Within the privacy of her bedroom, Cinder initiated a video call with the person she desperately needed to see and hear. To her surprise, the person picked up.

Ruby Rose.

"Cinder, why are you calling me?" Ruby asked. Her tone wasn't aggressive or rude, it was cautious.

Cinder studied Ruby carefully. She was outdoors wearing a black corset over a red pleated minidress and transparent mesh top, her arms bare except for the black fingerless gloves she wore. The skirt of her dress had s slit that revealed the red shorts she had on underneath it, and she wore stockings, sensible black and red boots, and her signature red hood. She looks lovely, Cinder thought.

Cinder let out a sigh of relief. "I just needed to know that you were ok."

"I'm as ok as I can be for someone who recently found out that a girl she cares about led her dead mother into a trap," Ruby said boldly.

Cinder was silent. Guilt gnawed at her as she remembered her confession to Ruby about Summer Rose before leaving the palace.

"Cinder, I need you to tell me the full story about that. I have a right to know what happened to my mom. I haven't told Yang what you told me yet, but she has the right to know too."

"You're right," Cinder said as her mind sadly went to the memory. "Before I tell you, I just want you to know that what happened to your mother is the biggest regret of my life."

...

It was six years ago, just a few months after Cinder had been rescued by Salem. Salem had summoned her to her throne room.

"Cinder, I am happy to have you here, but if you are to continue to stay here, you must prove yourself worthy of all that I have promised you by proving yourself loyal to me," Salem began.

"What do you need me to do?" Cinder inquired.

"I've already shared with you how silver-eyed warriors have been used as a tool by my former husband to continue his abuse of me. We've located a silver-eyed warrior named Summer Rose. I need you to lure her here so that I may capture her. Since she and her team have ties to Ozpin, I'm certain she's convinced that I'm a monster that needs to be slain. So it shouldn't be hard to convince her that an injured young girl with a shadow hand showing up on her doorstep was victimized by me and can lead her to me."

Cinder's conscience instantly bothered her. She didn't want to be responsible for an innocent person's death- and she was almost certain that Salem would kill this Summer Rose if she captured her. But on the other hand, Salem was implying that she would no longer have a home at Evernight Castle if she didn't pass this test, an Cinder didn't think she could survive on her own. Besides, if there was a danger of Summer Rose being used to hurt Salem, she had to be stopped. Salem had already been hurt enough by life, and Cinder did not want Salem's abuser to be able to continue to harm her.

"I'll do it," Cinder said.

All of a sudden and entirely out of control, Cinder's grimm hand reached out and viciously scratched Cinder's human arm. Cinder screamed and let out a sob. She was bleeding.

"I'm sorry I had to do that to you. I needed you to have a minor injury to make this as convincing to Summer Rose as possible," Salem explained quietly with what looked like a pinch of guilt on her face. "When you return, our healer will tend to it so you won't have any permanent scarring."

With that, Hazel brought Cinder to Patch in an airship. Cinder knocked on Summer's door and said, "Please, help me. The witch has experimented on me."

Summer gasped, her eyes first going to Cinder's grimm arm that was on full display in a blood-stained tank top and then to her viciously scarred human arm. She said one word:

"Salem."

Cinder nodded. "With your silver eyes, you can stop her. It's why she hunts people with silver eyes. I can lead you to her."

Summer was very kind to Cinder, stitching her wound and offering her refreshments. She'd called another woman over- a woman whose name escaped Cinder- and the woman offered to temporarily allow Cinder to stay in her camp. Cinder couldn't stay with Summer because there wasn't enough space in the house for a fifth person and Summer didn't want her husband and children, who would return soon, to know about the situation or what she and the other woman were planning.

At nightfall, Summer and the woman appeared at the camp through a portal summoned by the woman beside another girl at the camp. Cinder, Summer, and the woman got in an airship and Cinder showed them the way to Evernight Castle. The other woman commented on the strangeness of the fact that none of the grimm on the island were attacking them. Cinder brought the women into the castle before Salem and apologized to them. Then Salem dismissed her.

When Cinder got to the healer's room, she heard screams.

...

Cinder revealed all of this to Ruby, except she left out the part about Oz being Salem's abusive ex. That wasn't her story to tell. She did explain that the man had been using people with silver eyes to hurt Salem though. By the time Cinder finished, tears were streaming down Ruby's face. The sight caused guilt to gnaw at her.

"I'm so sorry Ruby. Even though it was my fault. I did what I did because it was the only way I could protect both myself and Salem. But I wish it hadn't come to that."

"If Ozpin has been using people with silver eyes against Salem, it's only because of the terrible things she does!" Ruby yelled. "My mom, the attack on Vale, Pyrrha- how can you work for someone like that, Cinder?"

"I promise you I didn't kill Pyrrha," Cinder said desperately. "Somehow, I'm being set up by a lookalike. But there's a reason why I'm with Salem and it's much deeper than working for her. Salem is like a mother to me. She saved my life."

It was true, even though there was an unspoken rule between them that Cinder was not to call Salem "Mom" or "Mother". She remembered the one time she'd slipped up at 16 and called Salem mom. It was the one and only time she'd ever seen Salem cry. Not wanting to trigger Salem's grief, Cinder vowed to herself that she wouldn't do it again.

"You just told me that same 'mother' used your body to hurt you for her cause," Ruby pointed out.

Cinder bristled. She remembered feeling deeply uncomfortable that Salem was able to use her grimm arm against her, and that she had chosen to do so. It was such an uncomfortable thing to remember that Cinder had never shared the experience with anyone, not even Emerald. She was surprised at herself for sharing it with Ruby.

"It only happened once, and after the healer took care of the wound Salem promised me it would never happen again," Cinder replied, reassuring both herself and Ruby.

"Weiss told me that your real name is Cinder Gold and that you were a missing girl from Atlas before all this- that you were violently attacked by the White Fang at 15 and believed to have been murdered by them. Is that what Salem rescued you from?" Ruby inquired.

Cinder bristled at the inaccurate version of the story the media had as traumatic memories came back to her. "That's not completely true."

There was a long silence between them, and then Cinder Fall decided to tell Ruby her story.

...

"My birth mom was a sex worker from Mistral who had me with a married client from Atlas. Of course, I didn't know that as a little kid. My terrible half-sisters Dria and Staci revealed it to me when I was a tween, and they and my even worse stepmother never let me forget it. My mom and I didn't even know who my father was until I was nine and she took me to someone whose semblance revealed it. All I knew as a little girl was that my mom was a loving mother with fabulous clothes. Fabulous clothes, and magic."

"Your mom was a Maiden?" Ruby asked.

"She was a previous Summer Maiden, according to Salem. She would sometimes play with the elements around me. Once when I was five I asked her, 'Mommy, will I have magic some day like you?' My mother paled, said 'no', and never used her power around me again," Cinder answered.

"How did Salem know that your mom was the Summer Maiden?" Ruby asked.

"She and my mother were friends," Cinder replied. "Mom's semblance was the ability to form a bond with anybody, and Salem opened up her home to my mother when she was pregnant with me after the strip club she worked at, called the 12 Dancing Princesses, was burned down by Children of Light extremists. You've heard of Children of Light, haven't you?"

"I know they're an extreme religious group," Ruby replied.

Cinder nodded. "I was actually born inside Evernight Castle." She remembered Salem telling her that she had held her when she was a baby. "But some time after I was born, my mom and Salem had some kind of a disagreement, and she left the castle with me.

"Anyway, the first 9 years of my life were peaceful. Then one night, strange men came after us. My mom took off the leaf brooch she always wore, gave it to me, and said, 'I love you Cinder. Go to the hiding spot we talked about and wait for your Daddy.' I did what I was told, my father came for me, and I never saw my mother again. The next day, she was found dead."

Cinder continued. "I went to live with my Atlesian father, and the difference in my life was like night and day. My stepmother was cold to me, insisting that I call her Madam instead of Mom, and my half-sisters iced me out too. I think my dad tried to make up for the lack of love, which only made them hate me more. Then he died in an airship crash when I was 10."

"I'm sorry," Ruby said.

"My life became a living nightmare after my father died. It was as if my stepmom didn't have to pretend anymore. She started to abuse me. She confiscated my mother's leaf brooch, telling me, 'This belonged to a whore. It has no business on a little girl.' She made me sleep in the basement of their hotel, and treated me like a slave. She got violent with me over the slightest infractions- sometimes there wasn't even an infraction or error on my part, and she would just hurt me because she was in a bad mood or because she could. Her favorite method was using a shock collar on me. I also found out that she was part of the hate movement Humanity First."

"That's awful," Ruby replied. "How did you get through that?"

"My comforts were drawing and training to be a huntress with a huntsman named Rhodes. As I progressed in my training, he told me there was someone who wanted to meet me when I turned 17. Someone who I would later find out was Salem."

Suddenly Cinder remembered a day at Beacon when she had lost her sketchbook and Ruby had found it in the cafeteria. Ruby approached her with it.

"I took a peek," Ruby had admitted sheepishly. "You're really talented. I especially liked your comic, The Black Glass Slipper. Maybe one day you'll tell me how Ashen's story ends."

Cinder had blushed both from the compliment and the embarrassment of Ruby discovering her deeply personal comic. It had basically been her telling her story, only in this version of her story her self-insert "Ashen" was an abused girl who discovered that she was secretly the granddaughter of a magical loving queen and that a marriage was arranged for her to a handsome young king.

Re-focusing on the present, Cinder continued, "I fantasized about being both a huntress and a queen, and I began to idolize an Atlesian team of former Beacon Students called team AZUR. Then there was this male sea faunus teacher at my school. He was 25, and I was 15."

Cinder took a deep breath, dreading what came next in her story. This was a secret Cinder had only ever shared with two people- Salem and Emerald- and now she was going to share it with Ruby. She felt the shame coming on.

"We became...closer than a student and teacher should have. Or at least my naive fifteen-year-old self thought it was genuine closeness. I really thought he cared about me, and even opened up to him about the things happening to me at home. One day when I missed the school bus home he gave me a ride. He asked if I wanted to stay at his house for a little while and watch a movie. Not wanting to go home, I said yes. When we got to his home, it became clear that he was interested in more than watching a movie. One thing led to another, and I wasn't ready. I told him that. But he promised me that if I just relaxed for him, he'd take me away from my stepmother so she couldn't hurt me anymore. So I let him do what he wanted."

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Cinder, you do realize that that was an abuse of power on that teacher's part, and that you have nothing to be ashamed of, right?" She asked. "You were only 15. The age of consent in all kingdoms is 17. Plus, you were a student already being abused at home, and instead of reporting it like teachers are supposed to, he exploited the situation. He was a predator."

Ruby's words brought her some comfort. "I realize that now, although I still feel ashamed. I ended up becoming pregnant from it. When I told him about the baby, he wanted nothing to do with either of us, begged me to get an abortion, and a week later, he had moved out of Atlas."

"Did you tell on that teacher?" Ruby asked.

"No. I knew that because he was a faunus living in Atlas, there was a chance he'd be sent to Mistral and put in The Hunt for what he had done. I couldn't let that happen to the father of my child. Even though I was terrified and devastated, I wanted to keep my baby. I wanted to love and be loved by my child."

Cinder felt her eyes welling up with tears and a lump forming in her throat. She held her hands to her stomach. "I learned that my baby was a girl. I remember feeling her aura inside of me. In the picture I got of her as a fetus I could see her little fins beginning to develop on her arms and legs. I still have the picture. Her name was going to be Ember.

"Eventually my stepmom figured out that I was pregnant. She demanded to know if the father of my child was human or faunus. I admitted that he was a faunus, but didn't tell her who he was. She locked me in the basement. I was so scared that she was going to hit me or shock me while I was pregnant, but what she did to me was even worse."

"What did she do to you?" Ruby whispered.

"At midnight my stepmother came into the basement with team Azur. I heard her say to them, 'I don't care what you do to her, I just want her and that faunus baby dead.' They began to grab me roughly. I panicked and said 'please don't let them hurt me'. She told me, 'you're nothing but a worthless tramp just like your mother and you're about to get what you deserve. Your death will further the cause of Humanity First. Everyone will think the White Fang did this to you.' Team Azur put on their White Fang masks and took me to an abandoned building. Rhodes followed us- he happened to be staying at the hotel that night. But when he arrived at the building they killed him."

The tears finally fell. "I tried to fight back with my training, but the whole team was too much for me and I hadn't unlocked my semblance yet. Those monsters filmed what they did to me. They beat me badly- I felt Ember die inside of me. I felt her aura break inside of me. Then one of the huntsmen pulled out his sword and cut most of my left arm off. I think the plan was to cut me up in pieces."

"Oh Cinder," Ruby breathed. "I'm so sorry that happened to you."

"I thought I was going to die," Cinder added. "I would have, were it not for Salem. She appeared with a nevermore and made it devour team Azur so there was nothing left of them. I remember the concern on her face when she looked at me. She tore off her cape and wrapped it tightly around my bleeding arm stump, and then she carried me to her castle. A healer tended to my wounds. Salem promised me that she'd never let anyone hurt me again. She comforted me, opened up her home to me, and shared some personal stories with me from her past, including how she fell into a grimm pool during an attempt to end her own life and ended up permanently damaged by it.

"I wish there was some way to heal her. She has suffered more than you can imagine. I love her, and she loves me," Cinder finished. "She's never said it, but I can tell. She has promised to leave behind a better world for me- one where I'll never be powerless again."

...

Ruby was processing the information that Cinder had shared with her. She thought of how the cruelty of one woman and the selfish, predatory act of another adult had caused a girl so much pain, and drastically altered the trajectory of her life. Ruby's mind went back to the conversation they'd had before Cinder had fled the palace.

"You're not tainted," Ruby told her.

"What?" Cinder asked as her orange-gold eyes locked on Ruby. Cinder's long black hair was off to the side over her shoulder as always, and she wore a sexy red minidress with a hem and bell sleeves that ended in black lace and had an opening in the side that exposed her hip, her mother's leaf brooch pinned to the side of the dress above the opening. Underneath the dress she was wearing black shorts with a laced up cut-out that exposed a sliver of hip, and she'd paired the outfit with a choker, an ankle bracelet with black shards, and black glass stilettos.

"Your experiences don't make you tainted. You've been through things that can feel isolating, but they don't make you dirty, and you don't have to be alone because of the things you've been through."

Cinder looked touched. "Thank you for that, Ruby," she said. "I guess I just needed you to understand where I'm coming from, and that's why I told you my story. I really didn't kill Pyrrha, and those casualties at the palace weren't supposed to happen- Arthur and Adam deviated from the plan, and Salem lost control of the grimm. I know Penny meant something to you even though she was an android, and I'm sorry we had to sacrifice her. But I really did kill Ozpin. Maybe one day, I'll be free to tell you why. My loyalty to Salem exists for a reason. Do you believe me?"

Ruby did believe Cinder. She just didn't really believe that Salem lost control of the grimm, or that Salem intended for there to not be so many casualties at the palace. She found Cinder's faith in Salem troubling.

"I believe you," Ruby said. "I will do what I can to keep you out of The Hunt. But I'm really worried about this path Salem has you on and the things people want to do to you."

"Salem will protect me," Cinder insisted.

Ruby's mind jumped to a random thought. "At the palace you told me you were engaged. Who are you engaged to?"

"King Jax Asturias of Vacuo," Cinder answered. "Salem arranged it."

Ruby felt a surge of jealousy. How was she supposed to compete with a king?

...

Later, Ruby shared their conversation with her friends. Afterward Ruby realized that it was kind of inappropriate of her to share all of Cinder's trauma without her permission, but it was too late. Ruby told her friends that she didn't think Cinder was a bad person, that she was a person who needed help. Ruby's friends agreed to help her, and expressed disgust over the things they were seeing on the internet about what people wanted to happen to Cinder. Blake agreed to try to sway the people of Menagerie against The Hunt, while Weiss agreed to try to appeal to her fans.