Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

POV Emerald

Pick up, Cinder please pick up.

Please, just pick up already, you need to know.

Damnit, Cinder, I can’t get out of here until I know you’re safe.

Please…. Please pick up….

I don’t care if you don’t really care about me, I still care about YOU, and I am not going to let you get yourself killed like this.

Please… I need you to be ok.

I lean back against a wall, staring at my scroll, at Cinder’s icon, the text “waiting for answer” still displayed underneath it.

I find myself slinking down against the wall, eventually finding myself sitting down on the floor.

Please….. just pick up.

And then, breaking the deafening silence that surrounded me, a familiar voice sounds through my scroll.

“What the hell is it this time?”

“C-Cinder, are you ok?!”

She seems a bit annoyed with her response.

“Yes, I’m fine, what in the gods names could be so important that you need to interrupt my mission.”

O-ok, that means she’s still in Atlas, good.

“L-look, Cinder, you can’t come back, you CANNOT come back to Salem.”

“…..Emerald…. What the hell are you talking about?”

“C-Cinder, she’s going to destroy Remnant!”

There is a long, very disturbing pause after I say that.

“And why in the hell would I ever believe that, why would YOU ever believe that?”

“B-Because Tyrian told me, Mercury too, h-he’s known this whole time.”

“Excuse me?”

“I-I first heard it from Oscar, a-and I wasn’t sure that he was telling the truth, b-but I went to tell Mercury about it, and he didn’t believe me, b-but then we ran into Tyrian and h-he told us that Oscar was right.”

“And you didn’t once suspect that Tyrian could have been lying?”

“C-Cinder, I don’t think he even can lie anymore, not about Salem at least. P-please, you need to believe me.”

After that, another long, concerning pause after that.

“C-Cinder…..”

Still nothing.

Just silence. I’m starting to get concerned that she hung up on me.

Until.

“Emerald, find Neo and get out of there.”

“W-wait, I-“

“Just do it, I’ll fill her in myself, just get out of there.”

“B-but… what about the others, what about Hazel? A-and…. W-what about the kid? He’s innocent in all this, we can’t-“

“I don’t care what you do with either of them, just find Neo and get out of there.”

“C-Cinder, I can’t just leave the kid here, he doesn’t deserve this.”

“……fine, but if your morality gets you caught, I won’t hesitate to let Neo know to abandon you.”

….alright, I can’t live with that.

“Ok… you can track my Scroll, right?”

“Yes.”

“O-ok, just… when we get to Atlas, try and meet with us.”

“Fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with the good doctor.”

And with that, she hangs up.

I bring myself back up to my feet.

Ok, ok, find Neo, get Oscar, and get the hell out of here. It can’t be too hard, can it?

………I am so fucking dead.

————————————

POV Cinder

I cannot believe it….. after all this time, I can’t believe it.

“Cinder, what was that?”

Behind me, Watts speaks up, questioning the call.

He doesn’t have time to say anything else before he finds my claws around his throat.

“C-CINDER, WHAT ARE YOU-“

“Did you know?”

“W-WHAT?!”

“Did. You. Know.?”

“What in the blazes are you talking abou-“

“TYRIAN KNEW, DID YOU?!”

The air around us begins to heat rapidly.

“I DON’T HAVE A DAMN CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!”

“What do you know about Salem’s goal for Remnant?”

He looks rather perplexed by that question.

“To establish a new order and rule Remnant as its-“

“BULL-FUCKING-SHIT!”

“WELL WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ELSE WOULD IT BE?!”

…..alright, I suppose he doesn’t know.

I decide to let him go from my grip. He’s more useful to me alive.

“Salem doesn’t want to rule Remnant you idiot, she wants to destroy it!”

“Please, why would she ever want to-“

“I. DON’T. KNOW! But I highly doubt that Tyrian would ever tell a lie about her motivations.”

He seems to be thinking rather deeply now.

And then, he lets out a sigh.

“Alright then, what the hell is our next move?”

“Emerald is already going to try and escape with Neo, I’ll fill her in myself. Apparently they’re going to be bringing Ozpin’s reincarnation with them.”

“And you think Hazel will just let them take him?”

“No, in fact, I highly doubt they will actually make it out of there alive, but it would be better to have more allies.”

I turn back to my Scroll, and open my message box with Neo.

‘Neo, you need to get to Emerald and get out of there’

Her response is a bit slow, but eventually it arrives.

‘What the hell are you on about now Spitfite?’

‘Neo, Salem’s plans are far more disastrous than I initially thought, she doesn’t want to conquer Remnant, she’s going to destroy it, so find Emerald and get the hell out of there.’

Her reply is much quicker this time.

‘And why are you telling me this exactly?’

‘Because it’d be better for everyone if Salem does not have access to somebody with as much skill as you.’

‘Wow, that’s it? No concern for my life? I thought we had something special.’

Every day, every damn day she makes me regret sleeping with her.

Unfortunately, I could still use her abilities.

‘Neo, just cut the shit and get out of there.’

‘Alright, fine, I’ll get out of dodge already.’

And then, something crosses my mind.

‘Wait. Get the Lamp first.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Neo, we cannot let Salem have the relics if she really is planning to destroy Remnant, so get the Lamp before you escape.’

‘You know that’ll probably get me killed, right?’

I hate how concerned that made me feel, but we still need that damn Lamp.

‘Neo, we need it. If she gets the relics, we’re all dead anyway.’

Another rather slow wait for the next reply.

Eventually though, it comes.

‘Alright, I’ll get your stupid genie in a bottle for you.’

‘Good, now get to Emerald, she’s looking for you.’

‘Alright, see you on the other side Spitfire.’

With that, I close the message box.

And immediately regret doing so, as Watts’ voice again assaults my ears.

“So, what do we do now?”

“Now…. We wait…. And hope that they get out of there alive.”

————————————

POV Neo

Well fuck.

This has all gone to hell in a hand basket.

Alright, find Emerald, find the Lamp, and get the fuck out of here without being killed by the immortal witch bitch.

I get up off my spot sitting down, grab Hush, and make my way out into the halls of this disgusting fucking Whale.

I begin walking around, as casually as I can as to not draw any suspicion, all the while trying to make my way towards Emerald’s quarters.

Eventually, after a few minutes of walking, I begin hearing somebody call my name.

“Neo, are you here?”

Ah, there she is.

I whistle out in the direction her voice came from.

After a few seconds, she comes quickly walking into the hall.

“Ok, good, you’re here… did Cinder fill you in yet?”

I nod my head.

“So… what’s the plan?”

I pull out my scroll and begin typing on my notes app.

Eventually, I show what I wrote to Emerald.

‘You go try and get the kid out safely, I’m taking the Lamp.’

“W-Wait, the Lamp? Neo we don’t-“

Before she can finish, I’ve already typed up another sentence.

‘We can’t let Salem keep the damn thing, so go get the damn boy, and I’ll meet you at the exit, ok?’

She looks at me for a second, but eventually sighs and agrees.

“Ok… but try to time it right, taking the Lamp will trigger alarms throughout the whole damn Whale.”

‘I’ll try my best, but if you get caught cause of the alarms, I’m fucking leaving.’

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Cinder told me she’d tell you to do that.”

….she never told me that.

‘Uhhh…. She didn’t tell me that, I just care about myself more than you.’

She looks a bit shocked, but manages a small smile at the news.

“Alright, good luck.”

And with that, she takes off towards where Oscar is being held.

Well, guess it’s now or never.

Chapter Text

POV Cinder

I still can’t believe it…. How, HOW COULD I BE SO BLIND!

How could I have let myself be blinded like this?!

Years of service, labor, YEARS OF BEING MUTILATED FOR HER GAIN, AND HER IDEA OF COMPENSATION WAS DESTROYING THE WORLD?!?

….how was I SO FUCKING STUPID….

I-I…. I can’t… I just can’t, I-

“Pardon my interruption of your clearly very vital thinking, but what the hell are we supposed to do now?”

And I ESPECIALLY can’t with the doctor’s attitude.

But now, after that bombshell…. I have no retort.

“You’re taking this rather well.”

“Pardon?”

“We just discovered that our master has been plotting our destruction this whole time and you’re not even slightly angry, sad, anything? You just want to move on?”

He sighs slightly and rolls his eyes.

“Well, excuse my stoicism at this, but I’d prefer it if we did not dwell on the fact that Salem has been plotting the destruction of Remnant, and instead focus on what we should do now that we know.”

“…..I don’t know.”

“Of course you don’t.”

I can feel a tear beginning to streak its way down my face.

“I don’t know what to do anymore…. I’ve… I helped her… and she’s just going to destroy everything..”

This…. It’s too familiar….. it feels like I’m still at that damn Hotel, doing everything I’m told, and getting nothing but pain and manipulation as a reward.

“Well, considering you’re of no help for strategizing our next move, I suggest that we attempt to reconnect with your lackeys when they make their way into the city. Pardon my mistake, IF they make their way into the city, we still have no clue if they even made it out a-“

And then, in an instant, and with the blinding fury of the sun itself, an enormous eruption of light breaks across the horizon.

The blinding flash follows with an explosive force, blasting winds in all directions, and leaving a massive shockwave near its epicenter.

Both the doctor and I are stunned by the blast, completely taken aback by the encompassing flare of it.

And then, eventually, the light fades away after a prolonged lingering.

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE GODS WAS THAT?!”

“That, Cinder, I believe, was Salem’s Whale going down in a blaze.”

Standing up from my spot on top of the building, I look towards where the blast came from.

Watts was right, Monstra is gone, vaporized, leaving nothing behind but withering flesh and an enormous crater.

….did Emerald and Neo get out before that happened?

And then, suddenly, on my scroll, I can feel a message ping.

Taking the device out of my pocket, I see the sender’s name.

Neo. Ok…. Good, she made it out…. I-I could still use her abilities going forward, it’d be a shame to lose her like this.

‘That was fucking crazy, idk how we’re alive but we made it. Ran into some of Red’s friends during the escape, they were trying to spring the boy and we got crossed along the way. We all managed to make it out somehow. Except Hazel, he’s dead as hell.’

Who cares, Hazel isn’t of any importance to me. Wait….. she said that they ran into some of Ruby’s friends… that… may actually work in our favor.

If anybody has even the slightest chance of mounting an offense to finally take down Salem, I unfortunately have to admit that it’s Ruby.

Another message comes up from Neo.

‘Being escorted to the city by the idiots, we have the Lamp, will stop messaging so they don’t catch me.’

Ok, everything seems to have worked out rather well. Hopefully that blast managed to impede Salem for a while.

“Alright then doctor, Emerald and Neo are on their way. When they make it into the city, we will go to their location. Unfortunately, they crossed paths with several of little Miss Rose’s friends.”

“Well, that may complicate things.”

“I think that this may be a blessing in disguise. As I stated earlier, we could use all the allies we can get.”

The bastard has the audacity to laugh at that.

“You actually think those fools will let us join them after everything we’ve done to them? You truly are insane if you-“

“Oh shut up already. Do we really have much of a choice at the moment?”

He seems to pause to process what options we currently have.

“Alright, I suppose you have a point. Very well, we shall wait for your underlings to arrive with their escort, and then present them with our offer for a partnership against Salem.”

“I wonder where you could have gotten such a genius idea from doctor?”

I begin to activate the location tracker for Emerald’s scroll.

“But there is one thing.”

“What could possibly be the problem now?”

“What if they say no to working with us?”

“Then, I kill them all, retrieve our allies and the lamp, and we can come up with a new plan at a different time.”

He sighs again at that.

“Always defaulting to murder.”

“Not always. I didn’t kill you, now did I?”

“Oh how I wish you did sometimes, it would spare me from your grating voice.”

I cannot believe that I had to get stuck with him of all people. To the gods above who fated this to happened, I hope you cease to exist.

And then, a ping on the location tracker.

“Well, good doctor, you wouldn’t happen to have a map of the subway tunnels, would you? Because now, it appears we need to find an access point.”

——————————————

POV Emerald

The walk through Atlas’ subway tunnels is a long and dark one.

There’s barely any light, the silence is deafening, and Neo won’t stop pretending to sing along the way.

We’re being held at gunpoint for gods sake, can’t you take this seriously?!

And Oscar’s request to work with us isn’t exactly helping to keep everyone calm.

“You can't be serious. You want us to work with them?” Yang is clearly not willing to entertain the idea.

“I'm just saying it makes the most sense. We're all enemies of Salem, including those two.”

This isn’t going to work, we need to break off from these jokers and get to Cinder.

“No, I'm with blondie. You don't like me, I don't like you. So how about we just part ways and you never have to see me again.”

Neo nods her head next to me.

“Also, I don’t think Neo would work with Ruby in a million years, soooo.”

She nods her head with a little more force after that one.

“You're not going anywhere. Not after everything you've done.”

And now Jaune is probably going to try and kill us, great.

“We can't let all of our actions stem from fear. If she could help us, I think we should consider it.”

Yeah, thanks for the input Ren, but we really need to get going n-

“They are part of the reason I have this.” She holds up her prosthetic while saying that. Uh, sorry to burst your bubble, but that wasn’t part of Cinder’s plan. “ I'm not going to just forgive them. Everything that happened at Beacon... They lied to us, tricked us. They are dangerous.”

Yeah, we know, so can we go now?

And then, a voice splits apart the room.

“Oh please, they’re far from the most dangerous person you’ll meet today.”

S-she’s here. She’s actually here.

Turning around, and feeling probably the happiest I’ve felt all day because of it, I am finally met with Cinder’s face again.

“C-CINDER, YOU’RE-“

And before I can continue that sentence, somebody rushes past me with their weapon drawn.

Cinder ends up conjuring a sword to block the oncoming strike from Jaune.

“….Emerald, which one is he again?”

Jaune clearly did not like that, because he raises his fist, and does something none of us were expecting.

He punches Cinder, square in her missing eye.

“GAH- MOTHER-“

“Are you two done yet, or will we have to clean up a few bodies soon?”

Behind Cinder, another figure steps out of the darkness.

Arthur Watts.

Great, just the asshole we needed to really ruin this even more.

Behind me, everyone has their weapons at the ready. Well, except Neo, she’s just shaking her head disappointedly at Cinder.

“L-LISTEN YOU OVER-BLOATED BRATS, W-we aren’t here to fight you.”

“YOU CAN’T LIE TO US YOU MURDERER, I WONT-“

“I. SAID. LISTEN!”

Cinder lets out a shockwave with her powers, blasting Jaune backwards and onto his back.

“As much as it pains me to say this, we have a common goal.”

Yang speaks up behind me.

“And what the hell would that be?!”

“Salem’s destruction.”

Everybody from the gang of heroes is shocked at that.

“WHAT?! Y-YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE YOU AFTER YOU-“

Ok, I need to stop this.

“Cinder’s right, she’s the one who told me and Neo to leave, r-right Neo?”

Neo nods her head again.

“L-look, we don’t like you, you don’t like us, so we’ll just be leav-“

And then Cinder cuts me off.

“Actually, Emerald, we won’t.”

“We won’t?”

“No, because we, are going to work together.”

…..what?

“I WOULD NEVER WORK WITH YOU, NOT AFTER WHAT YOU DID TO US, TO HER!”

“…oh now I remember you. Mrs Nikos’ lover. I almost didn’t recognize you with that new haircut.”

Jaune grips his sword again at the very mention of Pyrrha.

“YOU DON’T GET TO-“

And then, Cinder’s Grimm claws find themselves around his throat.

“Alright then, let me rephrase that. We WILL be working with you, otherwise I will incinerate you all, take my underlings, the Lamp, and then leave. Am I understood?”

“You piece of-“

“Jaune, just do as she says.”

Oscar speaks up from the back.

“Oscar, why the hell would I-“

“Because you know it’s the only good choice we have right now.”

After that, Jaune turns to look straight into Cinder’s eye.

“…..alright, fine. But you cause one problem, and I will kill you. I don’t care how much stronger you are than me, I will find a way to kill you.”

Cinder chuckles slightly before dropping Jaune.

“Well, I suppose I can live with that, doctor, your opinion?”

Cinder turns to Watts behind her.

“I do believe it’s the best we are going to get with these children.”

After that, Cinder turns back to the rest of us, and flashes a devilish smirk.

“Very well, I suppose we should welcome ourselves to the team.”

Well, this is going to be weird, that’s for sure.

But more importantly, Cinder is ok, she’s here.

“Cinder, I-I was so worried, I-“

And honestly, I’m a bit surprised myself when I rush up to her and catch her in a hug.

I’m even more surprised that she doesn’t immediately shove me off.

“Whatever, I suppose I was a bit worried myself. I still have uses for you and Neo.”

O-oh…. Alright then.

W-well… it’s better than nothing I guess.