Chapter 4. Of Mice and Monsters

Views are climbing like the temperature (I'm typing this in June and I live in Texas). I don't know how many chapters this overall story is going to be; I'm kind of just writing as things come to me, despite that I already have a game plan with set plot points and characters driving said plot points together.

For this new character's voice, try to imagine Lucy being played by Erica Mendez.

"There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery."

-Dante Alighieri

Curious by the sight of the church, Cinder revved up the bike and rode downhill, dirt and bugs crunching beneath the tires and the engine.

"I can check out the rest of the town later." She told herself.

As she rode along the path, five minutes had passed until she passed a young couple walking in the opposite direction. Just as she passed them, Cinder made eye contact with the girl for a split second before speeding off downhill.

Cinder didn't even think anything of it, not recognizing her long black hair nor her green eyes. The girl, however, turned around as the biker rode off, vaguely recognizing Cinder's amber eye. She just stood there as her boyfriend turned around in confusion, the flower pin in her hair waving with the breeze.

"Uh…Mel. You okay?" He asked.

"N-no…no, I'm fine, Michael. Just…thought that person looked familiar is all." She answered.

Cinder's bike roared through the forest, her eyes not even blinking as each bug hit her face. After everything that's happened in the past two days, a fly-facial was nothing to her. On her way through, however, she passed a sight of burnt trees and a crater between them. She stopped the bike for a minute to satisfy her curiosity.

"Guess this was where the bandits from the broadcast got killed." She thought, noticing the black ground and charred trees. The clerk's mention of the city being full of crooks and killers came back to her. "I fear no one…but I'm better off keeping a low profile."

Finally, she reached the side of the mountain that made a path leading up to the church…composed of stairs. If memory served correctly, there should've been a zigzag road for vehicles leading to the village above. Cinder drove around and found the road…buried under mores snow. Once she returned to the stairs case, she put her grimm finger in the ignition and turned the bike off. After walking it to the side of the stairs, out of anyone's sight, she looked up at the massive staircase that must have reached eight-hundred feet in altitude.

She looked down at her ankle. "Yeah…screw that." She said, activating her levitation and soaring up the staircase. Each passing second, memories of this place flooded back into her mind; a village full of people taller than she was, the sun rising in orange beauty every morning, the grass and dirt pathways where children would play everyday after school. However, she finally reached the top of the stairs to see all those happy memories buried under a thin sheet to a thick blanket of snow. Despite her seeing all of this from the hilltop before, she still couldn't shake her feeling of shock.

The church was the only building on the mountainside yet looked as if it were built yesterday. Wouldn't be a bad assumption since Cinder couldn't remember anything about this church. Still curious, she walked in, the front doors oddly unlocked, and the oddness didn't stop there. Cinder walked in to see the pews were dusted and clean, all the stain-glass windows were replaced with new ones, and the rug leading towards the alter was stained and had holes in it but had vacuum lines. Looking up on the right side wall, she saw what appeared to be a list of people written on a white tapestry with an insignia on the center. The emblem was just three circles next to each other and all were surrounded by an even bigger circle. She didn't think anything of it at first, until she saw one name that rang a bell hard in her mind, and all her attention focused on the tapestry.

"Dante A. Lighieri – Age: 56" it read, and a man with a big smile and short brown hair appeared in her memory; one of former neighbors. Directly above his name was "Beatrice Lighieri – Age: 55" and a woman with long gold hair and a heart-warming smile came to her mind as well. Others like "Virgil Der Dichter – Age: 51" and "Barron Oniface – Age: 79" seemed to just come back to her naturally as well, as if she were speaking to all these people yesterday. All the names were arranged in alphabetical order and her heart sank once she found those with "S" in the last name.

In plain print, she found her father's name "Solar Seraphim – Age: 31" and directly above that read "Cinder Seraphim – Age: 5". At both bottom corners of the tapestry were two white candles, both clearly hadn't been lit in years. It then came to her mind that, in this specific religion in Mistral, lighting a white candle near a grave was to pay respect to the deceased and to claim they're in a better place.

Believing she'd seen enough, Cinder walked outside again, closing the door behind her, and looked at the piled-high snow. One memory in particular came to her mind, one she hadn't thought about since her defeat at the hands of Raven: the night the snow covered everything. All she could remember was the image of a woman with long black hair and burning red eyes pushing Cinder off the mountainside, the little girl's arms hanging in front of her as she fell into the city of Empyrean.

The rest of that night was a blur; she couldn't even recall how she survived the fall. Regardless, both her human and grimm hands were made into fists and her eye forged a flame at the mere thought of that night.

"Raven…I don't know how, but I'm gonna get out of here, and when I do…" She couldn't finish her threat, not when she couldn't answer how she'd get out of there. What Cinder hated more than anything in the world, defeat and humiliation tied for second, was just being trapped. In this moment, she felt like the biggest idiot on Remnant, alone and with no plan whatsoever.

At the base of the mountain, grimm lurked seeking new prey throughout the Dark Wood forest. Along the forest's path, near the crater and bandits' grave, stood a young woman wearing a white button-down jacket, jean shorts, brown boots, bleach white hair, and wearing scuba goggles over her eyes. Her hair was long, the front laying down on her face due to its length equaling that of the back. At her left side, a sabre sword rested in its sheath.

She stood at the rim of the ash-colored pit when she noticed grimm walking calmly in one direction. Elephant grimm walked single-file and wolf and bear grimm began quickening their pace, all heading towards the staircase to the former village. None of the demons even noticed the woman's presence, her reaction to these monsters being the equivalent of someone noticing ants on the sidewalk. Suddenly, even more grimm charged in that direction, over two-dozen now racing up the staircase to devour their target. Even bird grimm, from seagull to school bus-sized, were in flocks just to get to Cinder. Simply "just because", the albino woman looked up and saw the church at the top, guessing "some wanderer having a bad day" was up there.

Just as the raven-haired woman was about to begin crying, she felt a light vibration on the ground and heard commotion coming from the stairs. Approaching the steps, Cinder's mind regained focus from the sight of stampeding demons rushing up the steps.

"Never a dull moment." She told herself. In both hands, she forged dual glass blades. Nothing mattered anymore; going out in a blaze of glory was a death she found most comfortable.

Upon activating her levitation, Cinder created a ring of fire around herself and incinerated the birds soaring at her. Those that dodged swung around, only to be incinerated by another ring that rotated vertically around her. The wolves were next, finally reaching the top of the stairs and pouncing at Cinder. With all ill intent, she charged at the wolves, slashing the first few in complete half. Before they could tell what happened, she was in between six of them and rotated her body one-hundred-eighty degrees on her left foot, decapitating all of them. As the bodies evaporated into smoke, one wolf hid within it and attacked Cinder from behind, making its claw mark on her back and her yelling out in pain. Its victory howl last only a few seconds before Cinder sliced its skull in half. More birds, however, were on their way, along with the bears and more wolves.

People were gathering by the west side of the city, seeing fireballs and hearing blade chimes from the ground, while others noticed but continued with their day.

"Damn, Lucy just can't take a day off, can she?" A random civilian asked another.

A bear lunged toward Cinder, but she hopped over it and hacked off a wing of an incoming griffin. As she was about to land, another bear approached the top step and lunged at her as well. Instead of levitating, she put the blades together and formed a bow with them, forging three arrows in the string and firing all at once at the bear's head. On her way down, she saw the head of a wolf and planned to land on it, only to have the birds fly around and ram into her, their talons and beaks digging into her arms. Upon landing square on the wolf, the beast unhappy by its new visitor, Cinder levitated further back into the mountain to catch her breath. When she looked towards the stairs, more grimm were appearing as if what already came was fodder from a larger army. The first to charge was an even larger bear grimm, but just as Cinder readied her stance and charged at him as well, something struck the bear's head, cementing its skull into the ground. Cinder's eyes widened at the surprise, even more dumbfounded to see it was the girl with white hair on the monster's head, her saber piercing the skull and the ground beneath it. As its body began to dissolve, the girl looked up at Cinder, an innocent smile and bright eyes on her face, Cinder being the opposite with shock and annoyance covering hers.

"Who the hell are you?!" She asked the girl.

"I'm no one important." She answered, more grimm charging at her from behind. "Just someone who likes your style."

"Style of what?"

Suddenly, four wolves, another bear, and a dozen birds came up from behind the girl. Just as Cinder readied herself again, the girl swung her saber once, and out of it came an odd beam of light that slashed through each demon. All their carcasses landed and exploded into smoke on impact, Cinder amazed by the amount of carnage in the small-time span.

"Hm…fun!" She finally answered, the innocent smile turning into one of sadism.

More grimm appeared from the stairs. "Hey, you like games?" She asked Cinder, who stood their puzzled yet intrigued. "Whoever has the most kills by the end wins!"

Liking the confidence level this girl had, Cinder made a smug look. "Well…may be best fighter win."

As the grimm stampede closed in, the two girls hopped in the air and made horsecuts into the two closest monsters. Slicing their heads apart, they made horizontal cuts into the next two wolves who ran around to counter. Now a griffin grimm ran between the bears' dissolving corpses and get the drop on both of them, only for both to counter and strike its front legs and cut into its torso as it dropped and skidded.

The entire pathway to the stairs was now covered in grimm, corpses and living. The girl's boredom had now reached the height of the mountain, her face showing uninterest. A wolf leaped into the air to attack the duo, her specifically, but she didn't move. As Cinder crouched in a leaping position, the girl abruptly said, "wait!" and raised her left hand in a "stop" mannerism. The distance between the girl and the wolf was shortening to mere meters. The girl gave one menacing smile and a bright beam of light erupted from her hand and blanketed the monster. Cinder put her hands up to block from the light, but when she tried opening them she saw the monster's body on the ground, flailing its limbs around as it burned alive. The girl still had the same sadistic grin as she aimed her palm at the last of the oncoming monsters. As a griffin was nosediving for her, she activated the light one last time, bent her fingers and thumb into a cone shape, and in seconds her light ignited half the mountainside.

As more of their bodies burned to ash, she noticed her light hitting the side of the church, its stone wall glowing orange. Her smile immediately turned to a small frown and she turned off her light. Cinder could only look at the carnage brought by the girl's power as she ran for the lone building, examining the wall. Half the grimm, however, were still alive and began running towards her.

"Okay, looks like it'll be okay." She told herself, the grimm closing in on her. "Oh jeez, don't you guys ever learn?"

As she readied her saber, arrows pierced three of the grimm skulls that were just feet from her. The fourth and final grimm made its leap at the girl, only to be interrupted as Cinder impaled its head with a glass spear and it fell at the girl's feet. The two women looked at each other, first with blank expressions that grew smiles that said "Impressive".

Cinder jumped down from the dissolving beast's, looking exhausted and being careful to stay off her right foot.

The albino looked at her, looking impressed and relieved. "Sorry, I'm just not one to stand back and let everyone else have fun."

Cinder snickered. "Well, glad to know I'm not alone."

"You okay to walk down those steps?" She asked Cinder, who looked confused from the question. "You look like you got a bad ankle. I mean, when you jumped and killed that grimm, like I did, you tried staying off it. Same with just now; you didn't want to put stand on it."

Cinder was impressed by the girl's great attention to detail. That coupled along with her incredible fighting capabilities intrigued her even more. Possibly useful in the future, like Emerald and Mercury? As the girl placed her saber back in her sheath, she moved the bothersome hairs that relaxed on her nose and offered Cinder a hand.

"I'm guessing you're new here. Lemme help you down the stairs and we can talk more on the way to my place." She offered.

Slightly puzzled by the sudden generosity of the girl, Cinder put her right arm around the back of the girl's neck and put all her weight on her. If she tried anything, Cinder figured she could handle it. The two made it to the first step and continued downward. Further down the stairs, she saw the evaporating corpses of elephant grimm. Lucy gave another innocent look.

"Oops, hope you don't mind but I kinda took out the big ones by myself." She said, not even blinking.

Whereas others may have been put off by this nonchalant behavior, Cinder found it amusing. To her, this strange girl just oozed intrigue as well as suspicion. Most huntsmen seem fatigued after fighting so many grimm, even fewer seem to be ecstatic to fight said monsters and all the while smiling. This girl didn't just smile but wore one that even gave Cinder chills; from smiling innocently after smashing a grimm's head into the ground to smiling like a devil when more of the demons came to oppose her.

"So…exactly what were you doing up here?" She asked, Cinder's smile dying and trying to find the right words.

"Uh…well…" She began.

"You're not from around here, are you? You a drifter or something?"

"…something like that." Cinder thought of Salem, the room in her castle that she allowed Cinder to live in. "Actually, why were you up there? How'd you get past all those grimm when you got to me?"

"Hmmmm…I guess 'cause I was bored. Just wanderin' around the forest when I saw the grimm rushing towards the mountain and thought 'this oughtta be fun'."

Eventually, the two got to the bottom, Cinder's bike still parked in the blind spot. Making note of the vehicle's passenger seat, the girl offered to be the driver and let Cinder sit behind her. Though puzzled by the fact that this stranger knew how to drive a motorcycle, Cinder surrendered and sat on the passenger seat, hugging the girl's waist.

Cinder then realized she didn't even know the girl's name. Would trading names put her in danger?

"Oh, by the way, I'm Lucy! What's your name?" The girl asked, confident and friendly.

Cinder paused, trying to find the correct answer, if there even was one. The girl was observant, so could she tell a fake name the second she heard it?

Once her pause took too much time, Lucy continued. "Look, if you're on the run, don't worry. Half of my friends are criminals and the other half have already been to prison." A spark of hope gleamed in Lucy's eyes, and it spread to Cinder's heart. "Dude, you're safe here, and between you and me, my hands aren't clean either."

Feeling no reason to keep a secret, Cinder came clean. "C-Cinder."

"Hmph, cool name. Matches that fire semblance I saw you use back the-" Lucy paused after realizing something slightly important. "Hey, uh, you got keys?"

An awkward few seconds of silence occurred, Cinder not sure how to answer that question. Hoping for the best, she told Lucy to move over and, keeping her grimm hand in her sweatshirt sleeve, formed the key and turned it in the ignition. The engine started up, Lucy's expression following suit.

"Whoa! What, do you have two semblances?!" She asked, smiling as usual.

"No." Cinder replied, a touch of smug in her tone. "Just got a couple tricks."

Lucy kicked off the peg and the bike roared down the path.

"Guess she didn't see my grimm hand during the fight." Cinder thought. "That or she saw my gloved hand and assumed I'm wearing a matching pair."

Meanwhile, the two rode past the bandits' grave, and Lucy thought to herself, "Guess it's true what they say, 'criminals always return to the scene of the crime.'"

Well, thank God that's over with. Overall, I'm going to keep doing this series, since I'm already at 9 favorites and that's 9 people who like what I have to offer.

At the time of me writing this, Rwby's writers are getting a lot of criticism for their latest volume of the series, and while I do think it's the weakest so far, I just want to say something really quick. I've noticed that, while they made the choice to do so, Miles and Kerry have A LOT on their plate in terms of writing for RT's shows. As an aspiring writer myself, I know what it feels like to want to make the world a better place with your messages while worrying about how much potential backlash is waiting for you. Yes, this season could've been much better, but at the end of the day, it's not enough to make me quit on the series, despite me insisting I'm not a fan.

Honestly, I think I'm writing this fanfic just because I want this series to do well. I think a good place to start improving, next to developing Ruby and placing Ozpin in a villainous light, would be fleshing out and developing Cinder and Adam. Maybe not at the moment, but I feel Cinder has potential to be the best character in the show if written correctly.

That's all I have to say on the matter, hope you all have a wonderful day, and please keep a level head when criticizing anyone/anything. Thank you and see you next time with Chapter 5.