RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC48: New (Flower Power, Arkos, and Cinder--3)

A while passed. Cinder didn't go home.

Shine, after she got tired of reading and murmuring songs, asked her how she was doing.

"I don't know why I'm here," Cinder replied.

"I do," Shine said softly. "It's okay, really. We're all feeling the same way. But I'm hopeful.... So, you worked out your differences with Roy, I see. I'm glad that fight didn't last. He seems like a good guy to have in a crisis."

Cinder shrugged. "I guess it wasn't worth fighting over something like that. But you knew that already."

"I hope you guys are including him in stuff now. He seems pretty lonely," Shine said.

"Lonely?" Cinder said.

"Yeah, a lot of people do," Shine said. "Must be partly why he was searching so hard. You know, I do get the vibe from him that he's maybe not as nice as he acts all the time, just eager to please. I know a lot of people like that."

She was on point as usual.

"Actually, it's surprising how much...darkness people can have under the surface," Cinder said.

"I wouldn't go that far." Shine was surprised.

"Not...well, not like evil, just...negative feelings and temptations," Cinder said.

Shine gave her an odd look. "I'm going to assume the context of that was something that wouldn't be weird for me."

"For you? No," Cinder said. "We were just talking about how difficult it is to accept injustice. I didn't think of how it could be on both ends of society."

"You didn't think of how trapped people can be in either extreme, huh?" Shine said.

"Did you hear us say that on the plane a few months ago?" Cinder asked.

"No, but that you remembered something like that tells me it stuck with you. I just meant that, from all I've been picking up on about him, I think he must have felt like Weiss or Winter or maybe more like Whitley--unable to really meet the world out there because of his family position, until he left it. But it's not like that bias just goes away. People take out their anger on the kids of people they didn't like because they can." Shine shrugged. "I know Weiss got that even at Beacon. So this is not hard to assume it applies to other well known families."

"I didn't know that people at the top ever felt that way," Cinder admitted, a bit sullenly.

"I tried to warn you that having more power can be confining," Shine said. "But sometimes the children of people with power have the least power of all. Drives them to rebel. Trust me, I know some of the feeling. But you're so...well, very set in how you look at the world; I didn't really know if you'd ever admit things aren't as simple as you thought. I'm glad that Royal has been a good influence."

"I wouldn't know if I'd call it a good one. You wouldn't like us talking about how easy it is to want revenge." Cinder rather expected Shine to get concerned by that.

But she didn't right off.

"I think we all want it, sometimes," she said.

"You do? But you always say--" Cinder began.

"I say that I don't take it," Shine cut in. "Not that I don't ever want it. My gosh, woman, I used to wish things would happen to you...but I stopped later.... The problem with starting to see everyone as a human being is you start to feel their pain. I'm not good at revenge now, but it hits too deep when I see people suffer. But at one time, I think I could have enjoyed it. I prayed that I would be a more compassionate person. Perhaps those prayers were answered.... Sorry, I interrupted you, but that was a misconception."