I'm calling this Dark Magic AU. You'll surely have a lot of questions, so please feel free to ask and I'll answer whatever I can afford to at the time.
This is for Haley's birthday, since she likes this sort of thing (and Cinder, haha). It was supposed to be just 5 chapters or so, but overall it's going to be 10 now, each chapter varying in length.
WARNINGS for kidnapping, emotional/psychological and physical abuse.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
Nameless
Prologue: Wayward Shadows
It wasn't fair.
Life never seemed to be – not to Cinder.
Every godforsaken day, she was forced to walk the very same streets of the very same town, her feet taking her to the very same marketplace on the very same street.
And every day, she was forced to watch the life she could never have.
Because everyone around her had it.
It was infuriating, depressing, and unfair.
Couples of all kinds held hands and shared kisses on the street corners and as they saw one another off for work in the morning. She saw it every day, and it sickened her, made her stomach twist and twist until she longed to retch blood.
The ones with the animal ears and tails sickened her the most.
And the children.
Almost all of them had children.
Happy, foolish little things, too blissful to care about danger, too young and naive to know fear.
Forty years was long enough, though she appeared to be only twenty.
She'd waited her fair share of time. She deserved a little something for her trouble.
So one rainy morning, she set out to take it for herself.
Hidden beneath a cloak of dark crimson, she glided through the streets like a wayward shadow without a person to connect itself to, unattended and unrestrained. Her eyes glared through the passerby predatorily, hunting what she sought.
As she moved, she never touched a soul, never brushed past a single being, going unnoticed by all of the blissfully unaware.
Until she'd found her target.
The second she laid eyes upon the family, her lips took on a wicked, upward curl.
A man probably just three decades old stood beneath the shelter of a building's overhang, browsing produce. He had a daughter at the end of each hand, his large fingers wrapped around much tinier ones.
They couldn't have been older than five years of age.
And yet, there was no mother to be found.
The man was covered in a light sprinkle of rainwater, his suit's shoulders dampened and dark. The poor soul couldn't even hold an umbrella for himself with the children there.
In retrospect, Cinder was doing him a favor.
She waited, deathly still, like a panther on the prowl, waiting for her prey to make that one fatal mistake.
The two girls giggled gleefully as they tugged their father's hands. The one with misty-grey hair strained onto her tip-toes and tried to peer over the wagon's edge to look at the fruit for sale, while the other used her free hand to pull her striking white tresses over her shoulder.
Cinder knew which one she wanted.
It would only be a matter of time.
Still she waited – stagnant – like a rock amongst the flow of a river, hundreds of other people passing by between herself and her target.
And then it happened.
That fatal mistake.
The lonely father decided to make a purchase, and in order to point out his choices, he was forced to let go of one of his daughter's hands.
It was only for a few seconds, but it was more than enough time.
Cinder darted forward, weaving between the various other moving bodies like a spider on its own web – undeterred.
And then she was close enough to fit perfectly into the man's shadow.
He didn't even notice.
No one did.
Not until it was too late.
She reached forward, taking the wrist of the little white-haired girl who was still waiting for her father's hand again.
Like a thief in the night, Cinder snatched her away. Only, she was skilled enough to do it in broad daylight.
She pushed a palm to the girl's mouth to silence her, lifting her easily off the ground and into her arms. The cloak fell forward around Cinder's shoulders, concealing her prize as she hurried away once again.
It was only seconds later when she heard the panicked shouting of a terrified father, and the entire crowd was soon in chaos behind her.
But Cinder kept running, the child now limp and unconscious in her arms.
She slunk back to her dark mansion and slipped inside unnoticed. She would need to act quickly, before the girl woke again.
Cinder took her to a room she hadn't visited in several years, a room with a small bed, blue walls, and soft, colorful things.
She'd had no use for it until now.
She'd finally found someone who could occupy it.
She laid the girl down on the bed, catching a glimpse of her pretty face for the first time – round cheeks, flawless white skin, and hair of a similar color.
She'd gotten the one she'd wanted.
But Cinder regretted she would need to mar that perfect complexion.
She caressed her precious face for a moment, the smiling never leaving her lips. She wanted to remember what it looked like now, before she would be forced to damage it.
Then, with one index finger, she positioned the tip of her nail just above the girl's left eyebrow.
Cinder pushed down, until she punctured the skin, producing a small trail of blood. She dragged her finger downward, over the girl's eye and down to the top of her cheek, cutting all the while.
The girl didn't wake from the pain, because Cinder didn't let her. She was in control right now, and with a ounce of forbidden magic, she reached into the little girl's memories.
And she took them.
She took every last one of them, extracting them, then letting them die.
One by one.
Until her father wasn't her father anymore.
Until her sister wasn't her sister anymore.
Cinder stole everything, until she herself was the only thing left.
The spell completed, Cinder took a step back, gazing fondly down at her new daughter. The pink scar remained over her eye, a permanent reminder to Cinder about what she had just done, but she was determined to never regret it.
She tucked the girl in tenderly, cushioning her head with a pillow, and placing a kiss on her forehead like any mother would.
Then, Cinder left the room, bound for her own quarters.
Outside, she could hear sirens blaring in the distance, police radios echoing incoherently. And in the back of her mind, she could still hear the father's distraught shouts.
But Cinder pushed the thoughts away and reminded herself of the good she'd done tonight.
She'd rescued the girl from a life where her father likely only had the time and energy for one daughter anyway.
She'd rescued a father from the stress and responsibility of caring for two children.
And most importantly, she'd taken the first step to fulfilling her own dream.
Cinder had done everyone a favor tonight.
She refused to believe otherwise.
A/N: This fic will consist of 10 more chapters and will be updated once or twice a month depending on my fanfic schedules, so keep an eye out! You can support me on under the name Kiria Alice to read future chapters early!
Ch 1 preview: The hallways were always cold inside, and Weiss had never understood why. There were a few windows around the mansion, most of which were covered by dark curtains that Cinder forbade her from moving.
"People can see you through those," Cinder had told her. "Don't let them see you. Ever."
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