Once more, Cinder found herself walking through a city that disgusted her. Once more, she was forced to hide her presence, praying desperately that no one recognized her.
This is necessary, she told herself. In the wake of Haven, she had to be constantly on guard, even more so than after Vale. She was without allies now, and as far as anyone was concerned, she was dead. She fell to her death at the battle of Haven.
Cinder scowled. Haven had been a disaster, start to finish. Yet another failure, another black mark on her record. She had been foremost among Salem's followers, selected to bear the powers of the maiden.
And now, she was walking through the slums of Haven, hoping to get by unnoticed.
It sickened her, to be reduced to something so pathetic. She had power, power no one else in all of Remnant could hope to rival, save for Salem and Ozpin, and it had fallen through her fingers thanks to a wretched old hag past her time.
She thought she had died, when Raven cast her down. But she awoke, every inch of her body wracked with pain from the fall. She had crawled, pulling herself out of the vault. It was a miracle there was an exit for her to crawl out of.
Still, alive or no, she had left in failure. Again. Thanks to two faithless traitors, and the incompetence of the rest of her so-called allies. And Lionheart, of course. That pathetic old man had proven himself a traitor twice over. Lionheart, Watts, Raven, all around her she had been burdened by useless morons and traitors. That was why they had failed at Haven. The only reason, really. Otherwise, they would have had Ruby Rose and her friends dead to rights.
No more, though. If one good thing had come out of Haven, it was that now, she was finally free to act on her own. Not even Salem knew she still lived. As much as it was humiliating, it offered her a useful advantage. No one was expecting her. No one was preparing for her. Which meant there was no one to interrupt her plans.
For the moment, she had to act in secret. But the time would come where she can return to Salem's side, and reclaim what was hers. She would not be denied.
Cinder sighed, as she came to a stop before the hideout of the spiders.
Lil Miss Malachite was a dangerous woman, and one she was loath to approach, especially when she wasn't exactly in a situation of power at the moment. Malachite had proven useful before, when she had first come to Haven with Mercury and Emerald. But Malachite was a woman who hung onto every scrap of information she got a hold of, and coming to her was a double edged sword. She needed information about where Ruby Rose was going, but she risked exposing herself as well.
Cinder couldn't tell if Malachite had recognized her, but she couldn't count it out. Lil Miss was resourceful, if nothing else. She had waited for as long as she was told to, and now she had come to find out what Malachite had learned. And to learn if I have been betrayed yet again.
"Have you found anything?" She demanded, striding into the bar.
Lil Miss scoffed, raising an eyebrow at her intrusion. "Of course I have. Doesn't mean it'll be something you want to hear."
"And just what does that mean?" She snarled.
Lil Miss frowned. "It means, I'd put a little less force behind your words if you want what you paid for, Miss Fall."
Cinder froze. Son of a bitch. It seemed Malachite had found out who she was. Not entirely unexpected, but not good at all. She pursed her lips. "What have you learned?" She asked, in a lighter tone.
Lil Miss seemed pleased. "Your little Rose girl and her friends were spotted boarding the Argus Limited just the other day. Of course, seeing as how Argus ain't exactly a popular destination for most folk, chances are they're heading for-"
"Atlas," CInder growled, finishing her sentence. That was…unfortunate. Atlas would be hard to get to, and it would be even harder to act, considering how tight security is. What's more, she missed them by mere days. She wasn't in any position to take her revenge just yet, but still, it galled her that she had no choice but to let them leave without resistance.
It didn't matter. She had what she needed. Cinder turned on her heel, ready to leave, when Lil Miss called her back. "You know, I also heard something else that might have been of interest to you, if you want to hear."
"I sincerely doubt you know anything else I would care about," She snarked. Not unless she had the names and locations of both remaining maidens.
"Are you sure?" Lil Miss asked innocently. "Not even if it involved a pair of troublemakers who used to work with you?"
Her remaining eye widened. Mercury and Emerald. "Where are they?" She snarled.
Lil Miss clicked her tongue. "Not so fast there, young lady. A woman's got to make a living, and it seems to me you are interested in this little tidbit after all."
Cinder pushed down on her anger. Now was not the time or the place to start a fight. She counted out the same amount of Lien she had given the information broker the first time, and threw it on the table. "There! Now can you tell me what you know?"
"Well If you ask a little more nicely I could," She said.
Cinder's eye twitched. Lil Miss sighed, rolling her eyes. "So impatient, you young folk these days. Yes, I can tell you. See, figuring as how I was looking around Argus anyhow, to see if there was any other reason for Miss Rose to be heading there, it happened to jog my memory." Lil Miss smiled. "One of my spiders used to have a little outfit in the city. Nothing too fancy, but she operated as a go between, fencing anything she couldn't sell herself to me. Real nice girl, by the name of Jadis."
"And what does this have to do with anything?" Cinder asked impatiently.
"Quite a bit, if you shut your mouth and let me finish," Lil Miss said. "A few months ago, Jadis mentioned those two friends of yours. Mercury and Emerald. Two of the most wanted people in the world because of Beacon. Well, most wanted after yourself, of course. I didn't think too much of it, figured no one with any sense would risk bothering them." Lil Miss smiled again. "But seeing as how they used to work for you, I imagine you have no problems going after them."
"No, I certainly don't," Cinder grinned. "Where in Argus are they?"
"Not sure," Lil Miss admitted. "Like I said, I didn't look much into it. But they're in Argus, and it doesn't look like they're leaving anytime soon."
Cinder hummed in thought. This was…fortuitous, to say the least. Almost everyone who had wronged her, gathered together in one city for her to take her revenge. It was too tempting of an opportunity to simply pass up. What's more, Salem believed she was dead. Which meant, there was no reason she couldn't go after Mercury and Emerald. And even if she was caught, she could simply say they were in the way, that she didn't go looking for them. It would hardly be a lie.
She turned around once more. "I suppose it was worth a little more money. Thank you, but our business here is concluded." She began to walk away.
Lil Miss scoffed. "Well, yours is at any rate." Cinder stopped in her tracks. "I told you, Cinder, I'm a woman of business. And I've had another client here waiting so patiently for our little deal here to conclude."
Cinder turned back with a snarl. "Just what the hell are you talking about?"
She took a step forward, ready to wring answers out of the woman, when she heard the creaking of wood above her. She frowned, looking up. Her eyes widened. "Neo?" She asked in shock.
The mute grinned.
Neo watched as Cinder burst through the window with a satisfied smile on her face. It was a refreshing sight to see, so much better than what she had envisioned, in every possible way. And that was no small feat.
Ever since Beacon, she had spent day after day, night after night fantasizing of this very moment. It was everything she had dreamed of. Cinder was crippled, humiliated, utterly alone, with no one left to mourn her death. It was nothing less than what she deserved.
She had been so confident, once. So sure of herself, so superior to all the rest of them back in Beacon. People like her, like Roman, even like those other two, Mercury and Emerald, were her lessers. Subordinates. It had grated on her then, and she had lost count of all the times she wanted to shove Hush through her throat while they were in Beacon.
But Cinder was smart. She kept her separated from Roman, for the most part. If she did anything to Cinder, she couldn't guarantee something else wouldn't happen to Roman. She was forced to play nice, if for no other reason than to ensure Roman was safe.
Not that it mattered much anyways. Not that it changed anything. Neo growled, gripping Hush tightly. Roman had still died. Died in a stupid, pointless battle neither of them had ever wanted any part of. Cinder had simply strode into town, forced them to work for her, and led them to disaster. And in Roman's case, his death.
Neo had tracked Cinder ever since. It was hard work, and she had almost given up hope of finding her. All she had to go on was the knowledge that she would eventually come to Haven. She went to Lil Miss on a whim, almost out of desperation. Roman wasn't exactly on good terms with his former boss, but Neo had hoped maybe she would at least hold a little nostalgia for one of her former protege's. At least, enough to help her out.
Then some kind of fight went down at the academy, and she thought she had lost her chance. She was preparing to make her way to Atlas, figuring she had a fifty-fifty chance of guessing where Cinder would go next, when, to her surprise, Lil Miss actually called her back. Cinder was still in town, and she was in bad shape.
Cinder pushed herself up from the ground, coughing up blood. Neo delivered a sharp kick into her side, sending her back down to the ground. She brought Hush above her head, plunging it down, but Cinder rolled out of the way, blasting her with a ball of fire. Her eyes widened, quickly dodging out of the way, using her semblance to help her get clear. She's picked up a few new tricks, apparently.
That was fine. It just made things a little more interesting.
She drew hush back, ready to charge again, but Cinder cut her off before she had a chance. "Enough of this, girl. I don't have any time for your misplaced anger. I didn't kill your boss. Take it up with "Little Red" if you have a problem."
Lies, she thought with a snarl. Just trying to save herself the trouble of a fight. Cinder was the one who ruined everything by coming into town and strong-arming Roman. She was the one who organized the attack on Beacon, she was the one who let Roman get killed!
Neo charged, thrusting with the tip of Hush, but Cinder summoned twin swords of glass, beating her parasol aside. Neo sidestepped Cinder's following slices, backing away and putting a little distance between the two of them.
"Look, I wasn't even on the airship when Roman died!" Cinder snapped, giving Neo pause. "Ruby Rose was the one who chose to intervene, she was the one who killed Roman. Not me."
Neo scowled. It was still her fault for wrapping them up in the whole mess in the first place. "I have my own grudge with Ruby. So how about instead of wasting your time trying to kill me to satisfy some false sense of justice for Roman, you hear me out and we can both get the vengeance we crave."
Neo kept her distance, but lowered Hush. Cinder straightened up. "Good. Now, we can actually talk."
She rolled her eyes, pointing at her throat. Cinder frowned. "Right…well, I'll talk then, and you can listen. I assume you heard all of my conversation with Lil Miss, yes?"
Neo nodded. "Then you heard what she said. It isn't just Ruby who will be at Argus, but Mercury and Emerald as well. Now I have orders from Salem, not to kill either Ruby or the wayward traitors. You, on the other hand, have no such restrictions."
Hmm…Neo had no idea who Salem was, but if she was someone who gave Cinder orders, she was about to get into something a lot more serious than she was anticipating. On the other hand…What else would she do? Roman was the one good thing in her life she had going for her, and he was taken from her. All she could do now is get some revenge on the people who stole him away. And while Cinder certainly shared a portion of the blame, Ruby Rose was the reason she wasn't there on the airship to save Roman. She was probably the one who killed him herself.
"So? Do we have an arrangement?" Cinder asked, holding out a hand.
Neo grinned, skipping forward and shaking her hand. Deal, she thought.
"We're still here," Mercury pointed out.
Emerald sighed, turning over in her bed. "Why yes, Mercury, we are!" She said in a sickly sweet voice. "How very observant of you."
"How are we still here?" Mercury asked in confusion. "Any reasonable person would have thrown us out by now. There's still bits of glass in the living room from the break in."
"Maybe they don't know it's connected to us, specifically?" She said hopefully. "As far as they're concerned, all they know is someone broke in, and we went after them. That's it. They don't know about Jadis, or anything really. Except the train, but they think we've given that up."
"Which we have," Mercury said.
She rolled her eyes. "Maybe, but we only settled on that last night. Look, my point is, they might not even blame us for the break in."
He raised an eyebrow. "That would be extremely stupid of them. Shortly after taking in a pair of criminals, more criminals break in and it's completely unconnected?"
"Yeah, well, they took us in after we threatened to kill them, didn't they?" Emerald huffed. "They clearly don't have the world's best self preservation instinct."
Mercury barked out a laugh, crossing his hands behind his head. "You got a point there."
They hadn't spoken much to their roommates when they came back last night. A few brief words assuring them they were okay, and the problem was dealt with. Saphron and Terra hadn't come to their door yet, and when they went out to try and clean a little, they were still in their room.
Emerald's heart was still racing from last night. Everything just happened so fast, it was hard to believe. Jadis was finally dead. They caused a massacre at her hideout. They completely gave up on the Argus Limited, and as for Mercury…Emerald smiled.
This is ridiculous, She thought. Her entire world was crumbling around her, and she was smiling. Stupid Mercury. Nobody else did that to her.
"Should we just head out in the living room now?"" She asked. "Act like everything's normal?"
"Not yet," Mercury said. "Maybe later. Giving it a little time is probably for the best."
She nodded absently. Her thoughts were elsewhere. "Hey, Merc?"
He was quiet for a moment. "Yeah?"
"I don't want to leave," Emerald said quietly, closing her eyes. It made it easier for her to speak honestly. "I don't want to go back to living how we did when we first got here." She was repeating herself from last night, but she didn't care. "I don't want to go back to how we lived before that, either. I'm sick of living like scum. I want to be normal. Have a normal life. I don't want to have to keep living in fear, waiting for someone to find us out."
She heard a long sigh from across the room, and a few moments later felt him sit down on her bed. "I know you said it was impossible, before," She said quietly.
"True," He said. "Then again, a lot of things are impossible, aren't they? I thought it was impossible I'd ever get to kill my dad. I thought magic was impossible. I thought it was impossible for us to take down Vale, and I thought it was impossible someone like Salem could exist. I thought it was even more impossible that we'd ever get away from them. And I thought it was impossible I'd ever find someone like you."
Mercury reclined, laying down next to her. "I don't really care about what's impossible anymore. Screw it all, I say. If we managed to make it here in the first place, then we can sure as hell make a normal life for ourselves. And I'd like to see someone try and stop us."
She giggled. "Hey, I'm serious!" He pretended to sound hurt. "Think about it. You and I are working retail, and all of a sudden Watts walks through the door. Give me five seconds, and I'll be chucking cans at the back of his head."
Emerald snorted, breaking out into full blown laughter. Mercury joined in, and the two of them almost fell off the bed before they managed to get a hold of themselves.
She laced her hand around his. "Thanks, Merc."
He tensed up for a moment, and she thought she had made a mistake, but he didn't pull away. "Eh, don't mention it." He said. "We're partners, aren't we?"
She smiled softly, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Hey Mercury?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm really glad we found you that day, instead of your father," She said.
He scoffed. "So am I. If you ran into him instead of me, that means things would've taken a bit of a different turn for me."
She rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean, asshole."
"Doesn't mean I can't have a bit of fun," He countered.
Emerald sighed contently, curling up closer to him. "Jerk," She accused with a smile. "I'm being serious, kind of. Can you imagine where I'd be without you? I'd still be chasing after Cinder like a three year old girl running after her mom. Or maybe she might have just killed me by now. I don't know if I'd have ever left on my own."
"Eh, you're a smart girl most of the time." Most of the time? "Besides, it's not like I'd be in much of a better spot. I didn't really have any reason to leave, other than making sure you didn't wind up getting yourself killed. "
She laughed. "Peas in a pod, the two of us."
"Aren't we?" Mercury grinned. "A pair of disasters who somehow managed to get one over on Salem of all people." He ran his thumb over the back of her hand. "We'll be alright, Em. Don't worry so much."
Emerald believed him. She wasn't sure how, but she was certain things would work out for them. Everything felt too right for it not to. She was safe, she had Mercury, and they were finally clawing their way out of a life she had been trying to escape for as long as she could remember.
They'd have to go out sooner or later and face the Cotta-Arcs. Hopefully, they didn't blame them for the break in. Like Mercury said, they didn't have any reason to connect them to it, but still, she worried.
Well, she thought. At least we'll face them together.
"Brothers, it's going to look awful," Saphron moaned.
"Of course it is," Terra said. "We didn't bother trying to clean it up last night. It's not like magical fairies were going to do the work for us."
"I know, but still. I'm dreading how bad it really is," Saphron said. "We were both a little too panicked last night to really get a handle on the full damage."
Terra bent down to scoop up Adrian, and sighed. "It's going to be bad, and it's going to have to get done," She said. "At the very least, we can't have Adrian crawling around with broken glass on the floor."
Saphron whimpered. "We could always just stay in our room?"
Terra glared at her wife, and Saphron's shoulders slumped. "Alright, alright! Let's just get it over with."
They opened their door, making their way to the living room. Broken glass and splintered wood littered the floor. There were a number of holes in the wall, from the intruders being thrown around. Pictures that once hung around the house were laying in shattered frames on the ground.
Terra sighed, stooping to pick up one of them, careful to keep a hold of Adrian. She shook out the tiny bits of glass still on the frame. It was a picture of her and Saphron on their wedding day. Their legal wedding, at the courthouse, not their actual celebration in Ansel.
She sighed, placing it down on one of the few unbroken bookshelves near her. "We're going to have to just chuck these in a box and put them somewhere until we can order new frames."
Saphron was looking intently at the ground, carefully choosing her steps to avoid the glass. Terra rolled her eyes. "Honey, what are you doing?"
"Trying to get to the kitchen, so I can at least start sweeping." She answered without looking up.
"In slippers?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Saphron bit her lip, and Terra laughed. "Go back to our room, and put on some shoes. We're going to be here a while, I'm sure. And here, take Adrian back too, while you're at it."
Saphron carefully hopped her way back, and she handed Adrian off to her. Terra turned back to the mess that was now their house. She frowned. It wasn't…as bad as she expected. It was awful, make no mistake, but something looked off about it. Aside from the obvious, that is.
Her eyes widened. The table was gone! She remembered it was broken from last night, Mercury must have slammed one of the thieves through it. It was gone now. Looking around, most of what was left was a lot smaller. Mercury and Emerald must have come out at some point, and cleared out the harder stuff.
Well that made their life a little easier. She'd have to remember to thank them later. She went over to the kitchen, glass crunching beneath her feet. It really wasn't as bad as they had first thought. It would take a few hours to clean up, but honestly, once they were done, there wouldn't be much else to do. A week or two to replace the furniture that was broken, and get new pictures frames, and everything would mostly be back to normal.
"Alright, Adrian's occupied with the TV," Saphron declared as she came back, thankfully with actual shoes on this time.
"Pinkie?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
Her wife grinned. "Yep," She confirmed. "I didn't even have to put it on for him. He's figured out how to get to that one show and get it to play."
Terra laughed. "That's ridiculous!"
"Hey, never underestimate the power of a determined toddler who wants his favorite show," Saphron said. And it was his favorite show, no doubt there. Who knew a kids cartoon about a family of Vacuan dogs would be so popular? Or so good? From what she caught, it was weirdly enjoyable for adults as well, and Saphron swore by it.
If it kept Adrian busy, she didn't care what it was. She handed Saphron one broom, and held onto another.
They cleaned in silence for a while, sweeping up a few piles spread throughout the room. There was another pile or two for everything too large to sweep that Mercury and Emerald hadn't grabbed. It was slow work, but at least it was coming along a little faster than she thought it would.
"Hey, Terra?" Saphron spoke suddenly.
She frowned. "Yeah? What's up?"
Saphron paused. "I've been thinking ever since last night. Just…why was it such a big deal that we didn't call the police? Why did Mercury and Emerald have to deal with it themselves?"
"They're not exactly squeaky clean, Saph," Terra answered. "We knew that when we agreed to let them stay. Maybe they're wanted for jacking a car or something."
"Maybe," Saphron said, unconvinced. "But what exactly happened, anyways? How did they deal with it? They said they handled everything."
Terra sighed. "I don't know, Saph! They trained at Beacon, they obviously know how to fight," She gestured around the two of them, then shrugged. "They probably tracked them down and beat the crap out of them."
"Is that a good idea?" Saphron asked nervously. "What if they decide to come back? What if they want payback?"
She snorted. "I seriously doubt they will. You saw how it went last night." Sure, in the moment she had been terrified, but honestly, there was never much of a risk once Mercury was awake. Definitely not once Emerald was. "Personally, I'm glad Mercury and Emerald were here. Can you imagine what might have happened if they weren't?"
Saphron shuddered. "I'd really rather not."
Terra didn't blame her. Silence fell between them again, and she was concerned Saphron was getting caught up in worrying about what if's. Just when she was about to ask if she was alright, Saphron suddenly lit up.
"I completely forgot!" She said in excitement. "I was going to tell you this morning, before last night completely wiped it out of my head!"
Terra tilted her head in interest. "What is it?" She asked.
"It's Jaune!" Saphron said with a grin. "I got a letter from him the other day!"
Her eyes widened. "Saph, that's great!" Terra knew how worried Saphron had been. She was worried herself. Jaune was a good kid, and even if they were relieved he was okay after the fall, it was still nerve-wracking knowing Saphron's little brother, and her brother in law was going out to travel through Mistral, with some friends from Beacon.
"I know!" Saphron squealed. "He's in Haven, apparently. He's been there for a few days. He said he linked up with a few more of his friends from school, and they're on their way to Atlas. Which means, they're coming here, to Argus. He asked if they could stay with us while they were here."
"Of course he and his friends can!" Terra said. "He's family!"
"He said by the time I got the letter, he would be here within a day or two, and apologized for not giving much of a heads-up."
"Wait, when did you get the letter?" Terra asked.
"Three days ago," Saphron said. "You've been working a little later recently, so I was going to wait until the weekend to tell you."
Terra frowned. "Then…shouldn't he have arrived by now?" She asked.
Saphron nodded. "They should be here any day now."
She sighed, looking around them. "It's a shame they won't be here to see the house when it's not a mess. Do you think we'll at least be able to clean everything up before they get here? There's no way we'll be able to replace what was broken in time, but I'll settle for not having one of our guests slice their foot open on a piece of glass."
Her wife shrugged. "Depends when they get here. I suppose if Mercury and Emerald give us a hand once they wake up, we could probably get most, if not all of the work done today."
"I'm sure they would," Terra said. "They already had to have started on it earlier. And hey, that gives you a chance to tell them about Jaune!"
Saphron bit her lip. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea."
"Saph, they're our roommates," Terra said. "They live in this house too, they should probably be made aware of when people are visiting."
"Well, yeah, but think about it for a second," Saphron leaned her broom against the wall. "They're obviously pretty tense from last night, and you saw the way they got the second we mentioned the police. "I'd feel a lot better if we didn't stress them out even more."
"I don't think they'd take it much better if Jaune and his friends just suddenly showed up without warning," Terra pointed out.
"Please?" Saphron begged. "I really do think it'll be better if they don't have time to worry about it."
"Worry about what?" Terra jumped in surprise as Mercury walked in, taking a bite out of an apple. I didn't even hear the door open. Emerald followed close behind, yawning.
Saphron shot her a pleading look, and Terra sighed. "Saph just doesn't want you two worrying about replacing the furniture. We'll get it handled in time. It's enough that you two cleaned out what was already ruined."
"Oh, that? We just figured we may as well chip away at the bigger stuff," He took a long look around the living room. "I assume you two are gonna need some help?"
Saphron sighed in relief. "That would be awesome!"
Emerald grabbed the broom Saphron had left leaning against the wall, and Mercury went into the kitchen to grab a few trash bags.
I suppose it's not the biggest deal in the world if they aren't warned ahead of time. Besides, it could even be a good thing! Maybe Mercury and Emerald had known one of Jaune's friends back in Beacon.
And if not, so what? What's the worst that could happen?
Mercury sighed, collapsing on the couch in exhaustion. Emerald sat down next to him, groaning. "It's over…" She said. "No more," Adrian sat near their feet, lounging against the couch in an imitation of the two of them.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad," Mercury protested, although he did so weakly. He hadn't enjoyed cleaning anymore than she had. "I am glad it's over though." Everything that could be saved was sorted into boxes and placed in a spare closet, and everything that couldn't be was swept up and tossed into the trash. All that was left was to replace what was broken, and all it had cost them was the better part of a day.
Best of all, to his and Emeralds surprise, they hadn't said a word about the attack being anything other than a simple robbery that got a little out of hand. Once again, their paranoia led to them jumping to conclusions. Of course they wouldn't think he and Em had anything to do with it, from their perspective they had no reason to think so.
Hey, he wasn't about to complain about his life being a little easier. Things had been so exhausting the last few weeks, he was glad to have something go right for once.
He crossed his hands behind his head. "You know, I'm a little curious. When is the train supposed to be arriving, anyways?" He asked quietly. "It doesn't really matter anymore, since we're not bothering with it, but we've spent so much time worrying about the damn thing…"
Emerald sighed. "Uh…hang on a second…today, actually, I think."
Mercury quietly chuckled. "Seriously? All that trouble and we missed the damn thing?"
"Technically, it's going to be here for a few days," She corrected. "And we would've robbed it sometime tonight, probably." She smiled. "It is kind of ridiculous that it's finally here though, and we've spent all day cleaning a house."
There was a knock on the door, and Emerald frowned, looking over. "Ignore it," Mercury told her. "It's probably one of Saphron and Terra's friends. That or a solicitor. Either way, it's not our problem."
Sure enough, Saphron came rushing through the living room with a big smile on her face. Mercury shook his head, bending down to pick Adrian up and set him on the couch. He immediately nestled into Mercury's side. "I'm just glad to have some peace and quiet. Screw the train, honestly."
Emerald opened her mouth to agree, but she was cut off. "Saphron! It's so good to see you!" He frowned, and Emerald did the same. That voice…it was familiar for some reason.
He picked up Adrian, curious, and walked over with Emerald to get a view of the visitors.
His eyes fell on the group standing in the front door and his heart stopped.
Arc.
He knew it was familiar, the first time they laid eyes on the name, looking for employees at the Argus Relay. He should have recognized the name as soon as he saw it. But he had never paid much attention to it, had he? Pyrrha Nikos was the name that mattered, her teammates had never warranted much thought.
Jaune Arc pulled out of his hug with Saphron with a smile. His eyes shifted behind her, falling on him and Emerald, and widened.
"Son of a bitch," Mercury swore.
You guys didn't think Cinder was just gonna leave the story, did you? Also, FINALLY! JNR has officially made it to the Cotta-Arc's. 18 chapters of build up and storytelling, and things are finally coming to a head. Of course, you're all going to have to wait another week, because I'm evil.
If you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a comment! I love going through all of them!
As always, I crosspost on AO3!
Next Chapter: Tuesday, June 25th