RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC98: Belly of the Beast (Cinder & Co.)-3

[Opener: "God Help the Outcasts"--The Hunchback of Notre Dame]

Cinder passed hours in that cell.

In that time all the useful information she gleaned was from her neighbor, who she finally found out was none other than Kate--Taylor's sister.

She was surprised Kate was still alive. But the girl told her that some of the others taken had been killed. She didn't know how. She said that some were still alive. One had been strong enough to be...initiated into the tribe.

When asked why she herself was being kept here, Kate explained it as such:

"Everyone else gave up fighting," she said, "but I didn't. This is where they keep people until they are obedient...but I think I might...be done fighting."

She looked very tired.

"Why now?" Cinder asked, hugging her knees.

"At first, when I saw my brother come after us, I thought maybe they would follow them, maybe they would find us," Kate said. "But it's been I don't know how many weeks and nothing. If anything, these...scoundrels seem more bold than before. I thought they would kill us right away, but they've done it slowly instead. They took Ali away too. They wanted to recruit him."

"Did they succeed?" Cinder asked.

"I haven't seen him. The others never come to this area," Kate said. "The only person who comes here other than the guards is the slave."

"Slave?" Cinder said.

"That's what the others call her," Kate said. "I don't know why. She brings food sometimes... You can eat it if she brings it."

"What does that mean?" Cinder said in a wary voice.

"Don't eat it if the guards give it to you," Kate said. "The slave doesn't come very often. They starve you to make you more docile. I think maybe she's doing it in secret."

This seemed interesting.

But, as no one appeared, Cinder didn't have much hope of it being helpful.

However, some time after that, when Kate seemed to have fallen asleep uneasily, someone did approach the cells, only they did it by swinging over the rocky walls behind them, which had ledges on them, some big enough to lie down on if you wanted to.

This person was very small and slight, but when she walked up to the cells, she was limping.

She had a hood up on her head, but when she got closer, Cinder could see her face had scars on it.

She looked around. The other guards had seemed to have walked away from this area... Were they really not worried about them escaping just because the Grimm were there...?

The Grimm didn't do anything to the woman.

She was younger than Cinder, probably right between her and Yang's age.

"Don't react," she whispered.

Kate stirred and then looked up. "Oh, it's her now," she said.

"I guess Kate already told you about me," the woman said in a hushed voice.

Honestly, she sounded like someone had hit her in the throat ages ago and she hadn't recovered from it--and Cinder would know from experience.

"Who are you?" Cinder asked, moving more to the end of the cell.

"Does it matter?" the woman said. she reached into a bag on her shoulder and took out some small bags and passed them through the cell bars.

Kate took one and opened it and began to eat the small rations inside hungrily.