The door opened and Weiss stepped out. She abandoned the nightgown and now wore a plain white dress with a simple buckle around her waist. It was no battle skirt, but it was leagues better than that colorful poof with the collar she woke up with. In one hand she held her rapier, in the other her magic mirror.
The bear rubbed a paw against his strangely human beard. "You're still not gonna let me in?"
Weiss smiled and then shook her head. "No, I'm sorry but I will help you get your house back. I think this my fault. I let something loose on this world. Something awful. I'll try and fix it."
The bear looked to the door again Then the window, tinged a slight yellowish by the dying embers just inside. "You don't have to face her again if you just let me inside."
Weiss's smile fell. "Come on, you have to show me the way."
Weiss startled walking, the bear with the man's head stayed a bit longer, shifting through a bush from the sound of it. Then he turned and caught up.
"Come on, you have to show me the way."
The girl in the white dress walked past. Baby bear was about to turn to join her when he saw a rumbling in the bushes. Behind the bush that would grow red roses in the spring, a small girl in a nightdress and a red riding hood was hiding. She placed a finger to her lip and shooed him away.
Baby bear nodded, then turned and caught up with the older sister, pounding his feet loudly to disguise the sound of little footsteps behind them.
On that cold fall night, Cinderella learned what it meant to be truly free. She was alone, weak, fearful, and powerless. So she kept walking until she came upon a house. The door was slightly ajar. Inside was one of the most peculiar sights she had ever seen.
"Come on, you guys have gotta have something better than porridge. I want strawberries!" shouted a little blonde girl from the top of a series of precariously stacked chairs Each one slightly smaller than the one underneath. Around her, a giant Ursa and a slightly smaller bear that looked to have a cartoon mask of bear's head for a face were scrambling around the kitchen. Pots and pans were littered everywhere. Several bowls of what looked like porridge were scattered about. And yet the bears were still pulling out utensils to cut up and smash a series of strawberries to the little girl's specifications.
Cinderella weighed her options. She didn't really want to get involved in...whatever this was, but she did need a place to sleep and eat for the night and those strawberries did look good. She cleared her throat and said in the least ashy voice she could muster, "Hello."
The little girl's head snapped to the door, and her unruly blonde pigtails soon followed. This wound up being all that was needed to send the tower of chairs tumbling down.
"Are you...alright?" Cinderella asked. The girl moaned and the bears put down their cutlery but did not move to help her. Cinderella felt obliged to instead.
The girl, she couldn't have been more than six, stood up. She clutched her right shoulder with her left hand. Or rather she clutched it with her only hand. The other stopped just above where her elbow should be. "I got a splinter."
Cinderella got down on the floor and started searching but there was nothing on the ground except a large chair, a medium-sized chair, and remains of what was once a small chair. There were no arms though. There wasn't even any blood. Cinderella looked up and realized that the stub of her arm was fully closed.
"Are you trying to clean?" The girl said, the tears were already gone or at least forgotten.
Cinderella stood up quickly and tried to brush the splinters off her already raggedy dress without much success. "No, I don't clean...anymore"
The girl laughed. "Your voice is funny."
"I'm just very...thirsty." It wasn't exactly a lie. Ever since her sisters made her eat the cinders, she'd been in constant search of anything that could put out her simmering vocal cords. Besides, she did run for what might've been several miles today. Frankly, it was amazing Cinderella hadn't collapsed by now.
"Me too." The girl beamed, all concern about her fall apparently forgotten. She instead turned to the bears and shouted for another strawberry shake or whatever the bears were making. A couple broken glasses later the bears handed them both glasses of mashed-up fruit complete with strands of bear fur.
Cinderella gently picked her finger into the glass picked out one of the less mashed fruits. It's been a while that she ate anything not completely rotten or smoldering so the feeling of sweet flesh against the scarred lining of her mouth was a strange but almost euphoric sensation. She bit down the rest and sucked up the pulp thinking this was little more than a gift from God. The little girl did not seem to agree with her.
"I can't drink this. Make it juicier!" She whined and held up high above her head. Before she could throw it, an adult's hand grabbed her wrist. Cinderella was surprised to find it was hers.
The little girl looked up at her with large violet eyes. Cinderella puckered her lips, searching for the words that must've been in her mind when she grabbed the girl's hand. Did she think anything, or was it a natural reaction? An image of her step-sisters throwing their plates just so Cinderella would have to pick it up came to mind. At last, she said, "They're serving you...be nice."
The girl furrowed her brow and looked down. Cinderella let her pull her hand away. The girl walked up to the bears. "Can I have a juicer one, please?"
Cinderella blinked then looked down at her hand. As far as she could remember, she had never ordered anyone to do anything. Rather she was usually the one receiving commands, usually with a threat included. So how did her hand find it's way on the girl's wrist? There was something automatic, natural, even comfortable about the mere act of giving the order. It felt good, it felt right. But before Cinderella could muse on this for too long the little girl brought her back to reality.
"Why do you only have one eye?"
Cinderella put a hand to her eye patch defensively. "Why do you have...one arm?"
The little girl looked at the little bit of the stump that was visible under her puffy brown sleeve. It seemed like she might cry for a second, but when she looked back her face was blank. "I don't know."
Cinderella nodded remembering the times she couldn't remember. Then she remembered the panic attacks she had when she realized she couldn't remember. Then she remembered the panic attacks she had when she did remember. Best not to remember. "What's your name?"
"Goldilocks." The girl said cheerfully, flaunting her bushy blonde pigtails. "But sometimes I'm Silver Hair."
Cinderella smiled. "But your hair is... gold."
"What's your name?" Goldilocks asked.
"Cinder..rella"
"That's scary! The first part of your name is scary!" Cinderella blinked, her mouth trying to find words. She must've been breathing uneasily because a yawn started to swell up from the bottom of her throat. No. Not now. Cinderella clenched her jaw shut but air still pushed its way through her cracked lips and every scar inside her throat prickled. Goldilocks must've understood at least some of what was going on because she said, "You're sleepy. You need a nap."
Cinderella tried to protest, but Goldilocks just grabbed her by the hand and started pulling her towards the stairs. "Come on 'Rella. You need a nap."
"Rella?"
"The first part of your name is scary so I'm just gonna call you 'Rella. Okay, "Rella?"
Cinderella nodded and let the little girl pull her upstairs into a large dark room with three beds. One bed was big. The second bed was large. The third bed was huge. Goldilocks guided her to the huge bed where she climbed into the bed and sat down. Goldilocks patted the bed next to her, and then patted it again, rougher this time, until Cinderella sat down.
"Ok, now you sleep and big sister Goldilocks will get her strawberry sunday," Goldilocks said, but she did not hop off the bed. In the semi-darkness of the candleless room, Cinderella watched in silence as Goldilocks kicking grew less and less extreme until they were nothing but faint pendulum swings. The little girl's eyelids grew heavy, and her mop of golden curls leaned closer and closer to Cinderella's shoulder.
Not wanting to make the girl sleep while sitting up, Cinderella slowly started to lean back until both her trim black hair and the golden pigtails lay on the bed. Soon there was movement at the door, and Cinderella turned to see the two bears, with a glass of pure pink juice in one of their paws. Cinderella put a finger to her lips and pointed at the sleeping child. The bears nodded and closed the door.
The door was open when Weiss came to the cottage.
"I still don't think we should do this" called the bear with the man's face.
"What do you think we should do?" countered Weiss, "Just have you move in with us?"
The bear pawed the ground. "Yes."
Weiss scoffed and pushed her way in.
The chairs weren't a huge surprise. The strawberry sunrise sitting on the table also wasn't a surprise though in retrospect it probably should've been. Even the two bears, one of which with a fake head, sleeping in beds too small for them wasn't a surprise. The surprise came when Weiss noted that the bed that would've been extravagant even in her own palace of a mansion was nearly empty. It only had two occupants, or one and a half really. One was a child, she couldn't have been more than six, with frizzy blonde pigtails who looked very familiar, though Weiss didn't have time to place it. She was more concerned about the older teen with her arm wrapped around the little girl as if protecting her hostage.
"Cinder!" Weiss screamed. The little girl pouted in her sleep but Cinder groggily opened her eye. After that, she sat right up.
"I...I…" The villainess croaked in the raspy voice this world gave her.
Weiss lowered her sword hand but kept the tip-up. "This is low, even for you. Kidnapping a child? Kicking some stupid bear out his hou-" Weiss stopped when the ridiculousness of the accusation hit her. Instead, she just grabbed Cinderella by the arm and said, "We're leaving."
They got halfway down the steps when Weiss saw a vibrant red lump moving about the pile of chairs and chair bits. It moved up and turned its head. Ruby pointed at the broken chair on the floor. "It wasn't me, I swear!"
Weiss blinked. Then turned around. Cinder would have to wait up there. Weiss had to get Ruby out of here first before moving such a dangerous monster. There was no way Ruby could defend herself in this state.
Weiss took one step, then two before the six-year-old blocked the top of the staircase. She rubbed her violet eyes with the one good hand, and Weiss noticed for the first time the other arm was severed. "Where ya, going 'Rella?"
"Yang!?" Weiss screamed.
The six-year-old laughed. "That's a funny word. Yang! Yang! Interbang!"
Weiss stared a few moments. At last she said, "Ruby is the older one now?"
Silence reigned again. It was at this point that Cinder decided to croak again. "She's a...Friend."
Weiss pushed her off the staircase.
Cinder fell onto the wooden floor below. Weiss stepped off the side of the staircase, onto a glyph. She descended a second staircase of her own design while saying, "You burn my city, hurt my friends, and now that we're in some messed world where they're all kids, you think you can just do whatever you want with us." Weiss paused just one a glyph floating right above Cinder.
It all made sense now. Who else would want team RWBY out of the picture but the woman targeted them specifically during the Vytal tournament only to fall because of Weiss's and Ruby's joint efforts. Now they were helpless. Now they couldn't fight back. Nevermind the how, nevermind the pathetic condition that Weiss found her in. This is all Cinder's fault. This world is part of her plan. Then there was one way to end it. Weiss lifted her blade with the point facing down.
Then a six-year-old jumped on her head.
The rest was a blur. Weiss distinctly remembered legs wrapped around her neck. They weren't tight enough to choke her but Weiss couldn't pry them off without choking herself. There was a pounding on the left side of her head, the one not protected by her side pony. Ruby was screaming something about snow but it didn't make any sense at that point. Even the bear was getting involved. He tried to pry the little fireball off but only succeeded in choking Weiss more. Finally, Weiss got Yang's feet to unhook and threw her off. Cinder was still there, and still prone so Weiss went in for the kill. Cinder raised her hand with a fireball in the palm, but Weiss snagged a ride on glyph and dodged. Though her next lunge missed as Ruby, upon seeing the fire pulled Cinder's arm to the side. The fire hit the bear instead.
The flames stayed on his shocked cheek for only a second before consuming all his beard. After an awkward moment, they were able to jump over the fat of his neck and consume his fur.
"I BURN!" He screamed and ran to the wall to try and dab out the flamed by smacking them against the counter. Instead, he just managed to spread the fire to the walls of the cottage. Weiss grabbed Ruby. Cinder grabbed Yang. They all got out just before the door collapsed.
"What do we do?" Cried Ruby.
Weiss stared at the flames. If this was the real world Yang would run into the house fire be damned. She could fight fire. Ruby and Blake would be in and out with the victims before anything could happen. And if Weiss Just had her dust she could save-
Save what? The Bears? The one she met was pitiful but it was too late for him already. And no sound came from the two upstairs. By the gods, why should she care about saving them, one was an Ursa! It's better for them to be dead. Right?
Yang clung to cinder's waist while Ruby looked up at Weiss. Guess it was finally her turn to be a leader huh? She had her own family to protect.
"Let's get out of here."
In the morning there was little left of the house other than ash and the smoldering remains of what might have once been a bed and what might have once a chair. The only thing truly recognizable thing was the side of a humanoid bear face, preserved only because it was doused in some pink liquid. A pair of sisters sat next to it. One had on a white dress, the other wore red.
Huh. Completely forgot about how dark this ending was. Then again it is just an Ursa after all, right?
And don't worry, I'm not gonna turn all the characters into little kids. I've mostly been going by what ages I can assume their inspirations were which for Yang meant that she was usually pretty young. Blake's inspiration is thought to be much older. But before we get to our heroines will find themselves at a crossroads. Time for the plot to actually get started.