In the dawning hours, Argus was beautiful. The city hung silent, the massive form of an Atlesian destroyer hovering silently above the darkened roofs of the central cities skyscrapers. A part of this felt, in some manner, bizarre and strange. The vast warship was truly enormous, even from her current position, she could note the individual weaponized flanges on the wings. Each and every one of them, covered in missile batteries and turrets. Just one of those vessels would be capable of protecting any outlying village for months.
It made her angry, to see that the humans got the cushy, powerful vessels that protected them, while the Fang had made do with civilians who barely understood how dust cartridges worked.
Blake Belladonna's ears twitched, shifting back and forth and twisting as she hung from an exposed metal beam. While dust generally was quite safe once processed, most of the industry was kept on the outskirts of cities now, especially because, if necessary, it could be detonated to cause natural defenses against a tide of grimm.
The communications towers that rose on the outskirts of Argus, that linked most of the city to the CCT network while the massive CCT tower that would link the northern end of mistral remained under construction in the center.
These towers were primitive, but efficient and hardy enough to last for as long as it was needed. Any CCT tower, as Blake understood it, was an enormous, expensive undertaking that required resources of dust so rich and pure that the SDC was the only ones who were able to provide it on demand.
More reasons Menagerie wouldn't get one. More reasons that they'd never be equal, never be accepted, never be allowed to have a place in the world.
And here she was, dangling off a tower a good 60 meters off the ground, suspended from spidersilk ropes and holding tight as a comrade worked to save the idiots from themselves.
Letting Nightingale into their city, when her mother had worked so hard to tell them that she'd survived. That the bitch was still out there, that she'd been twisted and corrupted, with that long grimm tongue. The sheer pain her mother showed, the acidic scars on her torso from where she'd been touched, the way she shivered in the night during the colder seasons. The way that Kali had never stopped training, had worked herself to the bone to be better, and was the equal of any huntress that Blake had ever seen.
"Blake! Pass me those clippers and that cable, will you?"
The voice was loud and soft, alerting Blake to the progress of her compatriot, one of her wrists came off the line of silk, and Blake reached behind her, pulled a long cable, and began to unspool it down the line. The electrical junctions flashed yellow as each became active, and soon enough, Blake began to feel the slight buzz through the cable as Trifa worked. The spider faunus hung upside down a good 20 meters down the communications tower, her silken rope securing her to the structure.
Midway down, a black box had been cut free of the central tower, and Trifa was busily attaching devices to the center of the machine. The cobbled together jammers were haphazard at best, but given what Nightingale could do if her voice could be broadcast through the entire city, or if she got into a television studio, it was the best they could do.
Which had led to the current plan, Sienna Khan had taken a detachment of fighters on a long patrol around the borders of Argus, attempting to find and attack Nightingale wherever she'd ended up, while Ghira held down the fort, and Kali led a small team of saboteurs into every television station.
All the while, these were diversionary, and the hope was that with all of that done, Blake and Trifa could break into the communications center, rappel up the towers, and plant blockers that would scramble outgoing signals.
If they were lucky, they'd be able to shut down the whole station before Nightingale got her song out, before she was able to attack or directly harm the populace of Argus.
A loud crack sounded from somewhere distant, and Blake spared a glance towards it, Cinder's warning had come at an excellent time, and the fact the survivor, Madeleine Red, corroborated her story was a big deal. Sienna had been immensely pleased that a human would ever put one of the faunus above herself to risk her life saving her.
Now, Blake was looking over towards Argus, wondering if the Fang had been found out, or if Atlas had attacked them.
A minor amount of fear ran through her, and a waver in her voice briefly announced.
"Trifa… progress?"
The spider faunus' reply echoed strangely, her head stuffed into the tower.
"Almost! Need a bit more modification here!"
Somehow, Blake felt that wouldn't be the end of this little trip.
Cinder's rest had not been restful, her dreams full of pain and the cackling, horrible laughter of the mad scorpion faunus. She'd startled awake enough times that by the fourth time, Raven was resting a hand smoothly on her forehead, gently stroking her hair as she woke up and went back to sleep.
That time, she managed to stay asleep into the morning.
When she stirred, she found Raven napping in the bed, and Vernal on watch, pistols drawn and rounds chambered, she stretched and ate, and after she'd begun the morning exercise and routine and finished, Raven had awoken and relieved Vernal. She'd been content, but sat Cinder down after she'd woken herself up enough.
"We have a dilemma, little kite."
Cinder studies her mother's face, seeing the line of her mouth drawn straight across.
"I continue to drag you into situations of high danger, situations you shouldn't be in."
Cinder opens her mouth, and Raven raises a hand.
"Please, let me finish."
She takes a deep breath, fingers dancing over the mug, Cinder sees the tension, sees the way her mother can barely look her in the eye, and she realizes.
Raven is terrified.
Raven is scared of her, scared of who she is. Of the threats that she keeps putting Cinder into.
A sensation of sickening joy flashes through her, fear of who she is… and Cinder feels terrible. This is her mother, this is someone who has sworn to protect her, and she is terrified of her.
At that moment, Cinder feels more shame than ever before. How dare she take such a pleasure in such a thing. Raven is speaking openly with her, telling her that she doesn't want her to interrupt.
"I cannot be a good mother by continuing to take you into danger. By continuing to force you into such places. Summer would never forgive me for what I've involved you in."
Another pause, Raven sucking in a deep breath.
"The city has been closed off, Atlas has deployed a number of squads to each exit, and only the Fang and myself are getting in and out. Kali and Sienna are leading operations in an attempt to flush out Nightingale. During that time, I am going to ensure you two remain here, and remain safe."
Cinder wants to protest, wants to start a conflict, but Raven raises her hand again, and once more, a bitter smile is on her lips.
"The fact you encountered Tyrian again last night has made it clear to me that I cannot keep you safe and continue to sally forth on missions."
A third pause, and Raven sets something onto the table.
"But I know who you are, and I know that you take after the worst qualities of Summer and myself, and even if I forbid that you help… you still want to help. So, you're going to come with me and help me. Vernal will be allowed to rest during that time."
Cinder's eyes alight with fire as she listens, and Raven continues.
"We have explosives donated by the fang, and there is an idea that I have formulated with Sienna, but I want to see if you can figure it out. The goal is to not cause civilian casualties in the slightest. Am I clear?"
Cinder nods, and turns to thinking, Raven stares at her, a slight smile on her lips as she thinks, and as she considers.
"What do we know about Nightingale's mind control?"
Cinder's tone is gentle and firm, and Raven's smile grows just a bit larger, she pushes a pile of notes towards Cinder.
"Sharp sensations… sensory overload, or sudden actions can break it enough to make someone run or start it?"
Raven nods, and Cinder turns to Raven after a moment of frantic scribbling.
"Do you have a map of city utilities?"
Raven shakes her head and waggles a hand from side to side.
"We have a map of sewer mains that the White Fang charted, but no power distribution or other essentials. Too difficult to breach Atlas security, well, it's not, but then they'd know I did that."
"And they'd have all the proof they'd need to sweep through every building looking for Raven Branwen?"
Her mother nods.
"Among other things."
A pang of ice cold fear shot through Cinder, Vernal's earlier topics had come back… a kill order.
"You can't mean-"
Raven shook her head.
"I do not believe I have warranted a kill order, but James is mercurial, and unpredictable. I did not anticipate the presence of his special forces here, and it concerns me that they would be so far from Atlas."
"His special forces?"
Her mother sighed and set the heavy mask she wore down on the table, its stark whiteness, the color of the bleached bone of the grimm, and the four eye ports to disguise her eyes. It was a mask that represented terror, and it reflected Raven's desire and ability to take that terror for her own, to make it hers and hers alone to generate.
"I spotted one of them tailing me earlier, her name is Elm Ederne, she was a promising recruit, one of a half dozen or so that Atlas touts as their "Ace-Ops". The best of the best, as it were. But I have my doubts about their skills. Elm was tracking me with little regard to whether or not she was detected."
Cinder frowned, before replying.
"So either she didn't care…"
Raven finished.
"Or she had another reason, or wanted to be seen."
Now, the conversation flowed easily to Cinder.
"Thoughts on a second tail?"
"Maybe, but they would have evaded my notice successfully."
Raven and Cinder looked at each other, and the older woman sighed briefly before she said.
"Right, which means we have to assume there was a tail, lest we be surprised. Why would I be tailed by two?"
"One is to kill you, or disable you, the other to extract her?"
"Elm's a big woman, probably a good 6 and a half to 7 feet tall, don't think she's particularly fast."
"Were you moving particularly quick?"
"No… just a standard rooftop run."
Cinder thought for a moment, that same small smile placed firmly on Raven's lips as the older woman smirked evenly at her.
"You already know the answer to this, don't you?"
Raven's smirk grew just a tiny bit.
"Of course you do. If she wasn't there for extraction… support the assassin?"
Raven nods.
"Good."
She turns her gaze back to the map… nothing stuck out to her, couldn't knock out communications, they didn't have enough explosives for it… couldn't bring down buildings, or detonate something loud enough that wouldn't kill people close enough to it.
Sewer mains made for a lacking form of concealment too, they smelled when they exited, and it took liberal application of Scorching Caress to burn away the worst of the-
"Raven, how much explosives did the Fang give us?"
Raven turns and sets a small backpack on the table, and then unzips it. Three minutes later, Cinder is staring at a very large, cloth wrapped square with blinking lights on top of it, alongside three small folded things that seem to contain water? She's not sure.
"This large one is a unique dust putty explosive, the others are breaching charges."
Breaching charges weren't good, the fang used them for just about everything, they could cut through steel and metal very easily, and that use made it easy for the Fang to breach trains full of dust or expensive weapon components.
It made it harder to actually detonate something.
But… it just might work, if she could make it all come together.
"I… think I've got it. But… would strong scents knock people out of it?"
Raven looks up a moment, as if remembering.
"One of her previous victims was knocked free of the control by a strong scent of rotting fish, so yes… yes it should work. Why?"
"The sewers, they stink awfully, but… if we burst the mains, shouldn't it…"
"Fill the streets with a noxious cloud, that should shock anyone out of it, and make others run for cover, and it shouldn't be poisonous to anyone except the old and infirm in hospitals… that would work. How are you going to get the cloud big enough?"
Cinder looked to the breaching charges and back at the large dust explosive, concentrating for a moment.
"Can I detonate the charges remotely?"
Raven nods.
"In that case… we need to weaken the main lines in and out of the sewage treatment plant, and then gunk up the flow, building pressure… can your "semblance" mess with water lines?"
Raven looked up, and nodded once.
"Yes, and I can measure my usage so it's delicate enough."
Cinder nodded, and turned back to the bags and the explosives.
"This is terrorism, isn't it?"
Raven nods.
"No going back?"
An air of finality set in for Cinder, a careful, cautious air of finality that had the girl slumped slightly in her chair, concerned.
"I… Is this right?"
The chair across from Cinder creaks as Raven sits down.
"Is this what Summer would want me to do?"
Raven's hands find hers, and clasp them together firmly, her voice harsh and severe as she says with a razor edge pouring into her voice.
"You are not like her. You should strive to be yourself, first and foremost."
Cinder looks up at her, sees that Raven's red eyes are locked to hers, and there's something in them, something that speaks to Cinder of resolution, something that speaks to her of a decision made within Raven.
"Summer Rose is, was, very dear to me. I loved her more than I thought I could love anyone, except for one other. There's… nothing in my heart that I wouldn't give to have her back, but… she's gone now. She would want you to live well, to live on regardless of who she is or what she wanted."
Raven muttered something under her breath, and Cinder leaned in to catch it, but couldn't make it out.
"You must chart your own course. You must survive and fight and live for yourself. You want power, power enough to give yourself safety, yes?"
Cinder wants to deny it, but she can't. She points her hand out, and Raven releases her, gently raising a palm, a heat mirage forming.
"I am strong for my age. But only for my age. I need to be strong, I need to be more powerful than Summer was, I need to be strong, so that when I grow up, I can take and do what I want to do. I need that… need that freedom."
Raven sighed and sat back in her chair. The creaking of springs as it settled with the woman's weight settled the quiet, only broken by the faintest of snores from Vernal.
"You need to be cautious, little Kite. The world is unfair and cruel, seeking power purely for the sake of freedom can be corrupted. So many times… the worst hunters seek power to protect people, purely for that reason, and it corrupts them, until all they want is more of it, more power, more strength."
Cinder nodded, watching as Raven's eyes lit aflame with magenta, and a snowflake made of lightning manifested in her hands.
"These powers, these energies, they seemed like such a blessing at the time, so important, so powerful. But… they are a burden in the worst ways, and I have a target on my back forever because of them. I want you to be aware, that I had a target on my back before I ever had these powers, before I ever had the abilities, because I was strong. Because I lived freely and only for those close to me, because I thought only those people mattered."
She paused.
"I'm right, of course, only those close to you matter. Be strong enough to protect them, and…"
It looked like Raven was about to swallow a lemon as she forced the words out.
"Be strong enough to rely on them too, when you need them. It took me years with Summer, and that weakened us, because we were too slow to trust… too slow to rely on each other."
Cinder tries to understand it, but… it doesn't make sense. Trusting people isn't easy. Trusting even Vernal like she trusts Raven is a stretch, trusting those people, anyone above her… she's glad she's not had to speak with General James Ironwood, because she's not sure she'd be able to keep herself from punching him, or attacking him.
Authority existed to hurt her, and it had hurt Blake too, she'd seen the looks the Faunus in the camp had shot her way, intruder, monster. Human. She'd seen and sensed the disgust and worry, those people… harmed by the government, the system… it felt… wrong to her.
But she didn't know how to fix it.
Now the government told people everything was fine, while Nightingale threatened to wrest control of it away from everyone, if they just obeyed her, she'd control everyone.
The sick and awful part of it, the part that scared Cinder, was that she could easily see how easy it would be to tell herself that she knew best, that she was better able to make those decisions. Was that how Nightingale had started? Was that how she'd fallen in with whatever had twisted her?
Was that a fate that Cinder would, herself, serve if she fell?
Those questions mulled over themselves in Cinder's head as she looked over the room, looking from Vernal's sleeping, scarred face, to Raven's eyes tracking across the plans they'd drawn up, to the ceiling and everything around her.
These people were here, they trusted her to follow through, to do… something, to help them.
These people were going to help her, because they cared for her.
"Cared…"
Raven looked up for a moment, but seemed to decide it wasn't worth opening another conversation as Cinder stared at the ceiling, working and rolling the word over in her mouth.
Before she'd met Raven and Summer, she'd thought "care" was nothing but faded memories of people who loved her because she was blood, because she was theirs and theirs alone, their daughter.
Now… What was "care" to her now? Madame had cared for her daughters, but she'd done it differently than Cinder had imagined . She'd praised them when it was due, punished them in situations where they had committed ill will against Madame or the hotel…
Why hadn't Madame been able to care for her? And why did the word feel like a leaden weight on her tongue?
Would others understand what it meant? Would other's help her make sense of the way this word made her feel?
Who could she ask? Raven was damaged, hurting over Summer, Vernal didn't seem to care for anything beyond where her next meal was coming from… who… wait.
Amber. The other huntress.
"Raven… can I write to Amber?"
Raven looks up at her, and nods, looking to her backpack, she indicates the second small pocket on the front, and returns to the long plan that they've hashed out on the paper over the past hours of speaking.
Thick parchment and envelopes in hand, Cinder works on it, scrawling in her rough hand the letter, writing her words with the emotions that bottle up inside her.
Dear Amber,
I don't know how to ask you this, I don't know if you'll understand it anymore than I do. But I could use some help. I'm trying to understand what "Care" means now, when Madame took care of me, she "cared" for me in that I had a bedroll and table scraps. Summer "Cared" for me by promising she'd free me, by promising that she'd break me out by force. Raven "cares" for me by training me, by educating me, and by making me strong, she makes me weapons and she got me an older sister… Her name is Vernal, but I don't know how to trust her. I don't know how to open myself up.
I feel stupid even asking for help like this, you're an adult, and part of me keeps screaming that you're the enemy, that you aren't to be trusted, and that you'll hurt me if I ask for help. But… I don't know where or who else to ask. So… please, don't hurt me? Don't laugh at me? I… want to know.
What does it mean to "care" for someone? Why are people so different with it?
Thank you,
Cinder,
P.S. I really liked the Winterfruits, Raven still has some of them, do you know how to find more?
The sheet of paper felt like it would cut her, like it was threatening to hurt her just by her touching it, just by her mere presence of fingers on it. The hours had flown by, and sheets of discarded and balled up paper littered the floor by the waste bin. The finished parchment felt rough under her fingers as she messily licked the glue strip on the envelope and sealed it shut, placing it on the desk, and turning her gaze on Raven.
"Can you take that with you next time you go out?"
The other woman nods, picking up the envelope and tucking it away into her bodice, the gesture shocks Cinder, was she not going to read it? To make sure that there was nothing that would get her into trouble there?
"Umm…"
"Speak up, little kite."
"Aren't you going to read it?"
Raven dragged her gaze up and stared at Cinder with an expression that resembled confusion, if Cinder had to guess.
"Why…?"
"So… that I'm not saying anything you don't like?"
Raven looked, if possible, even more confused.
"Why on Remnant would I? You and Amber are speaking, yes?"
Cinder nods, thinking to the single time she'd tried to send a letter to the orphanage complaining about Madame's treatment, trying to appeal for help, and the scar she'd earned herself as a result.
"Then it's none of my business. She's trustworthy, and a powerful huntress, you'd do well to reach out to her, to listen to what she would say. In fact, I would encourage you to write to Sienna Khan, as well as Kali and Ghira Belladonna. They might be insightful as well, might be able to tell you stories I could not."
Cinder flinches, she's not sure why Raven wouldn't look, even now. "None of her business" had only ever masked for a hurt incoming, and when Raven catches her shrinking away, catches her withering in her place… she stops her cold.
"This- this isn't about the letter, this is about you having privacy… isn't it?"
"Privacy?"
The word sounds and tastes foreign on her tongue, sounds wrong and unpleasant, "privacy" was what Iris and Clove got when they wanted to experiment with some wicked new toy or horrible action on her, "privacy" was what Madame demanded whenever she brought home a girl or boy from the streets with the eye of desperation about them. "Privacy" was what Iris had demanded when she'd started reading Ninja's of Love. It had never, never applied to Cinder before.
Her toes squished in her boots, and she only barely realized she was quaking when Raven put a hand in front of her face, and left it there, showing first the open palm, then the other hand, assuring Cinder that neither hand was raised in violence. This time, Cinder caught the muttered words as Raven crushed her into a hug.
"She's so lucky Tyrian got to her first."
Surprisingly, that makes Cinder hiccup, and then giggle, and even as she tries to contain it, she can't, until she's bowled over laughing and chuckling and crying her heart out. Raven is tucking her in, and awkwardly patting her back, and Cinder is crying and letting snot run down her face and sobbing and she's loud enough that Vernal stirs in her bunk, sits up, and then Vernal is there and she's also hugging Cinder and the dam truly breaks, even as both the older girl and woman wrap her tight in an embrace that's so warm, that's so pleasant and happy and it's enough that Cinder could just let herself go and imagine that this moment never had to end. But it is disrupted as Raven speaks quietly.
"No. Unless I feel it is absolutely, one hundred percent a matter of your life or death, I will not pry into your matters unless you ask me to do so."
Cinder looked up slightly in shock as Raven speaks, her head gently nudging into Raven's own head as she tries in vain to see if the other woman is being serious or not. She can't see her, and for once, she's forced to choose to either trust or refuse to trust, and Cinder does not know anymore if that is a bad or good thing.
Instead, Cinder simply concludes that it is enough to accept it, enough to allow such a thing, and that Raven's been trustworthy, so far, right?
She allows herself to be hugged, allows the embrace to break apart and allows sleep to come on wool feathered wings.
A/N: I'm… not super happy with this one, but I can't stare at it any longer. With this, however, everyone is now caught up, and I'd like to show a bit of my hand as the writer.
With the climax of the arc coming up, people are possibly going to die, and certain named characters are on the list of possible deaths, while some are safe (Cinder among them) most are not.
As always, if you like what I do, please leave a comment or criticism of anything involving the story. And for my readers on Sufficient Velocity and Spacebattles, you're now caught up with the main story, so chapters will come on a weekly basis, rather than a daily one.
If you'd like to, feel free to join my server, and you can chat with other fans and writers that are present!
Happy reading, and goodnight to all of you!
As for the list of people on the metaphorical chopping block.
Adam Taurus
Blake Belladonna
Ilia Amitola
Pyrrha Nikos
Raven Branwen
Kali Belladonna
Sienna Khan
Saphron Cotta-Arc
Terra Cotta-Arc
Vernal
The Ace-Ops:
Harriet Bree
Elm Ederne
Clover Ebi
Marrow Amin
Vine Zeki
James Ironwood
General Meridian Sol
Caroline Cordovin
Alexander Nikos
Helena Nikos
Next Chapter: Oct 23