Uploading this chapter slightly early to make up for the every-other-week schedule for the last bit. We're back to our regular schedule now! Hope you guys are enjoying the story.
On this week's episode; weird shit!
Start Chapter 17
All in all, Weiss didn't really get much of a chance to act on her suspicions. She was too busy trying to A: avoid her team whilst simultaneously keeping an eye on them, and B: avoid Cinder's team, whilst simultaneously keeping an eye on them.
This was easier said than done.
Nowhere was this more obvious than Weiss being sat in front of the hotel she was rooming out of for the foreseeable future, sipping out of a cup of coffee as inconspicuously as she possibly could, wearing thick brimmed black glasses, a tan trench coat, and a bowler hat that even she was willing to admit might have been a little much.
'Why was she doing this?' one might have asked. A fair question, one which Weiss didn't really have an answer to beyond 'I need to know what's going on'.
She was spying on both her team, the different members of Team RWBY and JNPR, and Cinder's group. The latter were thankfully much fewer than the former were, which meant keeping them in her line of sight was a lot easier.
Unfortunately, they were also doing their best to hide from everyone else, which meant that keeping an eye on them was actually a lot harder.
Slightly oxymoronic. And also, a bit hard to describe.
She was hiding and watching people who were hiding and watching people and also watching the people those people hiding and watching people were watching.
…Nope, not even she understood what she'd just thought.
Cheshire was sitting with her on this particular day. They weren't the most entertaining of guests, mostly because they simply peered at different things with what seemed to be wonderment. Weiss said seemed mostly because she couldn't actually tell what Cheshire thought through the mask on their face.
"See anything?" She asked Cheshire.
"Oh, I see that dust prices are rising in Atlas."
She looked down at the paper that Cheshire was reading, where, sure enough, it claimed dust prices were up by nearly 6% from the last month. Likely useful information, and indicative of just how scarce a resource dust was in a time of crisis like the one they lived in, but nothing Weiss cared about in that particular moment.
"…I'm going to take a walk."
"Have fun." Cheshire commented absently, not looking up from the paper.
She stood up from her place at the table and decided to get some time to both travel around and see Argus, and to do some of the more menial tasks she had. In disguise, she would likely be fine as long as she didn't directly run into anyone she knew. She had Jaune around in case she did. Well, she actually had him with her because she didn't trust that if she left him in her room, he'd still be there when she got back.
Although, to be fair, she'd done just that with the Relic, and that had yet to get stolen, so maybe she was just being paranoid.
Speaking of…
"So, that relic we picked up," She cleared her throat, and Jaune hummed out, just to make it clear to her he was listening from on her back. "Do you have any idea what it's actually for?"
"Well, I can but assume. Given that Ozma and Salem both referred to it as the 'Relic of Knowledge', I would thereby assume that it has something to do with knowledge."
"Yes, Jaune, thank you for your great insight." She groaned out. "I wonder what the Relic of Destruction does?"
"I would assume that it destroys."
"I was being sarcastic."
"Yes, I had figured that out. I was being sarcastic in kind."
Weiss grumbled below her breath. It wasn't really Jaune's fault that she'd been trapped within this city with nothing to do but people watch. They certainly weren't getting to Atlas in a normal way, not with Cinder and her goons here. There was Atlas technology in every single plane or bullhead that existed here in Argus, given it was a joint project between Mistral and Atlas.
And somehow, some way, Salem had an Atlesian expert under her employ. Someone had hacked the Atlesian Knights, and made them turn on the citizens of Vale. Weiss imagined that said person would probably have flight logs of people trying to leave the city.
And, if she was aboard a flight going into Atlas, that they'd be there to greet her when she landed.
So, getting on a flight normally wasn't really an option. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she was probably going to have to steal something from someone.
They could have the bullhead back once she'd landed in Atlas, for all she cared. She just needed to get there in a way that didn't get Jaune stolen, her killed, or both.
She looked back at the table she'd been sitting at thirty or so seconds ago, and saw Cheshire still pouring over the newspaper. It seemed they wanted to be as informed as possible about the state of the world.
Power to them, Weiss supposed. She just had bigger worries.
She was focused on people like Cinder, and her allies, who…
…
Who had disappeared from where they'd been when last Weiss had been looking.
"Hm." Jaune hummed out. "It appears that they have left."
"What do you mean 'it appears'!?" She stammered out. "You were the one facing them! If I turn away, it becomes your job to watch them! Where did they go!?"
"…I do not know."
She just groaned as she reached up and massaged at her eyes, trying to stop herself from cursing Jaune's name. In all fairness, she hadn't been paying attention either, even while she was facing the table Cinder had been sat at. It was just a lot easier to shift the blame onto someone else.
"Do you… can you feel their magic or something?"
"I did not use my magic upon them, so no. I cannot."
"Doesn't she have the Fall Maiden's power? Shouldn't you be able to track her off of that?"
"The piece of Ozma's magic? I can. It's just a very, very general tracking. I know she's in the city still. Other than that, however, I am as in the dark as thou art."
"Do you have a general direction, at least?"
"North."
They were facing north.
"Thank you for nothing."
"Thou art most welcome."
/
In the end, Weiss decided to get some shopping done.
She'd been subsisting off of only hotel food for the last few days, and frankly, that did not make a satisfying life. The hotel room did have a fridge – and frankly, it had better have one with how damned expensive it was! – that she could store things like milk and perishables inside of, so she decided to buy a few things that she could stock there to treat herself.
She had a microwave, but no oven or stove. That ruled out more complicated meals. As much as it pained her, she decided to add single, microwaveable packages of macaroni and cheese to her cart, as well as some snacks and candy.
Her figure would hate her, but frankly? She wasn't sure she gave a shit at this point. She was moving around enough these days, constantly running this way or that, to the point that she likely needed the raw calories anyways.
She was actually feeling pretty good as she paid for her items, and exited out of the small corner store. She started back towards her hotel, feeling a general sense of calm, and excitement. She was going to be able to eat a hot meal that wasn't a bagel or those damned fluffy waffles served in every damned hotel for a change.
Of course, something then went wrong.
Weiss wasn't allowed to have nice things.
A pair of hands grabbed her from off to her left, and yanked her to the side, into an alley just off the street she'd been walking along. She barely had time to realize what was happening before she was thrown to the ground, and the mirror clattered off of her.
She swore out under her breath, even as she drew up Myrtenaster in one hand and pointed it up at whoever had assaulted her.
Oh. Shit.
Cinder Fall stared back at her with a singular eye, and a devilish smile. "Hello there, Weiss Schnee. Fancy meeting you here."
Weiss very much did not reciprocate.
She analyzed the scenario as best she could in that singular instant. Cinder seemed to be alone. That didn't mean Emerald and Mercury weren't lurking nearby. In fact, who knew what dastardly plans the two might be getting up to in that very instant.
/
"You got any twos?" Mercury asked casually, sat alongside Emerald back in their shitty hotel room.
Emerald looked down at her hand.
"Go fish."
"Fuck."
/
She had to get herself out of this. If Mercury and Emerald arrived, then she was completely screwed. She didn't favor her chances with Cinder, but they had to be better than a three on one.
She stabbed upwards, aiming right for Cinder's face. Her opponent sneered as she dodged the blade by inches, before responding in kind with a harsh kick to Weiss' nose. She could feel the bone within crack as her head was sent flying backwards, and she hit the ground hard.
She couldn't sit still. She knew that. While Cinder needed Jaune, she likely didn't give much of a shit about Weiss at all. Whether she was alive or dead didn't matter.
And Weiss, personally, quite liked being alive.
She used every ounce of her strength to conjure up her Arma Gigas, and had it swing down vertically in the narrow alleyway, buying Weiss some space.
Cinder dodged the blow by pressing herself against the side of one of the alley walls, but then, Weiss hadn't really been trying to hit her. She'd just needed to get herself away from Cinder. She ran towards where Jaune's mirror had fallen off of her, took it up, slotted it on her back, and ran.
She wasn't nearly as fast as she'd have liked to be, and unfortunately, Cinder was able to utilize the Maiden's powers to shoot fire out of her arms and legs, catching up to her with ease. She made to grab the mirror from off of Weiss' back, but Jaune flexed some sort of magic, and Cinder was forced to back away.
"Well, I tried to make her fear me, and run away. Unfortunately, she carries a far more potent fear within her."
"What?" Weiss yelled back as she ran through a series of different alleyways.
"The fear I attempted to instill in her of us meant nothing. She fears something else with far more fervor. And so even if she is afraid, she will not falter."
Salem. It had to be. Cinder feared what Salem would do to her if she failed here. No matter if Jaune was terrifying, better to take her chances with Jaune, in Cinder's mind, than to risk Salem's wrath.
"Can't you sap the evil from her!?"
"I could." Jaune sighed. "Although in this case that would be akin to killing her outright."
"What!?"
Jaune didn't have time to answer the question. Weiss was struck from behind by a fireball from Cinder, and fell to the ground beneath her hard. Her knee struck the pavement and though her aura held, it had to expend quite a bit of its remaining strength to keep the bones within from snapping.
Weiss was running out of both time, and aura.
That was bad.
She'd known Cinder was good, of course. She'd managed to take on the entirety of Team JNPR on her lonesome with little expended effort. This was just…
Well, somewhat beyond what she'd expected.
"Are you ready to give up now?" Cinder questioned, raising an eyebrow at her. "Frankly, if you hand over the mirror, I'm perfectly content to let you live. You mean nothing to me."
"Gee…" She groaned out as she forced herself to her feet. "Thanks."
Cinder shrugged without much effort. "Suit yourself."
But before Cinder could make a move, Jaune began to speak.
"I would ask whom thee thinkest thou art; attacking my bearer."
"Hm?" Cinder tilted her head to one side. "Who I am?"
"Indeed."
Cinder gave an elegant chuckle, then, like she'd secretly been hoping someone would ask that. Honestly, yeah, she struck Weiss as the conceited type, so that wasn't much of a shock.
"My name is Cinder Fall. I am the strongest human on the face of Remnant; the very apex of mortalkind. I am the wielder of the Fall Maiden's might, and the–"
"No, thou art not."
Cinder stopped. She looked down at Jaune, who Weiss had taken off her back to hold in her arms, so that he could speak face to face with her.
"…Gesundheit."
"I am serious." Jaune spoke. "Thou art not the Fall Maiden."
"…What?"
"The Fall Maiden resides within thee. But tis not thee."
"…Huh?"
"It is… vaguely insectoid in shape. Roughly the size of an apple. Inside of your chest?"
Cinder just stared. "…Are you trying to tell me that the Grimm Parasite that Salem gave me to take the Maiden's powers from that Amber woman is the Fall Maiden, and not me?"
"That does appear to be the case, yes."
Cinder's eyes twitched.
"Then why can I use them!?"
"It is connected with thy biology. It knows what it is that thou desire it to do, and does it for thee."
"That… I…"
Jaune was silent for a while as Cinder went through a mental crisis. She looked down at her hands, gathered fire within them, and then extinguished it four or five times, as if trying to test if what Jaune was saying was true.
"Although, I must say," Jaune cleared his throat. "There exists a slight chance I have been saying all of this to distract thee."
"Huh?"
And then, with a single flick of Jaune's hand within the mirror…
The Fall Maiden's magic just… left Cinder.
It gathered into a ball in front of her, and then, without much fanfare, just sort of… lazily floated into Weiss' chest.
There was a feeling of intense warmth that suffused her, before that warmth calmed, and her chest stilled.
And then Cinder and Weiss just sort of… stared at one another blankly.
"You… took my powers." Cinder's mouth hung open.
"Indeed." Jaune confirmed. "They are now Weiss' powers."
"What!?"
"They are now Weiss' powers."
"I heard you the first time!" Cinder growled out, even as she made to summon blades into her hands using the Maiden's fire, and found… nothing. Weiss didn't doubt she could still kick her ass in hand to hand, but…
Instead of doing that, Cinder seemed… defeated. She stared at them with an absent look, like she was, mentally, elsewhere.
"I crushed the bug inside of you using some mild gravity magic, and, when the powers sought a random host, used my magic to bind them, take them, and then put them into Weiss. It really wasn't even all that hard; I just needed a few moments to concentrate."
"You… but…"
And then, because the world was all just one fever dream at this point…
Cinder Fall teared up.
"But those powers are mine!" She whined.
"Well, not anymore." Jaune responded.
"I took them fair and square!" Cinder shouted out, her voice shaking with petulant, almost childlike rage. "They're mine! I wanted them!"
Jaune coughed. "Well, you're certainly not handling this quite like I expected."
"Shut up!" Cinder cried out, tears streaking down her cheeks, even from her missing left eye. "That's not fair! You can't just… take them!"
"Well, I did."
"That's cheating! You cheated!"
"Er… I apologize!"
"Give them back!"
"No."
Cinder screamed, charging right for them with fury in her eyes.
Weiss panicked, held her hand out…
And a blast of icy wind shot out of it.
Cinder was buffeted backwards, sailing through the air and impacting against the wall of the alley behind her. She slumped down it, seemingly having been taken aback by Weiss' sudden… Maiden attack, and not having had her aura up.
She was unconscious, though for how long that would last…
"I would run now." Jaune suggested.
That was just about the best idea that Weiss had ever heard.
/
Weiss made it back to her hotel in a bit of a rush, to put things bluntly. She had run the whole way back, and when the door finally closed behind her, she let out a breath of complete and utter exhaustion, falling to the floor.
Her knee hurt. Her face hurt. Just about every other place Cinder had struck her hurt.
For how bad things had been going, that situation had ended up being… well, quite good for her.
She was now the Fall Maiden, apparently.
Weiss wasn't really sure what she was supposed to think about that.
"So…" Jaune coughed from under her arm, and she pulled him up so that she could balance him against the wall beside her, because she lacked the strength right now to hold him up herself. "That went alright?"
"Something like that." She rolled her eyes, before grimacing at the pain blossoming through her chest. Aura or no aura, she'd taken some hard hits. "I could… really use a break."
"Yes, I can tell. My apologies for not being able to do anything back there. Fear did nothing, and sapping the evil from Cinder would have slain her."
"You said that," Weiss shook her head. "But what does that mean, exactly?"
"Hm? Not being able to sap the evil from her?"
Weiss nodded, and Jaune explained.
"With Adam, and the White Fang, there was a reason I could sap the evil out of them and they still emerged as complete people; they were people before that evil took root in them. They were freedom fighters, people with families, or loved ones. Losing those things stoked the fires of revolution within them, and then that revolution gave way to darkness when it corrupted their hearts. But Adam at his core still held a once good man within him, just one tainted to a degree that he was almost unrecognizable."
"Think of Adam as a dirty dish, for instance. One covered in oil, and tar, and muck. Despite that disgusting refuge upon his surface, lurking beneath was still a dish that could exist on its own, and even shine once cleaned."
"Cinder is different. Unlike Adam, she never had a foundation of good to be founded upon. She has, likely, never experienced anything such as a positive connection. She is just muck, grime, and oil, shaped into something vaguely like a dish. But if I were to take those things away, to scrub free the dirt, a dish would not emerge. She would simply cease to be. Her mind would be obliterated, leaving nothing in its wake."
"That…"
"Yes, complicated." Jaune spoke. "In order to sap the evil from her, you would first need to build a foundation of good in the first place. Something for her to exist within outside of the darkness within her heart. As of now, that does not exist."
It was… a bit depressing to hear something like that, actually. To hear that Cinder Fall wasn't really even a person, just a receptacle for the mistreatment and abuse she'd suffered in her life. Just a product of the world.
"I was… disinclined to simply remove her from the equation altogether, although perhaps I should have." Jaune sighed out.
"No…" Weiss felt some small hesitation playing about her as she said that, but… "I think you did the right thing. She… I can't say I think we can save her, or something to that effect, but… I don't just want to delete her from existence."
"Mm." Jaune nodded his head. "On that, we are in agreement. I confess that the reason I hesitated myself was because I had met more than a few people like her in my time, scouring the peasant villages on the outskirts of the D'Arc Kingdom, rounding up those who might serve my cause. People who had known naught but hate, and hardship. Sometimes they were slaves, other times children being abused. But… the one thing that stuck with me through it all was that I could never once truly blame them for what had happened to them. Their actions after, yes, I could judge them for. But…"
Weiss nodded her head. "It's complicated."
"Indeed."
"…Earlier… you used magic even though you were in the mirror to crush that bug within Cinder. How did you do that?"
Jaune seemed to appreciate the change in topic. "Magic that can be used through something still works just fine for me. I cannot, for instance, hurl a fireball at someone, as that will just hit the mirror – or I suppose I should say the magical gate – in front of me. But I can use magic that does not need to travel; magic that simply pulses into being, like that gravity magic from before, which only strengthens that which already exists – in this case the natural gravity of the world – or for something like conjuring a summon, since that is merely using magic to replicate something I've dealt with in the past at a point in space."
Weiss rounded on the mirror with wide eyes. "You can summon!?"
"Theoretically."
"Why have you never done that!?"
"Because I do not know how."
"…Why did you bring it up, then?"
"Random example."
"I think I hate you."
Jaune just sort of shrugged.
/
Weiss had been lying in bed going on two or so hours when she awoke, and her body was still aching.
It was a common myth amongst non-hunters that aura prevented any and all injury. It muted injuries. If one would have broken their nose without aura, then they would avoid that break with it, but that didn't mean it didn't still hurt, and that didn't mean she still didn't need time to heal.
Aura was a helluva drug, but it wasn't like it made her invincible. She'd still be crushed if a truck fell on her, or something.
So, she had nothing to do but talk.
And she had a few questions for Jaune.
"I've been meaning to ask a while, but… at Haven, why didn't you question Ozma?"
"We didn't have the time." Jaune answered, and Weiss believed him. "Know that I wished to."
She nodded. They'd pretty much had no choice but to leave as quickly as possible once everyone else had been put to sleep. To do anything else would've been to risk Jaune's continued existence.
"How do you feel? Knowing that they're both still alive; Ozma and Salem."
"I…" Jaune hummed. "It's hard to say. I don't entirely know. You speak of the gods like they are figments of the imagination, but I can remember a world where they were very much present. To my eyes, at least, It seems as if they, too, upset the gods somehow. That, or they found immortality after they left this world, although, from the fact that neither seemed terribly pleased, I doubt that to be the case. I believe they were both cursed somehow. Salem, perhaps, by the God of Darkness, for she resembles too much those blessed by his powers in my age. Those who wielded the raw magics of death and decay."
The Relic of Knowledge pulsed. Weiss turned towards it with a curious air, herself.
Jaune hummed himself. "It seems as if that relic almost has a mind of its own, on occasion."
It really did. Weiss did not like that.
Suddenly, there was a knock on Weiss' door. She looked to Jaune, and the man shrugged his shoulders.
Weiss assumed it was likely Cheshire – although she very much didn't want to speak with Cheshire at the moment, given that they were starting to unnerve Weiss a bit. Even so, she made her way over to the door, and opened it.
The figure standing there was just about the last person that Weiss had been expecting.
"Buh…" She let out incredibly eloquently.
Because standing there, looking like a puppy left out in the rain, was Cinder Fall.
She looked like shit, to be honest. Her hair had fallen down to cover her face, and her eye was bloodshot. Her cheeks were red and raw.
…'Puppy left out in the rain' really did feel appropriate.
Weiss prepared herself to be knocked back into her room. She expected Cinder to draw a weapon, and attack her. Hell, she expected Emerald and Mercury to burst through the windows to her room, flanking her on all sides.
What she did not expect was for Cinder Fall to look away, with her lips pulled into a pout, and then say, "I'm coming with you."
Weiss was certain that she'd misheard her somehow.
"Wha?"
Cinder turned back towards her, looking almost angry. "I said I'm coming with you!"
…No. That…
No. There was no possible scenario where this was happening. She had been about to die at Cinder Fall's hands no more than three hours ago, and she'd assumed that the next time they met, it would be as enemies.
Not at all the casual kind, either. She was fairly certain that Cinder would be gunning for her with every fiber of her being to take her powers back.
This was about as far from that as could be.
"…Why?" She felt was a fair question.
Cinder looked down at the ground. Her hair was matted, whether from water, sweat, or… something, Weiss didn't know. She honestly looked like she'd spent the last three hours crying.
…
"Have you spent the last three hours crying?"
"NO!" Cinder yelled with much too much denial. "I just… got something in my eye is all!"
"Okay…" Weiss looked around, where a couple of other people in the hallway were staring at them. "Do you uh… want to come inside, or something?"
Cinder didn't nod, but she did trudge her way into the room once Weiss made space.
This…
Huh.
"Apologies for the room being such a stye," she said on instinct. "I haven't had time to clean up."
Cinder looked to her with a gaze that seemed to ask, 'do I look like I give a shit?'
Weiss felt that was fair.
"So… again… why are you here, exactly?"
"Because I'm not the Fall Maiden anymore." Cinder spoke glumly. "Hell, I was never the Fall Maiden. I suppose that makes sense, doesn't it? Salem wouldn't have let someone like me have the powers, would she?"
Weiss looked to Jaune, who raised his hands in the air as if to say 'I have no idea what to do with this, either'.
"So… you thought to come here?"
"I have nothing to offer Salem!" Cinder shouted, before tears gathered in her eyes and she started crying into her hands. Weiss got her a few paper towels, handed them to her, and then tried not to get too grossed out when Cinder sniffled violently into them. "I'm not the Fall Maiden anymore! I'm just some girl! And Salem's not going to care! She'll throw me out like I'm last week's newspaper if I come back without the powers!"
Weiss wasn't entirely certain that was true, given that Cinder was still one of the most powerful fighters on Remnant; easily able to contend with entire teams at once, and able to keep up with skilled Huntsmen like Qrow Branwen and Ozpin before she'd gotten the Maiden's powers. Weiss had a feeling that Cinder would continue to be quite useful for Salem, Maiden or not.
But this might've been indicative of how Cinder herself saw people. If they lacked any usefulness to her, then she would discard them. And so, she simply assumed everyone else felt the same way.
It was sad, even if it made Cinder an undeniably bad person.
"So… you thought I'd take you on?"
"You and that mirror need protection from your little group of friends, don't you?"
"How do you figure that?"
"You'd be traveling with them if they'd accepted you." Cinder pointed out like it was obvious, and when she put it that way, it was somewhat. "The only reason you'd be keeping yourself hidden from them is if you needed to."
Weiss grumbled below her breath, but said nothing else. "Fine. But why would you even want to come along with us?"
"Because I have no other options." Cinder spat out. "And because frankly, at the very least, Salem respects the figure within that mirror. I believe he might hold the key to preventing her from destroying me for my betrayal."
How Cinder hadn't thought she could just take the mirror to Salem to earn her redemption, Weiss wasn't sure, but then, if she tried, Jaune might just choose to sap the evil from out of her, and leave her an empty shell.
It wouldn't be his first choice, but Weiss felt he would do it, if he had to.
"You're not really convincing me here." Weiss admitted.
Cinder pursed her lips, before seemingly trying another tactic.
"Oh, I also feel terrible for all the sins I committed." Cinder coughed awkwardly, clearly not an actor. "Is that enough for you?"
"Ah, but what a true renouncement of darkness!" Jaune called from off of her back, laughing heartily. "I say she has redeemed herself!"
Weiss' eye twitched. "You're being sarcastic, right?"
"Why, Weiss, that's quite rude of thee!" Jaune tutted. "Cinder has just born her heart for us!"
Cinder looked like she'd been standing in an unmoving line at a check-cashing place for about fifteen minutes; which was to say she looked mildly bored.
"Y'know what, we can talk about this later." Weiss growled out. "Cinder, you–"
"And also," She cleared her throat. "I thought that if you happened to perish during your journey, I would be the only other woman around you, most likely, thus assuring that in your final moments, you'd think of me, and I'd get my power just as I was always supposed to."
Weiss just sort of stared at the woman blankly for a moment.
"One moment." She said after that, before walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
She held up Jaune's mirror. "…Jaune?"
"What is it Weiss?"
"I get the feeling letting her travel with us is a bad idea."
"Why, I have no idea what you're talking about." Jaune smiled. "Did you not hear her beautiful renouncement of darkness?"
"Jaune, that was barely anything."
"She's trying her best!"
"Jaune."
"I say we trust her."
"You are a terrible judge of character."
"I don't trust Cheshire."
"That's because Cheshire is obviously hiding something, Jaune. They are literally constantly dressed in a black cloak and wearing a mask. It's not subtle."
"Well, what's wrong with wearing a cloak! I happen to think it's quite a fashionable thing."
"A cloak that fully obscures the body, and the face?"
Jaune said nothing.
Weiss just groaned. "Fine, but if needs must, you need to be prepared to protect me, got it!?"
"I would not allow harm to come to thee, of that you have my word!" Jaune swore, and Weiss sighed out as she pushed herself to her feet, and exited the bathroom.
"Fine." She stared at Cinder, who gained the smallest bit of light in her eyes as she heard Weiss agree to take her along. "We're going to Atlas. Do you have a way of getting us there?"
Cinder nodded. "I can get Watts to alter flight records ahead of time, prevent any of our names from going on the docket. Ostensibly, I still work for Salem at the moment, it'll be a while before they realize I've betrayed them. I might as well make full use of those benefits."
"And what about your cronies?"
"Emerald and Mercury?" Cinder tilted her head to one side. "Why would they want to come along?"
"Well, they're your lieutenants, aren't they?"
"They'd throw me away without thought." Cinder looked down and away. "I'm too weak to command them any longer."
"…Didn't you know them long before you had the Fall Maiden's power?"
"I'm pathetic!" She shouted, tears gathering in her eyes again.
"Riiiight." Weiss let out. "Okay, well, that's the plan, then. You can uhm… leave now."
Cinder nodded, turning towards the door.
"I will be staying in this hotel for the time being. I'll inform you as to my room number later."
Weiss would've really preferred if she wasn't doing that, but she didn't seem to have much say in the matter.
"I–"
Cinder was gone before Weiss could get a single word in edgewise.
She let out an exhausted, weary breath, trying to get her thoughts in order. It was… proving difficult, so to speak.
Weiss was sort of hoping to get a few minutes to herself, at least, to do just that before the next completely crazy thing the universe was going to throw at her arrived. And yet, not even thirty seconds later, someone else knocked on her door.
She assumed it was Cinder coming back. Maybe to realize just how completely insane what she'd suggested had actually been, and to try and kill her? That sounded about right. or maybe she'd just found a room really fast.
Instead, when Weiss opened the door, her eyes widened.
Because at the door this time was Jasmine Arc.
"Ah." Jaune whispered barely loud enough for Weiss to hear.
"So, the guest of honor has finally arrived."
End Chapter 17
Next chapter; some Jasmine lore, and also more Cinder, who's just become a new member of the group! Our little entourage is growing in size, and is definitely made up of entirely sane, non-murderous people!
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