EYE FOR AN EYE

Chapter 1 - Revenge

…

So restless.

She knew Cinder's whereabouts, after weeks they finally had the final clue.

With each passing day, there was more and more chaos in the world, all caused by that woman. It was overwhelming knowing about her just because of the string of deaths Cinder left behind herself.

So pissed.

It was clear to Ruby that defeating Salem was a difficult task, if not impossible, but usually was Cinder who made moves against the world, the face of the faction, the pawn. When that woman wasn't doing her duty to earn the respect of her almighty boss, she would take time to come to her, to attack her, to fight her.

And honestly, she herself wanted the same, to fight Cinder.

But every day was increasingly difficult to survive.

So weak.

Now, above all, they had no allies. They couldn't trust anyone, they didn't want to trust anyone, not anymore. All the decisions that the leaders made were nothing more than selfish decisions, or just benefited a small group. The whole world matters nothing to them. And she couldn't allow that anymore.

No one kept their promises. No one.

They were on their own.

So angry.

Things had gotten out of hand, and they couldn't go on like this anymore.

Salem wasn't her own problem, it was Ozpin's problem, and she was going to expect Ozpin to do something about it. But her own problem was Cinder, and she needed to do something about it.

Now.

The woman grew stronger, more astute, more vengeful and more powerful.

So vulnerable.

Cinder hated her, but it was mutual.

Ruby couldn't sit idly by. She should have killed her that day, but she was so young, she lacked experience and she didn't even knew her genetic power, the silver eyes. Now she was no longer like that, she was no longer a little girl. However, there was still a long gap between the two of them. She tried to fight Cinder, back in Atlas, stopping her from stealing Fria's powers, and she noticed her own flaws in the matter. There would be no easy victory at all, and knowing that someone like Raven fought Cinder and wasn't able to kill her, make her own victory less likely.

But even knowing that, she wasn't going to stop, in fact, it was psychologically impossible for her to stop. At least now, that she saw the vengeance lurking in her own priorities, there was a decision to be made.

A decision for the greater good.

To satisfy her own thirst, her own rage, but to save hundreds as well.

She was willing to give up everything to bring peace to the world. She had the information, in that exactly moment. Cinder was her perfect prey. Or at least that was what she was trying to convince herself of.

The room was dark, her team and her friends were silent, sleeping. At this hour, she was the only one standing, early in the morning, or late in the night, she couldn't even close her eyes anymore, her anxiety was consuming her.

No, not anxiety, impatience.

So impatient.

The impatience to look for Cinder, to chase her, and finally get rid of that weight she felt on her shoulders.

She wanted to put an end to it, to eliminate one of her biggest problems.

The loose end she left in Beacon.

Make her pay for the deaths.

But her plan, was it reasonable enough to win?

She looked around the room, searching for Penny in the huge darkness, and finally meeting with the dull green eyes, a clear signal of the android saving energy. She reached out, she needed data, she needed calculations, but she didn't need sentimentality, or she would have gone to her team instead, since she knew what their opinion would be in the matter.

Ruby knew them far too well.

All it took was a light touch on the redhead's arm for her to recover her brilliant gaze, almost human eyes, and she gestured her to be quiet, and Penny immediately nodded. She could notice a certain seriousness in her friend face, different from her usual expressions, and she understood that her own face looked like that, serious, stiff.

So stiff.

Her usual face, lately.

"Can we talk in private?"

She whispered, the redhead nodding in response.

They walked out of the large room and down the hall to the surveillance room. The whole place was their refuge, at least for now, and they had to be alert all the time, hence the existence of that room. There were people upset about their past actions, Atlas above them all, and for now they needed to stay out of the public eye while they came up with a new plan.

One to save the world.

What kind of plan did she have on her hands?

She wishes it was that simple, saving the world, but it wasn't.

Saving the world was not simple at all.

Ruby didn't have the same conviction she had years ago. The betrayal from the world, the selfishness from the leaders, the death spreading rotting her to the core.

And the vengeance.

The vengeance that didn't allow her to sleep.

So vengeful.

"Did something happen, friend Ruby?"

Penny's voice was concerned, and she didn't blame her. She herself was worried, worried about her own twisted thoughts, her delusions and her obvious self-destructive intentions. But she convinced herself, every day, every moment, that she was going to fight for the greater good, and she could live with that. Nothing else mattered anymore.

She would die for the greater good.

If the leaders wouldn't fight for the world, she would.

She would sacrifice her own body, her own mind, her own sanity.

So selfless.

"I need to discuss an idea that I have in my head, and I need you to be as rational as possible."

Green eyes looked at her curiously.

"Do you want me to lower my empathy and morality levels to the minimum?"

"If you mean sentimentality, then yes."

Penny nodded again, getting ready for her plan. The body in front of her changes, turning into a very robotic version, very little Penny and she felt strange looking at her, she remembered some past situations and felt chills running in her back. Remote control could mean the death of them all.

But, strangely, she felt slightly relived.

They had been through a lot the last years, it was not surprising that everything became so diffuse, so confusing, so difficult.

Life was getting harder every day.

So hard.

"How much do you know about silver eyes?"

Penny was silent, and she doubted herself, doubted her own ability to articulate normal question, but then she realized that Penny was only searching the database, nothing more. No need to panic.

Ruby's head was driving her crazy lately, her mind fuzzy, sick, muddy, there was only one clear thing in her head, spinning around, and it was ending the charade with Cinder, nothing more. With that, she no longer knew who wanted to kill the other more, if Cinder to her or her to Cinder. The possible answer makes her confused. She knew that feeling that amount of hate wasn't healthy, and now she could feel the effects of it.

She could barely breath without having that need ripping through her veins.

So Itchy.

But, not hating her? How that was even possible?

Cinder ruined everything, destroyed their futures, slaughtered thousands. Salem would be coming sooner or later, but that woman was another story, was the others priority. She was going to be satisfied with winning against Cinder, to do the right thing, to end this once and for all, and she would rather find Cinder first and finish her, than Cinder caught her off guard and be unprepared for the attack.

She might not win, but she wouldn't let her live either.

She won't allow that.

A life for a life.

So determined.

"There isn't much information about it, however, by being able to see the silver eyes perform in person, I can corroborate some information."

She got stuck in her head again, and for a moment she forgot that they were having a conversation, her body jumping when the robotic voice echoed in her ears.

"The silver eyes have a unique power, the power of light that is capable of eliminating the creatures of darkness, depending on the abilities of the wearer, the greater the effectiveness of the attacks."

She had managed to freeze Grimm with her eyes or make them disappear. Even without knowing how to use it, she managed to do damage. What mattered to her in that instant was how she managed to hurt Cinder by using her eyes back in beacon, a question without answer, but she did hurt her. Now Cinder was more Grimm than ever, having injured her, burned her, taken her arm and one of her eyes, so it was clear that her light power was going to affect her corrupted body.

But at some point, she would no longer have the energy to do that, she would no longer have Aura to use, and she had to make sure that her last resort was worth it.

The light in her eyes wasn't extinguished yet with all those weird thoughts?

So uncertain.

"Cinder, can you consider her an actual creature of darkness? A Grimm?"

The question threw Penny off balance, she could tell, even under that robotic grimace she was wearing now that her emotions had to run low.

Penny agreed after a while.

"Not totally, she still retains part of her humanity, although, after living like this for so long, both parts must merge in one way or another. Any damage done to her arm would cause pain throughout her body, it's not just a foreign piece of her, it's part of her."

The question of Beacon moves inside her head, again. Was there something Grimm in Cinder that day in the tower, or was it the Maiden's power that made her vulnerable? She still had no answers for that, however, Cinder was already vulnerable to her power, even before she ended up fusing with Grimm.

So clear.

"Cinder wants revenge for what I did to her that day in the fall of Beacon, how I took her arm and her eye. If given the chance, what do you think she would take back? Do you think she would get her human arm back, or her left eye? As a payback for what I did."

Penny jumped.

Penny was smart, her abilities and the information at her disposal were infinite, she knew things before anybody else. Although her emotions were at a low level, she must have already grasped where the conversation was going, and Ruby couldn't help but look discouraged.

Penny looked at her, her face keeping that expressionless image, however, she could see how she was making an effort to keep it like that. To keep the humanity inside, her soul.

"If she really wanted to, could do both. Using you to regain her missing vision and her arm, however, she already has an arm, which she seems to use to her advantage, enjoying it even, so if she were to take anything from you, for her immediate benefit, it would be your eye, plus, she must already know how powerful it is, how powerful would make her."

Penny closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they were as before, alive, soft, but her face turned shocked, worried, human.

"You want her to use your eye so you can destroy her from the inside."

When Penny said out loud what her plan was, her last resort, she realized how completely crazy it sounded. Anything could go wrong by trusting something like that. But she wasn't going to do that, she was going to fight her, and if she couldn't anymore, and if she had nothing left but death, she had faith that it would happen, that Cinder would take her eye and die first.

She will destroy her before dying.

Was it utopian to think of that outcome?

An eye for an eye.

So heroic.

"It's my last resort, Penny, in case I'm already beaten. I just wanted some security in this, that I could tell her something about it, motivate her to take it, and finish her off once and for all. I can't allow her to live."

Penny shifted in her seat, green eyes moving to the large screen that lit up the room.

"It's possible. Cinder is impulsive, she tends to blow up quickly, I don't think you'll have any problems, but it's possible that she senses that your power could be a danger to her health."

"Or she may think my eye is going to give her even more power, and just that."

The greens looked at her, eyebrows furrowed.

"There's no answer. There are equal chances for one thing or the other. But there is an even higher chance that you will die in battle, whatever Cinder decides. Taking your eye off will be enough to break your Aura entirely, and if she wants to destroy your arm too, you will bleed to death."

She didn't say anything.

She knew that.

A risk she was ready to take.

All she wanted was to kill her.

No, there was something she wanted even more, and that was to be able to watch her die. She felt her blood boil inside her veins at the mere thought. She wanted to hurt Cinder just as much as Cinder hurt her in the past, in the present.

So thirsty.

The both wanted revenge.

Maybe she was vengeful after all, not just heroic like she used to be.

She was never going to forgive Cinder.

It haunted her, day and night. The memories still fresh in her mind, the deaths. If she dies trying to kill her, at least her mind will turn off, forever.

The blood, the pain, the despair, will disappear.

Ruby turns around, walking towards the exit, with anything else to discuss, no questions to ask, it was time to leave. Neither sentimentality nor data was on her side, so she would go ahead, without looking back. She didn't even care how disadvantaged she was, not at all. She just wanted to go there, surprise her and fight one more time.

Fighting with everything she had to finally kill Cinder.

And if not, at least she wouldn't be there, waiting, trying to stop herself from thinking repulsive things every time the woman's face appeared in her head. She was going to break into madness if she doesn't do something soon.

So crazy.

And she didn't want to go crazy, crazier.

"Don't tell anyone about this conversation."

Penny stood up, and felt a cold hand clinging to her wrist.

"Are you sure about this? Even knowing what can happen?"

She spent a second pondering the question, as if she hadn't asked herself the same question the moment she found out about Cinder's whereabouts. The moment she knew what Cinder did to her, to her friends, to her school, to her life.

Ruby asked herself that question over and over again, every minute of the day, of the night. And the answer was always the same.

Yes.

Yes, always yes.

So sure.

She was no longer the same person, she was no longer that little and innocent girl, and she noticed how her insides were getting darker and darker, and because of that, she feared that her silver eyes would no longer work. But there was no stopping to that, to the blackening of her soul.

Little by little, every day worse.

All this years, the universe proved something to her. Even if she kept going, even if she made the right decisions, even if she thought of others, of the world salvation, in the end, it all was in vain. Even her team broke down at some point, her leadership was questioned, still was.

So tired.

If nothing you did worked up, then it's time to do things differently, to choose another path.

It was time to change.

To win.

"No one has agreed on my decisions lately, so I don't expect them to follow my lead this time. But it's for the best, we need Cinder off the map, it's her time to lose, and I'm not going to miss this opportunity, the chance to finally get rid of her. They will have to follow me, or they can stay here, hiding, for the rest of their lives."

Finally, Penny released her, saying nothing.

And she left the surveillance room.

She was going to pack her things, and leave as soon as she could. Even if she had to go alone, she didn't mind. Her head wasn't going to stay quiet until she satisfied the thirst for revenge she felt inside.

The only way to stop Cinder...

It was to become her.

And the thirst of vengeance they both had, was the same.

Next chapter: Stigma

A/N: Hey, hello, this is the first chapter of this story full of vengeance. I write it before in Spanish, so if you notice some mistakes, is because English is not my first language, but people wanted to read this so here is. (It's better than Google translate, I'm sure of it.)

If you want to know what happened between this chapter and the next, look for the comic I upload time ago in my twitter; HinariOkisawa

I don't know how to say goodbye as I usually do in Spanish, so whatever.

See you next week!