Chapter 8. Bird of prey

Glad to hear some good things from everybody. A lot of people had loved what I had in mind in terms of Lucy. Now we're going to get into more of Cinder and her arc. I'm not all that good with writing fight scenes, especially because I'm writing this mainly to develop and grow Cinder, but I'm going to try my best with them.

Gabriel and Rachel are also going to get more screen time here. I suggest to my readers that you go back and reread chapter 7 because I put foreshadowing in there that's going to come in handy in this chapter and the next one. Enough Stalling!

"All roads are long which lead to one's heart's desire."

-Joseph Conrad

Cinder's human hand was shaking in the grass it stood on. All she could do was slowly process the situation. This girl, a woman she was convinced was a maiden hiding in plain sight, turned out to out to be her greatest fear come to life.

"Ohhhh…I love that face." Lucy began, snapping Cinder out of her trance. "That's the face they all make, right before they die. Y'know, that 'what've I done?' face."

Cinder immediately got up, shrugging off the pain in her grimm arm and readying two glass swords, Lucy's smile still brimming with malice. Both girls charged again, Lucy blocking the first sword and then the second in two strikes. Swords slashed and sparks flew, until Cinder finally got a hit in Lucy's right knee and the girl knelt down. Cinder swung to Lucy's left side, her right hand still holding the sabre, and prepared her swipe at the albino's head. Assured victory, Cinder commanded her right arm to slash and the sword cut through the air towards Lucy's head. Just before the blade could make contact, Lucy raised her left hand, the palm facing Cinder, and a bright flash blanketed the maiden's vision.

In less than a second, she was blind, feeling her sword stop midway while internally panicking that she could see anything. Lucy brought up her arm and allowed her aura to take the hit. The headstrong albino stood up and slashed at Cinder, forcing her body into the water. She resurfaced, wearing an angry expression.

"Ah, and you just took a shower this morning…" Lucy taunted.

Using her levitation, Cinder exploded out of the water, her eye casting a larger flame than ever before. She formed a glass broad sword and plummeted towards Lucy, to which the albino disappeared once she hit the ground and dirt flew everywhere. As the soil began to fall back to the ground, Cinder felt panicked by the absence of her opponent, only to realize Lucy's presence directly behind her. Recalling her fight with Raven, Cinder turned around, her broad sword in front, and blocked a hard kick from Lucy. The force shot her out of the dirt crater and skidded against the dirt path and up against a tree. As Cinder recovered, the silver eyed warrior stood confidently on the brink of the crater.

"Is that all a maiden's chalked up to be?" Lucy asked, taunting her again.

Cinder's eye shot up. She assumed Lucy was a maiden, but she never said it. How could Lucy know what a maiden was?

"You know, there're two triggers to fear, my friend. The first is when a person is placed in a situation they don't know how to get out of. The second is when they're in a familiar bad situation that they couldn't get out of before. Back there, when you stabbed me with those filthy fingers, I gotta admit, that was the first time in years I've felt any kind of fear, 'cause I'd never seen anything like that…and I loved it."

Lucy just kept getting more intimidating and unpredictable. "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Cinder thought.

"Tell me, Cindy. Which of the two are you feeling now?" Lucy asked.

Hearing that name, however, pushed all of Cinder's fear aside and immediately replaced with anger and irritation. It'd been years since anybody called her that. The maiden stood back up and made another pair of glass swords, both of which she made catch on fire. Lucy only smiled again, extending her sabre out to her side and, suddenly, a beam of light shined along the sword's edge. Each time she moved it, it gave off a light-saber "whirring" sound.

One final time both girls darted for the other, both of Cinder's swords stomped down on Lucy's sabre. That was the first of fifty more slashes to follow. Sparks flew and both girls held their expressions. Once every few hits, Cinder managed to touch Lucy, but the girl wouldn't even flinch. Cinder didn't notice until one of her final strikes that she'd been trying to move around Lucy to get a hit, yet Lucy hadn't moved from her spot. Cinder was literally running in a circle, her damp clothes weighing her down the entire time.

Just before her final attack, Lucy made her sword light up again and swung towards Cinder's blades, both of which cracked and broke upon contact. Realizing and dodging in the nick of time, Cinder rolled over and got back on her feet, Lucy standing there as usual with a confident grin.

"…my turn." The warrior said, darting at Cinder with all her might.

Cinder conjured another sword, prepared to attack Lucy again. Recalling how Raven froze her at the vault, Cinder assumed she could do the same with her grimm arm. Once Lucy got close enough, their swords met, both pushing all their strength onto the other. Seeing an opportunity, Cinder waved her arm across Lucy's feet and managed to freeze them. Lucy saw her plan immediately, as Cinder threw grimm arm towards Lucy again. Lucy didn't even try to dodge, and the explanation came nearly immediately. Cinder aimed her fingers this time at Lucy's right side, primarily her lung and liver, only for them to smash against her aura.

Another instance of fright surged through Cinder. "Crap. What the hell just happened?" She thought.

The maiden looked up, Lucy's eyes glowing right above her grin. "I don't where the hell you came from, but whoever taught you about grimm apparently never taught you about silver eyes. Your arm can't penetrate my aura so long as my eyes are active. And, SPOILER, I'm not even pushing them to my limit."

Another flash of light from her eyes and Cinder became immobilized. Lucy just looked down on the weakened woman, feeling no remorse or pity. If anything, disappointment.

"Well…we had a good run, right, Cindy?" Lucy asked, Cinder barely caring about that name at this point. "But, you'll just come back to cause more trouble, so…sorry. Not really." Lucy readied Sabre, holding it above her left shoulder and ready to swing it in the path leading to Cinder's head. Meanwhile, Cinder readied a fireball in her palms. As Lucy began to swing, Cinder fired the ball parallel to the ground at Lucy, propelling herself at the perfect moment to avoid the blade. Usually, Cinder would've stopped here and returned the attack, but instead she activated her levitation ability and headed back towards Fegefeuer. Lucy grinned again. "I love it when they run."

"I…gotta…get back. I can't stay here." The maiden thought to herself. "Hell, I'd rather take my chances with Ruby or Salem than that maniac."

As she continued, she could see the city limit, even Lucy's boarding house in the distance, the sun now at forty-five degrees from the horizon. That's where her bike still had to have been parked, and anywhere was better than her-

Cinder's entire body became cloaked in darkness, and below her was an immense shadow of a bird. Out of curiosity, though hoping this wall just an illusion, Cinder turned her head to her right. Unfortunately, though not surprising, the image of Lucy flying above her was no illusion. Large dove wings, its white feathers reaching length of kitchen knives to adult human legs, sprouted out of the girl's back. Her sabre was still in her hand.

"Looks like you're in a no-fly zone!" Lucy shouted. "You should land immediately!"

In one swipe, Lucy fired a beam of light headed for the maiden. It was too fast to dodge; it was already on top of her before she could even quicken her pace. Cinder could only hope her aura could survive the hit.

A second later, the beam hit, a blanket of burns covering her aura blinding her again. Just as Cinder began to get her sight back, Lucy tackled the maiden out of the sky and the two began to plummet towards the ground at a sixty-degree angle.

The light beam Lucy used managed to attract attention from the closest members of the city. Michael sat on the stoop, texting his girlfriend, and Gabriel was still asleep in bed. Michael noticed the light, aware of what time it suddenly become. In a lazily manner, he went back inside to retrieve him.

The two girls landed roughly into a barn at the edge of the forest and the city. Lucy got up and noticed they landed in hay, Cinder still trying to recover from being forced through a wooden roof at who-knows how great a velocity. Her aura flickered and then disappeared. How useful were her maiden abilities now? The grimm arm meant nothing, she couldn't make anymore glass weapons, she couldn't even stand up without feeling a writhing pain. Suddenly, her busted ankle from before seemed rather tame to the soreness she felt now.

She was on all fours, the weight of the damp clothes making it impossible for her to even catch her breath. Lucy just paced around, looking at her new prey as if savoring the moment. Behind the two of them, a farmer came to see the carnage, only to realize Lucy was behind it. He recognized her immediately, followed by noticing Cinder. The maiden looked up, their eyes locked in contact, her gaze giving off a sense of distress and practically begging for some kind of help, despite him being a complete stranger. Then the farmer looked at Lucy, her evil grin subtly telling him to make the correct choice. With one final look at Cinder, the farmer turned around and ran off, Cinder's heart sinking at that feeling of helplessness. Others gathered around, yet all kept their distance once one of them shouted, "IT'S LUCY!"

Lucy turned back around to Cinder, her shadow covering the maiden entirely. Cinder just stared at the woman's enormous wings, her malicious expression placed between them.

"A…faunus?" Cinder thought.

"Well, Cindy, looks like this was your final stand. Don't feel bad, though; most people I kill don't get an audience like this." Lucy pointed her thumb in the direction of the civilians outside. "But it still sucks, doesn't it? I bet you expected to die an old woman, warm in bed, in your sleep. Instead, you're gonna die in this disgusting barn while everyone just watches you suffer."

Once putting her sabre back in its sheath, Lucy began raising her arms at her sides. Cinder could move, most likely muster the strength to at least levitate out through the whole in the roof, but she couldn't find any motivation to do so. Everything she's done as of late has only resulted in tragedy. She started this fight with Lucy, and under no circumstances did she ever have a chance to win. After suffering so many defeats, what promise was there that the following day didn't have another disappointment in store?

Lucy faced her palms to the sides of the barn. "This…is my favorite part." The warrior said, light forming out of her palms. She condensed the light and the wooden walls began to catch fire. The horses towards the back nayed in fear as they noticed and recognized the deadly light. Everyone outside backed off even more and Cinder fell out of her trance only to realize the gravity of the situation. Just now, she realized the hay beneath her. She tried to activate her levitation, but Lucy shined another light from her eyes and Cinder became immobilized again. Lucy began closing her arms, not caring to ask Cinder for her last words. To Lucy, Cinder was just another body to add to her pile, another demon to exorcise from the world.

Within the crowd, Michael and Gabriel pushed past people until they reached the front. From a distance, Gabriel noticed, between Lucy's wings, Cinder's petrified expression, and he too felt panicked.

"Looks like Lucy's made her choice already, eh Gabriel?" Michael said to his brother, only to realize Gabriel's disappearance. "Gabriel?"

Lucy's arms were almost completely closed together, the walls of burning light slowly encapsulating Cinder and giving her first-degree burns. Even after all the failure and constant depression in the past few days, she still felt the need to put her arms in front of her face for protection, and, without explanation, she felt a tear slide out of her eye. The walls were so close now and she could feel her hair singing and her burns becoming second-degree.

As Lucy kept going, Cinder closed her eye and let out one last agonizing "Aaaaahhhhh!" before the light walls immediately died. It was quiet for what felt like an eternity before Cinder realized everything had stopped. She regained her bearings, realizing she wasn't dead yet, and looked up to see Lucy being restrained by a large pair of arms putting her in a full nelson, her sadistic grin turned into an aggravated frown.

She turned around and immediately recognized who it was. "Gabriel, let go of me." Lucy said to him.

"Sis, look, she's already beaten. You don't have to do this." Gabriel pleaded.

Lucy's wings surrounded him and light radiated over the young man's body, forcing him to back off as his aura became as hot as an oven burner.

Once he recovered, he pleaded again. "Lucy, c'mon, she's terrified."

Lucy rotated one-hundred-thirty-five degrees to face her brother, her feet still in place. "People don't change, Gabriel, especially someone as powerful as she is. I let Cinder go now, she'll just come back and cause more trouble."

Cinder didn't know what to do. Sitting there like a frightened and crying child was all she knew in that moment. Gabriel was her only ray of light in this moment. The albino then looked back at Cinder, who began to calm down as time progressed. The two made eye contact, both frozen in place, the fire quickly consuming the entire building and the horses in the back continued naying in fear. Realizing the flames were consuming all the hay around her as well, her wet clothes protecting her, Cinder tried activating her ice ability and froze as much of the flames as she could, still sitting in the same position. Within seconds, the barn's fire was put out and the horses calmed down, Cinder's hands shaking all the while.

"Okay, look, you always love fighting, right? Well, you've never fought anyone this strong before, right? I mean, no one's survived this long against you, and I doubt you gave yourself that stomach wound! She could help in keeping the city safe from bandits and criminals."

Lucy looked down at the blood-stained hole in her jacket, the wound completely healed by her aura. Gabriel noted Cinder's ability to put out the fire

"See? She's still strong." Gabriel reasoned, to which Lucy. "Look, even if you don't want a sparring partner, just let her go. I'll take responsibility for whatever happens: she screws up, I'll take the blame, I swear."

After staring at Cinder and forming her own judgement, Lucy approached the young woman.

"Alright, listen up, Cindy." The albino calmly demanded, her wings folding back under her shoulder blades, her jacket torn from them emerging in the first place. "You're the strongest person I've ever fought, and the only person to last this long against me. Hell, you're the first person in years to actually make me afraid in the heat of a fight. So, thanks to my parakeet brother, I'm gonna let you go…BUT…if I hear about you causing anymore trouble…" Lucy turned around, only to turn her head back, looking at Cinder over her shoulder. "I'll burn you to…a cinder!"

Cinder felt aggravated again, but only slightly cocked her eyebrows. She felt used to being verbally spat on now.

Smiling, Lucy walked away and through the crowd, everyone backing off in terror as the young woman progressed. As Cinder kept breathing and trying to stop her hands shaking, Gabriel approached her and stuck out his left hand.

"Sorry about that. Lucy…tends to blow things out of proportion." Gabriel reasoned.

After processing after that statement, Cinder looked down and grabbed Gabriel's hand, expecting him to pull back…except he didn't move. Annoyed by his lack of teamwork, Cinder looked up, only to see Gabriel's surprised expression. Her heart sank when she realized she grabbed his hand with her grimm arm.

She pulled it back and stood up on her own, planting the hand firmly in her sweatshirt pouch, and backed off, a fearful expression on her face.

Gabriel noticed this, however. "Wait, don't worry. I've…dealt with my sister. You're not as bad as she is."

Cinder looked at him again, his confident smile earning her trust, and approached him. The crowd just looked on as the two exited the barn, many shocked by Cinder's survival. All these faces focusing on her gave off a claustrophobic feeling. Gabriel led her to his brother, who barely had any reaction at all. They made eye contact once, he gave a nod of respect, and walked away, Gabriel following and motioning Cinder to do the same.

"Hey, can you take off your sweatshirt?" Gabriel asked her, to which she gave him a death glare. "Relax, I just want to make sure the fabric didn't fuse to your skin."

"I…I'm not wearing anything underneath." Cinder replied, Gabriel's face turning as red as a tomato.

"Gha! Sorry! I-I didn't know, I swear!"

Aaaaaaand, Cinder became annoyed again. "Accidents happen, let it go." She thought.

"Where the hell are we going?" Cinder asked.

Michael and Gabriel looked at one another.

"We're not taking her back to our place. I'm not dealing with Lucy." Michael stated.

"Well…I was thinking of that, but first taking her to see Rachel." Gabriel replied, Michael giving an eyebrow-raise response.

Within minutes, the group of three left the scene just before a firetruck and police unit showed up on scene. The farmer gave them the recap, their hearts sinking when he mentioned all this had been done by Lucy. The firefighters' and police's only response was to chalk it up as a broken lantern, though now the farmer would have to move the horses since the walls looked weakened by the heat.

Twenty minutes of walking had passed before the trio had come across St. Oum's Orphanage, Cinder completely puzzled by the sight of the sign.

"What…what are we doing at an orphanage?" Cinder asked.

"The woman who works here is going to help you out. Those burns on your body will take weeks to heal from aura, but she can fix you up in a jiffy." Gabriel reassured.

On the other side of the doors, the boy Jack was playing with the girl Tera, no other kids around, with a yellow ball with a blue stripe and a red star. They sat down and rolled to each other, no words being exchanged, to the right side of the room by the couches, flat screen, and coffee table. To the left was an empty space with a toy chest, still locked, pushed against the wall. At the center back of the room was a desk, an elderly woman sitting behind it with a title card reading "Rachel Nephilim", with two hallways branching to the sides.

The front door opened and the trio of adults walked through, catching the eyes of the children and Rachel. Jack saw the brothers, gleeful to see Gabriel and not caring for Michael, but became dumbfounded upon seeing Cinder, specifically her right side. He couldn't understand why, but he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Tera noticed all of this and threw the ball as hard as she could at Jack's head, provoking him and placing all focus on her as planned.

Cinder noticed the children's bickering yet kept moving toward the desk with the twins.

"Oh, Gabriel. What brings you-" Rachel stopped herself, Cinder taking all of her focus. "-uh…something I can help you all with?"

"Yeah, this is Cinder." Gabriel replied, pointing at a quiet Cinder. "She…had a confrontation with Lucy." Rachel's eyes widened. "But! Lucy let her go, and we kinda want you to heal her."

Cinder and Rachel shared the same expression of confusion, but not for the same reason.

"Lucy…spared someone?" Rachel thought.

"Why is this idiot helping me?" Cinder thought.

Ten minutes later, the four adults were in the orphanage's infirmary, with Cinder laying down on the infirmary bed. She still wore her sweatshirt, rolling up the sleeve to show skin that partially fused with the fabric, but her back and torso were fine. Her bare legs, however, took the brunt of the radiation, the burns standing out on her outer thighs and calves and some of the denim from the shorts also slightly fused to her. After pulling the clothes free from Cinder's skin, Rachel held her hands over the maiden, the burns on her body healing near immediately. The pain subsided and flesh grew back, leaving scars in place of the burns.

"You have a healing semblance?" Cinder asked.

"Kind of. My semblance gives me the ability to multiply cells at almost fifty times the normal speed. It'll take a while for the nerves to come back to life, but you should be able to at least sleep without feeling pain."

Cinder then realized she may not have a place to sleep tonight, considering she just tried to kill her "roommate" half-an-hour ago. This reminded Cinder of another question.

"Hey, by the way," Cinder continued. "Do the both of you have wings?" Michael and Gabriel looked shocked in that instant, Rachel feeling like her heart just stopped. "I mean, if Lucy's your sister, then…look, are you three some kind of bird faunas?"

The two brothers looked at Rachel, who gave a reluctant nod.

"Yeah, but we're not called bird. We're technically called 'Angel faunas'." Michael answered. "None of that matters, though."

"It does matter! Why haven't I seen any faunas like you before? The last time I saw someone like you was a rooster faunas and he had feathers all over his arms. Hell, I've seen hawk, pigeon, even penguin faunas before, but 'Angel faunas'? I've never heard of this before!" Cinder stated, almost sounding panicked.

"Okay, look, almost all faunas you meet will be different to some degree, and they are who they are. Are we done yet?" Rachel said, a more serious tone this time.

Out the corner of Cinder's eye, she noticed movement by the door. She turned her head and a pair of small hands left and the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard in the hallway. The others heard it too, so Rachel left to investigate.

"…so where'd you come from?" Michael asked.

Cinder only told them to not worry about it, to which Michael threw up one arm and left the room.

"Don't mind Michael, he's always trying to look cool in front of everybody. We're originally from Vacuo, used to have a big family over there. Our parents have long since passed away, but they used to own this big dust company and we were like royalty over there."

"Then why leave?" Cinder asked.

"…after what happened to our family, the Schnee dust company took over everything our family had. After about two years, Rachel had gotten transferred to here, y'know the refinery at the base of the mountain, and she brought me and my siblings with her. Once she got here, though, she made friends with the previous orphanage owner, but he passed away as well, so she quit her job at the refinery and became the new owner."

Cinder was trying to process all of that. "Wait…she went from working in a refinery…to an orphanage?"

"Yeah…I know it's strange, but back in Vacuo, before our parents died, she was basically our caregiver. Hell, she delivered all three of us on our birthdays, and she's been a part of our lives ever since. When the original owner passed away, she felt bad for all the kids who already lived here, so she applied for the job right away and raised us here as well. In a way…Rachel's the closest thing to a mother we've ever had."

Cinder felt her heart skip. She felt she needed to reply to that but didn't know where to start.

Meanwhile, Rachel was scolding Jack. "Promise me you're not going to spy on us again, Jack." The boy simply nodded, to which Rachel ran her fingers through his black hair in comfort. Suddenly she heard the doorbell and walked in its direction. Jack, however, stayed behind and headed towards the infirmary.

He stood by the frame, making sure to stay out of Cinder's sight.

"My mother actually died of illness when I was two. I can't even remember what she looks like. I got to admit…I envy you." Cinder told him.

She looked at Gabriel, a mix of exhaustion and sympathy in her gaze…and Gabriel found it beautiful. Before either of them knew it, they had a visitor slowly approaching them.

"Why did you help me? No one else bothered, so why?" Cinder asked.

"…I don't like killing. Lucy's made a habit of killing people she considers dangerous. She keeps saying how people don't change and that she's some kind of 'necessary evil', killing anyone who poses a threat to the civilians here in Fegefeuer."

"She got a funny way of showing it."

"Rachel, Michael, and I have called her out on it before, but over the years she just kept getting stronger, and when she awakened her silver eyes for the first time…let's just say that was the first time I've ever seen Rachel show fear. Even the police are scared of her, hence why she's still walking around without an arrest warrant."

Before either of them knew it, their visitor had arrived at Cinder's bed. Cinder first noticed him, but Gabriel made it verbal.

"Jack, what are you doing here?" Gabriel asked.

The boy faced Cinder but said nothing. He just kept looking at her, giving Cinder an uncomfortable feeling.

"Cinder! There's someone here to see you!" Rachel shouted from the door.

Surprised by the sudden outburst, Gabriel and Cinder got up from the bed and headed for the door. Gabriel grabbed Jack's hand, to which the boy grabbed back but also reached for the bottom of Cinder's jean shorts. Cinder didn't even care at this point. It was then that he noticed Cinder's grimm arm and he only had one reaction.

"Whoa…cool!" He said, Cinder surprised by his lack of fear.

As they continued down the corridor and into the foyer, a tiger faunas stood in the front door, waiting to make his acquaintance with Cinder. Once she arrived, they locked eyes and his lit up. He approached her, hat off and hand extended.

"Cinder…you…" The man tried hard not to tear up. "It took a little while of asking around, and after hearing what happened at the barn, I found out you were here. I'm so glad to finally meet you."

Cinder felt confused yet interested. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"No, I'm afraid not." He answered. "However, your father was a great friend of mine."

Hopefully I can stay on schedule this time. I wrote this whole chapter in just a few days (literally yesterday and today. It's 11:30PM as I'm writing this final part.)

If I had to be honest, the characters of Cinder, Pyrrha, and Qrow are hands down my favorite characters. Once again, I'm not really a fan of the show, but these characters all have qualities that I can at least latch onto. I know they're bringing Cinder back in V6, hopefully they take her character in a direction similar to this one.

For the record, I'm writing this story as I go, and its main purpose is to showcase a character arc for Cinder. However, I never shy away from criticism and I'm always listening to critics in order to better myself, so as always:

Follow, favorite, leave a review (negatives before positives) and, most importantly, have a great day!