!
'No!'
The short girl seemed physically unharmed, nevertheless, the blank stare she gave the ceiling told Cinder exactly in how much danger her companion was in.
She needed to get her out of there, but…she couldn't seem to move forward.
To the contrary, she felt herself backing away, only to find the exit behind her now blocked as well.
Her body felt so incredibly heavy, there was no way she was able to raise her weapons.
'STOP!'
All of a sudden the pressure in her body receded slightly, allowing the maiden to think more clearly, just as one of the Apathy moved towards her almost tauntingly.
(Stay down, girl!
The Master wants you unharmed.)
Cinder's eye widened.
Had she been able to get through to them?
Connecting with grimm was always so…demanding.
A language of weird pictures and emotions that somehow translated into words for her once she succeeded finding the small right link to them.
That wasn't to say that she had a lot of experience at how to control grimm.
You must make it dread you!
Cold sweat trickled down her brow, as she concentrated as hard as she could to make the Apathy cover to her will.
'Let me through!'
(No.
You are favored by the Master, however SHE is not.
That one is ours!)
It was almost ridiculous how easily the voices made their rebuttal, causing Cinder's head to spin.
Frantically she tried to think, to come up with an idea how to salvage this.
She couldn't just leave Neo!
[…why not?]
Because…
No, that was right.
She was able to escape.
The Apathy told her as much. They only wanted the short girl, she was free to go.
…but go where?
[Home!]
Yes, home…back to Salem…to get the power she was promised…maybe even to learn to control her new one…
It would be so easy…
She even missed her…
…
'To hell with it!'
With an unexpected surge of strength, the maiden spun her weapons around, using her maiden powers to create a whirlwind to keep the Apathy in the room at a distance from her as she sprinted to the middle of the room, trying to rouse the apathetic girl on the ground.
"NEO! GET UP!
WE HAVE TO GO!"
The yell seemed to startle the short girl out of her stupor, blinking around almost disoriented, before horror washed over her face once the memories of what must have happened before came back.
Cinder didn't have time for Neo to regain her marbles again and dragged her onto her feet.
Gripping her companion with her right hand, she threw multiple flaming daggers at the surprised Apathy still blocking the exit, before she balled her grimm arm into a fist, blasting through them along with the entrance door.
In hindsight maybe staying in the house would have been preferable.
The maiden had heavily underestimated the Apathy grimm…namely their numbers.
There were so many of them, cowering and weirdly perching and prancing around the rest of the farms. It was hard to even make out the white snow underneath their black, long, inhumanly feet when they slowly circled around them.
Panicked Cinder looked around.
There had to be a way out of this!
But more and more Apathy wavered out of the main building, joining the others around them.
Pulling Neo behind her instinctively, she summoned her weapon again, her grip tightening around the handle when she pointed it at the grimm with her left hand.
[Yield, Cinder!]
The maiden automatically straightened her back.
That voice…
Her eye widened in disbelief.
No, that couldn't be…and yet her left arm began to twitch subtly, as if trying to head the command she had been given.
Neo pressed herself against Cinder's back, her hands covering her ears.
This time the dark haired girl didn't have the urge to shove her companion away.
Her wound only a faint burning of the past.
The short girl wouldn't try to kill her again and…somehow…Cinder didn't want to save herself if it meant losing her.
'I…'
Can't?
Shouldn't?
Mustn't?
'I won't!'
For a split second there was silence.
Then the Apathy screamed and Cinder lost the ground under her feet, her face meeting the cold, but soft snow.
She was dimly aware that Neo had fallen behind her as well, but…she didn't care anymore.
What even was the use in fighting?
What did it matter if she was brought home again?
She was just so tired…
Her head felt so heavy…
As her eye finally closed she was calm.
This was totally alright.
Just like it should be.
…
What's the matter, Cinderella?
'…leave me alone…'
Your daddy can't save you anymore.
'…stop it.'
Neither can he.
'That's not true!'
Just give it up already. You will never escape me.
'Forget it!'
An icy fire erupted inside her, sweeping away the numbness in its wake.
People always wanted to control her!
Wanted to hurt her!
Wanted to force her!
Opening her eye she felt her view shift, her field of vision tinting in a bright gold tone, as the Apathy screamed again.
Nothing…
A cruel smirk spread over Cinder's face, raw power bubbling right underneath her skin, begging to be freed…
And she was so done with listening.
Obeying.
Bowing down.
The maiden rose slowly to her feet, making her way to the Apathy.
(Why do you struggle so much, child?
When the outcome is always going to be the same.)
She didn't bother to answer it. Instead she raised her hand…and the Apathy evaporated, leaving only black ashes behind.
'So easy.'
Why had she ever been afraid to use this marvelous power?
The ashes swirling through the air began to glow in a golden hue, flowing to Cinder's still outstretched hand, getting absorbed as soon as they touched her skin.
A wave of euphoria washed over the maiden, making her head spin from the increase of her energy, as it spiked to yet a higher level.
This was…
'Astonishing.'
[There is more where that came from.]
Oh right.
Lifting her head she mustered the hundreds of Apathy with something akin to hunger, before feeling herself rise from the ground.
Fire mingling with the cold gold, as she raised both of her arms to the side, a storm raging inside her, spreading outwards.
Just like that the Apathy scattered one after another, black ashes circling around her, growing more potent with each grimm's demise until they swelled on and practically swallowed her whole.
Cinder couldn't see anymore.
Some…unidentifiable noises reached her ear, but she paid it no mind.
It didn't matter.
Only the steady flowing source of power did.
It felt so…
Exciting!
Exhilarating!
'…overwhelming?'
Her head spun even more.
This…was too much, wasn't it?
It felt as if something would rip her apart from the inside!
What…how was she supposed to handle so much power?
[I will teach you.]
'…you…will…?'
[Yes…but for that you need to come home, Cinder.]
'…I...'
Cinder couldn't concentrate anymore.
She felt like she was going to explode.
[Now, unleash your power!
Show the world your true potential!]
Of course.
The dark haired girl was the eye of the storm.
It was time to let it run rampage.
Everything finally fell into place…until something…warm enveloped her.
'Wha…?'
Puzzled she lowered her gaze and saw a pair of hands hugging her midsection tightly.
Her head cleared a bit.
That's right, she had been traveling with…someone and…
[Cinder, focus!]
But…
'I don't want to.'
The maiden felt some of that unbearable power ebb away, as the person behind her slowly reached for her hands, tugging them down softly and the storm abruptly stopped as if it never happened in the first place.
Cinder blinked through the now peaceful night, only the pale moon shining down on them, revealing the horrors the storm had left on the farms.
Sinking to her knees in disbelief, she stared at her hands with a sick feeling inside her gut.
She had caused this…but…
'Not of my own volition.'
Salem had been able to…entrance her two times!
That realization was more than she could currently bear.
With a strangled shriek she couldn't help but break down in tears.
There was no control.
It had all been a lie…an illusion.
Salem was inside her head.
No one could run from her…and now she knew why.
The short girl dropped next to her, dried tear streaks under her eyes and cheeks, obviously just as shaken by the events as Cinder and entwined their hands…both of them.
She gently squeezed her left one, her thumb running over the black knuckles soothingly, giving her a sad smile, as she wrote into the snow:
/I'm sorry this happened to you./
No, that wasn't right…
'I'm the one who should…'
"Neo…", Cinder's voice sounded strangled and hoarse even to her own ears,
"I'm…"
'I'm sorry!'
This whole mess was her fault and yet she couldn't seem to apologize.
Nevertheless, Neo's words filled her with something warm…something she couldn't quite describe.
The short girl's eyes softened, a teasing grin stretching over her face, as she tried to help both of them recover from the ordeal they just had.
/I promise, I'll never complain about your camping spots again./
'Ridiculous.'
Not that it hindered the maiden's lips to twitch upwards.
This girl was just so unbelievable.
Leaning forward she let her head rest against Neo's shoulder.
"Thank you."
AN: Hello again ^^
I know it's a bit late, but I had quite a rough few weeks.
That being said, I will continue this to the very end.
Also for the ones reading Shattered Destiny, I will update very soon.
Enjoy ^^