Raven tore through the debris and the ruins of the wastewater facility, Omen cutting through the debris and wreckage like it was so much chattel. Her frustrations boiled within her, and it was all she could do to hold the storm within. To prevent the emotions from ripping open tears in reality, to stop her from reaching Cinder.
She'd seen the girl disappear behind the fence, seen her disappear completely from view, but her link to Cinder was strong, she could feel it tensing and retracting, alongside occasional bouts of pain. Instincts within Raven tore at her, tried to convince her to go immediately to her little kite's, her daughter.
The crack of a gunshot and the sparkling pain of gravel smashing into her knees directed her attention back to the fight. Clearly, James had learned his lesson from the fight against Tyrian, and had taken it exactly in the wrong direction.
Cordovan's little pet assassins were fighting hard, and backed up by a specialist team that had been flown in on a gunship. Even now, the specialists were laying suppressive fire in wide, overarching cones that swept across her avenues of escape. They were trying to box her in, trying to hem her actions down and make her cornered.
But why?
If James wanted her dead for this perceived terrorist attack, then he could easily be doing so, and with the state of the plant around them? He could probably justify dust missile usage.
So why wasn't he?
A flick of a blade, and an assassin appearing at her elbow shifted her attention back to the fight. A shower of dust sparks announced the clash as Omen's guard intercepted the thin, long blade, the assassin frowning slightly before vanishing once more. She was good, Raven had to give her that. Cordovan had an air for picking the right ones, and the skill showed. This one fought with a rapier and dagger, her compatriot…
She listened, and the crack of a high velocity round tearing through the air announced exactly where the sniper was.
The round itself smashed into the alleyway at her back, telling her rather firmly that she wouldn't be dodging the next one.
She straightened, and the specialists closed off her escape, advancing into the alleyway and facing her evenly. She didn't recognize them, categorizing them simply as obstacles. A check on her link showed Cinder relaxing, no danger, the faint impulses of unconsciousness settling in.
The tribe would have mocked her for such worrying, if Cinder was not strong enough to survive on her own, she would never have made it there.
Somehow, she feels that once more, Summer has rubbed off on her when she realizes that she can't find it in herself to care about the tribe's mentality towards her little kite.
She flicks Omen out, and cocks her head to one side. With Cinder fading into unconsciousness, she was likely safe for the moment. Which meant Raven could cut loose.
The clouds overhead darken as Raven's blood begins to sing. The unearthly melody rippling through the area, twisting the light into jagged fractals that drown the street in scarlet tinged light.
Raven smiles, and the voices in her soul sing as the localized storm fills the alleyway with mist. Mist so thick that specialists are swamped in seconds, drawing clouds across her form, and letting her vanish into the blanket of thick, pea soup fog. The storm howled within her, howled at Raven to rip, to tear and slay and kill. But it didn't control her, and as her eyes opened wide, and the flames burned clear at the edges of her pupils, only then did she strike.
Raven flashed forwards, vanishing in a blur of motion that sent debris and trash from the battle flying in her wake. A specialist in her path was slammed into the wall, cracking the concrete, sending the man flying. His squadmate tried to bring her weapon to bear, and Raven was already gone as the burst of machine gun fire ripped through the space she'd been in before.
She had to escape the killbox, which meant going right through the specialist at the end of the road, the crack of a hypersonic round tearing a gouge in her aura, dropping her into the red. Glancing blows made an impact, and this thing… the bullet spitting off of her aura in a flash of sparks, she turned to the left, then leapt at the first of Cordovin's pet hunters, the man's nose giving way with a wet crunch of cartilage as he pinwheeled back into the wall. Raven darted to the side, and brought down a hailstorm in her wake, thick, ball sized chunks of ice covering the street, the debris, and the fires as she ran for it.
A part of her exuberant in the simple motion as she bolted, hearing shouts of confusion, shouts of uncertainty, and shouts for orders echoing through the mist and hail behind her. Her powers flickering to full blast, urging her to turn and hurt and kill and dash, and for a moment, Raven turned, hungry eyes flicking to behind her, but… she stopped a moment later. Fighting her powers until they faded gently, until the flames guttered out and she was gasping for breath.
The joy, the rampant, manic joy… she'd forgotten. She'd forgotten how it felt, how it amplified the worst impulses she had into a burning blaze of power that wanted her to consume and destroy this foul place, to set out and find Nightingale, and to rip her limb from limb of her own accord.
Raven struggled to gain control over herself, struggled to find traces of her purpose. The sewage tanks had been ruptured, already, the foul smell was making its way into Argus, propelled by the wind, if they were lucky, she'd be able to snap the controlled civilians free of the pain and the suffering Nightingale had planned for them.
If she wanted to destroy this city, she'd have a harsh fight ahead of her.
Raven leaned against a wall, sheathing Omen at her side, and catching her breath as she removed a scroll from her bag. Flipping it on, she checked for Cinder's burner location, and frowned, it was only a single street over. Far from safe, why was the girl unconscious there?
Raven gritted her teeth, sending a simple message down the line, throughout contacts and burners, knowing that Sienna and Kali would receive her message.
She looked carefully around the corner of the building, and saw nothing, no shape of Cinder, no apparent remains of her. Where was she?
No all clear had been received, which meant… she'd fallen asleep. Not close, either…
A chill ran down Raven's spine.
Cinder had been taken.
Eyes narrowed, Raven scanned the alleyway, traces were thin, but present, another huntress had been here, likely part of the perimeter team? No, alone by her footsteps, which meant…
Nearby transportation? Not state sponsored, they'd not allow a single child, even one armed, to be taken if they were here on official business.
So who?
One of the three families? Possible, more possible by the second, but who would have taken Cinder?
Not Ides, they were Branwen through and through, and Blanche's death would have warded them firmly away from Cinder. Especially after they'd lost a ward and tribute to Raven herself.
No, not the Ides family. What about the royalty of Mistral? Unlikely, given their prior knowledge of Cinder would be barebones at best.
The name came to her mind as a curse fled her lips.
Nikos.
Helena had been interested in Cinder, had been interested in a squire for Pyrrha, and Cinder herself had met the girl. She'd not made a secret of wanting another focus for Pyrrha to not burn out on her family.
She ran down what she knew of Nikos, precious little, beyond what had happened to Juno. Precious little information beyond that they were prestigious fighters and monsters in and around the tournament game. But politics? Seneschals to Mistral's king and queen, guards, but little else. Now that Mistral had finally moved towards a council, much of the family had been split apart, with Athena Nikos and Alexander Nikos watching over the head councilwoman of Mistral, the former queen.
How much did that aid her?
Little, if at all, she needed a local source of information.
Her thoughts shifted, turning towards another woman, the second of her wards.
Would Vernal know?
As if heading off her impulse, Raven's scroll chimed gently with the sound of an incoming call.
Vernal.
"Report."
The girl pauses a moment, perhaps surprised by the anger in Raven's voice.
"Shit you really care about her…"
Raven stifles the urge to shoot someone, preferably Vernal.
"Right fine, never do that caring shit with me, but I know where she's going and who's got her."
"Tracking us?"
"Of course, Boss Lady, you don't pay me to laze about in the den, much as I wish you did."
"Who."
"Nikos family airship, crest prominently on the side and on the engines, it's not the parents, though. They fly the fancy new Atlesian brand. Definitely older sister, but she didn't intend harm, at least, not to my knowledge."
"Did you watch her take Cinder?"
"I watched her pick up the girl and put her in the back as gentle as a feather, she seemed genuinely concerned."
"Fine. Where were they headed?"
"Family mansion, likely the Squire's quarters if her intent when we spoke about her was anything to go off of."
Raven snapped the scroll shut with a click and assessed herself, looking first down at her aura reserves, then into the flow of emotional danger that was the Maiden's powers.
For the longest time, Raven had known her power to be a crutch, and a dangerous one, filled with the voices of those who came before who disagreed with her, save for a few specific voices the chorus often drowned out in its endless asking of "be good". They had hated her decisions to abandon Summer all those years ago, to leave Yang behind as well.
That had taken a toll on the memories they took, on the emotions they damaged her with even now.
But that resistance had begun to fade in the wake of Summer's death and her actions as they'd continued to benefit Cinder over herself.
By now, the voices felt as though they were singing in concert with Raven as she moved to the edge of the alleyway and leapt to the roof. As she ran along the buildings and concentrated. The maiden's powers had always felt like a song to her, a screaming, discordant chorus of agony and rage and all the fury of nature herself.
Now they played a chorus on her bones and her muscles, and she resisted the urge to sing with them, letting only a vague, careful humming emerge from her lips.
She'd fly like the wind itself, and Nikos would rue the day they took something from her, they would rue the day that they'd taken Summer's last gift to her.
Because what else was Cinder at this point? Beyond a gift from Summer, one last lesson to tell her in the most firm way possible what she'd done hadn't worked out. Here she was, rushing into danger, darting into the darkness and reaching for another chance to take Cinder out of this place.
It cinched her decision, then, the simple fact was that she attracted far, far too much attention. It was no place to raise a child, no place to take care of her, but… there was one person who would take her, and one who would grudgingly watch over her.
Sure, Taiyang might also just punch her in the face the moment she appeared at his door, but he'd listen to her, hear her out, and then he'd hopefully take Cinder off her hands, before more harm came to her.
Then… Raven could apologize to Yang, could tell her how truly sorry she was for everything.
The rooftop she landed on hard cracked slightly as she pushed off and leapt into the skies once more. The airship, heading to the Nikos manner almost certainly, meant a rough journey up the cable ties and mountainous terrain that surrounded Argus' upper terraces.
It was a journey she could make work.
Cinder recalled awakening in a bed, the soft beeping of several medical machines nearby her alerting her that she definitely wasn't safe in the tunnels with Raven, and that her injuries… may have been more severe than she'd first thought.
She opened her eyes slowly, letting vision fill in gaps in the world, and finding herself staring into the deep green eyes of someone she immediately recognized. A woman who had spoken to her about the way that Raven was treating her. And one who Raven didn't trust.
Then again, Raven didn't trust anyone, so maybe her mom wasn't the best authority on these matters.
"Nikos."
She coughed after saying it, her voice scratchy and weak. A glass of water pressed into her fingers as the other woman nodded once.
"Helena Nikos."
Cinder nodded once, and sipped, the water was cool, and it helped her throat feel dramatically better the longer she drank. She took stock of the room she was in, noting the darkness from the window, before she calmly said.
"My mother might kill you for saving me."
Helena smiled.
"I suspected as much, you do know who she is, right?"
Cinder nodded once.
"She is my mother, she saved my life and took me away from my awful stepsisters and their mother."
Helena raised an eyebrow.
"Raven Branwen, growing a heart? After all these years… who would have thought."
Cinder sat up in the bed and looked at Helena, her aura was returning, slower now that she was awake, but she estimated she had around half her reserves if she had to run or fight. She could use that screen, as well, if she got the opportunity, given that Helena didn't know she had it yet.
"What do you mean by "growing a heart"?"
The question came easily, but it seemed to have startled Helena, who flushed as she let out a brief chuckle.
"You're… rather precocious, aren't you? Not defending Raven's attitude or behavior?"
Cinder grimaced.
"Mom is violent and vicious, and I'd like to get to know you before she kills you for kidnapping me."
Helena threw up her hands.
"Oh for the brothers sake- I saved your life."
Cinder nodded.
"That is true, but you also kidnapped me. Raven is not a forgiving mother, and she might let you live for saving my life from the smoke. It was the smoke right?"
The other woman nodded grimly, before Cinder threw the blankets off of herself and began examining herself, calmly speaking.
"Lacerations on the torso, as well as upper back. Hmm, Ironwood will be very angry."
She watched from the mirror as Helena visibly flinched when Ironwoods name was brought up.
Cinder continued.
"Did you not know? Ironwood is the reason that Atlas has this entire city in such a rush, well, that and Nightingale. But she is a separate problem. Ironwood is here for me. For much the same reason I suspect that you took me in the first place. You want me for Pyrrha, don't you?"
Helena flinched again, but stammered a response out.
"N-no, you were at risk of death from smoke inhalation! Aura won't prevent you from suffocating, especially if you lose consciousness while you're in a giant cloud of the stuff with low aura! It can only keep the level of oxygen you have inside you and purify small amounts."
Cinder raised an eyebrow.
"Raven would have reached me, and by my estimation, she would have reached me far sooner the moment she detected my body in any real form of distress."
The girl studied herself in the mirror once more and took stock of her appearance. Blue… was not her color, and she'd be having words with whoever designed this gown to be so vastly large on her- wait.
It was too big, big enough to fit a woman, though…
Hadn't Raven said something about a missing Nikos? The mother of little Pyrrha and, from her evaluation, Helena?
Helena couldn't be older than 21 or so, which, with Pyrrha being her age, meant that a 9 year age difference between them?
Hadn't Raven been trained by a Nikos? But… by who?
J-Juno! That was her name.
This gown was sized for someone tall, fit, but the cut suggested a woman, and as Cinder casually inspected it, her eye was drawn to the small tag peeking out from the leg, a tag that read "J" with a simple curve in it.
"How's Juno, hmm~?"
The name caught Helena off guard, and her face darkened instantly, she looked as though she wanted to say something, and Cinder caught the sadness in her eyes, even as her mouth began to move.
"Juno is on retreat at the moment, Argus does not suit her, not at this climate."
Cinder read that motion, Helena hated saying something… but someone had broken it into her, hadn't they. What did they hold over her head, what were they blackmailing her with?
Pyrrha?
It could be Pyrrha, an older sister's love for her younger sister, a sense of duty to family protruding…
Cinder nodded, that wasn't something she'd experienced, but it damned well made sense to her, families on TV acted like that, and while she personally didn't believe that such a thing could exist, it would make logical sense that this woman would act in such a manner. No?
Yes, duty to family, and a threat from… either the matriarch or patriarch, if Cinder was being honest, she knew nothing about either of them.
"Hmm, do either of your parents know about my presence here? Where is little Pyrrha?"
Another flinch, Helena was a huntress, but something about Cinder was putting her off guard and making her sloppy, easy to read and easy to understand.
Cinder hid a smile as she coughed into her hand. This was too easy, too easy to make her squirm, and delay until Cinder could make a run for the door.
"My parents are elsewhere, and it would be best if they stayed unaware of your presence."
Cinder rolled her eyes.
"They already know. Stupid girl."
Helena bristled.
"I flew you straight here, landed with no one seeing me-"
Cinder grinned.
"Oh? Did no one actually see you? Or did you ignore the servants that prepared this room, the nurse most certainly on your parents payroll, among other things… hah! You're so dumb! Even my older sisters make you look dumb! At least they only hurt me where no one could see!"
She couldn't help herself, she burst out giggling, laughing at the stupidity, did this prissy rich girl really think that the servants of her house didn't know about Cinder's presence? Really!?
Helena advanced on her, growling, and Cinder's eyes met the other womans and stopped her cold. Her hands shimmered with heat haze and she flicked open the door leading to her semblance.
"If you attempt to touch me without my permission again, I will burn you until there is nothing left but ash."
Helena backed down, and Cinder turned towards the walls, inspecting them, carefully searching… there.
She reached out a hand, placed it firmly on the smooth stone, and pulled her semblance into the wall, withdrawing a melted, glass sword from within it after a second or two.
"Show me to the courtyard. Raven will come for me, and if you want me to meet with Pyrrha and have time to escape, you do not have much time."
Then, she stalked out of the hospital room, noting it's presence in the basement, Cinder shook her head at the iron bars in front of her, blocking her access to the rest of the house.
Juno… restrained and chained down here.
Cinder concluded a number of things.
One. Adults were idiots.
Two. Adults were especially idiots when their loved ones were concerned.
Three. Raven was wrong. She'd be damned well certain to rub that in her mom's face when they got back. Not only were adults stupid, but Vernal and Raven were far different from the normal idiots around them!
Raven wasn't there, and she hadn't saved Cinder yet, and while Cinder would be damned to sit here being useless until mom came for her, a part of her really wanted to just sit here and watch as that damned idiot Nikos woman watched her home crumble around her.
Hmm, wasn't that a vengeful thought. Best to tamp that away, if she'd been trying to help, genuinely, then that wasn't so bad.
Cinder did stop, however, when she reached the bars.
A faint… was that a scream?
Cinder pumped aura into her hearing, face furrowed, eyebrows narrow.
Helena almost spoke, but Cinder stopped her cold, listening, hearing…
Something cracked, something dragged… something began to click gently in the darkness, and then.
A maniacal giggle and laughter.
She knew that voice damned well, and, hissing in anger, reflected.
Tyrian damned Callows was here. Hunting Pyrrha? Yes, no? The Nikos family were seneschals and terrifying fighters… if he removed them from play, or worse, got them into Nightingale's embrace, then…
Then Raven and her plan wouldn't work, and Blake, and Sienna and Kali and Ghira would die.
Cinder hissed again.
"Fine. Delaying until Raven can reach me."
Helena started to say something, but Cinder wasn't listening, running her hands up and over the stone and support beams… she needed something made of silicate. Badly.
A bowstring… anything!
Dammit.
Cinder focused her hearing, listening for the footsteps, and the shriek of Tyrian's mad cackling which always, without ceasing echoed.
"Oh little Chickadee~! With you captured! Your family will come running to save you~! They won't succeed little one, they'll all fall down~! What was it they said about the kings horses and his men?"
She hated him. Hated him so much.
Her semblance poured into the stonework.
"Helena, you'll get one shot, this bastard has your sister."
The woman had gone quiet as his insane babble had reached them. Drawing a pair of wicked looking daggers from within her sleeves, she nodded to Cinder.
Tyrian was quick and evasive, and the hallways here were lit up, as his presence neared and Cinder felt she couldn't last any longer, she raised the stone bow, formed from melted rock built into the buildings foundations, took careful aim, and loosed her arrow.
Tyrian heard the arrow coming in, and promptly dropped his burden, a very, very sick looking Pyrrha Nikos, before he turned and saw Cinder and Helena.
"Oh! My goddess! A lost little bird, come home to rest at last~! How have you been little Cinder~! My goddess is so very eager to meet you!"
He leaned forwards, dull yellow eyes staring ahead, and Cinder remembered the fight against Summer and Raven.
He was blind, or nearly blind.
"Have you come to be gently taken home? Or do we have to do this the hard way?"
Cinder smirked.
"Hard way."
Helena steeled herself visibly, and Cinder pleaded and begged.
Come on mom… need you now, really bad… I can't fight him, and I don't think this Nikos can either.
Whether the brother gods were real or not, Cinder thanked them anyways as the snap-hiss of Raven's portal crackled to life at her side, and a volley of revolver rounds tore through that same portal and snapped into Tyrian, forcing him back.
Raven stepped through a moment later, gently twisted, and kicked Cinder through the portal.
Cinder could barely squeak out a "Mom!" before it shut with another snap-hiss and she was being caught by Vernal.
"Wait! Mom! Mom! NO! NO PLEASE! Please don't leave-"
Her legs gave out, and she collapsed.
"Me…"
Her voice trailed off into the silence.
Vernal was there, rubbing her hands into Cinder's shoulders, gently messing with her muscles, trying to get her to calm down.
Cinder couldn't focus on it, Raven was gone, and that meant that she was alone. Even with Vernal there. It wasn't the same.
Her mom was gone.
She sniffled once, and then began to sob. Vernal wrapped her arms around her, Cinder taking in the scent of her older sister, and feeling the comfort that she was so carefully pouring into her, and yet she felt a terrible clench in her gut.
Raven wouldn't come out of that alive.
She knew it, and that sunk in so… horribly deep.
Vernal dragged Cinder up, dragged her away, and moved towards the exit down into the building they were sitting upon. It was something large, apartments… Cinder didn't care, she just let Vernal grab her and drag her because Vernal somehow actually knew how awful she was feeling. She kept a steady hand on her back, rubbing slow circles into it as Cinder sobbed and cried.
As Vernal moved her throughout Argus, Cinder's anger at Vernal's inaction grew, until she finally snapped at the corner of a road.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HER?"
Vernal didn't smile, didn't say anything initially, and Cinder raised a fist to hit her, aura flashing black, but Vernal sidestepped it, tripped her, and then straddled her and pressed her face close to Cinders.
"Do you honest to god think Boss lady would let me live if I left you alone after the day you've had?"
Cinder tried to hit her, letting out a terrible scream that cracked her throat and had Vernal gaining a heavily conflicted look on her face.
"Look, your mom took me on for one reason and only one reason. That I would, no matter what, take care of you. She's a big girl, she knows what she's getting into. She can handle herself. And if she can't…"
Vernal trailed off for a moment.
"Then we need to make ready to leave the city stat. I can take you to the tribe, but suspect that's not what she'd want… did she have anyone in her life?"
Cinder muttered.
"Just… Summer and Tai… and her brother."
Vernal nodded once.
"Ok. Tai… we'll look for him after we find her brother Qrow. He should… hopefully, remember enough Branwen sigils that we can leave a trail for him to follow."
She stood up, picking up Cinder with easy strength, and whispering to her gently.
"It'll be ok, promise, we'll get out of this city first, and make our way down to… where was Raven taking you?"
Cinder nodded her head slightly, but unconsciousness was already claiming her again, and she could feel the sensation of blood running down her back and legs… she'd torn stitches.
Dammit.
Raven was going to kill her for tearing her clothes as badly as she had.
A/N: And we begin to touch upon the last of the arc, I hope you all are ready for the conversations coming soon!
As always, if you like what I'm doing here, consider dropping by the discord to say hi, or giving my a quick look, I'm eternally grateful for any support that comes my way, and always grateful to my audience!
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