RWBY: Dark/Grey Morning

She had the nightmare again last night. She was there, with all of her friends and allies, when his forces burst through the wall and let all the Grimm inside. The ones who weren’t torn into bloody shreds by the monsters were sadistically beaten and killed by the Huntsmen. She still heard the laughing.

Cinder ran her hand through her hair. Her ebony strands were drenched with sweat, which leaked from her forehead and arms as well. She shivered, as the sweat was cold and bitter. She closed her eye for a brief moment, blocking out her surroundings and taking in a deep breath of the cool, damp air. She opened her eye again, staring at the wall at the end of her cot, the grey stone as dull and as depressing as it had always been.

Cinder snapped out of her trance and peered gently around the room. In the other corner of the stone room was Emerald’s cot, which had been abandoned and tidily fixed up.

“I overslept again.” Cinder thought out loud.

Seeing as how she was already late, Cinder took her time to get ready. She started with a pleasant water bucket bath, though the water was cold. After the sweat she had worked up, it was better than smelling like sh*t.

After a quick dry, Cinder proceeded to put on her leggings, boots, bandage top, and sleeveless vest jacket. One of the boot laces was worn down so much that it was ready to snap when she pulled the knot. She told herself that she would have to remember to look for some next time they were out.

Cinder ran her hand through her cold black hair again, this time to remove it from her vision. She softly pushed it over to the other side of her face, covering up the patch. Sometimes, she forgot that she did not have to clear her entire face of hair like before; only one side.

Cinder stretched her arms and back, then made her way out of the room and into the corridor. As she traveled through the dimly lit passage, she heard a faint dripping sound.

“Great,” she thought.

As she approached the source, she saw a rapid stream of water spilling down from the ceiling. That spot had always been leaky, but she thought Mercury had managed to fix it. Apparently, he did not.

Cinder did her best to avoid the water as she passed, as she had had enough of being wet this morning already. She shimmied across the opposite wall, careful to avoid the large puddle that had pooled, and stepped over the area to the dry safety of the other side. She sighed, then continued.

It was not long before Cinder reached the main room. She peered in to see who was inside: Emerald, silently eating a bowl of cereal while seated in front of a wooden crate; Mercury, punching a sack of salt that he had tethered to a board; Neopolitan, doing repairs on her parasol; Roman, cooking up an egg while silently puffing on a cigar; and Salem, rocking seated in the corner as usual. Cinder sighed again, then stepped into the room.

“Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to wake up.” A condescending and snarky voice belittled.

“Shut up, Roman.” Cinder huffed. She made her way over to where Emerald was sitting. The cereal box and the pitcher of milk were still sitting on the crate. Cinder gestured towards them. “May I?”

Emerald nodded once. “Go ahead, I’ll be done after this bowl. You might have a hard time finding a bowl and spoon, though.”

“Right here,” Roman said, raising a ceramic bowl with his left hand as his right continued to swirl the pan with the egg around the stovetop.

Cinder said nothing as she walked over and picked the bowl and spoon up. She walked back over to the crate, then poured herself a small bowl of cereal with milk.

“Almost out of milk,” Cinder stated, looking into the emptying pitcher.

“Just another thing we need to get next time we’re out,” Mercury grumbled.

“Which will be today,” Cinder said. “We need too many things too soon to put it off anymore. I need some shoelaces, Salem needs some more medicine, Neo needs some Dust, and we all need some more food and drink.”

“And a stick of deodorant,” Emerald winced, glancing over at the nearby Mercury with a sour and disgusted expression.

“Screw you,” Mercury barked. “And where the hell are we going to get more Dust? We’ve cleared out this part of the city, and Tyrian and the others haven’t come back yet. The only choice would be to go clear out to the eastern side, and I’m not going anywhere towards there.”

“We’ll just have to try,” Cinder snapped. “Because unless you want to start sharing your Dust supply with Neo, she’s going to be defenseless, and that means we’re more vulnerable. So which is it, Merc: scouting for more Dust or giving that madman your ass on a silver platter?”

Mercury remained silent, and simply went back to punching the sack, an annoyed expression on his face. Cinder looked over and saw Neo looking up at her with thankfulness, but remorse. “Don’t worry about it” Cinder mouthed the words to Neo.

Roman plated his egg, then stabbed it with a fork and devoured half of it at once. “So,” he said with his mouth full, “Laces, food, medicine, and Dust. Anything else we need?”

“No, that should be it.” Cinder replied coolly. “I don’t want to be out there longer than we have to be.” She glanced around the room. “Roman and Neo can stay here and keep Salem company, and Merc, Em, and I can go out and do some scavenging. Sound like a plan?”

“Sounds good to me,” Roman remarked, cramming the other half of his egg in his mouth.

“Dust,” Salem suddenly muttered. “Dust Dust Dust Dust Dust Dust Dust.”

Mercury rolled his eyes, but Emerald downed the last of her cereal, walked over, and bent down to Salem.

“That’s right, Dust. We need Dust.” Emerald said calmly, comforting the still rocking Salem.

“Dust,” Salem repeated again. “Dust. Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization…”

“Oh, sh*t.” Mercury scowled. “You got her rambling again.”

“Watch your mouth around her,” Cinder barked. Then she calmed. “Em, would you escort Salem back to her room? I have some things I don’t want her to hear right now anyway.”

Emerald silently nodded, then looked back over to the still talking Salem. “Salem, we’re going to go to your cot now, okay? Come on.” Emerald slowly stood, gently raising Salem to her feet. The two began to walk out towards the chamber, slowly at first, then gradually speeding up to a careful walk, with Salem continuing her nonsensical ramblings the whole time.

“… A smaller, more honest soul. It's true that a simple spark can ignite hope, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary. The ability to derive strength from hope is undoubtedly mankind's greatest attribute…” Salem’s quivering voice slowly faded as she was escorted from the room.

Cinder watched them until they were far enough out of sight, and when Salem’s speeches were no longer audible, before sighing once more and turning to the others.

“I have found out,” Salem said quietly, but just loud enough for everyone to hear her, “that the Reaper is in the area.”

Neo’s eyes widened in shock, and Roman nearly chocked on his cigar.

“What?” Mercury said, raising his voice. “She’s here now, and you want us to go out scavenging? Are you out of your f*cking mind?”

“Lower your voice!” Cinder said, while ironically also raising her voice. “Salem might hear you.”

“Will you forget about Salem for one goddamn second?” Mercury hissed. “First, you want us to go scavenging. Dangerous, but a necessity. I’m down. Then you want us to get Dust. That’s going to put us in even more danger, but I guess I can suck it up. But now you’re telling us that that lunatic is in the area? No way, sister. I might as well just hang myself now to get it over with.”

“Yeah, do us all a favor.” Roman sneered. Neo’s frightened expression smirked slightly.

“Can it, Torchwick!” Mercury demanded. “We may be tough, but remember last time we had a run-in with the Reaper?” He glared over at Cinder. “You sure do.”

That did it. Cinder rushed Mercury, her eyes blazing. She grabbed him by the hem of his shirt and slammed him forcibly against the stone wall, hard enough to shake the crate with Emerald’s dishes on it.

“Mercury Black, I swear to the gods, if you say one more thing, I’m going to personally rip off your legs and throw you to her myself!” Cinder growled.

Mercury was angered, but knew he was no match for Cinder, at least not in a physical confrontation. He slowly broke eye contact with her and relaxed his muscles, giving out a clear sign of submission and surrender.

Cinder slowly lowered her hand and released Mercury’s shirt. She made one last piercing glare right into his eyes, then swiftly turned around and began walking over towards another crate in the corner of the room. As she turned again and sat on the box, Emerald peeked in.

“It’s okay, Em.” Cinder said, still annoyed. “Did Salem hear any of that?”

“Maybe a little,” Emerald replied, walking over to her crate and recovering her dishes. “But not enough to make anything out of it. Besides, she was talking the whole time, so she may have tuned everything else out.”

Cinder nodded, but did not say anything. Mercury shook his head disapprovingly.

“Alright,” he said. “But we’re going to be extra careful this time. And not just your run-of-the mill ‘extra ammo, higher alert’ kind of careful. I’m talking no one going anywhere alone, keeping your backs to walls, and not staying in one spot for more than a couple seconds. I like to believe that we’ve been doing well, all things considered. I’d hate for it to end with the Reaper turning us all into mincemeat.”

Cinder shook her head. “I understand,” she said, “but we don’t have much of a choice. We might run out of supplies if we sit and wait for her to leave. We’re too low to push it any further, we need to go out today and get what we need if we have any hope of keeping alive down here.”

Mercury shook his head again, then turned and resumed punching the salt sack. Emerald slowly walked over to the wash basin and began cleaning her dishes, and Roman dragged the last of his cigar before snuffing it in his makeshift ashtray (half of an old plastic container), blowing a puff of smoke, and walking back towards his room.

“Come on, Neo.” Roman said. Neo tightened one last screw, then stood up and skipped over to Roman, following him out of the room.

Cinder stood up as well, and after briefly surveying the room one more time, turned and walked back through the passageway. However, on her way back to her room, she stopped by Salem and Neo’s room. She always thought it was ironic that they paired the one that talked too much with the one that could not talk at all.

Cinder quietly entered the room, which was silent. Salem was seated on the floor next to her cot, rocking back and forth, but no longer rambling. She looked up and watched Cinder enter the room and approach her. Cinder sat down on the cot next to Salem.

“I’m sorry,” Cinder whispered, just loud enough for Salem to hear. “I never wanted this for you.”

Salem eyed Cinder with a confused and nervous look on her face. “Young Cinder…” she muttered.

Cinder grinned slightly. “Hm. You remembered my name today. That’s progress, I suppose.”