Tyrian's little freak-out made him easy to predict. Cinder knew as much after she ducked under the same swing three times in a row. For the fourth, she quickly sidestepped the thrust before hitting Tyrian in the torso with an open palm, sending a burst of fire through it, blasting Tyrian back as he landed a fair distance away. Cinder found no joy in fighting anymore, not until she pulled that bastard Courrier's head off his body.
Tyrian is an obstacle to be surpassed, think of him as no better than a bump in your road. Cinder's eye hardened, glaring directly into Tyrian's as he struggled to push himself up, hand hovering over his chest as he felt the residual heat coming off the impact point. Tyrian will fear her, Cinder will defeat him, Cinder will claim this victory, not for Salem, not for anyone, but for her. He is a stepping stone for her ascent to greater heights.
No matter how many people she'll have to trample, no matter who they are, she'll keep going until she reached Courrier. If Salem stands in her way, she'll discard her too, Courrier is her goal, and until she turns that bastard into ash, she'll never be satisfied. Tyrian jumped at her again, wild, uncoordinated, wholly unbecoming of someone in Salem's inner circle. Cinder scowled, feeling the flames engulfing her body before she detonated.
A shockwave of heat and fire expanded from her as she acted as ground zero, the heat from the semi-explosion disintegrated every furniture inside of the room, reducing it to its bare layout. Cinder heard the distinct sound of Aura breaking as Tyrian fell to the ground, groaning as his arms twitched. They were burnt as embers danced and flickered off the scorched flesh. Tyrian rolled around on the ground, injured, like an animal.
She'd kill him if not for Salem needing him for whatever plans that woman has later. Cinder sneered, taking a breather as she looked at her shaking fingers, for all that Courrier did to her, making her go beyond what's possible with her newly acquired Maiden powers is something that she have to thank him for, after she mutilates him of course.
Leaving Tyrian on the ground, Cinder straightened herself out, heading towards Salem. Looks like she's already in a meeting with Watts and Lionheart, Cinder scowled, she'll probably have to give Watts a burn of his lifetime if that bastard ever decided to show his face here again. She'll hold off on her arsonist behaviour on accounts of Salem's wishes though, they seem to have intensified after she got the Fall Maiden's powers, interesting.
"Ah Cinder dearie," Watts said in his maddeningly smug voice, "How nice of you to come by, are we coming through clearly? Can you see-" "Shut it."
"Ah, wonderful, your abrasive personality still shines through I see…" Watts sneered, his voice marred with sarcasm.
"The report?"
Lionheart looked nervous, you'd think a man of his calibre and position would have some more… mental fortitude to resist Salem and her lackeys. Cinder didn't consider herself a lackey though, more like… an opportunist, Salem will never get to know what she's thinking about. Her plans are her own, with no involvement from the witch.
"I've… I've found the Spring Maiden… well, not me but…" Lionheart fidgeted, "Qrow, the male Branwen came knocking with a group of kids and… told me the location of the Spring Maiden is at the Branwen tribe… or at least where he believed her to be."
"Is… he with him?" Cinder ground out, fully preparing to just go to Mistral and hunt Courrier down.
"Who?" Watts raised an eyebrow, "Didn't take you for a woman in love, Cinder," he grinned, "Have your flames turned into ones of passion?"
"Shut it, I was talking about Courrier," Lionheart let out a sharp breath, "You," Cinder pointed at him, "You seem to know, was he with the Branwen?"
"Oh Courrier? You mean 'leader of the Republic' Courrier?" Watts waved a hand dismissively, "Don't know what your obsession with the guy is but he's dead, killed by 'Mistrali bandits' apparently," Cinder's eye widened as Watts scoffed, "Personally, I think that's a bold-faced lie, since the Republic's now under his sister apparently, a woman named Corrina Courrier."
Courrier has a sister? No, scratch that, he's DEAD?! "My personal theory is that she killed him to take over the Republic, and was using the 'bandits' excuse to sway the public to her side," Watts then shrugged, "Then again, who knows? Maybe you'll have to set your sights on his sister than Courrier himself hmm?"
Cinder snarled, how dare that bastard die before she can kill him?! If she can't kill him then… yes… killing his sister will do just fine… "Cinder, you and your team will meet up with Watts, together, convince Raven Branwen to cooperate with us or else her little tribe becomes a distant memory," Salem smirked, "Once you get your hands on the Spring Maiden, escort her to the Relic and contact Hazel," she then scowled, "It seems that the White Fang have betrayed us, both during the attack on Vale and now at Haven, I want them eliminated, wiped off the face of Mistral and Remnant for good, understood?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Not yet Arthur," Watts raised an eyebrow, "Tyrian needs something to patch up the hole in his tail… and a new set of arms," Cinder stiffened, "Get it done fast."
"New arms? Who the hell was he fighting?" Watts glanced at Cinder to see her reaction, "Nevermind, I'll be right on it."
The connection was severed as Salem turned to look at Cinder; Salem then shook her head before standing up, "Looks like I won't have to deal any punishment to Tyrian, good work Cinder," Cinder's eye widened at this bit of praise, "As for your little rivalry with Courrier? Let's just say that his 'sister' is not who she seemed to be."
Adam walked through Sienna's former throne room, seriously, what the hell was she thinking when she placed a throne at the centre? Currently, he's pissed, angry even, as his hand clutched Wilt until his knuckled turned white, "Hazel!" in front of him, amidst a drove of unconscious bodies, was Hazel Rainart, he recognized the human bastard from his connections with Cinder and her team of lackeys, that's right, he did some digging around, "You will die for what you did!"
"No, this is your fault," Hazel stepped over the body of a White Fang member, he looked a little bit out of breath, Adam noticed the large amount of bullet holes littering the walls and columns, with some areas distinctly lacking them, "Betraying us during the attack on Vale? You did this, not me."
"I didn't betray shit!" Adam dashed forwards, swinging Wilt at the man as his eyes widened from the surprising amount of strength behind the slash, "Cinder made a demand, we declined, simple as that. You're simple making an excuse to justify what you did here, you're no better than them."
Hazel snarled, "I am nothing like them," he punched away Wilt and kicked Adam in the midsection, sending him sliding back, "Not like them… I- You…" his eyes hardened, "No… You brought this upon yourself, if you had just listened to Cinder back in Vale, none of this would've happened."
"Keep lying to yourself, freak," Adam grits his teeth, holding onto Wilt with both hands as he pointed the edge at Hazel, "You're no different than the ones who willingly sic'd Grimm onto innocent Faunus, you're no different than the murderers who willingly bombed open Vale's walls," Adam furrowed his brows, "You're no different than me."
Hazel narrowed his eyes at Adam before taking out a container of Dust and stabbing it into himself, "You believe your own lies?" Adam provoked, watching as the man's veins began to glow, "You think you're any better than me?! A terrorist?! No, you're worse! At least I have the decency to realize when I'm wrong!"
Hazel launched himself at Adam, arm pulled back for a blindingly fast punch as Adam narrowly jumped back to avoid the hit, the punch shattering the floor as Hazel snarled, "You know nothing about me!" Hazel yelled out before jumping at Adam again, throwing punch after punch, forcing Adam to continuously step backwards as he tried to parry each hit with Wilt.
Hazel then grabbed Wilt with his bare hands, twisting the blade to his side as he headbutted Adam, sending him reeling back as the man tightened his grip on the sword. Adam held out Blush and fired a point-blank shot at Hazel's torso, several shots, then more, but the man seemed to resist.
An explosion consumed Hazel as it blasted Adam away too, Wilt clattering next to him as Adam quickly regained his footing, grabbing the blade and returning to his combat stance. Where did that explosion come from? A third party? Adam whirled around to slash at a projectile flying towards him, it was a… small packet? He heard the sound not too dissimilar of marbles hitting the ground and… it was a Mentats packet.
"Miss me?" he turned his head to see a woman walk in, wearing a bloodied white t-shirt and a pair of brown cargo pants, he has never seen this woman before, "Oh shoot, uh… hi! Unknown stranger! I don't know who you are!" she flashed her teeth, canines… and two bullet scars above her eye? "My name is Corrina Courrier! John Courrier's sister," she walked up to Adam and patted him on the back, "You just slashed up his farewell gift to you, how rude."
Hazel coughed as he stood up, glaring at the woman, so she was the one who threw the explosives… and the Mentats packets too, "Oh yeah, Courrier's dead," Adam's eyes widened at this, "You didn't know? It was on the newspapers and everything," It was?! "Listen, I'll tell you all about it later, but we have a human to kill."
Hazel took out another Dust vial and stabbed it into himself, the first one was lighting Dust, now it was fire. Corrina, Adam refused to call her Courrier simply because it felt like he was replacing the real Courrier with some lookalike, laughed, "Ha! Two can play at that game!" she grabbed a fire Dust vial from her side pouch before opening it up and snorting the contents. Adam was shocked; Hazel eye's widened into saucers as the two of them watch this clearly insane person snort down a propellant.
Corrina threw the fire Dust vial away, "C'mon! Show me a good time!" she swallowed some Mentats before injecting herself with something weird before jumping at Hazel. Adam turned to look at the discarded needle, it was blue with some kind of leather wrapping around it, and it was also connected to some kind of rusty metal pipe? "You're not special! 'Cause I can take Dust like drugs too!" Corrina dropped another needle to the ground, this one looking a lot more like an actual needle, but what's left inside of it looked also vaguely blue-ish.
The two exchanged blows as Hazel punched Corrina in the stomach; she coughed out some blood before something was apparent to the both of them. Corrina didn't have any Aura. Hazel, reeling from the new information, was unprepared for Corrina's swift kick to his jaw, sending his head turning one way while he stumbled backwards. Adam deduced that the madman's complete lack of reaction to any of his attacks was because of his Semblance, which must be some kind of damage resistance…
Adam then also noticed something, Corrina was going exclusively for the head, with each punch and kick always connecting with Hazel's jaw or cheek, and each hit always manages to send him stumbling back. Corrina kicked the vial of Dust poking out of Hazel deeper into his body before sweeping his legs, sending the big guy to the ground. Corrina then jumped up and slammed both of her feet down on Hazel's head, embedding the thing into the floor as he went limp.
"Bitch," she spat some blood on Hazel, "Fucker forgot that concussions were still a thing, Aura or not, his brain ain't handling being tousled inside that empty dome of his for long," Corrina grinned, taking out a vial of lightning Dust and snorting that too, "Whoo! That hits the spot!" she stomped down on Hazel's head a few more times for good measure, since he was passed out, his Aura was out too, leading to his nose being caved in by Corrina's repeated stomps, "Fuck you! You piece of shit!"
Adam noticed something and quickly jumped at Corrina grabbing her hand to stop her from just straight up executing Hazel with her revolver, "Wha-? Hey! Don't deny me my kill, kill stealer!"
Adam snarled, "We're not going to kill him! We need him for questioning!" Corrina sighed, yanking the revolver out of Adam's hand and holstering it, she gave Hazel's downed body a quick kick to the head before walking around him and grabbing both of his ankles.
"Sure, fine, help me carry the dude then," Adam hooked his hand and Hazel's armpits as the two began carrying the guy, "Shit… you know where we're supposed to place this guy?"
"I thought you knew!"
"Fuck no I don't! This is your base!"
Adam sighed, "Fucking hell… just- follow my directions alright? Take a left here…"
"Your left or my left?"
"My left!"
"Mine?"
"No! Mine!"
"That's what I said!"
"You fucking- FINE! Adam's left! Take Adam's left! Follow Adam's directions and turns! Not Corrina's turns! Got it?!"
Corrina scoffed, "You don't have to be so condescending about it…" she then pouted.
It takes a special level of patience within Adam to not just drop Hazel and attack Corrina right now… gods he missed Courrier, that guy was so much easier to deal with… to an extent. Now he has to deal with his deranged, drug-fiend of a sister? Talk about a downgrade…
ANNOUNCEMENT! Since I'm moving, this story will go on a little bit of a break, but I do promise to update again! You can count on that!
It'll probably take like a week or so before I can get back to it, maybe less if the gods smile upon a lowly man such as myself.
For anybody living on Remnant, seeing Hazel stick Dust vials into himself must be very surprising, but they can at least chalk it up to Semblance shenanigans. But the Courier doesn't have Aura, therefor they don't have a Semblance either, so seeing some guy with no Aura and Semblance snort Dust like they're some common drug must be really surprising.
Just imagine seeing a guy snort gunpowder like cocaine. Shit's wild.
Thanks for reading! And thanks for sticking with this shit for so long! You people are the real heroes!