A Bolt's New Day 4 (Post-RWBY, OC-MC)

It was quite late. I admit I was pulling a hour or so beyond my usual sleeping time, but I had to also keep an eye on Snow as she went to sleep.

While both girls were still quite shaken by what had happened and were not that quick to find sleep, Snow had been feeling this the most due to her feeling of responsibility over the event that brought them there. I admit that I could have given her a better-detailed talk, but I just couldn't get the right words out as I didn't know enough to say if she was being unreasonable or not.

I wasn't going to be too honest about it, but there was something in Snow's very mortified remarks on that situation that made it clear she had rationalized it as her fault well beyond a tiny mistake. Not only that, but the way she was 'covering' whoever was responsible for tricking her also made it possible she was still frightened by this individual.

Since Snow was not huntress material just yet, but she was subjected to a dreadful event involving someone that made her Semblance go awry, I could tell the stress had led her to label this bastard as her 'boogey man'. I had heard and seen people experience that back in Remnant whenever it came to Grimm. In fact, it wasn't too uncommon to hear that some civilians from Vale were heavily traumatized by the impact of Beacon's Fall.

The Grimm had been a fearsome force for the kingdom for a long time, but the collapse of it against that sudden invasion had led many others to reconsider the erroneous expectation that the Grimm could be 'handled' with intelligence. No one had known of Salem just yet, that the mindless monsters of Darkness had a queen to absolutely follow.

Even now I couldn't say if Ozpin deserves what hate he got or not. He was definitely guilty of having tried to initially deal with this mess on his own and failing to get an unified response from the other kingdoms when Salem had yet to encroach within the various soft spots of the various nations.

He had reason to believe he could do it, but that was still one born from desperation than logic and reason. And it ultimately pushed our generation to be the ones to put an end to Salem. Still, the arrival of Snow and BeBe brought to my attention that the Grimm were still around.

Asking both girls yielded the same answer: it was common knowledge the monsters had vanished, but somehow they had started to return to Remnant. An international force was tasked to find out potential new darkness pools, but all that could be found was just Grimm.

Small groups of the weaker kind. Whatever or whoever was creating them had failed to get the time or the energy to properly assemble bigger and tougher variants. It was a relief for sure, but the mere chance that there was a 'mobile Grimm spawn point' wasn't something I was quite happy about.

Still, I had no ground to press the matter with Snow without going overboard about it, so I decided to just let her rest, drop her guard and then try again when she was in a better mental state.

Or so I planned before I was interrupted in my lovely nightly TV-browsing by a quiet cough. Glancing at the source of it, I spotted Snow peeking by the entrance to the hallway leading to the guest room. She was wearing a single-piece sleeping full-sleeved dark-grey dress that reached down to her knees. Her hair was a little disheveled, a sign she had tried to get some sleep but had been unable to do so despite appearing to be slumbering when I last checked.

"Can I sit with you?"

I nodded instinctively. I saw no reason to push her to go back to bed if she was struggling to do so herself on her own. She had brought herself a blanket to cover her legs as she found a spot on my right. Once she was done making a perch out of that small seat, Snow eyed the quiz show I was watching and frowned at the current question.

"What's the Nile?"

"That's the longest river in the world. It is located in Egypt."

"Where's that?" Snow asked with curiosity dripping from her words.

Rather than ponder on an extensive answer that may or may not appeal to her interest, I fished out my Tablet from my other side and carefully opened a world map app. From there, I indicated where we were and where Egypt was.

The girl was nodding along my words, but also made an interesting request.

"Are there similar nations to the ones in Remnant? Like the kingdoms?"

I nodded, "There's a lot of countries on Earth. Most are republics and a few are monarchies, but there are some that are quite similar to the Kingdoms."

"Menagerie?"

"Yup," I half-answered half-flinched.

Even when the war against Salem ended, the whole Menagerie situation was one no one was sure how it would fare in the long run. While there was some interest to open up to amendments to treaties tied to the island, none had really come forward to start doing things during the last battle and slightly beyond.

I doubted either kids knew of that side of Remnant's history despite Blake having a major connection to it- hell, I doubted that Blake would be so keen to bring her daughter anywhere near a protest after what happened to her during her childhood.

Especially out of the fact that trying to pull a child into this sort of stuff just made them too driven to a cause or another without giving them the chance to understand what is truly right and wrong. There may have been a core good reason behind the White Fang, but then it got hijacked while the good morals were kept as sheep's clothing for the big bad wolf that it turned into through Sienna Khan and Adam Taurus' leaderships.

The mere exchange regarding geography was not as extensive as I had considered, but as we were talking about this, Snow seemed to mellow enough to slip up and let out a name that I never thought of hearing ever again after Salem was dealt with.

"Those clothes, those are so similar to the ones that Cinder was wearing and-"

Snow froze up, catching up to what she had just said while I merely tensed up as the name rang an alarm in my head.

"...Cinder? Are you talking about Cinder Fall, Snow?"

"Y-You know her?" The kid asked with a hint of dread within her voice.

"Yes and..." I paused, noticing the unease spreading all over Snow's face and shivering frame. "And you are not in trouble, Snow."

"S-Still, she is- she is-"

"A bad person and a manipulator," I remarked strongly, offering a small smile. "She is quite experienced in that craft, enough that many adults got tricked by her. She is cunning and resourceful but... are you sure that's how she introduced herself?"

"Y-Yes. Why- why do you ask?"

"I was..." I paused, thinking of a softer way to say this, but I guess it was best to come out clean rather than beat around the bush. "I was the one that supposedly killed her."

"...You did?"

"I did," I answered to the stunned Snow's question. "It was an intense battle against Salem and her minions. Cinder was one of those loose cannons that tried to exploit the power given to her by Salem, but was ultimately crippled in multiple battles. In the end, once she faced me off for the second time, I was quite sure that I had electrocuted her to death."

"But she is still alive."

I nodded in agreement, which made no sense as I remember having checked if she had survived the last zap I gave her. She was dead by all means, no pulse and no breathing. She couldn't have been brought back as the grimm that acted as half of her body had been burned to ashes during the zapping.

"That's quite odd, but it is worrisome if she made it through somehow," I mumbled, confused now over the fact I hadn't 'felt' her when I first caught on the Grimm and the girls. The sonar's reach should have caught on Cinder's presence regardless of how far she had gotten from being pulled on Earth. Yet... it didn't. Maybe she wasn't there, but if she was and I had 'missed' her then... then that was worrying. "I doubt it, but I will have to give it a proper look starting tomorrow."

"I am... I am sorry."

"No. You don't have to apologize for anything," I assured, a hand resting on her shoulder as I saw tears forming by Snow's eyes. "Snow, I mean it."

"I-I thought it was a nice woman. She said her name was Amber and..."

"And Amber was a nice woman."

Cinder was a scumbag, but I now had a potential suspect for her comeback: Emerald Sustrai.

I don't think her body was ever listed after that final battle. I know that Mercury Black ultimately surrendered and should still be serving years in prison somewhere in Atlas, but Emerald managed to avoid dying, getting captured and being found for a long time from the looks of it.

"W-What?"

"Amber, the one you may have seen, was another of Cinder's victims. She was someone that was tricked by Cinder's minion, Emerald as she has an illusion-based Semblance. It's possible she used it to mask Cinder and let her get close to you," I explained truthfully. "Snow, that Semblance is not something you can just bypass with ease. It took us years to understand how to do that, and I doubt your moms had the reason to teach you about it. I can assure you that they will not hold it against you- this was a planned attack and one you couldn't have been prepared for."

Despite my honest words, she still reached out for a tiny hug. I wrapped an arm around her upper back, patting by her right shoulder as she quietly cried on my chest. I felt her soft hair against my chin, a hint of red and some 'snow white' rubbing against my lips as I remembered the few times I had to offer hugs to either Weiss and Ruby.

That emotional trait, albeit mixed between the two, survived within the heart of their daughter. Little Snow needed a hug? It was fine as I didn't mind giving those for free.

"T-Thanks, ViVi."

I snorted. "You're welcome, kiddo."

After that, there was no further chatting. Snow just sat beside me as we watched some more TV before ultimately falling asleep. I was too tired and too cozy to move her back to bed, and I could tell she was fine as soon as she used my right arm as a pillow to rest her head on as she leaned closer to my warmth.

Tiredness claimed me too shortly after, and I just thought this would be the end of the unexpected surprised at the end of that day.

Of course, that wasn't the case.

A hour after we fell asleep, a certain cat-eared girl marched out of the guest room, eyes sporting a tired glance aimed at the two of us and then she mirthfully mouthed something before taking a seat on my left and using my other arm as a pillow.

"Sleepover time~."

The next day I would wake up to find both of the kids pretty much sleeping against me, quietly enjoying the warmth of the pseudo-cuddle and... leaving me with some solo time before 'fully waking up' to consider what to do with this possible 'Cinder on Earth' situation.

AN

Cinder is around, she is murderous, and she is not as weak as Vincent thinks her to be at this point. Not after tapping into a fraction of Snow's Semblance(s).