Remaining Embers~Jaune x Cinder

Cold Steel Bars

Nora was still bashing against the cell bars. She wasn't as furious as she'd been on the first day, and even her seemingly inexhaustible energy supply was beginning to wane. Ren had remained calm, as he tended to, finding a corner to patiently observe the hall outside their cell, analyzing the patterns and movements of the guards. While Nora drew their attention with her antics, Ren found the weakness and vulnerabilities in their patrols and was getting close to mapping out their entire schedule.

Ruby suspected both were even more worried about Jaune than she was -they were incredibly protective of him- but they didn't share her own feelings of guilt. Ruby had confided that vulnerability to Jaune while they'd scoured the ruins of Kuroyuri together, and he'd assuaged her concerns, restoring in her hope and optimism when it had been sorely lacking. Now she felt uncomfortably reminded of what she'd dragged her friends into.

Why hadn't Jaune been thrown in with them? Was he even still alive?

If they hurt him... if they killed him... because of her...

Ruby tried not to dwell on the thought, but it was hard to think of much else, waiting either for Ren to find a weakness in the guards to exploit or for Qrow to find his way into this jail and release them. Ruby had already exhausted herself trying to figure out why Mistral's soldiers had abruptly turned on them and attacked on their way to see the headmaster of Haven, and now she was stuck worrying about her best friend while he was out of her sight and in harm's way, largely because of her.

If Jaune was unharmed -and she wasn't sure how well he'd come out of the ambush, her memories were hazy- then he'd been set aside from them for a reason. They didn't seem to fear having three prisoners in one place, so why devote extra cell space to one more?

Ruby had an idea who might want Jaune isolated and alone, and they were on her home turf.

That thought was only more worrying.

Jaune sat on the opposite wall from Cinder, leaving eight feet of separation between them. She was trying to avert his gaze, but after staring at the sleeping bag, the water leak, and the torch, she'd quickly run out of other places to look. Jaune was quietly waiting, collecting his thoughts... it was rare to see him so contemplative.

Cinder tried to piece together how she'd come to be here. She'd been training under Salem's eye, then slept, then found herself drifting in and out of consciousness as someone carried her over a great distance in open wilderness, then been carried by someone new through these dim corridors and tossed in this cell. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but a little application of her powers and she'd melt the iron bars these foolish soldiers thought could hold her.

But then... she might hurt Jaune if she burnt hot enough to rend metal...

What did that matter? He'd refused her, and she no longer need pay him heed. Really, she'd be better served killing him first and then escaping, if only to-

She'd been in Salem's castle. No one would dare enter it without Salem's invitation, and no one would be able to steal Cinder away without Salem's blessing. She was here because Salem wished her to be here. But why?

Cinder finally met Jaune's eye again, feeling the pleasant side effect of the aches in her arm and eye dull, fading from her thoughts. Salem had been aware of Cinder's -of Pyrrha's- feelings for Jaune and how Cinder had briefly lost her way. So why had her mistress brought her back here?

To kill him?

That would be logical. It would remove an unknown variable from Salem's game, and remove a hindrance that had already blighted Cinder. But then, Salem had insisted she wanted Cinder to recall her weakness and thus never finished extracting the essence of Pyrrha Nikos' soul from within her. So if she didn't want Cinder to kill the boy, what then?