The acrid scent of burning flesh was something Cinder had become accustomed to long ago, to the point where she even found herself basking in it. It was like a sharp incense, something that burned her nostrils and kept her focus on the job at hand. It wasn't a difficult task, but it was a repetitive one. Burning flesh to the bone tends to take a while, but the limb granted to her by her patron would make the work more than worthwhile. Of course, simply attaching the arm as it was meant to be attached would work just fine in most circumstances, and would cause far less pain in the long run. However, Cinder was aiming for something different. Pain was not to be avoided, in fact, she saw it as necessary to the next step in the process. What process?

The process of breaking Adam Taurus, of course.

Cinder hummed as she admired her work. She had replaced both of his arms and legs with the counterparts gifted to her by her patron. They were slick and black, glistening, even. The new hands ended in long, almost inhuman claws, and the surface of the arms felt like flesh. The legs, too, had the same quality, save for the fact that they were much more human-like. Cinder's patron had formed them herself, knowing what would happen to Adam and ordering her to affix them to his corpse, along with something else.

Cinder cut off her connection to the fire dust adorning her clothes, causing the fire on her hands to extinguish. Instead, she picked up a nearby rod, using her semblance to change its shape and granting it dozens of extremely fine, extremely sharp points on the end.

Cinder went to work, tapping the end into Adam's cold, dead skin. As she lanced dozens of holes in his body, she sprinkled an incredibly fine Dust into them. The Dust she used was a deep, roiling black that felt wrong to look at. She dusted it into the wounds, creating long, jagged markings that one might see as a set of ugly, thick tattoos. They were more than that, of course. The Dust she used had been purified by her patron who, and Cinder chuckled to herself at this, had more than a little experience with death.

The process was tedious, but Cinder enjoyed her work. It reminded her of when she used to— She couldn't breathe; the hands around her neck kept her from hacking as the fist drove into her gut—

Cinder was snapped out of her reverie by the sound of the door opening. She didn't turn to look, but she knew it was Emerald and Mercury; her two amusing stooges. "Yo, Cin—" Mercury started, but doubled over as he and Emerald gagged. "Fucking Dust, what is that smell!"

Cinder smiled wryly, not bothering to look up from her work as she spoke, her voice resonating with languid, seductive tones. "Come and see."

After sharing a dubious glance, Emerald and Mercury reluctantly approached the raised metal slab that Cinder was working at. "Is that—" Mercury blurted out, only to be cut off by a smack in the arm from Emerald.

Cinder chuckled as she took an appraising glance over her work. "It is, isn't it? It's quite up in the air as to whether he'll know that, though."

Emerald leaned over Cinder's shoulder, laying a hand on her back to keep her steady. Cinder's grin almost faltered at the contact, but she fought the urge to bat it away. "What happened?" Emerald whispered.

Cinder leaned back, admiring the black markings scrawled into the Faunus' skin before her. They curved and twisted around his torso in jagged black lines, some lines beginning and ending abruptly, others coiling around his body and covering much of his deathly pale flesh. "Abraham killed him."

Mercury snorted. "Shouldn't there be, like, claw marks and shit?"

Cinder chuckled. "Not in this case, no."

Emerald backed away from Cinder and eyed Mercury. "Then what happened?"

Cinder slowly stood from her chair and dragged her fingers along the markings, careful not to mar her work. "After assassinating Larun Marital, he escaped in a ship that Abraham had rigged to explode. Adam was becoming too volatile, and Abraham took the opportunity to be rid of one of his liabilities. Of course, my patron saw this coming, and she dispatched me to fish his body out of the sea."

Mercury piped up, his voice high with disbelief. "Uh, why?"

"Doesn't he hate you?" Emerald added.

Cinder smirked. "Oh, he most certainly does."

Mercury groaned. Cinder's variety of ambiguity never was his cup of tea. "Why did you even do this? He's dead."

Cinder continued tracing her fingers along his body. "Death is temporary for—"

"Temporary for the followers of Salem, yadda yadda, so, what, you're gonna resurrect this dude or some shit?" Mercury interrupted, earning a sharp jab in the ribs from Emerald's elbow. Fortunately for him, Cinder opted not to show him the punishment for insolence.

"Resurrection is a very polite term." Cinder drawled in a slightly mocking tone. "But I suppose it captures the essence of my— our work."

Mercury just gave her a confused look. "Our?" Emerald asked.

Cinder nodded. "My patron has granted me this purified Dust as a means of dragging his Aura back to his body, regardless of consent."

"And, what, you decided to tattoo him for practice or—" This time, he did earn a firm smack from Cinder, her long nails leaving redder marks on his quickly reddening cheek.

"This is not a tattoo!" Cinder shouted through grit teeth. How desperately she wanted to disembowel that silver-haired idiot, her fingers itched to wrap around that boy's neck. No, not yet, for the moment she had to compose herself. "These," She continued, her voice much calmer. "Are like nails. I have engraved his skin with this purified Dust, and it will be what pins his Aura to his body."

Mercury spoke up again as he rubbed his stricken cheek, this time in a much more respectful tone. "So what are you going to do with him? Doesn't he hate you?"

Cinder turned back to the corpse of Adam Taurus. "I assure you, he will know his master."

"No, Blake, don't leave!" Adam cried, reaching out as he kneeled. He was nursing a shallow cut across the chest, gifted to him when he'd tried to grab Blake.

Blake sneered at him, Gambol Shroud shaking in her hand as she pointed the barrel at his head. One bullet wouldn't pierce his Aura, but Blake was a good shot. She'd be able to get at least a few off before he could reach her with Wilt. "I can't do this anymore, Adam! We're not what we used to be!"

"Blake, I love you as much as I always have!" Adam shouted, his voice resonating in the empty warehouse.

Blake groaned. "I'm not talking about you, Adam! Dust, you were always so self-centered. I'm talking about the White Fang. It's a gang of killers, now!"

"We can mak—"

"We can't make shit happen!" Blake screamed suddenly, causing Adam to flinch. "Because of you! Dust, Adam, you're the worst of them all! You're a monster!"

"I am—" Adam tried to rise up, but he was forced back down as a round deflected off of his Aura, right between his eyes.

"Don't you dare move a muscle." Blake seethed. "I am leaving. If you try to come after me, I will kill you. I won't hesitate."

Adam could see that her shaking hand belied the truth of the latter statement. She was scared. He could hear it in her voice, which shook like a leaf as she threatened him. She couldn't do it. She couldn't.

In a flash, Adam leapt towards Blake, hand ready to pull Wilt free fro—

Adam saw one last muzzle flash, and found himself on his knees again.

"No, Blake, don't leave!" He cried, one hand reaching out from his kneeling position. The cut across his chest was shallow, but the pain of betrayal stung more than it ever could on its own.

Blake's nose upturned and her lip quirked, forming a sneer of disgust as she levelled the barrel of Gambol Shroud with his head. "I can't do this anymore, Adam!" She cried, tears dripping down her cheeks. "We're not what we used to be!"

Adam found himself reeling with a sense of deja vu. "Blake, the White Fang needs you!"

Blake frowned, her teary eyes burning with anger. "Then I hope it dies without me."

She was going to leave, Adam knew. She was about to turn around and leave, which he couldn't let happen. She'd be lost without him! She'd end up dead! Adam slowly rose to his feet, only to find himself scrambling back to his knees as a bullet deflected off his Aura, squarely between his eyes.

"Don't you dare move a muscle." Blake hissed, the barrel of Gambol Shroud smoking and shaking in Blake's trembling grasp. "I am leaving. If you try to come after me, I will kill you. I won't hesitate."

A distant burning feeling in the middle of Adam's forehead told him she wasn't lying. Slowly, in the most non-threatening way he could manage, Adam removed his belt, taking his weapon with it as he cast it to the side. "Please, Blake, don't leave. You're going to get hurt, I can't let you get hurt."

Blake suddenly turned from angry to enraged. Her jaw clenched as she took a few steps closer to Adam and pressed the hot barrel of Gambol Shroud to his forehead. "You are the one that always hurts me! You're a monster! How many people have you needlessly killed!"

"They were—"

Blake's arm moved in a flash, belting Adam across the face with her pistol. His Aura absorbed most of the strike, but he still found himself tasting copper. "It doesn't matter who they were!" Blake shrieked. "They were people! Thinking, feeling, living people and you slaughtered them!"

Adam tried to speak up, but Blake beat him to it.

She pressed the barrel harder against his forehead. "I should kill you. For everything you've done, I should kill you right now."

"I was doing what's right." Adam said, his voice slightly muffled with his swollen cheek. "You couldn't understan—"

Again, the pistol smacked against his face. His Aura gave way, this time, along with one of his teeth. He cried out, blood and a molar flying from his mouth. "I am a Faunus, too!" Blake cried. "I understand! The difference between you and me, though, is that I don't kill people!"

"You're not perfect." Adam hissed, looking up at Blake with a bloodstained grimace.

"There it is," Blake said. "The real you. You don't love me. You just want me."

Rage pumped through Adam's veins as he shot upwards, hands wrapping around Gambol Shroud before Blake could ventilate his skull. Blake pulled twice, one bullet grazing Adam's collar and the other flying harmlessly into the ceiling as they wrestled over the gun. Adam was able to wrench it from her grip, but a snap-kick from Blake sent it flying from his hands and sliding away across the concrete floor. With his Aura broken from two pistol-whips, Blake's kick shattered the bones in Adam's left hand.

Adam cried out and stumbled backwards, cradling his now-useless hand against his chest. With the time granted to her, Blake leapt for her gun.

Of course, Adam tried to stop her. He was met with a muzzle flash.

"No, Blake, don't leave!"

"We're not what we used to be!"

"I love you, Blake!"

Muzzle flash,

"No, Blake, don't leave!"

"We're not what we used to be!"

"There has—"

Muzzle flash.

"No, Blake—"

Muzzle flash.

Four minutes. The worst four minutes of Adam's life, over and over again. Every option explored, every word said, every action just left Adam on his knees again, crying, "No, Blake, don't leave!"

The muzzle flash came eventually.

"No, Blake, don't leave!" Adam cried, his eyes twisted shut in anticipation of the next living memory.

A languid, seductive voice answered him. "I won't leave you, Adam Taurus."

Adam's eyes shot open. Cinder hovered over him, a wry, faux-polite smile on her face. Adam thrashed, but his restraints kept his back against the cold metal slab. Cinder smiled cruelly as he struggled against the restraints.

Adam blurt out all of his questions at the same time, resulting in more of a garbled cry rather than an actual question.

Cinder gently cupped his cheek. "Hello." Her voice trailed, dripping with saccharine tones.

Adam writhed, trying to break through his restraints. "Let me go, you bitch. Get me out of this shit!"

Cinder chuckled. "I assure you, darling, you'll learn to love your restraints."

Adam sneered. "What the fuck?" He half-shouted, more insults ready to be hurled when a wave of memory crashed into him. Abraham had fucked him. He'd given him one last job and fucked him! Adam strained against his constraints, eager to wring that wolf's neck.

"In case you can't tell, you're not dead anymore. My patron has decided that you will be useful, and she has granted you life beyond death, so long as you ally yourself with her." Cinder said, not faltering slightly in her sickly sweet tones.

Adam wrenched against the bonds holding him— thick chains, he realized. As he pulled against them, however, he noticed a strange sense of presence about him. He felt slightly disconnected, like the feeling of strain was secondary, like he was watching himself strain instead of feeling it firsthand. He pulled harder. There was pain, but it didn't feel like his own.

Suddenly, Cinder was close again. Very close. Their noses were almost touching, and Adam could smell her— an overwhelming scent of ash. "You won't try to escape, will you?" She whispered.

Adam tugged hard against his constraints, suddenly bashing his forehead against Cinder's nose. She recoiled, stepping back and hissing as she held her nose.

"That was a mistake." She intoned, the painfully sweet voice now giving way to a deeper, resentful tone. "I will show you why."

Cinder's hands moved out of Adam's line of sight, but he felt them taking hold of his arm. Cinder yanked, hard, tearing the prosthetic limb from its socket and ripping the skin that had bonded to it, leaving a fleshy stump of flayed, bleeding muscle and integument.

Adam's hoarse cry ripped at his throat and he thrashed fruitlessly against his constraints. No amount of disconnection from his senses could lessen such overwhelming pain.

Shock pervaded him as Cinder held up his arm— or what should be his arm. Rather, it was some black, glistening limb, its fingers long and clawed. What had she done? Had he been left so unsalvageable, or had Cinder cleaved his mangled limbs off and replaced them with these monstrous facsimiles? Adam grit his teeth, muffled growls pressing through as the waves of pain ebbed from his torn arm.

Cinder watched him writhe in pain, a cruel smirk on her face as she gently stroked the limb in her hands. "Out of the frying pan, into the fire, eh?" She joked, her laugh resonating with cruel mirth.

"I will fucking kill you!" Adam cried.

Cinder tutted and dropped to eye level with Adam's bleeding stump of an arm. She made a show out of slowly reaching for it before roughly shoving the prosthetic arm into its socket again. She chuckled as Adam cried out and thrashed once more against his chains. Her hands flashed alight with flame, which she used to quickly cauterize the skin again. Adam's cries gradually wore his throat until all he could release were hisses and whispered screams. He felt a shock as his Aura flared, bonding the flesh of his arm to the new limb and extending his feeling to the tips of his new fingers.

"What did you do to me?" Adam managed to say between labored breaths.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Cinder stand again and bend over, laying a soft kiss to his cheek from which Adam recoiled. "My patron has saved you, Adam. She has gifted to me the Dust that will keep you alive." She ran her hand across the black markings on his chest. "That Dust is inside you, now. It is…" She straightened suddenly, her mouth twisting to the side as she searched for a word. "Anchoring? No, that's too passive. Lashing. Yes, this Dust has lashed your Aura to your body. You are essentially a bag of dead meat tugged along by the puppet-strings of your Aura, and in case you haven't noticed, your heart is not beating. You are, for all intents and purposes, dead."

Adam craned his neck to look down at himself, his eyes narrowing as he saw the scrawlings on his torso and his oily black appendages. "This is…"

Cinder smirked. "Impossible?"

Adam remained quiet, which Cinder took as a sign of acquiescence. "That's a good boy," She cooed, running a hand through his crimson locks. "Silence is good, Adam. You are accepting your situation."

Adam growled, earning him a slap across the face.

"Now, Adam," Cinder said as she stood up straight again. "Your situation is not exactly fortunate, is it?"

Adam glared at her.

Cinder smirked in reply. "I thought not. Abraham, no, the entire White Fang has abandoned you. Tell me, who can you turn to?"

Adam felt a name forcing its way past his lips before he could stop it. "Blake."

Cinder just stared at him for a few long, silent moments before suddenly bursting into laughter. She doubled over, her arms crossed against her stomach as she belted each cruel bark. "The traitor?" She breathed out, fading waves of laughter causing her voice to jump. "She wants you dead, you idiot!"

Rage coursed through Adam's veins, pushing him against his constraints. Unfortunately for him, they remained strong.

Cinder comically wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh, Adam, I like you," She sighed. "You are truly entertaining. But no," Her face suddenly lost all sense of humor. "You have no one."

Adam grit his teeth, holding back a biting reply.

"You little imbecile. No, she doesn't love you. But don't worry," Adam could hear the cruel smile in her voice. "I will find someone new for you to love." Cinder leaned close again, staring into his eyes and daring him to speak.

Adam did the only thing he could with his anger, and mustered it to spit in Cinder's face. She blinked as the spittle landed on her cheek, but her sly smirk remained. Adam's mouth hung open and he watched in disgust as Cinder languidly wiped it away with the back of her hand, then proceeded to lap it up.

Cinder's hand slowly dropped to the murky surface of his arm, her fingers drifting upwards until they were just under his chin. "Now, Adam, you're going to enjoy this. You will." Her fingers drifted upwards again, and she slipped them into his mouth. "Or else."