"We know they are lying. They know they are lying. They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie."

— Alexander Solzhenitsyn


Percy didn't expect Cinder to show up herself when he finally ended up getting back to her with a time and place to meet her boss' messenger, having assumed that if she was adequate to be a messenger then they wouldn't have needed to arrange this in the first place.

She seemed to notice his confusion when she was the one to show up, because she gestured behind her where her lackeys were busy carrying in a small crate, just barely narrow enough to fit into the door of the barren back office.

They were meeting in the back room of a warehouse in Mistral's docks, various crates and containers sitting on metal racks throughout the main area. He hadn't wanted this meeting to be all that public, considering who might have been showing up.

But, funnily enough, Percy didn't find the crate they were lugging through the door to answer all that many of his questions.

He remained patient, waiting as they took the crate near the middle of the room and sat it down with an exhausted huff. With a motion from Cinder the silver haired boy unlatched one side and flipped it open, stepping back rather quickly afterwards. Percy took the queue and watched the crate cautiously himself.

"Thank you Emerald, Mercury." Cinder spoke for the first time since they'd arrived. "You may leave us."

But Percy wasn't paying attention, because he was too busy staring at the Grimm hovering up and out of the crate they'd brought in.

It wasn't one he'd ever seen, that's for sure. It almost looked like a jellyfish, with blood-red tentacles with jagged spikes on their end that slung over the side of the crate, the large black, bulbous head-like sphere in the middle floating ominously upwards and carrying the various limbs with it.

His hand curled around Riptide, but the Grimm stayed passive where it floated.

"This is a seer." Cinder told him, as if working with a Grimm was just another Tuesday for her.

Since this almost certainly confirmed Percy's suspicions about who it was she worked for, it probably was.

"It will not harm you. Salem will speak with you through it." she said, as if he didn't have a good enough guess who her employer was once she unpacked a Grimm from a crate.

Cinder shot him one last look and left through the door, same as her colleagues. Apparently, this was a meeting she hadn't been invited to.

Near instantly the orb that constituted the 'seer's body began to fill with dark clouds, swirling until they split towards the center of the vortex and a pale white face filled the image, blood-red veins creeping from around the corners of her pitch-black eyes but otherwise looking relatively normal. To be honest, based on his past experience with witches he expected her to look even more normal than that — human in every discernable way. But failing that, he'd expected something much less human.

"Salem." he greeted neutrally, ensuring that neither deference nor disdain leaked into his tone.

"Perseus," she greeted in kind, expression entirely neutral. "You seem unsurprised by my presence."

Despite himself, a long-suppressed urge reared its head in Percy's subconscious and his lips quirked into a tiny smirk. "Yeah, well, once the Grimm started hovering out of the mystery box I had a guess as to who it was I'd be meeting. Figured it was either you or the boogeyman. My bet was on the boogeyman, but you can't always be right."

Salem looked as thoroughly unimpressed as he'd hoped, and his smirk shifted into a satisfied smile. Gods, how he'd missed pissing off immortals. He'd have to find some more time to spend around Ozma.

"I have little patience for your games." she said, "I see Cinder was wrong about you."

"Cinder's wrong about a lot of things." he quipped, before forcing the amusement from his expression. "But I don't think either of us would like to draw this out longer than necessary."

"On this, we are agreed." Salem's eyes narrowed, causing the red veins near the corner of her eyes to ripple strangely. "I have but one question. What are you?"

Percy recoiled, genuinely not expecting the question. Cinder hadn't paid any attention to the abilities he'd shown in the battle of Mistral — or if she had, she'd done a good job of hiding it. She'd been far more interested in his empire and connections than any ability he had personally. He figured they'd have the same arrangement if he was an overweight man in his middle ages who had never picked up a sword — she'd probably prefer it, considering it'd be easier to force him into things.

He'd expected more of the same from Salem, but instead the first question she'd asked wasn't about using his contacts, or his empire, or the relics, but his personal ability. It… reminded him of Ozpin.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Percy eventually said, carefully. "You'll have to clarify."

The immortal scowled. "My… advisors, assure me that the storm in Anima was born of a powerful semblance, but I remain unconvinced. I know what semblances are capable of better than any other, and that was not one. So I shall ask a final time; what are you?"

Percy paused to think through his answer. Despite asking what he was, he highly doubted she thought there was a real possibility he was half god or non-human. More than likely she thought he'd found a way to harness the power of maidens or relics or some such thing, or just magic in general which, as far as he'd managed to gather from Cinder, was commonplace in her time.

But if she did enough digging herself, it was hardly impossible to find he'd admitted to being a demigod. Even if he wasn't exactly open about it he'd said so in public, in unsecured areas where anyone could be listening in, and he hadn't been the most secretive about his nature. Hell, he'd told Yang on a whim, and although he liked her he had no reason to believe that Yang was particularly good at keeping secrets.

In for a penny…

"I'm a demigod." he finally told her, adjusting his posture to stand just that much straighter. "And while I'm not a child of either of the gods you're familiar with, they're certainly in the family tree." he grinned cockily.

He wasn't sure she believed him, but if the way she herself recoiled was any indication then she wasn't dismissing him out of hand.

"And what would a demigod of some far-flung deities care for Remnant? What is it you seek here?"

His left hand floated to his pocket on instinct, hovering over the small sticky note folded up and shoved into his pocket, same as it had been every day for almost two months now.

For a moment he was dangerously tempted to simply ask her about 'R W B Y', if only to see if she had some sort of reaction. But that was far too risky — whatever RWBY was it was at the center of Remnant's existence and ultimate fate, and if he accidentally tipped Salem off to that? Well, that'd make whatever blunders he made in the past pale in comparison. He forced his frustration at not having the answers himself down, and finally gave the non-answer he'd have expected in her position.

"I'm here for my own reasons, which don't concern you." his eyes narrowed. "Yet."

"Is that a threat?" the witch seemed genuinely curious.

"A warning." he corrected. "If your goal is truly to destroy Ozma, I don't care to interfere. However, should you care to oppose me directly…" he trailed off. To be honest he had no real idea where he stacked up against Salem, but what he did know is she was no god, and so he'd faced longer odds. He also knew she didn't know how they measured up. For all Salem knew he was just as immortal as she, and ten times as dangerous. For all he knew the latter might be true. They were both working off a lack of information, but to anyone who wasn't themselves divine he knew the status of 'demigod' wasn't likely to have them picking a fight with him any time soon.

"I cannot avoid interfering with your designs if I do not know what they are." she pointed out, but Percy just waved it off.

"If you begin to interfere," thunder rolled through Mistral's valley and shook the walls, roaring loudly enough that he knew it would be audible through the connection. "you'll know."

Salem smiled imperceptibly. "It is as you say, then. Should you have need of my servants or I, you need only call upon us. However, in return I would expect assistance with my own problem."

Percy smiled faintly in turn, the tiniest bit of understanding passing between them. "I'll make sure to keep it in mind."

Riptide was out and the Grimm was bisected before the connection could fully sever, the orb rupturing and both sides falling to the ground, dissipating into black smoke.

She'd wanted to pry more, he'd wanted to pry more, but both had been reluctant to push too far. Percy couldn't put on the visage of an infinitely confident and equally powerful divine being if he was all that intrigued in what Salem had going on, and Salem couldn't afford to put herself in the inferior position by revealing how little she knew either. They both knew that they wouldn't be revealing their hands regardless.

She'd made her offer, he'd agreed to consider it, and that was that. As far as first meetings went, it was underwhelming, but he supposed it was a better first impression than he got with most immortals.

Then again, most immortals knew exactly who — and what — he was.

As he stared down into the empty box which the Grimm had come from, he capped Riptide and shoved it back into his pocket. His meeting with Salem was over, but Cinder was still here.

His grip on Anaklusmos tightened ever so slightly.

Exiting the small back room he'd taken the 'meeting' in, Percy poked his head out to find Cinder some feet away leaning against a wall of crates.

Alone.

He was sure her lackeys had been left to guard the perimeter or something, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be back to check in at any moment.

"Cinder." he called lightly, voice travelling easily over the wide open, empty space.

She looked back towards him, and he gestured for her to come join him in the room. She did so curiously, striding over to the door and entering when he held it open for her.

She'd likely thought she was being called in to join the meeting, because she looked around curiously for the Grimm creature upon entering. Soon, however, she was disabused of whatever notions she held as to why she'd been asked into the room courtesy of being backed into the now closed door by a blade pressed to her throat.

"The Winter Maiden. Speak."


"Cheater!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Weiss sat her pencil down and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Will you two quiet down!"

Yang scowled at her little sister as she stood and walked to the other side of the room, bending over to pick up her scroll before returning to their holo-projector just in time to see 'Victory — Ruby' light up the screen.

"But she called me a cheater!" Ruby complained, pointing to her sister accusingly as if that made all the difference. To her, Weiss didn't doubt it somehow did.

Yang rolled her eyes and plopped herself back down in front of the small screen. "Yeah, because you tossing my scroll across the room when I was distracted is definitely fair play."

Ruby agreed, nodding smugly. "All's fair in love and war."

"Just keep it quiet," Weiss scowled, picking up her pencil and resuming the essay she'd been attempting to write for over an hour now. "Other people live here too."

Weiss didn't have to be looking to feel the unimpressed glower Yang levied at her back. "It's a Friday afternoon, there are no classes for the rest of the day — take a load off, Weiss. Don't you ever have fun?"

Weiss gripped her pencil a little tighter. "Of course I have fun!" she turned, glaring at the blonde.

"Could've fooled me." Ruby muttered, but Weiss caught the words and shifted her glare to her partner, who squeaked and wilted under her gaze.

"Some people take their education seriously." she huffed, crossing her arms. "I'm choosing to finish Doctor Oobleck's assignment, so I can relax while you all are scrambling to finish it on Sunday night."

Yang rolled her eyes and turned back to the game, choosing a character and nudging Ruby to do the same. "What's the point in that? Everyone else will be doing it Sunday night, so there'll be nothing to do. Might as well join us and take the free time now while everyone's available." She shot the heiress a grin as the game began to count down the start of the match. "Let me guess, you'll be working on that paper instead of going out tonight, too."

Weiss glowered at her teammate. "And so what if I am? It's not like I require alcohol and flashing lights to gain a personality."

"Weiss~" Ruby whined, shoulders sagging.

Yang turned from the game for a moment to glare at her, and Weiss saw the girls' eyes flicker red for the briefest moment. "Yeah? Could've fooled me. I haven't seen you with alcohol or flashing lights around, but then again I haven't seen you with a personality either. Aside from being a stuck up little bi-"

"Yang~!" Their team leader moaned, cutting her off. "Be nice!"

Yang scowled and turned back to the screen, before apparently thinking better of it and collapsing her scroll altogether, standing up and slipping it into her pocket. "I think I'm done for today Rubes. I'm gonna take a minute to cool off."

"B-bu-bu. But-"

Weiss winced as her teammate stormed out of the room, slamming the door. She bit down the instinctive urge to comment, turning back to her paper and making her best effort at staring it into submission through the awkward air in the room. Not for the first time, she realized Blake might have a good reason for staying in the library most days.

"That got out of hand." Weiss eventually broke the silence once she could take it no more. "I… suppose that was partially my fault."

"It's m'kay." Ruby weakly echoed, muffled by what Weiss had little doubt was her skirt scrunched up to bury her face in. She cursed herself a thousand times in her head. The others never had any problems like this, why was she always the one in the middle of their team's issues?

The way that Ruby and Yang could trade barbs so easily and keep it light, and even Blake had shown she could go back and forth with them on occasion. But whenever they tried with Weiss…

"You're not used to this, right?" Weiss was broken out of her thoughts by her team leader, who a glance showed had now removed her head from between her legs. "I know Yang's said you have thin skin or you get defensive when you guys fight, but that's not fair. Yang teases you to get a reaction even though she knows you don't like it."

Weiss muffled a sigh, looking down at the ground. "No, it's fine. You all are the normal ones. I'm… I'm the one causing issues."

"You're not causing issues!" Ruby denied vehemently. "You've just had a different life! Yang and I grew up being teased by our dad and uncle, and we've messed with each other our entire lives. If we hadn't," Ruby shrugged, "I think I'd get pretty upset at Yang, too. It has to be hard to brush off mean words when every time you've heard them before it's because somebody wanted to hurt you."

Weiss rubbed her arm unconsciously. "You make it sound so reasonable." she laughed humorlessly. "But that just makes her right, right?" she winced at the clunky sentence, and Ruby just giggled. "Regardless of what the reasons are, that means I can't take your jokes."

"Oh baloney." It took Weiss a moment to realize Ruby had stood and was now close enough to reach her chair. "You can't help the way you were raised, and who's to say the way Yang and I grew up is better? Her mouth certainly gets her into enough trouble with people." Ruby stifled a giggle, and Weiss did her best to suppress a small smile. "I can talk to her for you, if you'd like. I'm sure she'd understand." Ruby kicked a foot against the carpet nervously.

Weiss hesitated for a moment to consider the offer, but eventually shook her head and made to stand. "No, it's fine. I should talk to her myself."

"Let her cool down for a bit." Ruby stopped her. "She'll simmer for a while, but you'll make up before the night's over. You always do." Ruby smiled brightly, and Weiss barely managed to stop the infection from spreading. "You should still talk to her, but wait 'till she comes back."

Weiss nodded, and settled back into her seat. "You're right, I suppose. You have my thanks, Ruby. Your advice is… not entirely unhelpful."

Ruby grinned cheekily as she pulled out the seat at the desk next to hers. "Not entirely, huh?"

Weiss turned away as her cheeks dusted pink, picking up her pencil and staring a hole into her paper. "It was adequate." she muttered, just loud enough for Ruby to hear. Weiss could practically feel her grin burning into the side of her face, and succeeded in ignoring it for several long seconds before the rustling of paper caught her attention. Looking over, Weiss found Ruby pulling out a notebook and her own pencil, scrawling her name and the date.

"What are you doing?" Weiss looked at her teammate oddly.

Ruby shrugged, doing a horrible job at hiding her smile. "I thought I might as well get started on Oobleck's homework. You need someone to hang out with on Sunday. Who better than your bestie?"

Weiss turned back to her paper grumbling about the term, face flushed and beating down the urge to smile with a hammer. Violently.

It was a fight she won. Anything else was simply misinformation. Ruby's happy humming might have disagreed, but she knew better than to spout such falsehoods.

Yes, Weiss Schnee was not emotional enough to beam involuntarily, no matter how anyone said — or proved — otherwise.


"It has been said I am a wolf in sheep's clothing. That's not me. There is no sheep's clothing."

- Norbert Hofer

"The Winter Maiden. Speak." he commanded, relinquishing just enough pressure on Cinder's throat to allow her to talk without cutting herself.

"I do not appreciate being threatened." Cinder intoned calmly, eyes locked on the blade at her throat.

"I do not appreciate being lied to." Percy spat, echoing her words. "Now speak, or I'll make my own assumptions."

Cinder forced her eyes from Riptide to look Percy in the eye, glaring at him but apparently not willing to test his patience further.

"I killed the Winter Maiden during the battle of Atlas." she confessed carefully, narrowed eyes looking at him as if to watch for any hint of surprise. "The maiden was an asset to Atlas, our enemy, and attacked my allies and me on sight. We won."

"Do you know who the new Winter Maiden is?"

"Yes."

"Do you have the Relic of Creation?"

"No."

"Why not?" he continued his interrogation, eyes narrowed. If she knew who the maiden was, she would've gone after them before they had a chance to prepare, which meant she would have access to the vault…

"When I brought you down to the vault to reveal the truth of our world, I'd intended to show you the Relic of Creation as proof and inform you we had the Winter Maiden. I arrived early to secure the relic, but the vault was empty." she scowled at the memory, looking more upset about it than the blade hovering over her throat.

Percy couldn't stop his eyes from widening, and Cinder didn't miss it. "As I suspected, you didn't know either. At least that clears my suspicion of you."

"If it isn't in the vault, then where is it?"

"I don't know." Cinder admitted. "I haven't the slightest clue. I have some guesses, of course; the loyalty of the previous Winter Maiden was held by General Ironwood, a staunch ally of Ozpin. It's possible he bequeathed it to his ally before the war as a contingency, but it's just as likely he took it out years ago and hid it somewhere else so as to remain unpredictable."

"Why not tell me this originally?" he demanded. "Why hide it?"

Cinder looked altogether unbothered. "Because that would mean in the same day I told you that relics and maidens exist, I'd have told you that the vaults hold the relics and only the maidens can open them. Except, of course, that I had opened this one and there was no relic in there. That I had no idea where it went, but I didn't have it despite being the only one able to access the vault and you'd just have to trust me." she said sarcastically. "As much as it may seem counter-intuitive, my telling the truth would have made me look far more like a liar. I did tell you not to look for the Winter Maiden; I know where she is. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the Relic of Creation."

"You expect me to trust you?" he snarled.

Cinder shot him a stare that told him she wanted to roll her eyes. "Perseus, trust has never had anything to do with our arrangement and we both know it."

"You're right," he agreed. "The only thing keeping you from lying to me was that you knew the moment you did you'd be a corpse." Riptide pressed against her jugular, aura faintly sparking. "Remind me what happens next."

"You're wrong." she told him, once more regarding Riptide carefully but with a distinct lack of fear. "There was nothing to keep me from lying to you, as you can see. Our… relationship has never been an honest one — or are you claiming to have never lied to me?" she asked, and his silence was an answer in and of itself. "So yes, Perseus, I will lie and manipulate and conceal, and you will do the same. Let us not pretend we're sharing everything with one another, and let's not take it personally when it happens, hm?"

Percy's hand turned white around Riptide's hilt, as his body warred with his mind. He wanted nothing more than to shove his blade forward, but…

"You need me," Cinder vocalized his thoughts, raising a single finger and moving Riptide to the side. "I have the Fall Maiden, and you want the relics. Whether you like it or not, you need me for that. This changes nothing between us. You need me as much as you did before, you're as useful to me as you were before, and I didn't act against your interests."

"You deceived me!" he snapped.

"And yet, I did not betray you." she pointed out, "The difference is important. Were I to compromise you or your interests for my own, you'd have no choice but to try to kill me here and now. Instead, I was simply not forthcoming with information. You're a cunning man, Perseus. So long as our goals align and I do not act against you, I'm more useful to you alive than dead; you'll keep me around."

He wanted to kill her. He really, really did. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to run his blade through the back of her neck as he had Irving so short a time ago, if for nothing else than to prove her wrong.

Even ignoring his anger he was so dearly tempted to make sure she could never cause problems for him ever again. Surely he didn't need every relic. If he just left Choice alone, then Remnant should be safe. He could always try to find the maidens himself, anyway — after all, he'd found Raven and Summer.

But her death would cause more problems than it was worth. Even ignoring the relics it would be a direct attack on Salem, and as much as he detested to admit it Cinder had saved him from more than one catastrophe surrounding the Beacon situation, and her ally — who he now knew was another of Salem's servants — had proven invaluable in providing Mantle's resistance access to Atlas. That was no small feat — without that, he'd almost certainly still be fighting the war even now.

On top of that, his options were once again limited by the knowledge that there was one central, unifying purpose for this world, and yet having no idea what it was. Every action he took — especially one as drastic as killing Cinder — was another door closed that could potentially lead to securing RWBY, whatever it may mean. It was an inconceivably frustrating position to be in; having a single goal he would sacrifice everything else for, but not knowing what that goal was.

So no, as much as he hated it he wouldn't kill her. Not today. But neither would he keep her leash so loose.

"You won't be coming to Beacon with me for Vytal." he dropped his blade, keeping it ready for any sudden movements.

That wasn't all he'd be doing, but it was all he'd be telling her about. He'd have the Malachites, Junior, Roman, and Adam keep an eye on her, to make sure she was staying in line. He'd get to work on preparing some other contingencies for her as well — including some he hadn't thought to use in a long, long time.

But as much as he hated to admit it, she was right. He'd always known he'd have to keep an extra eye on her, but the necessity of it had never been as pressing.

Angry but not feeling quite petty enough to shove her out of the way, Percy glared until she moved for him. He strode through the door and out of the warehouse without another word, leaving Cinder behind.

Halfheartedly, he willed the clouds that had been gathering above to dispel from the area. No reason his bad mood meant everyone else had to have a bad day.

Ducking into a back alley and beginning his trek back to the military base, Percy felt his scroll vibrate and reached down with a heavy sigh.

Pulling it out, Percy was pleasantly surprised to find it was Yang who had messaged him, and not one of dozens of contacts asking him for a favor.

If youre planning on stopping by beacon for rubys birthday bring some extra candy, youve got 8 mouths to feed

Percy blinked, snapping back a quick reply.

You're holding Ruby's birthday at Beacon?

It wasn't more than a couple seconds before he received a response back, not even long enough for him to clear the alley he was in.

Well duh

Wait

Ohmygods you dont know

Rubes got accepted early, shes at beacon with me

She was accepted early? Was that even a thing? It wasn't something he'd heard about — though that hardly meant much. But still, for Ruby to be going this year, when there were so many interesting people already attending… was it a coincidence?

He very much so doubted it. Ozpin knew what he was doing. He wanted Ruby in this year, for one reason or another.

And gods, what a year it was. Pyrrha, Weiss, Blake, Ren, Nora, Ruby, Yang — that was one Hades of a graduating class.

Glancing down at his scroll, Percy was reminded that Yang was still waiting for a response.

Ruby's birthday was approaching, wasn't it? Just a couple weeks away. While it would be productive to… talk to Blake and check in on Ren, he couldn't help but be more interested in the chance to see Pyrrha, Yang, and Ruby. Hades, he'd even be glad to get a chance to see what Weiss had been up to, even if they'd only really spoken once before. At the very least he could check in on her for Winter, make sure she was doing well. And Ren was more than Pyrrha's bodyguard, too. He was a kid, who was supposed to be enjoying his childhood — him and his friend.

Tell Ruby I said congrats, and yeah, I'll be there. Better get your practice in, if I find out you've been slacking then I'll have to whip you into shape myself.

He grinned, sending the message and shoving his scroll into his pocket. He'd been meaning to find some time to take it easy for a few days ever since he'd noticed his temper flaring up, but when your best friend was Winter Schnee 'taking it easy' tended to be subjective.

Maybe paying a Beacon a little visit would be good for him after all.


Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed! Firstly, just wanna announce the pat-reon tier for 3 chapters/month is now open.

Second, happy birthday RT! For those who don't know, Rooster Teeth, the company that makes RWBY, is celebrating its 20th birthday today! As a birthday gift, I'll post a second chapter later today, and chapter 67 is definitely entirely real and not April Fool's. So is the 3 chapters a month :)

Pat-reon and Discord are both linked on my profile. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and hope you enjoy chapter 67. Let me know what you think ;)

And as always, thanks for the reviews and comments, I love readin through em. I'll try and get back to responding to more this update.

Next Chapter April 15