Cinder was never sure whether to feel excited or not when the orphanage matrons rounded them up and told them someone was coming today to inspect them. The kindly but tired women running the orphanage always made it out to sound like a wonderous occasion and urged each of them to clean up and put on their best clothes and smiles. This was a chance to have a mommy and daddy, or so they always said, and the kids ran around in a frenzy ahead of it.

At nineteen years of age, going on twenty, Cinder was quite a bit older than the other children – all of whom were younger than eighteen. Something about that felt wrong, but one of the matrons gave her a gentle nudge and told her to put on her sundress, and Cinder hastened to obey. The dress was an obnoxious pale yellow that made her look like a canary, but it wasn't as if she had a lot of options. Some girls were arguing over who was less or more likely to be adopted, while others were practicing their smiles in mirrors. Happy children got adopted, or so the matrons had told them, but Cinder couldn't find it in herself to be happy.

There had been too many times she'd tried her hardest to win over the visiting families and failed, times enough that it made her wonder if there wasn't something wrong with her. Maybe she was unadoptable, or just not what parents wanted. Her own had to have given her up at some point; perhaps they had known something she didn't. Perhaps she was meant to not have any parents.

It was a little after midday when the orphans were all rounded up and arranged in the main play area of the orphanage. Boys and girls strained to be at the front, but the matrons forced them into a pattern with the shortest and youngest to the front and the taller children at the back, so that no one would be left out.

Finally, one of the matrons came through with an excited smile and gestured for them all to get ready. Moments later, a rotund woman strolled into the room with a huge smile. Every child there greeted her with smiles just as big, but Cinder frowned. Something felt off about the woman, almost familiar. Had she met her before? Cinder's heart quickened and when the woman's eyes met hers, her body froze. Ice ran through her veins and she felt, for once in her life, so very, very afraid.

"Hello there..." the woman said, reaching out to touch Cinder's cheek. "What's your name?"

"C... C... Cin... Cinder..."

She didn't dare move. There was nothing threatening about the woman or the touch, and yet Cinder felt like she might be slapped at any moment. Tears pricked at her eyes and every bit of her body strained to push the woman away and run – run far away, as fast as she humanly could. Her feet remained rooted to the floor, however.

I don't like her, she thought. She's scary. Please don't adopt me. Please, please, please...

"You're a pretty one, aren't you?" the woman asked. The words that should have been a compliment felt closer to a threat. "I'm sure you'll grow up to be quite the beauty. Tell me, do you want a new mommy?"

"No."

"Of course you do." The woman didn't appear to hear her. "Of course you do. And I have two daughters myself who could be your big sisters. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Tears leaked from her eyes. "No. No, I... No... Please no..."

"Matron, I think I've chosen," the woman said. Cinder trembled. "I'll choose—"

"Now, now!" a man's voice interrupted. "Let's not be hasty! And I'm sorry I'm late. Traffic was awful."

The man that bustled into the room also felt familiar to her for some reason. He had golden yellow hair, bright blue eyes and a smile that was both warm and tense at the same time. He wore a suit and had a light beard across his face – somehow, it was the beard that felt the least familiar to her, even if she was sure she'd seen the face behind it.

For some reason, Cinder felt happy to see him. Not in the sense of affection or love, but maybe relief and – oddly enough – anticipation. Had this man promised to give her something? Every part of her body was saying so.

"I'm sorry, sir," said one of the orphanage's matrons. "I'm not sure we were expecting you. You are...?"

"Jaune Arc. I'm the local... doctor..." He sounded unsure of that. "It was arranged that I come down and give some check-ups to the children before adoption. You must have forgotten about it, or maybe the paperwork slipped through."

"Oh!" The matron smiled. "I remember now. Doctor Arc, wasn't it? Come on in. We have a kind lady here looking to adopt, but I'm sure she'll let you do a quick check over of the lucky child."

"Of course." The woman that scared Cinder drew back with a smile every bit as fake as it was friendly. "I wouldn't want to put a child at risk. You must be new to Mistral; I don't recognise you." She sashayed over and placed a hand on his chest, running it down his lapel. "Perhaps we can stay in touch – it'd be good for the child I adopt to have a family doctor."

"Ah. Uh. Yes, of course." He seemed as put off by the woman as Cinder was, quickly side-stepping away from her hand and walking on by. "How about you?" he said, looking straight at her. "Let's come into a side-room here and have a look at you."

Cinder hastened to obey; she preferred the idea of a doctor's check-up to being in the eyes of that evil woman. Doctor Arc took her into one of the matron's offices, looking around himself as if unsure where he was. Maybe he'd picked it at random to give her privacy. He took a seat on the matron's chair and Cinder did the same opposite him on a plastic chair too small for her developed body.

"What's your name?" he asked,

"Cinder Fall. No, Cinder." She frowned, unsure where the last name had come from. She was an orphan. "Just Cinder."

"Hm. And how old are you, Cinder?"

"Ninete— eleve—" Again, she frowned. "I'm nineteen."

"And still at an orphanage?"

"Y—eees..." The word stretched out as she was unsure even as she answered. She shouldn't be here, since if she was eighteen she would have been let go as an adult. The walls began to tremble. "Why... Why am I here? It doesn't make sense. I shouldn't be—"

"Stop!" Doctor Arc gripped her shoulders, a note of panic in his voice. "Calm down, calm down. You're just nervous. Is it the woman out there?"

"Y... Yes. I... I don't know why but she scares me." Cinder looked up desperately into his eyes. "Please," she begged. "Tell her I'm sick or... or that I have the plague. Tell her something so she doesn't adopt me."

He looked at her strangely. "You really don't like her, huh?"

"There's something about her; I don't know what. I just... I feel afraid." It was painful to admit it, and Cinder felt her stomach roll at the idea. But she was just a child, an orphan, and she couldn't turn down an adoption. "Please, I don't want to go with her. I just know I'll be in danger if I do. You have to believe me!"

"Hmm. I'll see what I can do. Give me your hand please."

Cinder did as he asked, and he turned her limb over, inspecting her palm and wrist. Maybe he could just tell what was wrong with her like that; Cinder didn't know how doctors worked. He hummed and concentrated, and then touched a point on her wrist.

"There's something here," he said. "Something under your skin. I'll have to draw it out."

Now, she got to be nervous for a second time. "W... What is it? Am I going to die...?"

"I don't think so. It might be a little parasite." He stared down at her arm and Cinder gasped in revulsion as something black squirmed under the surface, visible through her skin. It seemed to be dragged down from her shoulder to her bicep, wriggling along the way and making her skin bulge out.

Cinder felt sick just looking at it.

Despite her terror, there was little real pain. Mostly, she felt nauseous as he drew the shadowy shape toward his thumb, and then pinched her skin between his finger and thumb to isolate it. "I have to draw this out," he told her. "One moment please. It may sting."

/-/

Emerald tensed at the first sounds of discomfort from Cinder. Immediately, she was at Arc's side with her weapon over his face, ready to stab down through his eye socket and kill him. It was only Cinder's warnings not to act rashly that held her back.

And then she saw Cinder's arm.

There was a spot bulging out from it sickly, as if something were under her skin. With a crack, her skin broke and Cinder moaned in her sleep, a pitiful and miserable sound. Blood seeped out the wound, but Emerald could only watch in horror as a shiny black worm-like insect pushed out from her skin, tiny mandibles scratching back as if to try and pull itself back in. It was expelled from her and landed on the bed, and quickly began to claw itself back to Cinder, no doubt to burrow into her body.

Emerald lunched forward and pierced it to the bed with her weapon, almost cutting it in two. The horrid thing let out an evil hiss as it died, Emerald flicking its body off Cinder's bed and to the floor so it couldn't harm her. The thing died moments later and dissolved into nothing.

A Grimm. It was working, then.

Shaken and nauseous, Emerald forced herself to sit down again.

/-/

Cinder didn't see what Doctor Arc drew out of her body but that was probably a mercy. She wretched and vomited on the floor as he crushed something in his hand. That thing had been inside her, doing things she had no idea about, and it made her feel weak and vulnerable. It was a miracle he'd caught it and gotten rid of it.

"There, that's gone and done with. Are you okay?"

"B... Been better," she managed. "What was that?"

"A Grimm parasite."

"Grimm!? Like the monsters?"

"Yes. Not all of them are big and scary like Beowolves. Some are small and scary, like that thing that was inside of you. No need to worry now, it's long gone." He offered a hand, and Cinder let him pull her up. "Now, then. Let's have a look at the rest of you. You look healthy enough. Good vision, healthy skin. How often do you take care of your ears?"

Cinder blinked. Of all the questions she'd been asked in her time by doctors, this one was new, and a little confusing. "My... ears...?"

"Yes. Your feline ears. Do you clean them regularly."

"Feline...?"

He picked up a mirror from the matron's desk and handed it to her. Cinder knew what she'd see – or she thought she did – but she was stunned by the two triangular black ears atop her head. There were tufts of golden fur poking out from the insides of them. "W... What...?"

"You're a faunus," he said. "Did the matrons not explain to you what one was?"

"O—Of course they did. But I'm not... I was never..."

"You've always been a faunus, Cinder. I've checked your medical records before arriving here. You've always been a cat faunus. But I guess you've had a lot on your plate and haven't paid much attention to yourself."

"I... Um..." Cinder wanted to argue that she'd never been a faunus but that was a difficult stand to take when the proof was staring her in the face. "I... I guess I am a faunus," she said, feeling a little stupid. "Um. What am I meant to do with my ears?"

"Just clean them, I suppose. Wash them regularly, make sure not to let anything get inside them. That kind of thing." He picked up a device with a little torch from a doctor's bag she hadn't noticed before. "Let me have a quick check inside them to make sure they're healthy."

"Mm. Okay."

It felt new to have someone pull the lip of her ear up and push something into them. Cinder was sure she must have felt similar before, but she couldn't remember it. The metal was cold inside her ear, and her other flicked instinctively; it began to flap when he tickled a spot inside her ear, making her squirm and wriggle her shoulders.

"All done. That one looks healthy. And now the other."

Again, Cinder squirmed and held back a combination of giggles and odd sounds. Her ears didn't feel pleasurable in any way, but it was new and ticklish, like she'd never felt it before. When he was done, she flapped her ears to clear out the feeling, and then reached up to feel them herself. It was so strange being able to feel her own fingers prodding at something above her head.

How did I never notice these before...? It doesn't make sense.

"Well, I can give you a clean bill of health," he said. "It's time to go back out there and see about getting you adopted."

Cinder froze. Any excitement she'd felt at exploring her ears vanished in an instant. Her eyes darted to the door back to the main playroom and she felt inexorable fear. There were shadows creeping up under the door as if to snatch her feet and drag her away. Suddenly, Cinder felt small. Small and afraid.

When her eyes darted back to the mirror, she was eleven years old.

Of course she was – that was how old she'd always been.

"Please," she begged. "Please don't let her take me!"

The doctor looked uncomfortable. He sat back in the chair, and made to speak, only for the door to open. The woman that entered was the one from before, but now – away from the orphanage matrons – she was smiling cruelly and holding a collar. Cinder shrieked and leapt from her chair, racing behind the doctor.

"Come now, girl," snarled the hateful woman. "I'm putting a roof over your head and feeding you. The least you can do is be useful!"

"No!" Cinder cried. "I don't want to go with you!"

"Ungrateful brat! No matter. This will help teach you some discipline." The collar, which Cinder felt so deeply afraid of, leapt from the woman's hands and went straight for her neck. Cinder screamed.

"Hang on a moment here!"

A finger intercepted the collar, stopping it inches from her neck. The device clasped around the doctor's hand and activated, sending electricity crackling through him. He grunted, wrenched it off and tossed it to the ground. Cinder hid behind him as he rose to his feet.

"That is not the kind of thing a child should be made to wear," he said. "No matter the child. Ma'am, that is child abuse."

"Abuse? Oh, is that ungrateful child making things up again?"

The woman giggled, and Cinder felt frustration bleed into her fear, along with anger.

"I'm not making it up!" she cried out desperately. "I'm not! It's real! She hurts me!"

But, even as she said it, Cinder knew she wouldn't be believed. No one ever believed her, and the woman always got away with it—

"I believe you."

Cinder's eyes snapped upward. "You... You do...?"

"Yes." He reached behind himself and placed a hand on her head. "Yes, I do."

"You'd believe an excitable and lazy child over a pillar of the community such as I?" the woman scoffed. "I run a local business, I support local charities, and I even adopted a nasty child like her and welcomed her into my family. Do you know she's horribly jealous of her elder sisters, always making up such vicious rumours about them. About me as well. Can you imagine? I think she's just seeking attention, honestly. You shouldn't give it to her. Just ignore her and let her realise her lies won't get her anywhere."

"I'm not lying. I'm not. I'm not." Cinder pressed her face into the back of the doctor's coat. "I'm not. I promise."

"Ma'am, I think you should leave."

"No." The woman stepped forward. Doctor Arc stayed between them. "I have come to adopt that child, and I will not take no for an answer. You can't stop me, either. The orphanage has already approved me. I've passed all background checks." Her smile turned vicious. "You can't prove anything, and you can't stop me. I've picked her, and that means she is coming home with me, whether you like it or not. And whether she likes it or not."

Cinder began to cry. It was true. There was nothing she could do or say that would change the orphanage's mind on it. They needed to make space and see kids adopted, and they would just write off her nerves as that. Poor Cinder was nervous about being adopted, but they'd assure her it was just anxiety and send her off, and they'd refuse to believe anything they heard. They would send people to check up on her, but those people would never make it past this woman. Their heads would be filled with lies, and Cinder's life would be filled with pain.

"No, no, no," she whispered, banging her head into the back of the doctor. "Help me. Save me. Don't let her take me."

"He can't, brat. I'm adopting you."

An idea came to her desperate, childish mind.

"He—He can adopt me!"

"What?" the woman asked.

"What?" the doctor asked.

"Adopt me!" she begged, clinging to him. Cinder didn't know him or what he was like, but she knew that this woman would make her life hell. Anything was better than that. "Adopt me! I'll be a good daughter; I promise. I'll do chores, I'll study, I'll be whatever you want me to be! Just don't let her take me!"

A long silence hung in the room.

Broken at last by a contemplative hum. "Well," said the doctor. "That's an interesting idea. One I didn't think of. Would you be good, Cinder?"

"Yes!"

"Would you do as your father asks?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

"Will you become a huntress and fight to protect the innocent people? Will you make your father proud and help protect people from the Grimm?"

"I will!" she cried out. "I'll protect everyone, and I'll protect you! Just please don't let her take me!"

A hand settled on her head. Cinder dared to open her eyes, and her vision was filled by him as he knelt in front of her.

Cinder's heart skipped a beat.

"Then how about we talk to the matrons?" he said. "And see about you becoming my daughter."

Her eyes widened. A feeling of safety washed over her as he placed a hand on her back and steered her past the silently angry woman. Cinder wasn't sure why she felt so safe, but she clung to his side, refusing to let go of his pant leg as he convinced the orphanage matron to let him take her. They were happy to allow it, seeing this as a lucky chance to find two children parents. Cinder pitied whoever ended up with that woman.

"Let's go home, Cinder," said her new father. "I think we have a lot of lost time to make up for."

"Time...?"

"Yes. You're going to grow up faster than anyone realises."

Cinder didn't quite understand that but nodded her head. She wasn't sure where the travel time from the orphanage to her new home had gone, but she was suddenly in a bedroom with toys of her own, marvelling at actually owning things.

And then she was in school being complimented by her teacher, and her daddy was at her side telling her he was proud of her. Cinder's heart swelled.

Then she was at a birthday table. There were girls all around her – her best friends; Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren. They all sang happy birthday and Cinder cried a little, before her father hugged her and led her to a big stack of presents.

It was graduation and she was top of her class. She raced to her father, and he picked her up, spinning her around and telling her she was amazing. Her name, Cinder Arc, was shown on a scoreboard and she loved the name more than she did the perfect score she'd busted her ass to achieve to impress her father.

On like that, the memories played – her life, her childhood, her blessed, happy childhood. Cinder cried, cared, cuddled, was comforted, and chilled. Memories of cuddling on the sofa watching TV; of cussing out homework while her father laughed and helped her; of trying to hide under the blankets on Monday mornings as he came in and forced her to get up and get ready for school.

Cinder lived it all.

/-/

Emerald watched in awe as Cinder smiled and cried in her sleep. She looked happy, so Emerald didn't wake her. It had been a shock to see faunus ears grow slowly from her scalp, but she'd been ready for it, and it didn't look to hurt half as bad as the expulsion of the Grimm parasite.

They also looked good on her. Everything looked good on Cinder in her opinion.

Moments later, Cinder's eyes opened and she stretched out her arms in a yawn. There was no anger, no fury, so Emerald could only assume everything had gone exactly to plan. Emerald moved over to stand by the bed with Arc in it, holding her blades over his throat as had been the idea.

"Should I kill him?" she asked.

Cinder froze, eyes widening as she stared at her. "What are you doing!?" she hissed.

"You told me to keep watch in case he did anything bad. Did he? Is it safe? I can get rid of him now if—"

"No!" Cinder almost leapt out of bed. She looked alarmed. "No, no, no. Don't."

Emerald moved her blades away. "Then it went well? It all worked?"

"Y—Yes." Cinder hesitated awkwardly, as if she wasn't sure what Emerald was talking about. "Yes, it went to plan. Everything went exactly how it was expected to. You can move away from him. Put your weapon away."

That felt like an odd command but she supposed Arc was helpless when he was asleep but they weren't. He couldn't harm them. Cinder must have decided he'd be of more use for future uses of his Semblance. Emerald sheathed her weapon and stepped away from the bed.

Which was when Cinder struck.

The attack came suddenly and even if it hadn't, the shock of it would have been enough that Emerald couldn't react in time. A sweeping kick to her shins and a fist grasping her collar, hauling her away and throwing her into the corner of the room. By the time she landed, Cinder had summoned two glass blades to her hands and had taken a defensive stance between her and Arc – and between her and the child hostage as well.

"You won't hurt him!" Cinder snarled, eyes blazing hatefully at her. Emerald sat there, unable to process what was happening. Arc was slowly rousing behind her, as Cinder finished her statement. "I won't let you harm my father!"

"F—Father!?" Emerald croaked.

"Hngh." Jaune Arc sat up and glanced over. "Huh. Well. That worked out better than I thought it would."

"Are you okay, dad? Did she hurt you?"

"This is going to take some getting used to." Arc winced. "No, sweetie. She didn't hurt me. Now, beat her up and knock her out so we can take her back to the proper authorities – but don't make eye contact with her or she'll trap you in her Semblance."

Emerald could have, and probably should have, but her brain was still struggling to keep up with what was happening. Cinder, the woman she loved and was most loyal to, came at her with a vicious kick – and Emerald was so lost and unwilling to fight her that she didn't even think to bring her aura up. The blow struck and she crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Maybe this would all make more sense when she woke up.

/-/

Cinder watched the girl fall and let out a breath of relief. When she'd found her stood over her father with a blade at his neck, she hadn't known what to think, but she'd played along with the woman's statements and acted like she knew what they meant.

Thankfully, the green-haired woman had let her guard down.

Dismissing her blades, Cinder hurried over to her father. He looked worse without his beard, but he was still her dad, even if people kept saying they looked about the same age. Good genetics, she supposed. He could have looked eighteen or eighty; he still would have been her dad. Smiling, she lunged and embraced him.

He caught her as always did, his hands resting on her back.

"This is going to be hell to explain to Yang," he said.

"You think that's hell," Cinder grumbled. "I still can't believe my dad is dating one of my childhood friends."

"Oh god..." he whispered. "That's even worse."

Yeah, no shit. Cinder only let it go because she liked Yang, and because her dad could do no wrong in her eyes. It wasn't something she was going to get him in trouble for, even if he really ought to have found someone his own age. At least he'd waited for Yang to be of a legal age before dating her.

And, honestly, Cinder blamed Yang just as much. Her friend had always crushed on her dad, but she'd assumed it was just Yang being silly. The DILF effect, or whatever it was called. No one had expected her to up and confess, let alone for her dad to accept her feeling and go out with her.

But love was love, and dad was dad.

"Can we go back to Beacon?" asked Cinder. "I don't like it here."

"Of course... uh... sweetie." He winced. "Can you pick up that girl for me while I see to this hostage. We'd best get him back to his parents first."

Cinder hummed and let go of him, and marched over to the bitch that dared threaten her dad. Maybe she could tie the ropes just a little tighter. It wasn't her problem if this bitch ended up with rope burns up and down her arms.

It was just what she got for threatening Cinder Arc's dad.

That's one way to deal with Cinder.