Arc 2 - Chapter 23 - Powers and Purposes

"How could you let this happen!?" Peach roared with a kind of vitriol Ruby had never heard, nor expected to hear from a temperate woman like her.

There were plenty of reasons for Cinder to deserve a good yelling, and Ruby would not pretend that she hadn't fantasized a few times about slapping that smirk off her arrogant face. But to see it done, and by Peach no less, brought her less joy than she'd imagined. No joy at all, since of course, it would not change what happened. Cinder's other cheek had already been a little swollen, and whether this had been taken into consideration or not, Peach had struck her old apprentice across the yet unharmed cheek, a sound like a wet towel whipped at one's bare ass, so hard as to make Cinder stumble backward. Peach's voice rose to even greater heights of rage, as if that slap were meant to return her beloved nephew and she was offended with air itself had grown heavy, stifling, paralyzing, the air bending to the master hunter's wrath. It went without saying that Ruby did not want to be anywhere near for fear of catching that hand herself.

Peach poked Cinder in the chest with every damning word she said. "You stupid, stupid girl! Have you learned anything? Why is it that everything you get your hands on, you unfailingly succeed at ruining? Why do you squander every single chance I give you? I was beginning to think you had grown wiser, that you had finally grown up, Cinder! But you're the same entitled, inconsiderate, self-important brat you've always been! And it seems, always will be!"

Ruby could only stand there by the dead campfire and watched them argue. Or rather, watch Peach rip apart Cinder's ego and enlighten her to the truth of her incompetence, while Cinder stood there and took it like a child getting a spanking. At times, Cinder met Peach's eye evenly and was hard as stone. Other times, she lowered her head and set her lips somewhere between a smile and a frown. Ruby swore she even saw her lips tremble, but that was probably her imagination.

Ruby looked up at the sky, where the dark clouds of the night had started to swarm in like they foretold a storm. That'd be just the thing to sweeten this horrible day. She shook her head at the utter impossibility of it. Jaune just… floating away. Ascending to the heavens like a character model in a glitched-out game. There were too many questions to ask, even after Peach had demanded the answers to the most important ones, to which no satisfying answer was given. In the end, they did not know what had taken Jaune, or how he'd been taken, or why. The simple fact was that he had vanished while in Cinder's care. Lost.

Very likely, lost forever.

Ruby wanted to cry, wanted to fall to her knees and sob her eyes dry, but she just felt so cold, so stiff with horror that she could only stand there and stare at the black clouds, helpless beyond belief.

Miss Peach was no doubt feeling, except a thousand times worse. She'd stepped away from Cinder for a moment and had to steady herself against a wall with one hand, clutching at her heart with the other like it might burst out of her chest. Her voice came out with the kind of horror and despair that suggested her greatest nightmare had been realized. "No…" she warbled. "Oh god, no. My baby!"

It was a new kind of hell, to see the backbone of the group, the one who always had a plan and could be relied on, crumble to her knees and weep. As if the events of her worst nightmares had finally been realized. Cinder, despite the slaps and insults, came up behind the woman and looked almost like she might embrace her, but then stopped, head hanging low. She offered something about going to look for Jaune herself, but that was instantly rebutted.

"And what about the children? They can't stay here!" cried Peach. "We have to get them home, Cinder! Before they get taken by whatever took…" Peach looked like she couldn't even say it. "The plan hasn't changed. You must take the children home. I'll find Jaune on my own."

Ruby wanted to throw in her take, but wasn't sure if it would matter or if she even had a place in offering it. Loofy in Pirate King would never leave a friend behind under any circumstance, and that was a value she tried to hold herself to. Any friend she made, she would value with all her heart. But then, this wasn't an anime. This was very much real and the truth was there was nothing she could do to help. This was all beyond her. And it just made her feel so useless. The backs of her eyes felt strangely warm, and there was pulsing in the back of her mind, like the prelude of a migraine.

Peach did not make an effort to calm down or clean her face. Her cheeks were tracked with tears, her eyes manic, her voice shrill with panic. "Let's hurry back across the gorge and get the children to the surface. Qrow will have to wait!"

Ruby's heart fell. "What? But he needs us now!" He needed Miss Peach now, anyway.

"I know, Ruby. And I promise I will save him. But for now, we need to get you to safety! Maybe… maybe I can summon an emergency support unit from the Superior."

Cinder's lip curled at that. "That will bite you in the long run."

"What choice do I have? We have to leave. Now. Everyone get ready to - "

"Miss Peach!" called Neptune.

Neptune was standing on a crumpled heap of buildings - having had to walk away when the news about Jaune came - and committed to watching off toward the south, where they'd traveled from. He was pointing a quivering finger into the distance now, and Ruby already had an idea of what it was he saw as she and the others climbed up to look.

It was Grimm, like she'd expected. What she hadn't accounted for were the numbers.

Hundreds. Maybe thousands. A great black swarm rose over the edge of the horizon and filtered out into the ashen wasteland, the weak echoes of distant roars and howls reaching their ears now. It was like seeing a pen of pigs all rush the feeding pit when the slop was brought in, all shoving and squealing and fighting to get the most of the meal. And what could be this meal that they smelled? Alter-Qrow's despair? Miss Peach's despair? The whole group's? Was it simply a coincidence that these monsters had been coming this way? Could be any of them or none. What did it even matter? The only sure thing now was that heading back was out of the question.

Escape was out of the question.

"What do we do?" asked Neptune, lost and terrified, a sentiment they all likely shared.

Peach had not stopped crying, but her face had set hard as she summoned her scalpel. "Cinder, take the children and head north. I will hold them back for as long as I can."

"W-we can't leave you!" said Ruby.

"Take them now, Cinder!"

It sounded just like Jaune. When he told Neptune to take Ruby to safety after she'd been injured and entirely unable to fight. Once again, unable to do a thing. "I won't leave -"

Cinder snatched Ruby by the upper arm and dragged her away, nails biting into her arm. Ruby would have liked to say she struggled, fought, kicked, screamed to be let go so she could fight instead of run. She would have liked to say she screamed "no, no" as she was escorted away against her will. But Cinder didn't hold her arm for long enough.

Instead, she was without words as she shambled behind Cinder and Neptune, looking back to see Peach dart off toward the army of Grimm, a spray of ash in her wake. Ruby realized the woman had not promised to catch back up with them. She had not promised to make it back alive.

Just like that, the party was down to three.

It was probably the fifth time since abandoning their leader that Cinder snatched Ruby up by the arm and jerked her along. This time the rest of the way up a rocky slope that had impeded their path. She pulled Ruby up, almost popping her shoulder out, then slung her onto stable ground, Ruby scraping her hands and knees as she fell. Ruby seethed with anger, tears stinging her eyes.

Cinder bent down to hiss in Ruby's ear. "Keep up, girl, or I will leave you. Do you understand me? I will leave you."

That was probably the fifth time she'd heard that too, and each time only made her even angrier. Especially since that headache had taken full effect now, and the backs of Ruby's eyes felt like they were being blown on by a heater. Ruby sucked in a breath and got to her feet, glaring balefully at Cinder's back as she stormed past, boots crunching on rock. Neptune was already ahead of them, often out of earshot of the abuse, which was probably not coincidence on Cinder's part. Ruby might have pulled him aside to say something, but then what could he do? The last thing she needed was for him and Cinder to fight. Or rather, for him to get killed by her. No, Ruby would keep this to herself. For now.

Besides, the new frontier was something of a change to her priorities.

It was like an amalgamation of a malformed rocky plain and a withered cemetery. Twisted rock formations of a hundred sizes were strewn about the land, with headstones small as normal, big as houses, and everything in between. There was something that might have been a path, but it was twisted and carved through a maze of high cliff sides - which themselves were also poked with stalagmites and headstones jutting out from nonsensical angles. Floating just above the ground was a thin red mist, floating along despite there being no air movement to guide it. Even the sky was different now - a haze of purple and red as of rotten blood had evaporated and been absorbed into the clouds. The accompanying smell of the place hardly dissuaded the idea, either. Ruby had smelled rotten blood before from times her uncle had let her come with him to the coroner. This was like that, but worse in every way. She wanted to puke at the stink. The blood itself was practically on her tongue.

"I swear, it just gets worse the farther we go." whispered Neptune in disbelief.

"Welcome to the depraved depths of the human psyche," said Cinder pointing off toward a path leading steadily down the cliff. "There's a path which even you brats should be capable of navigating without my help. Come."

Cinder didn't wait for them before heading off, Ruby just staring after her, almost past anger now to just pitying her every need to insult them. They followed eventually, such orders as they were. Everyone shambling along in moody silence. Across a long avenue of tombstones with strange and unreadable writing, through a narrow chasm with a thin layer of reddened water, across a series of paths going up and down the chain of cliffs. On occasion, Neptune would say something, or try to give Ruby something close to a smile as if feeling the need to reassure her. Maybe to reassure himself, too. While, Cinde of course barked meaningless orders about keeping up or watching their step or calling them brats over and over, ascending to an entirely celestial plane of pathetic behavior. Neptune glared at the back of Cinder's head like he was considering running his trident through it. Ruby wondered if he actually would. Wondered why she hadn't done so herself. It was that bitch's fault that Jaune was missing now. And in a world that he did not know. That none of them knew.

"Do you think she did something to him?" asked Neptune.

Ruby hadn't considered that. "I guess she could have. But I don't think so."

"Even so, we can't trust her. Not with Peach gone," Neptune paused. "Maybe not even then."

"Do you think Jaune's…" Ruby hesitated to say it.

"Dead? No." Neotune shook his head, then muttered under his breath, "I hope."

The hours went on in total monotony, and every step forward felt like a step in any other direction. This leveled rockscape looked the same for long stretches of time, only to then find a landmark and think it was the same as the last. Had they been going in circles this whole time? Had they gotten caught in an endless time loop and now doomed to wander forever? Should they wait for Peach? Was she dead already? Endless questions with no answers. Eventually, as the sky grew dark, Cinder opted to camp, which like the rest of the day was done in near total silence. Cinder had taken first watch, ordering them to get some rest so they don't slow her down tomorrow. Ruby wasn't sure which Cinder she hated more. The creepy predator or this miserable grouch. Although, irresponsible and apparently incompetent child that Peach called her was a pretty difficult label to beat.

Said woman-child as she was, now stood off facing south, her back barely illuminated by the campfire. There was not a single scenario where Ruby thought she would ever approach Cinder with friendly conversation in mind, but she had questions for her, despite knowing she was treading thin ground. Wouldn't really make a difference in the end if it was Cinder or the Grimm that killed her if she was going to die in this world regardless. So it was with a calming breath that Ruby approached her, determined at least to know as much as she could.

Cinder doubtlessly sensed her approach, for she spoke the very moment they were close enough to speak without yelling. "What is it, girl? I'm sure you can find a place to piss without my supervision."

Ruby frowned. "Girl isn't my name, lady. If you even count as one."

Cinder chuckled. "How rude. Is this the way you speak to the one who has kept you alive all this time? The one currently responsible for your life?"

"I think we both know how safe any of us are on your watch."

Cinder's shoulders hunched. Hunched like those very words grated at her. "I should have expected you'd come up to give me a telling off. Have at it, if you must. I'll try to take you seriously."

"I don't need to. Miss Peach did enough."

Cinder chuckled a little louder. "You watched that, did you? I bet you found it quite entertaining. The comeuppance I damn well deserve, is that it?"

Ruby wasn't sure how to answer that, so said, "I don't care about you enough to enjoy your pain. It's your fault Jaune is gone."

Cinder began to slow clap. Each one grating Ruby's nerves. "Well done. You've stated the obvious."

"Why did you take him from the camp?"

"To keep nosy eyes and ears away from business which does not involve them. But if you must know, I was attempting to calm him down. I intended to help. But well, I suppose we need a villain, don't we? It is only my mistakes which seem to count for anything."

"And what about Jaune? Do you even care that he's gone?"

Cinder huffed. "I will shed no tears over this. It happens all the time. It would have happened to you had my old master not found you. People drop into these worlds and get lost, or die, or integrate themselves into them. Starting new lives, never the wiser to how close to home they truly are." Cinder shrugged one shoulder, as if none of it, not even Jaune's disappearance was her problem or concern. "Young Hunters are especially vulnerable, if they cannot make it back to the dive point to resurface. People disappear. It's nothing remarkable. I suppose your boy-toy is simply one of the chaff. It's disappointing, if nothing else."

Ruby could not contain her rage at that, had to force herself to hiss out the words rather than scream. "Were you just born a monster?"

Cinder barked out a laugh. "Oh, if only. At least then, I would have no excuse for my actions. You could simply label me evil and that would be the end of our discussion."

"There's no excuse for what you did. For what you've been doing! You think I don't know what you've been doing to Jaune?"

"I'd rather been hoping you did. Your jealousy is apparent."

"Oh yeah, jealous of a pervert. A predator. And I guess even him being unstable isn't enough to keep you from trying to take advantage of him. You're sick. That's all you are."

"Perhaps." Cinder half turned her head so one golden eye burned at Ruby from the darkness, making Ruby's own eyes burn with challenge. "But if I am as you say… then what did you do about it?"

Ruby paused for a long, uncomfortable moment. "What?"

"I am a predator, am I not? I am a sick and demented monster intent on taking your friend and using and abusing him, right? Well, what does that make you? You could have told Miss Peach. You could have ensured that she kept him away from me. Why, had you only done that, then Jaune would not have been strung along by me, and I would not have caused him to fly off into the stars, would I?"

Ruby gaped, unsure if how to respond. Unsure if there even was a response to make.

Cinder grinned like a shark that smelled blood. "It stings, doesn't it? I understand. I'm certainly not deflecting the blame, but you are not innocent, either. You stupid girl. You and that skirt chaser knew very well what I was up to and yet you did nothing. Why? Were you perhaps waiting for the proper time? Whenever is there a proper time to report a horrid criminal like me besides immediately? But you care for your friend so much, don't you? So much that you allowed a predator to continue preying on him."

Cinder turned around fully and took a few steps closer to Ruby. It took all her strength not to back away. "I may be a monster, Ruby Rose. But a monster has fangs, at least. You may be brave, but courage without strength is little more than foolishness. You are nothing but a weakling. You could not even protect your friend from me, and I am at least less immediately dangerous than the Grimm. What have you done for your beloved friend?" Cinder stepped so close now that she forced Ruby to look up into her devil-yellow eyes. Her head positively pounding as Cinder whispered, "Nothing."

Ruby swallowed hard enough that it hurt, fingers curled into fists.

"But don't blame yourself too much. I certainly don't. Reporting evil rarely guarantees justice. I would know." Cinder moved past her, roughly catching her in the shoulder. "Well, I suppose it's your turn for the watch. Give me a good scream if the Grimm show, would you? Good and loud. That way you can be rescued by the predator who sent your boyfriend to space, all because you didn't have the guts to tell on me."

Ruby stood there as Cinder walked off. Wanting to say something but not knowing what. Was she right? In many situations, Ruby had either been utterly powerless or failed to speak up. Yang may not have been listening to her much, but Ruby couldn't say she'd tried as hard as she could to get her to listen. Uncle Qrow was beyond anyone's control but that didn't stop the guilt. Now Jaune was gone because she did not have the foresight to tell Miss Peach. To protect him.

Ruby stared up at the dark sky and felt so very small.

"I'm sorry, Jaune." she whispered, knowing well that apologies were as worthless as doing nothing. They would not bring him back. Only going to find him would. Something she could not do, the way she was now.

Even after awakening superpowers, she was still as powerless as she had been all these years in her broken family. Hadn't she wanted change? To do something about it? Well what had she been doing all this time? What could she do?

Ruby stared at the dark sky and felt so very, very small.

Hunter Beasts were supposedly thought to be Heart Hunters that fell to Despair while inside a heart world, and as such turned into particularly powerful Grimm. Sounded strange to Ruby. If it was true, she had plenty of questions. Chief among them being, why the heck would ten other Hunters be in her uncle's heart, and how had they all fallen to Despair and turned into Hunter Beasts? Maybe it was just a legend. A folk tale spread among the Hunter community or something. Sadly, getting murdered by one of these things was a lot closer to reality than fantasy.

One punched the ground with its massive, black-furred tree trunk of an arm, spraying chunks of stone everywhere and popping Ruby off her feet slightly from the resulting tremor. It let out its high, almost agonized screech at her back as she tried to make some space amongst the clutter of headstones and boulders.

Ruby spun around to face the monster, scythe gripped tight, having to break her stance to wipe some dust out of her eyes. It came lumbering, having to use its big arm like a cane, which was not at all an indication of weakness as Cinder had forewarned. She'd also told them not to get separated, but that hadn't quite worked out. It swung its right arm - the smaller, more emaciated arm - and Ruby did not think to challenge it. She rolled away, let the arm wreck a headstone, but then immediately regretted it. Had she gone toward it, she could have gotten a good hit at its legs and brought it down. Cinder had yelled at her to do so as the monsters approached. Aggressive. Had to be aggressive.

But Ruby had never been the most aggressive person in the world. Not unless she was angry. And it was not easy for her to be both scared and angry at the same time. It just wasn't in her nature. So she dodged back again, letting the beast pound away at the ground. It wound its big arm back, then like a slingshot, let it go, drawing a great sweep across the pavement, shattering the wall at the other end. Ruby may not have taken the hit, but she was caught by the spray of red water it spewed up from the shallow bend in the path, once again forcing her to wipe her eyes.

Ruby hurried up, was able to avoid another swipe, then forced herself to attack. Barely got the scythe up before being caught with the Grimm's other hand, making her wonder why she had even bothered as she rolled along away, skin scraping on the hard ground.

"I'm coming, Ruby!" called Neptune from somewhere, followed by the hot crackle of lightning, a splitting of stone, and a Grimm's wail.

Once - yesterday and the day before, really - the call of someone coming to her rescue had felt like a blessing. Now, it still was, but with the added feature of guilt and shame of needing help constantly. Weak and foolish, like Cinder had said.

Ruby ground her teeth together and rushed the Hunter Beast. It brought its shorter arm at her, the faster one, and cut low. Ruby tried to be confident in her jump - not too low and not too high - clearing the arm like it was a hurdle on a track. It was just her luck that the Grimm punched down its other fist, likely thinking she would come that way. No better opening than this. Ruby swung her scythe with all her strength and chopped a deep gash into the Hunter Beast's ankle, nearly taking it off, and dropping it cracking onto its bony knees.

No time to celebrate, she had to double back as its smaller arm came the other way, and Ruby once again got some distance. The beast was not on its knees for long. It lunged at her with its big left arm and Ruby spaced backward, just not far enough. Its claw caught her sleeve, ripped fabric and blood both. Ruby hissed at the pain, but it wasn't the worst. After nearly being gutted, cuts like this were almost a relief. That wouldn't be the worst of it if this monster got its hands on her. It charged again, Ruby moved to her left, it swung again, she dodged right. Her breaths came evenly, not yet tired, she pushed the head of her scythe up and scored a nasty gash into the Hunter Beast's mouth, even managed to take out its tongue too. A feeling of self-accomplishment followed. She was doing it. Surviving, fighting, winning. She could do this. She could -

Crushing pain. Ruby found herself snatched right off her feet and into the giant hand of another Hunter Beast. No doubt one of the many that had swarmed them in their murderous wolfpack. Its strength was agonizing. It squeezed her like she was a melon, Ruby feeling her elbows dig into her sides, her knees pressing together, her insides twisting, with a small mercy being that her scythe's blade had pierced the monster's hand rather than its owner. Ruby let out a scream, not at all because she wanted to. Who did, after all? The very real possibility of being popped like a grape far more horrifying than how she imagined it.

It was not Neptune that saved her or even Cinder. The Hunter Beast she'd been close to beating had bit into it's fellow's hand, either trying to take back his kill, or just being stupid enough to miss eating Ruby whole. Either way, it's ally was not understanding. Ruby dropped to the ground, landing flat on her side and pain shooting into her hip, as if there wasn't enough damage there already. The stronger Grimm had taken its ally's head into its giant fist, then slammed it into the ground, pressed down and crushed it flat. Seemed even the Grimm were better at killing each other than she was.

Had to get away. Had to get away! Ruby scrambled to her feet and ran, or rather at least something between a run and a limp, but did not get far. There'd been a wall in the way and Ruby ran headfirst into it. With barely any balance, she dropped onto her ass like a baby learning to walk.

A shadow loomed over her. The Hunter Beast had leapt into the air and now descended on her with all drama, as if simply grabbing and crushing her was not enough for it anymore. So quickly. Ruby had been doing so well. How was she meant to dodge that? She was dead, guaranteed.

Ruby didn't get to scream for help before a trident came flying and stabbed itself through the Hunter Beast's head, strong enough to turn it in the air, so that it flopped down beside Ruby instead. It did not die, unfortunately.

"Ruby, it's head! It's head!"

Head? Right, the head! It took only a moment for her to summon her scythe again and send it down onto the monster's head, but it seemed a mere moment was too late. The Hunter Beast smacked her in full with its left arm, the world ringing like a gong in Ruby's head, her scythe torn from her hands, hearing it clatter away. Over and over the world went, her skull hitting stone, flipping ass over head, until she finally skidded to a stop, cloak having fallen over her head. It went without saying that everything hurt.

It wasn't the first time Ruby found herself laying on the ground. The first taken out. The first defeated. Little more than warm up for these mindless monsters. She just could not take a beating like the others could.

She saw Cinder leap toward a Hunter Beast's arm and cleave straight through it with a black glass sword. She landed behind it, chopped its foot out with an almost careless slash and felled it. She almost strolled out of the way as the beast fell on top of her, far closer to being crushed than Ruby had been, then silenced its scream by shooting a jet of fire into the monster's mouth. The flames spewing from its nostrils and eyes. So easy, so efficient, like they were nothing but a chore.

Even Neptune had seemed to get a measure of these monsters, even if he still needed help. He sent a water wave at one's legs, easily knocking it down. He leaped onto its head and roared as he plunged his trident into the back of its head, sending lightning coursing through to electrocute it. Not enough apparently. The beast flicked its head and the horn caught Neptune sidelong like a flyswatter. Unlike Ruby though, he didn't take long getting back up, even roughed and bloody as he was.

Ruby wasn't sure if the tears were because of the various wounds or the further realization of her uselessness. Why was she so weak? Why couldn't she protect Neptune or Jaune or Miss Peach? Why couldn't she at least protect herself?

The backs of her eyes were on fire, it felt like. The headache was worse than ever, and Ruby was just so tired. She barely got to her knees, heart pounding with fear, hair in her eyes, and vision starting to blur. Had to fight. So tired. Fight. Scared though he was, Jaune never hesitated to protect her or anyone else. Why couldn't she do the same?

Powerless. Couldn't save her uncle. Couldn't save Jaune.

Oh, how she hated it. How she despised being unable to help those she loved. Surely there could be nothing worse. Nothing worse.

Sounds everywhere. Lights. Fire bright and roaring, lightning flashing and hissing. She heard Neptune scream or curse or both, Cinder let out her own vicious battle roar, or was it laughter Ruby? Ruby tried as hard as she could to hold on to the world, but it was fading fast. Fading. Fading…

If only she had power. If only she had power.

A shadow loomed over her. That Hunter Beast, no doubt. Ready to tear her apart and she helpless to stop it. She felt just like she had when she'd plummeted into this world. Lost and scared and nowhere near prepared to die. Ruby did not wish for anyone to save her.

She only wished to be strong so she did not need to be saved at all.

But, upon looking up through weak vision, she saw that it was not a Grimm hovering over her. Or if it was, it was a strange looking one. A big gray wolf. Gigantic. Silver as the moon. Just its head was the size of the Hunter Beast, and Ruby instantly imagined it swallowing those Grimm whole, even with the giant sword in its mouth. It's great fur mane was like a forest of white, it's big dark eyes looking down on Ruby not with hunger. But something else. Something warm… and yet so cold.

"I see you are not alone anymore," came a voice, light but full of strength. Ruby peered up, the figure hidden in shadow from the backdrop of the bright sky, a long cloak flowing in the unmoving air. "I hope you will not be offended if my husband and I provide our assistance once more."

Husband?

Chills went through Ruby's whole body as an echoing wolf-howl rang in her ears, flying higher than the heavens, reaching farther than time.

And, despite how now it grated at her shattered confidence, she knew and was immediately grateful to be safe.

Cinder felt it even now. The terrible sting of a hand across the cheek. The lingering burn from such sudden friction of skin. The instinctual submission she'd learned from it. Like a dog. Like a slave.

Peach's words looped endlessly in her head. The dry crack of her palm. You stupid, stupid girl!

And for a moment, she had been so close to believing that damn woman, too. So close to thinking she might not no longer be the absolute bitch she had been years ago. Cinder had to keep herself from crying with laughter. A fool of a hope, that. Strange, how after all this time, she had never quite learned to stop hoping. Reality was cruel. No one was special, no one was above it all, no one was invincible. Cinder had learned such things in perhaps the harshest ways they could be learned. But she liked to think she was somewhat stronger, somewhat more resolved, harder willed and so on. But as if Cinder were just an annoying little girl who'd been screaming her head off in public, Peach had promptly returned her to a state of infantile weakness and obeisance, as such time that passed was utterly irrelevant. As if after many years estranged, and having learned to live and function on her own, to not need anyone else, and to have become a woman grown… even then, she was still a brat to Peach. A stupid little brat.

She felt her palm again. Stupid, stupid girl.

The Hunter Beast howled as Cinder chopped out its leg, watched it hit the ground chest first, then finished it with a stab to the back of the head. Robot efficiency born of years of deadly experience. Years of hard and committed work. Another one came lunging at her, thin and thick arms spread wide as wings, and Cinder danced aside, conjuring a large glass bear trap where she'd last stood, heard it snap closed as the Grimm made contact. Its arms went flying away, its body was crushed in the teeth, and its head popped like a squeezed grape. Beautiful work, if she could make the complement of her own style of macabre artistry. It wasn't as if anyone else was here to share the moment. Cinder liked to think Jaune would appreciate this kind of punishment for the Grimm, if he hadn't floated away like a lost balloon.

Of course, a balloon does not simply float away. Not unless you let it go. Cinder had let go, that was a fact. Not even she would deny it.

Whatever. She didn't care.

Cinder summoned a stream of ashes, envisioned her instrument of work, and in seconds dotted a long black spear, its edges glinting off a bar of fading sunlight. She wasted no time ramming it into the approaching Beowulf's eye, feeling it crunch through bone, then pop out the back in a gush of meaty chunks and black smoke. Another came from behind and Cinder spun around, lifting the thousand pound werewolf into the air, arms and legs flopping, then flung the damn thing off the blade of her spear and sent it bowling into the approaching Grimm, toppling it and three others in a tangle of black arms and legs. Cinder allowed herself the tiniest swelling of callous satisfaction. An absolutely arresting feeling. One she knew well. Wanted more of.

Cinder engaged another pair of Hunter Beasts - which no doubt had just spawned up from somewhere. She liked the idea that they spawned straight from hell after banging in its gates and begging for freedom, then given a chance, only to run into her, and immediately wish to go back to the fire. Give her more, she begged the heavens. More to fight. More to unleash her simmering fury upon.

Despite her earnest wishes, it wasn't just her in this field of chaos. It was simply that she was the only one beyond competent. That fool Neptune was barely keeping up, quick enough not to get killed outright, but taking hits he had not the endurance or resolve to tank. And avoiding damage only got harder as the fight went on, having to focus more on simply crippling the bigger Grimm rather than killing them, as if that was the extent of what he was capable of. Damn weakling. useless. Had Jaune been here, he could have dealt with a handful of these beasts on his own. That was, if Cinder hadn't let him slip away. And he'd been right there. So close. Just slipped away…

Stupid, stupid girl, Peach's words rang in her head without mercy.

"Cinder!" Neptune came hurrying up to her with a bit of a limp, holding his side like he'd popped his hipbone out of place. "I saw… more! Coming from the south! A lot of them!"

That was certainly the kind of news to sweeten Cinder's already sickly mood. Still, she had never turned down the chance to make a corpse. Not out of Grimm anyway. "Where's the girl?" she asked.

They found her fighting one of the Hunter Beast's alone but was evidently struggling. What else was new? Incompetent damn child. No iron in her at all. Yet she'd come trying to judge her? To label her a predator? Better than to be prey like that little bitch was. Far better. It seemed she would have to handle this horde while Neptune rescued her, again. "Go, make sure she doesn't get herself killed."

Neptune had already hurried off without her command, calling out, "I'm coming, Ruby!"

Cinder mimed his words silently, but made sure to observe for a moment to ensure they were safe. Just two Hunter Beasts and one of them crippled. They should be able to handle that. The last thing she needed was for Peach to return to find a child in her care dead. Or another one, since it was not likely Jaune survived whatever it was that happened to him…

Which, of course, she did not give half a damn about.

The horde of Grimm was coming from the south, which was hardly news, but their numbers certainly were. It was like pulling up a floorboard to uncover a community of roaches living, thriving, scurrying in the fifth. Then, one mind, they rushed their unlucky discoverer. The congestion approached fast and were fanning out now, hundreds of hungry shrieks ringing high and inspiring fear even in Cinder. And that took some doing. She'd killed Grimm far stronger than these, but often it wasn't in such huge numbers and she usually had some form of backup, necessary or otherwise. But it was just her now. Her and an army of devils.

Cinder welcomed it, despite her fear. She'd burn them all and relish their anguish.

Cinder conjured a black bow, loaded it was an obsidian arrow still bright from the forge, then loosed it in a clean straight line. It sank into one Grimm's head all the way through, instantly dropping it to the ground and causing those rushing behind to pile on top or flop over it. Cinder snapped her finger and the arrow exploded, engulfing its victim and those nearby in a storm of fire. She watched several Hunter Beasts hiss and flail about - their hatred for fire reducing them to pathetic little animals begging for mercy.

Cinder granted them none.

She fired more arrows. Two, three, four at a time, and not a single one off the mark. They pelted the front lines like machine gunfire, exploding into beautiful flames like missile rounds. She managed to clear away a layer of the horde, but it was comparatively skin deep, with hundreds of Beasts spilling in from behind, leaping over the burning bodies, or scrambling around the flames. Cinder got in a few more shots on the far-spreading stragglers, but it was already obvious that range was no longer an option. Had to protect those two damn brats, after all. Two that once were three…

Cinder sucked in a breath and settled her pounding heart. I am strong, she reminded herself. As she did in the mirror every day so it kept the intrusive thoughts at bay. Told herself she was strong when she felt so weak, beautiful when she felt disgusting, pure when she felt defiled. Cinder summoned her double glass broadswords, held them out like they were wings, then dropped from her perch and sailed to the ground. Her feet touched down, toes first, then her heels touched the ground with a low click.

And she was off.

She cleared the distance in seconds, raised both arms back, then slashed into the leg of a Hunter Beast, taking out both legs so fast that they were sent spinning in the air. She kept going, took out the legs of another, and another, and another, then leaped toward one that came down on her and took off its goat-horned head with a vicious double slash.

Kill, said the Phoenix within her.

Oh yes. She was home. Cinder raged upon her enemies, unsure if she even had most of their attention, but in a haze of not caring. She cut and slashed, she shot them with arrows and blew off their heads. They'd rush her in groups and she'd turn them to meat, monster limbs falling around her.

Kill them all, urged the Phoenix God.

Cinder roared in a Hunter Beast's face, which managed to spook the thing into screaming itself. Cinder chopped its head off from the top half of its head, leaving its tongue lashing. She found it funny. She found all of this funny.

She had never been good enough. Always ruining things. It was her nature. Why not embrace it?

She imagined the faces of the people she despised on the heads of her enemies as she whittled them down. The face of the Madam, haughty and uncaring so long as results were made, and Cinder stabbed her sword through her head. Mirabelle, that little harlot, shameless and self-indulgent. Cinder cut her face in half. Annabelle, apparently such a dear, whispering so sweetly. The very thought of her made Cinder sick and want to forget. She unleashed a torrent or fire in her face, listened to her unleash a scream of protest. Rhodes, nothing but a liar. A liar in every way. Cinder stepped onto his chest, then hacked violently into his face, one sword after another. So fast that her arms were beginning to hurt.

Peach. Oh, fucking Peach. Saying honey and baby and treating her like a blood daughter, then saying stupid girl over and over and stoking Cinder's rage into pure white-faced wrath. She saw her face on a group of more than twenty Grimm covering her fast. Cinder met their hungry roars with a hunger of her own.

The hunger to hurt and kill and destroy everything she hated. Everything she loved. She would destroy the whole world, if she could.

But these pups would do for now.

Cinder raised her arm in a claw-like grip, causing a dozen glyphs shaped like eyes to sear into the ground. Then she jerked her forearm up and adopted a teeth-clenched grin as columns of fire exploded from the arcane symbols ,ripping the ground apart, throwing the Grimm into disarray, and the resulting wind blowing back Cinder's hair. The furnace inside her grew considerably weaker, but the embers were still there and the Phoenix God called for more blood, more destruction.

All around her the Grimm came, and all around her they were repelled. Blown to smoking smithereens, thrashing on the ground ablaze, screeching their agony at the sky. Sinners in hell, and she their eternal torturer.

She slashed the air with her arm and the ground welled bright like coals in a fireplace, then burst into brilliant columns of fire, all roaring and twisting, consuming more and more Grimm as they came. Not enough. More leapt over the columns or outright barreled through regardless, not happy to burn alive, but too set on having Cinder burn with them.

Bring them on. Harder and harder Cinder fought, with every ounce of her rage, even knowing how foolish it was. Her breath was gone.. Kill everything. Getting weaker all the time. Destroy it all. She was running out of firepower and would soon be left with only her weapons. Damn it all. If only she wasn't in the Powers tier still. If only she could Overshadow. She could have achieved the Flightless Phoenix and turned the whole battleground into a kiln. No such luck on this grand adventure.

Cinder jumped out of the way as a Hunter Beast barreled at her, and she landed atop a wall, getting a view of the desert surrounding the ruins. Still the Grimm came, making her wonder if Peach had just set up a hammock and let them pass, drinking coffee and reading a book. Packs upon packs of Beowolves led by the alpha Blood-starved and Hunter Beasts. Even a few Deathstalkers and Creepers among them. Hundreds. And not looking at all discouraged by the flames.

"Shit…" Cinder huffed. She may not be wounded, but her destructive powers had an ungenerous limit. As she was now, she couldn't fight for extended periods of time, which was why she had to finish her enemies quickly and efficiently. Her current power was not suited for all our mayhem. Not yet.

Was it time to run? Time to die? This would be quite the spectacle of a way to go down, at least.

But then her enemies would get away with their crimes. All those who hurt her. Who'd ignored what happened to her. The Madam, her stepsisters. Rhodes. They all had to pay.

Cinder refused to die until that dream of hers came true.

She summoned her bow and a fresh wave of courage. Nocked it and fired… and missed. Not because the Grimm had dodged or she had done an unlikely poor shot.

But because an ethereal lance had nailed the Hunter Beast through the skull and pinned it to the ground, leaving Cinder's arrow to pluck into a corpse.

A moment later, a chilling howl rang out from somewhere, seeming to overpower the collective bellow of the Grimm army. There, on the top of a high cliff, a figure was perched, looking down on the Grimm before him as if they were cattle for the herding. Pigs for the slaughter. And he, the ever obliging butcher.

The figure raised his hand to the sky, and only then did Cinder notice that the moon was out, its phase somewhere between a quarter and a half. Something materialized in his hand - a long spear with a blue tassel as long and wide as a flag. The man nodded, as if that weapon was suitable.

It very much was.

He'd jumped down from that height and landed in a squat. He had his free empty fist reared back, then slashed it in front of him. A giant ethereal blade had formed in the course of his swing, wafting steam, and unleashing a wave of cold air into a cluster of Grimm. Cinder blinked and the Grimm were suddenly statues of ice, and she was rather disappointed that she'd missed it. Those in mid-run crashed down and shattered like that one time she'd dropped the fish bowl back at the Madam's estate.

Was this man the Wolf Jaune had mentioned? This rogue? This walking suit of armor?

The Wolf was already charging toward the rest of the Grimm, still many hundreds coming on, not at all hesitant in taking them on. Cinder took that for a challenge, almost smiling at the excitement of it.

She had little firepower left in her. Smolderings. And it had been a while since she'd pushed herself to that limit.

But she'd be damned if she let this Wolf take all her fun. Freezing Grimm to death was all well enough, but it was almost a mercy to these demons. Everyone knows that hell is hot.

And that was where the Grimm belonged.

Ruby cringed in pain as Neptune helped her off the giant Wolf's back. Neck, really, since the thing had been big enough that the three of them fit there. He helped her sit on the hard ground, still in a lot of pain, but that was par for the course by now.

The Princess dismounted then. Sliding off the giant wolf like she'd done it all her life. Her clothes were more damaged, cuts and tears all over, her cloak shredded on one side. Yet she strode toward the cliff's edge with a dignified chin and straight posture like she was in her own palace. Utterly unshakable.

"Where's the Wolf?" asked Neptune.

The Princess pointed at the ashen desert, toward a great horde of Grimm swelling in, being scattered like children's building blocks, harrassed by streams and columns of fire and ice. Three guesses as to who those came from.

"I'll go help," offered Neptune.

The Princess shook her head. "We shall be enough. Stay back, please."

Neptune did not argue, and it was something of a cheek since Ruby was quite sure she would get away with giving orders and everyone trusting her. It seemed even her own Alter commanded more respect.

The Princess turned to her massive beast companion. "To the battle, Joy! Protect your master!"

The giant wolf leapt off their safe spot on that rock face, sword in its teeth, and dashed off toward the chaos. After which, The Princess took a deep breath, closed her eyes, pressed her hands together like she was about to pray.

"What are you doing?" asked Ruby weakly.

She did not answer, but Ruby figured she didn't have to.

It was very likely she was about to see for herself.

It was skin-peeling cold to Cinder's right, blood-boiling hot to her left, and the pure disparate mayhem of it made her splutter with joyous laughter.

She vaulted off a Beowolf's back and loosed three obsidian sawblades at the others behind. The blades tore through the solid ground on their way, and so you could guess what they did to flesh and bone. Cinder spun around and booted the Beowolf she had used as a footstool so hard it crashed through a pillar of ice, causing that very pillar to come crashing down on top of a Deathstalker, crushing it flat and popping off one of its pincers. Which then, crushed two Creepers that had come stalking up. The random luck of such an outcome, it bordered godly intervention.

But there were no gods here, only devils, and worse.

A wolf had joined the battle - not the armored warrior, of course, but an actual wolf. A huge one, at that. And with a sword in its mouth, as strange as it was. But the beast came growling its giant growl and chopping through the biggest Grimm in the area. Halving them as easily as one might a sandwich. It darted around, incredibly mobile, springing off walls, sliding on the ice, impervious to the flames, digging its sword into the ground to halt its momentum, leaping into the air before slamming the ground with the sword flat, making the air hum with the cry of steel, the ground shaking. Cinder was definitely not one for pets, but she'd make an exception for this one.

The Wolf Warrior, however, was a beast all his own. He spun in the air sideways, and the spear spun with him, the long flag flapping in blurry blue circles. He tore through an infestation of Grimm, limbs and heads tossing like salad, littering the air like confetti, like fireworks! He landed bent-kneed, the ground shattering beneath his weight, his power. Sprang toward the next cluster, a frenzy of steel and ice, magic and melee. No Grimm touched him. None even came close. Some even hesitated, which Cinder didn't think she'd ever seen before. He was a demon freed from hell and on a spree of revenge. He was a fissure that consumed everything that dared to linger above its jaws. His work… It was a thing of beauty.

And there was more to do. This canvas did not have enough red.

She could not contain herself, even with her firepower now exhausted and running on dead coals. Cinder moved so fast that the world blurred even to her trained eye, and with both swords she cleaved a Hunter Beast's head down the middle, deeper, deeper until she split its chest open, leaving the two halves falling away like wilted flowers. It was dead already, but Cinder kicked the damn thing tumbling away just for the sport of it, and was fortunate enough to send it into another Beast's legs. To add to that, to stupid creature fell onto the horn of its dead brother, impaling it through the eye.

Cinder let out a laugh as she hurled a spearhead on the end of a chain, and felt it sink into a Blood-starved Beast's head, then ripped it free and took half its face with it. Did it to another, a third. With two thorned chains in her hands now, she gave them a vicious whip and flames sprang to life on them. Naughty mongrels everywhere. In need of lashings.

Round and round they went, raking and ripping through everything around her, earth and meat both. Flames going everywhere, Grimm roaring in agony. And Cinder laughed at them. She laughed like their demise was the funniest thing in the world.

It was like a competition between her and her new ally. No, not ally. Friends. They were the best of friends in the war torn hellscape, fighting together for nothing but the fun of it. They played off each other like they were one somehow. Back to back now, but no words needed exchanging. He brought the slaughter to one end and she the other. The Phoenix inside was screaming its profound pleasure like a woman nearing her climax. Cinder probably wasn't far off herself.

Jaunes face came to her and she banished it. It came back quickly, along with a surge of guilt. No. She didn't care. Definitely not. He was weak, that's why he'd vanished. Had to focus on killing the Grimm. Kill. Kill.

Kill…

Why the hell had it suddenly become so bright?

It started out small. Like the final flicker of a lightbulb at the end of its lifespan. And the only one left in the room before everything was swallowed darkness. Then, by some miracle the lightbulb burst to passionate life once again.

Cinder had to squint because it was so bright. White room white. Purer than the freshest snows in the gentlest winter. But warm. So unbelievably warm. She couldn't tell where that damn light was coming from.

But she could see what it caused.

A Hunter Beast not far away had gone from roaring at the light, to suddenly being reduced to gray dust in an instant. No indication how. In the snap of a finger, its deterioration process had been jump started, then put on a thousand times the speed. From flesh to ash in a blink. And not just that one, but all those remaining. The light seemed to invalidate every effort on Cinder's and the Wolf's part, reducing hundreds of Grimm to nothing faster than they'd been able to kill just a couple. The Wolf didn't seem surprised by this. He simply dismissed his flag-spear, as if he'd been waiting for this force of nature to appear.

That's when Cinder saw her, Alter-Ruby, standing at a cliff edge as the light began to thin, revealing the monarch in a combination of armor and sleepwear, which might have seemed ridiculous, but looked entirely regal on her. The light was swallowed up into her eyes as if returning to a heavenly dimension place inside her head. Like a lot of things, it was a power Cinder had never seen before. Only now that her mind was clearing, she realized with ruinous awe what manner of magic this was.

The ancient bloodline lived. The power of the stars and the heavens, of the very cosmos. The Silver Eyes were real. How could it be anything elsewhere? Yet, somehow what was worse than that was the implication of who this power resided in. Ruby Rose's Alter. And therefore, Ruby Rose herself. That damn useless infant that had been nothing but a burden. Within her resided a power so celestial that the Grimm, eldritch abominations which could not know fear… feared it. A power that the Superior of the organization had expressly commanded to be told of if it was ever discovered. This pathetic little child. Inconceivable.

"You are wounded," said the Wolf, who had snuck up on her in the midst of her moment of shock and jealousy.

Cinder was about to start questioning him, then felt the sting. There was a bloody gash above her hip, which now that she was aware, had started throbbing with a vengeance. "It's nothing. I'll heal."

The Wolf said nothing to that, but regardless reached his gauntleted hand toward her waist. She felt the claw brush the wound and made ready to push him away.

Then his hand clutched the wound hard, as if he planned to pull the wound out. It hurt like hell for a moment. But only for a moment. Then it was warm. Pleasantly, relaxingly warm. It felt like something was swimming in her flesh, looping the damaged microscopic threads of flesh back together like a seamstress fixing a tear in a shirt. Then he let her go and she had to admit to missing that touch a little. The wound was gone. Not even a scar. A bad wound healed in seconds.

Cinder glanced up at him, almost taken for words. "Well, consider me impressed."

He said nothing.

She nodded a wound on his arm. A chip out of the armor, even if it was shallow. At least now she knew he wasn't actually an animated suit of armor. "You should worry about yourself before others though."

"My restorative powers only affect others."

"That is somewhat less impressive."

He said nothing to that. "Are there more of you?"

Normally, Cinder would distrust anyone she did not immediately know, but Jaune had vouched for them. Best not to turn away allies of any kind. "One. She stayed behind to hold off the rest of our playthings."

"Lead me there. We must retrieve her."

Not that Cinder was arguing against it, despite her anger. "And what business would you have with her?"

"That is for only I to know," he said simply.

The giant wolf came padding up, just its paw half Cinder's height, its big shadow falling over her. The Wolf Warrior patted its gray forest of a mane. "Thank you, my friend. I must ask of you one final favor. Bring the Princess and her charges to safety. Guard them until I am returned." The wolf put his other hand in the wolf's big wet nose, leaned close. "Then, we go on to fulfill our purpose."

The Wolf seemed to nod in complete understanding, then turned so fast that it made Cinder's hair smack her in the face, before darting back in the Princess's direction.

Cinder looked at the remaining wolf again. "Can your princess protect my two charges?"

"She can and will," said the Wolf, already heading south. "Come. You are safe with me."

Cinder was long past the point of taking orders from others. Especially from those she did not know. But in this fellow's case, she'd forgive him. You don't deny the hand that bequeaths charity, after all. There might very well be more Grimm to fight. And she was keen to see more of The Wolf in action.

Strangely, she thought she heard the Wolf say something low, his deep voice almost in a whisper.

Something about eyes and a young master.

And about hoping it was not too late.

This chapter ended up way longer than I expected. I wanted to edit it more but my laptop broke. Probably could have built up the Silver Eyes a bit better in terms of its rarity, but its hard to drop that kind lore in a story that relies so heavily on secrets and mystery, damn it all. Hopefully it turns out well, though. Later.

ISA