Yo!

I was happy that people liked last week's chapter! Hopefully those coming in the near future engender as positive a response!

Chapter 43

Cinder awoke to an empty bed.

It should not have meant anything to her. She awoke to an empty bed every morning of her life. She had never once been in a situation, not even when she'd been an orphan, when she'd slept next to another in any sense of the word.

And yet...

She was in the nude, covered in blankets far more comfortable than she had ever felt before, and feeling well and truly exhausted, at least physically. Her body ached in places she had never felt such pains in before, and it was...

...Cinder wasn't really sure what it was.

There was a non-zero part of her that told her, over and over again, that she was an idiot for having done such a thing. For having allowed herself to have even this, for allowing her this moment of weakness, to just...

To get to share in a moment she knew she would never get to experience again.

But could she really be blamed for such a thing?

It was a useless conversation to have with herself. She would not win such a debate, especially not when her opponent was so obstinate. Instead, she got up, pushing the blankets off of her form and standing up.

Her clothes were piled on the floor by her feet, and she went about donning them once more. Or, well, she was going to, up until she had a sniff of them, and...

Well, they were not in any state for her to be wearing them, that was for certain.

Which put her in a bit of an awkward situation. The wrappings she'd used to bind her chest were... presumably still on Glynda's floor, outside the bedroom in her office. And she did not much feel like walking out without a shirt to grab them.

What she'd done the previous night, bearing such things to Glynda... how she had found the strength within herself to do such, she had no idea. Now, separated from that almost ephemeral moment in time, she couldn't help but feel she would be mortified to let herself be seen in such a way again.

She was stuck within the mental conundrum of just what to do about this when she spotted a note stickied to the headboard of Glynda's bed.

"Take anything you need from the first and second drawers."

Cinder's eyes briefly widened, even as she looked up and spotted the titular drawers. She stood up from her place on the bed, and stepped towards it, pulling open the first drawer with some small hesitation.

Underwear.

...She perhaps should've expected as much.

As unwilling as she was to don someone else's clothing, especially such personal affects... well, she had little choice in the matter. So, she drew out a pair of panties, although she suspected all of Glynda's bras were quite a bit too large for her.

So she opened the second drawer, expecting some rather fanciful wear to be inside.

Within were...

Well, they were not the outfits that Cinder would've expected to see Glynda Goodwitch wearing.

Instead, there were an assortment of t-shirts that looked to all be rather old. Some were adorned with the logos of candies, or old shows that Cinder had vaguely heard of. A few had Beacon's logo on them, and some Vale's.

All in all, they were all casual wear.

And yet... one stood out to Cinder. It was a t-shirt just like the rest, and yet... the symbol on it was not one she recognized. It was not of Beacon, or of Vale, but something else entirely.

For some reason, it was that one she reached out, took, and pulled on.

Her jeans, at least, were in a semi-presentable state, and so she permitted herself to slip into those, so as to not go out without pants at all. She was, admittedly, still feeling rather embarrassed about the state of herself. Cinder had always been invisible, after all, and one of the ways she had sought to make sure that she could never be such a thing again had been to, well...

To be gorgeous. To be beautiful. To be someone that everyone saw.

And now, her makeup having stained somewhat from the previous night's affairs, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and still feeling sweaty and gross...

She did not at all feel beautiful.

Still, she could either sit in this room and sulk for the entire day, or she could get moving.

She chose the latter.

As she made her way towards the door out of the bedroom, and away from Glynda's office, she found a curious scent begin to waft towards her. She didn't think much of it as she twisted the doorknob, and stepped out into the room beyond, but...

There, cooking something up upon the stove inside of the kitchenette, was Glynda.

And she, too, was dressed in much the same way as Cinder. She was wearing a simple white t-shirt, which was emblazoned with the emblem of Beacon on the back. She could not make out whatever pants she was wearing, but she suspected them to be equally casual.

And yet... whereas Cinder had seen herself dressed in such a way as hideous, when she looked upon Glynda like this...

She was just as wondrous as always, somehow.

It was as if Glynda could hear her thoughts, for she turned in that very moment, and her face lit up with a bright smile.

"Ah, good morning."

Cinder was quite ashamed at the fact that she could not manage to say anything in response. In fact, the only thing that came to her face was a blush, and she found herself staring down at the floor, horrendously embarrassed.

Gods, she was hopeless, well, and truly.

"Are you alright?"

"...Yes." She managed to slip out, finally saying her first words since she'd awoken. She stepped towards the bar, content to talk to Glynda while she finished making whatever it was she was cooking. "What are you..."

"I'm making breakfast." Glynda stated, before giving a sheepish grin. "Although I will admit, my culinary knowledge could use work. I am... adequate at best when it comes to such things."

Cinder found herself amused at that, her lips curling upwards.

"What are you making in particular."

"I am attempting to make pancakes." Glynda stated as she used her spatula to turn up the edge of one, checking its color to see if it was ready to flip. "It is going... well, I burned the first. It is in the garbage."

Cinder snickered. Glynda glared at her out of the corner of her eye. "What was that?"

"Nothing at all."

"Mhm." Glynda said, rolling her eyes. "We'll pretend I believe that."

The next few minutes just sort of... disappeared into nothing. It was perhaps the most comfortable that Cinder had ever felt in her entire life. Watching Glynda stand there and make food for herself. It was a strangely...

...She did not know how to describe the sensation, or what it was that she was experiencing. All she could really identify was the feeling inside of her heart.

The feeling that she had always thought she would never get to experience something of this nature.

Glynda finished with the second pancake, plopping it onto a plate and beginning to cut it. From out of the fridge, she went and fetched a gallon of milk, filled a glass, and set it on the bar. Cinder watched her work with a sort of quiet amazement.

She was doing nothing special, of course, but...

"Alright," Glynda said with a small, tired breath and a smile as bright as the morning sun. "Eat up."

Cinder's brow furrowed. "...What?"

Glynda seemed confused. "I said you can eat. Are you not a milk person?"

In truth, she wasn't exactly... she had never really taken to drinking milk before. Cinder Fall...

She drank water. If she was not drinking water, she was drinking wine. That was about it. Anything else was superfluous.

But that was not what it was that had surprised her.

"I was just... you made this for me?"

Glynda's expression grew just the smallest bit sweeter, the smallest bit sadder.

"Of course, I did."

"Oh."

Glynda seemed to understand what she was thinking without her saying anything. So instead of having the same conversation they'd had just the night before, she turned around, and began to start on another pancake. These ones would, presumably, be for her.

Cinder just sort of... stared down at the ones in front of her.

She looked to her left, where a bottle of syrup had been placed, and reached out. She was... well, Cinder wasn't terribly into sweets, but...

Just this once...

She slathered the pancakes she was about to dine on with syrup, picked up her fork, stabbed a particularly large few pieces, and ate.

They were delicious.

It was...

This was all just...

Cinder wasn't certain how long she had been staring down at her food, just sort of... existing within this moment, but it had taken long enough that Glynda had finished cooking her own food, and was now sat beside her, their shoulders inches apart.

"Are you okay?"

Cinder didn't know how to respond to that.

"I'm not sure."

Glynda nodded her head, trying for a smile. "Well... I... I understand that you may be feeling rather overwhelmed at the moment, but..."

Suddenly, Cinder's hand was suffused in warmth, and she turned to see Glynda having taken it both of hers.

"I meant everything that I said last night. I'm here for you, okay?"

Everything...

Everything that she'd...

"I'll always be right here, no matter what happens. Goodnight darling."

She could've slapped herself in that moment, with the way her eyes began to tear up. Glynda's own widened, but Cinder shook her head before she could worry her.

"It's okay." Cinder lied. "I'm okay. I just... thank you. I..."

"Don't pressure yourself." Glynda stated, cutting her off. "I didn't say any of that to force you to respond."

Cinder nodded her head, even if she felt weak in that moment, weaker than she had in some time.

"Hm? That shirt..."

Cinder looked down at the shirt she'd chosen, which was the t-shirt with the odd symbol on it that she hadn't recognized. From the look on Glynda's face, she was rather surprised to see such a thing.

And then her face split into a melancholic, but happy expression.

"I... had forgotten I still had that."

Cinder wouldn't deny her confusion, nor would she deny her want to know just what it was this shirt represented.

"What is it, exactly?"

"It is... or, it was an outfit that my and my team made for ourselves, during our final years at Beacon." Glynda's expression is a depressing sort of nostalgia. "We all had different goals at that time. I myself wanted to stay in Vale to be closer to my parents, my partner wanted to journey to Vacuo and try and fully map the catacombs of Malik the Sunderer. My other two teammates both would be moving into active-duty huntsman work. We were going our separate ways. And so..."

Glynda smiled, even as she reached out, and pinched some of the excess fabric hanging about Cinder's hips.

"We wanted to get something that would connect us, even when we were apart. It wasn't much, and... none of us had very much money at the time. Thusly, we each got a t-shirt emblazoned with our personal emblems. This is mine. Each of my teammates had one of their own. Hah... it was a dumb little thing. Something that young adults would come up with. As if a few shirts could..."

Cinder nodded her head, even if she already knew the ending to the story.

She remembered, after all, what Glynda had said had happened to her teammates.

"They perished during the fall of Mountain Glenn. Every single one of them." Her voice was a whisper. "And I... never got to the see them again. That was only a few years after our graduation. Maybe... three or four? I had talked with all of them over scroll call, but... the last time I saw them in person was... was our graduation."

Glynda just looked sad now, and Cinder found herself leaning forward, trying to offer her some small comfort.

"...That shirt... I... I put it away in the bottom of a drawer and haven't touched it in a decade. And yet... when I see it on you, it feels oddly... right."

Cinder's eyes widened.

"Do me a favor." Glynda spoke as she looked up at her, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "Hold onto it, would you? I... don't think I'll ever wear it again. But it has a certain power, with you wearing it."

Cinder looked down at it. At the symbol on the shirt. It resembled some sort of magical glyph, and Cinder could recognize a few of the same signs that she'd seen in her battles with Glynda. They were some of the same sigils used by her semblance.

"...I'll take care of it."

Glynda's smile seemed to burn away the heavy atmosphere that had been created. "Thank you."

...Cinder wasn't entirely sure what it was that had her drawing towards Glynda, reaching up, and kissing her. Perhaps it was weakness, as a certain part of her suspected it might be. Her attempting to fit in every little bit of affection that she held within her heart in these brief moments that they had together.

Or perhaps it was something else entirely. Whatever it was, it did not attempt to deepen the kiss, or make anything come of it. It simply reveled in the exploratory motions of Glynda's lips upon hers, of the warmth that spread throughout her whole body.

She felt whole, in this moment. Complete in a way she never had before.

When she broke away, she saw a look on Glynda's face that seemed so very conflicted.

"Are you okay?" It was Cinder's turn to ask.

And...

Just as Cinder had...

Glynda feigned a smile for her sake.

"I am." She lied.

/

The doubles round, much like the singles, passed without incident.

Emerald herself had no involvement with them at all. Mercury and Cinder had gone as their fighters, and dispatched their competition with relative ease. They were now being hailed as one of the strongest teams in the tournament, and a definite frontrunner to win the whole thing.

Emerald knew that that was an understatement, that each of them could take on huntsman with twice their experience – and Cinder could do far more than that. Still, well, the announcers lacked that context, and it wasn't like Emerald was going to go offering it to them.

As for what she was currently doing…

"Your teammates are doing very well!" Penny said from beside her, shooting her a beaming smile. "I am impressed with their capabilities, especially since they seem to still be holding back some of their strength."

Emerald felt momentary panic at that callout, before she forced herself to reign such emotions in.

"What do you mean?" She asked, trying to decipher how Penny had figured such a thing out, even if she had a pretty good idea already.

"My sensors can tell by their muscle movements." Penny began, and Emerald nodded, having expected as much. "They are not exercising any of them to their fullest degrees. They are actively inhibiting themselves in order to seem weaker than they are. I believe that this will surprise their opponents in future rounds, and lead them to an even greater chance of winning the entire tournament."

Emerald smiled, realizing that Penny didn't suspect her 'teammates' of anything untoward. In fact, she decided to ask something fun of her… of her girlfriend for once.

"What would you say their odds are? To win the whole thing, I mean."

"Allow me to calculate." Penny stated, before her entire body just… stilled. It was always a bit unnerving to see an active reminder of Penny's status as an android in action. Even still, Emerald had been growing more used to it lately, hanging out with Penny as often as she was.

Finally, Penny stirred back to life, and turned to Emerald. "By combining the odds given by bookies and pundits from around the world, as well as my own combat data, and the aforementioned holding back of their true strength, I would estimate Cinder's chances of winning the singles rounds, and thereby the entire tournament, to sit at around eighty-nine percent."

Emerald whistled. "That high?"

"There is no fighter in the singles round at Cinder's level." Penny stated without doubt. "However, depending on the combination of fighter's that Cinder ends up against, she could face a row of opponents that will specifically counter her, drain her of aura, and ultimately lead to her defeat to a lesser foe. Such things happen. Thusly, I have accounted for such in my percentage."

Emerald just smiled. "You're really smart, Penny."

It always amused her that when she complemented Penny, the girl's body would flinch slightly, as if her servos did not know how to respond to such a thing. Sometimes, depending on the severity of the complement, Penny would even hiccup afterwards, and spit denials at her about how she wasn't really so great.

Honestly, Emerald enjoyed it more than she should've.

"My ability to assess such things is only due to my programming, and to my father's teachings." Penny stated, and yet she couldn't meet Emerald's eyes, despite the fact that she was in a sense a computer that shouldn't have felt an emotion like embarrassment. And yet she did, because she was more than that. "I am… it is just…"

"I don't see how you not having been responsible for such a thing makes you not smart." Emerald argued back. "I didn't create my brain. But I still consider myself pretty smart. It's the same for you."

Penny stilled further, and Emerald bit down on her lip to keep from giggling at her expense.

"…I… Thank you, Girlfriend Emerald."

She rolled her eyes. "You can just say Emerald. In fact, please just say Emerald."

"Then thank you, E…" Penny paused a moment, another flinch. "E… Em."

She raised an eyebrow, and Penny fidgeted in place. "I heard your friend Mercury refer to you as such. When I asked General Ironwood about such a thing, he said that it was referred to generally as a 'nickname'. Something that people will give to those they're close to. So…"

She shook her head, smiling as she was. "You don't have to call me that just because Mercury does."

"But I want to."

It was a rather simple thing to say, and that tracked rather well with how Penny often was.

She was simple, and blunt, and straightforward, but she was also terribly kind, and forthright, and honest.

And damnit, if Emerald wasn't starting to really like her for that.

"Call me what you want to then, I guess." She said, and this time, it was her avoiding Penny's gaze, her face heating up somewhat as she stared down at the arena below them, where the next set of fighter's were due to step into the ring any minute now.

"I shall!" Penny sounded out excitedly, rocking back and forth in her seat as she reached over towards the bag of popcorn she had acquired, and, again, placed a piece into her mouth. "…I am still not sure what nutritional purpose this… popped corn serves."

"Nutritional purpose?" She asked, amused.

"It contains far too many calories, far too much butter, and far too much salt to ever be considered nutritious. Much like the iced cream we enjoyed a few months ago."

Emerald just smirked. "The point of these things isn't to be nutritious."

Penny seemed confuzzled. "…Is it not the purpose of all foods to provide nutrition to biological life?"

Emerald snickered. "Not in this case. The purpose of popcorn at an event like this is to be delicious in the moment. And then, later, it absolutely kills your stomach, to the point where you swear you'll never have it again. And then, when you come back the next day, you order another bag all the same."

Penny just kind of stared at her a moment.

"…Humans are odd."

Emerald couldn't help but snort. "Yes, Penny…"

"Yes they are."

/

Cinder hadn't expected to hear back from Glynda regarding Ozpin so soon. She'd expected a few days delay, perhaps until the single rounds had begun at the very least. And yet, when she felt her back pocket vibrate, and fished out her phone, she saw a message on her scroll that had her eyes widening.

"I talked with Ozpin. He has told me that he will allow you to claim the power once the single round has ended."

…It shouldn't have been much of a shock, and really, it wasn't. Cinder could've expected such a timeframe. It was, after all, when she herself had originally planned on executing her plan onto Vytal and Beacon. It would be when the most people would be in attendance, when the stakes were at their highest for the protectors of Vale.

When Ironwood, Ozpin, and the others would have the most to lose. When they would have to make the toughest choices to have any hope of stopping her. Such had been much more of a positive before they'd been willing to offer up the power to her on a silver platter.

Now… now she couldn't help but be nervous about obtaining the power she'd always been destined for happening on the same day she'd originally planned on stealing it. It felt too auspicious. Too… too planned.

She did not like the feeling it conjured in her breast, the way her being shook with nerves.

Her body craved warmth in that moment, and not the warmth of fire, as she'd once always sought, but the warmth of Glynda. She wanted to press her lips to the woman's own, and revel in that feeling. She wanted to lay down beside her and cease to think, cease to move, or have to worry. To simply exist in that moment fore–

The maiden's fire, as if on cue, blazed through her, and it was as if her chest had been set aflame. It burned within her, enough for her to have to lean against a nearby wall, shaking off a member of some team from Vacuo who seemed concerned for her sake.

And that want for warmth withered and died inside of her. Another reminder, another correction from the power that lurked within her, that desired more than anything to be whole.

Or perhaps it was not the power, but herself, Cinder Fall, reminding her what she had to do. The reason that she could not want for such things.

She had already allowed herself to claim such carnal desire once. She could not do so again.

Because to allow such a thing would mean her inhibitions falling away. It would mean her weakness winning yet again.

She needed to retain the strength inside of her to leave. To be able to leave Glynda behind. And if she allowed herself to lie with her again, to partake of such pleasures once more, to hear words whispered in her ear that she'd only ever dreamed of…

She knew she could not manage it. She knew she would never be able to leave.

So she had to go. As soon as possible.

The moment she had the power… that very night–

Cinder's phone buzzed again in her pocket. She assumed, at first, that it might be Glynda, and that part of herself that blazed was awash with anger at how quickly that thought brought the device from her clothing, and into her hand.

But it was not Glynda. It was…

"Great job in your match!" Pyrrha Nikos' message read. "Myself and Nora are up next! I'll try not to disappoint after your expert showing!"

Cinder wasn't entirely sure what to make of such an idle thing. It was, in a sense, entirely meaningless. It had no purpose. It was not something that demanded Cinder's attention, and yet…

In a way, it was a simulacrum of her problem, or, at least, what Fall considered to be her problem. It was an example of everything it thought she was doing wrong.

Because…

"Good luck. I'm rooting for you."

Pyrrha Nikos sent back a single heart emoji.

The exchange represented the change she had gone through, in a way. The difference between the woman who'd first come to Beacon, who would've regarded such a message with, at best, a callous disdain.

And yet, here she was now, not only responding, but actively entering into said conversation. She was…

…Cinder had long since been compromised. To a degree that even she didn't fully realize. Things were simply different to how they'd been so long ago, nearly a year back, when they'd arrived. She'd come here under the pretense of learning more about Glynda Goodwitch, but with the benefit of hindsight, she could now see that the real reason she'd come here had been her own curiosity.

Her own perversion. Her own attraction.

Things that she had not even known existed within her.

And things had only spiraled from there. Until the Cinder Fall that had arrived in Beacon that day, and the Cinder Fall that she was now, were two entirely different people.

Which meant…

It meant this had to end.

Because she could not keep up this charade any longer. She knew that, despite the way a subsect of her heart wished to deny it. The night she had the power… she needed to leave. She needed to be gone from this place, from Beacon, from these people who held such power over her, and to never return.

For if she didn't… if she allowed her weakness to take hold…

She knew she would stay here forevermore.

And Cinder forced herself to ignore, to the best of her ability, the piece of herself that had grown so much stronger, that had almost managed to eclipse Fall. The part of her that simply called itself Cinder.

The part of her that asked if that was such a bad thing to wish for, after all?

End Chapter 43

Not much to say. I think I might move upload day for this story to Sunday after all, and Cinderella to Saturdays? Not sure. Will have to see.

Anyways see you all next week.