Sorry this took so long I've been busy with work stuff and will get more busy by the end of Sept to Nov. So there will be no updates in that time frame. Also I've been streaming on twitch and you can find me at agent_g_ if you're curious.

Heart to Heart

Chapter 47: Monsters

"You are nothing, you will always be nothing." A female voice told her. "You should know your place."

There was the sound of a click, then the blinding pain, the scream of a young girl. The young girl falling to the ground in pain. When the pain stopped she felt the heeled shoe on her head pressing down into her flesh.

"You will always be here, this is where you will always be, underfoot."

Then there was the bright white light and more screaming.

Cinder shot up with a gasp as she looked around the small room she was living in at the moment. It took her a moment to get her bearings as she reached up to rub her face but paused at the sight of the Grimm arm she was using. She snarled as she threw her arm down and swung her legs heading to the small bathroom, she had adjacent to the room. She turned on the light as she saw her face, or what was left of it.

The patch wasn't on so she could see all the scaring on her side of the face, the ruined flesh and how it closed over where her eye had been. She gripped the sink glaring into the image in the mirror.

It was all because of her.

Ruby Rose.

That name was burned into Cinder's mind and she would never forget it. She still remembered when Ruby had used those damned eyes of hers, the Grimm inside of Cinder's body, the parasite that she had been given that allowed her to take on the powers of a Maiden had been destroyed by it. But I had also been latched onto various parts of her body, when it died parts of her body went with it.

The pain had been so bad she had blacked out. When she had woken up Emerald and Mercury were taking her limp form away from the battle of Beacon. She had languished in pain when even Salem said she could 'help'.

It required more Grimm parts being implanted into her body. Cinder always felt the Grimm inside and outside of her, how they barely did what they were told.

She focused back into the image in the mirror.

Cinder had once been beautiful but now, now she was a twisted freak. Every time she looked in a mirror, every moment on her life when she couldn't see out of her eye or felt the Grimm limb trying to fight her. Every living moment she was reminded of what that red hooded girl did to her.

Cinder's jaw clenched as she thought about it more. As far back as she could remember she remembered what it was like being weak. Being the one without power. Those who had power used it, she saw this, experienced this first hand. S then she took the power she desired, the power she worked so hard to get so that she would never feel powerless again.

Ruby Rose had made her feel powerless she had hurt Cinder more than anyone else had and what was worse. She knew the girl didn't even mean to do it, that's what really gnawed at Cinder. All that pain and suffering had been a damn accident. That annoying little girl had done this to her without any effort and that enraged Cinder to no end.

She went into the shower to clean off and then get dressed. She needed to focus herself, she needed to find them in this city and then she would plan out her revenge and see if she could also find the Winter Maiden and get those powers. Maybe then she could gain access to the vault and take whatever was in there. With that, maybe she could regain Salem's favor.

When she was done, Cinder went into the living room to see Adam already there. The room wasn't very big, in fact the whole apartment wasn't that big only a room for her and Neo, Adam stayed on the couch not that he seemed to mind. He was dressed in his new dark clothing looking better than the bleeding mess they had found him. His black colored cybernetics had this dark shine to them as he was sharpening his new weapon.

He had apparently given the doctor the specifications to it and it had been fabricated for him as he left that place. His clothing was his usual black and red only the sleeve to the should he had cut off to allow his new arm free movement. There was a long jacket over on one of the chairs with a hood to hide his face for various reasons.

"Don't you sleep?" Cinder asked him.

"Sometimes," Adam simply said not taking his eyes off his sword judging the edge.

Neo walked in with a yawn one thing Cinder had learned about Neo was that she was not a morning person. Cinder was about to say something when her scroll rang. She had a feeling it was Jack as the number of people that had this number outside of this room, she could count with one hand with fingers to spare.

She pulled it out and hit the button. "Yes?"

"Hey I hope things are going well," He said in a voice that was too cheery for this hour of the day.

"Have you found them yet?"

"Well, we got some good news and bad news on that." Jack told her. "Now we've seen them around thanks to those pictures but it seems they keep going back up to Atlas proper at the end of the day so they're most likely staying up there."

Cinder narrowed her eye as she took that in. "Is there more?"

"My boss figures you need a way up there and a place to stay," Jack continued on. "So, here's the thing. We get you passage up there and all the info we got, but you do us a little favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"See the thing is someone has been moving on my boss' business. He prefers to keep it a monopoly, now with everything going on getting a crew together that won't draw attention and not leave our other areas weakened he figures he can use you and your two friends' skills to help remove this competition."

"So, you think you all would be down with that?"

Cinder looked at the two others, Neo once awake would be fine with it. She didn't care about killing, it was one of the things Cinder actually liked about the short mute. Adam looked like he was just waiting to let loose.

"I think we can fit it into our busy schedule." She replied. "But why send us?"

"Honestly?" Jack asked seeing her nod. "With the crackdown going down it's getting harder to move around without security and they know most of our faces. The boss can make it so as long as we keep our heads down things aren't so bad. But if the boss sends out his heavy hitters out, well the odds of security noticing goes up and then we have eyes on us while we're working. We don't need that."

Cinder could see the issue now, since Cinder and her two allies were new in town the local security didn't know they were here. She was sure all of them had files in Atlas security but as far as anyone knew. Neo was still in Vale, Adam was most likely dead and if they thought she was alive, she had last been seen in Mistral. No one was actively looking for them in the kingdom of Atlas.

"Good I'll be over in an hour to take you to the place." Jack hung up at that point.

"Look like we'll have to hurry with breakfast, we got work to do." Cinder told them.

-Later-

In the docks area of Mantel, a warehouse owned by a group calling themselves the Dock Rats, had been trying to move in on the illegal dust smuggling in the area. This was their last mistake as only a few minutes ago they were suddenly attacked and hammered by a group of individuals.

They came out of nowhere and attack suddenly that they couldn't even mount a decent defense.

Cinder didn't care about any of that, there were tasked to take out this group as payment for all of the help they got and so that's what she did. She knew that in this world you had to grease palms now and then, some given and take were needed. Well unless you had the power to make someone do what you needed.

She used that on Roman but it wouldn't work here, she had only herself and Neo and Adam to call upon at the moment, so she would do the dirty work.

She was used to doing the dirty work of others, she thought bitterly as she created a flaming spear and threw it spearing one of the criminals into the wall through the back pinning him to the wall like a bug.

"You bitch!" someone yelled out as Cinder effortlessly dodged a blade swinging down where her head had been. She then kicked the wrist knocking the blade out of their hand as she quickly moved in with an elbow to the sternum, followed up by a knee to the chin and grabbed the head with her covered up Grimm hand and gripping it. She slammed the person back into the ground hard enough to bury the head slightly through the floor as she felt her skull give way from the force of it.

She stood up and looked around at the others.

Adam was tearing into them without abandoned. His slashes with his new weapon were quick and brutal, cutting down members left and right. He stabbed one member through the chest and holding it up with the strength of his new arm as he kicked another in the chest that was charging him. Adam flicked the sword sending the man flying off of it.

Adam didn't stop as he growled launching himself into more enemies.

Adam hadn't been in a fight since he had been beaten and left for dead. Now he felt more alive since he first woke up. This was what he wanted, the pumping of his blood, the smell of the iron taste in the air of their blood spilling onto the ground. The cries and screams the feel of his blade burying it into more enemies. The new cybernetics were helping, he felt stronger now, faster, he was faster and stronger he realized. The new eye kept track of his surroundings with his own heightened senses added to it, he felt his control of the battlefield was greatly increased.

One of the gang started shooting at him from the second level. They were on a catwalk next to the main office for the shipping warehouse. He charged ahead dodging left and right in a zig-zag pattern as he readied his arm and threw his sword like a spear impaling them. He jumped onto several storage containers before jumping up onto the catwalk. He was about to take his sword back when his eye saw the heat signature of someone behind the wall.

With his new cybernetic arm, he punched through the wall gripping he head of the person behind it. They tried to pry off his hand but he was too strong for that as he pulled back, ripping both the arm and the person through the wall. He threw the person behind them as the cried out before hitting the hard floor. Then he pulled free his sword and looked down to see the man he just threw slowly starting to crawl.

Adam jumped down onto him with his sword going into the back of the man's neck.

Neo was having fun it had been a while since she got to have fun like this. She twirled and danced through these criminals. It wasn't the first time she had to do something like this, Roman had to take out many competitors after all.

Using her umbrella to brush away their sloppy attacks. Honestly it was like no one had any sense of skill or precision. The amount of people that could give her trouble she could count on one hand.

"Stand still you pink bitch," A larger woman said with an axe.

Neo just raised an eye as she easily dodged and when she pulled it up to swing again Neo kicked the handle making her arm fly back and in a smooth motion drew the blade from her umbrella and sliced through the woman's neck. She dropped her weapon her hands going to her throat as Neo just as easily put her sword back and opened up her umbrella and twirled around to make sure the spray of blood his her umbrella.

She skipped off leaving the woman to die as she went to kill a few more people. Maybe she could find a fun way of doing it? Roman once called her a sociopath but that she was his sociopath. She didn't care if she was or not, she didn't care if she killed people or not. If someone got in her way then they had to do, simple as that. She just preferred to keep things simple and straight to the point and have fun where she could get it.

And this was the closest thing she had to fun ever since Roman had died. But oh what fun she would have with Little Red, she was going to peel that girl's skin off, maybe she would make her sister, the loud blonde one watch. Now that would be fun.

-Crooked Man's Building-

Watts adjusted his tie out of habit as he and Tyrian were led to the meeting chamber. It had been years since he had been here and it was mostly the same. Maybe a new paint job and a few new additions to the decor but it was mostly the same old styled wooden walls and furniture. He was here because the Crooked Man had contacts that he needed the man ran most if not all of the smuggling in this Kingdom along with a few other less than legal enterprises.

Watts needed a way up into Atlas but with his face in their security systems that was a bit problematic. There were blind spots but not ones big enough for his needs to actually get into the Upper City.

He was led into the meeting room that the man used, it was a large room with plenty of comfortable chairs and couches, the place was filled with polished wood and the bar at the far end was still there. There was a work desk by a window raised up slightly but instead of sitting behind that, The Crooked Man sat in a larger chair, larger than any of the others as Watts knew it was one of the subtle ways the man projected a sense of power. The other being how everything was made to either face this chair or flanking him as it made him out to be the center of focus of the room.

Watts could appreciate subtle manipulation like this as it helped to show the kind of mind that ran this organization.

"Ah Arthur, such a pleasant surprise to see you again," The Crooked man gestured for him to take a seat across from him. "And with a friend I see."

Tyrian witched a little as Watts adjusted his tie. "He's more of a work acquaintance."

"Ah yes, he doesn't seem to be the usual type you do prefer to keep company with." The bent man nodded his head.

Tyrian looked at the man, he was twisted up but he held himself with a sense of power and purpose. Well, the illusion of power he mentally grinned, there was only one true power in this world and that was his dark goddess. Still the man seemed at least not the boring type, he was the type to talk a lot like Watts but unlike Watts wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.

He could smell the blood on this man and he had to admit those eyes told of a lot of bodies the man had buried and didn't lose any sleep over it.

Still, Tyrian hoped this wouldn't take too long, he hated all this talking and wanted to go out and do something interesting.

At that moment Jack entered the door, "Hey boss we finished that thing you asked."

Cinder, Neo and Adam followed after them as everyone turned to face the new comers there was suddenly a tensed moment as Cinder locked eyes with Watts.

"Well, well, it seems the reports of your demise has been incorrect." Arthur leaned back stroking his mustache.

"Watts, what are you doing here?" Cinder knew that the Grand Plan was to hit Vacuo next, not Atlas. She doubted that they had hit Vacuo and had finished so soon. Even without the Network up that kind of news should have filtered its way down to Atlas by now. The only thing she could think of was that the plan had been changed because of what happened in Haven.

"Why doing my job," Watts smirked. "Something you failed at."

Cinder felt her anger rise up as her eye glowed from her Maiden power. Those that hadn't seen this before took a step back. Living in this world you could see a lot of semblances but there was something off about this. Seeing in person you could almost 'feel' for lack of a better term that there was something not normal about it but you couldn't place your finger on it, unless you knew what it was that is.

Cinder got it under control since she needed a ride up to Atlas city and the kind of battle that would start here would only ruin that chance. She was if anything, practical and patient.

"There were complications," Cinder told him. Between Ruby and her allies and then Raven's little deception, things had not gone to plan.

"So we heard," He smirked learning back as Tyrian giggled. "Apparently the blame was place all on you."

Cinder narrowed her eyes as the only ones that would have said that were Hazel and Mercury, there had been Emerald there too but those first two were the most likely ones to place the blame.

"So, was it Mercury or Hazel that said that?" Cinder asked offhandedly trying to play it off but also trying to figure out which one of those two she would have to deal with later.

"It was actually Emerald that said you were to blame," Watts said his smirk growing.

Cinder's eye narrowed as her fist clenched. "What?" She said in a cold tone.

Tyrian giggled again enjoying this. "Oh yes we were all there to watch her throw you under the bus as it were."

Of course, Salem had already decided to blame Cinder for it and just wanted the others to admit it. Emerald hadn't wanted to but when faced with the Queen of the Grimm in a very bad mood was a surefire way to end living. So out of self-preservation she had said what Salem wanted to hear, of course they weren't going to tell Cinder this.

Cinder felt the burning hatred in her burn just a little if brighter. Emerald had been the perfect tool for her, someone who she had thought would have been loyal to the end. She was a fool to think that, everyone betrays you, it's only a matter of time. Cinder knew that trust was an illusion, that you can't count on anyone but yourself and the power you had. The power to not be helpless anymore and she had planned to be if not the most powerful then the second most powerful person in the world.

"Emerald," Cinder said bitterly under her breath. She would deal with that little traitor one day but first she had other plans. Plans that needed to be sped up with these two were here, she needed to find the maiden before them and then she could deal with Ruby and her friends.

Cinder looked at the Crooked Man, "We did what you wanted and we need a way up into the city."

The old man nodded his head, "Very well, since you both are going up, I can arrange transport for you all on the next shipment up."

"That might not be the best to have us all in one spot together," Watts admitted that the odds of them starting a fight trying to kill each other was high enough right now. The fact that Cinder had seemed to have replaced Mercury and Emerald already put them at a numbers disadvantage.

"Oh, I don't know I think this might be fun," Tyrian said gleefully his tail unwrapping as he took a few steps forward. "In fact, why wait?"

Before anyone could act Adam rushed forward as the hood was pushed back from the speed, he launched himself at as he drew his sword to have Tyrian block it with one of his blades. The two cybernetic Faunus were locked in combat. Tyrian could feel the unnatural strength of his cybernetic hand holding the sword and judges that there was more than just the hand and part of his face that is mechanical.

He looked into the single eye looking at him and it made him pause for a bit before smiling.

"Oh, now you, you are interesting," Tyrian liked what he saw in that eye. Full of rage and pain at the world but also the freedom of being unshackled by the norms of this world. The last time he saw eyes this interesting it was that blonde boy that had been also full or anger and pain.

"Enough!" The Cooked Man bellowed out and slammed his walking stick on the ground as both men suddenly fell down in pain as their bodies were being bent in painful ways. He wasn't just called the Cooked Man because of his own bent form he could do it to others and sometimes bend them in ways that were fatal and disturbing when found.

He soon released it letting the two go as they both raised up looking at the old man and then each other.

"You will control yourselves in my home or you will not be welcome guests here but pests to be removed," He said with an air of full authority. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Agreed." Watts nodded knowing full well the power of this man and wished that Tyrian had been a bit more careful.

Cinder nodded her head. "As you can see, we would not be travelling together."

The Cooked Man sighed, "Yes it will seem that if I want my shipments intact you both cannot travel together. So be it, we'll work out the details now all of you site down, while you are here you all will behave yourselves."

They all sat down across from each other although the blatant hostility was not gone from both groups.

Watts took a look at Adam's new cybernetics. "I must say I think I recognize that work. It's been years but the style is very typical of a man that I knew that is supposed to be dead."

The Crooked Man huffed with a small smile. "Yes, it seems both you and he faked your deaths and came to me. He works for me from time to time while I keep him from Atlas finding him."

Watts stroked his mustache this was good news. Dr. Stein was one of the few men that he had respect for. While he was more a genius into programming, Stein had been a genius in the more mechanical side of things. They had done great work together in the past but then that nasty business of his cybernetic research going too far and his apparently death was a sad moment. Such a loss of a brilliant mind that knew that the laws of this kingdom were stagnant against progress.

It was that whole affair that gave him the idea to fake his own death, not knowing the man had done the same until now. Well apparently, great minds to think alike he mused to himself. He would have to inquire later, first he had business in Atlas.

-Elsewhere-

Emerald hated this place, she hated the creepy castle, she hated the sky of this place how it was always dark. She really hated that there was nothing but Grimm all around her. Most of all she hated how Cinder wasn't here, she couldn't believe they had left her like that. She had no idea if Cinder was even alive or not, she hadn't shown up again and it only worried her that she was dead.

If Cinder was, then what was she going to do now?

The only one she could loosely consider someone she could talk to was Mercury and even then, she could only stand him for short periods of time.

She stood in her room in the castle, she didn't go out much, there wasn't much for her to do here. Salem hadn't summoned them for anything and they were just left to their own devices.

She wished that at least Cinder was here, at least then she wouldn't feel so isolated in this nightmare of a place.

The door to her room opened as Mercury stepped in.

"Don't you knock?" Emerald said annoyed.

"The boss is calling for us, best not to keep her waiting." He simply told her. That was all Emerald needed to snap out of her thoughts. Salem was not one you wanted to get angry, she had seen small bits of the immortal's anger and it was not something she wanted to see.

Without a word she fell into place with him as they walked the halls, seeing some of the small floating Grimm doing odd jobs. Most likely just keeping the place tidy for Salem. They always creeped Emerald out. They just floated there with no real face or anything, like demonic jellyfish. The worst part was it felt like they were always watching her no matter where she stood.

"Do you know what this is about?" She asked.

"Nope," He shrugged nonchalantly. "I got the impression questions weren't an option."

Emerald was quiet on that point, she had to agree about that. They were heading out to the main gate of this castle as she couldn't help but voice her own thoughts.

"I hope she's going to allow us to go back to Mistral and find Cinder." Emerald said.

"Pretty sure she's dead." Mercury shrugged.

"She's not dead! She wouldn't be dead!" Emerald angrily told him.

"Look all I know is that she went down there and didn't come back up," Mercury told her not really caring. "I know you got this thing about her and all but you need to grow up. She never cared about you in the way you think, we were just pawns to her."

"That's a lie." She shot back.

Mercury rounded and her so quickly she took a step back. "Look I'm sick of this loyal puppy thing you got going for her. If you're too blind to see things as they are then I guess that's it but make no mistake that Cinder if she is alive, she's not really welcomed back here."

He leaned in to speak in a slightly softer tone. "Also remember you yourself she was to blame."

Emerald's eyes widened, "That's not, it was Salem she-"

"You still had a choice," Mercury told her. "Sure, they were bad choices but you choose the one that would allow you to survive. So, if Cinder does show up again and when she finds out that you threw her under the bus, how do you think she will see it?"

"I…I only…" Emerald tried to come up with something, anything to say but she couldn't. She couldn't find the words for it as Mercury just smirked and walked on.

Emerald was silent as they found themselves outside in the nightmare landscape the pools of what could only be liquid Grimm in her opinion where Grimm would be spawned from. There standing like a queen was Salem her pale skin seemed to glow in the moonlight as Hazel Rainart was already there. The massive man just stood there with his arms crossed waiting as they arrived.

Salem turned to face them with a small smile on her face as her black and red eyes seemed to look right into them. "Ah good you're right on time."

"On time?" Emerald asked looking around.

"Yes, I think it's time we get ready for the next phase." Salem turned as she raised a hand. "The thing with making Grimm is that the larger they are, the more complex they are, the longer it takes to make. Then again, I have time for that."

A rumbling was heard and felt as the ground shook.

"I thought it was time to finally make my grand entrance on the stage and so I decided now was the time to finally let my latest 'child' to come out. Arise…Monstra."

The ground seemed to explode as out from under the ground in the pools hidden beneath the surface did a leviathan class Grimm started to emerge. Emerald watched in horror as the massive Grimm slowly came out, and out, and out of the ground. It slowly floated up into the sky as she saw it was in the shape of a huge whale.

She had seen towns smaller than this thing.

It was a true monster in Emerald's eyes.

TBC…