Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Oh right, he was here. In the heat of the moment she had forgotten. "...Do ya do room service?" : |​

"No"

 

[MyrtenRose]

And so they were off, bound for the next great adventure in Atlas!

"Yay!" Maria clapped from the back of the cargo hold, smugly perched atop a crate with legs crossed campfire style even though no one could recall her entering, leaving, or even definitively being anything more than a horrific figment conjured by tricks of the mind down there in the dark.​

It wasn't a pleasant ride for all involved.

The maiden just couldn't keep her eyes off her counterpart. Sure, in the fight back there, her double had proven to be quite helpful. But now, in this moment, with all the quiet time to think...that other Raven had made a portal. It sure wasn't a bond connected with her, there was no way in hell it was one to that stranger and that only left one option. She'd bonded to Qrow. The one that was not technically her twin. After only a very, very short amount of time. That didn't sit well with Spring at all. In fact, that had her wondering if the furious rant that had cut her to the bone, figuratively speaking, had been in part thanks to Qrow having another Raven to compare her against. A Raven that outshined the once loyal Ozpin lieutenant and bandit ruler. Someone superior almost across the whole board. Someone who made all her inadequacies, every fault, every flaw stick out even more.

Someone who she felt was stealing her brother from her.

That made her feel even weaker. A bandit, getting robbed? That was a bad joke. An insult. But the worst part, the worst part was that this other version of herself, this double of hers that apparently everyone preferred, from Yang to Qrow to the rest of that group that had been in that faunus' Mistral residence...she didn't seem to realize what she was doing at all! Didn't acknowledge the theft going on right in front of the maiden's eyes! It was absolutely INFURIATING. The more she thought about it, the more the rage inside continued to boil over, looking for a release. Eventually the maiden found she simply couldn't contain it any longer.

One moment, they were flying peacefully in a nice and calm quiet.

The next, there was a loud thud as the maiden had slammed the huntress's head HARD against one of the inner walls of the airship, both hands wrapped tight around the other Raven's throat as she crushed the air out of her windpipe, with a look of such aggression that the words hostile, belligerent, violent...all of them felt too weak to describe that look.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Eve's kept her head tilted down even when Sienna knelt across from her, unsure what to even do or say after that, or what she might meet Sienna's eyes with if she did. She picked it up a bit when she tapped the mask, though, and failed to keep the hesitance from showing on her face as she bit her lip uncertainly.

"...I... I'm not sure that's what I came here to do. I was expecting a punishment. Maybe it is, I don't know. I just... need..."

She stalled like it was a genuine struggle to even get this much out, never the most eloquent wordsmith even if she did have any idea how to begin vocalizing whatever 'poison' was taking root deeper and deeper inside her thoughts every day.

"...guidance. Please. I can't be by myself anymore."​

"...Guidance I can give. But it won't be easy. You know this is not a gentle path we're walking, and I can't have weaklings by my side on it." She warned quietly. "It will be hard. It will be violent. But if you can walk it..."

Sienna stood back up and calmly pressed her hand against the cell's lock, and as it buzzed Eve could feel her aura returning at the same time the cell door opened. Sienna's eyes were heavy with the weight of authority as she turned back to the bull faunus. This was likely her best shot; if this was all a clever ruse, or if the flood of power returning to her arms lit a fuse inside her, Sienna was as vulnerable as she'd ever likely be; no other shadow fang around to help her, her weapon still wrapped around her upper arm, her back straight and stance firm in all the ways Eve knew didn't match the tiger's fighting style. Sword or no sword, this was Eve's chance to cut the head right off the Shadow Fang.

There was no way Sienna didn't know that too, yet all she did was stick out her hand.

"...then you won't walk alone ever again. If I have your loyalty, Eve Taurus, then you have mine, and you will have Blake's. To the grave. Just as every faunus under my banner does, until these chains are broken for good."

 

[Gus Gungus]

The next, there was a loud thud maiden had slammed the huntress's head HARD against one of the inner walls of the airship, both hands wrapped tight around the other Raven's throat as she crushed the air out of her windpipe, with a look of such aggression that the words hostile, belligerent, violent...all of them felt too weak to describe that look.

"WHAT are you doing?! Get her under control!" Ironwood barked back at Ruby from the cockpit, voice bristling with a sharp displeasure and authority that would've made the Cordovin woman curl up into a ball and roll away faster than Raven had bowled her. Qrow stirred in his sleep as whatever nightmares had been plaguing his unconscious self seemed to intensify, a flickering twitch to his brow as aura worked to repair the damage he'd been dealt, bizarrely slow to take effect on the grisly bite wound for some reason.

The big ruckus also woke somebody else up from their nap.

".......Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhh no. Guess I'm doing it again." The stowaway they'd unwittingly picked up from who knows where softly murmured, head slowly peeking up from behind the crate she was hiding behind with a languorous yawn.

"It's scary, turn it off before we crash!!" Whined a more timorous, frightened voice as she worriedly wrung her wrists.

"That won't be a problem, sweetie. If that happens we'll just get our friends to carry us the rest of the way!" She reassured lovingly, taking her left hand in her right's gentle grip and stroking tiny circles around it to calm her younger manifestation down. "Oh yeah, you're right... why's she going so crazy though? We weren't even thinking about doing it!"

"Well, she made the Reaper so mad when she burned him it's really no surprise. Besides, can't you smell that?" The voice shifted into explanatory big-sister mode as she raised a finger like a detective making a dramatic revelation.

"We hardly even had to fan the flames for her to go off like this! This lady is just full of hate!"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...Guidance I can give. But it won't be easy. You know this is not a gentle path we're walking, and I can't have weaklings by my side on it." She warned quietly. "It will be hard. It will be violent. But if you can walk it..."

Sienna stood back up and calmly pressed her hand against the cell's lock, and as it buzzed Eve could feel her aura returning at the same time the cell door opened. Sienna's eyes were heavy with the weight of authority as she turned back to the bull faunus. This was likely her best shot; if this was all a clever ruse, or if the flood of power returning to her arms lit a fuse inside her, Sienna was as vulnerable as she'd ever likely be; no other shadow fang around to help her, her weapon still wrapped around her upper arm, her back straight and stance firm in all the ways Eve knew didn't match the tiger's fighting style. Sword or no sword, this was Eve's chance to cut the head right off the Shadow Fang.

There was no way Sienna didn't know that too, yet all she did was stick out her hand.

"...then you won't walk alone ever again. If I have your loyalty, Eve Taurus, then you have mine, and you will have Blake's. To the grave. Just as every faunus under my banner does, until these chains are broken for good."

Eve still didn't rise when the cell door opened, but looked down at her hands and flexed them once or twice in assessing fashion as the translucent crimson barrier of her aura flickered back into existence around them. Her chin slowly tilted back up to Sienna, and it was hard to deny the sense that she considered every single one of those things in the brief time before Sienna extended her hand, mouth a thin line as her eyes flickered over the tigress, her weapon, her stance, the lack of guards in view... So lengthy and silent was the stare that there were only two possible justifications for it. Either it was a look of murder...

Or one of reverence.

The mask didn't help when it came to discerning which, but Sienna received her answer after a few lingering moments as Eve took the hand and carefully rose up to her feet if allowed.

"Then I guess it's time we all got what we deserved."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"WHAT are you doing?! Get her under control!" Ironwood barked back at Ruby from the cockpit, voice bristling with a sharp displeasure and authority that would've made the Cordovin woman curl up into a ball and roll away faster than Raven had bowled her. Qrow stirred in his sleep as whatever nightmares had been plaguing his unconscious self seemed to intensify, a flickering twitch to his brow as aura worked to repair the damage he'd been dealt, bizarrely slow to take effect on the grisly bite wound for some reason.

The onset of that attack had come so suddenly, so seemingly out of nowhere, that admittedly Ruby had been stunned into more than just silence. For a brief time she couldn't even move, just feeling as stuck as a statue. But when Ironwood's voice echoed out, the order from their pilot shook Ruby out of her temporary stupor. "Right!" She started forward, only to have to petal burst to avoid the sizable fireball that had launched out of Raven's palm, the maiden having pulled one of her hands away from her counterpart's throat. The other one still hanging on squeezed even tighter to make up for it. "STAY THE HELL OUT OF THIS!" Raven roared as she spammed even more bursts of fire at Ruby, keeping her dodging. At least up until one missed blast slammed into Qrow.

When that happened, Ruby's eyes narrowed in an angry glare and she pushed herself even faster, sliding under and weaving past any more fireballs and jumping right up into a double kick that sent the maiden(and the huntress she was still holding on tightly to) flying into the cockpit. Raven landed on the control panel in front of the copilot's seat, eyes shooting off to the side briefly in a glance at Ironwood...before she swung over to slam her huntress counterpart's head into the former general's own skull. "THIS IS NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS, JAMES! NEITHER OF YOURS! SO DON'T FUCKING INTERFERE!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Eve still didn't rise when the cell door opened, but looked down at her hands and flexed them once or twice in assessing fashion as the translucent crimson barrier of her aura flickered back into existence around them. Her chin slowly tilted back up to Sienna, and it was hard to deny the sense that she considered every single one of those things in the brief time before Sienna extended her hand, mouth a thin line as her eyes flickered over the tigress, her weapon, her stance, the lack of guards in view... So lengthy and silent was the stare that there were only two possible justifications for it. Either it was a look of murder...

Or one of reverence.

The mask didn't help when it came to discerning which, but Sienna received her answer after a few lingering moments as Eve took the hand and carefully rose up to her feet if allowed.

"Then I guess it's time we all got what we deserved."

Spoiler

She couldn't explain why but she suddenly got hit by the feeling that she was even more alone.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The onset of that attack had come so suddenly, so seemingly out of nowhere, that admittedly Ruby had been stunned into more than just silence. For a brief time she couldn't even move, just feeling as stuck as a statue. But when Ironwood's voice echoed out, the order from their pilot shook Ruby out of her temporary stupor. "Right!" She started forward, only to have to petal burst to avoid the sizable fireball that had launched out of Raven's palm, the maiden having pulled one of her hands away from her counterpart's throat. The other one still hanging on squeezed even tighter to make up for it. "STAY THE HELL OUT OF THIS!" Raven roared as she spammed even more bursts of fire at Ruby, keeping her dodging. At least up until one missed blast slammed into Qrow.

When that happened, Ruby's eyes narrowed in an angry glare and she pushed herself even faster, sliding under and weaving past any more fireballs and jumping right up into a double kick that sent the maiden(and the huntress she was still holding on tightly to) flying into the cockpit. Raven landed on the control panel in front of the copilot's seat, eyes shooting off to the side briefly in a glance at Ironwood...before she swung over to slam her huntress counterpart's head into the former general's own skull. "THIS IS NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS, JAMES! NEITHER OF YOURS! SO DON'T FUCKING INTERFERE!"

"HOW is it not my business if you OBLITERATE THE DAMN SHIP I'M TRYING TO FLY?!" He bellowed back, about as incensed by the illogicality of it all as he was dazed by his brain effectively bouncing around the inside of his skull after Raven bludgeoned it with... Raven. He had no shame in admitting he had a thicker skull than hers, though, and his recovery time reflected that a dial was flipped to engage the autopilot before the frenzied Raven felt an obscenely powerful metal hand clasp around her throat and lift her into the air, hydraulics hissing as he tried to choke her out as gently as such a thing could be done.

That didn't mean he held anything back though. If he applied a hair's worth of extra pressure the bandit would've been in danger of feeling her neck snap, aura or no.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"HOW is it not my business if you OBLITERATE THE DAMN SHIP I'M TRYING TO FLY?!" He bellowed back, about as incensed by the illogicality of it all as he was dazed by his brain effectively bouncing around the inside of his skull after Raven bludgeoned it with... Raven. He had no shame in admitting he had a thicker skull than hers, though, and his recovery time reflected that a dial was flipped to engage the autopilot before the frenzied Raven felt an obscenely powerful metal hand clasp around her throat and lift her into the air, hydraulics hissing as he tried to choke her out as gently as such a thing could be done.

That didn't mean he held anything back though. If he applied a hair's worth of extra pressure the bandit would've been in danger of feeling her neck snap, aura or no.​

"Ghk." Raven made some sort of strangled noise as the choker got in turn choked, though even with as tight as she was doing it, it couldn't hold a candle to that mechanical limb. The maiden released her grasp on the dazed huntress who was extremely out of it after bouncing her head off James's. In the next second she shifted into a bird in an attempt to escape that chokehold with a violent sounding CAW CAW. If it worked she popped back up as a human a second or two later, her furious anger showing no sign of diminishing. In fact, quite the opposite, it only seemed to be getting worse and worse. Something that become more apparent as she went to try thrusting her sword in a stabbing move aimed for that synthetic arm of his.

"SHUT UP!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"No"

"...not even a good beer?"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Ghk." Raven made some sort of strangled noise as the choker got in turn choked, though even with as tight as she was doing it, it couldn't hold a candle to that mechanical limb. The maiden released her grasp on the dazed huntress who was extremely out of it after bouncing her head off James's. In the next second she shifted into a bird in an attempt to escape that chokehold with a violent sounding CAW CAW. If it worked she popped back up as a human a second or two later, her furious anger showing no sign of diminishing. In fact, quite the opposite, it only seemed to be getting worse and worse. Something that become more apparent as she went to try thrusting her sword in a stabbing move aimed for that synthetic arm of his.

"SHUT UP!"​

Ironwood grimaced, funneling aura into his more mechanically-inclined limb like a siphon until it was hardened enough to catch the blade's tip in his palm. It left a deep gouge in the dense Atlesian steel all the same, but he used the opportunity to close his hand around it and make a grab for her other shoulder to try and shake her to her senses. "What's gotten into you?! We do not have time for this!"

 

[MyrtenRose]

Ironwood grimaced, funneling aura into his more mechanically-inclined limb like a siphon until it was hardened enough to catch the blade's tip in his palm. It left a deep gouge in the dense Atlesian steel all the same, but he used the opportunity to close his hand around it and make a grab for her other shoulder to try and shake her to her senses. "What's gotten into you?! We do not have time for this!"

“You don’t see it?! You don’t understand??” Raven didn’t make any attempt to avoid or counter him shaking her, the maiden fine with letting it happen. She leaned closer despite the shaking, which hardly seemed to have any effect and she butted heads with James, though her eyes were looking over to where the other Raven was on the floor, gasping for air and trying to clear her dazed vision. “Her every breath insults me! Her very existence is an affront to all that I am.” In place of hands, Raven lashed out with a stomp of her heel, cutting off the airflow again.

“And she needs to pay for it.”​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"That's...that's not true. Don't you see? We all failed...if any of us is dead weight...then we all are. I'm no better than you. We're all on the same level, none of us were ready. Not for any of it. But that's exactly why I have to do this! Don't YOU GET IT?! I can't be weak! I HAVE TO GET STRONGER. MORE THAN ANY OF YOU, I HAVE TO!" She yelled, some fire returning to her eye.

"I WANT TO, I NEED TO, AND THE WORLD NEEDS ME TO!"

"I WON'T BE A CHILD FOREVER, ARTHUR!"

A few tears edged out of the corner of her eye as she yelled that, but they didn't make it down her face before they were evaporated by the sheer overwhelming heat radiating off her in invisible waves.

"...So you really do think that," He answered quietly with a bitter smirk. "Cinder the maiden, so high above us all. But even if you won't be a child forever, you're still one NOW, and one that I was entrusted to watch over, AND-"

Bursts of fire shot out of her boots and rapidly lifted her into the air, revealing to all watching that at least she had learned to get a good handle on flight. From there she just shot off, soaring as fast as she could away from them, eyes firmly shut for a while as she did her best to stave off all the tears she could feel coming. This was already hard enough, letting him go off any further...it would hurt even more. She was already at incredible levels of hurt, more than she had ever imagined possible for pain to reach. If she didn't get away, she...it was a certainty that she would have broken down completely.

Only when she was a good distance away did she stop in the air, turning back to look. "I'm...sorry." Then she adjusted her course, going not for the open sky but into the forest surrounding them, disappearing into that mess of trees and leaves.

"...you... you can't just..."

Arthur's shoulders heaved up and down in unsteady breathes as he stared blankly up to where Cinder had flown off to.

"...nrgh... nnnrrrrrrRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! FINE!" he roared after her into the open sky as he kicked a branch at his feet wildly into the treeline. "FINE THEN! RUN OFF, PICK THE BANDIT OVER US! BUT I'M DONE, CINDER! NO MORE!"

"You might be done, Arthur. Might not be, you might go after Cinder, I don't know. All I know is I'm not. I'm over in my head here but the mission is all I have. Without Team WTCH, I have nothing else but this. I can't stand by and let others fill in my stead. I refuse to let that happen, it simply isn't right. It's not a fair shake, all of this, but it never has been for the huntsmen of past working against Ozpin."

Turning away from Watts, his words flowed still, "My goal is to find Cinder safe and figure out a solution to all this. From there... I don't know. We need to link back with the others." He wouldn't have dared to mention Atlas and if they were parting ways here, he felt obliged to share his makeshift agenda with Watts. Even at the risk of his sharp words. He glanced to the scorpion faunus, his eyes tinged with regret as one corner of his mouth was quirked in apologetic uncertainty.

"Tyrian. I know I promised I'd help you. I'm sorry but this takes priority... if I can help, I will but until then." As contrite as the Mistralian seemed, the tone of his words cemented them as a finality. With all that said, he stepped away from what used to be his team, his trajectory bearing for the remnants of Team MTEN. In spite of everything he outlined, he wasn't set to move on the self-ordained mission just yet; he wouldn't leave without ensuring, at least for himself, that the others were well. Well enough in a sense, he knew Neo was anything but copacetic.

Despite the fact they all came together but you know what I meaaaaaaaan

Brosel, for his part, disappeared.

Watts whirled on Hazel with a confused bent to his anger, taking a few steps after him as he put his hands to the side. "A solution to WHAT, Hazel!? Ozpin!? The grimm!? Vernal?! Cinder being an idiot?! What the fuck are you on about? Where is this hypocritical bullshit coming from?! Don't pretend you weren't scared for your sister when she tied herself up into this mess too!"

 

[Gus Gungus]

A part of Neo wanted that fight.

It wanted it bad.

It'd let her feel something, a pain that she understood, and knew how to deal with, how to fight back against it. That part of her still didn't want to accept that she still thought she was alone in this pain, that no one else could really understand what she was feeling, and that all she had to do was to tear down everything else around her in her rage and put every other person she touched at her level. To pass on this hurt in hopes it would lessen the burden, to let someone else be to blame.

But that ship had sailed. It didn't matter if Mercury had told her to trust him, that he'd keep him safe; if it ended up like this, then it was the wrong decision, her wrong decision. Roman was her tether to the rest of the world, the one thing that let her feel like a person instead of a freak, the one lifeline of communication she had with everyone who life hadn't crippled from the word go. And all he ever asked for in return was to keep him safe. To care for him back, even to half the level that he showed her.

She failed. She failed at both. Two simple requests, and she'd failed. The only reason Torchwick even went to Beacon was her, the only reason he was ever in danger was her, and she wasn't good enough to keep her end of the deal. Beacon should've been enough of a wake up call, when she'd needed her darker half to fend of pyrrha, and only after Torchwick had been beaten into the hospital. But no, she was just as excited as everyone else to take the fight to Ozpin, and all she did at Haven was... nothing.

She was useless.

If she couldn't even defend the only person in the world who understood her, then she couldn't be trusted to defend anyone.

And none of that even felt that important to her. Not when compared to the simple fact that she finally had to accept never see his smile again.

By the time Mercury finished, his words had seemingly had the opposite effect on her he'd been hoping for, and she'd gone completely limp in his hands as she let out a horrible, wretched fascimile of a sob that wracked her entire body as the full weight of her breakdown finally came. Neo shattered, only this time it wasn't an illusion.

Crap. She really wasn't biting.

The noise Mercury eventually made at the back of his throat was one of deep, bitter anger and disgust, like a cross between a growl and a yell. And not a single particle of it was directed at Neo. Everything would be fine if she just hit him. It wouldn't fix anything, they might not have talked anymore after all was said and done, but it was better than having to stand here and watch this and know there was nothing he could do to stop it, short of jumping in a time machine and telling the Mercury of a few days ago to pull his head out of his ass. To cover his team's weak spots, to at least try to be the 'leader' he was supposed to be. But it was too late for all that. Just like his legs, just like his semblance, by the time he had the foresight to do anything Roman was already gone.

He was the heavy. A weapon. He knew how to kick and break things and look good doing it. That was it. That was all he ever planned to be, all he was taught to be. Some people were bakers, some made pottery, and that was his trade. By birth and by blood. He didn't know anything about piecing something back together, or someone; Least of all someone who was broken because of him. If you wanted a shrink, you called a shrink. If you wanted a sarcastic, condescending jackass who was only good for one thing, you called him.

...Was that really all he could do? Stand there and play the hardass while someone who mattered broke down? It wasn't what he wanted to do; Just what he was forcing himself to do.

Weak.

Wasn't there anything more to him than that?

Soft.

Didn't he at least owe enough to her to try?

...But what do I know? You buried me up on a mountain too.

"...Neo!"

He was snapped from his brooding as she went slack and shook her again, but this time it wasn't the harsh, stern demand to snap out of it of before. It was something feeble, powerless, and absolutely drowning in the tidal wave of sorrow emanating from Neo's being, a tidal wave he felt responsible for and now found himself entirely powerless to stop. Mostly it was just to catch her before she hit the ground when she went slack, and it was with a shamed, guilt-ridden shudder of a sob that he embraced her just for the support more than anything, biting down on the sound he made as if he could simply force it back inside along with all the guilty emotions leaking out of his hardened exterior.

"I'm j-just really sorry, okay?"

And that was all he could manage. The most he could do or say to even attempt to put any of this right. It was practically nothing. He gently lowered her down so they both went to their knees with his arms around her, crying like a little kid caught doing something stupid and forced to face the wrath of a parent, and made no move to release Neo from the rigid embrace until she either pulled away or disappeared.

And so Mercury finally discovered an emotion​

 

[Gus Gungus]

“You don’t see it?! You don’t understand??” Raven didn’t make any attempt to avoid or counter him shaking her, the maiden fine with letting it happen. She leaned closer despite the shaking, which hardly seemed to have any effect and she butted heads with James, though her eyes were looking over to where the other Raven was on the floor, gasping for air and trying to clear her dazed vision. “Her every breath insults me! Her very existence is an affront to all that I am.” In place of hands, Raven lashed out with a stomp of her heel, cutting off the airflow again.

“And she needs to pay for it.”

The raw latent energy of what happened next could only be presented through the use of moving images as Raven was smacked down and promptly yeeted from the plane. Ironwood set his jaw and watched whatever her next move after that was with clouded eyes and an eagerness to continue imposing the fullest brunt of his commitment to justice, to what he knew to be right, to his kingdom's safety, security and rule of law. He was willing to do whatever it took. He was happy to. He liked it. He...

...Glanced down at his hand, expression growing thoughtful as he watched his automaton digits flex and contract.

"...Something is wrong."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Arthur's shoulders heaved up and down in unsteady breathes as he stared blankly up to where Cinder had flown off to.

"...nrgh... nnnrrrrrrRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! FINE!" he roared after her into the open sky as he kicked a branch at his feet wildly into the treeline. "FINE THEN! RUN OFF, PICK THE BANDIT OVER US! BUT I'M DONE, CINDER! NO MORE!"

In truth, she hadn't gotten very far into the woods before her flight crashed and burned. She just...couldn't keep herself up for that much longer. When she dropped onto the dirt, she was still close enough that, if she stood utterly still and strained her ears(which it so happens is what she did), she could just faintly make out those screams in the distance. The accusation stung, as if one of her own arrows had been ripped out of her hands and stabbed into her chest. She hadn't wanted to choose. That was the furthest thing from what she wanted. Her friends, or her duty. Certainly, if she didn't feel there was anything she could gain from Vernal, the choice would have been so very easy. She wouldn't even need to think about it. What was some dirty bandit to the friends she'd come to love?

But there was a lot she felt could learn from her fellow maiden, no matter how distasteful she was as a person. It was a lack of better options(that she knew of) that forced her into the decision she'd made. No matter how badly it hurt, how it felt like her heart itself had torn out of her. On top of everything else that had been dropped onto her back there.

It was an overwhelmingly distressed Cinder that stumbled over into the shadow of one of the larger trees nearby, legs aching with each messy step. By the time she stepped into the shadows, her legs, they just...she couldn't stand any longer. Cinder collapsed, completely undignified yet utterly uncaring about that. Now that she was away and had quiet time to just...deeply think, without any arguments or confrontations...all the tears that she had tried to stave off earlier and more beyond that, they all came out. And now that she wasn't channeling ungodly amounts of heat through her, they rolled down her face and splattered onto the dirt around her. She shed tears for the likely permanent disbanding of team WTCH, for how she imagined that Watts and the other two would all come to hate her for leaving them. She cried as she tried to imagine all the pain Tyrian must have gone through when his tail had been severed. She sobbed for the loss Neo and the rest of her team were suffering, and for Roman himself.

She let out so many tears she felt that she had exhausted the tear capacity of two or more other people combined.

The dirt was a damp patch of mud by the time the Spring Maiden leaped down from one of the branches of a tree across the way and started striding over. Like Fall, she hadn't truly gone that far, though despite Cinder's thoughts, the young teenager would not have been able to follow had she tried. And like Fall, it was a lack of options that drove her choice. Where else could she have possibly gone? Try to bust someone out of prison in a kingdom on incredibly high alert and probably looking for her personally, after having participated in that assault? Yeah, that sure would have gone well. She reckoned she'd just end up in prison along with him.

Vernal took the last few steps over until she was only a couple feet away from the still sniffling Cinder. Anybody else in that position would have made an easy mark for a quick hustle or just a direct pickpocketing. But she didn't go for anything like that. And despite having next to no care for any of the people currently back in the camp, and really not that much for Cinder herself, she did feel bad for the young girl. Recent experiences hadn't left her feeling all that much better, even though she hadn't actually cried at all.

"...Sucks, don't it?" She remarked, holding out a hand. Cinder slapped it aside immediately, turning away with a growl. Though after a minute of silence, she did force herself back up. She had to make all of this, everything...it had to be worth something. That they weren't just senseless losses, that Roman hadn't died for nothing. She wouldn't rest until she could make it so.

"Shut up. I don't want to hear it. Just...come on." Cinder started walking off, a forced stride as she struggled to take all the emotions back and shove them back in, bury them down deep. They'd see, in the end, when she was strong enough. That despite what it cost, it was the right choice. The only real choice.

Or at least, she desperately hoped they would see, just as she hoped that she wasn't making a huge mistake. Time would tell.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The raw latent energy of what happened next could only be presented through the use of moving images as Raven was smacked down and promptly yeeted from the plane. Ironwood set his jaw and watched whatever her next move after that was with clouded eyes and an eagerness to continue imposing the fullest brunt of his commitment to justice, to what he knew to be right, to his kingdom's safety, security and rule of law. He was willing to do whatever it took. He was happy to. He liked it. He...

...Glanced down at his hand, expression growing thoughtful as he watched his automaton digits flex and contract.

"...Something is wrong."​

The rage was burning so intensely, her anger so overflowing, that even though she saw the sights of the open sky around her and the endless ocean before her as she got tossed out, felt the wind rushing by her as she plummeted, it didn't fully register that she had been ejected from the aircraft like that. She didn't come back to herself until it was nearly too late, Raven barely able to project a blast of wind to have her skirt over the surface of the water instead of going into it. It worked, for a bit, Raven staying above the water like a rock skipping across its surface as she slowed down. But the momentum of her fall did ultimately prevail, and she ended up completely submerging into the cold blue water. She vanished from sight, as did her shadow in the water.

After a few moments, the sight of the black haired and red-clad maiden did break the surface, coughing and spitting out seawater in a panicked frenzy. When most of it was out, one hand rose to rub at her forehead where she felt a massive headache coming on. Most of the anger seemed to have gone out in that timespan, or at the very least Raven wasn't making a murderous beeline back for the ship with maiden flight to continue attacking her double and the rest.

She made no move to get out of the water yet, even, trying to think on what the hell that had just been. She had lashed out like a petulant child, envious of something that didn't...make sense to be envious about. When all this was said and done, it would be her and her brother that would go back to their own place. Whatever bond this other her had with Qrow, it wouldn't matter in the end. And she knew that. So why...?

Something's off here, the maiden unknowingly sharing a similar thought as James.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Glanced down at his hand, expression growing thoughtful as he watched his automaton digits flex and contract.

"...Something is wrong."

“Something...?” Ruby questioned after she had hurriedly checked up on her uncle. He already wasn’t in the best condition and to get hit further, that was not something he needed right now. Raven for her part, the one that hadn’t seemingly lost her goddamn mind, was still getting as many deep breaths in as she could. She had come dangerously close to blacking out.​

 

[MidwayLives]

Tyrian continued to keep his back to the proceedings. Even as Neo broke down in Mercury's arms and his teammates argued, he said nothing.

So what if Cinder was leaving? A child she may have been but Tyrian had been fighting for his life at that age. If she wanted to leave them then fine! She could damn well do what she wantted!

Tyrian's arms remained folded across his chest and his posture still even as Hazel spoke to him.

For once, not even his partner could stir a reaction out of him.

As Cinder grew further and further away, Tyrian finally let it all go.

Standing still as he had been, tears were running down his face like a unwatched faucet. There was no life without his team. His parents didn't want him to return home because he'd likely end up getting into some kind of trouble. He was easily influenced like that. Even if he'd wanted to which he couldn't, returning to the only life he'd ever known before Beacon wasn't in the cards either.

He had nothing. Not even a tail to his name.

"CINDER!!!!"

Tyrian turned and sprinted in the direction he'd heard the maiden flying off in. What'd started off as a desperate sprint turned into a feral charge on all fours. Tears blowing away in the wind as he ran. The calls for his young teammate's name growing hoarser and raspier as he strained his throat.

"CINDER!!!! COME BACK!!!! COME-"

His foot got caught on a root and he slipped and crashed to the ground. It didn't hurt all that much. Not any more than the pain in his heart. Unlike the wound in his side, he couldn't just stitch this one up and call it a day, a reminder of what happens when the voices let his darker impulses take control of him. This was a wound that wouldn't heal easily. His hair splayed around him, Tyrian laid upon the ground and sobbed. "WWWWWAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!" He didn't want to be here! He didn't want to have to face reality! The reality that looked him dead in the eyes and told him he couldn't avenge Ichabod, and he couldn't hang onto his friend.

"come back....CINDER!!! WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Tugging on his hair, Tyrian rose to his feet and started to run off...

He wanted to be anywhere but here.

Being here made him sad...

'Get out of here...' 'Run....' 'Run away...'

Just as it'd been the case when Carneilan had confronted him, Tyrian didn't feel like himself. He feltl ike the frightened child wearing nothing better than rags when Ichabod found him. Everything was crashing down around him and he just...

Had.

To.

Get...

AWAY!!!!​

 

[Gus Gungus]

“Something...?” Ruby questioned after she had hurriedly checked up on her uncle. He already wasn’t in the best condition and to get hit further, that was not something he needed right now. Raven for her part, the one that hadn’t seemingly lost her goddamn mind, was still getting as many deep breaths in as she could. She had come dangerously close to blacking out.

"Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh, what's that supposed to mean?" Chirped an affronted, impudent voice from the back of the room. Maria sat atop the largest crate in the manta's hold, a kittenish look gleaming in her eye and one foot bouncing where it was crossed over the opposite knee. Ironwood immediately set his frown into a hardened grimace and began a purposeful stride for her across the hold. "I think the word you must be looking for is someone h-hey little toy soldierboy hands off the merch, c'mon nimrod buy me dinner first, AT LEAST LET A GIRL GET ONE MEASLEY SENTENCE OUT YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

The rage was burning so intensely, her anger so overflowing, that even though she saw the sights of the open sky around her and the endless ocean before her as she got tossed out, felt the wind rushing by her as she plummeted, it didn't fully register that she had been ejected from the aircraft like that. She didn't come back to herself until it was nearly too late, Raven barely able to project a blast of wind to have her skirt over the surface of the water instead of going into it. It worked, for a bit, Raven staying above the water like a rock skipping across its surface as she slowed down. But the momentum of her fall did ultimately prevail, and she ended up completely submerging into the cold blue water. She vanished from sight, as did her shadow in the water.

After a few moments, the sight of the black haired and red-clad maiden did break the surface, coughing and spitting out seawater in a panicked frenzy. When most of it was out, one hand rose to rub at her forehead where she felt a massive headache coming on. Most of the anger seemed to have gone out in that timespan, or at the very least Raven wasn't making a murderous beeline back for the ship with maiden flight to continue attacking her double and the rest.

She made no move to get out of the water yet, even, trying to think on what the hell that had just been. She had lashed out like a petulant child, envious of something that didn't...make sense to be envious about. When all this was said and done, it would be her and her brother that would go back to their own place. Whatever bond this other her had with Qrow, it wouldn't matter in the end. And she knew that. So why...?

Something's off here, the maiden unknowingly sharing a similar thought as James.

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

SPLASH

Maria breached the ocean surface next to Raven hardly a second later with a sullenly offended glower, releasing a tiny jet of seawater from her lips like a fountain.

"Men just have NO patience anymore!" She whinged to the seafaring bandit, scorned.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh, what's that supposed to mean?" Chirped an affronted, impudent voice from the back of the room. Maria sat atop the largest crate in the manta's hold, a kittenish look gleaming in her eye and one foot bouncing where it was crossed over the opposite knee. Ironwood immediately set his frown into a hardened grimace and began a purposeful stride for her across the hold. "I think the word you must be looking for is someone h-hey little toy soldierboy hands off the merch, c'mon nimrod buy me dinner first, AT LEAST LET A GIRL GET ONE MEASLEY SENTENCE OUT YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

"...Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...how did you even......….an-and where.......w-When did you--" Fortunately Ruby did not need to finish confusingly stammering out any more of that, as former General James Ironwood, previous headmaster of Atlas Academy, once dominant voice on the Atlesian council and current yeeter of people was completely on top of it. "Yaaaaaay? I'm so confused."​

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

SPLASH

Maria breached the ocean surface next to Raven hardly a second later with a sullenly offended glower, releasing a tiny jet of seawater from her lips like a fountain.

"Men just have NO patience anymore!" She whinged to the seafaring bandit, scorned.

"YOU?!" Raven didn't understand how this monstrosity could have gotten on the ship any more than Ruby did but that didn't seem to be on the maiden's mind. "DID YOU DO THAT TO ME?" Raven yelled even though the stranger was right next to her, apparently eager to find something or somebody else to blame other than herself.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...how did you even......….an-and where.......w-When did you--" Fortunately Ruby did not need to finish confusingly stammering out any more of that, as former General James Ironwood, previous headmaster of Atlas Academy, once dominant voice on the Atlesian council and current yeeter of things was completely on top of it. "Yaaaaaay? I'm so confused."

Spoiler

The thought did cross his mind for whatever reason as he sized Ruby up longer than was necessary, but he ultimately managed to shut it down as irrational, storming across the length of the ship again to retake the wheel with a frustrated scowl. "Well I'm JUST as lost as you are! She's supposed to be a myth!"

And that was a generous way of putting it. Once in a blue moon someone of his rank might hear stories, scattered rumors and reports about a witch with silver eyes, who walked with the Grimm and sent men and women spiralling into delirium with the softest of touches. But those stories had been around for decades. They were told when he was a boy. And yet he'd seen hardened operatives court martialed for desertion stand up under oath and swear by them, swear that she was out there, seen them unravel at the seams under the belief that the worst nightmares they were ever going to have again were fully rooted in reality. The belief that the Grimm Reaper was real.

That was the extent of his knowledge. And none of it explained how she was on the ship, why she was like that or even what her intentions were, so he shared none of it. Instead he brought the ship around and hovered down lower, because the final thing he did know was that a base full of Atlas's finest all lost their lives to that monster, and the toll for that monstrous crime was one he intended to collect.

"YOU?!" Raven didn't understand how this monstrosity could have gotten on the ship any more than Ruby did but that didn't seem to be on the maiden's mind. "DID YOU DO THAT TO ME?" Raven yelled even though the stranger was right next to her, apparently eager to find something or somebody else to blame other than herself.

"Honey, you did that to YO SELF!" She contested hotly, splashing Raven a bit as she doggy paddled over with a playful giggle. "It's 'cause of the way you been livin' out here all these years! Sister, whatchu been doin' with yo life?! Why cantchu find a nice man, or career, or family dynamic to settle into?! Whassup with all that prepubescent anger I smell bubblin'?"

She snapped her fingers in a sassy Z formation like a talkshow host drinking in the studio applause, bopping Raven's nose with the final snap.

Then she lunged, pushed Raven's head under the water, and started thrashing her around like a crocodile with prey in its jaws as a feral screech erupted from her lungs. Her lips parted, revealing smoky coils of shadow and two sharp rows of teeth. In her peripheral, against the dark backdrop of the abyss below, the bandit could see glimpses of other movement, red eyes and toothy maws as monsters of a differing description to the one drowning her started flocking to all negative energy like blood in the water.

"ᵢₜ ₛₘₑₗₗₛ DₑₗᵢCᵢₒₒₒₒₒₒₒᵤᵤᵤᵤᵤₛ!"
​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Honey, you did that to YO SELF!" She contested hotly, splashing Raven a bit as she doggy paddled over with a playful giggle. "It's 'cause of the way you been livin' out here all these years! Sister, whatchu been doin' with yo life?! Why cantchu find a nice man, or career, or family dynamic to settle into?! Whassup with all that prepubescent anger I smell?

Oh this was not happening right now. Getting called out by her estranged family was one thing. Hearing the same sort of thing spew out from the mouth of some inhumanly twisted mix of grimm and person? That just wouldn't do. There was but one thought on how to handle that.

Then she lunged, pushed Raven's head under the water, and started thrashing her around like a crocodile with prey in its jaws as a feral screech erupted from her lungs. Her lips parted, revealing smoky coils of shadow and two sharp rows of teeth. In her peripheral, against the dark backdrop of the abyss below, the bandit could see glimpses of other movement, red eyes and toothy maws as monsters of a differing description to the one drowning her started flocking to all negative energy like blood in the water.

"ᵢₜ ₛₘₑₗₗₛ DₑₗᵢCᵢₒₒₒₒₒₒₒᵤᵤᵤᵤᵤₛ!"

Unfortunately, before she could make that thought a reality, she'd been beaten to the punch.

As she was thrashed about in the oceanwater, both hands reached out to grab hold of whichever hand the stranger was using to keep her down and she pulled with all her might to yank Maria off her and throw her further away. At which point she rose out of the sea and into the air, grey stormclouds rapidly swirling into existence above her...and several bolts of lightning followed to shoot down past her and strike the water in which all those unnatural beasts lurked, Raven watching with a certain amount of savagery and eagerly held breath as hopefully every single one of those things found themselves electrocuted all the way to an early grave.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Spoiler

The thought did cross his mind for whatever reason as he sized Ruby up longer than was necessary, but he ultimately managed to shut it down as irrational, storming across the length of the ship again to retake the wheel with a frustrated scowl. "Well I'm JUST as lost as you are! She's supposed to be a myth!"

What...was up with that look? Ruby appeared to be in deep thought as she tried to determine what that possibly could have meant...but she gave up before she could reach a conclusion, deciding it wasn't important. "A myth? Like...that one on the online web? You know, the one about the really tall and lean man with no face in a dark suit. Slim Guy, I think it's called? Or maybe it was Thin Dude...I'm not sure."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"...and that was how I found myself banging your boss, once upon a time." Tock finished the grand old tale since she had nothing else to do and the Bear deserved to suffer for not getting her any damn food or drink.