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Death was an ironic monster.
For some people, it came suddenly and in a way they least expected it. But for others, death came slowly, and with an eerie predictability.
Three years ago, when Cinder had first woken up in hazy agony and seen the black, bony Grimm limb attached what little remained of her left arm, she’d somehow known that one day, it would end up killing her. She hadn’t exactly known how it would happen, other than that Salem— her mistress and the ruler of the Grimm— would probably be the one to end her life.
Cinder never expected that she’d end up doing it herself, only this time, to end Salem’s endless cycle of lives.
Her vision in her one good eye was blurry, but she could still see the bloody red hue of the sky and the ash clouds hanging thick overhead. Somewhere in the distance, she could still hear the roaring of Grimm as they ran masterless, tearing through burning trees and trampling charred grass. There were no screams or gunfire anymore; just empty, hollow silence.
A distant roar of thunder rippled in the black clouds overhead. Cinder closed her lone eye as she soon felt cold raindrops striking her face and rolling off of her body, turning the ground under her to a pool of mud and fresh blood. The water made clinks as it landed on the small glass sword next to her, washing all of her own blood off of the blade.
Absurdly, Cinder wanted to laugh, to just let herself go free and laugh until the tears rolled down her cheeks with the rain. She wasn’t happy, or angry, or grieved. In fact, she felt nothing at all. Her body was limp and nerveless and her mind was just.. empty. Maybe this was what insanity felt like.
But for all that, Salem was truly gone. Not just for a few hours this time, but for good.
Ruby Rose would probably never know that that final explosion of flame— the one that had immobilized Salem just long enough to give the gravely wounded huntress enough time to activate her only remaining silver eye— had come from Cinder. The broken and unconscious girl had been carried off the battlefield by her teammates; carried to safety and warmth and healing, if it had come fast enough to save her.
No one would ever know that the young pyromancer, who’d spent the last sixteen years of her life setting the world ablaze under Salem’s rule, had given Ruby Rose the last thing she needed to destroy the queen of the Grimm— once and for all.
It was over. Finally over.
Cinder laughed softly in the rain as the tears rolled down her cheeks and the blood streamed from her wounds.
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“Cinder! Cinder!”
Emerald’s voice was hoarse from shouting as she climbed over the debris and bodies, her red eyes frantically searching the battlefield. Even though the rain had died down to a gentle drizzle, the smoke and darkness and wreckage made it nearly impossible to see. Emerald clenched her fists and gritted her teeth.
“Cinder, if you’re out there, please answer me!”
She looked around at all the black puddles of liquid from disintegrated Grimm, and couldn’t help but shudder at all the corpses of humans and Faunus that lay scattered around the charred field. Most lay in pools of blood, having been gored by horns or claws, although some were completely mutilated. A few were visibly burned. The bile rose in Emerald’s throat and she shuddered.
Oscar and Neo had wanted her to come back with them to Patch, where they were taking Ruby and Yang to recover from their injuries. Emerald’s heart felt torn between the newfound family and friends she had, and the ones she’d felt that she left behind at the mercy of Salem when she’d run away. Weiss and Nora hadn’t understood well, but Oscar and Ren had (perhaps with a little aid from the latter’s emotion-based semblance). Blake hadn’t said anything, but considering how close she’d held Yang after the blonde had woken up, Emerald had a feeling she understood, too. In the end, Oscar and Neo had agreed to stay behind and wait for Emerald— and anyone else she might be bringing back with her.
“Cinder!” Emerald tried screaming louder, but her voice was so hoarse from the smoke that all that came out was a strangled barking sound. She pressed her hands to her head, feeling dizzied by all the carnage and death on every side. What if it was too late? What if none of her old family had survived?
Drawing in a gasping breath, Emerald staggered over a pile of shrapnel and her foot hit something soft, sending her reeling to the ground. She hissed out a curse and started to drag her exhausted body to her feet, when she looked up to see what she’d fallen over, and everything froze.
“C-Cinder?”
The tattered black cape, messy dark hair, and soft golden skin were unmistakable. But that’s not what made Emerald gasp and struggle not to retch. It was the fact that Cinder’s Grimm arm was completely gone, leaving a bloody tear in the flesh of her left arm, which she was weakly cradling with her right. There was so much blood that even Emerald, with all of her hardened past, was sickened with horror.
Gods, please let her be alive.
“C-Cinder? Can you hear me?” Emerald knelt down and hurriedly felt for a pulse and heartbeat. Thank the Brothers, or whatever else out there might be listening to her, she finally found both. Cinder’s signs of life were there, but weak. She was fading fast with her aura clearly having been broken and having suffered severe injuries. Emerald had to get her to safety.
The former thief struggled to make a tourniquet out of Cinder’s shredded cape for the awful wound in her left arm. Just as she was tying it up tightly, tears of frustration and worry blurring her vision, she felt a small movement under her. A lone gold eye slowly cracked open, just a little. Emerald could barely hear the hoarse gasp that followed, but she could see the shock and confusion that blanched over Cinder’s face.
“E-Emerald..?”
“Don’t talk. It’s okay; we’re going to get you out of here.” Emerald tried to keep her voice from shaking as she saw that Cinder’s wound was bleeding through the tourniquet, and her aura didn’t seem to be regenerating. That wasn’t good. Emerald tore off part of her own thick, padded white jacket and wrapped it around Cinder’s shoulder, trying to fortify the tourniquet more. “We’ll get you out of here, Cinder, I promise,” she whispered, her voice choking despite her best efforts to keep it steady. There was no time for tears right now.
Cinder didn’t say anything at all. From the slightly dazed expression on her face, Emerald could guess that she was probably in shock from the blood loss. She gritted her teeth and started working on how she was going to lift Cinder, as the older girl was quite a bit taller, and Emerald was under no illusions that she could walk, given the fact that she was barely conscious. She’d have to run to get Oscar. They’d find a way. They had to.
“Cinder? I have to go get help; I can’t lift you by myself. I’ll be back, please just stay still, okay?”
Emerald started to stand up on legs that would barely hold her, but she felt a hand slide into hers, shaking but holding on firmly. The mint-haired girl struggled not to choke on tears as she tried to pull away from the grasp, but couldn’t.
“E-Emerald..” It was only one word, but the former thief felt her heart twist when she heard the broken whisper that Cinder used to speak her name. Cinder was looking up at her, and that dazed sheen in her good eye made Emerald’s stomach lurch. She’d seen that look too often. It was still pasted on the faces of so many corpses lying around them.
“Cinder, please. We don’t have a lot of time; I have to go get help.”
Emerald’s voice was shaking and barely above a whisper. With one hand being tightly held in Cinder’s, her other hand ever so slowly inched up and touched the gash on the dark-haired girl’s cheek. Her fingers shook and she sucked in a breath, looking down at Cinder’s tourniquet again. The wound had bled through all of the fabric.
“E-Emerald?” Cinder murmured, seeming like it was hard to see the mint-haired girl kneeling over her. A soft cough escaped her and Emerald felt sick. “I-I left you.. there with.. her.” Cinder’s hand slowly left Emerald’s and reached up, brushing shaky fingers against Emerald’s smooth, mocha-skinned cheek. “I-I’m sorry..”
The rain had started up again, mixing blood and dirt and tears. Emerald’s eyes were so blurred that she could see nothing. “I-I left you there with her, too.” It was barely a tiny whisper. “But we’ll get you safe,” she struggled, unconsciously rubbing Cinder’s hand in hers. “She’s gone now. We’ll be okay.”
For the first time that Emerald could remember in so long, a faint smile crossed the dark-haired girl’s bruised lips. Not a withering smirk, but a smile, tiny and fragile. Emerald choked back tears as she realized what the smile meant. She bent closer to Cinder’s face and gently stroked the back of her hand over her cheek, shaky whispers slipping out in a frenzy.
“No. No, Cinder. There’s still time. We can—“
Her voice died off. There was no more time, and they both knew it. Emerald fell silent and stared unseeingly at the ground, watching the rain churn the blood-soaked ground to mud under them. Hot tears burned her eyes and her chest ached like it had been scraped hollow.
“T-This is.. my fault..” Emerald could barely speak. “I-I should’ve found you sooner..”
Cinder’s fingers wove themselves into Emerald’s again and held on tightly. “No.. I-I should’ve found you.”
The rain fell in sheets around them, streaming from their hair and clothes and washing away the blood and grime. Slowly, Emerald laid herself over Cinder, trying her best to keep her warm. The pyromancer weakly but gently held the thief close with her right arm, feeling her young body shaking with silent tears.
“E-Emerald?” Cinder whispered. It was getting harder to think, much less speak. “Y-You need to get out of here.”
The red-eyed girl clenched her jaw and held on tighter. “No. You need me.”
“B-But the storm..”
“I’m not leaving.”
Cinder hated the tears that blurred Emerald’s big red eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The former thief was hiccuping softly as she struggled to keep back her pain. Cinder hated herself for having caused that pain, but there was nothing left to do now but try to take it away.
Cinder weakly reached up and rested her right hand on the back of Emerald’s head, stroking the short mint locks there as she pulled it down gently. Emerald’s skin felt warm and wet against hers as Cinder pressed a kiss to her forehead, and then to each of her closed eyes. She wasn’t even aware of the tears leaking from her own eye anymore.
Emerald’s arms tightened around Cinder’s waist and she laid her head over the older girl’s heart, hearing how weakly it was beating. Cinder braced herself for a fresh torrent of tears, to hear Emerald struggle to voice how much she loved her even though Cinder had known it since she’d first picked up the girl in a Vacuo alleyway after she’d used her illusion semblance to steal a priceless ring from a jewelry store. But Emerald said something else.
“I know what you did,” she whispered, voice muffled in the folds of Cinder’s bloodstained cloak.
“What?” Cinder felt cold all over. She knew it was coming, that she deserved this, but she never expected it to feel like this.
Emerald hiccuped again and held tighter to Cinder. “I-I saw the fireball. You used it to distract Salem long enough for Ruby to muster up enough strength to use her eye, after Salem took the other one.”
Cinder’s body felt numb and nerveless. She didn’t know if it was from her blood loss or from knowing that someone— Emerald, of all people— knew what she’d done. She shuddered and tried to say something, but all that would come out was a raspy cough.
“You.. you helped defeat her, didn't you?”
It still didn’t seem possible that Salem was gone. But everything was going hazy now, and she felt so cold.
The torrential rain began falling again and a peal of thunder gashed the night sky. Emerald pressed her cheek against Cinder’s, shaking, but staying silent. The older girl held her tightly. She wanted to tell Emerald to run, to leave before someone found them, but all that would come out was a raspy breath. She was so tired.
“H-hurry,” Cinder mumbled softly into the warmth of Emerald’s cheek. “G-Go find the others.”
She was only vaguely aware of the choked sob as Emerald kissed her, quick and trembling, like a tiny flame against the icy chill of Cinder’s body.
Everything was going dark now. This time, she let the blackness pull her in, away from the cold and the endless pain— fading into the warmth and the sleep.
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Oscar didn’t need to ask any questions when he saw Emerald walking toward him, seemingly in a daze, drenched from the rain and with her clothes covered in blood. There was no one else with her. Briefly, Oscar glanced over at Neo, who’d stayed behind with him. The diminutive girl’s expression was unreadable, but her eyes were a faded grey, evidencing her concern.
“Cinder’s gone,” Emerald choked out faintly. She wasn’t crying, but if anything, the slightly dazed expression on her face was more alarming. “I-I couldn’t find a sign of Mercury anywhere.”
Oscar exchanged glances with Neo again as they did their best to comfort their grieving friend. He knew that there was likely no love lost toward Cinder and Mercury on Neo’s side, given the history, but the silent girl didn’t exhibit any malice as she rubbed Emerald’s back lightly. They both understood that Cinder and Mercury were the closest thing Emerald had ever had to family since she was a child— something both of them could relate to; Oscar having been raised by his aunt, never knowing his parents, and Neo having no family to her name, except for memories of Roman Torchwick.
They stayed there in the silence for what seemed a long time, under the rain, with Oscar’s arm around Emerald and Neo’s hand on her arm as the rain fell silently, washing away the last of the blight of Salem's curse on the world.