Another week, another chapter!
I have quite literally nothing to say, so without further ado...
Chapter 4
Cinder's not exactly sure what to make of Beacon Academy as she takes in the vast square before them. It seems to go on forever, stretching into the tall spires that jut into the very sky, into the verdant green glow of the central tower.
It is, she supposes, a magical place for a magical being. Ozma's cradle of power, so to speak. Despite what he claims; that he is merely a headmaster, a particularly skilled one, a prodigy who took on his role at an age most would've still been studying, it's clear he's more than that to any with an inkling of sense.
Still, despite that, Cinder finds herself wondering not about Ozma, but about Ozpin.
The person himself, that the parasite Ozma had latched onto, slowly drained of life, and corrupted until only he remained. Perhaps different, perhaps changed, but inevitably only really him.
Had Ozpin a life? A home? Had Ozpin a person who he'd considered family despite not being blood? Had Ozpin a want, a desire separate from his parasitical companion?
Had Ozpin a soulmate? Someone waiting for him and him alone, that Ozma had deprived them of?
Perhaps not. Perhaps destiny had long since chosen poor Ozpin from the moment he'd been born. But perhaps he had once been nothing more than a man, who'd dreamed of some fantastical things. And then he'd received them.
Cinder wonders if it's turned out to be all he'd hoped.
The three of them, herself, Emerald, and Mercury, settle into Beacon amiably. It is, funnily enough, probably the best set of accommodations that she's ever had. Her time at the Glass Unicorn had been… well, not exactly comparable, and Evernight, while home to that which she needs, desires above all else, is not entirely… comfortable.
She's long suspected that Salem does such things on purpose, making sure that her enforcers can never grow too complacent, too cozy in the never-warm-enough bowels of her castle. So that they always, always want.
Cinder can't question the woman's plan, given it's worked well enough on her.
Still, the plush bedding, the under sheets, the way that the pillows provided to them are actually surprisingly posh… it's an odd sort of comfort. Like partaking of something one knows they shouldn't. It gives her this feeling of tiny betrayal in her breast, and idly, she wonders if they can feel that, are wondering just what's occurring for the person on the other side of the link.
She's been feeling more and more through it for the last little while. The same aches and bruises and sharp pains that she's long since become accustomed to in training. She wonders, quietly, in the dead of night, if they're like her, someone who's forsaken the very world, someone who'll do anything to see it burn, and marvel in the warmth of it, but…
Cinder's fairly sure she knows the answer to that question. She wants them to be like her because then maybe, just maybe, there's the smallest chance she could just… meet them, and they could be alike, be similar enough that they could even…
But she's fairly certain she knows she'll be disappointed.
Because the person on the other end of her soul link is not like her. They're warm, warm in a way that's hard for her to even comprehend. No. They do not hate the world. And if Cinder's feeling particularly self-loathing, she might even think that they're training to be a hunter.
Training to oppose her on principle.
Are they out there, Cinder wonders? Are they outside right now, walking right past her doorway, chatting with their friends about saving the world, about protecting the weak, about growing stronger so that their friends and loved ones can rely on them? The thought almost makes Cinder sick. But even despite that, she almost wants to laugh.
It would be a sad, wretched thing, but…
How utterly predictable.
After all, the universe, destiny, the so-called brother gods, have always had it out for Cinder. So why stop now? The easy answer is that they won't. No, isn't it so much more amusing to deprive Cinder of every little thing she has? Of every tiny piece of her that she desires?
But it hurts worse in this case. Because…
Because ever since she'd been a little girl, cooped up in that tiny service closet, with the vomit-laden sheets, and the sweat-covered pillows, she'd dreamed of meeting the person on the other side of her soul link.
Because even as she's grown, matured into a warrior of grand renown, of next to no peer, she's never stopped harboring the tiniest wish that one day, just maybe, she'll meet them, and they'll…
They'll what?
That part… that part Cinder's never quite been sure of.
What would she even do?
After all, Cinder knows enough about herself at this point to accept that no one can ever really love her. Emerald does. Emerald looks upon her like a goddess, one who's granted her great boons and blessings, sent the rains to water her barren fields. Perhaps that should serve as enough to refute her, But Cinder knows the truth.
Emerald would've felt that way about anyone who came to rescue her from her situation. Anyone who'd offered her the tiniest warmth, the littlest touch, the quietest whispered word in her ear. She knows Emerald's weakness perhaps better than the girl does herself. She is far too easy.
But that little light in her soul… could they ever look at her the same way?
Cinder finds that she does not really want an answer, even if she desperately pines for one simultaneously. Because at least this way… at least this way, she can pretend that the answer might be yes. That it's not a no, because of course it's a no. Because Madame, and Salem, and everyone she's ever known have made it royally clear to her.
She's not the kind of person who deserves love. That much is for certain.
So perhaps she should simply let it go, accept that she'll never know it, accept that she's just…
Accept she's just…
Cinder's jaw clenches, even as she reaches down, and gives the smallest tug on the wire inside her soul.
And there she'd been, calling Emerald weak.
Hah… and here's Cinder herself, clinging to a fleeting dream.
How pathetic.
The dance is coming up, and Jaune's not sure why he doesn't care.
He feels like he should care. After all, for his entire life, Jaune had always dreamed of dominating the dance floor with someone in his arms, flailing about to the music, wearing some immaculate tuxedo as he shows off his skills.
He knows why, even if he's pretending he doesn't.
It's because they're not here.
That's the difference. Jaune's always wanted to dance the night away, but when he pictures doing so in the arms of, say, Weiss Schnee… well, certain parts of him are pleased with the arrangement, but his heart, his soul, isn't.
Because he doesn't really want to just dance with some girl. Nor does the idea of dancing with some guy appeal. No, he… he wants to be with them.
So, when the dance is around a week away, Jaune decides, meh, he'll go with Pyrrha as partners, and they'll have a nice evening. Nora and Ren give his teammate these pitying looks, and Jaune's not really sure why, but he doesn't ask very hard either, other things on his mind.
Pyrrha wears this admittedly gorgeous looking red dress that accentuates her hair and her eyes, and Jaune suddenly feels incredibly underdressed in the pathetic little rented tux he'd gotten out in Vale. Still, well…
A little late now.
They dance. Honestly, Jaune has a nice night. Less so when he figures out someone's broken in and done something 'weird' – apparently Ruby's not allowed to say anything else – to the CCT. Jaune really wishes he'd been a member of RWBY sometimes, because it seems like only they get anything cool to do.
Still, when it's time for missions to come about, Jaune and the rest of JNPR get a small mission to do of their own, more of a minor thing really, and just as they're about to leave for it all hell breaks loose.
A leak into the old Mountain Glenn tunnels caused by a runaway train, apparently? White Fang, because of course it's the White Fang, gods know Blake needs something else to confirm her paranoia, are the ones springing the attack, but luckily, it seems RWBY – once again, they always get the cool stuff – have managed to put a stop to it.
Jaune's honestly just glad they're all okay. They arrive in one of the major shopping districts of Vale to find the central area entirely destroyed, and it's really all Jaune can do to bark out some standard orders – protect the civilians, stem the tide – before another bullhead blasting honest-to-gods rock music shows up, and then a chick with a minigun seems to have it covered.
Jaune can't help feeling like he needs to upgrade his sword and shield one of these days, that or get him one of those.
Still, the day is saved, and everything is hunky-dory. Or, well, it sort of is. There'd still been casualties, no matter how much Ruby and co had done. Twelve killed, a good twenty-five injured. Most of the former had been stood directly atop where the train had burst through the earth, caught right at the epicenter.
They'd never had a chance.
It's a bit harrowing, really. That one moment they'd been going about their days, peacefully shopping in the middle of Vale, as safe as could be, as if it had been any other, and the next…
Jaune swallows.
It's times like these that his thoughts are brought back to his soulmate, for some odd reason. He feels along the wire, plucks the string, tries to signal them, but he sort of understands by now that even if they get his messages, sending one back isn't really a surefire thing…
Because it's more of a binary feeling than anything. A simple yes or no, or like placing one's hand atop another's. It is only capable of answering very select questions. Still, right now, he can use the warmth, so the way that his link twinges a second later, with a tiny heat that's almost becoming familiar now, still draws a smile.
"Thanks." Jaune mumbles beneath his breath, even as he drags himself up, and onto one of the first bullhead's back to Beacon.
He tries to let himself feel good about the day. They'd surely saved some people.
He doesn't want to feel like he's growing impatient, or agitated, because frankly, he's dealt with seventeen – going on eighteen – years of waiting already, but…
He just wants to meet them, whoever they are.
Whoever's on the other end of that link, Jaune just wants to see them.
He knows he will. Can't afford to think anything different.
He finds himself thinking harrowing thoughts sometimes, things he tries to push out of mind before they can eat away at him. Because thinking that maybe he's passed them before, on the street, on the sidewalk, serves no real purpose. Asking if he's ever just barely missed them, going one way while they go the other, doesn't help him any. Had they skirted by one another, missing meeting by an hour, by minutes, by seconds?
Jaune chooses to think that no, they haven't.
Because the alternative is far too painful to consider.
Cinder had originally made it Emerald and Mercury's mission to interact with Team RWBY.
She sees the importance of monitoring the team who's so frequently interfered with their plans, of course, but she can't help feeling like it's a waste of her time.
After all, it's beneath Cinder to have to be friendly with a bunch of puberty-laden teenagers, two of whom are constantly sucking each other's faces off because apparently they're soulmates, and that doesn't bother her at all.
She says that, at least. The jury is still out on whether or not anyone, least of all Cinder herself, believes her.
So maybe the reason she doesn't want to interact with the infernal team is personal. It's not as if she has to admit that. Except apparently she does have to, because she's being dragged along to some idiotic luncheon against her will, by an apologetic Emerald, a bored looking Mercury, and an absolutely Cheshire Neopolitan.
She might've wanted to slay that girl where she sat for that once upon a time, but ever since conferring with Roman, well…
She finds herself tolerating the mute's reckless mockery. Cinder's not entirely sure why.
Even if a part of her has an idea.
Her eyes are drawn, once more, to the amorous couple hanging about one another. How the buxom girl and the faunus sit so close to each other. How the blonde peers over at the black-haired girls book, and reads a passage as her cheeks gradually grow a dusty red. How she leans over, and whispers something in the faunus's ears, and suddenly they're both sporting red faces, and it's all Cinder can do to dig her nails into her thigh, and bite the inside of her cheek as they smile so sweetly at one another that she could just vomit all over the–
"Hey there!"
Cinder does not jump at the sudden interruption of her inner monologue. If anyone claims that she had jumped, then they would promptly be immolated on the spot.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!"
This girl would have been immolated, too, had they not been trapped in a school for children.
"You didn't." Cinder claims, though judging from the look on the little black-cherry-haired girl's face, she doesn't quite believe her. "What is it you want?"
"Oh, uh… nothing really, I guess? I just sort of saw you sitting here all alone, with no one talking to you, and thought you might want to chat." Little Ms. Talks-a-lot holds a hand out to her, beaming like a floodlight. "My name's Ruby, what's yours?"
She internally debates the idea of simply not saying anything, turning away, and pretending as if the girl does not exist, but given that Cinder is supposed to be creating a sort of cover for herself as a completely nondescript student…
"Cinder." She smiles with some facsimile of politeness. "And I appreciate your coming to chat with me, but I'm actually–"
"Well, that's great!" Ruby interrupts, somehow cutting her off before she can say that the last thing she wants is this conversation. "So whatcha' want to talk about?"
Her right eye twitches.
"…Okay, silence is fine, too. I can talk for both of us!"
"…Why?"
"Well, I just…" Ruby pauses for a moment, sighs, and then looks up into Cinder's eyes. "I guess I just… You'll find them. Whoever they are."
Her eyes widen, and without her even meaning to, Scorching Caress flares to life in her hands, preparing to eliminate a threat. It's all she can do to push down on that feeling, to remember that if she so much as touches a student, she'll be imprisoned, tortured, and killed, that allows her to deactivate her semblance, letting out an aching breath.
"What do you…" She tries to start but can't quite manage to keep going.
"I'm sorry!" Ruby says all of a sudden, wincing. "I didn't realize it was… well… so personal, to you. You were just looking at my sister, and Blake, with this… longing, I guess? I'm just sort of guessing, if I'm wrong you can tell me, but… I thought you were jealous of them, maybe?"
She isn't wrong, despite how much Cinder wishes she had been.
"So what?"
"Well, I mean… I guess I kind of get it? One of my friends, he tries to pretend he's not jealous, too, but he–"
Cinder scoffs. "You know nothing about me."
"Maybe," Ruby admits, shuffling a bit nervously in her seat beside Cinder. "But at the same time, I guess, well…"
She pauses for a bit, and Cinder briefly believes the conversation to be over. Of course, it can't be that simple, however, for the little Rose pipes up again, pointing at a pair who've just walked into the lunch room, and sat down at the same table as them.
"Uhm, that's Ren and Nora. They're soulmates, too. Though, well, Nora keeps saying that she and Ren are totally platonic soulmates, but no one believes her. I don't even think Nora believes herself."
Cinder just stares at the girl.
"Uhm… there's Weiss, my friend. She's… a bit sheltered, and you wouldn't have thought it from hearing her talk, but she's actually really sweet, and she's dreamed of meeting her soulmate since she was just a kid, cooped up in her father's mansion."
Hearing that phrase, that someone could somehow feel 'cooped up' in a mansion, has Cinder instantaneously hating the Schnee girl. Perhaps she'll be added as another sacrifice to their plan.
Of course, for Salem's sake. Not at all a personal reason.
"Then there's Pyrrha, who's another one of my friends. Pyrrha's a bit conflicted, because she has a crush on Jaune… he's my friend, too, uhm… even though she knows he's kind of looking for his soulmate, but even so, he's the first person to treat her like a regular person, I think? It's kind of hard with Pyrrha, she doesn't like to talk about herself that much."
Cinder really isn't sure why this girl is still talking, given she's done nothing to encourage her to continue.
"Oh, and Jaune, well… he's the one I was talking about, earlier. He's got a soulmate, too, that he's hoping to meet." Ruby explains, with a far-off look in her eyes. "He's pretty secretive about them. It means a lot to us that he trusted us with stuff about them. If I'm being honest, I think he's the one who's been looking forward to meeting whoever they are the most. Maybe you and him could talk sometime? About wanting to meet your soulmates?"
Cinder sighs at the mere concept and shakes her head. She doesn't particularly care about this 'Jaune' fellow, so she honestly wishes Ruby would just get to whatever point it is she's trying to make.
"As much as I appreciate the helping hand, Ruby, I'm…"
She stops herself before she can say something foolish, like that she doesn't believe in soulmates, because the last time Cinder had thought such a thing, when she'd been a little girl, she'd nearly slain the light inside of her. That day when Madame had almost managed to convince her that whoever's in there doesn't care…
She knows the truth now. They do care. More than anyone ever has.
And she's the same, no matter how much she knows she shouldn't be.
"You don't have to, I guess." Ruby shrugs, but she can tell it's a put-on thing. Ruby wears her heart on her sleeve, and right now that heart is beating, beating, beating in a heavy rhythm. She wants to help Cinder, more than anything. "Just know I'm – er, we're all – here, if you need someone to talk to, okay?"
That care would normally have Cinder disgusted, but maybe it's the general topic of their little conversation, but she finds she doesn't mind it so much.
"Thank you." She says, and she finds it is not so hard to lie, just this once. "For talking with me, Ruby."
"Heh, heh," Ruby Rose preens, scratching the back of her neck a bit awkwardly. "It's eh… it's what I do, y'know?"
Cinder finds herself distracted by that feeling. The fact that there are people out there who care, without any reason to, even beyond that tiny light. What an odd thing to ponder, in the world that Cinder's always known.
It will be a small shame to break such innocence beneath her heel.
And so, as she and her team exit out of the cafeteria, Cinder is too preoccupied to notice much at all when she bumps into some bumbling blonde idiot, who's chatting about something or another with a red-haired girl who's so clearly infatuated with him that it hurts. Cinder doesn't look the boy's way.
Even as she mumbles a faux apology to him, they do not look at each other. Neither of them do, too lost in their own conversations. In their thoughts. After all, The Vytal festival begins tomorrow. Cinder has more important things to consider.
They miss one another by inches. By centimeters. By a hair's breadth.
Jaune Arc and Cinder Fall pass one another by.
And the clock keeps ticking, ticking, ticking.
It'll be midnight soon enough.
End Chapter 4
Ah, rip. o7's in the chat.
Shorter chapter this week, but I didn't want to go past this point for rather obvious reasons. Given that, as you might be able to guess, things kick into high gear next chapter, so tune in next week for that!
