Day early on the chapter here. I come bearing the unfortunate news that I will not be moving this story back to weekly this week, although on my next upload I may, we'll see. I think I'm going to use the time that I'm not having to write this story to finish out Paved, which is coming to a conclusion in 15-ish chapters. Once that story is finished being written, I'll move Cinderella back to weekly.
Now, without further ado...
Start Chapter 21
Jaune has heard very little about Adam Taurus that he feels paints the man in a flattering light. He might even go so far as to say that he has a rather negative opinion on him.
So, to hear that they're supposedly going to help him doesn't exactly leave the greatest taste in Jaune's mouth.
Their group, himself, Pyrrha, Cinder, Ren and Nora, and Emerald and Mercury as well, who join up with them in the corridor leading into the dining hall, all enter into it with a tense air about them. Salem is sitting at the head of the table, as she always seems to be, and fixing them with an even, almost casual smile.
"Ah, it's so good to see everyone." Salem speaks, and Jaune can't quite tell, but he doesn't think the emotion there is fake, despite everything that Cinder's said about the woman. "I hope you've all been practicing your magic. It will begin to slip away from you, the control, if you do not exercise it daily."
Jaune isn't alone in getting antsier as the woman steers the conversation away from the serious, and more towards what he himself had begun to associate Salem with. That almost charming woman who'd been so disconnected with the world, who Jaune had explained a turn of phrase to, had smiled alongside…
Thinking about the fact that she's going to order them to assist a terrorist, one who'd cut off his friends arm, makes him sick to his stomach.
He's not the only one, if the way that his team are staring at the woman with barely concealed aggravation is anything to go by.
"Ah, but I suppose such talks will have to wait until later, no?" Salem looks over each of them, humming lightly as she continues. "I assume you all already know what it is you'll be doing, judging by the looks on your faces?"
She is correct. Jaune nods himself, and the rest of his team follows suit a moment or so after.
"Then I will keep my own summary brief. You will leave for Menagerie in roughly an hour. Cinder will pilot you to the island on one of our airships, albeit she may need assistance from either of her enforcers."
The reason why being her loss of an arm, which… Jaune can't tell if the woman has purposefully poked and prodded away at Cinder, or if she has done so accidentally, but he feels giving the Queen of the Grimm the benefit of the doubt is sort of dumb.
Even more so when Cinder tenses, and he can feel the pain of her clenching her teeth in his own jaw.
"When you arrive, you will be guided in by a Faunus named… Well, I've forgotten, but he'll be wearing a hood and considering himself rather important. One of two brothers, I believe I recall Hazel telling me. Either way, you will follow his instruction, albeit making sure that they understand that at any moment, you could, if you wished, demolish everything they stood for, and tear it to the ground on but a whim. We cannot have our allies thinking us mere servants to call upon when they need muscle."
Jaune swallows.
"As for the proverbial man of the hour," Salem sighs. "I care very little for the goals of this Adam Taurus. Whether or not he is successful, I doubt that you all would not be able to bring the White Fang to your heel if you so needed to. Whatever the means, have the White Fang subservient to us within the week."
That… seems like a bit of a tall order to Jaune, but judging by the way that Cinder is still angry, but not at all concerned, he gets the odd feeling this isn't a particularly challenging task, or, at least, she doesn't consider it as much.
Jaune finds himself scared and fascinated in equal measure at that.
"Regardless, I am mostly sending the seven of you because I felt a bit bad keeping you all cramped up within the castle. I felt you all might enjoy the excuse to get out and stretch your legs. I have been told that Evernight can be a tad stifling, even if I don't much see any truth to that myself."
No one says a word, and Jaune finds himself mentally remarking that the woman just sort of has that… air to her. She is not to be questioned. Not to be argued with. Her word is law, and not only does she know it, she is unafraid to make any of them know it as well.
Jaune also can't help but wonder what it is the woman sees when she looks upon this place, if not an utterly terrifying, very much evil castle.
"Well then, I do believe that's enough from me." Salem smiles at them all, as if casually discussing the weather, and claps her hands. "You should probably get ready to leave. I doubt the White Fang will have clean clothing for you to wear, nor that they would offer such willingly."
Jaune is close to commenting that they don't exactly have very many spare outfits, on account of coming here on the back of a Giant Nevermore with quite literally the clothes on their backs, but he decides against it, realizing such a thing simply isn't worth it.
"Do not forget to practice your magics while you're gone." Salem calls after them as they begin to make to leave. "Oh, and do me a favor… make it so that Taurus boy does not go and do anything that you'll regret, Cinder? He seems awfully much like you. And people like that tend to need to be reeled in once in a while."
Jaune feels an ugly sort of emotion welling up within his throat at that, even as Cinder's brief moment of fury passes into their link. She bites down on it with an expertise that Jaune knows he wouldn't have possessed in her position.
"Understood."
"Well, then. You all do have fun. Oh, and Emerald, sweetie?"
Emerald seems rather perturbed to have been called out by Salem personally.
"Y-Yeah?"
"Be on the lookout." Salem says, as if that is an entirely normal thing to say, before she waves a single hand, effectively telling them all to leave. "Have a safe trip."
And that, it seems, is that.
/
The trip to Menagerie is boring.
It takes roughly seven hours, even taking the far shorter route of crossing the majority of the Grimmlands to reach the south of Menagerie, and fly over the desert to eventually reach Kuo Kuana. During this time, Jaune and his team take some time to themselves to try and…
Jaune's not even really sure. Reconvene? Huddle together? Just pool information?
Maybe just to get some time to themselves, because it feels like they haven't had such in nearly two months.
"So uh…" Nora speaks first, as is custom. "We're not actually going to help Adam Taurus overthrow the leader of the White Fang, right? Because frankly, if I see the guy, I think I'm a lot more likely to overthrow his head from his body."
Most of their team seems to be in agreement about that. What had been done to Yang had been hard enough. But Blake running away, apparently blaming herself, and Ruby being devastated at her sister's condition?
Yes. That had made them all well and truly furious.
To be expected to help this man is…
Well, frankly, Jaune's blood is boiling in his veins.
They touch down in what seems to be some secret landing pad, because there's no one around, and Jaune can only barely make out Kuo Kuana on the horizon. They're not that far from the main city, at most three or so kilometers, but he wonders if they hadn't come close enough for their airship to be spotted.
He asks such a thing of Cinder as they are greeted by a hooded Faunus, apparently one of the Albain brothers – which, okay, Jaune can't exactly blame Salem for forgetting this man, he has a rather forgettable air to him – and led towards some sort of underground entrance.
"The White Fang is normalized in Menagerie." Cinder speaks from experience, that Jaune can tell. Whether or not she has ever actually been here, or only knows from research, Jaune is still glad to have the information. "They are treated as more of a governing body here. Obviously, if they acted as terrorists on an island literally comprised nearly solely of Faunus, they would find their pool of support dwindling quite rapidly. So, seeing an airship touch down will likely be credited to the White Fang. No one will suspect us."
Jaune supposes that makes sense.
The place they're eventually led into is a large, manmade cavern. It is stone in some places, a kind of sandstone in others, but in some places, there are ornate, carven wooden pillars. A part of Jaune wonders what the reason would be to do such a thing, to make such an elaborate show in an area that is, in Jaune's opinion, little more than a cave, but…
When he thinks of it, this very well may be the entrance to the White Fang's seat of power.
Their very own Evernight.
And Jaune had seen pillars, statues, all manner of things carved out of the violet stone of Evernight, so he supposes he cannot judge the White Fang for wanting to make an impression before they've entered in any more than he could Salem herself.
…Although he finds it rather easy to blame Salem, so perhaps that example could use work.
"Adam has been waiting for you." Albain – Jaune's blanking on the first name. Fennec, maybe? – speaks. "He wishes to move with haste, to act the moment you are ready. I assume that is more than fine with you as well? I cannot imagine you wish to delay our aid to you."
"We do not." Cinder speaks, taking charge for all of them in a way that Jaune is glad for, even if he finds himself frowning. "Take us to him."
"He is to address Sienna in mere moments. With your assistance, I believe there will be little issue enacting our plan."
Jaune feels a spark run up his spine then. A bad feeling coursing through him that seems to emanate, at least somewhat, from the base of where he normally pulls his magic.
Such a thing is… odd, to say the least, but he tries not to worry about it. It's just a bad feeling, they happen all the time, and mean nothing.
…Right?
Regardless, the room they end up pushing into is vast in scale. It's ceiling is as high as the cafeteria back at Beacon, and it's width is nothing to scoff at. The royal reds running along the ground, that gradually build along with the stairs to draw ones eye to the back of the room, denote this rather clearly in Jaune's mind as a thrown room.
And the ruler in this case is the proud woman sat in the back, her head resting on one arm, lazily looking towards them as they enter into the room. The way her eyes scan over all of them strikes Jaune as an almost animalistic thing – and he swears he doesn't mean that in a racist way, because oh gods, that had come out really sounding racist! – it strikes Jaune as the same way a Tigress might observe a prey animal in the wild.
Observing them, checking their fat content, waiting for the perfect time to sink their fangs in, and end the poor beast.
Sienna Khan, then.
And standing just in front of them, addressing her, ranting on and on about something or another…
Jaune briefly sees red, although not in the literal sense. To be fair, in the literal sense, he is also seeing quite a bit of red. Adam Taurus looks the same as the photos that had come out of him stalking the grounds of Beacon, swinging away at students and faculty alike with a calculated brutality.
Jaune clenches his jaw as the man takes a step forward.
"Ah," Fennec speaks from behind them. "He seems to have jumped the gun by quite a bit. He is… like this, both in good ways and bad. Very passionate, perhaps zealously so. I assume you can see why such a thing would be good to have on your side?"
"You assume quite a bit." Cinder speaks, and her voice sends a chill down Jaune's spine, because he doesn't think he's ever heard her speak that way in front of him. Never with such…
With such blatant callousness. With an actual threat hanging in her words.
Fennec Albain recognizes such a thing, for he backs away without needing to hear another word, and allows Cinder to step forward. Jaune is about to ask just why it is she's doing such a thing, when…
"What is he…" She says under her breath.
Sienna Khan is up, now, angrily arguing with Adam Taurus, addressing the faunus around them, seeming to try and rally them to her side, if a bit unsuccessfully, and–
And then Adam Taurus stabs his sword through Sienna Khan's stomach.
Jaune has seen violence before. He'd lived through the Fall of Beacon, after all. He'd fought off Grimm in multiple sizes, variants, and situations. Hell, he'd broken General Ironwood's nose in single combat – notwithstanding several extenuating factors – and lived to tell the tale.
But… watching a woman be stabbed in cold blood sort of…
He's moving before he's even cognizant of what he's doing. Several White Fang shout at him, attempting to communicate things to him, but he's not at all listening to them. He thinks he hears his teammates, and the others, Emerald, and Mercury, among them, but…
He's not really listening. He's on his knees, semblance already blazing into life, and channeling aura into the woman's body before he really takes a second to think of what it is he's doing.
Because he hears the sound of someone stepping to stand beside him, and when he looks up, it is to see a look of purest fury upon Adam Taurus' face. Even disguised by his mask, the way his lips are curled into a snarl, how his cheeks wrinkle around his flared nostrils…
Yes. Jaune Arc thinks he may've made a mistake somewhere.
But he cannot allow himself to think such things. So instead of acknowledging the man, he simple turns back towards the woman rapidly bleeding onto the carpet below her. It strikes Jaune, a bit hazily, that he can't really tell how much blood she's losing – common sense tells him it's a lot – because of the carpet nearly matching the flow of her ichor.
Jaune hears it long before he sees it. The rasp of metal on metal. The dull click of something locking into place. He has just enough time to look up once more, to see Adam Taurus poised over him, his sword in its sheathe, his body beginning to glow, and Jaune realizes that it's him that he's aiming at, about to strike down at, when–
A hand touches the man's shoulder.
It is, perhaps, the single most menacing thing that Cinder has ever done.
Adam Taurus must think the same, given the way his posture goes entirely rigid. Given the way that he tenses, and turns to look the woman in the eye. The way that, even as tense as he is, he someone becomes more so upon seeing the look in Cinder's eye.
It is…
Jaune had believed Cinder when she'd told him that she did not care for murder. That she hadn't been partial to the act, that she had only ever really done so out of necessity, and then, once she'd begun doing it because it'd been easy…
Jaune had come along.
But… yes. This is the first time Cinder has ever looked at someone in his presence and so clearly wanted to murder them. To immolate them on the spot, to burn them into a charred, unrecognizable lump of flesh and ash and bone.
"Do not." Cinder seethes out between clenched teeth.
The room descends into chaos roughly half a second later.
Faunus guardsmen with spears point them directly at Cinder, who does not flinch for even a moment. Jaune, meanwhile, feels one poke at his back. Of course, those same soldiers find themselves caught by surprise when Emerald and Mercury are holding their own weapons to the back of their heads.
Nora, Ren and Pyrrha, while much less… murdery than Cinder, or her enforcers, have certainly still drawn their weapons, and are holding them out, poised to fire them if necessary.
More figures enter into the space. All White Fang. More spearmen, some with swords, guns, and all other manner of weapons. A few more specialized agents enter the fray next. A lady with veins running along her face. A man with black bat wings exiting his back. And a young woman, probably about their age, with a whip-like weapon in one hand, wearing a mask covering her eyes.
Jaune watches as Emerald, for the slightest moment, tenses, and lets out a tiny gasp, but it is lost in the hazy sea of vitriol and potential violence.
"W-What is going on!?" Fennec, the man from earlier, somehow finds the strength to voice over the crowd. "Were we not to be allies!? What on earth are you doing!?"
Jaune realizes it is pretty much himself that is being addressed with the man's words, after all, they had been allies, some thirty seconds ago.
Jaune's not entirely sure that still holds at the moment, however.
No one seems keen to answer the man's question, least of all Jaune, who is still working on resuscitating the woman beneath his hands. She's breathing again, and that's good, but the wound through her stomach is… it's bad. Very bad. He thinks… he thinks he can maybe save her, but it will be close.
He needs to close the wound, though. It's too big for his semblance alone. He turns to look at Cinder.
"Can you cauterize the wound from both sides?" He speaks, entirely uncaring of the way the entire room seems to balk at him. "My semblance can begin to heal her organs, but if she keeps losing blood like this, then–"
"Are you deaf!?" It is Adam, this time, who speaks. No, it is more of a scream, really. "Or perhaps simply braindead!?"
Jaune takes some small satisfaction at the way he can literally hear Cinder's semblance activate along the hand that is holding Adam's shoulder, and watches the man hold back a wince.
"Cinder, please."
Cinder sends a signal though to him. It is not at all an entirely readable thing to him, but he gets the general gist of what she is trying to communicate.
She cannot.
He understands, really. Some part of him does, at least. She is holding Adam back, preventing her from helping him, but also preventing him from cleaving Jaune's head from his shoulders.
Jaune finds himself wondering what exactly it is he should do.
Of course, in the next second, the choice is taken from him.
For Adam Taurus' sword gives a single click.
And then the chaos that had, however briefly, been stopped, erupts back into play.
The blade is swinging right for his head. Jaune has an awfully long time to consider that fact. Too long, if he's being honest. He can't help feeling like, really, the sword should've hit him by now. And yet, the entire world seems to be moving in slow motion. Idly, Jaune remarks that such a thing sounds rather similar to hearing tales of one's life flashing before their eyes.
Except in Jaune's case, there's not a lot of flashing. No. his eyes just focus on the crimson blade being drawn from out of Taurus' sheathe, coated in darkness and an energy that seems to assure him that if it hits, it will do more than hurt him.
It will kill him, that strike. Jaune can tell.
It is, perhaps, an inch from his face when the blade suddenly stops.
Which is odd, really, because Adam Taurus had swung that blade faster than Jaune had ever seen anyone do such a thing. At a speed that had put even Cinder's ability to react to shame. Only now is the fire of the Maiden beginning to flow across Adam's body, causing the man's legs to begin to try and jump away.
Jaune's not really sure how that'll work out. Honestly, he's still trying to focus on the woman below him, who is rapidly deteriorating. Idly, some part of his mind supplies that, while Adam's blade had been coated with energy when he'd made to swing at him the first time, the black aura of darkness had not been.
He puts it together a moment later. Pyrrha's semblance.
His partner. She'd saved his life.
Around when he puts this together does the room basically explode.
A cacophony of noise, and sound, and death and destruction is all Jaune can hear. It is, however briefly, all he can comprehend. There are hands upon his body, dragging him up, attempting to separate him from the woman he's healing, but apparently whoever it is catches on that he will not be leaving her here, for in the next moment, Cinder's hand, as hot as a scalding iron, presses down on Sienna's flesh with a horrid hissing sound.
It is not at all a pleasant thing, nor does it provide a pleasant smell. Acrid, burning flesh assaults his senses, but he knows it's necessary. He is about to try and turn Sienna over when a pair of arms hoists the woman up, and then another does the same for him.
And before he knows it, the entire room is engulfed in a sea of flame.
Jaune understands, somewhat absently, that he's really not all there at the moment. Watching someone be gutted in front of him had been the first piece, but the second had come when his life had quite literally been milliseconds away from being taken.
He'd almost died. Almost had his life snuffed out without so much as a care in the world by that man. By the same man who'd nearly killed the woman who's now being carried by a silver-haired man… oh, that's Mercury. The woman who's being carried by Mercury, running along just in front of him.
Idly, Jaune raises his hands, holding them up towards the woman, and feeding aura into her even now.
If he doesn't, she may still die, even after everything. And that doesn't seem fair.
…Jaune's not really sure how he's still functioning to this degree, to be honest. Some rational part of his brain has stuck around, the rest has gone into hiding, but…
He's warm, he realizes. He stays because he's warm.
The flames that lick away at everything else in the room, blazing and burning away at the guards who'd seemingly betrayed Sienna, to Adam's men, the Albains, to the agents, bat-wing and veiny-face and whip-girl. They are hurting them. Jaune can tell that.
Emerald, ahead of him, is in very obvious pain, barely managing to keep up with the rest of them as they flee as quickly as they can, taking the same corridors they'd been escorted through not fifteen minutes ago.
But for him… for Jaune… there is nowhere nicer. This flame that surrounds him feels like some warm blanket. Some… some comforting aura. So, he simply allows himself to sigh, allows himself to force the last little bits of his aura out – he realizes in that moment that he's somehow spent all of his aura healing this woman, which can't be helping the matters of his frazzled mind – and rests his head against Cinder's neck, because he knows it must be Cinder holding him.
Only she could feel this warm.
/
Cinder is not quite okay.
That is perhaps the first thing that comes to her as she pants out, gasping horribly as she and the rest of their little band have finally managed to escape the White Fang's pursuit, some forty or so minutes later. They are holed up a good two or so kilometers, if not more, from the White Fang base's position, and not a one of them is unscathed.
Sienna Khan, of course, is the worst off of them all. But second to her only barely is…
Her heart wants to break as she looks down at her little light.
She had not known what Adam had been about to do when Sienna had stood. Had declared that she would never follow Adam. But…
She supposes now that perhaps she should've expected such an action from a man like Adam Taurus. A man who sees anyone who gets in his way as a problem to be removed.
…
"Oh, and do me a favor… make it so that boy does not go and do anything that you'll regret, Cinder? He seems awfully much like you. And people like that tend to need to be reeled in once in a while."
She clenches her teeth hard enough that she watches Jaune stir slightly beneath her, and then winces. She… she is horrible at this. Horrible at all of this.
Of course, Jaune had rushed in without thinking. Of course, his only thought had been to help, and damn the consequences.
That stupid, asinine, wonderfully bright buffoon.
"How… how is Jaune?" One of her light's teammates, Ren, speaks. "He… his aura is drained, I can tell that much, but–"
"He overexerted his semblance." Mercury says, apparently knowledgeable enough to speak. "He was in shock, to be fair, so it's not at all inconceivable. He was pumping in probably three or four times the amount of aura he needed to be. Consequently, Khan's aura is somehow registering at around one hundred and thirty percent of her usual amount, according to her scroll, so that's something."
Cinder supposes the thought that Jaune might have some amplification ability beyond what they know is food for thought at some point, but at the moment, Cinder doesn't have the energy to think about such things.
"Nikos."
The girl seems surprised to be addressed by Cinder. But she looks up at her, uncowed, unafraid.
"Yes?"
"…You saved his life."
Nikos' eyes widen, before she swallows visibly, and nods her head.
"I…" Cinder doesn't think she's ever had to do this before, but…
"…That isn't enough."
"You can't just… You can't only want to improve as a person for my sake. It's important that you improve for yourself. If you don't want that… then any improvement you make will only be given up on later."
"Thank you." She says, trying to pretend like she isn't staring at the forest floor as she says it. "Thank you for saving him."
She doesn't see anyone's reactions to her words, but she can imagine them. Still, two or three seconds later, she hears Nikos clear her throat, and answer with, "He's my partner. Of course, I would. But, uhm… you're welcome."
And Cinder supposes that, for now, that's that.
They had two people out for the count – even if, had it been up to Cinder, she would've dumped Sienna by now. She, however, realizes that such a thing would likely make Jaune very, very upset with her, or just upset in general if she would try to pretend the woman had succumbed to her injuries. Still, that means that, for the time being, they aren't going to be going anywhere fast.
"Make a camp." Cinder speaks. "No fires. If you need something heated, I can apply my semblance."
Giving out orders is easy, and she expects them to be followed. She is unsurprised when they are.
Well, except for Emerald, who clears her throat, and apparently has something to say to them all.
"So, uh… guys?"
"Yes?" She asks, honestly too tired to worry about anything else right now.
Emerald looks up at them all rather apologetically.
"…Is this a bad time to mention that I think I just met my soulmate?"
And Cinder takes a moment to really, honestly question just what the hell the universe must have against her, even as her brain manages to conjure up in answer to the woman's question only…
"…What?"
End Chapter 21
Oh, Emerald. Your timing isn't great.
Start of the Menagerie arc, and we're getting right into it. I debated trying to make this two chapters, but decided that pumping in filler content for no reason would serve very little purpose. Thusly, we move quickly.
Alright, see you all in two weeks!
