Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.

Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2018-02-17.

Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Thirty-Six

36.1 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 1

The problem, of course, was that Earth was pretty big.

Like, tremendously big.

Sure, it had been explored, mostly, and sure there were people everywhere, but that was the point, there were people everywhere. And while fused loops usually had the decency to put visitors near the location of the native loopers, the more like the Hub the world was the more likely two loopers would miss each other in the crowd of basically everyone.

And Riley's version of Earth had, essentially, one difference. And it was in her own head. And technically that of every living being on the planet, as far as she could tell. Still, it wasn't physical.

The car rolled in front of the Anderson family's new house, and Riley let out another ping as she swung out of the car. Again, she received one ping back - and no indication of who was sending it.

"So no go on the other looper..." grumbled a voice in her mind.

"Maybe whoever it is doesn't want to talk to us?" suggested another, hesitantly.

"They're probably just somewhere vague," a third voice assured them brightly. "And anyway, it's not like we can't find them if we need to!"

Riley gave a quiet sigh, even as her parents discovered (for the umpteenth time) that the moving truck had somehow gotten lost. "Well, it's not like they're just going to show up."

There was a knock at their front. Riley's mother shrugged and turned. "I'll get it." She swung open the door-and froze.

"Hello, are you the new neighbors?"

"I... y-yes." With a breath, Riley's mother regained her composure. "I mean, we're still moving in, but the truck apparently got lost, so-"

"Oh, that must make you just loopy with frustration."

Riley's eyes went wide, and she rushed up beside her mom. "Yeah it does, but we're well anchored."

The six-foot tall woman on the porch chuckled at the interjection. "Oh, that is good to hear." She nodded and pinged at the same time. "As a matter of fact, I live just across the street; I could certainly put up with all of you for as long as it took your moving truck to arrive."

"That'd be pretty cool of you," Riley replied, pinging back with a wide grin. "I think I saw a dead rat in here."

Her mother cleared her throat. "I'm not... sure that's the best idea, Riley. No offense, miss...?"

"Fall. Cinder Fall." The woman sighed. "Is it my eyes? I know gold's unusual, but I can't help being a mutant."

"Er, no, it's just we don't know you that well."

"Honey, who's at the-oh." Riley's dad blinked, taking in the woman. "Uh. I... think you might have the wrong house, miss?"

"I'm just greeting the new neighbors," Cinder replied with a friendly smile. "Whatever did you think I was doing?"

"Yes," Riley's mother deadpanned, "what did you think she was doing, honey?"

Riley stepped between them, hands up consolingly. "Hey, she's a new neighbor just saying hi. And I kind of like her dress."

Cinder smiled, even as Riley's mother flushed. "Thank you! I made it myself." She twirled, showing off the shoulderless red gown that cut itself just above the thigh-and quite a bit higher up her right.

"The golden spirally stuff on your sleeves is super cool." Riley tilted her head innocently. "But don't you get cold without pants?"

"Oooookay." Riley's dad put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back. "It was nice meeting you, miss, but my boss just called and I kind of have to do a thing at work. I'll be back tonight."

"What?" His wife blinked. "So soon?"

"Your wife and I were just discussing hosting your family in my house until your moving truck came," Cinder interjected. "I live in that house right over there-"

"Oh, uh, you know what? I'll call Jill when I'm headed back, and we can talk about what you two decided then." With a quick kiss on his wife's cheek, the man rushed out the door, past their guest, and back into the family car.

There was a moment or two of awkward silence.

"It really isn't any trouble at all," Cinder eventually assured the other woman. "I mean it is a bit of a tight fit, I suppose, but I live alone anyway."

Riley's mother looked from her, to her still smiling daughter. "...You know what, let's... I don't know, go out and find something for dinner? Maybe we can talk it over then."

"Of course. I know a lovely little noodle shop down the way, as a matter of fact..."

36.2 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 2

While Jill Anderson had initially been hesitant about Cinder's motivations, the woman had quickly won her over with a discussion of varying sporting events and the revelation that she, herself, had once been a contender in what she described as an international sword-fighting competition. From there, the conversation had moved through to Riley's own skill in hockey, to Cinder comparing her favorably to her sister, and then to swapping stories about the pair of them. By the time they'd finished their meal-some actually quite good asian dish-the two of two of them had exchanged phone numbers. Even now, walking home, they were laughing over some crazy story.

"...and then. And then Ruby turns to me, with that wide smirk, and she says, she says... 'I want to use ALL MY FATE POINTS.'"

"No."

"Yes!"

"I don't even know what that means, and I know it's bad."

Cinder snorted. "Bad? It was the most gorgeous train wreck you could imagine! I had spent two whole months coordinating this thing, building the world, and planning this campaign, and she demolishes the entire setting in a little under twelve minutes!" She burst out laughing. "Gods, I didn't know whether to be angry or impressed."

"Wow. She sounds like quite the troublemaker." Jill grinned, nudging Cinder playfully. "Must have been hard growing up with her."

"We... didn't grow up together, actually."

Jill blinked. "I... oh. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, you didn't know. I was..." Cinder sighed. "Well, I don't even know where I come from, if I'm honest. I did get caught up in a bad crowd, and I lived with them for a while, and then-well, then Ruby found me, and she and Yang just took me in as their sister."

Riley nodded. "They sound pretty cool."

"Oh, they're fairly awesome. Although I don't think you can call Yang cool, she has far too fiery a personality."

Ha! said one of the voices in Riley's head.

Boooooooo, jeered another.

Come on, Disgust, it's a pun!

Puns are the lowest form of humor.

"Is something wrong?"

Riley refocused on reality and gave Cinder a wide smile. "Just listening to my emotions."

"...always important." The woman nodded. "Good to know why you're thinking what you're thinking..."

The trio fell silent, Jill looking between her daughter and the strange woman with an odd expression.

"...So!" Cinder clapped her hands together suddenly. "There's your place, and there's my place. The offer to stay over is still open, of course-"

"How about we just visit right now?" Jill suggested. "I'd rather wait until Bill comes home to finalize any decision, but seeing your place-"

Cinder smiled broadly. "Of course, of course. A fair warning, my decor is a little... macabre. I had a vampire phase and never really grew out of it."

"Vampire phase."

"Oh you know." Cinder shrugged as she led them to her house. "I wanted to be strong and feared and powerful, and I thought getting myself a set of fangs would do it." She opened the door. "I've grown up since then, but the aesthetic of fear as power still appeals to me."

I wouldn't call myself powerful HOLY CHEESEBASKETS WHAT IS THAT.

"Uh, what's that?" Riley asked, pointing at the painting on the wall.

"Hmm? Oh, that's Kevin."

Jill blinked, glancing from Cinder to what could best be described as a mutant dragon made of shadow and bone. "Kevin."

"Yes, yes. Destroyer of Beacon, doom of Vale-part of my control fantasy, I would set him loose on the innocents and cackle at their demise." Cinder chuckled wryly. "I was one seriously messed up girl back in the day. Still am, in some ways..."

"I'm... pretty sure that's a little beyond a usual vampire fantasy," Jill noted, carefully maneuvering herself between the woman and Riley.

Cinder chuckled. "Don't worry, Kevin's not really... really a part of my life anymore. Heck, Ruby slew him long ago." She shook her head. "Where are my manners. Are you tea sort of people, or should I get you juice?"

"What," Riley quipped, "no blood?"

A joking smirk formed on Cinder's face. "Blood is an acquired taste, I don't think you'd appreciate it."

Jill frowned. "No, we really wouldn't."

"More for me then. How about orange juice?"

36.3 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 3

Despite Cinder's casual dark side, she was eventually able to convince Jill to accept her offer of temporary housing. Riley was of two minds on this-Joy was happy that they had a reason to stay around and talk to the new looper, but Fear was adamant that something was definitely wrong with Cinder Fall, and her other emotions kept joining one or the other in an uneven conflict. Still, by the time her dad arrived home, Riley decided to just roll with the new standard.

The next few days were a combination of the usual settling-into-school fare and finding out more about her neighbor. The first was simple tedium by now, a side effect of simply living through the same few years again and again and, really, not even needing the schooling; she did befriend a few of her classmates, since their histories tended to be loop variable, but for the most part she had to admit she was preferring the second pastime. It was quite clear from the start that Cinder Fall was a villain in her home world-yes, she talked fondly of her 'sisters', and just as fondly of bringing foes to heel. Of course, her parents assumed all that was talk of fictional role-playing scenarios, a lie the woman encouraged. Riley wasn't sure they'd let her hang around her neighbor otherwise.

And therein lied the issue. Neither Riley nor Cinder had broached loop topics around her parents-not directly, anyway, bringing non-looping members of the family into this nonsense was always a problem-and it was difficult to get the woman alone. Or, well, it was difficult for Riley to get to her alone-her parents were still feeling out Cinder's trustworthiness, even as they accepted her offer of help. It made sense, honestly, no matter how kind Cinder was there was something distinctly... devious about her, a sense that she loved to play with people's lives as easily as their thoughts.

Speaking of which, in her mind, five distinct voices began to talk.

"Look, all I'm saying is that she's got some seriously screwed up interests," Fear pointed out. "I don't think we should be hanging around her."

Joy rolled her eyes. "She's a looper, and she knows Riley's the Anchor. We're perfectly safe."

"Physically, maybe, but it's not inconceivable that she could traumatize Riley!"

"I mean, sure, but that's true with anyone. Look, I agree that we should watch our step around Cinder, but finding some place to talk to her-"

Anger growled as he scrunched up his newspaper. "You two have been going back and forth on this for a week and a half! Honestly, this is almost as bad as the intimacy issue."

"I thought we agreed NEVER to bring that up again," Disgust grumbled.

"My point is, you're stuck in a cognitive loop. You," Anger pointed at Joy, "want to make a new friend, and you," he pointed at Fear, "want to keep away from a dangerous person. And neither of you are intense enough in your want to overwhelm the other."

Joy sighed. "Well, what do you think we should do?"

"Honestly, at this point I don't care, I just want you to make a decision!"

"If you ask me," Disgust offered, "Cinder might be very dangerous, but it's not something we could accidentally trigger. I mean, sure, she could have some berserk button, but it strikes me as unlikely. So long as we watch our step around her, Riley should be safe. Plus she does have a good fashion sense."

Joy nodded. "THANK you, Disgust. Sadness, what about you?"

Sadness tapped her hands together nervously. "...well, she's... I'll be honest, she seems the kind that cares very deeply about a very few things. She wouldn't want to hurt us, but I don't think she would mind if we got hurt. So... I don't know, I think we need to know more about her, but I don't think it would be good to just ask her about things-she's very good at sneaking around in her words."

Anger snapped his fingers. "Why don't we just follow her around, then?"

"Wait, what?" Fear blinked. "Are you saying we should stalk her?"

"Yep."

"Wow." Disgust smirked. "It's usually the creepy woman who stalks the twelve-year-old, flipping the formula sounds interesting. You know what, I support this plan."

Joy gave her a look. "Wait, seriously?"

"What? Just because I have to think our reputation doesn't mean I never want to have any fun."

"You call stalking a self-admitted vampire with a fascination for the dark side of humanity 'fun.'" Fear threw up a hand. "And if she catches us, what then?"

"Well, we'd just have to make sure she didn't catch us," Joy said.

Fear gave her a flat look. "Oh, yes, obviously, and as a twelve-year-old-"

"Riley is the anchor." Joy shrugged. "If she did get caught, all we have to do is say 'hey, I was looking for you, wanna pull a loop prank,' and voila."

Fear held up a finger, paused, and sighed. "I feel like I should be able to argue that, but somehow I can't. Sadness?" He turned to the blue emotion. "You have anything to say?"

"...It's basically the same for me. Cinder wouldn't care whether or not we got hurt, and stalking her doesn't change anything, as far as I know."

"Right." Joy put her hands down. "So are we all agreed? The plan is to follow Cinder at a distance, observe her, learn more about her, and then figure out what to do next."

"I don't think I'll win this one," Fear sighed. "Well, let's run it past Riley and see what she thinks..."

36.4 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 4

Riley, after some consideration, agreed to Anger's idea; it was certainly better than some of the concepts she'd entertained. Following Cinder around San Francisco was easier than they expected. The woman had a very typical daily routine: wake up, eat breakfast, do some (unsurprisingly aggressive) stretches, and head out for whatever. She didn't seem to have an official job, exactly, but she always had money to spare-easy enough to obtain as a looper, though, so it wasn't really that suspicious.

And her trips might have taken her unusual places by Riley's standard, but they weren't exactly all that surprising from what she knew of Cinder Fall; a glass-blower shop (Cinder complemented some of the work and purchased a rather dangerous-looking griffon figure), a gun shop (Cinder scoffed at some of the guns on display, decrying them as 'basic and bulky,' and only bought ammunition and empty shells from the annoyed storekeep); a gaming store (Cinder perused the miniatures, the books, and a few of the board games with a keen eye, selecting a dozen of each; she allowed herself to be talked into an impromptu card game challenge with a deck off the shelf and trounced her opponents with flawless tactics and a smug grin before making her purchase); a metal-smith (Cinder changed into a suit of her own and paid the usual keep to let her work on her own project, and took five hours to complete her forging of a complex pronged blade); and what Riley, thanks to an embarrassing loop some centuries ago, recognized as a more mature entertainment club (for obvious reasons, Riley decided to wait until she came back out to continue tracking her actions).

By the end of the week, Riley thought she had a good read on her mysterious looping guest. A villain on vacation, essentially-one who had a devious mind, certainly, and a preference for that which both looked awesome and functioned well. She hadn't done anything illegal as far as the girl could tell, aside from maybe something in the club (which neither Riley or her emotions cared to speculate on). She did seem to have a way of simply... slipping into situations, confidently acting as though she belonged there and, somehow, convincing everyone that was true. Any attempt to cow her was countered by a few well placed words and a gesture.

Cinder Fall was, simply put, a master at being the master in any situation.

And yet...

There was something niggling at Riley's mind, which led to some issues when her emotions complained about the frequent power fluctuations in headquarters. Cinder wasn't just a two-dimensional lover of power, after all. She had sisters, adopted maybe, but ones she seemed fond of-even if she talked about them sadly. And the way she interacted with the Anderson family wasn't as... forceful, exactly. She was polite and helpful, even if she did play up her role as a 'vampire' from time to time. Once she spent an entire day sewing, by hand. Another time, she simply disappeared into her pocket for a good twelve hours, and when she finally emerged she had a frustrated expression. Those weren't the only exceptions to Cinder's mask of confident manipulation, by far.

Riley of course realized that a person wasn't just one clean-cut stereotype-after all, her baseline was almost entirely founded around the idea of growing more complex and therefore, more mature. But there was something about the divide in Cinder's public persona and the one she had at home. The more Riley watched Cinder the manipulator, the more she felt... like Cinder was, almost, sleepwalking. Like Cinder's touch of words and easy power was so deeply ingrained that she could have talked her way through the most decadent court without even being fully aware of it. It was only when she stopped being the master that she seemed... well, not normal, but more 'awake', more conscious of her actions.

And then, twelve days in, Riley tracked Cinder to an abandoned warehouse. The gates were locked, but the windows weren't. After some thought, she braced herself, climbed up the fire escape, and pressed her eyes against the glass...

...and nearly threw herself back, a shocked gasp escaping her lips.

36.5 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 5

Anything but this.

Anything, she begged silently, but this.

Her emotions were freaking out in her mind, Fear and Anger and Disgust all battling for attention as Sadness kept Joy from collapsing in disbelief. Surprisingly, none of them touched the console, leaving her to act on logic alone as she took a trembling step back to the window, just to make sure she had seen what she thought she had seen.

Tall black forms, humanoid in outline but not in action, slithered and whipped around the appendages that only qualified as arms due to their relative location. Every last one of them had a single streak of red, descending from the neck down to the chest, in what would have been a tie had it been separate from the black miasma that formed their bodies. Every last one of them had a white, featureless head, all turned...

...to follow Cinder Fall, who batted away the dark tendrils that reached for her with a pair of obsidian blades.

Riley watched, her eyes wide, as the woman spun, her weapons impaling the creatures and slicing them as she danced through the crowd. A fire burned from her eyes, pouring out her hands as she danced through the gathering of monsters, tearing through them as her face contorted into gleeful, painful rage-

A white lack of face suddenly jumped at the window, and Fear drove Riley back again even as the thing scrambled through the glass. Fear made her reach into her subspace pocket for something, anything-the weapon she had made with Megaman all those loops ago rose up, even as the hunched creature turned to her, reaching its tendrils out-she shot at it and it screeched-

-it screeched?

Something was wrong-

-she shot it again, and it dissolved, but another was already crawling out the window-

-and then an arrow impaled the thing through its white head, and she felt a sudden BURST of heat as flame raged out every window of the warehouse.

And then... silence.

Riley took a breath, and another, even as her other emotions pried fear away from the console. She slowly lowered the weapon in her hand, still dazed.

"...Riley?" Cinder's shout carried through the shattered window. "If that's you... you can come in. They're all dead now."

The girl swallowed, pocketing the weapon. "Just... just give me a moment, Cinder." She shut her eyes. "Okay, guys... you all good?"

...no. Fear's the worst, of course, but... Riley, the rest of us are pretty freaked out here.

"Well... thanks for the update, Disgust. But..." She looked at the shattered window. "I kind of think... I think we need to know exactly what it is we saw."

I agree, just... be careful.

"Of course." Riley took a breath. "Okay! I'm coming down now!"

36.6 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 6

The warehouse walls still radiated heat as Riley stepped in, but the scent of smoke was barely present, and not a flicker of flame shone from anywhere but the small set of candles set on the crate next to the now-quiet Cinder Fall. Warily, Riley approached the other looper, trying to read her body language.

"Can... can I ask what those things were?"

"My world is inhabited by something we call the Creatures of Grimm. Two M's. Monsters of shadow and bone, warped reflections of wolves and bears and other creatures, attracted to fear and anger and hate..." Cinder shrugged. "I started capturing them a while back for... personal reasons, and figuring out how to breed them into shapes I liked."

"So... those things." She gestured vaguely. "They were... what, just training dummies or, um, catharsis?"

"Catharsis would be one way to put it, yes." Cinder chuckled wryly. "I take it you watched Marble Hornets or something like that in baseline?"

"No, that's not..." Riley swallowed. "The actual Slenderman visited this world."

The other looper looked up from her hands, tilting her head. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Tell me."

There was something about the way Cinder said it. Forceful, but not hostile. Demanding, but in a curious way...

Riley hesitated for a moment, but eventually nodded, sitting down on the crate beside her.

"...So, one quirk of this loop. In our minds, we have emotions-not, like, abstract pressures, but little people who run the headquarters. They don't exactly control us, it's a back and forth, but Fear and Joy and Sadness and Disgust and Anger, they speak and have their own lives."

"Hmm. That would explain why they feel so well defined."

Riley glanced at her.

"Star Wars loop," Cinder explained simply. "I was a sith. I can sense emotions."

"...right." Riley took a breath. "Anyway... so it was a fused loop with Megaman and, well, you know that loop's kinda... wonky, right?"

"So I've heard. Wily being a dreamer, I understand."

"Well, there was no doctor Wily that time around. So Megaman and I decided to experiment. Make robot bodies for, you know, my emotions to inhabit..." Riley shuddered. "And, well, that left me vulnerable when Slenderman came. He..."

A pause, as she tried to gather herself.

"He... exploited the various abstractions in my mind. Made them into his own robotic army-usurped control of the robot bodies Megaman had made for my emotions... I was unable to feel anything, unable to care, as he used my mind to wreak havoc on the world. He whispered, too... it wasn't exactly a whisper, but it was as though he was controlling reality..."

She wrapped her hands around her shoulders.

"It was lucky Megaman and Roll were able to handle everything. I mean, they... they managed to get my emotions back, out of there and freed, they dealt with my manifested demons and... and they restored me, but it was still... I only just managed to retain my sanity. Looking back, everything seems silly and ridiculous, but it was almost enough to break me."

The warehouse was silent for a minute or two.

"...He slipped in while you were weak," Cinder muttered. "Unsure. He took control of your mind. He set you against your friends, and left you a wreck when you nearly destroyed the world."

"Yeah."

The warehouse was, again, silent.

And then...

It wasn't a laugh, exactly. It might have been a chuckle, but there was no humor in it. It was a sound of resigned acceptance, of acknowledgement that reality was itself bringing forth the impossible.

Riley blinked, turning to Cinder, who was again looking at her own hands. "Um..."

"Do you want to hear," she said wryly, "what he did to me?"

36.7 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 7

Riley blinked in surprise. "Slenderman... did something to you too?"

"Mmmhmm."

"What... what did he do?"

Cinder let out a breath. "You've... probably picked up on how I'm supposed to be a villain in my baseline. I wasn't even supposed to loop-I got activated by the Mythos. They just love screwing with Remnant for some reason... When I started looping, my backstory was 'two minions, army of mooks, and secretly wants to destroy the city.' Everything else was as fluid as the ocean."

She shook her head. "Can you picture it? A goal, and nothing more? An actual, fully formed personality, without a history, without a past? The human mind isn't built to last without some form of socialization."

"So..." Riley bit her lip. "Slenderman activated you?"

"Oh yes, but that's not what he did to me. He set me adrift, sure, but I found my anchor in my world's Anchor. Ruby Rose." Cinder smiled. "You'd like her, she wouldn't be out of place in a modern disney flick. Eater of cookies, Slayer of Grimm. The heroine, and I was the big bad-or so we both thought, anyway, the expansions proved otherwise. I... faked Chrysalis syndrome. I pretended I believed I was her sister." She took a slow, steadying breath. "And because that was, ironically, more stable than whatever my baseline was supposed to be, I... we... well, power of friendship and all that."

"You stopped being a bad guy."

"No. I was still going villain. But I did it in secret. I stealthed, I... I tried to get every advantage I could, tried to control the situation." Cinder paused. "So there were two parts of my life: Cinder the loving sister, and Cinder the conniving destroyer. And they were both equally me. And that's when Slenderman came back."

Riley thought back to what Cinder had said, moments before. "...He slipped in while you were weak and unsure. He took control of your mind. He set you against your friends, and..."

"He threatened to tell everyone what I was doing in secret and forced... something into my soul." Cinder shivered. "I couldn't tell anyone-not only because I wanted to hide, but because it made me forget it was there. He started giving me surreal nightmares that I couldn't remember... he was working to scrub my mind, slowly, to a hollow shell. That, combined with the stresses of two lives... I literally became two people. Cinder the sister, devoted but filled with paranoia for no reason, and Cinder the destroyer, so furious that she was forced to hide from a fifteen-year-old girl."

"Yeah. That... sounds horrible."

"I shook it off, eventually, but the damage had been done. I had enough. I tried... I tried to Ascend."

Riley took a sharp breath. "You... you what?"

"Yeah. Break the world to become a god. I'd been collecting vampires, robots, monsters-designing personalized nightmares for my fellow loopers, and so many other abominations besides. And one loop, I let them all loose, went to Amity Colosseum, and tore into the very code of Yggdrasil." Cinder nodded. "Nearly succeeded, too. If they hadn't found where I hid Ruby, if she... if she hadn't talked me down..."

"You tried to Ascend?" Riley whispered again, her voice desperate to disbelieve.

"Well... half of me did, anyway. The other half managed to subconsciously sabotage the effort and... when we rejoined, I... I was a wreck. The Admins locked me away in Remnant for a time while the other loopers..." Cinder shrugged. "It was my highest point, and my lowest. It was when I had the greatest power, and the least control. And it was all because that cue-ball tried to break me and make me his perfect! Little! DOLL!"

The fire in Cinder's eyes flared, descending down her arms and billowing out her hands in a pair of great plumes as she roared. Riley heard Fear trying to reach for the console, heard Disgust using words that Anger usually would, and...

...felt Sadness push the others away. Let her know we're still here.

Hesitantly, she reached out and, carefully, put a hand on Cinder's shoulder.

The fire died instantly. For a moment, the warehouse was silent.

"...You don't have to do this. You're a disney looper," Cinder pointed out quietly. "You practically have a hard-coded revulsion for villains, right? Even the comprehensible ones... they always die in the end."

"...not always. And my film didn't have a villain." Riley took a breath. "Just me and my emotions."

Cinder shut her eyes. "So, you really want to try to be a friend with the villainous vampire and one-time apocalypse?"

"Well... I don't get many visitors here." Riley smiled faintly. "And hey, you're not killing anyone this loop, right?"

"Eh... rapists, pedophiles, human traffickers. The usual scum of humanity." Cinder finally turned to look at her, flashing a fanged grin. "Blood is blood, after all."

Riley, despite herself, couldn't help but giggle. "You're not serious!"

"Well, alright, I'm not killing them. Just having a bit of a friendly chat." The woman curled her hand, allowing a small flame to appear. "I'd rather be the only nightmare in town if I can."

"...I guess I can't stop you," Riley allowed. "I mean, I could, but... well... I get the feeling that a little kid telling you that's bad isn't going to ping on your radar."

"Nope." Cinder paused. "So, you like hockey, and you hate Slenderman."

Riley blinked. "Where are you going with this?"

"I was just thinking that a hockey stick is a big heavy wooden object, and I just so happen to have a few Slendy-lookalikes made specifically for target practice..."

"Are you trying to tempt me into exploring my more vindictive side, miss sith?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

"I should say no, but you know what?" A hockey stick appeared in her hands and she hopped off the crate. "I'll give it a go."

Cinder stood, clasping her hands together with a delightfully evil grin. "Excellent."

36.8 (Masterweaver): [Inside Out] / [RWBY]

The Pyre of Shadow, Part 8

"Okay, on the one hand that is a decent block," Cinder said casually. "On the other, though, you're locked into it with your grip. When you bring up your stick, try to hold it from opposite angles so you can twist it."

"Are you NOT going to do anything?!" Riley snapped, trying to push back the slendy lookalike hissing in her face.

"You seem to be doing pretty well." The woman sipped a glass of blood, rolling her finger. "Oh, hey, remember what I told you about bracing?"

Riley slid a foot out, managing to hold her own, before shoving her hockey stick and throwing the creature back. "You know, I get that you like combat training and all," she quipped as she skated forward, "but I'm kind of wondering why you think it's okay to teach a kid this sort of thing!"

"One, you're an Anchor, not a kid. Certainly not after what our mutual monster did to you." Cinder shrugged as the dark creature went flying past her. "Two, every little girl dreams of being a huntress."

"Maybe in your world, here it's princesses." Riley spun on her roller blades. "And even that's not universal."

"Fair point. Are you saying you don't want to be a badass heroine able to take on hordes of shadow demons?"

Riley shrugged, slipping sideways as her opponent charged at her with a screech. "Nah, I'm cool with that." She brought the hockey stick hard against the back of the creature's head. "Just saying, the whole 'training a kid to fight' thing reeks of child soldiers, you know?"

"Ah, morality." Cinder nodded as she pushed herself off the wall. "Well, first of all, Huntsmen and Huntresses aren't soldiers, they're vigilantes. Well, some are mercenaries, true, but there's more an individual super-hero vibe then a wall of meat vibe... outside Atlas, anyway."

"And you've got these things," Riley acknowledged, gesturing at the dissolving body of her foe. "Or stuff like them, anyway. Desperate times, desperate measures."

"It's a rare loop where the population of Remnant numbers over half a billion," Cinder agreed. "Still, world of adventure needs adventurers. And to be fair, you're a little young for the usual huntress training-combat school, maybe, which is actually closer to what I'm giving here."

"So this is self-defense. I've taken some of those classes."

"Does that make me Sensei Cinder?"

Riley scoffed. "You wish."

The past two months had certainly been interesting for her. Once the initial bonding over their attack had happened, Cinder had been a lot more open about herself and her past. She'd explained her own fears about the nature of evil-that she preferred to be a villain over an apocalypse. She'd shown Riley around her subspace pocket-and Riley had to admit that even though it was an ethical morass that she would never indulge in, having a functioning civilization of vampires in your soul was pretty neat. And eventually, after some serious persuasion, she even let Riley lead her into a local mind-delve to meet her own emotions.

That had certainly been interesting. The Joy, Disgust, Sadness, and Anger of Cinder's mind had all appeared as skin-recolored members of team RWBY, her beloved friends and foes, but her fear had turned out to be dressed identically to Cinder herself. If it hadn't been for the coloration, Riley wouldn't have been able to tell them apart...

Cinder and Riley had unanimously agreed not to go any further into that particular mindscape.

"So, seriously." Riley shook herself out of her remembrances. "We should be heading back. Mom still doesn't quite trust you, you know."

"She shouldn't," Cinder replied with a smirk.

"Nah, she shouldn't. But it's the way she doesn't trust you that bugs me." Riley started toward the warehouse door. "I mean, you're dangerous and evil-or amoral, I guess. But it's not like you're unpredictable."

"Oh what a shame. I pride myself on my mystery."

"I mean, more like... there's no reason for you to hurt me. You're pragmatic. You have dark urges, yeah, but you follow them only after thinking through the consequences. Hurting random people doesn't get you anything, hurting me doesn't get you anything, so I'm safe around you. I don't trust you, like, completely. You're probably planning to torture some mafia goons or something right now. But I know that I can trust you to act for your own long term interests, as well as short term."

"...Rapists."

"What?"

"I'm planning on torturing rapists," Cinder repeated. "Mafia goons, it's easier to just bribe them."

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Not going to join you with either, mind. But... for a sadistic, power-hungry vampire with a terror fetish, you're actually pretty alright."

"And for a kid with voices in her head and a devotion to blind morality, you seem to be pretty decent yourself."

"Ha. So, seriously, have you ever considered taking over Remnant purely economically?"

"Well, there's some blockages in that regard. Remnant's second, you see, is an active heiress with quite a bit of education..."

36.1-8: And there you have it… given what these two went through with Slenderman, I can fully see why they're bonding like this.