7.

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After a meeting with Salem about Ozpin, Cinder is practicing with her abilities at some dummies while Mercury is doing push-ups and Emerald is taking a little nap by the wall. Reaper walks around the dummies as Cinder fires at the ones he gets behind of like she's trying to hit him.

Reaper: That's it! Show those dummies who's the boss!

Reaper chuckles as Cinder stops and sighs. She speaks in her very weak voice that seems to slowly be getting better.

Cinder: Why must you always annoy me?

Reaper: Because I got nothing better to do in your head besides bouncing an imaginary ball around and go insane.

Cinder: You're driving ME insane right now.

Reaper: Better you than me.

Cinder rolls her eye as Reaper chuckles.

Cinder: Tell me something, why hasn't there been other Reapers made while you were alive? Don't you spawn like any ordinary Grimm?

Reaper: The process of making a Reaper is.... Not so simple. See, every Reaper was made by the God of Darkness, a sort of early attempt at humanity. We Reapers stood alongside him and his brother, the God of Light, while the two made humanity. If Reapers were killed, the God of Darkness just simply spawn us back with his powers. Magic is a crucial ingredient to making a Reaper as it is what makes us different from other Grimm. It helps create our individuality and gives us our powers.

Cinder: And why hasn't he been spawning Reapers recently?

Reaper: A Reaper hasn't been born in thousands of years. Ever since your master made our creators abandon us, only one Reaper was ever born. Why do you think so many Reapers were killed by Salem? Most of us hated her for having the Gods leave us. So many have tried, and failed, to kill her.

Cinder: Though some obviously sided with her.

Reaper: Yes, and they paid the price for their heresy.

Cinder: Okay, but you mentioned that one Reaper was born after the Gods left. How did that happen?

Reaper crosses his arms and leans against the wall.

Reaper: Salem managed to create him. We've been trying to figure out how she did it for centuries, unfortunately Salem killed the Reaper because she couldn't control him and sealed away how she created him somewhere in this castle.

Cinder: I see the predicament.

Reaper: Yep. However, unlike other people that were in our.... arrangement, you may be able to find the knowledge needed to give me a new body because of your standing here. Hopefully Salem actually wrote down the process.

Cinder: A chance to get you out of my head and get a decent night's sleep? I'm in.

Reaper: Let's check the library first.

Cinder: Why would Salem put something this important in plain sight the library?

Reaper: You want to break into Salem's private study first?

Cinder: Not really...

Reaper nods and Cinder snaps her fingers to get Mercury's attention. Mercury gets up and taps Emerald's boot to wake her up.

Emerald: Huh?

Cinder motions the two to follow her and the three head to the library with the Reaper hallucination walking beside Cinder. When they enter the library, they see large bookshelves with hundreds of books in them.

Reaper: It's....a lot bigger than the last time I was here. Then again, it has been a thousand years.

~A Few Hours of book searching later, brought to you by chibi Reaper cutting a restrained young chibi Yang's hair~

Cinder gets through the last shelf of books as Mercury and Emerald look at some other books that could help. She sighs and climbs down the ladder from the top of the book shelf.

Mercury: Over a thousand books and all we found on Reapers is just some old fairy tales and history books from old Kingdoms long dead.

Emerald: For a race of Grimm that has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, there's very little information on them.

Reaper: Just how we like it. Though in this case, curse our antisocial behavior!

Cinder looks at Reaper before looking at Emerald. The Grimm sighs and places his hands on his hips.

Emerald: Maybe Salem destroyed all knowledge about making a Reaper.

Mercury: Or maybe it was made up to give Reapers false hope.

Reaper: That...is always possible. But there's always still a chance it could be in Salem's private study.

Emerald sighs and leans back on a chair.

Emerald: Now what? Raid Salem's study and get blown to pieces?

Salem: Now there's an idea.

Reaper: Bloody hell.

Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald look to see Salem standing by the door with her hands clasped together in front of her. They see her smirking at them as she walks towards them. She glances at the books they have and she understands what's going on.

Salem: Let me guess, dear Reaper put himself in your head didn't he?

Reaper: I've been compromised!

Salem: A common tactic for Reapers that don't want to die. Even more so if it's the last of their kind.

Cinder and her henchmen look at Salem defensively.

Salem: Hmm, come with me.

Salem turns and walks to the door. Cinder doesn't do so until Salem looks at her.

Salem: If you want to get rid of him, follow me.

Cinder looks at her posse before they reluctantly follows Salem. Reaper has his arms crossed with one of his fingers tapping an arm.

Reaper: I really don't like this. She's planning something. Just play it cool, it'll be alright.

Cinder: Are you saying that to me or yourself?

Reaper: You mostly since I can't be seen or heard. But if she kills you, I'm dead too.

Cinder rolls her eye before Salem starts talking.

Salem: I can only imagine the kinds of things Reaper has said to you over the months you've been here. Tell me, has he said anything that may... make you consider betraying me?

Cinder looks down before speaking with her weak voice.

Cinder: He told me how you sent a Reaper called Death to kill my mother.

Reaper: Son of a....

Salem: I should've expected he would piece it together that his brother was the real killer. It could've been Kuro for all he knew. Or one of those Neo-Reapers he no longer controls.

Mercury: Neo-Reapers?

Emerald: You're not denying it??

Salem: Why would I? He was telling the truth.

Cinder looks at her with anger in her eye. Salem smiles and stops in the middle of the hallway to face Cinder.

Salem: I sent Death to kill your mother because she helped Ozpin eliminate a member of our group. Though I didn't know about you until after your mother was killed.

Reaper: What?

Salem: I'm sure Reaper told you that I had your mother killed and how I took advantage of your anger to use you as a weapon, right?

Reaper and Cinder look at each other then Cinder looks back at Salem and nods.

Salem: Hm, well I can't blame him for believing that. He has hated me for centuries and views me as a complete monster.

Reaper silently stares at Salem.

Salem: When I learned about you, I saw your potential. You had so much power that it couldn't be wasted. So after I found you after you murdered your stepmother and stepsisters, I took you in, gave you the strength you wanted and then you gained power beyond what you thought possible.

Cinder: You did do that...

Salem: So tell me, have I done you wrong since then? Have I not fulfilled your wishes so far?

Cinder looks down, not knowing what to say.

The group continues walking through the halls to Salem's study, a small room with a little library. Salem walks to a bookshelf and goes through a few books before pulling out one. Reaper and Cinder sees a journal that Salem opens and lays in front of Cinder on a desk.

Salem: This will help you spawn a Reaper. That way you can transfer Reaper's mind into the new body, and then you can finish him off.

Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury look at Salem with wide eyes while Reaper simply crosses his arms.

Reaper: Crap...

End Part

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