The Burning Rose

Chapter 16: Assailant in the night

Cinder sat on the subway taking her to downtown Vale. She was visiting a friend called Paul Bunoun. Or Mr. Beige, as his friends called him. He was an old Atlesian soldier who had surveyed the king of Atlas at the beginning of the war. Eventually, he had refused an order from his general and been banished from the kingdom as a result.

He had eventually found his way to Vale, where he got a job as a teacher at Signal academy. He might have reiterated long before Cinder had started classes, but Tai had kept in touch with the old man.

Cinder had come with Tai to the city while he prepared for Signal school year, but she had two months to wait! If it was for Mr. Beige, she would have gone insane. His stories of his adventures during the war were some of the most amazing one she had heard. As a result, she had been visiting him for the past month and a half.

And she was even more excited because this time she was coming with company.

Yang sat next to her. She had been in Vale to see Signal academy personally. Summer wanted her to get a feel for it as she'd be attending in less than two years. She was holding a gift she had brought for the older man, some of Summer's recipe for home baked cookies.

Apparently, the old man had a sweet tooth and had even (as a joke.) started hitting on Summer after he had some of her home made sweets.

"You sure it's okay for me to come?" Yang asked. "I've only met him once and I was too young to remember." Cinder just smiled and messed up the younger girl's hair.

"I never met him until this year." She said reassuringly. "His nice, so don't worry. Besides, he won't shut up about you and Ruby. Apparently he's been dying to meet both of you now that you're old enough to actually have features." The two sisters laughed and began playfully bumped each other with their elbows. They couldn't get too rough in public as Cinder didn't want to be kicked out.

Suddenly, an announcement on a tv caught both girls' attention. "And now coming straight from Atlas, we bring you Jacques Schnee's statement on his own daughter's decision to join the Atlas Academy, live!"

The scene cut to a podium where the owner of the SDC stood with several microphones in front of him. They could hear the sounds of other reporters just off camera buzzing around trying to get the best angle.

Jacques cleared his throat before he started his speech.

"In the past few weeks since my wayward daughter made her reckless and quite frankly selfish decisions to leave the family to run off on some military fantasy. Since then, all anyone seems to talk about is how we're taking it." He spoke with that fake frustration Cinder had heard so often during her time in Atlas. And it made her sick.

"And I ask you, how would you feel knowing your daughter, your flesh and blood, ran off and abandoned you. All your history's gone just like that." He voice was filled with insincere pain as he snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"I can't imagine any worse thing for a parent to hear than their own daughter telling them that she wants nothing to do with them. It hurts worse than anything else I've endured during my long and different career! Even more than the unfair and inaccurate accusations about the working conditions for the Faunus. If I could give all my money away to get her back, I would do so in a heartbeat!" Jacques dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief, predicting to cry. Besides her, Yang made a vomiting motion causing Cinder to burst out laughing.

"But I've had time to think about it. And with much guilt and regret, I have no choice but to renounce Winter's status as heiress to the SDC." No sooner had he finished speaking, the reports began swarming forward, each one trying to drown out the other creating a cacophony of noise ensuring nobody could figure out what was said.