"I think," Headmaster Theodore of Shade Academy addressed them all as they stood within his office. "That we'd best go over what we've learned over the past few days."
No one disagreed with that, least of all Jaune himself.
Their entire group – minus Qrow, who was out scouting the sands beyond the city – was present for this little meeting. As Theodore had said, they were there to go over what they'd figured out on Salem's group within the past few days.
"If no one has anything to say off the bat, then I'd like to start." It was Emerald who spoke up first. "I was able to get enough information out of some of the pickpockets around the bazaar that Jaune and I visited the other day to pinpoint the hotel that Cinder was set up in. It didn't take long after that to find her room."
"Anything there that mattered?" Yang asked, knowing the answer already.
Emerald shook her head. "She'd already moved everything out. Nothing in the space that tied back to her. I checked the garbage for the entire hotel, too. She didn't keep or dispose of any documents just by throwing them away, if she even had any to begin with. She'd have burned them."
Jaune nodded. That sounded like Cinder, certainly. She had no problem accessing fire, certainly.
"According to Qrow," Ozpin, within Oscar's body, cleared his throat. "None of the others from Salem's crew have gone into or out of the city since Tyrian's breakout of Jax and Gillian."
"He knows this how?" Winter raised an eyebrow.
"He cannot be sure, obviously, but he's been keeping track of the underground methods into the city. We have many with observational semblances keeping an eye on the walls since Tyrian's last escapade, which means that anyone getting into the city has to go in through official channels."
"Or through some other means." Raven prompted. It was the first time that Jaune had seen the woman be present for one of these meetings. She normally skipped out on them. "We know he got out via the sewers. I would assume that means he can get in via them as well."
"We have people watching those as well." Theodore coughed, straightening his posture. "Last time, our locals were caught off guard by Tyrian's knowledge of the sewers. This will not happen again."
Jaune wasn't quite sure. Tyrian had proven to be a squirrely bastard at the best of times, and operating under the notion that just because they had the easiest ways into the city for him under surveillance meant he couldn't get in… he just didn't quite believe that.
"What about Cinder?" He brought up. "We know she's almost certainly still in the city, right?"
"We'd know if she had tried to leave, yes." Theodore confirmed. "Which brings us to the matter at hand. I believe that our first goal should be rooting out Cinder Fall from within the city, and eliminating her before she can prove to be an even greater threat."
The others all nodded along, and Jaune more than understood the reasoning behind that. Yet even so… something about that had him frowning.
"As much as I agree with the general sentiment, Cinder Fall is not at all an opponent we can afford to take lightly." Winter Schnee spoke up, clearing her throat. "I have battled her before. While she is brash and overconfident, she backs that up with a skill I have seen in few other fighters. I doubt that, in a straight one on one, I could guarantee victory."
"I've beaten her once." Raven shrugged. "I can do it again if need be."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Winter shook her head. "When last you fought, you had the element of surprise on your side. She was not expecting you to be the Spring Maiden. You are likely still the superior fighter, but how much have you really experimented with your abilities as a maiden?"
Raven grumbled under her breath, which told them that she hadn't done much experimenting at all. "Shouldn't matter."
"But it might. I am not trying to demean you, only to urge caution." Winter told Raven. "No one fighter should go after Cinder Fall alone. Such would be foolhardy. If we are to track her down, we should do so in larger groups, so that when we find her, we can assuredly kill her as well."
No one seemed to disagree with that. Again, Jaune couldn't disagree with the underlying sentiment. Cinder was dangerous. Someone who'd proven time and time again that she'd do anything it took to acquire power.
And yet…
Jaune bit down on the inside of his cheek.
"Well, then, I'll leave the particulars of sorting out those search parties to you, Ozpin." Theodore cleared his throat. "I'm afraid I have a meeting with the chief of police. Good day to all of you. And, of course, good luck."
"To you as well, my friend."
/
They weren't all going to be searching at once, and they weren't starting right away, either. They were going to give it a few days so that Cinder would, hopefully, feel that the heat had died down and expose herself again.
Jaune doubted that was going to happen, but he did get the general idea. Right now, Cinder was probably jumping at shadows. Catching her as she was would be damned near impossible. It was only through her revealing the fact that she had some way into Vacuo at all that they'd cottoned onto her presence.
Still, Cinder had come at him the other day for what had seemed like no real reason. It had been to bait him, to interrogate him, but he'd managed to free himself from her clutches fairly easily. She'd seemingly been in a hurry, then. Perhaps wanting more information on their movements before she fully went to ground?
It was possible. Really, Jaune didn't entirely understand Cinder's actions in kidnapping him.
If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought she had just sort of decided to do it on a spur of the moment decision.
Currently, he was sat within a café near enough to the bazaar that he and Emerald had patrolled a few days ago, and where they'd discovered that Cinder had previous been hiding nearby. He'd gotten a single cup of coffee and a pastry that was admittedly very tasty, although he'd not known its name. He'd just pointed to it in the display window.
He was… pondering.
There was a lot to ponder. His place in the world that he felt he'd left behind. The fact that he still felt like he was just an extra among his friends' conversations. That he somehow maybe enjoyed talking to Cinder Fall, who had once been the nemesis of his life.
He ran a hand down his face. He felt ridiculous. And yet… among all of the connections he still had in his life, she was perhaps the one he felt the least disconnected from. The only person who it felt like he'd just been able to… jump right back to the present with.
Of course, that had come in a battle to the death, but that was neither here nor there.
She was a problem. That was undeniable. She was a villain, and a murderer. Someone who probably did, objectively, need to be taken out.
But he just… wasn't sure. There was something there. Something in that look as she'd thought of Emerald…
…He wanted to be sure. And to do that, he needed to see her again.
Preferably, he needed to see her again without everyone else being present. That would be a good way for her to immediately assume he was trying to kill her. The problem was that he wasn't sure how to go about finding her on his own.
It was all well and good to say that he wanted to see her, but how did he go about… actually seeing her?
Well, he needed to think first and foremost. Cinder had told him quite a bit, and they'd figured out just as much. Was there anything that she might have said that he could use to his advantage.
He thought back to the canyon, but nothing there really stood out. He thought back to the hotel room. Again, nothing in particular. The alleyway…
…
…Hm.
There might've been something there.
He'd asked Cinder about the different children on the street. The pickpockets and other urchins who hung around. And she had said…
If anything, they gain far more acting as my eyes and ears.
So, the children around the bazaar knew her, then? She had them acting as information gatherers for her. Probably paid them.
That meant that they might know something about where she'd gone.
Jaune decided that that was his angle. He finished his pastry, drank the rest of his coffee, and then stood from his seat.
/
"Excuse me?"
The young girl standing just off of the hotel that Cinder had occupied up until a few days ago turned towards him with a guarded expression. She looked like a cornered animal, and immediately, Jaune backed up a bit, not wanting to put any pressure on her.
It was obvious immediately that she was a homeless child. They were… unfortunately common here in Vacuo. If they all weren't actively working towards trying to save the world, he'd have loved to try and help some of these children.
Unfortunately, they were more than filled up on time at the moment.
"I'm looking for someone." He told the girl when she didn't say anything. "I think she might have talked to you before?"
"Buzz off!" The girl spat his way, and Jaune's eyes went wide. "Yer' not gettin' nothin' out of me!"
That was… more spirited than he'd been expecting.
"Uhm… can I pay you?"
The girl's expression changed instantaneously.
"…How much?"
"I have, uh… a bit."
"…How much is a bit?"
"…How much do you want?"
"…How much do you have?"
He respected this girl's gumption, but even so, "We can do this for a long time, y'know."
The girl pouted. "Fine. Who are you looking for?"
"A woman named Cinder. She has black hair, a scar on the left side of her face. Her left arm is in a bandage–"
"A lot."
"Hm?"
"You'd have to give me a lot of lien." The girl said, looking this way and that. "Or else I'm not telling on her. She… she gave me a lot of lien. And she was nice to me."
Ah. So, she's loyal to Cinder.
Then just asking her to tell him where Cinder was wasn't going to work. Hm… well…
Oh. That might work.
"How about this; do you see her a lot?"
"…"
"Right." He laughed, before holding out a few lien. The girl looked utterly starstruck, yet she rushed over and took the cards, watching him warily the whole time. "So, do you see her a lot?"
"…I do. Usually a few times a week."
"Then how about this; you don't have to tell on her. Instead of that, you can tell her to meet me somewhere. How about that?"
"Uhm… I could do that." The girl shuffled her feet. "B-But it'll be double– no, triple what you paid!"
Jaune cocked an eyebrow. He'd… not really given her that much. Triple what he'd given her would've been enough for her to have maybe a full day's worth of food. Instead of just triple, he handed the girl enough to buy her a few days' worth of meals instead – about fifteen times what he'd given her before.
If the girl had been starstruck before, she was flabbergasted now.
"Is that enough?"
"Y-Yes sir!" She said, pocketing the different lien cards. "Uhm… where should I…?"
"Tell her to meet me in the same alley we met last time." He said, smiling. "I'll be there for the rest of the day, and if she doesn't show up today, I'll be there the next few days, too. If she doesn't want to meet me, then that's fine."
The girl nodded her head slowly. She still looked like she didn't fully trust him. Yet, as the seconds ticked by, her expression softened some.
"Uh… what's your name, mister?"
"Jaune. Jaune Arc."
"…Okay." She looked down at the ground. "…Is she in trouble?"
"Hm?"
"That lady… she's nice to me most of the time. Is she in trouble or something? You… you were the one asking about anyone suspicious a few days ago."
Huh. So, she'd noticed that? He was almost surprised, until he realized that word probably traveled quickly around a bazaar like this. It was like a small, tight-knit community.
He wondered how best to go about this. "…She's… in some trouble, yeah. But I… well, I guess I'm trying to see if I can get her out of that trouble by helping her. …Kind of. It's hard to explain, honestly."
The little girl studied his expression tersely. "…You seem like a nice person, Mr. Jaune."
He laughed. It was… strangely freeing to hear that. "Thank you, little miss. I appreciate it."
She nodded her head. "B-Be nice to her, too, okay?"
"I will."
"Mm."
And then the little girl turned and ran.
/
Jaune was sitting in the alleyway for about two hours after that before anything happened. He'd been reading on his scroll, keeping himself up to date on the goings-on in Vacuo. It turned out that there really wasn't that much happening.
Or, well, there was, but there was nothing major happening. Surely, there were disputes between locals and refugees, or Grimm sightings out in the wastes that had to be taken care of, but all of that was just normal day-to-day. There were no Tyrian-breaking-criminals-out-of-prison style events happening.
It was as he was pulling up yet another article that he heard the sound of a blade being drawn.
"You do realize that I could have killed you eight times." Cinder Fall told him, stood across the alleyway from him. "You weren't even paying some attention to your surroundings."
Jaune knew that Cinder was lambasting him. It wasn't exactly subtle. He just couldn't really find it in himself to care too much about that when…
"…You dyed your hair?"
The Cinder Fall that he'd seen just a few days ago was gone, and in her place was a woman with long, bright red hair and a singular blue eye. Her hair was styled entirely differently to how it had been when he'd last seen it, too, with braids running down the sides and presumably meeting in the back.
All in all, Cinder looked virtually unrecognizable.
"It's a wig." Cinder rolled her eyes. "And a contact in the right eye. This was supposed to be a new disguise. Yet here I am; revealing it to one of you children. Which means I will very much be needing a new one after this meeting."
"…Right."
"So?" Cinder arced an eyebrow at him. "What is it? Why have you called me here?"
"You got my message from the girl, then?"
"I was watching you that entire time." Cinder rolled her eyes. "You are not at all subtle, Arc. I was following you for damned-near ten minutes prior to that."
Oh. Huh. When he thought about it, that did… make some sense. He had basically walked straight there, taking the fastest route from the Ziggurat to the bazaar.
…He needed to be better than this. This was, what, twice now that Cinder had been following him and noticed him easily? Maybe when he got back, he could ask Blake and Ren for some training with blending into crowds, or, at the very least, noticing when someone was following him.
Especially if he was going to keep meeting Cinder.
…Why was he going to keep meeting Cinder, exactly?
"Are you planning on just standing there until I grow tired of this and leave?" Cinder prompted. "An interesting strategy."
"Sorry." He shook out his brain.
"So, why am I here?" Cinder asked again. "You were the one who summoned me. So, elucidate me."
In truth, when Jaune broke it down inside his head, he didn't have a very good reason for Cinder to be here. Not with what she'd already told him. She was, after all, against the idea of becoming a 'good guy' pretty vehemently, despite the fact that she was an enemy of Salem's in the long run. She simply saw her life expectancy with Salem, at worst, exceeding her best with them.
And… he couldn't entirely deny that, no matter how much he wanted to.
Even so, he had to try.
That was just who he was.
"The others… Winter, Ozpin, Headmaster Theodore… they intend for us to hunt you down and kill you."
Cinder looked unimpressed. "And?"
Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised by Cinder's response there. It was a very… her thing to say.
"That doesn't concern you?"
"Have you seriously not been intending to hunt me down and kill me this entire time?" Cinder looked at him like he was crazy. "Really? Them deciding to say that warranted you calling me out and telling me?"
"Well, I…"
"You are…" Cinder just sighed. "Perhaps you don't quite understand your position. Or mine. We," She pointed to the both of them. "Are enemies. We are not friends, or allies, or anything remotely close to that. You chose to save my life for some imbecilic reason, and I spared your own because I do not owe debts. Thusly, here we are. That is all there is to this."
It didn't feel like that. Not to him, at least. From the way that Cinder had kidnapped him the other day, it didn't seem like it was that way for her, either. Something hung between the two of them.
He just didn't know what it was, or what to do about it.
Perhaps that was what this meeting really was.
"So, is that it? You tell me that your friends are going to be trying to kill me in the near future – with you apparently excluded?"
"…I just…" Jaune took a breath. "Listen. I–"
There was a scurrying sound from the edge of the alleyway. One that had Cinder drawing out another weapon from the ether, and snapping towards it. Yet what they saw at the end of the alleyway was…
A young boy. Maybe seven or eight years old. He was raggedy, with a too-big shirt pulled up over his head and pants with holes all through them, and dirt covering nearly every part of him.
"…What are you doing here." Cinder lowered her weapon, moving over towards the edge of the alley and looking down at the boy.
"M-Ms. Cindy!" The little boy looked up at Cinder. "Lilah's in trouble!"
Jaune's brow furrowed, even as he looked towards the expression on the kid's face. He seemed genuinely panicked. Cinder, on the other hand, didn't look much better.
That…
"What happened?" Cinder's eyes narrowed instantly. She had gone from casually speaking with him to being ready to kill something at the drop of a hat.
"S-Some guys were coming by the alley we sometimes play in, and… I was later than normal, and…" The boy was barely holding back from crying. "T-They took her!"
Jaune's own heart leapt inside his chest. He crossed the distance between himself and the other two, and asked, "Where did they go?"
The boy flinched backwards, afraid of him. Cinder clicked her tongue, but said, "He's with me. You can trust him."
…Jaune would think about what she'd said later. In that moment, he had to focus.
"…T-They went… Uhm, I can show you?"
Cinder looked back to Jaune. In that moment, despite the fact that they were enemies, a truce immediately formed between them.
A little girl's life mattered far more.
"Show us." `
They pushed out of the alleyway, and began following behind the young boy, who was rushing off ahead of them. As they were, however, Jaune had questions.
"Shouldn't we inform the police about this?"
"Are you joking?" Cinder scoffed. "A young homeless girl going missing isn't exactly the kind of thing that the police are paid to care about. Especially now, when they're largely being used to guard the walls and prevent Tyrian from getting back in, or I from getting out. In their eyes, I'm sure they feel they have bigger things to worry about."
…So, Cinder knew about the police guarding the walls. It wasn't exactly secret information, to be fair, but even so, she knew the reasoning behind their being placed there, too. It was possible she's just guessed, but he wasn't willing to bet on it.
It was more likely she had some manner of getting that information. But how?
…Right now, it didn't matter.
"Here!" The boy finally came to a stop, panting below his breath with exhaustion from having run all this way. "They took her right here!"
The alleyway they'd ended up in was much bigger than the one that he'd waited for Cinder within. It was around three meters wide, and four or so long, which immediately made the fact that children used it to play make sense. It was out of sight, but also spacious.
"Where did they take her? What direction?"
"T-They took her out that way," The boy pointed north, towards the opposite entrance of the alley. "I didn't… I didn't follow them. I was scared, even though Lilah's my friend, I–"
"Quiet." Cinder interrupted the boy. "Find some place to lie low for a while. We'll get Lilah back."
"B-But those guys… t-they're dangerous."
Cinder's eye glinted in the low light of the alleyway.
"So am I."
Notes:
Cinder Fall has activated killmode. Kidnappers everywhere should be scared.
Anyways, next time, Jaune and Cinder track down a kidnapped child. That will probably be fun! Not much else to say, so I'll see you all next time!
For more on me, and my stories, check out my linktree! https://linktr.ee/deferonz
Chapter 8Notes:
This time on Hellfire Melodrama; Jaune and Cinder fuck some people up.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
"What are you doing?"
It was, in Cinder's eyes, a completely fair question. She was pushing her way through dark alleyways and asking questions of any lowlifes she could find, trying to track down the ones who'd taken Lilah.
What she wanted to know was why Jaune Arc was following her.
"…I'm coming with you?"
She laughed harshly. "Why, exactly, are you doing that?"
"You expect me to just abandon a little girl in need?"
"…I can handle this."
"Yeah, well, together, we can doubly handle it."
Together. How naïve a notion.
"…Fine. Don't get in my way."
"I don't plan on it."
She almost wanted to laugh. Somehow, she felt like the idiot at her side was going to be an anchor on her, but she didn't have the luxury of time to shake him off right now.
She cornered another man inside of an alley. A dealer, someone who would know other gangs who came by to buy.
She explained the situation to the man – explained, in this case, being perhaps a kinder word than what occurred – and pushed him up against the wall with a rapidly heating palm.
"T-Those guys, I know 'em, I know 'em! Stop with the heat, lady!"
She cooled her palm. "Talk."
"Those fuckers are freaks; they take children and make 'em fight Grimm in this weird fuckin' underground arena! I-I sell to 'em, but that's only cuz' I don' wanna' get brought down there myself, y'know!?"
"I don't care," She heated her palm again. "For your justifications. Talk."
"R-Right! Sewers, by the old high-rises! The abandoned ones!"
She threw the man to the ground, and then ran. Hot on her heels, somehow having not chickened out after watching her torture a man, was Jaune Arc.
"Could've gone easier on that guy." He remarked.
She didn't have the time to point out how stupid that sentiment was. "We didn't have time."
"…Maybe you're right."
Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion, but in the end, she threw aside the sentiment for now. For the moment, Lilah's safety was all that mattered.
The high-rises the man had been talking about were in the southern half of the city. They'd been a construction project that had been started just around the time that Cinder had attacked the Vytal Festival, and brought Vale to its knees. Given Valean money had been a large portion of the lien being put into said high-rises, even though they'd been half finished, they'd been left incomplete.
The two of them arrived at their destination some eleven or so minutes later. They found, almost instantly, a manhole cover that had been haphazardly put back in place.
Cinder approached it, wrenched it up, and moved it out of the way. Without hesitating, she dropped down into the hole.
It was pitch-black right at the entrance, with the only light coming from above them, and yet, right ahead of them, probably twenty meters distance, Cinder could see light illuminating a bend.
Something's here, certainly.
Arc dropped down behind her, instantly grimacing at the smell. "Right. Know which way?"
"No. But I assume we follow the lights."
Arc looked where she was, his eyes widened, and he nodded. "Sounds like a safe assumption. Ready?"
"Are you seriously asking that?" She sneered, before rushing ahead.
/
They did not go far before Cinder heard a suspicious sound. She held up a hand to indicate for Arc to stop – his footfalls were not trained for silence like her own – before stepping forward herself.
They were at the end of a sewage tunnel. Ahead of them was a harsh drop off, presumably where the sewage – having been cleaned – ran off to eventually be discharged into some kind of stream or river.
On their left, however, was a door. It seemed like it should've led into a simple maintenance closet or something to that effect, but judging by the fact that this entire corridor was lit up, Cinder had a feeling that was not the case.
"Got another one!" Someone – a man – called out from inside of the room to the left. It was muted by the door in the way. Cinder got closer.
"Young. You know they don't last as long."
"Pah! Fuckers want to see carnage, we give 'em carnage! Now they want to be picky about who gets sent off to the slaughter!?"
Cinder had heard enough, personally. She saw that the door had a window on it, and crafted a piece of glass in her hands with the Maiden's fire, before shaping it with her semblance. She used it to get an angle on what was going on inside without peeking her head up.
What she saw confirmed what she'd been expecting. This place was not at all a small operation. Inside of the room in front of them were two adult men, and thirty or so cages. Not all of the cages housed children – a little less than half by a quick count – but it was enough for Cinder to get the picture.
She turned back to Arc, and motioned for him to come forward. He did so, and she angled the mirror so that he could see.
She watched as his expression changed from curious to furious in a matter of seconds. He looked ready to break the door down and… well, probably give each of these bastards a talking to about how they'd made poor life choices before giving them a slap on the wrist and sending them off the way they came in.
Even the thought disgusted Cinder. No. None of these men would be leaving here alive.
"We move in quiet." She told him. "Move room to room. We flush this compound entirely out, then go back for the kids."
"What if someone comes in when we're not here?"
She didn't have time to debate the logistics of this with him. "…Fine. You can stay and guard them."
"Right. We going?"
"Quiet. Like I said."
He nodded.
The maintenance door was locked, but Cinder was not at all concerned about something of that nature. She pressed her scalding hand to the metal, and watched as the material around the lock began to melt. It only took fifteen or so seconds for the internals of the door to break down.
After that, she pushed the door open.
She summoned out a bow and an arrow, then another, keeping that second arrow held in a way so that she could fire it rapidly after the first.
The men were focused on pushing Lilah into a cage. She was being smart, going along with what they were telling her. She didn't need to be a hero. In fact, her trying to be a hero was about the worst thing that could possibly happen right now.
…Even so, Cinder needed her strikes to kill, and instantly. She aimed for the back of the men's spines right on their brainstems. Disconnect the brainstem from the brain, and the body would die instantly.
Two of those shots in a row, though, and in quick succession…
"You take the one on the right. I'll take the guy on the left down." Arc said as he drew out his blade.
"They can't have time to alert anyone here." She hissed at him. "You understand that!?"
"I do."
When Arc met her eyes, it was with an expression she had not seen out of him before. There was a real fury behind them. Yet it was not loud and brash as she'd seen from him months prior. No…
This was quiet. Simmering, yet present nonetheless.
Somehow far more dangerous.
…
"Alright." She hissed. "On three."
He nodded his head.
They finished pushing Lilah into the cage, and then shut it. She cowered in the corner.
Somehow, even through the darkness, Lilah's eyes locked onto them.
Arc charged forwards as Cinder loosed her arrow. It struck true, embedding itself four inches into the back of the right man's skull, and killing him instantly. His buddy reacted, but too slow. Arc tackled him to the ground, and choked the man out until he was unconscious.
Cinder rolled her eyes. "And here I thought you had it in you to kill him. Surely you realize keeping him alive only makes things more difficult for us."
"That's… I'd prefer not to if I can avoid it." Arc said.
"Yet you'll help someone else do so without a thought. As long as the blood doesn't coat your own hands, no?"
"This is different."
"Different?" She scoffed. "In what way? Or are you merely attempting to explain away your cowardice?"
Arc looked down and away from her. She expected him to direct that simmering anger within his gaze at her, and yet…
He kept his gaze affixed to the stone beneath them.
"…Guess I am."
Cinder must've had a dumb look on her face, and yet she could not shake the feeling like the man she was seeing right now was entirely different to the boy who'd brought his sword down upon Penny Polendina just a few months ago. Who'd cried and had his blade broken; his will shattered.
…Just what happened to change him so?
Had preventing the Maiden's powers from falling into her hands, killing Penny Polendina, truly done all of this?
…It didn't matter. Not then. She shook off those emotions, took a deep breath, and walked up to Lilah's cage. "Are you alright?"
"M-Miss Cindy!" Lilah looked so relieved at seeing her that Cinder almost wanted to hide away. It was too bright a thing. Too joyous to be aimed at her. "I-I'm al-alright!"
Cinder observed the girl. She was not at all in a good way. There was a dark spot on her pants that was clearly from urine. Likely a fear response. Her arms had bruises all over them, and she was still shaking, even now.
…Cinder channeled that sight into herself. Used it to fuel her as she stood up from the cage, and gazed around.
So many others. She counted twelve. Thirteen including Lilah.
…
"…How many kidnapped you, Lilah?"
"T-There were just two. One went further in…"
"Did they say anything on the way here? Mention any names?"
"I… I think… a man named B-Bart. B-But I'm not…"
Lilah wasn't sure. She'd been too out of it, likely having a panic attack or some other form of mental escape. She did not blame the girl. Still, she knew that this was not a 2-person operation already, so the girl's information wasn't entirely of use.
Even so…
"That will help." She told the girl as she looked back down at her. "Now, stay here for a little while. Arc here–" She looked to Jaune Arc, who looked back at her, then to Lilah, and then nodded. "Mister Jaune here," the man snorted, "will watch over you. If anything happens, scream. I will come running."
Lilah tried to nod her head, but she was so out of it that it looked more like an earthquake localized entirely within her skull. Cinder did not say anything about it. For an instant, the urge to comfort the girl came to her, flashing through her mind, but…
No. She was not made for such things. Imperfect, jagged; like a broken piece of glass.
Someone who was not, however, was there instead.
"Don't worry," Somehow, she hadn't felt Arc come close, and he brushed past her to kneel before the girl, so she wouldn't have to crane her neck up. "I'll keep us safe until she comes back."
"But Miss Cindy is going alone!"
He looked amused. "Believe me, Miss Cindy can take care of herself."
Something coiled in her stomach. A sensation she hadn't experienced in so long she almost forgot what it was. She ignored it as best she was able, turning away from the scene playing out in front of her.
She made to exit, pressing out into whatever corridor lurked beyond this one, but before she could.
"Cinder?"
"What?" She turned back.
"…Leave some alive." Arc told her. "I don't want anyone getting away with this. If we can interrogate them, we can bring this whole thing down."
She pushed a breath out of her nostrils. "If I am in the mood."
And then she pushed her way out of the room.
/
The compound was not large. This wasn't a huge surprise, but it was a pleasant confirmation, certainly. The entire setup seemed to be centered around a combat arena in the middle of the compound, with an exit that led out to a tunnel that – if Cinder was right – probably exited to the dunes beyond Vacuo.
From there, they could bait Grimm in, and then when they had a Grimm, pit them against the children in bloodsport.
Cinder considered herself a bad person. She was not naïve. But even so…
People like this made her want to retch.
So, even if she agreed with Arc that at least one or two of these people should be left alive to serve as informants and hopefully bring down anyone ever associated with this place… she was not gentle, even with those she intended to keep alive.
The place was mostly deserted, it turned out. She only found five people – she killed three of them – but there was space for at least twenty or twenty-five spectators in one of the rooms, where multiple fold-out chairs had been set up as a sort of viewing area for the spectacle beyond the glass.
Cinder thought about setting the entire place alight, but… it was possible they could extract DNA evidence from out of this place is she left in intact.
She shook her head, and then prepared to go back to Arc. Yet…
A scream rang out through the corridors.
Lilah's scream.
She was moving before she really understood the source of the noise. She rounded a corner, then another, drew out twin blades shaped like Midnight, and slammed into the door to the room with the cages with her shoulder to find…
Jaune Arc, with his blade buried in the gut of that man he'd previously spared.
Blood poured from the man's lips as his face rapidly lost color. He tried to scratch at Arc's face, or provide some paltry resistance, but in the end, he died on the blade mere moments later.
Arc let out a breath, before tilting his sword so that the man would slide off of it, and back onto the stone floor of the compound.
Then, he looked to her, his face grim. "…Lilah's okay. Guy woke up faster than he should've. She reacted when she saw him coming at me. I was turned away, and… I… reacted, too."
Evidently, Arc had been able to respond to the man's attack. She looked at his sword, blood still fresh on the steel.
It reminded her of then, in that half-twisted world between worlds, with him knelt over the previous Winter Maiden's corpse.
"…I've finished here." Cinder told him, stepping past some of the other cages and making for Lilah's in particular.
"Survivors?"
"Two. I encased their arms and legs in obsidian. Broke their limbs, too, as insurance. They won't be going anywhere."
"Right." He looked around. "Let's get the kids out of here. We can worry about making sure those bastards get everything coming to them once that's done."
Cinder nodded, kneeling down and placing her hand on Lilah's cage. She could've used a key, but she wanted to make sure these cages couldn't be used for anything ever again.
When she'd finished, she opened the melted cage door, and then reached for Lilah. She hesitated to take Cinder's hand, which had just been glowing hot.
"It's okay." She told her, pressing her hand to the side of the cage and showing her that nothing happened. "See?"
Lilah took Cinder's hand, and then, when she seemed to realize she was genuinely out of danger…
She sobbed loudly, pressing herself into Cinder and holding onto her for dear life. Cinder, taken aback, held her arms out wide, uncertain what was happening.
"Hug her!" Arc hissed quietly after a second or so spent watching.
Cinder glared up at the man, but did as he'd said, wrapping her arms – however awkwardly – around Lilah's small form.
"You're okay." Arc said, kneeling down beside Lilah and beginning to glow. His aura shown on his skin. "Everything's going to be okay."
His semblance…
"That goes for everyone!" Arc called out to the other children. "I promise you. All of you. You're going to be okay."
There was some light murmuring at that. A few of the kids pressed their faces against the cages to get a better look at them. Many clearly doubted what they were saying. Yet, as if in answer, in stubborn refusal, Arc's aura glowed even brighter.
"Hehe…" Lilah giggled. "That… feels nice, mister."
"Hm?" Arc looked to Lilah. "Oh. I'm glad."
…Cinder would never admit the truth of Lilah's words. Given she was holding onto Lilah, she was feeling some small amount of Arc's semblance filtering into herself as well. It was a feeling she did not think she would ever grow used to. Something incomprehensible to her.
Just… warmth.
Her own semblance's warmth was something she could not feel. She was immune to her own heat.
For better, or, far more often, for worse.
…She looked away from Arc. She did not need to be thinking about this right now.
That way laid madness, and she was doing her best to stay sane.
/
Cinder had agreed with Arc when the man had told her he wanted to get the kids out, then pretend as if he'd stumbled upon the scene, having been entirely uninvolved, when talking to the authorities. After all, Cinder's involvement was clear from the fact that the people the police would find had their limbs encased in obsidian, but his own involvement was subtle enough that he could likely get away with passing it off to her.
So, Cinder stayed a way's away atop a nearby building, while Arc called in local law enforcement. Most were orphans or street urchins, but a few had families to go back to, and they would be able to assist in that far better than a bunch of child hunters, who barely knew their way in the world at all.
Cinder watched one particular reunion as a mother and father rushed over to embrace a child, who, up until that point, had been stoic and put together.
The boy broke in their arms, reverting to the young kid he really was. At most eleven or twelve. Perhaps younger.
Once Arc had finished speaking with the police, and they had departed, Cinder moved back down to ground level. One particular child had decided to stick around.
"You're sure you don't want to go with them?" Arc asked Lilah, who was still holding onto his arm.
"…I'd be in trouble."
"Why–"
"Lilah's stolen from more than a few people." Cinder rolled her eyes. Was such not obvious? "They'd likely turn her over to a correctional facility."
"Oh." Arc nodded his head. "I… didn't really think about that."
"Yes." Cinder shook her head. "Obviously."
The man glared at her flatly, but she ignored him.
"…Do you have anywhere to stay, Lilah?" Arc asked her, kneeling down so that they were at eye level.
"U-Uhm… I do?"
"You… don't sound sure."
"I-I do!"
Arc looked to Cinder, which was pointless, given Cinder didn't know anything more about this than he did. She and Lilah had, up until this point, only interacted in a give-and-take sense. Cinder gave her lien; Lilah gave her back information.
"Okay. Where is that?"
/
They walked for quite some time, at least fifteen or so minutes. By the end, the stress of the day was more than catching up to Lilah, who had started to stumble from exhaustion. Arc picked her up and carried her piggyback for the remainder of the way without a moment's hesitation.
Finally, they arrived. They stood in front of a ratty orphanage, which Cinder was immediately hostile of.
She'd grown up somewhere similar once upon a time.
"…This is where you stay?" She asked Lilah.
"Y-Yeah." She nodded her head. "The matron here is nice. I uhm… she tells me not to steal, but she doesn't have any money herself, so…"
"That's… not shocking." Arc sighed. "Things being as they are, just about every single lien the government has is going straight into defending the kingdom. I guess that means money that should be going to places like this orphanage is being spent elsewhere. It's… hard to blame them, given that if Salem destroys the world, it won't matter if places like this are being properly funded or not."
Cinder grunted out below her breath. She… hung back. Arc seemed to understand why, leading Lilah up to the door and knocking. Eventually, some few seconds later, an older woman – in her forties or fifties – answered the door with wide eyes.
"Who– LILAH!" The woman immediately fell to her knees, and pulled the girl herself into a tight hug. "I heard… gods, I was so worried!"
"I-I'm…" Lilah's eyes filled with tears that spilled down her face. "I'm sorry, ma'am…"
"Don't apologize. I'm just so glad you're okay." She pulled back, looking down at Lilah's clothes. "We'll get you changed, alright? Uhm… who are you, sir?"
"I'm Jaune Arc. A Huntsman. I happened across the scene–"
"H-He helped Miss Cindy save all of us!" Lilah blew their cover story immediately. Cinder winced. "They fought the bad guys, a-and…"
"I… I see." The matron looked up at Arc's face, and smiled. "…You have my gratitude, sir. I don't think I can properly express how much… is there anything we could do for you? Or… this 'Miss Cindy'?"
"No, no." Arc shook his head. A textbook example of a hero, refusing a reward. It was almost enough to make Cinder gag. "Just watch over Lilah. Maybe keep her here at the orphanage for the next few weeks. And…"
He leaned in, whispering something to the woman. Cinder felt suspicious for a second, up until the woman's eyes flicked over to Lilah, and she nodded her head. "I'll make sure she gets looked after. I promise."
"That's good. Take care of yourself, okay, Lilah?"
"A-Are you leaving?"
"Yeah. I've got places to be, I'm afraid. My friends will be on my butt if I don't get back soon. I've been out all day."
"…Okay. But, uhm…"
"What is it?"
"Are you Miss Cindy's boyfriend?"
…Cinder did not acknowledge anything that occurred within the next few seconds. She did not worry about how she felt, or what her face looked like, or how Arc was looking. She ignored it all.
"That… yeah, sure."
Cinder's right eye twitched.
Arc said his goodbyes to the two, before walking back over to where Cinder was stood in a nearby alley.
Immediately, she glared his way. "…'Yeah, sure?'"
He shrugged. "She's a kid. A little white lie isn't hurting anybody. What, did you want me to tell her the truth?"
"…Fine." Cinder huffed, rolling her eyes. "Well, this has been an eventful experience. I'm going."
"I… okay." Arc grumbled. "…Keep in mind what I said though, alright? Everyone's going to be out to kill you."
Cinder rolled her eyes. "I believe I already addressed that. Frankly, I was shocked that that was not already your intention."
"…Thank you. For today, I mean."
Cinder shot the man a look.
"Because of you, we were able to save thirteen children from a horrible fate." Jaune spoke. "So, y'know… least I could offer is thanks."
"…Don't mention it." She pushed out.
She turned away from Arc, ignored the tiny warmth within her heart, and disappeared into the crowd.
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TO BE CONTINUED