Chapter Text

Prelude

The butterfly effect. 

It’s defined that, within Chaos Theory, or the idea that all randomness is connected as a web of dependencies triggered by one another in our universe, the Butterfly Effect is the concept of a change causing cataclysmic damage to a through line, such as a Butterfly Stirring air in just the way as to cause an inevitable tornado.

This story seeks to flesh out RWBY’s universe more, as an ocean without a defined depth may be mapped, and changed in specific ways. Afterall, Falling Scoops and Petals is an allusion to Ruby, Neo and Cinder.

And as such, we begin with the catalyst: a Rain Storm.

A storm is not malevolent, but it is destructive. It is not angry, nor is it an act of god. Somewhere, enough water droplets become a cloud through laws of recurrence. That water droplet became this storm. And this storm is blowing towards Vale on the Day of the Attack on Beacon and the Vytal Festival.

Urges are made to halt the plans, but parties can wait no longer. The disaster unfolds similarly. Yang’s arm is Cut. Penny is cut to pieces. Pyrhha Nikos is no longer known as the invincible girl. And, it’s all done beneath a curtain of rain and a hail of lightning. 

The devastation in places is wholly more in some places, where others no one was. Coins to the storm drain, cutting and running, chaos and carnage, cares for safety to the wind.

This is the sum of results of these unconnected pieces. Cinder’s choices in the pursuit of power, Neo’s cruel fate, and Ruby’s desperation. A torrential downpour warned of, yet none heeded.

And it will leave no one dry.

So the stage is set for a dangerous romance of desperation, redemption, and pure, hard fought love… one grown in the warmth of fear and happiness, swaddled in secrets and nurtured in heartbreak.

All Born as the result of One Rainy Day.

Saturday, October 23rd, E3Y80 

Trivia “Neopolitan” Vanille: 7:49 PM

Drifting.

Drifting in the wind and rain.

The storm was all about her, and she fixed her eyes on the sky, an Atlas airship beginning to list and explode.

Hatred filled her heart- a simple mistake had been made. Wind too strong for her light frame to fight against had yanked her from the ship- the only reason she had not fallen to her death was her iron grip on the shaft.

The ship was accelerating, yet no one was at the controls. In a flash, a fireball erupted from the side, and Neo felt the icy rain blond her. She was struggling to hold on, wind carrying her out north. 

She was quickly over the Emerald Forest, spying a the ship her and her lover had commandeered, sparking and flashing, coasting towards the mountains… and a small, red-caped figure, leaping away. 

Her heart beat harder, wanting to scream out his name. It would do her no good, even if she could. 

So she wailed in silence.

Hitting the treeline as she came down, she watched the ship go down on the other side of the mountain. It killed her inside… she knew instantly he was gone. He had to be.

But she didn’t, no, she couldn’t, let it come to pass. Not without avenging him. Not without knowing for sure.

In her ragged, wet clothes, Neo began to run into the underbrush… ever northward. Towards the smoking crash.

North to Roman Torchwick’s sudden mausoleum.

She had to find him. 

Neo couldn’t afford otherwise.

Ruby: 10:17 PM

Heart pounding, Ruby looked away from the fire.

It was raining. It was pouring. Ozpin was gone, according to Jaune on the Scroll. She’d run across the city and onto the first transport to Beacon in the course of two hours.

Her heart was breaking at how it all was going wrong. But… hearing Pyrrha had gone up alone? That was it.

She had to make it in time. To save her.

She looked at Weiss, whose makeup was running from rain and tears. ‘Tears. Right. Yang.’

As the image of her injured sister began to overwhelm her, Ruby found something breaking inside, near her heart. Maybe it was her heart. She pushed it down to regain her stability.

They’d charged into the fire, her and Weiss in wake of Blake and Yang’s sobs and pains.  Ruby wanted revenge, more than anything in the world, for her sister, for her sisters in arms. But she had a bigger pressing matter.

People were dying all around them. Huntsmen and Huntresses could only do so much, against Grimm whipped into a frenzy. Nothing had been seen like this since the days of yore, so she heard from a desperate Goodwitch.

Weiss looked at her as she closed her scroll and readied her weapon.

“Weiss… I have a plan.”

The tears in Weiss’ eye grew, but her face remained stoic and hard. “…I know. you always do. I’ll get to you my own way.”

Weiss rolled her eyes, trying her hardest to look annoyed… it didn’t conceal anything.

Ruby didn’t know what to say to her… only that she…

The glyphs lit up the wall. Weiss’ form flickered. She was beaten, her aura drained from her earlier stunts. Her dress was dirty, her nails pitted with dirt.

Nothing mattered now.

She had been a leader, but she had to do something for someone else.

She was Ruby Rose… and perhaps, against whatever forces truly were at play, maybe, just maybe… She could be the difference.

She could save the day. End all of this madness.

That was until she made it up… and she found she couldn’t do anything:

She wasn’t fast enough. Not to stop the arrow that plunged into Pyrrha’s heart. Not to stop the crimson ichor that ran down the glass shaft of the arrow.

Ruby screamed out, and light took her vision, of the woman’s outstretched hand as Pyrrha faded to ashes. It hurt. Everything hurt.

It was a scream of hatred. A scream of suffering. A scream of grief.

A scream for a friend.

Cinder Fall: 10:20 PM

Power arced through her body. It was coursing like a river, ready to rage and destroy anything and anyone she wanted it to. All she had to do was push it to the limit.

Ozpin, the old man of Salem’s despise, was nothing but smoke. Vale burned below her, the school of Beacon stirring in the rain. All of her suffering seemed to finally mean something. Emerald and Mercury’s doubts, Watt’s mockings, all of Tyrian’s backhand phrases, and all of Hazel’s unimpressed grunts. All of the beatings and shocks from her mother, seizing at the base of her neck. 

It meant something. She meant something. She was important, undeniably.

But now, she looked quietly into the eyes of Pyrhha Nikos. She’d just asked her a haunting question, even as she drew back the bow in the rain, as she faced her death. The girl didn’t need this. The girl inside Cinder didn’t need this. 

But something didn’t feel right. She was beaten. The score wasn’t just settled, it was over, even if some trace lingered, the day was won. She was, after all, a maiden. The power, the control she’d craved for so long was in her hands, and it had pushed her.

“Do you believe in destiny?”

Something moved to Cinder’s left, in her peripheral vision, and flinching as the rain came down, she loosed the mocked arrow.

“No.”

The arrow found purchase in the woman’s heart. Cinder glanced sideways… to the tear filled eyes of Little Red.

She hadn’t thought much of her- something about her eyes reminded her of the silent, sarcastic woman Neopolitan, of whom had gone missing that night.

Pyrrha gasped for breath, her body beginning to seize. Something about her choking… felt wrong to Cinder. The blood ran down her exposed stomach and armor, running to the ground faster as life began to seep out.

She couldn’t explain it, from the murders she’d done before. It wasn’t necessary, not in her pursuit of power.

This was a crime of excess.

Seizing the feeling in her gut, Cinder stretched her left arm to the woman’s pained face, and ignited her magic in tandem with her aura. 

In a bronze-copper flash, the water on her clothes and skin evaporated in a puff of smoke, and the metal fell to the ground. 

Ash quickly was drowned in the rain, flowing from her hands like clay and silk. A death removed from pain.

Lightning flashed somewhere to the east, as bright as the sun, and Cinder turned her gaze upon Red. Salem had warned her, of silver eyed warriors, the threat they posed to her rule. But Cinder wasn’t Salem. 

The girl's mouth hung open, her knees giving out, and her weapon dropping to the concrete. Cinder prepared to smile, to tell the girl off. She wouldn’t kill her directly, just cast her off the tower: she had no clue how she got up there anyways.

And then the girl’s face began to glow.

Cinder was stuck in the headlights. First she was as bright as a car. Then a spotlight. Then, the world disappeared. All lost, caught in the bright light emanating from the girl's incandescent, silver eyes.

Salem had been right.

Cinder only remembered her screaming in that burning, absolute light, the name of the woman she’d killed seconds ago.

The light pierced every part of Cinder Fall, and she turned her body away as her left hand was outstretched, feeling like they burned. The smell of burning hair.

It made her feel small… Cinder had no idea what that girl was. But she knew she’d just made a mistake, one to Salem.

Ruby Rose screamed out.

“PYRHHA!”

This is Where our story Begins,Dear Reader. 

Enjoy the rain. And What Follows.

Chapter #1: One Rain-Soaked Morning

Sunday, October 24th, E3Y80

Cinder: Some Time in the late morning

The sound of rubble crumbling, and something large moving, stirred Cinder from her sleep. Her skin flared with heat and her eye surged dimly with light as she breathed in the dust with a cough, and looked around.

The sky was gray, near black. She breathed in air and found her surroundings- she could smell the rain before being cut off, her stomach ablaze with pain. Looking down, her eyes went wide at the metal rod sticking through her now ragged, dark red dress, its fake gold hem ripped free in the struggle.

Cinder reached and touched her face… her other eye. She panicked, looking around. Trying to find something, anything, and stared Aghast as she beheld her visage in a broken pane of glass on the floor. Her hair was scorched almost down to her scalp…

One eye was gone: painfully half dissolved in its socket, a scorch on her face... Her other amber eye traced back across the ruined room as she tried to rise from the piece of metal- trapped.

There she lay. That little brat. The ivory skinned, black haired twerp was face down on a pile of twisted steel and concrete. She couldn’t tell if she was moving… but her gut burned in anger; more than the rebar chunk, she growled inside seeing slight rising and falling of the girl's back. Gripping the metal rod, she attempted to lift herself, gripping the metal- her hand too slick with blood, she came down with a painful cry of pain: “FUCK!” She yelped, and threw her head back. Anyone less determined, less deserving would have bled out there, she thought, before trying again. And again. Failing, again, and screaming again. Her left arm, it wasn’t moving, not easily.

Studying it… The grimm growths were gone. Her arm was physically weaker, more deflated and drained of life. The silver eyes of the girl had burned it from Cinder’s system.  She looked down in horror, more clearly seeing the chunks of metal stuck, including one large one. Caked in dust and barely scabbed, the horror of becoming an amputee struck her hard. A blow to all future quests.

Trying to push through it, she looked across at the new sound entering the wreck of the tower. The massive, two headed Taijutsu slithered in through one of the tower windows. Cinder smiled for a brief moment, before the red eyes swung from the unconscious girl on the floor to where Cinder lay pinned.

She recognized those eyes, and how they stared. The beast wanted to kill. It smelled her pain and fear. Cinder did her best to steel her nerves, knowing she likely meant nothing, nothing to that witch, and as scales ground on cracked tiles and rock, her facade crumbled. A tear painfully rolled down her scorched side of her face, overwhelming her senses as her eye duct tried to cry despite the burns.

‘It was all for nothing. Wasn’t it? So quickly forgotten… Even by Emerald?’

As the terrible serpentine fiend approached ever closer, Cinder felt her regrets weigh for a moment- before another scream resounded, and an all too familiar, blinding white flash would light up the area.

Dark spots danced Cinder’s vision, and her good eye blinked it away. The massive taijutsu was frozen mid coil in stone, before it began to crumble.

Cinder’s eye drifted left to see the brat standing. Little Red, a student named Ruby Rose. The one responsible for maiming her.

A piece of broken metal- a piece of twisted and torn armor from the girl, Pyrrha Nikos, was lodged in Ruby's left eye socket. She was soaked, wobbling. She leaned on her extended scythe-gun like a cane, before her legs finally gave, and she crashed to the stone floor hard, unconscious again. For once, Cinder was totally lost in thought.

Seeing the splayed out half-corpse of the battered, valiant teen before her, she almost felt a pang of guilt. Her heart had stopped seeing the flash, thinking it would finish the job, but now as she sat in silence, she pondered for a moment. 

Reaching out with a hand, she gripped the metal one last time, as a thought crossed her mind. Salem didn’t come looking for her. The monsters came willing to eat her. And she hadn’t heard from Emerald, Mercury, or even Watts on Comms. For all they knew, she was dead. ‘And why wouldn’t they? Salem surely had seers watching. Seeing the tower light up like that, the explosion? It’d be insane to think anyone survived… yet two remained.’ As it began to rain again, Cinder blew her sweat-stuck hair from her cheeks back to her scalp, and with a mighty heave, dragged herself painfully off the chunk of metal that pierced her side.

Gasping as the searing pain went through her, she almost fell back upon it, but managed to fall forward- painfully onto the rubble before her. Barely avoiding putting out another eye, she got up and leaned on the remnants of the wall, gritting her teeth and staring down at the girl. 

“You… little fucking asshole….” She leaned on her broken sabers as she hobbled towards the sleeping girl, and growled. Placing a foot on her as she leaned, staining the back of girl’s black and red, dirty dress with more concrete dust and slurry in spite: As she ground her foot in the dress, the reality of the last three minutes sank in for Cinder. Ruby… had saved Cinder from a Grimm. Even after all that She had done. It didn’t make sense to Cinder.

She removed her foot from the girl's blouse, and rolled her onto her back with some effort. Kneeling, and placing a shaky, bloody set of Fingers on the girl's throat, she grumbled feeling a pulse and breathing. She considered her blades for a long moment, before leaning on them again instead of driving them into her form. Cinder turned away as swiftly as she could to the remnants of Ozpin’s desk, and went over, scrounging its compartments. Wax for his shoes, notepads of fairy tale ramblings… crackers.

Snatching the white plastic covering, and wolfing down what stale crackers she could, she hobbled her way over to the elevator shaft and snatched a loose cable, grabbing it and cutting it with her little powers of maidenhood she could summon. Dragging the heavy cables, she bound the feet of Ruby and tied her hands, before contracting her weapon and setting it down. 

Finally, she sat across from her and waited, occasionally eating a cracker. She stylized her hair with a broken shard of glass she looked into, before casting it away in disgust at her burnt eye and side of her head. She fussed with her appearance among broken shards, waiting for the girl to awake, and looked about slowly, holding a hand over the bloody hole in her side.

As Ruby stirred, Cinder poised herself, her eye shimmering down golden at Ruby. She put on her toughest, strongest voice- yet her throat was hoarse from the chemicals and dust in the air. She croaked out softly. "Welcome… back to what passes as life.” She huffed, trying to maintain her persona she flaunted before so easily. It was beyond difficult.

Ruby strained against her straps, rolling on her side to face her. “What…. Is… so wrong with you…?” She asked, nearly begging, the tears running down her face: the fact she could talk with the chunk of metal lodged in her face was impressive, as it looked immensely painful. Cinder was taken aback by the strong words of the girl. “Why haven’t you killed me?” Ruby’s voice was thread barren, weak as a feather. There was a silent moment before she screamed out at her, writhing in the pain and sorrow she felt. “Why kill Pyrrha? Why kill so many people? Sabotaging Penny? Having someone wound my big Sister for you? What is the point of ANY of it?!” The wail from the girl on the ground found a mark on Cinder’s mind, and she looked down sideways, away from the harsh gaze, and the judgment of the shattered silver eye on her before looking back. 

“You know... I wanted to thank you for saving my life.” “Like heck y….” The small girl's voice went soft, processing Cinder's words. “The Grimm. You froze it.” The phrase was enough to shock Ruby from her grief, if for a moment as she took in the massive serpent, petrified. “I… what…?" “You did that, brat.” Cinders spat a glob of saliva and mucus, alongside a cracker mixed with spittle and blood. “Damned thing was gonna eat me… and you stopped it.”

Cinder scooted closer on the rubble and offered her one. “No. I don’t have water. But…” She looked down, her right eye meeting Ruby’s. “I… We are both dying up here if you don’t hear me out.” “Why should I trust you, Cinder? ” She rolled back to look skyward, ignoring the cracker. Her free finger would point upwards, to the black smoke in the air. “You… and your… associates, did all of this.” She wriggled her hand to gesture around. “And you hurt me, and so many people. People I love. Give me a good reason to think you wouldn’t stab me in the back at your first chance of surviving.”

“…Miss Rose, because my…” Cinder thought about her words before speaking them. “Lady, whom I serve, is one who spoke of Summer Rose.” “…mom…?” Ruby asked softly before looking back at her angrily. “You don’t know… a thing about my mother.” “No. But I know who likely caused her to disappear, since my lady spoke of your mother when discussing you previously before all of this. And on top of that, that Lady seems to have turned her back on me…” Cinder grit her teeth, and looked up to the rainy sky, before Cinder looked back at the girl. 

“Look. I’m beat. And if I untie you, you still probably have enough strength to attack me. And then we both draw Grimm up here, we die and the world forgets about us. So. If I untie you, we can discuss how to actually make it to tomorrow and get the… fuck away from this place, and worry about killing each other later.” Cinder offered, her hoarse voice nearly drowned out by the wind.

Ruby considered her offer for a long moment. “You’re going… to answer my questions… when I ask them… got it?” She asked in a low growl, her nose stuck with blood and dust. “Oh fine. Just don’t be a bitch about it.” The taller woman scooted closer and undid the cables binding Ruby’s leg, before placing it on her wrists. She slowly untied them, and reached for Crescent Rose, folding it up tight as she did. “As a show of good faith, Ruby…” She mumbled, pulling the cable from her wrist, and offering her the gun. 

“Your weapon. But. If you do kill me, I can guarantee you won’t survive the first night." As Ruby leaned on the folded weapon, Cinder’s gut feeling gnawed at her- taking a play from Salem, sacrificing power to gain apparent trust. 

Finally, Ruby lashed down with a balled fist, driving her knuckles hard against the puncture wound in Cinders side.

Cinder let loose a wail of pain and lashed out with her arm, swiping at Ruby with a Gout of flame, who dropped to the floor. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Cinder yowled as she lay back in pain, huffing through long breaths to gain composure. “That…. Is a fraction of what you deserve for Pyrrha and… P-Penny…” She approached Cinder again, begrudgingly sliding up under her arm, and helping her to her feet. “Come on… Cinder….” Ruby reached up to touch the metal in her eye and winced, pulling away from it.

“I… hate you Ruby….” “I hate you too.” The quaint girl's voice strained as she shouldered Cinder’s weight, and they made their way towards the elevator shaft. Ruby hit the button with her elbow, and earned a snide remark from Cinder. “No power, remember? Kinda… my fault?” “I know. Doesn’t hurt to try.” Cinder coughed in response, and wiped some blood from her mouth. “Considering you stretch the hole in my side when you do it kinda actually does.” “Shut up.” “Mmh.”

Ruby sighed and let her lean against the wall before looking at the cables in the other shaft. She fiddled with them for a moment, glancing around before sighing. “Well; the only way we have off this tower is down. I can’t Carry both of us down, I don’t think, I barely have any aura left, and you’re not exactly looking good either.” “No shit…. Well. Any ideas then, Miss Rose? Cause I’m not climbing down that… fuckin grimm dragon….”

“Gravity.” Ruby said plainly, and shouldered her again, looking at the cables. “If we take some cloth from my dress and yours, we could put something in my hands to brace the Cables with and slow our fall. The cable cars are still at ground level, so it hasn’t snapped, and we can just climb in through it’s roof. Or I shoot a hole in it.” Cinder blinked at the plan. “You’re sure that’s the only option? Cause if you get light headed or slip, we’re both going to explode when we hit it." “It’s the only option. Cause if I die you’re going with me.” Ruby’s vitriol was barely contained as she grabbed the hem of her dress and began tearing fabric.

Cinder flinched at the hatred, but resigned herself to their fate, tearing fabric of her own. “Well. Better than me trying to lower us down.” She admitted and softly threw her arms around Ruby’s neck, holding onto her as she stepped into the shaft. “Hang on.” “I will.”

Taking the fabric from Ruby and fastening it, they stepped off- and plummeted. As they fell, the air rushed past them, and with her one good arm, Cinder put her strength in, holding tight and choking Ruby. Ruby struggled to slow their fall, her hands straining in pain at the dragging force. 

“IT'S NOT ENOUGH!” She said, flailing her feet, kicking the walls. Each bit of contact slowed them a bit more; Cinder got the idea. “PUT YOUR LEGS OUT STRAIGHT!” Her cry came sharp, and even as it tore at her stomach, she kicked her legs back and locked them, bracing hard against the wall. They lost momentum, and as Ruby did, they began to finally slow. Heaving, they made their way down slowly the last twenty feet. 

Breath by agonizing breath, Cinder assisted their fall with small spurts of flaming magic, hovering them down the last few feet. The Duo landed on the cable car with an unsteady shake, and Cinder nearly collapsed, her stomach flip-flopping.

“First… boarding the bomb train in Mountain Glenn… then this… are all of your plans…. So dumb…? Or are you just lucky….?” She asked between breaths, controlling her heart beat as best she could. Ruby took a long breath, and extended the spike of Crescent Rose, wedging it into the service access panel of the elevator, prying it open with a creak. “I’m…. Well…. Let’s call it dumb. Not feeling so lucky.” Ruby’s voice was hard to focus on as she hopped down the shaft and looked back up at her. “Come on. You said we have to get out of here.” Ruby discreetly braced her leg against Crescent Rose, her eyes firm on the other cyclops with her.

Cinder dropped hard, beginning to tip, when Ruby grabbed her and caught her. It was an awkward tenderness, before she quickly let go of Cinder and pushed her away. “Well. Which way, Cinder?” Blanching, She took a moment to look at their surroundings. Cinder couldn’t hear any grimm in their building, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be. Approaching a broken window, she looked out at the scene: she saw it. One of their originally planned escape routes. ‘Watts redundancies may still come through…' Cinder thought to herself as she waved in the direction they were to head.

Escaping down the tower's courtyard, and hurrying on eachothers weight, they slunk from vantage point to vantage point. On a makeshift battlement, as Ruby aimed, Cinder forced her to hold her fire. With her crosshair trained on a Beowolf, she glared sideways at Cinder. "Why? Afraid of me hurting one of your friends?” Cinder glared back with anger, and put a hand on the side of Ruby’s throat. “Because if you fire now. Every Deathstalker, Gryphon and nevermore within two miles will hear it, you Dolt.”

Ruby leaned her face back on the stock of her gun for a moment before her finger slipped away from the trigger, and she folded the gun up. “Fine. But if they get any closer, you’re gonna wish I shot them. Where to, Miss All Knower and Pain in My Butt?” She spat. Cinder waved for her to move, coughing. “Nature preserve, east of here, where the Emerald Forest meets the mountains. There’s a park there with some cabins and food… at least we’ll have food and water, as well as shelter from the rain.”

Ruby considered it as Cinder chewed her lip raw. Would the temptation work? “Fine. I haven’t even seen rescue ships in the area so…. I guess we have no choice.” Ruby admitted before continuing to walk alongside her, making their way down from the ramparts.

 “How far?” A weak smile crept Cinders face as she leaned again on Miss Rose. “Day and a half’s walk. At our pace, maybe two and a half. Besides, Plenty of places to dump me on the way if you want it all for yourself.” She joked before coughing up some blood, and wiped her mouth hesitantly. Ruby only gave her a glance before surging forward, speeding up Cinder’s pace. Heading onto the grounds of the nature preserve, they marched on: The forest to the east of beacon… even as the dark skies thickened and the sun dipped down.

Cinder: Just Past Sundown

Nothing. No one. Cinder's heart sank as the hours dragged. Her friends were gone, and she was stuck with this brat who could kill her at any time. Biting her lip, she put on a sarcastic smile as they reached an old mining encampment in the foothills of the forest. “Great. Me, you, and thousands of tons of explosives. Now all we need is some grandiose speeches and some horrible decision making on your part and we can go back to old times.” She remarked dryly as they arrived at the mineshaft entrance.

Ruby didn’t respond, Setting Cinder down beside an old cart before gathering old bits of wood and coal to pile up at the cave mouth. She dropped it all in front of Cinder, expectantly. “You know. For someone I could’ve left, you have a lot to say to make me angry. Should have left up there, Cinder. Do me a favor and just light the fire, Candlestick.” Wincing at the name, Cinder glared from the floor. “Oh you little… really? You’re gonna be mad at me for getting us out of there?” 

Ruby flinched, before drawing a sharp breath. “I carried you down. I’m the only one with a working weapon. I…. fricking somehow froze a bunch of Grimm. You have done nothing to help. And now you’re gonna throw a fit because I asked the lady with magical fire to just light a dang fire?” Her voice oozed, and she sat down across from her expectantly: “I’m not going to go and find anything to kill for food until you light the fire and prove you’re not useless, Fall. And then, you are going to tell me about my mother and why she didn’t come back.”

An uneasy silence sat in at the mouth of the cave as they stared at each-other. A blazing amber eye met the gleaming steel one, as the last traces of the sun slipped away on the horizon: sparks ignited from the working arm of the taller woman, and the kindling began to catch ablaze. 

With that, Ruby unslung her weapon and turned for the forest. “I… I’ll be back in an hour.” Cinder looked at her, and felt her smile slip away from her cheeks as she looked away from Miss Rose. She felt the dull throb in her disabled arm, and reached, gently pulling at the metal. The sharp pain quickly reminded her not to touch it yet, as that would be quite messy and fast way to go.

As Ruby made it to the tree line, it struck Cinder: this would be the most alone she’d been since…. Them.

She drew in a breath and called across the clearing. “Please… be safe.” Ruby turned back to her with a look that was hard to read, metal still stuck in her eye: but her exposed eye was crying. “…s…sure… whatever...” With that, the red caped warrior disappeared into the growth, and Cinder was left to her own thoughts as the moon struggled to break the clouds. 

She closed her eyes, wary of sleeping, but enjoying not being in Beacon anymore, she relaxed…. Relaxed to the sound of crackling embers and the smell of pine smoke, as distant thunder echoed through the twilight valley.

Cinder was Alone.