A/N: Woah, this is the longest thing I've ever written. This was created to satisfy my thirst for this pairing. I hope you like it. Reviews are greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer : I don't own RWBY.

"Glynda," the Headmaster of Beacon Academy addressed his assistant. "You're the only one who can stop Cinder Fall from destroying this Academy and the world."

"Why me?" she asked, her heart beating in her chest a lot faster than usual. "I can't face her just like that."

"Why not? You're her partner. At least, a few years ago in this same Academy."

"I was, Professor Ozpin," Glynda corrected. "Things aren't the same anymore. She's been corrupted by the influence of the Grimm."

"Of course they aren't the same," said Ozpin. "But you want her back, don't you?"

It was in an abandoned building in downtown Vale that they would meet. Nothing was in it but two people who were once part of the same team. Only one of them wanted the other to come back home.

Glynda Goodwitch recognizes that face. She recognizes the dark hair, glowing eyes, her love for fire magic and the colour red – yes, she remembers every single aspect of the girl standing before her. What she doesn't understand is the change of her Aura and her mind, her heart, and her very being. And why she's still feeling the hard pumping of her heart in her chest despite the fact that it's broken and making its plummet down to her stomach.

"Cinder Fall."

It's been a long time since she tasted that name on her tongue.

The name is more than familiar to her.

She used to say this name every day and night.

She used to whisper it, scream it, and call it in desperation. She remembers a time when she said it with pure hatred, then with acceptance, and then with love. She said that name as she fought beside its owner, as she learned to care deeply for her, as she blazed it into memory. She wouldn't forget that name, even if the world changed around them, even if she changed, even if Cinder Fall changed.

Glynda didn't know if she remembered her name as she remembered hers.

Oh, but she did.

"Hello, Glynda Goodwitch," the fire mage greeted. The way she greeted the Beacon Huntress was tinged with malice, Glynda knew, but she couldn't miss out that little bit of her old self, something she painfully missed. "It's nice to see you again after a long time."

"I could say the same," the blonde Huntress said. "Unfortunately, we're on opposite sides of the board now."

"Nothing's the same," Cinder said. "You wish to stay in the past. I chose to move forward."

"To a path that Huntresses like us don't take," Glynda said bitterly. "Your henchman Torchwick attempted to kill two of my students and a participant at the Vytal Festival. To take the side of someone like him – knowing you, being the mastermind of his 'little operation,' – I will not accept."

The dark-haired woman shook her head and put a sly grin on her face. "I'm achieving bigger things than what Beacon's ever taught us to do."

"Like destroying the world?" Glynda challenged. "Infesting it with Grimm?"

"I wouldn't call it 'destroying,'" said Cinder. "If anything, it's a revolution."

"A bloody one."

"Would you like to challenge it?"

"I'd like to prevent it from happening."

"Try and stop me first."

Glynda knew she couldn't do that. She had the abilities and skills, but she didn't have the courage and the heart to even hurt the other girl's feelings. Despite all that, she needed to stop this evil before it evolved into worse things.

By now, she would've heard Cinder mocking her for her cowardice. A few years ago, her opponent now would have done so when Glynda refused to take their arguments out on sparring. Cinder knew too that the only time she could ever take anger out on sparring was when it was necessary; otherwise, she always took it out on talking, believing it to be a more peaceful way to sort things out.

Both of them soon discovered that hurting words were more painful than physical wounds. They've both experienced exchanging criticisms to each other, and some of them weren't constructive. They hurt each other's pride and ego by using words.

"Are you going to try to talk me out of this again, Goodwitch?" Cinder asked as her palm held a growing flame. "I know you don't want to do that."

"If you're not going to take it out on me with words, you don't want it to happen, either."

"You know how sharp my tongue is."

"As do you."

"Even when we aren't talking?" Cinder asked, using a different tone in her voice. It's as if she was teasing the Huntress.

Especially when we aren't talking, she thought.

Glynda felt blood rush up to her cheeks as she tried to keep a straight face. Well, those were better days. When they were both just Huntresses-in-training in the prestigious Beacon Academy, when they were partners, maybe more than just partners –

She shook her head several times as if trying to get rid of those thoughts. That was in the past. She couldn't love her enemy now, could she?

"You know the answer to that," she chose to say instead as she prepared to fight. Her Dust riding crop glowed purple with energy. "I don't want the past to mix in with the present."

"Oh, I know you do," Cinder said. "There's the look in your eyes."

She easily dodged an attack from the Huntress, and used the flame in her hand to counter. Glynda used a purple glyph to defend herself and waved her weapon to form ice in the shape of diamonds. The ice shot forward in Cinder's direction and was shattered by her fire magic.

"Like the old days," the dark-haired mage said. "Let's see how far we've gone."

Cinder anticipated Glynda's ice attack and chose to shield herself as she did before, and launched a flurry of flames towards her opponent. Glynda dodged the flames, knowing well of her opponent's strength. The fires have gotten higher and hotter this time; she wondered if she even improved from the last time she trained at Beacon.

The fire mage kept firing flames and dodging Glynda's ice flurries, and the Huntress was trying to think of ways to get past this stage in the fight. Things were going to become repetitive, and she couldn't risk running out of Dust while Cinder has magic born into her. Unless Cinder has a finite amount of Dust, Glynda had no way of winning by use of magic.

She barely had time to jump out of the way as Cinder's next attack came. Spinning ovals were forming near her feet and there was a loud roaring emitted by them. It's a good thing she had encountered these before when she was saving Ruby; her adversary was indeed getting more powerful.

"So you've learned to dodge that one," Cinder observed as she showed a smile for a second. It instantly turned to one of evil intentions. "Try to dodge this!"

Glynda was still crouched down when another set of ovals roared around her. She had to put her plan into action, so she dodged forward towards Cinder and kept running in her direction. She was met with set after set of the explosive magic, but she kept her eyes on her old partner who was still preoccupied with firing her special attack.

Once she was in range, the Huntress hit her opponent with a low kick to the shins and a jab of her Dust riding crop to her stomach. Cinder yelped in pain but recovered quickly and dodged Glynda's punch to her face. She fired up her hands and landed a punch to Glynda's cheek. It was only after several other punches that Cinder knocked her glasses off.

She was at an advantage, now that Glynda's sight was rendered useless, but she did not underestimate the range of her weapon. Despite her blurry eyesight, she was able to see the blurs of red, yellow, and black and hit them with her riding crop.

Cinder had less chances of winning what with that weapon around, and anticipated the next move Glynda made. She avoided a hit to the stomach just centimeters away and managed to grab hold of the Huntress' wrist. Glynda cried out in pain as Cinder kneed her on the stomach, and lost her grip on her weapon. She saw her riding crop skid away from the fight; the fire mage kicked it away. Cinder kept attacking her blind and now weaponless opponent relentlessly until she could no longer counter.

"I thought you were the best at hand-to-hand combat back then," Cinder taunted. "What happened in the past… what, five, eight years?"

Glynda lost her strength after that attack and was now lying helplessly on the ground. She could barely move a muscle and see her opponent coming closer. She was pulled up by her blonde hair which was undone by her landing and Cinder's flurry of punches and kicks, all of which were powered by flames.

A beeping of a Scroll was heard in the room. The fire mage dropped Glynda and obliterated the technology with one ball of flame and turned back to the defeated Huntress. She was bruised and bloody and ruined, just there with no intentions to fight back.

"You don't need Ozpin and his team anytime soon," she told her. "How about you join me in a quest to change the world?"

"Over my dead body," Glynda weakly replied. "Your way of changing the world is messed up."

She tried to stand but ended up sliding with her back against the wall. By now, Cinder was chuckling at the sight of the weakened opponent.

"Why not? It'd be like the old days, Glynda. It only gets better from there with you by my side."

"How tempting."

Cinder feigned a look of hurt. "You're calling me a temptress, Goodwitch? That's rich, coming from you."

"Only because I want to bring you back," Glynda said. "Whatever's gotten into you has taken the better part and thrown it away."

"This was all my choice."

Glynda saw the blur of red pacing about the room, ignoring her almost entirely. It's as if she knew she won and that Glynda would not be able to get up very soon. Those were facts, sure, but it brought the blonde Huntress back to the days when her dark-haired partner would help her up after sparring, tend to her injuries, stay with her in the dorm room for weeks until she was perfectly healed…

How can leaving her behind be a good choice?

"What was that, Goodwitch?"

She hadn't realized that she said that out loud. She looked down in shame. She didn't care if Cinder – her old partner – would hurt her again as long as the words were said.

"How could you leave us like this?" she asked the red blur coming closer. "How could you turn your back on the people – especially my students – and want to hurt them through the Grimm?"

She couldn't see Cinder's reaction to that; her face and everything around her was all a blur and she just realized how hopeless she is without her glasses. She couldn't tell if Cinder was surprised to hear that question, or if she rolled her eyes as if she'd heard that question a thousand other times.

"I don't care about anyone else," Cinder replied. "The Grimm promised me power and it is only fitting that I must serve them; it's what I have today."

"It's just dumb luck that I had my glasses knocked out of my face," Glynda said. "I would've been able to see you and apply that hand-to-hand combat properly."

"And still, you lose," she heard Cinder say. "You've always been hopeless without them."

The little hope she had of taking her old partner back was dying out quickly, but time seemed to slow. "Any more inquiries?"

No, Glynda thought. Don't leave me yet. There's so much I need to tell you. So many questions I need to ask.

Good times in Beacon flashed through her mind. She never met Cinder before Initiation day; the moment they locked eyes, they didn't expect to go this far. Cinder showed her powers with fire magic then, and Glynda knew she was with the right person for a long time.

Their first mission wasn't bad either. Their team was assigned to clear out a forest of Beowolves and Ursai; they did so successfully. It was Cinder who helped out the most. Her team mates praised her for her work, herself included. She remembered the smile she gave her way, how beautiful it was and still is despite being mixed with evil.

There was a time that her partner was made fun of because she didn't know hand-to-hand combat as much as she did, and she remembered defending her from a group of bullies who picked on her for that. She made sure they paid the price for beating up Cinder and that they would never touch her again. Life was very peaceful for their team after that. Cinder was happy.

The night they confessed their feelings to each other pained Goodwitch and she felt a pang in her heart as she remembered that promise Cinder made to her under the stars.

That they would always be on the same side.

It should never have come to this.

She knew Cinder was thinking about it, too.

"Glynda Goodwitch," she heard a soft voice from in front of her say. It felt so good to hear her name like that, all the evil intentions gone.

"This is the last time you'll get to see me clearly."

She felt something press onto her hand, something round and with glass. She put her black glasses on and the world was still blurry. She realized that the only reason this could be so was because she had been holding back her tears.

Glynda felt weight on her legs and the gaze of her adversary burn through her. No one wanted any of this to happen, to see the day they would be separated again.

She felt warm hands hold the sides of her face as the tears fell. She didn't hold back anymore; resistance was futile especially in the presence of Cinder Fall, her best friend, her partner for four years, the woman she'd learned to love so dearly in that span of time. Her hands went up to hold on to the warmth that was in Cinder's hands, as if it was her last chance to hold them. She held on tight, channelling all her remaining energy into that grip in an effort to reach out to the person in front of her.

It was so painful. She only hoped that her actions touched her heart just as much as Cinder's did hers.

She felt lips on her own and she leaned forward to deepen the contact between herself and Cinder before time was up. It wasn't perfect, but it meant everything to the blonde Huntress. She wanted it to last forever. She had no cares for the world at the moment.

"Goodbye," Cinder said as she broke away from the contact.

It wasn't until the feeling on her lips stopped that she saw Cinder get up and start walking away. Her hand reached out towards her, but she knew deep in her heart that she wouldn't get help from her any time soon.

Glynda tried one last time to persuade the fiery beauty in front of her to change, to be on the same team as her once more. To let things go back to the way they were, before the world changed.

"Cinder Fall," she called, her voice almost devoid of hope. "You promised me..."

The Headmaster of Beacon woke up to someone's knocking on his door. Who could it be so late at night? He wondered as he made his way to the door that separated his office from the rest of Beacon.

He almost didn't recognize the figure before him – bruised, bloody, hair dishevelled—if not for the dim light that came from the hallway. Of course, he expected things to turn out this way, but it only comes to show how powerful Cinder Fall had become.

Glynda was not easily beaten before.

"Glynda," he acknowledged.

"Professor Ozpin," she said. "I… I couldn't stop her. It was pathetic, I was weak…"

"Sh-sh-sh-sh, calm down," the silver-haired man stopped her from counting all her "mistakes." "You did fine. I heard it all happen."

"She burned down my Scroll, though," Glynda told him as she presented her melted Scroll to the Headmaster. "I need a new one."

"We will provide for that," the professor said. "It's too bad. That was one of the first models, which have been around since the time you were still attending this Academy."

"Yes," the Huntress said in dismay. "It was a good Scroll."

"Much memories?"

"Mhm. Everything's burned down to a crisp now, so I'll have to start over."

Professor Ozpin wasn't surprised to see his colleague's tears run down her face. Some serious things must have happened that he didn't get to hear.

"You need your rest, Glynda," he said as he watched her dry her tears. "You've had a long night. I'm sorry it had to be this way."