"Have you forgotten that we're on a strict timer? Cinder dear, I was under the presumption you'd grown out of this teenage rebellious phase. Perhaps I should have been a tad more strict in my approach. Forgive me for this, but quit your dilly-dallying and GET INTO THE SYSTEMS!"

Ah Watts... ever the patient one. Had the man at least half of the braincells he claimed to maintain, he'd see that she was fucking trying!

V stood there, across the room and apparently awaiting her next approach. Unfortunately, he wasn't bothered by her previous retort. While she'd like to play with him further, she needed time to work with Mr. Schnee's files. And so, with a bit of a sour stomach born from the knowledge she wouldn't be the one dealing with him today, she called out to Steele, who continued to sit patiently and watch. It was high time Salem's second pet got her rear into action, so that the more important of them could get down to business.

V never gave her that chance though.

Augh! The Dust?!

He wasn't that fast before... Well, he was, but not so suddenly. She'd blocked his blow of course, but his sudden leap into the air meant he came careening down on top of her, and while she deflected his attempt to cut her in twine, her repelling of his blade sent him up again. The man didn't just fly back though, he actually flew over her, and into the worst possible spot he could have landed: right behind Jacques' desk.

She saw him land, and half tempted the idea he'd cut through it like he had several other pieces of furniture. Cinder herself was done playing around though, something Mr. Rose would find out via the sudden string of black bone stretching his way. When he caught it however, that was when she considered the fact the fight was completely bonkers.

He set his blade down, and while one arm kept a tight grip on hers, the other instead fiddled around with the desk.

Oh… I see how it is.

So that was it: he was doing something with the desk itself. At first when she'd stumbled on him initially, she'd assumed he'd already done his job, or perhaps was awaiting the man of the hour, which would make his purpose that of a government assassin - or another sort of contract killer; really, it depended on the employer.

It was small, but she saw the way his hand briefly flew over the side of his trousers.

Theft huh?

Maybe they weren't so different after all. Cinder chuckled openly a little, writhing and twisting the stretchy limb she'd sent his way. Like a worm in the mud her arm slipped between his armored fingers and curtly flew back to her side, making it sturdy and solid again. V looked startled a little by this, quickly readying himself again. Rather than destroy the desk though, he'd - luckily - hopped over it and took his stance.

This solidified his purpose to her now.

"I take it you're not here to kill Jacques, are you?" V never said anything... but he didn't outright approach either, so she took it as permission to keep going - not that she needed his permission for anything. "Just in case you're wondering: I'm not here to kill him either."

"What are you planning?" He stiffened as he said this.

Good boy~

He was listening now, meaning he wouldn't outright attack until she herself did. The prime target was to get into Jacques systems, meaning she'd need the desk intact for the entirety of this encounter. And, seeing as V was apparently meddling with things too...

Cinder figured some silver-tongued proposals could wet his whiskers.

.

.

"Me?" I watched her face fall softly, scheming and sly, but now sketched with strokes of impossible innocence. "Why, I'm just here to collect a few things from my dear acquaintance. You've heard of this manor's owner, yes? The both loathed and celebrated Jacques Schnee."

"Your acquaintance?" I locked my eyes onto hers, watching as they burned with a soothing flow. It was a lie, it had to be... but on the off chance it wasn't... "Since when has the Schnee head ever been so desperate as to employ the likes of you: one well known as an international terrorist. Last I checked, he's a business owner, not a general."

"We all have skeletons in our closet~" Every step she took towards me enacted my instincts, and while I urged to dash for her, to catch her first before she struck, I instead kept my guard. Cinder paused a couple of steps in, as if the act was solely there to test for a reaction. Upon getting none though, she visibly relaxed, with the key tell being the way her shoulders dropped slightly. "Especially our friendly neighborhood Schnee~"

"Your point?"

Cinder just smirked.

"Even a simple man like Jacques has his uses for people such as us. Speaking of..." Her lips twisted into a grin. "Don't you have something to do?" Her hand sat peacefully on her hip. "Knowing Ozpin's goons like we do, I'd say this is something one of them cooked up, no?"

Does she know? Did it matter if she did? Cinder was the enemy, and regardless of whether she knew my true purpose there or not, it didn't change the fact I would destroy her... eventually. She was right about one thing though, I wasn't there to waste time; I needed an out. I could kill her at any point, but seeing as she herself was present, I couldn't count on the fact someone hadn't discovered her, or us, yet.

The woman read my silence as a sign of confirmation.

"Struck gold, haven't I?" She twisted a step forward, all the while I scanned the layout of the room. "And, seeing as you're targeting Mr. Schnee, would it be safe to assume this is at the behest of general Ironwood?"

I could try moving around her, but it would be too obvious - from either direction.

"You know, this is getting a tad easy." Again, she took my inaction as admission. "Of course, there really aren't a lot of choices for you here in Atlas, are there? With the Fang destroyed, and everyone else on Remnant disgusted at your very visage, I'd say you only had one real option, hadn't you?"

"Don't be so harsh on him."

I'd been in the middle of considering a more verbose escape, involving the destruction of either the roof or back wall, when the woman spoke. The voiceless one had been the single piece ruining all my other plans for departure so far, so to hear her voice was... interesting. Even if I did manage to get around Cinder, I hadn't been able to trust that the other 'blessed' individual in the room wouldn't lash out.

The fact she sounded as though speaking in my defense softened my suspicions of her a little. I didn't trust her for a second to stand by my side, but that simple request to the one fighting me at least proved she wasn't so mindless. Cinder herself turned, and challenged our observer's command.

"Harsh?" She huffed. "I'd say I've been quite lenient on him so far."

"But you are not here to insult your foe, are you?" While it seemed like a jab at Cinder, it was more so a confirmation for me. Your foe; if that alone didn't imply she wasn't here to oppose me, then I wasn't sure what would. It wasn't proof she didn't work for Salem, but it was fine enough to assume she wasn't directly going to get in my way.

"And what does that have to do with anything?" Cinder was starting to mirror my actions from just moments ago, which I wasn't sure could be classified as good or anything, but it at least meant she was on the defensive, and not towards me.

"Because, while you may have taken the time to sneak all the way up here, I myself did not."

"What?" Cinder stilled for a moment, before yelling louder. "What!?"

"I can feel them as they approach." The pleasant appearance of the woman was broken up by the black tongue that slithered out to lick along her bottom lip. "I can taste their fear; we both do~"

"You stupid, inconsiderate-!" I could almost hear Cinder's teeth grit, as she spat muffled accusations. "Did you ever once consider I might have needed more than a minute to work with!? Are you really that dense!?"

"With how you like to talk all the time, I just assumed you'd be quicker than this." Whoever this woman was, she seemed adept at pushing Cinder's buttons; or perhaps beating them in at this point. Her miniscule sigh was apparently enough to break the horse's back. "It would seem that Watts was right: you really are just all talk."

"YOU WHAT!?"

I wasn't sure why Cinder screamed that out loud, but I certainly knew that name.

The prostitute from before mentioned someone called Watts, and it would seem this moment right here confirmed he not only worked with Cinder - due to her reaction alone - but also the mystery woman, who seemingly knew his name. This would be analyzed later though, because right now it was made clear we were on a timer.

Cinder's yell was my cue to leave, and I was halfway towards the door with my sprint, but that plan was stilted when Cinder saw me passing by. Her arm shot between me and the door out, crashing into the wall before me, and it was here her venom flowed my way.

"And where do you think you're going!?"

This time, though, I had an answer.

"You heard her: people are coming." This jabbed a wedge between her and the very direct desire to lash out at me. "I've done my duty; how about you?"

"Running away so soon?" I was certain it was meant to provoke me more, but taking into account she was seething at the touch, I decided it wasn't worth risking my discovery to fuel her little games.

"You said it yourself, you need more than a minute; are you really willing to waste it on me?"

It was the most casual I'd spoken the whole fight, lacking any and all desire to fight, but taunting her in a way I knew she wouldn't forget. My reaction worked, and she nearly burned red with rage. She was - perhaps unfortunately for all of us - smarter than that, and I knew she wouldn't give into her rage so easily, especially with how raw her hate towards the news of an unexpected timer lopsided her. Retracting her arm, Cinder scoffed.

"We will be seeing each other again." There was no doubt about that, and as she ran to the desk to do whatever she needed to do, I myself ran out into the hall.

A loud noise blared out, some sort of alarm system if I had to guess, and I immediately took to the window ahead. The original escape route was null at this point; with all the chaos it would be assumed I was discovered, even if it was not me the manor was panicked about. Crashing through a window meant nothing with all the noise, and even the bushes below served to soften the blow.

I should have known everything was going too smoothly when I found nobody in the servants quarters during the initial break in.

But seeing them all here though the foliage of the back garden, who'd previously only held a couple of guards, made my job significantly harder. As for when they got out, I couldn't say, but to see not one Human guest amongst them told me they were probably segregated away from the other visitors. And, seeing as there were no signs of a struggle on or surrounding them, I'd say they'd done so of their own choice.

At best, they'd probably just seen something fall through the window. A little optimistic maybe, but it was clear they didn't know what had fallen. I knew this because they'd all begun to walk this way. I assumed this was done out of curiosity, but that itself was the problem. I needed to think of a way out of this mess before they got up close. I couldn't afford to be caught now, not after I'd gotten everything done so far. The original plan may have been moot, but the rewards for success were not yet gone. I would ensure said rewards could be reaped…

Even if it meant putting an entire family of 'witnesses' down.

.

.

Ruby expected to wake up from whatever dream she was having after the whole scene with the woman and the boy, but no, here she was in another strange place.

This time though, rather than a scene or location she could at the very least comprehend, Ruby instead stood in a black, lightless void. Perplexingly, it wasn't nearly as pitch black as she thought a place like it should be, and she could even see the light waves and movements of the water just barely above ankle level.

Actually, that too was weird: not only could she see the water moving, sporadically being hit with waves from her direction, but she could also feel it between her toes. Looking down, she expected to see her boots filled with water or something, but nope, instead she saw just a pair of legs, with her toes and feet visually being twisted and twirled within the improper rhythm of the waves coming from behind her.

Not wearing boots was weird, yeah, but she wasn't wearing her skirt either; or her leggings; or her undergarments.

She'd blush, probably cover herself up, and maybe even screech at suddenly being stripped, but for some odd reason she just... didn't want to.

"Feels real, doesn't it?"

Nope nope nope never mind; being watched when you were naked still totally felt weird! Covering herself up in an instant, Ruby whipped around to probably scream and call whoever was watching her a pervert. A little cliché, yes, and ripped right from those Mistral cartoons she used to watch on TV late at night before going to Beacon, sure, but what else could she really do?

Then again, wouldn't screaming at and calling yourself a pervert kind of defeat the point?

If it was you yourself, then yes. But if it were another you standing just a meter or so away, and just as naked as the main 'you', then... maybe? Ruby didn't know how to feel in this regard, but her other self looked to know, and that was just to laugh and smile.

"Hello~"

"Who are you?" So her brain remembered it knew how to formulate words, that was good; now maybe things could start making sense next.

"I'm you." She chuckled, not Ruby herself, but the other Ruby who was very clearly not her, because she was herself. The fake Ruby breathed in smoothly. "Or, that's what I would say, had it been true."

"Why do you look like me?" There she went, her real self, actually asking the important questions; granted it took two tries, but that didn't matter.

"No, wait, that's a lie. I 'am' you, just... not how you'd think."

"What?" And there it was again, that pinch of insanity she thought had just disappeared. Ruby had no idea what her clone meant by that, but chose to keep listening anyway, and seeing as it didn't attack, she assumed it wasn't there to kill her - she'd even let her arms return to her side, although that was more unconscious than anything.

"Sorry, I just find the fact that I'm in another body a tad amusing. Although, unlike your friend, you yourself have more of a direct connection to my host than her."

"Okay..." Ruby had no idea what to do, or what any of this meant. But seeing as it paused, she figured the best remedy to this scenario was to just ask a few questions; she figured it wouldn't hurt to do so. "I don't understand any of this, but I guess that's cool. So... why are you speaking to me exactly? Or, better yet, how are you speaking to me?"

"Oh, don't worry: with time, you yourself will be capable of reasoning out those answers yourself... but that's probably hundreds of years from now, so I don't mind giving you a brief taste of what you seek."

Hundreds of years? Ruby never got time to dwell on that, because her other self just carried on.

"To keep the 'how' short: take a look at your hands."

That wasn't an answer, that was an order; but seeing as it wasn't a hard order to follow, and it didn't sound dangerous either, she decided to follow it. Her hands themselves were unclothed too - yes, she only wore gloves, but they were still clothing darn it! That wasn't what caught her attention though, no: it was the purple glow of a certain cut on one hand which had her looking up and questioning the other woman.

"Why is my mark glowing? Did you do something?" Ruby didn't recall feeling anything being done to her, but on the other hand, she wasn't actually here in the void just a little while ago, so simple things like 'feeling' were out of the question when it came to rationalization and logic.

"How do you think I'm able to communicate with you?" Ruby didn't get it... until the lookalike spoke the next line. "When he left his mark on you, that wound which unlocks the memories your very soul has forgotten upon rebirth, it created a link between you and him, as it had the others who he's left his touch upon."

V! At the very least she understood that part. Ruby didn't get the whole 'memories' mumbo jumbo bit, but the link part was a little easier to swallow, and so was the 'others' bit.

"He did this to me?"

"Not just you, but the other two as well." Seeing yourself chuckle in the mirror was usually normal, but knowing that you yourself weren't laughing along made it a tad unnerving. "Although... I've only visited one other. I believe you call her 'Pyrrha' , yes?"

"Wait, are you saying you've done this with her too?" Pyrrha never mentioned speaking with a clone, and she certainly didn't say anything about it mentioning V.

"Somewhat." It sighed, leaning down and sitting in the water. Ruby herself found it a little creepy how casual the mimic was taking everything so far, but nevertheless she sat down too; Ruby knew she probably didn't need to, but it felt weird looking down upon yourself... even if it wasn't really yourself. The other one smiled and began again. "I've met with her, but not through the same medium as you and I speak now. With her body so full of my host's essence, I was able to project myself into her consciousness as she slept. From there, I chose to reveal to her the truth of her worries, and her purpose as well."

"Why?" What possible reason did this... 'thing' have for telling them anything?

"At its most basic of reasoning, and why I'm here speaking with you now as well, it's to speed things up." Ruby didn't know what it meant, again, but she did know what her gut was feeling. An unexplainable terror was seeping into her tummy, and she couldn't figure out why. "That... and as a show of kindness. After all..."

Ruby's heart stopped as the words left the copy's lips.

"Is it not merciful to tell a dying woman the truth?"

Author's note

…

So this is the second time Ruby's prancing around in her birthday suit. It's not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

All jokes aside, I'm feeling a bit better with this chapter. Sure, I'm still not at my best, but this one wasn't too bad. V and Cinder were having their spat, Watts is now known by the former, and the latter got 'owned' by her own ally - if she can even be classified as that.

With any luck things might pick up.

Later.