Victoria finally got her power recalibrated, and while it was booting up, she got a call.
"What are you calling me for?" she asked, answering it as she walked in front of the tanks. "I told you not to call me. I'd call you... All right, fine. Patch it in... Yes, I am. Did they show up yet?... What? Well, you took them out, right? Another gang? You're kidding. There's no way they would pick that specific time to attack... They did what?"
She stopped, and her eyes widened. "Are you sure...nothing is left? What do you mean nothing is left? It all burned? You...you incompetent fools!" She shouted the last part. "How could you be so careless? She did not need to die!... Of course it's your fault! You should never have allowed them to slip past you... Pay you? I..."
She looked up.
Raven and Winter were both looking at her, still pretty grey from earlier.
"You know what? We'll discuss it later. Clear out before the huntsmen arrive." Victoria snapped her scroll shut.
"Well, Mercury just let me know that he got a call. He patched me into his little hires..."
She looked somber.
"What was that?" Raven spoke hoarsely. "What have you done?"
"I didn't do anything. It was them!" Victoria said. For once she looked a little afraid. "It wasn't a part of my plan, you understand? I said not to harm them...but some other idiot thugs showed up to do their little turf wars... I'd think it was your own team, but they blew the place up."
"Blew it up?" Winter looked up from her spot. Victoria could barely see her around the wall, which was just as well for her, she thought.
"I...well...yes," Victoria said in a quiet voice. "I'm...sorry... It appears some of the hooligans were caught in it. Some got away, but...well..."
"Weiss?" Winter leaned forward. "What happened to Weiss?"
Victoria looked rather uncomfortable. "Uh...well...it wasn't our intention for anyone to be killed on this operation...but...accidents happen..."
"Accidents!" Winter stood up--with difficulty, though for the moment she didn't even feel it. "What are you saying? That she was still inside?"
"It...appears that way." Victoria looked down.
(Actually, the tip off Mercury got wasn't from The Lost kids--one of the other urchins Libby had actually had got one of their scrolls and then "persuaded" one of them to tell her who to call. The whole thing was to cover their tracks so that Victoria wouldn't look for Weiss. Naturally, Mercury didn't know who was in which group and couldn't tell the difference.)
Winter stared at her, then she hit the glass... It was weak--she didn't even rattle it--but Victoria flinched anyway.
"It was an accident..." she said, feebly.
"No..." Winter looked at her, eyes blazing--without magic. "It wasn't. You chose to do this. This is your fault."
"I had no way to know that would happen," Victoria said, holding up her hands.
"You had no way not to," Raven called. "You're just as guilty as them. If not for you, she wouldn't have been there."
"It's the idiots who blew the place up who are to blame," Victoria said.
"Do you listen to yourself?" Raven asked.
"Oh, shut up." Victoria put her finger over the remote.
Raven glared at her, then she spat, "Do it."
Victoria started to lower it...then she stopped.
"Well, I suppose I'll leave you to...recover," she said, shamefacedly.
She walked away, rubbing her arms.
Winter sank back to the ground and put her face in her hands.
* * *
Whitley and Willow waited for what felt like a long time for any news from anyone, but all they heard was just that the others were on their way.
"Do you think this will work?" Nora asked Oscar.
"I don't know." Oscar rubbed his cane/spear. "I don't feel like it's as good as Shine's ideas are. I'm sure I missed something. It's nagging at me."
"I hate to bring down the mood," Torchwick said, "but one little thing you didn't seem to factor in was that there's another party out there looking around."
"Another party?" Ren said.
"Oh...Tyrian..." Ozpin murmured.
"Oh!" Oscar hit his head. "I forgot about him... I don't understand, though--why is he even helping them? He's not interested in Kanap, is he? And wouldn't he not want Cinder to be depowered? I don't see how this helps Salem."
"I can't pretend I understand it," Torchwick said. "But he's bad news. So perhaps you should give him some thought."
Neo nodded.
"It doesn't help that we're short huntsmen," Ren said. "Most of the ones Mercury knocked out earlier are still recovering. And the rest are trying to hold down the fort outside the school. More Grimm still are attacking."
"Can we not talk about it?" Nora shuddered. "I don't like thinking about him. He'd never come here alone anyway."
"Yeah, that's true," Oscar said. "He couldn't hope to win against this many of us even if we're not professionals."
Whitley frowned.
"I don't know about that," Willow said. "He sounded dangerous to me."
She rubbed her arms. "I could sure use a..." She stopped.
They looked uncomfortable.
"So, uh...anyway," Oscar said. "We should made sure all the doors are locked, right?"
"I'll do it," Ren said.
"I'll help," Nora said.
They got up and went out.
"I didn't realize how few of us there really are now," Oscar said.
"Well, half the team is being held captive," Torchwick said. "But cheer up. When I was your age, I didn't have a huge team either, and I still pulled off robberies."
"I think this is harder than that," Oscar said.
"Oh, you're all determined to be pessimists," Torchwick huffed.
Suddenly they heard a loud crash.
"What was that?" Whitley looked up.
Willow tensed. "From the sound of it, that was too heavy to be a person," she said. "At least not a normal one."
"Stay here," Oscar said, getting up and running toward the sound.
Whitley did so, but Willow followed him, and so did Neo.
They went into the main hall and saw one of the doors into the courtyard was open--slammed open, from the look of it.
A huge Grimm that looked like a snake, goat, and lion all fused together, but uglier, turned to growl at them.
"How did that get in?" Oscar asked.
"I let him in." Tyrian stepped around the door and laughed.
Willow yelped.
The Grimm jumped at her, and she ducked.
Neo opened her umbrella and blocked the beast's teeth, but then the snake tail came around to blow fire at them.
Oscar adjusted his spear to have a tip.
"How?" he asked. "The door..."
"You keep your secrets, and I'll keep mine, Ozpin," Tyrian said, nastily. "Now, you want to have some fun? Or shall I just take you easily?--please say no."
Oscar made a disgusted face.
"No," he said, not sounding that intimidated to himself, more just grossed out.
"Good," Tyrian said, charging at him.
"Hey!" Nora yelled.
Tyrian looked up. Nora had her hammer up. "Back off! Freak!"
Tyrian laughed and looked up at her, then his tail lashed out and knocked her aside before she could land a hit.
The Grimm clawed at Neo, who was trying to kick it away and get her sword under its throat at the same time.
Suddenly an Ursa rose out of the ground and pushed the Grimm off of it. Willow was using her summoning.
The Ursa was big enough to at least partially counter the other Grimm's weight.
"What is that thing?" Oscar yelped.
"Chimera!" Ren had found them.
He put his hand to the ground, and his Semblance covered them all except Tyrian.
The Chimera began to look confused.
"Run!" Ren called.
Tyrian charged at him.
"Hey!" Nora started to get up.
Oscar turned and switched his spear to gun form. He shot at Tyrian from behind.
Tyrian turned around, annoyed. "What's this? You have some new toys!" He laughed again and charged back towards Oscar.
Ren shot his grappling hooks at him, but he deflected them with his tail.
Willow and Neo got farther away.
"Is that the man?" Willow asked.
Neo nodded.
"Oh...my..." Willow was horrified.
"My, my, my, this is something," Tyrian said, knocking the spear out of Oscar's hand, to his horror. Then he kicked Oscar to the ground. "An older Schnee? What an honor... Shame I hear you can't fight."
"Le...leave him alone..." Willow said shakily.
Tyrian grinned sadistically at her. "Oh...?" He twisted his tail around.
Oscar tried to wiggle free, but he was being pinned down.
Whitley peered out at them, and, seeing the monster and the other monster, he ran for it.
Neo took off also.
"Where are you going?" Ren cried.
"They're afraid..." Willow said, backing up. "I don't know if I can..."
"Don't let him get to you!" Oscar squirmed. "He's just trying to scare you. He can't take us all at on--"
He was cut off by Tyrian putting one boot on his windpipe and pressing down.
"If only I didn't have to bring you alive, I could crush you right now," he said nastily. "But orders are orders. Still, she never said I couldn't rough you up a little first... You're so small and weak, it should be easy."
Oscar coughed.
"Let him go!" Nora got back to her feet and used her gun feature of her hammer to shoot missiles at him.
Tyrian ducked them, but he had to step off Oscar to do so. Oscar rolled and tried to get up, but Tyrian just grabbed him with one hand.
Oscar looked helplessly at his weapon.
The Chimera, not sensing any of them, took off after Whitley and Neo instead.
"Hey!" Ren cried, but of course it did nothing.
Willow backed up, but then she held out her hand, and and another glyph appeared. Out of it came...The Hound?
Tyrian, for the first time, looked slightly unsure of his luck.
"How...?" he said.
The Hound bared its teeth at him and then charged.
Tyrian had to jump out of the way, as it swiped at him with its horrible claws.
"I never thought I'd be glad to see that thing," Oscar muttered. Even then, it was still pretty awful.
The Summoned Hound slashed at Tyrian, and he dropped Oscar by mistake. This time Oscar scrambled away fast enough and snatched up his cane.
The Hound tailed Tyrian around the hallway, while Tyrian attempted to land some hits on it with his tail...but it wasn't destroying it completely... However, it was bound to crack any moment.
Willow didn't have the strength to keep it up. She motioned at Oscar to run.
Oscar looked around, then, looking up, he noted there was a large chandelier hanging overhead, though it wasn't used that often, so it had no candles.
Running toward Willow, he turned and took aim carefully.
Willow, seeing what he was thinking, had the Hound come just slightly closer to them, and Tyrian finally landed a blow that made the whole thing dissolve.
"Ha!" he began.
Oscar fired, and the chandelier fell.
Tyrian looked up in time to jump out of the way, but the end of his tail didn't quite make it out and was slammed to the ground.
He gave a howl of anger and began to thrash wildly to get it free.
Since he still had his other weapons, Oscar decided now was not the time to get close. Just dust pellets weren't going to kill this guy either--time to run for backup.
He and Flower Power ran for it.
"That won't hold him for long," Ren said.
"No, but if it buys enough time to get a better idea..." Oscar huffed. "Why is he here?"
"I think he's here for you," Nora said. "Duh."
"But how did he know I would be here without anyone else?" Oscar asked.
"Because the others would be looking for Ruby and Weiss and the Maidens..." Willow said, ghost-like. "But they would leave you here, because you'd be in danger... It's like they know how we'll do things... How do you children fight these people?"
"We have to get you out of here," Ren said to Oscar.
"Could we use the maze?" Nora asked.
"No, that would trap us in with him if he gets in there," Oscar said. "Where'd Whitley go? And Neo?"
"And the Chimera!" Willow cried.
"Yeah, what if it finds the infirmary?" Oscar cried.
"It will go after the people with the most fear first," Ren said. "That would be us and Whitley right now. Which way did he go?"
* * *
Whitley had run back through the front hall of the school--just in time to meet Weiss, Meridian, and Hamish as they were banging on the door.
"It's important! Let us in!" Meridian cried.
Whitley just hoped it was a huntsman who was on their side. He opened it, panting.
"Whitley?" Weiss said.
"Weiss?!" Whitley cried.
"Oh...it's another one," Hamish said. "How many Schnees are there here?"
"All of them, you bugger," Meridian said, cuffing him.
"For once I'm glad to see you!" Whitley grabbed Weiss's shoulders. "There's a Grimm! and Callows, that psychopath!--where have you been? Do you know what we've been doing to find you?!"
"Yes, I-- Callows?" Weiss cried.
"Who's Callows?" Meridian said.
"He's the one who murdered a bunch of people in Atlas!" Weiss said.
"I don't think our night's done yet," Meridian said to Hamish.
"Not now, we can't fight him. He's too dangerous!" Weiss said.
"We've got to go!" Whitley said.
"You can't leave him--he'd be set loose on Vacuo," Hamish said. "Where is he? I'll show him a thing or two."
He hefted his club.
"You don't understand," Weiss said.
"No, you don't," Meridian said. "This is our job--I don't care if he's dangerous. Where is he?"
"He's back there." Whitley pointed. "But the Chimera is--"
It came dashing around the corner.
"--right there!" Whitley yelped.
Weiss put up a glyph, and the Chimera ran into it and then backed up, snarling.
The snake head blew fire at them.
"What in the bloody blue blazes is that?!" Hamish ducked.
"Chimera," Meridian said. "I thought they never came this far in the city. How did it even get here?"
"I'm guessing it was Callows," Whitley said, getting behind Weiss.
"Ey, where's your weapon?" Hamish asked him.
"Not now!" he cried.
Then the Chimera attacked them again.
Hamish and Meridian didn't have much trouble dodging it, but defeating it was another matter.
Weiss tried to help, using her speed glyphs to speed them up and slow the Chimera down, but it kept shooting fire at them, making it hard to focus.
Whitley ran down the hallway again.
"Seriously?!" Weiss cried.
Then the monster ran after him.
Oscar, Willow, Ren, and Nora came running up the hall.
"Weiss!" they cried.
"Hey," Weiss said.
Oscar and Nora hugged her.
"When did you get here?" Willow asked, hanging back a little timidly.
"Just now..." Weiss said. "They brought me back."
Meridian and Hamish waved.
"Sorry, can't talk now, Madame--have to fight that Grimm." Meridian took off. Hamish followed without even a word.
"What brave young men," Willow said. "But are they mad?"
"I think slightly," Weiss said. "Where is everyone else? Where is Callows?"
"Right there!" Oscar yelped.
Tyrian had reappeared.
Weiss frowned at him.
Tyrian paused.
This many opponents didn't sit well with him.
Weiss, who was still a little buzzed from the effects of Meridian's Semblance, did something rather reckless.
Stepping forward, she held out her sword.
"Get out of our school!" she said fiercely. "We've got you outnumbered. You have three seconds to run."
"What?" Willow was stunned.
Tyrian narrowed his eyes at Weiss.
A glyph appeared behind her, like Winter did sometimes.
"Do the Hound thing again," Oscar suggested, holding out his staff.
Nora and Ren held up their weapons.
Tyrian frowned, then he backed up.
"Well, till a more opportune time..." He ran back.
"Are we just letting him go?" Ren asked.
"I don't think we can take him," Oscar said. "Not alone. I mean...maybe we could, but he could kill one of us first. I'd rather catch him when we have more skilled huntsmen. Let's call Robyn and the Ace Ops and see if we can get some backup. I hope the Grimm problem is better by now."
"We should go after Whitley also. Those two boys might not be enough," Willow said.
"I'll go," Weiss said. "Tyrian might not have left. We should lock all the doors on this floor."
"We can't go in any rooms we can't see," Ren said. "But he might have run outside."
They rushed to try to bar the doorways.
* * *
Whitley managed to stay ahead of the Chimera till he got to the room he was trying to get into. He had a time unlocking the door.
The Chimera came charging down the hallway.
Whitley finally got the door open.
* * *
"Where did he go?" Meridian asked.
"That way, I think," Hamish said.
"Guys!" Weiss came racing down the hall. "Is he okay? Where's the Chimera?"
"The bugger ran off that way," Hamish said. "I hope your brother is fast."
They sped along the hallway with some help from Weiss's glyphs.
They found the Chimera clawing at the door. It had its snake head around one part of it, and it was yanking hard.
"Hey!" Weiss called.
The monster yanked the door the rest of the way off and then turned to them and flung it.
"Duck!" Meridian pushed Weiss down, while Hamish deflected the door over their heads using Momentum.
"Blimey! How did he know to do that?" Hamish cried.
"This is a smart one," Meridian said.
The Chimera turned to them, snarling, and its snake head rose up.
Suddenly, General Ironwood appeared from inside the doorway and seized its tail with both hands, yanking it away.
The fire shot harmlessly into the stone wall.
"Who is that?" Hamish asked.
"That's Ironwood, you daft idiot!" Meridian said.
"General?" Weiss paused.
"Kill it!" Ironwood called to them harshly.
They snapped out of their daze.
Hamish clubbed the goat head real fast, springing off a glyph.
Meridian raised his weapon and jammed it into the lion's neck, and then Weiss ducked and stuck her rapier into its chest.
The Grimm dissolved.
They all panted.
Whitley appeared. "Well...I never want to see that ever again..." he said faintly.
"What happened" they heard Jacques crying out.
"General Ironwood...?" Weiss said. "You just helped us."
Ironwood brushed himself off. "Atlas is gone already, Miss Schnee," he said grimly. "There's no reason for me to fight you. Grimm are a problem no matter where we are--isn't that our job?"
"Well...yeah...but I thought..."
"I thought you lost your mind," Meridian said bluntly.
Ironwood frowned. He said flatly, "No amount of insanity could make me think that Grimm are not a problem."
Hamish snorted. "You know, that's not too bad for an Atlas snob."
"Ahem." Meridian kicked him and nodded at Weiss.
"Well, we need all the help we can get," he said, cheerfully. "If you're willing to put aside your grudge with us all for now, how do you feel about popping off Callows?"
"I'd be honored," Ironwood said contemptuously.
"Great, let's focus on that, and we'll negotiate whether or not to kill each other after we take care of him. Sound good to you all?" Meridian said.
"I guess," Weiss said.
"If it gets him out of this school," Whitley called. "I just don't want to have to fight... But you have to admit, this was a good idea. I realized that we did have a professional huntsman here after all, and even a crazy ally is better than no ally at a time like this."
"Whitley, that idea could have gone wrong," Weiss hissed. "You're lucky it didn't."
"Lucky, or smarter than you?" Whitley wouldn't let it go.
"Ugh." Weiss just hugged him finally. "I cannot believe I even missed you while I was being held hostage."
Whitley was shocked.
"Well...don't get all sentimental about it..." he said awkwardly. "This is not dignified."
"Ah, how cute," Meridian said.
Whitley glared at him.
"If you children are done, we should look for Callows before he gets away," Ironwood said.
"Wait a minute, you're not in charge just because we let you out," Weiss cried. "We'll look for him together. And we're not giving you a gun!"
"How do you feel about a knife?" Meridian asked. "Because he ought to have something if he's going to kill Callows."
"I... maybe, but my point is, I don't automatically just trust him," Weiss said.
"I'm a man of my word," Ironwood said. "I promise only to fight our common enemies until the crisis is over, after which, I say it's every man for his own best judgment."
Weiss considered him.
Well...true...he usually did follow through on his word, even when he'd flipped his lid before.
"Okay, but still no gun..." she muttered. "Whitley, you and...Father might not be so safe here either if any more Grimm show up. Perhaps you should both get somewhere else."
"Such as?" Whitley said.
"Crap on a stick." Hamish was looking out one of the windows in the hallway. "I think we're having a different problem right now. There're flying monkeys outside."
"Flying...monkeys?" Weiss said.
"Yes...monkeys..." Hamish said. "It don't make no sense, but they look like gorillas with wings."
"Let me see." Meridian looked out. "By the blasted moon, you're right! And they're going for the windows."
Ironwood looked out.
"If the enemy is in the air, our only hope is to go underground," he said.
"I feel like that's what they want," Weiss said, suddenly. "The tunnels...they could seal us in."
"But considering the tunnels have multiple exits," Whitley said, "aren't our chances better of escaping them than this school if it really is under siege?"
"What about all the students here?" Weiss said. "We can't leave them."
"They might be ugly and strong, but those things aren't that destructive, I'd say," Meridian said. "Wouldn't there be a heavier hitting Grimm than that? That doesn't look like an invasion-sized pack to me. Skirmish maybe...I'm just saying"
"What if they're here for Oscar?" Whitley asked. "And that's why there's only so many of them? Just enough to make sure he doesn't get out."
"Then I guess we find Oscar and make sure they don't get him," Weiss said, resigned. "Let's go."
"By the way, how did you get free?" Whitley asked.
"We blew their hideout the frick up," Meridian said.
"Oh..." Whitley was sorry he asked.
* * *
Neo tried to find Torchwick after she abandoned the rest of the group--she felt slightly guilty for that, to her surprise...but they weren't really her friends, after all, and she knew she was no match for Tyrian. Why should she stick her neck out for them?
But Torchwick had gone looking for her and instead found the Grimm to be more of a distraction than he could afford to ignore.
Neo ran up towards Theo's office, hoping he might have gone that way to get away from the Chimera...
Instead she heard Tyrian running that way.
Neo, panicking, grabbed one of the spare keys and ran for the door herself.
She could lose him in there, she thought, then climb back out, find Roman, and get out of this school!
She opened the trapdoor and raced down the stairs, holding out a light.
She hit the lever to shut it, but she heard someone land on the stairs after her.
She took off running. Then it was so dark she could barely see.
But it was no use. Tyrian was faster than she was, and he seemed to jump most of the way down the stairs, regardless of how much it hurt.
She had only gotten as far as the Vault when he cornered her.
She held up her umbrella.
"Oh, don't even try to run," Tyrian said, unpleasantly. "I've assistance with me."
Out of the shadows of the maze there came several Seers.
Neo looked around, shivering.
"No one's illusions work that good," Tyrian said.
One of the Seers lashed out, and Neo tried to parry it, but then others came around and caught her limbs.
But they didn't tear her to shreds--they seemed to want to, but they stopped.
Tyrian walked up to her, tail over his head like he was feeling very important right now.
"I wanted to kill you," he said, "but the Goddess said no, that you could still be useful. You are going to be useful, right?"
Neo pursed her lips together and looked down.
"Good, I have a pet project to complete," Tyrian said, grabbing her shoulder, to
her disgust. "And you're going to help me. And if you do, well, maybe we'll let you live. Come, we have to get moving."
* * *
"Oscar, can I ask," Nora said, once they'd looked for Tyrian and not found him anywhere--which was almost more unsettling, "why didn't you do that thing where you could scare the Grimm that you've been doing?"
"I...didn't think about it," Oscar said. "Tyrian was there... I guess I got distracted... I'm sorry."
"Well...can you just do it next time?" Nora asked. "We probably could use that."
She was so right, because just after that, some of the flying monkeys broke some of the windows on that floor.
They came screeching in, going right for Oscar.
Flying opponents were not the best match-up for Nora and Ren, but they did their best.
However, Oscar took Nora's advice and held out his staff. He said, "Go away!"
The flying gorillas looked at him and bared their terrible fangs... Some of them snapped at him...but then they flew away.
But more kept coming.
"You might have to keep doing that for a while." Ren looked at Oscar, who just nodded tiredly.
* * *
Vara shuddered as they landed on the rock formation outside the hideout.
"What is it?" Kip asked.
Qrow turned from bird to human and landed on a rock.
Tai and Yang, following in a borrowed vehicle, pulled over farther away and came to join them.
Vara was eyeing the kingdom.
"I just feel like something's wrong," she said, "at the school. I wonder if we should have left them."
"Are you sure you're not just being paranoid?" Qrow asked.
"The man with bad luck says that?" Vara said, a bit tightly. "I'm not usually wrong. I wonder if some Grimm attacked them."
Yang's scroll buzzed as she came up.
She pulled it out.
"Whoa...Whitley and Nora are both sending messages... Grimm are attacking Shade."
Vara just looked at Qrow with the most smug/worried mixture of expressions imaginable.
"But Weiss is back!" Yang said, more upbeat. "I can't believe it--that street rat pulled it off! Apparently she's okay."
"That's great news," Tai said.
"Yeah, good," Qrow said. "We only have to worry about everyone else now."
Yang frowned. "Weiss is our friend too, Uncle Qrow."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Qrow said. "It's just that that was the easy part, that's all."
Kip rubbed his hands together nervously.
"Well...I suppose I better go in... Aunt Vara?"
"Yeah, I'm ready." Vara adjusted her cloak nervously. "I just hope she doesn't tranquilize me the second I walk in that door."
"Huh?" Kip said.
"Nevermind," Vara said. "We're just returning you--remember the story... Then I guess I distract her while you turn off those scanners. If we get that far, count me surprised. Then I signal all of you to come in. Look for any weird weather patterns."
"I hope this works," Tai said.
"It probably won't," Vara said. "I should put money on it."
Kip went to one rock and moved it, then he pulled some lever that was sticking out of the dirt, and a hole into the maze opened beneath them.
"One other thing," Yang said, suddenly going pale, "Tyrian was at Shade."
"What!?" Qrow said loudly.
"He ran for it when he saw how many people were there," Yang said, reading. "But they can't find him, so he might have gone back into Vacuo or into the maze... He might be going for the Vault or for the hideout, then...if he knew where it was."
"I still don't get that part," Tai said.
"I should fly back there," Qrow said.
"No," Tai said. "If he left the school, this is where he might come. We should be here."
Qrow paused mid-step and sighed. "They'd better not take long, then."
* * *
Theo's jolly band found their way through the maze, trying to avoid any traps.
If there were Grimm down there, they didn't attack them...which would have surprised them all if they'd known about it.
But instead it was eerily quiet. They didn't even see bugs.
"I didn't want to be in here again," Emerald shivered.
Hazel put a hand on her shoulder.
"This place is spooky," Sun said. "And echoey..."
Jaune and Pyrrha were holding hands--and hoping that no one else had noticed.
"I hope this works," Jaune said.
"It will," Pyrrha said. "It has to."
That was sobering.
* * *
Meanwhile, Mercury, not finding Kip, had decided to stall on going back to Kanap's Bunker.
Of course Salem decided that this was the time to contact him, using a Seer that somehow knew where to find him.
"Everything going according to schedule?" she asked.
"Yeah..." Mercury said, wishing he wasn't alone right now. "We've got it all lined up. The Summer Maiden is going to be in our hands any minute. We just need to trap her without Kanap knowing about it."
"Good," Salem said. She didn't care about details. "Well, Tyrian delivered your package."
Mercury frowned.
He'd given the book to them, not thrilled about it.
Salem held it up and gave him what almost looked like a look of disbelief. "Is this your idea of amusement?"
Mercury began to perspire.
"I know it looks stupid, but that's what they showed me," he said. "I think it's a decoy kind of thing, like it looks dumb so no one would think there's anything in it, but there's a lot of weird stuff. I looked. I think it's the real deal."
Salem held it up like it was a bug. "If that is the case, it would be effective, because I wouldn't look twice at this." Her tone suggested that if he was wrong, he was dead. "But I'll take your word for it, for now. There had better be something useful in this."
It's not my fault if there's not, Mercury thought but couldn't say.
He hoped that this whole thing was at least past the point where he would need to do much.
"Cinder has not reported in since yesterday," Salem said.
"She hasn't?" Mercury said blandly. "Weird."
"Indeed." Salem looked at him unsettlingly. "But it's not the first time she's gone dark. If she is trying to get the other Maiden powers, I want you to let me know immediately."
"If I see her around them, I'll let you know immediately," Mercury said. "Sometimes I don't know why you tolerate her disobedience."
"A strong-willed person can be most useful, if you can tame them," Salem said.
It was almost as if she didn't even think about what she said being creepy, she just actually thought this way.
"One more thing," Salem said, just when he thought the call was over. "As our dear Tyrian is not here to complete the task, I want you to take care of our traitor."
Mercury stared at her.
"Of...Hazel?" he said.
"Well, he might be more than a match for you, unless you had some assistance," Salem said, as if she was being generous. "But I want him alive anyway. I'll settle for the girl for now. She could get in the way of capturing the Maiden, if they catch on to your deception, so I want her out of the way. Is that a problem?"
This question was really a threat, and Mercury knew it.
Now, of all moments, he couldn't hesitate.
"No," he said, sounding cold even to himself. "I'll get it done."
"Good," Salem said, with a smile that was chilling. "I look forward to hearing all of your progress... Do see to it that Watts does not get too caught up in his work to remember the true goal."
The Seer hung up.
Mercury stood there for a few moments but then shook himself. Time to get to work.
[And who didn't see that coming? We all knew Tyrian and Salem would want this.]