RWBY Through Worlds

148: Find You

Then she frowned. "Well...that's surprising... Not very noble, is it?"

"I suppose it's not," Pyrrha said. "Everyone else thinks you're a monster--but when I looked at you, I saw myself. I just didn't like what I saw."

Cinder didn't know how to take this either. "What...?" she said blankly.

"There's something else," Pyrrha said, "something that I don't understand. You never actually tried to kill me until I came after you. You didn't care. And you want to again because you think my coming back to life somehow proves that you're weaker than me. But it doesn't. If anything it proves that I'm weaker. And...I'm okay with that. Now." She looked steady. "I don't need to be stronger than you. I didn't come down here to beat you. And neither did they."

Cinder turned to look at Shine and Oscar, and Pyrrha realized that wasn't the smartest thing to say.

"I just want to ask you why you're doing this?" she hastened to say, getting her attention again. "You know Salem is going to destroy us all."

"I'm not giving this to Salem," Cinder said scornfully. "If everything you said was true--and knowing you fools, it probably was--then I'd be smarter to take it for myself. But if I have a Relic, I'll have more power."

Pyrrha looked at her somberly.

"You're afraid," she said.

"What?" Cinder narrowed her eyes angrily.

"You're afraid to pick a side," Pyrrha said. "You want to defeat her, but you know you can't, but you wouldn't pick our side either. You'd be her enemy then... And you want to be on top, but..."

"You really think I'm afraid?" 

Pyrrha held up her hands, like she wanted to call a truce.

"Everyone is afraid," she said. "Fear just means that you know you have something to lose... But do you really just want to run?"

She had no idea that Cinder had heard very similar words to those before.

Cinder winced slightly but looked angrier.

"What are you even talking about?" She frowned. Suddenly she kicked Pyrrha into the wall.

Pyrrha wasn't too much hurt by that. She just looked up.

"Do you really think you can just talk me into giving up?" Cinder said angrily. "Do you think I'm that much of a fool?"

"I'm not..." Pyrrha said with difficulty, "...trying to get you to give up. I just want you to think. I didn't know last time why you were doing what you did. I think I see now. You want power, right?"

"So?" Cinder tightened her grip.

"But you're not free." Pyrrha got back to her feet. "If you disobey Salem, she'll still come after you. You most of all, you're her closest associate. Maybe you're stuck. I can't pretend to understand you that well, but you just strike me as the type who'd rather be free."

Cinder finally seemed to waver slightly from rage to confusion.

"Well, of course if I got the power I--" she began.

"You will never beat her," Pyrrha said firmly. "Maybe you're more like me than you think, hmm? Picking a fight you know you're not going to win, because you think you have no choice."

Cinder frowned at her--but it was not as angry now. It looked more uncertain.

"I can promise you, no one is going to resurrect you," Pyrrha added.