A/N: As ever, Embers rule prevails.
Even with all these chapters, this is my least reviewed RWBY tale by far.
If folks don't like this story; poof! away it goes. So by all means, speak up! Make yourselves heard!
Every bit of feedback counts.
As ever, I own no references, themes or memes. Ha! If I did, I'd be a rich man.
Get ready. We're nearing the tipping point of this little tale at last.
And yes, I am...tentatively considering a Doctor Who story.
Lords knows you've all given me enough references.
"The girl who died and was reborn again. How does it feel to die a second time?
How many more times will you die, I wonder? Is there a limit?
How many faces will you wear?
~?
Do You Believe Now?
Light.
Cinder opened her eyes to it and hissed.
Bright, burning light everywhere she looked; everyone, everything. It permeated the very core of her being. Burned her very soul. Light. The void. An endless expanse of pure nothingness as far as the eye could see. She squinted against it, stared into it, scowled as she struggled to make sense of how she found herself here.
She remembered screaming. Burning.
The power of the Maiden burst forth from her in a red rage and then...nothing.
Her brow furrowed, first in anger. She knuckled a fist against her forehead and shook it.
"No." she croaked. "Not again. I refuse."
Pain crashed about in her forehead and she closed her eyes against it, trying to push it out. That was a mistake. A choked cry fled from her lips and she grabbed at her face, gritting her teeth in a wordless shriek. This was a trick. Someone was trying to hurt her. Invade her mind. She refused to falter here.
A new voice pervaded her mind. A familiar voice.
"You have to let me go, little sister. Let go of me. Your past. Let go of everything."
"Itachi?"
Cinder opened her eyes again.
Rather, she attempted to open them.
Her adult form gazed back at her from a mirror that hadn't been there before and she recoiled with a scream at the sight. Scarred and ruined, twisted by horrific injuries, her hair burned away. The gaping socket of her left eye stared back at her to mock her failure. Her left arm ended in a twisted ruin just below the elbow. She raised it in horror, balking at the red, ruined flesh. And the pain; oh gods, the pain. It crashed down on her like a wave; filled every fiber of her until she screamed and screamed and screamed.
"No!" she cried as she gazed upon her ruined body. "Not like this! This isn't me!"
Her head snapped back with a snarl.
"Send me back!"
(.0.0.0.)
The entire Uchiha district was in flames.
Buildings burned, bodies smoldered away, even the very air itself seemed to smolder with sheer heat.
Naruto raced through it all; barreled into the inferno, uncaring of the burns he sustained. His sleeves smoldered away as he ran, his sandals turned to ash as his feet cooked. Still he ran. Blue eyes squinted against the blaze, narrow and furious. He burned and he healed and he burned again. He didn't know why. Didn't care.
Still he ran on.
"Slow down, damnit!
"Wait for us!"
Mercury and Emerald's cries fell on deaf ears. Eventually they faltered; unable to keep up with him. He didn't listen to them. Didn't care. His world became a blur, a single point of focus.
"Dumbass!" Emerald hollered at him. "Don't rush ahead by yourself! Slow down!"
No!
Because. In the distance.
He could hear Cinder. She was screaming.
Her voice rose over the wildfire, an awful heart-rending shriek that threatened to strangle the world. It just going. Higher and higher. There was a sliver of ice in his heart now, an awful feeling that he couldn't ignore. So he ran ever harder, ever faster, ignoring all the bodies, all the fires all the EVERYTHING until he reached the place where he feared she would be.
Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes then became so much steam.
And then all at once, he rounded a corner.
There she was.
He reached her just as her screams cut out; just as she pitched forward, clutching at her stomach with one arm.
Itachi stood over her, blood on his blade.
"Cinder?" Naruto skidded to a halt before her and knelt, heedless of his peril. "C'mon!" trembling hands pulled her to his chest. Hey, hey, hey! Keep your eyes open! I can't loose you, too! C'mon!" he shook her. "Please! I need you to stay with me! PLEASE! We gotta stick together...right? Cinder?"
She was still and cold in his arms.
...I am sorry." Itachi's voice punched through the numbness. "You'll understand, someday."
Naruto's mouth worked wordlessly.
No. Wait. There was a word.
Words, now.
Red.
Rage.
Rampage.
Three little words encompassed his world in an instant.
Crimson chakra bubbled up from his stomach, staining his eyes a wretched shade of red. Naruto hunched over. It didn't stop; crept around him, forming an awful shroud. Tails. One. Two. Three. His thoughts dissolved as he tried to hold onto them. It was no use. All his sorrow, all his pain, all that pent up agony and misery wrapped into a singular emoti
Hate. Hate. Hate. HatehatehateHATE!
His head snapped up.
"I'LL KILL YOU!"
(.0.0.0.)
Fugaku Uchiha was not a good man.
He had his faults and flaws to be sure, but at the end of the day he loved his family.
He would do anything for his family.
In another place, another time, another world without Cinder, that meant his death. In that era, he would willingly wait for his son to come and take his life. He would have been content to wait for Itachi, to simply let him finish what he'd started, left the fate of the clan in his son's hands, consequences be damned. But tonight? He heard his daughter scream.
Tonight, his resolve faltered.
Fugaku lurched upright.
He took up his blade.
(.0.0.0.)
The word snapped back like a rubber band.
Cinder jerked upright with a gasp, hands flying to her face. Wait. Hands?
She looked down, dreading what she would find, but no, her arms were wholly intact. This was her younger body. Hale and healthy. Her focus was sharp and furious, her mind every bit her own, but for the pain blazing in the back of her head. Such pain. Words didn't even begin to describe it. She felt like she might pitch back into the black at any given moment. And she knew why.
"Genjutsu." she spat the word like a curse as she rolled over. "Stupid eyes...
She gazed at her left hand. Flexed her fingers.
Her arm was still there.
He'd stabbed her.
Hadn't he?
Against her better judgement she touched a hand to her lower torso. Sure enough, it came away red. Her stomach ached abominably. He'd stabbed her but missed her vitals. The wound was painful, but it wouldn't kill her unless she did something terribly foolish.
Again, why?
When she raised her gaze she found Itachi clashing with Naruto of all people. Her comrade was wrapped in a strange red haze bearing the silhouette of a fox, raging through the fire and flames like a demon. Three tails of wild crimson light lashed behind him, and if she squinted, she thought she could see a fourth forming.
Oh.
Ohhh.
Ohhhhh.
So this was the power of the Fox the village feared. Was it wrong that she wanted that...?
He didn't last long against Itachi of course; no one ever did. Her once-beloved brother did something and Naruto toppled back with a yowl as his body burst into black flames.
So did Itachi.
Even as Naruto pitched to the floor Fugaku leaped over his falling form, bursting through the smoke like an avenging angel. Fire burst from his eyes as a flame clad blade scythed down at Itachi; the two of them vanished into the blaze with a crash of chakra and raging flames.
Even then, her mind couldn't accept what she was seeing.
This wasn't happening this couldn't be happening.
Why...why was this happening?
"Cinder!"
Slim arms found her shoulders and tried to drag her away. Cinder yelped, looked away and shook them off with a snarl, fearing another attack. A familiar face entered the haze of her vision and she found Emerald gazing down at her, face caked with soot. Mercury was with her. Together, the two of them managed to prop her up and help her stand. She allowed them that, just this once.
Until a faint groan caught her ears.
Cinder craned her neck and saw the masked man trying to move, glaring at her from where he lay. His lone eye glared hatefully at her through the slit of his mask. She could see his form starting to ripple and shift, as if he were trying to pull himself somewhere else, perhaps even teleport away altogether.
"That's right." he rasped out a laugh that her friends recoiling in fear. "Run away. I'll be back for you...
Something snapped.
"Raargh!"
She flung out a hand and a fireball caught the masked madman dead in the chest. Whatever jutsu he'd been preparing sputtered and died, sending him crashing back to the burning stones.
"Again?!" He slammed a fist into the ground! "How?! How do you keep doing that?!"
"Wrong question." Her eyes sparked back to life, seething with golden flames.
"What the devil...are you?"
Her eyes flashed.
"I am fire."
A trembling hand clenched into a fist and the flames reacted accordingly. All across the Uchiha compound, they answered her call. A pillar of fire bloomed across his body before he could react. Or maybe he did react. She couldn't be sure. His cries of pain were still lovely music to her ears, the sweetest of symphonies made manifest. Flames answered her call, and she sent it all crashing down upon him. But that power was not without price of its own.
Cinder crashed to a knee, gasping for air. Emerald steadied her before she could fall. Quivering hands rose anew, with nothing to stop her a second time.
"I! Am! Death!"
Heaven erupted anew as bolt upon bolt of light came crashing down, searing into the masked man's flesh. Mercury caught her when she sagged. Supported by them both, she summoned up one last barrage.
"I am your end!"
One such bolt blasted him out of the rubble and sent a leg spinning through the air. Another claimed his arm. She blasted holes through his torso, rained fire and light and wind, every element she could conjure. With each passing moment her reserves plummeted. Sweat slicked across her brow, yet still she didn't relent.
"How?! You shouldn't be able to hit me when I'm intangible!"
She'd been wondering about that. His confidence. Arrogance. The shock he'd displayed when she'd struck him. A trick of some sort involving chakra. True. She likely couldn't hit him with her fists, or chakra. But she didn't need those. He knew naught of Aura, let along the Magic of the Maidens. Both of which she possessed in spades.
Anger reared its ugly head as she regarded his prone form, wretched and quivering.
This was her life. It had been a good life. A peaceful life. Dare she say ordinary?
That hope was gone now. Nothing would be the same ever again.
And he dared to interfere with it?!
HE DARED?!
She dragged herself free from her comrades and lurched forward him, limping with each step.
"You can never escape me." she stalked after him. "Nothing harms me. But I know pain." she raised her left hand and clenched her fingers into a claw. "I know pain. Here. Let me share it...with you...
A blade of molten fire manifested in her right hand.
"You gave me hope and then you took it away." she lurched forward, dragging the blade behind her in her good arm. The glimpse of a good life -a better life!- and you. Took it. Away." With what little strength she had, she wrenched it upright. That's enough to make anyone dangerous." she loomed over him and held it high. "Gods knows what it would do to someone like me."
His Sharingan eye flashed up at her, burning her mind.
Cinder resisted. "I was happy! I was content!"
With every fiber of her being she resisted. She saw snatches of her life, past, present and future, all the ghosts of her past come to assail her. She saw herself plunge into a chasm. She watched herself be torn apart and stitched back together, felt the icy touch of death as a blade ran her through. Felt the ghastly flash of silver eyes.
"Get out of my head!"
She stabbed down, forcing him to catch the blade with remaining hands. To make himself tangible, if only for fear of the chance that she might bypass his defenses again. Her weakened muscles strove against his, trying, striving to force the blade through his grasp.
Blood bubbled between his fingers and boiled into steam.
"I can't die here...! He rasped! "Rin...!"
"I don't care!"
Her blade slipped through his bloody fingers and slammed into his mask. For a moment, the twisted orange porcelain held. But only for a moment. Then her blade slammed down into his skull and pierced his brain. Cinder gave her weapon a wrench and detonated it for good measure. Fiery blood spattered her face with bits of grey matter and viscera besides.
She slumped back and left her weapon slumped in the ruins of his skull.
"Good...riddance...
Emerald caught her right as she pitched backward, and Mercury her left. Oh gods. She felt sick. She could still hear the sounds of combat somewhere; which meant Fugaku and Itachi were likely still fighting, but she could not bring herself to look for them. Naruto. Where was Naruto? She'd seen him fall, watched those black flames rake across his face. He had to be alive. He must be alive. He should be, if only because the alternative was so unacceptable that she couldn't fathom it aaaaaandwhatinblazeswasthat?!
A wretched creature emerged from the ground not a foot away, turning her thoughts to gibberish and cutting her victory short.
She jerked back with a growl, warding her blade before her to stave off an attack.
It never came.
The abomination looked like a cross between a giant Venus Flytrap and a human, for there was a face within. A body. Black and white. What was that thing? She saw it, an it saw her. Black and white yet pale, awful golden eyes flames by a mess of green hair. It regarded her intently; considering as one might a butterfly pinned to the glass.
"You." the word was a low rasp. "You will be the one to fulfill our goal."
Cinder lifted her chin in quiet defiance. "Never!"
...then you will be exterminated."
She couldn't move. She'd used her second wind, the very last of her strength. It looked into her soul and saw her; she did the same and experienced only hate. A bottomless grudge, timeless wrath. For her, for the world, for all of creation itself. A spindly arm rose from its sleeve, stretching out towards her.
"Now, now," a low voice drawled in her ear, "None of that. Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
It didn't belong to Mercury or Emerald, or even Itachi.
Cinder jumped as a firm hand closed on her shoulder. Then someone walked past, planting itself between her and certain tdoom,
She blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. Trembling hands rose to scrub at her eyes.
"No." The word escaped her in a whisper. "Not you. You're dead."
...I was." her savior smiled. "I got better."
As she looked on, that ghastly creature receded into the ground, leaving the masked man's corpse behind.
Cinder barely paid it any heed. Her mind was elsewhere, focused on the strager before her. No. she realized. Not a stranger. She knew him. Knew him by the maces at his back and the scar etched into his face. He was a fair bit younger than she remembered, clad in the uniform of a shinobi, but that same gentle smile remained. Her eyes began to water with equal parts shame and relief.
She didn't deserve this. Not after what she'd done to him.
"Rhodes...?"
"Hey, kid." his tan face crinkled in a grin. "Thought that might be you. Seems you got caught up in a real mess this time."
It was too much. The last of her strength failed her.
Cinder felt her knees buckle beneath her.
And she began to laugh.
A/N: Hello, Rhodes!
Yes, he's real. He died ages ago at Cinder's hand. and reincarnated in Naruto's world.
Alas, we all know the plot doesn't end with Obito's death.
Didn't really like how everyone just up and forgave him in the show. The man killed hundreds, but oh, sure, we forgive you!
NOT IN THIS STORY.
He dead!
As ever, reviews keep me going in this crazy time. Without them, I just can't seem to write.
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly?
And as ever:
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
PLOT DETAILS AHOY!
(Previews)
"Don't try it, kid."
"How can you defend her! She's killed so many people!
In our world, maybe. Not this one. Drop it. Or I drop you."
"You think I wanted this?! I didn't do this! This wasn't me!"
"I know." Naruto sat beside her on the bed. She tried not look at at his scars. "If you're a monster, then I am, too. That's fine. We can be monsters together."
Rhodes sighed.
Don't you see, Cinder? Violence doesn't end violence. It extends it. Prolongs it. Perpetuates it.
I don't think you want to do this; I don't think you want to become that monster.
...you're too late. I already have."
Cinder hiccuped.
Damnitall. No tears! She was mighty! Strong! Her body might be that of a child, but she'd not fall prey to such emotions!
"Why would I be mad?" his hand tousled her hair, just as it had so many years before. "You're my kid."
Her eyes watered.
And she broke.
"Why would I be mad
R&R~!