Bloody Evolution (RWBY / LoR)

Transcript

T'was:
Greetings, Madame Gale

Binah:
Grettings. I can not recall having the pleasure before. Few contact me in such a manner.

T'was:
Indeed. I prefer transactions to be made this way, I hope you do not mind.

Binah:
I have no reason to disagree with the customer's preferences. What is it that you seek?

T'was:
I am a private detective of little reknown. A client came to me with a missing person's case that I hope you may be able to help me with.
[Image attached]
Have you seen this woman or know of her current whereabouts? Her name is Cinder Fall.

Binah:
This woman has been in Vale a few months back. I have not seen her since, however. I will require a few days to make inquiries with my contacts.

T'was:
That is perfectly fine. Name your price and I will transfer it within the day.

Binah:
There is no need. Hold back the payment until our business concludes to spare both of us the hassle.

T'was:
...you are quite trusting

Binah:
No one has yet dared to cross me a second time. I am not worried.

T'was:
I see

Studying the exchange again, Binah has to wonder how much of it was bold-faced lies. It has been more than three months since Cinder died. On the other hand, this is not the City; the dead are not cleaned up on the regular. A missing person may not necessarily be dead.

The fact she has neither a face nor a voice to put to her mystery customer is vexing; only so much can be read from mere text. The fact this person had a picture of a teenaged Cinder creates a great many questions, too.

What will she tell them? If they are truly the detective they claim to be, Binah has to send them onward. If they are an agent of Salem, deflecting the issue will clearly point suspicion upon Binah. Ozpin and Ironwood come to mind, but neither of them even knew of Cinder's presence.

Binah looks up and stares into the oscillating colours of her lamp. It sits almost innocently despite being something torn from a dead woman's self. It sat there for months, perfectly inert in its cage. Yet if even the slightest opening were given, it would once again try to escape. Just like a living being.

Thinking back to her research into the golden light, Binah is tempted to feed some of that into the cage. In fact, she hit a snag recently. There is definitely something important about it that she missed, but she can not determine what. A single piece to the puzzle.

After making a few calls to determine if Junior or Roman met particularly odd people of late and pointed them her way, she returns to the matter at hand. A battery of light and an injector are gathered from the safe, then she places several more lamps.

Once the preparations are done, Binah calls for Courage and activates a number of instruments. Weiss has since left and Ash is gone as well. The door is locked shut. Only then does Binah carefully inject light into the cage.

It reacts immediately.

Before their eyes, segments of the rainbow swirl are drawn out and dissolve into the light. Most remains, but the readings change dramatically as they watch. What is more, a veritable avalanche of Dust flows from the cage. Courage quickly opens it so the reinforced glass does not shatter from pressure alone; Binah barely manages to Lock the separate light as it makes to flee. It drops into a multi-coloured sea, Dust of all types haphazardly mixed together. The entire floor is covered half a metre upward.

Even Binah is surprised by the results.

"Is there anything different about this Dust?" she asks Courage while fishing for the Locked light.

Her companion is already cupping a handful of the material, verdant streamers running over every grain. "No," she judges a few minutes later. "This Dust is exactly the same as any other sample I analysed before."

She then cleans out the cage to return what is left of the rainbow back in. It seems more clear now, actually. Binah ruminates on the matter while Courage separates the different types of Dust and has them carried into boxes. Even with magic at her disposal, the process takes the better part of an hour due to the sheer amount.

By this point, Binah has a good idea what she missed.

Then Courage finishes analysing what the cage actually contains. "The readings were far more clear now," she reports. "It is a parasite of some sort. A benevolent type that latches onto a person's self and extends it, granting them instinctual access to magic. But it is broken. I think it may be looking to reunite with the other piece or pieces."

"It is aware?"

"No. It has no real wants, but it knows it is not whole and it knows where the rest of it is. They are drawn to each other like magnets."

Curious. The magic was unaffected by the golden light, yet something was removed. Something that muddled the readings and had the same reaction as aura when the light was added to it, only in a far greater measure. If aura is indeed the light of the soul, or the self as Binah prefers, then the answer is clear now.

Binah picks up the cage as she begins to muse. "It seems that however this little one was torn apart, a piece of the soul it was once grafted to was taken along. That piece is now gone. Yet a mere fragment of a soul could create enough Dust to last a single hunter for months. You always said there was something human within it, did you not?"

"Correct. So Dust is dissolved human souls?"

"No. Dust is the remains of souls given physicals form. This light must be adjacent to Cogito in its ability to manifest the mind, hence why it could restore the five Abnormalities that came to Remnant. This also explains how it adapts elemental properties when coming in contact with aura, it may react to the prominent emotion." Binah's considerations are not contradicted, yet she frowns. "But is it the intended result, or a byproduct? It does not explain my own circumstances, even though all leads point right back to this light."

"We have little proof for that," Courage reasons, "only the absence of other phenomena or Singularities."

"A fair point. And yet." Binah's eyes close as she once again attempts to recall a year of lost memories. The gap remains as insurmountable as ever. "And yet. We just saw it interact with the essence of a person and turn it to Dust. Emotions, sensations, even memories. Something I lack a significant amount of."

Is this the reason of her amnesia? Are the reconstitution of her old body and the loss of memories tied together? Was this the requirement for her rebirth?

On that final question, Binah's train of thought stumbles to a screeching halt.

Could it be possible?

"Courage." But a single word has the diminutive woman's head snap up. Binah sports an actual cheshire grin; excitement courses through every fibre of her body. "Where does one go when they die?" Butterflies almost flap their wings at the edge of her vision. "Do they simply vanish into the void? Do they meet again, as stars?" A sound reverberates through the room, only half heard. Binah's intent grows stronger, her voice faster: "Does salvation await, or penitence?" Ten wings seem to spread but fade, as does the gleam of an iron cross.

She grabs the surprised Courage by the shoulders, eagerly peering into her wide eyes. "Do they simply fade after a final blaze of glory?" Binah asks to the sound of a match being struck.

"Or perhaps, child, perhaps Remnant has a different answer. Does this light burn away the person, or does it simply wipe the slate clean? Is there even a difference? We must know. This takes priority over everything else. Vale, Vytal, Salem, they all mean nothing compared to this."

Courage nods ever so slowly, intimidated and even the smallest bit afraid by the sudden fervour. Once let go, she takes some distance. "I will see what I can do, but I do not quite know how to investigate the matter. Beyond human testing, which I disapprove of in this instance." Her voice firms up toward the end, which does not fail to amuse Binah. She could insist, but there is really no need to alienate her co-conspirator.

"We can always find undesirables to conduct the tests on," she counters. "It should not be difficult to scour prisons for appropriate sacrifices. I can have Roman keep an eye out for the kind of person even he will not deal with." And there are quite a few of these types; human trafficking, hard drugs, and serial killers are among that number. "And if we find none, we can always seek for those on death's door to observe their passing."

"I concur with the undesirables, provided that we ascertain they are indeed deserving of death." Courage is quiet for a long moment, contemplating what they learned. When she looks up at Binah, her expression reveals honest curiousity. "Why do you suddenly care so much?"

The older woman huffs at that. "I was reborn as Binah to serve in Lobotomy Corporation. I was reborn yet again when Angela stole the Light. By this metric, I was once again reborn when I regained my original body on Remnant. Only this last time, it was a natural process that yet stands superior over every human accomplishment. The question of where we go in death has never been answered decisively. Only religion and spirituality offer an answer, but they all build on faith.

"Hokma faithfully led the Records Department, recreating the same agents again and again from their templates. Were they still them after their first death? After the hundreth? Where did they go? Is the answer in the Light that we were all meant to vanish into?"

Having been denied a proper end of her own for ten thousand years, Binah's curiousity burns. She must know for certain, now that the answer to the oldest question is within her reach. She falls silent, her intent communicated; Courage nods slowly. Her hands absently move the blindfold back in place.

"Then we will do it. Just like you help my sisters and I, I will help you." She begins to stow the unnecessary instruments away again, but pauses when her gaze falls on the cage. "Now that we know what this is, what do we do with it?"

Her question is quite relevant. Binah's rapid heartbeat calms while she studies the piece of magical prowess. "Could you adjust it to be implanted into someone of our choice?"

"Yes, but I need to discern which rules govern the eligible candidates first. In addition, only a piece of the whole will not confer remotely as much power. A drop in the bucket when compared to the prowess our group already possesses." Courage puts a hand on the cage then. "You could just let it go," she suggests. "Let it rejoin the rest."

"Yet the original owner will never be whole again," Binah counters. A part of their self was cleaned away after all.

Courage is not deterred. "But the core piece yet remains in the magic's embrace. That person may lack some memories and suffer other damages, but they will regain the most important piece."

Binah inclines her head at that. She is not wrong. What should they do with this yet caged power?

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XgK_ME-EJE

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-Goal fulfilled: Figure out the reason behind Binah's amnesia

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[] Release it, to rejoin the whole

[] Have it implanted into...
-[] write-in who

[] Take the remaining pieces
-[] write-in how