This chapter is very, very silly, but that doesn't mean it isn't also serious despite the cracky elements. For all that it'll probably be the dumbest chapter in the whole story, it's also a pivotal one that brings the big conflict that'll drive the story going forward.

Sounds weird.

And it is.


Cover Art: Solace O'Autumn

Chapter 39


The venue chosen for their battle was something of a community centre, and it wasn't hard for them to take it over. Sun was famous now, and Jaune had his own small amount of fame after the kidnappings, so the venue was happy to host them for free as long as they got to serve drinks to the guests and charge admission.

Sun had offered to have some of his people move their equipment over, namely Meera's new drum set that she still didn't really know how to play. The girl was biting her fingernails and panicking, sheer terror settling in as the crowds of curious people gathered in front of the stage. A lot of them were Shade students come to support their school's local band, and others were just curious locals who had noticed crowds gathering and come to see what it was all about.

"We're going to die!" Meera said. "We'll be torn to shreds."

"No, you two will just be embarrassed. I am the one who shall die once Cinder gets here."

"Is Guitar Cutie here?" asked Sun.

In a manner of speaking, yes. Jaune ignored the question and fiddled with his borrowed amp. The plan was to set his volume higher and just do his best to carry the performance, since Meera only had two days of practice and he wasn't even sure if Sun had ever held a bass before. With any luck, Cinder could help, as she was sure to have sung a couple of times. Maybe not professionally, but she had a good voice and confidence to spare, so he figured she could dominate a stage as easily as she had a group of kidnapping terrorists.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the faker and his entourage of—" Nebula paused. "Wait, is that Sun Wukong? Holy crap!" The girl lunged forward to shake his hand. "It's so inspiring what you've done for those orphans. We all donated!"

Sun laughed. "Thanks. That means a lot. And I'm just happy the kids will have proper lives now."

"You're so amazing to have looked after them," said Octavia, tears in her eyes. The four girls swarmed Sun, but there didn't seem to be any attraction there. It was just four people gushing over how wonderful a person Sun was. "Can we visit sometime?"

"I'm sure the kids would love that. Hey, maybe you can play for them. They're into music after Guitar Cutie did."

"A—After Cutie? How can we possibly play after her? We'd sound terrible!"

Sun grinned. "The kids will love it either way. They just like meeting new people. They've been lonely for a long time."

The girls all swooned, touched by the sheer cuteness of it all. "Then we'll definitely visit and play for them!" Dew said. "Maybe we can spar with each other as well and give them a show of what huntresses can do. They deserve a distraction after what happened to them! Awful! I can't believe monsters like that lived here!"

They'd forgotten all about him, hadn't they?

That wasn't so bad.

Sun and NDGO chatted for another five minutes before someone came back to tell them the crowd were getting restless. The four girls broke off from Sun, wishing him well in the battle, then turned to Jaune and Meera and did the exact opposite.

"We'll go first," they said, "Set the stage for your defeat. Don't run away when you hear how good we are. You're going down!"

"Down!" the others chanted. "Get crushed!"

"Except you, Sun," Nebula added. "You're awesome."

Sun laughed. "Thanks."

The four of them opened their cases and picked out their instruments, and Jaune did his best not to sigh. Two guitars, one bass and a drum set. Nothing unusual. No, it was the face on the instruments that annoyed him. Guitar Cutie, Guitar Cutie, Guitar Cutie and Guitar Cutie. On the guitars, he could understand, but her face was even on the drums. It was obvious they'd been inspired by Jaune to learn music which was… well, it was a nice feeling. Wow. He'd inspired people to pick up a craft he himself loved. That was amazing. But it also felt so very embarrassing.

However… they all have Guitar Cutie branded instruments, so that means they can't be as experienced as they're acting. I haven't been active a full year, so they have less than a year's experience.

Maybe this battle wouldn't be as impossible as he expected.

In the backstage area, they could still hear the music and everything going on outside. Team NDGO stormed out to cheers, and then Dew took the microphone. "Hello Vacuo! We're the INDIGO CUTIES, huntresses and musicians at the same time. We're here to slay Grimm and slay in general!"

The crowd roared, particularly the Shade component who knew them. A few banners had been made and held up with NDGO written on them. Jaune had a feeling the crowd would be leaning toward them from the start.

It didn't take long before they jumped into a song, and it was then that Jaune felt his worries ease just a little. It wasn't an original song, but then it was a bit much to expect that from a new band. They picked a pop song he – or Cutie – had covered recently, and they'd probably learned it from online tutorials springing up around his music career. Since a lot of people were wanting to play like Cutie, other musicians online were cashing in by making beginner tutorial videos to show them how.

Team NDGO were good, he'd admit that, but they weren't great. Their biggest edge was their stage presence and personalities, and the fact they were united and had great teamwork. It was harder playing in a band than a lot of people realised, having to match timing and all that, but these four were used to life-or-death fights as a team. They adapted a lot faster than most would, and it showed.

But they weren't going to be unbeatable.

Jaune grinned.

It died when the final member of their band texted him that she'd arrived.

"Hey, I have to go get Cinder," he told Sun and Meera. "You two set up the stage once NDGO are done. Get ready to play as soon as we come out."

"Straight away? Won't she want a moment to prepare?"

"No. No, no, no." Jaune laughed nervously. "Cinder performs better under pressure. Trust me. Be right back!"

Rushing out the back of the venue he soon found Cinder standing alone with a coy smile on her face. She looked amazing in a red and gold dress, which would serve very well on stage. Hopefully, it'd also slow her down after when she exacted punishment on him.

"Cinder!" he greeted, smiling brightly. Too brightly. "So glad you could make it!"

"Hmhmhm. Well you did make it sound worth my while." She tilted her head at the music. "I'm not late, am I?"

"Fashionably. And you look great today. Have I said that?"

"No." Her smile became a little teasing. "Are you buttering me up, Jaune…?"

"Maybe. Ha ha. Who can say? Come this way. Come on. The main event is about to start."

Jaune tugged on her arm, drawing her into the venue from the back and toward the stage where it sounded like Team NDGO were wrapping up. The crowd applauded. Cinder idly looked around her, noticing the various instruments and technical equipment laying around.

"I didn't realise you had backstage access," she said. "Benefits of being a musician?"

"Something like that. Actually, I have some special seats reserved just for us."

Cinder chuckled. "Close to the stage?"

"Definitely." Jaune placed his hands on the backs of her shoulders and began to push. "But I need you to close your eyes. It's a surprise."

"Hmm. I don't normally like surprises but I'll humour you this one time."

Never again, though. Jaune was sure of that. And if Cinder hadn't liked surprises before, this wasn't going to change anything. Jaune waited until she was ready and then began to guide her through the doorway and onto the stage. The crowd cheered, but Cinder had no reason to suspect that was aimed at them. He'd already said they were going to be close to the stage so the sudden increase in volume was expected.

Less expected was Jaune pushing something into her hands. "Hold this," he said, having to shout to be heard. Cinder's fingers opened and closed around the object, and she tilted her head as she tried to decipher what it was. Maybe she'd expected a drink. It was quite a bit harder than that with a strange, rough circular object on top.

"Can I open my eyes yet?" she shouted.

"One second!" Jaune picked up his guitar and moved between Cinder and the exit. He nodded once to Meera, who was hiding behind her drum set. Sun was the only one who looked confident, but then the guy was used to putting it on to keep the spirits of his gang up. Maybe he was just too carefree to worry about appearances now the future was secure. "Okay!" he shouted. "Open your eyes!"

Cinder slowly did so, expecting a view of the stage.

Cinder did not see the stage.

Cinder saw a whole lot of people ranging out before them, cheering and raising their hands in the air. Blinking, she glanced left and right, wondering for a moment if Jaune hadn't just positioned her the wrong way around. She turned to see if the band was behind her.

They were.

In a manner of speaking.

"Hello Vacuo!" Jaune shouted, strumming out a chord. The audience cheered. "We're… um…" Crap. Too much time spent thinking how to make this work and not enough on a band name. "We're… uh…" He met Cinder's shocked eyes and he imagined for a moment what she would do to him when this was all over. "Cinderella Inferno! Meera, hit it!"

The Vacuan girl ducked her head and raised her sticks, beating out three beats to time them in.

Obviously, Meera and Sun barely knew how to play. Jaune had known that. He was the only one with any musical experience, which was why he threw himself into a loud performance with his volume set to max and everyone else's just a little lower. It didn't matter if Sun missed beats and Meera was a little out of tune, or missing the beat entirely, because this was an amateur show and The NDGO Cuties were an amateur group. No one expected them to be good. Meera and Sun certainly weren't.

But Jaune was.

The long guitar intro hooked the crowd and had them bouncing up and down, and it gave Cinder time to realise exactly what he'd thrown her into. The huntress took one look at the microphone in her hand, another at the crowd, and took the obvious choice.

She bolted for the doorway they'd come through.

The one Jaune had positioned himself in front of.

He swung the guitar up between her and the exit, sliding into her path and herding her back onto the stage acting for all the world like he was just showing some stage presence. He pushed his body into hers, slowly driving her back to centre stage.

"W—What is this!?" she hissed, stammering for what felt like the first time. He wouldn't have pegged her as someone to ever stutter. "I can't sing, Jaune!"

"Neither could the other band. Just, I don't know, treat it like karaoke."

"I've never been!"

Seriously? Being in Haven and all, he'd assumed she would have been out for nights with her team, and that karaoke would feature in those at least once. Jaune kept playing, trusting the amps to make sure the volume of his music outstripped their panicked chatter. The audience were too into the music to care.

"Surely you've sung in the shower or when you were younger."

"Yes but—"

"Doesn't matter! Just sing! Sing anything. I'll play along and make it work."

Cinder wildly shook her head. "No way. I didn't agree to this! I'm not—"

Jaune stepped back and finished his solo. "You're in right now!"

Cinder looked absolutely terrified.

Maybe it was cheating… Okay, it was definitely cheating, no doubts about that, but Jaune focused on her and activated his Bardic Music. The Motivational Song hit Cinder like a truck, startling her into action practically against her will.

Her hands shot up to her neck, driving the microphone under her mouth. Her lips parted, body acting faster than her brain under the intensely motivational effects of his music which, at that very moment, had almost robbed her of the very ability to be afraid. In battle, in protection of a life, that would be a very good thing. It made people fight harder, without breaking, and push themselves to the extreme.

But not all fear was bad. Sometimes fear was necessary, be it to stop people taking unnecessary risks with their health or walking blindly into suicidal odds.

Or, in rare cases, from utterly humiliating yourself on stage.

A very reasonable fear that Jaune's Motivational Song overrode. Cinder opened her mouth, her brain shrieking at her to run, and belted out the first song she'd ever learned to sing. Frankly, it was the only song in her unhappy life, and one she'd been taught at the orphanage back before her adoptive mother had taken and abused her. A happier time, where unwanted children would play and sing together.

Stupid, stupid songs.

One of the only songs she'd even bothered to learn the lyrics of before her mind was taken with more important things, the constant thirst for power and the need to surround herself with it so that no one could ever hurt her again. Cinder opened her mouth and sang a song she hadn't since she was seven.

"BABY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! BABY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! BABY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! BABY SHARK!"

Jaune's fingers almost missed the strings.

The crowd paused as well, not at all sure what to make of the incredibly juvenile song being belted out with such passion by a very attractive woman. Jaune recovered first, altering his music. If the children's tune had one thing going for it (other than its lack of complex lyrics) it was that it was widely known. If she'd pulled out some Mistral number, he might not have known it, but everyone and their dog knew the rough tune of Baby Shark.

Jaune twisted it into a heavy metal version, screaming out notes that made it somehow seem less juvenile. That was a thing, wasn't it? Take any song and make it metal tended to do well online, and they could always argue they picked the song ironically.

Wide eyed, and far too afraid to stop, Cinder started pumping her hands to the side, standing side-on to the audience and waving her hands up and down before her.

"MOMMY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! MOMMY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! MOMMY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! MOMMY SHARK!"

Cinder jumped and started waving her hands to the other side.

"DADDY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! DADDY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! DADDY SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! DADDY SHARK!"

The song was also easy enough for Meera to play to, mostly because it was just the same thing repeated over and over. Even then, she was out of tune and missing the beat, but it really didn't matter in the slightest. It didn't matter that Sun's bass was off either.

Jaune's music was on point, louder, and supporting Cinder – who was a very beautiful woman.

There was a reason Guitar Cutie's videos had taken off where Jaune's had not. Looks mattered, as did stage presence, and whether it was born from terror or not, Cinder dominated the stage, shaking her hips and pumping her hands up and down.

Sure, her eyes were a little wide and frightened, and her smile was what one might expect to see on a serial killer before they murdered you, but she was getting into it (or at least looked that way) and it was funny. That counted for something, as the crowd's laughter began to morph into cheering, and then, against all odds, into singing along.

"GRANDMA SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! GRANDMA SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO! GRANDMA SHARK, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO, DOO!" The audience all clapped their hands twice before belting out, " GRANDMA SHARK!"

The next chorus was practically the crowd singing it with Cinder just dancing.

It was working.

/-/

"That's Jaune!" Penny shouted, bouncing in her seat, and pointing at the television. "That's my best friend! Go Jaune! GRANDPA SHARK, DOO, DOO—!"

Pietro Polendina smiled and tuned his daughter out.

Even as their dog barked along.

/-/

"Mom! Mom!" Pyrrha shouted for help as if she'd been trapped under a fallen car. Her mother, literally right next to her on the sofa and watching the same live show online, rolled her eyes.

"Yes dear?"

"Mom!" Pyrrha whined. "I need to learn an instrument!"

"Do you, darling? Do you really?"

"YES! I can't lose to her! Wait, no, I need a singing coach! I need to learn to sing!"

Pyrrha grabbed her scroll and started texting her agent, and Athena Nikos quietly sighed. Young love was cute at times, but only at times.

It was a pain in her butt elsewise.

/-/

Weiss walked into her mother's conservatory. "Willow, I—"

"Mommy Shark—"

Weiss took a long step back out of her mother's conservatory.

"Never mind," she said, shaking the image of her mother dancing out her head. "I'll come back later. Much, much later."

/-/

"Is that—"

"That's Cinder," said Emerald, staring up at the stage in shock and awe. "I… wow. For a moment I thought she blew us off because she planned to sit back and make us do all the work, but this? She must be trying to appeal to Cutie directly."

"Cinder and Cutie on a band together," Mercury whispered.

Emerald shivered. "Mmmmmm. Cinder and Cutie kissing…"

"Not what I said," Mercury remarked, then paused. "But, also, super-hot."

"Should we do something to help?"

Mercury's eyes narrowed. "Yes. I have just the idea."

Emerald and Mercury fought their way to the front of the crowd, right in front of the stage, and Cinder saw them. Her eyes locked onto theirs, so wide and panicked, demanding they help – that they do something to save her.

And they did.

Mercury and Emerald whipped out dual glow sticks and began spinning them, driving them around one another in wild circles and lunging in choreographed moments to the music. Around them, others caught on and joined in.

Cinder's face burned with what could only have been appreciation for their swift thinking and steadfast support.

/-/

"Arthur," said the evillest woman on Remnant. "What exactly am I looking at?"

"Um. It appears to be Cinder on stage singing Baby Shark, ma'am. Badly."

"Hm." Salem nodded. "I thought that was the case." The Queen of the Grimm leaned back, frowning as she struggled to parse and process the very thing that had been confirmed. Her fingers tap-tapped on the arm of her throne. "This song, Arthur. It is catchy. I assume this is what is popular right now."

"No."

"It must be," she said, nodding her head. Salem's knowledge of music was limited to thousands of years ago, to the point that she even believed Guitar Cutie's music to be original songs. There had never been much need for music in the Grimmlands, so far from seeing the song as childish, Salem saw it as a novel experience. At least that was the only reason Watts could think of as to why she started humming along to the awful, awful tune. "Hmmm. I quite like it. Grimmy Shark, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, Grimmy Shark—"

Arthur Watts twitched unhappily next to the throne.

"Arthur, make a note! I still want Guitar Cutie found but, in the meantime, I believe Cinder and this guitarist can quench my thirst. Order Cinder to capture him. No. I want you, Hazel, and Tyrian to go to Vacuo as well. It's close. Capture him and bring both to me. Use whatever methods you must."

"Is this what my life has come to…?"

"What was that, Arthur?"

"Nothing, ma'am. I'll get right on it."

It wouldn't be hard to ground flights in and out of Vacuo and then swoop in during the night. Watts was already hacking hotels searching for the Arc boy's choice as he left the hall, calling out to Tyrian and Hazel as he did.

"We have a job. Salem – Our Queen," he amended, earning a giddy smile from Tyrian, "—has a task of the utmost importance for us."

/-/

Cinder wanted to die.

Scratch that, Cinder wanted to kill everyone in Vacuo and then die. Pumping her fists up and down to the left and then the right, she kept shouting out the simplistic lyrics she'd once screamed in an orphanage at seven years of age. It had been to try and impress people into adopting her, back when she'd longed for a family and thought being adopted would be the happiest occasion.

Even thinking it filled her with a strange mixture of anger, humiliation, and nostalgic sorrow.

Which really didn't fit the insipid music coming from her. It hardly helped that Emerald and mercury were making utter fools of themselves (almost as much as she was!) by dancing down in the audience with their stupid fluorescent sticks. Cinder would have to impress on them the importance of never, never, never, never bringing this up again.

After she had killed Jaune, of course.

Yes.

His Semblance ability to kill a man with music might have been useful but, after this, he had to die. Damn shame. He'd been someone who understood Guitar Cutie was a useless thot, but all good things had to end and that included his life.

Easy come, easy go.

Cinder finished the final lyrics and dropped her arms. She stood, head bowed, as the crowd roared its approval. Jaune finished his final notes, ending with a roar from his guitar.

Victory had never felt so tainted.

/-/

"We did it! We won!" Meera jumped up and down cheering. Sun joined her, the two Vacuans whooping their victory. "We did it! Jaune, we— huh?"

Jaune's hands flailed as he lay on his back, straddled under Cinder Fall, who was sat on his crotch with her knees on either side of him. It might have looked like someone celebrating a little too much, if not for her hands fixed around his neck and Jaune's flapping around as he tried to breathe.

Normally, Meera and Sun would have had no hope in pulling her off, but Cinder was too focused on choking the life out the man who forced her into such a humiliating experience to pay them any attention. The woman hissed and spit like an angry cat, kicking out to try and escape the two Vacuans and finish what she started.

Jaune rolled onto his side and coughed weakly.

It was at that moment the defeated members of Team NDGO, the Indigo Cuties, traipsed in with miserable expressions.

"Damn it. Gnh." Nebula scowled at them. "Yeah, whatever. You won, but only because of her singing. I mean, talk about being carried."

Cinder reached out her hands for Nebula's throat.

"But we did win!" Meera said, "And that means you need to apologise!"

"Tch. We're sorry."

"Ahem." Meera smiled harshly. "On your knees."

The four girls had obviously been hoping she would forget that part, but they grudgingly knelt in front of a gasping Jaune. Their faces were bright red. As one, they said, "WE'RE SORRY!" and "YOU'RE THE BETTER MUSICIAN!"

Dew added, "But you're still not as good as Guitar Cutie."

"T—Thanks," Jaune rasped.

"You also have to change your band name~" Meera teased.

The girls grimaced. "Do we… Do we have to…?"

"Yes!"

"No." Jaune had managed to recover and pushed himself up. He made sure to keep Sun between him and Cinder as he did. "There's no need to go that far. You four… You four have a lot of talent and potential. You could be big one day, bigger than even Guitar Cutie." He flashed them a friendly smile. "You shouldn't let one loss here get you down, and I'm not going to make you carry my name into future gigs."

It was the perfect peace offering.

And he'd nailed it.

At least he assumed he had, but the girls looked furious.

"Don't patronise us!" said Gwen.

"Yeah!" Octavia chimed. "Do you think we need your mercy?"

"Jaune-digo Cuties," said Nebula, looking vaguely ill at the name. "That's who we are now, and we'll become such incredible musicians that we'll turn the name on its head. People will look at you and think you copied our name. That's how famous we'll be!"

"But… But that's what I said," Jaune floundered. "I'm on your side. I'm supporting you—"

"And then you'll get down on your knees and apologise to us!" Dew said. "Come on, girls. Let's get back to Shade and practice! The Indigo— The Jaune-digo Cuties will rise from the ashes and take the world by storm!"

"Yeah!" the others cheered. All four stormed for the exit.

And then poked their heads back in for Nebula to say, "Is this weekend okay to come play for the kids, Sun?"

Sun Wukong offered a thumbs up. "Saturday or Sunday would be perfect."

"Then we'll see you then!"

Finally, they left.

Cinder did as well, stomping out with an irate snarl and a bright red face. He didn't give chase, even to apologise. It really felt like she needed some time to cool down, time he was more than prepared to give her.

/-/

Sun broke off from them soon after, saying it had been fun and the kids would enjoy laughing at his expense. That left Meera and Jaune to head back to the hotel alone. A few people recognised them along the way and pointed, leading to further embarrassment and even a signed autograph or two. They were by no means a good band, and more likely to become memes than anything, but for the moment they were local-famous.

It was late by the time they got back, and Meera was dragged off by her grandmother to do extra work, leaving Jaune to place his guitar in his room and slump on the bed. It had been a fun day, Cinder's anger notwithstanding, and he knew this would make for a treasured memory. His first live performance with a band of his own.

It felt different to being a backup guitarist for Weiss.

"I could get used to it…"

His Semblance notified him of a new quest.

"From this? Heh. Is it to make the band a real thing and go on a world tour? I don't think Cinder will be down for… that…" Jaune's eyes widened. "W—What…?"

.

New Quest: ESCAPE VACUO!

The forces of evil, led by the Queen of the Grimm, have turned their sights on Vacuo and are preparing to locate and capture you for unknown purposes. They are prepared to slaughter any who would get in their way. Escape Vacuo with your life or be captured and taken to the seat of the Grimm's power.

Success: Escape. Rep Forces of Good. Quest: ON THE RUN

Failure: Rep Forces of Evil. Capture. Imprisonment. Deaths among Vacuan population. Unknown fate. End of the World.

.

Jaune could only stare at the text. How…? What…? Grimm…?

He was just a guy with a guitar who had played in a band. How would the Grimm even know about him, let alone why would they be after him? Did… Did they somehow know about his Semblance? Were they aware of what he could do? And since when had there been someone in charge of the Grimm in the first place?

And, ultimately, did any of that matter?

His Semblance had never been wrong before. He'd ignored it with Crown and people almost died as a result. Now, in far less ambiguous terms, it was telling him to get out of Vacuo or be kidnapped and taken to goodness knows where. For a fate that even his Semblance didn't know, but which came after imprisonment. That meant it would be worse.

Deaths among the Vacuan population…

Meera, Sun, Cinder, the kids. If these people – or Grimm – were looking for him, they'd go for the people he'd been close to.

And the end of the world

That was hyperbole, right…?

Jaune didn't dare assume it hyperbole.

Even if it made no sense… except that it could make sense. What if the idea was to force him into using his music to boost Grimm? Would that work? He had no idea, and no desire to find out.

It didn't matter how little sense this made. All that mattered was he had to leave before Vacuo came under attack. He had to get out so that the Grimm, or whomever was after him, wouldn't hurt the people he cared about.

Jaune jumped when his scroll went off. It was Cinder. He answered it.

"Cinder, look, I'm sorry but I have—"

" YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF VACUO NOW!" Cinder's hysterical cry down the scroll tore his own sentence apart. How did Cinder know…? He was about to ask when she continued. "Do you remember you warning me about an ambush on me? This is me returning the favour. I overheard some people—" There was a strangled note to her voice. "—I just so happened to hear them talking about how they'd been ordered to capture you and take you away."

"They're already here!?"

Cinder paused. "You know…?"

"I… um… I may have had a hint that I should leave Vacuo."

"You did? How…? No, that doesn't matter. Look, you need to get out of Vacuo and get away here before they find you. Stay in your hotel. I'm coming to get you. I'll get you out in one piece and cover your escape."

Jaune couldn't believe his luck. A strong huntress like Cinder looking out for him.

"Thank you! Thank you! I'll wait for you."

"You can thank me by escaping in one piece. I'll be there in fifteen minutes!"

/-/

Cinder hung up, running through the streets of Vacuo.

Salem wanted Jaune and her back in the Grimmlands to perform. That was humiliating, obviously, but that wasn't the main reason she was breaking her orders and pushing Jaune to get the hell out of Vacuo.

It wasn't the idea of embarrassing herself in front of Salem, Watts, Hazel, or Tyrian. That, she could survive. Salem would get bored of Jaune sooner or later and probably push Cinder and the others to keep searching for Guitar Cutie. The Queen of the Grimm's recent obsession with music was a pain in their collective backsides, but it would surely fade in time.

How long would that take, however?

Salem was an immortal, and her concept of time was different to everyone else's. It might be weeks, but it could just as easily be months or years. Salem wouldn't care how many plans got delayed because she had all the time in the world.

Cinder did not.

"Bad enough I had to cancel my attack on the Fall Maiden, but I refuse to be confined to the Grimmlands for the next few years singing Baby Shark to her! I have to kill the maiden, get her power, then topple Beacon!"

Cinder had plans. Plans within plans, all of them designed to acquire what was important. Power. Immense and personal power that would be hers and hers alone. The maidens, the Relics, and whatever else she could get her hands on.

None of which would happen if Jaune got himself caught here and turned into Salem's personal minstrel, and Cinder into her bloody court jester!

Cinder called Watts. "How far out are you?"

"We're about one hour from Vacuo," he replied. Damn the Grimmlands for being so close. "Tyrian is going to infiltrate the city from the northern edge, and I shall be grounding flights via a computer bug. Hazel will politely enquire as to his whereabouts at the hotel I managed to find he's staying at."

Damn it, damn it, damn it.

"Great!" she lied. "Tell him not to harm anyone or cause a fuss. If he or Tyrian starts a riot here, we'll never find him."

" I don't see why it's a difficulty at all. Aren't you friends with him?"

"I sang a song on stage, Watts!" she hissed. "We're hardly close and I didn't stop to get his number." Cinder would delete it later, lest Watts hack her scroll to check. "But I'm heading to his hotel to search for him. If he's there, I'll find him, but I'm certain he mentioned leaving Vacuo tonight."

"If that's the case, he hasn't booked a flight or ship. I've checked. Go check the hotel, Cinder. I'm sure Salem will be happy to have you both back in the Grimmlands where you can perform for her. I even showed her a shark costume online that would suit you, and she's ordered me to procure one in your size."

Watts, the absolute prick, would be the first to die when she turned traitor. That, Cinder swore.

"I am Salem's loyal servant," she said, lying through her teeth. "But I need to hang up and focus. I'll call you if I find him." Cinder stashed her scroll and sprinted to Jaune's hotel.

She had one hour to get him out of Vacuo before her plans unravelled.


Is it cracky of her to sing Baby Shark? Of course it is. And yet, at the same time, can you imagine Cinder knowing any other songs than one she would have learned as a child? It's not like she'd have bothered to learn any more after her innocence was shattered and she got adopted by the cruel matron, and then turned evil. It's meant to be funny, comical even, but it's also a bit of a sad reference to how ruined Cinder's life is, and how she once would have been a normal child enjoying normal television and singing silly songs like this with her friends at the orphanage.

And, finally, Jaune is starting to catch a glimpse of the ultimate quest that will be the driving conflict of this story. Salem has turned her attention officially to acquiring him, and he's on the run. Escaping Vacuo won't be the end of it, either. He's now officially on her radar, with Salem's minions tasked to capture him with the same intensity as they would one of the maidens.

Except that Jaune doesn't grant power like a kinder egg when popped, so Cinder is not at all interested in playing ball. Cinder only cares for power, and being stuck performing for Salem for the rest of her life isn't it! That's basically her reason. Obviously, singing Baby Shark to Salem is embarrassing but that isn't what's driving Cinder to lie to her allies. It's Salem's new obsession getting in the way of Cinder's primary ambition to become powerful.


Next Chapter: 8th September

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