Weiss and Meridian had followed Jasmine into the woods [cue references] a short way, following some tracks from the bandits that you could see, and broken branches and other signs of someone coming through there.
There wasn't a path here, naturally.
"Still, if they escaped so quickly they must have a route," Meridian reasoned. "Some way to retrace their steps."
"Or they're just that good at it," Weiss said.
"I don't know about that, Tiger. A lot of bandits weren't born and raised in the woods. They're rogues from the kingdoms, even Atlas itself. They wouldn't know the first thing about navigating trees--I don't either, but I hear it's murder on your sense of direction. Don't you think they have some way to find their way back quickly?"
"They never hit the same town twice," Jasmine said, rubbing her hand. "If they do have some trail, maybe they wouldn't worry about it being found later because by then they'd be long gone. Then your hubby's point might make more sense."
"I guess..." Weiss said. "So what kind of thing would they use?"
"Some people leave marks on trees," Meridian said. "I have to think. If I were someone new to this, and I didn't want to get caught, what would I do?"
He began looking more closely at the trees and bushes around them.
Jasmine began to also. She seemed less distraught when she could focus on those, though she was so pale Weiss worried she'd faint pretty soon without rest.
Weiss had no clue what to look for but began to peer at the ground and rocks more closely.
"Aha," Meridian said, after what seemed like a long time but was really about 15 minutes, during which the others had been talking to the townspeople, unbeknownst to these three. "I think I might have found something unusual."
Jasmine and Weiss came to where he'd looked at a tree.
On the bark of this tree was carved a large circle with what might have been an M inside it.
"M for Mala, maybe," Jasmine said.
"Did you say Mala is the leader, the one the others saw?" Meridian asked.
"Yes, that's what they call her," Jasmine said. "She's not even that much older than your lieutenant Schnee, I think, from the look of her, but she's corrupt." She then added tightly, "I've known a lot of mean women, but I can't picture any of them ordering this...and taking the girls also. You'd think some common pride would stop them."
"I wish that was the case, but it doesn't stop us men from doing terrible things to each other." Meridian shrugged.
"I can't say I think women are any better, after Salem...and...Victoria, and...well, other people." Weiss meant Cinder,but didn't like to say it. After all, Cinder wasn't that far away, and if she scared Jasmine about it, that could lead to trouble.
"I know.... I just think of my poor father. He always said a man should defend a woman's honor," Jasmine said. "But if we won't even defend each others', how can we ask the men to?"
"She doesn't speak for you all, but she does make Raven's tribe look like saints by comparison," Meridian muttered.
"Oh yeah." Weiss was getting a picture now of how much worse her capture could have been if Raven had fewer standards of behavior. Apparently her claim that Weiss had been lucky it was her and not a different tribe wasn't just idle self praise.
"Are there more of the symbols?" Jasmine asked finally.
"Let's see." Meridian looked around.
He found one about 4 trees away, to their right.
"They send scouts in, you say?" he said, looking back. "Better let the others see this."
The others found them not that long after, though it took them a bit to get through the trees.
Cinder and Mercury were hanging back at first but eventually they came to join the others while the were studying the markings.
"We know that Tyrone was a spy," Yang said. "Maybe the spies mapped out these routes too, or they helped the scouts do it. The bandits planned this all out much more than I used to think."
"Your mom must have done this too," Neptune said. "But since she could fly, she didn't need to worry about the tree things; she could just lead them around--I'm guessing, anyway, since she's never mentioned it."
He'd be right about that.
"There's no way this leads back to their hideout though. It has to be many miles away, and they'd not be so careless," Jasmine noted.
"I'm thinking it leads to somewhere they can all meet up before they go back to the hideout, just so they don't all get slowed down by running in a big group," Emerald guessed. "Then they probably group back together to avoid the Grimm taking them out. I bet the rendezvous point is close. Maybe we could find it."
"Now?" Yang said. "I'm all for beating these punks up, but do we have the numbers for that?"
"With a little planning, maybe," Meridian said. "Emerald can hide from them. Mercury can handle any Grimm they have. We could have the element of surprise...and if we wait to call in more, we'll lose them for sure. It's just possible they might be resting now before going back to their real HQ. If we could catch one of them, we might finally get the truth out of them about where it is. I think it's worth the risk."
They all felt inclined to agree--but then they checked themselves.
"But is that just the hype talking?" Neptune voiced their thoughts.
"Aside from the hype, he's right about not taking more time," Emerald mused. "I don't know, though. It's risky. And we might not get in touch with Raven in time to ask her."
"I'll try." Neptune held up his scroll.
"What do you think?" Emerald asked Mercury and Royal.
"I don't like the odds either way," Mercury said. "It's too good a lead to pass up if it works, and it's potentially a huge hit if it doesn't, so I could go either way."
Emerald sighed. "Well...Roy?"
Royal looked uncomfortable. "I think I could go either way too.... I know the boys want to go after their families, but we're talking maybe 20 bandits at least, maybe more if they all regrouped there. And maybe Grimm. And there's, like, 10 of us. Even if we're better skilled, they have weapons."
"We might be able to work around that," Emerald said. "Shine and Wally were able to switch their Aura reliance over to the kind that's not just human.... But when they did that, they weren't as drained."
"Some of us can't do that," Yang said. "And I've never tried to."
"We've never needed to," Emerald said. "But maybe we could try it...or the music thing, if we find Grimm--once stealth isn't an issue. Come on, we've taken on worse odds than this before.... I mean, it's possible right?" She looked at Cinder.
"If it was just them, I'd say it'd be easy," Cinder said. "Just the Grimm and weapons possibly make it different."
"I'm sick of backing out of this though," Yang said. "Even if the odds are bad, we can't just not try."
Jasmine bit her lip. "I hate to ask you to do this, but...if there's the slightest chance you could retrieve the people...even if you don't catch the bandits, that would be so much better for us."
They all felt bad.
"We've gotta," Neptune said.
His signal wasn't great, but Raven finally answered, though she was shaky.
Neptune explained in a few words what they wanted to do.
Raven looked grim.
"All right," she said. "I see why you want to go after them--they might have fled already, but even if they are resting, they'll look for a tail. If you get that far, try to signal me again. I'll call in some backup. If they have forces that you don't like the odds of, retreat. It's not worth losing our squad over this, as harsh as that sounds to those villagers, I'm sure."
It showed just how far Raven had come as a friend or a leader that she even acknowledged that it sounded harsh. In the past, she would have not voiced that thought in order to sound tough, even if she knew it in her heart.
Yang nodded at Neptune.
"Yang will be close to us," Neptune said. "So you can send help. Thanks--I know we can at least get some backup in."
"Makes me wonder what Argus will do when Raven does step down," Cinder remarked in the background. "She's a rare asset that not many military powers have, instant backup."
"I think we should just be glad we have her for now and hope that by the time she steps down, our numbers and resources have recovered enough to where we'll have more coverage for the kingdoms and won't need it," Meridian said. "I like to think you have one solution until you have a better one."
[I observe this in real life too.]
"We're going," Weiss said to Jasmine, "but not you. You have to go back."
"If I didn't know perfectly well that I'd be completely useless right now, I'd argue that," Jasmine sighed. "Just bring them home."
Taylor was still there, but Oscar and Juan didn't join them till Jasmine had gone back and probably told them where they all were.
"We have the airship," Yang said.
"No, too noticeable. They'd run for sure," Emerald argued. "Our chances are better without it."
"Maybe, but I'd like the firepower," Yang said uneasily.
"Just no way we'd find them," Mercury insisted.
"Fine. Royal, does that mean you'll sit this out?" Yang asked.
"I don't think you can afford any of us to sit it out besides your other pilot," Royal said.
"Yeah, well, he's fine with waiting," Yang said. "I told him if we didn't come back, he should ask for a raise."
"Why for that?" Emerald asked.
"Because they don't pay him enough for this crap," Yang said.
"That's not that funny," Mercury said. "But it's at least not cheesy, so I'll let it pass."
"Didn't ask you." Yang shrugged.
"Ruby will be sorry she missed this," Weiss said.
"Okay," Neptune said, once he'd hung up. "Better spread out and try to find those trees. Anyone here better at navigating woods?"
Taylor put up his hand.
"Oh...well, then, lead the way," Neptune said.
"None of you know anything about woods, huh?" Taylor said.
"I know to avoid Grimm," Weiss said.
"And bears," Yang said [get it?].
Taylor looked at them incredulously. "Well, we are fricked," he said, turning to plunge ahead into the trees.
Mercury started to snicker. "I kinda like this kid."
But aside from that, no one much felt like joking.
It wasn't the easiest thing to press their way through the trees, and the longer they did, the more they felt they'd not find anything and this was a waste of time. Why would the bandits linger around?
Cinder veered off to the left, following more of the marked trees--some of the marks were only half done, and they looked almost like knots in the wood--probably on purpose--so that she looked at the same tree several times before she finally saw one.
Gradually, the group thought there was a sort of pattern in them. They didn't know what at first, just some kind of winding trail.
Royal said, if he pictured it in his mind from an aerial view, it looked almost like a hand with fingers jutting towards the village.
Emerald said that sounded like the Avarice Grimm--and that made everyone shudder
But the trail seemed like it might be cold. They still hadn't found anything.
[Should probably put a TRIGGER WARNING here. There might be sensitive content coming.]
Cinder, who had pretty much given up on finding anything and had instead begun just staring at the ground and foliage blankly while her mind was elsewhere, was awakened to her full attention suddenly by seeing a different shape in the trees.
Pausing, she backed up a step.
At first she thought it was Grimm, because it was dark colored, but then she realized it was too small and it was human shaped.
Also here the trees grew thicker together and formed a kind of thicket that was like a small gated-in area almost.
[This is caused by multiple trees growing from the same root usually. It's a pretty cool looking botanical occurrence.]
The human--who she thought was a man by the size, had been leaning on one of these trees, sharpening a knife.
He hadn't seen Cinder right off, which was odd, though she was wearing her hood with the special thread--to ward off Grimm.
Even now the guy didn't seem to see her.
Cinder narrowed her eyes--was it because of the Grimm effect?
Her skin crawled like there were Grimm near.
But why on Remnant would he just be standing there...unless he was standing watch?
Suddenly she heard something like a cry of fear from deeper inside the thicket of trees.
The hostages!
Cinder didn't waste any time. She notched an arrow, but she also stepped farther behind a tree and used her scroll to message Emerald, Royal, and Weiss, who were closest.
Weiss was the most close out those three, and she stepped around a tree several meters away to give Cinder a look.
Cinder pointed toward the guy, and Weiss finally saw him.
Now she stood out like a flashlight against a shadowy room, and the guard suddenly looked up.
"Hey, be quiet," he said loudly. "I think I saw something."
Things went dead still.
Weiss held still also, but a glyph began to form behind her.
Suddenly a much louder scream, one that sounded desperate and formed the words, "Help! Somebody please!" rang out of the thicket.
It was a woman's voice, no mistake, and not an old one from the sound of it.
That did it for Weiss, though Cinder wondered at this advisability of charging in without more backup, but Weiss wasn't going to wait.
A huge Grimm summoning crawled out of her glyph. It was a boar-like one.
It charged the guard, and he was knocked into a tree.
He pushed at it. "What the h--- is this?!" he grunted.
Weiss rushed toward the thicket while he was distracted.
Cinder held back, not sure.
Weiss found exactly what she thought she would. Hidden in the trees was a different bandit, a weaselly-looking man, and there was a girl, who might have been a few years younger than Oscar, but older than Taylor or Juan, who was tied to one of the trees.
She was already a mess, so Weiss assumed they hadn't been gentle so far, and she looked like they'd dragged her along the forest floor too.
She looked at Weiss helplessly. Her lip was bleeding like maybe she'd been smacked in it after she'd screamed.
"Huntress!" the bandit said, taking in Weiss' clearly not ruffian appearance at once.
"Huntress?" the other bandit had finally kicked the summoning off, and it faded away.
Weiss held out her rapier. "Step away from her," she said.
The bandit gave her a look of loathing.
"Oh, sure," he said. "We'll do that."
Suddenly out of the tree tops jumped a Grimm that had wings and a long tail--it wasn't a Nevermore. It looked more like a flying rodent with huge jaws.
Weiss wasn't ready for it, and though she stepped aside, its tail caught her in the shoulder and knocked her off balance.
She whirled around in time to parry its claws, but it was a lot stronger than it looked and swiped at her with its other arm.
Weiss activated her Aura.
The girl, who was braver than she had any reason to be considering the circumstances, picked up a rock and tried to throw it at the Grimm, but the bandit grabbed her arm before she could and twisted it, making her hiss in pain, then he knocked her down.
"Told you to be quick about it." The other bandit was just watching this. "Where there's one huntress, they're others. We'd better run."
"Then we'd better kill her," the first bandit said, drawing a curved sword. "Pity, she'd be a nice pet."
"Don't touch her!" Weiss cried, making more glyphs, and other summonings came out of them.
Cinder decided now was probably a good time to get involved.
She raced over.
The Grimm didn't seem to see her.
The bandit raised his curved sword while the girl tried to lurch away, without much luck.
Cinder blocked him in the nick of time, and he finally seemed to see she was there.
"What the--?" he sputtered.
The girl screamed, but then she moved again.
Cinder knocked the guy back since he wasn't ready.
Where were the others? The Grimm couldn't be the only one there.
She was right about that. More of the same kind came racing over the tree branches.
Weiss had just killed the first one, but before she could help Cinder, more jumped at her. They ignored Cinder, just like the first one.
Cinder decided to worry about the hostage first, since she was deadweight.
She cut the ropes tying her to one of the trees.
"If you can run, then run," she said.
"They'll chase me," the girl protested. "Can't I just stay behind you?"
"No, just go." Cinder had no time to assure that there was help out there, nor did she think it'd be wise to alert the enemy.
She shoved the girl.
"Oh, no, you don't," the second bandit said, swinging a mace at her.
Cinder threw up a glass shield right before it hit the girl, or herself, and then faced him.
"You sure you want to do this?" she said. Another sword appeared in her hand.
"You sure you want to?" he said, leering.
The other bandit recovered from her blow and jumped up, then he threw something at her--probably an Aura-zapping device.
Cinder hit it aside with expert reflexes, and it hit a tree, but the effect of it still shot out.
It didn't quite drain all her Aura since it had hit the tree, and the girl was partially in its path, but it must have drained at least 80% before it stopped, and she immediately felt more tired.
"How do you miss a shot like that?" the second bandit said harshly.
"Shut up," said the other. "Just kill them both."
"I'm doing it." The second tried to hit Cinder again.
She had just enough presence of mind to roll out of the way and then hit the tree instead, and she kicked his feet out from under him.
The other bandit attacked her again, and she ducked, but her chances weren't as good now that her Aura had taken a hit like that, not without backup.
Weiss was fending off the Grimm but not having the easiest time killing them.
"Just go!" She was trying to just tell them to go--but it wasn't working, probably because the bandits were keeping them there.
The girl covered her head. She looked gray from the Aura drain.
Then the first bandit got in a lucky shot with Cinder, clipping the side of her shoulder and making her trip over one of the tree roots, then he stepped on her cloak to hold her down.
Seeing his chance, the second bandit grabbed the girl by her hair and began to drag her away, probably so he could kill her more easily.
She screamed and tried to pull free.
"Stop!!" Weiss yelled, and finally her words seemed to scare the Grimm. Suddenly they flew away from her. Her Aura also shimmered.
A glyph shot a large, dragon-like Grimm out of it and ploughed into the second bandit, then it took the girl and flew upward and put her in a tree.
The other Grimm started to fly toward it, and the summoning bared its teeth at them, and they flew back, nervous.
"There's only one group of people who can scare Grimm," the first bandit said, glancing up from where he was stepping on Cinder's right arm before she could raise it. "The heroes."
"Then we'd get a prize for this," the second bandit said.
Weiss summoned more creatures--but the second bandit threw something else at the ground, and it exploded into a piercing, shrieking sound that almost sounded like the portals Cinder had used when she had dark magic.
Weiss covered her ears, and even Cinder's head rang, though she couldn't cover her ears at the moment.
The Grimm all turned as if this had given them new resolve. They flew back at Weiss while she wasn't ready and scratched her.
Her Aura protected her, of course, but one seized her sword and yanked it out of her grasp.
The second bandit then used his mace to hit her into one of the trees.
Weiss blinked and saw stars.
Cinder looked up at the bandit holding her down and kicked him right between the legs.
He yelped, and she wrenched her arm freed, activating her Aura.
The Grimm paused, looking at her.
Then, strangely, instead of attacking Weiss, they turned and attacked the first bandit instead.
Not the one who had Weiss, though--they acted as if he wasn't there.
The first was chased back by them and began to howl and kick at them, yelling something obscene about the stupid beasts attacking the wrong person.
Second bandit grabbed Weiss by the throat before she could recover from the head blow and shoved her into the tree.
Weiss started to summon something else, though it was hard to focus right now.
The bandit raised his arm faster than she could summon to bash her head in.
An arrow went through his neck.
He seemed surprised and then fell over, dead probably before he even hit the ground.
Weiss gasped in surprise.
Cinder lowered her bow with a fierce look.
The other bandit broke free of the Grimm finally, as they seemed to be losing interest in him, but he took off into the trees, yelping.
The girl, still up a tree, began to scream as the Grimm turned back to her.
Weiss rushed to kill them. Cinder shot one, but then her Aura was waning too low, and abruptly the glass shattered and she fell to her knees.
Finally, Emerald found them. She'd had a time of it looking around the trees.
She helped Weiss finish off the last Grimm.
"He's getting away," Weiss gasped at her. "That way." She pointed. "Be careful, they...they had more powerful stuff."
"You guys get that?" Emerald held up her scroll now, which she'd called the others on before coming this way.
"We're not far off. We'll follow him," Neptune said.
"We can cut through that patch of trees," Taylor said, shifting gears.
"We have one of the girls here," Emerald added. "What's your name?"
"It's...Tammy," the girl said.
"That's not one of the people they mentioned before." Royal finally found Emerald. "Sorry, I think I went the wrong way back there. I hate woods, I decided. Give me snow anyday."
"I know," Weiss said.
"I'd better follow the bandits. I can do it without being seen," Emerald said. "Catch up once you've called someone to get her, okay?"
"Oscar got the numbers of some other people in town," Royal said.
Emerald melted into the trees to tail the bandit.
"Are you okay?" Weiss asked Tammy. "We came as soon as we could.... I'm sorry we were too late."
Tammy was shaking as Weiss helped her out of the tree.
"You came," she said hoarsely. "I'll try to be grateful for that, but...yes, you were too late."
Royal looked her up and down and then blanched.
"I..." Weiss had no words.
"I guess I'm the lucky one though," Tammy said, sounding a little shell shocked. "Did you find any of the other girls? Or...the one man, the brave one?"
"Not yet..." Weiss said.
"It's too late." Tammy shook her head, speaking too fast like she was still freaking out--with good reason. "Those...monsters, they said they were tired of running and they wanted to...do something else, and the other could wait for them.... I think they said they were hanging back longer.... Didn't...didn't want to wait...to..." She broke off.
"You don't have to say it." Weiss was sick looking. "I understand."
"Sick b-----ds!" Royal was disgusted.
"Yeah..." Weiss shuddered and looked back at Cinder, who was staring at the dead bandit.
"Oh..." Weiss said.
"What happened?" Royal said, then he took in the arrow.
Weiss glanced at Cinder, who looked at her like she was afraid.
"It's...it's okay," Weiss said, walking closer to her and bending down. "It's fine. I'll tell Raven it was to protect me. She'll make sure no one gets you in trouble over it."
"I killed him." Cinder sounded a little shaken up. "I haven't killed anyone in about 5 years."
"It was self defense," Weiss insisted, though she felt strange about it too. "It's okay. We have to sometimes, on the job."
"What happened?" Royal asked her.
"He had me pinned. I was too slow," Weiss rushed to explain. "That's...there was no time to do anything else. Any hesitation and he might still have landed the hit. She had to kill him. Besides...look at what they were doing."
"I'm not saying it was the wrong decision. I just wanted to know what happened," Royal said.
"They had the devices, and two of us just weren't enough, with the Grimm showing up. They didn't run from me like usual," Weiss said. "I guess the devices riled them up more. Listen, I need to take Tammy back to the village and then double back. I'll use a summoning. It won't take that long. I'll catch up. I'm more tired now anyway. Cinder, I can take you back too. Your Aura's almost gone."
"I'm...all right," Cinder argued.
"Just take Tammy first," Royal said.
Weiss nodded and helped Tammy get onto a beast and then took off.
Cinder got to her feet slowly.
"You all right?" Royal asked.
"Yes." Cinder nodded. "It's just been a long time. It happened so fast, I didn't have time to think about it..." She realized her hands were shaking. Was it from fear or from the Aura drain?
"Everyone else says it was the right thing," Royal said. "You had to. He could have killed Weiss."
"Or the girl," Cinder said numbly. "They were trying to kill us all to avoid us being able to talk about them."
"Yeah...it's not wrong, not against people like that. It's not murder," Royal insisted. "But it's okay if it was a shock. No one should have to make that call. But I think it's better not to hesitate in a time like that. Any of us who might have could have lost the fight. They weren't playing.... They're not playing," he said and grabbed her arm. "You got it? Don't start second guessing your decisions right now. This was already risky. The possibility that we'd have to take that extreme a measure was out there. We all knew it."
Cinder nodded silently.
"Look at me," Royal said. "I need you to give me some sign you understand that this wasn't a crime. Don't let them mess with your head."
Cinder forced herself to look up. It was harder than she'd have thought. She'd never had any issue looking anyone in the face after killing--except that first time.
She was still shaking.
Royal decided to act on impulse and pulled her into a sort of hug. "It's going to be fine."
Cinder allowed it, which showed she was much more rattled than she'd have admitted out loud.
She dimly thought she should probably stop him, but she wasn't even sure she'd still be standing if she moved.... The Aura drain was probably part of it...but somehow it all just didn't feel as easy as before.
Oscar found them a few minutes later and tactfully said nothing about how odd it was.
"Weiss told me what happened," he said instead. "Maybe I can help with the Aura thing, Cinder..."
Cinder straightened finally, looking tired. "Well, go ahead," she said in a low voice that was trying to be terse but came out as more nervous.
Oscar held up his staff and took her hand.... Aura glowed over it.
Some color did come back to her complexion.
"There," Oscar said. "Do you want to follow the others? I think they might have found the guy. Emerald messaged that she picked up the trail of the Grimm.... Or you can go back to the town."
"I'm fine," Cinder lied. "Let's just go and stop wasting time."
"Okay." Oscar didn't argue.
Cinder started walking, tugging her shoes on more tightly as if ignoring what had happened.
"Is she okay?" Oscar asked Royal.
"I don't know," Royal said. "She didn't seem to want to kill the guy--I can't say I'm at all sorry she did it. Did Weiss tell you what they were doing?"
"She didn't have to. We all saw the girl and guessed," Oscar said. "But yeah, I don't blame Cinder at all. I think any of us...but well, I wouldn't have wanted to make the choice."
"I guess it proves she's not the same person, though, that all of you knew back then," Royal said.
"Maybe it does," Oscar said. "Thanks for being there for her. I'm not sure I'd know what to do or say, but you seem so natural. Not many of us have an easy time with her. Just...history, I guess."
"I'm sure she thinks of you as her friend. She's different around you," Royal said.
"She's different around you too," Oscar said. "But we are friends but not that close. I think I just live too far away to really develop a close friendship with everybody. I miss them, but...well, we all have our paths in life.... Don't worry, Raven will know why she did it. They'll probably keep it off record who did it, just to be safe."
"See, I think the world is scary where killing some scum like that could get someone in trouble, considering what was happening," Royal said.
"Yeah, but still, this has turned into a nightmare," Oscar answered in a low voice. "The Grimm were one thing, but this is just getting worse and worse. We have to stop it, Mr. Zapato."
"Royal, please.... And yeah, you're right. We have to," Royal said seriously.
[Whew...I apologize for any triggering aspects of that section.
I know it's weird that I went there, but I'm trying to make this realistic. It's not a nice subject.
I did think I should eventually depict the other aspect of the Avarice Grimm that has not been touched on, and I didn't want to romanticize it like so many fics do into being an okay thing. It is never okay to exploit someone in any way when they can do nothing about it.
I also feel Cinder made the right call. No matter what angle you look at it from, those men were insane, grimmo-using psychopaths. But do you think the repercussions for this will be a problem? I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on what happened--respectfully of course.]
* * *
Emerald found the bandits, and the others were able to catch up with her.
When Mercury got close, the Grimm that were hovering around the bandit fled promptly, and they killed them more quietly, so the scout wouldn't hear them.
He seemed to be trying to lose them in the forest, but at last he stopped, and Emerald, who hid them all from his sight with her Semblance off and on, finally dropped the disguises.
Seeing he was surrounded, the bandit panicked.
"I didn't mean any harm!" he began to howl. "I was forced to be part of this!"
"Oh, shut up," Mercury said, kicking him down. "Just be glad we need you alive, sucker, or I'd do about a million things to you that you wouldn't like."
"Agreed." Yang made a fist. "Don't move." She held up her gauntlet.
Meridian pointed an arrow at the guy.
"You have 3 seconds to tell us where to find your hideout," he said.
"I can't tell you that," the bandit said, leaning away "Even if you didn't kill me, the tribe would if they knew. And worse than you would. Just kill me now."
"I don't think you'd find hell a better alternative, mate," Meridian said in a scary tone for him.
Royal and Cinder rejoined them right then.
The bandit looked at Cinder and then blinked.
"All right." He held up his hands. "Take it easy now.... One of us is already dead."
"I'm not hearing anything useful," Meridian said.
"There's a safe point, not too far from here," the bandit said hastily. "We were heading there. If I tell you how to find it, will you let me go?"
"Where is it?" Mercury cut in.
"A few miles north of here, where there's a pass towards the higher mountains of Mistral," the bandit supplied nervously. "Big enough to hide in."
"It better be there," Mercury said.
They pulled the bandit up and cuffed his hands together.
"You're coming with us. If there's nothing there, you're dead," Mercury said roughly.
Emerald pursed her lips, but even she didn't make any attempt to soften the blow.