Yo. Slightly early upload, just because I'm tired and kind of want to go to bed.

Anyways, here's the chapter...

Chapter 31

Cinder Fall had gotten quite comfortable with the feeling of having it all.

Well, of course she had. Nearly everyone on the entirety of Remnant would come to the same conclusion when given what she had been. The person she desired. Her plans coming to fruition.

…When she thought about how those two things were her only real desires, Cinder couldn't help feeling smaller somehow.

Even still, that was beside the point. She had lost it. That feeling of everything. Not obviously, not even really. But…

There was an asterisk hanging off of it now.

Because surely, she had succeeded in breaking into the CCT. She had succeeded in uploading Watts' virus. She had succeeded in escaping without anyone realizing who she was. On the other side of the coin, she had gotten to dance with Glynda Goodwitch, and enjoy a movie, and sit under the same blanket, in the same warmth, and just exist.

But that look… that damndable look…

It had been so brief both times that Cinder had seen it, and she hadn't even been able to truly read into its intent. But it had been directed at her when Cinder had least expected it. At what should've been the apex of her victory, and…

And it had her doubting everything.

But most of all herself.

And so it was that she found herself sitting in front of one Emerald Sustrai, who was fixing her with a rather uncertain expression, as she ran the woman through the task she had set aside for her.

"I want you to follow Glynda Goodwitch around and see if she's up to something."

Emerald, of course, did not simply nod her head and go about doing Cinder's business. No. That had long since faded, that complete and utter loyalty. Cinder was… she was fairly certain it was for the best in most ways, but in times like this it had its faults.

"And why, exactly, do you want me to do that?"

She never would have said such a thing to Cinder beforehand, before they'd arrived here. Or, well, she might've, but Cinder quickly would've corrected her with a slap, or a harsh rebuke. Such behavior was not to be tolerated.

But…

Things were different now. The both of them were different.

…Even if it didn't stop a small bead of annoyance from building up inside of her, the spawn of that feeling, that worry that had begun worming its way throughout her breast the moment that look had been fixed upon her.

"She's simply been… I do not know how to word it. Hesitant, perhaps, in certain interactions with me."

"…Is that all?"

When Emerald put it that way, it certainly didn't sound like a big deal at all. But Cinder just had a… feeling. It was an indescribable thing, but she had experienced such things before in her life.

They had very rarely led her astray.

"Emerald, I'm asking you to do this."

"…Cinder–"

"Simply report back to me on Glynda's movements for a few days. It won't be anything too major. I trust that you can handle such a task?"

Emerald nodded, but by the frown on her face, Cinder knew she wasn't about to simply do as she'd been told.

That would've been far too simple.

"I really don't think you should be spying on her, Cinder…"

And that little bubble of annoyance, that bubble that stemmed from her worry and concern and a million other better and worser things popped, and she found her teeth grinding together and venom spitting from her lips.

"Do it!"

Emerald actually flinched backwards, and immediately, Cinder understood that she'd made a mistake. She… there was some tiny part of her that wanted to do… something there. To reach out and…

And what?

"Emerald, I…"

"I'll do it, alright?"

Emerald wasn't looking at her. Cinder… she wasn't sure why that made her feel so awful, but it did. It felt like a regression. And Cinder, she…

"I shouldn't have snapped."

Emerald's expression loosened ever so slightly, and she looked up at Cinder with a tiny bit of openness hanging about her features.

"I was… I am simply stressed about many things at the moment. None of which involve you. I would ask that you assist me in this matter."

It was as amicable as her pride would allow her to make it, and she hoped Emerald would understand that.

From the way the girl let out a beleaguered, but fond sigh in the next moment, Cinder felt she had.

"Okay, okay…" Emerald shook her head. "Fine. I'll follow Ms. Goodwitch around. But really, I'm not sure what you're thinking you're going to find. She might just be having a crisis of conscience. Wasn't she initially against dating a student, even one who was many years an adult already?"

Cinder supposed it could've been that. Hell, it would've made sense for it to be something like that.

But it was just… there was something that Cinder just couldn't buy about Emerald's excuse. It was too clean, too neat, and tidy.

Cinder's life had never been any such thing.

"Perhaps."

"I'll do it, but when I come back with nothing, I'm not doing it again." Emerald said, huffing as she stood up.

Left unsaid was Emerald's own affections for Glynda. Cinder might've once had a problem with such a thing, but nowadays… she knew it was different. Emerald's affections and her affections were of entirely different types and degrees.

Perhaps Emerald's feelings were even more intense than her own, but then again, Emerald felt more deeply, less rationally than Cinder did.

It was what had allowed her to abuse Emerald's love so easily.

The very thought of that left her spittle tasting of iron as Emerald swung herself up and off of the bed, and stepped towards the door.

"Alright, I'll go 'begin operations'." She made air-quotes, clearly not taking this particularly seriously. "See you in a few."

Cinder hummed something noncommittal out in answer as the door shut behind her, and she was left in the room, all on her lonesome.

It felt eerily familiar, and Cinder hadn't realized how much she'd grown used to the opposite.

…Or how much she'd grown to care for it.

/

Glynda was tired for an awful lot of reasons as she made her way towards Ozpin's office that day.

She was distracted, too. What with her thoughts on Cinder, her growing affection for the girl – something she almost didn't want to admit to herself – alongside Emerald's parental feelings towards her that, while she fully endorsed, still pressured her just a bit.

And that wasn't even taking into account the… the incident with the CCT. Just who it was she thought might have been behind the mask of the mysterious half-Maiden.

So, in her opinion, the way she jumped when Qrow Branwen sidled up beside her, and gave a soft "Boo" was not at all her fault.

"You…" She gritted out between her teeth, before taking a deep breath and letting the annoyance go, which was made rather difficult by the man's snorting. "Are insufferable."

"Yeah, I've been told that before." Qrow smirked. "So, what's up, you've got quite the long face."

She sighed, because apparently it was obvious enough that she was thinking on something for even Qrow Branwen to see it.

"I am simply… inundated with concerns right now. From all angles."

"Ah, yeah, I suppose I can understand that." Qrow nodded his head. "What with Jimmy around causing problems, the Council breathing down your necks, our sick friend," – Code for discussing Amber amongst others – "and Ozpin's normal eccentricities, I think it's more than fair that you feel that way."

Glynda nodded her head, more than willing to take the man's excuse and run with it.

"Except that's not actually why you're bothered, is it?"

She turned to see Qrow shooting her a flat look, far more serious than one he'd normally don, and she felt for a moment almost exposed by that gaze.

"I…"

"C'mon, Glyn," The man laughed out. "Let me play the part of your senior for once, huh? It's been an awful long time, hasn't it?"

It… really had been. Glynda and her class had entered into Beacon Academy nearly a decade and a half ago. She hadn't necessarily been a prodigy, or anything, but Glynda had been a relatively top prospect coming in, and had proven herself rather immediately. She'd even gotten a position on the student council, and had taken efforts to curb the rather… insolent behavior of certain buffoons.

One of those buffoons had been a fourth year at the time, one Qrow Branwen.

"You speak as if you ever acted my senior, and not like some monkey with a scythe." She glared his way, though it was half-hearted; laced with humor and nostalgia in equal measure. "Though I suppose you do owe me for allowing you off the hook so many times back in the day."

"Off the hook!?" Qrow scoffed. "You had me in detention every other day!"

"Yes, and you deserved to be in detention every day." Glynda raised an eyebrow in challenge. "But fine, I suppose it can't hurt to get your input."

Qrow nodded, smiling. He waited for her to take a moment to formulate her thoughts, thoughts she had definitely not intended to share when she'd started this little trek towards Ozpin's office.

"There is simply a lot on my mind." She summarized briefly, before continuing. "I suppose you know about myself and Team Chamomile?"

"Yeah," Qrow said, nodding. "I'm aware. Those two kids you normally hang around, greeny and blacky, yeah?"

Glynda really tried not to wince when Qrow referred to Cinder as a kid, because that only made her already fraying mind spasm even further.

"Yes," She spoke anyways. "I am… Emerald, er, she's the one–"

"She's the green one?" Qrow raised an eyebrow. "I kind of figured given the name."

She rolled her eyes, but nodded her head, and continued.

"Emerald… she and Cinder both come from rather difficult upbringings. Neither of those I will be detailing anything about to you, for they were told to me in confidence, but… That has led to them both being rather difficult nuts to crack, in a proverbial sense."

Qrow nodded along.

"For Emerald, I… I'd like to think that I've been able to help her open up a bit. To learn to trust others and to care about herself most of all. She… has taken a bit of a shine to me." Glynda smiled then, a gentle, almost motherly thing. "Never mention this to anyone, of course, but she once referred to me as 'Mom' by accident."

Glynda had been worried Qrow might laugh at the girl's expense, or be rude, but if she'd had such concerns, they were dashed against the proverbial rocks when, even though he did laugh, it was in a far more laid back and casual manner, the tiniest of chuckles beneath his breath.

"I had that happen once." Qrow said, his lips tending upwards with what seemed to be nostalgia. "There was this kid in my class who I could tell didn't get enough attention at home. I wished I could've done something for him, but… well, it's hard to when I've got a hundred other kids to worry about."

Glynda nodded. Even helping just two of her students, Emerald, and Cinder, could take up an awful lot of her time. And the reason she could afford to take time out of her day largely lent to the fact that she was not a traditional teacher. She taught combat classes and leadership classes, but the former had no assigned homework for her to grade, and the latter was a weekly course. Thusly, she had far more time than most of her colleagues.

"But one day, I could tell he was having a rougher time than usual. Some of the other kids had taken to bullying him I think, y'know, easy target and whatnot."

Kids had a tendency to be rather cruel, in Glynda's view.

"Anyways, I decided to do all I could, so I took my lunch an hour or so early and asked him to stick around with me. Just… had lunch with him in my classroom, and chatted with him about what he wanted to do with his life."

Qrow was beaming ear to ear, and Glynda knew that expression from having it on her own face before.

It was pride in oneself. Knowing one had done the right thing.

"He appreciated it, I could tell. Hell, I think it meant the world to him. He told me it was just his mom in the picture, and that he had four other brothers, so she never really had time to give him any undivided attention. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, and I was glad for it, but… come the end of the lunch break, the little guy came up to me and hugged me, and then he called me 'dad' on accident." Qrow let out a little chuckle. "Guy was mortified, but… hah. I was going through a pretty rough patch at the time. That was only a few months after Summer had passed, so… that shit practically made my week."

Glynda found herself mirroring her colleagues expression. It was a warm, happy story. The kind of thing that Glynda loved to hear about.

There were far too many sad stories in life. One had to cherish the little bright spots.

"For Emerald I think it's a bit different." Glynda felt the need to say. "She seems more… I guess serious? Perhaps that might be how I'd word it."

"Ah. So, you think she's never actually had anyone who…"

"Yes. I do."

Technically she knew, but she wasn't going to be telling Qrow any of Emerald's secrets.

"Mm. Complicated, definitely. You can be there for her, but as things are, you're her teacher. You can't really be a parent for her, which she seems to want." Qrow shrugged. "Not my call to make on how you approach that."

"Yes, very helpful, Qrow." She sighed out, even if she could admit that she'd rather he opt out of giving input than trying to weigh in on the situation she was purposefully only feeding him bits and pieces of information on.

"Hey, I aim to please." The man smirked. "Speaking of, you seem to worry a lot about another member of that Team, Glynda. Specifically, a certain obsidian beauty." He leaned towards her teasingly, cocking an eyebrow. "Is there something I should know?"

Glynda knew that Qrow was a faux-womanizer – in that he pretended to be, but given that he had two nieces that he loved and respected with all his heart, he never quite stooped to actually being one. Humorously, he was also the only womanizer she'd ever met who was abjectly horrible with women – and that he meant no harm with his comment, but the way that he'd talked about Cinder then and there had made her want to…

Well, some rather violent applications of her semblance, she'd say, and leave it at that.

She also knew she did not want to be having this conversation, and so she decided that perhaps deflecting the man's attentions might be just what she needed.

"I'm merely doing as Ozpin has instructed me to." She said, thereby technically making this all Ozpin's fault. "Any time I spend with them is the precise amount I'm supposed to."

"Uh-huh." Qrow shot her an amused look, which, to Glynda, told her he didn't buy that for a second.

And it was a blatant lie. She cared far too much about Chamomile, to the point that if she wasn't careful, it could bleed into her other work. Take her away from other students, other Professors.

And care… meant a lot of things, in this instance.

She was hiding from some of them with her red-faced rejection more than others.

"Sure, sure, I suppose I'll let you off with that for now." Qrow said with a roll of his eyes. "We should make tracks, Ozpin's not going to forgive you if you're late to the second meeting of your life."

Glynda glared the man's way. "And whose fault would that be?"

"Eh, technically yours. If you hadn't looked so despondent, I wouldn't have slowed you down to talk with you." Qrow reasoned, like that made total sense.

"You are insufferable." She echoed from the beginning of their little chat. "Completely and utterly insufferable."

"Hey, I was just offering my advice as your senior, little Ms. Glyn."

"Don't call me that."

"What, Glyn?"

"Yes. That."

"I refuse."

"Ugh."

Qrow snorted.

/

Had Glynda Goodwitch been less distracted, less concerned, then perhaps she would've noticed that there had been someone tailing her for a good minute or so. This person hadn't caught much of her conversation, only some of the latter sections, but she had heard enough.

Enough for Emerald to have pulled herself into an empty hallway, and take deep, steadying breaths to try and get herself under control. It was barely enough with those words still echoing inside her head, sounding out like a bell in rhythm.

"I'm merely doing as Ozpin instructed me to. Any time I spend with them is the precise amount I'm supposed to."

Emerald had learned early on in her life that panicking, that letting her emotions get the better of her in harsh situations, was an easy way to get herself killed. She'd found herself falling out of such habits recently, but…

…An order from Ozpin…

Then… was it…

Had it all been an act, then?

Just an order from Ozpin? To investigate them.

Emerald's mouth opened, then closed. It opened again, but even still, she couldn't manage to fully control the way her eyes welled up, and she stared at the ground below her. Couldn't control the way her hands shook…

No. No it couldn't be. She… it couldn't all be…

See! Some part of her, perhaps her instincts from out on the streets, that which she'd developed to survive, seemed to laugh, and point and bray almost angrily at her. See! We were right! We were always right! You can't trust anyone, not ever!

No… no, that… it couldn't…

The way that Ms. Goodwitch had always taken such care of her, always made sure to treat her with the utmost respect… that…

That couldn't have all been a lie. It simply couldn't have.

We told you not to open up! We told you that no one would ever care about you! Not that girl we loved who stabbed us in the back. Not our own father who abandoned us before we were even born. Not Cinder who saved us from a life on the street. And certainly not this woman.

No one cares. No one ever cares!

No! No… Glynda cared for her. It was just too obvious that she did. She cared for her, she had to. And Emerald cared for her too. She'd… she'd opened her heart to Ms. Goodwitch. She'd fed Emerald ice cream, and let her sleep on her couch, and told her that she was worth something, made her believe it, even.

That couldn't have been a lie. It simply couldn't have been some bastardized performance.

…Right?

And despite her attempts to fight it, despite the war inside of her still raging as to whether or not a lie was all that lingered between them, some part of her – maybe a younger her would've called it 'trust' when she'd still possessed such a thing – that had been reforming, becoming one against all odds, cracked all the same.

/

Glynda understood that the meeting was to be a serious one when she spotted James already in the room when she and Qrow arrived. She'd assumed such a thing, to be fair. It had been a week since she'd fought that woman in the CCT, which wasn't any time at all, but also long enough for all of them to begin to grow a little restless.

That must've been what plagued them all now. Restlessness. The need to feel like they were doing something.

Especially with the Vytal Festival now firmly on the horizon.

"Glynda." Ozpin nodded her way, and she hummed out a response. "And Qrow as well. Please, join us."

She took a spot off to Ozpin's right, and Qrow took up a position near the window, which seemed to be his perch, so to speak. James had placed himself at the very center of the room, like some kind of immovable bastion, and Glynda couldn't help thinking that it represented the man she'd once loved rather well, that.

"I felt we might go over the situation once more, and then officially create our own plan of attack." Ozpin spoke, pushing up on his glasses like some sort of caricature. "We will need one if we are to have any hope of outmaneuvering her."

The her in this case did not refer to the assailant at the CCT, but instead…

The boogeyman. The monster under the bed. The one who ruled the Grimm. All sorts of myths and fables and stories that had once been history.

"First of all, James, have your people managed to crack what happened to the CCT?"

Glynda could tell immediately by the way that his expression dipped that James' people had not been successful.

"We haven't, no." He sighed out. "Our programmers tell me that it's highly likely that the hostile code is built to move itself around inside of the system, constantly relocating every second or so. It would be impossible for them, or anyone not a complete genius in the CCT's systems, to be able to have a chance to crack it. I've already contacted Dr. Polendina to make an attempt of his own, but he's sought to inform me ahead of time that he believes his chances are, at best, minimal. In his eyes, he thinks this has to be the work of an insider, whether current or former is up for debate."

Ozpin nodded, although Glynda could tell the man was not particularly pleased with the news.

"And we have no further news on our attacker, nor any possible identities?"

"There were a few women who visited that night who could've potentially been our assailant," James said. "But the problem is that the party was far too clustered an event to be able to keep track of everyone. We only have testimonies to go off of in a lot of cases, and only two cameras, located at both doors, that have any footage of the auditorium itself, alongside the bodycam's of Penny's two guardsman. That only truly lets us know when people entered and exited the building. Among them were two we flagged as prime suspects, but… well, when we investigated further, we found that both were civilians, invited here by their significant others for the evening."

The entire room went silent as the unsettling news of no news hit them. Ostensibly, nothing had changed since a week ago, other than that they'd managed to confirm that they didn't know anything.

"I've not heard anything other than what we've known for a while, either." Qrow chimed in. "Torchwick's making weird moves, but that's been a constant for a while. Word on the street is he's working under some woman who we surmise may be directly working with Salem. I'd bet that's the same woman who attacked the CCT, but knowing something's going to happen at some point according to the designs of someone doesn't really give us much of an advantage."

Ozpin finally turned towards her, and Glynda found herself caught just the tiniest bit by surprise.

"Glynda, I don't suppose you've thought of anything else over the course of this last week?" The man pushed forwards. "It does not have to be anything major. Just an inkling or a feeling. Anything you have could give us some clue to build off of."

Those words… they had Glynda visibly hesitating. At the very least, she could play off such a thing as thinking back on the moment, trying to gleam something from nothing, but…

But she had more than nothing, didn't she?

She had a lot more than nothing.

…

She should tell Ozpin about her suspicion.

She realized that in that moment. It was the right thing to do. To tell Ozpin. Even if nothing came of it, even if the man would only cursorily investigate her claims, for they were rather faulty, even she would admit that, she should still say what was on her mind.

Because this was bigger than her, wasn't it? Wasn't it bigger than any of them? Wasn't it bigger than her as well?

All eyes in the room turned to her.

She had to make a decision.

…

"I was simply trying to recall… that last time I had such honest fun."

"I couldn't remember a time. Not in my entire life."

…

"…I'm sorry, sir. I have nothing."

Ozpin didn't seem at all surprised, simply nodding his head in a rhythmic sort of pattern as he balanced his head on his hands, his fingers lacing together.

"Very well. I wish we had more to go off of, but this is perhaps as good as we're going to get." He shook his head, before re-righting himself, and looking up at all of them. "If any of you find any more information about our mysterious assailant, about our code, or even about Torchwick or the White Fang, then please, come to me immediately; even if it seems like nothing. We need every advantage we can get when it comes to dealing with Salem."

"What of our own Maiden?" Ironwood questioned. "Has her condition seen any improvement?"

"She worsens by the day…" Ozpin sighed wearily. "If I'm being entirely honest, we may yet have to execute your plan after all, Ironwood."

"To find a suitable transfer."

Glynda found herself swallowing on nothing.

The plan to transfer power from Amber to another recipient… it had to Glynda sounded terrible. Not in practicality, in all fairness, but in morality.

Because they did not know what might happen if another's aura, their very soul, was transferred from one to another.

It had been tested on animals with auras. Rats. It had shown no real adverse effects, but…

But the one with their aura drained died. That was that.

Amber was going to die. Some part of Glynda knew that even if they did nothing, she would perish, but…

But even still, it didn't…

It didn't feel right to risk another. Especially, from what she'd gathered of Ozpin's plan, when that other was a student at Beacon.

Glynda would've taken the risk herself, were she only a few years younger.

"I wish there were another way, but we cannot allow whoever stole Amber's power to have all of it." Ozpin spoke, sighing. "Were the world not so cruel as to deprive the young of their lives."

The words were not what any of them really wanted to hear, and Glynda could see Qrow already stepping up to relieve some of the tension.

"A'ight," Qrow yawned into his hand, belying the seriousness of the conversation that had been had mere moments prior. "I'm off to do some more investigatin'. I'll see if any of the information brokers in Vale have anything, startin' with Junior, though judgin' by the way they haven't the last eight times I've asked, I suspect they probably won't."

"I'll have my men continue working, and I'll send Dr. Polendina's initial assessment, as well as his continual work, to you, Oz, so that some of your own might take a look at it. See if any of them might be able to diagnose something in it."

The man nodded.

Glynda had nothing to say in comparison. She, as she had the last few times there'd been a meeting, was the first to file out of the room. Qrow would leave by using the window, and as per usual, James would stick around to talk with Ozpin one on one.

So, she was alone in the elevator once again.

…And her thoughts drifted to the tiniest of mirthful smiles. Just after Glynda had taken the blankets off her hands, preventing her from folding them herself.

She would do it for her. She'd promised that.

She'd also promised to not let her be invisible, hadn't she? And yet here she was.

Hiding her.

Glynda covered her eyes with the back of her forearm, murmuring quietly to herself.

"I have to be wrong… there's just…"

She pictured sunset eyes, shining like flame as they stared up at her with a raw want. Something that had not been directed at her in…

"There's just no way."

The words felt more and more hollow now.

Like she was lying to herself.

/

Emerald arrived back inside of the Chamomile dorm still entirely conflicted on what she'd learned earlier.

It was… it wasn't damning. The woman hadn't come out and said it had all been a lie, or some such.

…She hadn't, right?

Some part of her continued to scream that she had. Continued to yell and rage and claim that above all, Emerald had, once again, been betrayed. Once again, been stabbed in the back.

Emerald's heart hurt. It hurt like it would, at any moment, split in twain.

And that was before a voice called out to her.

"Emerald?"

She felt a pool of ice forming in her stomach as she turned to see Cinder walking out of the restroom, her hair wet and fresh clothes adorning her body. She'd clearly just gotten out of the shower.

"Yeah. I'm uh… back."

"So?" Cinder asked rather immediately, wasting no time at all. "Obviously today will not be our entire sample size, but did you learn anything? Anything at all? Even the smallest of hints?"

…Emerald felt about as bad in that moment as she had when Cinder had said she regretted taking her, all that time ago. It was a different kind of pain. At that time, Cinder's words had been a stab in the gut. A sharp, deadly blow.

This was a slow disintegration. Like her soul was being dipped in acid and dissolved over a period of hours.

She was not sure which she disliked more.

…

She should tell Cinder about what she'd heard.

She realized it in that moment. It was the right thing to do. To tell Cinder. Even if it might hurt her, even if it might only bring a wedge between Cinder and Glynda that the latter might not even deserve, for she had not heard everything that had been said, and she knew it…

Shouldn't she tell her, regardless?

Cinder's gaze was beginning to grow thinner. She clearly suspected something was up.

She had to make a decision.

…

And yet… she found herself thinking of the look that had been on Cinder's face, when she'd returned to their dorm room the other night. The smile that she had tried with everything she had to hide, and failed because it simply burned too warmly, too powerfully for her to possibly dim.

Ms. Goodwitch had made Cinder feel that.

…

Was there such a thing as a fake and real happiness? It was not a question that Emerald had ever considered, and yet… in that moment…

Emerald found it was all that she could do to smile, to paste an illusion present over her features as powerful as her Semblance.

"Not a single thing." She lied to Cinder. She lied to the woman she loved, because she didn't deserve to have to feel like this as well.

Emerald…

She would carry this question, this burden, alone.

"Nothing at all."

She would protect Cinder from having to face it, too.

End Chapter 31

And now all our major players are carrying a lie.

Cinder is lying to Glynda on principle, as to who she is. Glynda is lying for Cinder's sake, hoping beyond all hope that she's wrong. Mercury is lying for Jaune's sake, but also now his own, and Emerald is lying for Cinder's sake, even if she has to lie to the woman herself.

Secrets are starting to become uncovered. The threads are tearing.

Frankly, it's been a while since I've had such fun writing a series!

Anyways, I'll see you all next week!