20

Salem POV

She tsked as she read the new message.

Oh, she knew what was happening. Nobody lived so long as her without learning every possible manipulation.

She herself played games when she still felt more 'alive,' games like all possible ways to corrupt someone or teach them to see things in her own way.

Of course, she was long tired of such games and play's, seeing as any talented sprout she taught in the end died. The worst was when they died by old age, showing her just how distasteful her situation was.

So, of course, she knew what was happening there.

How the little soldier boy tried to rile her up, all for the singular goal of learning more about her.

But.

Even if she saw through his childish manipulation from the very start, she went with the flow.

As she asked herself, why not?

She had nothing to lose and, in truth.

It was better than watching into a wall, something that she had detested for more than thousands of years.

So, she let herself by, angry?

Or outrage at his comments about her wisdom, intelligence, or...

Age...

That little shit.

She didn't even need to play at being angry. No woman, even one such as her, who lived too long enough and was shed by any grain of shame she still had herself, wished to be told she was old.

No matter how truthful it was.

It wasn't because of some idiotic sense of pride. She was too old for such meaningless things.

Pride, Honor, Loyalty.

These were things for young mortals. She was too old even to remember how these things even felt.

Pride, how...

Truly an insignificant feeling, something her two minions felt too much.

Both Cinder and Watts.

She knew that pride would be their downfall. They had of it too much to even see the true colors of the world.

Well, maybe not Cinder.

She knew that little Cinder masked her fear behind the mask of pride, always fear of becoming weak once again.

But Watts?

Oh, if he weren't so useful, she herself would kill the little worm. He thought she was blind to the emotions he masked behind his respectful gazes at her, the way he thought he was better than her.

Hah!

She knew more about technology even before he was born, and she had forgotten more than his little life could permit him ever to learn.

Still, how childish to betray his own people because of some non-existent slight he felt against himself, how he thought he knew better than most and thus was better than most.

Little Watt's ego and pride would cost him his life, either by her own hand when she had finally enough of his sarcasm or others.

Oh, how she loved that vexed look on his when he learned that the Atlas network was no longer his playground as more time flew.

The harder it was for Watts to breach into the Scroll net, and worse, even if he managed to breach into the more secure sites, he was no longer invisible to others, always needing to cut the losses or run before the Atlas found him.

If it wouldn't meddle with her own plans, she would even congratulate them for bruising Watts too big ego.

But let him struggle. Maybe he learns he shouldn't underestimate his enemies.

...

"Hah." How funny.

She saw too many of his kind in her long life to know that he wouldn't ever learn, no.

What Watts will think is that the sole way they could even match him was in numbers.

And even if that was the truth, he should understand that sometimes more heads were better than one.

But she wasn't his teacher, nor she wished to be.

He was her little minion, nothing more.

And the moment he wouldn't be any longer useful, she would take care of him herself.

But then, he wanted the sole disillusioned child in her ranks, was he?

Cinder. The girl with more trauma in her young life, a trauma she so tried to hide behind her search for more power.

Blind to the fact that no matter how many abilities she has or could have.

Until she accepts or purges the darkness in her, she wouldn't be ever free from that past she soo desired to run from.

But Cinder could learn. That was something she knew.

Cinder was still young, and one or two big setbacks could make her learn the true meaning of power.

And then...

There was Hazel...

In truth?

She wanted to laugh, of how much she wanted to laugh into his face, and how much she wanted to roar at the idiocy she was so constantly reminded by his mere presence in her little circle.

If someone thought that the little mad dog Tyrian was her court jester.

Then they were solely mistaken.

For all his madness and zealously, Tyrian was nowhere near as idiotic as Hazel was.

After all, even she couldn't comprehend how a man who loved his sister joined hands with a person whose plot killed her to take the supposed justice and revenge on a man who was at fault for her death as any other.

Oh yes, maybe Ozpin painted a target on little Gretchen, but it was her who killed her, after all.

Life of Huntsman was widely known to be dangerous, no?

Or not, she knew how much Ozpin loved to romanticize the battle between his little soldiers and her Grimm, how often that illusion of romantic life killed his little huntsmen.

How often she laughed at the knowledge that her late husband was undercutting his own pawns?

And yet, even after knowing this, Hazel rather served her than tried to kill her.

He would fail, like any other.

But at least he would try.

But no.

He faulted Ozpin, and that brought her to laughter.

For all her experiences, she never met a man as blind as Hazel.

He held Ozpin responsible for the death of his sister, thinking that Ozpin needed to pay, as he surely killed even more sisters and brothers.

Was Hazel truly so blind?

For did he not see that any mission she sent him killed even more brothers, sisters, parents, children, and all manners of family members and friends than Ozpin's little plots?

How hippocratic was he to see just his own pain and by the blind to others' pains he was responsible for?

Even she, who knew she was a monster, knew how much pain she had caused.

But the difference was that she knew but just didn't care.

Hazel, the little Hazel, was blind or utterly stupid, and in truth, she didn't know what was better.

In the end, it didn't matter.

Hazel was useful. That was all that mattered and in truth.

She enjoyed his misjudged actions.

And wondered when he finally understood that he served a woman who was truly responsible for the death of his sister.

Not that she ever hid that fact from him. He just didn't understand.

PING!

"Oh?" Her eyebrow twitched.

Ozpin's little dog, whose leash seemed to be falling farther and farther from his master.

Seemed really try her patience.

She WASNT GRIMM DAMMIT MUMMY!

"You little cretin." She gritted her teeth as she prepared herself to shed that little cyborg's dignity brick by brick.

She wasn't prideful.

But nobody will comment on her age.

Especially not her late husband's minion.

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Robyn POV

"Need to I repeat myself? We need a better way to transport goods and people from Mantle to Atlas than by Bullheads! Just the normal day expenses of Dust we use to fuel these up and down flies make twenty of the Council budget!" She didn't shout, well.

She almost didn't, but by this point, her patience was running thin.

"And I said that I agree, but before we even weigh the idea of building a transport tower between Atlas and Mantle, we need to consider security first and foremost." She still wasn't sure what to think of the man to who she could thank thirty percent of her voters who managed her to earn the spot in the Atlas Council.

In truth, when she heard he supported her candidacy on live tv.

She thought he would want something from her, and nobody ever gave someone such help without expecting something in return.

But he never called her, nor he ever made any demand of her.

She waited for him to contact her, both to earn herself time and think of what he wanted from her in exchange for his support.

Nothing, she won the seat, and he congratulated her on live tv, and then, nothing.

"That, and need I remind you that many of our resources are now going to the new CCT that is being built in Menagerie now that it was recognized as an official kingdom?" Sleet said as he massaged his eyebrows.

She didn't wince, but she wanted.

She knew that she was responsible for the sleepless bags Councilman Sleet had under his eyes, as one of his main responsibilities in the Council was overseeing the kingdom's infrastructure and with all these changes.

He was the most overworked one. Even Ironwood, who was both General and Headmaster, looked better.

And from her contacts in the military, she knew just how many changes were happening in there.

If it weren't for the excellent relationships Atlas had with the other kingdoms, and now even Menagerie, that was quickly becoming the best friend of Atlas.

Hah, years of oppression are all forgotten because of profit for both sides.

But back to the topic, Robyn almost thought that General Ironwood was preparing for the war, something she knew even others noticed.

But the war against who?

Even White Fang, that splitter between those who joined Menagerie as its official army and the splitter group that became and was officially declared as a terrorist, shouldn't cause such a drastic call for arms Atlas military is undergoing.

No small number of people were anxious about what General Ironwood planned.

But theories were already there. Did General Ironwood want a war, or maybe conquer new land from the Grimm and create another town?

Nobody knew for sure, and General Ironwood was obnoxiously quiet about his plans.

"Still, that doesn't change the fact that we need a better way for transport between the city in the skies and the city on the ground than a Bullhead." She ironed her opinion as she got into an argument between Sleet and Camilla.

Noticing how quiet General Ironwood stayed.