Chapter 9. Hero

Well, last chapter was one I had been waiting for for quite a while, introducing the characters of Jack and Tera, the tiger faunas, and Lucy's true personality. Cinder is on her way to becoming a different person, all the while affecting the lives of those around her. Meanwhile, Ruby is going to start training with her eyes now, while Weiss will be talking things out with her family. As for Adam…I doubt he'll ever get a character arc in the show and, in my opinion, he really doesn't deserve one. Also, despite all the Rwby characters being based on characters from fairy tales, mythology, books, and real people, the tiger faunas and the characters of Gus and Scotty I made up doesn't have any resemblance to anyone. They're here for mainly one purpose but I'll try to make them a bit more relevant as the plot continues.

I'm also going to say the pacing is going to get wonky come the midway point, but it's my attempt at balancing two plotlines simultaneously. This is my first attempt at trying something of that caliber and I'm always trying to learn to better myself.

Got paid this week, so that's great! Hopefully I won't spend it unwisely (a habit of mine that needs to die), 'cause, y'know, who needs food or gas? I know this is a day late, but I'm still busy with the last few weeks of my internship and I want to get this fanfic done before the school year begins. I'm also exhausted as I'm writing this as it's yet again right before midnight as I'm uploading this, which is why there won't be an ending monologue.

Hope you guys enjoy, can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Time seemed to have stopped. With Michael already gone home, this left just the four adults standing in the foyer, Jack staring off into space all the while. Cinder and Gabriel were equally stunned by the man's words, but not Rachel. To her, this only confirmed her suspicion. Cinder was the first to break silence.

"You…knew my father?" She asked.

"Yes. About fifteen years ago, before…what happened…I was a member of the executive board. My name's Audwine Streifen, and I was the former Chief Financial Officer to your father's dust company…back when the city was named 'Empyrean'."

Cinder felt dumbfounded. The thought of his company actually slipped her mind the entire day. First, she cheats death from the first "friend" she ever made her, now she had someone telling her he used to know her father? How could anyone take this in so quickly.

"Wait, how did you know it was me?" Cinder asked.

Audwine sighed. "Honestly, I didn't know. As the CFO, however, your father was a good friend of mine. Hell, I even knew your mother when she was pregnant with you." Cinder felt her heart skip a beat. Never in her life did she ever expect to hear such a sentence. "You…have mother's curly hair…and your father's amber eyes."

The man appeared to hold back tears again. Cinder began to feel an odd sinking in her heart, wondering its cause while listening closely to the faunas before her.

"Anyway, I'm here to make you a proposition. I'm glad to see you after all these years, and that you're okay…" Cinder looked down upon hearing that, noticing Jack was still holding onto her shorts. "…and I don't know why you're here in the city, but, assuming you're here to stay, I was wondering if you needed a job."

All three of the adults looked at the faunas, his truthful gaze within the stripes on his cheeks attracting their attention.

"You…want me to work for you?" Cinder asked, her hopes levitating and Rachel smiling.

"Yes. Since tomorrow's Monday and the payroll's next week, I figured you could start then. Granted, I work as a project manager now, but the city's motto asks for 'all you weary' so it'd be a crime not to give you a chance."

The sincerity in his voice pulled her in. Cinder's heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. Were things truly starting to look up?

"Um. I…I've got nowhere else to go…" Cinder said, a sliver of optimism in her tone.

"Splendid! I can show up at your residence tomorrow morning! Please, give me your address!"

As the man took out a notepad, Cinder's optimism died just as fast. She was sleeping on Lucy's couch this morning, but that didn't seem to be happening again anytime soon.

"I…uh…can I…-" She began before Rachel intervened.

"Audwine, can you give us a second." She said, to which the man nodded, headed to his car outside, and waited patiently, keeping his hat on and head down to avoid detection from any bystanders.

"You don't have anywhere to stay, do you?" Rachel asked, Cinder turning away from them in anger.

"I was sleeping on Lucy's couch…then…I tried to fight her." The maiden answered.

Rachel and Gabriel's eyes grew in shock, and Gabriel was the first to speak. "Guess that explains why she almost killed you. Why did you do that?"

Cinder recalled the maidens. "…It doesn't matter. She won, and I-"

She then noticed Jack still hanging onto her, shaking him off in anger. The boy walked backwards, catching his balance and getting a bad look from Rachel.

Before Cinder could continue, Rachel intervened. "Get out." Gabriel and Cinder looked at her. "I want no business with someone who won't show respect. You still want Audwine's offer, fine, but you'll get no shelter from me."

While Cinder looked even more aggravated, Gabriel stepped up. "Wait! Maybe, you can sleep on my couch." Now both eyes were on him, Jack's as well.

"Gabriel! What are you thinking?" Rachel asked, to which the large man approached her to whisper his answer.

"Look, I know she can be annoying, but deep down I feel like she just needs a chance. You always told us, growing up, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', right?"

Rachel sighed. "Remember, Lucy's right across the hall from us. If she tries anything, Lucy'll take care of it. It'll only be until she gets her own place."

Rachel took one last look at Cinder, the aggravated look replaced with her simply staring out the window followed by Jack running back up and grabbing her jean shorts again.

Rachel stepped forward to the maiden, her stare now replaced with stoicism. "Gabriel's giving you shelter. Be on your best behavior…" Cinder began to look aggravated again. "…and I might fix that eye of yours."

All the aggravation became shock and intrigue. Even Cinder forgot about the eye hidden underneath her hair. "Y-You mean can fix this?! I can get my eye back?!"

"That depends: is your eyeball still there?"

Cinder's heart sank again. "…no. The people who treated me after I lost it had to dig it out of my socket. Said there was barely anything left of it."

Rachel exhaled. "Well, I think I can at least help in helping the scar fade, maybe smooth out the skin. Either way, until I hear Gabriel telling me you're safe to be around, I don't want you anywhere near me nor this orphanage. Am I understood?"

Cinder balled her fist in anger, only to have a familiar feeling of Salem after processing that last sentence. "Understood." She said, reluctantly. Gabriel smiled and Rachel remained stoic.

"Understood!" Jack shouted, his hand at a soldier's salute. Gabriel laughed, Rachel smiled, and Cinder sighed followed by an eye roll.

Rachel stepped outside and motioned for Audwine to come back. Cinder shook his hand and he said he'd return around 7AM then next morning.

Twenty minutes passed until they reached Gabriel's apartment.

"Okay, we have some blankets in the closet; we're gonna have dinner at six; there's always stuff in the fridge and cabinets…"

Cinder lost interest in the boy's rambling. At this point, all she cared about was the couch he mentioned earlier and hopes an apartment owned by two young men wasn't as bad as Lucy's, the smell taking top priority.

As Gabriel approached the door with his key, Cinder noticed a bucket of water outside Lucy's door…with a note reading "Cinder." Cinder approached the bucket and saw something in the water. She reached in and pulled out her pair of high heels wrapped up in her black glove. Gabriel watched in caution as Cinder's eye caught fire again.

"Okay, okay. They can dry off. Let's just get inside." Gabriel reasoned, Cinder still holding onto her anger as she followed him.

Thankfully, Gabriel opened the door and the scent of lemons poured out into the hallway. Cinder's eye flame immediately died the second the door opened. The two entered the living room and Cinder felt like she entered a dream: the carpet was a perfect shade of brown, the walls and furniture were clean, and the lemon scent…enough said. It was the same layout as Lucy's apartment but mirrored. The kitchen was now to the left of the door, the same window opening between that and the living room, except the couch was beneath the opening and the TV was against the wall. No coffee table, however.

Michael sat in his room, alone with Melanie, while Gabriel and Cinder sat in front of the TV and ate pizza that Gabriel ordered. Most of the time, there was no conversation. Cinder was never one to show gratitude, and Gabriel quickly caught onto that. They continued watching random shows until the clock struck ten.

"Well, hope you liked the pizza." Gabriel said, gathering the paper plates for the garbage can and the remaining slices for the fridge, Cinder not making a sound. Five minutes later, Gabriel turned out the kitchen light and prepared for a goodnight's rest.

He looked at Cinder. "The, uh, blankets are underneath the couch. Cushions should work for pillows…"

His kindness was only met with more silence from the maiden. The man had given up, until he heard a faint, "Thank you" coming from Cinder. He hid his smile and walked to his room.

Even Cinder felt weird saying it. Trying to shake it off, Cinder grabbed an afghan from underneath the couch and leaned her head against a large cushion, drifting off into a deep slumber.

It was 6:30 in the morning and young girl could hear someone knocking on the door. A tall man stood outside in the hallway, knocking and whispering for the girl's name.

"Ruby? Ruby, are you awake?" The man asked.

The young girl rose from her bed, her hair a mess and breath wreaking, and realized the situation. Quick as a flash and careful not to disturb Weiss, she got up from the bed and sprinted to the door, opening it to reveal general Ironwood.

"Get dressed. Ozpin's waiting for us at the training ground." The tin man ordered.

"Mhmm…already?" Ruby complained.

"You're the one who wanted to learn how to utilize her eyes, correct? Get downstairs to the foyer and we'll begin your training."

Fifteen minutes later, Ruby was dressed with her scythe holstered and ready to begin.

"So…how long is all of this going to take? Like a week, right?" Ruby asked, reluctantly yet hopeful.

"I don't know. They're your eyes, so it'll take as long as you need." The general replied.

"…Two weeks?"

"Depending on your ability to learn, I could care less if it takes months." Ruby's jaw dropped in stress. "Regardless, we're not wasting a single moment. We've already placed the relic in its new vault, and if your eyes can help in our defense against Salem, then you're top priority."

Cinder had on a pair of Gabriel's jeans that had the cuffs rolled u, and a belt that latched onto its final hole. Thankfully, Lucy never knocked on the door asking for her tennis shoes back, otherwise Cinder might have had to be using boots that resembled clown shoes. Aside from that, she wore the same sweatshirt as before and now had the black glove on her other arm. She stood outside on the boarding house's stoop, waiting for Audwine to arrive, and 7:00 AM on the dot he arrived. Pulling up in his car and opening the passenger door for her, the two began the drive to the dust mine.

"You, uh, comfortable?" He asked, getting a weird gaze from Cinder. "It's just that…your clothing looks…uncomfortable."

"If I'm working in the mines, I can't wear jean shorts. I just want to get started, okay?"

"Well, good thing I thought ahead and brought these." He showed her a pair of mining boots.

Cinder reluctantly put them on, her only verbal response being a pessimistic, "Right…"

With impatience pouring out of her tone, Audwine shifted the car into drive and within a half-hour, the two had reached a parking lot underneath the mountain. Built within the large structure was the office building combined with a refinery, and on the refinery's wall was the crest of the Schnee Dust Company.

"We're here!" Audwine said, smiling at Cinder, though not getting any response from her.

The two exited the car and began walking towards the massive crowd of workers. To the far east, there was another crowd of workers, all of whom had animal features on their bodies.

"So…is that like a separate division?" Cinder asked.

"Not exactly…all of those workers are faunas, and, after the passing of your father, prejudices have increased since. Jacque Schnee bought the company from us soon after Solar's death and transferred most of his faunas workers down here from Atlas."

The two made their way into the office building, the crowd of faunas giving off death stares. Audwine filled out her paperwork and gave her a hardhat. Within an hour, they had taken a ride down the diagonal elevator and were down in the mine, human and faunas miners pushing carts and crates holding dust crystals. Most were conversing, talking about their kids' birthdays or their anniversaries. One guy going off about how upset he was that his favorite sports team lost.

They reached the end of the mine and entered a large space with catwalks and workers loading and pushing dust carts along the rails. Audwine led Cinder to two large men, probably in their forties, pulling out dust.

"Scotty, Gus! I brought you boys a new friend!" Audwine announced to them.

The two men turned around, their faces lighting up at seeing Cinder and extending their hands to shake hers.

"Pleased to meet ya', little lady. I'm scotty." The larger man in a white shirt, overalls, and blonde beard and moustache said.

"Same here. I'm Gus!" The slimmer man with a clean-shaven face said, his eyebrows showing his hair to be dark brown.

"C-Cinder…" She said, though not reluctantly.

Cinder felt safe, their smiles providing a comforting jubilation.

"Well, Cinder, our job is mining through the earth for dust crystals and minerals, and packing 'em into these carts. Just push 'em up the rail to the guys upstairs until the whistle blows at the end of the day!" Scotty explained.

All said and done, Audwine went back upstairs and Scotty and Gus filled the cart to the brim with blue dust. Now it was Cinder's turn. The men offered to help her, but she declined and, using her aura, pushed the cart up at a twenty-degree angle towards the center of the space. She moved it into a group of other full carts and noticed a few empty ones. As another worker took a full cart away, Cinder grabbed an empty one and brought it back down to Scotty and Gus.

"Not the worst job I've ever had." She thought to herself.

Inhale. Exhale. Remember the good time, then the bad. Earlier that day, Ruby sat in the middle of a sparring ring, similar to the one at Beacon, a perfect circle surrounded by twelve knights, evenly spaced between each other.

"So…uh…what would you like me to do?" Ruby asked.

"We've determined your eyes trigger their abilities only when you're under some form of stress." Ozpin answered, fifteen meters ahead of Ruby. "This may sound a bit too much to ask, Miss Rose, but you'll need to recall one of the times you've triggered them."

Ruby did recall such a time, one she hoped would stay buried in the recesses of her mind. As she tried to reach into such recesses, an image of a smiling Pyrrha took full screen on her closed eyelids, and they began to overflow.

"I…I can't…" Ruby said, her voice cracking.

"Miss Rose, I understand this is painful for you, however, if we're going to figure out the pattern to its trigger, we'll need you to revisit unpleasant places." Ozpin assured.

Ruby looked down at her crisscrossed legs and tried again. From the food fight between teams RWBY and JNPR, to their time at the Vytal Festival, and finally at the deaths of Penny and Pyrrha. Her eyes couldn't take much more. Soon, they overflowed, and, behind the tightened and twitching eyelids, a glow was born and tried to push through.

Ruby could feel it and instinctively opened her eyes, killing the glow altogether.

Ironwood stood next to Ozpin. "Well, that's a start. At least our hypothesis was correct in that it is connected to stress, but can she use it without relying on feelings?"

"Well, that's all part of the journey. I have a few theories on how she can control it and we'll work at it every day. We'll take notes on everything she does, and, hopefully, she'll be the key to bringing Salem down once and for all."

"Oz…" Oscar called out to the man. "…Can I have my body back? You've been in control all day now.

The Monday Cinder came home, she felt exhausted and laid on Gabriel's couch, passing out almost immediately. "Guess…this is my life now." She thought. When he tried to wake her up for dinner, he was only greeted with her grabbing his hand and showing off her flaming eye, to which he slowly backed up and allowed the maiden to fall into a deep slumber.

Ruby crawled back into bed that night at around 8PM, all 6 of her teammates playing video games and Spin the bottle. She tried to go to sleep, until Yang opened a bag of chocolate chip cookies and the young silver-eyed-girl used her semblance to grab it and sprint out the door.

The next day wasn't as bad. Cinder got used to pushing the cart and the comedic banter between Scotty and Gus caught her ear, but she did nothing in response besides continue her job.

Come that day's afternoon, Ruby had gotten used to seeing Pyrrha vaporize in her mind. Did this mean she no longer cared for her friend's death? No, that couldn't be it. Did finally accept it? Well, there was no denying it nor hoping she would just walk through the door, unscathed, like it never happened. She had to accept it. She sat there in total silence expecting nothing but this string of thoughts to continue…until she felt her eyes glowing again. She opened them, and they remained glowing for a few seconds before going out again. Ozpin found this intriguing and told her to repeat the process.

Wednesday went about as well as the day before. Cinder managed to push more carts than any of the other miners, getting the company ahead of schedule. This time, however, Gus mentioned his single son and how he'd wish "that boy met a girl like her". Cinder intervened, asking what Gus meant by that. The man simply replied that she was a hard worker, had good looks, and a quiet personality; something, he claimed, "would make any guy happy." Cinder blushed but quickly moved on, continuing the day by herself. Once coming home, Gabriel was already on her couch. When he noticed her and prepared to move, Cinder didn't stop him but didn't feel any reason to ask him to stay. It was his decision.

This day, Ruby finally accepted what Cinder did. Now that she was dead too, hopefully this meant Pyrrha truly was avenged. Even then, what good was vengeance if evil still existed in the form of Salem. She believed that that was her greatest fear, the existence of an unstoppable evil and none of her friends were safe. However, the least she could do is be there for everyone; stay strong for their sake and protect what Pyrrha held so dear.

Thursday was born, beginning with Cinder waiting on the stoop in anticipation. For once, she actually wanted to go to work. Today, however, had her digging deeper into the mines with Scotty pushing the cart up the rail. Gus asked Cinder where she was from, to which she decided to keep it a secret. Gus told her he was from the city and raised his family in Fegefeuer, and that he wouldn't want to be anywhere else. This only made Cinder question the city's reputation. Did all come from Lucy's reputation as a powerful killer? Later that day, Cinder came back to Gabriel's at the usual time only to find a note on her couch that read "Movie night - I'll be working late – pasta and Ice Cream in the fridge".

Ruby, with full acceptance of Pyrrha's and Penny's death and knowing who she had left, managed to keep her eyes glowing. The girl stood up and tried her semblance. With one push off her heel, she moved faster than ever, made apparent when she smacked face-first into a pillar. Ozpin and Ironwood looked away, practically feeling the pain.

Friday was here. Ruby trained in Atlas yet made no progress in controlling her eyes for more than ten seconds. Cinder, however, didn't know if she should feel ecstatic to sleep in, or depressed that this meant spending two days on Gabriel's couch, possibly forced to converse with him. The day went on as always, Audwine making jokes about the weekend and presumably going into the bars to spend all his money. If not that, then spending time with his son at the bars and spending all of his money instead. The day was no different than before. Just Scotty and Gus being there usual upbeat selves. Seeing them being grateful and cracking jokes, especially ones intended to make her laugh.

"And then I tell him, 'Did you know round hay bales are becoming illegal? S'cause they're not giving the cattle a square meal.' And he couldn't stop laughing." Gus joked, Scotty laughing along and Cinder cringing at the horrific dad joke.

BLAM! The ground shook and the lights above danced as they flickered. Screaming was instantly heard further back in the intersection of the mine halls. The three workers ran up to see the commotion to see most of the workers all staring at the same cave.

"What happened?!" Scotty yelled.

"We don't know. This cave was filled with red dust, so we think someone may have caused an explosion." A random worker said.

"Has anyone gone down there yet?"

"What, are you crazy? The cave might collapse with us down there. Besides, it's just faunas. Who cares if we lose them?"

Before anyone realized it, Gus was already pushing through the crowd and into the cave.

"Gus! Don't!" Scotty yelled to his friend, Cinder staring in shock, wondering what was going to happen next.

BLAM! Another explosion, this one closer to them. As the reached the end of the cave, they found a goat faunas, male in his fifties, half buried in the rubble and out cold. Beside him was an arm emerging from the rubble. Gus made a grab for the arm and began digging his way towards the body, hoping its owner hadn't suffocated under the debris. With a few strong heaves and pulls, he eventually got the man out just as another explosion could be heard behind the rocks, quaking the ground and walls around them. Realizing he had no time to save both, Gus made the next logical decision.

"Help! Someone, come down here! Anyone!" He shouted.

The people above could hear him, yet no one responded immediately.

"Who-Who's going down there?" A random miner asked.

"I got kids! I can't go down there!" Another miner answered.

Kids. Cinder recalled, along with a plethora of memories from her childhood, Gus saying he had son. Without even thinking, Cinder took one step closer to the cave as her coworkers continued bickering. She continued approaching until she could hear his voice crying out again and rushed down.

"CINDER! DON-" Scotty shouted, only to be interrupted by another explosion and a little wall dust falling from the ceiling several stories above.

"Scotty, c'mon we need to leave!" A miner yelled at him.

"Not until they get out of there!" He shouted back.

Cinder continued down into the cave until she could no longer see, relying on Gus's shouting for direction. She created a flame in her hand and continued further down. For what was only four seconds, yet felt like an eternity, she found Gus making his way upward towards her, pulling the goat faunas with his left arm around the waist and the second miner, a human male presumably in her thirties, being pulled by the wrist in Gus's right hand. He still had his flashlight strapped to his hardhat, yet it flickered from time to time.

"Cinder! Thank Gods you're here! Here, take the girl in my left arm! This cave could collapse any minute!" Gus shouted.

Cinder obeyed and took the woman onto her shoulders, a faint breathing escaping her lips but blood trickling down from her right crown. With nothing holding them back, the two miners rushed upwards toward the exit, waiting in anticipation for when the entrance hole would appear.

BLAM! Another explosion, this time from their rear-right side. Gus managed to keep going but Cinder fell down from the force. Gus stopped to make sure she was alright, but as she got up, debris fell behind them and Cinder looked back. Gus shouted her name, but to no avail; the girl was stuck in a trance.

Spilling out of the debris were flames of red which spread to the walls and the crystals within them as well began to volatize. Cinder's mind was trapped, all her attention focusing on the image of the barn, when Lucy cornered her on top of the hay and nearly set the entire structure ablaze, all with a sadistic grin on her face. All she could see was the albino demon standing in front of the seeping flames in the debris, only to be woken up by a hard tug of her hair.

"SNAP OUT OF IT! WE NEED TO LEAVE!" Gus shouted at her.

Once realizing the circumstance, Cinder grabbed the miner and sprinted upwards until they saw the entrance.

BLAM! Another explosion erupted the walls and sent all four miners falling face first. The ceiling above was cracking, sending fearful chills down their spines. The floor they stood on was to shaky to walk on, the ceiling and walls were caving in, and they still had the two unconscious miners laying on top of both of them. More crystals around them began to volatize and glow a Hellish red.

Cinder looked into Gus's eyes, ones overflowing with fear and despair. He looked into hers, expecting the same, yet surprised to see her eye go from despair to angry to…glowing?

The memory of her father's slaughter; the memory of Ruby Rose cutting off her arm and blasting her left eye with her scythe; Raven pushing her off the side of the maiden vault platform and freezing her solid. She hated all of it; the despair and helplessness. She'd had it.

"No! Not…AGAIN!" The thoughts roared in her mind as the dust crystals began to ignite.

BOOM! A cloud of red and black smoke poured out of the cave and the sound of falling rocks deep down left a foreboding atmosphere in the remaining workers at the cave entrance. Scotty went from standing in despair to falling on his knees in depression. Was a young woman and his friend truly dead? All for nothing? All for what could only be chalked up as a mining accident in the newspaper?

Suddenly, a claw emerged from the cave and planted its razor-sharp talons into the solid mine floor, startling Scotty and pushing him back on his butt. He recognized the claw almost immediately.

"Grimm?" He thought.

The rubble began to shift further down in the cave and emerging from it was a sphere of aura and Cinder at the center of it. She wore a face that perfectly mixed anger and determination while Gus wore one of confusion, more in that they weren't dead.

Though he didn't realize it, Cinder actually had her grimm arm wrapped around his waist, and she forced the both of them through the debris. With the last of the volatile crystals glowing and preparing to detonate, Cinder placed her body closer to his and, with one strong pull of her arm, slingshot all four of them up to the exit.

They all landed out of the explosion's radius, Cinder landing at Scotty's feet. Everyone was quick to grab Gus and the two workers yet were hesitant to grab Cinder, who got up to see a crowd of confused and fearful eyes upon her.

More explosions could be heard deep down in the cave, cuing everyone's time to leave. Within minutes, all the workers made it to the elevator and reached the surface.

No one spoke for minutes on end. Two pairs of miners were busy giving CPR to the two victims and Gus was being examined by Scotty. Cinder laid back against the elevator, feeling more shaken up than ever before, while everyone else waited silently in their respective coworker circles. Why did she just run into the cave, especially impulsively? What were two strangers' lives to her? Once both men were resuscitated, an argument immediately ignited.

"You damn mongrel! I told you and your damned friend to be careful with those crystals! Now looked what happ-" The human miner shouted at the faunas miner, stopping upon feeling the pain from the chest compressions.

"You saying it's our fault?! My friend died back there and this is how you honor his death?!" The goat faunas yelled in anger, trying to stay still as to not repeat the human miner's pain.

A few seconds later, sides were visible between human and faunas miners. Just as things appeared to become a brawl, Cinder stepped forward.

"Alright! Break it up!" She shouted, all miners' eyes focused on her now. "Gods, you're all so annoying. I don't need to hear grown men and women fighting like little kids on the playground, especially after almost getting crushed and suffocated at the same damn time!"

She may as well have stopped speaking altogether, however, as all the workers looked beneath her face in shock. Cinder looked down only for her eye to widen at the exposed grimm arm. She looked back at the crowd of workers, covering her arm and hiding it, as they all backed off in fear. Any optimism in Cinder's being was now dying. This had to be it; she was screwed. She'd be fired and probably be forced to find work somewhere else, provided rumors didn't spread like wildfire. Even Fegefeuer was no longer available.

Just as the crowd began to back up and Cinder felt only despair, Gus emerged from the crowd, his right hand holding his ribs, and approached the young woman. Their eyes met, Gus's calmer yet had a sense of superiority as opposed to Cinder's sense of inferiority.

Gabriel then turned to the crowd. "Y'know, when I was her age, this town used to be so peaceful and everyone got along. Now we're all fighting and acting racist in front of a young woman who put herself in danger to save a human and a faunas."

Gus looked towards Cinder again and raised his hand to her at waist level, fingers extended and palm visible. Cinder could only feel surprise.

"Thank you." Gus said to her, the miners behind him unable to take their eyes off of the situation. "Now…I can go home and give my son another reason why any guy'd be lucky to have you."

Cinder blushed upon hearing that. She looked back at his hand and raised her grimm arm to shake it. The crowd then began to surround the duo, the two injured miners watching from a distance, then looked back at each other with regret in both of their expressions. Clapping from Scotty could be heard in the back of the crowd, and within seconds, everyone shared in this new atmosphere of optimism with a symphony of clapping and whistles.

She couldn't help but look back on the crowd of miners all facing her with compassion in all their eyes. For the first time in years, Cinder felt, not satisfied nor pleased nor anything of the sort, but happiness. Genuine happiness.