Chapter 9: I don’t-

~Sid’s POV~

Another day at work, another walk back home.

Yawning as Blake and I left the closing ‘Morning Sip’, we turned the corner to begin our return to the apartment.

I admit I should have expected things to turn a little stale after a while, dealing with the Belladonna had somehow turned manageable after almost two weeks of having the Cat Faunus around.

Maybe it was because I’ve grown accustomed to the few quirks of hers, the ones that would generally unbalance me at first sight but… now were actually easy to deal with as those had became mundane.

There was also the fact that the girl had kept her word over being careful with her peculiar situation.

Her ‘work’ attitude had taken a minor change around the members of her team and those she knew about, displaying a more extrovert-like behavior that proved to be deadly useful in keeping the girls (and the blond) from suspecting anything weird about the identity of the curious waitress.

She established herself as another individual from just a handful of details given to her camouflage, someone that barely resembled the real ‘Blake Belladonna’ and that offered her the means to be hiding in plain sight without having to face the ire or disappointment of her team.

Still, I have to admit that I was also glad that things hadn’t truly escalated back when they could have. The little fright given by Yang had left me quite in an agitated state as I felt the gigs come close to end, concluding the intriguing part of my life dealing with the Cat Faunus.

A part of my life I was having just some issues to come to properly understand as…

I don’t know what to think of Blake.

I still disliked her to a minor degree, some of her unhealthy habits (like reading some forbidden genre) was enough to put me at odds with her and quarreling with her was still a common situation to face sometime.

But my life had regained its original little glint of normality that I loved to feel as I continued to go through the final problems about coming to Vale.

Blake was a new variable to everything about the flat, work, shopping, and… general life.

It was odd to consider the whole idea that someone like her would have ended up becoming something this much essential in my daily routine and yet it was the case.

Weird, but not awkward for some reason, finding her so-different personality a fresh breath of air compared to my previous lifestyle.

Maybe it was because I trusted her and she trusted me in return.

I knew enough to be sure that she was putting herself on the line to keep things from going down any of the grander extremes available in her situation, the chance of settle herself to do a situation that would have her not deal with her team, to not have to work and… to not be dealing with the rules of my flat.

There were so many opportunities for her to bail from her limited role, to gain a better position compared to the one I had presented her and to ditch it all and just go for a better life.

I was confused about Blake, I was confused by her priorities and… I was confused as to why she seemed so happy right now.

Amber eyes glowed happily as the girl seemed to have found something that had taken her interest, her hand reaching and grasping at my arm and pulling at it.

“Can we go there?”

I blinked in brief surprise, unready for the little initiative that she had decided to take. It was unusual but… then I realized what she was looking at.

It was a neon sign that said ‘Melody Aquarium’ and a small fish underneath it.

I blinked again, this time to let my poor brain rest away from the growing need to facepalm at that ridiculous request of hers… but then I realized that it was the first time she had asked me something like that.

I reckon that she had been in the flat for some time now and that she hadn’t asked if she could leave individually or if I wanted to accompany her somewhere else after work.

The oddity of the predicament was enough to give me some restrain over outright refusing the query, my interest peaked by the personal curiosity of seeing why there was an aquarium here of all places.

This section of Vale wasn’t set to offer any entertainment nor rest places to the tourists visiting for the Vytal Festival and I felt like I would have noticed a place like this prior to that afternoon.

I sighed as Blake pulled again, the fish-loving Cat Faunus seemingly growing impatient by my lack of response and daring to poke me for a final decision.

Another sigh, I closed my eyes and then… I replied. “Fine, but only this o-OONCE!!”

She took full control of my arm and started to yank me towards the small entrance that led to an underground level, making me almost trip by the concrete staircase just beyond the door.

I had a little frown plastered on my face as we ventured inside the building, the corridors being quite narrow and giving off the first hint that something was off about this underground ‘Aquarium’.

A minute passed and we were still wandering by the corridors, nothing changing other than the presence of dark mold forming by the edges of the long hallways.

My frown deepened, this time annoyance turning in confusion, while Blake’s enthusiasm seemed to vanish slowly as greater confusion took hold of her expression.

We paused for a moment after a while, I was the one to stop and the girl the one to accept the legitimate pause because something truly felt off about this place.

“This isn’t an Aquarium,” I pointed out with a scowl. “It could have been a prank, someone with a used neon sign trying to get some unfortunate morons out like this.”

She huffed. “Does that make us morons then?” The question was sarcastic, her snappy tone being mostly directed at the fact we got tricked with that rather than with me admitting that we had been tricked.

I sighed and nodded. “Only because we hadn’t checked properly and-”

My lips sealed close, causing the Faunus to frown at my sudden interruption, but then the girl herself tensed up, our stares moving right at the direction we came from.

There was… nobody?

I frowned and Blake’s cat ears twitched attentively as she did in fact catch some curious noise coming from behind.

Footsteps.

We merely blinked and then they were before us, approaching slowly but confidently.

The mask, the dark hood and the armored vest. Those two were part of the White Fang.

I gritted my teeth, chiding myself for having forgotten that the organization could have noticed Blake early on, especially since the attack on the docks could have gotten them angry at the one cause of their misfortune.

The Belladonna’s eyes widened and she reached out for her bag to take out her weapon out of it.

After some legitimately-good pondering from the Cat Faunus, we agreed that she should always have Gambol Shroud around for the sake of defending ourselves… by those specific situations.

“Seems like we found the stray kitty our boss was trying to find,” A masculine voice began, the tallest of the two grunts turning to his partner. “Ain’t that right, gal?”

The girl, I could see that she was tanned as her arms were exposed and showing a darker skin than mine, as if… she wasn’t from Vale.

Denying a response to the young man, the female sighed and lifted her right hand up, ready to snap her fingers. Fingers snapped and I felt a sudden wave of tiredness almost forcing me to unconsciousness.

I blinked as I felt a soft thud reach my ears and I turned to the origin of the noise to find out that Blake had fallen to the floor. There was no damage, no blood but… she was out of commission as she was right now.

“Yikes, your control truly suck as I thought,” The chatty Fang member commented with snark. “Didn’t you tell her that you would have been able to deal with two people at once-”

The girl growled as she prepared to snap once again. “Shut. up.”

But before she could have concluded this action once again, I had my eyes closing up and kept them as such until I heard the familiar noise unfold.

Nothing happened, I was still tired but I didn’t perceive the same wave of tiredness I had felt until now, I opened up to find the silent grunt seemingly surprised while her partner chuckled in amusement.

“Ah! It seems that your plan has failed, little Green.”

Another growl, but I wasn’t minding any longer at their dynamics. My focus was all shifted to what had just happened and why the now-unconscious Belladonna was now on the ground and barely breathing.

It was a Semblance, there was no denying about that, but recognizing what kind of ability it was took me way too much of my limited time here.

My analytical prowess, the one honed from years of studying under dad’s strict but high-rewarding lessons, was now passing to my current thoughts what I was dealing for.

Long-range, non-physical, her power was attached to vision.

Illusions. This wasn’t ideal to face right now without the means of creating distance or blocking the girl’s vision from causing more issues.

“Still, I hope you understand we don’t want to cause any tragic accident by dragging civvies in our problems,” The young man resumed with an appeasing tone, still cheeky and somewhat infuriating. “How about you leave now before things turn uneasy-!!”

I rushed forward, a stupid attempt if the situation had seen the two grunts armed, but I was now sure that the two fools weren’t part of the Fang.

Cheap imitators at best.

Diplomacy with a human? They were far too calm about interacting with me without spitting more of their patriotic sermons about Faunus-kind.

And… they don’t have guns with them.

If they had, then I wouldn’t have been able to even consider anything from their proposal, guns being far too convincing to just let freedom of choosing.

My gamble paid off high-time as their reaction was noticeable surprise, my punch almost reaching the chatty impostor but ending up being caught by a quick kick from him.

I flinched momentarily as I felt how sturdy his leg was. Some armor I couldn’t see? Underneath his pants maybe?

A little detail, one that I used against them as I saw the tanned woman rush towards me, hand stretched out and ready to provide some more illusions and put me out of commission.

I smiled darkly as I waited just enough to slam the extended leg on the unaware companion, she paused and tried to dodge but I quickly increased its speed by providing a kick of my own.

She received the blow right on her mask, sending her slamming on the wall and wobble a little on the floor. Still awake but not enough to return to the assault.

Good for me.

I quickly stepped back, avoiding a punch and a follow-up kick from my opponent.

“That was nasty,” The masked guy mentioned with a sigh. “I mean, I am happy to see her take the hit, but isn’t that uncool for a man to kick a woman?”

I hummed. “Is that how you wish to justify the fact you want to capture a defenseless girl?” I mused quietly. “Is this, I don’t know, an attempt at forced love?”

He paused a moment, raising his hands up in appeasement. “Hey, generally I would use my undeniable charm to ensnare ladies and I would never resort to that.”

“Oh? And how many ‘ladies’ did you ensnare until now?” I asked half-distractedly, noticing that he was already returning to attack.

He lifted his left leg and slammed the sole on my guard.

“Touché.” He declared and soon we started to exchange blow after blow, his pace surprisingly well-kept for an impersonator and I had some trouble getting through that legs-based stance of his.

The fact he was strongly-protected by his lower body made it difficult to disrupt his flow by kicking his legs to soreness but then I realized something peculiar of his protections.

While his legs were armored from the foot up to above the knees, there was a small section of his body that was certainly ‘softer’ compared to the rest and I had to make a decision.

Either I wasted more time trying to get another flaw out of him or I decided to break several rules of the Bro Code.

Tough decision considering that I had to take into account that he seemed fairly good as a ‘criminal’, but there was also the more important detail being that Blake’s life was in the gamble I had to do.

So, much to my inner chagrin and disappointment, I decided I had to be quick in dismissing this fool before things escalated too much.

I had to be quick, my Semblance being important for the fruition of this operation.

As my opponent went to raise his leg to deliver another kick, I proceeded to swiftly counter it by slamming my leg up below his belt. Some smoke left my leg, the after-effect of the Semblance used to propel my kick faster than usual.

He howled foully as I was quite correct with my assumptions but, before I could get the chance to back away from him, I was hit by a stray leg as the agony urged him to react to my horrible move.

The kick reached my chin sending me backing away to the other wall, my sight a little disoriented while I tried to reach out for Blake.

My footing was slightly unbalanced and my brain was scrambled with multiple thoughts, possibly a concussion making things worse, as I finally crouched down to pick up the unconscious Belladonna and bolt away from this situation before-

“Sid, what happened here?” A hand was squeezing at my shoulder, I slowly turned around as I recognized the familiar voice and… I was bestowed with the worried face owned by Cinder Tremaine.

My eyes widened in shock and I felt a little at ease at the known face. “C-Cinder?”

She nodded, her concerned eyes reassuring me of some safety. “It’s me, Sid. You need to rest for a while-”

“S-Sister, we need to- to help Blake and-”

But before I could finish, I heard the sound of fingers snapping and Cinder looked surprised as I started to stumble and fall on the ground, my eyes closing and my mind going unconscious.

Thud.

----------d-d-d------------d-d-dd-----------d-d-d-d----------

~Emerald’s POV~

“Sister?”

Her voice fell mostly silent as the only noises reaching from that cold corridor was the groans and whines from Mercury and the single but meaningful fall of the young man now unconscious beneath her.

Red eyes tinged with confusion and incredible mortification at the realization happening so suddenly and so unexpectedly.

She had gone through numerous theories and guesses over the identity of this ‘important’ individual that Cinder wanted to keep safe.

A former close friend, an important contact for their mission here in Vale… and a lover.

The last supposition had left her angry, annoyed even, at the mere possibility that there was someone that her savior cared and loved so genuinely and so earnestly that wasn’t… her.

She was the one daring to help the craziest woman in Vale, the most daring, the most powerful and… the most beautiful.

Her cheeks almost turned red at the thought of the first time she had seen her, when the thief was granted the chance to be something more other than a mere street rat.

The dark-haired beauty having granted her the opportunity of being worthy of something, but not yet worthy of something else.

And that was-

Being considered a close ally or friend.

She shook her head and glanced down at the results of her efforts, both target lying on the floor close to each other.

The green-haired girl sighed in relief at having succeeded with this task while also confirming that her worst fears were just silly thoughts from her mind, turning a moment to grace the silver-haired dumbass trying to recover from that amusing blow at his pride.

It was amusing to see how the ‘mighty’ had fallen so short and so quickly under a mere kick, especially with Aura still running strong for Mercury.

The son of the professional assassin Marcus Black slowly regained his bearings, glaring daggers at the sleeping dark-haired young man through the mask and that put Sid to a pedestal a little higher than planned.

Still, there was some more work to tend to and that was dealing with Sid himself and how to dispose of him without hurting or killing him too much.

Now that Emerald was aware of the bond that connected Cinder to him, the girl knew that maximum caution was required for the sake of personal attachment and to avoid the wrath of the Half-Maiden herself.

Dropping him by his house would be suspicious, but dropping him here would also render him vulnerable to some criminal or pervert’s ministrations.

Not a good way to get in Cinder’s graces, nor the proper way to not get killed by the woman for lax interest over someone this important.

But it was only the former thief now that knew about the full attachment between the two, making it quite… a grand secret for her to keep away from others.

She might have not been around to know about the other members of Salem’s inner circle, but from her leader’s very words the tanned girl was sure that this sensible information would end up paving the end of the woman’s ambition.

And that was completely unacceptable!

So, ignoring Mercury’s suggestion to leave the unconscious man to the nearest dumpster and his insistence to have him suffer a kick below the belt too before leaving him, Emerald decided that leaving him nearby his workplace would do for the situation.

While the young man had been keen to notice that they weren’t true members of the White Fang, rumors were hardly built on truth and so Vale would only know of the events of today as the result of some ‘stupid grunts’ trying to make some ‘rules’ in town.

With how boisterous the organization was about this kind of stuff, the green-haired henchwoman wasn’t that hesitant to see it as a possible predicament and thus they settled to go right at the now-closed bar near the capital’s center square.

Reaching the place was easy, leaving it proved to be much more difficult for a seemingly-insignificant but immensely irritating instance happening before leaving.

It had all started when the still-wobbly Mercury pointed out that the two unconscious individuals were somehow attached to each other.

At first she thought it as a pun of sort, but then she noticed that the two were indeed attached to each other. Sid’s right hand was grasping tightly at Cat Faunus’ own palm, as if a protective measure born from the sudden catatonic state he was put into.

Impressive, possibly one of the rarest situations ever occurring after disabling some people with her powers, said event proved to be quite an issue when they had to part the two away.

As amusing as it had been during the walk to the ‘Morning Sip’, the fact was something that got them to waste several minutes tried to unlatch one from the other and… they started to struggle in their sleep.

They agitated and got difficult to manage, but in the end the two minions succeeded in their endeavor and got to leave the now alone young man to deal with the aftermath of that day on his own, their next stop being the warehouse where Cinder had asked them to retreat once the deed was done.

Darkness started to take over the day the more time they spent walking up to the place set for the reunion, but soon they were there to drop their last target.

Cinder was here, the young woman giving a neutral but very-demanding expression. She wanted success on a normal basis, but the former thief could see some more incentive to have them accomplish a perfect job.

Her red-eyed stare turned at the second individual in that large room, Adam Taurus tensing up as he spotted the unconscious body of his traitorous subordinate, his loyal guards sharing some looks before glancing at the sleeping Cat Faunus with a glare.

“I hope the mission was an utter success,” The Half-Maiden was quick to point out. “The second target-”

“-was safely placed by his workplace. The area is never visited by criminals or goons so he will wake up without any incidents.” Emerald quickly interjected with a determined expression, gaining a surprised look from the woman and a confused frown from Mercury as the two relinquished the hold of the Cat Faunus to a quiet Adam.

The Bull Faunus seemed to tense up at Cinder’s words. “Second Target?” There was some anxiety, irritation dripping from his lips.

“Nothing you should worry about, Adam,” The woman replied coldly. “He didn’t do anything to your subordinate, I can assure you of that.”

The leader of the Vale Branch of the White Fang slowly nodded at the stern answer, his sight now fixed on the dark-haired girl as he started to move her towards the guards and order them to help him to carry the fellow Faunus away.

Cinder didn’t seem to mind as the White Fang’s entourage then began leaving without saying anything, possibly because some deal had been struck prior to their arrival.

There was a pause and soon Mercury decided to retreat to the hideout to recover from the ‘terrible ordeal’ he had to go through, leaving Emerald alone with their boss.

The dark-haired woman was now looking at her Scroll, uncaring of her minion’s presence, but the former thief knew exactly how to catch the older female’s attention.

She faked a cough and went along the lines written on her mind. “Ma’am, may I ask you something about the mission?”

Cinder paused mid-writing on her keypad to stare up in confusion at the tan girl. “What about it?”

And now it was time for the curious question. “I couldn’t help but notice the maximum care we had to give to our ‘secondary target’ and I wanted to ask something about it.”

Now the Half-Maiden was giving her full attention, but she didn’t seem much elated by the topic.

“Speak.”

Emerald gulped nervously at that cold order, feeling the shivers at seeing such a piercing stare from her savior.

H-How interesting.

“W-Well, the secondary target seems to be rather attached to the primary target and… are there plans to make sure he will not hinder our true mission by trying to save the girl?”

The big question, the one that had long eluded her mind and now… she will see if it would get a reply or not.

She expected a solid yes, a refusal to give her more about the topic and then an order about returning to the hideout too-

“No, there are no plans about it.”

...What?

“B-But Cinder-”

“Sid Tremaine is the last-born of a powerful family of Hunters hailing from Mistral,” The Half-Maiden started to explain. “And while he isn’t a Huntsman by any means, he has been subjected for years to the intense training regiment allowed by the current head of the family, Charles Tremaine.”

There was a pause, the former thief didn’t dare interrupt her boss as she sported a little smirk forming on her face.

“He is resourceful, smart and terribly gifted by a dangerous Semblance,” She admitted easily, drawing some surprise from her minion.

Sure, it was a family member but… why would Cinder allow this many compliments to this singular individual. He managed to keep up with Mercury and her, but it was all because of tricks and…

He was good. Damn, she should have thought about it earlier.

While he wasn’t a huntsman, while he was family to Cinder, the woman didn’t want to protect him for that bond. No, there was something that Emerald was missing.

A piece of the puzzle that wasn’t the described ‘might’, nor the bloodline he came from.

But what could it be?

“I promised to Adam that the attack will happen a week earlier than planned,” The Half-Maiden said calmly, freezing the green-haired girl with these news. “That he would get as much Dust and manpower as possible.”

This… this was bad. This was incredibly bad!

“But-!”

“Yet I think that Adam’s impatience will end up being shattered by an attack to their stronghold,” She pointed out so suddenly and without hesitation. “It will be a wake-up call, something to get him to finally don the leash we gave him without much of a fuss.”

…

“Y-you wish to use Sid to- to attack the White Fang?”

Cinder smiled. “To weaken them,” She replied with a sigh. “To break some of their useless pride and make them the proper pawns I need.”

There was another pause.

“You doubt it will be possible, Emerald?” The woman asked unexpectedly, causing some panic to rise within the minion. “Please, speak genuinely and logically about this. Every thought is important for this plan, especially since you were on the field to see his current progress.”

S-She wanted her opinion? This was completely out of Cinder’s usual modus operandi.

Something just wasn’t right about it. There was some legitimate hesitance, one that the Half-Maiden was trying to compensate with more information about the matter, to gain a better insight over the situation.

This wasn’t the driven woman that wouldn’t ask anything to anyone because she knew everything.

No, this one was using so many honeyed-words, so many careful terms to garner her final results.

This time, Cinder wasn’t forcing her way through… rather she was manipulating it to her own whims while stepping cautiously around.

All for her glorious plan of reforging the world to become a better place.

And she was putting so much effort in it to make sure it worked, for herself, for her family and… for her.

Her heart fluttered just a moment, then Emerald realized that she had yet to respond to her boss.

“H-He almost took out Mercury with his quick thinking,” Part of her wanted to mention the unceremonious kick below the belt, but surely this detail wasn’t something that the woman wanted to know. “A-And I got lucky that he was stunned to recognize I was… masquerading as you, Cinder.”

There was a brief flinch, the girl braced for a moment for any comment about this last bit but-

“Hmm,” The woman looked impressed by the curt report. “So you were forced to make use of that kind of trickery to get behind his guard. Interesting.”

No reprimands, no chiding. The former thief was safe from any negative outcome out from her final decision for that fight.

“Then he will succeed, he will bring Adam down to the knees and make him realize that we are the only solution to his salvation,” Cinder continued, her eyes glowing like fiery embers. “The moment Sid wakes up and remember what had happened… it will be the moment when we will have our pawns back under control.”

It wasn’t a promise, it wasn’t a prediction.

No, Emerald thought before turning following the woman back to the hideout, this…

This was destiny.