Hey! Really quick Oneshot focused on everyone's favorite Pyro! It's a short one, that's for sure, but I think it gets its point across, not to mention has quite a bit of significance in upcoming events if you squint! Not too much to say other than that, so enjoy!

Alone

Cinder was alone.

She had always been alone. Alone as a young child, a child who had never known the joy of friendship or love. Alone when she grew into the woman she had become, the paragon of darkness that her former mistress had molded her into. At no point in her life had she ever escaped the clutches of loneliness.

And that's just the way she liked it.

She always knew that she would stand alone. Even if she surrounded herself with an army of loyal subjects, willing to die for her at a moments notice, instead of the ragtag group of petty criminals and terrorists she had been able to recruit, she would still stand along at the end of the day.

She had accepted that the moment that she had first realized her destiny, to the day that it had been taken from her by Ozpin and his students.

Oh how happy they had been when she fell to them. How joyous their smiles were as she, along with Mercury and Emerald, were dragged away to rot in a small cell for what would have no doubt been the rest of their solitary existence.

When was the last time she, Cinder, had smiled? A genuine smile that hadn't been forced onto her face for the sake of appearance.

She wasn't sure. But it didn't matter. Smiling was merely an involuntary show of weakness. She had no reason to smile. No desire.

And that was just the way she liked it.

"Cinder..." A voice echoed behind the young woman in question, the words slipping into the air like the subtle hiss of a snake ready to pounce upon its unsuspecting prey.

Cinder's eyes averted from the sight she had locked into her gaze for what seemed like the last few hours at the sound of the voice, turning to face an Eredar Sorceress, staring at her in what seemed to be barely restrained disgust.

"What is it?"

"Gul'dan has ordered you report to him for your daily Fel-infusion."

"Oh, he has now, has he?..." Cinder whispered, taking a moment to glance back at what she had been fully focused upon only momets before.

"Yes... That he has." The Eredar snapped her fingers, prompting two rather large felguards appear from behind the large doorway, brandishing axes that appeared as if they could cleave an Atlesian Paladin with little to no effort. "Is that a Problem?..."

Cinder said nothing, only continuing to stare at the objects of her attention.

"Lord Gul'dan let you keep those disgusting cadavers of yours as a show of generosity." The Eredar muttered, realizing exactly what Cinder was focusing so intently on in the darkened room. "We wouldn't want to take Advantage of that generosity, would we?..."

"No," Cinder sighed as she pulled herself to her feet. "We wouldn't..."

With that, she silently backed away from the two fresh corpses that laid before her, preserved only by the perverse Fel magics that Cinder perpetually pumped into them in an effort to sustain them as long as she could.

The corpses of the only two people that she had ever thought of as friends.

The Eredar wasted no time in fastening magical restrains around her wrists without another word, binding Cinder's arms tightly behind her back before leading her quickly out of the room, leaving the corpses of the two teenagers laying out, with only a faint light to illuminate the emotionless expressions they carried.

Yes, Cinder thought as she was led out of the room, there was no doubt...

She was alone.

No one who she had ever called 'ally' remained by her side.

The only friends she had ever had were dead.

In the end even her 'oh so beloved' Mistress had left her to her fate at the hands of the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Beacon.

It was only her.

But... That was just the way she liked it...