Vara was finally persuaded to join them, very reluctantly.
Theo glanced at her, but wisely chose not to say anything right off.
"You're Sol?" Qrow looked at her.
Vara looked guilty and avoided eye contact. "Yeah..." she mumbled. "I'm sorry."
"Forget about that for now." Qrow wanted to ask her about Summer, but this was not the time, and he knew it.
He could just hear Winter saying there were higher priorities to focus on.
"You're Vara Sol?" Yang eyed her. "Not what I expected."
"I can't say you're exactly what I expected either," Vara said.
"Ahem," Pyrrha interjected before they could start a fight. "Vara, as I said, Oscar was hoping to get some help rescuing our friends."
"They're doomed," Vara and Theo said in unison and then glared at each other.
"You know, if I had known what you were planni--" Theo began.
"You'd what? Have KO-ed me again and shut me in one of those cells!?" Vara stood up, wind stirring up around her feet.
"At least that would be safer than your plan!" Theo said.
"Safer? You sicko!" Vara said, enraged. "At least I could make my own choice this way. And I wouldn't have to go around kidnapping people and experimenting on them!"
"Because forcing them to take those powers is so much better!" Theo said.
"Shut up before I fry you!" Vara cried.
"Hey, break it up!" Qrow got between them. "It's not the time for this. I thought you were concerned about fixing this situation."
They glared at him.
Then Vara sat back down, wincing at how hard the chair was.
Theo sighed and leaned on the wall, arms crossed.
"I was saying ," Oscar spoke nervously, "that since you know Victoria best, perhaps you could tell us if there's any way we could reason with her."
"Not much chance of that," Vara said flatly.
"But does she have anything she cares about other than science?" Oscar said.
"Her son," Yang offered, looking at her list of things. "But he's not much help."
"Do not blame that boy," Vara said. "He's the victim here. He's never had any kind of normal life. He doesn't know any better. He's a sweet kid."
"Kip is a good kid," Theo agreed, sourly. "He wouldn't hurt a fly."
"Could have fooled us," Blake said.
"Well..." Yang sighed, "I admit, he didn't do that much, and he kinda helped us escape..."
"Yes," Hazel said. "I pity him."
"Then perhaps we could..." Oscar said. "But no, we can't ask a kid to get to her. That's not right."
"Is this the time to ask that?" Emerald said.
"Yes!" Several people glared at her.
"If Ruby was here," Blake said, "she'd say for sure that we shouldn't do that."
"I agree," Jaune said.
"Would he help us?" Pyrrha asked.
"What do you expect him to do?" Vara demanded. "He's there with her--she won't let him out. It's ridiculous to even ask what that poor kid can do, even if it sucks, though I would say rescuing him would be one of my priorities if we actually pulled this off, which we won't. But the odds of him helping us are about as good as of him walking through that door right now."
"Greetings." Penny came flying in the door right then, with Kip in tow. He looked nervous.
"Kip?!" Vara jumped to her feet.
"Aunt Vara?" Kip said, stopping and brightening at once.
"Dang, Var," Theo said. "Your 6th sense really is impressive."
"I didn't do that on purpose..." Vara said. She held out her arms. "Kip!"
Kip flew up to her and hugged her obligingly. "Why are you at Penny's school?"
"Oh, I used to go here," Vara said, in a tone that most people would have recognized as ironic but probably went over his head. "I'm just retaking some classes."
"Oh." Kip took that completely seriously, sure enough.
"Uncle Theo?" Kip looked at him oddly.
"I found him," Penny explained to them all.
The she held up a basket. "We found the cats also."
"Cats?" Blake said oddly.
"Yes, like how you're a cat Faunus," Penny said. "But if they were all cats."
"Is she a cat?" Kip glanced at Blake oddly.
"No!" Blake said.
"I didn't think so," Kip said. "You're a Faunus?..."
"This is him?" Pyrrha said. "The cyborg child? Penny, how did you get him to come here?"
"It wasn't that difficult, really." Penny tapped her chin. "He seemed lost, so I thought I would bring him home. I'm adopting him.
"No! I saw him first!" Vara hooked Kip's shoulder with one arm.
"Vara, stop scaring him," Theo said.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of her," Kip said. "She's nice."
"Not a proven point," Theo muttered.
Vara flipped him off above Kip's head, then she said, "Please tell me you finally ran away from that danged mother of yours."
"I...well..." Kip tilted his head. "I...I just don't want to be home right now. She's doing...things to people, and I don't like it. Maybe she won't notice if I'm gone for a short time."
"Wait a second..." Qrow said.
"Kip, you know where she is, right?" Vara turned him to look at her.
"Yes," Kip said. "But she said not to tell anyone."
"Oh, she didn't mean me," Vara said. "Didn't she always say I could come by anytime?"
"She did..." Kip said uncertainly.
"Then this is simple," Qrow said.
"No, it's not," Theo said. "Finding her is the easy part."
"Do you know if Ruby is okay?" Yang asked Kip fiercely.
"Ruby?" Kip said.
"Small girl, red cape, silver eyes," Yang said.
"We don't have anyone like that," Kip said.
"What about Weiss? She's got white hair and white clothes," Blake said.
"So does Winter," Neptune reminded her.
"But she's, like, this high." Sun held up his hand.
"No...the white woman was taller than that," Kip said.
"So you did see Winter," Qrow said testily.
"Winter...Winter..." Kip frowned. "Yes, the lieutenant's name is Winter, I think. She is the one I met before, right? She is there, but there is no Weiss."
"And my mom?" Yang asked.
"Yes," Kip nodded.
"What about Miss Likstar?" Oscar asked.
Kip nodded again.
"And her redhead boyfriend?" Sun said.
"Yes."
"Everyone but Ruby and Weiss?" Yang said. "What did she do with them?"
"Huh," Theo said. "You know, if she's using them as leverage--which seems out of character, but it's something Watts would do for sure--she might not have them in the same place. Easier to threaten someone if they can't get to the person you're holding hostage. Raven got away before with Sunshine over there. Maybe she learned from her mistakes."
"She has two Maidens," Yang said. "She can't really think Ruby and Weiss are more concerning than that."
"She has three Maidens," Kip corrected.
"What?" Yang said.
They all looked at Vara, half expecting her to morph into a decoy, but she just gave Kip a look of horror.
"Wait, do you mean Cinder?" Emerald said.
"Fall...the witch?" Kip said. "Yes."
"Oh...crap..." Blake said.
"That's not...good..." Oscar said.
"Well, I don't know, seems to me if she got rid of her, she'd be doing us a favor," Qrow said.
Theo slugged him.
"Think before you open your mouth, Qrow," he said. "I admit, selling Fall out was appealing, but that means Salem is going to be looking for them all. And that's more trouble for us. Plus--if Vic has the power of three Maidens to toy around with, I don't even want to think about what she could do."
"Three at once? She could blow Vacuo off the face of the planet if this goes wrong," Vara said.
"Not to mention, without Cinder, you don't have the Fall Relic either," Emerald pointed out, "just saying...if she siphoned her powers out."
"I thought we didn't want it anyway," Sun said.
"We might need it," Theo said. "I mean, at least we need someone else to have the Fall power--that would serve the b---h right, but only if we pulled it off. But if she has three..."
"She'll want the last one," Vara said, grimly. "The complete set... No one has ever had that before, have they?"
"Not since I first granted the powers," Ozpin commented, and Oscar repeated it.
"Mother doesn't want to hurt you," Kip said to Vara. "She says so."
"Maybe..." Vara said. "That doesn't mean she won't."
Silence.
"How bad is it?" Hazel asked. "What can she do with three Maidens? Can she harness their power?"
"She could before," Theo said. "But...she had no one to work on except Vara--and her tests were...limited. I'm almost starting to think there may be stuff she didn't tell us."
"Oh, no, you think?" Qrow was killingly sarcastic.
"This makes it worse," Blake said. "If Ruby and Weiss are not in the same place, we have two locations to find. We'd have to split up."
"Do you know where they took them?" Oscar asked Kip.
Kip shook his head. "Mother didn't want me to do that again. I only helped move the other two."
"Kid, for someone who's supposed to be innocent, you sure do a lot of crap," Qrow said.
"You leave him alone." Vara stood up, and her eyes blazed fire. "I'm sure she told him some yarn about it. He means well. Vic is the crazy one."
"Mother? She's not crazy," Kip said.
"It's looking that way, kid," Theo said.
Kip shook his head.
"Look..." Pyrrha decided to try something softer. "Kip, our friends are going to get seriously hurt if we don't find them. I know you don't want to hurt your mother--but if we have to do this the hard way, it might be worse for her, if we have to get more people involved, and there's some very evil people who will be looking for those Maidens. So it's the best thing for her if we take them away."
Kip looked at her uncertainly.
"Would I lie to you?" Vara said to him. "Listen to her, she's got her head on straight... She'd be the perfect Maiden."
"Stop saying that," Jaune said. "She's already said no, live with it."
"Ah, keep your shirt on, Arc," Qrow said.
"You weren't very discreet, were you?" Vara said to Pyrrha.
"You never said I had to be about that," Pyrrha said. "I told you I would be asking for help. And this affects you too--they cannot help you if they are caught."
"That doesn't make it less insane to go," Vara said.
"Vara," Oscar said, "you are one of the only people who could safely show up at Victoria's without her attacking you. She still thinks of you as a friend, right?"
Vara narrowed her eyes at him. "Me? Take her on?"
"You must know her tricks better than we do," Blake said.
"Not that well," Vara said.
"You owe us," Qrow said. "This is partially your fault."
"Piss off!" Vara said. "I don't owe you s--t! This wasn't my idea!"
"But you went along with it," Nora said. "At least enough for her to get this far. If it wasn't for you she wouldn't know how to restrain people with magic."
"I didn't even know she could!" Vara said.
"Everyone, calm down," Ren said. He activated his Semblance.
Vara turned grey.
Then, oddly, she sat down and looked at her hands.
"Huh...that actually seemed to help..." she said. "Slightly..."
"Ren does have a calming effect." Nora took a deep breath.
"But not enough." Vara returned to frowning.
"Vara," Pyrrha said, "you told me you weren't a coward. Is this really asking too much of you? They are our friends and family. This is what a huntress does. Maybe you cannot be the Maiden, but you can still be a huntress...but right now, you being the Maiden could be what we need also... You're the only one she won't attack."
A long pause while Vara looked at her steadily.
No one else dared to speak.
Vara then cursed. "Ugh...never meet your heroes, they say... D--- it, fine. I guess I'm stuck if you put it that way. Happy?"
"Wait a minute," Theo said. "You can't just do that."
"Go frick yourself," Vara said.
"Don't you think Vic might just lock you up also?" Theo said.
"Then I guess you'll know where to find me," Vara said.
Theo hit his head on the wall in frustration.
"I think I know what we should do," Oscar said, with a thoughtful expression. "But we still need to get Ruby and Weiss. Not just for them, though I'm worried, but also because if she has leverage, Winter may not leave, and I'm not sure Raven would either. Or the DJs."
"Why are music makers so important?" Vara asked.
"That's not what it stands for," Jaune said.
She quirked an eyebrow.
* * *
Torchwick had some luck asking for leads. Some of his friends had heard there was a hustle in that quadrant.
"There's plenty of gangs that work the south area," they told him. "Most of them are just punks looking to make easy money off people who can't fight 'em off. Some are rogue huntsmen. There's more...lawful groups, too, that keep them in check. I advise you to stay away from them. They don't like newcomers."
"I'm looking to hire," Torchwick lied--it wasn't totally a lie; he was always looking for new employees.
"In that case, you'll want to visit the underground..." They told him the name of one place.
After that, he and Neo slipped in.
Neo disguised herself to blend in more.
"Well, this feels like home," Torchwick said, as one person threw a knife at someone else that stuck in the wall.
Neo shrugged.
"Now remember the plan," Torchwick said. "I will do all the talking, and you scout around."
Neo shrugged.
"Just like old times," Torchwick said. "Except I never thought we'd be working for such noble personages."
Neo made a "who cares?" gesture.
"Come on, silent partner." Torchwick tilted his hat and raised his cane.
Some people looked at him.
He didn't exactly make the most impressive person in Vacuo.
Neo pursed her lips.
They walked around the rundown-den-of-thieves-type pub. This was where the blackmarket would really operate. You had to know who to ask--and not as a professional huntsman.
"Hey, fresh meat," someone said, reaching out to trip them.
Neo vaulted over them and then landed on the barrel that they were using as a table.
They looked at her.
"Hey, cupcake, get off!" said one.
Neo used her umbrella to slice the edge off one of his sleeves, then ducked a strike and landed on the floor again.
"Nevermind, not worth it." They leaned away.
Neo sauntered away.
"I'm with her," Torchwick muttered.
They went up to the counter.
"What do you want?" the person said.
[Read as Sower Bell from Wreck-It Ralph.]
"I need to hire some 'help'," Torchwick said, "for an odd job or two. let's just say it's in a grey area. I was told this was the place to come."
"They don't work cheap," the man replied. "But if you want to try your luck, be my guest."
Neo was looking around.
She slipped behind some stairs and assumed Mercury's shape.
Walking out, she looked around.
"Black?" someone looked up from a corner, where they were polishing their weapon. "Back so soon? Did the boys not do the job right?"
[Read in a French accent.]
Neo glanced at them warily.
"What?" they said.
She motioned at them to follow her.
"What's going on with you, SOB?" The guy, who must not have been that much older than the students, got up and walked after her.
Neo, in passing, tapped Torchwick with the blunt of her umbrella.
He looked at her, and she winked.
Understanding, Torchwick said, "Thanks for the tip off. I'll look around."
He followed her and the guy out of the establishment.
"What is this about? Why are you being so quiet?" the man said.
Neo suddenly knocked his weapon out of his hand and shoved him into the wall.
"What the--?" he said.
Torchwick held out his cane.
"Hello," he said. "We just need to ask you some questions about your...relationship with Mr. Black."
"Huh?" The guy was puzzled.
Neo's eyes changed color.
"What the--?" The guy looked spooked. "What is this?"
"It's called a questioning, friend." Torchwick tilted his hat with his free hand. "Now, my partner and I here get a little temperamental when people stall, so perhaps you should just answer us. When did Mercury Black hire you?"
"It wasn't me exactly," the guy said, nervously. "He got in touch a week or two back, with this other guy, but he didn't need us 'til earlier today, and then he just took some of my guys and gave them some new toys and left. I don't know what they were doing."
"That's unfortunate," Torchwick said. "Neo, I think we'll just have to kill him."
Neo held up her umbrella willingly.
"Wait, wait," the guy protested. "I do know it was a job dealing with human cargo--"
"Isn't that considered despicable even in Vacuo?" Torchwick said.
"Hey, money talks," the guy said. "What are you, huntsmen?"
"I don't see how that helps us," Torchwick said.
"I was supposed to meet them here," the guy said miserably, "to get updated. So far they aren't here. Apparently they're waiting still."
"Still not helpful. Neo," Torchwick said.
Neo leaned in.
"But I do know kind of where they are," the guy blurted. "The processing plants, nearer the Oasis. The sewers let out not that far away. I guess they have to hold the cargo 'til it can get picked up."
"Hmm, well, that's something," Torchwick said. "I don't suppose you know what kind of weapons they have stashed away there."
"I've never seen anything like them before," the guy said. "It was like something out of a creepy movie. Didn't believe it but then Black used one on one of us, knocked him out in, like, 1.5 seconds flat. Jude said it has to be The Dealer."
"Who's The Dealer?" Torchwick asked.
Neo frowned.
"You haven't heard of The Dealer?" the man said. "Only the most infamous person in the underground... No one knows who they are really, but they sell weapons, to the highest bidders--weapons that can do the most incredible things--but there's a twist: They only work once."
"Once?" Torchwick rubbed his chin. "Who would want that?"
"Once is all you need," the man said pointedly. "They call them The Onceler, sometimes."
[To this, I only say the inventions are something that everyone, everyone, everyone needs!]
[Dr. Seuss, if you don't get it.]
"That sounds dumb," Torchwick, the guy who was named after a candle, said.
"The Onceler/Dealer is a legend," the man said. "Anyone who uses their inventions for a hustle always wins.... It's like clockwork. Some people say they sell to people outside Vacuo--bandits, even Atlas--the point is, no one fricks with them. If they hire you, you do it."
"What happens to people who don't?" Torchwick asked.
"No one's ever heard of anyone who didn't," the man said.
Neo shot Torchwick a look of concern.
"And Black knows this person?" Torchwick said.
"He must," the guy said. "No other explanation. You want a free tip--stay out of it. Moving in on a hustle with them is never a good idea. People have died doing that."
"I'll keep that in mind," Torchwick said. "And you've been most helpful. Neo, take care of him."
Neo held up her umbrella.
"No, I meant the other way," Torchwick said.
Neo nodded and then hit him in the side of the head. He fell over.
"You really shouldn't be so kill-happy. It looks unprofessional." Torchwick brushed himself off.
Neo motioned at him like: "And am I a mind reader?"
"But we're going straight now--sort of," Torchwick said. "We'll have to nix the violence. He's just a stupid punk anyway. But it looks like our quarry is into some more deep dealings with the underground that I had thought. The others will be glad to hear this... Well, perhaps we know where to find Little Red now. I hope we're not too late."
Neo gave him a weird look.
"If I don't get to kill her, then these fools certainly don't," Torchwick said. "How does that make me look?"
Neo made a goo-goo eyed face at him.
"I have not gone soft," Torchwick said. "Don't you sass me. It's just business."
Neo kicked the thug.
"I bet we did better than that little street urchin did," Torchwick said.
[If Silent Partners is not their ship name, by the way, it should be.]
"Well, it's good to be alive again," Torchwick said. "Back on the job. Shall we go?"
Neo nodded.
They turned to leave--and, most unfortunately, they were not alone.
Tyrian was coming around the corner.
He stopped.
Torchwick, who didn't know who he was, wondered why Neo went dead still.
"What's wrong?" he said.
Neo grabbed his arm and tugged.
"Don't I know you from somewhere?..." Tyrian scrutinized them, then he grinned psychotically. "Wait, Cinder's little hireling? But I declare...Cinder thought you were dead."
"Surprise," Torchwick said.
Neo jerked his arm, then pointed at herself.
"You? But you--" he began.
Neo kicked him.
"I don't know who you are." Tyrian eyed Torchwick. "But I'd like to. Still..." He looked at Neo. "This is interesting... It can't be a coincidence that you're here."
Neo was scared of Tyrian more than Cinder, and she started perspiring.
"What happened?..." Tyrian eyed the punk.
Neo's reaction was enough to make Torchwick know to be cautious, but he was still puzzled.
"He got fresh." He pulled out a cigar to hide his nerves. "Do we know you?"
"Oh, I think you will--" Tyrian dashed forward.
Neo had already cast her illusion, and they booked it in the nick of time.
Tyrian charged into it, not knowing that Neo could pull this trick.
"Curses!" he raged. "Where did they go?! Come out, come out, little trickster!"
Neo and Torchwick ran as fast as they could out of that district.
"Who was that?" Torchwick asked.
Neo made some frantic motions and then typed out, "Very bad! Crazy! Serial killer!"
"Like...the kind you hire?" Torchwick asked. "Or the run-for-your-life, horror movie kind?"
Neo held up two fingers, which meant "the second one."
"I think we should get farther away," Torchwick said.
[If you're thinking Tyrian was not supposed to be in Vacuo anymore--good memory.]
* * *
The hours ticked by till Winter lost all track of them.
Victoria didn't hurt her much, it was true--but she felt violated anyway. She wondered how Raven had stood this for as long as she did without having a fit.
One thing broke up the monotony eventually--and that was, someone started singing.
Winter would recognize Shine's deeper voice anywhere; she was one of those people who could project across a whole room.
"Off in the distance, there is resistance, bubbling up and festering. Hey, Mr. Motion, make me potion, shake it all up with your mystery. How come I've never seen your face around here...?
"Man on a mission, changing the vision, I was never welcome here. We don't have a choice to stay. We'd rather die than do it your way.
"With our backs to the wall, darkness will fall. We never quite thought we could lose it all. Ready aim fire. Ready aim fire away..."
Winter hoped for a second that she was here to rescue them...but as it came no closer, she began to fear Shine was actually captured.
How was that possible?
Could it be the magic?
Then she heard someone yell,
"Shut up!"
That sounded like Cinder.
"Why don't you shut up!" someone else yelled louder.
That sounded like Raven.
Winter felt cold.
"Noisy, aren't they?" Victoria walked up. "Hmm...progress is coming along nicely."
She held up a kind of mic. "Hey! Shut up in there. The musical interlude was one thing, but the shouting is making it impossible to concentrate. Don't make me come over there and give you consequences again."
No more shouting was heard.
"Animals." Victoria glanced at Winter. "At least you're dignified."
Winter wanted to scream then, just to annoy her, but didn't want to find out what consequences might be like.
"You have other Maidens here?" she said in a low voice.
"Oh, yes," Victoria said. "Splendid, isn't it?"
"No..." Winter said.
"So little vision," Victoria sighed.
"Hey, lady!" someone else called.
Sounded like Wally.
How bad was this?!
"Oh, someone is going to get it!" Victoria said. "Excuse me."
She stormed away.
Winter heard some pained yelps a few moments later.
She covered her ears.
"Will that be the last of the interruptions?" Victoria used other speakers on the cells.
As if in defiance, Winter heard Shine start singing louder this time:
"When you're here, I got all I need. Fight off a thousand enemies. I'm calling. I've been searching for something, Heaven or nothing.
"I look at the sky, gonna light it up!
"Take me away to a higher place! Where the blind man can see, I'm finally free. I need a miracle. Beyond incredible!
"Rising above, where we can live for love, 'cause it's never enough. You're lifting me up, you're a miracle, beyond incredible."
"Oh, she did not," Victoria said.
Winter didn't want to hear this.
But Victoria's mic picked up Shine's voice also.
"Are you not getting the message?" Victoria demanded.
Shine, who Cinder could see was sitting and looking at her quite calmly, just shrugged.
"Quiet down," Victoria answered her, holding up her switch.
Shine glanced at the switch, then she went on singing.
"...Dare to reach for my destiny. Hands on a better day. If it cost me my everything, I'd give you anything."
Victoria pressed a switch.
Something in the tank must have activated.
But Shine, other than she winced slightly, gave hardly any sign of it.
Her Aura flashed into view for a moment and then died out.
She went on singing.
Victoria stared at her.
"Stop it!" she said, more angry.
Shine shrugged, and then she said, "What was that? I didn't hear it."
"Hear this!" Victoria said. "I can do worse than that. Are you mocking me? Do you enjoy pain?"
"If I did, then using it as a threat would yield you very little." Shine stood up and came to stand in front of her. "Do it. I dare you."
Victoria looked at her like she was trying to decide if it was worth it.
"I was warned about you..." she said. "You're tricky. But that won't work on me. Don't even try it."
"Well, if you say so." Shine waved condescendingly. "I've been thinking, though, you should let us all go."
Cinder laughed.
"Shut up!" Victoria snapped at her, then she turned to Shine. "In time, perhaps, but not now."
"No, now," Shine said, with an odd sort of authority. "I'm giving you a chance to get out of this, now. While you still can."
"Those are bold words from someone who's currently in a holding cell," Victoria said.
"Am I?" Shine asked, strangely. "Or are you?"
Victoria looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "What?"
"What if all this is just in your mind?" Shine asked, in a smooth voice. "What if you are the one in the cell, and I'm just messing with you?"
"Don't be ridiculous... I'd know if I was," Victoria said.
"Would you?" Shine said. "Do you know our full powers?"
Victoria fingered her remote. "Maybe I should have zapped you harder."
"If you think it will do you any good." Shine stepped back and sat back down. "But if this isn't real, it would be an exercise in futility."
Victoria stared at her again, then she made a face and walked away, muttering, "Madwoman..."
"What are you doing?" Cinder asked, once she was sure Victoria was out of earshot--at least, easy earshot. "Trying to sound like one of those idiots who says pain isn't real?"
"Cinder, my opinion of your contribution to this has gone from annoyance to indifference," Shine said coolly. "You are neither entertaining nor frightening me, so if you can't do either, could you at least shut up? Clearly you can't grasp the way I think, so don't try."
"You sound like Watts," Cinder commented. "Do you know what I did to him?"
"Got your rear end handed to you verbally and didn't have the salt to drop him because you knew he was right?" Shine said smoothly.
"I killed him," Cinder said.
"If you did that," Shine said, "then I will concede that you are too much of a fool to learn from your mistakes. If that will make you feel better."
"Has it escaped your notice that we are both here?" Cinder said. "You think you're better than me, but you still got caught."
"I admit that Mercury's part was a surprise," Shine said. "But I thought this might happen sooner or later. When you provoke people as often as I do, you're bound to make some enemies. I'm almost glad it was this and not something more grotesque...so far...but I didn't like the sound of that yelp... I hope Wally is okay..."
"Should I kill him too?" Cinder said.
"Cinder, if you could even land a hit on him, that's more than I could expect," Shine said carelessly. "Surely you know the only reason he didn't kill you before was because he didn't want to. Did you miss how he was with Fria?"
"You've seen a lot," Cinder said. "But even you can't stop Salem... When she sees what's happening, she'll come and kill you all."
"Short memory--you forgot that I invited her to do just that," Shine said, folding her hands together. "I wish she'd hurry up, almost. I'm bored."
Cinder glanced at her strangely.
"You are mad," she decided.
"Well, they say that wisdom sounds like madness to people who don't have it," Shine shrugged.
She privately thought to herself that, however much she might stall...she was going to need a better plan than this.
It was hard to tell through the tank, but she was sure by now that she sensed both Winter's and Raven's magical signals not that far away--not good.
She thought she and Wally could escape easily enough if they didn't have to worry about them, but getting them out might be more complicated. Victoria was bound to have security in place for that. And not everyone could dodge it.
She needed a better idea of the layout of the room, and to confer with Wally, if this was going to be possible.
Antagonizing Cinder wasn't working as well as she'd hoped, and Cinder was too scared to be as cocky as usual.
What was she good for if not to fly into a rage and draw attention?
Shine did pity her, slightly. Even if a part of her didn't like that she did. Cinder had hurt many people she cared about and didn't have a shred of remorse about it... Pitying the humanity in her--in the form of suffering and fear--didn't feel like it was either useful or valid.
But as cold as she might act, Shine hadn't been able to shut off her empathy entirely enough to not consider someone else's suffering.
Still, how she could spare Cinder without basically consigning her own friends to more peril was hard to say. You couldn't trust the woman to keep up her end of a bargain, even with her own boss.
Really, the kindest thing would be to stop her. But not using Victoria... That just wasn't right.
After a long pause, she spoke.
"I've been here before, you know," she said slowly. "Caught...experimented on...even with criminals as my companions at the time. It was horrible."
Cinder looked up like, "why are you talking to me?"
"I know this won't mean much to you, but, I promise, if there is a way to get you out of here also, I will. I do not like you, and I think you deserve to die--but there are respectable ways to die. I would not leave someone to this fate if I could avoid it. But, if it's between you and the people I know will be grateful for it, I won't say I would choose you. Success may depend on your willingness to cooperate if the chance does come. If you make a power play or try to harm any one of us, I will not help you escape. If you don't, then you can run. For now. When we meet again after this, I will be prepared to fight you. But I won't do it like her."
Silence.
"You think I want your help?!" Cinder raged. "I don't need it."
"I thought you would say that," Shine said. "But you're unlikely to get out of here without my help. She hates you the most. So think about it."
With that, she turned her back on her pointedly.