Yo!
Some news in the Afterword, so perhaps read that?
Start Chapter 36
"I've got no signal," Pyrrha shakes her head. "I can't reach Ruby, or Yang."
"Neither can I." Nora pouts, letting loose a great sigh. "Dang it, they're probably already in Atlas by now, and here Weiss is in the middle of a bandit camp halfway across the world!"
Cinder listens to the members of Jaune's band lament the fact that their friend Weiss Schnee is currently being held by one Raven Branwen and her tribe of ne'er-do-well's. It is not a conversation she finds herself particularly intent on joining, and that is due in large part to the fact that she has little to add. It is, as they say, a rather unfortunate scenario, not the least of which because now, if they intend to free Weiss Schnee from her bonds – and Cinder is nearly certain they're going to be doing such – that means that Raven suddenly has a rather potent bargaining chip to bring to the table.
Cinder is remiss to go about hashing out a new deal, but she is admittedly more remiss to taking on the woman in a straight fight. She's strong. If her mistresses tales are to be believed, then Raven Branwen is perhaps one of the strongest hunters alive today. The cornerstone of Ozma's last offensive against Salem.
Cinder doubts she would lose in a fight to her, but she's also not confident she could protect Jaune, his teammates, and her own lieutenants while doing so.
And therein lies the crux of the problem.
Which means they are now, effectively, at Raven's mercy.
"You picked a rather poor time to go pissing the boss lady off." Mercury can't help commenting as he elbows Jaune in the ribs.
"Yeah, I know." Jaune mutters, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "I'm well aware I've made poor life choices."
"What's the plan, then?" Ilia questions.
"We ask what she wants for her." Cinder states, leaving no room for argument. "At the moment, we have little other methodology."
"And if she's not 'selling'?" Valkyrie inquires, reaching towards her grenade launcher.
"That's not an option. We're going to make her sell." Cinder shrugs. "Since I doubt any of you are willing to leave your friend in the middle of a bandit camp in the middle of nowhere."
No one argues with that, and Cinder sighs, even as she resigns herself to her work.
"I'll go and speak to Branwen. The rest of you, stay put."
They all nod. Cinder can tell that Jaune wants to come with her, but given that he's the current target of a good deal of Raven's ire, that's not a good idea. She waves him down, and though he sulks somewhat, he nods his head and accepts her judgement.
…Cinder's not entirely sure when it had been that she'd gone and become the de facto leader of their band of misfits, but at some point, she'd started calling the shots, and she hadn't stopped. Nowadays, the others simply turn to her whenever a decision needs to be made, and Cinder just sort of… quietly accepts that responsibility.
She's never once thought of herself as a leader, in truth. And yet, Jaune says it suits her, her newfound position. So perhaps, as is becoming far less common of late, she has underestimated herself.
She steps up to the ruined edifice of Raven Branwen's tent and gives a wooden beam off towards the sunken-in left half a few knocks. The Spring Maiden – Vernal, Cinder's pretty sure her name is – sticks her head out, sees who exactly it is at the entrance, and tucks her head back inside. Cinder can make out the sound of a brief, whispered conversation before the girl pokes her head back out, and says, "Come on."
Cinder steps into Branwen's tent and takes in the state of the room. As much as she'd been aware that she and Jaune had gotten into a minor spat the previous night, she cannot help but think that the damage the tent has seen is somehow more major than she'd have expected from that. Her cot is perhaps the only thing left spared, and even then, the beddings atop it have all been replaced from when she'd last been in the room.
The wooden poles holding the tent up have indents in them that look like they could have been formed by aura-infused fists impacting them. The floor has multiple holes in it that seem to fit the general shape of Raven's dust-katana, and that's just the major damage.
There are things scattered about every which way. A few books, a lamp leaking oil, a cracked mug, a smattering of dirty, crumpled papers, and many more miscellaneous items line the floor. And it is only when Cinder finally lays eyes on Raven Branwen that she sees the woman somehow looks worse than her room.
It is not hard for Cinder to instantly catalogue the fact that she has not slept since she and Jaune had gotten into their argument. Her eyes are lined with bags, her sclera are veiny and tired, and there's a general sullenness hanging about her frame as well. In all honesty, she looks terrible, and yet, Cinder will not mention any of that, given that she needs the woman to work with them.
"What do you want?" Branwen spits out. "You makin' to move on the Vault already?"
"No," Cinder shakes her head minutely. "I am waiting on someone to contact me, and alert me that we have a window. I expect it will be a week or two before we make any movements."
The woman looks like she wants to scoff. "And you're here… why?"
"The prisoner." Cinder speaks, and the woman's eyes grow the smallest bit less tired, less distant. "We wish for her to be released into our custody."
The entire space goes silent for at least five or so seconds. Raven Branwen just stares at her, with this look on her face like her brain is doing its best to work on overdrive, to somehow figure out what it needs to. Cinder can hear Vernal shuffling semi-nervously behind her, likely having never been in a scenario quite like this one before, and not knowing how to cover up said fact.
"…Do you know who that girl is?"
Cinder bites back the desire to click her tongue along the roof of her mouth. Already, this is going poorly. "She is a huntress in training, a friend of–"
"That's Weiss fucking Schnee," Raven Branwen speaks, regaining some of that above-it-all attitude she'd held the previous day, before Jaune had spoken with her. "Only the third most important person on the entirety of Remnant, behind her little brother and their father. I don't quite think you know what it is you're asking, if you think there's a single chance that I just… what, hand her to you?"
"I do not believe I said that." Cinder speaks, trying to keep her voice level despite the annoyance already creeping up her spine. "I'm sure the two of us can come to an arrangement regarding the terms of her release."
Raven scoffs. "Really?"
Cinder can't help it this time. She shows her displeasure on her face. "Yes. Really. The same way that we came to an arrangement regarding your assistance with the vault."
"Except this is different, isn't it?" Raven speaks, shaking her head. "That girl is worth a good five hundred million lien, easy. Her daddy's the richest bastard in the world a hundred times over. if you think we're going to give that up for anything less than a king's ransom, then–"
"You're trying my patience, Raven." Cinder practically snarls. "I don't care what you want for her. I don't care what you think you deserve for her. You're lucky I didn't carve her out of that cell the moment my associates found her. That we're even here having this conversation should be evidence enough that I'd rather we work this out diplomatically, but do not mistake such niceties for weaknesses."
Raven stares at her for quite a while. She looks like she's close to snarling something fierce, like some great Grimm or beast. Instead, however, she takes a terrible breath, releases air out of her nostrils that Cinder almost swears she can see, and then mutters, "Fine. What are you willing to offer for her."
Cinder is glad that, at least, they'd gotten over that. "Three million lien."
Raven guffaws. "Kid, I don't think you understand–"
"One million lirn."
Raven's eyes bug out. "What the– you think I'm insane!?"
"No," Cinder's voice comes out flat and even, entirely calm. "I don't think you're insane. In fact, I think you've got a decent head on your shoulders. Because unlike a lot of other sorry bastards throughout history, you actually recognize just how terrifying Salem is."
Raven's expression dips for just a moment, her feigned confidence wavering.
"What?"
"You're afraid." Cinder speaks with utmost confidence; with total certainty. "Because you're not willing to risk your neck when it comes to Salem. Not for something as silly as lien. Not for something, even, like the Spring Maiden's identity, or potentially making an enemy of people like Ozpin and his ilk. Not even…" Cinder feels a twinge of her old cruelty pouring into her tone, and though she no longer relishes in such sadistic tendencies, she feels she needs to hammer home her point here, "For the sake of your old teammate."
Raven looks like she wants to draw her sword right then and there and strike Cinder down – or, well, try – but, just as Cinder had known she would, she makes no movement. Her jaw is clenching so hard she'd be surprised if her teeth didn't form microfractures, and she can hear Vernal take a step back behind her, but Cinder is not afraid.
Because no matter how much Raven wants to deny it, no matter how much she might want to pretend, when the chips are down, when it really matters…
She's nothing but a coward.
So when Raven's white-knuckled fist unclenches, and she motions towards Vernal to leave the tent, Cinder already knows what it is she's going to say; or at least has a damned good idea.
"…Three million lien," Raven speaks, not meeting Cinder's eyes. "But you and your mistress never even think about setting foot in my camp again when this is over."
Cinder almost wants to laugh at how empty a threat she has presented Cinder with, but she instead just nods her head, and says, "Understood. If that's all, then?"
"Get out of my tent." Raven spits at her, and Cinder stays no longer after that.
She moves towards Weiss Schnee's cage without any semblance of hesitation, and entirely ignores the two men who are guarding her enclosure.
"Hey, this here's our prisoner, you–"
"She's our prisoner, now." Cinder speaks, not even turning to face the man as she steps by both of them, flexes the Maiden's power, and burns the lock off of the cage. "You can ask your mistress for confirmation."
"You're full of shit!" One of them jeers, but Cinder has had enough of spineless idiots trying to threaten her today.
So she steps directly into the man's guard. She gets in his face, her singular eye staring at its opposite on the idiots face, and she says, "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm lying. Maybe I just made this entire thing up, and I'm robbing you blind. But by your own logic, I earned the right to take what I wanted the moment I was stronger than you."
The man across from her sneers, seemingly so insulted that he might actually try something.
Cinder almost wishes he would. She almost wishes she might be allowed to make an example of this fool, to show just how potent her powers truly are; how hot her fires can burn. She watches as his hand moves towards a dagger at his waist, and she's heating up, burning, building, blazing, just waiting for him to justify it to her so that she can reach inside his chest and rip out his–
"Cinder!"
Whatever it had been that had taken hold over her is banished the instant that voice enters her eardrums. She turns on a dime to see Jaune panting, seemingly having run halfway across the camp towards her.
"Jaune?" She finds herself saying for no particular reason, even as the goon in front of her takes a step back, somehow seeing her little light as a greater threat than her. "What is it?"
He steps towards her, and, in a move reminiscent of a puppy trying to protect its master from the mailman, glares over at the fool Cinder had been hoping would start something. The man somehow sees such as a more intimidating gesture than what Cinder had been aiming towards him, and backs off, giving a belated "I don't have time for this," As an excuse for his cowardice.
"I felt how angry you were." Jaune says as he steps up to her, and wraps his arms around her, pulling her into a hug that has her single eye wide. "It felt like you were livid, and I just… I hadn't felt that from you in… I honestly can't remember the last time."
Cinder feels a chill run down her spine, hearing such words from her little light's mouth. It doesn't… surprise her, when she thinks about it. Something about Raven and her holier-than-thou attitude – or perhaps stronger-than-thou attitude is more appropriate a term, in this case – had simply rubbed her the wrong way. It had dredged up bad memories, of people just like her who had always thought they could simply take anything they wanted.
She'd dealt with far too many in her time. She had nearly become one of them herself. No. She had become one of them. And now here she is, faced with someone like her.
Maybe that's why it infuriates her so.
"Thank you." Cinder lets out in a quiet sigh, leaning forward so that her forehead is pressed against Jaune's. "I was… out of it."
"I could tell. You're not usually like that." Jaune says, with all the innocence of a newborn babe, and it's all Cinder can do to want to hold him there and coddle him forever, to pretend as if she's always been as she tries to be, and nothing else.
She finds, however, that as she leans forward to try and press her lips to Jaune's own, a voice interrupts the two of them rather sharply.
"Ahem!"
Cinder and Jaune both turn awkwardly towards the cage to their right, where a rather perturbed looking Weiss Schnee stands, having just stepped out of the prison that had held her for the morning.
"If you two wouldn't mind perhaps delaying your little… foray," Weiss coughs out, causing Jaune to go red and look away, "Until I've at least been untied, and can promptly escort myself as far away as possible first?"
She holds up her bound wrists as if to accentuate her plight, and Cinder finds herself not quite meeting the girls eyes as she draws a small shard of Obsidian from out of the Maiden's forge and cuts her bonds with it.
"Thank you." Weiss Schnee coughs, then, seemingly uncertain of something, takes a step towards Cinder, her eyelids drawing down. "Now… do I… know you from somewhere?"
Ah. Right. Cinder had almost forgot that Weiss Schnee had not been among the members of Jaune's friend group to know of their… relationship.
And as per usual, as Cinder sees the look of confusion on her face turn to stunned recognition, she cannot help but loose a sigh.
There goes any chance at alone time, Cinder mentally laments.
/
"Weissey!"
"Gah!"
Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, looks rather undignified trying to prevent one Nora Valkyrie from hugging her into oblivion. This is in large part due to the fact that she is slowly having every last ounce of oxygen within her lungs squeezed out of her, but that's really beside the point.
"Lie Ren!" The Schnee shrieks out. "Control your soulmate!"
The man in question gives a languid smile. "It's good to see you, Weiss."
"Yes, sure, likewise, now get her off of me!"
Even Cinder has a mild smile on her face as the group laughs at Weiss' plight, even if that expression disappears from her own features within the next few seconds.
Because in front of her is something she's always reviled. Something she's always, deep down, hated.
A Schnee.
It's odd. Despite knowing that she's a friend of Jaune's – and likely a rather good person given the company that Jaune keeps – she cannot help but frown whenever she sees the girl laughing and smiling with the others.
It had been people like her; the rich, the powerful, the veritable oligarchs of Atlas, that had taken advantage of people like Cinder. They who had trampled her and those like her underfoot. They who had abused and mistreated them, and enslaved them and tortured them. It had not just been helpless young girls like Cinder they had done such to. The faunus of Atlas had always been treated as second-class citizens; such that Cinder had not seen a single one of them during her time in Atlas as a child.
That had likely lent in large part to the fact that the Glass Unicorn had refused to cater to them at all, and yet even so, during Cinder's occasional foray's back into the flying Kingdom, she could've count the number of faunus that she'd seen on one hand.
…She understands, perhaps, that blaming Weiss Schnee – who'd been at most half a decade old when Cinder had first been 'adopted', and not even born when the SDC had started utilizing faunus labor – for said issues likely isn't fair. But Cinder has always been denied fairness in her life, and perhaps just once she'd like an opportunity to serve said treatment back at the world.
…Her emotions must be more transparent than she thinks, because a moment later, Jaune is sidling up beside her, nudging her to get her attention and then whispering beneath the gentle lull of conversation, "You okay?"
She sighs, before nodding her head. "I'm fine. Just… processing certain things."
"You want to talk about it?"
"In all honesty? No. I don't."
She already knows everything that she could possibly be told regarding her emotions on this topic. She herself has already confronted and accepted every piece of the puzzle; one that adds up to the conclusion that her problems have little to do with Weiss Schnee. And yet, her problems have rather stubbornly stamped their feet down, and declared that they will be quite cross with the girl regardless.
So there's nothing really to say. She's just going to have to get over herself in private.
Jaune seems to sense that she means what she says; and that she will not bend to him as she normally does, so he just nods his head and says, "Well, if you need me, I'm here."
Cinder smiles minutely. "I know."
/
She receives a notice on the scroll that Salem has given her – or perhaps she should say the scroll that Watts had specially outfitted for their operations – from Leonardo Lionheart later in the week.
'Haven is empty. I would advise we act as soon as possible.'
She finds herself sighing as she gives the man a simple 'Understood.' in response. The rest of their number have been… well, not enjoying their time in the Branwen camp, certainly, but perhaps enjoying being able to lord themselves over the populace of said camp without having to feel even remotely guilty of said fact.
Nora Valkyrie has taken to such like a fish to water.
Still, as Cinder stands from her cot, and alerts the others, there is only a grim determination set about the different faces of their band of misfits.
Mostly because they're about to do Salem's dirty work, and Cinder's fairly certain she's the only one of them who is even remotely okay with that. It had been different before, when they'd gone to assist Adam. They'd pretty much immediately veered off course there, and ended up helping Sienna Khan take her organization back from the extremists trying to concur it.
This… well, there is no one else, aside from Lionheart, even involved here. They're the only ones who can do this, and they're going to. So it doesn't particularly surprise her that each of their members has an expression on their faces like they're going off to war.
Cinder, however, realizes that she needs to take charge. They cannot shirk their job here. Not when Salem already has reason enough to doubt them. They'd accomplished their mission before, but the circumstances of said mission being accomplished, as she'd been listing earlier, had been far different to their original assignment.
"We've no choice, here." She feels the need to say. "We act as we are bade to."
There's a general grumbling among their number, but no one truly complains. They all make to stand, and Cinder moves towards the central tent in the middle of the Branwen's camp, ready to act.
…
There's an odd chill on the wind, however. As if somehow, somewhere, something is rather terribly wrong.
…
The sooner they're finished with this the better.
/
Leonardo Lionheart had really been entirely content to be finished for the day the moment he'd sent that message to Cinder Fall, one of the world's most deadly terrorists, servant of Salem, the Queen of the Grimm, and the bringer of the end.
He doesn't really expect for a young boy, maybe 14 or 15, to knock on his office door – how he'd even gotten into Haven in the first place given the doors had been locked is a mystery – and sheepishly say to him, "Uhm, hello, Mr. Lionheart, sir."
His face contorts, watching the boy in front of him lean from side to side with nerves. Instantly, Leonardo can tell that the boy is no huntsman, nor is he a threat in any way. Perhaps he intends to draw a firearm on him and attempt to rob him? …No, the more he thinks about such a prospect, the more insane it sounds.
There are far better marks in Mistral than he. Far easier ones, too.
"May I help you, young lad?" He says, doing his best to offer a winning smile.
"Ah, uhm… kinda', yeah. My name is Oscar Pine, but… well, that doesn't super matter, I guess? I'm supposed to tell you that uh…" The boy clears his throat, as if trying to act more professional, and some part of him is amused by the showing.
"'Hello, Leonardo. It's been an awful long time, old friend'."
And then Leonardo Lionheart feels a profound and extraordinary fear fill his breast as he stares at the boy in front of him in an entirely different light.
…
Everything had been going so well. His compatriots among the staff of Haven had left for the week, him having given them each vacation time; able to remove each of them out without having to eliminate them. He'd been doing his very best to get into Salem's good graces. Hell, soon, he'd have the Relic of Knowledge out from under his school, and perhaps then, free of such a burden, the eyes of malice would turn away from him for a time.
And yet, somehow, in that moment, it's as if he can hear the wheels on the proverbial wagon falling off, and the sound of his end arriving.
"Ah." Is all he says aloud, doing his best to project a warm smile onto his face, despite the ice creeping up through his stomach.
"…Hello, Ozpin."
End Chapter 36
I promised news, so here's that!
Basically, Paved with Bad Intentions, my other fanfic, is going to be finishing here fairly shortly. I believe I'll be finished with writing it this week, even if uploads will take two or so months to conclude. Once I've finished writing Paved, I plan on taking Cinderella back onto a weekly update schedule.
In all honesty, this story is probably more than halfway finished as well. After this arc, there will really only be two more, even if they'll both be much longer than this one (One about the length of Menagerie, the other the length of Beacon).
So I guess look forward to that!
