Well, this chapter took much longer for me to get out than I was expecting. I ran into several unexpected real life problems during the process of writing it. Mainly, my laptop that I've had for five years just decided to die on me, so I had to go get a new one and transfer everything from my old laptop's hard drive (where all of my files are, including the document that I write this story in), and transfer all of them onto the hard drive of my new laptop.
The whole process was a huge pain, and it delayed the progress on a lot of the personal projects I was working on, including this one. But here I am now, finally able to release this newest chapter after sorting everything out. This is a chapter that I've been looking forward to releasing for a very long time, as it deals with the tragic backstory of a certain character in RWBY that we still don't really know much about, despite how big of a role they have had in the events of the story so far.
The group of Ruby, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Hans were now well into the Kingdom of Mistral, and the city where Haven Academy was located was just starting come into view in the distance as they followed the road. To pass the time, Ruby and Hans had decided to tell Jaune, Ren, and Nora a story of something they had once done in their childhood.
"So after that, we both dared each other to jump off the swing at the same time while in midair, and see if we could land right on the branch of a really big tree nearby." said Ruby. "It didn't go too well. We stuck the landing, but we were going too fast that we came down so hard that the branch broke and hit us both between the legs. It hurt so badly, even for me. After that, we were both peeing blood for about a week."
"And that is the story of the dumbest thing we've ever done as kids." said Hans.
"That sounds... painful." said Ren.
"Wow, that was definitely a stupid thing to do." said Jaune. "Why would you do that?"
"Kids do stupid things all the time." said Hans. "You've probably also done some stupid dares as a kid too that you're too embarrassed to talk about."
"It seemed like a good idea at the time." said Ruby. "But we obviously didn't think it all the way through."
"Look, there's the city." said Ren, pointing out their destination on the map he was holding in his hands, and comparing it to the large city they now saw standing before them. "We're here at last. Now we just have to get to Haven Academy from here."
"Time to get started on our search for answers then." said Jaune.
As the group entered the city, they were awestruck by how different it was compared to the city of Vale. It had a more futuristic look to it, and it gave off a much cleaner appearance with a sparkling natural beauty to it. They spent the next few hours wandering the city and taking in all the sights and sounds, using their time to fully explore it and get a feel for the area. Finally, they reached a large plaza that led into the grounds of what appeared to be a large facility similar in size and appearance to Beacon Academy.
"After all those detours we took, and the sightseeing we did, we finally found the place." said Jaune, panting and sitting down on a nearby bench, exhausted, and the others joined him too. "We could have come here sooner without wasting as much time, but Nora just haaaddd to go see everything there was to see in this city."
"At least we had fun doing it." said Ruby. "It was just what we needed to lift our spirits, since we've all been so down in the dumps lately."
"We might as well enjoy ourselves, since we might never get another chance like this again." said Hans.
"What's our next move Ruby?" asked Ren. "Haven is where Cinder Fall came from, and now we're finally here, so what do we do now?"
"I... don't know." said Ruby, shrugging and blushing.
"Wait, Ruby don't tell me..." Jaune began to say, horrified. "You spent all that time focused on getting us here that you never even stopped to think about what we would do once we got here?"
"Maybe...kind of... yes..." said Ruby, feeling embarrassed.
"You know what they say." said Nora. "It's not the destination that matters, but the journey."
"But this is backwards." said Jaune, sounding somewhat annoyed and frustrated. "Usually it happens the other way around. Someone would be so focused on getting to their destination and accomplishing their goal that they would forget to enjoy the journey there, but we did the exact opposite, enjoying the journey, but not having any idea what we'd do once we reached the destination. What was our goal to begin with anyway?"
"Looking for clues I guess." said Hans.
"What, like one of those old cartoons about a gang of teenagers solving mysteries with their dog?" said Jaune, sarcastically. "We should have brought Zwei with us, then we'd have the full package."
"Wow, you guys really are hopeless without me, aren't you." said a voice, which came from behind the group.
Startled by this, everyone immediately turned around to see who it was, and they were surprised to find Weiss Schnee standing there in the grass behind them, with a smug and triumphant look on her face.
"Weiss!" Ruby shouted in surprise, as she got up and hugged her friend and teammate. "I've missed you so much."
Everyone else then got up and greeted Weiss as well, happy to see their friend who had been absent for the past few months.
"It's good to see you guys too." said Weiss, smiling. "I'm glad you're all here." Weiss then took notice of Hans and turned towards him. Hello, I don't believe I've met you."
"Ah, so you must be the Ice Princess Weiss Schnee that Ruby has told me so much about." said Hans. "I don't know if they've told you before, but I'm actually a close friend of Ruby and Yang. My name is Hans Quicksilver."
"Oh, now I remember." said Weiss. "Ruby and Yang have mentioned you before. You're the kid that once climbed onto the roof of the bell tower at Signal Academy because of a dare, and then Ruby had go up there and get you because you were too scared to come down on your own, and the whole school watched and laughed, right? Ruby and Yang used to always tell the funniest stories about you." Weiss then started to laugh a bit as she recalled the story.
"What!?" exclaimed Hans. "Ruby, you told her about that?" Hans now felt thoroughly embarrassed. "I was only going up there because those bullies put my stuff up there and made me do it, but it's just that I'm so terrified of heights."
"I came up there to help you overcome your fear Hans." said Ruby. "I'd heard that the best way for someone to overcome a fear is to have a friend there with you to walk you through it. But that only seemed to make it worse, and I had to rescue you instead. You were latched onto me like a scared kitten the whole way down."
"Wait a minute, how did you even find us Weiss?" asked Jaune, suddenly changing the subject, seeing that Hans was beginning to turn red now.
"I found out from Yang." said Weiss. "I tried calling Ruby's house in Patch the other day to see how she and Yang were doing, but only Yang was there. Yang told me that I had just missed Ruby, and that she had left a few days before with Jaune, Ren, and Nora to go to Mistral. The rest was easy for me to figure out once I applied logic. Since you were looking for information on Cinder Fall, I figured that you would most likely be going to Haven Academy first for answers, considering that is the school Cinder Fall had been posing as a student from, at least as far as we know. You already had a head start on me of just a few days, but since my home in the Kingdom was Atlas was much closer to Mistral then Ruby's home in Vale is, I was certain that I would be able to reach Haven Academy first. After that, all I had to do was just wait here for you until you arrived, and I was right."
"That's our Weiss for you." said Ruby, proudly. "She's always thinking ten steps ahead of everyone else."
"I see." said Hans, thinking to himself and then coming up with a question to ask. "I know, Weiss, what do you think our next move should be? We're kind of lost on what to do now that we've reached our destination."
"Now we do some research." said Weiss. "If Cinder Fall was indeed a student at Haven Academy, and a resident of this city, then there should be records of it somewhere, either at Haven Academy itself, or in the public records of the city."
"Where do we start then?" asked Hans.
"The best place to start would be in the records archive stored within the CCT Tower here at Haven." said Weiss. "Even though cross continental communications across Remnant with the CCT towers has been cut off after what happened at Beacon, within each Kingdom's tower there should still be a digital archive of all of that Kingdom's records and information from before the signal was lost. They can still be accessed offline, but in order to do that you would have to go into the tower itself and log into one of the terminals there."
"That sounds simply enough." said Hans.
"Normally it would be." said Weiss, continuing. "However, now it's different. Ever since Cinder's infiltration into Vale's CCT tower, and what happened because of it, all of the other Kingdoms have become very protective of their own remaining CCT Towers. They've heavily restricted access to the towers. Only those who have been given the proper clearance are allowed access to the CCT Towers now. Even though the towers can't send messages to each other anymore, they still have a lot of important and sensitive information from each Kingdom stored in them that they want to keep protected, so it's understandable."
"That's just great." said Jaune. "How are we supposed to get access now that the tower is guarded like a bank vault?"
"There's no need to worry." said Weiss, smiling as if she knew something that they didn't. "I'll be able to get us all the clearance we'll need. My status and influence as a member of the Schnee Family can help get me into a lot of places, including the CCT Tower here in Haven. This shouldn't be much of a problem."
"Wow, you're a real life saver Weiss." said Hans.
"What would we ever do without you Weiss?" said Ruby. "You always seem to have a solution to everything."
"Alright then soldiers, onward, to the CCT Tower!" said Nora, enthusiastically. "But we'll have to change our name again. We can't be the Fearsome Five anymore." She stopped to think for a moment. "Now we're the Spectacular Six!"
"What is she talking about?" asked Weiss, with a look of confusion.
"Don't worry about it." said Ren. "Just play along."
The group then got up and began walking through the campus of Haven Academy and towards the CCT Tower. On their way there, they passed by many of the students of Haven Academy who going about their daily lives on the campus, some of which they even recognized as having taken part in the Vytal Festival. As they made their way to the tower, Ruby and Weiss remained at the back of the group, and when the others were too far away to hear them, Weiss began speaking to Ruby in private.
"Hey Ruby, there's something I've been wanting to ask you." said Weiss.
"What is it Weiss?" asked Ruby.
"How is everyone doing now?" asked Weiss. "You know, after what happened at Beacon, and now that Pyrrha is gone?" Weiss made sure to choose her words carefully, so as not to unintentionally bring back any lingering bad memories that Ruby might still have of the day Beacon fell.
"So far we've all been able to accept what happened and move on." said Ruby. "But it has left scars on all of us that we can never forget. I can't really speak for Yang and Blake at the moment, but I've mostly gotten over it. Ren and Nora both seem to be taking it very well too. Even Hans, who had a bad experience of his own when his team was killed by Grimm that night seems to be taking it pretty well, though I suspect there are some details he's not telling me about it that he wants to keep to himself."
"That's good to hear." said Weiss. "I'm about the same as you. Being stuck at home for all those months gave me plenty of time to process and rationalize it all. Now I'm doing fine. I feel like I'm back to how I was before."
"Overall, I think we've adjusted pretty well, however, there's still Jaune." said Ruby. "He says he's moved on and that it doesn't bother him anymore, but it's obvious that he's just putting on an act just to look strong. He was the closest to Pyrrha, and her death has probably affected him the most. He's probably bottling up all of his feelings because he doesn't want us to see how fragile he is on the inside. I can tell right away because I've seen this before. My dad was the same way for a while after my mom died."
"I see." said Weiss. "Jaune does seem a little different now. I hope he's going to be okay. I just want to make sure that if we're all going to be a team again that everyone is fine both physically and mentally. We all need to be on the same page. If there's anything that's bothering us, we should be able to openly discuss it and help each other out. That's what friends are for after all."
"I'm glad to know that you care too." said Ruby. "Now that Beacon is gone, the road ahead of us will be much harder, and at times we might even feel lost. If we're going to get through this new stage in our lives, we need to support each other."
The group finally reached the entrance to the CCT Tower, and at the entrance stood two armed guards. Weiss showed the guards her identification card, proving she was a member of the Schnee Family. She told them that she was there to conduct some business associated with the Schnee Dust Corporation, and that the group with her were her assistants. The guards then allowed them to enter, and they took the elevator to the top floor where all the computer terminals were. Upon exiting the elevator, they noticed that the place was unexpectedly packed. The room was filled all sorts of people, ranging from government officials, news and business people, Haven Academy staff, and even some students.
There was even a Haven Academy teacher there who was holding a class with her students in the corner of the room, using an overhead projector to study and examine a map of Remnant from the time of the Great War. Among the students in the corner of the room, Ruby and her friends could recognize the members of team ABRN, and judging by the expression of their faces, they recognized them too, and the two groups quickly smiled and waved to each other. As this was going on, a group of four male students then approached the class sitting in the corner of the room, carrying with them a rather large and heavy looking piece of machinery or equipment that they then set down on the floor next to the students.
"That took a while, but we finally managed to bring it up here in one piece without breaking it, though Scarlet didn't seem to be help much with that." said one of the four students, who they recognized as Sun Wukong. "Scarlet, you almost broke the dang thing when we were trying to fit it into the elevator and you dropped it on my foot."
"Sorry Sun, but it was so heavy." said the other student, who was Scarlet David. "I lost my grip when Neptune distracted me."
"Oh yeah, sure blame it on me." said the third boy, sarcastically, who was Neptune Vasilias.
"Come on guys, don't start this again." said the fourth boy, Sage Ayana, who was trying to mediate between them. "Forget about that already, we've still got more work to do. It's time for us to go back down and bring up the rest of the equipment. At least be glad that we got the worst of it out of the way first."
The group consisting of the four members of Team SSSN then started to walk away towards the door, passing by Ruby and her friends seemingly without noticing, and then disappeared beyond the doorway. Then, one of the boys, Sun, suddenly did a double take and immediately went back into the room and ran over to them.
"Ruby, Jaune, Ren, Nora, is that you?" asked Sun, sounding surprised.
"Hello Sun." said Ruby, causally.
"I almost didn't even recognize you." said Sun. "I thought my eyes were just playing tricks on me. What are you guys doing here?"
"It's kind of a long story." said Ruby. "So, what are you up to Sun?"
"My team and I, we've been helping out around the school recently with all sorts of things." said Sun. "Ever since the CCT Tower network went offline, things have been pretty chaotic around here, and so some of the older students have been tasked with setting up a local network here at the school. We were bringing in some radio equipment into the tower just now before you showed up."
"You're the only one that seemed to notice us Sun..." said Weiss, somewhat disappointed that Neptune hadn't noticed her at all before leaving.
"After we bring up all the rest of the equipment, we've got some free time." said Sun. "We can talk some more then."
"That's great." said Weiss. "I'm wondering if you could maybe help us with something when you're done. There's something we're looking for in the records archive here, and since you're familiar with Haven, being a student here and all, you might be able to help us find it."
"I'll see what I can do." said Sun.
As the minutes passed, Sun and his team eventually returned to help Ruby and her friends. The two groups of friends did some catching up with each other and explained their situations, getting a better understanding for what they were trying to do, and how things had progressed to where they were now.
"I see, so that's what everyone has been up to these past few months, and I thought we had it rough." said Sun. "I'm glad to know that Blake is still out there somewhere, and that she didn't just leave us behind for no reason."
"Alright, so what was the name of this person you needed to look up?" asked Neptune, joining in. "I'm pretty good with computers, so I can help you there."
"This sounds like the perfect job for me and Neptune." said Sun. "With our expert detective skills, we'll definitely be able to help you dig up some information on them."
"It's Cinder Fall." said Ruby. "She and her team had claimed to be students from Haven Academy of Mistral when they were participating in the Vytal Festival. We need to know if that's true or not. She's the one responsible for everything that happened at Beacon. Finding out more about Cinder will help us get to the bottom of this, if that's even her real name that is."
"Okay, let's see, Cinder Fall." Neptune typed out her name into the Haven Academy student registry database as he said it, and then he looked at the results. "Well, it looks as though ours suspicions were right. There was no student named Cinder Fall who was attending Haven Academy when she claimed to be. The same thing goes for her team mates. They were all probably using aliases." Neptune took a few moments to skim through some of the other results that had shown up, and then noticed something. "But wait, it's telling me that there was a student here by that name in the past, almost twenty years ago."
"Twenty years ago?" asked Weiss. "Could they possibly be the same person? See if you can find any pictures of her, like registration photos or graduation pictures."
Neptune clicked on one of the results and up came a picture of a girl who looked to be about Ruby's age with a very cute and innocent appearance, and she bared a striking resemblance to Cinder Fall, although much younger.
"That's weird." said Hans. "Could it be a relative?"
"No, that's her." said Ruby, with a strong certainty in her voice. "I couldn't forget that face anywhere."
"I guess she wasn't lying about being Haven at least, though it's probably only half the truth." said Hans. "They say the best lies are those with some element of truth mixed into them. So she attended Haven and become and Huntress here. What other sorts of stuff does it say about her?"
"It looks like she had quite a distinguished past." said Neptune. He looked at the titles of all the records, files, journals and news reports regarding Cinder Fall and read them out loud. "Star pupil Cinder Fall Achieves Top of Her Class at Haven Academy, Becoming a Model student". "Student Cinder Fall and Her Team Achieve Victory for Haven Academy in the 30th Vytal Festival, Held in Mistral". "Student Cinder Fall Graduates from Haven Academy as a Huntress with Top Honors".
"How does someone like that end up going so wrong?" asked Ruby. "From the sound of it, she had her whole life ahead of her."
"Some of these news reports from later years seem to paint a different picture." said Neptune, who continued to read out the titles of the news articles. "Huntress Cinder Fall Defeats a Roving Horde of Grimm to Prevent the Destruction of a River Dam, Averting a Major Disaster, But Loses Two Team Mates". "Rebel Insurrection Breaks Out in Mistral, Causing Mass Destruction, With Many Left Dead or Homeless in its Wake". "Huntress Cinder Fall Organizes and Rallies the Militia Forces of Mistral For a Counteroffensive, Completely Wiping Out the Rebels After Losing her Own Family in the Process". "Huntress Cinder Fall, Hailed as a Hero for Ending the Rebel Insurrection in Mistral Mysteriously Disappears Without a Trace."
"It seems to me like her life just completely fell apart after a while." said Hans. "It was one tragedy after another."
"I had no idea Cinder Fall had this sort of a past." said Ruby, shocked.
As the group sat there looking through the archives and databases for more information on Cinder Fall, they started to learn much more about her, and began to piece together a picture of what her life might have been like in her early years, and what had happened to her in the past to make her the way she was now.
*flashback*
The story of Cinder Fall's life began quite differently than one would come to expect when looking at how she turned. The woman known as Cinder Fall was born in the Kingdom of Mistral almost forty years ago. Having lost her parents early in life and become an orphan, Cinder was raised by her aunt and uncle, who loved her and almost viewed her as their own child. She dreamed of one day becoming a Huntress, and once she was old enough she inevitably applied to Haven Academy in Mistral, and was accepted almost immediately. During the days of her youth, Cinder Fall was a much different person than she is now. This cute and innocent school girl of Haven Academy was actually once much like Ruby Rose was during her days at Beacon, filled with the same happy, cheery enthusiasm that she once had. This infectiously bubbly personality of Cinder's always seemed to continuously motivate her to follow her dreams and aspirations no matter what, and nothing ever seemed to keep her down.
As the years at Haven Academy passed, Cinder's abilities grew exponentially, like that of a true prodigy, and she excelled in all of her classes. She became one of the most skilled Huntresses at Haven Academy, and she was looked upon as an exemplary student and role model. She had many friends there, and was well liked by nearly everyone, both student and teacher alike. It was also during her years at Haven Academy that Cinder would meet the person who would one day be the love of her life and future husband. He was a boy named Onyx Rouge, who was also a member of the same Hunter team as Cinder, then known as Team COAL. The members of Team COAL were some of Haven Academy's most skilled and experienced students, and four of them had even succeeded in winning the 30th Vytal Festival that had been held that year in Mistral, with Cinder Fall winning the final round. Eventually, the years passed and the four of them reached the end of their time at Haven Academy and eventually graduated, with Cinder being awarded several prestigious honors.
Even though they were now full-fledged Hunters and no longer students of Haven Academy, the members of Team COAL still remained in close contact in the years that followed, and they often went on missions together when they were called upon to do so. One day however, one of their missions proved to be much more than they had bargained for, and it ended in tragedy, the first of many in Cinder Fall's life. It started when Team COAL had been called upon to stop a horde of Grimm that had attacked a heavily populated town situated near a large river dam. From what they could tell, these Grimm seemed to be attempting to destroy the dam and flood the nearby town, something which Cinder and her team could not allow.
These Grimm however were particularity unusual, being a group of about twenty Grimm with humanoid forms and blank mask-like features where their faces would be. Unbeknownst to them, they had actually come across a rare species of Grimm known as Revenants, which were known to appear every so often in the world of Remnant and cause trouble before disappearing just as mysteriously. Although the Revenant type Grimm didn't seem to be particularity intelligent despite their humanoid forms, Cinder and her team gravely underestimated them. What these Grimm lacked in intelligence, they made up for with their amazing speed and tenacity, which proved deadly when combined with their long razor sharp teeth and claws. It was a hard fought battle, but in the end they managed to kill all of them, and right in the nick of time before they could accomplish their goal, but it came at a great cost. During the battle, Cinder's teammates Aqua and Lavender were killed, having sacrificed themselves to stop the Grimm from destroying the dam.
After the battle, Cinder Fall was hailed as a local hero of sorts by the people of Mistral for her role in stopping a huge potential disaster, but to her and Onyx, the true heroes who had stopped the Grimm had been Aqua and Lavender. The incident had left a hole in the hearts of Cinder and Onyx, but in time they were able to mend their wounds and move on with their lives. Due to their close bond, Cinder and Onyx inevitably fell in love with each other as they grew into adulthood, and they eventually got married, finding happiness with each other. As the years passed, they even started a family and had two children. They had a daughter named Ember, and a son named Ash, and together to four of them peacefully lived out their lives together as one big happy family.
Many years later however, all of that changed on one fateful day; a day in which everything Cinder knew and loved would be destroyed and turned to ash. It happened during a time in which an insurrection was occurring within the Kingdom of Mistral. It was mostly a minor, local conflict, started by a group of insurrectionists from the less developed swampy regions of Mistral who were dissatisfied with how the government was running things, and resented the increasing social divide between the rich and poor. The conflict was nowhere near the level of what had happened during the Great War many decades prior, but it was still nonetheless very troublesome and worrying for the people of Mistral, who feared the brutality and destructive nature of the rebels that were perpetrating the conflict. What had originally started out as noble cause on the part of the insurrectionists and rebels to seek social equality had very quickly devolved into unchecked rioting, pillaging, and looting across the Kingdom of Mistral, and its citizens were right to fear what the conflict would bring if it ever approached too close their homes.
A similar incident had occurred only a few years prior in the Kingdom of Mantle that was still fresh in everyone's minds, which had resulted in the military forces of Atlas having to take over political control of Mantle in order to maintain peace and order there; an occupation that still lasts to this day. The actions of the rebels and insurrectionists in Mistral had gotten so violent and unruly that the ruling council of Mistral had decided to deploy troops to suppress the insurrection and restore peace. Recently, the fighting had started to come very close to where it was that Cinder and her family lived. The people of Cinder's village were always afraid that the fighting might reach them sooner or later, and eventually their biggest fears came true. On that day Cinder was on her way home, returning from a mission she had gone on as a Huntress, and upon approaching the village where she lived, she saw smoke, fire, and devastation everywhere she looked, as rebels and insurrectionists were attacking everything in sight. Upon seeing this, Cinder was horrified and immediately began to run home, fearing the worst for her family. When Cinder finally reached her home at the edge of the village, she found it completely in ruins.
"Ember, Ash, Onyx!" Cinder began to call out, desperately searching for her family.
There was no response, and she entered the burnt and collapsed remains of her home. She looked around inside, and was utterly horrified by what she found. Laying on the floor of her home were two burnt corpses; that of her daughter Ember and her son Ash. Filled with shock and unable to bear the sight, Cinder ran back outside.
"No, what have they done!" Cinder screamed out in agony. "Why would those monsters do this?!"
Cinder began to frantically search for her husband Onyx, and found him lying on the ground nearby, bleeding to death.
"Onyx!" she yelled out as she ran over to him and lifted his body into her arms.
"I'm sorry Cinder." said Onyx, coughing up blood. "I tried to stop them, the insurrectionists. I did the best I could, but there were just too many of them. I didn't stand a chance. After they were done pillaging, they decided to just leave me for dead since I had put up the most resistance. But Ember and Ash, they're gone..."
"Don't speak Onyx." said Cinder. "Hang in there, I'm going to go get help."
"It's too late for that Cinder." said Onyx. "I guess I'm going to be seeing Aqua and Lavender now. You have to leave this place Cinder. Find the militia and regroup with them. Push the rebels back from here and out of our village...
As Onyx closed his eyes for the final time, Cinder could feel the life leave his body. Cinder could feel her heart breaking. She was now alone in the world, and had lost everything she loved and held dear in a sudden and senseless tragedy. Distraught with her current situation and not knowing how to process it all, she broke down into tears. As she cried, Cinder failed to notice that out from the forest behind her home, several rebels and insurrectionists were beginning to emerge, searching for survivors to loot from, and upon noticing Cinder they quickly surrounded her.
"We've found another one." said one of the rebels. "What should we do with her boss?"
"Just get rid of her." said another rebel. "We'll see if there's still anything of value around here. Her coming back here despite the danger must be a sign of that."
As they began to point their weapons at her, Cinder could feel an intense rage beginning to boil up inside her and consume her whole, like a dark flame.
"Do you people have any idea what you've done..." said Cinder, seething with anger.
"We're just taking back what we rightfully deserve." said one of the rebels. "All the wealth that you rich city folks have been hording for yourselves all these years."
"That's why you did all of this?" asked Cinder, furious. "This was a nothing but a simple farming village. It's never had anything of value that was worth taking. You killed all of these innocent people for nothing, and all because of your misdirected, self-righteous anger. Because of you, my husband and children are dead..."
"Did we do that?" asked one of the rebels, mockingly. "We've come across so many people here in this village. It's not like we can remember everyone we've killed."
"You filthy swamp rats!" Cinder yelled in rage.
Cinder finally felt herself snap and let go of her self-control. Suddenly, through the power of her Semblance, an intense flame erupted from all around Cinder's body, spreading outwards in every direction and instantly turning all of the nearby rebels and insurrectionists into piles of ash. Stunned and caught off guard by the sudden burst of power from Cinder, the remaining rebels and insurrectionists began to raise their weapons towards her in fear and began firing. None of their shots were able to hit her. With speed comparable to that of a demon, she started to kill them all one by one with her weapon, burning with intense rage and showing them no mercy. Those that were able to avoid her began to scatter in all directions, fleeing from Cinder, who had now become a demon of vengeance that sought to punish them for their wicked deeds. Cinder continued to track them down, and as she did so, she came across various survivors from the village, as well as members of the local militia who had been sent to help. Together they all rallied together and united under Cinder Fall, and with minimal effort they were able to push the rebels and insurrectionists out of the village. They did not leave a single one alive. Not long after that, the insurrection as a whole was quickly and effectively squashed by the forces of Mistral, and all of the surviving rebels and insurrectionists were captured and brought to justice for their crimes. Peace had returned to the Kingdom of Mistral, but on the inside, Cinder felt empty and dead. It felt as though a part of her had died, but on the other hand, it also felt as though a part of her had been reborn, as if she had been baptized by the fires of her hatred and rage.
Later that night, Cinder sat alone outside the ruins of her home, staring up into the night sky at the shattered moon and still crying, no longer knowing what to do with her life. On the ground beside her were three graves, which she had dug for her husband and children, and had buried them herself in. The incident from earlier in the day still didn't quite feel real to Cinder, as if the whole thing were nothing more than a bad dream that she would soon wake up from. In her mind, she began to question how it was that someone could do something so cruel and ruthless to their fellow human beings, and wondered whether humans really were any better than the Grimm were.
"Human beings are so cruel aren't they?" said a mysterious voice from behind Cinder. "No other creature in this world is capable of committing such atrocities against their own kind, not even the Grimm, but Humans readily slaughter each other all time for even the most trivial of reasons, as if it were nothing but a game to them."
Startled by the sudden presence she had failed to notice, Cinder quickly turned around to find where the voice had come from. To her surprise, what she saw standing behind her was a strange humanoid female creature shrouded in all black, with pale white skin and hair. It look very human-like, but something about it vaguely reminded her of the humanoid Grimm creatures she and her team had once encountered many years ago on their mission to prevent the destruction the river dam. Cinder jumped, feeling frightened and confused by the sudden appearance this strange creature, unsure of whether it was a human or a Grimm.
"Who are you?" asked Cinder, drawing her weapon, the fear in her voice palpable. "What are you?"
"I am Salem, Queen of the Night." said the creature. "Do not worry, you have nothing to fear from me child."
"Are you a Grimm, or a human?" asked Cinder, lowering her weapon and proceeding with caution.
"I guess you could say that I'm somewhat of both, and also that I'm neither." said Salem.
"Why would a being like you come here to a place like this?" asked Cinder. "There's nothing here that would possibly interest a Grimm like you."
"Actually, there." said Salem. "I am here because called me to this place."
"Called you?" asked Cinder, confused. "I did no such thing. I've never even met you before."
"Oh, I'm certain that the presence I felt today was indeed yours." said Salem. "There's no mistaking that powerful aura of despair. Even now you're still emanating it as strongly as you did before."
"My despair?" asked Cinder, confused.
"You're a skilled Huntress, are you not?" asked Salem. "By now you should know that the Creatures of Grimm are attracted to powerful negative emotions such fear, anger, hatred, sadness, despair, greed, and envy, just to name a few. The stronger these feelings are among humans, the stronger and more numerous the types of Grimm that it will attract. You're despair must have been very great indeed if it was able to call out to me and reach me in my domain. It's been a very long time since someone has last done that. For you to be able to do that all on your own is an impressive feat. The turmoil of your heart was like a dark maelstrom, filled with all of humanity's darkest emotions and desires. I was so captivated and mesmerized by it that that I had to see for myself who it was coming from. For someone to have fallen as far as you did, you truly must have suffered a great deal."
"You could feel all of that?" asked Cinder, surprised.
"Yes, all of your heart was laid bare to me in that moment." said Salem. "I could see and feel everything."
"Then you know what happened." said Cinder, mournfully. "My family, they're all gone. My husband and my children..."
"I take it that must be them?" said Salem, gesturing to the three nearby grave markers. "I can sympathize with the pain of your loss. I myself have children four of my own, whom I love very dearly. I would be devastated if something were to ever happen to them."
"Why have I been cursed with such terrible misfortune?" asked Cinder. "My life has been filled with nothing but tragedy, one after another. I started with nothing, as nothing, but I was finally able to find some measure of happiness in my life, only for it to all be destroyed in an instant. Now I'm back to how I was in the very beginning; a nobody, with nothing. Is this my purpose in life? To suffer endlessly, and always be denied the happiness that I seek? Am I being punished for something?"
"Such is the world we inhabit." said Salem, reaching down to put her hand on Cinder's cheek, as if she were a mother consoling her child. "It's not you that's to blame, it's this cruel, rotten world that humans have created. It is a world that has become corrupted by their greed and arrogance. All they do is kill each other and destroy everything in their path. They are like a sickness that is poisoning this world. As a Huntress, you have been sworn to protect them from the Grimm, but even you must sometimes wonder whether they are really even worth protecting at all. You've seen for yourself what they really are, and through the years you've likely come to know realize true ugly natures. Humans are even worse than the Grimm."
Cinder could feel herself beginning to calm with Salem's touch. Cinder could not seem to figure what exactly this strange being Salem's true intentions were. Was Salem trying to lull her into a false sense of comfort and security, and then try to kill her, like any normal Grimm would do, or was Salem trying to befriend and comfort her. Could the Grimm really be as bad as humans have made them out to be? The Grimm now standing before was nothing like what she had been led to believe about them ever since she was a child. Part of Salem's persona felt cold and empty, while another part felt sympathetic and caring. The more Salem spoke to her, the more Cinder began to feel drawn to her, as if she was someone who truly understood her and felt her pain.
"What is the meaning of my life then if everything I've ever done up until now was all for nothing?" asked Cinder. "What purpose do I have now?"
"You don't have to serve anyone in order to feel like you have a purpose, especially those heartless and vile creatures known as humans." said Salem. "However, if meaning is what you seek in your life, I might be able to help you find a new one. You could become a part of something much greater, a noble cause. I seek to make this world a better place by ridding it of the stain that humans have wrought upon in, and return it to the way it should be, the way it once was. Do you perhaps wish to join me in this cause?"
"Make the world a better place?" asked Cinder, curious and intrigued. "Is such a thing really possible? Do you really have the power to do something like that?"
"I don't have the power now, but I will soon." said Salem. "I can't do it alone though. I will need allies to help me in this endeavor."
"If it really will change this world for the better, then I might be interested." said Cinder. "I'd like to know more about this cause of yours Salem..."
Following this encounter with Salem, Cinder wholeheartedly joined her cause and became a part of her plans for Remnant. Salem took Cinder under her wing, and as the years passed by, Cinder began to resent humankind more and more as she continued to realize how fundamentally evil and flawed they were; feelings which Salem further cultivated within her. Cinder no longer had any love for human beings, and had no qualms about unleashing the Creatures of Grimm upon them to attack and kill as part of Salem's master plan, considering it to be retribution and punishment for all of their evil deeds. There were however some human beings that Cinder encountered during her years serving Salem that she found to be more pitiable than others. These humans were often social outcasts and others who had suffered at the hands of their own kind, and she sometimes tried to recruit them to help with Salem's goal, seeing them as kindred spirits. Two of these humans in particular were the thief Emerald Sustrai, and the assassin Mercury Black. As Cinder began to shape and mold them so that they would further benefit Salem's cause, she began to form somewhat of a bond with them. Little did Cinder realize, these two had in a way subconsciously become like replacements to her for the two children she had lost all those years ago, when her former life in Mistral had ended.
*flashback end*
It was now much later in the day, and Ruby, Weiss, Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Hans were still in the CCT Tower looking through and studying the results of their search query on Cinder Fall. Since it was the late afternoon, many of the people who were in the CCT Tower earlier had now left and gone home for the day. Sage and Scarlet had already left earlier, and now Sun and Neptune were starting to leave.
"Well, it's about time me and Neptune started heading back home now." said Sun, yawning. "We're exhausted after all the work we did today. Anyways, I hope you found what you're looking for. Oh, and one more thing, if any of you still want to become official Huntsmen and Huntresses, you're more than welcome to sign up for Haven Academy to finish your training. We'd love to have you all here. Well, bye guys."
"We'll give it some thought." said Ruby.
"We should meet up again sometime and hang out." said Neptune. "We'll see you next time."
"Bye Neptune." said Weiss. "We'll look forward to it.
With that, Sun and Neptune left the room and took the elevator back down to the bottom of the tower, leaving the six of them there to contemplate their next move.
"Well that was some pretty depressing stuff we found." said Jaune. "Judging by these stories and articles about Cinder, it seems that her life started out really great and promising, but then after a certain point everything just started going downhill for her and it all ended in tragedy."
"After that, all traces of Cinder just seemingly vanished, only for her to turn back up now." said Weiss. "Whatever happened in between now and then for her to align herself with the Creatures of Grimm, we can only guess at." Weiss then noticed that there seemed to be tears coming from Ruby's eyes as she listened. "Ruby, are you crying?"
"Waaahhh, it was so sad." said Ruby, getting overly emotional. "I didn't know Cinder had such a tragic past. She lost her whole family and her teammates too. I never would have guessed she and I were so much alike at the start."
"Where do we go from here?" asked Jaune. "We found out more about Cinder, but that still doesn't answer the question of who she's working for, or how she aligned herself with the Grimm, or how she even knows about the Four Maidens."
"Cinder is just one small piece of the puzzle, but there's no telling how deep the rabbit hole goes." said Ren. "I think we've learned just about everything we can from here. It's about time we got going too."
"Before we go, there's something I want to check out." said Hans. "It shouldn't take long." Hans then pulled out his sword and showed it to everyone. "Since my weapon is one of the Twelve Legendary Weapons Remnant, and they were created here in Mistral long ago, I've been wondering if I might be able to find out anything about them from the database here. If these databases do indeed contain almost everything there is to know about Mistral and its history, then they might have something on them."
"That sounds like a great idea." said Jaune, also pulling out his weapon. "I'll join you too. Maybe it will even say something about how to get them to work properly."
"Knock yourselves out." said Ruby. "The rest of us will be outside. We need some fresh air."
"I'll stay here and help you search too." said Weiss. "I think I might find this interesting as well."
Ruby, Ren, and Nora then started to leave and make their way outside, where they waited in the courtyard of the school below.
Wow, this turned out to be a pretty morbid and depressing chapter concerning Cinder Fall's backstory. Thinking back on it, this is probably one of the saddest and most heart wrenching things I've ever read, and it really makes me feel bad for Cinder and makes her into more of a sympathetic character for me.
After coming up with all of that, I just can't find it in me to hate Cinder anymore. I can never look at her the same way again, now knowing what I know about her past. Cinder is a broken woman who lost everything she ever loved, and had it literally turn to ash, very befitting of her name Cinder Fall. For the time being, this will be my head canon version of what Cinder Fall's backstory is, until her official backstory is finally revealed in the actual show.
It's pretty ironic that it is the Fall Maiden's powers that Cinder Fall ends up stealing. In the tale of the Four Maidens, it was the Fall Maiden who taught the old man to be happy for everything he has, while Cinder on the other hand is someone who lost everything she had to be happy about, which is almost the exact opposite situation. It's almost poetic, and makes her a very fitting host for the Fall Maiden's powers.
I'm pretty sure that by now most of you have probably already noticed the naming theme that I used for Cinder and her family. All of them have names pertaining to fire, just like Cinder's name does. The names of Cinder's children, Ember and Ash, are both synonyms of Cinder's name, while Onyx's name is a little less obvious. An Onyx is a black gemstone, while his last name is Rouge, which is French for the color red. The colors of his name, black and red, are symbolic of a burning coal, which also connects to the name of Cinder's team, Team COAL.