Destiny No More

Chapter 47

"This one could work." Coco muttered softly, looking in between the two shirts she held in her hands. "Though maybe white would work better with your skin."

Pyrrha sat back in one of the nearby chairs, having long since given up on adding anything to Coco's clearly one sided conversation. Instead, she looked around the department store they had found themselves in. They weren't alone, but she was fairly sure they hadn't been followed; just as they hadn't been followed the day before or the one before that. Despite her confidence in that fact, she kept looking around in an attempt to keep herself occupied.

"They aren't going to do anything obvious if you look like you're watching for them." Coco said as she tossed a white button up shirt over to her. "Go try that one on, I want to see how it contrasts with your skin."

Pyrrha took the shirt and stood, sighing but not bothering to complain. The first day they had stuck together but when that hadn't worked they had broken up into groups. Today they were trying just two in the hopes that her "vulnerable" position would cause her stalker to show herself.

There'd been no such luck so far, and she couldn't even say there had been any leads. She'd gone to talk with the General after the first day and he had ordered his team to keep a farther distance away from her in case they had been tipping their target off. Still, nothing had changed, and Pyrrha was beginning to feel annoyed. They were quickly running out of time; Beacon's school year started in two weeks, and they didn't have any idea where Cinder was or what she was planning.

There hadn't been any sign of things changing, the dust robberies were still ongoing and according to the General, word was that the White Fang was involved. The police were keeping that out of the reports and news broadcasts for now, as to not cause a panic, but it was only a matter of time before the public found out. If they didn't do something, then it was very likely that things wouldn't change in the way they wanted.

She had no doubt that their plans had changed, Pyrrha's open involvement would have forced them to change things, it was just a matter of how much. They knew "Amber" was alive and moving around, so Cinder wasn't likely to infiltrate Beacon, knowing that her cover had been blown. Nor was she likely to send her underlings given that they had been there during the attack.

All of that raised the worrying question of what was going to happen next? An attack was coming and, in all likelihood, it was still going to be during the festival. That many people gathered together was simply too perfect a target to ignore, and that meant that they could sneak into the Kingdom easier as well.

Buttoning up the final notch, Pyrrha turned away from the mirror; not bothering to actually look at her new appearance before stepping out of the changing room.

"Hmm." Coco hummed but didn't say anything, looking Pyrrha over and gesturing for her to spin. She did so without complaint, but made no effort to hide her bored expression. "You could at least try looking like you're having fun."

"I'm not very good at pretending anymore." Pyrrha stepped back through the changing room door, slipping the shirt off and tossing it back on one of the hangars.

"Was that something you did often?" Coco asked from the other side, clarifying after Pyrrha didn't immediately respond. "Pretending to have fun when you weren't, I mean."

"Not since joining Beacon." Pyrrha answered honestly. "My team quickly picked up on what was genuine and what was a mask."

"So what, they'd try to make sure you were always having fun?" Coco sounded somewhat amused by the idea.

"Not quite, the boys perhaps, but Nora was a... different matter." Pyrrha smiled at the memory as she pulled her original shirt on.

"Oh?" Coco sounded interested.