Dust to Dust (RWBY / Dresden Files) (Teaser)
"Do you believe in Destiny?" Once again, she knelt there in the ruins of Ozpin's office, unable to do anything but repeat the words once more as she stared up at her killer in defiance.
Something that she'd yet been unable to identify flickered in the fire behind Cinders eyes before they hardened. "Yes."
Pyrrha had believed in Destiny as well, briefly thinking hers might be to become the Fall Maiden. But… was this really it? Condemned to relieving a moment for an eternity? A punishment for her failure perhaps?
The Fates were fickle and vain, she knew better than most others how quickly they could turn at a whim; favoring one in a moment and another in the next. She had seen it time and time again in Mistral's coliseums but never felt it herself.
Where she'd attained victory, others knew defeat; where she had thrived, others had been cast down for their failure.
Now, she supposed, it was her turn. In some ways though, it might have been long overdue.
Again, Cinder raised her black bow and loosed an arrow into her chest.
Again, Pyrrha choked as she was immolated from within.
"Do you believe in Destiny?"
And again, she asked the question while kneeling before her killer once more.
Over and over the scene repeated itself, never ending and never changing. She asked the question, Cinder answered… and she died.
Perhaps one thing had changed, though. Just perhaps. After seeing Cinder harden herself over and over again, Pyrrha thought she might have identified what it was she'd seen behind the fire.
Cinder's every action and word said one thing: Anger and Rage. But in her eyes there was something else: Pity, if only for a moment. But why?
"Yes."
Cinder stepped back and formed her black bow, creating an arrow with the power she'd stolen from the Maiden and drawing back on the string.
She would never be able to ask and the arrow sunk into her chest.
Once more the flames consumed her.
Something else was different. She was hot, too hot, she was being burned from the inside out though, so… but no, this heat was different.
"Do you believe in Destiny?"
The scene reset, and she was repeating the words, but the heat remained. In her chest, an ember of familiar warmth flickered and poured heat through her body. That it was concentrated in her fingers and ears, and in her lips and nose though… This wasn't the heat of immolation, that had ingrained itself into my memory through the innumerable number of resets.
No… this was the pins and needles heat of being too cold.
The familiar ember of warmth flickered in her chest, steadily growing in strength and intensity even as it struggled to counter the cold.
Over and over again the scene was repeated and reset, but the growth of the ember remained constant… It remained, constantly growing until it grew strong enough for her to identify.
It was her own flame, her own inner light... her Aura. Against the unnatural and all-consuming heat of Cinders flames, it was… life.
Wind bit at her skin and pulled at her clothes, but it wasn't from kneeling atop the broken tower.
She wasn't burning, she was freezing.
Unfortunately, the moment Phyrra realized this inconsistency she was hitting a frozen over tree branch in the next. It didn't hurt, but the frozen pine needles breaking against her numb face helped drive it home.
By the second and subsequent branches, she was fully awake and realizing that things were a bit different than she'd thought.
Then she hit the ground.
"… Ow."