Long before the era of Auras and semblances, a great yet rare power existed. Stands. Stand users are now but a thing of the past, or are they?
Seeing their child born defective, with no aura or semblance, his parents throw him away like trash. This...
Cinder couldn't say she was satisfied with how the exchange turned out. She acquired a new asset, thus replacing one who had outlived his usefulness, and the cycle would repeat at some point.
Traitor once, traitor twice, and she knew that saying all too well. You could say it was engraved on her skin. "Cinder! What do we do now?" It was Mercury who spoke, still carrying an unconscious Kail deep in the forest trail, with Emerald closing the little group from behind, effectively avoiding any prying eyes.
"Now we report to her Highness. No matter how unpleasant the situation might be." She grabbed a handful of Dust and Mercury's pocket knife, stabbing herself with it in her Grimm arm. She hissed, anticipating a Seer Grimm's arrival. The two exchanged looks, and the creature lunged at them, enveloping them in its own darkness. A couple of seconds later, they were at her castle and Salem was...disciplining Tyrian, the crazy Scorpion faunus the trio secretly loathed.
What did this nutjob do now, Cinder thought, before making her presence known. "Your Highness, we succeeded in escaping from Atlas. Unfortunately, Adam Taurus was a direct casualty in the crossfire that ensued but, on the bright side, we gained a very powerful ally."
"HA! How can that lanky human serve my mistress with the same adoration that I, Tyr-AHHHHH!"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The humanoid with rabbit ears, who seemed to obey Salem's every whim without as much as breathing in and out, threw another punch at the Scorpion, reducing him to unholy screams and blood. He wasn't dead. Yet, Salem thought.
"Oh, Cinder Fall. You have disappointed me." She gulped and the other two people present in the room, bar Kail who was still passed out, took a step back in fear. Salem put her left hand on Cinder's head, ignoring her pleas. "AHHHHHH!" a blood-curling scream followed before a tear opened on the floor under Salem and whatever came out of it entered Cinder. Not paying any heed to Cinder's still ragged breaths, Salem smiled, "try to focus your willpower on your left hand." She complied and a familiar swivel of flames appeared.
"The Fall Maiden powers...what-"
"My unique power, or my Stand as Ozpin calls it. I use it rarely, but it grants me a certain level of control over inter-dimensional traveling. I call it Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, or D4C for short. Unfortunately, I can't use it too much, or for overly powerful things like the Relics or I risk being teared apart from the inside, but I can use it to merge together two versions of the same person, or to torture somebody in a very effective way like Tyrian over there. And Kira and Summer Rose, even though they survived."
"What...is it like?" Mercury shakily said.
"Pray you never know." Summer cackled, before the scene extended out in the Land of Darkness, screams as accompanying music.
Flashback
Jaune, Ruby, and the rest of the group were walking on what Headmaster Lionheart told them it was the safest route to Haven Academy, and they had no reason to doubt the headmaster's words – they even told Ozpin, and he had no qualms.
