"He's back in the mines again."

Daisuke let out a sigh and rubbed at Cinnamon's shoulder as the pair laid upon the roof of his house. They were huddled closely together under several thick blankets of fur, their breath visible in the chilling night air. Cinnamon's shoulder-length hair tickled at Daisuke's hand as he continued to massage her, though he knew that the idle motions would do little to ease her mind.

"I'm sorry. I know how hard you've been fighting to get him to stop…"

"But he won't. He won't, and I won't," Cinnamon replied with a dry sniffle. "He's afraid we'll lose the house if he does."

"And you're afraid you'll lose him if he doesn't," Daisuke finished for her. "I wish there was more I could do. I wish we could just… leave."

Daisuke pulled his hand back as Cinnamon shuffled out from beneath the blankets, her mood soured even further. She emerged from the furry cocoon of blankets entirely nude, her ebony flesh seeming to almost glow under the light of the shattered moon. An only weeks-old line of white striped tattoos down the entire left side of her body became visible as she walked to the edge of the roof to gather her clothing. Daisuke couldn't help but admire her curves as she bent low and began to pull her discarded panties back on, and a feeling of guilt washed over him.

"Cin…"

"Wishes don't mean shit," Cinnamon replied angrily as she wriggled back into her pants. "If we could leave, we would have. You really think the S.D.C. would just let him go, even if we did somehow find the lien? We're trapped here, Dai. All three of us. Period."

"It doesn't have to be that way," Daisuke replied as he slipped out from under the blankets. He shivered harshly as the biting air assaulted his own naked form, which was covered almost entirely in inked patterns of smoke and spider lilies. "We could sneak away. We c-"

"While he has dust lung?" Cinnamon asked as she turned toward her friend with a dirty look, halfway through pulling her top on. "And let's say we do make it out of here. What then? The Schnee pharmaceutical division is the only one manufacturing the pills he needs. This doesn't happen elsewhere in Remnant, Dai. He'd be dead in a month, at best. The Schnee family has us trapped, and there's nothing we can do about it. If you want to go… then go."

Daisuke pulled one of the fur blankets from the surface of the roof and wrapped it around his waist as a makeshift skirt before approaching Cinnamon. She merely watched as he wrapped her in a gentle embrace, his exposed chest and arms utterly freezing.

"I will never leave you," Daisuke insisted in a comforting whisper, his lips right up against her ear. "No matter what this place throws at us, I'll be here at your side… even if there's only so much I can do."

Cinnamon pressed her lips to Daisuke's, only for him to push her back after a brief moment.

"…you don't have to do that. I know it does nothing for you…"

"Maybe I want to anyway," the woman said defensively. "You deserve better than to suffer along with me."

"I beg to differ," Daisuke insisted as he once again began to rub at Cinnamon's shoulder. "Let's strive to make it so that neither of us has to deal with suffering, sometime in the future. Don't give up on the notion of getting out of here. It's doable. I promise."

Cinnamon didn't reply, instead opting to lean her head against Daisuke's chest as she kept her eyes on the looming city of Atlas far above.

"Dad? I'm home!"

Cinnamon stomped the snow from her boots out onto the doormat as usual before making her way into the central living room. From the second she entered, there was an ominous feeling in the air. Though she couldn't explain it, Cinnamon knew that something was very wrong. The fireplace was bare, the tables and chairs were exactly as they had been when she had left in the morning, and there were no sounds of movement from upstairs. Without a word, Cinnamon placed the paper bag in her hand upon the nearby table before making her way to the staircase. Though part of her already knew what she was about to find, seeing it in person wasn't made any easier by having played out the scenario so many times in her mind.

There at his desk was her father, slumped forward in his chair. The man was unnaturally still, his shoulders relaxed and totally devoid of movement. As Cinnamon approached, she kept her eyes on his chest, waiting for any sort of subtle shift in his posture. None came. A heavy lump formed in her throat as she looked over the scene, preventing her from speaking. She knew that there was no need, and that calling out for him would accomplish nothing. Instead, she simply sat down on the floor beside him, and took his hand in her own.

The man's skin was waxy and cold beneath its rough exterior. Instead of comfort, the feeling brought Cinnamon nothing but further unease. After only a few seconds, she loosened her grip and let her hand fall into her lap. Cinnamon did everything she could to hold back her tears as she withdrew her scroll from her pocket with a shaky hand. With a heavy sniffle, she brought the device up to her ear and waited for a response.

"…Cin?" Dai asked from the other end of the line. "What's up?"

"We're leaving," Cinnamon replied harshly. "We have to get out of here. Soon."

Cinnamon had no idea of the man's name. She had seen him several times before, and he had seen all of her just as often. Perhaps she had been told his name once or twice, and perhaps she had pretended to remember it. She knew that he was a wealthy investor in the Schnee family's pursuits with a weakness for faunus women, and that was more than enough for her. All that truly mattered to Cinnamon was what she could gain from him… and how she was going to escape Mantle after one last night in a shady hotel.

Things hadn't gone exactly as planned. It had started as it always did- flirtatious words and gestures, foreplay, and then an intimate exchange. The man had a habit of degrading the faunus verbally- a fact that Cinnamon had remembered only after she was atop him. On any other night, she would have simply ignored it, or played along for a chance at extra lien for satisfying his lust for superiority. The words quickly turned to physical abuse- another reality that Cinnamon had delt with gracefully many times before, in pursuit of securing what funds she needed.

But that night, she only needed enough for a ticket out of Mantle's harbor. That night, there was one slap and one punch too many. That night, Cinnamon found her mind on her father, and just how far she had fallen while still being unable to save him.

Cinnamon had planned to simply exhaust the man and steal his wallet while he was sleeping. She and Daisuke had hatched a scheme to finally make good on their plans to relocate, but at some point, the plan had gone out the window. Cinnamon watched indifferently as the man below her struggled to breathe, his throat convulsing around the envenomed spine that had pierced his windpipe. She knew that the man's frantic, panicked gasps for air should have horrified her, but she felt nothing as she watched his eyes roll back. The horrible spasming of the man's throat, and eventually, his body, continued as she slowly slipped her spine from inside of his neck, leaving a hole of about an inch in diameter.

Within minutes, he was gone. Cinnamon had said nothing as she remained straddling his waist, her jaw still burning from the force of the last slap and her neck aching from where his fingers had clenched around it. Slowly, she dismounted her prey and began to fish through his clothing. After a short search, she found a simple black leather wallet and split the case open. Cinnamon checked inside of the folds to find several credit cards, before taking her scroll off the nightstand. With a shaking hand, she dialed Daisuke's number and held the device to her ear.

"Hello? Cin? You're done alr-"

"I killed him," she interrupted in a hollow voice.

Silence was the only thing over the line for a long while, before Daisuke spoke in a worried voice.

"…what do you mean y-"

"What I said. I killed him. I couldn't take it anymore," Cinnamon explained as she absently twirled one of the credit cards through her fingers. "We need to leave."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Cinnamon answered quickly as she moved to retrieve her clothing. "What danger would I possibly be in n-"

"No, Cin, are you okay?" Daisuke said insistently.

Cinnamon paused, the trembling in her hand beginning to worsen as she looked over at the corpse of the man upon the bed. The hole in the man's neck was oozing blood down and around his shoulders, and his gaze was fixed permanently upon the ceiling as he lay atop the mattress, motionless. All at once, the gravity of what she had done began to weigh upon her. The guilt intermingled with an overpowering feeling of hatred, and Cinnamon was total incapable of telling which emotion was stronger. A third, unfamiliar feeling joined the mixture in the form of panic, easily winning out over the others.

"I…" she began, her breathing quickening. "…I don't know. I-I didn't… Dai, you have to understand th-"

"Cin?" Daisuke interrupted. "I'm with you. I will always be with you. What you just did… maybe not the best call, but honestly? I don't blame you, either. You've been pushed so far beyond what anyone should have to deal with, and I haven't always been able to help. Just… just get out of there, and then, we can get out of here. Can you do that for me? Make your way to the docks?"

Cinnamon took a long, slow inhale as she went about dressing herself once again.

"…I can. I'll be there soon."

"Of course you will," Daisuke reassured. "We'll… talk about tonight once we're on a boat and on our way out to Argus, and only when you're ready. We'll get through this together. You can do anything."

Cinnamon wrapped her fingers around the rusty railing of the balcony as she blew out a breath, watching the vapor leave in a translucent cloud. Uptown Mantle was far below the dingy apartment, and several people were milling about in the streets despite the late hour and freezing cold. The town was just as she had remembered it, and the shadow of Atlas far above was just as oppressive as it had always been. As her eyes were drawn up to the glowing city in the sky, she heard the door to the balcony slide open behind her.

"Ah. There you are."

Cinnamon said nothing as she kept her eyes skyward, though she narrowed them slightly at the sound of Arthur Watts' voice.

"The children are in bed," Arthur explained as he leaned over next to her and folded his arms atop the rusty railing. The man followed her gaze with a bored expression, his mustache twitching. "You have some personal business up in Atlas, I take it?"

"…you could say that," Cinnamon replied without bothering to look at her acquaintance.

"Who doesn't?" Arthur sneered. "We have a job to do here, first, so keep your mind on Mantle, Miss Shoal. I'm setting aside my own grudges to carry out Salem's will down here first. You'll get your opportunity in time… provided you behave."

"And what is 'Salem's will', exactly?" Cinnamon asked as she finally turned to face her employer.

"Oh, that much is rather simple," Arthur answered. "Firstly… an election for a council seat in Atlas is about to take place, in a few short weeks. "We're here to make sure it goes… poorly."

Cinnamon rolled her eyes and shook her head, before looking back out over the streets of Mantle.

"And what's your plan for making that happen?"

The pair watched for a moment as a streak of green banked a hard right in midair, flying swiftly between two buildings. Down on the streets, a few citizens waved upward, trying to catch Hope's attention as she continued along her patrol path. Watt's lip curled at the sight, and he brought a hand up to stroke his mustache.

"…I have an idea or two…"

Author's Note:

Next week- some Sun-focused goodness. Expect a fairly consistent rotation between all three groups until the elections, which will go…

…really well. The plot twist is that everything will be totally fine.

-RD