Never Change

Chapter 17

Mercury Black looked upwards through his silver bangs as Cinder began strolling from side to side in the room, eyes flaming.

She was furious... again. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

"What do you mean when you say, you couldn't influence Jackson with your semblance??" Cinder glared at Emerald, stepping dangerously close to her.

"I-I couldn't because they were underwater, and I couldn't see him-"

Cinder grabbed her chin with lethal force, "Then why didn't you do it at the beginning??"

He could see her palm begin to heat up, and Emerald grimaced in clear pain.

"Answer me, girl."

"I-I thought it would be b-better to wait-"

"You don't think," Cinder snarled, backhanding her onto the ground heavily, "You do."

Mercury held himself back from intervening, lest she turn her anger on him, like she had done dozens of times before. Despite their mutual teasing dynamic, Mercury still cared for her, in his own way.

"If you fail like this again, rest assured, you would be nothing of worth to me."

That was a joke. Cinder knew damn well Emerald wasn't replaceable, even as an asset with that hallucination semblance. Still, it was the threat that counted.

"No! I won't fail again, I promise Cinder!" Emerald begged, as Cinder nodded coldly.

"See to it as you don't."

"Jackson has proven quite the enigma to crack. He has been sighted consorting with the headmaster numerous times in the past few days. It's suspicious... we need to take care of him. Add him to the list."

Mercury complied obediently, keeping his eyes down, because he did not want to risk her wrath, especially not right now.

"And... ooh," Cinder made that obnoxious purring sound, "It appears we have a new access point. This is very nice. Go to your rooms, I'll prepare everything for tomorrow."

"Can do," Mercury gave a thumbs up as he got up, Emerald following him quietly. He took a right, making sure the door shut quietly.

Once they were out of earshot, Mercury looked at her questioningly.

"You okay?"

"...Yeah."

"You know Cinder doesn't actually care for you, right?"

"No, she does!" Emerald whirled on him, protesting despite all the evidence in the world pointing to the opposite, "She just cares in her own way. She doesn't tolerate failure, and I failed her."

Mercury snarled. Was Emerald blind? Why was it that she couldn't see what was right in front of her??

He stepped towards her, towering over her and leaning down, "She told you to wait until the climax of the fight, not use it at the beginning. How was that failure? If anything, the failure is on Cinder's shoulders. Accept it. She doesn't care. Not for me, not for you, not for anyone but herself!"

Emerald glared at him through her red eyes, turning away, indicating the conversation was over. Mercury all but sighed. She was a lost puppy, that clung to Cinder like a lifeline simply because Cinder had picked her off the streets and turned her from a thief into something with a far more nefarious purpose.

The fact was that Cinder didn't care for anyone, only using them as tools. And when they stepped out of line... she would burn them until they gave in. Like his late father, she was ruthless, and didn't tolerate failure.