Cinder gave Ruby a small smile and made her way over to the table. She paused for a moment, as if deep in thought, and then proceeded to lean against the table.

"Ruby," she said, her voice sickly sweet. "Be a darling and crawl over here, would you?"

Ruby gulped and, not wanting to get beat again, began to slowly shuffle towards the woman. Ruby struggled with every movement, her muscles aching and screaming at her to stop. Ruby cursed herself for not thinking of crawling away sooner, though she knew it was too late now. It would only take Cinder a few steps to catch up to her. So Ruby suffered in silence, only occasionally letting out a strained grunt as she continued to drag herself over to her captor. After a few minutes, Ruby was finally at Cinder's feet. Ruby panted, sweat rolling down her face as it became even more apparent to the woman that she was indeed in a lot of pain. And she wouldn't have it any other way.

"Good girl."

Cinder gently rustled a hand through the young girls hair before lifting her up by her restraints and, rather roughly, throwing her back down onto the table.

Ruby winced, her wounds from earlier smacking hard against the table. After the pain subsided, she looked around and noticed a few more things she hadn't been able to see earlier. For example, a significantly smaller table next to the one she was on that had a rather large jar of some sort of clear liquid. It smelled like alcohol, though not the type that her uncle drank. This smelled... Medicinal. Another thing she noticed were notes scattered from one corner of the room to another, with strange diagrams and notes scrawled all over them. However, one stood out to Ruby in particular: a detailed diagram of an eye. It was a lot neater than the others, obviously a lot more care had gone into sketching this than the others. Though one little detail about the diagram made Ruby nearly cry in terror; the eye had been coloured silver.

"Fancy a bit of reading?" Ruby's head shot back to Cinder, who had been watching her with a kind of satisfied smirk, though it would hardly be called that. No. This was a look of pure malice, unlike Ruby had ever seen on a person. She was certain not even Tyrian could pull off such a look. If Ruby wasn't petrified earlier, she most certainly was now.

Cinder looked up again and walked around to the cabinet, now seemingly ignoring the young girl. The noise of various metal impliments clinking against each other, echoed throughout the dark room, sending shivers down the red-head's spine. Ruby craned her neck to the side, trying to see what exactly the older woman was doing, but had no luck. All Ruby could do was lay in silence and wait.

A few moments later, the noises stopped. Ruby's ears perked up as she heard a small hum escape Cinder's mouth. She seemed so pleased with herself. Cinder then turned around, and before Ruby could react, her hands shot straight to the girls neck as she began to choke her.

Ruby struggled against her restraints in a feeble attempt to fight back but, of course, with no luck. She screamed through ragged gasps as she felt the claws from Cinder's Grimm arm slowly pierce through the soft flesh of her pale neck.

"All you've done is cause me great pain and suffering," hissed Cinder through gritted teeth, her gaze never leaving Ruby's. "I think it's time for me to return the favour".

Ruby whimpered as she felt the womans grip tighten, her lungs felt like they were on fire as they begged for oxygen. She felt her face get redder and redder with each failed attempt at breathing.

I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

It repeated in her head like a sick mantra.

Ruby's vision was beginning to blur. All she could make out was the silhouette of her soon to be murderer.

"C-Cin... der... Please..." was all Ruby could say before she felt the womans grip loosen around her neck, the claws gently sliding out of her skin. Ruby could feel the warm blood trickling down her neck, but right now she could care less. She began to cough and splutter, taking in deep, raspy breaths which, although meant finally getting the oxygen her lungs craved, burned through her esophagus and lungs even more. Tears streamed down Ruby's face, her heart pounding so hard it hurt. God, everything hurt. She coughed some more, before she began to bawl.

Cinder simply watched with crazed glee as the girls neck began to bruise, soon fetching the mirror from the far corner of the room and setting it up in front of Ruby. She watched Ruby cry some more before walking up behind her and firmly grabbing her head, positioning it so that the girl was forced to look at her reflection. Cinder sighed and placed her head on top of a petrified Ruby, curling a few stray locks of red hair between her fingers.

"Now," she said, her hand now tracing up and down the poor girls cheek. She laughed when she saw Ruby visibly wince at the contact. "You must be wondering what exactly I want with you. Well, I'm quite certain you're aware of what you did to me," her other, blackened hand moved to pull back the hair that was covering her face, revealing the ceramic plate that had been covering her eye. Ruby couldn't help but stare, her eyes following the scarring that had taken up most of the womans face. Cinder of course noticed her staring and frowned, tugging the locks of hair she had been playing with harshly, eliciting a pained gasp from the redhead, who quickly tried to avert her gaze before having her head once again forced still, forcing the girl to look at her captor straight in the eye, the taller woman staring back with hatred.

"Don't worry little one, I don't plan on killing you," she said before exhaling a long sigh. "I just want to be beautiful again...

... I want your eyes".