Work Text:
“Do you believe in destiny?”
Amber eyes, filled with determination just moments ago, widened almost imperceptibly before narrowing once more at the girl who knelt before her. Tears prickled at the corners of Cinder’s eyes, accompanied by an unfamiliar feeling. Sorrow? Regret? It took her a few seconds to place it.
Pity.
A harsh blink did nothing to remove them, so she let them be. She thought back to when she was young and full of hope. Foolish. How she was once this girl. How she had placed her trust in the authorities, and how they had only repaid her undue arrogance and used her for their agendas and trained children to be soldiers. How they were using this Nikos girl much the same way.
Perhaps that was where the pity came from. She saw much of herself in this girl, saw how she used to be, before the world had disabused her of the notions of hope and peace and happily ever afters. How many more girls would go through this? How many more children would be turned into soldiers to fight for causes they knew not? How many would be promised powers that were never truly to be theirs?
Better to put this girl out of her misery, she decided. Perhaps it was one way to make up for whatever wickedness she had put out into the world. Perhaps she could be cruel to be kind, even if the girl would never understand it.
“Yes,” she replied at last, rising and summoning her bow. Ashes collected into a weapon, cruel mercy in tangible form. She stared down at the girl who looked back up at her, eyes reflecting only the tiniest fear and still brimming over with hope. Even at this hour, when her death was at hand.
Perhaps killing her would kill whatever mercy Cinder had left, and her conscience, long thought dead, would finally, truly have died.
Cinder let fly an arrow, and watched as it pierced the noble warrior’s breast. Unable to help herself, she stepped forward, holding the dying girl upright by her head, and watched as her illuminated ashes scattered to the winds, lighting up the night with the legacy of the slain hero.
And yet, that unsettling feeling remained with her, even when all of Pyrrha Nikos was gone.