RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter 22: An Unsavory Deal
"What? Are you out of your mind?" Cinder scoffed, setting her glass down and trying to control her flames. They died down a bit but still tickled at her hands.
"Then you would rather have Ruby die? I never knew you to be this vile, sacrificing your love's life in order to protect a group of murders, thieves, and heathens," Salem hummed. "But if that's your final verdict then-"
"Wait!" Cinder shouted out, panic in her voice. She backtracked when she realized she'd let too much of her inner emotions into her voice. "Wait," she said more softly. "I haven't made my choice."
Salem chuckled at this, setting down her finished glass of wine on the fireplace. "Cinder, no need for you to hold pretenses with me. I know how torn up you are over this. I know the emotional turmoil going through your mind right now. After all, it was why I choose to attack Ruby. Either way you look at it, you're going to be losing something important to you in this situation. The only say you have in this is whether it will be Ruby or the gang."
Cinder grit her teeth. The woman was speaking the truth. It was a tough choice. And without Cinder knowing what sort of danger Ruby was in she couldn't make any rash moves. Could she somehow back out of this corner she had been pushed to?
"Why do you even want my gang?"
"My dear child," Salem said as she slowly began to approach Cinder. "This is what I raised you for, what I cultivated you to do."
"What are you talking about?" Cinder barked out, unnerved by the other woman's close proximity and even more so by her words.
"Do you think you truly went unbroken during your stay in my orphanage?" Salem tipped her head to the side, appraising Cinder. "No, you actually think you did!" The woman cried out with glee when she saw Cinder staring back at her defiantly. "You actually think that I wasn't able to change who you were as a person, but I did. You fought so hard against me, trying to outsmart me at my own game, trying to be stronger than me, more manipulative than me, all so that you could escape the world you were stuck in. So you could escape me. But you can't." At this Salem's tone got lower and more menacing. She gripped Cinder's chin in her hand and the black haired woman was unable to move, sudden fear paralyzing her body. She didn't know why she was so scared of the other. Cinder was the vice commander of the Grimm, the most feared gang in all of Vale! Salem was but a woman who couldn't stay dead, who had been her once aggressor. But Cinder was more powerful than her. She had faced and done worse things than her.
Yet no matter how she told herself this her body would not move.
"I knew you had great potential the moment you walked in through my door. I knew the anger that burned through your veins could be manipulated. So I pushed you and I tested you. I made you hate me just as much if not more than you hated your stepmother. And it worked. Because you went and burned down the whole orphanage."
"You didn't force me to do that. I did it of my free volition," Cinder snapped back.
"You can think that all you want but I know what I did. I fueled your ambition. Who do you think helped you build your career in the gangs?"
"What?" Cinder was confused by this.
"Aww, you think that by pure luck and persuasion you were able to get people to work for you, to help you start that war between the gangs that helped elevate you to power. No, you are wrong. I was there in the shadows. Always a step behind. Always helping you out."
"I refuse to believe that!" Cinder wretched herself free of Salem's hold on her, straightening her back out so she could look tall and intimidating. "I built this gang up by myself. It was my hard work. I do not see the connection between your so called help from the shadows and my rise to power."
"Hmmm, let's leave it at that then. I'm sure Ruby doesn't have the time for me to explain all the ways I helped you. That can come another time," Salem hummed.
Ruby! Right! Cinder had been so engrossed with arguing with Salem that she forgot Ruby could be hurt badly somewhere right now, bleeding out as they spoke.
"Simply, I invested a lot of time into helping you and I want to reap the benefits of my help by securing this gang which you have cultivated so wonderfully for me," Salem went over to stand by the window looking out it, hands behind her back. The light from outside fell on her face making her look even paler, almost ghost like in appearance.
"So then why harm Ruby?"
"A back up plan in case you wouldn't want to give me what was rightfully mine, which I knew would happen given your temper and stubbornness."
"This gang isn't yours. It will never be," Cinder hissed between her lips.
"Differing points of view, but I assure you mine are the correct ones. You will hand the gang over to me and I will give you back Ruby, along with the antidote she needs to survive."
"You poisoned her!" Cinder's mind flew through a quick list of known poisons and if her chemist's had anything to fix them.
"A colleague of mine did. Nothing that your people have a cure to. And even if you were to go to them for one you wouldn't have enough time to save her. As of now she has an hour to live."
Cinder's eyes snapped wide open. Ruby had an hour to live and here she had been wasting her time! "Where is she right now?"
"She's held by one of my associates. And she will be handed over, along with the cure, provided you give me the gang and step down from power. So what will it be, Cinder. The gang or her?" Salem turned to the black haired woman at this, face impassive and shoulder's rolled back.
Cinder knew without a doubt what was more important to her. But if she gave Salem the gang...there was no telling what she could do with it. Still, there could always be a way for Cinder to get it back. After all, her workers were loyal to her and not Salem. And there was only one Ruby.
"Can I trust you? Can I trust you to not lie to me and give me Ruby with no strings attached?" Cinder asked, knowing she couldn't trust this woman but needing to be able to do so she could make this decision.
"Of course," Salem answered in all seriousness. "I want the gang, and you want Ruby. Why would there be any need to throw unnecessary complications into the deal?"
Cinder grit her teeth and lowered her eyes to the ground. She had never felt more uncertain than she was now. There were too many things that could go wrong with this plan, too many things Salem was still hiding from her. But Cinder knew she would never forgive herself if she couldn't save Ruby. Because Ruby had saved her and now she was the one in need of rescuing.
It was Cinder's turn to be her prince charming.
"The gang is as good as yours. You can take it. Just give me Ruby." This was said with much more difficulty than she would have liked.
Salem's face lit up at this. "I'm glad. But, of course just telling me I have the gang isn't good enough. I'll need you to physically hand it over to me."
"By doing what?" Cinder winced, knowing there must be more to this.
"I want you to announce it in front of the whole gang. Call a meeting. Transfer the power over to me publicly."
"But that will take time! Time that Ruby doesn't have!"
"You're right. So I guess you better get started on that," Salem smiled cruelly. "But since I'm not entirely heartless, I'll give Ruby a little bit of the antidote. This should hold her for another hour or two. And then once I have my gang, you will have your Ruby."
"I despise you with all my being," Cinder spat at the woman who only seemed delighted by this.
Then Cinder turned on her heel and went to her Scroll, calling a few choice people to get a meeting called together.
It took about half an hour to get the word out and another half to get them into the meeting hall in the main hideout. Each passing second felt like torture to Cinder and she kept imagining that Ruby was dying or already dead. Only Salem's occasional videos of Ruby lying in some dark room on the cold floor, breathing heavily and unconscious kept her hoping that she would reach the girl in time.
Cinder and Salem shared a car to the meeting hall, Cinder not wanting to leave the other out of sight for too long but dreading to have to share the same space and air as her. The car was silent and filled with unbearable tension. Salem was unaffected by it while Cinder internally fought with the turmoil in her. When they arrived the auditorium was full of people, chatting in low tones. When Cinder entered the stage, her heels clicking loudly, they all quieted down and stared questionably at the pale woman walking behind her. They wondered why this meeting was called so suddenly.
Cinder took the podium in the center of the stage and looked over the crowd. This was her family; her pride and joy, and she was going to give them over to Salem. It pained her. All that sweat, blood, tears, but mainly blood, that had been shed in building up this empire, wasted, all for naught.
But she couldn't dwell on that now. She had to carry on. She had to save Ruby.
Her face was an impassive mask as always, even though she was the only one not wearing a mask in the room. Everyone else had theirs on, yet they were more readable than she was in this moment. They were looking at her with awe and admiration. With trust. But she couldn't let them know what was truly going on.
"Fellow Grimm," she started, her voice booming across the room. "I have some news to impart to you. And whether you see it as bad news or good news is up to you." At this the crowd exchanged looks with one another. "I've decided that it would be in the best interest of the gang if I were to step down from power."
There were shocked murmurs that rippled through the crowd like a wave. Cinder raised her hand to silence them. She didn't have time to deal with their reactions; not when Ruby's life was on the line. "I have reigned for a long and prosperous period. And so has Ruby. The both of us, however, no longer see ourselves fit in order to lead this wonderful gang and so we have picked someone to replace us." At this everyone's heads snapped to the pale woman who was standing a couple feet behind Cinder's shoulder.
Cinder moved aside to let the let the woman take the stand. She looked over the large group before her, her eyes glimmering greedily and with barely concealed smugness.
"Greetings Grimm. My name is Salem and I will be your new leader."