Sleep had come easy for Cinder after her frenzied and only semi-voluntary descent of the mountain. While Tyrian had simply teleported downward in sporadic intervals, pausing only to watch her progress, Cinder had relied entirely upon her somewhat still unfamiliar limb. Upon leaping from the peak of the mountain, the foreign material making up her arm had stretched without any conscious effort to form a sort of flexible anchor point with which to attach to the jagged rock. Cinder found that the arm itself was almost leading her down the mountain as she swung, detached, and launched herself from outcropping to outcropping and jagged stone to jagged stone. When the next grapple point was too far, her arm automatically lengthened itself to accommodate.

It was simultaneously as though her arm had a mind of its own and was guiding her, and as if it had already become a natural extension of her body. The question in her mind had become less whether or not the arm was truly a part of her, and more who she even was anymore. Everything felt different, from moving to thinking to speaking. Cinder wasn't sure that she liked the altered sensations that came with being part grimm… but it was a trade she was willing to make for power.

With incredible newfound power, though, came equal amounts of strain. Swinging, vaulting, and launching herself strategically down the mountain was exhausting in a way that Cinder had never really felt before. No amount of combat or endurance training could ever have prepared her for how tired she was by the time she reached the bottom. It wasn't just a series of aches- her body was in agony. It wasn't just breathlessness- it was a total inability to catch up on the amount of oxygen she needed to remain conscious. Cinder stumbled forward upon making her final landing, the edges of her vision black and feeling very much like she was going to pass out. The young woman stomped a foot forward just as she began to fall in an effort to shock herself awake, and it worked… at least temporarily.

After all, the only alternative was to let Tyrian catch her, and Cinder wasn't about to let him touch her.

It was somehow obvious to Cinder what was going on- her arm, which was partially shredded with holes and impact wounds from the rocks she had grasped and banged against during her descent- was draining her vitals to repair itself. Cinder had no idea how she knew, but she knew. The limb would kill her to sustain itself if it needed to, and by the time she awoke in the morning, she expected to find that it had fully repaired itself. It had… and then some.

Cinder awoke with a start inside of her small, royal blue tent. She was sweating profusely and breathing hard, as though she had been roused from a nightmare that she couldn't quite remember. A quick series of glances around the confined space revealed that Tyrian was not looming over her as she had expected him to be. Instead, she was very much alone… or alone as she could be with it attached to her. Cinder's mouth pulled slightly to one side as she rose her modified limb from within her sleeping bag and looked it over in the semidarkness of the tent. What she saw unsettled her.

The arm had grown, not just in default length, but in bulk. Where before the limb had been slender, writhing fibers instead make up a facsimile of bulging muscle. The pointed golden claws at the end of each finger had grown thicker and were complimented by matching spines placed sporadically along the length of her limb. A lump had formed around the shoulder, scabbing over with a deep purple shell and pulsating. Something was growing beneath the surface, though Cinder couldn't tell just what. She did feel stronger after a good night's sleep… but she was also becoming more and more hesitant to accept the grimm parasite as part of herself. The whole notion was frightening, though that was something she would never admit to anyone else, and especially not Salem. Doing so could put her life and ambitions in danger.

Then again, if she was thinking it… did the arm with a mind of its own already know?

If so, did that mean that Salem already knew?

Cinder did her best to clear her mind as she sat up in her sleeping bag and took a purposeful, deep breath of the frigid air. She was sweating hard, as though her body had been working overtime throughout the night. Confusing and conflicting sensations filled her, and she didn't particularly like any of it. All that she could do to try to work at chasing them away, though, was get out of the tent and find something else to focus on. Cinder paused just before opening the flaps, taking note of something acrid and odd in the air.

She could smell fire, but something was off about it. There was a particularly pungent, biting quality to the scent of the smoke. Cinder had smelled it before, but she couldn't quite place what it was. Whatever specifically was causing the unpleasant scent, though, it had to be Tyrian's fault. Dealing with that man was a whole other matter entirely, and Cinder steeled herself as she stepped out into the open air to face him.

A bonfire had indeed been made between the two tents, though it was far larger than Cinder had anticipated it to be. Black smoke rose up alongside the base of the mountain in a voluminous pillar, and the tinder within the beacon was piled almost as high as Cinder herself stood. Though she couldn't see Tyrian, she could hear his voice from somewhere on the other side of the structure and began to circle the pit to find him.

"Beautiful morning, is it not?"

Cinder paused as she finally caught sight of the faunus. The fear that she had been working so hard to dispel came back with even greater force as she looked him over in a state of disbelief. Try as she might, she couldn't tear her eyes from Tyrian Callows' naked form as he stood before her, arms spread and a manic grin upon his face. The escaped convict's body was entirely hairless and oddly wet, as though he had recently bathed. Scars of all shapes and sizes marked his pale flesh, ranging from what looked like small wounds that might heal over time to longer, more permanent fixtures made by all manner of blades. The man's exposed and somewhat lengthy penis was mercifully flaccid and dangled freely, and Cinder had to actively try to ignore it as she kept her eyes above his waist as best she could. All in all, Tyrian looked like an absolute madman standing unclothed in the cool air at the bottom of the mountain for all to see, even if they were apparently alone.

"What are you doing?" Cinder snapped, finally managing to look away as she moved to put some distance between herself and the man. "I don't want to see that."

"Then don't look."

Cinder kept Tyrian in her peripheral vision just in case, watching as the man lowered himself to sit upon a log that had been rolled close to the fire. Curiosity got the better of her as Tyrian put his back to her and extended his hands toward the flames, and she found herself staring at his tail. The odd appendage curled out from the base of his spine and stood curled partially around his torso, its tip gently bobbing as he basked in the warmth.

"Stop messing around and get dressed. We need to get moving," Cinder ordered as she adjusted her own loose robes around her bandages. "There's no time to be doing… whatever it is you're doing."

"Simply enjoying nature, little bird," Tyrian said. "There's a hot spring just around that collection of boulders to your right. Go and cleanse yourself before we continue on."

"If you think for even a second that I trust you enough to strip down…" Cinder began, only for Tyrian to chuckle beneath his breath.

"Oh, come off it. You're not my type. Don't throw away practicality in the face of unfounded fears. We're on the same side, after all. I won't touch you. You have my word."

"And what is your word supposed to be worth to me?" Cinder snapped, turning to fully face Tyrian as he continued to gaze into the flames. "We're allies out of convenience, and nothing more. I have my own issues to deal with in addition to worrying about you."

"And I don't?" Tyrian asked, finally turning to look over his shoulder. "Do you think it's easy for me to be sent out to Mantle for a year or more in service to our goddess? I'm willing, of course, but I have demons of my own. Challenges to overcome. Would it not be easier for both of us to be on amicable terms throughout this long journey? Keep your cards to your chest if you'd like, but doing so will only cause the antagonism between us to continue. The choice is yours."

"And where was all of this before?" Cinder asked, folding her arms across her chest. "All of the veiled threats. The open mockery and bravado. Now, you suddenly want to be friends? Starting to realize that you're alone, no matter how much you dedicate yourself to Salem?"

"Perhaps," Tyrian considered as he looked back toward the fire. "But in constantly pointing such a thing out to me, it feels as though you're not dedicated despite your gifts. If you're trying to give me reason not to trust you, then you've chosen an interesting path to begin down. That, too, could be… fun in its own way."

Cinder shifted in place, a chill running through her skin that had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature of the air around her.

"…and if it came to that, you seriously think you can carry out this mission to destabilize a world power alone?"

Tyrian chuckled once again, though a bit louder than before. The faunus shook his head, his tail switching to curl around his other side.

"We're supposed to meet with a contact of some sort upon our arrival. I'm sure they have additional resources and sympathizers. Losing one in you wouldn't be any great blow to the cause, but having you would make things easier. How much easier remains to be seen. It's on you to prove your usefulness to me."

Cinder opened her mouth to retort, only for something within the bonfire to catch her eye. At first, she wasn't sure what she was seeing. Upon tilting her head and narrowing her eyes, it all came together. The smell. The unusual shape of the kindling. The thick smoke. Tyrian wasn't just burning wood within the fire. There was clearly an arm sticking out from the tinder at an odd angle, the flesh around it burning and slowly giving way to blackened bone. Not far removed from it within the pile was a fragmented skull, and wrapped around one of the logs in the center of the fire was a swatch of torn fabric that appeared to be part of a shirt.

"…I will," was all that Cinder could manage to get out for a moment, her voice tense as she tried to keep it free of fear. She cleared her throat as she stared into the fire, wondering just how many bodies had been cast into it while she slept. "I can handle myself even without my… gift. I have training. I have drive. I was put here on the A-Team for a reason, Tyrian. I would… I would also have you prove your usefulness to me if you want this to go well for both of us."

Tyrian stood up into a stretch and turned to face Cinder, seemingly totally unashamed of his nudity.

"Very well. Then go and bathe. I'll keep watch for any undesirables."

Cinder took a few slow breaths, weighing her options. Slowly, she reached up to grip the collar of her robe and contemplated pulling it off in front of her companion. Would he focus upon her breasts… or instead fixate upon her arm once again? What would either scenario mean, in terms of his intentions? Could she even stop him if he made a move?

Ultimately, she thought better of it and let her hand drop, merely giving the other man a nod before turning to face the boulders he had pointed out.

"…right. I won't be long."

Cinder moved away from the bonfire and toward the hot spring, remaining clothed until she was behind the rocks. As she stripped down, she noticed that the grimm material of her arm seemed to have crept ever so slightly more along her shoulder, with blackened tendrils beginning to reach down toward her chest.

Author's Note:

Been a while since we've hit on these two. Their journey is going to be an interesting one…

-RD