Here's a slightly early chapter because I'm awake at 2:46 AM and I just want to post this and go to bed lol.

We're rapidly approaching the climax of a lot of our character arcs. I hope you guys enjoy what's in store here and in the next few chapters!

Chapter 46

Cinder did her best to process the immediate panic that settled in over her the moment that she realized her plan had been, effectively, hijacked.

Yes, Adam Taurus had stolen her plan, was currently executing it, and could out her identity at any time. Yes, Neopolitan had stolen her scroll, and was doing something she shouldn't be doing aboard Ironwood's flagship. Or Cinder assumed that was where she was. She would have to have been to upload the Queen's virus, but her current location could have been anywhere.

She needed to stay calm. Right now, more than anything, that was her goal. She forced herself onto her feet, looking up at the sky above her, towards where Grimm in the hundreds were already bombarding the energy shield atop the arena.

It was an odd thing to watch happen, seeing one's life's work happen right in front of their eyes without their say in it. It should've been a moment of crowning glory, her revenge against this world and everything it had done to her, and instead all she could feel was a primal aversion in her stomach. She watched as the barriers fell, as the Grimm soared down, as one particular Nevermore gunned it directly for her, its talons poised to–

A spear went in one of its eyes, and came out the other. The Nevermore disintegrated perhaps a second before its form would've crushed her into a paste, and Cinder felt herself be shaken back into reality by someone's hand on her shoulder.

"Cinder!?" Pyrrha Nikos, of all people, was right there in front of her, looking horribly concerned. "Are you okay!?"

"…I'm fine."

"You're not fine." Pyrrha shook her head, her jaw tense. "Okay, our first job should be to escort the civilians to safety. Can you help me with that?"

There was something odd about being given what effectively amounted to an order by Pyrrha Nikos. Cinder Fall did not take orders from those she could afford to refuse, and even those she could not refuse she often did her best to make seem like they weren't orders at all, as if they were all really her own will, deep down.

But in that moment, when Pyrrha jolted her out of her own head, she found herself nodding before she worried at all about the logistics of what she was doing.

"Good. Alright, stay close, we'll make our way towards Jaune and the others, protecting civilians along the way, and then we'll make for Beacon! That's where the emergency barricades are being erected!"

It was an odd sort of feeling that balled in her stomach at that. She had already known that. It was, after all, the emergency procedure for Amity this year. Civilians, in the event of an emergency, would be ferried to Beacon, where, theoretically, surrounded by hunters and huntresses, even in training, they would be able to hold out against everything; anything.

And Cinder's plan had called for the White Fang to attack it en masse.

So she knew it was not safe. She knew that the White Fang would soon hit Beacon, that they would bring Grimm and Atlesian machines, and they would do their best to bring the school to its knees. All the better to cause chaos, all the better to be able to rip the Fall Maiden out from under them without anyone realizing until it was far too late.

And now she had to contend with all of that as an enemy of her own plan.

How droll the gods must've thought themselves.

Nevertheless, Cinder made herself conjure Midnight into being, feeling immediately better having that familiar weight in her hands, and nodded towards Pyrrha as the two of them made their way up the stairs of the arena. On their way, they did their best to escort civilians out, and Cinder took potshots at the Grimm flying in the air above them, taking one out of the sky with every arrow. After a while, Pyrrha joined her, and, along with the other hundred or so huntsman and huntresses in the stadium – those in training, and those who had graduated long ago but been in attendance for one reason or another – they managed to down every single Grimm that was immediately threatening those in the stadium.

Cinder knew without doubt that their numbers would be, effectively, endless. The griffons and Nevermore would swarm the sky in the tens of thousands. The numbers they were culling them in now would be entirely ineffective against so large a horde, virtually meaningless. And that was before the Wyvern that Salem had told her would emerge from out of Mt. Glenn was factored into the equation.

It would not be long now, according to what Salem had told her the requirements for its awakening were. If the level of fear in the arena wasn't brought down soon, then…

Well, in a pinch, Cinder could exert some small level of control over the beast, but it would be more leading it to her than anything else. She could not order it to self-destruct or any such thing, as useful of an ability as that would've been.

For now, they made their way to the other members of JNPR, as they'd planned. Xiao-Long and Schnee of RWBY were there as well, and they said that Blake and Ruby had both gone on ahead, though, apparently, blondie suspected Belladonna had something going on, for she'd left the moment the attack started with a grim look upon her face.

"I just… a part of me thinks she might have some idea as to what's going on." Yang murmured below her breath, shaking her head. "The moment that voice came on it was like she was staring off into nothing. I've seen that look before. Something's wrong."

Jaune Arc, of all people, looked frazzled. "I think Blake went after Mercury. They… they have some unfinished business."

Cinder, at any other time, would've probably made quite the deal out of that comment. As things were, it was all she could do to file that piece of information in a corner of her mind, and continue with how things were.

Mercury had some explaining to do once this was over, however.

"Well, we can worry about that later," Weiss Schnee spoke up. "Right now, we should worry about how exactly the Atlesian Knights have turned on everyone! Is it some kind of virus, or bug in the code?"

"A bug wouldn't do this." Cinder broke in. "It has to be a virus directly intended to cause this sort of damage. In my eyes, this is likely what the intruder who broke into the CCT meant to do."

"It was all for this!?" Xiao-Long seemed stunned. "They thought that far ahead? What the hell…"

That would've been a nice boost for her ego on another day. Today it only felt like the universe was making fun of her.

"For now, we should make our way towards the shuttles." Jaune said, effectively taking charge. "Escort as many civilians off of Amity as we can, and then take the last shuttles off."

They all seemed in agreement on that, and Cinder was ready to head on out before Pyrrha tilted her head at her.

"You use swords?"

"Huh?"

"I just… you always used your fists to fight when we sparred." Pyrrha explained, pointing down towards where Midnight had been summoned into her hands. "I've never seen these before. What are they?"

It was only in that moment that Cinder realized just how much of an idiot she was. Just how far she had fallen, the kinds of mistakes she was making. She practically threw Midnight away, shattered the weapons against the concrete ground beneath her and let out a gasping breath of panic. If anyone who knew Midnight had seen her then… that would've been it. Her identity outed. The Fall Maiden revealed, and from what? A mistake?

She was shaking again, and though she knew Pyrrha was calling out to her, taking ahold of her shoulder, and trying to jostle her out of her own head, she was lost, well and truly. She was an idiot. A fool. Someone without a mind to think, someone who had made mistake after mistake after mistake, and was not about to pay for it. That was the only explanation that made sense. This was her reckoning for being as she was. For–

"Cinder!"

The fog hanging about her mind was banished in an instant at the sound of that voice, and she turned with a rasping, terrible breath in time to see Glynda leap over an entire section of the bleachers to reach her, utilizing her semblance to make the jump. She came to a stop just in front of her, breathing heavy but not panting.

"Glynda?" She whispered so very quietly, still unable to hear anything else but Glynda's voice.

"I've come to retrieve you." Glynda spoke, and she could hear a hint of regret in her voice. "Ozpin says that with the attack, this is our only chance. We don't know when they'll make a move on Amber. We have to hurry."

Cinder forced herself to try and be more logical. To abandon emotion for just a moment. That might give her a small window in order to think. She tried to consider all of this from Ozpin's point of view, and came to the conclusion that all of this being a means to an end to steal away Amber's power made sense. Technically, in a manner of speaking, he was right. Only a member of Salem's circle could have planned such an event.

It didn't take one to execute said plan, however.

"I'll assist you all in moving civilians," Glynda said as she drew her riding crop, a foolish tool in any other persons hands, yet a fearsome weapon in her own. "And then I must ask you all to accompany Cinder and I to Beacon. I imagine things are going to get worse there before they get better."

"Why's that?" Nora seemed confused, and a little worried. "I mean, the attack was on Amity, wasn't it?"

"I suspect that their true goal lies in a certain… let us say piece that lays within Beacon. It is guarded quite heavily. For them to attempt to take it by force, they would need quite the substantial army, or…"

"Or an effective distraction." Lie Ren frowned. "And they certainly have that."

"What do you mean by piece, exactly?" Pyrrha Nikos asked, shaking her head. "Is there some sort of… object within Beacon that an assailant might want?"

"I am not at liberty to inform you all of what it is exactly." Glynda sighed. "Suffice it to say that Cinder is in the know, and that for the meantime, none of the rest of you need be. I will inform you of what it is if the situation calls for it. For now, follow. We've people to save."

None sought to argue with that, and so they made their way throughout Amity, picking off Grimm that filtered in a few at a time. Cinder allowed that act, murdering Grimm in the tens of hundreds, to distract her, to keep her mind off of its own ramblings. Idly, she thought she saw a flash of green and orange in the center of the stadium below her, but that was lost along with the rest of her thoughts in a hazy miasma.

As the people fled the stadium, fewer and fewer Grimm were coming towards it, until eventually, the last of the shuttles carrying civilians took off. For only thirty-five or so minutes to have passed since the initial announcement, Cinder found it impressive that Atlas and Beacon's securities had managed to shuttle all the civilians away. They waited a good fifteen minutes there, taking occasional shots at Grimm that came too close, but otherwise simply stewed in their anxiety for a transport shuttle to arrive to carry them back to Beacon.

Cinder got in and took a handlebar at the top. Once they, and a few other stragglers from the tournament, along with some Huntsman who'd been in the stands themselves, had loaded in, the driver shut the doors, and was away within seconds.

The ride to Beacon was, in Cinder's eyes, too quiet.

It was that eerie sort of silence. The kind that seeped into one's soul and played about with one's emotions. Her anxiety only worsened the longer the trip went on, and even knowing that the flight wouldn't take much longer than five minutes, she was at her wit's end.

And then someone placed a hand on her shoulder once more. For a second, she thought it had been Glynda, but when she looked up, it was to see Pyrrha smiling at her with a semi-concerned look on her face.

"Hey." She murmured quietly enough to not be overheard. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." She repeated her earlier statement, and, much like last time…

"Cinder, you don't have to lie. You… don't take this the wrong way, but you look like you're falling apart."

She wanted to rail against that conclusion, but she knew that it was likely quite true. She felt like she was falling apart. Far too many variables were floating around in her head right now. And she was doing her best not to think about what would happen once she gained the Maiden powers, what she would be expected to do.

What would she do!? Would she stay at Beacon, play along? Would she run at the first available opportunity, make her way back to Salem?

A traitorous thought wondered if she might simply stay altogether. Stay with Glynda. Stay with that warmth she'd felt in her heart. Stay where she felt, for the first time in her life, like things might genuinely be–

"–der!"

She snapped back to reality, looking Pyrrha in the eye as she addressed her in a panic. Around her, the others were all looking her way as well. Glynda especially.

"I'm sorry." She shook her head. "I am… I am feeling rather pressured at the moment."

Pyrrha nodded, even as Glynda's face morphed, and her eyes drooped. She seemed to blame herself for that, and Cinder understood why. She assumed that what was pressuring Cinder was the choice of whether or not to take the Maiden's power.

No. That was no pressure at all. None of her plans, even those where she broke from Salem and stayed within Beacon, included not taking the Fall Maiden's power. That had been hers for so very long. It was her destiny, after all, and she'd be remiss not to make use of it.

"I understand." Pyrrha said, taking Cinder's hands and holding them with her own. "We're all under a lot of stress at the moment. If it helps, we're all right here with you, okay? And I know that whatever it is you're struggling with, you're going to make the right choice."

Cinder's eyes widened, even as a few of the other people riding along in the bullhead with them smiled at her, or nodded their heads her way. Glynda herself placed her hand on her upper back, a silent show of her affection that would not reveal anything to those around them.

And that might've been helpful to someone in a normal scenario, someone who'd been saddled with the choice of the Maiden's powers who had no reason to really want them. Someone who was taking them out of a sense of responsibility, but not out of a desire for power.

Someone who was not already struggling to decide whether or not she wanted to give up everything she'd ever known for a chance of something better, at the risk of everything, or to trust the horrid life she'd always had, the constant that was her servitude to evil. For her, it only added further dismay, further conflict to her mind.

And yet… in a way, it made her feel the smallest bit better.

She understood something in that moment that she had not often had the chance to in her lifetime. That there was a very real, palpable chance that this would be the last time she'd see any of the people in this shuttle, minus Glynda herself. Most of them she did not particularly care about. Valkyrie and Ren had been palatable if annoying. Xiao-Long and Schnee she didn't know much at all. And Arc did, at least, have the luxury of having made Pyrrha Nikos happy, which…

Which mattered to her, for some odd reason.

It was not an end all be all kind of thing. But… when she thought of not seeing Pyrrha again, there was a certain part of her that reacted with melancholy. She would miss her, Cinder realized.

And she had done so very poorly in her lifetime at saying goodbye.

So…

"You've been a good friend, Pyrrha." She said after a long time spent silent. "Perhaps the first real friend I ever made in my entire life. I want you to know I am thankful for your help. You were good to me even when I didn't deserve it."

"Everyone deserves people being good to them," Pyrrha said with a smile, before shaking her head. "But Cinder… you sound like you're saying goodbye."

And she could not help but smile then. A small, sad thing, that felt real and weighty.

"Just in case something were to happen." She lied. "I wouldn't want to leave anything left unsaid."

It was all she ever did.

The bullhead touched down on Beacon's landing pad not long after, and their group began to file out.

"I will ask that you all escort myself and Ms. Fall towards the Headmaster's office." Glynda spoke out as they began to power-walk in that general direction. "Once we've arrived, you can fan out and begin to help cull some of the Grimm and White Fang around here."

The others nodded, although Cinder couldn't help but focus on Xiao-Long, who was staring, oddly, at something taking place a way's down the way, almost out of sight. Her eyes suddenly widened, and before any of them could say anything to stop her, she had bolted in that direction.

"Ms. Xiao-Long, wait–"

Glynda had spoken far too late; the girl was already blazing towards where the cafeteria had been set up. Now, it looked like nothing more than a burning ruin, but clearly, something was happening in that general direction.

Cinder had a funny feeling it had something to do with Mercury. That seemed like her luck.

"We still need to move." She spoke to Glynda, snapping her from out of her own head. "Don't we?"

Glynda nodded at her, and they began to pick up the pace once more. The trip towards the Headmaster's office was, largely, inconsequential. Most of the adversaries they faced on their way were dealt with in moments by herself and Glynda, and occasionally Pyrrha and the others would assist. White Fang, Atlesian Knights, and even a stray Paladin attempted to stop them, and all were tossed aside like trash.

As they finally rounded on the building itself, however, Cinder could not quite contain the bile that rose in her throat as she saw Professor Ozpin waiting for them, his posture firm but guarded as he stood in front of the building that led into his office.

He'd waited for them. For her.

This was it, then.

How much longer did she have to think on this? To try and come to some decision? Maybe fifteen minutes? Less? To decide the course of her very life?

It had all seemed so easy when she'd been formulating the plan in the bathroom a month ago, when she'd first figured out she'd be offered the power. Because then it had all seemed so very far away. A problem, assuredly, but one that she would face when she was ready.

Now it was here, and she was not ready.

"Cinder?"

She turned to see Glynda gazing at her with some small concern, and Cinder shook her head. Instead of saying anything, she simply began to jog towards Ozpin, who nodded her way, and gestured towards the doors he was stood in front of.

"I assume you've made up your mind, then?"

"I have." She lied with all the strength that remained within her. "Let's go."

/

It was an odd thing, Mercury couldn't help but think, just how easy it was to make a decision that should've been so difficult.

After all, Adam Taurus had threatened to oust him to the very world. Had threatened to reveal that he, Cinder, and Emerald were in on this plan the entire time. That they'd been the ones to start this plan. That they were terrorists, murderer's, and thieves. That should've meant quite a bit. Perhaps, even, it should have been the bargaining chip that Adam needed to earn all that he wanted and more.

And yet…

He found himself glancing back towards Blake in the moment that Adam finished speaking, as he stepped towards her slowly, calculatedly, like a big cat on the savannah's of eastern Vacuo. And Mercury saw the look on Blake's face, the fear in her eyes, the way she was hesitating more than he had ever seen her before. The way that she wasn't even looking at Adam himself, but past him, seeing things she'd never wanted to see again.

It was almost on instinct. He didn't even have a say in the matter.

He simply stepped between them.

Both parties reacted to that. Blake, to her credit, gave a quiet gasp, as if she'd been snapped from whatever vision her mind had cast upon her. He could feel her aura relax somewhat, and he heard the sound of rasping steel, of Gambol Shroud being drawn. He wondered, briefly, if she would attack him while his guard was down, but then, he had a feeling she wouldn't.

Adam, far more predictably, simply sneered at him.

"Really?" He scoffed at him. "Are you seriously doing this?"

Mercury couldn't help but bark out a laugh in response. "It certainly seems like it."

Admittedly, in a straight one on one, Adam Taurus was probably a bit stronger than he was. Mercury had been trained from birth, essentially, but that had not been in terms of becoming a front-line fighter. No, he'd been raised as an assassin, a killer. He had not been raised to be a juggernaut like Adam Taurus, someone who took hits and dished them back tenfold. In all honesty, Mercury didn't really match up well to Adam's skillset.

He'd have to make it work, regardless. It wasn't as if he could not win. He'd put the odds somewhere around 60-40 in Adam's favor.

"What are you doing, Mercury?"

He didn't turn to look at Blake as she addressed him; to give Adam the moment of leeway he'd need to attack him would be foolish at best, and suicidal at worst, but he did cock his head somewhat.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the question."

"Aren't you…" Blake hesitated. "I thought you were with them."

"He is." Adam did his best to sew distrust between them. "He's worked alongside myself and the White Fang for months now. He's a murderer and a terrorist. Same as his boss, Cinder Fall, same as Emerald Sustrai, and the same as little Ms. Neopolitan. They're all criminals."

Mercury flinched somewhat as he heard Blake take a step, presumably, backwards, away from him.

"Yeah." Mercury decided that pretending otherwise would do him no good. "That's all true. But we've had a bit of a falling out in recent times with you and your little goons, Adam."

"Hmph. More like your boss proved herself a coward in the end." Adam sneered. "Someone who would pull out of their masterstroke at the last possible moment. An idiot, well and truly. But I suppose I should thank her. She has left all of this room for my people to take up the reins, to prove to the world our strength. The rage of the faunus!"

Mercury still couldn't look at Blake. He wanted to; more than anything, he wanted to try and gauge where her mind was at. But he would just have to hope, he would just have to assume that she was on his side.

And she would have to assume the same about him.

But he could do his best to make that decision just the smallest bit easier.

"Blake, I understand if you don't exactly trust me." Mercury started, shaking his head as he took a single step backwards, mirroring the way that Adam approached the two of them. "I certainly can't blame you. Not with the less than stellar track record I've built up in the past few months."

Blake didn't respond, but she did back up with him, at the same pace, a step for every one of Adam's.

"But right here, right now, I need you to put your faith in me. I've not… it's a bit of a weird thing to admit, but I don't even know what I'm doing here anymore. Why it is that I'm standing here, and not working alongside this asshole. It's certainly what I would've done a good few months back, when we first got here."

"Yes, listen to him, Blake." Adam laughed. "Listen as he tells you exactly what he is. Nothing more than I am. He is your enemy, Blake."

"I don't think I have to tell you that Adam Taurus is attempting to manipulate you into doing something stupid." Mercury called back to Blake, earning a leering snarl from the man himself. "You seem to have more than enough experience with that already. What I will tell you is that… this place has changed me. No, it's changed all of us. Cinder, and Emerald, too. Not Neo, honestly I'm pretty sure she's still a sadistic piece of shit, but those two are the same as me. We've gone native, so to speak."

Again, Blake said nothing. Mercury wished that didn't affect him, that he could simply keep going without caring about whether or not Blake was paying attention, but that was difficult when he was starting to realize that if Blake didn't trust him, in a free-for-all, he wasn't sure he could protect her and himself at the same time.

It would, likely, be Adam's game to win.

"You said the other day that you trusted me," Mercury said, and then he laughed, a harsh, mirthless thing. "And to be honest, I can't help but think that wasn't your smartest move. After all, I'm not exactly the most reliable person in the world."

"And you say I'm trying to manipulate her." Adam laughed. "Do you even hear him, Blake?"

Blake let out a shuddering breath behind him, and Mercury's brow furrowed.

"But that trust… I've never had anyone put that kind of trust in me before. Not in my entire life. Everyone I've ever known has simply used me, and taken advantage of me, and I've done the same to them in return. I thought that was the way of the world. I thought that was just how things were. But I think being here has changed that; changed me. So…"

And then, Mercury did something really stupid.

He turned around.

And he saw the look on Blake's face, the way that she paled almost instantly. He heard the sound of rasping steel behind him, of Adam Taurus about to take advantage of a turned back. He understood that if he was wrong, if placing his faith in Blake was a mistake, then–

He didn't have the time to even finish that thought. Blake was already moving. She dashed past him, her body blurring with the speed of her charge.

And he heard the sound of clashing steel behind him. He heard groans of exertion, the trembling of blades caught against one another, each trying to force the other back. And when he turned back around, it was to see Blake having caught Adam's blade upon her own at the last possible second.

"You're…" Blake gritted out between her teeth. "An idiot!"

He laughed. "Ye-ep."

"An actual fool!"

"Mhm."

Blake snarled. "Well!? What are you waiting for!?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean–"

"HELP ME!"

"Oh, shit, right!"

And then he kicked Adam Taurus in the face, sending him spiraling backwards into a towering pile of cafeteria tables.

And if he was being honest with himself?

It was just about the most satisfying thing he'd done in his entire life.

End Chapter 46

Short one because the next one kind of has to have a lot of stuff in it. It will basically be THE chapter, so to speak. I hope you all look forward to that!