#traders records

Ruby clenched her hands together in her lap, trying her damnedest to stop their trembling. It wasn't from the pain racking through her body—she couldn't feel that anymore, since she was Burning it off. No, it was from something she couldn't well manage: her emotions.

Her anger. Her guilt. Her…

…terror.

Terror after Riot had revealed everything to her friends, in a grand, twisted fucking circus show. A trap laid for Ruby and her alone, in order to cage her and put on the main act of telling everyone who she'd been.

Telling them everything that she'd done. The assassinations. The working for Strife. Killing not for money, but beliefs that she hadn't fully let go of.

Ruby had seen their horror, the betrayal each of them had felt.

So she'd ran.

Ruby grit her teeth, breathing shakily as her throat closed up with another sob. She should have just fucking told them. Then, they wouldn't have been told by their worst enemy. Then, Ruby would have had it under control. How could she have been so fucking stupid?

Because how do you even bring that up?

For a second, part of her thought the words came from Sapphire—they held the same soft, reassuring cadence. But it was only her thoughts, now. She, Sapphire, and Sam were all separated. All had their own bodies.

And, if she was being honest with herself…that had been the worst part of these past few weeks.

Ruby hiccuped, then furiously wiped at her eyes as her tears started up again. "Quit that," she snapped. "You don't have any fucking reason to cry. You brought this upon yourself, you decided to keep secrets from everyone."

Ruby froze as a creak echoed behind her, and she spun to her feet, albeit clumsily as she drew one of the knives at her belt and pointed it forward. The rooftop door was open, and stepping out of it… was Ryan.

Ruby froze, nearly dropping her knife. Instead she shoved it back into its sheath and quickly turned her back to him, wiping at her eyes and face even faster now.

"Ruby?" Ryan asked. "There you are, we've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Don't tell me you just climbed fifty sets of stairs just to get up here, Gunther," Ruby said, but even when she meant it as a joke, it came out harsher than she meant to.

"Okay, I didn't," Ryan said. She could hear the smile in his voice, and it made her heart squeeze uncomfortably.

"What do you want?" she demanded, sitting back on the roof's edge.

"To make sure you're okay." Ryan's voice was softer. Ruby flinched.

"I'm fine," she spat, and her voice broke.

Ryan only walked over, carefully sitting next to her, but a bit further away from the edge. He crossed his legs, placing his hands in his lap. She couldn't see him because of her bangs, so she wiped her eyes once more and shot him a glare. "What are you—"

She stopped. Ryan was simply… looking at her. But it wasn't with anger. It was the same expression he'd had when Riot had revealed everything, the one Ruby had hated seeing the most. A soft…understanding.

She faltered, then turned away again.

"I'm fine," she whispered. Her hands started shaking again.

Ryan exhaled softly, then scoot closer to her. "Look," he said. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to. But I'm worried about you. I just want to make sure you're alright. Because you ran. You never run, from anything."

Ruby tucked her knees to her chest, staring out at the lights of Westar.

"I didn't know what else to do," she admitted, and her grip tightened on her crossed arms. "Strife must have told her everything that I did, all so she could…"

Her lower lip trembled, and she grit her teeth, breathing shakily.

"Was…all of what she said…was that all true?" Ryan asked softly.

Ruby nodded.

Ryan sighed shakily, and Ruby winced.

"Well, I know you're not that person anymore," he said. "And I…I understand that it's probably not the easiest thing to bring up—"

"That I've killed more than five hundred people?" Ruby asked, her voice hollow. "That I worked for the same Flame trying to kill us now? That was still trying to kill us back then?

"That was…basically the first thing I did, when I started fronting more often, Ryan. The first thing I did was sign up to kill people who I was told were evil. I thought I was doing the world a favor. But I wasn't. All I was doing was adding to the world being how it is."

Ryan was quiet for a few moments. Then, quietly, he said, "Well, now you're trying to make up for it. Right?"

Ruby nodded.

"Then, I forgive you."

Ruby's eyes widened and she looked at him. Ryan's smile was gone, and only that soft, yet serious understanding remained. "I forgive you, Ruby, for not telling me," he repeated.

In that instant, Ruby somehow felt…lighter. Not entirely. But hearing those words from him… they helped. Somehow.

"O-Okay." Shakily, she nodded. "Okay."

Her tears started again, and she struggled to take a few deep breaths to calm the new rush of emotions. She managed eventually, and eventually she spoke softly.

"Thanks. For…coming to find me."

"Of course." Ryan pulled forward to sit directly next to her, both of their legs over the edge. "It's what friends are for, right?"

He smiled at her, and Ruby couldn't help but try and smile back.

"Yeah, guess so." She lightly punched his shoulder. "Sap." He grinned.

Ruby looked out at Meridian City, breathing deeply. "I promise to tell you things, from now on," she told him. She looked over. "No more secrets." She gave half a laugh. "They're too fucking messy, clearly."

Ryan's eyes widened. His smile faltered for half a second, before it was back again. Ruby didn't seem to notice, thankfully.

Strife's smile returned, amused. "Only a week and a half, and you're already fed up with her?" they asked. "She's only gone on a single mission! Don't tell me you're going to back out so soon."

Envoy tensed, and Strife's smile widened.

I never said that. He struggled to lessen the bite of the words, but from the way Strife's eyes narrowed in delight, they still picked up on it. Because of course he did—Strife did this all the time, messing with emotions, making people trip up in their anger. A way to divert them and make them weaken themselves, and their own arguements.

"Of course not, dear!" Strife leaned back in her chair. The robot fanning her moved in sync to keep fanning her. "Now, what seems to be the issue?"

Riot is too wild, Envoy reported. That's what he had to do: keep it calm, keep his words collected. He manipulated anger all the time—Suffering Manipulation bode well to that emotion. She's eager—too eager. She wants to kill everyone because she thinks that'll solve our issue. Or it's the opposite: she wants to use everyone against each other, play on their emotions to make them slip up. It's never focused on the goal of the mission. Instead, she just wants to see how much damage she can do.

Strife listened with an intrigued expression, one that Envoy couldn't fully dissect. It was always hard to tell what Strife was feeling, even with his Suffering Manipulation to read them. Not that he did that often, that'd likely get him killed for offending her. Unfortunately.

"She's still fresh," Strife said finally, her voice a musing lilt. "And as such, she's still so engrained with the seeds I planted for her existence in the first place. In time, she'll mature more, and become less…wild."

Envoy narrowed his eyes behind his mask. Become her own person, you mean.

"As such is the inner workings of her…condition, yes." Strife sipped her tea once more, and their golden eyes landed on Envoy. "You seem rather interested by her, Envoy."

I worry about potential problems the project may cause, he said smoothly.

Strife laughed. "Causing problems is why I made her, dear! That's her entire purpose."

Envoy leveled his stare at her. You know what I mean.

Strife leaned her cheek against her hand, smiling at him. Then, she sighed. "Riot needs time to grow, darling," she said. "Just as a babe cannot walk nor speak without those with time to guide and teach it, she is the same. Fresh into existence. She may look like an adult, with developed speech and heightened physicality, but her mind is still maturing, forming who she is meant to be. And who we want her to be. But, it takes time. Especially in her case."

Strife took another drink, longer now, before she set her cup down again. Now, it was empty. "Just keep a close watch on her. Both you and I will teach her what she needs to learn. To nurture her into what she was made for."

Me? Envoy started, surprised. Strife raised an eyebrow.

"You're the reason she's here at all. You captured Samantha, and brought her to me, did you not?"

I wasn't aware I'd be teaching her new personality anything, Envoy said.

"Your specialty in altering emotions is a valuable one, and one we can both somewhat teach her to do. Minus the usage of Chaos, anyhow." Strife chuckled. "But even Sam Allen specialized in the normal manipulation of emotions. With all that I planted in her head, that should be even more acute."

Envoy nodded. Strife stood, and her two robots moved to follow. She looked down at Envoy. "Will that be all?"

Envoy looked towards the floor-to-ceiling windows to his left, overlooking Westar. This penthouse was a lot like Strife's old one; the one Ruby, Ryan, and Valerie had investigated even when it'd been abandoned. The same one he'd failed to kill them in.

If Riot's so moldable right now, is it wise to send her on anymore missions in that state?

Strife tilted her head at him, humming in question. Then, she smiled thinly. "You're worried about one of them trying to reach her, and try and bring her back," she guessed.

Valerie in particular. Given her closeness to Sam, is it possible that she'd be able to draw her out? Or worse: convince Riot of her true origins?

Strife tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I highly doubt it. The deepest seed within Riot is undying loyalty to me, as well as the belief that Sam's old friends are the pinnacle of the very evils she is to destroy, due to their constant interruptions of our plans. She believes because of that, clearly they're trying to protect those who should be killed for their transgressions.

"At her core, Riot is everything that Sam is not. For them to try and convince Riot to let go, or to draw Sam out…well, it would go against the base of what Riot is. And would have no effect, because she wouldn't believe them."

And if they try anyway? Envoy looked at her.

"Well, you'll just have to make sure they don't, hm?" Strife grinned maliciously. "Wounding them will solve the easily enough. Or even killing them, but I understand you struggle with that."

Envoy grit his teeth, and Strife laughed and waved her hand. "No slight towards you, dear. I simply mean they are annoyingly powerful. Now, you should go check on our dear little project—my robots won't keep her entertained for much longer."

She grunted as she brought Daluyong up to block a sudden strike from her left, blocking the shadow tendril suddenly inches from her face. It was tipped with glowing red veins, pulsing and squirming with more of them. She grit her teeth, flaring her Water reserve to strengthen Daluyong. It glowed a brighter turqouise, the energy rippling from it like ocean waves, and she yelled as she slashed upwards and severed the shadow construct.

The Blade of Tides, however, instantly flickered and dimmed back to the silver kampilan blade. Sam staggered again, her exhaustion slamming into her with double the force. A warning flashed through her head, from Ruby—the strange new piece of her come to life. Sam ducked on instinct and half because of Ruby, and narrowly dodged a thrown knife.

Sam held her head, gritting her teeth. Her vision was starting to swim, and Ruby was urging to let her take control. The Blade of Tides suddenly flashed with light, only for its form to melt and swirl around her arm, forming back together as a watch on her left wrist. Her Water reserve puffed out, empty.

In the corner of her eye, Valerie lurched as an Agent stabbed her in the back.

Sam turned toward her with a scream. Then she was Ruby in nothing but mind, and she was already running. She picked up a knife from the ground Sam would've never noticed, and hurled it towards the Agent who'd snuck behind Valerie.

The boy dodged, and she missed. Then, he threw the bleeding Valerie into the New York Harbor, his bloodied sword still in hand.

Sam was pushing back, fighting for the body as Ruby slid to a stop in front of the Agent. He was tall—taller than her by what she felt was correct. She dodged a thrust of his sword, then twisted his arm and wrestled for the blade. The moment she had it, its edge was skewered through his throat, and she kicked his body into the water.

Valerie.

Sam stood at the edge of the pier, heart racing as she breathed heavily. Tears started to well in her eyes—her reserve ws empty. She couldn't breathe underwater now, or help Valerie do the same.

Her hands shook. "Spirit!" she yelled. "You have to help me!"

I cannot. The spirit of The Blade of Tides' voice was sad, guilty. I depend on your energy to grant you more precise usage of it. But you have none left.

Barely 1%. And scraping the bottom was never good enough, good for her. Ruby pushed that fact to the forefront of her mind.

But it was Valerie.

Sam took a step back to jump into the water anyway. Ruby yelled at her and Spirit urged her, both for her to hesitate, before suddenly everything went…still.

Ruby's voice quieted, as did Spirit's. Sam gasped, then looked up and to her right, feeling a warmth.

Standing there was a being of immense energy, radiating off of them in waves. Waves were partially what their body was made of, water that rippled and shifted across half of their humanoid form, with six arms. The other half was made of ice, but each side wasn't split directly down the middle. The water and ice alternated where they sat on their body in perfect harmony, perfect balance.

"Spirit..?" Sam asked hesitantly, but that instantly felt wrong. This being's clothing was similar—drooping silk made of water, fastened with ice buttons and cuffs around their wrists. A translucent wrap of more water flowed around their legs, with a belt of ice. On their face was a similar mask of ice, but only covering one half of their face. Down their arms were scales like a fish, of even more ice.

This wasn't the spirit of The Blade of Tides. This was who had made them, and The Blade, in the first place.

The Flame of Water.

Her father.

Sam recoiled from the revelation, and Ruby nearly slipped back into control. But Sam held firm, staring at the Flame—much taller than her—with a hurricane of emotions within her.

"Wh…what..?" she managed. Her thoughts felt slow. Then she noticed the rain around her was also slow, nearly frozen in place.

"I cannot stay long," the Flame said, bending down to get closer to her eye level. Anger flared within her, echoed by Ruby. He had never stayed. Sam had never met her father, so—

"Why now?!" she demanded.

"I can help you save her."

Sam froze. The Flame stretched their hand out towards the harbor, where Valerie was still sinking.

"This moment will not last forever." Her father's hand stretched out to her, now. "But if you become my Ambassador, your reserve will be replenished, and my Blade will draw from my power, instead of yours. With that, you can save your friend."

Sam looked between his face and his hand, confusion joining her inner whirlwind. As if sensing it, the Flame of Water continued. "You will be tied to me. Your powers will grow. But you will carry my will at my command, as the spirit has been teaching you to do."

Sam's sluggish thoughts barely caught up, but they did eventually. To keep balance; that was what Spirit always told her her 'duty' was, as the wielder of The Blade of Tides.

But it was for her father? The one who'd never been around? Never bothered to see her? Could he have, this entire time, and only now did to gain her as an asset?!

But… he wanted to help her save Valerie…

The rain started to speed up again, yet the Flame stood, patient.

"Will it… be permanent?" Sam asked.

"Yes. Unless you renounce your title."

He didn't explain more. She made up her mind with that, and grabbed the Flame's warm hand.

"Fine."

The Flame of Water closed his glowing eyes, and a stillness enveloped her completely.

A single droplet fell, and made a ripple within her soul.

Then an explosion. A heat surged through her soul, body, and mind, a hurricane of power that flooded her reserve with energy.

And then, an understanding.

Her Water reserve wasn't simply water. It was a mixture of the seven Primordial Flame energies. A trifecta—even amounts of Chaos and Essence, with a smaller amount of Space.

Both of life and destruction. Balance was what water represented. What it was.

On the pier admist the falling rain, the symbol of the Flame of Water blazed to life beneath her feet, glowing a bright turqoise that lit the entire pier. A circle with an 'S' shape in its center, shaping a symbol similar to the yin-yang, the taijitu.

The symbol burned into the wooden boards, and Sam floated into the air as turqoise droplets floated up from it, swirling around her. At once, they slammed into the side of her neck, and Sam stiffened and screamed as the heat within her concentrated to that point. Her flesh burned and glowed as the same symbol beneath her swirled into her flesh, glowing brightly.

In a rush, Water's symbol disappeared from under her. The Blade of Tides transformed with a bright light, forming the kampilan sword in her hand. She felt its connection to her more deeply now. It felt more certain, as this was always what it had been meant for.

Then, with a mere thought, the harbor swallowed her up.

Sam was a torpedo through the water as she made it force her along, breathing underwater with ease. All of it took less than a fourth of the energy it had before—she used it more precisely, now, as she'd been promised.

Now, she could sense the water around her, feeling every droplet when before it'd merely felt an extension of herself. Now, that feeling was multiplied.

Now, she could sense Valerie's body, or rather the water in it, far below her.

Daluyong glowed brightly next to her, and lit Valerie's form as Sam slowed to a stop. Gently, she wrapped a hand around Valerie's waist, bringing her closer, before shooting upwards again. They shot out of the harbor, and waves washed away the remaining Agents. Sam landed gracefully on the docks, hugging Valerie tightly. The symbol on her neck, her eyes, and her sword all glowed brightly, casting Valerie in blue light as Sam laid her down.

"CALEB!" she yelled, and Valerie's brother was already rushing over, a healing spell formed on his palm. He slid and slammed it into Valerie's bleeding chest, and her body surged, the wound starting to knit back together with strand of holy light.

Antonio ran over, and Sam looked up to see the Agents gone. "They teleported away," he told her, then knelt beside Caleb on Valerie's other side. He frowned at Sam—squinting, really, even behind his tinted shades. "You…are very bright."

"Yeah…" Sam nodded, still staring at Valerie. Daluyong shifted back into a watch, its face still glowing, as Sam reached for Valerie. She could sense the water in all of their bodies more acutely, and she could feel the water in Valerie's lungs, too.

"Can I get it out without hurting her?" she asked Spirit. She'd never controlled water with that much finesse…

I will aid you, Spirit promised. Breathing deeply, Sam mentally reached for the water in Valerie's lungs, and took hold of it. She felt Spirit's guiding hand, and together they moved it up and out of her lungs, to her throat.

Valerie subconsciously coughed it up, and Antonio jumped, Caleb and Sam still focused. Sam helped guide the rest of it out, then with a flick of her hand sent it splashing into the harbor. Valerie continued coughing, and gradually the glowing of Caleb's spelled faded and dimmed. "Val!" Caleb cried, leaning towards her. "Val, are you—"

"Bloody… hell…" Valerie groaned, breathing shakily, but breathing. Caleb scooped her in a hug, and Sam and Antonio joined in, all of them ignoring how Valerie groaned louder.

"Ow, ay! I just nearly died, get offa me!"

They pulled away with varying apologies, and Valerie caught her breath, then looked at Sam with wide eyes, shielding them. "Oi, are you usually this bright, mate?" she asked.

"No…" Sam sighed, then closed her eyes. Daluyong's watch face dimmed, as did the symbol on her neck, which vanished. When she opened her eyes again, they were back to normal. "It's a long story, one I can tell when we—"

"Woah!" Antonio interrupted, then leaned half overValerie to peer at Sam's neck. "When did you get a tattoo?!"

"What?" Sam blinked and held her neck, then peered into her reflection in the water. Water's symbol was still there, now as a black ink tattoo, instead of a glowing blue symb of power.

Great. That was going to be hard to explain to her parents when she got back home.

She sighed, then stood, helping Valerie up. "In short, I became the Ambassador for… for my father."

"Your father?!" Valerie and Antonio gaped at her. Valerie glared. "What? He's got the gall to show up now?! Of all times!"

"He did it so I could save you," Sam said softly. Valerie paused, then looked away with an annoyed mutter. Then, she looked at Sam, and gently grabbed her hand. She smiled weakly.

"Well, thanks for doin' that," she said. Sam nodded, her face suddenly warm as she tried to not think about Valerie holding her hand.

"I say we've had enough fun for the night," Antonio said. "We should head back to Miss Knight's place, it's closer than Sanctuary."

Valerie and Sam nodded, and the four started their walk there. Valerie didn't let go of Sam's hand, still letting it rest in hers, though on her other side Caleb supported his sister to help her walk.

"Do you lot always have this goin' on?" Caleb asked. He was taller than all of them, and older by four years. His glasses were wet with the rain—it was still raining, Sam realized. With her newfound energy, she'd been subconsciously keeping herself dry.

"What, demons, shadow bastards, and robots?" Valerie asked. "Yeah, pretty much."

"How have you not died?" he asked.