Cinder Fall hated it when her situation was out of her control. It wasn't the time travel anymore, or even being stuck in Ruby Rose's body. No, it was the icy, hostile, beautiful mystery of her "partner" Weiss Schnee, and the inexplicable draw to her she couldn't seem to shake.
Petals in the Ash is an ongoing RWBY fic that follows Cinder Fall after she is hit by Ruby Rose's silver eyes during the fall of Beacon. Rather than having her arm and eye burned away, Cinder instead wakes up in the body of a young girl on her first day at Beacon. And when she looks in the mirror, she sees the face of Ruby Rose looking back at her.
The fic can be read Here
on Archive of Our Own and Here on Fanfiction Dot Net.
Tropes in the Ash
- A-Cup Angst: One of the first things Cinder notices about her new body is that she has significantly smaller cup size than she used to, and later gets jealous of Yang for being better endowed.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Blake is lesbian here, rather than bisexual like in the show.
- All for Nothing: Played for Laughs. When Cinder!Ruby befriends Pyrrha, Yang is surprised because Ruby is usually fairly antisocial. Cinder laments that she could've gotten out of befriending Pyrrha by just playing the antisocial angle.
- Ambiguous Situation: What exactly happened to the original Ruby Rose? Cinder assumes she's dead by Death of Personality, but she gets occasional intrusive thoughts that seem to be aspects of Ruby's personality and memories peeking through.
- Appearance Angst: Cinder is not particularily fond of her current body. This has less to do with Ruby being ugly, as Cinder acknowledges that she is cute enough, and more to do with going from an attractive adult Femme Fatale to a 15-year-old.
- Big Sister Instinct: Yang is protective and supportive of Ruby to a fault, getting angry and defensive when Blake and Weiss try to warn her that "Ruby" is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: How Cinder!Ruby comes across to everyone except Pyrrha and Yang. Around them, she still seems like the upbeat teenager, albeit going through a bit of an emo phase. Around everyone else, she's a cruel bully and makes no attempt to hide it. Played with in that she is genuinely nicer and more vulnerable around Pyrrha and Yang, even if she tries to deny it.
- Body Snatcher: Cinder ends up becoming one unwittingly, taking over Ruby Rose's body and life.
- Cool Big Sis: Yang, like in the show, is fiercely protective and supportive of Ruby, giving her both help and comfort when she looks like she needs it while also happy to tease her when she doesn't. Cinder initially hates it, but eventually grows to appreciate it as she's never had any healthy interpersonal relationships like that before.
- Death of Personality: What Cinder assumes happened to the original Ruby Rose, since she can't find any sign of her having been bodyhopped anywhere else.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Cinder decides that Weiss has to die because she's mean, called her pathetic, and saw her crying, something no-one except Yang and Pyrrha are allowed to.
- The Dreaded: Cinder is terrified of Ozpin finding out who she is, convinced that she'll be tortured and killed if he does.
- Emo Teen: Yang assumes Ruby is going through an emo phase.
- For Want Of A Nail: Cinder's role in the narrative leads to a number of deviations from the canon timeline, something even she notices and grows concerned about:
- Cinder!Ruby "befriends" Pyrrha on the first night at Beacon, which leads to Pyrrha never getting acquainted with Jaune. As a result, Pyrrha has no incentive to seek him out during their initiation, and she is instead teamed up with Yang. Jaune instead befriends Blake, and they become teammates.
- Since Cinder lacks the training to use Crescent Rose, she nearly flunks out during the initiation, only surviving thanks to Weiss. Since she doesn't display the leadership potential she does in canon, Weiss becomes team leader instead of Ruby.
- Cinder never befriends Penny like Ruby does in the show.
- Future Me Scares Me: Inverted, Cinder is very concerned about running into her past self. Which is less because of who she is and more because she would instantly kill Cinder!Ruby due to seeing her as a threat.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Downplayed. Cinder is surprised when first using Ruby's semblance, since it's actually far more complicated than she had previously assumed, due to Ruby never using it to its full potential, but she picks up on how to use it pretty fast, and even figures out ways to use it that Ruby never considered.
- Let the Past Burn: Not quite as grand as usual, but when Cinder realizes that she's starting to act more like Ruby and less like herself, she deals with the ensuing crisis by burning Ruby's belongings. She's about to throw the photo of Summer Rose into the fire when she breaks down crying, realizing that she can't bring herself to do it.
- Loose Lips: While high on a caffeine rush, Cinder calls Blake "Cat", letting slip that she knows she's a faunus. Thankfully, no one else picks up on it.
- Mental Time Travel: Cinder gets sent back in time from the Fall of Beacon to Ruby's first day, but does so by possessing Ruby's body.
- Only Friend: "Ruby" and Yang are Pyrrha's only friends at Beacon, and the only real friends she has had in a longtime. Cinder initially only plays along to uphold her charade, but does reluctantly start to consider Pyrrha her friend.
- Pyromaniac: Cinder admits in the first chapter that her primary method of anger management is burning things, and she returns to the idea of setting something on fire several times when she's stressed (which is most of the time).
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Blake and Weiss call Ruby a supervillain in training, not realizing that "Ruby" is very much a supervillain already.
- Sadistic Choice: Cinder is faced with one when she learns that this timeline's Cinder is still Cinder Fall. She can reveal herself, join her other self and make herself useful, but that would mean being a subordinate to herself. Or, she could continue to play the role of Ruby Rose, in which case she'll be free, but also be working against her every goal and plan. She decides to continue playing the role.
- The Social Expert: Played with. On one hand, Cinder is very good at reading people, which is only made easier since the teenagers she's around are worse at hiding their emotions. Within a single conversation with Pyrrha, Cinder has already picked up on Pyrrha's loneliness from being put on a pedestal. On the other hand, she's not at all good at putting that knowledge into use since she's trying to pretend to be a completely different person.
- Spotting the Thread: Yang spots quite a few things different about her sister, but doesn't try to unravel it because "Stress from attending a new school" or "Going through an emo phase" are both more likely explanations than "Time travelling villain possession".
- Survival Mantra: Cinder tries to use "Happy and Energetic" in the first few chapters, since that's how Emerald described Ruby's personality and Cinder is trying to play the role. She abandons it pretty quickly because she has no idea how to be either of those things.
- These Hands Have Killed: To get her life back on the track she wants, Cinder kills a random civilian to steal her phone and arrange a plan with her past self. Then she notices the lady's ID card and has a Freak Out about how she just killed someone, and that there's blood on Ruby's hands.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Ruby is known to enjoy cookies and cinnamon-flavored gum, which Cinder also finds herself craving.
- Villains Out Shopping: Cinder, after planning out ways to kill Weiss and get Pyrrha out of the picture, finishes her thought process by hoping that she and Yang can have a sleepover afterward.
- You Will Be Spared: While pondering how to murder Weiss and pin the blame on Pyrrha one night to get her so-called team out of the way, Cinder makes no plans to kill Yang because she has genuinely become fond of her and started to consider her her sister.
