Welp, I felt like releasing an extra chapter this week because I'm excited about Chapter 42. So here's 41. 42 will still come out this next week (on Monday or Tuesday, we'll have to see).
Chapter 41
Cinder Fall stared at the interior of the elevator that led up to Headmaster Ozpin's office with some small curiosity.
It would not have, normally, drawn her attention, of course. It was a metal panel with two buttons, ground floor and top floor. The actual elevator had some wooden accents around the metal, complete with a bar on the side that one could hold onto.
None of that really drew Cinder's eye like the dent in the wall, however.
It was an impressive mark to leave in such material. It wasn't as if the metal was particularly strong, of course; it was a thin sheet that housed some manner of electrical wiring. But even still, punching it hard enough to leave quite that deep a dent was telling.
Someone had not been very happy on a trip away from Ozpin's office.
Cinder supposed she would simply have to wonder on that front.
It took a surprisingly long time for the elevator to reach the top. A good minute, if not more. Cinder was nearly certain that the elevator could have made the trip faster, but then, there were a number of reasons why it might be made to be slower than was contemporary.
Eventually, however, the door did open, and Cinder stepped out into Professor Ozpin's office – Ozma's current cradle of power – with a short, calming breath.
Because the scene she walked into, had she not known exactly why it was she was called up here, would've normally sent her into a panic. Even knowing what she did, it was enough to have her nerves on edge.
Qrow Branwen. James Ironwood. Professor Ozpin. And...
Glynda was there, too.
She was not given very much time to focus on her before Ozpin cleared his throat, and gestured for her to step forward, towards an empty seat in front of his desk.
It was not a position she would have liked to take normally. After all, she would be flanked on both sides. Behind her, Branwen, and Ironwood, and in front, Ozpin, and Glynda. She forced herself to set such fears aside. She knew why they'd called her here. She knew she was safe. That she hadn't been discovered.
A part of her that never ceased to ask if she was wrong had her swallowing on nothing, regardless.
"It's good to see you, Ms. Fall, and thank you for coming, of course." Ozpin nodded to her, and she returned the gesture. "I understand you must be wondering why it is we've summoned you?"
That was not the case. Cinder knew exactly why they'd summoned her. In fact, even if she were taking that question from the perspective of her persona, she still knew why it was she was here. And if that was the case, then she'd rather not waste any more time than she had to in order for her to take the Fall Maiden's strength.
Or, well, given what Glynda had told her, at the very least speed up the time it would take to convince Ozpin that she was well and truly prepared for such a... responsibility.
"Gln–" She realized that referring to Glynda by her first name in present company might not be a grand idea. "Ms. Goodwitch already informed me of your intentions."
Ozpin's eyes widened somewhat, and from the sounds of shuffling behind her, Cinder imagined that Qrow and Ironwood were similar.
"Oh?" Cinder couldn't help but detect the faintest bit of negativity hanging about Ozpin's tone. "And what has she told you, exactly?"
That was actually a decent question. She hadn't thought of it before, but she was starting to realize that Glynda had likely told her about the Fall Maiden without any instruction to do so from Ozpin. She had, effectively, breached protocol, and rather heavily.
Had she known such a thing beforehand, she would've simply allowed the man to tell her the story. The tale of the sisters and the grumpy old man. But as things were, there wasn't much use in pretending any further.
So, she might as well just say it.
"She told me that there is truth to the tale of the Maidens. Those gifted magic by an old wizard after they aided him. That the current Maiden of Fall is dying, and you need someone to replace her. And that I have been chosen for this position."
The room was shockingly quiet for a good while, then. Cinder briefly wondered why, up until Ozpin turned ever so slightly, just enough so that he could gaze at Glynda out of the corner of his eye.
He regarded her with a good deal of scorn. It was surprising to see such open hostility here, of all places. It honestly reminded her somewhat of the way Watts and her might argue had their plans differed, as they often did.
And yet, despite that, despite the way that Ozma stared at her, Glynda did not back down. She did not apologize, or even look away. She matched Ozpin's stare with one of her own. It was cold, and Cinder wasn't sure exactly why, but she could tell the woman was furious.
...There was something going on there, although Cinder didn't know exactly what.
Finally, with a sigh from Ozma, the silent war came to an end, and the man turned back towards her with a smile that seemed incredibly fake.
"Well, if Glynda has already explained such things, then I suppose that saves us some time." Ozpin stood from his desk, and stepped towards the elevator. "Come, Ms. Fall. There is a place I wish to show you."
/
The ride into the basement of Beacon Academy – no, this was no basement. This was an underground vault of some kind – was far shorter in time than the trip to the top of Ozma's cradle, which seemed surprising, given just how far down they must've been.
The ceiling seemed to stretch on for an eternity, even though Cinder knew, just by the sensation, that they couldn't have traveled any more than a hundred or so meters into the ground.
Still, she suspected she already knew what it was that awaited their little ensemble at the end of this hall. There was only one thing that would be important enough to conceal a space of this size for.
And just as predicted, at the end of the cavernous expanse, bathed in a dim light, and encased inside of a glass cylinder...
Was Amber.
The Fall Maiden.
"She is dying, as I'm sure you can tell." Ozpin spoke as they stopped a few feet in front of the life support machine. "She has... well, we are not entirely sure, but it cannot be long. At best, she will make it to the end of the month. At worst... she could go any day."
Cinder nodded her head. If Amber died... well, that was that. She would get the power; she was nearly certain of it. Ozpin was, too, which was why he had gone to such efforts to make sure that the power would not fall into the wrong hands.
Of course, then he'd chosen her, so his efforts were effectively moot.
"Do you wish for me to accept the power now?" Cinder asked, genuinely hoping he'd simply allow it.
"No. I do not." Ozpin shook his head, confirming her suspicions. "This is not just a power. I need you to understand that. You are a rather intelligent woman, as Glynda often tells me, so I'm sure I do not need to tell you that Amber did not end up like this out of nowhere. She was hunted, and now, because of that, she will die."
Cinder understood what the man was trying to say. It wasn't subtle. If she took the power, then she too would be hunted. Of course, she wouldn't be, or at least not by Salem. She was, after all, in league with her.
The moment she had the power, she had no reason to remain here in Beacon. She'd simply wait for the right opportunity, and then...
And then she'd be gone. She'd disappear into the night.
...
She was not sure why she looked towards Glynda, then. Not sure why when she thought of leaving here with the power, she felt a sickness bubbling up within her.
"...How long would you like me to deliberate, then?"
Ozpin was silent a moment at that. He looked down to her, and he studied her thoroughly. For a moment, Cinder found herself worried, but eventually, Ozpin did speak up.
"I take it you believe your mind to be made up, then?"
That... Cinder was, admittedly, not expecting to be called out in such a way, but it appeared that Ozpin had managed to figure out her intent. She was going to take the power. However long she thought about it didn't matter.
"I see no reason to delay if I'm convinced. Glynda said that this was incredibly important. I believe her."
Ozpin nodded his head, even as she noticed Glynda's posture stiffening out of the corner of her eye.
"...I understand what you're saying, Ms. Fall. But I feel I must be forthright with you. You deserve such, with the risk you're taking. The procedure that we are planning on utilizing to transfer Amber's powers to you is not at all a tried and tested one. It is using a prototype machine, something that has not even truly been tested, for a purpose different than it was originally designed for. We have, of course, modified the device extensively to what we believe will be a successful configuration, but there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong."
"You believe they will?"
"I tend to think rather pessimistically in most matters. And in this case, I feel that being completely honest with you might be what it takes for me to get through to you that this is something you should consider." Ozpin paused a moment, before continuing. "We cannot transfer the Maiden's power on its own. Amber's aura, or at least bits and pieces of it, will come with it. As much as I would like to pretend otherwise, we do not know what will happen if a human's aura is transplanted into another's. Aura is, in essence, the soul made manifest."
She nodded along.
"What I am saying is that there is a very, very real possibility, that if we did this transfer, Amber's personality may come into contact with your own. May even supersede your own. Amber may be moved into your body, take over your consciousness, and, essentially, kill you."
Cinder couldn't help stilling at that, and the complete and utter silence of the vault around them only hammered in that feeling.
It was true, after all, what Ozpin was saying. She did not want to admit it, but how she'd originally planned on taking all the rest of the power had been simply to kill Amber, perhaps to shoot an arrow through her heart and wait for the power to flood into her.
But now...
Now this procedure was a risk, wasn't it?
"I am glad to see that you seem to actually be considering the potential consequences of this." Ozpin said, and though he did sound glad, he was not at all smiling. "Rest assured, Ms. Fall, that you are not at all required to take on this power. It is an option you are being offered."
Cinder could've laughed, really.
Because that was falser than anything she'd heard in her life.
An option? A choice?
No. She was Cinder Fall.
From the very moment Salem had found her, she had never once had a choice in the matter.
She was to be the Fall Maiden.
And that was that.
Still... for now, at least, she could nod her head, and pretend like she was actually concerned. But she was not concerned. For she was certain, above all else, that she would survive.
For why had she lived so long, gone on for so long, suffered for so long, if not for this? Why had she gone through everything that had assaulted her if not to have this power gifted to her. The thought that another would swoop in at the final hurdle, and, like a parasite, rob her of her destiny?
That would not happen.
It could not.
And if it did...
Well...
What did it matter, anyway?
/
Mercury wasn't exactly surprised when the rest of his team decided to spend the remainder of their day inside of Beacon. In fact, he'd grown to expect such introverted tendencies from all of them. On a normal day, he would've followed along behind, much the same.
Today, however, was not a normal day.
No, today, Mercury had been invited out by one Jaune Arc, alongside his team, JNPR, and RWBY, Blake's team.
And so, despite wanting nothing more than to crawl into his bed and play SSS for the rest of the day, he was walking the fairgrounds with the other nine idiots he was being forced to spend the day with.
...Forced. Listen to him talk, as if they'd ordered him to be there.
The fairgrounds were quaint in the way that anything made by a gaggle of incompetent students was quaint. They were barely held together stands of wood and other cheap materials, alongside some other stands that had clearly had about a hundred times the effort put into them, which had been set up by corporations looking to make some extra money off of the festivities.
Mercury himself was hanging about Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang at a food stall, while the others members of RWBY and JNPR were off looking for games to play, and just in general causing a ruckus for Ren and poor little Ms. Schnee.
"So, Merc, how've you and the team been?" Yang spoke between slurping up copious amounts of noodles, alongside Blake, who seemed to be eating... a bowl filled with entire fish. Not... not skinned, or prepared fish. Raw fish. The kind that would be displayed in front of a meat stand.
...
Mercury had long since learned to keep his mouth shut when he didn't want an answer to a question.
"Good enough, I guess." Mercury commented absently, sipping from the rim of his ramen, which he had long since finished. "Emerald's got a girlfriend now, so that's new."
"Penny, right?"
"Yeah, that girl." Mercury shrugged. "She's kind of weird, but Em's got a thing for her, so eh, I guess that's whatever."
"Any," Yang arched her eyebrows. "Lucky ladies catch your eye there, Merc?"
A single eyebrow rose. "You're not hitting on me, right?"
"I am not."
"Okay good." He shook his head.
"What do you mean, good!?"
Blake snorted.
Yang shot her a betrayed glare, and Blake had to place a hand over her mouth to avoid spitting out her food.
"Ugh, no one appreciates my feminine charms here, it seems." Yang shook her head, before turning towards the other two members of their little group. "Oi, Pyrrha, I'm hot, right?"
Pyrrha went scarlet at the question, and laughed rather awkwardly as she scratched the side of her head. "Uhm... I don't believe I'm really... one to judge?"
Yang narrowed her eyes. Jaune whispered something in Pyrrha's ear, a grin on his face.
"I mean yes, of course you are, Yang." Pyrrha spoke, smiling with fake cheer. "Most indubitably?"
"Good answer, Pyrrha."
The group laughed at the two's antics, and though Mercury wasn't among them, he did crack a smile. There was something oddly relaxing about it all; just sitting, and eating and shooting the shit with other people without having to consider what each of them was really thinking beneath their friendly veneers, without having to worry about whether or not they were actually trying to off him, or if they knew who he was, or...
...Well, suffice it to say, Beacon certainly had its charms.
"Alright, I have to ask, since I've been holding this in for like, months," Yang turned back towards him, shot him an amused glance, and then said. "What's going on with Cinder and Goodwitch?"
Mercury's entire frame froze upon that question being uttered. It wasn't as if the topic was taboo, or something, or that Cinder had forbade them from discussing it...
It was more that he'd have been perfectly content going through his entire life having not had to discuss the love life of his megalomaniac boss, who had on multiple occasions threatened to leave him in an unmarked grave not a year and a half ago.
And now she was making kissy-faces at hot blondes. It was odd how life worked out like that.
Mercury would never say that Cinder didn't have taste, though. Glynda Goodwitch had it going on.
...Though that was really beside the point.
"I will admit, I have been curious about these things as well," Nikos seemed embarrassed to say such a thing, even past her obvious interest. "I spend an awful lot of time around Cinder sparring, and if there is one thing she talks about more than combat patterns, it is Ms. Goodwitch. It is clear that something is going on between them."
"Yeah, that's pretty obvious." Jaune commented.
Mercury nodded his head. "They're not as subtle as they'd like to think they are, no." He rubbed at the back of his neck, wondering how exactly he wanted to word this. "Well... it's kind of..."
"Are they fucking?" Xiao-Long asked without any tact at all.
Everyone at the noodle stand – including the shopkeeper, a balding old man with white hair that Mercury could've sworn he'd seen before in Vale – shot the woman a glare at that, and Yang just shrugged. "Hey, I had a thought, and I said it."
"Yes, and you should learn to do that less." Blake rolled her eyes, ignoring Yang's complaints on her choice of rebuke. "You may continue, Mercury."
He nodded his head, amused by the blanket dismissal of Yang's words.
"Right, so... Basically, at the start of the year, Goodwitch was all over our team. At the time she was just helping to get us settled in, but then Cinder, Ren and Valkyrie were all from the same village. Goodwitch helped to set that connection up."
"I had completely forgotten about that!" Pyrrha gasped. "Looking back, that was perhaps a few days before Cinder and I first sparred. Nora was so very excited to have a… what was it Jaune?"
"A village sister, I think?"
"Yes, a village sister!" Pyrrha chucked lightly. "To think I'd not have had such a wonderful training partner… no, a wonderful friend without her actions. It's almost impossible to imagine."
Mercury was fairly certain that the fact that it had been Goodwitch to start all of that probably had been brought up at some point, but then, it had been roughly eight months ago. It was no fault on Pyrrha that she'd simply forgotten such a thing.
Mercury certainly had.
"Anyways, suffice it to say that even then, Cinder had some interest in Goodwitch. I don't even know if she knew how she felt at the time. It's not really..." It was a hard thing to have to explain, but Mercury was going to try.
Well, up until Blake cut him off.
"She didn't know what she was feeling because she had never been in a position to feel that way before, right?"
The entire group looked to Blake at that, who sat sturdy despite the attention of them all. "I guess I just... she has the same eyes as the two of us. Perhaps hers are even more... dim than ours."
Mercury nodded his head, conceding the truth of the matter. "Basically, what Blake said. None of us, as I'm sure you're all aware, came from very great backgrounds. Cinder had a crush, or, well, more like she was turned on by Goodwitch, and didn't actually know she was. So, she kept going to see her. Over and over and over again."
"And eventually she fell for her?"
"Something like that." Mercury shrugged, unsure of the truth himself. "You'd have to ask her if you want the real answer, and somehow I doubt she's going to give it to you."
"What a cop out." Yang snorted. "So... how far have they gone?"
"Is it only sex in this brain of yours?" Blake asked as she poked the side of Yang's head. "Because if it is, then that would explain your grades."
Yang glared at Blake. "Hey! I have a B average!"
Blake still looked victorious.
"I don't think they have." Mercury answered honestly, even without complete information. "They're both dancing around each other way too much for that to be the case. If anything, I'd be surprised if they've even kissed yet."
"Seriously!?" Yang looked actually disappointed. "Well, you cannot tell Coco this. I bet her a hundred lien that they were already eh... well acquainted, as it were."
"Oh, so now you dance around the subject." Blake sounded exasperated, even as Yang stuck her tongue out at her.
Still, the fact that Yang and Coco apparently had a betting pool going as to whether or not Cinder and Goodwitch had gone at it yet...
Yeah, that didn't actually surprise him all that much.
"I think they're cute together." Pyrrha commented a bit out of nowhere. "I know some people might find their relationship a bit... odd, and perhaps even unethical, but I think... When I met Cinder, I could tell that there was always something going on beneath the surface. She was always thinking about other things, even when she was talking right to you. But nowadays, she's calmed down quite a bit. I think that's thanks to what Ms. Goodwitch has done for her."
Nikos was probably right, even if her words, about having known that Cinder was hiding something, briefly caused his heart to skip.
He ignored such feelings as Jaune laughed himself. "Yeah. She was uh... intense about getting me and Pyrrha to go to the dance together. She took me to an empty classroom and ordered me to ask you stuff about you not having a partner for it."
Pyrrha blushed, but she nodded and took Jaune's hand. "That too. I don't think the Cinder who arrived at Beacon would've thought to do something like that."
Mercury knew for sure that they were right. She wouldn't have.
The Cinder that arrived at Beacon had come with a singular goal in mind, and that had been to acquire the Maiden's power. The relic, whatever the hell it was, had always been secondary in Cinder's eyes, even if she'd been rather clear that to her master, it was the more important piece of the two that Beacon was holding.
But to her, the only thing that had ever mattered was the power she thought she was destined for.
Mercury could respect that, even if a part of him thought it was a foolish thing.
And yet, she was soon to be given all of it and more, wasn't she? To be offered the Fall Maiden's powers on a silver platter.
It seemed good things did happen to bad people.
"Alright, I don't know about everyone else, but I'm full." Yang said as she pushed away from her chair, and let out a burp. "What's say we find the rest of our teams and go hit up the games?"
Mercury thought that sounded absolutely dreadful, given his last experience with carnival games had gone... poorly. Still, if the rest of the group was going, he could probably be convinced to partake.
...He had a score to settle with a shooting game, after all.
And yet, as they walked towards the more jovial section of the fairgrounds, Mercury couldn't quite help but feel a pair of eyes watching him.
He turned around, trying to spy whoever it was, but...
No one.
There was no one looking his way. Just a crowd of people going about their days.
...
Maybe he really was getting paranoid.
...And yet as Mercury turned back around, and rejoined up with the rest of his group...
He could've sworn he felt those eyes again.
/
It was a while later, perhaps two or so hours of festival games behind them, that Blake and Jaune got him alone. It had been under the guise of hanging out and chatting a bit more, but Mercury had known it probably had something to do with the secrets between them. So, he wasn't much surprised when Blake finally asked, "So, about Neo..."
"I thought we agreed. No saying anything. Period."
"We did." Blake said, before she sighed and looked him in the eye. "Alright, fine, I've been thinking. And thinking more. Too much, maybe, but… look. I'll be straight. I know you're lying to me about Neo."
That was an unexpectedly forward statement. Mercury was caught off guard by it almost entirely.
"I've no idea what you're insinuating."
"Really? No idea?" Blake eyed him, and he had a feeling that his initial choice of words hadn't been the best. In his defense, espionage really wasn't his thing. "I don't think you're a threat. I can tell that you mean it, what you say. No one could fake the way that you act around us, not unless they were a master of controlling their emotions, and no offense, you're not."
He took no offense. It was simply the truth.
"But Neo... the footage from the fight against the two hunters they faced emerged. She worked effortlessly well with Torchwick. They were bested by being completely outmatched in terms of raw power, but in combined technique, they may've even had the edge. You don't have that kind of connection with someone you hate. With someone who's threatening your friends life and making you work for them at gunpoint. It simply doesn't happen."
Mercury swallowed without meaning to. It was... Blake's accusation was hitting a bit too close to home.
And Blake knew based on his reaction. She knew immediately. "Gods damnit, Mercury." She hissed out between clenched teeth. "What the hell is she, then? Is she one of Torchwick's people? Does she have something on you?"
"It's..." He shook his head, growling. "Look, it's complicated, alright?"
"Clearly..." Jaune muttered, before going red. "Er... sorry. Shouldn't have said anything."
"Uncomplicate it." Blake spoke simply.
"I can't."
"Of course, you can't." Blake rolled her eyes, letting out a grating sigh. "Of fucking course, you can't... Mercury, you need to understand something. I'm not willing to risk people on this. I've had someone I trusted turn out to be... No. Adam turned out to be a monster. I trusted him. Loved him. And it didn't matter."
Blake looked him dead in the eye, and he barely had the strength to meet her gaze.
"You're my friend, Mercury. I believe the two of us understand one another better than most people would. We're similar, you and I."
It was a shared emotion; Mercury was surprised to find. Blake really was an odd sort of kindred spirit. Her life as a terrorist... his life as an assassin...
"But I love my team. I love Yang, and Ruby, and Weiss. I won't let Neo hurt them, or even risk such a thing happening. So you tell me exactly what's going on, right here, right now, or I go to Ozpin as soon as I'm back to Beacon."
It was as clear an ultimatum as he was going to get.
And Mercury couldn't see any way out of this.
He'd managed to bullshit his way through two of these conversations by this point, but he'd learned the universe had a liking to the rule of threes. He was going to have to face this here and now, he could feel it.
"...Alright, then." He spoke, maintaining eye contact with Blake even as her eyes widened ever so slightly, caught off guard by how easy it had been to convince him. "Fine then. The truth."
Jaune looked back and forth between them. "So... the story you told about Neo having a friend that Torchwick was holding captive..."
"A lie." Mercury admitted, earning a small gasp from Jaune. "I made it up."
Blake gave the tiniest little nod.
"So, what do you want to know?"
"Is she a threat?"
"If you push her, yes." He admitted, watching as Blake took a breath. "If you let any of what I might tell you slip, then I imagine she would become quite a threat. What I told you about her semblance is true. She can morph into anyone, and occasionally anything. Do not underestimate her."
"...And the reason you haven't gone to Ozpin?"
"Because I can't."
"Is she threatening you?"
"No."
"Is she your friend, then?"
"We're acquaintances."
Blake's eyes narrowed.
"...You aren't giving me very satisfying answers, Mercury."
"I don't have much to give. I was being honest when I said that I can't answer your questions, Blake. I don't have a ton of choice here."
Jaune looked at Mercury with wide eyes. "Are you like... in too deep, or something?"
He laughed. "Yeah, I guess I am. Way, waaaaay too deep."
Blake shook her head. "This is all... Mercury, this is ridiculous. Let's go to Ozpin! If we tell him this–"
"No." He was curt. He did not lead her on. "That's not an option."
"Why!?"
"I can't tell you."
Blake shoved him back against the building they'd chosen to hide behind to have this conversation, and while Mercury's aura absorbed the blow, Blake still had him pinned.
"W-Woah, guys!"
"Mercury..." Blake's breaths were horribly unsteady. "I don't want to turn you in. Do you understand that!?"
"I think I do, yeah."
"Then answer the question!"
He swallowed hard. "...I told you. I'm in too deep."
"With who!?" Blake was being quiet, despite her outburst, but she was clearly losing her ability to keep her cool. "Is it Cinder!? Emerald? You and Neo and Torchwick!?"
"I can't answer that."
"WHY!?"
"Because I can't risk your lives like that."
Blake stilled. She looked up at him, and must've seen the honesty in his eyes, for she waited for him to speak without interrupting.
"Risking my life... that's easy. It's something I've always done. Since the day I killed my father, I've been running on what felt like borrowed time. So, risking myself is easy... but risking you? The both of you?"
He looked between them, and then laughed. "I can't. So... I know I have no right to ask you to trust me. Not after all of this. But I swear... I'm not going to let anyone hurt you if I can help it. I swear on my life, however little that means."
Blake stared at him for a long, long time after that. To be fair to her, Jaune was doing the same, albeit with a lot less intensity. It felt, briefly, like Blake was measuring her options in real time. Running through every little scenario she could conjure up. And she wasn't satisfied with any of them, at least, that was what Mercury thought.
...But eventually, she did speak.
"...Last time... when you let slip the name's Branwen and Schnee, I knew you were lying. I already knew, even then, and yet... I let you go."
Mercury didn't say anything.
And then Gambol Shroud buried itself into the metal an inch from his face.
Mercury, despite his metal legs, was no robot. He flinched.
"Do not..." Blake was completely, totally serious. "Do not make me regret this. I do trust you. Despite the lies, despite it all, I trust you. The real you, beneath all the walls you try to put up around yourself."
He couldn't find it in himself to say anything.
"...But if you're lying, and someone gets hurt..." Blake's eyes lost a bit of their luster. The golden tint of them turning almost brown as the light left them. "I'm not going to hesitate. Do you understand?"
Mercury couldn't help it. He just smiled.
"Yeah." He answered.
"More than you know, I understand."
/
A figure reentered the crowd some five minutes after Mercury, Belladonna, and Arc exited out from behind the building they'd chosen as cover for their conversation, and reintegrated into the festival.
This figure waltzed along as if everything was fine. As if nothing of note was wrong. But really...
The mind of Neopolitan was swirling with fury.
She had, of course, realized just how far gone her 'compatriots' really were from how they'd once pledged themselves. Heartless killers who'd threaten the lives of anyone they needed to in order to get what they wanted, undone by such petty things as bonds and connection. By a few friendly faces.
She'd long since understood that. But this... this was...
They hadn't just gone native...
They'd told others about her.
Other students. Liabilities. People who could, and had threatened to, take information about her to one of the most powerful people on Sanus.
And that...
Neo's eyes narrowed.
That was inexcusable.
Threatening Roman, she'd put up with, because she'd had no choice but to. Dealing with the annoyances of life as a student, she'd put up with, for Roman's sake, for their sake. Dealing with the ongoing drama of the three idiots she was rooming with as they each became more and more accustomed to this goody-two-shoes stick, she'd managed not to comment on...
But this? Telling some random kids about her? Revealing her secrets to them?
It was the final straw. Neo could only take so much bullshit.
If they were oh so willing to throw her under the bus for their schemes, willing to threaten the life of the only person she'd ever given a shit about, and then leave him out to dry in an Atlas prison when he was no longer needed, even after all they'd sacrificed...
Then that was fine. Completely fine, even.
Because Neo could play that game, too.
End Chapter 41
I'm sure that's fine.