RWBY Through Worlds

104: To the Right, To the Left

Mercury was waiting for Cinder at a meeting point not far off the train.

"Vacuo is as careless as usual." Cinder came up to him without so much as a greeting. "I had the easiest time imaginable getting in here."

"Yeah, because they're all idiots." Mercury was terse. "So I don't need to debrief you on the situation, right? You know what's going on."

"You were going to direct me to where I can find the Maiden," Cinder said. "I take her powers, then I will take the other two's, and then I will get the Relic."

"You were going to get the Relic first, I thought," Mercury said.

"The order won't matter as long as it's within a 48-hour time limit," Cinder said carelessly.

She was seriously so cocky that she thought she'd get two Maiden powers, who were fully functional, in 48-hours? Mercury couldn't believe her.

Siphoning them from Vara would make her twice as strong, but it was still two opponents, and she wouldn't know how to wield the power fully yet. Didn't that make her cautious?

But not his problem. Her cockiness was going to work in their favor--really, this was almost too easy.

Only she was right about the 48-hour time limit--if they didn't get Salem that Relic in that time, she wasn't going to forgive their going off the plan a little. This was going to be one interesting 2 days.

Cinder, ever oblivious to any scheme against her, never suspected that Mercury's compliance with her whims was anything other than being afraid of her.

"The tunnel entrance is inside the school," he said. "I snatched one of the copies of the key they made earlier today."

It had been too easy. Torchwick had left his coat off to take a shower and not thought to take the keys out of its pocket. He'd never known Mercury was even there. [Yes, I assume he left his other clothes off to take a shower too, but who cares about them?]

Mercury held it up only to him Cinder grab it from him rudely. "Good," she said, slyly.

So she didn't intend to let him even get close? Whatever.

Theo was not in his office. He had been constantly searching for Vara ever since she ran, apparently never quite getting close enough to her to succeed, but no doubt he was doing that now...and he was right to be concerned. If they found her first, it wouldn't be pretty.

Mercury didn't care about Vara, but he did feel some unease when Cinder asked,

"And Emerald? She doesn't suspect a thing, right?"

"Nope," Mercury said.

The idiot.

"Good," Cinder said. "Even though I know Salem doesn't really care who finishes her off, I really had hope that it would be me after the stunt she pulled in Atlas."

Mercury was dying to say, "You mean when you got overconfident and almost screwed yourself over again?"

But he bit it back.

Watts was so right about her, but no time to let his disdain show now.

Really, though, if he cared about stuff like that, he'd say that Cinder's utter lack of regard for Emerald, the only person who'd ever given two craps about her, was really almost more nauseating than Tyrian's psychopathic tendancies...but that was the way it was. No one really cared about anyone else, they just faked it to get stuff out of them.

[I can't decide whether that makes Cinder sadder or more despicable or both.]

"Of course, I'll get those other children too, soon enough," Cinder mused to herself.