RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter 20: Salem's Trial
Salem was the owner of the orphanage and the weirdest looking human being that Cinder had ever seen. Cinder often thought her to be made up, some figment of the imagination of a greater god that had forgotten about her and accidentally let their unfinished creation roam the earth. Her skin was as pale as a ghost's, her hair just as translucent. Her eyes were an unnatural red that matched the veins that stuck out on her face and hands, pulsating angrily whenever she was riled up or in one of her foul moods. She looked more like a villain than someone who should be watching over a bunch of young and impressionable kids had any right to do so. Cinder would have liked to meet the person who had thought sticking Salem here would have been a good idea and give them a piece of her mind. As it was she was stuck here until she turned 18 which was a good seven years from now, a vast eternity stretching before her. She could wait it out patiently or burn down the place, an idea that was beginning to seem more and more like the smart choice. For not only did Salem look like a villain, she actually was one. Cinder was certain of it.
It all started with the additional attention. Salem seemed to have some sort of idea that Cinder had been the one to set the fire despite the cops writing Cinder off as innocent, which wasn't a wrong theory, but because of this idea, Salem took to keeping an eye out on Cinder. She would keep her in her sights during mass meetings when all the orphans would be outside playing in the rundown yard (for even the orphanage looked like a villain hideout, all gloomy and dusty rooms with little to no windows and a yard full of concrete and weeds) or during meal times. And then sometimes she would call her into the office and ask her questions about how her life used to be, about what sorts of goals she'd like to do in the future, what her hobbies were. Cinder had thought this normal behavior at first. But then when she began to ask the others, she noticed that no one had this much abhorrent attention given to them. This made Cinder wonder why. And she soon got her answer.
It turned out that the orphanage didn't get a lot of money from the state to be run. And what was given was quickly gambled away by Salem in the underground gambling rings she lead. This always caused a deficit in money, money that should be used to fed and clothe the orphans in the first place. And how did Salem cover up this deficient from the authorities? By sending her kids to go steal.
She had a group of trained older kids that she would send out at night in order for them to break into stores and the likes under the cover of night and bring her the goods. These kids all had semblances and used them for dastardly deeds. And Cinder was soon brought into this circle of young criminals. Salem tricked her into using her semblance one day, ensuring that Cinder would no longer be able to cover it up and keep it secret from her.
Then she pressured Cinder into going on errands for her, for if she did not, then Salem would tell the police the truth about what Cinder had done and she would certainly never get her inheritance back. And Cinder most certainly did not want to get reprimanded for killing all those people. She wasn't frightened so much of jail as she was of losing her father's property and money for good, for those were the only things she had left of him and she treasured them dearly.
So Cinder went on these errands for Salem. It wasn't without complaint at first. She fought against it, saying it was wrong, that she had no need to do it. But Salem had beat her, threatened her, and beat her some more to within an inch of her life, all while showing no remorse for it. And Cinder could do nothing about it since it turned out Salem had a semblance that allowed her to dampen other semblances. Meaning Cinder's powers were useless. And there was no way that Cinder could physically beat the older woman. She was trapped yet again with a horrid woman she could do nothing about but wait until an opportune moment arose.
Slowly by slowly Cinder was forced into doing these petty crimes, but while Salem could force her to do this, could break her body into tiny pieces with her bare hands, she could not break Cinder's soul or spirit and the girl only harbored her anger, letting it grow hotter and hotter inside her the more time went by.
But she supposed she did owe Salem some thanks even though she mistreated all the orphans, not just Cinder. It was because of her that Cinder grew more immune to physical harm. It was thanks to her that she became better at planning how to infiltrate places to rob them, faster at running away, more skilled at using her powers, and sharper at outsmarting others. With Salem as her mentor and the other kids used for gaining money by her side as her sometime friends sometime enemies, for everyone of them vied for Salem's affection and praise which she rarely doled out, Cinder was able to grow conniving. She was able to orchestrate her own escape. For Cinder knew that no prince would come rescue her. She had to save herself once more, this time from the evil clutches of another woman who was supposed to be a mother figure to her and to others.
And one day she burned the whole place down, with all the orphans still inside for surely this would be a better fate for them then to have to go out into the world unloved and with nothing to come to and nothing to contribute. Salem burned with them, Cinder having timed everything so that the woman would come home drunk from gambling and fall asleep into an alcohol induced slumber that would leave her unable to react in time and restrict Cinder's powers.
Now fourteen years old, Cinder stumbled out into the world with her meager belongings of a single suitcase of clothing and with all the cash that she had stolen from Salem before destroying her. She was going to make it out in this world one way or another, and Salem had given her the skills to doing so although they were quite unsavory.
She started out small. She went into the underground looking for someone to take her in, any criminal syndicate would do. All she needed was to work hard and prove her worth and from there she could rise to the top. Working an honest job wasn't even an option in her mind. She had stained her hands with too much blood for that to be a possibility.
She was laughed at at first, many telling her that there was no use for a pretty face like her's in the dirty world of violence and testosterone. They told her to just sell her body if she wanted work or money, that she could get a lot due to her looks. She quickly shut down any and all pimps ideas about using her by frying their nuts off. Eventually she got a job as a secretary to this one gang's boss. He was quirky and weird and had a terrible sense of how to run things, that was why his gang was doing terribly, not that he was prone to notice. He enjoyed spending more time in strip clubs then he did in planning out heists or trying to bring money in.
She wasn't paid a lot and had to sleep on other people's couches when her check wasn't enough to pay the rent sometimes, but she worked hard. For his failures would be her successes, she just had to give it some time.
She was too young in his eyes to be out on the field and so she satisfied herself with doing paperwork for him now. Working in this position would give her access to his private office and to sensitive information about the going on's of the gang and other gang's as she scheduled their meetings.
She played dumb, kept her head down when she had to. During her years of serving her vile stepmother she had learned there was a time to act and look dumb if only to make others less assuming of her. This Cinder did for a while, even entertaining the gang leader's notions that she might be romantically inclined to him. During this whole time, when he thought she was working for him, she was actually working against him. She teamed up with his enemies behind his back and orchestrated certain events of bad luck to befall the gang's operations, weakening them considerably.
And when everything lined up right she let the war commence. Gang turned on gang. It was bloody, and many fell to the war. But when the end came she took command of the shattered remains of the two gangs and united them so that they could fight back against the other groups that wished to bring them down, police and criminal alike.
From there her power and influence grew. It wasn't easy. Many did not want someone like her at the head of a gang, especially since she had appeared out of no where and swooped the remains of the gang together. But a quick conflagration, a choice word, or display of power, and the skeptics shut up in the face of her wrath. She brought the gang back into form, letting them rise through the ranks. She re-branded them as the Grimm, monsters of the night, terrifying police and civilian alike with their white and black masks, as she knew that a good label was everything. If she pushed it strongly enough soon just the very name or logo of her gang could scare away others. And it would in the future. But it would take six hard years of work for her to achieve that level in the eyes of the public.
It helped that by the time she was 18 she got her father's fortune. Using it, or what was left of it, since her step family had seen to squandering most of it, she was able to help build up her criminal group. And by the time she was 22, all of Vale was under her control. She was proud of what her hard work had brought her. She was at the top of her game, reaching her prime and the golden age of rule in regards to her gang. She knew this glory wouldn't last, as all good things came to an end. And she was right.
It happened when she was 24.
Along came Ruby and swept away Cinder's control over the gang, as well as swept away Cinder's control over her own heart. For the black haired woman had sworn never to love another. After all, her father had loved another and it had caused him to be blind to their evils, leaving Cinder in such a horrid position, in such a direction upon a path that she had no other choice but to chose evil to save herself.
Yet Ruby had changed the older woman's convictions and Cinder had been unable to stop herself from falling in love with her. Maybe it was because she saw herself in the girl? After all, Ruby was powerful just like Cinder was with her semblance, perhaps even more so due to her abnormal strength. Ruby was who Cinder could have been if she had grown up in a family where her father was still alive. If she hadn't been tormented by Salem's hand. Yet Ruby was throwing it all away just for Cinder. Was it then Ruby's strong love and devotion to Cinder that made Cinder herself change her opinion on love?
No, it wasn't that. It was because Ruby had finally done what Cinder thought never would occur to her; it was something she thought was only reserved for fairy tales like those she had read in her books as a child.
Ruby had been Cinder's prince.
She had rescued her.