Chapter 62: Argus - Missing Persons
Cover Art by Mi Chumi
Summary: In which the author discovers that sometimes, the chapter decides how big it will be.
[A/N] Sorry for the delayed chapter, I was in the wilds with no internet for a week!
Because of the complexity of jumping between POVs and time coordination, I'm prefixing each section of this chapter with a heading of what the date is, to help keep everyone aligned on who is doing what when. Also, this is a double-length chapter because it's basically two interwoven. And for timeline, this chapter takes place in the Year 70 of the Vytal Era, the year of the 35th Vytal Festival in Mistral
October 3rd, Saturday – Pete's Emporium
Argent was a wreck.
The Grimmslayers had hung out in the arcade, trying to act like everything was fine. The place was pretty busy because it was a weekend afternoon. And there were the two new kids that had come in with Garek and Selene and those other adults.
And then almost all the adults, everybody but Visha, had disappeared into the Secret Lair, as the Grimmslayers had taken to calling the basements of the Emporium. Sarah had managed to sneak past Terra one time and found the stairs and the seriously majorly sus door at the bottom with a freaking thumbprint reader and keypad, before she'd been blessed out by Terra and escorted back upstairs while the older girl threatened to ban her from the Emporium if she caught her down there again.
As if that could ever happen.
The adults had stayed down there for hours, and by the end, Argent had gnawed her fingernails down to the quick, and Sarah and Laurel had tried three times to pump the new kids, Yang and Ruby, for information. But those two had been completely engrossed in Grimm Hunters II, and Visha had been there and had given Sarah the evil eye. The most they'd found out was that the lady with the eye-patch and the blond guy were their parents, and that the red-eyed woman was hardcore and not to be messed with.
And then finally, the adults filtered back upstairs. Yang and Ruby's parents were first. Then Sophia and Pete. Sophia looked like crap that had been eaten and then crapped out again, and Pete immediately took her outside and probably home. So that wouldn't help. Reggie and Crystal came out next. Crystal looked mad at the world, and said she was going for a walk and would be back in a while to take the new adults to a hotel. The red-eyed woman didn't even come upstairs. She must have stayed in the Lair.
And that left Garek and Selene as the last to emerge. They both looked like crap too. Selene was even quieter than usual, which was saying something. All of the Grimmslayers converged on them as soon as they saw them, and the two adults acted like she and the others were freaking Grimm or something.
Again. Not good.
And they'd asked the Grimmslayers to go outside, so they could all talk privately.
Even worse.
Once there, Garek and Selene tried to explain that something had happened, but they wouldn't give any details. There'd been some kind of mistake, they wouldn't say what, and Cinder had thought that Selene and Garek were going to be like super angry at her, and she'd… run away from home.
Sarah wasn't buying that. That sounded like complete bullcrap. There was no freaking way that Cinder would screw up so bad that she'd bail on her family and her friends like that. Cinder was nuts about Garek and Selene.
Then again… okay… yeah… Cinder really was nuts about Garek and Selene. She could totally freak out if she thought that they were really really upset at her. But… what the heck had she done?
They wouldn't say. Got all tight-lipped and upset looking when she tried to push them.
And none of that explained why Cinder would bail on Argent and her and the others. They were, like, teammates and besties and… geez Argent?!
That's when Argent had lost it. She'd started sobbing and then called Garek and Selene liars… to their faces! Sarah had never imagined that Argent would do something like that.
And then she'd broken down and ran back into the Emporium and Laurel had apologized for her and followed her to try to calm her down. And Selene had looked devastated, and the whole thing was… bull. Just total bull. And Garek even got mad and told Sarah that if she was going to call them liars too, then the conversation was over until everybody cooled off.
Which Sarah had been thinking, but she wasn't dumb enough to say it.
And then Garek and Selene just left and took Visha with them! Just left Sarah and Tomas standing in the parking lot feeling stupid. So, she'd gone to help console Argent, who had locked herself in the bathroom with Laurel.
Since that was off the menu, she tried to talk to Reggie instead, since he was the only adult who she knew and hadn't run away like a little b—baby.
"Yo, Mr. Cass."
And just like that, Reggie got that same spooked look that Garek had gotten, which had her questioning her earlier assumption about whether he would bail too. "Hey Sarah. Uh. How's Argent holding up?"
"Crappy. Got an intervention going," she glared at him. "What the heck is going on? You guys know something."
Reggie held up his hands, "Not my place to say, Sarah. You'd be better off talking to—"
"Selene and Garek, but they left," she looked around the arcade. Besides Reggie, the only other people left were the Ruby and Yang. And their parents, who were talking quietly in a corner looking really serious, while the kids yelled and played Grimm Hunters II. "Look, if Cinder's in trouble, you gotta tell us. We're her friends."
"She's not in trouble. I promise. She just… misunderstood some things, and she…" he sighed. "Look, she ran off, okay? She's probably somewhere in the city, and we're hoping she'll think things through, and then call us."
"Uh. Huh."
"We're doing all we can, I promise. Sophia's watching public transit."
Sarah's eyes trailed to the door of the Emporium, "She didn't look like she's watching anything but her eyelids, Mr. Cass."
Reggie's face pinched, and his jaw worked. Then he coughed softly. "She's got her voodoo going." That's what he called Sophia's IT stuff. "So just hang tight. Try to keep Argent from losing her mind, alright? She's gonna need you guys until Cinder comes back."
Sarah's brain finally kicked into gear. "Okayyy… but we could help, right? Maybe I should ask my dad to put out a notice or something?" Reggie's face paled, and that told her a half dozen things too. "I mean, I could ask unofficially, even?"
"No, that's not… I mean…" Reggie rubbed his face. "I'll talk to your dad. Okay? You don't worry about it. And don't go blabbing to your aunt, either. Garek and Selene will have to notify Sanctum."
Sarah looked at him for a long minute, and then smiled brightly. "Alright. I get you. Sounds like you oldsters have everything under control."
It was another clue that Reggie was so messed up that he actually bought the sudden shift in attitude from Sarah. "Yeah. That's… right. Just sit tight. Okay?"
"Sure. No problem," Sarah said smoothly, and turned back to grab Tomas' arm.
"We're gonna have to do this on our own," she whispered, as they headed toward the bathroom.
. . .
It took another fifteen minutes for Laurel to talk Argent down, and get her cleaned up a little. Once outside, they had a huddle around the backside of one of the simulators.
"So, here's my take. The adults are panicking and they're full of crap," Sarah said when she got everyone gathered. Argent looked like she could crack at any moment, and Sarah grabbed her shoulder. "Easy there, Arj. Seriously, we need you functional here, not a soppy mess. We're Grimmslayers, right? We got your back and Cinder's."
"Yeah… I…." Argent hiccoughed. "Sorry, I'm just freaked out."
"I hear ya. But we gotta put that to good use."
"What's the plan?" Tomas asked.
Sarah turned slightly, and the others followed her gaze. "See those two over there? What do they scream to you?"
"Huntsmen," Tomas said without hesitation.
"Right. Ruby and Yang's parents. They're totally Huntsmen. And they went downstairs to the Dark Lair and came back with the others. They know stuff. And they maybe don't have a stick up their butts like the others." She turned to Argent. "You gonna be able to hold it together?" She paused. "No. Scratch that. Arj, if you feel like crying, I want you to go ahead. Or if I do this," she made a small gesture with her hand.
Argent's red-rimmed eyes blinked, and then she smiled slightly. "Yeah. Yeah… I get it."
"Come on, let's make some new friends. Operation Waterworks is on."
Summer and Tai had originally intended to head out to get a hotel after the meeting downstairs. The entire affair had been… well rough didn't cover it all. Some of what Summer had seen in that basement had hit a little close to home for her. More than once during the video footage, she'd seen Salem's eyes as those Huntsmen had screamed and died instead of Selene's. It was only Tai's hand in hers, and the knowledge that if she'd lost it, things could have gone really poorly for Selene, that had given her the strength to push through it.
I really do need freaking counselling, she mused.
But they hadn't left immediately afterward, for two reasons. The first was because watching Yang and Ruby screaming and squealing with joy was a kind of therapy all by itself. So, they'd agreed to stick around for a bit and let them play for a while.
And the second was because their rides had left. Crystal would be back, she'd promised, but needed a walk to clear her head. Garek and Selene had apparently had some sort of really tough conversation with Cinder's friends outside, and they'd left without even saying goodbye, taking Visha with them.
That was fine, they'd check with them later tonight, or tomorrow at least, before they called Raven and had her port them to The Tribe. And that was a wild thought. Raven had an open presence in Kuroyuri now, and Summer was actually comfortable with her kids visiting… with her supervision of course. Most of The Tribe were still cutthroats after all, just cutthroats kept in line by the fear of Raven.
The thought brought a grim smile to Summer's mouth. Her best friend was a big fat *B*, but she was her best *B*.
All her musings faded as she realized, with rapidly growing concern, that Cinder's friends had locked onto their location, and were closing fast.
About a quarter of an hour later, Tropical Storm Grimmslayers took pity on Summer and Tai, leaving behind whatever survivors had been smart enough to retreat to storm shelters.
"Well… that was something," Summer said, leaning back against the wall.
Tai gave a quiet laugh. "Oh yeah. Remind you of anyone?"
Summer lifted one corner of her mouth. "Us. That Sarah could easily be Raven or me. She's got that stubborn streak."
"And manipulative. Did you catch the little hand signal?"
"What, the one where Cinder's girlfriend turned on the waterworks?" Summer rolled her eye. "Kinda hard to miss, but still." She sighed. "Do you think we did the right thing?"
"You've said yourself, you're tired of secrets. And really, all we did was give them some details about what the others said they were doing to look for Cinder, to ease their minds a little."
Summer watched Ruby and Yang cheer loudly as they double-teamed some digital monster. The other kids hadn't gone back to playing, but were talking together quietly again. "I don't think that worked, though. You saw them, you think they're gonna sit around and wait for the adults to fix things?"
Tai shook his head. "If our history is anything to go by," he said wistfully, "not a chance. Cinder's got good friends."
"Yeah. Might tell Crystal to keep an eye on them, just in case."
Sarah felt like she was getting somewhere.
Just as she'd predicted, Yang and Ruby's mom had caved as soon as Argent had turned on the waterworks.
Adults are clueless.
And they'd learned a few things. The first was that their usual adults were, as they'd suspected, full of crap. They didn't have a clue what Cinder was doing. She might be in Argus?!
It was time for some serious intel gathering.
They made plans.
. . .
Step Two: Operation Snoop.
She and Argent showed up, unannounced, at Cinder's house a couple hours later. Supposedly, it was because Argent was all freaking out and wanted to make sure Cinder hadn't left a note or something. She'd also apologized repeatedly to Garek for yelling at them earlier, and promised that if she could just check, she'd feel a lot better. Garek had agreed, hoping to defuse any bad feelings, and knowing she wouldn't find anything.
Selene and Visha had been nowhere to be seen. Sarah figured Visha was taking care of Cinder's mom.
And while Garek had shown Argent to Cinder's bedroom, as if she didn't know where the heck it was, Sarah snooped on his scroll and took a few photos of what she found.
And copied some contact information off it.
October 4th, Sunday - Argus
Step Three: The Council of Four.
Early Sunday morning, they held a conference at Sarah's house, because they didn't want Argent's mom to get suspicious and start asking questions. Sarah, Argent, Laurel, and Tomas all sat on the floor in her bedroom. Clay was cool, Sarah had decided, but not yet on the 'totally trust' list.
Tomas, though, had weaseled his way in to the crew, and looked like he was enjoying being in her room wayyy more than he should have.
The first topic had been sharing what they'd found on Garek's scroll.
Tomas was staring at pictures Sarah'd taken of the text conversation between Crystal and Garek Friday evening. "Whoah. There was some serious stuff that went down that evening. A lot worse than they're letting on."
Sarah nodded. "Yeah. And I think I know something. Something weird. There was some kinda emergency alert that dad heard that night. Something about a Grimm attack out past Springhill." She tapped her fingers. "I think Cinder got wrapped up in it somehow, and…. her parents were pissed about it or something."
"Makes sense," Tomas said. "Bet she was told to stay home or something and followed them, or charged in and something bad happened."
Laurel chewed on her lip. "But… Garek was away on a trip. And Selene's not a fighter. She was supposed to be travelling too. Sarah, you said Cinder was gonna be staying at your house while they were gone, right?"
Sarah's brows drew down. "Yeah. Okay, so… Garek's gone. Selene's going away on a trip. Cinder's supposed to be staying with me that night. Crystal was gonna drive her over after Selene left. Instead, sh-stuff goes sideways, there's a Grimm attack of some kind, and instead Cinder's gone and Selene and Garek rush home instead. That it?"
"Yeah. Clear as freaking mud," Laurel said, clearly frustrated.
"But it's something. I'm betting on what Tommy said. I bet Cinder got tied up in that Grimm attack, and Selene freaked out, and yelled at her. Said something… something bad or something Cinder thought was bad."
Argent looked like she was about to cry. "I bet…" she swallowed. "I bet whatever it was… Cinder thought they didn't want her anymore."
"That's nuts." Laurel said.
"That's… Cinder," Argent replied. "She's been hurt. She told me stuff." Argent took a moment to lock eyes with each of her friends. "You guys have to promise not to breathe a word. I'm serious. This is important."
There was a round of cross my hearts and even more solemn oaths.
Over the next few minutes, Argent told the rest things that only a handful of people in Remnant knew the full scope of. Things that Cinder had only hinted at to the rest of her friends. About how she'd been an orphan in Mistral, and then gotten adopted by an Atlesian family and thought her life was going to change for the better. About how she'd instead been abused. About how Rhodes had befriended her and then later Selene and Garek had rescued her.
"Holy crap," Tomas breathed, "I can't believe she's as… normal as she is."
"She's not," Argent said. "She's… really fragile inside and terrified of losing… all of us. That's why she acted like she did when those men…" she shuddered and spent a few seconds collecting herself. "That's why I'm thinking that what happened is she thinks she did something bad, something so bad that Garek and Selene wouldn't love her anymore."
"That's bullcrap." Sarah said. "They're crazy about her. They'd never do that."
"Yeah, but maybe they didn't realize," Laurel added. "Mom's a counsellor. She's always telling me that it's important to get people to repeat back what they heard when you're talking about hard stuff, so you can be sure what you're sayin' is what they're hearin'."
Tomas quirked his mouth. "So, what you're saying is… Garek and Selene probably screwed up and said one thing, and Cinder heard something else."
Laurel punched him. "Goof. But yeah."
"Probably just Selene," Sarah corrected. Garek was somewhere else.
"Yeah."
"Okay. So, we think we got some idea what happened," Sarah continued. "And it's hitting her hard enough that she thinks she can't talk to us either. Which is stupid. The question is, where would Cinder go?! Yang's mom said that they're sure she's not in Springhill."
"We just got an entire year of them beating into our heads not to go out into the wilds alone. She's not stupid. She won't do that," Tomas added with 100% certainty.
"Argent, you know her best. What do you think then? That leaves her here in Argus, or Atlas, or… what? A boat somewhere else? Train? Car? Airship?"
Argent frowned, impish face looking almost uncanny. She'd spent a lot of yesterday moping and generally being broken and useless until she'd cried it out on Laurel's shoulder. By now, she was just… angry and hurt. Angry at Cinder for not freaking calling her or leaving her a note or anything. Angry at Selene for whatever the heck she'd done or said to make Cinder feel like she had to run. Angry at the rest of the adults for not telling them stuff.
"I think… that if she was gonna stay in Argus, she'd have come to us. She wouldn't just… try to hide so close." Her expression was bleak. "I don't think they're right about that. She's not…" her breath hitched, "She'd have come to me by now, or sent me a note. Or something." Laurel leaned over and hugged her friend. "Thanks… I…" She wiped her face. "And I think… the same goes for Atlas. She hates Atlas. She'd only go there if she went straight to Rhodes."
"So, we call him and make sure she hasn't done that."
"Yeah."
"And… I don't think she'd just take a random boat or airship. She doesn't know anyone in Vacuo or Vale." She frowned. "Except Selene's dad in Vacuo. We should… maybe call him?"
"I don't think she could get that far, though, unless she stowed away. She doesn't have the lien for those kinda miles," Tomas mused.
"Ok. Yeah. Same goes for a car, unless she hitched a ride. But she's not… she doesn't just trust people like that. Cause of her past," Argent chewed on the remains of a fingernail. "That leaves the Argus Limited."
"Good. Okay." Sarah pulled up a website with the Argus Limited's route. "There's like four stops. Where do we think she'd go?"
Argent stared at the screen for a long time. "Either Barret's Point, or Mistral City." She looked up. "Barret's Point is where… her orphanage was. And Mistral City is the closest big city that isn't Argus. She'd feel like she could… hang out there, figure things out, without running into someone she knows."
Sarah looked around at her… team… with pride. They were good people. The Grimmslayers and Tomas. She was even starting to think he was… kinda okay for maybe dating someday. But anyway. "Thanks Argent. That's good intel. Next step, how do we run these down? We can't go to the adults. They'll just pat us on the freaking head and tell us not to worry about it, they're on it." She shook her head in disbelief. "You saw Selene. She's a wreck. Pete's all grouchy. Sophia looked ready to fall down. I think this is up to us." She started relaying phone numbers. "Argent, you call Rhodes. Do what you have to, to make sure he's telling the truth. Laurel, you call Selene's dad."
"What about Mistral?"
"I'm gonna handle that one. I've got an idea…"
. . .
They split off to make the calls in private. Argent returned to inform them that Rhodes had been shocked, and then really really mad.
"He said he was gonna strangle somebody named 'Effing Claude', cept he didn't say 'effing'. And then he apologized and said he hadn't even known, and hadn't heard from Cinder in days, but that he would 'damned well be finding out'. I made him promise he wouldn't tell how he knew," Argent said. "I didn't even have to cry."
"Same thing with Selene's dad," Laurel said, "though he wasn't as mad, just really worried. But he asked more about Selene than Cinder."
"Well, he's Selene's dad."
"Yeah. But he said he'd tell me if he heard anything."
"Alright… that leaves me…" Sarah said. Here's what I managed...
. . .
When the scroll had answered, Ghira Belladonna's face popped into view, "Who is this? And how did you get my number?" His yellow eyes were narrowed suspiciously.
Sarah steeled herself. He was… an imposing man, even on scroll screen. "Mr. Belladonna, sir, I'm Sarah Tourmaline? We met outside that Haven Fundraiser in Argus? I got your number from Mr. Grae." Well, technically she had, she just hadn't asked permission.
The large man's expression softened. "Oh. Right. The Combat School kids that were talking to my daughter." He frowned. "Weren't you the one that mentioned the fundraiser was for—"
"Uh… yeah I apparently wasn't supposed to mention that," Sarah felt her face warm slightly. That had been kinda stupid.
"Too late for that, young lady. And Garek still hasn't called me, though he messaged and promised to," she saw one of his hands flex on the desktop in front of him, nails slipping out slightly to scratch the wood.
Dude. He's not happy about that. Inspiration struck. "Um… sir, if I tell you what I know, would you be willing to help me out with something?"
The leader of the White Fang's eyes narrowed again, and he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. His eyes flicked to the side for a moment. "Are you trying to… bribe me?"
"Ghira, darling," a woman's voice spoke off camera, and then a woman slid into the frame putting a hand on Mr. Belladonna's shoulder. She looked at Sarah's image on the scroll. "I don't think teenage girls are out to bribe you. Maybe dial it back a little, love."
Sarah watched Mr. Belladonna's face twitch, and then soften yet again. He actually huffed, and then smiled, though that showed a lot of teeth. "How about I let you talk to Miss Tourmaline, then, Kali." He stood, and offered her the chair, his smile broadening by the second. The look the woman shot him was… full of a lot of stuff that Sarah couldn't interpret. But she sat down anyway, and Sarah got a good look at her. Pale skin, amber eyes, dark hair. Two cat ears. She was like… a grown-up version of Ghira's daughter. That girl they'd met. Blake.
"Ma'am"
"Call me Kali, dear," she said warmly, and Sarah could feel herself relaxing. "And you said your name is Sarah?"
"Yes ma'a- Kali."
"And you wished… our help with something," Kali gestured with both hands in a sort of 'give me' motion.
The thing was… Sarah was a faunus. She knew about the White Fang. It was a mostly well-meaning activist group that operated all over Mistral and Solitas. And that was the key part. They operated all over. If there was anyone that wasn't the police, and from Reggie's reaction, she expected they didn't want the police involved, who could keep an eye out, it was the White Fang.
Slowly at first, then with more confidence, Sarah explained what the Grimmslayers believed had happened, and where they thought Cinder might have gone, and why they were so worried.
Kali's expression during the explanation went from pleasantly curious, to concerned, to sympathetic, to intent. "I see. Yes, I can understand how that would be very concerning." Her eyes flicked up to the right, and then back to the screen. "And of course, we'd be happy to help you."
"Now about that information," Ghira rumbled from off camera.
"Oh, be quiet, Ghira."
"No," Sarah said. "It's… I think it's okay, but you can't spread it around, alright? I think it was supposed to be a secret. If you talk to Gar… Mister Grae afterward, you might wanna pretend I didn't already tell you anything."
"Hmm… I think we can manage that, right dear?" Kali said.
"Oh yes." Ghira's knelt down next to his wife, and his smile shifted to more amused. "Now, what is this big secret?"
"Yeah so… from what I gathered…" Sarah began, and explained how the whole fundraising effort to buy the latest Atlesian sparring and training simulation systems for Haven Academy was actually an excuse to filter the replaced equipment from Haven to a new Combat School in Menagerie.
"Wait… Wait… we haven't heard anything like that," Ghira said, frowning at the desktop. Sarah was glad she wasn't a desktop right then, cause his frowns were intense. "The only thing going on in Menagerie of that scale is—"
"The new Relay," Kali finished, frowning, "which Ursulus is crowing about every chance he gets."
"Yeah… uh… I don't think it's gonna just be a relay. Cinder said it's gonna be a full-fledged Academy someday."
"What?!" Both of the Belladonnas blurted out, eyes wide. They glanced at each other and then back at Sarah. "Stop. Stop right there," Ghira said. They muted the call and Kali and Ghira conferred for a moment. "Sarah, I don't think this is something we should be discussing any further. Not remotely. That's… bewildering and potentially politically destabilizing news."
Sarah blinked. "It… is?" Oh crap. Oh crap. No wonder they'd freaked out when she'd opened her fat mouth.
"Don't fret dear. It's very good news, for us. We certainly won't be breathing a word of this to anyone, will we, Ghira?"
The big man shook his head, then looked predatory. "Oh, I can think of two people I'll be talking to about it. And one of them is Ursulus, and the other conversation, which I'm going to enjoy feigning ignorance regarding, will be with Huntsman Garek Grae." He rubbed his hands together. "My Gods… "
"Ghira. Her friend..."
"Oh! Right! Yes… Ms.…"
"Sarah."
"Right. Sarah. Send us Cinder's photo. A few different ones in fact. I'll have our recruiters and watchers quietly keep an eye out for her. You really think she might come to Mistral City?"
"Yeah… or Barret's Point."
"Hm… don't have anyone out there, but it might be worth sending someone. And Mistral City's going to be harder than normal, with the Festival coming up next month. But we'll do our best. I promise. Quietly. We don't want to raise any alarms."
"Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"It's our pleasure, dear." Kali looked thoughtful. "Have you considered joining?"
Sarah hadn't. But… if this was the kind of work that the White Fang could do… and she was a Faunus. But it might mean… "Do I have to… like… tell people I'm a member?"
Ghira looked suddenly sad.
"I understand, dear," Kali said. "How about we talk about it later. Okay? But rest easy. We will help you find your friend."
October 3rd, Saturday - Argus
Cinder Scoria stood before a ticket booth in Argus Station. To say she was nervous would have been an understatement. She was freaking out and exhausted and running on fumes.
It had been less than a day since the happy life she'd come to rely on had come crashing down around her. She'd not slept yet, though she'd spent several hours curled up in an alley, trying to figure out what she was going to do.
You'll be running for the rest of your life, Rhodes had said to her once, years ago. The memory made her chest ache and her eyes burn.
She couldn't go back to him. She couldn't go back to anyone. She'd… she'd… messed up bad. She'd done something that… she'd just reacted.
And a Huntsman had died. She realized that. The person she'd wanted to become, the person that she'd trained to become since she was ten years old, and she'd killed him.
She'd killed herself too.
That's what she'd realized, as she'd run through the forest in the darkness, and then crept back into Argus with the crowds heading home for the evening. She'd been doing so good, controlling her Semblance, proving to everyone that she was a good girl. That she wasn't dangerous.
And then she'd ruined everything.
The alley in the docks district had been her first chance to try to understand what had happened, to decide what to do.
It was mom, a small voice said. He was going to kill her.
Mom… did something. Probably her… Semblance? She looked like a Grimm. He was just… just doing his job.
But he was going to kill her!
And you killed him. You did it again. Just like with those men.
But he deserved it, too.
No, he didn't... he didn't know. That's what Miss Plum and Miss Regalia were trying to teach you. You could have… could have done something different.
You don't know that.
Mom did. She said… she said… she called you a monster.
I'm not a monster! I'm not!
Then what are you? Cause you can't be a Huntress anymore. Nobody will trust you. Argent's mom's gonna find out, and she'll never let you see Argent ever again. Sarah and Clay and Tomas… they'll never forgive you, either.
That had cored her out, as much as anything else. She'd lost her family. She'd lost Argent. She'd lost her friends. She'd lost her future.
She had to get out of Argus, she realized. Find a place where… where she could be a nobody. And figure out who she was again.
. . .
And so before dawn, she'd set out to do things. More bad things. She'd stolen stuff, and sold them. She'd stolen makeup and a few bits of clothing, and used them.
She had to. She knew that Sophia was good at finding things out. She had to hide anyway, but she really had to hide from cameras and stuff. And she couldn't use her ID. She knew that too. But she also knew that she couldn't just go out into the wilderness on her own. She'd fall asleep somewhere, and get eaten by Grimm with her current state of mind and exhaustion.
So she stood before the ticket booth, terrified that she was screwing up, but not knowing how else to manage it. She'd done everything she could think of to hide her identity. She had a thick wool cap pulled down over her ears, nearly to her eyebrows, and was wearing oversized red-tinted glasses that she'd lifted from a street vendor to mask her eye color. She'd nearly gotten caught by him too. She'd also gone slightly goth on the makeup side, with black eyeshadow and lipstick, with an eye toward trying to look older than she was.
"One ticket to Mistral, please," she said in a low voice, sliding a few bills across the counter.
The older man behind the window just looked at the money, and then pushed it back. "How old are you kid?"
Her stomach flipped. "Seventeen."
"Uh huh. And if I ask for some ID to prove that?"
More intestinal acrobatics. "I… uhh... lost it." This was not working. She was screwed. She was gonna get caught, and then they'd all tell her how worthless she was, and probably put her in jail. She probably deserved jail. But… she'd lived like that before, back at the Unicorn, she couldn't do it again.
"Look kid, what are you, twelve? Nobody's gonna sell you a ticket to another city at your age. Where're your parents?" Ticket man crossed his arms, his entire body language rejecting her response.
Dangit, I'm not twelve! I'm fourteen! The thought made Cinder scowl. "My parents are… in Mistral. I'm trying to get to them."
"Right. Sure. Look kid. Why don't you go find your ID, and have your parents buy you a ticket online, and then you can just come here and show your ID and pick it up." His face hardened. "Or maybe I should call child services and tell them I've got a possible runaway?"
"No! I… I'll call my parents and go, uh… look for my ID."
"That's what I thought," he looked over her head. "Next!"
Cinder's whole body sagged. That had been too freaking close. She glared at the floor as she wandered over to the nearest pillar, eased around behind it, and slid down to the floor.
"Crap…"
"Hey kid," a female voice said softy. Cinder tensed, glanced up to find a woman with bright blue hair, bangs hanging low over her eyes, standing and leaning against the pillar near her. She had a black beret and was wearing… sunglasses. Which was weird. Other than that, she looked normal. Long-sleeved jersey and jacket, and jeans.
Cinder turned her gaze back to the floor. "What?" Please don't be child services. Please don't be a cop.
"I… heard what happened over there. Maybe we can help each other out."
Her heart leapt, and then the suspicious part of her brain kicked in. People didn't just help people. "Why? Why would you help me? You some kinda creeper?"
The woman tilted her head so she could look over the sunglasses. "No. I'm just… trying to get to the city myself, and I'd appreciate some company on the way there."
"Company…" that could mean a lot of things. Some of them fine. Some of them not so fine.
"Look, I'm… it's not safe to travel alone. It draws attention. I figured we could… help each other out. I buy a ticket for both of us, and we act like we're travelling together. Nothing weird. Gets us both out of Argus, okay? That's what you want, too, if my guess is right. You want help or not?" The woman frowned, and glanced around, like she was worried someone else was overhearing her.
"You're gonna buy me a ticket?"
"No. You have to pay for your own ticket. I'll buy it, and then you pay me back. No strings."
Where's the hook. Where's the catch. But the fact was, it was what Cinder needed. And it got her out of Argus now. "Ok, but we're not sharing a bunk or anything weird like that."
The woman scowled. "Can't afford a sleeper anyway, and you're not my type, kid. So, you're in?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, follow me," blue-hair turned and started to walk the opposite direction from the ticket booth.
"Where we going?" Cinder said suspiciously.
"We can't use that guy, he'll remember you. And I need you with me to sell the story. We're going to grab a ticket from one of the other kiosks."
They walked to another section of the station, Cinder trying to keep the woman between her and the guy she'd just talked to until he was out of sight. She stood there, awkwardly, as she purchase two tickets and paid with cash, "for me and my sister," she'd told the teller.
And then they were walking toward the gate, each carrying a backpack, though Cinder's was basically empty. Cinder started to dig into her pocket.
"Not here. We can settle up on the train," blue-hair said quietly.
At some point, as they boarded the train, Cinder realized that the mysterious blue-haired woman was hiding too, just like her. She wondered what had happened.
Was she a criminal? No that didn't seem likely. Running from criminals? Maybe that. Or maybe someone else who wanted to hurt her, like when she'd escaped from Madame Tremayne. Cinder realized that the fact that both of them wanted the same thing was probably good. She didn't want to answer hard questions, and neither did 'Blue' as she'd tagged her. So, they wouldn't ask hard questions.
On the train, they worked their way to one of the coach cars. The seats there could lean back so they could sleep, but it wasn't nearly as nice as the private sleeper she'd had last time.
Last time… when…
Her heart clenched in her chest, and she shoved that thought away.
"Alright," Blue said as they finally sat down, Cinder next to the window. "You owe me 50 lien."
Cinder flinched. She'd known the ticket would be expensive. But that was over half of her money, and it had been hard to get that. And she'd had to do it in a way that she knew…
The thought made her feel ugly inside. All of it. Her friends. Her… home… she couldn't have any of those things anymore. She'd messed up. And messed up bad.
I'm not safe to be around.
If the woman had known what Cinder had done, she'd have run from her. And really Cinder shouldn't even be hanging out with someone like this. But Cinder had needed that ticket. She needed to get out of Argus, because if she stayed. She might… hurt someone she cared about. She couldn't be trusted.
She found her fingers messing with the half-heart pendent under her shirt, and scrunched her eyes shut. She wouldn't cry again. Not now. She'd almost left the gift with her scroll in the woods, knowing Sophia would find it. They'd have given it back to Argent, explain to her what had happened.
But she couldn't. She just couldn't. It was… part of her, that pendent. It was what had taken the spot where a different necklace had sat, once. One that hurt her. It was a reminder that there were people that weren't like Madam Tremayne.
That some people weren't like her. They didn't hurt people. Argent would never do something like that. And that's what the pendant told her. She clung to it.
If you do that, you'll always be running, Rhodes had told her the day he first started to train her. And she'd killed a Huntsman. And now she was running, and she hoped he was wrong. That she wouldn't always be running.
But for the moment, that's what she had to do. She took a deep breath. "Yeah. Hold on a sec." She dug into her pocket, and pulled out the paper notes. She had a backup stash in her socks, and some in her pack. She counted out 50 lien and handed it to Blue.
"Thanks," Blue said.
Cinder waited for the woman to say something else, but she didn't. She just pocketed the money, shifted her beret so it covered her eyes, and leaned her seat back. After a minute, Cinder did the same.
She felt it when the train started to move, and it tore chunks out of her soul as it picked up speed. Leaving bits of her behind in Argus.
Argent. Selene. Garek. Sarah. Crystal. Laurel. The list of names went on. Pete. Sophia. Reggie. And on. Pyrrha. Terra. Saphron. And on.
She left them all behind, and what was left as the Argus Express slid through the secure tunnel into the Mistralian countryside was an empty shell of a young girl.
It was a good thing that no one could see her face, because they would have asked questions that she couldn't answer.
. . .
She must have finally dozed off. She hadn't really slept in like two days, and the seat was comfortable, the sounds of the train had soothed her to sleep through the heartache. She fought through to a doze hours later to hear the woman talking to someone. It was late evening.
"Yeah, that's my sister. She's had a rough week. She'll eat when she wakes up."
Cinder tried to wake up, but apparently she was even more tired than she'd thought, because the next time she woke up, it was because the train had lurched to a stop, and the lights were slowly brightening as the speakers announced they had arrived at Argus Limited Station #2, with shuttle service to Lake Town, Fort Timid, and Brunswick Farms.
The familiar words hurt. It had only been last year that she'd made this same trip, full of hope.
"Hey Kid, you alright?"
Cinder turned to the stranger beside her and for the first time really looked at her. She was younger than Garek and Selene, but older than Terra and Saphron. Lean but looked like she had muscles. Her face was pale. She'd finally taken off her glasses, and her grey eyes were slightly bloodshot, and she had bags under them. She looked… kinda haunted.
Bet I look like that, too.
"Yeah I guess I was… just tired."
"I saw that. Here, I saved your dinner. It's cold, but better than staying hungry. Pull your tray down and dig in," she slid a tray of food over as Cinder automatically followed her instructions. Blue hesitated. "What do you want me to call you?"
Not, 'what's your name', Cinder noted. And she saw awareness in the woman's eyes. And that was a good freaking question, wasn't it?
"Syrah," Cinder said after a few seconds. It reminded her of Sarah, which hurt, but it also felt good. It was close to a name she knew, and it would hide her mistake if she stuttered and almost said her real name.
"Hi Syrah. You can call me Dania."
Cinder nodded. "Hey Dania. And… thanks for helping me out."
"Helping us both out. Like I said, I could use some company. People don't pay as much attention if you are travelling with someone else," the woman's face twisted for a second, and Cinder wondered what kind of pain she was hiding, too.
Cinder nodded and dug into the cold food. It wasn't great food, standard train food included with the ticket and room temperature, but it was the first full meal she'd had since lunch the previous day. By the time the attendant came by to collect their trays, Cinder was feeling more human. More normal.
As the sound levels picked up with people departing and arriving from the station, she turned back to her companion. "Uh… Dania?"
"Yeah?"
"So… you're going to Mistral City."
Dania gave her a long look before she answered. "Yeah. I… needed a change of scenery."
Cinder thought about that. "Yeah. Me too."
Dania gave a low laugh, but it didn't sound like a happy one. "Sounds like we're in the same boat." She looked thoughtful. "If anyone asks, we're going early to see the Vytal Tournament next month. Wanna get a place before everything fills up."
"Yeah. Ok. That sounds… smart." Cinder hadn't thought about that. Hadn't thought about anything really, other than getting out of Argus. And Mistral City had seemed the smart place to go. The only other option really was the wilds, and by herself that would be dangerous, or Atlas, and there was no freaking way she was ever going back there.
But Mistral City was big, and she knew a few things about it.
Like where she could go to get a new identity.
She didn't know how much that had cost, the last time, but she would figure something out. She'd get a new ID. A new name. And then she'd…
And that's where things just kinda fell apart, and she felt like crying again. She had no idea what came after that. Everything up to there was what she had to do. After that? She needed a place to live, and a way to make money so she could buy food if she didn't want to end up a street kid.
And she had no idea how she'd manage that. Maybe she could get into the tournaments like Pyrrha? No, that wouldn't work. Too much attention. Someone would recognize her.
She felt her stomach trying to knot up, and closed her eyes. Breathe in. Breathe out. She couldn't lose it now. She'd worry about all that later. When she had to.
Something would come up.
As long as it wasn't working at a hotel. There was no way she was ever doing that crap again.
She fell asleep again, and Dania did too, waking up at the next stop.
Argus Limited Station #3, with shuttle service to Wind Path and Barret's Point
The words cut at her insides.
Only a year ago, she'd said confidently, I'm never going back there. I've got a family now. I live in Argus, on Evergreen Avenue. And I have friends. Nobody is gonna take me away.
And now someone had. And it was her.
Cinder felt… the strong desire to get off there. To get off the train, and walk down that road, and see it. The orphanage where her earliest memories were. It hadn't been a horrible place, other than, in the hindsight of a teenage mind, having far too little supervision. The older kids had been able to bully the younger ones, because the adults were spread too thin. And just the general hopeless atmosphere of a bunch of kids with broken pasts and no future all stuck together.
She stayed in her seat.
She couldn't get back to sleep after that. The next stop would be Mistral City. Dania was awake too, so they talked quietly in the darkness. Neither of them seemed to want to discuss their past at all, and both of them seemed to realize that, which made it really easy. Instead, they talked about the Vytal Festival, and about Mistral City.
It seemed that both of them had some familiarity with it.
"Yeah, I'm planning on getting a place somewhere down in the lower middle levels. Maybe take a few…" Dania paused, "… security jobs or something."
Security jobs. Guarding stuff. Cinder thought that she could do something like that. Then she shook her head. No, she couldn't. Dania could, because she was an adult. But Cinder couldn't show off her Combat School training. That would cause eyebrows to go up… and people to talk. She sighed.
"Something on your mind?"
"Trying to figure out what I'm gonna do when I get there."
"Yeah. I get it. I've got some logistics to work out too," Dania frowned, and the conversation petered out after that.
October 4th, Sunday - Mistral City
It was early morning when the train pulled into the Mistral Transport Terminal, and she just… kept following Dania.
They walked off the train, Cinder to her right and ever so slightly behind her.
And Dania let her.
And then they exited the station itself, and Dania turned to the left. And Cinder paused, for just a second, looking around.
And then she followed again.
And Dania didn't say anything. They walked a couple blocks among the more modest slopes of Mistral's mid-levels in silence following the curve of the landscape, until Dania found a small green space with a bench. And she made her way over, and sat down.
Cinder realized, at that moment, that she didn't have a clue what to do next. She'd been taking cues off of Dania, and…
She felt her shoulders hunch.
I'm not her problem. I'm my problem.
"So… Syrah. What's your next move?"
"I dunno. I was thinking about…" She frowned. She'd intended to go to see Li'l Miss Malachite, and see how much an ID would cost. And then she'd maybe ask about where she might get a job and a place to sleep. Maybe I could—she shuddered – help clean the Spiders' bar or something. "There's a place, uh…" she scraped her memory, "down in the lower city, called… the Happy Widow or something."
Dania's eyes widened, "The Laughing Widow?! Kid, that's a criminal gang hideout," she frowned. "Well, not really a hideout. Everybody knows the Spider's are based out of there."
"Yeah… I… hear that they do fake IDs."
Dania stared at Cinder for a moment, then shook her head. "Listen kid… here, sit down, you're making me tired watching you stand around." She patted the bench next to her, and Cinder moved over and sat next to her. "You walk into a place like that, alone, no place to stay? Unless you got a couple thousand lien, you don't wanna know what kinda situation you're gonna find yourself in."
Cinder slumped. Crap. She'd not even thought about it that way. When she'd gone there with… the last time, she'd watched them do 'business' and it had seemed all straightforward.
But now, yeah, she was alone. People would try to take advantage of her.
But I can protect myself I can—
Screaming. Burning. The smell of seared flesh.
Cinder felt her stomach try to force acid up her throat, and swallowed it down. She felt dizzy.
"Whoah… easy there, kid. Deep breaths."
Cinder looked at her hands, and realized they were shaking.
Huh. That's weird.
"Look," Dania's voice said next to her. "I… crap. You can hang out with me for a while. Okay? Until you get your legs under you. Alright? Just… hey… are you—"
Cinder's vision narrowed, and then everything just went black.
October 3rd, Saturday - Argus
Sophia opened her eyes, and the ceiling stared at her.
Well not really, but that was the best her groggy brain could do at the moment.
She could hear Pete snoring next to her, and she blearily turned to her left to find her scroll sitting where it should on the nightstand, plugged in and charging. Pete had taken care of that, too. Bless his heart, he'd been a cranky, bitchy pain in the ass since the whole thing started Friday, and he'd royally pissed her off claiming she'd been holding things back from him and Reggie.
Which she had, sort of. But mostly because she really hadn't been sure, and she didn't want to get the other two worked up. Unfortunately, she'd been on the right track, and in hindsight, she should have brought them in earlier and then confronted Selene with their concerns.
A lot of things would have gone differently, maybe.
She sighed, and pulled up her notifications, and cursed. Pete had… dammit he'd let her scroll go to sleep mode. She'd gotten a dozen or so pings from her scripts.
"Come on Cinder, show me where you are…"
And by a dozen, it really had been fourteen, and most them had been running facial recognition on archival footage that Argus normally stored for a few days, rather than real time, with only two from live footage after she'd gotten the scripts going.
She started with the live scripts.
"Shit. Nothing." Both of them had been girls that had looked somewhat like Cinder, but clearly weren't. She'd set the threshold where she'd hoped to make sure she got mostly Cinder hits, and not a lot of noise, but that would depend on whether Cinder was trying to hide her face.
And as she went through the archival footage, her heart sank. Of the dozen hits, again, most of them were other girls. Several were the same girl that it had falsely flagged in real time, and she'd have to tweak it to explicitly exclude her.
The other two were definitively Cinder. One was from Friday evening. It showed the image of a girl's face, partially obscured by a scarf or something that she'd partially covered her head with, just inside Argus' main gate. There'd been just enough face showing for a match. And the problem was, if she set the sensitivity lower, the number of matches would increase exponentially.
The second was from a public transit cam down near the docks and warehouse district, and it showed another flash of face, same head covering, of Cinder early Saturday morning across the street from the stop that it was monitoring. She was in a side alley, looking out carefully. She had the straps of a backpack, but Sophia couldn't see the pack itself.
She's trying to not be found. And she's buying or… lifting… stuff.
And that is going to make this much harder.
Sophia also considered the fact that she had snuck back into Argus, but hadn't contacted anyone, and was lingering near the docks.
"Cinder, hon, are you going to jump onto a ship? Maybe head for Rhodes in Atlas?" That wasn't the worst possibility. It was also possible that she was just… hunkering down in Argus.
The urge to wake Pete up. Or call Selene and Garek, gnawed at her.
What would that accomplish? Was she going to drag them out of bed at… she checked the time… one AM on a Sunday morning and send them down to the Argus Docks?
Nope. That was stupid. Too much ground to cover. They'd never find her, if she had gone to ground. And that wasn't Sophia's strength anyway.
Easing up in the bed, Sophia went to work. She fed the positive images of Cinder back into the algorithms and set an exclusion for the other images, to tune it. And then she adjusted the focus of her scripts, to prioritize live footage near the docks and public transit in and out of Argus. She frowned, and then set a secondary priority on the pack straps. She'd get a lot of false positives, so she put it as a lower priority. And then she added more systems into the search. She'd hacked into several of the most popular security systems in Argus over the years, to the point where she knew how to exploit most of their vulnerabilities. She set the servers at the Emporium to pulling random event images from any cameras used by businesses near the docks, with any spare cycles used to try to match with the images she'd already identified as Cinder.
And then she sighed and gave in to temptation. She texted Reggie.
GNU: Hey, I figure you're asleep, but just wanted to let you know I got a couple hits on Cinder in Argus. She came in the main gates late Friday night, no evidence she's left. Got a hit Saturday morning near the docks.
And got an immediate reply.
BA: Well shit. Guess I burned all that dust for nothing.
GNU: You're up?
BA: Yeah, me and Crystal have been doing a few runs outside the city. Just in case. I guess… I couldn't sleep, and she called me, and we had to do something. Just in case she was still out there somewhere.
GNU: Yeah. I hear you. I think she's still in Argus. She's hiding from us though.
BA: Shit. That's going to make it twice as hard. Alright. Well, I guess we'll head back in. Sounds like it was a dumb idea anyway.
There was a long pause.
BA: I'm going to talk to Sarah's dad. I don't trust Sarah not to spill it to him, no matter what I told her. We'll try to get some eyeballs he trusts looking out for her.
GNU: Sounds good. Get some sleep, Reggie. You guys must be dead.
BA: Roger that. RTB.
Saturday evening at the Grae household had been tough. Selene had slept some Friday night, but Saturday had taken a lot out of her, and as the terror of how the others would react to the truth had slowly yielded to… actual hope that she'd be accepted, it had been replaced first by the horror that Cinder's flight had been her fault.
And then Argent had screamed at her, in broken sobs, and called her a liar. And she wanted desperately to tell her the truth, but knew that would not be helpful to anyone. And Garek and Visha had swept her up, and bundled her home, as the weight… the reality of the fact that her daughter was out there alone somewhere, and believed that her mother thought she was a monster… it started working its way into her gut, and slowly that and her own physical exhaustion wore her down.
Visha had taken her in hand, holding her while she cried like she had when she was much younger. Selene had tried to insist that she needed to do something. She could summon Grimm, Nevermore Chicks, who could begin searching for Cinder. But Visha had argued, correctly, that she was a wreck, and that there were likely none loitering in the city. Which would have required Selene to travel outside the gates in the darkness, and there was no way anyone was going to allow that right now.
And Selene had cried herself to sleep after that, only waking to find Garek had replaced Visha at her side. She considered attempting to wake him, or even to sneak out on her own, and dismissed both ideas as hysterical stupidity. His face was lined and showed his own physical and emotional exhaustion, and she was banned from venturing out alone. And worse, it was probable that there were no Grimm left alive within miles of Springhill. She'd summoned all she could, and they'd given their existences to protect her, and then she'd sent the rest north, likely to their deaths there too.
All because…
She felt a sob well up and stifled it so she wouldn't wake Garek.
Blackfeather. He might still be alive out there, buried deep and waiting for her. Cinder was out there, hiding or running or possibly hurt.
No. No. She couldn't believe that. Cinder was strong. She was brave and resourceful. She'd suffered and endured the Glass Unicorn. She would… they would find her. And tell her everything and that they loved her more than anything.
She kept repeating that, promising to drag Garek or Crystal out to the wilds as soon as they woke on Sunday. Out to the forests south or east of Argus where she could spread the word among any small, unobtrusive Grimm to watch for a young girl with golden-yellow eyes and dark hair, so they could bring word back to her.
And finally, sleep claimed her again.
[A/N]Thanks to recent reviewers GreenEyesOrigamiDragon (Glad you enjoyed that little plot twist!), Rookie80 (Yep, welcome to the coaster!), Shadowstorm-Vash (Thank you so much!), and new reviewer BloomingMind who is a big fan of Pete!
So… this chapter just ballooned up, and I couldn't figure out a good way to split it up other than separating it into a Cinder POV Chapter and another chapter for the Grimmslayers/Adults POV. And it just felt like that broke the feel I was going for, which was to start with the Grimmslayers POV, then Cinder, and then the adults.
As you can see, everyone's trying their best, though the adults are somewhat hampered by three things. The first is the fact that they are all running on fumes from having started their absolute nightmare Friday night, and the second by having to deal with the larger consequences of the Disaster Outside Springhill first. And of course, finally by the fact that they have a lot of confidence in Sophia, and she's not quite at the top of her game at the moment.
The Grimmslayers, on the other hand, have a very different perspective. It turns out that Cinder has shared a LOT of personal information with Argent that most of the adults aren't privy to, and that along with the fact that her friends probably know CURRENT Cinder better than anyone else does gives them an edge. And as usual, the fear of the adults regarding sharing everything with a bunch of kids is hampering the ability to leverage BOTH of their strengths. But Sarah and Argent? They make a hell of a team. Argent's not a 'Huntress in Training' but she's got a bit of steel to her. And Sarah's just wild. I'm really enjoying how her character is developing. And reaching out to the White Fang?! Of course she'd do that. Because she doesn't know the consequences if things go sideways, and doesn't care either.
And then Cinder's POV. She's running on autopilot in many ways, and not doing well at all. Like Argent says, she's tough on the outside, but she's also really fragile emotionally and psychologically because of her past. Thank the gods that she's found someone a little older and wiser who appears to have taken her under her wing. Dania seems like a really nice lady. Yeah. I know I wasn't all THAT subtle about who Dania is, and the danger that represents. And frankly, had Dania not come along, it's possible Cinder wouldn't have made it out of Argus before they found her, so her "help" is actually making things worse.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Note that it's currently early October, and Vytal Festival is in November. So there's a good chance a lot of key players end up in Mistral City around the same time for a lot of reasons.