Chapter 10. Choice and Destiny

Hey guys, hope you all had a great week. I'm wrapping up the last of my internship projects, especially since this upcoming week is my last one (farewell, large paychecks ;_;). More of Cinder's arc is going to be explored while, possibly, introducing more of the characters from the other sides. One reviewer said they hoped for certain characters to meet up in this story, and I do have an idea planned for that, but this story's only a fanfiction. I have other projects I want to get started on before school begins, mainly my novel. This chapter might feel more like a fanfiction than anything thus far, only because I want to establish certain relationships (not all romantic) to be utilized later.

Hope everyone enjoys where the story's going and I'll try to prevent these chapters from exceeding 5,000 words like the previous few were.

The ambulance's sirens blared down the main road, far from the dust mines. Cinder was in the office building alone with Scotty, who had a live news coverage pulled up on his scroll.

"Well, looks like you and Gus are getting your names on plaques." Scotty said.

Cinder, however, felt frightened by that claim. The police still had to be on the lookout for her since the attack on Haven academy. Perhaps a plaque on the wall was fine, but anything like a picture on the company's website or, Gods forbid, Mistral's news network would've given her away.

"C-Could you excuse me?" She said before darting back outside and to the main entrance. After about five minutes of searching, being careful to avoid the news crew's line-of-sight as they finished setting up, Cinder made it back to the elevator where she found Audwine.

"Audwine!" Cinder shrieked.

"Oh, Cinder, there you are! Come here, let's take a picture by the elev-" The faunas continued before Cinder cut him off.

"NO! I-I mean, look…between you and me, I'd rather keep things a secret." She said, getting a questionable look from her supervisor. "I know that sounds sketchy, but the best way to repay me for saving those miners, honestly, is just to not mention me. Please?"

Her innocence took over her eye and persuaded the tiger faunas, though this did instill suspicion in him.

"…this isn't going to be something that comes back on me, is it?" Audwine asked in a serious tone, as if speaking to his own child.

"No, I swear it won't. It's just that…I'm here, in the city, and…I want to start over." Those words, "start over" came out as an impulse rather than planned. Though she didn't regret saying them.

Trusting the young woman, Audwine stood in front of all the workers who escaped the cave-in as a news crew prepared their equipment outside.

"Listen up! All workers, faunas and human alike!" He called out to the crowd. "I'm grateful everyone's here and we will grieve together for the loss of our worker, Ms. Jane Doe." The goat faunas from earlier sat behind the crowd and began tearing up. "We'll schedule a memorial later this week in her honor. However, I'd like to give a large thank you to our two miners who bravely sprinted into the depths of the cavern and didn't come back empty-handed."

Gus received an orchestra of claps and cheers, only to place a hand up in a "you're too kind" gesture.

"However," he continued, "one of the two miner's, the girl with the weird arm, prefers to remain anonymous. The local news crew is outside, so, for confidential reasons, I request all of you refrain from using her name if you know it or mention her arm. Anyone who breaks these rules will face ramifications!"

No one seemed bothered by that statement, and Cinder, standing far behind him, gave a sigh of relief. Once finished, he approached her again, telling her to wait by his car and that she was dismissed for the day. What could she do now that the cavern was completely buried? Scotty accompanied her, and soon Gus walked alongside Audwine to greet the young maiden. The three men then made a circle to prevent Cinder from hearing until they broke up and Gus approached her.

"You're not going in the ambulance?" She asked the grown man, his left hand still on his torso.

"Nah. It doesn't feel too bad. Even if it's a fractured rib, doctors can't do anything about that. Time's the only healer I need." He replied, wearing his usual smile as always. As Cinder closed her eye in relief, Gus got her attention again with his own question.

"Cinder…you like bourbon?" Gus asked.

Roughly half-an-hour later, now five o'clock, Audwine arrived at Junior's restaurant, wearing his hat to prevent detection.

"I'll come pick you up around ten; I'm gonna take Gus to the doctor on worker's compensation. Keep this girl safe, ya' hear me?" The faunas ordered.

Scotty told him not to worry and Audwine, trusting and satisfied, drove back towards the office building.

Inside the restaurant, Junior managed the bar while the twins, Michael, and several other teenagers walked around with trays of food over their shoulders. Upon entering, Cinder felt more of anticipation as opposed to reluctance from the last time she came here. Seeing Michael reminded her of Gabriel, so she looked around but found no sign of the large man. She felt her heart stop, however, when she made eye contact with a certain albino waitress.

Cinder's hands began to shake, the grimm arm shaking the inside of her sweatshirt pocket, only to stop after receiving an arrogant wink and grin from Lucy as she turned and walked away.

"Hey!" Scotty exclaimed, putting his hand on her shoulder to which she snapped to his attention. "You twenty-one?"

Cinder's eyes widened and she shook her head "no", to which Scotty pulled out his wallet.

"Then this one's on me." He gleefully said.

The two approached the bar, Cinder trailing behind like a lost child, and sat at the stools.

"Hey J! I'd like two bourbons and a beer!" Scotty shouted to Junior.

The large man brought the three drinks and accepted Gus's card. Scotty began sipping some of his bourbon while Cinder simply stared at the slightly filled glass with tanned liquid inside, just as nervous as she was curious.

"Just sip it and let some of it sit on your tongue." Scotty advised.

Cinder stared at the glass, gave one eyebrow raise, placed it to her lips, and felt a burning sensation from her tongue to her throat. Her eye widened and she began coughing.

"'eyyy, how'd you like it?" Scotty asked.

Cinder looked at him, trying to keep her eye from catching fire. "That…was horrible."

"Yeah, but it's your first drink. Once you get used to it, you start to taste the actual stuff." Scotty replied, sipping more of his bourbon without any reaction.

Cinder looked back at her glass and tried again. As she began to sip, she gained a pair of eyes in the glass's relfection that stared at her like a hawk at its prey. She turned around to recognize him to be Michael, though she was met with a very angry expression on the man's face, creating an awkward atmosphere.

"So…you're the one who killed Pyrrha Nikos…" Michael said, a hint of caution yet firmness in his tone.

She felt her heart stop even longer this time at the sudden question. He held up his scroll, revealing the fall of Beacon and how the latest suspicions named her as the one responsible. Cinder was caught, by the brother of her greatest fear nonetheless. Fighting would only lead to more trouble, so she did the only logical thing left to do.

"…I am. But, look, I-" Cinder replied, interrupted by Michael raising his index finger.

"…All I want to know…is why you killed her yet saved everyone down in the cavern."

Cinder paused, trying to select the correct words out of the swarms buzzing around in her mind. It took more than ten seconds before she could finally form a sentence.

"…I don't know." She finally responded, Michael's stoicism not budging in the slightest. "I…back then…all I wanted was power, but she opposed me." She realized how cynical that last sentence was. "…but…just seeing Gus run down into the mine…I couldn't bare it."

Another moment of silence between the two, Michael swiping up on his scroll to look at the cavern story. "…well, that didn't answer anything. Look, judging by you saving him, can I at least expect you to not cause any trouble for as long as you stay here?" Michael asked, Cinder looking up at him with hope. Her mind wandered off to wonder what the consequences would be if she did cause trouble, to which the chilling image of Lucy came to mind.

"Yes. I swear, I won't do anything as long as I'm here." She answered.

"…then we're good." Michael replied, relief surging through the maiden's body. "However, this doesn't excuse what you've done. News networks said you got away from Haven, which means police are still on the lookout for you. I'll talk to the other workers to keep a lid on about you, your arm, your scar, everything, but if Mistral sends an entire battalion just to detain you, I won't stop 'em. We clear?"

Cinder felt a juxtaposition of relief and disappointment. "Clear." Not a hint of resistance or spite was in her tone.

The tall man walked away, but not before Cinder called back to him with a "wait" to ask a question.

"Do you…know where your brother is?" She asked, not certain of why she wanted to know.

Michael felt more anger and distress now than ever before with Cinder. He turned back to her, his eyes and mouth perfectly displaying his emotions.

"Listen to me right now: Stay away from Gabriel." He barked, their faces inches apart and Cinder beginning to mimic his emotions. "It's bad enough we're harboring a criminal, but the last thing we need is getting into trouble with the freakin' kingdom for exactly that. Once you get enough money, I want you out of my apartment! Capiche?"

The silence sat with the friction between the two, Junior and Scotty just now noticing and hoping things wouldn't escalate.

"Capiche." Cinder replied, her angered expression remaining still.

Michael walked off, and Cinder grabbed her glass of bourbon and continued to sip it, ignoring the burning sensation. Scotty looked over to her, impressed by what he took as an increase in tolerance.

As he went back to the kitchen to pick up his next order, Michael reanalyzed what he said. Gabriel mentioned Cinder a few times when she wasn't around, how Cinder "just needs a chance", not bothering to explain if he meant a chance to live on her own or at redemption. He recalled growing up in Saint Oum's orphanage with his siblings, most notably Lucy and her "tantrums". Lucy gained enough blood on her hands over the years to fill a lake. Despite Cinder's heroism, how could he take a chance with a stranger, let alone one of the few people strong enough to survive his sister?

"Another!" Cinder ordered, placing down the bourbon glass and Scotty becoming worried.

"Maybe-" He began, only to be interrupted.

"I'm not driving and I helped save someone's life!" She barked, her cheeks red and rosy as she buried her face into her arms.

Unknown to the toasty maiden, Junior grabbed a different bottle labeled "Alcohol-free" and poured her another drink.

"This one's on the house." He whispered to Scotty. "The first drink was seventy percent alcohol."

Cinder kept her angered expression, but it slowly melted into one of pain.

Further down the boulevard at Saint Oum's Orphanage, Gabriel had finally gotten off shift, most of the kids complaining one of their caretakers had to leave again, Tera and Jack being the most upset. With one simple smile and an assurance he'll return on Monday, the tall and muscular man walked out the door.

Tera and Jack looked at each other as the remaining kids dispersed to attend to their own devices. Jack got an idea and rushed to the toy bin to get a bouncy ball and play with Tera. As he left to retrieve it, sprinting across the foyer, he turned around to see Tera talking to other girls. She turned to him, their eyes meeting for a few seconds, only for Tera to show him a look of sorrow and walk off with the other girls. Angered, Jack began to try and crush the ball between his palms, giving up at realizing its strength and simply buried his face on its surface.

"Girls are lame anyway…" He thought, only for an image of Cinder to take over his attention. "…but she was really pretty."

Looking forward to seeing his siblings, Gabriel made his way to Junior's.

"Overall, pretty decent week. Hopefully Cinder felt the same about her new job. If not, maybe bringing her to see our show tonight would help…assuming she doesn't reject it." He thought.

Upon arriving at the front door and entering the building, Gabriel's first sight was that of Cinder grabbing Junior by his collar shouting, "IF I WANT A DRINK, I'M GONNA GET IT! NONE OF THIS 'ALCOHOL-FREE' CRAP!" Gabriel joined the three-man team who were trying to pull her off. Just as Cinder was about to set her attackers on fire, Gabriel gave one pull on her waist and got her off, holding her in the air for a few seconds before putting her down.

"What are you doing?!" He asked urgently.

Before answering, the young girl fell backwards and hit her head on a nearby table, it's shakers and napkin holder falling on her face.

Five minutes later, Gabriel had her arm around his neck and was walking her back to his apartment, grateful that Scotty allowed him to take her without quarrel.

"You know, I'm trying to have faith in you, Cinder, that you're trying to make a fresh start, but you don't seem to have started at all, yet." Gabriel scolded.

"Why do you even care?" Cinder asked, anger pouring out with her words. "Why don't you just let me sleep in a gutter? When did I ever become your goddamn problem?!"

"You're not my problem, I just-"

"-just what?!" Cinder interrupted.

"…I felt bad for you."

Cinder's eye glowed brighter than ever before, the alcohol on her breath adding to the tension. Gabriel felt his neck and hand burning, letting go of Cinder and her falling on the ground completely off balance.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Gabriel asked.

Cinder simply got back on her feet, all the anger drained from her face as she looked back at Gabriel. "…Can we just get back."

In ten minutes, the two of them were back in the apartment, Cinder slumping on the couch and about to pass out. As the young man was about to leave, turning towards and approaching the door, Cinder stopped him.

"Wait!" She called out. "Just…I'm sorry…" Gabriel turned back to her. "I just…look, don't feel sorry for me. Once I get enough money, I'll get my own place, and I'll be out of your hair."

Gabriel took a few seconds to gather his next words. "You're not in my hair, and…maybe 'feel bad' wasn't the right way to say it. Since we were young, Lucy's always been a violent psychopath, and you're just one of the few people who's actually survived her rampages." Cinder looked up at the young man. "I guess…because she hurt you in that fight, I feel like I'm responsible for you, like I owe you this much."

Cinder felt dumbfounded, and even somewhat offended. What did he owe her?

"If Lucy stepped on a bug, do you owe that bug's entire colony?" Cinder said, a slight irritation in her tone, Gabriel feeling the tension in the room returning. "If Lucy torched this whole town with her semblance, would you spend your whole life rebuilding it? I just don't understand you…"

She looked away, Gabriel aware of the time and that Cinder needed some time alone.

"If you're not happy here, I won't keep you. If you want to get your own place, that's fine too, but I prefer to help people in any way I can…and I believe you're people, too."

With his final words said, Gabriel closed the door, Cinder's face now buried in the couch cushions. She heard the door close and all of her irritation morphed into depression.

"Good job, Cinder, yell at the guy who gave you somewhere to sleep." She thought. "Why do I always do that?"

Curled up on the couch, the young maiden slid into a deep slumber.

Cinder felt pressure on her knees. She opened her eyes and found herself kneeling on a floor painted in darkness. She looked around, feeling and hearing nothing at all, until she recalled the woods, then a sudden burst of wind forced her down to her side. Objects were coming into focus, the ruins of a large room. Where there were once walls was now the night sky, the broken moon appearing behind her and creating a shadow on the glass floor. Scattered over the floor were large cogs and sprockets in between glass shards and concrete debris.

A sinister chuckle came from in front of her, standing at the head of her shadow. Cinder looked up and looked into the eye of the figure. She saw them, burning silver eyes above a long and teeth-bearing grin, straight white hair falling to the sides. She wore Cinder's old off-the-shoulders red dress, earing, anklet, and glass high heels. The maiden felt her heart beating, and she rose to her feet. She raised her fists in a fighting stance, but noticed she was wearing…gloves? Yes, brown gloves, along with a bracelet and bracer on her left arm. Looking down, she felt the gold cornet around her neck, above the brown corset that shielded her chest and abdomen. Looking further down, she wore a skirt with an emblem plate and a red sash wrapped around her hips. Even further, her legs were protected by high-heeled boots with bronze greaves. Both her eyes were functional, and they both widened as Cinder reached for the back of her head, feeling not only her hair pulled back in a pony tail, but also a circlet around her forehead, tear-dropped shaped links on both sides of her head.

Lucy approached her now, her sabre drawn and light illuminating around its edge. Cinder got up and looked around, a shield and javelin behind her. Lucy stood by, patiently waiting for the young girl to gather her tools, and Cinder faced towards her opponent. Her shield faced Lucy while she held the javelin in her right hand, and in return, Lucy gave a wink.

Cinder, full of angst, charged at Lucy, swinging the javelin at the albino. Lucy dodged and took advantage of the missed attack, slashing her sword down onto Cinder only for the maiden to defend with her shield. The two continued fighting, Cinder feeling weaker and slower as the battle went on and Lucy keeping the same sadistic smile the entire way through. Towards the end, Cinder made an uppercut with the javelin to pierce Lucy's throat, only for the vicious opponent to grab the javelin's blade and stopping it dead in its tracks. Cinder felt shocked, unsure of how to counter this. Lucy, smiling with her teeth shown again, made her palm illuminate and the javelin held between her fingers began to melt. The metal began to crack until the blade shattered, its molten fragments falling to her feet like Cinder's hopes. The maiden jumped back and ran around to attack Lucy from behind with her shield. However, when she came in line with her back, Cinder threw the shield towards Lucy only for the albino to raise her sabre and sliced the shield clean in two. A light ray poured towards Cinder and its hot radiation splashed over her, her body falling back on her hands and knees. Lucy walked around as the maiden struggled, grabbed her by her hair, her eyes closing to fight the pain, and pulled her back so her butt now rested on her heels. Cinder opened her eyes and was met with the chilling image of Lucy's sabre held just a meter from her head. Cinder gave her one final look of anger, as if to ask "are you satisfied?", and, once that thought finished, Lucy impaled her right through the sternum. Her eyes were bigger than ever, her left hand reaching for the blade and right hand making a fist to cope with the agonizing pain, but soon both hands fell down and Cinder's vision faded to white. Her last image was Lucy's confident grin and her left hand reaching for the circlet atop Cinder's head.

In one heavy inhale, Cinder awoke in her sweat-drenched clothes. She rose up, quick as a flash, and examined her surroundings. When everything seemed normal, she lifted both of her arms, the grimm arm feeling like the realest evidence of reality. Her heart felt as though it were trying to beat out of her chest, even as she tried to slow her breathing. Only then she realized her human hand had been shaking and placed her grimm over it to help stop it. Eventually, she calmed down, but those thoughts wouldn't leave her any time soon.

Cinder looked out the window of the room, this building's side facing the mountain. Off to the side, visible only for a small time, was the church that she met Lucy on. The tapestry inside with all the names of the deceased. She stood up and examined the clock underneath the TV, which read "Sat 1:15 AM". Seeing no one else in the apartment, Cinder remembering Lucy's detail about her and the twins performing on Friday and Saturday nights.

"They must be wrapping right now…I'll go alone." She thought.

Over at Junior's, Lucy was preparing her bass for the next song as her brothers were bickering by the bar.

"What other evidence do I need? She's bad news and she'll take you down with her. Do we really need anymore trouble?!" Michael aggressively asked his brother, his scroll showing the news report of the mining accident.

Gabriel pushed the phone away. "Look…I get it, okay? Like, I truly, honest to gods, get it." Gabriel replied. "Can't believe we didn't recognize her right away. Still, though, if she really was as evil as before, why would she save those miners? Sure, she attacked Lucy, but after I intervened, why would she try anything shady again?"

His brother slammed his glass of soda on the bar. "Gabriel, do both of us a favor and stop talking to her. The world outside this city doesn't know about us and we don't need that changing. The second cops show up at the door for her, I'm pointing in her direction; no exceptions." He was sharp in his last sentence, ready to shut his younger brother up at the sound of his next word. "Once she's earned enough, I don't want her on our couch anymore. The longer she's around us, the more danger we're in. Trust me, she's not worth it. Besides, it's like Lucy always says, 'People don't change'."

Gabriel shook it off and walked away towards the stage, picking up his guitar as Lucy told him what song they would play next.

"Hey, Lucy…" He began. "…do you…think Cinder is still worth a chance?"

Lucy spent some time to think about that. "Well, she saved like three other people today…then again she did conduct the largest terrorist attack in Vale's history and kill Pyrrha Nikos." Her eyes began to squint as she examined the situation thoroughly. "Then again, if I could defeat her, then technically Pyrrha Nikos couldn't have been all that strong, so I guess this means I am stronger than the big bad redhead…still, just sucks that I'll never get a chance to fight her."

Gabriel found no shock in what he heard and still found himself disappointed. Was all his effort for this stranger really for nothing? Considering, deep down, he found her attractive, Gabriel wondered if that had anything to do with it.

Cinder parked her motorcycle by the mountain's base again, right next to the stairs. Using her levitation, she arrived at the top in minutes, assuming at least half-an-hour had to have passed by now and Junior's Club had to have been starting to close up. The only building in sight, Cinder approached the church and opened its front door. Though dark and dusty, Cinder didn't mind any of it. She found the solitude more relaxing here than in the apartment, probably due to the nostalgia. Once inside, before approaching the tapestry, she noticed a colored light lying on the ground. She looked to its source and found it to be the stain glass window above the church's front door. She looked back and appreciated its beauty in all of its colors. She approached the tapestry again, her eyes searching for her and her father's names. Once finding them, she looked at the stain glass window again, and thought, "Dad…are you ashamed of me, of the choices I've made? Can you at least understand why I did what I did?"

The young woman continued to lurk around the pews, the seats and kneeling rests clean of dust, and decided to sit down on the edge of the front row. Of all times, only now did memories begin to flood back, times inside this very building when Cinder would hold her father's hand as he guided her through the doors along with their neighbors every Sunday. That, as far as she could recall, was the last time she could remember being legitimately happy. The dust mines came to mind, how everyone praised her as a hero despite showing her grimm arm and how free she felt knowing the acceptance of her coworkers. Even her saving the clerk at the gas station came to mind. Gabriel came to mind as well, the way he helped her getting back home, and when he said that he felt bad for her.

"Is…that why I helped them? That I 'felt bad' for them?" Cinder asked herself. She remembered Gabriel's last line before leaving her, that he helps anyone he can…even referring to her as people as well. "No…I helped them because…I wanted to?"

Needing to walk around to ease the anxiety, Cinder got up explored around floors around the aisle. Even the carpet looked new and refurbished, but how? As she walked down the carpet, Cinder nearly lost her balance when stepping on a shaky cobblestone. Quickly recovering, she noticed all the other stones were cemented together. Curious, Cinder moved the carpet over and found a stone broken off from the cemented stones around it…almost as if intentionally. At first, she decided it wasn't worth anything, but then thought, "Even if it's nothing, what do I have to lose? I'll just put it back."

With her aura enhancing her strength, Cinder slipped her fingers through the spaces and managed to pull the stone up and out of the gap.

In her room in the orphanage, Rachel was in a deep slumber until her scroll set off a loud and heart-stopping alarm, waking her up instantly. Upon recognizing the terrible noise, Rachel unplugged the device from its charger and turned the alarm off, her heart beating as hard as it could without killing the older woman.

"Oh no." She thought. "I need to call the others."

With the stone block out of its cavity, Cinder found a metal case with a four-dial-combination lock.

"What…is this?" She asked herself. "Well, if it's buried in an abandoned church, it's bound to be more than just some rare holy water."

Cinder examined the lock, wondering what the combination could be. Worse yet, did she only have a limited number of attempts before it would lock permanently?

At Junior's Club, everyone was cleaning the floors and tables, Lucy and her brothers putting back all the stage equipment, and the twins helping Junior clean up the bar. Gabriel helped move the amplifiers back into storage, holding one in each hand, when his scroll began to ring. The caller ID read "Rachel".

Feeling she had nothing to lose, the maiden put in the year she lost her father; no dice. Damn, was it an address? Cinder typed in the boarding house's street number, still didn't work. What could it have been?

Gabriel looked intimidated, hearing the urgency of Rachel's voice telling him to gather his weapons along with his siblings and to meet at the mountain's church. When he asked for an explanation, she simply insisted that lives were on the line and was already on her way there.

At this point, Cinder considered giving up and going back to sleep. Gabriel came to mind, the thought of him coming home and asking where was like he was her father. She recalled when Gabriel grabbed her from the bar and when he left the apartment, his angered face showing a more serious side. She'd go as far as to call him cute. Would Gabriel, possible, take her out in the future? The only thing that worried her was what Gabriel's idea of a date was, especially with Cinder having no experience in that field prior. Tired of thinking so hard on that topic, Cinder fell backwards and laid on the cobblestone floor, wishing she'd never come here.

Michael and Gabriel were back in their apartment, sprinting for a solid five minutes to get back home, and rummaging through their closets. Michael pulled out twin bracers with blades and pinpoint hand cannons. Gabriel pulled out twin tonfas with glocks attached to the handles.

Then it hit her, "a date". Cinder rose back up, hope in her heart, and looked back at the combination. A year didn't work, so maybe a month and day? Cinder typed in the date of her father's death, 0918. No dice. She typed in every holiday and nothing worked. Giving up sounded more probable right now. She could always ask someone else, maybe Audwine or Rachel, someone who's old enough to know this place well. Two final dates came to her mind, both her birthday and her father's. First she tried her father's, 0627. Nothing, what a surprise. Finally, she tried her own, 1224. Upon turning the knobs and pushing down on the numbers, a strange clicking noise chimed and Cinder's eye lit up and widened.

Rachel landed a few meters away from the church's front door, exhausted from the high winds beating on her old wings. They were black and brown like a raptor's, their age showed as she landed uncontrollably. "Please tell me I'm not too late!" She thought, rushing towards the church.

Cinder pulled her finger away from the knobs and the surface opened, showing a small space underneath, containing a rather strange, glowing object. Once she recognized it, her heart skipped a beat, half expecting this to be a joke. She reached into the space with her grimm arm and pulled the object out, its magical prowess making itself known simply by its touch.

Rachel burst through the door, her worst fears all compacted together. She nearly began to cry from fear, making eye contact with Cinder, the infamous fall maiden, holding, in her left hand, the Relic of Destruction.

Well, that took longer than expected. Hey everyone, sorry this is a week late. I finally finished my internship, left on good terms and everyone wanted to be my recommendation for any new job in the future. As far as this story goes, it's probably only going to be two more chapters. I've always tried using Chekhov's gun, trying to cut out any unnecessary story bits, yet I also knew I have trouble with pacing. I have no one to edit this for me, so a good portion of these chapters are, admittedly, first drafts (don't worry, some parts were edited and redone to better fit the plot. I tend to put the plot together in my head, ironing out any potential plot holes before actually typing it and thus saving myself some work.)

I've also spent time on my paramedic novel, so that's also another excuse I have for procrastinating on this. School's starting up again soon which is why there's going to be some things left underwhelmed. Some of the stuff regarding Ruby's eyes, Adam's quest for…whatever he wants to do now, and Weiss and her relationship with her family. The one thing I wanted to do with this story was give Cinder an arc, something Volume 5 should've done and, for some reason, didn't.

I'll explain more in the next chapter, one that I've been looking forward to since I started this fanfic if I had to be honest.

Like always, stay safe, remember to favorite, follow, and leave a review. Negatives before positives, and have a great day!