Falling Cinders, Chapter 2: Ruby's Eyes
Some time passed as Cinder sat, weakened and hungry, watching the news on the video screen as the devastation continued. They'd lost, and soon the Grimm would be dealt with as those incessant Huntsmen made their rounds. It was all she could do, after being approached by an orderly and questioned, to step outside with her frustration. They wanted to know if she'd eaten, they wanted to know if she was feeling okay, and yet nobody had asked her how she felt about not being able to answer.
So it was time for a smoke. They didn't stop her, not at the door, and not when she walked down the street to the corner store to buy a pack of cigarettes. A few minutes later and she had one lit, finally able to breathe the smoke, leaning against the wall outside, closing her eye, waiting, thinking.
It was as if it had all never happened... And yet she knew it had, and it still was, if you counted the mop-up taking place in some parts of the nation. Beacon had fallen, but it's loyal Huntsmen hadn't... It was only a matter of time before this whole place was a fortress again. She exhaled a cloud of smoke, opened her eye, and nearly leapt out of her skin, becoming guarded immediately when a certain shade of green flooded her vision too much for her liking.
It was the android, she was back together, and she stood before Cinder, tilting her head.
"Those are bad for you, you know," the android spoke, Penny they'd called her, and with an unamused face she took another long drag and flicked it at the thing before her.
The still-burning thing bounced off of the metal girl without much of a care from her.
Cinder gave Penny a glare that clearly said she didn't want to be bothered, but the machine didn't seem to process emotions as well as she'd thought, because she took a step closer.
"Ruby told me I'm supposed to watch you," Penny admitted, her eerie, unblinking stare baring down on mute woman.
'This day just gets better and better,' she thought to herself, and sure enough, when she attempted to walk away, she was followed. Not ten paces, and she turned and glared back at the thing, staring her down, her frown deepening as though it could possibly pierce that pathetic smile, and get it through to her. This stupid piece of Atlas technology had become nothing at her hands, as powerful as she was, and now she was playing bodyguard like she didn't even know about that?
It suddenly became clear to her... Ruby knew. She knew Cinder couldn't talk, she knew it was her fault... Cinder stewed and placed a hand over her face for a moment when Penny grew curious.
"You sure are a strange one," the weird android quipped, and Cinder scoffed and stalked off again, prompting her to start a lazy pace after her, taking it slow and regarding all the nature here outside of the hospital.
Cinder walked to clear her head, ignoring the artificial girl behind her. Ruby knew that she wouldn't be able to tell Penny the truth about who she was... Perhaps, she guessed, she even knew she couldn't exactly do a thing without her subordinates, her voice, and her Dust. She had no money, it suddenly became clear, having spent just the last bit she'd had among her personal effects returned to her. Her stomach growled loudly as if to remind her she actually hadn't eaten yet, today.
Penny giggled at her, and went to take her hand, but Cinder flinched away and slapped her wrist to the side, her disgusted face enough for Penny to back off.
"Fine, just follow me. I was told if you got hungry to feed you, kind of like a puppy. That Ruby sure is funny, right?" She rocked on her feet, hands behind her back, and Cinder might have even punched her if she hadn't known she were robotic. Penny stepped away, and she reluctantly followed. They grabbed a table at the diner down the road, from the hill that it overlooked, she noticed they were just on the edge of some city.
"Ruby will be back later today to come get you," Penny explained, and Cinder's eyebrow rose. Why? Why bother, now that she'd stolen everything Cinder had worked for, why bother to come back? Rub it in, maybe? Step on her more?
"She said she feels real bad about how things turned out for you, she said she spent all her savings on an apartment 'cuz you'd need a place to stay now that you weren't going to be busy. I have no idea what she was talking about, you know, I never really do come to think of it. Hm."
It occured to Cinder that Penny had probably had a memory wipe. Understandable, considering. She assumed being bifurcated had a tendency to scar any psyche, machine or not.
But... Ruby had bought her a place to stay? What was the meaning of this? Why wound somebody, then pay for their hospitalization and a place to live after ruining their life? She supposed this was a similar feeling to how a male felt when you kicked them between the legs. Such foolishness, and yet, having nothing to her name anymore, it was almost...
Her anger came back to her, and she slammed a fist on the table.
How dare that brat?!
"If you do that enough times, you'll break it," Penny chimed in, "I know, I did it on accident once."
She tried to ignore the machine as her boiling thoughts came to a head. If Ruby did anything more for her, she felt maybe she'd be sickened by the generosity, it was like she didn't know a damn thing about how the world worked. What if Cinder simply refused her stupid little perfect plan? Just left, tried to find her own way back on her feet?
Sure, she'd be a fool to refuse such a fall back option for her current situation. She'd just been one of the most renowned criminals behind a large-scale operation against humanity, but of course she was sure they hadn't exactly made headlines. It wasn't public knowledge who she was, exactly, and with her drastically altered appearance since Beacon...
This all seemed like some kind of joke. A cruel joke, even. Penny ordered something for her, she kept blabbing on and on about Ruby... And in the mean time, Cinder leaned her head against her hand, elbow on the table, staring at the pattern of the tablecloth.
When a plate of flapjacks was set in front of her, Penny slathered it in syrup for her, and told her to eat it.
'I'd rather eat that idiot girl's soul,' she thought, but a grumble from her stomach reminded her that this indeed was what she wanted right now, and so she briefly cleared her mind, and instead savored the meal. But the moment her fork was down again, her mind was right back on her situation.
"I'm not sure who you are, really," she caught Penny saying, "but Ruby really must think you're something special if she spent all that money on you. You know, she doesn't really use her money for anything, though... I guess she's just a Huntress to be a Huntress, she doesn't seem to do it for the pay."
Selfless, really? Could that girl be any more stupid?
Thoughts of burning her silly little apartment to the ground fluttered through her mind, until she remembered her lack of pyrotechnical ability currently. Her eye wandered over her sleeves. Such a shame, really, it had been such an expensive investment...
She supposed it would be pointless to run from this, though. Ruby wasn't stupid, and she was the fastest thing Cinder had ever seen, there'd be no real escape. In fact, if she killed anyone again, she was pretty sure that girl would be her death. She couldn't believe how one person had managed to royally screw her so hard.
Maybe this was all just a show to try and beg forgiveness, then?
In either case, when Ruby returned, Penny had been right.
The red-hooded girl came back just after noon to fetch her, Penny had followed her all over town as she wandered aimlessly with her thoughts. When she finally showed up, Cinder hadn't even waited for her to get close to stop what she was doing and turn around. Ruby found her staring and waiting as she approached, it was off-putting, like she'd known entirely that she'd been coming.
"Um... Hello again," Ruby started, and lifted a hand in greeting to both Cinder and Penny as the domineering woman stared her down with the ire of thousands of glowing suns.
"Sorry I had her babysit you," she tried next, and Cinder crossed her arms and gave her a look that clearly stated she didn't accept that apology. But of course, the small girl wasn't really daunted by this.
"Yang told me I couldn't leave you alone... And, wellllll, I... I agreed!" Her voice grated on Cinder's nerves when she said the last word, she sounded like that was a positive thing... But at least, Cinder noted, Ruby didn't trust her. That was probably smart.
"But it's okay, Penny, I'll take it from here. Thanks for your help, and we'll see you soon!"
'We?' Cinder thought. What we?
"Okay. Bye Ruby! Bye... Person!" Ruby mentioned her name was Cinder, and after the android finished her goodbye, she left off into the crowd of the street they had met on. Cinder's eye glared back at Ruby, but when she did, she faltered, disarmed as those silver eyes, wide and wet, were far closer than she'd expected, and they stared right into her singular eye, so beautiful without the fires of war reflected in them.
It took her a second to regain herself and realize that Ruby was crying and saying things to her.
"I'm so sorry!" she poured, and withdrew slightly, burying her face in the crook of her arm.
"I never ever wanted-"
Cinder's hand was swift, and the crack from the sound of it impacting Ruby's cheek was enough to make a few people stop and stare. Regardless, her goal was achieved, and the idiot girl stopped crying. Cinder grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her, fast and forcefully, from the crowd and down the street where there were less people.
She tossed the girl toward the wall of a building and she leaned up against it, her eyes finding her feet. Cinder glared at her. The nerve... Now she waited, and eventually, those silver eyes peeked up at her once, then again.
"I know this is all a lot for you," Ruby stated, "I..."
Cinder wanted an explanation for everything that was going on, and tapped her foot impatiently.
"Okay, okay..." Ruby smoothed her skirt and straightened up, wiping her eyes off and sniffing softly. She was like some kind of cute bunny, Cinder wondered how the hell such a pathetic person could've defeated her in battle.
"I guess I owe you some explaining myself..." Ruby sounded nervous, and she pressed two of her fingers together in front of her and continued staring at her feet as she spoke.
"It's just... Well, we had to kill everyone, except you, Uncle Qrow knocked you out so we could turn you in, and I just thought... Well I knew I put out your eye, I made it so you couldn't talk, and you don't even have anything left, so I figured... I figured you could start over? Maybe... Just stop being bad?" Cinder's flat look in response to this caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up. That cool gaze was capable of piercing anyone's soul, but to see it reduced to half it's potential was... Well, it was almost sad in a way, poetic.
Cinder waited for her to continue.
"I made Uncle Qrow get you a full pardon," she finally admitted, and Cinder's eye went wide. A full pardon? For literally every crime she'd committed? The news stunned her for a moment, and the change in her expression caught Ruby's attention, and she brightened slowly into a smile.
"So you're not completely frigid cold?" she tried, and prompted Cinder's face to fall right back into that icy frown.
"You'd be an idiot not to want one of those," Ruby continued, and kicked at the ground.
"I just felt so bad for what I did to you. I thought, you know, if I don't feel guilty, don't be myself, then what good am I? We got you a pardon, and I bought you a place to stay..." Her foot twisted on a piece of gravel, scraping it across the concrete.
"I'm going to stay there too, cuz Beacon's overran... I hope you don't mind," she finished, and Cinder pressed her face into her palm again. She couldn't believe this shit... But when she finally motioned for Ruby to lead the way, in her grumpy demeanor, gazing aside, she tried to ignore that smile that blossomed from the overly excited Huntress.
Ruby led her to the apartment, and as they stood outside the building, they both looked up.
"It's the third floor, second one on the right. Welcome home, Cinder."
When Ruby left her side, the former villain stood staring after her. For once in her life, she had no idea how to feel... She'd been so possessed by hatred and a thirst for power that she had almost forgotten what other things existed in this world of theirs...
Those eyes, the ones that had taken everything from her, now they were crying over her. Cinder had difficulty understanding this type of a person, and perhaps it was her curiosity, or maybe she was just tired, but took a breath, and walked inside.